Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDnet
Taped in Philadelphia, PA

The opening video aired and we went straight into Rhett Titus and Kenny King's entrance.

1. Jerry Lynn and Tyler Black defeated Rhett Titus and Kenny King in 13:20. Nothing happened for a couple minutes. Black and King locked up resulting in some sort of a botch. Black finally hit an offensive move five minutes in with a nearfall off a quebrada.

King went on the offensive and proceeded to not do anything exciting. Lynn hit an inverted DDT for a nearfall, but was distracted by Titus. Titus tagged in and pelvic thrusted in Lynn's face. Mike Hogewood was disgusted on commentary. Lynn hit a sort of second rope springboard powerbomb and tagged in Black. Black dominated King with all four of his jumping moves.

Titus tagged in and was hit with an atomic drop, top rope elbow drop from Black, and then a doomsday-style leg drop. Black went for the buckle bomb on King, but he fought out. King and Titus tried their powerbomb/blockbuster combo, but Lynn kicked King in the head. The faces hit stereo dives.

Titus lowbridged Black to ringside while Lynn was on the top rope, allowing King to kick him in the head, and then Titus to get an awesome nearfall with a top rope codebreaker. Black returned, wiping out King with a springboard lariat, and Lynn hit the Cradle Piledriver on Titus for the pin.

Joe's Judgment: The early part of the match sucked. Flat out sucked. It picked up towards the end and became okay, but when a match doesn't get off to a good start, it's hard to really get into it. The crowd was firmly behind King and Titus the whole match, and considering that Philly is Black's "second hometown", that says a lot about how bland the two babyfaces are.

Brent Albright cut a promo saying you can't train for a steel cage match...

2. Sara Del Rey defeated Nikki Roxx in 3:30. Roxx is Roxxi from TNA. Del Rey hit a nice Capo kick early. Roxx went on offense and hit a nice looking overhead suplex. However, her offense was short lived, as Del Rey picked her up in the Royal Butterfly and dumped her on her head for the pin.

Joe's Judgment: Too short. Both of them can work and while this was fairly impressive in the three and a half minutes they were given, a seven minute match would have impressed more.

Claudio Castagnoli said that while Albright may not be able to train for a steel cage match, he can, and did, because he's not a stupid American like Albright...

3. Sonjay Dutt defeated Alex "Sugarfoot" Payne in Flippy armdrag offense early with lots of dropdowns. Major X-Pac heat for Sugarfoot as he dropkicked Sonjay several times. Sonjay kicked him in the mouth and applied an STF, but Payne got to the ropes. Sonjay hit a stiff-looking springboard dropkick (seriously!) and applied a Camel Clutch for the tapout win.

Kyle Durden was in the ring with Sonjay. He asked what the reason for his change in attitude since his return to ROH was. He said that ROH was like his sideburns: they were aggressive, on point, and accurate. He said that even though he lost to Delirious, he was going to come back and pin him next week.

Joe's Judgment: I never thought I'd say this, but Sonjay is awesome. He's making 2009 Delirious entertaining on his own. He may be a bland face, but he's an awesome dick heel. This match wasn't great, but Sonjay's mannerisms were brilliant. His promo was annoying in a heelish way, not in an annoying way.

[C] As the cage was set up for the main event, Colt Cabana said that he liked to have fun in the ring. He said that "his buddy Punk" said that Colt's life was one giant fart joke, and that he didn't disagree with that...

Nigel McGuinness said that he wasn't going to play to the fans any more, because they didn't care when he got hurt...

4. Brent Albright defeated Claudio Castagnoli (w/Prince Nana, "Dirty" Ernie Osiris) in a Steel Cage match in Claudio tried to escape the cage about thirty seconds in... and then again fifteen seconds later. Strikes and lots of them carried the early portions. Albright tried to get out, but either Nana or Ernie Osiris slammed the door on his face.

Castagnoli slammed Albright's head into the steel cage several times. Albright bled from the forehead. Claudio tried the Alphamari Waterslide, but Albright reversed it into a small package for a nearfall. Albright made his big comeback, sending Claudio into the cage. Claudio bled as well. Albright tried slingshotting him into the cage, but Claudio landed on the second rope and tried a crossbody or something, but was caught in position for an Air Raid Crash.

Claudio avoided the Air Raid Crash and tried to climb out, but Albright caught him and German suplexed him into the ring. Both men made climbs for the exit. Albright gave Claudio an exploder from the top of the cage. Claudio gave him a low blow and called for a chair. He tried to stomp Albright's head in, but Albright moved and gave him a low blow in return, and then stomped his head in with the chair for the pinfall.

Joe's Judgment: Well that got better as it went on. A couple nice spots, but overall the match was just okay. A couple of nice spots, but no real story or anything of that sort. It was basically "hey, let's throw each other into the cage a few times, then suplexes, and finally chair stomps!" Overall the show felt like filler, what with all the filler in the two longest matches.

Thoughts on the show? Direct them to jtmathieson88@gmail.com. For some reason, I'm most hyped for Dutt vs. Delirious next week. See you then.

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