Shoot interviews are a hard sell for me. I think the reason my eyes tend to glaze over when I hear shoot interview is that most wrestlers are not necessarily interesting enough to carry off talking for an entire hour or longer. Yet, at the same time, Legends of Wrestling, which consists of Gene Okerlund leading four legends like Dusty Rhodes, Michael Hayes, Pat Patterson and Mick Foley talking about the business is one of the greatest television shows I have ever watched. I realize that Legends of Wrestling is superior to the shoot interview in that the men sitting on the panel are both some of the most knowledgeable and best talkers in the history of the industry and they get to play off one another.
However, at the ROH show last week, I persuaded myself to purchase Kevin Steen: Hell Rising. This particular shoot interview is produced by ROH and is best known for being pulled off the market, as Kevin Steen tries not to, but absolutely destroys Jim Cornette, which likely led to those same Louisville lawyers portrayed on the DVD to ask for an injunction on selling the product.
As the price skyrocketed, I assumed I would never break down and purchase it, which is kind of the same way I feel about Playboy Gary Hart: My Life in Wrestling. Both Steen and Hart are two of my favorite talkers in wrestling history and while the Kevin Steen shoot was reasonably priced, I just couldn't spend $125 on a book. But $20 at a ROH show is a much easier price to pay. Plus, it contains 12 Kevin Steen matches, 11 of which I've never seen before.
Somewhere around Kevin Steen being removed ROH, I lost interest in the product. I was busier with life and Kevin Steen is one of the biggest draws for me in wrestling. Heck, I own at least three Kevin Steen T-Shirts, including one in the wrong size, because that's what Kevin had with him that day and I wanted to show my appreciation for his hard work and willingness to drive to New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy, to work Sami Callihan in a building entirely lit by generators. Even with Kevin back, ROH is still a hard sell for me, because it isn't the local product I learned to love, but something different.
Watching Hell Rising made me think of all of these things. It also made me think about Kevin Steen. It was almost painful to watch him talk about not being involved in Ring of Honor. You could hear the hurt in his voice and the sadness in his face. His comments to Jim Cornette, which to his credit, he did continually try to temper with praise about what Cornette could bring to a promotion, seemed to have been born from a place of hurt, rather than anger.
There were large sections of soul searching, where he seemed to be asking why Cornette couldn't appreciate him or his talents, which I always thought was ridiculous, as a man who thought the Dirty White Boy could draw money would certainly see that Steen had the talent to main event anything he was involved with. But like all of us, Cornette had his favorites and they were more like Richards, Strong and Hero, who aside from Hero being the new king of skinnyfat, look nothing like Kevin Steen.
What I enjoyed most about the interview was Steen's passion. He makes you believe he is always speaking from his heart and that he cares about the industry. Watching someone live their dream and tell us that story is almost always going to be great. Steen's matches are cut from the same cloth. He leaves everything in the ring and tells his stories from the heart, which gives him a psychology that is different from most wrestlers and makes him a credible storyteller.
With the rumors that Steen is getting a WWE tryout becoming live today, it makes me wonder whether he will make it. He has the talent to work the microphone with any crowd and tremendous charisma. But I worry his bullying style of offense might not work in the WWE. I mean, the Great Khali is not taking a sleeper suplex, mostly because I have grave doubts about his ability to jump, but I want to see him get the chance. I mean, watching Kevin Steen perform his craft in front of small crowds, living by his own rules, wrestling matches the way he wants to are great for a fan like myself, but unselfishly, I want to see someone who has entertained me for the last seven years, nearly decapitated me with a ladder in Philadelphia (true story, Steen was running out for his match with Jay Briscoe at Death Before Dishonor V Night 2, nearly hit flush in the head with a ladder, because I was sitting on the entrance ramp. Not his fault, but mine.), really get his shot to live his dream and be forever captured on the WWE Network, where I don't always have to dig out a DVD to watch one of the best workers in the business today.
So, if you like shoot interviews or Kevin Steen, you should buy this set before it goes away again. If not, it is really your loss.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Accumulation
Busying yourself with projects is never easy. Trying to fill these countable hours with things to do is harder than I remember. I read a few books, but find my mind is often distracted after an hour or so. I still have a fairly large back catalog of DVDs to watch, but I seldom find one that I actually want to watch. The same goes for my video games. Even the books, I'm fairly certain I could find a minimum of 100 books in my one bedroom apartment which I've either never started or started and cast aside. I never really developed any other hobbies as it were. There isn't something that I do with people on a regular basis which gives my life meaning and interaction. Beyond this, if I own one CD, I own 600, since in my youth that was my collection du jour. I even collected baseball cards for a while, as my blog roll will attest.
Looking around my apartment, surrounded by my choices, my decisions, my accumulation, it makes me wonder if I lived my life right. Were I a different person, I would have cultivated different interest, moved away from accumulating objects and instead accumulated memories and friendships. I think knowing my life is in such a different phase than everyone else I know makes it harder. Most people I know are locked into security, stability and family, while I drift toward freedom, which is a fairly antithetical way to move freedom as a core value in your life, but I'm finding it is possible.
And there are good days, but even those are empty and somewhat hollow. Being ill at ease with new people and groups of strangers, I can go to an event, sit or stand amidst a sea of humanity I have something in common with, but no connection, enjoy the event and go home. There is a part of me which is alright with this, but the remainder of me wonders if I have set myself up to spend the rest of my days, surrounded only by my accumulated possessions and just building a set of memories, alone, apart from everyone else.
For a long period of my life, I would have assumed it would all shake out that way, but then life changed and I moved in a different direction. But the price of being the caged bird was one I could no longer bear or was able to pay, so I sit here, in my apartment surrounded by my choices, which ended up being an accumulation of items which seldom, if ever, bring me the happiness I always thought they would.
Looking around my apartment, surrounded by my choices, my decisions, my accumulation, it makes me wonder if I lived my life right. Were I a different person, I would have cultivated different interest, moved away from accumulating objects and instead accumulated memories and friendships. I think knowing my life is in such a different phase than everyone else I know makes it harder. Most people I know are locked into security, stability and family, while I drift toward freedom, which is a fairly antithetical way to move freedom as a core value in your life, but I'm finding it is possible.
And there are good days, but even those are empty and somewhat hollow. Being ill at ease with new people and groups of strangers, I can go to an event, sit or stand amidst a sea of humanity I have something in common with, but no connection, enjoy the event and go home. There is a part of me which is alright with this, but the remainder of me wonders if I have set myself up to spend the rest of my days, surrounded only by my accumulated possessions and just building a set of memories, alone, apart from everyone else.
For a long period of my life, I would have assumed it would all shake out that way, but then life changed and I moved in a different direction. But the price of being the caged bird was one I could no longer bear or was able to pay, so I sit here, in my apartment surrounded by my choices, which ended up being an accumulation of items which seldom, if ever, bring me the happiness I always thought they would.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
True Detective
I was very keen on watching True Detective when it was first announced. However, knowing it was on demand, I made a slow start, taking a couple of times to watch the first episode, then taking a detour to read about half of the King in Yellow, before finally settling down the last day or two in order to catch up.
Finishing up the six episodes, I was not surprised by how great Woody Harrelson was in the show. In fact, it was to be expected, since Woody Harrelson is a tremendous actor. However, I was completely surprised by how much Matthew McConaughey. I mean he is Wooderson from Dazed and Confused, which is a great role in a great movie, but I've always associated him with fluff movies and without going to IMDB, I don't think I could name another movie he was in other than Magic Mike. But here he is, stealing scenes, especially dark scenes at that and really is the center of a truly great show.
It seems I missed the boat on realizing he could act, but life has often taught me that I will miss the boat on these things, since I tend to be not hooked into popular culture. But I remain surprised, pleasantly so and hate to say cannot wait to see how this whole series ends.
Finishing up the six episodes, I was not surprised by how great Woody Harrelson was in the show. In fact, it was to be expected, since Woody Harrelson is a tremendous actor. However, I was completely surprised by how much Matthew McConaughey. I mean he is Wooderson from Dazed and Confused, which is a great role in a great movie, but I've always associated him with fluff movies and without going to IMDB, I don't think I could name another movie he was in other than Magic Mike. But here he is, stealing scenes, especially dark scenes at that and really is the center of a truly great show.
It seems I missed the boat on realizing he could act, but life has often taught me that I will miss the boat on these things, since I tend to be not hooked into popular culture. But I remain surprised, pleasantly so and hate to say cannot wait to see how this whole series ends.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Christmas Morning Or the WWE Network Release
Since I knew the date, I anxiously awaited the release of the WWE Network for us regular consumers. Providing me with over 1,000 hours of wrestling content to start and with the knowledge of the libraries they have purchased over the years, the WWE Network is the best possible on demand network for a wrestling junkie. Plus, you get every pay per view going forward, which I would seldom order for $60, but would definitely pay $10 per month if I was able to watch Chi-Town Rumble '89 or a random episode of World Class Championship Wrestling from 1983, I can. Heck, I used to pay that for 40 random hours of WWE content on WWE Classics on Demand.
So, I woke up this morning and managed to just beat the rush at 9 AM and sign up ahead of most people. Once logged in, I managed to watch half an episode WCCW this morning, which included the Fabulous Freebirds and Bugsy McGraw, but sadly, I've yet to finish after 10 hours, since it basically played the Bugsy McGraw match in stop motion, due to the lag. I also gave the Bunkhouse Brawl from 1988 a shot this afternoon, but received the stop-start nature of the programming.
With the on-demand not working well, I watched the live network programming stream, which worked very well, with only some small hitches where the program would replay the last three seconds again on occasion. I was able to watch the best of NXT, including the Cesaro/Zayn match for a second time and Wrestlemania 1, which was not as good as you remember it. I also saw an awesome promo from 1990 involving Playboy Buddy Rose, a once fit, but eventually fat wrestler, pouring Blow-Away fat melting powder on himself, going from 270 pounds to 217 pounds while just pouring this powder on himself and having a fan blow it away.
The impressive strength of the network, aside from the breadth of content is the picture quality. I suspect some of the problem with the network today was streaming so much hi-definition content. Even older matches looked sharp, probably sharper than they did 30 years ago when they were originally shown, since the digitization was excellent on the content I was able to watch. Considering it is the first day of the first internet and on-demand network, this really has to be considered a success, even though I wasn't able to watch all of the 1989 WCW pay-per-views like I wanted to all day, but life is what it is and accepting realistic parameters is important.
So, I woke up this morning and managed to just beat the rush at 9 AM and sign up ahead of most people. Once logged in, I managed to watch half an episode WCCW this morning, which included the Fabulous Freebirds and Bugsy McGraw, but sadly, I've yet to finish after 10 hours, since it basically played the Bugsy McGraw match in stop motion, due to the lag. I also gave the Bunkhouse Brawl from 1988 a shot this afternoon, but received the stop-start nature of the programming.
With the on-demand not working well, I watched the live network programming stream, which worked very well, with only some small hitches where the program would replay the last three seconds again on occasion. I was able to watch the best of NXT, including the Cesaro/Zayn match for a second time and Wrestlemania 1, which was not as good as you remember it. I also saw an awesome promo from 1990 involving Playboy Buddy Rose, a once fit, but eventually fat wrestler, pouring Blow-Away fat melting powder on himself, going from 270 pounds to 217 pounds while just pouring this powder on himself and having a fan blow it away.
The impressive strength of the network, aside from the breadth of content is the picture quality. I suspect some of the problem with the network today was streaming so much hi-definition content. Even older matches looked sharp, probably sharper than they did 30 years ago when they were originally shown, since the digitization was excellent on the content I was able to watch. Considering it is the first day of the first internet and on-demand network, this really has to be considered a success, even though I wasn't able to watch all of the 1989 WCW pay-per-views like I wanted to all day, but life is what it is and accepting realistic parameters is important.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
All Ages: The Toasters at 35
Last night, I saw the Toasters live in concert for the first time since the weekend before 9/11, when they played the Wetlands with the Scofflaws. For someone who enjoys ska as much as I do and thinks the Toasters are a better live than studio band, it is quite surprising that I hadn't seen them in nearly 12 and a half years.
Fortunately, the Toasters still tour and last night performed at the Stanhope House with a bunch of local ska bands. In my youth, I would show up to every show when the music started, even if I had no desire to see all of the bands. It was the principle of getting my money's worth. Fortunately, as I've aged, I learned that time is more valuable than money and left at 7 PM for a 7 PM start time, knowing I had an hour drive ahead of me. Of course, the Stanhope House is not the easiest place to find, as it is along the only road off 183 without a stoplight, leading me to drive past the street a conservative six or so times. I finally arrived at 8:30, bought a ticket and walked inside.
This is where it hit me. I'm at an all ages show and unlike in my youth where I loved all ages shows, there is a certain moment where as an adult, an all ages show, where I feel somewhat out of place. The center of the room is dominated by the pit, filled with people half my age and I did have the darnedest time finding the bar, which was through the pit. Also, the ceilings at the Stanhope House are eight feet tall, which is fairly low for an arena for watching shows, but a good band can project beyond this issue. However, I was more committed to seeing the Toasters and living life, so this awkwardness passed in about five seconds.
There was a local band on stage, who can best be described as a generic ska band, complete with the fat kid playing some kind of horn wearing a Real Big Fish shirt. In fact, all of the opening acts can be summed up as the generic local ska bands. They are all influenced by Real Big Fish or Less Than Jake, they play a set full of covers, which last night included a Real Big Fish cover, Astro Zombies by the Mistfits and a Less Than Jake cover. It could've been a New Jersey ska show from 15 years ago without changing a thing. Which is always the problem with ska, it's pretty easy to get a few friends together from high school band, but for ever opening act I've seen at a show like this which was great, (Tri-State Conspiracy, who sadly broke up last year), I've seen a hundred bands that were interchangeable.
But that's the reality of a ska show, most of the youth were happy, since they likely knew someone in one of the bands and there was a fairly decent crowd of 250 people at the show. It was nice to see Bucket working his merchandise table. I ended up buying Live at CBGB's and the two-disc European version of Live in London, which Bucket pointed out with great importance comes with a poster that my twenty-year old self would have enjoyed. Being 35, I was just happy to get Decision at Midnight live on a new CD, but it is important to support the acts you want to see again.
The Toasters put on a great performance. They started with a song I wasn't familiar with, but quickly moving into Shocker and I'm Running Right Through the World got the crowd going. What's interesting is the Toasters as a band is basically Bucket and a revolving cast of musicians. In fact, last night, he was probably performing with a different band than he played with on Friday night. But the songs remained timeless and the circle pit was filled with people skanking.
I won't lie, when they played Weekend in LA, my arm was propelling my fist toward the ceiling on the double chorus of LA like most of the crowd, which is one of those life-affirming things you do at the show. I did skip the circle pit, which I swore off after almost getting knocked down by a cyclone of humanity seeing Pennywise at the Warped Tour a forever ago.
I hope to see the Toasters again this year, as I attempt to see 10 shows in a year, which would be the most for me since my college days, but with one down, I'm super excited to keep going to shows, since they really are full of energy and passion, which are often missing from most events in our lives.
Fortunately, the Toasters still tour and last night performed at the Stanhope House with a bunch of local ska bands. In my youth, I would show up to every show when the music started, even if I had no desire to see all of the bands. It was the principle of getting my money's worth. Fortunately, as I've aged, I learned that time is more valuable than money and left at 7 PM for a 7 PM start time, knowing I had an hour drive ahead of me. Of course, the Stanhope House is not the easiest place to find, as it is along the only road off 183 without a stoplight, leading me to drive past the street a conservative six or so times. I finally arrived at 8:30, bought a ticket and walked inside.
This is where it hit me. I'm at an all ages show and unlike in my youth where I loved all ages shows, there is a certain moment where as an adult, an all ages show, where I feel somewhat out of place. The center of the room is dominated by the pit, filled with people half my age and I did have the darnedest time finding the bar, which was through the pit. Also, the ceilings at the Stanhope House are eight feet tall, which is fairly low for an arena for watching shows, but a good band can project beyond this issue. However, I was more committed to seeing the Toasters and living life, so this awkwardness passed in about five seconds.
There was a local band on stage, who can best be described as a generic ska band, complete with the fat kid playing some kind of horn wearing a Real Big Fish shirt. In fact, all of the opening acts can be summed up as the generic local ska bands. They are all influenced by Real Big Fish or Less Than Jake, they play a set full of covers, which last night included a Real Big Fish cover, Astro Zombies by the Mistfits and a Less Than Jake cover. It could've been a New Jersey ska show from 15 years ago without changing a thing. Which is always the problem with ska, it's pretty easy to get a few friends together from high school band, but for ever opening act I've seen at a show like this which was great, (Tri-State Conspiracy, who sadly broke up last year), I've seen a hundred bands that were interchangeable.
But that's the reality of a ska show, most of the youth were happy, since they likely knew someone in one of the bands and there was a fairly decent crowd of 250 people at the show. It was nice to see Bucket working his merchandise table. I ended up buying Live at CBGB's and the two-disc European version of Live in London, which Bucket pointed out with great importance comes with a poster that my twenty-year old self would have enjoyed. Being 35, I was just happy to get Decision at Midnight live on a new CD, but it is important to support the acts you want to see again.
The Toasters put on a great performance. They started with a song I wasn't familiar with, but quickly moving into Shocker and I'm Running Right Through the World got the crowd going. What's interesting is the Toasters as a band is basically Bucket and a revolving cast of musicians. In fact, last night, he was probably performing with a different band than he played with on Friday night. But the songs remained timeless and the circle pit was filled with people skanking.
I won't lie, when they played Weekend in LA, my arm was propelling my fist toward the ceiling on the double chorus of LA like most of the crowd, which is one of those life-affirming things you do at the show. I did skip the circle pit, which I swore off after almost getting knocked down by a cyclone of humanity seeing Pennywise at the Warped Tour a forever ago.
I hope to see the Toasters again this year, as I attempt to see 10 shows in a year, which would be the most for me since my college days, but with one down, I'm super excited to keep going to shows, since they really are full of energy and passion, which are often missing from most events in our lives.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
ROH 12th Anniversary Show Review
Last night, I drove to Philadelphia for my second anniversary independent wrestling show of the month. This time, I drove to the Ring of Honor 12th Anniversary show for my thirty-seventh Ring of Honor live show. At one point in my life, I was a huge Ring of Honor fan starting with the Battle of the Icons back in 2007, but over the years my interest in the product waned, starting with the removal of Gabe Sapolsky as the booker and with the move from a local to national promotion. Oh, and Killer Instinct in 2012 actually swore me off going to a Ring of Honor show ever again after serving up a 35 minute, no contest between Kevin Steen and Jay Lethal, where the live audience did not know what was happening or if there was a finish, which followed a lackluster show. It took the knowledge that Adam Cole, Kevin Steen and Michael Elgin were going to be wrestling three matches in one night to get me to go back and watch anything ROH.
But with Adam Cole defending the title against Chris Hero and having seen their match in PWG from two months ago, I convinced myself to give a live Ring of Honor show another go. Arriving at the Armory in Philadelphia, I was surprised by the turnout, as there was no parking left at 7:40, requiring those who arrived timely to find their own place to park outside the safety of the arena. I don't think anyone thought it would be a super no vacancy house of 1,200, but AJ Styles return tour is putting fans in the seats.
I finally get to the building, where ROH COO Joe Koff was handling the will call window and hands me my ticket. Having worked in a small business, I always appreciate the wearing of many hats and the need to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty for the sake of the job, regardless of your job title and power. Arriving just ahead of the dark match, I saw Amasis in ROH for the second time, since the Osirian Portal wrestled Steen and Generico in 2008, which I was there for. Amasis was good, but Caprice Coleman did little for me in this match.
The first half of the main show was, to be polite, rough. I thought the Tomasso Ciampa and Hanson match was very good, with Hanson showing the potential to be a star with a great mix of surprising athleticism, a good look and some real wrestling hoss skills. Other highlights include the Decade of Roderick Strong, Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer using jazz hands as their team signal and Silas Young's mustache and 80s vibe, though I don't get why everyone loves Generic Indy Guy 2, Matt Taven or why anyone thinks Jimmy Jacobs should throw an effective spear against anyone larger than a toddler. Sadly, Matt Hardy didn't make the show, forcing Michael Elgin to "wrestle" Raymond Rowe, who was clearly not ready for such a match, looking green and almost fighting Elgin to entertain. Elgin did cut a really good old school promo trying to get Rowe over before the match and was surprised to find myself excited before watching Rowe sandbag without intent for about 10 minutes.
With intermission, I went over to the lackluster ROH merchandise table. CZW does it right with a selection of vendors, but ROH has their own table, which consisted of a selection of mediocre T-Shirts (number of Michael Bennett shirts in the audience: 2, number of Decade shirts in the audience: 1) and a limited selection of DVDs. Amazingly, I only made one purchase, which is the Hell Rising Kevin Steen shoot, where I cannot wait to watch him tear apart Jim Cornette for 45 minutes, though I plan to pass on the Jay Lethal match from Killer Instinct.
After intermission, the show really picked up with three great matches and an enjoyable squash of Cliff Compton by Kevin Steen, though the match did take about 18 minutes and was the shortest match of the second half. Honestly, the biggest weakness in almost any ROH show is the length. The Anniversary show went about 4 hours and would not be surprised if you timed the matches and found there were at least 5 and possibly 6 twenty minute matches. Ring of Honor has a hard time giving us a great 12 minute match, for the thought we were missing something. In fact, most of the matches, aside from Cole/Hero and Styles/Lethal could have stood to be a little shorter.
The tag team match between ReDragon and Adrenaline Rush was very good. Watching it, I thought, if ACH learns to strike better, he could be a star. Kyle O'Reilly has grown on me over the years, but I'm still not a fan of his MMA striking based offense. Otherwise, it was a good, not great tag team match.
Having seen and hated AJ Styles two weeks ago and not thinking much of Jay Lethal's work on the whole, I was a little surprised by how well their match worked. It was a slow affair, but Jay Lethal understood how to work with AJ Styles to put on a Southern-style wrestling match. The spots were much crisper than with Gulak two weeks beforehand and both wrestlers used the pace to their advantage, especially Styles whose offense was far more convincing in the match. The finish was rushed, but for the first time I understand why Lethal/Styles would have been a great main event in 2004.
Finally, there was the Chris Hero and Adam Cole main event ROH Title match, which was my primary motivation for going to the show. I saw their clash in at PWG's All-Star Weekend X, Night 1 and thought the match was excellent, but a little short. Their match tonight was actually better. Here, they played the roles of Hero as the returning conqueror and Cole as the cowardly heel to perfection. With Hero being in my book, the best storyteller in the ring working today, the match flowed. Cole's work was excellent as well, making the small mannerisms work, rolling out of the ring as a heel with great gusto and to loud applause. Both men worked the crowd well and closed with a ref bump finish, allowing Hero to get Cole to tap out without a ref, but allowing Cole to retain the title after three straight jacket German Suplexes.
In sum, the second half of the show was worth the price of admission, with Cole and Hero being my match of the night. It didn't reignite my love affair with Ring of Honor, but will at least force me to look at their cards when in the area to see if there is a match I want to see in person.
But with Adam Cole defending the title against Chris Hero and having seen their match in PWG from two months ago, I convinced myself to give a live Ring of Honor show another go. Arriving at the Armory in Philadelphia, I was surprised by the turnout, as there was no parking left at 7:40, requiring those who arrived timely to find their own place to park outside the safety of the arena. I don't think anyone thought it would be a super no vacancy house of 1,200, but AJ Styles return tour is putting fans in the seats.
I finally get to the building, where ROH COO Joe Koff was handling the will call window and hands me my ticket. Having worked in a small business, I always appreciate the wearing of many hats and the need to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty for the sake of the job, regardless of your job title and power. Arriving just ahead of the dark match, I saw Amasis in ROH for the second time, since the Osirian Portal wrestled Steen and Generico in 2008, which I was there for. Amasis was good, but Caprice Coleman did little for me in this match.
The first half of the main show was, to be polite, rough. I thought the Tomasso Ciampa and Hanson match was very good, with Hanson showing the potential to be a star with a great mix of surprising athleticism, a good look and some real wrestling hoss skills. Other highlights include the Decade of Roderick Strong, Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer using jazz hands as their team signal and Silas Young's mustache and 80s vibe, though I don't get why everyone loves Generic Indy Guy 2, Matt Taven or why anyone thinks Jimmy Jacobs should throw an effective spear against anyone larger than a toddler. Sadly, Matt Hardy didn't make the show, forcing Michael Elgin to "wrestle" Raymond Rowe, who was clearly not ready for such a match, looking green and almost fighting Elgin to entertain. Elgin did cut a really good old school promo trying to get Rowe over before the match and was surprised to find myself excited before watching Rowe sandbag without intent for about 10 minutes.
With intermission, I went over to the lackluster ROH merchandise table. CZW does it right with a selection of vendors, but ROH has their own table, which consisted of a selection of mediocre T-Shirts (number of Michael Bennett shirts in the audience: 2, number of Decade shirts in the audience: 1) and a limited selection of DVDs. Amazingly, I only made one purchase, which is the Hell Rising Kevin Steen shoot, where I cannot wait to watch him tear apart Jim Cornette for 45 minutes, though I plan to pass on the Jay Lethal match from Killer Instinct.
After intermission, the show really picked up with three great matches and an enjoyable squash of Cliff Compton by Kevin Steen, though the match did take about 18 minutes and was the shortest match of the second half. Honestly, the biggest weakness in almost any ROH show is the length. The Anniversary show went about 4 hours and would not be surprised if you timed the matches and found there were at least 5 and possibly 6 twenty minute matches. Ring of Honor has a hard time giving us a great 12 minute match, for the thought we were missing something. In fact, most of the matches, aside from Cole/Hero and Styles/Lethal could have stood to be a little shorter.
The tag team match between ReDragon and Adrenaline Rush was very good. Watching it, I thought, if ACH learns to strike better, he could be a star. Kyle O'Reilly has grown on me over the years, but I'm still not a fan of his MMA striking based offense. Otherwise, it was a good, not great tag team match.
Having seen and hated AJ Styles two weeks ago and not thinking much of Jay Lethal's work on the whole, I was a little surprised by how well their match worked. It was a slow affair, but Jay Lethal understood how to work with AJ Styles to put on a Southern-style wrestling match. The spots were much crisper than with Gulak two weeks beforehand and both wrestlers used the pace to their advantage, especially Styles whose offense was far more convincing in the match. The finish was rushed, but for the first time I understand why Lethal/Styles would have been a great main event in 2004.
Finally, there was the Chris Hero and Adam Cole main event ROH Title match, which was my primary motivation for going to the show. I saw their clash in at PWG's All-Star Weekend X, Night 1 and thought the match was excellent, but a little short. Their match tonight was actually better. Here, they played the roles of Hero as the returning conqueror and Cole as the cowardly heel to perfection. With Hero being in my book, the best storyteller in the ring working today, the match flowed. Cole's work was excellent as well, making the small mannerisms work, rolling out of the ring as a heel with great gusto and to loud applause. Both men worked the crowd well and closed with a ref bump finish, allowing Hero to get Cole to tap out without a ref, but allowing Cole to retain the title after three straight jacket German Suplexes.
In sum, the second half of the show was worth the price of admission, with Cole and Hero being my match of the night. It didn't reignite my love affair with Ring of Honor, but will at least force me to look at their cards when in the area to see if there is a match I want to see in person.
Friday, February 21, 2014
A Pleasant Surprise
When I came home from the Ring of Honor show in Philadelphia tonight, I was greeted by a pleasant surprise in my mailbox, the first QPW DVD, Well Worth the Wait. While I am far too tired to sit an enjoy watching this DVD, I was more surprised that it arrived today.
Earlier today, I checked the status of the order and the USPS let me know it was somewhere in transit, but not out for delivery. So, I expected to come home, find nothing of interest in my mailbox and head back into my apartment. But opening the metal box, I saw a grey, rectangular package which could only be the QPW DVD I was so excited about arriving. So, here I am, all bleary eyed looking at the package, trying to convince myself not to start watching, since I will fall asleep during the first match, requiring a further rewatching, which I would likely do anyway, but with something you want to enjoy, sometimes you just have to wait, even as you hold it in your hand.
Earlier today, I checked the status of the order and the USPS let me know it was somewhere in transit, but not out for delivery. So, I expected to come home, find nothing of interest in my mailbox and head back into my apartment. But opening the metal box, I saw a grey, rectangular package which could only be the QPW DVD I was so excited about arriving. So, here I am, all bleary eyed looking at the package, trying to convince myself not to start watching, since I will fall asleep during the first match, requiring a further rewatching, which I would likely do anyway, but with something you want to enjoy, sometimes you just have to wait, even as you hold it in your hand.
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