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Saturday, July 25, 2015

ROH Death Before Dishonor XIII Reax

Read on for my thoughts on last night's iPPV.

- Young vs. Ferrara:
At least these two are showing some personality early.

I'm liking Young as the douchebag heel.

As far as ROH matches go, that was pretty good. They didn't go TOO crazy with the MOVEZ, and told a good story.

That was kind of a stupid post-match. If that aired in WWE or TNA, we'd never hear the end of how bad the gimmick is.

I think they've missed out on doing more build for Cedric vs. Moose. Moose comes across like he could actually be someone in the big leagues. I wish he was more of a focal point.

- Alexander vs. Moose:
There's some good contrast between these two. Moose makes for a pretty good beast.

And now we're in the MOVEZ stage of the match where both guys just do every big thing in their arsenal. It takes away from the story of the match to turn it into an acrobatics act.

This match is a mess with all the interferences. Not selling a chair shot is kind of lame.

I liked the ending, although I'd rather see Moose get a push than Cedric.

- Briscoes vs. RPG Vice:
There's no heat to this match going into it because it was just randomly thrown together. RPG Vice haven't even been on TV during the DA era. Why not give them a promo before the match or something?

At least Romero established he's a heel early.

Stereo suicide dives are one of the most overused spots in wrestling. It's impressive, but it's also kind of a cheap reaction-getter.

I miss when a frogsplash was pretty much a guaranteed three count. ROH matches always feel like people going out and doing highspots until someone from the back tells them to "go home."

Bleh. Fine match to get the Briscoes a win after Lethal survived against both of them in title matches.

- Cole vs. Castle:
Wow. This is bad. Castle's gimmick is really overacted.

Bad comedy AND MOVEZ? There's a continuum of bad matches: on one end is two green performers who have no idea what they're doing. The other is people who should know what they're doing, but don't. This match is like the artists who just throw paint all over a canvas and say it's a masterpiece. But there's a small crowd that goes nuts for it, and that's who they're going for.

Some of the actual wrestling here is good. It's just overshadowed by the comedy aspects.

I hate needlessly innovative/complicated moves. Novelty for novelty's sake is dumb. An all-in-one toaster/vacuum cleaner/bathrobe would be really innovative, but also really, really stupid.

I definitely prefer Silas Young to those goofballs.

It's a shame Whitmer's hurt. He's one of the few parts of ROH I actually look forward to.

- Page vs. ACH:
Another example of cramming 15 minutes of spots into five. This is bad.

That was OK for what it was. I guess I'd rather see a match that's 50% garbage hardcore and 50% cool moves than an entire match of flippy shit.

- Addiction vs. reDRagon vs. War Machine vs. The Kingdom:
At least there's some story with Cole possibly leaving The Kingdom.

More bad comedy in this one.

Is there any reason the Kingdom did some Hardy Boys moves? That would only make sense if the Hardys were coming in to feud with them. Otherwise, why acknowledge a team in another promotion?

It's obvious they choreographed a sequence of a bunch of big moves. Obviously wrestling's a work, but if it's done well, it's possible to suspend disbelief.

- Lethal vs. Strong:
At least this is the last match of the night.

Glad to see some actual wrestling psychology here.

The amount of interference here is insane.

It's kind of hard to take these matches seriously when they're just move after move. The athleticism is impressive, but it doesn't really feel like a match.

HAHAHAHAHAHA wow. After all those ridiculous moves, we don't even get a decisive ending.

Longer match + as many moves as possible = "match of the year" chants. Nice to know it's that formulaic.

More wrestling coming up.

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