wrestling / Columns

The Best Of The Rest 6.21.08: Volume 47 – The Near Future For ROH

June 21, 2008 | Posted by Alex Mattis

Hello all and welcome back to “The Best Of The Rest!” I’m coming to you from sunny Orlando, Florida. I tell you what, I don’t know how wrestlers can constantly travel like this, I haven’t been home at all yet this summer. It’s draining, I can’t wait to just get back to my apartment and start counting down the days to The Dark Knight. But anyhow. This week I come to you with some ROH goodness. They’ve got a lot going on within the company and I thought I would use this week’s column to take a look at the near future for ROH.

Upcoming Shows:
6/27/2008
ROH will make history when they present “Battle for Supremacy” in Dayton, Ohio. The ROH World Title will be put up against the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship in a “title vs. title match” of Nigel McGuinness taking on Adam Pearce. This should be a huge main event for the company, as arguably the two top titles in this country will put against one another. I’m not sure if anyone expect a definitive ending to this match, it just doesn’t seem to me like that a ROH AND NWA champion is going to happen right now. Whatever the case, this is a huge match and should deliver. We all know that McGuinness is a solid wrestler and I have always thought that Pearce was rather underrated and works the old school heel perfectly. Also on the card, we’ll get one step closer to the showdown between Austin Aries and Jimmy Jacobs when Jacobs fellow AOTF member Necro Butcher takes on Aries. This should be an interesting blend of styles that can either go very well or… not so well. Aries should pick up the win here giving him the momentum going into the main event the next night. Bryan Danielson and Erick Stevens will go head to head in a rematch from their solid encounter at “Transform.” It should be interesting to see who goes over here. Two men that rarely ever seem to have a bad match will face off when Chris Hero takes on Roderick Strong. I expect the more serious edition of Hero to win this one. Also on the card the AOTF will go to tag war with Steenerico, and Delirious will BAH BAH BAH against Tyler Black. Should be a solid night of action leading to an even bigger one the next night.

6/28/2008
ROH presents a hell of a triple header with “Vendetta II.” In the main event of the night, the grudge between Austin Aries and Jimmy Jacobs will come to a head. I predict Jacobs to win here, but I don’t think this is going to be the final encounter for these two. Then one of the best professional wrestlers of the 90’s, and yes I truly believe that, Jerry Lynn will step into the ROH ring to take on Nigel McGuinness in a non-title match. If I’m not mistaken these two have already met in ROH at the “At Our Best” show years ago. While I would love to see Lynn win here, I just don’t see it happening. Then rounding up the trio is the first time in ROH match up of Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli. This one should be fun. European uppercuts will be flying here. At the end of what should be a technical masterpiece expect Danielson to pick up the win, potentially leading to another title shot. On the undercard of the event tag team action will be at its best when Adam Pearce & a mystery partner will do battle with the strong style dream team of Roderick Strong & Brent Albright, and in what should be a wild one Steenerico will take on the AOTF of Tyler Black and Necro. It may be the fact that I’m very into the Aries-Jacobs angle or the fact that I’m a huge Jerry Lynn mark but I think this may be one of the best ROH shows in awhile. Whatever the case I can’t wait to see it.

Upcoming Touring:
ROH looks to further expand their markets and deliver their product all of the world. Their announcement about returning to Japan and about debuting in Canada shows that ROH has done well with their international in devours before and that they look to recapture their success. This July the company heads up north for their first show in Canada, emanating from Toronto. While no official matches have been announced yet, ROH has announced that the one and only Lance Storm will be returning to the company as a “special guest” for the show. One can only hope that they get him into a match against another technical wizard. It should be interesting to see what the turnout for this show is as I feel that Canada has always been one of the best markets for professional wrestling. Then come this fall, ROH will return to Japan for two shows. Their last tour of Japan was a huge success, but at the time their champ was a Japanese star. I doubt that’ll make any difference, but it’ll be interesting to see what kind of main events they can put together. Last year ROH was set to have KENTA and CIMA team up for the first time… it didn’t happen last year but that doesn’t meant it can’t happen this year.

Things for ROH to keep in mind:
-The fact that ROH has the NWA champion in their company is a huge feather in their cap and they need to take advantage of it. Obviously the fact that they are putting on a “title vs. title” match shows their respect for the title and that they want to use it. But this definitely be the last we see the NWA title in ROH. I think after this, regardless of who come out with the title that there should be NWA title defense at ROH events. It could just add even more credentials to their shows.

And…

-While it may not amount to anything at this point, Bryan Danielson’s appearance in a dark match on Raw raised much discussion in the wrestling community. The fact that he beat a known “WWE Superstar,” Lance Cade, has even more people escalating their brow. Now right after this happened ROH issued a statement stated that ROH “gave permission” to Danielson, or something along those lines. Many people called this statement a bunch of “bullshit.” Hard to say whether it is true or not. Like I said, this may not amount to much. It could be the E just needed someone to use and when Danielson was selected they knew it would make sense for him to go over. Or it could have been a tryout match and Bryan may be interested in applying his craft somewhere else. ROH may want to make sure that they are keeping Dragon happy just to make sure… just incase. Danielson is the biggest star they still have and need to be sure that they don’t take him for granted.

The Forgotten Classics
We now reach the mid way point of the list. We’ve been all around with this list, and last week we went to the late eighty’s. This week we move just a few years forward to Los Angles for one of my favorite matches from my childhood, and what was billed as Randy Savage’s “retirement match.”

Forgotten Classic #5: Ultimate Warrior Vs. Randy Savage – Retirement Match
Far be it for me to ever say that the Ultimate Warrior had a great professional wrestling match, but this one was a classic. The build for the match was a great WrestleMania formula… two guys that could be in the main event having a match on the undercard. There were run ins here, run ins there, a couple wacky promos, and we were ready. WrestleMania VII was the event. Their psychological elements of the match kicked off right away with the entrances. The Warrior took his time coming down to the ring. Prior to this he would sprint down to the ring going 150 MPH. Here he took his time, surveying his opponent… ah psychology. The match itself was very solid considering it was a Warrior match, with a fantastic ending. It was really one where the two men “threw everything they had at one another.” Savage hit elbow after elbow after elbow and the Warrior kept coming. The ending was so simple and worked so perfect for this match and is still one of my favorites. Take a look:

It’s quite simple why this match is forgotten… Vince hates either of these men getting credit for anything. You can find this match on the “Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior” DVD and of course on the WrestleMania VII event, but other than that it is rather hard to track down. If you haven’t seen the match or even the build, it’s worth tracking down.