The Best Of The Rest 7.04.07: Volume 3
Posted by Alex Mattis on 07.04.2007
Back On Track This Week, Back To The Independents
Welcome back to your regularly scheduled independent wrestling column. After one of the longest news weeks in wrestling history, it's time to get back to normal.
The Week's Spotlight
Drake Younger:
An up and comer throughout the ranks of CZW and IWA-MS, and someone who is creating a very unique situation. No one in CZW has ever won the Tournament of Death and gone on to win BOTB. Drake won this year's TOD and is scheduled to compete in Best Of The Best 7, and odd statement considering those tournaments are intended to represent two very different styles of wrestling. There are a handful of wrestlers currently out there that can pull of both, Drake is one of them. The first thing that drew me to Drake was his look, when he's doing his thing in the ring he looks like a tough son of a bitch, but when I met and talked to him and when you see his promo pictures he resembles a guy you'd run into at a frat party or something, the simplicity of his look so to speak. Something that is often regarded as a bad thing in the wrestling, works well for Younger. He looks like a young, nice guy... but he's tough as hell and will bring the pain to you. The closest comparison to Drake is the guy who got me into independent wrestling, "Sick" Nick Mondo. To me Drake is the standout from the graduates of the RAAGE dojo, if he brushed up a bit more on the technical aspect and didn't get boxed into garbage wrestling; he has a lot of potential to be something on the Indy circuit. IWA-MS being the promotion he works the most isn't going to help this situation, I hate saying that CZW has good booking but they have booked Drake pretty well up until this point. IWA either has him in death matches or "Strong Style Showdown's" those are all fine and dandy but if he isn't careful that'll become all he is good for. He's got some exciting years in front of him and has much potential, he needs to be careful though and limit the amount of "hardcore" matches he has or he could very well end up like Nick Mondo and have his career ended way too early.
Upcoming Show Preview(s):
Ring of Honor is heading to the land of the rising sun with two shows that are sure to deliver. The main thing about these shows that totally reeks of awesomeness is the fact that KENTA and CIMA will team up. Two absolutely amazing singles wrestling pair up, there are limitless possibilities for this team.
On Night 1 in Tokyo we can expect the following:
Fight Without Honor - Delirious Vs. Roderick Strong:
The "Fight Without Honor" is usually used to put and intense end to and intense feud. Some past ones that come to mind are Trent Acid Vs. Homicide, Jimmy Rave Vs. Nigel McGuiness, and of course Homicide Vs. Steve Corino and those were hard-hitting, bloody battles. I think we can expect no less from "The Messiah of the Backbreaker" and the man with the face of a lizard. This feud has been very interesting to me, as I am usually intrigued by Delirious' feuds, and the payoff for it should be a very strong match. It is high up on a very important card so I think the "powers at be" also think that this match will be a good one.
6 Man Tag - The Briscoes & Marifuji Vs. KENTA, Ricky Marvin & Matt Sydal:
Ariel offense will be at its finest in this bout. Two "Dream Teams" collide, mixing the best NOAH has to offer with some of the best in ROH. If I were a betting man, I would put my money on the team of Mark, Jay, and Naomichi mainly due to the sheer dominance of the Briscoes this year.
ROH World Title Match - Takeshi Morishima Vs. Nigel McGuniess:
The first man to pin Morishima's shoulders to the match since he captured the title will get another chance at the Ring Of Honor title. Their first match was a good one and I expect this one to top it. I do expect Nigel to be next in line or at least very close to being the next ROH World Champion BUT I don't see Takeshi losing the belt is his home country. The mastodon that is Takeshi Morishima will once again prevail, but his reign of dominance may be drawing close to an end, may I point out that a singles match between Morishima and The Best Wrestler In The World and the future NWA Champion has not happened yet.
Elsewhere on the Night 1 card BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Rave will lock up, Bryan Danielson will face Go Shiozaki, and Jack Evans will team up Kotaro Suzuki as they face NRC members Davey Richards and Rocky Romero, this should be an excellent showcase of ROH to the Japanese crowd, while still featuring some familiar faces from Japan.
On Night 2 from Osaka, tag team wrestling will be emphasized as the Japanese crowd will see:
ROH Tag Team Title Match - The Briscoes Vs. Shingo & YAMATO
This should be a very hard-hitting battle and, as is usual when the Briscoes defend their titles, a great tag team match. Jay & Mark have been on a hell of a roll this year and appear to be the proverbial snowball rolling down a mountain, just picking up more and more momentum. Expect Shingo and YAMATO to put up a hell of a fight, but for the Briscoes to man up and hold on to their gold.
Jack Evans Vs. Roderick Strong
A grudge match between what at one time was an amazing tag team, one of the best ROH has ever seen. When Roddy and Evans mix it up they always deliver so expect them to go out and try to tear the house down. Jack has already made a name for himself in the states, but now he has been honing his craft over in the orient and is looking to establish a serious reputation over in Japan. Unfortunately for Evans, Strong has been on a roll and is looking to set an example for the NRC. If Evans picks up the W in this one, I will view it as an upset.
Also the crowd in Osaka will see a rematch from ROH's 4 Year Anniversary show as Jimmy Rave battles Bryan Danielson but don't expect the outcome to be any different, the aforementioned "Dream Team" of KENTA and CIMA will wrestle Davey Richards & Rocky Romero in what should be the MOTN, Nigel and BJ Witmer will clash, and in a Dragon Gate Rules Six Man the team of Matt Sydal-Ryo Saito-Dragon Kid will take to the air against Delirious-Naruki Doi-Masato Yoshino.
This Week's Awesome Moment In Smark Dialogue:
-"Hey Andy, ya know what's great about Jeff Hardy?"
-"Chemical dependency?"
The Plug Zone:
Who: Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
What: The Battle Of Los Angeles
When: September 1-3, 2006
Where: LA, California
Why: Looking at the line up of this 3-day event is enough to make you want to buy it. The tourney without a doubt features some of the biggest names in Indy wrestling today. Austin Aries, Davey Richards, Chris Hero, Super Dragon, Roderick Strong, Jack Evans, Delirious, The Necro Butcher, El Generico, Kevin Steen, and also featured some stars from Dragon Gate such as CIMA and Dragon Kid. In non-tourney matches Homicide, The Brisoces, Petey Williams, The Human Tornado, and Joey Ryan competed... one of the biggest Indy cards of 2006. An exciting tournament from start to finish that had every style of wrestling covered. The 24 men in this tourney worked very hard to produce what could be the biggest and best show PWG has had since their birth. If the all three days of the event don't interest you, you at least need to see nights 2 & 3. Night 2 featured the violent spectacle that was known simply as Super Dragon Vs. The Necro Butcher. Dear Christ almighty, these two beat the shit out of each other, and the ending of the match by all means probably killed Necro. But as we all know you can't head scissor Austin Aries, and you can't keep the Butcher down. And night 3 had what was considered the best match of the event, CIMA Vs. El Generico. An amazing match, I can only imagine how exciting this match would have been to have seen live. PWG offers an excellent product and if you are new to them this event is a great way to get a feel, or if you just plain like great wrestling think about picking up the 2006BOLA.
The Stoppage:
Coming off the heels of the TUF 5 finale and going into one of the biggest events in UFC history, it's time for Alex to throw some thoughts out there.
-I was very disappointed with the way Nate Diaz won the contract. I was really pulling for him, but the way he won was in no way definitive and will have a lot of questions raised about if he would have won.
-What the fuck was up with the ending of the Maynard Vs. Emerson fight!?!? Weird, weird, weird shit.
-Impressive showing by Cole Miller (I love head kicks); he could become something in the lightweight division. Either that or Andy Wang just sucks really badly.
-The BJ-Jens fight went as I thought I would, but Pulver put up a great fight. He escaped the first several submission attempts and showed great determination, but when you have as deep of a choke on you that BJ had on Jens, you have no choice but to tap. BJ held onto that choke for a bit longer than he needed to, but I suppose that was to be expected as the heat was so intense. I don't know why BJ wants to move back to the Welterweight division, but hey last time he did he destroyed Matt Hughes, so we'll see what happens
-I'm as jazzed as can be for UFC 73. I'm looking forward to seeing Stephan Bonnar back in the octagon. This is an important fight for him; he needs to have an impressive showing coming off of his suspension.
-Antonio Nogueira Vs. Heath Herring will battle for the third time. Although I will be pulling for Heath and the state of Texas, I don't think much has changed and that the outcome will resemble the first two fights they had. But who knows.
-I'm hoping Anderson Silva will retain his title, as I want to see Silva-Franklin II. Also I want to see that awesome dance the "The Spider" does when he wins.
-I really am favoring Hermes Franca over Sean Sherk by KO or TKO, either way it should be a good fight.
-Memo to Rashad: Please KO Tito!!! But in all seriousness, this should be a very exciting fight. Both excellent wrestlers with good stand up. At some point in the bout I expect them to just go to fucking war. I want Rashad to get the win, but I give a slight edge to Ortiz because as Dana White said this is "Do or Die" for Tito. So I believe a very focused and motivated Tito will show up for this fight. However if Tito chooses to stand and bang with Rashad he will more than likely be dropped.
Well with lucky number seven just around the corner, next week I'll take a look back at Best Of The Best 1-6 and also my predictions for 7.
That's all for me this week, everyone have a good 4th of July. Go see Transformers, it's a horrible movie but hey you'll have a good time.
