The Final Four

I hate to say I told you so but... well, I did.

When ROH announced the brackets of their world title tournament I said that the final four would almost certainly be Cole, Ciampa, Steen and Elgin (read that here). Those are the four that have made it. I also said that predictability doesn’t necessarily equate to a poor product, and it doesn’t. All the surprises in the world won’t make bad matches any better, but sadly the quality of the tournament outings has, for the most part, been only average.

At least we’ve got a final four that make sense. Even though he doesn’t seem quite as popular as he was six months ago Steen remains the promotion's top good guy. Having him get this far helps him to stay that way and also ensures the brackets remain credible. Elgin is finally getting the main event push he's warranted for a while. This is a natural way of elevating him in a company like ROH. The same goes for Cole really, only with the addition of a gradual heel turn playing out as he advances. Which is a nice thread to follow.

Ciampa seems to be the odd man out. He's the only one of the four who hasn't been a regular over the last year to make his addition at this point obvious. That's not his fault, of course. He was injured. It seems as though the tournament's being used as a way of elevating him by association. That he's made it as far as the three bigger names theoretically puts him on their level.

When I was originally writing about the brackets I said I expected a Cole v Elgin final. I still do. ROH could still surprise us but realistically they won’t. Elgin defeating Steen would be a boost and make it seem all the more likely that he's the next world champ (because wins over Steen are not dished out to just anyone). The Cole v Ciampa semi-final is the perfect opportunity to get over Cole's heel turn by having him cheat to beat 'The Sicilian Psychopath'. That also has the benefit of allowing Ciampa to be presented as a dominant force throughout the majority of the match.

Anything other than a Cole v Elgin final just seems incredibly unlikely. But that’s not too bad, because with that match will come an incredibly hard to predict outcome.

 

Is this man the next ROH world champion...?

 

‘Unbreakable’ could win the championship, showing that he’s the company’s top star and capable of overcoming anyone placed in front of him. There would be a few different things that could be done with him as the champion. He could either move into a feud with Cole, which would presumably take in a rematch at Final Battle and last into early 2014. He could be pitted against various top names with minimal storyline effort, similar to ROH of the early days (there’s something a little old school ROH about Elgin).

Plans could also be made to gradually turn him heel. Already Elgin’s reactions from audiences have diminished. He’s heard outright negativity from the New York crowd. It seems as though Elgin is the sort of champion on whom fans will turn once they’ve got the gold. That’s nothing new for Ring of Honor and they’d do well to simply embrace it and turn Elgin a few months into his reign. Steen would make a good opponent for him, seeing as he’s as close as ROH has to a leading man.

A victory for Adam Cole could finalise his transformation into the company’s lead heel. He’s arguably already there, he just hasn’t done anything particularly dastardly in the role yet. Cheating to defeat Michael Elgin would be just the ticket to set him up. It could also help to revive Elgin’s flagging popularity.

 

... Or will Death Before Dishonor XI be Adam Cole's night?

 

While I can imagine Elgin having a lengthy title run the same can’t be said for Cole. I can imagine him losing the title before next summer, almost certainly to Elgin. I think Cole would make a great long-term champion, especially if he started off as a heel. A face turn after a year or so as champion could provide his reign with longevity. I don’t think this is likely though. If Cole wins I think he’s going to be a short term champion who has the belt mainly to give Elgin someone to chase.

I hope they go with a Cole win. I think that’s the best way to handle Elgin winning the title. He needs to beat someone who the fans really can’t stand in order to have a fair crack at working out as a long-term top face (which is hopefully what ROH wants of him). If Elgin simply defeats Cole in the tournament final there’s nowhere left for him to go. He’ll have proven he can defeat Cole and there will be no other believable heels for him to be pitted against.

The smart move is to have Cole win and Elgin beat him after a few months, possibly at Final Battle. That will give Ring of Honor time to prepare some heel challengers for Elgin. Face versus face title defences will only see fans turning on him.

If Elgin had won the title a year ago they wouldn’t be in the situation of having to book a tournament now. But for whatever reason they didn’t. ROH has so far made the best of an awkward situation. Hopefully they’ll continue with that in the finals and beyond.

The NXT Wolves

Over the last few years Davey Richards has intimated he’s going to quit Ring of Honor on two occasions. The first was in 2010 when he stated outright that he was going to leave wrestling behind to become a full-time fire-fighter. That didn’t happen. He instead re-signed with Ring of Honor and was front and centre for the horrendous reign of error inflicted on the company by Jim Cornette.

The second time was when he signed his current ROH deal. He announced that the contract lasted through to August of this year and when it expired he would take a look at his options. That’s wrestler speak for seeing if WWE’s interested.

And in fairness who can blame the guy? Davey Richards has been slogging his guts out as a wrestler since 2004. In that time he’s built up a reputation for working hard and putting on spirited, energetic performances. He’s travelled the world learning his craft and is at an age where he’s probably thinking about whether he’s ready to trade in the creative freedom of the indies for the opportunities only WWE can offer.

With this in mind it should come as no surprise that Richards and his American Wolves tag team partner Eddie Edwards are rumoured to be among the names attending a WWE tryout camp at the company’s new training facility in Florida. It’s these camps that WWE uses to determine whether or not prospective wrestlers warrant being offered a developmental contract and spot in NXT.

 

The American Wolves: future NXT tag team champions?

 

I don’t want to bang on about how good an idea it would be to sign Richards and Edwards. Anyone who’s seen them wrestle will know they could be an asset to WWE’s product, either as a tag team or as singles competitors (and the latter is far likelier). Both would have to work at cultivating suitable personas, their current approach is fine for ROH but wouldn’t go over well with WWE management or audiences. But that’s the purpose of NXT. Were they to sign developmental contracts they’d be amongst the top guys at that level immediately, and their deficiencies in the personality department could be improved.

The Wolves are booked on ROH shows up to September 28^th. Shows after that haven’t yet had appearance lists attached to them. As it’s been reported that the Wolves’ contracts expired in August I have to assume that they’ve either signed contract extensions or verbally agreed to appear at a few more shows.

Worth noting is that only one show actually has them listed in a match: at Death Before Dishonor XI they will challenge the Forever Hooligans for the IWGP junior tag titles. That the match has been announced makes me think whatever agreement the Wolves have in place covers that show. It’s reasonable to assume that the TV taping the next day could be covered by this too, as it will be held at the same venue.

Should Richards and Edwards get WWE developmental deals it’s entirely possible that those shows could be their last. Should that end up being the case I hope Ring of Honor breaks their recent trend and provides a fitting send off for Richards and Edwards. By that I don’t mean making sure they win, rather that they should be given enough time to ensure their final ROH match is an absolute classic.

Considering ROH bills itself as a promotion that promotes in-ring ability over anything else this should be a standard approach, but it’s not and hasn’t been for years. The last time a guy was allowed to go out on a tremendous match was El Generico at Final Battle 2012.But he wasn’t a regular at the time and that felt more like ROH cashing in on a popular feud one final time more than allowing Rami Sebei to give fans a reason to remember him fondly.

The last regulars I remember being given a chance to leave on a classic in a spot that befitted their standing in the company and its history were Nigel McGuinnes and Bryan Danielson. That was back in September 2009. Since then Richards and Edwards have been amongst the names that have kept the company going. If any performers deserve to go out on a high it’s them.