Welcome to the ROHbot Report, covering all the news, the need to know happenings in Ring of Honor, and my feelings on it. Everything in italics is the news/headlines provided by rohwrestling.com (unless otherwise noted). Today we look at the historic happenings of last weekend’s events that saw a new tag champs crowned, and a pay-per-view taping. Here are the results from both shows, courtesy of pwinsider.com.

Hartford, CT 6/6 results:
Ring of Honor Tag Team Tournament Round One:
Adam Pearce & Chris Hero defeated Jigsaw & Ruckus.
Kevin Steen & El Generico defeated ROH champ Nigel McGuinness & Go Shiozaki. Nigel tapped out to a Steen Sharpshooter.
Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black defeated Delirious & Pelle Primeau. Afterwards, Delirious asked Daizee Haze out again. Rhett Titus came out. Haze went off on Rhett and walked out.
Austin Aries & Bryan Danielson defeated Roderick Strong & Davey Richards of No Remorse Corps.
Semi-Finals:
Kevin Steen & El Generico defeated. Chris Hero & Adam Pearce.
Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black defeated Austin Aries & Bryan Danielson via DQ when Aries used a chair about a minute in.
Shane Hagadorn defeated Alex "Sugarfoot" Payne.
Claudio Castagnoli defeated Eddie Edwards.
Erick Stevens defeated The Necro Butcher and Brent Albright.
Age of the Fall won the ROH Tag Team championship, defeating Kevin Steen & El Generico. The crowd threw a ton of crap, including a chair, into the ring after the match. Think Hulk Hogan's WCW heel turn in terms of garbage being thrown.

Well, as Adam (a friend of mine) said, The Vulture Squad proved in having no chance. I should’ve changed my predictions, but I just stuck with my guns. Glad I’m not a betting man. I was wrong in my prediction for a winner, but I wasn’t wrong in Steenerico not winning. I just have a feeling that Steen will pull a Homicide 2006 before the end of the year, winning the title from Nigel after being screwed out of his title match a couple of months ago. And what about the champs? That’s some heat right there, right? I’m sticking with my theories that it was heat due to Steenerico not winning as opposed to Age of the Fall’s great heel status. Oh yeah, Rhett Titus= Conniving C*ck Blocker.

Ring of Honor Respect is Earned II PPV Spoilers in Philadelphia, PA 6/7
Kevin Steen & El Generico defeat Ruckus & Jigsaw. Fun opener.
Claudio Castagnoli defeated Davey Richards.
Brent Albright & Delirious & Pelle Primeau defeated Chris Hero & Adam Pearce & Eddie Edwards. After the match, Pearce nailed Albright with his briefcase, then revealed the NWA championship belt inside.
Roderick Strong defeated Erick Stevens in a Fight Without Honor after a superplex off a ladder through tables. Larry Sweeney asked Strong to join Sweet N' Sour Inc but Strong refuses. Strong's cohort Davey Richards tries to convince Strong, but he refuses, leading to Strong being laid out and Richards joining. Said to have been great.
Delirious calls out Daizee Haze for another attempt at getting a date. Rhett Titus comes out, but this time babyfaces them both and apologizes to Haze, then asks Haze to go out with both of them together. Haze agrees.
ROH champ Nigel McGuinness defeated Go Shiozaki with the London Dungeon submission. Bryan Danielson comes out and challenges Nigel to a match. Solid.
ROH Tag Team champions Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black defeated Austin Aries & Bryan Danielson to retain. Aries and Jacobs fought to the back. Tyler Black hit Dragon with a Phoenix splash for the pin. Nigel McGuinness comes out and tells Danielson that he can have a title shot when he proves he can beat everyone Nigel has...and he just lost to Black, who Nigel beat at the last PPV, so he has work to do.
Dark Matches:
Jigsaw defeated Eddie Kingston and was attacked by BLKOUT.
Necro Butcher defeated Jay Briscoe in a falls count anywhere match. Said to have been a great brawl.

I’ve heard that the ROH title match wasn’t a blow away good time, just like I predicted. Solid, but nothing too memorable. From what I’ve heard, the match of the night was the Fight Without Honor. Stevens and Strong have had some hard-hitting classics over the past year, and I wasn’t surprised about reception. I am shocked by the outcome as I thought Stevens would pick up the win with the FIP title not being on the line. Then there’s the leaving of Davey Richards from the No Remorse Corps. Hey, I don’t blame Davey. All he’s been is a bagboy for the group. Every time he tries to go out, Roderick and Rocky send him off to go shine belts, or keep the hotel room occupied. With Sweet & Sour Inc. Davey doesn’t have to worry about those lowly duties. Bobby Dempsey and Shane Hagadorn have him covered. I know a lot of people are predicting that Bryan Danielson will be the man to unseat Nigel with this gauntlet the champ has set up for Danielson. But I’m sticking with my guns and saying Steen will be right there to take down the weakened McGuinness once Danielson fails. It’s just like 2006. Samoa Joe chased Danielson for the belt, only to come up short, keeping him worn down for Homicide, who took the belt from Danielson at Final Battle 2006 (a show I hope to have a review up on the website soon). Respect Is Earned 2 is scheduled to be shown on 8/1. PS: Rhett Titus=Ultimate C*ck Blocker.

Speaking of 8/1…

We already know that Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin will be special attractions for 8/1 in Virginia & 8/2 at the Hammerstein Ballroom and that Lance Storm will be a special guest on 7/25 in Toronto and 7/26 in Detroit. Now another big special attraction has been added to those events. Naomichi Marufuji will have a one week tour of ROH. He is now signed to compete in Toronto, Detroit, Manassas and Manhattan!!! This series of shows won't need any hype, but you better believe we will hype the hell out of it in the upcoming weeks!!!

Hopefully I’ll be in attendance for MCMG in VA. Marufuji, who put on a show in Manassas last time, is a welcome addition to these can’t miss events. And then there’s Lance Strom, who will be just making an appearance/autograph signing, but not in action. Sucks, I know. But with the Detroit show being a PPV taping, you have to know something big is going to happen. Before we can get to those events though, we have to head to Chicago, which will have another former WWE/WCW/ECW talent.

We have a special match signed for 6/28 in Chicago. ROH officials were very impressed with Jerry Lynn's performance earlier this month in FIP. Lynn told them he wants to see if he still has what it takes to make it in ROH. He will get that chance in a major way on June 28th. Chicago will witness ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness vs. Jerry Lynn in a non-title match.

Lynn, who made few stops in ROH during its formative years, taking on Nigel is a wrestling purist’s dream. And with it being non-title, the conclusion is up in the air. Lynn could be the first man to cause Nigel to stumble in his ROH World title reign. I don’t know how many appearances Jerry plans to make, but this could be the beginning of something beautiful. I’m really not one of chronological order (I guess it would be re-chronological order); so let me take a step back to 6/27, the night before Lynn’s ROH return. Here in Dayton, history will be made.

Larry Sweeney has brought the NWA World Heavyweight Title to Ring Of Honor. Adam Pearce has been NWA World Heavyweight Champion since 9/1/07. There is an article on the main page of ROHwrestling.com with more info. The first match involving the NWA World Heavyweight Title has been signed and it is unbelievable. History will be made as the NWA Title and ROH Title collide. 6/27 in Dayton will be ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness vs. NWA World Heavyweight Champion Adam Pearce in a Title vs. Title Match!!! Holy cows, that's really happening on 6/27 in Dayton.

Do I smell a draw? Maybe an intentional disqualification? You know there’s no way we’re getting a clear winner in this one. Even with that, Pearce has been making some waves as NWA champion, and I’m glad to see ROH finally recognizing that he is a champion somewhere else. I mean, Hero & Claudio wore every belt the won and owned to the ring during their KOW days in ROH. With this possible partnership, we could see an influx of NWA talent into ROH, and vice versa. Or we might have another interpromotional war on our hands. This is turning into a very interesting summer for ROH. I’m still disappointed that it wasn’t a cattle prod in the case. I so wish The Mountie would come back.  

Larry Sweeney says he wants to eliminate Strong quickly. He will send Chris Hero after Strong on 6/27 in Dayton. It is official that it will be Roderick Strong vs. Chris Hero when ROH returns to Dayton. Get your tickets now at ROHwrestling.com.
Sweeney is making a lot of enemies and now Sweet & Sour Inc. will be faced with two of them in Chicago on 6/28. In fact, now the ROH athletes are unifying against Sweeney. Chi-Town will see Roderick Strong & Brent Albright team up for the first time as they take on the Sweet & Sour team of NWA World Heavyweight Champion Adam Pearce and a mystery partner. We'll have more on the mystery partner next week as right now Sweeney isn't showing any cards.

Sweet & Sour Inc. are really becoming a force in ROH with the recent events of Pearce’s championship status, Davey’s allegiance, and Albright’s leaving. I guess faction warfare isn’t over just yet.    

From pwinsider.com: Former ROH regular Allison Danger was married over the weekend to European wrestler Ares. Our best to the happy couple.

Congrats to Mrs. Ares. Hopefully she’s washed off the shame of Bobby Dempsey dry humping her. My mind hasn’t.

There have been lots of interesting international negotiations for ROH lately from Canada to Mexico to Japan. Could it be new talent? Maybe new shows? Perhaps it is something else that you can't even imagine or some of everything. Stay tuned!!!

I would love to see an ROH show in Mexico for just the crowd alone. If you’ve ever seen some Lucha, you know there’s nothing like a heated Mexican crowd. It’s like D.C., NYC, Detroit, Chicago, and San Fran rolled into one. As for Japan, we’ve been there, and the Tokyo show was masterful. Can’t say the same for Osaka (definitely not Worth Your Money!).

You won't believe who ROH officials have talked to recently.

I already had a little joke ready for this one involving Mantar, and me wanting him to make a historic comeback to feud with Erick Stevens in “The Battle of the Bulls.” Then I thought about Paul Roma. Who better to show up with all of his conspiracy theories on how “so and so died.” Then ROH decided to post this.

ROH was close to having Ric Flair as a special guest on the 8/2 Manhattan event. However, the deal is now not possible. If ROH had secured Flair attempts would have been made to get Kenta Kobashi to the event so that Kobashi and Flair would have the opportunity to shake hands in front of the crowd. There are no talks of Kobashi returning to ROH.

Okay, I don’t know if this is a rib or what, but if ROH was trying to have Flair show up, then I saw bravo. Could you imagine Flair’s music hitting, causing everyone in the Ballroom to jump to their feet, probably needing a new pair of underwear. Then Kobashi’s music runs through the arena, bringing another series of fluids from the fans that would cause them to just trash their pants after the show. If there were talks, I figure the main reason they failed is because of WWE’s stipulation that Flair can’t be filmed under any banner not named “WWE.” And you know if ROH paid money (and you know it would be a lot of money) to have The Nature Boy to show up, they’d want it on tape. Maybe one day we’ll see these two greats together. Just make sure you have an extra pair of clothes with you when it happens.

KOCH Vision will release ROH's next two DVDs into retail stores everywhere on July 8th. Call your local FYE and Best Buy to tell them to carry ROH's next releases. The next ROH DVDs from KOCH will be:

"Best In The World"
1. Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi- New York, NY 10/01/05
2. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal vs. Dragon Kid & Genki Horiguchi- Detroit, MI, 3/30/06
3. KENTA vs. Austin Aries– Chicago Ridge, IL, 6/24/06
4. Samoa Joe vs. Kikutaro with Mick Foley– Elizabeth, NJ, 2/19/05
5. Bryan Danielson vs. Lance Storm (ROH World Title Match Chicago Ridge, IL, 4/01/06)
6. CM Punk vs. Terry Funk- Philadelphia, PA, 9/20/03
7. Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Naruki Doi & Shingo (ROH World Tag Team Title Match- Liverpool, UK, 3/03/07)
8. Claudio Castagnoli vs. El Generico (Race to the Top Tournament Finals– Edison, NJ, 7/28/07)
9. Takeshi Morishima vs. Nigel McGuinness (ROH World Title Match- Edison, NJ, 4/14/07)

"Greatest Rivalries"
1. CM Punk vs. Raven (Dog Collar Match– Elizabeth, NJ, 7/19/03)
2. Samoa Joe vs. Homicide (ROH World Title Match– Wauwatosa, WI, 7/23/04)
3. AJ Styles with Mick Foley vs. Jimmy Rave (Styles Clash vs. Rave Clash Match– Lake Grove, NY, 9/17/05)
4. Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong (ROH World Tag Team Title Match – Liverpool, UK, 8/12/06)
5. BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs (Steel Cage Match– Detroit, MI, 3/31/07)
6. Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries (3rd Match In The Best of Three Series– Philadelphia, PA 11/2/07)
7. Adam Pearce, Ace Steel, Colt Cabana, & BJ Whitmer vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Super Dragon, Necro Butcher, & Spyder Nate Webb (Team ROH vs. Team CZW Anything Goes Match – Dayton, OH, 4/28/06)
8. Roderick Strong vs. Erick Stevens (FIP World Heavyweight Title Match– New York, NY 12/30/07)

Another solid looking pair of releases, mixed with ROH legends and current talent. I still haven’t picked up the first two releases since I have most of the matches already. Best in the World looks to be the stronger purchase of the two for one reason: Kikutaro!

And that brings up to the biggest ROH news story of the week.

Former Ring of Honor champion and arguably the most important and tenured member of the current ROH roster "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson worked a dark match last night in Oakland, CA to open the Raw taping, defeating fellow Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy graduate Lance Cade. Obviously, Danielson's appearance on the taping is going to spark rumors and speculation.  For whatever it's worth, when contacted about Danielson working the dark match, ROH's Gabe Sapolsky stated, "I have no comment about everything." Danielson was in a featured role in the most recent ROH PPV taping this past weekend in Philadelphia.  That PPV will air this August. Danielson was under a WWE developmental deal early in his career, wrestling for Memphis Wrestling when it was an official WWE territory.  He has made a number of appearances in enhancement roles in the past for WWE, but has not made any such appearances in recent years.

But is this anything to stress over? Or is the IWC overreacting? Yes and no. To ROH fans, and ROHbots alike, Bryan Danielson is looked upon as the heart and soul of ROH. Like Sting was to WCW, Tommy Dreamer to the original ECW, and The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels are to WWE, Danielson is synonymous with Ring of Honor. “American Dragon” is the last link between ROH’s humble beginnings to the Indy juggernaut it’s become today. I’ve been on the message boards, following the opinions of the ROH faithful, and one thing is same: people pay to see Bryan Danielson. One person said on a little message board that he was disappointed in the Philadelphia shows ROH has been producing lately. But he wasn’t upset to spend his money on watching Danielson work. And I couldn’t agree more. I look forward to any DVD release with Danielson’s name on it because I know his match will be something I’ll be watching years from now. I’ve told friends that I consider “American Dragon” this generation’s Bret Hart (who I consider the greatest of all time). Danielson, like many of the greats, could wrestle a retarded monkey (Snitsky?) and make it work. And it would be horrible for ROH to lose a man who, you know, would leave a large gaping hole in the roster, a hole that no one could fill currently on the roster. Bryan Danielson is the type of wrestler that comes around once a generation. And why wouldn’t we ROH faithful want that kind of wrestler on national TV?

We all know what kind of wrestler Vince McMahon likes. Either they’re huge in height and weight, or they’re ripped to shreds. Very few wrestlers have been brought up without a goofy gimmick that's less than 6’1” (Matt “Evan Bourne” Sydal somehow made it through). But we forget that Vince also likes a solid technical wrestler. For every Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior that McMahon has pushed to the moon, he’s followed up with a Bret Hart or a Shawn Michaels, who aren’t the smallest men in the world, but in wrestling are looked at as below average. Vince got behind Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit when it appeared that neither would ever get a World title run. Vince loves to have a technical wrestler that he can push that’s built around that specialty. And what better wrestler is there right now to fill that roll than Danielson? We, as ROH fans, have bragged, and promoted Danielson as “The Best Wrestler In The World,” and now might be the chance for him to show the world on national TV why we feel this way.

Plus, there’s the whole Wellness thing. McMahon still has the government and the media breathing down his neck, and he’s trying his best to avoid commotion on either fronts. Because of this, CM Punk and others have been getting pushes because of their no-nonsense lifestyles that are perfect examples for kids, and what WWE wants to promote. In all honesty, it would be a sore loss for ROH, and its fans, for Danielson to go to WWE. But consider the off chance that Bryan makes it through developmental, coming to WWE as “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson, a workhorse that comes along only once a generation. Think about what would happen if Danielson got over like Hart and Benoit before him. With Danielson’s success could bring the resurgence of the “Wrestling” in World Wrestling Entertainment.

Or maybe I’m blowing this way out of proportion. Especially since ROH posted this: Bryan Danielson worked a dark match for WWE last Monday with the permission of Ring Of Honor. Maybe I got a little ahead of myself thinking that Danielson is moving on to the big leagues. Maybe we all got a little worried that ROH might be losing its greatest ambassador. Maybe… I’ll just say that no matter what happens, I’ll be watching every Danielson ROH match from now on as if it’s his last.

Well, that’s all for this edition of the ROHbot Report. For the latest news concerning Ring of Honor, check out rohwrestling.com

For more information on James Bullock, a.k.a. Me, visit the WWI Forums (I’m under the name “jakeb”), or my myspace at myspace.com/jakeab