After a week hiatus for a tour of the Orient, Scandinavia and the Sub-Continent, I am making my triumphant return to review this week’s installment of Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDNet. This week features a main event of tag champion Davey Richards and El Generico. That alone should make it worth watching. Is the rest also worthwhile? Read on to find out…
Jimmy Rave and Claudio Castagnoli with Prince Nana and “Dirty†Ernie Osiris vs. Brent Albright and Colt “Boom Boom†Cabana
Rave and Castagnoli attack Cabana and Albright from behind and we are underway. Their ill gotten advantage doesn’t last long, though. The good guys clear the ring, but underhanded tactics send the Embassy back to the driver’s seat. This match is basically pure tag formula: Memphis style. Everyone but Albright has super awesome tights in this match (all the more reason to get HDNet to see these awesome wrestler outfits). These four all know what they are doing in the ring, so even a very basic match such as this ends up being pretty entertaining. Cabana and Albright both bring their A game, but the numbers prove to be too much and some well placed Prince Nana-ference allows Claudio to hit the Ricola Bomb for the win. The Embassy tries for some extra credit after the match, but they are run off by Necro Butcher and Grizzly Redwood (Mostly Necro).
Winners: Jimmy Rave and Claudio Castagnoli via pinfall.
The American Wolves get a chance to become the biggest babyfaces in the company, but instead they just talk with Kyle Durden. Davey is one of the best things going in RoH, plain and simple.
We get a little clip hyping Tyler Black vs. Nigel McGuinness next week. That should be good…should.
Silas Young gets a little face time before the next match.
Deliriousw/ Daizee Haze vs. Silas Young
Paint by numbers match here. Silas Young seems to have replaced Sami Callahan as cannon fodder with a liiiiiiiiiittle bit of offense. That has to be looked at as a trade up, even though I like Callahan. Delirious busts out the old school face wash. I don’t think he has done that in RoH…at all. Silas is solid but wholly unremarkable. He has a cool modified Arabian press finish, but nothing else about him stands out. He goes for said maneuver, but Delirious gets his knees up hits the Panic Attack and Shadows over Hell for the win. This was fun, but much like Mr. Young wholly unremarkable…except for the facewash.
Winner: Delirious via pinfall
Kyle Durden calls Delirious one of the most popular wrestlers in Ring of Honor. Delirious could add to the popularity by demolishing Durden, but he doesn’t. He talks Deliri-ish instead.
A couple of hype clips for the main event and a creepy picture of Mark Briscoe takes us to some merchandise ads. Go to RoHwrestling.com for your RoH merch needs.
We also get an announcement for the time change for RoH. Starting on 8/17 the show will air new on Monday Nights at 8pm and again at 11pm. This is probably a smart move, but I am guessing that everyone with RoH that wants to watch this show is watching it or DVRing it anyway.
Bryan Danielson talks a little about his future, and says he is happy about staying with pro-wrestling and trying to revolutionize it. I wish him the best of luck.
Alex “Sugarfoot†Payne vs. Mark Briscoe
Jay Briscoe comes out first in street clothes and grabs a mic and introduces his brother. Mark gets the requisite “welcome back†chants and we are underway. Alex Payne gets a surprising amount of offense in this match. He actually wrestles a smart match going after the knee and even busts out the Trailer Hitch/Strykerlock. It is not enough, though and Mark wins with the Ace Crusher and a folding powerbomb pin. This was better than your average squash. Ole Alex Payne may get there one day.
Winner: Mark Briscoe via pinfall
Tyler Black sure is exciting in the ring. That’s about it though.
TV Main Event: RoH Tag Team Champion Davey Richards with Eddie Edwards, Sara Del Rey, and Shane Hagadorn vs. El Generico with Kevin Steen
Generico tries to hit a homerun early. The Wolves and Steenerico have proven they know how to put a feud together and this match is another shining example. Richards and Generico are wrestling the exact match they need to. They are both trying to inflict as much punishment as possible and score the victory. I know that should be the goal of every match ever, but the way these two go about it ties in very well with their feud. Generico’s knee obviously becomes a target in the match, and it allows the Generic Luchador to do what he does best (that is draw sympathy). Generico after absorbing a ton of punishment gets an advantage only to have it thwarted by an interfering Eddie Edwards. This brings in Kevin Steen and we have a huge brawl and the locker room clearing to stop them. I would really have liked to see this match go to a finish, but the shmozz finish makes sense for this one. Two on one one hour TV show is a bit much though. The fans start chanting “ECW†as well. Ugh. Not a bad way to end a TV show nonetheless.
Result: Double Disqualification
Big Andy Mac’s Big Andy Final Thoughts: This show could have been a whole lot better. It was still mostly entertaining which is more than can be said for Raw. So there’s that. I don’t really have much else to say.
I’ll see you next time…
