Nigel McGuinness vs Jerry Lynn ROH Supercard of Honor IV 4/3/09

Way better then it had the right to be and a good end to Nigel’s reign. Same arm vs arm story as Nigel/KENTA. Nigel’s selling was about the same as the KENTA match. Lynn’s selling was actually really damn good and there was sort of an odd charm to him doing cross armbreakers and London Dungeon’s to try to destroy Nigel’s arm. In writing this, the times I have liked a Nigel title match is when his no selling tendencies are controlled, has someone who can sell his arm work, or when Nigel’s is limited to the point when he is not controlling the majority of the match. Reason 3 is why I have liked the last two Nigel matches and for as crazy as it may seem, I’m going to give this a rewatch.

Jimmy Jacobs/Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black/Necro Butcher ROH Supercard of Honor IV 4/3/09

Felt like filler after the KENTA/Richards match. Just…whatever. No.

KENTA vs Davey Richards ROH Supercard of Honor IV 4/3/09

Good, but hypocritical match. The big killer was the leg work because KENTA didn’t sell it and the match didn’t need it anyway if it was going to degenerate into a strike battle anyway. The edited ending didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. I probably prefer there 06 match and I didn’t even list that. No.

Roderick Strong vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima ROH Supercard of Honor IV 4/3/09

Damn good under ten minute match. They do a back work vs leg work story for the brief amount of time it got and Roderick chops a hole in Nakajima’s chest. Definitely fun, but totally wish we had five more minutes and maybe some Nakajima kicking. Slight no.

Nigel McGuinness vs KENTA ROH 7th Anniversary Show 3/21/09

This was way better then I thought it would be. Nigel pretty much has no arms at this point and doesn’t connect on a lariat the entire match and tries to use his arms as little as possible. It is ridiculous at times that he doesn’t try to sell the arm more, but I’ll give him slight pass since he was legit injured. KENTA did his best selling the arm even though it is still a Nigel armwork match. Don’t know if it will hold up, but it deserves another chance. Keep.

Kevin Steen/El Generico vs American Wolves No DQ ROH 7th Anniversary Show 3/21/09

Another sweet Steenerico/Wolves match. Steen has an injured leg and as usual sells like the fucking man. It pretty much Stneenerico control, a little Wolves leg destroying, Steenerico type moves run, and back to the leg all while Steen’s selling the whole match. The best match in this feud so far. Keep.

Bryan Danielson/Colt Cabana vs. Jimmy Rave/Bison Smith ROH 7th Anniversary Show 3/21/09

Could have been an underrated gem, but just wasn’t. The returns of Rave and Colt were huge, and Bison could have been a better Morishima if he had stuck around, because he was wrecking people in this. Still it was only 12 minutes and there just wasn’t enough there. No.

El Generico/KENTA vs Nigel McGuinness/Davey Richards ROH Steel City Clash 3/20/09

Good, but not what it could have been with the people involved. Didn’t seem to have the heat to bring it over the top. No.

Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong ROH Steel City Clash 3/20/09

Similar story to there 07 SOH2 match with Aries trying to avoid the chops and all of Strong’s trademarks. I think this match was better because Aries was a better heel, but it was a little messy at times and has a somewhat lame finish. No.

Jimmy Jacobs & Brodie Lee vs. Tyler Black & Necro Butcher Falls Count Anywhere ROH Steel City Clash 3/20/09

Good bloodless affair. Nothing incredible otherwise. No.

Mike Quackenbush vs Bryan Danielson ROH Steel City Clash 3/20/09

Absolutely brilliant and a MOTYC. Just two masters of there craft killing it on the mat with the arm work vs leg work story. Better then there 07 match because of Danielson’s selling, but Quack’s selling was great too. Has a real shot of being #1. Keep.

Nigel McGuinness/Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black/Jerry Lynn ROH Insanity Unleashed 3/14/09

Surprisingly good. Kept it to around 15 minutes and had a unique enough structure to make it stand out and a good finishing run to boot. I wish Nigel had more of these tag matches where he just does some of the work. Still not great enough to be rewatched. No.

Jimmy Jacobs vs Delirious No DQ ROH Insanity Unleashed 3/14/09

Good match. As a first step to an eventual rematch, it does its job. It’s just that there have been better garbage matches in ROH, but I don’t regret seeing it.

Kevin Steen/El Generico vs Kenny King/Rhett Titus ROH Insanity Unleashed 3/14/09

Barely a good carry job by Steenerico. ANX just seemed to be not polished at times and was reliant on Steenerico to right the ship. There will be better tags. No.

Jay Briscoe vs. Chris Hero ROH Insanity Unleashed 3/14/09

Perfectly fine, nothing incredible. No.

Kevin Steen/El Generico/Bobby Dempsey vs Davey Richards/Eddie Edwards/Chris Hero ROH Stylin’ and Profilin’ 03/13/09

Borderline match on my rewatch list. This was about Dempsey trying to man up against his former abuser and Steen’s leg being worked on to continue there issues with the Wolves. Dempsey/Hero was rewarding in the end, and Steen’s selling was mostly good minus the three corner moves where he didn’t sell. Efficient use of 15 minutes. Keep.

Roderick Strong vs. Jay Briscoe ROH Stylin' & Profilin' 03/13/09

Decent opening match. I don’t know if it deserved the amount of crowd heat it got, but hey at least the audience was happy. No.

Delirious vs Bryan Danielson ROH Eliminating the Competition 2/27/09

May as well not have wasted time on back work if it wasn’t going to be sold the entire match. No.

Nigel McGuinness vs. D’Lo Brown ROH Proving Ground 2009 Night 2 2/7/09

Surprisingly good. Nigel thankfully didn’t do arm work and this was only 14 minutes. D’Lo’s performance was better then I thought and did well in his selling and hitting some great forearms. Down with the Brown, even if it was only for this one match, but this isn’t a classic. No.

El Generico vs Bryan Danielson ROH Proving Ground 2009 Night 2 2/7/09

Most compelling match on paper, and it was only good. Mostly comedy and not much direction, but its these two so it was obviously going to be good. No.

Roderick Strong/Erick Stevens/Brent Albright vs. Francisco Ciatso/Dark City Fight Club ROH Proving Ground 2009 Night 2 2/7/09

Nice and physical match at times, but they didn’t seem to be on the same page. No.

Davey Richards vs Tyler Black ROH Proving Ground 2009 Night 1 2/6/09

I’d call it good although I wouldn’t call it a main event match. Tyler’s midsection selling was ok, but Davey’s performance did more for me then Tyler. I’ve just seen these matches done better. No.

Brent Albright vs Nigel McGuinness ROH Proving Ground 2009 Night 1 2/6/09

God damnit. I can’t even get that mad at Brent not selling the arm because Nigel’s been doing the same old shit throughout 09. Fuck no.

Jerry Lynn/Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Jacobs/Delirious ROH Proving Ground 2009 Night 1 2/6/09

Fine for what it was. Jacobs/Delirious didn’t have enough personality to make it work like Caludio/Nigel last year with Lynn/Danielson. No.

Brent Albright, Roderick Strong, Erick Stevens, Ace Steel, & Jay Briscoe vs. Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Adam Pearce, Bobby Dempsey, & Tank Toland Steel Cage Warfare ROH Caged Collision 1/31/09

This was not very long for a wargames style match, but it accomplished everything it needed to as far as a feud ender went. I thought they set up the stuff with SnS Inc. getting destroyed well and Bobby having enough after the match. It was actually refreshing seeing a match that wasn’t pretending to be epic. This may actually do better then I thought. Keep.

Nigel McGuinness vs El Generico ROH Caged Collision 1/31/09

God make this fucking reign end. Generico’s arm selling wasn’t as good as usual, but it’s a Nigel match and a matchup that I don’t care about anymore. No.

Austin Aries vs Jimmy Jacobs vs Bryan Danielson vs Tyler Black ROH Caged Collision 1/31/09

Good match. There were stories there with Jacobs/Black and the weird relationship with Aries/Jacobs, but it never really amounted to anything and the double pin situations didn’t make sense since it wasn’t elimination. No.

Kevin Steen/El Generico vs American Wolves ROH Motor City Madness 2009 1/30/09

If 09 is as down of a year as I think it will be, then this wouldn’t be the worst match to be kept. Granted this is the first of many matches these teams will have, but this Steenerico match has enough personality to it to be considered. Probably won’t last by the end, but I need a marker anyway. Keep.

Jay Briscoe vs. Nigel McGuinness ROH Motor City Madness 2009 1/30/09

I should probably commend them for not going into overkill, but this was the same old Nigel bullshit.

Tyler Black vs Jerry Lynn ROH Motor City Madness 2009 1/30/09

Was awful for the majority of it until the stretch run which saved it somewhat. Didn’t like this one otherwise. No.

Tyler Black vs Samoa Joe ROH Rising Above 2008 11/22/08 (bonus match)

Good match as you would expect from Joe last official match. Joe is over and he promptly destroys Tyler. They did keep it smart with Tyler being aggressive in the early going and going to the eyes when he was at a disadvantage. It was mostly a formula Joe match, but its still better then the majority of 08. Still, no.

Necro Butcher vs Jay Briscoe Philadelphia Street Fight ROH Respect is Earned 2 (bonus) 6/7/08

Kind of in the low end of that Briscoes/AOTF feud. Having a single’s match means that the focus is all on them, so you can’t go to another matchup when the other matchup begins drag like this did at points. No.