Column of Honor: 11.21.09: The Independent Stretch-Thin

Posted by Ari Berenstein on 11.21.2009

How many independent wrestling companies can make their mark on the internet before we reach a saturation point? I’ll explore the stretching thin of the Independent wrestling fan’s budget and how it affects Ring of Honor. Then the pluses and minuses of The Final Countdown Tour: Dayton, ROH’s first in-house DVD production.

Apologies for the lack of a column last week. Sometimes my mind needs some extra time to mull what I want to write and that was one of those times. I don't intend to put a column out there half-assed there if it's not ready.

One further note, recently there was an infestation of ants on my computer desk. In other news, I will not be supporting The Colony any longer.

Welcome to the Column.





The Independent Buy-In Stretch Thin


There are too many independent professional wrestling companies.

This is a conclusion I have come to recently, but not a newsflash to anyone who has been paying attention. You can easily count-off the many different independent professional wrestling companies that are out there—Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, CHIKARA, Jersey All-Pro Wrestling, Combat Zone Wrestling, the defunct and now once again alive IWA Mid-South, AAW, Full-Impact Pro, SHIMMER, NEPW, Dragon Gate USA and soon enough EVOLVE. These are some of the most recognizable names of independent professional promotions, but there are many more all over the United States. Of course, there are many promotions that one can choose to follow internationally in countries such as Mexico, Europe and Japan. Never before has there been so much access to the various brands and genres of professional wrestling. That exposure and that awareness and availability of product is the biggest problem of them all in 2009, when the United States and global economy is having a very real effect on jobs, money and discretionary income.

This is something I have come to reconcile these past few months as I (and many others) find themselves tightening their wallets and restraining their budgets amid the recession in the United States. Jobs are down, money is tight and there is less spending cash on material possessions and entertainment such as DVDs, music and of course, professional wrestling shows.

A multitude of independent wrestling companies have been in existence for decades now and thus there was a multitude of choices as to which promotions to follow—that is, if you had access to the product (and that wasn't always guaranteed). Going back to the territorial days, when every wrestling promotion, small or large, could have been considered an independent, but unless you travelled a lot across the country or you had cable or UHF access (and the former was very primitive in the late 70's / early 80's), you didn't have the access to watch more than the regional promotions in your area.

Then we come to the more conventional understanding of the "modern era" of pro wrestling which has shown one company (usually WWF / WWE) as the dominant company in the mainstream, with smaller companies vying for a share of the market. WWE and NWA / WCW had a presence on syndicate and cable television, but the independent companies did not. Therefore fans who watched in that era were predisposed towards watching those companies and not much else. Speaking from personal experience, I can remember in the early 1990's reading about many independent companies in New York and the Northeast, including USA Wrestling and the short lived AWF. I saw advertisements for these shows, but never went, because at the time I was a starry-eyed mark. In my young mind, WWE had the best stars, the current stars and the overall best wrestling. The independent companies usually featured the stars of yesteryear, wrestlers who at the time I thought were not cool or past their prime, such as a Tito Santana or Greg Valentine.

Then the Attitude boom changed the industry again. Greater exposure to WWE and WCW and the advent of the internet as a point of access to information brought to light the efforts of ECW and the diversity of talent wrestlers in that promotion. At the time you really couldn't envision wrestlers like Sabu or Balls Mahoney having air time on WWE programming (little did we know). On the other hand, you had true diamonds-in-the-rough with talent such as Rob Van Dam, Lance Storm, Taz, Jerry Lynn and others featured on the show. More importantly, it was become easier to follow, if not necessarily to watch, products other than WWE or WCW. I remember that ECW's syndicated show ran weekends at 2 A.M. in the morning on MSG network. You could catch these guys doing some impressive stuff if you were lucky enough not to fall asleep before then. What that period of time did for me though was to expose an interesting idea—that there were talented wrestlers in "other" promotions out there, not just in WWF or WCW. That in fact a good number of the wrestlers who were joining the ranks of either company had come from this "other" place—this vast landscape known as independent professional wrestling.

Yes when I was young and reading my Pro Wrestling Illustrated I did read about other small promotions like those in Memphis-USWA or Smokey Mountain. However, aside from reading the articles and looking at the pictures, I didn't have the access to even attempt to try to watch these products. Not to mention that I was a teenager and I didn't have enough discretionary income to spend on discovering these "other" promotions. What I didn't know at that time was that there were "tape-traders" that you could contact in order to gain access to this mysterious "other" world of pro wrestling. I would occasionally see advertisements for RF Video "shoot Tapes" on the back of those Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazines and I would be mystified. I didn't even know exactly what "shoot tapes" meant and that RF Video also housed a company that created ECW arena "fan cams" and sold tapes of other independent professional wrestling companies.

For as much as Rob Feinstein has been maligned (and a good deal of it deservedly so) over the years, the one undeniable fact is that for many wrestling fans such as myself, his company was an invaluable pipeline to the independent wrestling world in the late 1990's and early 2000's. As much as some may not like to admit, his company was one of the first to take advantage of this modern era of the smart wrestling fan on the internet, wanting and yearning for access to something "other" than WWE or WCW, for some wrestling product that was better than what was being offered by the mainstream in 2002

As an aside, it should be noted that Feinstein seems to be popping up again in the wrestling world, recently attending WWE's Smackdown and ECW tapings with Gabe Sapolsky and even making a bit appearance in the Tony Luke's skit with Goldust, Tommy Dreamer and Yoshi Tatsu that was cut from ECW but made available online at WWE.com.

The new boom of the independent wrestling scene on the internet began in 2002 with the advent of Ring of Honor. I began to purchase my first Ring of Honor DVDs in early 2003 through the RFVideo.com website. I began to purchase my first independent wrestling shows in conjunction with access to the internet web and the ensuring of online purchase safety, the newfound economic freedom graduating from college as well as having a steady full-time employment with a good salary.

Soon enough, I was buying DVDs from many independent wrestling companies on a regular and consistent basis. Then there were some "fringe" promotions whose shows I purchased along the way, such as the International Wrestling Cartel (IWC) run very successfully by Norm Connors. Later on, I would sample shows from IWA Mid-South and the now-defunct UWA in Canada. I would buy shoot videos by the truckload, T-shirts and ski caps and hoodies as well. When Ring of Honor began to sell Pro Wrestling NOAH DVDs on their website, I purchased those.

It all adds up. I must imagine I have spent thousands of dollars on wrestling merchandise in addition to WWE and TNA products. Don't get me wrong. I don't regret the decision to make these purchases. Not even ROH Uncensored Volume 1 (thank god there was never a volume two). I spent the discretionary money I had with aplomb and I did it with the knowledge that in return for my money I would be watching some incredible matches, some funny comedy segments and the best young and upcoming talent in the world. I would also be watching events filmed in gymnasiums and some shoddy production work along the way (more on that later on in the column), but you take the good with the bad. In other words, I got my money's worth.

Okay, maybe I regret buying that Uncensored DVD a little bit.

Amazon.com is a great deal at fault here as well. They're the ones that popularized shopping on the internet (its predecessor EBay was the one-stop shop "auction house" in comparison to Amazon.com's one-stop "K-Mart"). They made it safe and reliable to buy any sort of product online, have it shipped to your house in days. They showed other websites and company the way to reach into a new pool of potential customers—and showed that the little mom-and-pop shops could do it too. Professional wrestling companies and retailers did not let this phenomenon go unnoticed. Soon enough, you could buy wrestling shows from wrestling companies ABC and XYZ shipped to your home, at your convenience. It was easy, it was safe and it was fun.

The problem today is that now that I (and others in my position) have more choices than ever before thanks to an increased awareness of the independent wrestling scene-at-large. As Puff Daddy once sang, mo' choices, mo' problems.

I remain a devoted follower to Ring of Honor—that much you know. Also, when I can, I purchase DVDs from CHIKARA, SHIMMER and PWG, although the latter a lot less than I'd really like. Now, add on new promotions from Gabe Sapolsky—Dragon Gate USA and EVOLVE. I start to get antsy. Throw in watching WWE on a regular basis and at the least following the latest news and happenings in TNA and you can clearly see that I am near a saturation point in my wrestling fandom. Like a comic book collector who discovers that there is yet ANOTHER X-Men solo series that he must add to his pull list, I just don't know how much more I can add to the buy-in before I am stretched thin and busted out. I don't think I am alone here in this position either.

A dollar is still a dollar and can be stretched only so much—so fans have been splintered into different corners—some buy only PWG, some buy only CHIKARA, some buy only ROH. Then there is the overlap, those who try to buy products from multiple promotions. Their dollar (and mine) is stretched even more, because it multiplies the amount of product they must purchase in order to keep in continuity with all of the different promotions. In these troubled economic times, the discretionary income of many wrestling fans is stretched thin—we have many more choices to make, but more sacrifices as well. Someone who purchased four DVDs a month from Ring of Honor just two years ago may only purchase one a month, or even less than that.

Of course in recent years the advent of torrent sites has helped to "alleviate" this problem for some customers. There are smart fans who capitalize on the right sales to purchase their DVDs. Then there are those "smarter" fans that choose not to spend their money to access the products they wish to follow.

It's not just the expanded reach and brand awareness of the independent promotions that are contributing to the problem of saturating the market—the mainstream wrestling companies are also doing their share to add to the cost of living of a wrestling fan. WWE has decided recently to raise the purchase price of its monthly Pay Per Views, beginning in 2010. The cost will increase five dollars to $44.95 (and that's without the additional surcharge to the price point for the ability to see the show in HD—cable companies can hit you with an increase upwards of ten dollars). TNA also recently hiked the cost of its shows five dollars to $34.95. The cost of the major mainstream wrestling shows are going up, which means more a pinch on the consumer dollar and tougher decisions as to which shows are purchased.

The Pay Per View market is in a decline for WWE and has never been all too great for TNA. Ring of Honor found a modicum of initial success for its efforts to reach into the market, but eventually pulled out when buys decreased and it seemed no longer feasible to continue the PPV efforts. Even Sapolsky's Dragon Gate USA Pay Per Views have taken this "five dollars more"approach by taking the $14.95 standard price tag offered by most cable distributors for the ROH shows and boosting it up to $19.95. Generally speaking, fans that were going to buy this show grumbled about the price increase but purchased the show anyway considering the guaranteed quality of the matches they knew were being offered. However, keep in mind that DGUSA, like ROH in 2007-2008 is also utilizing the "double dip" method—offering the same show to its fans in two different purchasing formats. These DGUSA shows have an initial Pay Per View release and then the DVD release to follow. These DVDs have added matches from the shows and have plenty of bonuses to make a purchase worthwhile. However, it's not too difficult to see that the hardcores who follow the promotion will likely buy both the PPV and the DVD, whereas fewer fans will be picky and just choose one or the other format.

Last week's announcement of EVOLVE wrestling, run by Gabe Sapolsky, Sal Hamoui and Davey Richards, brings yet another independent promotion to the forefront of the internet's attention. Due to Sapolsky's high profile as the vice-president of Dragon Gate USA and the highly acclaimed former booker of Ring of Honor for seven years, this promotion is already guaranteed an extra-large amount of attention from the internet press. Already so much hype has been created through their viral campaign (a smart lesson that Gabe learned when doing the Age of the Fall teaser websites) and decision to slowly release tidbits to keep them in the IWC news cycle. It's no doubt a smart business decision, but not a very happy situation for yours truly. Not because this is another competitor to ROH, mind you, but it is yet another independent promotion that I now anticipate that I will try to follow and see how it progresses. That does not do my cash flow any favors.

EVOLVE will surely only run a limited schedule of shows, as a supplement to Sapolsky's limited run of six to seven shows per year for Dragon Gate. Yet, six to seven extra shows (given they receive positive reviews) is an easy 120-140 dollars more to spend. That will take the starch out of the IWC independent wrestling fans' wallets.

Fans are already becoming more selective and less willing to lay out the dough for wrestling DVDs. That is one of the major reasons why Ring of Honor needs to ensure that the shows they put on are top notch, must-buy shows. They were never the only independent company with the ability to reach out to the internet customer base but generally speaking they have been considered THE top independent in the United States of America these past seven years. Now that may no longer be true, as they are losing ground to the competition at least from the perspective of critical acclaim and the important "buzz factor".

These past few weeks have been an example of the extreme differences in the kind of quality that ROH cannot afford to have in 2009—spectacularly great shows with rave reviews mixed in with so called "B" shows with less than stellar line-ups on paper and in practice (although if we're being fair, then this disparity in shows also happened towards the end of Sapolsky's run in 2008).

ROH held their third show in as many nights in Edison, New Jersey after a relatively strong two nights of television tapings for HDNet in Philadelphia (with the introduction of the Pick 6 rankings and a very strong four corner match for the ROH World title). The Edison show was headlined by Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Chris Hero & Davey Richards. That seems a good match on paper, but not to be a "main event' match on the level of what had taken place on previous shows. In the past two months main events have included the Survival of the Fittest 2009 Finals (touted to be great with an excellent finish between Black and Roderick Strong) and Bryan Danielson farewell matches against top names in ROH such as Chris Hero, Austin Aries, Davey Richards and of course the final match of Danielson's ROH career against Nigel McGuinness.

The rest of the Edison card didn't seem on paper like it would light any fires and mediocrity bore out judging from the show results and reviews. I didn't read anything complimentary about the show on the ROH message board. Former 411mania writer and current PWInsider columnist Stu Carapola put a message on his Facebook saying "Tonight's ROH show sucked really bad. That company has really lost its way ". Stu is a very dedicated fan who attends many shows in the Northeast and he calls a spade a spade, so for him to say that is very alarming. The very best praise I heard about the show came from a Pro Wrestling Ponderings Podcast where Jason Sterlacci commented that there were three very good matches on the show. However, it hardly came across like he was giving a recommendation or a "must-buy" seal of approval.

As I've written in the recent past, ROH needs to strive to get back that "must buy" feeling, not just for one show or for two shows, but for EVERY show they run. It is critical that they regain their DVD customer base at a time when promotions like PWG and Dragon Gate USA are running spectacular show after spectacular show. Those fans, those customers who fall into the niche of "independent wrestling fan" hear the reviews of those shows and they want to buy THOSE shows, not the Ring of Honor shows. While ROH has run several incredible, must-buy shows in recent months (Death Before Dishonor VII Night 1 and Glory By Honor VIII come to mind, the fact is they run too many shows, and occasionally the ones that fall short of the mark like the Edison show come back to bite ROH in the butt. Fans read the results and the reviews of those "B shows" and become apathetic. They think they don't have to buy that show, and soon enough they think they don't have to buy any ROH show. For that reason the very idea of a "B show" needs to be eliminated from the thoughts of the fans and it start with how these shows are booked in the first place.

Compare that Edison show to the shows that followed the next week in Novi, Michigan and Mississauga, Ontario. Not only did these shows look incredible on paper, but they also delivered, receiving rave reviews on the ROH message board and all over the internet. The two title matches, with Austin Aries being taken to the limit in epic title defenses against Richards in Novi and against Omega in Ontario, should make these DVDs instant must-buys. However, it's not just the main events that delivered, but the entire show from top-to-bottom. Novi showcased some incredible tag team action between Steenerico and The Young Bucks, a supposedly great Hero vs. Strong bout as well as a dream singles match between Omega and Katsuhiko Nakajima. Ontario featured Generico vs. Nakajima in a well-received singles match (despite both becoming injured during the bout), another well-matched bout between Black and Strong (that ended in a draw) and the title match. Both of these shows blew the Edison show out of the water in terms of not just match quality, but importance to ROH as a whole.

If ROH cannot deliver every show as a must-buy, then the solution should be for ROH to reduce the number of shows they run in a given year. ROH was far more newsworthy several years ago when they were running two-to-three shows a month as opposed to four-to-six, including television tapings. I don't mean they should backtrack all the way what a start-up such as Dragon Gate is doing, but simply one less show a month could mean all the difference. Each show would become more important to the overall development of angles and storylines, there would be less obvious repetition of line-ups (ROH has had repeat matches for as long as it has existed, but the AJ Styles vs. CM Punk series in 2004 for instance holds up far more than Brent Albright vs. Claudio Castagnoli), more time and attention and the all important hype factor given to the money matches that ROH needs to highlight in order to stay relevant. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and other independent promotions that are starting to receive more attention from the internet fans—they put on less shows, but almost every show is a must-buy, must-watch. Every ROH show must be treated as an "A show" even if for occasionally one of them doesn't work out that way in execution. Otherwise, they become just another independent in a sea of promotions dotting the landscape of the United States, except they have a television show on a niche channel that isn't seen by all that many people. Hell, this may have started already.

To put it succinctly, Ring of Honor is capable and has demonstrated greatness in 2009, whether people have been looking or not. It just isn't on an every show basis and that has been killer for the bottom-line.

There are only so many wrestling fans. Out of those wrestling fans, only so many of them follow the independent scene and are aware of the greatness of promotions like ROH and PWG. Out of those fans, only so many have enough money to follow multiple independent promotions. What has happened already is that the same bunch of wrestling fans who fill that niche will continue to be spread thin, eventually hitting a saturation point, if we're not there already. So far, these fans have been able to sustain promotions with live ticket, DVD and merchandise sales. Will that be able to continue? Or is there a point where there will be just one independent promotion too many?

Ultimately, the market will bear out what the fans will continue to support. Wrestling companies that can't provide what the fans demand will fall by the wayside. Ring of Honor just has to make sure that this doesn't also include them.



Pluses and Minuses of The Final Countdown Tour: Dayton DVD Production

Ring of Honor began to design and to produce their own DVDs beginning with The Final Countdown Tour: Dayton. The results are a mixed bag, with the addition of several features that fans have asked for quite a while as well as certain improvements in the aesthetics of the DVD and the program itself. In many respects, ROH has made this DVD appear closer to a TV product, with slick cuts and wipes, quick transitions between promos and matches and new graphics that add more information about the wrestlers than ever before. On the other hand, there were some obvious setbacks in terms of the audio and especially the video quality and which needs to be corrected right away. Overall, it seems a bit of "one step forward, one step back". This is not the impression with which a customer should be left after a purchase, especially in these trying economic times.


Pluses:

+ The menu screen now has full motion video again, but instead of the generic video with clips of all-time ROH moments, this is specific to the show itself. I would like to see this feature continued for future releases, with specific clips for each show. WWE does this for its anthology collections and it works well.

+ An introduction video plays at the beginning of the show, again specific to the event itself. This one features hype and build for the Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero main event. It's a new reel which wasn't made available on the video wire. Again, WWE does this for their Pay Per View shows and it's a great addition to the ROH product. I'd like to see them do a new video for every event, but we'll see if they keep it up on a show-to -show basis.

+ More interviews and promos from the wrestlers before the matches. These have been noticeably absent on the last few DVD releases, but they are back in full force. We get fresh, never-before-seen promos from The Briscoes, Dark City Fight Club and Claudio Castagnoli among others. There is also a brand-new hype video for Chris Hero that plays before the Hero vs. Danielson match that includes footage of him boxing in a gym and features comments from his trainers. This was really cool and made Hero look like a legit bad-ass threat. What a job they did building Hero up on this DVD. There is a ton of promise for building the reputation of wrestlers with features like this if they can follow up on this for Hero and do this for other wrestlers. Not to mention that these videos help to add character-depth and motivation on a per-show basis and help to keep some continuity between what is going on from the HDNet show to the house show DVDs.

+ As mentioned last week, for the first time ever an ROH DVD includes the feature to turn off the commentary and listen to the show as if you were there live and in attendance. ROH also features the commentary in both five-point-one channel and two-channel audio options. I applaud ROH for including this feature, but hope they don't stop with this one DVD and include it in ALL future ROH releases.

As far as the usefulness of said feature, well, more on that in just a bit.

+ The Bonus page is actually filled with real "bonuses" that enhance the value of the DVD as opposed to just one video wire and that's it. You get a pre-show match, Bryan Danielson's post-match encore (which is a real nice touch) and TWO video wires (ah-ha!), real good ones as well, with two of Chris Hero's excellent promos (one on Danielson and the other on Kingston).

+ New graphics now display a wrestler's weight and hometown. Truth be told, they could probably go even further with this, listing finishing moves or current feuds. Still, this is a really nice little touch that adds to the overall presentation of the show.


Neutral:

/ This is the first DVD with the commentary team of Dave Prazak and Chris Hero in place. Lenny Leonard will no longer be contributing to the call, which is a shame. Now Prazak and Hero have done commentary together before, but their call for this show was a bit uneven. It comes off like both men are looking to find their position in this new team. Prazak had been the heel for most of 2009 in the partnerships with Leonard and also with Mike Hogewood on HDNet. Now he has to downplay that because Hero is clearly the heel commentator. It results in some awkward moments when Hero says something rude about a babyface and Prazak laughs along, but can't really agree with him and yet he doesn't defend the babyfaces either. This leads to the lack of a voice for the babyfaces on commentary, which could eventually hurt their reputation and esteem. ROH has always had problems pushing babyface contenders and champions, so that is something that must be addressed immediately. ROH needs someone to backup and help root for the good guys. Mike Hogewood is the only one left doing that on any ROH program.

/ Hero is a mixed bag but mostly a positive on the color commentary. He makes some great observations throughout the show as far as wrestling strategy and in-match storytelling. He even cuts in on some wrestlers similar to the way Punk and McGuinness have done and it is very entertaining. However, at times, when the action picks up and Hero is clearly marking out, he becomes self-conscious with his voice. It's almost like he wants to shout but instead shouts in a whisper, if that makes sense. Hero should just shout out if he wants and forget that he is in a commentary booth. Let them adjust the volume in post.


Minuses:

- Also back and NOT welcome are the extreme amounts of whitewashing, bright lights and inadequate video quality. Most DVD releases over the last six months to a year have not had the terrible problems that plagued ROH DVDs in previous years. In fact, Death Before Dishonor VII Nights One and Two, the last DVDs authored and pressed by Sal Hamoui's company, have absolutely outstanding video quality. DBD VII Night One is top-to-bottom ROH's best show of the year, and the great audio and video make the event stand out even more. Not so in the case of The Final Countdown Tour: Dayton.

The video quality of the stationary camera is distant and blurred throughout the entire show, meaning you cannot clearly see facial expressions and there is somewhat of a double vision going on. Meanwhile the hand held cameras are great, with crystal clear video. This creates instability in the video presentation, which is flat-out inexcusable. I don't know, maybe it's the limitations of the Dayton venue that created this situation. However, if this poor quality level continues for the Boston and Manhattan shows, then that is a signal of a large problem.

Not only is the video on the Dayton show partially sub-standard, but the audio is as well. The audio mix is far lower for crowd reactions now that the new commentary options have been installed—it reminds me of the first few episodes of ROH on HDNet where the Philadelphia crowd was reportedly very loud for certain portions of the shows and yet would come across muddled and quiet. The same thing happens in the mix for this show, which does detract from the overall atmosphere, especially during main event matches.

I do have to write that ROH is not alone in this problem. The recent Dragon Gate USA Untouchable show was riddled with video problems, most notably, yes, whitewashing. The white outs were actually worse than any of Ring of Honor's Pay Per Views and any recent ROH DVD, including the Dayton show. Of course there was awesome matches and Doi vs. Danielson and Shingo vs. Richards that lived up to the hype (I liked the former more than the latter but it is debatable), but again, video production problems really dampened my overall enthusiasm for that show. I don't know if it was the specific set-up for the show in the Chicago venue (the first show from Philadelphia looked eons better), but this too was also inexcusable. It is absolutely necessary that fans and critics hold up these promotions to a higher standard for our spending dollar and DGUSA should not go overlooked when it comes to bad production value.

In 2009, there is no excuse for bad video and audio presentation. ROH has been in existence for nearly eight years and continually gets this wrong. They need to fix these in-house video and audio issues and they need to do it now.

- Shortened entrances, or in some cases, no entrances are back in play. This flat out sucks. Entrances are an important part of getting a wrestler over and there is no excuse for entrances to be cut in this day and age when ROH is running shorter shows and have DVDs with longer record time capability. Even if it's only mid-card guys like Rasche Brown and Silas Young—in fact that makes it even worse because the newer wrestlers need as much help as possible to get over to the audience that is watching the DVDs.

- For those hoping Dave Prazak would go it alone during matches involving Chris Hero (like he does on SHIMMER DVDs with wrestlers as guest commentators who must duck out to wrestler their match), you're out of luck. ROH has brought in Eric SantaMaria to fill in on play-by-play. Don't know who that is? You'll recognize his voice from the many video packages like the ROH merchandise plug and the ROH Wrestling Academy commercial. Now as far as color commentary, it's adequate, but nothing spectacular. Really the best I can say for now is that he is as generic as Jared David but not nearly as annoying as Mark Nulty.


As far as the matches themselves? This is a good show overall, with a good Briscoes vs. Young Bucks match, a really good Claudio vs. Richards match and a great main event bout between Hero and Danielson being the major reasons to buy-in. Hero vs. Danielson in particular is just a terrific match, especially down the home stretch when Hero is doing everything in his power to win and Danielson is just refusing to be defeated. Danielson's selling of the knock-out elbows in particular as stunning—his eyes rolling back, his body falling down—it's as realistic as professional wrestling can get. Danielson has been able to elevate his game even in his closing matches on the independent scene, but really that shouldn't be any surprise to those who have followed his career. I expect their PWG Title bout to be just as good and likely better considering it went longer.




Honor Bound Links


I invite everyone to check out some of my other writing, available at Associated Content. Click and read any and all of the following articles that I wrote this week:

NCIS Season 7 Episode 7 "Endgame": North Korean spy / assassin Lee Wuan Kai is back to cause trouble for NCIS Director Leon Vance.

NCIS Season 7 Episode 8 "Power Down": Agent Gibbs Proves that "old School is Cool" when Half of Washington Goes Down in a Blackout

Head on over to TwitterNation and follow me at: http://twitter.com/AriBerenstein.


I provide my thoughts and elimination-by-elimination break down in 411's Roundtable Preview for WWE Survivor Series 2009.

I was also featured in last week's 411 Buy or Sell column. Clickety-clickety-click.

Jasper Gerretsen presents an excellent column dedicated to the CHIKARA Special in this week's That Was Then, Is This Too?.

Speaking of CHIKARA, you can catch up with the latest of their happenings with 411's Kevin Ford and his always great read in Contemplating CHIKARA.


This week at 411, we have the following Ring of Honor coverage:

Aaron Hubbard has your review of Bryan Danielson's last match for ROH on HDNet. It's a doozy of a bout against Roderick Strong and yes I did just write the word "doozy".

You can read the 4R's of the previous week's ROH on HDNet episode as well.

Sam and Bayani make special appearances for this week's 411 Buy or Sell with thoughts on PWG, EVOLVE and thoughts on the return of Jack Evans, Rocky Romero, Alex Kozlov and Teddy Hart to ROH for a special appearance.


Thanks for reading everyone—I'll try and be here next week. Until then…

BROOKLYN!
--Ari--