Column of Honor: 04.12.08: Life in Progress

Welcome to the Column.

Jimmy Jacobs: Life in Progress

Retrospect is important. It gives us the chance to see life through a better perspective—the lens of what has happened. When we see and understand our past, it can help us to understand what is happening in the present and perhaps what will happen to us in the uncertain future.

Looking back on the last four years of Jimmy Jacobs’ career in Ring of Honor, one thing I am continually impressed by is that I can see the evolution of his character. If you see a picture of Jacobs in 2004 and compared it with the present day, you’d be looking at two totally different personas, down to the hairstyle, the costuming and attitude. Yet it is the same man underneath the eyeliner—just older, more experienced, and even more hardened by the events of life.

At times he has been a fun loving do-gooder, a lovesick Cyrano, a jealous third wheel and a rebel figure taking aim at the world around him. If it sounds and feels like childhood, high school and twenty-something adulthood, then I think you’re starting to get what “Jimmy Jacobs” is all about. Jacobs is portraying a human whose life is continually changing based on the context of his situation. He is a living metaphor for everything we as humans experience in this modern life.

To be honest, I think that’s exactly the point that Jacobs has been trying to deliver with the portrayal of his character over the years. The fans who have stuck around for the long haul are able to see the different stages in his life take shape, molding him from a young and idealistic child into the embittered and disillusioned young adult he is today. That is the genius to the character he plays in ROH—a life developing even to this very moment.

Jacobs has shown us a diversity of emotional range throughout the years—the whole spate of human emotion. He has expressed anger, determination, envy, hopefulness, hopelessness and so much more in his feuds against the likes of Alex Shelley, BJ Whitmer, Colt Cabana and The Briscoes. What he feels in those situations, we have all felt at one time or another. He is the ultimate sympathetic character in Ring of Honor.

Jacobs’ character is a lens through which we can see the development of human life. We all lead our lives day by day and don’t get to see the larger picture until one day we stop to look at old photographs and videos and writings. Then we start to get the idea about how our life has developed. The key thing to remember is that our lives are still very much a work in progress. So is Jacobs’ character in Ring of Honor.

The following is a look through the changes in Jacobs’ character and my attempt to connect the various stages of his character with that of the development stages of human beings.

Jacobs began his ROH run as a sort of wide-eyed innocent boy. He wore Bruiser Brody inspired furry boots and yelled “Huss” a lot. Mostly he was just about having a good time with the crowd and doing his best in the ring. He really didn’t know about all the pain and hardship ahead of him. That’s us as children, playing with our toys and going about our day without a care, without ever really thinking about the outside world and the magnitude of the events that occur around us. History is taking place and leaving its mark on the world, but we’re all hussing along, playing with our action figures or games.

We go to school, and we start to learn about the world around us, about how much more serious the world is than we thought. For Jacobs, his early school days would be his wars against traveling buddy and oftentimes in ring rival Alex Shelley. Jacobs would come out on the losing end of the bargain much more often than the winning end, thus learning a valuable lesson—not everyone walks out of life a winner. It was a painful lesson to learn, both mentally and physically.

Yet with all the harsh times in our life, we do experience joy and happiness as well. We revel in the victories large and small. Sometimes we even have backup, in the form of friends. We learn at an early age to socialize and find people who we can appreciate and trust. Jimmy Jacobs found a friend in BJ Whitmer and together they took on the difficult task of winning the ROH tag team titles. Together they accomplished that task on multiple occasions, happier more each time than the last that the power of their teamwork had done what many doubters thought they couldn’t do—dominate the tag division.

Ultimately, we grow apart from many of our junior high school and high school friends. Sometimes betrayals of confidence occur and smash a friendship to pieces. Such an event happened in Jacobs’ life. You see, Jacobs had developed a high school crush on the lovely Lacey. The crush had almost turned into obsession as it seemed his only concern was to impress her and thus win her love. While Lacey kept saying he needed wins in the ring to really win her over, he was losing matches because his feelings for her got in the way. BJ Whitmer had about enough of Jacobs being distracted and in essence tried to serve a wake up call to his friend. He hit him with an exploder suplex, thus blowing up their tag team and causing more change in Jacobs. He had learned that people do betray you no matter how much trust you put in them, no matter how far up and down the road you’ve traveled. He learned that some people put themselves selfishly ahead of their friends.

Jacobs was now a hurt teenager, struggling to find his identity, but determined to win the love of the girl of his dreams. He must have considered for days on end what it would take to win the love of Lacey, and his mind turned to the music movement of the time, emo. Jacobs began to dress emo, began to talk emo and even began to sing emo. He not only wrote love songs but he made large scale video productions dedicated to his love for the girl. This was a huge amount of effort going into the wooing process, and it didn’t really seem to have much of an effect on Lacey. In fact, her attentions were diverted elsewhere…

The jock. He got in the way. He corrupted her, twisted her, and made her into something he knew she was not. It was always the jock. The bigger man, the more muscular man, the guy who didn’t have the brains, but could make up for it with cool looks and a who-could-care-less attitude. He was the envy of the nerds and the geeks because he could get the girl with a snap of his fingers. Meanwhile, they had to scrape and crawl and work so hard to ultimately come up with nothing. Jimmy Jacobs’ mind was torn apart when he caught Lacey in the showers with Colt Cabana that fateful day in August of 2006. He was crestfallen and heartbroken. He ran away from the site of the desecration of the girl on the pedestal. It was another betrayal of life to learn from, another scar left in his mind, changing the way he thought about the world.

Jacobs became even more obsessed with showing Lacey he could be the man for her. Meanwhile Colt Cabana was just using her for her body, hell, he was practically admitting to it in his interviews! Lacey didn’t seem to mind either, because she had plans of her own. She wanted to bring Colt Cabana into the fold, become his manager and guide his wrestling career to untold heights. Yet, Cabana wanted no part of that, preferring to keep his business separate from his personal life. When Lacey wouldn’t let up, he dumped her in a very rude and brusque manner. This angered Jacobs even more, because he would never do that to Lacey! In that anger, he saw opportunity. This was his chance—impress the girl, win her love and in doing so he could have that happy ending from all high school teenage movies. It’s the happy ending all of us are looking for—to find that someone that makes us happy, to succeed in spite of all the stresses and all of our flaws. Jacobs was about to try to grab that brass ring.

Colt Cabana tried to tell him “the truth” about Lacey being no good for him, but Jacobs wasn’t hearing it. He had made up his mind and crotched Cabana on the ropes as he was leaving. Just a bit of revenge, but it wasn’t enough. Lacey wanted more and so he gave it to her. He would give it all to her. He would launch a thousand ships if necessary to prove his love for her. Ultimately he sacrificed his body for her against Cabana and BJ Whitmer, his former friend now turned fierce and hated enemy. In his fantastic promo hyping the match, Jacobs called the steel cage encounter at Supercard of Honor II his “prom night”. He would fight for his love and he fought with everything he had to win the steel cage match. It cost him six months out of action due to a knee injury, but it brought him back something invaluable. He won Lacey over that night.

Those who saw the “Jimmy Loves Lacey” vignettes last year that led to Jacobs successfully winning her heart saw that young but tortured kid try to go back to his days of innocence. The emo kid finally had the prom queen for his own. He wooed her with gifts and tried his best to date his way into her heart. It seemed like he wasn’t really getting anywhere when a terrible slip of the mouth almost lost him the girl. However, when all was said and done, Lacey had come around to Jacobs.

A funny thing happened on the way to high school graduation. All that hard work, all that effort to win Lacey over for some reason did not have the effect it was supposed to have. All the adults that say that you work hard to achieve and with that come rewards and validation—well, Jacobs felt none of it. He was still the miserable kid who had been awakened to how awful life could be. All the betrayals and all of the pain and hardship—winning someone’s love wasn’t enough to fill the hole in his life. He was looking for something else to do it—and in that moment, he came upon the answer many teenagers about as they get older and hit their early twenties.

Revolution.

What would our society be today without protests, social upheavals and rebellion? For one thing, life would boring. The same thing happening over and over again, until you fell into the routine that would be whatever semblance of a life you called your life. That was adulthood and Jacobs was most definitely not ready for that, not yet. Sometimes the adolescents of America think that when you’re an adult and have accepted that you have become an adult, then there are no causes left to fight for and no wars left to wage.

Jacobs wanted a cause to believe in and he wanted to wage a war. What cause could be greater than changing the world around him? What war would be more imperative than the one he could wage against the status quo? He wouldn’t fit into the world’s structure, so he was going to bring it down instead.

What teenager or college kid hasn’t felt like they wanted to rebel against the world? The hippies in the late 60’s and 70’s were the counter culture to the world they saw around them—in a never ending and useless war against an enemy who seemingly couldn’t be contained. The sexual liberation of that time and again seen in the early 90’s was another response to the conservatism of middle class America’s standards of morality and ethics. Jacobs tapped into that pathos, that knowledge that those who feel like they don’t fit in eventually either conform or rebel against the system.

Jacobs formulated a master plan, to start his own revolution dubbed Project 161. He would fight the war within the framework of Ring of Honor in order to change the world at large. He would become the Che Guevara of Ring of Honor’s disaffected roster—the inspiring leader to guide those who needed a boost to their wrestling career. He would be the David Koresh of the internet wrestling community, inspiring the fans with his message of change and social revolution. He would be the personal Jesus for those who rebel from the world and those who need to find an answer to all of their problems.

The Age of the Fall launched with a bombshell of chaos and blood. The insurgency leveled The Briscoes in one fell swoop. It’s had it peaks and valleys since then, sometimes slow in effecting change and sometimes having to deal with setbacks in and out of the ring. However, it continues to exist and continues to expand in membership, with their following fighting what they consider to be their good fight. Jacobs has become the leader he has always wanted to be.

But wouldn’t you know it? Somehow…it still isn’t enough.

After all this time, it still goes back to the girl.

Those who were in attendance in Orlando, Florida two weeks ago and those who saw the video wire saw the evidence. Lacey convinced Austin Aries finally after months of recruitment to join their cause. Lacey claimed that Aries wasn’t a man of words, but a man of action. She was going to “show him” what Age of the Fall could do for his career. The innuendo and the consequences of what this meant were immense and undeniable. You could see in Jacobs the doubt in the eyes, the moment’s hesitation as Lacey went to Austin Aries’ side. You could definitely notice his move to try to hold back Lacey from leaving with Austin Aries. She said a few words to him in his ears and he let her go, still quite unsure what to make of the entirety of this situation.

Even though he claims his love for Lacey meant nothing and could not save him, maybe he needs Lacey and her love more than he has ever let on. I think her love is still the most important part of his life and when she left with Aries, it was another stab in his heart. His girl walked out with another man. Now no one knows where they are or what they are doing. Not even Jacobs.

Jacobs seems to think The Age of the Fall is his purpose in life—but what if that isn’t the truth? What is this is one more stop to the end of the line? Right now, in terms of social development, Jacobs is in the twenty-something age. He thinks he’s found the answers to the questions, but in reality, he still has a long life ahead of him. Who knows what could happen to change his life in ways he isn’t prepared to deal with? Who knows—maybe Lacey leaving with Aries is just the first symptom of this development.

Maybe Jacobs isn’t the revolutionary he claims to be. Maybe he is just playing at it. Maybe this Age of the Fall is “just a phase” (as parents often love to say). Maybe Jimmy Jacobs isn’t quite done with the scars of his past. Maybe he isn’t quite done evolving from one shade of his character to another.

Maybe the character of Jimmy Jacobs still has a lot of searching to do to figure out exactly who he is supposed to be and who he is supposed to become.

That IS life, after all. That is the all of it.

ROH Results: 04/11/08 from Boston, MA

Matches

-Erick Stevens defeated Roderick Strong in a Four Corner Survival match to receive a title shot later in the night. The match also included Rocky Romero and El Generico. Stevens pinned Strong via a roll up.
-Jason Blade defeated Mike Bennett via pinfall with a belly to belly suplex.
-Eddie Edwards defeated Jigsaw.
-The Vulture Squad of Jack Evans & Ruckus defeated The Briscoes via pinfall with Evans pinning Jay Briscoe after the 630 splash.
-The team of Claudio Castagnoli, Delirious and Pelle Primeau defeated the team of Sweet & Sour Incorporated featuring Larry Sweeney, Chris Hero & Brent Albright in an elimination match. Order of Elimination: a. Pelle Primeau eliminated when Sweeney pinned him after Albright launched him with a Half nelson Suplex. b. Delirious eliminated after ref called for the fall as Delirious was trapped in knee strikes. c. Chris Hero eliminated by Claudio via Riccola Bomb for the pin. d. Larry Sweeney walked out of the match. e. Brent Albright eliminated by Claudio via Riccola Bomb for the pin.
-Davey Richards defeated Kota Ibushi via submission to the 14:59 Kimura lock.
-ROH World Champion Nigel McGuiness retained his title by defeating challenger Erick Stevens via submission with the London Dungeon.
-Kevin Steen defeated Necro Butcher in a Boston Massacre match via submission by using a Sharpshooter in barbwire (!).

Angles & Issues (culled from numerous fan reports across the internet)

-He Likes Alliteration: the rumor during the week was that Sweet & Sour Incorporated would sign another man to its client list. As it turns out, Larry Sweeney offered the spot to Eddie Edwards, who accepted and has joined the Inc.

-Scare Tactics: Sara Del Ray vs. Daizee Haze part one billion was going to happen in Boston until Larry Sweeney put a stop to it. He claimed power over Del Rey’s matches due to a talent contract and was holding her contract as leverage so she would rejoin The Inc. However, Del Rey walked off without doing so. This left Daizee Haze in the ring, who challenged Sweeney to a match. Sweeney then told her that he was going to take her on three on one, bringing out Delirious, Claudio and Pelle to stop them and start the six man elimination challenge match.

-Two Dogs Eating Spaghetti: There is a slowly but surely developing “love connection” between Delirious and Daziee Haze. Both have run into the ring to help out the situation for whatever babyfaces are fighting at the time. When they are there together, both (at different times) have stopped to give each other certain “looks”. Delirious for sure seems to be smitten with Daizee Haze as was apparent at this show, when he was the first one down to make the save for Haze. He was also distracted by Sweet & Sour going after her during the six man elimination match, which led to his elimination at the hands of Brent Albright.

-Strong Bad: Even though Erick Stevens had one-upped Roderick Strong during the Four Corner Survival, Strong was determined to have the last word in their imbroglio that night. He jumped Stevens before the title match against Nigel McGuinness, injuring Stevens’ arm and thus leading into Nigel putting on his arm submission for the win.

Return Date: September 19th, 2008

ROH Call

ROH Champions—As of 04/12/2008

ROH World Champion—Nigel McGuinness (champion since 10/06/07, 11 successful defenses)
–defeated Takeshi Morishima in Edison, New Jersey to win the championship.

Next Defense:: vs. Kevin Steen, Edison, NJ 04/12/08

V.1 defeated Jay Briscoe, wristlock submission (10/21/07 San Francisco, CA)
V.2 defeated Chris Hero, wristlock submission (11/02/07 Philadelphia, PA)
V.3 defeated Austin Aries, Jawbreaker Lariat (12/29/07 Manhattan, NY)
V.4 defeated Go Shiozaki, London Dungeon (wristlock submission) (01/20/08 Tokyo, Japan,)
V.5 Steel Cage Match: defeated Chris Hero (01/25/08, Dayton, OH)
V.6 defeated Roderick Strong, Jawbreaker Lariat (01/26/08, Chicago Ridge, IL)
V.7 defeated Bryan Danielson, London Dungeon (02/23/08, Manhattan, NY)
V.8 defeated Tyler Black, London Dungeon (03/16/08, Philadelphia, PA)
V.9 defeated Larry Sweeney, Jawbreaker Lariat (03/22/08 Crystal River, FL)
V.10 defeated Austin Aries, Jawbreaker Lariat (03/29/08 Orlando, FL)
V.11 defeated Erick Stevens, London Dungeon (04/11/08 Boston, MA)

ROH World Tag Team Champions—The No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards & Rocky Romero) (champions since 01/26/08, 2 successful defenses)
–defeated Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black) in Chicago Ridge, IL to win the championship.

Next Defense: vs. The Briscoes, Edison, NJ 04/12/08

V.1 defeated The Vulture Squad of Ruckus & Jigsaw (02/23/08 Manhattan, NY)
V.2 defeated The Vulture Squad of Ruckus & Jigsaw (03/29/08 Orlando, FL)

Sweet & Sour Incorporated Presents The Intergender Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Of The World —Chris Hero & Sara Del Rey (champions since 01/12/08, 2 successful defenses)
Status Unknown since Del Rey has left Sweet & Sour Inc. as of 3/14/08

V.1 defeated Ernie Osiris & Alexa Thatcher (01/12/08, Edison, NJ)
V.2 defeated Kyle Durden & Alex “Sugarfoot” Payne (01/26/08, Chicago Ridge, IL)

FIP Heavyweight Champion: Roderick Strong (since 02/16/2008)
-defeated Erick Stevens via count out to win the title (FIP title can change hands on count out)
SHIMMER Champion: Sara Del Rey (since 6/2/2007)
Top of the Class Trophy (For ROH Students): Ernie Osiris (since 11/02/2007)

Top Feuds & Pairings:
-Nigel McGuinness defends the belt against top contenders.
-The Age of the Fall vs. The Briscoes
-Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. No Remorse Corps
-Erick Stevens vs. Roderick Strong
-Austin Aries & Age of the Fall / Lacey vs. Sunny
-Sweet & Sour Inc. “Corporate Takeover”

ROH News
(via the ROHnewswire… and other sources when attributed

Aries Head Injury Forces Changes to Weekend ROH Shows

News broke from booker Gabe Sapolsky early in the week that Austin Aries had suffered some sort of undisclosed head injury. Aries had decided to take the week to recover and thus would not be able to make his bookings in Boston and Edison this weekend. This caused a huge shake up for both shows, with matches being changed, rearranged and even switched from one to the other. Aries had been scheduled to take part in the four corner elimination match for the ROH World Title in Boston and would fight Kota Ibushi in Edison. There are hopes that Aries would make it to the Detroit and Chicago bookings next week, but no update on that as of this moment.

I think it was a smart deal for Aries to cancel these bookings in the wake of the all the head injury discussion and controversies of late in the year. Of course, it would be nice if he took more than one week off if he needs it, no matter if he misses more bookings. His safety and his health should be the number one concern. On a small negative note, his cancellation forced me to change all of my roundtable picks, making me do extra work. The card ALWAYS changes when I get my picks in early. Yes, that is a minor quibble, but dammit, its still a quibble!

Anyway, let’s hope Aries recovers quickly and fully and we can see more of the Aries / Age of the Fall story develop before too long. In fact, his absence may help this story out more as we shall see in this news item…

No Where to Reach Out and Touch Faith

Austin Aries and Lacey have both disappeared from contact with the ROH office and every member of the ROH roster that we’ve talked to.

Interesting little piece of development, especially since Lacey walked out with Aries and they could be anywhere doing who knows what…well, use your imagination I guess.

Dixie Carter, Homicide, Daniels at ROH Show in Boston

According to Mike Johnson at PWInsider, TNA President Dixie Carter is in attendance at tonight’s Ring of Honor show in Boston, MA. The show is currently at intermission. Ring of Honor officials, including Gabe Sapolsky, greeted Carter, who is in town for tomorrow’s TNA Lockdown PPV. Homicide and Christopher Daniels are also at ROH.

Former ROH wrestlers have always been welcome backstage at events, but the real surprise here is Dixie Carter showing up to the event. A ROH business wire from a week ago had reported that ROH wanted to continue to do business with TNA and its booking of the Motor City Machine Guns and Rain are examples of that. Maybe this was the continuation of some more of that ROH / TNA Glasnost., or maybe it was just a case of happenstance. It was a good and professional gesture on the part of ROH to welcome her in and greet her. Also, I wonder what were to happen if Vince McMahon were one day to show up at an ROH show or the TNA Impact tapings?

Getting Jiggy With It

A singles match has been added to 4/18 “Tag Wars 2008” in Detroit. It will be Joey Matthews of The Age Of The Fall vs. Jigsaw. How will Jigsaw do against a veteran like Joey Matthews? We’ll have the complete card for Detroit including Nigel McGuinness’ partner vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico in next week’s ROHwrestling.com Newswire.

I fear I’m about ten years too late for that particular pun to be effective, but whatever. The booking of Jigsaw even without the mask is still a mystery to me. He wins three tag matches in a row in mid-March, but lost last night’s singles match against Eddie Edwards. So what exactly is Jigsaw’s place in ROH? What should we be expecting from him in the future?

Crazy Hero

Just signed [to Chicago on 4/19] is Chris Hero with Larry Sweeney vs. Delirious.

It looks like Delirious is transitioning into his next rivalry, especially with last night’s events where he saved Daizee Haze from the wrath of “Sweet & Sour”. Delirious and his crazy mentality could be a fun contrast to Sweeney, Hero and their antics.

These are the wrestlers on my fave five list right now. What that means is that I really enjoyed their efforts and performance in one way or another. This is different from the Wrestler of the Week feature because I am including the wrestling DVDs I watched over the last week, not just mainstream TV or PPV. Also, I’m measuring personal enjoyment, not determining who had the “best week ever”.

So who’s in my fave five this week?

1. Shawn Michaels and Batista : Second week in a row these two are on my list and on the list as a pair. This pairing, who would have thought, has actual heat and chemistry going for it. The crux of the argument as to whether or not HBK should have “done the right thing”—and the debate over what the right thing is in this case—is simple but effective wrestling booking. It almost reminds me of the Crush / Macho Man summit where Crush accused Savage of holding him back. You could see Crush had the vague semblance of a case against Savage, but when you looked closer the argument fell apart. Crush’s turn against Savage was done out of jealousy and twisted logic. Thus so, you can see Batista’s argument hold some water, but when looking at the issue logically (and that Flair himself had embraced Michaels during the Farewell Ceremony) as a sign of acceptance and forgiveness, you can see the cracks in his argument. THAT is where the heel turn lies and why most of the fans are siding with Michaels. The interviews and promo segments have been really effective, now we just have to see what they can bring to the ring.
2. Bryan Danielson: I re-watched the main event title match from Sixth Anniversary Show and marveled at the nuances of his performance. How he always managed to live up to his word not to hit McGuinness in the head, how an unintentional back suplex that bounced McGuinness‘s head off the mat led to the champ knocking out the ref for the DQ. Even Danielson’s return to his characterization as the honor bound defender of the company was exciting, electric and effective. Maybe in previous years it would have come off as corny, but no, in this case it worked marvelously, especially because it completed the heel turn for Nigel and polarized the fans, pushing them against Nigel and towards Danielson.
3. Nigel McGuinness: Let’s not forget McGuinness’s role in the double turn. He became (as Dave Prazak noted) the heel character that he was known for back in his Pure title run. He was cocky, bitter and extremely angry at the fans. His running dialogue with the fans as he went on the attack during the title match was something I couldn’t hear from the balcony when I was at the show, but on DVD you hear every rebuke and my god, is it ever effective in getting him over as a heel. Then you have to take into consideration the use of the headbutt and his spiked hair going right into Danielson’s eye (where he previously had the orbital bone injury from mid 2007). Then going into the Danielson MMA elbows to stick it to the challenger and the fans was a masterstroke. Danielson had promised not to touch Nigel’s head, but the champion had not made any such promises.
4. Kevin Steen: Speaking of running dialogue, check out Kevin Steen’s non stop verbal smack down for every entrance during his tournament win at Eye of the Storm. He is so on the money in his self-hype that when he talks to you through the camera, you immediately get a sense of what he is about and you definitely start to believe him.
5. The Great Khali: Indian dancers. Scotch. A goat. Freaking hilarious. That is all.

ROH Preview: April 12th, 2008 in Boston, MA
Inman Sports Club
7:30pm belltime
990 Inman Avenue
Edison, NJ 08820

ROH World Title Match
Nigel McGuinness defends vs. Kevin Steen

This is Kevin Steen’s real big chance to launch himself into the stratosphere in ROH. He’s been built up very well over the last few months and has gained a massive amount of fan support due to his attitude, charisma and in ring excitement. Steen may not be the most obvious choice to be the next ROH World Champion, but he is certainly an intriguing candidate.

That said, I don’t see tonight as being THE night for Steen to win the title. I do expect an incredible showing and several moments where the crowd buys into the title change. However, the real money is on Nigel McGuinness to carry the ROH World Title as the heel everyone is gunning for, and with a huge event at the Hammerstein still to come, I expect Nigel to remain the champion to sell a huge money match for that card.

ROH World Tag Team Title Match
Davey Richards & Rocky Romero defend vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe

Another match where there could be a possibility of a title switch, but more likely will result in a retention. The Briscoes have been proven to be vulnerable and capable of losing ever since they lost the ROH World Tag Team titles. They lost last night in Boston and don’t have that big momentum necessary to drive a team to the top. Meanwhile The No Remorse Corps have not always looked the best in singles matches, but as a team they have proven to be very skilled as champions and very tough to beat. I expect Richards and Romero to come at the Briscoes and not back down from the fight. They will go to any length to keep the titles and I think that’s exactly what they will do to win this one.

Dream Match
Kota Ibushi vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Ibushi’s debut in ROH didn’t go as anticipated (and I’ll fully admit I did not see the loss coming as it seems international talent is almost always successful upon their debut in the company). Now he needs to rebound with a win if he wants to make a mark in the history between ROH and international competition. He has a lot to live up to regarding past wrestlers and he has a strong challenge ahead of him in the form of Claudio Castagnoli.

Castagnoli is surging as of late with huge wins against Larry Sweeney’s men and even a non title pinfall win against current champion Nigel McGuinness. Claudio also has a high powered offensive attack filled with strikes and slams. He could easily ground Ibushi and lay it on thick with European uppercuts and the like. Castagnoli also has success against international talent, winning a match against Naomichi Marufuji this past November in NYC. Ibushi will have to go into this match looking to catch Claudio off guard and hit the right combination of moves to come away with the duke.

Non-Title No DQ Match
FIP World Heavyweight Champion Roderick Strong vs. Necro Butcher

As this is a non-title match, Strong can take a loss here and look none the worse for wear, especially if it comes after taking a ton of damage from Necro. This match plays right into the Butcher’s hands with the no-dq stip and I expect this one to play out with a ton of weapons and hard strikes.

“Rising Above” PPV Rematch
Delirious vs. Brent Albright with Larry Sweeney

Albright eliminated Delirious in the elimination match last night, so now we have another spark to this match. Although Delirious came away with the win on PPV, I think Albright outmatches him in power and submissions too much to counteract. I’m thinking unless Delirious surprises the big man with some mist this could be an easy match for Albright.

Special Challenge Match
Jack Evans with Julius Smokes vs. El Generico

Evans is back in action after a facial injury, but he isn’t taking it easy at all because he steps right in with a comparable athlete who loves to fly and take chances. Evans is going to continue to bring his kamikaze style no matter what kind of damage it does to himself. He’ll take it if it means he can inflict even more pain to his opponent, enough to get the victory.

Tag Team Attraction
Erick Stevens & Pelle Primeau vs. Chris Hero & Bobby Dempsey

SHENANIGANS! Well, don’t be surprised if that’s exactly what you see in this one, as Bobby Dempsey in a match teaming up with Hero, that’s got silliness written all over it. They are truly a dream team of epic proportions. Stevens was supposed to be in the six man elimination match against Sweet & Sour Inc. but was taken out and went on to fight McGuinness for the title in Boston. He is fighting through a shoulder injury as a result of that match and that could be enough of a weakness for Chris Hero to capitalize and work on throughout the match.

Three-Way Match
Jigsaw with Julius Smokes vs. Eddie Edwards vs. Mitch Franklin

This match now takes on a greater depth with Edwards aligning himself with Sweet & Sour Inc. My guess was that Edwards would pick up the win last night in Boston because that is his hometown, while Jigsaw would win here since New Jersey has been a Vulture Squad stronghold. I no longer have full confidence in that happening due to the many intangibles in the match, from Sweet & Sour’s presence to the possibility that Eddie Kingston & BLK OUT could make an appearance to spoil things for Jigsaw and the V-Squad. Mitch Franklin lives by the credo “in to win” but I’m guessing he’s in this one to take the fall.

Tammy Sytch will be in Edison signing autographs!!!

Daizee Haze will be in attendance!!!

Going Home

Name That Tune Week 30

Clue: bald
Lyric:“The more that you fear us / The bigger we get”

For the second time in three weeks the Name That Tune has shutout the readers of the column. The answer was “Disposable Teens”, by Marilyn Manson, the theme of former ROH wrestler and visiting guest at last night’s show Christopher Daniels.

Now its time for Name that Tune! for this week, April 12th, 2008!

Clue: leisure suit
Lyric: “If you want to know / How I really feel / Get the cameras rollin'”

What’s the name of the song and the artist?

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

**The Independent Buy In**

2008
**CHIKARA “Cibernetico & Robin” (Torneo Cibernetico: Kings of Wrestling vs. Dorado’s Luchadores, The Olsen Twins / Cheech & Cloudy, Quackenbush / Donst, The Colony / BLK OUT ) High Recommendation
**CHIKARA “Brusied” (Kingston / Donst, Campeones de Parejas: F.I.S.T. vs. Incoherence / Castagnoli / Taylor, The Colony / Brodie Lee & Olsen Twins, Cheech & Cloudy / Osirian Portal ) High Recommendation
**Pro Wrestling NOAH “Special Budokan Double Shot”7/15 & 9/9/07 (Determination League Semi Finals & Finals, NTV Cup Finals)High Recommendation
**PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 1 (Castagnoli / Williams, Evans / Pac, Black / Shelley, Aries / Strong, PWG Tag Titles: Generico & Steen / Dragon Kid & Susumu Yokosuka)Medium Recommendation
**PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 2 (CIMA / Tornado, Steen / Butcher, McGuinness / Richards, Kid / Yokosuka) Low Recommendation
**PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 3 (the entire show) High Recommendation
**Shimmer Volume 11 (Sarah Stock / MsChif, Sarah Stock / Cheerleader Melissa, Sara Del Rey / Cindy Rogers, Nikki Roxx / Lacey, Daizee Haze / Malia Hosaka, Allison Danger / Hosaka)High Recommendation
**SHIMMER Volume 12 (Del Rey / Lacey, Del Rey / Sarah Stock, Haze / Lacey, Portuguese Princess Ariel / Josie / Nikki Roxx / Portia Perez, Melissa & MsChif / Lexie Fyfe & Hosaka)High Recommendation
**SHIMMER Women’s Athletes Volume 13 (Melissa / Portuguese Princess Ariel, “Dark Angel” Sarah Stock / Daizee Haze, Portia Perez / MsChif, Del Rey & Roxx vs. Rain & Lacey, O’Neal vs. Melissa) Medium Recommendation
**SHIMMER Women’s Athletes Volume 14 (SHIMMER Title: Del Rey / Lacey, Nikki Roxx / Amazing Kong, Two out of Three falls: Allison Danger / Cindy Rogers, Portuguese Princess Ariel / Amber O’Neal) Medium Recommendation
**CHIKARA The Battle of Who Could Care Less (Incoherence & Tim Donst / BLK OUT, Claudio Castagnoli & Equinox / Hero & Hawke, Lince Dorado & Pantera / Olsen Twins, Quackenbush & The Colony / F.I.S.T. / Osirian Portal) High Recommendation
**CHIKARA The Sordid Perils of Everyday Existence (Campeones de Parejas: Incoherence / Cheech & Cloudy, Lucha de Apresta: Chris Hero / Equinox, F.I.S.T., Ellis, Ryder / Quack / Donst / Super Smash Bros.) Medium Recommendation
**CHIKARA Chapter 11 (Hallowicked / Kingston, Colony / Super Smash Brothers & Shane Storm, Tex-Arkana Title Match: Alvarez / Sweeney, Quack, Trik Davis & Helios / Shayne Hawke & The Osirian Portal, MIYAWAKI, Hasegawa & Pantera / Cheech & Cloudy & Delirious) High Recommendation

This section needs your help! If you want to recommend some good independent wrestling to your fellow internet readers out there, drop me a line for the column.

ROH @ 411

The 411 staff gives its thoughts on this weekend’s ROH shows in the ROH Roundtable.

411 Buy Or Sell also has a very good preview about the issues and stories surround this weekend’s shows in Boston and Edison.

J.D. Dunn continues his run through the SHIMMER Women’s Athletes collection by reviewing Volume 5. Knox vs. Haze two out of three falls goodness and Del Rey vs. Martinez no time limit—a must buy show in my opinion.

Robbie Brooksbank reviews through ROH Honor Nation.

Samuel Berman gives some love in The Independent Mid Card to the recent Kevin Steen vs. Bryan Danielson match from Eye of the Storm.

Honor Bound Links

Time to pimp the newbies this week.

Check out:

The Wrestling Hub(Bard).
Wacky Wrestling Theory.
Brooklyn Brawlin.
The Wrestling Doctor.
Please Don’t Hate.

And as far as our 411 veterans:

Sat & Uncle Trunx go through Wrestling in 2008 in this week’s edition of High Road / Low Road.

Bayani tells the Truth about Samoa Joe’s chances of winning the TNA title and repping the heavyset crowd in the world of professional wrestling.

Corke looks at the next dimension of Mike Knox’s possible future employ.

Cook is still an alliteration loving madman in this week’s Ask 411.

Thanks for reading this week! Next week I’ll have results from Edison and a preview of the Detroit show with the Motor City Machine Guns. I’ll talk more about recent ROH DVD releases as well. Hope to see you then!

BROOKLYN!
-Ari-