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Welcome back to the pROHfile, and today I'd like to take a look back at ROH's opening weekend of 2008, as they ran shows last Friday night in Boston, Massachusetts and Saturday in Edison, New Jersey.
 With ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness on a tour of Japan with Pro Wrestling NOAH, the main focus of the weekend was on ROH World Tag Team Champions Age Of The Fall, who main evented both shows. Friday night, Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black retained the title in the ULTIMATE Ultimate Endurance Match, said by those in attendance to be a really good match, and probably the best Ultimate Endurance Match the company has ever put on. Jacobs and Black outlasted Jack Evans & Jigsaw, BJ Whitmer & Brent Albright, and finally Jay & Mark Briscoe. The following night, Jimmy Jacobs defeated Jack Evans, and then Black and Necro Butcher were scheduled to face Jay & Mark Briscoe in an Anything Goes Street Fight, but they did an angle where Jay was laid out and carried out of the match before he really got a chance to do anything. This was done because Jay had possibly suffered a concussion the night before, and ROH is on red alert these days when it comes to ensuring the health of their performers. I think that's a great move by ROH, and I'll have more on that later, but now Mark Briscoe was left in a 2-on-1 against Necro and Black, and it became 4-on-1 when Jacobs and Lacey got involved. Daizee Haze, who has been appearing with the Briscoes of late, tried to help Mark, but was obviously outnumbered, and this led to Jack Evans and Jigsaw of the Vulture Squad coming out, and the match turned into a six man Street Fight with Mark Briscoe, Evans, and Jigsaw taking on Age Of The Fall. This turned into a really wild brawl where all six men and both women spilled not only out of the ring, but over the guardrail and into the crowd. There were a few pretty sick spots during this stretch, including Evans hitting a 630 off the guardrail onto the floor on Black (which was right in front of me and was very impressive), and then Necro Butcher's requisite sick spot of the night as he was suplexed from inside the ring and over the guardrail into the crowd. There was a lot more going on in this match, but to be honest a lot of it was hard to see because you really couldn't get a good vantage point of everything that was going on from any one spot on the floor. Briscoe and the Vulture Squad picked up the win and then, in a cool moment, went crowd surfing. Great match and a good brawl to start the year.
 Also impressing this weekend was FIP Champion Erick Stevens, who defeated both Austin Aries and Bryan Danielson to successfully defend the FIP Title. He initially won both matches by countout, but then had both matches restarted because he's being pushed as a fighting champion who wants to cleanly defeat his opponents instead of just getting his hand raised. He went on to beat both men right in the middle of the ring with the Doctorbomb. I predicted that Stevens would keep the title, though I was surprised that he wound up getting clean wins over both men. I didn't see the Aries match, but Danielson did a great job selling for Stevens' power offense and making him look like a million bucks in the process. It's pretty obvious after this weekend that Stevens is going to be pushed as a big deal this year, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him in the ring with either guy again down the line for a rematch. In the meantime, Stevens was getting over huge with the New Jersey crowd with his explosive offense, and he's doing a good job of hitting his big moves at the right time instead of just indiscriminately busting out big power moves out of nowhere. Putting him in the ring with guys like Aries and Danielson is a great move because it'll only help him get better. Danielson, in the meantime, also made an impression earlier in the weekend with a victory over Brent Albright in Boston, foloowed by a confrontation with Sweet N' Sour Incorporated that teased a match between Danielson and Daniel Puder.
 Speaking of Sweet N' Sour Incorporated, they had a big weekend all around, starting with Daniel Puder's in ring debut in ROH. He squashed a jobber on Friday night before his confrontation with Danielson, and then ran an angle in Jersey where Larry Sweeney would give a thousand dollars to anybody who could last a minunte with Puder without tapping out. Puder squashed two more young kids (ROH school students Alex Payne and Rhett Titus) before being challenged by Claudio Castagnoli, a challenge Sweeney refused. Castagnoli came back out later in the evening and offered a thousand dollars of his own money if Puder could tap him out in less than a minute. Since it was Claudio's money on the line this time and not his own, Sweeney took him up on the offer, and even though Puder kicked the crap out of Claudio, he lasted the minute before getting beaten down anyway. This is pretty much what I expected out of Puder this weekend, as he was more there to test the waters and be made to look strong without overexposing him. The Angle Invitational-style, super short matches are a perfect way to get Puder over without sticking him in there by himself for too long, though he will eventually have to get in there with Claudio for the blowoff, but he's got some time to prepare before that happens. Whether he's able to carry someone like Puder who doesn't have a lot of ring time will be a good test of Claudio as a worker.
 Larry Sweeney also made his big announcement concerning Chris Hero & SHIMMER Champion Sara Del Rey, as he crowned them the first "Intergender Tag Team Champions". This was being played up as a serious event even though obviously it was a Barry Horowitz-esque fake championship complete with cheap belts that look like they cost about three dollars apiece to make. Though Hero was still injured, they "defended" the title against Ernie Osiris and Alexa Thatcher. Hero was at his comedic best by being in complete control of his opponents without having to do anything that would strain his condition, actually carrying his share of the match despite the injury. Hero and Sara picked up the win when Hero knocked out Alexa with his knee brace. Though I would prefer to see Chris Hero closer to the main event and in the ROH Title picture, this promises to have a lot of entertainment potential. I think the angle is going to be a great thing for Sara Del Rey, because even though she's been wrestling either on the preshow or the undercard of most shows in the last few months, she really hasn't been featured very prominently. Even though she gets a lot of face time by hanging out with Chris Hero, she's mostly been standing around in the background and taking the occasional cheapshot during Hero's matches. Making her Hero's partner will put her in a much more high profile situation.
 Aside from his interaction with Daniel Puder, Claudio Castagnoli had a strong start to the year, scoring wins over Ruckus in Boston (which I believe was Ruckus' first loss since coming to ROH) and then a very big win over Austin Aries in Edison. In between his matches and fighting with Puder, Claudio also did a promo stating that he's been on a roll and has scored some big wins lately, and was now looking for a shot at the ROH World Title, calling out Nigel McGuinness by name. I kind of figured that this was where they were going with Claudio at some point this year, so might as well get the ball rolling now. Claudio and Nigel had some great matches during Nigel's Pure Title reign in 2005-06, so I'm sure this will make a great headline bout for ROH shows later in the year.
 Roderick Strong, the only member of the No Remorse Corps appearing this past weekend, scored wins over El Generico and Jigsaw, which helped keep him looking strong (no pun intended), but the guy is looking more and more lost every time I see him out there. The YRR had a mostly successful start to their ROH career as, even though Sal Rinauro lost to Delirious on Friday, Kenny King and Jason Blade defeated Pelle Primeau and Eddie Edwards, and then all three members defeated Mike Quackenbush, Delirious, and El Generico. I was a little surprised to see them put over those three guys, but I guess they have to go over somebody to be taken seriously.
 Meanwhile, Generico's partner Kevin Steen had a very strong weekend, scoring big wins over both Necro Butcher and Brent Albright. I guess it's probably natural to expect somebody to get pushed down the card after coming out the loser in a big feud like the one Steen and Generico had with the Briscoes last year, but this has not been the case as, after a couple of months off, they're both back and still being pushed. I'm especially (and pleasantly) surprised to see Steen in particular being put over as strong as he was by going over two bulls like Necro and Albright. I think it's great because not only is Steen really over with the fans, but he was able to have matches that got a lot of positive reactions from the fans with two wrestlers that have completely different styles, showing that he can be versatile in the style he works. It's not a case of management deciding they like Steen better than Generico either, because Generico's also looked great in the last few months, and he's already booked into a rematch with Claudio Castagnoli from their Race To The Top Tournament final match from last summer. Both men are still very prominently figured into the tag team scene as well, even though they're not being booked exclusively as a team like they were last year.
 Overall, this was a strong start to the year despite the absence of Nigel McGuinness and the possible injury to Jay Briscoe. Speaking of those guys and the injuries they've both suffered recently, I was pleased to hear that ROH officials met with Chris Nowinski in Boston to work on methods of preventing and dealing with concussions suffered by ROH wrestlers. The thing I really like about ROH's approach to this situation is that unlike WWE and TNA, whom you get the impression are just instituting programs to benefit the well-being of their performers due to being under the eye of higher powers, ROH has proactively and diligently worked hard over the last several months to ensure the health of their wrestlers. No promoter wants to see their guys get hurt, but ROH has really done a lot to make it known that they're doing everything they can to prevent severe injuries, such as cutting back on the crazy spots following the Ladder Match between the Briscoes and Steen/Generico at Man Up, and also holding not only Nigel McGuinness, but also now Jay Briscoe, out of action if there is even the possibility of a concussion or other severe injury. They do this despite knowing the backlash it would (and indeed did) cause from the fans, but I have to give them a big thumbs up for making a serious effort at protecting their workers. There's also the fact that they're providing some form of medical benefits for the guys they have under contract. By all accounts, ROH sounds like a great working environment, and it's too bad that they're not bigger than they are because I'd love to see a truly national TV product that takes care of its talent the way ROH does.
 On a final note, I'd like to make mention of the ROH Undeniable PPV premiering this weekend. I was at that show live and it was a terrific, and the only bad thing I have to say about the entire show is that I thought the Austin Aries-Roderick Strong match was a bit lackluster. It seemed to move very slowly in places, and the crowd just sat there in silence whenever Roderick was in control, and noticeably lit up when Aries went back on the offense. That match was actually the first time I really noticed how boring Roderick Strong had become and how nobody seemed to care about him unless he had Aries or Jack Evans with him. Other than that though, great show and a super, hard hitting main event between Nigel McGuinness and Takeshi Morishima. If you can get past a slightly tough to please crowd, the show was very enjoyable and I'd certainly recommend spending the money to buy the PPV. And just as an aside, I was never a huge fan of Smashing Pumpkins (even though I grew up during theiy heyday in the 90s), but as has been noted many times in the past, Billy Corgan is a huge wrestling fan, and if he's going to throw his support behind ROH, that can mean only good things for the company. ROH has been getting nothing but good press as their exposure in the mainstream media gradually increases, and being in a music video on Smashing Pumpkins' website will help introduce ROH's product to the band's significant fanbase.
 Thanks for reading, and as usual all feedback can be sent to stuwrestling@hotmail.com. See you soon with more thoughts and a preview of next weekend's shows in Dayton and Chicago.
