Welcome back to InsidePulse for this week’s ROH on HDNet Recap! I am your party host, Kyle Sparks, and this week promises to be a great one, with the Kings of Wrestling taking on a tag team gauntlet of three teams, the Dark City Fight Club taking on the American Wolves, and a main event featuring Roderick Strong (with Truth Martini) taking on “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels (with guyliner).
Unfortunately, this week there won’t be any plugs–or at least not as many as usual, because frankly I haven’t had much time over the past week to read the Pulse. This week was full of about 3-4 birthdays (one mine), and a wedding anniversary (mine and the wife’s, one year ago this past Saturday!). But like I do want to make a weekly thing, I would like to offer up a plug to the great Ricardo Rochetti, and his always enlightening 10 Thoughts column.
**We open with the video package that can be found on ROH’s preview site for tonight’s show. That’s all well and good, but I’ve seen it before. But no big deal because here comes the rush!
Your Hosts are, as always, Dave Prazak and Mike Hogewood.
**Right to the ring, as the World Tag Team Champions, the Kings of Wrestling are hitting the ring for tonight’s “Open Challenge.”
**Kings of Wrestling “Open Challenge”
Okay, here’s how this is going to work. Shane Hagadorn has hand picked 3 of the greatest teams in the professional wrestling business. Well, I certainly have no reason to doubt his word on this.
**Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) vs. Josh Emanuel and Ice Jackson
This doesn’t bode well. Even Hogewood doesn’t think they have a shot, as the Kings play Rock, Paper, Scissors to figure out who’ll start. Claudio overpowers one of them to start and hits a military press. Hero in now, and a whip to the corner follows followed by a big elbow and a bicycle kick, before Hero hits a senton. Hogewood and Prazak debate the merits of the Kings and the Briscoes’ respective cases as Hero murders one of the opponents with a big boot and brings in Castagnoli again. For God’s sake, they don’t even identify which man is which, but Claudio sends one of them into the lights on the pop-up european uppercut, before catching the man’s partner off a crossbody. They hit a Hart Attack style elbow and a giant swing into a low dropkick before a slingshot/roaring elbow combo for the pin. I don’t even know who they pinned, so I’ll guess.
Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero (W) & Claudio Castagnoli) def. Josh Emanuel and Ice Jackson (L) via slingshot into roaring elbow in 2:36.
**NEXT
**Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) vs. Adam Cole and Nick Westgate
Okay, I’ve at least heard of Westgate, as he participated in the Eddie Edwards 10 Minute Hunt a couple weeks ago. Hero wins the contest, rock over scissors and takes on Cole to start. 2 shoulderblocks from Cole go nowhere, but a couple dropkicks do. He pounds away, but Hero answers with a big dropkick to drop Cole and Hero is not a happy panda. He tags in Claudio after a snapmare and they hit a diving european/basement dropkick combo. Claudio takes a jawbreaker and an enzugiri, as Westgate tags in and tries his bestest before eating a european uppercut and a delayed vertical suplex into a running elbow strike. Okay, OW. But the Kings aren’t done, as they hit a rather impressive looking KRS-One for the pin.
Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero (W) & Claudio Castagnoli) def. Adam Cole and Nick Westgate (L) via KRS-One in 1:53.
**NEXT
**Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) vs. “The Ninjas”
The Ninjas turn out to be Jay and Mark Briscoe to only a few people’s surprise. Well, Mark *does* know Redneck-Fu. The Briscoes unmask before the “match” can begin, to a big pop, and immediately take it to the champs. Double back body drop, dueling corner whips/charges, Claudio gets bealed out of the corner, Hero gets bealed onto Claudio. Double clothesline takes Hero out, and Claudio is going for a ride. Doomsday Device gets the 3 count.
The Ninjas The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe (W) & Mark Briscoe) def. The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli (L)) via Doomsday Device in 1:03 (5:32 of total match time).
Well, I’m not sure what to make of this. I like seeing the Kings on my TV, and it extends the Briscoes/Kings feud, which I’m on board with. But the match itself was just literally a Kings of Wrestling exhibition. Everybody knows the Kings, as they’ve been a featured act for some time. This seemed rather labored to simply result in the inevitable Briscoe involvement. Couldn’t they have simply had a 5 minute exhibition against a team like Up In Smoke, or even the Bravado Brothers? (*1/2)
**Post match, we get a brief replay as the Ninjas Briscoes chase the Kings to the back. From here, we shoot it back to Kyle Durden with Christopher Daniels. Daniels clearly has issues with how Roderick is handling himself lately. That leads me to:
TRIVIA TIME!
Christopher Daniels and Roderick Strong met one-on-one only one other time in an ROH ring. What year was it, what was the show called, and what made it noteworthy?
**Dark City Fight Club (Kory Chavis & Jon Davis) vs. The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards)
Chavis and Edwards start. DCFC is clearly going to go power while the Wolves are going to go technical and strike when they can, something that Prazak points out early, doing me proud. Richards promptly tags in with a double axe to the shoulder. Shoulder blocks don’t go anywhere for him obviously, but he hits a headscissors into a fujiwara armbar, but Chavis powers out and Eddie comes in and eats a shoulder block for his trouble. The Wolves duck a double charge and after stereo kicks to the back hit double suicide dives, and as you know as an ROH fan, when Davey Richards is involved, it’s a SUICIDE dive. This time is no different as he appears to hit the barricade face first. Apparently straight edge also means CM Punk is better than Davey Richards because there’s no way he doesn’t drop painkillers like candy for the crazy bumps he takes on those dives.
Anyway, back in, Davey charges Chavis in the corner, but blocks the kick and lets Edwards hit a dragon screw leg whip over the middle rope. Davey locks in the Cloverleaf and Edwards adds in a top rope double stomp to the back as well, before blocking off Davis. Fortunately, he’s strong enough to bull charge over Edwards and break up the submission. Richards keeps the heat on with kicks in the corner before Chavis fights out and hits a Blue Thunder variant for 2. Davis gets tagged in and runs Davey into the corner and delivers a couple shoulders to the back and a slam for 2. Chavis tags back in and keeps on the pressure with more strikes in a neutral corner before taking a swing at Edwards for the hell of it. Another vertical suplex gets 2. Davis tags in as the match has slowed down, but Davey is able to hit his handspring kick to stun Davis, who is still able to tag. Chavis promptly knocks Edwards off the apron and applies a double fish hook just because. Davis back in now, and Richards counters a double team whip and after a couple other counters brings in Eddie Edwards who fights off the DCFC, blocks a double clothesline and takes out Chavis with an enzugiri, and hits his second rope lungblower on Davis for 2. An Eddie Edwards chant crops up!
Edwards drops down behind to counter a vertical suplex, and a series of kicks in the corner leads to Davey flying with a missile dropkick, before the former champs hit a double team gourdbuster and stereo kicks for 2. Chavis breaks it up and gets sent outside. The Wolves throw a couple more tandem kicks but Davis gets SORT OF FIGHTING SPIRIT and double clotheslines the Wolves. Ricahrds gets knocked outside, and the DCFC counters an Edwards headscissor into an assisted ace crusher for 2. Davis picks up Edwards in a torture rack, but here’s The Embassy! Paul Turner calls for the bell!
**Post-match, The Embassy (with chairs in hand, natch) lead the beat-down against the Dark City Fight Club until Rasche Brown–with a chair of his own–comes down to make the save. As the Wolves smartly get the hell out of Dodge, we have a massive pier six, the highlight of which is likely Bobby Dempsey (not mentioned) getting clotheslined by Nana. I laughed, I admit it.
Dark City Fight Club vs. The American Wolves went to a No Contest (Embassy-ference) in 8:46.
It was shaping up to be a decent little tag team match before the BS finish. It told a decent power vs. technique story, but the crowd wasn’t really into it because the Wolves aren’t clearly face yet, and the DCFC just inspires too much apathy from the crowd if they’re not squashing jobbers. But all told, perfectly acceptable, if unspectacular (**3/4)
**Back from yet more HDNet MMA commercials, we get a recap of what just happened. They still haven’t explained really why the DCFC is helping Rasche or fighting The Embassy. I guess they’re babyfaces and it’s “the right thing to do,” but that hasn’t been very clearly established, and if they were supposed to be faces from the get-go, they haven’t been the type that would *care* about “the right thing to do.” Oh well. Let’s see where it goes.
**And now, we’ve got the other video package that can be found on ROH’s preview site for this week’s episode, setting up Roderick vs. Daniels for tonight. You know, they’ve kept it at a minimum tonight, and I love me some Truth Martini, so I can’t really complain.
**Roderick Strong (w/ Truth Martini) vs. Christopher Daniels
This is starting at 8:35, Eastern. I am totally on board with this plan. Prazak rightly points out that this is a Pick-Six contenders match. The two men have a heated discussion–about eyeliner, I assume–to start. Shoving match, and Daniels won’t take that for long, I’m sure. Lockup and chain wrestling to start as Strong grabs an armbar, Daniels counters to a side headlock, Strong reverses out and brings down Daniels before grabbing a top wristlock. Daniels reverses out again into the seated side headlock, and Strong rolls him up for 1, but Daniels easily escapes. Shoulderblock goes nowhere. Lockup again and Roderick refuses to break clean on the ropes and takes back over with the wristlock. Daniels counters again and more chain wrestling sees Daniels back with a seated headlock that almost looks like a crossface. Things pick up with an inverted atomic drop and a running spinning neckbreaker by Daniels, and a corner charge along with a back suplex for 2. Daniels with a hangman’s neckbreaker into an elevated elbow drop for 2, and Daniels goes for a neck vice. Strong works out but runs into a scoop slam. Daniels hits an arabian press onto the back and grabs the headlock again briefly, as Prazak promises to buy a copy of The Book of Truth for Hogewood.
Roderick stops a charge with a couple of nice kicks and a back suplex into a backbreaker and takes over big time with a series of stomps in the corner. Truth helpfully removes his book. After all, can’t be GIVING away those secrets. Strong continues to pound away in the corner and hits a vertical suplex for 2, before applying a reverse bearhug. I don’t know if he means to, but he also digs his jaw right in around the trapezius muscle in a nice touch. Daniels works free but gets captured and driven into the corner, and Roderick just lights him up with a couple chops much to the delight of Truth Martini. Strong chokes Daniels on the ropes and drills him with a few more chops in the corner but misses a charge and gets rolled up for 2. Daniels tries an O’Connor Roll but Strong holds on. Daniels goes for a scoop slam but can’t get Roderick up and takes another backbreaker variant for his trouble.
Roderick applies another double fish hook (way better than Kory Chavis’s, FYI) and gets a “You Suck” chant as he whips Daniels hard into the corner for 2. Daniels fires back to the midsection, but Strong takes him down with a double leg and goes for the Strong Hold. Daniels in turn counters with a roll up for 2. Daniels starts mounting offense now with a series of knockdowns and a calf kick as he’s firing up. Daniels with a running 3/4 nelson into the second turnbuckle and a running STO for 2. Strong elevates Daniels over the top on a corner charge and decks him with a forearm shot. Strong goes for his apron backbreaker, but Daniels counters and knocks Strong to the outside and hits his arabian press. Truth Martini tells Daniels he needs to hear the Book of Truth and gets him off Strong long enough for Roddy to hit the torture rack into the backbreaker on the ring apron and roll in Daniels for 2. Well, he might have a case there. It’s not like Daniels has ever been World Champion.
Daniels fights back, but Roderick cuts him off with two knee strikes and the uranage backbreaker for 2. Fallen Angel chant. Eh. It wasn’t really Poison’s best song. Oh, wait. Strong goes for the Strong Hold again but Daniels kicks him off. Daniels hits the Complete Shot and locks in the Koji Clutch, but Strong reaches the ropes. The two exchange forearms and Daniels cuts off Strong with a Death Valley Driver for 2. Strong elbows out of a uranage slam and sets up for the gutbuster. Daniels counters by dropping behind and going for the O’Connor Roll again, but Roderick ducks out of the way and Truth Martini introduces Daniels to the Book of Truth up close and personal. One sick kick later, it’s all over.
Roderick Strong def. Christopher Daniels via Greco-Roman Book Shot/Sick Kick Combo in 15:03.
Damn fine match between two guys who will be in the main event of Ring of Honor for as long as they want to be with the company. Disappointing finish takes off a little bit of the luster though. (***1/2)
After the match, as Roderick gloats, we cut out, but get a couple of video packages: the first announces Jay Briscoe vs. Claudio Castagnoli and Mark Briscoe vs. Chris Hero for next week. Okay, that could be solid. Any bets it’s one long gigantic segment? Or complaints for that matter?
Finally, we close with an advertisement for Glory By Honor IX in New York City on September 11th. Suppose if Daivari’s still with the company by then, they trot him out for cheap heat? God, I sure hope not.
Let’s add up the numbers. On a 50+ minute show, there was 29:21 of wrestling. Of that, the Dark City Fight Club and the American Wolves, while not quite as good as you’d expect was definitely solid, if unspectacular. While we didn’t have a blowaway main event like we had last week, it was still a damn fine main event. The Kings of Wrestling and their squashtacular fun at least featured some eye popping bumps by the jobber brigade before the admittedly predictable ending. All told, still a very strong show, and one that would be worth your time to check out. At least the main event, if nothing else.
The recaps (though repeats) were kept to a bare minimum too, so that always makes Kyle a happy guy. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a lot more.
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!
