PW Torch’s James Caldwell comments on Jim Ross’s comments on last night’s Bragging Rights PPV. Caldwell finds a lot of common ground with good ol’ J.R., but he disagrees with him about the 7-on-7 match that was a big part of the “Bragging Rights” concept:
For anyone who may think that 14 athletes are going to get ‘equal time’ in a bout such as this isn’t realistic. The things that were top-line issues got the focus they seem to need/warrant. I thought the seven-man tag delivered as expected, again in a challenging format.”
JC: I disagree. I don’t think criticisms of the match were simple “nitpicks,” but an overall view of how the participants in the match seemed to cancel each other out, there wasn’t a definitive conclusion to the PPV namesake, and no one really stood out at the end of the match. It came across like a multiple-man TV match.
In response to J.R.’s praise of the booking of U.S. Champion the Miz last night, Caldwell links to Gabe Sapolsky’s latest MySpace blog, which is about building up secondary titles, one of the many things he learned from Paul Heyman:
Shane Douglas, the current ECW World Champion, was out with a significant injury and wasn’t due back in the ring anytime soon. Rob Van Dam had a tidal wave of momentum behind him as ECW Television Champion. I asked Heyman why he didn’t just strip Douglas of the belt and crown a new champion.
“Because right now Rob Van Dam is our top champion,†Heyman slyly said.
He also talks about the Pure Title in ROH, and what it meant for Nigel McGuinness, who he’s excited to watch as Desmond Wolf in TNA:
Nigel and the Pure Title was like peanut butter & jelly. His wrestling style was perfect for the rules. He knew how to use them to be more of a heel. His confidence grew. Nigel and the Pure Title clicked and we hit a jackpot. At the same time, Bryan Danielson was going from “great worker†to being a franchise player as ROH World Champion. The opportunity to have the belt feud was there. The result was one of the greatest rivalries in ROH history with Danielson vs. McGuinness. It was during this series of matches that it became obvious that the Pure Title wasn’t the end of the road for McGuinness. He was now definitely a “top guy†capable of carrying the World Title. Anyone who has followed Nigel since his first ROH match has truly watched him Evolve.
Also of note from Sapolsky’s blog is that he admits that it took him a while to really warm up to Nigel as a performer, and how his description of Nigel as “lanky” didn’t go over so well with the future ROH World Champion.
