It has been an immense pleasure to watch AJ Styles and Chris Hero back in action in Ring of Honor over the past two months. Judging from their first matches back, they looked like they’ve fit right back in.
AJ Styles versus Roderick Strong played on ROH television a few weeks ago. It was the first time in a long time that I had seen Styles in action, having purposefully avoided watching TNA wrestling programming as much as possible. Chris Hero returned officially at Final Battle 2013. I was live and in-person to witness his return-it popped the crowd, and how. However, Hero’s first official bout was at the TV tapings in January against Kevin Steen. That was a heck of a television match as well.
I was impressed with how AJ Styles looked and performed in the match against Strong. He did have one or two minor-bobbles when going to the air and of course there was the weird way Strong took the Styles Clash (which led to him being out of action for about a month). Everything else though sparkled and shined liked the AJ Styles I remember watching during his previous stints in ROH. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised after all. Styles usually came through in a major way when wrestling for ROH in the past. There were old favorites like the leapfrog-dropdown-dropkick combination performed to perfection, but also plenty of new rocking numbers, like the calf-killer submission. Then there were the moments where there were extended demonstrations of his wrestling ability and athletic agility and I was wowed-by both Styles and Strong, for their ability to demonstrate it.
Chris Hero looked good in the ring as well during his return bout. Both he and Steen were up to the task of creating a long and interesting television main event. It had been a while since Hero was in a singles match in ROH, but that was generally what he did in FCW and NXT. Again, for whatever reason, I didn’t tune into much of the NXT programming at the time he was involved in the series, so while there wasn’t so much a doubt Hero could go in the ring, I had a curiosity about how well he would do when I saw him wrestle again.
Curiosity sated.
Right now, there is a storyline where Jimmy Jacobs, BJ Whitmer and Roderick Strong have formed a faction called The Decade, wherein their motivation is that they feel a lack of appreciation for what they have done in ROH while guys like Styles and Hero come and go as they please while receiving tremendous reception and adoration by the fans.
It’s a good point made by the guy who always seems make good points finding the hypocrisy in human nature and adapting them into his wrestling monologues. It’s also an unavoidable problem. If the wrestlers that leave are good enough to make it big elsewhere, chances are they will also be good enough if and when they return to ROH. For example, the easy way by which Styles and Hero slipped right in and looked like they never left in the first place, is what makes it very difficult not to cheer for them. One can’t help but approve of their return and to enjoy their matches.
It’s the innate nature of the wrestling fan: We miss what we had when it’s gone-and we fall in love with it when it comes back again.
(This is true except if your name is Batista. Then-you can have ONE night back to have the spotlight and the adoration, and then it’s all over. What did I mention about the hypocrisy in human nature?)
AJ Styles and Chris Hero are going to be very good for the company for however long they choose to stick around this time. Ring of Honor’s roster depth in 2014 has been strengthened by their presence. Each has a drawing power to the segments of the wrestling audience which absolutely needs to be and so far has been capitalized on by ROH. It will be very exciting to see what matches they have next and how far each will go. If they do eventually leave for other promotions, then The Decade will have proven their point and will have even more fodder for their agenda.