411’s Buy or Sell 01.23.09: Quackenbush and Jigsaw Climb the Ranks, Tyler Black is a Target, Bison Smith’s Impact, and More!!

Posted by Michael Bauer on 01.23.2009

This week, the 411 staff looks around the worlds of CHIKARA and Ring of Honor as Jarrod Westerfield battles Michael Bauer!

Welcome everyone to WEEK Ninety 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 Ninety Two's Match-Up:

The Nemesis of every Wrestler of the Week Reader who ignores Berman - Jarrod Westerfield !
vs.
Calling an audible cause Cook was too busy doing Fact or Fiction - Michael Bauer !

Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw will be the next team to earn a CHIKARA Campeonatos de Parejas title shot.

Jarrod Westerfield : BUY. I honestly can't even think of another tag team right now that has strung together enough wins to possibly even get to the magic number before Quack and Jigsaw, and it certainly doesn't look like any other team is even an option to gather up the points and challenge the tag champions after The Colony are done with their bout with Ophidian and Amasis. At the moment, this seems pretty cut and dry unless there's a lot I'm missing.

Michael Bauer : BUY. Yeah, I have no choice but to swallow my pride and agree with Jarrod here. No other team is close to not just earning the shot, but to being as over and popular in CHIKARA right now. Quackenbush simply is CHIKARA right now and having him hold the only true company title along with Jigsaw makes perfect sense right now. So not only do I see them getting the next shot, but winning the titles as well.

1 for 1.

Sean Davis offering a bounty on Tyler Black's FIP World Title reign will not work in a non-weekly show enviroment.

Jarrod Westerfield : BUY. The payoff to this is a lot harder to control when you consider that FIP's monthly shows leave way too much space in between bounty attempts, and unless ROH picks up a lot of this storyline it's simply not going to come off half way as decent as it should. Even if ROH were to pick up the slack of this storyline by featuring it in their shows, that's still only 2 or 4 more shows added to a single month with no single guarantee that it'll pick up the slack of this story to really put over either man's position. The only way to really get this thing to work out is if the bounty followed Black to any and every promotion he works at, but the likely hood of that happening is about the same odds as WWE remembering they had a feud brewing between CM Punk and Randy Orton that could have been featured at this year's Wrestlemania.

Michael Bauer : BUY. Yeah, how can you possibly play off an angle like this with one show every month or two? Unless the plan is to have it pay off in two weeks time, it seems like a waste of an angle and not the best way to get Tyler Black over as the new face of the Florida Wrestling scene. Now, if it was RoH doing it with shows happening two or three times more often, then I say it could work. But I doubt the Heartbreak Express will be showing up in Ring of Honor anytime soon.

2 for 2.

Bull Buchanan, Keith Walker, & Bobby Fish defeating three NOAH mainstays means something is in the works for them in Japan this year.

Jarrod Westerfield : SELL. There isn't enough here for me to buy that NOAH has any big plans centered on Buchanan, Walker or Fish. All three getting something to solidify their stays in Japan for some time isn't even a thought, but there could be something on the horizon just for Bull as he's a big guy and Japanese tradition tends to show some love to the big gaijins that roll on through there. Other than their victory over the team of Akira Taue, Takashi Suguira and Akihiko Ito I really don't see these three doing a whole lot more that could be construed as "something in the works". If anything Walker and Fish will probably continue to tow the line much like Eddie Edwards has been during his tours with NOAH.

Michael Bauer : SELL. Let's be honest, Japanese Wrestling has been starting to give way to more American wrestlers every year. The difference between those wrestlers how gained ground in the past year and these guys… how about actually being big names in the states? Bryan Danielson, Low Ki, Team 3D, The Motor City Machine Guns… not eevn Buchanan could hold the jock straps of any of them. Yeah, Bull might have half a chance, but Walker and Fish have no chance of doing anything worthwhile.

3 for 3.

SWITCH~!

Bison Smith will end up adding very little value to Ring of Honor.

Michael Bauer : SELL. Now, I don't think Bison Smith will light the world on fire, but Bison Smith gives the Ring of Honor fans some different, possibly fresh matchups, and allows the product to not get too stale. I mean, we already have rumor of veterans coming in that were possibly released from the WWE, but Bison Smith is a better talent, even if not a better draw, than at least half those guys. So yes, Bison Smith will add more than a little value to Ring of Honor, even if he never rises up to a Ring of Honor title shot.

Jarrod Westerfield : BUY. It's Bison Smith; there isn't a whole lot more to say beyond that. Okay, so he may be able to work well with some guys on the roster and get in some decent matches but beyond that is there really a list of fans that were clamoring to see Smith in the United States let alone working in Ring of Honor? If there is such a list of fans I'd like to meet these people and really dig through their video collection just to round out my own.

3 for 4.

The recent Ring of Honor booking will end up turning off most non-Hardcore RoH fans.

Michael Bauer : BUY. Let's face it. The booking of Ring of Honor this past weekend halfway reminded me of a TNA Pay per View with the ten million run-ins. And that is not a good thing. If I already didn't have a love for the Ring of Honor and I saw this, I would wonder what the difference between a bunch of guys that most fans have never heard of and the crap I see on television is. I understand that Ring of Honor is trying to move more into the entertainment side, maybe to impress the television stations, but having an overbooked clusterfuck is not the way to do it.

Jarrod Westerfield : SELL. If they haven't been turned off by now, especially after the failure of Dragon Gate-US that was dubbed as Gang Warfare, then I can't see Adam Pearce's booking turning them off from the product. Let's be honest here, that entire storyline that ended up going nowhere thanks in large part to injuries and scheduling conflicts was a major flop and took way too much effort and energy to try and keep up even as a hardcore fan of the promotion. If the casual ROH fans were still toughing it out through that then what could Adam Pearce possibly do to drive them away? Book Bushwhacker Luke more on the touring schedule? I'm sure fans have been just as eagerly receptive of the former WWF star as they were months ago when he first started appearing at the shows, plus it's not like he's going to get any sort of push that could have the fans turn on him and the product. In the end the new booking direction could actually help bring in more fans than what Gabe's old booking style did, just give it some time to flesh out and we might see that Gabe really wasn't that great as he was claimed to be.

3 for 5.

Jerry Lynn should be getting a title shot in Chicago on PPV, instead of fightining the Age of the Fall.

Michael Bauer : BUY. ONE MILLION PERCENT BUY! Jerry Lynn is being played off right now so well that there is no reason that he shouldn't get a Pay per View shot and give Tyler Black a little more time to build the triple feud with Jacobs and Aries. It is very rare nowadays for anyone to beat Austin Aries and Bryan Danielson in one month, let alone one weekend. But Jerry Lynn managed to do it and should be in line for another shot at Nigel, even if he doesn't realisticly have a chance of winning the title. It's match that hasn't been seen on Pay Per View yet and it probably a better match to sell to people other than the Ring of Honor fans that will buy everything, since every wrestling fan knows who Jerry Lynn is.

Jarrod Westerfield : SELL. I dig Jerry Lynn, and I appreciate his touring with ROH. I even understand that he could be loaning his name to the product for the pay-per-views to try and draw up some bigger interest amongst the casual fans that actually remember and care for him, but I'm not about to sign off on the idea that Lynn working in a title match at Chicago's PPV taping is the way to go when the obvious plan seems to be in building up Tyler Black's eventual title reign. It's best to stuff Lynn out of the title picture just to really fluff up Nigel's title reign. It's also best to have Lynn work with the Age of the Fall to build up their credibility as a team that can cause some destruction just to really drive in the threat that Black could possibly fall to them in his chase for the title or in his reign as champion. Either way you look at it the focus isn't on Lynn, he's just a tool to help promote the real storyline that's brewing for this year.

3 for 6.


The Ninety Second edition of BUY or SELL finishes at 3 for 6! Stay tuned for next week when two new men will go head to head with a whole new set of topics.