Ring of Honor TV Report
October 26, 2009
Taped September 10 in Philadelphia, Pa.
Episode #31 - First episode of Series Six
Report by Mike DeRosenroll, Torch ROH specialist

Opening Thoughts

- The in-ring action this week was not up to ROH's usual high standards. The opening four-way was an uncharacteristic spotfest, and the Albright-Brown and King-Kingston matches were good but not great. The show lacked that one standout match the most shows have.

- The show did a good job of following up on last week's Jerry Lynn injury angle and using the angle to elevate Kenny King. Unfortunately, Tyler Black's reaction to King's actions made him look weak for not going after King himself.

- After failing last week to hype anything on this week's show, ROH corrected course this week by hyping the main events for the next two weeks worth of shows.

Detailed Show Recap

- The show opened with a video package recapping last week's injury angle where Kenny King injured Jerry Lynn with a post-match pile driver.

- In the arena, ROH World Champion Austin Aries and Kenny King entered to Aries's ring entrance. There is a new entrance set with some video screens. The announcers continued to sell the Lynn injury. Aries cut a promo bragging about defeating "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson in last week's main event. He said that by beating the best wrestler in the world, he proved he is the greatest man who ever lived. Aries handed the mic to King, who bragged about injuring Lynn last week.

Tyler Black's music played and Black came out a stood in the aisleway. He announced that he was taking a page from Aries' book by having a lottery to decide who would get to face Kenny King in the main event. Black said that many of the wrestlers in the locker room wanted a shot at King to get revenge for what he did to Lynn, and he had all their names in a hat. Dave Prazak called this gimmick infringement. Black drew the name of Eddie Kingston. Prazak asked who made Tyler Black the match maker.

Aries and King's promos were fine, but Black's fell flat. As Lynn's storyline protege, Black did not seem angry enough at King given how much the announcers have been selling Lynn's injury. As a babyface, Black should want to go after King himself, not draw the name of another wrestler to do it for him. That is what heels do. I understand not giving away a Black-King match right away, but it would have been just as effective for the announcers to simply announce that King would face Kingston in the main event without making Black look weak in the process. Poor booking of Black.

- In the studio, Mike Hogwood and Dave Prazak announced that Jim Cornette has joined ROH as the new Executive Producer.

1 - DELIRIOUS vs. SONJAY DUTT vs. NECRO BUTCHER vs. JOEY RYAN (w/Prince Nana and "Dirty" Ernie Osiris) in a four-way match

During the ring entrances, video packages recapped the Delirious-Dutt feud and Necro's brawl two weeks ago with Bison Smith.

The match opened with Necro and Ryan brawling on the outside while Delirious and Dutt wrestled in the ring. At 1:30, Delirious had the advantage so Dutt rolled to the outside. Delirious went to the top rope and landed a suicide flip onto Dutt and Ryan. All three wrestlers got up from the move at about the same time, and Dutt and Ryan began double-teaming Delirious, so Delirious got no advantage from his big spot. At 2:30, Necro tried to get into the ring but Dutt caught him with a nice sunset flip power bomb from the ring apron to the floor. That had to be painful. Back in the ring, Dutt and Ryan worked over Delirious two-on-one while Necro sold the power bomb on the floor. At 5:00, Necro recovered enough to get back in the ring and clean house on the heels. Necro hit a Tiger Driver on Ryan at 5:30 but Dutt broke up Necro's pin attempt. Dutt got a nice offensive flurry on Necro. At 6:00, Dutt went for a splash on Necro from the top rope but Necro got his knees up to knock the wind out of Dutt. Delirious, who had been recovering from his earlier beat down outside the ring, opportunistically jumped in to hit a Panic Attack-Shadows Over Hell combo on Dutt for the win while Necro was occupied fighting Ryan.

WINNER: Delirious in 7:00. Just an okay match, as it was mostly just a TNA-style spotfest. It was well-executed by the wrestlers, but none of the big spots felt consequential. The finish gave Delirious his win back against Dutt to continue their feud.

- Hogwood threw to a pre-taped promo introducing a new wrestler, "Skullcrusher" Rasche Brown. Brown said "I care about nothing, I hate everything, and there's nothing better in life than to hurt a man and watch him squeal." Decent old school monster promo from Brown. He has a good look and could be a good monster heel to build up and feed to a babyface like Tyler Black down the line. Hogwood said that Brown would debut in a couple of weeks.

- Backstage, Kyle Durden interviewed Eddie Kingston about the upcoming main event. Kingston said that he should be getting amped up to face Kenny King but that he was not because he really wanted to get his hands on Chris Hero. This basically gave away that Kingston would be losing to King.

- Heading into the commercial break, Hogwood announced that Brent Albright would face D'Lo Brown after the break.

[Commercial Break]

- After the break, Hogwood announced that the main event in two weeks will be Bryan Danielson and Roderick Strong vs. The American Wolves. That should be a great match if they give it enough time.

- Next, Hogwood introduced a new feature counting down Bryan Danielson's five favorite moments in ROH. Number five on the countdown is Danielson's seventy-plus minute two-out-of-three falls match with Austin Aries at Testing the Limit in 2004. A video feature aired with Danielson talking about the match while highlights of it aired. This countdown is a good idea to draw attention to some of ROH's older shows and try to drive to extra DVD sales.

2 - BRENT ALBRIGHT vs. D'LO BROWN

During Brown's entrance, a pre-taped promo aired where Brown plugged his Twitter feed. Hogwood then plugged his Twitter feed. Noted Twitter-hater Derek Burgan had better not watch this.

Albright dominated Brown early and got some quick pin attempts, forcing Brown to bail out of the ring and collect himself. Albright quickly followed him outside and began beating Brown around the ring. At 1:00, Brown reversed an Irish whip attempt and sent Albright into the barricade to reverse the momentum. Brown methodically worked over Albright as the action went back-and-forth from the ring to the outside. At 6:00, Albright finally made a babyface comeback. Albright hit a powerslam for a near fall at 7:00. At 7:30, Albright charged Brown in the corner but Brown got his knees up drop Albright, followed by a springboard backflip off the second rope for a near fall. The continued to exchange big moves until Albright managed to counter a pin attempt, following a powerslam by Brown, into a crowbar for the submission win.

WINNER: Albright in 9:00. A good solid match. It was nothing special athletically, and the crowd was not really into it early on, but the wrestlers won them over and by the end they were loudly cheering the babyface Albright.

- Backstage, Durden interviewed Colt "Boom Boom" Cabana about wrestling Nigel McGuinness in next week's main event. Cabana basically he was excited to be a main eventer on TV, so Nigel had better watch out. Not Cabana's best mic work.

3 - KENNY KING vs. EDDIE KINGSTON

Early on, King used his speed and athleticism to avoid Kingston, much to Kingston's frustration. Kingston finally caught up to King on the outside, when King got cocky, and repeatedly whipped King into the ringside barricades. Back in the ring, Kingston continued to work over King with a mix of chops and power moves. King finally gained an advantage at 5:00 when Kingston charged him on the ropes but King dropped down and pulled the top rope down, sending Kingston crashing over to the top to the floor. King followed Kingston outside and pressed his advantage, then shifted the action back inside and worked over Kingston heel-style. Kingston mounted a comeback at 8:00 by reversing and Irish whip into a suplex. Kingston then laid a stiff beating on King. As Kingston set up for his spinning back fist finisher, King pulled the referee between himself and Kingston, causing Kingston to pull back to avoid knocking out the referee. The distraction allowed King to the Royal Flush for a near fall at 9:30. Now King got a nice flurry of offence, but Kingston regained the advantage a 10:00 by countering a King springboard crossbody into a suplex. With Kingston in command of the match, Chris Hero ran to ringside at 10:30, distracting Kingston and allowing King to hit a dropkick-Coronation combo for the win.

WINNER: King in 11:00. A good match, but not up to the usual standard of ROH TV main events. The fans were into both characters, but the match did not have enough time to build to a dramatic crescendo and the tainted finish was very predictable.

- As the show ended, Hogwood hyped next week's main event between Colt "Boom Boom" Cabana and Nigel McGuinness, as well as the main event two weeks from now between the American Wolves and Bryan Danielson and Roderick Strong.

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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