Ring of Honor TV Report
February 22, 2010
Taped Jan. 9 in Philadelphia, Pa.
Episode #48 - Fifth episode of Series 8
Report by Mike DeRosenroll, Torch ROH specialist

STRENGTHS

- ROH finally followed up on the World Title change at the 8th Anniversary Show with a nice highlight package that made it seem like a very big deal and should help drive DVD sales of the show. I especially liked that the highlight package focused on Tyler Black’s post-match celebration while leaving the actual moment of victory to the imagination. This should have aired last week, but it was still good.

- ROH also did a nice job of using the highlight package from the 8th Anniversary Show to build up next week’s TV main event, a tag match pitting Black and Roderick Strong against former champ Austin Aries and Kenny King.

- The Briscoes and the Young Bucks delivered a great tag team title match in the main event.

- Kudos to Necro Butcher and Erick Stevens for delivering a crazy wild brawl to further their feud without resorting to dangerous head shots with chairs or other weapons.

WEAKNESSES

- Although the show furthered the El Generico-Kevin Steen storyline involving Colt Cabana and Steve Corino, I did not like that viewers were told to go to YouTube to see footage of Cabana’s backstage confrontation with Steen. If it was important, it should have aired on TV. If ROH feels they need to do this to drive viewers online, then a better solution would have been to air some highlights of the confrontation and tell viewers to go online to see the whole thing. Not airing any of the Steen-Cabana confrontation on TV left Corino’s response promo on Cabana hanging out there with no context within the show, and defined down the Steen-Generico feud as secondary to the feuds actually being shown in full on TV.

- It was jarring to see Tyler Black superkick Jim Cornette in the highlight package from the 8th Anniversary Show, then have Cornette appear in the very next segment and cut a promo without addressing getting superkicked by Black. This is poor storyline continuity.

DETAILED RECAP

- The show opened with highlights of the ring introductions for the Austin Aries-Tyler Black World Title match at the recent 8th Anniversary Show. A clip then aired of Jim Cornette on the ring apron before the match lecturing Aries to “fight early and fight hard” or the match would be decided by the judges. Aries immediately sneak attacked Black, the referee called for the bell, and the highlights from the opening moments of the match began airing. Mike Hogewood narrated “If you were not in New York City for the 8th Anniversary Show, you missed history.”

[Opening Theme]

1 – EL GENERICO vs. RHETT TITUS

During Generico’s ring entrance, Hogewood and Dave Prazak speculated on whether Generico’s mental state had improved since Kevin Steen turned on him at Final Battle 2009. The story of the match was Titus controlling the match with mat work and strikes because Generico’s head was not in the game. Generico got a couple of short bursts of offence when Titus angered him, such as by slapping him, but each of Generico’s offensive spells would end when he would lose focus again and make a mistake. At 7:00, Generico hit a half-nelson suplex for a near fall. Rather than follow up, Generico argued with the referee about the count, allowing Titus to catch him a surprise small package for the win.

WINNER: Titus in 7:00. Decent character-driven match. The crowd was really into Generico.

- Backstage, Kyle Durden interviewed Colt Cabana. Durden asked Cabana if his concern for Generico would affect him in his upcoming match. Cabana said that he would do his job in the ring, but that he is concerned about his friend Generico. Durden interrupted that they needed to cut to something happening outside.

- In the parking lot, Necro Butcher was calling out Erick Stevens. Necro grabbed some random guy by the scruff of the neck and told him to go tell Stevens to come out to the parking lot right now.

2 – COLT CABANA vs. BOBBY SHIELDS

Cabana easily toyed with Shields in the early going with his signature British-style chain wrestling and mat wrestling. A graphic aired on the screen saying that footage of Cabana confronting Kevin Steen about El Generico is available on ROH’s YouTube channel. Once he finished wearing Shields down, Cabana finished him with a butt butt-bionic elbow-Billy Goat’s Curse combination.

WINNER: Cabana in 2:00. Entertaining squash match in which Cabana projected his personality and built up the effectiveness of his offensive moves. This is needed for Cabana because his offensive arsenal is so unorthodox that his moves need to be shown putting people away in matches.

- After the match, Steve Corino came down the aisle with a microphone. He said “Just a warning my friend. Be careful who you stick up for.”

- Highlights aired of the brawl a few weeks ago between the Briscoes, the American Wolves and the Dark City Fight Club. Hogewood announced that, next week, the Wolves will face the Dark City Fight Club while, in tonight’s main event, the Briscoes will defend the ROH World Tag Team titles against the Young Bucks.

- Hogewood began hyping the upcoming footage from the Austin-Black title match at the 8th Anniversary Show, then stopped and said something was going on out in the parking lot.

- Out in the parking lot, Necro Butcher was beating up Ernesto Osiris of the Embassy. With Necro occupied, Erick Stevens and Prince Nana snuck up and attack Necro from behind. Nana’s anguished cry of concern for Osiris was hilarious. Meanwhile, Stevens and Necro brawled into the building and down the entrance ramp to the ringside area. A gaggle of referees ran down to try, ineffectively, to break them up. Necro punched out the timekeeper, grabbed a chair, and rammed Stevens in the gut with it. Stevens rolled into the ring selling the chair shot to his stomach when the action was interrupted by the commercial break.

[Commercial Break]

- Hogewood recapped the brawl between Necro Butcher and Erick Stevens, then introduced a video of what happened during the break. The video showed Stevens powerslamming Necro back first into a pile of chairs, then Eddie Kingston hit the ring to save Necro from a further beating.

- Match highlights aired from Aries-Black World Title match at the 8th Anniversary Show. A graphic noted that the show is coming soon to DVD and will be available at the ROH website. One highlight showed Kenny King on the ring apron, apparently to interfere or cause a distraction, but Roderick Strong then took out King with a running inziguri. The next clip showed Tyler Black superkicking Jim Cornette off the apron, although the reason why was unclear. The next clip showed Black going for his Phoenix splash finisher; the video stopped with Black in midair but the sound continued so you could hear the fans count “One-two-three” and the ring announcer announce the title change, but could not see it. Still photos of Black being presented with the title belt aired with the audio of the celebration. The final video clip showed the ring filled with babyface wrestlers carrying Black on their shoulders.

- Backstage, Durden interviewed Jim Cornette. He asked for Cornette’s reaction to the chaos out in the ring earlier. Cornette said Necro Butcher is crazy and he will deal with him later. Cornette then announced that, next week, Austin Aries and Kenny King will face Tyler Black and Roderick Strong in a tag match. He said “It’s going to be like smoking a cigar in an ammunition dump; it’s combustible.”

3 – ROH World Tag Team champions THE BRISCOES (JAY BRISCOE & MARK BRISCOE) vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (MATT JACKSON & NICK JACKSON) -- ROH Tag Title match

Mark and Matt started the match with a fast-paced exchange of back-and-forth chain and mat wrestling. They tagged out to Jay and Nick respectively, who got into a lucha-influenced exchange of arm drags and drop kicks. Nick tagged Matt back in, but Jay managed to get the upper hand at 2:30 by anticipating a charging move by Matt and catching him in the face with an elbow. From this point onward, the story of the match was the Briscoes dominating and beating down the Young Bucks, with the Young Bucks showing guts and fighting spirit to hang in despite the beat down. At 3:30, Matt made it to his corner to tag in Nick and the Bucks hit a couple of their signature high-flying double team moves, but the Briscoes quickly regained the advantage when Mark intervened to drag Matt out of the ring. Jay then used his power to catch Nick attempting some kind of crossbody and countered it with a hard spinebuster, then the Briscoes cut the ring in half and went to work beating down Nick with their signature offense.

The Bucks got a good crowd reaction when Nick finally made it to his corner for a hot tag to Matt at 8:00. Mark tried to come to Jay’s aid in the ring, but Nick knocked Mark off the apron with a superkick then followed up with a missile dive through the ropes to take out Mark on the floor. The Briscoes regained the advantage when Nick tagged back in and the Bucks tried for a catapult-style double team maneuver, but Jay anticipated the move, countered with a clothesline on Nick, then managed to reach Mark for a hot tag. Mark got a spell of offense, then tagged Jay back in and left the ring with a great running flip dive over the turnbuckle to wipe out Matt on the floor at 9:30.

Back in the ring, the Briscoes enjoyed another spell of offence on Nick. This built up a hot tag to Matt at 11:00. Matt and Mark exchanged high spots until 12:00, when Nick intervened to break up a pin attempt by Mark. This brought Jay into the ring to even things out, and all four men began exchanging stiff strikes. At 13:00, all four men landed superkicks on each other, causing all four to collapse in the ring. The fans chanted “This is awesome”. The Bucks recovered first and tried for their More Bang For Your Buck finisher on Mark, but Mark got his knees up with catch Nick coming down with his 450 splash, then crotched Matt in the top turnbuckle. This allowed Jay to make it to his feet, climb to the top and land a super neckbreaker on Matt. Mark went for the pin but Nick broke it up at 14:30. The finish came when Nick tried to take out Mark on the outside with a dive off the top rope but missed, allowing the Briscoes to hit the Doomsday Device to put away Matt.

WINNERS: The Briscoes in 15:30. Fans serenaded teams with a “That was awesome” chant followed by a “Thank you, Young Bucks” chant. This was an excellent, highly athletic, extremely well-executed match. It still could have used more time, though. The finishing sequence felt rushed and could have used the time to let the wrestlers sell the highspots more. Nevertheless, it was still a great match in the three-and-a-half to three-and-three-quarters star range.

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