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Former ROH champion Bryan Danielson will be undergoing an MRI of his shoulder tears shortly and will then decide on the appropriate course of action to repair his lingering issues. In the last several months of his ROH title reign, Danielson had been gutting through the pain of the injuries while trying to hold on in order to move the title properly to Homicide as planned. With that accomplished, he can finally allow himself to heal. ROH announced Danielson would be taking an "extended leave of absence" at this time.
Homicide's ROH title reign will start on 1/26/07 when he defends the championship against Chris Hero in Boston, MA. Also announced for that event is Roderick Strong and Austin Aries vs. The Briscoes in a Best of Three Falls match and the returning Rocky Romero vs. Davey Richards.
Homicide will defend the title against Jimmy Rave on 2/19/07 at the NYC return to the Manhattan Center. Expect a big push for Rave to continue in the next few months as ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky feels that Rave was made by his work at Final Battle 2006 where he worked double duty winning a Four Corners bout and defeating Nigel McGuinness.
Also announced for 2/16 in New York City is Samoa Joe vs. a "Pro Wrestling NOAH" representative, which may end up being Nigel McGuiness but after McGuiness took a clean loss to Rave, I would think there is another name in the planning, although I have no confirmation of that.
ROH sat down with Dragon's Gate officials over the weekend to discuss continuing their relationship in 2007, which looks to be happening. CIMA promised the live crowd in New York City that he would see them next year. ROH's Gabe Sapolsky has been a big proponent of sending talent to train in DG feeling that the style there is part of the next evolution of the business so having them train and improve will only help them continue to mature as performers and thus, improve ROH's product. Among those who have toured with DG over the last year are Jack Evans, Roderick Strong, Austin Aries, Jimmy Rave, and Matt Sydal.
The 2007 edition of ROH's answer to the old Great American Bash series of event will be "The Fifth Year Festival". Last year's series of events, sub-titled the Milestone Series were a series of 7 live events that still do good business for the company's DVD sales. The Festival will run over 2/16 in NYC back at the Manhattan Center, Philadelphia on 2/17, Dayton, Ohio on 2/23, 2/24 in Chicago, and 3/3 & 3/4 in Liverpool, Great Britain.
The 2/23 date will be a special one for the company as it will be five years, to the day, that the first Ring of Honor live event was held in Philadelphia, PA. That event was headlined by a double main event of Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Christopher Daniels and Eddie Guerrero vs. Super Crazy.
Former ROH personality Prince Nana has started taking on students for training as wrestlers.
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