Column of Honor 08.07.10: World’s Greatest

Welcome to the Column.

Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, known as “The World’s Greatest Tag Team” in WWE, will wrestle ROH World Tag Team Champions The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) at the Glory By Honor IX internet Pay Per View on September 11th in New York City’s Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center. The announcement came through a video package that played at the end of this week’s episode of Ring of Honor on HDNet.

The announcement was made official coming off the end to Shelton Benjamin’s ninety-day no-compete clause and ROH has wasted no time in promoting the match both on that video and on their website, where there is already a “statement” released from the duo. It reads in part:

The so-called Kings of Wrestling are the ROH World Tag Team Champions! ROH is your backyard; we are just guests. But make sure you bring your ‘A’ game, because rest assured WGTT will be at the top of ours. WGTT promises that the KOW has never been challenged by a more aggressive, tenacious, and well schooled wrestling tag team. We are angry and more motivated than ever before to prove why we are WGTT. WGTT now stands for “Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team” and on September 11th we will once again show the world why.

Haas and Benjamin are going to be coming into Ring of Honor with a lot of hype and promotional effort behind their appearance. They are already facing ROH’s top tag team of the moment (although it remains to be seen whether or not the titles will be on the line) in a prominent, marquee match at one of Ring of Honor’s bigger events of the year. Needless to say, there will be some very interested parties, both live in attendance and watching through the internet, watching and waiting to see if Benjamin and Haas are capable of living up to the main event ROH style. ROH is very proud not just of their stability but of presenting some of the best tag team wrestling matches over the last eight years of the promotion’s history.

Charlie Haas was released from WWE on February 28th, but hasn’t wrestled much on the independent scene aside from a few shows with Jersey All Pro Wrestling. There have been rumors (that still persist) ever since Benjamin was released from WWE that he would be appearing in TNA. However, most recently he wrestled in Puerto Rico for the WWC, winning their Heavyweight Title last week. Now both men will wrestle together for Ring of Honor as The World’s Greatest Tag Team. It has been several years since they worked under that moniker, but arguably both men are at their best as a duo rather than singles.

Shelton Benjamin did have a real shot at elevating himself during his solo run in 2004, but his run stalled out and then leveled off for the rest of his stay with WWE. The heel turn in 2006 did not work out best for him either, because his strengths were his athleticism and working heel neutralized his more spectacular moves and moments in the ring.

Meanwhile, Haas’s second run with WWE (after being released in 2005 and returning a short time later) was filled with lower card tag team runs. His best moments during this run were a take-off of the Stevie Richards impersonation gimmick, using personas like Haas Hogan and Steve Haastin. It was very entertaining and showed a different side of the accomplished collegiate amateur wrestler, but unfortunately it didn’t last.

It will be interesting to see how the ROH fans respond to Haas and Benjamin, now both removed from but still very heavily associated with their WWE run. Ring of Honor fans appreciate great wrestlers and Haas and Benjamin surely qualified. However, they can also be very fickle and partisan to wrestlers they have associated and labeled as “ROH guys”. The Kings of Wrestling are the clear heels, but do remain popular with the New York crowd. Haas and Benjamin are the faces by default in this equation, but will need to quickly establish themselves in New York City as being “as good as the hype”. If World’s Greatest Tag Team can deliver in the ring, they will likely not have any problems with the fan base…or Ring of Honor fans may choose to go “Jeff Hardy” (or more recently “Tyler Black”) on them and boo them anyway.

Both Benjamin and Haas have demonstrated in the past that each is capable of being a superior wrestler, especially when working together under the “World’s Greatest” moniker. However, on September 11th they step up with a team that in 2010 has cemented itself as the greatest tag team in Ring of Honor in the Kings of Wrestling. They have the belts to prove it. It will be a battle to see if “World’s Greatest” (or “Wresting’s Greatest”) is simply a name that either team calls themselves or if one of those teams truly deserves that high praise.

Its summer time and the women are looking fine! Yes, that even goes for Ring of Honor shows, as I’ve notice quite the considerable uptick in good looking girls in the audience, believe it or not. Must be Rhett Titus pulling them in. Anyway, what’s better than looking good but feeling good and what’s better than feeling good but wearing good! Ring of Honor is right there for you with all the goodness and that means a whole slew of new fashionable looks for the style-smart Ring of Honor fan. So let’s take a look at what brought about such an oxymoronic state of play in this new edition of The Black T-Shirt squad!

American Wolves—Red, White & Blue / The Hunt Never Dies

Description: Your very “angry young man” black T-shirt with a fancy vertical design on the right side. A beating heart has been ripped open by a set of ferocious claws and is bleeding red, white and blue down the shirt. Vertical “American Wolves” logo on the front, “The Hunt Never Dies” catchphrase written on the back, also bleeding red, white and blue.

Hip: Ah this shirt is true Americana—nothing says more about the good ol’ U S of A and its people than our bleeding heart liberals and the conservatives who want to slash them apart! Yes, this shirt is a symbolic metaphoric parallelism of American politics! Don’t be a socialist and buy this shirt already! Smackdown Your Vote!

Zip: “The Hunt Never Dies” sounds like some rejected Bond movie name. Also is contradicted by the bleeding on the shirt—the shirt is dying dammit! The Hunt is about to die, and the shirt, which is dying with it is lying about its health! Typical Americans, denying their medical problems until it’s too late to do anything about it. That’s what you get for approving OBAMACARE!

Wear or Tear?: This is actually one of the coolest ROH shirts ever designed…it has a great idea and goes full bore with the theme. The “red, white and blue” works exceedingly well as a contrast to the black base. Plus, the vertical design is a new one for ROH and it’s a unique look that works well. All jokes aside, this is the shirt to buy either through the website or live at the shows.

Grade: A+

A-Double—The Greatest Man

Description: Celebrate the life and times of the greatest man, A-Double, Austin Aries, with this T-shirt. A-Double pops off some fireworks with his own image on the shirt, stars flying and lots of action, all celebrating the fact that Austin Ares is indeed the man.

Hip: I like starbursts and this shirt has plenty of stars and plenty of bursts. Wearing this around any ROH show and other fans can truly pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars. They can make a wish right now, a wish right now, a wish right now on your T-shirt. I do like that the phrase at the bottom works two ways—the full “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived” and its ultimate minimalist reduction “Greatest Ever”. Yeah, that is just about the greatest ever statement on a T-shirt.

Zip: Austin Aries has spent too much time out in the sun on the beach! He is turning super-pink in his head, arms and legs, not to mention ultra-white in his abs and stomach! Holy “Violet, you’ve gone violet!” Batman! Put on some suntan lotion! Also contrary to this new fangled era in fashion, it is not true that real men wear pink. EVER.

Wear or Tear?: If you’re an A-Double fan, the choice is obvious. If you hate the man, maybe buy the shirt and burn it. Still, all-in-all it’s a very nicely done shirt and worth your money.

Grade: A-

Necro Butcher—Skull

Description: Oh look, it’s a new Necro Butcher T-shirt. It has a skull. And blood. Lots of blood. And a skullet. And the name “Necro Butcher”.

Hip: Well, judging from the hairstyle this corpse is sporting, this guy must have been a ‘hip’pie, so there’s that.

Zip: If it’s Saturday, it must be a new Necro Butcher shirt with a skull on it. Honestly, is there any other kind? Given that Necro is now a part of The Embassy, it would have been preferable to see a new shirt that reflects his new allegiance. Perhaps a take-off on one of those “tuxedo and bowtie” numbers, only this one would be a “crown jewel robe within a suit”. If Necro can be a good ol’ fashioned fashion nightmare, then so should the Ring of Honor fan! Then again, this shirt could do the trick just as well.

Wear or Tear?: I’m assuming most Necro fans have at least one of his previous shirts sporting a skull design , so another one would be redundant at this point, especially when they need to use their Unemployment debit cards for more important necessities, such as food, water and shoes.

Grade: F

Colt Cabana—I (Jewish Star) Colt

Description: Baby blue T-shirt with royal blue print. Text is a take-off of “I (heart) ______” T-shirts, with the Star of David replacing the heart symbol.

Hip: Mazel Tov! This shirt will help to show your support of Colt Cabana while also telling the world that you’re a real mensch. The Jewish Star in place of the heart is a very genius touch which would make bubeh and tateh say how proud of you they are while pinching your cheeks and fixing you a nice snack. Also, the generic use of the word “Colt” allows for a diversity of interpretations of the word (it could be a horse, a malt liquor or maybe it’s your boyfriend or girlfriend or your own name) and that will make your shirt appear very open-minded.

Zip: A darker blue and white contrast would have been a better choice for the color palette to evoke the nationalistic pride of Israelites the world around. Also The Star of David may be misread by the uneducated youth as a Pentagram, which could lead to wrongful persecution of the wearer as some sort of devil worshipper. But us Jews are used to persecution, so tough through it.

Wear or Tear?: The Jewish Diaspora spread the people of Israel through many different countries, but if you wear this shirt perhaps the Moshiach will come much sooner and reunite the Jews, one nation under Colt.

Grade: B

There you go; more Ring of Honor shirts off the rack and into your closet. The winners this time around are the American Wolves and Austin Aries, while Necro Butcher would be the one to give to the goodwill. Come to think of it, I don’t think they would take that shirt either. Until next time, wear your honor with pride!

-There were a few major announcements and launches this week from Ring of Honor besides the debut of The World’s Greatest Tag Team at Glory By Honor IX.

First of all, ROH launched a dedicated Glory By Honor IX sub-site at http://www.rohwrestling.com/glorybyhonor/. The page sports a sleek look, using logos and fonts for a creative and dynamic look. It may be the best website design for an official ROH page to-date. There are links to order the internet Pay Per View through Go Fight Live, order tickets to the show and to watch video and other media related to the date. The sub-site looks to be updated over the next few weeks with match announcements and other related information. This is the first “sub-site” dedicated an ROH show and it’s a smart call to begin using this build to promote their internet Pay Per Views, which have obviously (and wisely) become the focus of ROH’s biggest shows. WWE and UFC have dedicated sub-sites for their major events and Pay Per Views, so this is one idea that was the right call to borrow from other sports-entertainment properties.

ROH also announced a 2011 return to Los Angeles during the WrestleReunion festival that runs from January 28th through 30th at Hilton Los Angeles Airport, 5711 West Century Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, 90045. This will be the second year in a row that ROH promotes an event for that show. This past January So Cal Showdown featured Austin Aries defeating Jushin Liger and an eight-man tag team war with The Briscoes and The Young Bucks against The American Wolves and The Kings of Wrestling. Tickets for the show will go on sale Friday, August 13th for VIP ticket holders to the annual convention event.

-More matches have been announced for August 27th in Richmond Virginia. ROH World Champion Tyler Black fights ROH Television Champion Eddie Edwards in non-title action. The angle here is that the challenge was made by Edwards to silence critics who have said he has not defended the TV Title as is not a worthy champion. It’s pretty amazing to think that two years ago neither man was in the main event, but now they have both developed to the point that they can fight in the main event and not only does it not feel unnatural but it actually provides some excitement and intrigue. Black also fights Edwards’ tag partner Davey Richards in non-title action the next night in Charlotte. It would be interesting to see which American Wolf, if either of them, can defeat the ROH World Champion on that weekend.

Speaking of Richards, he issued a Pick 6 challenge against Kevin Steen for the show in Richmond. Richards is currently ranked sixth and in precarious position on the contender list. If anyone above him loses, then he drops out of the list and cannot challenge for the ROH World Title. Steen is ranked third and if Richards can defeat him then he gains that spot and some more insurance that he won’t soon drop off the list. Steen’s loss would drop him to fourth, Cabana to fifth and Hero to sixth but no one who is currently on the list would drop out. There is history here, of course, in that The American Wolves spent all of 2009 warring with Kevin Steen and El Generico. Then Steen was the face and Richards the heel, but now the roles have been reversed. Steen is the obvious heel while Richards has organically shifted to play more of a face role (even though he hasn’t “officially” turned to the side of angels, it’s very obvious).

-Win a Date with Todd Sinclair! Click on this Facebook link to find out how. Some lucky girl (or guy?) will win the date of a lifetime. Winner should B.Y.O.T. (Bring Your Own Twinkies).

–CHIKARA We Must Eat Michigan’s Brain Thoughts

Why must we eat Michigan’s brain? Give me one good reason. CHIKARA is in Taylor Michigan…and there is someone we all know and love returning on this show…

Gavin Loudspeaker begins with another one of his rock n’ roll campfire songs introducing the show. It doesn’t go over as well as his past attempts.

This building they’re running in is some sort of flea market or place of commerce. It looks huge and they’ve curtained off about half of it and it still looks like they could fit in an armada. It is well-lit and has interesting décor, so it does have that going for it.

Green Ant has his most important in-ring test to date, but it’s not in tag action or against the BDK, but rather against his mentor and veteran Mike Quackenbush. Quack makes a curtain jerking appearance, which is rare these days, and it’s in a singles match, which is even rarer. Quack and Green exchange numerous painful looking holds, as both men have been practicing the art of human pretzel making. It impressed the fans though. Green eventually works his way into the cloverleaf, which hurts Quack’s back, but the shorter ring allows him to reach the ropes and within seconds Quack has applied a half crab and Green taps out. Short, but fun technical action that put over Green Ant as a rookie quickly learning hold and counterhold.

In an interesting post-script that puts over Quackenbush as a teacher and mentor, he shows Green Ant a reversal to the single leg crab, allowing Green to maneuver into one of his own. Nice little extra touch of character and the fans like it.

BDK (Pinkie Sanchez & Lince Dorado) vs. Orisian Portal: Pinkie is very, very, very angry. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he dropped the fall at the last show. Lince tries to calm him down. BDK announcer Jakob Hammermeier is nowhere to be found, no doubt still licking his wounds from that Eddie Kingston Backfist at Anniversario Elf. The fans imitate a gas leak as to annoy Pinkie and Lince. Oh…they’re hissing? Could have fooled me. The O.P. show plenty of fire and fluster the rudos, including Amasis forcing Pinkie to catch a wave and send it back., while Ophidan impresses with his roll up pinfall exchanges. The rudos cheat to gain control, but Ophidian does his wacky snake roll slam to get the hot tag to Amasis.

A minute later and Pinkie Sanchez shorts on a springboard and nearly kills himself by smacking back first onto the hard floor. Jesus that wasn’t smart. Ophidian lands his dive cleanly and then Lince overshoots his dive. That segment of the match sucked and was completely unnecessary. Luckily no one seems all that hurt from the botches and the fans do stick with the match. Pinkie rubs his posterior into Amasis for some easy heel heat. Good, rather he did that than fall flat on it outside the ring with no protection. Can I write again how stupid that was? Guess I just did.

The match continues for some time longer with another heat segment on Amasis and then a comeback from the OP, with some moves hitting and others, not so much. The coolest part of this comes when Ophidian swats a kick with another kick and hooks the leg to bring Pinkie down for a leg submission. The OP gets some nice combo moves and the pace picks up with better execution, with Pinkie killing Ophidian at one point with a spike DDT, while Lince does the same to both men off a reversal. The finish is Amasis going for Twist of Funk and Lince awkwardly reversing into a rolling cradle that spikes (intentionally? Not?) Amasis for three. The BDK continue the attack after the match until The UnStable (Gerard and STIGMA) run out for the save, which causes the BDK to bail. This was right on at points and a mess at others and honestly I expected a more controlled and clean match from all four at this point. It also was given way too much time than was needed and I think that hurt the match in the long run.

Delirious vs. Ultramantis Black: Now this should be interesting—Delirious was once Ultramantis’ pet servant and now he is in the same role but with the BDK. UMB actually gets quite the nice pop from the crowd. Guess they prefer his brand of mad villainy to that of the BDK. To his credit, while UMB usually plays the heel, he immediately picks up on the support and walks around the ringside area asking of the crowd to follow him. They say yes, which means most of them will be turned into unthinking zombies just in time for the CHIKARA: Rudo Resurrection video game. Turns out they must eat Michigan’s brain after all.

Lots of screaming. Delirious: ARRRRRHHHHHHH! Ultramantis: ARRRRHHHHHHH! Delirious: RRRRAHHHHHHH! UMB slams Delirious into a post on the building—yeouch. That sends Delirious running for cover but UMB is on the attack. Things settle back in the ring with Delirious in control. UMB throws Delirious RIGHT ON HIS HEAD with a release Regal Plex to equal it up. Ares throws the chain in the ring, which distracts the referee. Ares wants Delirious to send UMB over to him…but Ultramantis reverses and Ares and Delirious go headfirst, allowing Mantis to win with the O’Connor roll! Not the most dominating of wins, but a personal one for Mantis and the right play, considering the potential to get caught by the BDK in a dangerous beatdown. Crowd loves the win.

It’s clear we’re entering a phase in this angle where the CHIKARA guys are finally winning some of the matches and making it a more even-war, but when the BDK wins they do it through even more nefarious means than ever before.

Super Smash Brothers vs. The Colony: Straight-up technicos vs. technicos action, I’m down with that. Lots of speed and athleticism in this one early, as expected, though some awkward moments here and there as well. Again these guys should be better than that, but I’ll chalk it up to it being the first straight-up tag match they’re wrestling against each other, whereas if anything they are teaming up in atomicos matches. I particularly liked Fire Ant’s springboard senton. Dos has an awesome Matrix dodge out of Fire Ant’s step kick off the top rope and into a superkick. A fast finishing stretch ends with Fire Ant rolling up Uno off a dodge for the three. Like the BDK vs. Osirian Portal match, this was another tag bout that seemingly went on too long for its own good. I love the tag combinations from both men (SSB’s German into a Frogsplash and Alabama Slam into the knees are real impressive), but sometimes slightly less would be slightly more for these guys.

I wanted to take a short break from watching the DVD, but holy hell, Eddie Kingston vs. Bryan Danielson is next and I am NOT going to wait any longer to see it. This was Danielson’s first official match back on the independent scene. He gets the NXT “Wild & Young” theme song to start, but that is quickly scratched for the far more appropriate “The Final Countdown”. There is a huge pop for the return and even a few welcome back hugs! Dorky, yes, but genuine emotion from the fans is never a minus. The ties get thrown into the ring and Bryce gets the heck out of the way (smart move). Looks like members of the CHIKARA roster get to have some free swag after this match. They may never have to buy Father’s Day gifts again.

Danielson goes with what brought him to the dance, the technical wrestling. Kingston doesn’t like it and wants to turn it into more of a brawl, but Danielson kicks the leg and kneecap. That’s incredibly smart because not only can Danielson work that body part so well, it’s also an immediate call-back to the Dreamer vs. Kingston battle from the last show, which also had Dreamer working Kingston’s leg. That seems to be become a true weak spot for Kingston as of late. Danielson continues his repertoire of stretches and holds, but can’t get Kingston all the way up for the Mexican surfboard because Kingston is too “fat” (hey, Danielson’s words, not my own).

Kingston finally gets Danielson to fight a more strike oriented battle, but Dragon also gets the best of that exchange. RUH-ROH, Kingston is in trouble. Bryce takes his time counting a pinfall and Danielson gives him a deathly look. Jesus Bryce, do you want to be choked with a tie? Then there are even sharper chop exchanges between the two that make all sorts of loud noises. Kingston actually gets back into the match by using of all things wrestling moves like a belly to belly suplex. However, Danielson simply outclasses Kingston by slipping into the front chancery and then right into the Cattle Mutilation.

Kingston fights back and actually impresses by getting the better of Dragon with some more suplex throws and a closeline. Dragon slips on the triangle choke but Kingston actually gets out of it. Claudio Castagnoli makes his way on the outside while both men exchange head butts, slaps, kicks and strikes. Kingston with a two on a backdrop suplex. Claudio tries to trip Kingston, but is then kicked down by Claudio. However, while Eddie is jawing with Claudio, Bryan turns him around into a small package for three. That’s the second “dream match” that the BDK has ruined for Kingston.

Kingston pays homage to Danielson who then has his heartfelt promo to the fans that was immediately put up on You Tube the night of the show.

BDK (Claudio Castagnoli, Ares & Tursas) vs. Da Soul Touchaz (Willie Richardson), Marsche Rockett, Acid Jazz (with C-Red and Diamond): Yes, Soulja Boy is horribly played out, but Da Soul Touchaz are still able to make it work for them. Richardson has taken the “Urban American Dream” homage to Dusty Rhodes to the next level with a cowboy hat and western neckerchief. Awesome. Jazz works fast and furious with Ares and then it’s the battle of the biggest as Tursas up against Richardson…or not. Tursas tags out. Well, not only is he a bully, but he is also a coward as well.

Willie has an awesome forearm shiver to Tursas’s head that has PJ Drummond’s mouth agape, but before he can follow it up Claudio trips him over to the outside. Jazz and Rockett work and awesome one-two kick combo. These guys do have some swift and cool tag efforts. DST combine to try to rock Tursas and be the first men to knock him off his feet, but Ares is right there to stop him and that’s enough time for Tursas to recover. Rockett lands on both Tursas and Ares on the floor. Claudio hits the bicycle kick from behind on Jazz and it’s a close two.

Then from out of the backstage area comes Eddie Kingston! Claudio sees him and goes for a baseball slide, but crotches himself on the bottom rope (OUCH!)…that lets Jazz get the small package (exact finish from the Danielson match) for the pinfall! UPSET of the year in CHIKARA as Da Soul Touchaz defeat the Campeones de Parejas in six-man action! C-Red’s celebration is very entertaining…and high-pitched.

Tim Donst vs. Frightmare for the Young Lions Cup: The fans chop Donst! Now THAT’s fan-interaction! A little kid headbutts Donst and he sells it! Greatness. Donst works the leg and knee, and when Frightmare tries Kneecolepsy, you can imagine what happens. Donst gives the old “I have until five!” on a break, which is a little lip service to Danielson’s rep one day before they square off (Faded Scars and Lines in Cleveland). Donst dumps Frightmare on the outside, deep into the fans. The fans are helping Frightmare back to the ring! MY god that was awesome! Donst uses the time to take off the ring pad.

Donst counters the CHIKARA Special into the Horsecollar, but Frightmare is finally able to kick him off. Donst telegraphs the ring post throw, Frightmare blocks it and Bryce covers it up, but it was a distraction all along as Donst takes a tie from his tights and wraps it around the throat! Bryce doesn’t see the tie and it’s a choke-out win for Donst! That is a dastardly and ingenious finish that plays up on current events.

F.I.S.T. & The UnStable vs. 3.0 & The Future is Now: Playing off of the last show, but instead of a four-team elimination match is rudo vs. technicos in an eight-man. There’s gonna be way too much action here to go play-by-play, so apologies in advance for that. Kevin Ford has you covered for all the moves.

This difference from other eight-man tags this past year in that it starts off with a huge brawl around the building (guys who don’t usually do ringside street fight style). Some of the camera cuts don’t work well, missing a big Helios move for instance. Scott “Jagged” Parker steals a kid’s Tiger Mask and puts it on while helping Helios to attack the rudos. Headscissors from Shane Matthews on all the rudos! Sasuke special from Helios! WOOOOO!

The heels take over and the fans give a “D-fence” chant—that may be a first pro wrestling, but I like it! Now a “Hey, ho, let’s go” Ramones-inspire chant after some UnStable heel moves. It works because Helios is able to get his Déjà vu into DDT (very impressive) and force the hot tag by moonsaulting onto Taylor on the outside. The hot tag is immediately stopped though for more heat, this time from STIGMA and Icarus. Big hot tag to 3.0, who use each other as javelins onto the rudos. Then the big dive spot, including ones from the rudos, surprisingly enough Taylor and Gerard land them pretty straight up! That was different, in a good kind of way, sometime you need that kind of variance to keep things interesting. Kicks and knee strikes follow and the 2K1 Bomb is a close call for Gerard on Matthews.

We get to the point where everyone brings their best shot (to not that much pop from the crowd, which means they’ve probably done too much), which gets us to the end game. Helios NAILS the 630 SPLASH (GOOD LORD) and that’s enough for the win. A good move to finish on-as the crowd liked that one a lot.

The DVD contains bonus footage from a dark match featuring wrestlers from CLASH Pro Wrestling: GQ & Tommy Treznik vs. J. Miller & Cameron Skyy. Skyy and GQ appear to be guys who are way into themselves (Skyy is working some sort of Vegas gimmick), while J.Milller appears to be a mute psychopath with superior athletic ability and Treznik is a brawny bearded dude who matches denim with black-and-pink tights. All appear to be in pretty good shape though and mostly impress (I especially liked Trezenik’s hybrid bulldog moves and Miller’s rebound and momentum-based attacks), so I wouldn’t mind seeing more of all of them in the future.

Time to catch up with some reader feedback from the last several columns: From 07.24.10: To Squash or Not To Squash:

I really hope Strong/Black isn’t on GBH9. I was at the last NYC show and that was the main event. If they ran the same main even twice it’d be kind of a let down. Daniels/Black could be good though. EIther way, I’m sure the show will be awesome. I can’t wait.

Posted By: Yup. (Guest) on July 24, 2010 at 01:14 AM

Well, judging from the small snippet of Jim Cornette on the ROH Videowire before he was cut off by the chaos of the Aries vs. Delirious situation, it certainly seemed that the direction would be Strong vs. Black once more in ROH, with Truth Martini lobbying for certain stipulations attached. Davey Richards and Christopher Daniels also are possible contenders and could be involved in some sort of multi-man match environment. The official title match has yet to be announced, but it is still early, with two TV tapings and three house shows to-go before Glory By Honor IX.

From 07.31.10: Parejas Increibles!:

For a tag team, Aries and Richards. The seriousness of Richards against the more comical Aries. But when it comes down to it, ROH’s two best singles guys in a super team.

Posted By: Rob (Guest) on July 31, 2010 at 02:50 AM

I like Aries and Richards together in theory, albeit it didn’t work out so well in practice. Aries and Richards teamed up against The Briscoes at last year’s Survival of the Fittest event, but Aries (champion at the time) ended up walking out on Richards, thus leading up to the Aries vs. Richards show where Richards challenged Aries for the title belt. In theory though, that is a hell of a super-team. I’d rank it right up there with “Team Work”, i.e. Aries and Danielson’s short-lived but impressive tag combination.

Ari, I know you write quite a bit about Chikara, do you prefer that promotion to Dragon Gate USA? I’d think with Gabe over at DGUSA, you’d gravitate more toward that promotion. I’m looking to supplement my ROH viewing with another top indy, and out of PWG, Chikara, and DGUSA, I’m torn between Chikara and DGUSA. Although, with Chikara coming to Baltimore in Sept, seeing it live could be the deciding factor. Plus I’m a fan of Eddie Kingston, and it seems that he’s out of ROH for the moment.

Posted By: Bartoloco (Guest) on July 31, 2010 at 09:29 PM

Bartoloco, I do prefer CHIKARA over DGUSA at this point, but I wish I could pinpoint a real solid answer as to why. I don’t follow DGUSA as regularly as I do ROH and CHIKARA. I think maybe it is that ROH and DGUSA sort of fill the same “need” or “genre” of wrestling, in that they are more serious and more action-oriented. Yes, I know that I may be missing some great match of the year contenders from some very talented wrestlers both here and from Japan, but I don’t feel compelled to buy their product the same way I do for ROH and CHIKARA (although I will definitely purchase the recent DG show with Danielson when it is released on DVD). This is also why I haven’t commented much on their PPVs or DVDs recently.

The CHIKARA vs. DGUSA scenario was fine, but also a bit of a no-brainer. I’m not all that interested in seeing a protracted stable warfare between all the Japanese factions and the road to them selecting American representatives, which seems to be taking a long, long time for a series that only runs every other month or so.

I follow CHIKARA because while they can do serious angles and action-packed matches (and they get both right), it also is a more light-hearted take on pro wrestling and it fills a different “need” in my wrestling diet. The comic-book influence in the promotion plays a part, but its more than that—I think it’s that CHIKARA’s heart and soul are right on its sleeve, while DGUSA and EVOLVE come across as a more clinical product. Maybe that has something to do with being more familiar and connected to the wrestlers on those rosters as opposed to the DGUSA roster, but that’s not quite it either. I know about and have watched wrestlers like Jon Moxley, Johnny Gargano, of course Jimmy Jacobs, Brodie Lee and more who have worked for ROH and other independents. I always love to watch Quackenbush and Jigsaw and CHIKARA DVDs. I’ve seen enough of the Japanese DG talent to know what they bring to the ring, although, yes the language barrier does limit their ability to hook me into their character, more than it ever did when DGUSA and NOAH talent wrestled for ROH.

I wrote at the end of last year about a saturation point for wrestling fans (especially those who follow multiple indies) and I think that I am currently at that point. When I was a serious and hardcore comic books collector, I sometimes had to make difficult decisions about which comic series to follow and which to drop based on my budget and time limitations. In the same way, If I add any more wrestling promotions’ DVD series to my “buy” list, I’d be spending way too much money on wrestling such that other discretionary needs wouldn’t be met (the ability to have dinner with friends, go out to the city, buy a ticket to the movies, etc.) and I’d be overloaded with too much wrestling product, even for me.

So I’ve had to make the hard choices between the different wrestling promotions out there, and right now ROH remains my number one wrestling promotion to follow and then its CHIKARA, SHIMMER and PWG in that order.

“Kings Highway & Selected Poems”, an e-book of original poetry and photographs will be available for purchase beginning on Monday, August 9th through AriBerenstein.com. The e-book is twenty-eight original poems (34 pages total) in a .pdf format, for $7.50. Purchases can be made on my website through the PayPal button (you don’t need to have a PayPal account to purchase). The poems explore the life and scenery in Brooklyn and Manhattan, from the famous Times Square to the Kings Highway train station. The route is homeward bound to the neighborhood of Old Mill Basin in Brooklyn, from childhood to adult life and back. The poems range from dramatic to light-hearted humor, but they all represent my experience in the city I love and call home. Sample poems from that e-book are already available for free on my website. More information can be found on the purchase page, which will go live on Monday. Thanks in advance for your support!

Wrestling fans and Column of Honor regulars can find some extra content through my personal website AriBerenstein.com. Column of Honor: Reborn is a redux version of the first-year of my columns covering Ring of Honor and the rest of the world of professional wrestling. These are updated editions, edited for content and appearance. I’ve re-written or added to some of the features and improved the look and flow from the early days to more closely match the contemporary style of the columns in 2010. The first four editions of Column of Honor: Reborn (covering the July 2005 events and the Summer of Punk) are available through this link. Coming soon will be the next four editions of Column of Honor Reborn covering August 2005 and James Gibson’s ROH World Title run.

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

If you’re interested in getting into MMA or any strength / conditioning program, then visit MMAprofightshop.com for your fight gear and equipment needs. The website is run by my good friend Dave Maswary, who is a wrestler, martial artist and aspiring MMA fighter. He’s trained and prepped with accomplished MMA guys in Brazil and is overall good people. Check out the website and join his Facebook Page.

As far as other wrestling articles and content go, Kevin Ford is in with a review of CHIKARA’s latest show Chikarasaurus Rex: King of Show.

Aaron Hubbard writes the 4R’s of ROH on HDNet including Daniels vs. Strong.

It’s a very busy weekend for me as I saw a concert yesterday, there is UFC 117 today and then a friend’s birthday party on Sunday and the launch of my e-book on Monday. I’ll be back next week with thoughts on CHIKARA: Faded Scars and Lines, the most recent episodes of ROH on HDNet and anything else that pops up from now until then. Thanks for reading.

BROOKLYN!
–Ari–