Column of Honor: 10.09.10: Part One: Wake Up, Shake Up

Welcome to the Column. Huge double issue this week and plenty of ROH news and reviews to cover, so let’s get to it!

Former Two-Time ROH World Champion “A-Double” Austin Aries appears to be done with Ring of Honor in a week that also included the departure (termed as “hiatuses”) of several other longer tenured Ring of Honor wrestlers, finishing up runs with HDNet television tapings that will run through the end of the year. Necro Butcher, Dark City Fight Club and Erick Stevens are the others reportedly being given time off.

ROH officials including owner Cary Silkin have described the situation as giving time away for these wrestlers to repackage and freshen up their character (which admittedly some need) and change their placement in programs and on the card.

As far as Austin Aries is concerned, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reports that ” Aries’ odds of being brought back aren’t good, which is more a locker room deal because he’s one of the companies most talented workers and talkers. Aries may have been let go earlier but former booker Adam Pearce always went to bat for keeping him.” Conflicting reports have come up as far as Aries’ contractual status with ROH, with PWinsider.com reporting that Aries contract had been up months ago.

Then on Tuesday, DGUSA and EVOLVE booker announced on his Facebook that he was looking forward to working with someone he hadn’t in a while. A few hours later Austin Aries released a statement also through Facebook claiming he had injured his sacroiliac joint during his match against Christopher Daniels at Glory By Honor IX, but continued through the match and rehabbed the injury. He wrote: “Any reports or speculation that my wrestling future is being dictated by my need for time off because of injury or poor physical condition are completely inaccurate.” Aries also claimed he was looking forward to contributing to whatever new challenges that were in store for him. It was a weird message due to content and timing and combined with the rumors about the ROH talent hiatus led to speculation of Aries’ departure. Aries was then announced as wrestling at the next EVOLVE show against Chuck Taylor on November 20th.

Aries has been a MVP for Ring of Honor—one of its ace wrestlers through the years. He deserves (and yet has not always received) credit alongside Daniels, Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, Samoa Joe, Homicide and The Briscoes for delivering key performances and overall runs that helped to shape the promotion into what it is today. No doubt he is a five tool player—a great face, a better heel, a hell of a promo, an in-ring ace and someone who can work different styles when needed. It definitely comes as a shock to see him go and it not being because of signing a contract WWE or TNA.It demonstrates that as much as some try to claim there aren’t politics in ROH, that of course there are.

ROH could use as many wrestlers with star presence and charisma like Aries. He may have been downplayed as of late in order to move him away from the World Title chase (otherwise there may have been 2,000 more rematches with Tyler Black by the end of the year). However, Aries was still very valuable in delivering great heat for his programs and had recently transitioned into an effective role as the manager of his protégés King and Titus. He also remains main event ready whenever needed, which should not be an under-looked or under-appreciated quality in today’s independent wrestling scene.

Aries debuted in Ring of Honor during a “Do or Die” match in March 2004 against Danny Daniels. After TNA pulled much of its contracted talent from making appearances for the promotion, ROH organized a one-night single elimination tournament to highlight its up-and-coming talent. Aries, Roderick Strong, Jack Evans and Alex Shelley were four of those eight wrestlers. They pulled out of the tournament and labeled themselves “Generation Next”. For the next year they became a hot heel stable bent on taking everyone else’s spots and launching themselves to the top of the promotion. Aries and Shelley were the co-leaders and brains of the operation, Strong the hard hitter and Evans the aerial specialist.

Aries’ most well-known efforts during this time frame were against Bryan Danielson, including the finals of the Survival of the Fittest tournament that year and an iconic 75-minute two-out-of three fall battle at Testing the Limit. It was the beginning of what became an five-year long series between the two wrestlers, where they would frequently square off and match both technical and physical wits.

He made a name quickly due to his in-ring ability and it was that effort and a burgeoning ability to talk to the fans and get under their skin that propelled him to the top of the promotion, ahead of even Shelley. At the very well-known Final Battle 2004 event Aries and Strong dumped Shelley out of Generation Next. Then Aries became ROH World Champion, unseating Samoa Joe and ending the then 21-month long title run that stands to this day as company record.

Aries’ first title run was promoted as Aries taking on the mantle of champion, taking on all comers and providing fantastic matches (although he was still a heel and had no compunctions about cheating to win or retain the belt). Title defense highlights included those against Colt Cabana in a steel cage match, a draw against James Gibson, and wins against Bryan Danielson and Spanky. However, the story being told was that Aries was expending too much energy and was hurt late in his title run by vicious impact moves to the neck in matches against Spanky and Low Ki. CM Punk improbably won the title from Aries at Death Before Dishonor III by focusing on the neck injury.

By this time the fans had grown to appreciate Aries both in-ring and in his personality. They turned him, Strong and Evans face by their support. That led to a huge several-months war against Prince Nana, Alex Shelley and The Embassy. Generation Next won the feud at Steel Cage Warfare. The next show, Final Battle 2005, saw Austin Aries and Roderick Strong win the ROH World Tag Team Titles from the team of Sal Rinauro and Tony Mamluke. It began a nine-month long run at the top where they carried the weight of the division, including participating in the main event of several shows against the likes of The Briscoes and Dragon Gate talent.

Aries and Strong lost the tag titles to the Kings of Wrestling at Glory By Honor V Night 2 (September 2006) and would break up at Fifth Anniversary Festival: NYC in February of 2007 when Strong turned on Aries with help from Davey Richards. That led to stable warfare in ROH, with the three remaining members of Gen Next (including Evans) forming new stables to fight against each other. Strong, Richards and Rocky Romero formed the No Remorse Corps, Aries built The Resilience with Erick Stevens and Matt Cross. It took a longer time, but Jack Evans would go on to found The Vulture Squad with Jigsaw, Ruckus and J-Train as his hype man.

There was a kink in the works of this faction warfare as Austin Aries, still contracted to TNA, upset that company (not the first time) after confusion about having to travel down to record vignettes for television. TNA benched Aries, but that meant Aries could no longer wrestle for ROH as a result of their edict that contracted wrestlers could not appear for promotions with Pay Per View or competing television. Aries remained in a limbo for two months, not being able to participate in a major ROH angle. Finally, he was released from his TNA contract and made his return (to a tremendous crowd response) at the Driven Pay Per View tapings.

Aries’ popularity with ROH fans was at an all-time high, due to his return and choosing to build his future with the company as opposed to dealing with TNA. Aries would be billed as the “ace of the company”, proving his worth in high-quality matches and winning a two out of three match series against Bryan Danielson to prove it. Although his Resilience group repeatedly lost to the NRC, Aries did win his personal feud against Roderick Strong at the Undeniable Pay Per View,

The next feud was against The Age of the Fall, who saw a darkness within Aries. Jimmy Jacobs wanted to recruit Aries to help his agenda. However, Aries saw through Jacobs’ act and wanted to prove his hypocrisy to the rest of the group and to Lacey, Jacobs’ girl. As Lacey tried to recruit Aries to the group, Aries instead convinced her to leave them. He slept with the girl and then revealed it to the whole world (and in person to Jimmy Jacobs). The resulting act led to a massive and bloody war between the two that took up the rest of 2008.

Aries ultimately won that war with consecutive victories in a chain match (Bound By Hate) and an “I-Quit” match at Rising Above on Pay Per View that included the surprise return of Lacey after she had disappeared for months after being accosted by Jacobs outside her gym. The emotional and physical scars of the long-standing grudge took their toll on Aries, leading to a heel turn where he found himself questioning why he had put himself through so much pain and torture. The fans had galvanized their support around Tyler Black and Aries, feeling left out of the crowd love, attacked Black and turned his back on the fans.

This heel turn led to a change in character, where Aries used some of the character traits from his run as “Austin Starr” in TNA to become “A-Double”. He toned down some of the more over-the-top aspects of that character and combined it with a Ric Flair-esque presence and promo. In fact, it was Aries few interactions with Ric Flair in mid-2009 that provided the final pieces to his heel run. He played off “The Nature Boy” and proclaimed he would soon better Flair. He would be “The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived.”

At Manhattan Mayhem III, Aries became the first and thus-far only two-time ROH World Champion. This title reign would last eight months and was perhaps even more important because Aries became one of the leads on the new HDNet series. He took on Kenny King and Rhett Titus as his protégés, first in an unofficial capacity and then a year later becoming their official manager. Meanwhile, Aries continued to feud against the likes of Tyler Black, Kenny Omega and Jerry Lynn.

In mid-2009, the ROH booking committee (with HDNet Executive Producer Jim Cornette) founded the Pick Six rankings series after Aries has spent several months avoiding higher-end competition by using the “A-Double L-Double” (Austin Aries Lucky Lottery) to “randomly” select challengers to the ROH World Title from pieces of paper out of a hat. The establishment of the Pick Six forced Aries to face more worthy competition. He was soon face-to-face against Davey Richards (in one of the best title defenses of the run), Kenny Omega and once again Tyler Black. After a controversial one-hour draw at Final Battle 2009 against Black, Aries would fight and defeat Jushin Liger at So Cal Showdown in January 2010 before fighting and losing one final title match against Black in February of this year at 8th Anniversary Show.

The rest of the year was spent with Aries transitioning from the role of top title contender to a managerial position to support King and Titus in the All-Night Express. His last major program was against Delirious, which began when Aries injured Delirious by dropping him throat-first on the ringside barricade (shades of Steamboat-Savage from mid-1980’s WWF). Delirious ultimately won the war when he defeated Aries in a cage match on HDNet this past September. However, Delirious was written out of the television in the ensuing post-match attack by the All-Night Express. Aries’ last appearance on HDNet will come in a few weeks in a non-title match against former tag partner and constant rival Roderick Strong.

At times, Aries has received criticism for a perceived “attitude” with the wrestling world at-large, kayfabing some interviews with the media or acting like a jerk with the fans. It is a move that hearkens back to decades past when there would in fact be some distance between the wrestler and the rest of the industry. Contradictorily, Aries generally comes across as a nice guy, straight-forward and easy-to-interact-with fans on his Facebook posts. Regardless, fans had learned to love to hate the character he portrays as a heel and support the “Wrestling Machine” when he is on the side of angels and ultimately his ability to play both sides of the wrestler coin proved to be one of his most valuable assets during his run with Ring of Honor.

ROH is reducing the amount of name talent from shows along with news of eliminating most fly-ins. Combined with a report from the Observer two weeks ago that mentioned ROH firing two long term back office employees (including Shane Hagadorn, who remains in a managerial and talent role) gives one pause as to the financial well-being and future of the promotion. ROH has often performed a balancing act when it comes to its financial existence, but this seems more of a heavy, urgent and immediate attempt at balancing the books in order to keep the ship right.

The phrase “Youth Movement” has been frequently used in recent years to describe an increased concentration (or at least an attempt) on building newer wrestlers. It has succeeded in varying degrees in all three major companies. However it does look as if ROH is about to make a very concerted effort to introduce and build up some younger and less exposed wrestlers from the independent scene. Signing Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Mike Bennett to contracts was a start and now it is followed up with this phasing out process (temporary or not). The “Trial Series’ concept now seems to be a method of introducing ROH students who have been wrestling on Pro Wrestling RESPECT student shows (also booked by Delirious) into the main roster. This can be a good move as far as furnishing the bottom of the card with prospects for the future, but it does take away some of the overall luster of a ROH show and what it has traditionally promised its audience as far as high-quality in-ring wrestling and some of the top names available for booking.

In effect, by stripping away the “middle” of the card, there is a clear distinction in terms of the depth of the ROH roster—the main event talent at the top and the newer (and less expensive) talent at the bottom. It’s a high-wire balancing act; take away too much and shows start to become uneven. However, if ROH didn’t clear out some of the roster, then they would be forsaking their future and the possibility of developing the future of the promotion.

On the one hand, fans could be ready to be introduced to fresh faces that can pump new blood into ROH. However, those same fans could grow upset to learn that perhaps one or more of the wrestlers they have previously seen and wanted to watch again on an ROH show would not be booked for action. As well, Patience has at times proven not to be a virtue of the ROH fan base. If the newer / younger talent can’t contribute or produce to expectations, they are going to hear about it very quickly from the live crowds.

ROH is seemingly remaining committed to booking a number of name core wrestlers at the top of the show, most of who are locked up to ROH contract. Roderick Strong, Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Colt Cabana, The Kings of Wrestling, The Briscoes and The All-Night Express among others look to be the new upper tier, along with Homicide and Daniels on per appearance basis, Steve Corino and (depending on the results of Final Battle 2010) either Kevin Steen or El Generico. ROH focused on these wrestlers throughout the tapings set, meaning they will continue to be a focus on house shows throughout the rest of the year.

At the same time that ROH has removed some veteran talent there is also word that they are also looking to book Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin in the future (though not at Final Battle 2010 weekend due to booking conflicts) and are also looking towards bringing in wrestlers once again from Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan. Those are both moves fans would like and appreciate, but they are also bigger expenses.

In a coincidental timing, Gabe Sapolsky signed Jon Moxley, Chuck Taylor and Ricochet to Dragon Gate USA contracts this past week (along with having signed Johnny Gargano several months ago). These contracts will secure those wrestlers to that company and make DGUSA and EVOLVE their priority, perhaps giving them access to dates in Japan and definitely keeping them away from ROH, who perhaps should have been looking their way this entire time. Sapolsky has proven himself to be expert at finding and (pardon the pun) evolving upcoming independent talent. While the top of the DG promotion is obviously devoted to the wrestlers from Japan, but the mid-card is filled with talented wrestlers from the likes of CHIKARA, AIW and other mid-west promotions. If anything, Sapolsky may have the edge right now as far as developing the up-and-coming talent the independent fans want to see. Adding the likes of Austin Aries will only help the cause of his promotion.

Here is a look at the other ROH wrestlers who have been placed “on hiatus”. Of note is that all of these men were involved at some point as a part of or in feuds against The Embassy, thus proving the awesome destructive power of “The Embassy Curse” as a career-negative:

Necro Butcher: Originally debuting as a part of the ROH vs. CZW feud, Necro played the wild man outsider and wrecked a lot of carnage against ROH wrestlers with his hardcore style. Necro was coming off the hype of crazy matches against Samoa Joe in IWA: Mid-South and some crazy performances there and in CZW. He lost a War of the Wire match to BJ Whitmer in the final “epilogue” encounter between the two promotions and then disappeared until returning with the formation of The Age of the Fall angle in 2007. Jimmy Jacobs brought him back as an example of someone who the ROH brass wouldn’t give a chance to prove himself in the promotion. Necro was one of AotF’s foot soldiers until Austin Aries proved to him that he was being manipulated. Necro became his “own man”, leaving the stable and fighting against it in order to provide for his wife and kids. An extended feud against Jimmy Rave and The Embassy followed in 2009, where injuries forced Necro off the road. Surprisingly, it was Prince Nana who reached out to Necro, paid for his medical bills and recruited him to be the new “crown jewel” of The Embassy. He accepted the offer and had been fighting against the likes of Dark City Fight Club, Rasche Brown and Grizzley Redwood.

What made Necro so unique was his hardcore act and the unpredictability that came with running around (usually barefoot) with weapons. Unfortunately, Necro suffered from both an overexposure and becoming watered down. Fans grew accustomed to his act the more they saw him and his violence became more predictable and less exciting. Then Necro became almost normal and ordinary when ROH decided to step down the amount of chair shots and weapon-based matches in the promotion. He feuded with Nana and his stable for so long (and then wrestled alongside him) that his role was far more stagnant and predictable than it should have been. Necro is at his best when used as a special attraction and as an “x-factor” in a match—and hopefully he will come back to ROH in due time and regain that presence that attracted fans to him in the first place.

Dark City Fight Club: Rainman changed his name to Kory Chavis and teamed with Jon Davis as Dark City Fight Club in Full Impact Pro down in Florida. It was a tandem that just worked and their momentum began to increase until they were given the chance to showcase their talents for Ring of Honor when they returned to Florida in early 2009. Eventually DCFC were brought in as regulars, dominating smaller tag teams during television tapings. They bounced back and forth between being heels and faces before ultimately settling on a face run due to popularity with the audience. They were caught up as of late in a feud with The Embassy, but when Rasche Brown left the promotion it hurt their direct motivation (an alliance with Skullkrusher) to be involved in the program.

The Fight Club is a very good brawling / impact team (with Davis in particular being underrated) and proved to be a relatively fresh act in ROH. However, they have been slotted just under the top teams in the tag division for the last two years such as Steen & Generico (when they were together), The Briscoes, The American Wolves and The Kings of Wrestling. The title match against The Briscoes at 8th Anniversary Show was their biggest spotlight and it proved to be an average title match. They had better efforts against the likes of The Young Bucks (losing to them on HDNet but looking great in the process) and The American Wolves (Pick Your Poison in April). They were ping ponged with wins and losses against teams and didn’t ever build up enough traction to stay in that main event level and unfortunately it didn’t seem like they would be doing so in the near future. Still, this move is a puzzler, because they were a different act for the promotion and well liked among the fan base.

Erick Stevens: Another wrestler caught up in the stagnant Embassy situation. Stevens was a long-time babyface in the promotion, making his bones in FIP before being brought up to ROH (when both promotions were booked by Gabe Sapolsky). The huge Mohawk became a trademark of his appearance for the first several years of his run, but it was shaved off in a program against Strong in 2008, only making sporadic appearances from there on in. His first major program was as a part of The Resilience during the stable wars of 2007. Stevens teamed up with Austin Aries and Matt Cross to fight the No Remorse Corps (Roderick Strong, Davey Richards and Rocky Romero). At one point when Aries as in contractual limbo due to a disagreement with TNA it was Stevens and Cross going at it alone against the NRC. Stevens and Strong had a great series of matches in FIP and they brought that feud to Ring of Honor for several hard-hitting matches. Stevens won the FIP Title from Strong several times (including during Final Battle 2007, but would lose them on his first defense. The feud culminated in a Fight Without Honor at the Respect is Earned II Pay Per View in June 2008.

Strong continued to play the babyface, in fact teaming up with Strong later on to combat Sweet & Sour Incorporated, helping Bobby Dempsey break free of that stable’s control over him. Stevens would feud with The Embassy, but after returning from injury, Stevens soon turned heel by joining the group. He would serve as the heavy for the group (though he was slimmed down after working on his physique and diet) and combat the likes of Necro Butcher (well, until he teamed with him in the group) and Eddie Kingston. Unfortunately Stevens also seemed to be locked into his role as The Embassy’s enforcer and that wasn’t really going anywhere.

The following is the list of the top six contenders for the ROH World Title. Anyone who is ranked in the Pick Six can challenge for the title, but preference in scheduling and opportunities is given to those ranked closer to the top of the list.

A brief note about the Pick 6: As of the last tapings, there has been no movement or usage of the Pick 6 ranking system. The future of the Pick 6 is uncertain. For now I will leave the rankings up but if no usage of this occurs in the next several weeks I will drop this from my column.

-For results from the HDNet Tapings click here and here. There are some spoilers below when discussing the news and fallout from the show, so if you’d like to go spoiler free, click down to the review for Bluegrass Brawl.

-For the second set of tapings in a row (and this being the first fully created and executed by Delirious), finishes were mostly all clean, which is something I have asked for in the ROH product and am glad to see happening. For so long between 2008 and 2010 there was so much more than expected in terms of needless interference, DQ calls, count-outs and b.s. finishes that it’s nice to get back to a part of what made ROH stand out from the other promotions in the first place.

-The main events for Final Battle 2010 have been announced and prepared for based on the events on the most recent set of tapings. To the credit of the ROH booking crew and Delirious, its ten weeks in advance of the event, which is far better than WWE and TNA, who logistically cannot do in this era of monthly (or sooner in WWE’s case) Pay Per Views. During the “Big Four” era of the late 80’s / 90’s most fans knew about matches months in advance and the hype that followed worked wonders in building anticipation and excitement for the big showdowns . Announced for 12/18 in New York:

Kevin Steen vs. El Generico with Steen putting up his ROH career against El Generico’s mask. This looks to be the blow off of what has been an epic one-year feud given the high stakes and the probability of either man taking time off to heal up some lingering injuries. The key to the finish will likely be Generico attempting to hit the turnbuckle brainbuster (which he has attempted but not completed several times over the past few months). Steve Corino and his son Colby could also be an issue as far as interference, since both of them had a hand in the last two New York shows and matches against Generico and Corino. My money is on Generico winning the big finale and Steen taking time off, only for a strange and burly masked man to show up in town one day in 2011 looking to hunt Generico down (yes, the Midnight Rider angle, only with a heel in the get-up that everyone has to prove is really Kevin Steen and somehow can’t would be awesome).

Non-Title Six-Man Tag Team Match: Jay, Mark & Mike (Poppa) Briscoe vs. ROH World Tag Team Champions The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) & Shane Hagadorn. This match makes complete sense with the long feud between the two teams and Mike Briscoe’s past (and future) involvement against The Kings on HDNet programming. It is a slight disappointment to realize that the ROH Tag Team Title will not be on the line for the second internet Pay Per View in a row, but I don’t have a problem with booking the match itself for this particular show. This should be a cool special attraction bout that gives us a new twist on the Briscoes vs. K.O.W. feud. Plus, Mike Briscoe in the ring beating down on Shane Hagadorn should be fun, if they keep their spots short and sweet (well for the fans, not so much for Hagadorn).

ROH World Title: Roderick Strong (c) vs. Davey Richards. It’s a curious thing, because the fans have been waiting and wanting Richards to become ROH Champion. ROH has repeatedly made a mistake of delaying pulling the trigger on a champion when the fans are primed for it (Tyler Black, Tyler Black, Tyler Black). It’s also difficult for some view Strong as anything more than a transitional champion despite Strong claiming he is going to prove a lot of naysayers wrong about his being at the top of the promotion. Then again, there is a lot of potential in an extended Strong title run. This will only be Strong’s second title defense of his title run. Only one man has lost the title at his second (or earlier) title defense, that being Low Ki, the first ROH champion in company history. ROH also has one more set of TV tapings in Louisville right before this show. Unless they want to give the results to this match away they are going to have to be super careful with how they present the matches and events of that taping (which will air in 2011).

-Jim Cornette announced during the HDNet Tapings that The American Wolves would challenge for the tag titles December 17th in Plymouth, Massachusetts. However, Cornette seemed to intimate from this promo that it would be Richards and Edwards last tag match together as The American Wolves. There have been some varying verbiage in several reports I’ve read, so I can’t confirm that the match will be the actual last match for The Wolves, but if that’s the case, boy is that a mistake.

A few weeks back, Cary Silkin made a post on Facebook asking what fans though about the future of The American Wolves and if they should break up as a team. The response was overwhelmingly that the situation for Wolves should remain status quo—focus on singles but keep them together as a unit so they could occasionally (or frequently) team up. It makes no sense whatsoever to officially split up a successful, money-drawing and popular tag team like Richards and Edwards, even if they are about to spend most of their time as singles. Keeping the alliance of The Wolves alive gives ROH some flexibility and diversity as to how they can book shows. If they need them in singles, that can be done, but if they need a good tag team main event, well then keeping The Wolves together also gives them that option. Ring of Honor stripping that flexibility from shows in 2011 (when main event caliber matches will be at a premium given the changing roster and talent depth) is asinine.

Personally I’m just hoping something like this is a swerve and that The American Wolves actually win the tag belts on 12/17. Then Richards wins the ROH World Title the next night in New York and fans could get a really nice Wrestlemania XX-like celebration with both Edwards (as Television champion) and Richards (as World champion) holding all major titles in the promotion, a first in company history (even if it’s for just a short time). That is just a dream, but it is an awesome, awesome dream.

-“The Prodigy” Mike Bennett (with manager “Brutal” Bob Evans) made his official debut at the tapings and was given an “Alberto Del Rio” like push. He immediately inserted himself into the thick of things by facing off against the current name talent in the promotion such as Eddie Edwards and Colt Cabana. Bennett made a vow that he would become ROH World Champion by the end of the year. TV champion, I could see, but World champion? Yikes. Let’s hope not—Bennett has a long way to go. I’m also not completely sold on “The Prodigy” gimmick—smacks of something either Cornette or someone else has already done in OVW (with I believe Cody Rhodes and maybe one or two others)—but I guess it’s better than “Plain Ol'” Mike Bennett, which is what he was coming into the tapings beforehand.

-Also announced during the tapings would be Roderick Strong vs. Christopher Daniels for the ROH World Title on November 13th in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The result of this seems obvious, unless Daniels gets plugged into the title match to make it a three-way at Final Battle 2010.

-Mike Mondo has been added to the 10/15 and 10/16 weekend after wrestling for the promotion against Delirious at Bluegrass Brawl (see below). Ugh (see below).

-Rickey Reyes will also be appearing on these shows and will wrestle against Andy Ridge for one of the student’s Trial Series matches. Double Ugh. I don’t see the point in bringing Reyes in, because he is done as a character in ROH and the fans just don’t respond to him. He hasn’t been interesting or relevant to ROH since his days with The Rottweilers.

-Cards updated as of this weekend for 10/15 in Dayton, OH and 10/16 in Chicago Ridge, IL:

10/15: World Tag Team Title Match-The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) with Shane Hagadorn defend vs. Christopher Daniels & Davey Richards (should be excellent); Special Challenge Match-Homicide vs. Kenny King (a more technical match for Homicide); Tag Team Special Attraction-Kevin Steen and Steve Corino vs. Adam Cole and Kyle O’ Reilly (the first higher profile effort for Cole and O’Reilly in their new push); Grudge Match-Jay Briscoe vs. Rhett Titus (number seventeen in a never-ending series of Briscoes vs. ANX matches); Trial Series- Match #1-Andy “Right Leg” Ridge vs. Colt Cabana (maybe Cabana will do him a favor and won’t make him out to be a fool, see below); Women of Honor-Daizee Haze vs. Lady Jo Jo (the former Josie a.k.a. Sojourner Bolt in TNA—maybe she left her home in Tucson, Arizona for some California grass, which Daizee would probably know all about).

Also scheduled to appear: Mark Briscoe, Ricky Reyes, Mike Mondo

10/16: Main Event- Six Months In The Making-“The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels vs. Davey Richards (they’ve waited on it this long, so it needs to be that epic ROH style match the fans have anticipated); Grudge Tag Team Elimination Match-World Tag Team Champions The Kings of Wrestling with Shane Hagadorn vs. Jay and Mark Briscoe (no titles on the line seems to indicate a babyface win); Special Challenge Match-Kevin Steen vs. Homicide (a brawl and likely to spiral out of control into a non-finish); The Final Showdown- I Quit Match-Colt Cabana vs. Steve Corino*Kevin Steen will be at ringside in a straightjacket (the finale of Colt vs. Corino side of this grudge feud and I’d say Steen breaks out of the jacket at some point); Tag Team Challenge Match-Kyle O’Reilly and Adam Cole vs. The All Night Express (likely a make-or-break match for the younger team and indicative of if they stay together or one turns and they feud); Trial Series- Match #2-Andy “Right Leg” Ridge vs. Ricky Reyes (break out the coffee mugs)

Also scheduled to appear: Daizee Haze, Mike Mondo

-From the ROH October 7th newswire: – ROH Wrestlers will be on hand at The 9th Annual MMA & Sports Extravaganza that will take place on October 22nd thru October 24th at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, NJ!!! Visit www.MMAsportsExpo.comfor all the info! Chris Hero, Prince Nana, Grizzly Redwood, Claudio Castagnoli, and many more will be in attendance for the weekends’ events. A Muay Thai Fight Night, a Celebrity Poker Tournament where you can play with a favorite celebrity, a Pro MMA Fight Night, and a Superstar Legends of Wrestling Showcase are just a few of the events that will take place. ROH invites all fans to attend!!! For a Full Schedule of weekend events click here http://www.mmasportsexpo.com/schedules.html.

Coming in PART TWO of this week’s Column of Honor: thoughts and review of Bluegrass Brawl and four episodes of ROH on HDNET!