Ok someone else maybe...

Sonjay turns hell!!!

OMG...

THE CHAMP IS HERE!!!

Joe will explain his actions this Weds!!!

Welcome home, Joe!

I marked so fucking hard I forgot what I was doing.

JOE JOE JOE

That was an interesting way to end the show. Jonathan Gresham defeats Bandido but when it was all said and done it seemed like the moment was over-shadowed by the debut of Samoa Joe. Honestly watching the show, it really did feel like an extended 3 hour AEW B-Show with most of the undervalued AEW guys putting the up and coming ROH guys in their place. Not only did FTR beat the Briscoes but they over-shadowed the moment by having the Bucks come out and promote Dynamite on the show. Surely TK is going to run more shows after this, but I'd be surprised if he sticks with it or it manages to distinguish itself from AEW.

Even with all that, it was the best ROH show in years largely because they drew a decent crowd and there was some excitement about what they were going to watch. I thought a few of the matches delivered - FTR/Briscoes and Bandido/Gresham are both worth checking out and the rest of the card was largely fine. I'm not sure what to make of Woods/Yuta it felt like a really sloppy technical match that was going nowhere until Yuta busted out the elbows and quickly scored the win.

All in all, felt like a 3 hour pilot for Rampage of Honor.

Apr 2, 2022 19:11:16 GMT Big Pete said:

That was an interesting way to end the show. Jonathan Gresham defeats Bandido but when it was all said and done it seemed like the moment was over-shadowed by the debut of Samoa Joe. Honestly watching the show, it really did feel like an extended 3 hour AEW B-Show with most of the undervalued AEW guys putting the up and coming ROH guys in their place. Not only did FTR beat the Briscoes but they over-shadowed the moment by having the Bucks come out and promote Dynamite on the show. Surely TK is going to run more shows after this, but I'd be surprised if he sticks with it or it manages to distinguish itself from AEW.

Even with all that, it was the best ROH show in years largely because they drew a decent crowd and there was some excitement about what they were going to watch. I thought a few of the matches delivered - FTR/Briscoes and Bandido/Gresham are both worth checking out and the rest of the card was largely fine. I'm not sure what to make of Woods/Yuta it felt like a really sloppy technical match that was going nowhere until Yuta busted out the elbows and quickly scored the win.

All in all, felt like a 3 hour pilot for Rampage of Honor.

Seems like the future of ROH is still uncertain so Tony put all the titles on people he can trust to commit going forward. And I’d expect the Bucks showing up is a one off to grab attention to the product. There’s basically no tag team division in ROH right now and the tag teams they do have (not named The Briscoes) suck. Meanwhile AEW has enough tag teams and stables to fill 3 companies so they’ll probably pop up here and there. Teams like TH2, Top Flight, Gunn Club, Luther/Serpentico, etc can stop meandering around on Dark and actually do something noteworthy.

He had some old favourites show up to get people hyped about the new direction and whenever they can start doing weekly shows you’ll probably see some directionless AEW stars move over there, like Brian Cage. It’ll be AEW’s NXT, which I’m super here for.

Honestly, I see RoH doing quarterly or bimonthly shows to try out people AEW is using on Dark for main roster spots by giving them a longer match without the rest of wasting TV or PPV time with it.

Also the RoH titles can easily be used to start feuds for AEW with outsiders. Guy in AAA wins the RoH belts from an AEW guy, well, now they got to come to AEW to defend them. Feels smart to me. Tony should be merging the RoH titles and the B level AEW though. But these titles can be great outreach belts. Have good champs work in other feds and put people over while retaining the belts, and it is a lot of good will Tony creates with the indy community. Will help him come contract signing time.

Still curious what the fuck is up with Gresham. Yuta is all elite now, but Gresham still is a free agent.

Still think to lock him down, and do it long term, he should be put in charge of RoH moving forward and run it like TERMINUS.  Fits RoH so well as it is basically all matches will be under pure title rules.  Great way to separate RoH and AEW as well.

From a match importance perspective, I found it so odd that the tag title match wasn't the main event.

I think the Joe reveal at the end of the main event was what made that world title match the headlining match instead of the tag match. Bucks are big, but they are no Joe. Joe also let the show close hot.

Apr 2, 2022 21:18:42 GMT c said:

Still curious what the fuck is up with Gresham. Yuta is all elite now, but Gresham still is a free agent.

Still think to lock him down, and do it long term, he should be put in charge of RoH moving forward and run it like TERMINUS.  Fits RoH so well as it is basically all matches will be under pure title rules.  Great way to separate RoH and AEW as well.

If every match is under Pure rules I’m never watching. I like the Pure Championship as much as the next fan but Yuta/Woods was the dullest match on the card and I can’t imagine guys like Brian Cage or The Briscoes fighting under Pure rules. That’s absurd.

Terminus made it work. RoH tends to overbook the matches. Brian and Nigel did amazing pure wrestling stuff that did not descend into the bullshit overworked Pure title stuff.

Terminus does not do the rope break rule, which is the major difference and they use a foul list.  Otherwise it is pretty much the same sort of stuff, expect it wants the action in the ring at all times.

Terminus rules are essentially two fouls are a DQ, and these are your fouls:

Throwing an opponent over the top rope

10-second top rope count
5-count for rope and corner break
Intentional physical contact with the referee
Intentional low blows
Intentional eye gouges
Fish hooking
Intentional hair pulling
Spitting
Closed punches to the fist
5-second count-out
Any weapon usage will result in disqualification and expulsion from TERMINUS

Slight changes, but it works so well, as you do get ONE foul.  So a well timed closed fist or not breaking at five can get you the win.

Apr 3, 2022 4:28:34 GMT RT said:

It’ll be AEW’s NXT, which I’m super here for.

I'm not seeing it just yet.

For mine what made NXT stand out is how it ran in contrast to the WWE. The WWE didn't feature tag team or women's wrestling whereas NXT filled that niche and did such a good job of it that the women became a bigger focus of WWE television moving forward.

I see it more as AEW's WWECW. It felt an impression of an ROH show, but there were cracks through out and ultimately they couldn't help but promote AEW and book segments like AEW (Chavo managing Bandido, the ROH Tag Title over-booking etc.).

Apr 3, 2022 16:55:49 GMT Big Pete said:

Apr 3, 2022 4:28:34 GMT RT said:

It’ll be AEW’s NXT, which I’m super here for.

I'm not seeing it just yet.

For mine what made NXT stand out is how it ran in contrast to the WWE. The WWE didn't feature tag team or women's wrestling whereas NXT filled that niche and did such a good job of it that the women became a bigger focus of WWE television moving forward.

I see it more as AEW's WWECW. It felt an impression of an ROH show, but there were cracks through out and ultimately they couldn't help but promote AEW and book segments like AEW (Chavo managing Bandido, the ROH Tag Title over-booking etc.).

That might be more accurate. I just hope it doesn’t suffer the same fate. I don’t think it will. Tony seems to know what the fans want.

Supercard of Honor did over 20k buys. That doesn't include people watching on Honor Club and is a show going head-to-head with Smackdown and 5 other PPVs that were happening at the same time.

That is massive for an ROH show.

I'm trying to compare that to Final Battle in December but I can't find any information. But I don't think an ROH show has even broken 10k in a long time.

I am not sure 10k people even watched a RoH in decades <.<

Joe looking at Lethal as if were his real-life little brother that stepped out of line was such a cool moment.

Genuinely looking forward to Bucks/FTR.

I like it when wrestlers blur the line and I can buy into the animosity between the performers. That's the art of it to me and while I find it difficult to care about either team I feel like there's some genuine stakes here.

It's the first Bucks match I've genuinely looked forward to since Generation Me/MCMG. Every other time, I know it's going to be entertaining and I can't get enough of Nick just floating around the ring but this is different.

Otherwise we're still about eight weeks away from Double Or Nothing, so I don't expect too many major angles.