ROH Supercard of Honor IX review

While their disgruntled former employee Gabe Sapolsky was busy offering up in excess of half a dozen shows via his World Wrestling Network, Ring of Honor was taking a more conservative approach with WrestleMania Weekend. While they have the name value and roster to be able to put together two, possibly even three, shows on the biggest wrestling weekend of the wrestling year they decided to go for one. Less is more, and all that.

Looking at the line-up they had announced beforehand this is probably a good thing. Despite ROH's name value and roster Supercard of Honor IX looked like anything but a supercard before the fact. Of the six matches announced days before the event only the Jay Briscoe versus Samoa Joe main event and Jay Lethal's TV title defence against Jushin 'Thunder' Liger sounded like anything special. Daniels and Kazarian being placed in singles matches reeked of padding out a card, the Jimmy Jacobs v BJ Whitmer grudge battle was something that had been seen ten years earlier, and the reDRagon v Kingdom match sounded underwhelming.

In ROH's defence they suffered by losing access to regulars AJ Styles and the Young Bucks, all three of whom were busy in New Japan. But while that was beyond ROH's control it can only be taken so far as a defence. The promotion is still ultimately responsible for finding and building up its own new stars. That ACH was merely confirmed to appear with no match announced shows that the company's not as dedicated as it probably should be to establishing its next batch of headliners. And being in the position it's in (basically the last stop guys make on their way to being signed by WWE) that's something that should always be a priority for Ring of Honor.

This said the show was better than my (admittedly low) expectations had made me think it would be. It kicked off with an enjoyable match between Mark Briscoe and ACH. Recent shows had seen ACH lose to AJ Styles, Alberto El Patron and Samoa Joe. He lost again here, coming close with a bombardment of big moves in the closing moments before Mark sat down on a roll-up during a pin exchange sequence.

I understand that a guy can't just start beating big names as soon as they start getting pushed but the regularity of ACH's losses isn't going to do him any favours. They're probably going somewhere with him not being able to win in one of these matches but it's not anywhere interesting. ACH deserves more than he's currently getting and ROH need to be trying to build him up in case they lose some of their top guys in the near future. If they don't then they'll still have ACH but he'll just be the guy who lost to everyone who left.

Match two saw Michael Elgin take on Frankie Kazarian. It was a slower match than the opener and the pair took a while to find their groove. They were fine by the halfway point though, and the match ended in the typically pacey big move sequence most Elgin matches benefit from. The story of the match was that Elgers was being particularly vicious and was going out of his way to try and injure Kazarian. Kazarian survived a chair attack and all of Elgin's big moves before finally falling to a spinning back fist and the Elgin bomb.

Despite having acted like a nasty heel throughout the match the crowd chanted for Elgin after the finish. They returned to booing him as he sarcastically asked a spent Kazarian for a handshake. Kazarian's Addiction teammate Chris Daniels came out to try and keep Elgin at bay but it didn't work. Elgin initially backed off before returning to the ring with a chair and smacking Daniels in the back with it. H gave him an Elgin bomb and then used the chair on Kazarian. Because, in case you haven't noticed, Michael Elgin is now a renegade who plays by nobody's rules but his own.

Andrew Everett, Caprice Coleman, Cedric Alexander, Tommaso Ciampa (sporting his MF Doom style mask), Moose and Matt Sydal were guys stuffed into the show's six man mayhem offering. That Sydal, Ciampa and Alexander were thrown into a multi-man match was disappointing. A more meaningful match could have happened in its place, or the card could have been reshuffled to put The Addiction in a tag match. It's hardly surprising that Ciampa asked for his release when he went from main eventing shows to being in filler matches. There were clearly no long term ideas for him.

This match was a good use of Moose though. With five men against him he had plenty of guys to throw around and look powerful against. The match was a fun spot-fest, which is all it was intended to be. Sydal won off a shooting star press on Everett. Moose was just a little too slow to break the pin up.

After the match Veda Scott again stopped Moose shaking hands, as she had at the start and in other matches since she turned heel. Cedric also refused to shake hands with people. He just looked angry as Adam Cole (who was working as guest commentator for the evening) and Kevin Kelly discussed how he'd had lots of exciting matches but couldn't win. That story would be more impactful if they weren't also running it with ACH. They may be building to those two confronting one another on their different outlooks on losing but so what? We've seen them wrestle one another before so the prospect of them facing off again isn't particularly interesting, even if Cedric's a heel when it happens.

That was followed by the Epic Grudge Match between BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs. Whitmer had his new young boy Colby Corino with him (which was why Steve Corino wasn't on commentary). They started with a handshake before immediately pummelling each other. They headed outside, fought more, then got back into the ring and had a chair duel. Whitmer whipped Jacobs into chairs set up in the corner. Jacobs fought back with a spear (which brought about a "Better than Reigns!" chant) and smacked Whitmer with chairs before dropping him with Sliced Bread Number Two onto a chair.

Whitmer got a fisherman suplex for two. Jacobs brought out a table. Whitmer tried to exploder Jacobs through it. Jacobs fought him off. Whitmer helpfully rolled onto the table in just the right place for a Jacobs senton. The table didn't break so Jacobs set it up between the ring apron and the crowd barrier. A second senton in that position worked. Whitmer kicked out of a pin attempt and got clamped in a guillotine choke. Whitmer muscled out into a brainbuster then hit a second brainbuster onto a chair. Jacobs kicked out.

Whitmer tried a top rope power bomb (a call-back to one of their more grizzly encounters against one another). Jacobs back dropped him off the top rope and gave him an Ace crusher, holding on to follow up with another Sliced Bread. Whitmer floored Jacobs twice with lariats before giving him an exploder suplex onto a pair of chairs. That was enough to put 'The Zombie Princess' down for three.

A "Thank you, Jimmy!" chant rang in, it being an open secret that this was Jacobs' final match with Ring of Honor before taking a creative job with WWE. Jacobs went for a handshake. Whitmer pulled away then said he only shakes hands with guys who belong. Colby then smacked Jimmy with a water bottle shot from behind and pummelled him before Lacey ran in through the crowd to make the save. They embraced as the Ballad of Lacey played, finally bringing an end to ROH's ancient Jimmy Loves Lacey story which began back in the Gabe Sapolsky days. It was a nice touch and a fitting end to Jimmy Jacobs' time in Ring of Honor.

The love story moment was immediately undercut by Chris Daniels dancing out to the ring to his jaunty entrance music. It would have been nice if ROH had had a video package to play at this point, or a heel promo to schedule to deliberately kill the mood. But they had neither because despite this show being held on WrestleMania weekend it was still just a VOD event. As  rule they don't get video packages, and there were no heel promos on the show.

Daniels versus Roderick Strong was predictably sharp but I still think it would have been better to have The Addiction in a tag match and Roddy doing something against someone else. Matt Sydal, for example. Strong won with the Stronghold following a torture rack into a back breaker.

That was followed by The Kingdom team of Matt Taven and Michael Bennett, with Maria Kanellis, challenging reDRagon, with MMA personality Tom Lawler, for the ROH tag team championship. The Kingdom played rock, paper scissors to decide who'd start (Bennett won with rock). I've always been a fan of that in tag matches.

As stated above I hadn't expected a great deal from this match. reDRagon are great and Taven and Bennett are good but it just seemed like an awkward bout waiting to happen. It took a while to get going, the first half being characterised by Taven and Bennett employing cheap heat shenanigans, featured a needless run-in from a lone KRD member, and faltered in the closing moments because of an injury to Kyle O'Reilly, but it ended up better than I'd expected. Fish got the pin for reDRagon with a falcon arrow on Bennett.

Cole returned to commentary (he'd left after Kelly had questioned him about The Kingdom's relationship with the Knights of the Rising Dawn during Whitmer v Jacobs) and promised he hadn't been the masked KRD guy. He probably wasn't, but in storyline he likely was. That's wrestling logic, that is.

Jay Lethal's television title defence against Jushin Liger took the semi-main spot. Lethal has been great as the aggressive heel champion and his reign is doing the championship's credibility a lot of good. He's the sort of guy ROH could elevate to the world title picture should they lose a bunch of their top guys. Liger is Liger. Not as good as he is in 80's and 90's videos but still very reliable and a definite crowd-pleaser.

What I liked about the Liger and Lethal pairing was that a title change wasn't inconceivable, something that can't often be said when a champion defends against an outsider. With ROH promoting shows with New Japan a month and a half after this they could have switched the title to Liger and had him enter those shows as champion. The TV title could have been defended on New Japan shows by Liger in the meantime and a rematch would have been a natural addition to one of the four inter-promotional shows. It wasn't likely but it made suspension of disbelief a bit easier than it had been in Liger's world title match with Cole at War of the Worlds 2015.

The match was very good and had a entertaining finishing sequence. After stopping a Lethal suicide dive Liger dropped the champ with a brainbuster. They made it back into the ring at the nineteen count. Lethal grabbed the TV title belt. The referee took it from him and Liger went for a rollup, which Lethal countered into a pin attempt of his own by grabbing hold of the ropes. The ref noticed and called a halt to the count. Lethal took the belt again and tried lamping Liger with it. Liger ducked and snatched the belt for himself. The referee started a tug-of-war over the belt with the challenger, allowing Lethal to sneak in a super kick and a Lethal Injection for the victory.

The main event saw Samoa Joe challenge Jay Briscoe for the ROH world championship. This was a match with a lot of history behind it. Briscoe and Joe had feuded with one another in the early years of ROH, Briscoe never managing to defeat Joe when it really counted. Joe is the man most readily associated with the championship, thanks to his dominant twenty-one month title reign during the company's formative years, a reign yet to be bettered in length. Briscoe is the dominant champion of the present, not having been pinned in two years and having defeated everyone that's been put in front of him just as Joe did during his reign.

Joe got the best of an early feeling out process. The match gradually got more physical with forearms, chops, jabs, a Jay boot to the face and a Joe enziguri. Jay went for a suplex. Got it on fourth try following a jab. He peppered the big man with more jabs and applied a sleeper. Joe muscled out, tweaked his knee on a bungled spill over the top rope, and rolled to the outside to counter a suicide dive with a high kick as planned.

Back in the ring Joe hit Briscoe with jabs of his own and used a Hogan-esque leg drop in place of his usual knee drop. Joe got the best of an exchange of blows with an uppercut. Briscoe tried climbing to the top rope but Joe booted him to the outside and hit a suicide dive. He went for the Olé kick but Briscoe threw a chair in his face (the lack of a DQ being explained away with talk of referee lenience). The champ threw Joe into the barricade before getting grabbed off of the apron and slung into the barricade himself. A second try for the Olé kick was successful. So was a third.

Joe pulled Briscoe back into the ring and got a two count. He peppered him with jabs and hauled him into position for the Muscle Buster. Briscoe fought out of it and dropped Joe with a neck breaker. Jay got more jabs on Joe and went for a Death Valley driver. Joe and his weight blocked it. Jay took some elbow strikes before firing back with a super kick and a belly-to-back suplex as Joe came off the ropes.

Briscoe got in several uppercuts and finally connected with the DVD. Joe kicked out at two. Briscoe went for the Jay driller. Joe back dropped out of it and sent Jay sprawling with clotheslines, an inverted atomic drop, a yakuza kick and a senton. Jay kicked out and slugged away at Joe before hit ting the ropes. He was met with a power slam. Joe went through the power bomb, Boston crab, STF, crossface sequence to loud cheers. Briscoe managed to make the ropes, forcing a break.

The two returned to their feet and traded forearms, slaps, and jabs, just as they had at the start of the match. Just as he had then Joe won out, this time when he smashed Jay with a kick to the chest. Joe again went for the Muscle Buster. Briscoe again fought out and caught him with a Jay Driller for the three count. Jay Briscoe finally defeated Samoa Joe in an ROH world championship match.

After the match the two shared a handshake and hugged. Joe presented Briscoe with his championship belts and raised his hand to end the show. Everything about Joe's performance, from his post-match actions to the fact that he went down to a single Jay driller, was designed to endorse Jay Briscoe as a great champion, which was a good call. In ROH terms Joe is one of the biggest guys a wrestler can receive a rub from. That said, the match wasn't anything amazing. It was good and a worthwhile main event, but Joe and Briscoe have both done far better and ROH has had more fitting headline bouts.

While this event was better than I'd expected it to be it still didn't feel particularly special. There was nothing bad on it but there also isn't really anything worth revisiting. There's nothing wrong with an enjoyable wrestling show (obviously) but sometimes it's nice to make a show feel a bit special, and that's something ROH can struggle with. Which was all too apparent here.

***

Results summary:

Mark Briscoe defeated ACH
Michael Elgin defeated Frankie Kazarian
Matt Sydal defeated Andrew Everett, Cedric Alexander, Tommaso Ciampa, Caprice Coleman and Moose to win a six man mayhem
BJ Whitmer defeated Jimmy Jacobs
Roderick Strong defeated Christopher Daniels
reDRagon defeated The Kingdom to retain the ROH tag team championship
Jay Lethal defeated Jushin Liger to retain the ROH television championship
Jay Briscoe defeated Samoa Joe to retain the ROH world championship

Back on Track?

Last year produced mixed results for Ring of Honor. The first six months were generally very enjoyable. The SCUM invasion storyline was something different (for ROH if not wrestling in general), the tease of the Adam Cole heel turn began, the American Wolves were sensibly placed back together, and there was new talent present on a string of very enjoyable events. The second half of the year was characterised by the mostly poor world title tournament, a lack of new talent (Homicide and Eddie Kingston didn’t count for two reasons: they’d been around before and nobody cared when they showed back up), and Michael Elgin becoming just another member of the roster.

Things did perk up at Final Battle though. Which is nothing unusual. For almost its entire existence the traditional year-closer has been used to launch fresh storylines and provide surprise twists. It's a system that works well.

Final Battle '13 featured a couple of big developments. Firstly BJ Whitmer, Roderick Strong and Jimmy Jacobs formed an alliance and beat up the departing Eddie Edwards. Factions are nothing new for any of the three. In fact they're probably the three ROH guys with the most faction experience on their respective CVs, but this is still a good move as Jacobs and Strong were doing nothing of interest beforehand. And we’d been told BJ was ready to retire, making his actions doubly surprising. As long as their mission statement isn't given as destroying ROH (that angle’s totes played out) they should be good together. Six man tag matches should be the order of the day for them. With The Shield WWE has shown that fans can get into trios matches. It’s a type of match ROH is well-suited to produce.

The second big development was another union. This one saw Matt Hardy run-in during the main event to help world champion Adam Cole retain his title. After the match the bad guys (who I suspect will get a snappy unit name soon) continued attacking Michael Elgin and Jay Briscoe until Chris Hero returned to the company and made the save. The team of Hardy and Cole should ensure Cole is treated like the lead bad guy he's supposed to be: there have been few men ROH fans have enjoyed lashing out against more than ‘The Sensei of Mattitude’. If he's limited to tagging with and doing run-ins for Cole I think Hardy's a good addition to the roster. ROH can benefit from the heat he generates without needing to have him wrestle too much.

I'm very much looking forward to Hero v Cole

Chris Hero returning to Ring of Honor is obviously a good thing. He gives the company another big name to play around with and he's credible enough to be a serious contender to Cole's title. I don't think he'll win it but I do think he'll give the champ a solid match with believable false finishes (always important in a good wrestling match). WrestleMania weekend, the NYC show in May or Best in the World are my guesses for when Hero will get his first title match of 2014. I'm covering a lot of possibilities there I know. So be it.

Final Battle also saw Silas Young defeat Mark Briscoe in a strap match and Tommaso Ciampa squash Matt Taven to win the television championship. This may not sound like much but it demonstrates the league's dedication to Young and Ciampa. It indicates they'll be given chances to move up the card in 2014. Both of them deserve that. I'm particularly pleased that 'The Last Real Man' has the chance to progress. I think he's got the aura to be a meaningful name for ROH.

There's also the matter of AJ Styles' return to brighten up 2014 for ROH. I'm not the biggest fan of Styles and I feel he's overhyped by TNA fans but he's a big enough name and a good enough wrestler to improve Ring of Honor’s standing by attracting new fans (specifically people who only watch TNA and maybe WWE who want a fix of some AJ Styles flavoured goodness). Every match he can have in the company is either completely new or one we've not seen for years. That's a great position for ROH to be in. It’s a nice position for Styles too.

Will ROH fans still think AJ Styles is phenomenal?

How much Styles, and Hero for that matter, benefit ROH depends on how often they appear. 'That Young Knockout Kid' has already wrestled for EVOLVE since leaving WWE and he's confirmed for future dates. It's not hard to imagine Styles heading there, plus there's the possibility of a TNA offer hanging over him. He's only going to be appearing for ROH and various promotions until TNA is ready to pay him what he thinks he's worth. I don't blame him for that, but it does make it hard for ROH to do anything with him beyond rotating him through matches with the bigger names on the roster. Unless there's some sort of longer term deal in place that makes a lengthy storyline possible. We'll know more about what's store after the January 4^th TV taping. That's where 'The Phenomenal One' will reappear and set up any storylines or feuds he's going to be a part of.

It will also feature the eight man Top Prospect tournament. Last year's instalment was won by Matt Taven but served as an introductory tool for Tadarius Thomas, ACH, QT Marshall, Adam Page and Silas Young. Hopefully the same will be true this year. Ring of Honor is a company that benefits from a steady cycle of new names and the TPT is a nice way of bringing them in.

On the subject of the Top Prospects it seems fairly obvious that the masked man billed as The Romantic Touch is actually Rhett Titus. All I've seen of him is a still and I immediately recognised his posture. Plus the initials are the same. After doing some half-hearted Googling I found that other people think the same thing. It's too easy to imagine The Romantic Touch winning the tournament and then being unmasked by Ciampa when he gets the TV title shot. It's a way back on to the roster, basically. I'd rather see the tournament used to give a newcomer a boost. Titus wouldn't need to win the thing to come back full time. Of the other seven I think Corey Hollis, ‘Benchmark’ Bill Daly and Andrew Everett look like they'd fit in the most. Cheeseburger will stick around even if he loses in the opening round.

The potential’s there for Ring of Honor to get back on track this year. I hope they manage it.

Sweet Sixteen

On July 3^rd Ring of Honor announced that their world title had been vacated. The reason given was that champion Jay Briscoe was too banged up to compete. I wrote at length on the subject at the time. The short form of what I said is that vacating the belt for anything other than a serious injury would harm its lineage and credibility.

The championship had been built up over the course of eleven years as something that the holder would fight to retain at all costs. That's part of what makes it such a respected title. That Jay Briscoe was stripped of the gold portrays him as a lesser champion and damages the title's, and the company's, credibility.

ROH will be holding a sixteen man tournament to crown a new champion. They announced one or two competitors a day over the course of a fortnight. The first round bouts will be held at the July 27^th TV taping in Providence and the August 3^rd All Star Extravaganza V show in Toronto.

I have mixed feelings on the field of entrants, which is to be expected with a tournament like this. The first eight names revealed got my hopes up and made me think we were going to see a memorable series. In order they were Michael Elgin, Brian 'Spanky' Kendrick, Karl Anderson, Kevin Steen, Paul London, Roderick Strong, Adam Cole and Sonjay Dutt. Those eight include the favourite to win the whole thing (Elgin), the promotion's top heel (Cole), and surprise returning stars (Kendrick and Dutt). The order in which they were revealed seemed to hint that ROH was taking the approach of entering one current member of the roster followed by an outsider. Had they stuck with that approach I think they could have put together a fantastic tournament.

Sadly they didn't. The announcement of Dutt's involvement was followed by BJ Whitmer's name. That’s the same BJ Whitmer who has been synonymous with the term "space holder" throughout his Ring of Honor career. His being awarded a spot in the tournament was as unsurprising as it was uninspiring. Tommaso Ciampa, Jay Lethal, Mike Bennett, the winner of a match between Silas Young and Adam Page, Matt Taven, ACH and Mark Briscoe were the final seven. It was, in my opinion, a pretty weak second half.

 

Under different circumstances Mike Bennett would have made a fine ROH world champion

 

Ciampa, Lethal and Bennett were all obvious entrants. I was hoping ACH would be entered as a sort of wild card so I'm pleased he's got a spot. (which he won by fan vote, seeing off competition from Caprice Coleman, Cedric Alexander, Tadarius Thomas and QT Masrshall). Matt Taven, as good as he is, is a mid-card champion. He's in that role for a reason, specifically that he's not yet ready to be a top guy. Not only that but ROH isn't going to put both of their singles straps on one wrestler, so his involvement serves to give away one guy who's definitely not going to win.

I've nothing against Silas Young and Adam Page. I've actually been hoping ROH would use both men more for a while, mainly because they need to start prepping their next batch of stars for the talent exodus I feel is going to hit them soon. But so far they've been used mostly as lower mid-card guys. Whoever progresses to the tournament doesn’t stand a chance of winning.

I should probably address my desire for every entrant to be perceived as a potential winner. It's fine for companies like WWE and TNA to load up tournaments with no-hopers. Those companies will always have the winner be a John Cena or a CM Punk, a Kurt Angle or an AJ Styles. Storylines take priority over work rate in sports entertainment, and so tournaments and series can involve some guys who are obviously there to make up the numbers.

ROH is supposed to be different. It's supposed to be the wrestling company that puts the sport of wrestling above everything else. With that in mind wouldn't it make sense for the league to only want to feature their best names and have everyone involved be seen as a candidate to win?

It's hard to see the inclusion of guys like Young, Page, Whitmer and Taven as anything other than a cost saving measure no matter how proficiently the "giving an opportunity to a younger talent" line is trotted out. This was a perfect opportunity for ROH to bring in outsiders and put together a special and memorable summer event. I was hoping they'd bring in one or two Japanese stars (it’s been announced that New Japan’s KUSHIDA will be All Star Extravaganza, could he not have been put in the tournament?) and perhaps even a Brit or two, but no. Instead we have SBG saving money and the possibility of a final involving BJ Whitmer.

Mark Briscoe's involvement is a bad call for a different reason. Had the belt been vacated for another reason his inclusion would make sense. He has the star power to warrant a position in any such tournament in Ring of Honor. But the ROH title was vacated specifically because Mark and his brother Jay were unable to compete. If Mark can wrestle it raises the question of why Jay can't, which in turn raises the question of why Jay was stripped of the title and why this series is happening to begin with. Mark's inclusion seems like a scheme designed to convince us that the Briscoes aren't headed to WWE. It's a bad call from ROH. I'd rather have had Jushin Liger or Dave Mastiff than him.

 

KUSHIDA should have had Mark Briscoe's spot

 

If the Briscoes are sticking around they should have been held off events until after a new champion is crowned. If this is a way of giving the team, or just Mark a send-off it should have been skipped. I’d rather the integrity of the belt be retained than a tag team wrestler be given a going away party in front of the fans.

My final complaint is the omission of the American Wolves. After the first eight names were announced I was convinced Richards and Edwards would be amongst the latter batch of entrants. The kayfabe reason for them not getting included is that they asked to stay out to focus on the tag team titles. Which, y'know, is as stupid as it sounds. I kayfabe terms what wrestler in their right mind would turn down the chance to become the world champion in favour of wrestling some tag matches? Tag team titles can be challenged for at any time. A vacant title only rocks up once every eleven years.

This seems like another diversionary tactic. The Wolves' contracts apparently expire in early August. Should either or both leave (and that's not impossible) that would make them unavailable for the second round of the tournament. So if both were entered and decided to head on over to WWE it would create a situation where ROH would have to eliminate two favourites in the first round. There would be ways around that looking strange, such as booking the Wolves against a favourite like Elgin or a guy who could benefit from a boost like Ciampa, but both going out so early would stretch credibility just a little too far, even by the elastic standards of pro wrestling.

Of the men entered I don't think there are many potential winners. I was keen for Lethal and London to be a part of proceedings but I don't think they'll win. They deserve spots based on their work and standing within the company. Only Adam Cole and Michael Elgin seem like they could leave Philadelphia on September 20^th as the new champion. While there's nothing wrong with that it does mean that the final seems predictable. The tournament is structured so as to allow a Cole v Elgin match to cap things off.

A predictable final doesn't need to be a bad thing. Tournaments in wrestling work best when they involve some upsets and surprising outcomes. ROH can still give us some of those and the final of Cole v Elgin, they'll just have to have the upsets come earlier on in the brackets.

 

The first round brackets

 

The trouble there is that ROH have left themselves precious few ways of doing that with the first round matches they've announced. The TV tapings in Providence will play host to Adam Cole v Mark Briscoe, Jay Lethal v Sonjay Dutt and Karl Anderson v ACH. Cole, as a favourite for the finals, is unlikely to lose and Anderson is a strong favourite in his match. Only Lethal v Dutt could give us a surprise outcome: Dutt is well respected enough to convincingly beat Jay without infuriating fans. Having him go through to the quarter finals to face Cole or Briscoe would be a good move.

I suppose ACH could beat Karl Anderson. He has his status as an ROH regular in his favour: it means ROH can guarantee they won't have trouble booking him for later matches. Anderson's career in New Japan could make him tough to get for later matches in the tournament. That said Anderson winning would see him go through to a match with the winner of Elgin v London. That's almost certainly going to be Elgin. That would allow Elgin to get his win back from his previous encounter with Anderson.

All Star Extravaganza V will see five first round matches. They are Bennett v Whitmer, Steen v Kendrick, Elgin v London, Strong v Taven, and Ciampa against the winner of Young v Page.

Again here are few opportunities for surprise. 'The Sicilian Psychopath' will clearly go over whoever he ends up facing because he's being presented as a rising star and Young and Page are not. For the record my money's on 'The Last Real Man in Wrestling' Silas Young to progress. Not that it matters.

The winner of Whitmer v Bennett is almost as inconsequential as Young v Page. The winner will just be losing to Ciampa in the following round. Neither can be considered an obvious winner so there can be no upset.

 

Tommaso Ciampa, practicing his Hardy Boyz impression

 

London defeating 'Unbreakable' seems unlikely. Elgin would benefit more form the win even if it weren’t a tournament match. London winning wouldn't be a huge, star-making moment if it occurred: he’s a star from the company's early years and is therefore seen as someone superior to the majority of the current roster by most fans (and they're not entirely wrong).

This leaves us with Steen v Kendrick and Strong v Taven to see surprise wins. Strong and Steen are the respective faves. Taven could conceivably win because he's been consistently presented as someone who defies the odds since winning the TV championship in February. Just last week he pinned Eddie Edwards, for example. Throw in some Truth Martini and Hoopla Hotty shenanigans and 'MTV' could beat 'Mr Ring of Honor'.

Kendrick has the same status as London amongst ROH fans. He could win. If this were not a tournament match I'd have no idea who to pick as a winner. The only trouble with Kendrick getting the surprise win is that it would leave 'Mr Wrestling', the regular with the company and former super-hot face (he's cooled, admit it) with nothing to do. I don't think Steen will win, but I can see him being booked in an incredibly competitive semi-final loss to Elgin.

However you look at it, that the biggest "shock" of the tournament would be seeing ACH or Sonjay Dutt progressing beyond the second round indicates that something, somewhere has gone wrong. As does the fact that ROH have failed to bring in any suitably big names or create brackets that make me think we may not see the Cole v Elgin final that seems so likely. Just because it's the match everyone expects to close the tournament doesn't make the lack of effort okay.

Nothing about the announced names and brackets has swayed me from my original pick of Michael Elgin. Only he and Adam Cole are in positions to be crowned champion and have the lengthy reign ROH desperately needs someone to have to restore credibility. Elgin is the favourite of the two because he's the face that’s been ready for a title reign for over a year. I can imagine a scenario in which Cole wins after interference from Steve Corino and-or Matt Hardy, setting up a Cole v Elgin feud culminating in a title change. But that would be harmful to the belt and the company's image. And ROH wouldn't risk that. Right?

A Night of Hoopla review

On Thursday July 11^th Ring of Honor returned to their onetime stronghold of Chicago. They were there to put on a wrestling show. Nothing unusual about that, you may think. And you’d be right. Because ROH is a wrestling company. But it’s a wrestling company with a reputation for being serious and placing its emphasis firmly on pro wrestling as a sport, rather than as a form of entertainment. That was not the case on July 11^th.

The show was dubbed A Night of Hoopla and featured Truth Martini running things for the evening. The event was so far from what ROH has been presenting under current creative chief Delirious (and indeed what ROH is known for in general) that I wouldn’t be surprised if Truth genuinely had had some input into the direction of the show. Imagine if the WWF had done a house show with The Godfather as the guest General Manager towards the end of the Attitude Era and you’ll have a very clear idea of the vibe this card had.

Despite its status as an unauthorised event, and a house show no less, A Night of Hoopla looked pretty strong going in. They’d announced a three-way between Matt Taven, Eddie Edwards and Adam Cole, a match pitting reDRagon against Roderick Strong and ROH trainee Cheeseburger, a six person tag match featuring the popular ACH and probable next world champ Michael Elgin, and a rare in-ring appearance from Delirious. There was every chance it would be an eventful show.

That parental guidance line wasn't for decoration

 

Things kicked off with a Truth Martini promo. He hyped the evening in general and told the audience to drink responsibly. He set the tone for the evening when he said if people didn’t drink responsibly then they might crash into a school bus on their way home, which could potentially kill a girl and stop her growing up to be eighteen. Which would mean he’d have nobody to have a “good time” with.

That line alone told us this would not be a regular ROH show. And that Truth Martini had carte blanche to say whatever he fancied. The latter was not necessarily a good thing.

Hoopla Hotty Scarlett sang America the Beautiful. The lyrics were altered to be about boobs and stripping and it being okay for men to check her out. Once again this was a tone setting exercise as much as anything else (although one far more enjoyable than Truth’s). I laughed when the accompanying video montage of American icons showed a Walmart.

The first match was the three-way. Matt Taven was introduced first. It seemed weird to me that Truth would book his own guy in the show opener, but what do I know about managing wrestlers? Not as much as Truth Martini, that’s for sure.

Instead of a slick, wrestling-heavy match we got a load of comedic ringside brawling revolving around stiff chops and the wrestlers taking pictures of one another with fans’ cameras. It was good, it just wasn’t what I expected from Cole and Edwards. The crowd enjoyed it. The match also featured the evening’s first referee in underpants, a running theme for the show.

It was a fun opener. Had they been allowed to have a regular match they could have done something great. That wasn’t the point of the evening though. The finish came after Scarlett interjected herself into the match¹ and Cole and ‘Die Hard’ exchanged super kicks, with Taven sneaking in to hit his tumbling DDT on Edwards for the victory. It was a clean win for him, more or less.

Following some simulated spit-roasting from Edwards and Cole Truth returned to the ring to introduce the Ring of Honor equivalent of P Diddy performing at WrestleMania: Jimmy Jacobs singing his new song, Gypsy Soul. The guy was one of ROH’s top villains a few years ago when leading The Age of the Fall. He’s had quite the comedown. The crowd liked him though (which surprised me). That’s what counts.

Match two was ‘Machismo King’ Jay Lethal v Delirious with Maria Kanellis as the guest referee. Lethal was wheeled in through the crowd on a cart of some sort, emulating ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage’s entrance at WrestleMania IV. He was accompanied by Sister Sensational Sherri. I’ve no idea who was playing her, but she was dreadful throughout the entire match.

I found the match awkwardly paced. It was far more miss than hit. Sherri’s timing didn’t help matters. I did enjoy Lethal’s spot on Savage tics and traits, as well as Delirious channelling Ultimate Warrior (Ultimate Delirious? The Delirious Warrior?). Considering how good both men are at actually wrestling their characters shouldn’t have been the highlight.

‘Machismo King’ won with a rollup after Delirious attempted a cocky cover.

After the bout Lethal proposed to Maria (calling her Elizabeth). That upset Sherri. She lumbered into the ring and low blowed Lethal. Maria returned to make the save, which prompted Lethal to say he knew she really cared and issue a second proposal. He tried again and Maria accepted with an “Ohhhh yeah!” Mike Bennett came out to put an end to the fun and games by carrying his girlfriend backstage. The post-match shenanigans were better than the match itself.

Truth came back out to host the Pants Off Dance Off. Solicia and Scarlett were joined as contestants by a third random girl. This was one of only two points when I missed there being a commentary team. It would have been nice to know the identity of the newcomer.

Truth introduced Judge Jeff Jones as the guest… erm… judge of the Dance Off. Yes that is the same Jeff Jones that managed Mike Awesome to the ECW championship in 1999. ROH are now recycling fourteen year old gimmicks that were barely over in ECW. Brilliant.

Personally I’d hoped that Sabu would be the judge and end up smashing the Hoopla Hotties through tables. I admit it wasn’t likely.

The three women danced half-heartedly, ground themselves against Jones, and stripped. It was everything you’d want from this sort of segment.

 

The Hoopla Hotties there, doing whatever it is they do

 

Before Jones could announce the winner he was interrupted by Davey Richards. ‘The American Wolf’ swerved everyone with a promo about how the ROH he’d joined was about wrestling. He made the obligatory mentions of Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson, and CM Punk (because those names are shorthand for the glory days of Ring of Honor and always good for a pop) before switching gear and announcing that he would participate in the Dance Off too.

Richards didn’t pull his pants off but what he did do was pretty funny. There was a lot of air humping going on. It worked because it juxtaposed Richards’ serious persona so perfectly. As Richards was announced as the winner ‘Pro Wrestling’s Last Real Man’ Silas Young made his way out to the ring, incredulous at what he’d just seen.

The two ended up having their scheduled match early. It looked promising for the first several minutes but took a turn for the worse when Truth came out to inform Silas that he was spending too much time outside the ring. It was turned into a Lumberjill match. Men in drag came out to ringside to chants of “No!” and “This is awkward!” That was to be expected.

Young took a predictable tumble to ringside and got manhandled back in. Richards was in control from then on, although Young did manage to squeeze in an impressive corner headstand into a springboard moonsault. Davey got a convincing near fall after an alarm clock, a running kick and a top rope double stomp, then locked in the ankle lock for the submission victory. Young tapped quickly, as befits his spot on the card.

Adding to the surreal nature of his appearance for the evening Davey Richards sang a few lines of a song as the lumberjills left. The poor audio made it hard to make out what the song was, but that’s hardly the point.

Next, Truth Martini (the hardest working man at A Night of Hoopla) returned for a segment where a man was plucked from the audience for a lap dance. He was sat down in a chair, under the impression the Hoopla Hotties would be dancing for him. He seemed fine with a blindfold being strapped round his eyes. I like to think I would have questioned that.

The “joke” of the segment was that some larger ladies came out to perform the lap dance as Truth and his girls laughed. The audience seemed to think this was brilliant, so I’m forced to concede it wasn’t the most dreadful idea for a segment.

It was during all of this that I thought about Gabe Sapolsky. I bet he’d have loved A Night of Hoopla.

reDRagon wrestled Roderick Strong and Cheeseburger in the evening’s penultimate match. It’s still not clear if this was a tag team title match. It wasn’t announced as one but as Truth Martini was doing the ring announcing that doesn’t mean it wasn’t. Confusing things further ROH’s website simply has a question mark next to the status of the titles in relation to this match.

It doesn’t matter either way because reDRagon won.  The four men had the best match of the evening. Cheeseburger was incredibly popular with the crowd. His diminutive size makes him a natural underdog. It took him a while to really begin selling the beating he was taking and actually become isolated but when he did he was great at it.

Eventually O’Reilly eliminated Roddy with a series of stiff kicks and punches. The champions then hoisted Cheeseburger up and hit Chasing the Dragon for the win.

 

His ring name is Cheeseburger and he wrestles in Ring of Honor. Deal with it

 

Truth returned for his final segment of the evening, Hoopla Unplugged. His guest? Satan². It was a guy painted red with horns sticking out from his hair. The fans initially chanted “Six six six!” but quickly switched to more negative stock chants when the novelty wore off (which took approximately seventeen seconds).

“Satan” cut a tedious promo about how Truth’s debauchery was too much for even him. That’s right, ROH put Truth Martini over the devil. When asked to join in with the pants off party Satan declined and instead told everyone they were going to Hell. He ended up taking a Death Valley Driver from Solicia and having his trousers pulled off. Satan wears silver wrestling trunks under his trousers. Who knew?

Adrenaline RUSH and Athena v Michael Elgin, BJ Whitmer and MsChif was the main event. It was established early on that MsChif and Elgin didn’t like each other locking up with people of the opposite sex. This was the other instance of me missing a commentary team. I had to rely on Google to find out that MsChif and Elgin are married.

 

Matching ring colours...

 

The match was unmemorable but enjoyable enough. It picked up as it went on and featured a fun dance off towards the beginning. Michael Elgin did The Worm. Perhaps ROH should have brought Scotty 2 Hotty in for the title tournament. He’d have been an ideal first round opponent for ‘Unbreakable’.

Elgin saved MsChif from an ACH power bomb. She kissed him. Tadarius Thomas broke that up and got green misted by Elgin for his trouble. Big Michael followed up with a buckle bomb and then an Elgin bomb for the three count.

Truth made his final appearance of the evening to thank everyone for coming. He reminded us that hoopla is not just a word but a lifestyle. The House of Truth theme played and Martini and the Hoopla Hotties danced us off the air.

Anyone tuning in for a standard Ring of Honor show would probably have been disappointed with A Night of Hoopla. The emphasis was far more on comedy than it was competitive wrestling. ROH did do a good job of advertising the show as something different and ended up with something that was like a cross between Attitude Era WWF, latter days ECW, and PWG. It wasn’t an entirely unpleasant mix.

As a one off it worked very well. If ROH were to modify this model for more of their smaller shows I don’t think there would be that many complaints. But it’s not a bold new format ROH can adapt without driving away a significant portion of their existing fan base. And I get the feeling a bold new format is what the promotion is currently searching for.

***

¹ Eddie hit Scarlett with some chops to the backside to send her packing. She did a great job of selling her arse after the match. She’s probably had some practice…

² Yep. Satan.

The Rise and Fall of Jay Briscoe

On Tuesday the state of Delaware passed a bill making same sex marriage possible. This did not go down well in the ideaspace that is Sandy Fork. Reigning ROH world champion tweeted the following:

The Delaware Senate passed a bill yesterday that allows same sex couples to get married. If that makes you happy, then congratulations!!!!!!

Which seems fine. Pretty positive and supportive, yes? Sadly he followed up with this:

... try and teach my kids that there's nothing wrong with that and I'll f**ing shoot you

Living in a notoriously "free country" like the United States of America Jay is entitled to his opinion. But equally those with sexual preferences different to his are entitled to get on with their private lives however they deem fit.

Even in 2013 there are going to be small-minded people with homophobic, racist and sexist views. That's a sad fact of the world we live in. There will always be prejudice on some level. But you'd expect someone who travels the country for a living, exposing themselves to as wide a range of backgrounds and demographics as the USA has to offer (and it seems to have quite a lot), to have a more tolerant view. Or at least the sense to know when to shut up and keep their antiquated views to themselves.

As the world champion Jay Briscoe is the face of Ring of Honor. That may be a bit of an old school view but I think it's still true. When a wrestling company puts a world title on a wrestler they're not just rewarding them for hard work, they're endorsing them and promoting them as the best they have to offer. The only company in which this isn't true is WWE, in which John Cena is the perpetual top dog no matter who has the belt. But of course if they did put the WWE championship on someone who expressed so openly the sorts of views Briscoe has done the title would be switched at the first reasonable opportunity.

So is this what we can expect ROH to do? Will Jay drop the title at the first opportunity? So far there's been no indication that that will happen (although in fairness ROH would hardly announce a title change is planned). Ring of Honor have issued an apology and stated that they value all their fans, no matter their “age, gender, race, religion or sexual preference.” Nothing else has been said on the matter. The promotion immediately went back to shilling their upcoming shows after issuing the apology via Twitter.

Expect this guy to drop the title pretty soon

Is an apology enough? For now I don't see what else they can do. Briscoe has deleted his Twitter account, a wise move under the circumstances, which will prevent any similar incidences occurring. Short of stripping Jay of the title there's nothing else the company can do until they promote an event.

The next two announced defences Jay has are against BJ Whitmer at the May 18^th TV taping and his brother Mark at June's Best in the World iPPV. A Briscoe to Briscoe title change seems pointless. One has to assume Mark holds the same sort of opinions on these matters as Jay. Even if he doesn't people will assume he does. It wouldn't rectify the situation at all.

BJ Whitmer would be a decent short term solution, but I'm convinced Jay was only going to have a short reign himself. Switching from one (assumed) interim champ to another seems like a poor move. Whitmer’s a good enough brawler but he's not exactly the personification of ROH. He's a mid-card guy. If someone of his level were to get the world title it could devalue it.

Of course the title is already in a pretty bad way being around the waist of a homophobe, so that’s going in ‘The Buzzsaw’s’ favour.

There's nothing to stop the company booking an impromptu challenge scenario in the coming weeks. An in-ring Briscoe promo could easily be interrupted to set up a title match. The challenger could win and Jay, as well as Mark for safety, could take a leave of absence.

Since you ask (I know you were) I think a good choice to take the belt in a “surprise bonus” title match (at the TV taping or the San Antonio or Columbus live events) would be Mike Bennett. I can't imagine he's ever going to get the belt under any other circumstances so it's not like ROH would be passing up a lengthy, memorable first reign.
 

Bennett’s unique status as someone who might leave for a spot in NXT soon would make it an interesting situation similar to 2005's Summer of Punk storyline. He could manage a couple of months at the top before dropping the belt to whoever Jay was originally planned to. If that was Matt Hardy then fine. Even 'The Prodigy' could play babyface opposite that toad.

I'm not going to advocate sacking Jay over this. He said something stupid. While he shouldn't remain the face of Ring of Honor there's no need for him to lose the only job he seems to have trained for and the means to support his family. Hopefully whoever the next champion is will think twice before expressing these sorts of embarrassing views or better yet won’t have them in the first place.