ROH on HDNet – Episode 032 – 2nd November 2009
Things are cooking on HDNet at the moment. The Bryan Danielson farewell circuit is close to completion, with only two remaining pre-taped matches left to air. Tyler Black is still in hot pursuit of Austin Aries, even though his new mentor Jerry Lynn has now been taken out of Ring Of Honor by Aries’ protégés Kenny King and Rhett Titus. And in the Tag division it’s a time of great opportunity as, with Steen and Generico defeated, the rest of the teams in ROH are jostling for position to get the next crack at the American Wolves. There’s no finer example of that than tonight when we’ll see the Young Bucks take on the Briscoe Brothers. Our main event should be good as well - Colt Cabana faces Nigel McGuinness, with speculation now flying that McGuinness is on the way out of ROH too. Lets join Mike Hogewood and Dave Prazak in The Arena.
Young Bucks vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe
We saw these teams do battle twice over the course of the Final Countdown Tour, with the Briscoes pulling out a win in the Dayton leg of the tour before the Bucks evened the score with a huge win at Glory By Honor 8. Despite this match having been taped before either of those two were even contested, it now serves as a rubber match and will be hotly anticipated.
Jay starts with Matt, trading headscissors and armdrags before pausing to receive warm and deserved applause. The Bucks get the advantage over Mark by doing that machine gun tags routine they do in every match. Leapfrog dropkick floors Jay and gets an early 2-count, but the Briscoes are no strangers to double team offence themselves and retaliate with a bulldog/flatliner combo. Neckbreaker to backbreaker combo by the Jacksons put themselves in charge again…but that lasts as long as it takes for Jay to blind tag his way in and deliver a big spinebuster on Matt. Finally the Briscoes enjoy a sustained period of offence – the first for either team in the match – utilising multiple combo moves and double teams on Matt Jackson and drawing multiple nearfalls. No victory is forthcoming though, and eventually Matt hits a neckbreaker then gets the hot tag to Nick. Moonsault off the apron to Mark, followed by a slingshot facebuster back inside which takes Jay down. Mark back in to drop Matt with the urinage. Doomsday Device blocked and the Jacksons set up for More Bang For Your Buck. The Dark City Fight Club run in to attack them and force a no contest at 10:04
Rating - ** - The match itself was ok (good when the Briscoes were in charge, same as every other Young Bucks match when they weren’t), but that finish sucked hard. I thought Pearce had got over his fetish for uninspired, unnecessary run-ins as a way to progress feuds, but clearly this one slipped through the net. Granted the match wasn’t outstanding beforehand, but the DCFC coming out to ruin it doesn’t get them heel heat, it gets them ‘we don’t care about the DCFC, we like the Briscoes and the Bucks a lot more and aren’t interested in seeing the Fight Club involved with the likes of them’ heat. That said, I’d be more concerned with the fact that every Briscoes/Young Bucks match I see is worse than the last. This was as average and unspectacular as it gets…
The Briscoes get into a big fight with DCFC, forcing a gaggle of referees to toddle out and break them up. Davis and Chavis leave having sent a message
BRYAN DANIELSON’S TOP 5 ROH MOMENTS - #4 is the Driven 2007 match with Nigel McGuinness. He says he has special memories of that match.
Kyle Durden, with the worst tie ever, asks the American Wolves about the opportunity to wrestle Bryan Danielson during his Final Countdown Tour. They react badly to talk of Dragon leaving, saying the focus in ROH should be on them anyway
Rhett Titus vs Alex Payne
Battle of the ROH graduates here. Payne will no doubt be looking to beat Rhett up for his part in the assault on Jerry Lynn which sees him out of ROH indefinitely with a neck injury.
Sugarfoot throws toilet paper at Titus rather than shake hands. Rhett tries a Sexy Headlock, but finds it blocked, so he floors Payne with a flying knee instead. Sugarfoot tries a slingshot move only to eat the signature dropkick of Rhettski which puts him on the mat again. Muff Driver countered with a hurricanrana though. It’s Payne’s turn to score a nearfall with a neat snap German suplex. He tries that Diamond Dust move out of the corner only for Titus to grab the trunks and roll him up at 04:07
Rating - * - Titus showed some surprisingly fun spots, whilst Payne continued to be pretty average. It is, however, creditable to both guys that the execution in this was by and large crisp and seamless. After having spent most of last week’s episode building Kenny King up, it’s good to see Titus get a singles victory as well to follow up on their star-making attack on the New F’n Show.
We get some highlights from Glory By Honor 8 next. Thankfully they turn it into a shill for the DVD, which is something ROH on HDNet needs to do more of.
In the parking lot Rasche Brown is still being weird and laughing like a crazy guy. He makes his in-ring debut next week.
Tyler Black updates Kyle Durden on Jerry Lynn’s condition. Nigel McGuinness interrupts to tell Black that it was Jerry Lynn’s fault…and to warn him that the World Title is cursed, and if he persists with his desire to be ROH Champion, all he’ll get is injured.
Grizzly Redwood vs Claudio Castagnoli
The Littlest Lumberjack is another one of the plethora of guys who have issues with The Embassy. He’d like nothing more than to send shockwaves to the very core of Prince Nana’s organisation by upsetting their paid associate Claudio Castagnoli.
Redwood immediately tries to chop Claudio down…but misses, gets distracted by Ernie Osiris then clobbered with the Bicycle Kick. Big military press slam next and it leaves Grizzly down in a heap. UFO delivered with devastating force. POP-UP EUROPEAN! RICCOLA BOMB! It’s over at 02:59
Rating - * - Nothing but a lightning fast squash match. Claudio looked like a monster tossing around little Grizzly though
The Embassy once again try to go after Redwood’s beard, only for Necro Butcher to make the save. Apparently Grizz is campaigning for a Beard vs Beard Match with Ernie Osiris.
Kenny King doesn’t regret what he did to Jerry at all. The former World Champion should have known the risks of setting foot in the ring with him apparently.
Nigel McGuinness vs Colt Cabana
In 2005 these two had a hell of a rivalry, contesting several entertaining and highly original European-inspired mat battles and culminating in the infamous Soccer Riot Match at Night Of The Grudges 2. With rumours swirling that Nigel is on his way out of Ring Of Honor too, what better way to showcase him in ROH than with a match against one of his biggest ROH rivals.
Big ‘Thank You Nigel’ chants, with Prazak nicely keeps in kayfabe by calling it ‘too little, too late’ in convincing him to stay with Ring Of Honor. Lots of British goofiness as you might expect from Cabana, and this time it’s Hog bringing some strong insight as he points out that all those wristlocks and arm submissions Cabana is working will really damage the arms Nigel has struggled with so much this year. Having seen enough, McGuinness throws Colt out of the ring and into the dangerous environment dominated by those sheet metal railings. That inevitably kills Cabana’s momentum and allows Nigel to start working the arm for himself. Fans start chanting ‘Boring’, which noticeably amuses the former World Champion as he goes for That Arm Submission. Cobra Clutch McLariat ducked though, allowing Colt to unleash a volley of elbow strikes. Flying Asshole misses, enabling McGuinness to deliver the kick/chest strike combo out of the corner. Jawbreaker Lariat countered to a folding press for 2. Tower Of London on the apron is blocked…FLYING ASSHOLE OFF THE APRON! MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! Cabana nearly wins it with a Superfly Splash, but can’t seal the deal and soon finds himself on the back foot again after McGuinness scores with the Tower Of London for 2. INVERTED COLT 45 FROM NOTHING! Cabana gets a huge win at 12:05
Rating - *** - Far from a must-see match, indeed, this barely made it into 3* territory. However, if you like some of the fun, intricate European style stuff guys like Cabana, Claudio and Nigel can do then you should like this. It wasn’t as good as some of the better matches they had in 2005, but it was a fun addendum to that famous series, and was a nice, low impact match for Nigel to work on his way out. Good luck to him in TNA but, since he suffered those severe injuries and dropped the belt earlier this year, Nigel just hasn’t looked like the same wrestler at all.
Tape Rating - ** - Really mundane episode unfortunately. Most of it was totally skippable, with the Cabana/Nigel main event, despite being nothing more than a passable match itself, really saving the show from being one of the worst in HDNet history. Briscoes/Bucks was really underwhelming, the squash matches were perfunctory and didn’t do much to hook new viewers in. Ultimately my favourite parts of this episode were the promos from the likes of the Wolves, Kenny King and Bryan Danielson. I suppose it’s my own fault for starting a review with the statement that ‘HDNet is cooking at the moment’. Curse of the commentator perhaps!