ROH Road Report- Manassas VA 1/16/2009

PAS: Tomk and I get picked up by the Cooke brothers and we watch in amusement as the pre inaugural traffic kept adding to the arrival time on the GPS. We went from planning on eating pre-show Peruvian chicken to getting to the show right at bell time

TKG: We joke about Hogan’s Celebrity Wrestling and Tim’s interest in all things Bischoff. I joke about Bischoff’s love for kicking offense laying the ground work for all the leg strikes in ROH. If anyone else was in charge Stevie Ray would have been the guy getting the big singles push. Bigger guy with the better mic work. But Bischoff loved some kicking offense. Didn’t matter if it was Ernest Miller, Meng (who never used as many leg strikes at any other point in his career), Ray Lloyd, Ultimo, Jerry Flynn, Zybysco’’s Sano kick or Booker T. Bischoff loved a kicker.

Damien Wayne/Chris Escobar v. Brent Albright/Eric Stevens

PAS: Pretty fun opener, Wayne and Escobar were basically there to take a beating and bump, and Albright and Stevens are fine as really short Road Warriors. We got to see both VA guys throw nice looking punches, and their Total Elimination variation was completely awesome. Still for guys who were mainly their for their bumping, this was probably the sanest bumps I have ever seen either guy take live.

TKG: Escobar has looked hit and miss to me in the past but looked solid for whole match and is wearing ridiculously awesome pants. Wayne also looked bad ass throwing nasty punches and eating chops. Putting Stevens and Albright together as mini-Pittbulls actually seems smart as Stevens does most of the work in the match and it keeps Albright on the apron

Rhett Titus v. Sean Denny

PAS: Sean Denny comes into to a Morrisey song which was the best thing on the whole show. Titus is tall and has an amusing gimmick, but man does he stink in the ring. There is a point where he nearly drops Denny on his head while trying to lift him. Bison Smith run in was amusing.

TKG: British wrestler coming out to the Smiths is amusing as fuck. Early sections of this were ok and Denny works a sell the back story. But this is pointless as I don’t think Titus has any idea of how to work a body part. Titus really came off like a poor man’s Nature Boy Ricky Rachet. This just goes on and on going nowhere until the Smith interference. I don’t get ROH bringing in Bison Smith. They already have Albright working short pudgy power wrestler. They have this team of Stevens and Albright as short stocky power guys. Why bring in a slightly taller slightly pudgier guy to work the same gimmick? He is taller and pudgier so it kind of kills their gimmick. If your booking Jeff Van Kamp as Lord Humongous, you don’t bring in Sid with a hockey mask. I also thought they were trying to do cost cutting. Are they flying in Smith? Of all the ex-NOAH guys why Smith? I mean Too Cold Scorpio is working the indies having great matches. Richard Slinger in ROH would rule too. I mean I guess neither of those guys have the look that management currently wants. But for that look, why not George Hines?

Delirious v. Necro Butcher

PAS: This was fine, but Necro just doesn't have it in ROH for some reason. I imagine this would have been awesome in IWA-MS, but here it felt flat. I did love Necro blocking the dive with a big right. Man that finish was really bad, didn't Delirious stab her in the face months ago? I know beating a woman is a babyface move in Northern Indy Wrestling, but I didn't realize that sticking with a violent abusive boyfriend was also a babyface move.

TKG: So the new ROH thing apparently is make the refs stronger. I mean I understand when the WWE suddenly goes “Our refs have no credibility we need to reestablish them as having authority, yadda yadda.” But I don’t get the sense that this was ever a problem in ROH. Yet every match on this show had distracting demonstrative refs establishing their authority. Both refs on this show were oddly separating wrestlers from downed opponents, which I don’t get at all. The brawling sections here never got across reckless abandon as Necro was always rolling in to break up a ten count. I liked this more than Phil. The in ring stuff with Delirious working over Necro’s leg with spinning toe holds and figure four was well done, and Necro sells a body part well. And the Necro as Dusty chasing heel around brawling stuff was good. The complicated outside interference storyline finish really was stupid for an undercard match. Jimmy Jacobs distracts ref so that Delirious can get spike, Daize Haze comes out to convince Delirious not to use spike. You can pull that kind of thing off in a main event angle/match. But on the undercard this really had the shitty CZW booking feel of “the work in this match is meaningless while the booking is all that matters".

American Wolves v. Jay Briscoe/Roderick Strong

TKG: We go up the bar for beers and watch this from above. Phil asks me why this is a grudge match and I explain how the American Foxes took out Mark Briscoe, and then drove to Florida where they assaulted Sedrik. I didn’t get the sense that this was being worked as an actual grudge match. But it was a fun workrate sprint. It looked like Strong was wearing Docks instead of wrestling boots which made the drop kicks look even nastier. Davey Richards isn’t a guy who I normally like. But he limited himself mostly to kicks and those kicks looked good. Bischoff would have done really enthusiastic commentary.

PAS: This was the most ROHie of the matches tonight, as it was your basic Briscoes tag except a little more toned down. Richards did mostly jujitsu mat counters and Sano kicks both of which he does well, so he irritated me less then he usually does. The normal problem in Richards singles matches is that he is the most choreographed looking wrestler in the world. I don't mean that his stuff looks complicated and dance like (although it does), I mean that you can actually see him working out the steps in his head. I used to tap dance, and his two count roll ups look like he is working out the steps in rehearsal, and a one .. and a two.. small package.. and a one...and a two... bridge. It doesn't require as much Bob Fosseism to do Ringo Mendoza kicks, so this worked out better. Still match had its problems, Jay Briscoe is a guy who will normally have seventeen kick outs in the last five minutes of a match, so having him go down to a shitty looking shoe shot (This wasn't Tommy Gilbert with a cowboy boot, this was Miss Elizabeth with a high heel) really makes no sense for the audience they are working for.


TKG: It’s intermission, I talk to Dean about dog ownership. Tim points out the ridiculous of the second half of show being three singles matches in a row. Yadda yadda.

Jerry Lynn v. Austin Aries

TKG: On the drive up to the show we were joking about which match we may or may not miss by getting there late. We go into this show thinking it’s pretty much a one match card : Jacobs v Danielson. Nigel v Black could be good but honestly that type of Nigel vs underdog isn’t my favorite Nigel. Delirious v Necro could be good but non-mainevent Necro in ROH is often disappointing. As that’s a match up you imagine would be better elsewhere. We all are dreading the idea of Jerry Lynn v Austin Aries. Dreading the “Wrestler” Lynn push, dreading the Malenko Guerrero roll ups, the mirror sections, the near falls, dreading that match.

TKG: Instead Aries comes out in trunks that look like a china pattern and Billy Childish's mustache and talks about how he's going to release his manifesto. His manifesto? http://www.391.org/manifestos/ According to Tim everyone in ROH is releasing manifestos. Jacobs has a manifesto, Black has a manifesto, Necro has a manifesto, etc. AWESOME. I kind of liked the whole idea behind The No Limit Soldiers v West Texas Outlaws wrestling feud built around aesthetic arguments. The idea that Delirious v Necro was based in Delirious Dada manifesto vs necro’s Neo Concrete manifesto is awesome. Aries comes across like Ian Svenonius on the mic talking about the anticipation of his manifesto. And then he kind of wrestles like how I imagine Svenonius would wrestle if he had taken up wrestling instead of music. And it was awesome. For a match I was dreading, this ended up being the match of the night.

PAS: Aries new gimmick is pretty spectacular, he basically takes no bumps and has no big offense. He is all fey comedy bumps and facial mugging. He basically works like heel Lanny Poffo with less spectacular offense, imagine Paul Lynde if he lived long enough to get into 90's gay gym culture. He seems really annoyed and flustered at everything Jerry Lynn did. Lynn still sucks, and there was points where he still looked like Jerry Lynn, which kept this from being a MOTYC. ROH is a promotion full of tape nerds who went to wrestling school, I imagine there are lots of guys who get matched up with Lynn and want to work matches from their collection. "Let's work this like you vs. Sabu", "Let's steal this spot from you Lightning Kid match" Aries apparently said "Do you remember your Eric Fontaine match from Global? Let's do that." The most amusing thing about this, is Aries is the booker now, this is clearly his choice, Gabe wanted him to work like a Dragon's Gate guy, but as soon as he got control, he said "Fuck the 450, I am growing a stache and not taking bumps."

TKG: Were there no bumps? I thought the thing that was most Poffo-ish was his acrobatic bumps. His offense and strutting were less Poffo and more Rene Goulet. I thought about approaching Greg H and asking him if he had any memories of how the Rene Goulet/Karl Gotch tag team worked as I really wanted to see new Austin Aries tagged up with either Danielson or Mcguiness. I don’t want to argue about Poffo v Goulet or if Aries was more Paul Lynde or Charles Nelson Reily. Because the real thing is that Aries really felt like he was his own man here. This wasn’t Aries working a Rene Goulet tribute gimmick so much as what I imagine Rene Goulet would do if he was a contemporary twenty year old. This wasn’t a retro gimmick. Joey Ryan or Larry Sweeney are working deliberate retro-tribute gimmicks. This was a 2009 gimmick. The two things that I always used to point to in Austin Aries matches were: (1) the spot where he would hug the bottom rope to regroup and stop opponents attack ( a theatrically chickenshit move that somehow he made work even as a face); (2) the way he would move in sudden choppy bursts that felt like you’re watching Harryhausen animation. The current Aries gimmick really felt like it was built around both those things. Whenever Lynn so much thought about mounting an offense Aries would try to regroup and escape in real crawl to the ropes and ball up variations. And Aries on offense was all about bursts of suddenness that made him racing across the ring stopping and then leaping up with a second rope springboardish back rake look cool. The Aries gimmick change didn' feel artificial act or like Voodoo Papa Chango showing up as MMA fighter Kama. It felt like a natural extension of parts of Aries ROH persona. I just want to read his manifesto and figure out why he decided to lean this much in that direction.

TKG: Lynn wins with a roll up. I don’t get the whole “Randy the Ram” Jerry Lynn push. Necro was actually in the movie. Why is Lynn getting the push? Randy the Ram is a guy who once headlined big shows who is able to establish an emotional connection with the crowd. Lynn is to Ram what Elektra is to Marrisa Tomei.

PAS: My favorite part of the internet reaction to the Wrestler, was the various people on message boards talking about how its success would lead to a resurgence in indy wrestling. I liked the movie a bunch, but I can't imagine anyone seeing the story of a man destroying himself in seedy VA halls in Southern New Jersey and thinking "That's a scene I would like to get involved in."

TKG: Did the arcade gaming industry think pinball sales were going to increase after the “Accused”?

TKG: I liked “The Wrestler”. That said I know New Jersey/PA indie wrestling and there were lots of moments where I found it's portrayal of that scene to be overly sentimental and romanticized.

PAS: Yeah, they do this juxtaposition, where you have greaseball Jersey guys really disrespectful to aged stripper, while all of the wrestling fans are really polite and worshipful to the aged wrestler. I have been to plenty of Northeast indy shows, and a fair number of Northeast strip clubs, strippers get treated with much more respect.

TKG: Northeast douchebags are douchebags. It's not a situational thing.

Jimmy Jacobs v. Bryan Danielson

PAS: I liked the match fine, but much like the main event it was an inferior rematch of something from the last couple of years. When you purposely tone down two rematches like this, it just leads to people unfavorably comparing the shows. Which they were doing plenty of from the start. I imagine a bunch of goodwill would have been regained if this match had really been worked like a big main event. Instead it was deliberate and had a flash finish. Good match, but completely wrong match for this show.

TKG: Dean points out that Danielson’s current facial hair makes him look like a member of a late 80s SST band. And the early sections of this felt like you were actually watching a bar fight between a guy in a Greg Ginn sideproject and a guy in Operation Ivy. Lots of shoving and posturing to start as both guys get more and more heated . They moved into a Danielson gets his leg worked over section after he slips off top rope that was neat and I’m uncomfortable talking about this match in “sections”. This was a match I really dug live as it came across really organic, two guys wrestling and responding to what happens. Responding to the crowd without ever going for cheap pops. Jimmy Jacobs was able to steal a quick finish and I really like the story of Jacobs being a guy who has Danielson’s number but it was a finish that the crowd completely turned on. Really at this point in the card stealing a finish felt cheap, the crowd would have reacted better to a run in.Three run ins, a fireball, ref bump and a belt shot and I think this match would have gotten a better response. That's the fault of the booking of the rest of this show. The story on the change in ROH booking was that they were going to go to a more “seventies/eighties” style. But there was nothing seventies or eighties style about the work or booking of this show. There’s a way good bookers constructed cards in the 70s/80s. A wrestling card tells a story. A guy like George Scott would open with a “dull” scientific face v face match that ended in a clean finish and slowly add on the color till you build to the hot angle heavy face/heal main with the elaborate shmozz finish. A New Japan card starts with guys with small movesets where everything is sold and guys loose to basic moves and builds to main events where guys are able to fighting spirit out of selling for lots of moves. Basic lucha card starts with spotfest built on guys trying to one up each other with technique and builds to main events where guys try to beat each other up and throw technique out the door. You start by establishing the rules of the game/ how things should function and build to the point where all the rules breakdown. In the seventies/eighties that’s basically how you constructed a card. I'm oversimplifying as there were places that deliberately ran a match that encouraged the audience to go to the concession stand, places with intermissions that ran heat matches pre or post intermission places that ran a heat killer pre-main, etc--so it wasn't always a straight line. But that just changes the pacing, the basic concept is still the same. The logic makes sense: start by introducing the idea of clean wrestling to get heat when that concept is violated. This ROH Manassas show worked that backasswards. The whole undercard was all about the ”booking” which builds to second half of the show which is three clean matches? Undercard was all about guys kicking out of stuff until the “booking came in” to lead to finish, until the 911 run in, until the valet distraction, until the manager with the shoe. The top half of the show was about matches ending cleanly. It made all the finishes on the top half of the card feel abrupt. Motherfuckers in the undercard are kicking out of shit till the booking comes in, why are these guys laying down so easily? This was booked like a shitty 90s Jersey/PA indy card where the crowd is conditioned early on to wait for run in and then can only be disappointed (feel cheated) when it doesn’t come. The change in booking philosophy was supposed to prevent crowd burn out. The booking of this show lead to crowd burn out and lead to them turning on the whole top of the card. Thats not 70s or 80s style booking. If anything this show was booked a lot like every fly by night US indy I'd go to in King Of Prussia in the mid 90s. It wasn’t that the work was equivalent to a card of “Ace Darling/Devon Storm v Pittbulls, Rickey Rachet v jobber, Max Thrasher v Glen Osbourne, The Misfits v The Big Unit with Royce Proffit, Ivan Putski v Dr Spa Fitness Joey “Foo Foo” Dynamite, Twiggy Ramirez v "Surfer" Ray Odysey, and King Kahlua v Julio Dinero.” But the booking felt like the way those shows were booked. Well except Ivan Putski v Dr Spa Fitness Joey “Foo Foo” Dynamite would have been the main event, Putski would have hit his finisher and the money mark would have been special ref. I'm not talking about Glen Strange JAPW booking or (was it Barry Casino who booked )ECWA 90s booking. I'm talking about fly by night NJ/PA early 90s fed booking. That's how alot of the post Gabe stuff reads on paper (although the big shows haven't been about clean finishes rather lots of 3 way dances and booking changes to make stuff feel like its "important" which is another shitty 90s booking staple.) I'm not lobbying to bring back Gabe, cause Glen Strange and/or Barry Casino can probably lay out a smarter set of cards too.

Tyler Black v. Nigel McGuiness

TKG: Mcguiness v underdog doesn’t do as much for me as it does for others. He does it well, it just doesn’t excite me as much as Mcguinness v rival on same level. He can do a “what will it take to put him away” guy-on-top v underdog well. Or he can do a Scorpio v Windham, “how do I deal with guy who is throwing everything at me” guy-on-top v underdog well. And here he kind of moved back and forth between those two well. And I was kind of digging it in a really detached way but it’s a match that requires a hot crowd. I think with a hot crowd this would have been a fun ride of a match. Instead it was done in front of a crowd that was burnt out and had turned on the show and this would have required a CZW end run and a table spot to get them back. And that made it feel even more detached for me. The pleasure of watching an underdog gets a big win should feel exhilarating like a roller coaster ride and not like I’m appreciating a Mondrian.

PAS: Tyler Black isn't a good enough wrestler to have a great title match in a vacuum. VA had turned on this promotion at this point, so Black's big comebacks were met with indifference. Their previous match had the big run of nearfalls, having Black get less nearfalls on the match he ultimately won, seems backwards to me. The body of the match felt like an early encounter, where Black proves he belongs. Instead we get his win, although it was non-title so they are going to drag it out way more.

TKG: Oddly compared to the last Manassas show I went to (5/12/08), there were fewer bad matches tonight. I mean there was nothing as good as Danielson v Black but there was nothing as bad as the worst stuff from that show. I think if they had changed the match order and some of the finishes tonight, they would have had a card that would have left people happy. But the show was really constructed like they were deliberately trying to kill a town. ROH is a small company. If they want to close up shop, they should just close up shop. I don’t see any reason to kill a town when they can just stop running it.

PAS: This really felt like a post Crockett sale UWF show, or Russo era WCW. Like we were watching the death throws of a promotion. Embittered audience who remembered the glory days, booker completely out of touch with what people want to see, wrestlers mailing it in. I don't know if TV will turn it around, or they will just shift to something different, but based on this show I don't see ROH lasting out the year.