Post by kylehynson on May 20, 2012 21:32:58 GMT -5
Here they are. Do you agree? Gabe, what do you think looking back a decade later?
ROAD TO THE TITLE
I couldn't be happier with last Saturday's ROH show "Road To The Title." From top to bottom I'll put this up against any show anywhere at any point in history. With five three star plus matches (Spanky vs. Paul London, Jody Fleisch vs. Jonny Storm, Spanky vs. Fleisch, Jay Briscoe vs. Doug Williams, Chris Daniels vs. AJ Styles and this one was closer to four stars) and three four star plus bouts (Red vs. Low Ki, Doug Williams vs. American Dragon, AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn) plus every other tournament match was decent including a really underrated bout with Xavier vs. Red, a strong first showing by Bio-Hazard and a hot, short match with Daniels vs. Scoot Andrews, this one will be tough to ever beat for in ring work. But we will beat it one day. If you think I'm hyping it up too much, just read the reports around the internet and you'll see everyone's match ratings pretty much the same as mine.
There were a few other things on the show that really made me happy. First of all, it was our largest crowd ever. I read reports on the internet saying we had 300-350 in the building. I'm not at liberty to say the real number, but it was far higher than that. We had 75 more chairs set up in corners where we never had chairs before. The other real positive sign was the fact that everyone was more over than they were on the first few events. Low Ki, American Dragon and Christopher Daniels all get true star reactions coming out with the entire building on its feet. Spanky is beginning to really catch on in a big way. Jay Briscoe keeps getting more and more over even though he never wins! Red & The SAT were like a fresh act after working with Eddy Guerrero last time. Paul London is slowly gaining popularity and he will be a main eventer soon enough. And what about The Christopher Street Connection with Allision Danger!!! The pop when YMCA hit blew the roof off the building!!! Anyone notice that they are the only people to do run-ins with theme music?
I do admit that the tag team deal ran a little long live. It was meant to ignite the tag team division into a division of chaos and mayhem while adding a hardcore element to the show and I think it accomplished that. One thing for sure though is that the crowd is ready for Da Hit Squad to be in a real match. We hear you and will announce DHS' opponents for 7/27 on Monday. After that tag team deal there are a bunch of different matches that can be done, but we are going to give you a first time ever match with DHS on July 27th. The beating they gave Dunn & Marcos was absolutely brutal and both Dunn & Marcos took it like men. These two have a nice little niche spot in ROH. Dunn suffered a ruptured eardrum when he was kicked on the floor. Dunn & Marcos are both from the upstate NY area and if you are a promoter I highly recommend them.
One thing I was pleased with besides the high quality matches was the fact that this event truly featured every different style of wrestling. Our goal was to present quality matches, but you can't have every match be the same. Last Saturday was a perfect blend of everything. We even got some hardcore in there with the tag team deal.
There are just so many highlights on the show for me. I was kinda nervous about putting Doug Williams in the four-way on 7/27 and having him go over on both Jay Briscoe and American Dragon, who are both very popular and respected by the ROH crowd. However, Williams was a complete home run. He walked into the Briscoe match basically unknown and walked out of the Dragon match a bonafide main eventer. Needless to say, Williams will be a fixture on the ROH roster. The crowd was stunned when he defeated Dragon. That match was just pure wrestling perfection. Williams is a very professional and nice guy who was so happy to be given this opportunity. Everyone is raving about his unique technical ability and it is such a pleasure to watch him work. He is like a human torture machine with his ability to stretch people in unusual and creative ways.
It was great to have Jerry Lynn in ROH. Of course, we all know him for years from when we were all in ECW. He had a great time, was a total class act in putting over AJ Styles in the middle with AJ's finish and produced yet another great match with AJ. One really positive thing in talking with Jerry was the fact that he really has his passion back for producing great matches. Getting away from WWE was the best thing to happen to him mentally and he is back to having fun in the ring. Jerry will be back in ROH at some point, probably in the fall or winter.
People were a little rough on the Sumie Sakai vs. Simply Luscious match and it didn't deserve that. They had one communication error in the beginning and besides that the match was exactly what I expected. I wanted to give Luscious the opportunity to work with someone as skilled as Sakai, get Sakai a match in ROH while she was on tour in the United States and give the crowd something different from the rest of the show. Please it added to Chris Daniels' Prophecy angle as now in Daniels' opinion ROH screwed over the entire Prophecy by putting Luscious in a non-scheduled match that she lost.
Then there is Low Ki vs. Red. I must have watched the opening to this match 20 times last night. You will never, ever see a better opening to a match than this. I won't even bother trying to describe it because words can't do it justice. This just needs to be seen. I've never heard a pop from the crowd like the one after the opening sequence. Doug said that the only time he's ever heard a pop like that was after a Jerry Lynn/RVD exchange at the ECW Arena after RVD just wrestled Kamala II. This was just unreal.
ROAD TO THE TITLE
I couldn't be happier with last Saturday's ROH show "Road To The Title." From top to bottom I'll put this up against any show anywhere at any point in history. With five three star plus matches (Spanky vs. Paul London, Jody Fleisch vs. Jonny Storm, Spanky vs. Fleisch, Jay Briscoe vs. Doug Williams, Chris Daniels vs. AJ Styles and this one was closer to four stars) and three four star plus bouts (Red vs. Low Ki, Doug Williams vs. American Dragon, AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn) plus every other tournament match was decent including a really underrated bout with Xavier vs. Red, a strong first showing by Bio-Hazard and a hot, short match with Daniels vs. Scoot Andrews, this one will be tough to ever beat for in ring work. But we will beat it one day. If you think I'm hyping it up too much, just read the reports around the internet and you'll see everyone's match ratings pretty much the same as mine.
There were a few other things on the show that really made me happy. First of all, it was our largest crowd ever. I read reports on the internet saying we had 300-350 in the building. I'm not at liberty to say the real number, but it was far higher than that. We had 75 more chairs set up in corners where we never had chairs before. The other real positive sign was the fact that everyone was more over than they were on the first few events. Low Ki, American Dragon and Christopher Daniels all get true star reactions coming out with the entire building on its feet. Spanky is beginning to really catch on in a big way. Jay Briscoe keeps getting more and more over even though he never wins! Red & The SAT were like a fresh act after working with Eddy Guerrero last time. Paul London is slowly gaining popularity and he will be a main eventer soon enough. And what about The Christopher Street Connection with Allision Danger!!! The pop when YMCA hit blew the roof off the building!!! Anyone notice that they are the only people to do run-ins with theme music?
I do admit that the tag team deal ran a little long live. It was meant to ignite the tag team division into a division of chaos and mayhem while adding a hardcore element to the show and I think it accomplished that. One thing for sure though is that the crowd is ready for Da Hit Squad to be in a real match. We hear you and will announce DHS' opponents for 7/27 on Monday. After that tag team deal there are a bunch of different matches that can be done, but we are going to give you a first time ever match with DHS on July 27th. The beating they gave Dunn & Marcos was absolutely brutal and both Dunn & Marcos took it like men. These two have a nice little niche spot in ROH. Dunn suffered a ruptured eardrum when he was kicked on the floor. Dunn & Marcos are both from the upstate NY area and if you are a promoter I highly recommend them.
One thing I was pleased with besides the high quality matches was the fact that this event truly featured every different style of wrestling. Our goal was to present quality matches, but you can't have every match be the same. Last Saturday was a perfect blend of everything. We even got some hardcore in there with the tag team deal.
There are just so many highlights on the show for me. I was kinda nervous about putting Doug Williams in the four-way on 7/27 and having him go over on both Jay Briscoe and American Dragon, who are both very popular and respected by the ROH crowd. However, Williams was a complete home run. He walked into the Briscoe match basically unknown and walked out of the Dragon match a bonafide main eventer. Needless to say, Williams will be a fixture on the ROH roster. The crowd was stunned when he defeated Dragon. That match was just pure wrestling perfection. Williams is a very professional and nice guy who was so happy to be given this opportunity. Everyone is raving about his unique technical ability and it is such a pleasure to watch him work. He is like a human torture machine with his ability to stretch people in unusual and creative ways.
It was great to have Jerry Lynn in ROH. Of course, we all know him for years from when we were all in ECW. He had a great time, was a total class act in putting over AJ Styles in the middle with AJ's finish and produced yet another great match with AJ. One really positive thing in talking with Jerry was the fact that he really has his passion back for producing great matches. Getting away from WWE was the best thing to happen to him mentally and he is back to having fun in the ring. Jerry will be back in ROH at some point, probably in the fall or winter.
People were a little rough on the Sumie Sakai vs. Simply Luscious match and it didn't deserve that. They had one communication error in the beginning and besides that the match was exactly what I expected. I wanted to give Luscious the opportunity to work with someone as skilled as Sakai, get Sakai a match in ROH while she was on tour in the United States and give the crowd something different from the rest of the show. Please it added to Chris Daniels' Prophecy angle as now in Daniels' opinion ROH screwed over the entire Prophecy by putting Luscious in a non-scheduled match that she lost.
Then there is Low Ki vs. Red. I must have watched the opening to this match 20 times last night. You will never, ever see a better opening to a match than this. I won't even bother trying to describe it because words can't do it justice. This just needs to be seen. I've never heard a pop from the crowd like the one after the opening sequence. Doug said that the only time he's ever heard a pop like that was after a Jerry Lynn/RVD exchange at the ECW Arena after RVD just wrestled Kamala II. This was just unreal.