Ring of Honor in Review: The 2006 Honor Roll

Another Final Battle has gone by so it’s time to see what we thought were the best and worst moments of the year. And what better way to do that than with mini lists! From Hell Freezes Over to Final Battle 2006 ROH had a big year in 2006. They made their debut in England and established the market well enough to return in 2007. They ran two double shots in Chicago, reinforcing how strong that market is. They pulled some of their highest attendance marks to date, while building strong relationships with Japanese promotions Dragon Gate & NOAH. Lets take a look at what we thought were the top moments of the year.

Wrestler of the Year
BG Says:
1. Bryan Danielson
2. Homicide
3. Nigel McGuinness

There’s no denying that Bryan Danielson was the face of ROH this year. He held the World Championship throughout the year and produced more **** matches than anyone could have hoped for. My top ten list as of now (yes I keep an updated top 10 list) features six matches in which he was a participant. He held the ROH title throughout the year, won and then wore the FIP title through most of the year and unified the World and Pure Championships. Homicide finally used the complaints that everyone has had about his tenure in ROH to his advantage and finally got himself in the position to win the World Championship in his hometown. Nigel McGuinness also got to shine in his homeland, putting on the best match of his career and cementing his status as an ROH main eventer.

JZ Says:
1. Bryan Danielson
2. Homicide
3. Nigel McGuinness

Bryan Danielson has clearly stood out above and beyond everybody else in the company. The fans respect him because he says he’s the best and he really is, and the fans also respect him enough to boo him for being a good heel at the same time. It’s a pretty amazing dynamic that Danielson has developed, and he’s had a boatload of four-star matches to go with it. This could be the best year anyone in ROH ever has.

Much of the second half of the ROH year 2006 focused on Homicide and his battles with Jim Cornette on his way to scoring a World Title shot at Bryan Danielson. Homicide put a lot on the line by saying if he doesn’t win the title he will leave ROH forever. That coupled with Danielson’s shoulder injury seemingly made it a no-brainer that Homicide would win the title, but that doesn’t make the storyline any less compelling.

Nigel McGuinness truly broke out this year with a series of phenomenal matches with Bryan Danielson, most notably the World and Pure Title unification match in England. While ostensibly a heel, Nigel was able to win the fans over just by being awesome. His reign with the Pure Title lasted almost a year, and his reign was so great that they had to retire the belt. If he sticks around he’ll be ROH World Champion at some point.

Tag Team of the Year
BG Says:
1. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong
2. The Briscoe Brothers
3. Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal

Like Danielson in the singles ranks, Aries & Strong dominated the tag ranks for the better part of the year. Holding the titles for nine months before being cheated out of them they were involved in four of the matches in my top ten (one overlapping with Danielson) and also produced more **** matches than any other team this year. The Briscoe Brothers returned looking bigger, badder and better than ever. With their “Southern Drunk” characters in full affect they outshined almost every team on the roster and finally gave themselves entertaining personas. Matt Sydal whored it up throughout the year looking for tag partners but finally found success with the first ROH Tag Team Champion Christopher Daniels. After a long series of matches they teamed up and gelled very well as a team. Ending the tainted reign of the Kings of Wrestling was the icing on the cake for them this year.

JZ Says:
1. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong
2. The Briscoe Brothers
3. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli

The former Generation Next stood out head and shoulders above the rest of the tag teams in ROH, and in all of wrestling really. They held the belts for nine months and defended them eighteen times, against the likes of Jay & Mark Briscoe (four times), Homicide & Ricky Reyes (twice), BJ Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs, Bryan Danielson & Jay Lethal, among many other teams in ROH. They also took them to FIP and defended them against Jerrelle Clark & Jay Fury in June, and in July finally made the ROH Tag Team Titles into the ROH World Tag Team Titles, with defenses in Japan against Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi as well as Genki Horiguchi & Dragon Kid on July 9 and July 11.

The Briscoe Brothers came back with a bang at the Fourth Anniversary Show and quickly got into the thick of things. They challenged for the World Tag Team Titles on several occasions and nearly walked away with the belts every time. They also got involved with Homicide and Samoa Joe again, while working with ROH Commissioner Jim Cornette. The bottom line is that no one is scarier or meaner looking than Jay and Mark Briscoe.

When Chris Hero invaded from CZW, he naturally assumed that his best friend Claudio Castagnoli would be on his side. When Claudio defended Ring of Honor, ROH thought they had another soldier. Then Claudio turned his back on the company, and the Kings of Wrestling started running rampant, culminating with a Tag Team Title victory at Glory by Honor V Night 2. Their reign didn’t last long, but the impact they made was big.

Match of the Year
BG Says:
1. Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong Supercard of Honor
2. Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA Glory by Honor V Night 2
3. Blood Generation vs. Do Fixer Supercard of Honor

The Danielson/Strong rivalry is one that I don’t believe can produce a bad match (outside of the Hell Freezes Over fiasco). They put on a fantastic mat-based match at the beginning of the year that I feel gets unfairly overlooked. Later in the year Danielson worked through injury and had another outstanding match against KENTA. The match didn’t even really get going until the second half and still blew away almost everything else this year. Blood Generation vs. Do Fixer is up there with the very best spot-fests you’ll ever see and warrants inclusion in this list.

JZ Says:
1. Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness, 8/12/06
2. KENTA vs. Bryan Danielson, 9/16/06
3. Blood Generation vs. Do Fixer, 3/31/06

Simply put, I loved everything about Bryan Danielson versus Nigel McGuinness from Unified. The wrestling was on, the emotion was there, Nigel being in his home country made him the mega babyface and Danielson was absolutely brutal in wanting to dismantle him in front of all his countrymen. These are the matches I hope to see when I watch wrestling.

The atmosphere for this Bryan Danielson title defense was just about as amazing as the McGuinness match. This match was hyped for a long time and fans were really on the fence about who would win this one. Danielson had a shoulder injury that KENTA mercilessly attacked, and Danielson had to compensate and did so brilliantly. This is a phenomenal match.

The match featuring six of Dragon Grate’s best was the talk of the Internet when it came out on DVD, and it certainly deserved the hype. It’s as good of this style match as we will probably ever see, and invented a new chant – “please don’t stop!”

Show of the Year
BG Says:
1. Supercard of Honor
2. Dragon Gate Challenge
3. Glory by Honor V Night 2

Having two out of the top three matches automatically gives Supercard of Honor the number one spot. Add to that a solid three-way dance and an awesome tag match pitting Aries & Evans against Styles & Sydal and you’ve got yourself a tough show to beat. Dragon Gate Challenge introduced us to the highflying Japanese sensations and also showed ROH fans that Generation Next could hang with them. It also had the end of the Joe/Daniels feud (sort of) and the catalyst for the Jimmy Jacobs’s new character. Glory by Honor V Night 2 just got better and better as it went along and culminated in not only a GHC Heavyweight Championship defense but also one of the best matches of the year. Throw in a rare tag title change and you’ve got your number three show of the year.

JZ Says:
1. Supercard of Honor
2. Dragon Gate Challenge
3. Better Than Our Best

It’s pretty amazing that I think the three best shows of the year all came on three consecutive nights, and that I got to go to two of them. The most memorable moment for me definitely came on the first show of the trilogy, Dragon Gate Challenge. BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs took a horrific fall from the top rope to the floor, breaking Whitmer’s ankle and leaving Jacobs relatively unharmed. Also on a somewhat historical note, that moment produced the only known picture of Brad and I together. It’s really hard to rank these shows, because all three of them represent ROH at their very best. From the Do Fixer vs. Blood Generation match to Danielson vs. Strong III to Homicide vs. Cabana to Blood Generation vs. Generation Next to Austin Aries & Jack Evans vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal to Danielson vs. Lance Storm (coming out of retirement no less), these three shows truly showed what Ring of Honor has to offer.

Feud of the Year
BG Says:
1. ROH vs. CZW
2. Homicide vs. Colt Cabana
3. Homicide vs. The Curse of Homicide

ROH vs. CZW not only captured the minds of both ROH and CZW fans, thus drawing some of the largest houses in certain markets, but it also got both companies much more publicity in the IWC. The fact that CZW let the feud fizzle out on their end doesn’t bring it down as far as I’m concerned. Cabana vs. Homicide started in 2005 but really hit its strike in 2006 with Homicide almost killing Cabana on multiple occasions and changing Cabana from an all around jokester to an all around fighter. The Curse of Homicide plagued the Notorious 187, starting with the Low Ki distraction during his first title shot and going right up until Nigel McGuinness screwed him out of the Pure title. Jim Cornette hired a small army to do everything they could to keep Homicide from the belt but with a little help from friends Konnan and Samoa Joe he was able to finally grab the prize that eluded him for almost four years.

JZ Says:
1. ROH vs. CZW
2. Homicide vs. Colt Cabana
3. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Colt Cabana & BJ Whitmer

The biggest feud in all of independent wrestling crossed promotional boundaries as CZW and ROH invaded each others shows for months. Chris Hero started the war in January when he challenged Bryan Danielson for the ROH World Title, and ended in July with the Cage of Death match and a brutal barbed wire match between BJ Whitmer and Necro Butcher. It showed that it is possible to run a successful invasion angle if both promotions are willing to make each other look good. The Homicide versus Colt Cabana feud started off looking like it was just going to be filler, but it developed into a feud that felt like genuine hatred and just kept getting better and better as it went along, and had an awesome and fitting conclusion. My third choice is a feud that is still ongoing as of press time, and that’s Jimmy Jacobs’s simultaneous feuds with BJ Whitmer and Colt Cabana. It’s no secret that I’ve long been a supporter of Jacobs, so it’s been really fun watching him finally have some feuds. His battles with Whitmer are just based on hate, and the battles with Cabana show that ROH can bring the “entertainment” to go with their “sports” sometimes too. Both of these will be highlights of early 2007.

Most Improved of the Year
BG Says:
1. Nigel McGuinness
2. Jack Evans
3. Matt Sydal

When McGuinness beat Samoa Joe for the Pure title I was pretty skeptical. I thought there was still some steam left in Joe’s reign and Nigel just wasn’t a guy that I thought was anything special. Throughout his reign he completely revamped his persona into one that really got under people’s skin and then in the middle of 2006 he started producing these outstanding matches, including one of the best of the year against Danielson in England. Evans spent a good amount of the year working for Dragon Gate in Japan but when he did make appearances in ROH it was clear he’d learned a lot. His transitions were stronger and his highflying offense was much more crisp. He’s gone from being a guy who is great in tag matches and one-dimensional on his own to being a much more all around wrestler. He can still fly better than anyone else, but he can be counted on to bring quality to a match without that crutch now. Matt Sydal was a wrestler who I’d written off as completely overrated at the end of 2005. His place in Generation Next seemed undeserved. But in 2006, while he promos remained hilariously bad his ring work shined. I’m now seeing why everyone else has been gushing about him, even though I think he probably didn’t deserve all that praise until recently.

JZ Says:
1. Nigel McGuinness
2. BJ Whitmer
3. Jimmy Jacobs

Nigel McGuinness truly broke out this year, with a long (and the final) reign as the ROH Pure Champion. He defended the title against the likes of Tony Mamaluke, Austin Aries, Claudio Castagnoli, Christopher Daniels, Bryan Danielson, Jay Lethal, Conrad Kennedy III, Homicide, Roderick Strong, Colt Cabana, and Delirious. He took World Champion Bryan Danielson to the limit on four separate occasions and wrestled Naomichi Marufuji in the first GHC Title match in the United States. Whitmer and Jacobs have elevated their stock by doing increasingly dangerous things to each other and getting their feud over with pure intense hatred. Jacobs and Whitmer also fought Bryan Danielson in a three-way for the World Title in June in a fantastic match. Big things should be ahead for these two in 2007.

Newcomer of the Year
BG Says:
1. Davey Richards
2. Dragon Gate/NOAH Wrestlers
3. Chris Hero

Richards came in with a lot of hype and a strong winning streak over established super-heel Jimmy Rave. While I think he’s a bit one-dimensional I do believe he is fitting in very well in his place at the top of the mid card. The Japanese talent that visited ROH this year (I’m counting CIMA, Shingo, Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA even though they all performed on one show in 2005) put on outstanding match after outstanding match. Thanks in large part to KENTA and Shingo coming on as semi-regulars there was either a Dragon Gate or NOAH wrestler on 23 out of the 42 shows in 2006. These guys delivered good matches at their worst and unbelievable matches on quite a few occasions. Only Shingo really looks to be getting a consistent push in 2007, which is why they rank below Richards on this list. Chris Hero came in as part of what was probably the biggest angle in ROH history and as of this date he’s the only CZW wrestler to remain on the ROH roster. He’s a rarity in ROH in that he can get the crowd to turn on him in almost any city. Only Jimmy Rave has really accomplished that before. His partner in crime may be gone, but Hero doesn’t seem to be going anywhere for a while.

JZ Says:
1. Chris Hero
2. Davey Richards
3. Irish Airborne

Chris Hero is just about the only guy who can get consistent heel heat (because some heels are so respected that they get cheers) every time he steps into an ROH arena. He was the key spokesperson for CZW, and eventually won the ROH World Tag Team Title with Claudio Castagnoli. Davey Richards came in and immediately beat Jimmy Rave three straight times and has already worked with many of ROH’s elite, including the Briscoe Brothers on several occasions. The Irish Airborne are slowly climbing the tag team ranks and even scored an upset over the Briscoe Brothers at one point.

Comeback of the Year
BG Says:
1. The Briscoe Brothers
2. Shingo
3. El Generico

To say that anyone had a better return than the Briscoe Brothers would be a lie. It’s strange to think that they’d been gone since Testing the Limit. From that day until the day they came back looking as menacing and focused as ever people clamored for their return. What they got when the Briscoes came back were the Southern Delaware boys in better form than ever. It seems like a bit of a cop out to include Shingo here as well as in the newcomers list, but I’m a fan so leave me alone. He debuted officially in a pretty good match against Christopher Daniels at Dragon Gate Invasion with only ten months of experience under his belt. Since returning briefly at Destiny and then more consistently at Suffocation he’s been producing quality matches without fail. I have a feeling 2007 will be a big year for the mustachioed monster. El Generico was bringing fun and laughter to ROH fans in 2005 before disappearing without much fanfare. Now in late 2006 he’s back and looks to be a fixture on the under card. Most ROH main eventers tend to have another wrestler they can call on when the inevitable main event tag match comes about, and with Delirious climbing his way into the upper echelon of the roster I think we can expect Generico to get called up from time to time to aid his fellow masked man.

JZ Says:
1. The Briscoe Brothers
2. Shingo
3. Doug Williams

The Briscoe Brothers came back by slaughtering Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro and Jason Blade & Kid Mikaze and then proceeded to run roughshod over the rest of the tag team roster. They couldn’t dethrone Austin Aries & Roderick Strong though, but they did come very close. Shingo came back out of nowhere and became a major player right away by defeating Roderick Strong. Doug Williams was only back for two shows, but just his mere presence in ROH at all is good enough for me.

Biggest Mistake
BG Says:
1. Letting Cornette bore fans as Commissioner
2. The Embassy disbands without whimper
3. Not turning Joe heel to and wrestle Homicide on 12/22

I should have sensed it would happen when the segment in which Cornette revealed himself to be ROH Commissioner in 2005 turned out to be such a debacle. Throughout the CZW feud Cornette was a positive force in getting the angle over. However, once he turned heel and his attention turned to Homicide his promos became rambling, long and boring. By the time he was removed from power at The Bitter End I was already completely disinterested in his character. Had ROH kept him on a shorter leash he could have been a more positive force in the Road of Homicide angle, right up until the title win at Final Battle. When Nana left ROH rather suddenly it did leave the Embassy in a bit of a pickle, but disbanding the hated group with no last hurrah was a huge mistake I feel. At the very least they could have established Rave as a dominant force by destroying Sal Rinauro to put him out of the company. Instead Sal left quietly after losing to the bumbling team of Jimmy Jacobs & Colt Cabana and Rave and to reestablish himself as a submission machine much more slowly. The fact that the Embassy was dissolved in a thirty-second backstage promo still burns me up a bit. The final thing on my list is really just something out of my imagination. I had a hard time thinking of three big mistakes ROH made, so I just threw in something I would have wanted to see. It would have seen Joe turning heel at the Chicago Spectacular and costing Homicide his match against Adam Pearce. He would have then faced Homicide the night before Final Battle and put him over once and for all to give him the much needed momentum heading into his title match. Fantasy booking is futile I guess.

JZ Says:
1. Cornette talks too much
2. The quiet dissolution of the Embassy
3. Not booking Abyss vs. Samoa Joe

I think the idea of Jim Cornette as ROH Commissioner is a good one, but I think it just got a bit overdone. If he made rare appearances but still wielded the power that would have kept him fresh longer. Instead, what happened was Cornette was given about a million promos where he said a lot of the same things a bunch of times. He rambled off on incoherent tangents for as long as 17 minutes at a time, and it got to a point where there was no one I wanted to see less than I wanted to see Cornette. When Prince Nana left Ring of Honor, the Embassy was not given some grand send off, or even really much of a send off at all. The faction was a huge part of ROH since July of 2004, and it deserved to have a big blow off. Finally, on a personal note, I would really like to see Abyss vs. Samoa Joe and I think ROH would be the best place to see it in. It’s more likely to happen in TNA now.

Biggest Talent Loss
BG Says:
1. Prince Nana
2. Alex Shelley
3. Abyss

Oddly enough all of these losses affected the Embassy. As mentioned above Prince Nana’s exit from the company led to the quite dissolution of the Embassy. Nana was the best manager in ROH (and one of the best wrestling has seen in years), and his departure caused ROH to have to change quite a few things around. When Shelley left it meant Rave needed a new partner, and while the dynamic between Rave and Rinauro was interesting the team couldn’t be taken as seriously as they were when Shelley was on board. Abyss was a perfect fit in the Embassy and it was unfortunate that his plans for himself didn’t fit with ROH’s plans for him. It was just one thing after another for the Embassy in 2006, and eventually all the losses destroyed the group.

JZ Says:
1. Prince Nana
2. Alex Shelley
3. Claudio Castagnoli

Prince Nana simply MADE Jimmy Rave into an over heel, and the two of them formed an awesome tandem. Nana was always entertaining, cut great promos, stayed over as a heel, and helped everyone he worked with get more over. On a related note, former Embassy member Alex Shelley is also a very big loss for ROH. Shelley is an amazingly talented wrestler and talker and could have been a top heel in ROH. Claudio Castagnoli was hitting a good stride in his super heel tag team The Kings of Wrestling with Chris Hero, but the lure of WWE was just too great.

Worst Show
BG Says:
1. How We Roll
2. Gut Check
3. Epic Encounter II

I’ll keep it short and sweet because I don’t want to get too negative in this column. The only match I remember fondly from How We Roll was Aries vs. Jay Briscoe. The main event was illogical and Christian didn’t bring his A game. Gut Check and Epic Encounter II were a couple of shows I couldn’t get into. The Chicago show had the abysmal Cornette promo and a main event that left me feeling bored for an hour, while the St. Paul show suffered from a dead crowd and a first half that was fast forward material. ROH had way more hits than misses in terms of show quality this year so lets just move on.

JZ Says:
1. How We Roll
2. Epic Encounter II
3. Gut Check

I don’t want to spend much time on this one, because so much of what ROH does is so good that it feels nitpicky to criticize many of their shows. Each of these shows even had one or two matches I liked quite a bit, which is more than I can say about some WWE and TNA shows.

Hopes for 2007
1. The Samoa Joe vs. NOAH feud brings a bevy of fresh faces to ROH.
2. The FIP title’s presence in ROH not hurt Full Impact Pro.
3. For Homicide’s title reign to not go the way of James Gibson’s.

We consolidated our thoughts on this one. The prospect of the Joe/NOAH feud is quite exciting. The NOAH wrestlers have all produced at least one good match. Joe was supposed to get it started by tangling with Nigel on Friday so we hope that match happens in January and then NOAH sends more soldiers to try to shut the big man down. Bringing in the FIP title as a more hardcore version of the Pure title worried us at first, but if it sells FIP DVDs and doesn’t conflict with FIP storylines then we’ll be happy. What worries us a bit is that at this year’s Florida Rumble the seeds have already been sown to make FIP more like ROH, with the first step being Aries’s departure from DP Associates. We hope that ROH’s solution to keeping FIP angles safe isn’t to make FIP a carbon copy of ROH. We do like Roderick Strong getting a singles push in ROH however, so we have our fingers crossed that FIP goes unharmed by this move. Lastly, while it’s hard to keep a babyface champion interesting after a long chase we really hope that Homicide’s title reign is a successful one. There wasn’t much to get excited about in his FIP title reign after the Punk feud, and we’ve all seen what a lame duck babyface ROH champion looks like in Gibson, so lets hope that these two past follies don’t rear their ugly heads again.

Thanks for reading our reviews for another year. With any luck we’ll be back next year with more ROH recappin’ and reviewin’. ROH continues to grow, even right here on 411Mania, so keep on reading our reviews and check out the great ROH related columns and reviews by others here on the site. Happy New Year.