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EDITORIAL: Historical perspective on Austin Aries's ROH Title victory - his journey from main event to mid-card back to main event
Jun 15, 2009 - 2:00:29 PM |
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GUEST EDITORIAL
By Brian Leahy, PWTorch.com reader
"...and finally we have THE most explosive athlete in this company, bar none: Austin Aries..." – Alex Shelley, "Generation Next"
Saturday, June 13 marked a historic date in the annals of ROH. For over seven years into the companies wrestling life, ROH had never had a repeat world champion. It was a testament to ROH talent pool that they never needed to bounce the belt back and forth between the same few top line stars, but few would complain when the honor to become the first ever two-time ROH World Champion fell to "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" - A Double, Austin Aries.
It was ROH's Reborn weekend that saw the debut of one of ROH's future biggest and brightest stars. In a four-way match brimming with talent, the home town favorite, Aries slotted in seamlessly with talent far more experienced on the black and red canvas of Ring of Honor. It would be two shows later before Aries would be seen again in ROH, but this time as part of the brash, young Generation Next faction.
Doing double duty for two shows running, Aries was positioned as a utility player; a worker who could slot into doubles, three, and four-man tags. Not as vocal or (seemingly) as technically proficient as Shelley, as agile as Evans or as brutal as Strong, Aries role was that of the "all-rounder" of the group. While he broke through as a potential top-of-the-card worker at Survival of the Fittest '04 (featuring a cracking twenty minute showdown with Bryan Danielson), his subservient role to Shelley in Generation Next endured.
As Generation Next lost matches at every opportunity, Aries continued to look stronger and stronger; so much so that he was booked to beat The American Dragon Bryan Danielson two falls to one in a love it/hate it 75-minute match at the aptly named "Testing the Limit." (Incidentally, it was rumored that the match was scheduled to run close to its three-hour time limit before circumstances dictated that it go significantly shorter.) Regardless of match time, Aries never looked out of his element at the top of the card, an achievement not to be taken lightly, having only debuted in ROH some four months previous. (And only becoming a recognizable name on the east coast after impressing at the ECWA's annual Super 8 in April '04)
The tail end of 2004 seemed to be a mixed bag for Aries. While he shared the ring with top line talent his push wasn't exactly emphatic; mainly trading wins with C.M. Punk in singles and doubles matches at a time when Punk and ROH's focus was firmly placed on the epic Samoa Joe vs. C.M. Punk world title trilogy. His great contenders match with Low Ki was marred by Ki's "no job" policy and even the award of his title shot, based on the fact that he alone was willing to go to overtime after their time limit draw, was weakening booking for the rising star. It mattered little though.
"Well I'm your Personal Jesus and tonight I ascend the top of ROH and not you, Samoa Joe, or any of these damn people can stop me" - Austin Aries, "Final Battle 2004"
The phenomenal finish to Final Battle '04 will forever stick in the mind of ROH fans who wondered for months who would end Samoa Joes 18-month streak. Aries's now-famous Crucifix bomb-kick-brianbuster-450 combo will endure as a fitting end to ROH's longest title reign, but may well have created too much of an aura around a wrestler who was very good, but as it played out, just didn't have a lot of back story or viable, beatable contenders to add to his momentum rolling into 2005.
Indeed, while his matches were of a higher quality than the majority of defenses in Samoa Joes title reign (as well as having more frequent defenses), only a few managed to get the ROH fanbase excited. His matches with Homicide, Gibson, and Danielson were all solid encounters and his title match with ex-comrade Alex Shelley at Manhattan Mayhem was very good. A designer shirt and a pair of sunglasses (a little hint at what would come four years later) and a little more mic time did little to disguise that ROH didn't have the faith to get behind Aries fully; his title matches rarely ended a show, and a pointless loss to Low Ki (yup, him again) in a non-title match at the end of June '05 did little to suggest his run would continue through the summer.
And so came "The Summer of Punk." As forgettable as the majority of A-Double's reign was, it was book-ended by two historic ROH moments. His matches with Punk six months previous, along with a subtle storyline of Aries's body breaking down from over-exposure contributed nicely to another match that will be remembered more for its finish than the wrestling that went before it.
As Punk reigned supreme, Aries, as is traditional with ROH champions having lost their belt, quietly slipped down to the mid-card. Free from the pressure of the World Title, Aries immediately began to put together a burst of quality matches. His first show sans title featured a great four-way match with other top line talent, and the following night he challenged Samoa Joe for the Pure Title. Harkening back to their World title matches, the match wonderfully played off the historic finish of their Final Battle clash before Joe walked away victorious. But yet again, Austin's short lived momentum ground to a halt as he languished around the mid card with no direction (also taking on the head trainer Role at ROH's wrestling school) until the Generation Next vs. The Embassy feud came to pass.
Five months after he has lost the world title, Aries had direction again: leading GeNext in multi-man matches and to victory in a fantastic Steel Cage Warfare match in December '05. Coming straight off that win, Aries and stablemate Roderick Strong won a worthless match over the worthless team of Sal Rinauro and Tony Mamaluke to win the (almost worthless) ROH Tag Team Titles, and make it two for two title wins at ROH's end of year celebration.
Avoiding the white-hot CZW feud, Aries and Strong worked hard on the undercard, taking on all comers in the tag ranks and succeeded in the impossible: giving a tag team title value in North America. It was during their stint that ROH gave their titles "World Championship" status and their matches against Styles & Sydal, The Embassy, and DOI & CIMA and most notably the Briscoes, had people talking about their defenses more than those of their singles championship counterpart-Bryan Danielson.
Amassing a near nine-month reign, Aries and Strong put together the most definitive tag team title run ever seen in Ring of Honor not only in terms of quantity but also of quality. As is the always the case, their reign had to come to an end, but despite the quiet dissolution of Generation Next as a unit, Strong and Aries continued to tag together in showcase and dream tag team matches with the occasional foray into the singles ranks.
ROH's 5th-Year Festival marked the end of the Aries and Strong relationship as, like Aries had done to Shelley before, Strong turned on Aries to kick off ROH's ill-conceived faction warfare. Slowly at first (only clashing with Strong in one of the next six shows), The Resilience (Aries, Cross, and Stevens) took a limp-wristed fight to the NRC (Strong, Richards, and Romero). As the heatless, boring matches piled up in faction warfare, Aries was pulled from ROH by TNA, following ROH's announcement that they were entering the PPV market.
TNA found themselves with a wrestler unhappy in his gimmick and unwilling to go the extra mile for a company he didn't love. Suspending him for a second time due to his "poor attitude" (the first was for disobeying a friendly suggestion by TNA officials to skip an ROH show in February 2006 to ensure he would make their Against All Odds PPV), Aries saw an opportunity and asked for his release.
Returning on camera to a thunderous ovation at the Driven 2007 PPV, it was clear that ROH's creative staff and fans alike perceived Aries as a genuine star. Gabe Sapolsky persevered with The Resilience/NRC feud until the Undeniable PPV in June 2007, before Aries's focus was thankfully shifted back to the World Title Scene.
Luckily for A-Double, his feud-come-tag team with the American Dragon provided some much needed quality-buffer as he closed out his grievances with Strong and Erick Stevens (due to Aries's devil-may-care attitude as leader of The Resilience). By the end of 2007 Aries was firmly back in the main event picture, punctuated by a blistering encounter with Nigel McGuinness at Rising Above.
Repeated attempts to capture ROH gold both in singles and doubles ranks proved fruitless and the offer came in from The Age of the Fall to turn his fortunes around. Turning down the offers of Jacobs and Co. at first, Lacey was used by Jacobs in an attempt to lure Aries to their side. Aries and Lacey formed a relationship on screen (wrestling art imitating wrestling life), driving Jacobs to the point of stalking and harming Lacey and sparking off the feud that would consume both men for the next six months. Though their clashes were intense, heated, quality affairs, the pace of the feud meant that although the matches held up great both live and on DVD, fans failed to get too excited about the matches prior the events. It was during this run against Jacobs that Aries started to clash with Tyler Black, who despite his position within the Age of the Fall, remained a fan favorite for his in ring ability.
Following the stellar blow off to the Jacobs-Aries feud at Rising Above 2009, Aires began to show a certain disenchantment with the fans. Cleverly booked against fan favorites such as Black and Marufuji, it was the perfect excuse for fans not to get behind Aries despite how much he had put on the line against Jacobs in the months preceding.
The brutalizing of Tyler Black at Final Battle 2008 marked the death of Austin Aries as ROH fans knew him. His rebirth at Full Circle as "A-Double" was nothing short of astounding. Gone was the intense fan favorite, and in his place was an arrogant, "moustachioed," lippy, self-loving heel. Adding simple backrakes and ridiculous facials to his repertoire, Aries became a hilarious and entertaining heel while still maintaining his top level aura. Strangely, the majority of the first half of 2009 found Aries re-establishing himself in ROH. He battled mainly new and lower-card talent and picked up some allies in King and Titus, who are two men with a similar attitude and thankfully the character definition to stand on their own two feet, which Stevens and Cross had lacked.
Aries proved himself on the mic as well, showing time and time again he had the ability on the stick to "talk the talk" as well as "walk the walk." Indeed his vignettes with Kyle Durden were/are often the most entertaining segment on ROH's Video Wires and he arguably out performed Ric Flair when they appeared on ROH's television show. Presented as a genuine star to their new TV audience, it was clear that Aries was earmarked to return to bigger things in the company.
"Not only am I a star, I am THE Star, and not only am I a great wrestler; I'm the greatest man who ever lived" - Austin Aries, "Eliminating The Competition"
And so on the night of Saturday June 13, he did. At the expense of both Tyler Black and Jerry Lynn, Austin Aries became a two-time ROH World Champion in a reportedly thrilling encounter.
Some will argue that Aries has had his run and though it wasn't shameful, he proved nothing with it. Others will say it was Tyler Black's time to hold ROH gold. In reality, Aries has never been in better position to hold the ROH World Title. He is a strong, unlikeable (in a good way) character, who has shown that he can work with anyone on the ROH roster. Aries on top provides an opportunity for ROH to get behind Tyler Black in the way that they just couldn't with babyface Jerry Lynn on top, and there's plenty of scope for further top line feuds with Strong, Stevens, Danielson, Nigel, and Jacobs - all of whom he has pre-existing storylines with.
ROH is coming off a run of good shows after an initial lambasting following the loss of Gabe, and now that the Lynn-haters have nothing more to complain about, the company is in a much stronger position to, at the very least, maintain their fan base with Aries on top.
Aries is a believable, confident, reliable, and, above all, highly entertaining wrestler at a time when ROH needs someone on top that ticks all those boxes. Aries has already proved time and time again that he is loyal to ROH, and for that alone he is to be commended. Plenty of talent has set sail for Orlando or Connecticut in the five years Aries has been with ROH, but Aries seems genuinely happy to be wrestling in an ROH ring, and apparently with a voice in the booking committee, who could blame him. That's not to take anything away from Aries, because he deserves this spot on his talent alone, and ROH management will hope that that talent can carry ROH through testing times for their product.
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