Coffee Table Thoughts – Olay Olay Olay Olay Olay

Coffee Table Thoughts – Olay Olay Olay Olay Olay

Welcome to the Coffee Table folks, I am here to share my thoughts on a recent ROH show that I watched while my books craved for my attention and another day of my much needed studies got wasted.

Ring of Honor: Road Rage: 15 April 2012

Mike Bennett and that Canadian

The action is set as the first match is between Lance Storm and Mike Bennettt. There is a promo from Mike Bennett before the match starts and one thing I notice is the pre-match run down of the stats. It’s a rather interesting way of building up a match that major wrestling promotions have forgotten. It was used on Smackdown a few years ago giving the details of the height, weight and other attributes of the wrestlers but not used now-a-days. I would love to see these stats return to the big league. Big question mark is shown in the Code of Honor section of the stat against Mike Bennett giving us the impression that it is highly likely that he may disrespect his opponent in some way.

                                 

The match is not too long but quite an impressive feat. Mike Bennett is joined by his manager – Maria and announcers put her over throughout the show as being very smart and knowing the intricacies of the business as well as being aware of the in ring product called wrestling. And sure enough she does show how helpful she can be to her client which I believe is her boyfriend too, when she holds the leg of Lance Storm when he is about to hit a German Suplex from the turn buckle.

It is not a full blown finisher after finisher after finisher match that Ring of Honor of today has become so infamous for. Much of the match is submission wrestling and most of it came from Lance Storm. But it does have its fair share of finishers and false finishes.

The end result is a beautiful match which changes pace quite a many times. Mike Bennett is good in ring and the promo he cut was entertaining too. He has all the attributes of a star. It would be interesting to see where his career will head. Also, he is quite tall as compared to some other ROH wrestlers.

Lance Storm also cuts a fierce promo after the match. He lost the match and then afterwards Mike Bennett offered his hand to Lance Storm but hit him with a sick finisher instead. Lance Storm showed a great deal of emotion in the promo and asked for another match. He said he sees potential in Mike Bennett but needs to teach him some lessons. He also said that he will not leave this business lying on his back. (The modified promo in the recap form is shown in the April 21 edition of the ROH and it is one of the better promos I have seen this year.)

Recap Recap

They showed a recap of the match between Briscoe Brothers and another tag team afterward and the action was superb. It was fast paced and hard hitting. It was just a few final minutes of the match in the recap but it was enjoyable.

They also showed a recap of the match between Davey Richards, Roderick Strong and Eddie Edwards. There were obviously some hard hitting stuff there but the tag team action was much better than this.

OMG! That’s a Shoot

They showed a press conference afterwards where the authority figure of the Ring of Honor Wrestling Jim Cornette and the current Ring of Honor World Champion Davey Richards were being interviewed. It was soon interrupted by Kevin Steen who seems to be everybody’s favourite heel at the moment. It is becoming a more popular way of building feuds but it is becoming a rather common way of building feuds too. Kevin Steen challenges Davey Richards to a title match which he accepts. Jim Cornette does not like the idea and tries to talk Davey out of it. And while he is trying to make Davey understand his view point, Kevin Steen is continuously mocking Davey Richards.

Richards threatens Cornnette that he would leave the company if he does not make this match official. Jim Cornette finally agrees to it and then goes on to say in an interview that he knows of all the accusations that he has been bombarded with in regards to keeping Kevin Steen off of Davey Richards. He has been accused that of trying to keep Davey Richards safe from Steen but the truth is that he believes Davey Richards can beat him anytime, anywhere. The problem is he does not trust Kevin Steen and does not know what kind of game he may play.

Out of the three, Jim Cornette was the most effective in setting up the feud. His interview promo was spot on for emphasising on how important the match is. Kevin Steen was quite a trouble in the interruption that he caused and can gather heat genuinely. But he seems to be a little unpolished in the same way as Daniel Bryan. Daniel Bryan is managing to get all the heat and popularity by his effort but there is some sort of rookie-ness in his promos.

I think Davey Richards was very straight forward in his promo and seemed like he was just repeating a dialogue after memorising it. Although he did try to bring some sort of emotion in the threat that he gave to his boss, it all came forth as rather fake. But the overall impact of the segment was well received.

Highlight of the Night: Olay Olay Olay Olay Olay

Lastly, there was a match between Kevin Steen and a returning El Generico. It seemed that he was earlier injured by Kevin Steen himself and has come back to exact revenge in a Last Man Standing match. I am not sure about the storyline though, it is what I was able to understand from the show.

The match was nothing short of amusing. Many beautiful spots were filled throughout the match. The match starts when El Generico jumps on to Kevin Steen without waiting for the bell to ring. The crowd was red hot for the entire match. And how cool is it to have a crowd sing for you to support you? El Generico’s catchphrase or whatever it is has got to be the best thing going in wrestling today. The ‘What’ chants are irritating, the ‘Yes’ chants are interesting right now but have a potential to be the worst nightmare for wrestling fans world-wide. But these chants are chants, they are not a song, whereas El Generico’s Olay....... Olay......... Olay Olay Olay........... is a beautiful song to pump up the performers and the crowd. Wow! I have never seen anything like that in whole of my wrestling viewing career!

If Shawn Michaels was to special guest referee this match, he would get a heart attack. There are sick moves after sick moves in this match. It’s all very different from what we see on Raw and Smackdown which is a much tamed product.

But the highlight of the match is when Jimmy Jacobs interfered and then bloody stabbed El Generico on the face! I am not sure what he used or where he hit him exactly but I am not going to recheck. These things should be banned from wrestling! It can cause a serious injury to the wrestler who is getting stabbed if there is some mistake and it can kill an eye! You understand what I mean? It is this part of wrestling that I simply hate! Even if it is fully protected and the device may be gimmicked but you can’t show these kind of stuff to children or those who haven’t grown despite their age! What is it that cannot be achieved by a chair shot?

Anyways, what ensued was a very rare kind of chemistry between two wrestlers. Kevin Steen and Jimmy Jacobs were partners and it showed in everything that they did. You need to see it to believe it. The way they stare and not stare at each other, the way they hug and not hug each other, this partnership is reflected simplistically and yet unambiguously. It is very evident despite not going overboard with it.

We have seen Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger come together for matches for better part of the year but there is no sense of chemistry between the two. They may both be great wrestlers in their own right, but they are not a good tag team and I understood it by a simple 5 minute segment between Kevin Steen and Jimmy Jacobs. See, Dolph and Jack may have been tagging together, they may interfere in one another’s matches to help each other out but they aren’t showing any sort of chemistry. By this time, they should have been brothers or enemies. But there is no real progress in their chemistry. And it does not need to have a storyline to progress in that department. They should watch this segment to learn how to develop chemistry amongst one another.

Twitter-Update

Kofi Kingston replied to me!!! And blocked me too.