ROH on HDNet
Philadelphia, PA
October 19, 2009

Your hosts are Dave Prazak and Mike Hogewood.

• Jerry Lynn vs. Kenny King
  

And now the other half of this Black/Lynn vs. Titus/King series. King REFUSES a handshake before the match and instead mocks Jerry Lynn. Basic stuff to start until Lynn slides out and baits King into a missed pescado. SPLAT! Lynn follows up with a CANNONBALLLLLL from the apron. Back in, King fights back with a running hotshot and unleashes the “badmouth” on Lynn. King shoves off a ten-count corner punch and hits the Elijah Express in the corner. That gets two. Spinning heel kick gets two, but then Lynn avoids the running hotshot and jumping legdrops King when he pokes his head through the ropes. Whoa, Thesz Press and punches from Lynn! Where’s the double bird though? Lynn avoids another Elijah Express and springs off the middle rope for a sunset flip powerbomb. They trade finisher attempts, but King hits the fireman’s carry into a Rock Bottom for 1-2-NO! Lynn flips out of the CORONATION as Rhett Titus runs down to the ring. He helps King avoid the CRADLE PILEDRIVER, but Lynn sunset flips over, so King drops down on top of him and hooks the ropes for the 1-2-3. (6:42) Afterwards, King Titus stomp the crap out of Lynn and give him a SPIKE PILEDRIVER! Geez, this is SO ’80s, but it works. Gotta love Adam Pearce’s booking. Anyways, Lynn has to be carried out to the back because it appears he’s been injured. Decent match, but I’ve seen them do better. **

• Nigel McGuinness vs. Sal Rinauro
  

Sal is truly scared of wrestling the former ROH world champ, so Nigel agrees to a nice regular wrestling match. And this way, none of the desires of the ROH fans to see Nigel have a hard fought match will be appeased. And Sal actually believes him. It starts off with wristlocks and the like, but then Nigel charges him in the corner and Rinauro slides out to the floor. He grabs the mic and asks Nigel ‘WTF, m8?’ But when Nigel turns his head, Sal hotshots him and comes back inside with a springboard crossbody for 1-2-NO! He goes up again, but Nigel crotches him and teases the Tower of London inside and out of the ring. But no, he refuses to appease the ROH fans and their unquenchable taste for high-risk moves. Sal catches Nigel off guard with a flying sunset flip, but Nigel rolls through and hooks on the LONDON DUNGEON for the submission win. (2:08) Now that’s a squash with a story! After the match, Nigel blames the fans for what happened to Lynn earlier. ¾*

Kenny King stops by Kyle Durden and the camera to say that Lynn just doesn’t know when to quit.

• Colt Cabana vs. Claudio Castagnoli
  

Awesome. Claudio conducts his theme music “1812 Overture” and wraps it up with a bicep pose. No handshake from Claudio – instead, he slaps Cabana across the face with his glove. As I expected, this is one of those fancy catch-as-catch-can British-style matches Some pretty cool stuff and even as much as I love Colt Cabana, you’re nuts if you think I’m doing PBP for this. Since he made Claudio wrestle his type of match, a rollup sequence gets the win for Cabana. (7:34) Claudio claims there was some pulling of the tights, but I never saw any. Ya European liar. **½

• ROH World Champion Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson
  

Only one more match left after this on HDNet for Bryan Danielson and then he’s off to FCW! Everyone wants to see Aries get his fcking head kicked in. Feeling out process to start. Aries tries the handspring out of the headscissors, but Danielson drops him back down on his head. He changes over into the cross armbreaker. Aries slips out and tries a kick, but Danielson catches his foot for the Anklelock. He reaches the ropes and grabs a breather on the floor. Back in, Danielson dropkicks him to the floor and calls for the tope suicida forearm, but Aries walks away. However, Danielson saw that coming and hits a flying knee strike off the apron. Back inside, Aries stops Danielson up top and brings him down with a hotshot. With Danielson dazed, he gives him a reverse neckbreaker through the ropes for two. Nerve hold by Aries. Danielson elbows out, but Aries drops him with a back elbow and follows up with a running elbow drop for two. They trade sleepers and a jawbreaker from Danielson doesn’t stop Aries as he quickly applies a Dragon Sleeper. Danielson heads over to the corner, kicks off the turnbuckles, and flips over Aries back into another sleeper! Aries tries the same strategy, but Danielson KNOWS it’s coming and stops that with a back suplex. Nice! Danielson kicks Aries down and goes for CATTLE MUTILATION, but Aries stands up and backs him into the corner. To the floor we go, Danielson blocks the Heat Seeking Missile with a forearm and heads back in with a missile dropkick. KIP-UP! Running forearm in the corner is followed by a bridging German suplex for 1-2-NO! Danielson wants the Back Superplex, but Aries elbows him off to the floor and gets that Heat Seeking Missile he wanted earlier. Aries takes a moment and kisses the belt before taking Danielson back into the ring for more punishment. Missile dropkick and a kip-up from Aries – just like Danielson! Well, American Dragon isn’t down with that and catches Aries with the TRIANGLE CHOKE out of nowhere. Aries escapes and wants a BRAINBUSTER, but Danielson knees out and goes right back to the hold. Aries slips out, but Danielson keeps him right where he wants him with an Anklelock! Danielson grapevines the leg, but Aries kicks him away. They fight to their feet with forearm smashes. Rolling Elbow from Danielson sends Aries reeling into the ropes. Kicks from Danielson sets up the Tiger Suplex, but Aries flips out and kicks Danielson on the top of his head! LAST CHANCERY! Danielson makes the ropes. Aries dumps out Danielson and exposes a top turnbuckle. They take turns teasing an exposed turnbuckle smash, so Danielson runs him into the opposite corner and delivers the Tiger Suplex for 1-2-NO! CATTLE MUTILATION! Aries rolls out of it and with his hands still tied up, he tries to back Danielson into the exposed corner. Danielson sees it coming and shoves him off, but charges into a Shinbreaker Suplex. Aries wants his running dropkick in the corner, but Danielson catches him for another Anklelock! This time Aries rolls him off into the exposed corner. Running dropkick to the STEEL turnbuckle ring! Kawada pin gets the 1-2-3. (14:56) This is what sucks about ROH on TV. If they had started with TV and had these type of matches with 15 minutes, that would be fine. Instead, the company started out putting on these unbelievable shows years ago where these guys would go thirty minutes and sometimes a lot more than thirty minutes. It was ROH’s signature thing. The way they are doing TV right now would have best worked in the ’80s and even in the ’90s when the house show business was different. Since most of ROH’s audience are ‘internet marks’ anyways who know all about everything ROH-related, I can’t see this show being a huge success for them when those who watch, already know there are much better matches available out there. They may pick up a few new fans along the way, but once they figure this out they’ll just stick with the DVDs too. This was a great TV match and if it were from any other company, it wouldn’t disappoint. But when ROH’s best matches and all their best angles are saved for the DVDs (which are hardly ever promoted on their show, by the way), why watch this show? ***½

That’s all I’m saying.

The end of these most recent tapings, the November 9 episode when Bryan Danielson & Roderick Strong battle the American Wolves, will be my last ROHDNet taping that I’ll recap. Unless Jim Cornette comes in and makes a liar out of me by doing something amazing like make the TV show the focus of the company instead of the house shows that render this TV show obsolete.