2017 Centy Awards

By Kevin Hunsperger

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

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It's the start of a new year and we're wrapping up 2017 with the annual Centy Awards. You can listen to the full explanation of each award on the My 1-2-3 Cents podcast this week with Chad and me. 

Wrestler of the Year

Kevin's pick: AJ Styles

Chad's pick: Dalton Castle

Most Hated

Kevin's pick: Injuries. Dean Ambrose. Big Cass. Farmer Billy Hills. Nikki Lane. Marco Stunt.

Chad's pick: Baron Corbin

Most Underappreciated Kevin's pick: Stride Pro Wrestling referee Lane Austin 

Chad's pick: Rusev

Most Overrated Kevin's pick: Baron Corbin 

Chad's pick: Nakamura 

Breakout Star of the Year Kevin's pick: Johnny Gargano 

Chad's pick: Velveteen Dream

Show of the Year Kevin's pick: Buried Alive by Stride Pro Wrestling

Chad's pick: Tom & Jim's Top 5 (podcast) 

Star on the Horizon Kevin's pick: Matthew Riddle 

Chad's pick: Ophidian 2.0

Female of the Year
Kevin's pick: Alexa Bliss

Chad's pick: Alexa Bliss

Best Use of Social Media Kevin's pick: Chris Slammer (@macsgym)

Chad's pick: Rusev

Biggest Fall From Grace

Kevin's pick: James Ellsworth 

Chad's pick: NXT

All Out of Bubblegum Award: I came up with this award in honor of "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. This year it's going to Jerry Travelstead. He does so much to help others with wrestling fundraisers. You can read more about his efforts here.

Cody's tough 'Rhodes' ahead

Kurt Angle vs. Cody Rhodes
Source: Wrestlezone.com

By Kevin Hunsperger

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter
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Earlier this year Cody Rhodes left WWE to pursue a career on the independent scene. Up until recently he's been wrestling on shows under his WWE-given moniker. But now word is that Cody can't keep the surname when he starts competing in both Ring of Honor and TNA. Why you ask? Because Cody's real last name is Runnels and apparently WWE owns the rights to Rhodes.

This is an unfortunate situation. Before blasting anyone, there is still a chance a deal can be brokered between the two sides, as Cody is apparently in talks and left WWE under good terms. I'm hopeful a deal can be reached and both sides are happy with the end result. Eventually I believe Cody will come back to WWE with even more fanfare than he had before.

Stardust
Courtesy: WWE

I understand WWE wanting to keep the Stardust name. But I don't agree with the Rhodes argument. CM Punk came and went with his name because it wasn't a WWE commodity. Dusty Rhodes was a huge star before going to WWF, so by default Dustin and Cody should have access to the name. I understand it's a business and that's the reason behind it. WWE isn't trying to be petty. But let's face it in the court of public opinion them hanging on to the Rhodes name will end up hurting them more than if Cody is allowed to use it.

Cody wins!
Courtesy: Wrestlezone.com

I'm excited for what the future holds for Cody. He had a successful match against WWE alum Kurt Angle recently. There will be plenty of buzz surrounding him in TNA and ROH. He was an underutilized talent for years. Now he's shining bright (like a star... kinda). Best of luck to Cody whether he keeps Rhodes and wrestles as Runnels.

Destination America Picks Up Ring of Honor

This is a press release from Destination America.  Looks like TNA and ROH will both be shown on Wednesday nights.

DESTINATION AMERICA BRINGS MORE ACTION TO THE RING ACQUIRING THE RIGHTS TO RING OF HONOR'S WEEKLY TELEVISION PROGRAMMING

(Silver Spring, Md.) –Destination America announced today that it has signed a national broadcast deal with professional wrestling league RING OF HONOR, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., bringing one of the most respected wrestling organizations to the only network dedicated to all-American entertainment. Destination America is now the one-two-punch to professional wrestling, adding RING OF HONOR (ROH) to its line-up after launching IMPACT WRESTLING in early 2015. RING OF HONOR has been delivering top wrestling matches for ten years with captivating hard-hitting stars such as Jay & Mark Briscoe,  AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, The Young Bucks, Maria Kanellis, Adam Cole and Jay Lethal. Destination America will pack on the action beginning Wednesday June 3 with the series premiere of RING OF HONOR at 8/7c leading into brand new premieres of IMPACT WRESTLING at 9/8c.

"With the electric and intense matches that RING OF HONOR provides, Destination America is the network for fans to get an entire evening of jaw-dropping entertainment on Wednesday nights," said Marc Etkind, general manager of Destination America. "RING OF HONOR showcases tenacity, athleticism and passion and it serves as the place where America's favorite wrestling stars are born."

"We are very excited to be partnering with Destination America for the broader distribution of the ROH programming," commented Joe Koff, Chief Operating Officer - Ring of Honor Wrestling. "ROH will now reach an additional 57 million households including those in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and other large cities where Ring of Honor is not currently airing. ROH has a loyal fan base and is one of the fastest growing major wrestling franchises in the country. With this great partnership with Destination America, we can continue to expand our footprint and reach while producing entertaining, original content and continuing to provide wrestling fans some of the best wrestling content available.

RING OF HONOR will premiere on Wednesday, June 3 leading into IMPACT WRESTLING, making Destination America the home for wrestling every Wednesday evening. The first match will feature the Briscoe Brothers, Mark and Jay, as they face off with the House of Truth in the main event. Also catch athletes of New Japan Pro Wrestling battle it out with the RING OF HONOR stars and follow former NFL lineman Moose compete against BJ Whitmer.

Since launching in 2012, Destination America has become one of cable's top fastest-growing networks, and continues to earn telecast ratings records among key series. In 2015 to date, Destination America has acquired over 50 million unique viewers. With top series that explore unique American cultures and ways of life – including Paranormal Survivor, Hillbilly Blood, Buying the Bayou, and BBQ Pitmasters – Destination America's programming spans the nation from Alaska, Hawaii and Colorado to Louisiana, West Virginia and communities in between. To find Destination America, go to destinationamerica.com/watchda.

Looking Ahead to 2015

Daniel Bryan wins again!

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

If you listened to our Centy Awards Podcast or read the blog, you know that I did not focus my attention very far outside of WWE when it came to my wrestling consumption.  The first thing I predict for 2015 is for that to change.  And really, it'll be the only thing I can have any control over, everything else here is a guess, some of it wishful thinking.  But please note that predictions are not necessarily things that I WANT to happen, but what I think may be in store for us.  Some of these are serious, others are just for fun.

Daniel Bryan will win the Royal Rumble and face WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins at Wrestlemania 31.  Rollins will cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase after John Cena beats Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble.  After the loss, Lesnar will layout Cena, making it the opportune time for Rollins to cash in and win.  If Bryan isn't the winner of the Rumble, insert Roman Reigns and follow the same scenario. 

The Ascension will win the WWE tag team titles, in what will be another dismal year for tag team wrestling in the company.  

The Undertaker will return to Wrestlemania and avenge his loss to Brock Lesnar from last year.

Mr. Touchdown: Future Grand Champion

Mr. Touchdown will win Chikara's Grand Championship.

Papa Shango will bring back to life the Estonian Thunderfrog and Kobald and the three will enter Chikara's King of Trios Tournament.

TNA's move to a new network will hurt the company in its attempt to reinvent itself.  Viewership will be greatly affected, but the company will stay afloat.

Adrian Neville will win the Intercontinental title.

Rusev's unbeaten streak will come to an end at the hands of Ryback. (I'm really hoping not)

Hall of Fame inductees this year will include Sting, Diamond Dallas Page and Ivan Koloff.

Happening at Wrestlemania 31???

The Authority will dissolve again after Wrestlemania when Sting beats Triple H and Bryan regains the championship.

Kevin Owens will win the NXT Championship.

The Briscoes will leave Ring of Honor and sign a developmental deal with WWE.  

Alberto Del Patron will capture the Ring of Honor championship.

Global Force Wrestling will have a successful venture with New Japan at Wrestle Kingdom 9, setting up the company to make an "impact" here in the United States.

Jim Ross will return to the mic, after the Wrestle Kingdom event and call wrestling matches on a semi-regular basis.

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WrestleCon/Wrestlemania Weekend Highlights

Blassie, Martel, Wizard, and Testa

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

The weekend marked my seventh live Wrestlemania and all the activities associated with the biggest event of the year.  The weekend actually turned into a week for my posse this year, and it was much bigger than just Wrestlemania itself.  Several wrestling companies worked in collaboration to put on WrestleCon, a convention and series of wrestling shows.  Luckily, we were able to attend many of the events, so here are my personal favorites from our time spent on the East Coast.  (These are in no particular order)  By the way, Chad was dressed like the Grand Wizard and I was "Classy" Freddie Blassie on Sunday.

Outside WWE HQ in Stamford

Visiting WWE HQ: Our group arrived in New Jersey Wednesday.  I had always promised myself if I was ever within driving distance of WWE Headquarters I was going to make the trek.  Since Stamford, Connecticut is only about an hour a way, we rented a car and made the drive.  You can see the enormous building from Interstate 95.  We pulled off the highway, parked and walked to the facility and posed from some pictures outside.  It was awesome seeing the place in person, even if only for a few minutes.  It made the trip worth it.

Live from New York!:  I'm focusing just on the wrestling aspects of the trip, which included a trip into New York City and the Ring of Honor iPPV.  Friday night the company presented SuperCard of Honor VII.  The famed Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center hosted the event.  Two decades ago, Monday Night Raw was taped in this facility.  RD Evans stole the show early on, revealing himself as the mystery partner of QT Marshall.  The two went down in defeat to ACH and Tadarius Thomas, but really all four men put on an excellent match and set the tone for a great night of wrestling.  Jay Briscoe realized his dream in becoming the ROH champion with a victory over Kevin Steen, and even though some people hate him, I enjoy the work Shelton Benjamin does as he battled Mike Bennett.  The former WWE Intercontinental champion lost to Bennett in a fast paced match up.

Saraya Knight vs. Cheerleader Melissa

Ladies Night: I've heard plenty about Shimmer, but never had a chance to see it live.  I'm glad I made the decision to get a ticket to Saturday's iPPV 53.   These ladies all proved it takes more than a pretty face to be a wrestling star.  We sat in the second row, which put us close to the action, which included my current favorite women's wrestler Awesome Kong.  She put a beating on Mia Yim, who fought hard against the monstrous Kia Stevens.  There was also a four way tag match for the titles which saw the champs, the Canadian Ninjas retaining against Allyson Danger & Taylor Made, Kellie Skater & Tomoko Nakagawa, and Lufisto & Kana.  Lufisto hit a moonsault onto the other competitors outside the ring and with our view obstructed, all we heard was a loud thud as she crashed to the floor.  Cheerleader Melissa captured the Shimmer title by beating Saraya Knight in a cage match.  That was a first for me too.

Chikara Sets a Record: WrestleCon marked my third live Chikara event.  I always have fun at these shows.  This one was no exception.  More than a thousand fans attended this event, setting a new record for the company.  It was great to be a part of the crowd, which as always is entertaining.  Highlights include the Batiri winning a four team elimination match, which included a hilarious Tebow pose by Mr. Touchdown.  By the way, the ultra jock called me a nerd during intermission and asked for a pen to sign someone's autograph.  Jushin "Thunder" Liger and Mike Quackenbush beat Jigsaw and the Shard, and Marty Jannetty returned to action in an eight man tag.  Another fun/markish point during this show is I ran into Hulk Hogan, the Iron Sheik, and Liger in the bathroom at various times.  Hogan and Sheik were on the other side of the building doing autographs for WrestleCon.  Talk about a surreal pee break...

Bruno Sells Out MSG...Again: When he was wrestling as the WWWF Champion, Bruno Sammartino sold out Madison Square Garden 187 times.  Saturday night, you could say he did it for the 188th time, as Bruno was the headline inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame.  The Class of 2013 is without a doubt the best class to ever be inducted.  Bruno, Mick Foley, Booker T, Bob Backlund, and Trish Stratus all held the heavyweight title at least twice.  Celebrity inductee Donald Trump adds some start power and hate him or not, the WWE made the decision years ago for the celebrity wing, and I have no problem with his admission to the wing.  This was my first time at the Garden, and although I had hoped to see a wrestling match there, the Hall of Fame ceremony was a special night.  Wrestling fans need to continue to work on the jeering and cat calls during speeches, in particular Maria Menounos.  Also, the Hall of Fame is a special occasion, trade in the wrestling shirt, jeans, and replica belt for a button up shirt and khakis as the very least.

Welcome to Wrestlemania!: Every year the card seems a bit lackluster heading into the event, but there's something about being in the crowd live for Wrestlemania.  This year being in New Jersey and outside, it was quite chilly.  Early into the show it started to rain, but luckily it only lasted a few minutes.  I had a great time Sunday night.  CM Punk and the Undertaker stole the show in a match that seesawed like any Undertaker Wrestlemania encounter.  There were points when it looked as though the streak might come to an end, but once again, 'Taker picked up the win and went 21 and 0.  There's wasn't a match on the card that disappointed me, but I will say I didn't real feel that "Wrestlemania Moment".  Oddly enough, that would come 24 hours later...

Finally... Dolph is the champ
Photo courtesy: WWE

Dolph Steals the Show: Since Dolph Ziggler won the Money in the Bank briefcase fans have speculated on when he was going to cash it in.  Finally, on the Raw after Mania, the Showoff did just that.  He took advantage of an injured Alberto Del Rio to win the belt.  There were a few times I thought Del Rio would come back and win, but in the end, Ziggler won the gold.  The crowd that night was the most entertaining I've ever been a part of.  Chants for ECW, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, and  Fandango's theme music were just a few of the things that were heard.  Of course many of these happened during Randy Orton and Sheamus' match, which I would imagine didn't sit well with the superstars.  Even after the show had ended people continued to hum Fandango's music.  So not only on April 8 did we see Dolph Ziggler step to the next level, I think we also saw the official launch of Fandango.  I'm curious to see where WWE goes from here, as Wrestlemania is typically a reset for a new "season."  Ryback and John Cena seemed destined to feud and I like where things seem to be headed with the Shield, Team Hell No, and the Undertaker.

It was a great weekend.  This of course is the condensed version.  We hope to have all the pics posted on Facebook in the coming days.

Does ROH Need to Evolve?

By Chad Smart
@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter

First off, the double meaning of the title of this blog wasn’t intended. I was trying to think of a title to express ROH being stale and needing to change. Evolve was perfect word and just happens to be the name of the current wrestling company promoted by ex-ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky.

Kamala at ROH in 2009
Photo from My 1-2-3 Cents

Second, in full disclosure, I have not bought an ROH DVD in over six years. The last show I attended before the Chikara/ROH Chicago double-header in April was in Houston the weekend of Wrestlemania 25. I have ordered a few of their Ippvs, though the technical issues of Boarder Wars caused me to never wanting to waste my time on another ROH Ippv. Honestly, Ring of Honor has never really appealed to me on the same level as other wrestling companies. I can’t deny they’ve had several outstanding matches, but I see them more as a company you watch for matches not for shows. With that said, I’m probably not the person who should be writing this blog. However with Kevin wrapped up with his “BOO” series and me being more in tune with the independent scene, I qualify for this blog out of default.

Delirious

On October 8, 2012, news came out stating Hunter “Delirious” Johnston was taking full control over ROH creative while Jim Cornette will be moved help out more on the production side. The big question is will the change in creative regime matter? Hunter Johnston has been working with Cornette on the booking end for the past couple of years, so I don’t know if there will be a noticeable change in booking philosophy. Although several ex-ROH wrestlers have publicly complained about Cornette’s booking style in recent months. Maybe Cornette was preventing Johnston from achieving his full potential as booker. We shall see.

I think one of the biggest issues facing ROH is the battle over what they were when they started in 2002 versus what they are trying to be in 2012. In ROH’s early years they catered primarily to the Internet Wrestling Community. As I mentioned earlier, ROH shows weren’t so much storyline driven (though they did have some good angles) but were more like Indy dream cards. At the time the Independent scene was filled with guys who have now made their names in WWE and TNA. Guys like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels and Austin Aries to name a few. It would be pretty hard to take a roster with those names and not have good shows. I’ve often thought Gabe Saplosky was overrated as a booker given the talent available, the international talent that was brought in for big shows and how ROH failed to grow outside their core base. I don’t mean to infer Gabe wasn’t successful, just that his value was overstated.

Over the past four years, ROH branched out with a weekly television show. First it was a show on HDNet that, while having national coverage, was a niche channel few fans had access to watch. When ROH was sold to Sinclair Broadcasting fans thought it would bring more eyes to the company. Unfortunately Sinclair Broadcasting only has penetration in about 30% of the country. Also now that they’re part of a corporation there are more people in charge. Think of WCW on a smaller budget. With the addition of 52 weeks of television programming plus the house show DVDs and the now almost monthly Ippvs, there appears to be more of an emphasis on story telling instead of simply putting two outstanding wrestlers in the ring and letting them do their thing.

El Generico vs. Kevin Steen
Photo from ROH

In addition to the new business mentality taking its toll on ROH, the truth is the Independent scene doesn’t have talent depth it did ten years ago. Not discounting the talent that toils on a weekly basis trying to be the next breakout star, just pointing out the fact the Indy scene doesn’t have the same “must see” talents that were there a decade ago. ROH hasn’t really established a new face of the company in the last few years. I’m speaking from a personal bias here but the Davey Richards/Eddie Edwards/Roderick Strong trio are three guys I wouldn’t care if I never saw again. Their strong style-no selling mentality is the epitome of what I hate about independent wrestling. Kevin Steen is an entertaining person. I don’t know if his “destroy ROH” mentality has had the effect it was intended to have since Steen comes off like a cool heel in the same vein as Steve Austin or the nWo. Outside those names, the only wrestler I can think of that may have break out star potential is Michael Elgin. It’ll be interesting to see what ROH does with Elgin in the coming months since he’s scheduled to face Kevin Steen for the ROH title on Saturday. Based on his performance in the Chikara King of Trios tournament last month, Mike Bennett could also be a rising star if the fans can get past his association with girlfriend Maria Kanellis.

Jim Cornette
Photo from ROH

Much in the same way I complain about wrestling fans not wanting to admit the Attitude Era is over and move on, ROH needs to understand it’s no longer 2005 and they aren’t the only major independent company out there. With the rise of Chikara, PWG, AIW, the Anarchy wrestling companies and even AAW, CZW (and AAPW which is different than most other companies) there are several outlets for wrestling fans to get their fix. ROH needs to evolve with the time or face extinction.

I don’t feel like I really addressed any single factor I wanted to hit on in this blog. If you read this and have no idea what I was trying to say, I apologize. Go read one of Kevin’s “BOO” blogs. Come back later in the week when I discuss Bound for Glory and how the “dead man’s hand” of Aces and Eights may be D.O.A. by the time Sunday rolls around.

As always, be sure to follow my123cents on Facebook and Twitter.

WrestleMoney-ia

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

For years now, Chad and I have ventured to Wrestlemania.  It all started in 2006 with a trip to Chicago for Wrestlemania 22.  Since we were both living in Illinois at the time, we didn't have to worry about airfare and made the five hour drive.  We opted for the platinum package plan, which cost us around $1,500 each (there were actually three of us that year).   For our money, we each got a ticket to the Hall of Fame, a ticket to Wrestlemania (4th row and the souvenir chair), an autograph/photo session, a ticket to the Bacon, Bagels, and Biceps brunch, three nights in the hotel, and various little gifts like a stuffed bear and a backpack.

I felt like this was a very good deal.  We didn't have to mess around buying individual tickets and hotel was very nice.  I still use the chair I got and drink from the coffee cup from the brunch.  Our next trip to Mania was two years later and we ventured to Orlando.  This time it was just Chad and I.  An extra incentive for Orlando was two, two day passes to Universal Studios.  Again, this was a great bargain and the hotel was within walking distance to the theme park.  It was a great time, and again I still enjoy that chair.

WWE Headquarters
Photo from: Wikipedia

After that, we decided to go for cheaper route and sit a bit further back than in the first few rows.  Again, it's worked out just fine and we've ended up in some pretty decent hotels thanks to the efforts of Chad.  But for Wrestlemania 29 we decided to explore the package option again. We had talked about taking a side trip to WWE Headquarters since Mania is in New Jersey this year.  Here's a look at the package prices (which go on sale today, August 13)

VIP Package – 3-Night Hotel Accommodations

1 Person - $7,275

2 People - $6,700 per person

3 People - $6,500 per person

4 People - $6,450 per person

VIP Package – 4-Night Hotel Accommodations Includes Raw Ticket – 100 Level (lower bowl raised seating)

1-Person - $7,875

2-People - $7,125 per person

3-People - $6,900 per person

4-People - $6,800 per person

VIP Package – 4-Night Hotel Accommodations - Includes Raw Ticket – Ringside Rows seating

1-Person - $7,900

2-People - $7,150 per person

3-People - $6,925 per person

4-People - $6,825 per person

If you don’t want to sit ringside there are Gold and Silver packages available as well. 

The pricing for the cheapest packages is

Silver Package – 3-Night Hotel Accommodations

1 Person - $1,700

2 People - $1,115 per person

3 People - $950 per person

4 People - $875 per person

Silver Package – 4-Night Hotel Accommodations Includes Raw Ticket – 100 Level (lower bowl raised seating)

1-Person - $2,185

2-People - $1,415 per person

3-People - $1,185 per person

4-People - $1,085 per person

Wrestlemania 28

Keep in mind this year the deal includes an extra night in the hotel and a ticket to Raw the night after Mania.  VIPs can get that tour of WWE HQ.  Since three of us are going again this year, the VIP would cost us each $6,900.  That's about $5,400 more (per person) than we paid seven years ago.  This really blew my mind.  Is a ticket to Raw, a hotel room, and a trip to WWE HQ worth THAT much???

My next thought was the families who buy tickets to Wrestlemania.  We do see families as part of the package plan.  Even if they did the bare bones cheapest one it would cost a family of four $3,500 (that's just for three nights in a hotel, the Mania, HOF, and Axxess tickets.)  

I shouldn't be complaining, but this blog is a chance for me to voice my opinion.  I think with the economy the way it is (still) that the cost for a weekend of wrestling is way too expensive.  I'm remind of our recent trip to Chicago and Lafayette, Indiana for Chikara Pro and Ring of Honor.  We saw three shows for $55.  We were able to interact with the wrestlers and get all the autographs we wanted.  I know Chikara doesn't have the huge payroll that WWE has, but most of the men and women of Chikara (and most indy companies I've seen) work just as hard as the stars in WWE or TNA.

So while we've settled on not doing the package deal, we are still making plans to be in New Jersey next year.  Are you going?  Let us know here or at Facebook.

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.

ROH: Up a Paddle without a Stream

By Chad Smart
@chadsmart & @my123cents

Ring of Honor has been doing Internet Pay Per Views for a couple of years now. Until recently, as far as I can recall, they have gone off without a hitch. Over Wrestlemania weekend the two ROH Ippvs had some technical difficulties with the streams going down during the show. Because of the technical issues with the shows, ROH decided to end their partnership with Go Fight Live and bring all online streaming capabilities in house.

The first show to try the new streaming set up was Saturday night’s “Border Wars” headlined by the ROH title match between Davey Richards and Kevin Steen. This was a title match that had been building for six months and a match a lot of people were looking forward to seeing. Unfortunately, by the sounds of it, the only people who got to see it were the fans in the arena.

Prior to Saturday, ROH tested the new on-site streaming on Wednesday by offering fans a free match of CM Punk vs. Bryan Danielson. The number of viewers crashed the system. This should have been a huge red flag given the Ippv was only three days away. After the crash, ROH issued the following statement.

ROH Fans - We apologize for the difficulties in watching the Free Punk Vs Bryan Video as we did not anticipate the exorbitant amount of fans trying to watch it all at once.

For those that missed it, we will leave it up through the weekend as well as post it to YouTube.

Rest assured, this was due to our media server not handling the load that was created by this free video. For our iPPV this weekend, we will be using a highly regarded Content Delivery Network (CDN) to prevent anything like this from happening.

With ROH’s guarantee that there would be no crashing of their live stream, I ordered the PPV on Saturday afternoon hoping to do a review for my123cents. I ordered the show around 3:45 and at 4:20 went back to ROH’s website to prepare for the show. Since I’m not a regular visitor to the ROH website, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to access the page the where the show was streaming. After finding the page, I was informed I needed to log in to access the Ippv. That’s when the problem started.

For the next 45 minutes, I tried to log in and repeatedly got a “that function is unavailable at this time. Try again later” message. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong so I went to Twitter to see what other people were saying about the show and found out about 98% of everyone who ordered the show couldn’t watch it. I finally gave up and decided to request a refund from ROH. At the time, ROH had not made a statement regarding the issues with the stream.

Later in the evening, ROH did issue this statement:

Dear Fans,
Again we are extremely frustrated by the ippv result tonight and offer our deepest apologies.
Since Showdown in the Sun, we have been working endlessly to provide an optimal ppv experience which we believe we have achieved.
For our website, we increased our server memory x3 and doubled its processing power. Still, it seems that our architecture could not handle the excessive user logins and we are left with a great stream that our fans can not see.
If a refund is demanded, it WILL be given. Otherwise we would like to offer full retention of the replay for Border Wars as well as FREE access to the Best in the World PPV on June 24th for anyone who ordered Border Wars tonight. This will also include retention of the Best in the World PPV in your myPPV accounts.
We WILL get this right no matter what it takes in time for Best in the World.

While I appreciate ROH making good with offering the next Ippv for free to fans who purchased “Border Wars,” I think it’s a little too late. After three consecutive shows with technical issues, will fans want to take the chance on another show? I have admitted to not being a big ROH fan so maybe I’m in the minority, but I don’t think I’m going to clear my calendar to be free the night “Best in the World” takes place.

As the saying goes, fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. What are your thoughts? Will you be more or less hesitant to order future ROH Ippvs, or Ippvs from any company based on the technical issues of the last few shows? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page or send us a Tweet.

For the record, Evolve had two Ippvs over the weekend and CZW had one on Saturday night. I have heard no complaints from those shows due to technical issues. This seems to be a ROH only occurrence.

Is Chikara Big Enough for Eddie Kingston & Kevin Steen?

Photo by Scott Finkelstein

By Chad Smart@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter

This coming weekend marks my first live Chikara events in seven years. When Chikara announced their return to Internet Pay Per View would happen on June 2, I figured shows leading up to Chikarasaurus Rex 3 would lay the groundwork for a blow away show. Instead, both shows this weekend, on paper, have the potential to be show of the year candidates.

One of the highlights on the Chicago show is the Grand Championship match between Eddie Kingston and Kevin Steen. The match is the result of a confrontation between the two at Ring of Honor’s 10th Anniversary show. Kevin Steen is trying to destroy ROH from the inside and wanted Kingston to help destroy Chikara. Eddie turned Steen down and the two came to blows.

The match marks Steen’s first in-ring appearance in Chikara in six years. Since I’m an idiot and sold my Chikara DVD collection, I couldn’t go back and re-watch Steen’s matches from the 2005 and 2006 Tag World Grand Prix events. I don’t remember the matches so I can’t comment on them. I have read that during his last match in Chikara, Kevin Steen uttered the mother of all swear words and since Chikara is a family friendly company, he had been blacklisted from the company ever since. I don’t know if that’s true or not. I do know the current Kevin Steen character doesn’t fit into the PG Chikara environment.

At the same time, the current Grand Champion Eddie Kingston stretches the boundary of the PG barrier. Even though he may not be the poster child for the wackiness usually associated with Chikara, Kingston bleeds for Chikara. Seeing someone walk into Chikara with the intention of taking the top title and figuratively (and possibly literally) pissing on it would crush Kingston’s pride. Therefore I see the self-proclaimed “war horse” bringing more of a fighting spirit to this match.

While I can’t see Kevin Steen walking out of the Chicago Ridge Field House with the Chikara Grand Championship due to not being a Chikara regular, there could be a lot of interesting stories to be told if he were able to defeat Eddie Kingston. With Ring of Honor running a show after Chikara on Saturday night, will Kevin Steen’s newest ally Jimmy Jacobs be in the building? Jacobs hasn’t been in Chikara since 2005 and in his last match he was on the losing end of a 6-man tag match. On the winning team that night? Eddie Kingston. While any other promotion would normally not address anything over six months old, Chikara has the memory of an elephant. If this somehow comes into play I will bow down to the Chikara brain trust for paying attention to the smallest details.

Another interesting aspect to the match will be the reaction from the crowd. With the Chikara/ROH doubleheader it’s a very likely scenario there will be fans that are more diehard Ring of Honor fans than Chikara fans. Will they be respectful of Chikara’s family friendly atmosphere or will they try and get themselves over with more adult oriented chants?

Saturday will be a great day of wrestling action. If you’re near Chicago Ridge, I highly recommend you head to the Field House and see some of the best all around entertaining shows you will have the opportunity to see this month.

Be sure to follow My123Cents of Facebook and Twitter and give us your feedback on the wrestling universe.

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.