411’s Buy or Sell 10.09.09: Pro Wrestling NOAH says Goodbye to Misawa, Ring of Honor’s Annual Survival of the Fittest, Steve Corino Back to Ring of Honor, and More!!
Posted by Michael Bauer on 10.09.2009
This week, the 411 Wrestling Staff gets ready for Survival of the Fittest 2009 and looks at Misawa’s Tribute as Samuel Berman battles Jeffrey Harris in Buy or Sell!
Welcome everyone to Week 128 of BUY or SELL. For those of you who haven't been with us since the beginning, here's the Reader's Digest version of what this column is all about. BUY or SELL is very much like 411's long-running Fact or Fiction column. The main difference is that BUY or SELL focuses on topics like the U.S. Independent scene, Lucha Libre, Japanese Wrestling and pretty much anything else that isn't mainstream wrestling, WWE and or TNA. This allows for these areas to get a bit more press and for you, our loyal readers, to learn even more about the sport of professional wrestling.
BANNER!
(Special thanks to Jasper Gerretsen)
In booking their Mitsuhara Misawa shows, NOAH should have done more to feature their current talent instead of booking main events focusing on Misawa's contemporaries.
Samuel Berman : SELL. I don't really have a strong feeling either way on this one, but overall I'm fine with NOAH taking the opportunity to lean nostalgic rather than progressive. Having main events that featured key players in Misawa's career, like Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue, allowed the company to honor what Misawa brought to the Japanese scene over the last three decades, so I'm not going to get into a 'what should have been' debate on it. I'm looking at these shows the way I looked at the Eddie Guerrero tribute shows; was there really a wrong way to do them?
Jeffrey Harris : SELL. The main events seemed prett appropriate to me. Shiozaki's the new champion and its not like he was in there with Kobashi and Misawa back in the day. Also the main event with KENTA, Kawada, Taue, and Akiyama seemed rather appropriate to me. All the current talent were all featured in some way or another.
1 for 1.
NOAH's 17,000 and 6,400 person crowds for their two Misawa tribute shows will be the last time in company history that audiences of those size are drawn.
Samuel Berman : SELL. I must admit that I don't actively follow attendance figures, but while NOAH seems to be on a downward slide creatively in recent months, there is always the chance of a rebound. I'd bet that in 1995 people would have predicted that the WWF would never draw huge numbers again, only to have the company reach new heights by the end of the decade. If the question were about drawing those numbers in the near future, I'd be more likely to buy.
Jeffrey Harris : SELL. I don't deal in absolutes such as this. I see no reason to say arbitrarily it will be the last time. Probably won't draw crowds like that for quite a while, but to say they never will again seems outlandish. I definitely see this as a transition and adjustment period for NOAH. Let's just wait and see.
2 for 2.
Dragon Gate USA needed to pull Dragon Kid out of the title tournament in order to make their non-tournament match worthwhile.
Samuel Berman : SELL. Honestly, for my money they could have teamed Shingo with just about anyone in his match against Speed Muscle and I'd have been interested. It does make sense from an internal storyline aspect to include Dragon Kid in that match due to it being a combination of two big matches from DGUSA's first show, but in no way did the company "need" to pull Kid from the tournament. While I know I'm in the minority on this, I would love to have seen Eddie Kingston (who is a part of the show's Bonus Match) be teamed with Shingo. That might have been the hardest hitting team in Independent wrestling.
Jeffrey Harris : BUY. Dragon Kid's mouth wrote checks his ass couldn't cash. And now he's paying the price. Dragon Kid is nothing more than an Ultimo Dragon midget wannabe and he crossed the line by interrupting and bothering Masato Yoshino. As a result, Yoshino and Doi are going to destroy Kid and his boyrfriend, Shingo. After that, Kid is going to be a broken Dragon Kid and he's not going to care about facing the winner of the tournament for a title shot. That man will be the true champion, Masato Yoshino.
The A Double L Double gimmick is better served to stay on Ring of Honor Television.
Jeffrey Harris : SELL. Austin Aries is awesome. And anything he does is awesome. Hence the Austin Aries Lethal Lottery should be on every show. Aries is simply putting and selling his heel schtick. It works. This new heel Austin Aries is a douchebag bastard. Plenty of heel champions and wrestlers have run with gimmicks like this. Santino did the Honky Tonk meter. This is like the Aries version of that.
Samuel Berman : BUY. Sort of a buy, actually, as I think the gimmick is best served by leaving it in the rearview mirror. I'm not wild about this version of Austin Aries as ROH World Champion, and the lack of overall interest in Ring of Honor lately probably proves that I'm in the majority. Aries is a very good worker and a good character, but this angle seems so antithetical to the spirit of ROH that hardline fans had become used to experiencing. There was a time when matches for the ROH World Title, even when they happened regularly, were a big deal. This gimmick has, at least in my mind, served to undermine the title's value, and devaluing your own title is never a good idea.
2 for 4.
Tyler Black will end up winning the 2009 Survival of the Fittest Tournament.
Jeffrey Harris : BUY. Yeah I'll buy that. Black seems to make the most sense, especially with his history with Aries. But, how about someone actually winning the tournament, getting a title shot, and winning the title match. Has that ever happened after any Survival of The Fittest?
Samuel Berman : SELL. I'll keep this brief: I think the ship may have sailed on Tyler Black as the next face of ROH. Also, of the four previous instances of the tournament, only Roderick Strong went from being considered the odds-on, logical favorite heading into the tournament to being the eventual winner. Delirious was a surprise, as was Chris Hero, and Bryan Danielson may have won, but Austin Aries was the story of the original tournament. I'll go with Kenny Omega to win this year's edition.
2 for 5.
Like Eddie Kingston, Steve Corino will mostly be used only on Ring of Honor Television with only select DVD appearances.
Jeffrey Harris : SELL. This is more than just TV appearances. This is The King of Old School's Reinvention II Tour. Corino is in the best shape of his life and there's no reason to only feature him on TV. You can't have a talented veteran like Corino, a former ECW champion, only on the TV shows. Especially with Danielson and McGuinness leaving.
Samuel Berman : BUY. If the company is only getting sporadic appearances from Corino, then it makes sense to capitalize on them by putting him in front of the largest audiences possible. Ultimately, I'm not sure how successful or important bringing back Corino will be, as he has even less residual name recognition than Jerry Lynn and Lynn didn't exactly help the company draw record numbers. However, if Corino can help bring even a few fans in the door or have even a few viewers tune into the show, then it's probably worth it to bring him back into the fold.
2 for 6!!
The 128th edition of BUY or SELL finishes at 2 for 6 as these two just don't want to agree alot! Stay tuned for next week as two new people step up to the plate on Buy or Sell!
Posted By: J-Stack (Guest) on October 09, 2009 at 11:09 AM
"Sort of a buy, actually, as I think the gimmick is best served by leaving it in the rearview mirror. I'm not wild about this version of Austin Aries as ROH World Champion, and the lack of overall interest in Ring of Honor lately probably proves that I'm in the majority. Aries is a very good worker and a good character, but this angle seems so antithetical to the spirit of ROH that hardline fans had become used to experiencing. There was a time when matches for the ROH World Title, even when they happened regularly, were a big deal. This gimmick has, at least in my mind, served to undermine the title's value, and devaluing your own title is never a good idea."
No, there's a lack of interest because sheep like you are still too busy fapping over whatever Gabe is doing right now to actually give a shit about anything else.
Aries' lottery doesn't undermine the value of the belt, it actually helps to enhance it. By doing this, it's showing just how important the belt is to Aries instead of relying solely on blind fanboy cred to give the belt value. That was the problem with the old way of booking the ROH Title. You didn't always get the sense that the belt meant something to everyone that was holding it because you would just get title matches tossed off sometimes haphazardly. This might not be leading to the greatest matches ever, but ROH's roster is on the thin side right now so this allows them to play around with that and not blow their biggest matches too soon or in a rapid succession. It also helps build new talent to the top by allowing them to hang with the company's top guy when they're originally seen as a cop-out for a title shot. Fuck, Aries made Grizzly Redwood look good, which is something that is actually pretty hard to do given Redwood's obvious limitations.
Posted By: Guest#6015 (Guest) on October 09, 2009 at 01:15 PM
When Danielson was champion in 2005 and 2006, he did an open contract gimmick where guys from every where got a title shot. And he defended the belt even against guys like SONJAY DUTT and CHRIS SABIN. It hardly devalued the title.
Posted By: Jeffrey (Registered) on October 09, 2009 at 02:21 PM
>Misawa tribute shows will be the last time in company history that audiences of those size are drawn.
Idiot. KOBASHI retirement can draw such.
Posted By: myspace.com/ichifuji (Guest) on October 10, 2009 at 10:27 AM
"When Danielson was champion in 2005 and 2006, he did an open contract gimmick where guys from every where got a title shot. And he defended the belt even against guys like SONJAY DUTT and CHRIS SABIN. It hardly devalued the title.
Posted By: Jeffrey (Registered) on October 09, 2009 at 02:21 PM"
There's a difference between putting out open contracts and what Aries is doing. Danielson put out open contracts to the best wrestlers in the world. Aries is trying to get easy fights to extend his title reign.
Granted, he's a heel, and that's his thing, and I understand that. But this is the sort of gimmick that should be associated with a lower-level title, not your top (and ONLY) singles title in the company.
Danielson's open contract gimmick was amazing, because it gave you great matches, and actually made sense when guys from all over the world would come in for a shot at the title, not just to 'wow the fans and get another promotion over with the ROH crowd'. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but this made more sense and worked a lot better.
Posted By: Guest#7864 (Guest) on October 11, 2009 at 12:38 AM
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