The Wrestling What I Watched in 2007 Pt. 2, by S.L.L.

Matt Sydal vs. Pac
ROH - 3/4/2007 - Liverpool, England

Pac's brand of flippy-floppery already pleasantly surprised me once last year against El Generico. Let's see if he can't do it again. He is in the capable hands of Matt Sydal, which should help his case. Sydal is in mid-heel turn here, which makes it all the better. Sydal turns up the dickishness early, including covering for a blown hurricanrana by standing around and looking like an asshole. He also busts out this ridiculous arm-trap-rolling-into-a-crucifix-pin thing that I really can't even accurately describe any better than that. Sydal sets up a top rope hurricanrana, leaps up, only for Pac to slip down underneath him, letting him gloriously crotch himself on the turnbuckle. Pac takes over with the flippy shit the kids love, and it is some choice flippy shit, to be sure. Pac goes up top for something, but Sydal comes to his senses, leaps up, and the hurricanrana doesn't miss it's mark twice. A shooting star press later, Matt Sydal is your winner. Boss match. This Pac feller is a pretty fun flyer, but the real story of the match is how good Sydal has become over the last year or so. He's still really sharp on offense, but he's just so well-rounded now. It really feels like he's up there with the best guys in America at this point, hanging on the notch below John Cena and Matt Hardy with Nigel, Finlay, Umaga, Jeff Hardy, and a couple of other dudes. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

Samoa Joe vs. Takeshi Morishima
ROH - 2/16/2007 - New York City, NY

A dream match between the internet's current two favorite balls of dough. It's kinda in vogue to hate on both of these guys right now, but I can't bring myself to do it. Well, okay, Morishima sucks at wrestling juniors. I think we can all agree on that one. But give him another heavyweight and he will mess you up right good. As for Joe, I think it is just your 2000 WCW syndrome redux, where a promotion is so utterly hopeless that trying to do anything worthwhile seems futile. He had a really fun match this year against Eddie Kingston in Fight Sports Midwest. His last match with Nigel in Liverpool is my MOTY so far. And he looks as good as ever here. He's still got it, but damned if you're gonna see it in TNA. Oh, well. Morishima's nose is bleeding. Again. It's not very manly looking. I suppose that's another valid criticism of him, but I don't know how much he can really do about it. It's like complaining that Khali is slow. It's true, but really, what do you want him to do? Is now really the best time to have a wrestler working a coke fiend gimmick? In his favor, he hits dudes hard, and has some nice athletic big man offense, as well as some nice "fat guy hitting you with his fatness" offense. And sometimes, he can combine the two, like the handspring splash, and the Thesz press, and the rolling ass to a sitting opponent. Really, Morishima suffers from a lot of the same booking apathy problems that Joe does. It's not so much a lack of effort on his part, in this case. But there's really nothing interesting going in the ROH main event scene, although Ages of the Fall may change that. But I don't really see Mori dropping the strap to Jimmy Jacobs. Maybe Necro Butcher, but Gabe had to be dragged kicking and screaming through the ROH vs. CZW feud. Gabe has certain (not particularly good) standards for the World Title scene, and it's kinda worked over the years in spite of itself because he had some really gifted wrestlers to work with. They still have a lot of really talented guys, but the only ones who seem capable of working that style are Danielson, Nigel, and Morishima. Morishima ran through both. Now what? Am I really expected to care about Morishima vs. The Hangmen Three? You know the drill here. Mori kicks out of the Muscle Buster, Joe kicks out of the backdrop, Mori struggles in the rear naked choke before finally going out. It's a bit rote, but you buy it from them. By the end of the year, you don't buy it from them anymore. But this was part of a nice little going away party for my interest in both of these guys.