411’s Buy or Sell 10.10.08: Masato Yoshino, Tyler Black, The Latin American Exchange, and More!!

Samuel Berman : BUY. The quick movement of the Open the Twin Gate championship on- and off of Speed Muscle was definitely a head-scratcher for me. Looking back, however, it seems more than logical, as new champions Cyber Kong & YAMATO are more embroiled in an issue with World-1 anyway. Doi & Yoshino are essentially Dragon Gate’s version of the Briscoes, as they are perpetually over as the top duo in the company, no matter whether or not they hold the gold. Moving the belts to them first does indeed keep Saito & Yokosuka looking strong, while simultaneously helping Real Hazard look better for beating the former Muscle Outlaw’z. The issue now becomes how Dragon Gate can go about building up a second team who can be considered Doi & Yoshino’s equals.

Steve Cook : BUY. The extent of my Dragon Gate knowledge covers what I’ve seen in ROH, some tapes from a couple of years ago, and the research I do for this column. It seems like every time I do one of these there’s some new faction with some bizarre name. Wasn’t WORLD-1 that promotion that Steve Corino tried to run for like a week? And who’s Cyber Kong? Is that Awesome Kong’s brother? In any event, my tradition on Japan questions is to defer to people who have the ability to watch this stuff on a more regular basis than I, and Mr. Berman is one of those people. Doi & Yoshino are a darn good tag team.

1 for 1.

Samuel Berman : BUY. As I type this, there are actually now five names announced for the tournament, with Kenny Omega and El Generico joining Yoshino, Davey Richards, and Chuck Taylor in the field. Still, even with less than half the group announced, I think Yoshino is a shoe-in for the second round, mostly so that PWG can capitalize on his television exposure from TNA’s X-Cup. Yoshino has had an incredible year for Dragon Gate thus far (his Open the Dream Gate shot at CIMA early in the year remains one of the company’s best matches) and stands to take the leap to the next level with a deep run in BOLA. As an aside, I think Omega may make a deep run as well on his debut weekend, and I’ve been impressed by what little of him I’ve seen. He had a great match with HARASHIMA in DDT over the Summer that people really should check out.

Steve Cook : BUY. This really has more to do with economics than the type of year that Yoshino’s having…do you think PWG’s going to fly this guy in from Japan just to work one night? Like Ozzie Guillen would say…pfft……….please. With the American economy being the way it is, it just doesn’t make sense for PWG to not get as much work out of Yoshino as they possibly can. Expect him to make it at least to the semi-finals, if not further.

2 for 2.

Samuel Berman : BUY. Yeah, sorry, but I’m not really into SHIMMER at all. Brad Garoon, one of the co-founders of The Cool Kids’ Table has assured me that there are more than a few very good matches that the company has produced, but I just don’t buy the company as being viable enough to support both a singles title and a set of tag belts. I believe I actually answered a question about these belts the last time I was on a Buy or Sell (where I said that tag belts wouldn’t happen in 2008), and I was wrong about that, so hey, I’m probably wrong here and I’ll be pushing MsChif & Rain vs. Cheerleader Melissa & Lexie Fyfe or some such combination for Match of the Year in 2009.

Steve Cook : SELL. What a cheap plug. Anyway, the one argument I can think of against SHIMMER having a tag team championship would be that all of my favorite woman tag teams are currently non-existent. Sure, there may be an International Home Wrecking Crew, but they’ve got nothing on the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew. Lacey, we miss you! Furthermore, there’s also no Team Blondage anywhere to be found on the list I’m seeing for the tag team tournament. I have to disagree with Berman’s assertion that the company isn’t viable enough…they sold out their last DVD taping outside Chicago if memory serves me correctly and their DVD sales seem to be doing well enough for them to keep putting on shows and bringing in international talent. So while I am skeptical about the current list of tag teams in SHIMMER, I have faith in the ladies to put on a good show and at least have a tag team division on par with WWE & TNA. Which ain’t saying much, ladies & germs.

2 for 3.

SWITCH~!

Steve Cook : SELL. It’s going to take a lot more than the evil SHIMMER promoters to break up the AOTF. Who do you think you are, Dave Prazak? You can’t stop a revolution, and it will be televised…at least on DVD.

Samuel Berman : SELL. Well, Lacey broke away from the Age of the Fall for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with the SHIMMER Title, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what Bauer meant and I’m not here to be the dangling modifier police. Anyway, the Age of the Fall is such a large stable at this point that I’m not sure anyone would notice Rain leaving anyway, but I don’t see this angle being pushed on that level in SHIMMER. Also, as I said earlier, I don’t really follow SHIMMER anyway.

3 for 4.

Steve Cook : BUY. I’m not going to pretend that I’m totally up to date with FIP and what goes on there… quite honestly I’m an ROH guy but the stuff down in Florida has never done all that much for me. That being said, Tyler Black’s star has been on the rise throughout 2008, with classic matches in Ring of Honor against the likes of Bryan Danielson & Nigel McGuinness. I was at the Breakout show when he had his first match with Danielson, and he definitely won me over that night.

Samuel Berman : SELL. I think Black is being groomed for the ROH World Title, not FIP’s strap, so I don’t see the point in putting the FIP World Heavyweight Title on him just so he can be a transitional belt holder. The Ring of Honor and Full Impact Pro brass need to get back in the mold of making the FIP titles more FIP-exclusive, rather than handing out title shots to talent that has never appeared for the Florida promotion. Kevin Steen getting a shot at Go Shiozaki? Why? Why not just make the match non-title? Now I’m off on a rant, so going back to the crux of the matter, Black is actually above the FIP World Heavyweight Title right now and winning it would be counterproductive to his eventual elevation to the ROH World Title.

3 for 5.

Steve Cook : BUY. I realize that the MCMGs are a loss from a storyline perspective, as people were looking forward to seeing Alex Shelley team with Austin Aries in ROH for the first time in several years and Shelley has unresolved issues with Jimmy Jacobs, but LAX are much bigger than the Guns in star power. Homicide is easily one of the top five stars in ROH history, and while Gabers probably would have liked to build up his return more, he & Hernandez will definitely put some extra butts in the seats. I’d also rate LAX as a better tag team in the ring than the MCMGs, so it’s not a loss in the all-important workrate category either.

Samuel Berman : BUY . I’m forced to agree here. As big a fan as I personally am of Shelley & Sabin, Homicide & Hernandez are absolutely bigger stars at this point. Also, adding in the ‘Homicide returns to ROH’ factor pushes this one over the top. Bringing in a former ROH World Champion and one of the most underrated talents in wrestling gives ROH the opportunity to go in a direction with this pair of shows that no one really could have predicted. The Machine Guns will no doubt make their return to ROH either later this year or early in 2009, so there’s no reason to believe that Ring of Honor’s plans for them have to be forgotten altogether. LAX may not be able to bring quite the same level of workrate that Shelley & Sabin have in their previous ROH efforts, but the spectacle of Homicide’s return will more than make up the difference.

4 for 6!

The Seventy Seventh 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.