wrestling / Columns
Column of Honor 02.18.12: House Show Short-Circuit
Every once in a while, I come across a topic that I know may not earn friends, but that’s when my gut kicks in and tells me that’s why I should write it. This column, like the chair shot column from January, could be one of those “every once in a whiles”. We’ll see. Welcome to the Column.
=House Show Short-Circuit=
Photo Credit: rohwrestling.com
Is half a Ring of Honor show really a Ring of Honor show?
Ring of Honor ran a show for the first time ever in Cincinnati, Ohio last night-but, looking at the lineup and at the results, one has to ask if it was a true and genuine Ring of Honor experience, if it was just ROH in name only or a situation in-between those extremes. One also has to ask what a line-up like the one from last night’s show might signify for future Ring of Honor house events in 2012.
Sure, there were appearances from all the ROH champions and even some of the notable members of a Ring of Honor undercard. There was an ROH World Tag Team Title defense with The Briscoes, a “Proving Ground” match for the TV Title and even a “No Holds Barred” stipulation match involving former Ring of Honor World Champions. On the surface, the top four matches on this show could fit into any other ROH house show event and seem right at place.
Looking beyond the gloss and shine of the Briscoes tag title defense unearths the reality that said match against ROH World Champion Davey Richards and Kyle O’Reilly was unlikely to have a title change or any long term ramifications. The Briscoes have been locked into a longer-term feud against Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin as presented on the television shows and had a higher profile title bout scheduled against The Young Bucks set to go on the 10th Anniversary Show March 4th in New York City. As for the “Proving Ground” bout, Jay Lethal has lost several of those already, setting up future contenders down the line. BJ Whitmer, win or lose, isn’t the most obvious choice for the next television champion, at least not more than the likes of Roderick Strong or Tommaso Ciampa.
Finally, the Eddie Edwards / Roderick Strong rivalry featured in last night’s No Holds Barred match has been ongoing for over a year at this point and is almost past the sell-by date. Edwards’ main focus has been on his former tag team partner and current ROH World Champion Davey Richards, so there wasn’t much punch for yet another Edwards-Strong bout. Edwards also won every match before this one and created a one-sided feud that while filled with excellent matches, didn’t leave much room for further expansion. Originally, Edwards versus Strong was scheduled for the Homecoming 2011 show in Philadelphia back on January 20th, but Edwards was sidelined with staph infection and so the match was postponed until last night. Even that delay could not help in create added interest in a fourth singles bout between these two men.
Further on beneath the top half layer, the rest of the show, at least on paper, seemed lacking and vacuous. Of note, at least half the wrestlers appearing on last night’s card in Cincinnati, Ohio were not regular members of the current roster. What was left was about half of the current ROH roster, including some but not all that are currently a part of the upper mid-card scene. Whether it was intentional or not, some of the ROH roster was left off the booking, be it for cost reason or the cost of travelling distance from their various home bases. Those notably missing in action included ROH’s hottest property right now in Kevin Steen, former ROH World Tag Team champions Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, Kenny King, Tomasso Ciampa, Mike Bennett, TJ Perkins and tag teams such as The Young Bucks and the combination of Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander.
In their place on the undercard was a “Rise and Prove” Tournament featuring four non-regular tag teams including combinations of several members of the OVW roster (where Jim Cornette has his long association and working relationship). These wrestlers included Shiloh Jonze, Rudy Switchblade, Chris Silvio and Sean Casey. Previously, these men have been given appearances on the SBG-era television tapings, another team that had been given several opportunities on pre-show and undercard matches in Alabama Attitude and a fourth team with roots from Australia in Team MurderDeathKill of Shane Haste and Mikey Nichols.
At stake, a chance to wrestle the ROH Tag Team champions in a non-title “Proving Ground” match somewhere in the near future. That reward certainly isn’t as much of a booby prize as winning NXT Redemption (where said “winner” gets the wonderful prize of competing in the next NXT season…which likely could take longer to happen than the time it took for Guns N’ Roses to release “Chinese Democracy”). However, it also doesn’t seem to be worth spending an entire undercard to get to that point, either.
The usage of a mini-tournament meant that eight non-ROH roster members appeared on the undercard of the Cincinnati show. Add the returning BJ Whitmer and Samson Walker (another local Ohio wrestler) to the undercard for a total of ten non-ROH rosters. The number of actual active Ring of Honor wrestlers on this card? Ten (not counting Truth Martini in the managers role). That includes Mike Mondo, who is only recently a new member of the ROH roster and formerly from (that’s right) Ohio Valley Wrestling (and a short stint in WWE with the Spirit Squad). If you asked the hardcore ROH fans to create a list of the ten ROH guys they’d want to see live, chances are Mike Mondo wouldn’t make the list. If it was twenty ROH guys, chances are he still wouldn’t make the list.
Beyond the upper card bout, this one-off house show (the only one scheduled in February) has for the first time in the new SBG era truly felt like an average WWE or TNA house show. That is when those promotions run their house shows; they program it like a travelling circus show –giving the same or similar performance in every town. It may be a solid show, even a good show (or at least an attempt to put on a good show). However it is not a special show, with nothing extra compelling or extra noteworthy like one would see at a television tapings or Pay Per View. There are rarely if ever title changes on these shows (the recent tag title change from Air Boom to Primo and Epico was more to take the straps off Evan Bourne who had just failed his wellness test for the second time and was going to be suspended for sixty days, rather than a specific and intentional attempt to put on something special or different for the fans in attendance). There are no angles, no meaningful promos.
A uniform, assembly-line product show from the WWE at least gives the fans the chance to see a majority of the stars of the show that they see on television and sometimes they perform in matches that are of even better quality than on television (where air time is limited and at a premium). However, with a few small variations here and there, what a WWE fan in Topeka, Kansas will see on a house show loop would be about the same as the experience of a house show in St. Louis, Missouri on that same circuit.
Perhaps it is unfair to judge the show just yet, without the benefit of reviews having come in. Maybe this show turns out to be a home run effort. Maybe the fans who attended enjoyed the show regardless of who was on it and without the kind of heavy-hitting and meaningful bouts. Maybe it was a good and entertaining wrestling show in and itself. Regardless of all that, the kind of line-up ROH presented last night in Ohio could set some far reaching precedents for how ROH runs its house show (non-television, non-internet Pay Per View) business in the year(s) to come. Those precedents would change the expectations, executions and presentations of ROH house show business and bring them closer in comparison to their mainstream counterparts in WWE and TNA.
Previously, almost every ROH house show would have something of interest or significance to the overall direction of the product, or at the least would have a good enough top-to-bottom lineup to justify the cost of purchase once the DVD would be produced and put on sale through the rohwrestling.com website.
The Cincinnati show was sold on the main-event tag team title match, which despite a last-minute solid promo by The Briscoes has to be seen as an in-between effort to put over The Briscoes and also the Team Ambition tag team on the way to their larger profile 10th Anniversary Show main-event against former partners Eddie Edwards and Adam Cole. On a smaller level the show was sold on the appearance of Jay Lethal and the return of BJ Whitmer to Ring of Honor action in his hometown in a Proving Ground match. The rest, including singles matches with Roderick Strong and Michael Elgin, was just an undercard.
That half of this show consists of people not currently regulars with ROH speaks shockingly of future possibilities as to what ROH house shows could look like. The usage of only half the roster likely helped to cut down the cost of payroll under the guise of discovering new talent, but on the other hand, does that ability to give up-and-coming wrestlers a chance in the spotlight justify taking away some of the “genuine Ring of Honor” experience from fans? An ROH show without the likes of Kevin Steen (now that he has been “officially” brought back into the company), Kenny King or The Young Bucks is certainly lacking in the “oomph” factor.
If anything the Cincinnati show reads like “Your Local Independent Promotion Presents Wrestling (Plus ROH Guest Stars!)” It smacks of ROH using local talent to fill gaps on their shows. Could this happen in other cities? Is this an isolated incident or the start of something more pervasive? Will future events feature the same light touch with regular roster members and a heavy hand on local talents and non-regulars?
There is also the matter of selling the DVD to the ROH clientele. Given the relatively little buzz about the show before it took place, there doesn’t seem to be much motivating someone who didn’t attend the show to purchase the DVD, unless there are some BJ Whitmer diehards out there who haven’t purchased DVDs of the Mid-West independent shows he has been working for during his comeback of the past year. How many people are going to want to buy a DVD of a show that doesn’t really mean anything and features a lack of regular ROH roster members they’ve come to know through TV, DVD and iPPV? In a climate where selling DVDs and supporting product has become increasingly difficult, this show’s lineup did not do it any favors.
Just this past month ROH released their Carolinas double shot as a double DVD-set, off the back of a stronger South Carolina show and a North Carolina event that focused heavily on the main-event, a record-setting eighty minute eight-man tag team elimination bout. The rest of that second card also had a heavier emphasis on non-regular roster members, a weaker undercard and only six matches in total, a rarity on most ROH shows.
This isn’t the first time ROH has packed lightly, as several shows under previous administrations did not boast a full-roster, but these were generally the exception to the rule. Cincinnati is the farthest in the Mid-West ROH has travelled so far in the new SBG-era, and ROH has generally travelled with a reduced roster on their West Coast jaunts to locations such as Las Vegas (Survival of the Fittest 2007), San Francisco (Chaos at the Cow Palace) and Los Angeles (So Cal Showdown I and II, which were both a part of the WrestleReunion weekends in 2009 and 2010 respectively).
Double Feature in 2008 was a glorified two-day movie taping in Dover, New Jersey. ROH had struck up a deal to film scenes from “The Wrestler” using their logos and wrestlers. They put on wrestling matches to dress up the taping breaks and put on the collected matches (with a reduced roster) onto one DVD. In that situation it actually made sense not to have a full roster because there wasn’t a necessity or time for a larger show—the tapings went on far longer than usual just combining the few matches on each show with the taping of scenes for the film. However, ROH wanted to give its fans wrestling matches as a reward for helping out with filling out the audience. It was a win-win proposition all around. That situation is nowhere close to what Cincinnati represents-the first true “house show” without the trappings of actually having to maintain even a semblance of relevancy or significance to the overall direction of angles, storylines and the entire promotion as a whole.
Sure, it makes sense to scout talents and give some of them opportunities on the undercard. It also makes sense to have connections to local wrestling schools and it even makes sense for ROH Executive Producer Jim Cornette to use the connections he has with OVW to scout possible talents for the ROH roster. However, if anything, ROH has gone about the OVW relationship the wrong way, at least as far as introducing them to the hardcore ROH fans. Constantly using the OVW wrestlers as jobbers for ROH stars makes them seem less than ROH wrestlers and therefore a waste of time in booking them on the shows.
Fans don’t want to see guys who they know are going to lose or are presented as jobbers-it’s one of the reasons that ROH students struggle for many years to disassociate themselves from that label. It took years for Rhett Titus to unburden himself of the notion that he was an ROH Wrestling Academy graduate. The same for Grizzly Redwood, and although he has his moments in the spotlight more often than not he still resides on the undercard and job duty. The Bravado Brothers got lucky with a great gimmick that gave them a winning personality and something that made them different from the other students, but at this point they also remain in the undercard.
That leads into the problem of using OVW wrestlers on the regular roster and why ROH, if they truly want to use wrestlers like Shiloh Jonze and Chris Silvio (judging by the several times they’ve been pushed on TV relative to other talents, they do want to push these guys to the fans…or onto them as the case may be). It would be better to give those wrestlers time away from ROH fans and then reintroduce them one-by-one in the more traditional method, with video packages, integration into the ROH roster and a clear direction for them, rather than as continual jobbers or as filler for a half-baked ROH house show. Loading up a show ten-at a-time with non-ROH regulars only throws them into a melting pot with the others where they blend in and become completely indistinguishable. These wrestlers may very well be worth it to add onto the roster, but constantly jobbing on television puts it into the fans minds quickly that they are not.
On the other hand, perhaps it is somewhat unfair to judge a show without watching it or establishing as much of a consensus about the show as possible (which is somewhat difficult less than twenty-four hours after an event has passed, even in this day of superfast dissemination of knowledge through the internet). Perhaps it is better to look at the best parts of a show rather than its lowlights. Or perhaps there is the need for an occasional show such as the show in Cincinnati, where Ring of Honor loads up on newer, underexposed (to the majority of its fan base) talent in order to begin the process of restocking the shelves and preparing to elevate its wrestlers through the ranks. Perhaps guys like Shiloh Jonze and Chris Silvio are today’s Roderick Strong and Austin Aries, just looking to have the opportunity to make their own splash, like those two along with Jack Evans and Alex Shelley had the Generation Next angle and stable in 2004 that helped them to break out from the pack and establish themselves at that time as the next generation in Ring of Honor.
Perhaps not every show can be a top-to-bottom “top ten all-time” show that lives on throughout company history such as a Death Before Dishonor VI or Manhattan Mayhem I. Even previous administrations had their slow shows and lesser-than-average efforts (do Buffalo Stampede and Boiling Point ring a bell?). All that may be true, but if Ring of Honor wants its fans to part with more of its money for its product perhaps they should aspire to run more shows like the former and less like the ones that did not receive good reviews. Every ticket buyer, especially a first-time audience like Cincinnati, deserves to see a genuine, full-fledged Ring of Honor experience. To present less than that is a disservice to the Ring of Honor fan base, which for all of its strength and flaws yet deserves to get their money’s worth.
As of 02/18/12
=ROH World Champion=
Davey Richards
Champion since 06/26/2011 | 9* successful defenses
Best in the World 2011 defeated Eddie Edwards in New York, NY to win the championship.
Next Defense Triple Threat Elimination vs. Roderick Strong vs. Eddie Edwards in Orlando, FL on 03/30/12.
–Davey Richards defeated Tommy End in Barcelona, Spain on 07/04/2011.
–Davey Richards defeated Chase Owens in Kingsport, KY on 08/04/11.*
–Davey Richards defeated Colt Cabana in Carrolton, GA on 08/06/11.
–Davey Richards defeated Roderick Strong in Chicago, Illinois on 08/13/11.
–Davey Richards defeated Daga in Tulancingo, MEX on 10/15/11.
–Davey Richards defeated El Generico in Chicago Ridge, IL on 11/19/11.
–Davey Richards defeated Eddie Edwards in New York, NY on 12/23/11.
–Davey Richards defeated Jay Lethal in Philadelphia, PA on 01/20/12.
–Davey Richards defeated Jay Lethal in Baltimore, MA on 02/04/12.
* These matches are not as yet officially recognized by Ring of Honor on their records page, but as they did occur as billed “ROH World Title” matches for the live crowd in attendance they are listed here for posterity.
=ROH World Tag Team Champions=
The Briscoe Brothers: Jay & Mark Briscoe
Champions since 12/23/2011 | 3 successful defenses
Final Battle 2011 defeated Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin) in New York, NY to win the championship.
Next Defense vs. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) in New York City, NY on 3/04/12.
–The Briscoes defeated Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas in Baltimore, MD on 1/7/12 (disqualification).
–The Briscoes defeated Cedric Alexander & Caprice Coleman in Norfolk, VA on 1/21/12.
–The Briscoes defeated Team Ambition (Davey Richards & Kyle O’Reilly) in Cincinnati, OH on 2/17/12.
=ROH Television Champion=
Jay Lethal
Champion since 08/13/2011 | 4 successful defenses
Sinclair TV Tapings defeated El Generico in Chicago Ridge, IL to win the championship.
Next Defense vs. Tommaso Ciampa in New York City, NY on 3/04/12.
–Jay Lethal went to a time-limit draw with “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett in Louisville, KY on 10/01/11.
–Jay Lethal went to a time-limit draw with El Generico in Louisville, KY on 11/05/11.
–Jay Lethal defeated El Generico & “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett in New York, NY on 12/23/11.
–Jay Lethal defeated “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett in Baltimore, MA on 01/07/12.
=Proving Ground Contenders=
These wrestlers have earned a future title shot in the following ROH title divisions through the Proving Ground system.
World Title: None
World Tag Team Title: The All-Night Express (earned on SBG TV tapings, episode airing 12/10/11), Jigsaw & Hallowicked (earned on 01/20/12)
TV Title: Roderick Strong (earned on 11/19/11), Tommaso Ciampa (earned on 01/21/12)
“Terry Funk Ain’t Wear No Damn Mouthpiece”
-Full results from last night’s show in Cincinnati are available here and information and reactions to the show are just starting to break..
-So Chris Hero received his very own WWE approved Florida Championship Wrestling name this week. He is now known as Kassius Ohno. Ohno? Ohyes! OH NO! No, no, no, no, no. I don’t know and it doesn’t matter who came up with that name, even if it was Hero himself. That is just horrible. I mean, I get the references, with Kassius being a variation of Cassius for Cassius Clay, also known as Boxing legend Muhammad Ali. Ohno is a reference to Olympic gold medalist skater Apollo Anton Ohno (or Sonny Ohno, former manager in WCW, or Yoko Ono, but I don’t think that much about that one). Note that Hero is not Kassius Clay or Kassius Klay because WWE already has Brodus Clay…or well, looking around and seeing as The Funkasaurus is no longer on television (for reasons too stupid to go into here), maybe they don’t. There is also the word play of his initials reading “K.O.”, as in his patented KO Elbows that he throws which will likely be a trademark in his matches and can be a calling card in his promos. Any ways you slice it through, Hero ate the bullet on his WWE name.
-Tommaso Ciampa gets his TV Title shot against Jay Lethal at ROH’s 10th Anniversary Show internet Pay Per View on 3/4/12 in New York City. So, either Ciampa becomes the new TV champion or his win streak ends there at the hands of Lethal. OR, they go Time Limit Lethal and it’s not officially a loss on Ciampa’s record. For the record, that result would suck. Ciampa has been hitting a great stride in his recent promos and in my opinion has elevated himself with them, probably all the way to a run with the TV Title.
-ROH returns to Dayton on April 29th, 2012, which will be a Sunday matinee show. It’s their first show of the New Year and the first since Survival of the Fittest 2011.
-Rhett Titus is back in action on the independent scene and should be returning to ROH in-ring action shortly. That is very good news to hear and there is definitely some great potential to have a strong grudge feud between The All-Night Express and The Young Bucks (who get the kayfabe storyline credit for putting Titus out at Final Battle 2011). I’m definitely anticipating future matches between the two teams.
Responses from last week’s column:
I’m compelled to ask, how on earth did Nigel get wrestler of the year in 07. Legit question as im dumbfounded by it. He had one incredible match (v Aries) and another awesome match (v Danielson) and then was not far off average for the rest of the year. Morishima had a far better year, same as one of the briscoes or steenerico. I just find that odd.
Posted By: Guest#1327 (Guest) on February 11, 2012 at 12:33 AM
Fair question. As I recall, Nigel co-won my “Wrestler of the Year” award for ’07 on the back of the match against Bryan Danielson (a.k.a. Daniel Bryan, taped at Domination and shown on the Driven Pay Per View), which was also my Match of the Year. In addition he had three fantastic title attempts against Takeshi Morishima throughout 2007 and had essentially been positioned as the number-one face of the promotion. All those factors, along with a generally high output of good-to-great matches (which, as the story goes, wound up taking far too great of a toll on his body) throughout the year and ending 2007 as ROH World Champion cinched at least the tie. As for Morishima, though he wound up having a very impressive backstretch of his ROH run (and that includes his Danielson series before and after dropping the title), but his early months were a bit more shallow aside from the dream match against Samoa Joe. He was essentially a demolisher going through the likes of Homicide, Jimmy Rave and BJ Whitmer (twice) and his ROH World Championship matches weren’t so much about great quality as it was seeing Takeshi Smash. That’s cool and all, but it doesn’t measure up in my book to being wrestler of the year. I think the likes of Nigel, Claudio Castagnoli, Brent Albright and Bryan Danielson obviously brought the “work rate” game up in those latter months of his title run, thus diffusing some of your argument.
The Briscoes and Steenerico were very good and contended for Tag Team of the Year, but didn’t do enough singles-wise to place on the overall Wrestler of the Year category. Appreciate the feedback though and I’m glad to clarify the thought-process from back then.
I knew that triple threat between Edwards, Richards, and Strong would happen eventually.I just thought it would happen at the 10th Anniversary show.
I feel Davey’s reign has been lackluster so far with all of his title defenses being so spaced out and 4 of them not even happening in ROH, but the Briscoes current reign should be awesome with them having so many contenders line up already.They got Team Ambition, The Young Bucks, Hallowicked and Jigsaw, The WGTT, and ANX all lined up for guarenteed title shots.
I thought ROH would wait a while before pulling the trigger on the eventual Team Ambition vs. Edwards/Cole match.I thought they would spend some time building Edwards and Cole up as a tag team first.Maybe give them a shot at the tag titles.I don’t know, I feel like they’re rushing things.And Davey needs to be defending the title at the 10th Anniversary Show.This show needs to be one of their biggest ever celebrating ROH’s 10th year in business which is big and instead it don’t look like it’s going to be as big a show as it should be.Like I said, the triple threat that’s happening at Showdown in the Sun should be the main event of the 10th Anniversary Show.
Posted By: SeanWrestling (Guest) on February 11, 2012 at 03:36 AM
First of all, I appreciate Sean’s clarifying the rules about the Blind Destiny program that’s coming up for the Showdown in the Sun Night 2 iPPV (check out the comments from last week for that).
The Edwards-Richards-Strong triple threat was definitely obvious to happen at some point, and like the Aries-Black-Strong round-robin and triple-threat elimination matches from 2010 perhaps they are happening past the expiration date. Of course, the Big Bang triple threat was really awesome and surpassed already high expectations about it, so who’s to say that something similarly great won’t happen this time around?
I agree that the 10th Anniversary Show is taking somewhat of a backseat to the Wrestlemania weekend internet Pay Per Views, but the two tag matches and the TV Title bout already announced indicate that ROH still wants it to be a stronger show. However, just looking back at last year’s anniversary show will tell you that these shows aren’t always guaranteed to be top-to-bottom shows. That one was a way-station in-between Final Battle 2010 and the Honor Takes Center Stage events. The title matches on those shows were woefully obviously not going to be title changes and the ROH World Title match went fourth on the card. So, would a Davey Richards title defense really be the best thing for this show, especially if many who follow the spoilers know that the bigger defenses have been confirmed already for the late March shows? Yes, obviously the big tenth year is very important as far as celebration and demarcation of a promotion’s existence. I’m hoping ROH comes up with more to really drive home that fact and pay homage to some of the promotion’s past history.
How can you not like Technical Lightning!?! 😉
Posted By: cgstong (Guest) on February 11, 2012 at 04:44 PM
At this point I like it more than Kassius Ohno…
They need to turn Davey heel. The guy has a natural heel charisma to him (which some folks might think is a real life jerk persona). I just don’t buy into this MMA bad ass talking plainly in the locker room and treating O’Reilly like a little brother. He is never going to pull of the legit bad ass with a smile on his face like Bryan Danielson could. I want to see him walking to the ring in a robe with the hood up giving the fans no love. And in the locker room getting his nails done by a hot chick while berating all those around him. The legit bad ass who doesn’t give a damn about anyone, but yet still has his loyal cronies ready to roll.
And wow, Roderick Strong has done the unthinkable and has really created a cocky character that is fun to watch. A guy who really epitomized the “vanilla” personality but gold on the mat, now has really become the total package. Never thought it would happen honestly.
Great column as always!
Posted By: Bartoloco (Guest) on February 12, 2012 at 06:36 PM
A double switch with him and Steen could definitely be in the offing, but I like that for now they’re doing what they have done before, with the likes of Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson and Tyler Black (well, at least until he was leaving and then intentionally went heel to close out his run), which is to let the wrestlers portray a larger-than-life version of themselves and then let the fans decide who they side with, the champion or the challenger. Honestly, to me, the whole Richards controversies and fans turning on him is just more of the same to me and mirrors what happened with Nigel McGuinness in 2007. ROH fans just have this cycle built in now where it’s like some of them just have to turn on the champion now that he’s “made it” (doesn’t matter who, its happened to Nigel, Lynn, Black and now Richards).
I do agree with you about Roderick Strong and he has finally turned that corner where his persona and promos are what they need to be as a top heel, but now I wonder if he hit his peak already as far as placement—I just don’t see the current storylines giving him room to go back to the ROH World Title position again for the foreseeable future. That’s why I’d hope for a tag title run with Elgin at some point this year.
Twitter me at: http://twitter.com/AriBerenstein.
Grab my newest Podcast of Honor podcast that premiered this week, with Chris Gee Schoon Tong and Matt Waters, examining memories from the past ten years of Ring of Honor as well as thoughts on the ROH/CHIKARA crossover and lots more.
Kevin Ford continues the review crazy-first of all—GASP!—a POSITIVE (?!?!) review of the Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team Anthology Volume 1 (who would have thought?). Then, a look at CHIKARA’s first show of 2012, The Thirteenth Hat, and then a massive compendium of the 12 Large: Summit tournament that happened last year and wrapped up in one nice big bow thanks to Smart Mark Video.
Shawn Lealos gives you the Wrestling 4R’s for Ring of Honor television from February 11th with Eddie Edwards vs. Kyle O’Reilly and The Briscoes vs. The House of Truth.
T.J. Hawke got in on the 13th Hat review action. Well, there are thirteen of them, which would be plenty enough to go around.
Michael Weyer gets a head start on writing about Ring of Honor’s tenth anniversary and what it means to professional wrestling in this week’s Shining A Spotlight. Cool, now I don’t have to write that column!
Return of THE HIDDEN HIGHLIGHTS thanks to Dimitri Dorlis!
Thanks for reading and for the comments. I will be off to Israel for two weeks, so I won’t have a column up until probably March 10th and at that point I’ll look back at the events of the 10th Anniversary Show and catch-up on the latest ROH news. Until then…
BROOKLYN!
DAH EM BAH SEE…LIMITED!
–Ari–
