Austin Aries vs Davey Richards (ROH)

[Kronos]

EDITED TO ADD: I meant in that subtitle that the match had been superpimped, but I wasn't superpimping it.

 

I was pretty excited to sit down and watch this match, after all the love it seems to have gotten across the board. I was excited when Aries gave a nice bastardly promo, amused at how he used words like heel and face. And then I was interested in how they started slowly, feeling easch other out. Countering each other's moves. I appreciated Davey's knee being "hurt" and their presence of mind to keep that as a factor. There were even some really great spots.

 

But about half way through, I just lost interest. Ironically, it was about the time the crowd got into the match. But suddenly, I didn't care anymore who won or who lost. And truth be told, that's how I feel nearly everytime I watch ROH 2009 and forward. It's entertaining and athletic, but I just don't care.

[Resident Evil]

EDITED TO ADD: I meant in that subtitle that the match had been superpimped, but I wasn't superpimping it.

 

I was pretty excited to sit down and watch this match, after all the love it seems to have gotten across the board. I was excited when Aries gave a nice bastardly promo, amused at how he used words like heel and face. And then I was interested in how they started slowly, feeling easch other out. Countering each other's moves. I appreciated Davey's knee being "hurt" and their presence of mind to keep that as a factor. There were even some really great spots.

 

But about half way through, I just lost interest. Ironically, it was about the time the crowd got into the match. But suddenly, I didn't care anymore who won or who lost. And truth be told, that's how I feel nearly everytime I watch ROH 2009 and forward. It's entertaining and athletic, but I just don't care.

This is actually my fav match match in ROH history. Richards is one of my top 5 fav wrestlers in the world right now.

 

Are you an Aries or a Richards fan? It always helps when one is emotionally tied to the wrestlers. Like when Steamboat said, you can have two top name wrestlers put on a headlock such as Steamboat/Flair and the crowd will be emotionally behind it. However, if you have two other wrestlers that the crowd doesn't know put on the same exact headlock technique wise the emotional impact isn't the same. They don't care as much.

[Kronos]

I am not really emotionally attached to either guy, though both have done work in the past that I really enjoyed. I do agree about being involved in a match -- and maybe if I had been around a lot of ROH in 2009 and seen the rise of the Wolves or whatever, I might have been a lot more heavily invested.

 

Like I said, it was a skillfully put together match. Given how much love for it is out there, I might should watch it again. Maybe I was just tired or OD'd on rasslin or something. Stranger things have happened.

[smkelly]

Watched this last night after seeing this post.

 

Where to start...

The opening sequence of Indy wrestling needs to be re-invented, as too many matches are following the same long and boring feeling out process.

I liked the initial leg work done, but I hated the fact that Davey's selling was abysmal - I mean it was downright terrible.

One of the worst no-selling performances I have ever seen after some extensive work had been done.

The brainbuster on the ring apron was awesome though, a real holy shit moment.

I disliked the avalanche release German suplex spot though, as it lead to nowhere. It didn't help that Aries ate Richards finishing move a few seconds later and still kicked out.

By the end of the match I was relieved it was over - that is a horrible thing to feel after a match.

 

Obviously I am not a fan of this match, but I like both guys in the match.

For what good they did in this match, it was beaten down by the sheer amount of bad shit they did.

 

*DUD*

[MikeCampbell]

I've been wanting to check out some recent ROH and this was one of the matches that had been getting huge pimping, like codegreen said, glad to read this before dropping the $20.

[smkelly]

I do accept tips.

[MJH]

I'm fine watching Davey do his shit generally... I don't think he's much cop at telling a story or structuring a match and his sellings often y'know... but I can sit back and watch him do crazy shit at a fast pace for 20/30 minutes and be entertained fine enough. I watched this last night though and it felt incredibly flat. Aries' RETARDED promo before the match didn't help any, either. If you're not going to tell a story, and the basis of the match is in its action and spots, then you have to keep it coming at a quick pace otherwise it doesn't work. There was some occasional nice stuff but in the main... this was completely "meh" for me.

 

I did rather enjoy Wolves vs. Bryan/Tyler's 45:00 draw. The ROH guys aren't good storytellers and moreoften than not their adament refusal to be like WWE means they don't have the same basic shine/heat/finish a to b to c logic that even your bargain basement WWE match tends to have. They're seemingly afraid to work control segments and want things always back and forth to keep it "entertaining" or whatever their logic behind it is. You even had Davey come straight back from a Falcon Arrow off the apron against KENTA (which as the "moment Davey was done" spot would've worked great with how the match had been put together up until that point) for what reason I can't put together. The tag match though had a much stronger concerted effort at making sense and being structured. You had some nice, older-influenced babyface shine spots, and a run of the mill "southern" tag with Bryan on the hot tag, which then morphed via Tyler taking a big table bump into Bryan playing Ricky Morton with a leg injury and no Gibson to tag. Eddie Edwards seems to stooge a fair bit more than most in ROH that I'm familiar with so if it's his influence in older simple storytelling then I'm looking for some singles work from him because Davey's clearly a KENTA-style "go go go" guy...

[smkelly]

The high paced spots are cool and all, but at certain times, and with certain people. Ten years ago I would have drooled all over myself for this match, but since I was fourteen I have found other mediums of professional wrestling to satisfy my interests.

 

The main problem with this match was the horrid selling. I mean, an avalanche release German suplex that went nowhere, which was quickly followed up by Davey's finisher and Aries still kicked out. That just screams "overkill All Japan style" to me and Aries/Richards is not Misawa/Kobashi/Kawada.

[MJH]

They'd have to be able to effectively lay out a match and tell a story first.

 

Still... at least Davey/Aries didn't feature, essentially, twenty minutes building to a Falcon Arrow off the apron only for Davey to no-sell that like in the match he did with KENTA. But Davey/KENTA did keep their pace better and had the crowd far more enthusiastic about what they were doing. And I'd take a strong 20 minute match with a shitty final 3 than a boring 50 minute match.

[smkelly]

Agreed.

I did like the falcon arrow to the floor between Marufuji & KENTA, as I remember Marufuji selling it nicely.

[MJH]

I have nothing against a Falcon Arrow to the floor as a spot if the guys are willing to do it... but I think as a wrestler if you're going to take that spot then you want to make it important. Kobashi built his matches with Misawa around the Tiger Driver off the apron and the Tiger Suplex off the ramp. KENTA/Davey leading upto the Falcon Arrow is an even back-and-forth match where they mirror each other a lot. The Falcon Arrow hits and you think, OK, they've set themselves up as even if not identical... this is that big decisive spot. You accept with it being ROH and them being juniors that they're not going to do the carefully planned dual control segments made to "mirror" each other (like Misawa/Kobashi 10/97 or even Cena/Batista a few SummerSlams ago)... but then Davey just no-sells it and dominates the run to the finish. Davey pushes KENTA (his - ex? - mentor) to the limit of bringing out his ace in the hole after proving he was on the same level and loses but looks mega-strong. In their return match whenever that was planned to come, he slowly is able to actually make a comeback after it (like Kobashi in '03) and show that he is now the better of the two (in ROH). I realise in theory him coming back from it in this match makes him look strong in losing but... what the fuck do they need to do now as a "keep Davey down" spot? Off the top rope to the floor Falcon Arrow? You'd think after all the years he's spent watching Kobashi that KENTA would know how to maximise the drama and story of such a big spot.