10/26 Mathieson's ROH on HDnet Live Coverage: Kenny King vs. Eddie Kingston, Brent Albright vs. D'Lo Brown, Sonjay Dutt vs. Delirious vs. Necro Butcher vs. Joey Ryan, plus ROH World Champion Austin Aries appears

Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDnet
Taped in Philadelphia, PA

The show opened with the regular opening video, and Hogewood narrated a recap of Jerry Lynn being injured by a spike piledriver from Kenny King. Austin Aries and Kenny King came down to the ring.

Aries grabbed the mic and ran down his opponent last week, Bryan Danielson. He said that he was the greatest man who ever lived, not the best in the world, and said that King took the "unretirable" Jerry Lynn, and retired him. King said that like Old Yeller, he had to "put the old man out to pasture". King said that ever since he ended Jerry Lynn's career, everybody wanted to be like him, but there's only one Kenny King.

Tyler Black's music hit and he came out with a mic. He said that the people in the locker room don't look at King with admiration, they look at him with disgust. Black pulled out a lottery for King's opponent tonight, and drew Eddie Kingston.

Joe's Judgment: Bland, but pretty effective opening segment that played off of last week's super-strong angle well. By the way, there's a new entrance stage that looks so much better than the previous one.

1. Delirious defeated Sonjay Dutt, Joey Ryan, and Necro Butcher in a Four Corner Survival in 7:40. Dutt and Ryan teamed up at the start, including a sunset bomb to the floor from Dutt on Necro. Sonjay got a nearfall after a Ryan dropkick. The heels continued to team up, and then Dutt decided to roll up Ryan for a nearfall. Ryan returned the favor, getting two himself.

Prazak remarked that the last time we saw Joey Ryan in action in ROH, he beat Roderick Strong. Uh, that hasn't happened yet, Dave. Dutt hit some high flying moves, including a nice springboard dropkick, but then Delirious hit the Panic Attack, Necro for some reason dove onto Ryan at ringside, and Dutt moved into perfect position for Shadows Over Hell, which Delirious proceeded to hit for the pin.

Joe's Judgment: Decent action, but the finish made no sense and looked really bad. I liked the Dutt/Ryan alliance though.

2. Brent Albright defeated D'Lo Brown in 8:50. D'Lo ducked Albright and went to ringside. Albright dove onto him and ripped his shirt off (it's like the UPS logo, only it says D'Lo). Albright brought the action back into the ring, fired himself up, and hit a few strikes.

D'Lo blocked an Albright charge and hit a moonsault, which Hogewood called a "backflip". Albright got two with a DDT. Albright tried a crossbody, but D'Lo rolled through for a nearfall. D'Lo signaled for Sky High, but hit a regular powerbomb instead. He covered, and Albright kicked out at two and grabbed D'Lo's arm with the Crowbar. D'Lo resisted for a while before tapping.

Joe's Judgment: Eh. It was okay, I guess. What you'd expect from these two. It won't be remembered, for good or bad, in two weeks.

Kyle Durden was backstage with next week's main eventer, Colt Cabana. Cabana was excited and said he was happy to be main eventing on TV...

3. Kenny King defeated Eddie Kingston in 12:10. Kingston's entrance music is awesome. King ducked to ringside three times in the first couple minutes. The third time, Kingston followed him and ran him into the guardrails about six times.

Back in the ring and Kingston chopped the hell out of King. King went on the offensive outside, beating up Kingston along the barricades. King brought the action back in the ring and laid him out with a kick. King hit several clotheslines, and pulled Kingston back up, only to be hit with a suplex and then several chops, and then another suplex.

Kingston got a nearfall with a shortarm lariat, and went for the Backfist to the Future, but King pulled Paul Turner in front of him and then hit the Royal Flush for a nearfall. King hit a somersault kick, then tried a springboard move, but Kingston caught him and beat on him a bit. Chris Hero made his way out to ringside, distracting Kingston, and allowing King to hit the Coronation for the win.

Hogewood hyped next week's main event of Colt Cabana vs. Nigel McGuinness, and the first match of Bryan Danielson's Final Countdown Tour two weeks from now: Danielson and Roderick Strong vs. the American Wolves...

Joe's Judgment: The match was pretty average, but what I loved was King being made to look like a mega heel as opposed to Aries' lackey. Hogewood was great on commentary at doing just that. The finish built Hero vs. Kingston well, which was nice because King was the focal point of the match up until then.

Overall it was a pretty good show tonight. Nothing was great, but they gave everything time and really, less was more.

I'll be back next week for Cabana vs. McGuinness. See you then. If you want to comment on this show, shoot me an email at jtmathieson88@gmail.com.