Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Brian Streleckis checks in with his first column on who he is, what to expect from him on the site, and a look at ROH’s biggest year.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank John for inviting me to write on this site, giving me the opportunity to share my opinions on all things wrestling. I’ve known both he and Hansley for a little while, so it’s cool to help them and the others involved with the growth of the Wrestling Chronicle.

I’ll just lay it down like this. I watch WWE, TNA, and ROH regularly. I follow a little bit of UFC, especially The Ultimate Fighter, but I’m very much an MMA novice and would only bother with stuff I can either see on TV (or download). I’ll definitely be talking ROH a lot and possibly touch on the others here and there, but I’m mainly here to put some focus on the other, smaller feds.

For example, John talked about his first experience with Chikara, and you can expect me to talk up this loopy, goofy, but formidable promotion. Southern California’s Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) has been churning out lots of quality wrestling and noteworthy events recently, so expect them to get talked up. Likewise Ian Rotten’s IWA Mid-South, a promotion ten years strong that’s been showcasing bright young indy stars of the past and present. I’ll even throw in some SHIMMER, despite John’s small run-in with one of its female stars. Though I’ll try to stay current, expect me to look into the pasts of these feds as I revisit numerous DVDs of theirs (and others). Don’t be frightened or confused if you spot some random movie/TV reference, as I’m a big fan of those too. That stuff happens.

So, being as big of a ROH fan as John, I’ve been asked to run down what ROH was like in 2006. Through the course of acquiring a wide array of talent across the board, presenting them within some very well done feuds and storylines, and running events in not just one region of the country, but several of them (all of which are available on DVD), people have seen Ring of Honor as a big deal, possibly as big as ECW was. ROH in 2006 didn’t sway those opinions. To paraphrase Jackie Chiles of Seinfeld fame, it was real, and it was spectacular.

Some of the big focus points throughout most of the year were the top champions. Bryan Danielson, after winning the ROH World Title in September ‘05, defended it throughout ‘06 against everyone from AJ Styles to Lance Storm. Major highlights for him included lengthy feuds for the title against Samoa Joe, Nigel McGuinness, and Colt Cabana, which led to three one-hour draws in August. Austin Aries and Roderick Strong, two top wrestlers on their own, held the Tag Team Titles for the first nine months, often filling the main event or semi-main event spot and turning them into World Tag Team Titles by defending them in Japan in Dragon Gate. Both the World Champion and World Tag Team Champions earned their keep by turning in often excellent and compelling matches, especially World Champ Danielson, who really developed his arrogant heel/tweener character of “Best Wrestler in the World” and soldiered on an additional four months after tearing some shoulder tendons in his third one-hour draw, against Cabana, on August 26th at “Gut Check”.

Along with the champions was the undercard of strong talent stepping up their games, some of which made excellent progress. Nigel McGuinness, who held the Pure Title before Danielson beat him August 13th at “Unified” for it and retired it, was the most improved wrestler in my eyes. I didn’t care too much about his cheating ways early in his Pure Title run, but then he began to fuse some hard-hitting offense (including a variety of lariats) with his European style, and following his rivalry with Danielson became a badass babyface I was really digging. Homicide continued his ROH tenure, slowly becoming an Austin-like face on his road to the World Title. Colt Cabana showed a more serious side in a violent feud with Homicide, ending within the first four months of ‘06, and began meshing that a bit with his comedy as he began feuding with another rising star, Jimmy Jacobs. In the wake of his mini-Bruiser Brody act, Jacobs developed a crush on his manager Lacey early in ‘06, morphing into a lovestruck Emo kid cutting twisted and hilarious promos about his one-sided love for her. The music videos he made for her put him over the top. Delirious, another comedy act but relegated to jobbing on Midwest undercards, was given a bigger push and ran with the ball, putting on very good matches (including with Danielson for the World Title!) while still putting his crazy antics to use. Claudio Castagnoli (who’ll be touched on more soon) became a very entertaining heel after being a solid face. Jay and Mark Briscoe returned to ROH, after a year and a half away, better than ever, turning in some of the best tag team matches of the year against Aries & Strong and others. Finally, there was Matt Sydal. Another Midwest undercard guy, he was given a bigger push at the end of ‘05, and throughout ‘06 captivated audiences with his aerial athleticism. After a strong series of matches with Christoper Daniels, the young star teamed with veteran name, resulting in Sydal capturing the ROH World Tag Team Championship he chased throughout most of the year.

Some completely new talent also did their part, filling gaps left by departing stars like AJ Styles, Alex Shelley, and Jay Lethal. PWG standout Davey Richards debuted June 3rd with a bang, defeating a previous top heel of ‘05 in Jimmy Rave at “Destiny” and having several standout matches with the top names. Brent Albright, of OVW fame and WWE non-fame, brought some good size and technical skill to ROH in the fall, becoming a more imposing threat than he would have been on Smackdown. Some other new talent faultered a bit: Jimmy Yang (formerly Akio in WWE) had a solid but unremarkable run in particular in the first five months of ‘06 before heading back to WWE (as Jimmy Wang Yang), but was not without his merits. Dragon Gate’s Shingo, joining the ROH roster for an extended stay, wasn’t very compelling early on, but found his niche in tag team action in December. Then there’s Chris Hero. Fans who thought Danielson’s heavily mat-based style was trying had even more trouble with Hero’s style during most of his matches, but he did a great job getting heel heat. He cut some great promos that boiled the blood of ROH fans. Winning the World Tag Team Titles with Claudio Castagnoli September 16th at “Glory By Honor V: Night 2″ from Aries & Strong shocked and even appalled some fans, but it acheived it’s goal in making the fans rally behind their top challengers, the relatively new team of Daniels & Sydal.

It wouldn’t be right to mention Hero without bringing up the angle that brought him here, the feud between ROH and CZW. It started off relatively simple January 14th at “Hell Freezes Over,” as Hero challenged Danielson for the World Title, but things quickly heated up at subsequent shows as CZW names began to invade ROH shows. PWG and (at the time) CZW regular Super Dragon was a big surprise popping up at a few shows. Famed death match vet Necro Butcher was an even bigger one. Toss in Castagnoli turning on ROH to join old friend Hero and CZW after a long tease, along with the CZW crew getting some victories over ROH regulars, and this became the best invasion-style angle I’ve seen since ECW stars came to Raw in ‘97. Jim Cornette, ROH Commissioner at the time, got to cut some great, venomous promos on the CZW crew, and Joe stepped up as leader of the ROH squad. BJ Whitmer, often a victim of CZW attacks, rose up as a tough bastard in the upper midcard during the feud. Adam Pearce, an old-school style heel, showed good brawling skills and even got cheers. Sonjay Dutt, “Spyder” Nate Webb, and Eddie Kingston made cameos as a part of this. Probably the biggest thing to come out of this was Homicide’s slow babyface turn, as he would come out to defend ROH and score impressive victories over the invaders in singles matches. This feud did some wonders for the Philadelphia market, as it resulted in two highly attended shows in the city that featured CZW and ROH fans (Both very vocal) on opposing sides in the same building. The feud, permeating throughout the first half of the year, ended in spectacular (and bloody) fashion in the Cage of Death at “Death Before Dishonor IV” July 15th, with Homicide once again helping ROH and the stage getting set for the rest of the year.

The ambition of ROH to spread beyond their Pennsylvania homebase and into the major Northeast cities and the Midwest earned the promotion a lot of credibility in the eyes of its fans. It earned even more as it went global with two shows in England (Liverpool and Broxbourne) in August. A new stop across the pond was set. Even bigger was how ROH made a presence in Japan. Following appearances by NOAH’s Kenta Kobashi and Dragon Gate’s CIMA in ‘05, ROH began forming a strong bond with both Japanese companies, earning strong publicity with each other across the Pacific and back. NOAH’s junior-heavyweight sensation KENTA became a semi-regular, having fantastic matches with the likes of Danielson and the Briscoes. Naomichi Marufuji tagged along with him on some dates, even making the first defense of his newly-won GHC Heavyweight Title in the company. CIMA and other Dragon Gate stars stole ROH’s WrestleMania 22 weekend shows with some amazing tag matches. Just amazing matches all around by the talent of both companies. In exchange for that, ROH stars went over Japan (Danielson and McGuinness to NOAH; Aries, Strong, Sydal, Jack Evans, and even Jimmy Rave to Dragon Gate) and made great impressions (Evans and Sydal are basically Dragon Gate regulars now with their past extended stays. These strong relationships led to some co-promoted shows in Japan in July of this year. They have also shaken things up in the States, beginning in February at a Philadelphia show I attended in person where young NOAH bull Morishima won the ROH World Title in shocking fashion. Toss in Shingo and fellow Dragon Gate wrestler Naruki Doi scoring an even more surprising World Tag Title victory earlier this month in Liverpool, and the ROH-Japan relationship has really set a stage for what might be an exciting 2007.