Welcome to the second week of Booking ROH on Television. Be sure to check out Week 1 before reading this week’s entry. Next week we’ll be back to our normal format, but anytime the news is quiet enough, we’ll revisit our booking of ROH on T.V. As always with this column, thanks to Robin “LoneWolf†Scott for working through the booking with me and come back right here on Monday for A Modest Response: Punk makes it to the Top.
Week 5 – The Age of the Fall Rule
The opening has the announcement of there (finally) being a match between Austin Aries and Jimmy Jacobs. This is where the show where the Age of the Fall triumph and the heat on them goes nuclear.
Segment 1: Tyler Black comes out with the Age of the Fall and announces that he wants a piece of Nigel tonight. Nigel McGuinness says that he said Tyler had to beat Bryan Danielson for a shot at him, but if he wanted a shot so bad, he could team with Danielson tonight for a match against Nigel and… a friend who wants a shot at revenge on Danielson. Danielson emerges to agree and the match is set for… after these messages.
Segment Time: 6 minutes
Segment Purpose: This is mostly so Danielson and Tyler have a reason to team, with both wanting to get their hands on Nigel. This segment alone should elevate Tyler in the eyes of the fans.
Segment 2: Tyler Black and Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness and Chris Hero
Segment Time: 8 minutes
Segment Purpose: The faces start of extremely hot, destroying the heels, until Danielson, celebrating, turns into Tyler’s small package driver. Nigel and Hero then dismantle Danielson, while Tyler watches on the floor, grinning appreciatively. Hero finishes, getting his pin back on Danielson after a Jawbreaker lariat and Roaring Elbow combination.
Tyler shows that though he wants Nigel, he knows his life is made easier by Danielson being as hurt as possible before their match. Hero gets his pin back, still with the main eventers and seeming like a big deal, while Danielson begins to draw some sympathy.
Segment 3: Post-Match Danielson is laid out and the Age of the Fall arrive to beat on him. Tyler curiously hangs back and doesn’t really help. Aries arrives to save and is absolutely destroyed by the Age of the Fall. They begin to crucify him (Personal Jesus) as the Briscoes arrive and debut. The Briscoes chase off the Age of the Fall, then demand a match with Jimmy Jacobs and the Necro Butcher since Aries is in no condition to compete.
Segment Time: 6 minutes
Segment Purpose: First, the bait and switch is less than ideal, I know, but the introduction of the Briscoes and Necro’s first televised match will hopefully make up for that. Tyler meanwhile, gets to be devious, but separate himself a bit from the pure brutality of the rest of the AOTF. The Briscoes emerge on the tail end of two main event feuds, doubtlessly to a monster reaction, getting two ROH originals over. Aries also ends up with more reason for revenge.
Segment 4: Erick Stevens is out to announce what he wants for winning last week’s series against Sweet and Sour and he says he wants a match with Larry Sweeney at the Pay Per View. This is followed by a video package showing Stevens being attacked by Puder and Albright at Sweeney’s behest.
Segment Time: 2 minutes
Segment Purpose: This is our reminder as to the SnS feud for the week, which explains why Stevens was involved and why he wants to hurt Sweeney.
Segment 5: Age of the Fall video: Recruit Aries
Segment Time: 2 minutes
Segment Purpose: Quickly showing how hard the Age of the Fall tried to recruit Aries makes their earlier attack seem just that much worse.
Segment 6: Briscoes vs. Necro Butcher and Jimmy Jacobs, No Disqualification (announced mid-match by an angry Danielson in a superstar window, it’s the American Dragon vs. Tyler Black next week!)
Segment Time: 18 minutes
Segment Purpose: This will be the Briscoes standard crazy brawl. Every major crazy spot from both the Briscoes and Necro will be present, with Jacobs mostly taking a huge beating. Mark will dive off something silly with a shooting star (balcony if one’s present), while Necro will use chairs and guard rails and Jay will bleed a gusher. The finish will be lifted from Supercard of Honor 3 the Briscoes trying the Springboard Doomsday Device, reversed into the End Time mid-air, except this time with Necro timing a brutal chairshot to Jay as soon as Jacobs is off his head. The announce team spend the match getting over The Briscoes history in ROH, who they’ve beaten, how many times they’ve held the titles, putting them over strong as ROH poster boys. They should also get their potential finishers over, marks Cut Throat Driver, The Jay Driller, and the Springboard Doomsday Device.
There is nothing like the Briscoes or Necro on TV. Their huge brawl is only comparable to old ECW, and they go far further with athletics than this. This will be must see stuff and with the time allotted can really, really get over. Jacobs, the man who did least during the match, will enrage the crowd by getting the big finish and his choking out Mark while Necro holds off a bloody and battered Jay is our enduring image to end this show.
Week 6 – The Epic Encounter 3
There’s good angle advancement here, but we are putting on an absolute classic here that will be must-see and cause a huge buzz in Danielson vs. Tyler. This will be the best match since Danielson and Strong killed each other Week 1 and, ideally, will turn out even better.
Segment 1: The Aries and Lacey romance explained, with Jacobs’ reaction
Segment Time: 2 minutes
Segment Purpose: The Age of the Fall’s beef with Jacobs is finally, fully revealed, just in time for another match.
Segment 2: Briscoes and Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Jacobs, Necro Butcher, and Joey Matthews (During Matthews entrance the commentators describe how other promotions left him out in the wilderness and Jimmy Jacobs came calling, getting Jimmy over as the David Koresh like cult leader )
Segment Time: 10 minutes
Segment Purpose: A big brawl where Aries refuses to stop beating on Jacobs. The Briscoes take out Matthews and Necro in impressive fashion, but Aries gets spiked in the meantime. The Briscoes then have Jacobs alone and they finish him with the Shooting Star and Guillotine Legdrop combination.
Segment 3: Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black. Tyler does the Superstars Promo during his entrance, saying he could have done much worse to Danielson (his hanging back the week before) and that he was just waiting to humiliate Danielson one-on-one to show he’s the better man.
Segment Time: 30 minutes
Segment Purpose: This one is going Broadway. Tyler spends the match taking an incredible beating, but adding huge and constant disrespect to everything he gets offensively. After an early sequence where the two trade wrestling holds and Danielson seems frustrated and surprised in his efforts to control Tyler, Danielson starts to dominate, but nothing he’s got is good enough for the wily youngster who seems to eventually work out a counter to every submission Danielson can lock him in, even eventually and much to Danielson’s very obvious frustration, The Cattle Mutilation (Commentary puts over the history of this move and their own surprise that someone not only survived it, but effectively rendered it useless by showing the world a counter no one had ever employed before). This adds to Danielson’s anger and he starts to turn up the heat, giving us glimpses of the man we saw brutalize Roderick Strong in Week One.
With 6 minutes left Tyler starts to mount a comeback with a ton of near falls, but that’s eventually reversed into the MMA elbows, which Danielson reigns down as time expires. Exhausted, both men struggle up to eye each other as the show ends. Tyler looks weary of Danielson and the commentators wonder whether that might not be respect in his eyes. Similarly, Danielson’s fury subsiding he seems to be looking at Tyler with something a little different as we fade to black. The crowd should be on their feet chanting “ROH ROH ROH!â€
Tyler should now be cemented as a top level guy. This will set up our PPV title match (see next week).
Week 7 – Tag Wars
The focus has been off the tag titles for too long. We need to begin preparing to get them off Jacobs and Tyler so that we can move on with their huge singles pushes, but if they’re going to lose the belts, it has to mean something. This week, we set that up.
Segment 1: For a Title shot next week: The Briscoes vs. Kevin Steen and El Generico
Segment Time: 12 minutes
Segment Purpose: This is an opportunity to hawk DVDs. The commentators hype this match hard by talking about the history between the two and showing a short montages of the matches they’ve already had hyping the shows you can buy them on. The tag titles have been on the back burner. A normal match between these two teams immediately reminds us of its importance. The Briscoes pin Generico with the Spike Jay Driller, continuing their dominance over Steen and Generico, which will be referenced by the announcers.
Segment 2: Nigel McGuinness announces that since no one is worthy of facing him at the PPV, he’ll just be taking his belt and going home. Danielson arrives to take umbrage. Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs then mock Nigel and Danielson, stating that since Nigel didn’t think anyone was worthy of a title match for the World Title, he should take a shot at Tyler’s Tag Title and, if he failed, he’d have to face Tyler at the PPV. Nigel is insulted into accepting and chooses Danielson, the man who least wants Tyler to have a shot, as his partner. Danielson won’t back down from a fight, so its on.
Segment Time: 8 minutes
Segment Purpose: This is further PPV set-up, but it also builds to a main event with all the major players involved.
Segment 3: Roderick Strong, Erick Stevens, and Brent Albright vs. Eddie Edwards, Davey Richards, and Chris Hero with Larry Sweeney, Bobby Dempsey, Adam Pearce, and Shane Hagadorn
Segment Time: 8 minutes
Segment Purpose: The heels will cheat like crazy to keep in this one, taking an epic beating while the faces will look dominant. Sweeney will distract Stevens long enough for Hero to finish him. A quick heel beatdown on Stevens will lead to Strong and Albright taking out SnS, who are still happy with the result. The heat on this should be great, and, as usual, Sweeney will do the Superstars promo during his stable’s entrance. Dempsey will take a bit of humiliation here and from now on when SnS are on camera as set up for an angle down the line.
Segment 4: AOTF video of Jacobs kidnapping and mistreatment of Lacey. It’s announced that a stipulation has been deemed necessary for the Aries vs. Jacobs match at the PPV in order to contain their hatred. It will be announced next week
Segment Time: 2 minutes
Segment Purpose: This is the final touch on the heat for Aries vs. Jacobs. Fans should be rabid for their showdown by now.
Segment 5: World Tag Team Title Match: Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness vs. Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black
Segment Time: 12 minutes
Segment Purpose: Announced that Aries is not present, taking a week to heal up from his severe injuries. The focus is Tyler and Dragon both a little wary to lock back up and Tyler controlling McGuinness, who is annoyed at the fact that he is apparently no longer the focus of his two challengers attention. To reassert himself Nigel constantly cheap shots and orders Danielson around until Danielson finally snaps headbutting Nigel to the floor and then elbowing him into unconsciousness. He leaves the ring fuming pointing at Tyler and shouting ‘Fine! Take this asshole out!” Tyler is stopped in his tracks for a second, but Jimmy jumps into the ring without a seconds hesitation locks the unconscious Nigel in the End Time and celebrates like he’s won the title when the referee drops Nigel’s hand three times. Tyler however can’t keep his eyes off Dragon who has the house mic “Well Tyler, he didn’t beat you, you didn’t beat me and I just beat his ass FOR YOU. Seems to me there’s only one solution to settle this; me, you and Nigel. Three way dance. Best man wins. Unfortunately for the two of you, the best man is standing right here!”
Here we add a little spice to Jimmy, who needed a rub going into the match with Aries elevating at some point in the future, makes him look ruthless, and keeps Nigel/ Dragon and Tyler relatively even also growing the mutual respect thing that Tyler and Dragon should have developed from last week.
Week 8
This is the hardsell. We have a huge title switch and a great Strong-Danielson match. If this is on free TV, imagine what we can do on PPV?
Segment 1: Austin Aries announces he set up during his week off that he and Jimmy Jacobs will face off in a Dog Collar match at the PPV. Aries says he’s leaving to devise new and horrible ways to make Jacobs pay.
Segment Time: 1 minute
Segment Purpose: Quick and dirty, Aries brings intensity and puts the cherry on top of the build for this one.
Segment 3: Non-title: Brent Albright vs. Nigel McGuinness
Segment Time: 8 minutes
Segment Purpose: Announced that since Tyler Black had a huge match this week ROH officials decided Nigel and Danielson had to have matches also. Sweeney managed to talk his way into making Albright and Strong the opponents for Danielson and Nigel respectively.
Albright comes in dominant, but Nigel does the Memphis stall, being killed at all times besides. SnS interfere on the floor, hurting Albright’s arm. Nigel quickly takes advantage, picking Brent apart and finishing with the London Dungeon. This will lead to an ongoing tease of Nigel being loosely allied with Sweet and Sour, Inc, teasing more.
Segment 4: Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong
Segment Time: 17 minutes
Segment Purpose: Sweet and Sour are banned from ringside for this. These two have a respect-based mat war, building to a hot pace and seemingly, evenly matched. Dueling chants breaking out are helping Strong pick himself up each time he goes down. Dragon is working his arms, clearly building to Cattle Mutilation (the commentators point out Tyler’s counter from the other week and wonder if Dragon is trying to prove a point to about his finisher), Roderick is trying to get back up each time and is hitting an array of backbreakers, but with his damaged arms they just don’t have the same strength. Finally Dragon takes his chance and rolls into the Cattle Mutilation. Roderick struggles for a bit, then just when he seems done, he starts to attempt Tyler’s reversal from the other week, however, he can’t quite pull it off (the commentators debate whether he was too weak or whether Dragon knew it was coming and set in strong enough), Dragon clamps down tighter and Roderick taps out. Afterwards the two men help each other up and shake hands to a respectful ovation from the crowd.
Segment 5: ROH World Tag Team Title Match: Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black Jay and Mark Briscoe
Segment Time: 16 minutes
Segment Purpose: This is the big tag title switch. Jimmy seems to take the brunt of the Briscoes onslaught, the commentators are talking about all the brutality the Age of the Fall have delivered upon The Briscoes in the past, blaming Jimmy as the mastermind behind it all, after taking some really vicious double team moves and being dominated Jimmy rolls to the outside and motions that he’s had enough and that he and Tyler are out of here, Tyler is on the apron shocked and looking like he’s about to protest, The Briscoes in the ring are reacting furiously and the ref turns to hold them off. At the second he turns round Aries appears from out of nowhere, chasing the heels back to the ring. The Briscoes are waiting with combinations. Tyler takes a Cutthroat Driver and Spike Jay Driller. Jacobs falls to the Springboard Doomsday Device.
Post-match Aries and the Briscoes leave together with the titles. As Jimmy and Tyler pick themselves up, Jimmy is enraged. He is freaking out at ringside, spitting at fans, screaming at photographers and throwing chairs into the ring. He bullies the announcer and takes his mic and rolls back into the ring, which is filling with garbage from the fans as they jeer him. Tyler is trying to calm him, but gives up quickly and starts to heckle back at the fans. Jimmy lifts the mic to his mouth as a particularly well aimed missile catches him on the head angering him even more. “You stupid redneck idiots! You don’t have a f*****g clue do you! You don’t know what the f*** I’ve been through to get here! I cut my heart out for you and wore it nailed to my chest and you throw garbage at me!?! I’ve tried to deliver you from the sickness poisoning this society, the sickness that poisons Ring of Honor and you turned your backs on me each and every time! Well, that’s it! From the very blackest part of my sick soul I promise you this; You want to cheer for Aries? You want to cheer for those toothless grunts The Briscoes? You want to make them your heroes when I would have died to set you free? FINE! Have it your way, I will destroy your heroes, starting with that homewrecker Austin Aries. Aries, lacey meant everything to me and you took her! Those title belts kept me sane after she left and you took them too! Now I’m going to take you the the very inch of death and when you look up crying, begging for mercy, look into my eyes, look into the black pit of my soul Austin Aries and know that you were the maker of your own painful destiny! You thought we were dangerous before? You haven’t seen anything yet!”
With that he throws the mic to the floor and spreading his arms he looks to the sky as the trash rains down on him, like he’s standing defiant in a storm. We fade to black.
Pay Per View: Ring of Honor Presents: Wrestling Wars
Welcome to the big PPV. This has been built and hopefully will be well bought out of the curiosity factor at the very least. Before each match will be a three minute hype video, so I’m saving twenty minutes of showtime for that, along with twenty more for full entrances for each wrestler. That’s 40 minutes of showtime off the top.
#1 Contenders Match: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Kevin Steen vs. Chris Hero vs. Mike Quackenbush
Segment Time: 12 minutes
Segment Purpose: Nigel needs a contender and here we can start to set one up. Steen will have Generico with him to help maintain their dynamic. The focus here will be on Quack vs. Claudio and Quack vs. Hero. No independent fan will chance missing a live PPV again with a surprise like Quack. No casual fan taking a chance will forget Quack’s work with both Hero and, especially Claudio. Quack will take the fall to Claudio with some heat between Steen and Hero, their brawling becoming a bit overly intense.
Roderick Strong vs. Davey Richards
Segment Time: 15 minutes
Segment Purpose: This will be just another good match, but another loss for Davey. Strong is being built while Davey losing regularly is happening for a reason.
NWA Title Match: Adam Pearce vs. Brent Albright
Segment Time: 15 minutes
Segment Purpose: After a Memphis stall Albright destroy Pearce and takes the NWA Title. Hagadorn tries to help, but the rest of Sweet and Sour is too busy. Albright becomes our face champion who can go over and keep the fans happy.
Larry Sweeney vs. Erick Stevens
Segment Time: 12 minutes
Segment Purpose: Sweet and Sour (minus Pearce) will line up in front of Sweeney, refusing to let their meal ticket be harmed. Strong and Albright come out to defend Stevens, cutting through SnS, but eating a Doctor Bomb each for their trouble as Stevens reveals he’s in league with Sweet and Sour because he despises Strong from their feud and Albright is the one who took out Stevens for Sweeney and has to be responsible. Besides, taking the NWA belt from Albright is just too much money to pass up. Davey, having been sacrificed to Stevens, will look pissed, Stevens can tease and playfully chop him, leading to a furious Davey locking in the keylock on Roderick and refusing to release it.
ROH World Tag Team Title Match: Briscoes vs. Joey Matthews and Necro Butcher
Segment Time: 20 minutes
Segment Purpose: This is just a huge Briscoes win in a very good, stiff match. Necro is here to take the stupid spots; Matthews is here to give this structure.
Dog Collar Match: Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Jacobs
Segment Time: 25 minutes
Segment Purpose: This is a wild brawl. They’ll go through all the hatred building spots, play off previous encounters, and generally kick the shit out of each other. As both are laying, bloody and beaten Lacey will emerge to try and revive Aries. Jacobs will throw her out of the way, but spike Aries instead of her. She’ll pull the chain to try and hold him away from Aries, but it’s between Aries legs and he’ll be hurt. Necro will come out to take her away again. Aries will take another incredible beating and, despite some hope spots, take an End Time with the chain, hanging over the top rope, until Aries passes out.
ROH World Title: Nigel McGuinness vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black
Segment Time: 35 minutes
Segment Purpose: This is the big title match. It’ll be structured most similarly to the Era of Honor Begins three way, with Nigel a heel, Tyler in the exciting Low Ki role and Danielson being, of course Danielson. Added to this will be Nigel’s Best in the World shtick and Tyler’s disrespect. Danielson will control on the mat, Tyler in the air, and Nigel with strikes. Eventually, Danielson will nearly kill Nigel, only for Tyler to take him out with a full combination. The Cattle Mutilation will be countered again and Tyler will have Danielson beat, only to take a Jawbreaker Lariat as Nigel steals a victory and escapes with the belt.
Hope you enjoyed, see you all Monday for A Modest Response.
