411’s Buy or Sell 12.03.10: Yoshino Defeats CIMA, Del Rey Battles Kong at Final Battle, Ring of Honor Looks for Japanese Gold, and More!!!

Welcome everyone to Week 183 of BUY or SELL. For those of you who haven’t been with us since the beginning, here’s the Reader’s Digest version of what this column is all about. BUY or SELL is very much like 411’s long-running Fact or Fiction column. The main difference is that BUY or SELL focuses on topics like the U.S. Independent scene, Lucha Libre, Japanese Wrestling and pretty much anything else that isn’t mainstream wrestling, WWE and or TNA. This allows for these areas to get a bit more press and for you, our loyal readers, to learn even more about the sport of professional wrestling.

Questions are sent out on Tuesday Night.

Dick Togo will not lose the KO-D Openweight Title until his final match before retirement in six months time.

Steve Cook: SELL. Retirement? BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You’re joking, right? Togo’s only 41 years old, the age when most wrestlers are about ready to retire for the first time. From what I can tell, this title that’s governed under the DDT sanctioning body changes hands pretty often. Togo’s held it twice previously, for a combined time of 240 days, or approximately eight months. Six months might be a little too much time for Togo to hold on to it…perhaps he’ll lose it, win it again and then retire like Verne Gagne.

Michael Bauer : BUY. To me, this feels like the one last run that Togo deserves before he packs up his boots for hood. Togo has already said he is going to retire, and while the title may change hands quickly, things can change. I expect Togo to hold the title for a while and at most have one ot two matches after dropping the title. Still, he could just end it all at that moment and I believe he will.

0 for 1.

Dragon Gate USA’s United Gate Championship Tournament will be underwhelming with only four teams.

Michael Bauer : BUY. Seriously? A three night tournament with a round robin style is fine and dandy, but there are more than four teams that deserve a chance at the title. I mean, you have the Warriors, World-1, Quack-saw, and Kamikaze as the main four stables/teams and will probably get the shots. But Ronin has made an impact lately as has the mix and match team of Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi. Plus, those stables can easily have two combonations that should be considered. I would simply make this an eight team tournament with round one happening on the Saturday show and the semi-finals/finals happening on the same day. This way, you can also maybe have an upset in round 1 to elevate anoher team that would otherwise be left out in the cold (pun intended for the weather).

Steve Cook: SELL. I’m really digging the format that DGUSA has come up with for this thing. It’s a round-robin challenge spread over their triple-shot weekend at the end of January, with a scoring system like they use in Japanese tournaments. Since there’s only four slots for the tournament, they’re having their fans chime in on their website about who should be entered. I think it’s a pretty good piece of business, and more interesting than your typical tournament full of jobber teams with only 3-4 good picks to win.

0 for 2.

Masato Yoshino is not only the ace of Dragon Gate, but is currently the biggest star of the company.

Steve Cook: BUY. Yoshino has gotten an absolutely huge push from DGJapan this year, winning pretty much everything they’ve put in his path. They just put him over CIMA, who’s probably the biggest star Dragon Gate has ever produced, to pass the torch. I’m a big fan of Yoshino and his absolutely ridiculous rope-running, so I support these developments.

Michael Bauer : BUY. Clearly, Yoshino has been given that monster push as the main man in Dragon Gate. Beating CIMA is just a feather in the cap of his outstanding year. He has been overshadowed by Hulk a little bit in Dragon Gate USA, but that’s just to keep the two entites separate in my eyes. Take away the WWE and Yoshino is the breakout star and the wrestler of the year in all of wrestling.

1 for 3.

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Assuming he stays around for a while, TJ Perkins will end up being a very significant addition to the Ring of Honor roster.

Michael Bauer : BUY . I think he can be. Ring of Honor needs to refresh the roster a bit and Perkins has the ability to be quite an acquistion. He can pretty much work his style to match his opponents about as good as anyone right now and his recent work n Dragon gate USA backs up the claim. He first two matches should also be pretty darn good as he faces Kyle O’Reily and Colt Cabana. He match with Kyle should be nothing more than getting his feet wet with the crowd agan, but the PPV match with Colt should be a great technical match, which both RoH and Colt needs to have.

Steve Cook: BUY. That’s a big assumption though, as Perkins/Puma/TJP/Sydistico isn’t really known for staying in one place (or one persona) very long. He is a talented performer that can work pretty much any style you want him to and has a ridiculous amount of experience for somebody his age. He’ll be a star somewhere, the only question is where. ROH would be well served to keep him around.
2 for 4.

Sara Del Rey’s partner for Final Battle 2010 will be former SHIMMER Champion MsChif.

Steve Cook: SELL. I have no idea who it will be, but it’s always smart to pick “the field” against just one option. MsChif would be a fine option and I’m always supportive of seeing more of her, but I think Death Rey’s going to go a different route with this one. Personally, I’m hoping for a Cheerleader Melissa appearance, but I honestly have no idea if that’s even feasible.

Michael Bauer : BUY. It almost has to be. I like Cook’s idea of Melissa, but MsChif has not only a history of being with Ring of Honor, but she was also the first person to soundly defeat Kong in SHIMMER. That in itself should make it an easy choice for Del Rey to bring in something of an equalizer to Kong.

2 for 5.

Davey Richards has a better chance of winning the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship from Prince Devitt then the Kings of Wrestling do of returning to the US with the GHC Heavyweight Tag Championships.

Michael Bauer : SELL. I’m selling this not because I think the Kings have a better chance of walking away with the titles. I’m selling this because I think both of them have no chance of winning. The Kings have been built up huge in Japan the past few weeks, but I still don’t see them winning the GHC Heavyweight Tag Titles, especially to end a tour. Davey winning the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title would seem more likely, but Devitt has been getting that monster push right now and there is no reason to have it stopped by Davey Richards or anyone at this point. So I would say that both sides have 0 chance of winning titles in the next week and change.

Steve Cook: SELL. New Japan has been pushing Devitt pretty strongly in 2010, so I’d be more surprised if he lost to Davey than if the Kings brought the GHC belts back to America. NOAH doesn’t shy away from giving ROH performers quickie title runs, and frankly they could use all the publicity they can get at this point from what I hear. Not to mention that the KOW have been getting quite the push in NOAH, scoring a recent victory over a team including current GHC Heavyweight Champion Sugiura

3 for 6!!

The 183rd edition of BUY or SELL finishes at 3 for 6 as we go 50/50 this week! Stay tuned for next week as two new people step up to the plate on Buy or Sell!