7/12 ROH on HD Net Review

We open with a recap of the Necro Butcher’s heel turn.

I think this was done extremely well. Necro’s story of struggling and having no health insurance tells a solid story as to why he decided he simply had to do what was best for him and his family. I like it, a lot. Then to give little Grizzly Redwood an upset win at the same time just ads to the fun of the entire angle. This was just done very well and is an example of why ROH is so much better than WWE and TNA. A good story line isn’t brain surgery!


I also think “Skull Crusher” could be a major face for ROH and that the direction they are going with him is a good one. Yes, he has “heel” written all over him but he’s one of those “cool heels” that people love. So instead of wasting time trying to make him a cocky bad ass they simply use his cool factor to appeal to the fans who clearly already are taken in by him. That said, feuding Necro with Skull Crusher is a natural move to get both guys over in their perspective roles. I am going to enjoy this a lot.


Opening segment sees Prince Nana and Ernesto Osiris come to the ring, instead of the typical ROH streamers we get toilet paper rolls. Nana proceeds to tell the audience they are taking a crap all over themselves because The Embassy is taking over! Nana goes on to say how loving, caring, and forgiving he is because he’s taking care of Necro Butcher. Out comes the new “Crown Jewel” of the Embassy The Necro Butcher, complete with his new foreign looking ring robe. Poor Bobby Beverly is surely in for a serious beating (lol). Hog and Dave (ROH announcers) point out the new Rolex Necro has courtesy of Nana (lol), and off we go with said beating. Typical Necro match with slaps, forearms, face rakes, and head buts. Of course all Necro’s matches are “Butchers Rules” (Hard core) matches, instituted by Jim Cornette when Necro was a crazy “face”. Something heel announcer Dave will praise and Hog will hate, the complete opposite of when he was face. Necro tosses Bobby out of the ring where Osiris and Nana take turns working him over. Necro has a  chair when Bobby returns to the ring hits him with it, then slams him on it. Big chops on Bevely followed by punches and a bulldog on to the chair leads to a two count and Necro lifts him off the matt. Osiris tosses a second chair in the ring and Necro choke slams him on it, picks him up and delivers his tiger driver on to the same chair for the win. They beat on Beverly and slam him down on top of two open chairs.

Typical Butcher match is what it is 2/5 stars…it was just a squash to get Necro’s new attitude over.Video of Jerry Lynn and Delirious’s issues with Austin Aries and The All Night Express (Rhett Titus and Kenny King). Good recap of a decent feud. Later tonight it’s Delirious, Jerry Lynn, and Tyler Black against Austin Aries, Kenny King, and Rhett Titus.We’ll also see Eddie Edwards debut the “10 minute hunt”. A very cool old school throwback where the TV champ Edwards calls anyone out to the ring that wants to challenge him. If they can last or defeat him in 10 minutes they will earn a shot of his TV title.

Edwards is escorted to the ring by Shane Hagadorn as streamers fly. Edwards on the mic as the crowd loudly chants “Eddie Edwards”. He welcomes us to his “10 minute hunt”. Can he find anyone worthy, the hunt must continue!”. The challengers this week is Andy Right Leg Ridge. Edwards asks what his name is and welcomes him, asking next where he is from. The answer (Stanton Island New York) gets loud boos from the ROH crowd. Edwards asks “on a serious note, are you a virgin” (what..lol). Right Leg answers no and Edwards asks what her name was. Ridge answers “Michelle” and Edwards responds “Is that the best you can come up with, followed by “You probably lasted longer with her than you will with me!” and the beat down begins. With a shot to the top of the head with the microphone.  A hard chop to the chest send Ridge to the canvas. Edwards then kicks Ridge in the face and just now removes his t-shirt tossing it in Ridge’s face. Another BIG chop to the chest as Ridge is against the ropes has the crows “awwwwing”. Ridge floats over a German suplex attempt and begins to get some serious “Right Leg” kicks off on Edwards chest. As well as a big clothes line in the corner. Edwards blocks one, carries him over the top rope and sinks in a leg lock on Ridge as he hangs over the top rope. The fight goes to the outside where Edwards stomps him against the barrier and tosses him back into the ring. Kick to the head by Edwards, followed by an attempted power bomb that Ridge again floats over and nails Edwards with another big right leg kick. Edwards blocks another kick attempt and clothes lines him hard, followed by a power bomb and Achilles lock for a tap out win with 6:58 left on the 10 minute clock.


Another squash, but it’s leading a a strong legit contender eventually. Edwards looked good so I’ll give 3/5 stars.


Back stage interviewer Kyle Durden has Aries, Titus, and King. Aries goes on about being a manager now but he realizes there’s going to be times he still has to wrestle. He gives a nice promo about taking King and Titus straight to the top (including a nice bust on Jim Cornette). King gets some mic time and does fairly well with it as does Titus about not being taken seriously.


Back to the ring with Jim Cornette who has granted Roderick Strong air time to tell us what’s us his mind. He hit’s the ring and introduces his new associate (manager) “Truth Martini”. I’ll  be honest, I don’t know anything about Martini but my honest opinion is that he looks like a dufus. He carries some kind of book around he calls the book of truth. The dust jacket has his picture on it of course. Look, I know Roderick needs a mouth piece, but is this the best they could do for him? Really? The looks like Weird Al’s stranger brother! He didn’t overly impress me on the mic either. Oh he’s better than Roderick but that’s not saying much. He calls himself a life intervention expert who was introduced to Roderick by the tag team Josh Raymond and Christian Able (which also isn’t saying much). Roderick looks like he’s going to laugh several times during this segment and I can’t blame him. This Martini is a joke! He recycles Jimmy Garvin’s old slogan “It’s not my fault”…great… I’m not writing any more about him, just trust me….ugh.


1/5 stars, get Roderick a legit manager please!


LOOOOONG recap of the Steen/Generico feud. Colt Cabana joining Generico and Steve Corino joins Steen in this battle, which is pretty good. If you’re not caught up with this six month feud this is a great clip to see.


Main event time.

Aries, King, and Titus make their way to the ring billed as “The All Night Express” Streamers fly.

Next come Delirious, Lynn, and Black and the fight starts before the ring announcer even finishes introducing them. Just a crazy brawl outside the ring that’s pretty hard for me to keep up with here. Finally King and Lynn get in the ring with Lynn dominating. Lyn gets a 2 count after a snap mare! Lyn tags in world champ Black with a double axe handle on King. Toss to the corner by Black followed by a big back body drop and cover for one. Black tags in Delirious who snap mares King and then hits him several times and begins to choke King with the tassels from his mask and hit’s a neck breaker.


King escapes and tags in Titus. Who gets some shots in but then is chopped several times my delirious followed by a chip elbow. Delirious tags in Lynn and tosses Titus into the corner head first and climbs the turnbuckle and pounds down on Titus. Titus rakes the eyes and tags in Aries who works over Lynn’s neck, but mouths off to the ref giving Lyn the chance to fight back tossing Aries to the corner. Aries reverses and sends Lynn’s head into the top buckle from the outside apron. Aries misses a clothesline and Lynn jumps from the second rope into a drop kick sending Aries off the apron onto the arena floor. The ref tries to restrain Lynn from going outside after Aries only to see King hit Lynn with a hard running clothesline. Black protests to the ref allowing Titus to come in and pound on the downed Lynn. He doesn’t tag but stays in the ring because the ref didn’t see.


Black continues to protest allowing the heels to keep working Lynn over in the corner. Titus performs a horrible monkey flip into an Aries fist (it was bad) and Aries tags in to claps Lynn’s ears. Aries locks Lynn’s legs to keep him from tagging and tags in King. King keeps Lynn down with stomps and then lays in a chin lock. Lyn begins to fight back but King snaps him back to the mat and tags in Titus and then prepare for a double back flip but instead Lynn stops and locks Titus in a neck breaker and King in a DDT at the same time. This allows Lynn to tag in Delirious just as Aries tags in to the match as well. Delirious goes wild because of how pumped he is to get his hands on Aries for how he’s treated his valet “Daizee Haze”.

Elbow smashes onto Aries head but as Delirious bounds into the ropes Titus and King pull the top rope down to send Delirious crashing to the floor where Titus smashes his head over and over against the outside barrier then slams him on the floor, then throwing him back to Aries in the ring he begins to choke Delirious until the count of four, tagging Titus in. Titus chokes Delirious against the top rope then ails a big drop kick. Delirious is side tracked going after Aries outside the ring even while getting beat by Titus who then tags in King to take over who covers and gets a count of two.

Aries is tagged back in and come off the top rope with a cop and then tags in Titus who comes off the top rope with a double axe handle followed by a boot to the face and a cover for a two count. Full nelson by Titus as Aries and King climb to the top only to see Delirious escape sending Titus into the ropes causing both Aries and King to crash to the floor. Lynn tags in fired up and beats Titus down including a rolling thunder eye poke (you had to see it), and a big scratch down the back too. Titus reverses a whip to the corner and charges to see Lynn hit him with a big boot and a bull dog for a cover for two. King and Aries try to double team Lynn but Black tags in and double clothes lines them as they bound off the rope with the intention of hitting Lynn. Black has Aries up and Lynn has King up both dropping them with TKO’s. Then Black and Lynn double team Titus with a TKO but Titus kicks out at two!

Lynn climbs one turnbuckle and Black another. King hit’s a jumping kick to Lynns head knocking him down and Aries knocks Black down in the other corner at the same time. Titus hit the “Super Sex Factor” on Lyn and bounds to the top of the opposite turn buckle. King picks Lynn up and delivers a back breaker holding him across his knee after hitting it preparing for Titus to nail him with an elbow but instead Black super kicks King and drop kicks Titus as he comes off the top rope. Delirious on the top rope now and hits “Shadows over Hell” on Titus but the count is broken up at two and a half by Aries. Aries then tosses Black out of the ring to then turn around and have Delirious in his face. Aries begs off and is pulled out of the ring by his partner King. Lyn hits Aries and Black with a sliding drop kick outside ring sending them into the barrier. Lynn and Delirious ascend opposite turnbuckles Lynn hit’s a flying clothesline on King and Delirious hit’s a flying body press on Aries on the outside!

The match ends in a double Count Out and a huge brawl ensues. Tyler Black is getting ready to fly out of the ring but the ref gets in the way. Suddenly Kevin Steen hit the ring and nails Black with his package pile driver as the crowd chants “Mr. Wrestling”. Steen gets in Blacks face (Stone Cold style) just before Delirious and Lyn run him off.


Pretty good match, with a great attack by Steen 3.5 stars/5 only because it was a double count out.


Pretty good show over all but nothing spectacular this week. Good build to current feuds though for sure!