ROH on HDNet
Philadelphia, PA
July 25, 2009

Your hosts are Dave Prazak and Mike Hogewood.

• Necro Butcher & Grizzly Redwood vs. Jimmy Rave & Ernie Osiris (w/Prince Nana)
  

As if there was any doubt, Osiris is Jimmy Rave’s footstool to get into the ring. BRING BACK JADE CHUNG! Ahem. Looks like a twelve pack of Charmin was passed around before the show because the Embassy gets covered with the two-ply. This is a tag match set up a couple weeks back after Necro saved Redwood from an Embassy beating. We head to the floor with Necro chasing Rave around in between giving Osiris a chair slam. Back in, Ernie eats some bare feet. He ducks a charge from Redwood, who becomes the temporary face in peril. Spinning neckbreaker from Rave gets two. Redwood slips out of a GHANARHEA attempt and makes the hot tag to Necro. Chokeslam and a TIGER DRIVER to Ernie gets two. After Necro blasts Rave with a right hand, Ernie tries to roll him up and can’t get the pinfall. Rave and Nana have left the building, leaving Osiris to take the fall with a flying tornado DDT from Redwood. (7:38) As usual, a decent opener even though it rarely rises above average. **¼

Kyle Durden is standing by with Austin Aries. He asks AA about Danielson/Black III. How dare he not ask about the champ? Aries grabs the mic away and demands Durden leave. Much better. He says he’ll hold onto the belt until everybody dies on 12/12/2012. What a prediction!

Dark City Fight Club returns soon! Hopefully to face the Young Bucks! Please?

• Nevaeh & Daizee Haze vs. Sara Del Ray & MsChif
  

If Sara Del Ray agrees to back up MsChif in this match, she’ll get another shot at the SHIMMER title. Nevaeh still has the green mist in her hair from the last time she faced MsChif. Of course it’s from the same TV taping, but it’s still a pretty cool “little thing”. Haze and Nevaeh work over MsChif and her arm for a while. Hennig necksnap from Nevaeh gets two. Del Ray helps out with a yank of the hair as Nevaeh tries to come off the ropes. Standing moonsault from MsChif gets two. In comes Del Ray to channel the spirit of Jushin Liger with the fallaway slam and a bridge for two. MsChif tags in to scream at Nevaeh. Back to Del Ray, Nevaeh slips out of a fireman’s carry and *pops* Del Ray’s strap! OH SNAP! HOT TAG TO DAIZEE! Missile dropkick and a tilt-a-whirl headscissors to Del Ray. Haze fails on a monkey flip, but fights off both opponents on the apron. She flips back in over Del Ray and makes a blind tag to Nevaeh. Del Ray tries to powerbomb Haze into a shot of GREEN MIST~! from MsChif. Haze sees it coming and headscissors out. Nevaeh tries to sneak an inside cradle win on Del Ray, but gets put away with the ROYAL BUTTERFLY instead. (4:32) Quite an enjoyable bout. Guess that means Del Ray will be getting a title shot soon. **½

In the back, Kyle Durden meets with Nigel McGuinness. He puts over both Bryan Danielson and Tyler Black, but puts Black over a little bit more. Hmm.

It’s time for another edition of “The Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana”. Today, Colt is going to show his assistant Brent Albright how to score with the nice merchandise girl. Apparently an attractive girl in the audience was nowhere to be found. Cabana sends Albright away and suggests a trip to the Olive Garden where she can eat all the free breadsticks she wants. Right in the middle of his sentence, The Embassy (including JOEY RYAN~!) comes over to ruin the show and possibly ruin Colt’s face. That is until Brent Albright makes the save. Apparently a 5-on-2 advantage is too much for the Embassy to handle? Anyways, Ernie Osiris grabs as many DVDs as he can from the merchandise table as the Embassy heads out.

Back over to Kyle Durden who is standing by with Eddie Kingston. So much for an interview, Kingston is here to fight Chris Hero. He tells the cameraman to follow him to a fight, and a fight is exactly what he finds. Hero gets beaten from the locker room all the way to the ring. Various ROH wrestlers separate the two once they make it there. ROH jobber Sal Rinauro tries to calm Eddie down and takes a straight right hand to the face!

• Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black
  

Their first match on HDNet ended in a 20-minute time limit, the rematch ended in a double-countout, now Bryan Danielson and Tyler Black continue their rivalry in a THIRD match. I think if there had been time limit issues in the past, they should have started the show with this match. Kind of like in the ’80s when the NWA would air a Ric Flair title defense. If the match ends in thirty minutes, you’ve got standby matches to fill up the rest of the time. If the match goes the full sixty minute time limit, then that’s fine too. That makes the match seem more REALISTIC and the feud seem more important to find a winner. Danielson tries to rile Tyler up to start by outwrestling him and then slapping him hard across the face. Danielson does that SICK arm bend on Black, but then eats a dropkick for two. Another slap from Danielson causes Black to lunge on him, which gets Black maneuvered around into a Crippler Crossface. Black reaches the ropes and Danielson has until the count of five to break, ref. Black teases the stomp on Danielson’s face and tries to slap him, but Danielson BLOCKS into a freakin’ cross armbreaker. Black reaches the ropes and now they do some talking. Danielson charges into a slam and takes a quebrada for two. He turns things around into the corner and unloads on Black with a barrage of slaps and kicks. Danielson starts cranking on the neck with a cravat. Tyler absorbs a headbutt and fires back with forearms, but runs into a sleeper. Danielson changes over into a Dragon Sleeper and goes HORIZONTAL WITH IT! Ouch. Black’s lanky body helps him reach the ropes. Now they trade sleeper holds. Black tries to suplex out, but Danielson holds on tight. Jawbreaker creates some separation only for a moment, so Black has to back suplex Danielson over the top rope to the floor to get the break he needs. Black wants to dive on Danielson, but he blocks it with a forearm. Back inside, Tyler blocks a missile dropkick with a dropkick of his own. BRIAN PILLMAN IN DA HOUSE~! Black comes back with an enziguri and the Springboard Clothesline for 1-2-NO! Now Tyler delivers a bunch of slaps to Danielson like he’s wanted to do all match. Running forearm in the corner sets up an F-5! With Danielson on his knees, Tyler goes for the Superkick. Oh, but Danielson catches the foot for an anklelock! Black rolls him off the hold out to the floor and delivers a somersault plancha! Back inside, Danielson avoids the Springboard Clothesline. Black flips out of a release German suplex, but gets nailed with a jumping lariat from Danielson! German suplex into a O’Connor roll gets 1-2-NO! People are freaking out like that was a three-count. Black elbows out of a back superplex and eats a kick up top. Danielson tries a top rope rana, but Black rolls through…INTO A TRIANGLE CHOKE! Black fights up and delivers the Buckle Bomb! Danielson is on his knees again and gets blasted with the Superkick! Cover, 1-2-NO!! Black heads up for a possible PHOENIX SPLASH and gets shoved into the crowd again. And just like in the double-countout, Danielson springboard somersault planchas onto Black! Danielson kicks Black back onto the barricade and makes it back in at the count of thirteen. Aaaaaaand Black makes it in at the count of nineteen. Remember, ROH has a twenty-count. Danielson looks PISSED. If he had straps to pull down, this is where they would come down. He unloads on Black with kicks. Tyler avoids the Rolling Forearm and rolls up Danielson, who rolls out of it into an enziguri kick on the mat! Danielson catches another sleeper and SNAPMARES Black over his own back into another Crippler Crossface! Oh geez, they’re in the center of the ring! Tyler still makes the ropes. Danielson unleashes some nasty back elbows and goes for a Dragon Suplex, but Black slips away and hits a Pele kick. Danielson hits a jumping enziguri and after a bunch of waistlock exchanges, Black gives him a release German suplex, which he ABSORBS. He runs into a superkick, eats another superkick when he’s on his knees, and takes GOD’S LAST GIFT for the 1-2-3! (21:27) Much better than the other two matches. It looks like they’re going to come to blows again after the bell, but Danielson just wants a handshake. Hopefully this will mean big things ahead for Tyler Black because ROH needs some fresh blood to hold onto the strap. The only problem I would have with the match is that they did the same double-countout spot around the same time as before and it not having the same effect. It makes it seem like they weren’t trying as hard to win last time. There was no real hesitation on Danielson’s part as to say, “If I do this, we might have to wrestle a FOURTH time and I have to WIN because I’m Bryan Danielson.” Nit-picky, maybe a little. Isn’t that what wrestling review people do though? Otherwise, an incredible match and the *new* best of the HDNet series. I highly doubt you’ll find a better match this year on free TV. ****¾