Ring of Honor Reports
The ROHbot Report Featuring 8/14 TV Taping Results, Many Previews, A Call To ROHbot Action, And More
By James Bullock
Aug 15, 2009 - 12:37 PM

Hey folks, here for The ROHbot Report, are you? Well, I’m here to deliver the goods, Summerfest style. Wait, wrong company. Okay, okay, how about if I just throw together a Report, giving everything about two sentences that make no sense before the end of the column. Sounds a little too close to another company. Just forget it. I have results for the first have of the TV tapings from last night, previews for the tomorrow’s taping, and the Midwest cards in September. First up, TV tapings.

I think you’d know the deal by now, I’ll give a full review when I see the show. Looking through the results, I have a couple of concerns. One involves Delirious, which you’ll see I’ll address in the review of last week’s ROH TV episode. Glad to see Bison back to add his weight to The Embassy/Varied group of allies feud.

The end of episode 2 is somewhat shocking to me. Why are they having another Ladder War, and of all the places, NYC? First off, neither team has the Tag Team Title, so I’m assuming the only thing dangling from the ceiling will be a #1 Contender contract. Unless one of them does win the belts before then, which would probably be The Briscoes due to their upcoming shot at The Wolves in Chicago. I loved the original Ladder War (easily one of the top five matches of 2007), but I don’t know how this one will turn out. I’d rather see a triple threat Ladder War with The Wolves added. That would be off the wall incredible. I’m still wondering as I type why NYC, since that’s a DVD release, and not a TV taping. Maybe they’re hoping the people who are interested enough in Philly will make the trip north for that match alone. Or maybe they will tape it for TV. I don’t know. I think I’m confusing myself right now. Vince Russo, is that you?

I can’t believe The Young Bucks beat the DCFC. I don’t know how it happened, but I was hoping the first loss for the Club on TV would be against a bigger, more believable team. That’s not a shot at The Bucks, but it’s just hard for me to believe they can beat the stronger and bigger, and slightly less agile, Club. Steenerico, The Briscoes, The Wolves, even Cabana & Albright I could understand, but not The Bucks just yet.

The main event for episode 3 can’t be anything short of the most entertaining match of the tapings. If it comes anywhere close to the last six-man tag involving a majority of these men, then I know we are going to have a TV MOTYC. Well, that’s enough for last night. Here’s a preview of some of the big matches being taped tonight for HDNet.

I spoke on the first main event in the last Report, so that leaves two. Lets talk about Brown and Strong. D-Lo Brown has been putting on some solid performances since coming to ROH, and has added a good veteran heel to the company that doesn’t really have many. Outside of Aires and McGuinness (which is really a stretch when you think about a “veteran”), ROH doesn’t have any established heels of veteran stature. Brown putting over Jay Briscoe and Roderick Strong on TV has given them a nice rub by showing that these guys can hang with a big name star from the WWE Attitude era. But I’m hoping Brown wins this time. He’s already lost to Strong in a triple threat match, and just can’t seem to get a win over anyone that’s not a jobber on TV. Brown needs to win here, or else. “Or else what,” you say? Or else I’ll find Mark Henry and tell him to dress up like Hornswaggle again before eating you.

Then there’s the Rumble. I’m always one for battle royals to give teams a chance to shine in a ring too small to hold them all. The rules are that every 90 seconds, a new team will enter; with eliminations occurring when both members of a team are thrown over the top rope, hitting the floor. You know, as I typed that, all I could hear was Howard Finkel. Any who, the winning team will earn a future Tag title shot. Now, there are a lot of possibilities with this one. Do we have The Briscoes win to set up for a rematch between themselves and The Wolves if they happen to lose in September? Will Steenerico win to give us a way to have another rematch with The Wolves and Steenerico? Then there’s a possibility that a team like The Young Bucks or The DCFC will get their moment to finally move from placeholders to true contenders. Or will all of this become a moot point with The Wolves winning? ROH has a real good chance of making a team, or a dream match with this main event.

- The following has been announced for ROH's 9/18 show in Dayton, OH.
* Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. The Young Bucks
* Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero
* Austin Aries & Rhett Titus vs. Petey Williams & Colt Cabana
* Dark City Fight Club vs. The House of Truth

* Tyler Black vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Looking at the card, I really don’t know what will be the main event. I’m assuming it’ll be the tag match between Aries and Titus vs. Petey and Cabana. There are a lot of possibilities in this one when it comes to a winner. Cabana could use a win over the champ to get himself back in World title contention, something he’s been wanting since his return, I assume. Petey’s thrown out the challenge to Aries for the Chicago show the next night. Having him beat the champion would have to secure him his wanted title match. Then there’s Titus. While I think everyone and their mother is banking on him taking the fall if his team loses, maybe Titus could use this main event to push himself to the moon. Think about it: probable interference from The Embassy leaves Cabana prone for Titus’ pin. Not the greatest of wins, but it would be the biggest in his career thus far. I’m really in star making mode right now.

The other option for the main event is Danielson and Hero. I said last week that I hope they move Hero into a feud with Jerry Lynn to continue his onslaught of respected veterans like Lance Storm. While it’s not Lynn, it makes a lot of sense that Hero would fight Danielson next. Danielson is a legend in ROH, who happens to be in the same kind of limbo Lynn is stuck in right now since losing the chance to retain the ROH World title. Danielson is also the only man in ROH history besides Hero that has win over Storm. Hero’s Ring of Honor career is really on an upswing as of late, and I hope he is given a push to the top worthy of “That Young Knockout Kid”.

Black and Castagnoli should be a very exciting contest. Claudio and Black have their history, dating back to last year when they were going back and forth in hope of being the next one in line to face the champ. I don’t know how much this will play into the future of their careers, but at least you know it could make for a great match before intermission.

Then there’s the tag matches. I expect The DCFC to have a nice little fight with the returning House of Truth, inevitably crushing them. As for The Briscoes vs. The Bucks, I’m on the fence. I mean, as obvious as it is for The Briscoes to win, I think it might be too obvious. Maybe the Midwest swing might be the birth of The Bucks push to the top of the tag team ranks, and what better way to start that weekend than by having them beat The Briscoes in an upset to end all ROH upsets.

- The following has been announced for ROH's 9/19 show in Chicago Ridge, IL.
* Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black
* The American Wolves vs. The Briscoes for the ROH Tag Team Titles
* Colt Cabana vs. Claudio Castagnoli
* The Young Bucks vs. the Dark City Fight Club
* House of Truth vs. Brent Albright & Erick Stevens

As much as I love Black and Danielson wrestling each other, man, they’ve fought a lot in the past year and a half. I don’t even know what number this is. I also don’t really know what this match will prove. It seems that a win for either man isn’t going to move them up the ladder in terms of earning a ROH title shot. But when you look at it, really, who else is there to beat to prove that you’re the #1 contender? Aries is the champ, Nigel is a wildcard, Jerry Lynn is doing his thing, and…that’s it. I hate to say this, but the top of the card has gotten kind of stagnate. What can ROH do? You know, maybe that’s something I need to think about. Or maybe something you would like to speak on (more on that later).

The people of Chicago are one of my favorite groups of wrestling fans to watch because they never let you down when it comes to reactions and staying hot throughout the night. That’s why they get so many great first time match-ups, like the Tag title encounter here. Honestly, even if Petey vs. Aries is made for Chicago from the fallout of Dayton, I hope the Tag title match is the main event. Just the thought of this match being officially made is enough to warrant a main event spot on any show. We’ve already seen some great tag matches in ROH this year-mainly involving The Wolves-and I can pretty much put all of the money in my wallet on this one being another Match of the Year candidate.

After seeing what happened during the TV tapings, I’m really banking on The Bucks pulling an all-star weekend. Originally, I thought that The Club would be the ones to shut them down. Now, I definitely see The Bucks winning here, proving that they are the only team thus far to really have the Club’s number. Or maybe The DCFC will pay The Bucks back for the TV loss and get them an incredible clobbering. They clobberin’, Tony! But sometimes you can walk away a bigger winner in the eyes of the fans after a fighting loss. Same can be said about the House of Truth. I really don’t need to go into details about Colt and Claudio because I’ll do that during the review of last week’s episode of ROH on HDNet.

This feud must continue! Okay, just had another Howard Finkel moment. Sorry. Like Cabana and Claudio, I don’t need to go in to too many details about why I like this because I’ll do that later in the ROH TV section. What I can say is that Ring of Honor is getting as much as it can out of this feud, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Another thought is NYC the next night. I wonder if The Briscoes win the Tag Title, then Eddie beats Steen, will The Wolves get added into Ladder War II? ROH, please make it a triple threat.

Good news for “The Shooter”. I would hate to have another wrestling tragedy happen due to something preventable (Chris Candido, r.i.p.). I really don’t know how bad of shape he is in after hearing the TV taping results, but it seems he’s back to his old self. Hopefully this is a slight bump in the road of Albright’s career, which I’m still hoping to have a ROH World title chase in the near future.

Well, let me move to everyone’s favorite dissection of a TV show with some rights and wrongs.

This was another good show that seemed to be a placeholder for a bigger one next week. The main event is definitely worth seeing, so make sure you do if you get the chance. Same can be said about the opener. Other than that, this isn’t a complete must watch episode. Still, it’s better than most of the “wrestling” programs shown in the week.

Well, that’s it for another ROHbot Report. Like I was talking about earlier, I’ve been wondering what all of you, my little loyal ROHbots think about the current state of the main event scene in Ring of Honor. The way to answer is varied. I’ll be posting the topic “ROHbots On The ROH Main Event Scene” on message boards (themayhem.com, Rajah forums, divaboard.com, WWE Universe, and of course, the WWI forums), making notes on Facebook and tweets on Twitter with the same title. I’ll even do a blog on Myspace to let everyone get their chance to speak (and that’s something because I don’t even know when was the last time I was on Myspace). Say what you feel, even if you disagree with me. Tell me why you think the way you do, and maybe even give some suggestions on who you think will be the next big ROH star. I’m making the call out to all of you ROHbots out there to give The ROHbot Report some of your great influence. Don’t worry, if you give me some good stuff, you’ll get your name on here. And more importantly, have fun. I’ll be waiting.