The Independent Mid-Card 08.20.07: Hagadorn vs. Primeau

Shane Hagadorn © vs. Pelle Primeau
Top of the Class Trophy
Ring of Honor – Fighting Spirit – Long Island, NY – April 14, 2007

The Wrestlers:
Shane Hagadorn – Easily the cockiest and smarmiest of the ROH students, Hagadorn was elevated to the main card in mid-2006 when he began serving as “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce’s personal man servant. Hagadorn, who won the Top of the Class Trophy from Derrick Dempsey in June of 2006, had thwarted numerous attempts by his fellow students to win the coveted championship, but was beginning to show signs of desperation, cheating his way to nearly every win he earned. Entering this match, it seemed as if the writing was on the wall that Hagadorn would finally be defeated by one of the other students, ending his stranglehold on the trophy.

Pelle Primeau – Though incredibly undersized, Primeau has been widely regarded as the most talented student in the ROH wrestling school’s history. Combining solid mat technique with flying ability and undeniable underdog charisma, Pelle had begun to pick up the occasional win on Ring of Honor main cards, including an improbable Four Corner Survival victory over Colt Cabana, Tank Toland and BJ Whitmer in November of 2006. As this match approached, many felt that the time had come for Primeau to be recognized as Ring of Honor’s top student.

The Match:
Pelle Primeau’s music hits and he makes his way to ringside. He hails from Nome, AK and is announced at 148 pounds, by far the smallest member of the ROH main roster. Just as he hops up on a chair to pose for some fans, Top of the Class Trophy holder Shane Hagadorn runs down the entrance ramp and blindsides him with a clubbing forearm to the back. Pelle falls into the crowd, so Hagadorn drags him back to his feet and chokes him with some wrist tape. Shane gets a straight right to the face before dragging Pelle over the guardrail and back to ringside. Hagadorn, whose shoulder is taped up due to injury, talks some trash before stomping away, but when he goes to run Pelle into the ringpost, Primeau slides out and sends Shane’s injured shoulder into the steel instead. Pelle hops up onto the apron and comes running with a hurricanrana to Hagadorn on the floor. Shane stumbles over into a chair in the corner and Pelle mounts him for a couple of punches. Pelle continues the assault with a couple of chops to the chest and back before hitting a clubbing forearm that sends Shane rolling into the ring. Pelle follows him in and the bell rings to start things proper.

Hagadorn makes his way to the corner and tries to get his feet up on a blind charge, but Pelle catches him and gets a pair of slaps to the face to counter. Pelle continues to work over Shane’s shoulder with clubbing blows and just peppers him with a variety of forearms and kicks as he staggers around the ring. Finally, Hagadorn comes back with a takedown that sends Pelle face-first into the second turnbuckle. Shane rolls around in pain to sell the shoulder but maintains control with a variety of strikes. Hagadorn chokes him again with more wrist tape and then just plants him with a forearm strike. An Irish whip leads to Shane hitting a tilt-a-whirl gutbuster and then covering for two. Shane goes into a mounted position and lays in a series of punches until the referee forces him to break, and notably he sells the shoulder injury after breaking.

Hagadorn continues to jaw with the audience as well as strike away at Primeau. Shane whips Pelle off the ropes again, but this time Primeau ducks a back elbow and is able to counter the gutbuster into a flying headscissors. Pelle continues to string together some offense by getting a modified armdrag right into a cross armbreaker. Shane smartly locks his hands to counter and rolls Pelle onto his shoulders for a two count. Shane regains control with a running knee to the midsection and then hits a pair of hip strikes to the head. Another running knee strike sets up a side Russian legsweep for two. Hagadorn locks in a chinlock, but Pelle fights his way out of it, only to come off the ropes right into a back elbow smash. Hagadorn, still clutching at his shoulder, makes a cocky cover for two.

Hagadorn chokes Pelle on the ropes and talks trash to the camera and the crowd. Shane follows up with a high-angle belly to back suplex, but takes a moment to shake out his shoulder before going for the cover. Pelle kicks out at two, but Shane stays on him with an elbow strike. Hagadorn gets another Irish whip, but Pelle ducks a clothesline and a back elbow before countering yet another gutbuster attempt into a swinging DDT. That wasn’t the most crisp of sequences, but the thought was there. Pelle goes out to the apron and springboards in with a bombs away senton before hopping onto Hagadorn’s throat with a double stomp and then landing a back senton on the rebound. The crowd applauds the combination as Pelle rolls Hagadorn up with La Majistral cradle for two.

Pelle goes running at Shane in the corner, but Hagadorn gets a boot up to block. The do an awkward sequence that sees Shane grab a reverse headscissors from the turnbuckle and hit Pelle with a kick to the top of the head, with Pelle doing a complete somersault sell before landing on the mat. Shane grabs a standing chinlock and goes for an inverted headlock takedown, but Pelle lands on his feet and rolls Hagadorn up with an inside cradle for two. Hagadorn goes for the inverted headlock takedown again, and this time gets it cleanly, locking in a choking headlock on the mat. Pelle fights almost all the way to the ropes, but Shane pushes off the ropes himself, rolling the duo back into the middle of the ring all the while maintaining the hold. Finally, Pelle is able to crawl over and get a foot on the ropes to force the break.

Hagadorn turns away from the referee to grab brass knuckles out of his trunks, but Bobby Dempsey, another of the ROH students to be bullied by Hagadorn during his reign with the trophy, runs down to ringside and points out the indiscretion to the ref. Hagadorn’s weapon is confiscated and Pelle comes running off the ropes. Hagadorn catches him, but Pelle fights out of it and comes running off the ropes again, this time hitting a jumping Stunner (over-the-shoulder hangman’s chinbreaker) before immediately rolling Hagadorn up for the three count at 6:00 to win the Top of the Class Trophy. The crowd gives Pelle a big ovation as Dempsey comes in the ring to join in the celebration. Primeau instructs the rather large Dempsey to get his own measure of revenge, so Dempsey pulls down the straps and hits a HUGE rolling senton to Hagadorn in the opposite corner. The crowd loves it and continues to applaud until Pelle agrees to body surf, a tradition he began after winning the aforementioned Four Corner Survival nearly six months earlier. Pelle gets passed all the way around the ring, including being passed over the entrance ramp by the security guys in a nice touch. Pelle makes his way up the ramp, making sure to step on the still-recovering Hagadorn’s back on his way out.

The Analysis:
I’ve always felt it important to judge each match individually, especially because the reasonable expectations for each contest depend greatly on the talent involved. In this match, which featured two of ROH’s top students, expecting a four-star classic would have been unfair. There were a number of really positive elements to this contest. First, Pelle was beyond over with the crowd, who genuinely seemed invested in seeing him win the Top of the Class Trophy. Second, both guys sold well, especially Hagadorn’s continued selling of his shoulder injury. Third, there were numerous nice bits of storytelling, including Dempsey informing the referee about the brass knuckles and Pelle learning to avoid Shane’s gutbuster after being hit with the maneuver early in the matchup.

That said, there were a couple of places where both guys could have improved their performance without going outside of their comfort zones. Hagadorn tried a few different counters along the way that ended up coming across awkwardly. He might have tried doing simpler, more concise strikes instead of going for something flashier, especially because the story of the match was ‘the big bully vs. the plucky underdog’. The headscissors kick in the corner is a good example of where this could have helped. Also, Pelle, having focused on Shane’s injured shoulder during the initial brawl on the outside, could have mixed in more than the single cross armbreaker. Perhaps instead of trying to roll Hagadorn up with La Majistral, Pelle would have been better served locking in an armbar and going for a submission victory.

All-in-all, what makes this match memorable is the extra-curricular joy involved in seeing the students treat Primeau’s win like a big deal. The fact that Shane was still crawling up the entrance ramp nearly three minutes after the match ended is a subtle but excellent way to get across how distraught this loss would make him. Pelle on the other hand absolutely makes the moment with his over-the-top celebration and crowd surfing.

The Aftermath:
Since losing the Top of the Class Trophy, Shane Hagadorn has appeared in the ring sparingly for Ring of Honor, more commonly accompanying “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce to the ring. Hagadorn did lose a bout to a returning “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson in mid-May, but has been more of a ringside fixture other than that in the months following his loss.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is current trophy holder Pelle Primeau, who since winning this bout has continued to see his stock rise in Ring of Honor. Though he was unsuccessful in a bid to win the ROH World Tag Team Titles in an Ultimate Endurance match (while teaming with fellow student Mitch Franklin), Pelle has continued to compete in a number of increasingly impressive contests. In particular, Primeau recently defeated a slumping BJ Whitmer in the first round of ROH’s Race to the Top Tournament. Though Pelle fell to No Remorse Corps member Davey Richards in the second round, advancing over a veteran like Whitmer speaks volumes about Primeau’s improvement in the ring over the last year. If not for his notable lack of size, Pelle Primeau’s talent would surely have him cemented as one of Ring of Honor’s most consistent mid-card performers.

The Final Word:
Though there are fans who don’t enjoy watching the ROH students in action, I am not amongst them. I have always found watching the Ring of Honor students perform during pre-shows and under-card matches to be an interesting look into the building blocks of a match. Though moves and storytelling are often not as crisp as what one might see from the company’s top talents, the seeds of improvement are commonly there to be seen, if only one takes the time to look closely.

To see this week’s contest, you can purchase Fighting Spirit at rohwrestling.com. Also on the card are the highly-regarded ROH World Title match between Takeshi Morishima and Nigel McGuinness and the second stop on Colt Cabana’s farewell tour as he faces off with Doug Williams. There’s also a really good tag team contest pitting Jay Briscoe & Erick Stevens against El Generico & Kevin Steen in a bout that sees Mark Briscoe’s shocking return to ROH competition. Certainly a solid addition to any DVD library.

While you’re here at 411 this week, be sure to check out some of our other great columns. Ari has Part One and Part Two of Column of Honor, Stu’s got Friendly Competition and Bayani’s got Truth B Told, each of which is a must-read as usual. There’s also a great edition of Buy or Sell featuring Ryan Byers and Magnus Donaldson discussing all things CHIKARA. Rob Halden gets in more than his share of shots at Kurt Angle and TNA in this week’s You’re An Idiot And Here’s Why, and while you’re at it, you should really read Mathew Sforcina’s Evolution Schematic on the ROH Pure Championship.

On the DVD review side, Jake & Brad have finally reached my favorite all-time ROH show, Good Times, Great Memories. Included are their thoughts on my pick for Match of the Year as well as a link to my column on that very same match. They also cover the other half of that weekend’s ROH doubleshot with a review of The Battle of St. Paul. Please be sure to check out both of those. There’s also some more great CHIKARA content from Magnus, who looks at King of Trios, Night 2.

Later this week will be another Buy or Sell to preview the upcoming ROH shows, as well as a Roundtable on the same topic, so be on the lookout for those.

As promised, here’s what I can remember for a wedding short form:

Arrive in Philadelphia, wait in airport for Brian, drink Corona at Friday’s, drink another Corona, receive ‘I’m behind schedule’ text message, drink third Corona, set up hotel accommodations for Monday night at Airport Marriott, wait for Brian some more, Brian arrives, drive to Allentown, arrive in Allentown, check in, hang out with Matt & Stacy, drink, shower, take bus to rehearsal dinner, drink, listen to other speeches, give heartfelt speech, renew ‘College… Park’ catchphrase, get complimented, get first of four-hundred ‘do you live in Costa Rica?’ questions, renew ‘This is what men do!’ catchphrase, drink, go back to hotel, drink, check for ROH results, sleep, breakfast, go to Wawa, shower, go to wedding, processional, Matt’s great-uncle beings speaking loudly throughout ceremony, rabbi begins speaking, [long period of time elapses], rabbi finishes speaking, Matt’s great-uncle continues to speak loudly, glass breaks, applause, recessional, drink, sushi bar, drink, dance, eat, dance, drink, drink, dance, drink, lift Matt on a chair, lift Matt’s father-in-law on a chair, decline to lift Matt’s dad on a chair, dance, drink, dance, longest birkat hamazon EVER, wait for the shuttle to the hotel, continue to wait for the shuttle, finally take shuttle back to hotel, arrive at hotel, change, drink, renew ‘Big League Chew’ catchphrase, drink, Stacy (still in wedding dress) announces desire for Wawa, get 364th ‘Costa Rica’-related question, go to Wawa (with Stacy still in wedding dress), return to hotel, eat in honeymoon suite, drink, laugh about Brian hitting on girl with boyfriend (possibly apocryphal), sleep (possibly apocryphal), go to brunch, say goodbye to everyone, go to Dorney Park with Brian, ride coasters in terror, decline to ride super coaster out of fear, ride final coaster and actually enjoy it, begin drive to Philadelphia, Ruby Tuesday for lunch, complain about wheat bun, arrive at airport Marriott, check in, nap, go to hotel bar, drink, eat, drink, meet business man and ULTRA-HOT 29-year-old saleswoman, chat with them, drink, pay tab, return to room, watch the end of RAW, sleep, shower, go across skywalk to airport, go through security, get donuts, fly home.

Less ridiculous perhaps than the bachelor party, but then it’s all just a matter of degrees. Certainly amongst the great weekends of all-time and a true testament to Matt & Stacy. Good stuff that will hopefully be repeated eventually at the bris and 10th Anniversary party.

As for me, I’m heading off to North Shore Chicago to meet my cousins for dinner, but I’m actually far more hyped about my excellent date on Saturday night. Huzzah for me. The IMC will be back to it’s normal Tuesday slot next week, and I’m sure I’ll come up with something interesting and topical to do for that. Have a good week and go see Superbad.