The Independent Mid-Card 02.19.08: Richards vs. Jigsaw

Davey Richards vs. Jigsaw
Tournament – First Round Match
Ring of Honor – Race to the Top Tournament, Night One – Deer Park, NY – July 27, 2007

The Wrestlers:
Davey Richards – When he first arrived in Ring of Honor in mid-2006, Richards was a highly-touted West Coast talent who had recently won the ECWA’s prestigious Super 8 Tournament. Though Richards’ first half-year in ROH was mostly under the radar, with a fine, but underwhelming feud against Jimmy Rave and a stint as the American protégé of Pro Wrestling NOAH star KENTA. Though Richards’ stock continued to rise in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, where he had held the company’s World Tag Team Championship and won the 2006 Battle of Los Angeles Tournament, Davey would not see his profile rise much in ROH until he joined up with a newly-turned Roderick Strong in forming the No Remorse Corps in early-2007. The duo eventually added Rocky Romero to the group in an attempt to gain a leg-up on Austin Aries’ Resilience faction. Obviously, with a pair of high-profile tournament crowns on his resume, Richards was the very definition of ‘tournament tested’ entering Race to the Top weekend.

Jigsaw – An early graduate of the Chikara Wrestle Factory, the masked Jigsaw had primarily competed for the CHIKARA promotion throughout his career. Having found much success in that company, including winning the 2004 Torneo Cibernetico and the 2007 King of Trios Tournament (alongside “Lightning” Mike Quackenbush & Shane Storm), Jigsaw was widely regarded as one of the top talents to come from the CHIKARA system. In April of 2007, Jigsaw, along with fellow CHIKARA talents Quackenbush, Hallowicked and Gran Akuma, debuted for Ring of Honor, with Jigsaw and Quackenbush losing the last fall of an Ultimate Endurance match to then-ROH World Tag Team Champions Jay & Mark Briscoe. Jigsaw had made a handful of appearances for ROH on the heels of that debut, but had yet to have a notable singles contest. He went into the Race to the Top Tournament as a very real underdog.

The Match:
TRUST Company’s sublime cover of Rock the Casbah hits and signals the entrance of the masked Jigsaw. And if you couldn’t guess, this would be the entrance with which has so enthralled me lately. Jigsaw weighs in at 180 pounds and hails from the Bronx, New York. Unlike many masked competitors, Jigsaw is not a mute, encouraging the crowd to get into things as he slaps hands on the way to the ring. He stalks around the ring waiting for his opponent until Davey Richards’ Charisma theme starts up (complete with Running With the Devil intro). Richards weighs in at 207 pounds and is fighting out of Othella, Washington. Richards is instructed to head to his corner by the referee, who then checks the No Remorse Corps member for contraband. The ref calls for a handshake, but Richards takes the opportunity to instead spit in Jigsaw’s face. See, there’s at least one advantage to wearing a mask. The bell is rung to start things off.

The two men circle and lock up, with Davey quickly forcing Jigsaw to the ropes. The referee calls for a break and, absent a light shove to the chest, we get a clean one from Richards. Jigsaw claps to get the crowd into things as Davey jaws with some ringside fans. They circle again and then grab a double knucklelock and begin a test of strength. Things seem to be at a stalemate until Jigsaw drops down and segues into a wristlock. He moves into a hammerlock, but Davey rolls away and gets a drop toehold and mounts the masked man in camel clutch position. Richards just begins to go to town on Jigsaw with crossface forearms and then forearm shots to the back of the head.

Richards grabs a wristlock, but Jigsaw counters to one of his own. Davey again rolls through and goes into a bridge, but when he attempts a kick out of the bridge, Jigsaw catches him and rolls him backwards up to his feet. Jigsaw chops away at Davey, but has and Irish whip reversed. He’s able to recover, however, and catch Davey with a spinning armdrag on the rebound. Davey charges into another armdrag and then runs right into a back elbow. Jigsaw floats over on a charge into the corner and then takes Richards over with a hurricanrana. Davey charges yet again and gets back body dropped for his trouble. Jigsaw goes to dropkick Davey out over the top, but doesn’t get enough momentum to send him all the way out. Instead, Richards retreats through the ropes and out to ringside to catch his breath.

Jigsaw goes to follow up with a slingshot cross body, but Davey moves and the masked man splats on the ringside floor. Richards gets in a couple of headbutts on the outside before rolling Jigsaw back in. Davey mockingly prompts the crowd to clap, though they take it as a serious call and begin a rather loud round of clapping. Davey does a throat-slash gesture to indicate that he’s about to finish things and earn a $35,000 fine from the NFL. Davey tries to get set up for the D.R. Driver II (butterfly brainbuster), but Jigsaw goes deadweight to block. Instead, Davey grabs a wristlock and then hits Jigsaw with one of his trademark combinations, chopping his chest before stepping over into a kick to the chest. In fact, Jigsaw has it scouted and covers up to block the kick, so Davey kicks him in the back instead and then kicks him in the chest. Nice little moment there. Davey wanders around a bit before making a lazy cover for two.

Davey pulls Jigsaw to his feet, but Jigsaw begins to make a comeback with a series of strikes. Jigsaw goes for an Irish whip, but Davey reverses it and then ducks under a kick, setting Jigsaw up in a pumphandle position in the process. Then, instead of dropping him with a powerslam, Davey drops Jigsaw into a shoulderbreaker. Davey makes the cover for two and then floats over into a side headlock on the kick out.

Jigsaw won’t give it up, so Davey gets back to his feet and stomps away. Richards sends Jigsaw off the ropes and then catches him on the rebound with a hard clothesline before making the cover for another two count. Jigsaw tries to make another comeback, but Richards cuts him off with a knee to the face and sets him up for a powerbomb. Jigsaw once again goes deadweight, so Davey begins to forearm him in the back, eventually hoisting him up into Canadian backbreaker position and then running him chest-first into the corner. Davey leaves Jigsaw hanging in the corner and comes running cross-corner with a dropkick to the back. Davey pulls Jigsaw out of the corner but makes another lazy cover that only gets two.

Davey grabs a seated armbar as the crowd claps to urge Jigsaw on. Davey switches to a wristlock and elbows down onto Jigsaw’s arm in the process, but then releases the hold and goes for a suplex instead. He gets Jigsaw aloft, but he counters mid-move with a knee to the head. Jigsaw blocks a clothesline and then counters into a back elbow before hitting a jumping enziguiri to put Richards down.

Both men are on the mat with Jigsaw notably clutching his shoulder. They both make their way to their feet, but Jigsaw begins to take control with a series of chops to the chest, being sure to use only his good arm along the way. Jigsaw creatively avoids using his bad arm on an Irish whip and then catches Davey on the rebound with a back elbow. A clothesline and a leg lariat follow and then Jigsaw makes the cover, hooking the far leg with his good arm to help get a two count.

Jigsaw chops away in the corner, but when he goes to whip Richards cross-corner (again being sure to avoid using his bad arm), Davey is able to reverse it, grabbing the bad arm in the process and striking at it with a forearm and a headbutt. Davey gets in a cross-corner whip, but runs into a back elbow on the blind charge. Jigsaw hops up to the second rope and then comes down with a double stomp to Richards’ back. He follows up with a swinging DDT, though this time he does use the injured arm along the way. He does make sure to hook Davey’s leg with his good arm, but the cover still only gets two.

Jigsaw is visibly frustrated, but gets to his feet and fires up the crowd (all the while selling the bad arm, by the way). He tries to set up Davey for the Jig ‘N Tonic (back-to-belly packaged tombstone piledriver), but Richards blocks it with forearms to the back. Davey goes for a powerbomb, but Jigsaw floats over and takes him down with a schoolboy cradle for two, even being sure to shield his bad arm in the process.

Jigsaw moves in again, but Davey catches him with a jawbreaker. Richards sets up for the D.R. Driver II again, but Jigsaw is able to shift his weight and land on his feet to block the move. He counters into a wristlock and then grabs a waistlock before hopping onto Richards’ shoulders and going for a victory roll. Davey squats down mid-move and gets a close two count out of it, but Jigsaw is able to kick out. Jigsaw blocks a kick from Davey, but then Richards catches Jigsaw’s kick and absolutely plants him with an enziguiri. Davey then hits a bridging German suplex for two and then rolls through the kick out to lock in the Chimeralock (keylock with headscissors) for the nearly immediate submission at 7:29. Davey is announced as the winner and advances to face Pelle Primeau on Night Two of the tournament. Davey climbs out of the ring, again refusing to shake Jigsaw’s hand. Jigsaw gets a nice round of applause and a chant from the crowd as he climbs out of the ring and heads to the back.

The Analysis:
The most notable issue in this match is probably Jigsaw’s selling of the arm injury. As noted a number of times throughout the match, Jigsaw almost seemed to go out of his way to sell the damage Richards had done, even being careful to make covers with his good arm and alter the way he would send Davey off the ropes on Irish whips. Without that attention to detail, the truth is that this match would probably be the definition of simplicity, but with Jigsaw’s efforts intact, this match does move up a notch.

Richards’ performance here was solid, but unspectacular. He hit his spots cleanly and was able to adapt well to the quicker Jigsaw, though I will say that the only spot of his that sticks out to me was his adjustment on his striking combination early in the match. It may have been a little thing, but for whatever reason it remains with me after watching the match in its entirety.

One of the issues here was the problem that plagues many tournament matches: wrestlers tend to hold their best performances back for later round matches. Furthermore, with so many matches required to get through the event’s first round, this match didn’t get the time needed to develop into anything truly special. That said, credit is due to Jigsaw for not falling into the trap that so many of his contemporaries fail to avoid; just because a match is short doesn’t mean you shouldn’t sell your opponent’s offense.

The Aftermath:
Davey Richards would defeat Pelle Primeau in the second round of the tournament the next night but would ultimately lose to finalist El Generico in the semifinals. With the Faction Warfare angle about to kick into high gear, Richards and the No Remorse Corps would notch a huge victory two weeks later when they would defeat the Resilience in a Philadelphia Street Fight. The Resilience would eventually be disbanded, much to the Corps’ credit, but Strong, Richards & Romero would essentially tread water over the next few months as newly-formed stables like the Vulture Squad, Hangmen 3, and The Age of the Fall began to establish themselves. Richards’ big moment would seem to have been a narrow loss to the Briscoes alongside Romero in a match taped for ROH’s Undeniable Pay-Per-View, that is until late-January of 2008, when Richards and Romero would win an Ultimate Endurance match to unseat Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black to win the ROH World Tag Team Titles in Chicago Ridge, IL.

Jigsaw would continue to appear sporadically for ROH until becoming a full fledged member of Jack Evans’ Vulture Squad in early-October. Though the Vulture Squad, fully comprised of Evans, Jigsaw, CZW star Ruckus, and manager Julius Smokes, would find some success during Faction Warfare, they would have a difficult time distinguishing themselves from the other groups vying for control within Ring of Honor. Thus far, Jigsaw’s marquee win would probably be considered a main event triumph over The Age of the Fall while teaming with Evans and Mark Briscoe in mid-January, but this coming Saturday, Jigsaw & Ruckus will team up for a shot at Davey Richards & Rocky Romero’s ROH World Tag Team Titles, a key match on Ring of Honor’s Sixth Anniversary Show.

The Final Word:
As it turns out, this week’s match not only helped in showcasing Jigsaw’s awesome entrance music, but also serves as something of a plug for ROH’s shows this coming weekend. How about that… Long story short: if you’re in the New York area, you should probably do what you can to make it to one or both of this weekend’s events.

To see this week’s matchup, Race to the Top Tournament, Night One is available at rohwrestling.com. The card is as much a lead-in to the tournament’s second night as anything else, but still features some good matches like Mike Quackenbush vs. Matt Sydal, Chris Hero vs. Erick Stevens, and Kevin Steen vs. Jack Evans. Also, the main event is a spectacular bit of tag team work, as Jay & Mark Briscoe defend their ROH World Tag Team Titles against the unlikely team of Nigel McGuinness & “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson. Not a must-have show, but a solid one, and a nice pick-up for fans of tournaments.

While you’re on 411 this week, be sure to check out some other columns and reviews. There’s the usual, in Ari’s Column of Honor, Bayani’s Truth B Told, and Short’s Navigation Log. Buy or Sell features Campbell and a debuting Steve Cook. You should also be sure to check out Bauer’s fill in on a real column, something he doesn’t get to do very often. Oh, and I did an edition of The Up & Under last week that you should check out if you want proof that ROH fans aren’t all lemmings. Reviews are as follows: Dunn’s got ROH’s Reckless Abandon, Unscripted III, and Final Battle 2007, Furious has ROH Death Before Dishonor III and Fate of an Angel and IWA Mid-South’s When Hero Met Punk, and Campbell’s got FIP’s Big Year One Bash, Night 2. Be sure to check all of that out.

This week’s Buy or Sell is Chris Lansdell & Ryan Byers and there will also be an ROH Roundtable to preview next weekend’s shows. Be on the lookout for both of those on Friday.

Weekly iTunes flyby:

1. “It’s Time” by Kiss Me I’m Sick – from Kiss Me I’m Sick
2. “Vienna” by The Fray – from Live at the Electric Factory, Bootleg No. 1
3. “Rock the Casbah” by TRUST Company – currently unreleased
4. “Here It Goes Again” by Ok Go – from Oh No
5. “Out of My Head” by Fastball – from All the Pain Money Can Buy

This week is no different than the last one, so you should definitely still be swinging by The Cool Kids’ Table for more wrestling coverage. So it seems that Kota Ibushi actually did not make the cut on our most recent podcast, but there’s still a ton of great wrestling talk, complete with a look at the potential for a tag team run by “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson & Austin Aries. Be sure to check it out. Again, that’s The Cool Kids’ Table.

Another week is gone and the big announcement must again be pushed off a bit, but I assure you that things are in the works for a big move to be made. Trust me that this will be worth the wait. Oh, and by the way, Dwight Howard is superhuman. I mean that whole thing was absolutely nuts.

259 to 6. Get Started. The Cool Kids’ Table. Ole!