ROH Thoughts

I decided against a full report due to not having that much time, there already being a bunch of reports out there, and Dave getting down the key points from the show here. That said, here are some random thoughts.

I thought the show was good, like all ROH shows. I don't think it was a blow-away show, but it's kind of hard with the standard ROH has set this year. I thought the 6 man might end up being a style clash, but boy was I wrong. That was probably the best match of the show, with Aries and CIMA standing out particularly. Pearce-Reyes was probably the worst, but it was short and completely inoffensive.

I'm not sold on the Jimmy Rave push. He does have heat, but I'm not sure it's the right kind of heat. Even when he has a good match, and the McGuinness match built into a good match for sure, he feels more like he's executing moves than fighting with another guy. I wouldn't be grooming him for a major push, but maybe I'm missing something there.

Brent Albright delivers power moves really well. He fits in great in ROH because he's big enough relative to the ROH guys that he looks like a monster and can work that sort of style that fits him. I think pairing him with Jacobs works really well.

Briscoes vs. Claudio and Hero started off slowly, but it really picked up as the match went along with all sorts of crazy double team moves. Definitely one of the better matches on the show, and it will be interesting to see where they go with Hero from here. Obviously they want to keep him as a heel, but he is good in either role.

Homicide-Danielson was a good match but a bit of a letdown. Still, the celebration afterwards really made the title change. The title has been built up to feel important and it does. With Homicide celebrating with Joe in the ring after the match, it would appear Joe vs. Homicide will be a big feud in the latter part of the year, but I'm not sure who turns if they do that.

I'll probably look like an idiot saying this, but I didn't know Hammerstein Ballroom and the Manhattan Center are in the same building. We walked up and opened the door and saw the abandoned Hammerstein Ballroom, and then kept walking up to the Manhattan Center room, which was essentially above it. I'm kind of amused by the idea of two groups running at the same time, and fans running back and forth in a sort of live version of the Monday night wars.