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Clash Of The Contenders - 10/9/09
Jim Cornette opened the show with an in-ring promo where he talked about the big companies with big checkbooks putting out their product and telling the fans what they want to see, but now that he's in Ring Of Honor, he's going to bring whatever experience and credibility he brings to the table and give the fans what they want, not tell them what they want. He says to let ROH know who and what they want to see, and ROH will give it to them. I always like segments like these, because far too many times we feel like WWE and TNA purposely give us a product contrary to what we want just to prove that what they want to give us is better, and ROH has, with very few exceptions, always catered to what the fans want, and it's segments like these that make the ROH fans feel appreciated and keep coming back.
The opening match saw Kevin Steen take on Roderick Strong, and before we got to the match, we got some promo work from Steen where he talked about his head not being in the game at the Ladder War with the American Wolves at Glory By Honor VIII, and talking about how he feels like he's been relying too much on Generico recently, and he's not sure what to expect going forward. This would obviously play into the heel turn a couple of months after this, but for the purposes of the match with Strong, it played into the story with Steen playing up the knee injury which had legitimately begun affecting him quite a lot. Good back and forth match with Strong getting the win to help build momentum going into his strong showing at Survival Of The Fittest the following night, and furthering the storyline that Steen was lost and in need of the new direction that Steve Corino would eventually give him.
From there we went to a SHIMMER match between SHIMMER Champion MsChif and one half of the SHIMMER Tag Team Champions, Nicole Matthews. I'd never seen Matthews before, but I was impressed with what I saw, especially given that she's still so young in her career. I really liked her presence and expression, and from what I saw is also a solid enough worker who pulled some nice stuff out of her bag. MsChif was entertaining as always, though she seemed to rely more on the screaming and character in this match than necessarily going all out from a workrate perspective. Still though, good match with MsChif picking up the win with the Desecrator, and I liked how she walked up to Matthews as she was heading to the back after the match and made her jump out of her skin with one more scream for good measure.
We got a break in the action after the SHIMMER match, as Austin Aries came out for the latest edition of the A Double L Double. Tonight's lucky winner was a St Louis native who had never before gotten a shot at the ROH World Title: Daizee Haze! So Daizee comes out with Delirious and goes off on Aries for giving her a title shot as a joke when Delirious has been working his butt off to get a shot at the ROH World Title. Jim Cornette came back into the ring at this point and said that since he has the power to make matches, Delirious will indeed be the challenger for the ROH World Title tonight. Fun little segment that set up the evening's main event and got us a laugh out of it at that.
After that we went to a Four Corner Survival with Claudio Castagnoli, Colt Cabana, Petey Williams, and Ace Steel. They played up the history between Cabana and Steel, though they didn't work together much beyond the first couple of minutes. Petey looked like he was getting neutered here, as he hit the Canadian Destroyer on Cabana but it didn't lead to the win, and that was pretty characteristic of his entire ROH run, and I found that odd since he was in the middle of a short stint as a title contender at this point, so why not give him the win to give him momentum going into a rematch with Austin Aries? But instead Claudio Castagnoli, who was not a title contender, got the win over Ace Steel who means nothing in the company, and this match really didn't help anyone.
Match #4 saw the Briscoes take on the House Of Truth, and I liked this match a lot. Tag team wrestling really took the forefront in ROH in 2009, and even though it mainly focused on the Briscoes, American Wolves, and Steen & Generico, and to a lesser extent the Young Bucks and Dark City Fight Club, even the underneath teams and non-regulars were having some fabulous tag matches, and this was one of them. With the Bucks gone and the Wolves and Steen & Generico broken up, and the Briscoes possibly on their way out the door within the next few months, I would really like to see the House Of Truth get a chance at moving up because they have great showings pretty much every time out. Josh Raymond in particular shows me a lot, both in terms of his wrestling and his personality, every time ROH swings through the Midwest, and he and Christian Able work great together as a team. Briscoes pick up the win with a spike Jay Driller, but gave the House Of Truth a good showing.
Next up was without a doubt the match of the night as Davey Richards took on Kenny Omega in the match the show was named after, as both men were heading toward title shots about a month after this. Just a phenomenal match here with both guys looking good and Davey in particular looking like a million bucks. Omega does a bit too much with the goofy theatrics with the STOP and the Hadoken and it sometimes hurts him, especially in big matches like this one where it should be 100% serious, but for the most part this was a terrific, dramatic match where you really didn't know who was going to win until the very end, and even though I expected Davey to get the win, Omega ended up surprising him with a small package to get the duke. Really good match that I would like to see them go back to at some point down the line because they worked great together as the ass kicking monster against the young guy who is a goof, but never gives up and will surprise you with what he can do.
After that, we got our comedown match as Rhett Titus & Kenny King took on the Young Bucks, who I almost forgot existed since they have gotten almost no airtime since TNA moved to Monday nights. This was a pretty standard, formulaic tag match with the heels working over Matt Jackson until he was able to make the hot tag to Nick, who came in and cleaned house. Finish was a bit surprising as the Bucks hit More Bang For Your Buck on Kenny King, but out of nowhere Titus snuck in and rolled up Matt Jackson with a handful of tights for the win. I was surprised that Titus & King went over, but since the Bucks beat them at Manhattan Mayhem III, I'm fine with them getting their win back.
Our semi-main event was Chris Hero taking on Tyler Black, who was having his first match back after neck surgery. I loved the psychology in this one, with Hero going after Black's neck literally from the moment the bell rang until the very end of the match. It made perfect sense, especially for a guy like Hero whose offense centers around shots to the head and neck. Tyler did a great job of selling the beating and coming out there like he was gutting it out and somehow was able to turn the tables on Hero and get the win. Good strong way for Tyler to make his comeback and begin his march to the title.
Speaking of the title, we wrap this show up with Austin Aries defending the ROH World Title against Delirious. I wasn't such a huge fan of this one, and I get what they were going for by having a guy who got his start in the St Louis area getting a title shot there, but if that's what they were going to do then they should have advertised it ahead of time, otherwise they could have thrown Grizzly Redwood in there for all the difference it would have made. That's especially true when you consider that other than the Richards-Omega match, there really wasn't any strong drawing matches on this entire show, which is a bad thing to do in a market you're looking to cultivate into a regular spot on your touring schedule. The match was nothing to write home about, but I did love the spot where Aries hit the Heat Seeking Missile to the floor on Daizee Haze out of nowhere, it was a great way to distract Delirious enough that Aries could regain the advantage, but it should have led to the finish and didn't. Aries ended up hitting the brainbuster and getting the win, to the shock of just about nobody.
Fun show overall, but the only thing on here to really go out of your way to see was Richards vs Omega, the rest is skippable.
Survival Of The Fittest 2009 - 10/10/09
The show opened with a Jim Cornette promo where he said he was so impressed with Delirious' performance against Austin Aries the night before, that he's giving him a bye directly into the finals of Survival Of The Fittest tonight. I didn't like that, and I don't think I'm alone in feeling ripped off. I feel like when you sell a show on a tournament format, I'm going in expecting to see a complete tournament, not guys getting byes or, like they did once before, having a first round draw and a five man final instead of six. People don't like when you screw with a winning formula, and if you're trying to get over how impressive Delirious is, you'd be better served by having him win a match than be handed a bye, especially when you know he's not winning the tournament anyway.
Solid tag team opener as the Young Bucks defeated the House Of Truth. Just based on the few times I've seen him, Truth Martini really seems to have the conniving, slapstick heel manager schtick down. The Young Bucks, meanwhile, have the Rock N Roll Express formula down to a T, with Nick Jackson repeatedly coming ever so close to making the hot tag, only to get cut off at the last minute before finally making the tag to his older brother. Normally I think that tournament shows should open with tournament matches and then do the non-tournament matches between the opening round and the finals, but this was a great opener to get the crowd into the swing of things, so it worked for me.
After that opener, we begin the first round SOTF matches with Colt Cabana defeating Kevin Steen. They were really playing up Kevin Steen's bad knee here with it seriously impeding him several times, and it was designed to build to Final Battle where we were all supposed to think he was going to take time off to let the knee heal, but ended up turning on Generico. Interestingly, Cabana ended up getting involved in the Steen/Generico situation pretty much from the beginning, but this match never played into the feud at all. Match was a bit disjointed as they were going for a Colt Cabana comedy match, but it never really seemed to click. But that's fine because it accomplished what they were going for: Steen suffered another tough loss that made him question himself that much more, and furthered the idea that Steen needed a new direction.
Up next, Roderick Strong took on Rhett Titus in SOTF qualifier #2. Roderick cut a great prematch promo where he talked about winning SOTF in 2005 and failing to come through and win the ROH World Title, but now it's 2009 and he's a much better wrestler, and he plans on not only repeating as a SOTF winner, but going on to finally fulfill his destiny and become ROH World Champion. I thought it was a great promo that established Roderick's motivation for the next several months, including his recent title shot in the Big Bang main event as well as his one-on-one match with Tyler in the upcoming New York main event. Titus got a lot of offense in this match and looked competitive with Strong, and I keep saying that, unlike other ROH school graduates, Titus was never slapped with the label of an "ROH Wrestling Academy graduate", and that's why people didn't look at him like a jobber the same way they viewed Pelle Primeau and Mitch Franklin before he became Grizzley Redwood. Plus, the guy busts his ass and wrestles every chance he gets and it's nice to see his dedication to his craft being rewarded in a way it never would have under the previous management. Still, Strong got the win and advanced to the SOTF finals.
So now we're at the halfway point of the first round as we move on to Tyler Black vs Kenny King, and I don't think it was any big secret that Tyler was going to win the whole thing (sorry to spoil it for anyone who didn't already know). Still, like I've said elsewhere, I think that holding off on giving Tyler the title really exposed him as not being anywhere near ready to carry that responsibility. He's got some cool moves, sure, but he doesn't have the ability to carry others to good matches, a fact that is exposed whenever he's not in the ring with someone named Austin Aries, Bryan Danielson, or Nigel McGuinness. He also has no personality whatsoever and, more importantly, no killer instinct, and all these things combine to create a wrestler who obviously tries very hard, but just isn't cut out to be the guy carrying the company. I have to be honest, I think Kenny King's got more goods than Tyler Black, and I can probably think of a half dozen other guys I'd give the title to before Tyler. Still, Tyler was obviously winning the whole thing and even though Kenny got a really competitive match out of Tyler, the future World Champion went over with a superkick to send him to the finals.
Up next, Claudio Castagnoli took on Petey Williams, and the subplot to this match was that Petey had been in the ring with Claudio in multiple-man matches twice previously, and both times Petey had been on the verge of victory when Claudio stole it from under his nose, so this is Petey's chance to prove his superiority in a staight singles encounter. With all due respect to Petey Williams, he's a one move wonder. He's all about the Canadian Destroyer, and furthermore, he was never booked as a serious threat to anyone during his time in ROH, so you knew going in that the chances of him going over a bonafide ROH regular in Claudio were relatively low, and sure enough, Claudio got the duke here. Some people may crud about the way Petey was booked in ROH, but for as much heat as this may get me with the "the only good wrestlers are under 230 lbs" crowd, I can't say I would have done it any differently.
And with that, we come to the final first round SOTF match, and the only one that had any kind of suspense as to who would win, as Chris Hero took on Kenny Omega who, as we saw earlier, got a huge win over Davey Richards just one night earlier. The thing about Kenny Omega is that he has a bad habit of looking like a milliion bucks during most of a match, but having one or two points where he either does something goofy or badly blows a highspot and it makes it hard to take him seriously, and he did that a couple of times in this match. The Hadoken is ridiculous and I hate watching guys who take their craft seriously being forced to sell the move, and also there was a spot where he did some move that was supposed to wind up with him getting dumped onto the apron, but he ended up spilling out so badly that he nearly took out the timekeeper's table. I want to like the guy and usually I do, but he really comes off like he doesn't take wrestling seriously, and if he doesn't take it seriously, why should I care about him? But in any event, he lost the match and the finish looked funky because Hero nailed him with a rolling elbow and Omega seemed to kick out at the last second, but the referee counted the three and called it a match. Kenny Omega is currently the poster child for people who could be big stars if they had it in them to stop screwing around and being determined to get their ridiculous spots into every match they have, and until he grows up and starts taking his craft seriously, he's never going to get anywhere, not in ROH and not anywhere.
So with the SOTF finals set, we go to our non-tournament break before the finals, as Jay & Mark Briscoe took on one half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions, Davey Richards, and the ROH World Champion, Austin Aries. This was a fun match to watch because you had two champions working together as a team, while at the same time continually trying to one up one another. Adding to the subplot of the match was the fact that Richards had a shot at Aries for the ROH World Title coming to him, so there was also that built-in tension between Richards and Aries. They managed to work together well enough through most of the match, but eventually Aries had enough and decided to walk out on Richards, leaving him alone and easy prey for the Briscoes, who hit the Doomsday Device to pick up the win and solidify themselves as tag title challengers while further buildiung an angle between Aries and Richards, leading to their ROH World Title match a few weeks later.
Finally, it was now time for the main event, the finals of the Survival Of The Fittest tournament after the tournament took a one year hiatus. Interestingly, this match included three of the four previous SOTF champions in Chris Hero, Roderick Strong, and Delirious, with the only other prior winner, Bryan Danielson, obviously not included as he had left the company. I liked several things about this match, the first being that a large portion of the early part of the match focused on Hero and Claudio working together against the other finalists, foreshadowing their eventual reunion. You could tell the crowd was into the idea of a reunion as well, because there were a lot of "Kings Of Wrestling" chants going on. I also liked that it was past the 20 minute mark before we got our first elimination, because not much bothers me more than seeing guys getting pinned unrealistically quickly because they're trying to fit a match with a bunch of eliminations into a short timespan. They also didn't do the other thing I can't stand where they have three or four eliminations in a minute or two, because that's just screaming out that they're trying to keep the match short. They also kept it slow and methodical in the beginning, and then the pace started picking up once people got eliminated. Once it got down to Tyler and Roderick, they had a great, dramatic segment and really turned this one match into almost two separate matches, first with the six guys and then the last 10-15 minutes with just Tyler and Roderick, and even though everybody knew that Tyler was going over, there were a lot of close calls where you thought Roderick might score a surprise upset. The finish was genius, framing it like Tyler won the match, but didn't really beat Roderick, and this, combined with the rematch they did which Roderick won, was a great beginning of the slow build to the Tyler vs Roderick main event when ROH returns to New York City in a couple of weeks.
Overall, this was a very well done show that stayed interesting the whole way through and fit some subtle, yet important storytelling elements into a tournament format.
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That wraps up the first installment of our little series, check back soon for Part 2, as I'll give my thoughts on Boiling Point and Aries vs Richards!
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