Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Don’t blink. The date of this article is right. This is a sample (one of several) that will introduce you to John Philapavage’s regular contribution to this site, Four For The Road. Look up the rest of the archives through the categories on the side or up at the top of the page, and check back regularly for new articles in this feature.

– Ring of Honor presented its 100th show, headlined by the continuation of the CZW/ROH feud, in front of an overflow crowd in Philadelphia. I figured out after the show that I’ve been to 24 ROH events, and seen around twelve more on DVD. So after following this group through the last few years, it was satisfying to see the great action and crowd involvement back home in Philly. A quick recap (memories of the first 100 shows is getting bumped till next week):

Chris Daniels had a great match with Claudio Castagnoli. Afterwards, Daniels shook hands for the first time. That probably wouldn’t mean anything to someone who doesn’t follow ROH, or doesn’t care about what the product was built on, but it was a nice piece of detail work to a long time fan. Castagnoli, who turned on ROH in the main event, has some great skills and deserves to be focused on. That said, he lacks the fluidity and presence of so many other ROH luminaries. The lanky worker will be a lot better in a year or two, and should take some lessons from his trainer, Chris Hero, if he wants to get over as a stand alone heel. Hero, the big heel of the show, has his act and mic work down. Like his charge, Castagnoli, he’s a lanky guy who can work, but he’d benefit from hitting the gym and getting a body like his trainee (It’s not a ‘roids thing, it’s just a toned-fit look). Regardless, they both need some new wardrobes, but it will all come in time. It’s great seeing these guys develop before your eyes.

Another highlight of the show was the Briscoe Brothers reaffirming their commitment to wrestling in the match of the night with A.J. Styles and Matt Sydal. While Sydal was the weak link coming in, that’s not a bad place to be with these guys. He got over once again by the end of the night, though I can’t see him going past ROH because of his size, flat persona, and odd facial expressions. Stranger things have happened, though.

Mark Briscoe grew up over night. A lot of that was probably a final growth spurt (We’ve been watching this guy in the northeast for five years, and he JUST turned 21), but something tells me he did more then just hit the gym. For now, he’s caught up to big brother Jay, and the duo had another coming out party in terms of development. They looked poised, the work was crisp, and the crowd was with them. They have very little mic skills, but I’ve still gotta believe at some point in the next few years a talent scout for WWE will give them a shot. AJ Styles, for his part, is a cut above the rest. He’s just amazing in the ring. It’s too bad the guy could never play a great heel, or there would be a lot more upside on an already gifted athlete.

At the end of the night, we had our big six-man tag. Earlier, we got a great Chris Hero promo, as he walked through the fiery ROH fan base cutting a scathing heel promo, ending up in the center of the CZW bleachers. This will be a great visual for the DVD release. Similarly, the Cornette/ Zandig debate was entertaining. Zandig even held his own on many points, which made it all the better.

The main event spotlighted just how far BJ Whitmer and Adam Pearce have come with the fan base. After three-plus years in the company, this feud has defined Whitmer as an ROH mainstay who will be more then over from here on out. The plight of Adam Pearce was much shorter, only a few months, but his mic work on DVDs, character portrayal (Think Arn Anderson, but instead of the Horseman enforcer, he plays that role for the entire ROH promotion), and being paired with Cornette has gotten the big man over.

Chris Hero played chicken shit heel mastermind, Super Dragon played evil guy every fan wanted to jump the rail to get at, and Necro Butcher did his best new millennium Bruiser Brody gimmick. While I doubt I’ll show up at CZW’s show on May 15th, they’ve at least picked wrestlers that embody CZW enough to rally their troops, while being good enough workers/heels to draw reaction from the ROH fans. CZW went over after a Castagnoli heel turn and a wild 30-minute brawl (which is what you should get in an invasion feud like this. Who’s waiting for a tag if these guys are coming through the front door and “trying to take out your promotion - Your HONOR – Everything that ROH stands for” and CZW markets themselves as not standing for?).

The ending was no surprise from a business standpoint. All you had to do was look around the building, see the 1300 people, then look at the concession and merchandise tables. This feud continues to take on a life of its own, and if it was ending anytime soon, that time won’t be before July 15th. They’ve already announced the return date to Philly, and ROH has said the opposing bleachers will be out again for what could be the blow off to the feud. Then again, they might keep this going till CZW’s Cage of Death and ROH’s Final Battle 2006 shows in December. For now, that gasping noise from the ROH bleachers, along with the raucous reaction of the CZW contingent as their ultra violent icons celebrated with them in the stands smelled a lot like cash in Cary Silken’s pocket to me.

– UFC, hot off the heels of the Forrest Griffen/Tito Ortiz match, has made the loser by controversial decision, Griffen, the new challenger for Ken Shamrock. While this might read as poetic justice to some, the decision effectively ends the big payday from an Ortiz/Shamrock rematch from 2002.

Certainly Griffen, if he can get past the aging legend, will become the poster boy of the UFC’s premiere division. The man that made his name on the inaugural Ultimate Fighter and won the competition in one of the greatest UFC fights, TV or PPV, in history, came into UFC’s last PPV a 5-1 or 6-1 underdog against Ortiz. While Ortiz won a close decision, the public’s decision was that Griffen was robbed.

Ortiz went in with a severe leg muscle tear, and even in victory, he’s out for the summer. Griffen will now be sent into the pre-built match with Ken Shamrock. Before we all jump ahead to a late year Liddel/Griffen super fight, think about how this changes the dynamic for PPV, match booking, and paydays. Reports are that Couture/Liddell captured the company 400,000 buys. BJ Penn/St.Pierre granted the company another 300,000 or so. Ultimately (no pun intended) Tito and Forrest will net them somewhere in between. We’ll say 350,000 buys. With the company breaking into California and a big Matt Hughes/Royce Gracie fight next month, no one is penny pinching. They would do well to save that money at this point.

With Ortiz on the shelf, Forrest now has the task of ending the marketability of Shamrock. Ultimate Fighter might be based around the build for Ken and Tito, but Griffen just leapfrogged Ortiz. That means when he beats Shamrock, and he will, an Ortiz/Shamrock payday (Probably around 375-400 thousand prospective buys a month ago) goes out the window forever. Further more, an Ortiz-Liddell match gets pushed back to next year, Liddell needs to find a viable opponent, and Ortiz is left re-matching with Griffen if he wants his title shot. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m guessing there’s more money in Tito-Chuck this year than Forrest-Chuck. For UFC’s sake, they better hope Stephan Bonner and Griffen keep winning, and they can build them to a rematch or three-way play off with Liddell. It’s the only way the gravy train is running across the country next year. Wow, and I never thought I’d see Dana White rooting for Ortiz again. (UPDATE: Ortiz was told last night 4/27 that it was a fractured Fibula and not an ACL tear. He wanted to postpone till August, but after talking to Dana White he’ll be fighting 7/8 as scheduled. Maybe Shamrock actually has a chance now. I guess Dana White cares more about capitalizing on Ultimate TV then Tito’s health. That, and the money train is back on!))

– TNA awaits ratings regularity, a longer/primetime time slot, and the PPV Goldberg “pie in the sky”. Is there ever a time we don’t view TNA in a state of Flux? Is there anytime when we as fans can see them outside of the vacuum? The ratings for week three are coming in and it looks like 11pm on a Thursday is good enough for a .8 to a 1.2, but in English it’s about 1.3 million viewers. On the PPV end of things we can sit and look at the month one Sting effect versus the month three effect, but it seems that TNA, after encore performances, is good for 35,000 to 50,000 buys as a whole. That’s a little above breaking even, and still working on some of that salary for washed up WCW talent that only appears twice a month.

TNA can pop a slightly better buy rate for a Sting or a slightly better TV rating with a live UFC or Ultimate Fighter debut/finale leading in. Regardless of the constant variables we hear, the truth is at 40 thousand average buys, a 1.0 at 11pm on Spike, they’ll just make it again this year. By that, I mean they’ll just make 3-5 million dollars in losses for Panda Energy. The Carter family has held onto this company with a death grip since buying it. It was a reportedly 13 million-dollar money pit when they purchased it, and it’s grown another ten million out of their own pockets. Yet the Carters refused to sell to major company sponsor, Morpha-whatever, for fifteen big millions. Um… Okay?

Let me get this straight. Weekly PPV is out. Nashville is out. Orlando monthly PPVs are the golden carrot. Then it was FSN and the Best Damn Sports Show. Then it was a Spike TV slot and Sting. Somewhere in there I missed the indy stars getting raises, but not getting near what Scotty Steiner gets to show up and curse two consecutive nights a week. Now that TNA has a Thursday slot on Spike TV, has the monthly PPV, has the WCW veterans and the biggest Indy stars of the last 6 years, all that’s left is failing at 9pm on Thursdays while giving Goldberg 2 million for a years worth of limited work. Other than the sold house shows, the Carters are out of golden carrots to dangle in front of themselves. The Carter’s seem more self-deluded than the poor ECW locker room in late 2000. Maybe that’s because they aren’t losing their marriage or home. Christ, is that what it would take to get them to stop spending money?

This is the best TNA can do in today’s wrestling economy, and they’ll continue the slow burn on money. A time slot change in August won’t matter. 20 million plus dollars and counting…..

–WWE announced this week they are bringing the ECW brand name back this fall. This announcement bothered me, as I was a long time ECW fan from 1995 till their 2001 demise. It didn’t help that the night before the announcement I’d finally agreed with a thought I’d battled in my head when it came to being a fan of wrestling.

I realized something Saturday while I was watching the ROH show live in Philly. It’s something I’ll call a slight epiphany; that I’ve realized in similar moments over the course of the years, but tried my best to push out of my head. I’m watching the show and having a great time, and I realized I was feeling a lot of the same feelings I felt when I was in the ECW Arena watching last decade’s Philly faithful. The product, atmosphere, workers, and the connection between the match, wrestlers, and fans were very much the same. Then I had a sad realization: A national mainstream promotion doesn’t afford you this luxury.

Sure, at times the WWE, or WCW, or if you want to count them, TNA, gives you a great spectacle. They have drama, show, and some amazing athletes. It is, by scale, a much more professional and polished product. But I like watching a talent grow naturally. I like 30-minute matches. I loved Kobashi versus Samoa Joe. I realize that not everybody does. Some people loved HBK and Vince McMahon. Some people love the owners, General managers, 20-minute HHH promos and such. But I have to TRY to like them. They aren’t always bad; they just aren’t “my cup of tea” naturally. I don’t think at this age, this far into the game, I can be a true fan of a national mainstream promotion.

WWE just announced that they are bringing back ECW, or should I say their version of ECW. It won’t be taped in South Philly, it won’t have any of the same fire, and it won’t get across the storytelling elements or hard work that defined ECW. Even with Paul Heyman in charge, this is a complete and total whoring of ECW as a brand name to increase merchandise sales. I can’t justify supporting it.

I’m not naive. I realize it’s inherent in what they do to attract casual fans as they strive for “acceptance” in the mainstream. They’ll book matches, angles, and promos in a manor that won’t get over to me after years of following Pro Wrestling so closely. A lot of things that worked in ECW or ROH and back in Mid-Atlantic or Mid South, not to mention Japan in the 90s, simply wouldn’t be employed in a national promotion with cable or mini-network TV. It’s the same reason ECW died on TNN years back. The money structure, business office, and locker room are set up in a hierarchy where certain people will have much more power over theirs and other’s professional destinies.

This sounds like an obvious statement to someone who’s read all the credible Internet sites, watched many shoot interviews, subscribed to the major newsletters, or been involved behind the scenes of wrestling at any capacity. It’s at each person’s discretion to figure out what type of fan they will be. As a famous movie once said, “you decide your own level of involvement.” My plight as an armchair booker has been watching the little gems that sneak through, and seeing if the performers can cultivate a great program. Even if I have trouble supporting WWE or TNA as a whole, certain segments and matches they put on entice me as a fan. Hey, Wrestlemania was actually an enjoyable experience for me this year. I guess there still is hope. Maybe the McMahon’s will sell their company. Then again, maybe Stern and Opie and Anthony will team up with CBS to reunite their drive time super group in my home market of Philly.