Hindsight and Such...

I keep up on current news with most of the wrestling companies I follow. Especially Ring Of Honor. Especially because I attend a number of their live shows, so being up to date with what is going on is important. So of course I knew about Ric Flair coming into ROH long before watching his first show with the company, “Stylin’ & Profilin’” (3/13/09). And I know how his run with the company went, how it ended on bad terms, and how little it did to bring new fans to ROH. Thus watching that original appearance Flair made with ROH now, it all comes across as very...eh, whatever. It doesn’t help that Flair tries so hard to get his son a match with the ROH World Champion by working that suggestion into a promo and hoping that the eager audience will force the booking to occur (they didn’t).

I’ll move past the “Nature Boy” portion of the show and focus on the matches now. Seems more constructive. And if there’s one thing I’m all about, it’s constructivism. But hey, who isn’t all about abstract artistic movements founded in Russia during the 20th century?

-Now THAT is how you start a show! Jay Briscoe and Roderick Strong have easily one of the best singles matches I’ve seen so far in my 2009 viewing, certainly in ROH and possibly overall. They both show impressive technical prowess, both turn the intensity meter a little bit past ten, and both just steal this show before it has even really begun. Wow. The great surprise here is while Strong is somebody you expect such aptitude from, Jay Briscoe isn’t. Jay may never be known as a singles wrestler, but he proves here that he can be one of the absolute best. Amazing match, thumbs way up for it.

-Love how much MsChif vs. Daizee Haze feels like a “title” match. I know, I know, it IS a title match, but on paper it just doesn’t have that big bout sound to it. Great use of story and great chemistry between the two women, which is a nice surprise since while I adore MsChif, I don’t always think of Daizee Haze as being that great. But she is, and it shows here. Overall it is a really strong contest.

-Do Silas Young and Austin Aries get paid more to be in the same match whenever they’re booked on the same ROH show? At least Claudio Castagnoli and Kenny Omega are added to the mix, making for an at times exciting four-way attraction. Lots of good work from everybody involved.

-Honestly, I really didn’t enjoy the six-man pitting Kevin Steen, El Generico, and Bobby Dempsey against Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, and Chris Hero. Anytime the American Wolves and Steen and Generico interacted, things were somewhat interesting, but most of the match just did not click with me. Dempsey really doesn’t belong in there. And Hero is good, but he feels a little odd man out when what we really want to see is the Wolves and Steen and Generico going after each other uninterrupted. Overall a meh match, unfortunately.

-It is crazy how great a team Kenny King and Rhett Titus have become. The connection they have is amazing, and a real treat to watch. Their bout here with Irish Airborne, who I like a lot as well, is highly enjoyable, even if it is clearly designed to make King and Titus look good. Truth is, the Irish Airborne also come out looking like gold, which is no small feat for what could have amounted to a squash match.

-We’ve seen the American Dragon vs. The Monster storyline before, in the classic Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima series back in 2007. It is only natural to think back to those matches while watching Danielson battle Bison Smith today. While Danielson vs. Smith is pretty good here, it is not Danielson vs. Morishima good by a long shot. Much of the first half of the bout drags, with Smith keeping it at a slow pace as he is in control. Things then build up, some really exciting moments occur, and then, unfortunately, we get the finish. To say the match ends just when it was getting good is an understatement. As a first battle in a potential series, it works, and the ending makes sense, but it is still a bit underwhelming that just as it is really heating up, things abruptly conclude.

-All I want to say about Tyler Black and Jerry Lynn vs. Jimmy Jacobs and Delirious is that there is finally some major storyline progress at the end of the bout, and finally we seem to have seen the last of the Jacobs and Delirious against random combination of Black, Lynn, Necro Butcher, and Bryan Danielson matches. Not that they were bad, they were just left in the frying pan way too long (I could have just said “overdone,” but the frying pan line seemed more fun).

-Second time we’ve seen Nigel McGuinness and Brent Albright grapple recently, and once again both men shine. The chemistry shared between these two is phenomenal. I love the work both men do here, and how the story escalates until you just cannot wait to see how it will end. Unfortunately, the ending does come off as somewhat anti-climatic, but everything up to that point deserves the highest of praise. I wonder if a third, decisive meeting between the two is waiting in my DVD watching future.