ROH 02/22/11 VIDEOWIRE
PREVIEWING THE 9TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW
IN THIS VIDEO
- ROH World Champion Roderick Strong seals his promo with a kiss.
- Christopher Daniels and Eddie Edwards put over the importance of being a champion in Ring of Honor. Their match on Saturday will no doubt be a highlight for the weekend.
- The Kings of Wrestling don't think Kenny King is "tough enough" to hang with the ROH World Tag Team Champions.
- Rhett Titus and Kenny King, the All Night Express, RAP THEIR PROMO. NOT EVEN JOKING. DYING OVER HERE. Titus has got FLOW.
- Steve Corino turning over a new leaf. I love this story. Seeing Corino struggling to be the ultimate good guy is both hilarious, and maybe something that hasn't really been done before (someone will probably correct me on that). His "I can have a five star match... if you give me a two star curve" comment cracked me up. So did his teasing of the thumb in the bum. That really... cracked... me up. I hate myself.
- Truth Martini and Michael Elgin speak. Truth Martini might be the most hate-able man in wrestling. Whenever I see him, I want to punch him in the face. Then, I stop to think about how great he is at being a heel and looking like a guy you want to punch in the face. But then I still want to punch him in the face. And I want to punch myself in the face for thinking about Truth Martini for this long.
- Homicide brings the real talk to Roderick Strong. He also says he might do the "Homicide Shuffle" with Colt Cabana in Chicago, but he could say anything and I'd be scared.
No sign of the Briscoes or Haas and Benjamin, but an entertaining twenty minutes nonetheless.
Here are the cards, hype and tweets for this weekend.
Friday, February 25th
DAYTON, OHIO - "WORLD'S GREATEST"
SIX MAN MAIN EVENT - "WORLD'S GREATEST" COLLIDE
ROH World Champion Roderick Strong
ROH World Tag Team Champions The Kings of Wrestling
VS.
Davey Richards
"Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team" Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin
TOP CONTENDERS COLLIDE
Homicide VS. El Generico
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST FINALS REMATCH
Eddie Edwards VS. Kenny King
SPECIAL CHALLENGE
Michael Elgin VS. ROH World TV Champion Christopher Daniels
SPECIAL ATTRACTION #1
Jay Briscoe VS. Kyle O'Reilly
SPECIAL ATTRACTION #2
Mark Briscoe VS. "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL
Colt Cabana
VS.
Rhett Titus
VS.
Mike Mondo
VS.
Andy "Right Leg" Ridge
TAG TEAM ACTION
The Bravado Brothers VS. Steve Corino & Grizzly Redwood
Saturday, February 26th
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH - NO HOLDS BARRED BARRIO STREET FIGHT
Roderick Strong defends VS. Homicide
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
"The Kings of Wrestling" Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli
defend VS.
"The All Night Express" Rhett Titus & Kenny King
ROH WORLD TV CHAMPIONSHIP - 2/3 FALLS
Christopher Daniels defends VS. Eddie Edwards
FIRST TIME EVER - DREAM TAG TEAM MATCH
"The Briscoes" Jay & Mark
VS.
"Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team" Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin
SPECIAL ATTRACTION
Colt Cabana VS. Davey Richards
SPECIAL CHALLENGE MATCH
Michael Elgin VS. El Generico
WOMEN OF HONOR
Sara Del Rey VS. MsChif
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL
Steve Corino
VS.
Kyle O'Reilly
VS.
Grizzly Redwood
VS.
"The Prodigy" Mike Bennett
TWEETS FOR THIS WEEKEND'S SHOWS
And finally, here are five reasons why you should order this show:
1. ROH's track record. They have literally never let me down when ordering one of their iPPVs.
2. Tag Team Wrestling. Two of the potential best matches on this card are tag team matches. You don't get that anywhere else.
3. GoFightLive allows you to watch at anytime. So even if you're someone who's looking to watch UFC that night, you can still get 9th Anniversary Show as soon as the next day (usually).
4. Christopher Daniels vs. Eddie Edwards. Their match at Supercard of Honor V was a phenomenal showcase of technical wrestling. It was one of those matches that makes you forget the pro wrestling is two guys cooperating, not two guys trying to out-wrestle each other. This match has the potential to steal the entire weekend to me.
5. There is selling.
This last point is a rebuttal to my good buddy TH over at The Wrestling Blog. He has been doing a series of posts titled "Intro to Match Analysis," and the latest one is all about selling. TH has this to say:
"Whenever I see a match featuring Shingo Tagaki or Davey Richards, and all they do is kick the other guy, take kicks and move around like nothing's wrong, it only reinforces that vile, four-lettered "f" word that haters of the artform bandy about like a sharp blade around the soft flesh of our fandom. Fake."
Now TH, we're still bros and all, but I can't help myself here.
I think a lot of people who write about wrestling on the internet have a list of keywords in their head when they watch wrestling. Where these keywords came from, I don't know. But typically these words are "storytelling," "psychology," and "selling." I think a lot of us love to use these words, and we also use these words incorrectly, probably because we just watch wrestling and that's it. I'm certainly not saying I know what these words mean more than anybody else, I don't. But I feel the need to defend Davey Richards and, similarly, ROH for a second.
I am not an authority on the matter AT ALL. I watch a lot of wrestling and love it and will be a fan until I die (probably of watching too much wrestling). I can watch Davey Richards and KENTA kick each other's faces off in a moment of "fighting spirit" and I can watch John Cena sell a stomp for forty-five seconds. The difference is that I see these two moments as two separate worlds.
I just see it as ROH (or Dragon Gate) putting themselves over as the "best wrestling in the world" and therefore you need to do more to their top guys to put them out. It's not a question of selling, it's a question of style. And if John Cena and Randy Orton started trading sequences of big moves like Roddy Strong hitting a Gutbuster, then a Sick Kick, then a Gibson Driver all in the span of three seconds, then yeah, that wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. It's the style of the promotion that drives the selling. To me. I don't know. Who the fuck am I to say. I've seen Rich Franklin knock Chuck Liddell out with a broken arm without flinching, so who knows what amount of selling is enough or not enough to make any kind of pro wrestling seem "real."
I feel dumber for writing this. But, I'd like to hear what TH has to say. I know he's a fan of ROH (and I turned this into an ROH-related argument only because he mentioned Davey, and I'm talking 9th Anniversary stuff here), although this seems to be more directed at Dragon Gate, which has the volume turned up even more on the "unbelievable" style of wrestling/selling/whatever you want to call it.
Anyway, with that said... E-FIIIIIIIGGGGHHHHT!
It's not a ROH/DGUSA vs. WWE thing. I've seen John Morrison ignore extensive limb work to hit flippy spots, and I've also seen El Generico and Kevin Steen go balls to the wall DESTROYING each other while keeping in mind that they've hit each other with everything in the kitchen sink. I'm not saying you sell everything forever and a day. For example, I've seen Eddie Kingston shake off extensive limb work or shots to the head, but he'll never outright ignore it. I see it as a burst of adrenaline. I also get really annoyed when Shawn Michaels would use to oversell things and act like he died only to come back and win matches. Same with Cena.
ReplyDeleteI guess my point is that you should at least act like moves hurt. Whenever I see a Davey Richards match where he's allowed to go all out, like vs. Kota Ibushi at EVOLVE 1 or Kenny Omega at PWG As the Worm Turns, he'll get hit with moves, not act like it's affecting him AT ALL, just so he can trade shots with the other guy, and it drives me mad. At least acknowledge that you're pretend fighting instead of doing some kind of complex body motion thing.
I mean, there are different degrees of wrestling, and I won't judge WWE, TNA, Chikara, ROH or other feds all by the EXACT same standards. However, there are at least a few things that I think stick out as constants across anything that wants to call itself wrestling. One is that you should act like the moves hurt. However long you want to act like it hurts is up to you, and it's also up to the climate of the fed. But at least sell it to some degree.