3/28 Twilling's ROH on HDNet Live Coverage: Nigel McGuinness vs. Jay Briscoe, Claudio Castagnoli vs. Alex Payne, Kevin Steen vs. Eddie Edwards, Sarah Del Rey vs. Daizee Haze

ROH on HDNet
Taped in Philadelphia, PA

[Q1] The opening video aired and footage was shown of Tyler Black defeating Jimmy Jacobs last week as well as the announcement that Nigel McGuinness will face Jay Briscoe in tonight’s main event...

Mike Hogewood and Dave Prazak welcomed us to the show. Eddie Edwards and Larry Sweeney cut their pre match promo...

1. Kevin Steen defeated Eddie Edwards (with Larry Sweeney) in 7:52. Again, no handshake before the match. Steen hit a snot rocket after a shoulder block. He took control from that point. Edwards took over and scored a bunch of nearfalls. He hit a sweet dropkick for another two count. Steen just could not get on track.

Steen hit an inverted atomic drop and an overhead belly to belly suplex. Steen went to the top and attempted a Swanton, but Edwards put his knees up. He hit the chinbreaker for a nearfall. A nice exchange saw Steen hit a powerbomb and the package Piledriver for the win...

Twill’s Two Cents: This was a very physical match but the dead crowd did not do any favors for either guy. Solid match but definitely not a hot opener, but that was no fault of the two men in the match.

[Q2] Backstage, Kyle Durden interviewed Nigel McGuinness. McGuinness said he was the champion and that was all we needed to know. He repeatedly said he was going to kill Jay Briscoe...

2. Sara Del Rey (with Larry Sweeney) defeated Daizee Haze in 5:27. Haze tried to grapple with Sara early but was overpowered. She held onto a wristlock and ran the ropes to put Sara down. Sara overpowered Daizee with a fallaway slam into a bridge for a two count. She worked on Daizee’s lower back.

Sara applied a Torture Rack but Daizee fought out and hit the heart punch. She scored a couple of nearfalls but Del Rey came back and hit the Royal Butterfly for the win...

Twill’s Two Cents: Again, a very good match but the dead crowd is really hindering the product. If they have to pipe in noise, they should do that.

Kyle Durden interviewed the Briscoes backstage and Jay put over the team being the best in the world. They both warned Nigel to man up tonight because Jay was the toughest man in ROH... [C]

Twill’s Two Cents: That was not a great promo and it looked very second rate.

[Q3] Back from commercial, Durden interviewed Prince Nana, who put over Bison Smith and ran down ROH...

Alex Payne said he was the best graduate of the ROH Wrestling Academy. Castagnoli said he was “very European.” Not a great promo...

3. Claudio Castagnoli defeated Alex Payne in 6:18. A friend of mine is over watching the show and said Payne looks like he is sixteen years old. Prazak said he looked like he was twelve. Payne could not match strength with Claudio but used his quickness to score a nearfall with a victory roll.

Claudio hit a gutwrench suplex for a two count. He followed it up with a European uppercut to the back of the head for another two count. He hit the bicycle kick and Payne miraculously kicked out. Even Prazak was telling Payne to stay down. Payne came back and hit a series of moves to absolutely no crowd reaction. Claudio shook it off and hit the Ricola Bomb for the win...

Twill’s Two Cents: This was pretty much a squash match except for there were several nearfalls. This match was not on par with the other two but it definitely picked up after an awkward start. Claudio could be money.

They put up the tale of the tape for the main event...

4. Nigel McGuinness defeated Jay Briscoe (with Mark Briscoe) in a non-title match in 12:04. The announcers said Nigel was the first man to hold the ROH Title for a full calendar year and was embarking on Samoa Joe’s all time record. They also mentioned Briscoe was in the first match on the very first ROH show.

Briscoe held onto a headlock despite the fact Nigel hit a series of moves. Briscoe hit a series of shoulder blocks but Nigel hit a back heel trip. The crowd exchanged “Let’s go Nigel, let’s go Briscoe” chants. Glad they finally came to life. For those people who didn’t know, Briscoe wears boxing trunks just like those Apollo Creed wore in Rocky.

[Q4] Nigel worked on the left arm and shoulder of Briscoe. He applied a series of hammer locks and hit suplexes out of them. Nigel is one of the absolute best at isolated a body part and he worked on Briscoe’s arm for a very extended period of time. Briscoe hit a big boot to turn the tides, but the crowd did not react at all. They chant here and there, but they seem dead most of the time.

Jay scored his first nearfall with a spine buster. His offensive advantage was short lived as Nigel attempted the Tower of London but Jay powered out. Briscoe hit a very impressive Death Valley Driver for a very nearfall. Jay went to the top but Nigel caught him. Jay punched him to the mat and hit a top rope leg drop for yet another nearfall.

Briscoe went for the Jay Driller but Nigel countered it and hit the Jawbreaker Lariat for the win. After the match, Nigel celebrated in pain. He then shook Briscoe’s hand as Jay was recovering on the mat with Mark looking over him...

They plugged Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries for next week’s show and they aired a short video on Danielson...

Twill’s Two Cents: That was a very good television main event featuring the top guy in the company. The show seemed rather lackluster this week but to me, that was due to the crowd. The wrestling was entertaining again and that is good enough for me, but is it good enough for the mass television audience? For those of you that listen to Dot Net Weekly, you know I am a huge Bryan Danielson fan and am looking forward to next week’s show very much.

What did you think of the second show? Feel free to send your thoughts to dotnetrich@gmail.com for possible inclusion in a Dot Net mailbag.