Post by kylehynson on Jun 5, 2012 10:27:34 GMT -5
FINAL BATTLE
Last Saturday's "Final Battle 2002" ROH show was the night of boos. Was it our best show? Nope, but I'll put it up against any show out there. There was some bad that brought it down, but there was much more good. I knew it was a heel show going in as we needed to set up a lot of things for 2003 and none of the babyfaces were up, unfortunately one thing that wasn't meant to get heel heat got a lot of it. People were angry that Jody Fleisch and Red only went six minutes. I can say I was as angry and surprised as anyone when Special K came out. The match was supposed to go twice as long. Unfortunately, there was a communication error and the guys thought I cut their match to seven minutes about halfway through the show, when what I meant was for Special K to come out at the 7 minute mark and watch the final 3-5 minutes of the match. Things like this happen and you move on, although I've been trying to figure out how to turn back time so I can go back and tell them 12 minutes. The six minutes the fans got was tremendous and I look forward to more of Jody and Red working in the future. I also thought it was a breakout night for Special K, who are becoming one of our most popular and talked about acts. You can check out a clip of them hosting our New Year's Eve show on ROHwrestling.com. This stuff is totally over the top.
There has been a lot of criticism about having the belt on Xavier. I think last Saturday proved why Xavier is a great champion. First of all, his last three title matches have all been really good with each one getting better than the last. The main thing that made the Paul London match so great was the emotion in the building. Indy promotions try to do things to make their belts prestigious. They can put it on a top Japanese wrestler and have it defended in Japan. Does anyone really care? Nope. Title matches are about emotion. Last Saturday the building was jumping out of their seats at the false finishes. They were booing Xavier and clapping for London almost the entire match. It was dramatic, it was suspenseful and it had everyone in the building feeling like they were 12 years old again. That is what title matches are about and what makes your belt important. I dare anyone to find me a more heated title match on the indy scene than what we had last Saturday.
I cannot praise Steve Corino's performance enough from the tremendous promos to the way he pulled off the angles to the great job he did in the 45 minute match. I watched him from the day he came into ECW and everything he did in ECW live and most of what he's done in the United States and I can safely say that last Saturday was the greatest all-around performance of his United States career. Corino is going to make things very interesting in 2003 and we started a bunch of storylines with him last Saturday. He suffered a broken nose in the 45 minute bout and didn't miss a beat. No one realizes how tough he is.
Speaking of the 45 minute match, I know there were people unhappy with the draw finish. The way I see it is that you saw four of the best beat each other up for 45 minutes. How can you be disappointed with that especially when we've done a clean finish on just about every match we've ever had at the Murphy Rec Center. I've watched the match a few times and this classic just keeps getting better everytime I watch it. Now we've thrown in the possibility that matches can end in draws in the future and we've also set up an interesting title situation for 2/8 in Queens. I am in awe of athletes like Corino, Low Ki, Bryan Danielson and the most underrated guy in the business Samoa Joe for being able to go out there for 45 minutes and do what they did.
I think that Da Hit Squad vs. Backseat Boyz vs. Special K stole the show. Great crowd heat, tremendous action, but once again a finish the fans didn't want to see. It was a finish to set up our future though. Deranged and Angel Dust both really stepped it up a notch and proved they belong in ROH. Hit Squad have found a home in the scramble matches and are both coming into their own. The Backseat Boyz are tremendous talents. I want to thank John Zandig for allowing us to book them. You will see more of the Backseats on High Impact TV in January.
If you liked the CM Punk/Colt Cabana car promo that was on High Impact TV a few weeks ago, wait until you see the new one that could be airing next Tuesday. Punk and Cabana delivered another solid match. I really liked Ace Steel's match with Jay Briscoe and you will see more of Steel in ROH.
Then of course there was the Konnan thing. This really brought the crowd down after the exciting scramble match. I'm not going to make excuses, but I am going to take responsibility for what happened. Booking him in singles matches was a mistake. He actually had the crowd after the first minute with Chris Divine and if he had been able to tag out there we would have had a perfectly decent segment. I think things will be different next week in the Pittsburgh area when he is in a six man tag and I think we'll see a much better Konnan there. He was extremely upset afterwards as he put a lot of pressure on himself to impress and that pressure got to him. He really came in with the best intentions as anyone on the NYC bus trip knows after being a part of his Q&A, but I put him in a bad situation. I'm really interested to see how things go next week in Pittsburgh.
Chris Daniels & Donovan Morgan continued to prove that they are this generation's Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson with a really solid old school match vs. SAT. Once again though, the heels won and there were more boos. It was night of the heels!
A lot of people complained after our 9/21 "Unscripted" show that it wasn't a typical ROH show. I've heard similar complaints after this one. However, now that I read the video reviews of 9/21 I see nothing but praise. I think the same thing will happen with this show because it delivered on in ring action and set up our future. By now, fans should figure out that you can't have any expectations about ROH other than we will deliver the best show we can. You never know what to expect from ROH, but in the end everything makes sense, so just sit back and enjoy the ride like you were watching a movie.
I was really happy with the promos that were taped backstage and we will have some good stuff for High Impact TV. The TV show has been a work in progress, but I think we are finally beginning to hit stride with it and that January will be a can't miss month both for newsworthy material and action. If you aren't watching High Impact TV, you are only getting half the story. The show airs Tuesdays at midnight on WGTW Channel 48 in Philly and we have monthly tapes for sale in the New Releases section.
Last Saturday's "Final Battle 2002" ROH show was the night of boos. Was it our best show? Nope, but I'll put it up against any show out there. There was some bad that brought it down, but there was much more good. I knew it was a heel show going in as we needed to set up a lot of things for 2003 and none of the babyfaces were up, unfortunately one thing that wasn't meant to get heel heat got a lot of it. People were angry that Jody Fleisch and Red only went six minutes. I can say I was as angry and surprised as anyone when Special K came out. The match was supposed to go twice as long. Unfortunately, there was a communication error and the guys thought I cut their match to seven minutes about halfway through the show, when what I meant was for Special K to come out at the 7 minute mark and watch the final 3-5 minutes of the match. Things like this happen and you move on, although I've been trying to figure out how to turn back time so I can go back and tell them 12 minutes. The six minutes the fans got was tremendous and I look forward to more of Jody and Red working in the future. I also thought it was a breakout night for Special K, who are becoming one of our most popular and talked about acts. You can check out a clip of them hosting our New Year's Eve show on ROHwrestling.com. This stuff is totally over the top.
There has been a lot of criticism about having the belt on Xavier. I think last Saturday proved why Xavier is a great champion. First of all, his last three title matches have all been really good with each one getting better than the last. The main thing that made the Paul London match so great was the emotion in the building. Indy promotions try to do things to make their belts prestigious. They can put it on a top Japanese wrestler and have it defended in Japan. Does anyone really care? Nope. Title matches are about emotion. Last Saturday the building was jumping out of their seats at the false finishes. They were booing Xavier and clapping for London almost the entire match. It was dramatic, it was suspenseful and it had everyone in the building feeling like they were 12 years old again. That is what title matches are about and what makes your belt important. I dare anyone to find me a more heated title match on the indy scene than what we had last Saturday.
I cannot praise Steve Corino's performance enough from the tremendous promos to the way he pulled off the angles to the great job he did in the 45 minute match. I watched him from the day he came into ECW and everything he did in ECW live and most of what he's done in the United States and I can safely say that last Saturday was the greatest all-around performance of his United States career. Corino is going to make things very interesting in 2003 and we started a bunch of storylines with him last Saturday. He suffered a broken nose in the 45 minute bout and didn't miss a beat. No one realizes how tough he is.
Speaking of the 45 minute match, I know there were people unhappy with the draw finish. The way I see it is that you saw four of the best beat each other up for 45 minutes. How can you be disappointed with that especially when we've done a clean finish on just about every match we've ever had at the Murphy Rec Center. I've watched the match a few times and this classic just keeps getting better everytime I watch it. Now we've thrown in the possibility that matches can end in draws in the future and we've also set up an interesting title situation for 2/8 in Queens. I am in awe of athletes like Corino, Low Ki, Bryan Danielson and the most underrated guy in the business Samoa Joe for being able to go out there for 45 minutes and do what they did.
I think that Da Hit Squad vs. Backseat Boyz vs. Special K stole the show. Great crowd heat, tremendous action, but once again a finish the fans didn't want to see. It was a finish to set up our future though. Deranged and Angel Dust both really stepped it up a notch and proved they belong in ROH. Hit Squad have found a home in the scramble matches and are both coming into their own. The Backseat Boyz are tremendous talents. I want to thank John Zandig for allowing us to book them. You will see more of the Backseats on High Impact TV in January.
If you liked the CM Punk/Colt Cabana car promo that was on High Impact TV a few weeks ago, wait until you see the new one that could be airing next Tuesday. Punk and Cabana delivered another solid match. I really liked Ace Steel's match with Jay Briscoe and you will see more of Steel in ROH.
Then of course there was the Konnan thing. This really brought the crowd down after the exciting scramble match. I'm not going to make excuses, but I am going to take responsibility for what happened. Booking him in singles matches was a mistake. He actually had the crowd after the first minute with Chris Divine and if he had been able to tag out there we would have had a perfectly decent segment. I think things will be different next week in the Pittsburgh area when he is in a six man tag and I think we'll see a much better Konnan there. He was extremely upset afterwards as he put a lot of pressure on himself to impress and that pressure got to him. He really came in with the best intentions as anyone on the NYC bus trip knows after being a part of his Q&A, but I put him in a bad situation. I'm really interested to see how things go next week in Pittsburgh.
Chris Daniels & Donovan Morgan continued to prove that they are this generation's Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson with a really solid old school match vs. SAT. Once again though, the heels won and there were more boos. It was night of the heels!
A lot of people complained after our 9/21 "Unscripted" show that it wasn't a typical ROH show. I've heard similar complaints after this one. However, now that I read the video reviews of 9/21 I see nothing but praise. I think the same thing will happen with this show because it delivered on in ring action and set up our future. By now, fans should figure out that you can't have any expectations about ROH other than we will deliver the best show we can. You never know what to expect from ROH, but in the end everything makes sense, so just sit back and enjoy the ride like you were watching a movie.
I was really happy with the promos that were taped backstage and we will have some good stuff for High Impact TV. The TV show has been a work in progress, but I think we are finally beginning to hit stride with it and that January will be a can't miss month both for newsworthy material and action. If you aren't watching High Impact TV, you are only getting half the story. The show airs Tuesdays at midnight on WGTW Channel 48 in Philly and we have monthly tapes for sale in the New Releases section.