Column of Honor 02.20.10: Tyler Black Crowned Champion at Successful 8th Anniversary Show

Welcome to the Column.

=Tyler Black Crowned Champion at Successful 8th Anniversary Show=

After a year-plus long chase, Tyler Black won the Ring of Honor World Title from Austin Aries at the Eighth Anniversary Show in New York City this past Saturday night.

Tyler Black and Austin Aries had the match they should have at Final Battle 2009 (which concluded in a one-hour draw that many criticized as lacking action and came when the show was already running long). In wrestling a match that was heavily focused on action and concluded with a clear and decisive winner, they washed the bad taste out of the mouths of many fans who attended that show in mid-December, created a series of spectacular highlights and a finish that will not soon be forgotten and possibly granted a clean slate for the new champion after fourteen months of teasing and delaying the world title victory.

ROH did everything right on Saturday and the results were self-evident: an incredible match with the majority focus on athleticism and just a smidge of story-telling (as opposed to the other way around on December 19th, 2009); an audience converted from a bi-partisan, split reaction to one that was nearly one hundred percent for the Tyler Black (the haters and cynics booing Black or bemoaning this match were either converted due to the excitement of the action or just shut up and left to sulk gloomily in silence); and one of the loudest ovations for a title change since Homicide finally won the big one in Final Battle 2006. Recalling the reaction of the New York City crowd during Black’s other near-wins—Death Before Dishonor VI and Manhattan Mayhem III—the crowd went ballistic for the possibility that Black would win, ultimately to fall short. Unlike the title matches at those shows, this time Black fulfilled his mission and got the job done.

It was interesting (and somewhat angering) to hear from Dave Lagana in interviews with Figure 4 Weekly that he felt the most serious flaw about the Final Battle one-hour draw was that people were complaining about the weather and not that, say, there was something about the way the match was executed that turned off the fan base live in attendance on that night. As well, Austin Aries whined and complained in promos (kayfabe, but with an underlying tone that would lead you to believe that he and those backstage believed it) about how he didn’t need to coordinate his wrestling strategy with the weather report. Yet it wasn’t the weather that was the real culprit of that draw, it was that the fans did not like what they saw in the ring. It left the fans in attendance cold and let down. It is the responsibility of the wrestlers to give the fans what they want to see and to make them happy at the end of the night and enough that they will keep coming back to future shows. On this night, Aries gruffly told the fans before the match that he was being forced to wrestle the type of match they wanted, but in reality, that would be the whole point. Cornette reinforced the idea that if he didn’t wrestle as if he was trying to win the match, then he would be leaving the decision in the hands of the judges.

In a recent promo on HDNet, Jim Cornette gave an apology in storyline when he set the rematch for this show. The announcement of that rematch had a lot of people up in arms, wondering why ROH would want to revisit the scene of the crime. It was a very large risk that ROH took here, to conclude the storyline in New York just six weeks after a finish that was largely bashed and mostly loathed. If the crowd reception to the match was horrible, they lost. If they took too many liberties with the crowd by using shenanigans, they lost. If Black won via judges’ decision (i.e. “giving” the title to him), they lost. There wasn’t much room for maneuvering here—they needed to walk the tightrope…and they did. The risk paid off huge. The title match and the high quality effort between these two men was ROH’s real mea-culpa.

This was a breeze of a show, especially compared to December’s five-hour endurance trial. It totaled less than three hours in length including a main event that went about twenty-two minutes. Davey Richards vs. El Generico was the only other match that went twenty minutes or over and all the rest were ten minutes and under. Unfortunately for ROH, attendance was down a decent amount compared to the last two shows, with the last rows in the balcony and floor left empty as well as a near-absent general admission section (which in previous events have varied in capacity from between hall-full to completely full). I would attribute the low attendance at least in part to the length of Final Battle 2009 and rejection of the main event as well as the short time between the last show and this one (six weeks, as opposed to the next event in NYC which won’t be until three months from now). Hopefully this is a one-show aberration for one of their best drawing cities and that the positive reviews of this event will boost attendance for the next one in early May. That show will also feature the return of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin (The Motor City Machine Guns) as an added attraction in their first appearance for ROH in over a year.

Fans were generally on good behavior with the fast-paced, action-oriented matches capturing the imagination and attention of the crowd and building up some positive momentum. It felt like the fans around me were enjoying themselves—which after the conclusion to the last show, was a very iffy proposition. Of course, there were still pockets of unruly behavior and fan commentary throughout the night, including a fan antagonizing Richards about his recent decisions involving ROH and DGUSA (for which he was spat on repeatedly) and multiple occurrences of the “Twinkies” chant directed towards referee Todd Sinclair. Although generally these incidents were fewer in number as well as lower in volume and less in duration than at the last show, they don’t seem to be going away either. Wisely, ROH had Paul Turner referee the main event title bout and not Sinclair so as to defray any such chants during one of their most crucial matches of the company’s year.

The returning The Brian Kendrick began the show against Roderick Strong in a sharp, well-paced and thoroughly enjoyable battle. Kendrick received a very warm welcome upon his ring entrance and the crowd was split, chanting loudly for both men despite Kendrick working as more of the heel. He ran away from Strong (even hiding behind the ring bell announcer and Cary Silkin at one point) and did his best to take advantage of situations, although there was no outright heel moves like eyerakes or low blows. The former Spanky looked very good going through some chain wrestling sequences in the opening moments and later on throwing up many different variations of the leg lariat and enziguiri in order to disorient Strong. “The Messiah of the Backbreaker” indeed responded with some of his trademark moves, but the most visually impressive moments came from Strong’s chops, which lived up to reputation. He absolutely blasted Kendrick many times such that by the end of the match Kendrick’s left pectoral was a mish-mashed purple and red hue of burst blood vessels. As well Kendrick spore a cut on his back from one of several hard whips to the outside guardrail. Strong would win the match with one of his more frequent combinations—a torture rack into the double knees to the back, running yakuza kick and a massively powerful Gibson Driver. Strong helped Kendrick up after the match and raised his hand. The fans responded for both men, finishing with a “Thank You Kendrick” chant. Although he didn’t say anything on the mic, Kendrick looked appreciative, gave a slight bow and walked to the back. Kendrick always has a place in ROH considering he was one of the founding fathers of the promotion and on this night the New York crowd was happy to see him back in action, even if he was back just for this one night.

The Bravado Brothers were out next in matching black and purple tights. The New York City crowd sensed blood in the water…jobber blood. The Kings of Wrestling (holding some sort of flashy trophies, probably earned from the recent trip to Japan) entered the ringside area to a hero’s welcome (pun very much intended). I mean the fans in The City

Necro Butcher and Eddie Kingston teamed up to fight Erick Stevens and Joey Ryan of The Embassy in a “No Rules” match that was quite tame in comparison to most hardcore matches, although Necro bled and Kingston nearly killed his back on a table bump. It was the messy, sloppy style of brawl expected for a Necro Butcher match, but on this night it was entertaining and got over because over the personalities and the wacky spots. Gypsy Joe, the world’s oldest active wrestler, was at ringside to cheer on Necro. Joe was scheduled to be at Necro’s side during Final Battle 2009, but the blizzard put the kibosh on that appearance.

Puzzlingly, the usually barefoot Necro Butcher was wearing sneakers—but his diabolical master plan was soon revealed. He spent the majority of the opening moments of the match chasing The Embassy around the ring, hitting them with his shoes. Honestly though, who throws a shoe? Later on, Necro would take a page from someone else’s hardcore playbook when he used a sock claw, which received an amazingly loud pop—New York City crowd knew its wrestling history. Maybe they didn’t need to do major weapons bumps after all, especially if the crowd was going to react like they did to the use of footwear apparel. The Embassy would take over with some power offense by Stevens, but Kingston and Necro kept fighting back. The “oh my god” moment of the match belonged to Eddie Kingston, who is getting good at that sort of thing (as fans witnessed when he took the massive power bomb on the guardrail platform during Final Battle 2009). Stevens and Kingston were brawling on the apron, ending with Stevens hurling Eddie down to the announcer’s table, which didn’t break. Eddie took a gruesome bounce and bump from this move and the table bent down on one leg. Kingston was out the rest of the match and afterwards appeared to be hurt enough that even Adam Pearce was out there to help him to the back. Kingston wouldn’t stay down due to stubborn pride, but looked in visible and awful pain, slamming his hands down on the mat and pushing the refs away. Kingston appeared to be much better when he was out with the rest of the baby faces during Tyler Black’s post-title win celebration. Necro eventually won this match by using Gypsy Joe as a distraction on the apron and sneaking up behind Joey Ryan. He wrapped a plastic bag over his head and suffocated him with a choke, simultaneously scissoring the legs and bringing him down to the mat so that there was no room to move. Necro was bloody, sweaty and breathing heavily, but he was joyous in the fact that he had gotten one over his arch-rivals in The Embassy.

Davey Richards and El Generico proceeded to rip it up in the match of the night (at least four and a half stars and you could argue for more), proving that ROH’s decision to lock up Richards was not only smart, but immediately paid them dividends. This was Richards’ first ROH appearance since the whole DGUSA / Sapolsky situation, where his agreement to re-sign led to the end of his run with that company and EVOLVE. Yet the real life impact on Richards’ life, on ROH or other independent wrestling companies didn’t really matter to those live in attendance. Richards continues to be “over” with the crowd, but he didn’t receive any extra-special love or hate from the crowd. He did a fantastic job of curtailing the appreciation and diverting it towards Generico. He was enough of a bully to the masked luchador and to certain members of the crowd that fans didn’t cheer for him. Either they got behind cheering on Generico as the sympathetic babyface or supported the match as a whole.

Richards dominated most of the match, not really allowing Generico to get going on offense (this was a psychological reflection on Generico, clearly affected by the betrayal of his former partner Kevin Steen just six weeks ago). Colt Cabana accompanied Generico to the ring and would return to the back, but then would re-emerge as Generico slumped in the early going in order to motivate him and fire him back up. The tactic worked, as not only did the crowd rally around Generico, but Generico began a more hard-fought and serious battle plan. Richards worked the arm in some massively excruciating looking ways, setting up the finish. They also battled back and forth over the brainbuster, with Generico looking to hit it to the end the match but Richards actually landing one of his own for a near-fall. Then when Generico attempted the turnbuckle variation of the brainbuster (to which the crowd went ape-crazy), Richards fought like hell several times to block it, trying the sunset flip power bomb, which Generico blocked, only for Richards to come running back and hit his flying overhead flip German from the top (which Generico took the bump on his head and neck, which looked sick and impressive at the same time) and another bridging German for a very close two. After another exchange in the turnbuckles teasing the brainbuster, Generico trapped Richards in a tree of woe and nailed one of the most beautiful looking coast-to-coast flip dropkicks. Richards eventually won the match with the kimura armbar and while Generico fought valiantly, eventually he had to tap out. Richards was impressed with Generico’s fight, offering up a handshake after the match—a rarity on his part since his character is more likely to kick your hand or spit on it rather than shake it. Of course, there was also the fact that Generico had feuded with Richards and Edwards in the tag team division for the past year. Generico, a bit frustrated with the loss, didn’t shake Richards’ hand but rather slapped his face with an elbow pad. Richards’ smiled wide, even nodding his head in approval, as if to say he liked what Generico had just done. It certainly showed Generico’s tougher side, and that helped put him over with the fans despite the (hard-fought) loss.

Instead of going with an intermission after such an impressive, crowd-thrilling match, ROH went right back to action with the ROH World Tag Team Title match between the champions The Briscoes and challengers Dark City Fight Club (Jon Davis and Kory Chavis). This was another very solid and enjoyable match (three stars or a little above)–both teams hit hard against each other and worked hard although likely this would have worked better in the second half of the show. There really wasn’t that one moment where it seemed like The Briscoes were in serious jeopardy of losing the belts. The crowd reaction for DCFC was certainly interesting—as the majority was clearly supportive of The Briscoes (loud “Man Up” chants before and during the match) but Dark City Fight Club had pockets of strong fan support and surprisingly some fans didn’t like them at all and wanted them out of the promotion. I think they certainly proved themselves as a viable tag team in this match, roughing up The Briscoes and demonstrating their power offense. The highlight for me was a brief skirmish between the two teams on the outside that ended when Davis POUNNNNNNCED one of the brothers into the guardrail. It looked brutal (in the best sense of the word possible). The Briscoes isolated the DCFC and planted Davis with a spike Jay Driller in a bit of an anti-climactic finish to the match, but certainly nothing bad about this one and well worth watching when it comes out on DVD.

However, the highlight of this segment would be the post-match fracas. Sara Del Rey and Shane Hagadorn surrounded the ring and the fans knew they were in for a Kings of Wrestling re-appearance at any moment. In a reprise of the Final Battle 2009 reunion, this time both Chris Hero AND Claudio Castagnoli emerged from the general admission stage area and rushed the ring, to a pop that grew in volume and intensity as both teams squared off. They wasted no time in starting a fight, and Dark City Fight Club soon inserted themselves in the melee, making sure they were not forgotten. Then almost absurdly, the Bravado Brothers re-emerged from backstage to insert themselves into the brawl (the jobbers shall have their revenge!) as well as of all people, BOBBY freaking DEMPSEY (still so massively over with the NYC fans) The Briscoes cleared out the ring and then wiped out all their opponents with simultaneous double dives over the ropes. They re-entered the ring to soak in the adulation of the crowd, only for Sara Del Rey to kick them from behind. This attack was immediately no sold and they grabbed her (big approval from the crowd) and set her up for the Doomsday Device. The Kings and Shane Hagadorn were able to save her from the move, pulling her down and out of the ring. This was a very entertaining moment that ended the first half on a very high note. So far, ROH was hitting it out of the park.

The second half kicked off with the Pick 6 Four Corner Survival match with Kenny King (ranked 4th), Delirious (accompanied by color coordinated Daizee Haze and her abdominal muscles), the New York debut of “Skullcrusher” Rasche Brown and the return of Steve Corino, who of course used an extra-long and annoying entrance. This time it was the grooving tunes of a “Kashmir” sound-alike (boy, Corino really does know how to pick ‘em, doesn’t he?) Regardless, he was surprisingly and almost inexplicably over with the New York City fans, which disgusted Corino to no end. He soon struck up a bond in the ring with Kenny King and both looked to team up to do damage. They isolated Brown on the outside for much of the match, frustrating him by stomping on his hands when he climbed up to the apron or pushed him off, refusing to let him enter at all costs while they dealt with Delirious on the outside. This was a smart in-match strategy as it limited the impact of the biggest man in the match, but it also worked to help space out some of Brown’s bigger spots. Brown did look pretty good in the few moments he was in the ring and hitting his spots. He’s got some nasty moves (and I mean that in the best sense of the word possible) but this match wasn’t one where it could be discovered if he could put them all together for a longer and higher profile match on a show. Overall, this was more of comedy match and an unwieldy one at that, with some of the larger double team spots slightly mistimed, but not to any real negative or damaging degree. Delirious took advantage of some nice timing by hitting the Shadows Over Hell on King, grabbing the pinfall and the win. He takes the fourth spot on the Pick 6 as well as $2,500 bonus money (more fish heads!). King slips down a spot to fifth and Strong slips down to the sixth spot.

Then in the only real hiccup of the show, Colt Cabana defeated Kevin Steen via disqualification in a grudge match that was more storyline advancement than actual in-ring work. ROH has done a terrific job with the Steen / Generico break-up and incorporating Cabana and Corino as supporting characters, releasing some fantastic segments online (video features, letters and such). On this night the fans were somewhat confused about what was going on and even more impatient when Cabana tried to use exposition to explain the “open letter” and give an apology. Fans apparently didn’t want to hear Cabana give an apology, but rather lay a beat down on Steen, which took a while to get to amid minutes and minutes of talking. Steen surprisingly accepted the apology Cabana gave him for acting like a jerk, saying he didn’t expect Cabana to say that he was sorry. Then Steen beat him up anyway—apology not accepted I guess. That made Cabana mad and he spent the next few minutes laying a whupping on Steen—which was what the fans were waiting for all along.

This was Serious Cabana, which was a welcome sight. This was also Strange Steen, which sometimes is not so welcome, but certainly intriguing enough to carry on his heel turn. Steen’s behavior continues to be abnormal at best. There was some sickening gum swapping going on in one of your “uncomfortable” moments of the night. After taking a lot of damage, Steen fell out of the ring and looked demoralized and defeated. In a callback to earlier in the show when Cabana came out to motivate Generico, this time it was Corino who made his way to ringside, grabbed a mic and forced Steen to get back into the ring to fight on. Corino demanded Steen to “do it for me”, while Cabana acted like a jealous lover for some reason, continuing the not vaguely homo-erotic overtones of this match. Cabana sought to take out Corino before he could become an aggressor against him in the match, then continued the verbal undressing and slapped Steen in the face a few times and demanding he fight. A light seemed to turn on inside Steen’s mind and he snapped back to attention, pushed Cabana away…only for El Generico to run in the ring and we had our first face-to-face encounter between the former tag partners.

This face-off was huge—the fans, despite not liking the promo work in the beginning of this match were really into this. The question was: would Generico hit Steen? Was he able to put aside that this man had been a brother to him for the past three years? He couldn’t, or he wouldn’t, not even with a chair in his hands and Steen dead to rights. The mindset just wasn’t there–he couldn’t bring himself to hit someone he thought that until six weeks ago was his friend. Steen saw that Generico wouldn’t hit him and an evil smile shone across his face. He was the one who attacked, once again laying Generico out in NYC, this time with a massive forearm strike and a chair to the back. Somewhere along the way the referee called for the bell and Cabana came back in to clear Corino and Steen before they could do any more damage to Generico. Cabana tried to talk some sense into Generico afterwards, even slapping him around a bit (which was somewhat surprising tactic from Cabana) as a “wake up call” that he had to be the one to take the fight to Steen. The fans didn’t like the DQ finish, but the storyline advancement was sensible enough and I think the Generico vs. Steen confrontation was worth the sacrifice of a clean finish in this case—so long as this sort of thing doesn’t become a habit.

Tyler Black and Austin Aries for the ROH World Title was everything I was hoping for when writing a few weeks back that they should take the template from their very successful Final Battle 2008 bout and turn it up a notch. At the end of twenty-two hard-fought minutes, there was a clear winner and a clear loser. The decision did not go to the judges who were added to the match in case of a questionable decision, although their presence would play an important part for the finish of the match.

The three judges, Roderick Strong, Kenny King and ROH on HDNet Executive Producer Jim Cornette were at ringside for the entire match. In a wise but small touch, Strong and King sat on opposite sides on the table and Cornette in the middle, so that they were separated and kept them from each other in case things got testy or heated. King for the most part stayed in his seat and cheering for his man, the champion A-Double and when the action came close to him, Cornette would remind him to stay put. King, through his hands and head movement indicated he had no intention whatsoever of making a move on the challenger. Conversely, at one point early in the match Strong would stand up and block Aries’ path, but neither would engage in any sort of physical action.

Black did not dominate in the beginning of the match as I had hoped and in fact, it was Aries who had the challenger’s number for much of the opening minutes of the contest. He suckered Black in the first few seconds and had out-technically wrestled the challenger. There were even a few teases of Aries going outside the ring to avoid contact or to slow down Black’s momentum. This was clearly a case of playing with the fans’ emotions in the wake of how Aries retained the title at Final Battle. Still, it was a risky move to make that fortunately didn’t have a negative effect on the fans’ reactions to the rest of this match.

The challenger’s comeback began about half-way through the match when he used a Joker Driver (also known as the Pyramid Bomb), which caught the fans off-guard and immediately caused them to rally them around Black. It recalled the Fight Without Honor between Kingston and Hero at the last show in that one huge move swung the fan’s momentum and acceptance the other way around. The move hit and began to shake the champion’s hold on reality. Soon after, Aries missed on the missile tope to the outside, crashing and burning into the guardrail in a sickening move (in the best sense of the word possible). From there on in, Black threw everything he could at the champion (the F-5, the sharp kick from the ground). He even threw something unexpected at Aries, throwing him into the fans and performing a springboard bodyblock (recalling his use of this move against Nigel McGuinness at Take No Prisoners 2008). The NYC fans loved this moment and it was this aerial assault that truly moved them towards a unanimous support of Black.

The first attempt at the Phoenix Splash was a miss, as it had been for the last fourteen months, ever since Jimmy Jacobs interrupted his attempt to hit the move on Aries during the Final Battle 2008 match. Aries fired back with not one but two brainbusters for a close fall. Black held on with pinning packages for two counts and a God’s Last Gift for a close as can be near fall. The fans were really getting into the action as the pace quickened and grew more intense—it seemed apparent that this time there would not be a time limit draw.

The finish recalled the closing moment of the Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries title change from 2004 in that there was a tight sequencing of major moves used in combination to end the match and bring about a new champion. During the concluding moments of that match the fans could sense the title change and their anticipation fed into their volume and they grew louder and louder in their roar of approval about what was happening in the ring. There was a repeat of that reaction and that emotion on this night in New York City.

Black had Aries downed and was prepping for another Phoenix Splash when Kenny King, who had up until now been content to observe the match and preen himself, sprung into action. He hopped up on the apron en route to cutting Black off on the top rope, when Roderick Strong also made his way to the apron. Strong kicked King, knocking the Pretty Boy Pitbull off balance and into the turnbuckle where Black was setting up the move. King hit Black on the way down, which caused Black to be crotched himself and fell down to the canvas. King was down at ringside, leaving Strong on the apron. In a funny sidenote, Strong’s shoe flew off when he kicked King, flying right into the balcony then dropping straight down to the fans on the ground floor. Black pulled himself back together, standing up and seeing only Strong on the apron. Strong tried to explain the sequence of events that had just occurred, but his effort proved futile as Black exploded in defiance and smashed him in the face with a superkick. That action led Jim Cornette to stand up and take the apron, either to admonish Black or explain to him what was going on—but WHAM! Cornette was nailed with a superkick of his own, and in that moment Black not only broke free of the chains that restrained him all of this time, but also proved that he was not going to take orders or listen to anyone or let anyone get in his way of winning this match. There would be no excuses and no roadblocks to winning the ROH World Title.

Aries was reeling and had begun to crawl his way up to a standing position, but Black blasted him with a superkick, sending him back into-La-La Land. Black threw Aries flush into the turnbuckle with the buckle bomb and then another massive superkick as Aries fell to his knees. Aries was nearly out of it now and Black took his chance—he went up to the top rope and flew in the air with one more Phoenix Splash. Finally the move hit, for the first time in over a year it was successfully converted—finally after all of this time. Black covered Aries and hooked the leg….and there it was. The fans in the Manhattan Center let out a massive roar of excitement, energy and approval. They reveled in the moment—often delayed, almost derailed but now undeniably here and now. Finally, Tyler Black had become the new ROH World Champion.

The babyfaces rushed the ring to cement this moment, propping Black on their shoulders and celebrating the moment along with the new champion, who very clearly and very sincerely expressing utter joy and exuberance, perhaps even a sense of relief. He clutched the belt as if he was waiting the last two years to hold onto the belt, then he went up to the top turnbuckle and held the belt aloft for all the fans to see. King took his mentor A-Double under his shoulder and rushed him to the back. Cornette and Strong were regaining their senses only now. Strong walked into the ring with a mic and a purpose. He told Black that he got one free shot on him, but now he wanted his title shot (the one Black promised he would give to Strong after being his choice for judge for this match). Strong walked to the back, knowing there would be another time and another night for that all important title match. Cornette was helped to the back by his wife, and the rest of the ROH roster also returned to the dressing rooms, leaving the ring to Black to make one more curtain call and one more rise of the belt over his head.

I walked out of the Manhattan Center after the Tyler Black title win on an adrenaline rush and a natural high—the sort of feeling that comes with experiencing an amazing show at any form of entertainment. In essence, it was the opposite of how I felt at the end of Final Battle 2009. It was the most fun I’ve had at a live wrestling show in quite some time and it wasn’t because there were wall-to-wall four star-plus matches (although there were two flat-out fantastic matches in Richards / Generico and the main event title match and two very good matches in the show opener and tag title match). This show was fun and so I had fun. ROH just needed to provide some logical storyline progressions and (mostly) clean finishes and I walked away satisfied and re-energized as a fan of the company. In many ways, my faith in ROH had been restored thanks to their effort on this night. Ring of Honor needed this show and they needed this effort to be a success. They did exactly that and in doing so set up the rest of the year with a renewed sense of energy and anticipation for what is to happen next.

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Counting down my personal favorite wrestlers and moments of the past week in wrestling:

1. Naomichi Marufuji vs. Prince Devitt: I haven’t been keeping up with Puro as much as I was a few years back, but I hopped onto YouTube to catch this on the recommendation of Brad Garoon and my friend Chris Miccio. Marufuji is co-booker of NOAH these days but he is also spending time in New Japan Pro Wrestling as the IWGP Jr. Champion. Prince Devitt has come a long way spending his recent years in Japan and the improvements are apparent in their excellent match from January 30th, 2010. He gets a ton of offense on Marufuji , controlling much of the first half with excellent chain wrestling, a few daring dives and some crisp submission attempts. This whole match is off the charts, although I’m not sure it would be the first match I’d show to someone looking to get into Puro because it’s a definite in-ring culture clash for someone not used to the speed and pace of New Japan Juniors (or a Marufuji match for that matter). I especially love the last five minutes, when these two unload, including Marufuji using a suplex into a front release throw that he pulls right into a superkick. Someone in America needs to steal that immediately and his initials are H, B and K.

2. Edge vs. Batista on Smackdown: A quick but enjoyable sprint of a match where Edge surprisingly dominated most of the match. He looked right on it for his first in-ring action back after injury.

3. CM Punk: Continues to raise the bar of excellence with his Straight Edge Society promos on Smackdown—”I am the greatest thing to happen to you people and YOU KNOW IT!” Oh, yes, I know it! “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” AWESOME. Punk embodies his cult character with some of the most maniacal (but inspired) face and body language—and I enjoy every nuance of that performance.

4. Christian vs. Ezekiel Jackson: The last match ever on ECW on Syfy was Christian vs. Ezekiel Jackson for the ECW Championship in an Extreme Rules match. No doubt ECW ends a far cry from what it began as in 2006 or even from the original era of ECW (note: I’m not criticizing or saying the new ECW didn’t have its positives, because it clearly did), but this match was a good enough farewell match to those three initials. The Extreme rules allowed for some creativity for weapons spots and hardcore moments, such as the return of the throw through the shopping cart spot, which was always a favorite of mine when Raven would use that in his hardcore matches in 2001 WWF. This was an ode to extreme, from the “smoke and mirrors” run-ins of Zack Ryder and Rosa Mendes, the catfight between Rosa and Tiffany (who knew she could throw down a spear like that?) and the out-of-control feeling of the weapons and the table spot at the end. A good match is a good match and this was definitely a good match.

5. Daniel Bryan in NXT: Loving it. And loving the concept as a whole so far. I have no problems with The Miz mentoring Danielson—it should be excellent television and could really help to make our favorite Dragon immediately memorable to WWE fans. Plus there’s many different directions to take that relationship as well as all the other pro-“rookie” pairings. There’s lots of potential for great television here, so I’m walking in to Tuesday night on Syfy with an open mind and an open heart.

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As of 02/20/10

ROH World Champion: Tyler Black (champion since 02/13/10, NEW CHAMPION)

–defeated Austin Aries on February 13th, 2010 in New York, NY to win the championship.

Next Defense: vs. TBD

ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) (champions since 12/19/09, 2 successful defenses)

defeated The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) on December 19th, 2009 in New York, NY to win the championship.

Next Defense: vs. Dark City Fight Club (New York, NY on 02/13/10)

–Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated The Young Bucks in Philadelphia, PA on 1/9/10
–Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated The Dark City Fight Club in New York, NY on 2/13/10

Pick 6 Series
Rankings as of: 02/14/10
1. Claudio Castagnoli
2. Kevin Steen
3. Chris Hero
4. Delirious
5. Kenny King
6. Roderick Strong

The Pick 6 Series matches scheduled for March 5/6, 2010 in Philadelphia, PA are as follows:
3/5 – (1) Claudio Castagnoli versus Mark Briscoe

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-It has to be a rib when the commercial for John Morrison’s “Rock Star” DVD contains his comment on about apologizing to Tommy Dreamer for calling him a fat whale.

-So Matt Hardy and Maria apparently are an item in storyline on Smackdown. Makes me want to wretch. What is it about Matt Hardy and redheads?

-Main event for ROH on March 19th, 2010 in Dearborn, MI is a six-man tag featuring the champions against top contenders. ROH World Champion Tyler Black and ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoe Brothers versus Chris Hero and The American Wolves of Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards. Works for me—all six men will come to work hard and there will be some extra emphasis and importance on the results of the match because certainly if the heels win, whoever gets the pin furthers a case for a title match in the singles or tag division.

-Also announced this week for the 3/19 show and 3/20 in Mississauga, Ontario are Kenny Omega’s matches, two high profile ones at that. It’s Omega versus Roderick Strong and then Omega versus Richards in Canada. The latter match could have Television Title implications if Richards does win the championship tournament during the HDNet Tapings on 3/5. Omega and Richards had one hell of a match against each other on Clash of the Contenders that quite a few may be sleeping on because that DVD was caught in the middle of some other higher profile DVD releases and live shows.

-The following video demonstrates why it’s not asking too much for ROH fans and followers to start giving Adam Pearce AND referee Todd Sinclair some slack. Whenever YOU’RE ready to dance to “Tonto (Jump On It)” in front of 800 or more people, go right ahead.

Seriously…how can anyone hate either of those two after seeing that? Also, this video continues to demonstrate why it’s a damned shame that Human Tornado retired from wrestling…just way, way too soon.

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Given I’m a wrestling fan, I tend to look at 2010 as a mini “Big Three”. There are things about all three companies I like so much.

Posted By: Guest#6639 (Guest) on February 13, 2010 at 12:34 PM

This is pretty much what I was going for in the column last week. It’s plainly obvious that the “Big Three” concept isn’t as “big” as it was ten years ago during eh first Monday Night Wars between WWF, WCW and ECW. However, WWE, TNA and ROH are as close as we’re going to get in this modern era of wrestling to that concept, and the idea is reinforced with the understanding that come March 8th, 2010 all three promotions will be available on Monday nights and with some reach to the wrestling audience that’s out there. Yes, ROH has the least availability of the three promotions, but that’s always been and likely always will be the case, much like ECW’s reach was less than WWE and WCW during the late 1990’s.

1) Bob Backlund in the Straight Edge Society WOULD be a great idea! That’s the problem with kids these days! Somebody make this happen.

2) Have you had a chance to review some of the more recent ROH DVDs? You had a comment on an Omega Effect match and I wanted to get your thoughts on the show before buying it. Maybe you reviewed it and I missed it or something (I usually read these columns hungover, so it could easily happen). I thought Aries vs. Richards was great if a little underwhelming (the buzz made it sounds like a show of the year candidate, and I don’t think it’s that good), so I’m holding off on Omega Effect and some others. Just curious.

3) “WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT COCKTAIL SHRIMP? HUH?”

Posted By: The REAL MP (Guest) on February 13, 2010 at 01:36 PM

1) EXACTLY! Backlund as the elder statesman complaining about the kids and their problems and their lack of respect would be an excellent complement to Punk’s Straight-Edge diatribes. Think about all of the crazy vignettes and promos they would cut.
2) I’ll have my thoughts on Aries vs. Richards and The Omega Effect in next week’s column. I am troubled though, that you read this column while inebriated. CM Punk and Bob Backlund need to sit you down and have a very serious talk…
3) EH? EH? EH? Well, the answer is…not much.

Why must everything constantly be compared to ECW? ECW died a very deserved death due to (amongst many other things) poor management. If you actually like ROH, I’d try to get as much distance between it and ECW as possible. “Passionate” fans (the word I’d use is ‘obnoxious’, actually…) does not a wrestling power make.

The truth is ECW is dead and gone, gone the way of FMW, New Tokyo Pro-Wrestling, UWF (all six of them), AWA, and dozens of other poorly run regional promotions that tried to pretend they were more than what they actually were and got a bullet in the back of the head for that incorrect belief. Let ECW go. Dead Wrestling Promotion Heaven is a very crowded place. Let ROH be ROH and fail or succeed as ROH.

Posted By: Lukodactyl (Guest) on February 13, 2010 at 12:50 PM

Been saying this for years. ROH is falling into the same rut as ECW did- catering to the small vocal minority, which will get you jackshit in the end (and the bottome line).

TNA was doing it for awhile, and are just now trying to distance themselves from the ‘loyal and annoying’ diehards, which is smart business no matter what you want to say.

Book to the masses and try to reach as many people as possible. Do not react and/or listen to your small loyal fan base, as it will come back to haunt you (or end you).

Posted By: Thank you (Guest) on February 13, 2010 at 06:57 PM

I’ve avoided making the direct comparisons between ROH and ECW for several years but now the parallels are unavoidable and undeniable. As noted in my feature piece last week, there is much in common between the companies and how each grew and adapted over the years. ECW is no longer being in existence and ROH continues to run shows into its eighth year, but I don’t get why that means these companies cannot be compared and contrasted. That’s like telling a historian they couldn’t compare the history and culture of two countries because one of those countries no longer exists. Or two civilizations. Or two baseball teams. What’s the saying—those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Anyway, the appearance is that ROH will surpass ECW in terms of company longevity (although ECW has it beat for overall influence and effect on the wrestling industry).

To the second commenter, ROH is going after new audiences, from their expansion into new regions over the years (including their debut in North Carolina in two months) to their decision to air a television show. However, when you ignore the diehard audience, you are also doing a disservice to your business, because those diehards still make up a percentage of the audience who come to the shows and purchase the merchandise. ROH stumbled in late 2008 when they adjusted their style too much in the opposite direction of what fans expected to see in the product, but now it seems they have found a balance in style and presentation. I believe they can service both the long-time fans and pique the interest of any new audience they can pick up with HDNet and shows in new regions. Here’s another famous saying—”to thine own self be true.” ROH is never going to be the number one wrestling company in the industry and make the sort of profit WWE makes every year, but it can make a decent profit by staying true to its vision of professional wrestling and pick up the fans in new markets who appreciate that style.

Any chance ROH will release “Best of HDNet” on Blu-Ray? Or maybe biggest shows of the year on Blu-Ray? Thanks, love the column!!

Posted By: Ian B. (Guest) on February 16, 2010 at 08:35 PM

It’s up to HDNet to decide if they want to release a “Best Of” DVD in conjunction with Ring of Honor, since HDNet owns the Ring of Honor footage they broadcast on the channel. You can always relive the shows through ROHBrazil’s You Tube channel.

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

This week’s 411 Buy or Sell discusses PWG, DGUSA and ROH.

Japser Gerretsen analyzes the past, present and future of both Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan) and Low Ki (Kaval) in this week’s edition of That Was Then, Is This Too?

Aaron covers this week’s ROH on HDNet with Kevin Steen vs. Delirious.

Finally, you’ll be able to catch me along with 411 alumnus Brad Garoon on this week’s J & K Fun Hour Podcast hosted by Jerome Cusson and Kevin Ford, available through Pro Wrestling Ponderings.

That’s all there is for this week. Thanks for reading!

BROOKLYN!
–Ari—