News to Start Your Weekend 2.16.07

It’s an exciting weekend we have coming up, and we have some interesting news and developments all over the wrestling world this week. No time for talk, let’s get into this so I can go eat.

Coming up this weekend we have the first pair of shows of the Fifth Year Festival, the first big extravaganza of events in 2007. It all starts in my backyard of NYC tonight and continues on Saturday into a place close enough for me to drive to, Philadelphia.

Fifth Year Festival Night One: Manhattan Center
February 16, 2007 – New York City, NY

Friday night will see the big match up the fans have been waiting for since the first Manhattan Center show in September, Takeshi Morishima vs. Samoa Joe. This will be Morishima’s first match in the states and Joe’s final match for Ring of Honor in New York City. Joe has been taunting Pro Wrestling NOAH for months now, and they’ve sent one of their brightest rising stars to defend their honor. It’s gonna be friggin’ huge, to say the least.

In the other main event of the evening, Jimmy Rave will be the first man Homicide will be defending his newly won ROH World Title against in New York City since winning it there on December 23. This may be Rave’s most viable shot yet, as the man has been on an absolute roll, and he has been wrestling smarter, in my not-so-humble opinion, than he ever has in his career. Will he end the short reign of Homicide in the very building that ‘Cide won the belt that that Rave made the challenge? I see a distinct possibility, but either way the winner of the match will have a hell of a test the next night, as Takeshi Morishima will be challenging whoever the champion happens to be come night two in Philadelphia. I don’t know if I want Rave to win at this point, though. A loss here may be deflating to his ego a bit, but I don’t think it would hurt his momentum. It just might straighten him out and clear out his head and give him an even larger chance at taking the title at some point down the line. Plus, if he loses tonight, he won’t have to make his first defense against Morishima, because as smart as Jimmy is wrestling right now, Takeshi took Mitsuharu Misawa, the current GHC Heavyweight Champion, to the limit less than a month ago. It’s going to be a task for anybody in Ring of Honor to take out a fired up Morishima, especially somebody like Rave who hasn’t proved himself yet to be one of the elite. On top of all this, the loser of this match will not even get to wrestle on the main card in Philadelphia.

Elsewhere on the card for the return to the Manhattan Center, Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal will finally make their second Tag Championship defense, putting their belts on the line against the men who were the champions for the majority of 2006, Austin Aries and Roderick Strong. With multiple different partners, Matt Sydal has been unable to defeat his former stable members in a tag team match with the titles on the line. If that trend continues, the reign of the Lords may be a very underwhelming one.

The debuting Four Way Fray, which is a four way match fought under Tornado rules with the elimination stipulation. Four men, Jimmy Jacobs, Jack Evans, Shingo and Davey Richards will be in the ring at once, and the winner is the only man not to take a fall. Davey Richards is the man with the most riding on this match. Jacobs has stated in a recent interview that winning doesn’t mean everything, especially now and especially with his current issues with Cabana and Whitmer. He has a big six-person street fight coming up the next night, as well, and he says he’s focused on that. Shingo and Evans are set for a Tag Team Championship shot on Saturday in Philly (as long as Sydal and Daniels can hold on to the gold), so they may be looking past tonight’s match and toward their possible title shot on Saturday. Davey does have a big match against Samoa Joe on the second night of the Festival, but it will be a very beat up and war torn man he will be stepping into the ring against. Richards certainly will need the momentum either way, and he has been saying that he needs to start winning lest he possibly lose his spot on the ROH roster. He has the most to gain and the most to lose in this match, so expect him to take the win in the debuting Four Way Fray match.

Also on the card is a prelude to Saturday’s street fight as BJ Whitmer will take on Brent Albright in a match where tables are legal. This stems from December in Manhattan when Albright tossed Whitmer out of the ring with a hellacious powerbomb. Sara Del Ray, Daizee Haze and Allison Danger will be in action, Delirious and Adam Pearce will have a rematch from the last Manhattan show and the Briscoes will take on Colt Cabana and Nigel McGuinness in a special tag team attraction. It’s a very strong card that has some interesting exhibitions with implications, title matches, grudge matches and another international encounter.

Fifth Year Festival Night Two: Pennsylvania National Guard Armory
February 17, 2007 – Philadelphia, PA

Takeshi Morishima is going to receive a World Title shot in only his second match in Ring of Honor, and he gets it regardless of whether he wins or loses in his first. He will either be standing across the ring from Homicide or Jimmy Rave, neither of whom will be very well adjusted to being champion. Morishima himself has never been World Champion, but he is a multiple time and current Tag Champion in NOAH and just, as I mentioned earlier, put up a respectable fight against a legend on a very big stage less than a month ago. Homicide only has 2 World Title defenses under his belt, and Rave would be in the war path of Takeshi Morishima only a night after holding gold for the first time. Morishima will be a daunting challenger, and he will either be carrying momentum from a win over Samoa Joe or anger from a loss. Be afraid, boys. The winner on Friday better be ready to bring his all.

Davey Richards has a huge test in Philly. Samoa Joe, with very similar motivations as Morishima, will continue his final tour with ROH against the struggling Richards. Davey hasn’t won a match since a submission victory over Austin Aries on November 25 in Edison. He’s 0-6 since then in Ring of Honor. We may be entering Do or Die territory with mister Richards if he doesn’t start shaping up soon. A decisive win over Samoa Joe will get Davey in the clear and it may be a serious confidence booster for a guy who hasn’t seemed to be able to get it together for the past few months.

The battle that started over Lacey’s love (and sexual pleasure, as it were) will continue as Jimmy Jacobs is fighting not only for Lacey’s heart, but on Saturday night her physical safety as well, as Jimmy and Lacey will team up with Adam Pearce in a Street Fight against BJ Whitmer, Colt Cabana and Daizee Haze. Jimmy says love will overcome anything, and he has overcome a lot, so maybe a partner who hasn’t been involved in his fight for love won’t be detrimental in this high stakes contest against two men and a woman that Jimmy and Lacey have a serious issue with.

If they are still the champions, the Lords of the Ring of Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal vs. Shingo and Jack Evans will be a match for the Tag Team Championship. If not, these four men will clash, but nothing will be on the line but pride, something that Daniels and especially Sydal may be completely drained of should the tag gold become property of Aries and Strong on Friday. Otherwise, this will be the third defense and the second of their three defenses during the four shows of the Fifth Year Festival in the US.

Also on this card will be a FIP Title defense as Roderick Strong puts his belt on the line against Delirious, Jay and Mark Briscoe will take on returning West Coast staples El Generico and Kevin Steen and Austin Aries and Claudio Castagnoli will try to settle their grudge one-on-one. Nigel McGuinness has put out an open contract for a match on February 17, and you never know who might turn up. Plus, as mentioned earlier, the loser of the Homicide/Jimmy Rave title match in Manhattan will be relegated to a match for ROHWrestling.com and will not be featured on the main card of the evening.

It’s looking to be a hell of a weekend.

In some semi-big news, the next episode of Wrestling Society X will not be airing on MTV. There’s no news thus far on whether it will show up on the website, but as of now episode 4 will be skipped and the show will return to action for episode 5 on February 27. According to the news, the show has been pulled due to a stunt in which Ricky Banderas throws a fireball in WSX Champion Vampiro’s face. Apparently, MTV doesn’t want to send kids the wrong message. In their world, fire is very, very bad, but electrocutions are hunky dory, getting drunk and climbing ladders is fun, thumb tacs are all the rage, jumping unrestrained from high places is exhilarating, and promiscuous sex with partners you don’t even know is the most accepted form of stimulation. Oh, and music has no place on a television network called Music Television.

In other news, Test broke the Wellness Policy, so he’s been suspended from house show appearances. It is possible that he will continue to appear on television, however, due to stipulations in the policy.

The 4 way tag team ladder match for London & Kendrick’s titles has been replaced by a one-on-one title defense as the champions will face newcomers Deuce and Domino. According to sources, Vince and Stephanie have now changed their minds again and have decided that the four men in the Hardyz/MNM feud will once again return to singles action. Maybe this time it will stick, as we have been told multiple times that the tag returns were one night only. Too bad there’s no reason as to why Regal and Taylor are getting the shaft.

Brooke Hogan is not only the “next Paris Hilton” according to her own mother, but she apparently wore a bad looking green dress at some awards show. I don’t even know why I bothered reporting this. Probably because I just like the thought of Hulk going insane over his daughter being the next big whore on the scene. Remember how I used to go after Mark Madden a while back? Well fuck you, Hulk Hogan.

The trailer for Steve Austin’s upcoming movie The Condemned is up. You can find it here on 411 somewhere. Looks promising.

Dusty Rhodes has been confirmed as the first inductee to WWE’s 2007 Hall of Fame class, and I’ve been hearing that Jerry Lawler is the second.

Chyna is back on the drugs, but Anna Nicole Smith’s death is apparently going to drive her to get off again. Then, only a few months ago she claimed to be off drugs and was actually beginning to look human again, and now she looks like garbage just like before. Way to go, dearie. You certainly didn’t overestimate your worth back in 2001 at all, did you?

Manu Bumb has an eyebrow raised at Cena’s next movie venture:

Wait…what? he’s making another movie? I havent heard anything about this anywhere. they should let kane make another movie, and this time, dont kill him. it can be “See No Evil: The Beginning”….ya know, i bet that would be A LOT better than “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning”, which was a decent slasher flick, but the TCM tie-in seemed forced.

Cena’s new movie was reported a long while back. The news of it will probably start up again within a month or so when WrestleMania nears. As far as those “The Beginning” movies, I’ve had enough. I have no interest whatsoever in seeing great characters from past movies being revisited in order to tell us their back stories for no other reason than to try to milk just a little bit more money from an already established character. Fuck that. There’s almost no creativity left in Hollywood any more, and anybody who does have a little bit of it is usually too inexperienced to fully develop anything great. It’s a shame, really.

A pay-per-view is coming up this weekend, which means the return of the quick ‘n dirty PPV predictions. For No Way Out, I say:

Batista & ‘Taker, Deuce & Domino, Kane, Boogeyman

Only four matches announced up to the point of me writing this, but I’ll edit this if I’m available over the weekend when the rest are announced.

And finally, it is your duty to listen to Team Game Online’s fantastic weekly wrestling radio show RocketBusta Radio on the wonderful internet radio station Radio TGO. 411’s own Ari Berenstein loves the show. Plus, I’m one of the hosts, so you get to hear my beautiful voice for a few hours. This week, tomorrow night, Saturday, February 17, we have the weekly wrestling talk as always as well as the first half of a 2 part interview with one Jimmy Jacobs conducted by myself and co-host Michael Z. We get the heavy scoop!

We do. So listen. It’s good. We’re live on Saturday nights at 8PM EST and you can download the podcast of it every week shortly after it airs. Once again, visit RocketBusta Radio dot com for more information. Send feedback to me here when you listen and tell me what you think.

Now leave.