ROH on HDNet
Philadelphia, PA
August 31, 2009

Your hosts are Dave Prazak and Mike Hogewood.

• Sonjay Dutt vs. Delirious (w/Daizee Haze)
  

Quite the mediocre reaction for “The Original Playa from the Himalaya”. They do a quick start with the running of the ropes and such leading to a stalemate. Chinlocks and armbars follow. Sonjay sends Delirious to the floor with a running rana. Delirious crawls underneath the ring and comes up behind Sonjay, but gets dumped anyway. Delirious ducks a baseball slide and stands up into a 619 on the apron. Back in, Delirious catches Sonjay flying down on him with a headbutt. That gets two. Sonjay takes over as he rolls through a sunset flip into a dropkick. He channels the spirit of Kevin Nash with the back elbows and boot choke in the corner. GOO GOO G’JOOB! Pretty dull match so far. Delirious makes his comeback and hits a modified Bizarro Driver for 1-2-NO! Sonjay avoids some Rolling Germans and face slams Delirious into the top turnbuckle. He kicks Delirious so that he lands across the ropes and gives him a slingshot legdrop. Springboard Splash gets 1-2-NO! Sonjay connects with a springboard back splash and tries for the SONJAY CUTTER, but Delirious counters into a takedown to set up the COBRA STRETCH! Sonjay stands up out of it and backs Delirious into the corner, but Delirious still manages a Cobra Clutch Slam. Sonjay stops SHADOWS OVER HELL and brings him down with a Muscle Buster. Delirious rolls Sonjay off the CAMEL CLUTCH and goes right back into the COBRA STRETCH! Sonjay grabs the ropes and superkicks Delirious back. Delirious reverses a corner whip and Sonjay tries that kick out of the corner again, but Delirious catches his feet and snaps Sonjay down into a neckbreaker. Panic Attack sets up SHADOWS OVER HELL, but Sonjay moves out of the way. They exchange nearfalls, ending with Delirious getting the three-count. (11:45) Picked up a little bit in the second half of the match, but overall not as great a debut as I expected for Sonjay. He just doesn’t really have the moveset to make a great heel wrestler. **½

• ROH World Tag Team Champions The American Wolves (w/Shane Hagadorn) vs. Cheech & Cloudy
  

Cheech and Cloudy clean house on the American Wolves to start. They go for STEREO PESCADOS and the American Wolves just step aside. AWESOME. Back in, Cheech gets destroyed for a little bit until he kicks Edwards away and flips out of a back suplex to tag in Cloudy. He gets in some kicks, but the Alarm Clock is ticking and it kicks him right in the sternum. Powerbomb into the Gutbuster sets up a half crab from Eddie Edwards for the easy and completely unnecessary submission. (2:00) Is there anything the American Wolves can’t do? Just an excellent squash. Afterwards, the Dark City Fight Club come out to give Cheech the DARK CITY STREET CUTTER while the American Wolves look on. Richards seemed a little scared. Heck, I would be. *½

In the back, Colt Cabana gets his team hyped up for their big elimination match with the Embassy. Brent Albright is taking this WAY too seriously while Colt just gives Necro a pat on the back since he wouldn’t want to make him staple his forehead or anything crazy like that.

We take a look to last week where Jerry Lynn announced he wasn’t retiring – at least not before he gets his revenge on Tyler Black for costing him the ROH world title at Manhattan Mayhem III.

• Erick Stevens vs. Silas Young
  

Stevens overpowers Young a whole bunch to start. Young takes over with a necksnap on the apron. He tries a suplex, but can’t get Stevens up. Stevens chops him back, but Young ducks a second one, gives Stevens a neckbreaker, and takes him down with a Northern Lariat. Those crafty Canadians and their lariats with your back turned. That gets two. Stevens escapes a chinlock and mounts a comeback. He hits a Flying Shoulderblock, but runs into a dropkick on the knee. Young flies down into a Samoan Drop. Cover, 1-2-NO! Young counters the DOCTORBOMB with a schoolboy for 1-2-NO! Backbreaker and a clothesline off the knee gets two. Finlay Roll sets up the SPLIT LEGGED HINDU PRESS, but Stevens moves and hits a German. CHOO CHOO SPLASH is followed by a running lariat. DOCTORBOMB! That gets the three-count. (5:44) Still not really digging this Silas Young guy. **

Standing by with Kyle Durden, Eddie Kingston is still looking to kill him a Chris Hero.

• Colt Cabana, Brent Albright, Grizzly Redwood & Necro Butcher vs. Jimmy Rave, Claudio Castagnoli, Ernie Osiris & Prince Nana – Elimination Match
  

Prince Nana looks like the “African Nature Boy” with that robe. It’s all over the place. It’s a huge eight man brawl until Colt clears the ring with Bionic Elbows. Hahaha. Once everything settles, Necro unloads on Osiris in the corner with the Violence Party. In comes Grizzly, they pull on each other’s lumberjack beards. As they run the ropes, Grizzly does his little Log Roll move to trip up Ernie. Pretty fun. Rave catches Redwood with a knee off the apron and tags in only to take a jumping chop as Grizzly rolls over and tags Necro. Well, Jimmy doesn’t want any of Necro, so he makes a tag to Claudio. He grabs an ab stretch on Necro and gets some leverage from Rave. Necro manages to hiptoss his way out once Castagnoli gets caught and snaps off a tilt-a-whirl headscissors takedown! Now Necro is the one grabbing an ab stretch and reaches out to Grizzly for some leverage, who grabs onto Albright for leverage, who grabs onto Cabana for leverage, WHO GRABS ONTO THE FAN IN THE FRONT ROW FOR LEVERAGE! Now we’ve got the whole front row helping out with leverage on this ab stretch. It’s amazing that Claudio hasn’t tapped out yet! FINALLY, Necro gets caught and has to break the hold. Well that was excellent. Cabana tags in and both he and Claudio cartwheel their way out of snapmares. When Colt has enough of that, he catches Claudio with a dropkick. Tag to Rave, and he quickly gets Albright. Snap powerslam gets two. In comes Grizzly, he busts out some Three Stooges moves on Rave. Blind tag to Osiris, Rave gets thrown out to the floor and on his way to the apron, Necro surprises him with a CANNONBALLLLL. Claudio tosses Redwood aside, but gets tossed to the floor by Albright for a pescado. Necro brings Rave over towards Claudio as Cabana busts out the ASAI MOONSAULT and wipes them out. Oops, Necro hurt his recently injured ankle on that bump. If he would get a proper wrap and get rid of that electrical tape. I mean, WTF d00d? Grizzly teases a dive and gets rolled up by Osiris for the 1-2-3 at 6:55! So they call him dirty for more than one reason.

Back in, Cabana attempts the COLT 45 on Osiris, but Claudio makes the save with a Bicycle Kick. That causes a four man stomp on poor Colt. The Embassy continues to work over Cabana for a while as Prince Nana in his JJ Dillon tights still hasn’t been tagged in the match. Once Colt does make it out of the corner, he HOT TAGS ALBRIGHT who goes CLOTHESLINE CRAZY! Uranage to Rave! Air Raid Crash to Ernie! Claudio cuts him off, but eats a dropkick. That takes care of Claudio, as Albright catches him with a suicide dive! Castagnoli spills into the front row, as they brawl all the way out the front entrance. That gets them both counted out at 11:53. Back in the ring, Osiris unsuccessfully saves Rave from a Violence Party. Prince Nana has to spit on Necro to get him to stop. That allows Rave to knock Necro out to the apron for an STO. Down on the floor, Nana and Rave place Necro’s injured ankle on a chair as Ernie comes down on it with a CANNONBALLLLL! Back in, Rave applies the HEEL HOOK and the submission is academic at 13:12. That leaves Colt against Rave, Ernie, and Nana! While Nana stays on the apron, Cabana knocks out Osiris and Rave. He goes after Nana, but gets rolled up for two. Out goes Rave, and Colt gets distracted by Nana again. Ernie jumps on his back for a sleeper, but quickly gets flipped off and takes the COLT 45 for the 1-2-3 at 14:10. Rave slowly comes up behind Cabana like any great ’80s heel would do. Colt blocks a punch and fires away on Rave. Flying Butthole sets up a clothesline for 1-2-NO! Rave kicks off the BILLY GOAT’S CURSE and Colt kicks away the HEEL HOOK. Spear by Rave gets 1-2-NO! Prince Nana FINALLY tags in and stomps Cabana in the balls for tagging out again. “U-S-A!” chants go up. This is so classic. Rave gets too busy posing and runs into a Jack Brisco rollup for the 1-2-3 at 17:32. With Nana’s back turned, he thinks it was Rave who got the pin. Colt tosses Nana into the ring and unloads on him to set up the Flying Butthole. BILLY GOAT’S CURSE gets the submission! (18:29) Loads of awesome ’80s elimination tag formula mixed in with some comedy, which is what I love about Colt Cabana. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s a great little throwback if nothing else. ***½

Next week, Jerry Lynn battles Tyler Black! Plus, the Briscoes make their ROH on HDNet debut as a tag team to take on Rhett Titus & Kenny King!