Column of Honor: 03.01.08: Apologies

Posted by Ari Berenstein on 03.01.2008

One to Chris Hero by me, one from ROH for the controversial Dempsey / Danger / Sweeney angle. Plus: Jigsaw unmasked and Proving Ground thoughts.

A Public Apology to Chris Hero

I'd like to begin my column this week with a public apology to Chris Hero.

It came to my attention from the real Chris Hero himself that on some other wrestling boards there are comments that indicate people believe that the "Chris Hero" from the Hero's Sandwich segment in this column was the real Chris Hero. This was not and is not the case.

Hero's Sandwich has never been written by the actual Chris Hero the wrestler. It has at times been written by either me or Chris Miccio with one edition written by Michael Bauer during January of 2008.

The segment was and has always been intended as a satire / parody of the wrestling heel character, inspired both by the old Eddie Eliner heel columns from Pro Wrestling Illustrated and my obvious appreciation of Chris Hero.

What began as a short term replacement for the "Mid Column Olay" break segment became a regular bit in the column. Chris and I only thought to do this as a gag and never really thought about any higher consequences of consistently doing a satiric series of skits in the "voice" of a wrestler. We were just looking to make the readers and each other laugh and we were having a hell of a time doing so. Being a heel, much less one with the personality of Chris Hero, is quite fun.

Unfortunately, what made matters worse was that I did not ask for consent from the actual, bonafide Chris Hero to do this bit for my column. Once this became a prolonged series, I should have reached out to contact him sooner rather than later, and ultimately not thinking to do so bit me on the ass as the real Chris Hero came calling this week. He was not happy about people thinking he was really writing the segment.

At no time did I intend to mislead anyone into believing this was the real Chris Hero, but I can see now how it may have been interpreted in such a way. That said, I have constantly referred to the "Chris Hero" in this column with quotations (", ") to indicate that I know and that the reader should know the identity of the person(s) writing clearly was not the real wrestler but an imposter. Also, one only had to read and see the constant self mockery and barbs at my own expense to realize that this couldn't be the real deal.

Effective immediately, the Hero's Sandwich segments will no longer be run in this column.

I apologize to any of my readers who were inadvertently misled.

Once again I offer my public apology to Chris Hero for any inconvenience on his end and thank him for his patience and understanding in this matter.


--Ari Berenstein—


*****


ROH Results: Sixth Anniversary Show 02/23/08 in Manhattan, NY

Matches
-Human Tornado and Delirious goes to a no contest due to the interference of Age of the Fall.
-The Age of the Fall of Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black (with Lacey) defeated Human Tornado and Delirious via submission when Tornado passed out to the End Time DDT / Guillotine Choke from Jacobs.
-Brent Albright defeated El Generico due to referee stoppage because of repeated knees to the head.
-Kevin Steen defeated Joey Matthews via submission due to the Steenshooter.
-Austin Aries defeated Go Shiozaki via pinfall with the brainbuster / 450 Splash. This was an awesome match and everyone should go out of their way to see it.
-SHIMMER Women's Athletes Champion Sara Del Ray retained her title by defeating Daizee Haze via pinfall after the Royal Butterfly.
-ROH World Tag Team Champions No Remorse Corps of Davey Richards & Rocky Romero retained their titles by defeating Jigsaw and Ruckus of The Vulture Squad. Richards pinned Jigsaw after a sitout powerbomb.
-FIP World Heavyweight Champion Roderick Strong retained his title by defeating Erick Stevens and Necro Butcher in a brutal no disqualification three way match. Strong pinned Necro after a Ganzo Bomb (!).
-ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness retained the title by defeating challenger "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson via submission to the London Dungeon. Match was initially ruled a DQ in favor of Danielson when McGuinness decked the referee, but was restarted after the ROH locker room cleared out and barricaded McGuinness from leaving.

Issues & Angles

-Human Tornado and Delirious engaged in a dance off before their night was interrupted by AotF. Delirious made sure Tornado remembered his hair pick after the match.

-Nigel McGuinness completed a full heel turn at the show. He claimed he was healthy but was concerned about fighting Danielson. He called him reckless and dangerous and that he should save himself for the 3/16 PPV instead. The crowd of course called McGuinness on being a "pussy". Danielson came out and compromised with McGuinness. He guaranteed he would not hit McGuinness in the head with strikes or elbows. Danielson claimed he could defeat McGuinness a million other ways. McGuinness agreed with this compromise. Nigel's heel actions included give fans the double finger (the UK way of giving the middle finger) and being whiny and rude to the fan base. After being outwrestled by Danielson early on, Nigel blantly decked the ref and intended to walk out claiming "you got your world title match" to the fans. The ROH locker room, interestingly enough including Austin Aries and Roderick Strong who were shoulder to shoulder, block Nigel's way and told him to defend the belt with honor. ROH president Cary Silkin was asked to and did restart the title match. After Nigel won, he asked "who's left to stop me?"

Danielson, knocked out after being intentionally headbutted by McGuinness and subjected to his own MMA elbows, was carried out by the referees and ROH students.

-After the tag title loss, Jigsaw was given a verbal brow beating by J-Train, who wanted Jig to take off his mask. Jigsaw walked out in anger instead.

-Kevin Steen and El Generico challenged the NRC to a title shot in a similar manner to the way they challenged The Briscoes at Respect is Earned. The NRC accepted and told them to bring it on, but then immediately left and did not fight them. Steen and Generico chase after them and you could hear a bit of the scuffle because they brought the mics with them. In a funny moment then Bobby Cruise was left standing around with nothing to do, because he didn't have a mic yet and couldn't announce the next match.

-In one of the more controversial segments in ROH history, Larry Sweeney ran his "Larry Sweeney Show featuring Larry Sweeney". He brought out Bobby Dempsey and said it was his birthday. Sweeney then introduced a woman who had been with the company on the first show, Allison Danger. Soon enough he began accusing her of being a slut and giving it to all the guys in the dressing room. When Danger stated she didn't have to take that kind of verbal comments, Sweeney knocked her out with his cell phone. He then encouraged and demanded that Bobby Dempsey "become a man" and have his way with the knocked out Danger as a birthday present. Dempsey refused, obviously confused by these actions and refusing to take advantage of a woman in that circumstance/. When Dempsey refused to follow through, Sweeney pushed him down on top of Danger and put one foot on top of him. Sweeney tried to grind Dempsey's pelvis into Danger as he proclaimed that Sweet and Sour Incorporated was making a "hostile takeover" of ROH in 2008.


Return Date: May 10th 2008 at the Hammerstein Ballroom


ROH Call

ROH Champions—As of 03/02/2008

ROH World Champion—Nigel McGuinness (champion since 10/06/07, 7 successful defenses)
-defeated Takeshi Morishima in Edison, New Jersey to win the championship.

Next Defense:: vs. TBD, Philadelphia, PA, 03/16/08

V.1 defeated Jay Briscoe, wristlock submission (10/21/07 San Francisco, CA)
V.2 defeated Chris Hero, wristlock submission (11/02/07 Philadelphia, PA)
V.3 defeated Austin Aries, Jawbreaker Lariat (12/29/07 Manhattan, NY)
V.4 defeated Go Shiozaki, London Dungeon (wristlock submission) (01/20/08 Tokyo, Japan,)
V.5 Steel Cage Match: defeated Chris Hero (01/25/08, Dayton, OH)
V.6 defeated Roderick Strong, Jawbreaker Lariat (01/26/08, Chicago Ridge, IL)
V.7 defeated Bryan Danielson, London Dungeon (02/23/08, Manhattan, NY)


ROH World Tag Team Champions—The No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards & Rocky Romero) (champions since 01/26/08, 1 successful defense)
-defeated Age of the Fall (Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black) in Chicago Ridge, IL to win the championship.

Next Defense: TBA

V.1 defeated Ruckus & Jigsaw (02/23/08 Manhattan, NY)


Sweet & Sour Incorporated Presents The Intergender Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Of The World —Chris Hero & Sara Del Rey (champions since 01/12/08, 2 successful defenses)

Next Defense: TBA

V.1 defeated Ernie Osiris & Alexa Thatcher (01/12/08, Edison, NJ)
V.2 defeated Kyle Durden & Alex "Sugarfoot" Payne (01/26/08, Chicago Ridge, IL)


FIP Heavyweight Champion: Roderick Strong (since 02/16/2008)
-defeated Erick Stevens via count out to win the title (FIP title can change hands on count out)
SHIMMER Champion: Sara Del Rey (since 6/2/2007)
Top of the Class Trophy (For ROH Students): Ernie Osiris (since 11/02/2007)


Top Feuds & Pairings:
-Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness
-The Age of the Fall vs. The Briscoes
-Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. No Remorse Corps
-Erick Stevens vs. Roderick Strong
-Austin Aries & Age of the Fall / Lacey vs. Sunny
-Sweet & Sour Inc. "Corporate Takeover"
-ROH vs. Dragon Gate (upcoming series in Orlando, FL)

ROH News
(via the ROHnewswire… and other sources when attributed


The Sweeney / Danger / Dempsey "Rape" Angle

The major controversy in ROH over the last weekend was the segment run during the Sixth Anniversary Show with Larry Sweeney, Allison Danger and Bobby Dempsey. The criticism for what happened at the show snowballed very quickly on the ROH message board and in other locales on the internet. ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky apologized for the angle on the message board and used the apology to further the Sweet & Sour "Corporate Takeover" angle that looked to begin on that show.

In addition, Mike Johnson of PWInsider reports that "Ring of Honor will not be releasing the controversial Larry Sweeney-Allison Danger-Bobby Dempsey angle from their sixth anniversary show on DVD and the footage won't be used ‘in any form' in the future. The planned Sweeey ‘hostile takeover' of ROH storyline will continue."


Besides the discussions of what is and isn't rape and the depictions of violence against women (which I'll discuss a bit later during the Honorarium section), the other part of this story would be that ROH felt the need to do something really drastic in order to get Sweeney over as a heel. Well, this was indeed a very drastic measure and a bit unnecessary. Sweeney easily receives heel heat in CHIKARA and he does it by doing heel tactics and being a general ass about things. Meanwhile he remains a very entertaining character on commentary for those shows. Ring of Honor could have helped him receive heel heat by cheating and taking cheapshots on Chris Hero's opponents.

It seems to me that ROH had always conditioned the fans to cheer for Sweeney since the beginning. The man was over since day one of his appearances in the company. During Final Battle 2006 the man was welcomed with open arms by the fans and Sweeney reciprocated by doing his now trademark strut and preening. It was when Sweeney made Hero choose between him and Castagnoli that the crowd booed the proceedings. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me that ROH can find ways of making Sweeney a hateable character in the right context without having to go to the over the top and tasteless route.


Jigsaw Unmasked

The other bombshell of questionable booking that dropped this week was the unmasking of Jigsaw on the recent video wire.

The storyline was that Julius Smokes was tired of Jigsaw losing and felt he wasn't holding on to his end of the deal as a part of The Vulture Squad. He wanted to motivate Jigsaw to "express himself" (Madonna?) and that the mask was a burden to that process. Jigsaw initially was hesitant, but Smokes fired him up enough that he did in fact unmask at the end of the video wire, which you can see here:




Mike Johnson of PWInsider reports that "The decision to remove the mask was made jointly by Jigsaw and Gabe Sapolsky. Jigsaw felt the mask was uncomfortable while Sapolsky believed it was hurting him from connecting with the crowd and from learning facial expressions. They opted to unmask him in this manner to give him a new direction, partially because they had done a similar angle with Delirious recently and also because they didn't want to start Jigsaw's new babyface direction with a loss. The idea is that now that Jigsaw no longer has the mask to hide behind, he has to prove himself and perform."


Now I have written in favor of doing unmasking angles in Ring of Honor before, but I feel that it was needless in this case. Yes, the angle works on paper and the reasoning is sound…but I still can't help but hate this whole unmasking idea for Jigsaw. I don't have much of a problem with the lack of build for a major "lucha de apresta" angle (although maybe some consideration for doing such an angle in CHIKARA should have been given) like some others have written. I just dislike the idea of Jigsaw without the mask.

It is not easy for a fully masked wrestler to get over with the crowd because their face is covered up so much that it is hard to see their emotional status and thus sympathize with them. However Jigsaw did a hell of a job as a masked babyface wrestler, maybe one of the best on the current independent scene. He was one of the few fully masked wrestlers on the independent scene who could really make you feel for him despite not being able to see his eyes or his mouth to express emotions. That sort of ability shouldn't be dropped to the wayside, especially if the unmasking process makes the wrestler look more plain and less special.

The Jigsaw mask and really the whole concept of the character being a puzzle was awesome and so much more could have been done with it. The mask seemed to "fit" the character just right, whereas sometimes masks are just masks for no purpose. The Jigsaw mask helped to create a super hero sensibility in the character. Unmasked, Jigsaw looks just like every other average and independent wrestler, male, skinny, white, tatted up and wearing shiny pants. In fact, Jig would have fit right in with Special K. Needless to say, Jig has the lucha chops to differentiate himself from the pack, but it will be a rough road ahead to do so without the mask.

I can respect that this was partially Jigsaw's decision due to the constraints / comfort of the mask and I can respect and understand his desire to take a risk and see if he can get over with his own face and on his own merits.

However, I have to believe that a few changes to the mask could have been done to help deal with those issues and keep the current Jigsaw identity intact. Maybe a variation of the mask could have been designed with the bottom half of the mask open to reveal his mouth (think Spider-Man pulling his mask up part way). How about a half mask in the vertical sense, where you could see one side of his face, one side of his mouth and one eye? That would have opened up the human side of Jigsaw, kept a semblance of the mask identity and would end up being a really cool variation on the Jigsaw theme—a literal Jigs-awed face ala a Two-Face character? Worse comes to worst, maybe unmask but keep the Jigsaw pattern on his face with body paint—think Ultimate Warrior or Road Warriors. See, there could have been tons of different things to do to spice up the character rather than do a complete unmasking.

I personally don't buy the motivation factor for his change. The whole idea of The Vulture Squad is to "transform", but think about how much "transformation" Jack Evans and Ruckus have done while in the Vulture Squad. Well, wait… they haven't changed at ALL from their previous characterizations in ROH and on the independent scene. So why all the hate on Jigsaw by Smokes to change? Oh, so now that Jigsaw is unmasked…NOW the Vulture Squad can win?

That sucks.


WWE Promotes ROH, CHIKARA and TNA on Website, In Other News, World Ends.


In one of the more surreal moments of the week, WWE has begun an "Insider News" section on their website. This is being done to attract extra hits to their website, as well as theoretically to cut down on the number of their fans visiting other wrestling websites. Pesky internet websites...funnily enough though, WWE is getting their news for this section FROM those same websites!

So, what news is being reported? Well, initially there was tons of WWE related material…but then there is the occasional newsbit of independent wrestling…and that's where ROH comes into the picture. See not only did WWE report on TNA's upcoming dates and shows, but WWE also reported on CHIKARA's upcoming King of Trios Tournament and Ring of Honor's fifth Pay Per View, "Rising Above".

I have no idea if WWE is going to keep up reporting like this, but wouldn't it be a gas if they actually did? They make so much money as it is, that to report on the industry and the independents wouldn't really hurt them at all…and certainly the increased exposure on the wwe.com website could only help CHIKARA, ROH and even TNA.

On the other hand…I have this feeling to expect that this feature will cease and desist shortly.


Song for Eric

A bit of positive news and goodwill came out this week from of all places, Age of the Fall and Ring of Honor. After mentioning an email he was sent by a fan named Eric during his most recent Age of the Fall promo (which you can check out below), tons of response began to occur to help this man. Fans on the ROH message board reached out to Eric and donations of DVDs, money and other items have been set up. Even Jimmy Jacobs himself has donated DVDs and reached out to Eric I applaud him and the fans for their efforts.



Stay with this promo all the way until the end so you can hear Jacobs' incredible delivery of the closing line.

It seems there is once again life and / or momentum for the Age of the Fall angle in the wake of them losing their tag titles and the Aries recruitment angle. I'm still a bit concerned with their overall direction and how the booking will focus on who they target in the next few months, but I have a good feeling that this is going to be a slow burn for a long time and that by the end of the year ROH will be in the middle of a "crisis" of sorts in dealing with the AotF faction as well as the Sweet and Sour takeover.


Punk & Cabana: Second City Reunion

From the Wrestling Observer:website reporting on the last OVW tapings:.

--Final OVW show with WWE talent last night in Louisville, taped for Saturday's OVW TV show. . .C.M. Punk & Colt Cabana b Seth Skyfire & Domino. Punk gave a speech to end the show and promised he would be back. If that's the case, he'd better hope it's a one-shot. (thanks to Mike Giralico)

How awesome is it that Cabana and Punk were able to team up once again, if just on the OVW tapings. They were such a great duo as The Second City Saints that its great they can revisit it. News of this team up made me really happy. Maybe one day we'll see them team up again on the main WWE programming.


ROH Debuts in Coral Springs, Returns to Cleveland

Ring of Honor announced a new location for a show in Florida late in the year and a return to a former venue in the Ohio area:

Ring of Honor will debut in Coral Springs, FL on Friday night, October 10th with a 7:30pm belltime. The event will be held at the Coral Springs Gymnasium, 2501 Coral Springs Drive, Coral Springs, FL 33065.

ROH is very excited to announce the return to Cleveland, OH on August 15th. Tickets will go on sale next Friday at 10am.

The Florida venue comes in the wake of doing two shows in the Orlando area (although Coral Springs is several hours away from there). ROH had previously stopped to run at Grey's Armory in Cleveland due to lower attendance numbers than anticipated. That said, ROH has shown a willingness to return to locations they had previously dropped, see: Boston, MA. Maybe a return to the city will help rekindle interest in the product there.


Other News Via PWInsider.com

More news from Mike Johnson:

"According to ROH sources, The 5/10 Hammerstein Ballroom show has been one of the hottest selling tickets in company history, perhaps ever. They have already sold most of the ringside seats and are back to the ninth row on the floor."

Sounds great for Ring of Honor. It was a huge risk to choose to run downstairs but hopefully running in a bigger venue will turn out to mean more fans will come to the shows. Now it remains to be seen if they can sell the first balcony seats. Upper balcony will not be sold, but really that's a good deal for fans (although I'm sure ROH would want to sell them out if it was realistically possible) because of how far up those seats are, it wouldn't be the best view anyway.

"Jack Evans is recovering from his facial injuries on schedule and hopes to be back in the ring by April at the earliest."

Evans had previously stated this in interviews, so no surprises there.

"Based on the success of the recent video profile on ROH champ Nigel McGuinness, ROH will be doing more deep personality profiles. The belief is that the company needs to do them to try and get the characters over more and to give the audience more an idea of their goals and background. ROH will be doing a sitdown interview with Nigel shortly to get over his heel turn."

I love the idea of a sitdown interview, and its appropriate for Nigel considering the turn in his character needs a bit more fleshing out because of the sudden "Feel heel" mode he went into in NYC. Now, the question is who will do the interview… Prazak, Leonard or maybe… a returning JIMMY BOWER! And will Nigel give a Lariat to the interviewer?

Oh god, please let their also be sitdown interviews for Delirious and for Kevin Steen and El Generico as a team!

"Erick Stevens and Roderick Strong are putting together the first show for their independent promotion in Florida, which debuts next month."

Both men make Florida their home, so it's cool to know that they are going to try to run there and see how far they can go with it. Best of luck to them. Man, is Florida becoming the place to be in March or what?


News From the ROH Newswire:

Briscoes vs. Machine Guns Official for Chicago

In case you missed it on the main page of ROHwrestling.com, The Motor City Machine Guns of Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin will return to ROH on 4/18 in Detroit and 4/19 in Chicago. They want The Briscoes. We have heard from Jay & Mark Briscoe in Japan and they have accepted the challenge. It is now official. April 19th in Chicago will see the rematch one year in the making as Shelley & Sabin take on The Briscoes!!! We will have news on Shelley & Sabin's Detroit opponents in the upcoming weeks.


Steen looks to Rule the World

There were travel problems due to weather conditions last Friday forcing ROH officials to book on the fly. ROH always strives to give the fans more than what they paid for when the card has to change so an eight man, one night tournament for a future ROH World Title shot was booked in Long Island. Kevin Steen came out victorious. Steen will get his ROH World Title shot on 4/12 in Edison, NJ.

Big things are coming up for ROH on PPV. First of all, "Rising Above" is set to debut on March 7th on iN DEMAND, The DISH Network and TVN cable systems. ROH will tape its 6th PPV on March 16th in Philadelphia. ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness will make his next defense on that show. We have another big match to announce. Kevin Steen called out the No Remorse Corps in Manhattan. Now Roderick Strong is standing up to the NRC. 3/16 in Philly will witness Steen vs. Strong. See this match and the 6th PPV before everyone else by being there live in Philly!!!

Despite running from Steen & Generico last Saturday in Manhattan, Davey Richards is now calling them out. Steen has answered. It will be Richards vs. Steen on 3/14 in Dover, NJ.

ROH is ramping up their efforts with Steen, pushing him to the top as a huge babyface. So far the crowd seems to be responding to Steen and his combination of honorability with humorous, jerk-like behavior done with a wink and a nod. I say go with it and see how far Steen can take this run, whether it becomes a run with the tag titles or a series bid to become ROH World champion.


Weather Conditions in Orlando

It will be sunny in Orlando as the original diva Tammy Sytch will appear on the March 28th & 29th Orlando events. She will be available for autographs and to meet the fans. We'll have more on Sytch in the next ROH Video Wire, which will be up later this week at ROHvideos.com.

Sytch has done a really good job in her two appearances for ROH in NYC. She's in great shape and you can tell she's really feeling it once again. In addition, she has been a great foil for Lacey. Ideologically you couldn't ask for two more polar opposite characters. Their friction has led to great interactions between the two and therefore the beginnings of what could be a great little tête-à-tête between the two during the course of the year.


Dragon Gate Swings Open for more ROH Combat

We are only one month away from ROH's debut in Orlando, FL. ROH mania will be running wild with two events. Another ROH vs. Dragon Gate bout for March 28th has been signed. "Dragon Gate Challenge II" will see Austin Aries vs. Genki Horiguchi in singles competition.

We aren't done yet with Orlando news. "Supercard Of Honor III" will take place on March 29th. The lineup for a true supercard is taking shape. We now know that on March 29th you will see Nigel McGuinness vs. Austin Aries in the "Rising Above" rematch, a pure Dragon Gate six man bout and Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Shingo & BxB Hulk!!!

Austin vs. Genki is an interesting pairing, because Aries has been playing a more serious, quasi-heel while Genki turned heel in Dragon Gate last year. Which one will be more "uber-bastard" remains to be seen.


Honorarium

-Okay, the "rape" angle. How did I react during this segment? Well, I wasn't one of the persons who were shouting for Dempsey to "Man Up" while being pressed down by Sweeney on top of Allison Danger. However, I have to say that I laughed. I laughed because I really couldn't do anything else but laugh. It was the whole absurdity of the situation and how it came to be…how Sweeney manipulated Danger and Dempsey into this situation.

I mean the whole thing was so absurd. Tasteless, yes, but really just kind of ridiculous at the crux of it. I mean, it was Dempsey's birthday and here was Sweeney in his mind trying to do the right thing for the red-headed stepchild of his group, but even when he was trying to be "nice" to Bobby boy the kid wasn't doing what he wanted. So he pushed him down and forced him to do it out of spite. And mocked him every step of the way.

So I laughed, whether as an involuntary defense mechanism to deal with the ridiculousness of what my eyes were seeing taking place in front of me, or as a valid measure of the humorousness of the situation.

And if you take offense to my reaction to that, maybe you should take offense to those who react to the following: the nudity and "apple pie" scenes from American Pie, the "Tits McGhee" and "pirate hooker" comments from Anchorman, Porky's (you know what scene I'm referring to) and so on and so forth.

And how about Borat attempting to abduct and marry Pamela Anderson? That scene was absolutely hysterical. Pamela Anderson was in on it, you know.

Look, there wasn't any "rape" here in this storyline, at least not to Danger. There was no sexual contact, no willingness on the part of Dempsey to do that kind of reprehensible actions. If anything, it was BOBBY DEMPSEY who was "raped" by Sweeney (and just try to get that visual out of your mind) because it was he who was unwilling to consent to what Sweeney wanted him to do. Danger was a victim of circumstance, and Dempsey was a victim of the constant cruelty he has been long subjected to at the hands of Sweeney and company.

I'm not trying to excuse what ROH did with the segment or say it was the right thing to do. What I am saying is that there was a definitive over-reaction by the fans on the message board and elsewhere as to what occurred, although it is within their rights to complain about and criticize as they see fit. The angle was tasteless and not expected by a majority of fans who follow ROH that it would occur within ROH.

There are two shames here. One is within the reaction of the majority of fans in attendance. Although to be honest, this is a WRESTLING crowd, no matter who smart it purports to be, its still predominantly male, white and single. What other reaction from a mass audience should have been expected? Even, I, very much an educated male "feminist" of sorts who listens to Ani Difranco and Tori Amos, even I was laughing. What chance did the less accepting about sexual equality have?

The other shame is that fans that were not there will not have the opportunity to judge what happened for themselves. Leaving the segment off the Sixth Anniversary DVD may save ROH from taking the heat, but it makes what happen seem like it was a million times worse than what took place. It's always worse for imagination to take over in someone's mind rather than acknowledge deal with the truth and fact.

As for those who are decrying ROH for the depicting of violence against females.—get over it. As much as we try to deny it, Wrestling has one of the most misogynistic and sexist atmospheres in any genre of sports and entertainment. Ring of Honor itself has a bad past track record of how they deal with women and victimization angles—half of them involving Allison Danger!

In the past six years of Ring of Honor history, Allison Danger:

-has been involved in a lesbian crush angle with Alexis Laree (now Mickie James)
-was blasted with the Cop Killer by Homicide.
-was the object of Jimmy Bower's sexist comments during commentary on early ROH DVDs.
-was called a Sea Hag by CM Punk and others.
-was beaten up by the team of BJ Whitmer and Dan Maff as payback for making their lives a living hell.
-was flat out decked by Chris Hero during the set up for The Kings of Wrestling vs. Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal match in 2006.
-was rejected, shoved, pushed down and yelled at by Christopher Daniels in his final appearance in ROH.

Not to mention these other cases of women victimization within Ring of Honor:

-Jade Chung's abuse by Prince Nana including getting pushed down, verbally abused and used as a footstool and made to wear an extendable dog leash.
-Lacey inadvertently getting spiked in the head by BJ Whitmer and advertently being hit with the Colt 45 by Colt Cabana after the feud with Jimmy Jacobs.
-Special K spiking Alexis Laree's drink.
-The insinuation that Special K met up with Carnage Crew member Tony DeVito's daughter at a club and had relations with her.

This is an ugly business sometimes and the abuse of women is often seen addressed in the angles. If you have a negative reaction to what you saw (or what you heard about what happened), quite simply, you're being taken in by the angle. It's not the first time in ROH or any other promotion this has happened—and you don't have to look any further than PWG to see Human Tornado being the "Ike" to Candace LeRae's "Tina". Or how about Brother Ray dressing down the interview girl with his eyes a few weeks back on Impact? How about The Dudleys when they powerbombed Mae Young through a table and when Trish Stratus barked like a dog for Vince McMahon?

If ROH fans were expecting any better than what they saw or heard about what took place last week, then they are either incredibly naïve, incredibly ignorant or have long term memory problems about ROH's past and what is involved in booking angles for the wrestling business.

Should ROH strive to be better than these tasteless angles? Of course I'd agree to that. I just don't think that anyone should expect ROH never to run something controversial during the course of their existence.

Just wait until fans see the end of the Proving Ground DVD and Sal Rinauro's "kiss that didn't miss" with Becky. We'll see how up in arms they'll be about that.


If you want to read more about the subject, Bayani Domingo wrote a tremendous piece on how male fans treat women's wrestling. It is one of the most well written and well reasoned responses I've ever seen dealing with the subject and this from the same guy who includes pictures of Asian and Latina women in thongs and barely theres.

-Will the Aries / McGuinness match go on last during the Rising Above PPV? It should. As those who attended the show know, the last match taped for PPV was the Briscoes vs. NRC 2 out of 3 falls tag. However I think it's clear that Aries vs. McGuinness should close the show, because that match is more than main event worthy. It would be easy to edit it to be the finale as well.


Proving Ground Thoughts:

-I hate to admit it, but Jason Blade has improved in his characterizations…his alignment with the YRR as a cocky young and good looking kid works for him. I say congrats to him for finding something he can capitalize on and hopefully that will work for him down in FIP for a good deal to come.

-This was the first show for ROH in the Boston University venue. Unfortunately it is also another show where the video and lighting is worse than we should be expecting at this point in ROH's existence. In fact the lighting in the opening promo where Becky attempts to get a word with Austin Aries is downright deplorable. You can't see a damned thing. I am BEGGING please, invest in a backlight! If you're going to do the number night time shoots that ROH has done over the years, then get the right equipment for it.

Not to mention that the main camera is off kilter, thus meaning that the ring looks to be uneven and at a weird angle. THAT is bad.

-Oh by the way, Aries makes a sexist comment to Becky. Just thought you white knights out there ought to know.

-Erick Stevens has cut several strong promos since winning the FIP title and this is another one here emphasizing his need to win against Danielson and Aries.

-Ruckus fans, let me ask you, where exactly is Chocolate City? Does it exist? Is it in fact made of chocolate?

-Quick and cute little thing to pay attention to in the Ruckus vs. Claudio match is how Mercedes plays around with the bandana—funny stuff.

-I've noticed a predominant focus on the last few DVDs for body shots—punches and strikes to the body. It's actually pretty realistic and visually effective. And no one ever wants to get hit in the stomach or ribs, so there is a definite sympathetic reaction to it.

-Hero making the "CH" sign while using crutches is a thing of beauty.

-Sweeney having a leigh after coming back from "Waikiki" is disturbing.

-Albright has a very good promo mocking Danielson. Meanwhile Danielson's smile here as he sets up the match against Albright shows how much he really enjoys the in-ring challenge. The match is a good one, with a great finish of Danielson sinking in the Triangle Choke and Albright looking to stand up to powerbomb him, but can't quite get there. Danielson then goes to the elbows while in the triangle and Albright immediately taps out.

-Enough with the Age of the Fall screaming entrance music! Alright…I give! I'll tell you the secret combination to the hidden treasure… just stop!

-Steen vs. Necro Butcher is a terrific brawl, especially in the opening moments when they are just punching each other with reckless abandon (see what I did there?). Although I have to ask, why does Necro still have to take unprotected chair shots to the head? He has nothing more to prove about his toughness and doesn't have to do them to stay over.

-Steen has some hysterical comments on his walk back to the locker room including calling his shot for the ROH World Tag Team titles and saying he isn't afraid of two men who listen to A Simple Plan. Steen is quickly becoming king of the one liners in ROH.

I was a bit confused to see ROH immediately transition into second promo from Steen and Generico, especially when Steen is selling the beating from the match but didn't too much of that on his walk TO THE BACK. Although that promo and the follow up with El Generico after the loss to Strong are also very entertaining and definitely keepers. Steen needs to name check his mom more often from now on.

-Delirious is back in black and green to emphasize that he only goes to the red when he's in a deep grudge, like vs. The Hangm3n. Sal Rinauro doesn't count as a grudge, more like a "minor dislike".

-Austin Aries is ROH's Shawn Michaels. It has to be said, he is a man who can have a three star match with anyone up and down the roster and this one against Stevens is much more than that. Aries' new and more serious character is emphasized here and he takes advantage of Stevens' being the fiery babyface. These two have a great back and forth in the match and the double count out is very believable. Stevens gets tremendous face support from the crowd for wanting to restart the match, thus it was the right decision to make with the booking. Frenetic finish with Aries throwing everything he could to take down Stevens, but the champ sustains and absorbs and gives back with lariats and Doctor Bombs that would make Stan Hansen and Steve Williams stand up and take notice. Match of the night along with Danielson vs. Albright and third place to Steen vs. Butcher.

-The main event Ultimate Endurance was nothing to sneeze at either. I would have appreciated Albright selling the submission from Danielson more, but I guess there was enough time to recover. Whitmer has a terrific moment here in the second fall when he realizes that the four on two against the Briscoes is now two on one against him. The last fall is the "rematch" from Final Battle '07 and I dug the interaction here just as much. The finish is good with Age of the Fall getting the pin and The Briscoes being just a little too late to break up the fall.

-I didn't so much like the extra emphasis on FIP throughout the show on an ROH DVD, but I understand why that was the case given this was during the FIP hiatus.

-Um, so why did Becky enjoy the kiss from Rinauro? He comes off as waaaay too creepy. What a weird finish to a very good DVD. A strong DVD even for a January ROH event.


Going Home

Name That Tune Week 24

Clue: snake
Lyric: "When you seek me you destroy me."
What's the name of the song and the artist?

The song was "Slither" by Velvet Revolver, the music of BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs when they were together as a team.

This week's winners (by order of receipt):
Holski-I can't listen to that song without yelling "HUSS!" at the appropriate moments.
soulpower
vivalabrave
jdl431

Thanks to those who wrote in to answer and congrats to you. Now its time for Name that Tune! for this week, March 3rd, 2008!

Clue: Detroit
Lyric: "You'd give your soul but it's just too little too late."
What's the name of the song and the artist?

Send in your answers here and if you're correct I'll list your name in next week's column!


**The Independent Buy In**

2008
**CHIKARA "Cibernetico & Robin" (Torneo Cibernetico: Kings of Wrestling vs. Dorado's Luchadores, The Olsen Twins / Cheech & Cloudy, Quackenbush / Donst, The Colony / BLK OUT ) High Recommendation
**CHIKARA "Brusied" (Kingston / Donst, Campeones de Parejas: F.I.S.T. vs. Incoherence / Castagnoli / Taylor, The Colony / Brodie Lee & Olsen Twins, Cheech & Cloudy / Osirian Portal ) High Recommendation
**Pro Wrestling NOAH "Special Budokan Double Shot"7/15 & 9/9/07 (Determination League Semi Finals & Finals, NTV Cup Finals)High Recommendation
**PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 1 (Castagnoli / Williams, Evans / Pac, Black / Shelley, Aries / Strong, PWG Tag Titles: Generico & Steen / Dragon Kid & Susumu Yokosuka)Medium Recommendation
**PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 2 (CIMA / Tornado, Steen / Butcher, McGuinness / Richards, Kid / Yokosuka) Low Recommendation
**PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 3 (the entire show) High Recommendation
**Shimmer Volume 11 (Sarah Stock / MsChif, Sarah Stock / Cheerleader Melissa, Sara Del Rey / Cindy Rogers, Nikki Roxx / Lacey, Daizee Haze / Malia Hosaka, Allison Danger / Hosaka)High Recommendation
**SHIMMER Volume 12 (Del Rey / Lacey, Del Rey / Sarah Stock, Haze / Lacey, Portuguese Princess Ariel / Josie / Nikki Roxx / Portia Perez, Melissa & MsChif / Lexie Fyfe & Hosaka)High Recommendation

This section needs your help! If you want to recommend some good independent wrestling to your fellow internet readers out there, drop me a line for the column.


ROH @ 411

Brad Garoon reviews FIP: Best of CM Punk Volume 2

Arnold Furious continues his look back at ROH in 2005 with a review of Glory By Honor IV and the awesome Danielson title change.

ROH, CHIKARA, IWA Mid-South are covered in this week's 411 Buy or Sell.

Jarrod Westerfield gives you his thoughts on the Sixth Anniversary Show in this week's Viral Dose.


Honor Bound Links

Tornado vs. Kingston headlines this week's Independent Mid Card by Samuel Berman.

Chris Landsell discovers the wonderful adventures of experiencing CHIKARA with a child in this week's The Way I C It.

It‘s his child by the way. For those worried.

JP gives you the business low down in this week's Hamilton Ave. Journal.

The Seventh Dimension: Choose or Lose ‘08

High Road / Low Road on Hornsoggle.

Weyer continues the compelling pieces in his column, this one on Ric Flair.

The letter S is the first in Steve Cook's name!

That's going to do it for this week. I'm going to regroup and prepare for next week's Rising Above PPV debut and I'll have my thoughts on that show and lots more.

Thanks for reading!
BROOKLYN!
--Ari--