Is Kevin Steen the new Mick Foley?

It may seem weird but comparing Mick Foley to Kevin Steen actually makes some sense but want to give you a little retrospective on Steen first. Kevin Steen broke into wrestling in 2000 and has done a lot over his 12 year career. His first main exposure was in CZW in 2004 back then the company was beginning to use a lot more outside talent and the Canadian’s got used a lot. Steen would go on to win the, now defunct, Ironman title from Franky the Mobster and would lose it too LuFisto nearly a year later, strange how these are all Canadians. Steen has publically stated that him and then CZW owner John Zandig did not get along, Zandig has also said he didn’t like Steen. When he lost the title he would pretty much leave CZW and apart from a one off he would not come back.

After his CZW run he would get arguably his biggest break in Ring of Honor. He would debut with El Generico, a regular tag partner, and would be given a great feud from the get go. The two would feud with then ROH Tag champs the Briscoe Brothers which would produce some amazing matches. The 2 would continue to chase the titles and got to the finals of a tournament to name new champions 2008 losing to Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black. They would finally win the titles at Driven 2008 beating Jacobs & Black. Their reign would be a good one and they would go into a feud with the American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) and they would lose the titles the Wolves in a Tables match on a TV taping in April 2009. The duo would continue to team until Final Battle 2009 were after a loss to the Young Bucks Steen would turn on Generico. This is where Steen’s wrestling style would begin to change. The feud with him & Corino against Colt Cabana & Generico would go on throughout the year and would involve some brutal matches like Street fights, Last Man Standing, Chain matches, Cage matches and ended with a Fight without Honor between Steen and Generico at Final Battle 2010. That match was for Steen’s ROH career and he wouldn’t be back until Final Battle 2011. Steen won his career back by beating Steve Corino in a wild hardcore match, after that Steen seemed to wrestle more hardcore matches than straight matches. Steen would win the ROH World title from Davey Richards at Border Wars, in the rematch at Best in the World the match would be a No Holds barred match. It’s got to the point where I think Steen has become reliant on the No DQ rules and using hardcore spots, a prime example being the recent Boiling Point PPV where the match between him and Eddie Kingston was made Anything Goes minutes before for no reason, the 2 had one match in Chikara and very little interaction in ROH.

There is no question, in my mind, that Steen is great at what he does and he is a damn good wrestler but you get this feeling that, like I said, he’s becoming reliant on the hardcore/brawling style much like Mick Foley (and there you go!). Mick to me was a fantastic promo guy and was a good to great in ring performer but if you watch his body of work he replied on big spots throughout, it’s rare to see a match were he didn’t hit the ring steps badly on fell onto the bare floor from high up. Now it’s not fair to say Mick was alone there, if you look back at WWE in 1999/2000 it was very often that come a PPV it would suddenly be announced that the main event, usually involving Steve Austin, The Rock, Mankind or Triple H, would suddenly be a No Holds Barred match it pretty much happened every month, but Mick would do these big spots all the time.

When you look at Foley and Steen you can see a lot of similarities, both are great on the mic, both have never been in the best shape and both are great in the ring but are relying on big and dangerous spots. Now to counteract this I wanted to point out that while in ROH Steen seems to be doing more brawling than wrestling if you were to check out Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, where Steen is in his 3^rd reign as PWG champion, he puts on some incredible matches without brawling. Steen shows that he is extremely talented in the ring and doesn’t have to rely on that hardcore style to get over so I wonder why he does in ROH. My main concern is that Steen could end up like Mick if this continues and could become a physical wreck, this big spots will likely have big lasting effects. The only positive is that Steen isn’t working this style every night, like I pointed out he does do normal wrestling matches elsewhere and isn’t doing the brawling style unless it makes sense and is telling a story. Ultimately I think the answer to my question is no I don’t think Steen is becoming Mick Foley, I feel that Foley relied on the hardcore style so much while Steen doesn’t have to rely on it and if he is the next Mick Foley that's no bad thing in my book.

If you read this I thought I would treat you with one of his matches so here is Steen/Generico taking on the Briscoes in a Ladder match from ROH Man Up PPV.