Knoble to ROH!?!?!?!?!?

[Guest Chasing Dogma]

James Gibson, formerly known as Jamie Knoble in WWE, has officially signed on to be part of Ring Of Honor. Gibson will debut on 2/25 in Dayton, Ohio and has also signed on for 2/26 in Chicago Ridge, IL. Gibson will also be on future dates. Tickets are now on sale for both events. Check ROHwrestling.com for tickets and directions.

 

Gibson has made it clear that he is coming to ROH for one reason. He wants to take on the best talent and he demands top matches. ROH officials are thrilled to have Gibson on board as this gives ROH a number of fresh main event quality match possibilities.

 

Gibson teams regularly with Bryan Danielson in New Japan, but it is unknown right now if that team will continue in ROH. One thing is clear though and that is Gibson is in ROH to test himself against only the top talent. Gibson's opponents for 2/25 and 2/26 will be named shortly.

 

Huge news IMO for RoH.

 

I think he's going to fit in well with the RoH wrestlers, As IMO he can high fly and Mat wrestle! Whilst he also has ALOT of charisma, So he's defo going to be a great addition to the roster.

 

Give me Knoble/Punk, Knoble/Joe, Knoble/Danielson and Knoble/Homicide and Gary Shall be Happy.

 

I also wouldnt mind seeing him as part of that Pure Division, it lack's star power IMO, and if Knoble was placed in there, then i'd imagine he'd be like AJ was in the division back at the begining of the year.

[Guest Deviant]

Why the lack of replies here? Has the anti-ROH due to RF fallout continued and killed off the ROH interest of this board? Other ROH topics get at least a bit of a response... Was this posted in another topic?

 

Yes, this is the biggest news for ROH since Foley becoming a regular. In terms of reaching new fans and convincing people who have never seen the ROH names in action to part with a little money, a guy like Noble could be a huge key to future profits and potentially even a further expansion of the shows and crowd sizes alike. I imagine a fair few checking shows out because they've heard all the hype about ROH, but never had something like a match featuring a familiar face to convince them to go ahead and risk giving ROH a shot.

 

I think Gabe will use FIP for certain Noble matches. He has already done Punk vs Noble there. I suspect Homicide vs Noble for the FIP title won't be far behind, as well as Joe vs Noble if Noble is on the same shows.

 

Because in ROH, I expect Generation Next vs James Gibson and Bryan Danielson. I think we'll still get a "see who the better man is" match between Danielson and Gibson in there somewhere, but the core feud will be Shelley vs Gibson, with a little Gibson vs Aries (in my mind, Aries could win the title from Joe on 12/26 and a match with Gibson would help put Aries over as the champion and put him on the way to filling Joe's shoes) and Aries vs Danielson continuing via this feud until their big tie-breaking blow off match at, oh lets say Death Before Dishonor III.

 

Imagine this for the Anniversary weekend:

 

Night One - Samoa Joe vs Mick Foley, Danielson/Gibson vs Shelley/Aries

Night Two - Austin Aries vs James Gibson for the ROH title, Danielson vs Homicide in part of the Best of Five series they have lined up.

 

Consider the talent that would still be left over to fill the rest of the card...

 

Something THAT big. That is how I hope and somewhat expect Gibson to contribute to ROH, and that's why I am extremely happy to see this partnership between Gibson and ROH.

 

(Notice the change to calling him Gibson half way through that... I am going to force myself to get used to calling him James Gibson!)

[Placebo Effect 0]

It's not THAT big a deal.

 

Knoble is a great athlete, yeah, but until he puts on a truly fantastic match (which he hasn't been allowed to do during his WCW/WWE career), I'm not getting my hopes up.

[Tawren 0]

OMFG REOH IS TEH AWESOME WOWOWOWOWOW!

 

Except IWA:MS has already had him since the firing. It's neat, hopefully he'll do some good stuff in ROH, but it's not a crime to not orgasm due to this announcement.

[Michrome 0]

Except IWA:MS has already had him since the firing.

 

Really? When? Which match?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

He was meant to be in IWA:MS last night, to wrestle Matt Sydal, but didn't appear. I think he was taken off due to the money situation down there.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Eh, I've already seen him in New Japan and it'll be awhile before I get the RoH DVDs on him.

 

The only thing that would get me extremely excited would be Liger coming back. I like Noble but it fits into the "that's nice" category and I move on.

[Guest Duncan Eternia]

Personally I can;t wait to see him in ROH. He should be able to freshen things up a bit which ROH has been consistently pretty good at doing.

 

I too hope the RF thing doesn't continually follow the promotion. They did the split and both went there seperate ways. Time to move on.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Speaking of RF and IWA:MS, I wonder what people think of IWA:MS having to do a deal with RF in order to get themselves out of their immediate financial problems.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Speaking of RF and IWA:MS, I wonder what people think of IWA:MS having to do a deal with RF in order to get themselves out of their immediate financial problems.

I personally hate it. But then again I like IWA-MS, so I'll look past it. Plus, if I don't buy any tapes from RF.......he doesn't see my money.

[geniusMoment 0]

Knoble and AJ Styles to ROH, nice influx of talent.

[Guest The Shadow Behind You]

Styles return is going to overshadow Gibson's debut; which makes me think Gibson won't have a *Major* match but merely a "Check me out" showdown with Sydal or Strong. THEN in Chicago; he'll have his "main event" calibar match against Aries or Danielson.

[Michrome 0]

Actually, I think Gibson will have a big match on both nights, just like they said he would. AJ vs. Rave will likely main event, so my guess for Gibson's weekend is:

 

Gibson/Dragon vs. Romero/Reyes (Night 1)

Gibson vs. Shelley (Night 2)

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Eh, I've already seen him in New Japan and it'll be awhile before I get the RoH DVDs on him.

How was his stuff in Japan? Was it just teaming w/ AmDrag, or did he have any singles matches?

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

He teamed mostly with American Dragon in tag matches and a few six man's. He has one singles match with Tiger Mask as well.

[Guest krazykat72]

Yes, this is the biggest news for ROH since Foley becoming a regular. In terms of reaching new fans and convincing people who have never seen the ROH names in action to part with a little money, a guy like Noble could be a huge key to future profits and potentially even a further expansion of the shows and crowd sizes alike. I imagine a fair few checking shows out because they've heard all the hype about ROH, but never had something like a match featuring a familiar face to convince them to go ahead and risk giving ROH a shot.

 

 

*snip*

 

Night One - Samoa Joe vs Mick Foley, Danielson/Gibson vs Shelley/Aries

Night Two - Austin Aries vs James Gibson for the ROH title, Danielson vs Homicide in part of the Best of Five series they have lined up.

If by fair few, you mean almost none, I'd believe it. Jamie Noble probably means nothing in terms of drawing fans. ROH's ceiling has probably been reached (12-1500 for a major show).

At this point I'm not sure why they'd want to expand giving travel costs etc, when they have a nice little niche and they're not overstepping their bounds.

 

Honestly, I'd be *shocked* to see Foley do a match with Joe.

Mick's been adamant about only having a few matches left and the 3 he's wrestled have been for big paydays (Mania, Backlash, and vs. Kawada) and no, I'm not counting the 8 man tag, since he didn't do much at all). There's no way ROH can throw that kind of money his way, and frankly, if they could, they'd be stupid to do so since it might bring in a few hundred more people max, and it's not as if they run PPV's or anything.

 

-Paul Jacobi-

[Michrome 0]

Paul, in terms of Foley, if he works a match it will be for almost nothing. He didn't charge them for 11/6 and gave them extremely reduced prices for 9/11, 10/16, and now 12/26. His son is now a huge mark for the promotion, and it really wouldn't surprise me if he wanted to just work one match with Joe who he thinks is just awesome. He wouldn't be asking for the kind of money he got from Hustle, it would be for himself and for fans.

[Guest krazykat72]

Paul, in terms of Foley, if he works a match it will be for almost nothing. He didn't charge them for 11/6 and gave them extremely reduced prices for 9/11, 10/16, and now 12/26. His son is now a huge mark for the promotion, and it really wouldn't surprise me if he wanted to just work one match with Joe who he thinks is just awesome. He wouldn't be asking for the kind of money he got from Hustle, it would be for himself and for fans.

I just can't see him not going for the big payday in this instance.

I'd love to see the match, but Mick's taken a ton of beatings in his career and I'm not sure if he's going to take another without a big payday......Maybe a tag match where he'd only do a spot or two, but I can't see him taking a beating from Joe at this point....Of course if I'm proven wrong and it's in Philly or Elizabeth, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

 

 

 

-Paul Jacobi-

[Michrome 0]

Yeah, I mean, I'm looking at it this way. I don't know if you were at 12/4, but Joe pretty damn clearly calls him out at the end of the show. The "blowoff" to the Steamboat/Foley feud is scheduled for Sunday, but Mick is still on yet another show in Boston, and supposedly is going to be on Elizabeth 2/19 too. It really would not shock me if Joe comes to the ring Sunday and lays him out.

[Guest krazykat72]

The last show I was at was The Lyger Elizabeth show.....

Honestly, they'd probably be better off with Foley giving someone else the rub (like in a tag match, where Foley's partner gets the big win on Joe)

since Joe beating Foley does nothing for Joe (he's already the top guy).

I guess we'll see.

 

 

-Paul Jacobi-

[Michrome 0]

If Foley does work, and it would be a longshot, it would be the perfect program to give a post-title Joe. This is not WWE where you can run a carbon copy of the rumble brawl with a green guy and get him over with the fans. They're not gonna buy John Walters vs. Mick Foley. If Foley works it's gotta be against one of their top 2, Punk or Joe. Could also be with Homicide, but they're not showing any signs of building toward that.

[Precious Roy 0]

Joe v. Foley is the biggest match ROH can run at this point in time, so for their sake I really hope it happens. Foley doesn't need a payday, he's very well off and his books make him money, if he does this it's because he understands his place in wrestling history and he realizes what this match does for him, for Joe, and for ROH.

 

As for Noble, I'm looking forward to him working to his full potential. Far as I can tell he only scratched the surface of what he's capable of in WCW and the E, the WCW stuf was very spotty, and even when he was getting time with Mysterio they were working under limitations. I haven't seen any of the recent New Japan stuff, but with his excellent matwork and ability to take it to the air when need be he reminds me of a young Dean Malenko. Matches with Aries, Danielson and Shelley are particularly intriguing to me.

 

But I don't think this means much, if anything, for ROH in terms of attracting new fans. Anyone who cared enough about him in the E and took him seriously enough to look past the gimmick is likely already a fan of ROH.

 

Rey Mysterio brings a new audience, RVD brings a new audience, Matt Hardy might even bring a new audience. Jamie Noble doesn't really have a mainstream following.

[Guest Deviant]

I can easily see Foley working with Joe just because of how big of a Joe fan Foley is, following Joe/Punk II. He'll wrestle him just to put him over and give him that rub. If he was only showing up for a payday, he wouldn't be in ROH in the first place. Sure he asked for big paydays from WWE and HUSTLE, but that's because he's not an idiot, not because he demands the money.

[Guest 5.0Fanatic]

Now with Steamboat off for awhile I could see Foley maybe getting more into Joe's title. If Joe retains on Saturday (like I think he will) I could almost see Foley becoming a mentor for a younger more hardcore guy ( I would like to see Masada, but hes probably not over enough) and build him up for a match with Joe. After losing, Foley decides that the only way to get the title off of Joe is to do it himself, setting up Joe vs. Foley at something big like Death Before Dishonor. I guess Gabe can take over the booking from there .

 

And in regards to Knoble, anyone else see him beating Walters for the pure title sometime soon?

[Guest The Shadow Behind You]

I'm thinking Joe obviously retains @ F.B and then at the 1/15 show, Joe defeats Nigel in a quality match, Foley cuts a promo that basically means he puts himself over, The fans aren't going to boo Joe so might as well turn Foley full heel here and foley's good enough to do it.

 

Have Foley claim to have ran Steamboat out and mock how Mr. Purist ran away to babysit other wrestlers. Out comes retaining champion Joe to ask about why Foley never answered his challenge...

 

Foley responds by going "I didn't think you were serious." Joe gets in his face and out comes 'Cide and Low Ki to beat down Joe. Punk and Cabana come out and chase them off. For effect have Joe/Nigel the last match before intermission and announce "Nigel requested to move the match up as he needs to take a earlier flight home". Cabana/Aries would be the main event.

 

I'd have Foley finally accept the challenge at the chicago 3YA show for the next show in Philly but non title.