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ROH 15th Anniversary Reaction
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
From the Murphy Rec Center in Philadelphia, Pa. to Sam’s Town in Las Vegas, NV., Ring Of Honor has undergone plenty in its 15-year history.
It was only appropriate that the face of the “old times” that hadn’t gone to World Wrestling Entertainment, Christopher Daniels, would get his last chance at the ROH World Championship, a belt that alluded him his whole career.
It was also right that the current Champion was Adam Cole, Bullet Club leader, which represented the “new school” ways of ROH.
Of course this show will be regarded as “the one where TK O’Ryan got hurt,” but there was plenty of happiness to go around the card as well.
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 2/1/17: Battle Of The Jays
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/1/17)
Battle Of The Jays
– With Wrestle Kingdom 11 on the back burner (though it aired on Jan. 4 and they’re just giving us the Ring Of Honor followup now), we had a new ROH World Champion and his name was Adam Cole… bay bay. The opening video looked back at Cole’s match with Kyle O’Reilly at WK11 and had him cut a promo over match footage about how “he” effectively concluded the story. Finally, some updated stuff. We were spinning our wheels there.
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 1/11/17: Droned In
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 1/11/17)
Droned In
– Christopher Daniels’ hype video promo did a good job of showing his refocused goal of his “destiny to become Champion” in the midst of the Decade Of Excellence Tournament that he was a part of. He defeated Mark Briscoe last week to advance to the second round. He spoke about how he made a name for himself in 2002 and they wisely played back footage of those classic Murphy Rec Center days when he denied handshakes and broke the mold as the face of The Prophecy, despite never holding the ROH World Championship. They flashed back to now, to where he gives those handshakes and obeys the Code Of Honor, a presumed changed man. With this kind of package, we could tell this next push was set to be a serious one. It also helps to get more passionate promos like this one, because that’s what Daniels does best these days.
Notes In Observance – NJPW English 1/5/17: New Year’s Dash 2017
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 1/5/17)
New Year’s Dash 2017
– The Six-Man Tag between Kyle O’Reilly/Ricochet/David Finlay and Jushin “Thunder” Liger/Tiger Mask/Henare set New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s version of “Raw After Mania” off to a hot start. The commentary team of Kevin Kelly/Steve Corino superbly painted storyline pictures to mix with the action. Here, they relied upon the fact that O’Reilly/Ricochet/Finlay were all losers at Wrestle Kingdom 11 (which included six Title changes, mind you) and looked to bounce back. Given the caliber of talent involved, it was expected that the action would be quick. Ricochet and Liger had a cool exchange, even if Ricochet slipped up in the corner. Commentary hyped up Henare and put him over as a young lion that had the privilege to train with two legends like Liger/TM. In many ways, that’d build someone’s career and it was smart of them to point that out. Liger’s tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on O’Reilly looked downright cruel. Another fun spot was where Henare had the Boston Crab locked in on Finlay and didn’t let go, even when subjected to Ricochet’s fierce kicks. The highlight of everything was the triple submission spot, as it wasn’t long before Finlay secured the pin for his team. All in all, it set out what it meant to – let O’Reilly/Ricochet/Finlay get back on track and Henare’s in-ring abilities were a focus. The post-match sportsmanship was nice, even with the added detail that cameras followed Finlay as he went to embrace his mom up in the crowd. Awwww.
Wrestle Kingdom 11 Reaction
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
Jan. 4, professional wrestling and the Tokyo Dome have been a longtime polyamorous relationship, to the point where it has become tradition.
After last year’s Wrestle Kingdom 10 when Shinsuke Nakamura and WWE World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles stole the show, New Japan Pro Wrestling began to make a global buzz.
With the likes of Bullet Club, Chaos and Los Ingobernables de Japon (LIJ) all in a power struggle, many Titles were up for grabs.
WK has become a haven for big moments and unlikely chances for Champions to retain their belts.
Wrestle Kingdom 11 would be right up there with the greats for a main event that actually dragged “Six Stars” out of one Dave Meltzer.
How did the show fare by our standards? Find out below.
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 12/7/16: By Honor, For Honor
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 12/7/16)
By Honor, For Honor
– If anybody hoped for meaningful post-Final Battle television, look elsewhere. However, since already here, why not stay awhile? We’ll keep you comfortable. Anyways, the Cheeseburger/Will Ferrara-Tempura Boyz match was throwaway material, but some decent action involved. Joey “Diesel” Daddiego (The House Of Truth’s former J. Diesel) was on commentary and put over Ferrara/Cheeseburger as hard workers in the dojo. Daddiego used to come off like a mini-Batista, but now that he talked, he was like a hybrid of Taz and Nunzio. At least Cheeseburger continues to grow in popularity. That shouldn’t be hard. The guy’s freakin’ name’s Cheeseburger. Fast-paced action as you’d expect. TB hit a nice codebreaker/German suplex combo before they won with a superkick/package piledriver combo on Cheeseburger. TB seem cool, though we still don’t know much about them besides their tasty name. Cheeseburgers and Tempura. Yummy. The post-match angle with Prince Nana and Donovan Dijak continued the inevitable Nana/Dijak split, as the manager demanded his client to “get this wet” and make easy work of Ferrara. Dijak showed brief hesitation before he picked Ferrara up and slammed him down twice. That prompted Daddiego to leave the booth and confront Dijak, as he challenged him to a match. Sure, why not?
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 10/26/16: (Un)Broken Spirits
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 10/26/16)
(Un)Broken Spirits
– With the team of Colt Cabana/Dalton Castle still fresh on the tag scene, they needed wins to score some credibility. With a shot at the ROH World Tag Team Championships at a Baltimore live event soon to come, this was a golden chance to keep the babyface team hot and they shelled out some new talent from New Japan Pro Wrestling in The Tempura Boys to do the process. While it felt like commentary spoke too much about TB and how they wanted to be known by only their first names, the actions of Cabana/Castle were enough to tell the right story. A smart mix of comedy, fast-action and great double-team moves, Cabana/Castle easily got past TB when Castle hit the Bangarang to score the pin.
ROH Global Wars 2016 Reaction
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
Ring Of Honor doesn’t hide that New Japan Pro Wrestling has their fingerprints all over their television shows and as you see here, their Pay-Per-View events.
Their 14th Anniversary Show featured notable NJPW talent like Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi as a selling point and that’s all fine and good.
It’s just the fact that it might be misleading to build this PPV as “Global Wars” when there were no true stakes. Besides featuring more NJPW guys on an ROH show, there was nothing extraordinary about this.
In fact, the best things to come from this show were just ROH storylines and talent on their own. You’ll see our thoughts on everything and that oh-so-illustrious ending below, but don’t get your hopes high.
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 3/30/16: Hit By The Truth
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 3/30/16)
Hit By The Truth
– The Four Corner Survival match between Roderick Strong, Moose (w/Stokely Hathaway), Adam Page and Matt Sydal gave us a decent ensemble of clashing personalities. Page was angry, Roddy was cocky, Moose was fancy and Sydal liked to fly. It just worked. Good near-falls down the stretch. Page drew close to a win, but a BJ Whitmer distraction allowed Strong to hit him with a knee strike and win.
Notes In Observance – ROH Wrestling 3/9/16: Rush Hour
Image provided courtesy of Ring Of Honor.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 3/9/16)
Rush Hour
– With his flashy tropical personality, ROH has a star in the making with Dalton Castle. It’s easy to fall for his charm and as much of a spectacle he makes with all the colors and his two “Boys,” you want to see more. He has that effect. This episode focused a lot on Castle and while it was TV filler essentially, there was a golden opportunity to advance Castle’s never-ending feud with Silas Young. Castle’s opening backstage promo chatted up tropical sweets and desire for victories while saying Christopher Daniels would have his heart broken. In a very “Dalton” way, did we actually hype the main event?
Pro Wrestling Opinion 