Wrestling’s 4R’s PPV Edition 10.01.07: Ring of Honor – Driven

A Scintillating Opener – The opener of the show was a 6-man featuring Roderick Strong, Davey Richards & Rocky Romero vs. Delirious, Erick Stevens & Matt Cross. The first good thing was that they got some promo time before the match, with Stevens and more importantly DELIRIOUS getting mic time. They wanted to whoop the No Remorse Corps, and they got them. They stated off with the contained wildness until our official decided to get things back to the traditional tag formula. As I said in the podcast, this match is everything the TNA X-Division is supposed to be, some times is but all too often isn’t allowed to be. It was fast paced, crisp moves, innovative spots and one guy, Matt Cross, came out looking absolutely like a star, and he lost. See kids, when you book things right wins and losses are not the most important thing. Sure the NRC looks great for winning the match, but if you ask Christi she doesn’t even remember who won, all she remembers is Matt Cross. Most of the match I would day ran with the Lucha-Esque rules of no tagging, which worked well here because the action kept rolling, the crowd was rocking and everything worked. Most importantly they had time to do their thing, the action was clean and so was the finish! An excellent way to open the show, and the return of Aries was an extra good thing on top of that, but we’ll talk about it later.

Sydal and Claudio collide! – This was a fine follow up to the opening match. Claudio is such a good bigger guy, and he works a lucha style with ease. Add into it that facts that not only does he sell well for the size, but he also is a great catcher for someone like Sydal and you have the recipe for success. The match they had was a bit over 8-minutes, but was worked perfectly. They had a solid base building first half and then cranked things up. I mean, come on, Claudio tossing Sydal up into the air like a fucking pizza is tremendous. Claudio’s selling of the RANA’s and such were clean and made Sydal look great, and the pin playing off of the earlier RANA and roll through was great. A SPORTING CONTEST between colleagues. Most importantly, they had time to do their thing, the action was clean and so was the finish! This was great, and then got better as Sweet and Sour INC made their way to the ring, minus the lovely Sara Del Ray, who was off shooting some commercial endorsement stuff, BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! Sweeney wanted Sydal for the group and explained to him all of the reasons he should. Claudio got involved and ripped up the contract and told him not to do it. Claudio went to whoop some S&S ass, but Sydal joined them and they laid Claudio out, and he even got a “Hero’s Welcome” from his former Kings of Wrestling partner. A good segment, it didn’t drag out and overall was done very well.

Marafuji vs. Whitmer – We saw both of these men on PPV the last time, Whitmer losing to Morishima and Marafuji defeating Romero. They are familiar faces, and that is a good thing as we go from show to show. While this was not a good as the first two matches; and that isn’t a bad thing, I thought this was another very solid match. Whitmer did a good job of countering/blocking the Shiranui/sliced bread #2 on two occasions I believe it was, so when Marafuji finally nailed it, even a new fan could figure t that it would be over. In the end this was a very solid and well-worked match. They both did well and the match was crisp, while the finish, again, CLEAN. That is so important. I agree with Dunn overall that this was solid, not spectacular but not every match on the card can be. It served its purpose and Marafuji got the win, which continues his streak of PPV wins at two, while continuing the losing streak of Whitmer, which plays into the Pearce promo later on. So this was fine stuff here.

What do Brent Albright: Bad Ass/Adam Pearce: Mind Games/Sweet and Sour Inc. have in common? – They are 2 for 2 on PPV in terms of delivering! At the first PPV there was a good video package for Brent Albright. It was effective and got you interested in seeing him. They followed up on that on this show by having his debut against young Pelle. Albright totally destroyed young Pelle in impressive fashion, and commentary did a good job of putting him over as the hired gun. HE WILL DO THIS FOR YOU…for the right amount of money. This was good shit ad Albright is 2 for 2 on PPV.

Dear Pelle,

Love,
Larry

MOVING ON…we were treated to another promo from Adam Pearce. On PPV number one he delivered a tremendous promo and again, followed up here at PPV number two. He gave a promo about the needs of men, the men in ROH; to be accepted, to make money, to win championships and so on. He again was targeting BJ Whitmer, who was on a losing streak. Pearce went to talk with Whitmer, he hugged him and then dropped him with a punch and laughed. Albright walked through, laughed and he and Pearce left. I liked this a lot, and again he is 2 for 2 on PPV.

Finally we go to Sweet and Sour INC. We discussed the post match with them earlier, but what I am referring to is their backstage segment. On the first show it was the squat off as Sara Del Ray was announced as the newest commodity of THE INC. Well after adding Matt Sydal to the group, Sweeney promised that Claudio wouldn’t get his hands on Sydal or Hero, unless the price was right. Once again Tank was training young Bobby Dempsey. After allowing him to cheat a bit, Tank demanded Dempsey do the seated crunches without the help of his hands. Dempsey couldn’t, so Tank decided that he needed motivation. DEATH BY CHOCOLATE. Tank held the cookie for motivation, told him if he could do t he could have it and then even asked, “Who’s a cookie monster?” In the background Hero, Sweeney and Sydal all mocked Dempsey , including Sydal being very AJ like, holding his shirt up and saying, “You can get abs, like these, you don’t have these.” Dempsey couldn’t do it, so Tank and company ate the cookie as young Bobby Dempsey all but cried. This was great, this fills your need for sports entertainment for some and in the end S&S Inc is 2 for 2 on PPV.

Always remember to ask…

WHO’S A COOKIE MONSTER?

The Briscoe’s vs. STEENERICO~! – Coming out of the first PPV this was out obvious match as Steen and Generico attacked the Briscoe’s after their title defense. PPV to PPV continuity is vital for them and they are doing it very well as I have and will continue to illustrate. The match was good and built all through out. Good in ring stuff, crazy out of the ring and it was about everything that you would expect from these guys. Something to think about is I wish they would be careful of the crowd spots. The hip toss into the crowd a lot of people are writing off as just great, but that is a scary bump because there is no way for Generico to protect himself from the chairs on landing. Just be careful guys, I don’t want anyone getting severely hurt just for one big spot. But the match was rocking, the crowd again was into everything, the pacing was excellent and this is what you want from your title matches. They really did well here and if you didn’t come away happy, well then I don’t know what to say. The man that I felt shined in this match was Kevin Steen, especially if you have never seen him before. To the average WWE fan to speak, Steen looks like nothing special. But when you watch this match you see him do some very impressive things athletically, and character wise and you cannot help but to be impressed. And even though his team lost, with all of that and the after match angle, you remember him and come away impressed. Once again I have to say here, that most importantly, they had time to do their thing, the action was clean and so was the finish! Afterwards Steen attacked the Briscoe’s with a ladder, gave them a little snot rocket and told Generico, “THAT’S HOW YOU DO IT!” An important thing here is the continuity. They brawled at PPV one, which led us to the match at PPV two. The challengers did not get their win so they laid out the champions with a ladder, which will lead us to PPV three and a ladder match. It’s almost too simple. Wait, it IS simple, which is why it works. This was good shit.

Danielson vs. McGuinness: Match of the Year? – I don’t know if this will be the match of the year when all is said and done, but this is without a doubt the PPV Match of the Year to this point. They went out there with a plan and that plan was executed quite well. They started off with some grappling and MMA stuff, which I think these are the right guys to do that with. The MMA stuff doesn’t work with everyone (PUNK) but they pulled it off because they did the ground game with Danielson inside Nigel’s guard. Nigel fighting to block strikes with all he could, which led Danielson to try and rip his ear off. This was great, and while not wacky lucha fast, was done at such a pace that was not boring. We then went into a chain part of the match, Nigel trying to work the arm of Danielson that was injured just one year ago or so. A nod to ROH fans that they remember these things, and just good work for everyone else. We transitioned to part three of the match (1: MMA, 2: Chain Wrestling, 3: Brawling) as they went to the floor. This is when the tide turned and would lead to the work by Danielson on Nigel’s back. Part four would be the, for lack of a better word, pro wrestling segment of the match. The exact action you would expect from these guys, all while keeping the same pace and working it all in the right places for the appreciative crowd. Segment five was memory, as they played off of the Unified ending with the MMA elbows and such, and the crowd knew it and was becoming ravenous in anticipation for the ending. After some sick head butts, which I mean, these guys are crazy bastard like when Finlay and Regal just decide to knock heads like rams, Danielson would get the cattle mutilation for the big win and the #1 contenders spot. And once again I have to say that most importantly, they had time to do their thing, the action was clean and so was the finish! Another thing is the continuity factor. On the first show we saw these men interact and have the tag match, all with the pretense that they wanted the title shot. They had the chance to fight for it here and that will lead to a title match on the next show. It’s almost too simple. Wait, it IS simple, which is why it works. An absolutely excellent match that did live up to the hype, that worried me because when something gets so much praise you either end up agreeing, or felt let down. Not here, a true MOTYC and easily the PPV of the year, on what turns out to be THE PPV of the year thus far.

Morishima Squashes Another – The second PPV saw us having another ROH Title match with Morishima, and him having another squash match. Now don’t get me wrong, this was a dandy of a 4-minute match, and in all actuality it was a ton of fun. I also fully understand that they want to have Morishima portrayed as a totally dominant world champion. But I felt they did that at PPV #1 with the squash and then the tag match as he looked great. So when it comes to doing the same squash match again on the follow up PPV, I didn’t think that it was needed. I would have rather then put together an insane 4-5 Minute video package showing the best of Morishima from his ROH run.

Dear Jimmy Rave,

Love,
Larry

The Return of Aries – Well this won’t be that popular, but I felt that the return of Austin Aries wasn’t exactly what it should have been. Take out the fact that the sound issues hurt the promo he cut for me, and others, but there were other things. First of all during the opener, commentary mentioned that the “former leader of the Resilience” was in attendance, but due to contractual obligations was not allowed to be a part of Ring of Honor. I feel that they never should have mentioned it. I thought that that was poor foreshadowing, it made you think about him. It took away the surprise factor I feel, and I think a bit of a surprise is a good thing. I think the impact would have been better if they never mentioned that. Speaking of the commentary, a point Ari made and I agree with was the tone of the announcers. When Aries arrived in the ring, they had a cautious tone, not one of excitement for seeing Aries again. While they did get there, it was slow and didn’t put things over as it should have. Also there is the camera work. The match is over, No Remorse is about to lay the beat down, down, and Aries makes his way to the ring. Accept we didn’t know that because the camera never got a shot of him, which I think they really should have. In the end Aries return was far from a failure, but not nearly what it should have been. That’s my take anyway.

Production – While this PPV was excellently great on so many levels, there was one thing on the show that wasn’t and that was the ROH Production. When I discussed RESPECT IS EARNED, I brought us some production concerns and after that I said this:

I am sure Gabe and crew have been all over the tape and taken notes and tried to fix these things for the already shot 2nd PPV, and if so and if they have been fixed, there will be a big congrats and “right” from me the next time. I imagine the pressure of getting show #1 off the ground were amazing, which is why I have been rather reserved in discussing these issues. As I said, I am sure they know what went right and what didn’t and are working to fix them. Overall though this was my only wrong on the show, and for long time followers of the column, having only one wrong and no ridiculous is a great feat.

Well, I am sorry to say that I cannot move it into the right section of the column just yet. While I preach that people need to drop their cosmetic hang-ups, you also have to have a product that looks good with clear sound. That’s all I ask, I want to see everything clearly and want to hear everything clearly.

SOUND: The sound to me was an issue; mainly the house/ring mic. And that was never more apparent that when Austin Aries made his triumphant return to the company, and went to cut what was supposed to be his monumental promo. But when he went to cut that promo, the sound quality ruined it. I have watched that promo 3-5 times by now and maybe have gotten around 90% of it now. But I shouldn’t have to repeatedly listen to this. I should have gotten it when I first watched it. Instead I got a garbled mess when he was talking and that hurt the promo a lot in my opinion. This needs to be addressed.

Difference in Picture: New York/Chicago and Philly: I thought overall that the New York debut was ok. For the most par the overall picture for the show was good. There were a few instances that looked “grainy” to best describe it, but when they were, it wasn’t pretty. Also, one thing that constantly bothered me was the glare of the lights on certain camera shots. It was very distracting, took away from the overall picture and looked amateurish. I am not saying that to be mean, but that’s just how it looked. The Chicago shoot didn’t have the light issues, but have a very rough and grainy video quality. It isn’t bad, or enough to turn me away, but I was expecting a slight improvement, and that didn’t happen. When they changed to the Philly shoot for Nigel vs. Danielson, to me that looked worlds better and as Ari said on the podcast, a reason to maybe give Philly a PPV shoot.

So once again I need to keep this in the wrong. This is the one thing from the first to second show that did not improve. But again I have to stress that a show with only one wrong, and no ridiculous is very special.

NADDA~!