Pro Wrestling Chronicle

The last one in a while in case I miss any more live tapings, as Bryan Danielson has his second-to-final HDNet match and some other people debut.

As one would expect, this week’s main event pitting Bryan Danielson & Roderick Strong (the one-time Hybrid Dolphins) against World Tag Team Champions Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards (the still-going American Wolves) was very good. Strike, wrestle, strike, wrestle, big moves aplenty. A couple cool moments took place within the wrestling realm. One saw Danielson butterfly Edwards while he had Strong in the half-crab, attempting to sink in Cattle Mutilation, but Richards grabbed his legs as they went over for the bridge and applied a Texas Cloverleaf. Another saw Strong have Edwards in a full-crab, and as Richards attempted break it up with a third and potentially more powerful kick, Danielson on the outside of the apron snagged Richards in a sleeper hold. It’s the little things that make it worth it. Also, Richards let out a genuine howl as he nailed a top rope dropkick; awesome, but I hope it’s not recurring. Ultimately, Strong tapped to Edwards’ half-crab/Achilles Lock after getting worked over throughout the match, not to mention getting hit low by Richards behind the ref’s back and a subsequent powerbomb/lungblower combo just prior to the submission. Danielson had been wiped out on the floor by a belt shot. In a bit of a surprise, before the main event, they announced Danielson’s final HDNet match (vs. Roderick Strong) would be airing next week (surprising in that it was on the third episode taped in that set). in the middle, we had Danielson’s third favorite ROH moment: his acclaimed first match with Morishima at “Manhattan Mayhem II” on 8/25/07. Perhaps it wouldn’t be a favorite moment for some if they had their retina detached as well, but Danielson said he took pride in wrestling through that.

So while all of the Danielson content was great, the opening angle wasn’t so much. Austin Aries opened the show, first talking about dynasties in football (the Steelers) and wrestling (himself, Danielson, Nigel McGuinness) and those who just won’t be able to achieve greatness, again in football (the Eagles) and wrestling (Tyler Black, Kenny Omega, Colt Cabana, and Strong). He then made note of Black mocking the A Double L Double “a few weeks ago” and requested his presence to prove it’s on the level. Black reluctantly obliged and was allowed to pull a piece of paper from the hat. Black pulled a blank (and long, and tattered looking) piece of paper, and Aries set it ablaze in Tyler’s face. Aries then skedaddled as refs and wrestlers attended to Black’s burning (“Ya burnt!”). This whole thing seemed to receive a very tepid live reaction, but the parties involved, and especially Mike Hogewood when they cut to the commentary team, sold it quite well. Of course, that’s about as good as saying a comedy bit on Raw was massively unfunny, but Michael Cole laughing during it helped it out.

The semi-main had Bobby Dempsey in a now-rare main show appearance taking on one of his former tormentors, Chris Hero. Dempsey was all man and stood up to him, but was done in by all of the elbows, finishing with a rolling one to the back of the head from what at first looked like a neckbreaker position. Hero dubbed it The Death Blow. Decent little match. Eddie Kingston came out the entrance and gave Hero his props, and then played some head games by saying that he should be more like Hero, all leading to Kingston using the loaded elbow pad he stole (and which Hero mentioned a few times as he went to the back).

A couple faces new to HDNet got some camera time. Jim Cornette cut his advertised backstage promo, talking about the trifecta of himself, the promotion, and the network, and how he knows wrestling inside and out. A nice teaser of things to come. Rasche Brown made his skullkrushing debut after two weeks of buildup, definitively krushing poor Sal Rinauro. This was taped early on during the set of tapings the next night, so a different looking crowd that included myself was shown here. Brown gave Rinauro a spinning military press that looked pretty awesome. A torture rack into a burning hammer into a teabagging pinfall finished this crowd-pleasing squash. A more refreshing debut was by The Super Smash Bros. (the masked Player Uno and the stupefying Player Dos), who took on Kevin Steen & El Generico in a fun opener (and a rematch from “Death Before Dishonor VII: Night 2″ to be discussed on BSWH soon). Prazak cracked a Coleco Vision joke toward Hogewood, but he retaliated in saying that he could probably take the SSB in Madden. Steen socked one to Uno during the match and did some mock jukin’ and jivin’, to which one ringside fan made mention of Punch-Out! (Probable Steve note: Guess that means Steen would be King Hippo). The SSB hit some good moves and double-teams, including a beauty of a hands-free dive over the top to the floor by Dos, but they were ultimately done in by Steen in the corner. Steenerico hit their combo finisher for the win and show respect to their fellow Canucks afterward, while Hogewood unleashes “Slap the porpoise!” en espanol.

The lone Kyle Durden interview had Prince Nana accepting the Beard vs. Beard Match for an injured Ernie Osiris, and taking much glee in Joey Ryan and himself (all three Embassy reps were here) putting an end to Grizzly Redwood whereas Ernie had some doubts.

A mighty fine episode this week. The main event was certainly the best match of these past three episodes, and next week’s main event is not to be missed. Full recaps of the next three episodes’ matches can be found here, while the happenings of the just-taped next six episodes can be found down the front page.