The Quest for the Whitest Match in History: Day 7

Atsushi Aoki & Rocky Romero vs. Bryan Danielson & Davey Richards
NOAH - 6/1/2007
NTV Cup Match

This'll probably come as close as anything I can find to being "the whitest match ever". Richards is likely the whitest wrestler active today. Guy who made his debut in ROH working the gimmick of guy who's ultimate dream was being GHC Jr. champ. No one but the whitest of US indy dudes would say that. Danielson is white in a very literal sense, plus he's a guy who established his heel character through an interview where he talked about corporations taking advantage of working class folks in his hometown. Rocky Romero is Cuban, but is whiter than 95% of all white wrestlers ever. From Tom in an IGF review on this site:

"So I just got finished complimenting Ishikawa, a guy who uses a octopus as a signature spot, for not doing it in an dark match opener. And here comes Rocky Romero rolling out an octopus to no pop in the second dark match."

Kinda says it all about Romero, the ultimate wrestling poseur. Aoki is a scrappy Japanese guy, who doesn't strike me as being particularly white in any real way.

So this is a very white match, moreso in terms of the color than the race (although that kinda ties back into the race). It's technically fine, it's visually impressive to a certain extent, but it's also very and cold, antiseptic, and ultimately forgettable. I don't hate Davey Richards quite as much as some people do, but I kinda wish I did. Kinda wish there were more points in this match where he was being audaciously bad, rather than merely....well...white. At least that would be interesting. Instead, this was 20 minutes of clean, inoffensive, technically high end, and emotionally unremarkable wrestling. The fact that the finish - a stretch run between Richards and Romero that's as problematic as you'd guess it would be - was a highlight because it was actively bad should tell you something. You can watch it if you want, but I kinda want my 20 minutes back.