10 Thoughts on ROH on HDNet – 09.28.2009

Reviews, Shows, TV Shows

1. Tyler Black coming out to Jerry Lynn’s music for their tag match against Kenny King & Rhett Titus, and letting Jerry walk out first, is a nice “little thing” that is consistent with the current storyline that Lynn is taking Black under his wing. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes, and if done right, can be a way to re-prep Black for a shot at the ROH title, after all of his “close, but no cigar” pushes.

2. No matter how many times I see the Cradle Piledriver, I never get tired of it. It’s a cool twist that makes an old-school move look brutal – like Lynn is putting an extra “hmph” in spiking his opponent into the ground. I’ve also seen him bust out a Cradle Tombstone before, which looked REALLY impactful.

3. I like 3 of the 4 men in the opening match (Black, Lynn, and Titus – King doesn’t do it for me at this point), but the two teams just didn’t seem to have a lot of chemistry with each other. The heat segment on Lynn was fairly dull, and I just expected more, given the participants. There was nothing wrong with it, per se, but again, no chemistry.

4. I don’t think Brent Albright was given a proper chance to sink or swim in WWE, but I saw nothing from his promo hyping up the cage match with Castagnoli to suggest he would’ve gotten over. He is a solid hand in the ring, but to get over without promo skills, you need to have at least some unique form of charisma, or be Chris Benoit-good in the ring (yeah, I said it). Brent has neither going for him. I don’t see him going beyond being a “mechanic”-type in ROH.

5. I enjoyed the Nikki Roxx-Sara Del Rey match. I was particularly pleased to see Roxx make her ROH return, and come back sporting a fresh new look. It started slowly, and I got the feeling they were holding something back, but the middle and finish were quite good, and I would definitely be game for another enounter between these two. Beat the pants out of anything I’ve seen from the Divas recently.

6. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Sonjay doesn’t look as *ahem*, “well” as he did toward the tail end of his TNA run. As for his match with Alex Payne, it was rushed fun. The finish came out of nowhere, but the stuff leading up to it was entertaining. They probably could’ve had quite a good match if given more time. Dutt’s rambling post-match promo, though (“swag and surf”?)? Not so much.

7. On the other hand, I dug Colt Cabana’s short promo. A few weeks back, I pointed out that Colt Cabana would be a likely candidate to stop into one of the main-event voids vacated by Danielson and McGuinness (which may be particularly necessary, depending on how long Black is occupied as Lynn’s protege), but I was concerned that the fans wouldn’t buy it because Cabana has been painted as a comedy wrestler for a while now. A promo like this, with Cabana explaining that he likes to have fun, but takes pro wrestling very serious, can go a long way toward building his credibility.

8. The crowd seemed to be more interested taunting Prince Nana at ringside than it was in the Albright-Castagnoli cage match. I don’t blame them, as Prince Nana’s schtick entertains me as well, but it certainly didn’t do the two guys in the ring a lot of favors.

9. Good, not great, main event tonight. Both guys worked hard, but the crowd never seemed to get all the way into it. The match started slowly, with both guys seemingly taking turns slamming each other into the cage, but it picked up (starting with Albright’s SUPER EXPLODER off the top of the cage) and led into a good finishing sequence. Nice bit of storytelling with the finish too, with Castagnoli wanting to add insult to injury on a beaten Albright, but instead getting his comeuppance, as Albright picked up the pin by stomping a chair on Castagnoli’s head (which Castagnoli had done to him before).

10. Tonight’s show didn’t do much to put me at ease with the post-Danielson and McGuinness era. The opener and main event, which were probably supposed to be the highlights of the show, were pretty flat. The two middle matches were actually entertaining, but too short and not of enough consequence to get the show over the hump. Yes, there are things to be optimistic about. ROH has a lot of wasn’t showcased tonight, such as Aries, Cabana (in the ring), and the tag team scene. Also, with only one hour a week of television, there is only so much air time to go around. And you have to believe that Cornette providing his vast wrestling knowledge as the Executive Producer of ROH on HDNet can only be a good thing. But with Eddie Edwards’ injury, and rumors of more WWE raids, any such optimism has to be guarded.