This week on ROH On HDNet Christopher Daniels defends the TV Title against Kenny King, and there’s Top Prospect Tournament action galore as Mike Bennett faces Adam Cole, Michael Elgin tackles Bobby Dempsey, and Andy Ridge locks up with Grizzly Redwood. All this and a litany of backstage promos from the likes of World Chamion Roderick Strong, The Embassy, Kenny King and more.
Opening Segment
– The introduction to the Top Prospect Tournament, with focus on Mike Bennett’s promo, a shot of the tournament bracket and a nice selection of highlights of Kyle O’Reilly’s win over Jonathan Gresham.
Mike Bennett vs Adam Cole
Recap: In the second Top Prospect Tournament match, ‘The Prodigy’ Mike Bennett made good on his word and defeated the exciting young Adam Cole in his toughest match to date. Cole did manage to outsmart Bennett early in the match but the Prodigy used his power to get back into it, dominating Cole for several minutes before a spinebuster attempt backfired into a DDT. Cole nearly had the match won after a series of high flying moves, a superkick to the back of the head and a big german suplex, but one irish whip reversal into Bennett’s Rock Bottom style finisher was all it took for the Prodigy to take home the win.
Review: A lot of people are going to complain about Cole being fed to Bennett in the first round, but consider the fact ROH have five realistic top prospects that need pushing and only four can get wins. Bennett, O’Reilly, and Elgin were always sure things, and there’s also the promising Cole to consider, but you can’t forget that Andy Ridge didn’t go through a Trial Series for nothing. At least Cole got to look good and will be known as the first man to really test Bennett. Perhaps nobody else will remember, but I’ll never forget how Test took it to Brock Lesnar more than anyone else had back at King of the Ring all those years ago… ahem. I enjoyed Adam Cole’s mockey of Bennett for being a muscular idiot, though it reminded me of Charlie Haas and his Great Khali impression and now I feel sad because Charlie won’t be doing that in ROH. Bennett wins, life sucks, let’s move on.
Steve Corino Post-Match Interview
R&R: Once again Corino was asked for his thoughts on the prospects, and Kyle Durden offered the ridiculously leading question of can he think of any criticisms. Corino stated that Brutal Bob had him too overconfident and that this is ROH and anyone could beat him. Bennett told him to take a seat and leave the wrestling to the real athletes. Nice if painfully obvious tease to a future feud.
Michael Elgin vs. Bobby Dempsey
Recap: In a battle of ROH’s largest wrestlers, Truth Martini’s newest disciple Michael Elgin was able to put away eternal crowd favourite Bobby Dempsey, demonstrating his already incredible power. Early on the men were at a stalemate, each unable to knock the other down, but Elgin managed to lift Dempsey and slam him down with a samoan drop. Dempsey showed some power himself with a Bossman slam, but his decision to try and follow it up with a Vader Bomb proved to be his downfall. Elgin walked Dempsey out of the corner and planted him with a Powerbomb.
Review: Choosing to become obese is the best decision Dempsey ever made. It’s been over two years since his big story wrapped up and he’s still getting big crowd reactions. The power of the underdog is unbelievable sometimes. Anyway, this was just an exhibition for the strength of Michael Elgin, and I have a suspicion that Dempsey was chosen for the tournament for that specific purpose and nothing more. The samoan drop and powerbomb were ridiculous. Michael Elgin, you are a freak of nature.
Steve Corino Post-Match Interview
R&R: More of the same from Corino, praising Elgin’s wrestling ability but encouraging him to break free of Truth Martini.
Kenny King Backstage Interview
R&R: King claims he’s been Mr. HDNet from day one (he has actually had a great deal of success on TV) and that winning the TV Title will confirm he’s the best wrestler on television. Slight hints of heel-ness in this promo, but King’s character is all about being cocky, so you could just read it as confidence in himself rather than outright arrogance. Good work though.
Andy Ridge & Grizzly Redwood Backstage Interview
R&R: Ridge reminds us of his Trial Series and says his performance earned him a spot in the tournament and that despite 3 years of friendship with Grizz, he will prove he’s the best. Grizzly reminds us he’s been here for 5 years now trying to make a significant impact and that this will be the year he achieves it. Steve Corino just happened to be walking by and told them to show the world what they’ve got. Getting a little bit much now.
Grizzly Redwood vs Andy Ridge
Recap: Looking to make his Trial Series count, Ridge defeated friend and fellow ROH Academy graduate in a competitive match. As expected, Ridge relied mostly on right leg based offence, while Grizzly used his usual unorthodox tactics to try and cut Ridge down. Ridge’s strategy proved superior however as he caught Grizzly coming in for his springboard tornado DDT and hit him in mid-air with a Superkick for the win.
Review: Ridge’s entrance music sounds an awful lot like Steel Panther’s Death to All But Metal. Grizzly’s rap theme is kind of… strange. Ridge goes about 6’3”. Grizzly goes about 3’6”. Here’s a battle of guys that are getting by on one thing and may never progress if they don’t add more to their arsenal. I know Andy Ridge’s nickname is Right-Leg, but he really needs to do more than just kick. He literally did almost nothing else in this match, and it’s not like this was one of his old matches where he only got in the ring for 30 seconds so it made sense for him to get in as many right-leg themed moves as humanly possible. I also hate it when a wrestler yells out the name of a move he’s going for. Grizzly meanwhile has been using that whole chop-them-down thing for a long time and while it is occasionally funny, he doesn’t bring a whole lot else. I don’t want to be ‘that guy’ but I don’t think he’s ever going to make it at his height. Chikara get more out of him than anyone else, but he was hitting chops to the stomach in this match. Seriously. He also botched a few moves here and that, coupled with the lack of crowd reaction for either man made this kind of a drag in comparison to the other three Top Prospect matches. Finally, I like that Prazak speculates on Ridge having a steel rod in his leg after years of defending Chris Hero.
Embassy Backstage Promo
R&R: Prince Nana talks about Princess Mia like I’m supposed to know who the hell she is before now. He calls the Embassy the number 1 faction in ROH. I’m pretty sure you have to have a wrestler on the active roster to make that claim but hey-ho. He gives her money to buy things for them. Weird.
Roderick Strong Backstage Interview
R&R: Roddy talks about his match next week against Jay Briscoe, Homicide and El Generico, pointing out he defeated all three of them in the past. Kyle Durden finally asks the champ what we all want to know: what happened to that claim that he’d relinquish the title if Truth Martini interfered in his matches. What bothered me is that Roddy acted as though he still didn’t know even though he has now clearly seen it happen more than once. This was their chance for him to weasel his way out of his past statement and do something interesting, but they just brushed it off as the question hadn’t been asked. Boo.
ROH World Television Championship Match
Christopher Daniels vs Kenny King
Recap: Christopher Daniels successfully defended his TV Title for the second time in as many weeks, this time against the much tougher competition of Kenny King. The Pretty-Boy Pit-Bull kept things interesting, using his athleticism to create some openings, and managed to survive the Koji Clutch and avoid the B.M.E., but after using the same pinning sequence he defeated Chris Hero with last week, King was rolled back to his feet and Daniels hit the Angel’s Wings for the victory. After the match Daniels and King shook hands.
Review: King’s claim of being Mr. HDNet was bolstered by appearing in the main event of two consecutive episodes and he brought two big fans, one being a lovely lady at ringside, and the other a VERY vocal supporter in the crowd. Other than that the crowd were almost entirely in Daniels’ favour, making King the de facto heel in spite of all the measures taken to turn him and Titus face. I said last week that King needs to work on the middle part of his matches because he’s got the presence for the opening moments and the exciting athleticism for the endings, and this match demonstrated how true that is. The middle portion of the match was pretty boring, and it didn’t help that Daniels is known for doing everything by the book to the point that some fans don’t like him anymore. He is still a master of timing and can deliver in the crunch, but I was just not feeling five minutes of this match. The story they told was pretty nice though, as King relied on his youth and agility, but Daniels continued to cut him off thanks to having seen it all before. I especially like the ending as King showed promise by avoiding two Daniels finishers, but Daniels status as a veteran was cemented by countering the same move King won with a week ago and pulling out another of his big moves to pull out the tough win. King getting the handshake at the end kept his face turn alive and I have high hopes for him in the future.
Overall Thoughts
– There were an awful lot of backstage promos to go along with the first four-match episode in a long time. On the one hand it’s impressive that they crammed so much into the episode, but after a while I started to roll my eyes at the sheer number of times the cameras cut to the backstage area.
– Likewise, Corino’s veteran advisor schtick is good, but I got tired of it after he said the same thing twice in a row and then threw in another generic good-luck-promo right after that. Spacing the matches and thus his promos out might have been the way to avoid this.
– It made sense to open the show with Bennett and Cole and close it with King and Daniels to book-end the less exciting Bobby Dempsey and Grizzly Redwood matches. Though all the aforementioned backstage promos combined with a poorly received Ridge/Redwood match made the third quarter crawl by.
– I can’t really complain about ROH on HDNet when they give us four non-squash matches, all of them with clean finishes, but is anyone else itching to see a match involving Roderick Strong or Davey Richards? Yes? Well you’re in luck; Roddy will step in the ring with Homicide, El Generico and Jay Briscoe in a non-title match.
Plugs
– For the last month’s worth of ROH On HDNet recaps check out my Bumper Edition Review, which also contains links to episode-by-episode recaps on my Blog of Honor (which will be re-hauled in the coming weeks).
– Check out the podcast discussing 9th Anniversary Show & World’s Greatest results with myself and Ari Berenstein.
– Jerome has a nice review of Final Battle 2010 that needs reading.
– I took part in another edition of Matt Galyon’s Hit or Miss that focuses a lot on ROH alongside Jerome.
– Please help support British wrestler Marty Scurll by checking out this podcast discussing working with Bryan Danielson and upcoming matches against El Generico, Kyle O’Reilly and Adam Cole.
– Jerome and Justin present the ultimate fat guy’s guide to Atlanta to get those of you making the Mania trip nice and prepared.
– Oh and what the hell, go ahead and follow me on Twitter. I only really tweet about wrestling once in a blue moon, but if you like random British ramblings about pop culture, basketball, video games and more, I’m your guy.