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Before getting into this past weekend’s shows, I’d like to apologize to everybody who tried accessing my MySpace page at www.myspace.com/stupwinsider and couldn’t get in, turns out even though I created the page I forgot to actually set up the URL, and it took me looking at the page views count sitting at 0 for an entire week while I plugged it in every one of the 12 or so columns I’ve turned in over the last week before I figured out the problem and set up the URL. So with that in mind, if you’d like to check me out on Myspace, you can catch me at www.myspace.com/stupwinsider!
But enough of my shameless self-promotion, time to get on to some Writing Of Honor, and right now I’d like to take a look back at this past weekend’s shows in Dayton and the latest PPV taping in Chicago Ridge. Some pretty interesting things coming out of these, and I guess I might as well start with this weekend’s controversial booking decision, as the three-way ROH World Title match in Dayton with Nigel McGuinness defending against Austin Aries and Tyler Black became a non-title match, basically because Nigel McGuinness came out at the beginning of the show and said that he didn’t feel like defending it that night. I have some mixed feelings on this one, on the one hand I don’t think anyone seriously expected Aries or Black to win the title one night before Nigel’s big final PPV showdown with Bryan Danielson, and I do understand that this was mostly done simply to make Nigel look like a jerk. On the flipside, this is the latest in a string of weird screwy things that have jerked the fans around since Adam Pearce took over as booker, and while I recognize he’s trying to do something different and add different elements to ROH that we really haven’t seen before, Pearce has to be very careful not to try doing too much of this stuff too quickly. He’s already had three or four DQ and countout finishes in the four shows he’s been the booker for, and even though everybody was pretty certain of the outcome of that three way, they still bait-and-switched the fans who did show up expecting to see a title match. The ROH fans are as aware of the booking switch as anyone, and because of it are on super alert for anything they don’t like because they’re very protective of their ROH product because it’s the only one like it right now, and the new booking regime needs to be cognizant of that.
But regardless of the outcome of that match (which he did end up winning), Nigel McGuinness walked into Chicago Ridge with the ROH World Title around his waist and successfully defended it against Bryan Danielson, scoring his first totally clean win over Danielson in what was said to be an amazing, dramatic match. This match was not completely without controversy either, as Claudio Castagnoli attacked Danielson in the crowd in an attempt to cost him his shot at the title, but Claudio’s attack didn’t directly lead to the finish of the match, which I liked. I generally don’t mind interference in big matches like these as long it doesn’t end up deciding the match, and I point to Homicide’s win over Danielson for the ROH World Title at Final Battle 2006 when Danielson tried getting his goons to interfere and cause the DQ, only for the match to be restarted and Homicide came back to win the match. If Claudio attacked Danielson, then threw him back in the ring and Nigel pinned him immediately, we would have had a problem, but this did nothing to affect the outcome of the match and also furthered their own feud. Still, Nigel went on to defeat Danielson and with this win, Nigel has now pretty much put an end to Danielson’s quest to regain the title for the time being. So the question now becomes, who is left? We still haven’t gotten a title match between Nigel and Marufuji, and hopefully that will be on for Final Battle, but other than that, is anyone else really positioned as a serious contender? I think that if Nigel gets by Marufuji, we may be waiting until Tyler Black splits from Jimmy Jacobs and goes solo before Nigel will be in any serious danger.
As for Danielson, he defeated Claudio Castagnoli in the latest match in their series, and their first singles meeting in quite some time, but Claudio again brutalized him with a chair after the match. It seems to me like this match is also heading toward some kind of stipulation blowoff match, and I think it would be great if they had a Fight Without Honor to close the series on 12/26 at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia. I paint this scenario for two reasons: first, it would be appropriate to have some kind of super violent blowoff in the ECW Arena because of the obvious history of violence in that building, but also because Danielson will be having his long awaited blowoff with Morishima in a Fight Without Honor the following night in New York for Final Battle 2008. Bryan Danielson in two Fights Without Honor on back to back nights? I think that would be a great way to wrap up all his angles with a nice pretty bow before moving on and pointing him in a new direction once 2009 begins.
But getting back to Tyler Black, he was involved in what was probably the match that got the most attention this weekend, as he took on Samoa Joe in Joe’s first match in ROH since his farewell tour ended in early March of 2007. This was also said to be very good with Joe obviously coming in looking to work hard to put on a good show and make Tyler Black look good. For his part, Black was said to hold up his end of the bargain and kept up quite well with Joe. There were a few close spots, and Black even kicked out of the Island Driver at one. In the end, Joe needed to hit the STJoe, Muscle Buster, and the choke all in a row to put Black away. As you might expect, Joe heavily put over ROH after the match and said he’d love to come back anytime. The crowd was very happy to see Joe, but this was secretly disguised as the latest stop in the Build Up Tyler Black Project 2008 tour. Tyler Black is rapidly becoming a bonafide main eventer and looks great every time out. He even looks good in the matches he loses, including this one, because even though he loses the matches, he gives us the impression that he could have won just as easily. The only question mark surrounding Tyler Black at this point is whether he can do it on his own. There’s no doubt that he’s got the look and the workrate, but it’s pretty easy to look like a million bucks when so many of your matches are against Bryan Danielson, Austin Aries, Nigel McGuinness, and the Briscoes. Eventually Tyler’s going to be ROH Champion, but can he take the lead and make others look good and work around them instead of the other way around? He looks good now, but I don’t think we’ll know until he has that belt around his waist.
It wasn’t just Tyler Black coming up short, this was another all around rough weekend for Age Of The Fall, who seem to be losing a lot more than they’re winning these days. The only wins AOTF picked up this weekend were MsChif retaining the SHIMMER Title with a win over Sara Del Rey and Delirious again brutalizing and defeating Rhett Titus in Chicago Ridge. Other than those matches, AOTF might as well have stayed home. In Dayton, Jimmy Jacobs and Delirious fell short in their bid to win the ROH World Tag Team Title from Kevin Steen & El Generico, then Jimmy Jacobs came up short in the I Quit Match, which was the final match of his best of three series with Austin Aries. Lacey returned to ROH in the corner of Austin Aries, who won the match when he put Jacobs in a crossface and repeatedly hit him in the head with a steel spike until Jacobs submitted. After the match, they teased a breakup between Jacobs and Black when Jacobs began berating Black after the loss until Black walked away from him. Other than this confrontation between Black and Jacobs, not too many new developments in AOTF World this weekend, but it seems like we’re still on course for a reorganization of the stable before the end of the year.
Some new developments we are seeing involve the Briscoes and their apparent heel turn. The Briscoes have been said to be working a more aggressive style lately, and they brought that new attitude with them this weekend, as they were said to be working heelish in their victory over Irish Airborne in Dayton, and then in Chicago Ridge they opened the PPV by challenging Kevin Steen & El Generico to defend the ROH World Tag Team Title against them. Steen & Generico won the match when Steen took advantage of Mark’s leg injury by kicking him in the leg and hitting the Package Piledriver for the win. After the match, the two teams brawled and had to be separated. I think this is as good a move as any for the Briscoes, as they’ve gotten a bit stagnant and, having already held the ROH World Tag Team Title about five billion times, there wasn’t too much more they could do as babyfaces, so I think turning them heel for the first time in about two years was the way to go. Now I can see a scenario where having already lost twice to Steen & Generico, they now have to cheat to beat them and regain their precious title, and I even think it would be cool for them to form some sort of stable with Nigel as the most dominant team and most dominant singles wrestler in ROH, and since we’re apparently now in an era of ROH where interference isn’t quite so taboo, I think it would be a great direction to go with three top level, but otherwise directionless stars.
Speaking of stables, Sweet & Sour Inc’s weekend didn’t start out well, but they made up for it well enough before it was all over. Davey Richards wass defeated by Brent Albright and then Chris Hero and Roderick Strong went to a no contest when Sweet & Sour Inc interfered, but then Hero, Richards, and Go Shiozaki defeated Roderick Strong, Brent Albright, and their mystery partner, the returning Ace Steel, in a six man in Chicago. With the win in that six man tag, Larry Sweeney was able to get out of the Steel Cage Warfare match that had been proposed by Brent Albright for Final Battle 2008 in New York City. I’m guessing there will still be some kind of blowoff match, but we’ll have to wait to see what stipulations that might involve.
So that’s it for me for today, I’ll be back soon with something a little different in my next edition of the pROHfile, and then later this coming week I’ll be back to preview next weekend’s debut shows in Nashville and the St Louis area. Until then, thanks as always for reading, and you can send me feedback at stupwinsider@yahoo.com or catch up with me on Myspace at www.myspace.com/stupwinsider. Take care, and I’ll talk to you all soon.
