Attendance has been down a bit at South Broadway after shows earlier in the year when it was practically standing room only. I'm sure different people have different theories about that...
Nothing really announced ahead of time...Gary Jackson vs. Brandon Espinosa was hinted after the outcome of the Lemay show, but Espy kept it vague by saying he may not cash in his title shot just yet. He even hinted at a "vacation" after having four matches at that event(though technically one was a non-match/forfeit/countout). That was the handwaved explanation for why the match didn't take place.
Some face/heel balance could be necessary...Dave Vaughn went heel for his match with LMC though he didn't CHEAT per se(attacked before the bell and again after the match). The Junior Heavyweight Title match was face-vs.-face(though Hawkins teased heelishness).
Texan vs. Chase King was more competitive than I would have expected.
Don't know the exact talent roster that was available for the show, but Jimmy D ended up wrestling twice. He hadn't been around in months, came back in a loss to Stacey O'Brien in Lemay, and somehow got both a Tag Title shot AND a Heavyweight Title shot on the following show.
Speaking of which, Ben Simon clarified Jimmy D's situation..."Waco" had been unmasked as Jimmy D during the Tag Title match in Lemay but I didn't see exactly how it happened. It turned out that "Waco" had attacked Texan at ringside and Texan pulled the mask off in the chaos. It makes SOME sense as Jimmy D had been teaming with Tony Raze earlier in the year...so I guess we have a feud between Texan/Waco and Raze/D. Who do the fans support in THAT issue?
Hated the finish to the Junior Heavyweight Title match, but it does position Ace as a contender to the title. Courageous appeared to still be favoring his knee after tweaking it last week at the Lemay show.
Espy was in a tough spot as he was booked against another heel(Max Archer) so he had to play the face for the night(even cutting a promo in that regard before the match)...THEN be a heel with Gary later in the night.
Cruz-Osborne was good...Osborne has been solid considering he's still in his rookie year.
Wait, the Heavyweight Title match was on last? Was this really a Broadway show? :)
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Onward to ROH...had to pass on the after-party, I'm a bit paranoid about my spending these days and it would have been another ten bucks(even though it included food). Did touch base with a few people I hadn't seen in a long time which is always cool.
Delirious was pulled from his match due to a stated "conflict of interest". It seems odd to have that blur of kayfabe and reality as he IS the co-bookerman behind the scenes, but I don't see why that would have been an issue. He did make an appearance to run off the Embassy after an interference spot.
On that note, it seems like most of the heel actions in ROH are done by the managers rather than the wrestlers themselves...is it a coincidence that I've been liking the managers' personalities more than the wrestlers' as of late? A lot of the newer prospects seem a bit generic to me(Mike Bennett, Tommaso Ciampa) but I like the managers(Brutal Bob, Prince Nana, Truth Martini, Robert Evans). S. William Regal would describe Robert Evans as having one of those faces that one would never get tired of punching. :)
Only now realizing that ROH has both a Bob Evans and a Robert Evans on their roster as managers. MARKET CONFUSION~!
A lot of the matches didn't seem to have much suspense, though they threw in a few spots where an upset could have plausibly happened(like Truth's interference nearly backfiring on Michael Elgin).
Someone had to point out Maria's presence to me...she lives in Chicago, if I'm not mistaken. I believe she knows at least one of the ROH wrestlers so she checks out the shows on occasion. She was in and out of the backstage area and watched a few of the matches.
I mentioned face/face and heel/heel matches at Broadway but there were several at ROH as well. Was pleasantly surprised by the good fan reaction for the main event as it WAS faces-vs.-faces...at past shows, the fans were a bit burned out by the end, but they were still energetic for that one. Good move for the rising tag team to defeat the former Tag Champs who seem to be headed for a split. Tough question of who would take the fall: The next challenger to the Heavyweight Champion or the champion himself. That would have opened up a whole other can of worms as Kenny King or Rhett Titus would have to be considered a potential challenger! King pinning Edwards is still pretty huge for him, given Eddie's recent run of success.
Not quite sure what happened with Shelton Benjamin during the double-powerbomb but he stayed down for a bit after that...hope he's okay. Fine matchup, though I didn't see Future Shock as having that much of a chance since Shelton/Charlie Haas vs. Briscoes had already been set up for Final Battle.
A bit surprised by Bennett losing to El Generico, especially since they seem to be pushing him toward Jay Lethal's T.V. Title.
The Briscoes still get fairly positive reactions despite being heels, which was unfortunate for T.J. Perkins as he was essentially an unknown against the more established Jay Briscoe. Lethal was a solid face against Mark, at any rate.
MsChif was a nice surprise. Hadn't seen much of Mia Yim in the ring before; don't know if I have a clear opinion on her work at this point.
Had trouble telling the Bravados apart, though one got a haircut recently. The "thumb-in-the-bum" spot is scarily over and Jacobs & Corino did it during stereo abdominal stretches. Jacobs busted out the CONTRA CODE~! Corino got an ECW chant as he was one of the final champions of the original promotion.
Fun weekend...next week is MECW in Wood River with the Ironman Match plus SICW in East Carondelet. For those craving more of a comedic vibe, The Iron Sheik is doing a comedy show in town that night...much humbling will occur, I suspect.
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