Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDNet
Taped Feb. 28 in Philadelphia, Pa.

[Q1] The same ROH intro video played that has played for every show so far. A video giving last week's results aired and hyped Danielson-Aries for tonight...

The announcers stated that Jerry Lynn captured the ROH World Championship last night in Houston from Nigel McGuinness...

Sterling James Keenan's "Smack Talk" graphic aired. He is a "relative newcomer to ROH" according to his 1-2-3. Hogewood said that he is generally disliked by ROH fans...

Erick Stevens said that he was going to make a great first impression...

1. Erick Stevens defeated Sterling James Keenan in 7:00. Stevens dominated the early going. For the second week in a row, my picture was faulty in the opening match. When it finally came back, SJK hit an implant DDT for a nearfall, but Stevens hit a powerslam, then a suplex, lariat, and Doctor Bomb for the pin.

Joe's Judgment: Decent match from what I got to see. Which really wasn't much. Stevens is among my favorite ROH wrestlers and SJK is, well, not a regular performer.

Kyle Durden was backstage with Bryan Danielson, who said that he main evented the ROH debut show seven years ago. He said that he was going to show everybody why people call him the best wrestler in the world. Hogewood plugged the main event.

Cheech & Cloudy cut a promo in their Smack Talk box. I have never heard them talk before. Speaking of things I've never seen before, the Dark City Fight Club cut their promo, which was pretty good, and came out for their match. I've heard good things about them...

[Q2]2. The Dark City Fight Club (Kory Chavis and Jon Davis) defeated Cheech and Cloudy in 2:30. DCFC absolutely dominated the early going. The announcers put over DCFC while burying Cheech and Cloudy. C&C got a couple high flying moves and then a tandem 619 and dropkick, but were unable to follow up. DCFC hit a sitout powerbomb/neckbreaker combination for the quick pin.

Joe's Judgment: Cheech and Cloudy can be entertaining, but this match served only to get DCFC over. And that it did. This was my first time seeing them and I am intrigued. They came across as serious tough guy heels here.

Durden was backstage with Austin Aries. Aries said he didn't care about the fans and questioned Durden's fashion sense. Aries said he had respect for Danielson, but at the end of the day, Danielson would find out that Aries might be the greatest wrestler in the world, or even the greatest man that ever lived. [C]

Joe's Judgment: For those of you that are wondering, Aries enters to The Greatest Man That Ever Lived by Weezer on DVDs. Or at least he did, they might have changed that with the switch to entirely new cleared-for-TV entrance music.

Back from the quick break, Chris Hero cut a promo saying that anybody can pin another wrestler, but it takes a real man to knock somebody out...

Necro Butcher was next out. He said he was the King of the Deathmatches, and you might even see him at the Oscars, followed by some incoherent stuff that I didn't catch. His 1-2-3 said that he played a major part in The Wrestler. That's a bit of a stretch...

3. Chris Hero defeated Necro Butcher in 8:30. Dueling chants for both men to start things off. Prazak mentioned that Necro can take a lot of punishment, as evidenced by his performance in The Wrestler, which included a staple gun. The announcers said that Hero had just returned from a tour of Japan, where Mitsuharu Misawa "passed down the rolling elbow", while Hero pulled up the mats at ringside.

Hero placed Necro under the mats and hit a senton onto him. The crowd chanted "F--- you Hero" and Sara Del Rey told them to shut up. Hogewood wondered if that would do anything. Hero got a two count with an elbow strike. After another nearfall, Hero had a couple of stiff-looking elbow strikes in the corner and then a Blockbuster. Hero kicked Necro to the floor, and a fan handed him a chair. Necro hit a chair slam (he picked up both Hero and the chair and slammed both of them).

Hero went back in the ring and Del Rey threw him the emerald green loaded elbow pad. Hero hit the rolling elbow with the loaded pad for the pin. Hogewood asked if it would count, but then pointed out that Hero was "hiding the elbow". It's a piece of equipment, not a body part.

Joe's Judgment: Average match. I am not a Necro Butcher fan. I find him to be sloppy, slow-moving, and all in all pretty boring. Plus deathmatches are not my thing at all, so I don't watch him in those, which is where he made his name. Hero, on the other hand, is a fantastic wrestler who should not be judged based on this match, because it's just so hard to have a good actual wrestling match with Necro. Also, Hero really should wear green elbow pads normally so that it's not blatantly obvious when he's wearing the loaded one.

[Q3] Aries, and then Danielson, entered for the main event. #2 on Danielson's 1-2-3 was "One of the few wrestlers that competed on ROH's debut show." Uh, there were like 25...

Before the match, the crowd tried to sing "The Final Countdown" and Danielson played along, climbing the turnbuckles as he does when he enters to that song.

Joe's Judgment: I miss "The Final Countdown" already. Best entrance in all of wrestling right there.

The crowd chanted "You're gonna get your f------ head kicked in", which Hogewood noticed, but could not repeat...

4. Bryan Danielson defeated Austin Aries in 14:30. Aries hit a series of quick armdrags in the early going. A very loud "Let's go Dragon" chant broke out, and Prazak noted for what I believe was the first time in the match that Danielson's nickname is the American Dragon. Fantastic fast-paced action during the first several minutes, the highlight of which was Aries going for his patented headscissor escaping dropkick, Danielson grabbing him, bridging up, then getting a nearfall with a backslide. Danielson got a surfboard type hold, Aries got to the ropes, and Prazak reminded us that Danielson is fond of reminding the referee that he has until five. That came into play shortly afterwards, as Danielson tried to remind the referee and Aries took advantage.

[Q4] At 8:00, Aries suplexed Danielson all the way to the floor and hit the Heat Seeking Missile. He got two nearfalls out of it and then locked in the fishhook, which is illegal, so he broke it before five. The crowd chanted for Dragon. He subsequently locked in an armbar, but Aries got to the ropes. He and the crowd told referee Todd Sinclair that he has until five. Danielson knocked Aries to the floor, feigned a suicide dive, then hit a leaping knee strike from the apron to the floor.

Danielson tossed Aries back into the ring and went for Cattle Mutilation. Aries reversed it into a nearfall. They traded elbow strikes, culminating with a suplex attempt from Danielson. Aries landed on his feet and kicked Dragon in the face. Aries hit a weird-looking brainbuster and locked in the Last Chancery. Danielson fought out and then got the Triangle Choke. After struggling all over the ring, Aries finally tapped out, giving Danielson the win.

Joe's Judgment: Great match. They never let up on the fast pace, and the crowd was really into it. I'm pretty sure HDnet is dampening them a little, because they are normally much louder for a Danielson main event. Aries' new character didn't really shine here, as they focused more on his technical prowess. Still, a good match, probably the best match of the week on any show.

A promo aired for Caged Collision and next week's show, featuring Brodie Lee vs. (new ROH champion) Jerry Lynn.

Final Thoughts: Good wrestling show. The first three matches were nothing really special, and there was no storyline development whatsoever, but it served its goal of getting people introduced to the wider audience. The crowd finally came alive for this show, the main event in particular, and it really added a lot to the matches.

Joe Mathieson can be reached at aik27joema@yahoo.com with any questions, comments, or corrections on this review, or just to talk about wrestling in general.

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