Column of Honor: 03.26.10: Snapmares, Fallaway Slams, Hagadorn’s Hat and Kevin Ford

Let’s keep it rolling with MORE Column!

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As of 03/26/10

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. Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong (Charlotte, NC on 04/03/10)

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. American Wolves (Phoenix, AZ on 03/26/10)

–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: 03/26/10
1. Roderick Strong
2. Kevin Steen
3. Chris Hero
4. Delirious
5. Kenny King
6. Austin Aries

Movements: Claudio Castagnoli was stripped of his Pick 6 position due to inactivity. Roderick Strong won number one position by defeating Kevin Steen at the March HDNet Tapings. Austin Aries won sixth position in a battle royal for the slot at the March HDNet Tapings.

The Pick 6 Series matches currently scheduled are as follows:

March 27th-Phoenix, Arizona
5) Kenny King vs. Scorpio Sky

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-The Briscoes have been through some on-and-off booking troubles of the last few years—supposed to appear for Pro Wrestling Guerilla but no-showing several times. However, The Briscoes are once again slotted for a PWG appearance on April 10th, 2010 for their “TITANNICA” show. They wrestle against The Young Bucks for the PWG Tag Team Championship. These two teams have crossed paths several times already in ROH and each time have provided at least a very good effort and most of the time more than that.

-So Gabe Sapolsky created a bit of a negative backlash this week when he sent out a press release for DGUSA’s Wrestlemania shows that encouraged fans that already purchased tickets for the ROH show on Friday to reconsider their decision. The offer was a twenty dollar discount off of the ticket price for the first five rows of the “A-Ring” at the Celebrity Theatre if fans brought in and exchanged tickets. Keep in mind, however, that these “A-Ring” seats are the most expensive purchase point for the DGUSA shows, at $80 a pop. That means those that spent any money on the ROH tickets would need to spend SIXTY dollars more in order to attend the DGUSA shows through this “special” offer. Wrestling fans around the internet were not amused or appreciative of the deal.

To be honest, I found the comments to be surprisingly more negative than expected, especially given the positive reviews and reputation surrounding Gabe Sapolsky ‘s project. Personally, I was rather indifferent in opinion when first hearing of this marketing decision. In fact, I didn’t have much of a problem with it at all. I wasn’t really surprised to discover Gabe trying to make another play to compete with ROH. The idea to offer a discount wasn’t a bad one (mind you, not necessarily the most civil of business decisions). The problem comes with the amount of money discounted comparative to the price of these premium tickets.it’s definitely insulting and not the brightest call to appeal to the customer to jump to your brand after already purchasing tickets for your competition by making them pay additionally and likely far more money than they did to buy the competition’s tickets in the first place.

Instead, Sapolsky should have offered equal value—purchase a twenty dollar ticket to the ROH show, receive twenty dollars off admission; purchase a sixty dollar ticket, then receive sixty dollars off and so on. Or, just offer a flat rate at far less than ticket face value—again, twenty dollars would be fair, but sixty more dollars after sinking money into ROH tickets? As terrific a show as both the DGUSA events will likely prove to be, ROH is no slouch this weekend either (as seen in the feature above). Sure, there could have been better choices for the main events to the ROH shows, but it remains more than worthwhile to attend the shows as they are set-up right now. The way Sapolsky pitched the offer was not worth it in terms of sunk cost and additional expense in order to switch shows. Perhaps there are a few who will take Sapolsky and DGUSA up on the offer, but will those few be enough to compensate for the bad public image felt by the smaller niche of independent fans resulting from this stunt?

ROH had the right perspective on offering deals to prospective customers. A few weeks ago, WWE was forced to push back its house show in Philadelphia during the massive blizzard that hit the Northeast United States. Ring of Honor offered free admission to their television tapings that took place that same weekend if fans presented their stub to the WWE house show. They didn’t even have to trade in the WWE ticket—they could attend the ROH show AND the WWE show once it was rescheduled. That was a smart decision that built a measure of positive PR whether one person or fifty ultimately took them up on the offer.

I doubt this will be the last of the ROH vs. DGUSA “war”, although with ROH locking talent into contracts left and right as well as not having a public response to this Sapolsky offer, it certainly appears that one side is clearly more dominant over the other at the moment.

-This just in, The Briscoes have gone on a beer bender and are in no condition to board an airplane. They will not be making it to Los Angeles, CA for their PWG booking.

-Every so often, one of my friends who is into wrestling and was a huge WCW fan asks me if Goldberg will ever come back to wrestling. I’ve always told him “There’s very little chance it’s going to happen, but it’s wrestling, so never say never.” So news broke yesterday that Goldberg has been negotiating with WWE as of late, but not about a wrestling role, rather a new merchandising deal. I can imagine a guest host spot on Raw, some new actions figures and even a Goldberg DVD would happen at some point. So close, but yet so far. Sorry bro.

-This just in, The Briscoes have decided to hitchhike across the country in order to make their PWG booking. They have boarded a hay truck run by Zeke, their third cousin twice removed.

-Ring of Honor announced that they have re-signed Chris Hero to a contract. Right now ROH is clearly in the process of re-upping their talent and locking them in, which is a smart decision. Hero is a huge part of ROH right now and almost assuredly will win the ROH World Tag Team Titles with Claudio Castagnoli at some point this year. He has improved his physique over the years and has become one of the best promos in the company with his “Young Knock-Out Kid” persona.

I reveled in the Kings of Wrestling vs. Bravado Brothers squash last month at the Eighth Anniversary Show. Just re-watched the show on DVD—Claudio and Hero were just amazing in their beat down of their distinguished competition. Unfortunately the Swiss flag Chris and I brought to the show and raised up during the match is only briefly visible on DVD, but at least Claudio and Sara Del Rey pointed up to us in the balcony and gave us some props.

– This just in, The Briscoes have been thrown off the hay truck thanks to excessive shouting of the phrase “Man Up!” Zeke had enough and pulled over, but he made sure they took the goat with them to keep them company. Looks like they won’t be making the PWG booking after all.

– Guess what I was watching earlier in the week? The TNA Best of 2009 DVD–believe it or not, there was actually a DVD inside the plastic case! Kidding, kidding. My usual TNA comment applies though–I know the talent in that company can deliver if given the chance, but they usually are not given the chance. Of note: on this DVD, four of the eight matches involve Kurt Angle, three involve AJ Styles, two involve Sting, Samoa Joe and Daniels. Three matches were from either January or February, one match was from July and four matches were from October and November 2009.

-This just in, The Briscoes were spotted at the local bar talking to a strange man in a black cloak. It appears they have traded the goat for three magic beans, which they will plant into the ground. Hopefully these beans will sprout a giant beanstalk and they will be able to ride the root all the way to Reseda. Looks like those Young Bucks will have to Man Up on April 10th!

–Eye of the Storm 2 Thoughts

The show is split on the two discs with the first two matches of this show on disc 1 and the rest of that event on the second disc. No entrances or commentary for this show on disc one, where it is listed as a bonus feature to Final Battle 2009. However, there are full entrances and commentary for the six matches from this event included on disc two of this two disc set.

Speaking of The Set, the show opened with a rare in-ring appearance for Adam Pearce, teaming with the veteran of the four-sided circle Mat Classic against The Set of J-Sinn and Lance Lude. It’s about time that the hardened veteran Mat Classic was able to get his chance to perform in ROH—he’s definitely earned it by now. He knows his way around the ring, for instance when he calls his shot: “what do you know about wrestling boy? Come and give me a shoulder tackle.” Meanwhile absence does not make Adam Pearce’s heart grow fonder—as he once again is the grump heel demanding respect. He takes an arm drag from Lance Lude and then Pearce gives the bad mouth to Sinclair. NICE. Pearce shouts out, “I never quit!” He then lands a massive lariat that flips Lance Lude head over heels. YIKES.

Mat Classic teases the snapmare, which is the tip of the hat to the Manassas crowd. These guys go absolutely ballistic anyone even has their arms locked in that position. This time around they’ve also added a call out to the “Fallaway slam”. I gotta tell ya, that Manassas crowd has some eclectic tastes.

Pearce continues the old school motif with a claw head swing on Lude. Heel miscommunication begins to break down the MEGAPOWER connection between Pearce and Classic. The Set take advantage. J-Sinn calls for the snapmare to a huge pop, snapmaring Lude over onto Pearce (although I believe it was mostly a miss) and then Sinn splashes him for the win.

It’s okay to criticize Pearce and now Cornette’s booking, but it cannot be denied that Pearce has done the smart thing with his small and sporadic roles wrestling for the company which he books. Thus far he has always jobbed in these matches and kudos to him for doing so.

Sonjay Dutt is so NOT intimidated by Grizzly Redwood that he wrestles the entire match with his doo-rag on. It doesn’t even fall off, unlike Jack Evans’ headgear back in the day. Anyone who does a snapmare receives a huge applause from the Manassas crowd, although Sonjay, the heel, can’t understand why they are reacting this way. Sonjay strips Grizzly of his suspenders and put them on in order to mock Grizzly. He looks completely ridiculous. He’ll be posing for a fireman’s calendar next. They soon fall off anyway, so maybe it works like Mjolnir and Dutt isn’t worthy of wearing them. Sonjay calls a fans’ mother a whore. Notice how I’m commenting on everything but the in-ring action?

Okay, fine! Things pick up when Dutt pulls Grizz up at two after his leg kick, springing leg drop and splash combination. Yeah, that never goes wrong. He pulls off the cover after a quebrada moonsault as well. He does it again (just asking for it now), and Grizzly surprises him with the roll up for three. Dutt immediately locks on the camel clutch to hum…to humb…you know. Grizzly receives a surprisingly good sympathy pop afterwards and eventually the ref raises his hand in victory. I will say, still love his theme song.

Disc two begins with a Pick 6 Contender’s Series match between Kenny Omega (ranked 6th) and Rhett Titus.

The audience insists that Titus “sucks d*ck”, but Titus insists that he “sucks t*ts”, so it appears that we’re at a stalemate. Santamaria gets a decent one-liner after the crowd chants “Hepa-Titus” (sic)—”Don’t you have to not be a virgin in order to have Hepatitis?” It is a conundrum. Or a paradox. Or a worm hole. Or Herpes.

Omega has been attending the Roderick Strong School of Chopping, because he lays it on huge here with some sharp slaps to the chest. A clever hip toss-reversal sequence also sees Omega with the advantage, dumping Titus and then flying out with a running kick. Omega mocks Titus by thrusting in his face…and as I’ve stated before, I don’t really need to see that. Somehow it makes him MORE OVER with the Manassas crowd, and that along with the snapmare chants is starting to make me question the lifestyle of the Virginians in attendance. No offense intended.

Titus’s heel control segment is very nicely done, with a concentration of a lot of strikes to the neck, including a knee strike and a knee drop. He also has a vicious running boot with Omega’s head next to the post. I think what Titus did with his offence really works for him, so hopefully he’ll bring some of it back in future matches. Meanwhile, the crowd is all over him with constant chatter and denigration. I think denigration is actually one of the ten plagues in the story of Passover, well; at least it was during my family’s Seder dinner.

Omega’s speed is the difference factor here, as he still has plenty of it in the later stage of the match and uses it to avoid and dodge attacks (including an awesome slide-under of a running boot) and counters with his own, including some running dropkicks and his now-trademark moves such as the Kotaru Driver (one handed leapfrog bulldog). However, Omega’s tendency to use speed bursts for his offence once again has its costs. He has to put the stop on a comeback and take some breaths after a roll away. This is becoming quite the habit and I don’t know if there’s anything he can do to curb it either than to improve his cardio or to slow down his offense.

Omega does recover (both in a real and a kayfabe sense) with another comeback strong that includes an awesome looking springboard dropkick from behind and a DANGEROUS snap Dragon Suplex. That gets a close two. Titus hits the Super Sex Factor (X-Factor off the top) for a close two-count as well. Titus lands the Muff Driver (Razor’s Edge) off the top, but Titus flips over and when Titus jumps down to follow Omega then hits THE BEST HADOUKEN of his life! I mean it looked like it SMASHED Titus in the jaw! Man, if that happens enough times I think people that move gets over the same way Generico’s turnbuckle brainbuster .Omega with Croyt’s Wrath to win in what was overall a very good undercard match.

Kevin Steen and El Generico team up for the next-to-last tag match before the Steel heel turn. They have to face heavy-hitters in the duo of Erick Stevens and Bison Smith (the Mohawk seemingly having travelled from the one to the other). That’s no small order and in fact this was a match Steen himself set up (as seen on a video wire)—things that make you go “hmmmm”. In hindsight, fans know that Steen hated Generico. It’s apparent this match was a set-up for Generico to take lots of physical punishment before Steen dropped the hammer in New York—a passive-aggressive “gotcha” moment for his little buddy.

Generico refuses to tag in Kevin Steen against the larger and more powerful Bison Smith. Steen protests: “Oh my god, PLEASE tag!” Doth he protest too much? Steen finally tags in and is able to…wait. No. Spoke too soon. Steen’s knee quickly gives way and it’s a stalemate of power versus power during a suplex attempt. Steen has to “quickly” tag out and Generico is back against the bigger man and back to having his ass handed to him. A simple rule of professional wrestling: you just don’t mess with Bison Smith. He flies over the guardrail with a suicide dive onto Generico. Stevens kicks at Steen’s knee to leave him outside. Nana is very pleased and well, at this point in the match he has every reason to feel that way.

Basically Generico and Steen are on desperation mode the rest of the way, and even Steen is having some trouble maintaining momentum on the hot tag. Steen’s pumphandle knee crusher on the bad knee once again reinforces the “injury factor” of his knee, although again—if you know you have a bum knee, why are you putting all sorts of downward force on it? Stupid babyfaces. Steen’s Swanton is thwarted when Stevens gets his knees up and once again “forces” a tag to Generico. Nana pushes Steen off the top rope on the attempt of their flying double team. Stevens preps for the choo-choo train, but Generico cuts him off with the Yakuza kick. Smith cuts him off and he and Stevens launch a massive Doomsday shoulder tackle, followed by a Smith lariat and Stevens’ Doctor Bomb for the pinfall.

Steen grabs a chair to run off Nana and The Embassy before they get any funny ideas about beating up Generico some more. Hmm…Steen with chair in the same ring as Generico…bells going off in my head, but why? Anyway, this was a very smartly wrestled match given the events that occurred the next night in New York City.

Next up is a Pick 6 Contenders Series between Colt Cabana and Chris Hero (3), as Cabana needs to win to get back on to the list after his loss to Austin Aries in the cage match. This is a match you’ll want to watch with commentary off, because there’s a lot of fan interaction and dialogue from everyone involved and it should be heard in full volume.

Shane Hagadorn, Triple H from 2000 called and he wants the douche-y hat back.

Someone calls for a birthday hat, so Cabana ties one on his head and another on Todd Sinclair and hey THERE’S KEVIN FORD! There’s a Madonna impersonation. Not BY Kevin Ford, mind you. Although, maybe if you liquor him up. Sinclair searches Cabana’s person for weapons and finds…Mat Classic’s mask? How did that get in there? The boys in the back must have pulled a rib on Cabana backstage before the match! Yeah…that’s it…

Cabana threatens to punch and HERO FLINCHES! Hero is out at ringside to mock the fans and Hagadorn says “what is it 1995 with that shirt?” Well, again, its 2000 with that hat. I don’t know if it’s more of a fashion nightmare compared to Zubaz pants and fannypacks, but its close.

The match settles down from the comedy and becomes a battle of strikes and counterstrikes from each man. Hero strikes hard and tags Cabana often, but Colt comes back with return fire and then usually going for some sort of roll up or pin attempt. Hagadorn inserts himself very cleverly into the match by pretending to listen to the ref and sit down, but he stomps Cabana in the gut outside. Hagadorn also plays into the finish as he stands on the apron to distract Cabana, this time he is hip tossed in the ring for his efforts. However, while Sinclair is attempting to deal with that mess, Hero is able to pull on the Golden Elbow Pad of Luminous Destruction. He reverses a whip and BLASTS Cabana with the loaded elbow once to the back of the head and then once to the front of the head and that is all she wrote.

Young Bucks vs. Austin Aries & Kenny King: Crowd chants “Awesome Aries”, so Aries stuffs it in their faces by tearing apart the town of Manassas and insulting the crowd and the Jackson brothers. “Tito, Jermaine”. Ouch. He insults the ring gear of the Bucks as Totally 80’s. Then Aries disrobes and unleashes HELL on the eye of all onlookers with banana yellow print tights (King has red ones to match). I feel like I should be filing a criminal complaint or something, those tights are just so hideously ugly. Then they mock The Bucks by doing their poses. Good lord is Aries owning the world right now.

Aries and Nick Jackson grapple and then Aries rips the tassels off of his boots. RUDO! Then he stuffs it down his tights…UNECCESSARY! Nick tries to grab the tassels out of his tights. I think I’m just going to stop this DVD right now.

Matt eventually grabs the tassels and stuffs it down Aries’ pie hole. HONESTLY, did I just purchase a fetish video by accident?

Finally we get to the normal wrestling stuff, like men jumping and climbing over other men and pretending to hit each other with fists to the arm. Aries continues to awesomify the match with his heel work, knocking off the Blonde Jackson brother and feeding King several tags, mocking the faces by clapping for them. Unfortunately he misjudges the timing of a jumping axe handle and knocks right into King, allowing for The Bucks to get back on track and clear out Team Fluorescent.

Aries and King regain control and perform a Bucks impersonation with SIMULTANEOUS CARTWHEELS. They stomp the one Jackson down. THEY CARTWHEEL AGAIN, THE OTHER DIRECTION. What the hell is going on with this match? This is like some sort of bizarre-o-land tag team match, some sort of Alice in Wonderland through the looking glass take the red pill Matrix type match. AND I DON’T WANT IT TO END.

SURREALITY has come to ROH as Aries and King execute THE HULK HOGAN. Aries with the big boot, King with the running leg drop and then all sorts of Hogan flexes. Then Prazak drops a January 4th reference. GOOD LORD.

The Bucks bring us back to life, back to reality with their hot tag and their trademark comeback combos, which are spot-on in execution, visually impressive and motivate the crowd to cheer them onwards. Aries stops the More Bang for Your Buck and King nails double knees for a two which is broken up by Nick Jackson. Aries looks for a variation of More Bang for Your Buck. Aries connects with the Finlay Roll, King sort-of gets a swanton and Aries teases the 450 Splash but hits the frog splash instead.

Then in a rare (intentional) miscommunication, Nick reverses King’s whip to the turnbuckle, but King grabs his boots and pushes him right into the line of fire of Matt’s superkick. It cracks Nick in the back of the head violently. Now Aries goes for the IED corner missile dropkick with King holding Nick, but that misses as well as Nick ducks out of the way and the move smashes into King instead. Matt blasts Aries with a superkick and sets up for MBFYB on King. They connect for the three-count in one hell of a wild match. Aries & King get into a lover’s tiff as a result of the loss. I know I won’t ever forget this one.

The second singles-match between Roderick Strong and Tyler Black was the selling point in advance for Eye of the Storm 2. Black had narrowly defeated Strong at Survival of the Fittest 2009 (where it seemed Strong kicked out either a split second after or right at the three-count). They fought to a twenty-minute draw during The Omega Effect. Though both men were in the Pick 6 at the time, this is billed as a “rivalry” match and those spots are not at stake here. The match certainly does live up to billing and its very fast action that while I won’t do play-by-play recap is definitely worth watching. Roderick even goes old school by busting out his CX02 finisher! He also sends up Tyler with his own version of the God’s Last Gift. Ultimately Roderick wins with a massive running yakuza that wipes out Black from his feet, and TWO Gibson Drivers. Strong pulls him up and follows The Code of Honor at the end of the match. This will end up being the last match they have against each other that will be fought on semi-amicable terms.

-This just in, The Briscoes have climbed up the magic beanstalk and looked to be on the way towards California, when all of a sudden they were chased down by a giant GIANT. He wanted the blood of a Southern Delawarian, but wait…no, SWERVE! The Briscoes have challenged the giant GIANT to a beer-drinking contest in order to spare their lives! They know that no one man, or giant GIANT will be able to outdrink ‘dem Briscoe boys. However, this could take a while…like several weeks, so unfortunately they have alerted PWG officials that they will not be able to make it to the show on April 10th. We here at Column of Honor will continue to follow this story as it develops.

The Briscoes & Rocky Romero vs. American Wolves & Alex Koslov is the six-man main event (changed from the scheduled eight-man when Teddy Hart and Jack Evans were double booked and pulled off this show). So what we have here in this match are two Southern Delawarian rednecks teaming with a dancing Cuban against the combination of two American bullies and a Russian Communist apologist-slash-appreciator. Truly the Cold War is over.

The match begins with former No Remorse Corps partners Romero and Richards facing off in the ring against each other. There are pops for snapmares for Richards and Romero. Spits and slaps between the two. In a bit of irony, its Romero going to the armbar against Richards, who counters to a cloverleaf, countered to a small package, then a kick-dodge tradeoff and stalemate. It’s a really good tete-a-tete and if Romero comes back for more frequent bookings then there is definitely room for a singles match between the two.

The fans have been asking for it all night and finally the Briscoes and Romero deliver, big time…TRIPLE FALLAWAY SLAMS! It’s going bonkers in Virginia!

After a lot of multiple team moves going back and forth, we get a clear out of Briscoes and Wolves over the ropes and they brawl to the back, leaving Romero and Koslov the final stretch and the spotlight. Koslov has some impressive height and reach on the Frog Splash. Romero turns a suplex attempt into a back slide for a cool-looking two, but then gets SUPERKICKED (all caps because it was downright worthy of it) right in the MUSH for a nearfall. Romero with the KO kick on Koslov for the win.

The Briscoes emerge from the back as Romero gets his cool so-ca music to close the night with some shimmying and hand shaking with the fans at ringside. Koslov cuts a promo in Russian about buying a new yorkie terrier or something. All told, a solid enough event, but it was probably the right call after all to bundle this show with Final Battle 2009.

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I just wanted to really compliment you on your latest article. It is easy to write a column using insider terms and focusing on how moves work for booking, career paths, etc, using the insider smart marks terms

But the article you wrote this week was totally kayfabe, totally from a “mark” perspective, but it was extremely intelligent, well thought-out, well designed, and (above all else) believable. It was like a modern Apter magazine article done correctly (i.e., not writing on a 6th grade level, not having Sensationalistic/National Enquirer rumors, and actually pertaining to an active feud in a federation.)

Look, I read you every week, even tho I don’t really ‘follow’ ROH. (Mostly just due to finances and a lack of HDNet). I read your articles to keep abreast of ROH news and focus, but also because you are a good writer.

I think you went above and beyond this week. It just seemed to ring true…

Bravo sir!

Robert J. Schwabe

Thanks for the compliments Robert–believe me I appreciate them. You’re absolutely right in that this and several other columns (like the Jimmy Jacobs write-up two years ago) tread the line between kayfabe and knowing the history of the company, thanks for getting it and for liking the style!

Also, remember that just because you don’t have HDNet doesn’t mean you can’t watch the show. The shows are posted mid-week through YouTube through this URL: Right now they are on a two week hiatus, but you can check some of the previous episodes–they’re hit and miss, but there are definitely some real gems in there.

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

No major links this week but be sure to enjoy all of the Wrestlemania specials from the past two weeks on the 411 Wrestling Zone, including my own article on the history of Money in the Bank. Also, my “Mania predictions will be available through the 411 Wrestlemania Roundtable, which will be up this weekend.

So until next week, woah-oh-oh, woah-oh-oh…Wres-tle-ma-nia!

BROOKLYN!
–Ari–