Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDnet
Taped 5/10 in Philadelphia, PA

The opening video aired and Prazak and Hogewood welcomed us to the show. They hyped the tables match for the tag titles, and Prazak predicted a title change...

Rhett Titus' Smack Talk box aired, and he made his entrance. Roderick Strong for some reason got his own Smack Talk box, and cut his typical bad promo...

Joe's Judgment: If Strong could just learn to talk, he could be a world champ.

1. Roderick Strong defeated Rhett Titus in 7:00. Hogewood mentioned the opposing personalities of Strong and Titus. Prazak was more concerned with spouting off Titus' catchphrases. Titus tossed Strong to the outside and gyrated in the middle of the ring. He turned around into a flying shoulder block from Strong. Titus reversed an Irish whip and sent Strong into the corner. He punched him a few times and gyrated. Prazak said "You can never have too much thrusting" and Hogewood said he was going to move his chair a few feet away.

Titus dropped a knee on Strong, who regained control with a chinbreaker. Titus quickly took it back, though, and hit a few clotheslines and the like. He sent Strong into the corner, where he hit a springboard reverse crossbody. Titus hit a neckbreaker, and tried an avalanche, but took too much time and Strong ducked. Strong hit a few chops and an Irinagi backbreaker, which Hogewood misunderstood, but Titus got an O'Connor Roll for a nearfall with the hands on the tights. Strong hit an enziugiri, gutbuster, and then a running dropkick for the pin. Hogewood said that it "might be taken the wrong way considering that Rhett Titus was involved, but SLAP THE PORPOISE, it's over."

Joe's Judgment: Decent match. They told a good story with Titus taking too much time playing to the crowd, and Strong capitalizing.

An Austin Aries video aired to hype next week's four way for the ROH World Championship. He said he brings style and substance to ROH...

SHIMMER Champion MsChif (w/ Jimmy Jacobs) defeated Daizee Haze and Sara Del Rey in 2:30. Hogewood called Daizee's ring attire a costume. MsChif yelled at the start of the match, and hit a standing moonsault early on. She did some sort of a headscissors octopus stretch on Del Rey, which she turned into a pin when Daizee hit a missile dropkick. Daizee kicked out. Del Rey hit a Punjabi Plunge-type move on Daizee onto MsChif, who rolled to the floor. She and Del Rey shoved a couple times, and Daizee tried a crossbody, but missed Del Rey, so she kicked her instead. Jacobs distracted referee Bryce Remsburg while MsChif sprayed the green mist in Daizee's face, rolled her in the ring, and hit the Desecrator DDT for the pin.

Joe's Judgment: Decent while it lasted. I need to watch more SHIMMER, because there are a lot of talented female wrestlers that can have great matches given time.

Post match, Kyle Durden was in the ring (whoa!) with Jacobs and MsChif. Jacobs said there were no goals in the Age of the Fall, only accomplishments. MsChif screamed.

A Tyler Black video aired, in which he said he would out-wrestle Aries, Lynn, and Danielson next week and win the ROH World Title...

An "ad" aired that said it "was paid for by the Embassy, and did not reflect the views of ROH or HDnet". Prince Nana cut a promo with Ernie Osiris next to him where he put over the Embassy, and all their members, including the newest, Claudio Castagnoli. [C]

Joe's Judgment: Nice job putting the Embassy "ad" right before the actual commercial break.

3. Erick Stevens defeated Sami Callihan in 2:45. Stevens dominated, then Callihan took over a bit with a diving uppercut, and locked in the Koji (Uehara) Clutch, but Stevens got to the ropes. He hit a sick looking running shoulder block that was basically a spear that drove Callihan all the way into the corner. Stevens hit the Choo Choo, and finished off Callihan with the Doctor Bomb.

Joe's Judgment: Better than a squash, because Callihan is okay and not a total jobber. Stevens looked awesome yet again.

A satellite "interview" with Nigel McGuinness aired. He was asked about next week's title match, and said Clamdigger Danielson was a fantastic wrestler, even if he didn't like his habit of digging up small animals at the beach and killing them, that Tylenol Black could pull off some fantastic moves, but also took a lot of risks, that he liked Aries' new attitude, and that Geritol Lynn beat him for the world champion, but he wasn't going to forget it, and he was coming back.

Joe's Judgment: Good promo, but I wish it had been a promo instead of trying to force it into an interview format. I can't wait for Nigel's return, provided he takes enough time off. I am interested to see what direction his character takes.

4. The American Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards) defeated Kevin Steen and El Generico in a Tables match to win the ROH tag team championships in 13:15. The Wolves jumped Steen and Generico before the match started. They went to oppsite sides of the ring, and Steen started biting Davey. The bell finally rang after about three minutes of brawling. Steen and Generico worked over Richards in the ring. Steen hit two somersault leg drops on Richards, and started punching him, but Edwards made the save briefly before being worked over himself. Steen and Generico hit the backpack senton, and Steen got a table. He held it upright, and Generico threw first Richards, then Edwards into it. Hogewood described this as "Eddie Edwards getting wood". Prazak asked him if he just said that.

Generico set the table up in the corner, and he and Steen tried to Irish whip Edwards through it, but he stopped short and tried to get Generico, but Generico hit an exploder into the turnbuckles. Richards came in and the Wolves hit the pop-up alarm clock kick on Generico, followed by a superkick/German suplex combo through the table, which only broke towards the end of the table. They dropped Steen on his knee through the table, and continued to work over the knee. The crowd chanted "You still suck" at Edwards (I'm assuming it was just Edwards because Edwards is generally viewed as not being in Richards' league by ROH fans). Edwards set up another table on the other turnbuckles. Generico returned and hit a piledriver and tornado DDT on Richards, allowing Steen to powerbomb him through the table. Steen hit a swanton, and Generico a big splash on Richards, but Edwards made the save.

Steen and Generico set up another couple of tables on the outside, one on top of the other. Steen tried to put Edwards through the tables, but Richards dropkicked him in the knee. He hit several running knee strikes on Steen in the corner, and then he and Edwards hit stereo kicks on Steen. Richards went up top and tried a Shooting Star Press, but missed. Generico went between the first and second turnbuckles from the floor for a tornado DDT. Steen hit the cannonball senton on Richards as Generico splashed Edwards through a table at ringside. Steen locked in the Sharpshooter on Richards, but Shane Hagadorn ran out and ate a Package Piledriver from Steen. Steen set up Richards on a table and went up top, but Richards pushed him off through the two stacked tables at ringside. Generico went up top and tried to brainbuster Richards through the table, but Edwards came up behind and low blowed him, then the Wolves hit a Doomsday Ace Crusher through the table for the pin and the belts.

Joe's Judgment: AWESOME match. Nothing against TNA, but ROH is the company that does tag team wrestling right. The title change felt like a huge deal, and the match was incredible. This was by far the best main event to date, and I have a feeling next week's will top it. I'll see you then. Thanks for watching.

Questions? Comments? Requests for thoughts on DVDs? Email me at aik27joema@yahoo.com. I'm also on Twitter. Follow me at twitter.com/jtmath for occasional thoughts on many things wrestling. Finally, a belated happy Matt Wieters Day to everybody.

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