ROH Reclamation: Night 1 Review

Things heat up in Milwaukee as Davey Richards and Bobby Fish clash for the first time ever!

I should mention that the DVD includes a Pre-Show Q & A Session with ROH Matchmaker Nigel McGuinness. The one notable occurrence is that Jimmy Jacobs showed up and asked for his job back.

ROH Reclamation: Night 1

Milwaukee, Wisconsin 7/12/13

Pre-Show

1.) Cheeseburger & Benjamin Boone vs. The Beer City Bruisers (Matt Winchester & Nick Colluci): *1/2

This was a fun little pre-show match. Cheeseburger, as you would expect, was the most over person in here. Pretty much a Cheeseburger showcase.

Main Show

1.) Mike Sydal & Zizou Middoux vs. Adrenaline Rush: **1/2

This was.....ok. I don't know. I was kind of expecting a little bit more from this. Their was not as much high-flying as much as you would think there would be, especially given the teams involved. Apparently Middoux is Justin Gabriel's Brother which is kind of cool. ACH & TD would get the win in the end, and I think the #PartyBoyz blew off the post-match handshake.

2.) Athena vs. MsChif: **1/2

A fairly solid women's match. Athena and MisChif are two of the better women ROH utilizes and they put on a good performance here. Athena would pick up the win with the O-Face, which is an awesome finisher. 

After the match, instead of shaking Athena's hand, MsChif spits the green mist in her face!

3.) Michael Bennett (with Maria Kanellis) vs. BJ Whitmer: **1/2

This is a rematch from Best in the World. I honestly think it was a slight step down from their first match. Just didn't do it for me, for some reason. Whitmer has Bennett beat but Maria distracts the referee, which allows Bennett to take advantage and get the win.

4.) Kyle O'Reilly vs. Eddie Edwards: ****

It isn't the first these two have faced each other one-on-one in ROH, but it's been awhile. This was a pretty great match. Edwards was great as usual but O'Reilly has really come a long way in relatively short amount of time. Excellent contest and a good way to further the reDRagon/American Wolves feud.

5.) Rhino vs. "The Sicilian Psychopath" Tommaso Ciampa: ***

While it wasn't overly great, I thought this was very solid. Ciampa needs more victories, and a win over someone like Rhino really helps him out. I really liked the finish where Ciampa countered the Gore with a Knockout-Knee to the face!! Brutal.

6.) Silas Young vs. Kevin Steen: ***

Another solid match. I wasn't sure how this would turn out, but they worked pretty well together. Wouldn't mind seeing these two have another match down the road.

7.) Four Corner Survival - ROH World TV Champion Matt Taven (with Truth Martini) vs. Jay Lethal vs. Adam Cole vs. "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin: ****

This is an interesting match. Nothing really on the line, just four of ROH's top stars duking it out. I gotta say this was really entertaining. Everyone got the chance to do their stuff, and Lethal & Elgin looked especially strong. I should note that Elgin was wearing regular wrestling trucks here, which makes look even bigger than he already is. The interference of Truth Martini & the Hoopla Hotties did affect the match for me, but not that much. Elgin would end up getting the win by pinning Adam Cole, who does not shake hands after the match.

8.) Bobby Fish vs. Davey Richards: ****1/4

I really enjoyed this match. My rating might be a bit higher than some other reviews you'll see, but I think all the personal animosity that had been building up for months between Fish & Richards really made this feel like a true grudge match. The finish was kind of flat but I think the rest of the match made up for it.

Overall: 8.0/10

So what you're pretty much getting with this show is three really good matches and an undercard that was pretty average. Although that's not to say their was anything bad on the undercard. You had some ok to solid to good matches, but nothing that really stood out. O'Reilly/Edwards, the Four-Corner Survival, and Fish/Richards are all really good to great matches. Plus once again, the Milwaukee crowd was rockin' and proved why they've become one of the best crowds in ROH. The only other thing I have to say is that on commentary Nigel McGuinness & Kevin Kelly kept saying that now that the war with S.C.U.M. was other, ROH had to go through a "re-education" process and work towards "restoring honor", yet on this show we had people denying the post match handshake, interfering in matches, and even MsChif spitting the green mist in Athena's face. Not exactly what I'd call honorable, but still, this show is a pretty good one.