Column of Honor 01.28.12: The Real CHIK-ROH-SOVER Begins

Welcome to the Column. It’s been a busy but fun week, between recording podcasts, going to see The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tapings (that man OWNS the room during the show, and he does a great job entertaining the studio audience before and in-between the segments), Avenue Q (those are some dirty Muppet puppets, hope WWE never gets the idea to do a take on that with say, Santino’s Cobra and Mr. Socko) and then of course there is UFC on FOX tonight and The Royal Rumble tomorrow. There’s also plenty to discuss regarding Ring of Honor news, and that’s exactly what I’ll do after the logo break.

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=”Synergy”: The ROH vs. CHIKARA Crossover=

Photo Credit: rohwrestling.com

A few years back I wrote several columns examining potential dream matches involving Ring of Honor wrestlers against CHIKARA Pro Wrestling’s roster. It was a throwback to the issues of Pro Wrestling Illustrated that I used to read where they would match up WWE (then WWF) and WCW wrestlers in a “Dream Supercard” show. They would look at the “kayfabe” categories of strength, ability, intelligence and so on and wind up determining the winner.

This was when matches between WWF and WCW wrestlers were going to be exactly that—a dream in the mind’s eye of the wrestling fan, unless someone wound up switching promotions. Yet there was never going to be full cooperation between the two sides to co-promote a wrestling show where the best from each federation matched up against each other—Vince McMahon certainly wouldn’t have allowed any opportunity for his competition to gain in reputation through such a deal, and the corporate honchos at Turner Media would have felt the same way.

Now the dream of crossover matches will come true for fans of Ring of Honor and CHIKARA, thanks to an agreement between the two promotions to coordinate a weekend of wrestling in Chicago, Illinois. The “Synergy” weekend happens on April 28th, 2012 when both ROH and CHIKARA will run shows back-to-back at the Frontier Fieldhouse, the long-time residence for ROH shows. CHIKARA will run an afternoon show entitled “Hot Off the Griddle” while ROH’s show “Unity” will take place in the evening. There will be at least one but very likely many more ROH vs. CHIKARA matches to be held that day on both shows in what is being referred to as “A Professional Wrestling Holiday” for fans of those companies.

The interaction began last weekend at the Memorial Armory in Philadelphia for Ring of Honor’s Homecoming 2012 event, which was their first show in their birthplace since the end of tapings for the HDNet television series in early 2011. A “Proving Ground” (non-title) match had already been booked between ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoes and a CHIKARA tag team combination of Jigsaw and Hallowicked, the latter of whom are not a regular tandem in their home promotion (Jigsaw usually teams with Mike Quackenbush while Hallowicked is currently a part of The Spectral Envoy consisting of Ultramantis Black and Frightmare). However, both Jigsaw and Hallowicked had been a aprt of the first class of CHIKARA students almost ten years ago and wrestled previously for ROH and those experiences ensured they would fit in better with what ROH presented in their product. If Jigsaw and Hallowicked could defeat The Briscoes or take them to a time limit draw, then they would earn a future title shot for the ROH World Tag Team Titles.

As the tag match wore on, The Briscoes began to play more the heel role, including disrespecting the masks both men wore. In reaction, many of CHIKARA’s tecnicos (babyfaces) including CHIKARA co-founder Mike Quackenbush, The Colony, Dasher Hatfield and new female wrestler Saturnyne rushed out to the ring to support the efforts of their fellow CHIKARA roster members. The CHIKARA roster coming out to surround ringside has been a pattern in recent years as they make an effort to provide encouragement and rally the troops (this happened many times in the recent two-year long feud against the villainous BDK stable led by Claudio Castagnoli). The unexpected emergence of Quackenbush caused a huge positive roar of support from the Philadelphia fans (who knew their CHIKARA members), though The Briscoes were still very well supported by the ROH hardcore audience.

The Briscoes had the advantage of the CHIKARA team, even going so far as to twist their masks around so they couldn’t see in the ring. However, the Briscoes were definitely distracted by the added presence of the other wrestlers, and they spilled to the floor in an effort to intimidate Saturnyne, the youngest member of the CHIKARA roster. In doing so, that left them open to another distraction, that being Fire Ant leaping from one side of the ring to the other (never touching Jay or Mark, mind you) and leaving them open to a roll-up from Jigsaw for the three-count.

Jay and Mark were aghast and outraged at the upset victory, but they were definitely out-numbered. They wanted to fight, but were held back by officials and other ROH students, meanwhile the CHIKARA tecnicos celebrated their major victory in the ring. They were soon joined by Ultramantis Black, marking his first-ever appearance in a Ring of Honor. Ultramantis Black has become one of the most popular characters in the CHIKARA roster, a devious mastermind who recently had a change of heart thanks to the presence of the BDK. He had vowed to drive off that stable from CHIKARA and succeeded in doing so, though now his motives and overall agenda are unknown. However, he took to the fore on this night in Philadelphia as CHIKARA’s spokesman. He talked about how The Briscoes had disrespected what CHIKARA wrestlers held sacred—their masks and identities—and now they were going to take what The Briscoes held sacred—their tag team titles.

Soon after, Ring of Honor announced officially that the tag title match between The Briscoes and the team of Jigsaw and Hallowicked would take place on their part of the “Synergy” weekend two-show event in Chicago on the 28th.

Reaction to the CHIKARA invasion in Philadelphia was both immediate and almost universally positive among fans both in the building and those learning of the news via the internet. Social media feeds lit up with shouts of joy and exhilaration that something cool, interesting and exciting had taken place on that show. In fact, there was more positive reaction to the ROH vs. CHIKARA angle compared to many recent ROH shows.

It is no secret that there have been those who do not like the current direction of Ring of Honor wrestling and the decisions being made by those in charge at Sinclair Broadcast Group. Though certainly ROH has found new fans with their television product, they have also at times driven away what was once their hardcore base. Some don’t like the too serious tone of the product; others are upset about the loss of talents such as Colt Cabana, Sara Del Rey (both of whom have been featured well on CHIKARA shows in 2011, mind you), Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli (though Hero has returned for a few appearances these past few weeks, his long-term situation is up in the air). Some fans don’t like that some fan favorites like El Generico have been have been downplayed while the likes of Mike Bennett and Mike Mondo continue to receive opportunities even though they do not receive good reactions from the crowd. Yet still others are turned off by what is seen as overkill in the main-event style—too much offense, not enough selling of what should be kill shot moves. There is much that would need to be done to win back the goodwill and interest of those fans.

The ROH vs. CHIKARA angle is a good start. It captured the imagination and the excitement of fans from both promotions and has re-energized a group of fans that was very cynical and doubtful about ROH. There is a base of fans that will be there to support this angle, who want to see it work for both promotions. I have read comments from those who are already discussing heading to Chicago from long distances to see the two-show event, which makes this crossover angle a legitimate money making idea.

At this point, the plans for the crossover seem to be only for the “Synergy” house show events in April. Yet if that event is successful, I see no reason not to continue the interaction between the two promotions throughout the year. The potential and opportunity for great matches is just far too great to let pass without taking advantage. ROH should do the smart thing and plan out a full year of crossover events that culminates in a final show pitting team versus team in one of the promotions’ trademark stipulation matches, say a Steel Cage Warfare match (an ROH favorite) or the mammoth multi-person Cibernetico—a CHIKARA tradition that usually takes place annually in the fall.

Unlike the Ring of Honor versus Combat Zone Wrestling feud from 2006 (one of the best inter-promotional angles done in all of wrestling and one of the top five highlights of the Gabe Sapolsky Ring of Honor booking run from 2002-2007), the ROH / CHIKARA invasion angle seems to be and should be less about ideology and more about athleticism and the spirit of competition. The struggle should be about determining who the better wrestlers are in any given match and the lengths these wrestlers will go to prove it.

Ring of Honor has already done something smart and that is to engage their internet audience on Facebook and Twitter, asking them about which ROH vs. CHIKARA matches they would like to see. They were bombarded with responses and plenty of them great ideas.

The majority answer seemed to be CHIKARA’s first Grand Champion, Eddie Kingston matching up against the Anti-Christ of ROH and all of professional wrestling, Kevin Steen. That would be a brutal brawl that would tear the house down. Steen and Kingston were already advocating it through their social networks.

Other logical matches would be Kingston wrestling current ROH World Champion Davey Richards (pitting the champion of each company against each other), The Colony up against The Briscoes, Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team or All-Night Express and Mike Quackenbush against Eddie Edwards. The throwbacks of Sugar Dunkerton and Dasher Hatfield surely deserve some time in the spotlight and a match between them and The Bravados (once they returned from their Japan tour) or against Cedric Alexander and Caprice Coleman would be a fine undercard bout.

It would be terrific to see Johnny Gargano and Chuck Taylor finally make ROH appearances as Team F.I.S.T. but their Dragon Gate contracts and close-knit relationship with Gabe Sapolsky’s DGUSA and EVOLVE promotions make that unfeasible, though perhaps they could participate in a CHIKARA vs. ROH match on CHIKARA home turf instead.

Ultramantis Black against Roderick Strong would be a great fit for a crossover bout, pitting two genius minds of evil against the other. Or, The Spectral Envoy could fight in tag action against The House of Truth (Strong and Michael Elgin) and that could lead to some interesting interactions between Mantis and HOT life leader Truth Martini.

Then, of course, there is the highly suspicious and unnerving suggestion by CHIKARA expert and mad fan Kevin Ford to do a “Social Experiment” and run “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett against Icarus. That match pits the most unlikable members of the ROH and CHIKARA roster against each other. I always thought that the fans love to hate Icarus and don’t mind him booked for CHIKARA shows, whereas many ROH fans really do despise Mike Bennett and don’t want him around at all. The trick would be to see who the audience would boo more, though perhaps the real trick would be booking the match in the first place.

There are multiple combinations possible for ROH vs. CHIKARA matches even more than some of the possibilities mentioned above. That is why it is so imperative that Ring of Honor keep an open mind and an open heart for the possibility of running more shows featuring the CHIKARA roster. New wrestlers bring new combinations, fresh combinations, as opposed to running rematch upon rematch of the same wrestlers on their roster.

If anything, Ring of Honor may benefit from the cross-promotion more than CHIKARA, which is quite the statement to make considering it is ROH that is no longer the independent “Mom-and-Pop Shop” organization. It is a corporate-owned entity now with national syndication (even such as it is) and a larger overall fan base compared to CHIKARA from which to draw. However, as much as CHIKARA gains from ROH in exposure and being able to convert a new audience to fans of their product, ROH also is able to regain the goodwill of an internet audience that it needs for internet Pay Per View buys, DVD purchases and house show tickets. It also secures them access to newer and promising talent and solidifies a working relationship with a promotion with a strong wrestling school and a fine in-ring teacher such as Mike Quackenbush.

There is the argument from those who believe that CHIKARA may not “fit” within the atmosphere of the current ROH product that putting the guys in masks out there in the “serious” Ring of Honor is a recipe for disaster. Yet, the history of ROH is filled with wrestlers who have had some wacky gimmicks and characters. Some, like the Clown Prince of Comedy, Japan’s Kikutaro, have been used as simply special attractions. Yet other wrestlers like Colt Cabana and Jimmy Jacobs (in his early days) have taken comedy or more light-hearted gimmicks and made a long run with them. The Super Smash Brothers made successful appearances for the promotion in 2009 and 2010. Heck, the current booker of ROH is Delirious, who made his bones in ROH wrestling in the masked gimmick and playing the extremes of that character that all the way to the hilt. El Generico has become one of the most fan-favorite wrestlers on the ROH roster in the past few years and his value to the company is undeniable. So the interaction of both masked and unmasked CHIKARA wrestlers into ROH isn’t likely to be a mixture of oil-and-water.

At the end of the day this may not be a promotion-changing event, just a fun diversion from ROH’s year-to-come. But that is the point-that this invasion, even if it’s just the one angle from this past weekend and the two shows in Chicago—is bringing the fun back to following ROH. There is intrigue to seeing what will unfold in the synergy between the two promotions. At last, Ring of Honor wrestling (or at least a part of it) has found the FUN again—and that is the key to opening up and broadening an audience more so than anything else they can do right now.

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As of 01/28/11

=ROH World Champion=
Davey Richards

Champion since 06/26/2011 | 8* successful defenses
Best in the World 2011 defeated Eddie Edwards in New York, NY to win the championship.
Next Defense vs. Jay Lethal in Baltimore, MA on 02/04/11.

–Davey Richards defeated Tommy End in Barcelona, Spain on 07/04/2011.
–Davey Richards defeated Chase Owens in Kingsport, KY on 08/04/11.*
–Davey Richards defeated Colt Cabana in Carrolton, GA on 08/06/11.
–Davey Richards defeated Roderick Strong in Chicago, Illinois on 08/13/11.
–Davey Richards defeated Daga in Tulancingo, MEX on 10/15/11.
–Davey Richards defeated El Generico in Chicago Ridge, IL on 11/19/11.
–Davey Richards defeated Eddie Edwards in New York, NY on 12/23/11.
–Davey Richards defeated Jay Lethal in Philadelphia, PA on 01/20/11.

* These matches are not as yet officially recognized by Ring of Honor on their records page, but as they did occur as billed “ROH World Title” matches for the live crowd in attendance they are listed here for posterity.

=ROH World Tag Team Champions=
The Briscoe Brothers: Jay & Mark Briscoe

Champions since 12/23/2011 | 1 successful defense
Final Battle 2011 defeated Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin) in New York, NY to win the championship.
Next Defense vs. Team Ambition (Davey Richards & Kyle O’Reilly) in Cincinnati, OH on 2/17/12.

–The Briscoes defeated Cedric Alexander & Caprice Coleman in Norfolk, VA on 1/21/12.

=ROH Television Champion=
Jay Lethal

Champion since 08/13/2011 | 4 successful defenses
Sinclair TV Tapings defeated El Generico in Chicago Ridge, IL to win the championship.
Next Defense vs. TBA

–Jay Lethal went to a time-limit draw with “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett in Louisville, KY on 10/01/11.
–Jay Lethal went to a time-limit draw with El Generico in Louisville, KY on 11/05/11.
–Jay Lethal defeated El Generico & “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett in New York, NY on 12/23/11.
–Jay Lethal defeated “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett in Baltimore, MA on 01/07/12.

=Proving Ground Contenders=

These wrestlers have earned a future title shot in the following ROH title divisions through the Proving Ground system.

World Title: None
World Tag Team Title: The All-Night Express (earned on SBG TV tapings, episode airing 12/10/11), Jigsaw & Hallowicked (earned on 01/20/12)
TV Title: Roderick Strong (earned on 11/19/11), Tommaso Ciampa (earned on 01/21/11)

Synergy Begins-Here’s How it Happened

Briscoe-Brothers.com-YUP, that does about say it all

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-Results from The Homecoming 2012 and the ROH show in Norfolk, Virginia last weekend are available through this link to the rohwrestling.com report.

The post-match angle with Chris Hero and Shane Hagadorn at the Philadelphia show reads very well. Hero wanted to wrestle his match against Michael Elgin without Hagadorn at ringside. When he lost the match, Hagadorn laughed at him about it only to receive a knockout elbow for his troubles. That provides either a nice babyface sendoff for Hero should he not be able to return to ROH or opens the door for a good short or long-term angle if he is able to come back for more shows where Hagadorn looks for revenge by recruiting other wrestlers to go after Hero on his behalf.

-Syd Eick, a Vice President of Ring of Honor and in charge of business duties (often seen in the front lobby of many New York City ROH shows doing ticket sales for the next events) has been let go by Sinclair Broadcast Group and Ring of Honor. Cary Silkin made the announcement to the locker room at the Philadelphia show and according to the Wrestling Observer newsletter it “was a surprise to almost everyone in the company. It has been expected from the time of the purchase that at some point the offices would be moved from Philadelphia to Baltimore, and that Eick’s days were numbered. Nobody new has been hired for Eick’s job, but it’s expected a lot of the duties, such as booking buildings, have been or will be taken over by Gary Juster.”

Eick had a mixed reputation, as the Declaration of Independents site, notorious for its constant attacks on ROH, often accused him of double selling tickets or reporting rumors and allegations that he skimmed off the top of the ticket gate. Dave Meltzer writes that “Eick definitely had his detractors, including former bookers Gabe Sapolsky and Adam Pearce, who both blamed him for being let go, but most of the current talent were sympathetic to him. He told the talent that at times he had to play “bad cop” because the company had little money to run on and they had to find a way to keep it alive until Sinclair purchased it.”

So what does this departure really mean? Well, for Ring of Honor fans, on the face of it, nothing yet. Perhaps ROH will make some changes to the way they run their ticket purchasing or where the shows are run, but really, if anything, this will be more about the behind the scenes changes and internal business decisions that are made that ROH fans don’t immediately see at the shows. It is the continuation of the transition between the old ROH guard and the new, corporate-owned Ring of Honor, but that was the way it was always going to be when Sinclair made the purchase. Silkin is still around as a figure-head, but the decisions are no longer his or his people’s to make. For better or for worse, or for better and for worse, that’s the way it’s going to be.

-BJ Whitmer is making a return to ROH on the Cincinnati show at Tait Masonic Center February 17th, 2012. He will wrestle against TV Champion Jay Lethal in a “Proving Ground” (non-title) match. Whitmer has been on the comeback trail in several Mid-West independent promotions and reportedly has looked very good while doing it. Whitmer was an interesting figure in ROH, receiving several pushes, some of which took and others which didn’t. He was a part of The Prophecy and won the ROH Tag Team Titles with Dan Maff. He also had several championship runs with Jimmy Jacobs and then had a major feud with him in the angle where Jacobs fell in love with their manager Lacey. There were some really bloody and great quality brawling matches they had and Jacobs was able to cut several of his career-best promos about their broken brotherhood.

Whitmer also was a key figure in the ROH vs. CZW feud and became a point-person as the guy who took all the hardest and most extreme attacks from the CZW forces and kept coming back for more. His highest-profile victory in that feud was participating in the Cage of Death match at Death Before Dishonor IV and then a follow-up Barbed Wire match against Necro Butcher at War of the Wire 2. On the other hand, Whitmer’s time as a part of The Hangmen Three with Adam Pearce and Brent Albright was lacking and Whitmer sometimes was criticized as lacking pizzazz and charisma. However, Whitmer did have great in-ring ability and has a place in ROH as a part of some of these integral and key moments in the promotion’s history.

-Here is the current line-up for the next set of SBG television tapings, to be held once again at the Du Burns arena in Baltimore, Maryland on February 4th, 2012:

ROH World Championship: Davey Richards defends against ROH World TV Champion Jay Lethal
Survival of the Fittest Finalist Rematch: – Kyle O’Reilly vs. “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin w/ Truth Martini
TJ Perkins vs. “The Prodigy” Michael Bennett w/ Brutal Bob & Maria
Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander vs. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)

-Added to the Cincy show on 02/17/12 is the “No Holds Barred” match between Roderick Strong and Eddie Edwards that was originally scheduled for the Philadelphia show last weekend but was scrubbed due to Edwards’ staph infection that prevented him from wrestling.

-Ring of Honor is offering a combination ticket purchase on the ROH/CHIKARA double shot in Chicago on 4/28 through the rohwrestling.com website. The deal gives purchasers $10 off the combined price of both shows. Tickets are on sale now to the general public for both shows.

-Steve Corino will not be wrestling (for now) on ROH shows, but rather will provide the color commentary for the DVD series. Long-time fans will recall that Corino provided commentary on many of the early Ring of Honor DVDs in 2002, until an angle with Homicide brought him to active in-ring duty from that point on. Expect Kevin Steen to continue to antagonize Corino until provoking him to return for another match.

-The “Southern Defiance” and “Northern Aggression” shows from early December are being released as a two-DVD set entitled “Battle of the Carolinas”. The set will have both complete shows, including the record setting eight-man tag elimination match that took place in North Carolina. I’m not going to complain about getting two for the price of one, but considering matches from these events were shown on television and these house shows were promoted to the TV audience, perhaps ROH should have sold them separately, even though the North Carolina show was a shorter and weaker card (aside from the main event) compared to average ROH house shows. ROH has now released every show from 2011 onto DVD except for Final Battle 2011, and that is certainly an improvement from where they were on their DVD release schedule a month ago.

-ROH will be returning to Toronto, Ontario, Canada for a show sometime in May. Look for Kevin Steen to be ridiculously, red-hot over for that one.

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

You can listen to the ROH vs. CHIKARA breaking news audio podcast with myself, Jerome Cusson, Kevin Ford and T.J. Hawke which is now available through pwponderings.com. Also this week, I matched up against Wes Kirk in this week’s 411Mania Fact or Fiction discussing this weekend’s WWE Royal Rumble PPV, Bobby Roode, Alex Shelley and yes, Ring of Honor versus CHIKARA.

T.J. interviews Player Uno of the Super Smash Brothers as well as Green Ant and reviews PWG’s FEAR event with Steen & Super Dragon vs. The Young Bucks.

Michael Weyer writes an interesting article about favoritism in this week’s Shining a Spotlight.

Shawn Lealos covers last week’s Ring of Honor television report featuring Kenny King against Matt Jackson. Then Shawn gives his 4R’s breakdown of that same episode.

Kevin Ford reviews Dragon Gate USA Second Anniversary and Uprising 2011 and Fearless 2011.

That’s going to be it for now. Thanks everyone for reading and for the comments. Until next time,

BROOKLYN!
DAH EM BAH SEE…LIMITED!
–Ari–