411's ROH on HDNet Report 10.16.09: Hero vs. KENTA (10.12.09)
Posted by Aaron Hubbard on 10.16.2009
Chris Hero puts his rolling elbows up against KENTA's vicious kicks. Who will win out? Elsewhere, Rhett Titus looks to make a name for himself against Tyler Black.
This show opens with a video recap of last week's Honor Rumble. Dave Prazak and Mike Hogewood welcome us to the show as usual. Tonight we have the second ever A-Double L-Double (on HDNet, I think he had done others before this). The Hog laughs as Prazak overhypes it. "WHO WILL IT BE? WILL IT TOP THE LAST ONE?"
Aries has the Skittles Tights tonight! He gives Kyle Durdan a hat and puts the nineteen "upper-echelon" names in it. The winner is "Sugarfoot" Alex Payne. Mike Hogewood expresses my sentiments while Prazak goes on the "What an opportunity" rant from last time.
Aries keeps the hold on for a while, until Bryan Danielson makes the save. Aries gets outta Dodge as Danielson grabs the mike. AS, not because. Danielson calls the AALL a sham and says that if Aries wants to defend his title against the best, he should face him right now. Aries says that he thought the best had the belt to back it up, and he doesn't see anything around Bryan's waist. He's sick and tired of fans and pundits calling Danielson the "Best in the World", so maybe he'll go in there and shut his mouth…just not tonight.
Tonight's main event is KENTA vs. Chris Hero, so we get to hear from Hero. He says that Kenta is a great performer, but there's a difference in the heavyweight and junior heavyweight style. Hero is a heavyweight, 6'5" and 230 lbs, but he can do all the stuff that juniors can do. He's got a point. He says Kenta is a little one dimensional (God bless you Hero. You are now MY Hero!), because he can't do the power moves. His kicks are better than Hero's kicks, but what's better, his kicks or Hero's elbows? Answer: Kenta's kicks. Hands down.
We get highlights of the pull-apart brawl between Necro Butcher and Bison Smith.
Bison Smith w/Prince Nana vs. Necro Butcher
They trade elbows and slaps and Bison drives Necro into the corner and gives him a chop. He whips him cross corner and hits clothesline, and then an ugly snapmare (intentionally ugly). He throws Butcher outside and then into the barricade. Bison chokes Necro with a chair, but Necro fights back with punches and chops back in the ring. He gets Bison in the corner and hits a big foot, and fishhooks him. Body blows and a headbutt follow, but he is unsuccessful on a slam attempt. Bison slams him down and then hits a series of elbows to the back. Nana gets a cheap shot, but Necro reverses a cross corner whip. He runs into a boot and Smith goes to the second rope, but Butcher hits a punch to send him to the floor. Necro flies with a hilo off the apron. He throws Bison to the crowd and they both get chairs. Bison wins the chair duel but Necro blocks a chair shot, and they are both counted out. Once again, we get a pull-apart brawl. Match Analysis: Just a fight, and not a bad thing if they plan on having some more violent matches later on. Kind of boring though. 1/2*
Tyler Black takes on Rhett Titus later tonight.
Colt Cabana takes on Claudio Castagnoli next week, so we get to hear more from Cabana. Cabana says that the last place he worked he felt creatively limited. He got to travel a lot and meet a bunch of cool people, but there are limitations to being a lemonade vendor in Chicago. Jeez….
Tyler Black vs. Rhett Titus
Rhett offers a handshake and Tyler accepts, so Titus gets a cheap shot. He whips Tyler and hits a back elbow. Black counters a suplex but Rhett avoids an O'Connor Roll. They do a leapfrog sequence that ends with a crossbody from Black. Tyler hits a scoop slam and chokes Titus with his foot, so Rhett backs into the corner. Black follows and Titus pulls him into the turnbuckles. Black reverses an Irish Whip but Titus avoids a dropkick. Tyler lands on his feet and hits a back body drop. He chokes Rhett with his foot again and hits the stomp for two. Titus gets a shot to the throat and back body drops him to the floor. Black lands on his feet and trips but Rhett. He goes for the springboard clothesline but Titus dropkicks him to the floor. He goes to the floor and chokes Tyler, and then drives him into the rail. Rhett throws Black inside and gets a two-count.
Tyler throws a few punches but Titus whips him to the corner and hits a Stinger Splash. He whips Black in again and follows up with a clothesline for two. Rhett hits a snapmare and applies a neck vice. Titus looks to set up the Rude Awakening, but Tyler reverses to his own Rude Awakening. Black ducks a clothesline and hits a pair of his own, and then hits a back body drop. Tyler goes for a quebrada out of the corner but Rhett avoids it. Titus throws Black to the apron, but Tyler hits an enzugiri and the springboard clothesline for two. Titus avoids the Buckle Bomb three times, and rolls through a sunset flip to hit Black with a kick to the face. Rhett goes for a powerbomb but Tyler counters to a backslide for two. Black catches a kick and does some thrusting of his own, and then slaps Titus. Rhett gets a thumb to the eye, and hits an elevated Edge-O-Matic on Tyler. Titus goes for a crucifix bomb but Black escapes, ducks a clothesline and hits a Pelé Kick. God's Last Gift gets the three count for Tyler. Match Rating: The actual in-ring work was only slightly better than average, in for those not in the know, it is probably just another match. But Rhett Titus has been considered a joke for his entire run. In this match, he went move for move with the top babyface in the company, someone who may be a future world champion. When he lost, it was not a dominant series of moves; he countered the Buckle Bomb multiple times, but got caught with the unpredictable Pelé Kick, and that knocked him out long enough for Black to hit the very quick Small Package Driver. This really elevated Titus in my eyes. ***
Jerry Lynn comes out and congratulates Black. Next week, Lynn takes on Kenny King in singles competition. But there's bigger news.
Next week, Austin Aries puts the ROH World Title on the line against Bryan Danielson.
Chris Hero w/Shane Hagadorn & Sara Del Rayvs. KENTA
They wrestle around for a bit, and I don't mean the Benoit-Angle "wrestling" where they trade takedowns and escapes. They are actually wrestling. Kenta grabs an armbar but Hero backs him up against the ropes, looks to give a clean break but hits a chop instead. Kenta responds with an elbows, and Hero throws an elbow, so Kenta just slaps him. Kenta hits a series of kicks that brings Chris to his knees. Hero hits some throat thrusts and an elbow to get back into it, but Kenta hits a knee to the gut. Kenta whips Hero and hits another knee to the gut, and then hits a kick to the back of the head. A scoop slam and a kick to the back follow, and Kenta covers for two after hitting two elbow drops to the gut. Kenta follows up by putting on the bodyscissors, which is one of those moves that makes the amateur wrestler in me smile. Hero gets the ropes, but Kenta stays on the midsection with shoulder thrusts in the corner. He runs into a big kick from Hero and Chris throws him into the corner. Let's see if he follows up on that. Hero clocks him with an elbow, but Kenta gets his arm on the rope which gives him time to kick out of the second cover attempt.
Hero gets cocky with boot scrapes to the face but hits a fox kick. We get dueling "We want Eddie!" and "Shut the fuck up!" chants as Hero hits a senton for two. Chris hits a chop that sends Kenta to the floor, but he misses a dropkick through the ropes and Kenta hits an elbow. Kenta kicks Hero and whips him to the rail, but Chris stands on the rail and comes back an elbow. That was impressive. Hero drops Kenta on the apron and covers for two. Hero tries a modified keylock but it doesn't work. Hero hits an elbow to the head, a scoop slam and another senton, this time much better and more Misawa like. That only gets two, so Hero grabs a reverse facelock and hits an elbow to Kenta. He slaps him across the face and covers for two. Hero applies a modified stretch plum, but Kenta gets the ropes.
Kenta starts throwing elbows and Hero hits one of his own. He whips Kenta and eats a flying forearm. A trio of clotheslines follow and Kenta hits his own fox kick for two. Kenta goes to the top rope and hits a flying lariat for two. Hero avoids a German Suplex and goes for a kick, but Kenta awesomely counters it into the STF. Hero gets the ropes and counters another German attempt with an elbow, but he runs into a kick in the corner. Kenta hits the ropes but runs into an elbow strike, and Hero hits the Crash Landing Suplex, twisting it slightly. It only gets two, and Hero goes back the stretch plum. Kenta gets the ropes, and Hero hits a series of elbow strikes and a running elbow. Kenta goes to the corner Hero hits a flying elbow. He pulls Kenta with him to go for the flying elbow that he hit off the barricade earlier, but Kenta counters to Go To Sleep! Hero avoids it but does not avoid a spinning kick to the gut. They work in the roaring lariat/roaring elbow exchange from their six-man tag a few weeks back, and Kenta wins again. I wish Hero had won this time.Kenta hits a springboard missile dropkick and the yakuza kick in the corner, but Hero has the dropkick scouted and counters with his own yakuza in the opposite corner. Hero gets cocky and Kenta runs and hits a second yakuza, and a third! HESITATION DROPKICK! That was awesome.
Kenta hits the fisherman buster and the top rope double stomp, but it only gets two! KENTA Rush, BUSAIKOU KNEE STRIKE! 1…2…NO! Kenta sets up Go To Sleep, but Sara Del Ray distracts him while Shane Hagadorn distracts the referee. Sara holds Kenta's leg and Hero charges into an elbow, and Kenta kicks her to the floor. Hero charges and ROLLING ELBOW! He sets up for a neckbreaker and ROLLING ELBOW! 1…2….NO! Hero thought he had it and so did I. The crowd chants "This is awesome!" Hero wants Go To Sleep but Kenta avoids it and hits a series of kicks, but Hero pulls him back by his tights, and hits another Rolling Elbow! Hero gets the Loaded Elbow of Misawa-ness and sets up Kenta while Hagadorn distracts the ref, but Eddie Kingston comes out and pulls off the elbow pad. Hero hits a pair of kicks and an awkward Go To Sleep to get the victory. Match Analysis: This shows the difference between the attitude of the booking and the attitude of the workers. The bookers seem to have an inability to let the workers have clean matches, but the workers are still going out and giving 100% every time out. This WAS awesome, and even all the booking makes sense. I'd even go so far as to say the booking was the right thing to do. But it still hurt what would have been a **** match. ***3/4
