ROH on HDNet – Episode 071 – 23rd August 2010
This is the final step on the road to Tag Wars 2010 weekend in Richmond and Charlotte. And speaking of tag wars, the main event is scheduled to be a huge tag team battleground this evening as the current incarnation of The Embassy (Nana, Daivari, Stevens and Necro) take on Dark City Fight Club, Rasche Brown and Grizzly Redwood. Mike Hogewood and Dave Prazak are in Philadelphia, PA.
Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Bobby Shields/Alex Anthony
It’s been a while since the Briscoes got to work a squash match hasn’t it? Their opponents tonight are JOB squad veteran Bobby Shields, and Alex Anthony who made his ROH debut in a comprehensive defeat to Colt Cabana recently.
Shields starts and puts Mark in a grounded headscissors. Mark isn’t impressed with that and knocks him down with a flying knee strike. Anthony tags in with Jay next and, like Bobby, he tries to get some offence in before being mown down. Alex seems to have injured his leg despite doing less than nothing, and limps his way into the double football tackle. Jay nearly boots Bobby’s head off his shoulders then lifts him for a sidewalk slam/elbow drop combo. Jay Driller takes Anthony out of the game, and Briscoes slap the porpoise with the Doomsday Device on Shields at 04:50
Rating - DUD - Absolutely horribly too long. I get that Prazak and Hog needed time to use the Briscoes dominating to promote the shows this weekend but seriously? 5 minutes of this? The Briscoes have been in ROH since 2002…by Summer 2010 watching them roll through their offence at half speed against jobbers feels incredibly boring.
Kyle Durden is in the ring but the Briscoes steal the mic from him. Jay says that they don’t even care about ROH’s tag division anymore – it’s personal with the Kings Of Wrestling and they’re not finished with them yet.
Kevin Steen vs Jerry Lynn – Pick 6 Series Match
On the last episode of ROH on HDNet I said I felt that Jerry Lynn hasn’t contributed anything significant to ROH since Phoenix and the WrestleMania weekend shows. This represents his chance to do something meaningful again. He’s a former ROH Champion, and knows he needs to get into the Pick 6 if he’s to have a shot at a rematch. Can he overcome the demented Kevin Steen to get in? Steen himself will be equally motivated considering he just lost a title match to Tyler in Chicago and will be keen to secure himself a rematch at the earliest opportunity.
Early armdrag from Lynn, which prompts Steen to almost SPRINT out of the ring to talk strategy with Steve Corino. With a smile on his face Kevin comes back in and mockingly looks to out-wrestle Jerry. He is sadly disappointed as the former Champion comprehensively out-matches him and takes him to ground again with an armbar. In the end Steen resorts to a couple of right hands and a senton across the back rather than try mat-wrestling with the veteran. Armdrags from Jerry again, bringing it BACK to a wrestling match and working a submission hold once more. In the end it takes a cheap trip from Corino to give Steen the advantage…and the referee immediately ejects Steve from ringside. Steen is still reaping the rewards of Corino’s interference though – and thumbs the eyes before giving Lynn a DDT for 2. Lynn tries the guillotine leg drop in the rope, misses and gets his leg SMASHED against the ringpost. Jerry tries an enziguri, but after the damage his leg has suffered it hurts him almost as much as Steen – who retreats to the floor again. PESCADO from Lynn…and it’s both men down struggling to beat the count. Tumbling eye poke from Lynn gets 2 but he’s still struggling to get to his feet after each piece of offence. Steen tries the Sharpshooter but the wily Lynn counters him to a small package for 2. CRADLEBREAKER! Mr Wrestling gets caught climbing the turnbuckles, and dragged to the mat with a frankensteiner. Lynn gets another nearfall with the TKO. But he’s still limping and Steen capitalises with a powerbomb into the SHARPSHOOTER! He gets to the ropes – how much more does he have left though? Sunset flip bomb on Steen…so again we’re left with both men down and hurting. Steen uses an Alabamaslam to counter the Cradle Piledriver then runs across the ring for the cannonball senton. STEEN-TON INTO THE KNEES! That hurts Lynn, but he defies the pain and scores with a TORNADO DDT OFF THE APRON! He climbs the turnbuckles again…AND HITS A SUICIDE DIVE ON RHETT TITUS! Where did he come from? The distraction allows Steen to grab the ropes and pin Jerry for a cheap win at 12:38
Rating - *** - Another horrible HDNet finish, but the match before it was absolutely awesome. It goes down as one of the best ROH on HDNet undercard matches ever – and easily Jerry’s best straight up WRESTLING match in 2010. This one took me completely off guard as I had really low expectations coming in. Great work from both men…
In the back, the Dark City Fight Club and Rasche Brown try to look as intimidating as it’s possible to look when you’re standing to a five foot nothing pasty white guy in dungarees and a bright red woollen hat pretending to be a lumberjack.
LAST WEEK – Highlights of the terrific Strong/Richards main event are shown – and tonight we have exclusive footage of the aftermath after the show went off the air. Shane Hagadorn refuses to apologise, blames Davey Richards and says he’ll continue to lose matches until he lets him come back and manage him. Davey floors him with a single punch and has to be restrained by Eddie Edwards. He says he’s finished with Hagadorn…
Jim Cornette tells Kyle Durden that it was he who made the calls and got Haas and Benjamin back together for a reunion in ROH at Glory By Honor. Truth Martini comes in to ask Cornette what he’s doing to make sure the title match at Glory By Honor doesn’t become an anarchic mess like the last Black/Roddy match in New York. He wants to pick the ref for the match – naturally Jim refuses. Tyler Black walks in to b*tch about people thinking he doesn’t deserve to be champion. He demands their match be No DQ and says he won’t compete unless Cornette agrees. Best Roddy/Truth segment so far
Necro Butcher/Erick Stevens/Shawn Daivari/Ernesto Osiris vs Dark City Fight Club/Rasche Brown/Grizzly Redwood
Despite Nana appearing in all the graphics for this match it’s actually Ernesto that makes up the fourth member of The Embassy line-up. The Embassy and Grizzly Redwood go way back, whilst Rasche Brown has been getting more and more caught up with them since he refused to sign a deal to join them a couple of months ago. DCFC are apparently friends with Skullkrusher, so now they’ve interjected themselves into things too.
The babyface team make a beeline for Ernesto, and Ernie’s parners don’t waste any energy trying to save their team-mate – leaving him to be dominated by all four of their opponents. Osiris tags Necro…and Grizzly gamely charges into battle against him. The ‘chop him down to size’ routine actually drives Necro out of the ring too, and with that The Embassy want to leave. RASCHE THROWS REDWOOD AT THEM! Skullkrusher wants to dive too, but is prevented by Nana then mauled by all four of Nana’s charges. Stevens punts Grizz in the chest…PRESS SLAM TO NECRO BUTCHER’S PUNCH ON THE FLOOR! Unlike in St Louis they do it without a guardrail nearby for Redwood to get busted open against. Choo Choo misses but Necro decks all Redwood’s partners before he gets the chance to tag him. They set up for a press slam to chair shot on the floor…but DCFC save Grizz as Rasche BOOTS THE CHAIR INTO NECRO’S FACE! Davis shows is raw power with a really physical powerslam on Daivari, and as then joined by Chavis for the Hart Attack leg lariat. All 8 men are involved now, leading to Team Skullkrusher clearing the ring. You know what that means – RUNNING SUICIDE DIVE BY RASCHE! In the melee Nana low blows Rainman, allowing Daivari to roll him up for the win at 10:36
Rating - *** - Urgh, will Adam Pearce just f*ck off with these “cheap” roll-up wins. They’re not surprising, clever or fun to watch when there’s at least one on EVERY F*CKING SHOW. I know, it’s a wrestling ‘staple’ etc etc. But seriously, if one Pearce-booked show passed without one I think I’d have a heart attack. That said, as always with these big multi-man tags on TV, this was very entertaining. With so many guys and so little time you almost always get non-stop action, great energy from everyone involved and usually a stream of great spots too. This delivered on all those fronts.
NEXT WEEK – Tyler Black vs Steve Corino in a Buffalo Stampede 2 rematch.
Tape Rating - *** - No stand-out great match like we’ve seen recently, but top-to-bottom this was a decent episode. Steen/Lynn was miles better than I was expecting, and the main event was really enjoyable too. Throw in a strong segment hyping the World Title match at Glory By Honor, the revelation that Davey has sacked Shane Hagadorn and a mild progression in the Briscoes/Kings storyline as well – this was another episode of ROH on HDNet that had strong focus and purpose from start to finish.