Column of Honor 08.20.11: Ups and Downs at Sinclair TV Taping Debut

Welcome to the Column. There will be plenty of spoilers mentioned about the ROH TV tapings, in the following article, so if you want to stay spoiler-free, page down all the way to the NWA / WCW paragraphs. Other than that, let’s get started.

If anything was demonstrably shown during last Saturday’s Ring of Honor television tapings in Chicago Ridge, Illinois , it is that there is no magic button that one can press and instantly be the perfect, one-hundred percent on-point presentation of professional wrestling. There were many ups and downs at the tapings, from the return of a popular former champion to technical difficulties such as audio issues, an extra-long taping session that tested the patience of a superb Chicago audience and ROH putting their best foot forward on their top priority-the in-ring product.

Ring of Honor isn’t infallible and it wasn’t prefect last Saturday night. There were first-taping issues that probably shouldn’t have happened, but they did enough to get themselves going for this new television series. It certainly seems from all of the reports that ROH is not going to be an overnight sensation, but rather do what is has always done—dig in deep and set up for a long haul of slow but steady progressions. Whether or not that will work in this new era remains to be seen.

ROH’s television taping session for what will be the first four episodes of their new series under the offices of their parent company Sinclair Broadcast Group ran an epically-long five hours, conjuring up memories from long-time hardcore ROH fans of house shows from a past era. ROH under the Gabe Sapolsky book (and even a few shows here and there under Adam Pearce’s run) could last as long as five to five-and-a-half hours depending upon the card length and marquee main-events presented. Some examples: All-Star Extravaganza II (with the final Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk ROH World Title match) went four-and-a-half hours; Final Battle 2009 (Austin Aries-Tyler Black ROH World Title match which ended in a one-hour draw) was also four-and-a-half hours; Glory By Honor VI Night 2 (with Mitsuhara Misawa vs. KENTA and The Briscoes in the finale against The Age of the Fall) equaled the length of last Saturday’s tapings.

Long shows used to be a point of pride for ROH in that they gave fans more than their money’s worth of wrestling in comparison to the traditional concept of a Pay Per View or house show (WWE or TNA’s average about three hours). However, that philosophy changed when ROH moved to Adam Pearce’s booking regime and the thought was to reduce the length and present a shorter but tighter show with the focus on the main-event matches delivering on the traditional experience of longer matches in the promotion. This time around, the five hours was filled with almost as much waiting and non-action as there was total wrestling time.

Unlike most of those earlier shows in previous years, this was a card that could have and should have finished up in less time than it actually took to tape them. However, there were several impediments to that outcome: first, the episodes were recorded in a “Live-to-Tape” format, which means that the show reflects how the actual episode will run. If it’s time to go to commercial, then ROH waits the three or more minutes it needs to allow for commercials to run before resuming the show. Aside from the constraints of that format, there were also delays in ROH starting the show on time and technical difficulties which required the introduction of the show’s first episode of certain interview segments to be re-taped. In addition, ROH took an official intermission like they normally would for non-TV taping events and they also put on two dark matches in addition to the already scheduled eight-match card.

The result of all of these delays led to a hot crowd for the first half of the tapings losing some of their energy later on. Reportedly up to a quarter of the 1,200 fans in attendance for the show left after the end of the third episode (headlined by Davey Richards successfully defending the ROH World Title against Roderick Strong, which was the true main event of the entire show—Michael Elgin vs. Eddie Edwards was the last match actually taped and that will main-event the fourth episode). ROH was unsuccessful in shifting new fans over to the bleachers facing the hard camera and had to adjust its lighting due to their departure before the show’s proper conclusion. However, those audience members who stuck around for that fourth episode preserved and supported the matches as best they could, but the tapings no doubt could have gone better with timing and organizing the crowd appearance.

There were several production improvements that ROH did get right—from a custom-built ring with a great looking new ring mat to new barricades and more rigging. The ROH arena looked great and that should translate well to video (well, hopefully…see videowire below). There were six-to-seven cameras working to film the show, including two hard cameras. There were microphones all over the audience, capturing their reaction and likely assuring that the ROH live experience and sometimes raucous reaction to the action in the ring (which sometimes didn’t translate well on the HDNet series) would be well represented. ROH even went fancy by lighting their logo in the middle of the ring, a special-effect which will be used for the beginning of each show. So, from a technical stand-point, ROH did live and learn from their HDNet days, though there are still adjustments to be made, as obvious from some of the audio issues that occurred.

Ring of Honor promised a few surprises during the tapings and they delivered on one major return. Former ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness was introduced at the start of the tapings as the new color commentator for the show (alongside the play-by-play of Kevin Kelly). Nigel McGuinness’s initial run for Ring of Honor began in 2004 and lasted five years. His greatest successes came when he changed his in-ring style from a European / mat technical to a more Japanese strong style with an emphasis on his specialty of throwing down hard lariats. Those high-impact moves had a toll on his body however, with arm and elbow injuries. As well, Nigel had a history of concussions suffered during this run.

Nigel’s run with the ROH World Title was eighteen months (good enough for second place on the all-time records below Samoa Joe’s twenty-one months as champion). It lasted from October 2007 through April 2009, before he dropped it to Jerry Lynn at Supercard of Honor IV. It was marked with a controversial beginning, as he seemingly lost popularity due to an injury restricting title defenses in the first three months of his run. Then he was fantastically reborn when he turned heel and used that animosity to help generate great reaction to his title defenses. He left ROH at the same time as Bryan Danielson, in September of 2009. Both men were supposed to head to WWE, but McGuinness was refused after problems with physical and health tests.

He signed with TNA instead and almost immediately appeared on iMPACT! television wrestling as “Desmond Wolfe”. He had a fantastic two-month feud with Kurt Angle, but then the Hulk Hogan-Eric Bischoff era began and he was sent down the mid-card and mired in go-nowhere feuds with the likes of The Pope D’Angelo Dinero and Abyss–who he infamously fought against for possession of Hulk Hogan’s WWE Hall of Fame ring because his valet Chelsea wanted it very badly (in another one of TNA’s mind-boggling decisions, using WWE history and even a WWE award to promulgate their own storylines).

McGuinness briefly began a tag team with Brutus Magnus as “London Brawling” before suddenly and mysteriously disappearing off the face of the wrestling earth with an unknown physical illness. Wild speculation (which I won’t delve into here) abounded during this time as to what was happening and why Nigel was gone. Fans wanted to know when he would be back again. He would end up returning this year in the role of “TNA Xplosion Commisioner” before he was released from the promotion shortly after.

Obviously there were boisterous and enthusiastic “Welcome Back” chants for McGuinness, but the assumption at the time of this announcement had to be that he would simply stay in a non-wrestling role for the promotion due to whatever circumstances that happened which caused his long-term absence from in-ring activity. However, that supposition was put to the test with the concluding angle for the TV tapings, where McGuinness went in the ring to back-up Eddie Edwards during a post-match confrontation with Roderick Strong. McGuinness didn’t become physical (he stayed cool-and-collected in his suit and sunglasses), but it definitely was a tease for the possibility (even if extremely slight) that he could and would one day return to in-ring action. It was an interesting finish (especially given that McGuinness’s last two years in ROH were as a heel and here we was getting the back of a face), if deliberately vague and non-committal. Still, it was good to have one of ROH’s former champions back and the addition of McGuinness to commentary is an excellent move (his guest-spots on commentary while champion demonstrated he has a lot to offer in such a role).

What was more remarkable about this tapings as it concerns surprises was that wrestlers who had been rumored and almost expected to appear as surprises didn’t turn up. Everything seemed set up for shock appearances from the likes of The Young Bucks and especially Kevin Steen, but those did not happen. Steen threatened to show up at the August 13th tapings when he hacked the ROH message board (gaining access through a member who gave him his password) and left a missive bashing the promotion. Instead, Steen was a no-show. His presence in Ring of Honor is not entirely gone, however—as Steen texted a threat to Jim Cornette and Cary Silkin during the tapings, asking them if they were looking over their shoulders. More visibly, a fan (who may have been a plant) was interviewed (ROH did a few of these during the night, where McGuinness would ask a fan to issue a prediction about the main-event of that particular episode) and he asked plaintively “Where’s Kevin Steen?”

As well, fans who returned to the parking lot after the show discovered flyers on their cars with a picture of Kevin Steen and the phrase “He’s Right” repeated over and over on them. There was also a link to a Twitter account (@SteenisRight), which as of Monday night was still active. Steve Corino blocked the accounted within a few hours of its public debut. It’s unclear at the moment if this is an independently done viral campaign or if it’s surreptitiously being used by Ring of Honor to extend an angle. Back in the summer of 2008, Ring of Honor launched the Project 161 viral website to introduce The Age of The Fall stable led by Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black (just a few months before WWE used an excellent viral marketing campaign to gear up for the “second coming” of Chris Jericho). Either way it seems the Steen exile is going to continue to be a slow-played but present issue, an elephant in the room that when it comes alive could be very, very interesting…and damaging to the china and furniture.

One of the major news items of the show was Jay Lethal unseating El Generico to become the new ROH Television Champion, which will air in the second episode of the series (October 1st, 2011). It was a move that sparked hot debate among ROH fans, some happy to see Lethal win the title and others feeling anger, outrage and disappointment due to the surprise title change.

In particular, the title change to Lethal was a disservice to El Generico and his journey of the past two years in the singles division (since the split with Kevin Steen), which has seen him grow not only increasingly popular with the ROH audience but also presented as increasingly legitimate. Generico is a great underdog but if anything the past year has shown him capable of not only that role, but in being portrayed as a winner and indeed, as of this past June, a man not just capable of becoming a champion but actually being one. The reaction Generico received when he defeated Christopher Daniels in New York should have been indicative of what Ring of Honor had in terms of representing Generico as a champion and one of the top stars of the promotion.

The controversy should have little to do directly about Lethal being the one who won the title, though some have brought up that this is an example of putting a former TNA talent over a “homegrown” ROH star (Generico actually rose through the ranks of Canadian independent wrestling as well as Pro Wrestling Guerrilla out on the west coast, so if anything he is a homegrown star of those regions, not ROH). The TNA presence is also there in terms of the TV belt being used as a transition from one TNA star (Daniels) to another. I don’t see it that way. Even though both Daniels and Lethal have name value and notoriety from TNA (and Daniels has since left ROH to wrestle for TNA), both men also have deep history and roots with Ring of Honor as well. Lethal is no longer a TNA star, but a newly-signed wrestler under Ring of Honor contract.

Lethal is also athletic, well-built and a very good professional wrestler. He can bring a very good in-ring effort and tell good stories in the ring. Lethal was a former Pure Champion in ROH and it wasn’t inconceivable that at some point he would be slotted in a championship position in this new run with the company. In fact, it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to do this very switch but just a few months into the TV series, so that Generico could be built up as a fighting champion and Lethal could have been introduced with the story of his return to the promotion and his search to regain championship glory, including winning some crucial contention matches to get to that important title match. Some would argue that ROH needed to have a title change on its first show and with three title matches slotted on the card, but plenty of ROH shows have had multiple title matches without a change (Final Battle 2010 and 9th Anniversary Show in the past nine months alone) and a counter-argument could just as well be made that establishing the current champions on the new TV show would have been appropriate.

Again, the umbrage shouldn’t be with Jay Lethal, who will likely be a good TV champion. The disappointment lies within the timing of the title change—that Generico was not able to shine as a champion, because he certainly could have and would have lived up to the responsibility; that it came across (at least to me) as happening way too soon—which has been a fault of other wrestling promotions that ROH purports to be different from in content and presentation.

There was untapped potential in an El Generico TV Title run, both in the man and in what he would represent in that position. Generico can create great matches in the ring just like Lethal, but he is far more popular with the hardcore ROH fan base than Lethal. Generico could have also easily gained wide-spread popularity among the new fan base that began to watch the Sinclair TV show, especially as a champion, considering the marked differences between him and Davey Richards in the World Title division and Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin in the World Tag Team division.

Those three wrestlers are obviously more geared towards “serious” wrestling and they “look” intimidating. El Generico could have appealed to a far broader audience, both the core ROH demographic and including young kids and women, due to his character (inspired by lucha libre)and personality being the opposite of the other champions. Generico is colorful and has a cartoon-flourish about him, but yet he remains remarkably sympathetic and inspirational to audiences of all stripes. He would have provided ROH more depth of character in the championship picture but not at the expense of the in-ring action. Generico’s comebacks in particular are fantastic fireworks displays that bring the audience to its feet and that would have translated superbly to television. While Jay Lethal can fill this role, he also fits a “look” that ROH seems to want to go with in their champions—good physiques, athletic, and decidedly not sports-entertainment. El Generico doesn’t have a well-defined set of abs and the tone of his character is fun-loving and entertaining—but there is nothing wrong with any of those qualities and Generico is just as agile and athletic as Richards, Haas or Benjamin.

Not recognizing the potential Generico had as champion and using him as simply a courier of the title to someone else is the true shame of this situation. No one in ROH history has won a singles title and then lost it on their first defense. Even more frustrating is in retrospect that even if ROH insisted on going through with this title change they could have given Generico two possible defenses on house shows in early July before going with the transfer to Lethal. It just seems clear that Generico was a warm body holding a title for two months without doing anything with it. That’s just the wrong move to make with someone with the popularity and inspirational rise to success that the Generico character has gone through over the past several years in ROH.

Now, does this kill the El Generico character on television outright? Probably not. Generico and Lethal had a reportedly competitive match and the title bout did go to a shortened overtime period. That gives Generico an immediate case for a rematch. New viewers will see Generico giving it all in that TV Title bout and just coming up short due to unfortunate circumstances—that could garner some good babyface sympathy. However, this situation also risks Generico being looked at and thought of by these new fans as inferior and not capable of winning in the clutch. Those who took a first look at him during his entrance and would think of him as a joke would not in fact be proven wrong. It is, however, not a world-ending situation nor is it a nail-in-the-coffin of ROH on TV being it even begins. It was, however, a controversial move with mixed reviews and much like the one-hour draw between Austin Aries and Tyler Black back at Final Battle 2009, either one is going to be fine with it or not.

Regarding the other championships, as noted above Davey Richards successfully defended the ROH World Title against Roderick Strong in the longest match of the tapings, clocking in at 23-to-25 minutes and reportedly a very crowd-pleasing affair. This match fulfilled its goal of introducing the promotion’s major champion and delivering to the prospective new audience exactly what he can do in the ring. No other major contender was established for the title at this time, though Strong could continue to be an on-air rival and there is always the possibility for another Wolf-versus-Wolf battle with Eddie Edwards. El Generico being freed up from the TV championship could allow for him to contend in the future as well.

The ROH World Tag Team Titles were successfully defended as Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team of Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin went over The Kings of Wrestling in Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli in what may be the latter’s last appearance for the promotion (Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer is insistent they are all but out the door and heading for WWE). The tag team division was a focus of the tapings, with the newly dubbed “Future Shock” of Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly (the name likely inspired by the subtitle of the excellent NWA/WCW Starrcade 1989 Pay Per View) going over and The Briscoes and All-Night Express battling it out in a co-main-event for the fourth episode. The booking seemed to be directed towards a future WGTT-Briscoes title match but Cornette announced no clear top contender to the title after Jay and Mark cheated their way to victory against ANX.

As for Cornette, he was positioned for a very visible on-air role as the “Executive Producer” of the series, much like he did for much of the HDNet series. Dave Lagana worked on production during this show as well-while Daizee Haze and Jerry Lynn assisted Cornette and Delirious as road agents for the show (Lynn is not exclusive to TNA and can work for ROH in this capacity). ROH COO Joe Koff was present throughout the taping.

Full results from the tapings in the order they were presented to the crowd:

-In a dark match, Grizzly Redwood defeated Tony Kozina with a roll-up reversal out of a hurricanrana.

Episode 1 (Expected Airdate: September 24th-25th, 2011 dependent on syndicated market timeslot)

-Nigel McGuinness is introduced as the new color commentator.
-Future Shock of Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly defeated The Bravado Brothers of Harlem & Lancelot Bravado with a Total Elimination.
-ROH World Tag Team Champions Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team of Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas retained the titles over The Kings of Wrestling of Claudio Castagnoli & Chris Hero w/ Shane Hagadorn & Sara Del Rey when Haas pinned Hero after the Hart Attack closeline.

Episode 2 (Expected Airdate: October 1st-2nd, 2011 dependent on syndicated market timeslot)

-Jim Cornette interviews Haas and Benjamin about The Briscoes.
-“The Prodigy” Mike Bennett defeated Jimmy Jacobs (w/ Steve Corino) after the Side Effect.
-Jay Lethal defeated El Generico after a “Mic Check / Downward Spiral” style move to become the NEW Ring of Honor TV Champion in an overtime period after the match initially is ruled a fifteen minute draw.

-In a dark match, Mike Sydal defeated Ernesto Osiris w/ Barrister R.D. Evans via pinfall after a moonsault. R.D. mistakenly hit Osiris with his shoe to lead to the finish.

Episode 3 (Expected Airdate: October 8th-9th, 2011 dependent on syndicated market timeslot)

-Jim Cornette interviews The Briscoes about The All-Night Express.
-Steve Corino switches in on color commentary.
-“The Project” Tommaso Ciampa w/ The Embassy defeated Andy “Right Leg” Ridge via pinfall with the powerbomb-to-double knees.
-Corino talks with Andy Ridge afterwards to encourage him after the loss.
-Fan interview with the “Kevin Steen” shout-out (*may or may not air depending on if they want to play this angle out that overtly)
-ROH World Champion Davey Richards (C) retained the title against Roderick Strong w/ Truth Martini via submission with the Ankle Lock.

Episode 4 (Expected Airdate: October 15th-16th, 2011 dependent on syndicated market timeslot)

-Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated The All Night Express of Rhett Titus & Kenny King following a low blow and small package on Kenny King. There is a pull-apart between the teams afterwards.
-Jim Cornette announces no number one contenders for the tag title based on the finish to that match.
-Eddie Edwards defeated “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin w/ Truth Martini via pinfall after a 2K1 Bomb
-Roderick Strong confronts Edwards after the match and Nigel McGuinness gets in the ring to even the odds and force The House of Truth to leave.

Good lord, what is up with the grainy camera footage on this Videowire? This is not a good sign of what production could be like under the Sinclair era. Not a promising development at all. Great babyface promo from Jacobs and Corino-love that Steve is willing to go all out to prove to the ROH officials the sincerity of his intentions. R.D. Evans can make anything work in his skits and Osiris was a lot of fun (and funny) here. The Briscoes promo in the nighttime LOOKS AWFUL. Seriously, what the hell? The video quality is just two steps backwards throughout. Jay looks like a huge black pixilated splotch. That’s infuriating. Oh yeah, the truck just happens to be unlocked and there just happens to be a ladder inside it…sheesh…can you get a more ham-handed, nail a square peg in a round hole way of teasing the Ladder War match? Jay is excellent in getting over the Ladder War concept but TOO BAD I CAN’T SEE HIM TELL US ABOUT IT. Might as well just have done an audio podcast for all that’s worth. It’s not the wrestlers’ fault, because they did their best, but the VQ sucked and dragged this way down. I can’t believe ROH allowed this to be released to the public knowing they have to put their best foot forward at the beginning of this new ownership era.

-Hot on the heels of Dragon Gate USA announcing their shows for Wrestlemania 28 weekend, Rng of Honor let everyone know about their plans as well. ROH will run the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale (800 NE 8th Street, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33304) on Friday night March 30th 2012 and Saturday afternoon March 31st 2012. Both shows are planned as internet Pay Per Views. Tickets for the shows go on sale on Friday September 9th at 10 AM through rohwrestling.com.

-As explained by Davey Richards at the beginning of the August 17th Videowire (posted above), he will be missing Death Before Dishonor IX on September 17th, 2011 in New York City as he will be on tour wrestling in Japan for New Japan Pro Wrestling.

-Signed as the main event for that Internet Pay Per View broadcast will be “Ladder War 3” between The Briscoes and The All-Night Express. The first Ladder War involved The Briscoes and both previous matches in this style have been very high-stakes affairs. They’ve also been known for being feud settling matches, making for weird timing and placement of this match in-between now and their match on episode four. That match also made it seem like their issues would continue well into the rest of the year even as The Briscoes also gear up for Haas and Benjamin. So I don’t know but it seems to me like this one won’t be the blow-off, but rather another chapter in their war…and if that’s the case I don’t like that much at all.

-New Ring of Honor logo T-shirts and fit baseball caps were on sale during the 8/13 show and are now available for order through the rohwrestling.com store (click on that link to check out their appearance). The baseball hat in particular looks pretty sweet, but basically all three pieces of new merch sport the new ROH logo. One T-shirt has the catchphrase “This Is Wrestling” on the back.

-The return to Louisville, Kentucky is official-October 1st at the Davis arena for the next slate of tapings. ROH will also be back there in November for the third set as well. Tickets are on sale Monday, August 22nd at the ROH website for the October tapings. No offense to God’s Country, but hopefully ROH will NOT establish the OVW set as its regular home and continues to move its tapings around to different venues in its tour circuit. No need to repeat the mistakes of the HDNet era by driving one particular city into the ground—keep the TV show circulating around and capture the best possible audience reactions every time out.

-Jim Cornette re-emphasized at the tapings that the Sinclair TV series would be available for free online to those who do not have the television show in their market. He stated the website would be revamped. PWinsider reported that there was discussion of a two-tiered system for the site, including a Premium section, but though not officially announcing such a service Cornette did confirm on the tapings that it would be free to see episodes the new show. Fan speculation about a premium service included the possibility of an On-Demand service for the ROH archives, but no official announcement has yet been made on what if anything is really going to happen to a remodeled version of the website when it is launched.

-ROH returns to Chicago on November 19th, 2011 as part of a double-shot weekend with Dayton, Ohio slated for the 18th.

-ROH on HDNet Volume 9 is now available for order and will feature the following matches:

1. Steel Cage Match: Delirious vs. Austin Aries…Episode 74
2. Kings of Wrestling vs. Super Smash Brothers…Episode 75
3. Roderick Strong and The House of Truth vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe and Christopher Daniels…Episode 75
4. TV Title Match: Eddie Edwards vs. Kenny King…Episode 76
5. Davey Richards vs. El Generico…Episode 76
6. All Night Express vs. The Dark City Fight Club…Episode 77
7. Roderick Strong vs. Christopher Daniels…Episode 77
8. Special Challenge Match: Tyler Black vs. Davey Richards…Episode 78
9. World Tag Team Title Match: The Kings of Wrestling vs. Jay and Mark Briscoe…Episode 79
10. Steel Cage Match: Steve Corino and Kevin Steen vs. Colt Cabana and El Generico…Episode 80

That is one hell of a line-up and worth every bit of money. Some of the best matches done for television are to be found on this one, including some awesome tag team action with Kings / SSB, Edwards beginning the better half of his TV title run with an exciting defense against King, Richards vs. Generico, RICHARDS vs. BLACK (the TV farewell for Black that lasted the entire episode) and bookended by two very good grudge steel cage matches. This is a NO-DOUBT LOCK of a purchase. GET THIS DVD!

-A possible explanation for why The Young Bucks weren’t at Saturday’s ROH TV Tapings – they received a WWE try-out match before this week’s Monday Night Raw show in San Diego. Also receiving a try-out was Joey Ryan, who has played many a security guard, fan plant or enhancement talent for WWE shows over the past several years. Losing The Bucks to WWE would certainly not be good for ROH because they need more quality tag teams for their division, but it would be a great opportunity for Matt and Nick Jackson to head to WWE and help to rehabilitate their tag division (well, if given that chance to do so). Ryan also deserves a shot in the big-time. He’s got great charisma and promo ability, a great physique (built up over recent months) and can go in the ring. One of the “what if?”s in ROH history is what could have been done with Ryan if they really let him loose with the Sleazy Magnum P.I. gimmick, but he was very much only moderately sleazy as a hired gun for The Embassy in 2009 and never given much of a chance to rise above his spot on the undercard.

-The first match officially announced by ROH for Death Before Dishonor IX on internet Pay Per View September 17th, 2011 in New York City’s Grand Ballroom was the so-called “Ringmaster Challenge” Match featuring two former ROH World Champions, Eddie Edwards and Roderick Strong. This will be a rematch from Edwards’ remarkable ROH World Title victory at Manhattan Mayhem IV this past March.

So what is a “Ringmaster Challenge” pray tell? It’s a two-out-of-three falls match with wrestling centered stipulations. The first fall will be pinfall only. The second fall will be submission only. The third fall, if needed, will be a fifteen-minute Iron Man match.

I’m sure the in-ring wrestling will be great and Edwards and Strong almost always deliver in that regard. However, ROH does take a risk here with a complicated stipulation match in NYC, where they booed the “Revolution Rules” match right out the door and even five years ago there were people who didn’t understand or much like the “European Rules” match and the round system used for that stipulation. I don’t think the fans will boo these men out the building; especially when they get going, but let’s hope this doesn’t fall into the trap of stipulations hindering the wrestlers’ ability have a great match.

And oh man, Ring of Honor, why do you ask to be mocked for your choice of stipulation names? “The Ringmaster Challenge”? Why evoke memories of Steve Austin’s worst and least-over gimmick in his career? I mean at least “Future Shock” references an awesome Pay Per View filled with top-to-bottom great matches. What next?

-Also announced for Death Before Dishonor IX in NYC “The Shockmaster Challenge”: Grizzly Redwood vs. Mike Sydal.
-Also announced for Death Before Dishonor IX in NYC: “TL Hopper Memorial Match”: Mike Bennett vs. Tommaso Ciampa.
-Also announced for Death Before Dishonor IX in NYC: “Skinner Alligator Hunt Match”: Lance Bravado vs. Harlem Bravado.
-Also announced for Death Before Dishonor IX in NYC: “Ding Dongs Match”: Truth Martini vs. R.D. Evans vs. Shane Hagadorn.
-Also announced for Death Before Dishonor IX in NYC: “Ring Dings, Twinkies and Golden Snack Cakes Match”: Bobby Dempsey vs. Bobby Dempsey.
-Also announced for Death Before Dishonor IX in NYC: “Mantaur Marathon”: Rhino vs. Michael Elgin vs. Ernesto Osiris.
-Also announced for Death Before Dishonor IX in NYC: “Freddie Joe Floyd, Hillbilly Jim, Uncle Elmer and The Godwinns Present The Delaware Hog Pen Match”: Jay vs. Mark Briscoe.

Sorry Ring of Honor, but we only hurt the ones we love. Or something like that anyway.

-Other names locked in for the iPPV include The All-Night Express, The Briscoes, Jimmy Jacob, Steve Corino, Mike Elgin and Mike Bennett.

-Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly are owed a title shot for winning the Contender’s Tag Team Lottery Match from Tag Team Turmoil 2011 and that should be announced very soon.

-In a follow-up to the Kevin Steen flyer incident, ROH announced the following in their August 16th newswire: “Be aware that Ring of Honor is now officially prohibiting people from flyering or advertising on automobiles in the parking lot at ROH live events. If you are caught you will be prosecuted.” I guess that’s works for both if that was a fan-sponsored move or part of an ROH viral angle. The prohibition could dissuade copycats. Still, that’s a damned shame and potential business loss for local Car-Washes.

-Last week I caught up with a lot of old NWA and WCW matches, filling in some of the blanks from eras when I was only watching WWE as well as re-watching some of my favorite matches from the now defunct Crockett and then Turner company. Obviously watching matches on best-ofs and anthologies will skew the perspective towards the more positive, but I do have to say that there were some fantastic matches that occurred throughout the existence of that promotion.

First I popped in the Ric Flair Definitive Collection (essentially volume 2 of WWE’s compendium of great Flair matches). I saw the classic Sting-Flair forty-five minute draw from Clash of the Champions in 1988 for the first time in years. Sting could definitely move around during his youth. There was also an awesome six-man tag with The Four Horsemen against Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA and Manny Fernandez. Now I hadn’t seen much at all of Manny so I was shocked at how crazy over he was with the fans in attendance. He isn’t a name people bring up too often these days especially in the same breath as say Dusty or Flair, but the man was pretty damned great in the ring-he looked like a bad-ass and he got put over by Flair and company so well in that match.

From there I caught up with some of the early NWA and WCW title defenses via The History of the World Heavyweight Championship DVD. Now, I’ve had this set for a while now, but didn’t give the WCW era much time and instead went for The Rock vs. Chris Jericho from No Mercy 2001 and some of the more modern WWE World Heavyweight Championship title defenses. This time around I saw some of early matches like Jack Brisco-Terry Funk. It was a bit disappointing but expected that these matches were clipped a great deal. However, Flair came to the rescue once again with some fun and memorable bouts, including the Great American Bash ’89 match vs. Sting (where The Stinger finally won the title).

The real highlight for me though was seeing Vader vs. Ricky Steamboat in what was billed as a “Human Cage” match, which was really a fancy way of saying “Lumberjack” match (though there were a lot of heavy hitters like Sting and The Bulldog at ringside). Vader was so THE MAN back in the early 1990’s, just the bruising mastodon that crushed through everyone. His pummeling punches and brutality on his opponent looked so real and fearsome that they made me believe it (I was still an early teenage mark in those days). These guys were BRUTALLY STIFF with each other, but Steamboat impressively took the fight to Vader and fought with heart and spirit. They took a television crowd that was somewhat apathetic and made them go crazy because of their efforts, and then Sid Vicious tore their heart open by planting Steamboat down with a Powerbomb during a huge fracas among all the lumberjacks.

Vader vs. Ron Simmons from 1992 (when Simmons won the title and became the first-ever African-American World Heavyweight Professional Wrestling Champion) was similarly exciting. It was, as Jim Ross might have said, a slobberknocker, but in the best way possible (and oh, was Ross such a miracle of entertaining and competent wrestling commentary, such a contrast from today’s situation in WWE with Michael Cole). Here were two guys throwing down against each other, and Simmons surprisingly using his power successfully to bowl over Vader. He snapped off his patented spinebuster and the crowd was insane because he took Vader down.

Finally, I managed to catch up with the WWE Collection of The Best of WCW Starrcade, which was a countdown of the top 25 matches in the history of that Pay Per View. I took in Kevin Nash vs. Bill Goldberg from 1998, the infamous Streak-Killer match where Nash ends Goldberg’s undefeated streak and wins the WCW Title with help from a shock stick attack from Scott Hall. You know what? Aside from the run-ins, the match was very good—the two of them made it a fight and it was intense and entertaining. Golderg is also feeling it in this one—now I’ve always asserted that Goldberg was more than a two-move wonder, but he’s busting out huge suplexes and other different moves that add to his offense. Fans who remember their history know that Nash dropped the belt to Hogan with the “Fingerpoke of Doom”, thus upsetting many wrestling fans due to the sham finish and the nWo winning yet again… and in many ways, that booking decision combined with other factors was a huge turn-off and drove fans to watch WWF Monday Night Raw. While Nash ending the streak is in itself not a terrible decision, it could have been made into a far bigger deal had Goldberg gotten to the 200 mark (he was at 173-0) or if that was the match to determine the 200th win. An extended Goldberg-Nash grudge feud to begin 1999 could have been damned great television, but alas it was not to be.

Other matches from the DVD: Brian Pillman and Barry Windham vs. Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas for the NWA World Tag Team Titles(this match ruled—I used to catch Steamboat and Douglas on WCW Worldwide and thought they made a great team, but Pillman and Windham worked fantastic as a heel team as well); Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (Brainbusters!) vs. The Road Warriors in a tag team title match; The Road Warriors vs. The Steiners in the Iron Man series from 1989; Sting vs. The Great Muta from the singles Iron Man series of that show (again, Sting was fast and agile and it made for a great bout); Sting vs. Flair in the final match on that PPV (battling the time-limit because if it was a draw then Luger would win the series. Also Terry Funk is excellent on commentary here); Eddie Guerrero vs. Shinjiro Ohtani (STIFFNESS); Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko (some SICK powerbombs in this one that the crowd couldn’t help but react); Rey Mysterio vs. Jushin Liger (they worked hard but it was probably a bit too lengthy for its own good).

There are some matches well worth watching on these DVDs—and they demonstrate that many of the best wrestlers in modern professional wrestling history had moments in the spotlight that deserve to be collected and presented to the future generations of professional wrestling fans. When I was a kid and used to watch older matches from the 70’s and early 80’s, I would think they were too slow or boring. I look back at some of those matches now and still feel that way. However, I don’t see how a current youth can look back at some of the above mentioned matches and ever think that way. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting older too (thanks Fleetwood Mac) and wouldn’t be able to perceive that reaction in new fans or get where it would come from, but put up a match like Generico vs. Malenko or Warriors vs. Steiners and they still hold up today, perhaps even better than before thanks to how far some of those wrestlers made it in their careers after participating in those matches. Great matches will almost always be great—and they don’t deserve to be lost in the sands of time and the passing all too quickly of years.

– SHIMMER Women’s Athletes Volume 36 thoughts: This DVD continues with the same camera transfer treatment that I enjoyed in the previous volume. It really works out well to me, as everything looks slightly more defined and clearer. If anyone wears glasses or contacts, here’s a good analogy-it’s as if you took your existing prescription and upped it to a stronger (but not overpowering) magnification. It as if you’re looking at a sharper world out there. However, again, the transfer process they used reverts back to the previous method with the next show. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted…

Rachel Summerlynn begins the DVD with a promo demanding an “I Quit” match against her former mentor Daffney in order to even the score. … Jamilia Craft wins over Bonesaw in a short opener. I want to cheer for Bonesaw because she’s from my hometown of Brooklyn, but Craft’s entrance music is “Different People” by No Doubt, so that might be the trump card. Craft wins with a nifty looking belly-to-belly suplex. … Mercedes Martinez once again is placed second on the card and once again in a face-face match, this time against Nikki Roxx. Joey Eastman slips in a “Pretty in Pink” reference for Martinez’ color of tights and I’m shocked no Molly Ringwald chants just for the hell of it. This is a good back-and-forth babyface match but Martinez overpowers and outmaneuvers Roxx for the win, her seventh-in-a-row in the promotion. She once again motions for a title shot.

If Leva Bates is from The Bates Motel, doesn’t that mean she should be considered a psychopath who dresses as her mother and kills people? She’s a very perky babyface instead, but you know what, that’s fine with me and the crowd. Bates has quickly become one of the more popular undercard babyfaces on the SHIMMER roster. I believe she comes out dressed in some sort of Fallout video game related gear (though I could be wrong). See, AJ from WWE may be noted as a nerdie girl who loves video games, but Leva will actually dress up as Iron Man (Woman), Doctor Who or have wacky video game gear. Not that I dislike AJ, mind you, but it should be noted for the record who is reppin’ nerdcore harder. She has a solid match against Cat Power and wins one with a roll-up reversal out of the figure four. … Sara Del Rey comes out for an interview but it quickly turns into a bad-mouth session about Sereena Deeb. That brings out Deeb to confront her, followed by SHIMMER Champion Madison Eagles and then a whole boatload of women. Bryce Remsburg, being a Survivor Series mark quite like myself, suggests they all fight it out in a main event eight-woman elimination tag match. On one side are Deeb, Cheerleader Melissa, Ayumi Kurihara and Ayako Hamada. On the other: Del Ray, Eagles, Daizee Haze and Tomoka Nakagawa. The heels bail like the good bad heels that they are.

Jessica James comes up with some awesome offense against Veronica Vice, including a headstand kick and a few different roll up reversals. There are some hard hits and plenty of oohs and ahhs from the crowd. Vice spikes James down on the mat head-first and her body looks like an exclamation-point. She takes the win soon after. … Jessie McKay is confronted by SHIMMER Tag Team Champions Nicole Matthews and Portia Perez, who rag on her for losing the title match at the last DVD and insisting that McKay’s win over her was a fluke. She will grant McKay a title match if she can find a partner. Luckily, who should walk right in but fellow Aussie (and now WWE-signed) Tennille. Isn’t pro wrestling great that it works out that way? … Kellie Skater tried to hold off Misaki Ohata’s submission work, but she taps to the vicious looking Fairy Lock, which is a sort of triangle-choke variation applied on the side of the head. I

Neveah and Athena have a well-worked match and Neveah picks up her first win since moving to singles competition. You can see Neveah beginning to stretch herself in terms of her offensive attack and that led to a more interesting match for her. However, while she is popular with the SHIMMER fans in attendance, it does seem that she plays too generic a babyface, especially in comparison to some wrestlers already seen on this DVD such as Leva Bates and Mercedes Martinez. What separates and makes her heroic compared to the other face wrestlers on the roster? … In another one of those funny pro wrestling quirks, Tennille and Jessie McKay manage to color coordinate their wrestling attire (baby blue)! Matthews and Perez cheat copiously throughout the match, leading to McKay yelling at Bryce Remsburg that he’s the worst referee ever, which is a break from her sweet, nice-girl temperament. She does have a point though-Bryce does seemingly lose his grip on the job when The Canadian Ninjas are wrestling. They get over on him big time. They hit the Funky Cold Media (Superkick-to-German Suplex) on Tennile for the win. … Daffney nails a stone-cold wicked promo against Rachel Summerlynn, which prompts Summerlynn out to start their match. They begin with one of the most vicious and angry collar-and-elbow tie ups possibly in the recorded history of professional wrestling. They tumble out of the ring and start pushing each other into barricades while still in the tie-up! This match is dominated by Daffney but is really a spotlight for Summerlynn, putting over her toughness and ability to come back to win. While Summerlynn gets one major piece of offense early with a brutal-looking reverse-DDT on the floor, the most vicious moments are all from Daffney pummeling down on Rachel, including busting her open with repeated chain shots. The match threatens to tread into the silly (I mean, who puts a golf club or a cheese-grater under the ring?) but the grudge keeps it grounded. I would have liked Summerlynn to have dished out slightly more offense at the end when she made her comeback, but she does get the shine off of the finish, a Texas Cloverleaf done on the turnbuckle post which makes Daffney say those magic words.

The main event is the SHIM-Vivor Series match, and it lives up to the billing with some excellent quality eight-woman tag action. The combinations tap into the history between the wrestlers, such as Nakagawa and Kurihara facing-off to start the match and a reprise of the Del Ray-Deeb series, but some of the more entertaining moments come through multiple person combinations like the rapid team-ups from the faces, the pyramid of submissions and the multi-person headlock spot that ends when Cheerleader Melissa brings them all down with a DDT. The faces have most of the shine in the first-half of the match so I was expecting a heel win here, but the match actually ends up with a two-on-one situation with Melissa and Hamada against Eagles. Deeb is surprisingly out second (after eliminating Nakagawa with a spear) through a double elimination with Haze as both their shoulders were down off an O’Conor Roll. Bryce redeems himself by noticing Haze was down as well. Soon after, Del Ray lands a monstrous Royal butterfly on Kurihara to eliminate her. Del Rey is out after that thanks to a backslide from Melissa (with help from Hamada). An AP Cross and Air Raid Crash combo of finishers puts down the SHIMMER champion and they are the SOLE DUO SURVIVORS. Prazak on commentary believes that Melissa has proven she can defeat Madison Eagles, but Portia Perez (correctly) points out that it took two women and two big moves to put her down. The issue involving those two certainly can’t be over as yet, but the champion did go down in defeat on this night.

As is the case with much of the SHIMMER DVD series, these shows are the picture of consistency-a solid to very good under-card and quality main–event matches whose efforts rival those of men in other independent promotions. This is the last SHIMMER DVD you can purchase through the rohwrestling.com store (although you can still buy all previous volumes that are still in-stock there), as all DVDs after this one will be sold exclusively through shimmerwrestling.blogspot.com.

At the beginning of the year, “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett vowed that within one year that he would become the Ring of Honor World Champion. So let’s see how he’s done so far, eh?

The Prodigy got off the schneid so to speak with a win against Jimmy Jacobs and the scuttlebutt around the internet is that he is currently dating former WWE Diva Maria Kanellis, who was in attendance at the ROH TV Tapings this past weekend. Well then, I guess it doesn’t matter if he becomes ROH World Champion this year, because he is already at a winner at life. Which is good, because he won’t become ROH World Champion this year.

I was a Twitter machine this past week, dishing out reactions to the ROH tapings, WWE Raw and more, so head on over to TwitterNation and follow me at: http://twitter.com/AriBerenstein.

I was on The Greg DeMarco Show this past Tuesday with Greg and Patrick O’Dowd discussing the ROH tapings, Jay Lethal / El Generico and a lot more for a half hour segment. I’m right at the top of the show, so check it out.

Aaron Frame is certainly going to be pushing some buttons with his underrated and overrated assesments in The Wrestling Framework. This week its Daniel Bryan, Davey Richards, Roderick Strong and The Kings of Wrestling. I can’t say I agree with him about any of his assessments this week aside from Strong at “Just Right” (and even then the reason he gives is not something I agree with, but I do agree with the rating), but it sure will spur reaction.

Ryan Rozanski finishes up PWG’s All Star Weekend with a look at All Star Weekend 8 Night Two.

Jack Stevenson contributes his first review, a look at The Best of CHIKARA collected DVD that was sold at media stores a few years back. Obviously there’s far better matches that took place in the following years that would be better served to introduce a new fan to CHIKARA, but this one isn’t so bad in and of itself.

Your moment of QI (Quite Interesting) this week is in honor of my brother-in-law with some rum and cokes in this rabbit and pork about David Hockney (a.k.a. Cockney Rhyming Slang):

That’s it for The Column for this week. Next time, we go back to The Book of Truth and more. Thanks for reading and for the feedback.

BROOKLYN!
DAH EM BAH SEE FOR-EVAH!
–Ari–