Tim’s Take 6.10.08: Ring of Honor

Champions in the Past Year
-Nigel McGuinness (Beginning of the year – present)

Nigel gets his own section. You gotta love the ROH fans. I won’t call them ROHbots because at their heart, they see a product, they love it, they root for it. I won’t take that away from them. However, I WILL take umbridge with them trying to get themselves over in spite of the wrestlers. That shit is tired and worthless. Yay, you guys came up with an interesting chant. Ooh, deuling chants! Whoooo! Ric Flair sucks! Wait…that’s ECW. Okay, okay, so you guys aren’t as bad as ECW might have been with their derogatory chants, but you guys are still pretty annoying.

Okay, back to my point. McGuinness wining the belt was met with some pretty good praise, and the way they turned Takeshi Morishima from lumpy foreign dude to ass kicker extraordinaire was pretty neat. With that template set, the McGuinness win was a big deal. Of course, people had their issues with McGuinness (with the nickname McLairat being quite possibly the dumbest jab at a name in the history of name calling) and weren’t totally sold with him being champion. All it took was a biceps injury almost right after he won the belt for the fans to start calling him out as a wussy champion. They then took a page right out of the Randy Orton heel turn playbook. He slowly became a heel who didn’t give a damn about what the fans think, and it has paid off in spades. His run with the belt has been very impressive, and he has been another in a long line of champions that got the championship and earned the respect of the fans for being the champion and holding on to it as long as he has. That alone has been a major feather in ROH’s cap, as the fact that they have done that with Samoa Joe, Morishima, and now McGuinness. The question is whether or not they will be able to make Nigel hold up well before they mold the next guy to be their champion, whoever that may be. We’ll get to that in the section where I talk about what’s coming down the line for ROH.

Everybody Else Not in the Title Hunt

Bryan Danielson has been the best technical wrestler on planet Earth for a very long time. When he was a part of the company and Samoa Joe was running with the belt, it was hard to tell who was better, but with Joe on to TNA, it has been Danielson who has been the face of ROH. Phil Schneider over at Death Valley Video Review had a fantastic point after seeing his match with Tyler Black a couple weeks back, talking about how he’s perfect in his spot as upper-main event gatekeeper, being the guy that, if you beat him, helps establish yourself as a top talent and worthy of title contention. While Black lost to Nigel McGuinness, there’s little doubt that Dragon has been incredible in forming his niche in the company. His feud with Austin Aries, that doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon (and that’s a good thing) has been spectacular, and on a consistent basis, there’s nobody putting on a better match every time he goes out to wrestle. The face of ROH has been absolutely amazing.

The Age of the Fall has been the top heel unit in the company for about a year now, and the returns suggest that while this was supposed to be Jimmy Jacobs’ stable, he has been overshadowed by the greatness that has been Tyler Black. In fact, Black has been a bigger part of the title picture than Jacobs ever was. They have been a force within the tag ranks, as they are current holders of the Tag Team Titles and have vanquished the Briscoes for the time being. New entries Zack Gowen and Joey Matthews haven’t done much since joining the group.

Speaking of Mark and Jay, they basically wrestled the same match for two years and nobody noticed. It was a good match, but there was no rhyme or reason to it, and because of that, they began to get stale. The injury to Mark’s arm will leave him out for about another month and a half, but once he comes back, chances are they will get another shot with the belts to bring stability to the division. I would like to point out that selling is a good thing, not a bad thing, gentlemen.

Roderick Strong seems to be a babyface now after the recent events saw his tag partner Davey Richards turn on him to join Sweet and Sour Inc. He had been somewhat of a tweener, but had been a fantastic champion for FIP and now as a babyface, should be someone that really stands out as a number two guy to someone like Danielson. He’s been so solid lately that you gotta think of him as someone who could be the next logical step to the championship, after being such a good one for the Florida based company.

Sweet and Sour Inc. have been fantastic, even with the Dempsey angle that had to be heavily edited down due to a date rape scenario that didn’t go over too well. Larry Sweeney is solid gold on the microphone, and even though his stable is comprised of so-so wrestlers (and Chris Hero) he now has the NWA Championship in ROH, which could lead to some very interesting things going down in the future. But PLEASE more Bobby Dempsey. When he finally stands up for himself and turns on Sweeney, it’s going to be beyond awesome.

With the defection of Richards, it seems as if the Gang Wars has somewhat trickled down. After the Hangm3n Three got integrated into Sweet and Sour, and the apparent liquidation of the No Remorse Corps, there are a lot of people who might be running around with nowhere to go. The Vulture Squad still seems intact, but it looks like they are moving in a different direction.

Kevin Steen and El Generico have been solid as all hell, as their feud with The Briscoes has really elevated them in the eyes of the fan, and it seems that they can’t get enough of the fatboy offense from Kevin Steen, who continues to morph into one of the better personalities in ROH. Generico has a great following thanks to his PWG title run, and after it looked like there might be some dissension between he and Steen, they’re such a damn good tag team that it would not be a surprise to see them knock off the Age of the Fall.

Claudio Castagnoli has been interesting. After a much hyped match against Nigel McGuinness, he’s fallen off a bit, and it now looks as if it’ll be toiling in the upper midcard for a while. After the WWE debacle, they’ve tried to push him, but who knows if he’ll ever be a top guy as opposed to an upper-midcard guy.

As per usual, there is a good contingency of Japanese wrestlers. They did another Dragon Gate challenge back in March that went over quite well, although they supposedly didn’t live up to the previous year’s hype, when they put on the Match of the Year for 2007 in March. Ever since KENTA and Naomichi Marufuji came over so long ago, Pro Wrestling NOAH has sent over a few guys, including that Morishima guy who was champ and some guy named Mitsuharu Misawa. It’s not like Misawa is famous or anything. Actually, considering the style of wrestling he’s been doing for the last 20 years or so, how does he still have a neck? Can somebody explain that to me? Now, Go Shiozaki has been getting a shot and a reportedly weak showing against McGuinness in a title opportunity. He’s been steady, and considering he’s the heir apparent in NOAH, a good showing in ROH would definitely not hurt his chances, or NOAH’s for that matter, in the future.

What to Expect in the Near Future

Nigel will hold the title for a little while, and then dump it off to Danielson. I think August is the time for it. He’s had a good run, but if the new storyline is that he wants Danielson to beat everyone he has, I think it’ll be a lot of fun to watch. Danielson chasing is awesome.

Tyler Black will break away from The Age of the Fall and get jumped by Jimmy Jacobs due to jealousy. I think he and Danielson could have a mutual respect thing going, and we could see him really shine as a vengeful babyface. Can’t wait to see his match with McGuinness, as it seemed that he became an even bigger star there than against Danielson a while back.

I think Kevin Steen and El Generico will get an extended run with the tag titles. I think they deserve it, and I also think that Kevin Steen could go to be one of the most charismatic guys in the entire company. He’s going to be a big player in the near future for ROH, mark my words.

Roddy Strong is going to chase Sweet and Sour for a while, and if they do that Mayhem match again with Strong assembling an army to tackle Sweet and Sour, I would go crazy. That’s gotta be the build. He could assemble guys like Aries, Stevens as a mutual friendship type deal, maybe grab Romero if he doesn’t turn (although God knows he’s gotta be a cocky heel to be anywhere near good in the ring) and perhaps get something going there. Strong and company vs. Sweet and Sour for a chance to take them apart could be astronomical.

Considering what happened against McGuinness, I’m not sure Go Shiozaki will be a big time part of ROH’s future. I think he’ll be a good hand to come over and work a bit, like Naomichi Marufuji has become, and the Dragon Gate wrestlers have done.

I think the NWA Championship is in for a cup of coffee, and that will be that. If they start defending three different companies titles in one promotion, they are crazy. I think Pearce and McGuinness will Double DQ and that will be that. At least, I hope that will be that.

The Briscoes will reassemble, but they need to figure out something new because their matches are becoming carbon copies of each other when it comes to match structure. I’m not sure what’s going to be needed, but something is amiss after they had such a great run of fantastic matches.

Next Breakout Performer

Tyler Black is automatically disqualified. Thanks to his matches with Danielson and now the McGuinness match, he has broken out. I think I’m going to go with Kevin Steen. He’s a guy who hung well with McGuinness, and I think he has what it takes to be a big time singles star.

Next Man Poised for a Dropoff

Jimmy Jacobs. As much as Age of the Fall is supposed to be about him, it’s been the Tyler Black show lately. I’m really sure that jealousy will rear its ugly head. It’s going to happen sooner than people think, too.

Surprise Entrant Into the Fold

This is where things get hard. The idea with ROH is that anybody can appear for them with them being an independant company. Eddie Kingston was a good choice, but he’s now in with Sweet and Sour. But I think I have an answer, and he’s within the company: Erick Stevens. There’s something about this guy that makes me think he’d be a great guy to get a run. In fact, his run against Morishima last year was fantastic, and his series with Roddy Strong has been fantastic. I really want him to be a part of things in the upper tier, and hopefully, it’ll happen sooner than later.