1. Tyler Black delivered another short but strong interview tonight. ROH has really done a good job of making him look like a badass and a big-time player since he won the title. I’ve almost been able to forget how he was booked like a choker and a sap before becoming World Champion.
2. ROH needs to play up the importance of the Pick 6 standings on TV. Schedule more Pick 6 Series matches on HDNet tapings, give periodic updates on the standings, have Hogewood and Prazak talk about how important it is for a wrestler to fight his way into the Pick 6, etc. It just hasn’t been mentioned much on television since the initial matches.
3. Rhett Titus seems to be getting an opportunity to get over. Hogewood finally put him over on commentary (as opposed to ragging on him like he used to), and Black gave him plenty of offense in what was an OK (although obviously secondary to the angle) match. Looking competitive against the champ is always a good sign.
4. It made perfect sense for Roderick Strong to interfere on Black’s behalf in order to protect his title shot. I would have just ended the post-match promo there, without Black snatching the mic from Strong or the ensuing pull-apart brawl.
5. It’s time to move Rasche Brown past the “squash” stage in television tapings. I know they’ve done that on their “bigger” shows, but now it’s time to do it on TV as well. Come up with a storyline to fit him into (have Hagadorn and Nana demand an answer from him), and let’s get going.
6. The American Wolves video package was pretty good, and necessary to tease dissention for tonight’s match. However, after the great backstage promos leading up to the semi-final matches the past two weeks, I would have preferred a locker room confrontation between Richards and Edwards to hype the match.
7. We’ve heard different variants of this anti-American promo from Daivari before. If anything, it wasn’t very different from the initial ones he gave as Sheik Abdul Bashir. I don’t see it getting over any better than it did in his stints with WWE and TNA.
8. Kudos to Richards and Edwards for actually going through with the “suplex from the apron to the outside” spot. We see it get teased time and time again, but no one ever has the guts to go through with it. God bless those two crazy bastards.
9. I’ll have to go back and watch Steen vs. Edwards before I decide what was my favorite match of the tournament, but this was stellar. They had a nice, long feeling out process that emphasized their familiarity with each other. Once they moved on to the main body of the match, both men dug deep into their movesets (I hadn’t seen Davey bust out the SSP in a Monday night show yet). Each man focused on a body part and sold his injuries like a champ. Great stuff.
10. When Davey signed his ROH deal, I thought they’d have him win the tourney so they could really showcase him, but Edwards was the right choice. His time with the American Wolves has added to his credibility and allowed him to step up his intensity in and out of the ring. Defending the title on TV on a frequent basis will give him a chance to keep stepping up and get over on his own, as opposed to simply as part of a unit. Plus, with Davey putting Black on notice that he is coming for the World Title, Edwards risked being the only guy out of the eight in the tournament without a storyline (well, I guess Titus, but he didn’t have enough credibility to win the belt).
