By Carl Evans

ROH TV Report.

Show opens with Hog and Praz reviewing the meltdown between American Dragon and Tyler Black.

Then its time to jump into the Delorian and kick it to 88mph so we can travel back to 1984 for the Flag match!

Brent Albright V. Claudio Castagnoli – Flag match.

*Rules are such: Wrestler must grab their flag from the entrance ramp and have both feet inside the ropes for the win to count.

*I hate the gimmick but lord knows you can’t prejudge anything in wrestling so here we go.

Match starts with Claud rushing to get flag early, the two work to the outside and Claudio takes a great gord buster on the small ramp for his troubles.

Some creative selling from Brent allows Claud to recover and get the upper hand on the all American. Claudio gets the flag first and it is a slow walk to the ring, with Claudio doing all in his power to make this as convincing as possible that he couldn’t just slip into the ring at any time with the flag, and you know what it’s passable.

Brent finally gets the old stars and bars after a belly to belly on Claudio on the outside. The two are doing only a handful of suplexes but since they are all on the outside this allows them to heavily sell the damage and thus creates a legitimate believability as to why they aren’t just flying back into the ring with their respective flags.

At one point Brent drops the American flag which is a legitimate  infraction of the United States codicil on treatment of the flag (I’m serious I looked it up) so technically Brent just committed a minor act of Treason according to a 1968 piece of legislation.

Anyway, so Claudio gets the U.S. flag, rubs his pits in it, and throws it to the crowd, which causes Brent to “snap”, and he ups the ante and goes after Claudio more intently.

**Side note I have hit mute at this point as Hog has almost distracted me from this match via a mind numbing commentary induced migraine.**

Anyway, so finish is Claudio and Brent jockeying on the ring apron with a turnbuckle between them. Claudio stuffs his flag in his pants and begins laying it on Brent. He gets the advantage and mounts the turnbuckle jumping into the ring, but just as Claudio jumps Brent brilliantly grabs the flag hanging from his pants and Claudio jumps in unaware he don’t have his flag. Brent mounts the turnbuckle and cross bodies the Swiss stud for the win. Winner Brent Albright.

And surprise of surprises these two men should get a heap of credit for taking a hokey gimmick match and creating a believable fine piece of match work, entertaining and intelligent, Tip ‘o’ da hat ta ya!

Interview time: Its Roderick Strong and Jay Briscoe talking trash and running down how the main event is their rubber match. This was about the most frustrating piece of mic work I’ve seen on ROH TV. Because Strong and Briscoe obviously can get it done in the ring but they essentially had nothing to really say and so they just sounded like jack asses arguing over beer drinking and madden...seriously that’s what they did.

WAIT! Do you smell it?....It smells like baked squash. Sugar Foot Shane’s music hits and my nasal cavity has not failed me.

Sugar Foot Shane Vs. D’Lo Brown

**They cut to a promo segment for Mr. Brown and he just shouts that he don’t need no promo they already know who he is! DAMN STRAIGHT!

As soon as the match starts crowd treats Shane to a “fuck em up D’lo, fuck em up” chant. After a smooth calf kick by the first ever Euro-Intercontinental champion and a Shining wizard the crowd certifies my suspicions as they chant. “Your a jobber (repeat x6)”. Anyway, this futile effort by Shane is completed with a sick nasty awesome power bomb. Winner via Pin D’Lo Brown.

Promo time: Eddie Kingston delivers the promo of the night; this guy is just rock and roll coolness. Seriously, he’s ripping on Chris Hero here and finishes with. “I’m not gonna stand here and say I’m gonna kill you, that’s just stupid. No, I’m just gonna cripple you.” BLAMMO!

It’s Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana and the Spokes model Brent Albright with mic duct taped to bare chest hilarious. So this Colt segment is just to shill merchandise but yay for getting Colt TV time.

We get hype up for Tyler Black Vs. Bryan Danielson in two weeks. In addition, actual video of Aries title win.

Six Man Tag.

A.Aries+R.Titus+K.King Vs. K.Omega+E.Stevens+J.Lynn

The match for the first ten minutes is allot of simple offensive dancing and back and forth work. Nothing too special. Moreover, the next five minutes are the same. They aren’t doing any specific psychology so this all just looks disjointed and well...boring.

First notable sequence happens when Lynn goes to Cradle drive Aries, King and Titus pull Aries legs down and out of nowhere Omega leapfrogs Lynn and hits stereo face busters on King and Titus wow. The awsome-osity of Omega continues to grow.

This match is weak sauce. Not bad, or sloppy, just nothing to it. Everyone is working hard but they aren’t gelling what so ever that’s a shame.

The finish comes so suddenly I had to rewind to watch it again. In a weird spot Stevens gets to working over Aries and Titus. Aries just bails out of the ring without being touched, Stevens does his slam into a clothesline thing, and it’s a three count. Winner Via pin: Stevens/Lynn/Omega.

*Note: This whole muscle power man gimmick of Stevens is just lame, he just doesn’t work it and thus it just doesn’t work. King, Titus, and Omega were the stars of this match. This was booked so Aries would try to avoid Lynn so we never really saw Aries get rolling, and Lynn looked two steps off tonight.

MAIN EVENT TIME!

Jay Briscoe Vs. Roderick Strong

Match opened up with excellent wrestling. Around the ten-minute mark, they kicked it into some awesome rasslin. They’re moving like champions tonight at a fantastic pace. Just fun to watch. Story of the match they are dead even and its anyone’s game, first mistake will cost em.

Each guys chest late into the match looks like ground round beef chuck. They’re doing a dosi doe 2 spot for 2 spots back and forth action here. The closing sequence begins with a rope dance; JB catches Strong off the ropes and hits DVD for a 2 count.  Strong fights back and nails a huge gut buster and then rolls Jay Briscoe straight into a Gibson driver.

That’s only a two count but these guys had the crowd on that one. Strong puts on the Boston crab then turns it into the Strong Hold. They make a great sell of Briscoe going for the ropes before he finally taps.

Winner Via Submission Roderick Strong.

Final Thoughts:

Tonight was a mixed bag.

A delightful surprise in the flag match as Brent and Claudio used great psychology to turn in a fine fun match.

D’lo continues to get better and better on TV. The six-man tag was a sad disappointment considering the embarrassment of riches in the ring.

Roderick Strong and Jay Briscoe created a superb performance of psychology and story telling with a great pace and just first class effort all around.

Again, I wonder if it’s just me but I remonstrate. Why are Hog and Praz allowed to call the matches? I’m not joking when I say that I would rather have Mark Madden or Bill Butler calling the matches. (Is Bill Butler too obscure?)

Good Night!

~Carl Evans~

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