Post by adamclark52 on Jul 16, 2019 20:47:16 GMT -5
Ring of Honor “Proving Ground: Night Two”
February 7th, 2009
From the Orlando Downtown Recreation Complex in Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Lenny Leonard and Dave Prazak
Kenny King tells us that “the YRR”...something. I guess the ladies have to look out for them?
Shawn Osbourne vs. Jerry Lynn
Look I’ve never been a fan of Jerry Lynn’s but even I’ll admit that this is a step down for him. The commentators did a great job of putting him down here. He of course won the Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Championship a couple of months after this. So I guess their constant focus on him being well into his years made sense and was probably building towards that.
Winner: Jerry Lynn
Kenny King & Rhett Titus vs. the British Lions
This was fine but nothing to write home about.
Winners: Kenny King & Rhett Titus
Bison Smith vs. John Kermon
This may have been the biggest squash I’ve ever seen in Ring of Honor.
Winner: Bison Smith
Brad Attitude is ready for his match with Austin Aries.
Davey Richards w/Larry Sweeney vs. Kevin Steen
This was fine.
Winner: Kevin Steen
The Age of the Fall vs. Tyler Black & Necro Butcher
This was good. Delirious, Jimmy Jacobs and Necro Butcher could obviously have a much crazier and better match but whatever.
Winners: Tyler Black & Necro Butcher via disqualification
D’Lo Brown is ready to prove himself tonight when he faces Nigel McGuinness for the Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Championship.
Ring of Homicide DVD ad.
Austin Aries vs. Brad Attitude
I really, really, really don’t like Austin Aries.
Winner: Austin Aries
Dark City Fight Club & Francisco Ciatso vs. Roderick Strong, Brent Albright & Erick Stevens
This was a very physical match and the first time I’ve been entertained by a match with Roderick Strong in quite some time. There were some vicious chops thrown. Dave Prazak kept making references to Impact/TNA Wrestling (and Monty Brown specifically) for reasons unbeknownst to me. Aside from a brief run in TNA around 2005ish from Roderick Strong I don’t think any of these guys ever wrestled there. I guess they were in Florida for this show so there was that connection. What do I know? I liked this match.
Winners: Roderick Strong, Brent Albright & Erick Stevens
el Generico vs. Bryan Danielson
The beginning of this match was f***ing hilarious. The whole match was very humorous and a nice change of pace. But when it was serious it was very good too. This was a really good match.
Winner: el Generico
Bison Smith attacks Bryan Danielson and it takes four other wrestlers to pull him off.
The French Connection DVD ad.
For the Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Championship
D’Lo Brown vs. Nigel McGuinness (champion)
This was an okay match but the crowd wasn’t very receptive of D’Lo Brown. I can’t blame them; this was his first match in Ring of Honor and he inexplicably got a title shot.
Winner: Nigel McGuinness
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This show was just okay. It really picked up with the six-man tag match but it was kinda tough to get through it up until that point. The Danielson-Generico match was really good though. It felt like an Indy show though. All of the FIP guys felt like the usual talents at the Indy and the Ring of Honor guys felt like the journeyman wrestlers making their way through town. There were three dark matches before the show that were all FIP guys too, and Bobby Dempsey.
I felt bad about my comments in the first match when I found out Shawn Osbourne took his own life in early 2011.
