10 Thoughts on ROH on HDNet – 04.12.2010

Reviews, Shows, TV Shows

1. Not exactly a deep thought, but it must be said: Tyler Black rolling from a superplex into God’s Last Gift to put away Austin Aries at “The Big Bang!” looked pretty damn cool.

2. I liked Davey Richards’ interruption of Black’s promo. It was short, sweet, and to the point, and now we have a new name in the World Title picture. Considering Black is hinting that he is done with Aries, and will eventually be done with Strong, this is good, forward thinking.

3. I know Jerry Lynn’s match was secondary to his return promo, but they should have worked in a couple more of his signature moves. The finish seemed rushed, and came out of nowhere. At least the crowd seems to be into him, so long as he’s not in the title picture.

4. Fantastic mic work from Corino tonight, both backstage and in the ring with El Generico. I know Generico is pretty over with the ROH faithful, but Corino REALLY made them want to see Generico tear into him, and they exploded when he finally did. Thought it was odd that HDNet bleeped out Corino calling Generico “AIDS”.

5. As stupid as it was for TNA to let Daniels go (especially considering some of the deadweight they kept around), it’s probably a good thing for him. There was no room for him in the current main event scene, and the X-Division has been sufficiently devalued that it would have been a waste of his time. If it means we have to have Daniels vs. Richards until Richards moves on to Black, that is a risk I am willing to live with.

6. I really enjoyed the backstage confrontation between Eddie Edwards and Kenny King. Both guys carried themselves really well, it built some tension heading into the Television Title Tournament semifinals, and it made the tournament seem important. And King’s Eye of Thundera t-shirt was the shit.

7. Right now, it’s looking as if ROH is going to let Edwards and Richards gradually pursue different singles goals, without every actually breaking the team up. I like it. It’s a more organic storyline progression, and it’s not like we haven’t seen tag team partners break up and immediately feud many times before – in fact, we’re seeing it with Generico and Kevin Steen right now. If ROH decides it wants to run a feud between Edwards and Richards at a later time, after they’ve had a more “natural” separation, it can then bring up their past.

8. Very good pre-match promo by Steen. I liked that he brought up the past feud between him and Generico vs. The American Wolves. More importantly, it set up a face/heel alignment that really helped the match, and was really lacking from Steen’s opening-round match in the tournament.

9. Steen and Edwards really had a really fine match. Steen did a great job of working the elbow without making it drag (bonus points for the Swanton on the elbow), Edwards timed his comebacks very well (and got a good pop for them, in no small part due to Steen’s heel work – he is really coming into his own right now), and the end served to further the Steen-Generico storyline.

10. ROH bounced back from a really bad show last week to a really good one this week. The champion got some TV time and came face-to-face with a likely future challenger, feuds were furthered, the TV Title was made to seem like a big deal, and the main event was a lot of fun. Kudos all around.