The Reality of Wrestling: The Wildest Weekend of the Summer

The Reality of Wrestling: The Wildest Weekend of the Summer
By Phil Clark

Which promotions come out good and which bad after NINE promotions went at it?

Because of advanced reservations for arenas and pay-per-view schedules, it doesn’t happen often that many promotions—whether in the U.S. or Japan—compete on the same day. Last year, Japan’s big three all had big shows on October 29th. This past weekend saw a total of nine promotions in MMA and pro wrestling have shows. On August 25th, UFC was the main MMA show with Randy Couture successfully defending his UFC heavyweight title, three other MMA promotions including ShoXC had shows Saturday, and Ring of Honor’s Manhattan Center show headlined by the Morishima/Danielson title match was the lone wrestling show of the night. Then on August 26, New Japan had the C.T.U. finale show, All Japan had Kensuke Sasaki winning the Triple Crown in 42 minutes, NOAH had more of their #1 contender tourney, and The E had Summerslam. It was a weekend that may be repeated in the future, but likely not on as big a scale for a while.

P.C. Says: ROH had the best show, but UFC looks the most stable after the weekend

Looking at the big shows of the weekend, it is safe to say that there are plenty of stories going into September. The two biggest may have been the injuries as Couture suffered a broken arm blocking one of Gabriel Gonzaga’s kicks, and Bryan Danielson suffering a detached retina during his title match. While Couture’s injury doesn’t seem to be too bad, it is still unknown how much downtime this will end up putting on the 44-year-old. What is known in Danielson’s case is that another injury is going to cost him some time—4-6 weeks forcing him to pull out of his NWA title match this Saturday. In the case of Japan, a new title reign and many new factions in New Japan will give puroresu fans plenty to look forward to as Liger is now alone with seemingly everyone else involved with one stable or another. In All-Japan there is no obvious challenger for Sasaki and Misawa’s next challenger is still being determined with Akiyama being this writer’s pick in that tournament. In the case of UFC, they have almost too much. More on that later.

Summerslam has proven to be harder and harder to get right for The E in recent years. From 1998-2002, every year, you could expect that third of the Big Four was going to be a Card of the Year candidate, and it was. However since then it has been a bit tough with the 2004 edition being the only post-Attitude Era showing to be critically praised nearly across the board. However, this year The E didn’t have as much to work with as they usually have. Orton and Cena seem to have made the best of their first PPV main-event together and look like they’ll headline Unforgiven in September. However, I am getting the feeling that a certain returning veteran is going to look for one last run making me think that either Orton’s getting buried again or Cena’s dropping the gold to HHH somewhere down the line (Wrestlemania most likely). I’m not going to knock HHH for winning his return match as that is the tradition in America, with Japan being a total vice versa in that department. Mysterio/Guerrero was the best choice for Rey’s return, but with next to nothing left in those knees, and the fact that this match has been overplayed the last few years, it’s no surprise that it wasn’t even match of the night. Overall, the show looks like it did fall short once again, but a good main-event likely sent everyone home happy, and that’s always good. What isn’t good is that The E is really starting to show the real hurt of this year’s injury plague.

The C.T.U. show seems to have gone over well, which is no surprise as New Japan seems to be taking over that building with NOAH’s show being more and more bland, and the “King of Sports” seeming to put more effort into their Korakuen cards than Zero-One MAX (the other big Korakuen user). Chono & Choshu are together in a legends stable (the only way that’d be possible at this point), Tenzan’s in a stable, Nakamura is in a seemingly openweight stable and the main players that aren’t in a stable seem to be Tanahashi, Nagata, and Liger. Hmmm, that’d be an interesting trios group.

I don’t mind Sasaki’s title win as the match is the best candidate (minus Tanahashi/Nagata from April or the G-1) for match of the year with Tokyo Sports (the PWI of Japan) due to epic nature of it; I mean 42 minutes, is a long time these days. My main gripe is that Suzuki’s entire title reign was about him being against All Japan and after nearly a year, the guy to finally take him down is a freelancer only affiliated with All Japan as such. In other words, he had beaten the three guys most affiliated with All Japan since the NOAH split—Kea, Kojima, and Mutoh—and an outsider beats him. Granted the match had a great build up, but I would’ve had Suzuki get the win here and drop the belt to Kawada at All Japan’s 35th anniversary show in front of a sure sell-out. Yeah, Kawada is a freelancer now, but he is easy the only active wrestler who will always be associated with All Japan. And if Misawa got a last title reign, I don’t see why Kawada wouldn’t because there’s a better chance that Kawada will make a star out of whoever beats him this time because that’s what he did with Kojima in ’05. The show itself was likely good with the three title matches seeming to deliver, but I’m sure a little over 8,000 wasn’t the turnout they were expecting.

Saying that ROH had the best show isn’t that big of a deal anymore. The promotion is likely to be the consensus best wrestling promotion of 2007 and they’ve earned that by continuing to outperform any locker room out there. The Manhattan Center seems to be a prime example as their last four shows there (including this past Saturday’s) have been Card of the Year candidates with last September’s Glory by Honor V Night Two winning the award in many circles. Think about it though: Castagnoli/Hero, Generation Next exploding once again, Danielson/Morishima, a colorful undercard, and Briscoes/Steen & Generico one more time. I wouldn’t be surprised if this ended up being card of the year in at least someone’s opinion, as it seems to be an easy candidate. The main complaint seems to be that the Briscoes feud should’ve ended here, and those people would be right. However, this matchup has been on PPV and should see a conclusion there as that could cinch Feud of the Year honors and would be in the best interests of the company. My problem is that since Morishima has beaten Homicide, Aries, McGuinness, and Danielson, who will get the win? Strong and Castagnoli have been defeated once (two chances seem to be the limit in ROH), KENTA lost in Japan, and Joe’s contract in TNA doesn’t end for a while. At this point, it is interesting to see if the win over Morishima will launch that winner up a level or if it’ll be just another title change. My prediction: Strong will get the win at Final Battle in his second chance.

When all is said and done, and the dust has cleared on this wild weekend, UFC are the ones standing tall? Why? Because they seemed to rebound from a disappointing show in July with a good one and they have plenty to come. Shogun debuting, Silva debuting possibly against Chuck, the possibility of Noguiera/Cro Cop, Henderson/Rampage unifying the light heavyweight title, Hughes/Serra with St. Pierre basically getting the winner, and Babalu possibly getting the heel treatment is what UFC has on tap for the next few months. Plus, you also have to remember Chuck’s possible tune-up match for Wanderlei coming against Jardine (it has been the year of upsets) and Barnett calling out Couture—ironically being the best challenger for Couture outside of Nogueira—has to be making Dana White feel pretty good and very secure even if Barnett isn’t allowed back.

Go “Hollywood” Henderson!

The Reality is what happens next is what counts. This weekend was not a pivotal point to any of the promotions that had shows. In fact, none of the shows even had that feel attached to them in hype or in the event itself. The show does go on and everyone has to do what they do in the attempt to succeed. For ShoXC, going up against UFC may not be a good idea; definitely a lesson learned as no one even knows about the show or probably that there even was a show. For The E, they still have Orton/Cena as the main feud, which will likely be tested in terms of drawing power at Unforgiven. If the rumors of Edge’s dethroning of Batista when he returns is true, it will be his last shot in the main-event for sure. So far, Edge hasn’t really been at fault for his main-event pushes getting derailed as injuries have done that job all too well. So, does he get the win against Taker in Florida next year if that REALLY is the plan? I’d say yes, as it would be the right thing for The E and for Mean Mark if next year is really the last year for him. UFC seems to have everything they need to rebound from early stumbles this year both qualitatively and in terms of gross. The influx of Pride talent has already made its impact as Nogueira’s debut was well hyped (by UFC standards), and the Rampage/Henderson match has been hyped better than I gave Dana White credit for considering Pride had to be used in the advertising for the match. Add that with other Pride stars including Cro Cop, Silva, and Shogun fighting in the octagon by year’s end, it’s not secret that this is likely the direction that UFC is going. If that’s the case, more power to them, not because a Pride nuthugger is getting something to smile at, but because by bringing in more and more Pride fighters, UFC would slowly become what they’ve always set out to be: a promotion looking to determine the best fighters in the world. Taking a look at the champions of the major promotions that competed this weekend, everyone of the big titles are up in the air: Couture doesn’t have a definite next opponent even though Nogueira is the most likely candidate, the best time for Cena to lose the belt has come and gone with The E now having to not make a mistake with the title change, Kensuke Sasaki is without a challenger for his first defense even though I would put my money on Satoshi Kojima as Sasaki was the victim of Kojima’s heel turn, and Morishima has defeated every big name challenger ROH has at least once putting his title reign in a very interesting place. As a whole, it was a good weekend for wrestling fans as well as MMA fans. However, in a historical context, it was nothing out of the ordinary.