By James Caldwell, PWTorch.com assistant editor

Ring of Honor "Supercard of Honor" Report
April 3, 2009
Houston, Texas at George R. Brown Convention Center

We are live inside the GRB for ROH's debut in Texas. ROH has the crane camera for the DVD taping tonight. There are 1,600 available seats in Exhibit Hall B based on the set-up for the show. Looks like the place could fill up by the time the show gets started.

Post-Show Note: Talked to the building manager post-show. He said they shoe-horned 1,800 into the building by adding some additional seats. Great turn-out for ROH's first Texas show, although the audience was probably 50-65 percent out-of-town (or out-of-country).

Pre-show A: Team Sugarfoot Alex Payne beat Team Dirty Ernie Osiris in 6:00 with a huracanrana by Payne. Not the prettiest rana ever.

Pre-show B: Bushwacker Luke & Grizzly Redwood beat Don Juan & Andy in 5:00. Luke still doing his Bushwacker gimmick from WWE, trying to give the rub to Grizzly, who plays a similar comedy babyface character. Don Juan, a local Texas wrestler, took the majority of the offense from Luke and Grizzly. After a pre-show-quality mis-timed spot, Luke and Grizz set up the battering ram on Don Juan for the pin and the win.

Live Show

1 -- RHETT TITUS vs. ERICK STEVENS

First chant of the night: "Hepa-titus." ROH fans, don't let me down on keeping that chant alive at future ROH shows. Titus pre-started the match by putting his hand in his pants to avoid a Code of Honor handshake. Titus tried a leap frog, but Stevens caught him with a fallaway slam in mid-air. Titus made sure the thrust is a must with several head-to-crotch-butts in the corner followed by a leaping kick to cut off Stevens. Titus continued to work over Stevens until coming off the top and landing in Stevens's arms for an overhead suplex. Stevens with the choo-choo smash followed by a suplex into lariat for the pin and the win.

WINNER: Stevens at 6:46. Solid opener. Titus had plenty of offense and drew the crowd in with his antics to set up Stevens's comeback. Titus + Santino = Gold. (*3/4)

2 -- CHRIS HERO & EDDIE EDWARDS (w/Shane Hagadorn) & INCOGNITO vs. JAY BRISCOE & MAGNO & ROH tag team champion KEVIN STEEN

Steen tried to get an early attack on Hero and Edwards, who helped take out El Generico in recent storylines. Jay eventually calmed Steen down to get the match started. About two minutes into the match, Incognito tried to bounce off the top rope, but the top rope snapped right off the turnbuckles. Hero improvised by trying to choke the life out of Magno with the loose rope. Chaos broke out ringside, but they wrestled the rest of the match with one of the top ropes missing and the other ropes loose. Meanwhile, ROH president Cary Silkin left the ringside position to place a phone call for back-up.

Hero was in control, but Steen grabbed the loose turnbuckle and used it as a weapon on Hero to pop the crowd. Heels then went to work on Steen and the crowd died down. Could have gone to the finish after a few spots without the top rope, as the novelty of not having a top rope eventually turned into a deterence. Jay eventually got the hot tag and the crowd returned to life as he cleaned house. Pop of the night went to Magno, pulled off a tough springboard huracanrana from a wobbly second rope. Sweet. Magno then went up top on the only stable turnbuckle and pulled off a majestic moonsault onto the heels on the floor. Magno = English for match-saver. Back in the ring, Hero avoided another moonsault and nailed a discus forearm smash on Magno for the win.

WINNERS: Team Hero at 14:15. Well, that was memorable. Crazy rope-break spot led to Magno pulling off the spot combo of the century. Of course, he lost 30 seconds later, but it was about Magno wowing the crowd. Memorable match for one good and one not-so-good reason. (***1/4 bizarre stars)

Post-match: Half of the arena emptied out to the concession stands anticipating a lengthy ring crew intermission to fix the top rope. Even Grizzly Redwood was in there with a tool fixing the top rope. He actually fixed everything and made it all better. On with the show...

3 -- KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA vs. RODERICK STRONG

Strong ripped off some gun-shot-like chops in the early-going. Just sick. Nakajima came up with a very red chest before going on the attack with a boot to the head and a thrust kick. Suddenly, Chop Fest '96 broke out leading to Nakajima pulling out some sweet aerial strikes into a brainbuster for a nearfall that generated a crowd stomp. Great submission/counter exchange at 8:30 led to Chop Fest '97 until Nakajima busted out a series of martial arts strikes. Strong ducked a third, then went nuts on Nakajima with strikes until hitting the double underhook sit-out powerbomb for the pin. Amazing.

WINNER: Strong at 9:30. One of the best ten-minute matches I've ever seen. Amazing action. Sure beat anything from national TV in the last month. Hard-hitting, stiff, intense, and full of great counters and reversals. Strong showed up to play tonight. (***3/4)

4 -- BOBBY DEMPSEY vs. KAMALA (w/Shane Hagadorn and Kim Chee)

Surprise appearance by Kamala, who I heard about at the Booker T Fanfest earlier in the day. Not sure who's under the Kim Chee mask, but his gut rivaled Kamala's. Bell sounded and Kamala squashed Hagadorn in the corner. Apparenly he wasn't pleased with him as a managerial enhancement. Dempsey was sporting the moon and stars gimmick on his chest too, then Umaga's music hit and he celebrated with Dempsey. Um...yeah.

WINNER: Um...at 1:42. (n/a)

5 -- CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. ROH tag team champion EL GENERICO vs. BRENT ALBRIGHT vs. NWA World champion BLUE DEMON, JR. -- Four Corner Survival match

Early highspot by Generico, who flew over the top rope onto Claudio and nearly took Silkin with him. Suddenly, there was a loud crash on the floor out of the viewing area of the Torch press box. Generico and Claudio were the source, but they returned to the ring and picked up a mid-ring exchange. Blue Demon is built like a house, by the way. His heavy tanning compared to Generico's heavy paleness created quite the contrast. Right on cue, they had a mid-ring exchange of masked Luchadors before Demon nailed a suicide dive on the floor. Back in the ring, Albright shoved the ref out of frustration, so all eyes went to the ref, who didn't see Claudio cheat to win with a roll-up on Albright. Eh finish.

WINNER: Claudio at 9:16. Claudio's resurgence picked up some steam even with an anti-climatic finish. Match was okay, but not memorable. There just wasn't a sense of purpose to the proceedings, unfortunately. A masked pale man, a masked tanned man, a European, and TAFKA Gunner Scott. What can you get out of that? (*3/4)

6 -- ALEX KOSLOV vs. BRYAN DANIELSON

So Cal stand-out and Mexico superstar Koslov debuted in ROH with some odd music that turned into a heavy rap. Bryan Danielson didn't use his Final Countdown music, but a generic alt. rock jam. Crowd chanted, "You're going to get your f----- head kicked in," but the Russian Sensation pretended like he couldn't understand. Good heel work since he speaks perfect English. Koslov stalled early on, then they picked up some nice chain wrestling before standing off. Three Russian sympathizers picked up a chant leading to a small battle of "Let's go Russia / Russia sucks" chants. Koslov threw up the stop sign to set up his dance, but crowd didn't want to see dancing, so Danielson put him in a Mexican Surfboard after doing the Duggan "Hoo!"

Koslov took control at 9:00 with a suplex to the floor, then he put on his Siberian hat and did the folded-arms Russian dance with a kick strike combo for a nearfall that popped the crowd. So great. Danielson suddenly sprung to life and started an intense comeback. Suddenly, the fire alarm went off at 12:30 in the match. Houston Police Department informed us over the intercom that we should evacuate. No one heeded the warning. Match continued as Danielson hulked up Koslov. Danielson eventually put Koslov in his clutches for elbow strikes and Cattle Mutilation, which Koslov tapped out to.

WINNER: Danielson via submission at 15:15. Good match. Distracting at the end with a fire alarm going off right next to the Torch press box. Koslov was impressive in his ROH debut and Danielson gave him enough offense to give Kos some credibility with the audience in case of a future return. (**3/4)

[VERY LONG INTERMISSION. Apparently they needed to re-set the fire alarm.]

7 -- D-LO BROWN vs. COLT CABANA

Very sad not to get the Classic Colt Cabana entrance music. Instead, both men opted for some basic hip-hop jams. Pre-match, Brown refused a Code of Honor handshake to make sure we're aware he's working heel tonight. Future Endeavored I started with Cabana trying to get under Brown's skin, so Brown kicked him in the face and started a methodical attack on Colt. They had a mid-ring forearm exchange, then Brown ripped off the elbow pad and smashed Cabana in the face. Nice sequence.

Brown shot Cabana off to the ropes and Cabana suddenly pulled out a springboard moonsault for a two count. Didn't know he had that one in the moveset. Cabana applied an inverted Boston Crab and he thought Brown tapped, but ref said he escaped the submission. Battle moved to the floor, then back into the ring. In the interim, Brown pulled out a gimmick from his boot and waited for Cabana to attempt a top rope sledgehammer so he could crack him in the face. Brown then made the cover for the win.

WINNER: Brown at 11:00. Heel tactics from the 1980s just don't get over with a "smart" audience, as the crowd cheered for Brown winning. No one cared that Brown used the gimmick to secure victory. Too much damage via weapon shots, run-ins, DQs, etc. has been done the past 15 years for little things like that to matter to a wrestling audience. Match was a good house show match, but for the wrong audience. (**)

8 -- GHC Jr. Hvt. champion KENTA (w/Eddie Edwards) vs. DAVEY RICHARDS -- GHC Jr. Hvt. Title match

Mr. Rockstar KENTA came out to one of the only recognizable theme musics of the night to a strong reception. Let's get this on. KENTA was relentless early on, as he nailed an absolutely sick-looking knee strike to the jaw that put Davey face-first on the mat. Davey shook it off and nailed a kick to the face before antagonizing the fans on the front row in classic Davey Hothead Richards fashion. He even got a reaction out of the custodian waiting to clean up trash post-show. Custodian then made his way down to ringside for a closer look. In a matter of seconds, Davey took momentum and threw KENTA to the floor before firing off a rapid-fire suicide dive that landed him over the guardrail in the front row and probably in the lap of an unsespecting fan.

Back in the ring, Davey nailed a German suplex with bridge for a two count as the Custodian inched forward for another look. KENTA came right back with a double Yakuza kick into a basement dropkick for a close two count. KENTA then went up top for a sick double foot stomp to the chest that was just not right. Davey kicked out just before two, then he blocked a springboard rana into a Texas Cloverleaf. Apropos. KENTA escaped, then Strike Kick '98 broke out. After a period of each man no-selling, they landed double-stiff kicks and both men fell to the mat together. Huge cheer and a standing O from the crowd. "This is wrestling" chant was followed by another great exchange that ended with KENTA hitting a Tiger Suplex with a bridge for a two count. Goodness.

At 14:00, KENTA and Davey battled to the apron where KENTA suplexed him straight off the apron to the floor below. Sick. While we waited for the bodies to be collected, indy fans chanted, "F--- WrestleMania." Wait, how did a Mick Foley promo break out? Return to action with Custodian wiping his brow and returning to his work. Action picked up back in the ring with KENTA stiff-kicking Davey before nailing a double-foot dropkick for another two count. KENTA wanted G2S, but Davey countered into a Dragon screw into Texas Cloverleaf. Amazing finish exchange led to KENTA blocking a springboard back elbow with a reverse G2S attempt, but he couldn't execute it. Second try didn't work. KENTA then figured what the hey, I'll go a regular G2S for the pin and the win. Post-match: Davey shook KENTA's hand and said on the house mic: "That is what Ring of Honor is all about." Amen.

WINNER: KENTA at 18:32. Goodness, what an awesome match. Ending was off, unfortunately, but it only slightly detracted from an otherwise amazing performance from two of the great junior hvt. wrestlers in the world. If you like your action fast-paced, stiff, and amazing, then here you go. (****1/4)

9 -- JIMMY JACOBS & AUSTIN ARIES vs. AUSTIN ARIES & NECRO BUTCHER

Couldn't (re)store order before the opening bell, so Black flew over the top rope onto the heels to finally get some action going. Brawl moved to the floor ringside as men flew everywhere. Red Rooster (Jacobs) was being choked by Necro as Aries and Black made it into the ring for the official start of the match. Heels isolated Black for a while, taking their sweet time while working out their differences from their 2008 feud. Almost therapeutic. Suddenly, therapy turned into inter-fighting, as they exchanged right hand blows to give Necro time to make a tag. Match broke down into a bunch of spots that were hit or miss. So, they kept trying to throw more spots at the problem, including a throwaway bump where Jacobs and Necro fell off the apron through a table. Eventually, Aries with the brainbuster on Black for the win.

WINNERS: Aries & Black at 10:55. Match had very little chance of getting over following KENTA vs. Davey. Plus, trying to throw a bunch of spots at the issue didn't help. (*1/2)

10 -- ROH World champion NIGEL McGUINNESS vs. JERRY LYNN

Nigel came out sporting tape on his left shoulder to draw attention to the injury. Lynn went right after it, so the match story progressed with Nigel working over Lynn's left shoulder to return the favor. Crowd was tired by now as we approached the midnight hour and four hours of the show. Crowd started to rally and rally behind Lynn at 10:00. Not too many false finishes to this point and they're working a conservative match to protect Nigel's injury. They did a false finish on the count-out, as ref Sinclair reached 19 on Lynn just before he re-entered the ring.

At 15:00, the crowd was anticipating the finish as everyone was on their feet. It was a combination of waiting for the finish for the expected title change and wanting to go home after a very long, but very good show. Lynn hit the Cradle Piledriver fora two count at 16:00, then Nigel missed with two Rebound Lariats. He nailed the third, but Lynn kicked out when Nigel couldn't make an immediate cover. Crowd was really into Nigel at this point, showing appreciation for him as the title switch neared. Lynn then hit a second Cradle Piledriver and scored the three count to capture the ROH Title.

WINNER: Lynn at 19:03 to capture the ROH Title. Both men were determined to have a memorable ROH Title match to do the title switch and Nigel's amazing reign justice. The crowd was just so worn out the first ten minutes, so they kept pushing and pushing until the crowd was hanging on every move in the final four minutes out of a desire to see the finish, go home, and see the conclusion of Nigel's run. Nigel was Hogan going out at WrestleMania VI here. Excellent title match, but not the best match on the card. (***3/4)

Post-match: Crowd chanted "Thank you, Nigel." Lynn took the mic and said he's not really that great at these sorts of promos. He self-depreciated about some people not liking his work (boos from the crowd), but that drives him to succeed more. Lynn then handed the mic to Nigel for one send-off promo. Nigel did a babyface promo and thanked the audience for supporting the product. He told the fans to continue supporting ROH. Nigel bowed to two sides of the ring before leaving with a major sell of the injured left shoulder.

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