411’s Buy or Sell 6.30.07: BOLA 2007, the NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Takeshi Morishima’s Future and More!

Michael Bauer: BUY. In thinking about this, I had to wonder, who else really is there who could take the titles? Steen and Generico have been an odd team to say the least and have the ability to be a legit Ring of Honor team with the titles, where nobody else really could at this point. The Kings of Wrestling are pretty much non existent in the Ring of Honor now, although I have different thoughts about hat subject. The only other option would be to have the Briscoes lose the Tag Team Titles in Japan and then hot shot them back or to another team, leading to another Briscoes chase. I honestly don’t see that happening unless you could arrange for the new champions to show up in the United Sates after that Ultimate Endurance Tournaments concludes at the end of July. But that seems so distant of an idea. Actually, there is one other option and that would be the No Remorse Corps/Resistence feud to have the Tag Team Titles brought in. But if they are smart, they would use the FIP World Title instead.

Bayani Domingo : SELL . I hate, hate, hate to say this but I don’t think the next Tag Champs will be Steen-Erico. Maybe the ones after but something tells me they’re going to get the Irish Airborne treatment. I could actually see the RoH surprising everyone by letting Morishima keep the titles in Japan and hot shotting the tag belts on a Dragon Gate team. Then letting Steen-Erico go over them later. I’m not sure why, but I don’t think they want to let the Briscoe’s be beaten for the belt by a current team to keep them strong but rather let them lose it in Japan and then continue the feud with them chasing the belts for a while. All logic points to the only really strong current tag team, Steen-Erico taking the belts because there really isn’t anyone else, but lately RoH has dumbfounded me with some of their booking decisions so I’ll go with the swerve here.

0 for 1.

Michael Bauer : SELL . It’s a tough sell, but that’s only because I am a New Yorker and now plan to start making trips to the city to catch shows in the Manhattan Center. The Ring of Honor should use New York City as it’s main base with Chicago as the secondary location and Philadelphia or Detroit as the third option. The reason behind it is two fold. First off, you are going to have a very tough time convincing me that Chicago’s crow is any more behind Ring of Honor than New York City, which is now pretty much the center of all things RoH. And that actually leads into the second point. The Ring of Honor is an East Coast Indy fed at its truest roots, despite what anyone else wants to think. Making Chicago your main spot for Pay per Views takes away from that, takes away from your roots, and takes away from your fans who were there since the beginning five years ago.

Bayani Domingo : SELL . Although for different reasons because I’m not a New Yorker and CLEARLY as biased as Bauer is. I think Philly, New York, and Detroit were just as deserving of a second PPV and I’m not sure why Chicago was chosen again, but if your aim is to introduce RoH to a bigger audience then you might want to actually present the PPVs as such and hold them in different locations each time, otherwise you risk alienating some of your audience that feels that RoH is forgetting them. Besides, I don’t remember RoH starting it all in Boston after all. This isn’t a knock on the Bostonian fans but rather a curious decision by RoH considering how many other ‘hot’ crowds they have around the country. I’m still pulling for them to do an LA show in the future however.

1 for 2.

Michael Bauer : BUY . I am buying the opinion that he should be given the opportunity, as Morishima has done nothing but impress the Ring of Honor auidences since he came to the United States. Now, he does have the title defenses set for when he comes back in August, but I seriously have the doubts if he will be the champion come that time because of his defense against Nigel McGuiness in Japan. Remember, Nigel is pretty much being tagged as the next Ring of Honor champion and that would be as great of a time as any to give him the belt. That said, Morishima should being able to hold onto the title until the fall if not Final Battle 2007, where NIgel finally wins the title on his third opportunity at beating Morishima.

Bayani Domingo : BUY . I’m not saying this because he’s not “over” but because I have a feeling RoH will be expecting everyone to have Nigel go over him, but will try to surprise us all by hot shotting the tag belts instead. I’m not a big Morishima fan as I feel he’s rather 1 dimensional and can’t really get behind him. Although he seems to be performing well enough I would hope that they go ahead and put the title on McGuiness already because if they don’t do so soon I’m not sure that I’m going to care about the feud come the fall. Logic would say that if Morishima went over in the US, then Nigel should go over in Japan as a ‘receipt’, however I doubt that will happen. Morishima has done his part, but I just question what RoH is doing in terms of booking as the time to build up Nigel is now, not wait for the end of 2007, I’m hoping they don’t drag this out like they did with Homicide because his title reign was largely lost in the post-hype and didn’t really pan out as the barn burner people were expecting. If anything I’d love to see a bigger swerve and have KENTA actually take the belt, just to fuck with McGuiness until he starts lariating MoFo’s left and right after he goes ape shit. I honestly think Morishima SHOULD drop the belt in Japan, but my gut tells me it won’t happen.

2 for 3.

SWITCH~!

Bayani Domingo : SELL . I was going to use semantics to say that technically anyone has a “chance” so long as they are in the tournament because ‘slim to non’ is still a chance, but I assume this is based on the interpretation that “everyone has an equal chance”. In that case it’s a SELL because there are definite ‘contenders’ and ‘pretenders’. Let me break down the guys who have been announced as of Tuesday: Joey Ryan, Doug Williams, Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Kid, Chris Bosh, Davey Richards, Jimmy Rave, Chris Hero, Human Tornado, Jack Evans, Tyler Black, PAC, Roderick Strong, and El Generico. Of the guys in the tournament Susu, Doug Wiliams, and Rave are debuting, Dragon Kid and Tyler Black have 3 or less matches in PWG, Bosh and Davey are both past winners, and Joey Ryan is now a mid-card comedy act. Even though CIMA made the finals in his debut, he is a significantly bigger name than any of those 1st timers. I can’t see any of those guys winning in their debut or Davey or Bosh repeating after only 3 tournaments. That leaves Jack, Tornado, PAC, Roderick, Hero, and Generico.

I could honestly see any of those guys taking the tournament but I would doubt Tornado would be the 3rd straight “local” guy to win the tournament. Having your own guys constantly go over tournament dilutes them a bit in that there is no point in booking International or big named Indy guys if your local worker is always going to win. Since BoLA is becoming one of the biggest tournaments on the Indy scene I doubt they would let Joey win based on him not being a really serious wrestler anymore and relying more on comedy, which is fine, but not the guy you want going over a field as prestigious as this. While I think BoLA is going to be an awesome tournament that any wrestling fan living within a 3 hour plane ride or 6 hour car drive should be at *hint hint*, I still can see the writing on the walls as to who is probably going out in the first round, it’s based on logic and watching PWG’s booking the past 3 years. But then again what tournament with 24 participants DOES have an “everyone in the tourney has an equal chance” type make up? None, there are always some “filler” type guys who may perform well but ultimately you just know they are there to fill out the card. Hell, that’s why the NCAA has those whacky March Madness pools after all, Btw, it’s $10 a square for the BoLA ones this year people, get in while you can and avoid the dreaded ‘Sexy Chino’ square.

Michael Bauer : BUY . I’ll admit that while Bayani’s logic makes a ton of sense about all the current compeititors, there is one factor that Bayani did not take into effect. And that is the simple fact that all of the indy tournaments lately have been booked to make an upset happen. Think of the tag team tournament that the PWG ran back in May. You had the Kings of Wrestling, The Briscoe Brothers, The Havana Pitbulls, and Arrogance all in this tournament and who came out on top… PAC and Roderick Strong. You want to talk about an upset… I don’t think anybody saw this coming. Now you got another tournament with a bunch of top names for the PWG and across the indy scene coming for the Battle of Los Angeles. Now on the surface, it does seems like his six names are the favorites and one of those guys should win, but I don’t think that is how it will happen. PWG could very easily use this tournament to build up the next major player of their federation and do it without really hurting any of their current big names. The just need to be careful of how they do it.

2 for 4.

Bayani Domingo : BUY . The NWA has merged with just about every SoCal Indy fed outside of PWG so far and it is near impossible to escape them now. In fact I just had lunch at “NWA/Tito’s Tacos” last weekend. Love those double fried tacos. While I’m not even sure when the NWA tournament will be over the chances of the NWA title winner being booked by PWG is fairly good. The front runners look to be Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, and Brent Albright. The 1st two are PWG semi-regulars and Albright may get a call soon. I would think that even if RoH doesn’t recognize them it would behoove PWG to as the title still means something and any good rub that they get as a result would be good. There is a downside however.

If PWG does recognize the title then the NWA will want a say in how they are booked so that they are kept strong. I think that would be okay in the case of Danielson who is kept strong regardless, Claudio has taken a few falls here and there, but I don’t see it being a problem keeping him strong in singles competition, I’m sure if Albright came to town he would also be ‘protected’ and I doubt anyone else winning the tournament would even be booked so that solves the rest. Since PWG has recognized the TNA X-Division title in the past I don’t see a reason to ignore the NWA title. Then again, I’ve never seen Roderick holding the FIP title, although James Gibson did have the RoH belt. I guess it’s all a matter of choice. NWA affiliated Indy feds employ a good number of local PWG workers and one would think that a little bit of recognition would be in order. But hey, it’s not like it matter since PWG doesn’t include entrances in their videos anyways. All it is would be a matter of letting the guy wear the belt to the ring and not letting him job to Top Gun Talwar in the opening match. No prob.

Michael Bauer : BUY . Easy buy here. Bayani pretty much took every point I could make here, but I’ll add on a little. The NWA Title is the most recognized title out there today, regardless of the WWE being in existence with two heavyweight titles. If someone in the PWG or ANY indy fed wins that title, it should be recognized and if the NWA Title wishes, it should be defended at any time they wish. I do agree with what Bayani said about needing the protect the champion as a possible issue, but if the guy holding the title is so good, why would you put him in a bad spot in the first place? It would be like having Morishima have a one time appearence there and jobbing to a midget. In other words, it makes no sense.

3 for 5.

Bayani Domingo : BUY . It’s clear that PWG is trying to make BoLA THE event for the year, their Wrestlemania so to speak. Right now there are no matches announced for the 4th Anniversary show, which isn’t horrible considering there are still roughly 4 weeks left, but it feels like a ‘transitional show’ for the most part even though as an Anniversary show it really deserves it’s own spotlight. I can’t imagine PWG blowing their wad on bringing in big name surprise wrestlers in for the show since BoLA is a mere month away, but considering they have been going roughly 5 or 6 weeks between shows one would think they’d have to do better than the usual low wattage shows with mainly local guys. I don’t doubt that the 4th Anniversary show is going to be good and it will probably have a good amount of talent as well since July isn’t going to be packed with large shows and tournaments like August and September, but right now it doesn’t feel all that special.

I think that is one reason that the “e” separates the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania with ‘No Way Out’, that way they can both get a proper build instead of WM simply outshining RR. PWG would have done better to do the same, however it’s obvious they don’t have the deep pockets that Vinny Mac has. As much as I love having something to look forward to every few days to see who the next contestant is for BoLA, I feel like one day I’ll get a text message from a buddy asking me if I’ll be going to the 4th Anniversary show and not even realize it’s that weekend. Not really the kind of anticipation you want for an annual show. Hey, don’t get me wrong, I’ll still be there 2 hours before waiting in line, but don’t expect me to remember the line-up with BoLA already on the brain.

Michael Bauer : BUY . I have to agree with Bayani, but only because I have no idea why it’s not being overshadowed. Ok, I kid a little, but let’s think about it. Bayani lives out on the West Coast so he would be more in tune to the going on of the PWG than me and mostly likely the other way around with the Ring of Honor since I’m a New Yorker, a Long Islander to be specific. So if he is more focused on a later event than a closer one, then there is an issue. The reason I state this now is because of a recent happening in the Ring of Honor that makes me not wish to think about the weekend in Japan, but for the set of shows that follow it. And I quote from ROHWresling.com: “Austin Aries is back to stay in ROH!!! Aries has signed his ROH contract and will be on every show after ROH’s tour of Japan.” Now on the surface that is huge news in itself, but if you are me, you are so excited for this show because the very first show after Japan is in LONG ISLAND!!! Now, do you think I care what happens in Japan now? If I wasn’t in tune to 411, would I remember that they are in Japan before this? Probably not on both acounts. This may be a far fetched example here, but it’s the same concept. They are building up the Battle of Los Angeles so much that the 4th Anniversary could very easily get lost in the shuffle.

4 for 6!

The Thirteenth edition of BUY or SELL finishes at 4 for 6. Stay tuned for next week when two new men will go head to head with a whole new set of topics.