411’s Buy or Sell 12.25.09: Was ROH the Best Indy Fed of 2009? Was Davey Richards the Breakout of 2009? Who is the 2009 MVP? Plus More!

Jasper Gerresten : I think I’d have to agree with this one, if only because no other wrestler has been successful in such a wide range of companies. He not only dominated the Ring of Honor tag division, but also had strong showings in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Full Impact Pro and Dragon Gate USA. He also completed several tours in Japan, where he also impressed. He seems like the complete package for the next decade as indy wrestling moves away from flippy spotfest wrestlers to the more MMA-based style popularized by Bryan Danielson.

Samuel Berman : I don’t think there is any question that Richards is the breakout star of the past year. The only other option in my mind is the Young Bucks of Nick & Matt Jackson who have seen their profile rise to the point that they are arguably the most sought after team on the Independent circuit. However, while the Jacksons’ rise to prominence has perhaps been more surprising, Richards’ elevated game has been the most noteworthy. As recently as two years ago, Richards was considered something of a bust in Ring of Honor. Now, it’s almost difficult to imagine an ROH event without him in a quality match.

Ryan Byers : I suppose I would have to agree that Richards is the indy breakout of 2009, as he is the person who, more than any other, has increased his standing in the eyes of wrestling fans. However, in other ways it is odd to call him a true “breakout” just because I think that most people have been aware of his skill level for a couple of years now. This has just been the year that he’s been allowed to put those skills on display at a higher level than at any other point in his career. I would say that another notable breakout for 2009 that most people haven’t given much thought to is Richards’ tag team partner Eddie Edwards. Before Richards and Edwards formed the American Wolves, Eddie was mainly known to indy fans as “that boring guy from NOAH opening matches who shows up in ROH now and again.” However, thanks to his numerous excellent tag team matches alongside Richards, fans now see Edwards as a legitimate player. Taking that into consideration, you could consider Richards to be the breakout of the year or you could consider the Wolves as a whole to be the breakout of the year, depending on how you want to spin things.

Ari Berenstein : I believe that Davey Richards has done the most this year out of any wrestler in the North American independents to elevate his name value beyond what it was when the year began.It is clear after a year’s worth of excellent in-ring efforts in Ring of Honor, Dragon Gate USA, FIP and other companies that Richards has taken the initiative to fill the gap created by several of the top independent wrestlers leaving for WWE and TNA. The great thing about it is that not only did he breakout in the tag team division with Eddie Edwards as a part of The American Wolves, he also proved that he could be “the guy” of a singles division (check out his matches against KENTA, Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega as proof of that). Richards, therefore, is a flexible commodity who can be placed in either division and flourish. You don’t find too many wrestlers anywhere these days who has the natural ability to “fit” into either of wrestling’s two major divisions. Richard has yet to have that “defining” promo that he can hang his hat on, but he certainly has improved this year, speaking tough yet believably about his desire to succeed. So yes, there certainly is a lot of proof to give to the claim that Richards is 2009’s Independent break-out.

Chris Lansdell : Well I’d agree with the choice of Davey, but I have Kenny Omega a close second. As of July 2008 Omega was a virtual unknown outside of PWG, but he finishes 2009 as a top contender in RoH and the PWG champion. He’s over, he’s talented and he’s had great matches, and he’s done it all this year. Plus he uses a Shoryuken AND a hadoken, so he wins at life too!

Michael Bauer : Believe it or not, as much as Davey Richards has broken out, I kinda think The Young Bucks have broken out more. Yes, Davey won the FIP World Title and the RoH Tag Team Titles, but The Young Bucks have done enough in more places, that they are quite possibly the best tag team in the Indies right now. They have won the PWG Tag Team Titles and defeated everyone and anyone, including the Machine Guns, who they had their TNA tryout against. They have come to Ring of Honor and with how high their stock is, they have made wins against The Briscoes look like it wasn’t an upset. And while Davey had one huge match in DG USA, The Young Bucks have not one, but two near five star matches on Dragon Gate Pay Per View, including main eventing Open the Untouchable Gate. There is no doubt The Young Bucks have come into their own this year and broke out better than anyone.

Samuel Berman : Jerry Lynn would absolutely have won the title regardless of Nigel’s victory. In reality, I think that Nigel’s injury had very little, if any, effect on the course of the ROH World Title. For whatever reason, the current ROH regime seemed dead-set on a Lynn title victory and waited too long to pull the trigger on a Tyler Black reign (see also: Strong, R. and Cabana, C.) before the fans just refused to buy him as anything but a choke artist.

Ryan Byers : Had Nigel never been injured, we probably still would have seen a lackluster, out of nowhere title reign by SOMEBODY, even if it wasn’t necessarily Jerry Lynn. You have to keep in mind that, even though McGuinness’ injuries may have lead to his time on top of the promotion ending earlier than it otherwise may have, his title reign still would have been cut short this year as a result of his being snatched up by the big leagues. (I would say TNA, but, if we are pretending he was never injured, there was is a much higher chance that we would be seeing him under a WWE contract these days.) With that being said, if we pretend that Nigel was never hurt and was still champion at the time that he left the company, I have a feeling that the championship would have been hotshotted on to Tyler Black, who has cooled off significantly since last year. I would further imagine that Austin Aries never would have earned his second championship reign and would be the most likely contender to go up against Black at Final Battle, putting on a losing effort.

Ari Berenstein : Well, I believe the plan was always to transition the title to Jerry Lynn, so if Nigel had never been injured I believe ROH would have gone with the switch either at the same show, Supercard of Honor IV or one night later at the Take No Prisoners Pay Per View. ROH officials had a huge one for Lynn and while I supported Lynn winning the title, I certainly would have wanted Tyler Black to take the title instead. I do have to slightly disagree with the assessment that Lynn’s title run was lackluster, as even though it was short and unpopular, there were some very good, entertaining title defenses during that timeframe, inlcuding the Four Corner Survival that was telecast on HDNet and title defenses against Roderick Strong and Chris Hero. I believe the match against Hero is particularly underlooked and a good example of how the Lynn title match scenario could have gone under the best of circumstances, which obviously were not prevalent at that time.

If I’m allowed a bit of fantasy booking, what I would have done is have Nigel reach close to Samoa Joe’s twenty-one month title mark and have Black take the title from him just before then, so say June at the Manhattan Mayhem III show. Then Black would take on all comers, but have Aries nipping at his heels and claiming he had beat Black before and thus deserved the title. That sets up the Black vs. Aries title match at Final Battle 2009, which I would have Black win a twenty-to-thirty minute fast-paced and aggressive encounter. At some point in 2010, likely Eight Anniversary, Aries would lie, cheat and steal his way to become the first-ever two-time ROH World champion.

Chris Lansdell : The easy answer is to say Tyler Black would have won it, feuded with Jimmy Jacobs for a while and then they would have gone from there. In hindsight it seems that Black was NOT the next champ, because Lynn dropped to Aries as we all know. I honestly think that either Lynn or Aries was the plan all along, possibly leading to matches with Danielson and then each other. The problem with this speculation is that Tyler Black also got injured, Danielson and McGuinness left and the choices got fewer. Would any of that have happened without Nigel’s injury? Who knows. I do think that Black was always going to get the Final Battle shot, however.

Michael Bauer : Without the injury, I think there would have only been one title change this year, but we would still end up with Austin Aries as champion at the end of 2009. Nigel would have broken Joe’s 21 Month record, which he was only about three months away from, and probably dropped the title at Glory by Honor. Aries would have picked up the title and it wouldn have been way too early to have Black beat him.

Jasper Gerresten : This is a very hard question to answer, as McGuinness had beaten literally everybody there was to beat several times. If I had to make a choice, it’d probably have ended up on Tyler Black eventually, probably after Black’s feud with Jimmy Jacobs was wrapped up. From there, I suppose the logical progression would be an extended feud with Austin Aries. After that we’d probably get a heel turn, as the ROH fans somehow seem to have some sort of collective allergy against strong babyface champions that causes chronic diarreah of the mouth. Assuming that Danielson and McGunness would still be out of the company by September, we’d probably see sporadic defenses against the usual subjects (Strong, Cabana, etc.), before building to Final Battle, probably in a match against Jerry Lynn.

Ryan Byers : 2009, at least from where I sit, was a year in which Ring of Honor really struggled to find a direction, which hurt its product significantly. As a result, the majority of the “must see” indy shows this year come from non-ROH promotions, which is the first time that I think we can honestly say that since the company formed in 2002. I would suggest PWG Threemendous II, CHIKARA’s Young Lions’ Cup, and everything from Dragon Gate USA as absolute, can’t miss shows. On top of that, SHIMMER had a really amazing year, and you cannot go wrong with picking up any of the DVD’s that they released this year or anything that they taped this year for release next year (Sara Del Rey vs. Hamada FTW.) Also, though they are not commercially available on DVD in the United States, if you are interested in checking out some Japanese independent wrestling, I would strongly suggest hunting down DDT’s Ryogoku Peter Pan show from this past summer as well as Big Japan Wrestling’s epic “Romeo vs. Juliet” show, which features pro wrestling matches that actually tell the story of the classic Shakespearean play.

Ari Berenstein : Ring of Honor’s Final Countdown Tour is a set of shows that demonstrates that ROH can and still does get it right when it comes to showcasing great independent wrestling. TFC: Chicago is incredibly fun up and down the card and the Danielson vs. Aries match would be receiving far more love if it wasn’t an obvious conclusion that Danielson would lose. The Boston show is awesome with one of the best main events of the year. Of course you have to get Glory By Honor VIII for the Ladder War and the Danielson-McGuinness farewell festivities. That DVD is loaded with awesome extras as well. I also highly recommend Death Before Dishonor VII Night 1, my choice for ROH show of the year due to it being a top-to-bottom show with a great Lance Storm match, a surprisingly epic eight-man elimination tag between Team Cabana and The Embassy, an excellent showcasing of Super Smash Brothers and an excellent main event title match.

If you’d like to sample CHIKARA then you won’t go wrong with Revelation X, Anniversario Yang or Hiding In Plain Sight, which are all top-to-bottom cards that truly highlight the style of that promotion and also give viewers a great bunch of wrestling matches. There are memorable performances from The Colony, The Osirian Portal, F.I.S.T. and Fightmare / Incoherence in particular–these guys are must-watch and impressive.

Pro Wrestling Guerilla had a fantastic year and I could recommend almost any one of their shows and you’d be getting your money’s worth and more. Their best show in my opinion were Threemendous II and Guerre Sans Frontieres, the former show being just an ungodly awesome show with amazing match after amazing match and latter being solid in the first half and balls-to-the-walls in the seond half. You also can’t go wrong in purchasing Express Written Consent, Ninety-Nine, One-Hundred and the DDT4 Tournament.

Finally, for those who wish to sample SHIMMER, Volumes 23 and 24 represent the high points of their year with some excellent matches involving MsChif, Wesna Busic, The Canadian Ninjas, Amazing Kong, Sara Del Rey, Cheerleader Melissa (Alissa Flash) and others.

Chris Lansdell : BUY. I’ve been slack this year and can really only recommend a few: PWG 99, 100 and 101; Final Battle 2008, Glory by Honor weekend, Death before Dishonor weekend and World Contender (I think that’s the name) featuring Omega vs Davey.

Michael Bauer : I will admit to being a little lax on anything not RoH, but at the top of my list is the Final Countdown Tour, especially the last two shows. Plus, you definitly can not go wrong with either of Dragon Gate USAs Pay Per View shows. Those are must haves for any Indy Wrestling DVD collection.

Jasper Gerresten : Unfortunately my wrestling budget has been limited this year, so I can only offer a few tips:

– CHIKARA King of Trios, all three nights: CHIKARA has several major shows throughout the year, but in my opinion the King of Trios shows always have something special simply because of the amazing number of talent they bring in from both wrestling’s past and independent companies all over the country, companies I sometimes have never even heard from before. That alone makes these shows worth watching.

– PWG Threemendous II: Pro Wrestling Guerrilla followed a rather disappointing 2008, which was marred by constant no-shows, with arguably the strongest year in the company’s history. They had two strong scoops in London and Cabana’s return to independent wrestling, and many incredible shows, of which Threemendous II was definitely the strongest.

Samuel Berman : This year saw a MAJOR dropoff in my purchasing of wrestling DVDs in general. However, the three must-own DVDs I got this year were CHIKARA’s Revelation X and Aniversario Yang along with PWG’s DDT4. As far as ROH is concerned, the key matches (because there weren’t all that many stand out shows in total) are Richards vs. KENTA and Richards vs. Danielson, along with the American Wolves vs. Black & Danielson tag title draw. Both released DGUSA shows are also must-sees for anyone who considers themself a wrestling fan.

Ari Berenstein : Okay, the obvious answer would be Tyler Black not winning the ROH World Title after all that build, but that’s not something I blame Tyler for since I think he wrestled his heart out through much of the year. In ring, Black delivered many times, whether it was against Lynn, Aries, Danielson, McGuinness or others. Winning or losing is a choice made by the bookers and Black did all he could with what he was given (and fighting some nagging injuries late in the year) and he doesn’t deserve to be tagged with the disappointment label.

I think the real disappointments come from those who could have done more in their position and yet never quite worked out, or in the case I’ll bring up, never quite give back what they were getting. For me, the biggest disappointment on the independent scene was the whole Ric Flair debacle and how that worked out for ROH. You’d think given the legendary status of Ric Flair that he would have been able to help them out more, put over other talent through promos and angles. That was in fact, his job as ROH Ambassador on HDNet shows. However, for the most part, Flair proved to be all about himself, putting himself over the other wrestler in the company and putting himself as a higher prority than the company. His walking out on his agreement during Manhattan Mayhem III demonstrated how little he cared about ROH and for all his bluster about how they were “the future of professional wrestling”, to him they were nothing more than a payoff. He could have really helped put the title match over the top that night, but he walked out because he was more concerned with himself and the way WWE would think about him for doing so. As it turned out, he hasn’t even been used by WWE since Wrestlemania 25.

Chris Lansdell : Tyler Black, no doubt. Here we have a guy who everyone thought was the next big thing, who had amazing moves, a good look, good charisma and was only in his early twenties! Starting with his loss at Final Battle 2008, Black’s stock has dropped considerably to the point where he’s had and lost something like 8 title matches now. This was supposed to be his year, the year where we answered all the questions. Instead we’re asking, “What happened?”

Michael Bauer : If Tyler Black isn’t the most obvious answer, than I don’t know what is. How many shots at the Ring of Honor World Title has he had this year? Final Battle was definitly his last chance to win it and he failed yet again with a horrific match to boot. It’s funny how Jimmy Jacobs told Black last year how he failed, but it wouldn’t be until a year later that it was proven.

Jasper Gerresten : This definitely has to be Tyler Black’s failure to capture the ROH world championship. As Jimmy Jacobs reminded him at the 2008 Final Battle show, he was the chosen one, and he definitely hasn’t lived up to that. After spending most of the first half of the year feuding with Jimmy Jacobs, the second half of the year saw an excellent rivalry with Bryan Danielson, mostly fought out on the new ROH on HDNet show. He also won the Survival of the Fittest tournament and beat former ROH world champions Jerry Lynn and Nigel McGuinness. Final Battle 2009 was definitely a now or never moment, and unfortunately it seems that for Tyler Black it will be never.

Samuel Berman : Unfortunately, I think it’s Jimmy Jacobs, who seemed listless throughout the year in the wake of his incredible feud with Austin Aries in 2008. Jacobs went through the first half of 2009 with little or no direction, with only an underwhelming war with former partner Tyler Black keeping him above water. Arguably, it was the biggest single-year dropoff by any main event player in recent history. An unfortunate ending (for now) in ROH for one of the company’s all-time best talents.

Ryan Byers : Adam Pearce. As I alluded to earlier, this was by far the weakest year for Ring of Honor in terms of putting out a quality product, and, with Pearce at the helm of the promotion’s creative direction, he has to shoulder the blame for a lot of that. Granted, I’m not one of these kooky internet fans who will kneel at the Altar of Gabe and eat up everything that Sapolsky does and come back asking for seconds, but he did have his strengths as a booker and each and every one of those strengths is no longer present in the ROH product. That wouldn’t be a problem if the company’s booking was replaced with a style had its own, different positive aspects which were just as strong, but that is not what has happened. Instead, we’ve just got a watered-down shell of the ROH of old, which is good for the periodic ****+ match but can’t tell any compelling stories to link those matches together in a meaningful way.

Chris Lansdell : I think it’s The Young Bucks. Across PWG, RoH and DG USA they’ve had stellar match after stellar match, drawing comparisons to the Hardyz and impressing everyone aloong the way. They had a tryout with TNA this week that amazed Jeremy Borash and had Matt Morgan convinced they’d get a roster spot…all within a few months of rising to prominence. They have wins over the best two tag teams in the indies (Steenerico and The Briscoes) as well as impressive showings in Japan. All told, it’s been their year.

Michael Bauer : I have to say Austin Aries. It might be a cop out since he is the current Ring of Honor champion, but he also has had the biggest rise up the ladder of anyone this year thanks to his heel turn at Final Battle 2008. Sure, Davey and the Bucks had great years, but Austin Aries made history as the first two time Ring of Honor World Champion. Plus as a heel, he is having a career revival, the likes that haven’t been seen on the Indy scene in quite some time. So my pick is Austin Aries.

Jasper Gerresten : I think this honour definitely goes to Davey Richards for all the obvious reasons: He has had strong appearances all over the country, accumulated a load of foreign experience and has perfected a style that will probably set the tone for independent wrestling for years to come. He has gone from being the No Remorse Corps’ whipping boy, who always got to watch the bags while Romero and Strong went out to party, to being one of the most brutal wrestlers on the American independent scene, not because of an imposing physique or convoluted piledriver variations, but because of his vicious kicks and submission holds that hurt just to look at.

Samuel Berman : Still Danielson, whose farewell tour led him to essentially every major company in the United States. Cases could be made for Richards or Naruki Doi, but the former needed the rub from Danielson to reach the next level, and the latter didn’t have the depth of impact that the American Dragon brought to the Independent scene. To his very last match in Ring of Honor, Danielson proved again-and-again why he had earned his reputation as The Best in the World.

Ryan Byers : It’s DDT’s Kota Ibushi. In addition to periodically showing up in America to have some awesome matches, Ibushi is currently THE man on the Japanese independent scene. He is an absolutely breathtaking high flyer, performing moves that boggle the mind and appear innovative even to a twenty-first century wrestling audience that oftentimes thinks that it has seen everything. Even more important still, he almost always performs those moves in a meaningful manner and, at least when he is against Japanese performers, ends his matches at the peak of their excitement so that they don’t end five minutes too late as many American high flying bouts do. Perhaps the biggest cherry on top of the sundae of a year that Ibushi has had, though, is that he is the one of the very few – if not the only – independent wrestlers in the world who can tout himself as a legitimate draw among the masses. On the aforementioned Ryogoku Peter Pan show, Ibushi headlined an indy wrestling card that legitimately drew over 8,500 paid fans to a Japanese venue. He is also regularly called up for guest appearances in the Japanese big leagues every time that those organizations wish to highlight quality junior heavyweight wrestling.

Ari Berenstein : That’s a very difficult question because there are individual MVPs for each company, those who really helped to sell the product for, say, ROH or PWG or CHIKARA. I believe Austin Aries is the MVP of ROH this year due to his effort in making his reinvention of his persona a success and an integral part of the main event scene and HDNet shows. However, the overall MVP of the entire independent scene was, one more time, Bryan Danielson. Maybe he wasn’t the biggest selling point in the first half of the year. Yet, you look at what he did in September–appearing for at least six different independent companies in that timespan and providing at least one must-see showcase in each one of them. He definitely has helped the bottom line of ROH, PWG, CHIKARA and Dragon Gate USA because of the hype his matches received. Danielson gave these companies one last shot in the arm before he left for good, and that kind of profit through sales is the most valuable you can be.

Michael Bauer : I will have to go with Dragon Gate USA, even on just three shows. Ring of Honor had a tough year, PWG was ok, and CHIKARA would have won if not for all the buzz that DG USA created in 2009. Yep, it’s the buzz that they created that pushes them ahead of the rest, on top of two killer shows that the world got to see on Pay Per View, along with a third show that wasn’t as good, but still looked to be better than most of the shows from the other promotions.

Jasper Gerresten : This was definitely the easiest question to answer: CHIKARA. They have really matured as a company, putting out nearly two dozen shows that were, at the worst, well above average. In a time where indy wrestling seems to become more and more monotonous CHIKARA continues to stick to what made it great: colourful characters, excellent high flying and brilliantly booked storylines. CHIKARA refers to its years as seasons, and I can definitely see a similarity between the way a season of television is written and the way Mike Quackenbush books the seasons of CHIKARA, as evidenced by the brilliant cliffhanger at this year’s season finale.

Samuel Berman : I maintain that the best company in terms of storyline continuity and fan interest is CHIKARA, who has somehow built nearly three years of storylines out of the formation of a single submission hold (the CHIKARA Special). Does any company pay as much attention to detail as CHIKARA, who uses its weekly podcast as a storyline tool and has the most consistent in-canon storytelling of any company, EVER. If you’re a fan of storylines that reward focus an analysis, CHIKARA is the company for you. Also, it should be noted that PWG broke out of a year-long funk to put on a number of excellent shows and matches in 2009, including fantastic outsider involvement from Paul London, the MCMG, and various Dragon Gate talents.

Ryan Byers : Overall, it was undeniably DDT. I mentioned their 8,500+ attendance figure in response to the previous question, and that accomplishment alone would land them in serious contention for the title of “Best Year in the Indies.” However, that was not the only thing that they did this year. With HUSTLE slowly dying all year long, they managed to capture the hearts and minds of wrestling fans who want a little bit of wackiness alongside their athletic professional wrestling bouts, leading to steady (albeit small) attendance figures for the majority of their shows and hot crowds. Quality-wise, they have been an almost perfect combination of serious in-ring contests and so-called sports entertainment, producing more enjoyable, well rounded top-to-bottom cards than any other promotion that I can think of this year. In the United States, I would give the nod to CHIKARA, which has continued its tradition of providing very young wrestlers with an opportunity to learn the ropes in the professional wrestling business, combined with intricately booked storylines and outstanding performances from their veteran grapplers.

Ari Berenstein : I want to go on record as saying that while ROH was not the best independent wrestling company this year, that is also recieved too much criticism from fans, thus clouding perspective and attention for a whole bunch of excellent matches that took place on both the DVDs and the HDNet show. The HDNet show in particular has held a hell of a lot of terrific matches in its main event position, more than people realize. In compiling my match of the year list for ROH, HDNet matches appeared 25% of the imie. That’s a remarkable impact on the ROH product in just a little over nine months’ time.

However, a wrestling company needs more than just great matches, it needs logical and (everyone, underline “and”) compelling storylines. ROH began to fall from the top because of the combination of better storylines and better matches.

In my mind, PWG and CHIKARA were the best independent wrestling companies of 2009. PWG didn’t have any “epic” storylines, but there were logical and interesting progressions for its principal characters, plus their fans helped them out through reacting to Chris Hero and Young Bucks in the title positions. PWG also had some of the best top-to-bottom shows, where everyone delivered, even those younger wrestlers who fans may not have immediately known or thought could stand-out.

CHIKARA took some heat for a year-long story involving Ultramantis Black’s use of a mystical pendant known as the Eye of Tyr, yet that storyline and all the small bits and pieces paid off big time in their season finale and the formation of the “Brotherhood of the Cross”. Along the way, they also continued to deliver some amazing in-ring action, feuds that were both intense and intriguing (Colony vs. F.I.S.T. and Eddie Kingston’s feud against Claudio Castagnoli) and great concept shows like The King of Trios 2009, which generally delivered across the entire three night span. The two promotions had a terrific 2009 and are setting a pace for an even greater 2010.

Chris Lansdell : Tough call. Dragon Gate have only had 3 shows, but they all delivered. PWG put on some great stuff but really did nothing to grow themselves. CHIKARA consolidated the strides they made last year. Really, RoH had the worst year of the 4 big indies and even it did well. I have to give the nod to DG USA though, simply because of the sheer top-to-bottom match quality they’ve put out all year long.