Laney

This is an all-time great match here. It's hard to add anything to what has already been said. There's a ton of drama in this one with a very long segment of near pinfalls and submissions where they had the crowd in the palm of their hand the entire time. This is just a brutal and exhaustive match that feels epic.

This match was way too long. There's a very extended heat segment with Montoya dominating that seems to just serve the purpose of making this a long match for the sake of it. The match eventually breaks down for the last 10 minutes or so with both guys hitting big moves, but it doesn't seem to really flow together. There are some interesting tidbits in Quack's book about this match: "That night, our match endure for thirty-one minutes, which is a lot longer than most wrestling fans' attention spans will tolerate. Montoya and I showed the crowd a little bit of everything. We brawled, we flew, we wrestled back and forth from chain to submission holds. Most of the audience was asleep by the halfway mark. It didn't really matter though. This time, we were going to do exactly what we wanted, and put on a match that would make us proud, even at the risk of leaving the crowd feeling flat." Based on what Quack wrote, I think Tim's post that this is like a HHH self-conscious epic main event is on the money and was the intention here.

Very good match here and this may be the best that I have ever seen Monsta Mack look (a definite from a physical standpoint). There's only a table spot from a hardcore match standpoint, but the crowd enjoys this nonetheless. A stiff match with Low Ki pulling out his kicks that look impressive for the most part, but there is a major whiff on his cartwheel kick. My biggest criticism is that I feel like Low Ki should have worked from the bottom more based on the physical difference between the two. They both still get their shit it in, but could have put on a classic if they worked more storytelling and selling into this. Still a very good match and top notch for a 2000 indie. ***3/4

This was a very different match than what I was expecting between these two. It started out fast, but then became gritty and uncooperative. Interesting to watch here and these guys pulled it off to make it entertaining. I'm not entirely sure if they were trying to cover up botches or if they were just trying to work a more realistic and stiff style. Either way, they pulled it off and put on a very good match. ***3/4

There's a lot of great talent in this match so it can't help but be a very good match. Kikuchi does a great job in here as the opposing team just assaults him. There's a very nasty headscissors in the ropes by Fuchi on Kikuchi here. You have your great exchanges between classic rivals, but this isn't an epic encounter like we've seen in the past. We don't get the hot finishing stretch here, but this served as a smartly worked match with both teams putting in effort, but obviously not going for a classic. ***3/4

I agree that Night of Appreciation is the weakest of the first three ROH shows. Those first three shows seem to go together as a trilogy with ROH changing with Road to the Title. It's not just the booking, but the production as well. Road to the Title was their first foray into the DVD market and it was about a year later that these first three shows were "remastered" for DVD release. I think what makes NOA feel the weakest is the lack of a big match main event. The Guerrero tag match is a fine tribute and a good match, but it just doesn't feel like a main event. Low Ki vs Styles and Daniels vs Morgan are good matches, but nothing to really go out of your way to see. I forgot just how awful Donnie B is here. The Corino-Donnie tandem is just awful. Between the two of them, I don't think there is a second of commentary silence. I thought the worst Donnie B call came from the Divine Storm vs York & Matthews match. There is a top rope manhattan drop and Donnie B says something along the lines of "A knee to the nads! It doesn't matter what language you speak, that spells out P-I-N-E pain!" Yes, he misspelled pain on commentary.

As a match, there isn't much to this. As an angle, this is awesome. A great build that really gets me hyped for the apuestas match that is the following week. The Villanos rushing to the ring is a great visual here.

This a very good match and was a lot of fun. Dr. Wagner Jr. was great in this and has been a joy to watch in Japan thus far. It was surprising to see just how well Wagner worked the New Japan style. Kashin was surprisingly enjoyable in this as well. Some fun near falls and overall great action. ****

RNR looks great in this match. They really carried this match and played excellent heels just viciously going after Michaels's knee. Bad Attitude didn't do much for me and this came across very much as a carry job in my eyes. Unfortunately the referee isn't all that great either as he blatantly sees RNR use a chain. Still a good match due to the RNR. ***1/2

Styles looks like the fourth member of 3 Count with those pants. Styles shows a lot of athleticism here, but doesn't quite have what it takes to put everything together at this point. This is still a good match, especially considering the inexperience from both guys. I don't think I've ever really seen Onyx before, but I remember him having killer stats on some of the EWR mods back in the day.

Great listen. Round Robin Challenge was the first ROH show I bought (second that I watched) and it was what really got me hooked. Low-Ki vs American Dragon is an all-time classic in my eyes. A few notes: It appeared to me that American Dragon's eyebrow was cut open from a palm strike by Christopher Daniels. I also seem to recall that the Carnage Crew debuted on this show, but it ended up being cut. Frank Talent seemed like a guy that really enjoyed his job. I'm not sure the specifics of the PA State Athletic Commission, but I believe this is around the time that they were trying to crack down on the violence. CZW was the biggest target of the Commission and I recall hearing that Frank Talent stood up for CZW in multiple occasions and felt that they were unfairly picked on. This post from November 2002 discussed that the PA commission has just made the decision to ban barbed wire, light tubes, and brawing in the crowd. I believe the regulations evolved further over time and you don't see hardcore/deathmatches in PA like you did in the heyday. All of the violence seems to have moved to Jersey. This is pure speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if Frank Talent was trying to use ROH as an example to show others in the commission that pro wrestling on the independent level isn't all extreme violence and that they need to ease up on some of the proposed regulations.

I thought this was very good. Tag team cage matches add an interesting dynamic where someone has to make a decision to sacrifice their partner to escape. In this case, the partner was allowed to re-enter the match. This made the match less dramatic, but was an interesting element. The thing hurting this match the most is that it sometimes breaks down into meandering brawling that is kind of dull. However, the bright spots outshine in this and this is a fun and violent match. ****1/4

This seems to be the weakest of the Crazy Max matches so far, but it may be due to the clipping. There's not a great amount of clipping, but it interrupts the flow and affects my enjoyment. I was kind of surprised that it seemed like Shinzaki was the most over of everyone in the match. I just thought that Sasuke was always seen as the greater legend. Overall a fun match, but nothing memorable. ***

The crowd is really into this one which helps make it a lot more fun and enjoyable. If you came to see dudes get blown up then this is a disappointment. Only one of the two bombs go off and it blows in a way that is relatively safe and leaves Balls unfazed. Still, this is a fun brawl with the crowd eagerly anticipating somebody's destruction.

Pretty cool to see Rikishi still selling the leg injury in this one. This was a pretty fun tv match with The Rock getting a much needed win. Rikishi looked good in this one, he got his stuff in, but played the FIP for most of the match. The Rock gets the much expected huge reaction when he is finally tagged in and cleans house. The crowd seemed really disappointed that Shane wasn't the one in the tag match. ***

Crazy Max does a great job of just being assholes and really dominating the beginning of this one. Of course this breaks down to balls to the wall fast-paced action with everyone getting in some offense. Mochizuki really stood out in this one while Taru was the lame duck in this one for me. The vicious bloody attack on Tokyo stands out as the highlight in this one, and Tanaka does a good job taking punishment as well. ****

I've started listening to the podcast and will try to follow along with the re-watch. I got into ROH in 2003 and wasted way too much of my time in high school watching the shows and going on the message board. It will be fun to look back at everything. I have to echo what soup23 is saying, in 2017 eyes the CSC angle at the beginning of the show is highly offensive, but at the time it wouldn't warrant any special attention since you were seeing it all over. CSC was doing the same gimmick all over the east coast and we are nearing the time frame when AJ Styles basically starts using the word "faggot" as a catchphrase. I think this is more of a sign of the times rather than ROH trying to be edgy. I was in jr. high in 2002, so I can't speak for the rest of the world, but homophobic slurs was something I heard daily in my environment. To defend ROH, CSC was a known gimmick used in the NYC area where they were running. If you were going to pick a gimmick to bring in to squash as a statement that you are about wrestling and not sports entertainment, then I think CSC is absolutely your perfect choice. I 100% believe that the intention of the angle was to establish that ROH wasn't about gimmicks. Unfortunately, the commentary is completely abhorrent and it pretty much turns this into a gay bashing segment. Without the commentary track, I think this segment would be much less offensive. To me, "we weren't the only ones" isn't a good excuse. Yes, junior high school kids can be homophobic, and probably have only recently gotten better about that. That also is not a good excuse for a promotion that sells tickets to its events and sells DVDs of them, and that is run by adults, to peddle that same sort of homophobia. Wrestling is a gross industry when it comes to portrayals of any sort of marginalized group. I know that, and I've known it for many years. In 2002, though, this sort of aggressive homophobia was not acceptable in the culture at large. Obviously society in general has come a long way in accepting lgbtq people since then, but at the time you wouldn't find another show on TV, or a movie, angrily mocking gays in the same way. Wrestling in general was behind the curve, not just ROH, but that doesn't make it okay. And, like you said, the commentary was so aggressively hostile that it puts this segment on another level from anything else I've seen. Thank you for listening. I really enjoy these conversations and I'm glad you're watching along with us. I agree with you on the media portrayal of homosexuality in 2002, I can't think of any other case besides wrestling where there was such an extreme portrayal of homophobia. I concede that wrestling really is a nasty place and should not be used as a litmus test for what is socially acceptable at the time. The indies can be even worse since so many of them attempt to be edgy. There is so much offensive stuff that happens that it gets glossed over and is forgotten about. This is an industry where Kevin Steen repeatedly used the n-word in a PWG promo in 2006, and it remained unedited on the DVD. Just an interesting tidbit, to try to get a feel for the attitude towards homosexuality at this time, I found this article from 2002: http://www.gallup.com/poll/9916/homosexuality.aspx I find it surprising that only 52% of people thought that homosexuality should be legal. With all that said, I think that is the last that I will say about this angle. Regardless of the time period, it is very much offensive and serves as nothing more than an embarrassing blemish when looking back on ROH history.

I've started listening to the podcast and will try to follow along with the re-watch. I got into ROH in 2003 and wasted way too much of my time in high school watching the shows and going on the message board. It will be fun to look back at everything. I have to echo what soup23 is saying, in 2017 eyes the CSC angle at the beginning of the show is highly offensive, but at the time it wouldn't warrant any special attention since you were seeing it all over. CSC was doing the same gimmick all over the east coast and we are nearing the time frame when AJ Styles basically starts using the word "faggot" as a catchphrase. I think this is more of a sign of the times rather than ROH trying to be edgy. I was in jr. high in 2002, so I can't speak for the rest of the world, but homophobic slurs was something I heard daily in my environment. To defend ROH, CSC was a known gimmick used in the NYC area where they were running. If you were going to pick a gimmick to bring in to squash as a statement that you are about wrestling and not sports entertainment, then I think CSC is absolutely your perfect choice. I 100% believe that the intention of the angle was to establish that ROH wasn't about gimmicks. Unfortunately, the commentary is completely abhorrent and it pretty much turns this into a gay bashing segment. Without the commentary track, I think this segment would be much less offensive. On a side note, I was at a CZW Dojo Wars show near Philly last December and the crowd started chanting "that was gay". So much for social progression amongst wrestling fans. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Xavier vs Scoot Andrews as compared to Red vs Jay Briscoe. I remember the Xavier/Andrews mini-feud was largely panned at the time with the thought being that those guys just didn't click, and I certainly preferred the Red/Briscoe match when I first watched this 14 years ago (even though I do remember thinking the top rope spear spot was ridiculous at that time too). It's kind of funny how the matches have aged and I know prefer the Xavier/Andrews match. I might provide more thoughts as I finish the podcast and my rewatch of the show.

This is just a beautiful match with perhaps the best selling I've ever seen. Both guys look phenomenal here with Akiyama bringing everything he has to go after Misawa's neck to try to take him out. Misawa kept coming back, but Akiyama rhad his number here and was greatly capitalizing on Misawa's mistakes. Fighting spirit spots are overdone and rarely done correctly. This match has the best usage of this spot and I don't think it will ever be topped. The way that both guys just collapse after the spot is fantastic. I could keep going on and on about great spots throughout this match, but a lot has already been said. Quite simply one of the best matches of all time. *****

The match and post-match beatdown are both great. The match is well worked with Low Ki mostly dominating while Montoya just tries to survive, but hangs in there with a few moments of hope. Montoya is able to sneak away with the win here after the referee gets distracted and Mark Reil interferes. I liked that Low Ki didn't let go of the hold while the referee was distracted, it's a bit of an annoying trope where you see the guy tap and the guy releases the hold and this broke the mold there. The post-match beatdown is brutal and displays the Low Ki we all know and love. ****

I think this went way too long and could have been better if they tightened it up. The Big Unit looked horrible when they were on offense, so thankfully they spend the first half of the match just taking a beating. This beat-down goes on way too long though as it seems like DHS and the Haas brothers are just coming up with awkward double team moves to try. Oddly enough, the Big Unit doesn't get pinned, a team runs-in and they get counted out for brawling with them. It's kind of pointless for them to take such a beating and then go toe-to-toe with a fresh team. The second half of the match is just DHS vs the Haas brothers and it is a pretty entertaining brawl. Since it is 2000 you get a turn in the finish. Then they tease that the turn is a swerve, but that swerve turns out to be a swerve. Yeah, this is 2000 indie booking at its finest. I remember the CZW shows from this time period having a turn every show. ***

This match was a giant let down. The feud has been greatly with a lot of hatred and then culminates in this match that doesn't feel special at all. Everything is just basic here with no hatred or feeling that anything is at stake. The 2/3 falls didn't help much with this as you had your short throwaway second fall that felt pointless with Satanico getting absolutely no offense. I give Satanico credit for doing a good job of selling disappointment with his hair being cut and showing respect to Tarzan Boy to properly end the feud. This is a perfectly fine tv match, but a terribly disappointing climax to an otherwise great feud. ***1/4

This was a very good PPV opener between two guys who were relatively new to the company and were hot acts. It's match-ups like this that really define what the IC title is about as you have two guys that you know are moving up the ladder. A fun match with a lot of action and a great build to the finish. Chyna seemed a little out of place here as her presence was unnecessary. ***1/2

Just complete trash. How many referees were there in this match? I think it may have been 6. It's surprising that Russo didn't book this since it looks like it has his fingerprints all over it. I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish here. The only positive is that the title didn't switch hands for the 5th time already this year.

This is definitely the highlight of this absolutely awful WCW PPV. Both guys put in a good effort with great selling, but the crowd just sits on their hands and doesn't care. It is depressing how the crowd was more into the James Brown shit that happened earlier in the night. WCW is in such a sad state at this point and it seems like nobody really cares. There are crowds in the sign "I thought this was WWF" and "Free Tix". Everything in-ring is technically good, but it is hurt by the apathetic crowd. ***1/2