THE 2/22 ROH VIDEOWIRE: PREVIEWING THE 9TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW

This weekend, Ring of Honor is celebrating their 9th anniversary with two shows - tonight in Dayton, and tomorrow in Chicago (and live on iPPV) for their actual 9th Anniversary Show. Both cards are pretty stacked, and considering that in the past while they've lost Kevin Steen, Austin Aries, Tyler Black, Delirious, Necro Butcher and others, that is impressive. Here's what's in the final VideoWire before the big event on Saturday.

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"

Tickets + Info

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

CHICAGO RIDGE, IL - "9TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW"

Tickets + Info - ORDER NOW at GoFightLive

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

@ROHonHDNet

@Sheltyb803

@ccastagnoli

@theChrisHero

@SteveCorino

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!

A RING OF HONOR FINAL BATTLE NON-PREVIEW PREVIEW

I don't think I need to even say anything.

ROH has posted a full preview on their site. There's a Final Battle minisite with all of the hype videos lined up for you to watch. TH of The Wrestling Blog did an extensive write-up for the iPPV. I've talked at length about the Kevin Steen/El Generico feud of the year. There is literally nothing left to be said.

But I will say this. There is no other event, no other promotion, no other anything that can elicit the same feeling you get when you watch (and I'm going to sound like a total dork saying this)... MMA.

And I don't even mean that in the way that ROH brings the same athleticism and realism and hard-hitting action as an MMA fight. What I'm talking about is definitely harder to quantify, but I'm going to try anyway.

It's more about the feeling that it legitimately matters who is going to win. Like there are real consequences. And not only that, but there's a sense of unpredictability, like at any moment any guy could pull out the win with one move. It's a feeling of nervousness and suspense that isn't replicated anywhere else.

That's the best I can do. It's really hard to explain without actually seeing it, like I'm sure most of you who have seen it know what I'm talking about. Or maybe you don't know what I'm talking about and I'm the only nerd who gets this giddy for a wrestling show. But it's not just any wrestling show, it's one that happens like only four times a year which makes it feel CRAZY hyped up and awesome and now I'm babbling on again like the giddy nerd I am.

I'll stop before I ruin it for anybody. Order this show.

Image - ROHWrestling.com

FEUDS 2010: KEVIN STEEN VS. EL GENERICO - TOO VIOLENT TO BE OFFICIALLY SANCTIONED

What better time to name this feud as one of the best feuds of 2010, than right after it was announced on ROHWrestling.com that Kevin Steen and El Generico's Mask vs. ROH Career match, will NOT be sanctioned by Ring of Honor.

KEVIN STEEN VS. EL GENERICO

THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Order Final Battle at GoFightLive

Visit the Final Battle Minisite

This Saturday at Final Battle, Kevin Steen and El Generico will meet in the ring for the last time and I don't know what is going to happen. There might be murder. I don't know.

This unsanctioning business took this match up to a whole new level that I didn't even know was there. The match already had a lot going for it - this was the most heated feud of the year in any company, it's been going for a year strong, and the stakes couldn't be higher with El Generico's mask and Kevin Steen's ROH career on the line. And I believe that this isn't like another recent firing in pro wrestling, so if Steen loses, don't expect him to show up on HDNet buying a ticket and beating people up every week on a technicality.

But the way that ROH has now sold this match, with it being totally unsanctioned by the company, and it will go on AFTER the World Title match this Saturday, raises the expectations even higher. As if there wasn't enough emotion crammed into this match, they have now essentially promised blood and guts (and probably Kevin Steen licking things). This is seriously going to be crazy.

Just to put some perspective on things, every iPPV Ring of Honor has done (Final Battle '09, The Big Bang, Death Before Dishonor VIII, Glory By Honor IX) has ended with a World Championship match, because the ROH World Title is the most important thing in the company (not to mention the hardest title to win in wrestling - 14 champions in almost 9 years? Yep.).

So having Generico and Steen close the show with whatever remaining time the iPPV has, makes it feel not only important, but FRIGGING SCARY. Read the press release for yourself, even if it's in kayfabe, that still means something coming from ROH. Saying that they want to be "released from all obligation, liability, tax, etc." and to have no responsibility, financially or otherwise, to what Kevin Steen and El Generico do to each other in front of the live audience and people at home, sets a precedent for this match - it's going to be violent.

And that's the only way it should be. You don't need me to spell out every little thing that happened to get to this point, so I offer this video, which if you haven't seen yet, do yourself a favour and watch it now:

Steen has played the perfect villain: Sick. Ultra-violent. Crazy (but not in that Eli Cottonwood "I like to hurt people" way - in a real way, because he doesn't believe he's crazy, much like all truly crazy people don't).

Generico has played the perfect hero: Silent. Vulnerable. Pissed off. He does every bit of his talking in the ring.

From the initial kick to the balls ("I hate your fuckin' guts."), to Generico's first sign of rage with his BRAINBUSTAHHH to Grizzly Redwood, to their encounters at Death Before Dishonor VII and Hate: Chapter II, to their bloody double chain match at Glory By Honor IX and to whatever happens Saturday at Final Battle, this feud has been one of the best stories told all year.

Final Battle will be insane. I don't even want to begin to guess what could happen, who could win, who could make their presence known (although it's entirely possible that Corino and Cabana let these two go at it completely uninterrupted). But whatever happens, I fully believe it will be an incredible blowoff to a feud drenched in emotion and very real consequences.

See you Saturday, where "The End, Begins."

IMPOSSIBLY RECAPPING TWO WEEKS OF MISSED WRESTLING

I am now FINALLY all caught up on the two weeks of WWE I've missed. It's quite literally impossible to talk about all of it (and it would be longer and more boring than [appropriate analogy] - I feel too rusty to complete that thought).

So instead, here are the most notable things I missed over the past two weeks:

DANIEL BRYAN

UNLEASHES THE AMERICAN DRAGON

Photo - WWE.com

Nothing made me angrier than Daniel Bryan getting kicked off NXT.

Nothing made me happier than seeing Daniel Bryan make reference to Bryan Danielson and beat the giggles out of Michael Cole two weeks in a row. NXT went from being an AWESOME show, to a piece of crap, and is now a one-segment show - tuning in to see what kind of insanity Danielson will unload on Michael Cole.

RING OF HONOR

HYPE VIDEOS THAT HYPE ME UP

Photo - ROHWrestling.com

ThatWrestlingShow has the Midas (or CM Punk, as it's known in wrestling circles) Touch when it comes to making hype videos for ROH. This one features Michael FRIGGIN Jordan as the narrator. The idea of tying Michael Jordan into a preview for an independent wrestling iPPV blows my mind. Check it:

ROH also revealed some AWESOME footage from this month's Supercard of Honor V in New York, which makes my dingle tingle:

And finally, a quick little preview for Death Before Dishonor VIII in Toronto. I can't even begin to tell you how overcome with jealous rage I am, knowing that I will be out of town on the 19th and won't be able to go to this iPPV taping. But, I suppose there is an upside, as I will be able to watch it online. Oh, Ring of Honor... you sure know make still my beating heart:

WWE OVER THE LIMIT

CM PUNK AND REY MYSTERIO STEAL THE SHOW

Photo - WWE.com

The show itself wasn't incredible, but still not as bad as I was bracing for (I brace for bad PPVs by huffing glue before they begin)!

Punk/Rey was fucking incredible. I loved this match. I watched this on my laptop with headphones on and my girlfriend in the room, and when Punk threw Rey into the barber's chair headfirst making him accordion up like Wile E. Coyote, I made a noise so strange that she thought something was wrong with ME.

Then the blood started glugging out of Punk's head, and the doctor took his sweet time getting over to him, and I started wondering if this match was going to lose steam. NOPE. GAINED STEAM. Because CM Punk is a psychopath. When he started racing around full-tilt with Mysterio looking like he was going to end his life, I screamed for help.

And finally, the head-shaving. They were THIS (I'm holding my forefinger and thumb VERY CLOSE TOGETHER) CLOSE to doing a crucifixion, the way Punk was handcuffed to the ropes and hanging off the apron. Awesome, awesome segment.

The rest of the PPV was kinda fun, kinda whatever, but watching Punk/Rey was definitely the stand-out highlight. Kofi/Drew was okay with a hot crowd. Ted/Truth was better than expected, and went much longer than expected, and had a different outcome than expected. Harts/Mizico (JeriMiz?) was good too, but the crowd killed it with their Y2J chants (don't you understand!? You chant GO JERICHO GO).

Big Show/Swagger, again, more fun than expected but very short. Divas match was okay, but definitely served the purpose of a cool down for Cena/Batista, which was an action-entertainment extravaganza. If you don't like the stunts and silliness of the new WWE PPV main event style, you did not like this match. I, for one, did like the insanity of this, especially whenever John Cena made a funny face (which was always).

The biggest disappointment was Edge/Orton, and that was beyond their control. The match that they managed to get through wasn't very exciting, but I assume what they had planned for the finish would've saved it all. Instead, Randy Orton beat himself up. But credit to Edge for improvising the double countout finish, giving the crowd one more pop with the missed-spear spot at the end.

FANTASTIC WRESTLING

ON WWE TV

Photo - WWE.com

Pretty awesome to see Edge/Christian on RAW, Punk/Rey on Smackdown! and Christian/Kofi for the Intercontinental Title on Smackdown! All really fun matches with super hot crowds. Can't ask for much more.

BATISTA, CARLITO

GONE

Photo - WWE.com

Batista quitting was AWESOME. So is TH's very scientific graphing of Batista's WWE career. I didn't see the Carlito segment.

REALIZED WRESTLING IS MORE ENJOYABLE

WITHOUT DIRT SHEETS!

Photo - WWE.com

This, I already knew, but haven't tried in ages. It was like coming up for air or something. Without reading rumour websites, I'm sure I avoided ruining the surprise that Christian would face Edge on RAW, or Undertaker would appear, or that Abraham Washington was rumoured as the RAW GM, and all that annoying, useless crap that makes it less enjoyable as a fan. Let's see if I can keep it up.

FORGOT ABOUT...

TNA

Photo - TNAWrestling.com

HULK HOGAN

SUES FRED FLINSTONE

STEEN VS. GENERICO

TORONTO - JUNE 19th - DBDH VIII

Photo - ROHWrestling.com

Once again. Livid with jealousy.