1/8/10-Pre-Show:
* Pelle Primeau defeated John Kermon with a tornado DDT. Episode One:
* Jim Cornette brings Tyler Black and Austin Aries to the ring to discuss their match at Final Battle. Tyler said he proved Aries couldn't beat him, while Aries said that he didn't need to beat Tyler, Tyler needed to beat him. Cornette said they're going to settle it once and for all at the next New York show as Aries will defend against Black yet again, but this time there will be three judges at ringside to decide who gets the title in the event of any finish other than a pinfall or submission. Each man gets to pick one judge by the end of the episode, and Cornette will name the third. * Skullkrusher Rasche Brown squashed Bobby Shields in under a minute with the Burning Hammer. Brown got a great reaction from the crowd.
* Kenny King defeated El Generico in a Pick Six series match.
* Jim Cornette, Austin Aries, and Tyler Black come back out to introduce their judges. Aries introduces Kenny King as his judge, and Tyler brings out Roderick Strong as his judge. Cornette introduces himself as the third judge so he can personally see to it that we get a real winner.
Episode Two:
* Sara Del Rey squashed Portia Perez.
* Delirious defeated Rhett Titus with the Bizarro Driver.
* Colt Cabana defeated Sonjay Dutt.
* Kyle Durden interviews Shane Hagadorn and Prince Nana about the Kings of Wrestling reunion. Eddie Kingston runs in and demands to know who jumped him a few weeks ago, then Erick Stevens, Joey Ryan and Ernie Osiris run in and attack him. Necro Butcher comes out to make the save and the Embassy hightails it to the locker room.
* Tyler Black defeated Roderick Strong. Austin Aries was at ringside, the finish came when Roderick bumped Aries off the apron and Tyler capitalized on the distraction by hitting a superkick for the win. Aries attacked Tyler after the match and Roderick ran him off, then Roderick started arguing with Tyler for taking advantage of Aries interfering. They had a shoving match before Roderick walked off.
Episode Three:
* Necro Butcher and Eddie Kingston defeated Joey Ryan and Erick Stevens by countout. Finish came when Necro chased the Embassy off with a chair and the Embassy took a walk to the back and got counted out.
* Steve Corino and Kevin Steen defeated Alex Payne and Bobby Dempsey. Steen finished Payne off with a Package Piledriver and Sharpshooter.
* The Dark City Fight Club squashed the Bravado Brothers in about a minute. Kyle Durden interviewed the DCFC after the match and they said that they're not sitting back any more, they're coming after all the other teams in ROH and have their sights set on the ROH World Tag Team Title.
* The Young Bucks defeated the American Wolves. The Briscoes came out before the match and declared that the winners would receive a tag title shot. Matt Jackson got a jackknife rollup on Davey Richards for the win.
1/9/10-Pre-Show:
* John Kermon defeated AJ Chambers.
* The Bravado Bros defeated Pelle Primeau and a partner whose name I didn't catch.
Episode Four:
* Jim Cornette brings out Tyler Black who said he wasn't aware of Austin Aries' involvement in the finish of the match last week. Roderick Strong comes out and tells Tyler to admit that he didn't really beat him last week. Tyler grudgingly tells Roderick that if that makes him happy, he'll admit he didn't beat him last week. But then he goes on to say that when Tyler's the champion, Roderick's never going to beat him.
* Cheech and Cloudy defeated Sonjay Dutt and Andy "Right Leg" Ridge. Before the match, Sonjay says that nobody in ROH has as much swagger as him, and to prove how awesome he is, he's going to take anyone from the locker room and bring them to the top. Cheech and Cloudy pinned Ridge with the old Quebecers finisher. After the match, Sonjay told Ridge he proved to everyone that he has absolutely no swagger, then beat him up.
* Skullkrusher Rasche Brown squashed one of the ROH wrestling school guys (his name sounded like Christian Dorino)
* Kyle Durden interviews Austin Aries and Kenny King. Aries says he's going to beat Tyler in New York and once again Tyler's going to come in second. Then he references something about Tyler waiting for a girl in Chicago and being stood up because Aries (in his own words) has a bigger package. This brings out Tyler, but the Jobber Patrol comes out to hold him back.
* Kevin Steen defeated Delirious by submission with a Crippler Crossface in a Pick Six Series match. Colt Cabana came out to confront Steen after the match, but Steen and Steve Corino just walked away from him.
Episode Five:
* Rhett Titus defeated El Generico with an inside cradle.
* Colt Cabana defeated Bobby Shields by submission with a Billy Goat's Curse. After the match, Steve Corino came out and warned Cabana to watch out who he sticks up for.
* Necro Butcher and Erick Stevens brawled from the back, around ringside, and into the ring. Stevens and the Embassy ganged up on Necro, but Eddie Kingston ran out to make the save.
* Austin Aries and Kenny King defeated Tyler Black and Roderick Strong when Black accidentally superkicked Strong, allowing King to pin Strong for the win. A shoving match broke out between Strong and Black after the match, but a parade of referees came out to separate them.
Episode Six:
* The Dark City Fight Club defeated the American Wolves. This was a great, hard hitting match. The Wolves seemed to briefly argue after the match before heading to the back.
* Steve Corino defeated Bobby Dempsey with a really nice rolling leg cradle. Bobby attacked him after the match, drawing out Kevin Steen for a 2-on-1. Alex Payne ran out for the save, but Steen and Corino destroyed him as well. Payne took two cradle piledrivers.
* Skullkrusher Rasche Brown defeated The Set in a handicap match. Prince Nana and Shane Hagadorn came out to scout Rasche during the match and tried to talk to him on his way to the back after the match, but Rasche just walked right past them.
* Jay and Mark Briscoe defeated the Young Bucks with a Doomsday Device to retain the ROH World Tag Team Title.
Credit:pwinsider.com Sounds like a solid few shows to say the least. First up is the announcement for the main event of the 8th Anniversary Show. While the argument can be made that ROH made a huge mistake by not pulling the trigger on the title change last month, the big question is if a title change between Black and Aries is even going to happen. Looking at the taping results, Black is already stacking the deck against him. First he has to deal with the judges if the rematch goes to a draw, and the judge he picked is getting angry with him already. Of course a stacked deck for a challenger who’s been screwed over time and time again makes you think that he will win because the babyface with the world against him, more than not, overcomes those stacked odds. Like in MMA, Tyler’s going to make sure this doesn’t go to the judges by pinning or making Aries submit. But then there’s the other side of the coin where Aries wins, or the match goes to a draw again. If it goes to a draw-with King in Aries’ back pocket, and Strong most likely forgetting about the problems between himself and Black to tie the vote-it’ll probably come down to Cornette’s decision. And for those who don’t know, Cornette hasn’t been the most upstanding citizen in pro-wrestling. James E. has helped many a rule-breaker throughout his career. That’s not to say Cornette isn’t an honest individual (if you don’t believe me, check out Cornette’s new interview at Club WWI). Once again, Black and Aries in NYC should be very interesting, if not for the in-ring action, then the result that the action spawns.
ROH is also doing a great job of setting up its Tag Team title contention. One match I really wanted in 2009 was a three-way between The Briscoes, The American Wolves, and Steenerico. While that won’t happen in 2010, I can’t hate on a three-way with two of the aforementioned teams and the DCFC. Dark City have made me a huge fan of theirs over the past year, and I hope they can build up the momentum they had before Jon Davis’ injury that put the team on the sidelines for the summer and fall of 2009. And what about the Kings of Wrestling? Maybe the three-way will turn into a four-way. Or maybe ROH could change things up a little bit. And you know what would be great way to do that-the return of Round Robin Challenge. It hasn’t been seen since 2004, and it could be a great, fresh concept for fans that weren’t around then to witness the greatness of both single and tag team versions of the tourney. Not only would it be a fresh concept for those watching, but it would also add to an otherwise regular event ROH will certainly produce during 2010. Every show can’t be epic, and maybe stealing a page out of WWE’s or TNA’s pay-per-view playbooks by booking a show around a gimmick match wouldn’t hurt one bit. Plus, if we’re never going to get another Trios Tournament, at least you can give us Round Robin Challenge.
A lot of people have been bad-mouthing Ring of Honor for putting The Young Bucks in a very prominent position in their last TV matches for ROH since they are going to TNA. Well, did it hurt Nigel in the eyes of ROHbots when he was still being shown on ROH TV while fighting Kurt Angle as Desmond Wolfe in TNA? So how is The Bucks having great matches with two teams going to make them look bad? More importantly, how does it make ROH look bad for letting a team showcase skills that might be degraded in TNA? Look at the Motor City Machine Guns. There’s a team who has had several great matches in ROH, and a lot of people still look at those matches as examples of what the Guns can bring to TNA’s tag division if allowed. The same could happen to The Bucks. As for their opponents, I will admit I’m not too keen on The Bucks beating The Wolves (sounds like a bizzaro NBA playoffs), but it seems The Wolves failure here could lead up to something bigger than just a loss to a leaving team. I have no qualms with The Bucks losing to The Briscoes because it ends their series of contests with The Briscoes 1-2, easily giving The Briscoes bragging rights over the leaving TNA team. I hope all of you questioners of smart booking between these three teams can just realize that your over thinking could ruin two great matches for you. And after reading this, I hope you know you’re wrong for over thinking this situation anyway.
Before I stop talking about tag teams, I can’t help but ask about The American Wolves. After two loses, the team is now arguing? I don’t know if they’re planning on breaking up the best team in ROH today (you heard me), of if it’s just something to get the fans talking about Davey, and his chances of winning the ROH World title in the future. If it’s the prior, I would hate to think that they can’t have Davey strike out on his own without him feuding and alienating Eddie Edwards. Edwards is a great wrestler, but he’ll be stuck in Davey’s shadow for quite some time if they do feud and Davey wins. And don’t say that you think Edwards is going to win a feud between himself and Davey if it ever comes to that. I think this hurts me more because I love The Wolves so much.
One person not making much progress in 2010 thus far is Necro Butcher. He’s still feuding with The Embassy? I really don’t know what they could do with him outside of a mega, blood feud with Erick Stevens. I thought we were going to get that with Necro and Bison Smith, but that’s just stumbled off into the sunset with Smith doing his thing in Japan. Stevens is the perfect person for ROH to get behind to replace Smith, and I think they understand that. While he’s not as big or menacing looking as Bison, he wrestles a lot like Bison, just with more agility. Stevens has proven he can go wild when needed to, and a feud with Necro could finally get him in the position I thought he’d be in after his feud with Roderick two years ago. I don’t know what can be done for Kingston. I thought after Final Battle they’d start separating him and Hero. I hope Hero is just a red herring for someone else for Eddie to feud with because I don’t know how he and Hero could top their encounter at Final Battle.
One person not losing progress is Kevin Steen-whose heel turn has produced one of the greatest teams I could ever imagine. And that’s just off charisma alone. I can’t wait to see Steerino (I like it) gracing my TV screen in 2010.

Signed to round out Ring of Honor's January 29 Los Angeles debut is a singles contest that could certainly have an impact on the Pick 6 Contenders Series. Currently ranked fifth in the Pick 6, Roderick Strong has agreed to face Delirious one-on-one.

Interesting choice of a babyface clash. Even though Strong is an east coast boy, he’s incredibly over on the other side of the U.S. due to his involvement in PWG that include some classic matches that I really wish would’ve happened in Ring of Honor as well. And Delirious…well, Delirious is over everywhere he goes. Seriously, how can anyone hate the guy? I’m guessing this will be the opener so the show can start off on a lighter note. Or it could be the after-intermission match, because both men know easily how to get the fans back into a show.

The organizers of WrestleReunion 4 are presenting a special bonus match on January 29th as part of our big Ring of Honor Southern California debut. "Living Legend" Larry Zbyszko will be taking on Scotty Too Hotty in singles action, and the special guest referee is a man that the ROH faithful know well, Johnny Fairplay. Only in Hollywood! Are these two competitors the ‘outstanding talents' hinted at in the 1/5 newswire? Only time will tell.

Honestly, if this isn’t a red herring, I will have to give a wag of the finger to Ring of Honor (© Stephen Colbert). I have nothing but respect for Zbyszko, and Scotty is as solid of a worker as I’ve ever seen. And Johnny Fairplay is…Johnny Fairplay, the guy who’s like a gnat (and knows it). Simply, this better not be the “outstanding talents” promised. When I see “outstanding talents” beside “Ring of Honor” I think of guys that are becoming the talk of the indies. That’s not to say I don’t feel this will be highly entertaining for those in attendance because Zbyszko and Scotty represent everything the WrestleReunion weekend is about. I just don’t think of a match like this being the proper representation of ROH, even if it’s just for fun. And that’s coming from the same guy who loves the butt psychology shown between Colt Cabana and Brian “Spanky” Kendrick in their match over four years ago. That’s right, they worked over each other’s butts, and it made sense. And that’s the way I like my matches-full of proper butt psychology. I might be shortchanging Zbyszko and Scotty. They’re vets. They can easily put on a great match that expertly psychologically structured centering on a body part. And isn’t that what all us pure wrestling fans want?

Brian Kendrick vs. Roderick Strong is set for the February 13th ROH Anniversary show.

I noted in the last Report that a lot has changed since Kendrick last wrestled for ROH in 2005, but there are still people on the roster that were around when Spanky left. And one of those men happens to be his opponent here. The great thing is this is a real first time one on one matchup in ROH. But it’s not the first time they’ve been in an ROH ring as opponents. At Dragon Gate Invasion in August of 2005, Brian “Spanky” Kendrick teamed with Jimmy Rave, defeating Austin Aries and Roderick Strong. So it’s a historic ROH match that has backstory. From an in-ring perspective-if given the time-it could steal the show. Two of the hardest working guys in ROH history shouldn’t produce anything less than great-barring an injury or some freak occurrence. I really hope this match brings back that, “We want to steal the show,” mindset that seems to be lacking on certain shows now.

The Kevin Steen/El Generico Saga took another turn yesterday as Colt Cabana has requested to publicly confront Kevin Steen on February 13th in New York when ROH returns to the Manhattan Center for the “8th Anniversary Show”. Steen completely ignored the request at first but contacted ROHWrestling.com to let Cabana know he’d agree to the meeting, but only if Steve Corino is present. Cabana reluctantly agreed, and Steen and Cabana will meet face-to-face on 2/13.

I like this. I really like this. Three of the most charismatic men in ROH in the ring at the same time isn’t going to be anything short of memorable. I honestly can’t fathom how this will turn out. The only thing I can guess is Generico making the save of Cabana if this thing turns physical, leading to an impromptu tag match. Well, I guess I did have an idea of how this thing will play out.

ATTENTION MICHIGAN FANS- The Ring of Honor event scheduled for March 19th in Novi, MI has been moved. The date remains the same however the event will now take place at The Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, 15801 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, MI 48126. For more information on the venue click here: http://www.dearbornfordcenter.com/. All tickets purchased for Novi will be honored in Dearborn.

Just a heads up for you fans planning to attend. Don’t say I never helped you out.

Ring of Honor To Debut in Charlotte April 3; Jim Cornette Hypes "The Big Bang!" Legendary wrestling manager and current Executive Producer of Ring of Honor on HDNet, Jim Cornette was in North Carolina today to announce the Ring of Honor debut in the Queen City on Saturday night, April 3." The Big Bang!" as the debut event at Charlotte's Grady Cole Center is being called, will showcase the hard-hitting action of Ring of Honor combined with the very best lucha libre stars from Mexico.

If this is true, I’m happy to see and hear of expansion in Ring of Honor in teams of touring spots. I’m glad to hear of any successful expansion, period. Jim Cornette is definitely a must for the show, and the luchas are a nice touch of variety I didn’t expect to see after the Wrestlemania weekend shows, but how can you have a show in Charlotte without Flair? Ric’s in TNA. I haven’t heard anything about Reid since his admission to heroin addiction (hope he’s fighting such a serious problem). So that leaves…oh no! ROH, please do not bring David Flair to wrestle if he’s interested. He seems like the nicest guy in the world, and had something a lot of people don’t to be able to bag Stacy Keibler, but David Flair wrestling will scar so many minds who haven’t seen it that everyone can finally say that Ring of Honor is dead. And don’t say ROH will be dead before the event because it’s using the name of a WCW pay-per-view that never happened due to Vince buying the company beforehand. It’s just a huge coincidence.

Brent Albright will be returning to the company soon. [Credit: Pwinsider.com]

Good to hear. I don’t know what happened to Albright, or why he left, but I’m glad he’s coming back. The guy is incredibly underrated, and I would love for him to go back to his old equal opportunity, submission killer ways. Ring of Honor has some great talent, but a shooter is sorely missing. Albright would be the perfect person to fill that void.

Ring of Honor is proud to support Colt Cabana as he makes his way into his new Chicago improv comedy home, ComedySportz. The worlds of comedy and wrestling will collide when Colt debuts at Wednesday Night's Main Event with his team, KAYFABE. WNME will run every Wednesday night from January 27 through March 10 and will also include a comedy gameshow, band, and much more. Just for our loyal Chicago ROH fans, if you're one of the first 10 to email nhausman@sbcglobal.net, you'll receive free tickets to the Media/Private show on January 20th. For tickets or information go to www.cszchicago.com or www.ticketmaster.com!

It’s one thing to be funny in the ring. It’s another to be funny on a stage that requires you to make people laugh. I’ve seen a few clips of RVD and Mick Foley trying their hand on the standup comedy scene, and they did pretty well for first timers. And Cabana is just as wacky as those guys, so who knows. You know what would be great? The Hangover staring Colt Cabana, Delirious, Rhett Titus, and Michael Cera, with “Skullkrusher” Brown playing Mike Tyson. I know Cera’s not associated with Ring of Honor, or even wrestling for that matter, but I love that little guy.

ROH is happy to announce the official ROH ‘app' for your Apple iPhone and iTouch. Check out http://rohwrestling.com/news/article.aspx?id=3171 for more information or check out http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/roh-built-by-appmakr-com/id349353523?mt=8. Those using the iTunes store can search "ROH", "ROH Wrestling", or "Ring of Honor". Thank you to those at Apple and AppMaker that made this a reality.

You have to give credit to Ring of Honor for trying to find conventional and innovative avenues that don’t take a chunk of money for their marketing. I just hope they stick with this idea better than their RSS feed that really didn’t give subscribers anything special outside of a couple of interviews when it was initially setup.

Film crews from NBC and Jerry Seinfeld's "The Marriage Ref" will be on hand this weekend in Philadelphia shooting footage for their upcoming network debut in March. For more information on this new program, check out http://www.nbc.com/the-marriage-ref/. The Marriage Ref will premiere on Sunday, March 14th on NBC. Thanks to NBC and Jerry Seinfeld for having Ring of Honor play a part in their production.

Hey, any publicity not tied to the name “Rob Feinstein” is good publicity. I don’t know how good this show will be (married celebrities making a husband or wife of a normal couple look like fools, possibly bringing the divorce rate up in the process). but I’ll tune in for the ROH stuff, that’s for sure. I want to know if Jay ever used his brother’s jack-o-lantern smile to win an argument. It’s the news I need to know!

Speaking of TV, lets find out what was Right and Wrong about this week’s edition of ROH on HDNet.

ROH On HDNet 1/11/10 Quick Results:
Joey Ryan defeated Necro Butcher in a No DQ match
Colt Cabana defeated Tony Kozina
Kevin Steen defeated Alex Payne
Kenny Omega defeated Chris Hero

Right:
Joey Ryan vs. Necro Butcher: This week’s show started off with a bang by having Necro and Ryan go wild in a No Disqualification match. Ryan did a good job holding his own with Butcher in Necro’s type of match, actually looking stronger in the first five minutes here than any of his pervious appearances on HDNet. But this was Necro’s world, and it all turned around for him until the numbers got too great. Before Ryan could shatter Necro’s ankle, Erick Stevens ran out to make the save. Instead, Stevens attacked Necro, and finally gained a solid standing in ROH by becoming The Embassy’s new monster instead of being that guy who just beats jobbers. Well, he might still be the guy who kills jobbers because Stevens slaughtered little Grizzly Redwood after crowning Butcher with a chair. As I said earlier, a feud with Necro could do wonders for Stevens.
Colt Cabana vs. Tony Kozina: The first of two squashes tonight. This one went a little longer than the other. While the argument can be made that Kozina shouldn’t have gotten as much offense as he did on an established star like Cabana, never did Colt appear to be in trouble. And in the end, Colt set him up and made him tap in the Billy Goat’s Curse. Cabana’s got a lot of steam rolling on HDNet, and feud with Kevin Steen and Steve Corino on the horizon, things are really getting busy for ROH’s other Double-C.
The King Wants Some Answers: Eddie Kingston appeared midway through the show to declare war on the man responsible for his attack last week. The man in Kingston’s mind was none other than Chris Hero, who he called, “The biggest coward in the locker room.” Once again, I’ll go back to my words from earlier and ask what benefit will it be for either man to have Hero and Kingston face off a third time after such a conclusive at Final Battle. That what makes this so interesting. It’s hard to believe that Hero is up to this, but seems like the only possible suspect. The mystery attacker gimmick is something that can either be very interesting or horribly hokey. So far, this one is sitting in the prior section, and I’m excited to see how it plays out. Plus, Kingston on the mic is gold, so hearing him is never a bad thing.
Kevin Steen vs. Alex Payne: While this was nothing more than a squash, the amazing thing is how Steen came off. For those who don’t know, this match was taped prior to Steen’s turn on El Generico. But here, Steen came off like a jerk of epic proportions. Everything that would make you hate Kevin Steen came out here. I can’t wait to see him in full-blown heel mode in the coming weeks. The Briscoes Cut A Promo (If That’s What You Want To Call It): The Briscoes have never been great promo guys in the sense of eloquence. But that’s what makes them great. They’re Delaware rednecks, and proud of it. And being a Delaware redneck is accepting that you’ll have to fight your brother sooner than later. That’s happening for the brothers Briscoe next week, and they were happy to say that no matter what, the better man will win with no hard feelings at the end of the night. But that’ll only happen after Mark and Jay tear into each other like only family members can.
Kenny Omega vs. Chris Hero: The forgotten Pick 6 qualifier was here to wow us all. While it wasn’t up to the level of past main event epics, Hero and Omega had a very good clash highlighted with some big spots. One of those spots included a running double knees from Omega that turned Hero head over heels from his seated position at ringside. Both men hit some of their patented stuff before going for the end. Instead of a solid KO, Hero’s golden elbow pad caused his downfall when Omega ducked the shot before cradling Hero for the three count. As I said, the match was solid, maybe a little disappointing when looking at the individuals involved, but there’s something to be said about holding back in your first few clashes. Hero and Omega showed great chemistry, had a very good main event, and got me excited for an eventual rematch in the near future.

Wrong:
Justin Liger vs. Austin Aries: Seemingly, some guy named “Justin Liger” will be facing Austin Aries in LA on 1/29. Now if you don’t see what’s wrong with this, let me explain it: there is no Justin Liger that I know of. What I do know is the man facing Austin Aries is one of the greatest Junior Heavyweights of all time, and an all-round legend in the sport of pro-wrestling. The man is Jushin Liger, not Justin Liger. I understand that technical mistakes are bound to happen in the TV world. But this is a taped show. They have the chance to make sure something like spelling errors such as Justin Liger and “Chirs” Hero don’t happen. They should also be especially careful of screwing up when promoting a huge match for a huge event. Maybe I’m blowing this out of proportion. Everyone who saw it probably just rolled their eyes. But in my case, I almost pulled a Randy Orton. Okay, maybe not that bad.
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Overall: Another solid show from ROH as it appears they’re finally getting behind the idea of pushing storylines on the shows to build up to big events or pay-per-views. The things that were questionable when the initial taping occurred makes complete sense now (Kevin Steen’s mean streak before Steenerico’s split for example). For the first time since the inception of ROH on HDNet, I’m more excited about the overall show and what twists and turns it’ll cause for future events than I am about the next main event.

Well, that’s all for this week. Hope you all have a wonderful week, and make sure you check out Jim Cornette’s new interview with our own James Guttman at ClubWWI.com. It’s real good. Really.

Till Then.