Oh man… so stoked… The Royal Rumble is this Sunday, and tonight’s Smackdown is the last show before the best event of the year. Let’s just skip the crap, and see what the WWE has in store to build on their final show towards this magnificent event, shall we?
One more thing… 1993, January 27… we lost one of the most notable professional wrestlers of all time. I’m going to grab a cold one in his honour, and hope you do too…
RIP Andre.
Howdy folks and welcome to your weekly Ring Of Honor coverage. I apologize for no review last week but one of my cats puked on my DVR and I had to get a new box, so I wasn’t able to watch so without further ado lets get this show on the road:
Ring of Honor “The Best in the World” is in the books. I’m beginning to put my thoughts into words. I enjoyed all the video recaps. I needed those to keep myself up-to-date on the current storylines.
When I heard the first match was Tommaso Ciampa vs. Colt Cabana, I almost died of smarkdom. I really enjoyed most of the first match. Ciampa played a nice “straight man” to Cabana’s comedy. I thought the two had very nice back-and-forth. The ending just didn’t look right.
Next was “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett versus Jay Lethal. Jay Lethal was fresh off his TNA/Impact Wrestling/”It’s Still S*** No Matter How Many Times You Change The Name Because Vince Russo Still Works There” run. He was famous for the Black Machismo and it was his first time to appear on an event this big after the Macho Man’s untimely passing. The crowd was very into this, but the match did not click for me. Prodigy has looked good in matches to me before; this just was not one of them. It almost looked like he wasn’t on Lethal’s level.
The Rhino-Homicide “Barrio Street Fight” was really good. Plunder matches have their places in wrestling. Rhino really brought it. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bad Homicide match. We had some tables and some really awesome, intense “OMG” moments. Homicide got the win, but we got to see the gore through the table. It was nostalgic. It was like Old School (no Corino reference intended) ECW Rhino back again.
The Steve Corino-Michael Elgin match was really interesting. I did not watch ROH during the Kevin Steen era, so I really didn’t grasp the magnitude of his return. I was really amazed at how my opinion of Elgin changed during this match. Elgin reminds me of a stiff WWE would try to get over. But I got to admit-Elgin impressed me. He’s a power wrestler. If there’s a place for plunder matches, there’s a place for power wrestlers. Steve Corino sold like crazy, and Elgin looked like he had a spot in Ring of Honor. I personally think Elgin will be a better fit for the WWE, but I’ll keep him. The Kevin Steen post-match segment was greatness. The Corino rehabilitating himself storyline I think is one of my favorite storylines in all of wrestling.
The Daniels-Generico match really didn’t grab my attention. The commentary was pretty good for this match. Kevin Kelly and Dave Prazak made it important. I do love the El Generico gimmick. It’s one of my favorite all-time gimmicks. My 2-year-old woke up during this match and wanted the laptop, so I wasn’t able to dedicate the time I wanted to watching this. I am happy for El Generico winning. Christopher Daniels should be in the place now where he’s building talent, which is exactly what he did here.
The four corners tag team match was off the charts. Now granted, I haven’t seen every ROH event, so excuse me if I break out some hyperbole here. This is the greatest match in Ring of Honor I HAVE SEEN. I’m sure there were greater matches somewhere along the way. But this was insane. There were at least 4 “Holy s***” moments. The All Night Express looked great in this. I finally saw Kenny King for what everybody else does. This is most likely Match of the Year, barring some sweet miracle.
And finally there was the main event. There was no possible way that I could ever understand all the emotions that went into this match, but it sure felt like it. This match never seemed to end, mostly because my wife was over my shoulder waiting for it to end. Nothing I could write here could ever capture the emotion, the drama, the work these guys put into this match. This is now in second place for match of the year for me.
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This past weekend, I had the opportunity to witness a new experience for me. It couldn’t have been any better. Ring of Honor had a live Internet Pay Per View (iPPV) on gofightlive.tv. It was a wonderful experience. I got to sit on the computer for a little bit and watch some really good wrestling. My wife got the tv and watched so many JFK documentaries, she calls Oliver Stone a poser. It was a nice experience, and we didn’t fight over the remote and both actually enjoyed our evening.
I fell in love with Ring of Honor all over again. I watched it when it was first created, but I had not really kept up with it. As a wrestling fan who despises the very thought of TNA existing, is tentatively getting back into the WWE’s product, can only watch AAA on Galavision for so long before my mind gets tired of listening to Spanish and can only go to so many live wrestling shows per month because I’m a husband and father before I’m a wrestling fan, Ring of Honor (ROH) fills a lot of holes for me. For those of you who haven’t discovered it, here are 10 Reasons to Watch ROH.
1. The price. WWE’s PPV’s are a whopping $44.95, $10 more for HD. Ring of Honor was $14.95. And they didn’t have some length promo bringing out Trish Stratus. I love Trish more than anything, but did she really belong being reintroduced on a PPV? I don’t think there was a single ROH fan tweeting that night that didn’t feel they got their money’s worth several times over.
2. Steve Corino storyline. I think that we can admit that Steve Corino has been one of the best heels of the past decade. The storyline now is that Steve Corino is trying to atone for his many sins. He’s trying to be a good guy. He still feels that urge to be bad. So now there is a kind of Incredible Hulk vs. Bruce Banner struggle.
3. Grizzly Redwood. My theater teacher in high school would always make us come up with verbs for our characters’ motivation. And she said to always go with the most interesting choice. Grizzly Redwood is a little guy. He plays the big burly lumberjack, which is ironic and a fun choice. He’s a great, scrappy babyface.
4. Kyle O’Reilly. The ironic thing is that I was not looking for O’Reilly’s matches. I was searching for Adam Cole, and I found a match where he was wrestling Kyle O’Reilly. And all respect to Adam Cole, but I was blown away by O’Reilly’s work. He’s sensational and worth watching.
5. El Generico. When it comes to chants, El Generico’s makes me happy. I even tried doing it for my local indy and their wrestler Lucha Lucha. The crowd did not appreciate the “Ole!” chant. However the Texas Rangers do “O’Day” for reliever Darren O’Day. He’s a great gimmick and a great reason to watch.
6. Sara del Ray. Most women on TNA & WWE look like they came off the page of a porn magazine. They teach women that they are never anything unless their cup size is double letters or look like the page of a porn magazine. Not that del Ray isn’t pretty or isn’t attractive, but she’s a strong female athletic wrestler. Plus, she’s a great heel and the woman you love to hate.
7. Kings of Wrestling. Kings of Wrestling are a Tag Team that seems like they could be very successful singles wrestlers, yet they are a tag team. They have an amazing swagger and work incredibly well as a team. They own the ring, and they own the Tag Team Division. And with respect to Beer Money and Motor City Machine Guns, they are the best Tag Team in wrestling.
8. TV Title. Most fans probably hate this, but I’ll admit it. I like the title. I’m ok with a DQ or countout. I’m ok with time limit draws. Matter of fact, I wish there were more time limit draws. I used to love the TV title, because Lord Steven Regal always found a way to last long enough. If you wanted that title, you had to win and you had to win in 10 minutes.
9. The Briscoes.I remember watching some early Briscoes matches, CZW, ROH, etc. I’m going to be honest. They didn’t show me anything. They were just two brothers who looked alike and were ugly as sin. This match they had against Haas & Benjamin was the real first time they had ever shown me anything. I think I finally “get it.” They showed me something for the first time. They still aren’t any prettier, but I finally “saw something.”
10. Shelton Benjamin done right. I could write a whole blog of how the WWE dropped the ball on Shelton Benjamin. With respect to John Morrison, he is perhaps the most athletically-gifted wrestler I’ve ever seen. Do you remember that match he had against Triple-H in a time when The Game DID NOT LOSE? How about his match against Shawn Michaels (That one was for bragging rights between me and my then-fiance)? And then they brought in his mother, failed sitcom veteran Thea Vidale. And I saw a great athlete ruined because of poor booking. Ring of Honor understands how to do Shelton Benjamin right. No stupid gold hair. No failed sitcom actress. No reference to his criminal past. Just a great athlete being a great athlete.
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Greetings, all! Your friendly neighborhood Drowgoddess will now be providing you with reviews of the only hour of professional wrestling on Monday nights, Ring of Honor on HDNet!
It’s time for the only hour of pro wrestling on Monday nights, ROH! (more…)
Greetings, everyone! This is a new one. Since I now get HDNet, thanks to my move, I am officially the only BWF staffer who can review Ring of Honor’s Monday night show. As they ARE the only hour of pro wrestling on Monday nights, I’m quite happy to do so. Our fearless leader, ThinkSoJoE, will continue to provide you with excellent coverage of “Smackdown” on Friday nights. (more…)