Ring of Honor TV Report
September 21, 2009
Taped August 14 in Philadelphia, Pa.
Report by Mike DeRosenroll, Torch ROH specialist

The show opened with Austin Aries making his ring entrance, accompanied by Kenny King and Rhett Titus. Aries announced that he was putting the names of twenty "elite" wrestlers in a hat and would draw the name of a challenger for a title match. He asked the fans which hat they wanted him to use, then used the opposite one. The first name he drew was Kenny Omega, but Aries announced that Omega was currently wrestling overseas, so he would have to draw again. The second name drawn was "The Littlest Lumberjack" Grizzly Redwood.

1 -- ROH World champion AUSTIN ARIES (w/Kenny King and Rhett Titus) vs. GRIZZLY REDWOOD -- ROH Title match

Dave Prazak mockingly compared this title match to World Title classics like Flair vs. Steamboat. Mike Hogwood complained that Aries probably did not have the names of any top competitors like Tyler Black in the hat. Aries started the match very lackadaisical, apparently expecting to dominate Redwood easily. Redwood took advantage of Aries' overconfidence to get a short spurt of offence, but Aries regained the advantage at 1:00 by blocking a running kick and hitting a clothesline. Aries played heel by pulling Redwood's beard, pulling his suspenders and going to the eyes. Redwood teased another comeback at 2:00, but prematurely went to the top rope, allowing Aries to throw him to the mat by the beard. Aries then hit a running drop kick-brain buster combination for the win.

WINNER: Austin Aries in 3:30 to retain the ROH World Title. Decent enhancement match for Aries. Redwood got to show some fighting spirit, but did not look like he was anywhere close to the champion's league.

After the match, Kyle Durden got in the ring and asked what was next for the champ. Aries called his match with Redwood a "match of the year candidate." He said he was feeling generous, and would pick another name from the hat in the future.

A video package aired hyping the ladder war scheduled for this weekend's live event in New York between the American Wolves and Kevin Steen and El Generico. The video package interspersed clips of the American Wolves talking about how brutal the match would be with highlights of both teams.

In the studio, Hogwood and Prazak introduced a video package on the feud between Chris Hero and Eddie Kingston. It was a mix of highlights interspersed with clips of both wrestlers taken from separate sit down interviews. They hyped their upcoming match at this weekend's live event in New York. Kingston, who is supposed to be the babyface, did a poor job of gaining babyface sympathy by resorting to sexist put-downs of Hero.

2 – ERICK STEVENS vs. BRANDON DAY

During the ring entrances, Prazak hyped this weekend's live events in Boston and New York. He mentioned that, in addition to the two matches just hyped, that it would be Bryan Danielson's final weekend in ROH and Bret Hart would be appearing. It is good to see ROH using their TV shows to hype live events. In the ring, Stevens started out strong but Day took the advantage at 1:00 by going to Stevens' eyes. Day then got a short spell of offence, but Stevens regained control by countering a body slam into a German suplex at 2:30. Stevens then hit a combination of high impact moves culminating in his doctor bomb finisher for the win.

WINNER: Erick Stevens in 3:00. Another in a run of good squash wins for Stevens. Day is close to Stevens's size and sold very well for him, making Stevens look very powerful. Stevens has been getting increasingly good reactions from the fans at the TV tapings.

A video package aired with clips from a sit down interview with Tyler Black interspersed with highlight clips. Black admitted that Nigel McGuinness had become a distraction for him, and added that he was grateful to Jerry Lynn for taking him under his wing to help him improve. It seems like ROH missed a chapter here. The last time we saw Lynn and Black they were fighting each other in the main event, and now Black is saying that he is Lynn's protege. This video package did not explain this very well.

Hogwood announced that, next week, Black and Lynn would face Kenny King and Rhett Titus in a tag team match.

Backstage, Kyle Durden interviewed Bryan Danielson, Roderick Strong, and KENTA - one of the teams in the six-man tag team main event. Danielson did all the talking and cut a good basic promo building up himself and his teammates. He said Strong chops harder than anyone in North America, KENTA kicks harder than anyone in the world, and that he is the best submission wrestler on the planet. Danielson said that tonight the fans would "see three of the best in six man tag team action." Good promo to have Danielson put over a couple of other babyfaces on his way out of the company

3 – JIMMY RAVE (w/Prince Nana and "Dirty" Ernie Osiris) vs. NECRO BUTCHER

Before the opening bell, Rave jumped Necro on the ring apron and the two began brawling around the outside. Necro got the advantage and threw Rave into the seats. Then Necro dismantled the steel ringside barricade and used it as a weapon against Rave. Hogwood had a funny call here, bemoaning how hard the ROH crew worked to put together those barricades.

After three minutes of outside-the-ring brawling, Necro finally threw Rave into the ring and Prazak said the match was now officially underway. At 1:00, Rave distracted the referee, allowing Osiris to cheap shot Necro ankle with a chair. Rave then locked in his heel hook submission hold, but Necro made it to the ropes. At 2:00, Rave charged Necro, enabling Necro to duck and flip Rave over the top rope and onto the steel barricade that Necro had used earlier as a weapon. The referee ran to the outside to attend to the injured Rave, so Nana and Osiris entered the ring. Nana provided a distraction while Osiris tried to sneak up behind Necro with a staple gun, but Necro noticed Osiris and tore the staple gun from his hand. Necro then tried to go after Nana with the staple gun, but Embassy tough guy Bison Smith ran out from the back to attack Necro from behind and save Nana from a stapling. Smith's attack caused the referee to disqualify Rave.

WINNER: Necro Butcher by DQ in 3:00. A well-executed short brawl. The match played to Necro Butcher's strengths, Rave sold really well for Necro, and the finish furthered the Necro Butcher-Embassy feud.

After the match, several jobbers ran out from the back to try to break up Smith and Necro. Necro looked strong by beating up several jobbers. Necro used the staple gun to clear the ring. The camera showed a close-up of Smith picking staples out of his stomach where Necro stapled him.

Heading into the commercial break, the announcers hyped the upcoming main event.

[Commercial Break]

A lengthy video package show highlights of the long-running feud between Brent Albright and Claudio Castagnoli.

Hogwood and Prazak announced that next week's main event would be a steel cage match between Albright and Castagnoli.

4 – THE AMERICAN WOLVES (DAVEY RICHARDS & EDDIE EDWARDS) & CHRIS HERO (w/Shane Hagadorn) vs. BRYAN DANIELSON & RODERICK STRONG & KENTA

Hero distinguished himself from his partners by being the only member of the heel team to shake hands, although KENTA would not shake Hero's hand because of his history with Hero. With Danielson on his way out of the promotion, Hero may be headed for a babyface turn. Danielson and Hero opened the match against Hero and the two exchanged chain wrestling and mat holds. Strong and KENTA each got to tag in for a short spell of offence in the early minutes, then Danielson tagged back in and spent the next few minutes taking on the heels one-at-a-time by himself. This allowed Danielson to bust out a lot of his trademark offence, much to the delight of the fans.

At 5:00, the heels finally managed to get the advantage over Danielson when the American Wolves illegally double-teamed him. The heels spent the next couple of minutes working Danielson over heel style, including some Irish whips into the steel barricades outside the ring. At 8:00, Danielson acrobatically landed on his feet when Richards attempted a German suplex, then hit Richards with a leg lariat and got to KENTA for the hot tag. KENTA's hard-hitting offensive outburst after the hot tag got an excellent crowd reaction. At 9:30, Richards managed to tag in a fresh Hero, and Hero and KENTA began beating the stuffing out of each other with a very stiff exchange of strikes. KENTA tagged in a very fresh Strong at 11:00, giving Strong a chance to display a lot of his trademark offence.

At 13:30, with Edwards now the legal man for the heel team, Strong cinched in his stronghold submission. Hero entered the ring to break up the submission attempt, which brought KENTA into the ring to go after Hero, and the action broke down with all six wrestlers getting involved. At 15:30, the babyface team hit the spot of the night when, in quick succession, each of the three babyfaces hit a different variant of a suplex off the top rope on one of the heels. The fighting moved to the outside, leaving Strong and Edwards, the legal men, alone in the ring again. They went at each of with a brutal strike exchange. Hagadorn's reactions on the outside were very good the way he cringed each time Strong chopped Edwards. The exchange culminated with Strong gaining the advantage and pinning Edwards with a Gibson driver.

WINNERS: Danielson, Strong, and KENTA in 17:00. Excellent tag match featuring hard-hitting, fast-paced, highly innovative action. Danielson was the highlight of the first third of the match, but then got out of the way to let KENTA and Strong shine toward the end. It was a good idea for ROH to get back to basics with a vintage ROH main event tag match like this after two consecutive weeks with tainted finishes in the TV main events.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for an "ROH TV Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. To contribute your thoughts on ROH, email to pwtorch@gmail.com using our Feedback form.

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