Column of Honor: 05.09.09: Injury Bomb

Posted by Ari Berenstein on 05.09.2009

A domino effect of injuries changes the ROH shows this weekend, plus thoughts on Eliminating the Competition, Hogewood’s thesaurus, Smackdown’s Fave Five and much more!


Apologies for missing last week's column, as it was an unintended week off. That was due to a combination of writer's block and needing to grade student papers to get report cards in on time. I do have to say though, I'm kind of feeling the need to tweak things up for the column. I'm spending too much time retyping and reformatting results from the boards and copying and pasting news. I'd like to cut some of that down—you can always get the low down on ROH news from links on 411Mania. I'll run down some of the major happenings, but keeping it more streamlined. Let's see how it goes.

Welcome to the Column.



Ring Toss
-Injury Bomb
-Honorarium
-Results, News and Previews
-ROH Call
-Fave 5
-Get with the pROHgram
-Ringtones
-ROH @ 411
-Buy or Sell Quickies


Injury Bomb

On Tuesday morning I woke up one hour earlier than expected, thanks to a very sharp pain in the small of my back. It was so bad that I ended up yelling out loud, arching my back in mid-air. I have no idea how I did it, but I pulled my back something fierce. It shook me up all day and even though I didn't take the day off from work, I can't say I wasn't considering it.

That being said, I can sympathize with the recent rash of injuries that have taken down some of the rising stars and some of the more prominent members of the ROH roster. I understand that these guys have it far worse than I did, but even if the pain I felt was only a tenth of what wrestlers like Tyler Black and El Generico have gone through in the past few weeks, I'd like to think I have shared in the misery.

An injury bomb has hit Ring of Honor not seen for many years, taking out Tyler Black (neck), El Generico (knee), Jon Davis of the Dark City Fight Club (hand), Mike Quackenbush (previously hurt back). Throw in Nigel McGuinness (biceps and shoulder) and you have some major talent hurting and out of the picture for the time being. These problems caused a whole mess of shifting and readjusting the cards to this weekend's shows in Boston, Massachusetts and Edison, New Jersey.

To Ring of Honor's credit, they did take several steps to deal with the problem, from changing matches and adding talent to deal with the losses when it was clear there would be significant damage. They were lucky in a way that they were able to add Chris Hero back onto the card (he had previous commitments in Mexico, but they were cancelled due to worries about the Swine Flu pandemic). He made an immediate impact by being placed in a World Title match main event against Jerry Lynn.

Chris Hero has almost quietly climbed his way back up the roster over the last four months thanks to fantastic promo-work and being one of the more consistently featured wrestlers on the HDNet television show. Hero has been able to make his mark thanks to his "Young Knock Out Kid" persona, even though his manager Larry Sweeney left Ring of Honor and therefore dismantled the presence of Sweet & Sour Incorporated, of which Hero was the main player. Shane Hagadorn has seemingly taken over the managing of the remnants of Sweet & Sour Inc. However Hero has shown he doesn't need anyone except himself…and the elbow pad handed down from Mitsuhara Misawa, in order to obtain the W.

The small bit of good news is that Tyler Black's neck injury is not as serious as many think and he has said that he will be back by the end of the month (Observer), in time for the next wave of Philadelphia television tapings. Tyler Black has been positioned as one of ROH top young guns and has become a vital part of the main event scene on both the DVD and television shows. While Black has somewhat cooled off since his red-hot breakout year of 2008, he is still important and necessary as a top-flight wrestler on the roster.

ROH has always striven to give the fans make-goods when things go wrong with injured talent and the like. They have tried to do that here as well, with additional discounts at the merchandise booth at the show and the announcement of a meet-and-greet with the ROH wrestlers during intermission. The loss of so much talent may not be completely offset by the offers ROH is giving the fans this weekend, but at least they are making the effort. Regardless of criticism of the booking direction for this current regime that policy of giving back to the fans during these times of setbacks continues now with the Boston and Edison shows, and that should be applauded.


Honorarium

-You know, I'm getting to like Mike Hogewood on commentary, for the most part. His enthusiasm for the wrestling is very appreciable. He is also improving with every show, no doubt working with Prazak and brushing up on his knowledge of the moves and personalities of the product.

However, for the love of god, will somebody please get a thesaurus for Hogewood? He says "that hurt!" or "that has gotta hurt!" so many times during a show. You could start a drinking game based on that phrase alone. As a matter of fact, I'll do it! Here are some other words that have the same meaning as the word "hurt":

harm, injure, wound, damage, mar, impair, spoil, upset, offended, miffed, wounded, unhappy, indignant, injured, ache, be sore, be painful, throb, trouble, be killing, sting, smart, pain, soreness, tenderness, distress, suffering.

Mr. Michael Hogewood, for the good of my aural sanity, please consider switching up your verbiage when describing the "hurt" the wrestlers are feeling during the matches.


-Reid Flair was arrested on Heroin charges. He was supposed to have debuted on the June shows for ROH but I'm hoping that everyone in ROH has sense enough not to have that happen at this point. Being the son of Ric Flair is a pretty harsh spot to be in when you're trying to break into the business, and I'm thinking this is all "too much, too soon" for him. Let him deal with his (very public) issues and then in the future, down the line, let's see if he is ready. I know Reid wrestling for ROH was a big reason why Ric Flair agreed to be a part of the promotion, but with the seriousness of the charges, its the wrong time and the wrong place for it to happen...and if it does, I'd be extremely surprised and extremely disappointed in this company.


Eliminating the Competition Thoughts:

-The DVD begins with Papadon, the "Greek God" of professional wrestling… uhm...okay… A minute later Bobby Fish is out to FREAKING "ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER"… BLASPHEMY! Is he out of his mind? That song is almost untouchable and FISH is the one to use it as entrance music and for an opening match no less? That's criminal. Fish looks "jakked" according to Prazak, which I can only assume is a euphemism for "on the gas" and well, he does look way bigger than the last time I saw him on an ROH DVD… allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly.

The match is bland, uninspired and had no place on an ROH DVD. Naturally it went on for like ten minutes, which seemed like an eternity.

-Also, one of the first things I notice is Steve "The Turtle" Wiener in the background finding his way to his seat. Do you want to know how I can tell its him? BECAUSE HE'S WEARING HIS FRIGGIN TURTLE OUTFIT TO THE SHOW! Good lord son, if you're not booked, don't wear the gimmick!

-Stevens and Dempsey vs. King and Titus is a fun undercard match that picked up in the end. Dempsey hitting a double cannonball was fun and King continues to show he is a future upper-carder for sure so long as he continues to put forth good efforts like the one in this match.

-Castagnoli and Albright continue their very good series of matches against one another, but ROH continues to provide very frustrating finishes to what have been a very good series of matches. I'm a fan of Albright, but sorry to say that sometimes when I realize he is coming out for a match I want to tune out or go to sleep. The feeling goes away after a couple of minutes when Albright begins to turn it on in the ring, but that isn't the kind of reaction I think he's going for.

-Briscoe and Steen vs. Edwards and Hero is the first real semblance of the kind of action I want out of Ring of Honor…fast paced, intense, a good story involving the wrestlers. Briscoe and Steen's past history of fighting against one another in tag matches plays out very well as they reluctantly team up yet seem to know what to call in double teams in order to maintain the advantage. Steen also has one of the funniest lines of the DVD, maybe in quite a while, when he throws Eddie Edwards into the crowd. Edwards smashed into the guardrail and spilled right into the front row. Steen mugs for the camera and exclaims "Eddie wanted to be with the fans…too bad he didn't buy a ticket…" Great deadpan. I love the psychology of Steen being injured again in the knee, and that along with him getting into an argument with Mark Briscoe leads up to him not being able to perform the Springboard Doomsday Device with Jay. The good guys get the win anyway a few moments later, capping a very fun match.

-I don't have too much to say about the Danielson vs. Delirious match, other than it was solid, the fans loved seeing Danielson and it was just about what you'd expect having seen some of their previous matches in ROH. Although it is a bit sad to think that I don't have too much to say about a Danielson match, but maybe that's more about how he's been booked than it is about what he is doing in the ring.

-In a solid promo Sami Callahan finally enunciates "The New Horror" correctly so that he doesn't sound like he is trying to say he is a prostitute… although in terms of continuity this was taped before the initial HDNet TV shows, so that means he got it right once before got it wrong over and over again… the mind bottles.

I do miss Sami threatening to kill someone and peel their face off and wear it as a mask like he did that one time on a CHIKARA show…he should get back to saying things like that in his promos, it would be fun for the children. Anyway he and Aries have a solid match where Callahan gets a bit more than you might expect in order to get the rub from Aries, even outwrestling him big time early on in the match. However the match swings violently in A-Double's favor at the finish and he doesn't let up until he wins.

-I think there should be an "Order of the Beard", sort of like a "Knights of Columbus" organization in professional wrestling. Think about all the wrestlers all across the wrestling world who would qualify: Brodie Lee, Necro Butcher, Chris Hero, Grizzly Redwood, Jimmy Jacobs, Mike Knox…what? You gonna deny him entry?

-Necro has a nice babyface victory against Brodie Lee, who had been getting the better of him in matches up to that point.

-The CT crowd hasn't been all that hot for most of the show, although they did get it up for the end-runs of most of the matches. They also haven't had the most "spectacular" of shows, but by no means is this a "bad" show either.

-I like how the Four Way Elimination match for the title in some ways mirrored the Death Before Dishonor VI title match…there wasn't a turn like in that one, but the middle of the match had quick falls which centered around McGuinness. I like that Nigel eliminated Lynn with help from Jacobs, who held down Lynn's legs, and then the same happened for the elimination of Black, but with McGuinness and Jacobs's roles reversed. I do love Black's flip over reversal into the Buckle Bomb in this one, looks real visceral. When It's down to McGuinness and Jacobs, the crowd immediately cheers for Nigel, which should tell you something about how they feel about Jacobs. They go right to the finish, which sucks that the match ends suddenly, but the Jawbreaker Lariat looks great.

Overall, a bit of a skippable show, even "lame-duck" given the ROH HDNet tapings, but a decent use of two and a half hours if you want to pick this one up eventually. The Briscoe and Steen vs. Hero and Edwards, Aries vs. Callahan and four way elimination title match are the ones to watch for this one.


-This past week's ROH Videowire was a cause for a bit of controversy this week. Seems the ROH fans were slamming this clip because they spent—gasp!—two minutes out of a seven and half minutes videowire on the Grizzley Redwood vs. Ernie Osiris issue. Not only was this segment ripped to shreds on YouTube, but also on a fan posted thread for the videowire on the ROH message board. THAT thread was locked and deleted post haste and ROH put up a thread with a link to the clip that was locked and allowed no further comment. Then a few hours later they took down that link and the videowire entirely. All because people were getting all hot and bothered at Osiris burning Redwood's boots and Grizzley was shooting down shots of Maple Syrup.

Jesus guys, lighten up! ROH hadn't done a lot of the Redwood comedy clips in quite a while, and it was just a nice little deal to get over two undercard guys. ROH STILL devoted plenty of time to their main issues and even made everyone well aware of the changes to the cards this weekend on that very same video. Also, point of order, Redwood doing Maple shooters is freaking hilarious.

Again, I'll repeat a point I've made in earlier columns. Do I want these kinds of skits and promos to dominate ROH? Absolutely not. Is it okay if ROH runs these sorts of segments once-in-a-while, especially if it helps to give the spotlight to two younger wrestlers looking to get over? Of course it is.

I was shocked ROH took down the video at all. On the other hand, I can't help but dislike the fact that ROH is being very totalitarian in its deletion of threads on the message board. Many threads with negative criticisms, even slight ones, are being wiped out. Yes, ROH board administrators have done this before, in Gabe Sapolsky's time and they have the right to do so because it's their board. I just am getting the sense sometimes that they are being ultra-sensitive to any criticism whatsoever.

---

ROH Results

Friday May 8th, 2009 in Boston, Massachusetts
The Big News: Jerry Lynn retains his ROH World Title by defeating Chris Hero with the Cradle Piledriver in what was reportedly a really good match; Kevin Steen defeated Davey Richards after a Package Piledriver through a table in an excellent match.

Live Experience: There was a marriage proposal by a fan that took place inside the ring. No kidding. The girl said yes by the way, and then Bobby Dempsey came out to congratulate both. What an engagement present. Later on during the Richards vs. Steen match, Steen backdrops him through the table and asks "Davey...Davey...will you marry me? No Wait a minute I hate you and you're a bitch!" AWESOME. Apparently this was the match of the show, was an awesome brawl with tons of weapons and is a must see.

Return Date: September 25th, 2009


The Homecoming II, Saturday April 25th, 2009 in Chicago, IL
The Big News: Colt Cabana's return to Chicago was well received, but he ultimately lost to Jerry Lynn; The American Wolves retained the tag titles in a two out of three falls match against Steen & Briscoe, who left in a tiff after both men were not on the same page at the end of the match; Tyler Black def. Chris Hero and Bryan Danielson def. Jimmy Rave, thus keeping both in contention for future title opportunities.

Live Experience: Jimmy Jacobs' eye patch caused the Chicagoans to start to yell out "ARRRR" at him over and over again, because he is apparently an emo pirate. Even without proper depth perception, Jacobs still spiked Black later in the show in a major angle.

Return Date: June 27th, 2009 with Ric Flair


Honored News

Youngbucks vs. King & Titus for New York; Injury Updates
Mike Quackenbush not wrestling until a month after his back surgery
Changes to the Edison, NJ card

The Big News: Bret Hart Announced For July 24th, 2009 Toronto, Canada Show

Kind of a shocker here as I doubt anyone would have expected Bret Hart would make any wrestling show appearance these days, much less for Ring of Honor. Hart seemed to be happy with his life outside of wrestling and his appearances and signings have come less frequently over the last several years. Hart will be doing an autograph signing session before the show and an in-ring promo during the show. This is very cool news for fans in Canada, as a Bret Hart appearance is always cause for celebration in the Great White North. Hart is also one of the other major "names" in wrestling history that fans have always wondered about him appearing for and contributing to Ring of Honor, obviously not in a wrestling capacity, but perhaps with an in-ring segment or the like. Over the years ROH has hosted a litany of wrestling's legends and important personalities, and it seemed like Flair would top the list. Now this special appearance b y Hart is one more addition to the roll call.

However, make no mistake about it, even though Hart's appearance is rare and will be a special moment, ROH still needs to come strong with the wrestling part of their show. ROH can only get by on special appearances by guys like Hart and Flair for so long…and let's face it, neither one of them will ever wrestle for the company for obvious reasons. ROH needs to make sure that the current talent pool is the focus of the show and that several of the more recent additions to the roster that will appear will be able to get themselves over and make an impact as quickly as possible.


Preview: 05/09/09 in Edison, New Jersey:

ROH World Title Match--Jerry Lynn (if still champion) defends vs. Jay Briscoe: Jay has been on a hot streak of must-see singles matches and will give a hell of an effort here in a high profile situation. Lynn will continue his "Get the Fans to Reconsider Tour" by once again rising to the occasion.

World Tag Team Title Match--The American Wolves defend vs. Bryan Danielson & Kevin Steen:Danielson and Steen are a makeshift team and thus should not have a chance to take on THE tag team in ROH right now. Still, there should be some really fun doubles from them and it's always worth it to see what Steen says next while beating down his opponents.

Chris Hero vs. Sonjay Dutt:Hero will need a win after his title match loss last night. Regardless you've got two talented wrestlers here who should be able to go out there and perform up to expectations. As long as Dutt isn't "The Guru" and is able to fly around the ring, that is.

Colt Cabana vs. Joey Ryan with Prince Nana: This can be nothing other than comedy greatness. Cabana has been fantastic since his return and Ryan walks into ROH with a lot of anticipation that he can take this "rape ROH of its honor" angle and make it compelling. Prince Nana's presence helps to amp up the possible ludicrisioty. Yes I just made that word up.

Necro Butcher & Delirious vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Jimmy Rave with Prince Nana: The faces should be outclassed by the heels in the pure wrestling department, but Necro and Delirious win the "F**KING CRAZY" award hands down. If this is a brawl style match, it's to their favor except that this is not a street fight or a No-DQ match and it could bite them in the butt.

Brent Albright & Erick Stevens vs. Super Smash Brothers: A wrecking crew babyface team versus a comedy babyface team…interesting. I know I've asked for the SSB to come in to ROH and I have enjoyed their work (for the most part as Uno does get sloppy sometimes and Dos does have some excess spottiness, but together they are a nice unit). I just don't know how well they will mesh against Albright and Stevens, other than to take a nice ass kicking.

Eddie Kingston vs. Ricky Reyes: Kingston should walk in the crowd favorite and should walk out the winner. Holla at your boy.
Plus: Kenny King & Rhett Titus


ROH Call

ROH Champions—As of 05/09/2009

ROH World Champion—Jerry Lynn (champion since 04/03/09, 5 successful defenses)


-defeated Nigel McGuinness in Houston, Texas via pinfall to win the championship.

Next Defense: vs. Jay Briscoe, 05/09/09, Edison, New Jersey

V.1 Four Corner Survival: defeated Bryan Danielson, D-Lo Brown and Erick Stevens (04/04/09, Houston, TX)
V.2 Four Corner Survival: defeated Bryan Danielson, Austin Aries and Jimmy Jacobs (04/10/09, Philadelphia, PA, airs June 6th, 2009)
V.3 defeated Roderick Strong (04/24/09, Dayton, OH)
V.4 defeated Colt Cabana (04/25/09, Chicago Ridge, IL)
V.5 defeated Chris Hero (05/08/09, Boston, MA)

**

ROH World Tag Team Champions—American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) (champions since 04/10/09, 2 successful defenses)


-defeated Kevin Steen & El Generico on April 10th, 2009 in a Tables are Legal match in Philadelphia, PA to win the championship. The match will air on May 30th, 2009.

Next Defense: vs. Bryan Danielson & Kevin Steen, 05/09/09, Edison, NJ

V.1 fought to a 45-minute draw against Bryan Danielson & Tyler Black (04/18/09, Markham, ONT, Canada) *champions retain on a draw.
V.2 defeated Kevin Steen & Jay Briscoe (04/25/09, Chicago Ridge, IL)

**

Top Feuds & Pairings:

-Jerry Lynn as the new ROH World Champion
-Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Jacobs
-Tyler Black has a title shot "in his back pocket"
-Claudio Castagnoli vs. Brent Albright
-Prince Nana & The Embassy vs. Bryan Danielson & Colt Cabana
-Claudio Castagnol is now an "associate" of The Embassy

---

Going Home



1 . CM Punk: I love that Punk, Hardy, Jericho and Edge have formed the nucleus of the main event scene on Smackdown. Punk getting a consistent push and featured time every week on Smackdown is just such a boon for his career. He has so much room to grow and to work on that brand and in two weeks he's already received two wins against Edge, the current World Heavyweight Champion. He also goes up against Umaga at Judgment Day, and ROH fans know all about how well Joe wrestles against Samoans.
2 .Chris Jericho: Played his entry onto the Smackdown brand the right way. When you even have other heels like Edge hating on you and worrying about your presence, you know you've got the right kind of character. Jericho is also right on top of things in the ring, with two fantastic in-ring performances in a row.
3. Edge: The cretinous champion doesn't have his wife to protect him anymore, and that makes him an even better character since he now has to go to even greater length to worm and weasel his way around the brand.
4. Jeff Hardy: Noticing a pattern here? I'm watching Smackdown consistently for the first time in years thanks to the transfer of Punk, Jericho and Rey to the brand. What I noticed out of Hardy is that he is quite effective in the babyface promo role, in small doses. He says the right things and the crowd loves him, so even though he's thinking of leaving (or taking a break, or whatever), I think he should be featured as much as possible.
5. Dolph Ziggler: Is this the same Dolph Ziggler who was on Raw, saying his one line and barely making a dent in the wrestling world? All of sudden Ziggler is playing the ultra-arrogant, cocky heel role and it is doing wonders for his presence on Smackdown. Dude even smartly unleashed a chair parade on Great Khali in order to stir things up. Jim Ross compared him to Mr. Perfect last night and maybe soon enough that kind of comparison would be very accurate.


Get With the pROHgram:

Tonight: ROH on HDNet main events with the second of the Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black main event match.

May 29th & 30th, 2009: ROH Television tapings in Philadelphia, PA.

May 30th, 2009: ROH on HDNet main events with Steen & Generico vs. The American Wolves for the ROH World Tag Team Titles

June 13th, 2009: ROH returns to Manhattan, New York with Little Guido back and King & Titus vs. The Youngbucks.


Ringtones

So Ari, I was wondering who's booking FIP now that Gabe's out of the picture and it doesn't seem that FIP and ROH have a strong tie anymore. It's probably been discussed before, but I was watching an old FIP show recently and the question came up.

Posted By: seaneb14 (Guest) on May 02, 2009 at 01:27 AM

Sad to say but I don't know…however, Lenny Leonard has had a more active hand in posting FIP news on the ROH message board, so perhaps he has taken on some responsibilities? Just speculating here.


ROH@411

J.D. Dunn doubles up on his Ring of Honor ROHport, including two weeks ago with the first Danielson vs. Black match and last week featuring Ric Flair's debut. Larry Csonka handles the detailed Play-by-Play and the 4R's of that show.

Arnold Furious finishes up his run of ROH reviews for 411 with a MAMMOTH review of both nights of Glory By Honor V. Awesome work Arnold, definitely going out in style.

Aaron Hubbard goes all the way back to ROH's first Pay Per View, from 2007, with Respect is Earned.

411 Buy or Sell talks, what else, ROH and even SHIMMER.


Buy or Sell Quickies

Despite being aligned with Prince Nana's Embassy, Joey Ryan will fail to last long in Ring of Honor: SELL. Unless ROH drops the ball on Ryan big time, I see Mr. Sleazy sticking around for a long time to come. He could be the next great heel for the company if given the opportunity.

Chris Hero is a suitable replacement to Tyler Black for a shot at Jerry Lynn and the RoH World Title: BUY. It's Chris Hero, your Hero, my Hero. Damn straight he was a suitable replacement.

Bret Hart coming to Ring of Honor in Toronto in July is a bigger deal than Ric Flair being involved with the company: SELL. Hart is in for one night only and is big news for now, but Flair is in for the foreseeable future and will have a bigger impact on the company in 2009.


NEXT WEEK: It's the Second Annual List Issue!

BROOKLYN!
--Ari--

Oh and don't forget to...