411’s Buy or Sell 6.27.08: Nigel McGuiness’ Title Reign, Jay Briscoe as a Main Eventer, Steen-erico vs. The Age of the Fall, and More!!

Posted by Michael Bauer on 06.27.2008

The 411 staff will look ahead to this weekend’s Ring of Honor shows as Jarrod Westerfield battles Jerome Cusson!

Welcome everyone to WEEK Sixty Two 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 Sixty's Match-Up:
The Ever Maligned and Tormented Scripted Through Sin Writer Jarrod Westerfield vs. Friends and South Park Reviewer Jerome Cusson!

It was a mistake to have Wataru Inoue win the Best of the Super Juniors, then right away vacate the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title and move to the Heavyweight Division.

Jarrod Westerfield : SELL . It wasn't a mistake to have Inoue win the Best of the Super Juniors, it was only a mistake to have him vacate the title and move up in divisions after claiming such a big win over the likes of Tiger Mask (IV) and Koji Kanemoto.

The decision here could end up biting them in the back side as Inoue may be looked down upon in the division as being just too small to hang with the likes of Nagata, Chono and Nakamura. Beating out guys like Lyger, Minoru, Takaiwa and Yujiro in the round robin portion of the tournament, that's the type of momentum one needs to solidify their title run in the division. Unfortunately, now that's going to be missed on as Inoue will have a new set of challengers to have to deal with. Not only that, but Inoue suffered a loss at the hands of Ryusuke Taguchi, which should have spelled out a feud between the two for the championship. I guess NJPW is really hoping Inoue will be a big enough star to carry them down the road, but this seems like such a big leap in faith considering he was just getting his bearings in the Super Juniors division.

Jerome Cusson : BUY . If Inoue had had some sort of long title reign beforehand and was now winning the tournament as a non-champion, I'd go the other way. But to simply have Inoue win the tournament as the champion with him then forfeiting that title makes the next titleholder look weak by comparison. Even if Inoue has nothing left to prove, I still think booking him to lose the title is the best course of action before having him move onto the heavyweight division. I'm not the biggest follower of New Japan, but I think you can apply sound logic to any situation like this.

0 for 1.

Nigel McGuiness will not pass Bryan Danielson's 15 month title reign for the 2nd longest RoH World Title reign of all time.

Jarrod Westerfield : SELL . Though I would have preferred a face McGuinness champion rather than this bland, generic heel character he portrays, I can actually see Gabe holding Nigel as his main champion up until around next May, actually. That would put Nigel at roughly 19 months, which I think will be the goal, as they'll once again tease the idea of a champion maintaining his reign past Samoa Joe's.

This is all to say that I don't see Bryan Danielson being thrust onto the championship with his future possibly leading him away from the company, while Austin Aries may be tied up with Jimmy Jacobs and the Age of the Fall until around December, as the Age will probably have to split their focus on Aries to keep track of the rascally Briscoe Brothers. Then you have the rest of the field looking devoid of any clear cut challengers to take away Nigel's title any time soon, as Kevin Steen, while being the bigger star of his tag team, is still noted highly for his duo with El Generico, and his focus may be on claiming the elusive tag team titles long before we see him taking down the ROH World Champion, whomever it may be. Claudio [Castagnoli] has been lost in some weird shuffle that has pulled him away from Sweet n' Sour Inc. to being in the title picture with Nigel, only to now be focus on getting his revenge on Larry Sweeney, once more. Erick Stevens has suffered major setbacks as his push has fallen flat on its face with the fans, and Brent Albright is just now coming into his own. We could potentially see Chris Hero enter into the fray, but he certainly won't be the focus of the group now that Adam Pearce has a very important piece to get him some notice, which leaves him as the only contender one could buy as being the one to dethrone Nigel, but we all know his obligations to the NWA will get in the way of his schedule with ROH.

So with all of this in mind, it'll certainly be a while before I see Nigel dropping the strap.

Jerome Cusson : BUY. Maybe it's because I feel Nigel's title reign has been botched in a lot of different ways, but to have him hold the championship until January of next year doesn't strike me as being the smartest of moves. His title reign is going to start getting stale just as Dragon and even Joe's did toward the end. Also, if you look at the history of Ring of Honor and FIP, one person has held a championship for an entire CALENDER year. Homicide being the FIP champion for all of 2005 being the exception. Joe, Danielson, and Roderick all had long title reigns with their respective championships, but they never held them, say, from January 1 to December 31. I think Gabe loves his Final Battle title changes too much to have Nigel make it to 2009 with the world title.

0 for 2.

The recently announced Motor City Machine Guns vs. Kevin Steen and El Generico match will be RoH's Match of the Year.

Jarrod Westerfield : SELL . Only because I never like to speculate that a certain match will be "Match of the Year" or even just a candidate until it's actually happened. Right now, I could speculate that it will be, but I'm certain some matches from earlier in the year will still hold up, and that future matches may just trump this bout. Personally, I'm looking at Tyler Black and Nigel McGuinness's encounter at Take No Prisoners to be the leading front runner, despite hearing so much about the bouts featured on Super Card of Honor III. But hey, I'm open to being wrong on this one as anything is possible, much like I was wrong about Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair's bout at Wrestlemania XXIV.

Jerome Cusson : SELL . The mere fact that I'm seeing a question like this means expectations for this match have already sailed way too high. While these are two spectactular teams, I seriously doubt they can capture the emotion of Nigel/Danielson from 6th Anniversary Show and even Nigel/Black from the last Pay-Per-View. If you go into a match with this high of expectations, it can do nothing but disappoint. Hopefully, fans won't necessarily lower their expectations, but the New York crowd should understand that there's only so much these guys can do in order to have a great match.

1 for 3.

SWITCH~!

Adam Pearce's mystery partner will be someone not currently in Ring of Honor.

Jerome Cusson : BUY . I say this because it almost has to be the way they've hyped this up. If Silas Young was Pearce's partner (who's also booked for Saturday but doesn't have a match yet), they would have just announced him already. If they do announce Young, it will be a huge disappointment. I think there are a number of young and older guys on the independent scene who deserve a shot on a Ring of Honor show. I know a lot of people in the Midwest want Chuck Taylor, but he really needs a year or two more before he's really ready for a big splash in ROH. Mike Quackenbush is the NWA Jr. Heavyweight Champion, and there would be some nice symmetry there consider Pearce is the NWA Heavyweight champion, but who knows if he would want to commit to full-time bookings. Arik Cannon and Marek Brave are two other interesting candidates as well, but I'm not sure if ROH even has any interest in them. Still, I don't think ROH would make Sweeney look like a moron by having some lame mystery partner since that would kill his gimmick.

Jarrod Westerfield : BUY . A part of me still wants to sell, but I'm willing to bet that Pearce won't be teamed up with Eddie Edwards or Chris Hero for this bout, and Shane Hagadorn isn't even a thought for this bout. The question now becomes who will Pearce team up with?

Jerome pointed out that Silas Young would be a disappointment as he's already announced for the scheduled shows, but beyond him, who in Pearce's run in the NWA would be a suitable team mate for the NWA World Heavyweight Champion? I don't see Karl Anderson being back in the states yet, let alone being the candidate for Pearce's team mate in ROH despite his previous partnership with the champion for a WarGames Cage Match in Houston [back on October 13th of last year]. The other candidate it could be is C. Edward Vander Pyle, though I doubt ROH would really bring him in a wrestling role. There is the possibility of some of the other NWA champions being brought in such as Mike DiBiase, or Mike Quackenbush, but I'm willing to bet against some of those figures being brought in for various reasons. I guess I won't be looking at some of Pearce's allies from the NWA territories to be brought in as the list is pretty small, but it certainly won't be one of his foes despite ROH's tendencies to take elements from other indy promotions and repeat them in an opposite direction [i.e. The Kings of Wrestling split where Chris Hero betters Claudio Castagnoli at every match outside of in their ROH exchanges].

2 for 4.

The booking of Jay Briscoe this weekend proves he needs Mark to be a main eventer.

Jerome Cusson : SELL. Needs is what kills this statement for me. I firmly believe Jay Briscoe can and will be a singles main event star for ROH and other independents down the road because we've already seen what he can do in matches with Samoa Joe, Morishima and Nigel McGuinness. Hell, Jay just wrestled in the upper-card of a Pro Wrestling NOAH card that took place in England last weekend. The only reason Jay isn't in the main event right now is because his brother is hurt, and the way ROH actually has long-term booking, a push is not in the cards for Jay Briscoe. But don't be surprised if Jay is a true singles main eventer within the next couple years.

Jarrod Westerfield : SELL. I've said it for some time now: Jay Briscoe is the star of the tandem and Mark is – well, Mark is just Mark and no one can fault him for that. They can just not push [Mark] to be a major star.

I don't think Jay should be tethered down from the ladder because of his younger brother. Jay has all of the tools to be a superstar on his own, and I'd be so bold as to state that in a company like the WWE he'd be a strong performer in the mid card. He has the looks, he has the in-ring abilities and the know-how to pull together a compelling match without having to hit huge high spots at every turn, and believe it or not, he's actually capable of putting together some decent promos to draw in interest. The only hindrance to his rise as a singles competitor is his current character direction where he's nothing more than a screaming Southern boy, despite not being an actual Southerner.

Jay being booked to look like a tag team wrestler out of his element in singles matches doesn't send me any signals that he's not a serious main eventer without his brother around, because we've seen him in the past booked in singles bouts against ROH World Champions where he's walked away looking like he belonged in that role. Whether he's losing a ton of matches or not doesn't bother me so long as people watching him see him as belonging in that role because of his performance in the ring. Much in the same light as Tyler Black looks like he could be a serious main event threat thanks to his bout with Nigel at Take No Prisoners. So I'll be expecting, up until Mark's return to full-time activity, Jay to still walk away looking like the better Briscoe.

3 for 5.

Kevin Steen and El Generico will beat The Age of the Fall twice this weekend to earn a Tag Team Title shot.

Jerome Cusson : BUY. If Steenerico cannot defeat the Age of the Fall twice in non-title bouts, then why do they deserve a championship match? So yes, Steenerico will win twice because it logically sets up the title match to be held in Toronto or Detroit. I can't really see it going the other way because putting AOTF over like that doesn't make sense.

Jarrod Westerfield : SELL . I feel as though I should have bought more here, but this edition just kept slamming me with things to want to give up on for a quick buck seeing as some of these scenarios don't scream out to me as being something I could agree with. This is another one of those "I can't agree with this statement." I know I should really BUY this one, but honestly, I can't because I can see El Steenerico eating a loss in one of these bouts to cause some doubt about them getting their title shot any time soon.

There is the factor that everyone buys El Steenerico as legitimate contenders to the Tag Team titles, with or without a win over Age of the Fall's Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs, if not just the uncrowned princes of the division; then there's the factor of Age of the Fall's split focus on both the Briscoe Brothers (currently being only on Jay as Mark is still in and out of work within the company) and Austin Aries. One could understandably see Steenerico winning a bout over the current Tag Team Champions thanks to these factors, but two straight wins over them in a single weekend? I can't buy that as it devalues the champions and further sends the message to us all that the ROH Tag Team division is nothing without the Briscoe Brothers, and we already get that message loud enough thanks to the decision to put the titles on a team that wasn't worthy enough to dethrone the interim champion of Austin Aries and the defending champion Jay Briscoe at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Regardless of whether they get the two wins or not, I do see them getting a title shot in the future. I'd just be banking on it being, possibly, a gimmicked bout where ROH is trying to stack the odds against the Age of the Fall as the company could be looking at their title scene being held up by some parties who don't represent the company.

3 for 6!


The Sixty Second edition of BUY or SELL finishes at 3 for 6. Stay tuned for next week when six of 411's finest battle it out in a Buy or Sell Mid-Year Free for All!!!