Column of Honor: 12.12.09: Renewal

Posted by Ari Berenstein on 12.12.2009

Ring of Honor did all the right things this week on the build to Final Battle 2009 and--dare I say it?—looks to have renewed energy and commitment after a year of ups and downs. Plus: a review of CHIKARA’s Young Lions Cup VIII Night Three.


Welcome to the Column.





Renewal



This past week has been one of Ring of Honor's finest moments all year in creating a sense of excitement, buzz and hype about its product, judging by the promotional videos, news pieces and delivering of one of its best episodes of its television show.

The extra-focus on pushing the brand name ROH, with a heavy emphasis on the upcoming year-end show and internet Pay Per View special Final Battle 2009 demonstrates that Ring of Honor can still create the kind of buzz needed to stir excitement, both from its base and from the larger internet wrestling community.

Ring of Honor, which had a mixed year of both apathetic and exceptional in-ring efforts and average storylines that with one exception have mostly been muddled and not as effective as possible. However, the last few months of 2009 has seen a regrouping in how it is marketing its shows and executing it's in-ring product as ROH has been forced to cope with the departure of its two most prominent wrestlers in Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness (now in TNA as Desmond Wolfe). ROH is in the process of building up several wrestlers on its roster into the main event position, while seemingly shaking itself from the storyline doldrums by reinstating a ranking system with more of a "chase for the championship" feel.

This past week saw the beginning of the Jim Cornette-led era of Ring of Honor on HDNet television and the announcement of the "Pick 6 Contender Series", which is a series of six matches to determine eligibility for contention to the ROH World Title. These matches, recorded at the last HDNet TV tapings will play out over the next six weeks of television. While in DVD series continuity the first list of the Pick 6 has already changed multiple times, this week's television, beginning with an in-ring meeting between Cornette (officially titled as HDNet Executive Producer, with both an on and off-camera role for the company) and the ROH roster excelled in putting over the concept and generating excitement both about the series and about that week's show, which was one of, if not the best show of the series to date.

The week of renewal for Ring of Honor actually began before the television show and actually didn't originate from the company. ThatWrestlingShow has been releasing recap videos and packages for the ROH wrestlers through You Tube for several months now, but this week released a stunning promotional piece that hypes up the ROH World Title match at Final Battle 2009 between champion Austin Aries and challenger Tyler Black. It is, without a doubt, one of the best video packages done about ROH, with smooth transitions, high-quality video production and effects and most importantly, telling the story of the Aries vs. Black feud that has in essence been built up "a year in the making."





Comments about the video have been unanimously positive, with many comments stating that he / she is now very much excited about the match and the show as a whole. Its' not just the base of Ring of Honor fans that are reacting positively to this piece, but quite a few fans who have been down on the product over the last year or so have remarked that they were not excited about the show before, but having seen this video were not anxious to watch and / or order the show. Given that Final Battle 2009 is the first live internet pay per view from ROH (produced and transmitted by GoFightLive.tv), the positive reception from this promotional piece was a step forward in promoting the show and probably will be responsible for a quite a few more buys than if it had not been created at all.

Ring of Honor also released several videos of their own this week in order to promote the Pay Per View and announce or build to matches that will be held on the show. Most notably, Eddie Kingston versus Chris Hero was teased and then announced for Final Battle through a series of packages featuring comments from both competitors and Jim Cornette. The first Kingston-Hero feud had the unfortunate luck of being placed as the first post-intermission match after the violent conclusion of Ladder War 2 between American Wolves and Steenerico and thus the fan reaction lacked. In addition, both men seemed a bit lethargic coming out of the gates and while they hit some pretty impressive suplexes and strikes for big pops, something was missing. Overall, the match did suffer for the lack of the intangible qualities that can push a match in ROH from average to very memorable. However, the rivalry between the two men that has waged over many years and over many different promotions. In has delivered many strong in-ring grudge fights and impressive promos and still needed a proper send-off in ROH.







Kingston and Hero can both talk up a match and make you want to see it, and both did it here in their promotional videos to set up the match. Kingston bore his soul about his embarrassment at losing in front of his hometown NYC crowd and his mother during Glory By Honor VIII and how he needed one more match to prove to Hero and to everyone else that he could win. Meanwhile, Hero rebuffed Kingston's request with the fact that he already beat Kingston in ROH and the opinion that he was done with him and that he didn't deserve another shot. Jim Cornette asserted himself into the situation and said that he would grant Kingston one more match, but that Hero would be allowed to choose the stipulation. Hero chose a "Fight Without Honor", the match stipulation in Ring of Honor that is essentially no-holds-barred and is meant to end feuds clearly and decisively. Therefore, Kingston gets one more chance at redemption in NYC and Hero will be able to move on, win or lose, once and for-all.

ROH successfully built up this rematch through the series of video released this and last week, restoring the luster and buzz to that feud. Given the "Fight Without Honor" stipulation, the stakes have been raised and there is more of an urgency to this match than ever before. In other words, Hero, Kingston and Cornette used their magic to stir up excitement and renewed interest, which is exactly what was needed.

On Monday, Jim Cornette released a commentary through the ROHwrestling.com website concerning a "contract" with the fans. Cornette is known for his controversial statements and epic rants on a variety of subjects. While this piece began with a lengthy recap of why he was fired from TNA and his uncensored thoughts on that promotion, it closed with a promise to the fans of Ring of Honor. He wrote that he would be in there for the long-haul, that he wanted to work with ROH to deliver the best wrestling product it could, and that all he wanted was the fans to give him and ROH a chance to prove it to them.

The "contract" comes after a year of ROH taking many lumps from fans that have seen the change in booking and a change in some of the wrestling style. DVD sales have decreased; criticism of the lack of progress of angles and some sub-par shows has increased. ROH now faces renewed and increased competition from its independent brethren CHIKARA and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, while former ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky is now promoting two new wrestling companies, Dragon Gate USA and EVOLVE (set to debut in January 2010), one of which has already received rave reviews from the independent wrestling fanbase and the other has proven its ability to promote and keep its name in the news with constant minor and major updates to build to their debut show. All the while, ROH has been plugging along, sometimes delivering the exceptional wrestling action fans have seen in years past and other times providing less-than-stellar shows.

ROH has regained focus on providing the kind of very high quality in-ring product that the independent fans demand since September's Final Countdown Tour, although there still have been missteps here and there. The HDNet tapings in November, which began to air this week, featured some awesome matches befitting the name and reputation of ROH, but they followed it up with what was an average at-best effort for a DVD taping in Edison, New Jersey. A double shot in Michigan and Ontario followed, both of which were well received. The show titled Aries vs. Richards in Novi received rave reviews afterward, while The Omega Effect was a solid show with an exception title defense between Aries and Kenny Omega.

Just last week ROH delivered very well with Reverse the Curse, with a show that didn't look like much on paper but whose undercard overachieved. The main event title match of Aries vs. Cabana had a controversial finish in a positive sense in that it seemed to not only bring added focus to the title picture, but no one was knocking it or the booking for happening. The title to show may have a greater meaning for ROH, because it certainly seems that the company is in the process of reversing the damage done over the past year, even if that effort hasn't change the mass consensus on the internet just yet. A few more efforts like the ones shown on the past few weeks of shows and that goal may be reached.

Monday had the first airing what is in my opinion one of the best HDNet shows yet, although since I don't have the HDNet channel I (and others in my situation) had to wait until Thursday when it made its way to You Tube. The show focused on quality over quantity, with only two matches on the show, the opening Cornette / ROH segment and several smaller packages, one focusing on the Briscoes vs. Steenerico series that immediately led to their match on the show for a title shot at Final Battle 2009, and a quick teaser for the return of Steve Corino returning to ROH.





This show was all killer, no filler. The new introduction video with Kidd Russell's "Rush Rock" as the opening song is a step-up, with a driving guitar line that really does pump you up and get you set for the show to come. Cornette's promo set the stage from the beginning of the show. It was a great way to introduce the wrestlers and those who would be competing for a shot at the title.

In the ring, everyone was on their game. The Briscoes vs. Kevin Steen & Generico match and the Four Corner Survival match for the ROH World Title featuring champion Austin Aries fighting for his life against Roderick Strong, Davey Richards and Kenny Omega was the best one-two punch of back-to-back matches I've seen from ROH this year. Steenerico vs. Briscoes was every bit as good as many of their matches from the 2007 series (although the street fight in Boston for Death Before Dishonor V Night One, their match at Driven and the original Ladder War from Man Up), just without the weapons. I had it as a solid four-star match, as everything the wrestlers did was executed well and both teams fought like what you would expect out of two teams who knew they had that huge opportunity in front of them. Both Kevin Steen and Mark Briscoe's knees, which have been very well known in storylines to be their weakness, became the point of attack for much of the match. The tag team moves and the finish built out from there and took some interesting and well-timed twists. The Briscoes used a well-conceived and just flat-out fun to watch combination of a Mark Briscoe Ace Crusher, Jay Briscoe running closeline and a Jay Driller for the win.

The Four Corner Survival was INTENSE, focused on the action and had a feeling anyone could win. Everything Richards did was beastly, for that matter Strong also commanded a hell of a presence, especially with his chops and fats paced movement around the ring. Omega was kept to concentrated moments where his tomfoolery was mostly limited and the focus instead was on his athleticism. The huge inverted hurricanrana at the end was a highlight for Omega. That move is no longer as original and fresh as when it began to be popularized several years ago, but Omega executes it smoothly and with the power and force necessary to get over its effectiveness. Aries was all over the place, trying madly to make sure no one could when he was not in advantage and throwing everyone else out of the ring when it seemed like he could best win. It led to a frenzied finale where he was in trouble after taking multiple finish moves and Strong had the advantage on Richards with a powerbomb. However, Aries rushed in, kicked Strong in the head and cradled Richards for the win in a match I had as rated between four and a quarter and four and a half-stars.

The show concluded with the lights going out and Tyler Black's music hitting, a camera move to show him coming out of the entrance tunnel ready to fight against Aries. The fans were left a cliffhanger with Black making his move to ringside while Aries was in the ring from his post-match celebration. Black looked seriously cool, edgy and tough at the end of the show and in his slower, deliberate but determined body movements...could they finally be headed in the right direction with Black once more? Hopefully the next show will pick up with that moment, or at least they will replay during the show what happened between Aries and Black after the cameras cut out.

I've long been standing on my soapbox suggesting that ROH cut down on the squash matches for their HDNet show and instead run two-to-three matches per show that more closely demonstrates the "ROH style" of match. This is the match style that is usually seen in the main event position of the show like Danielson vs. Strong or this week's Four Corner Survival. ROH can prove to its viewers and the wrestling world at large that they truly are the best wrestling product out there if they bring that kind of quality from their main event scene into each match of the show. This episode was proof positive that ROH on HDNet will be better off it is uses the "quality of quantity" paradigm. They eliminated the squash matches and instead focused on the top talent in the singles and tag divisions and it paid off dividends. Will they continue to do so in future episodes?

While the Corino promo was perfectly fine and he can be as great in that regard as you'll find on the independent scene right now, his inclusion and the use of old photos of him wrestling served more as a reminder of what hasn't worked for ROH this past year. The fans rejected when ROH pushed Jerry Lynn to the moon with the "old school veteran" trying to make good one more time. Corino could be at risk for the same reaction unless ROH treads carefully. ROH should be focusing on the young and hungry talent at the top of the division. They did that for much of this episode aside from the Corino promo and that is in part why the episode worked as well as it did.

Overall, this week's HDNet show was not only a "must-watch"; it's a "just watch". As in, just watch and enjoy, just watch and you'll be hooked. It is a perfect jumping-on point for newer fans, and even better, a sign to the ROH fans already out there that ROH is re-energized and ready to return to form.

The new videowire was released, which was all promos from the likes of Roderick Strong, Tyler Black, Colt Cabana, Kevin Steen and Austin Aries. There is also one final promo from Eddie Kingston about his match against Hero and it is a great one—filled with the kind of tension and emotion that Kingston is best at…certainly getting to his heart and soul. If you watch that promo then you are going to feel what Eddie is feeling, and that is so important in any dramatic monologue, much less selling any pro wrestling match.

This videowire in particular reminded me of the ECW "Pulp Fiction" promo segments, where they would run back-to-back promos from the wrestlers set to Misirilou. They put the emphasis on the feuds, upcoming matches and even more importantly the personality traits and character touches of each wrestler. In addition the segments continued to demonstrate the growth in promo ability for Roderick Strong and Tyler Black. Strong is still using the "Keep it Simple, Strong" method and in doing so, brings out just enough of his inner personality to make him real and more importantly empathetic. Like the Kingston promo, fans can actually feel what Strong is feeling now through his short but assertive statements.

For his part this week, Tyler Black provided the edge and attitude necessary for his character (something I have been calling for over the last few months in this column) and he didn't do it solely through yelling and screaming. His promo was scattershot in that he was discussing multiple topics, but he is making points and saying them with conviction. That conviction is exactly what Black needs to bring when he cuts promos—he certainly provides when he wrestles in the ring in these high profile situations.





Ring of Honor closed out its week-long push by releasing the following video in hype of the Briscoes vs. American Wolves tag title match:





Again we see a video that puts the focus on one of the more visible feuds in ROH right now, and just at the right time as well, with weeks to go before the match takes place. ROH has certainly executed a very good plan to promote the show / iPPV. If they can continue this sort of effort over the next two weeks, then ROH Final Battle 2009 will be a smash success.

However, not all the news is glowing for ROH. Just yesterday they announced a set back with their card in Manassas, Virginia on December 18th. ROH booked Rocky Romero, Alex Kozlov, Jack Evans and Teddy Hart from AAA in Mexico to appear for them on that show and on the 19th in New York City. Now Evans and Hart, both of whom have had histories of no-shows or appearance problems, have been announced as scratched from the card. That changed the scheduled main event of The Briscoes, Romero and Evans vs. The American Wolves, Hart and Romero down to a six-man tag match. ROH stated that they are both scheduled and expected to appear for the company on the 19th, although now there is a touch of the uncertain to what was seen as an effective addition to both shows.

The problem with booking so strongly for Final Battle 2009 and spending much of the last few weeks promoting for that show is that they may have given the short shrift to the Manassas show. Indeed, ROH cannot afford to give the Manassas crowd a sub-par show. Manassas has been one of the success stories for ROH in 2008-2009, with a very good attendance crowd and a very enthusiastic crowd. While some areas like Edison and even this past week in Chicago have seen somewhat reduced attendance, Manassas has been a steady performer. The last show in that venue, Contention, was held a night before another major show in New York City, but it held up just as much if not more so than the latter.

Looking at the Manassas line-up with the change in the main event exposes some of the weakness in the undercard. I'm confident that the six-man will still deliver given the talent involved, but it will certainly miss the sense of the "spectacular" and "spectacle" that both Evans and Hart are great at delivering in the ring. Past that, Roderick Strong and Tyler Black will surely deliver, as their two matches in recent months (their finale in the Survival of the Fittest six man final round and a twenty-minute draw at The Omega Effect) have been fantastic. Beyond that, you are left with some make-shift tag matches, Chris Hero vs. Colt Cabana—which previous matches this year in ROH and PWG against each other have proven o be less than what you'd expect from each of them, and Kenny Omega vs. Rhett Titus, which is fine if you want an opening match but certainly isn't going to sell any tickets. ROH has said there will be a mystery tag team that will appear for the show, but that mystery will have to deliver (and in wrestling they often don't). So, again, this show could be really good, or could be another victim of the "B-show" mentality, which ROH cannot afford at this point.

Momentum is a huge factor in the promotion and advertisement for a product. Right now Ring of Honor is building up plenty of it, quickly and strongly plugging its end of the year showcase. They can and have absolute made the right moves this week, but now they have to continue to do so for two more weeks. They have struck with renewed effectiveness and re-energized themselves, their fans and have even piqued the curiosity of a few skeptics. Now they need to deliver the goods and show the wrestling world that they are once again the wrestling promotion that can't be missed and can't be topped. It will be tough considering the other independent promotions are still out there and will have their chances in upcoming weeks to retake the focus of attention. Yet if Cornette and ROH want the fans to "buy in" on a "contract" to support the product, they must show that consistency of excellence the fans require. The renewal of effort ROH demonstrated this pat week cannot be for the short-term, but rather, for all of 2010 and beyond.

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Honorarium


Thoughts on CHIKARA's Young Lions Cup VII Night Three: This one is a bit of a disappointment considering it was sold to me pretty huge by multiple sources and certainly the track record of past Young Lions Cup finales is that you're in for a good show overall. Half-way through the show and it's just an average show, but thankfully two of the last three matches helped to turn the tide and make it a mild recommendation. The opening two matches (A trios with Player Uno, Dasher Hatfield and the clever pun inspired Yellow Dog versus Hydra, Tim Donst & Cloudy, then a tag with the Roughnecks versus North Star Express) were short but solid enough attraction bouts. I LOVED Dasher Hatfield—his gimmick, the finisher, everything. I am baffled as to why CHIKARA would want to hit the "reset" button on Dasher and Create-a-Wrestler for next year. I'm sold on him after seeing only one of his matches.

I liked the Donst turn—it was well foreshadowed and executed. It was smart booking that he would attack Hydra from behind and then take out both Yellow Dog and Cloudy since they each confronted him solo, but then when Player Uno and Dasher were in at the same time he bolted because he knew the odds weren't in his favor.

The real low points were to come with the four-tag elimination match. I HATED Halcon Guerrero (he's been horrible in every match on CHIKARA I've seen him) and while I think the Chivas gimmick is real good, the wrestlers who do it are very average. Their participation really brought down the overall match, but there was also some unexpected sloppiness and lack of effort from the established teams like FIST and Colony. I will say that Mantis and Delirious work so well as a team—Delirious does such a great job as Mantis's lackey, bringing a sort of zombie monster vibe that makes him perhaps even scarier than when he was under the thrall of Jimmy Jacobs in ROH. I thought the finish to the match with the box bring brought out as the distraction was lame even though I know it adds in on the BDK angle.

To Kevin Ford's dismay, I SKIPPED the mini's match because I just have no use for watching any more mini matches than I absolutely must. Besides, I had already watched Grizzley Redwood in a match and Frightmare was up next. Sorry, but that's the way it goes.

Quack & Skayde vs. Turbo & Frightmare was fine, but it seemed like the students were trying too hard and it hurt the match. I also don't have much use for Turbo either. On the other hand, I could watch Claudio Castagnoli vs. Eddie Kingston all day. This rematch from Anniversario Yang was another awesome effort between the two. Down the stretch I thought the moves and reverses that built to the finish were even better than their first match (Bicycle knee to the face…to…the…face!) However, the finish itself—a count out win for Claudio when Kingston stupidly went out the ring and missed on a flying elbow and was out of it—was a complete cop out. It really put a damper on the whole match.


The "Golden Dreams" triangle three-man tag was AWESOME and in my opinion the best match of the show. It featured some excellent three-man spots—just some mind-blowing innovation that never seemed contrived or set-up. That sort of organic build from moment to moment was a huge key to presenting this sort of match, which can devolve into chaos and non-stop action. The crowd was lost on them at times but they still put on a great show.

The main event between Player Dos and Collin Delaney for the Young Lions Cup was way too sloppy and ugly at several different times. The Finish looked botched as well--I know what they were trying to accomplish with the double fall off the top and Dos converting into a modified frog splash, but it didn't work at all in execution.

So overall the show was okay, but nowhere near as good as I thought it would be. Shows that Quack's booking isn't perfect and that the CHIKARA roster (especially the younger guys) still need to work on proper execution of moves and slowing things down just enough so that everything works out the way it is supposed to so the crowd can react to the action.

However, "Hiding in Plain Sight" is a GREAT show, and I'm only half-way through the DVD, having just seen the spectacularly entertaining Quacksaw (Quackenbush & Jigsaw) vs. Team Uppercut (Danielson & Castagnoli) match, which is Danielson's finale for that company. That one IS worth the purchase alone, but the rest of the card is epic. I'll reserve my full comments on the DVD for next week's column.


Ringtones


A few remarks of interest from last week's comment section:

Why not start doing a Column of Guerrilla? Chances are PWG is going to keep its hot streak well into 2010, with ROH trailing behind.

Posted By: Joe (Guest) on December 05, 2009 at 11:14 AM

I won't deny PWG's place and presence in the independent wrestling world. I'm a fan and a follower, no doubt. 2010 looks to be starting off just as much as it was in 2009, especially since they will take center stage in January at the Los Angeles wrestling convention and their use of Rob Van Dam, Jushin Liger and Great Muta on the show. However, ROH was my first love as far as the independent wrestling scene. My column began with a focus on coverage about ROH. I love watching PWG and other independents and I will definitely continue to comment on the promotions I follow in this column, but ROH is my first priority, whether it's in reporting about the positives or whether ROH is going through a slump show or even a slump year.


Late, but wanted to say a couple things:

1.) I agreed with your star ratings much more than Rozkinski's or whoever that stingy guy is.

2.) Less relevant, but I wanted to say it and had nowhere else to put it--Guerre Sans Frontieres is sort of an odd show compared to other 2009 PWG shows in that it lacks consistency. I'm not really sure where to rank it. The first half is good but not overwhelming, and then everything after intermission is mind-blowing. Generico/Shingo is my favorite PWG match of the year, and the main event is a must-see for any indie wrestling or Bryan Danielson fan.

Now I've finally got the entire rest of the Final Countdown Tour to plow through, assuming the last two shows ship next week like they're supposed to...

Posted By: The REAL MP (Guest) on December 07, 2009 at 12:20 PM

I also find Ryan's ratings to be far lower than mine on both the PWG and ROH DVDs he reviews, but everyone has their own opinion and criteria for rating shows, so you just have to be aware with a particular writer's rating patterns. Mike Campbell is also someone who is very careful and critical in looking at the minutiae of a match in order to judge, but again, he's entitled and I also think more often than not he is someone who is in the ballpark of rating matches and shows right more often than not. In the same respect, I think Ryan is a very good writer and a fair judge of matches.

I know some people think I rate matches too high. If I'm reviewing matches that way, as I've done when I did ROH Pay Per View reviews in this column, I go with my initial ball-park rating right after the match which goes to the overall impression of the match. Then I'll usually revisit the subject after I've calmed down from my excitement of watching. I often will deduct a quarter of a star to account for that excitement factor or any bias.

I would agree with your assessment of Guerre Sans Frontieres. The first half is okay, but nothing too mind blowing. Then the second half, past Doi vs. Ryan, is pretty incredible action, although at the time I watched Generico vs. Shingo I think the slower pace in the first half of the match brought down my overall impression of it. Since I did star-ratings for Threemendous II last week, I'll include mine here for GSF:

Triangle three-man tag: ***1/2
Candace LeRae / Christina Von Eerie: **1/2
Human Tornado / Scott Lost: ***3/4
Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson / Roderick Strong: **** (by sheer will and both men's awesome chops)
Nauki Doi / Joey Ryan: ***
El Generico / SHINGO: **** (again, by sheer will and the faster second-half)
CIMA & Motor City Machine Guns / The Brian Kendrick & The Young Bucks: **** (didn't like CIMA's pantomimes in the beginning, got a bit sloppy and unwieldy at points but the awesome string at the end brought it back up a notch)
PWG World Title: Chris Hero / Bryan Danielson: ****1/2

I really loved the show overall, but I have to say I think Threemendous II was the better show top-to-bottom, even though this one had the (slightly) more emotional main event match, and which I thought was the best out of all of the two DVDs.

Okay, that's way too much information than anyone needed about star-ratings, so moving on…


Honor Bound Links


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

Michael Weyer names Samoa Joe, CM Punk, and Bryan Danielson as three of this decade's top wrestling stars in this week's Shining a Spotlight.

Geoff Eubanks continues his first forays into the world of Ring of Honor in this week's Five Star Conversaton He is seeing the light, if a bit off on one or two things, but he'll learn. Welcome in Geoff!

This week's 411 Buy or Sell finds two of my favorite writers Ryan Byers and Steve Cook discussing FIP, Jim Cornette and Final Battle among other topics.

Aaron Hubbard has coverage of this week's awesome episode of ROH on HDNet and Aaron feels quite similarly as I about both matches.


It's coming back… TWO WEEKS UNTIL FINAL COLUMN 2009! The annual tradition continues with a look back at the year that was, year-end awards, predictions and of course my top 100 ROH matches of the year. Should be a good time, but even before then we've got one more to go, so next week I'll take one more look at previewing Final Battle 2009, and whatever else comes to mind.

BROOKLYN!
--Ari--