This week, the odd pairing of Jerry Lynn and Delirious look for their revenge on Austin Aries’s boys Rhett Titus and Kenny King. In addition, we’ll also get to see Skullkrusher Rasche Brown in action, the Queen of Wrestling Sara Del Rey, and the HDNet debut of the Eddie Edwards “10 Minute Hunt.” Are we all ready for another night of ROH action? I hope so, because ready or not, here comes the rush!
You see what I did there? I hope so, because I’m not repeating it. And wow, I hope I uploaded that video correctly. Otherwise the whole joke in this paragraph goes to hell.
Your Hosts are, as always, Dave Prazak and Mike Hogewood.
**We open up talking about how utterly fantastic Death Before Dishonor VIII was last night, and plug that it is available On Demand at http://www.gofightlive.tv/showEvent.do?eventId=690. Go see it. As soon as you possibly can. Seriously. It is absolutely amazing.
**From there, we send it to the ring where Eddie Edwards makes his way down to the ring with Shane Hagadorn (and actually gets a smattering of “Eddie Edwards” chants). Eddie explains the rules pretty simply. If a challenger can either last 10 minutes or defeat him inside of said 10 minutes, he gets a future TV Title shot. In the process of running down his challenger, one Nick Westgate (including mispronouncing his name and asking if his parents are here or if he’s able to be out alone this late), Eddie jumps him with the mic and goes on the attack.
**Eddie Edwards “10 Minute Hunt” — Eddie Edwards vs. Nick Westgate
Eddie controls, obviously. The kid snaps off a solid hurricanrana, but that’s about it for the first few minutes. Just as he starts to build some offense, he goes to hit a springboard dropkick on Edwards, who dodges, locks in the achilles lock halfway and just mercilessly stomps away at Westgate’s head until referee Todd Sinclair stops it.
Eddie Edwards def. Nick Westgate via ref stoppage in 2:42.
Well, it got the point of the Hunt over, and when they do finally want to put someone over with this, it should do good things for them. Ultimately this was what it was, and if they wanted to build up to someone eventually winning/surviving, the first few televised Hunts can’t go long. (1/2*)
**As they drag Westgate’s carcass out of the ringside area, we throw it back to Austin Aries in the back with the All-Night Express, Rhett Titus and Kenny King. Tonight marks the debut of Austin Aries, the greatest manager who ever lived. Aries brings in a little motivation for the ANE, with the promise that they get the girls if they knock off Lynn and Delirious tonight. Aries with a pipe is absolutely WIN.
**Sara Del Rey vs. Reggie
So, Reggie is announced as being from Denver, Colorado. Other than that, I’ve never heard of her. Sara Del Rey comes out with Shane Hagadorn and the Kings of Wrestling. Somehow, I don’t imagine she’ll need them. They fight over a wristlock, and Del Rey gets taken over. She gets up not looking happy, and another short wrestling sequence leaves Reggie in control again. Del Rey bridges out of a jackknife pin into a gutwrench suplex and a yakuza kick for 2. Starting to turn into an exhibition for Del Rey here, as she controls with all of her great offense. Reggie manages to grab a couple roll ups for a couple nearfalls. Interestingly enough, the KoW and Hagadorn do in fact get involved distracting Reggie long enough for Del Rey to hit a rolling koppo kick and piledriver for the win.
Sara Del Rey def. Reggie via piledriver in 4:33.
Well, if they’re planning on bringing Reggie back, I suppose this worked, but really, if you’re trying to push Del Rey as your top women’s competitor, her needing the tag champions and a manager to beat a woman that no one has heard of before hardly helps. That said, it was a solid enough women’s exhibition, and Del Rey is infinitely more talented than any woman WWE can vomit up. (*1/2)
**We send it back to a Jerry Lynn interview, complete with a flashback to the spike piledriver angle that put Lynn on the shelf. Lynn admits that King has the look, the charisma, the skill, everything he needs to make it, but that the way King is going about achieving stardom is a little “twisted.”
**”Skullkrusher” Rasche Brown vs. Ricky Reyes
4-5 years ago, this would have been a fairly competitive midcard match on an ROH live event. At least Reyes gets an entrance this time. And apparently Skullkrusher is billed from Gary, IN. Well, if I had to live there, I’d probably be angry too. Reyes refuses the handshake, and tries to use his quickness, but Brown just chokes him into the corner. One handed beal and a military press, and Reyes is in trouble. Reyes starts working the leg and appears to be making some headway until Brown kicks him off and gets vertical again, buckling Reyes’ knees with a forearm shiver. Reyes tries to trade strikes, and that just doesn’t end well, however the leg work pays off when Brown can’t lift him for the vertical suplex. Reyes keeps up the leg work with a leglock, and a corner charge gets met with a spear for 2. Reyes goes high risk, and Brown catches him for the burning hammer, and that’s that.
“Skullkrusher” Rasche Brown def. Ricky Reyes via Burning Hammer in 4:47.
Well, that was way less of a squash than I thought it was going to be. The legwork largely made sense, even if Brown’s selling came and went a bit. Reyes continues to be a solid guy to have on the undercard for TV. (**)
**Post match, Erick Stevens runs in and he and Brown have to be pulled apart. The crowd chants “let them fight” and I’m on board with it. They had a solid one-on-one match at End of an Age in June of last year, and I’d support more interaction there. Brown rolls back into the ring and dares Stevens to follow and soaks in the cheers as we cut away.
**Now we get a different recap of the Delirious/Aries situation, over images of Delirious standing staring intently from under his hood in the back. Delirious goes to talk but can’t, allowing Daizee Haze to come into the frame and say: “There’s only one thing on our mind tonight. Revenge.” Good, short and to the point.
**Did you know Death Before Dishonor VIII is now On Demand at GoFightLive.tv? You didn’t? I told you once. Now I’m telling you again. See it. Trust me.
**Jerry Lynn & Delirious vs. The All-Night Express (Rhett Titus & Kenny King)
And at 8:30, we have Austin Aries coming out, pipe in tow to get us ready for the main event. Aries + Pipe + Mic = Ratings. He greets an “Austin Aries” chant with “If you people love me so much, why don’t you shut the hell up so I can talk?” Aries discusses injuring Delirious. He talks about how he tried to apologize to Delirious and Daizee Haze, but how his apology was rejected, and how Delirious will have to wait to get his hands on Aries, since Austin Aries the wrestler is gone, and Austin Aries the manager is here. Immediately we have a continuity problem, because we’ve been pimping replays of Death Before Dishonor VIII, where Aries faced Delirious. Le sigh.
And here come our participants. Fun fact: Jerry Lynn and Delirious were the first match on the first ROH on HDNet program. Let’s see if I’m the only one who points that out. The crowd greets Titus with a “Hepatitis” chant, which he is able to get over, showing the advanced maturity that the Greatest Manager Who Ever Lived has clearly given. Titus and Lynn start. Chain wrestling doesn’t generally go well for Titus, as you’d imagine, but once we get cheating, the tables turn. Delirious tags in and immediately chases Aries right into a Rhett Titus clothesline, while King and Lynn go at it in the ring. Lynn baseball slides to the outside and a King plancha meets only Titus, allowing for some babyface double teaming in the ring. That has to have been at least 5. Aries needs to file a complaint. Delirious takes control on Titus until a knee to the midsection changes things. After some more babyface double teams, King and Titus manage to wrest back control and start working over the throat of Delirious and he is now the Lizard-Man in peril. Delirious gets cut off once, but after a cobra stretch attempt and a seated downward spiral, it’s HOT tag Lynn, as Kenny King comes in on the opposite side. Lynn gets a nearfall off a great DDT, and they hit a great TKO/Shadows over Hell combo on Kenny King for a nearfall, as well as a sideslam/Alabama Jam combo on Titus. King eats the Panic Attack, and as Delirious is about to get the win, Aries distracts him with Daizee Haze. Delirious dives after Aries, leaving Lynn to take their wind-up backbreaker/top rope kneedrop combination for the win.
All-Night Express def. Jerry Lynn & Delirious via backbreaker/kneedrop combo in 13:03.
Solid formulaic tag match, that the crowd wasn’t as hot for as I’d have hoped. Ultimately, the ANE needed the win here way more, as they’re just starting to get established, and I’m glad it’s finally happening, as Titus will get a chance to sink or swim as a more serious competitor, and it’s only a matter of months until King’s inevitable face turn. Lots of good can come from this. And no, no one mentioned Lynn & Delirious from the first show. (***)
As I anticipate becoming a running trend, let’s add up the numbers. On a 50+ minute show, there was 25:05 of wrestling, over half of that being pretty solid action that would compete with anything WWE would put together. Even one of the “squashes” was more competitive than I initially gave it credit for. I love still being surprised. Can’t complain about that. The true impetus and beginning of the All-Night Express is good to see.   We pimped a solid match for next week in Black vs. Generico, and hey, I’m always on board with that.
As always, thanks for reading, never hesitate to hit me up with any comments questions or anything else and I hope to see everyone next week!
