Nigel McGuinness humiliates Kyle Durden in particularly hilarious fashion and says he will not be stopped by people or injuries. Sadly, as I write this, he dropped the title to Jerry Lynn due to injury the previous night.
Brent Albright & Erick Stevens vs. Damien Wayne & Chris Escobar.
Wayne and Escobar are semi-local. Wayne has been playing a bigger part in Full Impact Pro recently. Albright and Stevens go all Road Warriors on their asses until Escobar and Wayne make with the cheating and double-teaming. Escobar clips Stevens' legs in a nasty spot. He follows with a headscissors neckbreaker. Oooh, innovation. Stevens gets the hot tag to Albright. Albright destroys the jobbers with a double clothesline, and the match turns into a donnybrook. Stevens tosses Wayne, and the babyfaces hit Escobar with a clothesline into a German Suplex. SAPPHIRE EROSION! Well, why wouldn't it be? That gets the win at 9:57. Solid squash for the former Resliemorse Hangmen. Maybe they'll go the Freebird route and become tag trio. **
Rhett Titus vs. Sean Denny.
Denny is a Brit who wrestles in the Carolinas. I first saw him wrestling Bryan Danielson on the NWA Pro-Wrestling Showcase. In fact, he wrestles a little bit like Danielson, even hitting a lightning knee. He gets to show off a lot of offense her, which is fine because it allows Rhett to do his cowardly lion shtick. Titus catches him with an awkward tilt-o-whirl piledriver to take over. They trade a few more moves before Bison Smith does the run-in and totally Brock Lesnars both men. Styles Clashing Rhett onto Denny was particularly inspired. The match is thrown out at 6:49. I'm curious to see more of Denny, and Rhett is always fun, but this was just to introduce Bison as a killer. Most people remember Brock's debut, but few people remember the wrestlers in the match he interrupted. *1/2
Bryan Danielson talks about how Jimmy Jacobs has changed. He recalls Jimmy upsetting him a year ago, but he promises lightning won't strike twice.
Necro Butcher vs. Delirious (w/Jimmy Jacobs).
Delirious tries to attack before the bell, but it's fruitless. Necro stomps a mudhole and walks it dry. Leonard actually calls it that (and uses "clubbering"). Necro misses a charge to the corner, and Jacobs distracts him long enough for Delirious to hit a splash from the outside. Delirious targets Necro's legs and locks in the figure-four. WOOOOOOH! Necro fights back but gets hit with the Cobra Clutch Suplex. Delirious is confused, though, and waits too long before going for Shadows Over Hell. That allows Necro to step back and hit a punch on the way down. To the floor, Necro chairslams Delirious on the floor. Jimmy keeps Necro from using the chair again. That allows Delirious to take over. Back in, Delirious hits the Panic Attack, and Jimmy slips him the spike. Oh, but Daizee Haze (or is it Marley Sebastian?) runs in and asks him not to do it. Delirious is convinced and gives her the spike. He pays for it, though, as Necro catches him with a chokeslam and finishes with the Tiger Driver at 11:49. Pretty good brawl even before the booking kicked in. Delirious is caught in that weird reluctant heel role, and it's hard to come up with offense that walks that fine line. He goes back and forth between evil and remorse about as well as you can, though. He's like Eugene, if Eugene were a lizard man. **3/4
After the match, Jimmy berates Delirious for being distracted by a woman. That's what we call "situational irony."
The American Wolves (w/Larry Sweeney) vs. Roderick Strong & Jay Briscoe.
The faces storm the ring, and it's TIME TO PLAY THE FEUD! Strong and Jay chop it out on Edwards, and Strong goes to work on former stablemate Richards. They don't play that up much, although Prazak mentions it. Sweeney blocks a superplex, and the Wolves take over. Richards is so charismatically dominant over Edwards that it's kind of sad… and this was a guy who partnered with Roderick Strong. Jay tags in, and Richards threatens to cripple him like he did Mark. SICK kick by Richards to break up a pin. Strong gets tossed into the barricade, taking him out of the match. Richards slingshots Jay into a shoe shot from Sweeney, and that allows the Wolves to hit the Orient Express at 13:34. Started to pick up late in the match before the finish. Standard tag action before that, although with some great execution to boost it above average. ***
Jerry Lynn vs. Austin Aries.
Aries' new music is both jarring and appropriate. And now, because he's such a great heel, he's more over as a babyface than he had been through most of 2008. He busts out some Eddy Guerrero heat tactics, making him far more interesting than Lynn. Lynn misses a charge and crotches himself. Aries tries to use the POWER OF THE STACHE to hit a missile dropkick, but Lynn catches him with an atomic drop. NOBODY MESSES WITH THE 'DO! Aries gets tied up in the ropes, so Lynn dropkicks him to the floor and hits a pescado. Back in, Aries tries the kneebreaker/backdrop combo, but Lynn reverses to a crossbody for two. A TKO gets two more for Lynn. Aries scurries through his legs to avoid the Cradle Piledriver. That leads to an IED and the Last Chancery. Lynn won't give up, so Aries calls for his own Cradle Piledriver. Now, Lynn scurries through his legs. Aries punts him in the head, though. Aries goes for a sunset flip, but Lynn captures his legs and gets the pin at 15:08. Aries is irate and in denial. Aries' new character is vastly more entertaining than most of the roster, and it's a shot in the arm for both Aries and the promotion as a whole. Lynn looked fine but had a personality deficit. ***
Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Jacobs.
So Jacobs scored a pretty big upset victory on Danielson a little over a year ago. Now, Dragon wants revenge. Hilarious moment early on as Danielson puts Jacobs in the Mexican Surfboard and tells a fan it would be a good time to take a picture. Jimmy takes exception to Danielson taking him lightly, but he's not exactly doing anything to make it competitive. Jimmy finally pulls the ref in the way and clocks Danielson to take over. He goes to work on the leg, which comes in handy when Danielson tries a springboard move and his knee buckles. Jimmy locks in the Horse-collar and segues to the half-crab. Danielson makes the ropes, and Jimmy taunts his leg injury. Danielson blocks a suplex and knees Jimmy in the head. That hurts Danielson's knee, though. Danielson has enough to hit the suicida. Back in, Danielson comes off the top but lands in the End Time (the same move Jimmy used to beat him earlier). Now Jacobs goes up for the senton, but Danielson gets his knees up. Oh, but that hurts Danielson's knees. Danielson manages to grab the Triangle Choke, but Jacobs scoots over and gets to the ropes. Danielson counters the spear to a small package and goes for the Triangle Choke again, but Jimmy flips over and shoves off the ropes to put Dragon's shoulders down and score another upset victory at 18:02! Great psychology surrounding Danielson's knee, and it made Jimmy's (rare) win seem like a wholly legitimate product of Jimmy's hard work rather than a fluke. ***3/4
Non-Title: Nigel McGuinness vs. Tyler Black.
So Tyler gave Nigel a hell of a fight at Take No Prisoners. Since he lost the #1 contender's match, though, he doesn't get the title shot here. Hey, that actually resembles common sense! Black gets knocked to the floor but kicks Nigel in the head. Black is able to hang with Nigel on the mat, so Nigel drop toeholds him into the barricade. That messes up Tyler's shoulder, so Nigel goes right to work on it. Tyler has a hard time mounting a defense, but he counters the short-arm clothesline to a backdrop. The quebrada misses, but Black hits the Shooting Star for two. Black fights out of the Tower of London and counters to the Paroxysm. Nigel misses the crotched lariat, and Black hits the Pélé. That sets up the springboard lariat. Black goes for God's Last Gift, but Nigel reverses to the small package. ONE, TWO, TH-NO! Nigel drags him out and hits the TOWER OF LONDON ON THE FLOOR! Back in, Black tilt-o-whirls around the Jawbreaker Lariat and hits a turnbuckle powerbomb. Nigel is out of it, so Black hits the superkick for the win at 17:16. Big win for Black as it cemented him as the clear heir apparent. More than that, the match allowed him to look both resourceful and talented against a superior opponent. ****
The 411: Rather odd night from a booking perspective as they set up Austin Aries as the clear #1 contender at the end of 2008 only to muddy the waters here by having him lose to Jerry Lynn and having Black defeat Nigel in a non-title contest. Injuries to Nigel and later Tyler Black derailed what they were probably planning anyway. The show started out slow but picked up by the end. Worth it to see the progression of Tyler Black.
Lesner attacked Al Snow and Spike Dudley i think on his Debut.
Posted By: Muta Mark (Guest) on May 18, 2009 at 01:44 PM
Happy to see you finally catching up on your ROH reviews.
Posted By: Guest#5024 (Guest) on May 18, 2009 at 04:26 PM
Was there live and I gotta say, you make the show sound better than it was...it was the first Pearce-booked RoH show I had been to and definitely paled in comparison to the previous Manassas show (MCMG vs. Team Work, AotF vs. Go/Marafuji). The crowd was off the whole night and everyone left disappointed...sometimes you need more than just solid in-ring action.
Bumping into Nigel at the pisser was the highlight of the night.
Posted By: Ramsey (Guest) on May 24, 2009 at 08:58 AM
