ROH On HDNet Recap – 10/18/10

Tyler Black’s final hour is upon us. With the WWE calling and the ROH World Championship now in the hands of his nemesis Roderick Strong, Tyler has only one order of business left to attend to: the thorn in his side, Davey Richards. Each man has won a contest against the other heading into this week’s ROH On HDNet and now we’ll see who the better man truly is.

– Sorry for the delay in this week’s recap everybody. ROH and/or HDNet have cracked down on video piracy after 18 months, with even the once-endorsed ROHBrazil being asked to delete all his videos. Given I don’t live in the states it seemed that not only would I not be able to fulfill my duties here at PWP, but I wouldn’t be able to watch my favourite hour of wrestling programming either. Some frantic rearranging was negotiated but then at the last minute a trusty source came through for me so I’ll forgive them for being late.
– On with the show!

Opening Segment

This week’s ROH begins with a video package showing Tyler defeating Austin Aries to win the ROH World Title, his promo talking about heading to the WWE with the belt, and then losing to Roddy at Glory by Honor IX and flipping off the fans. Sort of strange that it didn’t set up the main event, but more on that later.

Segment 1

Davey & Tyler Promo

Recap: Jim Cornette came to the ring and informed us that Davey and Tyler had been involved in a backstage altercation, which we’re shown footage of (standard pull-apart shoving match). He calls them both to the ring and Richards asks for one more shot at Tyler to prove he’s the better man. Tyler calls Davey a fool for choosing competition over cash and declines. Davey initially offers to pay, but after striking a nerve gets his wish for free. Cornette states he’s giving them the whole episode to have it out.

Review: The backstage segment was essentially a carbon copy of when Roddy was cutting a promo about Tyler only for the man himself to turn up in a rage. I’m not entirely convinced this was necessary and the promo would have worked just as well with just Davey calling Tyler out in the ring and Cornette entering the scene to make it official. Still, both guys cut a good promo, with Davey making a good job of slamming Tyler for his materialism, and Tyler making a decent defense of his decision to rebut him. I have two tiny critiques though. Firstly, Davey did a poor job with the backstage and in-ring pull-apart brawls. He’s a great wrestler, he can talk, and he has presence, but he has these weird moments of hesitation during these kind of segments and I just never buy that he’s actually attempting to break through the referees to get to the other guy.

– Secondly, the good old continuity issues. ROH acknowledge that these episodes are taped way ahead of time, at times giving away spoilers on their website, but at the same time attempt to create some semblance of a continuous timeline, pretending each episode is current. It’s a tightrope they’re forced to walk due to their schedule and they mostly do a great job of handling it, but this is an example of them not doing it so well. The match was promoted at the end of last week’s episode and all over the website. Most fans read/heard about it weeks in advance. Yet they put together this ten minute segment to make the match look spontaneous. In the grand scheme of things this doesn’t matter at all, but I think it’s something they need to think about solutions for in the next year.

Segment 2

Davey & Tyler Vignettes

Recap: The same promos that aired heading into Davey & Tyler’s title match back at Death Before Dishonor with both men talking openly about their past, their careers and each other.

Review: These were great interviews and I didn’t mind seeing them again, but if you’re going to give almost an entire episode to a match then surely it makes sense to give the vignette time to other storylines to keep them moving. Still, good stuff and it helped contribute to making their title match seem special all those months ago. It also reminded us Tyler isn’t the monster he’s been portrayed as in recent weeks, underlining the change in his attitude.

Segment 3

Briscoes Interview

Recap: After being shown highlights of the Kings and Briscoes war of words and the involvement of Mike Briscoe, the Delaware natives cut a promo on the Kings of Wrestling talking about their last shot at the tag team titles.

Review: This is what I was talking about when I said they should be advancing other stories with the extra time. It was a good promo by the Briscoes, and for once they didn’t descend into generic white-trash jive and cursing. The stipulation that this will be their final shot at the belts while the Kings hold them is interesting, but as the Briscoes keep saying, they don’t care about the belts anymore.

Main Event

Tyler Black vs Davey Richards

Recap: Davey Richards defeated Tyler Black in a near-30-minute match. Tyler controlled a good portion of the match and taunted the fans as usual with both men taking to the air and countering each other’s high impact moves. Richards remained resilient, kicking out of the Superkick and God’s Last Gift, as well as absorbing the Warrior’s Way followed immediately by a Coast 2 Coast dropkick. He managed to use his knees to block a Phoenix Splash and then unloaded with a discus lariat, DR Driver, Buckle Bomb, brutal kick to the head and God’s Last Gift. Somehow Tyler kicked out, but would fall moments later to the Cloverleaf, accepting defeat and tapping out. After the match Davey instructed Tyler to send his new peers to ROH if they wanted to see real wrestling.

Review: Awesome match. They went back and forth throughout and popped off a lot of huge moves and sequences. There’s a tendency to repeat the same spots in a rematch but this felt very different from their title match in June. Tyler was more composed as a heel and really showed off his entire skill-set. He was one of the strongest men in the company as well as being one of the most agile, which was always a deadly combination and he demonstrated that to great effect. Richards did his best to kill himself with his tope con hilo as usual, and unloaded with very stiff kicks and some nice suplexes and submission attempts. It wasn’t as good as their iPPV effort, but I wouldn’t expect it to be. When you’re on TV you have to draw things out a little more with rest holds.

– The opening moments weren’t as good because it didn’t feel as special due to not being on iPPV, but I liked that they went at it right from the get-go rather than trying to feel each other out. The middle section was intentionally slower, so that wasn’t as good either, but if you want my honest opinion, I think the ending section was better. The moves were bigger and there were more of them. Some will label it as a spot-fest, and it’s difficult to argue given all the punishment both men absorbed, but 90% of indie-wrestling is this way, and I for one enjoy it. Besides, this was Tyler’s last match, Davey had a big point to prove, and it’s the final part of a trilogy, they’re bound to kick out of more moves.

– It was a nice touch to have them using each other’s moves, with Tyler slapping on the Cloverleaf and hitting a more painful looking version of the Alarm Clock, and Davey using the Buckle Bomb and God’s Last Gift. The finish reminded me of Japanese wrestling in a way, in that it was somewhat of a mercy kill situation. It’s rare to see someone kick out of one move only to lose to another seconds later. I’ve seen it happen in NOAH and Dragon Gate more than once, and Shingo did it to Equinox in Chikara too. It served to put Tyler over big time before passing the torch as he fought back from everything Davey had, but ultimately Richards was the better man and his determination finally put Black away, cementing his status as ROH’s top face.

Closing Segment

We’re reminded that the Briscoes will face the Kings of Wrestling for the ROH World Tag Team Titles for the final time next week in the main event.

Overall

– It’s difficult to give an overall rating to an episode that consisted of one match, one promo, one short vignette, and five minutes of recycled content. It was a hell of a TV match, and the promo was solid, but it means that the review of that match doesn’t differ much from the review of the entire episode. I’ll repeat my sentiments that:

A) they could have dumped the opening backstage altercation,

B) They might have wanted to run vignettes for Roderick Strong, Christopher Daniels, Homicide, Kevin Steen, El Generico, or even The All-Night Express, rather than recycle five minutes worth of footage from five months ago. There was nothing inherently wrong with repeating the footage, but they only have 60 minutes each week to promote their brand and if they’re going to give 80% of the episode to two men, the other 20% surely should go to the other talents not getting a chance to wrestle.

– Then again, this episode was about passing the torch. Tyler was the top face on TV from day one and has been a big part of the company for 3 years. ROH always treat departing talent well and make them look good, and this was no different. He looked as good as ever has in defeat, and he lost to the man that is filling the void created when he turned heel, Davey Richards, so I guess it’s fitting that they’d devote the entire show to this transition. It gave Tyler a proper send-off and put Davey over as the ultimate hero, defending the very concept of Ring of Honor from the criticisms of the former prodigal son.

– So there you have it, the departure of a man I once called my favourite wrestler, pushed aside in favor of another man I once called my favourite wrestler. Funny how things work out huh? There probably won’t be another episode like this one for a long time, so it’s hard to critique it against other episodes. All I can say is I enjoyed it, and I look forward to what’s to come next week and beyond.

Check out the full episode of Ring of Honor on HDNet where you see Tyler Black vs Richards for one final match in full here. If you don’t have HDNet, you can view your episodes here weekly.