What A Week In Wrestling It Has Been

Oh what a week in wrestling. Not for a long time has there been a week so, for better words, awesome in wrestling. The week started on Sunday with the Ring of Honor iPPV Best in The World 2011 from New York. The show was built around the battle of the American Wolves, ROH champion Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards. Before we got to that match we had a better than decent undercard which included the returning Jay Lethal with a win over 'The Prodigy' Mike Bennett. Also, ROH TV champion Christopher Daniels dropped his strap to El Generico in a tremendous match. Also, the ROH tag team champions The World Greatest Tag Team faced off in a four-way elimination match The Kings of Wrestling, The All-Night Express & The Briscoe Brothers. In what we all expected to be a great match was just that and then some. The result saw the WGTT retain and then get blindsided by the Briscoes with steel chairs after the match. Many I spoke to predicted the 3 main matches as they turned out, in this match I actually wanted the Kings to win back the straps but it wasn't to be and this could be because they are on the way out of the company to the land of WWE but we'll just have to see what happens with that story. Personally, like when CM Punk, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Bryan Danielson left ROH I was gutted that we'd not get to see their great talents in the greatest wrestling promotion in North America but the WWE is the pinnacle of wrestling in the U.S for many of the workers because it's where the big bucks are and I have no problem with the guys going there to earn themselves a financial future. Anyway, back to the show, the buzz was to do with former ROH worker Kevin Steen and wether he was going to show up or not as he had made it clear on the internet that he wanted to return to ROH and clear a few things up. He had Steve Corino batting for him from within the company but ROH made it clear via the social networks etc. that Steen was banned from the building. Before his match with Michael Elgin, Corino cut a speech about Steen and how he deserves a second chance like he was given and like Jimmy Jacobs was given who had accompanied him to the ring. Eventually, Steen came through the crowd but was cut off before making it to the ring. The match took place and following the finish Steen returned to aid Corino, Jim Cornette came out and Cornio basically begged him to let Kevin speak and got the fans to chant it. Cornette allowed this and Steen at first cut a sympathetic babyface promo before saying Fuck Ring Of Honor and giving the crowd the middle finger before laying out Jacobs and then Corino with a package piledriver. Steen just smirked as he was carried out the arena. This was a great angle, full props to all involved be it Cornette or producer Dave Lagana or whoever.
The main event was the battle of the American Wolves as it saw former tag team
champions ROH champion Eddie Edwards defend against Davey Richards. The match had the potential to be a match of the year and it was just that. The two guys gave their all and showed us that no matter what a certain other companies say WRESTLING does matter. ROH is my preferred promotion and they NEVER fail in giving the fans a great wrestling product and in this match where the man who had been proclaimed 'the best in the world' by those same fans realised his dream and became the ROH world heavyweight champion.If you have not seen this show, see if you can pick up a replay on http://gfl.tv or purchase the DVD when it is released because I know I will be.

Elsewhere, in the land of the WWE, CM Punk gave a stellar 'shoot' promo on an otherwise dire RAW show. Punk's contract is about to run out and they have brought this to TV. He said it runs out on July 17th the night he faces John Cena for the WWE championship at the Money In The Bank PPV. Hexsaid he would win the title and maybe take it to New Japan Pro Wrestling or his former home Ring Of Honor. Brock Lesnar & Paul Heyman also got a mention. A lot of other stuff was mentioned and for those who have not seen it I have posted it below.



The bigger question is, what is all this leading to? The ideal dream for the smarks would be for some sort of inter-promotional war between WWE & ROH like they did with the original ECW back in the mid to late 90's. I'd love it to happen to tell the truth and although it looks like something could happen, I just don't think it will. I discussed in an earlier blog some things that are possible for Punk (scroll down to read it) but I must say, the WWE product does nothing for me but this promo drew me in and I'm really intrigued to see where it leads.

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