From a live perspective, I thought
Manhattan Mayhem VI was a pretty entertaining show, for the most part. It was soooo good to be back in the Hammerstein Ballroom. I didn't mind Terminal 5 (granted, I was only there once and I had a really good seat), but the Hammerstein Ballroom is such an awesome venue for wrestling. This was actually the first time I've been at a regular ROH show, that wasn't a
War Of The Worlds joint event with New Japan since the
10th Anniversary Show (which was the first ROH show I saw live). In hindsight, this was actually a pretty big show, with the main card, the Women of Honor match, and the two Top Prospect Tournament Matches that were taped for TV. Twelve matches in total.
Getting to see Will Ospreay, Marty Scurll, & Dragon Lee live for the first time was so cool. I know people are down on ROH right now, but there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to see those guys live. Dragon Lee vs. Will Ospreay was easily the best match on the show, and is definitely worth the VOD purchase. The Young Bucks vs. Lio Rush & Jay White was also pretty great. It's amazing to see how over The Young Bucks are in person. They were so popular with that crowd that Rush & White were actively getting booed at points. Marty Scurll vs. Sonjay Dutt was also pretty good. Dutt isn't exactly the most exciting guy in the world (on paper), but he had a strong outing here. Scurll was, of course, awesome.
The Hardys showing up, and then The Young Bucks subsequently accepting their challenge, was probably the loudest reaction I've ever heard out of all the ROH shows I've seen live. It was insane. We'll have to wait & see when it drops, but I don't think the VOD will do that pop justice. It's amazing to see how over Matt Hardy is right now, especially considering that he was LOATHED during his 2012-2014 run with ROH. Seeing them win the titles was an incredible moment. As far as Bully Ray goes, I'm still not sure what to make of it. He was presented as an uber-babyface here, but it seems like he's much better served as a heel. I guess he feuds with The Bullet Club? Honestly, I don't know. What I will say, however, is that the appearances made by The Hardys & Bully Ray totally worked in this setting.
Manhattan Mayhem is a show that is notorious in ROH lore for having surprises, so in that regard, this show certainly continued that tradition.
The rest of the show was a mixed bag. The Kingdom confronted Daniels at the start of the show, and it looked like we were going to get Daniels vs. Taven, but TK O'Ryan jumped in and took the match instead. It honestly wasn't much, as it went about five minutes or so, and felt very much like a house show match. Dalton Castle vs. Colt Cabana was pretty solid. The Boys took a pretty nasty bump right at the end of the match. The second half of the show was just....there. The Battle Royal was fine for what it was, and the six-man tag was decent (but not that interesting). I actually enjoyed the main event. The first half wasn't that interesting, but things definitely picked up a bit in the second half. It seemed like the show peaked with The Hardys winning the ROH World Tag Team Titles, but it never came back up. In hindsight, they probably should've put everything on the second half in the first half, and moved Scurll/Dutt, Ospreay/Dragon Lee, The Young Bucks/Rush & White, and The Young Bucks/Hardys to the second half.
ODonnell wrote:Bully Ray, Broken Matt and Jeff will all be on Busted Open today discussing the ROH show and PPV this Friday for anyone who cares
Did anything noteworthy come from these interviews?
rovert wrote:
So has anyone watched the TV lately? How is the TPT?
Haven't seen the first round matches yet, but I can talk about the Semi-Finals, which they taped on Saturday. Brian Milonas vs. Josh Woods was ok. Neither guy really stood out that much, though I could see ROH getting behind Josh Woods. I was actually surprised that we got John Skyler vs. Curt Stallion here, since I'm sure many figured that would be the Finals. It was actually a pretty good match. Looking at the card as a whole, I thought it was the 5th best match on the show (that might vary for some once people see the VOD, defending on what you thought of Cole vs. Fish and The Young Bucks vs. The Hardys). It wasn't a spectacular match by any means, but it's definitely worth checking out whenever it pops up on TV.
