Powell's Note: I just want to take a moment to introduce new Dot Net ROH correspondent Joe Mathieson, who is making his debut via this report. Joe will also be reviewing some ROH DVDs for the site. Take it away, Joe.

ROH on HDNet
Taped 2/28/09 in Philadelphia, Pa.

[Q1] The events of the debut show were recapped, including Jimmy Jacobs vs. Tyler Black...

1. Kevin Steen defeated Eddie Edwards in 7:30. Steen controlled the early going before Edwards took over. Edwards got several nearfalls, including one with a particularly nice dropkick. Finally, Steen took over, hitting most of his signature moves for nearfalls. Edwards managed to get his knees up to block the Swanton, but it was of little consequence. Steen hit the neckbreaker over his knee and finished Edwards off with the Package Piledriver.

Joe's Judgment: My TV was going in and out here so this isn't perfectly detailed. It was an okay match that the crowd just wasn't into enough. Edwards is definitely the weaker of the Wolves, but I don't think he deserves the hate he gets on many sites. He held his own here.

Post match, Kyle Durden was backstage with Nigel McGuinness. He put over Nigel as the champ. Nigel put himself over as well. He said that everybody has tried to take his title and they have all failed. He said that if Jay tried any underhanded tactics to beat him, he would kill him.

Joe's Judgment: This was not a typical Nigel heel promo. He attacked Briscoe a bit, but came across as more of an intense, no-nonsense babyface.

Daizee Haze said that she may be small, but dynamite comes in small packages, and if you light her fire, you're gonna get burned.

Larry Sweeney appeared in Sara Del Rey's "Smack Talk" box. I didn't hear what he said, though. No. 2 of Sara's 1-2-3 was that she "is considered the best female wrestler in the U.S. by many." Hogewood said just that a minute later. Did she just come out to the Star Wars theme? That's a little odd.

2. Sara Del Rey defeated Daizee Haze in 6:00. Del Rey dominated the early going. She went for a backdrop but Haze slipped out and got a wristlock. She ran up the ropes and sort of botched an armdrag. It would have been cool if she'd gotten it. Del Rey went on offense and hit a backbreaker. Del Rey worked over Daizee's back with elbows and stomps.

She got Daizee in a torture rack, which she slipped out of, hit a Heart Punch, yakuza, and then countered a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker into a nearfall, which was followed by another nearfall for Daizee with a backslide. Sara got her up in the Gory Special, let her down, and kicked her into the corner. Del Rey went for some sort of move in the corner, but Daizee countered it into a weird-looking DDT. Del Rey basically no-sold it and hit the Royal Butterfly for the pin.

Joe's Judgment: This was just a tick above a Divas match. Daizee Haze is not a very good wrestler. She's not normally terrible from what I've seen, but it looked to me like there were at least a couple of botches in this match. I wish they could've gotten MsChif to do the first women's match on ROH TV.

Kyle Durden was backstage with Jay and Mark Briscoe. He said that they were not competing as a tag team because of Mark's knee injury, which he gave credit to the American Wolves for. My connection cut out and I missed the rest of the promo.

[C]

[Q3}Durden was backstage with Prince Nana. He said that he was back in ROH, which had tried to kick him out, and he only had two words for ROH: Bison Smith.

Alex Payne vs. Claudio Castagnoli was next. Payne said he was going to prove that he was the best wrestler to come out of the ROH wrestling academy. Yeah, good luck with that while Rhett Titus is around. Payne came out to some emo music and Claudio came out to what I believe was the William Tell Orchestra.

3. Claudio Castagnoli defeated Alex "Sugarfoot" Payne in 6:00. Claudio dominated the early going. Payne tried for a sunset flip, hearkening back to a similar spot between the two at Rising Above. Payne attempted a lot of offense but nothing did anything until he hit a headscissor takedown and then a rollup. Claudio kicked out, sent Payne off the ropes, and hit a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for two. The crowd chanted "Hey" at Castagnoli repeatedly.

Claudio got another nearfall with a gutwrench suplex. He hit a diving uppercut for another two count. Payne got a bodyscissors on a standing Castagnoli into a pin. Claudio kicked out, sending Payne into the ropes, and hit the Bicycle Kick, which Hogewood treated like a finisher. Prazak said that Payne should just stay down so that Claudio wouldn't beat him up any more. Prazak played a subtle heel throughout this match. Sugarfoot got a brief flurry of offense including a dropkick and top rope bulldog, but Claudio kicked out at two. Claudio hit a pop-up European uppercut and Riccola Bomb for the pin.

Joe's Judgment: I like Prazak as a subtle heel much more than the blatant Nigel McGuinness cheerleader he plays on occasion, most notably at Injustice II. And his heel commentating definitely works better on undercard matches like these. As for the actual match, well, it was an extended squash that basically got Claudio established.

A "Tale of the Tape" graphic aired for the main event...

Jay Briscoe and Nigel McGuinness made their entrances for the main event. Briscoe's 1-2-3 noted that he was in the very first official match in ROH history.

Joe's Judgment: The new music for both men is terrible, but I didn't particularly like Nigel's old music. Briscoe's, though, I miss.

4. Nigel McGuinness defeated Jay Briscoe in a non-title match in 12:00. Nigel held onto a wristlock in the early going. The crowd finally came alive with dueling "Let's go Nigel" and "Let's go Briscoe" chants. Briscoe spun out of the wristlock into a half crab. Nigel quickly got to the ropes. A brief flurry of athleticism from both men followed, ending with a suplex by Jay into a headlock. Nigel hit a suplex, but Jay went right back to the suplex. Nigel escaped the headlock, and Jay slapped it right back on. Jay hit a shoulder block and went back to the headlock. Nigel hit a Dragon Screw-like maneuver only on the arm of Jay. The two exchanged strikes as the crowd chanted "Man up". For those who don't know, "Man up" is sort of a trademark of the Briscoes.

Hogewood noted that Nigel had done a good job of keeping Briscoe away from his injured arm while Nigel had targeted Briscoe's. Nigel hit a suple and Jay landed directly on said shoulder. He locked in a shoulder/arm submission but Jay got his foot on the bottom rope. Nigel continued to work over the shoulder. Jay went on offense with a few running strikes, punctuated with a spinebuster after Nigel ran off the ropes.

Nigel went for the Tower of London, but Jay snuck down and blocked a running clothesline in the corner with a big boot, a drop toe hold in the corner, and then a Death Valley Driver for a two count. Briscoe went up top and for some reason the referee told him to get down. Never seen that before. Nigel kicked him and Briscoe crotched himself. The two exchanged punches with Briscoe coming out on top. He hit a guillotine leg drop nearly three quarters of the way across the ring. Wow. Nigel kicked out at two, though, and quickly hit the Jawbreaker Lariat for the pin.

Joe's Judgment: A bit of a step down from their match in Detroit in January that was recently released on DVD (shameless plug alert: my review will be posted here on Dot Net in the coming days), but still a solid TV main event. The good thing is that the crowd finally woke up for this one. They should be even hotter next week when we finally get to see Bryan Danielson.

A tease aired for Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries next week, and Caged Collision on PPV April 17th "featuring Brent Albright and Roderick Strong vs. Sweet 'N' Sour Incorporated." I'm sure Erick Stevens is thrilled about that.

Final Thoughts: About as good as last week's show, maybe a little worse. That was probably to be expected given the difference in cards between the two weeks. Next week will be worth tuning in to see Bryan Danielson, if for no other reason. A bit more storyline development probably couldn't hurt either, but this was still an entertaining show just from the wrestling aspect.

Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Email me at aik27joema@yahoo.com

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