411’s ROH on HDNet Report 10.23.09: ROH World Title – Aries vs. Danielson (10.19.09)

Since I’ve started doing the 4 R’s for this show, I’ve decided to stop doing the match analysis, since I repeat a lot of it when writing in the 4 R’s. If you want more of my personal thoughts on the matches, you can check out the 4 R’s on Monday.

Tonight, Austin Aries defends his ROH World Title against Bryan Danielson. Mike Hogewood and Dave Prazak hype it up as two of the best, but we can also start the show off with a good match.

Jerry Lynn vs. Kenny King
Kenny mocks Lynn by pantomiming a walker. Very funny. Jerry gets a quick schoolboy for almost nothing. Kenny gets a knee to the gut and grabs a side headlock, Lynn throws him off but gets knocked down by a tackle. Kenny takes too much time and Jerry leapfrogs a second one and hits a hip block takeover. He hits an armdrag and shows a little fire by dropping knees on the arm before settling in the armbar. King goes to the hair and Lynn whips him, but Kenny stays on the ropes. Jerry slides between his legs and to the floor, and that baits Kenny into missing a pescado. Awesome. Jerry hits the hilo off the apron and throws Kenny inside. King hits a jawbreaker and follows up with the Randy Savage neck snap. He starts casually beating Lynn down and says “This is for you, Hog!”, in reference to the days when Mike covered his college football career. Lynn gets a flurry of chops and punches in the corner, but King shoves him off and hits the double knees for two. King hits a suplex and floats over into mounted forearms for two. He grabs an armbar, Lynn escapes with elbows but Kenny pulls him back down by his hair. King gets a two count after a spinning crescent kick and applies a chinlock. Lynn gets to his feet and puts the brakes on a second Savage neck snap attempt, and hits the guillotine legdrop as Kenny comes back in. Jerry hits a backdrop, ducks a second spin kick and hits the Thesz Press and unloads with right hands. Jerry misses an elbow in the corner but avoids a charging King and hits the springboard sunset flip powerbomb for two. Kenny avoids the Cradle Piledriver and the TKO, and hits a fireman’s carry into a uranage for two. Lynn avoids the Coronation and goes for the Cradle Piledriver, but Rhett Titus distracts Jerry and King backdrops him and holds the ropes for three.
Winner: Kenny King (via roll-up with ropes) **1/4

Jerry jumps Titus and we get a beatdown, they look to go for a spike piledriver but Jerry fights it off, HOLY SHIT that looked bad. Jerry Lynn is not moving….Okay, now I remember reading about this. That’s a legit injury on Lynn, and I’m surprised they kept that in. His hands and feet are moving. Neither Kyle Durdan nor Tyler Black have answers. Lynn is sitting up and they carry him to the back.

We go to a pre-taped interview with Bryan. He puts over Aries’ quickness, his strikes, the Brainbuster and the Last Chancery. The difference between Aries and him is that Aries has one submission and Bryan has twenty. Danielson can beat people a million ways, Aries can beat you in three or four ways. He’s looking for Aries to do any underhanded trick to win. But Bryan has worked on his cardio, he feels light on his feet, and he’s lighter than he’s been since he was seventeen. Tonight, Aries is in for the fight of his life.

Nigel “Desmond Wolf” McGuinness vs. Sal Rinauro
Sal is scared, but Nigel says that he’s not gonna injure him like what happened in the last match. Basic match, wristlocks, hammerlocks. He’s not going to appease the crowd tonight. They do just that and Sal gets a hammerlock, so Nigel elbows him in the hand and gets a more aggressive arm wringer. He tosses Sal overhead and backs him into the corner. Sal avoids the running European Uppercut by going to the floor. He grabs a mic and says that this wasn’t what they agreed upon. So Nigel holds the ropes open and Sal snaps his throat off the top rope. Brilliant. Sal hits a springboard crossbody for two and goes up top, Nigel wants the Tower of London. On the apron? Nope, not gonna do something to appease the audience. Sal tries a sunset flip for two, Nigel rolls through for two, and gets the London Dungeon for the submission.
Winner: Nigel McGuinness (via London Dungeon) 3/4*

Nigel says he doesn’t want to draw attention to what happened to Jerry Lynn, because he feels that he needs to. He feels like no one is listening to a word he’s saying. Lynn tried to appease the fans, and now he’s on a stretcher in the back, and we are ALL to blame. Almost a shoot there.

Aries says that Bryan’s “Best in the World” is a nice title, but Aries has a better title: “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived”. He says the Best in the World is only the Best until someone better comes along. Usually the best have the belts, but that’s what Aries has. As long as he sticks to his plan and doesn’t go into Danielson’s, everything will be fine.

Durdan tries to give us an update, but Kenny King comes out. He says that Jerry Lynn was a great athlete and a champion in his day. But the trouble with great athletes is they have trouble realizing when they aren’t so great anymore. Sometimes, they need “a little help” retiring.

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Colt Cabana
Claudio’s entrance is awesome. No handshake as Claudio gives him the scarf slap instead. This is a rematch of the first ROH match I ever watched. Both guys are still favorites of mine. They do some chain wrestling and Colt cartwheels out, but Claudio hits a hip block takeover for two. Claudio gets a long front facelock as Colt tries to avoid it, and they mess around a bit until Colt grabs a side headlock. Claudio counters with a very European headscissors. Colt counters and works his way into a surfboard stretch with his feet on Claudio’s back, and then he holds up Claudio with his feet and grabs a body scissors. Great spot. Claudio finally escapes but Cabana goes back to the headlock. Claudio instigates a slugfest and hits a European Uppercut. Claudio gets a series of counts off of a scoop slam and an elbow drop, and then applies a chinlock. Cabana escapes to a headlock and hits the ropes, but a headbutt to the gut brings him to his knees. Claudio follows up with a dead lift gutwrench suplex for two. Colt isn’t a cruiserweight by any means. Claudio applies an armbar, Colt escapes and gets a sunset flip to counter another headbutt attempt. Claudio avoids it and hits an elbow drop for two. Claudio applies a short shoulderlock. “That’s a genuine wrestling hold right there!”, as Nick Bockwinkel would say. Cabana escapes with a rolling kick to the head, but Claudio applies a chinlock. Colt escapes with another rolling kick to the ear and gets two off of a crossbody. We get a brilliant exchange of nearfalls between the two and Cabana traps him under a bridge while holding his wrists and gets the three count! Claudio claims Cabana pulled the tights, but no such thing happened.
Winner: Colt Cabana (via bridging pin) **3/4

We get a brief look at the Austin Aries Luck Lottery that ended up drawing Grizzly Redwood and Alex Payne. We get a look at Bryan interfering afterward, thus leading to this huge main event.

ROH World Championship Match: Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries ©
Aries is once again wearing his Skittle Sponsored Tights. The “You’re gonna get your fucking head kicked” chant picks up in force. They grapple and Aries gives a clean break in the corner. Greco-Roman Knucklelock and Bryan gets an armbar. Aries counters to a leglock and Bryan shoves him away. They fight over headlocks until Danielson hits a shoulder block. Aries does a quick leapfrog sequence and grounds Dragon with a pair of armdrags. Aries goes back to the headlock and starts pulling hair. Bryan tries to roll him up repeatedly, deliberately avoiding the headscissors counter, but he does apply it and leans in so Aries can’t get a vertical base. Aries goes for the dropkick but Bryan hits a mini piledriver and goes to a cross armbreaker. Austin escapes but Bryan counters a kick to the Ankle Lock. Aries goes to the ropes and then outside. Aries gets back inside and drops an elbow on the neck and applies a headlock again, but Bryan whips him to the ropes and does a leapfrog sequence before getting a dropkick. Aries goes outside and Bryan looks to go for a dive, Aries moves but Bryan saw that coming and slides on the apron before hitting a sick running knee. That’ll be over like rover in the WWE.

Bryan throws Aries inside and heads up top, but Austin climbs up and hits a jawbreaker that drops Bryan’s throat across the top rope. He hits a neckbreaker that brings Bryan back into the ring and covers for two, and then hits a European Uppercut to the back of the neck. NERVEHOLD! Bryan escapes but runs into a high velocity elbow. Aries applies a wrenching chinlock. Bryan escapes and grabs a sleeper, Aries escapes and applies his own sleeper, and Bryan hits a jawbreaker. YAY for Steamboat/Austin spots. Aries responds with a stiff kick to the back and applies a Dragon Sleeper. Bryan climbs up the turnbuckles and gets a sleeper. Aries tries to do the same thing and Bryan moves in and counters to a backdrop suplex. AWESOME.

Bryan starts throwing forearms and Aries reverses a whip, but Bryan ducks under him and hits a jawbreaker, and then drops him with a kick to the chest. He hits a kick to the midsection and one to the back, and looks to go for Cattle Mutilation, but Aries backs him into the corner. Aries hits a forearm and whips Danielson to the corner, but Bryan backflips out of it. He hits the ropes but Aries puts a stop to it with an elbow. Bryan goes to the floor and Aries goes for the heat seeking missile, but Bryan stops it with his own elbow. Now, I know it’s fake, but in character, did Bryan go to the floor intentionally to set that up? Bryan hits a missile dropkick back inside and knips up. Bryan hits a vicious forearm in the corner and a German Suplex for two. He goes for the Backdrop Superplex but Aries has it scouted and his some more elbows to the back of the head and then dumps Danielson to the floor. HEAT SEEKING MISSILE AND A BEAUTY!

Aries kisses the belt before throwing Bryan back in, and then hits a missile dropkick of his own. He also knips up and mocks Dragon. TRIANGLE CHOKE! He walked right into it. Bryan can’t get a firm grip and Aries hits a knee to the skull. He goes for the Brainbuster but Bryan hits a knee to the skull. He tries to pull Aries down for Cattle Mutilation, TRIANGLE CHOKE! Jeez, Danielson almost Ganzo Bombed himself doing that! Aries lifts him up, Bryan drops down, ANKLE LOCK! Aries has the ropes, Bryan pulls him back, Aries starts kicking at Bryan’s face, GRAPEVINE! More kicks to the skull force Danielson to break, but goodness that was close. They trade elbows from their knees, ROARING ELBOW BY DANIELSON! Kicks to the chest, Tiger Suplex but Aries lands on his feet, KICK TO THE HEAD! LAST CHANCERY! Bryan crawls and crawls and GETS THE ROPES!

Aries throws Bryan to the ring and exposes a turnbuckle. He looks to slam Bryan into it but Bryan blocks. Aries throws some strikes out but Bryan blocks again! One more time and Bryan looks to slam him into it, but Todd sees it and stops it, which keeps Bryan from being disqualified. Bryan slams Aries into the buckle on the other side, TIGER SUPLEX! ONE…TWO…THR-NO! CATTLE MUTILATION! Aries gets to his feet and starts ramming Bryan into the buckles. Not like this…NO! Bryan blocks himself from being rammed into the exposed buckle, ROARING ELBOW, DUCKED, SHINBREAKER SUPLEX! This is fantastic. IED ANKLE LOCK! Yes! Dash it all, Aries rolls forward and there’s too much momentum for Bryan to keep himself from going into the buckle. IED into the steel, and Aries gets a coital pin for the three.
Winner and STILL ROH Champion: Austin Aries (IED into exposed turnbuckle) ****1/4