Segunda Caida Gets an incomplete:ROH Road Report 5/13/08

Dean, Phil and I drive up to the ROH show in the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC. Well Dean did the actual driving. We miss the first half of the show. Find Naylor, Pete and Ray. Then we find S.L.L. I drink grainy Russian beer. Good time had by all. We never finish writing the road report.


AMERICAN DRAGON v NAOMICHI MARIFUJI

TKG: Yikes Marifuji likes mirror sections in his matches. I guess Morishima did lots of signature Dragon spots as a taunt in their finale match so opponent does signature move may be a Dragon match layout. Still Marifuji is really shitty at executing Dragon signature stuff. Dragon is also a guy who normally is really good at setting up and being in place for elaborate highflyer offense. He's normally really good at not looking like a guy waiting with his thumb in ass for opponent to hit moonsault, Psichosis leg drop etc. But damn, Marifuji had a bunch of things that really made Dragon look like a guy waiting with his thumb in his ass. This was the least of the Marifuji v Dragon matches I've seen. Watching these two nights of shows and realize ROH really fucked up by not making a play to bring in W*NG Kanemura when he was recently blacklisted. I mean, I don't like anyone in The Noh Remorse Corps but really a lot of the blame for the Manassas main event should lie at the feet of the NOAH workers. Instead of bringing in rookie Japanese workers whose instincts may not be any better than Rocky Romero’s, Kanemura is a guy who has been main eventing for years and understands how to work big main event style. He’s a guy who can work big move, big bump style and yet smart enough to never do anything as bad as this match. Appeals to tape trading crowd who all have at least one W*NG tape in their collection. Being blacklisted means he’d probably be cheap for a main-eventer and sure you can put him up in Jigsaw’s Newark apartment or something. He would have been easy to book. Bring him in to work your Japanese guy v American, guy face v face, supermatch v Eric Stevens. After match you have Lacey come out and do her AOTF college feminist shtick complaining about how Kanemura is in America because he sexually harassed a woman in Japan and how ROH supports the patriarchy etc and suddenly you have the possibility of Kanemura v AOTF feud. Kanemura v Tyler Black, Kanemura v Necro, Kanemura v. Jimmy Jacobs, Kanemura v Mathews, Kanemura & Stevens v any version of the AOTF are all great matchups that can be run with a variety of different stips. You can work a ton of Dusty type spots where matches are built around Kanemura spanking, kissing or bowling balling the heel valet. Eric Stevens doing Team No Respect Dance would get over and lots of experience with a main event wrestler of Kanemura’s caliber would help elevate his game. For Florida show you can bring in Jimmy Jacobs mentor Kevin Sullivan “Who knows how to deal with Kanemura”. You can mix anyone else into that. Bryan Danielson, Jack Evans or Jay Briscoe doing the Team No Respect Dance in a six or 8 man would get a pop and sell some tapes. The pop for Bobby Dempsey doing the Team No Respect dance after a Stevens/Kanemura v Sweet N Sour Inc. match would be huge too. Dragon versus Kanemura would have been a lot better than this.