Ring of Honor TV Report
September 28 2009
Taped August 14 in Philadelphia, Pa.
Report by Mike DeRosenroll, Torch ROH specialist

The show opened with Kenny King and Rhett Titus's ring entrance.

1 – KENNY KING & RHETT TITUS vs. TYLER BLACK & JERRY LYNN

Mike Hogwood and Dave Prazak reiterated the new storyline of Lynn taking Black under his wing. Black and Lynn easily dominated the first few minutes, making King and Titus look weak in comparison. The Philadelphia crowd continues to be split on Lynn; a lot of male voices persistently boo him while another group that sounds like it has more kids and women cheer him.
The heels gained an advantage at 5:00 when King interfered from the ring apron, distracting Lynn enough to allow Titus to hit a drop kick. They cut the ring in half and worked Lynn over heel style until Lynn made a comeback and reached Black for a hot tag at 8:00. Black got a flurry of offence, then tagged Lynn back in at 9:00 to set a nice double team backbreaker-leg drop on Titus for a near fall. The action broke down with all four wrestlers getting involved. The babyfaces hit stereo dives at 11:00. At 11:30, as King was trying to get back in the ring, Black charged him but King pulled the top rope down to send Black over the top to the floor. This left Lynn isolated against the heels. At 12:30, Lynn used his veteran savvy to get King to accidentally clothesline Titus. Black came back in to neutralize King while Lynn hit his cradle piledriver finisher on Titus.

WINNERS: Black and Lynn in 13:00. Average formulaic tag match. The portrayal of King and Titus as being so inferior to Black and Lynn did little to help either team. This was not as bad as Triple H squashing the Spirit Squad single-handedly since, in two-on-one situations, King and Titus were actually able to take the advantage from Lynn. However, King and Titus were not competitive at all when the odds were even, which is a waste of two talented young wrestlers. Black and Lynn gained little from beating them because their opponents came across so weak, and the match took too long to come across as a squash.

A video package aired hyping the main event cage match between Brent Albright and Claudio Castagnoli. The segment interspersed clips from an Albright sit-down interview with clips from the Albright-Castagnoli feud. Albright said you can't prepare for a cage match because in the end it comes down to who has the most heart. Decent promo by Albright, but it would have been good if he had talked about his issues with Castagnoli to reinforce why they had to settle them in a cage.

In the studio, Hogwood and Prazak hyped the cage match as one of the most violent matches in wrestling. Again, all the focus was on the violence of the match and not the issue between the wrestlers.

2 – NIKKI ROXX vs. SARA DEL REY

Roxx used to be known as Roxxi Laveaux in TNA. The fans greeted her with a "Roxy" chant. Roxx started well but, at 0:30, Del Rey dropped her with a combo kick out of nowhere. Del Rey worked Roxx over with hard strikes and power moves. Roxx did a good job rallying the fans for her comeback at 2:00. She set up Del Rey for her finisher at 3:00, but Del Rey avoided it and quickly nailed Roxx with her Royal butterfly finisher.

WINNER: Sara Del Rey in 3:00. Decent enhancement match to make Del Rey look strong. Roxx got enough offense to come across as respectable, and connected well with the fans.

A pre-taped Claudio Castagnoli promo aired. Castagnoli promised to beat Albright to a pulp. During the promo, a highlight aired of Castagnoli blowing his nose on the U.S. flag during his flag match with Albright in July. Good promo to better establish the personal issue at stake in the main event.

3 – "SUGARFOOT" ALEX PAYNE vs. SONJAY DUTT

The match started with a chain wrestling exchange and Payne came out on top. Prazak noted that despite Dutt's impressive resume, he had not been getting the job done in the ROH ring and really needed a win. Good use of commentary to give the match some significance. At 1:30, Payne gave Dutt a clean break on the ropes and Dutt hit him with a cheap shot to take control of the match. The fans really wanted to cheer Dutt and boo Payne, so Dutt used heel tactics like stomps in the corner and a long headlock to silence the cheers. Nevertheless, the fans booed Payne's babyface comeback at 2:30. Payne showed nice high-flying offence and cinched in an STF submission at 3:30, but Dutt made it to the ropes. Dutt turned the tables by avoiding a charge by Payne in the corner, then hit a springboard dropkick and finished Payne off with a camel clutch submission.

WINNER: Dutt in 4:30. Solid short TV match. Nice work by Dutt to keep himself heel despite the fans wanting to cheer him as the bigger name wrestler in the match.

Kyle Durden came to the ring and asked why Dutt's personality seemed to have changed since he was last in ROH. Dutt cut a rambling promo about his sideburns and losing his last match on HDNet to Delirious. Durden saved the segment with his confused reaction. Dutt announced that he would be facing Delirious next week and said he would pin him.

A video package aired showing Delirious and Daizee Haze taking judo training. The judo instructor kept throwing Delirious to the mat until Delirious got frustrated and started choking the instructor out with his judo belt. Nice bit of humor.

Hogwood hyped the cage match main event coming up after the commercial break.

[Commercial Break]

The camera showed referee Todd Sinclair inspecting the cage around the ring while Hogwood introduced a pre-taped Colt Cabana promo. Cabana said that while he may joke around a lot, he takes wrestling very seriously. However, he said he doesn't like to be mean unless he has to be. Just an okay promo.

Hogwood and Prazak hyped the Honor Rumble next week. Eight tag teams will be involved in a progressive entry battle royal, with a new team entering the ring every 90 seconds.

A pre-taped Nigel McGuinness promo aired. McGuinness said he was no longer about entertaining the fans, and that this was bad news for his opponents.

4 –BRENT ALBRIGHT vs. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI (w/Prince Nana and "Dirty" Ernie Osiris) -- STEEL CAGE MATCH

The match began with a strike exchange. Early on, both wrestlers kept trying to smash their opponent into the cage only to have these attempts blocked. The announcers talked up how physically devastating it would be to be thrown into the cage. Claudio kept trying to escape the cage every time he got the upper hand, but Albright kept stopping him. At 3:00, Albright stopped an attempt by Castagnoli to escape out the cage door and the struggle in the doorway gave Prince Nana an opening to slam the door on Albright's head. Albright began to bleed for the forehead. Castagnoli stopped trying to escape and began working over Albright heel style, including raking Albright's face across the cage.

The crowd was really into this match and urged Albright to make a comeback. Nana and Osiris were quite funny trying to shush the crowd. After teasing a couple of comebacks, Albright turned the tables at 7:30 by reversing Castagnoli head first into the cage. Castagnoli bled heavily from his head. Castagnoli tried to climb out of the cage at 9:30, but Albright caught him a German suplexed him off the top rope for a near fall. Albright tried to set up Castagnoli for a superplex in the corner, but Castagnoli knocked Albright off the turnbuckles and once again tried to climb out of the cage. Albright caught Castagnoli at the top of the cage and hit a super exploder from the top of the cage at 11:00, drawing a "Holy shit" chant from the crowd. Albright sold that he was hurt by the move as well, and was therefore slow to go for the cover, enabling Castagnoli to kick out at two.

At 12:00, Castagnoli reversed the momentum with low blow. At this point, he could have easily escaped the cage but instead asked Nana and Osiris to bring him a chair. Castagnoli laid the chair over Albright's head and went for a curb stomp, but Albright rolled away and nailed Castagnoli with a low blow of his own. With Castagnoli down selling the low blow, Albright blew snot on Castagnoli as revenge for Castagnoli blowing his nose on the U.S. flag a couple of months ago, then laid the chair on Castagnoli's head and hit the curb stomp for the win.

WINNER: Albright in 13:30. Good cage match. They had the fans really into it without going overboard with dangerous spots. It was great that they really sold it when the cage was used as a weapon. The curb stomp with the chair looked devastating but the replay showed that Castagnoli's shoulders took the brunt of the impact instead of his head, so it was good innovative way to incorporate a steel chair in the finish without unduly endangering Castagnoli. Overall, a good conclusion to the Albright-Castagnoli feud with the babyface going over strong in the end.

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.

We suggest these recent related articles...

PARKS'S WWE SMACKDOWN REPORT 10/8: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of Thursday show, including Roman Reigns & Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt & Braun Strowman

METZGER'S ROH TV REPORT 10/4 & 10/7: IWGP World champ Okada vs. Roderick Strong main event, plus Briscoes vs. Time Splitters, more from "Field of Honor," Overall Reax

MCMAHON'S TNA IMPACT REPORT 10/7: TNA Title Series kicks off, Bound for Glory fall-out, more; Overall Reax