ROH TV 5-25-13

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.