Column of Honor: 01.30.10: Davey Richards Signs New Deal with ROH

Welcome to the Column. It’s been a crazy twenty-four hours for news about Ring of Honor, so we’ll deal with that at the start and then get into some reviews and comments. As Bob Barker implored, let’s go for it!

=Searching for Davey Richards?=

News broke last night from Gabe Sapolsky that Davey Richards would no longer be appearing on future Dragon Gate USA and EVOLVE shows. Gabe’s Twitter and Facebook accounts had the following message posted:

Effective immediately Davey Richards has been removed from all DGUSA and EVOLVE shows. I have been advised not to make additional comment right now. We just wanted to let everyone know so there is no false advertising. Thank you.

Richards has been advertised for both of DGUSA’s Wrestlemania Weekend shows on March 26th and 27th in Phoenix, Arizona. He was to wrestle DGUSA Open the Freedom Gate Champion BxB Hulk for the title on the 3/26 show. Richards was also set to wrestle his student protégé Kyle O’ Reilly at the EVOLVE 2 show on March 13th. Richards was to be a huge component for Sapolsky’s new independent start-up, likely the face of the company and the trendsetter of the kind of wrestling for which the promotion would be known.

PWInsider.com reports that “Davey Richards was pulled from Gabe Sapolsky’s promotions EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA due to Richards’ decision to sign a new deal with Ring of Honor, according to several sources. “

Ring of Honor then released an announcement late last night that Richards had signed a new deal with ROH and would be appearing for the company during its Phoenix double shot (as opposed to Dragon Gate USA’s two show) and for all foreseeable shows through April 3rd in Charlotte, North Carolina.

This seems to be an indication that Richards has signed some sort of exclusive deal with Ring of Honor, or at least a deal that excludes him from wrestling for Sapolsky’s wrestling companies. It would be the next stage in a sort-of “quiet war” between ROH and the Sapolsky booked Dragon Gate USA, with both promotions set to duel in a head-to-head showdown during Wrestlemania weekend in Phoenix.

Richards had a career year with Ring of Honor and the independent wrestling world at large in 2009, including being involved in many of the best matches of the year and playing an incredibly important role in the ROH tag team division, where he teamed with Eddie Edwards as The American Wolves and held the ROH World Tag Team Titles for eight months. “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson essentially passed the torch of the best professional wrestler on the independent scene, challenging him during Danielson’s The Final Countdown farewell tour to step up his role in professional wrestling.

There was a lot of speculation from the internet wrestling sites at the end of 2009 that Richards would soon be leaving Ring of Honor in order to concentrate on DGUSA, Evolve and other wrestling opportunities. Regardless, Richards continued to work for ROH even into early January 2010, including recently participating in the January HDNet tapings. He was also placed as a number four seed in the upcoming HDNet Television Title tournament set for the February television tapings.

Richards had lost more than he won his matches in Ring of Honor during the last three months, including several marquee matches on HDNet (notably a Pick 6 match against Roderick Strong), a title shot against Austin Aries at the eponymous Aries vs. Richards and dropping the ROH World Tag Team Titles to The Briscoes at the Final Battle 2009 in late December.

Richards has also withdrawn from several other bookings in March, including WxW’s annual 16 Carat tournament, this year running from March 5th through 7th, 2010.

Right now, it seems as if Davey Richard’s current and future status in professional wrestling through the rest of 2010 will be tied in with Ring of Honor. To put this in context, if the story of ROH signing Richards to a new deal is true, then they will have locked in Davey Richards, one of the independent wrestling scene’s current hottest names into their booking plans. Richards at the top of ROH is a very exciting prospect and something that may be the key to the future success of the company.

Counting down my personal favorite wrestlers and moments of the past week in wrestling:

1.Straight Edge Society: CM Punk has his cult-persona down to a tee, and the last two weeks have been some downright inspired promos and interactions with his members of the Straight Edge Society. I’m appreciative that Serena Deeb has been placed into a longer term position with this angle, and so far her performances as the insanely-devoted “Mary Magdalene” (in Matt Striker’s words) have delivered. What’s better is this week we were able to see an in-ring match between Triple H and CM Punk, which just a few years ago seemed improbable to happen. Punk held his own against Triple H both on the mic and in the ring—he came out pretty much even against Hunter, which these days is usually as good as you can get against the top dog in the WWE.

2. Dule Hill and Alicia Fox are not psychic : Much credit to Dule Hill because not only did he find himself having to guest host Raw without his Psych co-host James Roday, but he became one of the more fun and entertaining aspects of the show. Hill is a real good actor (as seen on both Psych and on The West Wing) and he was able to fit in seamlessly with the WWE by playing up his enthusiasm for being the guest GM. The best part of the night was the interaction he had with the (fine) Alicia Fox, who he immediately tried to make a play for…but he got more than bargained when his flirtation ended with a threatening undertone. Fox promised to make him pay if his “prediction” of her winning the match against Gail Kim went wrong. Well, it did, and she did, unleashing an awesome slap to the face. Best line of the night though was right before the slap, after an exasperated Hill had just tried to explain his way out of trouble, and left with nothing to say, added “I like your shoes”. Perfect deadpan moment.

3. Kevin Steen: my personal favorite performances of the two ROH DVDs I watched this week (see below). Steen as a face is something very special, and I love the hell out of him trading barbs with his opponents in the ring.

4. Shawn Michaels vs. Rey Mysterio: These two have only wrestled once or twice previously (including one time at the Eddie Guerrero Raw tribute show if I recall properly), so this has always been a personal dream match. I think their styles work well together, even now when they are both older and slowed down by injuries. Yet both did a fantastic job of moving the pace up and down during their match and creating some exciting and unique moments (Rey’s reversals into a huricanrana, HBK borrowing the springboard into a superkick spot he did against Shelton Benjamin a few years back). This one was fun while it lasted, despite the Batista interference and disqualification ending.

5.Maryse: “No, I don’t accept your apology!” spoken with a French accent. Awesome. Maryse is a true guilty pleasure to watch. It took a few years (remember her doing useless bumpers for Smackdown a few years back?), but she found her true persona in WWE.

As of 01/30/10

ROH World Champion: Austin Aries (champion since 06/13/09, 13 successful defenses)

–defeated Tyler Black & Jerry Lynn on June 13th, 2009 in a Three-Way Elimination Match in New York, NY to win the championship.

Next Defense: vs. Tyler Black (New York, NY on 02/13/10)

–Austin Aries defeated Nigel McGuinness in Chicago Ridge, IL on 6/27/09
–Austin Aries defeated Tyler Black, Jerry Lynn, & Nigel McGuinness in Toronto, Ontario on 7/24/09
–Austin Aries defeated Grizzly Redwood in Philadelphia, PA on 8/14/09
–Austin Aries defeated Alex Payne in Philadelphia, PA on 8/15/09
–Austin Aries defeated Bryan Danielson in Philadelphia, PA on 8/15/09
–Austin Aries defeated Bryan Danielson in Chicago Ridge, IL on 9/19/09
–Austin Aries defeated Petey Williams by countout in New York, NY on 9/26/09
–Austin Aries defeated Delirious in Collinsville, IL on 10/9/09
–Austin Aries defeated Davey Richards, Kenny Omega, & Roderick Strong in Philadelphia, PA on 11/5/09
–Austin Aries defeated Davey Richards in Novi, MI on 11/13/09
–Austin Aries defeated Kenny Omega in Mississauga, Ontario on 11/14/09
–Austin Aries defeated Colt Cabana in a Steel Cage Match in Chicago Ridge, IL on 12/5/09
–Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black ended in a 60 minute time limit draw in New York, NY on 12/19/09

ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) (champions since 12/19/09, 1 successful defense)

defeated The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) on December 19th, 2009 in New York, NY to win the championship.

Next Defense: vs. Dark City Fight Club (New York, NY on 02/13/10)

–Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated The Young Bucks in Philadelphia, PA on 1/9/10

Pick 6 Series
Rankings as of: 01/10/10
1. Claudio Castagnoli
2. Kevin Steen
3. Chris Hero
4. Kenny King
5. Tyler Black
6. Roderick Strong

The Pick 6 Series matches currently scheduled for January 29, 2010 in Los Angeles, CA are as follows:

-(6) Roderick Strong vs. Delirious
-(5) Tyler Black vs. Joey Ryan
-The Human Tornado vs. (2) Kevin Steen

-In breaking news it appears that Ring of Honor has filed suit in Bucks County, PA against Ric Flair for $40,000 in damages stemming from the fallout of his appearances (or lack thereof) for the company in 2009. The report, according to PWInsider.com is that ” ROH says that Ric Flair was signed to make five appearances for the company, at $10,000 per appearance. Flair did not make the appearance in Montreal in July of 2009, and failed to repay the $10,000 that was paid to him for the event. Also, the suit alleges that Flair came to terms with the company to appear in an authority figure role on the ROH TV show. Flair was paid $35,000 for the TV appearances and only made one appearance. The second taping is when Flair showed up, and made a brief announcement to the crowd that he was resigning due to his relationship with WWE.”

This was the best decision to make right now for ROH if they had any hope of recovering the money from Flair. It was obvious he wasn’t interested in paying them back any time soon for the money owed, nor likely the financial resources to do so. There may now be some money that can be collected if they win the suit as he has the new one-year deal with TNA and is back in the wrestling spotlight.

-Remember how ROH was looking to broadcast its television show to international markets? Well, the first steps to that happening occurred this week as (according to PWInsider.com) ROH signed a television deal to bring their show to Italy. They signed a deal with Dahlia TV, a pay- channel on Digital Terrestrial to begin airing the shows in February (just in time for the new TV Title tournament) as well as a series of “best of ROH in 2009” specials. Not too shabby a start there for beginning a broader international exposure, let’s see if they can make agreements elsewhere as well.

-The final four wrestlers included in the ROH Television Title tournament include Davey Richards, Colt Cabana, Kenny King and the number one seed Kevin Steen. The tournament brackets are as follows: 1) Kevin Steen vs. 8) Rhett Titus, 3) Colt Cabana vs. 6) Eddie Edwards, 5) Delirious vs. 4) Davey Richards, 7) El Generico vs. 2) Kenny King.

There are some interesting combinations created by this current seeding chart—although as noted by some already, this bracket diverts slightly from accepted tournament placement by switching the 3/6 and 4/5 brackets (usually the advantage of being number one seed means you face typically weaker competition en route to the finals). The tournament also includes many of the possibilities for a final based on current storylines and feuds including the Kevin Steen and El Generico issue (both are in separate brackets and could meet in the finals), and an “American Wolves explode” sort of face-off between Eddie Edwards and Richards in the finals. Kenny King and Rhett Titus, frequent tag partners are also on opposite ends of the tournament and could meet in the finals. King is a strong favorite to win in part to those backstage being very high on his performances in the ring and on promos (and generally speaking, rightly so). Cabana would also be an interesting fan favorite choice as someone who pops off the television screen and really appeals to the fans, although with the news of the Davey Richards re-signing with ROH now brings his chances up more than before.

Survival of the Fittest 2009 Thoughts

There seems to be no one in the building. It’s Indianapolis, which ROH has only run a few times but man, it’s like a paper thin crowd the way the ring side space is laid out.

Cornette is out to start a show, for the second DVD in a row. Already I’m getting sick of this opening pandering to the crowd—shut up and wrestle, dammit.

Claudio Castagnoli’s backstage promo is just awesome—he brings out a bag of popcorn—taunts the fans at home with it and smushes the kernels!

Truth Martini has the mic and pumps up his team—which for the record is now nine minutes and three promos before a wrestling match—yay!

The stationary camera looks plausibly better but only because I think it’s far closer to the ring because of the small venue space and crowds. Even then, the white light problems remain. It makes the referee and Nick Jackson looks like they have jaundice. The ref is bald so it looks like he stuck his head too many times in the shine-o ball-o machine.

Colt Cabana and Kevin Steen made me laugh out loud several times with their shenanigans in their SOTF qualifier—clearly one of the better comedy matches in years. Steen asserts that he’s not that heavy…hmm…is that a bald faced, white or what you tell to yourself to feel better at night? The finish to the match involves Steen supposedly hurting his knee and then Colt and Steen supposedly cutting their match short. It certainly makes one question the finish now that fans know that Steen was using his previous knee injuries as a front to cover-up the impending heel turn on El Generico.

There is a very good promo by Strong before his qualification match—he’s improving by (as I’ve referenced this before) KISS—keeping it simple, Strong. He is talking slower, with more emphasis and more gravity in what he says. It works wonders in creating the impression that not only is he a cool wrestler, but also a serious contender for the ROH World Title.

Strong vs. Titus is real solid with nice back and forth, smooth moves, harsh chops but the finish was a bit anti-climactic and wonky with Strong’s powerbomb not hitting as fast as usual and in a weird spot in the ring. This was a bit of a pattern I think for this show—matches that had a good beginning, really good middle, great near falls and then something slightly wonky on the finish that maybe deflates the crowd just enough to be noticed.

Tyler Black becomes super-aggressive from the get-go against Kenny King by booting him and stomping him right as the bell rings- now WHY can’t he do that EVERY TIME! This match gets very good in a hurry—both men are on the ball here in everything they do. Then It gets REALLY good by the finish, with some innovative reverses and maneuvering out of the bigger offensive moves. Despite a quiet hushed crowd for this one, easily my favorites match of the show so far.

Petey Williams’ promo gets credit for an interesting setting (outside on top of a truck while Petey is doing resistance band curls) and is mostly confident…he just needs to pull back in some extraneous language that cuts into his overall words and effect (like when he blanked out on Claudio’s country of origin). Yet Claudio-Petey is a fun big man vs. little man match that shows that Williams has his uses in ROH, but probably should have been in the undercard as opposed to challenging for the main event against Austin Aries in the fall of 2009. Some funny muscle poses-offs and then chain sequences (awesome octopus and later on a 619 arm drag that’s a beauty) and roll-up trade-offs. This may have been the match to turn me around on Petey in ROH, but by now it’s probably too late for him.

Shane Hagadorn looks like a doofus with that hat on backwards, but then again I guess that’s the point. Hero gets some “Chris is Awful” chants and his apoplectic reaction to it is priceless. Again a really good match that the crowd gets into more and more as it goes on but again a finish that the crowd doesn’t quite know how to react. Hero gets the KO elbow and covers, the ref count is slower in cadence than normal, gets to three and Omega has his shoulder up just a bit after, but that’s the match. A minute later Omega pushes the ref away is seeming frustration (although that could have been kayfabe). Still, a really nice effort from both men and so far this is one of the more solid ROH shows in quite a while.

Davey Richards throws down one of the students from his chair and a fan yells out “that’s my favorite part of the night right there.” Heh. He may have a point. He and Austin Aries match up against The Briscoes in a solid bout that again (notice the pattern) becomes REALLY good in the middle of it, when Aries and Richards play the competitive game by seeing just how much they can beat down the opposition.

The Survival of the Fittest finals has some nice foreplay in the opening moments, with hero and Claudio forging a bond (again foreshadowing their reunion) while the faces force Hero and Claudio to wrestle when they drop down from the ring, one-by-one, so that neither man can tag out. The match though is really about the final two men in the ring when it’s down to Strong vs. Black. These two tear the house down with the false finishes. Each demonstrates a massive will to win by kicking out of their major moves and it gets the crowd behind…well one of them anyway. They strongly favor Roderick to win here, with multiple and passionate chants for his name. Strong’s fire and comeback when taking the four superkicks at the end again really show to me that he is ready for a go with the ROH World Title. Again, the finish is slightly wonky (although it was meant to be) when Black gets the pin but Strong seemingly got the shoulder up just a few hundredths of a second before the ref counts three. That finish again takes some wind out of the sails for the crowd, but they show an immense and admirable respect by cheering for both men and reacting positively to Tyler Black at the end of the show, including Black slapping hands and signing autographs as he makes the “victory lap” around the ring.

Boiling Point Thoughts:

Camera issues are much better here for this event in Edison, New Jersey (11/07/09), including the stationary camera and picking up the little things about wrestler’s entrances (for the first time the camera zooms in and back on Kenny Omega’s “Hadouken” from the stage, thus making throwing his hands out to throw an invisible fireball actually seem a bit more real. It’s the appearances that count for making the largest impact / impression.

Kenny King has a tremendous promo about his match with Tyler Black. He is proving all the big talk about him from the behind the scenes guys like Hogewood and Lagana are on the mark. We’ll see where it takes him in 2010, but good start for him with this serious promo on Black. It’s a bit of a misdirect though, because King vs. Black is quickly thrown out due to a set-up by Austin Aries and Rhett Titus. Cabana and Grizzley Redwood are out and so is Cornette, who gives the heels an ultimatum—come back and wrestle in a six-man tag or kiss their jobs goodbye. Now THAT’s ruling with authority that works-the crowd definitely is into it.

They have a really fun six-man. Colt and Tyler have surprisingly great chemistry as a tag team combination—maybe I’m having flashbacks to Punk and Colt as the Second City Saints, I dunno. Still, both here and on the 1/18/10 edition of the HDNet show they made a good pairing against Aries and his partners-in-crime. Also remarkable in this match is that Grizzley redwood gets some time to shine—against Austin Aries of all people. Not only that, but the fans really take well to it and Grizzley getting the advantage looks believable and not at all silly (i.e. no axehandles to the kneecap). Could it be that Grizzley is finding his groove in ROH and the fans (at least in New York and New Jersey) are in support for him?

Delirious calls Roderick Strong “meatrod” in a promo…and then takes a line-up of chops from the ROH students for extra strength conditioning and “chop to the chest resistance”. I think they use crash test dummies and college students in need of cash to measure “chop to the chest resistance”, but Delirious would qualify as well.

Daizee Haze looks particularly fetching on this show. Just saying.

Pick 6 standings ARE listed during the Roderick Strong vs. Delirious match AND there is a recap of the standing after the last Pick 6 match on a show, including a countdown and putting up the picture of the number one man on the list, in this case Strong. That is an excellent, commendable move—its viewer friendly and keeps continuity as best as possible. That’s the sort of little thing, work on minutiae I ask for out of ROH and I’m glad to get it here.

Strong tries to cover Delirious due to his static coma pre-bell ring, but it doesn’t work because Delirious immediately kicks out.

Chris Hero adds perhaps what may be the first time anyone has helped to explain Strong’s psychology for using backbreakers when he states that wrestlers lose feelings in their legs and that takes away from their ability to kick out of pinfall attempts. That’s a pretty genius explanation and the sort of thing that really helps to put over what a wrestler is doing in the ring. Hero has been a bit of a mixed bag on commentary but this was him on the better end of things.

At any rate, Strong finally defeats Delirious is a really good match, albeit something we have seen several times before over the years.

Steen & Generico vs. Hero & Richards was the “Kevin Steen & Friends” hour. Steen shined so well in this match, from his early match comedy to his late match comeback to the post match promo which was one of the funnier monologues he’s done—Steen was THE man here, and everyone else wasn’t far behind. These guys had their working boots on and made a match that would have been middle of the card on the bigger shows such as a Final Battle and turned into something very enjoyable and worthy of the main event spot.

Hero and Richards were on point with their moves, Generico aside from a minor bobble towards the end of the match was his usual awesome self, Eddie Edwards got over (and he wasn’t even wrestling!) when Hero pointed out to the camera how his elbows would be that much more impressive when he came back from injury even Hagadorn had a nice moment mixing it up with the fans in verbal back and forth.

However, like I said, Steen was the star of the match. His open mocking of Chris Hero (“Oh no are you gonna knock me out?” then jumping to the turnbuckle in fear) was incredible. Then he goes crazy with a verbal diatribe against Hero when Generico was getting beat up on the outside. There is even the awesome referencing of Steve Austin when Richards gave Steen the double middle finger salute and Steen beats him to the punch, errr, gut kick and then does the double middle fingers himself, ending it all with the Stone Cold Stunner! Then there was Steen screaming “it’s okay I got him” IN MID-AIR IN MID FROG SPLASH after Generico botched the splash. Steen propping up Generico after the match (he had been flash KO-ed by Hero’s” loaded” Golden Elbow pad) and saying “The ropes are your friend”—just so much awesome stuff to love and to laugh and to enjoy about this match and his efforts in it.

It was a match that had comedy, but wasn’t afraid to turn on the action when it got serious and you had all four using their best moves, including Richards’ electric transition into a tombstone and Generico landing the Yakuza kick to Richards (who was on the top rope) and then blasting him with a dangerous looking turnbuckle piledriver, where Richards landed on the second turnbuckle, not the top turnbuckle—still that made the ultra crazy move come across as even more devastating than usual.

I think this show may have gotten a bad rap certainly some mixed reviews in the days after the show from a number of sources. Actually, it’s a pretty good show all-in-all. Not mind-blowing, but a very fun one to watch. The line-up on paper isn’t much, but aside from Stevens & Ryan vs. Necro & Mark Briscoe, all the rest of the matches overachieved. There are the occasional shows that just translate better onto DVD and I think this may be one of those kind of shows. Plus ROH threw in the kitchen sink in terms of extras—not just the multiple bonus matches (everything that was left off from The Hunt Begins and Tag Title Classic that wasn’t used yet) but during the main feature as well. There are lots of extra promos—and good ones at that, not only well spoken by the wrestlers but well lit, well filmed and definitely entertaining.

If I were there live, I may have been upset by the lack of a major title match or the bait-and-switch of Kenny King vs. Tyler Black, but that resulted in a really fun six-man tag that I think was worth the switch out. Also, I may have been slightly insulted by a Bobby Dempsey vs. Tony Kozina match on the main card, but it was kept short and inoffensive. Yes, a match like Strong vs. Delirious is a pairing which long time ROH fans have seen several times over the years, but it worked for the live crowd and no matter what it’s always a pleasure to see Strong level his opponents with those chops (and Delirious managed to do well in those chop exchanges-as we learned from the pre match vignette where he let all the students chop him to build up his chop endurance levels). Steen & Generico vs. Richards & Hero doesn’t scream “main-event” level match at all, but they definitely pulled it out and created a worthy finale to the show, one that the fans definitely reacted to, enjoyed and were satisfied with when it was over.

Somehow, ROH was able to take all of these matches and put them together into a very solid, very entertaining package. In other words, while a show like Final Battle 2009 was outstanding in parts but perhaps not as a whole, this show is the very definition of the parts adding up to a far better whole professional wrestling show.

Is this a “must-buy” show? No, probably not—and as I’ve written previous ROH could use as many of those shows as possible in order to increase their DVD sales. However, I would recommend the show without hesitation if anyone is looking to sample ROH or if you need or want to add on shows for a sale, then you absolutely won’t go wrong with this one.

Plus, Jimmy Rave fans going through withdrawal have the bonus of watching him vs. Albright from Tag Title Classic and seeing / hearing some of the most ungodly loud chops in the world.

-Also, a big difference between now and a few years ago are the quality of the backstage promos. They used to be filmed in darkness or in horrible locations where you could hear a lot of background noise (although sometimes that happens now and again in this era, it’s a lot less distracting). Of course there were the infamous promos during Race to the Top Tournament in 2007 that looked like they were filmed to portray someone on a bad LSD trip. Now, they are shot with good quality cameras, usually in well lit locations that look clean and professional (i.e. not the bathroom like they used to do in 2002) and with really good audio quality as well—using microphone and perhaps (though I don’t know for sure) a boom mic of some sort. At any rate, I wanted to throw kudos to the ROH production staff and crew who film these segments and I hope they keep them coming.

Great to see the PWO champ, Ohio-bred Gargano getting some recognition on 411. Definitely a future Big Two superstar. Well, if there is a Big Two by then.

Posted By: Acid (Guest) on January 23, 2010 at 01:54 PM

I think Gargano is heading for bigger and better things this year, as evidenced by a slightly higher profile thus far in both Dragon Gate USA and EVOLVE events in January. I think momentum is on his side and especially if he continues to make the most of his new outreach via the Johnny Gargano Power Hour series on YouTube.

Continuing the conversation about awards and when to decide upon them:

Not to draw your ire Ari, because I love your columns, but why does everyone have to do their year end awards right at the end of December? To your point everyone wants to get their awards out by the end of December, so people rush to change the idea of when the year starts and ends to them. Why not justwait an extra month/month and a half and do your Top 100 matches at the end of Febuary? Then you will actually HAVE the top 100 matches of the actual year, not top 100 of that span of 1 years time.Just pondering. Oh, and my pick for TV Champ is Kenny King for those throwing names in the hat.

Posted By: SMYK (Guest) on January 23, 2010 at 12:43 PM

It’s a very decent point that you mention—BUT I think the answer is in the very comments you made. There is this natural compulsion to consider the previous year at the end of that year. On the other hand, many different major award ceremonies run counter to that thought—the Grammy’s are this weekend and the Oscars are in the beginning of March. Then again, other awards ceremonies such as the MTV Awards are always in the Fall—hardly a good measure of the specific calendar year of music, but they still go with it. I began my awards with the annual Final Column in 2005 because I wanted something major for that series and had to go with the shows I was up to at that point, but I did not want to disqualify the other matches from that year that could have qualified for the list but for the fact I was not in a position to watch them at that point. At this point it’s a system that works for me that while it’s not a perfect calendar year is still equitable and fair in its consideration of all of the possible Ring of Honor matches that they can wind up on the list as opposed to being ignored.

Minor problem with your fantasy booking, ROHbot….Kong’s not officially gone from TNA.

Posted By: Guest#3418 (Guest) on January 23, 2010 at 04:38 PM

Awww…ROHbotron 3000’s feelings have been hurt, although technically you are correct in that Kong has not been officially released from her contract with TNA. Not to mention she could have a no-compete or some other prohibitive stipulation built into her contract. That doesn’t change my opinion that a Kong vs. Melissa special attraction match would be a good addition to any upcoming ROH card and that it would draw and receive some good attention from the independent wrestling fan base. Also unless you’re being mean, Kong doesn’t count for nineteen female wrestlers on the roster—I was writing about one specific match, one specific special attraction, two specific wrestlers. If ROH is willing to put Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Larry Zybysko on one of their shows, then I don’t think it’s asking for too much that if it’s possible due to logistics and availability that ROH would book Kong versus Melissa, thank you very much.

Ever seen Cassandro perform? He’s at a level above 90% of the RoH roster, and I LIKE RoH.

Posted By: Spike (Guest) on January 23, 2010 at 10:31 PM

I can’t say with one-hundred percent certainty, but I believe I have seen Cassandro wrestle a handful of matches and my recollection of his matches was that I wasn’t impressed. Yet, I could be wrong and Cassandro could actually be a heck of a wrestler and help to sell tickets for their “Big Bang” event. I just know that I am not interested in watching this event as a crossover of ROH and Lucha Libre. I am not going to the show, so I am also not part of the audience they are targeting for purchasing tickets, but I am one of many ROH fans who purchases DVDs and considers putting down the money for internet Pay Per View (of which this will be one). The whole thing just makes me uneasy and not very motivated to spend my cash on the show.

On the subject of the seminars and not booking top PWG & Chikara talent, it’s a bit moot since guys like Tornado and Scorpio Sky are being booked for ROH’s WrestleReunion shows in LA. But that said, why should ROH book every semi-popular indie talent? Doing so overexposes those guys, making ROH’s shows less distinct because you’re going to be seeing the same matches you see in PWG, Chikara, NWA, and so on. And some of the guys in question, like Chuck Taylor, just don’t seem like a good fit for ROH’s roster. Taylor’s a great talent, but his offense is based mostly around indy high spots and he tends to mostly work comedy matches. ROH has got a shit ton of comedy guys right now in Colt, Titus, Joey Ryan, Grizzly, Osiris, and so on. Sure, Taylor’s probably better than some, but he’d likely get lost in the shuffle. That said, I wouldn’t mind seeing Scott Lost and Joey Ryan bringing the Dynasty to ROH when Ryan inevitably gets kicked out of the Embassy (or Nana brings Lost into it).

Posted By: Guest#6903 (Guest) on January 24, 2010 at 12:14 PM

I disagree with your take on Taylor-I think he’s a great personality and would make a really good antagonist for almost any babyface on the ROH roster. As far as why ROH should book every popular indie talent, well the question answers itself—you book the popular “super” indy guys, you build a stronger card with more guaranteed good-to-great matches, your show appeals to a larger percentage of the customer base and thus improve your DVD sales. One of the things I am honestly puzzled about is why ROH isn’t trying to attract more of the name wrestlers on the independent scene and incorporating them into their roster. It’s what has worked for them since the very start of the promotion, but nowadays they seem content to bring lesser known names or use students instead of creating a stronger, more impressive roster of “name” talents. Yes, Tornado, Lost, Sky and a few others were booked for the LA show, but will they become regulars on other ROH shows not on the West Coast? Only Tornado so far has been announced for additional bookings. Lost, Sky, Taylor and many others on the CHIKARA and PWG rosters at that level are more than ready for bookings in ROH.

Head on over to TwitterNation and follow me at: http://twitter.com/AriBerenstein.

This week’s 411 Buy or Sell has Kevin Ford and Jasper Gerretsen discussing the ROH TV Title and some CHIKARA and Wrestle Reunion weekend.

Speaking of Jasper, his That Was Then, Is This Too? column discusses Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli’s reformation of the Kings of Wrestling. It’s a great column, so ROH fans should definitely check it out and give it a read.

Aaron Hubbard has your ROH on HDNet report for this week with a depressed El Generico versus Kenny King in the main event.

In closing:

That will do it this week for the column. As always, thanks for reading and feedback is appreciated!

BROOKLYN!
–Ari—