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Ring of Honor on HD Net 6/20/09 results

Ring of Honor came on the air this week dedicating the show to the late Mitsuharu Misawa. Then, Mike Hogewood and Dave Prazak made the announcement that Austin Aries had won the world championship in New York (6/13).

First match: Claudio Castagnoli vs The Necro Butcher
This one was another match with a disappointing ending. Jimmy Rave came out to distract Necro long enough for Claudio to give him a low blow and pin him. As Rave and Claudio began to bat on Necro after the match, Brent Albrght hit the ring with a chair in his hand to save Necro from any more harm. I understand this is leading to a bigger Feud between Necro/Albright and the Embassy/Claudio but I don't like watching these matches with tainted finishes. Something else could have been done with Rave distracting Necro. I don't care if this is an opening match on TV. I want to see someone get a decisive win.

Second match: Nevaeh vs Shimmer champion, MsChif (with Jimmy Jacobs)
Not a bad women's match for TV. Nevaeh has only made sporadic appearances in ROH and didnt look too bad here. Both competitors had the advantage at times but it was Jimmy Jacobs distracting Nevaeh that allowed MsChif to spit the green mist in her opponent's face and nail The Desecrator for the win. The main complaint about this match was the lack of variety in the moves used - too many arm drags and forearm strikes.

Next was a new segment, "The Art of Pro Wrestling", hosted by Colt Cabana. He had Brent Albright joining him this week to discuss the various tyoes of merchandise sold on rohwrestling.com. The segment was funny, as you can expect from Cabana, and focused mainly on the DVD's available for purchase. We'll see where this goes in the coming weeks.

After that, photos were shown of Austin Aries' world title win.

Next, Ric Flair said goodby to ROH as he had stepped down as ROH ambassador a week before (see Manhattan Mayhem III review). He basicall priased the company and thanked owner Cary Silkin and his staff for having him. What I hear is WWE wants him back on camera full time so this seems to be a business decision. I still love Flair and hope his return ges well.

Match 3: Kenny King (with Rhett Titus) vs Kenny Omega.
This match was a very good match for the TV show. It was a very well contested match with both men hitting many high impact moves and kicks on each other. The big spot in the match was Omega landing a huge suicide dive over the ropes onto King. Both men look to have big things in store for them dwn the road. In this match, though, it was Omega hitting the Electric Chair German Suplex to score the win.

Match 4: Eddie Kingston vs Alex "Right Leg" Ridge
Kingston won this one effortlessly. This was meant to begin building up his feud against Chris Hero who ,in their match a few weeks back, he got disqualified against for not adhering to the referee's five count in the corner. This can possibly be a big feud if it is booked properly. I think Eddie Kingston is very underrated and really gets his charachter across to the fans well.

Next, Jimmy Jacobs was interviewed about his upcoming cage match against Dilerious and the match the two would have next week on HD Net. Jacobs does a good job with his gimmick here.

Main Event: Roderick Strong vs KENTA.
This was KENTA's HD Net debut and he did not disappoint. This was a stiff, hard hitting match with each guy chopping and kicking the crap out of the other. A lot of hard hitting moves as well as some tchnical wrestling was seen in this one. Strong used his variuos backbreakers in this one as he is known to do. In the end, it was KENTA hitting the Go 2 Sleep for the victory. After the match both competitors shook hands as a sign of respect for each other. This was up there with the best matches on HD Net so far. I reccomend seeing it to anyone that has not.

Catching Up

I will mainly be covering Ring of Honor (ROH) and Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) as they are the most accessible to me. Maybe I will throw in "NWA Wrestling Showcase" if I find the time to start watching that. If more promotions become more accessible to me, they will begin to get reviewed as well. The wrestling reviews will not start immediately as I have to re-watch the shows in order to give a good review. Also, I may be a bit behind with the wrestling as the DVD's take time to be released.

I want this blog to be a place where fans of independent wrestling can have good discussions about anything regarding ROH, CZW and any other promotion I cover.

Ring of Honor history made at Manhattan Center

6/13 - Tonight Ring of Honor history was made as Austin Aries won the ROH world championship in a three way match that also included Tyler Black and Jerry Lynn who was the defending champion. Lynn had held the belt since the April 3rd "Supercard of Honor IV" event when he defeated Nigel McGuiness.
The match was an elimination match and, to everyone's surprise, Lynn was the first to go guaranteeing a new champion in either the young upstart Tyler Black or the self proclaimed "greatest man to have ever lived", Austin Aries. While he was in there, Lynn put on a good showing, almost defeating his opponents on several occasions. At one point even his finishing hold, the Cradle Piledriver was not enough to put Tyler Black away as he showed great awareness my reaching his foot to the bottom rope, breaking up the pin attempt. From there Aries and Black had a great back and forth battle with each man getting the upper hand for periods of time. Everyone was on the edge of their seat the whole time. This match got a "this is awesome" chant from the Hammerstein Ballroom crowd. In the end it was Black missing on his finishing move, the Phoenix Splash, from the top rope that spelled his end. Aires capitalized with a brianbuster and got the 3 count to be the first man to ever have two reigns as ROH world champion. After the match Aries was carried out of the arena on the shoulders of new stablemates Kenny King and Rhett Titus.

Two sidenotes within this match. First, Ric Flair was supposed to be at ringside for this match. Aries came out to Flair's music and announced that Flair would not be at ringside due to circumstances out of ROH's control. Then, Nigel McGuiness comes to the ring and announces that he will be the guest enforcer in Flair's stead. Second, Tyler Black had been in a first blood match with former ally Jimmy Jacobs earlier on which Jacobs won when he drew blood with his railroad spike. The match itself was decent but it was mostly used to get Black into the main event as he claimed that he was tired of Jacobs' bullshit and would get him back in their scheduled June 26th cage match in Detroit. Black then said he was cashing in his owed title shot making the main event a three way elimination match.

The rest of the card was either good or left something to be desired.
The good:
Bryan Danielson vs. Colt Cabana vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. D-Lo Brown (Four Corner Survival Match). Even though it was every man for himslef, Castagnoli and Brown teamed up to attack Danielson and Cabana from the opening bell. The match was very good from start to finish as each man was on his game. The match went back and forth with each man having to break up several close pin attempts to keep the match going. There was even a bit of comedy thrown in as Colt Cabana tried rolling Danielson up for a pin while he was distracted and also was able to get Danielson to do his trademark dance move. In the end it was Cabana picking up the win by getting D-Lo to tap out to the Billy Goat's Curse.
Sonjay Dutt vs Roderick Strong. Roddy was on his usual game utilizing many chops and backbreakers throughout the match to wear out the upper body of Sonjay. Sonjay held his own in this match showing a good deal of technical skill along with the high flying that he is usually known for. In the end Roddy's many backbreakers porved too much for Sonjay as he scored the victory in this one.
The American Wolves (c) vs Kevin Steen & El Generico (World Tag Team title submission match). Again a good back and forth match. A lot of the action spilled out to the floor where each team took turns using the guardrail and apron to their advantage. Steen and Generico's best chance came towards the end when they had both Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards in sharpshooters. In the end, the Wolves took advantage of Generico's injured knee to make him tap out.
The Young Bucks vs Rhett Titus and Kenny King. I got into the building late as this match was in progress. What i saw seemed pretty good as the Bucks used a high flying attack to pick up the victory. Wish I saw this one bell to bell. Titus and king have improved greatly over the last year.
Could have been better:
Jimmy Rave vs The Necro Butcher. As usual Prince Nana made a speech about how disrespectful the crowd was towards Jimmy Rave and The Embassy. He also taunted Necro about bieng a hollywood star for his role in "The Wrestler". The match itself was nothing special with Necro getting the win by rolling up Rave while he was distracted. After the match Nana, Rave and Ernie Osiris jumped Necro from behind, targeting his leg until Colt Cabana came in to make the save. I expected a lot better from these two as they have put on much better matches in the past.
Jay Briscoe vs Guido Maritato. The crowd welcomed back former ECW star Guido Maritato to ROH as his last stint with the company was in 2002 (if I am not mistaken). He came out to his ECW theme music, a disco remix of "Staying Alive" which I thought was great. I did like thy stereotypical Italian gimmick that he dropped during his original ROH run. The match itself was not bad. Jay Briscoe was able to get the win with the Jay Driller. Yes, there was a good deal of technical and hard hitting wrestling in the match but something just left the audience with the deisre to see a better effort all around.

Ring of Honor on HD Net 6/13/09 results

The show opened with Austin Aries calling out Jerry Lynn and telling him to hand over the world title so he doesn't have to come take it the hard way. Lynn does not come to the ring and Aries says says that he has a message to send to Lynn.

Then Kyle Durden interviewed Chris Hero and Shane Hagadorn about Hero's main event match against Jerry Lynn. Hero stated that he had almost taken the belt from Lynn at an earlier event in Boston and he was going to knock Lynn out during the night's main event (even though it would nt be for the belt).

The first match has Jay Briscoe going up against D-Lo Brown. It's a pretty good hard hitting match. When Jay Briscoe had Brown in trouble on the outside of the ring, he intentionally got himslef counted out. Briscoe was not satisfied with winning this way and he called Brown back to the ring to keep fighting. Brown looked as if he would do so but turned around at the last second.

From there, Kyle Durden interviewed Jerry Lynn about his match against Chris Hero in the night's main event. Nigel McGuiness interrupted saying that once he healed up from his injuries, he'd be coming after Lynn. Lynn said that he would give Nigel a rematch anytime.

The next match was Bobby Fish and Sylas Young against Kevin Steen and El Generico. Not a bad match as young and Fish got in a good deal of offense in. In the end, it was the former tag team champions proving to be too much for their opponents.

From there, Kyle Durden interviewed Jerry Lynn about his match against Chris Hero in the night's main event. Nigel McGuiness interrupted saying that once he healed up from his injuries, he'd be coming after Lynn. Lynn said that he would give Nigel a rematch anytime.

The next match had Jimmy Rave facing Grizzly Redwood. Before the match, Prince Nana made his usual speech about how worthless the crowd was and how great "the crowned jewel of The Embassy" Jimmy Rave was. Rave won this match with minimal effort. After, he continued to kick Grizzly while he was down until The Necro Butcher came in and made the save.

The main event of the evening had Chris Hero against Jerry Lynn. Lynn's world title would not be on the line (This would also be the last day 6/13 that Lynn would hold the belt. The TV matches are prerecorded and Lynn lost the belt that night to Austin Aries in Manhattan). The match was one of the better back and forth matches on ROH TV. Hero was able to take advantage of Lynn various times by distracting the referee while Sara Del Rey and Shane Hagadorn took their shots on Lynn from the outside. In the end, Hero missed the Rolling Elbow (with his trademark loaded elbow pad on) and Lynn Rolled him up for the victory. After the match, Austin Aries hit the ring and used Lynn's champonship belt as a weapon against him. aries held the belt high in the air as the TV show ended.

Next week's main event will have Roderick Strong going up against Japanese star, Kenta.