1. Aries’ opening promo officially acknowledged what I’ve said about the post-Danielson and McGuinness main event scene in ROH. Notice how he referred to the two departing guys as “great” and to Cabana, Strong, Black, and Omega as “good, but not great.” Sure, it makes sense for him to insult and challenge the guys who are staying, and not the ones who are leaving, but, due to bad booking and/or the deficiencies of the four men, isn’t it true?
2. And Black looks like a chump again, completely falling for Aries’ scheme and just holding the paper in front of his face for Aries to light it on fire. How has the crowd not turned on him for being a goof yet? And how much longer will it be until it finally does?
3. Wow, extremely premature “this is awesome” chants during the Super Smash Brothers vs. Steen & Generico match – not to mention the match, albeit good, wasn’t anywhere near awesome. Did TNA’s fans wander into Philly by mistake?
4. Pretty hum-drum debut by the Super Smash Brothers. Other than some nice moves by Player Uno in the latter part of the match, they did nothing to distinguish themselves from your garden variety small, quick guys who can do hurracaranas, flying headscissors, and spinning arm drags. Steen and Generico looked good, as they always do. I love how smooth they make the package piledriver/brainbuster combination look.
5. Damn, Prince Nana put up Ernie Osiris’ beard up against Grizzly Redwood’s. Surely I’m not the only one that was really hoping he’d put up Joey Ryan’s chest hair, right? Oh, like you WOULDN’T watch that!
6. Bobby Dempsey got more offense against Chris Hero than he really had any right to, but as far as squashes go, it really wasn’t bad. Maybe I’m biased because it’s Chris Hero, but I still maintain that ROH should consider turning him in order to fill the void in main event face scene.
7. Jim Cornette’s first time on the mic on HDNet was too short to be of much consequence, but it made EXACTLY the point it needed to make: that Jim Cornette, with his encyclopedic knowledge of professional wrestling, should be a great fit in ROH. It’s no secret that ROH on HDNet has been treading water a bit lately, and potentially faces some rough seas (OK, enough water analogies) with the departures of Danielson and McGuinness. If anyone can make it work, it’s Cornette.
8. Rasche Brown’s vignettes didn’t make me want to see his debut, and his squash of Sal Rinauro didn’t really make me want to see him wrestle again. I don’t know what they’re planning on doing with him, but I just don’t like his chances of making it in ROH.
9. I know everyone has pegged Davey Richards for stardom, and rightfully so (tonight’s tag match against Danielson and Strong certainly did nothing to discredit that), but I really like what I see out of Eddie Edwards as well. Whenever their split occurs, I see no reason why they can’t have an Edge and Christian-type situation, where one man (likely Richards) does end up as a bigger star than the other, but both go on to have very good careers.
10. Fantastic main event tonight. The four men wrestled a stiff, fast-paced match where everyone came out of it looking fantastic. Great little nuance by Danielson too, putting over Richards with one simple gesture by demanding to start the match against him. This DEFINITELY earned the “this is awesome” chants it received, and capped off an enjoyable edition of ROH on HDNet.
