- Here is the lineup for October 9th in St. Louis:
* Davey Richards vs. Kenny Omega
* Tyler Black vs. Chris Hero
* Kevin Steen vs. Roderick Strong
* The Young Bucks vs. Kenny King & Rhett Titus
* The House of Truth vs. The Briscoes
* SHIMMER champ MsChif vs. Nicole Matthews
* Also Appearing: ROH champion Austin Aries, Petey Williams, Ace Steel, Colt Cabana, "Skullkrusher" Rasche Brown, Silas Young, and Claudio Castagnoli

Ring of Honor is in a real transitional period with the loss of Danielson and Nigel, and it seems that they’re doing everything in their power to work through it with flying colors by putting together cards that will highlight the future of the company. Kenny Omega and Davey Richards headlining is something I didn’t think I’d be seeing in the near future, and it tells me how much these two have risen in the ranks. Black vs. Hero is a rematch of their show stealer at The Homecoming II from several months ago. I loved that match, so I doubt I’ll feel differently here. Well, I might if Black isn’t 100%. Kevin Steen vs. Roderick Strong is a very interesting match, and reminds me of the old days in ROH when men would just compete with nothing but pride and a higher spot on the ROH title ladder was at stake. Who knows, I’ve been talking about Aries feuding with Omega, Williams, and possibly Cabana, and haven’t picked up on Strong possibly shooting toward another title shot as well. As I said after the GBH results, I couldn’t be more excited about the tag team division in ROH with so many fresh teams ready to prove themselves, complemented by incredible veteran tag teams. 10/9 is shaping up to be a wonderful show.

If there’s one thing I’ll give WWE, it’s they’ll push the winners of their tournaments (King of the Ring) to the moon, even it we like it or not (King Mabel, I’m looking at you). ROH…eh, not so much. Survival of the Fittest in concept is wonderful. Even in execution, it’s pretty good. But the follow up has left a lot to be desired. Lets look at the past winners to prove my point.

Bryan Danielson won the original incarnation of the tournament. Danielson, who was pretty much already at a very good spot of the card, didn’t need the win half as much as the man it came down to-Austin Aries. But at least Aries got a great rub off of going match for match with Danielson, getting him ready for his first ROH World title reign. Danielson? He got a title match here and there, but wasn’t necessarily focused on just Ring of Honor at the time, splitting his time between the company and his overseas voyages. It would take over a year from his win that Danielson would become the top dog in ROH.

2005 saw Roderick Strong win. Strong was having a breakout year to say the least. He had hung with guys like CM Punk, Homicide, and Samoa Joe. He even beat Matt Hardy in Hardy’s finale ROH appearance. It seemed everything was in order for him to finally breakthrough. Then he faced Bryan Danielson for the World title after his SOTF win, and only could take him to the limit. Like Tyler Black years later, Strong became ROH’s second World title choke artist (Christopher Daniels can claim the prize of first). Do you know how many World title matches Strong has lost in ROH? A record making eleven title losses for the 2005 SOTF. Not even Ken Shamrock did that badly. Strong seemed to be one step away from becoming one of ROH’s newest top stars after SOTF 2005. Yes, Strong can be injected into a World title match on any given notice, but no one believes he’ll ever win, which is completely opposite of what many thought after SOTF 2005.

2006’s winner was Delirious. Delirious was on the opposite end of the spectrum Roderick suffered from when winning a year earlier. Roderick received title shots after he won SOTF. Delirious had already been involved in a mini-feud with Danielson over the title that got the fans to really respond to the masked man. Then he won SOTF, got a pin on Danielson in an eight-man tag match, and then…nothing. Well, actually Delirious’ done a lot, but with the promise of ROH mega-stardom a SOTF win seemingly gives off, it’s pretty disappointing for Delirious to be in the position he’s in right now. Hey, at least we still love him. BWAA, BWWAAA, BWWWWAAAA!

Then there’s the last Survival of the Fittest winner, 2007’s Chris Hero. Like Delirious, it seemed Hero had so much promise when he won nearly two years ago. For some reason in my mind, I thought Hero winning would propel him to the very top of the card. I just assumed, since SOTF is so lauded and Hero won it, he’d be the ROH World champion before the anniversary of his SOTF win. By the time the aforementioned anniversary came, Hero was trying his best to make people believe in his new “That Young KO Kid” gimmick. Yeah, he did battle Nigel over the ROH title a couple of times. Even can make a claim that he’s an uncrowned champion after a controversial ending in his title match right after SOTF. But in the end, like his predecessors, Hero couldn’t use his SOTF to propel him to the position I always thought the winner would end up in. You know what, thinking about it; WWE doesn’t have the best track record either. For every Steve Austin, there’s a Billy Gunn. For every Kurt Angle, there’s a King Mabel. But that’s the thing. WWE did get a Steve Austin, Triple H, Kurt Angle, Edge, and Brock Lesnar out of their KORs. The weird thing is the closes ROH has gotten to making a star out of a winner is Bryan Danielson, who pretty much pulled a Bret Hart by legitimatising the tournament by winning the first one. I know WWE historians will come out and say that the 1993 KOR wasn’t the first in history, but it was the first for that generation, so EWWWW!

Looking at the names, ROH has a great chance to finally capitalize on the SOTF promise of glory. They could make Strong the first two-time winner and rededicate making him the star we thought he’d be after his 2005 win. Or they could finally give Black a big win to get him back on track to win the ROH World title. If the winner gets a World title shot at, say Final Battle, then the build for Black’s eventual title match-maybe even win-would get the heat back he lost after choking so many times. Or it could become Kenny Omega’s coming out weekend. Like Black, Omega getting a guaranteed title shot at the final show of the year could do exactly what I asked for weeks ago-shake up the World title picture. Ring of Honor has a great chance at helping the transition from the Nigel/Bryan years by making the fans pay attention to a rising star ready to put his name right there with the ROH greats.

ROH set an attendance record in Boston, drawing a reported 900 fans.

Now that’s what I’m talking about. I’ve been saying for weeks that ROH attendance woes haven’t been this inconsistent since the days of its birth. This turnout gives me hope that the low numbers in the Midwest and Philly is just an isolated incident due to personal finances and burnout. Hopefully the trend will continue throughout the year and bring up the floundering finances of the attendance area of ROH.

Tickets for the December 19th Final Battle 2009 event are doing well. ROH sold out the Manhattan Center last weekend. Some fans that had bought ringside tickets were almost turned away at the last event, but were allowed in.

I’m glad to hear that the once burned out NYC audience is excited about seeing the product again. I still don’t know if Ring of Honor officials gave up on the Hammerstein because of attendance issues or the fact that the Ballroom’s been upping prices recently for people wanting to use the venue. But that’s a moot point. Right now, the Manhattan Center is the place to be again. I just hope they don’t oversell like they did last weekend. Reports say people at least two hundred people-who had bought tickets, mind you-were turned away. ROH has to be careful about overselling shows. Many a musician can attest to that.

Glad to hear Homicide decided to greet his old crew with an appearance. Now don’t think this is a sign that Homicide’s coming back to ROH. He’s done this a couple of times in the past during NYC shows. Julius, too. Speaking of Smokes, I always wondered what happened to him. Rumors were they had filmed a series of vignettes with him, possibly introducing a new client. But nothing came of it, and now…well, I don’t know. I know Julius was an, how can I say this…acquired taste for most. But I loved the guy. BLEEEEDAT!

I’ve always wondered why Hero hasn’t been looked at by WWE sooner. I will say his body isn’t the most physically imposing or cut, and he’d probably look worse in WWE standing beside a Shelton Benjamin or Masterpiece. But WWE is in a new stage of its life, similar to the post steroid/Hulk Hogan years of the mid-90s, a.k.a. The New Generation years. Hero has become an all-round better wrestler since adopting the “KO Kid” gimmick, and I’d love to see him make it to the big time. But I don’t know how well his style would work in WWE when it’d be hard to believe he could knock out Mark Henry or Kane with one of those unprotected elbows (this is not MMA, you know). He might have to go back to wacky Hero if WWE does make him a real offer just because I doubt they’d let him put so much time in a loaded elbow pad gimmick. But that would be cool. WWE hasn’t had a loaded elbow, cast, or something similar in years. As good as it would be for Hero to make it up North, there’s so much stuff I want to see him do in ROH, specifically win the ROH World title (two-time, back-to-back SOTF winner, anyone).

I held off talking about Mr. James E. Cornette to give him his own spot for my opinions. I’ll put this simple-I’m probably just as excited as the people working with him in ROH. Cornette has been one of my favorites for years for his no-nonsense nature and understanding of more realistic approaches to wrestling without going into work-shoot territory. Cornette attempts not to insult the fans’ intelligence, and I’ve always respected that about his style. Hopefully his on air character will refrain from long-winded promos. I must say that as much as I like Jimmy, his promos can become the low point of shows if they go on too long. Let Cornette help work his magic, put a kill switch on the microphone when he comes to talk, and I think this will be a great relationship.

Funny thing, I was watching ECW Anarchy Rulz a couple of nights ago, and thought in amazement about how Corino became such a big star across the Pacific when he was nothing but a scrawny looking wimp talking for Rhino in ECW. That was before his breakthrough by bleeding buckets every night. Like Cornette, I like Corino. He has a great mind, and is very cool in person. So is CW Anderson, but that’s another story for another time. I don’t know about him wrestling, as his last couple of ROH appearances weren’t we’d call “thrilling”. But from a booking perspective, it’s very few that have an appreciation and love for wrestling like Corino, and that’s always a plus.

Been a while since ROH has put out a two DVD set for just one event. I hope all the final festivities will be showing in its entirety, similar to Homicide’s ROH World title win back at Final Battle 2006, which also happened in the Manhattan Center. Definitely will be a worthy purchase from the sounds of it.

Okay, lets see what happened from a right and wrong perspective on this week’s edition of ROH on HDNet.

Right: Tyler Black & Jerry Lynn vs. Kenny King & Rhett Titus: ROH decided to sandwich this week’s episode with two main event quality matches (for HDNet, mind you). This being the top half. I must say that even though Titus and King have been associated with Aries, he hasn’t necessarily given them the rub that everyone expected. Instead, King and Titus have just taken their spot and made themselves a known force in the tag team ranks. They looked completely believable and dominating when taking down the former ROH World champion and perennial contender to the same title. Even though King and Titus lost, they gave Lynn and Black a hard run for their money, and that feeling that if there’s a rematch, we might see a different outcome. Arguably the match of the night. Sara Del Rey vs. Nikki Roxx: Roxx was making her HDNet debut here, and she put on an impressive showing against ROH’s female killer. They had a nice back and forth encounter full of hard strikes and quick moves that made the rest of the night look like it was going in slow motion. Even though Roxx was impressive, she wasn’t victorious, getting pinned after the Royal Butterfly. From a overall perspective, I don’t know if this will matter in the future, and I wish it would’ve had a little bit more time. But for now, this was one of the better women’s matches on HDNet thus far. He’s Got It Going On: Before the main event, a video package was shown to highlight the man who’s been on nothing short of a great winning streak on HDNet, Colt Cabana. His promo was lighthearted, but didn’t make him look like a goof. Actually, it made his comedy look more effective because it’s credited to helping him become a possible contender to the ROH World title. Putting spotlight on various wrestlers-especially ones you have winning all the time-is just smart, and will get the viewers-and hopefully future attendees-into that person much more. Steel Cage Match: Brent Albright and Claudio Castagnoli have been engaged in a back and forth feud for the majority of the year. This, seemingly, was to end it all. When the bell sounded for the first time, you could feel the two distinct personalities come out. Albright wanted to hurt Claudio, while Castagnoli just wanted to escape and prove he’s the real winner in this feud. The teasing of both men hitting the steel was used in great nature, and it added a lot of drama when Albright finally collided with the steel, bloodying his forehead. As I said, Albright wanted to hurt Claudio, using that motive to muster up a fight and prevent Claudio from escaping. One of those preventions was a superplex from the outside of the cage, back in. Both men bled, both men took some serious bumps, but in the end, it was Brent who won after stomping a chair across Claudio’s head, paying homage to Claudio’s chair stomp on Brent from over a month ago. For the first Cage match on HDNet, this was absolutely a memorable one. Very old school in nature, but very dramatic in execution. If this is the way they wanted to end Albright and Castagnoli’s feud, I say kudos. Wrong:Sonjay Dutt vs. Alex Payne: I hate to be a little bias here, but I like Sonjay. I like Sonjay enough to say that there is no reason that in a match against “Sugarfoot” should he look like the one who got a fluke victory. Okay, even if I didn’t like Dutt, why have Payne get so much offense in? I doubt Payne is moving up the ladder anytime soon. It just seemed to me that whoever plotted out this one knew how much Philly hates Payne, and wanted to use that to add heat to the match. Good theory. But isn’t Dutt supposed to be a heel, especially while setting up for his feud against uber-babyface Delirious. No offence to the action in the ring, but the ideas surrounding it just didn’t make any sense to me.Delirious’ Training: While it was lighthearted and meant no harm, I just didn’t see the point. I understand that Delirious isn’t the most serious character, but seeing him being tossed around like a rag doll wasn’t funny. If they follow up with Delirious showing signs of great progress, then I’ll be willing to say that it had a point. But right now, I just don’t like it. Nigel McGuinness Denounces The Fans: Again? Like Dutt, I’m a fan of Nigel’s. I’m going to hate to see him go, but his last few months in ROH have just been off from a story perspective. First he returns as this devil’s advocate type of character, taunting Tyler Black. So I would assume that already makes him a heel. Then they pull a 180, and try to make him sympathetic figure before turning him against the fans again in about two weeks. And when did Nigel start caring what the fans wanted again? I thought he all but denounced us years ago. Nigel’s microphone work has been on point, but his target changing constantly just dilutes the effects. Overall: As I said at the top of this section, the show was sandwiched by two main event quality matches. I might go as far as to say that the first might have been the match of the night. Titus & King gave an incredible fight to two men who, this time last year, would’ve wiped the floor with them in five minutes flat. I don’t know where this whole teaming of Black & Lynn is going, but I know that Titus and King have a great chance of becoming one of the top teams in ROH. The main event was good. Not a slight on Albright or Claudio, but the match worked here isn’t for everyone. It was old school, and some wouldn’t appreciate it outside of the big bumps. I loved it and thought the drama built from previous matches made this one their best outings to date. If this is the finale to their feud, they went out with a bang. Roxx vs. Del Rey was one of the better women’s matches in HDNet history, but the lack of time and focus makes me wonder if the women are just there to freshen things up instead of being a real part of the show. And don’t get me started on Dutt and Payne. All in all, the middle portion of the show was like bologna-it’s good for a sandwich, but you wouldn’t want to see it on one everyday. This time, the bread tasted better than the meat. Wow, I think I just made myself hungry.

Okay, lets call it a week. Make sure you check out The ROHbot Report Facebook group ( http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=135858249616 ). Some exclusive news will be coming through there first, and the only way you’ll know about it is by joining. Okay, you can see it without joining, but why not join why you’re there? I’m like Al Sharpton-if I look good; all ROHbots look good in my mind. Sorry Al, please don’t sue.

Till Then.