The Shimmy 11.06.06: It's Not TV...It's ROH

Posted by Andy Clark on 11.06.2006

This week The Shimmy looks at how Wrestling Society X could be the best thing to ever happen to Ring of Honor!

It wasn't too long ago that we had a plethora of wrestling on out television screens. Just as recent as five years ago we had three wrestling companies vying for our attentions and our hard earned cash. Together the then-World Wrestling Federation, World Championship Wrestling, and to a lesser extent Extreme Championship Wrestling capitalized on the boom of the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars, while wrestling itself was a pop culture fad.

Monday nights of course would be the big night. WCW Monday Nitro would start at 8:00, with Raw is War coming on at 9:00. During WCW's later years you could watch both without missing a thing if you watched the Nitro replay that started at 12:00. Tuesday was a dead night for wrestling, as it seems it always is. Wednesday became the home for WCW Thunder after it moved from Thursday nights. Thursday was dominated by the newest WWE franchise, SmackDown. Friday night was alright for fighting, and it was also alright for ECW on TNN, right before Rollllllllerjam. Saturday night didn't have live wrestling, but syndicated wrestling galore. I believe in most markets Saturday night was the night for WWF Shotgun/Shotgun Saturday Night (which would later go on to be Metal/Jakked) as well as WCW Worldwide. For a time there was also the WCW Saturday Night program, which was around for quite a while before the wrestling boom, but the less said about its final days the better. I also believe that Saturday night was where the people of New York actually got to witness real ECW action on Hardcore TV. Sunday was the night for Sunday Night Heat (which was pretty decent in its day), and of course it was PPV night. Sounds nice, right?

Of course those days are gone. WCW was on its deathbed and purchased, and ECW flatlined and was then purchased. WWE stood tall and seemed to be the winner. But what happened to all of our glorious wrestling on TV? WWE left us with Raw and SmackDown, but even our weekend shows were taken away to be put on the Internet (and until I get high speed internet I refuse to count them as real shows). And for a long while that's what we were stuck with. Thankfully TNA came along and added Impact to the wrestling landscape as well as Xplosion for a handful of people. WWE started it's third brand, ECW, this past year, providing us with wrestling on a typical dead night for wrestling programming. We have a bit of a renaissance going, but is that it?

First we have the addition of MavTV. I won't get into too much detail, because quite frankly I don't think it will affect many people. This is the closest thing to The Wrestling Channel or the Fight Network that we have here in the United States, but unfortunately I don't think it will be picked up by too many cable or satellite systems. Maybe over time it will develop, but as for now we'll have to live without Deep South and NWA Pro wrestling. I don't know about you, but I think I can handle that.

Now we come to the real story, though. MTV will (allegedly) be debuting Wrestling Society X, a half-hour grunge-wrestling meets hard rock variety show, featuring musical performances a few wrestling matches in a stripped down environment. Their contracted wrestlers include Vampiro, Sean Waltman, Teddy Hart, Matt Sydal, and Jack Evans, as well as Dragon Gate wrestlers Masato Yoshino and Genki Horiguchi (HAGE!), plus a bevy of wrestlers from Pro Wrestling Guerilla. If you ask me, that's a pretty nice roster for a half-hour show. Wrestling Society X could end up being a fun half-hour of wrestling. But you know what?

It doesn't matter.

Wrestling Society X could be the best thing to hit the wrestling industry since Monday Nitro. And it could still wind up being a crap program. How you ask? Simple.

It's on MTV.

Now don't misread me. MTV sucks nowadays. I'm in no way planning on defending MTV as quality television. But I am acknowledging its importance. Teenagers still watch that channel for God knows why. It still draws ratings, and it still influences programming on other networks. People will watch Wrestling Society X for the sheer fact that it is on MTV, and if MTV does a good enough job of promoting as a cool show. These people watch Laguna Beach and Jackass and gave men (and I use that term very loosely) like Tom Green and Andy Milonakis careers. A little rasslin' won't kill them.

But the fact that Wrestling Society X will survive isn't the good part. The fact that other networks love to copycat is. Like any good, or rather popular, reality show, one will always spawn others. If Wrestling Society X does solid numbers every cable network from Bravo to E! to Versus will try and get them some of the wrestling pie. Each will try to find their own niche, getting us lucha libre shows, hardcore wrestling shows, probably even all female wrestling. There are more than enough wrestling companies out there to provide an overwhelming amount of wrestling program, and we will have more wrestling, quality or no, than we would know what to do with.

Of all the promotions available to be picked up, however, there is one that stands above the rest: Ring of Honor. My dislike for some ROH fans is public knowledge, but I would not for one second discount the quality of an ROH show. Ring of Honor has wrestlers that could be stars if put in the right environment. Bryan Danielson will never be a huge star in WWE or TNA; but let him stay in his comfort zone and he will flourish. Other wrestlers like Delirious, BJ Whitmer, Nigel McGuiness, and Colt Cabana would be great characters for a national broadcast.

Now you may be asking yourself, how can ROH do a successful TV show? As it stands now ROH pretty much puts on a 3-4 hour PPV every show they do. Would they be able to contribute effectively to a television program? For a cable show with limitations, no. That's where the beauty of premium channels come in.

In my opinion a partnership between ROH and HBO would be phenomenal. ROH doesn't have to change the way they run shows at all. HBO would just broadcast a few of their shows, probably one a month. HBO also doesn't have rigid time constraints like a cable network would, so ROH could run their shows as long as they want. Perhaps ROH would have an hour or so not broadcast so they could sell those additional matches on the DVD to prevent people from only recording the shows. An alliance with HBO could also pave the way for potential PPV broadcasts for a promotion that could probably get people to pay for their shows. HBO already runs PPVs with boxing, why not get into the wrestling business as well.

I was always puzzled why HBO never got into the wrestling industry. HBO or some other premium channel would have been a great place for ECW to thrive back in the day, and I think ROH could do well their now. It's not garbage wrestling, it's more "tasteful" and could probably fit in with HBO's programming. Come on, who wouldn't want to watch Ari B's favorite wrestling promotion and then watch Ari G's favorite actor?

Who knows, maybe I'm completely wrong. Maybe Wrestling Society X will do minimal numbers and won't create a buzz. Maybe if it does create a buzz no one will be bright enough to try and capitalize on said buzz. Still, it's nice to think about having another wrestling boom, and getting us fans something to talk about. Until then I'll be happy with the wrestling we have, and quite frankly you should too.

Andy's Post-PPV Thoughts

So Cyber Sunday was last night and it wasn't too bad. It wasn't too good, either. It was kind of just there if you ask me, which I suppose will happen when there are a million PPVs on the calendar. Onto the matches:

I was hoping for anybody but Kane in the first match, and guess what? It was Kane. I think this match was the best of their encounters, but still not great.

I missed most of the Texas Tornado Match as I was out of the room for most of it, but while the action looked fine, it seemed not nearly as chaotic as it should have been, and way too short. It was particularly too short since the PPV ended ten minutes before it's normal fifteen minute screwjob.

Jeff Hardy vs. Carlito was my match of the night. I don't know why the crowd was chanting "Boring" as it was just building. That was a pretty bad crowd in Cincinatti last night anyhow. Wait, it was Cincinatti, what was I expecting?

DX vs. Edge & Orton was actually pretty good. Edge & Orton even got to win, which was nice. Come on, you didn't expect them to win clean did you? Newsflash: they're heels. And ALL the refs were crooked. Just be happy DX didn't come out on top.

The Women's Match was OK, but not nearly as good as it could have been. Of course we got stuck with the stupid stipulation because most of the fans are horny idiots. Who knew there were so many Divas on the payroll? That's kind of depressing actually.

The World Tag Team Title Match was surprisingly not-horrible. I'm glad Piper won because I can't stand Dusty Rhodes, but at least Dusty would have had the common decency to leave his shirt on. It's kind of weird to see Flair & Piper as Tag Team Champions, but I guess that happens when you get old. As a sidenote I like that they are setting up Johnny as the soon-to-be-face as I think he could be the breakout star of the group.

And now for the main event. I was happy that the World Heavyweight Title was picked as that's the one I voted for, but I was surprised at how many people voted for the ECW World Title. I really didn't think that many people cared about ECW. The match was just eh, which is disappointing given Cena's track record in Triple Threat Matches. Big Show spent most of the match on the floor anyhow, so it was hardly even a Triple Threat. The crowd didn't help this one either. I can understand being against Cena, but come on people, root for SOMEBODY. The crowd spent most of the match booing all three guys, with the only exception being Cena's small group of fans. And then Cena doesn't even win! What's up with that? First my Virginia Cavaliers get shut out by Florida State, then my Steelers get beat by the friggin' Broncos, and then Cena doesn't even win the Champion of Champions Match? Booker didn't even tap out behind the referee's back! I was surprised to see K-Fed show up, but who knows, maybe this recurring role will work out.

As a side note, I'm not sure how I feel about the Survivor Series main event. I like the idea for sure, but three man teams? Why couldn't they be the traditional ten man or even four man teams? And how did Kennedy get to replace Rey Mysterio? Don't get me wrong, I like Kennedy, but Undertaker, Bobby Lashley, Finlay, and even Chris Benoit are higher on the pecking order. Do you think we may see Undertaker & Kane vs. Edge & Orton? Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga? Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

And now what you have been waiting for:

The Andy Enjoyment Index: Cyber Sunday

1) Hardy-Carlito
2) DX-Edge & Orton
3) Champion of Champions
4) World Tag Team Title Match
5) Umaga-Kane
6) Texas Tornado
7) Women's Title Match
--------------------------------------

Andy! Andy! At Last You Have Some Feedback!

Angelo Velotta's Amalgam continues:

Raw Week 4-

Flair's music opens up Raw again as he proceeds to run down how he wants the toughest guy in the locker room now. Out comes RHINO. Rhino doesn't waste time and instantaneously gores Flair down. Rhino goes to the outside and picks up the steel steps and brings them into the ring. Rhino DDT's Flair onto the STEPS! He gets DQ'd. Rhino grabs the mic and tells everyone he doesn't have anything against Flair, but now it's Rhino's time. He says he needed to get on TV somehow. The man he really wants is the Big Show, the so called last ECW champion. He challenges the Big Show this Sunday at Backlash in an Extreme Rules Match!

The next match is between LAX and Scotty 2 Hotty and Funaki. LAX again completely squashes this team for the win. After the match they call London and Kendrick out. LAX propose making their match at Backlash no holds barred. London and Kendrick suggest a new idea. Tag Team 30 Minute Iron Match! LAX agrees saying the revolution begins Sunday.

The next match is between an irate Jarrett and Finlay. Finlay wins with the Celtic Cross! Jarrett storms out of the ring screaming at the top of his lungs all the way to the back wait to you see what I do next.

The next match is between The Undertaker, HHH and Gregory Helms vs Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe and Matt Bentley. At one point all six men are in the ring leading to CM Punk sneaking in and drilling Angle with a vicious kick to head. Punk heads out of the ring with Samoa Joe chasing after him. Taker exits the ring to chase after Joe. HHH throws Bentley to the outside to kick his ass while Helms pins the knocked out Angle again for the cheap win!

The next match pits Bobby Lashley vs Senshi. Lashley nails Senshi with a spear but Senshi kicks out at 2. Lashley hits a running powerslam for..2. Lashley nails him with a stalling vertical suplex for only 2 again! Lashley is clearly frustrated and overcharges his next spear and slams into the ringpost and falls over. Senshi hits the Warrior's Way for the upset.

The main event is the tournament final between AJ Styles and Edge. Styles hits the Styles Clash on Edge and goes up for a moonsault but Lita holds onto his feet, so Styles breaks free and hits a pelee on Lita onto the outside. This has allowed Edge to recover and get ready for a spear, but when Styles comes back in he is ready and hits a sweet tornado DDT. Styles goes up top and hits the moonsault on Edge but Edge gets out at 2. Styles hits another Styles Clash on Edge and gets the three count and the victory.

FINAL BACKLASH CARD:
John Cena vs AJ Styles for the World Title
Samoa Joe vs The Undertaker (Last Man Standing)
CM Punk vs Kurt Angle vs Gregory Helms (Dual Ladder)
Rhino vs Big Show (Extreme Rules)
HHH vs Matt Bentley
X-Division Battle Royale
London and Kendrick vs LAX (Tag Team Iron Man)

Nice card, although I have some issues with having a Ladder Match, a Last Man Standing Match, and an Extreme Rules Match all on the same show. I'd actually just go with Joe vs. Taker one-on-one without the gimmick, but that's me.

Angelo also drops in with some thoughts:

There are a few things that are driving me away from the wrestling world I love, mainly the fact that there are so many talnted wrestlers in major federations that are being either underused or misued. Some of these wrestlers have been so improperly used that it is honestly mind boggling and bewildering that this catastrophic career changing nightmare is happening for them. You've got Shelton Benjamin, a superior athlete to many on the Raw Roster, and a great overrall wrestler who is rarely used. Now, I know people are saying well he doesn't cut good promos, or sometimes he doesn't go all out. Would you go all out if the one match a month your wrestling is against the man that beats you 3 times on Heat and 5 times on Raw Carlito? As for the promos, you can only get better if you the chance. Another great example is Rob Conway. Rob Conway is an excellent technical wrestler with an interesting array of moves that no one else pulls out. Why the Con-Man has lost his last like 200,000 matches is beyond me, the man can flat out wrestle. How about Johnny from the Spirit Squad? He's very young but very gifted and has a ton of potential, I say even more so then Kenny who does also have a lot of potential though as well. Carlito has been misused for about a year as well. They could do so much more with Mr. Kennnnnedy then they are doing, he's got a lot more to offer then they are allowing him. Speaking of allowing, Paul Mother Fucking London is such a gifted wrestler but either he has to tone down for Vince or he doesn't even appear til some lame and irrelevant tag title match at a PPV. I have a feeling that Elijah Burke could be forgotten and misued by the WWE as well, even though he has a ton to offer as both a manager, a tag team partner, and a singles man. And how about Sylvan? Sylvan can definately play up the evil Canadian gimmick, get booed in the US, and cheered in Canada (see his response in Quebec) and start several good feuds against the likes of guys like Lashley, etc. Get the stupid shit that's redundant off TV like DX, Jimmy Wang Yang, the now no longer sacred women's division, and the same other stupid matches we get every week like the Coach vs. Cena, and start giving the rising stars a chance to shine.

Look, I won't get into the whole "man this wrestling today sucks" mentality that ended your e-mail, because I'm quite tired of it from most of the IWC, but I can't say I disagree with some of your points. It is criminal how they have misuses Shelton Benjamin, the man could have been a headliner. I really thought after WrestleMania 21 that Benjamin would be in contention to main event WrestleMania by this coming year's event. I also would like to see Rob Conway get a shot, but I'm not sure if that will happen. I wouldn't give up on Elijah Burke or Johnny Jeter just yet, as they could still breakout (by the way, Sylvester Terkay has shown me NOTHING so far; maybe he'll be great but I don't see it). I'm actually pretty pleased with how Paul London and Brian Kendrick are being used. They are a very good tag team, and while I wouldn't mind seeing London get a singles run, Kendrick just does nothing for me as a singles guy, so why not keep the tag team alive? Unfortunately they'll probably break up over Ashley within the next month, so there goes that idea.

Chris Camara has thoughts on my WrestleMania vs. BFG grades:

In a year nobody is going to remember Senshi Vs Chris Sabin even happened, just like Sabins 4 day X title run. Undertaker's leap will be in Wrestlemania packages for years to come. Sure the X match will have a higher star rating, but it was a total filler match

Personally I would tend to agree with you, Chris. However, I think the quality of the Sabin-AJ match definitely helped the overall package of Bound For Glory, so even if the Casket Match is more memorable (which it surely is), I'll stand by my decision to give the nod to the X-Division Title Match.

411's own Bayani Domingo writes in with his BFG thought:

Yo A/C,

Hey, I appreciate the comparisons between BFG and WM this week...which basically caused me to find a NEW column to write this week. Thanks. Anyways, I think you forgot one big point in the BFG vs WM comparison. $30 vs $50. For $30 I felt BFG was worth it, considering the Diva match, Boogeyman, and HHH had to sell the STFU, which by the way is the weakest submission move in all of wrestlingkind, I felt like I needed $20 back. Just sayin' is all, but the economics don't lie.

I think that's just a major philosophical difference. If I read correctly in your column you said that you may not even purchase next year's WrestleMania. Blasphemous. Seriously, I have a hard time considering anyone a true wrestling fan who actually has the $50 to spend and doesn't do it. Yeah, WrestleMania was $50, but in my opinion it was worth it. Hell, I went to the show, bought merchandise, ordered the PPV at home, AND got the DVD when it came out, Lord knows how much money I spent on the thing and I was still more pleased with that than the $30 show from TNA. I will say that TNA gives you more bang for your buck for most shows, with a cheaper show that runs the entire time. Still, there is something to be said about aura, prestige, and tradition something that WrestleMania has earned over the years. WWE would have to put on about four years of absolutely dreadful shows (and I don't care how you slice it, WrestleMania 22 was nowhere near dreadful) to crush the reputation that it has built. WrestleMania will always be WrestleMania. A WrestleMania can be a bad WrestleMania but I would be hard pressed to find a WrestleMania that was a bad PPV.

500 Good Words w/ Andy Critchell

Treading Water

Treading water

Just like August baseball, right now we are mired in the lull of the WWE. Survivor Series is still a ways off and while single brand PPVs like No Mercy and Cyber Sunday can be fun, their build are not always high priority and as such they don't always feel "big time." Needless to say, there really is not much for me to focus on this week. Fear not though because I do have a few smaller random musings to mull over with you. On with the show…

First things fucking last: I guess WWE creative didn't read my "Crossroads" piece last week because once again Orton and Edge looked like crap, this time getting one-upped by Triple H solo. Why the heck should I care about their Cyber Sunday match when the faces already have the upper hand? The WWE's first priority here should be to put over these young guys. I just don't get it. Speaking of their Cyber Sunday match, the guest ref stipulation is basically meaningless. I guess that's what I'm supposed to think since it's barely been mentioned at all.

It was fun while it lasted: It looks like the IC Division/Midcard on Raw is back to being used only as filler. It wasn't that long ago when it looked like there were gonna be some fun matches and interesting storylines to emerge out of this division. Instead the past few weeks have treated us to matches with 3 or 4 mix-and-match guys and a lot of even-steven booking. Is this the IC division or the X division?

Who did he piss off?: Going back to my "Crossroads" piece, thing have not gotten any better for Kennedy. First he gets DQ'd by giving Kane a low blow and then he gets pinned by the Undertaker IN THE SAME MATCH! What the hell? Kennedy was red hot before his injury, was red hot after it, but is now completely ice cold. If I was an up and coming guy on the SD roster the last thing I would want to hear is "we're gonna put you in a program with Taker" because you know that's a one way ticket to palookaville. They did it to Orton and they did it to Kennedy. At this point Taker is WAY worse than Triple H ever was at keeping younger guys down but you never hear anything about that. I know that Taker has a lot of locker room clout but are you telling me that the WWE can't force him into putting Kennedy over? What's he gonna do, leave? As Eric Bischoff once said of Taker, "why would I want the guy if I can't have the gimmick?" Unless people are clamoring to see "Mean Mark Callous" in TNA, I tin the WWE could stand to push him around a little bit.

One Hitter Quitters:

The hilarious Jimmy Wang Yang is back on TV! Too bad he lost again; let's get this guy a few wins, huh?

News reports say that the WWE is trying to get Joy Giovanni back. Those that know me know that my love for Maria is borderline obsessive so it should mean something when I say that I have always thought Joy was hotter. Oh God make this happen!

Are they going to turn Batista heel? With his protection of King Booker and wanting to beat up the tweener Finlay, I think we might be headed for heel Batista. My thoughts (and maybe yours) on that next week! All you need to do is drop me a line at [e-mail] and let me know what you think about heel Batista, or anything else for that matter! I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time…

The Shimmy Likes It Raw!

What's on tap for tonight…for those without an asskicking test on Modern Japan tomorrow?

The fallout from Cyber Sunday! That means the build to Survivor Series begins!

That does it for this week. Holla back next week here at The Shimmy! Until then, don't die. Clark…out.