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The first thing I'd like to talk about today is the tag team situation. Follow the bouncing ball here, folks. The Briscoes were ROH World Tag Team Champions for nine months, breaking the record for the longest title reign set the year before by Austin Aries and Roderick Strong. Then, on two consecutive nights, they first had their streak of winning two out of three fall matches in two straight falls broken by Roderick Strong and Rocky Romero...but didn't go on to lose the match. That came the following night when they were defeated by Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black in the main event of Final Battle 2007.
That's all well and good, as Jacobs and Black (along with Necro Butcher and Lacey) were being given a huge push, but then they only held the title for about a month before losing the title in an Ultimate Endurance match in which they weren't even one of the final two teams in the match. The eventual winners of that match and new champions, Rocky Romero and Davey Richards, weren't teaming regularly enough to be on the map as title contenders before getting the belts, and then out of nowhere they dropped the title back to the Briscoes this past weekend with no build at all.
Anyone else wondering what's going on here? Not that I'm unhappy that the Briscoes have the title back because I think they or Age Of The Fall are the right teams to have the title on right now, but I'm puzzled about the way this has all played out, for a number of reasons. First, I understand having AOTF beat the Briscoes since they were feuding, but why were they then defeated by Romero and Richards? It came at an awkward point in what was looking like a pretty promising push, and I don't understand why Richards and Romero of all people needed to get the title at that point. No knock on Richards and Romero, they're great wrestlers, but that title change came out of nowhere, and the whole thing was rendered meaningless now that the Briscoes have the title back.
Speaking of the Briscoes, ROH did a pretty good job of killing their aura of dominance. Having them drop the fall in the 2/3 falls match to Strong and Romero was completely pointless, as it took a gimmick that could have had a great payoff and blew it on what turned out to be a throwaway match that did absolutely nothing to help Strong and Romero since I don't think they've even teamed since that match. So what do you do now? Have the Briscoes and AOTF feud over the title some more? If that's what they wanted to do, they could have just had AOTF drop the title back to the Briscoes without getting Romero and Richards involved and neutering the Briscoes for no reason.
Then again, could it be that they're just trying to shake up the tag team division and make it look like any team can walk out with the title any night? No offense to the Office Of Honor, but that's the kind of thing I'm used to seeing out of WWE, not ROH. One of the things that sets ROH apart is that their titles don't change hands on every other show, and ROH fans are conditioned to expect title reigns that last months, not weeks. I'm not saying every title reign should be a year and a half long like Danielson and Joe, but this is the third title change in four months. Granted, the tag title has probably been the “flippiest†title ROH has, but I feel like I'm back in 2005 when the title seemed to change hands every time it was put on the line.
Even if they are trying to shake things up and make it look like anybody's game, there's not enough stability in the tag team scene right now that I think that could work. Other than the Briscoes and AOTF, who's left that could be considered serious contenders that the fans could accept? Steen and Generico are always an option, but their feud with the Briscoes was done to death last year, and it's too soon to see that again. Some combination of the Vulture Squad, maybe? Who else? The No Remorse Corps seems to be out of the picture while they're deciding whether they're breaking up or not. The YRR are a joke and aren't in full time yet.
If you want my opinion (and you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't), I say it's fine to flip the title back and forth as long as the Briscoes and AOTF are the only team to hold the title until at least September. After that it'll be fine to get Steen & Generico back in the title picture, or somebody else if they've been given some kind of build, but until then, it's time to calm the tag team scene down a bit.
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Now I'd like to move on to something I'm feeling more positive about, and that's the restructuring of Sweet & Sour, Inc. You can draw a lot of parallels between Sweet & Sour, Inc and another famous ROH stable, the Embassy. The Embassy was led by a comedic wrestler-turned-manager in Prince Nana, and while they had a quality wrestler (Jimmy Rave) as the centerpiece, the group was otherwise thought of as a joke and was populated by goofball evil sidekicks like the Outcast Killaz, Fast Eddie Vegas, and let us not forget the Weapons Of Mask Destruction. After a year or so, they made some personnel changes, kicking the Outcast Killaz and Fast Eddie to the curb and replacing them with Alex Shelley and Abyss. Now people were taking them much more seriously, and the whole thing led to the Embassy moving into a top level angle that ended in a huge blowoff against Generation Next in the one and only Steel Cage Warfare match.
Now compare that to Sweet & Sour, Inc. Comedic wrestler-turned-manager (Larry Sweeney) running the show? Check. Talented centerpiece (Chris Hero)? Check. Goofball sidekicks (Bobby Dempsey, Tank Toland) being replaced by serious wrestlers (Brent Albright, Adam Pearce)? Check. Moving into a top level storyline (hostile takeover of ROH)? Check.
If the same formula works and is able to get talented wrestlers over, then I don't have any problem with reusing it. After all, the formula is a formula for a reason: it works. Now that Sweeney's getting a respectable crew together with Hero, Edwards, Albright, and Pearce, I think it's only a matter of time before they're regularly main eventing. Also, it'll give Claudio Castagnoli more people the feud against before moving up to challenge for the World Title, but more on that later.
But with all growth, some heads have to roll. Bobby Dempsey was cut this weekend and replaced with Eddie Edwards. Edwards has potential if not much charisma, but that's what Sweeney's for. As for Dempsey, I'm not quite so optimistic about his future. He spent a couple of years bouncing around on the preshows before being brought on board for a role that was, quite frankly, tailor made for him. Now that that's over, I don't see what else you can do with him because, as much love as the crowds give him, I don't think anyone can take him seriously as a main roster wrestler, and certainly not one who can be competitive with guys like Hero or Albright.
Also questionable is Sara Del Rey's future with Sweet & Sour, Inc. On recent shows, Sweeney has begun to act in a condescending, chauvanistic way towards her. Most recently this past weekend, he wanted Tammy Sytch to make Sara over into a diva, but Sara refused, saying that she's a serious wrestler. I'm all for Sara breaking back out on her own as a wrestler, because while I was glad to see her getting camera time, she was being wasted hanging out at ringside with Bobby Dempsey and only working preshow matches, or match #2348975237856 in her series with Daizee Haze. My only question is whether or not ROH is ready to make enough room on their shows to have regular women's matches with more fresh women appearing. That's something I've personally been calling for for a little while now, feeling that it's time for the SHIMMER Title to get more exposure and have more female workers brought in other than the usual three suspects, who have been the only ROH regulars for like two years now.
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Just a few other quick thoughts before I get going. First I just want to say that I really hope that Jack Evans knows what he's doing by wrestling so soon after getting his face busted up. I saw the pictures of his facial injuries and they were U-G-L-Y. Only Jack knows how Jack feels, but given the severity of the injury, as well as reports that he didn't look too good after his first couple of matches back, I'm hoping that he's not setting himself up for a really bad situation by possibly rushing back too soon.
After going through Chris Hero, Larry Sweeney, and Brent Albright by himself in a 3-on-1 situation this past weekend, as well as the fact that he's gotten clean wins over both Austin Aries and Naomichi Marufuji in recent months, as well as ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness running him down in interviews, it looks like they're building toward Claudio Castagnoli getting a World Title program in the near future. I don't think Claudio's a bad person to give that push to at all, as I doubt he's about to bolt to WWE or TNA and sure as hell is a crowd favorite. He's feuded with Nigel before and they've had some great matches, and I'm ready for round two. Can Claudio be ROH World Champion? He's popular, adaptable, has great matches, is in great shape...I don't see any reason why not.
Speaking of that 3-on-1 match, Sweeney and Hero pretty much walked out on Brent Albright there. I guess they're building to a face turn and singles push for Brent Albright? Maybe Albright and Claudio will be part of the “other†side in the future Sweet & Sour, Inc war I see coming. Are we looking at Steel Cage Warfare 2 later this year?
And just a quick note on FIP running less shows “to make it easier for fans to keep up on FIP by not having to buy so many DVDs.†Anyone besides me realize that a promotion running less shows instead of more is a bad thing?
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That's it for me this week, but before I go, I'd just like to plug the new PWInsider Town Hall. The PWInsider Town Hall is a new feature in which you, the readers of PWInsider.com, can contribute your thoughts to the site on a regular basis. Each week, I will pose a series of questions regarding the current events of professional wrestling, and you can send your answers to me at stupwinsider@yahoo.com. I'll pick the best answers, and the Town Hall will appear every Thursday on PWInsider Xtra, along with a new series of questions. It goes without saying that I'm looking for more than just yes/no or single word/single sentence answers, so the better written and more well thought out your responses are, the more likely they'll be included.
Here's this week's Samoa Joe-themed questions in honor of his TNA World Title victory this past weekend:
-Did Samoa Joe's first TNA World Title win come at the proper time, or would you have given it to him sooner/later, and why?
-How do you think his TNA World Title reign will compare when measured against his infamous 21-month ROH World Title reign?
-Who should he defend the title against first and how would you book the program?
-Since Joe has had his share of injuries over the last couple of years, how do you think his body will hold up to headlining, especially in light of TNA's increasingly rigorous house show schedule?
-Who from outside of TNA would you most like to see come in and work a title program with Joe?
Again, send your responses and all other feedback to stupwinsider@yahoo.com and check PWInsider Xtra next Thursday for the first edition of the PWInsider Town Hall. Also, go check out my wrestling blog at stuwrestling.livejournal.com. Thanks for reading, and see you soon.
