Welcome to my ROH Wishlist 2008. We also have a spoiler free Undeniable preview, for the show which debuts tonight on Pay Per View. Check back later for Shawn Smith’s live report!
News of Honor
Undeniable the fourth ROH Pay per View debuts tonight
Check your local listings. It’s a great deal, as usual for $10-$15. Check below for a spoiler free preview.
The Smashing Pumpkins are working with ROH
Click here for all the details.
Larry Sweeney created the Intergender tag titles for Hero and Del Rey
Hero with a joke belt. You do read me Gabe! (yes, I’m kidding about the last comment, calm down).
Nigel McGuinness will defend the ROH Title in Tokyo vs. Go Shiozaki
Dream match ahoy. I can’t wait for this to hit the net and Go to hit the states.
This Week on Inside Pulse
Jake Mulligan made me near wet myself with a likelihood of Shingo vs. KENTA.
Jake also reviewed Survival of the Fittest from this year, but first check out Ivan Rushfeild’s Honor Nation review.
Check back Monday for A Modest Response
The 2008 Wishlist
This will only be things ROH can control fully, so while a TV deal would be phenomenal, and a return to Japan and England nice, those aren’t ROH’s decisions. The finances and availability make those decisions. Pushing when the finances disagree is how you end up like ECW.
Near the top of this list was a huge Erick Stevens push. If you haven’t heard, this past weekend (click here for Mulligan’s Friday results and here for Kirschner’s Saturday results) Stevens cleanly and decisively defeated both Austin Aries and Bryan Danielson in great, great matches. It turns out I was right about Stevens, he is a future star. His awesome selling and great power comebacks are catching on and it’s fast become a tradition that crowds chant his name post match.
Someone who appears to be being elevated as a heel along with Stevens as a face is Davey Richards. I agree fully with pushing Davey to the moon. He’s an accomplished seller when he wants to be and has a flashy, good offense that can work various ways to make a comeback. He isn’t, however, yet good enough to lead a match as a heel, but as one of the few left on the roster who can sell and generate sympathy to get over, he shouldn’t be a heel anyway. Davey should be pushed, but as a face… which leads me to my next point.
Davey should feud with Stevens for a few months, then a heel Aries should work with Strong again, kicking Davey to the curb. A face Davey and Stevens vs. a heel Aries and Strong should then go on for as long as it can run. Aries and Strong are, for my money, the best team in ROH history and need to be reunited this year. What better way to do so than to get Davey and Stevens over against them, thus creating two wildly over teams and elevating Davey and Stevens all the while making the cards better because Aries and Strong are solid gold together.
These teams are great, but one team needs a super-push this year and that’s El Generico and Kevin Steen. These guys are as over as anyone on the roster but Danielson and absolutely deserve the tag belts. They draw heat with everyone and are an amazing team. Tag wars with Black and Jacobs, the Briscoes, Aries and Strong, and a Stevens and Davey combination would immediately stand out for versatility and quality. Generico and Steen are the perfect guys to run with the belt during this because they can work different styles, face or heel, spotfest or traditional and make damn sure the crowd cares.
For the hundredth time, everyone on the roster needs a regular tag partner. This helps three ways. First it allows elevation of guys and involvement in feuds where it otherwise wouldn’t be present. This gives everyone stuff to do on so they don’t get stale. The second way this helps is that it elevates the tag belts. Danielson having a regular partner to chase the belt just makes it seem more important. Lastly, it means that even the regular teams like the Briscoes are viable in singles. This opens story possibilities. What if one wins for awhile and the other loses in singles? What if a team has a tag and singles title shot in the same night? The possibilities for good storytelling without out of ring nonsense are near endless.
I have a specific role in mind for Claudio Castagnoli. On a lot of shows this year, Marufuji was in a mid-card to upper mid-card match that absolutely stole the show. These great matches against guys like El Generico and Davey Richards didn’t cost ROH anything in terms of weakening the upper card, but raised the stock of those shows by having a great under card match. Claudio should take that role of awesome mid-card match that makes shows this year. This keeps Claudio over while the crowd will demand he gets a title shot and more of a push because of the great performances, while making the shows more viable and allowing Claudio to go out and have the amazing exhibition style matches that are his specialty. He isn’t great at heat and hate, but he can make the crowd care about a nonsense match. It’s his greatest strength and should be used.
Ring of Honor really needs to stop over saturating their market with similar matches and overdoing title shots. While we’re at it, less gimmick matches and rushing of re-matches need to be taken care of.
First let’s take the similar match issue. Recently ROH has been having one match, or one particular style match on nearly every territory they run. Scrambles are a good example of this. They are meant to showcase the stable wars and at near every stop, after one is a giant stable spotfest. When this first happened at Chaos at the Cow Palace, it was huge. That alone made me want to check out the DVD and was a selling point. It has happened at least three times since then and is no longer special. This kind of over saturation of an idea (see also Claudio vs. Hero and Steenerico vs. the Briscoes) make each encounter mean less, especially when happening in such a short time period.
Title matches are also on almost every show. Realistically, the minor title defenses can all but go away. Recently, about 10 of Morishima’s defenses were counted up and could have been utterly eliminated as pointless exercises. Without these, Morishima could still wrestle just as many matches, but when the belt is on the line, it means more. A title defense should be a big deal. One per show stops it from being so.
The solution to this is so simple I cannot understand why it isn’t being done! Simply alternate show types, so every different type feels like an event. ROH has certain big events where all the types can come together like the Anniversary, Wrestlemania Weekend, Death Before Dishonor, Glory by Honor, and Final Battle, but besides these shows, each show needs a separate identity. One set of shows could be dedicated to setting up and jockeying for position of contenders to the title. Make guys have to battle for a title shot with no haphazard appearances of matches with the belt on the line. If a guy is getting a shot, take the time to build that he is worth it. That makes the match mean more and the matches leading up have suspense over who will finally get the shot. The other type of show that can be mainly used is a grudge match feud. If everyone on the roster has a guy or two they hate, facing each other in various combinations only rarely makes each occurrence mean more. After a while of building the hate and guys waiting to tear each other apart, throw a rare gimmick match in. The more they build to these, the more each encounter means and can get over. Focus shows entirely on Tag Titles if the world belt isn’t on the line, or entirely on the World if the Tag isn’t defended. There will be something for everyone in this and if Chicago got a feud show last time, you’d better believe the live crowd will be rabid for a title shot the time after. A good grudge cage match the third visit and you haven’t hurt live or DVD sales while really freshening up the product.
Ring of Honor needs to elevate talent badly. The top three are Danielson, Aries and Nigel, but after that it’s a jumble of talent all more or less equal. In 2005 we had Danielson, Aries, Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Homicide, Low Ki, Cabana, Chris Daniels, Alex Shelley, and James Gibson, all legitimate upper-midcarders at worst. This allowed for a great deal of talent to have great matches and draw in crowds. With only three guys there are only so many workable combinations before we end up with yet more cannon fodder matches. It’s great to see Stevens elevated, and Strong is a force, but really, what else is there? Hero is almost pure comedy and Claudio is tied up with him. Everyone else is in faction wars with no one but Jacobs, who’s now a tag champ, feeling like a legitimate singles threat. New guys like Stevens and Davey (see above), Tyler Black, and others really need to step up. The elevation, thank goodness, appears go be coming.
Another thing that can be done to help the dearth of main eventers is bring in outside talent who can take it up a notch. There are three free guys who would absolutely help in this capacity. The first is Eddie Kingston. The roster lacks a tough guy who can work stiff, make people care and create passion and drama in the product. That’s Kingston in spades. He’d immediately make everyone take notice and could be among the most over men on the roster in no time, just like he is everywhere else. The second guy that should be brought in and put at the top of the card is Mike Quackenbush. ROH seems to want to push Mike, but his time is limited. Pay him more or push him more! Quack has the respect of every indy fan and simply feels like a big deal. He wrestles like no one else and has numerous dream matches on the roster. The last guy who should be brought in is Gabe’s least favorite wrestler, the recently released from TNA, Low Ki. Ki is a badass ROH icon who is a great wrestler and makes money with Gabe. If TNA got him over his fear of jobbing, he should be at the very top of every ROH card, having dream matches for a long time to come.
The lowercard is fast becoming a problem. Everything on the lower card of late feels like a spotfest. Every major successful period in wrestling has been a bit of a variety act, so nothing but spotfests on the undercard will not get the job done. Pushing Delirious as a comedy wrestler, how is he easily most over, would be an interesting change of pace. Human Tornado could also fill this role, or they could bring in Chuck Taylor. Necro is an awesome change of pace, but must be protected. Jobbing as much as he is now doesn’t aid his strange monster aura or how over he is. He should under no circumstances be jobbing to someone like Jack Evans. Keep him special. There’s 8 guys like Jack and none like Necro.
Some of the guys currently doing spotfests could also stand to wrestle more traditional matches, by which I mean, sell a damn move so it looks like what’s happening matters. Anyone I’ve mentioned as deserving of a push could handle this and should be asked too. Bobby Fish and Eddie Edwards both deserve full roster spots and are fine traditional wrestlers. They would excel with that as their role. I can’t believe I’m the only one loudly saying this but Bobby Fish and Eddie Edwards deserve a job!
Please remember, I don’t hate ROH. I love ROH. I do a ton to support them and really am trying to help with suggestions not shout down the current product.
Undeniable: the Ring of Honor (Spoiler Free) Pay per View Preview by Big Andy Mac
ROH World Title Match
Takeshi Morishima vs. Nigel McGuinness
This match is the selling point of the Pay per View. Nigel has had two unsuccessful bids for the RoH title against the Japanese behemoth. Will his arsenal of lariats be enough or is Morishima a Back Drop Driver away from turning away another challenger. This HAS to be Nigel’s last shot at the belt.
ROH World Tag Team Title Match
Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Davey Richards & Rocky Romero
This match was taped in Dayton, OH. The last time RoH taped a PPV match from an alternate site the result was the classic Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness match from “Driven” can the Briscoes and the No Remorse Corps deliver at the same level. Well, they have a tough bar to hurdle. The Briscoes are one of the most successful popular and hard hitting tag teams in all of wrestling. The NRC is thus far the most dominating faction. What will happen?
Grudge Match
Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong
These two have amazing chemistry both as tag team partners and opponents. They have been feuding ever since February and the formation of the No Remorse Corps. Austin Aries has been on fire since his surprising return at “Driven.” Will this match be the end of their blood feud, or just another chapter? Meltzer gave this **** ¼ so it will certainly be fun to find out.
Six Man Tag Team Action
Kevin Steen, El Generico & Delirious vs. The Hangmen Three
The last time we saw the team of Kevin Steen and El Generico they came up on the losing end of the epic ladder war with the Briscoes. Now they come to the aid of Delirious in his battle against the Hangmen Three. Can the power of Steen, the “Never say die” attitude of El Generico, and the unorthodox style of Delirious be enough to take on the biggest and meanest men on the RoH roster? With Steen and Generico in the match, at least you know it’ll be wildly over.
Special Challenge Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero
The Best in the World, Bryan Danielson, battles the best athlete in Ring of Honor, Chris Hero. The last time we saw Danielson, he came up on a losing effort against RoH champion Takeshi Morishima. Chris Hero has not proved to have the best record in his Pay per View outings,
but a win over Danielson would prove to be a huge boost for the centerpiece of Sweet and Sour international. I don’t think Hero has a shot.
Women’s Match
Sara Del Rey vs. Daizee Haze
This is SHIMMER Womens Athletes first chance to shine on Pay per View. Sara Del Rey, backed by Larry Sweeney’s Sweet and Sour Incorporated, is one of the best female wrestlers in the world. Daizee Haze is much smaller, but has speed as her biggest ally. She is also the only
wrestler to notch a win against the Death Rey in Ring of Honor competition. Can she make it two, or will she taste defeat like so many others? I love this exposure for Shimmer.
Tag Team Attraction
Jack Evans & Ruckus vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black
The Age of the Fall debuted in violent fashion after the Briscoes defeated Kevin Steen and El Generico in “Driven’s” violent ladder war. They are looking to make a name for themselves and a decent way to start is against the Vulture Squad of Jack Evans and Ruckus. The Vanilla and Chocolate Vultures with their hype man Julius Smokes will not be pushovers, as they are trying to prove that they belong after their late entrance into faction warfare. AOTF feel like a big deal. Killing the flippies should be fun.
You can see all of these stellar match-ups and more when RoH proves
that their talent and passion is “Undeniable.”
