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But for right now, let's preview what we're going to see at the tapings. As usual, we are mostly in the dark as to what to expect other than the six announced main events. We do know that ROH Ambassador Ric Flair will be on hand for the first night of tapings, so he'll probably get in the middle of some angle and maybe make a match or two while he's at it. Oh, and for the people who emailed to ask me, no, I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell that Ric Flair will ever wrestle in ROH.
But moving on to the matches, the first main event will feature a rematch from all the way back in 2006, as Roderick Strong takes on KENTA. Can we say stiff? I don't think there's any doubt that these two will beat the crap out of each other, and I'd be surprised if KENTA didn't go over. Both men are pretty much in the same spot on the card as they were three years ago, and while that doesn't necessarily say much for Roderick, the fact is that this will be the HDNet audience's first exposure to KENTA, so this is pretty obviously designed to get him over.
Main event #2 pits the American Wolves against Bryan Danielson & Tyler Black, with the ROH World Tag Team Title on the line. I have to admit, I couldn't wait to see the rematch to the MOTYC they had in Canada, but the untimely injury to Black resulted in the planned rematch in New Jersey being scrapped, and I don't see them getting the time at the taping to do what they need to do to live up to the first match unless it gets the entire show. This is never going to match their first meeting, but with any luck this match may signal a more substantial third match between the two teams at a regular show around the time this airs.
The final main event for the first night will see ROH World Champion Jerry Lynn facing Chris Hero in a non-title match. On the surface, this seems like a nothing TV match designed to showcase the champion. However, there have been some instances where the events of the first two tapings have given us clues to where storylines will be by the time they air, so this could be foreshadowing a series of matches between Lynn and Hero, who has been on a real roll in 2009.
The first of three main events on the second night of tapings will see Jay Briscoe step into the ring with Roderick Strong. These guys have had a pair of matches recently on the loop that seemed like they were thrown together just to give them something to do, but turned out to be really good. Depending on whether or not you believe that what happens at the tapings “counts†in terms of the regular storyline progression, this would be the third match in the series. They've split the series so far so I say it's up in the air as to who will win here, but if I were in charge I'd have them have another good match and go to a draw or a double countout or something, and then have the “real†deciding match at a live show.
The next main event will see the American Wolves and Chris Hero, the former members of Sweet N Sour Inc, standing across the ring from Kevin Steen, El Generico, and KENTA. I guess this means that Hero and the Wolves will still have some association despite Sweeney's departure from the company, though this to me seems like the throwaway main event for this set of tapings. I don't doubt that Steen/Generico/KENTA will go over, probably with either Steen or Generico catching a fall on one of the Wolves to build to another title match between the two teams.
The final main event of this set of tapings will see the long awaited, climactic third TV match between Bryan Danielson and Tyler Black. These guys have had some great matches in ROH going back over a year, and it's been THE showcase feud over the short lifespan of the TV series so far. The first one ended in a time limit draw, the second went to a double countout, so it looks like we may finally be getting a decisive finish between these two here. A quick look forward at the calendar has this episode airing a week before Death Before Dishonor VII weekend, so the outcome of this match may give us some advance insight as to who is going to be challenging for the title that weekend, other than probably Lance Storm.
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Speaking of the ROH World Title, Jerry Lynn is scheduled to defend that title against Austin Aries in a very heavily hyped main event in New York City on June 13th. Former ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinnes has announced that he will be sitting ringside to observe the match, and just to make the match that much bigger, Ric Flair will be the guest referee. Austin Aries has been on a major roll this year after turning heel at Final Battle 2008. He has completely reinvented himself, to the point where other than a few moves, it's become very hard to reconcile the current, sleazy Aries with the intense, high impact wrestler's wrestler he was prior to 2009. I would not be surprised to see him win the title in New York City, he's at the top of his game both from an athletic standpoint as well as a character standpoint, and nothing against Jerry Lynn, but I think Aries would make a much more interesting champion than Lynn right now.
The wildcard here is Nigel McGuinnes and what, exactly, he will be doing at ringside. Of course he's “just there to observeâ€, but I think we all know better than that. He's going to get involved somehow, but in what way? Will he interfere on one or the other man's behalf? It's possible that he would want to screw Lynn out of the title that Lynn beat him for, but I can also see a scenario where Nigel wants to make sure Lynn keeps the title so that Nigel can himself win it back from him to prove that he's the better man despite what happened in Houston.
Then again, even though one would assume that Nigel would maintain his heelness coming out of New York, there's no guarantee that he won't end up a babyface after the whole thing's done. Nigel was a very, very effective heel during his run as champion, but he became a heel in the first place when the fans started to turn on him after he won the title, and then sealed the deal when injuries forced him to the sides a couple of times early on in his reign. Before that, he was a really popular babyface and I can see the fans accepting him again now that they're not dying to see him drop the title. It's possible that he'll get into it with Aries, and see Aries try to put Nigel back on the shelf.
Also, we need to see what significance there is to Flair refereeing this one. Flair has played it pretty straight so far, but it's also possible we'll see Flair turn heel and cost Lynn the title in favor of Aries. I can see a situation where Flair appreciates Aries and his athleticism and attitude because it reminds Flair of himself in his youth. Alternately, Flair can pull the tried and true “I still work for WWE because it's the best company in the world and sports entertainment is better than wrestling†promo that's guaranteed to get heat with the internet fans. I'm not sure the fans would accept him as a heel at this point in his career, but the possibility is there.
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To close out this edition of the pROHfile, let's get back to the return of Nigel McGuinness, as he's slated to wrestle for the first time since dropping the ROH World Title when he faces Claudio Castagnoli in Detroit on June 26th. My first thought when I heard about this match was that Nigel McGuinness has had more injuries in the last year and a half than I care to count, so I hope he knows what he's doing getting back in the ring so quickly. My second thought was that I can't believe that they're programming him with Claudio Castagnoli AGAIN. This will now mark the third time these two have feuded in ROH, and don't get me wrong, they've had some good matches, but it's starting to get really repetitive.
This to me is one of the rare instances in ROH where you can point to a situation and call it stale, and to a large extent, you can make that case about Nigel McGuinness even staying around ROH period. Nigel has been in ROH for a long time now, and just looking at his title reign, you can see that he's faced nearly everyone on the current roster, many of them several times. What else new is there for Nigel to do? Gabe Sapolsky said in his Kayfabe Commentaries DVD that he was going to have Nigel drop the strap at Final Battle 2008 and then nudge him out the door, and I can see the logic behind that because there's really nothing new to do with him. It's the same problem ROH had with Samoa Joe a few years ago, Joe hit that point around early to mid-2006 where he had done everything he could do, but ROH kept him around anyway and had him do not much of note for the rest of his time with the company.
The only way I can see them breaking any new ground with this feud is to let Claudio get some strong, clean wins over Nigel. For as many matches as they've had, the series has been very one sided because Nigel's won 90% of them. This can be booked as a situation where Claudio needs to prove that he can beat Nigel, and unless he does, we're just going to be rehashing the same ground we've already covered and both men will be spinning their wheels.
Above all else though, I just hope Nigel really is in good enough shape to get back in the ring. Only Nigel knows how Nigel feels, but I'm hoping that Nigel hasn't misjudged himself out of a desire to rush back into the ring because rushing back now with the injuries he had could lead to even worse trouble down the line, and I hate to see that happen not just because he's a great wrestler, but he's also a hell of a nice guy from the couple of times I've talked to him.
That about does it for me today. As always, I thank you for reading and if you've got any feedback or anything, feel free to send it along to stupwinsider@yahoo.com. Take care, and I'll see you all after the tapings!
