-Taped from Richmond, Virginia
-Your hosts are Kevin Kelly (thank God) and Dave Prazak
-Tag Wars 2010- Block B Semifinal: All Night Express (Rhett Titus and Kenny King) vs. Colt Cabana and El Generico
Kevin Kelly proves immediate dividends by being a competent announcer and making it clear what’s at stake in this match. Now, the problem is there will be three matches on this night. The three winners advance into an Ultimate Endurance match for the ROH world tag team championships. Champions are of course the Kings of Wrestling. Caban starts with comedy. Titus takes early advantage with a right hand. Cabana armdrag.Generico continues the advantage. Titus takes Generico to his corner. King tags in and is armdragged three times. King takes Generico into the corner. Lock-up. Generico with a chop. Ten punches in the corner. Chop. Into the corner where Cabana gets a roll-up for two. Knee to the midsection by King. Cabana hip toss. A cover after another hip toss. King rips at the eyes of Cabana. Titus in. Cabana with more hip tosses. Generico in with a chop. Cabana with chops. Generico struts. Leg lariat. Inverted atomic drop as Titus tags King. Heat segment on the generic one. Announcers bring up transportation problems for Roderick Strong and Erick Stevens. As if the card wasn’t weak enough with those guys. Generico rolls through and hits a dropkick on King. Titus takes Cabana off the apron as the All Night Express continues working Generico over. Miscommunication leads to King clotheslining his own partner. Roll through by Generico leads to the hot tag. Quebrada. Elbows for everybody. Chops. He tries to send them into each other by the heads. Has to settle for Titus in King’s groin area. Flying asshole on King. Clothesline for two. King takes Cabana into the corner. Hip toss of Titus back in the ring. Dropkick as Cabana comes out of the corner. Butt bump on Titus gets two. Generico tags. King pulls Generico out and sends him in the barricade. Generico does the same. Cabana and Titus battle on the top rope. Yakuza kick by Generico. Top rope brainbuster attempt. Cabana rolls through and goes for the billy goat’s curse. Referee is distracted. Steve Corino comes down to take Cabana from ringside. Generico is all alone. Michinoku driver on Titus for two as King breaks the count. Right hand by King. Generico places on the top rope. Battles him off. Yakuza kick. Roll-up on Titus for two. Knee to the midsection by Titus. Generico placed on the top rope. Generico crotches Titus. Generico climbs to the top. King brings him back in the ring. Shotgun knees in the corner. Rocker dropper by Titus. This is the longest match ever. Coronation. Titus splashes. King covers. All Night Express advances.
-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: All Night Express/14:11/**
-Painfully mediocre tag team match that pretty much made the All Night Express look like geeks. There were just long periods of time when Cabana and Generico were fighting them off by themselves. And although the match went under 15 minutes, it felt like hours and hours. Crowd wasn’t into this match at all. And Cabana leaving his partner just to brawl with Corino? Doesn’t seem to fit his character at all. They should have at least gone to the
-Bravado Brothers promo. For the first time in forever, we have a backstage promo and it’s these geeks. One of them mentions wrestling in front of their mom the next night. DEATH to becoming babyfaces in 2010!
Tag Wars 2010- Block A Semifinal: The Bravado Brothers (Lance and Harlem Bravado) vs. Dark City Fight Club (Jon Davis and Kory Chavis
Bravados go to town right away. Double dives. Davis fires away. Since the announcers are too busy babbling about whatever instead of identifying who is who, I’m just calling him Lance. Back and forth between Davis and Lance. DCFC take control with a number of double teams, including a leg drop. Apparently, it’s Harlem Bravado in the ring. Knee drop into a chinlock by Chavis. Drags him down by the hair. Blow to the back by Davis. Back suplex. Forearm by Davis. Roll-up by Harlem. Flying leg lariat by Davis. Davis knocks Lance off the apron. Into the buckle goes Harlem. Chavis hits a charging clothesline. Whip in the corner. Harlem gets his knees up. Dropkick. Hot tag to Lance. Ducks a lariat. Shot by Davis. Up and over. Lance with a nice neckbreaker. Blow by Chavis. Double team enziguri by the Bravados. Double team back suplex on Chavis. Harlem hits a frog splash. Davis quickly breaks that mess up . Davis powerbombs one Bravado into another. LARIAT! Chavis nearly killed him. High double team neckbreaker gets three.
-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Dark City Fight Club/5:59/*
-A borderline squash which it should have been considering the two teams participating. I understand why the Bravados had to advance, but it doesn’t mean I don’t have to like it. Would have much rather seen the Super Smash Brothers in this tournament.
-All Night Express cut a celebratory promo and talk about the three teams they’re going to face the next night. They mentioned the Briscoes. That’s right, a team that had not yet even been shown winning their match yet was mentioned. Meaning one of two things happened. The promo was cut before the match and King messed up or it was shot after and ROH didn’t bother waiting. Either way, this never should have aired in this spot, and this is the sort of attention to detail thing that Ring of Honor used to never screw up. Doesn’t help King trips over his words.
-Tag Wars 2010: Block C Semifinal: The Embassy (Necro Butcher and Prince Nana) vs. The Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark Briscoe)
Nana replaces Stevens because of travel issues. They couldn’t wait until the end of the night to see if Stevens showed up? Really? As if there was any drama attached to this match anyway. Hell, Kenny King gave the ending away already. Nothing like having Necro Butcher having to essentially things on the heel side. My play-by-play rule for the Embassy is in full effect here. Incredibly, there’s a heat segment on Jay Briscoe. I’d be honored if I were Necro. Nana literally can’t do anything right. Mark Briscoe with redneck kung fu. Leg lariat. Clothesline over the top. Nana brought in. Bodyslam. Nana flees. Necro from behind. Tiger driver attempt. Chinbreaker and leaping enziguri. Mark kicks Nana away, but Necro crotches Mark. Jay lifts Necro into position. Necro with a punch and victory roll. Kick by Jay. Jaydriller leads to a shocking win for the Briscoes. Never would have seen that coming.
-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: The Briscoes/7:37/*
-Embassy + wrestling = I don’t care.
-Tag Wars 2010 will consist of: Kings of Wrestling (the ROH world tag team champions), The Briscoes, The All Night Express, and the Dark City Fight Club.
-Davey Richards vs. Kevin Steen
Kevin Steen cuts a promo on the way to the ring. It’s easily the best thing on the show up to this point. He calls out Richards because there’s something he wants to tell him. Steen is proud of the fact that he broke the arm of Eddie Edwards just about a year ago. Richards goes crazy on Steen before pulling him out of the ring and to the floor. Kick from the apron. Another kick. Whip to the barricade and a running boot. Into the chair. More kicks. Back in the ring. Snapmare and it’s time to make a tie. Reverse figure four leglock. Steen heads outside. Sliding dropkick misses. Kick by Steen misses. Catches Richards and powerbombs back first into the ring frame. Richards sent into the barricade. Kicks. Choking against the barricade. Shots back in the ring. Choke along the bottom rope. Richards with kicks, but Steen sends him shoulder first into the post. Back outside. Shoulder first into the outside ring post. Chop by Richards. Steen bites away and sends the arm into the barricade. Into the ring. European uppercut. Boot to the face. Modified armbar. Steen licks the elbow. I’m going to miss Steen if he loses. Richards with a kick. Shots by Richards. Steen traps the arm and hits a Russian legsweep. That was different. Strike exchange. Back suplex but Richards over. Steen on the apron. Kick to the back and Steen bangs his head against the barricade. Missile like dive (as opposed to the big stupid dive) sends the back of Steen’s head against the steel once again. Back in the ring. Dropkick off the top rope by Richards. Forearm is met with a boot. Another strike exchange. Irish whip. Handspring enziguri for two. Richards has the referee help him straighten his shoulder out. Nice touch. Steen goes for a neckbreaker. Richards with a roll-up and into the anklelock. Steen sends Richards back outside. Shoulder block by Richards, Shot by Steen. Double knees as Richards is stuck between the top and bottom turnbuckle. Steen then has an announcement. CANNONBALL! Steen goes for the package piledriver. Richards with an enziguri. Back drop driver. Clothesline misses. Steen hits a release German suplex. Richards no sells. Steen hooks a crossface. Richards roll-up for two. Back to the anklelock. Steen kicks him away. STIFF kick by Richards. Headbutt misses. Steen with the crossface again. Richards to the bottom rope. Steen to the top. Richards nails him in the leg. They battle on the top. Headbutts by Steen. Moonsault misses. Charging forearms. Kicks in the corner. Steen with a slap. More kicks by Richards. Steen with a superkick. Kick to the midsection and head by Richards. German suplex directly into a two count. Steen spits in Richards’ face. PACKAGE PILEDRIVER! 1-2-NO! Richards rolls under the bottom rope. Steen goes for his finisher again. Back drop into a sunset flip. Richards with a kick to the chest. Kawada kicks. Big kick to the side of the head. Richards covers and finally gets the win in an incredible match
-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Davey Richards/18:09/***3/4
-I was somewhat cynical about the kind of match these guys could have considering the amount of times they wrestled in 2009. Thankfully, they pulled out something borderline classic. Good back and forth. The dynamic of Steen as the heel and Richards as the babyface also changed this match dramatically. This was even different than their match at Kurt Russellmania because of the lack of comedy. Well done, and I finally have something nice to say about the Richmond show.
-Richards gives a speech and pretty much establishes himself as the new voice of the company by thanking the fans and putting over the rest of the locker room. Yeah, he’s getting the world title at Final Battle.
-Bobby Dempsey and Cedric Alexander vs. Jake Manning and Caleb Konley
What you have is an ROH student and three Virginia locals. Jake Manning is a pudgier and slightly less hairy version of Prince Albert. Very very basic match to bring people out of intermission slowly. Heat segment ion Alexander since it seems like has more offense than Bobby Dempsey. Which should tell you all you need to know about the ROH wrestling academy. Dempsey, when not in the ring, does a lot of shouting. Hot tag to Dempsey. House of fire from the festively plump wrestler. Fallaway slam into a bridge on Konley. Standing dropkick! Straps come off. Alexander hits an enziguri on Manning. Death Valley Driver on Konley gets Dempsey the win.
-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Bobby Dempsey and Cedric Alexander/7:11/*
-Nothing to see here. Move on.
-Non-title: Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli w/Shane Hagadorn)(ROH World Tag Team Champions) vs. The Set (Lance Lude and J-Synn)
Hero says the the world tag team champions have indeed made their way to Richmond. They don’t pass on challenges either. Hero calls Virginians hooligans. Guess that makes Kevin Ford a hooligan. Can’t say I’m all that surprised. Kevin Kelly already spoiled the team, so there’s no drama on this end. Lude is too thin to be taken seriously. J-Synn is too fat to be taken seriously. J–Synn wears furry boots and a fur coat. Screams indy geeks. Hero claims to not even be able to see the rather short Lude. Set starts quickly. Wheelbarrow on Hero. Claudio sent outside. Amazing to see the Set hold their own with the champions. J-Synn tosses Lude onto the champions. Major screwup leads to an awkward moment. Claudio tosses Lude HIGH INTO THE AIR and hits a European uppercut on him. Serves him right for screwing that move up. Heat segment on Lude. Claudio press slams Lude with ease. Spins around. Drops him. Lude flips out and gets an armdrag. Claudio with a deadlift gutwrench powerbomb. He stuff a hankey down the throat of Lude. Hero powerbombs Lude into Claudio. Claudio gets a German suplex. Wow. Lude actually crawls underneath and tags J-Synn in the ring. Claudio sent up and over. Boot to the face by Hero. Elbow combos. Shot and a reverse neckbreaker by J-Synn. Claudio sent in the ring as Hero heads outside. Catches the foot. Series of strikes. Flying knee off the apron by Lude. No. Hero powerbombs into the ring post. Double team leads to Claudio booting J-Synn right in the face. Lude might as well be dead on the outside. Gutwrench suplex on J-Synn by Claudio. Senton by Hero gets two. Why is this match still going? Claudio talks with the crowd while deciding what to do with J-Synn. Big swing into the dropkick by Hero. 1-2-Hero lifts the shoulder before fake arguing with Todd Sinclair. Tag to Claudio. Running European uppercut. Another European uppercut. Claudio puts J-Synn on the top. Another European. Superplex by Claudio. Moonsault by Hero. 1-2-Hero lifts the shoulder again. Cravat by Hero. Jay Briscoe runs to the corner. How is that legal? J-Synn tries an O’Connor roll. Claudio with a knee drop. Slap to the face. Jay is ready to snap. European uppercut by Claudio. J-Synn fights KOW off. Claudio with a spinebuster. Elbow drops. Leg drop. Tag to Hero. J-Synn tags Jay Briscoe. Clothesline for everyone. Superkick to Claudio. Dropkick on Hero. Boot to the face on Hagadorn. Hero and Claudio double team on Jay Briscoe. Mark Briscoe comes out. Then and only then does Todd Sinclair ring the bell. I was going to assume KOW won by disqualification, but it’s called a NO-CONTEST! WHAT?! The Briscoes pretty clearly went after the champions
-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: The Kings of Wrestling/13:35/*
-There were certainly some entertaining aspects to the match, particularly Hero and Claudio beating the bajesus out of Lude. However, the match started dragging at a certain point. And what’s with the ending? Wrestling companies need to stop trying to be cute. If you’ve got your champions wrestling a squash, just have them win and move on. They could have brawled with the Briscoes after the match or waited until the next night. Yeesh.
-Jeff Early vs. Steve Corino
Man, there are a lot of geeks on this show. I believe Roderick Strong was supposed to be Corino’s opponent, but there are transportation problems. Corino brings out a chain to put over the forthcoming stipulation match over. Of course, Corino and Steen are wrestling El Generico and Colt Cabana three weeks later. This is definitely a semi-main event anywhere around the ROH loop. Corino toys around with Early. Too bad he doesn’t put him away “early” because there’s a comeback. Doesn’t last long over. Corino fakes a lariat. Left-armed lariat. Sitting clothesline and Corino has an easy win.
-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: 2:43/1/4*
-Steve Corino tosses Early to the floor and grabs the microphone. Corino calls himself a legend and hits on a young lady at ringside. He uses the phrase “boom boom.” This brings Colt Cabana out of course. Cabana lays down a challenge. Corino accepts. Brawl is on. Cabana with right hands and elbows. Flying asshole. Corino uses the chain to punch Cabana in the face. Corino says he only wrestles once a night. Makes a sense. Corino says that was the truth. And guess who’s here? It’s Roderick Strong. Strong comes from behind
-Roderick Strong vs. Steve Corino
Strong is in street clothesline. Quick offensive flurry. Chops on the outside. I guess Strong literally just arrived to the building before heading to the ring. Strong hits a running clothesline. Corino puts the referee in front of him. Strong clothesline the referee. Low blow by Corino. Cabana nails Corino withy the chain. Sick kick gets Strong a win.
-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Roderick Strong/1:58/N/R
-I’m certainly not going to try and rate that last “match.” Not a single match that has come after intermission even warrants more than one star. Pretty amazing considering this company used to put on three or four four star matches in a given evening. I realize there were transportation
-Non-title Match: Tyler Black (ROH World Heavyweight Champion) vs. Eddie Edwards (ROH World Television Champion)
Jim Cornette asks Tyler Black if he wants to defend the world title. That makes little to no sense whether he’s a babyface or heel. Only a babyface booked to be a complete moron would accept defending the championship when he wasn’t contractually scheduled to. And here’s another mini-rant. Eddie Edwards is the world television champion. He went five months (I’m not joking) between title defenses. Now he’s wrestling (and most likely losing) the world champion. Way to once again put over the television title. The Pure title certainly had its ups and downs, but at least it was booked in the best possible way. Black even demands Davey Richards be tossed from ringside. That’s just him being a heel and a dick. No problem there.
Bell rings and we have a feeling out process. Dueling dropkicks miss for both men. Black into the corner on a lock-up. Slap in the face. Black goes outside. Edwards asks if Black calls himself a champion. Easy answer there. Black defends the world title a little sooner than five months. Lock-up once again. Chop misses. Black with another slap. Chops by Edwards. Back elbow. Snapmare and kick to the back. More chops in the corner. Irish whip. Dropkick misses once for Black. Does hit a second time. Chinlock. Edwards with axehandles to the midsection. Black hits a knee. Black then says you can’t see him. Stomp blocked. Chops by Edwards. Whip in the corner reversed. Boot by Edwards. Right hands. Lungblower off the second rope. Achilles lock early but Black gets to the ropes. Headbutt by Edwards. Chop. Black with shots to the back. Back and forth they go trying a back suplex. Black finally tosses Edwards over the top rope to the floor. Back first goes Edwards into the side of the ring. Into the barricade next. Black continues ramming the back of Edwards’ head into the barricade. Black grabs a chair. Edwards dodges a chair shot. Black rips at the eyes before heading back into the ring. Bodyslam. Knee drop. Chinlock. Jawbreaker by Edwards. Forearm. Chop. Black sends Edwards into the turnbuckle on a whip. Choke along the middle rope. Knees in the corner. Clothesline. Chops. Punches. Choking along the bottom rope. Not nice. Black gets all fired up. Edwards comes back with a flying kick. Black with a chop. Edwards with an elbow. Clothesline. Off the ropes. Kick and neckbreaker by Black. Black to the top. Flying kick by Edwards. Hurancanrana from the top rope. Forearm exchange. Boot from Black. Edwards with one of his own. Another and an Irish whip. Release belly-to-belly suplex by Edwards. Running forearm. Snap suplex. Edwards to the top rope. Dropkick from the top rope. Black gets a boot up. Edwards tosses Black high in the air. Flying knee for two. Black kicks Edwards away. Kick misses. Black with a roll-up for two. Kick to the head by Black. Edwards takes Black over. Black with an enizguri and springboard clothesline. Bucklebomb fought out of by Edwards. Off the ropes. F-5. Edwards back drops Black over the top. Big dive by the television champion. Edwards sends Black in the ring. Dive off the top misses. Edwards with a rana. Black rolls through. Edwards rolls through. Achilles lock. Black just gets to the ropes. Edwards charges but is met with a boot. Edwards with a leaping kick as Black resides on the top rope. Backpack chinbreaker attempt. Black hits peroxism. Black climbs to the top rope. Edwards knocks him down. Black with a right hand. Phoenix splash misses. Edwards with a roll-up. They exchange nearfalls. Boot by Black. Edwards with a superkick. Black hits a superkick. Pele kick. Edwards with a lariat. Both men try to regain their strength outside the ring. They meet. Black hits a superkick. Powerbomb into the barricade. Both men down again. Both men make it back in the ring. Second bucklebomb. Edwards essentially no sells and locks in the Achilles lock. Black hooks a roll-up, puts his feet on the ropes, and gets the win.
-Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Tyler Black/24:21/***1/4
-This was decent enough match, but Edwards coming right up after two bucklebombs angered me greatly. If Black is going to use somewhat nefarious means to win matches, fine. But to have him win by a silly roll-up after basically killing Edwards seems fairly stupid in my opinion. A good match but not the kind of main event of Ring of Honor is used to putting on.
-Black tries to beat Edwards some more. Richards saves his partner. Double team alarm clock. 2K1 bomb for Edwards. Richards counts three for his partner. Richards puts over his partner once again and talks about wanting to team up with him at the end of 2008. How nice. Richards says Edwards is a giant, and says there’d be no American Wolves or Davey Richards without Eddie Edwards. Hell of an endorsement if nothing else.
Final Thoughts: After the unbelievable show that was Salvation, Ring of Honor did not exactly start their Richmond run with a big bang. I realize the transportation problems hurt a couple of the matches, but other than Steen and Richards, nothing came off as important or special. A big thumbs down for this show.
I know there are some bonus matches from HDNet on the DVD, but based on the quality of those matches and the quality of this show, I refuse to review them. I’d send the link to where you can watch them, but ROH now frowns on that. I’ll have some thoughts on that in a special column next week. Matt Waters may have put something up about it by the time you’ve read this review.
For more information on ROH and their upcoming shows , check out ROH’s Website. To buy this and many other ROH DVDs, check out their store. To watch all of the videowires that are included as bonus features and check out the tremendous video packages which hype various matches and iPPVs, check out ROH’s Youtube page.. Below is a list of contact information for both the website and me.
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