Welcome to A Modest Response. This week is a bit of a quickee, but I promise, I’ll call you the next day with all the big ROH results for this weekend. The quickee is still really good too. Oh, and it’s a 4-way. Blatt and Andy are within too.
News of Honor
Over 15 talents signed to ROH, including the Briscoes, Nigel McGuinness, and Bryan Danielson along with the entire No Remorse Corps
This is huge news and it’s not surprising who was signed. The Briscoes are absolute tag beasts and having one of the best years of any team ever, while Nigel and Danielson could easily go on to be the next big thing. The NRC are what a lot of major feuds are built around and locking them up was to be expected as well, but it is mildly surprising that Rocky Romero, a major player in Japan, signed.
All Star Extravaganza 3 and Supercard of Honor 2, this year’s Wrestlemania weekend shows, are out on DVD
I’ll be picking up these along with the last two shows of the Fifth Year Festival tomorrow in Connecticut with the buy 2 get 1 free sale.
Click here for the new ROH Video Wire
It’s posted by me with discussion within.
Alex Shelley posted a Goodbye to PWG and ROH on his blog
That was fairly classy and the shot at the Orlando fans was fairly appreciated. I’d expect Alex to be jobbed out now.
In Other News
TNA releases the Naturals
I wonder how they’d fit on the new company with national exposure
This Week on Pulse Wrestling
Eric gets the top spot here mostly because I’m worried he may need to go on hiatus and since his column has been a mainstay in my reading habits for so long, well, that upsets me a lot more than it should. Read the most outspoken person on the net and enjoy him while you can, just in case.
VS. has me vs. Allen Noah and Matthew Michaels vs. Dan Hevia. Both are a load of fun, even if I did lose
Brashear discusses the Punjabi Prison match. If you love wrestlecrap try this. If you have taste, avoid.
Mark Allen delivers more NWA/WCW goodness, this time Lethal Lottery. This could have been good but was usually booked terribly. Go see how yourself.
Column of Honor: Big Andy Mac’s Guarantees for this Saturday
In this column Andy guarantees certain things for Saturday’s ROH event. Saturday’s event is the first ROH Pay Per View show and the first show ever that ROH has run with no matches announced. That didn’t stop the show from selling out and speculation runs rampant as to what could possibly be on the show. Well, this column will be my guarantees.
A Modest Response: What to Expect Saturday Night from ROH
1. Bryan Danielson will wrestle a major match with Nigel McGuinness for respect. In this match Nigel will finally get the win over Danielson, cementing himself as his equal and one of the faces of the company in the new era.
2. Takeshi Morishima will defeat either Delirious, if he beats KENTA (I don’t think he will) or Claudio Castagnoli who will attempt to cement his place as a member of the ROH roster again by bringing the title back to ROH.
3. The Briscoes will face the El Generico and Kevin Steen for the tag titles. This program has proven in its ability to get the crowd hot and have great matches, so it will be booked to continue those two things. I don’t expect a clean winner here, but if there is one, the Briscoes will come out ahead.
4. The No Remorse Corps will face Delirious. Delirious, with his hatred of Roderick Strong for injuring him, will throw himself into the faction wars with this show whole heartedly. I think this would be a perfect four corner survival with Delirious and Stevens against Strong and Romero, with Del and Stevens deciding to team in order to combat the heels.
5. KENTA and Marufuji will steal the show. Independent wrestling is unlike the WWE product, but shares a bit with the TNA one. The NOAH product is unlike anything a WWE or TNA fan has ever witnessed. Keeping KENTA and Marufuji in different matches will allow them to absolutely steal the show with their cool and unfamiliar style.
And now, since Blatt was away for the week, I’ll let him tell you why, we have a special bonus from him here today.
Bonus: A Modest Response: Rob Blatt on what ROH should have done
So Ring of Honor has a new sexy Pay Per View deal. Who cares? Seriously. It’s exciting because it’s what the big guys do and everyone expects the smaller company that wants to grow to do what the big guys do, but in reality, Ring of Honor is heading down the same road that eventually killed ECW. It has nothing to do with the money and has everything to do with the method of distribution.
Up until now ROH has been completely dependent on their DVDs, merch and ticket sales as a means to keep the company afloat. Now they see another revenue stream with PPVs, but the benefits of the PPV are lost on the Ring of honor product. They won’t be live, the results will be plastered all over the internet a month ahead of time and you don’t even get to keep the show once you’ve watched it. That’s a crappy parting gift for something that not even live, don’t you think?
Yeah, Ring of Honor might pick up a few viewers from their PPV endeavors, but I see this as nothing more than a way to bleed the ROHbots of more money. They’re gonna buy the DVD, and I bet production is being delayed on releasing the DVD so they’ll get an increased buy rate on the PPV. So in order to pick up a few more pairs of eyes, they’re going to deprive the faithful of their DVD for a period of time. That’s not a god trade-off in my eyes.
Ring of Honor should be innovating outside of the ring like they do inside of the ring. How? Open up the archives to an on-demand system very similar to the online porn shops have. All you can eat for one monthly price. Forget a $10 on demand show, how about naming a price for access to every ROH show ever, streaming to your computer? Or if that doesn’t work, then how about a chapter by chapter program? Pay one price, watch as many shows in one chapter as many times as you want for one month. Or offer something a la carte through the website, iTunes or some kind of distribution method that no one else is pursuing.
Speaking of distribution, what could have been a bigger announcement than Pay Per View? Two words, seven letters: WAL MART. The Pay Per View audience is dog shit next to Wal Mart’s audience. I understand that the faithful might not like the idea that there’s a crowd out there that doesn’t follow ROH at all but wants to see wrestling live and doesn’t care about the history or the story lines and they’ll cheer Alex Shelley because they’ve seen him on TNA TV (See what I’m talking about here), but that crowd better get used to marks, children and wrestling idiots being in the ROH crowds because once you go mainstream, you can’t go back to cultish obscurity. Once you open your gates to the masses, you might as well open them to everyone.
Wal Mart, Target, Best Buy and Circuit City. Announce that you have distribution to those stores and then you have my attention. Pay Per View is a business model that is dead on its feet. I’m not saying that the deal won’t increase the number of eyeballs on Ring of Honor, but there are so many ways for a company who is just becoming a national wrestling phenomenon to gain followers besides just emulating what the big guys are doing that following them seems like a mistake.
ROH Weekend Previw: “Reborn Again†May 11, 2007 in Hartford, CT
ROH World Tag Team Title Match
Jay & Mark Briscoe defend vs. ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima & Nigel McGuinness
This will be fantastic. The Briscoes are the crispest tag team in wrestling while Morishim and Nigel are two of the best wrestlers around. Nigel and The Briscoes have shown great chemistry in prior meetings, particularly the Fifth Year Festival: NYC. All four men work NOAH so the style should be interesting as well. No one has ever held the ROH World and Tag Titles at the same time and I don’t see that trend ending here. The Briscoes have a lot to do with the belt yet.
Big Andy Mac’s Big Andy-pinion: Countless times in Ring of Honor’s history have they teased the idea that a wrestler would simultaneously hold the Ring of Honor World and Tag Team champions. It has never happened before and it won’t happen tonight. What will happen however will be a classic tag match and yet another show stopping performance from Jay and Mark Briscoe. There is a slight chance that Morishima will take the fall to set up a match with one of the Briscoes ala Samoa Joe’s title reign, but Nigel will most likely succumb.
Winners: Jay and Mark Briscoe
ROH vs. NOAH Challenge Match #1
Delirious vs. KENTA
This is the most likely big upset of the card. Delirious is great and prominently featured in all the new promotional material from the company. KENTA, however, has been very well protected in ROH and, while Del could use the rub, keeping KENTA strong for his rematch with Danielson is more likely the priority. KENTA will win in a very good match.
Big Andy Mac’s Big Andy-pinion: KENTA has but one loss to his credit in Ring of Honor and that was to American Dragon when he competed for the World Championship. I have a feeling that very few people will be choosing Delirious to be the second man to upend the master of Go 2 Sleep. I am one of those few. I think that Delirious will get a surprise win and set up a World Title match against Morishima at the Pay Per View on Saturday.
Winner: Delirious
ROH vs. NOAH Challenge Match #2
Matt Sydal vs. Naomichi Marufuji
Marufuji, to my great pleasure, is set to have an extended run in ROH. A win here and a great match with Matt Sydal, who seems more inclined to tour with Dragon Gate than stay with ROH at the moment will get the Marufuji run off to a good, if unspectacular, beginning.
Big Andy Mac’s Big Andy-pinion: Marufuji has almost as good a record as KENTA in Ring of Honor. Matt Sydal has a habit of gettin whupped on by top tier wrestlers of which Marufugi certainly is one. If KENTA loses then there is no way that Maru does. Sydal doesn’t “need” a win. Marufugi, if reports that he will be making a lot of future RoH appearences is true, could benefit from a top win. This could be the show stealer as well.
Winner: Naomichi Marufugi
Grudge Six Man Match- No Remorse Corps vs. The Resilience
Roderick Strong, Davey Richards & Rocky Romero
vs.
Matt Cross, Erick Stevens & ???
A new partner here is a big deal, but the partner tonight likely won’t join The Resilience faction. The member to help out tonight will be either Claudio Castagnoli or Delirious, both of whom hate Strong. Claudio is more likely and he will give the Resilience a reason to lose since he will be tired from his match earlier on the card.
Big Andy Mac’s Big Andy-pinion: The Resilience will introduce a third partner. Will it be a third member? I doubt it. I think that American Dragon will appear in this match, get a huge babyface reaction win the match for his team and turn back to his cocky heel self. The Resilience will still be leaderless and you will see the great chemistry that Dragon has with all the members of the No Remorse Corps.
Winners: Erick Stevens, Matt Cross, and American Dragon
“American Dragon” Bryan Danielson Returns To ROH And Has An Open Contract
Part of me is hoping for a big surprise, but Jimmy Rave has a fairly easy match with Pelle elsewhere on this card and him challenging Danielson would cement Danielson as a major face upon his return, since the crowd won’t boo him anyway, and give us a great match to boot.
Big Andy Mac’s Big Andy-pinion: American Dragon will insert himself into the No Remorse Corps vs. the Resilience six man match or make ana open challenge and eat the soul of a student.
Winner Gets A ROH Contract
Claudio Castagnoli vs. BJ Whitmer
Both men are highly speculated to get contracts, so don’t worry too much about that. BJ has lost a lot lately while Claudio is gaining steam. Claudio gets the big win here to either go on and help Resilience or challenge Morishima for the World Title Saturday. Either way the match will be interesting. Let’s see what these two can do together, outside of their specialty, Claudio’s with cruiserweights and BJ in brawls.
Big Andy Mac’s Big Andy-pinion: I am pretty sure that both men have a Ring of Honor contract regardless of the result of the match. They are both that important to Ring of Honor, and oddly both sort of directionless at the moment. This could even end up a draw to further the quest between these two men to earn the coveted contract. I think that this could be the beginning of a feud between Claudio and BJ, but I am going to pick BJ to lose and make a turn.
Winner: Claudio Castagnoli
Special Attraction Match
Jimmy Rave vs. Pelle Primeau
Pelle will take a hellacious beating and make Rave look great. Rave wins here before moving onto bigger things.
Big Andy Mac’s Big Andy-pinion: Jimmy Rave is not losing. Pelle may look like a million bucks in his losing effort but he will be tapping out to the heel hook.
Winner: Jimmy Rave
Tag Team Challenge
Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Eddie Edwards & Jason Blade
Steen and Generico have established themselves with great performances, while Edwards and Blade will look to do the same here. Steen and Generico just beat the Briscoes and are in no way losing to the generic indy team. Ideally Blade and Edwards impress here and become a regular part of the tag roster in a losing effort.
Big Andy Mac’s Big Andy-pinion: I honestly think that this could be the coming out party of Eddie Edwards. I think his style will mesh very well with Steen and Generico. Edwards has impressed me with what he has shown in other matches, and his Ring of Honor performances have been solid. Jason Blade still seems very generic to me, and El Generico is supposed to be the run of the mill wrestler in the match. Either way, Steen and Generico are not losing as they march towards their tag team title re-match against the Briscoes.
Winners: Kevin Steen and El Generico
Bonus Match
Adam Pearce with Shane Hagadorn vs. Bobby Fish
Bobby Fish is a NOAH worker and is a fairly good worker from all appearances. I think I’ll pick this as an upset since Fish looking good here would help for the upcoming Japan tour, while Pearce loses nothing in defeat.
Big Andy Mac’s Big Andy-pinion: Bobby Fish has gotten some looks by Pro-Wrestling NOAH so there must be something to him. It is rare that wrestlers making their Ring of Honor debut score a victory, but Adam Pearce is one of those guys that can afford losses and not really lose anything. I think that he will get a win here most likely from some interference from his man-servant Shane Hagadorn.
Winner: “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce
SHIMMER Match
Daizee Haze vs. Nikki Roxx
Daizee is still green, but Roxx is as experienced as they come. It should be interesting to see what the vet can get out of Haze. Let’s see how motivated Roxx is since she’s surely jobbing to Daizee, a regular roster member.
Big Andy Mac’s Big Andy-pinion: Nikki Roxx is one of the most experienced woman wrestlers on independent circuit. Daizee Haze is one of the focuses of the SHIMMER promotion and has been nothing but successful in Ring of Honor. I would love to see Roxx score a victory, but odds are the Haze will emerge victorious.
Winner: Daizee Haze
Ultimately, this show has three huge NOAH stars who always bring it in the States and the “Reborn†name to live up to. It should, without doubt, be great, or ROH should stop running CT.
