ROH Validation - ROH World Tag Titles: The American Wolves (w/Shane Hagadorn) vs. Bryan Danielson & Kevin Steen
This is the Wolves third defense. The match is announced as having a 45-minute time limit, . I guess Steen is replacing Tyler Black, or Danielson is replacing Generico cause the wolves took him out. Steen and Danielson jump the champions on the floor, as former ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness joins the commentary team. The challengers absolutely dominate the champions outside the ring, and Steen goes for a Package Piledriver on Richards through a table but can't connect. Steen then tries to hit one on Edwards in the ring, but Edwards back drops him through the table. Danielson and Edwards start the proper in the ring, with Danielson gaining the first advantage. He goes for the surfboard but Richards breaks it up with a high-angle belly-to-back suplex. Richards gets tagged in officially and unleashes kicks on Danielson's chest. Edwards also gets his chance to wear down Danielson, whose chest is already bleeding. On the floor Steen is starting to show signs of life. Edwards taunts Danielson and get slapped in the face and then otherwise abused. Even so Edwards is able to back Danielson into his corner and tag Richards. The assault on Danielson continues until he's able to hit a simultaneous dropkick, and Steen has made it back to the apron. Unfortunately for Danielson, Edwards drags Steen off the apron, further injuring his Steen's knee and also preventing the tag. Back in the ring Richards decides to start going after the leg, and locks Danielson in the Figure-Four Leglock. Edwards jumps off the top rope with a knee to Danielson, and then he kicks Steen back down to the floor. The champions use quick tags to continue working Danielson's leg, and trying to keep Steen off the apron. They go for the superkick / German suplex combo but Danielson avoids it and is finally able to make the tag to Steen. The Wolves both get thrown around, as Steen hits Richards with a powerbomb and goes for the Sharpshooter. Edwards breaks it up, but Steen catches him and hits a backpack senton on Richards. Funny, when he does that with Generico it doesn't hurt him. The champions soon recover and double-team Steen, but they're not able to hit a double suplex. Edwards tries a quebrada but Steen gets the knees up and Danielson illegally rejoins the ring with a missile dropkick, and then gets the legal tag to get back into the match. The referee has lost control of this one. Steen comes in illegally and hits the pump handle neckbreaker, and then Danielson locks Richards in the Triangle Choke. Meanwhile Steen locks Edwards in the Sharpshooter. Richards counters with a jackknife pin for two. He takes Danielson down and tags Edwards, who promptly kicks Steen down to the floor. The Wolves double-team Danielson, hitting stereo kicks, and then a super Doomsday Bulldog for two when Steen makes the save. Edwards goes for a leg submission on Danielson, who reverses it to a nasty looking arm submission, and Steen comes in with a Swanton bomb, breaking up the submission for some reason. The match has once again broken down, with all four men in the ring. Steen and Richards take their fight to the floor. In the ring Edwards tries the Chin checker on Danielson, but it gets reversed to the elbow strikes, which don't score the knockout and only get a two-count. Danielson then locks on the Cattle Mutilation, and then rolls it into a Tiger Suplex for two. He takes Edwards up top for the belly-to-back superplex, but Richards breaks that up with a super German suplex. Richards then hits a nasty suicide dive onto Steen. Edwards hits the Chin checker but it only gets two! He wastes some time, and Danielson locks on the triangle choke and hits some elbows. Edwards escapes that and hits a dragon screw and then locks on the Achilles Tendon Lock, and Danielson taps out. Good psychology surrounding the knee, and the faces never really got out of the blocks, so it was fun watching the Wolves dismantle Bryan Danielson. ***3/4 - ****
They do some intense psychological staring down and HHH goes for the arm and they work off a headlock. They slap each other and HHH acts like it’s a violation of the sacred Bushido honor code. Another criss-cross goes nowhere, as Rob goes back to the headlock. Okay, this isn’t Japan, I’m not fooled by this nonsense, it ain’t going anywhere, so get on with it. Rob calls for time and does his water-spewing exhibition. And that’s a SHOOT, brutha! Back to the headlock. HHH uses the knee to take over (ah, the good old days), but Rob rolls him up for two. They do a rather poor bridge/backslide spot, and Rob spinkicks him for two. Back to the headlock. ENOUGH with the headlock. No one in North America cares about a headlock and in this case it’s just filling time, so GET ON WITH IT. Rob hits him with another spinkick and HHH bails, but smartly sidesteps a hilo dive, and Rob splats on the floor. HHH drags him in and out again, and gives him a little STEEL STEPS SHOT. Back in Rob gets a rollup for two, but HHH comes back with a neckbreaker for two. They brawl out and HHH gets the advantage, and back in a high knee gets two. This is quite pedestrian. HHH goes up and gets slammed off, but gets caught in the MAIN EVENT SLEEPER OF DOOM. Man, if Jeff Hardy and Spike Dudley can lose to that, what chance does Rob have? Well, he escapes, and does some flips and stuff, and a handspring moonsault gets two. Monkey-flip and Rob flips some more and gets Rolling Thunder for two. HHH bails and gets hit with a pescado as a result. Back in, missile dropkick gets two. HHH hits him with a facebuster, but the ref is bumped. Oh, goodie. Rob gets his visual pinfall so that HHH can claim that he’s putting over the new talent, and the frog splash also gets bubkus because there’s no ref. HHH goes low as everyone awaits the inevitable Flair run-in, and he retrieves his trusty Sledgehammer of Plot. And hey, here’s a shock, it’s Flair, and hey, here’s another shock, he turns on RVD (despite having no affiliation with him prior to this), and HHH gets to retain. **1/2 I enjoyed the mat wrestling at the start with RVD completely dominating it but after that it all goes downhill with a very boing HHH heat segment and a not to thrilling Comeback from RVD all leading to a very predictable SCREWJOB.
