Column of Honor: 11.10.07 Part Two: Drop The Damn Elbow on Prince Nana!

Honorarium

Driven DVD notes:

-Once again, I’m struck at how much clearer and sharper the video looks in DVD as compared to my digital cable Pay Per View channel. I have no idea why this would be the case. Now, the white out problems remain, but that has always been a problem in ROH production and I don’t think that will be solved until they get an official TV contract. Audio quality has been bumped up as well on the DVD transfer. You can hear 98% of Aries’ return promo (as opposed to about 60% on the original PPV showcase).

-Having a second look through the show I also noticed the increase in licensed music, especially for bumper packages. Again, the power of music in creating the cohesion for the overall product is shown to be true. These songs and video packages create a tighter overall presentation for the product.

-I am definitely thankful that ROH included the Driven preview show in the DVD set because it was really well done. However, if I were them I would have placed the preview package on the PPV disc as opposed to the bonus matches disc. A small quibble sure, but hey, I need content for the column. Well, no, really I think it makes more sense for the fans to watch the preview show first in order to pump themselves up for the main program. It’s sort of how the ROH videowire works with the DVD releases.

Thoughts on Caged Rage:

-The two main events in the cage are solid, although not spectacular matches. Together though they are compelling viewing, especially when you note how each match utilizes the cage in the storyline. For Strong vs. Evans, the natural tendencies of Evans to fly around are somewhat cut off, so Evans has to make due by rebounding off the cage or using the top turnbuckles to plan his attacks. It also, of course, leads to the eventual “backfire” of his aerial attack and when it catches up to him, Roderick Strong capitalizes in a big way. The match ends sort of abruptly, as the razor’s edge from the top of the cage looks massive, but the elbow drop to follow by Strong is sort of weak. Meanwhile, The Briscoes vs. Generico & Steen continues the theme of their feud—bell to bell insanity and chaos. It’s at least a good five minutes before both teams are even inside the cage. The opening ringside brawl (which is fun especially due to crowd interaction) also helps to differentiate the previous match from this one. In the tag title match, the cage and cage fencing is used more as the weapon, and there is a lot more of throwing the opponent into the cage to draw blood compared to the Strong / Evans match. El Generico’s running boots are also incredibly impressive in this match, since the ring is surrounded by the cage it looks like there is no room to spare between Generico’s foot and the head of whichever Briscoe he is attacking.

-The Hangmen Three formation comes across really well, with Adam Pearce really completing his whole “Raven” / Svengali gimmick in his speech to BJ Whitmer. The corruption is complete for Whitmer and his heel turn, although we never really do hear from the horseface’s mouth about the why’s of his actions. The red herring of attacking Hagadorn before the turn was decent, but the actual turn gave me sort of that “I’ve seen this before” feeling. You saw it coming a mile away.

-Speaking of, I still don’t get why Brent Albright is hanging around these guys. Pearce discusses everyone’s “needs” in his promos, but fans haven’t heard one word about Albright’s “needs”. I mean, is Pearce paying him to stay on as a member? That would make sense given Albright’s established motivation of being a hired gun, but if this is the case it hasn’t come out anywhere at all in any promos or online stories. I maintain this is a step backwards for Albright, or at least a lateral move, which is a shame because he seemed to be taking off into the main event scene after his two title matches against Morishima this past summer. Given Nigel’s injured status and that Morishima may not be making constant appearance for ROH in 2008, it would have been natural to let one of the more talented and imposing members on the roster complete the transition into the main event scene. I don’t get it; is ROH afraid that Albright would be eventually signed away by WWE again, ala James Gibson? Or is this just a more slow and steady process of pushing Albright to the top of the card?

-Delirious being staple gunned was an effective visual and the sound of the gun going off was clear and sharp. It is too bad the follow up to the initial angle hasn’t been nearly as thorough as the events seen on the Caged Rage DVD. This could have been the beginning of the next progression in Delirious’s character, being traumatized by the constant harassment of the HM3. Instead, the feud has kind of fell into the comfortable status quo of wrestling feuds. There needs to be something a bit more, that next step or that next extreme to be taken by the Hangmen Three to make this angle really pop off the charts. I’ve talked about the mask stealing angle before and I would hope that something close to this takes place, or at least something else that will get Delirious ever closer to the edge of the edge of insanity (sic).

-A huge positive coming from the production side of things is the new promo style being utilized for shows, beginning with this DVD. Of course in the beginning of the year there was the illogical ¾ perspective done for promos. However, these promos, show (and a few filmed) backstage after the match do a lot to get over the storylines, the importance of winning and losing and the personalities of the different ROH wrestlers, all within a very short amount of time (none of these promos are longer than one minute). They have also resolved the horrific “technical difficulties” of the post match promos done during the Race to the Top Tournament: Night Two event. Those interviews were abysmally botched due to being taped immediately behind the curtains, a spot where there is a lack of light and thus visibility of the wrestlers is less than walking through dense fog. Those promos also had some sort of color dysfunction that is an Acid addict’s dream, with multiple color filters and grains. Good job to ROH for finally finding a promo style for the 2007 shows that works, and of course it’s the one they’ve always done before, with simple and straightforward interviews.

-The Resilience vs. Jason Blade, Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards six man tag match is far better than I expected. It’s a fast paced match, reminiscent of the speed and action packed content of the six man tag between the NRC and The Resilience from the Driven PPV. Even Jason Blade and Eddie Edwards were tolerable in this one, although Davey Richards steals the show as the NRC member who wants to play party pooper and sticks his nose in where it doesn’t belong. It’s almost unfortunate that The Resilience has now been dissolved, because if most people saw their cohesion and effectiveness in this match I think they would have found more supporters. Again, the disadvantages of the delays and slow release schedule of DVDs has poured potential overness down the drain (of course it also would have helped if The Resilience racked up some wins against the NRC, instead of most of their wins coming against other wrestlers who they were not feuding with at the time). This match and their triple team killer finisher are one of the few highlight-package worthy moments of the end-run for The Resilience.

-I’m surprised that more people haven’t had epileptic seizures while watching Austin Aries’s entrance.

-I think that Austin Aries MUST stop using The Stroke and other Jeff Jarrett mannerisms in the middle of his matches. He has been doing this for several shows now and it sticks out like Bobby Dempsey at a Weight Watcher’s meeting. We get it already; you were screwed by TNA and held back by the politics of that organization. You had to play a character that wasn’t what you wanted to be in order to get over and the man running the show, Jeff Jarrett, had “the stroke” to hold you down. However, the repeated use of that move (as a transition move no less), calling out “who’s got the stroke?” and doing the Double J Two fingered hand taunt and strut was amusing one time, but now its annoying. The repeated “borrowing” of the moveset makes him look like a petulant child looking for attention. However, Aries is already preaching to the converted because he still has so much support from the ROH fanbase. Besides, you’re in Ring of Honor now, you can relax and move on with your life. Like Julius Smokes says, “don’t live in the past, kick his ass!” Double A should not want to be Double J.

So just stop Austin, quit while you’re ahead and go back to doing a Jeff Jarrett-less match.

Thoughts on Manhattan Mayhem II:

-There have been quite a few comments on the ROH message boards and elsewhere that the PAC vs. Davey Richards match comes across better on DVD than fan reports at the time. Well, this is true; the match does seem to be more solid and “good” than the live reports indicated, but with good reason. It was an edited version of the match. All of the early flubs made by PAC were left on the cutting-room floor. They cleaned up the match a lot. The majority of the botched spots have been wiped out. While I don’t remember the exact details, there is a heavy cut before the point that PAC does his corkscrew press to the outside. A minor bobble later on is left in the match, but the overall perspective is that this was a solid match that the fans for some illogical reasons did not take very well.

I have written about that point of discussion in my live recap of the show back in September, but to quickly recap: there is some validity to the thought that some of the fans just gave up on the match from the outset, and even more were frustrated by the lack of high flying from PAC early on. I think fans wanted one thing and got another and when that happened they voiced their grievances about it. PAC had come in to ROH with the reputation for being a high-flier and did not come out right away with the moves the fans wanted to see. It’s clear that the fans rode both PAC and Richards too hard for their effort (and I praised their ability to tough it out in that recap) but that PAC and Richards needed to adjust their match to what the fans wanted to see and they didn’t do that until it was far too late for them to get their momentum back.

ROH has continued its habit of cleaning up matches that were horribly botched. They did the same to a women’s match earlier in the year and I’m sure they’ve done it on quite a few more matches and fans at home wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. While the clean up work was attempted but not quite successful with Deranged vs. Jack Evans from Death Before Dishonor V Night Two, the effort is successful here.

Should ROH be editing their matches in such a way? I know that it takes away from the “genuineness” of the product, but ultimately I think the answer is “yes.” While ROH used to leave their product “as is” in the early years, the demand for quality in the DVD product has certainly increased. As such there are “expectations” of the level of quality for an ROH match. Some matches that have been really bad have been cut off from a DVD release, but if a match can be saved or made to look better with a well timed edit, then it makes sense to do that and come up with a match that will help add to the overall quality of the DVD release rather than detract from it. Then again there are those matches that don’t have much to them, like a squash match or a student match, that get thrown in for the added exposure for the wrestler that could also be left off the cutting room floor, but then again that’s why the skip button was invented for those who wish to do so.

-Another improvement that I noticed is that Dragon vs. Morishima I comes across as far better in quality through the ROH DVD release as opposed to the NOAH feed. I felt let down and questioning my live reactions when I saw the Japanese version. However, I was far more “into” the match and thought the better of it when watching the ROH release. Is it the different camera angles? Is it the English commentary on the ROH version that enhances the drama of what’s going on in the ring? I honestly don’t know and I can’t explain it.

Thoughts on Motor City Madness 2007:

-Kevin Steen has been downright hilarious during his matches. Steen is the other main source of comic relief in ROH besides Chris Hero since Colt Cabana‘s departure. His great one liner in this show comes just as Erick Stevens is herking him up for the TKO. Steen screams out “Can we talk about this for a minutes?” in mid air. IN MID AIR. Unfortunately, Kevin, there was no time to talk just then and there.

-The word coming out of the initial results thread for the Man Up tapings was that Young Rich & Ready for Action (YRR) of Chasyn Rance & Kenny King were botching things left and right. However, on this show they definitely impressed me with their participation in the ring. I have seen their shtick on some of the more recent FIP shows and have not come across all that wow’ed, but their heel act was good here. Chasyn and Kenny’s facial expressions that show how full of themselves they are work well and they showed chutzpah / bravado in acting all high and mighty while it was only their first ROH show. They got over well in their tag match destroying Mitch Franklin & Alex Payne and then did fine work in a short period of time with Bryan Danielson. That they didn’t seem all that impressed with Danielson at first was a very interesting tacit to take for the storyline, because not only did fans want to see Danielson come out looking good in his first matches since the eye injury, but now they also wanted to see him kill these disrespectful young punks.

The only worry I have about bringing in YRR for an extended run in ROH is that they may come across as too similar to the gimmick of Special K back in the day—rich and uncaring young druggie prepsters who were living off of their daddies’ trust funds. Can there be anything new to add to that kind of storyline just a few years removed from Special K’s demise?

-The Chris Hero Show continues with his wacky acrobatic aerobics, stall tactics and general abuse of Bobby Dempsey. I can’t help but admit that I am really enjoying these matches. The use of Bobby Dempsey as a prop is working well and something new is being done with his interaction with Hero and Sweeney on every show. Back at Driven, Nigel uses Bobby as a weapon against Hero, dropping him from above on the unsuspecting, yet-to-be SOTF champion. In this match Hero uses Dempsey as a cushion to create a buffer between himself and the guard railing, thus preventing any damage.

On this show Hero also challenges any fan in the audience to do his shtick in the ring. More than a few hands go up, and Dave Prazak’s commentary, which cuts down both Hero and the fans who would seek to humiliate themselves, is must watch footage. It is priceless to hear Prazak’s bemused yet disgusted tone of voice in reaction to Hero’s goofy and annoying behavior. It just may be his shining moment of commentary this year. The good thing is Prazak doesn’t overdo this tone of voice and it doesn’t carry through to any other match. He reserves this reaction to Chris Hero’s matches and the antics of Sweet & Sour Incorporated.

-You don’t have to be online or have visited the Project 161 viral website to see the development of Jimmy Jacobs into what he would become at Man Up. The progression, or I guess I should say the slow reveal of Jacob’s true nature and intent is laid out for you during Caged Rage, Manhattan Mayehm II and Motor City madness 2007. First you have Jacobs as the returning from injury babyface. He gets cheered because he is coming back to action after a long layoff, and most fans naturally react positively when a wrestler comes back from injury. Here he is all smiles and happy to be back in action, when he is hiding his true self underneath. This correlates to the posts made online about having to “force smiles’ and sign autographs to fans while secretly hating every minute of it.

Jacobs is more than willing to play the role of the face against the students and it sets in a false sense of security. What he really is doing is testing his abilities in the ring to see if he is physically prepared for the endeavors that are to follow. The post match interviews he conducts follow the happy-go-lucky nature of his in ring character and he is all pep and ready to take on the world. Meanwhile there are small but significant clues in what he says and how he says what he says, that show that there may be more than what Jacobs is willing to let on. He cuts the interview short during Caged Rage and then mentions he has big plans in story for his future within Ring of Honor during Manhattan Mayhem II.

Then we transition into this show, where Jacobs is accompanied by Lacey for the first time. We see the extent of how their relationship has changed, as they are all smiles together and Lacey is actually incredibly happy to be out there. She doesn’t even really yell at any of the fans. She also plays the face valet role against the heel entourage of Sweet & Sour Incorporated. Jacobs & Lacey come prepared for a response to the false handshake moment done by Hero. They also do a false handshake, where Jacobs goes to shake Hero’s hands, and Hero, uncharacteristically, goes for it. Jacobs retracts the hand and gives Lacey a hug instead. This is further backed up by the numbers game—they are outnumbered four to two and thus must withstand any cheating done by Sweeney.
Jacobs gets the win thanks to the backfiring of Bobby Dempsey’s involvement in the match.

Hero represents a stiffer class of competition, Jacobs’ final test to see if he is prepared to execute his revolution. When he gets the win, there is a noticeable change in expression from Jacobs. He has gone from a look of bemusement at Sweet & Sour Inc., to one of being mad or angry at Dempsey involvement. He chokes out Bobby and holds onto it, unwilling to let go. It takes multiple students to separate Jacobs from choking out Dempsey and he had him in there for a long time. Dempsey’s actions, will flagrant, were antics that did not seem to warrant such extra-heavy response. The announcers surprisingly do not take Jacobs to task here. A final “strange’ interview is given by Jacobs & Lacey. They both seem off but especially Lacey, who coldly and cryptically mentions that “soon you will all see.” Of course, the next show we will all indeed see the formation of what has become known as The Age of the Fall.

-Hangmen 3 versus Nigel & Claudio from Motor City Madness 2007 was boring, but not because of the multiple lariats or multiple European uppercuts on the part of Nigel & Claudo respectively. Things seemed to be off in this match from the start, as BJ Whitmer, fresh off of a heel turn that should have given him a meaner and nastier side to his personality decides to…chain wrestle. Wow, wristlocks and cartwheel flips, what intimidation from a newly turned and remorseless bad guy. The tempo of the match needed to be picked up something fierce, but everyone in that match was a few steps behind and moving like they were underwater. This was a pretty disappointing match on what was otherwise a solid, sometimes very fun, if not very newsworthy ROH show.

-Rachel Ray just said on her cooking show that she was going to “fill in my little bits.” Wow.

-I ended up watching about an hour of WWE Smackdown last night. Was I imagining things or have The Greasers actually improved? Maybe they looked better just by comparison considering there were a ton of green guys in there, but consider me impressed. I also liked Mysterio vs. Finlay, but I’ve always been a huge Mysterio fan. It was also funny to see the battle of ROH 2005 as CM Punk fought James Gibson. Then all of ECW was buried. Welcome to the E.

Actually it was a very enjoyable hour of television. If the WWE hadn’t burned their bridges as far as my impressions of their product a long time ago, I think I would be even more enthusiastic about this show. As it was, it was a good show…and then Undertaker fought Great Khali.

-Music recommendation: Soft Gone Faded, who are a cross between Oasis and Feeder. Some very lush sound scapes in that one, great guitar work. The lead singer has compelling but not completely strong vocals, but you can overlook it because the songs are strong.

“Classic” Promo Month: Week One

I wanted to go back and present some of ROH’s past promos that I really enjoyed or found compelling. These aren’t necessarily “the greatest ROH promos evar!” or else I would have called it as such. Rather these are “classic” promos in the sense that they are older but nonetheless remain quality due to content or circumstance. I hope you all enjoy.

Mick Foley says goodbye to the ROH fans, hits that damn elbow, Glory By Honor IV (Long Island, NY, 09/17/05):

(Crowd chants for Foley)” AJ, as you know, as most of these people know, this is going to be my last time for a while in an ROH ring (boos). Turns out that I may be on of those “sellouts” that Mr. Danielson talked about. Now listen, the thing is its like I’m saying goodbye, but you guys are going to see me at like “Adventureland” or a Long Island Ducks game, or right here at Sports Plus, or at some seedy, crummy strip joint… no, no, no, believe me, you won’t, you won’t see me there. So when I say goodbye, its not so much to all of you because I’m sure I’ll see you guys again, but its more like for all the ROH audience that watches and really faithfully pays attention to this organization, be it the DVDs, watches at a buddy’s house, over on the internet, those sorts of things (fan in the front row screams out “Al Snow!”) No, not Al Snow you idiot! (crowd pop) He’s wearing a shirt that says “Cop Killa” on it…and he’s an Al Snow fan… a two-time loser.

(“You Got Served!” chants)

Some of you people might know that I almost, I came very, very close (edges closer to an unconscious Prince Nana and threatens to kick him) to signing a contract with TNA (boos). And then as fate would I have it out of respect I made a phone to call to a friend of mine named Vince, to let him know I was going, out of respect. And I framed it this way I said,”Vince you know the WWE will be my home. I just need to leave home for a little while.”

Eh, he didn’t buy that shit either. Turns out that my friend Vince can be a very difficult guy to say no to. In fact if you look up the word persuasive in the dictionary, there’s a picture of Vince talking on the phone to me. Now I’ve never worked for TNA before but I knew a lot of the guys from right here in Ring of Honor

And you wonder why when guys leave, guys like Ricky Steamboat, they leave and they rave about ROH. Guys like CM Punk, they leave and they rave about ROH. I can guarantee that after I leave, I’m going to continue to rave about ROH.

I got many a cheap pop in many an ROH arena and the truth is all I’ve really done while I’ve been here is I’ve had fun and told the truth. Which means, whenever I’m asked about ROH, I say it’s the best damned group of guys I’ve ever hung around (ROH chants). (KICK EM shouts). This one’s… let me… (kicks Nana, cheers).

I’m always afraid if I talk about ROH I’m gonna leave people out because I always talk about guys like Samoa Joe, I always talk about Homicide and I dig Homicide. AJ, you come back to ROH, man not only are you a tremendous wrestler but you are a tremendous human being and I think that’s why I like hanging around this dressing room. Because you and the other Ring of Honor athletes and I use that word “athlete”, they love the business, they respect it, they care for it, they’d do anything for it, which means they’d do anything for all of you.

If there’s one thing I can brag about, besides my new novel “Scooter” (audience groans) which is available in book stores everywhere. You see that Conan appearance? If there’s one thing I can brag about it’s the fact that when ROH wanted to come back to Long Island they asked me if I had any connections and I helped book out this deal at Sports Plus. (a few fans chant “Thank you Mick!”) You’re chanting “Thank You Mick” because I helped make the deal at Sports Plus? (Thank you Mick chants go up again) That’s cool, because if by doing so I’ve in some small way contributed to the evening you guys had here, the evening you guys had a few months ago, the evening you’ll have when you return on November 18th, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling deep down inside. I mean it makes me feel like a hell of a man and I can say that about that whole damn dressing room. They’re a great bunch of guys and I’ll miss being in the ring with them but that doesn’t mean I can’t drive out the fifteen minutes from Smithtown and hang out any damn time I see fit.

So thank you ROH, thank you for offering an alternative. I love the WWE but man I think there needs to be something else out there and I think these guys fit that bill. Thank you very much. (One more time chants). You know, I’m gonna hate myself in the morning, but you know what I’m gonna do AJ? I’m gonna drop a damn elbow on the outside of the ring on Prince Nana!”

Why it Works: Foley always has spoken magnificent goodbye speeches in his farewells to such companies as ECW (Big A** Extreme Bash) and WWE (his retirement speech circa No Way Out 2000). This promo follows in said tradition. Foley was still very much over at this point in time and hadn’t yet lost a bit of his luster (as he has now) as a wrestling legend. He mixes his unique storytelling-with- a-point style with humor, irreverence, class and of course an Al Snow joke. You can’t ever have too many of those.

That Foley stayed after the show to sign autographs spoke to the genuine nature of his words concerning ROH wrestlers, the fans and his native Long Islanders.

Plus, that damn elbow on the floor to Prince Nana was great!

Going Home

Name That Tune Week 9

Every week I’ll include an excerpt of music lyric and I’ll ask you guys to guess the song. The catch is that it will be a wrestler’s theme! All promotions are up for grabs, but I’ll focus mostly on the independent scene.

Last week:

Clue: Gabe Sapolsky’s favorite phrase, Jared Leto
Lyric: “division will unite.”
What’s the name of the song and the artist?

The answer: “Oblivion” by 30 Seconds to Mars (Dangerous Angels theme)

This week’s winners:
d1rtys4nch3z
soulpower—quickly turning into a Name That Tune elite player!
Bman
charismaticgoob1
Gohan6482
Chris Landsell
Graeme
johnedwarddowney

Name that Tune! for this week, November 10th, 2007!

Clue: non-ROH
Lyric: “We was only funnin’ / but guiltily I thought you had it comin'”
What’s the name of the song and the artist?

No clue this week as I think that’s been helping people a bit too much. This is a tricky one, so good luck!

Send in your answers here and if you’re correct I’ll list your name in next week’s column!

Ringtones

John Downey isn’t just a Name That Tune client, he’s also this week’s Ringtones email!

Since you’re “the ROH guy”, I figured you’d be able to answer these questions.

3.) Also, during the Nigel/Morishima match, the Japanese crowd starts chanting for Liger. How disrespectful is that?! /sarcasm

1) Unfortunately, demand for front row seats at ROH shows is at a high. Tickets for the next show go on sale to fans as soon as the current show in that area opens up their doors. Unfortunately this means many of the front row seats will be sold off and probably to ROH regulars. It’s why you tend to see a lot of the same people in the front row and generally in the same area on DVDs. As a side note, I used to love being front row, so I understand where you’re dad is coming from. However, while I wouldn’t turn down front row if offered, the balcony up in NYC is terrific and I usually feel really comfortable there. There is also the price break to consider between first row and second / third row. There aren’t too many bad seats in the house, so if you can save a few bucks you might be able to get similarly valued seats. If you can put it to your father that way, as a means of economics, maybe he’d bite on a second or third row seat. Otherwise front row availability will continue to be, as you put it, a crapshoot.

And Eddie Edwards? Ugh.

2) There are a few moves here and there that are very difficult to accomplish with any sort of accuracy, and moves on the apron are one of them. Given the small foot space and lack of room, I’d imagine it would be fairly uncomfortable (or at least “different”) to execute moves from that location in the ring. Now imagine trying to throw a man downward to that place, headfirst and at a 45 degree acute angle, at a rapid speed. Oh and you’re supposed to make sure you don’t actually kill the guy in the process. So yeah I can imagine that hitting the Tower of London to the apron is an incredibly difficult move to execute, no matter who the opponent is in the match. So why perform the move at all? Well, in theory it should come across as a devastating move and get the crowd all worked up. That’s IF the move is done right. I don’t think anyone forgot anything about count outs and such, it’s just that the degree of difficulty is way too high, While its not my call or my place to tell wrestlers what to do in the ring, maybe Nigel should consider tabling the TOL to the floor if it can’t be made to look right.

And sometimes there is that one move that gets in the way of your enjoyment of a match. It’s only natural to have pet peeves and I’m sure I have plenty too. I’d imagine the best thing to do is to look the other way, or maybe cover your eyes when you rewatch the match and know the offending move is about to take place.

3) I have to rewatch that match because I’m not sure I remember hearing any chants for Liger. Maybe they were chanting “Nigel” and it just came out sounding like “Liger”. The ears do deceive sometimes on ROH shows.

**The Independent Buy In**

2007

**PWG Battle of Los Angeles 2006: Night One (Strong / Romero, CIMA / Cross, Deliirous / Generico, 8 Man Tag)
**SHIMMER Women’s Athletes Volume 6 (MsChif / Melissa Last Woman Standing, Rebecca Knox / Allison Danger Pure Rules)
**PWG Hollywood Globetrotters (Super Dragon and Davey Richards vs. Roderick Strong and Jack Evans; Cape Fear (El Generico and Quicksilver) vs. Arrogance (Chris Bosh and Scott Lost); B-Boy vs. Frankie Kazarian; Alex Shelley vs. Chris Sabin.)
**PWG Beyond The Thunderdome (Super Dragon and Davey Richards vs. AJ Styles and Chris Daniels); Cape Fear vs. Arrogance; Joey Ryan vs. Chris Sabin)
**PWG Enchantment Under The Sea (Cape Fear vs. Briscoes; Matt Sydal vs. B-Boy; Super Dragon and Davey Richards vs. Arrogance; Austin Aries vs. Kevin Steen)
**wXw World Lightweight Tournament 2006 (Ares / Baron von Hagen, Pac / El Generico, Quackenbush / Roudin, 5 Way Tournament Match)
**ECWA Super 8 Tournament 2001 (Danielson / Low Ki, Danielson / Reckless Youth, Low Ki / Billy Fives, Danielson / Spanky)
**ROH FWA IPW:UK Frontiers of Honor 2 (Sydal / Richards, Cabana / Burridge, JC Thunder / Nigel McGuinness, Danielson / Brookside / Stone)
**PWG Battle of Los Angeles 2006: Night Two (Necro Butcher/Super Dragon, Hero/Horiguchi, Evans/Castagnolli)
**PWG Battle of Los Angeles 2006: Night Three (Generico / CIMA, Hero, Claudio, Necro, Romero / Cabana, Quicksilver, M-Dogg 20, Delirious, Generico / Sabin, Richards / Strong, Evans/ Horiguchi, Richards / CIMA)
**Chikara The Crushing Weight of Mainstream Ignorance (Quackenbush / Akuma, Steel / Steel, Sweeney / Kingston, Hair vs. Mask: Jigsaw / Icarus)
**Chikara King of Trios Night One (Order of the Neo Solar Temple / Los Ice Creams, Miyawaki, Yago & KUDO / Iron Saints, Sweeny, Eliis and Ryder vs. Neo Solar Temple POSEDOWN, Shima Xion / Nobutaka Moribe)
**SHIMMER Volume 7 (Daizee Haze/Cheerleader Melissa, Mercedes Martinez/LuFisto, Sara Del Rey/Nattie Neidhart)
**Chikara King of Trios Night Two (Sabin, Shelley and Dutt vs. Quackenbush, Jigsaw and Shane Storm / Hallowicked, Cheech and Cloudy vs. Lince Dorado, Pantera and Sicodelico Jr. / Olsen Twins vs. Miyagi and Yago / Quack T-Shirt Squad vs. Boyer and 2.0)
**Chikara King of Trios Night Three (Pantera, Lince Dorado & Sicodelico, Jr. vs. Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw & Shane Storm / Kings Of Wrestling vs. Kudo, Yoshiaki Yago & Miyawaki / Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw & Shane Storm vs. Kudo, Yoshiaki Yago & Miyawaki / Ricochet vs. Claudio Castagnoli / Daizee Haze vs. Sara Del Ray / Mokujin Ken vs. Mecha Mummy / Matt Sydal vs. Hallowicked)
**UWA Hardcore: Hour of the Dragon (Ultimo Dragon / Black Tiger, Chris Sabin / Josh Prohibition, Mike Quackenbush / Claudio Castagnoli, Tyler Black / Josh Ambercrombie)
**Fight Sports Midwest: Chapter One (Samoa Joe / Eddie Kingston, Larry Sweeney / Bryan Alvarez, Josh Ambercrombie / Austin Aries, Hydra / “Old Timer” Jeff King) **Fight Sports Midwest: Chapter Two (Alex Shelley / Low Ki, Mike Quackenbush / Tiger Mask IV, Human Tornado / Josh Ambercrombie)
**CHIKARA: Rey De Voladores (Chris Hero / Claudio Castagnoli, Chuck Taylor / Lince Dorado, Cheech & Cloudy / F.I.S.T. (Gran Akuma & Icarus), Chuck Taylor / Ricochet / Pac / Retail Dragon)
**SHIMMER Women’s Athletes Volume 8 (Sara Del Rey / Mercedes Martinez, Daizee Haze / Tiana Ringer, Nattie Neidhart / Portuguese Princess Ariel, Allison Danger / Lufisto)
**CHIKARA: Anniversario? (Hero / Quackenbush, Hallowicked / Kingston, Pantera & Lince Dorado / Castagnoli & Sweeney, Worker Ant / Hydra, Player Uno / Shayne Hawke)
**CHIKARA: Maximum Overdraft (F.I.S.T. / Briscoes, Mike Quackenbush / Black Tiger, Hero & Castagnoli / El Pantera & Lince Dorado, The Colony / Los Tres Deliriouses, Daizee Haze / Sara Del Rey—2 out of 3 Falls)
**SHIMMER Women Athletes Volume 9 (MsChif / Amazing Kong, Cheerleader Melissa / Sara Del Rey, Tiana Ringer / Nikki Roxx, Lexie Fyfe & Malia Hosaka / Allison Danger & Cindy Rogers)
**PWG: Passive Hostility (PWG Tag Team Titles: Super Dragon & B-Boy / Cape Fear of El Generico & Quicksilver, PWG Title Three Way: Joey Ryan / Human Tornado / Kevin Steen, Scorpio Sky, Chris Bosh & Scott Lost / Kazarian, Sabin & Shelley, Richards / Romero)
**SHIMMER Women Athletes Volume 10 (Daizee Haze / Amazing Kong, Del Rey Nikki Roxx, Melissa / Lacey, Amber O’Neal / MsChif, Allison Danger / Cindy Rogers, Perez / Ariel)
**PWG: Based on a True Story (PWG Title: Joey Ryan / Human Tornado, Loser Leaves PWG: Kazarian / Scorpio Sky, Colt Cabana / Rocky Romero, Bosh / Steen)
**PWG Holy Diver Down (PWG Title: Human Tornado / El Generico, PAC / Kevin Steen, Arrogance / Motor City Machine Guns, Karl Anderson / Frankie Kazarian)
**FIP Unfinished Business 2007 (Dog Collar Match: Erick Stevens / Steve Madison, TLC: Sal Rinauro / Seth Delay, FIP Heavyweight Title: Strong / Albright, Jack Evans / Gran Akuma, Sweeney / Claudio Castagnoli )
**TNA: Instant Classic: The Best of Christian Cage (NWA Title: Jarrett / Cage, Barbed Wire Six Sides of Steel: Rhino / Cage, Against All Odds 2007: Angle / Cage, Destination X: Joe / Cage)
**UWA Hardcore: vs. Toryumon Japan Night 1 (Jushin “Thunder” Liger & Puma / Ultimo Dragon & Kazuchika Okada, UWA Canadian Tilte: Alex Shelley / MDogg20 / Josh Prohibition, Sonjay Dutt / Brian Lee / Chris Sabin, Larry Sweeney / Passion Hasegawa, Dan Paysan / Daisuke Hanaoka )
**UWA Hardcore: vs. Toryumon Japan Night 2 (Jushin “Thunder” Liger & Ultimo Dragon / Motor City Machine Guns, UWA Lightweight Title: Lionel Knight / Hiromi Horiguchi, UWA Canadian Title: Josh Prohibition / Kazuchika Okada, Derek Wylde / Daisuke Hanaoka / Puma, M Dogg 20 / Brian Lee)

The ROH List
**Fifth Year Festival: NYC (Samoa Joe / Morishima, Homicide / Rave, Briscoes / Cabana & McGuinness, Albright / Whitmer, Evans / SHINGO / Xavier / Jacobs)
**Fifth Year Festival: Philly (Homicide / Morishima, Sydal & Daniels / SHINGO & Evans, Briscoes / Generico & Steen, Castagnoli / Aries, McGuinness / Perkins)
**Fifth Year Festival: Chicago (Morishima & McGuinness / Joe & Homicide, Cabana / Jacobs, Strong & Richards / Aries & Cross, Daniels & Sydal / The Briscoes, Albright / Castagnoli)
**Fifth Year Festival: Liverpool (Joe / McGuinness, ROH World Tag Team Titles: The Briscoes / Doi & SHINGO / FIP Title: Strong / PAC, 2/3 Falls: Delirious / Matt Sydal) **Fifth Year Festival: Finale (Joe / Homicide, Fight Without Honor: McGuinness / Rave, ROH World Tag Team Titles: Doi & SHINGO / Richards and Strong, Sydal / PAC, Falls Count Anywhere: Whitmer / Jacobs)
**All Star Extravaganza III (ROH vs. Dragon Gate 8 Man Tag, Strong / Evans, Mochizuki / Richards, Cabana / Sydal / Hero / Pearce, Homicide / Daniels)
**Supercard of Honor II (CIMA, SHINGO and Yokosuka / Dragon Kid / Saito / Mochikzuki, Strong / Aries, Whitmer / Jacobs, Evans & Doi / Richards and Romero, McGuinness / Hero, Daniels & Sydal / Delirious & Jay Briscoe)
**Fighting Spirit (ROH World Title: McGuinness / Morishima, Jay Briscoe and Erick Stevens Mark Briscoe / El Generico & Kevin Steen, Evans & Delirious / Strong & Romero, Claudio / Romero, Cabana / Williams)
**The Battle of St. Paul (ROH World Title: Morishima / Aries, FIP Title: Strong / Daniels, Delirious / Stevens / Romero / Evans, Albright & Pearce / Homicide & Cabana/ ROH World Tag Titles Ultimate Endurance)
**Good Times, Great Memories (ROH World Tag Team Titles: Briscoes / Murder City Machine Guns, Roderick Strong / Jack Evans, ROH World Title: Morishima / SHINGO, Austin Aries / Rocky Romeo, Adam Pearce / Colt Cabana, 6 Man Mayhem: Deliirous, Quackenbush, Hallowicked, Jigsaw, Akuma, Primeau)
**A Fight at the Roxbury (Four Corner Survival: Quackenbush / Hero / Castagnoli / McGuinness, ROH World Title: Morishima / Jay Briscoe, El Genercico / Matt Sydal, Steen / Briscoe, Danielson / Rave)
**Respect is Earned (ROH World Tag Team Title: The Briscoes / Castagnoli & Sydal, Danielson & Morishima / McGuinness & KENTA, Marufuji / Romero, Tag Team Scramble, Toland / Albright)
**Domination (ROH World Tag Team Titles, 2 out of 3 Falls: Briscoes / Hero & Castagnoli, Steen & Generico / Jigsaw & Quackenbush, Morishima / Strong, Sydal / Hallowicked, Lacey / Daizee Haze)
**United We Stand (Danielson & McGuinness / Marufuji & Morishima, KENTA / Rocky Romero, NRC vs. Resilience)
**Live in Tokyo (ROH World Title: Morishima / McGuinness, Briscoes & Marufuji / Sydal, Ricky Marvin & Atsushi Aoki, Danileson / Go Shiozaki, Fight Without Honor: Delirious / Strong )
**Race to the top Tournament Night 1 (ROH World Tag Titles: The Briscoes / Danielson & McGuinness, Evans / Steen, Quackenbush / Sydal, Hero / Stevens, Richards / Jigsaw, Delirious / Generico)
**Race to the top Tournament Night 2 (Generico / Claudio, Claudio / Quack, $10,000 Tag Team Challenge: Danielson, Aries, Sydal, Mark Briscoe / McGuinness, Strong, Delirious, Jay Briscoe, Generico / Hero, Evans / Albright)
**Death Before Dishonor V Night 1 (Boston Street Fight: The Briscoes / Steen & Generico, ROH World Title: Morishima / Castagnoli, Danielson / Sydal, Pure Wrestling: Hero / McGuinness, Richards / Evans)
**Death Before Dishonor V Night 2 (Philadelphia Street Fight: NRC & Sydal / Resilience & Delirious, ROH World Title: Morishima / Albright, Quackenbush / Danielson, McGuinness & Castagnoli / Hero & Jigsaw, Del Rey / Lacey, Steen / El Generico, Briscoe / El Generico )

This section needs your help! If you want to recommend some good independent wrestling to your fellow internet readers out there, drop me a line for the column.

ROH @ 411 This Week

The 411 staff once again comes through with some huge ROH features and reviews.
J.D Dunn runs the review domination game, so it’s not a surprise that he inevitably got to ROH Domination.

Jay-Z continues to run through ROH in 2002 with his look at the third show, Night of Appreciation.

Brad Garoon watches FIP Melbourne Meltdown.

It’s Larry C. vs. Bayani D. in the 411 Buy or Sell ULLLLLTIMATE challenge, with discussion about ROH, FIP and PWG.

Matt Short continues his coverage of Misawa in America with his Navigation Log.

Honor Bound Links

Don’t call it a comeback. Stuart Carapola continues his That Was Then Survivor Series history.

High Road / Low Road better be careful before it tears a quad.

Just S’pose that 411 Legend Ron Gamble stuck around… I think I’d like that.

Larry C. writes some more 4 R’s/ Jesus, take a day off kid!

Halden calls Wilcox an idiot…for taking Maria?!?!? Oh come on Halden, there’s plenty other and better reasons to call Wilcox an idiot.

Enjoy the time off Daniel.

The answer is of course, very obvious: nothing..

Alright I’m being too harsh. Almost next to nothing.

Michael Weyer examines the possibility that Montreal was a work…oh, lord not again. It’s like those door to door salesmen. Every few months we have to put up with one showing up at the house, but just as quickly you throw him or her off your property and you go back to watching Saturday morning cartoons.

Bayani continues his King of Sex Degrees tournament…oh what? It’s not. Well, hooey.

Finally, Cook cooks up some cookery on Cook 411.

The countdown to Final Column 2007 is officially underway. We are at seven weeks and counting. This year is looking to be just a huge as last year’s four part version, with more awards, more contributions from 411 staff, the return of the Top 100 matches of the year and a few more twists and turns I won’t spoil here.

As for next week, we can look forward to the return of the ROH Money Players of the Month and the Stock Market report, more classic promos from ROH’s yesteryear and all the latest ROH news. I’ll see you all then.

Brooklyn! DAH EM BAH SEE!
–Ari—