Laney

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this match. I wouldn't consider Samples a very good wrestler by any means, but this was very well structured and Honma did an excellent job in this one. There was some great stuff in this one with the kendo sticks, and I thought it was particularly impressive when Samples destroyed a kendo stick over Honma's head. Just a very well structured hardcore brawl with Honma doing a good job taking bumps. ****

I thought this was a very good match. They a good job of making Omori look like he is going to be a breakout star as he just comes up a bit short here. Unfortunately, Omori just really isn't that good and never really amounts to anything notable. However, he seems to look competent in this match here as there is some good work on Kobashi's legs and selling of frustration when Kobashi kicks out. This gets a little bomb heavy in spots, but is still a very fine match. ****

The Boogalou thing actually happens on the very next show, Glory By Honor. That's when XPW is running a show at the same time and offers a bunch of ROH roster members a lot of money to no show and work for them. Boogalou is the only guy who takes the offer, which is why at GBH Homicide has to work a tag scramble by himself. The Uncensored thing is a good question. I don't have the DVD but like you, I saw that the ICP clip is on Youtube and have watched it. On the Uncensored stuff like ICP, Konnan, Jeff Hardy, Teddy Hart, I don't know for sure if we'll get to watch all of it, but I can promise it'll all be covered on the show as it comes up, at the very least. Further research reveals you're right about Boogalou and Glory By Honor. This is an interesting post I found on it at the time. I find it most interesting that Izzy was one of the guys that XPW was gunning after. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Izzy's work, but it just seems kind of random. http://www.socaluncensored.com/board/forum/wrestling/southern-california-wrestling-forum/1476-roh-accuses-xpw-of-attempted-talent-raid

It's amazing that it seems like this match has been done a thousand times and should be old, but they always seem to do something unique that makes it worth watching. This is probably my favorite version of this match. This is just total violence with Tajiri looking like a vicious killer. Tajiri looks like somebody that ECW could build around as their world champion here. ****

I thought that Unscripted was one of the weaker shows up to this point. I thought the same thing you guys did as far as this being booked strangely with the faces getting a bye and then throwing a temper tantrum after their loss. Really, the entire tournament was strange. The semifinals are all guys that have never teamed in ROH before. A first round match doesn't happen due to a team not appearing, yet you have plenty of tag teams on the card that could replace them, Carnage Crew, Special K, or even the Ring Crew Express. I thought that the Natural Born Sinners were pulled out of this tournament on this show because Boogalou ditched ROH for XPW. It sounds like there wasn't anything in the Observer or your notes that supported this since you were both confused as to why the Sinners were not on the card. Are you planning on supplementing any of your viewings with stuff that was cut off the shows, but later released on the Uncensored DVD? There's an awful ICP match on Glory By Honor show that the crowd just completely shits on. It looks like that its on youtube if you don't have Uncensored.

This has been topped by some of their other matches, but this is still excellent. This match had a very good flow to it and escalated to a climax in a very good way. Just simply great storytelling in the context of the match. I can see some people being disappointed if they compare this to some of their classics, but this is still Misawa and Kobashi, so it is definitely worth checking out. ****1/4

A good way to cap off the tournament, but it does leave you wanting to see these guys have another match with more time. This was another fine performance by CIMA as a fiery babyface taking the brunt of the punishment and coming back. I particularly enjoyed CIMA going for two iconoclasms here before attempting the mad splash. This serves to show that realizes that Liger is one of the best and he will need to throw everything at him if he is going to pick up the win. Overall this tournament did a great job of establishing CIMA as a top level junior heavyweight. He didn't win the tournament, but going to the finals and being displayed as a threat to Liger is all that he needed. Liger didn't gain anything from winning this tournament, but he legitimized the tournament and made a new junior heavyweight star. ***3/4

I thought this was a great match. An amazing performance by CIMA here as he does a great job playing the gutsy young guy going up against an experienced veteran. CIMA plays the face here as the crowd can't help but get behind him. Sano takes much of the offense here, but CIMA won't give up and keeps fighting back. I enjoyed the finishing sequence here quite a bit as Sano makes CIMA really work to hit the iconoclasm. Best match of the tournament so far. ****

I thought this was easily the best of the quarter final matches in this tournament. Liger did a great job here of making it look like Teioh could pull out an upset. The crowd was really eating up the near falls when ever Teioh would use one of his roll-ups or cradles out of nowhere. The highlight of this for me was when Liger countered a rolling elbow with a shotei. Just beautiful timing on that one. ***1/4

It was kind of funny hearing Dragon and Spanky announced as WWF superstars during their ring entrance, seems a bit embellished. This was a nicely worked match, but once again Spanky outshined Dragon in my eyes here. Dragon looked like he may have been blown up a bit near the end as he threw some very weak punches. A nice little angle after the match here as Dragon finally loses the mask and shows some fire as he turns on Spanky. I'm a bit disappointed that we won't see these guys have a nice little feud in TWA after this. I agree that Board of Education looked very indie and didn't show that much potential. Their gear doesn't match and doesn't make any sense. It's like if you blended the Mean Street Posse and The Brood into a team.

I think I fall more in line with OJ on this one. There was some good matwork in the first half of this, but overall this didn't feel like a WOS match to me. Johnny Smith is a guy that has just never caught on with me for whatever reason. I think he's a decent enough worker, but I've just never really seen him as a good fit in All Japan. I thought this was a pretty good match, but it didn't feel like anything special or a display of Kobashi's versatility. ***1/2

I thought the first fall was excellent and then the match kind of fell apart after that. The most notable thing was the botch by Tarzan Boy and it looked like he was really shaken up and couldn't continue. They did a decent enough job of recovering from that spot to end the 2nd fall, but it seemed kind of rush. This seemed to really throw things off for the third fall as they tried to eliminate Blue Panther early to make this 2 on 2. The referees were not on the same page and there were two botched pinfalls as a result, just ugly stuff right there.

I thought this was a great match. Just a wonderful performance by Hashimoto here who I thought really made this match with his charisma and emotion. Hashimoto pulling the gloves off and rocking Ogawa with some taped fist punches before Murakami runs in is pure awesomeness. I was a big fan of the finish here too as Ogawa keeps nailing STO's until Hashimoto can no longer continue. Just great wrestling here. ****1/4

This was a fun match and much better than the Liger vs Frye match. They kept Kanemoto looking very strong here even though he loses this one. I think it was very much needed that Kanemoto look strong against a heavyweight as he was murdered by Liger three months ago when Liger moved to the heavyweight ranks. There was a lot of exciting exchanges in the early portion of this match, but the grappling does seem to drag a bit in the middle portion. I'm kind of torn on the post-match promo. On one hand it's a good meathead promo from Frye, but on the other hand it belittles Kanemoto and makes Frye's win feel insignificant.

I was pleasantly surprised with how the Briscoes match from Honor Invades Boston held up. I remember loving it at the time, but I feared on rewatch that I would discover too many head drops and nearfalls (I think that may be more the case of their Best of the Best match). Maybe I'm giving the booking too much credit here, but Steve Corino's commentary on Michael Shane (apathetic to Shane kicking Luscious and concern over his ankle) makes sense given where Michael Shane is heading. I think it's in the December time frame that Michael Shane joins up with Corino's ill-fated and creatively named faction, The Group.

This just atrocious booking. HHH vs The Rock seems like the obvious choice for the main event here, but we get this nonsense to fit the McMahon family in here. All four guys look like they try their best with what they are given, but the bad booking and outside shenanigans seems to overshadow everything. Does Stephanie really need to have a shocked look on her face every time the camera pans to her? Credit to the four guys for working hard here and putting together a decent in-ring match with some good story-telling, but the Russo-esque swerve makes zero sense. ***1/4

This is a total spotfest junk food match. Knowing that going in, you can just turn your brain off and enjoy it. This was very innovative for its time and it seems like they have overdone this type of match today. Sure you can analyze this match and tear it apart in terms of positioning and how some spots don't make any sense in terms of winning the match, but that wasn't exactly the point of the match. This was six guys putting on a stunt show to try to wow the crowd and get noticed. This isn't for everybody, but I think it has its spot in wrestling.

I agree with Loss's thoughts on this one. Marvin and CIMA had a shorter match than this but used their time very efficiently. This one felt short-changed on the time even though it was longer. The finish seemed to come out of nowhere and wasn't really built up. It felt like they were building for a longer match and you were left feeling like you wanted more as a result. Still a very good match and I would rank it on the same level as Marvin vs CIMA. ***1/4

This is a very fun sprint with these guys doing a very good job for the little time that they are given. They fit a lot of spots in here, but they were crisp and effectively done. This was a nice highlight of Ricky Marvin's skills with them doing a good job of it appearing like he could pull out the upset. ***1/4

This is an interesting match, but isn't very good at all. All three guys are using gimmicks that don't work. Dixie is a southerner from New Jersey with pink hair. Low Ki is doing a goofier precursor of his gangsta Ki gimmick that is pulled off much better in '04-'06. Chino Martinez is apparently just a dude that likes N'Sync. The most notable thing from this match for me is that you get to see Low Ki use a wedgie as offense. It's interesting to see Low Ki appear to have fun here as he is a guy that always seems to take himself too seriously. The referee is just a goof and does a horrible job in here. The shit eating grin on his face is priceless as he walks up to the valet that is distracting him on the apron. A bad match, but worth a watch to just see this bizarre point in Low Ki's career.

I love me some BattlARTS and this was a very good match. I thought Otsuka was great here and did an excellent job of making himself stand out by being the most unique guy. Otsuka did a great job of blending pro wrestling, lucha, and shoot style. ****

The no-sell DDT sequence near the beginning of this match made me have second thoughts about wanting to watch this, but they more than made up for it. This turned out to be a very good match with some pretty good selling that you don't typically see in Joshi. Amano did an excellent job of selling her back early on, but unfortunately this is forgotten about. Still a good match, with Amano focusing on the arm while Hyuga brought the big bombs. ****

This was very good from what we see. Unfortunately we are missing the first 6 minutes of this match. A lot of fast-paced action here with more focus on Horiguchi than we've seen in the Toryumon matches thus far. He is a far capable performer at this point in his career, but is not on the same level as CIMA, Fuji, and Mochizuki. ***3/4

This match feels very unique. It's a nice bloody brawl in the middle of a rainsoaked ring. There is water splashing all over the place from the mat, but these guys manage to put on a good match without it affecting them. A fun bloody lucha brawl and I believe this is the best AAA match I've seen thus far from the PWO2K project. ***1/2

The Frontiers of Honor show isn't essential viewing and the FWA only portion of the show is a little rough to get through as I recall from the last time I watched it. The two important things coming from this show is that i the ROH title becomes the ROH "World" title because it is defended in the UK, and it is the birth of the "Ole, Ole" kick from Joe. I just got around to listening and rewatching Road to the Title. I remember the relapse.com segment being discussed on the old ROH board. It basically comes down to Gabe being a fan of the bands carried on the label. They were located in the Philly area (looks like they may now be in Lancaster) and one of the ROH fans asked the guy who runs it about this segment. They know who Gabe is, but had no idea that he plugged Relapse as they never asked him to do it and he never mentioned it after the fact. Here's some trivia, the song Jerry Lynn is listening to, Sewn Mouth Secrets by Soilent Green, eventually becomes the Carnage Crew's theme song. Road to the Title is also the first ROH show to be released on DVD. Unfortunately, they did not have the foresight to add chapters. I remember feeling like Donnie B and fast forwarding through this show back in the day to get back to my spot. I'm glad that I got rid of the red cover DVD and bought the remastered version of this release. This is a fun show to go back and watch, and it kind of bothers me that ROH has seemingly rewritten their own history from this time period. I went to the Manhattan Mayhem show this year (my first ROH show in 7 years) and they had some trivia questions prior to the show in honor of their 15th Anniversary. According to their trivia, Mark Briscoe wrestled on the first ROH show and the four original members of the Prophecy were Christopher Daniels, Allison Danger, Dan Maff, and BJ Whitmer. I'm looking forward to Crowning a Champion. The main event is excellent if my memory serves me correctly, but the rest of the card, not so much.