Why There Isn't Much ROH Coverage on My 1-2-3 Cents

Davey Richards vs. Kevin Steen
Photo courtesy: ROH

By Chad Smart
@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter

Kevin posted a question recently on the my123cents Facebook page asking what topics readers would be interested in seeing covered in future blogs. One response was more Ring of Honor coverage. I realize ROH is the defacto number three promotion in the United States and it gets very little mention on this blog. There are a few reasons for the lack of writings on the company.

When my123cents started, Kevin was the primary writer and focused mostly on WWE and old school memories and comparison. As Kevin has stated multiple times in his blogs and on his YouTube videos, he hasn’t followed the independent wrestling scene until recently. Most of his exposure to the Indies over the last decade was when I’d force him to watch a DVD. Having a family with kids involved in multiple events and an insane work schedule takes up the majority of his time. It’s been hard enough to get him to watch Impact much less a show he’d have to track down and watch.

When I started writing for my123cents, one of my primary goals was to try and bring more of a focus to the Indy scene. What that really meant was promoting Chikara as much as possible. By living in Los Angeles, I have Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and NWA: Hollywood that I should be paying more attention to but don’t. Due to a combination of long work hours and at times a hectic semi-social life, my writings have been more sporadic than I’d like which usually results in just writing on whatever is happening in WWE or TNA.

Briscoes vs. WGTT
Courtesy: Ring of Honor

Even if I did focus more on the independent scene, ROH would still most likely get very little attention. Simply put, I’m not much of an ROH fan. I have not bought an ROH DVD since 2006. I’ve been to four ROH shows. The only one that I truly enjoyed was the first show, which was the first show they did over Wrestlemania 22 weekend in Chicago. Even then, we left at the start of the main event. A main event that last 55 minutes and started at midnight, by the way. I have ordered a few of their Ippvs and usually got bored about half way through the show. The last show I ordered was “Boarder Wars” back in May. That was the first Ippv ran completely in-house and ended up that most of the people who ordered didn’t get to see it because of technical issues on the Sinclair Broadcasting side of operations.

One of my biggest complaints during the days when I would try to watch ROH was their production values. While their weekly television shows have improved audio, the pitch-black ringside lighting comes off very amateurish to me. Somebody may point out that that’s how wrestling was presented back in the day before Vince McMahon came along and made the show more of a spectacle. If that’s the vibe ROH is going for, that’s fine. It’s just not something that makes me want to watch the show.

Another factor to my low interest in ROH is during the early days of the promotion most of the top guys worked for TNA and IWA:MS as well as ROH. Instead of seeking out ROH DVDs, I could watch TNA’s weekly show or go to the monthly IWA:MS show in the area to see guys like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe and others. Without having a reason to actively seek out their show on a regular basis, I never really became a fan of the promotion.

While ROH’s history is filled with “classic” matches, my cynical opinion is ROH fans often consider any match that goes at least 30 minutes, has a minimum of 10 false finishes and has guys dropping each other on their heads is an automatic five star match. If the match happens to include a Japanese wrestler than automatically gets 4 stars before it even starts. This mindset of fans, along with constant “this is awesome,” “this is wrestling” chants are more factors that turn me off to ROH.

Richards & Steen
Courtesy: ROH

Over the past year or two, the face of ROH was Davey Richards. Davey is the poster boy for everything I hate about independent wrestling. With Davey as champion, even with an undercard that would put on an amazing show, I had near zero interest in watching ROH. I won’t get into details, but there was an incident last weekend in Iowa involving Davey and for the foreseeable future, I am boycotting any show that has Davey Richards. From what I’ve read, ROH isn’t using Davey at the present time, so this boycott may not apply to ROH.

Overall, ROH simply doesn’t appeal to me. I understand they’ve gone through some roster changes and the independent wrestling scene isn’t as top loaded with talent as it was in 2002-2003. I have no problem with watching guys who aren’t ready for primetime get their shot and watch them improve as they get more experienced. Heck, that’s basically how I’ve gotten to know and appreciate the entire Chikara roster. The problem is what I’ve seen out of ROH hasn’t captured my attention.

Maria & Mike Bennett
Courtesy: ROH

Now that I’m done burying ROH, I hope at least a little of what I’ve written explains why you don’t see much coverage of Ring of Honor on my123cents. Plus, I don’t get the weekly TV show in LA and don’t think about watching it online.

Also everything I’ve written could be applied to Dragon Gate USA/Evolve. Even the guys I do enjoy watching wrestling in ROH/DGUSA/Evolve don’t appeal to me in those environments so I’d prefer to watch them in other promotions.

I will try to include more thoughts about the Independent scene in the coming months. It would help if promotions sent me some DVDs to check out. With limited finances and a Chikara addiction to feed, as well as upcoming trips for Bound For Glory and Wrestlemania 29, my wrestling budget is pretty tight at the moment.

Thanks for reading and your continued support of my123cents. Remember to check us out on Facebook and Twitter.

Ring of Honor 10 Year Anniversary

From @trendingdanny

By Chad Smart
@chadsmart on Twitter

Since Ring of Honor’s 10-Year anniversary show ended a little over three hours ago, I’ve been sitting here debating whether to write about the show or not. One on hand I realize the writings on My123Cents are heavily slanted towards WWE and Chikara and would like to see us branch out and write about other promotions more. On the other hand, I’ve written before about what I don’t like about ROH and the 10-Year show highlighted a lot of those areas. I made the New Year’s resolution to be more positive in my writings because I’ve been called out by several friends who say I’m always complaining and if I hate what’s going on in the wrestling world so much why do I write about it.

I don’t watch the weekly ROH TV show. There’s no Sinclair station in the Los Angeles area and I don’t make time to sit and watch it online. I’ve attended three ROH shows and have walked away from each show more disappointed than entertained. I have not bought an ROH DVD since 2006. My biggest complaint with Ring of Honor is every match has the same ultra serious mindset. From what I’ve seen, there is very little variety. Maybe I’m wrong and haven’t seen enough recent action to form an opinion. If so, please let me know.

After thinking about it, the one positive I can say is if you are interested in watching the show, it is available on gfl.tv for only $9.99. At three and a half hours long, $10 for a PPV is a bargain in today’s market.

Guess if I’m going to be critical of the show might as well start with the main event. After all that’s what theoretically sold the show, right? The main event was subtitled “Young Wolves Rising.” The American Wolves (ROH Champion Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards) have apparently split up and taken a member of Future Shock (Kyle O’Reilly and Adam Cole) under their wings. Davey teamed with Kyle while Eddie had Adam as his backup.

The last ROH Ippv I ordered had a main event of Eddie Edwards defending the ROH title against Davey Richards. Davey won the title after a 40-minute grueling contest that allegedly Davey didn’t remember the last half of the match due to being knocked senseless. I am not a fan of the strong style Davey is known for because I don’t care to see wrestlers actually getting hurt. Plus the matches tend to rely on a lot of high impact moves, which should end a match, yet are used as transition moves. There’s little psychology.

In the 10-Year main event, at one point Davey was fighting with Adam and Eddie was beating up Kyle. Davey and Eddie were doing the exact same moves. I could buy this if it happened at the start of the match to show how The American Wolves were identical and used to build frustration between the two. Instead this came about 20-25 minutes into the match. The layout of the match didn’t gel with me. As I mentioned before, there were several moves that should have ended the match. At one point, I forget who it was, but one guy got kicked in the head then brainbustered. A 1-2 punch that would have sensibly ended the match. It didn’t. What did end the match? A flying crossbody. There’s nothing wrong with a crossbody. Ricky Steamboat won many a match using the crossbody. However when guys have been dumped on their head over and over and other high impact moves didn’t end the match, then a crossbody pins a guy who was in control of the match, I don’t buy it.

Adam Cole got the crossbody on Davey Richards to position him as a legitimate future challenger for the ROH title. I have no problem with this even though I expected Eddie Edwards to get the win since he is challenging Davey at the next ROH Ippv over Wrestlemania weekend. After the match Kevin Steen showed up in the crowd to taunt Davey and claim he would be the next ROH champion if given a shot at the title. So you have one guy who’s got a title shot, one guy who proved himself capable of pinning the champion, and one guy trying to talk himself into a title match. I applaud ROH for setting up several challengers instead of waiting until one title match is done and then inserting another challenger into the role.

The rest of the show was neither good nor bad. It was just there. There were some matches I enjoyed more than others but there wasn’t anything totally offensive or anything that blew me away. I did take exception to the TV title match going to the 15-minute time limit. Not that I disagree with the decision, just that that should happen on the weekly TV show not on PPV. Just my opinion.

I’ve read several opinions on the show and a lot of people are giving high marks to the Roderick Strong/Michael Elgin vs. TJ Perkins/Amazing Red tag match. To be honest, I was dozing off during the match so I didn’t notice anything that made the match stand out. My personal opinion is TJ and Red are good high-energy guys that can fly around the ring. I haven’t seen Michael Elgin enough to have an opinion and the only positive I can say about Roderick is, at least he’s not Davey Richards.

Due to the finding the first half of the show lackluster and having a Twitter conversation going on during the start of the second half of the show, I feel I need to go back and re-watch Briscoes/Young Bucks and Kevin Steen vs. Jimmy Jacobs. Both matches were ones I was really looking forward to and my initial opinion was both were a step below what I expected.

One area that really bothered me was the commentary on the show. This was my first time hearing Nigel McGuinness on commentary and I don’t think given his ROH experience he added anything that anyone familiar with his career couldn’t have said if they were on headset. WWE fans know how annoying Michael Cole can be when he’s shilling Twitter during a match. At least he doesn’t actually stop calling the action to read tweets the way Kevin Kelly did during the high profile matches. Maybe I’m old and haven’t embraced the new social media, I simply don’t get the point of ignoring the in ring action to tell the fans what fans are saying when fans could simply log into Twitter and read the comments themselves.

In addition to the commentary, this was probably the worst show from a technical standpoint. During the first two matches the audio levels kept bouncing from a good level to REALLY LOUD. Graphics promoting the upcoming matches would pop up earlier than they should have and stayed up too long. Several times the picture would cut to something irrelevant while something important happened in the ring. I don’t know if there was a new crew working behind the scenes or what the reasoning was for the glitches. I do know if this was the first show I ordered, I would be hesitant to order another Ippv.

And the TNA moment of the night belongs to the Homicide/Mike Bennett match. Bennett is dating former WWE Diva and ex-girlfriend of CM Punk, Maria Kanellis. This lead to the ROH smark crowd to chant CM Punk during the match to try and insult Bennett. Bennett got on the mic and claimed he, not Punk, was the best in the world. I don’t remember if it was Homicide or Bennett who attempted a Pepsi Plunge during the match. Towards the end of the match, Homicide gave Bennett the Go 2 Sleep after mimicking Punk’s mannerism of sleeping. An undercard match, which should have been used to elevate a rising star for ROH, was instead used to put over the WWE champion. Makes perfect sense to me.

Oh yeah, I guess I should mention the one part of the show I enjoyed and was the main reason I ordered the show. Chikara Grand Champion Eddie Kingston was invited to the ring to talk about the Chikara/ROH doubleheader in Chicago. During his interview Kevin Steen came out to try and entice Kingston into joining forces to destroy both Chikara and ROH. After Kingston turned Steen down, the two came to blows. When security got Kingston out of the ring, Steen took the Grand Championship belt, laid it in the ring and proceeded to set up like he was going to urinate on the title. Seeing their company’s title being disrespected, Jigsaw, Fire Ant and Green Ant hit the ring to fight for Chikara’s honor. I don’t know where the feud is leading but I’m all for a Kingston vs. Steen match.

Again, I’m not ROH’s target audience. They offer up something different then WWE and TNA. I’m simply not interested in their product. I won’t fault anyone who finds ROH enjoyable. Not everyone needs to enjoy the same things in life. Life would be pretty boring if everyone always agreed. I will more than likely attend the ROH Chicago show in April. At least I’ll have Kevin and our friends from AAPW with us to help enjoy the show.

Did you watch the ROH 10-Year Anniversary? Do you watch the weekly ROH TV show? What is your opinion of the promotion? Share your thoughts on Facebook.

The Winner Is...

By Chad Smart & Kevin Hunsperger
@my123cents on Twitter


Movies have the Oscar.  Television has the Emmy.  WWE has the Slammy.  We here at My 1-2-3 Cents have the Centy.  Yes, we've decided to come up with some year end awards to present for the best and worst in professional wrestling, aka sports entertainment.  We'll each weigh in on the category as to why we picked the winner.  Some may be duplicate thoughts, but Chad has a much more extensive knowledge of the independent scene, so this could be interesting...


Wrestler of the Year:

Eddie Kingston

Chad's Pick:  Eddie Kingston. The first Chikara Grand Champion has to be Wrestler of the Year. This was harder to choose than I expected. While I expect Kevin to pick CM Punk, I think Punk had a good last 5 months of the year while Kingston had a solid full year. And I'm a Chikara mark so I am obligated to pick one of their wrestlers for this category.

 Kevin's Pick:  Chad knows me oh so well.  I do pick CM Punk for Wrestler of the Year.  Punk in my opinion helped change the game in 2011.  I'll be the first to admit, I'm a bandwagon fan of his.  It wasn't until he started the Straight Edge Society that I started taking notice of him.  He had a good year and I hope it continues in 2012.

Michael Cole made us all cringe

Channel Changer of the Year:
Chad's Pick: Michael Cole. Hands down the "Michael Cole as heel commentator" is one of the worst ideas the WWE brain trusts have ever thought put on TV.  How anyone in charge can't see or not understand how damaging Cole is to the overall product is beyond me. His constant burial of now World Champion Daniel Bryan tells fans they shouldn't take Bryan serious. With WWE seemingly shifting attention to a new generation, all focus should be on creating and establishing new stars not telling the WWE Universe the Superstars getting airtime aren't worth being on television. Dishonorable mention would also go to Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. 1997 called. They want their lead heels back. 2011 is not the time for heelish authority figures who shouldn't ever be in a wrestling match.

Kevin's Pick:  Gotta agree 100% on this one too.  Michael Cole may be the most annoying personality in the history of Monday Night Raw.  I blogged about my dislike for his commentary several times this year and his hand in the constant burial of Jim Ross.  If he's the voice of the WWE, I vote for a big case of larnygitis in 2012.  I also think Hogan and Bischoff could be on this list.  The whole father-son feud between Eric and his boy Garrett makes for unentertaining television.


Promo of the Year:
Chad's Pick: Eddie Kingston's Road to High Noon promo. While I had already made plans to order Chikara's first Internet PPV as soon as they announced the date, the Eddie Kingston promo Chikara posted a few days before the show guaranteed I was going to order the show twice. This promo did exactly what it needed to do. It stressed how important the match Eddie was having against Mike Quackenbush was to Eddie personally and how much winning the Grand Championship would mean to Eddie. This is honestly the only promo I can remember that gave me chills each time I watched it. While CM Punk's Kickoff to the Summer of Punk promo was also really good, in the world of "If it's on TV it's been approved by management," the promo lacked the organic realness of Kingson's promo.

Kevin's Pick:  Having only watched a little of Chikara, I don't know much about it.  But I thought Kingston's promo was real and from the heart.  But in an effort to stop constantly agreeing with Chad, I'm going to go with the Summer of Punk Promo.  Sure it was scripted, but I haven't heard so much buzz about a single promo by a WWE star in years.

Angle of the Year:
Chad's Pick:  While the follow up was botched, it's hard to deny the Summer of Punk redux wasn't the most talked about event of the year. WWE had a storyline that had fans genuinely interested in and unsure what was going to happen next.  Unfortunately, WWE didn't get the post title win time to build and make Punk's return really impactful. 

McGuire vs. Allwardt (courtesy Adam Testa)

Kevin's Pick:  Excellent points made by Chad, but I'm going to do some self promotion here and say the current storyline between AAPW Champion Edmund "Livewire" McGuire and Ax Allwardt has been very entertaining.  These two have taken their hatred for one another to a new level.  There have been back stage attacks, in ring attacks, and even an incident in the parking lot.  It all comes to a head at AAPW Main Event on January 14th.

Randy Orton (from WWE)

Most Hated:
Chad's Pick:  Randy Orton. For the life of me I can't figure out the appeal of this guy. Actually Most Hated is probably to strong and gives Orton too much credit. He's more like Most Useless Waste of Space. Orton is a  John Cena in training. Guy who gets beat up a lot but ultimately wins in the end. I really do want someone to logically explain to me his appeal. And his tattoos are stupid. In a Most Hated in a Fun Way it has to be Icarus. The guy has been on the ChikaraChikara roster. How he can stay so hated on a roster where fans appreciated everyone is a testament to his heelish talent.

Kevin's Pick:  Michael Cole.  You can read my reasoning in the Channel Changer of the Year.  Again, I feel he'd do a better service as a manager, just keep him away from commentary.  Bottom line, he's obnoxious.


Most Under appreciated:
Chad's Pick:  Until the past month I would have said the TNA Originals. But it appears TNA may actually be starting to give them the spotlight. I guess I'll say the WWE tag team division. Though I don't know if it's under appreciated or just under used.

Natalya at the Royal Rumble (from WWE)

Kevin's Pick:  Natalya.  I think there are a lot of good choices here, and I like Chad's suggestion about the tag team division.  I feel like Nattie got screwed out of the Divas title at the Royal Rumble by dropping it to Eve and has really not gotten her traction back since then.  I like her alliance with Beth Phoenix, but Natalya seems to be on the losing end of a lot of her matches.  She's one of the best female wrestlers the company has ever had, they need to let her shine more.

(from ROH)

Most Overrated:
Chad's Pick: Davey Richards. As much as I don't see the appeal of Randy Orton, the fandom of Davey Richards completely baffles me. I went to a PWG show back in January with a friend who had gone to a show with me back in 2007. My friend doesn't follow wrestling and hadn't seen a show since the few shows he saw in 2007. When Davey Richards came out to a chorus of cheers, he was stunned. "Isn't this the same guy everyone booed and called an oompa loompa?" he asked. I don't get the appeal the Strong Style form of wrestling. As much as I like watching wrestlers pretend to hurt each other, I greatly dislike seeing wrestlers actually hurting each other. When Richards won the ROH World Title, he allegedly didn't know the match was over and couldn't remember the last half of the match due to a concussion.  Given the number of concussions in wrestling and the lingering effects they can have one a person, wrestling promoters should encourage a style that is less harmful on wrestlers not more harmful.   Outside of his personal wrestling style, compared to Davey Richards, Randy Orton looks like Ultimate Warrior on the charismatic scale.  I was happy when Davey said he was going to retire at the end of 2010. I wish when wrestlers talked retirement they would actually stick to it. 

Kevin's Pick:  Alberto Del Rio.  All sizzle and no steak as far as I can tell.  The WWE wants us to buy into him, but I'm still not sold.  He may have won the Royal Rumble, Money in the Bank, and two WWE championships, but Del Rio still hasn't impressed me yet.  Now that they've paired him with the Bella Twins, I wonder if management thinks he's not over either. However, I've read that Vince McMahon is high on him, so I'm sure we'll see more of a push for the Mexican aristocrat in 2012.

Zack Ryder vs. Dolph Ziggler (from WWE)

Breakout Star:
Chad's Pick:  I'm not really sure I want to go with him, but Zack Ryder is the only wrestler I can really think of for this category. I'm still on the fence on if his cult popularity can be sustained by his in ring skills or if he's going to be a flash in the pan. Plus, I think WWE has mishandled Zack by taking him from guy not on TV to US Title in such a quick fashion. I will give Zack credit for creating his own destiny. 

Kevin's Pick:  Good choice, but I'm going with Dolph Ziggler.  He shined in his series earlier in the year with Edge and proved he can be a main event player in my book.  Dolph had his ups and downs throughout the year, but he won the U.S. title and held it for nearly six months which is quite a feat.  He also did a couple of double duties on WWE pay per views this year.  I still think 2012 is going to be an even bigger year for Ziggler.

Only in Wrestling:

Chad's Pick:  Santa Playa and Hornswoggle the Elf.  Viewers of WWE's TLC PPV got to see one of the lamest and probably borderline racist and other ISTs promos with Teddy Long dressed as Santa Claus and Hornswoggle as an Elf. I really want to know who came up with the idea and who decided it should be shown on TV. I don't think you'd see anything like this anywhere else except for maybe on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia or South Park.

Snooki with the win (from WWE)

Kevin's Pick:  I'm going to go with the surge of non wrestlers stepping into the ring.  I don't know if it's really a surge, but specifically I'm talking about Snooki and Ronnie from the Jersey Shore.  Each made their wrestling debuts this year.  While I know wrestling is more sports entertainment these days, would you ever see the Situation suit up for the New York Giants?  Or how about JWoww playing for the WNBA?  Of course not.  And what's worse is when these "celebrities" go over in the match.


Show of the Year:
Chad's Pick: Chikara's High Noon. Chikara made their Internet PPV debut and put on a stacked show from top to bottom. While Money in the Bank had the Match of the Year. I don't remember much of the undercard. High Noon on the other hand was the culmination of stories that spanned a year or longer. High Noon was what Wrestlemania used to be. The crowning of Chikara's first Grand Champion was ten years in the making and lived up to the hype.


Kevin's Pick:  I didn't see a whole lot of pay per views this year, so it may not be totally fair for me to make a pick here.  However, I felt like Money in the Bank was the best of what I saw.  

Ophidian (from Chikara)

Star on the Horizon:
Chad's Pick:  Ophidian. While Ophidian had a losing record after his partner Amasis was injured early in the year, I think 2012 will be his breakout year. Ophidian attacking Amasis at High Noon after Amasis announced his injuries were so severe he wouldn't be able to ever wrestle again was the stepping stone for Ophidian's singles career. I am curious to see what Ophidian does during Chiakara's Season 11.

Kevin's Pick:  Cody Rhodes.  I'm not sure if he qualifies or not, as he already is a star.  Maybe I should have switched he and Dolph Ziggler on the breakthrough performer.  Regardless, Cody definitely stepped up his game in 2011 and as far as I'm concerned has outshined his fellow Legacy members (Orton and Ted DiBiase)  I see big things for the son of the American Dream.  Only time will tell if he fulfills his destiny (sorry Alberto)


Female of the Year:

Del Rey & Kharma, from Shimmer

Chad's Pick:  Sara Del Rey. The Queen of Wrestling had a remarkable year after breaking free from the BDK and coming up just short in Chikara's 12 Large Summit. Now that's she demolished Jakob Hammermeier, I expect her to try and make a run at becoming Chikara's first female Grand Champion.

Kevin's Pick:  Kharma.  Her time with the WWE was brief, and I still think she'll be back, but has there ever been so much buzz about a Diva before her first appearance?  I loved the vignettes the WWE put together and how Kharma came in and destroyed all the women who got in her way.  I'm really curious to see where the angle was headed, but Kharma has been on the shelf, preparing to deliver a baby.  I expect big things from her in 2012 and I hope she and my choice for honorable mention, Beth Phoenix have some type of program against one another.


So, what do you think?  Who would you have awarded with a Centy?  Post your thoughts here or on Facebook, Twitter, or even YouTube.

I'm (Not) Honored

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

I'm going to be up front (like always) with this post from the start.  I am biased in this one because of my association with All American Pro Wrestling.  But I'm writing this as a part of that company and as a wrestling fan.  Some haters may think I'm chewing on sour grapes, but please read the entire post before passing judgment.

I live and work in southern Illinois (which is no where near Chicago or Springfield).  Here in southern Illinois (Carbondale, Marion area to be exact) there is a wrestling promotion called All American Pro Wrestling.  AAPW has been around more than 5 years now.  On September 3, AAPW made its television debut on WSIL TV (which I also happen to work for as a news anchor).  I am a color commentator for AAPW, a position that I love and enjoy doing very much.  It's only once a month, I wish it could be more.

Anyway, our show Collision airs every other Saturday at noon.  The coverage area includes southern Illinois, southeast Missouri, western Kentucky, and a small part of northwest Tennessee.  The next show airs Saturday, October 1 at noon. Your support is appreciated.

In August, there was some buzz in AAPW, as it was announced the Ring of Honor champion Davey Richards would be making an appearance at a Collision taping.  The plan was for him to work the main event of one of our shows that is set to air in October.  We tape on Sunday afternoons at 2 p.m. at the Black Diamond Harley Davidson warehouse in Marion (here's the taping schedule for the rest of the year)  Our executive producer, Chris Hagstrom, called me around 10:30 that morning saying that Sinclair Broadcasting (which owns ROH) was pulling the plug on his appearance.

This news was disappointing on a number of levels.  My first thought was why in the world would they wait until the day of the show to pull his appearance.  For those who don't know, ROH is launching a new show on Sinclair owned stations around the country.  We offered to do the match as a dark match, with no cameras rolling.  Sinclair still said no. So there was no point in him showing up, and he didn't.

Now there happens to be two Sinclair stations in this market.  And it's recently been announced that the ROH show is airing opposite AAPW Collision on Saturday afternoons on one of the stations.  It's also airing on the sister station on Saturday nights.

AAPW champion Livewire McGuire with Sam Smith 

I am frustrated by this.  While I have no proof that ROH or Sinclair is doing any of this on purpose it has left a sour taste in my mouth.  Competition is great, but I personally think there's plenty of room in the market for a couple of wrestling shows.  My objection is with all the other time slots available why not pick another?  I know ROH is airing at various times in the afternoon and evening hours around the country.  I have nothing against ROH.  In fact, their social media guy, David Lagana is my favorite podcaster out there.

It just seems like Sinclair is going after the little guy.  And trust me, we are little, but we are mighty and we are strong.  I'm proud to be a part of All American Pro Wrestling.  Watching this show will truly support the local wrestling movement.  Episodes are also available on line by clicking here.

Kevin Hunsperger & Chris Hagstrom

I would encourage you to watch live on WSIL if you live in the area.  If not, please take a look and watch online.  Things are definitely getting interesting with the storylines and the wrestlers give 110% when they're in the ring.  I'm still learning as far as the commentary goes, please give me your feedback.  I've never done play by play for anything before.  I'll admit I'm "greener than goose poop" in those first couple of episodes.  But I really think Chris and I have found a groove in the most recent shows we've taped.  So please, support your indy wrestling whether it's here in SOIL/SEMO/WKY or in your own community. Thanks.

Support Your Local Wrestlers

From allamericanprowrestling.com

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

This blog has a duel purpose.  Regular readers know that I recently became the play by play guy for All American Pro Wrestling, a group based in southern Illinois.  Even if you don't live in this area, I encourage you to keep reading, this post isn't just about AAPW.

The folks there have been working hard for the last 5 years.  That hard work has paid off, and now AAPW has landed a television show.  Collision debuts September 3 on WSIL TV at noon.

Working on the shows has made me realize just how hard it is to put together a wrestling program.  I have a very minor role in all this, the show's executive producer, (and my cohort at the announce table) Chris Hagstrom has done a tremendous job putting all this together.

There are countless hours of set up and tear down before and after each taping.  Then there's the editing and revoicing if necessary.  He adds in the commercial spots and gets everything sent off to the TV station to make sure it's ready for the big debut.  I have seen the show in raw form 2 or 3 times now.  I can't wait to see the finished product.

One more plug, and then I'll get to my original point.  On Sunday, August 28 we're taping two more episodes of Collision at Black Diamond Harley Davidson in Marion, Illinois.  Belltime is 2 p.m.  Besides the usual suspects like Shane Rich, "Golden Boy" Greg Anthony, and Curly; the reigning Ring of Honor champion Davey Richards will also be on hand.  I'm looking forward to meeting him and hope to talk with him for the My 1-2-3 Cents YouTube channel.

I think it's great that local wrestling is finally getting some time on television.  If you live in a community that has an independent wrestling organization, I would encourage you to check it out.  The men and women who are in the ring and behind the scenes bust their asses to keep the fans entertained.

Admittedly these wrestlers aren't on the same level as the stars you'll see on Mondays, Thursdays, or Fridays.  But you never know who you'll end up seeing on Raw, SmackDown!, or Impact one day.

Matt Sydal (aka Evan Bourne)

The rigors they put themselves through for very little pay and maybe even less glory should be commended.  I'm not just talking about AAPW talent.  I'm talking all the indy stars out there.  Here's a fun fact, I worked a couple of IWA: Midsouth shows several years back that featured Matt Sydal.  If the name isn't familiar, he's the current coholder of the WWE tag team titles, Evan Bourne.  I wish back then I would have paid more attention to his work.  You just never know where some of these guys are going to end up.

Supporting local wrestling also supports your community.  You're putting money in these wrestlers' pockets.  Many of them probably live and work in your town, or nearby.  They spend that money they make at stores, restaurants, and other businesses where you live.  So going to a wrestling show keeps you entertained and helps the local economy.

Southern Illinois readers, hope to see you Sunday.  And don't forget to tune in to WSIL TV in September.  It's going to be awesome. (sorry Miz)

I'm No JR, And I Shouldn't Be

AAPW broadcast team, Kevin & Chris (courtesy: Adam Testa)

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

July 30, 2011 one of my childhood dreams came true.  I got to call a wrestling show that will be broadcast on television.  It was an exciting experience and I look forward to doing it again next month.

I am proud to say that I am part of the broadcast team for All American Pro Wrestling.  It's an organization based in southern Illinois and has been around for five years.  Recently, the group secured a time slot on local television (WSIL TV 3)  The new show, Collision, will start airing on September 3 and will be seen in southern Illinois, southeast Missouri, western Kentucky, and northwest Tennessee.  It will be the first time in decades that professional wrestling has graced local TV in this market.

My broadcast partner, Chris Hagstrom approached me with the idea of doing the show several months ago and asked if I'd be interested in being on the team.  Of course I was.  This was something I'd always wanted to do.  I'm just glad everything worked out and it's going to be on the fall schedule.

AAPW champ Edmund "Livewire" McGuire w/Sam Smith

Two shows were already taped, and I was out of town for that and wasn't able to do the commentary live that night.  So Chris and I met and did it.  That was the first time I'd ever done anything like that.  I am a news anchor and reporter, but doing play by play is totally new to me.  Fast forward to July 30, and we were there live with the crowd and able to call the action before our very eyes.  I think I was able to get more involved in stories being told in the ring and hopefully help explain to the fans watching what was going on.

I'll be honest, in the weeks leading up to the show I was very nervous.  I wasn't sure exactly what my style should be.  I'm still not sure.  I watched several old matches with Gorilla Monsoon, Jessie Ventura, Gordon Solie, Jim Ross, and Joey Styles.  They've all got different roles and different styles when it comes to calling matches.  I knew I didn't want to be like any of the current wrestling broadcasters.

Calling it like I see it. (Courtesy: Adam Testa)

I think Chris and I did a good job of focusing on the action in the ring.  There was no shilling, which I think is a good thing about independent wrestling.  We can actually focus on the WRESTLING.  Of course though, I'm no JR, I have a lot of work to do, but I've decided I don't want be like JR.  Or Solie, or Styles for that matter.  I want to come up with my own niche.  It's going to take time, but I think it's possible.  I can't wait for the shows to start airing so I can get feed back from all of you.  I think all too often in just about every form of entertainment and sports, participants try to emulate or recreate something or someone from the past.  So instead of being the new JR, I want to just be Kevin Hunsperger.

Courtesy: ROH

So, once the show is on the air (remember, it's September 3) I want to hear what you guys like about it.  What you like about the commentary.  I'll pass along suggestions to those in charge.  And if you're in the area, come out for our show on Sunday, August 28.  ROH Champion Davey Richards will be on hand that day at Black Diamond Harley Davidson.   I'm hoping to be able to get an interview with him for the blog and the YouTube channel.

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