ROH Wrestling 6th Jun 09 reviewed

Tag Match, Dirty Ernie Osiris (with Prince Nana) & Claudio Castagnoli vs Colt Cabana & Brent Albright - To be honest ROH are starting to take the p**s with constant rematches, you can only watch 2 guys like Albright & Castagnoli fight each other even if it is in the occasional tag match so many times before it gets majorly dull. Extremely boring match, Cabana took the win off The Billy Goats Curse (Sharpshooter using both legs).

Overly long video package on all 4 guys involved in tonights main event.

Sal Renaro vs Bobby Dempsey - It seems ROH really don't like Renaro at all, as yet again its another match where his opponant got a vocal & banner introduction but Renaro was already in the ring & got no intro at all other than the colour guys telling us who Dempsey was up against. Renaro had a short run on top until Dempsey took the quick win off The Death Valley Driver.

ROH World Championship 4 Way Match, Austin Aries vs Tyler Black vs Bryan Danielson vs Jerry Lynn - If things were honest Aries wouldn't be in this match at all, he never wrestled the #1 contender so really doesn't deserve this title shot at all. By the time the start bell rang they had exactly 26:45 to fill so another of ROH's long main events that as yet they have been unable to fill with constant action and somehow I doubt this will be any different.

To my immense surprise and great pleasure they pretty much filled the whole match (with only a few lulls for matwork) with pretty fast action, so much in fact that I won't even try and recount who did what but it was a pretty impressive match with Lynn taking the win off Danielson with the Cradle Piledriver.

NOTE:- Due to general indifference to the product this was my last weekly review of ROH.

ROH Wrestling 30th May 09 reviewed

Better late than never.

Rhett Titus vs Roderick Strong - Titus might wanna have his eyes checked or not wear sunglasses in a darkened arena as I am pretty sure the "woman" he gave the room key to was a guy in drag. Strong has worked in TNA before & he was entertaining as hell last time I saw him work in the X Division. Titus is all about showboating & hasn't even got cheap heat he's that s**t, schilling a gimmick that HBK, Rick Martell & Rick Rude all stopped doing over a decade ago and were all far better at it than he will ever be. The only decent move of this match was Strongs reverse flying cross bodyblock, Strong took the win off a Gutbuster, kick to the face then roll-up. Pretty weak match really.

Video package about Austin Aries that wasted far too much time.

Non-title SHIMMER 3 Way Match, Sara Del Rey vs Daizee Haze vs Mschif (with Jimmy Jacobs) - Normally these 3 ladies are fairly talented but Haze flubbed going over the top rope right at the start, Mschif's drop toehold on Del Ray was very poorly executed & sold even worse. Haze raised interest a little when she got back in with a nice facebuster on Mschif although Del Rey flubbed being dropkicked between the ropes a few moments later. Del Rey was badly out of position for Haze's crossbody block and it showed when Haze bailed out of the move before hitting the ground. Haze got a facefull of green mist from Mschif who took the win off The Desecrator (a rather nasty looking modified DDT) but this match was more about what went wrong.

Overly long video package about Tyler Black. Prince Nana & Ernie Osiris (The Embassy) recruit Claudio Castagnoli.

Sami Callahan vs Erick Stevens - Far too long, Stevens took the win off the Doctor Bomb.

ROH Tag Title Match, The American Wolves (Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards) vs Kevin Steen & El Generico - According to the stipulations tables are legal & Tornado Rules apply meaning no tags are needed. The Wolves jumped the champions before they were barely out of the entrance, again ROH were doing their far too tiny split screens which make watching the action utterly pointless as you can't really see whats happening on either screen.

As per usual this was one of ROH's "however much tv time we have left" so they were trying to fill 30 mins and did sod all for 20 of those, The American Wolves were under for 75% of the match until El Generico was german suplexed into a table that failed to break properly. The suplex was a major flub & Generico was holding his head from the bad bump, Generico bailed from the ring & Steen was dropped on his "bad" knee onto the table that finally broke it. I'm not sure if Steen was really hurt or selling it really well as he pulled the ref over to him & they exchanged a few words very quickly, judging from how lightly The Wolves then worked that knee leads me to believe he was injured as the ref checked on him every time he took a bump to it.

Steen did his best to try & put up an offense but Generico finally made it back into the match after having taken a HUGE breather to recover hitting a really nice modified Brainbuster on Richards following up with a nice Tornado DDT moments later as well as risking a Somersault Splash onto Edwards from the top turnbuckle to the floor. Steen power bombed Richards onto the fallen table breaking it and the cameraman was in the wrong place catching Richards repositioning himself on the canvas to receive double splashes from Steen & Generico with Edwards barely making the save during the pin attempt.

The Wolves had a brief comeback but Generico splashed Edwards through a table going from the top turnbuckle to the floor as Steen put Richards into the Sharpshooter Shane Hagadorn (crony for The American Wolves) ran in only to get The Package Piledriver off Steen. Richards got up only to be Superkicked back down and Steen lay Richards on a table but was pushed off the top turnbuckle landing through the 2 tables he and Generico had set up earlier. Generico tried for a finisher only to get a lowblow off Edwards and Generico was given the Doomsday Device through a table which allowed Edwards to take the win and The American Wolves become new ROH Tag Champions.

As predicted all the action was at the end of this match and it took Generico getting injured twice & Steen getting injured at least once to make a match of this quality. Next week Jerry Lynn defends his title in a 4 way match so that might be half decent hopefully.

ROH Wrestling 23rd May 09 reviewed

3 Way Match, Kenny King vs Kenny Omega vs Jay Briscoe - Omega was no more than a jobber at the start in this one as King & Briscoe constantly kept throwing him back out of the ring but his double Hurricanrana was impressive, I think Briscoes cut eye was an accident ( I watched several times and still can't see where or how it happened, some time after the double cross bodyblock) so they finished this one up early with Omega taking the win off King with a Sunset Flip into a Bridging Suplex.

Tag Match, Irish Airborne (Jake & David Crist) vs Dark City Fight Club - Oh my god how I hate DFC with a passion, they have f**k all talent, are overly stiff yet ROH push them like their s**t don't smell. I expect I'll be watching yet another boring squash match & was pleased at the fans chant of "F**k you Fight Club" so I'm not the only one who hates them. As predicted Irish Airborne got to display almost no offence at all and DFC took the boring predictable win & its about time ROH either put them in a title match or fired them as their boring as hell and will never be over.

Chris Hero (with Sara Del Rey) vs Eddie Kingston - Kingston just dived right in working Hero until Del Rey gave him an opening off a distraction & Hero was on top doing just enough to get by until Kingston got his 2nd wind and started whaling on Hero in the corner failing to respond to a 5 count to break (and pushing the ref away), the ref generously gave Kingston a 2nd 5 count to break from Hero then called for the bell and tried to get Kingston to break again and got piefaced under the bottom rope for his troubles so the win went to Hero off a DQ.

Tag Match, Jimmy Jacobs & Brody Lee vs Delirious & Necro Butcher - This one started on the floor and stayed there a fair while too with Delirious eventually dragging Jacobs into the ring getting the match officially started whilst Necro threw some of the worst looking punches at Lee I've ever seen any wrestler do. Lee & Necro had a run in the ring (more awful looking punches, both Necro & Lee could seriously use some training on how to punch & sell one too). Delirious went for a top turnbuckle Suicide Flip on Lee, Jacobs & Necro & totally flubbed the landing overshooting all 3 guys taking a VERY hard landing on the concrete floor missing the mats completely but amazingly Delirious got up and carried on fighting with Lee.

Necro took a nice double suplex off Lee & Jacobs out of the ring (onto the handy pile of mats Jacobs had positioned earlier) but it was a hard enough bump that the ref went and checked on him leaving Delirious to work Jacobs & Lee alone. It actually evolved into a proper match all be it a handicap match as far as Delirious was concerned with Necro Butcher laid flat on his back outside the ring having pretty much not moved at all after his bump.

Lee had a nearfall and Necro actually made it back into the ring after about 10 minutes (I wouldn't be surprised if he was concussed though), Jacobs slowed him down by throwing thumbtacks onto the canvas as Delirious covered his back by clotheslining Jacobs out of the ring which allowed Necro to get a handfull of the thumbtacks and threw them into Lee's face. Necro hit a bodyslam and Delirious took the win off Shadows Over Hell (a frogsplash onto the back).

This was possibly THE best match ROH have had since starting on tv but it took a guy getting virtually injured out of the match to produce it.

ROH Wrestling 16th May 09 reviewed

For the second week in a row the 2 colour guys have opened the show in front of a green screen with the ring behind them pretending they are in the arena presenting live, surely they know they aren't fooling anyone in this media savvy world.

Claudio Castagnoli vs Brent Albright - You have to wonder exactly why we are seeing these 2 guys go at it again if their last match on tv was only a month ago. Why not give some of the other ROH guys some tv time? A pretty boring match that was FAR too long by at least 5 minutes, it was pretty even until Prince Nana & Ernie Osiris distracted the ref by throwing a shoe at Albright which allowed Castagnoli to kick Albright with a deliberate low blow taking the win off the roll-up. P**s poor finish in a very s**tty match.

Dark City Fight Club vs Alex Payne & Grizzly Redwood - Redwood has already jobbed to DCFC on tv (back on 16th May), Payne had jobbed to Nigel McGuinness in a singles match on the same show so both these guys are seriously demoted to jobber status. I don't like Fight Club as they are overly stiff & extremely boring to watch, they need decent evenly matched opponants which neither of these 2 guys are. Fight Club took the win off a double teamed slam on Payne and although it was short it couldn't have been short enough for my liking. Quite frankly Fight Club are s**t unless they meet someone decent.

Buzz words video insert from Necro Butcher & Delirious. Possibly the funniest thing ROH have ever aired on tv, it wasn't supposed to be funny but it was hilarious! Necro Butcher "What he said!".

Ric Flair comes out to talk about who should get the title shot against Jerry Lynn (who comes out to learn who he will face), Tyler Black comes out as does Bryan Danielson as does Austin Aries for some unexplained reason as he wasn't even in the title shot match last week. I was pretty close (I guessed it'd be a 3 way dance) as Flair announces Lynn will face all 3 of the other guys in a 4 way match (I have zero clue how the f**k Aries got into a title match that he wasn't even contesting in).

Sami Callahan vs Jay Briscoe - It's bizarre having 2 guys like this work each other as Callahan isn't even in the same league of talent or ability as Briscoe. Callahan had an ok match but Briscoe was substandard for him, Briscoe took the win off an inverted Piledriver.

Kenny King & Rhett Titus vs El Generico & Kevin Steen - Yep, yet again its one of ROH's "however long we have on tv" matches that are always s**t and only have any action in the last few minutes so I don't expect this to be any different. As expected this was 10 minutes of f**k all with the action coming in the last 2 minutes, Steen took the pin off King after Generico hit the Brainbuster.

The post match beatdown by The American Wolves only demonstrated exactly how low ROH has sunk as it is now copying its rivals with s**t run-ins and s**ttier storyline lead matches. Despite them pushing the support from Flair (who it appears is still working for WWE anyway) and the title to be defended on tv (well its about f**king time too!) I still predict ROH is going to die on its arse if it doesn't improve its matches.

ROH Wrestling 9th May 09 reviewed

Nigel McGuinness gobs off for over 5 minutes about not being champion. Interview with Tyler Black & Bryan Danielson on what they thought about his comments. Great, ROH has become WWE as well now? It only took them 6 weeks to decide they also want to be a WWE clone? F**king distaster!

Mixed Tag Match - Jimmy Jacobs & MsChif vs Daizee Haze & Delirious. The women were probably the best thing about this match but it wasn't very good at all. Not much in the way of actual action either, Haze took the win for her team. It looked like they weren't very sure how to work this one at all, personally I'd have rather seen Haze & MsChif go 1 on 1 it would have been a much better match.

Talking heads segment advertising Claudio Castagnoli vs Brent Albright coming up next week. So why the f**k are they wasting airtime this week?

Orange Cassidy & Leslie Butterscotch vs The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards). Cassidy & Butterscotch were already in the ring and hadn't been announced and the announcer hadn't even finished introducing the Wolves when they jumped their opponants before the bell had rung. Cassidy is clearly out of favour in ROH as this is his 2nd match and he wasn't introduced in either one, he also took a beatdown before the match legally got started.

Cassidy sold a VERY long and very boring beatdown from Edwards & Richards before Butterscotch finally got tagged in and was well out of his depth from the second he entered the ring, Richards took the win with a bridging suplex off Butterscotch. Kind of a pointless squash match really as it didn't get The American Wolves over 1 iota and it didnt help either Cassidy or Butterscotch establish themselves either. The American Wolves are very talented but need decent opposition to get them over.

Kyle Durden interviews Ric Flair backstage, Flair keeps saying "2nd week" as if anyone is going to be fooled that he's at the same tv taping because anyone who knows anything about ROH knows they tape at least 2 weeks worth of shows in 1 go. Video of Colt Cabana yakking (so WWE finally fired him?) before being interupted by Prince Nana & Dirty Ernie Osiris (it really is about time someone told Homeless Jimmy this guy is trying to cash in on his gimmick).

#1 Contenders Match, Tyler Black vs Bryan Danielson. Ok this is another main event where they are trying to fill 20+ minutes with entertaining wrestling. Since week one of ROH on HDNET, wrestlers have tried and failed to make a match filled with decent wrestling so I expect no different tonight even with a title shot on the line.

The first 15 minutes or so was very dull, all mat based technical wrestling with lots of holds, reverses and locks. All at a really slow pace and not very exciting at all, neither guy appeared to have his heart involved in this (you'd think there'd be a bit of emotion shown at a title shot) but quite frankly they both looked bored as hell and were going through the motions.

Clearly the ref gave some kind of signal and things picked up with less than 3 mins of tv time remaining, Black went up for what looked an attempt at a reverse Moonsault & Danielson pushed him off the top turnbuckle into the first row and then springboarded himself off the top rope onto Black (check the guys in the Wrestlemania & Santino shirts marking out like motherf**kers), neither guy beat the count (they count to 20 in ROH, how weird is that?) so the ref called it a double count out (pretty pointless as someone has to get the title shot) and I'm not exactly sure what match the fans were watching with their "that was awesome" chant as it was possibly the dullest 20 minute match ever with a REALLY s**t non-finish.

Either there will be a rubber match to this or Jerry Lynn will say he'll fight them both in a 3 way dance. Its also pretty weird that after 7 weeks HDNET are yet to offer a PPV from ROH either, whats the score there then?

ROH Wrestling 2nd May 09 reviewed

Show opens with the new Ambassador for ROH, Ric Flair being introduced and coming to the ring to a standing ovation. By the looks of it Flair had a fairly long spiel on the stick which the director cut to ribbons to keep the show at tv length, Naitch did himself no favours by citing WWE names when he was bigging up the ROH roster (as was evident by the booing when he mentioned HHH but there were no boos when he mentioned Shawn Michaels).

Flair introduced current ROH Champ Jerry Lynn and did a job of putting him over (not that he needed it) but Lynn was very humble in his response. Austin Aries comes out to try and get himself over (to the usual chants of "Austin Asshole") and what was rather funny was when he rhetorically asked Flair & Lynn who had been "the man" in ROH before they turfed up some wag in the crowd shouted out "Danielson" referring to Bryan Danielson.

Chris Hero vs Kenny Omega. It seems this week they aren't doing the factfile introductions any more unless they are now reserving those just for new wrestlers appearing on tv for the 1st time. It seems Omega is doomed to remain a curtain jerker at the moment in ROH and no doubt will be jobbing to heel Hero tonight. This one started off with an armbar that both guys reversed numerous times (to be honest that was pretty boring after about 30 seconds so why they stuck with it for so long is beyond me), whats even more annoying is after breaking the hold they went to mat work but Omega finally broke the incredible monotony with some decent high flying stuff.

Omega took a near fall off a flying cross body block into a nice roll-up & was selling for Hero who made a c**ppy flying kick through the ropes, Omega made a very nice bridging suplex for another near fall. Sara Del Rey (who had also come to the ring with Hero) distracted the ref long enough for Hero to put on his loaded elbow pad & hit the spinning elbow to take the rather predictable win in a match where the much better worker was Omega and Hero did fuck all.

Brodie Lee (with Jimmy Jacobs) vs The Necro Butcher. Before this match they did do the talking heads intro that they normally do along with the fact file so I guess they are keeping some elements of that introduction for certain matches. Necro started this before the bell with a backsplash off the apron onto Lee before nailing him a few times with a chair, Lee hit a nice slam onto the entrance ramp before finally carrying Necro to the ring and the match officially got started.

The match was all Lee from the bell with the occasional double team from Jacobs when Lee distracted the ref, Lee is an extremely sloppy worker (I've never seen anyone execute a worse big boot & Lee managed to f**ck up that simple move twice in less than 10 seconds) but Necro was still selling even though Lee really didn't deserve it. Necro used Lee to bump Jacobs off the apron and took the win off a roll-up. A pretty s**t match made worse by Lee and his flubs and lack of basic talent.

Sal Renaro vs Erick Stevens - Stevens merited a banner introduction & Renaro who was already in the ring was only worthy of a vocal intro so I had to Google him so excuse me if I spelled his name wrong. Stevens got in a cheap shot before the bell which earnt Renaro a powerslam into the canvas followed by a nice overhead suplex, Stevens was suitably p**sed off and hit a splash into the corner following up with a viciously stiff looking clothesline that Renaro sold like crazy which Stevens followed with a nice Powerbomb to take the win. I would have liked a slightly longer match with more chance to see how Renaro could respond, nice work by Stevens though.

Austin Aries vs Roderick Strong. Yet again its another 20 minute main event & yet again I am left to wonder if the 2 men involved can fill the whole match without slowing off too much. No-one has been able to do this since ROH started on tv so we will see if this week can be the 1st time. Currently it is really hard to understand the mindset of the ROH bookers as far as Aries is concerned as he has gone from Main Eventer to Curtain Jerker & back to Main Eventer just as fast. Pretty much f**k all happened in this match, Aries won off the Brainbuster. Exceptionally dull match with zero action, not worthy of main event status or even worth giving away for free.

Yet again ROH had 2 talented guys in the main event & squandered the chance to make something worth watching, I must ask how ROH managed to persuade Ric Flair to come on board as surely TNA or WWE could have offered him much more money (are the rumours of Flair asking 100K US $ per appearance true?) but I guess he didn't want to return to WWE as he has done pretty much everything he possibly could there.

ROH Wrestling 25th Apr 09 reviewed

Tag Match - Grizzly Redwood & Andy "Right Leg" Ridge vs Dark City Fight Club (Kory Chavis & Jon Davis). Last time we saw Fight Club it was a short squash match against Cheech & Cloudy so hopefully we'll get to see a bit more of them this time. Ridge was selling like crazy for Chavis & Davis who were hitting every move making them all look as stiff as possible, Redwood had a short run where he was selling for Fight Club as well but if I'm honest you can only watch a team dominate a match for so long before it gets boring like it did here. Ridge came back in & was double teamed in a powerbomb where Davis took the win for Dark City Fight Club. These kinds of matches are pointless and don't help to get the more powerful team over unless there is some kind of opposition and don't do much good to ROH.

Alex Payne vs Nigel McGuinness - No introduction for either guy here and several minutes of McGuinness bad mouthing the fans, it seems that despite the fact that McGuinness needed time off for an arm injury he has only been off 3 weeks and that arm was still heavily taped here. Payne was on top from the get go & rather oddly enough the colour guys were saying they weren't impressed with him last time they saw him so clearly they don't have a f**king clue as he was far more entertaining than Claudio Castagnoli who he was working against and jobbed to in that match.

McGuinness made a predictable comeback with Payne selling well on the armholds, the 2nd of which slowed the match down a litttle too much for my liking. Payne got a 2 count off a roll-up which McGuinness responded to with a stiff looking Lariat clothesline, McGuinness took the win off the Tower Of London (ddt off the top turnbuckle). A fairly average match for both guys.

Tag Match - Chris Hero & Eddie Edwards (with Larry Sweeney) vs Jay Briscoe & Kevin Steen. Hero & Edwards preempted the bell & jumped Steen & Briscoe, Hero was given a sharp exit over the ropes curtesy of Briscoe leaving Edwards & Steen to start working a proper and fair match (although I noticed Sara Del Rey had come to the ring with the heels). Steen was owning Edwards & Heros attempt at a sneak attack earnt him a clothesline to the apron from Steen, Briscoe came in to give Steen a breather as Edwards was still getting worked over but eventually managed to get a tag to Chris Hero.

Hero didn't fare much better against Steen and was being seriously f**ked over by Briscoe when he tagged in until a foot grab from the floor by Larry Sweeney slowed Briscoe long enough for Hero to mount an offence taking Briscoe off the top turnbuckle with a sloppy looking dropkick which allowed Sweeney & Edwards to work over Briscoe outside the ring who was saved from a bigger beatdown by his brother Mark.

Briscoe was worked over by Edwards then Hero took charge getting a near fall, Briscoe managed to tag Steen back in who just missed getting the win from a great reverse Moonsault for such a big guy. Steen got double teamed for a fair while until Briscoe took Hero out of the equation by yanking the top rope and then hitting a clothesline off the apron, Steen took the eventual win off the Package Piledriver. A decent enough match for both teams but a little too long in terms of duration.

Tyler Black vs Bryan Danielson - So again ROH are firmly sticking to a long main event (20 minute time limit according to the guy doing the introductions), this hasn't worked in the previous 4 weeks of tv so it remains to be seen if it will work this week or not. The problems have been that everyone working the main event have been unable to fill the 20 minutes with solid action for the whole time, on the main it has been 15 minutes of padding with the only real action coming in the final 5 minutes of the match.

Yet again not much action from the start, mainly holds & mat work. I am not a big fan of technical wrestling at the best of times so generally find matches like this very boring indeed. The match did have a brief period of aerials and out of ring work but it only lasted a few minutes before they were both right back to slow holds and mat work again slowing the match down after a brief but entertaining interlude where both guys took it to the wire on weardown moves, the ref was laying a count on both men when the time limit expired and the match was called as a draw.

To whoever was commenting about Ric Flair appearing in ROH, it won't be on tv until next Saturday so I will reserve any judgements until I have seen what happens.

ROH Wrestling 18th Apr 09 reviewed

Well its almost a week late but here it comes, currently my internet connection is down due to a local network outage so I figured if I couldn't go online I'd use the time productively to review this. Connection came back after at least 4 hours gone so at least I can post this now.

Jimmy Jacobs vs Necro Butcher - This one started with Jacobs jumping Necro as the ref took a staplegun off Necro & Jacobs was on top for a while from there, I'm not exactly sure what the colour desk thought the fans were chanting when they said they didn't dare repeat it ("Bonk Bonk Necro, Bonk Bonk" that "Bonk Bonk" chant is one of the very old fan chants from early ECW when it became Extreme so god alone knows what colour thought they were hearing) and it displays their lack of knowledge about wrestling history or other promotions, clearly all the historical facts they cite are written down for them.

Necro took the match to the floor using the bell & choking Jacobs out, Jacobs came back with the worlds scrappiest suplex on Necro (who either didn't trust Jacobs to sell it or didn't go with it at all as Jacobs clearly struggled to take Necro over convincingly) who clearly hit the back of his head and Jacobs did a dive over the top rope out of the ring onto Necro who was sitting on a chair with Jacobs selling that he'd hurt his hip. Necro countered a Spear by punching Jacobs then hit the Tiger Driver, he went out to get the staplegun which caused a run-in by Brody Lee and the ref threw this one out as a DQ (he DQ'd Jacobs for outside interference) giving the win to Necro Butcher.

Sami Callahan vs Eddie Kingston - More a brawl than anything else, Kingston took the win off a Backdrop Driver into a Spinning Backfist and made the roll-up.

Bobby Dempsey vs Orange Cassidy - Cassidy got no intro at all, I wouldn't have even known his name if the colour guys hadn't said it, sadly this one was over in less than a minute after Dempsey hit the Bodyblock then the Death Valley Driver to take a very fast win here.

Cheech & Cloudy vs Rhett Titus & Kenny King - Cheech pretty much owned the 1st half of this then the heels took over when Cloudy came in. I say heels but they weren't drawing any heat and weren't selling very well either, Cloudy sold a fairly decent clothesline off King but f**ked up landing the Super Hurricanrana off Cheech's shoulders onto King who still sold it even though it barely made contact. Titus made the pin on Cheech off a Blockbuster but Cloudy certainly took a bad fall off the top turnbuckle into the guard rail.

Claudio Castagnoli vs Brent Albright. Well their having yet another longish main event (with around 14 minutes of tv air time left to fill) and Castagnoli jumped Albright before he ever got in the ring but Albright got the upper hand pretty quickly and gave Castagnoli a quick tour of the ring introducing his head to several sides of the apron. Albright hit a nice Backbreaker before he finally got a chance to take his robe off but Castagnoli came back with a series of European Uppercuts, Castagnoli was sent outside the ring but caught Albright in his attempt at a cross bodyblock and rammed Albright into the guardrail covers back first.

After Albright came back into the ring Castagnoli hit a weardown move (far too late into the match and slowing the action down exactly when they should have really been winding up to a finish), Albright sold a stiff looking clothesline and Castagnoli toyed with Albright for about 5 minutes not doing much but enough to stay on top. Albright hit a good belly to belly suplex outside the ring but Castagnoli took him right back into the ring with a side headlock slowing the action down again at the wrong time, Albright mounted a fairly decent comeback and we had a couple of c**p attempts at finishers from both men but Castagnoli took the win off a Victory Roll and a big assist from a handfull of the bottom rope.

Again this week it wasn't a great main event and 2 matches left a lot to be desired with Kingstons boring slugfest and Dempseys sub 60 second win that helped neither guy get over as we didn't really get to see any kind of offence from either man.

ROH Wrestling 11th Apr 09 reviewed

Kenny Omega vs Austin Aries - This is a pretty fast fall from grace for Aries who went from being a main eventer to a curtain jerker in the space of 7 days & the crowd showed their feelings by chanting "Austin A***ole". This was all Aries from the bell, Omega sold 2 nice armdrags but there wasn't much going on or many moves actually leading to anything. Omega had 3 near falls (the leg lariat facebuster was nice!) and made a nice reverse moonsault out of the ring. Aries was selling like crazy to put Omega over but Aries took the win off a very well sold Brainbuster. I'd say this match was about 5 minutes too long but pretty ok otherwise.

"Dirty" Ernie Osiris vs Delirious - Does Homeless Jimmy know Osiris is trying to work his gimmick and if so what does he think about it? This was neither exciting or very entertaining, Delirious won off Shadows Over Hell (splash onto opponants back trying to sell a double axehandle that made no contact). This was a really weak match and neither guy looked much cop, Delirious was the better worker of the 2 but thats not saying much. Osiris looked way too green to be working on tv yet, Delirious might have been able to make more out of a more talented or experienced opponant.

Sara Del Rey & Sassy Stephie (with Larry Sweeney) vs Daizee Haze & Nevaeh - Haze & Del Rey kicked this off so it was almost a rubber match from 2 weeks ago only this time with the added extra of a partner to tag in. Haze was working the arm and when Del Rey went to slam her & Haze span out of it I almost thought that was a flub and that Del Rey had accidently dropped her.

This match was mainly Haze working Del Rey who did get a nice near fall off a bridging suplex, Stephie wasn't allowed time to do anything as Del Rey came right back in but Haze got a chance to work Stephie hitting a nice dropkick off the top turnbuckle and it appears the colour guys think a womans throat is in her breasts? Del Rey came in to make the save on her partner but for some reason the ref wasn't counting at all, Nevaeh (its Heaven spelt backwards as the helpful colour guys pointed out) took out Del Rey outside the ring with a nice cross body block off the apron and Haze took the win off Stephie with The Mind Trip. It was an ok match but I'd liked to have seen more from both Stephie & Neveah.

Brodie Lee (with Jimmy Jacobs) vs Jerry Lynn - I'm really not sure that this current format of ROH's main event really works by having it go for over 20 minutes, in pretty much every week so far the main event has been all filler with some action over the last 5 or so minutes. Jerry Lynn can work a longer match so hopefully the trend will end this week. Lee totally flubbed the sell on Lynns drop toehold takedown, Lynns ability to sell made Lee look a lot better than he probably is though. The stretch on Lynn midmatch slowed down the match at exactly the wrong time (even the fans could tell and started a "lets go Jerry" chant) but Lee tried several different weardown holds which weren't very sensible with only 8 minutes left on air.

Lee kicked out of a rollover and Lynn kicked out of a nice sit-out piledriver, Lynn made a nice backdrop outside of the ring and Lee caught him when Lynn tried a cross body block outside the ring earning himself a post in the back. Lee had a bearhug on Lynn (so yet ANOTHER weardown move and there was less than 5 minutes of airtime left?) then drove him into the turnbuckles, Lee missed a big boot and colour sold that he crotched himself (Under the knee? F**k off!) but it was glaringly obvious he hadn't. Lynn hit a series of clotheslines and Lee happily sold a nice headscissors. Lynn made nice flip dive out of the ring & Lee looked very winded as he came back into the ring, Lee kicked out of the TKO (selling it very well though) but Lee appeared to flub the Butterfly Superplex (which Lynn kicked out of). Lynn took the eventual win off an Inside Cradle but it was a scrappy finish to a match that wasn't really all that good.

Its pretty clear the 25 minute Main Event really isn't working as everyone to date has failed to fill that amount of time with wrestling. Perhaps ROH should have a rethink and shorten the last match to 15 minutes and add another 10 minute time limit match to each card. I'd sooner see shorter matches where they worked all the time than long matches with pretty much f**k all action apart from the dying minutes. The colour guys and their ability to sell is utter s**t and if their going to call moves can they at least not call moves when its obvious they either don't make contact or aren't hitting where they say they are. Ideally ROH need to be showing different workers each week and rotate everyone until the entire roster (or at least everyone who is fit to wrestle) has appeared on tv and only then start giving people a 2nd run on tv.

ROH Wrestling 4th Apr 09 reviewed

Show opens with breaking news that Jerry Lynn won the ROH Heavyweight title off Nigel McGuinness (according to scuttlebutt it was due to McGuinness needing time off due to an arm injury)

Sterling James Keenan vs Erick Stevens - Keenan seemed fairly happy to get cheap heat as a heel and Stevens was certainly putting him over with a decent enough sell. Stevens got a 2nd wind and made a few average moves before getting DDT'd. Keenan kicked out of a nice spinning powerslam but Stevens made the win off a German Suplex into a Lariat but his success came from the Doctor Bomb.

Tag Match - Up In Smoke (Cheech & Cloudy) vs Dark City Fight Club (Kory Chavis & Jon Davis). Fight Club were all about power & the clear heels here, Cheech & Cloudy sold the beatdown but also made the good aerial & high flying moves. Fight Club took a pretty quick win but really didn't do much at all to be honest.

Chris Hero (with Larry Sweeney) vs Necro Butcher. I know Necro Butcher mainly by reputation but also from his appearance in a seriously hardcore match in the movie "The Wrestler". Hero also brought Sara Del Rey to the ring with him and for a hardcore wrestler Necro was really pulling his punches on Hero and it was very obvious he was too. Necro kicked out of a schoolboy roll-up and was beaten down outside the ring by Sweeney & Del Rey.

Hero's backdrop hit nothing but floor mat and the crowd were chanting "fuck you Hero" as Necro kicked out of a pin after a forearm shot, Heros best move of the match was the blockbuster (top turnbuckle flipping snap neck breaker ddt combo) and Necro made his best move which was a chair bodyslam (onto the concrete) which Hero sold pretty well and Hero took the win off a loaded elbowpad shot.

Austin Aries vs Bryan Danielson - After screwing around for a while these 2 finally shook hands and got started and the match started out slow before Aries hit a few nice armdrags. The crowd were chanting something (possibly Austin sucks?) at Aries as they really don't like him. Danielson showed some nice holds & reverses and looks very technically sound indeed, this is only my 2nd time seeing him in action and this is the best I've seen him work.

Seeing the ref push Aries arms off the rope to break a hold quite surprised me (I'm not used to refs getting so physically involved to break holds when they aren't bumping in the match), Aries best move was suplexing Danielson over the top rope and out to the floor. I think Danielsons best move was the knee to the face off the apron, this match was well paced (unlike the main events of the previous 2 weeks) and Danielson took the eventual win off a submission hold.

ROH Wrestling 28th Mar 09 reviewed

Eddie Edwards (with Larry Sweeney) vs Kevin Steen. Steen is one half of the current ROH tag champions so he's no slouch, this started in a fairly scrappy way but picked up after Steen hit a nice drop toehold & an excellent front flip legdrop that looked great. Edwards came back with a vengance (best move he made was the front face slam), Steen came back after a low blow with a good belly to belly overhead suplex but sold a nice kick to the head & Steen took the eventual win off a Package Piledriver. Very good match, nicely paced apart from the poor start.

Daizee Haze vs Sara Del Rey (with Larry Sweeney) - This is my 3rd time seeing Haze who has previously worked on TNA once (Impact 1st May 08 jobbing to Cheerleader Melissa) & my 2nd time seeing Del Rey (who lost to Haze in a 3 way with Lacey at the 08 Rising Above ROH PPV) so these 2 do have a bit of history. Del Rey was on top initially but Haze made a nice headscissors (I had the feeling it was flubbed by Del Rey due to lack of trust), Haze did flub a dive onto Del Rey who was also out of position for the catch (too far away) & it was quite funny that one of the announcers wasn't able to identify a simple backbreaker.

Haze was selling nicely on the whole but didn't do a very good sell in the Torture Rack off Del Rey, she did however hit a great looking tilt-a-whirl slam, I'm not too sure what the front face slam was but it looked good (like a ddt almost but not quite), the Capo kick off Del Rey would have looked a LOT better if we hadn't been on the overhead camera which totally no-sold what would have otherwise been an awesome looking move and Del Rey took the eventual win off The Royal Butterfly. A fairly decent match with a few flubs but not bad at all.

Alex Payne vs Claudio Castagnoli - I've seen Castagnoli once before against Chris Hero on their 08 Rising Above PPV, he was an ok worker there. Payne had the better start making a couple of nice flip leverage moves which Castagnoli sold well and seemed more than willing to go with. Payne as both the smaller and lighter guy sold the wrong end of a beatdown pretty well and kicked out after a big boot to the head.

Payne got a second wind and hit Castagnoli with a bulldog, Castagnoli came back with a pop-up European Uppercut (which looked bloody awful as if Payne wanted no part of it) before taking the win off the Ricola Bomb. So-so match that Payne really supplied most of the entertainment for.

Jay Briscoe vs Nigel McGuinness - I've seen Briscoe tagging a few times (don't let his name fool you, his real surname is actually Pugh) with his brother & I last saw McGuinness defending his title against Austin Aries in an extremely scrappy match so my hopes weren't really up here. This match was due to be 22 minutes long or there abouts and started very slowly with holds, reversals and a fair bit of mat work so I feared this would be a repeat of last weeks main event where nothing happened until the last few minutes then the ref would have to tell one of the guys to win. Sadly that was exactly the case and most of the decent action came in the final 4 minutes,

Briscoe hit a nice across the ring top rope legdrop but McGuinness took the win out of nowhere off the Jawbreaker Lariat (although I'm not completely sure what he was doing in the ropes before hand). A fairly boring and overly long match with not enough action that wasn't worthy of main event status.

This is ROH's 2nd week on TV and yet again their main event was pretty much utter shit and overshadowed by better (and shorter) matches earlier in the card. If they are going to keep their TV deal they will have to shorten their main event (10 minutes tops) as they struggle to pace these 20 minute matches and they are all far too slow with almost no action at the start with everything happening in the final few minutes. We're yet to see any titles defended which would be a good idea but generally the show was ok.

ROH Wrestling 21st Mar 09 reviewed

Delirious vs Jerry Lynn. I liked the little graphics that told you a bit about each wrestler and their moves & previous associations which helped get you into the action that much quicker by being aware of their ROH backgrounds, I'd assume most wrestling fans would know Lynn for his ECW & TNA background. Lynn is as good today as he ever was making a nicer headscissors into a backbreaker and the match was mainly Lynn on top with Delirious bumping & selling well with Lynn taking a good win off the cradle piledriver. Very good quality match to kick off the show, decent mix of aerial and matwork and not too long either.

Sami Callihan vs Kenny King. Well neither of these guys were known to me so it was nice to call a match like this, both these guys looked a bit rough around the edges. They started out working a fair bit of technical mat wrestling, King looked the better of the 2 but the match was a bit too slow in its pace for my liking. King made a nice Enzuigiri to the head into a spinebuster and tried 2 positions for pinning and settled on the 2nd for a 2 count only. Callihan had a little success midmatch making a nice inverted DDT style slam but King took the eventual win off The Coronation. Neither of these guys really looked fully ready for tv and both 2nd guessed themselves several times, perhaps a bit more training is required before working on tv again?

Video detailing a potted history of ROH (showing Samoa Joe, Abyss & Christopher Daniels amongst its various alumni who have gone on to bigger things).

Rhett Titus vs Brent Albright - I couldn't tell if Titus was styling himself after Rick Martel, Rick Rude or HBK or a little of all 3 which was my guess. Titus sold a nice Splash Mountain (basically a Razors Edge or Gringo Killer for the WWE & TNA fans) and Albright hit a nice slingshot cross bodyblock out of the ring onto Titus which was the 1st real high risk move of the show. Fans were vocally behind Albright as the match was starting to slow down & Albright kicked out of a pin after a dropkick but made a great half-nelson suplex and took the win off The Crowbar submission hold. A decent enough match although slow in places.

Jimmy Jacobs vs Tyler Black - I've seen these guys as tag partners but never in singles opposite each other so this should be an interesting match, Black & Jacobs were both part of a faction called Age Of The Fall and held the ROH Tag Titles having won them off the extremely talented Brisco Brothers. This match started off at a very slow pace indeed which shouldn't have really surprised me as it was the last match on the card and they'd started with over 30 minutes left on air.

Jacobs was on top from the start for a fair old while until Black got a nice 2nd wind and really turned things around. Both Black & Jacobs started to pull a few aerials as we got down to the last few minutes, I wondered how they were going to finish but Black pulled a wear down move (which is fine if you've got the time but a f**king silly idea when you only have 2 mins left on air) and missed a superkick that Jacobs reversed into a schoolboy roll-up that Black barely kicked out of it but Black took the eventual win off a bridging suplex out of nowhere. Not a great match, they didn't know how to pace it & had to rush the finish.

Thoughts on the show in general - Camera work & Lighting was good, referees were good, fair & very audible which I found quite interesting to be able to hear their calls during the matches. The colour guys could use some work, I'd bin the backstage guy completely but it was good that ROH actually started their TV run as a fully HD show which is no mean feat. They had 4 fairly ok matches in an hour which TNA struggle to do in 2 hours and WWE also struggles to do on Smackdown, RAW & ECW or were struggling to do last time I watched any of them (that was back in early February). If ROH can do matches like this with no gimmick finishes or run-ins then they stand a very good chance of poaching fans from both TNA and WWE.

Ring of Honour - Rising Above 2008 PPV reviewed

I'm not super familiar with ROH or it's workers but I am aware of people who've gone from ROH to TNA so when I saw this PPV I thought I'd do a review. I call the action how I see it and all views are my own. Onto the PPV.

Delirious vs Brent Albright & Adam Peace (Of the Hangmen 3) - This was a really good quality match, a mixture of lucha style and technical wrestling but well put together as to not be slow or drawn out too much. Nicely worked match, Delirious got the pin only to be jumped at the end of the match, a bit of storyline the match didn't need. Rating out of 10 - 7.

Tag Team Scramble Match - Kevin Steen & El Generico vs Age Of The Fall vs The Vulture Squad vs The Hangmen 3. Now this is the kind of programming we like! A match that just starts out of no-where and isn't on the card. The rules (what there were of them), no tags needed, 1st pin wins. Just about every style of fighting you might want to see was used here by the 4 different teams, everyone bumping and selling well. It looked very well done. Didn't appear to be pre-practiced either! Great finish by Steen who took the pin off a brainbuster. Rating out of 10 - 9.

One Fall 3-way ladies match - Lacey vs Daizee Haze vs Sara Del Ray. I thought the TNA women were tough? These girls are mental! Excellent hard worked match, punches not pulled by any means. Good action in general. The match was being watched by WWE's own Sunny. Some very nice holds including a very good leglock which turned into a 3 way submission hold where everyone had a hold of everyone else. Looked brilliant! Daizee Haze got a very hard fought win. ROH's women make WWE's men look like a bunch of queers. Rating out of 10 - 9.

Grudge Match - Erick Stevens vs Davey Richards. Mainly a brawl but some nice kicks and mat work. Richards reminded me of The Dynamite Kid with power & speed. The match improved in the 2nd half, Richards getting a submission win off an armhold after Stevens was distracted by some MMA guy (Daniel Puder?) in the audience. Rating out of 10 - generous 5.

Grudge Match - Chris Hero vs Claudio Castagnoli. Despite having lots of good moves & good bumps this match was actually pretty boring. It was way too long and a bad idea to have 2 grudge matches after each other. Castagnoli got the win in a match that looked like it might never finish. Rating out of 10 - generous 6 on moves alone. Too long and drawn out.

Takeshi Morishima vs Bryan Danielson - Danielson was cut in the head very early (off camera too!).This wasn't pretty and was mainly a brawl until Morishima pushed the ref and got himself DQ'd. Rating - extremely generous 3 due to the s**t finish.

Tag Title Match 2 out 3 falls, Jay & Mark Briscoe vs Rocky Romero & Roderick Strong - Strong had a few matches in TNA but never quite took off there. Strong got the 1st fall off a powerbomb after a doomsday device. The match did pick up very well after the 1st fall with both teams working a lot harder & faster & way more intense. The Briscoes made both their pins off Strong, retaining the belt. Rating out of 10 - generous 6.

ROH World Championship Match, Austin Aries vs Nigel McGuinness - Aries has worked TNA a few times and never seemed to be able to quite fit into the TNA way of working. For a main event and the main title this thing started REALLY slowly! In fact most of the match was slow, blooding McGuinness early on didn't seem to serve much purpose. Both guys worked very slowly indeed. I thought Aries left TNA because he found the matches too slow and here I find him wrestling on the mat as slowly as a Jap would. This match was pretty much utter s**t apart from the last 5 minutes or so. The incredibly weak and lame finish came off a jawbreaker clothesline. McGuinness took the win and retained the belt. Rating out of 10 - an overly generous 5.

The 2 title matches were pretty c**p to be honest. If TNA were looking for new talent I'd be happy for them to hire ANYONE from the 1st 4 matches. Aries looked worse here than he ever did in TNA. The Briscoe's looked better at the "Man Up" PPV last year. Out of a card of 8 matches, 3 were excellent but sadly they all came at the start. The card died with the 1st grudge match and pretty much stayed that way.