Some very good news for Indy wrestling.
This past Saturday night, Davey Richards made it official that he intends to continue with his pro wrestling career. Earlier in the year, Davey stated that he was done after 2010; thankfully that appears to not be the case.
Glory by Honor IX marked Ring of Honor’s third venture into the world of internet pay-per-views for 2010 and their fourth overall with last year’s Final Battle show being the promotion’s first foray into an area that still seems some troubleshooting based on my viewing. That is not to say I wasn’t impressed with how good the feed was as the picture and audio quality was much better than I was expecting. The real problem—one gofightlive.com has apologized for—was that there were frequent moments during the final two-thirds of the show where the feed would cut out and you would have to restart it. While it was nothing but a click of the mouse to get the feed back, it obviously isn’t something you’d want to deal with in the middle of a pay-per-view. The problem was blamed on a new piece of hardwire that wasn’t working right, and I don’t doubt that since this is still a pretty new way of doing things. So I’m not going to bother pissing and moaning about something that didn’t really hinder my enjoyment of the show.
The card was, on paper, no better than most big ROH shows as that is more an indication of well they book their cards. While this is one of their big ones, they’ve never really shied away from putting big title matches or big singles and tag matches on seemingly random cards. But they did put a pretty good card together for Manhattan Center; then again, Team Angle’s participation alone was guaranteeing that fifteen bucks was coming out of my wallet for this one. But the card had a match—double chain match—guaranteed to be fun in the ongoing SteenErico breakup, Aries/Daniels (what you would expect from both guys), some fun with Necro Butcher and the Briscoes to lead things off, Davey’s announcement, and Tyler Black’s title loss.
On the title change: maybe Roderick Strong wasn’t the right guy to be getting the win that sends Black back to Florida, but I have no problem with him finally getting the belt. In the past four years or so, there have been a few periods where it seemed that Strong was being groomed for a title run (Claudio too), but it was either stalled or was just lost in the shuffle amongst the bigger names in the promotion. With Homicide’s return—providing a real nice ending to the show with his face off with the new champ—and Davey sticking around, it really wouldn’t surprise me if Roderick’s was a short title reign. If he got a longer title reign good for him because I believe he’d warrant it, but there are more obvious choices for world champ within ROH. And that’s not just on name value, but on how they’ve been booked for the majority of this year; Davey has been being booked as the future of the promotion even after his initial retirement announcement, Steen has become quite the heel through the SteenErico team imploding, Aries is still the ace of the promotion (“Greatest Man Who Ever Livedâ€? Wow that’s some heel awesome right there), and Daniels is the promotion’s older legend.
Team Angle didn’t really seem to be too far off in the ring as a team since their final days together full time in 2004. Not too surprising to me as the one or two one-night reunions they’ve had since have shown that they never really lost anything when it came to being in the ring together. The match itself likely won’t be in any top five’s, but will likely make some top ten’s for match of the year, maybe even mine, but with an interference ending, I’m torn on how to feel about it overall. I understand the fact that The Kings are heels and thus should get some wins via interference (even title defenses), but because it was on a big show, on a pay-per-view, and was a dream match—a bigger dream match than ROH can usually supply with free agents from the E or TNA—warranted it a more conclusive ending. And I would’ve been cool with The Kings getting that clean win because it would be a major win for them. Team Angle winning, as it was non-title, and getting a title match rematch would make more sense from the standpoint of having The Kings get the big win in the bigger match, even if it wouldn’t be on an iPPV like the first meeting was. C’est la vie, the match was still great as expected.
Before getting to Davey, I would like to mention that one thing I’ve been saying on blogtalkradio.com for the last week or so that was proven right in my opinion, and that was why I believed the Steen & Corino/Generico & Cobana double chain was going to be as fun as it was: the perfect mix of comedy/character and blood in a match that could use a little of one and a lot of the other (figure it out). The match wasn’t spectacular, but had enough action and fun to get by, plus plenty of people juicing. Overall it was fun and harmless bloody entertainment, but after the match was where everything came together nicely. During the post-match brawl—more of a continuation of the action than anything—Generico had his mask ripped off by Steen when he went for a top rope move on the perched Steen. The grab was not quite as good as Jericho getting Rey’s mask mid-619 last year, but pretty close to it. Not only did he put the mask on, but wrote Mr. Wrestling on a chair in Corino’s blood as there was plenty.
Now to the real story of the show, Davey Richards announcing that he’s staying in wrestling. When I read earlier in the year that he was done after this year I didn’t want to believe it and in many ways didn’t believe it. I just kept telling myself that at some point I was going to read that he announced or ROH announced that he had re-signed or was just staying in wrestling. Do I think that Davey contemplating retirement was an angle? No. Ring of Honor ran this same scenario as a storyline leading to Bryan Danielson’s title win in 2005, but I just don’t see that here. Davey has options outside of wrestling that a lot of guys don’t with his paramedics training and plans to become a fireman, combined with the fact that this isn’t a promotion that has never really done the “loser leaves town†or “win or your fired†scenarios only to have the guy come back later in the month or six weeks later. It may have been a premature or spur-of-the-moment decision when Davey said he was done, but it also could have been a guy who put a lot of thought in wanting to start something new in his life, something bigger than pro wrestling.
Of course, this being pro wrestling, if it turns out it to all be a rehash of the Danielson angle, it wouldn’t surprise me.
The Reality is Ring of Honor needed Davey back more than they even know. Whether by planning or pure luck, every promotion, big or small, has an ace at every period of their time as a running promotion. In Ring of Honor’s case, it was Joe’s near two-year title reign first, then Danielson, and now Aries. Davey is next at this rate. To assume the ace position, you have to be great in the ring, great on the mic, and be great with the crowd—heel or face. You can balance out poor ring work with fabulous or catchy mic work and vice versa—wrestling having provided plenty of examples of a promotion’s ace being a poor worker or poor talker—you can’t balance out the crowd’s lack of reaction for you, it just has to come. There are plenty of great wrestlers who don’t click with the crowd, and it could be for a million different reasons (they were deemed boring or their style was ahead of its time or behind its time). But I do believe that Davey is getting the reaction from the crowds that is needed to be in that position on the card full time. And even if he hasn’t yet, the matches this year are making it sooner rather than later that he will be getting that kind of crowd support.
SEVEN MATCHES UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN
Not the full match, but you’ll get the idea.
IWGP Title Match: Shinya Hashimoto (c.) Vs. Lord Steven Regal, NJPW, 1995
Part 2
Here’s an example of Regal with a lot of time on his hands in there with a guy who doesn’t mind working Regal’s kind of much. Good stuff to be seen.
Necro Butcher Vs. Abdullah The Butcher, NWA: Southwest, 4/14/2000
Not the dream match it would be today, but it is still the only singles match I can recall between the two.
Antonio Inoki Vs. Stan Hansen, NJPW, 1979
These two didn’t switch it up as far as how to work their match, and they had plenty during Hansen’s brief run in New Japan. However, what they always brought was intensity and hatred, two staples of Stan Hansen. I doubt it’s their best against each other, but it is a worthy representation.
Terry Funk Vs. Aldo Marino, WWF, 1985
Terry’s WWF Debut. Pretty much what you’d expect out of Terry. And going after a fan: I guess Terry hadn’t been out of Japan long enough before coming to Titan Towers.
Jushin Liger Vs. Owen Hart, NJPW, 1991
Part 2
Like I need to tell you how good Jushin Liger was in his heyday. Like I need to tell you how good Owen Hart was. This was during Owen’s last full-time run in Japan and was at the moment Liger began to become the biggest junior star since Tiger Mask. Absolutely fantastic match with an ending that you won’t forget quickly.
Hulk Hogan Vs. Genichiro Tenryu, SWS, 12/12/1991
Tenryu has always had a part of him that has been more geared towards American-style pro wrestling. You can blame that on the men he was taught by and learned with: Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr. Hogan also had this weird part of him that would appear to be trying harder in Japan during the period past his first WWF title reign (1988 on). Both of these add up to something satisfactory.
