Fool Me Once: Davey Richards and Japanese Commitments

The Champion... will he be an absentee?

Stop me if you've heard this one before. Davey Richards has to miss a big event for a company he's World Champion of because he has commitments in Japan. If you think I'm flashing back to late last year when he had to drop the PWG strap because he kept having to be overseas during dates when the SoCal indie wanted to have shows, well, you're being a bit on the generous side here. Ring of Honor will hold Death Before Dishonor IX on September 17th, and Richards will not be there to defend his ROH World Championship. Why? According to ROH World's Twitter, he'll be touring Japan.

It's very hard for me to come down on Richards as long as he was up front with his intentions to wrestle in Japan with ROH management. Japanese dates are more lucrative, both in money and exposure, for him. American wrestlers are treated very well in Japan, and he wrestles for New Japan Pro Wrestling (of CM Punk promo fame) over there, which might just be the biggest puroresu promotion in the world.

That being said, he has a history of controversy with telling people about dealings. I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up the falling out he had with Gabe Sapolsky over signing a contract with ROH, but then again, I really have no idea who was completely in the right there. Still, where there's smoke, there's fire.

So that's why I have to question why ROH put the title on him in the first place if stuff like this was going to happen. Again, this isn't a situation that never happened before. Richards has shown that his puroresu dates have more priority to him over his American dates, so much so that it bit PWG in the ass. What would they do then, have to plan around Richards' dates overseas if they want to run shows with their top guy? I mean, they got TV back, and judging from what I've read on the spoilers for the first tapings, they're actually going to use TV to further angles and be an important thing where storylines happen and more importantly, that sell iPPVs. Granted, the show doesn't go on the air until a week after DBD, and they probably taped the World Championship match that happened during those tapings as a make-good for people expecting a title match at the big event. Still, how can they be sure that their top guy isn't going to miss later, more important events?

Then again, I'm not sure the whole story can be gleaned from the circumstances we have here. I mean, this could be a one time thing. Richards may have already had this tour booked, and it's the last time we see him miss a big ROH event because he's wrestling for NJPW (which, coincidentally enough, has had a working relationship with a company that ROH is trying to catch in Impact in the past). Maybe this was something unavoidable and in the future, he'll be there and accountable. When the time comes, he'll be able to drop the title to the guy they want to hold the belt next instead of doing what he needed to do in PWG.

But then again, this is now a pattern. It doesn't affect my enjoyment of PWG, because quite frankly, I'm not a fan of the guy's ring work. That being said, I don't know how you can trust fans to trust that they're going to get their Champion when you put the strap on a guy whose commitments overseas seem to supersede the ones at home. For that, I'd squarely put the blame here on ROH. Right now, it's forgivable because it's a first time for them, but at the same time, they had to have been paying attention to PWG and what happened there.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That's the cliché, but it doesn't become cliché unless there's a kernel of truth there. I don't want to come down on them too hard because yes, Richards is a guy that fans want to see and want to hold the title. That being said, as a promotion, you can't really go on with an absentee Champion all the time. If this is the last time Richards goes to NJPW at a time when he could be at home doing an important iPPV for ROH, then yeah, it's more understandable. But given the track record, can you blame anyone for not believing that'll be the case in the future?

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

The National Wrestling Alliance Is Officially a Joke

None of this would have happened if I were Champ...
Photo Credit: Random Chikara Fan

So, the NWA just stripped The Sheik of their World Championship because he backed out of a scheduled title defense against "Scrap Iron" Adam Pearce. As if the governing body hadn't taken enough flak during the year the way their top title has been handled, this comes as a big black eye in my opinion. I'm not surprised that there are shenanigans though. The rumor, and again, this is a rumor and this isn't the reason why anything happened, is that Pearce dropped the title in the first place to Colt Cabana because he didn't want to drop it directly to Sheik. Of course, that isn't the biggest reason why the title took so much of a hit, because if I were to base things on rumors, hearsay and conjecture, well, I'd be fucking Rajah now, wouldn't I?

I made a giant stink when Cabana lost the title to Sheik for my own, "fan" reasons, but if the title had to change hands, well, the title had to change hands I guess. However, I don't mean to crow over being vindicated here, but I think this situation proves that maybe I was right and that they should have called an audible on Cabana keeping the strap. Now, instead of being able to build an unbroken lineage (not historically, but recently at least as many people have relinquished/been stripped of the title before), they have the same political BS that plagues the big feds in a time when the indies are building a DIY-spirited recreation of the old school.

The problem is that they were so adamant on programming two guys together who clearly have problems with each other. I don't know what those problems are, and I won't pretend to be an expert on shit I don't know, but at the same time, where there's smoke, there's fire. Pearce didn't drop the strap directly to Sheik. Sheik pulled out of a match against Pearce. For a governing body that doesn't have complete control over the talents they book, programming people that have political enmity is a bad idea. I mean, if Vince McMahon wants John Cena to drop the WWE Championship to Triple H, he can force Cena to do it because it's his company. But the NWA? Well, they can't because Pearce is part of the braintrust of NWA Hollywood. Sheik runs NWA Fusion in Jacksonville. The NWA still operates like it did in 1970, not realizing that it doesn't have the same reverence it had in those days. Therefore, with the rise of indie feds that have made it on their own as entities, the being a part of the NWA has less and less appeal, to the point where a guy based mostly out of California can't really be programmed against a guy who runs out of Florida.

It's for this reason why the governing body of the NWA, not the individual feds, but the governing body, is a joke. They're pretty much running off the glory days and the fact that Ric Flair and Harley Race once held their titles, but with each passing day where shit like this happens, it's becoming clearer that they don't have a clue as to how something stays relevant in this day and age. The problem is, like I've said before, the answer is right in front of them.

If they really wanted to do something bold and something that'd work, they'd consolidate into one promotion, one that is actually on television and has a national reach, even if it's only through the Internet. They should retreat to Hollywood and build up a name and a brand there. If you want to compete for NWA gold? You head out West. Let's see how much the name is really worth. Let's see how many people are dedicated to continuing the legacy and not just trying to leech off the name and the name only.

Having the influence spread out over several feds is a bad idea, especially in this day and age. The time for a decentralized governing body in a worked sport full of egos has long since passed. The NWA is doing its satellite feds, ESPECIALLY the execellent NWA Hollywood, a severe disservice with this political BS.

That way, you don't have situations where one guy gets stripped of his title because he pulled out of a defense, and you won't have other Champions relinquishing titles out of protest.

Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston: Bringing the US Championship Back?

Talkin' title... I like it
Photo Credit: WWE.com

I know a lot among us were mesmerized by the fact that Zack Ryder had a match on RAW this past week, and you might have missed some other things going on. (speaking of Zack... cool montage, bro) One, Dolph Ziggler got behind the mic in the broadcast booth along with his business associate Vickie Guerrero to commentate a match that his rival, United States Champion Kofi Kingston was wrestling in. In a shocking twist, Ziggler spent most of the match letting Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole how much he wants to be United States Champion...

*record scratch*

...what? Wrestlers in 2011 WWE, focusing in on a secondary title belt? This is madness! Surely they made a mistake, or there wasn't someone in Ziggler's ear telling him to think of other ways to slander Kofi, because I thought no one cared about the secondary titles. Regardless of reasoning though, I'm glad to hear that there's a new focus on the US Championship, even if it's just been put in this week.

The best part of a vibrant, memorable midcard is when the guys have something to fight for. Would the WWF have been as indelibly marked in our minds if Mr. Perfect and Bret Hart fought over, I dunno, spilled coffee or some other inane reason? Maybe, maybe not, but I venture a guess that the fact that they had the Intercontinental Championship as a prize, or as a MacGuffin as KSP and Jason Mann call it, made it stand out. People say titles aren't important anymore, but when was the last time either the US or IC title were treated with respect for more than one feud at a time? When a title is important, it enhances the feud and can make even the most mundane, hackneyed traditional wrestling build feel important, because hey, they're fighting for something.

So that's why I was genuinely happy to hear Ziggler talk about the United States Championship in commentary like it was something to strive for, something to earn. The key is keeping that narrative going through Capitol Punishment and throughout the rest of the year.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Stop Undermining Titles

Kofi Kingston jobbing to Dolph Ziggler last night was the latest in WWE's offenses against titleholders
Photo Credit: WWE.com

In this past week's episode of Game of Thrones (I'm totally obsessed, I know), Tywin Lannister was having a stern talk with his son, Jaime, about the family legacy and why he was so concerned with things he shouldn't be concerned with. Anyway, the conversation steers towards why Tywin was so concerned about his impish son being held prisoner by another family. I'm paraphrasing here, because I can't find the exact quote anywhere online right now.

Soon, I'll be dead, so will you, so will everyone, but the family name? The legacy? That's what lives on, that's what needs to stay strong.

It's an a propos quote, but what does it have to do with wrestling, since it's clearly not Thursday and I wrote about GoT last week? Well, all you have to do is substitute wrestler names for the Lannisters referenced and "Championship Belts" for family name and you've got something that sticks in my craw. You know from 2+ years of reading The Wrestling Blog that I've always hated when Champions get booked poorly. I even wrote rules for that sort of thing back over a year ago.

Granted, a lot has changed with my outlook on wrestling since then, and I've softened on a lot of my "hardcore smark" points of view. However, one that I didn't go limp on, and one that I'll probably never turn tail on likely, is that Championship belts, and in turn Champions, should be kept strong and should mean something. I've come to understand that the most important thing in pro wrestling is to tell a coherent and entertaining story, wins, losses and the like be damned. However, the Championship belt? Yeah, that is the best storytelling device in all of wrestling. Seriously, they provide easy storylines, ones that can be modified or have devices added to them to enhance them. They also are pretty much the biggest piece of the "sports" side of the proceedings. They're pretty much the thing that preserves kayfabe (even in an era where it's broken repeatedly) and they're the most commonsense thing that binds a wrestler to a wrestling company.

With all that in mind, that's what makes it so maddening that Kofi Kingston drops matches like he's a 1990 Superstars jobber, or when Jack Swagger or anyone else holding the World/WWE Championship loses in a non-title match without all that good a reason other than "that's how we booked it". When a Champion loses a match willy-nilly, then it takes the specialness out of the decision when he finally drops the title. Who cares about the title if the guy holding it loses all the time? Like Tywin said in the paraphrase above, just as the Lannister name is longer-lasting than any person wielding it, the same is true for Championship titles.

Yes, there are wrestlers who are or become bigger than Championships they hold. However, in most cases, the title belt should be something that, because it's bigger and more long-lasting, that can help enhance the guy holding it, and thus enhance the story being told through him and the guy or guys with whom he's feuding. It's not rocket science.

To continue to make Kingston drop matches with the title not on the line or to keep making matches where a guy gets a shot at a Champion by beating him in a non-title match is so short-sighted and it takes a viable story off the table. There are plenty of other ways to build up a title feud without throwing away the long lineage and potential power that a Championship belt brings to the table. WWE Creative, and really, all other wrestling companies too (I've seen this booking run rampant in TNA and creep up in other indie feds like NWA Hollywood), would be wise to be a bit smarter with their booking.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!