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ROH in 2021 Thread: Now Moderately Less Problematic!

King Kamala

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Watched the last show of 2020 yesterday. It's usually one of my favorite shows of the year...the Christmas 10 Man Tag. This year was sullied by the presence of Brian Johnson on commentary. I know his gimmick is explicitly so people in ROH creative can say "Well, he's supposed to be an annoying af heel, you mark!" but he is just genuinely annoying with just burying the entire match. Which I guess creative thought was a good idea since it's a goofy Christmas 10 man tag and this is a SERIOUS wrestling promotion but some of us like goofy Christmas 10 man tags! And I thought he was only there to get beat up by everyone in the 10 man tag at the end but that didn't happen! WTH?

Also it's mildly amusing to see ROH totally ripoff New Japan by turning their Dojo into a copy of New Japan's. It's honestly not the worst idea and this was an improvement over the previous ROH Dojo matches I've watched. It was just odd since I watched a New Japan Strong directly before it so I was like "Wait. Didn't I just see this?"
 
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King Kamala

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Latest episode of ROH is interesting. It's mini documentary on what happened the weekend of the canceled 18th Anniversary PPV in Vegas at the beginning of the pandemic. Plus some empty arena matches from that weekend that I never knew existed. And a lot of Flip Gordon acting like a jackass.
 

King Kamala

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Bandido Jr & Mark Haskins both resigned with ROH.

Also I've upgraded ROH from slightly less problematic to moderately less problematic with the release of Scurll.
 

Baby Shoes

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Saw a clickbait headline of “What ROH star does JR want in AEW?” Turns out he was praising Maria on his podcast. I’m very disappointed as I was hoping JR was a big Danhausen mark.
 

Valeyard

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Maria's incredible so I agree with him. Bennett wouldn't be out of place, either. Outclassed, yes, but that's his thing.
 

King Kamala

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I'm probably the only one besides whatever member of WWE creative came up with idea that thought the gimmick of Mike Bennett as his wife's ineffectual cuck henchman had potential to be a strong midcard heel gimmick. It could've worked dammit!
 

Valeyard

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I think the guy's entertaining but he's just a step behind in ring to me. He and Maria are a perfect act for AEW and better than ROH deserves anymore.
 

King Kamala

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ROH doesn't even have them together and has miscast them with Mike as an asskicking babyface and Maria as what appears to be a cool babyface authority figure They're natural heels.
 

Baby Shoes

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Part of me thinks that most view those cut by WWE in the pandemic as faces as all but Myers and Young debuted in their new spots in face roles. Even aligned with heels, Miro’s first promo was kinda a babyface promo.

Then again, this is the same company using Matt Taven as a super babyface so...
 

Brocklock

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I'm probably the only one besides whatever member of WWE creative came up with idea that thought the gimmick of Mike Bennett as his wife's ineffectual cuck henchman had potential to be a strong midcard heel gimmick. It could've worked dammit!
It could've worked. Bennett seemed willing to look like a buffoon in the role and it's not like he's this promising young guy that would be held back by the gimmick. Maria has always been the star of the two.
 

King Kamala

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Thinking about it more, being a face is probably best for Bennett for medium term future since it's honestly kind of hard to boo him since he spent last few years battling substance issues then publicly begging for his release from WWE. I'm sure he could pull off being an heel in AEW or Impact but ROH's fanbase at this point (and most points of their existence) is mostly hardcore fans and they aren't going to boo him.
 

Baby Shoes

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A lot of ROH contracts coming up. Dalton Castle is now a free agent. I assume he will be back in ROH as it sounds they gave him a strong offer and I can’t really see him getting a better spot on the card anywhere else at this point.
 

King Kamala

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Yeah, unfortunately I think his bad luck with injuries permanently damaged his stock. It has really been a gradual but sharp turn (if that makes any sense) downhill since his snake bitten ROH World Title run. I feel like Impact might be a good place for him but that is at best a parallel move. I think he is probably stuck as ROH’s comedy midcarder emeritus now.
 

cobainwasmurdered

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It could've worked. Bennett seemed willing to look like a buffoon in the role and it's not like he's this promising young guy that would be held back by the gimmick. Maria has always been the star of the two.

Yeah I thought it could have been really entertaining. Maria was very good at the role and fans were reacting to it at first if you go back and watch. WWE just WWE'd it.
 

King Kamala

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Wrestlers openly shitting on Flip Gordon for being dumb in promos makes me think (hope?) that his days in ROH may be numbered.

Edit---I just looked it up and saw that he signed a multi year deal in May. So his new character is we're supposed to hate him cause he's a fucking idiot?

You know what? May be crazy enough to work tbh.
 

RedJed

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Last few weeks of ROH TV has been pretty damn good stuff. Dragon Lee/Rey Horus and Titus/Flip from last week had great storytelling before and during the matches. They've done a bang up job making a direction out of pre-match vignettes and there was a pretty good post-match deal with Flip Gordon being kicked out of the pure division. This past weekends show was also pretty strong in both matches. They did a pure match with Castle (last ROH match perhaps?) putting over Josh Woods very strong. Also Shane Taylor went over Lethal in a six man main that seemed to solidify him as a future challenger to Rush. I will say this much, the booking has been so much more focused than I expected at this point.
 

King Kamala

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The Beer City Bruiser turned heel and joined Vincent's stable of weirdos.

(wipes away tears with my "I Can't Bite! I Ain't Got Any Teeth!" shirt)
 

Baby Shoes

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I was wondering if something would happen since he seemed to get in better shape during lockdown, IIRC. But what we really need is Brian Milonas getting an even bigger partner.
 

King Kamala

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It's funny Brian Milonas just tweeted a long explanation on his health issues/how much weight he has weight gained so it'd be great if he addressed it by getting an even fatter wrestler to go after Vincent's bands of goons with him.
 

King Kamala

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Yeah, I hope he's able to slim down some. It's dangerous levels of hefty. He was a great locker room ambassador for the New England indy scene for so many years.
 
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