Hitting Below the Beltway 09.16.07: Who should be the new ROH champion?

While I support Morishima, it is getting to be about time that he loses the title. After beating Bryan Danielson last month in what from all reports was a near 5 star match and again on PPV Saturday night, he’s faced every top guy in Ring of Honor and won. It wasn’t until Danielson had definitively beaten every star in ROH that he finally dropped the belt to the one remaining challenger in Homicide. The fans are dying for someone to step up and beat Baby Mori (The guy does look an enormous baby. If Brian Gerwitz gets his way and signs him to WWE he’ll be jobbing to HHH wearing a diaper and a bonnet. And it’d still better than HHH/Steiner.)

The biggest problem ROH has had the past couple of years is making guys outside of their elite circle seem like legitimate title contenders. Bryan Danielson put on outstandingly suspenseful title matches with Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, AJ Styles, Jimmy Rave, Lance Storm, and Christopher Daniels. He even put on top-notch title defenses with ROH midcarders like Alex Shelley, BJ Whitmer, Delirious, Jimmy Yang, Rocky Romero and Jimmy Rave. But did anyone really believe that somebody other than Samoa Joe, KENTA or Homicide really had a shot at winning the title? Under normal circumstances, Colt Cabana and Nigel McGuiness could have been top contenders, but there was no way they were going put the belt on either of them while they still had Dragon/Joe, Dragon/KENTA and Dragon/Homicide on the horizon. Those match-ups were too good not to cash in on. Finally, after they had gotten every big time main event they could out of Dragon did they finally take the belt off of him. You can blame Dragon dropping the title on his shoulder injury, but it was clearly Gabe’s plan all along to put the belt on Homicide. Dragon’s too much of a badass to drop a belt because of a separated shoulder anyways. If his title reign was supposed to continue he would have wrestled through it. I’m shocked we never saw Dragon dislocate his own shoulder to escape a submission hold like he was Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon.

And now ROH is in a similar spot with Morishima. He’s faced plenty of solid challengers, but no one except for the people sitting ringside thought that anyone other than Nigel or Dragon had a shot against him. They could still put the belt on one of those two, but Nigel has lost all of his momentum after having been soundly defeated by Morishima twice. And as great as he is Danielson does not need the belt at all. Danielson as champion is great, but it’s been done to death at this point. Unfortunately, there is no other obvious choice to take the belt off of Morishima, like Homicide was obvious choice to take the belt off of Dragon. Some one new needs to step up, much like Austin Aries taking the belt off of Samoa Joe. So who should it be?

The Contenders

• Brent Albright – After watching him take Morishima to the limit in Philly I have to consider Albright to be a serious contender. While he is a solid big man, I can’t think of any matches of his other than his match with Morishima that I’ve felt particularly strongly about. I’m also not sure where his recent alignment with Adam Pearce and BJ Whitmer leaves him. People are dying to see Morishima drop the belt, but not to another heel. While I’m not enthusiastic about Albright as champion, after watching his promo from Respect is Earned I’d love to see Adam Pearce in a major role as a manager.

• Adam Pearce – Probably the best mic guy in the company right now and a pretty good brawler, but I’ve got to give this one a definite no. For one thing he’s Morishima has already DESTROYED him. Secondly, while he’s not as bad in the ring as the ROH message board would lead you to believe, he’s not ROH championship caliber either. I love the possibilities of him as a manager, but he doesn’t do enough for me in the ring to merit being champion.

• Austin Aries – He shocked everyone when he beat Samoa Joe for the title a couple of years ago. He’s a much more established star now, but defeating the 300+ pound Morishima would still be a shocking feat. In addition putting out solid matches every night, he’d bring a very different element to the title than Dragon or Morishima would. He is not the unstoppable dominant champion we’ve seen in ROH the past two years outside of Homicide’s brief run. Now that he’s a pure babyface, he makes a great underdog. He does a great job of seeming beatable yet totally credible at the same time. However, he is stuck in the middle of ROH’s faction wars as the leader of the Resilience, which appears likely to go on for at least the next several months. If he emerges victorious he could be in prime position to take the title from whoever still has it at that point.

• Roderick Strong – Basically, the heel version of Austin Aries. As I said with Albright the ideal peson to beat Morishima would be a face, though I believe Strong has what it takes to be a good champ. The leader of the No Remorse Corps is another guy who can put on solid to outstanding matches every night with a wide variety of opponents. While he is stuck in the faction wars, what could be a better ending to the faction wars that Aries beating Strong to take the title. It’d be a cool moment, but the timing isn’t right.

• Davey Richards – Richards is a solid wrestler, but not ready take the title. ROH forced him down the fans throats at his debut and he’s still suffering from the backlash. While he is doing a better job as a heel, I don’t see ROH fans being happy with him as champ.

• Erick Stevens – This kid is an absolute beast. I initially was lukewarm towards him, but me and every other person in the building was very impressed with his performance in the 8-man street fight in Philadelphia. He won’t put out a 4 star match every night, but neither did Samoa Joe. While he isn’t a main eventer yet, neither was Austin Aries. Stevens needs a few more high quality matches to make himself credible and he could definitely pull off a shocker like Aries did against Joe.

• Matt Cross – I’m somewhat high on Matt Cross after his insane performance at the last Philly show, but he’s not ROH championship material. He’s still too spotty and can’t get the crowd behind him as well as he should when he’s not doing crazy moves. On top of that, I really have trouble believing him actually posing a physical threat to Morishima at this point. While, Aries isn’t much bigger than Cross he wrestles a more high-impact, less flippy style and has proven himself over and over again.

• Jack Evans – Similar to Matt Cross. Yes, he’s insanely over, but he’s still very spotty and botch-prone. They guy is gold in multiple man matches and tags, but he’s not good enough for the top spot. No one would buy his win as anything but a fluke, and his title reign would have to be a short one.

• Claudio Castagnoli – Here is a guy who I’ve really come around to in the past few months. The ascent he’s made in ROH recently closely echoes the one made by Nigel McGuiness a year or so ago. While both guys were fairly popular, putting on solid but unspectacular European matches, they’ve both skyrocketed after moving toward more of a high-impact style. Claudio is the perfect sized wrestler in my opinion. He can stand up to Morishima without looking like a shrimp, and he can also sell for Jack Evans or Jimmy Jacobs without looking like a wuss. I wish he hadn’t recently jobbed to Morishima on consecutive double-shots, but he still has enough momentum to take him down and have it be a big moment.

• BJ Whitmer – I was totally behind Whitmer as he lead the fight against CZW and I loved his feud with Jimmy Jacobs, but when he’s not going up against an opponent with a major personality like Jacobs or Chris Hero, he’s very bland. I liked his match at Respect is Earned for the title in spite of how short it was, but I wouldn’t actually want to see a Whitmer title reign.

• Kevin Steen – Much like every other ROH fan right now, I’m marking out like crazy for Kevin Steen. The guy is an absolute prick and I love him for it. Could he be a good champ? Absolutely. But he’s been in a long feud for the tag titles against the Briscoes with El Generico, which they’ve mostly been on the losing end of. He is in a great spot to take the titles of the Briscoes in their upcoming ladder match, but there are a lot more interesting possibilities if they lose. You can’t take the Briscoes out of the tag title scene, but after fighting at almost every show since June their feud with Steenerico finally needs to end. A better way to go is having Steenerico lose once again and having Steen turn on Generico. Sure, that storyline has happened already in plenty of other feds, but it hasn’t been done yet in ROH and it’s always great. After a long feud where Steen thoroughly destroys Generico and gets himself even more over as a heel he should be the most hated guy in ROH. He shouldn’t take the belt off of Morishima since, like I addressed with Brent Albright, it should be a face. But by the time he’s done killing Generico he’ll be in perfect position to take the belt off of whatever face takes down Morishima.

• El Generico – While Generico was champion in PWG I don’t think he would be a good fit for the title in ROH. PWG is more of comedy federation than ROH is. And I don’t see the skinny “Mexican” taking down the enormous Japanese guy.

• Chris Hero – Hero is a very interesting possibility. Lord knows he can get people to hate him. I wanted to see him get killed during the CZW feud(you can see me giving him the finger and shouting “Fuck you Chris” as he came down the aisle at Death Before Dishonor IV) and I bet I’d hate him just as much as champ. Whoever beats him would be massively over. While I don’t see someone as skinny as Hero as a real physical threat to Morishima, with the help of his massive entourage in Sweet and Sour Inc. he could definitely go over the big man.

• Delirious – While I enjoy Delirious’ schtick and his matches, I don’t see him as champ. Like Colt Cabana was in 2006, Delirious is too much of a comedy wrestler and loses something when he tries to be a serious face. He has the potential to be an excellent heel, but I don’t see him beating Morishima on either side of the moral spectrum.

• Jimmy Jacobs – I love the possibility of Jacobs winning the title, but it just seems physically impossible. It’s the Indy version of Mysterio vs. Khali; everyone would love to see Jacobs/Mysterio win but it’s totally unrealistic that he could actually beat Morishima/Khali. That being said, Jacobs could be a perfect choice to take the belt off a transitional champion like Castagnoli or McGuiness. The former Huss could be a great champion with his deranged emo-boy character or with Project 161.

• Jay/Mark Briscoe – I love the Briscoes. They are the best tag team in the world. Let’s not mess with that.

• KENTA – A year ago I totally would have been in support of KENTA taking the belt off of Bryan Danielson, but I think his time has passed. He’s not a regular and the novelty factor has worn-off. ROH shouldn’t just put the belt on another part-time NOAH star.

• CIMA – Okay, this is kind of wishful thinking as I’m a big CIMA mark. I realize it may seem hypocritical to say that putting the belt on another Japanese guy in KENTA is overkill, while touting CIMA, but there are some big differences.
1. CIMA’s victory in last weekend’s Battle of Los Angeles is a strong indicator that he’s ready to play a major role in the US.
2. The Dragon Gate style is distinct enough from the NOAH style that transitioning from a NOAH champ to a Dragon Gate champ would actually seem like a big change.
3. CIMA hasn’t been used as much in ROH as KENTA has, and he’s been used mostly in tags. There are plenty of fresh singles matches for CIMA in ROH where KENTA has already dominated all of his challengers.
CIMA is one of the few guys in the world who are on the same level of awesomeness as Bryan Danielson. Who wouldn’t love to see this guy in spectacular matches with Dragon, Aries, Strong, Nigel, Claudio and the rest of the ROH roster.

• Samoa Joe – It would be great if it happened, but it won’t. Joe is staying in TNA and even if he did leave it would be for WWE.

The Result:

So who ultimately would be the best person to beat Morishima? Dragon is a good choice for the belt since he is the best wrestler in the world, even though he just had a title reign of over a year. And despite the fact that he’s already lost to Morishima twice, ROH is still very likely to put the belt on Nigel McGuiness. It wouldn’t be a bad choice since Nigel is a great wrestler who is still very over. McGuiness could easily transition into a hot feud with Hero, Steen or Jacobs, before dropping the title to any of them, but ROH could do better.

Chris Hero, Jimmy Jacobs, Roderick Strong, Kevin Steen and Brent Albright could all have good runs as champ, but ideally the person to take down Morishima should be a face. And not just a defacto face for the evening, but an actual face. Wrestling needs great moments like a valiant babyface taking the title off of the seemingly unstoppable heel.