The Blog of Honor – Debut of Honor

Greetings Ring of Honor fans, and welcome to the first in what I hope to be a long-running series of columns all about ROH.

You probably know me by now for my work recapping ROH On HDNet and Tough Enough, as well as quite a few podcasts for the site so I shouldn’t need to introduce myself, but just in case, I’m Matt Waters, I’m 22 and I’m British. That’s right folks, I’m from the land where we spell the word honour… well, like that. But for the sake of this column I’ll be using the American spelling because that’s the name of the company.

After days of deliberating over what to call this little column I went with the lazy option of stealing the title of my own blog, The Blog of Honor, because what am I going to do? Sue myself? Madness. So get ready for my musings about all things ROH on a (hopefully) weekly basis.

Weekend Results

Let’s get things underway with the results of ROH’s latest foray into the South, as I break down the recent Richmond and Charlotte double-shot.

‘Tag Team Turmoil’ Richmond, Virginia – 8/7/11

– The show kicked off with Jim Cornette apologising to the fans for Chris Hero’s absence (due to travel issues) and then brought out new ROH World Champion Davey Richards who talked about his title win. The House of Truth appeared for a war of words until Eddie Edwards arrived to even the odds. Truth Martini called for a retreat, wishing to save the violence for the main event.

1. Contenders Tag Team Lottery Match: Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly defeated Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander. Said to be an electric opener, something to be expected of Team CO’Reilly these days, and Coleman & Alexander – affectionately nicknamed the C&C Wrestle Factory by the fans – impressed a great deal. O’Reilly pinned Alexander after ‘Total Elimination’. If they are in fact using Saturn & Kronus’ old finish then I approve as it fits their style well.

2. Contenders Tag Team Lottery Match: The Bravados defeated The Briscoes. After beating the snot out of the Bravados throughout the match, Jay had the sure win after the Doomsday Device but elected to stop the pin in a show of heelish arrogance. The elder Briscoe then attempted to use a chair while Mark had the referee distracted, but Haas and Benjamin intervened and Shelton kicked the chair into Jay’s face allowing the Bravados to get the biggest win of their young careers.

3. Challenge Match: Kenny King defeated Mike Bennett. ‘The Prodigy’ originally won this match after a roll-up and a handful of tights but in controversial fashion Rhett Titus managed to get the decision reversed, awarding King the match. Bennett of course didn’t take too kindly to this and attacked the All-Night Express, causing Jim Cornette to make a match later in the show between Bennett and Titus, who was originally scheduled to face Hero. Nobody I’ve spoken to is impressed with this decision, but when you have to shuffle a card then needs must.

4. ROH World Tag Team Title Match: Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin defeated Colt Cabana & El Generico. Prior to the match the Briscoes attempted to interject but were instead ejected from the building. Shelton pinned Colt to retain the titles and after the match got on the microphone and apologised for his sloppy performance. Hmm.

5. Contenders Tag Team Lottery Finals: Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly defeated The Bravados. O’Reilly tapped Harlem out with a float-over guillotine choke in a quality match to earn his team $5000 and a future shot at the tag team titles. The WGTT already defeated the youngsters in non-title action at Revolution: USA but don’t count Team CO’Reilly out of it with the straps up for grabs.

6. Challenge Match: Rhett Titus defeated Mike Bennett. A reporter on the ROH forums claims this match was fantastic. Bennett attempted to use a chain but Kenny King put a stop to it, allowing Titus to hit an elevated DDT to pick up arguably the biggest singles win of his career. After losing only one match since debuting on HDNet (we don’t count his early loss to Roderick Strong at Fade to Black apparently), Bennett has now lost three matches in a row. Ouch.

7. Main Event: The American Wolves defeated The House of Truth’s Roderick Strong & Michael Elgin. Davey picked up the victory for his team by pinning Elgin after a long back and forth match. At one point Elgin hit a fall-away slam and Samoan drop on the Wolves at the same time because he truly is ‘Unbreakable’. The Wolves nearly won the match earlier than they did with a double submission but Martini physically prevented his boys from tapping. Truth then accepted his fate and closed his eyes while the Wolves gave him a double superkick.

– Overall this show sounds like its worth a watch but nothing to go out of your way for. I’m certainly curious to see several of the matches, but it’ll be an event I purchase as part of a sale for sure.

Charlotte, North Carolina – 7/9/11

1. Singles Match: Mike Bennett defeated Andy Ridge. Bennett talked about the losing streak he’s been on before the match and promptly ended it by pinning ‘Right-Leg’ with his Uranage Slam. Nothing says future world champion like a win over a glorified jobber.

2. Grudge Match Part 1: Kenny King defeated Mark Briscoe. With their respective partners handcuffed to the ring-post outside the ring, the ‘Pretty-Boy Pit-Bull’ scored a win for the ANX after a roll up. This led right into…

3. Grudge Match Part 2: Jay Briscoe vs. Rhett Titus was ruled a No-Contest. Unfortunately the Briscoes didn’t want to play by the rules and Jay used a pair of bolt cutters to free Mark, resulting in an all-out brawl between the two teams. I know, shocking, right? I wasn’t a huge fan of this stipulation, but it continues to tell the story that when things are kept fair the ANX have the Briscoes’ number, while Jay and Mark have needed to resort to dirty tactics to secure wins.

4. Tag Team Challenge Match: The American Wolves defeated Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly. In an ROH MOTYC, it was the Wolves who came out on top. Eddie made O’Reilly pass out from the Achilles Lock but due to miscommunication between the ref and the timekeeper the bell was not rung for several moments and an oblivious Eddie kept the hold locked in. Davey was of course less than pleased. ROH have reported that O’Reilly has a Grade 3 ankle sprain. This is a fantastic way to advance the implosion of the Wolves because neither man is truly wrong.

5. Tag Team Match: Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander defeated Michael Elgin & Chase Owens. The C&C Wrestle Factory continued to impress and managed to pick up the victory by pinning Owens with a frankensteiner/Frog Splash combo. After the match Owens received a thumbs down from Truth Martini and a pair of powerbombs from Elgin. ROH reported in the latest newswire that they were very impressed with C&C and they’d be great roster additions in my opinion. While it’s amusing to see Elgin hurt people, I hope that one of these days a recruit will pass the test instead of just having an established wrestler jump ship. In the meantime, it’s a good way to give wrestlers try-outs.

6. Challenge Match: Chris Hero defeated Colt Cabana. Hero makes up for not being able to make it to Virginia the night before by pinning Cabana with the Cyclone Kill. Some reports have said Hero had a loaded elbow pad wrapped around his foot.

7. Non-Title Tag Match: Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin defeated The Bravados. The champs keep their near-perfect record by putting away the losers of the Contenders Tag Team Lottery with a finish called The Broken Arrow. Whether that’s the spinebuster/blockbuster combo or their earth-shattering double spinebuster remains to be seen but my gut says it’s the former. After the match the Briscoes attacked and put Haas through a table, leading to Kenny King of all people making the save with a chair. How exactly things will be settled between these three teams remains to be seen, perhaps a three-team Ladder War? Rumour has it Mr. Benjamin is a dab-hand with ladders.

8. Steel Cage Match: El Generico defeated Roderick Strong. The Generic Luchador picked up the win to end his six month feud with former world champion Roderick Strong after hitting the Brainbustaaaahhhh!!!!! The pair brawled around the ring before getting into the cage, and near the end Truth attempted to climb in but Generico Yakuza kicked the cage to knock him down. After the match Generico accidentally ripped the cage door off and then flexed his guns to the delight of the fans.

– Most reports are indicating every match was good and someone went as far as to suggest naming the event Death Before Dishonor IX. I’m not sure if I’d go that far, and I’d expect some kind of bad cage pun if anything. Regardless, I really want to see this show as soon as I can.

Championship Roll Call

World Champion: Davey Richards (since 6/26/11 – 1 defense)

World Tag Team Champions: Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin (since 4/1/11 – 2 defenses)

Television Champion: El Generico (since 6/26/11 – 0 defenses)

Colt Cabana WWE-Bound Once More?

Take this one with a massive pinch of salt, but some have begun to report that Cabana may be heading back to the WWE as part of management’s efforts to keep CM Punk on board past his contract expiration. Adding credence to this theory, Cabana has allegedly been telling bookers he won’t be available next month and when coupled with the fact no announcement has been made about ROH signing Cabana long-term for the new TV era, it’s not as unlikely as it sounds. Everyone knows Colt didn’t get a fair shake the first time around, with an undeniable ability to talk and entertain despite not fitting the WWE body ideal. First they moved Punk’s girlfriend Beth Phoenix to Raw as part of the Draft, and now they may be hiring his best friend; it sure doesn’t suck to be CM Punk right now. If this doesn’t work, maybe bringing those ice cream bars back wouldt seal the deal.

Kevin Steen to Evolve?

What started as Mr. Wrestling name-dropping several former ROH employees as part of one of his infamous open letters may have led to the hurricane of violence that is Kevin Steen invading Evolve on July 26 in New York City. Former ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky took to Twitter shortly after the open letter was published and asked Steen to leave him out of this storyline, and then quickly challenged Steen to come to Evolve 9. A week later Steen responded by accepting, claiming he will in fact be at the event, causing Gabe to publicly express regret of the offer, and later said he’d spoken to Steen’s friends and been told he was in no mental state to wrestle. Yet low and behold, Steen has been heavily featured in the latest DGUSA & Evolve newsletter, all but confirming this is more than a simple friendly joke between the two. Watch this space.

Generation ME Are The Young Bucks Again

One day after taking a loss to the impromptu team of Eric Young and Shark Boy, Max and Jeremy Buck asked for and were granted their release from TNA. After receiving a nice push early on thanks to their chemistry with the Motor City Machine Guns, things began to stall a little and TNA actually did the unthinkable and split them up, giving Max a short singles run before abandoning the idea and reuniting them. Things went from bad to worse as the two were soundly defeated by Matt Hardy and Eric Bischoff as part of the Immortal vs. X-Division feud. I’m not sure how much that contributed to this news, but I’ll bet it didn’t help. So with the long-term status of the Kings in question it might be nice to see if Max and Jeremy feel like being themselves on television again and signing on the dotted line for ROH. Sure they’ve faced everyone but the champs already, but the more good teams in ROH the better.

Tomasso Ciampa Signs On The Dotted Line

Unsurprisingly, Prince Nana’s latest ‘Project’ has been locked up by Ring of Honor and will be a firm part of the company’s future. Ciampa made quite an impression in the dying days of ROH On HDNet and with any luck he can pick up where he left off when ROH returns to TV later in the year. He’s got the size of Embassy alumni Erick Stevens but with a much better look, greater agility, and heightened ring presence. I once said that ROH may have in Ciampa what they were after in Mike Bennett, but he needs a real feud to sink his teeth into in order to break out like I think he can.

TNA Consumes

Two-time World Champion Austin Aries earned himself a contract with TNA after winning the X-Division showcase tournament. My sincere congratulations to A-Double, he deserves to be on TV and if the WWE are short-sighted enough to turn him away due to his small stature then it’s TNA’s gain.

He may not be the only one however, with the company evaluating the performances of several of the other talents. Kid Kash has already been signed, and with Shiima Xion using a different name for his appearances many have suggested that means he’ll be the next one to be scooped up. I’m still hoping ROH might take a run at him, as he’d be a fine addition to the Embassy to compliment Ciampa.

Then there’s Low Ki, who got quite a crowd reaction at Destination-X and said he’d be open to a return. Like Xion, it would be a shame for ROH as the fans have been clamouring for his return ever since he was released by the WWE last year. For what it’s worth, Ki pulled out of PWG’s ‘Eight’ citing personal reasons. When a reasonably big-name free agent impresses an arena full of fans and then cancels an appearance a week in advance after a vague reason Matt Waters gets suspicious.

Upcoming Events

There’s nothing on the books between now and the first set of television tapings under the Sinclair Broadcasting Group banner, so it’s full speed ahead for Chicago Ridge on August 13. The inaugural main event of the program will feature Haas & Benjamin defending their titles against the Kings of Wrestling, marking the fourth match between the two teams in 11 months.

Davey Richards and El Generico will be defending their respective titles at the tapings as well but as of this writing neither’s opponent has been confirmed. What we do know is that Eddie Edwards, the Briscoes, the Embassy and Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly have signed to appear thus far.

Plugs & Stuff

– It’d be awesome if you guys would taken a listen to our special podcasts about films and television. That’s right, no wrestling talk allowed, just three dudes talking in depth about their five favorites from each medium.

– This has been out for a while now, but I’d still appreciate some views, likes and comments on my Amasis Video. Look out for a new Chikara video in the coming days.

All comments about this column are encouraged! Too much? Not enough? More pictures? You guys decide.