Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Taped 5/29/09
Original Air Date 6/27/09

Maybe this would have been a more fitting article title when detailing the episode that will actually have the big Claudio Castagnoli-Brent Albright Flag Match, but as we learned towards the end of the show, it’ll be pre-empted next week! That epic jingoistic battle, along with Jerry Lynn and the Super Friends (Kenny Omega & Erick Stevens) vs. The A-Double Entourage and presumably Roderick Strong vs. Jay Briscoe, won’t be airing until July 11th, while the actual July 4th holiday programming on HDNet will apparently consist of a bunch of random broads not associated with the YRR.

Nevertheless, the seeds for international bragging rights were planted, first by Claudio issuing the challenge backstage while having Kyle Durden holding up his much smaller flag of Switzerland (complete with soccer insignia). Later on, after Albright used his power to thwart Ernie Osiris and his odors, he accepted the challenge before what was obviously a different crowd (a redone promo held during the pre-show of the May 30th tapings).

All that aside, I thought this was a very good episode, and re-watching the action here made me remember how much better these May tapings were compared to the recent June tapings. Opener was the Fight Without Honor that was thankfully promoted in advance last week (the show pretty much goes straight to the intros for this one) with the street-fight ready Jimmy Jacobs (who sends Brodie Lee and MsChif to the back during his entrance) against former crony Delirious, once again sporting his Red Poison/Wolfpac getup. A very fun and well-built brawl using minimal plunder (a table, a chair, the spike, the guardrails, and their mitts), the two pleased the table-hungry crowd with Jacobs being put through it with a Shadows Over Hell from the top to the floor. Delirious closed the book on this feud for TV audiences as he did for live event/DVD audiences with his Markham Street Fight against Jacobs (in which he was also down with the Wolfpac based on clips shown last week). I was so happy to see the cameras stay on Jacobs for his Extremo Emo antics post-match, presumably leading to the doom and gloom he met at this past weekend’s midwest events.

Our main event, in another followup from that Markham show, was The American Wolves defending the World Tag Team Titles against Tyler Black & Bryan Danielson. The champs promised to put an end to “Ringo Starr & Jesus Christ,” the challengers promised to take the titles and become a successful tag team without being best friends, and Nigel McGuinness – ever the meddlesome wanker – assumed Black & Danielson didn’t actually trust one another and told them so in person before the match started. The two teams had a very good match of championship caliber, including a nice nearfall towards the end where Black hit the Buckle Bomb/superkick combo on Richards while Edwards was stuck in a Danielson triangle. Ultimately, the challengers were undone by some miscommunication caused by the Wolves. Edwards got on the ring apron, Danielson went to hit him, shaking the ropes and tripping up Black as he attempted to hit the Phoenix Splash on Richards. The babyfaces bicker, leading to a schoolboy pin on Black by Richards to end the match, as well as a post-match blowup by the opponents-turned-partners-turned-opponents, setting up an excellent TV main event in the pipeline.

The announcers plugged this as an episode heavy on tag team action, not only for the main event, but for the ROH debut (both on TV and in general) for the The Young Bucks of Matt & Nick Jackson. John Philapavage remarked how these two are an amalgam of the 80s-era Rockers and 90s-era Hardy Boys, and sure enough, when they cut a backstage promo, they sounded like an odd mix of Shawn Michaels and Matt Hardy. I thought Dr. Moreau was dead! I’m actually reminded of a TV segment on ECW last year, in which John Morrison & The Miz, as a buildup to a big Raw match against DX, invite out the Brothers Jackson, hired to impersonate Michaels & Triple H and get their asses kicked by Miz & Morrison. Nevertheless, the Bucks were themselves here, monstrously over with the crowd thanks to their west coast reputation and afterward with their moves, and they made fairly quick work of the fashion-challenged duo of former ROH Tag Team Champion Sal Rinauro and the also-new-to-TV Brandon Day (a fixture of the pre-shows at these tapings). In a nice piece of foresight, the Dark City Fight Club get a quick highlight video while they’re absent from this set of shows.

Last piece of significance was actual video footage of Austin Aries winning the World Title in New York City two weeks ago. I certainly doesn’t hurt to continue telling the TV audience that there is a new World Champion, plus the sue of video footage is far better than just the photos we got last week. Also, we get a presumable post-match promo from that night, with Aries telling Durden how he did what he set out to do. He remarked how his grandmother always told him not to toot his own horn and that nobody likes a braggard, “but Grandma’s dead, so Toot Toot.” He then puts over his second title reign as a reason for us to call our cable providers and order HDNet if we don’t have it. Aries remains The Fucking Man.

This episode is a keeper.