Well it’s been a while since I did a ROH DVD/VOD review due to all the news coming out about May and NJPW but I finally got around to purchasing Raising the Bar Night 1 and Night 2 on VOD. Overall I’d say it’s pretty obvious that the news coming out of those two nights were the the Young Bucks historic win over reDRagon to capture the ROH World Tag Team Titles (along with holding the IWGP Jr and PWG tag titles), and that shots are awesome.
Both nights had some great wrestling and some just oddly bad wrestling. While I think it would be a slog to go through each match one by one, I just want to give some overall perspective of what Raising the Bar weekend accomplished with certain storylines.
We had a decent match between Cedric Alexander with Adam Page against the Decade of BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs. The match was fine, nothing too spectacular. But Page joining the Decade afterwards was kinda strange given that Whitmer used his previous neck injury as a tool gain sympathy which lead to the pinfall on Page. Page then after that decided to join the Decade as a lackey while Cedric tried to talk some sense into him. Cedric the next night had a great match with Kevin Steen while Page was relegated to Shane Hagadorn status while the Decade faced Adrenaline Rush. That match was fine also though I thought some of the timing between ACH and the tandem of Whitmer/Strong was kinda off.
Silas Young also furthered, or didn’t, a storyline with Truth Martini on both nights. Truth would come out during a good match on night one against Jay Lethal. When we first reported the results, we kind of went off on this tangent that Lethal had won because of a low blow, but that low blow was actually a receipt for earlier in the match so perhaps we made too much of it. On the second night though, Young defeated Matt Taven because of a distraction caused by Truth in another good match, albeit short match. Silas Young progressed in two matches despite the loss as Matt Taven the night before had a good match with ROH World Champion Adam Cole. Coupled with a good showing against Lethal, that at least keeps Young in the hunt for the time being. It was clear Young was the favorite though on both nights as he good more cheers than the men he was facing.
Speaking of Matt Taven, his match against Adam Cole was good but actually was more enjoyable because of a promise he had made earlier in the night that if he had won the Title, he would have bought shots for everyone. The cheers for shots and that shots are awesome made the main event of night 1 a notch better than it would have been without that interaction. Adam Cole and Taven had a competitive bought without making the Champion look like he couldn’t handle a guy who had just recently lost the ROH TV Title.
Sadly the matches that weren’t so great involved two of my favorite characters in wrestling. Homicide and Eddie Kingston. One night 1 they went up against Adrenaline Rush in a match that really had to grow on me as a viewer. The beginning was clunky and at times just downright mis-matched. The timing was off, the spots were obvious and slow, and I gave it no chance of redeeming itself. By the end, it was okay but it was only because the last third was better than most of the first two thirds. The second night Outlaw Inc had a “dream match” with The Briscoes in what was turned into a street fight. The only entertaining part of this match was the pre-match interaction between Homicide and Mark Briscoe where they proclaimed their want to kill the each other but also chose to hug instead of just shake hands. After that it was all down hill. Nothing seemed to click and there were several shots with chairs from Kingston to Mark or Jay that were horrible. Even the small table spot in the middle did nothing for me though it made the crowd come to life, thankfully. Overall not promising for future match ups for Outlaw Inc which is sad because they are obviously feuding with Kevin Steen and with matches like this, I’m worried.
Kevin Steen had that great match on night two against Cedric which I would say is worth checking out. On night one he teamed with his Mount Rushmore cohorts and future ROH Tag Champions the Young Bucks against The Briscoes and Michael Elgin. It was a great six man tag and definitely had all the makings of a classic ROH style match. Great action with a bit of comedy thrown in at the right times. Even the stories it told made sense. Elgin and Jay Briscoe were generally reluctant to tag each other in while Kevin Steen and the Young Bucks got along just fine.
Elgin got to face his mentor Tyson Dux on Night Two in a good opener. But it was Tyson Dux match against Mike Bennett the night before that I enjoyed more and the finishing sequence of Bennett getting his Anaconda Vise on after countering what I believe was a sharp-shooter attempt was creative. Bennett faced Lethal on Night two in an entertaining match which was good and furthered Lethal’s frustration with losing.
The three matches that make these pair of shows worth buying for me were:
ROH Tag Title match: reDRagon vs The Young Bucks
Chris Hero vs Roderick Strong
ROH World Title (Ringmaster Challenge) Adam Cole vs Chris Hero
No shocker there for anyone who knows the style of wrestling I enjoy the most. All three had a great amount of action and were worthy of their high placements on each card. They emotionally had the crowds each night and even probably lived up or surpassed expectation. Chris Hero versus Roderick Strong was a great technical match and probably was my favorite match of the weekend other than the Tag Title match. The World Title match between Cole and Hero was good and given the Ringmaster Challenge limitations, both men did the best they could to keep the fans involved. The Iron Man portion went by very fast and I almost didn’t think it was going to be over. These three matches delivered. I would give both nights recommendations albeit for different reasons. If you’re into ROH cards that have historical significance then I would go with Night 2 because of the Tag Title change and the World Title match. For great quality wrestling Night 1 had more with the six man tag and Chris Hero vs Roderick Strong. Cole versus Taven was worth it too and both nights had enough storyline significance to make the purchases worth it.
If my thoughts weren’t enough check out these related articles:
Photo Essay: Chris Hero vs. Adam Cole — ROH Raising the Bar, Night 2
A Little Column of Honor: Raising the Bar Weekend Blind Breakdown
Podcast of Honor: Supercard of Honor VIII 2014 Preview where Jerome Cusson gave his live perspective on the two nights and Ari gives his post viewing thoughts
I will have Flyin High and Supercard of Honor reviews out soon along with a new Podcast of Honor discussing SCoH and the upcoming ROH shows. Please send me your thoughts either in the comment section or email me at cgstong@PWPonderings.com or on twitter at http://twitter.com/cgstong