Shane Hollister

[IndyPowerRankings]

Hollister is off all next weekend. Book it, Lizard Man!

[Heyzel]

Hollister is off all next weekend. Book it, Lizard Man!

agreed roh need to book this man

[BlackLesnar]

But... why?

[Mr. Orange]

I think he is a good wrestler, has good promos, is fun to watch, can wrestle the ROH style, and has somewhat of a fan base that he might bring with him who want to see him succeed on a larger stage.On top of all of that he isn't signed to the Gabe promotions so why not pursue him? The ROH roster has like 21 guys who are regularly used if that. Why not give a guy a chance who has been having an impressive year in CZW and AAW and wherever else he wrestles? If he wrestles once and they don't like it then don't sign him. I hope he gets used in the Top Prospect Tournament in the early part of next year because I think he is good now and he will probably get better.

[JigsawVs.Jason]

I agree with Mr.Orange, with Richards and Edwards leaving, ROH is losing two main eventers that could be put into the title picture anyday if necessary. It's time for ROH to recruit some new talent and try to mold the next Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards. Hollister definitely deserves a chance, he's been pretty impressive in 2013

[IndyPowerRankings]

Just like any wrestler, there's going to be polarization among the fans, but Hollister has been very good lately. Had a great 2013 at AAW and he's starting to come on strong at CZW.

Throw JT Dunn into that same boat of guys who could really do well in ROH. Matt Cage & Christian Rose as well.

[BlackLesnar]

I think he is a good wrestler

How so?

has good promos

Ehhhhhhhhhh... let's just say it's ironic that he's a Tyler Black fan.

is fun to watch

Again, how? What elements of his matches make them fun watch?

can wrestle the ROH style

What's that meant to even mean? Flashy spots and convoluted moves? So could Malachai Jackson, ROH's top stars have substance to their styles beyond that.

If he wrestles once and they don't like it then don't sign him. I hope he gets used in the Top Prospect Tournament in the early part of next year because I think he is good now and he will probably get better.

Fair do's.

[Mr. Orange]

I think he is a good wrestler

How so?

has good promos

Ehhhhhhhhhh... let's just say it's ironic that he's a Tyler Black fan.

is fun to watch

Again, how? What elements of his matches make them fun watch?

can wrestle the ROH style

What's that meant to even mean? Flashy spots and convoluted moves? So could Malachai Jackson, ROH's top stars have substance to their styles beyond that.

If he wrestles once and they don't like it then don't sign him. I hope he gets used in the Top Prospect Tournament in the early part of next year because I think he is good now and he will probably get better.

Fair do's.

He's a very versatile wrestler. He's the kind of wrestler that can go out there an wrestle different styles of matches. He has cool submissions and technical moves in his arsenal. He can do some high flying maneuvers. He also has pretty cool strikes and kicks. Which are all things that I want to see from a wrestler in ROH. He also has a cool look and I have seen him do some innovative moves which I have never seen done before.

Wrestling the "ROH Style" does not mean convoluted spots and flashy moves. I'm talking the fast paced, innovative, sort of Japanese style of wrestling that ROH has been known for in independent wrestling since it's inception. Malachi Jackson is not an example of that. There are certain qualities in a wrestler that ROH looks for to fit that mold and Hollister has way more of those qualities then Malachi Jackson. Am I saying Hollister is amazing and a future ROH Champion? No. Should he be given the opportunity based on what I've seen of him? Absolutely.

With Davey and Eddie leaving, ROH has 19 full time male wrestlers on the roster. That is terrible. They should be scooping up the best prospects from the Mid West and East Coast. I think Hollister should at least be given a shot. I'd rather see him that about 1/4 of the ROH roster at this point.

Blacklesnar, What don't you like about him? I've watched about 15 or so of his matches and MV's of matches of his on Youtube and he seems pretty dope to me. Who would you bring in that's available to help ROH's depleting roster if not Hollister? Aside from like Hero and London.

[BlackLesnar]

See, ‘versatile’ is what a smart promoter would call someone who’s not particularly good at anything, so they just do a bunch of cool-looking stuffs and hope it gets over. Have you ever seen him work a match where he works a consistent style & tells a good story with it? Because all I’ve personally seen in my admittedly meager experience is a nice DDT and a retarded-looking knee strike. Some things aren’t innovated for a good reason.

Speaking of which, fast-pacing & innovation are exactly what I meant. Flash, rather than substance, Sorry, I could’ve made that clearer. What makes Japanese wrestling good isn’t the moves themselves, it’s the meaning under them.

What don't you like about him?

He’s just sorta... hokey? I guess? There have always been guys who I just don’t ‘get’. Christian, Miz, Axel, Orton, Kendrick, Taylor, I don’t dislike them, but their matches never feel like something I can’t afford to skip. I watched Gargano’s match at Matt Rushmore recently and it finally hit me why: they’re based around doing their signature moves, and that’s it. It’s not believable, these people aren’t threatening in a combat setting whatsoever. Even high fliers such as Jack Evans or Evan Bourne intimidate me more than guys like Hollister, those guys are scary agile and have no self preservation instinct.

I’m no indie expert, but ROH needs a varied roster. Hire guys with distinct styles. Powerhouses like Chris Dickinson, brawlers like Willie Mack, technicians like Drew Gulak, high fliers like Andrew Everett, strikers like Arik Cannon, et cetera. I remember far more from Raymond Rowe's ROH match than Kyle Matthews', and would hire him & Samson Walker & MASADA simply for being different looooooooooong before I’d choke the roster with more ‘ROH style’ twigs.

[Mr. Orange]

Sami Callihan vs Shane Hollister from Day of Defiance 2013 in AAW was a very good match which had some great story telling aspects to it. Hollister used his strikes to work over Sami's ribs which played into the finish of the match. Hollister also sold the beating he took pretty awesomely. That's just one example I have seen. I have heard he has put on great matches there with ACH and Davey Richards as well.

Of all of the indie talent you mention in your post only Dickinson, Rowe, Matthews, and Walker aren't signed to WWNLIVE companies or work on the west coast. Me personally, I would prefer Hollister over Walker and Rowe and below Dickinson and Matthews. Rowe was cool though. If it was up to me I would have 20 or so guys from the West coast or from DGUSA/Evolve but we don't have that luxury so we choose what we can.

I don't get what you mean by "choking the roster with ROH Style Twigs." If by twigs you are referring to Hollister and Matthews then who are the other twigs currently on the ROH roster? Adam Page? So three twigs? That's hardly choking. And you said you would hire Everett and Gulak who are pretty twiggy themselves so that's the same amount of twigs each.

I am not even that big of a Hollister fan but I just hate seeing guys get passed up on for only Gabe to sign them and then they start doing well in his promotions. I hope Hollister is going to have a breakout year and I hope it's with Ring of Honor.

[YimYac]

Gabe isn't using Hollister either though

[Tim]

Since Gulak and Busick can't be brought in the two guys I want to see most are Hollister and John Silver.

[BlackLesnar]

That Sami match was one of the ones I watched, but I’ll take your word for it. Will give it another look.
Page isn’t a twig per say, he looks a lot better than Hollister and a lot better than Matthews, but he’s actually another example of what I’m saying. I pay special attention to his matches, to try and get some gauge on what the hell his style is supposed to be. High flyer? Brawler? The answer insofar eludes me.
Gulak and Everett are indeed twiggy, but I said “‘ROH style’ twigs” specifically i.e. guys who don’t have a distinct style of their own. Gulak is a technician who can tie me into knots, he’d rip my ligaments & break my bones with his mastery of holds. Everett is a high flier who could turn physics itself against me, he’d wrap his ankles around my neck and splatter my skull across the concrete in a split second. Hollister’s a guy who does convoluted telegraphed moves, he’d have a 1 in 15 chance of working over my ribs. I’d pick a fight with him long before options A or B. Provided there isn’t a taut waist-high horizontal cable in the vicinity I’ll be fine.

And I never said that I actively don’t want him in ROH. Just that I wouldn’t be enthused if he was, and would rather see more variety in the roster. And like YimYac said, if Gabe himself hasn’t picked him up, that’s sort of telling.

[Tim]

Like a few people mentioned, without Davey and Eddie there are 19 wrestlers on the roster. One of those is Mike Bennett who is pretty much gaurenteed to have a boring match, Matt Taven is gaurenteed to have a bullshit ending to his match, Mark Briscoe and Caprice Coleman who will have botchtastaic nothing matches, they are doing nothing with Roddy, and me personally, I don't want to see Outlaw Inc. at all.

There is not a ton to be excited about when you talk about ROH's roster these days. You can't bring in Brian "Roids" Cage or Willie Mack (not that he's having good matches these days), they missed the boat on Gulak, Busick, Everitt, and Trent Baretta, and who knows if they want to take a chance on The Monster Mafia with their border issues.

Why not bring in Hollister? We will never know what he can be in ROH until he get's the chance, and I don't see how bringing in a guy with buzz can hurt a company who has none at the moment. Bring in Hollister, bring in John Silver, bring in JT Dunn. ROH needs to give us fans a reason to be excited about their product, and right now I can honestly say I'm not.

[Marketh.]

Mark Briscoe? Botch-tastic?

[Tim]

Mark Briscoe? Botch-tastic?

I'd say so... but the point I'm trying to make is int I'm trying to make is there are only 19 wrestlers, and some of them are guys who don't have good matches.

[YimYac]

I don't think I've ever seen Mark Briscoe botch anything in the past 2 years

[Tim]

Facepalm... ok, my bad, he dosen't botch... but he still dosen't have good matches.

I thought I made a lot of good points, guess not.

[Mr. Orange]

Facepalm... ok, my bad, he dosen't botch... but he still dosen't have good matches.

I thought I made a lot of good points, guess not.

I like Briscoe but I get the main point in that the roster is small and a lot of the guys aren't interesting or aren't putting on good matches. Hopefully with this Tournament we get like 4 or 5 guys to add to the roster and hopefully Hero and London get brought in, in the early part of next year to spice things up a bit.

This year we lost a lot of guys. Mike Mondo, BJ Whitmer, Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Rhino, Charlie Haas, Shelton Benjamin and Rhett Titus are all gone now.

We did gain ACH, TD Thomas, Adam Page, Silas Young, Matt Taven, and Outlaw Inc but Outlaw Inc have flopped. ACH and Silas Young are really good in my opinion. TD Thomas is fun but I can't really see him moving up the card in the future. Page is a good young prospect but it will take some time to grow. Taven is kind of in the same boat but a little further along. They should probably try to get some veteran indie talent more then these young guys.

[BlackLesnar]

How the fuck have Outlawz flopped?

Seriously. I want answers for this shit. It's mindboggling. I was listening to some ill-conceived Final Battle 'preview' yesterday, by two guys who just bitched for 40 minutes. Their argument against the tag match was "man, these two are so stale! We could have gotten reDRagon vs The Young Bucks!". The Young Bucks! Two guys with a unique look, style, motive, 4 months of backstory with the champs and five matches in the company are 'stale', but a 1-month program with THE MOTHERFUCKING YOUNG BUCKS is the height of originality! It's not like we've already seen reDRagon defend against Young Bucks acts in Young Bucks matches throughout the entire year or anything! Christ almighty.