Ring of Honor – RESPECT IS EARNED II – Pay Per View
Date: August 1, 2008 (Taped: June 7, 2008)
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
TAG TEAM MATCH
Kevin Steen & El Generico defeated The Vulture Squad (Jigsaw & Ruckus): Jigsaw no longer wears a mask, and you can now tell why he usually wears the mask. Steen & Generico are climbing up the ladder of the tag team division again, except this time they are firm babyface contenders. Steen & Generico pulled off the Doomsday Device on their way to victory!
SINGLES MATCH
Claudio Castagnoli defeated Davey Richards: Since they are setting up Double C for a title shot, the heel ROH World champion Nigel McGuinness joined Dave Prazak & Lenny Lennard at the broadcast position to add commentary to the match. Davey Richards did a psychotic running dive over the top rope, bounced off of Claudio and landed in the front row, narrowly missing a very hot female ROH fan. Davey stretched Claudio with various submission holds but Castagnoli refused to give up. Castagnoli recovered and hit the Giant Swing and a Roaring Uppercut to finish Richards off!
BACKSTAGE SEGMENT
Sweet & Sour Inc. (Larry Sweeney & Chris Hero & Adam Pearce & Sara Del Rey & Shane Hagadorn & Eddie Edwards & Bobby Dempsey): Larry Sweeney introduced all of his troops with pride except for Bobby Dempsey, who he excused from the premises. Adam Pearce was carrying a briefcase and Sweeney promised to reveal its contents later on the PPV.
BACKSTAGE SEGMENT
Brent Albright forms his army: Brent Albright talked about forming the Hangmen 3 with Adam Pearce, and said Pearce sold the Hangmen 3 to Larry Sweeney. Albright said Larry Sweeney quickly found out that he calls the shots and always does what he wants. They showed footage of Albright turning on Sweet & Sour Inc. and giving Shane Hagadorn the most brutal Power-bomb over the top rope through a table – where Hagadorn landed on his neck! Albright recruited little Pelle Primeau, Delirious, and Daizee Haze to go to war with Sweet & Sour Inc. tonight!
SIX-MAN TAG TEAM MATCH
Brent Albright & Delirious & Pelle Primeau w/Daizee Haze defeated Sweet & Sour Inc. (Chris Hero & Adam Pearce & Eddie Edwards w/Larry Sweeney & Sara Del Rey & Shane Hagadorn & Bobby Dempsey): Albright’s Army had to deal with lots of outside interference from the other members of Sweet & Sour. Primeau took a beating for a while, and then Delirious tagged in and he took a beating as well. Finally Albright tagged in and cleaned house like Superman! Sara Del Rey tried to sneak attack Albright but Daizee Haze intercepted! From there, it broke down into a chaotic brawl until Albright repeatedly smashed Eddie Edwards with stiff knee strikes to the head and the referee stopped the match. Adam Pearce jumped into the ring and knocked Brent Albright out with the mystery briefcase! Pearce pulled the NWA World Heavyweight title out of the briefcase and Larry Sweeney proclaimed that it had more honor and prestige than the ROH World title.
FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR
Roderick Strong defeated Erick Stevens: For those of you who are not familiar with Ring of Honor, a “Fight Without Honor” is ROH’s version of a No-Holds-Barred match or a good old fashioned “Street Fight.” The bitter feud between Roderick Strong and Erick Stevens started in the Full Impact Pro promotion in Florida and spilled over into the Ring of Honor. Erick Stevens used to have a really cool mohawk, but has now grown his hair out and looks a little less interesting. He sort of looks like a mini-Kurrgan. Strong introduced a huge ladder into the match. Stevens asked for some chairs and fans started passing their chairs to the front for Stevens to grab and launch into the ring. After about fifteen minutes of absolute brutality, a couple of tables were set up in the ring with the 15-foot ladder towering above. Both wrestlers climbed up opposite sides and the fans began to chant “Please Don’t Die!” Roderick Strong slipped his head under Erick Stevens’ arm and lifted him up, then both men went sailing down and crashed through the two tables! That was a long way down!! Roderick flopped his arm over Erick’s chest and scored the 1-2-3 to win this hardcore grudge match! The fans chanted “Thank you Erick!” “Thank you Roderick!” and “Thank you both!”
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH
Nigel McGuinness defeated Go Shiozaki to retain the ROH World title: Go Shiozaki has been sent over to the United States to follow in the foot steps of former ROH World champion Takeshi Morishima. Shiozaki is a classic Japanese legend in the making. He’s still young but he just has that look about him. Before this match, most people would think Shiozaki had no chance of becoming ROH World champion, but as this match progressed, the crowd atmosphere got so enthusiastic, they started to believe that history could very well be happening before their very eyes. Shiozaki came within an eyelash of achieving instant legend-status, but like a true champion, McGuinness gutted it out and retained his ROH championship via submission. After the match, “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson appeared on the stage and challenged Nigel McGuinness to a title match at the next PPV, and added that he hoped Nigel was man enough to accept it.
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES
The Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black) defeated American Dragon & Austin Aries to retain the ROH World Tag Team titles: Dave Prazak said that while the Tag Team titles are often relegated to mid-card status in other promotions, here in Ring of Honor the World Tag Team titles are often featured in the main event. After only a couple of minutes, the fight between Jimmy Jacobs and Austin Aries got far to intense and the referee called for the bell and ended the match. The crowd was pissed! American Dragon and Tyler Black both desperately tried to calm their partners down. The referee said if they keep their cool then he will restart the match. This made the crowd happy! Thankfully it turned into a classic tag team bout with the usual high dosage of intensity and passion. An ROH trademark. They are really pushing Tyler Black as the next break-out star. Tyler Black scored the biggest win of his career by pinned American Dragon after squashing him with the Phoenix Splash off the top rope!
POST MATCH ACTIVITY
Nigel McGuinness: ROH World champion Nigel McGuinness came out yelling at Bryan Danielson for losing to Tyler Black, somebody he made short work of on the last PPV. McGuinness denied Danielson’s challenge for an ROH World title match. “You ain’t evah getting a title shot against me on pay per view, and there ain’t nothing any of you can do about it!”