ROH on HDNet – Episode 031 – 26th October 2009
Last week on HDNet the ANX took a step into the big boy leagues when they seriously injured Jerry Lynn, dropping him on his neck with a sick new Spike Piledriver variant. This week should feature all the fallout. Other than that, I’m not sure what’s on tap for this hour of Ring Of Honor wrestling. Lets join Dave Prazak and Mike Hogewood in Philadelphia, PA.
SIDENOTE – This looks to be the first show from a fresh set of tapings. ROH on HDNet now has a much bigger and more impressive entrance ramp featuring multiple screens and lights.
Austin Aries and Kenny King come straight to the ring to get things going. Having beaten Bryan Danielson, he reiterates his claim to be the Greatest Man That Ever Lived. Kenny King shows surprising charisma in the face of a hostile crowd to bask in his forcible retirement of Jerry Lynn. Tyler Black interrupts them to conduct his own ‘Lucky Lottery’ – with a load of names in the hat for who wants to beat up Kenny King for what he did to Jerry. Eddie Kingston wins the lottery…
Sonjay Dutt vs Delirious vs Joey Ryan vs Necro Butcher
It’s a pretty heated line-up for this one. Dutt and Delirious have had a series of matches recently, with Delirious extremely unhappy with Sonjay’s creepy and unpleasant treatment of Daizee Haze. Meanwhile Necro has had serious problems with The Embassy, of which Joey Ryan is a paid up member. Lots of axes to grind here then…
Joey tries to attack Necro, but his punches have no effect so he turns tail and flees rapidly. They fight on the floor leaving Sonjay and Delirious to renew acquaintances inside. Prince Nana helps Dutt for no real reason. Delirious climbs the ropes…SUICIDE FLIP TO THE FLOOR! Awful landing there as he basically skipped over Ryan and flattened Sonjay. But it’s those two who combine to grab Necro, and DUTT SLINGSHOTS INTO A SUNSET FLIP BOMB TO THE OUTSIDE! With Butcher nullified, Sonjay and Joey start teaming up to assault Delirious. Eventually Necro saves with big punches, then gets 2 on Ryan with the Tiger Driver. Slingshot leg drop in the ropes by Dutt, who goes upstairs only to dive into Butcher’s knees. Panic Attack from Delirious as Necro dives into a cannonball senton to wipe out Ryan. Shadows Over Hell sees Delirious pin Dutt at 06:28
Rating - ** - A little rushed and cluttered as you might expect, but for as many faults as this match had, there were reasons to praise it too. Genuine moments of excitement, feuds extended effectively etc – this did what it set out to do. Totally forgettable though
Skullkrusher Rasche Brown is coming to HDNet. His crazy Ted DiBiase laugh is awesome
In the sh*tpit, Eddie Kingston tells Kyle Durden that, whilst he’s pleased to be in the main event tonight, he’s still waiting to get his hands on Chris Hero. Kenny King is going to be another guy who he beats up to send a message to Hero.
BRYAN DANIELSON’S TOP 5 ROH MOMENTS – As we progress down Dragon’s HDNet Final Countdown Tour this should be a regular feature. #5 is his Testing The Limit match with Aries.
D-Lo Brown vs Brent Albright
As much as it looks like D-Lo has been removed from the DVD tapings, as I said before, he is of genuine use to Ring Of Honor as a recognisable name for the TV show. I’m glad they’ve kept him around for that purpose – although I can’t say that I have any major interest in seeing this one.
For some reason both D-Lo and Hog get to shill their Twitter accounts as a lead in for this match. Albright is angry about a lack of Twitter love so tries a flurry of pinfalls to grab an early win. Brown tries to leave…and gets DESTROYED against the guardrails. But he gets caught up posing with some British fans, allowing D-Lo to recover and drive him into the railings too. Brent comes back swinging, so D-Lo goes to the eyes. Climbing Wizard leaves Albright slumped in the corner and in genuine trouble. But Brown makes a mistake, throwing Albright to the floor and MISSING an apron dive after him. EXPLODER ON THE FLOOR by Albright. TOPE SUICIDA FOLLOWS! Not to be outdone, D-Lo climbs for a FATTY PLANCHA OFF THE TOP ROPE! Big Lariat countered to the Alb-Rock Bottom to leave both men down. MOONSAULT out of nowhere by D-Lo gets 2, so Albright drops him again with a DDT. LARIATOOOOO flips Albright, followed by a NEEDLESS POINTING POWERBOMB! CROWBAR BY ALBRIGHT! Brown taps at 09:22
Rating - *** - Not for the first time in 2009, consider my socks totally blown off by an impossibly good big man battle that I just never saw coming. These guys just unloaded on each other, and put on one of my favourite HDNet undercard bouts to date. If they were allowed to work this style, or could replicate this quality of match on a regular basis in the WWE, there’s no way Vince would have been so ready to release either one of these two. So much fun…
Kyle Durden interviews Colt Cabana, who gets to main event next week’s episode when he faces Nigel McGuinness. He’s goofy and excited.
Kenny King vs Eddie Kingston
This match comes out as a result of the first ever ‘TB’s L-Double’ as Dave Prazak called it – with Tyler Black putting all the guys who wanted to hurt Kenny for what he and Rhett Titus did to Jerry Lynn into a hat and drawing one at random for the main event tonight. Not sure who gave Black booking powers but this should be fun with King’s flashy moves and arrogant persona making a unique foil for the workmanlike, dogged aggression of the Last Of A Dying Breed.
King is understandably reticent to get involved with Eddie straight away. Finally Kingston does get his hands on him, delivering some vicious throws into the guardrails. Chops from Eddie, connecting with such devastating force that King drops to his knees. Kenny topples Kingston to the floor then starts ramming his head against those same guardrails again. He shows awesome power to deliver a top notch spinebuster moments later. Kingston lands a big urinage suplex and we now have both men reeling. Kenny hides behind the referee as Kingston thinks about the Back Fist, then pops up to hit the Royal Flush. Capoeira kick, then the hurdle guillotine…only for King to springboard straight into an exploder suplex. Back Drop Driver lays King out…but Chris Hero is on the apron. SHOTGUN KNEES! CORONATION! Kenny King wins at 11:02, and Hero gets some retribution for the KENTA match
Rating - ** - As main events go it wasn’t the worst, but I just thought it was totally devoid of any excitement or fun. I liked Kenny King’s selling of the back, that really helped make the match believable, but sadly much of it never left second gear. I like both guys so it makes me a little sad that this was one of the weaker HDNet main events.
Tape Rating - ** - Weakest show for some time. The opening promo segment was awkward, with Tyler suffering mic problems which made it seem even more amateurish. The main event was also really average which was a major disappointment. Focusing on the positives, Albright/D-Lo was ridiculously good for what it was, and this episode marked a major coming out party for Kenny King. By being the guys who wrote Jerry Lynn out of ROH for the time being, the ANX stopped being the goofy undercard pet project for Austin Aries and became a legitimised force to be reckoned with. Following that up with some strong promo work and a big main event win makes Kenny seem like a real player. There was also lots of set up for forthcoming episodes with the Rasche Brown promo, and main events for Episode 032 (Cabana vs McGuinness) and 033 (Wolves vs Dragon/Strong) announced.