Post by kylehynson on May 21, 2012 16:05:17 GMT -5
UNSCRIPTED
Well, it was the week before the 9/21 ROH show and I thought we had another winner. Spanky was wrestling three times, Steve Corino and American Dragon were set to tear down the house in the semi-main event. In fact, Corino had been thinking of stuff for that match since I first told him about it two months ago. Then suddenly I get the emails from Spanky and Corino. Zero-One needs them on the 9/22 show. They apologized like crazy and it was clear they had no choice since they are under Zero-One contract. At first I was crushed, but then I quickly snapped out of it because you have to be ready to roll with the punches in this business. I knew there were no other names to bring in because everyone was booked somewhere else or they would have been on the show in the first place. I knew we had to come up with something big.
The first thing that came to my mind was giving Paul London a ladder. London and Shane had been starving for the opportunity to really shine. I knew with their natural chemistry, London's daredevil nature and Shane's work ethic that we could have a major home run with a London vs. Shane street fight with ladders. I never dreamed it would be as good as it turned out. London and Shane took full advantage of the opportunity and produced an absolutely incredible, must see, match of the year candidate. Sure you've seen match of the year candidate a lot with ROH and lots of promotions say they have match of the year, but after seeing this one and all the other match of the year candidates from ROH you will be hardpressed not to agree. Just read some of the reviews out there. London and Shane were both sore, exhausted and drained up until today, but came out injury free except London had some pain in his bicep.
One other note is that the crowd reaction was unreal during this match. You really have to be at a ROH live to get the full feeling of the atmosphere.
Both Sonny Siaki and CM Punk told me this week how much they want to work in ROH because it is such a tremendous crowd and atmosphere. We are really getting into something special here with a true, diehard wrestling crowd that respects the guys in the ring.
With London out of the tag tournament to do the street fight, the whole "Unscripted" format developed. We needed an angle to get him out of the tournament, a super team to go to the finals as well as some other bonuses to make up for Corino and Spanky not being there. One thing led to another and we ended up with a very spontaneous show. I always felt ROH was unpredictable, so I don't think that is the right word to use, but we had a very spontaneous feel to the show with Siaki, Punk, Cabana and Gary Michael Cappetta all debuting unadvertised plus the logical switches in the card and the run-ins from the crowd by the mysterious big man and Chris Divine's girlfriend. I was really happy with the format of the show.
The title change really delivered on shock value and if you look carefully it has been set up since day one. Check out The Round Robin Challenge when Daniels storms out after the Ki match, check out A Night Of Appreciation with how the mic is handed from Daniels to Xavier, check out Road To The Title after the Red vs. Xavier match and there were a few other things. I said since the first ROH show that we would do things that you would look back at after 7-8 shows and be like "oh that's why that happened." I am still in shock at how many fans came up with stunned looks on their faces and complimented the booking of the change. Also, a lot of people are saying Daniels interfered, but he never touched Low Ki so there was no reason for a DQ. Low Ki's ankle was hurting him during the bout and he put on a gutsy effort. Xavier told Low Ki to lay in the kicks and chops and Low Ki sure made him earn the title as that match was brutally stiff. This storyline is just beginning to take off and I think it will be interesting to follow.
I thought Chris Daniels and Donovan Morgan put in amazing efforts with three great matches that were all hard. They really made the tag tournament as good as it was. Daniels then cut several incredible promos after the show. We are doing some things to start making the TV show a little more attention grabbing and dramatic. I actually felt that we had our best bunch of promos to date with both James Maritato, who had a tremendous match with Mamaluke vs. Hidaka & Togo and then a nice bloody brawl with Mamaluke, and Jay Briscoe cutting the best promos of their careers. I'm going to start paying much more attention to the promo side of things as I think we have a lot of untapped promo ability in our locker room.
I was actually very happy with everything on the show. I did feel it went a little long as a few segments ran over their given times, but hey that happens. The angle with Loc & Devito and Da Hit Squad isn't the kind of thing I like to do, but unfortunately The Sinners had some problems and couldn't make it and that is what we came up with on 15 minutes notice. I was sorry I didn't have more for both these teams as they are progressing great.
Well, it was the week before the 9/21 ROH show and I thought we had another winner. Spanky was wrestling three times, Steve Corino and American Dragon were set to tear down the house in the semi-main event. In fact, Corino had been thinking of stuff for that match since I first told him about it two months ago. Then suddenly I get the emails from Spanky and Corino. Zero-One needs them on the 9/22 show. They apologized like crazy and it was clear they had no choice since they are under Zero-One contract. At first I was crushed, but then I quickly snapped out of it because you have to be ready to roll with the punches in this business. I knew there were no other names to bring in because everyone was booked somewhere else or they would have been on the show in the first place. I knew we had to come up with something big.
The first thing that came to my mind was giving Paul London a ladder. London and Shane had been starving for the opportunity to really shine. I knew with their natural chemistry, London's daredevil nature and Shane's work ethic that we could have a major home run with a London vs. Shane street fight with ladders. I never dreamed it would be as good as it turned out. London and Shane took full advantage of the opportunity and produced an absolutely incredible, must see, match of the year candidate. Sure you've seen match of the year candidate a lot with ROH and lots of promotions say they have match of the year, but after seeing this one and all the other match of the year candidates from ROH you will be hardpressed not to agree. Just read some of the reviews out there. London and Shane were both sore, exhausted and drained up until today, but came out injury free except London had some pain in his bicep.
One other note is that the crowd reaction was unreal during this match. You really have to be at a ROH live to get the full feeling of the atmosphere.
Both Sonny Siaki and CM Punk told me this week how much they want to work in ROH because it is such a tremendous crowd and atmosphere. We are really getting into something special here with a true, diehard wrestling crowd that respects the guys in the ring.
With London out of the tag tournament to do the street fight, the whole "Unscripted" format developed. We needed an angle to get him out of the tournament, a super team to go to the finals as well as some other bonuses to make up for Corino and Spanky not being there. One thing led to another and we ended up with a very spontaneous show. I always felt ROH was unpredictable, so I don't think that is the right word to use, but we had a very spontaneous feel to the show with Siaki, Punk, Cabana and Gary Michael Cappetta all debuting unadvertised plus the logical switches in the card and the run-ins from the crowd by the mysterious big man and Chris Divine's girlfriend. I was really happy with the format of the show.
The title change really delivered on shock value and if you look carefully it has been set up since day one. Check out The Round Robin Challenge when Daniels storms out after the Ki match, check out A Night Of Appreciation with how the mic is handed from Daniels to Xavier, check out Road To The Title after the Red vs. Xavier match and there were a few other things. I said since the first ROH show that we would do things that you would look back at after 7-8 shows and be like "oh that's why that happened." I am still in shock at how many fans came up with stunned looks on their faces and complimented the booking of the change. Also, a lot of people are saying Daniels interfered, but he never touched Low Ki so there was no reason for a DQ. Low Ki's ankle was hurting him during the bout and he put on a gutsy effort. Xavier told Low Ki to lay in the kicks and chops and Low Ki sure made him earn the title as that match was brutally stiff. This storyline is just beginning to take off and I think it will be interesting to follow.
I thought Chris Daniels and Donovan Morgan put in amazing efforts with three great matches that were all hard. They really made the tag tournament as good as it was. Daniels then cut several incredible promos after the show. We are doing some things to start making the TV show a little more attention grabbing and dramatic. I actually felt that we had our best bunch of promos to date with both James Maritato, who had a tremendous match with Mamaluke vs. Hidaka & Togo and then a nice bloody brawl with Mamaluke, and Jay Briscoe cutting the best promos of their careers. I'm going to start paying much more attention to the promo side of things as I think we have a lot of untapped promo ability in our locker room.
I was actually very happy with everything on the show. I did feel it went a little long as a few segments ran over their given times, but hey that happens. The angle with Loc & Devito and Da Hit Squad isn't the kind of thing I like to do, but unfortunately The Sinners had some problems and couldn't make it and that is what we came up with on 15 minutes notice. I was sorry I didn't have more for both these teams as they are progressing great.
