Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDnet
Taped in Philadelphia, PA

The show opened with the usual montage, and Prazak and Hogewood mentioning Austin Aries' title win and hyping the Black/Danielson vs. American Wolves main event. They took us directly to Delirious vs. Jimmy Jacobs in a Fight Without Honor...

1. Delirious defeated Jimmy Jacobs in a Fight Without Honor in 10:30 Jacobs sent Brodie Lee and MsChif back to the locker room. Delirious wore black and red instead of his usual black and green. Delirious controlled the early going and hit the Panic Attack against the barricade. Delirious brought out a table and set it up, but was unable to put Jacobs through it.

Jacobs brought the action back in the ring and dove onto Delirious while Delirious was sitting in a steel chair. He tried to replicate the maneuver using a slingshot plancha to the outside, but Delirious moved and Jacobs hit the chair. Delirious grabbed the chair and went up to the top rope, and dropped the chair onto Jacobs. He brought him back in the ring and hit him with the chair again, and tried it a third time, but Jacobs speared him and locked in the End Time. Delirious' arm dropped twice, but he got it up the third time and fought out. Jacobs tried to hit Delirious with the railroad spike, but Delirious ducked and the spike got embedded in the turnbuckle.

Delirious tried to suplex Jacobs through the table at ringside, but Jacobs broke free and tried a spear, but Delirious ducked and Jacobs hit the table. Delirious went up top and hit Shadows Over Hell, dragged Jacobs in the ring, and pinned him. Post match, Jacobs grabbed the spike and spiked himself and started crying. Okay.

Joe's Judgment: Decent brawl if a bit short. Hopefully this was the final blowoff to Delirious/Necro Butcher vs. Age of the Fall, because I really don't want to see it any more. Post match was just weird.

Kyle Durden was backstage with Bryan Danielson and Tyler Black. They said that they had had a rivalry, and they didn't have to be friends tonight, just allies...

Nick and Matt Jackson, aka the Young Bucks, cut a promo saying they were going to bring a shot of adrenaline to the tag team division and give the fans more bang for their buck...

2. The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) defeated Brandon Day and Sal Rinauro in 2:15. The Bucks hit their trademark flashy offense in the early going. Day and Rinauro got a bit of offense in, but it ended when Nick Jackson tagged in. The Bucks hit a superkick, then a Finlay Roll, 450 splash, and moonsault, known as the More Bang For Your Buck for the pin.

Joe's Judgment: Enjoyable squash that allowed the Bucks to showcase their innovative offense. The Bucks are probably one of the three best tag teams in wrestling at the moment in my opinion, and definitely worth checking out.

Kyle Durden was backstage with Claudio Castagnoli. Castagnoli said he would face Brent Albright again on the 4th of July, but only if Albright agreed to put his country's honor on the line in a flag match. [C]

Highlights aired of Austin Aries winning the ROH World Championship. He cut a promo with Kyle Durden, saying that his grandmother told him not to toot his own horn, that nobody likes a bragger. "But grandmother's dead, so toot toot." He said that he was the new champion and things were going to change.

Joe's Judgment: I love Austin Aries. Line of the night, and it's not even close.

Kyle Durden interviewed the American Wolves backstage. They said that as soon as "Ringo Starr and Jesus Christ" made a mistake, they would capitalize on it, and they would hunt and they would win.

3. Brent Albright defeated Ernie Osiris in 1:45. Brief comedy in the early going with Ernie playing his bum character. Albright stopped it and hit a lariat. Osiris got a bit of offense in after an eye poke, but Albright hit an Air Raid Crash, then got the pin with a half nelson suplex. Post match Kyle Durden was in the ring, asking Albright if he accepted Claudio Castagnoli's challenge to a flag match. He said that he was proud to be an American, and said that if Claudio had the audacity to challenge Albright to a flag match, he would bring the stars and stripes and he accepted Claudio's challenge.

Joe's Judgment: Total squash. Albright came across as genuine in the post match interview, but the crowd wasn't exactly buying it. Probably because it was taped over a month before the Fourth.

After Black and Danielson came out for the main event, Nigel McGuinness entered and said that he wanted to wish them good luck. He said that they would need it, because while they may not need to be good friends to be good tag team partners, they did need to trust each other, and Black and Danielson didn't trust each other one bit.

4. The American Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards) (w/ Shane Hagadorn, Sara Del Rey) defeated Tyler Black and Bryan Danielson in 18:50. Edwards and Black started off. Black worked on a wristlock, and then tagged in Danielson. Hogewood and Prazak put over Richards and Edwards' experience as tag team partners.

At 6:00, Black got a flurry of offense in on Davey. He hit a stomp and then tagged in Danielson. Danielson got the surfboard on Edwards, and continued to work him over. He got a sort of leg submission, but Davey broke it up. Danielson tried to dive, but Edwards tripped him and tried to dive himself, but this time Black broke it up, and then Danielson dove onto both of the Wolves. However, the face tandem's offense was short lived, as Davey quickly regained control, grabbing a chinlock and hitting several double-team strikes. Danielson made his comeback, dropkicking both Richards and Edwards, then tagged in Black, who knocked both Wolves to ringside and dove onto them.

Black hit his springboard lariat for a nearfall on Richards, and continued to work on him. Danielson hit a top rope knee strike and then both faces hit running strikes in the corner. Richards got a nearfall with a rollup, and then the Wolves hit a powerbomb backbreaker for another nearfall, which Danielson broke up. Danielson got the triangle choke on Edwards as Black hit the buckle bomb/superkick combo on Richards for a nearfall which Richards broke by making the ropes.

Danielson signaled for Black to go up top for the Phoenix Splash, but then saw Richards creeping up on the apron and hit him with a forearm, bumping the top rope and causing Black to lose his balance. While Black was berating Danielson, Edwards rolled him up and scored the pin. Post match, Black and Danielson shoved each other. Todd Sinclair calmed them down, and Tyler offered a handshake, but Danielson slapped him in the face to close the show.

Joe's Judgment: Good match. I probably missed a whole lot, because there were a lot of big moves towards the end that I just couldn't write down fast enough. I like the build to Danielson-Black III so far, and I'm really looking forward to this match. Nigel's involvement here was well done as well and I'm starting to enjoy his tweener character.

I enjoyed the show this week. As usual, nothing was bad, and lately I think I'd throw ROH on HDnet up there with SmackDown for the title of best wrestling show on TV, which is saying a lot given how great SmackDown has been lately. If you've got anything to say about tonight's show, ROH in general, or any other promotion, independent or major, then email me at aik27joema@yahoo.com or follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/jtmath.

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