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Hi everybody, welcome to the latest edition of the pROHfile, your weekly and sometimes more dose of what’s going on in the world of ROH. I was up in Canada this past weekend for the shows in Montreal and Markham and had a great time. The crowds were both great and the shows were good, especially the last three matches on the show in Markham. I would say when the DVD comes out, get it because you’re going to get some great wrestling for your twenty bucks. The crowds in both cities were also really energetic, and a good show can only go so far, but if there’s a good crowd it can make it just seem that much better. I’ve got a hotline up in the Elite section that talks more about my thoughts on the Canadian shows, as well as other topics like Dragon Gate USA, where you can go with storylines in light of El Generico’s knee injury, and Joey Ryan coming to ROH. But the Canadian shows are behind us, and instead we now move on to ROH’s latest swing through the Midwest, making stops in Dayton on Friday and Chicago Ridge on Saturday. These have always been two strong markets for ROH, and we’re looking at two pretty strong cards for their return to the area. Headlining both shows is new ROH World Champion Jerry Lynn, as he has two big title defenses against first Roderick Strong, and then Colt Cabana. To me, Strong is a good wrestler but also a guy that’s a good go-to guy if you need a lame duck sort of challenger to help the champion build momentum, and I think that’s what were looking at in Dayton. Cabana has traditionally been in a similar role, though I would expect the match to get the crowd going being that Cabana’s a Chicago native. I find it a little curious that they’re basically putting Cabana in a position where we know he’s going to lose (or at least not win) in his first ROH match back in his hometown, but if they’re not worried about Lynn getting booed there, then neither will I. The American Wolves vs Tyler Black/Bryan Danielson rivalry will continue this weekend, hot on the heels of their off the charts tag title match in Markham last weekend, as Richards will face Black and Edwards will take on Danielson in a pair of singles matches in Dayton. The rematch for the title has already been signed for ROH’s return to Edison in a couple of weeks, so while I’m sure these will both be fabulous matches, I also expect some kind of storyline element to play in here, probably with the Wolves trying to injure Black and/or Danielson ahead of Edison since…well, that’s what they do. Win or lose, the American Wolves will then go on to Chicago Ridge to defend the ROH World Tag Team Title against the unique team of Kevin Steen & Jay Briscoe in a Two Out Of Three Falls Match. I like the idea of the healthy members of the Briscoes and Steen & Generico joining forces despite their past differences to go after the American Wolves, who have attacked both teams on numerous occasions. I think there’s definitely some fun possibilities for storylines here, but we’ll see whether this is just going to be a one off thing since Generico’s injured, or if this will lead to Steen & Briscoe teaming more regularly down the line. I doubt they’ll win the title in Chicago Ridge, but stranger things have happened. Steen & Briscoe will also take on the Dark City Fight Club in Dayton in what was supposed to be a rematch from the DCFC/Steen & Generico match from Florida a few months ago before Generico got injured. The DCFC is slowly gaining a following in ROH, and being that they’re going to have what probably won’t be much more than an enhancement match against the Phoenix Twins in Chicago Ridge, this could turn out to be a very strong weekend for the DCFC if they go over Steen & Briscoe. I think this will be another good match, but Steen & Briscoe will probably win because you probably don’t want them going into a title match with a loss. Chris Hero has a pair of big matches this weekend as well, taking on Colt Cabana in Dayton and Tyler Black in Chicago Ridge. Now with Larry Sweeney apparently completely gone fron ROH, we’re going to see how well Hero stands on his own, which is something I thought he should have been doing from the beginning. I never thought Hero needed a mouthpiece because he’s a great talker and in my opinion it only served to diminish his character. Hopefully he’ll win at least one of these matches and start to pick up some momentum for himself since I would imagine his associations with the other members of Sweet N Sour Inc aren’t long for this world, either. Two other big matches from Chicago Ridge will see Bryan Danielson take on Jimmy Rave and Jimmy Jacobs, Roderick Strong, and Claudio Castagnoli lock up in a three way match. Danielson and Rave have always had good matches, though Danielson’s always won them, and I think since Rave hasn’t been winning consistently since returning to ROH, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give him a win here. As for the three way, we’re talking about three guys who have no storyline relationship with one another, and in the case of Roderick and Jacobs, two guys who really have nothing at all going on for themselves in terms of storylines. I’m hoping the Canadian shows finally put the whole Age Of The Fall angle behind Jacobs and that this weekend will be the dawn of a new day for him. With Roderick similarly unattached since the end of the Sweet N Sour Inc feud, this would be a good time to get Jacobs and Roderick into a feud since they’ve both been in ROH forever, but have remarkably had little to no interaction the entire time. The rest of the matches this weekend basically boil down to undercard and/or tryout matches featuring local talent. I already mentioned the Phoenix Twins, but Silas Young, Matt Cross, “Skullkrusher†Rasche Brown, and Egotistico Fantastico will all be in action this weekend as well. The only guys I really know from this list are Young and Cross, and while Young is a guy who always gets a reaction when ROH swings through the Midwest, Cross is, in my opinion, a horrible wrestler who has a Sabu-esque ratio of botched moves, and I’m not even a guy who harps on guys screwing up, but with Cross it’s really noticeable. While I would like to see Young featured more regularly, I’m not that heartbroken that Cross is relegated to undercard matches in Dayton. So there you have it, if you’re attending feel free to send along live reports because we need ‘em! In the meantime, thanks for listening and if you’re an Elite member, don’t foget to check out my hotline and if you’re not Elite, sign up for an Elite account so you can hear it! I’ll be back next week with a look at Jerry Lynn and how he compares to ROH Champions past and a lot more, so make sure to come back and check that out as well. Take care, and I’ll see you all next week! Stu Carapola can be reached at stupwinsider@yahoo.com.
