ROH on HDNet – Episode 040 – 28th December 2009

Much as the WWE does during the holiday season, ROH takes a week off this week and will instead run a ‘Best Of ROH on HDNet 2009’ episode. I’m curious to see what ROH and HDNet believe to be their top moments on their first year of national television – and I’m also going to use this review to contribute my own ‘Best Of ROH 2009’ Top 10. Hosts are Mike Hogewood and Dave Prazak

The show opens with a look back at the tag team division, with promo highlights from all the key players – the Briscoes, Steen-erico, the Bucks, DCFC and of course, the American Wolves. That’s the lead in to highlights of the incredible Steen-erico vs Wolves Tables Are Legal Match – where we saw the American Wolves win the ROH Tag Titles and give us our first title change on HDNet. There are also clips from the Tag Team Honor Rumble and the Wolves/Bucks Tag Title Match. These highlight packages make ROH look like the most frenetic, all-action wrestling promotion the world has ever seen.

Back in the studio Hog and DP announce that the Briscoes defeated the American Wolves at Final Battle 2009 and will enter the new year as new Tag Champions.

After commercials we have a look at the World Title situation. That includes extensive highlights of the sensational Episode 012 World Title Four Corner Survival, and the title change at Manhattan Mayhem 3.

The Danielson vs Black series is singled out for special praise (rightfully so), with highlights of the third and final match in their HDNet trilogy shown next. If you’ve not seen it, you really need to.

Having focused on that trilogy, we have a look at the two major departures from ROH this year – Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness. That includes clips of Danielson’s farewell speech which was cut from the Danielson/Strong episode.

Next week is the first 2010 episode of ROH on HDNet – with a scheduled Pick 6 Series main event of Davey Richards vs Roderick Strong. End show…

Tape Rating – N/A – Since this isn’t a clip show I can’t really rate it. I will give the producers credit because the match highlights were edited extremely well. If you were tuning into ROH on HDNet for the first time tonight I can imagine your mind was totally blown by the frenzy of jaw-dropping spots you saw. I don’t think they missed out anything major in terms of what they considered the ‘best’ moments either. I’d like to have seen more of a focus on Austin Aries, purely because he’s coming to the end of his reign now, and as the TV show has allowed him to be one of the most character-driven, archetypal ‘sports-entertainment’-style ROH Champions we’ve seen, it would have been good to cut some of the elongated highlight packages and get more of him in…but that’s just personal preference.
 
And whilst I’m here…I may as well do my Best Of 2009…

Top 10 2009 ROH Matches
10) American Wolves vs Kevin Steen/El Generico (****1/2 – Glory By Honor 8)
9) Kenny Omega vs Davey Richards (****1/2 – Clash Of The Contenders)
8) KENTA vs Davey Richards (****1/2 – Supercard Of Honor 4)
7) Jerry Lynn vs Bryan Danielson vs Tyler Black vs Austin Aries (****1/2 – ROH on HDNet 12)
6) Austin Aries vs Kenny Omega (****1/2 – The Omega Effect)
5) Nigel McGuinness vs KENTA (****1/2 – 7th Anniversary Show)
4) Austin Aries vs Davey Richards (****1/2 – Aries vs Richards)
3) American Wolves vs Bryan Danielson/Tyler Black (****1/2 – Tag Title Classic)
2) Davey Richards vs Bryan Danielson (****1/2 – Final Countdown Tour: Boston)
1) Tyler Black vs Bryan Danielson (****1/2 – ROH on HDNet 18)

So there you have it…that was Ring Of Honor in 2009. Considered by many to be the worst ROH year thus far, and certainly the worst since ROH evolved from indy dream match promotion to become the company we now recognise. In fairness, I actually think in many ways 2009 gets a bum deal. As you can see from the above list, in terms of GREAT matches, it was as strong as any other. And the tail end of the year was really good, with great DVD’s, incredible matches and the HDNet show finally starting to get into a rhythm.

However, it doesn’t change the fact that, particularly in the first half of the year, following ROH was really tough. Of course there were still great matches, but the quality of shows took a nose dive. Adam Pearce, having closed off Gabe’s storyline arches, was free to steer the ship in whatever direction he chose, and the new skipper didn’t get off to the best start. The year began with the horrifically booked Nigel/Tyler Injustice 2 incident. He pushed Black’s main event potential off a cliff, failed to put the belt on him and got forced into a corner and had to put the belt on Jerry Lynn. And worst of all, he began the year by booking some of the most non-descript shows ROH has ever produced. Some of the main events were good, but sitting through the cut and paste undercards, packed with clichéd run ins and stunted 10 minute odes to playing it safe, he ignored the principles that ROH was founded upon and gave us a stream of some of the worst shows we’ve ever seen. Eliminating The Competition has no place in the ROH back catalogue and is comfortably one of the poorest ROH shows to date. Caged Collision is the worst of the ROH ppv’s from that initial deal. The Motor City Madness 2009-Steel City Clash and Homecoming 2-Validation streaks of shows are some of the most forgettable shows we’ve seen. Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness left, DGUSA turned up and put on three of the best shows anywhere in independent wrestling in 2009 and ROH’s TV show debuted in entirely unremarkable fashion and spent much of the year rebounding from great to bad in a haze of inconsistency as Pearce and Silkin struggled to marry up the conflicting TV taping/DVD show continuity problems.

But there were positives. The breakout success of the American Wolves and their run with the ROH Tag Titles carried the promotion for most of the year. Davey Richards, always a talented and dependable midcard act, was given an increasingly visible role and delivered a string of amazing matches. As Tyler Black’s main event career floundered, the Briscoes sat out injured, Nigel McGuinness’ body fell apart and Jerry Lynn floundered as ROH Champion, the Wolves/Steen-erico feud became the focal point of the company…then when Eddie Edwards succumbed to injury Davey happily stepped into the void left by Bryan Danielson and started putting out awesome singles matches too. Elsewhere, Austin Aries had been one of the most entertaining parts of an ROH show since he brought his new gimmick in, and he stepped back into the World Title picture, becoming ROH’s franchise player and holding things together as show qualities nose-dived and talents started leaving.

And after a patchy first half of the year, Death Before Dishonor weekend marked a turning point, with the second half of the ’09 season delivering an amazing series of shows. The Final Countdown Tour was the best series of events we saw all year. Glory By Honor 8 and Final Battle 2009, although they had flaws, saw ROH recapture it’s ability to produce legitimate super cards. Alongside Davey Richards, the likes of Kenny Omega, Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli showed promising signs that they might fill the void left by the departing talents of Dragon and Nigel. And on a business level, even if the production values took a dip, bringing the DVD business in-house is a massively positive step.

So what of my Top 10 for the year? I’m quite sure it will cause some controversy…and I KNOW I’m going to get emails about putting Dragon/Tyler in the top spot. But I stand by it – I love that match. In fairness, there were as many as five matches I loved as much and could easily have put in the top spot. In the end I went for that Tyler/Danielson match as I just felt like it was such a strong piece of story-telling…and provided the best example of the ROH style, but in a way AMENDED to cater for the confines of putting ROH into a TV show rather than the no time-limits/no constraints of the DVD tapings. The way they brought together aspects of their HDNet trilogy, their epic 2008 DVD show trilogy, and the emotional conclusion of Tyler Black FINALLY winning the big one made it a standout 2009 match for me.

But truthfully, anything in the Top 5 could trade places with it for the top spot. Davey/Danielson during the Final Countdown Tour gets a bit of a mixed response. Some love it, some consider it a little forced and over-rated. For my money it did a great job putting on an AWESOME match, and spotlighting Davey Richards as the second coming of the ‘Best In The World’. The Tag Title Classic is just that – a 45 minute classic that positions ROH’s tag team division above anything else any of the other major promotions can boast. Aries vs Richards remains one of the most important matches of the entire year – as the two men put on an epic World Title bout that proved there was plenty of life in Ring Of Honor even after their top stars left, whilst Nigel/KENTA is a total work of art made all the more incredible by the fact that McGuinness had TWO injured arms.

So what for 2010? ROH on HDNet will remain the focus of the promotion, whilst the opening of the iPPV revenue stream means Adam Pearce and Jim Cornette need to work out a way to tailor the HDNet tapings into an entertaining free TV show which in turn serves as a promotional vehicle for ROH’s internet pay-per-view venture. They need to find a way to rebuild Tyler Black. He ended 2008 absolutely red-hot, but ended 2009 in a bloated 60 minute draw which saw him (and his opponent) boo'd out of the Manhattan Center. Just looking at his presence in all of my Top 3 Matches for 2009, the loss of Bryan Danielson will continue to be felt. But there is talent to fill the void left by him. Of course there are the American Wolves, but there’s also the Briscoes, back on top of the tag division and in a position to help carry the promotion as the main event attractions they were in 2007. The reunited Kings Of Wrestling present a threat to the upper echelons of both the tag and singles divisions. We’re promised new markets, fewer DVD shows so ROH can concentrate on quality over quantity…in short, the future looks bright. Although not without potential problems…

Gabe’s promotions (Dragon Gate USA and Evolve) are positioning themselves as direct competition to Ring Of Honor’s position on the independent landscape. Hell, they’re even running head to head with ROH on Wrestlemania weekend in Phoenix, trying a number of decidedly nefarious tactics to tap into ROH’s fanbase. They’re also in a position to steal ROH’s most consistent talent with Davey Richards removed from the Tag Title picture at the end of 2009 as Gabe makes him the centrepiece of his rival promotions. DVD production HAS to improve. Every promotion they’re in competition with has the edge on them right now. Of course, the production values for the big two are better, but DGUSA and Evolve have them beaten in that respect too. Meanwhile other groups are able to get their DVD shows out in a fraction of the time ROH can, meaning that ROH are expecting their fans to accept a lower quality of DVD product and potentially wait longer for it. The landscape of ROH, and the changing independent environment it sits in is changing. Competition is as fierce as ever, and for all the improvements they made in the second half of 2009, they still need to step their game up if they want to remain the independent wrestling powerhouse they’ve marketed themselves as for years.
 

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