411’s Buy or Sell 12.24.10: Dragon Gate Increases Load for American Wrestlers, Briscoe to Challenge Strong, Haas and Benjamin Full Time in Ring of Honor, and More!!!

Welcome everyone to Week 186 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.

Dragon Gate USA was wise to lock up American wrestlers to contracts, preventing them from taking outside bookings on certain dates.

Michael Ornelas: BUY. I think any promotion signing any talent to contracts is smart. It’s good business. It may be a burden to the competition, but from DGUSA’s perspective, this was a great move. I’m not sure of the details (did they sign ALL of their American talent to contracts? High profile guys? Austin Aries?), but I think it shows Dragon Gate knows what it’s doing.

Greg DeMarco : SELL. What exactly does someone get for signing with Dragon Gate USA? Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and TJ Perkins were all highly touted DGUSA talents that soon went to ROH. Now two are under contract to ROH, and they can still appear for both DGUSA and Evolve, among basically any other indy. Sure, DGUSA is guaranteed to have these talents on hands for all of their events, but those talents were likely to be available anyway. I just don’t see what the motivation to sign is. If you draw, they’ll book you. As an indy wrestler, it’s best to keep all of your options open.

0 for 1.

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

Greg DeMarco : SELL. If anything, making it easier to get booked in Japan is one of the pros in the pro/con debate of signing with DGUSA. American independent wrestlers seek out Japanese bookings. They make more money, get to train in some of the most sophisticated environments, and usually come back a much better wrestler. The Young Bucks/Generation Me is a great example. Prior to touring with Dragon Gate in Japan, they were a Southern California team that had a reputation for having a bit of an attitude and being difficult to work with. After coming back from Japan? They were more disciplined, more respectful and more polished. Now they’re in TNA and are considered to be the future of the business.

Michael Ornelas: SELL. No way. It may take some of the talent out of some shows in America, but Japan is a completely different machine when it comes to wrestling, and the guys that go over there come back better as performers. Wrestling and wrestlers anywhere benefit from talent getting worldwide exposure. Plus, the only other company that really shares a lot of talent with Dragon Gate is EVOLVE, but since Gabe is running both companies, I don’t see it being a problem. CHIKARA will be fine and will probably schedule around it if Chuck Taylor, Gargano, Quack, Jigsaw, or anyone else go to Japan.

1 for 2.

EVOLVE wrestling will fail to exist by this time in 2011 due to Dragon Gate USA’s Northeast involvement.

Michael Ornelas: SELL. They already run so few shows as is, and again, since they’re both booked by Gabe Sapolsky I don’t foresee them being in direct competition with one another. I think maybe a merger is possible, or co-promoting shows, but I will give EVOLVE the benefit of the doubt and say they will at least make it to 2012, even if barely. DGUSA expanding really just means that the Japanese talent is willing to travel that far into the United States, and they are the true draw of the promotion while EVOLVE has its own thing going on (win/loss records, different stories being told, and a focus on younger guys).

Greg DeMarco : SELL. I can’t sit here and guarantee that either EVOLVE or DGUSA will exist at the end of 2011. If I had to pick one that dies, it’d be EVOLVE. But if that does happen, it’ll more likely be due to the lack of buy-in from its fanbase, and the lack of interesting storylines. Their recent video of the Homicide post match attack on Jon Moxley was less exciting and engaging and more gratuitous and boring. It went on and on and on forever. And it didn’t make me care. But I can almost guarantee you that EVOLVE won’t die due to the northeast involvement of DGUSA, since DGUSA’s Vice President Gabe Sapolsky is the owner and founder of EVOLVE. I just can’t see him being dumb enough to let that happen.

2 for 3.

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Despite the story behind it, Jay Briscoe should not be considered a viable challenger to Roderick Strong and the ROH World Title.

Greg DeMarco : SELL . This isn’t the UFC, it’s professional wrestling. Roderick Strong has been the ROH World Champion for over 100 days and has only had 2 title defenses. Yet he’s had non-title matches against Austin Aries and Colt Cabana, both reasonable challengers for the title. There’s no reason why those shouldn’t have been successful title defenses to add to Strong’s list. If we applied the same reasoning to Bryan Danielson’s 458 day/38 defense title reign, we’d need to eliminate defenses against Steve Corino, Chris Sabin, Rocky Romero, Xavier, Delirious (who got 3 shots), Jimmy Yang, Sonjay Dutt. Hell, Jay Briscoe’s gotten title shots against Xavier, Samoa Joe (twice), Takeshi Morishima, Nigel McGuinness and Jerry Lynn prior to this shot at Strong (his seventh ROH World Championship opportunity). Roddy needs to build a good title reign, and Jay Briscoe is a great opponent for that. And given the experience and chemistry these two men have against each other, the match should be a highly competitive and very realistic affair.

Michael Ornelas: SELL. I think Jay, in my opinion, is the easier Briscoe to get behind as a singles wrestler, and I’m a little burned out on the Briscoes tagging against the Kings of Wrestling, or just tagging in general. They don’t need to break up by any means, but a focus on their singles careers would be very refreshing for me as a fan who watches every show. Jay Briscoe can get it done (as can Mark, and I’m not implying otherwise) in the ring and Strong needs to defend the belt! He’s been the champion for 3 months already, has competed at 6 house shows and 4 TV tapings and only has 2 defenses so far. I wouldn’t be surprised to watch him go through Jay, El Generico, Colt Cabana, and Homicide before having a rematch with Davey. Jay Briscoe is a perfectly fine challenger, and anything that revitalizes my interest in the Briscoes is welcomed by me.

3 for 4.

While he was honoring his booking, Davey Richards should have been nowhere near a wrestling ring on Sunday after his match at Final Battle.

Michael Ornelas: HOLD. This is a very tough one to answer because I don’t advocate working with a concussion. That being said, he knew he had a booking the next day and he chose to do a lot of the ridiculous spots at Final Battle. I get that he was going all out for his big match, and he’d never half-ass it, but he went a little overboard on Saturday knowing full well he was committed to wrestle another match the next day. Now that that’s out of the way…you don’t work with injury. If you tear a pectoral, you’re out to heal. If you break a leg, you’re out to heal. Just because there isn’t a fracture or a tear that comes with a concussion doesn’t mean there isn’t an injury to give your proper attention and care to. Sorry for the split answer, but I can see both sides. Either way, Davey’s the one who made a poor decision from either angle. Still was a good match though.

Greg DeMarco : BUY. The Colorado Medical Society guidelines indicate that an athlete can return to competition 1 week after their first Grade II concussion, and 2 weeks for subsequent Grade II concussions (and only with doctor’s clearance). I doubt Davey was free from symptoms by Sunday—hell, he’s probably now free from symptoms now! I know it was a dream match-up between The American Wolves and Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin, but this is a man’s life we’re talking about here. A man with a wife and a daughter. While Haas & Benjamin are consummate professionals, pro wrestling is a physical, hard-hitting job. There is absolutely no reason Davey Richards should have been in a wrestling ring on Sunday.

3 for 5.

Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin will be Ring of Honor World Tag Champs sometime in 2011.

Greg DeMarco : BUY. Who else? The Briscoes have already been there six times and technically don’t have rights to any more shots at The Kings of Wrestling. The All Night Express is a great team and could have an outstanding old school heel run with the belts. Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly are more valuable as singles wrestlers, and aren’t ready to carry those titles yet. But Haas & Benjamin would look great as ROH World Tag Team Champions, and they are committed to being full time performers in 2011. So a tag team title reign, even a short one in transition to Rhett Titus & Kenny King, seems very likely.

Michael Ornelas: BUY. Why not? The objective with bringing them in was to gain credibility as a company, and specifically within the tag division. Giving them the titles at some point bring name value and recognition to the belt as well has prestige. I understand the logic of saying “well, the Kings beat the World’s Greatest Tag Team, so the Ring of Honor belts mean more than the ones Haas and Benjamin held!” but I think it’d be a mistake not to capitalize on their talents and give them a run, even if it’s transitional and only lasts a couple months.

4 for 6!!

The 186th edition of BUY or SELL finishes at 4 for 6 as these two tend to agree more often than not this week! Stay tuned for next week as two new people step up to the plate on Buy or Sell!