TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
RADICAN'S TAKE
VIP - RADICAN: Ring of Honor's Best Match of 2007 - A year where ROH was forced to undergo a makeover (part 1 of 2) Dec 31, 2007 - 3:43:31 PM
VIP EXCLUSIVE - Early-release article from PWTorch #1004...
This is part 1 of a 2 part column focusing on ROH’s best matches of 2007. ROH got a big makeover in 2007, as several key TNA talents were pulled from the company once ROH made the move to PPV. The move paid off, as ROH showcased new talent on the top of the card and those veterans that remained in ROH blended in perfectly with the fresh faces in the company. Out of my top five matches, only two feature international talent, although wrestlers from NOAH and Dragon Gate continued to play a big role in ROH’s success, it was the “homegrown” talent that continued to generate the top matches. Here I present my top five ROH matches.
(1) #1 Contender’s match: Nigel McGuinness vs. Bryan Danielson. Driven. June 9, 2007. (*****). Although most of the Driven PPV was taped in Chicago Ridge, Ill, ROH added this gem onto the PPV from Philadelphia, Pa. ROH created a rabid crowd response by putting this match on unannounced. I loved this match from start to finish, as Danielson and McGuinness put on an absolute technical masterpiece. Much like the Danielson-Morishima matches, this match ushered in a new style of wrestling. It felt like a real fight from start to finish, or at least as close as a simulated match can get to seeming like a real fight.
The crowd got behind McGuinness, who showed great fire. Danielson targeted McGuinness’s back. In an era where wrestlers simply don’t sell and don’t take the time to tell the story all too often, McGuinness went to hit the Tower of London at one point during the match, but couldn’t execute it because his back was in so much pain. McGuinness then gritted his teeth and hit it on the second try and the crowd popped huge for his effort.
Looking back at the signature spot of the match, I cringed, as both men traded running headbutts off the ropes and Danielson suffered a huge bleeding gash on his forehead as a result of the impact of the spot. Much like the dangerous spots in the ladder match between the Briscoes and Steen & Generico, this is a spot that should be avoided by wrestlers in the future, although it did add an element of drama to the match.
The finishing sequence, which featured Danielson hitting a series of elbows to McGuinness’s head before applying the cattle mutilation, which resulted in the ref calling for the match after McGuinness failed to respond was the right finish. Much like the Ladder War, this match meant something, as Danielson earned a shot at Morishima’s titles and both men fought like the ROH World Title shot meant the world to them.
(2) ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoes vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico. Man Up. September 15, 2007. (*****). This match was like watching a car wreck. The more I look back on this match, the harder it is for me to digest the risks these four men took. It’s simply not worth it anymore for wrestlers to put themselves in harms way in this manner.
I was watching TNA Impact recently and Abyss took a series of unprotected chairshots to the head. It really clicked with me right then that no angle or storyline is worth risking the long-term health of the men and women who perform in the ring.
WWE has toned down the unprotected chairshots dramatically. TNA just doesn’t care. ROH still showcases a high-risk in-ring style, but hopefully a match like this never takes place again, as all four men went overboard in terms of the risks they were willing to take. With the recent findings on concussions and the ramifications of blows to the head, I would hope that all people in power in wrestling never put anyone in the position that El Generico, Kevin Steen, Jay Briscoe, and Mark Briscoe were in for this contest again......
The rest of this article is available exclusively to PWTorch VIP Members as part of this week's new PWTorch Newsletter. The 16-page print newsletter is also published online at PWTorch.com's member's website each week featuring the VIP-exclusive Newswire, Wade Keller's cover story, Torch Talk interviews, other exclusive staff columns, Keller's VIP-exclusive PPV and TV reports with match star ratings, Wade Keller's End Notes, and more. VIP membership also includes:
-The Daily Keller Hotline and over 30 other VIP Audio Shows per month.
-Eight complete PWTorch Newsletter back issues from "Five Years Ago This Week" and "Ten Years Ago This Week" posted online for the first time ever, joining hundreds of other previously posted PWTorch Newsletter back issues dating back to the early 1990s through the early 2000s.
-Access to the PWTorch VIP Forum with daily interaction with the PWTorch staff and other well-informed PWTorch VIP members.
-Access to the PWTorch Appendix with a wide variety of reference articles and collections.
-Access to hundreds of previous audio updates, audio shows, and Torch Talk interview audio files.
-An ad-free version of the PWTorch.com Main Listing.
-VIP Email Express reports PPVs and TV shows by Wade Keller and VIP-exclusive Roundtables reviews PPVs and TV shows, plus occasional "Breaking News" emails for the biggest stories during the year.
For VIP subscription pricing info and to learn how to get Four-Days-Free of VIP membership, click here.
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
