Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDnet
Taped April 9th in Philadelphia, PA

The show opened with the same video as last week. Hogewood and Prazak sent us to Nigel McGuinness in the ring. He said being ROH champion was like shagging a porn star, because everybody was looking at you and you didn't know how long you were going to last.

Nigel put over Lynn, but at the same time called him Geritol. He said that he was going to take some time off, heal up, and then come back and take his title right back.

Joe's Judgment: Great opening segment. The extended in-ring promo sessions on these shows are definitely an improvement over the previous set of tapings.

Delirious cut an incoherent promo with Daizee Haze by his side. Daizee said that the scars Jimmy Jacobs had caused them would start to heal...

1. Delirious and Daizee Haze defeated Jimmy Jacobs and MsChif in 5:30. Jacobs tagged out to MsChif almost immediately, and Delirious followed suit. Daizee hit a hurricanrana on MsChif, then backed her into the corner, where she tagged in Jacobs. Jacobs decked Daizee, and then Delirious tagged in and took control. He locked in the Cobra Stretch, but Jacobs fought out. MsChif and Daizee tagged back in, and Daizee went right on offense, with a nice-looking running neckbreaker and senton. Jacobs ran in and broke up a pin, and Delirious attacked him. He hit a dive on Jacobs, allowing Haze to hit the Heart Punch and then the Mind Trip on MsChif for the pin.

Joe's Judgment: Okay match. Nothing too special. Not an embarrassment, I guess.

The announcers plugged Brent Albright vs. Claudio Castagnoli (again) for either next week. They got promos from each of them. Claudio said he was very European. Albright made fun of his catchphrase and called him a very European douchebag.

The American Wolves made their entrance, and beat up Orange Cassidy before the bell rang.

2. The American Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards) defeated Orange Cassidy and Butterscotch in 4:00 The jobbers got a surprising amount of offense in the first minute or so. Butterscotch hit a few weak-looking forums, and then Edwards popped him up for Richards to hit him with the Alarm Clock. The Wolves then got the pin with a superkick-German suplex bridge combo.

Joe's Judgment: Davey is awesome. Edwards... he's getting better.

Post match, the Wolves cut a generic promo calling out Kevin Steen and El Generico...[C]

Joe's Judgment: I can't wait for the tag title match in three weeks, as well as the several on DVD...

Kyle Durden was backstage with Ric Flair. Flair said that he was the ambassador to ROH. He put over the company, said they were looking forward, etc. Durden asked him about the main event, and Flair made up something that said he didn't have a favorite. Ouch. Durden wanted to do a "Whoo" with Ric Flair. They did...

Joe's Judgment: I'm sure Flair does believe that ROH is a good company and all, but would it kill him to learn a little about the product?

Footage was shown from "earlier" of Colt Cabana being confronted by the Embassy. Colt punched Ernie Osiris while Nana left....

3. Tyler Black vs. Bryan Danielson to become the #1 contender to the ROH World Championship ended in a double countout in 21:30. An early test of strength had Black coming out on top.. Jerry Lynn was shown watching the match from the production truck. Danielson kept things on the mat, despite Tyler's best efforts. He tried a surfboard, but couldn't get Tyler up, so just stomped on his knees.

Danielson got a series of nearfalls by holding down Black's shoulders. He knocked Black to the outside and tried to dive on him, but Black snuck back into the ring and hit a dive of his own. He followed up the dive with his trademark combination of high impact Tyler Black stuff. The springboard lariat, step-up enzuigiri, and standing SSP all made appearances.

Danielson got a nearfall and then they rolled around in pinning position for a while. Danielson hit a rolling elbow, Black a Pélé kick, and both men were down. Black got to his feet and hit an F5, then went for the turnbuckle powerbomb, but Danielson reversed into the Triangle choke. Black got out by grabbing the ropes and went to the top rope. Danielson followed and tried a superplex. Tyler got out, hit the turnbuckle powerbomb/superkick combo, but Danielson got the bottom rope. Danielson knocked Black off the top rope into the crowd, and then dove on him. Neither man was able to make it back to the ring to beat the 20 count, so the match ended in a draw. The fans chanted that the match was awesome, and Jerry Lynn was shown again.

Joe's Judgment: Quality match. Better than their match a couple weeks ago. Still, I'd like an actual finish to a Black-Danielson match. Or just a Tyler Black match in general.

Ric Flair appeared in a plug for next week's show...

Final Thoughts: Finally, a show that didn't try to jam too many guys into an hour. They focused on Black and Danielson all night, and it paid off well. This looks like it'll become a trend over the next few shows, too, which is a good thing. This was right up there with last week's show for best ROH HDNet show so far.

Joe Mathieson can be emailed at aik27joema@yahoo.com, for comments on this article, ROH in general, or other wrestling stuff, like CHIKARA's King of Trios event, which he is almost done watching.

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