ROH TV Review - June 10th, 2015

The Addiction opens the show with a great promo from backstage before making their way out to the ring. Kazarian informs us that Bobby Fish can't compete due to injury so unless O'Reilly can come out here & fight, the match is off. ReDragon's music hits and KYLE O'REILLY RUSHES THE RING AND STARTS CLEANING HOUSE ON DANIELS & KAZARIAN! This brawl/match goes on for a few minutes and features some good action. Kyle hits a running kick off the apron onto both members of The Addiction and things never really slowed down. Daniels ends up hitting Kyle with the title belt and gets himself & Kaz disqualified. They hit O'Reilly with Celebrity Rehab, their double team manuever, and continue beating him down which leads to MATT SYDAL AND ACH RUNNING DOWN TO MAKE THE SAVE! This was a really fun way to start the show even though the match I was hyped for didn't happen.

1) Dalton Castle vs. Jushin Liger
YES! I first saw Dalton Castle earlier this year during the Top Prospect tournament and he immediately stood out. So much so that I was bummed when he got eliminated. Thankfully, ROH decided to continue using him anyway and we have this one of a kind match up. Sweet antics mixed with great wrestling made for a pretty solid contest. You had comedy, but then you also had crazy stuff like Castle spinning around on the apron and catching Liger in a head scissors and hitting him with a hurricanrana on the floor. The action really picked up near the end as well. Good match!

Match rating - ***

2) Brutal Bob Evans vs. Cheeseburger

 I'm so tired of these two that I thought they'd been facing off for months when they've actually been TEAMING and recently broke up. Poor me. This was as boring as expected UNTIL Brutal Bob dropped Cheesburger off the apron through a table OUT OF NOWHERE. One of the best table bumps I've seen in recent memory, to be honest. Wow! So, this wasn't that bad, in fact, it was great. Definitely worth taking a look at.


3) Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Matt Taven & Mike Bennett
I set myself up for disappointment here by thinking that it was The Bucks & AJ against Cole, Taven, & Bennett. I don't know why I expected it to be that. I could've swore that I saw it advertised because I was shocked when this graphic showed up on the show tonight. None the less, this did deliver some crazy action as Karl Anderson catches Taven with a stun gun in mid air on the outside in the early going. They go to commercial and the action is still furious which ends up leading to a DQ finish. Sigh. Gallows N Gun tease slamming Maria through chairs then do it to Taven instead.

Match rating - **1/2

Overall thoughts: This show came close to confirming what I began to suspect last week. It seems like instead of airing the awesome matches that set ROH apart to begin with, they are airing all storyline/sports entertainment oriented material. All the matches in this show ended in a DQ or no contest, when's the last time you've see that in ROH? Hardly ever, which is what makes me question what ROH is trying to do with these new TV deal. ROH TV was hit or miss in the past, but two weeks and nothing notable? Eh. Not the strongest debut on a new network. I'd be putting forth quality stuff that would set me apart, not try to blend in. Now, of course, I could be wrong and that could just be my perception (it is, obviously), so I don't want to make assumptions, I'm just giving my thoughts on what I've watched the past two weeks. BUT for what this was, it wasn't bad by any means. The opening segment and Castle/Liger were the best parts of the show while everything else was entertaining in it's own right. Just not on the level you may expect as far as in-ring action goes.