Chicago Ridge, IL
7/24/10
Pre-show
Mike Sydal vs. Jay Bradley With Sly Stetson ends when Jay hit a lariat onto Sydal. It looks like Sydal is really hurt.
Main Show
Show opens with Cornette hyping the show. Cornette also said that they are working in doing a iPPV in Chicago but has to get the scheduling lined up.
1) Tag Wars Opening Round Match: "Skullkrusher" Rasche Brown & Grizzly Redwood v. The Embassy of Erick Stevens & The Necro Butcher. Finish came when Stevens caught Rasche with a rollup when he was going to fly to the outside with a handful of tights.
2) Challenge Match: Sara Del Rey v. Amazing Kong. Finish came when Kong got a rollup after almost losing due to interference from the KOW.
3) Tag Wars Opening Round Match: Jay & Mark Briscoe v. The House of Truth: Josh Raymond & Christian Able w/ Truth Martini. Finish came when jay hit the jay-driller after ducking an attempt by truth to hit him with the book.
4) Pick 6 Series Challenge Match: #1 Roderick Strong w/ Truth Martini & The House of Truth v. Austin Aries. Truth was evicted after getting caught holding Austin in the corner. Finish came when Roderick reversed the brain buster into a backbreaker and got the pin. After the match Austin told Roddy to ditch truth then talked about kidnapping Daizee last night and then introduced the All Night Express.
5) Tag Wars Opening Round Match: Delirious w/ Daizee Haze & Jerry Lynn v. The All-Night Express: "Pretty Boy Pitbull" Kenny King & "Addicted to Love" Rhett Titus w/ Austin Aries. Austin went to the back and came out in Haze's tights. Finish came after delirious got distracted attacking Austin and king hit a backbreaker holding it so Titus hits a knee from the top. After the match delirious attacked Austin again.
6) Tag Wars Opening Round Match: The American Wolves of Davey Richards & ROH Television Champion Eddie Edwards v. Colt "Boom Boom" Cabana & El Generico. Awesome match. Colt made Eddie tap to the Billy goat's curse while Generico hit a top rope brain buster on Davey.
7) Non-Title Challenge Match: ROH World Tag Team Champions The Kings of Wrestling: Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli (C) v. Generation Me of Max & Jeremy Buck. Another awesome match King win with the KRS-1, Hero pinning Max I think (dark haired one).
ROH World Title Match: Tyler Black (C) v. "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen. WOW. Black won with the sharpshooter. Just before that they were going back and forth on the top rope teasing the package piledriver and gods last gift. Earlier in the match black did a double stomp to Steen through the timekeeper’s table.

Well, three out of four isn’t bad when it comes to Tag Wars predictions. Like I said, Cabana and Generico got, what had to be, a shocking upset over one of the top teams in ROH history. With Davey and Eddie venturing toward singles competition, what’s the point of putting them in situations where they’re fighting for the Tag Team title? Cabana and Generico have a better chance of feuding with the champs more so than The Wolves, so it would make sense that Generibana would advance. While there wasn’t any interference in the aforementioned match, there was some in another match I predicted correctly in the form of The All-Night Express vs. Delirious & Jerry Lynn. Titus and King needed a win much more than Lynn and Delirious, and having them win due to Austin Aries’ advances toward Daizee Haze not only helps get King and Titus closer to a top position in the Tag Team division, but also keeps the heat alive between Delirious and Austin Aries as Delirious continues to pursue revenge, and A-Double continues to-possibly-court Daizee Haze.
Even though I was right about Necro and Stevens advancing, my guess of who would take the fall was completely wrong. As cool as it is to see Stevens actually win, why have him pin Rasche off a roll up? It’s not the fact that he flash pinned Rasche, but why sacrifice the aura of invincibility Rasche has when Brown’s partner is someone no one would blink twice for losing. Grizzly should’ve taken the pin, maybe off of Nana’s distraction of Brown. No matter how, Brown shouldn’t be getting pinned, let alone in such an elementary manner when they have a chance to avoid such things.
The House of Truth falling to The Briscoes is the only match I got wrong. Looking closer at the shows, and HDNet, it seems like The Briscoes actually did need to win here because ROH might be building up to The Kings of Wrestling vs. The Briscoes at Glory By Honor IX for the final time. The HOT losing doesn’t really hurt them in the least because no one is really thinking about them. I’m not discrediting their talent, it’s just they haven’t made it to that point where anyone is watching for a HOT match. That’ll come with time, because they are a solid tag team.
From the sounds of the fans, the show started off meh, and turned into a memorable event. The main event stole the show for most as Tyler Black stood toe to toe with Kevin Steen in a match that resembled more of a WWF main event during Steve Austin’s first and second World title reigns than a typical ROH main event; and that’s great. Tyler-like many champions before him-has to look like a world-beater, and a man who can take on any challenger with any style. Steen’s a great wrestler, but over the past months, his vicious streak has increased ten-fold, and the only way for Black to win was to match that streak. With that comes a wonderful main event that I can’t wait to see.
Other than that, everything seems in order; Roderick Strong got a win over Austin Aries to increase his standing in the World title contention while Aries moves further away from the same picture. The KOW and the former Young Bucks couldn’t steal the show, but the fans in attendance say they gave everyone their monies worth, while Kong continued to pick up wins on her ROH tour. Overall, ROH truly gave the Midwest an excellent weekend of action; and if the rumors are true, when ROH returns to Chicago in 2011, they’ll be under the bright lights of pay-per-view. But not everything was peachy-keen coming out of Chicago.

Signed for Charlotte, NC on August 28th is a huge Pick 6 Challenge match with Kevin Steen vs. Roderick Strong.

Definitely a solid match, but it’s weird to see that every show now includes Roderick Strong facing another heel. The problem with that is the people he’s wrestling are grander heels than he is right, and most likely, ever will be. It just makes Strong’s new direction look a little weaker when you compare him to his opponents like Steen and Austin Aries. The match should be really good, but ROH needs to be picky about who they put Strong against if they want him to be a full-blown heel.

Ring of Honor announced today that Tyler Black vs. Davey Richards II will take place in Charlotte, NC on August 28th when ROH debuts at the Metrolina Trade Expo.

It’ll be two and a half months when the first match happened between ROH champion Tyler Black and Davey Richards; and I emphasize the “ROH champion” part. I don’t know why this match feels perfectly fine happening so close to the previous encounter, but Steen vs. Generico II didn’t. Maybe it’s the time frame between the matches, or maybe it’s the fact that Steen vs. Generico I took so long to get to, but Davey and Black occurring in Charlotte a little over two months after Death Before Dishonor VIII just feels right. Maybe it’s because the first match was so incredible, I need to see if they can top themselves before Davey, possibly, takes his leave from the business. If everything goes well, the fans in Charlotte are in for a treat, and a “thank you” from ROH for helping them produce an excellent pay-per-view a few months ago.

Injury Update from last Saturday in Chicago: Grizzly Redwood needed 10 staples to close a wound near his temple suffered as a result of a vicious uppercut from the Necro Butcher. He is not expected to miss any time. Senior official Todd Sinclair suffered a moderately pulled groin during the event. He is also not expected to miss time. Mike Sydal underwent a CAT scan following being knocked unconscious against Jay Bradley, and we're happy to report that Sydal is expected to fully recover from the resulting concussion and that his CAT found no abnormalities.

Glad to hear that everyone who came out worse for wear after this weekend will be okay. The Mike Sydal situation became a huge deal across the Internet, with many actually thinking he broke his neck. I’m also glad everyone has taken the high road, and hasn’t wondered if Todd Sinclair broke his Twinkie. No real segue I can find, so here’s the Right and Wrongs of this week’s episode of ROH on HDNet.

ROH on HDNet 7/26/10 Quick Results:
The Kings of Wrestling defeated Josh Emmanuel and Ice Jackson
The Kings of Wrestling defeated Adam Cole and Nick Westgate
The Briscoes defeated The Kings of Wrestling
The Dark City Fight Club defeated The American Wolves via DQ
Roderick Strong defeated Christopher Daniels

Right:
The Royal Gauntlet: After a recap of the champs’ promo from last week, we shot to The Arena for the first ever tag team gauntlet in ROH history primarily made of jobbers. Pretty much, the first two matches were carbon copies of each other with Hero and Claudio toying with their opponents before finishing them off. Feeling spry, The KOW mocked their next opponents-The Ninjas. These mysterious men from the Orient did all the traditional ninja poses as The KOW conversed with Shane Hagadorn. All of a sudden, the ninjas unmasked themselves to reveal, not men of eastern descent, but rednecks from Delaware. The Briscoes absolutely slaughtered the champs in less than three minutes by using that crazy, nerd strength. You know the kind of strength those nerds who had been picked on for far too long, and beat the crap out of the bully picking on them. Well, The Briscoes were the nerds, and Hero and Claudio were the bullies who got the crap kicked out of them. As I noted earlier, all signs point to another encounter in NYC come September between The Kings and The Delaware Ninjas. It might seem like having The Briscoes beat down the champs so far away from GBH IX wouldn’t be very productive, but it actually works better than if they had a regular match. The KOW can tell the world that they got taken advantage of, and weren’t prepared for The Briscoes, even though they put themselves in the predicament to get beaten. And The Briscoes now have a legitimate claim that they deserve a title shot because they’ve decisively beaten the champs since Death Before Dishonor VIII. Just when the feud felt a little stale, they freshen it up with something different. Really, who would’ve imagined seeing Jay Briscoe dressed like a ninja. Mark…well, I can actually believe he has a whole bunch of ninja stuff at home.
The Long Road Back To The Top: You know what Christopher Daniels wants? Daniels wants to be considered the best wrestler in the world like he was so many years ago. You know what Roderick Strong wants? Strong wants to finally become the ROH World champion. So, what happens when you put two of the best wrestlers on the ROH roster in a main event? You get a pretty good match, but nothing compared to what my, and probably a lot of other people’s expectations had pushed the match to. Daniels and Strong battled back and forth until Strong gained a target in Daniels’ back. Strong’s best weapon is his backbreakers, and he used those with great precision until Daniels seemed to be on the verge of tapping. Instead, Daniels fought back, leading to an exchange of both men’s big moves. Daniels was able to avoid a gut-buster, almost German suplexing Strong. Instead, Strong pushed Daniels forward, allowing Truth Martini to clobber Daniels with “The Book of Truth”. Roderick got the cheap win, but a win nonetheless. Daniels has been on a roll since returning to ROH, and him losing to Roderick Strong in such sad means helps Roderick more than it hurt Daniels. Daniels seemed to be on the verge of making taking the win, but ended up getting screwed. Strong continues to make a crawl toward the top, and any win is progress in his eyes. Strong is atop the Pick 6, so there’s a good chance Tyler Black will be hearing from his future challenger real soon, while Daniels is stuck with another man hoping for a shot at Black and the ROH World title, Davey Richards.

Wrong:
The Hunt Is…Oh, It’s The Embassy: As anticipated as the main event was, The American Wolves vs. The Dark City Fight Club definitely had a nice air of anticipation layered on it before the bell rang. Then the bell rang, and both teams tried their hardest, but something just wasn’t clicking. Looking at it, neither team had a definitive standing. The Wolves have turned into tweeners over the past year, and Chavis & Davis are teaming with the babyface “Skullkrusher” to take on the dastardly Embassy. But if two of the best teams in ROH not clicking wasn’t enough, we didn’t even get a decent finish because The Embassy interfered and cost The Wolves the match. Instead of The Wolves going wild and paying The Embassy back for costing them a match, they just left. Seriously, you’re telling me Davey Richards doesn’t like to beat down people for the fun of it when he has the chance? I know last week I gave a pull apart brawl involving The Embassy some slack, but at least last week’s brawl involved people thoroughly entrenched in this feud. This week’s not only led to the same conclusion as every other Embassy brawl, but also made me question the sick, bloodlust The American Wolves used to have. This brawl made me question why Necro even turned heel when he hasn’t done anything of note yet, and his association with Nana hasn’t moved him up the card in any way. This brawl made me question if the amount of time being put into this feud is really worth it. So far, it hasn’t been worth it in the least.

Overall: As solid as this show was, it was admittedly disappointing. Strong vs. Daniels could’ve been an incredible, blow away match. But they had a really good encounter that probably won’t be remembered by the end of the year. There’s a great possibility that they held something back for future encounters, which is perfectly fine. They gave us a credible main event, and that’s all that’s needed. The Briscoes going wild on Hero and Claudio truly made for great television. I can understand people being tired of this feud, but you can’t deny how fun it is The Briscoes channeling The Road Warriors in a match that wasn’t even supposed to happen. The only real disappointment was the tag match involving two of my favorite teams on the Indy scene today. They worked hard, but when you have two tweener teams that have no reason to put a foot forward in getting the crowd to care because of the match’s conclusion, how can you get a memorable match? This week’s episode isn’t the best in history, but gets a slight recommendation for all-around solid action and a strong main event.

Well…actually that’s not all. On a few websites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), I’ve been talking about something called “Honor Nation”. Well, earlier this week, our fearless leader (and don’t say he’s not fearless after tracking down ODB for an interview), James Guttman offered me a chance to do my own ClubWWI show. Honor Nation will be the show for the WWI fans, by a ROHbot. But I don’t want this show to just be about myself, but also you-the readers, the listeners, the fans, the Nation. After this Report goes up, I’ll open a thread on the WWI message board where you guys can talk about the show, throw out your opinions on my opinions, and ask questions on subjects you want me to talk about. And those subjects don’t have to revolve around just ROH; if you want me to speak on something going on in WWE, TNA, MMA, what-have-you, put it out there, and you’ll get a response, and a shout-out on Honor Nation. I truly thank each and everyone one of you for reading The ROHbot Report, and it’s not going to end just because I have Honor Nation. So prepare yourself for more ROH on WWI than ever. Many blessings, and I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Till Then.