Gresham/Lethal Iron Man

ROH TV 09/07/18: Jay Lethal vs. Jonathan Gresham

This was such a massive disappointment. Far from a bad match - it was actually pretty good, but hearing the hype & reading the rave reviews for it, I badly wanted it to be the classic many thought it was. I also really liked both of their previous matches against one another, so that adds to that as well. I felt absolutely nothing watching this one, until the first fall, after which there was a very nice sense of urgency & drama; in particular the 5-minute overtime was very, very good. Sadly the first 27 or so minutes of the match were super dull. **3/4

HIAC

Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton
Jeff inside the Cell means he's gonna go crazy, and that's what he did (that ending spot, holy shit!) + you got Randy delivering the most vicious & sadistic beatdown he has done in a looooong time. That stuff w/ the screwdriver was legitimately disturbing. Awesome violence. Certainly one of the most memorable HIAC matches of the PG Era. ***1/2

Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch
This was a very solid match match, with some very good storytelling; it was all about Becky proving that she can hang with Charlotte in a straight up rasslin' match, and that's exactly what happened. ***1/4

Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre vs. The Shield
Very good tag team wrestling! Very good structure, pacing & energetic performances from all involved - in particular Dean Ambrose was on absolute fire. The finishing stretch was very exciting & the finish w/ the Claymore Kick was legitimately very creative & awesome. ***3/4

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe

I actually liked this a tad bit more than their SummerSlam match. Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles just doesn't go wrong; they put something everything to everything when they face off against one another; stiff strikes, amazing selling & bumping + one of the things I love the most is how brutal Joe's submission look on AJ, because of their size difference. Awesome stuff. ***3/4

Brie Bella & Daniel Bryan vs. Maryse & The Miz

This was laid out in the best way possible. They made the absolute best out of the brief Brie vs. Maryse interactions; by the end, as Brie got the hot tag & then ran wild on Maryse, I was really into it. The only really sloppy thing about their stuff was the ending pinning sequence, but other than that, both of them did really well. And of course Bryan & Miz rocked when they were against one another. Very fun match. ***3/4

Ronda Rousey vs. Alexa Bliss

Ronda's just too good, man. Another amazing big match performance by her, and a completely different one from the previous 2 - here the match started off with her giving Bliss a wonderful asskicking, just throwing her around, much like in their SummerSlam bout. But then via some heel shenanigans, Bliss gets the control & starts targeting Ronda's ribs in relentless fashion. Ronda's selling of this is borderline perfect - she didn't drop the selling at any point, and the hulk up towards the end was maybe the best example of it; she gets the adrenaline going because of Bliss' extended trashtalk segment, but right after she drops her w/ a big slam, she sells the damage perfectly. Just an outstanding performance. Best match of the night. ****

Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

The clusterfuckery in the ending was what it was, but even before that, this was extremely meh by Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns standards. **

WAAAALTEEERRRR

Defiant Stacked 2018: WALTER vs. Will Ospreay

This was great, unsurprisingly. WALTER beat the shit out of Ospreay & Ospreay bumped his ass off for him. Just great David vs. Goliath action throughout - lots of great moments, but my favorite one has to be when Ospreay started bleeding, WALTER lived up to his nickname & started targeting that cut right away. Great stuff. ****

OTT Wrestlerama 2: Jordan Devlin vs. WALTER

This was just a perfect storm of Devlin having been the ace of Irish Wrestling & building his legacy there for quite a while going against WALTER, who has become an absolute star in just a few years, tearing through the indy scene w/ his fantastic monster work. It's rare to see WALTER get booed, but my goodness did it add SO MUCH to this match - Devlin got the full on ace treatment from the fans & the commentators, while WALTER was the invading monster, who had given the champ his first pinfall loss in a long ass time. You could feel the emotion every time Devlin managed to kick out of WALTER's big bombs; one of my favorite things of the whole thing was seeing fans hug each other after one of his big kickouts. So masterfully laid out - every kickout was milked to the max, and all of Devlin's brief comebacks were done perfectly, especially during the finishing stretch of the match. A masterpiece of David vs. Goliath wrestling, storytelling & drama. ****1/2

ALL IN

Matt Cross vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman


An awesome opener. MJF impressed with his work on top - some very nice shoulder/arm targeting by him, and Cross' selling was fine throughout, as well as his flippy comebacks were very good. Good match. ***
 

Christopher Daniels vs. Stephen Amell

A pretty hard match to rate, but I thought Amell (just like at SummerSlam a few years back) looked impressive, and he clearly wanted to give the fans a show, so you just gotta respect that. Daniels is a stud inside the ring, that is for sure. **


Britt Baker vs. Chelsea Green vs. Madison Rayne vs. Tessa Blanchard


Pretty awkward in it's pacing & structure for the most part, but there were a few good sequences here & there. Tessa was clearly the best performer. An OK match. **



Nick Aldis vs. Cody
Cody winning the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship is one of the coolest moments in all of wrestling in 2018. Loved all the pageantry - in particular those MMA style walkouts popped me big time. The actual match was really good, too. Aldis did most of the work on top, as Cody was 200% the babyface here in this setting, and it worked. Aldis was really good working the heat, specifically targeting the back, which Cody sold greatly. His overall babyface performance was pretty damn awesome. Very good match. ***1/2

Hangman Page vs. Joey Janela
Some absolutely insane spots in this one - Joey Janela sure is one crazy ass mofo. Overall a good one, with a bit of an awkward pacing for the first half or so. ***

Jay Lethal vs. Flip Gordon

This sure wasn't good. Seeing the Black Machismo back in action was fun & all, but as the match went on, the gimmick took away from the flow of it. Not that there was much of that without it either, though. Flip was just absolutely awful in this one. *1/2

Kenny Omega vs. Penta El Zero

A very generic back & forth stuff, with both guys doing their shtick & "greatest hits". Wasn't much of a good match, never really clicked for me. It certainly was far from a bad match though. **1/2

Kazuchika Okada vs. Marty Scurll

This had it's moments of dullness, but overall I thought it was a good match that told the story of Marty having something to prove against THE Heavyweight in Kazuchika Okada very well. The ending was pretty badass. ***

The Golden Elite vs. Bandido, Rey Fenix & Rey Mysterio

After reading the reports of this one being cut short due to a few matches before going overtime, it truly was clear as I was watching it. Started off pretty rough w/ stuff that felt overly choreographed & there wasn't much of a flow. Once the Ibushi vs. Mysterio standoff happened though, that's when things got good. Flips, flips & some more flips. While the match being cut short did bring out a few negatives in the match, it also had a good effect in it, as in it helped to give it a nice sense of urgency when they started to go crazy with all the dives. Very good match! ***1/2