ROHbot Report
The ROHbot Report: Dearborn Results, Ontario Preview, Slapping The Porpoise On Strokes, And More
By James Bullock
Mar 20, 2010 - 9:31 AM

Once again, this is The ROHbot Report. Glad you could join me today as I’m taking time from my precious Spring Break to give you the Ring of Honor news you need to know; and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We are nearing Wrestlemania weekend, and ROH is gearing up to tear down in Phoenix. But before we go down, we must go up. And up includes this weekend’s events in Dearborn, MI and Mississauga, Ontario. I’ve got the results from last night’s show in Dearborn right below this text (credit to the ROH message board). I was thinking about just slamming my hand on the keyboard to make you continue reading my opening, but what kind of person would that make me?

Return date is November 12th
Pre-show
a. The Bravado Brothers d. Lou Frank & N8 Mattson - crazymark wasn't sure on the Frank name (or Mattson, as he put "Nate Mattison", but I'm guessing it's N8 Mattson). Bravados hit a back suplex on Frank for the win.
b. Bobby Dempsey d. Eddie Venom - Dempsey wins with a Death Valley Driver.
Attendance is approximately 500.
Main Show
Before the match, they filmed an opening for a Best of ROH special on The Fight Network.
1. Rasche Brown d. Rhett Titus - Brown hits his finisher for the win.
2. Kenny King d. Tyson Dux - said to be a "nice match". King retains the #5 spot in the Pick 6.
3. Kevin Steen & Steve Corino d. Player Dos & Pee Wee - Steen pins Pee Wee after a package piledriver/lariat combo. According to RoaringElbow's twitter, Steen attacked Dos and Uno before the match, so Pee Wee basically went solo. Steen attacked Uno after as well (so they must have been out there), and Dos hit a suicide dive for the save.
4. Austin Aries d. Petey Williams - Aries hit the Canadian Destroyer on Petey, but only got a one count. Aries wins with a roll up while holding the ropes. Petey hit Aries with the Destroyer after the match.
5. Colt Cabana & El Generico d. House of Truth - Cabana/Generico win after a top rope brainbuster by Generico and a 2nd rope splash from Cabana.
6. Roderick Strong d. Kenny Omega - Strong hit his usual finishing sequence for the win. Strong retains the #6 spot in the Pick 6. Said to be good, but not great.
7. Tyler Black & The Briscoe Brothers d. Chris Hero & The American Wolves - Said to be the best match of the night, and woke the crowd up. Jay Briscoe pins Chris Hero after the Doomsday Device. Nothing really shocking here-everyone you expected to win did, and everything building toward The Big Bang. I really don’t have much to say because it’s all pretty redundant to what I stated a few words ago. Jay beating Hero puts some heat on their Big Bang match. Same for Cabana & Generico’s win opposite of Steen & Corino’s destruction. Strong and Aries both picked up victories, giving them momentum for The Big Bang, and that wild challenge of Black and Strong wanting to beat both of their Big Bang opponents in singles matches over the course of Wrestlemania weekend. Overall, you have smart booking that gave the guys most important to your big show the rub they need to make this event feel as epic as it can. From the various reports, this is as solid as a show you can get. I wonder if Canada will get the same? Here’s a preview of what’s in store for the fans up north.

Here is the updated ROH lineup for March 20th at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ontario:
* ROH champion Tyler Black & Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries & Kenny King: 2 Out of 3 Falls
* Kenny Omega vs. Davey Richards
* Chris Hero vs. El Generico
* Colt Cabana vs. Steve Corino
* Petey Williams vs. Eddie Edwards
* ROH Tag Team Champions Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. The Super Smash Brothers
* Four Corner Survival: Skullkrusher Rasche Brown vs. Tyson Dux vs. Rhett Titus vs. a mystery fourth man. Ring of Honor truly comes to shine when they make it through the Great White North. They put up some impressive cards, and this one is proof of that. Looking at the card, outside of the main event, there are three possibilities for Match of the Night honors. And at the top of that list of possibilities sits Omega and Richards. It’s been said time and time again, Omega and Richards are the future of ROH. We’ll definitely get a glimpse of that here. That’s not to say Hero vs. Generico or Edwards vs. Williams weren’t be able to come close to the performance Omega and Richards are most likely to display.
That’s not to say the main event is at the bottom half of the card with the possibility of stealing the show. When everything is clicking, it shouldn’t be anything short of fantastic. But you know with the problems between Strong and Black will cause a communication breakdown, and a win for Team Aries.
Cabana and Corino will probably be more of a storyline than a match, but will, most likely, be a very entertaining one. With Titus losing to Brown last night, why do I have a feeling he’ll steal a victory from the big man tonight? This might be one of the stronger Canada shows in quite some time.

On March 26th it’ll be King versus Lynn – no DQ, no Count-out, and ANYTHING GOES! Since Kenny King is involved in something else on April the 3rd (more on that later), having King and Jerry Lynn fight in Phoenix in front of a new market of fans there for a great weekend of wrestling is a great idea. A lot of people know about Jerry Lynn from his ECW days, and might just come by to see the former ECW/ROH champion in action even if they don’t know much about Ring of Honor. This could do wonders for King as well as he’ll have a chance to showcase his talents in front of a group of fans who might remember him from Tough Enough. I still say WWE could bring him in as Shelton Benjamin’s little brother to add some charisma to “The Gold Standard”. Really, they look a lot a like, and King could play a great sibling foil for Benjamin. You know what, just forget you read that. If WWE finds out, Ring of Honor might be King-less before the end of Wrestlemania weekend.

Signed for ROH's huge Phoenix debut on March 26th is tag team action! It will be Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli against Scorpio Sky and Scott Lost in Phoenix! With the Kings of Wrestling on the road to The Big Bang, and the ROH World Tag Team title match, you know they need some dominate wins. But we won’t see a squash here. Lost and Sky proved in L.A. that they aren’t coming to ROH just to be on job squad duty. They’ll probably lose, but they won’t be afterthoughts when the show is over. Will definitely be a fun match between four of the best that’s been through the doors of PWG before coming to ROH.

On March 26th, the Necro Butcher has signed to face perhaps the only man in ROH tougher than he – Bison Smith. Well finally. The brawl to end it all seemed it was never going to happen due to Bison’s commitments in Japan. It’s a nice change of pace to see to big guys just fighting like they’re in a bar. As much as I like Bison, if ROH doesn’t know when he’s coming back after Phoenix weekend, they need to use this match to close this chapter in Necro’s feud with The Embassy.

Signed for March 26th in Phoenix, Kevin Steen will take on the returning Kenny Omega! Then on March 27th he will battle the impressive Scott Lost in singles action! Like above, everything is pointing toward The Big Bang, and the people involved in Charlotte are in matches with guys that they can have good matches with, they are fighting people who they can convincingly beat. But Omega might be a different story. If ROH sees Omega like many of the ROHbots around the nation see him, you know they have to get on the ball with the other Kenny. But it’s hard to push someone when they have so many international commitments. They can easily have Omega beat Steen through some Cabana or Generico interference, but it looks unlikely to happen.

Jerry Lynn and Steve Corino had just gotten warmed up on March 6th in Philadelphia when all hell broke loose and interrupted their encounter. Neither man is satisfied with how it ended so both have agreed to do it again on March 27th in Phoenix! I don’t know when was the last time Corino and Lynn fought before their clash a couple of weeks ago. One thing you know is that these two men know how to make more with less. And that’s not a snide remark. Both men know how to get some much out of so little, and make the fans want more. Maybe I’m blowing smoke because I’m a huge fan of both Jerry Lynn and Steve Corino. Or maybe it’s just a fact. You be the judge.

It’ll be Kenny King taking on Scorpio Sky on March 27th in Phoenix! Remember when I brought up King being Shelton Benjamin’s brother a little while back. Well, here’s what it could be like. While Sky isn’t the athletic equivalent of Benjamin (seriously, who could be), he’s pretty athletic to say the least. The only difference is Sky has a little more charisma than Benjamin. Okay, maybe a lot more. But he could always tone it down to prove my point. Why do I keep going back to the idea of King being Shelton’s brother? Next thing you know, someone will have Photoshopped a picture of King’s head on Shelton’s body. Come to think of it, it probably wouldn’t look too far-fetched. Any way, should be a fun match that borders on a more Indy style than we’ve seen recently.

The beginning of Davey Richards' hunt for Tyler Black must go through the Pick 6 Series, and we now know why he signed to face "The Pretty Boy Pitbull" Kenny King at "The Big Bang!" in Charlotte on April 3rd. Great, great pay-per-view match. Both men are rising stars in ROH right now, and have great claim at becoming two of the top stars in the company in a very short time. It actually can be said that right now Davey is one of Ring of Honor’s top guys. But he needs that huge singles feud, with that career-defining match, to put him over the top. Versus Kenny King is not that feud. King is a guy who can take a loss from Davey and not be hurt, especially if he has a great match with Richards. Actually, this match could do more for King than Davey in the end. If done right, Davey and Black could have a great build for an incredible match. And if done right here, Kenny could start a huge build of his own.

The upcoming event scheduled for April 9th in Boston, MA has been moved to September 10th. The show scheduled for April 10th in Edison, NJ has been canceled. Before this change, ROH would have been on the road for four weekends in a row, something that has never happened in ROH history. Now, it can be said that maybe the cancellation of Edison show is a sign that one of ROH’s biggest markets has dwindled to nothing profitable, which is very sad. Edison hosted some of the most memorable shows in ROH’s hottest time (2005-2006), and for it to not be on the lineup of towns for shows is proof of that previous sentence. Another hot town for ROH that is getting the shaft lately is Chicago; but that’s another topic for another time.
As for Boston, this is the second time this show has been postponed. Ring of Honor likes to travel close on double shots, and having a single Boston show with no other market to go to the next night on a short notice wouldn’t be smart at all, especially when they’ve been doing shows three weekends in a row. Hopefully the Bostonians will finally get their ROH action in September.

Ring of Honor Wrestling is happy to announce the launch of its very own Downloadable DVD Service at www.rohvideos.com. Featuring more than seventy out-of-stock titles from the eight-year history of ROH, this service allows fans to finally purchase the events they may have missed their opportunity to buy when the DVD's were first released. At ROHVideos.com, fans will pay ONLY $10 each to download any of these otherwise unavailable titles and burn them to DVD's. You will also receive the cover art to the DVD along with your purchase of the event. Included on this site are "Round Robin Challenge", "Crowning A Champion", "Revenge on the Prophecy", "The Epic Encounter", "The Battle Lines Are Drawn", "Joe vs. Punk II", "Punk The Final Chapter", "Glory By Honor IV", "Death Before Dishonor IV", "Final Battle 2006", "Glory by Honor VI, Night 2", "Driven 2008", and much, much more! When ROH and GoFightLive.tv came to a deal to distribute some of the aforementioned discontinued shows through digital means, I said it was one of the smartest things Ring of Honor has done. It’s a great way to make money off of shows that people have been begging to be redistributed since Ring of Honor just gave up on remaking due to mass production of current shows. And now they’ve followed up with this, with rarer shows that even yours truly doesn’t own. TNA has smartly done the same thing in their own unique way with the TNA Video Vault, while WWE has shockingly avoided the old show distribution via their website. Building your company off of DVD distribution isn’t the most beneficial thing nowadays. But using your site to get money off of shows that are just waiting to be seen again is nothing short of brilliant, yet elementary.

March Madness is sweeping the nation and now putting ROH on HDNet on the bench for two weeks. The College Basketball Invitational tips off on Monday, March 22nd at 7pm on HDNet and continues the following Monday, March 29th. ROH returns to HDNet with the best hour of wrestling television in the nation on April 5th with a new first run episode featuring "That Young Knockout Kid" Chris Hero vs. Jay Briscoe in a Pick 6 Contender Series match. This works out perfectly for ROH because after this week’s show, ROH only had one show in the can. With the snow storms last month, the second set of tapings were postponed until a couple of weeks ago; meaning that editing and voiceover work wouldn’t be done in time to get these shows on the air when they’re needed with the level of quality we’re used to. When April rolls around, everything should be in proper order, and we can get back the best hour of wrestling on free TV every week. Well, that leads us to finding out what is Right and Wrong about this week’s edition of ROH on HDNet.

ROH on HDNet 3/15/10 Quick Results:
Eddie Edwards and Davey Richardsdefeated Colt Cabana and Delirious respectively to advance in the TV title tournament
Kyle O’Reillydefeated Tony Kozina Right:
Eddie Edwards vs. Colt Cabana: The TV title tournament was still going strong here when one-half of The American Wolves took on the ever-happy Colt Cabana. Well, I guess mostly happy, some of the time Cabana, who wasn’t too pleased with his surroundings, specifically Steve Corino at ringside. That could be taken as a fat joke, but it isn’t. Colt and Eddie had a very good match here, with Eddie honing in on Cabana’s back in hopes of making him tap in that single leg Boston crab. Cabana showed that heart second only to a son of a plumber. But it was Corino who foiled Cabana’s comeback and win, luring him into Eddie’s patented submission. Eddie advances, and Cabana is stuck with a loss due to one of the men who has been tormenting him and El Generico since Final Battle. Time and time again, pro-wrestling has been called a game of human chess. The feud between Cabana, Generico, Corino, and Kevin Steen is a great example of that. It would seem that the physical moves matter more in a wrestling ring. But the mental aspect is more important than anything. Corino has gotten into Cabana’s head, causing him to lose when he shouldn’t. Without laying a figure on him, Corino has messed up Cabana’s game plan when Colt plan is too simple to be foiled. All we need now is an announcement on HDNet when a physical battle will happen.
DevastaShawn Has Come:Jim Cornette-being the executive that he is-decided to introduce us to the baddest man on the planet when it comes to network television, Shawn Daivari. Daivari-looking jacked-came out with his ceremonial entrance attire. Well, the attire didn’t stay on Daivari for long as he tossed them down, and spat on the stereotypes he’s been forced to play in other companies because of his physical appearance. After a back and forth banter between Cornette and Shawn over Daivari’s view of his American patriotism, Daivari proclaimed he’s here to take over Ring of Honor. Daivari is a good guy. He can wrestle, he can surely talk, and has a pretty imposing figure now. In reality, the guy can do it all. How well he’ll do in ROH is hard to say. I thought Sonjay and Petey would’ve done better in Ring of Honor than they did elsewhere. Daivari was made to be a big deal here, and that’s all that matters for this week to become a Right. The weeks that follow will give us a clue if Daivari in ROH is certainly a right.
Big Bang Hype: ROH has really picked up on using their TV show to push their upcoming events, especially the big ones (pun intended). This show was sandwiched with Big Bang main event promo videos, peppered with Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, and Tyler Black responses on their standings and strategies. We also got words from the Tag champions-The Briscoes-in regards to their PPV defense against the Kings of Wrestling. Ring of Honor is doing everything in its power to make The Big Bang come off as the most important show in ROH history. And with the work they’ve done so far, it feels like this is their Wrestlemania.
Davey Richards vs. Delirious: Like Eddie vs. Cabana before them, Davey and Eddie tried to tell a simple story with some ROH flavor. Davey came in with a strategy to break Delirious’ arm if need be to win. But Delirious didn’t go down without a fight. Actually, this was probably Delirious’ best match on HDNet. It was a back and forth battle of attrition that I haven’t seen Delirious involved in in quite some time. After using Kimuras and arm breakers, Davey submitted Delirious to make it to the semis of the TV tournament. One thing to note was the noticeable difference in Richards’ demeanor in this match. There was no ring crew kicking upon his entrance. There was no jawing with the fans, or mocking his opponent of the evening. Davey was as intense as ever, but not a jerk. Maybe this is a sign of things to come for Davey. Or maybe for one night, Davey decided to tone it down, and let his wrestling speak for itself. I guess we’ll find out when he faces Kenny King in the semifinals.

Wrong:
Kyle O’Reilly vs. Tony Kozina:For that person who doesn’t know what happened during this set of TV tapings (the huge snowstorm that caused a cancellation of the next night’s matches), this was a weird match to find on your television. That’s not to say that it was a bad match. Actually, it was a very solid contest. But it felt like two jobbers fighting on a show where they should be fodder for the stars of ROH. This match was the equivalent of WWE giving five minutes of their precious TV time to two local guys they aren’t going to use the next week, or the weeks to follow. I understand that they were in a predicament that didn’t allow them to have enough stuff to fill the allotted time, but they could’ve figured out something. They could’ve easily shown a video to hype the Tag title match before The Briscoes’ promo instead of that short clip of the Kings of Wrestling attacking the brothers Briscoe at Final Battle. They could’ve had Davey Richards or Eddie Edwards cut a promo before their match(es). Something productive could’ve been done with that time for people who will sale pay-per-views. Once again, no offence to Kozina and Kyle, but their prescience here wasn’t needed in the least.

Overall:Solid show, with two very good matches sandwiching the build for their latest pay-per-view. So far, the TV title tournament has been nothing short of a success. Not one match thus far has been disappointing or lackluster. The field is full of great talents, and has proven to be pretty unpredictable. I can’t wait to see how all of it turns out (evening knowing the spoilers). The push for The Big Bang was well done. The promos with the main event competitors helped put things in perspective from three different points of views (though each one talking about “historians writing in the history books” got a little redundant). Very good show, and worth your time for The American Wolves matches.

Well, that’s all for this week of The ROHbot Report. Before I close out, I’d like to show you this link with an inspirational interview with ROH on HDNet’s own Mike Hogewood in regards to his battle with a stroke over the summer: http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/03/07/article/sports_announcer_is_back_in_the_game. Truly, he’s an amazing man. Hope you have a great weekend, and don’t forget to SLAP THE PORPOISE!

Till Then.