Pro Wrestling Ponderings

The first time that I read about American Dragon Bryan Danielson was in World of Wrestling magazine while reading the results of what was a Super Indy tournament. I believe that was also the first time I had ever read of a Low Ki or Christopher Daniels. All three men would later on impress me on a DVD entitled Era of Honor Begins that I would pick up at a Virgin Megastore in San Francisco. Little did I know that from that point on, I would look at pro wrestling in a very different manner. I had been a fan of the original ECW and new of a few indy wrestling companies such as XPW and the ECWA Super 8 Tournament, but other then that was not truly immersed into the indy wrestling culture. At the time I felt that I was growing tired of the WWE and was feeling the loss of WCW despite it’s huge short comings. One federation was just not enough to fill the need for athletically based action drama that pro wrestling brought to me entertainment scope.

After reading of a small promotion out of Philadelphia called Ring of Honor in Pro Wrestling Illustrated, I decided that purchasing their DVD would at least give me a small portion of something different as I was also in the process of buying OVW and UPW DVDs as they were finally coming out in my area. I can remember seeing Scoot Andrews, Jay Briscoe, James Maritato, Amazing Red, Brian XL, and the S.A.T. for the first time and being utterly amazed at their abilities in the ring. I had a decent amount of Puro tapes and despite being a fan of Great Muta, Satosho Kojima, the late Legend Mitsuhara Misawa, amoung others, I just wasn’t getting that niche part of my entertainment filled. Mostly because these weren’t men I could readily go see live, nor understand what was going on in their feuds other than they were having tremendous matches and working two distinct styles that were lacking in the American scope of what pro wrestling is. For those that don’t know, those styles are commonly referred to as Kings Road and Strong Style, two very distinct philosophies behind how wrestlers should perform in the ring and two styles that are not commonly versed into the typical wrestling fare. But that was going to change very soon.

Then the main event on the DVD was on. I was already smitten and determined to buy more of this ROH product, but it was Bryan Danielson, Christopher Daniels, and Low Ki that took it to another level of fandom for me. After watching a nearly perfect three way, there was no way I could be satisfied with the current level of performance being shown on national television. Yes, there were many great match ups on WWE PPV and television, but this ROH product was filling a niche for Puro style action coupled with the fact that I could follow the storylines because it was being commentated in English and had an online presence that allowed me to follow the talents exploit’s a lot easier.

A large part of that was due to Bryan Danielson. I remember buying the Red Robin Challenge 1 alongside A Night of Appreciation and just being entertained far more than I had in months in a few short hours. Danielson versus Low Ki was by far one of the best matches I had seen and even before that, Low Ki versus Amazing Red just blew me away with the athletic ability of these two in what is now known as the “Matrix minute”. I had long heard and seen a few of Christopher Daniels greatness and was astonished to find that it wasn’t just wrestling hyperbole. I came to understand that these men had also worked in Japan and thus really were fusing together those Puro styles with not only the grace of lucha libre but the story telling ethic of traditional American style pro wrestling. Obviously a third part of the equation was the man we are celebrating now, Bryan Danielson.

Bryan Danielson was the technician, an easily forgettable part of any match, and yet one that is detriment to making a match memorable to begin with. You might remember that he was trained by a man who has achieved legendary status coupled with working with my favorite wrestling Legend of all time. Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart were to me two of the best in the ring period. Ego aside, both stand to be talked about for years to come by peers and historians of this form of entertainment. Bryan Danielson learned from HBK and the secondary trainer Rudy Gonzalez of the Texas Wrestling Academy alongside other indy darlings Paul London and The Brian Kendrick. Danielson brought the sizzle where as Low Ki brought the steak and Danielson brought the sauce. You could not have had a great match without any one of these components not working at the great level that we’ve come to expect from them. But together, they made one unforgettable match and a seemingly good card into a must buy event.

The technician must be complimented by the sulky heel and a flashy, hard hitting, baby face in order for what ROH wanted to showcase in their first event to really come to fruition. No easy task, they also had to work a style that I feel was lacking in the northeast area and that fans were clamoring for and really only getting via tape trading. But that all changed when ROH put forth a product that emphasized an in ring product that brought together many flavors of styles, but mostly showcased a hard hitting, “stiff” style. Throughout the years that ROH has been around, Danielson has been a part of some of the most legendary matches. His list of opponents reads like a who’s who of indy favorites. Paul London, Low Ki, Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Chad Colllyer, Roderick Strong, KENTA, Takeshi Morishima Nigel McGuinness, and the man he will be facing this Saturday, ROH champion Austin Aries.

I will be seeing his last ROH world title match in a little under 24 hours for the time being, and I must say that my nerves are at an all time high. Coupled with meeting my child hood hero Bret Hart, this will be a perfect wrestling weekend for me. I have met Bret before when I was a little under 10 in San Jose, CA at a WWF event, but it was for a fleeting shake of the hand and then over. This time I get to see two greats of the mat wars alongside see the infamous Chicago area for the first time. It should be a spectacular weekend and I do hope that I have a lot of memories to show for the next column.

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As anyone who read my column last week knows, I’m giving TNA an opportunity to wow me. Why? Zack Danielson will be joining Kevin Ford and myself on a future podcast to talk about his trip to Orlando where he’ll be seeing Victory Road and two nights of Impact tapings. Also, I took advantage of their anniversary sale and purchased six DVDs for less than 50 dollars. This week I’m going to discuss three of the DVDs, and I’ll save my Impact thoughts for a special edition of the column next week when I preview Victory Road.

Before we get underway, it’d be far funnier if you read this column while picturing the voice of the voiceover guy from TNA. You know the one. Kinda sounds like James Earl Jones.

Heaven Sent, Hell Bound: The Best of Christopher Daniels- To me, Christopher Daniels is one of the most underrated talents in all of professional wrestling. The problem is TNA underutilizes him and has him doing stupid gimmicks or angles instead of just letting him wrestle. Also, to be fair Ring of Honor didn’t exactly use him correctly during most of 2006 and 2007 either. I knew going about some of the matches getting clipped, but whoever put this together seemingly hacked it together. This was so badly done. Instead of showing a bunch of clipped matches, I would have much rather seen video packages of the smaller ones and show the main matches in their entirity.

The best example I can think of is the way they cut down both cage matches, but showed an entire singles match between James Storm and Daniels. Even worse was that this match had a stupid no-contest finish. It was also silly to include entrances and show the beginnings of matches while cutting out some important stuff in the end. Like the final cage match with Triple X against America’s Most Wanted. The entrances were shown. The feeling out process is shown, but TNA clipped the parts where everyone got busted open.

I also thought it was silly to include a lame squash with Jerrelle Clark, but for seven dollars this was still worth it. I regained a lot of the respect I had for Daniels and gained a new appreciation. This is a guy who’s so smooth in the ring, but he can also bring it in his promos and can have great matches with anyone. If you want to know why Daniels is awesome, buy this DVD. Especially if you can get it for cheap.

History of TNA Wrestling: Year One- If you’re in the mood for high comedy and fiction presented as fact, BUY THIS DOCUMENTARY! Seriously, you’ll gain new respect for the production of WWE after watching this. If not for the actual facts presented then at least for the presenation. Dixie Carter was shown talking at various points, and she went on and on and on. I’m not necessarily blaming her, but I’m blaming the stupid idiots who edited this thing together.

The sincerity of the people talking about how hard everyone worked is not to be doubted, but there seems to be some delusion that the hard has ultimately led them to some great level of success. The reality is they’re still being held on the hand by an energy company. They’re still barely drawing 1,000 people for their live events and have barely left Universal Studios this year for Pay-Per-Views. And while I would never expect them to sell out The Palace of Auburn Hills, drawing 4,000 (roughly half papered according to Meltzer) is not good any way you look at it.

Thankfully, I only purchased this disk to get free shipping. The matches raise this DVD up a bit since it has the first ever X Division title match and the three way ladder match on it as well. Both of these are two of my favorite matches for 2002. The first X Division title match may even be one of my favorite matches ever.

Best of the Tag Teams: Volume 1- This was the best of the three DVDs, although there were still some issues. Instead of showing things in order, they went by different tag teams instead. For example, they showed The Naturals vs. America’s Most Wanted video package at the very beginning, but we didn’t see a match between the two teams until almost halfway into the disk. We also didn’t get to see some of their best matches from the ladder half of 2004 and 2005.

Thanks to some real quality matches involving AMW, Daniels/Styles, and LAX, this is an easy recommend. Oddly enough, this was the first time I’d ever seen the VooDoo Kin Mafia’s antics. I’d almost forgotten about that five minute period when people paid attention to them again for ripping on D-Generation X and challenging them to a fight.

I’ll get into this way more in my assessment of the company, but this made TNA look so second rate. As much as the D-X reunion was horrible and stupid and unfunny, the CREATORS of the group were at least the ones in it. Roaddog and Billy Gunn had nothing to do with the group until Shawn Michaels was out. The difference between D-X and this garbage is huge. D-X was about a rebellion, They actually went to WCW headquarters and to a live event. Not necessarily with permission from the WWF (just go along with it). The Old Age Outlaws as I like call them challenged Hunter and Shawn to a million dollar with permission from the TNA office. Real rebellious there guys.

Next week I’ll look at the Christian Cage and Kurt Angle DVDs, as well as TNA Impact in Japan. I’ll also have my thoughts on four weeks of Impact as well as a preview of Victory Road. Until then, everyone have a safe week, and be sure to check out Pro Wrestling Ponderings for the latest recaps and podcasts.

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