411’s Buy or Sell 11.16.07: The YRR, Incoherence in 2008, Claudio Castagnoli & Eddie Kingston in PWG, and More!

Matt Adamson : BUY. I have always been of the opinion that Strong is overpushed as it is. True his push has led me to believe they are forcing him to the top. Why? Maybe because of his looks and in-ring skills, but the guy is subpar on the mic and the crowd usually goes all apathetic as soon as he arrives. I know nothing of the guy personally and wish him success, but any company willing to put their stock in him being at the top should better rethink their strategy, because it’s almost a guaranteed failure at that level. Maybe a re-branding of his persona would do him well, and I know a mouthpiece would do him fabulously. Alison Danger anyone? Personally, I’d buy it 100%.

Magnus Donaldson : SELL . Roderick Strong in my opinions was a true main event level independent wrestling star back in 2006 following an amazing tag team title reign in ROH with Austin Aries and some classic matches with Bryan Danielson. The man is capable, with the right opponent, of putting on matches that are worthy of a main event on any independent wrestling show. I have so far not seen anything underwhelming about his heel run, as he is doing the most important thing right – getting the crowd to boo him in the first place: something that Bryan Danielson, despite all that in-ring talent, couldn’t get the crowd to do on a regular basis when he was a heel in 2006. I will admit that his promo’s are poor, and basically consist of him shouting “Shut Up” at the crowd a lot, but get someone to do his talking for him (or let his in-ring skill do the talking) and he’s a main eventer in any indy promotion in my opinion.

0 for 1.

Matt Adamson : SELL . I cannot really get behind this because it just seems so forced. Jason Blade among the top heels in any company just confounds me to no end. A good move? Hell no! FIP needs to be re-evaluating who is important to the promotion and make sure it’s a good move. Forcing anything as “top” is a bad move. It must come naturally. Just look at the Freebirds in World Class in the early 80’s. That is how it’s done folks.

Magnus Donaldson : SELL . OK, don’t get me wrong here, I do think that at the moment, in the position they are in now in FIP, the YRR are the top heel group in the company. However, I do feel that moving the titles onto them was a mistake. The Briscoes at the moment are tearing down the house wherever they go with amazing matches, and I wouldn’t have minded seeing them with those belts for a while longer, but I can see why they have changed the titles since you don’t want FIP to get into the same situation as ROH where there are no real top tier challengers because of the Briscoes dominance. So I can live with that change. However, Erick Stevens still had lots of fresh singles matches left and I would have liked to have seen him with that belt a lot longer. Losing the belt to Sal Rinauro of all people is not a good move: Stevens was capable of putting on some great title defenses: Sal Rinauro is not as capable of doing so. Heck, I would have rather seen the belt on fellow YRR member Claudio Castagnoli. I do agree with the principle of moving the belts onto them, but I don’t agree that they were the right people to get those titles.

1 for 2.

Matt Adamson : BUY . Well, perhaps, if PWG decided to run any more shows this year. However, since it appears they are not going to, people will potentially forget about this issue entirely and move on. I think that if PWG is able to maintain the hype then there couldn’t be a better situation for them to put themselves in, but again, it has to come naturally. You might be able to see that I’m tired of being force fed feuds and talent that aren’t working. Try it out and see if it works, if it doesn’t drop it like a bad habit. If it does work, run with it. This is the key to success fellas.

Magnus Donaldson : BUY . Having read the live reports, and thought a bit about this myself, I think that PWG couldn’t have done a single thing better than this to advance the feud. I wasn’t a fan of this feud at all after Human Tornado made reference to the Chris Benoit tragedy by making the cut throat sign and locking the Crossface on Candice LeRae: it’s far too early to do something that tasteless. However, bringing in Chris Hero’s old rival Eddie Kingston and his Kings Of Wrestling friend Claudio Castagnoli and having them both turn on him to side with Tornado is a brilliant way of putting sympathy heat on Chris Hero, produces fresh matches to keep this feud going, and most importantly of all rekindles fan interest in a feud that was slowly going nowhere but downhill until now.

2 for 3.

SWITCH~!

Magnus Donaldson : BUY . Incoherence has been one of my favorite teams on the independent wrestling scene ever since they started teaming in 2006. They have had a number of exciting and entertaining matches in Chikara and they are now deserving holders of the Campeonatos de Parejas. I first of all see little reason why Chikara would hot shot the title belts off of them onto Up In Smoke in their first title defense when there are so many fresh match possibilities. Then if we look at the bigger picture of ROH, Delirious seems to be stuck in a rut at the moment while Hallowicked is confined to exhibition matches. Teaming in Ring of Honor would benefit both men and would make sense. Therefore I feel Incoherence outside of Chikara is not a matter of if, but when.

Matt Adamson : BUY . There is nothing more important to indy promotions than advertising and CHIKARA encouraging Dellowicked? (better name, I know… I’m THAT good) to run other shows together can only mean good things for CHIKARA. They are the originators and will almost always look all the better as a result. I think the talent and the ability for these two to pop the crowd is a draw for all other promotions and hell, their strange behavior makes them stick out. I’m just looking forward to seeing them more often.

3 for 4.

Magnus Donaldson : BUY . While Chikara tends to blow off it’s feuds by having the babyface take the win, I don’t see all three technicos taking the win in this case. If we look at this logically, I can see the following happening. I can see either Chris Hero or Claudio Castagnoli taking that match quite easily, so it is a difficult choice, but I give the slight edge to Claudio getting the big win. The logical conclusion to the Lince Dorado/Mitch Ryder feud seems to indicate that Lince will pull off the big blowoff win to end their feud. The match I see most likely going to a rudo therefore is Hallowicked vs. Eddie Kingston. It seems to make sense that Kingston is angry and frustrated that he has not been able to get Hallowicked in a singles match, so now that he has gotten it he will do whatever it takes to pull of that victory. They can then continue their feud into next year with a big blowoff match.

Matt Adamson : SELL . You know what? This is Chikara we’re talking about here. Every time I think they are going to pull the rug out from under me, they leave it there and give me a gentle pat on the back and remind me why I love them so much. All three babyfaces are going to win, I’m going to be a happy man and Chikara will continue to be the happiest wrestling company in the world. Why? Because they give the fans what they want. It doesn’t have to makes sense, it just has to make us happy.

3 for 5.

Magnus Donaldson : SELL . I will admit that as a former Young Lions Cup champion and one of Chikara’s biggest rudos, Chuck Taylor should be right at the top of the card. However, for me, Taylor is excellent to have on a Chikara show no matter where he is on it. The cards themselves are so loaded with action that it makes sense that a match involving him that would main event a regular Chikara show is low down on the card in this case. It’s not like he’s gotten throwaway matches either: he’s facing a former Young Lions Cup champion in Shane Storm, faces a Japanese outsider Passion Hasegawa on Night 2 that will bound to be an entertaining match, and finally teams with his Kings Of Wrestling team-mates Team FIST facing Los Ice Creams (fresh off of a Campeonatos de Parejas loss to the above duo) and another rising star Tim Donst. I therefore feel he is in a prominent enough position as he needs to be on the three events.

Matt Adamson : SELL . If this were any company with any sense of organizational structure, I would say buy, but I’m going with sell because it is indeed Chikara we’re discussing. Yes, Chuck Taylor is awesome. Yes, Chuck Taylor belongs at the top of the card. However, the main thing is that the show is fun and if the show being fun means that Chuck Taylor isn’t featured at the top of the card every time out then so be it. Like Magnus said, his opponents are no small potatoes. So, is Taylor receiving a disservice by not being in the main event? No! Are the fans? Hell no, these shows are going to be great, regardless of where Chuck Taylor is on the card.

4 for 6!

The thirty-first edition of BUY or SELL finishes at 4 for 6. Buy or Sell will be on hiatus next week due to the holiday, but be sure to check back Friday, November 30th for the next edition when two more writers will go head-to-head.