411’s Buy or Sell 5.30.08: The XPW Reunion Show, Bison Smith’s Push, Nigel McGuiness, and More!!

Posted by Michael Bauer on 05.30.2008

The 411 staff discusses an early preview of Ring of Honor’s Tag Team Title tournament and just about every other Indy out there as Larry Csonka battles Alex Mattis!

Welcome everyone to WEEK Fifty-Eight of BUY or SELL. For those of you who haven't been with us since the beginning, here's the Reader's Digest version of what this column is all about. BUY or SELL is very much like 411's long-running Fact or Fiction column. The main difference is that BUY or SELL focuses on topics like the U.S. Independent scene, Lucha Libre, Japanese Wrestling and pretty much anything else that isn't mainstream wrestling, WWE and or TNA. This allows for these areas to get a bit more press and for you, our loyal readers, to learn even more about the sport of professional wrestling.


Week Fifty-Eight's Match-Up:
The Man, the Myth, the Legend, and the Boss Larry Csonka vs. The Best of the Rest Writer Alex Mattis!

CHIKARA doing a DQ finish in the main event of the last show of their anniversary weekend was a poor idea.

Larry Csonka : BUY. BIG BUY! MANY BUYS! Listen, I gave WWE tons of shit for running DQ's in big and main event title matches, and I will cut CHIKARA no slack here for doing the same thing. I really like CHIKARA, and they have a good reputation for pleasing their fans, but to run a DQ in the main event of their anniversary weekend seems like bad business to me. SHAME CHIKARA…SHAME ON YOU@!


Alex Mattis : BUY . I'll buy that notion for any company, for any main event. The main event is the most important match on the card and typically is what most of the fans paid to see. So a cop out DQ finish is basically ripping the fans off. This is magnified even more because of the fact that it happened at the anniversary show. This is kind of surprising coming from CHIKARA, which has a solid reputation of pleasing the fans and giving them a sound product.

1 for 1.

XPW's Reunion Show will be forgotten by the end of the summer.

Larry Csonka : BUY. End of the summer? Shit I forgot about it before my Tuesday news column ran. Seriously, I know people that were involved in putting on this show, and I respect the hell out of them, but yeah, I have completely forgotten about this already. Let's look at some of the card:

- Kaos (a.k.a. Joey Munoz in WSX) def. Vampiro: Could have been fun, but I heard it was rather bad.
- GQ Money (the Ring Announcer in WSX) def. Hardcore Homo Angel: XPW lives for sure here.
- Sandman def. Pogo the Clown: Did the Sandman fall asleep like in 2CW?
- Raven & "White Trash" Johnny Webb def. Homeless Jimmy & Concussion with Terry Funk as referee. Concussion was a replacement for Sabu, who was too hurt to work: Concussion? Who? Grimes fat ass was out of the show as he was hurt, or choked on a ham sandwich Mamma Cass Style and Sabu is falling apart. I dug Raven in ECW, I think the man is smart as hell but he is lucky to be alive right now.

- Luke Hawx (formerly Altar Boy Luke) def. Jack Evans & Scorpio Sky: This sounds like it was the most fun thing on the card.
- The Gangstas (New Jack & Mustafa) def. Chronic & BG Rott: The Gangstas? Really? Verses who? Next.
- Supreme def. Necro Butcher in a death match: This apparently "saved the show," but really, how good could it have been? And I like Necro.

So yes, I have already forgotten it and by summer's end, about everyone one else will have as well.


Alex Mattis : BUY. BIG Buy! Couldn't agree with my partner more here. I have always held true distain for XPW and the idea of them trying to run a "reunion" show is just plain stupid. I always thought XPW was a black eye on the face of independent wrestling (that's saying something) and the only thing they ever did good, in my opinion, was give Super Dragon a place to showcase his talent early in his career. So to answer the question, yes. Yes it will be forgotten. Nothing about that company was worth remembering in the first place.

2 for 2.

Bison Smith will finally get a sustained push in Pro Wrestling NOAH.

Larry Csonka : BUY . After what seems like a bunch of stalled efforts, I really believe that this WILL be the sustained push Bison Smith has been waiting for. This past weekend was huge as Bison Smith and Akitoshi Saito defeated Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura to become the new GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. That's a big deal right there. Bison Smith has been on the cusp of the big push for a while, and I think that NOAH now feels that this is the time to pull the trigger. Watch out for Bison Smith this year, he could make some big noise.

Alex Mattis : BUY . And why shouldn't we buy this? He has done nothing but impress, he just got gold this past weekend showing that he can hang with the best, and he has ridden the line of a push long enough. I think now is the time that NOAH is really going to invest Bison, make his stock rise, and make this possibly the biggest year of his career.

3 for 3.

SWITCH~!

Adam's Pearce's briefcase will contain the contract of Brent Albright.

Alex Mattis : BUY . And why shouldn't it? Albright is a loner, a monster, and the fans love 'em. This kind of an angle always works, where you have the fan favorite monster aligned with the classics heels doing things he doesn't want to do. Albright will be miserable for awhile but this will ultimately lead to a grudge match with Pearce where if Brent wins he gets... his FREEDOM!!!

Larry Csonka : BUY . Unfortunately I will buy this one and in the process color me unimpressed. While I am sure they can do some creative stuff with the angle, it just does nothing for me. I like Pearce, he's a fun promo guy, Albright can be fun as well, but overall, nothing for me. I would LOVE to see him reveal the NWA Title, and play it off as a huge power play by Sweeney. Pearce hasn't been given his due, so he went out and won the most prestigious title in the history of the sport. Sweeney then says that Pearce will defend the title at his leisure, for the right price. But we're likely going with this contract deal, no buys from me.

4 for 4.

The Age of the Fall will lose in the first round of Ring of Honor's Tag Team Title Tournament.

Alex Mattis : SELL . Do I expect them to win the whole thing? No, but the AOTF getting eliminated in the 1st round, to me, seems not bloody likely! They are one of the dominating forces in ROH right now, and usually find ways to win there matches and get the gold. But given Jacobs' current agony and sorrow over Lacey his head may be in a different place... leading to the loss of the AOTF at the hands of someone a bit unexpected.

Larry Csonka : BUY. A lot of things point to Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black defeating Delirious and Pelle Primeau in the first round of the title tournament. They are former champions, Delirious has never held an ROH Title, Pelle Primeau has essentially been a job guy forever in my opinion and with the Briscoe's out due to Jacob's hand, a program when Mark returns makes sense, especially for the titles. But some of these reasons are also the same reason that they could easily lose. Pelle Primeau recently got a huge win. Delirious has never held a title and it could be time. The AoTF have had the titles and RH might want to freshen up things. Mark and or Jay could cost them the match as part of their revenge. The AoTF has a lost a good bit of momentum in my eyes overall. Finally, there is the Austin Aries factor. So for those reasons I will go with the surprising Delirious and Pelle Primeau win!

4 for 5.

As RoH World Champion, Nigel McGuiness should not be in the Tag Team Title Tournament.

Alex Mattis : SELL . Eh, why not? I don't particularly mind because I don't see Nigel and his partner making it out of the 1st round. Nigel won't be able to successfully coexist with anyone and one positive that this scenario gives us is that someone may get a victory over the world champion which would eventually lead to a big title showdown. I don't really see what it hurts having the world champ compete in the tag title tournament, if anything it makes the tag straps seem important.

Larry Csonka : SELL . I am selling this for some simple reasons. First of all Nigel is a heel, you're supposed to hate him. It seems as if people are upset with this, and they should be. Also, Nigel is the ROH World Champion, he also held the PURE Title. You should see where I am going here. Nigel not only thinks that he is the best, but he is also out for himself. He's a greedy bastard. He wants to be the first ever ROH Triple Crown champion. Danielson didn't do it, Joe didn't do it, Aries hasn't done it and Nigel would like to show up all of these beloved ROH wrestlers by winning the tag team titles and shoving it in their faces. He's a dick, he's greedy and we should hate him. He's doing his job. Also, if he takes a loss in the tournament, you give the man that beat him a legitimate Ace up the sleeve, as he could request an ROH Title match. To me it all makes sense.

5 for 6!


The Fifty-Eighth edition of BUY or SELL finishes at 5 for 6. Stay tuned for next week when two new men will go head to head with a whole new set of topics.