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Simon Watches ROH - 2011; EM PLEH
Topic Started: May 31 2014, 12:12 AM (4,740 Views)
Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Eddie Edwards, Since 4/26/2010

ROH Wrestling
January 3rd, 2011
Louisville, KY


The move to Louisville as the new home for TV tapings further signifies Cornette's toxic influence.

Match #1: Eddie Edwards [c] vs. Mark Briscoe [ROH World Television Championship]
When we left off in 2010, Eddie Edwards was somehow becoming a really good wrestler and this continues that trend. They have some nice hard fought matwork early on. Eddie is still selling his lingering arm injury and it affected him in the later stages. They basically just do a movefest as a way of introducing the new crowd to the ROH style, but didn't do anything offensive and had some cool things. Cornette-era ROH has something of a sliding scale a'la TNA, so this is great-ish. Eddie retains with the Achilles Lock.
***

In the back, that fucking faggot Kyle Durden is with the Kings of Wrestling and Sara Del Rey. He says tonight it's Homicide vs. Claudio and asks about it. Claudio says Homicide is undefeated but the best part of Switzerland is the lack of angry Puerto Ricans with stupid names like Homicide. He says to get a real name like one of them and says tonight, he'll show him that real men like Claudio Castagnoli are really good wrestlers, and wishes him luck.

A video airs on Davey/Strong at Final Battle and how Davey lost and got a concussion.

In the back, Mike Mondo says he's The Giant Killer and everyone will live in fear of Mike Mondo. God damnit.

Match #2: Mike Mondo vs. Grizzly Redwood
This is a Mondo showcase, and is not good. He's working a sort of strong guy gimmick, but allows Grizzly to get like half the offense, so it's immediately proven false on his debut. Seriously, they try to work this even match and it's comical and Mondo isn't really good at anything. But he's Cornette's boy, so we all have to deal with him. He wins with a Superplex. In 2011. In ROH. This was destined to fail, and shows a total lack of understanding of the audience.
3/4*

A video airs on WGTT. They talk about their amateur backgrounds and Shelton says they spent time in the entertainment business but they're back in the wrestling business. Alright, look. First of all, this is embarrassing every time people still call WWE not wrestling. Secondly it's not like Shelton ever worked the indies. Charlie sort of did, but come on, guys. Jim Cornette looks on and since this is shot from the chest up, I have to assume he has no pants and is rock hard while stroking himself to completion. Fuck this. They say they're coming to ROH for good, and they want the Tag Titles.

Match #3: WGTT vs. The Bravado Brothers
This was a good squash mostly. The Bravados are super inexperienced and what not, so them on offense isn't good. Also they're very small guys compared to the muscle bound stars, so the best part is when they die. WGTT keeps it short unlike Mondo, and unload their double teams at the end. Charlie makes one of them tap to the Haas of Pain.
*1/2

In the back, Fuck Face is with Mike Bennett and Bob Evans and puts him over as the hottest free agent to come to ROH. Mike says he's been the topic of conversation and he's all over the internet. Can he be as good as he says? Next week, he's going to show everybody that he's better than he says he is. Bob Evans says he's the best and rubs his shoulders.

Match #4: Homicide vs. Claudio Castagnoli w/ Chris Hero & Sara Del Rey
Chris Hero is wearing an ECW Arena t-shirt as a form of protest to the new taping location. Homicide has his LAX theme, so while it's no prime ROH theme, it's still great music on both sides in a rarity for ROH post-2008. Claudio does what he can here, but post-TNA Homicide is a slow, beat up, lethargic wrestler who is a shell of who he once was. Everything he does is super casual with no real urgency, and it's sad. Claudio's stuff is amazing here, and along with Hero and Generico at this point is a guy who clearly feels too good for this company. Homicide sends Claudio into the exposed steel buckle that Claudio exposed earlier and then hits an Ace Crusher to win.
**1/2




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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Eddie Edwards, Since 4/26/2010

ROH Wrestling
January 10th, 2011
Louisville, KY


The show opens with a PRODIGY hype video.

TONIGHT: RODERICK STRONG VS. COLT CABANA

Match #1: Mike Bennett w/ Bob Evans vs. Nick Dinsmore
So PRODIGY gets to debut on TV by wrestling fucking Eugene. Fuck Jim Cornette. Bennett isn't bad or anything, but he's very very generic and comes off like the kind of guy WWE would have put on TV in the mid 2000s like dudes like Rene Dupree, Rob Conway, the Bashams, Sylvan, Vito, Jindrak, Luther Reigns, etc. This takes forever, and only after the retard hurts his ankle can Bennett put him away with a Spinebuster.
3/4*

Highlights air of Steen/Generico at Final Battle. I am forced to consider a point here. If the match was non-sanctioned, then how can ROH legally enforce the stipulation forcing Kevin Steen out of the company?

In the ring, Jim Cornette brings out the Kings of Wrestling, along with Hagadorn and SDR. Cornette says there's been a lack of title defenses and they claim to be protecting the prestige of the titles by not facing opponents that have no shot, but people claim they're ducking some teams. Hagadorn says they have double digit title defenses and beat three teams in one night before, and all he sees is teams they've already beaten, and there's no competition. Cornette says that's fair and they've come up with a team the Kings haven't fought or defeated, and brings out the All Night Express! Hero says they're good young talent but he thinks it would harm their careers to fight them right now, because they would destroy them. Rhett says to say they've beaten everyone is downright disrespectful to them. While they've been touring Japan with the titles, they've been laying people out and winning matches. They're not young boys anymore and he's not getting them coffee or laundry anymore. No strutting, this is serious business. Hero says he thinks they need to SERIOUSLY reconsider. They can go all night, sure, but the two of them can go all night, all day, all week, all month, ALL YEAR. The Kings of Wrestling are tag team wrestling. King says they're in the big boy pool now and they came to piss in their section of the pool. He's putting that rookie shinebox away and if they're not ready for them, they better start running.

While that was good, they lose points for using a shinebox line and not having Hero and Claudio tell them to go and get their fucking shinebox.

A video airs on the Cole & O'Reilly team, talking about their new tag team and doing the whole respectful young guys thing. It gets the point across well enough.

Match #2: Adam Cole/Kyle O'Reilly vs. Mike Posey/Corey Hollis
In short matches like this, Cole and O'Reilly actually look awesome and like a great team instead of the awful dudes they eventually become. They give the jobbers too much, but have a great comeback, and win with the Wheelbarrow Codebreaker/Lungblower thing.
*3/4

NEXT WEEK: DANIELS VS. HERO

In the back, Fuck Face is with Daniels and says the winner gets a TV Title shot. Christopher Daniels says his resolutions are the same as they've always been. To be the best by beating the best. First up is Chris Hero who has a lot going for him, but not as much as he does. And after that, it's Eddie Edwards. He says they've faced each other before and he's won and he needs to prepare himself. That's not a threat or a promise, it's just GOSPEL.

Match #3: Roderick Strong w/ Truth Martini vs. Colt Cabana
This was also pretty average. Cabana gets some good matwork out of Roddy early on but then it falls apart when Roderick has to do offense on his control segment. It goes between bland holds and really poor strikes. Poor in the sense that his timing is fucked up a lot of the times on the thigh slap so it's super obvious. Cabana has some cool spots on the comeback, but Roddy gets the win with the Sick Kick.
**1/4

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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Eddie Edwards, Since 4/26/2010

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ROH Champions vs. All Stars
January 14th, 2011
Richmond, VA


In the back, Christopher Daniels cuts a promo. He has the TV Title, because the actual TV episodes still haven't caught up. He says this is a big match tonight with all the champions on one team, but he's made enemies of all of them. He has a long history last year with Roderick Strong, he beat Chris Hero to get the shot at the TV Title, and he's facing Claudio Castagnoli soon to defend it. But he's a man of honor, so he'll do it, and show them what honor means.

Roderick Strong comes out and gets on the mic. Oh no. He gives himself a verbal pat on the back for Final Battle and says he shattered Davey Richard's championship dreams and left him passed out on the mat, and he's still the champion. He says tonight he's along side the Kings of Wrestling and their weak link, Christopher Daniels, and the champions will reign supreme. Christopher Daniels comes out and says he's got a real big mouth but they're on the same team. Daniels says he heard him talking junk and says he's here right now and Strong says he can beat his ass right now. Daniels says Roderick thinks like a kid on the playground and says to get his head out of his ass and go talk about this in the back. Strong says he thinks about the present, not the future, and they're both in the ring. The referee comes out and Strong slaps the mic out of Daniels' hand and cheap shots him.

Match #1: Roderick Strong vs. Christopher Daniels
This is fairly short at eight minutes, and they mostly throw down with no wasted time. They hit pretty hard while they don't give away a ton, and it's generally just as good if not better than their actual long stuff in 2010 due to the lack of wasted time. Hero and Claudio come out to try and stop them from fighting anymore, but Daniels uses it to get a Bridging O'Connor Roll to win.
**1/4

Post-match, everyone argues except the Kings.

Match #2: The Bravado Brothers vs. Grizzly Redwood/Andy Ridge
Instead of being a Bravados showcase or a jobbers showcase, but like, it's a real match going on for a lot of minutes. Bravod have a few decent things but are still just super super inexperienced. Grizzly is whatever, and Right Leg wins with a Superkick.
3/4*

In the back, Mike Bennett says this is the year of PRODIGY, and after he beats Adam Cole, he's after the TV Title.

Match #3: Mike Bennett vs. Adam Cole
This was average. Which is honestly more than I expected from Bennett, although it's largely on the shoulders of Adam Cole. While he eventually is ruined in later years by the influence of ROH main eventers like Davey and Strong and Eddie Edwards, this is a point where he's just doing basic young babyface stuff and it's impossible to screw that up, so it works. Bennett is again solid but whatever, and Cole does 90% of the good stuff between his offense and bumping. Bennett catches him into a Buckle Bomb, and then finishes with a Side Effect.
**1/2

The Kings of Wrestling, SDR, and Hagadorn come out to the ring. Hero gets on the mic and say their partners are going in at less than 100% so he's making an executive decision, and calls out El Generico and Davey Richards to come out and wrestle one another to make this fair. Davey says that's ridiculous and says to go give Chris and Roddy a pep talk before they kick their asses. Hero says the odds are getting evened no matter what, and the managers grab their legs. ROLLING ELBOW TO DAVEY, AND CLAUDIO HURLS GENERICO WITH A GERMAN SUPLEX. The Briscoes run out to save, and the Kings leave.

Match #4: Homicide vs. Rhett Titus
This happened. They basically try to re-do Homicide vs. BJ Whitmer from 2003, in which a midcard guy gets to survive a bunch and shows a ton of fighting spirit and comes out looking amazing in defeat. Rhett is still not a good wrestler. He tries hard and that's easily concealed in short tag matches or spotfests, but Homicide in 2011 is not going to carry anybody. Rhett works the midsection and Homicide is not interested in selling. Rhett gets to be the first one in ROH in this run to survive the Ace Crusher and Lariat. He is busted open on a headbutt and then has a comeback, but Homicide wins with a Brainbuster. This sucked, and made me sad. I miss BJ Whitmer.
*3/4

In the back, Rhett Titus says this blood is unleashing the killer instinct. He says he may look a little banged up, but he's coming for that ass. If you're not running with ANX, you're running from them.

Steve Corino comes out and he gets on the mic. He says he has something to say and it takes a real man to admit when he's wrong, and throughout 17 years of him wrestling, he's been wrong. He's used people, broken the rules, and manipulated, but he went above and beyond in 2010. He drove a man crazy and ruined a life and Kevin Steen left ROH because Steve Corino screwed up. When he looks around in the locker room, nobody treats him like how they treat Davey Richards and Christopher Daniels, because he doesn't deserve it. He's 38 and there's something wrong with him, but he's never going to let what happened to Kevin Steen happen to anybody else. He doesn't expect anyone to believe him but in 2011, he's going to show everybody that he's trying to rectify everything that he's done wrong. He's not the best looking guy, he doesn't have the greatest body in the world, and he can have a five star match if you give him a two star curve. They talk about making things right in rehab, and this is his rehab. His name is Steve Corino, and he's an evil person, but he's trying to change. Corino says he has a match with a young man right now and tells the referee to please disqualify him if he breaks any rules.

Match #5: Steve Corino vs. Caleb Konley
Konley isn't super impressive as we've learned from EVOLVE and DGUSA, but he's a fine warm body for Corino's deal to work. Corino does an actual good thing and it's easy to forget how he's a great actual wrestler with all his big matches being super violent wars. Konley does cheap stuff to try the win, but Corino doesn't fall to the temptation and instead of the Thumb to the Bum, he turns it into an Abdominal Stretch Cradle to win.
**

Match #6: Colt Cabana vs. Caprice Coleman

Coleman is an old hand in the South, but he's a pretty good flippy dude. Cabana gets good matwork out of him for a blast, and then they have a nice little nine minute midcard deal. They probably have a little more in them, but this was still the best match on the card so far. Coleman has a big offensive run, but Cabana gets his knees up to block a Frog Splash, and then gets a cradle for the win.
**3/4

Match #7: Kenny King vs. Kyle O'Reilly

King sort of works heel early on despite the sort of face turn on the last episode of TV. Kyle is still young, so he's kind of bland in his generic kicking instead of annoying and terrible. Kenny is like Rhett earlier where he's intent on showing that he's still SO far from being a good singles wrestler despite the tag team of the two at points fooling us into thinking otherwise. He has a few recent things in control, but there's no real focus and the finishing run goes on too long. They jump into shitty back and forth stuff. Lots of kicking and no-selling and forearms and just, whatever. A parody of indy wrestling. They hit all the epic notes like a big reckless dive, kick exchanges, a forearm exchange from their knees, absorbing Yakuza Kicks, etc. Kenny does a yelling no sell to an Exploder to zero reaction. Homicide/Rhett was whatever, but this was actively bad. King gets a Royal Flush out of the Triangle Choke to win.
*1/2

Match #8: Roderick Strong/Christopher Daniels/The Kings of Wrestling w/ Sara Del Rey & Shane Hagadorn vs. Davey Richards/El Generico/The Briscoes

This is the best match on the show, because there's 8 wrestlers there and 6 of them are great. Strong and Davey can be led by the hand by everyone else too. They do the opening third of the match with different 1v1 pairings and it's nice. They spend most of the match highlighting the upcoming Strong/Jay and Strong/Generico stuff while also playing on Daniels at odds with his team because he doesn't want to cheat, and then Davey still wants at Strong too. So there's at least stuff happening here. Strong and Davey get the majority of the finishing run, which is the reason this isn't great. Really awkward and bad submission trading run and their strike exchanges in the corner trying to cop a Kobashi/Kawada chops vs. kicks thing is really bad, because Davey lacks a kind of speed and force that he had before he went all steroidy and bulked up. Davey's SSP dive is also really shitty. Daniels gets beaten by Mark Briscoe's Frog Elbow.
**3/4

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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Eddie Edwards, Since 4/26/2010

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ROH Only The Strong Survive
January 15th, 2011
Charlotte, NC

Match #1: Future Shock [Adam Cole/Kyle O'Reilly] vs. The Bravado Brothers

Future Shock is again best used in an opening match spotfest here. This gets 7 minutes and is a lot of fun until the Bravados start doing stuff. Again, they're really new and get sort of a push here, so it's not a good deal. Kyle is a lot worse than Cole as he's doing a lot of generic kick stuff that clearly looks super planned out and practiced, while Cole's generic babyface thing at least feels real. Adam misses a dive, and then a Bravado schoolboys Kyle with the trunks to win.
**

Match #2: Rhett Titus vs. Caprice Coleman

Coleman looks good again, and Rhett is MUCH better working as a basic heel here. Coleman has a good comeback again with nice highspots. He's not great or anything, but I'll always appreciate someone with cool offense who seemingly grasps their role completely as an undercard flippy dude. Not the best match, but a non-embarrassing 6 minutes between lower card dudes of limited skill. Overacheiving is appreciated. Rhett wins with the reverse Overdriver Codebreaker deal.
**

Post-match, Coleman stays in the ring for like a minute to encourage "PLEASE COME BACK" chants to try and get a job.

Match #3: Colt Cabana vs. Grizzly Redwood
Another sub ten minute Cabana showcase. These are a total blast and give the card a nice break between all the serious stuff, so naturally, Cabana's first on the 2011 Cornette chopping block. Cabana tries his best to enchance Grizzly as a jobber threat. He plays around with him, but gives him a few believable nearfalls based on trickery and speed before he catches him. He hits a Powerbomb and then puts on the Billy Goat's Curse to win. Fuck it. This ruled. Probably the last great ROH comedy match.
***

In the bathroom, The Bravado Brothers awkwardly force fans to talk about how great they are, and say everybody is on the bandwagon.

Match #4: Mike Bennett vs. Caprice Coleman
This happened. Coleman barely got to do anything besides get beaten up, and the one thing PRODIGY can do well is a Double A Spinebuster. The best part of this is Dave Prazak on commentary discussing Prodigy accounts. Bennett wins with a shitty armbar.
*3/4

Match #5: Christopher Daniels [c] vs. Claudio Castagnoli w/ Shane Hagadorn & Sara Del Rey [ROH World Television Championship]

Apparently the time limit is only 15 for TV, since this goes upwards of 20. This isn't amazing, but is a low level great match on ROH's sliding scale in 2011. Good matwork early on, and then Claudio takes over with power. Great control segment, and this match is very clearly two guys who know they're better than current ROH and aren't going to try super hard. Good finishing run as they move into big stuff. Mike Bennett comes out for some reason to try and help Claudio, but ends up doing nothing so it's super weird and ineffective. Daniels hits the Angels Wings for 2 nd then follows with the Best Moonsault Ever to win.
***

In the bathroom, the Bravados sign random things for fans.

Steve Corino is supposed to face Andy Ridge, but he gets on the mic. He reiterates his point from last night, and says instead, he's going to take Ridge under his wing tonight and team with him.

Match #6: Steve Corino/Andy Ridge vs. Alabama Attitude [Mike Posey/Corey Hollis]
This is six minutes which is way too long for a match with a jobber team that's clearly there to lose. Stuff happens and Corino has it won, but allows Ridge to get the glory instead and he beats one of them with a Superkick.
*3/4

Match #7: Davey Richards vs. Chris Hero w/ Shane Hagadorn & Sara Del Rey

Hero tries his best, but Davey is too bad at this point. He carries Davey through matwork, but then he works over the head of Davey. They do that SUPER annoying thing where they go from head strikes and serious stuff back to a double knuckle lock bridge pin exchange, and the tempo is all messed up. Hero's coming off a career year in 2010, so I don't blame him at all. I blame Davey entirely, and Cornette a little, considering that they had a classic in PWG in 2010, and now this is dog shit in comparison. Davey's concussion selling is him wobbling around looking like an impression of what he thinks a concussed person looks like in a wrestling match, which is weird, because you know this dude's worked with a concussion before because he was an indy name guy before June 2007 and that shit just happened. Davey then blows it off to do stuff. He does awkward high flying and Hero is CLEARLY tuned out here. Even in tuning out, he manages to sell his arm after Davey does a few holds. Davey learns nothing from this. Davey wins with a shitty Jujigatame about five minutes after I tuned out completely.
**

Match #7: El Generico vs. Homicide vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Kenny King

This is pretty run of the mill, but nothing offended me, so it's better than a lot of this show. It ends up being very good and would have been great if not for Kenny King. The other three are true pros and make most everything look godo and fluid, but King's sloppy and clearly practiced and contrived and being in there with these three really makes it stand out. Homicide puts on his best actual wrestling performance of the comeback so far. Generico beats King with the Brainbuster.
**3/4

Post-match, Homicide hits Generico with the Cop Killa and signals for the belt.

Match #8: Roderick Strong [c] vs. Jay Briscoe [ROH World Championship]
This was awesome. It would have been amazing at 15 minutes, but they had 25. So you have 5-8 early on that after the matwork, go nowhere and are clear filler. Jay Briscoe gets busted open bad on the floor and Strong works it well. He punches at it a lot and grinds it into the mat, kicking, etc. Jay gets SUPER fired up and has these amazing comebacks and it creates a lot of drama for a match with a really foregone conclusion. They then go on a little too long, because it's modern ROH and almost nothing ends when it should. Strong keeps him down with a Gibson Driver. In 2002-8, this is just very good, but it's great on a sliding scale.
***
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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Eddie Edwards, Since 4/26/2010

ROH Wrestling
January 17th, 2011
Louisville, KY


TONIGHT: HERO/DANIELS IN THE TV TITLE CONTENDERS MATCH

Match #1: The Briscoes vs. Alex Revolver/Ted McNalor
Good Briscoes squash. They do cool stuff and get in and out quick, and this is exactly how a squash should go. The Doomsday Device ends it.
**

Footage airs of the Homicide/Cornette feud in 2006.

NEXT WEEK: HOMICIDE CONFRONTS JIM CORNETTE

Match #2: Daizee Haze vs. MsChif
Good match. They got five plus minutes to actually have a real thing, so that's good on ROH's part. The matwork is solid, then they have some cool offense. MsChif is hit and miss, but her hits are really cool. Haze is sickeningly thin at this point so it's hard for any of her strikes to look good, but other stuff was fine. MsChif wins with the Desecrater.
**

Haze is mad at her for not shaking hands, so MsChif mists her.

Coming back, Cornette is in the ring and he brings out WGTT. It's shot from the chest up on Jim, so I have to assume again that he's rocking the pants tent. He puts them over and they again say they want the titles. They drop the entertainment line again, which ugh, and then Haas puts over the Wolves, Briscoes, ANX, and the Kings. Cornette says they should be in line soon, and The Briscoes come back out. Jay says they might have been the world's greatest on another show, but not here. They're the best tag team in the world, and they won't let them leapfrog them. Cornette offers WGTT vs. The Briscoes at the 9th Year Anniversary in February, and they all accept.

ROH IN LA ON 1/28:
-STRONG [c] VS. GENERICO
-KOW/WGTT II

Match #3: Christopher Daniels vs. Chris Hero w/ Shane Hagadorn & Sara Del Rey
This is another ROH 2011 match where Chris Hero has a rematch of a great match from PWG 2010 and it falls short. This one is better than Hero/Davey though, as Daniels is never that bad. They have a good 15 minute match between guys who can basically sleepwalk through something at this point to get three stars on a sliding scale. Which is what they did. Good matwork, fine control, then the finishing run as also pretty good. Stuff happens and Chris Daniels wins with the BME.
***
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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Eddie Edwards, Since 4/26/2010

ROH Wrestling
January 24th, 2011
Louisville, KY


TONIGHT: HOMICIDE CONFRONTS JIM CORNETTE

A video airs with Cole and O'Reilly talking about all the other tag teams, and they at least cut promos like rookies should. They're respectful of everyone, but assert themselves while challenging everyone.

A video then airs of The Bravado Brothers doing the same thing. They say it was an honor to wrestle the World's Greatest Tag Team from eight years ago, and says he's sure it was an honor for them too. They say they went over the tapes with Grandma Bravado and she told them none of the other teams in ROH have what they have and that they're going to make it. They high five and smile and do this in sweater vests while violin music plays in the background. They aren't very good, but that was a great video.

Match #1: Adam Cole/Kyle O'Reilly vs. The Bravado Brothers
This was their best match yet. Cole and O'Reilly are still rough with the obvious potential there to become awful, but they don't know enough yet to be terrible. The Bravados are super green, but have a few nice moments and the finishing run is actually good and ends near when it should. Kyle gets pushed off the top to the floor, and then one Bravado trips up Adam Cole off the ropes. He gets up and is schoolboyed with the trunks and the Bravados steal it.
**1/4

TONIGHT: WGTT VS. ANX

In a pretape, MsChif says she's heard Haze and Del Rey talking about competition and how they're the best, but she proved them wrong. She's not here for respect or handshakes, but she's here to dominate. She has a bad Southern accent, which kind of kills the whole evil witch vibe.

Jim Cornette is in the ring and brings Homicide out to the ring. Cornette says they haven't been face to face since he returned and some things went down four years ago, but that's water under the bridge, and he has a job to do now and put feelings aside. He says Homicide's made a lot of noise about wanting a shot at the title he once held, and he's willing to hear him out. Homicide says he doesn't want to hear him and he knows he doesn't like him, but he doesn't like Jim either. He knows their history in ROH, but as of right now, that's Ring of Homicide. He came here to be the ROH World Champion again and nobody's going to stop him. Cornette says he wants to prove to him that he's putting feelings aside and says Homicide's gone undefeated and he can't ignore that. He says he's earned his shot and that he'll challenge the champion at the 9th Anniversary Show in Chicago on February 26th! YEAH! Cornette says it's up to him to make the most of it, and Homicide asks what that means. He says to admit he has an issue with him and says Cornette thinks he's the good guy, but he's not. Homicide says he'll take on anyone because he doesn't trust this and says he's going to Chicago to be the two time Ring of Homicide World Campeon. He throws the mic at Jim, and he quickly leaves.

Match #2: Homicide vs. Orion Bishop
Bishop is a fat mongoloid and isn't very good, but Homicide looks good in a showcase like this. Homicide wins with the Ace Crusher.
*1/2

The jerkoff WGTT video airs again, talking about the entertainment business. It then turns into a ANX video, and they say they're hungry and ready to devour WGTT. Kenny King says he's always heard that he's the next Shelton Benjamin, but he's not, he's the first Kenny King. Rhett says they've been taking out legends and in 2011, they're ready for gold. King says if you're not running with them, you're running from them.

NEXT WEEK: EDDIE EDWARDS VS. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS FOR THE TV TITLE! We know the result, but now it finally fucking airs.

Match #3: WGTT vs. All Night Express
Well, this sucked. Shelton had some good things early on but then ANX isolated him. They did some super basic and rudimentary arm stuff, and they also fail when put in a position to have to work actual pro wrestling tag team matches and can really only do quick spotfests. Shelton ignores the arm work to come back, and Haas is the most lukewarm tag I've seen in a while. No real fire or intensity and just does stuff. The Kings of Wrestling come out to whip King into the post, so Rhett is alone. Shelton is no longer athletic enough to do the leapfrog spot and almost crotches himself on Haas' head before landing on Rhett's thighs instead of his back. Haas then hits a bad looking Bridging German Suplex for the win. More and more, WGTT are revealing just how incredibly Hero and Claudio carried them in their 2010 match that got them jobs.
*3/4
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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Eddie Edwards, Since 4/26/2010

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ROH SoCal Showdown II
January 28th, 2011
Los Angeles, CA


The Kings of Wrestling come out to open the show, and they get on the mic. Hero says a year ago in this ring and building, they were the uncrowned kings and a year later, they're the ROH World Tag Team Champions. Not only are they champions, but they've held them longer than anyone in ROH history. 2010 was a stellar year for the big man and he. They took the belts to Europe, Canada, South America, and Japan. They beat the Motor City Machine Guns, Generation Me got knocked out, and they even hold a victory over "Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team". There's a reason they were the Tag Team of the Year and they took them to the limit and walked away the victors, so it tells him that Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin think a little highly of themselves. Claudio says this city knows about being overrated and says Euro Disney is twice the park Disneyland is. Hero says they're the best around and the crowd demands the match starts. Hero says they don't work opening matches and says everyone wants to know who can end The Reign, and says it's absolutely no one. This reign does not stop, ever, because KINGS REIGN SUPREME.

Match #1: The Bravado Brothers vs. Cedric Alexander/Caleb Konley
This sure happened. Konley is super average, but Cedric looks good in this. He has a good Tope Suicida, so I like him. The Bravados have a decent control segment of basic things, and then they jump to a finishing run for a minute. Too long got spent on the opening parts. This was only seven or so minutes, so it didn't overstay its welcome. It also never really got to develop into anything, so whatever Bravados win with another cheap roll up.
*3/4

Match #2: Jay Briscoe vs. Colt Cabana

This also got seven minutes, which is really weird. It was all awesome stuff and they clearly could have had a great match if this wasn't so truncated. Great Cabana matwork trickery and then they do a back and forth opening match style movefest to get everyone all excited. Everything looks really good and they have a few nice counters. Jay eventually comes out on top with the Jay Driller.
**3/4

Match #3: The All Night Express vs. The Cutler Brothers

GROSS. This is not good, because The Cutlers are forced to work a new team outside their comfort zone and botch basically everything because they can't work outside their planned spots and sequences, and unlike when The Briscoes carried them in 2010, ANX isn't able to get the best out of the Cutlers, because they're super average too. So we have a lot of botching until ANX wins with the Coronation from King. These dudes need a tag finish. Anyways, this pairing never really clicked, and it showed. Great tag teams can get over a lack of natural chemistry, but these are not great teams.
*3/4

Match #4: Davey Richards vs. TJ Perkins

TJ does the absolute best he can to try and reign in Davey. TJ Perkins is basically everything all the modern indy kick and armbar type bullshit MMA fetishists should actually be. His kicking is fast and out of nowhere, his matwork is actually great, he's incredibly fluid and crisp and smooth with everything, and never overstays his welcome in matches. So he's both able to make Davey less awful while also kind of showing how awful Davey is in comparison. They do good matwork and pick up the pace well. TJ manages to help Davey avoid any really terrible stuff, so this was great, especially on a sliding scale like this. There's some egregious head kicking exchanges, but that's maybe 30 seconds in an 18 minute match. Davey wins with a Cross Armbreaker. Davey doing head kicks and suplexes and matwork is so much more natural than when he tries to do a bunch of fighting spirit babyface stuff with some dives.
***

Post-match, Davey does his jerk-off mic work putting over the town and his opponent.

In a promo taped after the 1/15 show, Christopher Daniels speaks. He says that was his first defense and Claudio almost had him, but that doesn't count. He says Mike Bennett is annoying him with his presence in his matches and says he hasn't done a thing that he should care about yet, and he needs to learn his place. Or he'll teach it to him, and that's gospel. Mark Briscoe comes over and says he beat him in that eight man tag. Daniels says he gets it and he doesn't have to ask him, and he's got his title shot in Los Angeles.

ROH finally does the logical thing since these shows aren't making TV, and they use the actual "Disposable Teens" song for Daniels' entrane, AND ALLISON DANGER IS WITH HIM FOR A ONE NIGHT RETURN! YEAH!

Match #5: Christopher Daniels [c] w/ Allison Danger vs. Mark Briscoe [ROH World Television Championship]
Daniels is the king of the sliding scale. In a great company (like say, ROH 2004-8), a lot of times his sort of practiced routine comes off as lifeless and the definition of good but not great. But he's trying a lot harder now than he was in ROH 2006-7 and by virtue of him not making stupid mistakes and knowing exactly when to do stuff and usually when to end matches, he's one of the best guys in ROH again. Mark Briscoe is there too, and they have a great 12 minutes. Daniels works the neck throughout, and it comes into play at the end when Mark can't keep Daniels up for the Cutthroat Driver. Daniels then hits the Angel's Wings and BME for the win.
***

Match #6: The Kings of Wrestling vs. WGTT

KOW again pull out a great match from two past their prime guys. It has a slow start, but Shelton Benjamin is actually trying here and looks great, which is nice. Haas is totally useless as unlike Shelton he never learned creativity or intensity in any way, so he just does things in kind of a clunky manner because he can't really go anymore. Hero and Claudio have great cut offs and control stuff, and Claudio then guides Haas through a finishing run. Shelton cuts off Hero from using the Golden Elbow and Claudio taps to the Haas of Pain. Blegh.
***

Match #7: Roderick Strong [c] vs. El Generico [ROH World Championship]

After winning the hottest feud in recent ROH history, this shows how Generico is valued by Cornette as he gets fed almost immediately to golden boy and floundering champion Roddy in just over a month, and now he's just like everyone else. 2010s ROH is basically a master class in how to make sure nobody has any sustained momentum. Anyways, the match is very good and almost great on a sliding scale. There's obvious time killing as will happen with a 20+ minute Roderick Strong match post-2008, but Generico does a good job making the finishing run something of quality. Strong does his back stuff and Generico sells well enough and the finishing run is a thing. Strong repeats a lot of stuff, and then uses the title. Generico kicks out, so Roddy hits the Sick Kick and Gibson Driver to win.
**3/4

after the match, Strong took the mic and bragged about the win and that Generico's name had been added to the list of those he had defended the title against, including ROH TV Champion Christopher Daniels, Jay Briscoe, and Davey Richards; moments later, Richards, Daniels, and Briscoe cleared Strong to the floor, with Jay taking the mic and said Strong's time was coming and he wouldn't keep getting away with stealing wins; Daniels followed by saying any of the four were good enough to beat "the shit out of you any night of the week" and Strong was a wanted man; moments later, Daniels said the WrestleReunion weekend was about honoring those who came before them and it was an honor to walk in the footsteps of men like Shane Douglas, Raven, Jake Roberts, Superstar Billy Graham, and Roddy Piper
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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Eddie Edwards, Since 4/26/2010

ROH Wrestling
January 31st, 2011
Louisville, KY


TONIGHT: EDWARDS/DANIELS IN THE TV TITLE SWITCH

Match #1: Colt Cabana vs. Mike Mondo
Cabana does the best he can and drags Mondo to a great showcase of himself. He does cool matwork and Mondo is whatever. Cabana makes a good comeback with trickery and some good offense, and he wins with the Billy Goat's Curse.
**

Coming back, Roderick Strong is in the ring with Truth Martini. He says everyone can trust him and he's always searching for souls he can mold and eager minds willing to indulge themselves in the Truth, such like Roderick Strong. He says he has such a man and brings out Michael Eign!

Match #2: Roderick Strong/Michael Elgin w/ Truth Martini vs. Chrisjen Hayme/Alex Silva
Good squash for the House of Truth. Elgin immediately stands out from most of the roster by being a heavyweight tank of a power guy instead of a bland kicky junior heavyweight. Elgin wins with a Spiral Bomb.
*1/2

Match #3: Sara Del Rey w/ Shane Hagadorn vs. Taeler Hendrix

Taeler has dem big ass titaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaays as J-Train might say. Other than that, she's not good, and this is an SDR squash. Lots of brutal brutal kicks and knees, and it's just a wonderful murder. Sara gets a Gory Stretch Flatliner to win.
**

NEXT WEEK: KINGS/ANX VS. BRISCOES/WGTT

A video airs on all four teams, and apparently Emma's music is public domain because that's what plays in the background here.

Match #4: Eddie Edwards [c] vs. Christopher Daniels [ROH World Tag Team Championship]
This is great. It's not super complicated or anything. It's Daniels guiding an above average but still kind of shaky wrestler to a solid fifteen minutes based around high impact moves. They escalate things well, and Daniels again has a loose focus on the neck. Eddie hurts his ankle on the railing on a dive, but manages to survive through the fifteen minutes. Eddie is so used to always winning matches though that he's upset and wants to actually win, so he has it restarted. He does a good job selling the leg while trying to push through the pain. It's just enough that you know the leg is bothering him, but he still looks tough. Daniels ends up hitting the Angel's Wings, and he wins the belt.
***

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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Christopher Daniels, Since 1/31/2011

ROH Wrestling
February 7th, 2011
Louisville, KY


In the ring, Jim Cornette brings out Christopher Daniels and then Eddie Edwards and asks about the match. Jim says both of them said basically the same thing to him last week, and Daniels thanks the fans and says he's proud to finally be a singles champion in ROH. He puts over Eddie for being a fighting champion and he's the one who asked for five more minutes. Eddie says he asked for five more minutes because he believed he could beat Christopher Daniels, and still does. Daniels says he deserves a rematch with a longer time limit. Eddie says nobody can beat him twice and he wants more time too. Cornette agrees with both of them, and books a rematch between them at the 9th Anniversary Show for the title in a BEST OF THREE FALLS MATCH! That faggot Mike Bennett then comes out and Cornette says it's not his time. Bennett says this is really boring and they're both sissy girls. Great mic skills, kid. He says he wants the winner, and Daniels says he actually has to earn things. He was winning belts while he was picking his nose in 2nd grade English, and he should learn some respect. Mike says 2011 is the year of the Prodigy, and that somehow ends it. Terrible.

In the back, Fucking Kyle announces the Top Prospect Tournament next week, and Steve Corino is with him. His name is Steve Corino, and he's an evil person. He's asked for this time because he has his eye on this tournament, and he wants to be a good example to the future of ROH and this tournament is the future. He's going to be there to give them advice.

Match #1: Mike Bennett w/ Bob Evans vs. Grizzly Redwood
This is horrible. Grizzly is whatever, and Bennett is pretty bland and mediocre outside of the good Spinebuster. He gives Redwood WAY too much again for anyone we're supposed to take seriously. He wins with the Side Effect.
3/4*

The video on all four teams airs again.

In the back, The House of Truth of Roddy, Elgin, and Truth is standing by. They hype up Truth's guidance and Roddy says Michael Elgin is the only one who's proven himself good enough to walk behind him, and this man is something different. Strong says this man will do anything he asks and he's going to take out everyone, and that's the truth.

Match #2: The Briscoes/WGTT vs. The Kings of Wrestling/The All Night Express w/ Shane Hagadorn & Sara Del Rey
Obviously neither team fully got along, but the pure babyface team did a better job. The Briscoes and Kings are enough to carry their lesser opponents through stuff, so this is seeming like it can be the best match ROH has had in 2011 so far. The Briscoes get the best out of ANX and it's just those teams for the first quarter of the match. The Briscoes don't mean to do it exactly, but Hero and Claudio refuse tags and just scout ANX. There was a quality control segment, but then the match broke down instead of the finishing run, so this doesn't live up to the promise, although it was great. ANX lay out the Kings and leave after miscommunication. WGTT and The Briscoes start to fight over who gets to pin the champions, and the Kings roll out and bail during the fight while referees pull apart WGTT and The Briscoes, so it's a no contest.
***
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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Christopher Daniels, Since 1/31/2011

ROH Wrestling
February 14th, 2011
Philadelphia, PA


In the ring, Jim Cornette announces the Top Prospect Tournament and introduces the people involved as Michael Elgin, Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, Andy Ridge, Bobby Dempsey, Grizzly Redwood, and Johnathon Gresham. Mike Bennett then comes out last because we have to pretend he's important because he's one of Cornette's boys. He's the eighth guy in the tournament and shits on everyone in bland fashion before leaving. GEE, I WONDER WHO WINS THE TOURNAMENT?

Match #1: Homicide vs. Mark Briscoe
Fun stuff again from a Briscoe. It turns into a brawl, and Homicide again has some good chemistry with one of DEM BOYS. Homicide's still a little slower and less fiery so this isn't great, but it is good. They basically just did stuff, but they built it up well enough and there wasn't anything ridiculous or truly bad. Homicide hits the Lariat, BUT MARK KICKS OUT! WHOA! Homicide wins shortly after that with the Super Ace Crusher.
**1/2

TOP PROSPECT BRACKET:
Kyle O'Reilly vs. Jonathon Gresham
Bobby Dempsey vs. Michael Elgin
Mike Bennett vs. Adam Cole
Andy Ridge vs. Grizzly Redwood

Match #2: Kyle O'Reilly vs. Jonathon Gresham [Top Prospect Tournament - Quarterfinals]
Gresham is a short flippy black dude who was everywhere on the north east in late 2010 and most of 2011 before people realized he wasn't that good. And this is coming from places like CZW and CHIKARA and ROH who employ a lot of shitty wrestlers. He's very generic too, which hurts him. There's some good stuff here, but also a lot of flubs and shitty ideas, which is probably going to be the theme of the tournament. Kyle does a REALLY shitty Triangle Choke with elbows type deal to win. Bryan Danielson made it look amazing, but as we know in 2014, taking the moves of the indy gods like Danielson, Nigel, and Hero will never make Kyle one of them.
*1/4

After the match, Kyle Durden interviews Corino ringside, and he puts over O'Reilly. He advises him to take the fight to his opponents instead of waiting, and Kyle thanks him and leaves.

A hype video airs for KOW/ANX.

Homicide comes out and demands more TV time, so Prazak and HOG say the scheduled main event has been moved to next week. Kyle Durden comes out with the microphone and Homicide looks annoyed by his presence. Homicide takes the mic and threatens him with the Cop Killa if he doesn't leave, so the dipshit gets out. Homicide says he's the forefather of Ring of Homicide and he was only champion for two months before some fat slob from Japan took his belt and he NEVER got a rematch. So guess who's the World Champion now? Some guy from Tampa named Roderick Strong. He came to Final Battle to have a match with him and he's dodging him and he's beating and fighting and talking trash to everyone else but him. He tells him to shine the belt, because he wants his belt pretty, and he's going to be the new ROH Campeon and all he has to say is BBBBBBBBBDAT. Roderick Strong comes out and says he wants to run him down like he owes him something and he needs to shut up for one second. When Homicide was sucking on Konnan's teat, he was here dominating and now that he needs a place to go, he comes back and thinks he's owed something. THEY DON'T OWE HIM SHIT. HE RUNS THIS COMPANY AND HE'S A HAS-BEEN WHILE HE'S THE MAN. Homicide ruined his celebration when he won this, so he's giving him this chance now to make it right and apologize. Homicide says he's sorry this took so long, and hits him. They have a pull-apart, and Homicide runs off Strong.
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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Christopher Daniels, Since 1/31/2011

ROH Wrestling
February 21st, 2011
Philadelphia, PA


The show opens with the announcement that Homicide/Strong will now be a Street Fight!

In the ring, Jim Cornette brings out Davey Richards. Jim's filmed from the waist up again AND it's a Davey segment, so you know Cornette is absolutely rock hard. Davey is wearing an Affliction t-shirt and one of those stupid messenger style caps and looks like the biggest tool ever. Davey says he's not going to challenge for the title again and says he's going to work his way up to it and he'll wrestle Colt Cabana in Chicago at the iPPV this weekend. He says this time if he doesn't win the title on his next shot, he'll quit wrestling. So yeah basically, Davey's winning the title next time and they telegraphed it from a mile away. Great work, Cornette.

In the back, The Briscoes cut a promo. Jay says they've got Haas and Benjamin and it's almost here. It's gonna be on and Mark says THEY'RE the greatest tag team in the world. Jay says they got respect for them and shit, but they're looking to whoop that ass. This is ROH and they're gonna show them about tag team wrestling.

Match #1: Christopher Daniels [c] vs. Devon Storm [ROH World Television Championship]
FUCKING CROWBAR SHOWING UP IN 2011. WHY? He's slow and absolutely dreadful. He's only a little worse than Charlie Haas though, so I wouldn't be shocked to see Crowbar show back up for a few more shows. This gets like 10 minutes and it's seriously just awful. The high point is Prazak making a joke about Ace Darling and Cheetah Kid getting title shots next. Daniels finally ends this plodding mess with the BME to retain.
3/4*

A hype video airs for Strong/Homicide.

Match #2: Claudio Castagnoli w/ Shane Hagadorn & Sara Del Rey vs. Rhett Titus
This happened for 6-7 minutes. It was good because it was basically just Claudio doing offense. He throws Rhettski around like the bag of potatoes that he basically is, and Rhett did basic stuff to fight back. Hagadorn tripped Rhett coming off the ropes, and Castagnoli wiped him out with the Lariat for the win.
**1/4

Match #3: Chris Hero w/ Claudio, Hagadorn, & Del Rey vs. Kenny King w/ Rhett Titus

This breaks out post-match, and is of the same general quality. King gets a little more in here because he's the "star" of the team. Hero's control segment is awesome and he does the best he can to lean into King's offense and try and make his stuff not look like shit. Rhett cuts off interference and King ducks the Rolling Elbow and gets a roll up for the win.
**1/4

A hype video for Briscoes/WGTT ends the show.
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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Christopher Daniels, Since 1/31/2011

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ROH World's Greatest
February 25th, 2011
Dayton, OH

Match #1: Jay Briscoe vs. Kyle O'Reilly

Jay does what he can with Davey's kid for seven minutes and puts out a great movefest on the sliding scale. He takes what Kyle can do and spreads it out in a way that actually builds up and gets more and more frantic, because somehow the fucking Briscoes became smart about this thing in comparison to the rest of these goons. They do bigger and bigger stuff, and Jay wins with the Jay Driller. It figures that the best Kyle singles match I've ever seen is a seven minute rookie loss like this.
***

Before the next match, Corino gets on the mic. HIS NAME IS STEVE CORINO, AND HE IS AN EVIL PERSON. He says he asked for this match. He says one of the first PPVs he ever did was in Dayton a long time ago, so he likes this place. He says he asked for Grizzly Redwood to be his partner and says Grizzly inspires him with all his health problems and part of his recovery process is to find somebody who inspires him, and in ROH, he fits that. He says the Bravado Brothers have gotten started on the wrong path, and they're acting like a bunch of assholes and he knows it's appealing now, but asks if they really think their grandmother is pleased with what they do. That upsets them and the match starts.

Match #2: The Bravado Brothers vs. Steve Corino/Grizzly Redwood
This is such a waste of Corino, but the storyline is great. The Bravados can't do a lot of interesting things, so this is not a good match. Grizzly is whatever again, and then Corino has a decent hot tag. He resists the urge to do the Thumb in the Bum spot, but then is schoolboyed by one of the demon kids with the trunks for the upset. A terrible terrible upset.
*1/2

Match #3: Mark Briscoe vs. Mike Bennett w/ Bob Evans

This also sees a terrible result. Mark Briscoe gets the best Bennett match ever before he has to put over this worthless pile of faggot because HEY EVERYBODY'S GOTTA PUT OVER JIM'S NEW FAVORITE. FUCK JIM CORNETTE. Mark does some cool stuff and PRODIGY contributes nothing since he can't even hit his one good move in the Spinebuster. He gets in a low blow and hits the Side Effect to win. He can't even to that right either as it's more of a sit-out Rock Bottom than anything.
**

In the back, Rhett Titus cuts a promo, but he pronounces the s in Illinois, so this is done.

Match #4: Colt Cabana vs. Rhett Titus vs. vs. Andy Ridge vs. Mike Mondo
This is again a massive waste of Colt Cabana and there is absolutely no way this is good. Rhett is super average, Mondo is terribad, and Ridge is a rookie. Cabana does comedy stuff for the only bright spot in nine minutes. Any time he's not in, this is painfully dull or outright bad. At least they do something right, as Cabana beats Mondo again with the Billy Goat's Curse to get an actual win.
*3/4

Match #5: Christopher Daniels vs. Michael Elgin w/ Truth Martini

This is good, but not quite great. Elgin is still working as a generic hulking power guy of a bodyguard instead of breaking out the insane stuff he has inside him, but this was good. Basically, he's trying to destroy Daniels at the behest of Roderick Strong, but then Daniels used experience and veteran wiles to stay alive. Daniels also pretty much blew off the work Elgin did on his back, which is why Daniels is better as a heel in control of matches. Daniels ends up getting in a cradle to win after Elgin got distracted by Truth calling for the win.
**1/2

Post-match, Elgin attacks Daniels again. El Generico runs out to save, and they drive off Elgin and Truth, and Christopher Daniels has stolen the Book of Truth.

In the back during intermission, Christopher Daniels has the book and cuts a promo. He says just because he's the TV Champion doesn't mean he's not still focused on beating Roderick Strong for the title, and says he sends his enforcer to try and take him out, but he failed. If he thought he was in his head before, he's going to be even deeper in there after he reads this book, and opens it up.

Match #6: Homicide vs. El Generico
I know Homicide needs a win getting momentum going into the big title match, but there's a million guys you could have used instead of El Generico. Although Cornette is doing his absolute best to try and establish El Generico as a lucky guy who gets beaten by the REAL top guys, despite the fans cheering El Generico more than anyone else. This is average as with any Homicide match against someone great. He's taking it easy before the big title match too, but Generico can get something going. The crowd is pretty much dead for all the stuff too, after the shitty card since the opener. Homicide wins with the Super Ace Crusher.
**1/4

In the back, the Bravado Brothers cut a promo. They say two of Dayton's finest women are getting an intimate night on the town, and they might even get to meet Grandma Bravado. Bravado bandwagon, hop on.

Match #7: Eddie Edwards vs. Kenny King
Eddie tries his best, but he has to get 19 minutes out of King while also getting the crowd back into it, and they can't do that with a good match, because Kenny King can't have a good match for 19 minutes. The great independent workers through time like Sabu, Foley, Raven, Corino, Tajiri, Super Crazy, Danielson, Low Ki, Daniels, AJ Styles, Joe, Punk, prime Hero, Claudio, Aries, prime Nigel, Generico, etc. all had to deal with the fact that indy fans are the worst and basically just want to see cool moves/violence and nearfalls because they think that's how something is great. Those greats managed to give them what they wanted while never compromising their own greatness, because they were skilled enough to keep these mongoloids entertained while still doing logical stories and selling and psychology and all the stuff that actually makes matches great. At some point when the guard changed in the late 2000s, that was lost. The guys like Davey and Tyler Black and Eddie Edwards (although he's less of an offender than the others) who took the torches realized they can get the insane reactions of the others with half of the work or less by JUST doing cool moves and kickouts, and that lesson was learned by guys like ANX, Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, AR Fox, Ciampa, Nese, etc. Even the good ones like Elgin, Gargano, Ricochet, and Rich Swann suffer from this to a degree. Anyone who kept in touch with the old ways after that eventually got signed like Hero, Claudio, Steen, Zayn, Del Sol, Callihan, etc. Hero got thrown back in but has largely lost his passion and will to carry people, and AJ Styles is mostly in NJPW now, so the indies are largely a ghost town now because of that.

This match was so bland and just so much of a generic lifeless interpretation of what they think goes into a great match that it made me contemplate the causes and downfall of independent wrestling since the late 2000s. There wasn't any kind of a real story here and they did stuff on the mat before they did stuff standing up. Edwards is good, but King is super sloppy and has no real concept of layout or flow. Kenny King is exactly as he was in 2008 when ROH brought him in, and that's all potential. At a certain point, you have to acknowledge a bust. Eddie Edwards has been full-time largely since the same period and has become very good, and Kenny King has made almost no strides as an in-ring wrestler. There's some really ugly transitions here and sloppy King offense, and Eddie wins with the Achilles Lock.
*3/4

Match #8: Davey Richards/WGTT vs. Roderick Strong/The Kings of Wrestling w/ Truth Martini, Shane Hagadorn, & Sara del Rey

This is another of those b-show main event six mans that clearly means nothing. The Kings of Wrestling are going to try every time out, and Davey and Roddy are too (although that's not always a good thing), but WGTT are clearly fine taking a break before a big match. This doesn't need to go 32 minutes when the first 10-15 is largely filler. It's really really fun filler stuff, but they don't do a lot besides establishing the issues we already knew were there. We get great KOW control segments for the most part, and Roddy plays along. Shelton has a really good hot tag, and the finishing run happens. They do some cool stuff but then as expected, it sort of fails when Hero, Claudio, or Shelton isn't in there. Davey makes Strong tap out to the Cross Armbreaker.
**3/4
Edited by Big Tuna, Jun 7 2014, 02:39 PM.
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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Christopher Daniels, Since 1/31/2011

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ROH 9TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW
FEBRUARY 26TH, 2011
THE FRONTIER FIELDHOUSE
CHICAGO RIDGE, IL


Hilariously, ROH changed the bleacher and crowd set up of the Fieldhouse for the first time since they debuted almost seven years earlier. The bleacher is now closer and on the side facing the hard cam, giving the illusion that the building is significantly smaller than it actually is. That basically sums up Cornette era ROH.

Match #1: Davey Richards vs. Colt Cabana
This shows basically what Cabana has to offer to ROH. Davey's matwork usually feels super time-killing and like he's consciously showing off how great a wrestler he is, but Cabana adds a different style early on. He's also great enough as a wrestler to work most of the match after that in a movefest with Davey, and manages to reign him in. It's also good that this only has 12 minutes as it means Davey's usual bullshit is much more tight and compact than spread out like in some of his more terrible epics. Lots of good stuff at the end, and Davey puts on the Cross Armbreaker to win after some arm work early on and selling from Cabana in transition. This would be great regardless of where or when it happened, although with the dearth of top level stuff in ROH 2011, this is the current MOTY.
***

TOP 5 ROH MOMENTS: CM Punk's farewell

Match #2: Steve Corino vs. Kyle O'Reilly vs. Grizzly Redwood vs. Mike Bennett w/ Bob Evans
This is all about the Corino stuff, so it was decent enough when he was in. He wants to teach Bennett some respect, but the shithead refuses. He easily handles Grizzly and overpowers Kyle with veteran wiles. This isn't good otherwise though, and you create a situation where Kyle O'Reilly is the second best guy out of four, and that's rough. Grizzly tries though and between he and Kyle's efforts and Corino directing traffic, this could have been MUCH worse. Bennett sneaks in and hits Corino with the Side Effect to win. UGH TERRIBLE.
**

They're basically giving Mike Bennett the Jimmy Rave push. He comes in as a disappointing payoff to a lot of hype, and then wins a bunch of matches over guys higher than him with cheap shots and cheating, but there's a big difference that a lot of people forget. Jimmy Rave actually was in ROH for a year before he got the push and had proven himself as a good wrestler before they started the whole thing, so at no point did it come off as forcing him on anyone. People booed because he was targeting their favorites like AJ Styles and CM Punk and Gen Next. Mike Bennett has proven himself to be wholly mediocre so naturally fans hate him, but it's not that same kind of heat at all. Bennett is getting X-Pac heat, and Cornette thinks it's working because people are finally booing a heel in ROH. It's been three years, and nothing's really changed, so Delirious is just as much to blame for not giving up on this push.

What Cornette fails to realize about the fans he's appealing to is that you can't force things on them, because they just wind up turning people off and the person suffers for it. It largely ruined the careers of Matt Stryker, John Walters, and Brent Albright when Gabe tried to force them when they didn't have it. Gabe did the same thing with guys like Jimmy Rave and Tyler Black and Davey Richards and Austin Aries, and that worked, because they were actually good. ROH/indy fans at least need some kind of workrate or cool moves with the guy getting the push to make it work.

tl;dr version - The PRODIGY run and push is one of the best examples to look at for how Jim Cornette never really understood ROH fans and how he basically ran the company into the ground from 2010-12.

Match #3: El Generico vs. Michael Elgin w/ Truth Martini
This is a fucking blast. It's only ten minutes and you suspect they have a lot more in them, but it's a perfect power vs. speed style spotfest. Generico does his thing and treats it like any other match, but Elgin catches his attempt at a Tornado DDT on the floor, AND RUNS WITH HIM AND POWERSLAMS HIM INTO THE RAILING FUCK YEAH! It's announced on commentary that Christopher Daniels will get a World Title shot the next time on iPPV on April 1st. Elgin takes some great bumps for a big guy and has cool offense. The ref is down when Elgin hits a Powerbomb, and when he foolishly goes back to the cover after waking the ref, Generico pull him into a cradle for the win.
***

Post-match, Elgin attacks and hits the Spiral Bomb. Roderick Strong comes out to applaud, and they send Elgin to the back. He gets on the mic and starts to cut a promo before Homicide comes out to attack him. Strong tries to bail out and save himself for the title match later, but Homicide hits Strong and Truth with the TOPE CON HELLO! A referee comes out and the match is now!

Match #4: Roderick Strong [c] w/ Truth Martini vs. Homicide [ROH World Championship - Barrio Street Fight]
The stip helps this a lot. This angered the ROH fanbase at the time who called it the worst ROH Title match ever. I don't think this is from longtime fans so much as new ones, but I don't know what can be worse than something like Tyler Black vs. Kenny King or Morishima vs. BJ Whitmeror a handful of other shitty ones. This is slightly above average, which is what people should have expected. Homicide has some nice moments early on, but Strong's super average and boring control segment proves to again be the death of a match. He does a lot of stomps and punching because at some point between his NRC heel run and this heel run, someone told him that being boring is what makes a good heel. Finishing run was good too. Truth and Elgin both run interference, and Roddy hits the Sick Kick and then the Release Suplex Backbreaker to retain.
**1/2

Match #5: Sara Del Rey vs. MsChif

SDR gets three minutes and basically squashes MsChif for some reason. They work well together, but it's just too short. SDR hits a wrist-clutch Angle Slam for the win.
*3/4

Post-match, Del Rey spits on MsChif and stands over her, BUT MSCHIF SPRAYS MIST UP INTO HER FACE TOO! MsChif leaves and SDR is briefly blinded.

ROH MOMENT: Joe vs. Kobashi

Match #6: The Kings of Wrestling [c] vs. The All Night Express [ROH World Tag Team Championship]
Before The Shield broke loose and the Kings never ended up happening in WWE or NXT, I would have said the Kings of Wrestling were going to be the best tag team of their generation, and it's based on something like this. A lesser team would try and fit ANX into their formula or drag a great ROH style match out of them. Hero and Claudio clearly seem to know that isn't going to happen, so they make this only 15-16 minutes and go pure heel/face in an effort to make the ANX. And it totally fucking works. ANX have some actual good basic tag stuff here, and are seemingly working at 150% of their abilities tonight. They get too fancy and get caught and the Kings have their awesome control segment. Kenny King has the best hot tag of his career and they do some actual great nearfalls, sticking with the theme of overconfidence hurting the Kings until they could pull out tricks. King botches taking a UFO at the end, but when he goes for the Coronation on Claudio, HERO HITS HIM WITH THE LOADED ELBOW AND CLAUDIO FALLS ON TOP TO WIN! Awesome storytelling that they actually stuck with, cool spots, a hot crowd, and they made their point and got out with zero overkill. Don't be shocked if this takes MOTY.
***1/2

Match #7: Christopher Daniels [c] vs. Eddie Edwards [ROH World Television Championship - Best Two of Three Falls]

This is another one that easily could have been terrible, as it's a thirty minute draw. But they have a basic story to tell and stick with it without blowing anything too early. Daniels sticks with his plan of working the neck because that's what he did when he won the title, so why change that? On the other hand, Eddie is more aggressive than in the first match. Daniels' neck work idea wins out and he has a lot of good and varied stuff. Eddie has an awesome comeback, including a big crowd dive, AND HOLY SHIT, HE SELLS THE NECK WHILE HE'S DOING BIG OFFENSE! EDDIE EDWARDS SOMEHOW BECAME A REALLY GOOD WRESTLER, ALTHOUGH NOT QUITE GREAT! CORNER BELLY TO BELLY HAPPENS! FUCK YEAH 2005! There's a few stupid looking things because this is still an ROH epic, but there's so little in comparison to others. Daniels gets a fancy roll up forcing the pressure on Eddie's bad neck, and that gets the three count to go 1-0 at 23 minutes. They stay at a good pace, and break new ground with a BLUE THUNDER DRIVER ON THE APRON HOLY SHIT. They then neutralize the coolness of that by having Eddie kick out of a Piledriver. Eddie catches Daniels repeating a move a little later and rolls through into the Achilles Lock to go 1-1 with a little over three minutes left. Daniels splits his head open on something and they both fall out to the floor. Eddie slides in and the ref is at the count of nine when the time expires.
***1/4

Daniels is taken to the back after he regains consciousness, and Eddie is pissed. Nice little deal that Eddie demanded an overtime and ended up losing the title, but now Daniels is too hurt for one and basically saves the title as a result.

Match #8: The Briscoes vs. WGTT
The Briscoes absolutely do their best, but Haas refuses to be a part of a great tag match if he can help it. Shelton tries and has some great stuff, but Haas seriously brings this down with his general lack of any effort OR his lack of any real skill anymore. I can't figure out for the life of me which one is actually is. They try to do a super even dream match type deal for 20+ minutes too, which kind of sucks. They also needed a much better crowd than they had, as the last two awesome matches burned them out and this never really succeeded in winning anyone back. WGTT kind of abruptly wins with a Hart Attack/Blockbuster, since they hadn't ever established that as a finisher, in ROH or their WWE run.
**1/2


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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Christopher Daniels, Since 1/31/2011

ROH Wrestling
February 28th, 2011
Philadelphia, PA

Match #1: Adam Cole vs. Mike Bennett w/ Bob Evans [Top Prospect Tournament - Quarterfinals]

Steve Corino is again watching ringside. This tournament could have honestly been saved. You run with an Elgin victory instead of Bennett, and give him Cole in the finals and Kyle in the semis. Of course, that never happens. I'm not the biggest Cole fan or anything, but you can see watching this why Cole is the ROH World Champion at the time I write this three years later and Bennett is still receiving a super forced push that nobody wants. Cole has good basics, strikes, and taunting of PRODIGY in a babyface way. Bennett brings basically nothing to this and then wins with the shitty Side Effect, because of course. You can actually hear the life come out of the crowd.
**

On the apron, Kyle asks Corino about the match. He says he has one criticism and says from experience, overconfidence can cost him matches and says anyone can beat him if he lets them slip by. Bennett says to sit down in his chair and leave wrestling to the real athletes. I am not at all excited for this feud where Corino probably never wins a match,

TONIGHT: DANIELS/KING FOR THE TV TITLE!

Match #2: Michael Elgin w/ Truth Martini vs. Bobby Dempsey [Top Prospect Tournament - Quarterfinals]
Good Elgin showcase as his power stuff stands out even more when he's hurling around fat ass Bobby Dempsey. Elgin wins quickly with the Spiral Bomb.
*1/4

We now have Kyle vs. Elgin in the semi-finals.

In the back, Steve Corino wishes both guys in the final tournament match good luck.

Match #3: Andy Ridge vs. Grizzly Redwood [Top Prospect Tournament - Quarterfinals]
This was terrible. It got six minutes and while Ridge has a few nice things, it's way too long for a 50/50 match with Grizzly Redwood, as the crowd totally died. Grizzly botched a 619 at the end and then Ridge Superkicks him out of the air to finally end it.
3/4*

In the back, Prince Nana and Ernesto Osiris introduce Princess Mia Yim and they say The Embassy is rebuilding.

NEXT WEEK: STRONG/GENERICO/JAY BRISCOE/HOMICIDE!

Match #4: Christopher Daniels [c] vs. Kenny King [ROH World Television Championship]
This was super average and even on a sliding scale, this is really fucking average. Holds were done and Daniels was able to get something decent out of King, but he wasn't trying very hard to do anything more than that for the 10-11 minutes this went. King basically got nothing in besides some roll ups at the end and Daniels wins with the Angel's Wings. I'm not opposed to King being treated like this when he can't do anything very good as a singles wrestler, but it's a shock compared to his usual matches.
**1/4
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Big Tuna
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Christopher Daniels, Since 1/31/2011

ROH Wrestling
March 7th, 2011
Philadelphia, PA


TONIGHT: THE SEMI-FINALS!

Match #1: Kyle O'Reilly vs. Michael Elgin w/ Truth Martini [Top Prospect Tournament - Semi-Finals]
They almost had a nice power vs. speed sort of deal with Kyle having to chop down the tree. They fuck it up by having Elgin take too many bumps for this kind of a story when he should just be hurling around Kyle and destroying him on strikes to get sympathy, but maybe that's just me wanting to see Kyle die. But yeah basically, they accidentally stumbled into a few cool ideas and then ditched them to trade strikes evenly. Kyle is such a fucking goon and does an apron spot in the middle of a 7 minute opener, showing flashes of the total parody he would become. Kyle O'Reilly makes Tyler Black look like Samoa Joe. Elgin is the closest thing ROH has had to Samoa Joe SINCE Samoa Joe, but he does a job to a really fucking shitty stacking sunset flip. Kyle goes to the finals.
*3/4

MANHATTAN MAYHEM IV - 3/19:
-STRONG [c] VS. EDWARDS FOR THE ROH TITLE

Match #2: Mike Bennett w/ Bob Evans vs. Andy Ridge [Top Prospect Tournament - Semi-Finals]
This happened. Ridge has good kick offense, and that's the best part of this. Ridge then makes up for doing something good by botching running the ropes and holy fuck, how do you let a man who can't run the ropes on TV? Bennett again looks fresh out of wrestling school with a lot of his super obvious mat slapping bumps and after stuff, Bennett wins with the Side Effect.
3/4*

Post-match, PRODIGY again antagonizes Corino at ringside.

So next week is the final ROH on HDNet regular episode. Their deal runs out in early April and they have a special recap episode in early April, but for all intents and purposes, this is the end. And we get to celebrate that with Kyle O'Reilly vs. Mike Bennett in what could be an all-time nightmare match. Fuck this company.

In the back, Jim Cornette is with Davey Richards and Tony Kozina and he talks about them having some MMA style showcase next week with submission and KO only rules. Jim Cornette sounds so fucking thrilled as he talks about training methods and how this is cutting edge despite them doing stuff Bryan Danielson and Low Ki were doing a fucking decade ago. He's filmed from the chest up, so in addition to being rock hard, he's probably jerking off.

Match #3: Roderick Strong w/ Truth Martini vs. El Generico vs. Jay Briscoe vs. Homicide
ROH is also running this match on their 3/18 show, so this is absolutely horrible planning. This sees both Roddy and Homicide clearly taking the night off and putting it practically in neutral before the finishing run. Generico and Jay try pretty hard though and have some good mat-type stuff. The finishing run is also pretty clearly held back, so I guess they're protecting the next version of this match for a house show by putting on a super held back house show effort on TV that more people will see. LOGIC! Generico hits Jay with the Brainbuster, but Strong throws him out and he vultures the pin for the win.
**
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Christopher Daniels, Since 1/31/2011

ROH Wrestling
March 14th, 2011
Philadelphia, PA


In the back, Steve Corino talks to Grizzly and Bobby before their match with the Bravados. He warns them that there's something not right with the Bravados and it takes one to know one. He says he's been watching them and a fox smells its own hole, so he's warning them not to take them lightly.

Match #1: The Bravado Brothers vs. Grizzly Redwood/Bobby Dempsey
This is a showcase for the Bravados, which is a bad idea. I would say that I don't totally understand their push given how inexperienced they still are, but then you can look at Bennett and Kyle and ANX and that clearly doesn't matter to people, so I'll just remark that much like a lot of the roster, they are not very good. They do a schoolyard trip spot on Dempsey for the win after five minutes of basic kick-punch. Man alive, this sucked.
1/2*

A recap airs of the Top Prospect Tournament.

Match #2: Davey Richards vs. Tony Kozina [MMA RULES]
There are no punches or strikes to the back of the head or knees to a grounded opponent, and it's TKO, KO or tap out. This has a weird effect where it brings out the best in Davey Richards. Davey is the kind of guy who wants to be a great wrestler and blends a bunch of styles without a lot of thought as to how stuff fits together. When he's forced to work one kind of style like this, it's really good. They do five minutes of matwork and stuff and the worst part is that Cornette and Kyle O'Reilly are on commentary and spending the match sucking Davey's cock. Davey wins by ref stoppage with palm strikes to the face.
**1/4

The Embassy comes out, now with Nana's lawyer R.D. Evans, and introduces his new project, Tomasso Ciampa. God damnit.

Match #3: Tomasso Ciampa w/ The Embassy vs. Mike Sydal
Mike is still absolutely horrible. Ciampa is pretty basic and bland, but generally better than Mike Bennett. They were both guys ROH signed from a tryout camp where Jim Cornette made the calls and you can tell. They're both guys with very good looks but not a ton going on in the ring. ROH used to be able to pick the best young talent in wrestling, and at some point in the late 2000s, they stopped that when they fired Gabe and ROH never got to see dudes like Callihan full time or Rich Swann or Ricochet or Gargano or or Del Sol or Chuckie T. Now they get these assholes. He does nothing but at least has a cool finish with the Powerbomb Lungblower.
1/2*

FINAL HDNET MAIN EVENT IN THREE WEEKS: KOW/STRONG VS. DAVEY/BRISCOES

Match #4: Kyle O'Reilly vs. Mike Bennett w/ Bob Evans [Top Prospect Tournament - Finals]
Steve Corino is watching ringside again, now in different polo shirt than he wore backstage for some reason. This got time, and it was a bad match. You can say a million things, but why bother? It's two bad wrestlers having to kill 10 minutes and try and have a big star-making match too. They start with a ton of big stuff culminating in a DDT ON THE FUCKING STEEL RAMP for a transition. Kyle has the one good selling moment I've ever seen from him but makes it in before the 20 count. AND AFTER THAT, BENNETT GOES TO GENERIC FUCKING CHINLOCKERY FOR HIS CONTROL SEGMENT INSTEAD OF FINISHING HIM. THIS MATCH IS STUPID BY ANY KIND OF FUCKING LOGIC TOO. He comes back super quick and does a lot of shitty stuff. He has a really horrible looking Front Guillotine Choke, but Bennett powers out into the Side Effect to win. I liked this until the DDT spot, and then it became almost embarrassingly bad.
*

Fuckface Durden gets in the ring, and Bennett calls out Steve Corino for his shitty advice, and says to leave wrestling to him and he won't have to beat his ass. Steve Corino gets in the ring and Bennett says to do himself a favor and wheel himself back up the ramp. Corino says he came here to watch, not fight, and asks if he wants him to put him over on the mic and asks if that'll make him feel like more of a man. He's not going to do that, and says overconfidence is going to be his worst enemy. He didn't come here to ruin his moment and Bennett says this is his moment and says to stay out of his way. Corino says 15 years ago, he was just like him. Not as jacked or good looking, but a total asshole just like him. Now he doesn't have anyone's respect, because he was overconfident and took every shortcut to be on top, and now he's nothing. Bennett says again to stay out of his business and Evans pokes him, so Corino fights them until he gets laid out with the Side Effect. Good booking in theory, but then fuck Mike Bennett.

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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH VIDEO WIRE - 3/16/2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXLZBqZbHKc

In a bar, Steve Corino sits to cut a promo with a beer in front of him. He says recovery is twelve steps when you're an alcoholic, but his is going to take more. The big step happens on March 19th when he steps back into New York City. It's always brought out the evil in him and he's done some bad things there. He has Mike Bennett on March 19th and like he's trying not to drink this beer, he's trying not to do to the evil things he wants to do that he has in his mind. He has to try not to do the things he wants to do. New York City may not like him, but one thing he hates more than NYC is Mike Bennett. He's disrespected him a little too much, and he may fall off the wagon for one night, but it ends.

In the back, Mike Bennett and Bob Evans cut a promo. Bob says what Daniels got from Eddie Edwards is nothing compared to March 18th when Mike Bennett gets his shot. Bennett says 2011 is the year of the Prodigy. Bennett says he doesn't have to prove anything and he went through everyone in the tournament for this shot. Bennett says he's putting the title on his trophy case in Boston, and says he's coming for Corino the next night. He says overconfidence has gotten him this far so far, so Corino's point is lost. He says he doesn't care about his recovery or how evil he is, but he's the PRODIGY and he's just that good. Terrible terrible catchphrase.

In an arcade in Chicago, Roderick Strong cuts a promo with Truth there. Strong says he beat Homicide at his own game tonight, and Truth says Homicide put his hands on him but nobody does that, but Roderick put him in his place. Strong says now that this is over, he's going to New York to fight the other American Wolf, Marty Jannetty. Excuse him, he means Eddie Edwards. He says he respects his drive and passion, but he's never fought someone like him and in NYC, his dreams will be shattered. Only the Strong survive.

In the back, Eddie Edwards cuts a promo. He says to flash back a couple of years when the American Wolves formed and set on a hunt to be Tag Champions and they did it. Flash back to last year when he won the TV Title for the first time, and now he has a shot to be the first man to ever win the ROH Title on his first try (y'know besides Low Ki, the first champion. Or Xavier. Or Samoa Joe. Or Austin Aries. Or Morishima.) and become the first ever Triple Crown Champion. He says he's teamed with Roddy in Japan and he knows what type of man he is. He says he won Survival of the Fittest with one arm to get this shot and he's fought through everything for this. This goes another three minutes, so I skipped ahead. Eddie should not cut promos.

In the back, The Embassy cuts a promo. Nana says in 2011, The Embassy is going up, totally up. By his side, he has the Princess Mia, and he's been dilligently working on his project. He's given him everything for 6-7 months and now he's here to win gold.

In the back, Davey Richards cuts a promo. He starts by saying his name is Wesley David Richards, and he doesn't play a character. Fuck this.
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Christopher Daniels, Since 1/31/2011

ROH Defy or Deny
March 18th, 2011
Plymouth, MA


I've quit on this show twice in the last 15 hours, so I ended up short recapping the first two matches.

Mark Briscoe vs. Kyle O'Reilly - **3/4
-Not as good as Jay/Kyle, but this had a shittier crowd. Mark wins with the Frog Elbow.

The All Night Express vs. Steve Corino/Grizzly Redwood - *3/4
-This went like 13 minutes and was absurdly long for an obvious showcase win.

Match #3: Adam Cole vs. Tomasso Ciampa w/ The Embassy
They tried hard at least, and this getting 14 minutes allowed me to get a pretty good read on Ciampa. He hits hard and clearly puts in a lot of effort, but he is not a natural athlete and doesn't seem to know that. He can barely get up for a dropkick and then he basics the fuck out of a control segment with stomping and choking. What the fuck is up with all these guys in the 2010s seemingly idolizing Mike Rotunda? He at least hits harder than Bennett so there's something. Cole has a good comeback, and even with some of his worse tendencies, he's the best young guy in ROH besides Elgin. So of course, Ciampa wins with his Project Ciampa move.
**1/4

In the back, both Cole and O'Reilly are disappointed with their losses and the Bravados come by and tell them to keep their chins up and watch them if they want to learn something.

Match #4: Chris Hero w/ Shane Hagadorn vs. TJ Perkins
Awesome awesome match. Only 15 minutes and that helps it a lot. Great great matwork to start, and then they work a big/small match with TJ needed high flying and crazy matwork to have a shot. With an actual crowd and not a venue full of corpses (although it's hard to blame them after the last two matches), this could have been more than just a great match, but alas. Hero wins with the Cyclone Kill.
***1/4

Match #5: The Bravado Brothers vs. Mike Taven/Guy Alexander

Another ill advised Bravados showcase. They get a cheap win with the tights, and while I like the gimmick of cheating lucky jobbers, it makes for some terrible matches like this.
1/2*

Match #6: Eddie Edwards vs. Michael Elgin w/ Truth Martini

This was very good. They have a great match in them, I think, but this took a little while to get going while Elgin is still finding himself and they don't have an actual crowd for this so much as seemingly a bunch of hostages instructed to make as little noise as possible. There's a very good finishing run of stuff, but it was just stuff. They had an easy story to tell with Eddie chopping down the big man over time to put over his persistence and work ethic before the title match tomorrow, but they just sort of traded stuff instead. Eddie calls out Roderick Strong by name before he wins with a 2K1 Bomb. I'm positive these two eventually have a rematch, so I'm excited for that.
**1/2

Match #7: Christopher Daniels [c] vs. Mike Bennett w/ Bob Evans [ROH World Television Championship]

This went like 17 minutes and was a real fucking chore. Daniels seems to realize how insanely limited PRODIGY is and doesn't put in a lot of effort as a result. This was weirdly worked too, as Daniels controlled most of it, not aware that Bennett is actually a heel. The idea of Bennett being so heatless and completely un-over that Daniels seemingly thought he was a new guy is super amusing, but they've interacted so we know that's bullshit. I would then have to assume that Daniels realizes how terrible Bennett is, and decided he was going to give him nothing. Which while amusing, makes for a super fucking dull match. Bennett has nothing to offer in the way of nearfall stuff too, yet again showing how out of his depth he is. If the goal of this was exposing Mike Bennett in a massive way, they did a wonderful job and succeeded. Steve Corino comes out to stop PRODIGY from using the title and Daniels retains with the Uranage and BME.
*3/4

Match #8: Davey Richards vs. Claudio Castagnoli w/ Sara Del Rey & Shane Hagadorn

Claudio now tries his hand at this for twenty minutes. This is ten less than Hero had to deal with, so he has a little more success, but this is still not good. Davey has such a lame and safe hands out Tope Suicida that it's actually shocking. There's a lot you can criticize in his game (A LOT!) but he's usually nice and reckless on his dives, even if they seem choreographed that way. But this was like a Kofi Kingston dive. Claudio takes over after a distraction and has some fantastic power spots. The disparity is such that you can easily tell which one of them at present time is a Paul Heyman Guy and future top babyface and which is part of a tag team in TNA. Davey has a shitty comeback. They do a logical story of Davey having to do high flying to counteract Claudio's power and technical edge, which is nice. The problem is that Davey is a TERRIBLE high flyer with everything again looking so painfully practiced and planned out and awkward because he's packed on too much muscle at this point. Davey wins with an SSP.
**1/4

Match #9: Roderick Strong w/ Truth Martini vs. El Generico vs. Jay Briscoe vs. Homicide [DEFY OR DENY ELIMINATION MATCH]

Stupid name aside, there is a stipulation here. If Roderick Strong wins, none of these men can challenge him for the title again. If any of the others win, then they get the title shot on April 2nd on iPPV against whoever is champion between Strong, Eddie, or Daniels. This needlessly goes like 32 minutes because someone gave the roster a talk and lied and said all main events on b-shows have to go 30 minutes or more. They clearly do not give a shit in the first half and the first 15 minutes is obvious filler in front of a dead crowd. Homicide is out first after a Jay Driller, and then it picks up. Jay/Generico is really good, and Generico hits the Brainbuster. Strong vultures the win like on TV, and eliminates Jay. Generico vs. Roddy is pretty solid and actually worthy of a main event. Generico even manages to get this crowd cheering for things. Truth distracts the ref though, and Elgin comes out to save Roddy. He hits Generico with the Spiral Bomb, and Strong follows that with the Sick Kick for the win.
**1/4
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The Master and Ruler Of The World

ROH World Champion: Roderick Strong, Since 9/11/2010
ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Kings of Wrestling, Since 4/3/2010
ROH World Television Champion: Christopher Daniels, Since 1/31/2011

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ROH Manhattan Mayhem IV
March 19th, 2011
Manhattan, NY

Match #1: Adam Cole/Kyle O'Reilly vs. Michael Elgin/Mike Mondo w/ Truth Martini

Mondo is trying out for the House of Truth, so this is a test. When Elgin is in, this is very good. His power spots mesh well with the babyfaces, especially with Cole. Kyle is still doing his super practiced Davey Richards lite deal and is quite terrible at that, but when he gets into other stuff, he can be alright. This is helped out a lot by only being 12 minutes, so they can do a lot of cool stuff without overstaying their welcome. Mondo impresses absolutely nobody and he gets beat with a Superkick/German Suplex combo from the kids. With someone who was better than Mondo and could do, say, anything well, this could have been great.
**1/2

Post-match, Elgin hits Mondo with the Spiral Bomb and leaves with Truth.

Match #2: Tomasso Ciampa w/ The Embassy vs. Grizzly Redwood
This is fine in theory as a squash of an established jobber to get a new guy over, but it goes seven minutes. This is problematic as Ciampa doesn't have a lot to really fill that amount of time in the back and forth style he lets the match become. So this dies a slow death in front of the crowd before Ciampa wins with Project Ciampa.
3/4*

Post-match, The Embassy beats down Redwood, BUT STEVE CORINO COMES OUT TO SAVE AND RUNS THEM OFF! YEAH!

Mike Bennett then comes out in a Red Sox jersey to try and get that desperate cheap heat. It doesn't work. Bennett gets on the microphone and says he's about to knock Corino off the wagon tonight when he humiliates him. Corino gets his own mic and says he's made a mistake taking this match. Not because he's afraid of Mike Bennett, but he's afraid of how he feels and says if he wrestles him, he's going to give in and he can't become this man again. He says he'll even walk out on him now because he's done too much. The crowd chants "WE WANT STEEN" and Corino says he does too but they can't have him, and it's his fault and says he's sorry to Kevin wherever he is. Bennett says he's not some fat unemployed loser and he needs to call him by the proper name. PRODIGY. Corino then hits him and the match happens.

Match #3: Steve Corino vs. Mike Bennett w/ Bob Evans
Corino does what he can, but he's not going to be the guy to make a boring guy not super boring in ROH 2011 when he's just doing a normal match. Corino is amazing at working his gimmick and keeps trying to get it back into the ring because the ringside environment is too tempting. Corino's punches are awesome as they've been for like 11 years at this point, while PRODIGY throws some truly horrible overhand jabs for some reason. Kevin Kelly, ever the shill for Cornette's boys, claims that the crowd loving Corino shows how hated Bennett is. NO. HE'S BEEN A NAME GUY FOR 11 FUCKING YEARS NOW AND IT'S A SHOW IN A HUGE SMARK CITY IN A BUILDING CORINO'S BEEN WRESTLING IN FOR 11 YEARS. THE FACT THAT IT'S NOT A LOUDER CHANT SHOWS HOW NOBODY GIVES A FUCK ABOUT ANYTHING INVOLVING MIKE BENNETT. His control seg sucks, so Corino comes back early and does a nearfall run. Corino gives in and brings back the thumb in the bum, but it's his downfall. Right after, Bob hits Corino with a chain and then PRODIGY hits his dumb ass Side Effect twice, but Corino kicks out. FUCK YOU. A third one beats Corino. Corino begrudgingly putting this asshole over while also exposing how shitty he is is fantastic.
**1/4

Post-match, he hits Corino with a Piledriver and leave. Corino gets up with some help, but shoves everyone off and leaves by himself.

Match #4: The Briscoes vs. The All Night Express
This is much more like it. It's again a match where they have under 15 minutes and the match is much better for it, because it's very compact and to the point. It's a good face/face spotfest early on, with some sloppiness on Rhett's end, but then the tone completely shifts. The Briscoes have enough after maybe five minutes of that, AND GO APESHIT ON THE FLOOR. BRUTAL BOOTS TO KING BY JAY. MARK SLAMS RHETT'S FACE INTO THE RAILING LIKE TEN TIMES IN A ROW! RHETT BLEEDS AND THEY PUNCH AND BITE AT IT. They get back inside with a clear focus, and the crowd starts to get behind ANX, and the Briscoes are pissed. Jay and Mark have some amazing strikes and everything looks hateful and violent. It's like someone woke them both up and said that it's fine to be a GOOD tag team like they've been for a while, but they can be a GREAT tag team if they apply themselves, and that's what happened. This is also one of the rare times post-2008 ROH went for something and got it completely right. The idea is a double turn where the established guys underestimate the cocky young heels and get caught sleeping and the young guys come out looking better. King again stepped up huge in his hot tag, and while Rhett wasn't amazing, his role was the guy who got beat up and then pulled off a roll up win, and he did that fine enough. He ducks the Doomsday Device and gets a Victory Roll for the win!
***1/4

Post-match, The Briscoes attack Rhett and beat the fuck out of him again. They attack King too, and Jay straight up chokes Rhett before people try and break it up. The Briscoes throw them out, and take Rhett out to the floor. They go for the Spike Jay Driller on the floor, BUT KING SAVES WITH A DIVE! FUCK YEAH SOMEHOW! They have an awesome more even pull-apart then, and The Briscoes lay them out with chair shots.

Match #5: El Generico vs. TJ Perkins
This only gets seven minutes because ROH 2011 is still run by an idiot who hates El Generico and refuses to embrace one of the most over faces in all of indy wrestling and the best babyface of a generation. Anyways, they make up for the bad time issue by just going totally nuts. Everything is super crisp and smooth, and the finish is amazing. TJ goes for a Tope Suicida, but GENERICO CATCHES HIM, ADJUSTS, AND HITS THE BRAINBUSTER ONTO THE APRON! Generico rolls him in after that for three.
***

Match #6: The Kings of Wrestling w/ Shane Hagadorn & Sara Del Rey vs. LAX

Dream match here, despite it being 2-3 years too late for Homicide. While not what it could have been in 2008 or 2009, this is still a total blast and is super simple heel/face stuff. Homicide tries a lot, and the Claudio/Hernandez strength showdowns are the best. Awesome Kings control segment on Homicide, which is the best use of him at this point. Hernandez as the hot tag is also the best use, and they have a great finishing run. Awesome dives with the Border Toss onto the Kings AND THEN THE SWEET HERNANDEZ DIVE! FUCK YEAH! Great nearfalls without going too overboard, and Homicide is hit with the Cyclone Kill/Bicycle Knee at the same time, and then Claudio hits a Shotgun European Uppercut to win.
***1/4

Match #7: Davey Richards vs. Christopher Daniels [Pure Title Rules]

I like the idea behind the booking here. Davey's challenged Daniels to a match like this to improve his ground game on the track to the World Title. Daniels doesn't let that happen though as he's getting more aggressive going into his title shot on the next show. Daniels goes after the neck and has a much stronger mastery of the rules having challenged both Samoa Joe and Nigel McGuinness in Pure Title matches in the past. Daniels forces a rope break early on with a headscissors so close that Davey went to the ropes on instinct, so it's 3-2 on rope breaks early. Daniels has a super nasty kind of neck hold using his legs and Davey's arm, so Davey has to go to the ropes there too, putting it at 3-1. Davey comes back AND HOLY SHIT HE ACTUALLY SELLS HIS NECK FOR A PROLONGED PERIOD OF TIME! Daniels uses a break to escape the Cloverleaf, putting it at 2-1. He uses another to escape an Ankle Lock, so it's 1-1. Davey uses his last to escape the Koji Clutch. Daniels uses his to escape a Cross Armbreaker. Davey now gets kind of Daveyish, but Daniels does what he can to reign that in and does a great job of it. Davey's also moving much faster than he has been all year for some reason. God damnit, this is a great match on the sliding scale, and maybe outside of it on a low level. It ends sort of abruptly when Davey gets ZERO forward distance on his SSP and just lands stomach-first to the side on the top rope. He gets a quick roll up after that to win. It cuts it short, yes, but also prevents the match from getting too ridiculous, so there's a silver lining.
***

Before the main event, Strong sends Truth to the back and says he's got this.

Match #8: Roderick Strong [c] vs. Eddie Edwards [ROH World Championship]
This is also weirdly great. It's a bit long in the middle and they could have done this with 20 minutes and not 25, but it's great. Strong is super cocky after his win last night and doesn't treat Eddie as a big threat, but Eddie slowly inches in on him. One of my favorite stories in wrestling is when a champion slowly realizes he's in over his head and panic sets in, and this did a great job of that. This is helped a lot by ROH creating certain expectations for two years to where the titles can only change hands on iPPV or TV, so while Eddie inches in, nobody believes he has an actual shot. In many ways, this is a blander version of what they did with Samoa Joe losing to Aries. Nobody went in thinking it would happen, but they made everyone buy in during the match and created a very memorable moment. This didn't have the amazing storytelling and energy and pace of the best title switch in ROH history, but it's Strong vs. Edwards, so it's not like that was going to really happen. Dramatic finishing run to give them credit, and when Strong tries to turn out of the Achilles Lock set up to try a Victory Roll, Eddie sits down on it for the three AND EDDIE WINS THE TITLE IN A SHOCKER!
***

Davey Richards comes out and after a staredown, they hug and celebrate.

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ROH VIDEO WIRE - 3/24/2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcXC0O8Op78

In the back, Eddie Edwards cuts a promo. He says it's been fifteen minutes since he won this and became the first ever ROH Triple Crown winner, but he has Christopher Daniels again at Honor Takes Center Stage in two weeks. He says Chris has beaten him twice and fought him to a draw, and now it's for the new World Champion to finally take down the Fallen Angel. The hunt continues in Atlanta.

In the shower part of the locker room, Steve Corino tries to look at himself in the mirror but he can't, and shuts the door on the camera man.

In the back, Truth is with Michael Elgin. He says four months ago, a man told him he wanted to succeed in life, so he told him to come to the beach at six in the morning and he would show him. He showed up and he's asking him to come in the water. The first thing he does is he dumps his head in the water. His legs are going and his arms are going, but he pulls him back out and asked what he wanted most in that moment, and he told him that he wanted to breath. When you want to be successful as bad as you want to breath, that's when you gain success, and that man was Michael Elgin. He says on April 1st, Michael Elgin gets El Generico and he's banned from ringside for some reason. Elgin says men are supposed to learn from their mistakes and Generico was given his second chance when he walked out of Chicago on his own free will. Elgin says the Mayan calendar says the world ends in 2012, but El Generico will be gone long before then.

In the back, RD Evans says he was the man Prince Nana contacted to make his life easier and he found true love in the divine Princess Mia. He says his night in shining armor is true Sicilian royalty, Tomasso Ciampa, and they have Ernesto the court jester. He says they need a palace guard and they've acquired the services of DAVE TAYLOR! YEAH! Prince Nana asks if these idiots even realize who Dave Taylor is and says Colt Cabana wants hold for hold competition, and Dave Taylor will being him that and bring The Embassy the money.

In the back, Roderick Strong throws a fit and says he kicked out. Truth says this is a conspiracy and there's always another chance.

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