HDNet Tapings
8/21/10
Philadelphia, PA
1. Kevin Steen and Steve Corino beat Colt Cabana and El Generico by submission in a steel cage match
2. Jay Freddie beat Tony Kozina
3. The All Night Express beat The Dark City Fight Club
4. Sara Del Rey beat Rachel Summerlyn by submission
5. Christopher Daniels beat Roderick Strong
6. Student 6-Man - Mike Sydal's team beat Mikey Bennett's team
7. Erick Stevens and Necro Butcher beat Grizzly Redwood and Andy Ridge
8. Davey Richards beat Tyler Black by submission in a great match
9. The House of Truth beat The Super Smash Bros.
10. Eddie Edwards beat Rhett Titus. Looked like Edwards got legit hurt after a dive.
11. The Kings of Wrestling beat the Briscoe Brothers to retain after a Shane Hagadorn low blow to Jay. "Mr. Briscoe" attacked Hagadorn afterwards.

From the sounds of everyone that attended, we have four main events that could easily end up on a future volume of the Best of ROH on HDNet DVD. During their over eight month feud, Corino, Steen, Cabana, and Generico have yet to fail on delivering on each and every show they are booked on against each other; be it tag team or singles matches. Another set of tag teams that don’t do too shabby when they’re in the ring together include The Briscoes and The Kings of Wrestling. I don’t know if this match is the official blow off of their feud, or just something to keep them separated until KOW and the World’s Greatest Tag Team square off in a couple of weeks. I just hope that ROH doesn’t pull a Supercard of Honor V, and have the highly anticipated dream match at Glory By Honor IX isn’t marred by Briscoe interference.
Daniels defeating Roderick is a win-win for Daniels, and the World title scene. Not only does Daniels get his revenge for losing to Strong in such an underhanded way due to Martini interference a few weeks ago (in TV time), he also sets his spot as the #1 contender to whomever is the World champion after GBH. But out of all the seemingly memorable matches that came out of this taping, I can’t say any of them hold a candle to the anticipation I have for Tyler Black vs. Davey Richards. They put on one of the best matches in ROH pay-per-view history, and can do the same for HDNet. Overall, everything looks good (outside of Eddie slicing his hand something fierce), and should make for quite a few shows that will be more Right than Wrong.
But that was last week. Ring of Honor is heading to the south this weekend, and I have results, and live thoughts on the show from Richmond. Lets see what happened.

Tag Wars 2010 Semi-Finals
8/27/10
Richmond, VA
Prior to the opening match, Jim Cornette announced that Roderick Strong and Erick Stevens would not be in attendance to due travel issues.
1. Tag Wars Block B Final Match: The All-Night Express of "Pretty Boy Pitbull" Kenny King & "Addicted to Love" Rhett Titus over El Generico & Colt "Boom Boom" Cabana
2. Tag Wars Block C Final Match: Dark City Fight Club of Kory Chavis & Jon Davis over The Bravado Brothers of Harlem & Lance
3. Tag Wars Block A Final Match: Jay & Mark Briscoe over The Embassy of The Necro Butcher & Prince Nana when Necro was planted by the Jay Driller to allow the Briscoes to advance.
~A return to Richmond, VA was announced for January 14, 2011.
4. Pick 6 Series Challenge Match: #6 Davey Richards over #3 "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen to earn the #3 spot in the Pick 6 Series after a series of kicks and then one KO kick.
5. Bobby Dempsey & Cedric Alexander over Caleb Konley & "The Manscout" Jake Manning
6. Non-Title Challenge Match: ROH World Tag Team Champions The Kings of Wrestling: Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli w/ Shane Hagadorn fought The Set of Lance Lude & J-Sinn to a No Contest due to outside involvement of The Briscoes. Lance Lude was taken out thanks to being sent like a torpedo into the ring post. Jay Briscoe, then Mark came out in support of J-Sinn and the match turned into a NC from there.
7. Steve Corino over Jeff Early after the Sliding Lariat.
~Cabana out and after Corino, but Roderick Strong hits the ring in street clothes and his match with Corino is ON!
8. Pick 6 Series Challenge Match: #1 Roderick Strong over Steve Corino
9. Non-Title Champion's Challenge Match: ROH World Champion Tyler Black over ROH Television Champion Eddie Edwards with his feet on the ropes. Lots of pre-match stuff, with Cornette wanting to deliver a title match for Richmond, and Black balking at the idea. Black then not happy that Davey is out in support of his partner. Post-match, Eddie attacked by Tyler, Davey makes the save and they get the better of Tyler and send him running.

From a live perspective, this was an incredible show. The opening tag was hot. Everything clicked, and got the crowd really into the rest of the event. Corino interfered, pulling Cabana to the back, allowing The All Night Express to advance in Tag War 2010 via a two-on-one beat down. The Dark City Fight Club ran through The Bravados. A typical DCFC match; which is always entertaining with the right set of guys. Fortunately, The Bravados easily proved to be a great pair for a DCFC slaughter. If they can get full-time spots, The Bravados could make a nice replacement for the once lauded Young Bucks. With Erick Stevens out, Prince Nana took his place as Necro’s partner-and man, is Nana gold. Nothing beats Nana live. Necro pulled out some spots from his old battles with The Briscoes; including punching Mark out of the sky to counter the Doomsday Device before victory rolling Jay. In the end, Necro lost due to a sick Jay Driller. The first half main event…what can I say about this match? Well, before the battle, Kevin Steen cut a great promo about his favorite moment in his and Generico’s feud with The American Wolves last year was when Steen broke Eddie’s elbow before Glory By Honor VIII. What followed Steen’s bold proclamation was an incredible match that tops any match performed by ROH in Virginia since it’s been coming to my state. Absolutely sick kicks, spit galore that ended up hitting a few people near me, flying Davey Richards into my section, a Package Piledriver, and ton of near falls. During the final stretch, a majority of the crowd was on their feet. This match made ROH’s debut in Richmond a must-buy DVD when it comes out. Insane contest that was the talk of intermission (well, it had to be since Davey signed autographs and took pictures after the match at the concession stand).
The second half of the show started off a little slow with the Bobby Dempsey tag match until Dempsey won in that glistening gold top, and black tights with matching gold logos to show off his always inspiring physique. Bobby proves it’s a big man’s world, and we’re just living in it. I don’t know why, but Cedric seems like a mix between Koko B. Ware and Scoot Andrews. Cedric is a fun guy to watch-even more so with Bobby yelling, “Fight,” every time Cedric was on the mat. The special challenge tag by the Kings of Wrestling definitely had its moments, including the aforementioned power bomb into the steel ring post. Everyone thought Lude was dead. Seriously, it looked like Chris killed him. Jay ran out during the two-on-one beating, turning the place on its ears. Unfortunately, Mark also entered the fray when Jay couldn’t fight off both Hero and Claudio, giving us the only no-contest of the evening. The ending didn’t take away the feeling of a very fun contest that showed how truly awesome Hero and Claudio are-as if we didn’t already know.
Steve Corino, in all of his Mr. Wrestling 3 glory, easily dispatched of local Jeff Early. After cutting a “legendary” promo, Corino came face to face with Colt Cabana again. What seemed to be a making up for the loss of Roderick turned into Cabana getting punched in the face by Corino’s chain-covered hand. Everyone was waiting for Generico to come out and take up for his partner. Instead, Roderick Strong entered the ring from the crowd. Roderick lit Corino’s chest up until Steve yanked the referee in his way, causing Strong to knock out the ref. Steve followed up with a low blow that downed Strong. Before Corino could take advantage of his dirty deeds, Cabana returned, using his own chain for a KO shot on Corino. Strong fell on top of Corino, gaining an impromptu victory for a match that was/wasn’t scheduled. No backbreakers, regrettably.
The main event arrived, and Black was on the bad side of mostly everyone; especially a dude adjacent to me near the entrance that came up with a ton of anti-WWE/Tyler Black chants. I forgot how well Black can work a crowd in heel mode. The biggest heat came when Black went for that leaping stomp. before completing the stomp, Black glared into the antagonizing crowd. A la Booker T., Black stared at his hand before bending over to tell Eddie, “You can’t see me.” I almost lost all functions after that. I think I can say the same about Eddie when he took a few hard shots against the guardrails, including a power bomb. In the end, Black used the ropes to gain some leverage off a cradle to pin his fellow champion. Davey had run Tyler off after Black knocked Eddie down with the World title belt after the match. Richards cut an excellent promote that might not be on the home release, talking about how he asked ROH’s old booker (Pearce, I believe) to team with Eddie because Edwards inspires Davey to be the man he is.
Overall, an incredible first night in a weekend of action from ROH, and everyone involved. I’m actually a little jealous because Charlotte could have a better show than the Big Bang if everything is clicking like it was in Richmond. Lets see what they have in store.

Tag Wars 2010 Tournament Final Ultimate Endurance World Tag Team Title Match: The Kings of Wrestling with Shane Hagadorn defend vs. The All Night Express vs. The Dark City Fight Club vs. The Briscoes. First Fall will be a Four Corner Survival Match, Second Fall will be Texas Tornado Rules, Third Fall will be a Scramble Match
Non-Title ‘Rematch of the Year’: ROH World Champion Tyler Black vs. Davey Richards
Pick 6 Challenge Match: (1) Roderick Strong vs. (3) Kevin Steen
Scheduled to appear: ROH World Television Champion: Eddie Edwards, Grizzly Redwood, Necro Butcher and Erick Stevens with Prince Nana, Colt Cabana, El Generico, Steve Corino, The Bravado Brothers

Even though there are only three matches known thus far, what a trio of matches they are! After last night’s series of great tag contests, nothing but good things should come out of Ultimate Endurance-bar nothing unfortunate happens. If it does come down to The KOW and The Briscoes as I assume it will (last night was a great indication of that outside of the other teams involved in this match); I’m interested to hear how they work the rules of a Scramble match with only two teams. Scramble matches are based off of the lucha six-man tag matches; meaning a partner can replace his teammate if that aforementioned teammate leaves, or is knocked out of the ring. How well with those kind of rules work with only four men?
Kevin Steen and Roderick Strong have a lot of live up to after the performance Steen and Richards put on last night. With the road to Glory By Honor IX nearing its conclusion, Strong has every reason to crank it up a notch as he prepares for his possible company-shifting, maybe even epic World title match against Tyler Black. Steen, well, Steen is “Mr. Wrestling”, and likes to prove that, just like he did last night. Will Steen vs. Roderick be as good as Steen for Richards? I don’t know. What I do know is Strong and “Mr. Wrestling” will do their best to top the Match of the Year in Richmond thus far.
Speaking of epic, Tyler Black and Davey Richards will face off again to continue their series of awe-inspiring matches. Almost six years ago, ROH was graced with the Samoa Joe/CM Punk trilogy. I honestly don’t think we’ll ever see a trio of matches that will top what Punk and Joe did all those years ago. But Davey and Tyler are certainty giving them a run for their money. Charlotte, take in the moment. Take in the moment when Black and Davey are in the ring. Take in the moment as they battle like only two of the best in the world today can. Take in the moment, because it might be the last time we ever see Black vs. Richards.

With Tyler Black looking to depart Ring of Honor with the World Title still in his possession, Christopher Daniels will have another go with the ROH World Champion when ROH comes to Plymouth, MA on September 10, 2010! With Black set to defend the title against Roderick Strong the following night at “Glory by Honor IX”, this bout has been declared a non-title affair by ROH officials.

This is an absolute treat for the fans coming to Plymouth. Their first clash on HDNet was, hands-down, one of the best free television matches in 2010. Even though this match is occurring the night before a pay-per-view, don’t expect them to hold anything back. If GBH is Black’s last hurrah, then you know Black is going to do any and everything in his power to make the fans remember this weekend as one of the best in his career. And like the HDNet tapings, if Daniels picks up a win over the other half of the GBH main event, there’s no reason he isn’t the new #1 contender to the World title.

Ring of Honor is excited to announce that we have come to terms with Jay & Mark Briscoe and the duo have re-signed contracts with ROH Wrestling.

Big fish in a small pond-unfortunately that’s how I feel when I read about The Briscoes sticking around. That’s not to say I want them to go. I’m a huge fan of the brothers from Delaware since I started watching Ring of Honor in 2003. But how much more can they do in ROH? The Briscoes have won the Tag belts six times; and had memorable reigns as champions and challengers. They’ve faced every established team at least three times-outside of the debuting World’s Greatest Tag Team. Simply put, the Delaware boys have done it all in ROH. They could benefit in expanding their careers by moving on…or maybe not. There’s always the chance that maybe TNA or WWE aren’t interested in Mark & Jay. Maybe The Briscoes weighed their options of going out into the blind for a chance with the “Big Two”, and realized their careers, and their pockets will benefit from staying put. I’m actually excited to see where Ring of Honor takes The Briscoes since it seems there’s nowhere else for them to go but down in ROH.
Not only did The Briscoes gain a couple of new contracts, but also preliminaries Adam Cole and Mike Bennett were signed to deals. I honestly don’t know how much either will bring to the table, but you never know. You have to start somewhere. And the beginning of their real ROH’s careers could mean huge things for them, and the company. But for every signing, there’s a release.

ROH talent Skullkrusher Rasche Brown tweeted the following this evening: "Just quit ROH.... good luck in your future endeavors. Remember, always remain in control! Keep it real 24 7"
Sources indicate that Brown was taken off all scheduled ROH events after he missed the HDNet tapings this past weekend. It is believed that Brown offered to work the shows in Charlotte and Richmond this weekend to make up for missing the tapings, but when he got pulled anyway he decided to quit. With the recent booking changes in the company, it is expected that there will be some roster changes coming up.

This is horribly disappointing from a storyline standpoint. Actually, it’s disappointing from a roster standpoint as well. Brown got a Goldberg-esque push by running through jobbers before engaging in a real feud with Prince Nana, and his Embassy. Unfortunately, we’ll never get the payoff from Rasche Brown taking on The Embassy, or see how far Brown could make it in Ring of Honor. I noted last week that Brown, seemingly, became a big prospect for ROH when Adam Pearce gained the book. I don’t know all the details surrounding this situation, so I’m not going to say that ROH dropped the ball by not bringing Brown in for Richmond and Charlotte so they could blow off his feud with The Embassy.
What I can say is if Brown did offer them the chance, and was willing to make up for his mistake, then ROH should’ve taken advantage of it; especially when this weekend’s shows could be used to write Brown out of the ROH landscape. I wish nothing but good things for Brown, and hopefully someone in WWE heard my Honor Nation audio, and give “Skullkrusher” Rasche Brown a look. NXT season three, anyone?

But this isn’t the last of Rasche Brown under an ROH banner. He’s still on HDNet from past tapings. Lets see what he, and everyone else involved in this week’s episode did that was Right and Wrong.

ROH on HDNet 8/23/10 Quick Results:
The Briscoes defeated Alex Anthony & Bobby Shields
Kevin Steen defeated Jerry Lynn
The Embassy (Necro Butcher, Ernie Osiris, Erick Stevens, and Shawn Daivari) defeated Rasche Brown, The Dark City Fight Club, and Grizzly Redwood

Right:
Kevin Steen vs. Jerry Lynn: The battle between “Mr. Wrestling Without A Number” and “Mr. J.L. With His Mask” definitely made the show from a wrestling standpoint. They started off slow, picking up the pace around the five minute mark before going into third and fourth gear by pulling out their big moves that were countered by their opponent’s big moves. Jerry Lynn continues to prove that he can hang with the best in the world today, as he did ten years ago (even considering that hiccup of a poor match from last week). Steen is an all-around menace when it comes talent in the ring, and on the microphone. Rhett Titus made his presence known, costing Lynn the match. Steen stole a victory over one of ROH’s biggest names, while gaining a reason to have another World title shot in the future. Lynn lost, but lost in a way that didn’t hurt his credibility in any way. the finish also kept Lynn’s feud with Aries, Titus, and King going-even if it seems the feud is running on fumes at this point.
Hagadorn Puts The Wolf In Line: After last week’s loss due to Shane Hagadorn’s unneeded help, Davey Richards made his thoughts known that Shane isn’t doing anything to improve The Wolves win/loss records. In fact, Davey blamed Hagadorn for all of his recent defeats. Hagadorn fired back, stating that Davey’s recent World title failure in Toronto came because Richards decided he didn’t want Hagadorn at ringside. The bickering between the two ended pretty quickly when Davey punched Hagadorn out. Eddie Edwards witnessed the whole event, and thought that he was next to face Richards’ fury. Richards informed his partner that The Wolves would hunt on, just without Hagadorn holding them back. This might not sound great, but I think I can come up with an analogy that would make you understand how awesome this segment was. Imagine a white Mike Tyson and Don King arguing in the ring about Tyson’s first Heavyweight title loss to “Buster” Douglas. White Don blames White Tyson for everything that’s gone wrong in his recent fights for not listening to King. Tyson finally gets upset after deciphering what King just said to him, and straight up blasts King with a jaw-cracking right hook. Freeing yourself from oppression with one right hook. It’s the American dream, baby!
GBH IX’s Main Event Is Set: Jim Cornette took some time before the final match of the evening to promote Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas’ debut in ROH that’ll come at Glory By Honor IX in New York when they take on the Kings of Wrestling. Before Cornette could call it a night, Roderick Strong, with Truth Martini, confronted him. Truth stuck up for his client in hopes of getting the World title match he wants at GBH. Tyler Black entered the scene in all of his tweener glory to accept Strong’s No Disqualification stipulation that is now attached to their GBH title match. This stip addition definitely adds a level of mystery to their World title contest. A lot of people are assuming that Strong will win due to interference from Martini and/or The House of Truth. But don’t forget that Black isn’t walking the clean-cut babyface path anymore. Maybe, just maybe, ROH will take Black’s reign to a place they only teased to go with Punk when he was leaving. Black’s confidence in accepting the No DQ match makes me wonder if he truly does have something under his imaginary sleeve. Excellent segment that really got me excited for the “inevitable” Roderick Strong title win.
Whaddya Know About Eight-Man Tags, Huh: Like Steen vs. Lynn, the eight-man tag between The Embassy and their current rivals (I truly hate to name every one because “The Embassy’s Current Rivals” is becoming so interchangeable) started off a little slow; with Grizzly getting beaten down for a little while. Then the hot tag came, and everything went crazy. We had brawls in the ring, out of the ring, spilling into the crowd. Daivari eked out the win for his team by rolling up Kory Chavis off of an illegal Nana low blow (was it illegal because it was interference, or because it was a low blow. Double illegal, I guess). Honestly, this would be on the border between Right or Wrong if not for that all-important element that can turn an okay match into a great one-the fans. Once the hot tag occurred, the crowd finally jumped to their feet and supported every little thing that happened. The hot crowd pulled me into a match that, maybe, I wouldn’t have thought twice about after I watched it the first time. Sometimes the fans doesn’t realize that their participation-positive participation that doesn’t involve them being “a part” of the show-can make a show feel so much better than it would without them. This match is a pure example of that. So I guess I can add “The Fans” as a Right.

Wrong:
The Briscoes’ Squash: Once again, I have no true problems with squashes, especially when they are needed. Rasche Brown’s series of squashes gained the attention of The Embassy, and began their feud. The Briscoes had no reason to kill a couple of guys to prove they can do the same to the Tag Team champs, Hero and Claudio. We know what The Briscoes can do in the ring, and what they can bring against Hero and Castagnoli. They proved that a few weeks ago when they ran through the KOW during the Tag champs’ invitational. This five-minute slaughter wasn’t needed. I thoroughly enjoy The Briscoes, and appreciate ROH trying to get new faces on TV, but nothing memorable, or even helpful came out of this match outside of killing time.

Overall: Even though the Rights outweigh the Wrongs, this show wasn’t a blow away, must-see show. From an in-ring standpoint, Steen and Lynn had a very good match, followed by an eventful brawl that got a huge boost from the people in attendance. The confrontation between Davey and his former manager, and Black accepting Strong’s GBH challenge definitely were the highlights of the show. It’s good to see that when needed to, Black, Strong, and Davey are able to talk butts into the seats in situations like the ones experienced on this show. As I said, it isn’t a blow away episode, but a solid hour of wrestling that you won’t feel is a waste of your time when the show’s concluded.

Before I close out, I’d like to say that Ring of Honor is one of the greatest wrestling companies in the world. I’m not just saying that because I’m a fan, or because they put on a wonderful show last night. I’m saying that because ROH stepped up when it didn’t have to. Long story short, yours truly won something that wasn’t delivered to him due to a company “associated” with Ring of Honor. Instead of just saying, “Hey, you get what you pay for,” the ROH staff took it upon themselves to make things right. I would like to thank Dave Lagana, Cary Silkin, and Colt Cabana (especially for the free shirt and Supercard of Honor V DVD) for taking the time out to make this little ROHbot’s night by giving me my moment after eight months of wondering if it’d ever happen. Readers, continue to support a company that wants to give you nothing but the best.

Cary Silken, James Bullock, and Colt Cabana

Till Then.