411’s Buy or Sell 12.04.09: EVOLVE’s First Main Event Set, BxB Hulk Wins The Open The Freedom Gate Title, Ring Of Honor To Stream Final Battle, More

Posted by Michael Bauer on 12.04.2009

This week, the 411 Wrestling Staff looks back at Dragon Gate’s USA first champion and looks ahead to Ring of Honor as Ryan Byers battles Jasper Gerretsen in Buy or Sell!

Welcome everyone to Week 136 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.

Questions are sent out on Monday Night.

BANNER!


(Special thanks to Jasper Gerretsen)

Davey Richards vs. Kota Ibushi is a worthy main event for EVOLVE Wrestling's first show.



Ryan Byers : SELL. Don't get me wrong, it'll be a good match. In fact, chances are good that it will be a GREAT match. However, what EVOLVE has to do in order to get my attention is more than just put on great matches. We've already got Ring of Honor and Dragon Gate USA for that fix on the indy scene. What EVOLVE needs to do in order to get my attention and my dollar is prove that they're something DIFFERENT than ROH or DGUSA and not just another redundant product. Ibushi vs. Richards with no build and no backstory is in no way, shape, or form different than any number of matches that I could see in existing independent promotions. If EVOLVE wants to be something special, it needs to be something different . . . and, if they do in fact intend to be different, they've done a miserable job thusfar when it comes to putting that across.

Jasper Gerretsen : BUY. Taking into account the talent already announced to be part of EVOLVE, I really can't see them putting on anything better. I guess that I'm just completely underwhelmed by the talent announced so far. Still, they seem to be going for a distinctive roster of their own rather than just trying to be ROH 2.0, as I feared when the company was first announced. Richards vs. Ibushi will be a match of one of America's fastest rising stars against one of the most exciting wrestlers to come out of Japan in recent years, and on that ground alone I think it's good enough as a first main event.

0 for 1.

The FIP World Heavyweight Championship is not recognizable enough of a title to be defended in Dragon Gate.

Ryan Byers : SELL. If you honestly believe that one promotion's title is not "worthy" of being defended on another promotion's show, you probably take professional wrestling too seriously for your own good. Chances are good that the FIP Title being defended in Dragon Gate is just a favor to Davey Richards and/or Gabe Sapolsky in exchange for the work that they've done with Dragon Gate USA. There's nothing wrong with that at all, as it's been a common practice throughout wrestling history. For example, the Smokey Mountain Wrestling Tag Team Titles were defended in the World Wrestling Federation when SMW was providing talent to the WWF, the IWGP Heavyweight Title was often defended in World Championship Wrestling as part of the WCW-NJPW relationship, and, more recently, the Jersey All Pro Wrestling Women's Title was defended on a TNA house show when JAPW helped TNA promote that particular show. It's quite likely that all we're seeing here is a rehash of a practice that has occurred many times before. Besides, titles from Germany's Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) have been defended on Dragon Gate shows in the past, and the FIP Title is actually a step UP from the wXw Titles.

Jasper Gerretsen : SELL. We've seen titles from American independent promotions defended in Dragon Gate before, and those promotions didn't even have the kind of relationship Dragon Gate currently has with FIP through Dragon Gate USA. Furthermore, they have a current champion in Davey Richards with whom Japanese fans will already be at least somewhat familliar, as he has not only appeared on the Japanese ROH shows but also in Pro Wrestling NOAH. Furthermore, Richards is talented enough to give the Japanese fans a lasting first impression of FIP, which is exactly the kind of representation a champion should provide.

1 for 2.

Dragon Gate USA should have had an American wrestler win the Open the Freedom Gate Championship.

Ryan Byers : SELL. The whole draw of DGUSA is that it allows fans in the United States to see the Japanese Dragon Gate talent live without having to take the lengthy plane ride over to the Land of the Rising Sun. At least in my mind, the main purpose of the American wrestlers in DGUSA is not to be the focus of the promotion but rather to be filler, rounding out cards because it would not be cost effective to bring in the entire Japanese crew. Because the whole focus of the promotion is supposed to be the foreign wrestlers, it makes the most sense for the initial holder of the company's primary championship to be one of the foreign wrestlers.

Jasper Gerretsen : SELL. BxB Hulk certainly wouldn't have been my first pick for champion, but I do feel that there certainly isn't a need for the first champion to be American. In the first two PPVs we have seen, DGUSA has clearly defined itself to be more about the in-ring action than any promotion currently out there, and in that regard BxB Hulk can certainly deliver. Time will tell if DGUSA will continue to focus on the in-ring action, but if they do move more towards storylines and characters, I'm sure they can find a competent manager.

2 for 3.


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One of the two ranked "Pick 6 Series" contenders will lose to an unranked person in Chicago.

Jasper Gerretsen : SELL. I'm actually a fan of the idea of the Pick 6 Series, even if they could've put a better name on it, if only because it'll encourage consistency in the booking. With that being said, I doubt that we'll see any major upheavels to the current standings, as the concept is still in its infancy. I certainly don't see Kenny King putting away Tyler Black without Aries and/or Titus at ringside, and while Claudio Castagnoli vs. Kevin Steen will be a more competitive matchup, but with Claudio being unranked and Steen being the top pick, I don't think we'll see Steen losing here.

Ryan Byers : SELL. I have a hard time caring about the Pick 6. Sorry, ROH. For reasons that I can't quite put my finger on, "lists" of contenders have never really worked that well in any of the several wrestling promotions that have attempted to do them. With that being said, I have a hard time believing that one of the ranked contenders will be picked off this weekend. Doing so makes no sense. Why would you position an individual as a contender just to have him beaten before receiving his title shot? All that accomplishes is burying the ranked contender who loses the match.

3 for 4.

Ring of Honor putting a live show in streaming PPV is a bad business move, as it will just be re-streamed everywhere.

Jasper Gerretsen : SELL. I've already purchased my stream, and I think that the low cost will be more than enough to encourage fans to buy the streams directly at the source in return for guaranteed quality. It's certainly a huge leap of faith from ROH, but I think this format will make them money. With my admittedly somewhat limited knowledge of how streaming video works, I think that it's actually easier to stream a PPV off a cable box than it is off an internet stream. I'm sure there will be illegal copies of the PPV stream floating around, just like there are plenty of sites offering rips of ROH DVDs, but that shouldn't stop them.

Ryan Byers : SELL. First of all, if they're using any kind of reputable service to stream the show, security measures will be put into place to cut down on the amount of illegal re-streams that take place, even if it is impossible to completely eliminate re-streaming. Even so, refusing to market your product through a new medium just because you feel that doing so will encourage a small minority of individuals to pirate your product is ridiculous. Should ROH stop selling DVDs because some people rip the DVDs and put the resulting videos up on file sharing sites? Of course they shouldn't, because, even though some people are thieves, the ones that are honest and spend money on the product provide much-needed revenue to the promotion. The same is true when it comes to streaming a show live online. It is worth a shot and should be continued until it is proven to not be profitable, whether due to pirating or other reasons.

4 for 5.

Kevin Steen will turn on El Generico following their match with the Young Bucks at Final Battle 2009.



Jasper Gerretsen : SELL. With the rebooking of Steen in tag matches for the Final Battle weekend, I think that they will be pushing the team rather than disbanding it. With Richards wrestling for pretty much every promotion in both America and Japan, I can't see their team holding on to the titles much longer, and if they do lose them ROH will need Steen and Generico, either as the next championship team or a solid feud for the next championship team.

Ryan Byers : SELL. With Davey Richards focusing heavily on Dragon Gate USA and his own EVOLVE promotion, I have a feeling that his time in ROH is limited, at least as a top guy. I would imagine that he and partner Eddie Edwards will be dropping the company's Tag Team Titles sooner rather than later, and the result is an ROH tag team division missing one of its biggest players. Accordingly, I don't think that the promotion can afford to split up Steen and Generico, and I doubt that they will actually do so.

5 for 6!!


The 136th edition of BUY or SELL finishes at 5 for 6 as these guys just want to sell everything I throw at them! Stay tuned for next week as two new people step up to the plate on Buy or Sell!