Column of Honor 12.28.07: Final Column 2007 Part One

Well, once again readers we made it to the end of another year of wrestling action, another year of the wonderful world of independent professional wrestling and another year of Ring of Honor.

Ring of Honor Yearbook

ROH Call of Champions: 2007

ROH World Title
Homicide (12/23/06 – 2/17/07)
Takeshi Morishima (2/17/07 – 10/06/07)
Nigel McGuinness (10/06/07 – )

This year the ROH World Title was predominantly around the waist of Japanese import turned ROH regular Takeshi Morishima. The short term run of Homicide may have been telegraphed by the immediate high profile title defenses against Chris Hero and Samoa Joe, but we’ll always have his massive reception in New York City to remember him by. Morishima’s defenses settled into squash matches, power vs. power and David vs. Goliath encounters. Highlights included defenses against McGuinness, Danielson, SHINGO, Erick Stevens and Kevin Steen. He even went back to Japan with the belt and defended his belt four times there. Nigel’s title win was long awaited although its impact has been dulled since the onset of his Bicep injury, thus preventing him from defending the title extensively over the last six weeks. He has defended the belt successfully twice, once per month, thus following the long established wrestling tradition of completing a title defense every thirty days. How about that?

ROH Tag Team Titles
The Lords of the Ring (Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal) (11/25/06 – 2/24/07)
The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) (2/24/07 – 3/03/07)
Naruki Doi & SHINGO (3/03/07 – 3/30/07)
The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) (3/30/07 – )

While The Briscoes have been the face of the tag team division in ROH in 2007 and have put in the most time during the year with the straps, they did share the honors with two other teams. Christopher Daniels had his last hurrah in ROH by holding onto the tag titles for a second time, teaming with Matt Sydal. Both men have since left the fold. The Briscoes won the titles before a raucous crowd in Chicago Ridge, IL. Unfortunately and in a shocking development Jay & Mark would not go one title defense before coughing up the gold to foreign wrestlers Doi & SHINGO from Dragon Gate. The Briscoes lost the title overseas but gained back the titles on mainland America, although the cost was Mark suffering a concussion on a botched Shooting Star Press. The Briscoes have defended the titles all year against a diversity of opponents, but their main rivals were Kevin Steen & El Generico, Claudio Castagnoli and a partner of his choosing and on the back end of the year fighting against various iterations of The Age of the Fall.

Race to the Top Tournament 2007 (Held 7/27-7/28/07) Winner: Claudio Castagnoli
Claudio went through a very active and competitive field to race to the top of the ROH upper card. He had wins in his bracket over Hallowicked, Mike Quackenbush and Jack Evans. Claudio defeated El Generico in the tournament finals to gain the Race to the Top Trophy.

Survival of the Fittest 2007 (Held 10/19/07) Winner: Chris Hero
Not to be outdone in 2007 by his former Kings of Wrestling tag team partner and co-holder of the ROH World Tag Team Titles, Hero won the other major singles tournament in ROH. In a landmark achievement, Hero swept the entire tournament. He qualified for the finals by defeating Karl “Machine Gun” Anderson and then went on to win (or in some cases “steal”) every fall in the finals with wins over Human Tornado, Claudio Castagnoli, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong and Rocky Romero. He did it with brain power more than he did it with muscle, but whatever gets you through to the next level.

Trios Tournament 2007 (Held 12/01/07) Cancelled due to problems with inclement weather. Postponed into 2008.

Top of the Class Trophy Holders for 2007
Shane Hagadorn
Pelle Primeau
Mitch Franklin
Eddie Osiris

Perennial lackey, errrr, manservant, Shane Hagadorn’s reign of tyranny at the top of the class for students came to an end when his long time rival Pelle Primeau, the Luke Skywalker to his Darth Vader (well, um minus the whole father-son thing), one upped him at Fighting Spirit. After a classic and memorable celebration (wherein Pelle crowd surfed a full lap around the entire building), Pelle would go onto be very successful in proving himself to be the top student in ROH. He was featured in higher profile matches and upped his game in the ring over the Spring and Summer of ‘07. Until one day during a pre show, Mitch Franklin lived to win and upset the unsuspecting Pelle for the top of the class trophy. Finally, Eddie Osiris snuck his way to the top of the class and defeated Franklin to come out on top in 2007 with the plastic bowling trophy that represents true greatness among the ROH students. Congratulations young men, now go back to taking down the ring.

ROH’s Top Stories of 2007

Samoa Joe Leaves ROH

Looking back, this departure also heralded a much larger sequence of wrestlers leaving ROH in early 2007. This, however, was the first bombshell of the year in terms of talent losses and it was a rather large one. Joe had become the heart and soul of the promotion through hard work, consistency and a hell of an ROH title run, where he took the belt from a regional U.S. independent promotion and made it into a true “World” title in every sense of the word. Of course ROH had born the losses of many talented wrestlers through the last five years, including Low Ki, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels and CM Punk. Samoa Joe was one more name added to the list, but it wasn’t so much that his leaving hurt just a bit more, but… in some ways, it did. Some will argue that Joe was sort of “just there” in the waning few months of the promotion and others have used the “he had nothing left to do” phrase, but I don’t buy either of those rationales for accepting Joe’s departure. Joe had just come off a very well put together extended feud with Bryan Danielson, and was heading into what was sure to be a year long storyline taking on NOAH wrestlers, starting with Takeshi Morishima and likely ending up against Mitsuhara Misawa in late 2007. Unfortunately, TNA decided not to allow Joe to appear in ROH anymore and so the Samoa Joe Farewell Tour was run throughout the Fifth Year Festival shows. Sometimes the highlights of these finals appearances were the matches and sometimes it was the end of match farewell promo that would stick in one’s mind. They were fiery, passionate and no doubt genuine words. In the ring, Joe took on and defeated Takeshi Morishima, Jimmy Rave, Davey Richards, Nigel McGuinness and Homicide on his route to saying goodbye to Ring of Honor. He did suffer one loss, to Nigel McGuinness in a tag match in his last U.S. appearance in 2007 for ROH.

The Arrival of Morishima

Takeshi Morishima made his first appearance for Ring of Honor in 2006 at Glory By Honor V Night 2. At that time he was there to support KENTA and Naomichi Marufuji in their big title opportunities. What resulted out of that night and his encounter with Samoa Joe would change the course of ROH throughout 2007. The fans exploded in excitement when both behemoths of the ring engaged in their pull-apart brawl in New York City, setting the stage for an expected one-on-one showdown in February. Morishima lost that bout but the next night he decimated ROH World champion Homicide and shocked the world by becoming the first ever foreign wrestler to win the most important prize in the company. Most urgently, at the time Morishima had only been announced for a handful of appearances on that tour and there were no public announcements or public expectations (from the fans anyway) of any return. Could the ROH World title slip away from the United States, to be defended in Japan for an indefinite period of time? The dangers of the ROH title not being defended on ROH’s own shows were alleviated as Morishima would be booked for most of the upcoming ROH shows. Minus a set of shows here and there, the monstrous, imposing and powerful ROH champion would be back with HIS ROH title. At that point it became less of a chase to see who could take back the belt for ROH and more about whom in the world could actually do enough to keep the big man down and defeat him. Morishima’s main rivals would be Nigel McGuinness and Bryan Danielson as each would end up having several opportunities at the ROH title. The former ROH World champion could not unseat him, but McGuinness, the relentless, impact-full British wrestler who had come of age in 2006 and 2007 managed to do it on the third try.

Loss of TNA Contracted Talent

I’ve already said a few words about this above, but it should be noted on its own. Looking at the “Who we said goodbye to” list, four of the eight names there were under contract to TNA, two decided on their own to try their fortunes in the WWE developmental system, one went back to his home promotion in Japan. As for Allison Danger, I’m not sure why she isn’t appearing for ROH these days, but she still makes her rounds regularly for SHIMMER Women’s Athletes.

Yet it was the loss of Samoa Joe, Homicide and Christopher Daniels that were obviously the biggest potential blows to the company early in the year. Homicide and Daniels were champions in January of ’07 and Joe was and always will be one of the most important wrestlers to ever appear for the company. When they were told they couldn’t wrestle anymore for ROH, it could have hurt business for sometime to come. Luckily, ROH once again found a way to fill in the holes created by the loss of talent.

ROH debuts on PPV, Begins to Sign Talent to Contracts

Before 2007, whenever casual fans asked if/when ROH would make its way onto television, the answer would be “ROH wants to develop itself slowly and due to the hefty costs of developing TV programming; they’re probably not going to do it anytime soon.” Then a funny thing happened in May–ROH announced a Pay Per View distribution deal that would make their shows available on cable and satellite dish networks. The announcement seemed out of the blue but actually had been in development for several months, maybe as long as ROH had realized that TNA was going to continue to subtract its contracted talent from shows. President / owner Cary Silkin went on the record as saying that the method ROH did business, through internet DVD sales, had leveled out and that they were looking for new opportunities to get the word out about the product. Pay PerView was one of those new methods of increasing exposure and the way it worked out for them was low-risk—ROH would tape its PPV programs and not run live, thus reducing the costs, distribute the product and then the cable companies—including Dish, InDemand and TVN—would set it to air. There would also be replays of these shows throughout the month and then the shows would be available via an “on demand” feature. The shows would also be at a lower cost to the consumer ($9.95 to $14.95 depending on the U.S. provider, and a bit more for Canada) and while having a shorter run time at 2 hours compared to WWE and TNA’s 3 hours, they aimed to pack just as much if not more action into that timeframe.

There was a good deal of buzz and the excitement about the shows from the ROH fans, but the real test would be if ROH could pick up new fans. Results have been mixed but somewhat positive thus far. In multiple interviews, Silkin and PPV business partner Ken Gelman of G-Funk have stated that they are very happy with the buy numbers, but there has been little to no information revealed about the actual numbers (although since they are not a public company, they are not obligated to do so). There is also little information to date about whether or not these buys are coming from new fans who are being exposed to the product via advertising and positive reviews or if these buys are being generated by the same ROH faithful who are now buying the product at home and paying just that bit extra more money out of their pockets in order to support a product they love and believe in.

Along with the announcement of Pay Per View and TNA’s reaction to remove all of its contracted talent from ROH shows came the news that Ring of Honor would be signing some of its talent to contracts of its own. Again few details have been released over the last year about the specifics of the contract but most believe these deals are for two years with the additional benefit of some health coverage and that to date there are about twenty wrestlers and other talent signed to contracts. These deals were put in place to help insure that ROH minimized any further talent loss, especially due to talent raids by TNA or WWE. It also showed which wrestlers would be committed to a longer term stay in the company and to ensure the future health and consistency of the roster. For the first time ROH had a “locked in” core of wrestlers around which they could consistently focus advertisement of their product. To the forefront of their advertising were Bryan Danielson, Takeshi Morishima, Nigel McGuinness and The Briscoe Brothers. All of these wrestlers have had banner years for the company, and the fact that they are under contract (and Morishima committed to NOAH) is probably no coincidence.

First Tour of Japan, Continued Expansion of ROH into more U.S. Cities

At the beginning of the year ROH seemed to be downplaying the role of expansion into new territories in 2007. There were claims that they would not be adding any new U.S. cities over the course of the year. However that turned out to be just the opposite as this was a huge year for regional growth in ROH’s touring circuit, as well as a continuation of the world-wide expansion of ROH. Its funny how things work out that way.

A huge goal for Ring of Honor this year was to run two shows in Japan. Each was co-sponsored by one of their frequent Japanese wrestling partners, Pro Wrestling NOAH and Dragon Gate. The hype had been in effect for seven months when they finally ran their shows in Tokyo and Osaka. The shows were well received and well attended. ROH went with a smaller skeleton crew of its regular wrestlers and used the more well known wrestlers of the respective companies (and at this point ROH regulars in Marufuji and CIMA) to provide for a unique “crossover” effect for the Japanese fans, although as a result the shows had less matches than usual ROH shows and thus shorter running times. KENTA was supposed to be a very heavily featured part of the tour, but due to an injury he suffered the day before the shows, a lot of matches had to be shifted around, especially for Osaka.

Despite the difficulties and problems associated with loss of talent, the shows were rather a success due to the attention of the international wrestling press and the positive reception of the ROH product.

ROH also branched out into new cities in the United States, as well as returned to several locales they had not run in a while. ROH returned to St.Paul, Minnesota for The Battle of St. Paul event. It was the first time in eight months they were back in that city. ROH late in the year decided that it was the time to do a West Coast swing and while Bayani Domingo will insist that Las Vegas does not equal the West Coast, this and their San Francisco show were as far West as ROH has ever traveled to date in the United States. While the latter show as a part of an ill-fated convention at the Cow Palace set back ROH a bit as far as profit, the fan reception was some of the best of the year. ROH also continued their stay in a resurgent Boston market place, running the Roxbury market to large and enthusiastic crowds. It was a bit of a surprise to put in the first DVD from that area and feel that there was so much fun to be had during those shows, but on subsequent DVDs I knew that each of the events from that area would deliver. Sports Plus in Long Island, New York closed down, so ROH went with the Deer Park Community College location. ROH tried to run another location in the Chicago area, hoping to split the shows between the two locales, but the new venue was received so negatively by the crowd that ROH has not run there since.

Ring of Honor will continue to increase their number of locales in 2008 when they debut in Orlando, Florida during WWE Wrestlemania 24 weekend. ROH’s sister company Full Impact Pro usually puts on shows in Florida, but ROH will continue to employ its tradition of running shows when feasible in the locations where Wrestlemania is going to take place.

The Return of Bryan Danielson

Early estimates from ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky had Danielson’s return from his shoulder tear around May 2007. Lo and behold, Danielson came back in May 2007 at Reborn Again. Danielson was so important for Ring of Honor; he was the standard bearer throughout his fifteen month title reign. He is and was a wrestler you could always depend on to bring quality wrestling that gives the fans value for the money they spent on a ticket to the show.

Danielson elected not to undergo surgery for the shoulder injury incurred during August of 2006 in a match against Colt Cabana. Instead he did rehab and worked his way back to active status on the roster. He picked up right where he left off, seemingly not missing a beat. As he amassed another collection of awesome performance and match of the year caliber efforts against the likes of KENTA and Nigel McGuinness it felt like he had never left in the first place. And then he fought then champion Morishima in an awesome and brutal match, one which left his eye socket horribly damaged. The much anticipated comeback was at risk.

Danielson took to wearing an eye patch and went back to work only a few weeks after the injury. He wrestled for the ROH Man Up Pay Per View Taping and the eye socket injury became part of the evolving storyline with Takeshi Morishima. Danielson had blurry vision that was improving but was not back to 100 percent. Nevertheless, he once again elected not to undergo surgery. Instead he forged onward and continued to wrestle all over the independent wrestling world.

There is one fear that I think I and many ROH fans have and that is that someday soon, one day soon, that Bryan Danielson will stop wrestling. He has teased that he would stop wrestling many times before. He has many other interests, including at one time a desire to join the U.S. Peace Corps. I would never tell anyone else how to live their life or not to fulfill a goal or dream of theirs, and yet, whenever the news that Danielson was thinking of leaving the business would happen, I would hope and hope that these reports would not turn out to be what actually occurred. Danielson is such a monumental talent in the business and without a doubt remains one of the most important wrestlers for ROH. He is currently, along with Jay & Mark Briscoe, one of the longest tenured wrestlers in the company, and for longstanding fans of ROH that means a lot. For any fan of ROH, his presence means a lot, so hopefully he can avoid injury in 2008 and maintain a healthy motivation to participate and contribute to the world of wrestling.

The Return of Austin Aries

It was only two months in total, but it could have been far longer than that, which is what the REAL feelings of catharsis and relief come from when it comes to Austin Aries. It isn’t so much the time, but the feelings that came with that time away from ROH. Fans knew that Aries was indefinitely suspended from TNA and they knew that he also couldn’t wrestle for ROH under the terms of his contract. Thus, when Aries showed back in an ROH show in Dayton “as a fan” (wink wink), the buzz immediately picked up and the rumors began to stir. Had Aries worked out a deal to be emancipated from his TNA contract? We received the answer the next night in Chicago Ridge, IL, when Aries stormed the ring, cleared out his rivals and declared that he once again would be a part of ROH. Aries loved ROH and the fans loved him right back.

The Arrival of Misawa

It had been rumored all year, Mitsuhara Misawa, boss of NOAH, current GHC Heavyweight champion and Japanese wrestling legend, would come to Ring of Honor and wrestle during the Fall of 2007. Yet its hard to believe rumors in the world of professional wrestling, where its not often for things to change in the blink of an eye. It doesn’t really happen until it happens, you know? Yet Misawa did indeed make it to Ring of Honor. He fought against his fellow NOAH wrestlers, a cause for much debate and controversy on the message boards. Quite a few fans believed he wouldn’t be able to live up to the hype. After the tag match main event in Philadelphia went to a thirty minute time limit draw that didn’t have much participation from Misawa, the debate stirred up again. Misawa put it together and raised his game up for his GHC Title match against KENTA. While it wasn’t Joe vs. Kobashi level performance it was very good in effort and in execution. Misawa had come and made his mark in ROH and ROH added one more legendary wrestler to the list of those who had passed through.

ROH’s Feuds, Beefs and Issues of 2007

Roderick Strong betrays Austin Aries, each starts their own new stable of wrestlers: Fans were calling for a Roderick Strong heel turn in the late months of 2006, but not that many expected it to occur so suddenly within the new year as it did at Fifth Year Festival: NYC. Strong’s backbreaker on Aries was poetic, as Aries had once betrayed Generation Next leader Alex Shelley without warning or mercy. Strong was tired of being second in command and being in the shadow of Austin Aries. He wanted his time in the spotlight and so along with Davey Richards (coming off a huge losing streak and frustrated to high levels of anger and remorselessness) he formed what would come to be known as the No Remorse Corps. Jack Evans wanted no part of the Generation Next divorce proceedings. At first he wanted both men to get along, but when it was evident that would not occur he took it one step further by refusing to take sides. Aries was upset at that but his true issue was with Strong and the way he stabbed him in the back, as opposed to confronting him with the issues face to face like a man. If Strong was going to form his own unit, then Aries was going to go to war as well. He would find his own men and lead them to the top, much like he once did with the original Generation Next in 2004. Evans meanwhile, threatened to get a group of his own together and prove that he should not be ignored as an important facet of Gen Next.

Faction warfare threatened to spiral out of control in early 2007, but really the main issue stayed between the NRC and The Resilience throughout most of the winter and spring of ’07. Austin Aries was knocked out of ROH thanks to outside the storyline issues, but Strong & Co. did not refuse the opportunity to mock him, Erick Stevens and Matt Cross about it at every opportunity. Stevens and Cross stuck it out to fight the good fight, but usually they were outnumbered and outgunned. Their major victories came when they teamed up with Delirious, who had his own issues with Strong after suffering a concussion at his hands. Finally Aries returned in a highly dramatic flourish at Driven, stating that he would be back to teach Strong and his men some respect. Meanwhile Jack Evans had also been taken out of ROH due to a concussion as a result of a knockout kick by NRC member Rocky Romero. Evans returned in July with appearances on the Japan tour and a great showing in the Race to the Top Tournament. He also once again promised to bring his own men together to do battle against Strong. And he did so, starting with bringing in Julius Smokes as his hype man and Ruckus as a tag partner. The Vulture Squad was fully formed by adding Jigsaw to the mix and the Generation-Ex Warfare was joined.

Flash forward to a few months later and Stevens and Cross lost a tag match against Romero and Richards where the person who took the losing fall would be suspended from ROH for sixty days. Cross lost that match and Stevens was taken out with an arm injury by Davey Richards. On that same show Aries got the huge singles win against Roderick Strong. A few weeks after that, Aries would disband The Resilience in order to focus on his re-emerging singles career and a run to the ROH World Title. The NRC and The Vulture Squad remain to do battle against one another, amid a burgeoning crop of other stables seeking their claim as the top faction within Ring of Honor.

Jimmy Jacobs / BJ Whitmer: Changed Men: Jacobs and Whitmer built quite the story here with their rivalry, utilizing a near three year history as partners and then as enemies. Both men felt justified in their actions–Jacobs felt betrayed by a man he looked up to as a brother. Whitmer had felt that Jacobs was too focused on Lacey and trying to win her love. Whitmer cast the first stone and in a way, both men have never been the same since. Dragon Gate Challenge in March of 2006, a botched spot nearly cost Jacobs his life. One year later both men returned to the scene of the crime in order to finally finish their war against each other. A few weeks previous in England, Whitmer had won a very physical falls count anywhere street fight, bloodying up Jacobs and delivering a devastating brain buster on the ramp area for the pin. Now Jacobs was counting on Supercard of Honor II being his day of reckoning, his ultimate victory.

Jacobs delivered two amazing promos addressing his emotions about the match. In these promos, he placed the blame on Whitmer for betraying him and stated that while Whitmer fought for adulation, he fought for one thing and one thing only: love. He wanted Lacey’s love and he would go to any lengths, destroy anyone to do so. Lacey had finally become more receptive to embracing Jacobs and earnestly accepting the love he had for her. In her mind, if Jacobs could destroy her former paramour Colt Cabana or his former partner Whitmer, he would have earned that right to woo for her love. Lacey too had changed, focused less on conducting the business of wrestling and more on extracting pain and violence against her transgressors. Jacobs was her knight, her warrior, or maybe more like her assassin.

Jacobs would go on to “win” the Steel Cage match against BJ Whitmer, launching his body from the top of the cage through Whitmer’s prone body on a table, and covering him for the win. The fight cost Jacobs in the form of a torn ACL injury, putting him out of action for months on end. In that timeframe, he would focus on winning Lacey’s love, not just for one night, but for forever. He took her out on dates and while initially awkward and unsuccessful, he eventually won Lacey over with his earnest and genuine affection for her. They consummated their love, but as fans who saw the culmination of the story in the “Jimmy Loves Lacey” vignette series, it seemed that Jacobs had a strange reaction to finally getting what he wanted. In that moment, Jimmy would later tell the ROH fans, he didn’t feel love, and he didn’t feel saved by love. He felt nothing.

Meanwhile, BJ Whitmer was also beat up and worn down by the feud ending Steel Cage match. As a result of the loss, Whitmer would end up in a massive downward spiral of loss and frustration for many months to come. Whitmer went on a nearly unstoppable losing streak. He was also becoming upset at the frequent calls the referees made against him. He would also notice at this time that the fan reaction to him was changing. Whitmer enjoyed career heights of popularity in fighting for Ring of Honor against the Combat Zone Wrestling forces in 2006. Now many fans were booing him, becoming upset that he was losing so much or in other cases just no longer enjoying his presence on the roster. Adam Pearce took note of this and began to console the man who he fought alongside with in the CZW wars. Whitmer had gone against him in the Fall of 2006, choosing to fight alongside Homicide against Jim Cornette’s sympathizers, which included Pearce. Now the mind of Pearce went to work, formulating a plot to start a new group of wrestlers in ROH, who, dissatisfied with their positions in the company, sought out to fight for their own interests. Little did Pearce know that someone else was thinking along those very same lines…

The Age of the Fall Cometh: Something strange was happening in the beginning of the Summer. A website with weird imagery and strange sayings was created. Fan awareness of this site was spread via postcards and secret messages written during Ring of Honor shows and then the rest spread by word of mouth. Some began to speculate that this was the beginning of some sort of new angle or would introduce a new wrestler. Soon the website begat another website meant to track down clues and to decipher the meanings of the messages posted. There were several pieces of imagery that seemed to suggest Jimmy Jacobs might be involved in whatever was going on. The words “Second City” and the term “Project 161” were found on the website, indicating that something surely was going on, perhaps in Chicago and perhaps on the 161st show (which was coming up soon), but what?

Meanwhile Jimmy Jacobs would spend his time on the injured list accompanying his now girlfriend Lacey to the ring. He would bring his cane to help him walk. He would also have a scowl on his face, look disheveled and routinely smoke a cigarette in public.

It all exploded with the posting of a picture of ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky and the message “no one is safe.” That stirred up Sapolsky on the ROH message board decrying the rogue website and claiming that the police would be brought in to stop this action. The picture was soon taken down but it the coming weeks more disturbing imagery would be posted, including what appeared to be and what was confirmed as The Briscoes as children and as teenagers.

The weirdness would continue with two incidents, back to back, at ROH shows in early August. During Death Before Dishonor V Night One, the lights went out during a Chris Hero vs. Nigel McGuinness match and an unidentified male voice and started to shout out repeatedly on the PA “Project 161 is real! Project 161 is coming!” ROH students and other security scrambled to find out the man responsible for these messages. The next night another match was interrupted a heavyset man with a bullhorn who would basically repeat the same message.

More messages appeared through the project161.com website via a series of blogs that chronicled tales of pain, sorrow and abuse. People were being asked to join the 161 “movement”. Even some Youtube video propaganda was spread (some legitimate and some not). On the following shows that same heavyset man would appear outside before the show, handing out “Project 161” T-Shirts (and later on DVDs) to people he selected, ones who he deemed “worthy” enough. Speculation continued about who was behind what was now obviously becoming a reality. Was it Adam Pearce, who was acting rather oddly and talking in a different tone of voice about “the truth” and his “needs”? Was it someone from the past, like Christopher Daniels, out to reform The Prophecy and take over ROH?

On August 24th at Caged Rage Jimmy Jacobs returned to in ring action to a warm reception. It was surprising because the last time we had seen him wrestle it was as a heel, but now he was well received. Jimmy seemed to take to the cheers and gave interviews filled with pep and positive thinking about coming back from his injury. Yet Lacey began to act more and more strangely, giving a weird message at the end of Motor City Madness 2007, that “soon they will all see.”

On the Project 161 message board fans that supported their cause were asked to dress in all black, including black ski masks and black bandanas.

Finally, at the 161st show, the Project was put into effect. At the “Man Up” PPV taping, a masked man hopped the railing and started to shout “Project 161” over and over again. He was thrown out by security. Later, during the Briscoes vs. Steen & Generico ladder war, a masked man could be seen standing over a prone Jay Briscoe out in the crowd. After they won, Jay and Mark could be seen yelling at some more masked men who had rushed the ring barricade. Then from out of the crowd came Jimmy Jacobs, dressed in all white, and Tyler Black! These men climbed up to the ring apron and had a face to face, wordless confrontation with The Briscoes. Then out from the other side came of all people the Necro Butcher, who pummeled the tag champions with a fistful of barbed wire. Along with Lacey, Jacobs, Black and Necro declared themselves to be a part of a new movement, which Jacobs dubbed “The Age of the Fall”. He claimed this movement went beyond Ring of Honor, but that this would be the forum through which he expressed the AotF viewpoint.

Of course the whole debut culminated in the “blood promo”, where The Age of the Fall hung up Jay Briscoe by his feet, causing his blood to come pouring down onto Jacob’s jacket without end. The white was soon stained blood-red. Jacobs’ problem was that he and wrestlers like Black and Necro were being overlooked in favor of men like The Briscoes, who were bred for success but whom he thought represented the height of hypocrisy for their drinking and what he deemed inappropriate behavior. Jacobs had tried to find solace in love through Lacey, but he found that love wasn’t the answer. He didn’t feel any better after he slept with Lacey, he didn’t feel anything at all! Amazingly though, Lacey seemed to enjoy hearing that her love meant nothing and if anything she clung on even harder to Jimmy on that night.

The Age of the Fall had come and with them a new era had been brought forth of multiple groups of wrestlers banding together for common interests, most of all to rise to the top in Ring of Honor.

Faction Warfare Consumes ROH: By the end of 2007, Ring of Honor had once again found itself in the middle of a huge amount of stable rivalry. At one point there were as many as six stables / groups of wrestlers working together, whether it to be to take out one of the other groups, for a cause or for personal gain and glory. The No Remorse Corps were the first on the scene, as Richards and Strong brought in Romero to form one of the fiercest stables in ROH today. The Resilience came as reaction to the NRC as Aries joined up with Erick Stevens and Matt Cross. By the end of the year Aries had dissolved that group. The Hangmen 3 were formed by Adam Pearce and his right hand man Shane Hagadorn, as he brought in BJ Whitmer and Brent Albright. The Age of the Fall continues to be determined to bring down Ring of Honor at all costs. Larry Sweeney has his Sweet & Sour Incorporated Agency which consists of his top client Chris Hero, premier women’s athlete and SHIMMER champion Sara Del Rey, Tank Toland and his training protégé Bobby Dempsey. Jack Evans managed to get his act together just in time to form The Vulture Squad with Julius Smokes as his hype man and Rucukus and Jigsaw as his running buddies. 2007 saw the formation of these groups and 2008 may look to continue the rivalries between many of them as they try to climb up the ranks and battle for supremacy.

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Chris Hero & Larry Sweeney—The End of The Kings of Wrestling in ROH: Final Battle 2006 was supposed to be Claudio Castagnoli’s last appearance, as he had signed a contract with WWE. For whatever reason that didn’t work out and Castagnoli announced that he was sticking around after all. “Sweet & Sour” Larry Sweeney has a big problem with that—see, he had signed Chris Hero to an exclusive contract with his agency, but he had no use and no plans for Castagnoli. Sweeney exclaimed that when Claudio decided to leave, he put the bullet in The Kings of Wrestling tag team. Castagnoli was amused and maybe had too flip a reaction. He responded that his good friend, partner and mentor Chris Hero would never choose Sweeney over him. Yet that is exactly what happened. Hero shook Castagnoli’s hand that night, but he left with Sweeney.

Maybe it was the initial shock of what had occurred, but Claudio could not be mad at Chris Hero. He may have still wanted some sort of reconciliation for what was one of the top tag teams on the independent wrestling scene in 2006. Hero at the time may have even wanted to avoid any conflicts with his former partner as he started a new chapter in his Ring of Honor career. Yet Sweeney was ever belligerent, ever antagonistic towards the Swiss money making man. It was clear these two were like oil and water—they would never mix and would never agree with each other. Sweeney saw Castagnoli as a trouble maker and Claudio thought that Sweeney was a snake-oil merchant.

Castagnoli gave Hero every benefit of the doubt in order to see if they could make amends and get along amicably. Claudio even asked Hero to be his tag team partner against The Briscoes in a two out of three falls match for the ROH World Tag Team Titles at United We Stand. While they gave the old teamwork a go, in the end the chemistry was not right anymore. Too much water was under the bridge and The Kings of Wrestling lost, just like the last time they faced The Briscoes. Hero walked out on Claudio after that match without a word or a care. It was clear their time as a team was over.

Meanwhile Claudio had regained the trust and the support of the fans. He apologized for betraying ROH in the fight against CZW back in ’06 and was quickly making amends by acting with honor and often stating how much he appreciated the reception from the fans. Castagnoli would increase his momentum and his position in ROH with several key performances and victories. He and Sydal put on a hell of a performance against The Briscoes at Respect is Earned. Castagnoli then won the Race to the Top Tournament and put on a hell of a terrific showing against ROH World Champion (at the time) Takeshi Morishima. Sweeney must have been disgusted and decided it was time for a more active form of dealing with this nuisance.

It started with Chris Hero attacking Claudio Castagnoli with the Race to the Top Trophy, pressing the sharp edge of the trophy piece against Claudio’s eye and causing it to bleed. Sweeney also tried to gain a psychological advantage by signing Matt Sydal to a contract with Sweet & Sour Inc. Sydal, who had been teaming occasionally with Castagnoli, had just lost a match that would air on Pay Per View. Castagnoli tried to stop Sydal by ripping up the service contract. and in his anger at losing and his willingness to take whatever opportunity came across to get ahead Sydal attacked Castagnoli from behind. Hero finished the job on that night with a Hero’s Welcome (Roll the Dice / Last Rites) and a Hangman’s Clutch (Crossface from a Cravate position). Yet despite the psychological and physical mind games, it would be Castagnoli who won every singles contest against his former tag team partner.

Sweeney would prove to be the foil to Castagnoli at every opportunity. He tried to buy out Claudio’s contract, but Claudio would have none of it. Then in Castagnoli’s most high profile win of the year, he pinned Naomichi Marufuji with a tight O’Connor Roll. Immediately after the match Sweeney and Hero were there to pounce on the exhausted winner. Sweeney blasted Castagnoli with the Shreeveport Smash, the elbow drop off the top rope. After the match Castagnoli agreed to a match for the fifth pay per view taping against Chris Hero on December 29th, 2007, where if he lost he would lose his career in ROH. After Austin Aries won a match against Hero later that night an additional stipulation would be added wherein if Claudio won his match on the 29th that he would be able to fight Sweeney one on one the next night at Final Battle 2007.

The Briscoes vs. El Generico & Kevin Steen: What started out as a simple tag team match on one show turned into an all out rivalry by mid-2007. Steen and Generico were hitting career marks in other promotions and were brought in to ROH for another show in February. They were matches against The Briscoes at Fifth Year Festival: Philadelphia. Jay & Mark were surging forward to a tag team title shot, while Generico and Steen were looking to show that they did belong on a full time basis. Steen and Generico were initially overwhelmed by Jay & Mark, but they fought back and actually began dominating the number one contenders! Steen & Generico proved they could keep up with The Briscoes, so when the redneck wonders finally reclaimed the tag straps as the culmination of their great comeback of 2006-2007, Steen & Generico were right there as possible top contenders.

What shifted this from competitive rivalry to an out and out hated grudge was when Steen took advantage of Mark Briscoe’s concussion injury. After laying down the challenge, Steen gave Mark a shot from behind right to the head. It immediately got to Jay and a brawl emerged between both teams. The next night at Fighting Spirit Steen & Generico were matched up against Jay and his choice of partner Erick Stevens. Jay was left at a two on one disadvantage after Stevens was attacked and taken out of the match by the NRC. After being beaten on for a number of minutes it was the injured Mark Briscoe to the rescue in a highly emotional moment. Mark was trying to be stopped by security and by even his own mother, but he would not be denied participation in the match. However, after one shot to the head too many The Briscoes were dealt a non-title loss. It was this match that confirmed to the world that Steen & Generico not only had the ability in the ring to defeat The Briscoes, Steen had no compunctions about doing whatever it took to get the job done. Conversely, Steen’s partner El Generico had reservations about taking this route to get to a title shot.

Both teams would engage in fierce in-ring action against each other over the next several months. They were involved in an insane pull apart brawl at Respect Is Earned where neither team could be stopped from fighting each other. During the madness, Steen once again laid out Mark Briscoe, this time with a chair. This set the stage for the Tag Title shot in June for the Driven Pay Per View tapings. The Briscoes were victorious in a hard fought match but Kevin Steen had the last laugh and the last word as he laid both men out after the match with a ladder. They were engaged in a series of fights throughout the month of August. Steen & Generico struck with an important win in a non-title street fight and then swept singles matches the next night. They could not unseat The Briscoes for the tag straps in two consecutive title shots. They lost a Cage match and also lost a two-out-of-three falls match, where The Briscoes continued their streak of consecutive wins in that stipulation match. At the end of that match, El Generico agreed to shake both Jay and Mark’s hands in a sign of respect. He seemingly managed to convince Steen to do the same, only for Steen to unload with two low blows to the tag champs while Generico had his head turned the other way. Then he forced El Generico to help him take out the champs with a huge ladder. Once again Steen had the last laugh. This all set the stage for the finale of the series, a first ever “Ladder War” between both teams taped for the Man Up Pay Per View.

The match was one of the most violent and insane fights of the year, with both teams paying the price with their bodies. Both teams had a will to win and the mentality to do what it took to the other team to get the belt from the pulley. Inevitably though the champions proved superior to their rivals and Jay Briscoe once again proved his ability to rise to the occasion when needed. he did it when his brother was injured and he had to win the tag belts on his own and he did it here by claiming the tag straps, winning the match and ending the rivalry between the two teams.

Nigel McGuinness’s quest to win the ROH World Title: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. It’s a valuable less on that Nigel took to heart this year. McGuinness fought his hardest against constant adversary Takeshi Morishima. He came up short twice in two closely contested championship matches. It was on the third try, in Edison, New Jersey, site of the first title match between the two that he finally succeeded and won the ROH World Title.

The McGuinness / Danielson / Morishima Triangle: Morishima and McGuinness became friends when Nigel went on his tours of NOAH in late 2006. When Morishima came to ROH obviously McGuinness threw his support to the man he went on many bus tours while in Japan. Yet when Morishima became the ROH World champion, that meant that Nigel would eventually have to face his friend, a man he respected, in order to win the championship. Now, winning the gold was a huge deal for Nigel—he had done a great job as Pure champion in 2006, but had come up short in the World vs. Pure unification match against Bryan Danielson in August of that year. Nigel knew that in order to be considered the best, one day he would have to fight Morishima as champion.

That day came on April 14th, 2007 at the Fighting Spirit event. The end result was a loss for Nigel, but he gave it his all and knew that if he could adjust his game plan in the right way that he would become champion. Meanwhile, Bryan Danielson had returned from his shoulder injury and there was no doubt in his or in any one else’s mind what his goals were upon his return. The “Best in the World” was coming back for what he considered to be his ROH World Title. It didn’t matter who was the champion, Danielson was going to be ready for his opportunity and he would win back what he held for over fifteen months.

These three men had a meeting of the minds at the Respect is Earned Pay Per View, setting the stage for a months-long story wherein all three men would do battle against each other, with the grand goal of being the number one man in Ring of Honor at stake. It was clear that McGuinness had no love lost for Danielson, but that he respected Morishima for his accomplishments, including coming to a foreign country and being successful despite the obstacles, just as Nigel had to do so many years ago when he traveled to the United States to stake his claim in the world of professional wrestling. Meanwhile, Morishima extended his respect only when it was given to him first. As for Danielson, he respected neither man and his disrespectful actions over the next few months (e.g. grabbing the belt and claiming it was his) would prove it.

So these three men went to battle against each other. Bombs were thrown and damage was dealt to each man. Yet throughout the Summer and early Fall of 2007, Morishima remained dominant. He turned away challenges from both men for the belt. Danielson hurt his orbital bone in the first title match at Manhattan Mayhem II and then the rematch at Man Up was stopped by the referee due to Morishima’s unrelenting assault. On that same show Nigel McGuinness rebounded from losing the number one contender’s match against Danielson from Driven by winning another number one contender’s match, this time a four corner survival match that also included Chris Hero, Naomichi Marufuji and Claudio Castagnoli.

Finally, Nigel McGuinness’s third chance to win the ROH World Title proved to be his moment of triumph. McGuinness pushed through a painful arm injury in order to take out Morishima with the Jawbreaker lariat and get the three-count. McGuinness had finally become the new ROH World Champion. Morishima shook the man’s hand in a symbol of honor and respect. Bryan Danielson meanwhile, shoved Nigel McGuinness and walked away from the group of wrestlers celebrating the win. It was clear that Danielson and McGuinness still have severe issue to resolve. Meanwhile Danielson and Morishima have begun to expand upon their own rivalry, one that may engulf the both of them in the future.

ROH What The…?

-Bill Apter as a backstage interviewer?
-Referee TODD SINCLAIR as a backstage interviewer?
-The Grannies?
-Jimmy Rave Projectile Vomitting?
-Adam Pearce as hidden timekeeper?
-Promos filmed with color filters?

Going Home

Name That Tune Week 16

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.

Here was last week’s clue:

Clue: ROH, cover
Lyric: “The king called out his jet fighters.”
What’s the name of the song and the artist?

The answer: “Rock the Casbah” (TRUSTcompany cover, Jigsaw’s theme)

This week’s winners (by order of receipt):
premiumblandrew
Mitchell Rose
Adam G.
You_think_you_know_me
soulpower

Thanks to all those who wrote in! Its time for the final Name that Tune! for this year, for this week, December 28th, 2007!

Clue: Independent wrestler, international
Lyric: “We still the same with a little fame / A little change in the household name but ain’t too much changed.”
What’s the name of the song and the artist?

Be sure you get all the details right before you send this one in!

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

Okay, we’re not done with the festivities yet. PART TWO and THREE will be available tomorrow, with more of the ROH Yearbook, including the greatest promos of the year…plus predictions and a preview of the top ROH matches of the year. Ai, O, let’s go!