Strikes and Bumps: Ring of Honor Challenge

Well the cat is out of the bag and rumors are rampant coupled with some disappearing faces from the Ring of Honor roster page.  It’s no secret that possibly one of the most influential men in ROH history is gone for the forseeable future, the only two-time World Champion in the history of the company A-Double, Austin Aries has decided to evolve… but he’s not the only one gone.
We have also seen the loss of one of the potentially top tag teams in the business and the watering down AGAIN of a heel group.  Let’s go through all of the releases and see what I feel could have happened with those talents instead of releasing them.
Of course the first thing though that should be talked about is the monetary gain that ROH probably felt was the highest reason for doing roster changes.  Be it known these are ROSTER CHANGES and not loss’ persay.  These talents very well could come back and be used but until they have concrete feuds it is felt that they can be brought in for possible TV tapings only or just not at all until needed.   The gain of this is obviously less people being flown in, more people driving in and no doubt gas is cheaper than a coach ticket.  While I get what they are trying to save, why not just offer it to everyone instead of just outright cutting five talents who in my view all are needed for this promotion to gain the traction it wants.
Other than not flying in talents other than a few key figures, this also without a shadow of a doubt brings up the subject of politics.  Despite what some may say, you’d have to a tad short sighted to not see that no promotion is without its politics.  Rumors are going to run rampant, and while I’m not one to further those I will say that many have speculated that some of the recently “released” talents were vocal backstage to the point that made some feel uneasy.   Perhaps friendships were brought into question or even the ability to call the shots in a form of creative control could have contributed to the situation.  Whatever the reason, it is no doubt a fundamental mistake as we saw in WCW for talents to have creative control.  They are getting paid to be a part of the bookers stories, of course input should be asked and in many cases could be for the better, but at the end of the day the booker needs to convince those around that he has a concrete idea of where each show takes the feud and should be able to show that he/she is using the talent to the best of their ability.
Ring of Honor may not be a DVD based sales company in their eyes as much as they were, but for my money they still should be making the largest percentage of their business from the DVD sales of each show and each show should feel special to the point that a person doesn’t feel like they can miss it.  That’s how I used to feel about Ring of Honor and largely to a degree that has been lost.  No doubt the economy has something to do with that but ROH hasn’t exactly helped that either with some feuds that more or less mean nothing to the fans and the fans are the ones any promotion needs to listen to.
From this point out though I want to talk about the talents released from bottom to top and possibly some ideas as to where I felt the talents could have helped beyond how they were being used.
Erick Stevens & Necro Butcher of The Embassy circa 2010
This is easily the bottom of the pile.  Erick Stevens has had nothing really going for him since his … well feud with Necro Butcher until Necro decided to join the Embassy in one of the oddest moves this year.   Necro has his niche fanbase from his death match days and for a time was a welcome change in the form of the Age of the Fall.  But together these two men haven’t presented much and no doubt that is what led to them being seemingly taken off the roster page and possibly next few shows.   As for what I was hoping to get from them in Ring of Honor, well I was kind of hoping they would add to the tag team division as that team of skill mixed with brawling.  Almost like a ROH version of the Brain Busters.  Erick Stevens may not be entirely technical as the great Tully Blanchard but he more than proved he has what it takes to go in the ring with current ROH Champion Roderick Strong back during their feud over the FIP title and there is no doubting Necro’s ability to hit hard with the best of them.  I was hoping that perhaps a run with the title belts could bring some prestige back to the Embassy as it did when with “Hurricane” John Walters, the group held the prestigious Pure Title.  It’s not a large stretch to say that with the correct booking of beating top teams including possibly Up in Smoke on TV and then a possible win over The Briscoes with outside interference we could have seen a great series of matches against current Tag Team Champions, the Kings of Wrestling. Of course I’m not saying these two guys would carry the division, but the feud with The Briscoes almost doesn’t need the belts to be deep and this team could definitely lead a great feud with the other team I am going to address here, The Dark City Fight Club.  I could see great matches featuring these two teams, especially ones that have particular out-of-the-ring stipulations such as falls count anywhere or even leading to a Fight Without Honor could bring the fans in and still feed into those groups of fans that want to see more than just in-ring wrestling.   Just my opinion and perhaps I’m way off but there still is a need for that and even though the El Generico vs Steen is giving us those types of matches, a tag team feud featuring The Embassy with Erick Stevens and Necro Butcher could also have given the fans something to feast on.
Dark City Fight Club Jon Davis & Kory Chavis
“These are two guys, looking for a fight..” once a catch phrase mentioned to describe a now legendary tag team composed of a big guy and another slightly smaller darker guy who have gone on to hold almost every major tag team title in the world.  I’m not going to sit here and say that Jon Davis and Kory Chavis are going to have the same success, but I saw a lot in these two guys who can brawl with the best of them, but also give us some technical match ups that would give us Strong Style fans a run for our money.
I’ve read that these two were probably a casualty of the “fly in” bullet.  Perhaps though they could have been offered gas money to drive into the shows as I felt that they were really favored by the fans and were something different in the division in terms of look at feel.  They, for me, almost had a Legion of Doom style feel where you knew when you saw them in the ring that Pain was coming, and that if their opponents didn’t like it.. then they could do something about it.  Fight back.  In reality that is all wrestling is at its core, two tandems want to fight and all it takes is a where and why.  These two had a simple reason for being in ROH, they wanted those belts.  They proclaimed it in almost every promo, so why did they get cut?  Just because there wasn’t anything for them?  They really didn’t need a deep feud.  They wanted to face the top, beat people up to the top, and then win the gold.  Does that need a whole lot of sizzle?  It’s almost pure steak.
Booking them for me would have been easy.  Right now you’re looking at only four teams majorly making up the division right now.  The Briscoes, The All Night Express, The American Wolves, and the champs Kings of Wrestling.  Of course we have the student tandem of Bravado Brothers and the some-time partners of Colt Cabana and El Generico and I guess that’s enough but at the same time we have Davey Richards going for the World Title and Edwards defending the TV Title so neither is really focused on the Tag Division as well as the All Night Express is gunning for the Briscoes leaving the KOW to feud with who?  Possibly the former World’s Greatest Tag Team but that is still all speculation.  Dark City Fight Club could have been the guys to give good match ups to the top teams while at the same time dominate on TV tapings against other lesser booked teams.  While they might not ever have won the belts, and personally I think they should have long ago, they were strong enough with the fans that it always felt they could have gone and really given the division some good matches.   Hell I would have loved to seen Round Robin Challenge 4 tag division based again of the Dark City Fight Club vs The Briscoes vs The American Wolves, winners to take on the tag champs at the next nights show.  Tell me that wouldn’t have created some buzz.  I felt that they deserved their roster spot and really should have been able to keep it.
“The Greatest Man-ager that Ever Lived” Austin Aries
Need I say more than the picture to the left states?  He’s the ONLY two time Ring of Honor World Champion.  He was leading one of the hottest tag teams in Ring of Honor, The All Night Express not to mention still one half of the longest running Tag Team Title holders when he held the belts with current ROH Champion Roderick Strong.  I mean this guy is so important to the lore that has been written for Ring of Honor.  Generation Next co-creator turned leader.  He beat the longest running ROH Champion Samoa Joe for his first title run.  He went almost 75 minutes with Bryan Danielson at “Testing the Limit” not to mention had a great series of matches with Danielson that has stretched almost his entire time with Ring of Honor.  The man deserves a spot on the roster no matter what.  He helped put ROH on the map with technical matches not seen since the likes of Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels.  Some may say that’s a stretch, but check out his series against Danielson and then watch the series Hart and Michaels put on and tell me they don’t resemble each other.  Austin Aries already was a World Champion, twice in fact.  SO yes I can agree that perhaps that spot should have been taken over by another up-n-coming talent just as when he battled Bryan Danielson he was given that spot.  But whose to say you couldn’t have had him stay with the All Night Express and lead them on a role to the Tag Titles?  Why couldn’t he have had a small feud with Eddie Edwards, complaining that he needed to be the first Triple Crown champion and be the first to hold all three of the current ROH belts? Could those series of matches possibly put Edwards over that peak and supplant him as a premier TV Champion, especially if those matches were given enough time and enough build?
There were many avenues for Aries that I felt were still left unexplored and on top of that, the man is so important to the current crop of fans that still support ROH that not having him around could actually prove to be somewhat of a boost.  If his fans knew that at some point he was going to return.. just think of the ovation he would get.  I may be hopeful when I say this, but despite him being in EVOLVE and possibly DGUSA at some point, a return at Final Battle 2010 would in my mind make for some compelling iPPV buys if not more beyond that.  Just saying.  Aries is an important figure in Ring of Honor and it really needs to be said that this was a bad move on their part unless there’s more here than meets the eye.
Overall I do feel that all five men weren’t as expendable as it makes them look as they others such as Ernie Osiris, Shane Hagadorn, and even Prince Nana are still on the roster and yet guys who really added to the in-ring product were let go.  Doesn’t make much sense from this stand point as even though ROH is entering a new phase it’s the in ring product that brought them to where they are and will take them where they need to go.
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