Truth B Told 10.25.07: RoH-lling the Dice
Posted by Bayani Domingo on 10.25.2007
For one night only, RoH stood for: Ring of Hero. But what was the show really like? Don’t bother checking the “boards” TBT has your first hand look at the “West Coast” debut. I promise I won’t even try to hand you off those “hooker trading cards”. *Clack Clack*
"The State, the State, the State is on FIRE, we don't need no water let the….oh shit, no we DO need some water. Hurry that shit up." Many of you know that wildfires are catching on all over the Southern California area from Malibu to San Diego to the San Bernardino. Things are nuts here. Luckily I live and work in two areas that are unaffected by the fire. For now at least. Still that didn't stop me from delivering you an exclusive first hand account of the first ever ‘Ring of Honor' "West Coast" show. I'll start at the beginning because…well, it's hard to start at the last 3rd
If you read the "Column of Honor" last weekend or the weekend before then you have a good idea of what to expect. Both match wise and from a RoHbot's perspective about the show's significance and what not. But I really came in not totally knowing what to expect. Sure I had a good idea of the performers and the storylines, but being that I had never seen an RoH show live before and had only attended PWG and other much smaller feds I was curious to see how RoH differed from those companies. The answer will shock, amaze, and quite possibly constipate you. Grab a banana and a cup of coffee and continue reading.
My gal and me took off from LA around noontime to head for Vegas. She luckily took the first turn driving as LA traffic often makes me want to start busting heads and leaving bibles by bodies. If I could I would mount a machine gun and a contraption that shoots oil out of the back of my car ala "Spy Hunter". I'd even create my own club mix of that sound track while doing so. The trip took us roughly two and a half hours to get to Barstow for the first pit stop, which just happened to be a turkey ranch club from Arby's. Yes…I actually WAS thinking Arby's. Actually I was thinking Tommy's and Bob's Big Boy first but this damn diet. Bell-time was scheduled for 7 pm so we figured we had time and for the most part traffic wasn't all that bad. We made it to Vegas at a little past 5 pm, which was plenty of time.
By the way, for reference the Platinum Hotel and Spa is now the FIRST offical TBT approved hotel in Las Vegas. That place was swank with a capital wank. Actually capitalize the "s" too. Okay, so we get in, check out the digs, have just enough time to unpack, take a shit, and watch a little ESPN before we head out. At this point the prospect of me making a mistake by starting Rueben Droughns on my fantasy team is as much of a concern as getting good seats because I found out that RoH has reserved seating unlike every other show I've been to. This was really a nice touch because it means we didn't have to wait 2 hours in front of the show hoping to get a good seat. We walked to the venue and had anticipated that there would be a large sign or something advertising the show. The venue was kind of hard to find and RoH would have done a better job telling us where the HELL it was on their press releases rather than just giving us a name. There was one poster taped to a light pole in front of it that let me know the location as well as a sign on the side of a building that said "Empire Ballroom". I guess they wanted to go incognito. There was no line at the door 30 mins before belltime and that had me concerned a bit.
I walked in and they checked my I.D. (I hope no one was idiot enough to take a road trip hoping they wouldn't) and I gave the guy my ticket and I believe Cary Silkin was there because some guy was at the door looking at the people coming in and someone called him "Cary"…or had a lisp and said "Gary". Either/or. The venue was kind of nice actually; it looked like a club that could hold small concerts. Very small concerts. Like concerts involving midget bands and midget fans. But not a popular midget band because then there wouldn't be enough room. Well, it was still exciting to see the show and some members of the PWG Ring Crew who just happened to have gotten the 3 seats next to us met us. They arrived earlier in the day because they drove separately…instead of giving me a ride. Bastards!! Okay…not bitter, just saying. We walked into the venue and I was shocked because not only did the outside and lobby look small but the venue itself was TINY. Whoops, should I really be capitalizing the word "tiny"? There just isn't a way to make fonts smaller in this format so it will do.
The seating was about 4 rows deep to the front and back of the ring and on the sides it was 2 deep, and when I say "deep" I mean shallow because there was no leg room. Imagine fitting 4 rows of seats in a 10-foot space. It was tighter than a rookie ring rat in there. To top that off the venue had somehow confused the instructions and mislabeled a bunch of chairs and put the wrong signs by the wrong sections. So while I had "3rd Row" seats, the section they originally marked as "C" was actually only 2 rows deep. Lovely. They fixed the situation about we complained and was told to find a guy with a "green shirt and mustache". Umm…okay….that shouldn't be hard. A guy with a ‘stache in Vegas? We found the guy…his mustache was indeed glorious though, it was like a burgeon "Rollie Fingers ‘stache" and his shirt was made of the finest green. We got our seats and it was TIGHT. The bar wasn't too busy, as it seemed more people were interested in NRC and Delirious shirts than getting a beer. Which by the way was $6. Yeah, $6 for a Bud Light. I would have just bought the Heineken for the same price instead but I didn't want to take on the extra carbs and calories. Like I said before…Damn Diet!! So we find out that a few guys from the local SoCal company EWF are at the show and apparently they set up the ring. Ring of Honor was using Empire Wrestling Federation's ring. Jesse Hernandez must have been so proud. At 7:01 pm the show promptly starts. I was impressed to say the least for the promptness and was excited to see what would happen. By the way, incase you were wondering, don't believe anyone else on this, but the crowd was legitimately no more than 250. I would say 225 to 250 but there were some "General Admission" folks up in the balcony and it was hard to get a handle on how many of them there were, but 250, or at most, 260 seemed right. A bit disappointing I'm sure but I'll get into that towards the end.
The show started with Nigel McGuinness, who came out to a good pop from the crowed, on the mic talking about his big win and title reign and being glad to be in Vegas and possibly a social commentary about Britain's policies when it comes to foreign wars fought over oil interests by a corrupt govern…oh here comes Roderick Strong wearing his FIP belt and FIP shirt to tell us that HE is the real champ and is wearing the most prestigious belt in all of wrestling. Which is true if you are Seth Delay. I however, am not Seth Delay, meaning that belt ain't shit in my book. Which, is an odd phrase because if you ever opened up a book and found fecal matter inside of it I am sure you would be appaulled and incredulous. "What…what the…is that…did somebody take a shit in my Harry Potter? How the hell am I supposed to find out if they find the Horcruxes now??" Roddy runs down the champ and heels it up for the crowd. Too bad half the crowd loves him and the other half hate him. Now this is where this whole "West Coast" thing could be a problem. See, Roddy is a big time face in PWG and juding from the crowd, there were at least 2 dozen fans from the show there. Roderick was then interrupted by Brent Albright and Shane "Vanilla Virgil" Hagadorn. This of course erupted in a brawl by Brent and Strong that started the match as Nigel left the ring.
The opening segment was okay, but nothing special, as was the match sadly. I expected so much more form these guys but they were a little slow and a little sloppy. I don't know if it was jet leg or possibly the hard partying the night before but these guys didn't mesh well together. It was less technical, and more brawling. Hagadorn not only didn't get involved, but also didn't even show anything to the crowd behind him the whole time, not even some back and forth banter. Strong did however pick up the win with a kind of awkward double knee gutbuster. It was a decent match but to be honest I've seen Roddy in better matches recently in PWG. Not a great match to open with. Up next is Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson who gets a decent little pop because he's a SoCal regular and thanks to his NWA affiliation he has also done a handful of Vegas shows as well. Then comes Chris Hero accompanied by "Sweet ‘n Sour" Larry Sweeney and…no one else. Mother….Fuckers. where the hell is Bobby Dempsey? Shit, did someone forget to get him from the Monte Carlo buffet?? Well Hero gets a good reaction as well from the crowd, it was mixed to be about 60/40 face pop/heel reaction, which was to be expected because once again he's a "face" in PWG. The match was pretty much an extended squash with Hero getting 75/% of the offense in and "Machine Gun" not getting any of his usual comedy spots in. it was a little boring because of it and "Machine Gun" didn't get to show a lot of personality but Hero made a decent transition to heel with the crowd and Sweeney is GOLD…literally gold when it comes to fan interaction. The man is like a license to print your own "Free BJ Coupons". I will volunteer to throw in $20 for his booking fee to get him into a PWG show. The match was pretty good, pretty clean, but the heat wasn't exactly there except for one or maybe two small chants for "Machine Gun" when he was trying to make his come back. Still, the crowd knew who was going over and it wasn't that hot for this match. Hero won with the Hangman's Clutch.
The next match was a battle of training partners and SoCal mainstays. TJ Perkins came out first and got a lukewarm reaction. Rocky came out next and got a good ‘face pop' even though he is a heel. One again, Rocky is uber over all over SoCal and you couldn't expect anything less in Vegas. If you hear a shrill female voice yelling at Rocky to "Kill TJ", "Kick him in the FACE Rocky", and "Break TJ", then it was probably my girlfriend. Who is just as big of a Rocky "mark" as she is a TJ "hater". Bless her markish little heart. The match was actually pretty good and TJ looked pretty good as a result of it being very back and forth. I don't think the outcome was ever in doubt but it did a good job of putting over both men. This wasn't the "Show stealer" that some had predicted and a few spots were missed, but a fairly good showing. Problem is that the heat went out of the building after the beginning. This was a match I've seen several times in SoCal and it wasn't much better in Vegas. Good solid effort by both men, but it just didn't have a big match feel and heat behind it that it needed. Rocky hit TJ with a middle kick to his face as he was kneeling for the win. Best match of the night to that point…which would soon change.
Oddly enough the biggest pop of the night was for Austin Aries. Aries came out looking…well. Very well indeed, almost Conway-esque when he was still the "Con Man". It's like the guy cut out every carb he's ever eaten and sleep at night on a Bowflex. Not that I am insinuating anything, but yeah. *coughjuicingcough* Sorry, allergies. Delirious came out with an Neidhart-esque goatee and the match was underway. It was actually a very strong match overall with Aries playing the aggressor for the most part and getting the advantage on Delirious prior to a almost tapping out to a Cobra Stretch. Austin did finally put him away with a brainbuster but the whole match was very clean and it was clear that Aries was the clear fan favorite in the match and UBER over with the crowd. It seemed that once Aries appeared the crowd perked up a bit. I think this had a bit more excitement for me as I had only seen Aries a few times in PWG, mostly as the "Austin Starr" type gimmick and had only seen Delirious once in last year's BoLA. Problem was that the area was so limited that any crowd dives or ring dives they might have wanted to use was out of the question. Great match however and probably a better example of RoH style wrestling compared to SoCal wrestling as very little comedy was employed. Funny thing was that the crowd was firmly expecting and cheering for Aries to win even though he was the "underdog" by virtue of RoH putting his odds at 4 to 1 as opposed to Delirious whose odds were 3 to 1. Man, I almost lost my ass on that bet. I hope Caesar's never tracks me down.
Claudio vs Davey Richards was a good match. Not great, not as great as it could have been given more time and if one of these men didn't have to wrestle another match later that night, but good. I think the running theme of the show was that al of the matches except for the last qualifier was fairly short. Maybe 10 to 12 minutes or so each. Basically this was Claudio's European uppercuts vs Davey's stiff kicks. The match it self was good but again, Roddy and Rocky already made the finals and there was no one who seemed to believe that Claudio was going to lose and the heat died down a bit for this match. Both men got good reactions from the crowd as they are both SoCal regulars and "faces" as well, but until the end the match was fairly quiet. A good match none the less and Claudio finally got the Ricola Bomb on Davey after the 3rd try. To be honest this probably would have been a better opening match because it would have gotten a bit more heat than Roddy/Albright due to both being popular SoCal regulars. RoH may want to rethink their booking if they come back and clearly they did after opening San Fransisco's show with Hero/Tornado. Good thinking.
Now on to what most people were anticipating would be a semi-main event. Danielson got a HUGE pop from the crowd, even bigger than Nigel's. I would be worried if I was RoH if this was the case usually. It was a great match and both men gave it their all. It was brutal and Danielson played the bully to Nigel's face in peril. The crowd was super hot for this match and I really think this saved the show. Nigel kept his lariat arsenal under control and went after any body part he could to keep Danielson from working on his legs which he did at length. As the match wore on it wasn't clear who was going to win but it looked as if they were telling a story that Nigel just couldn't beat Danielson, but Danielson couldn't finish off Nigel either, especially with a 20 minute time limit which we weren't aware of until someone announced the 18 minute mark. Danielson tried to submit Nigel several times with every move in his arsenal and couldn't, and I think he knew what was coming when after a rope break on his Cattle Mutilation attempt he jumped up and asked the ref how much time he had. The match ended in a draw with no one advancing and the crowd gave them a standing ovation which was well deserved. Nigel wanted 5 more minutes and it looked as if Danielson was going to accept and they began to brawl again when the referee stopped them after it looked like Danielson had tapped out to an arm submission of some kind. There was no "overtime" and neither man advanced. Just as I had predicted. *Horowitz self back pat* Great match and RoH can use this to build this rivalry again although judging by the crowd reaction Nigel was only the 4th most over guy on the card.
There was an announcement by Bobby Cruise that the winner of the NEXT 3-way match would be the 6th and final contestant in the SotF final since they promised a 6 man match. Out came Tony Kozina to a mild reaction, Shane Hagadorn to a indifference and a few cat calls, and Human Tornado to the 3rd biggest pop of the night. That man is over like Cruiserweight wrestling. I mean, "over"…sorry, that's a different kind of over. It was an odd match that was okay but nothing special. All three guys tried hard but it was a bit awkward as there was no room for Tornado and Kozina to hit their usual dives and Hagadorn had no idea what to do with them. Tornado ultimately won with a "Dat n*gga dead" on Kozina. It really was the right call to make as Tornado got to shine a bit, he was incredibly over with the crowd, and made the crowd happy for the most part. I was of course disappointed that Bobby Dempsey didn't make his way back from the Buffet in time to make this a 4-way, but what can you do? The man has a passion for shrimp and prime rib that no man stop, and no woman can contain. Except maybe Mrs. Buttersworth.
Next come the dulcet tones of what a buddy of mine referred to as "Rape Music" coming from the speakers. Basically a woman screeching non-stop at the top of her lungs over and over and over. Panic! at the Necro was coming out. It was kind of creepy to be honest. It was just a woman screaming over and over again as if Necro had just bought a hooker and then wrote down all the things he wanted to do to her when she realized he wrote at the bottom of the page; "all that…twice…with no Vaseline….or mouth guards". So of course the Briscoes come out of the back and the brawl is ON like Amazing Kong. Except no one pops their titties out during this match. The brawl is all over the damn ballroom, which means from wall to wall…all 10 square feet. Chairs, tables, plastic trash cans, waitresses enormous cleavage is all uses as weapons. The waitresses weren't used during the match, but I hear they were after the show. *Rim Shot* Mark was temporarily taken to the back after getting a Uranage through a table off the stage by Necro. It was a wild brawl that ended with a Necro Tiger Driver on Jay and a DDT on a chair and choke by Jimmy on Mark as he passed out and the ref called for the bell. This put Age of the Fallout Boy over big time and made them look like serious threats. Then again, didn't they do that with Steen-Erico before too? Good match that the crowd was hot for and it was clear that RoH had a future out West. The two things that stood out to me most during this match was Mark Briscoe going buck wild with the karate chops to the threat and head and Jay and Necro hitting each other over the head with plastic trash cans. Yeah…I'm sure those were brutal.
Cruise came out to announce the Main Event for the evening. Which mean that there was no intermission during the show. I think that might have hurt the crowd a bit because if they had taken a beak sometime before the Claudio/Davey match they might have gotten better reactions. Then again the last few matches had gotten the crowd so into the show that perhaps not wanting to hurt that momentum was the right call. The show was running a little under 2 hours and it didn't feel very long at all. I think the shorter matches were the reason but they did a good job of not lagging at all. The main events in the past I am told had been short, this was no exception as this felt like it went around 35- 40 minutes. The match itself was good. There was a bit of wandering and confusion in the early going but things got going after a bit. Chris Hero played chicken shit heel and sat at the entrance way with Sweeney for most of the match. He actually snuck in to get every single pinfall. Every…Mutha…funkin'…pinfall. How money is that?
First everyone does a dive into the crowd to the outside then as Tornado is about to fly Hero comes in and hits him with the Hero's welcome to pin him then leaves the ring again. As the match progresses the NRC can't capitalize on their advantage and Rocky gets hit with a 450 splash by Aries and Hero tosses Aries to pick up the pinfall on Rocky. Aries is almost Superman in this match thus far as he's taking out everyone. Hero manages a roll up on Aries later on and the crowd almost riots. After that there are three men left and Sweeney comes over to offer Strong $600 to help Hero eliminate Claudio. They double team Claudio for a bit and after Roddy almost pins Claudio, Hero turns on him and rolls him up for the 1,2,3 after a Hero's welcome. Hero then takes the money from Strong that he had put in his boot and gives it back to Sweeney. Presumably to pay for a few strippers and the buffet bill for Bobby. At this point everyone is torn because Hero has taken everyone out, but Claudio is still a crowd favorite and people are rooting him on to win. Surely RoH will continue with their bitch making of Hero and give Claudio the win to keep both guys strong. But after a good back and forth exchange with each man kicking out of the other's finishing moves Hero manages to put the Hangman's Clutch on Claudio for the pass out submission win. Hero is not only the 2007 Survival of the Fittest champion, but the first to take every single pin in the finals. The show ended at 9:35 pm PST and I was impressed. Not blown away, but fairly impressed by the show. But there was one thing that kind of bothered me. As good overall as the show was, it was still just at the level of a very good PWG show, not a great one. I felt a bit let down by that. It was a good show and I would definitely try to make any other "West Coast" show RoH runs, but I think the effort would really be decided by the wrestlers booked this time now that the novelty has worn off. A good show, but still I can't help thinking that perhaps thing could have gone better.
Bump in the RoHd?
Let's look at a few factors, which may or may not have caused the disappointing gate at the Las Vegas show or a few issues that might have lead to the somewhat disappointing reaction from the crowd:
1) Venue Switch-a-roo – I do not buy for a second that not having a venue figured out is why the attendance is so low. I do not even question the move to having a 21 and up venue either because there are few places in Vegas that are "all ages" and I don't know that any where that wasn't going to be a "convention hall' was going to work and that is just too expensive. Really they could have waited till two weeks prior to announce the venue and the same amount of folks would have shown up because it's Las Vegas. As if people would have said, "oh it's in downtown Las Vegas and not on the strip? Well forget it then". While I do believe that the 21+ age restriction probably cost RoH a few seats, I don't think any more than a dozen or maybe two at most tickets were lost as a result.
2) Opener – You know the more I think about it the more I think they should have either started with the Rocky/TJ match or possibly Davey/Claudio because I think those matches would have gotten more heat than the Albright/Strong match and the heat might not have taken so long to build as a result. I can understand them not doing your standard "student match" on the show, but perhaps an opener would have been nice. Maybe a few SoCal guys just so the crowd would get more into it. I wouldn't have minded some PWG guys doing a quick exhibition if that is what they wanted to do. The problem is that the match came off a bit flat with only one jackass in particular making much noise during it.
3) Undersize Me – The venue was tiny, like teeny tiny. I know they said the venue could hold like 700 or 900 folks, but that includes the balcony and no ring in the middle of the dance floor I bet. The place was small and although it will look better considering it was almost packed even with only 250 people there, maybe less, it still would have been a bad move had more folks showed up. Another 100 and the place would have been ass to ass in there. Then again somehow I think RoH knew that they wouldn't get more than maybe 300 people tops and that's why they booked the smaller venue. Then again, they did run in the Cow Palace.
4) Haven't I seen you before – I can appreciate that RoH is bringing over some of their top talent to the show, but the problem is that if you have been a PWG regular, then only Brent Albright and Shane Hagadorn are new names for you, and sadly those guys weren't even that impressive, although Albright does remind me of an American Doug Williams a bit. I think if RoH wants to run another "West Coast" show they should consider not using a lot of the PWG talent they are using or mix it up a bit. No offense to anyone and I love seeing guys like Danielson, Hero, Claudio, Roddy, Rocky, and others as much as possible, but if I go to an RoH show then I want it to feel like an RoH show and not an East Coast paint job on a West Coast product. I know RoH and PWG have subtle differences including booking, wrestling affiliations and roles, and other things, but they need a way to differentiate themselves. The wrestlers they book could go a long way towards that end. I would love to have RoH come back and bring some SHIMMER matches, CHIKARA wrestlers, or any other guys we don't get to see too often on the "West Coast". Nigel, Aries, Delirious, Ruckus, Jimmy Jacobs, BJ Whitmer, etc. Even having some NOAH guys on the card could be a real boost in terms of attendance. I think if RoH wants to make this a bi-annual or annual event they'll have to take a look at their roster and make sure that there are enough relatively unseen guys on the roster that would entice fans to make a trek to see the show. While I think RoH and PWG have very similar rosters due to a lot of SoCal guys retiring and TNA pulling talent sot he talent pool has shrunk, I think it might be a good idea to keep a few of the guys more semi-exclusive.
5) Friday…7 pm PST…WTF- So let me fill you in on a little something. Of the 225 or 250 people that showed up only about half or less were even Nevada residents. The rest came from either California or Utah or somewhere else. Vegas is not a wrestling city per say. I sat next to some people who were HOT for the show because they said Vegas had really nothing in the way of wrestling. Problem is that so many people drove in based on either having the day off work, or in my case, taking a half day off. Not many people can swing that. Not everyone has a flexible schedule, Paid-Time-Off, or vacation days. Do you think that McDonalds, Game Stop, and Billy Ray's House of Porn has "Vacation Days"? Hell, a lot of people I know that goes to shows work weekend jobs so you might have to take two days off. If you really want to run a show in Vegas and draw at least 400 people then you better do it on a very late Friday Night, which makes sense…since its…VEGAS, or do a Saturday show. I assume there was a good reason not to do the Saturday show, but that would have allowed a lot more people to make the trip to Vegas without taking time off work. Vegas itself does not have enough wrestling fans to support an RoH show so really you have to rely on Californians or Utah-rds, or what not to show up to make up the numbers. When you give everyone almost no time to make the trip then you're just asking for trouble.
6) It's Vegas baby, VEGAS – I had three different buddies give different reasons for not wanting to or being able to go to the Vegas show. One said he couldn't take that much time off work to go because we were planning to stay the whole weekend because a 4/5 hr drive there and back wasn't worth just staying one night. Another said he had to be somewhere Saturday night and since we weren't going to come right back he couldn't make it. Another said he just didn't have the cash available after paying some bills. All valid reasons. If you go to Vegas for a show, you plan to stay in Vegas for the weekend. If that's the case then that is a HUGE amount of time to dedicate to a show, especially a 2 and a half hour show. Also Vegas is fuckin' expensive. The hotels, the gas money, the food, the gambling, the lap dances, the hookers. Unless of course you get Tammy, who was only $99 direct to your hotel room. But something tells me that's picture on the trading card may not be what you get at the door. It's like looking at the "Sunny" promo pic from 1996 and getting the Tammy Lynn Sytch of today. Yikes. Vegas is expensive and lord knows wrestling fans aren't known to have the kind of cash to cover it or even a reliable mode of transportation.
7) Vegas is the "West Coast"? – Okay, let me explain something to you. A "Coast" is a piece of land right next to the sea. Last time I checked Las Vegas was about…300 miles from the Sea. At no point do I ever hear anyone from Vegas saying, "Yeah, I live out on the West Coast". Do people from Tennessee say they live on the East Coast? Vegas is not a "West Coast" city. It also isn't a big "wrestling town". If I had to go in order of "wrestling towns" on the real West Coast or even Western region I would say; Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Phoenix, then Vegas. Even then LA and SD are way ahead of those other cities. I think what the two shows did was split the West Coast crowd. People weren't going to both shows so they had to make a decision. Those who couldn't make the Vegas show went to the Bay Area and those who had a choice choose Vegas. Had RoH done something along the lines of doing a San Diego show and a Los Angeles show instead I think they could have drawn a lot more. Then again the whole point was doing a Bay Area show so even doing an LA show and a Bay Area show might have done a little better. I would suggest the next time they try to run one they should do LA/SD back to back. It would be no problem for people to make both shows and the expense would be fairly minimum in terms of hotels and travel. Remember, PWG does 500+ for big shows like DDT/BoLA/All-Star Weekend so its not like the fan base isn't there. RoH might be able to even out draw that number. I really think if RoH concentrated on the SoCal area around gaps in PWG's schedule they could draw very well. I just think the idea was good, but the execution and planning may have been a tad bit poor and maybe RoH didn't really expect a big crowd because they had to have known they choose two of the poorest markets for wrestling West of Texas. Which by the way, is another great area to consider doing a show.
I do applaud RoH for making a bold statement by expanding out West, but I think perhaps they were either prepared for the small crowd, or seriously underestimated the markets they ran. Now I'll be the first to admit that I still believe RoH to be the best promotion in the country, better than the "e" and "t" and even better than my own PWG, but I just think they could definitely do better with another run out West. I think perhaps I was too overly hyped for the show and that's why I was a bit let down in the end. Hopefully they'll take another shot in SoCal and we'll get a chance to see RoH in a bigger market with a louder crowd. At the very least it seems like it could be a real possibility. That is until the Newswire announces a Wednesday Night show in Bakersfield. RoH...RoH.... RoH!!
The Truth
If I had to sum up my experience in one word it would be satisfied. I wasn't overwhelmed by the show and I wasn't disappointed. I knew what to expect to some extent and everyone booked showed up and tried their hardest. Besides, who can complain about a trip to Vegas AND RoH to boot? I know things look bad as the show didn't draw would it could have, but you have to remember that they picked some markets which weren't the biggest they could have and they picked some unfortunate days and times. Who can take a Monday off work to attend a Sunday Night show in the Bay? How many people can afford the day off AND expense of making a trip to Vegas? If anything they might have wanted to consider doing a deal with "Mega Bus" to shuttle some fans from LA to Vegas, how about two buses, one leaving the next day, and one leaving Sunday? Well of course hindsight is 20/20. I liked the show. I'd definitely go again especially if it's in LA, SD, or even Vegas. Hell, I still haven't sampled all the titty clubs there. And isn't THAT what wrestling is all about?
Coming Up Short
Candice knocked herself smart on RAW on a relatively simple bump. It was your basic "crotch yourself on the turnbuckle" type move that I think she botched. She's out for a few months and luckily no one really gives a shit. Trust me people, Candice Michelle is not selling tickets or putting butts in seats. Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't wish an injury on anyone and I feel sympathetic towards her because she does seem to really try in the ring. But, she's still only the 5th or 6th best female wrestler on the roster after how many years? Hopefully this gives her time to rest up and recoup from the travel, perhaps pursue some outside interests (read: soft porn) and give the women's division a breath of fresh air and allow some actual trained females to get some screen time. Silver lining people, silver lining. This time, it wasn't on Candice's g-string. I guess the one thing we won't be seeing is Beth Phoenix's title reign coming up short. I just wonder if she's taking a page out of Randy Orton's book? Who am I kidding...Randy can't read, let alone write.
First Round of the KING of 6 Degrees Tournament of Mild Discomfort
The man of the hour who rolls with "Sweet ‘n Sour", your HERO and mine...Chris Hero. You can't spell Hero without the R-O-H after all. Otherwise you'd just have "E". Yikes. That is kind of ominous. Anyways, Hero gets his spot as the first link in the "King of 6 Degrees Tournament of Mild Discomfort" due to his humungous win last weekend. Well there was another tough battle this weekend that was won, not by a Hero, but by a "Boss".
Springsteen took the top spot on the chart with his newest album and managed to show everyone that Sting isn't the only geezer hanging around in relevancy. So here we go kiddies, kicking off the first round of the tourney, from Hero to The Boss in 6 degrees.
LET'S GET IT ON!!
***Entry deadline Sunday 12:00 am PST***
Whatchu talkin' bout readers?
Manu Bumb must be saving up his lunch money:
"The WWE is now selling drapes with the WWE logo on it. Which is a great way to deter theft in your apartment. Nothing say, "Don't even bother robbing my ass unless you want a replica spinner belt, autographed picture of Rene Dupree, or a bootlegged set of Kamala's greatest matches on Betamax like a pair of WWE drapes"."
in context, the drapes make sense - if I was a kid and really into WWE (read: Cena....no clue why HHH is there), I'd probably want it.
m
Could you imagine waking up and having HHH, Undertaker, and Cena on top of you? If someone has Lita's digits, now's the time to ask. I actually guarantee that D-Dubya and Clark already have this ordered for their race car beds.
Just got finished reading your latest "Truth B Told" column, and pretty much am in the same boat you are in regards to Ring of Honor (though not entirely because I don't go to PWG events, even though I live in SoCal). I'm actually leaving Thursday night with my best buddy Kip after I get off work at 11pm. We're gonna booze it up in the early morning and then sleep until the afternoon before boozing it up again friday afternoon and seeing the show. Front row tickets, seats 10 and 11.
Anyway, that was just a bit of gloating. Kip is the guy who regularly follows Ring of Honor, not me. I do have a few DVDs of theirs, including their first show and both Supercard of Honors, but I don't really know all of the guys and certainly don't know all of the storylines. The reason I'm going is because as much as I love wrestling and in particular WWE, I can't imagine spending over a hundred bucks for a ringside seat for a RAW or SmackDown! taping. I got into wrestling when I was 16, and have been a huge fan ever ever since (eight years), but I just don't have it in me anymore to put up with some of the crap the WWE produces. I will still watch the shows, but I only buy the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania pay-per-views. I haven't been to a live event since sometime in 2003, when Eric Bischoff was the GM of RAW.
When I heard Ring of Honor was coming to Vegas, I must admit I was excited. And the reason I got excited is because I know that the wrestlers aren't told to "hold back" and not upstage the main event. For sixty dollars, I get ringside seats and a 100% guarantee that the wrestling action will be quality. Plus, I know eventually some of these guys will make it to the WWE, and seeing them as they hit their stride outside of the WWE is just an amazing opportunity.
I want to see innovative wrestling and spots. I want to see bloody, hatred-filled brawls. I want to see wrestling matches that aren't just 3-5 minutes long. As much of a fan (and apologist) for WWE as I am, I unfortunately know that if I were to go to one of their shows, it wouldn't be worth the price of a ticket. With ROH, I'm sure it will be.
Anyway, hopefully you and your girlfriend will have as great a time as Kip and I will. We'll be the guys in the front row, seats 10 and 11, having the time of our lives. And most likely trying to get a few clever chants started.
Cory
Hmmm... I wonder if Cory was in the "C" section with me. If you remember hearing some dude yelling about Delirious' Niedhart-esque goatee it was probably me. I personally enjoyed the show and I'm looking forward to next year when they may or may not run on the West Coast again. Just for reference, if you liked the wrestlers in RoH then 90% of the guys in the ring also work for PWG. Just saying. Shit...how the hell am I not getting comped at shows for all this pimping? Oh that's right...it's cuz' I'm Black. Wait...no I'm not. Maybe it's because Super Dragon is Cambodian. I hear they can't take a joke. Well Cory I'd love to hear what you thought of the show so feel free to write in.
Now comes a very likely story indeed:
I was convinced... CONVINCED that I'd sent you an e-mail requesting to be in the 6 Degrees tournament. Apparently not.
This is Mark Craig, by the by, I won in February at some point with you hailing my entry as the best and most complete you'd ever seen. It had Charlies Angels and Robert Rodriguez and all kinds of cool shit.
Ach well, I appear to have missed out this time. But next time Gadget... NEXT TIME!
Mark Craig
Dude....Duuuuuuu-duh. I totally called you out like twice in the past month. I posted who had entered and who didn't twice...TWICE. If you didn't see your name, you didn't get your entry request in. Hell, I guess Dub-C has you to thank for his free pass into the "Elite 8". I guess you can always prep for next year. It will be posted as a web show on wwe.com. You can vote for the name of the contest as well. My favorite is "Are you smarter than a Main Page Writer?".
6 Degrees Results
Tournament Dark Matches
B--
It's Mark, I'm just using a different e-mail address than previous. I figured I'd send in a warm-up to prepare for...essentially another of week next week.
And seriously, this was the hardest 6Do I've ever tackled. I doesn't help much when I've never heard of either guy...
The skater guy, I mean Apolo Anton Ohno, was in Dancing with the Stars 4, alongside John Ratzenberger of Cheers fame...
The Cheers guy has been in every Pixar movie, but for this exercise we'll go with Finding Nemo, a movie in which Willem Dafoe also played a part...
Dafoe was the bad guy in the first Spider-Man movie...
Spider-Man, a cultural icon, was ripped off by WCW in the form of Arachnaman, played by Brad Armstrong...
BA's real brother Road Dogg wrestled against Terry Funk at WrestleMania XIV...
Funk was one of the guys that trained this other Apolo guy...
Mark Satrang
It's nice to see the #1 seed staying sharp. Don't want to have any "rust" coming off a bye week...just ask the Rockies how that was.
Alright, here is my warmup... have fun in Las Vegas...
1) Apollo Anton Ohno won his final Olympic Gold Medal in the 500m event on Feb 25th, 2006, the same day that the great Darren McGavin passed away.
2) Darren McGavin was a SciFi cult hero through his career, including a recurring character on "The X Files".
3) The X Files also had another great actor play a recurring character, one Cary Elwes.
4) Cary Elwes recently played a young John Paul II is a TV Mini series by the same name.
5) John Paul II was the first non Italian pope elected in the 1520's when Pope Adrien VI took the office.
6) Pope Adrian VI was born in the town of Utrecht, in the Netherlands, as was the Olympic Hero Anton Geesnik.
A couple other things... First off, I sent a connetion for the Master Chief to Chief Strongbow, and you never posted it, Grrrr Also, A one step connection for these two guys. Anton Geesnik, as a member of the IOC, was accused of taking bribes during the 2002 Olympics, the same Olympics that Apollo debuted.
Peace Out Louis
Yeah, I remember that entry, it was pretty late, and I was pretty lazy. To think, had you sent that in a half day later and perhaps you might have stolen that 2nd seed. Oh well, guess you gotta fight it out now. No holding the tights this week.
BD-
Here is my submission as "warm-up" for the big tourney!
1- Anton Geesink was a multi-time Olympic Judo Medalist
2- Judo was officially recognized as an Olympic Sport in 1964.
3- 1964 was the birth year of Sandra Bullock who married CEO of West Coast Choppers Jesse James.
4- Jesse James is a hidden character in the Tony Hawk Underground 2 game as an unlockable skater.
5- Tony Hawk, the accomplished skater that he is, was the 1st to land the 900 during the televised 1999 X Games which featured skateboarding, BMX, and Freestyle Motocross.
6- The "Freestyle" portion of 'Dancing with the Stars' garnered perfect "10"s from judges helping Apolo Anton Ohno secure his win in the final round of competition.
*And for your "Asian fix" - Ohno was inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame as well!*
Just trying to get alil warm-up in - Can't wait for the tournament!
Alex Larson
Many people don't realize this, but I was actually a hidden character in a fairly popular video game. You may have heard of it...Rumble Rose XX. Yeah...very hidden. Try to find me.
Wow, honoured to be seeded #2 in the tournament. This, of course, puts the pressure on. Don't want to end up like Iowa State in 2001, seeded #2 in the NCAA Basketball Tournament and falling in the first round to #15 Hampton. (Hampton. I don't even know where that is.)
Warm up 6DO:
1. Apolo Anton Ohno was inducted into the Asian Hall Of Fame in 2007. One of the original inductees into the Asian Hall Of Fame in 2004 was University of Washington track star Rick Noji.
2. Rick Noji participated in the 1995 World Championships for the United States, as did Kurt Angle.
3. Kurt Angle won his first WWE Champtionship at No Mercy 2000 when he beat The Rock.
4. The Rock made up 1/2 of the tag team The Rock & Sock Connection, the other being Mick Foley.
5. Mick Foley, aka Cactus Jack, and Terry Funk, aka Chainsaw Charlie, won the WWF/E Tag Team Championship at Wrestlemania XIV.
6. Terry Funk, and his brother Dory Funk Jr, were the ones who trained Anton Geesink for his eventual professional wrestling career in the 1970's.
Let the tournament begin!
Double C
Hey, you never know Dub-C, this could end up like College Football. I wonder who USC is and who Rutgers is? Oh, I guess you Euro guys don't have football. Um...I dunno...women's tennis then?
Results
#1.
1. Anton Geesink was the first gaijin to win an Olympic gold medal in judo. Although judo wasn't in the Olympic program at the Olympics of 1968, another Dutch judoka was successful in 1972, winning both the open weight and heavyweight competition. He became the first judoka to win multiple Judo gold medals in a single Olympic event. His name was Wim Ruska.
2. Wim Ruska was one of the many martial artists Inoki fought in his 'worked shoot' matches. Wim Ruska gained some notoriety when he choked out a Japanese journalist at a press conference leading up to the match. When asked how he would win the match, Ruska replied that he'd go for a sleeper hold. When the journalist asked him to demonstrate he decided to just crank it on full strength out of fear of not being taken seriously otherwise.
3. Antonio Inoki works with established martial artists even to this day. The most recent Olympic gold medallist he employed for his Inoki Genome Federation is Kurt Angle, who won the gold medal in the freestyle wrestling over 100 kg competition.
4. In 2001 Kurt Angle teamed up with Edge and Christian and Rhyno to form Team RECK.
5. Rhyno left the team after joining the ECW half of the Invasion. Although Rhyno was already employed by WWE when he joined The Alliance, the combined WCW/ECW stable had many former WCW and ECW employees who didn't make their WWE television debut until The Invasion started. Among them was Stacy Keibler.
6. Stacy Keibler held the record for most perfect scores on Dancing With The Stars until 2004. Apolo Anton Ohno is only one of two people who managed to achieve more perfect scores than her.
Jasper Gerretsen
Jasper wins this week because he was the only non-tournament entry. Meaning that he'll get a shot in the NEXT tourney. When will that be? I dunno...let's just go with eventually.
Vegas Style Left Overs…
So had to hit up a titty club in Vegas. 4 of us got good and buzzed and somehow forgot where we went last Vegas trip and not only ended up at the same exact titty club, but got the same exact Asian stripper. Which is weird cuz' usually you don't see the same stripper twice in Vegas. You know you've been watching too much wrestling when while you're getting a lap dance you can't help thinking in the back of your mind that Mike Knox or The Miz is going to come out of no where and drag her off.
I'm glad Candice took that fall directly on her face, that way she really didn't fuck anything up…more than it had been.
Did anyone else notice Randy Orton pinning Jeff Hardy in the gayest way possible on RAW? He just crawled on top of him, straddled him and held one of his arms down as he laid on top for the cover. I fully expected him to yell at Hardy after he got a shoulder up to pinch his nipples and spit in his mouth.
I was actually trying to picture Delirious gambling in Vegas all weekend long. I just wanted to see him seated at a slot machine, win a jackpot and have him go crazy and hit a "Shadows over Hell" on an unsuspecting old Vietnamese black jack dealer getting ready to ask if anyone wanted "insurance". That would actually be fairly ironic.
Did you know some casinos have "War" as a table game? How crazy is that shit? No skill, all luck. It's like Randy Orton's title reign, only someone can actually make money off this.
Rasheed "Consequences" Creed, as he was announced on the PPV, was offered a deal with TNA recently off his impressive match at BFG. It looks as if he and Ron Killings may be teaming up as "Truth and Consequences". Creed was contacted last week at a show after Killing's original choice, Johnny Dare, turned down TNA's offer.
It looks like Smackdown has gone to Krystal-lite. Word has it that Teddy Long's fiancé and rumored to be Bobby Lashley's girlfriend was released this week. Some reports say it may be due to wellness issues. Rumors have it that she was given regular doses of horse hormones, however TBT actually broke the story that there was a miscommunication and it was merely a weekly shot of "hormone" from a ‘Black Stallion' instead. Soften Spoken, hard hitting indeed.
at one point were you hoping CM Punk would say to Balls backstage on ECW,"So how'd your date go with Kelly Kelly? Yeah, I fucked her…so did Knox….and Miz…but yeah..I mean…she probably showed a bunch of times after all that…so you go ahead and enjoy that." Then again…look at Balls, do you think he'd care about sloppy 5ths?
I used to LOVE the Rio buffet in Vegas, but it seems like it went down hill a bit since I went last. The prime rib and shrimp was good, the desserts too, but everything else was just okay. I hadn't had any real sugar for 3 weeks and I had my "cheat day" for the buffet and having all that dessert was a total overload. It's kind of like CM Punk having to sustain off ECW quality ring rats for weeks at a time before getting a plate full of Maria at the tri-brand PPVs.
I got a late start on my "Hooker Trading Card" collection this trip. Only picked up like 9 of them. There is nothing more Vegas than hearing the *clack clack* of hundreds of Mexicans on the side walk trying to pass out those advertisements for hookers. It's like "Pavlov's Dog" because you just instinctively hear it, look over and see something handed to you and next thing you know it's in your hand and you're 20 feet down the sidewalk. I have a feeling that's the only way Super Crazy is going to get back on RAW, stand outside the booking meeting with his business card. *clack clack* "oh shit…did we just book Super Crazy against Orton?"
If Brock Lesnar isn't facing Sean O'Haire at one point at UFC then Dana White is out of his MIND. I can't wait to see that match. Especially when Brock comes out with his Sombrero on and backed by a Mariachi band during his entrance. Oh shit…that' s Csonka's joke huh…nevermind.
The Convention of Mild Discomfort happened this weekend in Frisco when pretty much everyone and their ex-tag partner pulled out of the show. At some point I'm told Sandman and Muta had a hardcore match. I can see it now, Muta goes to spit green mist at Sandman the same time he goes to mist Muta with Old Milwaukee.
Sting to retire? I think it's time, he's done a good job thus far but it's clear he isn't quite the Sting of the past and has needed a lot of help to perform like he has in the past. Good opponents to work with, occasional gimmick matches, hell, I even heard people say they think his bat was corked.
Random Asian Bitch Lookin' Good Pic of the Week
Nice socks...yeah...that's all I got.
Flair interviews Murder Inc. founder Irv Gotti. For wwe.com. Bitches, guns, money, cars, cappin' fools....damn, I hope Irv Gotti has some good stories too.
ECW has Khali vs Kane vs Mark Henry vs Big Daddy V next week. I am going to be playing the "Arm Drag" drinking game on Tuesday. For every arm drag during that match, you drink a shot of ...oh hell, I'll just go with Cristal.
John Cena an apprentice? Cean joins a cast that contains Charisma Carpenter, Gene Simmons, Omorosa, Carol Alt, Stephen Baldwin, Marilu Henner, Vincent Pastore and Tito Ortiz on this season's edition of the "Celebrity" Apprentice. Okay, how the fuck does this work? Are we to believe that if he wins, Donald Trump is going to let Stephen Baldwin actually manage one of his properties? Donald Trump wouldn't trust Stephen Baldwin to manage an Orange Julius, let alone a multi-million dollar property.
Pimpin' In High Places
Odd, but has anyone noticed that the latest thing on 411 is either kissing the WWE's ass or blaming them for the Holocaust? Don't we have a neutral, unbiased opinion of the "e"?? Oh that's right...we all hate The Miz. Yeah...fuck that guy.:
Ask 411 was written in a more somber tone this week as Cook's precious Fantasy Football team was smited... smoted? Smotten? Uh...beaten by my team thanks to the efforts of Tom Brady and the ineptitude of Sage Rosenfel. 6 TD's by Brady to go along with 6 turnovers by the Texans lead my team to victory and sole ownership of first place. Oh, victory is sweet Cooker T...victory is sweeeeet.
FoF this week features Sammy vs Shorty in a battle of Indy vs Puro. Which seems a lot like an RoH civil war to me.
It's a Small Report after all. Some days I think Small is writing his report while half drunk off Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill and the other days I think it's the Fuzzy Navel.
Jules has the Top 10 Orton matches. He actually counted 3 from his SDvsRAW game though.
Mattis has all the Indy talk fit to print. Of course that would involve you printing it from your computer. But not in color...that shit is expensive. Save it for my column.
Happy/Sucky five dollar fu...I'll just let you fill in the rest.
CoH had some quick Vegas results this week. I can only think of how truly happy Ari must have been to find out that not only had Hero won the SotF, but also personally pinned or submitted each and every finalist. Then proceeded to have butt sex with Nigel's girlfriend, shit in Danielson's shoes, and declare OJ didn't do it...again. Actual backstage accounts said he did this all simultaneously. He truly IS a Hero.
Lansdell must still be smarting from that beat down on FoF last week. He doesn't sell the beatdown however as he bounces back with a look at the Tombstone piledriver (still illegal in Mexico) this week and questions the radness of Human Tornado. This kid has some serious "stones". Tornado at least impressed Gabe as he was booked again next month for RoH. Something tells me he might have a shot at joining a certain stable. No, not the Hangman 3. Something tells me you just don't want a "brutha" in a stable with the word "Hang" in it.
Newbie #16 draws my ire this week as he blames the West Coast for RoH's disappointing attendance. Hey, you can blame whoever you want J-Rod but it all comes down to a lack of Bobby Dempsey. Do the math, somehow it comes out to 222.
Sammy thinks the KoW and Ring Crew Express was worthy of a second look. I bet ya Dunn and Marcos still look back fondly on that match...until their manager yells at them to get back to work and check on the McNuggets.
D-Dubya is dreaming of HBK and ‘Taker. I had a dream about an off duty stripper, a hot tub, and a jar of Nutella. I win.
So...what are you guys up to this weekend? Anything cool or fun? Me? Oh....nothing really. After two straight weekends of wrestling and a Vegas trip I'm pretty much flat on things to do. Now that I got the wrestling bug again I realize that PWG won't be back running till December. Wish there was something else to do, guess I'll have to do the normal non-wrestling type weekend stuff. Probably buy some new shoes maybe a belt. Hit the gym. Watch my fantasy football team MAUL Csonka's this weekend. Yeah, sorry Boss, but it's gotta be like that. I don't fear Drew Carter. Rae Carruth maybe...
