Csonka’s ROH TV Review 3.09.16
March 9, 2016 | Posted by
OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Lio Rush defeated Bryan Fury @ 9:00 via pin [***]
– Moose defeated Kongo @ 5:03 via pin [½*]
– Christopher Daniels defeated Dalton Castle @ 11:15 via pin [*½]
Prior to the open, we get a Dalton Castle interview. He is hungry and craves victories, he will take what he wants and Christopher Daniels is in his way.
Top Prospect Tournament Finals: Brian Fury vs. Lio Rush: They noted that Fury won his first two matches in the tournament through nefarious means, taking advantage and using his veteran skills to advance. Fury looked to ground Rush early, which failed as Rush sent him to the floor and hit a sweet dive. Fury would slam Rush to the barricade, and we then went to the break. Post break Fury controlled, working a solid heat as the crowd was behind Rush. Rush got a quick hope spot with some fast paced strikes, but a good lariat to the throat will slow that down. Fury looked to beat Rush down, but Rush countered a pop up powerbomb and then scored with a nice tornado style DDT for a near fall. Rush has great fire and a good ability to get the crowd behind him as the underdog. Rush hit the big frog splash for a near fall. Fury would sit down on a sunset flip try and get the ropes, but was thwarted this time but the ref. He hit the pop up powerbomb, and Rush kicked out and that got a great crowd reaction. Rush would then catch Fury as he charged in and scored the win with the Spanish fly. They had the right finals, and the right guy won I really hope that they can capitalize on Rush, who is young and in his infancy in his career, but there is a lot to work with there. I also wouldn’t find Fury getting more ROH work; he was really solid through out. Commentary did a good job of putting Fury over for his hard work, and that he just came up short.
Moose vs. Kongo: This isn’t the cool Kongo Kong, this is a 1980s jobber transported to 2016 named Kongo. No Stokley Hathaway with Moose, which according to Mr. Wrestling III is being done as a way to build confidence for Moose. They went back and forth, trading strikes and then Moose hit the big dropkick and sent Kongo to the floor. They did way too much back and forth, it wasn’t particularly good and Moose shouldn’t be selling a ton for goofs like this. This is the first match that we’re seeing after Moose lost to Okada, he should have mopped the floor with the guy; get in, get out and be done. Instead, Kongo was booked like an ROH regular in terms of getting offense and the heat on Kongo. This felt so long, Kongo is not good and Moose was pulled down to his level. This was the perfect example of the wrong match to book, they should be happy that the crowd likes to chant “Moose.” I have no idea why you’d book a match like this for Moose, who constantly gets his legs cut out from underneath him. Moose won with the spear. Thanks Lizard Man…
– The Young Bucks cut a promo about next week’s tag team gauntlet match.
– Earlier today, we see clips from Mike “P-DOG” Posey and his crew in the ring, running down Cheeseburger. BULLSHIT. Cheeseburger ran wild and hit palm strikes on the goofs, because he’s awesome.
– Cedric Alexander vs. Adam Page was supposed to be next, but BJ Whitmer arrived and attacked Page. Alexander helped with the beat down, and Jonathan Gresham made the save. This sets up a tag match on this weekend’s event in Philadelphia. That didn’t get over, at all.
– We see highlights from last week’s Boys vs. Young and Bruiser match, where Castle and the Boys got beat down.
– Silas Young is on commentary.
Christopher Daniels w/Kaz vs. Dalton Castle w/The Boys: This was ROH’s basic way of keeping the feuds going, with distractions and commentary. They worked a fine match in theory, but the various distractions from Young and Kaz kept this from gaining any sort of real flow. Quite frankly, this was the definition of going through the motions. They did stuff, it was ok, but it never really went anywhere. It was just an in ring session, with some comedy, to get to the disappointing finish. I never got into this, and considering how much I like both guys, that was both surprising and disappointing. Kaz tripped up Castle, and Daniels hit angle’s wings to score the win. Yup, Dalton Cattle loses again, which in the middle of a feud he needs to get past, but they aren’t sure how to book him. Daniels did not need to win here, and of course this leads to Castle challenging Young to a fight without honor. It’s hard to care, because the feud has been going on forever, not in a good way, and Castle has lost just about all of his buzz and momentum. Castle has to win and win definitively and move on.
* Thanks for reading.