Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Nigel McGuinness feels the Boom Boom in his final HDNet match. See you on another channel, brother.

As the man who says that we can call him Wolfe mucks around the Impact Zone, we get an episode of Ring of Honor where Nigel McGuinness is the subject of “rumors.” From the start, Dave Prazak said that the word on the “interweb” is Nigel might be leaving. Mike Hogewood didn’t get the joke, so Prazak questioned whether he still used Prodigy. I laughed. Later on in the main event, Prazak continued talking about these rumors as the fans gave Nigel the “Sorry to see you go, thanks for everything” warm reception. Nigel’s match with Colt Cabana was pretty good stuff, with a lot of limb work, a Flying Asshole across the outside apron, and a shitty landing for Colt when he went for the moonsault to the outside. Cabana picked up the win with a variation on the Colt 45 (which started out looking like he was going for the Gringo Killer), and the fans show even more respect to the departing Nigel.

Nigel’s other contribution during the show was butting in as Tyler Black talked about Jerry Lynn (he’s resting up and convalescing) and how his injury wasn’t his fault. Nigel called bullshit on this, and even said the ROH World Title is cursed since you get injured after you win it. Not as bad as, say, Entry #27 in the Royal Rumble. Black was undeterred and vowed to still win the title. In other Lynn news, Killer Kenny King did a brief sitdown promo and said how it’s a young man’s game, so he’s not sorry Lynn didn’t know when to quit.

The opening match was The Briscoes vs. The Young Bucks, which took place before the already-announced matches between the two teams in Dayton and Manhattan. Like the main event, it was pretty good but nothing blow-away. The action built up as it went along, and Jay was about to get More Bang For His Buck, but the Dark City Fight Club ran in to beat up the Bucks. The Briscoes get at them like rabid dogs, and the Bucks join in to chase them off. The match ended in an unfortunate No Contest, but it was a nice teaser for their later matches on DVD.

The other two matches weren’t as newsworthy. Rhett Titus, the new Fat Chick Thriller tonight, beat Alex Payne with a handful of trunks. Not as bad as I had heard, but nobody cared. The highlight was Prazak dubbing Titus’ Razor’s Edge “The Taintalizer.” Afterward, Claudio Castagnoli defeated Grizzly Redwood in a match pitting Carnival Strongman vs. Sideshow Dwarf. Gorilla press, hands-free airplane spin, an extremely European Uppercut, and the mother of all Ricola Bombs to end it. Prince Nana and Ernie Osiris, out ringside for the match attempted to cut off some of Grizzly’s beard afterward, but Necro Butcher chased them off. Prazak speculated about the eventual Beard vs. Beard Match.

Bryan Danielson’s #4 moment was his 2007 Match of the Year with Nigel, taped 6/9/07 in Philadelphia for the “Driven” PPV. His focus was busting himself open on that ramming headbutt spot, then going to the hospital with Jimmy Rave afterward. In hyping next week’s match between Danielson & Roderick Strong and The American Wolves, Kyle Durden came off as a bigger asshole than both Richards and Edwards in constantly harping about being in a match with the departing Danielson. The Wolves were still great here. Also great was Rasche Brown’s latest promo, despite the subject matter – fighting seven guys and plucking out thirteen eyeballs – being as preposterous as his last one. They also showed footage from Glory By Honor VIII – spots from Ladder War II before they made impact, Jim Cornette returning and cracking a Vince Russo joke, Nigel and Danielson’s entrances – and a teaser of Jim Cornette cutting a promo next week.

The episode overall was okay. As I wrote this recap, I was watching two episodes of the truTV show “All Worked Up,” featuring ROH’s Head of Security Zach Yeager dealing with shlubs at the HDNet tapings. Zach’s story in the first episode this week, throwing out an obnoxious fan who came back with a bat and a friend that claimed to have MMA training, seemed to be more truth that truTV boasts. I’m willing to buy the second story, where he focused on the two ticking timebomb types in blue wife-beaters but ended up throwing out a fat drunk that jumped the rail, if only because those two idiots keep showing up and doing the same act. They’re either that dumb (but not dumb enough to go overboard), or pretty good workers. I wasn’t the least bit crazy about the perception these episodes gave of how nearly everybody at the show is an animal. Zach kind of helped perpetrate it, but did put just a little more focus on the drinkers. This marked the second c-grade cable channel where I’ve seen my face.