The Ring of Honor Wrestling fanbase on the W probably isn't big enough to warrant individual posts anytime an event or news happens, so in the interest of moderation, this will be the thread for ROH discussion in general.
(p.s. Thanks to whichever mod deleted the empty thread before.)
July 17th, 2004:
ROH officially split this past week from Rob Feinstein's RF Video. Tonight marks the first card since then, at which the Pure Wrestling Title will have a new champion crowned and the new Code of Honor and Contender's Ring will be in use.
ROH Champion Samoa Joe & The Briscoe Brothers vs. The Havana Pitbulls & Homicide Joe is ROH's answer to ECW's Taz. He almost never loses, but since his program with Homicide has been going on for months - with Joe winning - logic would dictate that Homicide & the Pitbulls get the win since Joe's title isn't up for grabs.
Danny Maff & BJ Whitmer vs. Colt Cabana & Ace Steel in a Falls Count Anywhere Match Cabana & Steel are part of CM Punk's "Second City Saints" stable. Cabana usually only wins when he's tag-teaming with Punk, the reason d'etre of ROH. Whitmer is a young lion and has been fast on the rise this year, so he & Maff should pick up the win.
Ricky Steamboat and CM Punk's "Final Confrontation" The most intriguing wrestling angle I've followed this year. It's an homage to the Steamboat/Savage feud, and ROH has done a great job in its pushing of CM Punk so far. I expect this isn't the final confrontation, as any blowoff match to this 6-months-plus feud will be treated as a huge deal by ROH. This is the ROH equivalent of ECW's Raven/Tommy Dreamer and a better "upstart versus legend" feud than Orton vs Foley was.
Pure Wrestling Championship Final Winners of the next two matches face off to determine the new champion:
Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries vs. CM Punk vs. Matt Stryker
Doug Williams vs. Hydro vs. John Walters vs. Nigel McGuiness
Punk and Williams are the odds-on favorites, going into this. Punk is the most over guy in the company, but he's so over he doesn't NEED to hold a title. Williams's reputation and ability to put on 4- and 5-star mat wrestling classics are responsible for why he's with the company. Shelley is the leader of the new big heel faction, Generation Next. Aries is part of that group and so far shows the most long-term promise. Hydro is the best-kept secret on the indy circuit right now, IMO - the next Spanky. Shelley and Aries are my picks as most likely to win, but I'll go with Aries as the new Pure Wrestling Champion.
The Carnage Crew vs. The New Carnage Crew in a Weapons Match. Losing team must split up. Loc & Devito are the originals. Masada joined them briefly, then (as the story goes) shat in their gym bags along with Danny Daniels, who together make up the New Carnage Crew.
Generation Next vs. Special K Special K is a group made up of a LOT of small punk kids. All full of attitude and high spots. Gen Next will go over.
Trent Acid vs. Prince Nana's new charge From the ROH website: "Prince Nana has been searching for a centerpiece for his Embassy. He insists that he has emptied his bank accounts in West Ghana, Africa to secure the best talent available and that man will debut in Elizabeth, NJ." ROH "surprises" are typically interesting. Acid is new to the company and a valuable star-in-the-making, so it's an odd spot to put him in.
I'm not sure how big the ROH following is on the W, but the in-ring product is the most reminiscent that I've found of ECW's chain wrestling (re: Lance Storm, Jerry Lynn) and WWE's 2002 Smackdown Six. I'll list the winners later tonight, but feel free to make predictions.
July 17 card is okay but not as stacked as the 7/23 debut in The Milwaukee Area. I do want to see the six-man and the Aries/Shelley/Punk three-way that includes Matt Stryker to make it a four-way.
I won't make predictions because Gabe doesn't stretch your imagination too far with his booking. Making predictions on a ROH show is like posting spoilers. I'll say I hope Austin Aries wins the Pure title because he's one of my favorite wrestlers to watch right now.
Whitmer is a young lion and has been fast on the rise this year
He's not that young. Or that much of a lion. BJ's been doing the same robotic, flavorless, perfectly good wrestling for a few years now. He's frustrating.
I was considering going to the second Chicago Ridge show on 7/24, but the 7/31 IWA MS card looks about as good for a lot less money so I had somewhat of a decision to make there. And cheaper = better.
Highlights: Roderick Strong and Jack Evans d. Special K’s Izzy and Dixie... when Evans pinned Izzy.
Pure Title Match #1: Doug Williams d. Jay Lethal (Hydro), Nigel McGiness, & John Walters to advance into Pure Title Final.
The Carnage Crew (Loc & Devito) d. The New & Improved Carnage Crew (Masada & Danny Daniels)
It was announced that on 9/11, Mick Foley will make his debut appearance in ROH.
Alex Shelley d. Austin Aries, Matt Stryker, & CM Punk... when Shelley & Punk each had pinfall rollups but the ref only saw Shelley's. CM Punk teased turning face for the match & had a beef with the entire Generation Next faction.
Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer d. Colt Cabana & Ace Steel
Jimmy Rave d. Trent Acid... when he pinned Acid after a Styles Clash. Rave was revealed as Prince Nana's new singles wrestler.
Pure Match Championship: Doug Williams d. Alex Shelley
Ricky Steamboat beat the tar out of CM Punk. Steamboat threatened to finish off Punk, saying "Punk has the chance to stand up and be the man Steamboat feels he can be, or he can continue getting beaten." At this point, Generation Next jumped Steamboat and beat him down. Punk teased an attack on Steamboat but turned on Generation Next instead. Punk & Steamboat got rid of Gen Next, cementing Punk's face turn which the crowd apparently ate up.
ROH champion Samoa Joe & The Briscoe Brothers d. Homicide & The Havana Pitbulls via DQ... Low Ki then returned, claiming ROH has sucked since he left and now "the champ is here." Low Ki, Homicide & the Pitbulls then beat on Joe and left with the ROH title.
Originally posted by chillJimmy Rave d. Trent Acid... when he pinned Acid after a Styles Clash. Rave was revealed as Prince Nana's new singles wrestler.
Haha shocking
It was announced that on 9/11, Mick Foley will make his debut appearance in ROH.
That's pretty cool. I assume he'll come in and be like, "This is what it's all about! The kids! Learning!"
ROH champion Samoa Joe & The Briscoe Brothers d. Homicide & The Havana Pitbulls via DQ... Low Ki then returned, claiming ROH has sucked since he left and now "the champ is here." Low Ki, Homicide & the Pitbulls then beat on Joe and left with the ROH title.
OH SHIT. I'm not a huge Low Ki fan but that's pretty good.
OH SHIT. I'm not a huge Low Ki fan but that's pretty good.
Yeah, it's really good for the main event scene, which was in need of a breath of fresh air. Joe's reign looks to be ending soon, now that he's been champion for...how long? a year and a half? The options are greater and more exciting if Low Ki holds the belt. Even having Joe chase after Ki is better than what's gone on the past year. That's my opinion, anyway.
ROH usually forms an instant angle around guys like Foley who show up for one night - unlike TNA bringing in Dennis Rodman and THEN watching him refuse to do anything. Had Punk not turned face last night, I'd figure him to confront Foley. Punk is turning into the kind of superstar Rob Van Dam was in ECW - the guy who gets the biggest reaction, heel or face. Fans were dying for a reason to cheer him before last night.
I'm wondering if Foley's going to pull a Piper and 'shoot' about Flair in his appearance, as Hyatte predicted today. Perhaps WWE was behind Piper's TNA appearance to get his name re-generated around wrestling circles before coming back shortly afterwards to the company, and they're also behind this one too. Should be interesting if it happens.
The fact that Lo-Ki is returning just in time for the DBD double shot that I'll be hitting both ends of makes me a very very happy man. Just wish they could get AJ and Daniels back into the fold. Oh well, next time around.
It looks like they're getting AJ back in the mix now that Johnny Rave's back and using his finisher, but TNA have okayed it for he and Fallen Angel to go back if they so wish.
ROH Tag Title - 2/3 Falls CM Punk & Colt Cabana (c) v. Briscoe Brothers
Pure Title w/Ricky Steamboat as ref Doug Williams (c) v. Alex Shelley
Low Ki & Rocky Romero v. Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer
Austin Aries, Roderick Strong & Jack Evans v. Matt Stryker, John Walters & Jimmy Jacobs
Ace Steel v. Trent Acid v. Matt Sydal v. Delirious
PLUS: Chad Collyer, Great Kazushi, Shawn Daivari, Danny Daniels, Allison Danger, Lacey, Daizee Haze, etc.
Really stacked card, Joe/Homicide is the type of thing to bring to a new market to (probably) blow off, same for the 2/3 falls tag title match. Williams/Shelley should be awesome. Low Ki/Romero is a cool tag team.
ROH 7/24 in Chicago Ridge, IL
ROH Title Samoa Joe (c) v. Colt Cabana
Chicago Streetfight CM Punk & Ace Steel v. Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer
Pure Title w/Ricky Steamboat as ref Doug Williams (c) v. Austin Aries
Homicide v. Jay Briscoe
Low Ki v. Mark Briscoe
Jimmy Jacobs v. Alex Shelley
Matt Stryker & John Walters v. Roderick Strong & Jack Evans
Trent Acid v. Danny Daniels v. Delirious v. Great Kazushi v. Shawn Daivari v. Matt Sydal
Rocky Romero v. Chad Collyer
This originally had Romero/Homicide v. Briscoes and I sooo wanted to see that match, but I'd take Romero/Collyer too because I'm about as big a fan there is of Chad Collyer. Williams/Aries is the match I really want to see. Joe/Cabana is cute since they're in Chicago but not all that intriguing since Cabana is booked as flash-in-the-pan contender. I did intend to go to this show but now I'm not. Would it have killed them to leave Jacobs/Shelley finished? At least it follows up on the April Chicago show.
IWA MS 7/23 in Lafayette, IN
IWA MS Title Petey Williams (c) v. Chris Hero
Arik Cannon v. Jimmy Rave
Chris Sabin v. Rainman
Ray Gordy v. Ian Rotten
more
Not the biggest or best show but Williams/Hero should be good (and probably long). Rave's return to IWA MS after the ROH angle. Him being booked on the IWA shows actually helped make that seem more realistic since he's been gone from IWA for so long and mostly working ROH. Either way he's good so welcome back dude. Gordy/Rotten is interesting, as Rotten v. regular wrestlers always is.
IWA MS 7/31 in Highland, IN
IWA MS Title Petey Williams (c) v. Chris Sabin
CM Punk v. Matt Sydal
AJ Styles v. Delirious
Arik Cannon v. American Dragon
Samoa Joe v. B-Boy
MsChif v. Tracy Brooks
plus Nate Webb, Jimmy Jacobs, Mark Wolf, etc.
Going to this and even without Hero, who's scheduled to work H2 that night, the card is really awesome, especially if AmDrag is ACTUALLY there. Soup Ladle warns me of past issues. Joe/B-Boy what I'm most looking forward to as they'll beat the shit out of each other and B-Boy is one of my favorite wrestlers right now. Punk/Sydal and Styles/Delirious are intriguing in that I could see both of them not being very good so it's not a dream match situation, it's more of just a really interesting matchup that I'm actually looking forward to seeing how they work together. I would've preferred a Delirious/Sydal rematch and just doing Punk/Styles, but this is fun too.
And for Pizza Delivery Jones, whom I meant to reply to and never did, Steamboat looks like a regular dude his age. Kinda fat but not like, FAT. Just getting old. Apparently his armdrags are still okay.
Originally posted by Pizza Delivery JonesSo how good does Steamboat look these days? Haven't seen him in ages -- never saw the TNA shows he was on. Wait, he was on some TNA shows, right?
He looks pretty good actually. Greying as can be expected, and not about to make a comeback or anything. But still, very good especially for age. Still looks to be in pretty fair shape too.
Well, if this is going to be the Indy thread and not just the ROH thread, then:
Court Bauer, owner/investor of H2Wrestling has announced that he's dropping out and all events are cancelled. I wasn't aware he was involved in the project, but who in their right mind decided to get involved with him after the way he f'd up MLW? Say goodbye and good luck to Teddy Hart for now. It's really too bad - the fed was different enough to be an interesting one to follow. Actually, it was a very odd fed, with fiction thrown in with facts.
"The show began with Dave Prazak coming in, and introduces Baron Von Raschke. Generation Next of Austin Aries, Roderick Strong and Jack Evans comes in, and attacks the Baron. CM Punk and Colt Cabana made the save, and (did anyone have a doubt) The Baron ends up giving Evans the Iron Claw.
Trent Acid won a four way match over Ace Steele, Matt Sydal, and Delirious by pinning Delirious with an Inverted Brain Buster
The Great Kazushi (Kazushi Miyamoto) defeated Shawn Daivari with an enzuigiri.
Doug Williams beats Alex Shelley to retain the Pure Wrestling Title with the Chaos Theory suplex. Shelley used his third rope break to stop the Chaos Theory suplex earlier.
Low Ki and Romero beat Dan Maff and BJ Whitmer. Allison Danger came out, and went straight to the Rottweilers and congratulated them and mocked Maff and Whitmer. Maff and Whitmer shoved her into Homicide, and he gave her the cop killa....
Chad Collyer defeated Danny Daniels.
John Walters, Matt Stryker, and Jimmy Jacobs beat Generation Next (Austin Aries, Roderick Strong and Jack Evans) after Evans submitted
The Second City Saints (CM Punk and Colt Cabana) defeated the Briscoes to retain the Tag Title in 3 falls. Briscoes won first fall, Saints won the second and third falls.
Samoa Joe defeated Homicide to retain the ROH World Title via chokeout submission."
Originally posted by TonyStewartHow does ROH finance the talent that they bring in and are they even turning a profit at this point?
Cary Silkin (now 100% owner) and some other guys have themselves a lot of money. They are not turning a profit and in fact Meltzer said they lose a LOT of money. They do good attendances for their shows, but they're still indy shows. I think CZW does just as well, attendance-wise, WITHOUT having immensely expensive video equiptment and an enormous payroll, plus plane tickets to fly all these guys in all the time, etc. It's very much a wet dream indy that you would make on EWR and their financial state shows that, too.
H2: That sucks, but if it means Chris Hero is in town for the 7/31 IWA MS show, then all the better for me. At this point he would likely just be in a throw-in match, but any Chris Hero is better than none. It also means Prazak will be there which means the tape is better off for future me. Win-win. I was *totally* on the H2 bandwagon because it all just seemed so silly and ridiculously entertaining, and plus they were proposing some really nice cards that would've been nice tape buys maybe. But oh well. They were inevitably going to bomb out anyway.
I just have to say that last night the ROH show in Chicago Ridge was fucking insane.
The final match of the night was Maff/Whitmer vs. Steel/Punk in a street fight. At one point Punk threw a chair from the crowd into the ring...and then it happened. Everyone who always saw the ECW footage with the chairs flying decided to recreate the moment, and within a minute there were 100 chairs in the ring. Then they started throwing suplexes and shit on mess of chairs. It was spontaneous mass insanity. When the dvd of this show comes out, it really is a must buy for anyone who still has fond memories of ECW.
Sorry if I'm incoherent, but it really was quite the evening.
Originally posted by chillWell, if this is going to be the Indy thread and not just the ROH thread, then:
Court Bauer, owner/investor of H2Wrestling has announced that he's dropping out and all events are cancelled. I wasn't aware he was involved in the project, but who in their right mind decided to get involved with him after the way he f'd up MLW? Say goodbye and good luck to Teddy Hart for now. It's really too bad - the fed was different enough to be an interesting one to follow. Actually, it was a very odd fed, with fiction thrown in with facts.
I'm not surprised to be honest. Never saw what the big deal about the fed was (other than Teddy Hart), it just seemed that PWI were giving it so much press because they're allies with Bauer. Oh well, RIP.
Originally posted by leggo Never saw what the big deal about the fed was (other than Teddy Hart), it just seemed that PWI were giving it so much press because they're allies with Bauer. Oh well, RIP.
Everyone has their own different tastes. H2W was more character-driven, that's for sure. And I appreciate that great effort was being put into each wrestler's personality and character, so that fans (at least those who checked out the H2 website) could identify with who the wrestlers are.
Just when it appeared that Teddy Hart had worn out his welcome everywhere else, he did the one thing left to do: start a federation where he's got some pull. And now this is buried six feet under already.
The question now is what will happen first: a) Teddy Hart grows up and learns to adapt to his surroundings b) Teddy Hart runs out of bridges to burn and is left on unheard-of indy shows for however long his career ends up lasting
Originally posted by leggo Never saw what the big deal about the fed was (other than Teddy Hart), it just seemed that PWI were giving it so much press because they're allies with Bauer. Oh well, RIP.
Sabu vs. Super Dragon not a big deal?!?!?!
Not really. Their last match wasn't that great.
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
I say strip the title off the big show. Then have a new US title match, and have a guy win it who will defend it regularly, instead of having non-title matches every week.