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Hello all, and welcome back to the latest edition of the pROHfile. There’s a bunch of stuff going on in ROH coming out of the recent 7th Anniversary weekend in Elizabeth, PA and New York City and going into the upcoming Wrestlemania weekend events in Houston, so let’s get right into the action.
First thing I want to talk about is the pretty severely injured ROH World Champion, Nigel McGuinness. For those who weren’t aware, word leaked out after the Elizabeth event that Nigel suffered a torn bicep, or rather an aggravation of a previous injury to the bicep, at the Elizabeth show and had been sent off to see a doctor after the event was over. Since I had known Nigel to have suffered some kind of arm injury since he had been wrestling with one arm pretty heavily taped for a couple of months now, I assumed that this was a worsening of that injury. Turns out when I saw him in New York City, the injury was to the other arm, the one he had injured right after winning the title back in late 2007.
Nigel came out with both arms heavily taped up, to the point where it almost looked like that episode of Full House when Uncle Jesse had casts on both arms and had to figure out how to do everything without bending his arms. I was thinking the same thing when I saw Nigel come out, I was wondering how the hell he was going to get through a match with both arms in the condition they appeared to be in. Since the entire first five to ten minutes of the match consisted solely of KENTA kicking the crap out of Nigel, with Nigel getting in literally zero offense himself, I thought it might have been a situation where they were just going to do a quickie title change since KENTA was going to be in Houston anyway.
From there, though, they went on to have one hell of a match, and one that I said on my hotline last week that I will go on record as saying was the best match ROH has had since KENTA challenged Bryan Danielson for the title back at Glory By Honor V Night Two in September of 2006. I think it says a lot about Nigel McGuinness that he not only toughed it through the match, but was able to have a match that good for over a half hour. Big credit also goes to KENTA, who is such a good worker that he was able to work around Nigel and carry much of the match himself, because if KENTA wasn’t as good as he is, it never would have worked out as well.
That said, Nigel is getting to a point now where he has to drop the title at the earliest possible opportunity. I understand, and also admire, that Nigel is taking his responsibility as the ROH World Champion very seriously, and wants to continue to defend the title to the best of his ability even if it means working hurt. The problem is that he’s now past the point of being hurt, he’s at the point where it’s probably not just dangerous for him to continue wrestling and risk further and/or permanent injury, but also for whoever has to wrestle the guy with two torn biceps. I know Nigel is good, but without at least one good arm to work with, the chances of something going wrong rise pretty dramatically, and I think for the safety of everybody involved, Nigel needs to lose the title. As much of a responsibility as Nigel has to the company as long as he’s carrying that title, the company has a responsibility to the wrestlers to be as protective of their physical welfare as they possibly can, and right now Nigel is a problem waiting to happen.
Seeing as Nigel is slated to face Jerry Lynn (a guy I’ve pegged for a long time as one of the leading candidates for Nigel’s eventual conqueror) in Houston this coming weekend, I think this would be a perfect chance to have Nigel drop the title without even having to rearrange things. I would have loved to see Nigel keep going just another three months and beat Samoa Joe’s record, but his health comes first and he needs to lose that title to Lynn in Houston. If I look at the results the next day and see that Nigel made it through the weekend with the title still around his waist, then someone at ROH will have officially lost their mind.
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Two major past stars made their return to ROH this weekend, as Colt Cabana and Jimmy Rave came out as Bryan Danielson and Bison Smith’s respective mystery partners for a tag team match at the 7th Anniversary Show. Their returns were both met with huge pops, which I expected when Cabana returns, but I have to admit to being a little surprised that Rave got such a great reception, as he was barely getting any reaction from the crowds before he left ROH nearly two years ago. I think part of the problem was that nobody really cared about him once the Embassy was done, so putting him back together with Nana is at least a proven formula. Cabana’s a guy who has always been made with the ROH audience, and I think they even continued to feel that way, if not being even more behind him given how badly he was misused in WWE.
But now Colt Cabana and Jimmy Rave are back in ROH, and with Paul London gone from WWE, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him return at some point as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to see them back and I think that they’ve all been gone more than long enough that there’s plenty of fresh matchups and storylines just waiting to happen. All three of them can now pursue ROH championship gold, which eluded them all during their first runs with the company.
However, ROH needs to be very careful with how they’re used, and here’s why: in 2007 when the company lost Cabana, Rave, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Homicide, and Matt Sydal, ROH was in a tough spot it hadn’t been in for three years where they now had to build an entire new main event crew. They had Morishima in at that point, and they still had Danielson, Aries, Nigel, and the Briscoes, but beyond that they’ve had to completely rebuild their roster. They have had a lot of success by my estimation, as we’ve seen Kevin Steen & El Generico, Jimmy Jacobs, Jerry Lynn, Tyler Black, Necro Butcher, Roderick Strong, Davey Richards, and Claudio Castagnoli all work their way up enough that they can be called on to main event pretty much whenever needed. The openings they left further down on the card have been filled out with other guys, some of whom have worked out and others who haven’t, but it’s taken them this long to get back to a point where ROH has its roster of guys who are able to stand on their own where people aren’t constantly pining for the days of Joe vs Punk.
That all is going to change now, because with Cabana and Rave returning, they are now more than likely going to leapfrog over Tyler, Necro, Claudio, and all the others in the eyes of the fans who see guys like Cabana and Rave as the “real†stars of ROH, whose spots have just been kept warm for them by the second generation until their deals with the national companies ended and they were free to return. The same thing will happen if and when Paul London comes back.
As I’ve said, I understand why they’re back and I don’t blame ROH for doing it, but they need to be careful with how they book the returning ROH stars. I don’t think that ROH management is dumb enough to have them come in and jump right into the main events and win all the titles, because they have to know that doing so would destroy all the work they’ve put into their new roster for two years. Plus, we’re not talking about guys who were major national stars or anything. It’s not like Joe and Punk are coming back, these guys were all a major step below those two on the national promotion scale. Cabana, Rave, and London are all guys that the ROH fans see as ROH legends, but still mid-level enough that they’ll accept them not getting the ROH World Title in the next month.
The main thing they need to mind is how they book these returning stars in relation to the rest of the roster. One of the main complaints a lot of people had with the New York show a couple of weeks ago was the way D’Lo Brown was booked to come in and basically dominate Jay Briscoe, who is as much a top ROH guy as they come. Briscoe was made to look inferior to Brown, who more or less cakewalked his way through the match. I think people might not have turned on that match as much if it were more even or if it looked for a second like Briscoe could beat D’Lo, and I think that’s something ROH needs to keep in mind going forward as it relates to Cabana and Rave, and possibly London. It’s one thing to have them come back, it’s another thing to have them come back, beat up this year’s senior class, and kick them back to the tenth grade.
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Just a couple of other things I wanted to touch on before I go, the first being what could turn out to be a major blow to ROH, it seems that Time Warner Cable may stop carrying HDNet, the network which airs ROH’s new TV series every Saturday night, as well as apparently tons of reruns throughout the week. I don’t really have much to add to the story except that a)it would obviously be a pretty big deal losing the exposure ROH would get with access to the Time Warner audience, and b)it’s starting to look as though HDNet may not get dropped after all, as the network is still airing on its normal Time Warner channel even though we’re past the deadline at which it was to be dropped, and while it is still on a list of networks which may be let go, the message explicitly stating that it will be dropped has been removed from Time Warner’s system.
Personally speaking, I think the HDNet-Time Warner situation will probably work out to just be posturing by one side or the other for negotiation purposes, but if Time Warner ever did drop HDNet, it would have an effect on ROH’s exposure, but I don’t know what kind of effect it would have on their level of business overall. I’ve said that I look at ROH’s HDNet deal as similar to TNA’s FSN deal, in that it’s a good first step, and before too long they may move on to a better deal elsewhere. Time will tell, but that’s the impression that I get.
Anyone who’s doesn’t watch the ROH Video Wire has been missing some great stuff. First of all, it gives you a taste of what’s going on at the live events a lot quicker than waiting for the DVDs will get you. Just on the last two Video Wires, you have clips from the 7th Anniversary weekend featuring stuff from KENTA’s return to ROH, some really nasty spots from the Steen/Generico vs American Wolves match in New York, and an extended clip featuring the ROH returns of Jimmy Rave and Colt Cabana.
Beyond that though, we got some other interesting segments, the first of which featured Julius Smokes, who appears ready to return to ROH. We saw a clip of him walking around New York talking about how even though the Vulture Squad didn’t work out, he’s led other men to championship gold, and he’s got somebody lined up to benefit from his managerial expertise in the near future. I think Julius is a very, very entertaining guy and a hell of a mouthpiece, and if he’s able to make all the shows he’s needed for, bringing him back is a great idea. Let’s hope whoever he winds up with this time won’t decide to stop showing up.
Also on the 3/25 Video Wire, we saw the beginnings of a new alliance between Austin Aries and the young hotshot team of Rhett Titus and Kenny King as Aries confronted his former partners, Erick Stevens and Matt Cross, and told them that he may have overestimated their abilities when he formed the Resilience, leading to a beatdown on Stevens and Cross by Aries, Titus, and King. I feel like I may not be in the majority here, but I think that King and Titus are way more talented and entertaining than Cross and Stevens could ever hope to be, and given Aries’ newfound heel charisma, I think a group with the three of them could really work out great.
Jerry Lynn was featured on the most recent Video Wire, talking about how things have turned around for him the last several months and that when he steps into the ring with Nigel Mcguinness in Houston, Nigel had better bring everything he has because Lynn wants the ROH World Title. After the short promo by Lynn, we get shots of him training in preparation of his title shot in Houston. The sitdown interview with Lynn was great, and I think between that interview, which was spread out over several Video Wires, and this segment leading into this weekend, I think all the groundwork is laid out for a potential Jerry Lynn title win in Houston.
Finally, I would be remiss in not mentioning the super funny ROH Cribs segment featuring Ernie Osiris showing off the place he’s able to afford now that he’s working for Prince Nana, which appeared for all the world to be the basement of some apartment building or something. I can’t do it justice, you have to see this for yourselves, but I hope they keep stuff like this up because it injects a good measure of humor into the ROH product.
Just a couple of other things I wanted to touch on before I go, such as Sonjay Dutt being announced as appearing at the 5/8 and 5/9 events in Boston and Edison, NJ respectively. Dutt has made several appearances in the past for ROH, most notably challenging Bryan Danielson for the ROH World Title at the conclusion of the ROH-CZW war at Death Before Dishonor IV, but he’s never been in for an extended run, and I think he’s a guy who fits into the ROH mold perfectly. He’s also a guy who has several years of national TV exposure, and even though we’re not talking about Steve Austin levels of notoriety, having a known commodity on your show is never a bad thing, especially when we’re talking about a guy who can flat out go like Sonjay.
And that’s it for me and this monster edition of the pROHfile. I’ll be back tomorrow or Friday with a full preview of this weekend’s events in Houston for Wrestlemania weekend, but until then, feel free to send any and all feedback to stupwinsider@yahoo.com with your thoughts on the column or anything else ROH related. Until next time, thanks for reading, and I’ll see y’all in Texas!
(Disclaimer: Stuart will not actually be in Texas. He just wrote that so he could say y’all. He will actually be spending the weekend in New York where far less people say y’all than they do in Texas. However, Stuart has met lots and lots of people from Texas and thought they were all really cool and would love to go there someday.)
