PWInsiderXTRA - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

THE pROHfile VOL. 19

It’s me, and I’m back with another edition of The pROHfile! Hold your applause, please. Today I’m going to preview this coming weekend’s shows in Toronto and Detroit.

The big story surrounding this weekend is Claudio Castagnoli’s announcement that he will leave ROH if he doesn’t win the ROH World Title Saturday night in Detroit. Normally when somebody makes an announcement like that, there’s a pretty good chance that they’re going to win the title, but I’m not so sure this time around. Claudio’s a great talent and even according to ROH’s own website, both NOAH and TNA have been asking after him. Nobody seems to know for sure how long the contracts ROH had its stars sign last year actually last for, so it’s entirely possible that Claudio’s deal is up and he’s looking to move on. The deal with WWE fell through in late 2006, but we never got a clear answer from either side about what exactly happened there. It’s possible that whatever issues there were have been cleared up.

Then again, he may win the title after all. He’s a huge crowd favorite and is one of the top faces in the company right now. He has good matches every time out, and it’s seemed to me that he’s been groomed for a run at the top for some time now. He’s worked against Nigel McGuinness a lot during his time in ROH, and even though he’s pinned him here and there, it’s never been with a title on the line. He failed to win the Pure Title from him in 2005-06 and came up short at Hammerstein. With a bold proclamation like the one he’s made, it would be poetic if he did finally beat his greatest rival to win the ROH World Title.

Then again, Nigel has to make it through Kevin Steen first if he is going to even make it to Detroit with the title. Steen has also promised to be a champion by the time ROH came back to Dayton in late November, and this is his first shot. I have to be honest though, even though he’s going to be the huge crowd favorite in Canada, I just don’t see him getting the ROH World Title. I think it’s a lot more likely that he gets the tag title with Generico, and with over three months left to play with, I don’t think the title victory is coming anytime soon. It’s going to be all about Nigel and Claudio in Detroit, and without any special insight into Claudio’s situation, I’m as much in the dark as the rest of you. If you take the win-or-die aspect out of it though, I think it’s too soon for Nigel to drop the title. He’s got other people to defend the title against before dropping it, and I’m still holding out for a Final Battle win by Tyler Black.

In an interesting twist, while Steen is getting his title shot in Toronto, Claudio will spend that evening wrestling Bryan Danielson, another guy who has been rumored to be looking at moving on from ROH. Danielson has been losing a lot lately, including a recent loss to Claudio, and I think that this match will give us an idea as to where both men are headed in their ROH careers.

Speaking of those recent losses, Bryan Danielson will face Tyler Black, who pinned him in a tag team match in Philadelphia, on Saturday night in Detroit at the PPV taping. Danielson has wrestled Black I believe three times in singles matches this year and Danielson has won every time. If Danielson goes 0-2 this weekend, one has to wonder where he’s going to stand after this weekend. As for Tyler Black, he’ll team with his championship partner Jimmy Jacobs to face Austin Aries and Jay Briscoe in a No DQ, non-title match in Toronto. Aries and Briscoe defeated Jacobs and Black at A New Level, and then Aries defeated Jacobs in a singles match last month. I think Jacobs and his men need to pick up a win in order to still appear competitive with Aries and, to a lesser extent, the Briscoes. A big question mark in this weekend’s festivities is Necro Butcher who, as of this writing, has yet to be signed to a match either night. Austin Aries is trying to turn Necro Butcher against Jimmy Jacobs, and I would imagine there would be some development of that storyline in Toronto.

The now former FIP Champion Roderick Strong will be in an interesting situation as he’s going to face Naomichi Marufuji on Friday night in Toronto, then team with him on Saturday in Detroit against Chris Hero and Go Shiozaki. Even though it seems that Strong is in for a big singles push, I don’t believe for a second that he’s going to beat Marufuji. I’m frankly surprised that Marufuji hasn’t been brought in for a solid singles run the way KENTA did in 2006. I do think that the two of them together will beat Hero and Shiozaki, but Hero and Shiozaki will probably attack them after the match.

Shiozaki will also challenge Erick Stevens for the FIP Title on Friday night. After dropping the PPV match to Roderick Strong back in Philadelphia, it looks like Stevens is finally getting pushed again, with that big win over Bryan Danielson and his subsequent second FIP Title victory last weekend. Now it remains to be seen whether he’s just going to be a short term champion again or if he’ll be given an extended run this time around. In terms of FIP, I think it’s time somebody other than Strong ran with the title for a while. Either way, the title as of now is not going to be on the line in this match, but I think this match will be telling as to how Stevens will be booked going forward.

In other announced matches for Toronto, Chris Hero will face Ruckus, Sara Del Rey will take on Jennifer Blake in a SHIMMER attraction match, and Kenny Omega (who’s coming into this weekend with a fair amount of hype behind him) will take on Delirious. As for Detroit, only the three aforementioned matches have been announced so far, and there’s a lot of big names that have yet to be inserted into matches, including Austin Aries, Jay Briscoe, Erick Stevens, Delirious, SHIMMER Champion MsChif (who’s an amazing wrestler if you’ve never seen her), and Jimmy Jacobs. Gabe Sapolsky sometimes likes to keep his PPV plans under wraps until the day of the show (such as their first PPV when they didn’t announce any matches beforehand), so we may be in for a few surprises in Detroit.

Another question mark going into Detroit is what kind of role Lance Storm will play. He is advertised as appearing, but nobody knows quite what he’ll be doing on the show. Backstage is another story, as it’s been said that ROH has been looking for a veteran presence in the locker room to help their roster grow in much the same way that Mick Foley and Ricky Steamboat did in 2004-05. I would imagine they’re thinking about Storm for this role, though I don’t know whether or not they’ve approached him about becoming a regular fixture in the locker room or not. I don’t know how well Storm would work out in such a role. He’s a great worker, a respectable guy, obviously loves the business, and has literally worked everywhere, and such a veteran undoubtedly has a lot to offer. On the other hand, outside of ECW, I don’t know if you’d say he was ever “over” anywhere. Granted, a lot of that was more the bookers’ fault and not his, but all the same I don’t know how much he’ll be able to teach them about working a crowd. Then again, ROH is the workrate promotion, so maybe that’s not the point.

This is going to be a big weekend, and I’ll have thoughts on the fallout, as well as a preview of next weekend’s return to Virginia and then Death Before Dishonor VI in New York. Thanks for reading, and all feedback can be sent to stupwinsider@yahoo.com.