Column of Honor: 11.05.11: All the News That’s Fit to Print (I Always Wanted to Use That Cliché)

Welcome to the Column. Thanks to everyone for their kind words last week as well as some very interesting responses to the Nigel McGuinness return and my own concerns about medical information privacy. This time around, I’m catching up on all the news about Ring of Honor that developed over the past several weeks and man, has there been a lot of it. Oh and yes, a very unique and prodigious countdown is back this week as well.

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=All the News that’s Fit to Print=

Ring of Honor Returns to Philadelphia, PA

Ring of Honor will make its return to Philadelphia for the first time since the close of their HDNet Tapings schedule back in early January of this year. The date for the show is January 20th, 2012 and the event is set for the Philadelphia National Guard Armory, which used to be the old home of ROH house shows before they moved to The Arena in 2009 for TV. This news should make some ROH Philly fan very happy, as there were complaints about Philadelphia being constantly used for the TV taping format and so the “true ROH house show experience” was lost to that city. Philadelphia was the birthplace of Ring of Honor, where many of the shows were run in the first year of the promotion. It will be nice to bring ROH back and hopefully regain some of the buzz and feel of the many important shows that have taken place there over the past ten years.

Ring of Honor Debuts in the Norfolk Scope…Sort of…

Initially there were some big waves made when Ring of Honor dropped the bombshell announcement that they were running the 13,000 seat Norfolk Scope arena in Norfolk, Virginia on January 21st, 2012. However, some people (including your truly) needed to take a better look at the fine print. The ROH event will actually take place at the “Expo Hall”, which is a smaller venue that is attached to the larger Scope building. The Expo Hall holds up to approximately 2,000 people, which would bring it in-line closer to the size and scope (ah, sure, pun intended) of the buildings they usually run, or at least max out at in terms of size and capacity. Older wrestling fans will recall the Norfolk Scope as playing host to WWE (then WWF) during the infamous “De-Generation X Invades WCW” episode of WWF Monday Night Raw. Still, ROH is intending on beginning the year with some bang behind them, or at least it seems considering this Philadelphia-Norfolk double shot they are running at the back end of the month, combined with another round of Television tapings, this time in their return to Baltimore, Maryland which will be held at the Du Burns Arena.

Matches and Preview for the Next Sinclair Television Tapings: November 5th, 2011 in Louisville, Kentucky

This weekend marks another round of television tapings for ROH; their second in a row in the Cornette Home Base of The Davis Arena is Louisville, Kentucky. Here is what is lined up for tonight’s card so far, which will then wind up presented to the viewing audience in the coming weeks, likely in time for a final push to Final Battle 2011 in New York City:

Proving Ground Match-ROH World Champion Davey Richards vs. Michael Elgin

The Proving Ground concept gives contenders a chance to qualify for a future title match if they can defeat the champion in a non-title endeavor OR take the champ to a time limit draw. It’s a very easy and time-tested concept that if a wrestler can defeat the champion in a non-title situation that then gives grounds for a future opportunity in a title match. So all ROH is doing here is giving a name and a sense of formality to the procedure, but it also can add some extra buzz and suspense to what otherwise might not be a draw of a match.

For instance, Richards vs. Elgin is, on the outset, a very good bout, but probably couldn’t main event a ROH event right now. However, if it’s a main event of the TV show and the added emphasis is on putting over Elgin as a hot property and someone who can go toe-to-toe with the ROH World Champion, then that can help pave the way for future matches where the title IS on the line. Elgin does seem to be on the rise big time given strong performances all throughout the past year, but his early positioning as the “policeman” for Roderick Strong in The House of Truth can be somewhat limiting. Luckily, Elgin breaks free from the constraints of that label when he actually gets in the ring and gets over with the crowd by tearing apart his hapless opponents. Richards will give him a very competitive bout and I’d guess plenty of moments where he goes even with the champ.

Does this match go the distance or does it even have a clean finish? That may be determined by what ROH wants to do with this match in terms of the build to Final Battle 2011. Does ROH want to do a House of Truth run-in sequence where it is Eddie Edwards who comes in for the save on Richards? That would play off a series of post-match developments on ROH events earlier in the year when it was Richards doing so for Edwards, who at the time was World Champion but didn’t necessarily appreciate the assistance from his brother wolf. Does ROH want to put Richards over strongly as Final Battle 2011 approaches, thus pushing him as a dominant champion who will be providing a real challenge to any contender? Or does ROH want to bank a little and invest on the future by having Elgin win or look good via a draw and qualify for a future title match in 2012? Lots of possible routes to go as far as a conclusion to the match, but the road to getting there should be just as interesting to watch.

World TV Title Rematch-Jay Lethal defends vs. El Generico

This is El Generico’s rematch from episode 2 of the Sinclair TV series, where Lethal unseated Generico in the popular masked luchador’s first-ever defense of the title. That match initially went to a fifteen-minute draw and then Lethal won in a three-minute sudden death overtime period. ROH could play off the finish of that match and have them do it all again. This could also be a convenient opportunity to introduce Kevin Steen by having him run-in and destroy Generico, Lethal or both men. Another possibility is the involvement of Mike Bennett interfering in Lethal’s business to continue their issues from episode five of the show. There should be no doubt about the quality of the in-ring wrestling from both Generico and Lethal, however, as their first match demonstrated they are a very good pairing.

“Best in the World” Rematch-Future Shock vs. The Young Bucks

A continuation of what is becoming a burgeoning rivalry in the tag team division sees the first face-off between these two young teams on the ROH SBG TV series. There is no doubt O’Reilly, Cole and both Jackson brothers can go in the ring and if they just go out there and do what they do best they will provide for an excellent main-event contest. I’d expect The Bucks to really show their heel antics here for the first time on TV (they already fought The Bravados in their SBG TV debut) and make an exclamation point about their attitude of feeling superior than all other teams in the company. The heel act did wonders for their run in PWG and I think they’ll bring the best of that to this new run for ROH. As for O’Reilly and Cole, unfortunately but necessarily they should lose here to spark a continuation of the rivalry between these two teams. Plus, right now there is a bit of a traffic jam as the number one and two face spots in the tag division are filled up already (by WGTT and ANX, respectively) and they’ll likely have to take a few losses in order to spice up the mix in the mid-card of the tag division. On the other hand, how awesome is it that a wrestling promotion can actually have enough teams to fill up a “mid-card” for their tag division?

Tag Team Action-Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander

I have very much enjoyed Caprice and Cedric in their few singles appearances over the past year and they have gelled very quickly as a tag team presence. Hopefully ROH acquiesces to the fan given “C&C Wrestling Factory” moniker and refers to them as such on TV. Come on, that’s a winner of a team name. However, this is likely a spotlight match to push The Briscoes strongly on the way to their title shot at Final Battle 2011, so my one hope is that at the least C&C have a chance to show off some cool sequences and their potential as a fan favorite team before they go under to the dominant top heels of the division.

Also Scheduled: ROH World Tag Champion Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin, “Die Hard” Eddie Edwards, The All Night Express (Rhett Titus & Kenny King), “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett, Steve Corino, Jimmy Jacobs, Tommaso Ciampa & The Embassy, TJ Perkins, Andy “Right Leg” Ridge, Mike Mondo

Survival of the Fittest 2011 Full Lists of Participants Announced

One of my favorite annual tournaments on the independent wrestling scene now has its field and brackets set, as ROH finished announcing the fourteen participants and their slots in the five qualifying round matches for its Survival of the Fittest 2011 show, which takes places in Dayton, Ohio on November 18th, 2011. That will be one day before Glory By Honor X in Chicago, Illinois, so that November weekend may just be the most important (and more important than that, the most newsworthy) set of dates for Ring of Honor’s late Fall heading into the year-ender, Final Battle 2011.

Here are the announced competitors in this year’s field and some initial thoughts about their role in the tournament:

Eddie Edwards: The defending tournament champion already has a title shot signed, sealed and delivered for Final Battle 2011 against Davey Richards, but another win would not only give him another accolade among a growing list of accomplishments in Ring of Honor (first wrestler to win back-to-back SOTFs), but he receives an insurance policy just in case the first shot in December doesn’t go to his liking. That said, Edwards is a made-man after winning last year and then following through with the ROH World Title win and doesn’t need the win this time around. Still, expect Edwards to be a good shot to make it to the finals where he can then put the eventual winner over strongly.
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Roderick Strong: The 2005 tournament winner is still one of the more prominent main-eventers in this current era of the promotion; however, he is sliding back down the contention ladder after recent big match losses including a ROH World Title opportunity on TV. Strong could be the man to the win here to provide a quick rebound back up to the title, but like Edwards, doesn’t really need it at this point either.

Michael Elgin: I would hope one of the goals for this year’s SOTF would be to have Elgin give a very good showing and demonstrate that he could win it outright and for his own purposes. I’d think a very good bet to make it to the finals, at least.

Jay Briscoe: The Briscoes are wrestling together (see below) and so a win will put them both in the finals, which should make for some interesting team psychology. Jay should be fun to watch here as both he and Mark have gained new life with their latest heel turn.

Mark Briscoe: This isn’t necessarily the same “Crazy Mark Briscoe” that performed the shooting star press on top of a Ryder Truck. I don’t think we’ll get something quite that nuts but I think he’ll show well.

Kenny King: Both members of ANX made a very good showing last year by making it to the finals-and they could do it again. A strong showing will help add momentum to their tag team title shot the next night in Chicago, but then again, that also means either or both could lose here and it wouldn’t matter all that much because they still would be featured prominently the next night in Chicago. That said, I’d expect King to want to impress with some flash and hot moves, and this is the first time in ROH that he’ll be able to shine as a babyface in a tournament format.

Rhett Titus: Same as King. Like last year, he has been slotted in a singles match and so it will be a test of his ability to shine in that spotlight.

Kyle O’Reilly: I like to see him kicking ass in that ring and tearing right through people with strikes and submissions. He’s got a great opportunity to do that this year.

Adam Cole: Uses his speed and agility well and has been a very good babyface over the last year in the promotion, so he could definitely bring those positives to the table in the tournament.

Harlem & Lancelot Bravado: Wrestling against The Briscoes, whom they managed to get an upset win over earlier in the year during the Tag Team Contender’s Lottery (Tag Team Turmoil). I don’t know that history will repeat this time around, but if it does, the tag team advantage going into the elimination finals will be the same.

Tommaso Ciampa: I thought he might have been given a singles slot, but instead is in another four-man match, so that way he can lose and ROH could still bill him as “undefeated in singles matches”.

“The Prodigy” Mike Bennett: The greatest fear of a Bennett Hater is that he is pushed over a former champion in Eddie Edwards and then wins the tournament. It could happen, but to me it seems unlikely right now that he goes over Edwards in an opening round. If it was down to just him and Eddie in the finals, I could see it, but that’s not going to happen now.

Andy “Right Leg” Ridge”: An ultimate underdog role. Still, he could be given some time to shine and made to look like he has a fighting chance, similar to his match against Christopher Daniels last year.

The tournament format this year will be three singles matches, one tag team match with both winners of the team advancing, and a four-corner survival with one man advancing. That gives ROH six finalists who compete in an elimination match until one man is left standing, the final survivor.

The announced brackets are:

Kyle O’Reilly vs. Andy Ridge
Roderick Strong vs. Rhett Titus
Eddie Edwards vs. Mike Bennett
The Briscoes vs. The Bravados
Kenny King vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Adam Cole vs. Mike Elgin

As it goes, the winner of Survival of the Fittest earns a future shot at the ROH World Title. However, of all the winners, only Eddie Edwards, who won last year, was able to convert his tournament victory into championship gold.

Here’s a list of the previous Survival of the Fittest tournament winners:

2004: Bryan Danielson (now known as Daniel Bryan)
2005: Roderick Strong
2006: Delirious
2007: Chris Hero
2009: Tyler Black (n.k.a. Seth Rollins)
2010: Eddie Edwards

Delirious Returns to ROH Action! No, Wait, He Doesn’t

One of the weirder situations is just breaking as of this past Thursday, November 3rd. Last week, current ROH booker Delirious was announced as making a return to in-ring wrestling action, taking on an open challenge against the undefeated Tommaso Ciampa. This would mean Delirious would wrestle on an ROH show for the first time since his appearance at Revolution: Canada in May of this year when he did a Larry Sweeney tribute comedy match with Colt Cabana. That was more of homage to a fallen friend and a series of comedy spots than an actual wrestling match, so really, this bout would have been his first “serious” match in ROH since he took over the booking position and subsequently written out due to The All-Night Express’s spike pile-driver attack (they were heels at the time). Delirious even went so far as to cut a video promo announcing his return and his intention to tear Ciampa apart.

However, word broke on the November 3rd newswire that Delirious had been pulled off the card and I quote, “It has been determined that Mr. Delirious’ current position in Ring of Honor and the potential match with Mr. Ciampa is a conflict of interest. These issues involve company liabilities and matters to do with our insurers. It is in the best interest of our company to cancel the match involving Mr. Delirious and Mr. Ciampa in Collinsville, IL on Sunday afternoon, November 6th, 2011. We are highly apologetic to the fans in Collinsville for the cancellation but Tommaso Ciampa will face an opponent to be determined this Sunday.”

Obviously, Delirious himself, or perhaps Cornette would have been the one to decide on taking him out of the match. Either way, this is really disappointing news for fans in Collinsville and ROH fans in general, as something was advertised and then just as quickly taken away. Delirious’ return definitely would have added to the show and even more so his presence in the ring would have been refreshing to see. Certainly he had been away from the ring long enough for his return to feel fresh and exciting and something different and out of the ordinary. As far as a conflict of interest goes, it seems perplexing to state the problem that way, considering Delirious likely would have gone under for Ciampa, helping to give some more build to Ciampa as a burgeoning heel presence in the ROH mid-card. Adam Pearce always lost the few times that he stepped back in the ring to wrestle for ROH when he was the booker from late 2008- late 2010 and it seemed to me that would be the same situation here.

Hopefully the replacement for Delirious will be someone at least equal to the name value if not the potential quality of the Delirious match with Ciampa. That would have been a certainty under the Gabe Sapolsky booking era from 2002-2008, but not so much in recent years. It is just as likely someone else in-house would be used, like Bobby Dempsey could be thrown in there for a quick squash (and no offense to Bobby, but the difference in expectations is obvious).

November 6th, 2011 ROH in Collinsville, Illinois Preview

So what is on tap for Sunday afternoon in Collinsville (start time at 4PM)? Here’s a quick preview of scheduled bouts.

World Tag Team Title Match-Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas) defend vs. Future Shock (Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly)

These two teams had a great non-title encounter during the Revolution: USA event back in May, but I suspect Cole and O’Reilly want to top that match with this, their highest profile match in the promotion to date. This title match is actually taking place several months after Future Shock won the right to challenge for the titles in the Tag Team Contender’s Lottery mini-tournament this past July. Now, realistically, are the titles going to change hands here? Likely not, as Haas and Benjamin are positioned as the alpha tag team in the promotion right now and have two other major title defenses lined up that make sense for them to be the champions going into them. However, in situations like this the wrestlers involved often step it up to ensure that fans can create that suspension of disbelief that at the peak moments of the match, maybe, juuuuust maybe, there will be a title change happening right before their eyes. The crowd reaction and emotion can get there, and I think both teams are capable of bringing the fans along on that ride.

1st Time Ever Tag Team Match-The American Wolves (ROH World Champion Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) vs. The All Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus)

This is one of the few first-time matches left for The Wolves as a team, but the focus is actually more on the knowledge that once again very soon Richards and Edwards will face each other for the ROH World Title and that King and Titus are going for the tag team titles within a few weeks. This match then, to me, seems like that one last piece of the push for ANX to prime themselves for that title match in Chicago. I expect All-Night Express to win, the question is simply will that be a clean win, or will there be some sort of discrepancy or disagreement between The Wolves that causes them to lose? I think a King win on Richards would also go towards developing him as a future ROH World Title contender. He’s had just the one shot against Tyler Black back in early 2010, but there have always been hopes for him to get to that level. King and Richards have had some singles matches both here and I believe in FIP and they have good chemistry in the ring. I expect some great exchanges from all involved and a heated final rally to the finish from both teams.

1st Time Ever Singles Match-El Generico vs. “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett

El Generico has proven not just in ROH but all over the independent scene that he can get a good match out of anyone, so I’m actually not so worried about this one. Bennett will get heat because Generico can be just too damned sympathetic as an underdog hero not to be able to move the crowd to boo Bennett and cheer for him. Now, as to who wins, Generico does have a ROH World Title shot coming up in a few weeks, so it could be smart booking to put him over here to prep for that. On the other hand, Bennett doesn’t lose all too often given his big push, though he has lost cleanly to the likes of Lethal and Benjamin in the past few months, so it’s not unprecedented.

Proving Ground Match-ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal vs. Mark Briscoe

Mark Briscoe has wrestled for the TV Title before against Eddie Edwards and Christopher Daniels, but now he needs to win or go the distance against Lethal in order to earn another one down the line. I think Lethal will be very over with the crowd and he will be able to show off a lot of his offense against Mark. In fact this is likely to be a very offense-based match.

Special Challenge Match-TJ Perkins vs. Jay Briscoe

This is my pick for early show stealer and I think TJ and Jay can put together something really great as far as both a technical wrestling match and then breaking it down into a firefight. Jay Briscoe has proven his abilities in singles competition so many times and has had memorable matches against the likes of Roderick Strong, Takeshi Morishima and Nigel McGuinness. There is no doubt at this point that he will come through in an undercard singles situation such as this.

Singles Action-Tommaso Ciampa with The Embassy vs. TBD

Now that Delirious is out of the picture, it’s anyone’s guess as to who fills in the slot against Ciampa. Then again, maybe Nana calls out Delirious anyway and challenges him more forcefully, which causes him to answer. Either way, whoever answers the challenge will likely lose to continue the push of Ciampa’s singles undefeated streak.

Tag Team Action-The Bravado Brothers vs. Steve Corino & Jimmy Jacobs

I think Corino and Jacobs could use a win going into whatever angle with Steen will be happening in the near future. This may be the first time they are actually teaming up in the ring together for ROH action. The Bravados will provide a good foil with their false sincerity as compared to Corino and Jacobs, who seem to be very genuine about their path to babyface redemption.

Singles Action-Michael Elgin with Truth Martini vs. Grizzly Redwood

Grizzly may have a few hope spots here and there but other than that, this will be an absolute SQUASH for Elgin…and rightfully so. Hopefully the fans can get some ooohs and ahhs at his power moves.

Other Cards, Other Matches

Quite a few new match announcements have been made for the rest of ROH shows in 2011:

The “Battle in the Carolinas” double-shot now have featured matches. December 3rd in Spartanburg, South Carolina will be known as Southern Defiance and will have a Twenty-Man Royal Rumble style match (ROH has an annoying longer description of the match not trying to say it, but, hell, it’s a Royal Rumble). The winner of that match receives a future ROH World Title shot.

Then, December 4th in Greensboro, North Carolina will be known as Northern Aggression and have an Eight-Man Elimination Tag Match (a.k.a. Survivor Series style) featuring current ROH World Tag Team Champions Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team of Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin teaming up with current ROH TV Champion Jay Lethal and El Generico against the team of The Briscoe Brothers and The House of Truth members Roderick Strong and Michael Elgin. That’s quite the packed main-event match. ROH has set a TWO-HOUR time-limit for that one, so expect it to go quite some time, maybe not that long, but certainly given the abilities of those involved they could go that long if they wanted. As far as team names go, I suggested “Wrestling’s Greatest Four Man Tag Team” against “Briscoes’ Baddies” on my Twitter and the more I say both those names over and over in my head, the more I like them.

As far as ROH using WWE concepts for their shows, well, that’s not newsworthy so much considering they have run both of these style matches many times before throughout the history of the company. Hell, many independents run variations of those matches (CHIKARA has the Countdown Showdown match which is a 30-plus man Rumble match). ROH has done the Survivor Series Elimination Match arguably better than WWE over the past several years, including their ROH vs. CZW finale at Death Before Dishonor IV. WWE doesn’t even bother booking but one of those matches on the Survivor Series Pay Per View which began the concept (and it takes a complete backseat to other matches such that it doesn’t even matter if they happen), so if they’re going to only pay lip service to it, I have no problem if another promotion runs with it.

Here is a look at how the Glory By Honor X card is shaping up for November 19th, 2011 in Chicago Ridge, Illinois:

ROH World Title Match-Davey Richards defends vs. El Generico
World Tag Team Title Match-Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas defend The All Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus)
*If Future Shock wins the World Tag Team Titles on 11/6 they will defend against The ANX
Proving Ground Match-World TV Champion Jay Lethal vs. Roderick Strong with Truth Martini
Tag Team Challenge Match-Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. The Young Bucks

Richards and Generico should be a very worthy main-event for the show as previous tangos between the two have been high-quality and that is due to the hard work and efforts of both participants. This will be ANX’s biggest night of the year and win or lose hopefully they make the most of it. Lethal and Strong are solid opponents for each other and a good mid-card bout, while The Briscoes and Young Bucks had a very good series of matches in ROH back in 2009 and could reprise the best of those matches here. Interestingly both teams are positioned as heels right now (The Bucks just turned with the handshake refusal at Death Before Dishonor IX) but The Briscoes’ are regaining popularity with the ROH fan base, so they could get the partisan reaction on this show. More matches should be announced and set before the show takes place.

-Davey Richards (presuming he makes it as champion) versus Eddie Edwards for the ROH World Championship is official for Final Battle 2011 December 23rd in New York City, though not if you visited the ROH website this week. They’re still trying to get mileage out of the “who is going to get the next title shot?” question because the announcement hasn’t been made on the TV show as yet, even though those fans who follow the TV Tapings already know that Edwards was given the shot. That is yet more great continuity logic from ROH here, to go along with ROH never acknowledging on TV that All-Night Express already has a ROH World Tag team Title shot despite having to wrestle against The Briscoes again to try for another one. I get so upset sometimes that a promotion so dedicated to basic wrestling logic and booking developments still can’t negotiate the timelines between when things are taped for TV and when other matches are happening on house shows and be able to intertwine the two into a reasonable and sensible whole.

-Also lined up for Final Battle 2011 is a “Roderick Strong Invitational Challenge” (which is in no way, shape or form related to the “Eddie Edwards Ten-Minute Hunt”) where Strong has issued an open challenge to anyone to wrestle him in a match, with the purpose of “stealing the show” away from Davey Richards. The ROH World Tag Team Titles are on the line with whoever is the current champion (likely Haas and Benjamin) defending against The Briscoes and Jay Lethal is likely to defend the TV Championship if he is still champion at that point.

ROHdds and Ends

-According to Newswire announcements, Roderick Strong will not receive another ROH World Title match in 2011 due to his recent losses in title match situations. That also explains his Proving Ground match at GBH X, as he has to rebuild contention in all divisions. I actually like this development very well, as it will give Strong something to do with his time and also prevents a three-way glut at the top between Richards, Edwards and Strong. Sometimes it’s okay to fall back down the “rankings” in order to build back up towards a title shot.

–Death Before Dishonor IX is now available on DVD through the ROHwrestling.com store. Certainly worth checking out for the three-way elimination tag team match, Strong vs. Edwards in the two-out-of-three-falls bout and for Ladder War 3 with ANX vs. Briscoes.

-Speaking of their store, is it me or is ROH being really chinsy with their sales as of late? One has to be a premium member in order to receive the kinds of sales in terms of percent-off that everyone used to be able to qualify for. General Members were only entitled to a measly 10% off during the recent Halloween Weekend sale. Yes, obviously one of the perks for paying members is always having a 15% off discount for merchandise and then maximizing that during other sales, but I didn’t expect for ROH to reduce the general sale level for general members, just that the subscribers would be entitled to even more ON TOP OF the previous sales prices. That, along with boosting back up some of the clearance merchandise that previously was available at deep discounts does give me pause and not-so-happy vibes as a customer.

Note: The day after I wrote this, ROH goes and posts a “Social Media” appreciation sale that is 20% off merch for everyone. Oops.

-Davey Richards successfully defended the ROH World Title October 15th in Tulancingo, Mexico for the IWL promotion against a wrestler named Daga. As yet, the defense has not been recognized on the ROH website. Meanwhile, Richards and former ROH World Tag Team Champion Rocky Romero won the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles in New Japan Pro Wrestling on October 10th. That’s a No Remorse Corps stable reunion.

-In addition to defending the ROH World Title, ROH is also putting its name and angles behind some of its wrestlers on other independent wrestling shows, recently billing an October 30th Richards vs. Kyle O’Reilly bout for Rampage Pro Wrestling in Warner-Robbins, Georgia as a “Proving Ground ” match.

-I don’t think I mentioned this before my two weeks off, but Dave Lagana has signed with TNA as a Director of Creative Writing and will work on creative projects for the company with mostly an international focus. Lagana had worked with Ring of Honor for the past three years and had been in charge of iPPV direction as well as social media for the company such as their Facebook and Twitter pages, in addition to starting his own online podcast and basically a social media movement through IWantWrestling.com. It gained so much traction that anyone from former and current WWE wrestlers were using that phrase or variations of it, and there were signs in the crowd at WWE and TNA shows with that idea as a central focus or even references to Lagana in them. I wish the best for Lagana in this new position and hope that he can somehow influence TNA in a positive direction, even if it’s tangentially and not directly through their current television programming.

-Colt Cabana is apparently done with ROH for now, as both sides could not come to terms on a deal. I think I’ll let that bit of news stand as is and let it sink in.

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At the beginning of the year, “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett vowed that within one year that he would become the Ring of Honor World Champion. So let’s see how he’s done so far, eh?

ROH World Titles Won: 0
ROH World Tag Team Titles Won: 0
ROH TV Titles Won: 0
Days Left to Reach Goal: 55

Amazingly, Bennett could have won the ROH TV Title had he accepted the five additional minutes after his draw with Jay Lethal and pressed the advantage. However, Bennett demurred from the restart and left without the championship gold. That was not very smart if you ask me and demonstrates that Bennett is certainly not a “Prodigy” in the strategy department.

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Twitter me at: http://twitter.com/AriBerenstein.

-You can listen to more of my thoughts about this weekends’ shows and more about Nigel McGuinness and his in-ring return to wrestling in this week’s Podcast of Honor available through Pro Wrestling Ponderings . I’m joined by Matt Waters and Chris Gee Schoon Tong.

-T.J. Hawke has some pointed criticism about this week’s Ring of Honor SBG TV, episode 6 with The Briscoes vs. ANX.

-Nick Marsico has his thoughts about episode 4 of the TV show in this week’s Wednesday Wire.

-Jack Stevenson reviews one of the best ROH Pay Per Views of all-time, Man Up!

-Kevin Ford provides us with a plethora of CHIKARA reviews, including Martyr Yourself to Caution, Odyssey of the Twelfth Talisman , Small But Mighty and A Klunk in Love (bonus points for the Arrested Development reference in the teaser. The band, not the cult favorite television show.

-ROH representation with The Kings of Wrestling, Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team and The Briscoes making the list of 411 Mania’s Top 25 Tag Teams of the Last 25 Years.

Next week is my annual Survival of the Fittest Preview Edition, with a full look at this year’s tournament, survival factor ratings, a look at previous SOTF history and my prediction for this year’s winner which will certainly be wrong. See you then.

BROOKLYN!
DAH EM BAH SEE FOR-EVAH!
–Ari–