As per request. Think we can beat the four comments for the Smackdown live thread last night? I bet we can.
Anyhow, the iPPV starts at 7 EST, so head on over to ROHwrestling.com and float them a few bucks. Cmon, you can spare $9.99 for some wrestling, ya cheap bastards. Here's some predictions:
Kevin Steen vs. Davey Richards: I'm actually kind of torn on this one. They introduced the "This is Steen's only chance" element, and I'm thinking they don't want to make it look like Steen's a choker ala Lex Luger. On the other hand, I assume they want this storyline to stretch out at least as far as Final Battle in December. Unless of course they learned their lesson from last years never-ending, never-changing Richards/Edwards feud, and they don't want to slow their storyline plans down too much. In that case, Steen wins and begins his hostile takeover of ROH.
Fit Finlay vs. Roderick Strong: Strong's the TV champ so unless he's dropping the title to Finlay in his first ROH match, I'm thinking Finlay gives Roddy the rub and Roddy goes over here. I also think this is going to be a style clash.
Briscoes vs. Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team: Unless this feud is blown off completely I'd say WGTT takes the belts back. In fact, even if they do blow it off here, I'd still say WGTT should take it and move on to All Night Express for a feud, while the Briscoes can take on the Young Bucks or the House of Truth, or maybe even Steen & Jacobs for a while.
Lance Storm vs. Mike Bennett: Bennett gets the win again, still doesn't give Storm respect, and then makes out with Maria for a really long time.
Eddie Edwards vs. Rhino: From the looks of things, Rhino's going to be appearing more regularly in ROH so I think he might actually get the win here to put him in title contention. Since Steen is likely to be the biggest babyface in the company coming out of this show, I could see him taking on Rhino just as well as Edwards.
Michael Elgin vs. Adam Cole: Coming off his 5-star match with Davey, Elgin wins quickly.
Jay Lethal vs. Tommaso Ciampa: This one's gonna keep going and Roderick is going to end up involved and I am positive we'll see a 3 way in the future, so Ciampa wins.
Well, enjoy folks. Sneak out from under the ring and use multiple low blows.
The show is 15 dollars not 10 Murphy. Anyway I'm looking forward to this but the ending of the ROH title match determines whether I bother keeping up with ROH afterwards. I'll stick with DGUSA/EVOLE as my pure wrestling feds.
ReplyDeleteCiampa
ReplyDeleteElgin
Rhino
Storm (I think they'll see if they can stretch this to a third)
Briscoes (they've said that this is the last time these teams will meet which means Briscoes win the blowoff)
Strong
Steen
Oh yeah it's only $10 if you're a Ringside Member, my bad. It also starts at 7:30, not 7. Clearly I'm not on the ROH payroll.
ReplyDeleteIf Steen turns face and Davey turns heel tonight they could easily stretch this out till Final Battle. Richards/Edwards wore out it's welcome because it was just two guys having "respect" matches for the companies top prize. Nothing wrong with that of course but not something you want to last for nearly a full year.
ReplyDeleteThe Wrestlemania shows cooled my appreciation quite a bit (both for the technical problems and their generally disposable nature), but ROH has still managed to get me stoked about this PPV. I don't exactly care who wins between Davey and Steen, just as long as the result gives us a clear storyline and direction, which ROH PPVs have been sorely lacking lately. I'm almost hoping Richards takes it (just as long as it's not with Kick-1 count, Kick-2 count, ANTICLIMACTIC KICK OF DEATH 3 Count!!!! MOTY Speech) because it does feel like they're hotshotting Steen and I'm worried his character will cool if he wins the title without a good angle to go with it. Then again, if they've got a solid idea of where to go with Steen, it might not be the worst decision to pull the trigger in the guy's first try (or at least modern try) for once.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the card has some potential as well. Storm/Bennett was pretty good last time around and I don't imagine they couldn't do even better here. Briscoes/WGTT is getting old, but the Fight With Out Honor stip should guarantee that this is the end, and hopefully they'll go out in a big way. Ciampa/Lethal is less interesting without the title, but at least the undefeated streak is still on the line. Elgin is coming off a breakout performance and Cole is looking to have one, so there's some potential there. Strong/Finlay is likely to be stiffer than (insert boner joke). And it wouldn't surprise me if Rhino/Edwards delivered as well. I'm sure the 6 man will open and there's no reason to suspect it will be terrible.
So I'm not being blindly optimistic here, but on paper ROH has a chance to turn around their recent slump here. At the very least they should be able to pull our 2 or 3 **** matches, and if they can develop some angles tonight, it could end up being a very worthwhile show. They desperately need a win here, though, after that Showdown at Sunset debacle (Davey/Elgin just wasn't enough to save it for me, especially since it didn't lead anywhere).
My personal fantasy booking is Steen winning tonight and holding onto the belt until Final Battle where he loses it to El Generico, to complete their saga.
ReplyDeleteQuestion; If I become a ringside member what's my discount on their DVD's? Assuming things go the way I like tonight I want to pick up Final Battle 2010, Manhattan Mayhem 2011, BitW 2011, and Final Battle 2011 but I'm not too keen on spending the near 70 bucks to get them.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the title for the post I thought it was for some stupid reality show on the History channel or something.
ReplyDeleteFinal Battle 2011 isn't really worth it.
ReplyDelete"(Davey/Elgin just wasn't enough to save it for me, especially since it didn't lead anywhere)"
ReplyDeleteI think that's a little premature. It's clearly leading to an Elgin face turn, and Elgin still has another title shot in the bank by virtue of winning Survival of the Fittest 2011.
Regardless of whether Steen or Davey wins tonight, the Champion defending against Elgin later on this year could be really great, if Elgin shows that he's learned from last time.
Hmm, after reading some reviews I think I'll follow your advice.
ReplyDeleteSeriously who thought it was a good idea to have Dan fucking Severn make Roderick Strong look like a bitch? Especially when he's a Gdamn former ROH world champion? Oh well, 20 dollars saved.
Hell yes! I'm really excited for tonight! I have high hopes tonight will be a very good show. I think ROH has been finding their groove lately.
ReplyDeleteCiampa wins. Lethal had a long stretch of wins there. I think you're right about the eventual 3 way dance, too.
Elgin kills Cole dead. Cole can work, though, so it should be an entertaining match until Elgin puts him away.
Rhino wins if he's going to be a part of ROH. If he's just in for a few shows, it's Edwards. Should be a good match up.
Bennett - agree with you 100%.
Briscoes/ WGTT should be a hard hitting, very physical match. I'm sort of thinking the Briscoes take this because ROH doesn't usually hotshot their titles around and Dem Boys just won them in December. I think this match will involve ANX, the Young Bucks, and TJ Perkins's team and we'll get some new angles out of it. Hopefully, anyway. It seems the WGTT and Briscoes have been feuding forever.
Strong wins hands down. I don't think ROH is ready to give anyone a belt who's not under contract.
I *really* hope Steen wins the belt and ROH goes all in with Steen taking ROH hostage and making Cornette's life a nightmare. And then, like Joseph Lorainne says, hopefully Generico gets it off him at Final Battle. I think that could be a compelling story. It would be a twist on the face wrestler gets screwed by heel authority figure and they could try new things with it. Plus, Davey and O'Reily have been acting slightly more heelish every week.
Something to consider...how bad was Richards's recent car accident? He's not going to Japan, and since he seems to be obsessed with wrestling there, it must be a bit worse than they're letting on. If he loses here, he can take some time off and just do promos. Then again, Richards lives and breathes this stuff, so it's not likely he'd even admit he needs time to heel.
Hell yes! I'm really excited for tonight! I have high hopes tonight will be a very good show. I think ROH has been finding their groove lately.
ReplyDeleteCiampa wins. Lethal had a long stretch of wins there. I think you're right about the eventual 3 way dance, too.
Elgin kills Cole dead. Cole can work, though, so it should be an entertaining match until Elgin puts him away.
Rhino wins if he's going to be a part of ROH. If he's just in for a few shows, it's Edwards. Should be a good match up.
Bennett - agree with you 100%.
Briscoes/ WGTT should be a hard hitting, very physical match. I'm sort of thinking the Briscoes take this because ROH doesn't usually hotshot their titles around and Dem Boys just won them in December. I think this match will involve ANX, the Young Bucks, and TJ Perkins's team and we'll get some new angles out of it. Hopefully, anyway. It seems the WGTT and Briscoes have been feuding forever.
Strong wins hands down. I don't think ROH is ready to give anyone a belt who's not under contract.
I *really* hope Steen wins the belt and ROH goes all in with Steen taking ROH hostage and making Cornette's life a nightmare. And then, like Joseph Lorainne says, hopefully Generico gets it off him at Final Battle. I think that could be a compelling story. It would be a twist on the face wrestler gets screwed by heel authority figure and they could try new things with it. Plus, Davey and O'Reily have been acting slightly more heelish every week.
Something to consider...how bad was Richards's recent car accident? He's not going to Japan, and since he seems to be obsessed with wrestling there, it must be a bit worse than they're letting on. If he loses here, he can take some time off and just do promos. Then again, Richards lives and breathes this stuff, so it's not likely he'd even admit he needs time to heel.
No way in hell is Generico even coming back to ROH, much less getting the belt so long as Cornette is helping to run ROH. Corny is a great wrestling mind but has some pretty lousy views on talent.
ReplyDeleteYou mean aside from the fact that they just released an El Generico 2-disc DVD and that he worked at least 3 shows for them over the past month and a half?
ReplyDeleteHe's obviously not under EXCLUSIVE contract as evidenced by him working the EVOLVE show tonight and not ROH, but to say that he's gone for good is kinda crazy.
Well I still don't think Cornette would sign off on him being ROH champ. I mean he knows a hell of a lot more about wrestling than I do but I just don't get why he supposedly doesn't like Generico.
ReplyDeleteThat's fair to say. I'm sure the match did add to Elgin's overall value and will be mentioned down the line, but anyone who saw that show and got really excited about Elgin hasn't gotten much payoff for their enthusiasm in the weeks that followed the show. There's been friction between he and Roddy, but that's been about it. Once the set up the Steen match, the ramifications of Showdown were greatly undermined. I'm not saying they've made the wrong choices, necessarily, because I am pumped about the match tonight, but it does make it seem like the last PPV was fairly disposable.
ReplyDeleteThere's people I've actually heard of on this card. That hasn't happened in a long time. Tempted to tune in now.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone else getting this?:
ReplyDeleteThe service is not available. Please try again later.
Right when the show started they logged me off my account and this is the message I'm seeing as I try logging back on. None too thrilled at this moment.
I'm getting the same thing. I checked from every internet capable device I have and checked through multiple networks. I'm totally blocked out, too.
ReplyDeleteGoddammit, ROH. GFL may not have been perfect, but at least I could watch it.
Why doesn't Cornette like Generico? Is it the gimmick? Because the dude can work.
ReplyDeleteGetting the same shit. Seriously considering demanding my money back. Such bush league garbage.
ReplyDeletecount me in
ReplyDeleteOK, so I presume this isn't a connection issue then. This is just their own in-house technical SNAFU. Wow, am I on the brink of furious right now. I wonder if this is happening for everyone or if it depends on the kind of membership you have. It's freezing me on the log-in screen, so I'm curious if people who'd managed to remain logged in are actually watching the show they paid for right now.
ReplyDeleteI think the Ringside discount is 15%. It's nice when they have other sales because you can add the Ringside discount to it. So, like, a 25% off sale becomes a 40% off sale for Ringside.
ReplyDeleteYep, this is ridiculous. Things have REGRESSED since leaving GFL.
ReplyDeleteI'm the highest level of Ringside member...a full year or whatever...and I've been logged in watching shows all day to get prepared. I tested my connection 10 minutes before the start of the show and everything looked good. My guess is everyone is screwed. I'm assuming they had a rush of people logging in and their server crashed. Hopefully they'll delay the start of the show until 8 PM and give refunds.
ReplyDeleteJust started for me, 6 man tag is on. I'm not happy, but if this is the last of the technical f-ups and the show is good, I'll probably be able to get over it.
ReplyDeleteStill not working for me. I just sent an email to their support desk explaining the situation and expecting a full refund if it continues.
ReplyDeleteMe neither. This is poor work on Sinclair's part.
ReplyDeleteI know for a fact this is the last time I ever purchase an iPPV from the company.
ReplyDeleteI just don't understand how they can mess things up this badly two times in a row. I've ordered every iPPV they've done, and only one has ever had ANY hiccup at all, and it was a minor one, and now these last 2 are just abominable.
ReplyDeleteI keep refreshing and I'm now getting a page with a little logo that looks like a blue slime from Dragon Quest and a company name of "Cocomore Dupal." The page says "Site off-line" and then goes on to explain the website is currently off-line.
ReplyDeleteI'm truly sorry for anyone that bought tonight's PPV based on my enthusiasm. I had this hope tonight was going to expose people to a different world of wrestling and be enjoyable for everyone. This sucks.
Does anyone have an illegal stream up so we can actually watch the show we paid for? ^_^
ReplyDeleteNot your fault at all man. I think I'll use my refund to go towards Over the Limit. Might as well reward WWE for giving us a Punk/Bryan PPV WWE title match.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know I'll at least be able to SEE THE SHOW.
Are you really that positive you'll GET a refund? No one got one for Showdown in the Sun, to my knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThey fucking better offer one. Or at least trade it in for a DVD or something.
ReplyDeleteAt this rate, the show is going to be shorter than Bryan Danielson!
ReplyDeleteYes, I had to go there. ;-)
I had one of the four Smackdown Live Thread comments!
ReplyDeleteThe rumor was in March that the Showdown in the Sun shows would be his last, but then he had a random match with Kyle O'Reilly in Ohio. I think he's just going to work select dates, but he's still listed on the roster page.
ReplyDeleteAnyone ever wonder why I recap the ROH TV show and not the iPPVs?
ReplyDeleteShit like this is why. Maybe I'll pirate it tomorrow. One step forward two steps back with this company.
If you did actually buy it, they should have the replay up on demand by tomorrow morning. GFL always did. No need to pirate in that case.
ReplyDeleteEmphasis on SHOULD though.
They won't offer you a refund, they'll offer a replay the next day as "refund", I know a lot of fans that are fed up as of right now and rightfully so.
ReplyDeleteNew game for anyone who actually wants to watch some wrestling, since ROH screwed the pooch. Let's have a YouTube postoff of good indie matches that people may not have seen. I'll start us off with a rarity: American Wolves vs. Motor City Machine Guns, from my local faves 2CW:
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/cfCiwXKx-U8
To everyone who ordered the show, you kind of asked for it, you know ROH isn't the best when it comes to IPPVs, the last one should of been an indication of that. Not to mention the friggin Punk/Danielson test stream was failing too.
ReplyDeleteThat's fair enough I guess. Still never getting another iPPV from them again but might get the random DVD here and there.
ReplyDeleteI didn't order it anyway, I just got home & will be busy chasing a toddler around for the next half hour or so.
ReplyDeleteWell that was through GFL, people hoped things would be different for this one because they went in-house. At this point they should just forget trying to air them live and just air them the night after they happen. There will be live reports and spoilers up then, assumably, but that can help in ROH's case because if a match is really good, like Richards/Elgin, they can get word of mouth going early.
ReplyDeleteThis might not be "indie", but it's relevant to what's going on in wrestling these days. Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace vs. "Big" Van Vader & Stan Hansen.
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/SlN2oJwxXYk
I agree, I'm not that huge of a ROH watcher but from observing it seems like they did get more conversation going with their "Shows released to DVD" than an IPPV.
ReplyDeleteIt's not really fair enough though, since on demand replays for a year were promised as a bonus for purchasing anyway.
ReplyDeleteFor indie, I'll go for my own home promotion, CLASH Wrestling. The H3RD vs. Too Sweet vs. The Painkillers. CLASH is Michigan's version of CHIKARA, and is a "sister" promotion for CHIKARA.
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/J4hz9Md8lK8
I think I'll stick with DGUSA/EVOLVE for now. I want to get collect most of the 2010 shows with Jon Moxley anyway.
ReplyDeleteCZW is also running an iPPV tonight, I wonder if there's is running smoothly. That'd be kind of a kick in the face to ROH.
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm a big CLASH Wrestling fan too. Awesome shows for a local indie. Gavin Quinn is legit.
ReplyDeleteTheir show is running perfectly. So... yeah, kick to the face.
ReplyDeleteCZW and EVOLVE. This has to be Cary's worst nightmare.
ReplyDelete"Dear ROH fans, We deeply apologize again for issues with our website. Unfortunately in trying to bring our fans the best experience through our website, with a single login and ringside discounts, there are still some kinks to work out. All of our pre-tests were successful as of 5pm today and we were blindsided by these problems... Please bear with us as we try to get it up as soon as possible. The production is going well and the replay will also be available as soon as we can get it up. For all those that purchased the PPV, we WILL resolve ALL concerns and issues."
ReplyDeleteThis one will be pretty hard to come back from. I get this feeling like either EVOLVE/DGUSA or Chikara might start crowding in on ROH's spot for top indie. All it would take is for a few bigger stars to make the jump and ROH's number might be up.
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is that ROH isn't even REALLY an indie anymore. They've got a company with money behind them.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet still this.
Exactly. ROH no longer has the same problems as say Chikara in that the booker also has to figure out how to pay everyone, pay the bills, make sure the equipment is working, and organize whomever's collecting the tickets.
ReplyDeleteI kinda feel like DGUSA/EVOLVE is moving into the top spot by default. They seem to be getting most of the hot new prospects while ROH is making due with cast offs and people who are loyal for loyalty's sake.
I can't believe they could mess this up so spectacularly. I mean, they're a freaking broadcasting company.
How about an old one, El Generico and Colt Cabana against the Kings of Wrestling from ROH TV.
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/9l2FkqMmlFA
Yknow you're actually right, ROH is owned by a publicly traded company. They should just stop the iPPVs and build to one or two big syndicated Clash of the Champions style shows on Sinclair stations on Saturday late nights.
ReplyDeleteNot really relevent to what's going on right now but just something that's been bothering me; How the hell did ROH miss out on Jon Moxley? I know he was with DGUSA and EVOLVE for all of 2010 but he could have been such an asset to the company in 2008 and 2009.
ReplyDeleteI was enthusiastic clicking into this thread with so many rants. Then I read what all the posts were about. That's unfortunate.
ReplyDeleteNew Apology post:
ReplyDelete"Dear
Fans, Again we are extremely frustrated by the ippv result tonight and
offer our deepest apologies. Since Showdown in the Sun, we have been
working endlessly to provide an optimal ppv experience which we believe
we have achieved.. For our website, we increased our server memory x3
and doubled its processing power. Still, it seems that our architecture
could not handle the excessive user logins and we are left with a great
stream that our fans can not see. If a refund is demanded, it WILL be
given. Otherwise we would like to offer full retention of the replay for
Border Wars as well as FREE access to the Best in the World PPV on June
24th for anyone who ordered Border Wars tonight. This will also include
retention of the Best in the World PPV in your myPPV accounts. We WILL
get this right no matter what it takes in time for Best in the World."
You know, while the free show seems like a good deal it means potentially having to go through this shit again. And seriously, if the same issues happen at BitW that happened tonight ROH needs to give up on iPPV.
ReplyDeleteIt's finally working for me now, and I have to admit, the video quality is much improved from the GoFightLive shows.
ReplyDeleteNot working for me. The site is up, but I get a "Page Not Found" when I click on "Watch Now."
ReplyDeleteWorking for me now too. Now that I can at least watch the main event live I'll take their free BitW 2012 offer. Probably less of a headache than getting a refund.
ReplyDeleteI'm now getting it with no sound. Argh.
ReplyDeleteThe iOS feed has no sound. I'm now watching it on my laptop old school style with sound.
ReplyDeleteIt's cool they're going to give us BitW for free. I'm cool with that.
ReplyDeleteLet's make the best of the night and have a live discussion anyway!
ReplyDelete#DemBoys! This should be a war!
Heh, I'm gonna miss the next iPPV because I plan on being at a Chikara show. How telling.
ReplyDeleteThat table spot was sick.
ReplyDelete#ManUp
That was a weak way to end a fight without honor, but inventive. It's definitely going to make WGTT much bigger heels.
ReplyDeleteIn case anyone's reading, WGTT used a rag sprayed with ether or something to make Mark pass out.
Kevin Steen was right, this IS Ring of Smokey Mountain!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy how Kevin Kelly just said, "This is how the titles are going to change hands...this sucks."
ReplyDeleteHell yes! Main event time!
ReplyDelete#KillSteenKill
Good catch! I'm not very up on SMW, but that does sound like the old school sort of thing they'd do.
ReplyDeleteSpoiler alert: anybody looking to catch up on the results leading up to the tag title match can go here: http://www.prowrestling.net/artman/publish/ROHPPVreports/article10025103.shtml
ReplyDeleteThis crowd is awesome. Totally fired up for Steen.
ReplyDeleteYES! New world champ!!
ReplyDeleteMain event was a little underwhelming (for what promise it had) IMO. Just ***1/4.
ReplyDeleteBut I am glad they pulled the trigger.
Wow, they really pulled the trigger on Steen.
ReplyDeleteI bet that crowd went batshit fucking crazy
ReplyDeletePersonally I would have had Cornette turn fully heel along with Davey and screw Steen out of the title and wait till Final Battle for the title switch but I realize that ROH fans have been burned out by that type of angle.
ReplyDeleteSomehow my feed started working 5 minutes into the show. The picture quality was excellent, but they need to turn down the volume on the announcers. Other than that this was a great show.
ReplyDeleteI was 1,000-003.
ReplyDeleteWho landed on 1,000,000?
Just returned from attending this show, completely oblivious to all the catastrophic problems the iPPV was having. I had thought ROH hit a home run tonight, so was completely disheartened to read that anyone who tried to order this show couldn't even watch it.
ReplyDeleteIt is well worth checking out if you actually get a chance to see it anywhere and haven't chosen to boycott the company forever. The crowd heat for the main event was insane and it certainly felt like a ***** match live, though who knows if that rating will hold up when I watch it a second time. Everything else on the card was very good-to-decent, and the only match that came off kinda flat was Finlay-Strong.
Another major highlight of the night: when Jimmy Korderas came out as the surprise ref for the Storm-Bennett match and got a standing ovation and "Thank you, Jimmy" chant. The guy is as beloved in Canada as much Earl Hebner is hated.
Yeah, that's weird, I got mine going pretty early as well, missing only Rhino-Edwards. I was trying to refresh constantly so about trying during the exact second in which the system wasn't being 3 Stooged. The picture quality was vastly improved from GFL and while the sound was slightly awkward, at least it was in sync.
ReplyDeleteHow much of Chikara is shit like the grenade spot? You're the second person I respect, Ryan, who has spoken highly of them. Is it more comedy based?
ReplyDeleteI don't think every match is just a full on comedy fest but a lot of the gimmicks are those weirdo gimmicks like The Colony or Osirian Portal. Still most of their guys can wrestle, if you don't mind indie spot type wrestling, which I enjoy. I'm not a die hard Chikara fan but they're gonna be in Syracuse next month, so I'm gonna check them out.
ReplyDeleteThey need to come to Atlanta so I can see them live.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know how long the replay of this will last on the website for those who ordered it?
ReplyDeleteCoughStrongSucksCough
ReplyDelete