Proving Ground - Night 2

You know the deal, ROH Proving Ground Night 2 (2/7/09), nine matches, what is proven in each of them, yada yada:

-I’m still not sold on Shawn Osbourne. His look is eh, his wrestling is eh, and his performance against Jerry Lynn is eh. Frankly it doesn’t help that Lynn is a guy who looks best when facing a great talent, and looks eh when facing an eh talent. Overall, the match is very, very eh. I actually kind of wandered off during it. Something going on in the other room, or maybe I grabbed a drink, I don’t know. It wasn’t that eventful. PROVEN: Eh.

-A team named The British Lions should be awesome, not out of shape and generally kind of lame. How disappointing that they turned out to be two total tools. At least Kenny King and Rhett Titus look good in the match and keep things afloat. Not bad but man was I expecting more from The British Lions. PROVEN: Awesome team names sometimes go to waste.

-SQUASH! Seriously, when you don’t even have your entrance shown on current ROH DVD, you know you’re a jobber. When you’re “wrestling” Bison Smith and your name isn’t well known, you really know you’re a jobber. Thanks for coming John Kermon, hope you enjoyed the beating. PROVEN: Jobbers are people too...maybe.

-Really enjoyed Davey Richards vs. Kevin Steen. Both guys are really coming into their own as major stars with each show, and it is enjoyable to watch. Nothing to complain about here. PROVEN: Richards and Steen are awesome.

-We’ve now come to the Age Of The Fall vs. some combination of former Age Of The Fall members/and their friends portion of the night. Honestly, all these matches are starting to fade together into one extended memory of a never-ending story. This is probably one of the better mixings of the “series,” but how many of these do we need? PROVEN: Age Of The Fall vs. Age Of The Fall Wolfpac is getting old fast.

-Great to see Brad Attitude against a regular roster member in Austin Aries. The two have a really entertaining match that makes Attitude look quite good. It would be nice to see more of him in Ring Of Honor. PROVEN: Brad Attitude deserves a real shot as a regular part of the company.

-Wow, talk about your unexpected blow-away match, that’s exactly what the six-man between Roderick Strong, Erick Stevens, Brent Albright, The Dark City Fight Club, and Francisc Ciatso is! Nothing prepared me for the level of awesomeness reached here. Fantastic energy, intensity, and excitement. Easily the sleeper match of the night.

-After some fun repartee between Bryan Danielson and El Generico, the two settle into a really good back-and-forth bout that shows exactly how brilliant both men are. I love the chemistry between these two, and how they manage to weave a highly interesting narrative throughout. Not a lot of guys can go from shenanigans to seriousness in seconds and have it not come off as bizarre, but Danielson and Generico can and together exploit that unique ability for all that it is worth.

-It feels like we’ve reached the point in Nigel McGuinness’ world championship reign where he can do no wrong. His battle here with D’Lo Brown, who I don’t feel comfortable labeling “veteran” but certainly does have a ‘90s-made name value to him, is quite good by heavyweight match standards. There are no big memorable spots, but there is plenty of story that keeps things enjoyable. Not the most unforgettable Nigel title defense, but a nice change of pace from seeing him defend against the same top challengers for the third or fourth time.