ROH and Smackdown Reax - 1/7/16

Read on for my thoughts on last night's ROH and Smackdown.
ROH:
Strong's promos are really weak. Of course you're still the champion, you idiot. You have the title. Even if people didn't watch the PPV, it's pretty obvious.

E-C-DUB! E-C-DUB! E-C-DUB! Good surprise.

- Strong vs. Stevie Richards:
This is already better than most ROH matches due to Stevie controlling the pace.

Not a bad match so far. It's just awkward seeing someone work a good pace against someone who's 95% MOVES.

Not bad, not bad.

Strong is a great example of someone who's a great athlete, but not a good worker. It's a shame, because he's clearly a gifted performer.

It's a shame reDRagon are stuck in ROH. Both men have potential to be good workers in a promotion that actually values that.

Good personality from Fish there. Roderick is comically bad as a promo guy. He's really, really dry.

Dude, what? Are Caprice's promos supposed to be enjoyed "ironically" or something? That wasn't so great.

- Ferrara vs. Caprice:
Literally less than a minute into the match we have a suicide dive. Indie af.

At least Caprice is showing personality here. That's really missing a lot of times.

Some nice heeling from Caprice. That's out of place in Ring of Spotfests.

It's like someone said "this is actual workrate. Let's get some no-selling in there! This is ROH!!"

GOOD GAWD ALMIGHTY. Good showing from Caprice. He might be worth looking at in an actual wrestling promotion.

Prince Nana is still a thing in 2016. Whoa.

- Cedric vs. Gresham:
Why that low-down dirty heel didn't even shake his hand! That's deplorable!

Good heeling from Cedric early. Again, it's like I'm watching someone in an actual wrestling promotion.

Nice wrestling from Cedric.

Gresham's not bad at all! I'd like to see more of him.

Now things are getting spotty.

Good ending if there's followup. They both did good stuff here, and will hopefully get traction as a result.

Oh, man. That Jerry Lynn segment was beyond lame. They're trying really hard to make Lethal look like a top heel, but he's just not that talented. Jay should have slapped the taste out of his mouth and said of course he's better than AJ (and he's also better than Lynn).

- Dijak vs. Elgin:
Nice working so far.

I like what I'm seeing here. Both men could be strong workers.

Truth Martini isn't someone I enjoy watching. I still think ROH is some kind of "ironic" thing in places.

I think both these guys could be actual stars somewhere else.

As far as ROH matches go, I think that was one of the better ones I've seen. I enjoyed the work done by both men.


I'm interested to see where Elgin goes after the match with Lethal, since he's not under contract anymore. I think he'd be worth a look for NXT.

Smackdown:
I'd normally complain about Cena starting the show, but it's a big night and he wasn't on Raw at all. It's still a real letdown he's going to miss WM32.

The "Mexican who hates gringos" gimmick is pretty old, I think. We need more of a reason to hate Del Rio.

ADR vs. Kalisto could be quite good.

Pretty funny flub by Del Rio. They ran with it, though.

Damn. Go Kalisto for standing up for yourself.

- ADR vs. Kalisto:
This is a chance for Kalisto to really have a big moment.

This is pretty great!

Nice match. They need to be careful to make sure this loss doesn't devalue Del Rio.

Finally Becky shows some backbone. I hope we see her do good things going forward.

It's crazy in hindsight Miz has already been WWE Champion. He's really taken a tumble since then. I enjoyed his run as champion with Riley as his stooge.

New Day > Y2J.

How do these people get in the Rumble, anyway? It used to be you had to win a qualifier match or something.

Neville's OK as a promo guy. Sometimes.

I miss Awesome Truth.

OK, I was pretty tired of the joke with Truth, but I liked it this time for some reason.

I'm glad Truth asked how to even get into the match. I mean, who makes the decision on putting in Goldust instead of The Gobbledy Gooker?

That was a pretty crazy segment overall.

- Truth/Ziggler/Goldust/Neville vs. New Day/Miz:
Neville doing the booty dance is probably the most personality he's shown since coming to the main roster.

Really good work so far.

I liked the match overall. For a random eight-man tag, it was good.

Damn, Ziggler. That was pretty cold.

I miss the Charlotte whose character was more than "member of the Flair family."

- Ric Flair's Daughter vs. Becky Lynch:
These two can wrestle quite well, especially against each other. Becky's coming along as main roster Diva.

Nice back-and-forth.

God. Charlotte's too good to have her father taking the spotlight from her.

Charlotte's quite talented.

This is a really good match!

Ehhhh... I wasn't too crazy about that ending. I think both Divas are really talented, though, so I'm more than ready for a rematch at the Rumble.

Nice enough KO promo.

I'm hyped for Roman having to overcome the odds at the Rumble. He's got a big mountain to climb.

NICE Ambrose promo. I like those two headlining the show tonight.

- KO vs. Ambrose:
I enjoy the style these two have. Hardcore's one way to describe it, I suppose.

Really enjoyable match so far.

There's not much to say here. It's just great stuff all around from two talented veterans.

Good match overall. I'm fine with that ending.

BAH GAWD this is a damn war!

GOOD GAWD ALMIGHTY!!! That's one hell of a way to end the first Smackdown on USA.

More wrestling coming up.