ROH Flyin High
March 22, 2014
Dayton, OH
Purchase HERE
Flyin High is another in a string of ROH events that have been stronger than some in recent memory. The mix of good to great wrestling and storyline continuity is what ROH built its bones on and I believe that in 2014 they are still doing some good stuff. Now, senior editor Jerome Cusson may have felt different about Supercard of Honor (a review you can read about HERE) but this event was a little bit more tight when it came to finishes and storyline progression.
There were no matches on here that I felt were bad. Even the comedy four way which got turned into a third way with some wonky rule bending at least made sense and progressed, but I will get to that in a little bit. Let’s run down the card and get some thoughts on the stories and match quality.
The Decade in full force with Whitmer, Jacobs, and Strong took on Adrenaline Rush and Caprice Coleman. Despite the weird feeling I got when Jacobs referred to his opponents and Cedric Alexander as those guys (I know, it was harmless) the match itself just furthered the power of the Decade in ROH as they continue to be undefeated as a team. The wrestling was fine. Caprice got a lot of chances to shine as a singles star and the rough and tumble style of the Decade worked well for the role they portrayed. Nothing fancy, nothing showy. Just boots to faces and hard hitting impact moves. TD Thomas still feels a little green as you can see what’s coming a mile away and the timing looks staged. ACH was able to do what he’s good at and show off that athleticism that I think at this point is a secret to no one. A good opener and got the crowd going.
The ROH World Champion Adam Cole came out and had a fun promo where Maria and Mike Bennett impersonated the Briscoes until the eventual occurred and the Briscoes showed up to break up the party. It was bookmarked by the main event where Bennett and Cole showed more cohesion and that Maria is probably the strongest agent in ROH right now.
The four way following the promo segment involved former ROH Tag champion Kyle O’Reilly in a setting where he looked strong even in defeat as it was stolen from him by RD Evans. RD would add 1… I mean 3 wins to #TheNewStreak despite technically winning only one match. Silas Young was a part of it and got himself disqualified when he attacked using a foreign object, but somehow the match continued. Whatever, nothing too weird. Romantic Touch was great as was Kyle O’Reilly and RD Evans comedic timing shined brightly here. He would return later in the night also during the Kevin Steen/Bobby Fish match to help Steen which made sense due to the obviously growing of Evans popularity.
Next up was the match that I think probably stole the night when it comes to expectations. Michael Elgin and Cedric Alexander had a great match with some very good wrestling. I think it would do more justice for you all to read Ari Berenstein’s more detailed breakdown of this match. I can only say I agree with what he said about the match and also felt that Cedric probably took one more step forward to being in the main event mix if he can get some more great matches from the members of the Decade. Cedric’s growth in ROH has been predicted since watching him in other promotions closer to home such as CWF Mid Atlantic and PWX out of North Carolina and it feels like the booking is helping him get there organically instead of pushing him without any link to the fans like some other talents in the past. It ended the first half of the show on a high note and I think the match only got better from there.
Bobby Fish took on Kevin Steen for a little bit until Kyle O’Reilly attacked which lead to RD Evans coming out to help Steen. Steen just magnified the popularity of RD Evans and they ended up in a good tag team match that I don’t think anyone would complain about. The match quality was so so. RD Evans is a trained professional but it was clear how far away he was from the skills of Steen and reDRagon when it comes to nuance. But where he lacked in that sense was more than made up for in comedy and crowd enjoyment. This match was a perfect blend of comedy with enough wrestling to keep the crowd involved. I may be reading too much into this but there was a particular sequence of arm drags from Steen, who looked in great shape with pronounced shoulders and a clearly slimmed down waistline, to both members of reDRagon and some rope running that resembled what you might expect from a try-out situation too closely. Not sure what I’m saying, but I’m just saying. Either way this match was fun for the crowd and while it didn’t exactly help O’Reilly or Fish get any closer to regaining the tag titles, they lost to a former ROH World Champion.
After that we had the marquee matches of the night in Chris Hero versus AJ Styles and Dem Boys versus the Power Trio (well duo) of ROH World Champion Adam Cole and Mike Bennett joined by Maria. There’s not much I can say that wouldn’t sound cliche or obvious so I’ll just point out some things I noticed for each match.
Styles versus Hero was great. From bell to bell it was clear the focal point was Hero’s boot, whether delivered to the face or gut. Yes, AJ Styles remains undefeated in his return to ROH, a subject that has some groaning, but I believe that here it still helped that several times during the match you could see the window for Hero to get the win. Styles made Hero look strong and almost won out of nowhere with his submission hold. There was no clean pinfall, just good technical wrestling which any ROH fan can enjoy and a little notion that perhaps had the match gone just a bit longer Hero would have knocked AJ out and gotten the ‘W’. No shame there, especially when you consider that Styles will be facing Okada for the NJPW IWGP Title very soon and may return to ROH in May with that prestigious belt. The Decade would come out during Hero’s hometown speech and demolished him, which could lead to more great wrestling and something to distract Hero from the Title scene for a little while without pushing him down the ladder of contention.
The main event saw another chapter in the feud between Jay and Cole. Mark Briscoe and Mike Bennett fought alongside their chosen partner and were just kinda there. At this point, despite the fun that Mark brings to his matches there is clearly nothing for him to do other than be at the side of Jay for the near future. Mike Bennett is beyond the TV Title, but his alliance with the World Championship kinda pigeon holes him to a similar position. The wrestling was good and the last five to seven minutes was a short match between Jay and Cole where once again, Cole was pinned clean by “real” ROH Champion. This fed into Supercard of Honor where the two men would battle it out in a ladder match to determine and Undisputed ROH Champion so I had no problem with this finish. It just gave more credibility to the idea that Jay is the “true” Champion.
Overall: I think I would recommend this show. The great match between Elgin and Cedric Alexander shows us what we can expect from the future in ROH and the storyline progression of the Decade and World Title picture made sense and was at times exciting to see. The wrestling was fun, fast paced, and hard hitting. I bought this on VOD along with Raising the Bar Weekend and I think the wrestling more than proved why it was a great choice. Hero versus Styles was as good as you would expect it to be. It didn’t exceed my expectations but that probably would have been hard to do and also not meant for this show. The main event made Cole seem vulnerable which is what you would want to do going into a big show like Supercard of Honor 2014. It was a little paint by numbers, but that still made it better than most wrestling on national television today. I’d day this show is worth the buy.
I will have a new Podcast of Honor discussing this show, Supercard of Honor and the upcoming ROH shows with Ari Berenstein and Jerome Cusson this week. 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
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