Please leave any feedback, comments or questions for this Friday’s show.
ROH Global Wars '14 Saturday, May 10th, 2014 Toronto, Ontario at the Ted Reeve Arena
*Adam Cole vs. Kevin Steen for the ROH title
*AJ Styles & Karl Anderson vs. Kazuchika Okada & Gedo
*Shinsuke Nakamura & Jado vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jushin Thunder Liger
*The Young Bucks vs. Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov vs. Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA for the IWGP junior heavyweight tag titles
*Roderick Strong vs. Cedric Alexander
*reDRagon vs. The Briscoe Brothers vs. Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer
*Takaaki Watanabe vs. Michael Elgin
*Mike Bennett vs. ACH
I spent last Sunday afternoon watching this. It is my first RoH show and I am genuinely surprised by the roaster. I knew that WWE cherry-picked from the RoH roster but I wasn’t expecting to see a reflection of today’s WWE roster.
I’ve been going to the infamous, incomparable Ted Reeve Arena since Border Wars in 2012. This was the biggest show to date being the first tour with New Japan talent. It felt more special than the current tours with only two shows: this Toronto one and New York. I remember at the time I thought we got the short end of the stick in Canada with only NJPW vs NJPW aND ROH vs ROH, while New York had matches fused between groups.
In hindsight, we got a great show! Since the guys were working their own guys there were clean finishes and a lot of pressure to shine. Adam Cole was coming into his own in the main event. Roddy vs Cedric was my match of the night and this was the first match that made me really notice Cedric Alexander. Tanahashi was the most over guy on the show in my opinion.
On a personal note, I met and took pictures with AJ Styles, Okada, Tanahashi, and Nakamura. I’m glad I did as for half this opportunity doesn’t exist. All were extremely nice, especially Nakamura who let me hold his IWGP IC title.
Tanahashi was hanging out by the tables watching the show later in the night. It was really a cool experience seeing these guys as stars but also interacting with them as nice people. It’s not surprising in today’s climate why ALL IN was such a success. The old school way is the wrestlers are stars above the fray. But today’s indy guys have a more personal relationship with their fans. You monetize your fan base if you like them. You don’t have to be in awe of the young bucks or pass out if you’re in Codys presence. You want to support them because they work hard and they are nice.
I felt that from talent in 2014 and continue to feel that from ROH in general. Their announcers, camera people, executives etc have come up my to my friends and I after shows to ask us if we had a good time and to thank us for attending.
I regret not following at this period as i was only aware of what was going on in ROH whenever it was discussed on Bauer & Pollock. being tongue in cheek, The week of this show also was the start of the build towards Grapple Kingdom between Wai and Court Bauer. the payoff happening 11 months later in San Jose. great long term booking you guys. all jokes aside, it’s crazy to think how 10 guys from this card are either on the main roster or NXT. It shows how well ROH has adjusted and introduced a lot of young talent to fill the holes.
two questions
do you guys know why Kevin Steen was phased to the midcard after being the top star from 2010-2012?
what do you guys think is the reason that Jersey All Pro and TNA weren’t able to find success with having a partnership with New Japan like ROH has been able to do for the last 4 years?
I bought Honor Club for Supercard of Honor since it was the only way to watch it that night, however upon trying to play it, I spent 2+ hours trying to watch as the feed would buffer every 4 seconds. They refused a refund when I inquired, so I’m really happy to have gotten some use out of my sub for this event.
Loved that Cedric Alexander and Rodrick Strong had a match over the fact that Cedric was using a backbreaker. My friends and I have joked a few times about how many wrestlers are now using a variation of the same move, so nice to see it was already addressed years ago. Corino had the line of the night with ‘he reminds me of a young me… you know, former Korean heavyweight champion, Young Mi?’
Really liked the whole event, didn’t think there was a bad match on the card. Loved the main event, and at just under 3 hours, this was a very reasonable RoH event. 8/10
Great choice @Brad_The_Archivist !!
I sometimes wonder whether casual fans who enjoy AJ and KO today would enjoy this era of their work. For me, it is fascinating to see how hard they worked these matches and the style we see them work today. It makes me realize NXT is a perfect medium and no surprise so many on this card have done great there.
Honor Club experience/review: I support wrestling products that I am thankful for their existence. When ROH announced this subscription service I went “All In” and purchased the VIP level. I figured between Super Card and catching a few other live shows on nights with nothing on it’d be well worth the value. Then the Super Card debacle happened. Since, I’ve caught the War of the World shows OnDemand and haven’t gone to far into the catalogue other than this rewind. Whether they improve it as they should or it just exists, I’ll support it because do r the ability to watch all of pay per views and tour shows, it’s worth it. Those are much easier to locate.
I went to this show as a 14 year old at the time and really had no clue who most of these guys were as I didn’t follow non WWE that much, I do remember being a big AJ styles fan from his time in TNA, however, overall I really enjoyed the show live and have very fond memories of it despite never watching back on tv. Great choice for a review
When the announcement was made that ROH and New Japan where forming a partnership and one of the 1st show would be in Toronto i was excited! I recently got into New Japan at the time and being able to see and meet the top guys would be awesome
Besides spending alot of money on autographs because i thought an ROH/New Japan show would be a one time thing (luckily it isn’t) the MOTN was the IWGP Jr. Tag Title 3 way. Kevin Steen vs. Adam Cole was fantastic as well.