The Independent Mid-Card 11.13.07: Generico vs. Aries (Part I)

Austin Aries vs. El Generico
Ring of Honor – Fate of an Angel – Woodbridge, CT – July 16, 2005

The Wrestlers:
Austin Aries – Having begun to climb the ladder in Ring of Honor with his involvement in the Generation Next faction and an impressive, if unsuccessful, turn in the inaugural Survival of the Fittest Tournament, Austin Aries officially ascended to ROH’s main event scene by pinning long-time ROH World Champion Samoa Joe at Final Battle 2004. During his six-month reign as champion, Aries would go on to pick up a second victory over Joe as well as put down other world-class challengers like Homicide, James Gibson and “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson. Aries would eventually lose the belt to CM Punk (setting off the now-legendary “Summer of Punk” angle) in June of 2005, but would remain occupied by an ongoing issue with deposed former Generation Next leader Alex Shelley, a man Aries had turned on hours before winning the ROH World Title. Additionally, although Aries had been able to pin Samoa Joe a third time during a Four Corner Survival Match (becoming the first man to ever pin Joe three times in ROH competition), he was unable to wrest Joe’s ROH Pure Title away in another classic between the two a mere week before this match.

El Generico – With his attire and style belying his “Generic Luchador” nickname, El Generico had appeared a handful of times for Ring of Honor in 2005 prior to his matchup with Austin Aries. Having been unsuccessful in his bids to earn a main show victory thus far, Generico was still involved in a couple of enjoyable outings, including a solid match with Aries’ stablemate Roderick Strong at April’s Stalemate event. Known for his lucha libre-style offense both in California’s Pro Wrestling Guerrilla as well as Canada’s International Wrestling Syndicate, where he had already held the company’s World Heavyweight Title. One of the more noticeable characteristics of the masked Generico would have to be his inability to speak, save for the occasional utterance of the words ‘brainbuster’ and the more oblique ‘ole!’. El Generico would have to have been considered a major underdog heading into his match with a former ROH World Champion like Aries.

The Match:
El Generico is already in the ring being checked by the referee when Austin Aries’ music hits. Aries makes his way to the ring to Marilyn Manson’s version of Personal Jesus, weighing in at 202 pounds and representing Generation Next. We hard cut to Aries and Generico shaking hands to follow the Code of Honor and the bell rings immediately to start us off.

The two men circle a bit and then slowly move in. Generico reaches for a lockup, but Aries ducks around him and grabs a waistlock. Aries slams him down to the mat and rides around a bit before locking in a front facelock. Generico works his way back to his feet and reverses into a tight wristlock. Aries counters to one of his own as the crowd chants “lucha libre!” for Generico, but the masked man rolls through and regains control of the hold. Aries goes for a roll through himself, but gets caught on a nip up with a hard chop to the chest that sends him scurrying over to the ropes. Generico follows him in, but appropriately backs off to let the former ROH World Champion recover. Generico shouts ‘Ole!’ and the crowd responds favorably (well, except for a couple of loudmouths, who rightfully get shouted down by the rest of the Connecticut crowd).

Aries gets back to his feet and the two men circle again. Aries grabs a headlock and works right into a wristlock. Generico reverses to one of his own so Aries forces him to the ropes. Aries doesn’t afford Generico the same courtesy he was extended earlier and hits a hard right hand to the chest before going for an Irish whip. Generico reverses the whip, but takes the worst of a pair of shoulderblocks before they go into a leapfrog sequence that ends with Generico getting a pair of armdrags and a hiptoss that sends Aries heading for the ropes again. Generico again backs off.

The two men circle and move to lock up again, but Aries gets a series of strikes instead to force Generico to the corner. Aries gets a cross-corner whip, but gets sent over the top on the blind charge. Aries bounces right back into the ring with a back elbow, however, and hits a hard chop to follow up. Generico reverses a cross-corner whip, but Aries floats over on the blind charge, getting Generico to follow him across the ring before catching him by coming out of the opposite corner with a springboard back elbow. Aries mocks the ‘Ole!’ chant, but Generico ducks his clothesline attempt and gets his spinning side armdrag and a leg lariat to send Aries out to the floor. Generico comes running, but does a backflip fake out in lieu of an actual dive to ringside. The crowd again responds favorably, and Generico is able to catch Aries climbing up to the apron and sends him crashing back into the guardrail with a standing dropkick.

Generico rolls out after Aries and hits a double axehandle before rolling the former champion back into the ring. Generico goes for a springboard dropkick, but Aries just swats him away and follows up with a soccer kick to the back. Aries picks up Generico and hits a high-angle sideslam for two. Aries continues to work the back with a series of knees before locking in a chinlock. Generico does a nice job of getting the crowd behind him and works his way to his feet. He elbows out of the hold and goes off the ropes, but though he’s able to duck a clothesline on the rebound, the second pass doesn’t go as well, with Aries grabbing Generico’s mask and planting him over the knee with a backbreaker. Aries follows up with a running frogsplash elbowdrop for two. Generico’s selling has been really good throughout this stretch, by the way.

Aries pulls Generico to his feet and condescendingly slaps him in the face a couple of times before getting a hard cross-corner whip to continue to work the masked man’s back. Aries continues to mock Generico, and hits a trio of chops in the corner, but the third one wakes Generico up and he just starts peppering Aries with chops. He whips Aries cross-corner and calls for the running Yakuza kick, but Aries ducks out of the way at the last second and Generico crashes into the turnbuckle. Generico is able to free himself, but turns around right into Aries’ cross-corner running dropkick that gets a two count. Generico’s sell of the dropkick there was really fantastic.

Aries calls for the brainbuster, but Generico goes deadweight to block it. Aries keeps trying but Generico tenaciously blocks it, prompting the former champion to release the front facelock and just start pounding away with forearms. Aries puts Generico on top and lands a hard forearm to the face, but when he follows him up (theoretically looking for a super brainbuster), Generico is able to fight him off and plants him with a sunset flip powerbomb for the double knockout. For the record, I have been praising Generico’s selling throughout the match, but his oversell after that move was actually pretty silly. The referee’s count reaches six before both men make it to their feet.

Generico ducks a clothesline and gets a series of right hands, the third of which puts Aries down to the mat. Generico gets a back body drop off of an Irish whip and then catches Aries running in with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Generico chooses to wait for Aries to get up rather than continue the assault on a downed opponent, which turns out to be an error in judgment when Aries ducks a clothesline and goes for the brainbuster. Generico avoids it by floating over and lands a Michinoku Driver (body slam into a sitout falcon arrow) for two. The crowd claps as Aries makes his way to his feet, only to be caught with a well-measured jab from Generico. Aries reverses out of an Irish whip and ducks through Generico’s feet out to ringside, tripping up the masked man and landing a slingshot corkscrew press to Generico’s back on his way back into the ring. Aries follows up with a no-hands quebrada (springboard inside moonsault), also to the back, for a very close two count.

Aries picks up Generico and looks for the brainbuster again, but again Generico avoids the move and grabs a waistlock. Generico looks for a German suplex, but Aries blocks and gets a standing switch. Generico reverses out and grabs a single-handed knucklelock before bounding up the ropes and looking to fly off into a swinging DDT. They botch the move, but cover it well as Generico lands on his feet and grabs Aries, spiking him into the mat with a DDT anyway. Aries flops into the corner and Generico comes running, this time absolutely pasting Aries in the face with the running Yakuza kick. Aries does a terrific glassy-eyed sell and Generico makes the cover for another close two count. The crowd totally bought that one.

Generico calls for the brainbuster himself, but Aries catches him and sends him out to the apron through the ropes. Generico gets a series of forearm strikes from the apron to put Aries down and then climbs to the top. Generico misses a 450 splash (oh, that wasn’t a good idea…) when Aries moves out of the way and Aries gets a stiff kick to the face to set up his own brainbuster and 450 splash to get the pin at 11:25. Personal Jesus begins to play as Aries struggles around the ring, though we cut away before we can see if the former champion would shake the new guy’s hand.

The Analysis:
A solid encounter, if not a spectacular one, Generico and Aries did a nice job of filling ten minutes while not trying to force a story that wasn’t there. Considering that the two had basically no past interaction in the ROH canon (outside of what would have been an incredibly contrived reference to Generico’s match with Strong), there wasn’t necessarily a lot for them to work with in terms of familiarity. Still, though there was the notable botch of Generico’s Tornado DDT, little else was missed on the technical side, a credit to both guys’ talent and ability. And even that botch was covered better than most, with Generico not acting phased and just segueing right into the more standard DDT.

I wasn’t wild about Generico, a newcomer, being allowed to be in control quite so long on a former ROH World Champion, and bear in mind that that’s with two years of perspective and knowing how good Generico has become in the interim. I can only imagine what that dynamic must have looked like in 2005 without the benefit of hindsight. Not that Generico didn’t look good in the ring, just that he was in no way ready to be viewed as a threat to Aries within the context of the Ring of Honor storylines.

I did like the fact that Generico was able to avoid the brainbuster so often throughout the match, paying off that he himself was adept at using the move to finish off his opponents. The tit-for-tat, of course, was that Aries was able to avoid the 450 splash and hit his combo for the win. More recently, Generico has tended to use the Superfly Splash instead of the 450, which, in addition to not crossing over with Aries’ moveset, has the added bonus of actually seeming to fit the ‘Generic Luchador’ character more for some reason.

The Aftermath:
For Austin Aries, the remainder of 2005 would be consumed with the long-raging feud between Generation Next and The Embassy. A semi-direct offshoot of Aries having turned on Alex Shelley at the end of 2004, one could make the argument that Aries really had no one but himself to blame for the bitterness and violence contained within that feud, especially its Steel Cage Warfare blowoff. Not long after vanquishing Embassy members Shelley, Jimmy Rave, Abyss and Prince Nana, Aries would join with fellow Generation Next member Roderick Strong to win the ROH Tag Team Titles. The duo would go on to hold the belts for nearly nine months, in the process elevating the belts to World Titles, before losing them to Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli in September of 2006. Though Aries & Strong would do their best to regain the belts throughout the following months, they were unable to do so and Strong would eventually turn on his partner in early 2007. The former champions would go on to engage in an extended feud throughout the remainder of the year, even facing off with another former Generation Next stablemate in Jack Evans along the way. Aries would be forced from Ring of Honor competition due to his commitments to Total Nonstop Action during the Spring of 2007, but would eventually make his triumphant return to the company in late-June, establishing himself as a major player in the company. Recently, Aries disbanded the Resilience faction that he had assembled to combat Strong’s No Remorse Corps, choosing instead to focus on regaining the ROH World Title. Currently, Aries is slated to face off with ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness at Ring of Honor’s Pay-Per-View taping on December 29, 2007.

El Generico would soon disappear from Ring of Honor, along the way dropping another decision to “The Notorious 187” Homicide. Though he would continue to be a major player elsewhere on the Independent scene (most notably PWG and IWS), he would not return to Ring of Honor for almost a year-and-a-half. In the meantime, Generico would turn himself into one of the most reliable workers in all of Independent wrestling, even going on to win the PWG World Title. Generico was also noted for having one of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s top matches in 2006 when he faced off with Dragon Gate’s CIMA in the Battle of Los Angeles Tournament. Though he would officially return to Ring of Honor in late 2006, it was not until he was joined by an also-returning Kevin Steen to take on Jay & Mark Briscoe in February of 2007 that El Generico would begin to make major waves in ROH.

The Final Word:
Next week, we’re going to stay right here on the Fate of an Angel show for a look at the man who would become El Generico’s regular tag team partner in 2007, “Mr. Wrestling” Kevin Steen. Though I will say more about Steen & Generico in the coming weeks, suffice to say that I feel the pair have become two of ROH’s most consistent performers in recent months and I wouldn’t be dedicating multiple weeks of this column to them if I didn’t feel that way.

To see this week’s match, Fate of an Angel is available at rohwrestling.com. The show takes place right in the thick of the “Summer of Punk” angle that remains my favorite wrestling storyline ever and contains some of the best matches I have ever seen. In addition to getting a look at Steen & Generico’s earlier work, you’ll be treated to CM Punk’s ROH World Title defense against James Gibson (one of the most criminally underrated matches of 2005) as well as a great match between “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles and Roderick Strong and Matt Hardy’s first appearance in Ring of Honor as he takes on “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels. Consider this show (along with the rest of the “Summer of Punk” shows) to have my most sincere endorsement.

Elsewhere on 411 this week, Ari has Part I and Part II of Column of Honor, while Bayani has Truth B Told featuring an appearance by yours truly. (Theoretically interesting interlude: Bayani lists my middle initial as “L” (which it is), but he would have no way of knowing that, and was clearly riffing on the Samuel L. Jackson reference.) Bayani also appears in the most recent Buy or Sell along with the Boss, and Magnus books some Midwest Independent stuff in the aptly-named Magnus Books the Midwest. Stu’s finally back from his engagement-related bliss with another That Was Then (actually two of them) and Sforcina’s most recent Evolution Schematic chronicles ROH’s legendary class clown “Classic” Colt Cabana. Short’s still kicking with The Navigation Log so you can get your Puro fix, and Barcham’s got some GBHVIN1 discussion in the most recent Hitting Below the Beltway.

In terms of video reviews, Brad has FIP Melbourne Meltdown and the FIP Evening the Odds 2005 & Attack of the Masked FIPPERs doubleshot. On Jake’s end, you can read a review of ROH Night of Appreciation. I know I’ve said it before, but honestly Brad & Jake are in my opinion the best reviewers of Independent wrestling around and I make it a point to read every one of their reviews (and you really should, too). Dunn’s got ROH Domination covered this week (and the bonus matches are available in his 411 Blog), while new 411 reviewer Robbie Brooksbank looks at CHIKARA Maximum Overdraft and PWG Holy Diver Down.

This week’s Buy or Sell will feature Matt Adamson and Magnus Donaldson in a preview of CHIKARA’s season finale shows as well as some FIP and PWG fallout. No ROH shows means no ROH Roundtable.

TV continues to be dominated by Thursday night NBC comedy (everything but Earl, basically), but Weeds is also still great. I could go on a ten page rant about this season of Grey’s Anatomy, but I’ll spare you the details and suffice to say that at least they’re engaging me with the characters.

Congratulations to Ryan Braun on his 2007 NL Rookie of the Year Award. Now it’s all about Prince taking home the MPFree. Special mention in next week’s column to anyone who gets that reference and emails in.

Again, sorry about there being no IMC last week, but sometimes real life interjects itself in unexpected ways. Unfortunately, my Maker of Moves reputation is somewhat tarnished after the events of the last week, but have no fear, it won’t affect my writing. In fact, it may tighten things up somewhat in the ‘biting criticism’ category. Huzzah for inspiration. 357 to 6. Ole!