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Hi all, I had a little extra time this week, so I decided to fit in another edition of the pROHfile. Obviously the big news breaking this week was the formation of Dragon Gate USA with former ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky begin brought in as Vice President, but seeing as I’m literally hours away from getting in my car and driving to Canada, as well as the fact that not too many details have come out since the announcement, I decided to wait until sometime next week to talk about it. For now though, there are a few other things going on in ROH that I felt merited discussion, so here I go!
The Tyler Black/Necro Butcher vs Jimmy Jacobs feud needs to be blown off YESTERDAY. Tyler Black and Jacobs split at the end of 2008, and for four months now we’ve been treated to an endless series of tag matches and multi-way matches with these two across the ring from each other, with Tyler getting the better of Jacobs 99% of the time. This weekend, they’ll be facing one another in a grudge match. So you’re telling me that this feud has gone on for four months, with Jacobs viciously attacking Tyler and costing him chances to win the ROH World Title, and all we’re getting at this point is a grudge match? After four months, we should be getting some kind of violent stipulation matches, but this feud has gone nowhere and has zero suspense because everyone knows Tyler is going to win every match and is (theoretically) going to go on and become a star anyway.
As for Necro, he left Age Of The Fall LAST SUMMER, and he’s been spinning his wheels feuding with Jacobs and his new henchman, Brodie Lee, ever since. We’ve gotten some good brawls our of Necro and AOTF, but what has it accomplished? This feud should have ended months ago, yet it’s still dragging along with no end in sight.
Eventually, it’s going to get to the point where three guys (meaning Black, Necro, and Tyler) who all have a ton of potential to do a lot more, are going to have spent so much time wasting away in this marathon feud that people are going to stop caring. There are already people who are starting to give up on Necro, who was as over as anyone in the company a few months ago, but has softened his character and been de-emphasized to the point that people are losing interest. Tyler was THE hottest babyface in the company at the beginning of the year, but he’s been spinning his wheels messing around with Jacobs and hasn’t been given anything meaningful to do since his World Title match with Nigel McGuinness in Edison back in January.
Black more than any of these guys can’t afford to cool off in the eyes of the fans because he was literally one three count away from being The Guy in ROH, but instead they’ve done a total RVD job on him, and by that I mean they’ve held off on giving him the run with the title he probably should have gotten months ago (and would have gotten if Gabe were still in charge), but now it’s getting to the point where they’re starting to hold off for too long. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those guys who thinks “OMG they’re not giving him the title right now they’re going to sink the company†or anything like that, but Tyler Black had star written all over him, but I’m worried they’re getting to the point where even if they gave him the title, it won’t mean as much as it would have even a few months ago.
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Word came out this week that although Bryan Danielson plans to continue wrestling for ROH, he will not be signing a contract renewal, as he wants the freedom to work overseas or take time off if he wishes. I’ve heard from a bunch of people who are worried that this means Danielson may end up getting signed away by WWE, but I don’t think that’s imminent. As Mike Johnson mentioned in his news report, Danielson had a WWE dark match last year with the blessing of ROH, and if WWE had wanted to sign him then, ROH would have allowed it. They didn’t, so that means that we’re probably going to have Danielson around for at least a little while longer. And on a personal note, I (probably somewhat selfishly) am glad he didn’t get signed, both because this means he’ll stay in ROH, but also because you and I both know that WWE wouldn’t use Danielson the way we’d want him too. He wouldn’t likely be allowed to work the same style we’re used to, and because he’s a physically smaller guy, he’d probably end up being jobbed out, buried, or even worse, given some ridiculous gimmick or angle, or not even get used at all.
But that said, where do we go with Danielson from here? I think that the obvious answer is that his feud with Bison Smith will continue, and I see this leading into a feud pitting Danielson, Brent Albright, and Colt Cabana against Smith and his Embassy cohorts. Also, the new ROH World Champion Jerry Lynn needs opponents, and who better than the former champion Bryan Danielson? These two had a couple of kickass matches in December and January, and I wouldn’t be upset to see them go a few more rounds. I don’t know that ROH would feel comfortable putting a title on him again right now. It’s not like when they were a small indy, and it’s not even like it was when their worst worry was that TNA contracted talent could get yanked. They’re a TV entity now, and not only does this mean they’re never going to get their hands on TNA talent again, but now they’re in danger of having their unsigned talent signed away by TNA or WWE, and even though WWE passed on him last time, there’s nothing to say they won’t later change their mind. I have no doubt Danielson would do business and give notice and drop the strap before leaving, but it’s an embarrassing situation in general to have a guy signed away by one of the Big Two, it’s another when it’s your World Champion.
But just because he probably shouldn’t win a title doesn’t mean he can’t challenge for them, especially since a lot of people think of him as the best wrestler in ROH regardless of who the champion is. Besides a run with Lynn, I wouldn’t mind seeing him get a partner and have a run with the American Wolves, challenging for the ROH World Tag Team Title. This would work for a couple of reasons. For one, Danielson’s never seriously challenged for the tag title, and it would be an opportunity to not just do something new in ROH, a feat which becomes increasingly difficult for a guy who’s been there since the beginning. It would also give a guy who has shown that he’s as good as they come as a singles wrestler to prove that he can also work well in a regular tag team situation. Third, scoring wins over Danielson regardless of who his partner is would solidify the American Wolves as champions to be reckoned with.
ROH definitely has more they can get out of Danielson for at least another year, year and a half, but beyond that, it might be time for Danielson to leave and go in search of that big money contract because really, what more can you do with him?
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I finally got the chance to catch up on the first four episodes of ROH On HDNet this past week, and I wass really, really impressed with what they did. The camera work was a million percent better than what we’re used to on the DVD releases, and HDNet did a much better job of capturing what it’s actually like being at an ROH show. The production setup was impressive to see live at the taping, but it’s even more amazing to see what kind of difference it makes in the finished product. The only problem I saw from a production standpoint was that they need to do a better job of getting the crowd into the show. The crowd was visible (if a little poorly lit, which was addressed at last week’s tapings), but the noise was way too low, but this is something that has apparently been noted and will also hopefully be improved upon in the next set of tapings that took place last week. Hey, it was their first outing, it’s okay if it’s not perfect and I expect they’ll work hard to improve on any issues to come out of the first tapings.
I was also pleased to see that the show will be used to help promote what I guess has to now be referred to as their house shows as well as their PPVs. Each week they’ve had a graphic come up on screen promoting the next few events, and there have been short commercials for the upcoming Caged Collision PPV at the end of each episode. I was hoping that this wouldn’t just be an hour or so of programming for HDNet and that ROH would be able to use the timeslot to promote their core business, but it turns out that ROH will get to use the TV series as a promotional tool after all. I guess we still have to wait and see how the TV storyline integration with the touring show storylines works out, but in retrospect, it seems that the first set of tapings were booked with respect to where storylines would be by the time the show aired. For example, I noticed at the tapings that Delirious was showing more of his babyface persona than he had since making the heel turn, but that was because by the time the episode aired, Delirious would have left Age Of The Fall, and he was acknowledged as such in the prematch graphics.
On a final note, I loved the history package in the middle of the first episode, it did a great job of highlighting a lot of the stars who have come through ROH over the years without portraying themselves as a steppingstone. It also showed off their more athletic, hard-hitting style and emphasized that ROH is not a new company, but one that’s been around for several years and has had quite an eventful history. As long as they don’t overdo what’s been done in their past at the expense of the present, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of these history packages.
Looking at the results of the second set of tapings, it seems they injected a major dose of storytelling into the straightforward wrestling we got in the first six episodes, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that comes across in the final product, but I guess we’ll find out in three weeks.
And that about wraps it up for me today. I’m going home and packing and then heading off to Canada for a fun-filled weekend of ROH shows, beer, and getting my car searched at the border. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back tomorrow with a preview of this weekend’s events. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you then!
Stuart Carapola can be reached at stupwinsider@yahoo.com
