Nerd Watch Wednesday - ROH Final Battle 2018

May 20, 202022 min read

Updated: Jun 3, 2020

This week it was Ross Casey's turn to pick a show for the WSBF boys and here is why he picked it...

During lockdown, I made the decision to subscribe to the Ring of Honor VOD service and when looking at some of their recent cards, Final battle 2018 jumped out at me as an exciting looking card.

Hopefully it lives up to the potential on paper and we don't end up watching a show akin to the England Euro 2008 effort.

KENNY KING vs. ELI ISOM

By JCH

The show opens up with Kenny King, a man who I apparently met at university sometime as we are friends on facebook along with a few other contacts I have from university. taking on Eli Isom.

Kenny had been on a good run over the summer apparently, but came up short in his title match with Jay Lethal and now has to start from the bottom of the card again. His opponent, I’ve never heard of. An up and comer by the sounds of it called Eli Isom.

King cuts a pre match promo basically saying Isom isn’t on his level and then smacks him with the microphone to start the match. The two have a decent 10 minute match, King controlling the majority but Isom showing flashes as he tries to prove he can hang with the former TV champ.

Highlights include - A corkscrew Pescara from King Isom hitting KNEE OF THE MATCH.

King lifts Isom from a front face lock into a stunner in what was a great move. Isom hits a dead lift short power bomb. It looked like he couldn’t quite get King up, so just drove him down. Really added to the move, was good work on the fly if the initial spot wasn’t quite going to work.

King knocks Isom of the top rope as we move into the finish and hits a springboard block buster, but he lives Isom’s head up at 2….the villain.

It nearly backfires as Isom turns a Royal Flush attempt into a cradle for a near fall and then hits a Gory Bomb for another near fall before King catches Isom on a backward leapfrog into a fireman’s carry which he transitions into a sort of Michinoku driver for the win.

King offers his hadn’t after the match, but then pulls it away when Isom goes for the shake.

SUMMARY: I though Isom looked alright here and had a look to see where he was on the card now….he doesn’t appear to have moved up very far in a year and a bit. Shame. Decent opener.

WINNER - KENNY KING BY MICHINOKU DRIVER

ROH WORLD TELEVISION TITLE MATCH: JEFF COBB (C) vs. HANGMAN PAGE

By Ross Casey

At this point in his career, Page had been in ROH for years, and as Cabana notes in commentary, it took him some time to win over the hardcore audience, but thanks to a backflip off the balcony in the Hammerstein Ballroom earlier that year, they are behind him now.

The pre-match package shows Hangman Page saying that he hasn't been impressed with Jeff Cobb in ROH. He questions what Cobb will do when he finally has to face someone who is stronger than him and hits harder than him.

It's a simple build - one of oneupmanship. Can Cobb prove himself to Page and ROH by defeating him? Let's find out!

Both entrances get decent pops and you can tell the crowd are hot for this one as am I. The match begins with a frenzied attack from Page, sprinting at Cobb and hitting him with massive strikes.

I love that this plays into the pre-match, where page claimed he is the stronger hitter. He immediately goes for the shooting star press to the outside - but Cobb catches him and flings him over his head with a beautiful suplex. The crowd are chanting holy shit less than a minute after the bell!

Once Cobb has control the first thing he does is throw some massive strikes Page's way. It's clear that the words from Hangman have got under his skin and he is now looking to show Page just how strong he strikes.

Not one to stop short at just strikes, Cobb turns Page into his namesake by delivering a hanging suplex off the second rope, with his opponent upside down for over 10 seconds before slamming him to the mat. Ungodly strength.

The oneupmanship theme continues as moments later, Hangman attempts to suplex Cobb off the middle rope - but fails to do so. Cobb then hits a crossbody off the second rope only for Page to roll through and PICK COBB UP and give him a fallaway slam.

That may be my favourite sequence I have seen in wrestling for a long time. Two wrestlers performing mad strength feats, in order to show who is the stronger. Rather than showing Cobb is stronger by Page unable to match the suplex, they did this instead, which is up for interpretation in terms of feats. I'm loving this.

Hangman then switches focus from trying to out strike Cobb to utilising his speed and athleticism, as he hits a tope and a moonsault to the outside before hitting a standing shooting star press for two.

Cobb isn't a fan of this, so he seeks the match going back to a power exchange and comes up in the winning end of a forearm battle before catching Page's latest aerial attempt and hitting the inverted piledriver. FUCK that move is scary! Page kicks out and the Ballroom explodes with excitement that this awesome match is continuing.

Hangman hits the buckshot lariat by flipping over the ropes that turns Cobb inside out. Jeff knows he is in trouble so tries to end things with the Tour Of The Islands, but we get a superbly timed crucifix reversal for 2.9! This match is just getting better.

Page can sense victory now and goes for another Buckshot lariat, but Cobb catches him and this time lands the Tour Of the Islands! Realising this bitch won't stay down, he immediately picks him up and gives him another which is enough to gain the pinfall and retain his TV Title. WOW.

SUMMARY: I paid a tenner to get this subscription service and this match alone is worth the money. I absolutely loved it from a story and wrestling standpoint, everything was snug but crisp and the commentary and crowd were excellent too. Probably my favourite match I have seen in a while. A hidden gem.

ROH WOMEN OF HONOR TITLE MATCH: SUMIE SAKAI (C) vs. MADISON RAYNE vs. KELLY KLEIN vs. KAREN Q

By Pete Hitchcock

Weirdly enough I watched this close to the time it aired because I wanted to see if Women of Honor had any redeeming features. It didn’t.

This was a bad, bad match. Kelly Klein wins, plays hot potato with Mayu later in a series of bad matches and ultimately gets fired for speaking up about ROH’s terrible backstage policies.

I hear the company is under better management now but this match exemplifies how shitty ROH were for years in treating women’s wrestling.

WINNER - THE WSBF ANTI-FUN JAR VIA PETE HITCHCOCK RANT

JONATHAN GRESHAM VS ZACK SABRE JR

By Brum

My usual approach to NWW is to pick a match that I’ve either not seen or that I can’t remember so I can review it fresh. That goes out of the window when Zack & Gresham are on the bill.

I watched this match the day after the show & loved it. Zack’s my favourite wrestler & I like Gresham so much that I picked him for the recent WSBF Fantasy Draft. Their styles are what I love about professional wrestling: technical minutiae with intensity which also tells a story. It’s basically test cricket for wrestling fans.

Duelling “Gresham” / “Sabre” chants to kick this one off. The opening stretch of this match introduces its story. They are trying to out trad-wrestle each other but there is little mutual respect. This is demonstrated by them getting in each others’ faces early on & Zack mocking Gresham’s height, whilst still engaging in mat wrestling.

This opening scene setting is something missing from a lot of wrestling storylines. It’s usually a “feeling out process” which adds nothing to the story and generally lacks in entertainment for fans. I’m all for slow starts but if it’s without context or enjoyment, it’s a waste of everyone’s time.

Back to the match & around the 4 minute mark, we get two interesting touchpoints. Firstly, Gresham reverses Zack’s headscissor & gives him the finger. Whilst their legs are entwined, they have a slap battle. This is reinforcing the point that this is an intense match sans respect (the finger & the slaps) but it’s still in the context of a grapple-war (their legs remain locked together from the prior reversal).

Secondly, in a period of Zack dominance, Gresham reverses a bow-and-arrow into the match’s first pinfall attempt. Zack is shown to be the more dominant grappler but it’s Gresham’s wiliness & reversals that gives us the first opportunity to end the match.

After we have a stint of both guys on their feet, trading strikes, it’s back to the mat & it’s Gresham’s turn to take control. This doesn’t last long though as Zack manages to grapevine the leg to regain his grapvantage. Zack is punctuating each submission attempt with slaps & kicks to wear Gresham down & antagonise him.

Gresham finally snaps & we get another slap battle. This time both men are on their feet & it is a lot more intense than before. Despite Zack getting more shots in initially, Gresham keeps his fire, hits an enziguri followed by a German suplex which gets him a 2 count.

Gresham is straight back on his feet & hits a running elbow to a seated Zack for another 2! Despite Zack being the overall aggressor in the match, it’s Gresham who’s had the 3 closest chances for the win.

Zack looks to rally & hits a beautiful European uppercut, but it only phases Gresham who hits a rolling single leg crab, the favourite submission of Ross The Boss himself. I’ve not been play-by-playing this, but there is an excellent sequence about 10 minutes in where we go single leg crab (JG) – triangle choke (ZSJ) – cartwheel – kick – arm ringer – octopus stretch (all JG) – ankle lock (ZSJ) – ankle lock (JG) – arm bar (ZSJ) – pin (JG) – PK (ZS) that gets Gresham & ZSJ back-to-back 2 counts. Really slick stuff.

This match has now shifted from Zack as the grapple master to a back-and-forth match where Gresham is showing he can go hold-for-hold with ZSJ. However, after some more strikes, Gresham goes for a pinning attempt to finish in a bridge but Zack blocks it to roll over into a bridge of his own. It catches Gresham off-guard & is enough for the 3 count.

Gresham showed that for the most of it, he could go hold-for-hold with Zack but his biggest threat seemed to be on the counter. When he tried to be on the offence, and out-Zack ZSJ himself by using one of his own moves, it blew up in his face because Sabre is still the no 1 grapple-man.

SUMMARY: A good story, fantastically executed by the two best proponents of this style. This match flew by & is well worth 11 minutes of anyone’s time. Bravo, gents.

WINNER – ZACK SABRE JUNIOR BY BEING BETTER AT BEING ZACK SABRE JUNIOR THAN JONATHAN GRESHAM IS AT BEING ZACK SABRE JUNIOR.

MATT TAVEN vs. DALTON CASTLE

By Matt Connolly

I love Dalton Castle. He combines so many elements of professional wrestling that I love. Namely the flamboyance. I think I first saw him in 2016 and had you told me that four years later he would still not be a foundational piece of NXT or even the main roster in WWE I would have been shocked.

Yet here we are. I don't watch ROH with any sort of regularity so am not going to speculate as to what has happened for that prediction to have not been realised but I am happy I get to watch him have a wrestle this week. I have no hot takes on Matt Taven. I think some fo the criticism is unfair but I also admit that he has never got me invested in his character.

Maybe this can be a fork in the road moment. I have seen this match before but have absolutely no recollection of it. That is also a statement that can be applied across the board to most Modern era ROH though. The reason these two are gonna have a scuffle is mainly due to Dalton seeing Taven as a roadblock on his route back to the ROH title.

Taven has been proclaiming himself the real world champion, complete with replica title, and this has irked Castle to such a degree he feels he needs to give him a reality check. It's a simple story that the hype package tells pretty well. The added pieces at play are what I love about this. Jay Lethal's title reign is the end goal for both, even if Taven is fantasising about his phoney title.

Add in 'The Boys' and the rest of 'The Kingdom' and there is a lot to play with. An array of lightly dressed 'Boys' accompany Dalton to the ring. This is the stuff Lizzo could write a verse about. Castle of course looks great. Every colour on the planet is represented in his ring jacket and the peacock pose finish of his entrance is greeted with a shower of streamers.

Taven out second and he gets TK O'Ryan to force the announcer to introduce him as The Real World Champion. HEAT BROTHER! He's wearing his shitty little crown and I for one would love to boo this guy. Taven believes he is the champion because a few months prior Castle pulled out of a title defence due to injury.

Taven's confidence has even led him to defend the linage-less belt here.This adds another wrinkle to an already good story. Early stages are competitive. Both men showing a lot of fire. One of the real strengths of Castle is how he is so adept at the fundamentals. His character could just rely on comedy spots and big comebacks but the story here early doors is one where Castle is clearly more proficient at the nuts and bolts of grappling than Taven.

Taven is second best until he manages to create separation and force Castle outside. He hits a baseball slide and suicide dive before going for a huge Undertaker-esque dive over the top rope. Castle moves and Taven takes a nasty bump on his chest across the barrier. Ouch. As we get about a third of the way through this thing Taven turns the tide by flinging Castle up the entrance ramp. He lands on the stairs in a crumpled mess.

These two are going for this! Middle section is Taven exploiting the back injury Castle suffered in that stair bump. Castle does get a moment of respite eventually with a DDT but as he looks to put something together TK O'Ryan gets involved to keep Taven on top. This then leads to a big break down moment with The Boys coming to Dalton's rescue!

With TK down it looks like things are evened up but the release of Red Balloons mean Vinny Marseglia is here and he takes the boys out before dragging their carcasses under the ring with him. The sort of pantomime nonsense I love in my wrestling!

Taven gets a 2 count of a belt shot and the crowd go wild for the kick out. Taven's facials sell it brilliantly. Castle scrambles back into this as the action bursts outside the ring again.

He floors TK before driving Taven into the ring post. Castle nails Taven with a gut wrench powerbomb to effectively end this but the quick thinking O'Ryan throws one of the resurfaced boys into the ring to break the pin. TK gets ejected for this which seems odd. Surely if the ref thinks its foul play then disqualify Taven? The crowd revel in a chorus of Goodbye nonetheless.

In the commotion, Castle hits his finish but it's too close to the ropes and Taven is able to grab the bottom one to break the pin. After Castle hits about 10 clean strikes on Taven he tries to end it but Taven has now recovered and is able to hit his finish for the win. That felt a little un earned after all the nonsense that went before it.

SUMMARY: Overall, a fine match. Taven got real heat and Castle got the crowd on side. The run ins and interference helped break the match up but from a personal point of view, I felt the finish came too suddenly considering what had gone before.

WINNER - MATT TAVEN BY THE CLIMAX

ROH WORLD TITLE #1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. MARTY SCURLL

By Nineties Mike

So, these recent NWWs have really highlighted some glaring gaps in my wrestling knowledge. I’ve also watched this whole show, which doesn’t happen a lot with these. Although I’ve seen the majority of the wrestlers compete at various different promotions, this is my first ever full ROH show. Sorry to all the Honor Club fans that probably hate me right now, but at least I’m honest, eh?

The pre-match promo begins with SCU in the ring discussing that Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky have negotiated new contracts, but not Christopher Daniels. He says he has one match remaining on his contract, and it is against “The Villain” Marty Scurll. Marty then talks about how when he used to look into Daniels’ eyes, he saw passion, a man who loves the business. Now he just sees desperation for the title shot he holds, so he’s putting the title shot on the line and this will be Daniels’ Final Battle!

Daniels is out first, and he’s by himself, no sign of this SCU buddies. A handful of streamers greet him. The lights go out and The Villain’s entrance begins. He’s in a stunning full-length jacket and his trademark penguin facemask. Standing in the middle of the ring with umbrella in hand, he is hit with a deluge of streamers, and he loves it almost as much as the crowd!

They stare off, talk smack and the ref calls for the bell. They continue staring and Marty kicks things off with a shove. Daniels shoves back and they finally lock up. Quick exchanges end with Marty patting Daniels on the head, but you don’t do that to the Fallen Angel, and Daniels grabs the arm and twists Marty to the mat.

As commentary talks about Daniels’ experience, 25 years, I wonder if Scurll’s youth and extra energy will see him through. They exchange drop-toe holds, arm locks and headlocks, with Daniels seemingly having Scurll’s number every time. During a rope break, Scurll moves away slowly before hitting Daniels with a big elbow. Is this his way in?

Three big knife-edge chops and a European uppercut seem to point to Marty having the upper hand, but an Irish whip into the corner leads to a Daniels reversal and a beautiful tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Power slam and springboard elbow drop get Daniels a 2-count.

Elbows from Daniels, he then uses the ropes for momentum, Marty has him scouted, though, with a big uppercut. Daniels rolls out of the ring, Marty follows looking for the superkick, Daniels avoids it, sweeps the legs sending Marty hard into the ring apron (Hi, Hannah!), and then hits The Villain with an Arabian Moonsault!

Back in the ring, and Daniels goes up top. Marty is hiding behind the ref, and uses the distraction to sweep Daniels’ leg and he is crotched. Scurll follows up with a big superplex from the top. Daniels is outside again, and this time Scurll hits the superkick from the apron.

Both men are outside now, and after talking smack with some fans, Marty absolutely launches Daniels into the railings. A sick slam onto the apron and a garrotting slingshot on the bottom rope appears to tell us that Marty will be targeting Daniels’ neck. Daniels tries to fight back and the pair exchange chops, only for Scurll to break it up with a neck-breaker for a 2-count.

Daniels tries to rally, but he’s really struggling to get a foothold. More elbows and strikes to Daniels’ neck and upper back follow, including a dropkick from the top rope! Marty locks in a cravat and really grinds it in. Daniels breaks the hold, Scurlls counters into a vicious half-and-half suplex, before Daniels counters into the Blue Thunder Bomb and both men are down and dazed.

Once they’re up, it’s time for a Daniels rally, and he hits an STO before calling on the crowd’s support. He hits a modified face buster for a 2-count, and is right up and back at Marty. Chops from Marty, but The Fallen Angel catches him off the ropes, and this time goes for the powerslam and springboard moonsault combo for another 2-count.

Daniels tries to give Marty a lesson in finger-breaking, but Marty hits a huge forearm, and it devolves into another chopfest. Marty hits his trademark Superkick, Just Kidding, Daniels stops him in his tracks, before Marty again gets the upper hand, so to speak, with a discus elbow to the jaw. Counters galore eventually leads to a rather scuffed Scurlldriver for a 2-count.

Scurll calls for the Chicken Wing, and just as he’s about to lock it in Daniels floats over and nearly steals the pinfall! Big boot and an even bigger Burning Hammer from Daniels gets a 2.75-count. He signals for the Angel’s Wings, Marty blocks him, but Daniels grabs the ropes. The Villain yanks him away from the potential rope-break and hits a huge tombstone piledriver! He even does the Undertaker arm cross and tongue out! 1, 2, NO!

Daniels gets his arm up, and Marty smells blood and grabs it. You know what’s coming… SSSHHH! SNAP! There go Daniels’ fingers! Scurll uses the corner to roll through and try to lock in the Chicken Wing. Daniels tries to get to the ropes but Marty sees an opportunity. Not again, no?! SSSHHH! SNAP! There go Daniels’ other fingers! You sick fuck!

In desperation, Daniels reverses an Irish Whip and tries to execute Angel’s Wings once more, but his hands are a mess! Marty goes for a cover, feet on the ropes, and still only gets a 2-count. Daniels rolls out of a piledriver attempt from Scurll, and despite not locking his fingers, hits a modified Angel’s Wings. Is the upset on?

Daniels is slow to cover, though and only gets a 2-count. He decides he has only one option, and bounces up the turnbuckles for Best Moonsault Ever, but The Villain’s knees are up! Scurll is up first and hits Daniels with a big old school lariat to knock him to the floor again. Two superkicks and a head stomp put Marty in firm control. Graduation hits, Scurll again only gets a 2-count!

Daniels looks down and out, and Marty has had enough. More stomps to the head and back of the neck, and Scurll finally locks in the Chicken Wing. The crowd are begging Daniels to reach the rope, but he fades and eventually taps! Scurll wins! What a war!

We get “Thank you Daniels” chants as this is clearly the end of his tenure at ROH. It’s emotional, and he’s getting his moment to soak it in. But no, that arsehole Bully Ray “runs” in and hits Daniels with a low blow. What a scumbag. He then dumps Daniels out and that’s all the time I’m giving that overrated cretin.

SUMMARY: This was immense. A real tour-de-force. Both men brought their A-game, the crowd were invested, and the match told a great story in microcosm. Both men came out looking a million dollars and Scurll keeps his title shot. This show was a great intro to ROH, and I’ll be watching a lot more in future. Great NWW shout from Ross The Boss.

WINNER - MARTY SCURLL BY CHICKEN WING

I QUIT MATCH: BULLY RAY vs. FLIP GORDON

By Dom Van Dam

G’day lads, normally I’d welcome you to your next contest at this time but Bully Ray has robbed me, somewhat, of the opportunity to introduce anything by interrupting Christopher Daniels’ farewell. Daniels had just completed what was widely considered to be his last match in ROH but Bully Ray gave Daniels the low-blow and dumped him out of the Ring of Honor.

Ray calls out Flip Gordon for this I-Quit contest where the, um, Honour of Ring of Honor is being defended by the next generation of ROH-athlete, against the big Bully. Gordon appears on the balcony with the American Flag, camo gear, combat boots and he is over as anything with this New York crowd.

We have to remember that this was at a time when Bully Ray was about as reviled a character in wrestling as any. In an era of wrestling where there were very few “real heels,” Bully Ray was still able to induce vitriol from, even his own home-town crowd.

After some early fire from Gordon, Bully Ray takes over and the pace slows considerably. Things reach Fever Pitch and the narrative of the match really takes shape when Flip is down and Bully turns his attention to ROH owner (and “saviour” of the company) Cary Silkin. This is an amazing piece of business:

First, Bully Ray threatens Silkin with a Kendo Stick but longtime Ring announcer Bobby Cruise gets in the way. Next it’s senior official Todd Sinclair who gets in between the Bully and the babyface-owner. As Bully swings for Silkin a third time it’s Christopher Daniels (a competitor in the first ever ROH main-event) who “takes the bullet” and wears the impact of the Singapore Cane.

Bully turns his attention to Flip Gordon’s girlfriend, who he plucks from the front row, and is going to powerbomb her through a table until Silkin finally hits Ray in the back with the stray cane. So we’ve now had a former ROH promoter, owner, ring announcer, referees and the original face (or heel) of the company defend it against its predator.

Still Bully dominates Gordon (with the help of Silas Young) and next it’s commentator and long-time competitor Colt Cabana who storms the ring to defend the company where he really made his name. Even Cabana is no match for the evil Bully.

Silas Young and the former Dudley have covered a table with lighter fluid, back inside the ring, and are threatening a flaming table spot which wouldn’t have seemed out of place in the old ECW where Bully Ray made his former name. This image causes the lights to go out and we are now joined by another ECW original in The Sandman!

Sandman gains the upper hand against Bully and anoints Flip Gordon with a second Singapore Cane. Flip wails on Ray repeatedly with two canes simultaneously until Ray quits on the microphone.

As a long time ROH fan I absolutely loved this story until it was The Sandman who saved the day. I wish it would have been another ROH original, but I definitely get the story they were telling with the ECW thread throughout. A great piece of business, words can’t really do the emotion and crowd justice.

SUMMARY: I miss live wrestling so much, if it ever comes back, I promise to never take it for granted ever again. Drink lots of water; look after your mates.

WINNER - FLIP GODON BY CANE SHOTS

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: JAY LETHAL (C) vs. CODY

By Rob Armstrong

Hurray! It's the guy doing an impression of Ric Flair defending the title against the guy doing an impression of HHH!

As far as the opening 15 minutes of this match went, it was 90's AF. The heel (Cody, even though most of the Hammerstein Ballroom preferred him) walked around slagging off the fans, he threw a beer at a guy who probably deserved it, there were a few wristlocks and the commentators mentioned Jay Lethal having honour and respect about 160 times.

Once the crowd had been numbed into their own personal wristlock-hell, this one slowly but surely started to pick up. Cody had been milking a knee injury that everyone knew was real, but he then decided to pretend he had been faking. Jay Lethal promptly saw fit to stamp on it, bend it round the ringpost and give it enough general abuse that were it a bluff at the beginning, it was now suitably mangled.

But, hark! the Brandi cometh! Cody's better half unleashed a spear with her "bionic shoulder", crumpling Jay Lethal in half when the referee wasn't looking. Cody picked him up and Cross Rhodes'd him, but only for a two count.

The two traded Cross Rhodeseses for a bit, kicking out at two before Lethal did 6 tope suicidas. Thankfully Mauro Ranallo wasn't on commentary as I imagine the fifth might have killed him off.

Then came the customary 'figure four on the guy who actually does the figure four' spot, as Cody looked to have Jay Lethal beaten until for some reason Adam Page came down ringing the bell and throwing the belt in 'Montreal Screw Job' fashion.

All it did was make Cody release the hold, then Page ran away again - leaving me thinking it was just a bit for Being The Elite. While the ref was dealing with that distraction, Jay Lethal chop blocked Cody's knee with the belt and the crowd went absolutely mild for it.

Then came 6 million super kicks to Cody (with added "I'm sorry, I love you", just in case you forgot that he does a great Ric Flair impression) and a Lethal injection.

Ultimately Lethal would grab the win after a series of reversals led to a Figure Four which Cody tapped out to in the middle of the ring. The crowd clearly just buzzing that the ladder match was next.

SUMMARY: I can't say I have particularly good knowledge of of 2018 ROH, but it seemed to me most of the fans in attendance were there to chant about Being The Elite throughout the world title fight. I'm guessing they spend most of their time day-dreaming about Jacksonville now, as opposed to pumping their cash into Ring of Honour. I could be wrong. But I'm probably not.

WINNER - JAY LETHAL BY FIGURE FOUR LEGLOCK

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE LADDER WAR MATCH: SOCAL UNCENSORED (C) vs. THE BRISCOES vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS

By Shafi

First impressions count.

I don't follow RoH, so mine is very much the opinion of an outsider looking in. The glory days have long since passed and they appear to have taken TNA/Impact's place as the most incompetent 'major' company in North America.

Using RoH's VOD service is a miserable experience. None of the classic PPVs are available. In fact, if you click on the 'Past PPV' tab on the app you're presented with a blank page. I needed assistance to even find where this PPV was on the site. Its easier to navigate the NJPW site in Japanese than the ROH site in English.

Figuring that maybe it's just an app issue I tried the website and found that it doesn't support Chromecast. I despair.

RoH give the option of selecting SD or HD video streams. The HD videos are so badly compressed that they look like a 480p YouTube upload of an ECW fan cam from 1995. The SD versions are worse. That is when they actually decide to load.

I tend to watch my NWW matches twice to get a real feel for them. When I went to rewatch this one it appears that the app doesn't remember login details and they have to be entered everytime, a particularly cumbersome task for those of us that a) have a long email or password 2) are using a remote control rather than a keyboard. So I gave up.

Of course none of these things are directly related to the match itself but it has turned me off watching RoH in general. It's just too much frustration for too little payoff.

This match is the modern equivalent of the Dudleys (Briscoes) vs Hardys (Young Bucks) vs E+C (SCU). Like the (ECW version of) The Dudleys, the Briscoes are the cornerstone of their tag divisions having won it 9 times to this point. They play the role of spoiler as their approach is to beat down their opponents rather than try high risk moves or even to climb the ladder before everyone else is decimated.

From what I can gather there's no actual storyline going into this match. I like watching the Young Bucks and SCU but their work is significantly better when it is anchored by a strong story such as the Bucks vs Omega and Page. Without that I often come away from their matches the same way I feel after a microwave dinner; it's perfectly fine but I'm not going to remember it tomorrow.

Larry Csonka sadly passed this week and unfortunately I had never heard of him until I read this news. Hearing the other members of WSBF speak so highly of him made me dig out his review of this match to get an idea of how well it was received. It appears that it was very highly rated and he gave it 4.5 stars saying it was an excellent choice for the main event.

There are some great spots, horrible bumps and plenty of blood. That being said I didn't enjoy it as much as Larry and struggled to be invested. I think this is for a combination of reasons. The lack of story and the hassle using the app I've already mentioned. I guess I kinda just feel like the Ladder match is played out at this point.

I feel lost. I don't really know how to review this match. Deep down there's a realisation that the problem is probably with me and not the match itself. Like others I guess I'm finding it hard to be positive about wrestling/life in the current climate.

SUMMARY: If you like Ladder matches or TLC 1 and 2 then you'll probably love this match. All 6 men work their socks off and put everything on the line to entertain the crowd and attempt to steal the show whilst being innovative and doing things I've never seen before in similar matches. If that sounds like something you would enjoy then I definitely suggest checking it out. Just don't do it through the ROH streaming service if you can avoid it.

SPOILER: The Briscoes win at the end and become 10 time champions.

WINNERS - THE WSBF ANTI-FUN JAR BY SHAFI RANT