Ring of Honor TV Report
August 31, 2009
Taped June 20 in Philadelphia, Pa.
Report by Mike DeRosenroll, Torch ROH specialist

From the studio, Mike Hogwood and Dave Prazak introduced the show and hyped the main event eight-man elimination tag team match between Team Cabana and The Embassy. They emphasized the novelty factor of Prince Nana, a manager, wrestling in the main event.

1- DELIRIOUS (with DAIZEE HAZE) vs. SONJAY DUTT

Dutt got a very short backstage promo just before coming to the ring. Prazak mentioned that Dutt wrestled in ROH in the early days of the promotion and has since wrestled around the world. After an early feeling-out phase, Dutt threw Delirious from the ring with a headscissors at 2:30 and then did his best Ric Flair strut. At 3:00, Dutt hit a neat variant of the 619 out on the floor. Back in the ring, Dutt dominated the next few minutes working heel-style until Delirious made a babyface comeback 6:30. At 7:00, Dutt showed great agility to land on his feet coming out of a German suplex attempt by Delirious.

They went back-and-forth for the next few minutes with Dutt busting out some nice high-flying moves and Delirious trying to set up Dutt for the cobra stretch. At 9:30, Delirious cinched in the cobra stretch, but Dutt got to the ropes to force a break. At 11:00, Delirious went for Shadows over Hell off the top rope but Dutt rolled out of the way. Then they began exchanging leverage pin attempts until Delirious got the better of the exchange and pinned Dutt clean. Afterwards, Dutt followed the Code of Honor by shaking Delirious' hand.

WINNER: Delirious in 11:30. Decent match with some great athleticism from Dutt, and Delirious doing a fine job as a babyface earning sympathy and then making a comeback, but the crowd was not really into it. This may be because Dutt's performance was confusing. He worked heel-style in the middle of the match, but his high-flying moves are bound to make fans want to cheer him. His following the Code of Honor left me completely confused about whether he is a face or a heel. (Hogwood and Prazak had some entertaining repartee on commentary in this match. They are really starting to develop some good chemistry.)

A pre-taped segment aired with Prince Nana giving his team a pep talk. He told them they were going get rid of all those "scum bags" and climb the ranks of "this stinking company." Great Nana promo.

A video package aired hyping the Young Bucks and the Briscoe Brothers as contenders in the tag team division. Hogwood announced that Briscoes will have a match on next week's show. This served as a nice transition to the tag champs' ring entrance.

2 - ROH tag team champions THE AMERICAN WOLVES (EDDIE EDWARDS & DAVEY RICHARDS) vs. CHEECH & CLOUDY -- non-title match

Cheech and Cloudy were already in the ring as the champs made their ring entrance. Hogwood and Prazak mentioned several teams that are legitimate contenders for the tag titles, but agreed that Cheech and Cloudy would be long shots against The Wolves. Cheech and Cloudy took an early advantage by hitting a double dropkick to send the champs to the outside, but then lost the advantage when they went for a double dive and missed. Hogwood reflected that Cheech and Cloudy have had some good moments in their matches, but Prazak said there is a difference between hitting impressive maneuvers and pulling out big wins.

Outside the ring, Edwards threw Cloudy hard into a ringside barricade. The Wolves then worked over Cheech with hard chops and clotheslines while the announcers recapped the Wolves' feud with Kevin Steen and El Generico. Cloudy made it back to the apron and Cheech made a hot tag at 1:30. Cloudy got a bit of offence in until The Wolves ganged up on him to regain the advantage. The landed a power bomb-lung blower combination, then Edwards quickly made Cloudy tap out to a half crab.

WINNERS: The American Wolves in 2:00. Nice enhancement match for the tag champs. Cheech and Cloudy made The Wolves look very strong without coming across as totally helpless themselves.

After the Wolves went to the back, the Dark City Fight Club hit the ring and hit their finisher on Cheech. These periodic run-ins are keeping the Dark City Fight Club in the mix in the tag team division while Jon Davis recovers from his injury.

A pre-taped segment aired with Colt Cabana giving a pep talk to his team. Cabana played it for laughs, and the funniest part was actually watching Brent Albright try not to laugh. This did not exactly set up the main event as a huge grudge match, but a little Cabana comedy is a nice change of pace in the show as long as they keep it short and sweet like they did here.

Hogwood hyped next week's main event between Tyler Black and Jerry Lynn, and added that Jerry Lynn would be interviewed after the commercial break.

[Commercial Break]

Coming back from commercials, they played a clip of last week's in-ring segment involving Tyler Black and Jerry Lynn. Next they played clips of Lynn talking about how important next week's match will be for his career and his respect for Tyler Black. The clips were from a sit down interview with Lynn, spliced together and presented UFC-style. This was a much better way to present Lynn than his in-ring promo last week, since it allowed Lynn to get his points across without last week's stiffness and awkwardness.

Hogwood did a nice job summing up the hype for next week's main event, emphasizing that Lynn really needs to win to get back into title contention while Black needs the win to keep his recent momentum going.

3 - ERICK STEVENS vs. SILAS YOUNG

Stevens got a good crowd reaction when he came out. He took an early advantage with some power moves, but Young reversed the momentum by going to Stevens' throat at 2:00. Stevens teased a comeback at 4:00 by impressively catching Young in midair as Young flew off the second rope, then nailing Young with a Samoa drop. However, Young regained the momentum with a roll-up followed by a knee to the gut. At 5:00, Stevens avoided Young's finishing sequence and landed a German suplex on Young to regain the advantage. After a choo-choo splash in the corner and a hard clothesline, Stevens landed the doctor bomb for the clean win.

WINNER: Erick Stevens in 6:00 minutes. Good solid short match. Young made Stevens look like a killer by really selling Stevens' arsenal of power moves. Young is not a small guy, but he bumped around like cruiserweight to make Stevens look extremely powerful. Good intensity from Stevens.

Backstage, Kyle Durden interviewed Eddie Kingston, who said that Chris Hero is avoiding him but that when they finally meet it will be an epic confrontation. Kingston's promo was decent on its own, but Durden lifted it a notch with his closing comment in which he simply said he was glad he was not Chris Hero. Like Hogwood, Durden has improved immensely since ROH first went on the air six months ago.

4 - THE EMBASSY (CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI & JIMMY RAVE & "DIRTY" ERNIE OSIRIS & PRINCE NANA) vs. TEAM CABANA (COLT CABANA & BRENT ALBRIGHT & NECRO BUTCHER & GRIZZLY REDWOOD)

Necro Butcher came out still wearing electrical tape on his ankle to sell the injury from Jimmy Rave's heel hook a few weeks ago. Grizzly Redwood came out barefoot, apparently not having been able to replace his boots since Ernie Osiris stole his last pair. The match started with a brawl, but Nana chickened out of the ring leaving the heels outnumbered and giving Team Cabana an early advantage. The Embassy took the advantage at 2:00 when Rave interfered from the outside against Redwood. The Littlest Lumberjack managed to tag out to Necro, but Castagnoli and Rave ganged up on Necro to keep the heels in control. At 3:30, the babyfaces did a hilarious abdominal stretch leverage spot where the entire babyface team and a bunch of fans in the front row all linked hands to help Necro apply extra pressure to Castagnoli's abdomen. Prazak's reaction was priceless, and the spot earned a "that was awesome" chant from the fans.

Team Cabana worked over Rave for a while until Osiris managed to tag himself in at 6:00 with a blind tag that Redwood missed. Rave bailed out to the floor at the babyfaces, still thinking Rave was the legal man for The Embassy took turns diving from the ring onto Rave. When it was Redwood's turn for a dive, when climbed the ropes but left his back turned to Osiris who attacked him from behind and pinned Redwood at 7:00. Now with a numerical advantage, The Embassy regained control of the match at worked over Cabana. Prince Nana got in a few cheap shots on Cabana but would not legally tag into the match at this point. At 10:00, Cabana got the hot tag to Albright, who came in and cleaned house. Albright hit Castagnoli with a missile dive through the top and middle ropes, sending Castagnoli over the guard rail and into the front row. Then Albright followed Castagnoli into the crowd. The brawled in the crowd and out of the building while the referee counted to twenty, eliminating them both from the match at 11:30.

Back in the ring, Necro began beating up Rave, but Osiris and Nana interfered to reverse the momentum. The took Necro outside and Rave held Necro's injured ankle against a chair while Osiris dove onto the ankle from the apron. This set up Rave's heel hook on Necro back in the ring to force Necro to submit at 13:00, leaving Cabana alone at a three-on-one disadvantage. Even with a three-on-one advantage, Nana would not tag into the match. Cabana managed to throw Rave to the outside, land the Colt 45 on Osiris and pin Osiris at 15:00 to reduce the disadvantage to two-on-one.

Rave and Cabana wrestled back and forth until Rave got the advantage and finally tagged in Nana, who took a few shots at Cabana and immediately tagged back out. Rave continued to work over Cabana but, at 17:30, Cabana countered a Rave spear attempt into a leverage pin out of nowhere to eliminate Rave. This left Nana alone with Cabana, who milked the cheers for a few moments before making short work of Nana with a flying butt butt in the corner and a quick submission.

WINNERS: Team Cabana in 18:30, with Cabana as the lone survivor. Not a typically serious ROH main event, but this was a fun match with some good storyline-driven moments and a nice feel-good ending with Cabana finally getting his hands on Prince Nana. Cabana came away looking strong as a result of getting all three eliminations for his team, not including the double count-out, which should help build his credibility as a title contender going forward.

Hogwood closed the show by hyping next week's match between the Briscoes and Rhett Titus and Kenny King, as well as the main event next week between Tyler Black and Jerry Lynn.

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