Greetings and welcome to Headlines & Scrutiny for the latest and most in-depth news, reviews, and analysis on Ring of Honor and Total Nonstop Action. I’d like to plug the TNA/ROH blog that is fully up and running on the site at http://www.thebalrogslair.com/tnaroh/. In the past week, results have gone up, news has gone up, and a great column on ROH has gone up. You are encouraged not only to check back as often as you can, but to participate by adding questions or comments to the posts, that I will respond to. As usual, you can also email me here at trevor@thebalrogslair.com.
In part two of this weekend’s H&S update, a complete look at the ROH news of the week, mainly a big weekend of shows in Milwaukee and Chicago.
UPCOMING ROH SHOWS:
*8/7 in Philadephia, PA
*8/28 in Braintree (Boston), MA
*9/11 in Elizabeth, NJ
*10/2 in Philadephia, PA
*10/15 in Dayton, OH
*10/16 in Chicago Ridge, IL
*12/18 in Elizabeth, NJ
8/7 has Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries (2/3 falls); Samoa Joe and Mark Briscoe vs. Homicide and Low Ki; Nigel McGuiness vs. John Walters; C.M. Punk and Colt Cabana vs. The Havana Pitbulls; and Danny Maff and B.J. Whitmer vs. The Carnage Crew.
Ring of Honor results from this past weekend 7/23 (Milwaukee) and 7/24 (Chicago):
Last weekend’s Ring of Honor show in Elizabeth was a very important milestone and homecoming for the company. After the messy and controversial split with the Rob Feinstein interests and RF Video, ROH returned to its home base, with the fact that the company still being alive being a testament to how loyal its fans have been. As much as the Elizabeth show marked return and rebirth, this weekend’s dates in Milwaukee and Chicago marked a new era in Ring of Honor, and gave a glimpse of where the company plans to go in the future.
Quickly so, Ring of Honor has reestablished relations with Panda Energy’s Total Nonstop Action promotion, and the two will be doing business together. TNA, which distributes mainly on TV and PPV, and ROH, which is a live events and home video promotion, have started freely exchanging talent that is of interest to the both of them. A.J. Styles and Chris Daniels is expected to be booked by ROH in the future. Low Ki may return to TNA, but the issue there is Low Ki taking a lot of dates in Japan that interfere with him being available weekly on Wednesdays and/or Thursdays (he also won’t sign a contract). The original split between the two was over TNA not believing that Feinstein had really left the company, which in retrospect was quite an ironic position to take.
The Milwaukee show drew about 450 and Chicago the next night drew about 500. It’s hard to say yet whether management considers the numbers good for the market, but they reportedly estimated higher and these are very low numbers. Elizabeth drew 400 for an afternoon $5 show and 800 at night for a regular-priced show. The idea is that the live events should break even and that the company should make money from the selling of merchandise (mainly the videos and DVDs). ROH will return to Chicago Ridge on October 16, but for now will go east to the over saturated Philly market for a show, northeast to Boston, then back to Elizabeth for a show that features Mick Foley on 9/11, back again to Philly, and west to Dayton the day before the next Chicago show.
From the booking of the last few shows, it has become apparent that the company will be focusing just as much on their booking of angles as their wrestling. Live, the shows were received well, and had some great matches, but booker Gabe Sapolsky is focusing more heavily on angles. It’s an experiment, but it seems that the shows won’t be able to draw unless they are able to reach out to a larger audience, and though they may be the darlings of the insider community, they’ve been hard pressed to turn that interest and appreciation into significant money. Expansion may do it, but the initial cost will be high and it won’t be the main part of the solution. More angles may help, but it’s hardly a tested formula. The most successful independents in the country have been lucha shows in Hispanic markets, which still hasn’t been fully tapped by those promotions or WWE, and family/nostalgia shows in strong markets like Memphis. The Rottweilers—Rocky Romero, Homicide, and Low Ki—were all over both shows as the star heel crew even more so than the other people they have been pushing. But the highlight of the show apparently was the main event of the Chicago Ridge show, which brought back memories of some of Japan’s most famous hardcore matches and ECW back, including a repeat of when fans threw chairs ringside as was done twice in ECW on notable occasions. More commentary is included in the reports.
Death Before Dishonor pt. 1 (before 450 people) in Wauwatosa:
Baron Von Raschke was introduced and did some goose-stepping for good measure. Generation Next (Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, and Jack Evans) interrupted him and Shelley called him the “ghost of wrestling past” and “decrepit.” Age isn’t kind to any of us. Baron retorted by calling Shelley a pee brain, but I just call him baby bear. Generation Next attacked the legend before C.M. Punk, Colt Cabana, and Ace Steel made the save.
1. Trent Acid over Ace Steele, Matt Sydal, and Delirious in a four-corners match in about 10 minutes. Said to be great. It was all flying and included a four-man stacked suplex, which is a spot that has been used more recently than I can count (TNA, ROH, NOAH, and I’m sure countless other places). Sadly, these guys probably won’t be able to walk in their 30s. Acid won by pin after an inverted Brainbuster. There were a few blown spots that may have turned out far worse than they did, with Delirous going for a tope and hitting his head on the top rope, Acid doing an asai moonsault and landing in the front row, and Matt Sydal doing a dive and hitting the concrete.
2. Great Kazushi (Miyamoto) defeated Shawn Daivari. Kazushi got the win with the mist, which was not part of his gimmick in All Japan, so we’ll call it the Tajiri syndrome. He also gave Daivari an enzuigiri for the pin. This was said to be OK.
3. Doug Williams beat Alex Shelley to retain the Pure title in a Pure Wrestling match in 16:30. Said to be very good. Williams won with his Chaos Theory suplex. Under the Pure rules, among other things, there are three rope breaks that you can use to avert a move or defeat. Alex Shelley previously blocked an attempt at the Chaos Theory suplex by using his third rope break. The idea of the Pure wrestling rules has been very unique, and I think is a gimmick that makes people more interested in the tactics of the match they are watching, and it seems to be getting over with the fanbase making for a match with a lot of heat.
4. Rocky Romero and Low Ki beat B.J. Whitmer and Dan Maff in 17:00. Said to be excellent. Stiff match with a great looking finish sequence that saw an enziguiri from Romero, dragon clutch from Ki, spear from Maff, followed by two more moves called the buring hammer and the exploder.
5. Chad Collyer beat Danny Daniels in 12:00. Said to be good. Collyer applied the texas cloverleaf for the win.
6. John Walters, Jimmy Jacobs, and Matt Stryker beat Generation Next (Roderick Strong, Austin Aries, and Jack Evans) when Walters submitted Evans. Said to be very good. Ricky Steamboat served as guest referee and, as expected, received a huge pop. Evans submitted to a new submission by John Walters that resembled a crossface.
7. Samoa Joe over Homicide in 24:00 to retain the ROH World Heavyweight Championship. Said to be stiff and great. Joe won via chokeout submission in a match that was given ****. Homicide was running to execute an ole kick but was caught by Joe, who gave Homicide an amazing looking release belly-to-belly suplex, which really rips through the back like a train. Joe didn’t let go of the submission after Homicide tapped so the referees and the Rottweilers ran in and the Rottweilers took it to Joe. Romero spit on the belt as Ki had him locked in the hold. This will be continuing down the line.
8. C.M. Punk and Colt Cabana (The Second City Saints) beat The Briscoes to retain the ROH Tag Team Championship in almost 30:00. 2/3 falls match. Briscoes won the first fall, giving Punk the J-Driller (24:00). Punk and Cabana won the second fall when Cabana pinned Jay Briscoe with a rollup (30:00). The third fall was Punk making a comeback and giving his Pepsi Plunge from the top rope to Mark Briscoe. Said to be very good as well and the crowd enjoyed the finish.
Death Before Dishonor pt. 2 (before 500 people) about 100 miles down the road in Chicago Ridge:
1. Rocky Romero defeated Chad Collyer in 15:00 when Romero gave a frankensteiner and applied the Minoru Special (cross-arm breaker). This was said to be a great contest of mat wrestling and psychology. Lots of heat. The Rottweilers (J-Train, Low Ki, and Homicide) were at ringside. Collyer utilized the Texas Cloverleaf twice, and it was a spot that was built up well and sold well by Romero. Low Ki tried his best to play heel after the match, but it was to no avail. The Rottwiellers did a promo about how respect needed to be taught not learned, which is true.
2. Alex Shelley defeated Jimmy Jacobs via submission with a crossface in 16:00. Shelley comes from Detroit and debuted in 2002, which is surprising considering how impressive he has been. He was so good in his TNA debut, in fact, that he was hired by the company and given a push on the spot with Goldylocks. He was trained by a man named Breyer Wellington from the Juggalo promotion, Joe Legend, and Scott D’Amore and the main indies he’s worked for were, besides ROH, IWA Mid-South, Border City, Jersey Championship, and MPW. More mat wrestling, nearfalls, and psychology, which I’ve heard some criticize ROH for not having enough of. This was said to be good, but not nearly as good as the opener. Shelley had the Generation Next guys Roderick Strong and Jack Evans attack Jacobs. Steamboat came out and gave them Matt Stryker and John Walters.
3. Generation Next (Strong and Evans) defeated Stryker and Walters in 12:00 after Strong gave Walters a second-rope Widow’s peak. Highlight of another hot match included a powerbomb and a lot of highspot wrestling. The powerbomb would really have to be something to beat out that Quinton Jackson powerbomb at the last PRIDE supercard for an amazing spot. Three great matches in a row.
4. Trent Acid went over Danny Daniels, Delirious, The Great Kazushi, Shawn Daivari, and Matt Sydal in a six-man mayhem match in 10:00 with an inverted brain buster. As one would expect with these six, it was all spot after spot, but got over. Said to be OK with rushed spots, inexperienced execution, and no one that shined.
5. Doug Williams over Austin Aries with an armbar in 15:00 of a Pure match. Aries had used all of his rope breaks (they went 2-3). Said to be a great match and on the mat but I saw mixed opinion. Williams spent the match working the arm and shoulder, which is the WWE policy of late out of necessity. For the second night, fans were into the Pure gimmick.
6. Low Ki over Mark Briscoe due to dragon-clutch submission in 20:00. Also said to be a great match. Low Ki is over because he is a fan favorite in the ring, even though he’s supposed to be a heel and the crowd was mixed, like with Edge and Orton at Vengeance. Low Ki faked an injury but then let out a flying kick from the second rope. Briscoe sold for most of the match, but it didn’t come off as one sided necessarily. Ki did a hard high kick which connected with Briscoe’s jaw. Low Ki then gave another speech about respect to Briscoe and slapped him.
7. Homicide defeated Jay Briscoe in 12:00. Fast paced but not rushed for the time it received, but more spots than psychology. Homicide gave a low blow and two good looking lariats for the finish. Like Mark, Jay Briscoe did a lot of the selling.
8. Samoa Joe over Colt Cabana in a match for the ROH Tag Titles. This was said to be very good and representative of what the two bring to the table. Basic story of the match was Joe getting the upper hand against Cabana but Cabana making lots of comebacks and nearfalls. Forasmuch as you can say that ROH often relies on the highspot style, they have brought to the table a lot of matches that are masterful psychologically on a very deep level. It comes with experience and it comes with properly tempering an assault to utilize the right moves at the right times rather than simply seeing this lucha move, remembering that TLC match from 2000, coming up with this new variation on a tope that you can use on 6 people, and combining them into a match. Crowd was split. There was lots of action and back-and-forth. The Rottweilers ran in as did the Briscoes.
Allison Danger did a promo in a neckbrace complaining about Homicide attacking her the night prior, blaming Dan Maff and B.J. Whitmer. She had ladders, tables, a barbwire 2×4, and a lot of other weaponry brought out for the final match.
9. C.M. Punk and Ace Steele beat Dan Maff and B.J. Whitmer in an all out brawl of a Chicago Street fight in 27:00. Said to be an amazing and extremely emotional brawl with a very hot crowd. All four wore white to get the juice over. After they broke perhaps every weapon that was at their disposal, they asked for chairs, and the fans responded by throwing chairs to ring side. From what I understand, the situation wasn’t dangerous, but the event was enough to damage ROH’s chances of booking this venue in the future. They shouldn’t encourage that. The chairs piled up in the ring and they fought on top of them. They saved jumping off the ladder to a spot towards the end of the match where punk did a frogsplash from the top. The finish saw Steele give Whitmer a tombstone piledriver from the top rope off the top rope through a table, and when someone breaks their neck with a move like that, hopefully someone will learn. There were a lot of ROH and Thank You chants and the crowd heat was enough that people will further be associating this company with ECW. Generation Next ran in wearing LATEX GLOVES~! Colt Cabana followed but the numbers game overtook him. Ricky Steamboat helped make the save. The show ended with C.M. Punk doing a 180 and talking about Steamboat’s love of the business and being an inspiration. Crazy match to end a crazy weekend.
In an update on the story last week on the conflict between H2Wrestling and Ring of Honor, H2Wrestling has gone out of business.
See you next week here and all week at the TNA/ROH News blog.
Matchmaker
Trevor Hunnicutt
THunnicutt@aol.com
– Feedback in regards to the above article may be emailed to THunnicutt@aol.com. With the amount of time each author puts into an article, your responses are appreciated.
