411’s Buy or Sell 02.22.08: Title Changes, Go Shiozaki, Nigel vs. Dragon, and more!

Chris Lansdell : SELL . I hope not. A third title change inside of 6 months would not set a good precedent for the title, and it’s only on the line one of the two shows. The no DQ stipulation and the addition of Stevens to the match may have some questioning this answer, but I can’t see it. FIP is back up and running, and they already did one title
change out of their area. If it does happen, it’s just another sign of a possible invasion angle . . . no, I’m not letting that go.

Ryan Byers : SELL . I find it amusing that people are even speculating that this will happen. I don’t say that because I’m trying to smugly look down my nose at people who think a change will happen. I say it because title changes happen so rarely in ROH/FIP that the second the same belt twice within a few months, people begin suspecting that Gabe is adopting some new philosophy of hotshotting the strap. Well, he’s not. He’s still the same jolly, slightly portly disciple of Paul E. that we all known and love, and lengthy reigns in his promotions are still the rule, not the exception.

1 for 1.

Chris Lansdell : BUY . Who’s he got, Stevens and Aries? Well, Stevens just lost the FIP title, and he’s not going to regain it Saturday (see above), so this is going to be a bad weekend for him. You don’t bring in a big Japanese name and then job him out on his first match. Aries will get a hell of a match out of Shiozaki, but his loss here will further
speculation about his joining AotF, if it doesn’t outright cement it.

Ryan Byers : SELL . I think the difference of opinion between Chris and myself grows out of our differing perceptions of Shiozaki. Unlike Mr. Lansdell, I do not think that Go is a “big Japanese star.” He’s a young wrestler who began to break out a bit in NOAH and is being sent overseas to hone his skills. He’s not on the level that KENTA was at when KENTA came to ROH. He’s not on the level that Marufuji was at when Marufuji came to ROH. Hell, he’s not even on the level that Morishima was at when Morishima came to ROH. He’s got the potential to be a world class wrestler like those three but is not yet a world class wrestler, nor should he be treated as such during his run in the States. Well, unless ROH wants to solidify its status as NOAH’s answer to Florida Championship Wrestling.

1 for 2.

Chris Lansdell : BUY . With the financial situation of the company, and the expectation that an Anniversary Show should be bigger and better, it’s the right move. It might not be the popular move, but it’s right nonetheless. I felt last years celebrations dragged on a bit, although the 5th year is a big deal. There’s no bigger main event in RoH than
Danielson – McGuinness anyway, so topping that would have been impossible.

Ryan Byers : BUY . First of all, I don’t think that we would’ve seen a five show “festival” last year if not for the retirement tour of Samoa Joe. That meant just as much as, if not more than, celebrating the promotion’s birthday. Furthermore, an entire month’s worth of “anniversary” shows is the most mileage that you can possibly get out of the gimmick. However, it’s not something that the company should be doing every year. If you do, it ceases to be special, meaning that people will slowly begin to demand even MORE out of you for bigger anniversaries. Yet, if you’ve done a month of anniversary shows every year, you can’t give the people the “more” that they’re demanding without burning them out. One show and one show alone is exactly what the promotion needs so that they can save the big guns in the years that require something bigger.

2 for 3.

[Editor’s Note: For an extensive preview of ROH’s weekend shows, please head over to The Cool Kids’ Table.]

SWITCH~!

Ryan Byers : SELL . One of my biggest criticisms of Ring of Honor is that they’re the promotion that does everything to excess. Instead of “less is more,” their philosophy seems to be “more is AWESOME, and way more is WAY AWESOME.” Though this may be on display frequently in their matches, the one area in which the promotion manages to show some degree of restraint is in terms of bringing in talent. Granted, there was a period recently during which several new faces were popping up (or becoming regulars after stints as semi-regulars) to fill out the Gang Warz stables. However, for the most part, ROH manages to space out major debuts in order to keep them special. Thus, with Joey Matthews having made a surprise debut earlier this year and Go Shiozaki wrestling the first matches of his learning excursion this weekend, I have a feeling that we won’t be seeing any additional names. To do otherwise would detract too much from Joe ‘n’ Go.

Chris Lansdell : SELL . Not for the same reasons as Ryan though. While I agree that bringing in a name would detract from Go, and to a lesser extent Joey Mercury Matthews, I’m more swayed by just not seeing many places for the surprise debut. It would have to make sense, as the spate of debuts in Gang Warz did, and nothing in the cards lends itself to a run-in. The names are available, with WWE pulling out of OVW their guys will soon be able to take Indy bookings, and Low Ki is still out there, but not yet, and not this weekend even if they had someone lined up. There’s a PPV taping in a month…

3 for 4.

Ryan Byers : SELL . I’m not saying that it will be a bad match, don’t get me wrong. What we’re dealing with, though, is a situation in which these two men just had what many people considered the Match of the Year for 2007. (Hell, you’d be hard pressed to find a person who watched that match and didn’t at least have it in his/her top three.) When something that epic occurs, the follow-up is always going to be a little bit disappointing, no matter how great it actually is. It’s like the Godfather movies. Godfather I? Greatest film of all time. Godfather II? Still awesome but doesn’t live up to the original. Godfather III? It would probably be remembered as a damn fine movie if not for the fact that it had to live up to the standards of the other two. Yet, due to its positioning in the series, whatever positives it has are often forgotten by film fans. I have a feeling that the latest incarnation of Danielson/McGuinness will suffer a similar fate.

Chris Lansdell : SELL . How can it? Their match at Unified was incredible. They topped it at Driven. Living up to that sort of standard would be very difficult and worthy of Match of the Year in a landslide, simply because of consistency. There is no way the match will be bad, barring an in-match injury (knock on wood), but to be at the level of the last 2…that’s going it some. I don’t necessarily agree that sequels are normally damaged by their precursors, but in the wrestling world, when innovation is needed to keep the match fresh, it is often the case. These two have matched up so often, they can’t have many more spots left.

4 for 5.

Ryan Byers : BUY . Some people are going to think that I’m a fool for saying this after what happened with the FIP belt recently, but I’m going to say it anyway: The first change of the SHIMMER Title will not happen anywhere but on a SHIMMER show. I have two reasons for believing this. The first is that, unlike in FIP, there is a significant percentage of SHIMMER fans who don’t follow Ring of Honor. This is true in part because of the promotion’s retail DVD distribution (which is independent from ROH) and in part because there’s a niche audience out there who will follow any women’s wrestling with no regard for men’s indies. Doing something as major as the first title change on a card that those fans are not even going to see is a huge disservice to them, and I doubt it’s a path that ROH/SHIMMER will take. The second reason that we’re not going to see the first title change anywhere other than in SHIMMER is because of that promotion’s current storylines. For those of you who have not followed the company closely, the hottest feud of their first eight shows was Mercedes Martinez vs. Sara Del Rey, with Martinez failing to beat Del Rey several different times before finally getting the duke on SHIMMER Volume 8. However, around that same time, Mercedes injured her shoulder and was sidelined for several months due to surgery. While Mercedes was on the shelf, Del Rey not only went on a massive undefeated streak but also won the tournament to become the first SHIMMER Champion. Mercedes is now 100% healed up after he injury, and Del Rey is still the champion and has still only been beaten by Martinez. The angle with Mercedes Martinez coming back to get her big title match and perhaps title victory over her former rival has far too much potential to be screwed up by a Haze title victory this weekend.

Chris Lansdell : SELL . Boy I’m doing a lot of that. Far be it from me to question Ryan on matters of a SHIMMER nature, but you’ll never see me say that someone “has no chance” of winning a match. I don’t think Haze will win, but it could happen. Haze holds non-title wins over Del Ray, normally a kiss of death for any contender, but in this case a win could make some interesting dynamics with the Intergender tag championship. I completely get the Martinez angle and understand why it will be big. In WWE or more likely TNA, this would be completely ignored. SHIMMER are not stupid. Again, though, there’s still a chance. What about an injury? What about if Del Ray signed with TNA or WWE? Little chance, yes. No chance? Not so much.

4 for 6!

The forty-fourth edition of BUY or SELL finishes at 4 for 6. Stay tuned for next week when two new men will go head to head with a whole new set of topics.