We had a pretty strong story going into Steel Cage Warfare at "Glory By Honor VII" in Philadelphia last September. The original goal in mind of making Necro Butcher "his own man" was so he could beat everyone up, win the match and have a lot of momentum going into a ROH World Title Match against Nigel McGuinness. With some other smaller things that needed to be accomplished in mind, I sat back and waited for a format to just explode into my head. This was to be Necro's match to turn an important corner and there had been a bunch of angles to separate him from both sides to make him the wildcard entry. The final scene of the closing angle on 8/16 in Chicago was a preview for Steel Cage Warfare.

I always thought Necro had such a unique aura about him before he made his ROH debut. Even if he didn't seem like a typical ROH wrestler or have the most polished style, Necro's one-of-a-kind charisma made him stand out on any card. I first worked with Necro during the CZW feud and really had no idea what to expect from him. It was Chris Hero's suggestion to bring him as a second for his World Title Match vs. Bryan Danielson in January of 2006. I thought it would blow people's minds if Necro showed up as a surprise to second Hero. This would prove to the fans that all the rules of what to expect at a ROH show were thrown out the window when CZW invaded. I didn't even talk to Necro until he walked into the building that day since Hero had booked him. I had no idea what he would do or what to expect. After working with Necro for a few shows I found him to be every quality that belonged in the ROH locker room: Hard-working, dedicated to giving the fans more than their money's worth and passionate about his craft. He was an intriguing throwback both in the ring and in real life. As the St. Vitus song goes, Necro was "born too late."

I became sold on him as a worker in a FIP match against Delirious. Necro worked the big man role perfectly and really won me over as a completely underrated wrestler who didn't need to rely on hardcore and taking crazy bumps. Necro's first ROH run ended with the barbed wire match against BJ Whitmer. He had to disappear to put over the match as important and the CZW feud as unique and special. The Age Of The Fall was the perfect angle to bring Necro back to the roster. Necro's charisma and crazy style won over the fans. The longer Necro was with AOTF as a heel, the more the diehards would demand a babyface turn. I talk about the scene in my upcoming Kayfabe Commentaries shoot interview that provided the inspiration for developing Necro's babyface character. The time was here to pull the trigger and Steel Cage Warfare in Philly would be the shotgun blast that would elevate Necro to the next level.

So the weeks are passing and no format is just exploding into my mind. Maybe the Japan trip didn't help as it was very fun, but time consuming and big distraction. So the night before we fly out of Tokyo I'm hanging out with The Briscoes and playing some video games in their hotel room. Someone else in the room jokes that The Briscoes' had a bad weekend by losing twice. Then Mark asks me about what's going on in Steel Cage Warfare and I realize that they probably wouldn't have a strong role in it since the match was focused on Necro as well as the Jacobs vs. Aries issue. The Briscoes were about to have a big series for the ROH World Tag Team Titles in the near future (this is all covered in the Kayfabe Commentaries shoot and it is much different than what has actually happened). They couldn't afford to lose again. They needed momentum and fast.

So here I am with no format and nothing just exploding into my mind for Necro going over. I have waited and waited and tried and tried, yet the format is not coming together. The Briscoes also needed revenge on AOTF after a year almost to the date of the initial attack (I always liked full circle stuff). It was time to end that feud. The major goal of the match then gets switched to The Briscoes finally gaining revenge on Jacobs & Black and hopefully getting a lot of steam behind them heading to their first matches against Steen & Generico in over a year. Now there were still a few days to develop a format in addition to all the detail work for the Boston PPV taping. One day passes and no format comes to mind. Two days pass and still nothing. Three days and the PPV has to be completely written. Now it is time to go to Boston and I'm beginning to get nervous because this is going to be a format that I have to think out instead of going with my gut. I always found that things I had to "think" out would never be as good as things that would just "explode" in my head and feel right in my gut.

The format is finally finished on the afternoon of the show. It looks good on paper. Everyone has a chance to get over, we have some closure and we build some things for the future. The guys in the match look it over, make some tweaks that improve it and say it looks like it'll work. Austin Aries, in particular, was always good at taking my ideas and making them better. I'm feeling pretty damn good about things at this point. The card begins and it is just overwhelming to stand by the hard cam and see the building filled with people ready for a BIG event. This is what I lived for and will never be replaced. The show progresses and things seem to be going well. Then about 20-30 minutes before Steel Cage Warfare is set to go on Necro comes up to me.

He always wants to give the fans everything he can and says that he doesn't have much of an opportunity here because he's not in the match for very long. It then hits me like a ton of bricks. The wildcard deal is not going to work. Necro is now the odd man out. Unless the wildcard is going over, it serves no purpose at all except to clutter things up. I also suddenly realize that we were in a building where Necro had a strong following and inevitably it would piss off (in the wrong way and there is a right way) a large group of fans. However, it was too late to change things in order to keep him in the match longer. It had become my final booking snafu.

On a final note, a booking snafu doesn't mean that the match is ruined. It is just a snafu. In fact, I just watched the DVD version of Steel Cage Warfare and was really happy with how it turned out. The viewer gets the full background in a great video made by Eric in addition to the Haze stuff in the ROH Video Wire. Jay and Mark were the MVPs for providing several insane highlights. Aries, Black and Jacobs were the glue. Delirious' Spiderman climbing the cage is one of my favorite spots of the year. The Delirious spiking Haze part was beautiful with both of them and Jacobs bringing the drama (If you notice we only used one floor camera shot for this segment to try to get across the raw emotion of the moment). Briscoes, Jacobs and Black showed great timing and poise for the super hot flurry at the end to send the fans home happy and at the peak in the match. Would things have been better with the original plan? I really don't know.

Although I did book the Oct. 24th & 25th shows, "Glory By Honor VII" was the final ROH DVD I produced. I feel that I went out with a bang on this one. We put some extra love into it. In fact, I almost missed my flight because we stayed editing to the last possible minute in order to put together the closing highlight package of alternative camera angles. I almost said "forget about it" since we were exhausted and I didn't feel like having to rush through the airport in a panic at 5:30am, but instead we stayed and got it done. I'm really glad we did now.

I will try to keep these blogs shorter in the future. Again, I am writing them more for myself than anyone else to try to get some closure. In my next blog I will talk about something I recently did that gave me a lot of closure on the ROH chapter of my life.

Credit: www.myspace.com/rohgabe