ROH Wrestling on HDnet
Taped in Philadelphia, Pa.

The show started with a howl and a shot of a table in the ring. The American Wolves entered (with Shane Hagadorn) and Davey Richards talked about how they put Steen and Generico through a table. They said they would do it again, only that time the Wolves would be crowned new ROH tag team champions.

Steen and Generico interrupted and the Wolves bailed, but left Hagadorn in the ring. Steen said they weren't going to put somebody who hadn't done anything to them through a table for no reason, even if he was wearing a horrible sweater vest. Then Generico reminded Steen that Hagadorn helped kick Steen's knee in, and they hit a double team powerbomb on him through a table.

Hogewood and Prazak hyped the four-way between Jerry Lynn, Bryan Danielson, Austin Aries, and Tyler Black two weeks from now, and the tables match for the tag team titles (which was played up as just announced, even though it was announced on the ROH website the week of the tapings).

Joe's Judgment: Awesome opening segment, even though it was pretty short. I really want to see this match.

Jerry Lynn cut a promo hyping the four-way match...

Kenny King made his entrance, followed by Kenny Omega, then Jay Briscoe, accompanied by his brother Mark. While this was going on, Prazak put over the next set of tapings, featuring KENTA and my personal favorite tag team in wrestling, the Young Bucks...

1. Kenny Omega defeated Kenny King and Jay Briscoe in 9:15. Prazak picked King as his favorite, Hogewood picked Briscoe. Neither of them gave Omega a chance. Omega offered handshakes to both, and when they refused, he told them that it was no fun unless they were sportsmanlike.

Briscoe slapped him, and when King laughed at Omega, Briscoe slapped him. Omega hit a dive onto King at ringside, and hit his legs on the guardrail, which looked painful. The crowd chanted for Omega. He got some flashy offense in, and broke up a pin attempt on King by Briscoe. Briscoe through him out of the ring, and King hit a nice leaping kick on him.

He covered him, but Omega broke up the pin. He was tossed to ringside again and Briscoe and King went at it. Omega got up top and hit a bodypress on both men. He then hit a double huracanrana, and ran off the ropes into a lariat from Briscoe. Briscoe got busted open hardway somewhere around here.

Omega did a somersault, then a lungblower onto King off the top rope. The crowd chanted both "Omega" and "Man up". Briscoe hit a sick spinebuster on Omega, who kicked out at two. Briscoe and Omega traded strikes and Jay went up top. King hit a leaping kick on him and started laughing and playing to the crowd. He lifted Omega up for the Coronation, and Omega reversed it into a sunset flip with a bridge for the pin. Hogewood put over that it was Omega's first win on HDnet.

Joe's Judgment: Fun match. King is awesome, Omega played the underdog well, and Jay was his usual good, stiff self. Omega isn't an ROH regular, though, so I'm not sure why they gave him the win.

2. The Dark City Fight Club (Jon Davis and Kory Chavis) defeated Irish Airborne (Jake and Dave Crist) in DCFC didn't shake hands. They tried to beat down the Airborne, who tossed Jon Davis to the outside and hit a gutbuster and neckbreaker on Chavis. Davis came in, though, and took over for DCFC. Dave Crist hit a dropkick and came off the top rope, but he was caught by both members of the DCFC and hit with a powerbomb/neckbreaker combo for the pin.

Joe's Judgment: DCFC continue to look like badasses, and Irish Airborne didn't completely suck. Decent squash that even played off of the previous match in that Irish Airborne were huge underdogs.

Kyle Durden was backstage with Necro Butcher and Delirious. Necro talked about how everybody was leaving Jimmy Jacobs, and Delirious said (I think) that he had been brainwashed, but now everything was clear. Necro said he couldn't agree more.

Hogewood hyped the upcoming Eddie Kingston vs. Chris Hero match and the main event... [C]

Durden talked to Jimmy Jacobs and Brodie Lee. He said Delirious was strong-willed, but weak-minded, and Necro was tough as shoe leather, and almost as smart. He said that them without a leader was like running into a brick wall over and over again. Brodie smiled and punched his own hand, but said nothing.

In Hero's Smack Talk box, he said Kingston was beneath him and undeserving.

3. Chris Hero (w/Sara Del Rey) defeated Eddie Kingston by DQ in 5:30. The match went to ringside early, and Del Rey distracted Kingston, allowing Hero to hit a running dropkick and take control. He controlled the match with several strikes. They exchanged chops and Hero got a count of one.

He hit a spinning elbow drop for another nearfall. The camera zoomed in on Sara Del Rey's back. Hero hit an implant DDT, but was unable to capitalize. Kingston hit the backdrop driver and Hero went to the ropes. Kingston beat on Hero and didn't break before five, so Todd Sinclair disqualified him. Kingston punched him in the face.

Joe's Judgment: Eh. These two are capable of so much more than a five minute match. This wasn't bad, but it was a little slow. It looks like ROH will continue to devote some time to this feud (which has been going on for a couple years in several different promotions), though, so that's a good thing.

Footage aired of Claudio Castagnoli defeating Brent Albright with help from the Embassy last week. Albright cut a backstage promo that was very serious. Colt Cabana came on, pointed out how serious it was, let the Embassy know that he'd have Albright's back in the future, and asked "Who throws a shoe? A shoe? Really?"...

4. Necro Butcher and Delirious defeated Jimmy Jacobs and Brodie Lee in 8:45. They brawled on opposite sides of the ring to start. The bell finally rang and Delirious took control on Jacobs. Both of them were thrown to the floor and Brodie and Necro punched each other. Necro backdropped Lee over the ropes on the the floor.

Delirious hit a somersault senton off the top rope onto everybody at ringside. Necro grabbed a chair and brought it into the ring. He set two chairs up facing each other in the ring, and one on top of them. He tried to put somebody through the chairs, but Jacobs and Brodie hit a double-team suplex to the floor, drawing a small "holy shit" chant.

The fans chanted "Bah!" for Delirious. Brodie and Jimmy basically double-teamed him until Brodie missed an elbow drop. Hogewood contradicted Prazak saying Necro was neutralized by saying that he was incapacitated. Uh, they mean the same thing, Mike. Jacobs hit a double axe handle off the top rope on Delirious for two one counts. He hit a neckbreaker, while Necro continued to lie at ringside.

Delirious tried to lift up Brodie, but couldn't and Brodie got a nearfall by falling on him. They tried the double axe handle again, but Delirious headbutted Jacobs this time. It didn't do much, as Brodie took right back over and hit a running big boot. Jacobs hit a top rope senton, and Brodie covered. Necro returned and shoved Jimmy into Brodie for to break up the pin. Jacobs introduced thumbtacks, and Necro walked on them barefoot. Jacobs speared Necro onto the tacks, but Delirious took him to ringside. Necro slammed Brodie onto the tacks, then Delirious hit Shadows Over Hell for the pin.

Joe's Judgment: Okay tag match, considering I only cared about one of the participants, that being Jacobs, and ROH has done their best to make me not care about him. They really should have just called it a No DQ tag match, since that's basically what it was. Still, decent, and I think that was the first time we've seen any sort of "hardcore"-type wrestling on this show.

Overall this was an okay show. Nothing very memorable, but I enjoyed watching it. Maybe I'm in a good mood because it's Memorial Day weekend. Maybe I really like Kenny Omega. Okay, it's both. And I really want to see the next two shows, especially next week's. Thanks for reading, everybody.

What did you think of this show/my review/Chris Hero's beard? Contact me at aik27joema@yahoo.com. Also, you can follow me or whatever at twitter.com/jtmath. Yes, I just created that account this week after Powell made one for this site.

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