Pro Wrestling Chronicle

It this edition we discuss a wrestling match that deserves more respect, and get you, the reader, more accustom to the site and personalities of our writers, as I give you some insight into what we’ll be doing here at pwchronicle.com. Don’t worry, with two more articles to go this week, I’ll find a way to dislike Russo, sleep through RAW, make excuses for ROH, and crowbar in some 90s All Japan references. Cheers.

- 2006 end of the year awards are come and gone, but we here at Wrestling chronicle.com have only begun to start arguing over such nonsense and where it will be placed years from no (My pick was Danielson vs KENTA, Paul’s was Danielson vs McGuinness from Unified, there was alot of talk as to how we felt about eventual winner the Dragon’s Gate 6-man, and who the hell knows what Brian Hansley likes!).

I’ve just received a compilation of the 50-60 consensus top matches of 2006, and we’ll be doing some Steal This Match reviews for the site. One that got left off the list - and I was reminded of thanks to a patron of a message board - sparked a rant in me on one match which gets little credit. It goes as follows:

Danielson vs Alex Shelly was a GREAT (completely underrated) match live that went 52 minutes between mic work and actual wrestling. They HAD to stall for Samoa Joe, who was in the main event but still getting from the airport to the building thanks to being booked in Mexico the night before. Not only did they have to stall, but the crowd was hostile, seeing Danielson as the epitome of ROH (the event was held in CZW’s main building, the ECW Arena, though that’s like saying if I rented out MSG it would be “my building”) and Shelly as a “traitor” for having been in CZW and left earlier in his career.

Then you have the fact it’s heel vs heel. People like Brian Alverez who do everything by the book would say this match was destined to fail (and I enjoy his shows at times, but there is more then one way to do a freakin’ tag match!, among other things).

This was honestly a match that not only didn’t fail, it got a standing ovation at the end, and it was Dragon who got it. Not only that, it did have some intrigue and drama, since none of us at the building knew they were stalling for anything (I’ve read one to many smart mark comments about stalling and the story why in DVD reviews, like the audience, or half the people watching the DVD are aware of this during the match and terribly affected by it).

This match was seriously 2 stars better then most DVD reviews if you were there live, and to me it’s one of those that wasn’t a match of the year (or over-pimped), but it was on the top 25 of last year, and top 10 for me from ROH specifically. Still, even on DVD the commentary and shooting of the match is quality, and it’s definitely 3 1/2 stars, but I could (I only said could) go as high as 4 stars). This is one that wouldn’t be MOTY from just workrate alone, but it’s the whole viewing experience that makes it must-see, like how Colt Cabana makes his Comedy matches 4 stars as a sub-genre.

Go out and see this match. I feel so strongly that this match gets less credit, you’ll all be punished with a Steal this Match review of this, and I’ll make Paul or Hansley do one to, just so you can get another perspective (And they’d love to tell me it sucks just for this rant, I’m sure). The Iron fist has slammed down. That is all!

-pwchronicle.com notes. As far as this column, you’ll be seeing four items twice a week in it, or four columns with expanded thoughts on two separate items in a week. Either way you’ll get content and opinions/analysis. Feel free to leave us all comments until we get the message board up and running. Expanded articles on a subject will be dealt with in my On Wrestling series, which will take a more serious look at the industry of Pro Wrestling and/or Mixed Martial Arts.

I wanna welcome and thank Brian Hansley, who is in charge of our TNA coverage, but like everyone here, can write about anything his heart desires. He’ll also have some great thoughts on WWE 24/7 programming and more then likely point/counterpoint stuff with me on live ROH experiences. Hansley did a hell of a job anchoring the site this week while we all dealt with our lives. I’ll have an ROH Apologist out soon, to um… apologize:)

Paul Siegrfried, who is now gaining more hype then Glacier circa 1996 NITRO, will be officially contributing new content this coming Monday (Paul swears this, not me), After computer trouble. I believe he’ll be doing a RAW Ramblings on Monday. He does have several old articles on the site. Search his name in categories or look for Sunday Morning Musings for his regular weekly column. Oh, and Paul wishes to thank Hansley for doing RAW coverage this week so you actually think we all get along. In reality, he’s disgusted by anyone who goes by their last name as a first name. Read his archives. You’ll get his tone.

And Finally, Gene Boyer swears to me he’ll be joining us soon enough. His TNA thoughts were completely derailed by the evil Corporation Comcast, who decided for his safety, his liver enzymes were too high to be watching anything with a Russo-booking content of 1 over 1000. That’s doctor talk. Gene has a great library of old tapes and DVDs and as often as he can, he’ll be giving us reviews and thoughts about wrestling and MMA over the last 25 years. And since I think he received the same best of 2006 compilation, perhaps I can get him to do some dueling reviews with me.

Thanks for reading. Come to the site often. We’re still getting our feet under us, but it’s all starting to come together.