Colin Delaney vs.
Mark Briscoe: Delaney is another guy from ESW, my hometown indy promotion.
He starts off with punching, Mark gets a fireman’s carry and starts working the
arm. Delaney gets loose pretty easily but runs into a powerbomb, Mark hits a
belly-to-belly and Delaney bails to the outside. Mark follows with a dropkick
through the ropes and throws a chair into the ring, but it never comes into play
(Corino: “That should be a DQ!” Kelly: “You think everything should be a DQ”). Mark
suplexes Delaney onto the apron and sends him to the barricade, then tosses him
back in and hits a vertical suplex for 2. Delaney makes a brief comeback with a
kick to the face and a neckbreaker, but he runs into an elbow on a blind charge.
He’s still able to hit a dropkick and some more punches, but Mark reverses a
suplex and the redneck kung-fu sends Delaney to the apron. Delaney gets a kick
and a totally unnecessary skin-the-cat into an elbow drop. That was just silly.
Another blind charge from Delaney goes as well as the first one, and after some
more redneck kung-fu a rolling fireman’s carry and the froggy elbow finish it
for Mark at 5:45. Only entertaining thing here was the commentary. *, just a
squash (as is usually the case with these non-roster guys) and Delaney was
having an off night. Either that or I just find him more fun to watch when I’ve
had 4 or 5 $2 beers at the ESW shows.
Mark Briscoe is still in the ring when we return from
commercial, and Jay Briscoe and Nigel McGuiness are also out. Nigel makes Jay vs.
Mark at Best in the Word official, and the American Wolves make their way out
but say nothing of note. Steve Corino gets in the ring and gets in Nigel’s face
before announcing that Matt Hardy will face the ROH champ at the TV tapings the
next night. Jay takes a swing at Corino but he ducks and Davey Richards takes
it instead and the Wolves start brawling with the Briscoes while Corino gets
the hell out of there. The stooges break it up and Michael Elgin stands in the
isle looking all mean and stuff.
Veda Scott is in the back with… no one, and she cuts a promo
on MsChif.
Cherry Bomb vs.
MsChif: Kelly (now flying solo again) talks about MsChif technically being
undefeated, and between that and the Veda promo I’m sure you can guess how this
one will end. MsChif goes low off the Code of Honor (does that even work on
women?) and punches away, then throws some loose ass chops. Cherry gets a
headscissors (with MsChif clearly doing all the work) and a drop toehold. She
gets a couple rollups for 2 and throws some armdrags, but MsChif blocks the
last one and hits some clotheslines. She ties Cherry in the ropes and hooks the
camel clutch, giving us a nice peek down Cherry’s shirt. Some guy in the crowd
tries to start a chant that I can’t decipher, but the rest of the crowd is
dead. MsChif hits a pretty decent powerbomb, but takes too long to follow up and
walks into a jawbreaker. It doesn’t help Cherry, as MsChif hits her Fameasser variation
thing for 2. Gutbuster for 2, Cherry rolls it into some sort of submission move
and MsChif makes the ropes. She gets nothing on a blind charge and MsChif
throws knees in the corner. MsChif goes low again… and sure enough, here’s Veda
to distract her, a missile dropkick and the Death Valley Driver end MsChif’s
undefeated streak at 5:49. As far as women’s wrestling goes I’ve certainly seen
worse. *1/2, the effort was there and it wasn't sloppy, and when it comes to the ladies that’s all I
really ask for.
Inside ROH: Just
hype for upcoming house shows and the upcoming PPV. Kevin Steen interrupts
McGuiness while he’s on hype duty, and to prove he’s no longer with S.C.U.M. he
asks for a 1-on-1 match with all of them.
Roderick Strong vs.
Taiji Ishimori: McGuiness is on commentary for this one. Ishimori (who the
crowd chants for before we get started) is the GHC junior champ, but the title
isn’t on the line here and he’s not carrying the belt. Arm-based chain
wrestling to start, Ishimori hits a dropkick and Strong bails to the floor. He
eats another dropkick as he tries to get back into the ring, Ishimori misses a
baseball slide and they fight on the floor. Strong tries to send Ishimori to
the barricade, but Taiji just decides not to run into it and fires back with an
elbow. Not running into a steel guardrail at full speed, I wonder why other
wrestlers don’t try that… Ishimori goes for a moonsault, but Strong is right
there before he can even get to the top and they slug it out on the apron before
Strong drops him back-first on the edge of the ring. Strong continues the assault
on the floor as we head to break.
We return with Strong pounding away in the corner and
hitting a backbreaker for 2. He goes for the sleeper, Ishimori gets free but a
knee to the back sends him right back down. Strong starts working the back, and
that burns some time. Ishimori reverses a powerbomb into a DDT and hits a nice
handspring spinning kick that sends Strong to the floor again. Ishimori follows
with a SWEET somersault dive to a huge pop from the crowd. Back in the ring he
hits a double stomp for 2, he goes upstairs but Strong nails him with an
enziguri. Ishimori blocks the superplex and comes off the top with a move that
ends with him basically teabagging Strong for 2. Strong comes back with another
backbreaker and a high knee, a pumphandle suplex gets 2. Another backbreaker
leads to the Stronghold, Ishimori makes the ropes. Ishimori gets a DVD for 2,
he tries a tombstone that Strong reverses, so Ishimori reverses that into a
facecrusher. Shining Wizard gets 2, he tries the 450 but Strong rolls out of the
way, Ishimori lands on his feet but takes the double-knee gutbuster for 2. He
tries a powerbomb, Ishimori reverses it into a nasty rana for a 2.9 count. The
crowd is going nuts as a forearm battle breaks out, Strong goes for the
double-knee backbreaker but Ishimori gets loose and throws kicks, he goes for
the 450 again and Strong catches him on the top rope. Ishimori drops him on the
top turnbuckle and a gorgeous 450 ends it at 14:51 shown. Crowd chants “That
was awesome!”, and this is one of those times where I have to agree. ****, I
liked this better than Ishimori’s match with Edwards thanks to the fact that
they were actually selling stuff and it wasn’t just a random collection of
highspots. Why the fuck does Ishimori have to go back to Japan?
The main was great (second best TV match I’ve seen
this year after Punk/Cena from Raw), the rest was totally forgettable. Next
week: matches to see who will face the TV and Tag Team champs at the PPV.