1. Prazak calling The Embassy the “most powerful faction in all of professional wrestling”, tongue-in-cheek or not, was the mother of all stretches. Hogewood should have slapped him on the spot, or at the very least made sure the bartender cut Prazak off.
2. I guess ROH decided to replace their usual one good opening match with two bad ones this week. I know it was done for angle advancement purposes, and maybe I’d be less critical if I hadn’t had enough of Necro vs. Embassy, but quantity does not trump quality in this instance.
3. As much as it saddens me that seeing Rasche Brown save Necro and Kingston from The Embassy means the feud is going to continue, it’s good to see Rasche finally move out of squash-match mode and get involved in a real storyline before the fans, who have taken to him pretty well, became impatient.
4. Another solid Steve Corino promo tonight. I don’t think I’ve expressed how much I’ve enjoyed the Steen-Generico feud. It has brought out the more serious side of Colt Cabana I’ve long wanted to see again, it has allowed Corino to do some great work on the mic, and it has created a breakout star in Kevin Steen. I don’t know what will become of Generico once the feud is over, but the positives have far outweighed that lone quasi-negative.
5. I have to question ROH’s sanity if they are planning on bringing in Balls Mahoney full-time. At one time, I liked his work, probably more than most people did, but I don’t think he has much left to offer. I always thought his Anarchy Rulz ’99 match with RVD was underrated, but come on, that was 11 years ago.
6. So, Cornette makes the Black vs. Richards announcement for “Death Before Dishonor VIII” in Toronto. Take a red-hot Davey Richards, combine it with a lukewarn Tyler Black, and sprinkle in your average canadian crowd . . . and is there any way that Black doesn’t get booed out of the building on June 19th?
7. I am liking Austin Aries’ new direction, where he basically acts like he is above the title belt. Aries as a manager/wrestler has a lot of potential. I believe he will be managing Kenny King and Rhett Titus, both as a team and as singles. That should give both guys a nice rub, and hopefully keeps Titus from getting lost in the shuffle.
8. I hate it when announcers don’t pay attention to detail. If Prazak and Hogewood really don’t think that Edwards targeted Richards’ elbow during the Television Title Tournament final, they must not have been watching the match closely . . . or at all.
9. Very good main event this week. The match took a while to get going, and I was starting to worry that Edwards and Cabana just don’t have much chemistry (their TV Title Tournament match was nothing special), but once they kicked it into a higher gear, it got really good. Great way to showcase the title and give both guys some credibility.
10. The great main event sadly did not save the show this week, as it absolutely dragged up to that point. I’m really hoping we’ll see a run of strong shows soon, as underwhelming television has been the norm rather than the exception for ROH as of late.
