supersonic

Fourth Anniversary Show - February 25, 2006 This is the first event in a seven-part Milestone Series for ROH. Jim Cornette is shown from his home/office in Louisville. Love that little tape/DVD shelf library he has, would be very interested in seeing some of that stuff. The show is about to open with a meaningless jobber tag match, but then a blast from the past shows up... Briscoe Bros. vs. Jason Blade & Kid Mikaze vs. Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro Not the all-out squash I was hoping for to make the returning bad-ass Briscoes shine (much like I had hoped for when Generation Next formed at Generation Next), but I can see why. Blade & Mikaze I believe were a project at the time, while Mamaluke & Rinauro were former Tag Champs (that they weren't over in such a position is a different topic.) Having the Briscoes wipe the mat with these teams would've made Austin Aries & Roderick Strong as well as Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer look really weak for having hard-fought matches against Mamlauke & Rinauro. The action itself is decent, but ultimately means nothing because the Briscoes are the real stars. The best parts were the starting and closing segments, which isn't a coincidence as those were the segments in which the Briscoes just smashed it. Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe Above average match here; this feud simply put just didn't get over. Perhaps had Lethal not been presented as the asshole, but the federation and commentary had pointed out that Joe was a fucking prick at A Night of Tribute, this would've been a layered feud to polarize the audience. Instead Joe is the face-of-the-company hero and looked to be taking it easy while Lethal controlled the match. There were some moments when it looked this would really heat up, especially when it transitioned to Joe being in control, but it was way too quick to get some real drama going. For a monster babyface vs. smaller but still credible chickenshit heel, this certainly was not in the same league as Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels in 1997. Rating: less than *** I FF to the BJ Whitmer vs. Christopher Daniels match getting thrown out as they have an extended brawl in the audience, leaving the ring open for a gang of ultraviolent predators to exploit... "Happy Birthday... Fuck You" Chris Hero & Necro Butcher lead a group of CZW wrestlers in hijacking this historic event, with the former cutting an excellent promo and mockingly singing "Happy Birthday" to ROH. This draws out a fuckton of ROH stars and jabronis, including Aries, Strong, the Briscoes, AJ Styles, Adam Pearce, and also Whitmer, who drops his brawl immediately with Daniels. A phenomenal brawl ensues with Hero left in the ring, who talks some more shit and questions if anyone in ROH can stop him. Out comes Joe to step up for ROH for the first time, and the crowd goes fucking berzerk. He has a great brawl in the ring with Hero in a battle of true superstars to represent their brands. That caused the interpromotional brawl to pick back up again, resulting in another frenzied crowd. Aries, Strong, and the Briscoes would be left in the ring, with the Tag Champs about to leave, but the Briscoes attack them!!! Another huge pop from the crowd and pull-apart here. What brilliant booking, as the Briscoes took advantage of the champs' involvement in the ROH vs. CZW brawl to get their hands on the champs and establish they were back to reach the mountaintop. But if the audience thought that was it, they were sorely mistaken, as out comes two hated enemies from the curtain to ringisde, tearing at each other and getting yet another frenzied pop from the crowd... I Quit Match Homicide vs. Colt Cabana I really appreciate the effort these two put into making this program work, but they were too violent in this match, and I can't imagine they look back at this and would completely disagree with me. Homicide dominated this as expected at this point in the feud, just fucking Cabana up left and right, even with a bad right shoulder (injured in a match against Steve Corino at Steel Cage Warfare). This was vicious, it was hard-hitting, and it told a fantastic story that no matter how much pain Homicide dished out, Cabana would refuse to go down. Cabana would get his moments in with some great transitions, but that would always be short-lived. The match is stopped when Homicide makes him pass out with a coat-hanger around the throat. Cabana, gasping for breath and wearing a crimson mask, demands the match be restarted, and it just gets better. Homicide hits an Ace Crusher, which turns out not to be all that beneficial as it ignites the pain in his right shoulder. Cabana, having been established as an outstanding technical wrestler that had been pushed to getting even better from his feud against Nigel McGuinness, smells the figurative blood and takes advantage of it, even fucking biting on it like a savage. Julius Smokes has to grab Cabana's feet to bail Homicide out of this jam, reinforcing just how soulless Homicide is and putting over Cabana's mettle to step up in this environment. Ricky Reyes helps them out as the Rottweilers tape Cabana's wrists to a top turnbuckle, and the referee again gets fed up and stops the match out of concern for Cabana's well-being. But yet again, Cabana refuses to let it end this way, trolling Homicide by telling him that his son will never respect him if he walks away from this. They have one more brief segment that both told a fantastic story and went over the top with the violence as I mentioned earlier. The match finally reaches its merciful conclusion when Cabana is knocked out taking a piledriver off an apron onto the table. However, the table didn't break and both men slid off it to the floor. Post-match, Homicide throws chairs around and boasts with pride about his psychotic violence. As he is about to walk through the curtain, he looks into the camera and tells both ROH and CZW to fuck off, this is Rottweilers territory. Excellent storytelling brawl here. Rating: ***3/4 Jim Cornette is informed in Louisville about the CZW interruption. He blows a gasket and cuts another absolutely splendid promo on CZW, and shows off his Louisville Slugger that he'll be bringing when he makes return in Chicago for the WrestleMania 22 weekend events. EARTH TO CURRENT ROH: make a fucking comp of this feud already, and while you're at it, throw in a documentary reflecting on it too. The majority of those involved are available, and I"m sure you can work out something with Cornette and Gabe Sapolsky to be interviewed for it. ROH Title Match Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Rave Excellent title match as expected here. Rave really stepped up, although to me his performance wasn't quite up to par as exactly one year earlier against Styles or in the cage match against CM Punk. After being dominated on the mat early, he tried to offset it with some pie-faces in order to piss off the champ. He also relied on chops which is smart, as both men had come off being victimized by Strong's brutal chops shortly before this, and nobody to this point had come as close to dethroning Danielson as Strong had. Danielson of course, being technically superior, would find ways out of just about everything Rave threw at him. But the match really got interesting about halfway through. Danielson attempted a superplex, but Rave threw him off and then baited Danielson to the outside. Rave threw Danielson on some guardrails, wearing down the champ but also inflicting some damage on the back and shoulders (which are connected to the neck), a very good strategy to soften him up for the Pedigree and swinging neckbreaker. It also established that although Danielson had won the feud against Homicide in 2005, he didn't go through the quantity of extensive brawling as Rave had in his feuds against Punk and GeNext. Rave would copy Danielson's established Cattle Mutilation to followup on the shoulder/back work, but lacked the proper arch to fully clamp it on. This allowed the champ to escape and they had a very hot finishing stretch, helped out when Prince Nana pulled the ref out, igniting the crowd. They had great nearfalls and tapout teases, including, but of not course not limited to, a sleeper, proper Cattle Mutilation, and Shining Wizard. Danielson finishes Rave off with a Regalplex and then his elbows that had finished off Strong while locking the challenger in a crucifix position. An overall excellent match and best on the show. Rating: **** Tag Titles Match Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal Very good action all-around and this had a hot finish. When it got to the closing moments, everyone was allowed to throw bombs on one another, but everyone involved (not just the ref) kept track of who was legal. What a crazy professional concept. The ring got cut in half of course, but here's the odd surprise: the larger, more powerful Strong and Styles were the ones to play those roles for their respective teams. That didn't seem to maximize the fullest emotional connection to the audience, but the match was good for what it was. My favorite part of the entire match was actually right when the end was coming. Sydal had taken a gutbuster from Strong; when he hit a Shooting Star Press on Aries moments later, he sold the ribs and was delayed from going for the immediate cover. As all four men embrace to close out this historic show, the Briscoes come out and attack all four, this time making it clear for anyone who hadn't figured it out that they wanted the straps. Rating: ***1/2 An excellent kickoff to The Milestone Series. No MOTYCs or consensus multiple great matches, but the key matches all delivered, it had an amazing segment that escalated the CZW program, marked the return of the Briscoes and put them in a program for the tag straps, and was paced exceptionally well. Get this shit. Up next - Arena Warfare Matches will include: Austin Aries vs. Matt Sydal Bryan Danielson vs. Alex Shelley

This review originally posted in July 2014. Unscripted II - February 11, 2006 Going into this show, ROH had cut ties with Low Ki as I had discussed in my Dissension review. That cancelled the dream match of him against Roderick Strong as well as other big matches announced involving him. But then at the last minute a big snowstorm came through the NYC area on this weekend. This put TNA, set to broadcast Against All Odds 2006 on PPV the next day in Orlando, in a predicament. TNA requested a number of guys who had committed to this event to cancel and fly early to Orlando to make the PPV. Those talents included Homicide, Jay Lethal, Alex Shelley, and ROH Tag Champs Austin Aries & Roderick Strong. Aries & Strong ignored the request, which I appreciate since they were in a meaningless match at the PPV anyway. This postponed Shelley's ROH Title shot though, robbing the fans of another big match that had been scheduled for this event. With all this chaos, ROH promised a big surprise, stating that if fans were not happy after three matches, they could ask for a refund. Look at the bottom three matches on the DVD cover above. The surprise return of CM Punk certainly lived up to the hype, but how arrogant was Gabe Sapolsky to assume that one guy making a surprise one night only return would please everyone and offset those awful three opening matches? And I certainly don't understand the need for a company that during this time relied on moving DVDs not to just list and show CM Punk on the cover at all. So as mentioned, CM Punk returning for one night only was the big surprise, which on paper was a very good miracle to pull out. Now him getting on the show was a story too. Tommy Dreamer, who apparently had some clout in OVW at this time, said the office gave the okay for Punk to appear. That turned out not to be the case and this miscommunication almost led to Punk being terminated from WWE. It was good (although not completely as I'll detail later) to have him back, but wasn't worth all of the headache. As for the booking of Punk's return, he showed up to try to mentally help his friend Colt Cabana during the epic feud against Homicide. During this segment, Punk would be attacked by Prince Nana, Jimmy Rave, and Adam Pearce. Also early on the DVD is Prince Nana promising his own surprise since Shelley can't make it for his ROH Title shot against Bryan Danielson. Jimmy Rave wants the shot, but Nana says it will go on as scheduled at the Fourth Anniversary Show. Pure Title Match Nigel McGuinness vs. Austin Aries Very good match here and definitely match of the night, worthy of the DVD cover, although the next match could've been on the same level if it had been booked as well as this one. McGuinness worked on the left arm early, standard in the business yes, but also ingenious since Aries is actually left-handed. When Aries got his turn to control the match, he used that left arm to elbow the champ and then drop a power elbow, immediately selling it. Awesome moment of natural tendency costing Aries. Aries did some work on the neck, although it couldn't match the work McGuinness got on his left arm. McGuinness did a masterful job of forcing Aries to use rope breaks. But there were also two great drama-building moments that every wrestler should watch and learn from. McGuinness blocked the standard springboard corner elbow of Aries, and then much deeper in the match Aries would actually hit to a great ovation. Aries blocked a Tower of London, but then McGuinness was able to land that for a great nearfall. But after getting Aries to use up his rope breaks, McGuinness finished him off with the London Dungeon, a fantastic payoff for all the arm work done throughout the match. Really good stuff with Aries getting a standing ovation, and the first standout defense from McGuinness during this reign. I'd have made this the opening match to really kick off the show well and make sure nobody asked for a refund. Rating: ***3/4 Roderick Strong comes out to ask when he gets his ROH Title shot since he made Bryan Danielson submit at Tag Wars 2006, but BJ Whitmer comes out instead. He wants Strong to face him in singles action with that title shot on the line, as he's fed up with being passed over and needs to step up like the rest of the company. All solid points on Whitmer's part, but he missed perhaps the biggest point possible to demand Strong to put the shot on the line against him. Whitmer was now finally on his own for the first time in over two years. He had lost Christopher Daniels. He had lost Dan Maff. And now he had lost Jimmy Jacobs as his tag team partner when they failed to be on the same page against Aries & Strong at Dissension. Whitmer should've pointed out that he wants to take away Strong's opportunity as a twisted retributionn. Of course, the ROH Champ Danielson comes out and he has a pull-apart with Strong. Out comes Prince Nana with a surprise challenger to utilize the title shot of the departed Abyss. ROH Title Match Bryan Danielson vs. Xavier I gotta say, I like this surprise and it was a good move to get the NYC native booked here. Would I have given him a shot at the title? Probably not (as I'll also detail later). HOWEVER, the former ROH Champ had yet to be granted a shot at the top prize after losing it to Samoa Joe three years earlier. Logically, he should've never had to be in contender's matches in 2003-04 or have to fill in for someone who stopped getting booked. These guys worked hard, with Xavier especially bringing his working boots and having one of his best matches in ROH. I know, I"m shocked too, that one of his best singles matches would be against Danielson. Xavier did an exceptional job of working on the neck and shoulders, perfectly setting up the champ for his modified neckbreaker finish and signature transitional Kiss Your X Goodbye (a pumphandle facebuster). He would hit the latter, but never got to his finisher, as the all-around superior Danielson would get him in the Cattle Mutilation for what was to be the obvious finish. However, Rave interfered to go after Danielson. It was never explained, but I assume the Embassy used Xavier to weaken Danielson and/or Rave wanted the glory of ending his reign. That's the only logical reason I can think of for this match ending that way. Rating: ***1/2 (and would've been higher without the Dusty finish) Rave & Pearce continue to attack Danielson, which brings out Punk to set up a tag main event for the evening. Eight years later, it's somewhat poetic that Punk's last ROH match would be him getting paired up with the only other indy superstar to get on the same level of major-league success as him. Supposedly taped at Dissension, a backstage promo from Jim Cornette is shown. Another fucking awesome promo taking shots at CZW. I'm going to assume this was not taped in Cleveland, but VERY shortly after ROH told Low Ki to fuck off, cancelling what appeared to be a planned Rottweilers vs. Generation Next feud, and going all the way with an ROH vs. CZW program to make up for that and carry this company throughout much of 2006. ROH Title Shot Match Roderick Strong vs. BJ Whitmer Like the match prior, this was definitely a downgrade from the scheduled match Strong had. This was good stuff with Strong dominating the first several minutes and of course working the back. Whitmer's transition to gain control was good too, landing a neckbreaker on the outside and working on Strong's neck throughout the rest of the match. But despite the great psychology displayed in their offenses, neither did an exceptional job of selling the work done on them. Still good, but this could've actually been a GREAT singles match. And yes, Strong won of course to maintain his title shot since whoever he'd face would be a money match. One thing I realized in this match was that Whitmer has never seemed to fully get comfortable using his larger stature on the indy scene. It stood out to me when he attempted a Frogsplash. Perhaps if he was in the larger WWE ring his body, which is built like an NFL strong safety, would feel more comfortable and he wouldn't look as clumsy, but we know that'll never happen. Rating: ***1/4 CM Punk's Last ROH Match and One Night Only Return Bryan Danielson & CM Punk vs. Jimmy Rave & Adam Pearce Good main event tag here, and since it involves three storytelling masters, no nearfalls were counted unless both participants were legal. Punk wanted Rave when he got tagged in, and manipulated Pearce's arm into making the tag, reigniting the great feud from 2005. The match would eventually turn into Danielson playing the Ricky Morton role, which is smart to protect Punk while under contract to WWE. The match's next segment would be a brawl outside the ring, with Danielson pulling out a springboard flip to the temporary Embassy in the audience. The closing stretch broke down into all four men going at it in the ring, including a botched leaping hurricanrana from Punk on Pearce that seemed to hurt both of them. Punk and Rave would have a nice exchange, and the finish came when Rave, who by the way was scheduled to face Danielson for the ROH Title on the next show, tapped out to the Anaconda Vise while Danielson kept Pearce at bay with the Cattle Mutilation. I think my readers are smart enough that I don't need to spell out the flawed booking of that finish. The file on my hard drive for this match abruptly closes shortly after the finish, so I miss Punk's post-match bonus East Coast farewell speech. And considering what an ass he made out of himself over one heckler, I'm glad I don't have it. Here's my quick rating before I expand on Punk. Rating: ***1/2 So where do I begin with my actual assessment of this event and everything surrounding it? There are so many points of discussion involving this. LOL at TNA for having a temper-tantrum at Aries & Strong over ignoring their request to leave early. There, that part's out of the way. I think it's safe to say that Gabe Sapolsky, much like his mentor Paul Heyman, wasn't quite so super duper spectacular at composing an event that required numerous last-minute changes. I can't really fault him for that since hindsight is 20/20, but here's how I would've booked this show. First, as I mentioned, McGuinness vs. Aries would've been the opener. Rave would've cashed in his title shot and lost here in a great semi-main. And I'd have tried so hard to have Punk job to Strong in a third and final match, to really deliver a classic main event. I am VERY thankful that Sapolsky didn't pull the trigger on Danielson vs. Punk doing a 90 minute Broadway though. For the Fourth Anniversary Show, Danielson vs. Rave would obviously be off it'd be expedited to this night. But Shelley also wasn't booked for that show. So I'd have booked Danielson to defend the title against Lethal. The Lethal vs. Joe feud never really got over and didn't really need a conclusion, or could've been saved for later. It'd be a great way for Danielson & Lethal to follow-up on their great tag match together at Tag Wars 2006, with the motivation either being that Danielson is granting a shot to show appreciation, or they're pissed at each other, blaming one another for that Tag Title loss, and want a piece of each other. Let's not forget too that Lethal really did earn himself an ROH Title shot, as he had singles victories over both Low Ki AND Samoa Joe. That is title shot worthy, my friends. This also makes Lethal the defacto babyface challenging for the top prize in the company in his home state of New Jersey, making for an amazing atmosphere. This scenario still leaves Shelley to get his title shot the next time he would appear. Now let's say I keep the card the same. Well, Xavier does the clean job to Danielson since there was no certainty about him coming back soon, and Pearce does the job to Danielson or Punk in the main event. There was no good reason for Rave to do the job here. Speaking of the Rave & Pearce tandem, considering where they would be as 2006 came to a close, I'm really surprised that the former didn't align with Cornette or the latter didn't become a permanent member of the Embassy. Really would've given them something to lean on after both moved on from major chapters of their ROH tenure. But that's to dig in deeper when I come around to that. I wanna make sure to mention that with the exception of a forgettable fourway match a year later, this was pretty much it for Xavier in ROH. He never, ever should've held the title, but he found his groove by 2003 and it's a shame his indy career didn't take off from there. I know he still attends ROH events, and I think it's a shame ROH does nothing to showcase him as a former champion that did have some great matches during the early years. I found his matches against Paul London and Christopher Daniels to be quite exceptional, and he definitely played his part in the main event at Revenge on the Prophecy. Sounds like a spiritual person too as Eddie Guerrero detailed in his autobiography. Of course, that leaves one last big subject to discuss here, another former ROH Champion. It's pretty ironic that when CM Punk fled WWE after Royal Rumble 2014, my rewatching got to the Summer of Punk right afterwards. Now as of this review being posted, I catch up to his final match in ROH ever, just days after WWE has officially moved him to its alumni section. This was not intentional on my part. Punk returning was definitely a surprise that lived up to the hype, but to me wasn't presented well. I know this would've been impossible, but with hindsight, his East Coast one night only farewell would've been more poetic at the Fourth Anniversary Show. After all, that's an anniversary show. What better way to kick off The Milestone Series? And don't forget too, that was in New Jersey, the same region where he had that landmark career moment at Death Before Dishonor III. Just some "what if" food for thought. To state the obvious, it certainly appears that Punk has retired, as he has made it pretty clear. One thing though I've noticed is he has not directly said to the public that he is done for good. And I sense that is intentional. I selfishly hope he finds the passion and gets healthy enough to come back to the ring one day, and I get the sense based on what he said several months ago that he probably thinks that's a possibility in the back of his mind. He had stated shortly before fleeing WWE abruptly that he didn't want to directly say what his decision would be, as he had made it clear he was done in 2011, but we know what happened then of course. If Punk ever returns to the ring, I highly, highly, highly, highly doubt it will be for ROH. If he never returns at all to the ring, I certainly don't blame him. But after making an ass out of himself on this show, that was the ROH equivalent to another Chicago icon coming out of retirement for the Washington Wizards. Punk: The Final Chapter was the perfect storytelling farewell for Punk in ROH, and there was no need for him to have a sentimental East Coast goodbye, just like Michael Jordan's Wizards tenure felt unnecessary after having his perfect fairytale ending in 1998. Luckily, this is wrestling and not actual competitive sports, so if Punk were to ever return to ROH for just one night, perhaps even cash in what should be his rightful shot at the ROH Title as a former holder of that title, that'd be a great way to make sure his antics on this snowy night in the NYC metro area were not his final moments for Ring of Honor, and I don't think any of us can imagine just how electric that would be after everything he has accomplished in WWE. With all of that out of the way, I don't need to spell out how important CM Punk is in ROH history. He had absolutely everything during his three years in ROH that makes someone a legend on this stage, and I am thankful for the memories. Here are my picks for the ten best matches he had during an absolutely stellar chapter of his career in ROH. CM Punk's 10 Greatest ROH Matches CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe - World Title Classic ****1/2 CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe - Joe vs. Punk II ***** (Punk's greatest match in ROH) CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe - All Star Extravaganza II ***** CM Punk vs. Alex Shelley - Third Anniversary Celebration Pt. 2 ****1/4 CM Punk vs. Jimmy Rave - Nowhere to Run ****1/4 CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong - The Future is Now **** CM Punk vs. Austin Aries - Death Before Dishonor III ****3/4 CM Punk vs. Jay Lethal - Sign of Dishonor **** CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong - Escape From New York ****1/2 CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe vs. James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels - Redemption ****1/2 Up next - Fourth Anniversary Show Matches will include: Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe Homicide vs. Colt Cabana Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Rave Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal

Dissension - January 28, 2006 The Embassy cuts a promo in in the dungeon of Abyss, once again showing dissension. Jimmy Rave says he's cashing in his match for the ROH Title at the Fourth Anniversary Show on February 25. Alex Shelley then says he's cashing in and getting his shot on February 11. Holy shit that February 11 card was STACKED on top. More on that later. I FF to Adam Pearce after his victory over Jay Fury saying he will stay at ringside while Jim Cornette vents about what happened the night before in Dayton some more. More Fucking Chaos Cornette, with a tooth visibly missing, cuts yet another excellent promo, snubbing his nose at the "hardcore wrestlers" and conveniently forgetting that he's the one to give New Jack his first break in the business. Necro Butcher shows up at ringside and threatens to come over the guardrail for another melee. Cornette throws some FANTASTIC zingers at him involving masturbation and urine tests. After another minute or two of shit-talking, Cornette says he'll fight Necro himself because "I ain't a wrestler, but you ain't either." Pearce then steps in to take the fight on Cornette's behalf. He gets fed up with Necro standing at the guardrail and comes to get him some tremendous brawling action. Out come the jabronis and even the Tag Champs of Austin Aries & Roderick Strong to throw Necro out. Cornette & Pearce come back to ringside, with the commish saying that he knows Pearce is a cut-throat politician, but he appreciates what the Scrap Daddy had just done for him. Excellent segment, and I sit here still wondering when the SBG era fans of ROH will get the compilation they NEED of this CZW feud. And I'm only one month into this angle, folks. Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Delirious, Tony Mamaluke, & Sal Rinauro Good trios action here, not out to steal the show which was totally fine after the Embassy wrestling twice the night before. It simply got over the story of this faction having tension, with Shelley tagging himself in at the end to sabotage an Abyss high-spot. But before that this was good stuff all-around, and it was interesting to see the two masked but very different flavors of oddballs clashing in the ring. The babyfaces got the win, but most importantly, Delirious was not the one to win it for his team, still looking for his first victory as his two year anniversary in ROH inches closer. Rating: *** Low Ki's Last ROH Match Low Ki vs. Jack Evans More on Low Ki's legacy in ROH later. Not the classic for him to go out on, but a hell of a fun glorified squash, just beating the fucking shit out of Evans. Ki was just awesome in this one laying the beatdown and no-selling the less aggressive Evans. But Evans was great as usual with his selling, being the mid-card jobber that was getting a reality check. I did enjoy that deep in the match when Evans got a chance to stun Ki, he did get to knock down the former ROH Champion a couple times thanks to getting some firepower behind his high-spots. But it was all over once Ki hit the Tree of Woe double stomp. At intermission, Matt Sydal is shown chatting with AJ Styles backstage, obviously about going after the tag straps. Tag Titles Match Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer Above average match here, nothing horrible, and I believe that was the goal. It was only humane for the champs to be put in a position to be bodies, practically faceless plot devices for the Jacobs & Whitmer story, after that grueling classic the night before. And this was definitely all about Jacobs & Whitmer, making me wonder why the entire match wasn't included on their compilation since this was a key match for them. Jacobs of course got distracted at times due to his creepy infatuation with Lacey, and it ultimately cost his team in the end when he went down to the 450 Splash. The ego-maniacal Lacey seems to have no problem with what Jacobs is doing, basically saying Whitmer needs to be a professional, wanting to use this tension as a means to have more rule over what they do (in other words, a mid-20s attractive female version of Jerry Jones.) Whitmer has enough and gives Jacobs the wrist clutch exploder. Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels Outstanding performance from Daniels, as he had to suck it up early when he injured his right knee on a routine arm-drag bump. He made up for his sabotaged mobility by escalating his aggression on the smaller Sydal, tossing him around at times. But Sydal, coming off of a breakout match against Styles and involved in two firecracker trios matches the night before, was no longer a jobber that would go down easily. He pushed himself to step up his game against the more experienced, technically and psychologically superior Daniels. However, Sydal had a sore neck throughout the match (from Hell Freezes Over) that Daniels went to work on. This paid off in the finish when Sydal passed out to the Koji Clutch, showing just what an all-around outstanding wrestler Daniels is in kayfabe and as an in-ring worker. Very good match, and I bet they can do even better without any freak injuries. Rating: ***1/2 A pretty sweet highlight package airs, with the announcement that THE BRISCOES ARE RETURNING TO ROH. OH FUCK YES~! ROH Title Match Bryan Danielson vs. AJ Styles Probably just a shade below their prior two ROH classics, but this is definitely one of the most under-appreciated matches in ROH history. They have their tremendous aggressive mat wrestling to start off the match, with Danielson refusing to give clean breaks. Styles of course has none of that shit and unleashes a fury on the champ, staying true to his established in-ring character and likely wanting to put an end to any mind games like Danielson had played a few months earlier against Strong. This was just storytelling greatness, back-and-forth heat segments aplenty. The big story was that the challenger would try to execute the Styles Clash, but the champion would find a way to evade it. In the third act, when Styles almost landed it, Danielson grabbed the left leg to take away the balance and force him to let go, then using that leverage to get a second Cattle Mutilation. Of course Styles had gotten to the ropes earlier in the match the first time Danielson got that locked in. Another masterful piece of storytelling was early in the match, Styles almost got a picture perfect springboard moonsault reverse DDT. But the champ kneed him in the face for his troubles. Much later in the match, Styles didn't give Danielson the extra second, dropping him down right on the neck and shoulders within a fraction of a second. There were a couple callback segments too. They traded leverage on a Muta Lock, but not getting into a stalemate as they did the first time they clashed at All Star Extravaganza. Later, Danielson found himself seated with Styles standing, using his feet to keep Styles at bay, just like the challenger went through in first title shot against Ki at Honor Invades Boston. This was really a game of human chess just like Danielson's title win over James Gibson. It of course ended somewhat similarly to that classic. Styles escaped the Cattle Mutilation and used his body to get a hot nearfall and almost secure the top prize in the company, only for Danielson to immediately after the kickout use his positioning behind Styles to lock on the Crossface Chickenwing for the submission victory. Only a month into the year 2006 and we got our first genuine MOTYC for this company, my friends. Rating: ****1/2 The DVD ends with two key segments, one for the short-term and one for the long-term. Whitmer tells Lacey to fuck off and reminds her of what he did to Allison Danger in the past. Meanwhile, Aries tries to play the "we gave you your big break here" card on Sydal, which only reinforces Sydal's decision to stand by Styles and go for the tag straps. I must point out that Sydal's acting was hilariously hideous here, but it leads to what should be a hot tag match, so it's all good. So match quality wise, this show had an underrated MOTYC main event featuring two of the very best in-ring performers of the 21st Century. Other than Sydal vs. Daniels, nothing else stood out. But this was still a VERY fun show with critical storyline segments all over the place. Sydal going for the tag straps. Jacobs & Whitmer having an ugly breakup. Another firecracker anti-CZW promo from Cornette with another chaotic little appetizer of a melee to get the crowd hot. Of course, this show has unintentional historic value for ROH too. This was the final ROH appearance for Abyss, as according to Gabe Sapolsky he wasn't satisfied with his booking. It's a shame we didn't get Danielson vs. Abyss, as I'm positive Danielson would've given the monster the best match of his entire career. But far more important was that this was Low Ki's final night in ROH, as the company got fed up with him off-screen, reportedly attempting to hold up for more money and being extremely reluctant to do jobs. I'm a big, big fan of Low Ki still in 2014, but I can understand why ROH put its foot down, and that's a real shame. We never got to see him in what would've been an incredible dream match against Strong in ROH for February 11, the stacked tag match pairing him up with Daniels against Danielson & Joe, and the long-awaited threeway rematch against Danielson and Daniels that was to be 99 shows in the making. And knowing what would happen on the next show, that February 11 card, wow was it going to be stacked on top, with not just Strong vs. Ki, but also Danielson vs. Shelley as announced on this DVD, plus Nigel McGuinness putting the Pure Title on the line against Aries. But there was to be a surprise from mother nature to pile on the unfortunate Low Ki departure, forcing ROH to pull off a polarizing miracle that night as I'll detail on my preview at the end of this review. There is no denying that Low Ki is one of the biggest stars in ROH history, and it's a shame to see him come and go with so many federations over the years. That Gabe Sapolsky has done business with him, but ROH hasn't eight years later after going through two more bookers AND a change in ownership tells me that his antics must have soured him permanently with then-owner Cary Silken, who still has some position in the company after selling it to SBG. I'll say it again, that's simply a shame. But he can be proud of his performances in ROH. He was a critical figure in the birth of ROH, being the very first face of the company and having the honor of being the company's first ever champion. Who can ever forget his return and subsequent heel turn at Reborn: Completion? How many guys would be trusted to be picked for the debuts of two major indy stars AND a puro star? Who can ever forget that first main event in ROH history, turning all three participants into ROH stars in one shot and establishing the foundation that ROH would have for almost an entire decade? I think it's safe to say that Low Ki will never return to ROH. Therefore, I present my picks for his ten best matches in an ROH ring. Low Ki's 10 Greatest ROH Matches Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Christopher Daniels - The Era of Honor Begins ****1/2 Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson - Round Robin Challenge ***** (Ki's greatest match in ROH) Low Ki vs. Doug Williams vs. Brian Kendrick vs. Christopher Daniels - Crowning a Champion ****3/4 Low Ki vs. AJ Styles - Honor Invades Boston ****1/2 Low Ki vs. Samoa Joe - Glory By Honor ****1/2 Low Ki vs. Paul London vs. AJ Styles - One Year Anniversary Show ****1/4 Low Ki & Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe & Jushin Liger - Weekend of Thunder Night 2 **** Low Ki & Homicide vs. Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal - Punk: The Final Chapter **** Low Ki & Samoa Joe vs. Homicide & Kenta Kobashi - Unforgettable ****3/4 Low Ki vs. KENTA - Final Battle 2005 ****3/4 Up next - Unscripted II Matches will include: Bryan Danielson vs. Xavier Nigel McGuinness vs. Austin Aries Roderick Strong vs. BJ Whitmer Bryan Danielson & CM Punk vs. Jimmy Rave & Adam Pearce

Tag Wars 2006 - January 27, 2006 The DVD starts off with some promos. Jay Lethal promises to be a tag champion unlike Samoa Joe, and then the Embassy show tension in discussing who will dethrone Bryan Danielson for the top prize in the company. Trios Tournament Semifinal Jack Evans, Jimmy Yang, & Matt Sydal vs. Jimmy Jacobs, Adam Pearce, & BJ Whitmer I have absolutely zero complaints about this opener. This is one of the best opening matches in ROH history, and probably the best structured one to date. It accomplished everything it needed to. Legalities got enforced in the finishing stretch. It started as a hot spotfest, then broke down into Sydal playing the Ricky Morton. The match was a house of fire after the hot tag, and the crowd erupted when Evans pinned Jacobs (who had taken his eye off the ball throughout the match due to his creepy infatuation with Lacey) with the 720 senton splash. This NEEDS to be on the inevitable Sydal comp that I'm sure ROH has planned to release once he returns in a few months. Rating: ***1/2 Trios Tournament Semifinal Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Jay Fury, Tony Mamaluke, & Sal Rinauro Not as hot as the opener, but I didn't expect this to be. This was simply a great showcase for Fury's spotty style in his debut for the company, Mamaluke's technical expertise, and the scumbag nature of the Embassy. Once again, no complaints here. Rating: *** I FF to the middle of Ace Steel vs. Sterling James Keenan, and the segment that abruptly ended the match certainly held up all these years later. Utter Fucking Chaos Chris Hero & Necro Butcher are in attendance which gets Steel's attention, daring them to come to ringside, which of course they do. This brings out a bunch of jabronis from backstage, and then some actual stars too who take the CZW representatives to the back in order to throw them out. However, at least two brawls break out, and ROH having poor lighting at this time actually worked to conceal what was going on, which would help in a couple months (I will explain once I get to that moment in the future). A variety of ROH guys are united to throw out Hero & Necro, from Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness to Generation Next to the creepy Jacobs to even the narcissistic, cold-hearted Low Ki (who is armed with a chair). Jim Cornette is shown walking around with a busted mouth, and runs into booker Gabe Sapolsky, who swears he didn't book the CZW stars. Cornette is blowing a gasket, swearing that Sapolsky had played him for a fool. After Hero & Necro are shoved out the door, Cornette comes to ringside with Adam Pearce watching his back. Cornette then cuts one of the best promos of his career, which I am going to proudly analyze from a number of different angles. This was a passionate, furious, eloquent promo that did a fantastic job of elevating this apparent inter-promotional invasion to the next level (and the different ROH characters banding together did that too of course.) Cornette was on point here, not once dragging while making all of his points (however irrational and borderline unhinged they were) crystal clear. To state the obvious, the color Cornette had gave this the exclamation mark. He buried Hero, Necro, and other CZW stars for being nothing more than garbage wrestlers, going far beyond (and doing a much better job btw) what Ricky Steamboat had preached during his terrible philosophy feud with Mick Foley in late 2004. He said that they couldn't hack it in ROH, lacked any true talent, had to resort to over-the-top blood and gore to get over, and leeched off of ROH. I'm sorry Jim, perhaps I saw a different main event than you did at Hell Freezes Over. My favorite moment in this promo was actually Cornette playing off of some hecklers in the crowd, something I don't want to spoil. It involves a fan using a staple gun on himself. GET THIS DVD JUST FOR THIS PROMO. At intermission, Austin Aries & Roderick Strong make it clear they're not thrilled with Sydal coming for the tag straps, but Evans says to focus on the trios final later that night. TOMORROW NIGHT, BRYAN DANIELSON DEFENDS THE ROH TITLE AGAINST AJ STYLES. OH FUCK YES~! Low Ki vs. Christopher Daniels Both men ignore the ref's request to shake hands. Superb technical wrestling match here. Ki spent a significant portion of the match working on the torso of Daniels to take away his stamina. A key moment in the match was Ki going for the Tree of Woe double stomp, but Daniels shoved him outside the ring from the top rope. When Ki successfully hit it later as the match was coming to an end, the crowd fucking erupted. The finishing stretch was a sight to behold. Daniels went for the Last Rites but got kneed in the face, yet was still able to position Ki for an attempted Angel's Wings. Ki blocked it with his arms hooked, turning Daniels over for the three-count. A fantastic way to pay off the torso work done on Daniels earlier in the match. Post-match, Daniels admits that he regrets his attitude during his Prophecy days, and offers a handshake. Ki brushes it off both out of revenge and because he had absolutely zero honor to show towards the ROH roster. Rating: ***3/4 Trios Tournament Final Jack Evans, Jimmy Yang, & Matt Sydal vs. Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley If the prior match was splendid, this was just outstanding. The match started off with Yang owning Rave in every way. Rave was VERY underrated in terms of showing ass to make babyfaces look good. The Embassy did a phenomenal job of cutting the ring in half on Sydal once he got tagged in, also holding Abyss back until after the hot tag. Sydal just got his ass kicked in this match; that means this should be on his inevitable compilation as well. With his ex-girlfriend Daizee Haze in the Embassy's corner, Sydal was just toyed with by Shelley, who was very vicious with his strikes and working on the neck (a nice follow-up to Sydal suffering an obvious sore neck at Hell Freezes Over), the highlight being a skullfuck. Once Sydal got the hot tag, the match became an incredible spotfest, jut nonstop action all over the ring involving all six men. For this portion of the match, the highlight was Sydal going for a crossbody on Abyss and getting a spectacular spinning side slam for his troubles. Once again, the ref enforced legalities in the closing moments, showing the type of professionalism that justified the hype ROH was getting at this time on all levels that this company was capable of. Shelley hit the Shiranui on Yang, but it appeared Rave got a hidden tag on Shelley, as he was able to get the pinfall after a follow-up Pedigree. With the lack of 16:9 footage in wrestling at the time, it appeared the commentators didn't catch the blind tag either as they made no mention of it. This match also showcased the simmering tension within the Embassy, even with a monumental victory that earned all three men future ROH matches of their choice. Rating: **** Tag Titles Match Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Bryan Danielson & Jay Lethal Tremendous main event here that would've been even better had Aries been involved more. But for completely understandable reasons, he was the least important character in this match, making me wonder why this match got included on on one of his compilations instead of for the other three. Danielson trolled Strong to start and tagged in Lethal immediately. Strong hit a backbreaker on Lethal, but the ROH Champ refused to get tagged in. For about another 30 minutes, these guys just tore the house down while telling a great story. Moments that stand out to me include: the crowd going crazy when Danielson finally got chopped by Strong about halfway into this classic; Danielson encouraging Lethal to mock Samoa Joe with the Ole Ole Kick on Aries; Lethal mocking Joe earlier by utilizing the boot-scrapes; and of course Danielson's trash talking. Of course, this match came down to Danielson and Strong as it should have. After multiple backbreakers, Strong was able to slap the Liontamer on the ROH Champ and make him tap out, earning himself an inevitable title shot in the future. One could argue it was bad booking to have the champ tap out 24 hours before a defense against Styles, but this was the bulletproof Bryan Danielson, and it set up a money match in the future. Just a tremendous tag team match, and I can't help but wonder how much better Danielson & Lethal could've become had they tagged frequently throughout 2006. Rating: ****1/4 Sydal says he needs another 24 hours to make his decision on going after the Tag Titles. The DVD closes with Whitmer pointing out that Lacey had insulted him and Jacobs in a backstage promo at Buffalo Stampede. He ain't thrilled at all about Jacobs losing focus as well as Lacey's attitude as they are 24 hours away from a shot at the Tag Titles. We have a VERY strong early contender for best ROH event of 2006. A fantastic tag team main event. A fantastic trios match. An outstanding opening match. A very intelligent technical wrestling match that I considered giving ****. Little tensions being laid out. And of course, that red-hot CZW segment. AMAZING show, easily the most under-appreciated in ROH History. Of course, having the enthusiastic Dayton crowd played a part too. This was the FOURTH straight Dayton event for ROH that delivered btw. Up next - Dissension Matches will include: Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Delirious, Tony Mamaluke, & Sal Rinauro Low Ki vs. Jack Evans Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels Bryan Danielson vs. AJ Styles

Hell Freezes Over - January 14, 2006 Jay Lethal vs. Christopher Daniels The wrestling was fine in this, nothing botched, but either Lethal didn't seem to know how to keep the match engaging while being in control, or Daniels was keeping the pace below fifth gear to make sure he was good to go for the big TNA match against Samoa Joe the next day. They'd go on to do better in TNA. Rating: less than *** Jimmy Jacobs Accouncement Jacobs has sent a video to ROHvideos.com, proclaiming that he's in love with Lacey. Phenomenally creepy video that saved his future in the company. AJ Styles vs. Matt Sydal This was fucking action-packed. While Styles of course had the advantage in terms of size, strength, and aggression, Sydal was pushed into showing that despite his small frame, he too could throw down and pull out some technical wrestling when necessary. This was a tremendously paced contest. The three most memorable moments are Styles giving a brainbuster to Sydal on the apron, which Sydal sold throughout the rest of the match and it certainly appeared there was no way to avoid landing awkwardly on his neck for that spot, even with Styles protecting him; the company highlight of Styles trying to deliver a Styles Clash but Sydal not allowing it, getting himself on the shoulders of Styles and landing an explosive hurricanrana pin attempt straight out of the Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio playbook; and of course the finish, in which Sydal reversed an attempted Super Styles Clash with yet another hurricanrana, but this time Styles absorbed the bump and used the momentum to get the pinfall victory. Post-match, Styles requests Sydal to be his partner in going after the tag straps, which Sydal accepts and his Generation Next buddies probably aren't too thrilled about. Sydal got himself on the radar months earlier with his first good ROH singles match against Jimmy Rave; in this one he simply broke out and proved he was worthy of mixing it up with the top acts in the company. If you enjoyed Low Ki vs. Amazing Red, then by all means check this out, as you should love it even more than I did. Rating: ***3/4 ROH Title Match - Chris Hero's ROH Debut Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero It is absolutely mind-boggling to realize that there was a time in which Gabe Sapolsky appeared to have zero interest in booking Hero. I guess I just couldn't see the can't-miss excellence of BJ Whitmer, Adam Pearce, Xavier, Slyk Wagner Brown, Carnage Crew, and Vordell Walker. But there was no better way to correct that mistake than to book Hero in a market that BADLY needed something to move tickets again for the company (I'm going to assume the Philly market had burned out on ROH during the first few years), by creating an interesting dynamic of playing on the irrational emotions of the ROH and CZW fanbases at the time. After getting owned by Danielson in the first 10 minutes or so of the match, which also included stalling by both men to draw heat, Hero is able to get control when he hits an attack on the champion's left arm. For the next 10-15 minutes, Hero was absolutely awesome working on that left arm, with Danielson of course working in his moments to keep the match interesting, including relying on his right arm for slaps. As the match progressed to its finishing stretch, neither man would submit to the other. Hero reached the ropes during a Cattle Mutilation, likely showing his tenacity but also showing that Danielson wasn't at full strength in the left arm, and then later Danielson would reach the ropes during the Hangman's Clutch, once again showing his own tenacity. Once the champ locked on the Crossface Chickenwing, it was all over though. This wasn't super blowaway, but very good in showcasing what a mistake it was for ROH to shun Hero for years, as he gave an impressive technical wrestling performance, while also being a far more an interesting character than the likes of Matt Stryker and John Walters that were in the company before him. Some have said they would've preferred a more heated match; that misses the point of establishing that Hero belonged in ROH. It wasn't the time for his CZW friends Adam Flash, Nate Webb, and Necro Butcher to chime in on his behalf when they accompanied him at ringside. The post-match is a bit weird. Prince Nana comes out to offer Danielson a paycheck for the title but the champion of course rejects and that pisses Nana off. Out come Rave and Alex Shelley to take out the wounded champ, with Shelley thinking he had unlocked the Kryptonite by showing off the Shiranui. Sure, Danielson's roots were largely associated to former Embassy member Brian Kendrick, but that move had failed to put down the champ the month prior, a match in which the Embassy also came to ringside afterwards. I absolutely am looking forward to these matches though. Rating: ***3/4 Up next - Tag Wars 2006 Matches will include: Jack Evans, Jimmy Yang, & Matt Sydal vs. Jimmy Jacobs, BJ Whitmer, & Adam Pearce Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Jay Fury, Tony Mamaluke, & Sal Rinauro Low Ki vs. Christopher Daniels Trios Tournament Final Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Bryan Danielson & Jay Lethal

Final Battle 2005 - December 17, 2005 Jimmy Rave vs. Milano Collection AT Good for an opening match but altogether nothing special. MCAT had his neck worked on which was fun, then he got the heat in the last couple of minutes, then Rave wins out of nowhere with the Pedigree. It's a shame that this would be MCAT's final match and whatever issues there were between him and ROH/DG couldn't be settled; dude barring an injury was bound to do something special in 2006. Rating: less than *** Pure Title Match - TWO REFEREES Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio Castagnoli Commissioner Jim Cornette has appointed two referees to make sure McGuinness stops channeling Eddie Guerrero and disgracing the Pure Title. Castagnoli definitely hadn't found his true groove yet in terms of carrying himself, but of course was still very good during his green days. He was awesome in toying with the cheater McGuinness, even cheating himself as a receipt. But McGuinness was able to position himself next to Paul Turner on the outside, convincing the challenger to take the bait and accidentally take out the ref with an attempted tope suicida. His facial expression was excellent with his mocked innocence. They would go on to have some great European Uppercut exchanges, and Castagnoli also got a tremendous nearfall when he did the Tower of London. McGuinness would bring in his iron and throw it in Castagnoli's hands, plagiarizing the late Eddie, but Castagnoli didn't fall for it. However, Castagnoli gleefully rammed the champion's head into that iron to win the Pure Title, only for the now-conscious Turner to disqualify him for seeing that. Rating: *** I catch the end of Alex Shelley vs. Steve Corino for a major storyline. Homicide ambushes Corino within seconds of the match ending, drawing out Colt Cabana. In a moment that to me deserves consideration for the WrestleCrap Hall of Fame for simply going way too far to build heat, Homicide attempted to pour Drano down Cabana's throat. Textbook jumping the shark. Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Christopher Daniels Before the match, Lethal explains that he betrayed Joe because the bigger star was making more money and so he's now open to signing with any managers in ROH. Makes sense, but why not make this angle layered as it already was in its roots since Joe was being so self-absorbed in the prior month? The match is fun and does a good job of continuing Joe's feuds with Lethal and Daniels but ultimately has no substance when tags stop being enforced. I'd have had no problem with this just being a spotfest to get the crowd psyched up going into intermission, but why enforce tags in the first half of the match at all then? Rating: less than *** At intermission, the Embassy expresses interest in aiming for titles in ROH. Tag Titles Match Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong Prior to the match, Aries attacks Ricky Reyes and cuts a fantastic promo on him, saying he's nothing without Rocky Romero (who had gone on to stardom in puroresu) and was worthless unless he was plastered. Every word Aries said was true, and yet fit in perfectly with the gimmick Reyes had at the time of bullying the students. This was really good stuff, only kept from being great due to the lack of charisma and presence from the champs. The challengers did a great job of cutting the ring in half early on Rinauro, but then the champs would return the favor by cutting the ring in half on Aries. Everything made sense, the psychology was good, pacing was good, and the crowd sensed a title change in the last 30 seconds. After just finishing up with the Embassy, it was fitting for GeNext to be granted the task of bringing the titles to relevance entering 2006. That Aries had won singles gold at the previous Final Battle was mentioned too of course. Rating: ***1/2 ROH Title Match - Naomichi Marufuji's ROH Debut Bryan Danielson vs. Naomichi Marufuji Very good debut for Marufuji during his golden period as expected. He was very smooth in his transitions of heat with Danielson, showing aggressiveness too when necessary to mirror the champion. Just really good all-around wrestling from both men overall, and I don't mind that Marufuji jobbed by a rollup pin, as it established that part of Danielson's arsenal against a challenger of such high caliber. I also have no problem that Danielson didn't job to the Shiranui, as the way it was executed didn't bury the move at all. Post-match, the Embassy are at the entrance ramp, mockingly congratulating the champ. Rating: ***3/4 GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title Match - KENTA's ROH Debut KENTA vs. Low Ki Greatest debut in ROH history, surpassing Joe's impressive MOTYC debut that was also against Ki a few years earlier. I'm not counting one-off appearances as debuts, so that disqualifies Kenta Kobashi. Speaking of Kobashi, of course this match is naturally going to be compared to his masterpiece against Joe. And while this didn't quite live up to that, this was still an incredible match that has stood the test of time. Both men were fantastic mirror images of each other, neither going down to one another's devastating punishment, working this like they were trying to steal the show at the Tokyo Dome. Low Ki controlled a significant portion of the match surprisingly, and it was very engaging. Watching all of those NOAH classics made me appreciate KENTA selling and delivering hope spots, only to get cut off quickly by his toughest challenger to date, even more challenging and grueling than what he went through against that bastard SUWA. Ki specifically targeted KENTA's back later in the match, which was sold very, very well. Of course, this match had more than its fair share of kicking and striking exchanges, completely amazing the crowd each time. And those exchanges deserved appreciation thanks to their wonderful execution. Both men also were fantastic in countering and evading each other's offense at times, showing just what an even matchup this was at the time and that they definitely studied each other's work. As far as the counters, the highlight was KENTA attempting a Busaiku knee only for Ki to grab him mid-air and drop him with a modified Ki Crusher to thunderous applause. Another moment that had the crowd popping huge was KENTA digging down deep, springing up when Ki was going to unleash another top-rope move, and dropping the challenger with a Super Falcon Arrow. KENTA rolled over after the nearfall this got, selling the damage that had been inflicted upon him and showing the effort it took for him to get this spot in. My only complaint isn't that this was in New Jersey instead of Manhattan, although that likely would've made this even better. Considering that KENTA was to be a semi-regular for ROH, I'd have put Ki away with one G2S, rather than adding in the Busaiku knee for good measure, to establish the G2S as fucking DEATH to the entire ROH locker room. Other than that, this was an absolutely outstanding, jaw-dropping classic. Rating: ****3/4 The DVD closes with Daniels wishing to wrap up his feud with Joe that has even spilled over into TNA, but wanting to get it done in ROH soon. As I'm about to spill below, this couldn't touch the very tippy-top best events ROH hosted in 2005, but this had storyline implications up and down the card (even with one moment epitomizing the term "jumping the shark"), the three main events all delivered, one of them being an important title change, two of them being important debuts, and the main event being what some might consider a genuine contender for greatest match in company history. Hell of a way to bring this awesome year for ROH to an end. SUPER DUPER ROH 2005 AWARDS Wrestler of the Year: Austin Aries Runner-up - Roderick Strong Debut of the Year: KENTA - Final Battle 2005 Breakout Performance of the Year: Roderick Strong @ Escape From New York Feud/Rivalry of the Year: The Embassy vs. Generation Next (including everything that led to the two factions feuding) Runner-up - CM Punk vs. the ROH locker room Show of the Year: Nowhere to Run Runner-up - Manhattan Mayhem Moment of the Year: CM Punk dethroning Austin Aries for the ROH Title and then turning heel @ Death Before Dishonor III and Kenta Kobashi competing in an ROH match @ Joe vs. Kobashi Match of the Year: Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong - Vendetta ***** Runner-up - Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi - Joe vs. Kobashi ***** ROH's Top 10 Matches of 2005 (in chronological order): Austin Aries vs. CM Punk - Death Before Dishonor III ****3/4 CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong - Escape From New York ****1/2 CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe vs. James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels - Redemption ****1/2 James Gibson vs. Bryan Danielson - Glory By Honor IV ****1/2 Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi - Joe vs. Kobashi ***** James Gibson vs. Roderick Strong - Unforgettable ****1/2 Low Ki & Samoa Joe vs. Homicide & Kenta Kobashi - Unforgettable ****3/4 Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong - This Means War ****1/2 Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong - Vendetta ***** KENTA vs. Low Ki - Final Battle 2005 ****3/4 Up next - Hell Freezes Over Matches will include: Jay Lethal vs. Christopher Daniels AJ Styles vs. Matt Sydal Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero

Steel Cage Warfare - December 3, 2005 The DVD starts with a Jay Lethal promo pulled from the ROH web site, chronicling his career and saying he needs to be able to stand on his own, which is why he has challenged his mentor Samoa Joe. He promises that he will do something to stand out. Jim Cornette in a taped promo says he's not impressed with the antics of Nigel McGuinness, and that he will be defending the Pure Title against Claudio Castagnoli again soon, this time with two referees present so that McGuinness doesn't make a joke out of the rules. He also bans Colt Cabana and the Rottweilers from the Homicide vs. Steve Corino match for this evening. Yeah, I'll just pretend Homicide and Corino finished their business in 2003, thank you. Shown throughout the show are taped promos from the Embassy and Generation Next. Most of them are horrendous, with Alex Shelley being the lone standout, still bitter about Final Battle 2004 and deeming his opponents to be "Diet Generation Next," a watered-down version without him. Tag Titles Match Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro vs. Colt Cabana & Milano Collection AT Gabe Sapolsky says in commentary that MCAT will be a key performer for ROH in 2006. The champs put out an open contract, which Cabana accepted and chose MCAT as his partner. Good tag match, nothing special, much like I would describe Mamaluke's career as being. I appreciated Todd Sinclair refusing to count a pinfall due to tag legalities. The crowd doesn't seem to be receptive to the champs retaining, and I can certainly see why. Rating: *** ROH Title Match Bryan Danielson vs. Rocky Romero Romero is cashing in his match/title shot of his choice as part of winning the trios tournament. Apparently these two have history going back to the New Japan Dojo in Los Angeles, explaining in storyline why Romero waited nine months and numerous title reigns to pass before cashing in. Remember when it was the "cool thing" to bash Romero? Watch this match to find out why. The wrestling looked good on the surface, but Romero didn't sell or follow up on anything that Danielson did to establish a story. I imagine the champ mentally said "fuck it" when he finished Romero off with a half crab on the right leg, when he had actually worked on Romero's left leg earlier in the match. Post-match, Lance Storm comes out, and perhaps Gabe Sapolsky's crowning achievement was convincing the audience that this guy, a good but never spectacular worker, was a truly great, under-utilized performer, a pioneer for many in ROH like Brian Pillman and Dean Malenko were. Storm says he's willing to lace his boots up again to face Danielson. It's 2014, I'm sure the match is good or probably even great thanks to Danielson, but whatever. Rating: less than *** Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe Match was solid and forgettable until Joe went for the boot scrapes about 12 minutes into this match. Lethal ducked out of the ring and threw Joe's left knee into the ring post, teased he would do it again, but then grabbed a steel chair and attacked the knee with it. I'm surprised he wasn't disqualified for that. This was great not only to show that he was tired of Joe's egotistical attitude, but to take away Joe's base and kicking offense. For the remaining several minutes, Lethal did a masterful job as the crowd, who had not yet seen the footage from A Night of Tribute, vilified him for his actions. He continued working on the left knee, and Joe did an equally masterful job of selling it, falling off-balance at times and not being able to keep Lethal up for attempted musclebusters and Death Valley Drivers. What's key though is that Joe still got some trademark hope spots in, such as a powerslam. The finishing sequence came when Lethal was dropped on his head with a release German suplex, but Joe couldn't follow up when lifting him for the musclebuster due to the knee damage. Lethal managed to get in position to finish off his former friend, partner, and mentor with a very painful looking release Dragon suplex. Afterwards, Lethal rubs a bit more salt in the wound, kicking at Joe's left knee. I don't blame Lethal at all. Rating: ***1/2 Steel Cage Warfare Prince Nana, Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, Jack Evans, & Matt Sydal This was a great blowoff to the feud, complete with hitting every appropriate spot and tying up everything that had been building for a year. Nana did a great job when he was the last member of the Embassy to come in, celebrating as his crew worked on GeNext. Abyss did a great job of showing off his power and taste for hardcore. I loved every elimination in this match also. Abyss, Sydal, and Evans were taken out by multiple finishers, super variations of finishers, and/or multiple members of the opposite faction. Other little things (before I get to the things I really wanna focus on) that stood out are Strong coming in to be a great house of fire, and finally getting a gutbuster on Abyss after being unable to do so for four months, and Jade Chung returning and baiting the Embassy out of the ring so that Evans could sneak in and climb up the cage to do a ridiculous million degree senton on them. Unfortunately, Evans landed on his head and it's amazing that he was able to manage getting the rest of his portion of the match over with. I don't know how he didn't die. The most important individual in this entire match was Alex Shelley, because this is how it all started. He had many chances to get eliminations on his former stablemates, but his bitterness and ego, the desire to prolong and milk the vengeance, cost him and his faction ultimately in the end. He did an absolutely fantastic job of being a completely psychopathic, vindictive douche-bag, showing that despite how cold it was what happened to him a year earlier and in the first half of 2005, his former faction had actually found some decency since then, whereas he stooped to even lower levels. His skull-fuck spot to Aries on a steel chair, busting open the former ROH Champion, was absolutely perfect storytelling. Also perfect was to have Aries & Strong take out Rave & Shelley simultaneously, Strong on Rave via numerous backbreakers, Aries on Shelley via a brainbuster on a chair. That left Aries & Strong, the #1 contenders to the Tag Titles, alone with Nana, who finished him off in quick but brutally satisfying fashion, bringing the feud of the year for ROH to its appropriate conclusion. This was the culmination of so many different stories that ended up interlocking by August. Shelley being booted by GeNext. Sydal being betrayed by Fast Eddie in favor of joining the Embassy. Rave & Shelley showing natural chemistry as potential partners on the same night that Aries told Nana to fuck off when given a horrendously mistimed business proposal. Shelley then jumping on the opportunity to finally have a unit to be by his side and showing what a son of a bitch he was. Sydal being the parallel of replacing him in GeNext so he could get help against the Embassy. Daizee Haze betraying GeNext to sell out to the Embassy. And then Chung getting the last laugh, united in celebration with GeNext and using Rave as a footstool. Post-match, Aries says to the camera that with this chapter behind them, he and Strong are now focused on the Tag Titles. This post-match felt very similar to when CM Punk finished off Rave inside the cage at Nowhere to Run. Perhaps most amazing is that as great as this match is, I suspect looking at the lineup of the next show that this won't crack my top ten for the year. Rating: ****1/4 The DVD closes with Joe having a pity party about Lethal betraying him. Fuck off, Joe. The next event features two key debuts, so I'll be taking another hiatus from this rewatch, as I will use this as an excuse to make myself familiar with the pre-ROH work of KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji. I also have high expectations for the next event to bring ROH's incredible 2005 to a close. Up next - Final Battle 2005 Matches will include: Jimmy Rave vs. Milano Collection AT Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio Castagnoli Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Christopher Daniels Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong Bryan Danielson vs. Naomichi Marufuji KENTA vs. Low Ki

A Night of Tribute - November 19, 2005 The DVD begins with ringside footage as the company pays tribute to Eddie Guerrero with a ten bell salute. More on the Hall of Famer later. A Samoa Joe promo is thrown in from ROH"s website, going through all the major points of his career for several minutes, saying that his final goal is to win the Tag Titles and be the first ever Grand Slam Champion. What stands out is that he says he will "single-handedly" be the first Grand Slam Champ in ROH, and talks about Jay Lethal's part as if Joe is the driver and his protege is simply a passenger. Interesting. Colt Cabana cuts a solid serious business promo on Homicide after what happened in Chicago, and I love the five o'clock shadow he's growing to sell the toll this feud is taking on him. But he ruins the segment with a line that nine years later I still haven't figured out, directed at Homicide: "I'm not fighting for my life, I'm fighting for yours." ROH Title Shot Match AJ Styles vs. Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels Fun match, although I was surprised it was on par with the three way Sydal and Daniels had with Azrieal, since this match was featuring AJ STYLES. This was a good showcase for Sydal as he ascended in his career and particularly in ROH, being left in the ring post-match so the crowd could give him the pop, to which they obliged. Rating: *** Gary Michael Cappetta welcomes Bryan Danielson, who wants to have a match to bring his ROH Title defense against Daniels in the main event to a more even level, both of them having competed in the night. Bryan Danielson vs. Azrieal Video of the match (NO COMMENTARY) - http://www.veoh.com/watch/v454449SCje96QA TREMENDOUS squash match, with Danielson making an almost complete mockery of Azrieal. WWE fans would LOVE this, as it's all a showcase of what a tremendously cocky asshole Danielson is. Hardcore Match Homicide vs. Colt Cabana Really good hatred match, both guys just going after each other. In this one, Cabana revealed that he brought a ghetto fork, but Homicide never got his comeuppance, which was a no-brainer at this stage in the feud. The wrestling was also really good, nothing insulting at all, the occasional no-selling being brief and caused by the emotions both men had. I can undoubtedly say that I am VERY glad the finish, which was Homicide choking Cabana out with a coat-hanger, was done in late 2005 instead of late 2007. Rating: ***1/2 Gabe Sapolsky reflects on what Eddie Guerrero meant to ROH, not just competing for the company during its genesis, but the impact his work had on the roster. My eyes began the watering process as this segment ended. Tag Titles Shot Match Jay Lethal & Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong Pretty good tag match, with Generation Next cutting the ring in half early on Lethal, although not doing as much damage as they probably thought, since Lethal was able to still work in the ring throughout most of the match. Moments later, Aries would be the one to have the ring cut in half on him. Overall, this was all about Lethal, Aries, and Strong, with Joe being a supporting character, and for good reasons. Fall attempts were only counted on the legal men, and the finish came when Strong delivered a backbreaker to Lethal, with Aries pounding his chest and delivering a gorgeous frogsplash, paying tribute to Guerrero. Post-match, Joe looks at Lethal with frustration, although not super hostile to indicate that it would lead to anything. As Aries & Strong head to the back, Prince Nana & Jimmy Rave ambush them with a chair, with Rave delivering a Pedigree to Strong on the wooden/steel entrance ramp. As GeNext walks through the curtain, they discover Sydal hanging from the rungs of a ladder. And that's the penultimate for these two factions before they finally settle it in two weeks. Rating: ***1/4 ROH Title Match Bryan Danielson vs. Christopher Daniels Good main event, made into being very good since the crowd was so hot, assuming for reasons I cannot figure out that Daniels actually had any chance of winning this. This match showcased Danielson more than Daniels, which again was understandable with the champ being the face of the company. His technical wrestling was fabulous as always, the finishing stretch got a great reaction, and I loved that when Daniels bled and the crimson got on Danielson, the champ took pride in making his opponent bleed. I wonder if it's a coincidence that Danielson and Homicide are being booked as the two most ruthless bad-asses in the company. Again, the crowd elevated this, but overall this isn't a standout in Danielson's title reign. I preferred the technically superior, less heated defense the month before against Aries. Rating: ***3/4 Joe says that tonight was a temporary setback, and that he will achieve his dream of being Grand Slam Champion. Lethal seems annoyed and walks away. I don't blame him, for Joe made no mention of what it would mean for the two of them to reach the top together. The DVD closes with a clip from A Night of Appreciation, as the crowd chants "We will miss you!" to Eddie Guerrero, who was in tears as he bid farewell to the independents. And I'm sure that any wrestling fan that grew up watching him sure does miss him still. This was always meant to be a B-show, which is understandable since this was sandwiched between a spectacular event in Chicago and important Manhattan event that would be the end of a top feud in company history. But the obvious circumstances of what happened six days earlier makes this an important event in ROH's history, even though this event will never be discussed with ROH's most reputable events. Recommended for genuine sentimental reasons, and for those who want an Eddie Guerrero tribute show that doesn't include a murderer. This show made me realize that although I have moved on, it really is a shame that Eddie Guerrero, regardless of what led to his demise, is no longer with us and was taken away so abruptly. Although Owen Hart's accident was a major deal, the death of Eddie Guerrero was the very first chipping away at the innocence of my wrestling fandom, and I'm sure I don't have to spell out what crushed that innocence for good. I hope that those who aren't familiar with Eddie's work will seek it out and educate themselves, find out why he is a true pioneer in the industry. It's not that hard to find his work thanks to the Internet and especially WWE Network. It'll be worth it, he was truly a one-of-a-kind entertainer and professional wrestler. RIP Eddie Guerrero: 1967-2005 IWA Intercontinental Title Tournament Final Eddie Guerrero vs. Super Crazy The Era of Honor Begins - February 23, 2002 Up next - Steel Cage Warfare Matches will include: Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro vs. Colt Cabana & Milano Collection AT Bryan Danielson vs. Rocky Romero Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe Prince Nana, Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, Jack Evans, & Matt Sydal

Vendetta - November 5, 2005 Full disclosure: This event has some sentimental value to me as it's the first ROH event, and second ever pro wrestling event, I attended. That sentimental value is being thrown out the fucking window though to give this an objective perspective. Homicide & Julius Smokes say they plan to murder Colt Cabana tonight in his hometown. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels Awesome match here. Joe worked on the neck of Daniels to set up for the musclebuster and Island Driver, but there will always be the underlying story of doing that because of the neck injury Daniels suffered in WCW. After several minutes of opening the match with back-and-forth momentum, Daniels got a shot on Joe's left knee, making it the target for the match. Daniels did a great job of getting the job done on that left knee of Joe's, including both submissions and strikes to that joint, a great gameplan to take away Joe's base. But as the match came to its finishing stretch, which had the crowd completely hot, Daniels proved to not be heavy enough with his damage, as Joe was able to ignore the pain inflicted and finish him off with the musclebuster. Christopher Daniels did not phone it in for ROH on this night, giving his best performance for the company since returning earlier in 2005. Rating: **** Homicide and Colt Cabana have an extremely violent brawl, with numerous unprotected chairshots. They really tear into each other, but Homicide has the advantage with Smokes being present. The Devil's Son-in-Law even delivers a powerbomb on Cabana. They duct-tape Cabana to the ropes, scratch his forehead with a fork, and then attempt to cut his tongue out with a pair of scissors. Ace Steel comes out and throws Homicide away from his trainee and friend, having been fed up with this bullshit. ROH Title Match Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong Danielson interrupts Bobby Cruise's introduction, getting him to announce the champ as "the best wrestler in the world." And after this match, Danielson certainly had a very, very solid case to make such a grand declaration. They slowly shake hands beforehand to follow the Code of Honor, but Danielson slaps Strong immediately and gets a chop for his troubles, immediately taking a powder. To state the obvious, this was emotionally picking up right where they left off a week earlier. Danielson spent a lot of time just walking around and talking shit to the crowd early, with another powder minutes later after taking more chops from Strong, being an absolutely outstanding cocky heel in the process. What's amazing is that this stalling never once live or on broadcast had me assuming that this would be a 60 minute Broadway. Danielson was the master in this one, using his irritation to get the advantage on Strong and make him more focused on his barbarianism and technical wrestling. To date, this is simply the greatest heel performance Danielson has had, being far more of a red-ass here than he was in the past against Paul London and AJ Styles, and more than he would be in the future against Sheamus, Nigel McGuinness, Samoa Joe, and Homicide, or even in Germany for WXW. Body parts Danielson targeted on Strong during this timeless classic include: the knees, the left arm, and most arrogantly of all, the back. This was absolutely ingenious to take away Strong's ability to deliver chops, backbreakers, and gutbusters, while also softening up the challenger for a number of potential finishers, such as the Cattle Mutilation, Crossface Chickenwing, or millions of other submissions that Danielson could unleash at a moment's notice. Most of all, I love Danielson focusing on the back, which he also did the night before against Chris Sabin, because it says "Cool Roderick, I can add that gameplan to my loaded arsenal too." Strong was absolutely brutal to Danielson on this night, even more than he was to the chickenshit CM Punk at Escape From New York. This not only got under the skin of Danielson, but left that same Pacific Northwest pasty white signature skin color of Danielson's bleeding on the chest in the early stages, some of that due to residual damage from the week before. That was an absolutely amazing visual to put over how devastating Strong's chops are and what Danielson was willing to go through to hold on to the top prize in the company. I also recall later in the match Danielson's forehead bleeding when he was thrown into a guardrail. After the earlier two powders Danielson took, Strong got fed up and chased him to the outside, landing more vicious strikes, including his trademark chops. Danielson used the third powder he took to absorb those strikes and have Strong chase him around the ring, getting a cheapshot in when Strong followed him into the ring. In a later powder segment, the action got all the way to the steel entrance ramp, which Strong scoop-slammed Danielson on. That particular spot and two head-drops later on in the match (belly to back drop on Danielson, release Dragon Suplex on Strong) were the only moments in this epic that had me cringing out of concern for their well-beings. And that's not too bad considering what how many matches of this caliber have to stoop to in order to be memorable. Over 30 minutes passed until Strong finally got a backbreaker on Danielson, and they had the crowd in the palms of their hands by that point. Strong had gotten some submissions on Danielson's back, but this was the first blow he got to deliver. This nearfall got an absolutely red-hot reaction, the crowd expecting a title change less than two months after Danielson had reached the pinnacle of his then-young career. Here are a number of out-of-order impressive moments in this masterpiece before I get to the finish: Danielson getting pissed that his chops weren't getting the same vocal support as Strong, telling the crowd to fuck off before delivering one on the challenger. Strong chopping the hell out of Danielson in the corner, the champ spitting in his face, delivering another devastating chop, getting spat in the face again, and delivering yet another devastating chop. Danielson fell to that one and breathed heavily to absorb the pain, but used his arrogant pride and anger to force himself not to succumb to it. This is my pick for the greatest facial expression Danielson has ever done in a wrestling match. Strong reversing a left arm twist into his own. Danielson attempts to show off his state-of-the-art wrestling to escape it, likely to deliver a dropkick to break the hold as he usually does. But Strong managed to turn that into a La Magistral Cradle nearfall. Just splendid wrestling. Danielson also drilled his forearms into Strong when he had the challenger mounted, selling that psychotic irritation he had towards this particular opponent. Now for the finishing stretch, more than 45 minutes have passed. Strong is almost running on empty, not accustomed to matches of this length unlike Danielson. Sure, he won Survival of the Fittest several weeks earlier, but that was a six-man elimination match that involved tags. Strong gave it a go, digging down deep in his third shot at the title (at least in an ROH ring). They had an absolutely breathtaking sequence that I won't spoil, other than to say that it led to Danielson topping the Omoplata shoulder lock he won with in their first classic, this time finishing Strong off with elbows to the head, putting the champion over as a truly dangerous motherfucker, worthy of being ROH Champion. I remember on the original ROH message board, there was a vote by its members to determine the company's top ten matches after 100 shows, and then again after 200 shows. This match got on the list both times, and deservedly so. Nine years later, this is the best match I've seen in person, better than the KENTA vs. Davey Richards rematch, "End of an Era" Hell in a Cell match, John Cena and Umaga's Last Man Standing match, Danielson vs. Triple H, or either of the Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels WrestleMania classics. This is not only a top ten match in ROH's history, but is also the best match of Roderick Strong's career. I could see the argument for this being the best match of Bryan Danielson's career as well. I won't say it's the best ROH match ever, as there was one tiny moment in which both men may not have been on the same page, but that could be covered up with a good kayfabed explanation. Dave Prazak & Lenny Leonard also did a phenomenal job calling this match, putting over Danielson's gimmick and getting the story across to the viewer. This match does get a lot of love, but I'll be honest, it deserves more. I'm shocked Gabe Sapolsky didn't convince Dave Meltzer to review this along with This Means War. I'm sure with the proper coverage, this match and event would be remembered on par with Joe vs. Punk II and Joe vs. Kobashi. This was a mixture of numerous classic matchups such as Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat, Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit, and Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi. If there is one last level of praise that gives this match the love it deserves, and convinces those on the fence to rewatch this, here you go: This match feels like 30 minutes instead of 47 minutes. Rating: ***** And we still got one more for the evening, folks. Winner Gets Steel Cage Warfare Advantage Prince Nana, Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. AJ Styles, Austin Aries, Jack Evans, & Matt Sydal An incredibly fun main event, one that got crazy at times as expected. The match started with the babyfaces cutting the ring in half and dominating Rave. The babyfaces then said Rave was welcome to tag in Nana, who took a powder of course. Styles was perfectly cast in this match, using his ferocity and firepower to offset the size and strength of Abyss at times, including giving the beast a release German Suplex through a table that had been brought in the ring! When the heels got the advantage, they cut the ring in half on Evans. Shelley was the standout, stretching Evans in front of the Chicago crowd for a third time in 2005. After enough damage was done on Evans, Nana gleefully got tagged in, rubbing it in the fans and opposing team's faces, far more obnoxious than Danielson had been earlier in the night. I noticed that something was edited out, and I don't recall from being there live what it was for. Evans was on the outside, with Rave struggling to get up in the ring, then a second later, Evans is in the ring being worked on by Shelley while Rave is on the apron with rest of the Embassy. Strange and really threw me off with me keeping tabs on who was legal. Speaking of being legal, I don't hold it against referee Todd Sinclair when he forgot who was legal. The first time when it happened early in the match, the match got out of control, as it should have at this point in the feud. It happened to set up for the finishing stretch too when two on each team were tagged in, so if I'm Sinclair I'd have said "fuck it" too and just counted any nearfall that came up. Nana got a fraction of comeuppance, the perfect amount, but when Aries & Sydal were about to take him out, Sydal's girlfriend Daizee Haze betrayed them, delivering low-blows and also taking out Jade Chung. Shelley delivered a finisher, while Rave simultaneously delivered his brand new, devastating, truly state-of-the-art finisher: THE PEDIGREE~! Rating: ***3/4 Colt Cabana cuts a promo after the show, no longer in a comedic mood in the war against Homicide. Pretty compelling actually. The show closes with the announcement that off-camera, the Embassy attacked Strong & Chung in the parking lot. While I understand the mindset that the weekend had to close with the Embassy having the last laugh, I'd have booked the eight man tag for Detroit with the Haze turn. And here's my reason for it: Imagine how much more of a dickhead Danielson could've been to Strong, saying "you need to get over that shit Roderick, you're in the ring with me, nobody gives a fuck about your girlfriend you bitch." Danielson vs. Strong II should've closed out the weekend. This is still the best wrestling event I've ever attended, and gets my highest recommendation due to each key match delivering or over-delivering. In terms of overall show value, I'd compare it to Joe vs. Punk II: three very good to incredible matches, all three of them a different flavor, one of them being a ***** masterpiece. There's even the pointless legends segment (Jim Cornette & Bill Watts compared to Mick Foley & Ricky Steamboat.) Up next - A Night of Tribute Matches will include: AJ Styles vs. Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels Bryan Danielson vs. Azrieal Homicide vs. Colt Cabana Jay Lethal & Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong ROH Title Match

Showdown in Motown - November 4, 2005 (Second photo is the original stock photo, but with the front enlarged to the best it could be since the actual stock photo isn’t in my possession and was unable to be located online.) Sal Rinauro & Chad Collyer vs. Roderick Strong & Jack Evans Tedious tag match, and I put the blame on Rinauro because he has zero presence and charisma. I almost fell asleep to this and now that I reflect back on how hollow this match was, I wish I had. Rating: less than *** Relaxed Rules Match Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries Despite this being in Detroit, Aries gets the greater support from the crowd. Pretty good stuff with Shelley working on the left arm of Aries, who did a great job of selling. This wasn't designed to touch the greatness they had had six months earlier, but with this being a B-show, I understand why. Lame finish, also for understandable reasons. Rating: ***1/4 Post-match, the Embassy gangs up on Aries, causing AJ Styles & Matt Sydal to come out for the next match. Abyss & Jimmy Rave vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal Fun tag match, with Rave playing the obvious chickenshit and relying on Abyss to do the dirty work. Of course, the work that Abyss does on Sydal is spectacular, and he shows his natural chemistry with Styles as displayed in TNA and other indies. I appreciated no pinfall or submission attempts on those who weren't legal as well. Rating: ***1/2 ROH Title Match Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Sabin Sabin actually does get the hometown support, largely because Danielson was a great prick in this one. This was his debut of the buzzcut while ROH champion, a PERFECT look for him. He truly carried himself like a star in this one, antagonizing the crowd, using the ropes for leverage, and working on Sabin's back to send a message to Strong. Sabin worked on Danielson's neck to prepare for the Cradle Shock, but Danielson was the man at this point, and Sabin had to tap out to the Liontamer. Rating: ***1/2 I attended the next day's event in Chicago, the first ROH show I ever saw live, an experience I'll never forget. But I feel a bit spoiled and guilty, because assuming the key matches hold up, I witnessed three standout matches while Detroit got ***1/2 at best. There's having a B-show, but one of the two killer matches from Chicago could've been booked for Detroit to REALLY hook this market. Luckily, Detroit's next ROH event would be a major one, a portion of a particular milestone for this federation. Up next - Vendetta Matches will include: Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong AJ Styles, Austin Aries, Jack Evans, & Matt Sydal vs. Prince Nana, Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley

This Means War - October 29, 2005 Terrible promo to kick off the DVD, with Jade Chung thanking Roderick Strong for saving her, and Strong being comical with his followup. Alex Shelley vs. Claudio Castagnoli Bold prediction: ROH will never have an opening match with this much combined charisma again. A couple have come close, but not to this level. Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness comes out prior to the match starting, putting Shelley over as a great pure wrestler much to Prince Nana's delight. He then says Castagnoli's victory over him in Cleveland was a fluke, and needs to have an impressive non-losing performance tonight in order to truly earn a Pure Title shot. This is one of the best openers in ROH history. Castagnoli was still a bit green, but he held his own against one of ROH's top names. The exchanges and counters were really something to see. I can't really begin to explain them. In terms of storytelling, my favorite moment by far was Shelley spitting in Castagnoli's face, lighting a fire under the Swiss native, dishing out European uppercuts. Shelley just stood there and absorbed them, daring him to throw more. Shelley then countered one of the uppercuts with a backslide. Shelley also gained a major advantage deep into the match with a tornado DDT to the outside. The match went to its 20 minute time limit, which I liked seeing. Neither man needed to be doing the job at this point, but it was time for Castagnoli to be put in a position to have a standout match and he delivered. Afterwards, McGuinness says no Pure Title shot was earned, but Castagnoli tells him that he said he would get one if he did not lose, not that he had to win to earn it. Jade Chung comes out to draw the Embassy to the back, leaving McGuinness to cheap-shot Castagnoli. Before the match, McGuinness said that he was the best there is, the best there was, and "you know the rest." After laying out Castagnoli, the segment ends him with saying "and the best pure wrestler there ever will be." Awesome. Rating: ***1/2 AJ Styles vs. Austin Aries First time ever matchup here, and it delivered. While it lacked the pace to be considered great, it was as close to great as matches can get. After going back and forth in the early segments with beautiful mat wrestling and acrobats to establish this as an even matchup, Styles got the advantage when he used his own back to give Aries a backbreaker. Aries wasn't the same throughout the rest of the match. Aries pulled out his usual tenacious persona in this one, digging down deep to scratch and claw his way to victory. But the damage to his back was too much, as multiple attempts at a 450 splash were thwarted, the second time with a super Styles Clash to bring the match to its conclusion. Very, very good wrestling. Rating: ***3/4 At intermission, Jay Lethal says he's happy to help out Samoa Joe (who isn't booked for an ROH event for the first time in ages) and take on Christopher Daniels tonight. Joe was there for Lethal against the Rottweilers, so this makes sense. Lethal ultimately wants them to go after tag gold though. I skip to Colt Cabana finishing off B-Boy in their singles match. Grim Reefer tries to ambush Cabana but gets treated like the jabroni that he is. The lights go out and Homicide comes out. Homicide and Cabana then have a turning point in this feud; it's no longer comedy, mind games, or trash-talking. They have a brutal brawl for several minutes throughout ringside, going all the way to the bleachers. It comes back to the ring and Homicide drops Cabana with an Ace Crusher from the apron through a table, taking both men out in the process. Horrendous for their long-term health, tremendous moment for their feud. Jay Lethal vs. Curry Man Allison Danger comes to ringside and says that Daniels is unavailable due to the birth of his newborn son, but a suitable replacement is found with Curry Man. The crowd goes apeshit for him. The wrestling throughout this match was really good. But that's not what really matters: midway through the match, the crowd begged for comedy dancing, and both men delivered with great homages to past wrestlers, choreographed sequences, and also both Danger and referee Mike Keaner raising the roof (the latter getting probably the loudest pop of the entire match.) For anyone currently in ROH that reads these: BOOK DELIRIOUS VS. CURRY MAN WHILE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE. Rating: ***1/2 Jimmy Rave cuts a promo from Ghana, the best of his career. He articulated his points very well and his voice was perfect to go with his false narratives regarding CM Punk and AJ Styles. He warns Generation Next about Steel Cage Warfare, and also takes the time to mention he is still planning to debut his new devastating finisher in ROH soon, when the time is right. ROH Title Match Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong The match starts out with them copying Joe and Kenta Kobashi's tag match, teasing a lack of a clean break on one another. After a few collar-and-elbow tie-ups though, Danielson gives Strong some chops in the corner anyway. Of course, he does his best to avoid a receipt from Strong because he knows how dangerous it is. It also shows how seriously Danielson is taking this challenger, fully aware this would be his greatest challenger up to this point. After several minutes, Strong finally landed a chop on Danielson. The champion responded by taking a powder to the floor, obviously irritated while absorbing the pain. He retaliates with repetitive chops, and gets even angrier when Strong lands another one on him. I must mention that Danielson during these first 10 minutes or so also did great work on Strong's left arm to minimize any potential backbreakers. The pain of Strong's second-to-none chops caused Danielson not only to get irritated with Strong, but with the fans in attendance as well, talking shit to them and at one point simply telling them to fuck off. His heel turn in this match was amazing to see, and perfectly timed also with the support Strong had gotten in the previous several months. About 20 minutes into the match, Strong finally kept this from being a glorified squash and landed a backbreaker on Danielson. The champ did a PHENOMENAL job of giving himself adrenaline when necessary to ignore the pain but then immediately selling it afterwards. Certain things also happened in this match that only helped Strong's backbreaking cause, such as Danielson slowly tumbling from the turnbuckle and losing his grips on the ropes, falling back-first on the floor. Showing just how seriously he was taking Strong's devastating backbreaking offense, Danielson teased a surfboard, but just drilled Strong's knees on the mat and followed that up with a figure four leglock to take away Strong's base, thus taking away yet another body part to reduce Strong's ability to land anymore backbreakers. In the closing minutes, both men laid into each other, while also selling the work that was established throughout this classic, with Strong briefly knocking out the champ. Danielson dead-weighted Strong while down, causing Strong to scream "FUCK OFF BITCH!" In response, Danielson got a rush of anger, regaining consciousness and trading blows instantly. Strong mounted him for punches, but Danielson then abruptly ended the match by making Strong tap out to an Omoplata shoulder lock! Strong immediately left the ring and Danielson was right on him, spitting on him from the ring and wanting more. That was an insane and SAFE finish, that taught the audience a match can end at any moment, especially when Bryan Danielson is involved. It also paid off the work Danielson had done on Strong's left arm, since that was the limb Danielson targeted to finish the match. An instant classic and just what Danielson's title reign needed to raise eyebrows. Rating: ****1/2 The DVD closes with Cornette talking about the next weekend's double-shot. Chris Sabin is cashing in the TNA portion of Danielson's open contract to get an ROH Title shot on the Detroit show. Should be good. Now the great shit: Regardless of who is victorious in Danielson vs. Sabin, Chicago is getting DANIELSON VS. STRONG II the next day. OH FUCK YES~! Highest recommendation possible for this show. Up next - Showdown in Motown Matches will include: Sal Rinauro & Chad Collyer vs. Roderick Strong & Jack Evans Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries Abyss & Jimmy Rave vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Sabin

Buffalo Stampede - October 15, 2005 Pure Title Match Nigel McGuinness vs. Samoa Joe As referee Todd Sinclair breaks down the rules in the prematch, the fans heckle him. McGuinness immediately improvises and grabs the mic, insisting on the fans giving the referee and rules some respect, and that he understood that they were excited for his next Pure Title defense. He then makes some amusing remarks about Buffalo and the game of gridiron football, then moves on to comparing Joe to a vicious bear and also says he's the future of the business. He then reveals it was all mockery when he says that Dreamworks has cast Joe for the lead role in Shrek 3. Joe immediately goes to work on McGuinness, and loses a rope break in the process when it gets on the mat. Joe would then lose another rope break seconds later, and then lose his last one when McGuinness planted Joe's hand on the ropes. All of Joe's rope breaks were lost within the first minute of the bell ringing. Tremendous trolling by McGuinness. Joe would spend the majority of the match dominating McGuinness, forcing the champion to eventually lose all of his rope breaks too. This paid off when they got to a corner for the finish. McGuinness put Joe in position for the Tower of London, and Joe even obliged, putting his arm over McGuinness, only to reveal he was just setting up for a chokehold. McGuinness then used his leverage to pin Joe down in a visual similar to what Bret Hart did to Roddy Piper at WrestleMania VIII and Steve Austin at Survivor Series 1996, but was able to use the ropes for extra leverage due to the rules of the match. Rating: *** Hardcore Match Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans This match has a video highlight package chronicling the feud, weird with this not being the finale. The video is nothing special until it becomes a highlight reel of the action that the Embassy and Generation Next have inflicted on one another. That portion was tremendous. This was a tasty appetizer not just for the remainder of this feud, but would also turn out to be a preview of another hardcore trios match to come for ROH many months later. This lacked the emotion to be truly great and memorable, but I'm fine with that since this wasn't the finale. As I said about the Redemption match, this is required viewing for anyone that enjoys the matches between the Shield and the Wyatt Family. Prince Nana is present, leading me to realize I was wrong about him being gone for the weekend, and he wasn't at ringside for Rave & Shelley's match the night before because he was busy with the aftermath of the singles match between Abyss and Evans beforehand. Jade Chung is also present for this match. Both teams beat the shit out of each other, including getting a ladder involved. Aries & Strong use it to get an advantage on Abyss and use it as a platform for corner strikes, but Aries slips on one of the rungs. That looked painful. Rave showed his greatness in being a chickenshit heel, as did Nana of course, using his presence near the end of the match to help Shelley regain the advantage on Strong. Abyss and Jack Evans were taken out when GeNext ganged up on the beast, laying him on a table, and Evans crashing through by doing a 630 senton splash off of a cage platform already engineered as part of the building. Per good booking and storytelling, Nana's distraction led the Embassy to win this chapter in the feud. As I said earlier, a fine appetizer, as the time wasn't right to deliver the full-course meal. Rating: ***1/2 Low Ki vs. Colt Cabana First time ever singles match here, interesting clash of personalities and styles. Cabana starts the match by mocking Ki, causing the Rottweiler to break character and chuckle. Cabana spent much of the match frustrating Ki, getting into his head with his comedic antics and European style. Ki was still able to get his work in, including a variety of vicious stomps. Cabana looked to pull of the upset, but as a receipt for what happened in NYC two weeks earlier, Homicide comes out and talks shit to Cabana, allowing Ki to finish off the former Tag Team Champ. I really like that after Homicide was there for Ki when feuding with Jay Lethal, Ki reciprocates being there for Homicide for this feud with Cabana. Rating: less than *** ROH Title Match Bryan Danielson vs. Steve Corino Good match, with Corino using his sandbagging weight advantage, but simply just not being as technically skilled as Danielson. Danielson constantly found advantages, from getting three overhead suplex nearfalls while in a knuckle-lock, to getting a new chant over ("You're gonna get your fucking head kicked!") to get in Corino's head. Danielson wins his third straight ROH Title match with the crossface chickenwing. Rating: ***1/2 Ignoring that the roster at this time of course had far more charisma across the board, this event reminded me of ROH in its current era. Some good and fun wrestling, each good match being of a different variety, but nothing blowaway. And sometimes it's okay for an obvious B-show like this one not to be a show of the year contender. Up next - This Means War Matches will include: Alex Shelley vs. Claudio Castagnoli AJ Styles vs. Austin Aries Jay Lethal vs. Curry Man Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong

Enter the Dragon - October 14, 2005 Jimmy Yang vs. Roderick Strong This was a match that would fit right in with the current TV product for ROH: good, crisp wrestling, nothing wrong with any of the work itself. But if one is looking for a deep in-ring story, look elsewhere. Now that I mention the SBG TV era, I'm surprised Yang doesn't work for ROH right now, he'd seem like a natural fit. Of course the red-hot Strong wins to build up for his second ROH Title shot (in an ROH ring.) Rating: *** Jay Lethal & Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley Prince Nana is absent from ringside. Really fun tag match, with the Embassy first getting a very brief advantage on Joe, but then would get a much stronger and more logical advantage on Lethal. Early in the match, someone who I assume is a Buckeyes mark told Shelley to go back to Michigan. Lethal was later sarcastically heckled by I believe the same little shit, whoever that was. Also early in the match was a cute segment in which neither Rave nor Shelley could make Joe flinch when chopping him, and kept tagging each other until Rave conveniently had to get in the face of a fan in the front row, preventing his partner from tagging him back in. The Embassy did a great job of working on the back of Lethal's head and neck, specifically with clotheslines, skull-fucks, and full nelsons. Dave Prazak then shows that he's likely never done a mat wrestling match in his life when he questions the difficulty of getting out of a full nelson. (Important: Prazak mentions that Rave is working on a new, devastating finisher that he will utilize when the time is right after losing his legal rights to the Styles Clash.) After several minutes, Joe finally gets the hot tag, which the crowd was begging for and reacted accordingly with enthusiasm. He's a house of fire for a few minutes, but with Lethal out for the time being, the Embassy regained the advantage. I really like that because even though Samoa Joe was still the face of the company at this time with an incredible ROH resume, not even he could take on Rave & Shelley by himself and come out on top. They have a really good finishing sequence, not once ever having nearfalls counted on anyone that wasn't legal throughout the match too. In the end, Lethal, who was still fresh off of his feud-ending victory over Low Ki, took Rave out of the equation. This allowed Joe to finish Shelley off with the musclebuster. Really good. Rating: ***1/2 ROH Title Match Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries After a four month wait, Aries is finally cashing in his rematch clause as a former ROH Champion. I love him being the first defense for Danielson, as he has two straight victories over the champ and left him so devastated that he left for months to work on his game in Europe. This match had some sloppy points. It also had a mediocre crowd. And for reasons that are totally understandable, it was definitely a bit one-sided in showcasing Danielson. That was absolutely necessary to establish Danielson as a worthy champion and transition him into becoming the face of the company. At this point I wanna mention just what an excellent commentator Lenny Leonard was during his time in ROH (not just for this match.) He really did such an outstanding job explaining the in-ring story, especially body part work. Gabe Sapolsky stepped in to provide commentary for this match too. In an eerie foreshadowing of Danielson's career, Sapolsky mentions that Danielson isn't "marketable" or "sexy," that he's all about business in the ring. The majority of the match was on the mat, with Danielson owning Aries early and displaying how much he improved his game while away from ROH. He specifically was able to target the left arm and shoulder of Aries. While this match wasn't super-hot, Aries did a great job to keep this segment from being a complete squash, finding brief submission counters and using forearms to force Danielson to release. I believe this was also Danielson's debut of his "I have till 5!" gimmick. I don't recall him doing this in his title win against James Gibson. Back to the actual work of the match, Aries was tremendous when it was his turn to briefly get the heat as the match was coming to the third act. Sure, he used his left arm to inflict damage, but he sold that shit. There are so many guys on the current indy scene that could learn from this match, and this is actually one of the worst in the Danielson vs. Aries series! Danielson also once again showed that he still had Aries scouted, first early in the match with the head-scissors, negating an explosive dropkick from Aries by using his arms and elbows for leverage and bouncing Aries in what I would describe as seated piledrivers. But Aries is so good he found a way to land a dropkick on Danielson anyway, albeit for a very, very, very brief advantage. Later, when Aries attempted the brainbuster with his damaged left arm, Danielson just kept kneeing him in the head to prevent it. But Aries, the former ROH Champion himself, gutted it out, absorbing the pain of the knees and successfully landing a brainbuster. Once it got to the finish, Danielson showed that he was simply better now, positioning Aries to be the victim of either a Tiger Suplex or Cattle Mutilation, and then using that leverage to lock in a Crossface Chickenwing for the submission victory, the same move that won him the title. This was definitely a nice kickoff to the Danielson era, even with all of the flaws in this match. These two men were like Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage in the 1980s: they had such natural chemistry that they could sleepwalk their way through a *** match. Rating: ***3/4 Up next - Buffalo Stampede Matches will include: Nigel McGuinness vs. Samoa Joe Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans Low Ki vs. Colt Cabana Bryan Danielson vs. Steve Corino

Unforgettable - October 2, 2005 The DVD starts with a backstage promo from Jimmy Rave & Prince Nana, who are furious over Jade Chung's decision to use the freedoms she's entitled to. Really good short promo. After the first match, Jade Chung cuts a hilariously awful backstage promo. This should be seen to be believed. Percy Pringle shows up and announces that he's the new authority figure for ROH. The segue was absolutely cringe-worthy, with Ricky Reyes beating up Pelle Primeau. Bobby Dempsey then tried to help his fellow student, and out of fear said for someone to "call an undertaker." Jim Cornette, in the exact same building, one year to the date after the memorable Midnight Express reunion segment, comes out minutes later and reveals he's the actual authority figure. With how chaotic and emotional the Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal feud and Summer of Punk was, it was time for someone to come in and bring the company back to its pure sports roots. Little did Cornette know the emotional chaos that was soon to come. James Gibson's Independent Farewell James Gibson vs. Roderick Strong This is simply the greatest non-retirement farewell match ever, even better than the sentimental double farewell matches hosted by ECW in 1995 and ROH in 2009. While Austin Aries vs. CM Punk was an advertised farewell, and thus had all the emotional elements of that dynamic, I don't count it since it wasn't the actual farewell for Punk. Strong of course did a tremendous job on Gibson's back, even better than in their previous singles matches both in ROH and FIP. He was ferocious in this match. But despite the roll he was on, and how badly he wanted a victory over his mentor with this being his last chance at that, let's not forget that his opponent on this night was James Gibson. Gibson also so badly wanted the bragging rights of going out on top in his final ROH match. And boy did he show how hungry he was for that. Deep into the match, Gibson allowed the younger, less experienced Strong to get over-zealous, baiting Strong into landing a rock-solid chop on the steel ring post. Fortunately, Gibson channeled Punk instead of Matt Hardy and went to work on that right hand. Strong would sell the arm tremendously as the match progressed as well, showing the pain of landing a chop and improvising with forearms. Earlier in the match, both men took a segment from their FIP match and had a phenomenal strike exchange segment on the floor that had the Philly crowd rocking. Once Strong had the advantage, he immediately threw Gibson again onto the ringside barricade, inflicting more damage on Gibson's back. However, as badly damaged as Gibson's back would get, he would show just why he was going back to the big leagues, finding ways to counter many of Strong's attempted submissions as only a pro as successful and experienced as him could pull off. After about 15 or so minutes of the match having its foundation established, they went into the near-falls. What really stood out to me is that the third act of the match wasn't a spotfest. They just logically hit their established finishers on each other and paid off the story they had established throughout the match, and the crowd was going insane! And when Gibson lifted Strong onto the turnbuckle to deliver the same Super Tiger Driver that won him the ROH Title, Strong sniffed it out (knowing he would have no way of kicking out of such a move), delivering a super gutbuster and finishing off the former ROH Champion with a final Liontamer, leaving Gibson no choice but to submit as the crowd was in a frenzy! This is nowhere near the best match I've ever seen, but it exemplifies everything that I love about pro wrestling. It had a tremendous story, a sentimental dynamic, a fantastic payoff, a phenomenally built pace, and elevated Strong for his upcoming ROH Title shot while giving Gibson arguably the best match of his entire career, a fitting finale to a relatively short but unquestionably invaluable chapter in ROH history. Post-match, Gibson gives a fantastic farewell speech, declaring Strong as the MVP and future of the company, solidifying all the work that Punk, Hardy, Alex Shelley, and Austin Aries had put into elevating the Survival of the Fittest winner. Strong, Gibson, and BJ Whitmer (a close friend of Gibson's) embrace after the match to a tremendous ovation. After getting to the back, Rave & Nana ambush Strong, leaving Gibson to beg for medical help. Rating: ****1/2 BRYAN DANIELSON RETURNS ON THE NEXT SHOW TO DEFEND THE ROH TITLE. Lacey fires Izzy & Deranged in a backstage segment, and reveals that she is now the agent for Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs, who mug Lacey's former top associates. Lacey promises to elevate their careers and maximize their star potential. Apparently this angle had to be shot because the match these two teams had was absolutely god-awful. What a night to put forth a bad match. Low Ki & Samoa Joe vs. Homicide & Kenta Kobashi Here's my lone nitpick of this instant classic: the crowd didn't pop that loudly when Kobashi finished Ki off with a lariat. Joe's history with the Rottweilers is being set aside as all three independent stars are aware that being in a tag match with Kobashi is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I did like the underlying tension still between Joe and Homicide before the match though, with Kobashi giving his partner a simple look to convince Homicide to half-heartedly follow the Code of Honor. This was simply an excellent tag team main event. Every single matchup in this was just awesome. Joe and Kobashi did a great job in following up their singles match, with both men exchanging teases of not giving each other clean breaks when the match begins. Of course, they would have the chop exchanges and Joe taking the stupid sleeper suplex too. Ki would get tagged in early, using his quickness to manipulate Kobashi into getting a submission locked in. Much later in the match, Joe would go back to work with submissions on that same left arm. Homicide & Kobashi did a great job of temporarily working on Joe as the weak link, and would go on to do the same thing to Ki. Kobashi even stepped in illegally and trolled Joe into also stepping in illegally to draw the ref's attention with a simple glare. Ki then suffered two brutal chops to the chest as his friend Homicide held him captive. Earlier in the match, Ki was also thrown outside the ring so that Kobashi could brutalize him with a DDT on the steel entrance ramp and throwing him into a barricade. He then stared at Joe, drawing the two men to tease an abrupt collision right there on the floor. Little things like this are what make these matches have a major league presentation despite being in a tiny rinky-dink armory. I must mention that the only time Ki and Homicide locked horns in an ROH ring, it was one spectacular fucking doozy. A shame their planned match a couple years earlier didn't end up happening. What also stood out is that in the last 10 minutes or so of incredible nonstop action, Kobashi's HOF influence showed because fall attempts were only counted for those who were legal. And not once did that ruin the dramatic pace of this match or kill the red-hot crowd. I also liked that moves weren't buried in this match. When something devastating was used as a near-fall, the reason it wouldn't finish is because the pinfall or submission would be broken up, which kept the match going (while still remaining hot of course) but also putting over the severity of the move being done if nobody made the save. There were also two or three tremendous cutoff segments when one guy would get an advantage on another. One of the best spots of the entire match was Kobashi getting his signature rapid fire chops on Joe, only for Ki to attempt a cutoff, getting thrown in front of Joe, and getting the rapid fire chops for his trouble. Yet another moment that only these men and very few others could pull off the right way. This was simply an incredible tag match, and along with Gibson's farewell, gave this show its appropriate "Unforgettable" name. Post-match, Kobashi is given the proper respect by the crowd and other participants. I cannot thank Kenta Kobashi enough for what he did with just two nights in ROH. I will be forever grateful that he came to America and put forth matches that were so fucking good they could have plausibly headlined an event at the Tokyo Dome or now-named AT&T Stadium. Kudos of course to Joe for sucking it up after the brutal singles match against Kobashi, Homicide for sucking it up with an injured left shoulder, and Ki for telling his jet lag to fuck off after working for 1PW on the other side of the Atlantic the day before. I am aware that I'm not the easiest wrestling fan to please, but I definitely appreciate and grasp the toll these four men put their bodies through for my entertainment. Rating: ****3/4 To me, this is ROH's version of WrestleMania X, and here's why: both shows had key storyline moments. They were performed in front of tremendously receptive crowds. And also feature cards with only two worthwhile matches, but boy oh boy are the two matches on both shows absolutely splendid, contain sentimental/historic significance, and are very different from one another. This show is an absolute must-have. I have a new feature to debut here too. Unfortunately, James Gibson's career had to end abruptly in 2009 due to a terrible back injury, and since then he has only done a couple of quick matches within the WWE umbrella. I am very happy for him though to be rewarded for his dedication and skill, as he now has a cushy WWE producer job, certainly playing a part in the incredible in-ring consistency that WWE has had in the past year. But it is because of that injury and the position Gibson has in WWE, that I can confidently say he will never wrestle in ROH again despite his sincere expression in his farewell match that he hoped he would have the opportunity to do so. A key word I use to describe Gibson's time in ROH is "invaluable," as a play off of the MVP narrative ROH pushed during his time in the company, and because one really can't put a price on what he brought to the company despite being there for only eight months. With that in mind, I debut a feature, one that can be expected to be done again for other great ROH talents that have moved on and are highly unlikely to ever wrestle for this federation again. James Gibson's 10 Greatest ROH Matches James Gibson vs. Brian Kendrick - Third Anniversary Celebration Pt. 2 ***3/4 James Gibson, Brian Kendrick, & Nigel McGuinness vs. Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson, & Vordell Walker - Trios Tournament ***3/4 James Gibson vs. Rocky Romero - Back to Basics ***1/2 James Gibson vs. Roderick Strong - Best of American Super Juniors Tournament ***1/2 James Gibson vs. Austin Aries - The Final Showdown **** James Gibson vs. Samoa Joe - New Frontiers ****1/4 James Gibson vs. CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels - Redemption ****1/2 James Gibson vs. Bryan Danielson - Glory By Honor IV ****1/2 (Gibson's greatest match in ROH) James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels - Survival of the Fittest 2005 ***3/4 James Gibson vs. Roderick Strong - Unforgettable ****1/2 Up next - Enter the Dragon Matches will include: Jimmy Yang vs. Roderick Strong Jay Lethal & Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries

Joe vs. Kobashi - October 1, 2005 The DVD starts with a Samoa Joe highlight package, reminding the viewer that he is still the gold standard in ROH despite not having a championship, a parallel of his opponent for this event. Too bad NOAH didn't release any Kenta Kobashi footage to really make this a special video package. Elimination Match Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Azrieal Not all that emotionally stimulating, and Azrieal just looked really out of place with these two. The action was crisp and good, but one could tell that once it got to Sydal vs. Daniels, they were holding back a little bit. Definitely interested in seeing their series now though. Rating: *** Jimmy Rave vs. Roderick Strong This match itself is nothing special, the equivalent to a present-day SmackDown! match. Strong of course got the victory, and what mattered was the post-match. Prince Nana is pissed and tells the dog-leashed Jade Chung to help Rave choke out Strong. After about 30 seconds, she collapses because the leash is too short, and begs the Embassy not to mug Strong. She finally has enough and removes both the dog-leash and coverup outfit, giving low blows to Nana & Rave, and then unites with Strong once he takes them out. The crowd popped HUGE for this, and then popped yet again when Strong laid down the gauntlet. NEXT TIME ROH COMES TO MANHATTAN, IT'S THE EMBASSY VS. GENERATION NEXT IN STEEL CAGE WARFARE. The First Half of James Gibson's Independent Farewell James Gibson vs. Jimmy Yang Good match, but not that stimulating and it was a bit difficult for me to pick up on the story. The wrestling was really solid and crisp though. This match definitely had some sentimental value to it, as not only was Gibson on his way out, but this was Yang's debut in the company. I'm sure these two rivals could've done something really special, but considering that this event is Joe vs. Kobashi, it's understandable why they didn't go out to steal the show. Post-match, Gibson gives a great speech saying how much he will miss being on the indies, and wants to face Roderick Strong in his farewell match the night night in Philly. OH FUCK YES~! Rating: ***1/4 Dream Match Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi I put a lot of effort into understanding this match. Before watching this for my rewatch, I watched numerous acclaimed matches of Kobashi's in NOAH, starting with his classic GHC Heavyweight Title victory over one of his greatest rivals, Mitsuharu Misawa. Other classic matches along the way included Yuji Nagata, Kensuke Sasaki, Yoshihiro Takayama, Jun Akiyama, and Akitoshi Saito. I hope that my readers feel I have done this match justice. After watching the match, I also went to the two most conflicting reviews, because while I will of course never 100% agree with anyone on everything, I respect the perspective these two have when reviewing and discussing wrestling. The first is 411Mania's Mike Campbell, but I will link to his direct site: http://splashmountain.150m.com/reviews/joevskobashi.htm The other is Dave Meltzer, the most esteemed journalist in the history of the business: http://pwchronicle.blogspot.com/2005/11/dave-meltzer-on-kenta-kobashisamoa-joe.html Now, on to the match itself. There are so many times in wrestling that the fans have to sit through a lot of bullshit. Terrible gimmicks, titles getting buried, go-nowhere storylines, storylines that never have a proper finish, rushed decision-making, and most of all a lot of horrendous professional wrestling. What is rare are those special moments, those truly special ones that stand the test of time, that will forever be etched in the memories of all witnesses. A moment that makes fans realize that all the shit they sit through as fans of this business, there is a payoff. Now for ROH, a moment like that had already happened in 2005 when Austin Aries and CM Punk provided a WrestleMania quality moment at Death Before Dishonor III. I'm sure any reasonable fan of ROH would've been satisfied with just that one in 2005, or may have felt they got that already with the other two ROH Title changes that year. But leave it to Kenta Kobashi to come in to New York City and give the ROH fanbase one more truly unforgettable moment in the same calendar year. Is this the greatest match ever? Of course not. I don't hold it in as high of esteem as Kobashi vs. Takayama or most of the ROH matches I've given ***** to. But Kobashi came into a rinky-dink little ballroom across the street from Madison Square Garden and gave the absolute best performance he could possibly give with his physical limitations. That's a testament to how badly he wanted his resume to have a classic match on American soil, and also the 15-20 years he had invested in the business telling stories and getting moves over the right way. Before these two men even lay a finger on each other, the NYC crowd is going apeshit, and who could blame them? They are getting to see the fucking man of ROH, Samoa Joe, collide in what would turn out to be a once-in-a-lifetime dream match against KENTA FUCKING KOBASHI. Just like Takayama and Takeshi Rikio did, Joe slaps Kobashi right in the face when their tie-up gets to the ropes. Of course the crowd goes apeshit for that, and the facial expressions of both men are tremendous. Joe has delivered a simple message: you are not here to collect an easy paycheck in my fucking territory. Not that Kobashi was here to do that, but he did get the reinforced message. The majority of the match had cream-of-the-crop heat from the crowd, with them popping for just about everything. From Kobashi taking Joe's adopted Kawada kicks, to the chop exchange that was influenced by Kobashi vs. Sasaki, to Kobashi countering Joe's second attempt at the Ole kicks, everything in this match clicked. Do I believe Joe was buried in any way in this match, despite him throwing almost everything out there while Kobashi gave a taste of his arsenal? Not in the least. Kobashi understood throughout his career the importance of not burying moves, and it paid off in fucking spades on this night. Meanwhie, Joe put forth a phenomenal effort to elevate himself. Let's be honest here: Joe was the underdog going into this one based on star power alone. Joe also got a taste of his own medicine. I've stated numerous times that many of Joe's opponents had never faced an opponent as physical and dominating as him. And on this night, Kobashi would be the most physical and dominating opponent Joe has faced to date. That is why despite unleashing everything but the Island Driver, Kobashi was able to put Joe away with a fraction of his offense. The blows Joe took both in strikes and head-drops (especially the last one being a very, very painful looking sleeper suplex) were too much for him. Post-match, Joe cuts a promo and looks to be in BAD shape. No wonder he phones it in for a low-rent federation like TNA now after seeing him here. Meanwhile, Kobashi is interviewed and looks like he could go another round right then and there. This is another defining match of the 2000s decade. It is not something I recommend watching cold. I had to put in a lot of viewing of both ROH and NOAH to truly appreciate, grasp, and understand the story and structure of this match, as well as why the crowd was so ecstatic to witness this true example of a dream match. I have a few more months to go, but from an objective standpoint, I must admit that so far this IS ROH's match of the year for 2005. Rating: ***** Up next - Unforgettable Matches will include: James Gibson vs. Roderick Strong Low Ki & Samoa Joe vs. Homicide & Kenta Kobashi

Survival of the Fittest 2005 - September 24, 2005 I only had the key matches saved on my hard drive, so I glanced through JD Dunn's review of this show for any brief important segments or announcements, and yep, I see this one. Survival of the Fittest Qualifier Samoa Joe vs. Milano Collection AT Nothing special or awful here, just a showcase for MCAT in his ROH debut. Joe was just a body that advanced to the main event, with no intention of stealing the show here. Probably a good idea considering his upcoming schedule, as Gabe Sapolsky announces to the DVD audience on commentary that Kenta fucking Kobashi is coming to ROH the next weekend, booked in singles against Joe, and teaming the next night with Homicide against Joe and Low Ki. OH FUCK YES~! Rating: less than *** Survival of the Fittest Qualifier James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels I was very happy to see this singles match happen before Gibson left for WWE, as I considered this to be a pretty even matchup. Daniels amuses me yet again when he bitches that Gibson didn't win in his ROH Title defense against Bryan Danielson the week before. Yeah Chris, Jamie was obligated to make sure you got a third title shot in three months. Daniels worked early on Gibson's back, but after a few minutes, it turned out that work wasn't quite so devastating enough, as it didn't play that heavily, if at all, in the finish. Gibson was good playing the subtle heel, likely a response to the attitude of Daniels as the match started. He went to work on the neck of Daniels, which will never get old considering that nasty bump Daniels took while in WCW. Speaking of WCW, as I mentioned in their PWG threeway match, I bet these two could've been stealing the show in fantastic PPV openers for WCW at the time of this show. This was overall very good stuff, and my pick for match of the night. I would've liked to have seen one more singles match between them to see if they had a MOTYC in them, but I appreciate Gabe Sapolsky getting this match to happen while Gibson was on borrowed time on the indies. And LOL at TNA's paranoia: They refused to allow Christopher Daniels to cleanly put over the WWE-contracted Matt Hardy and CM Punk just a couple months before this, while WWE realized this is just an indy match and allowed their boy Gibson to cleanly put over TNA's Daniels. Rating: ***3/4 Here's a brief segment I should've saved on my hard drive, as it sounds fucking awesome going into the big NYC/PHI weekend. Survival of the Fittest Elimination Match Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong vs. Colt Cabana vs. Christopher Daniels This just could not touch the timeless 2004 match, but let's be honest: no SOTF match ever will. Important little stories coming into this match were that Daniels was still sore in his neck from by far the most grueling qualifier match of the evening, and Aries had been struck in the back by Jimmy Rave with a steel chair after their qualifier match. While this lacked the pacing and drama to be the timeless classic of the previous year, this did have one very noticeable advantage: the referee enforced tag legalities. While it confused the participants at times, I actually see that is a good thing: how many times has the rulebook in other sports confused and frustrated the athletes, coaches, and fans? The integrity of the game is important. I really liked that Joe was the first elimination for a number of reasons. It was a nice way to follow up on him being the first elimination the year before, and perhaps this type of match being his weakness could make for a compelling narrative going forward. Also, it was best for business: Joe has two little main event matches coming up against that Kobashi fellow the next weekend. Might wanna preserve him for that. I also liked that Strong got the pin on him (a nice little extra notch for Strong's stock), but just like the Pepsi Plunge at Scramble Cage Melee got Homicide the victory the year before, it was the Best Moonsault Ever of Daniels that put down Joe here, thus putting Daniels over as a threat to the former ROH and Pure Champion. That's gotta give Daniels confidence too since he's never gotten a victory over Joe at all yet in ROH. Also early in the match was Joe & Lethal working together, but that obviously went out the window with Joe being eliminated early. On the other hand, Aries & Strong worked together fluidly, sending a nice message to any other factions and tag teams, specifically the Embassy. Not once did they ever become divided throughout this message, sticking to their plan to make sure that one of them would get the victory and guaranteed ROH Title shot. Now that I mention the ROH Title shot, one may wonder why Aries would wanna be in this. Yeah, the narrative was that Aries wanted a SOTF win on his resume, but here's the reality. Even with Aries, as a former ROH Champion, guaranteed to eventually get a title shot in the future, why wouldn't he want an additional one just in case? When Daniels was eliminated next, Aries & Strong just took advantage of Lethal and Cabana as the other two remaining participants. Lethal was great going up against GeNext, which played off of him winning his feud against Low Ki and the rest of the Rottweilers. After several minutes, it finally dawned on Lethal and Cabana though to work together, temporarily turning this into a tag match. I have to mention real quick that Lethal hit a gorgeous spinebuster during this match that surpassed Gibson's, although I believe the latter was coached on it the previous few years by Arn Anderson. When Lethal was eliminated, Cabana said "fuck this" and left GeNext in the ring to fight against each other, but they intelligently locked horns and brought themselves to his corner. Strong politely tagged Cabana in with a razor-sharp knife-edge chop and then throwing the former Tag Champion in the ring. After a brief effort, Cabana was of course eliminated. However, the back of Aries went out when he attempted a 450 splash. Hey, injuries can come back to bite at the strangest and least convenient of times. Before squaring off against each other, Aries cut a promo that I had no problem with, pointing out that friends and teammates are there for each other. Aries of course was in bad pain with his back, which obviously played into Strong's notorious backbreaking. This was some quality wrestling, and the crowd popped when Strong made Aries tap out to the Liontamer, but this didn't have the frenetic pacing and drama to be the classic they wanted this to be. In hindsight, the more compelling story would have been this: Have Rave vs. Strong as a qualifier. Enraged from losing, Rave attacks the dominant hand of Strong with a steel chair. In the main event, Aries does everything he can to protect his stablemate from being preyed upon, and GeNext still manages to make it to the end. Aries then does a promo, but says "I'm sorry, Roddy, I love you like a brother." Strong puts up such a valiant effort as Aries works on the hand, which of course increases the difficulty for Strong to hit his chops, gutbusters, and backbreakers. Strong still finds a way to win out the match as the crowd has been in an absolute frenzy for the closing stretch, chanting "Match of the year!" Back to reality. Post-match, the red-hot Strong, with major victories over Matt Hardy and Alex Shelley on his resume, challenges Bryan Danielson for the ROH Title on October 29 in Connecticut. OH FUCK YES~! Rating: ***1/2 I must now mention that I'll be taking a break from these ROH/TNA/FIP/PWG rewatch projects for now. There are a number of reasons. I'll be watching the Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar matches for the first time in my life, while rewatching all of the good shit from the past year or so of WWE to get ready for my trip to New Orleans. Considering that match quality in WWE has probably never been higher than since the Shield's debut (which is probably where I will start for my annual WWE rewatch), that's gonna take up the rest of March for me. On top of that, the next ROH shows for me have Kenta Kobashi in them as I mentioned before. I will be taking the time after NOLA to watch many of Kobashi's most important matches that took place before October 2005, because I am going to make sure that I fully understand the story told on the evening of October 1 in the New Yorker Hotel. I will make sure that I give the very best reviews possible for the iconic singles and tag matches involving Joe and Kobashi. I also have a farewell weekend for James Gibson to look forward to, but with him, I have seven months of work I've watched to be familiar with his work. Then throw in that in April will be in the NBA and NHL postseasons, and it's gonne be tough for me to get back on this. But I will do it. There's no way in Hell I will not get around to Danielson's title reign, the ROH and NOAH working relationship, and all the other good shit that's to come. Up next - Joe vs. Kobashi Matches will include: Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Azrieal Jimmy Rave vs. Roderick Strong James Gibson vs. Jimmy Yang Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi

Glory By Honor IV - September 17, 2005 Jay Lethal abruptly enters the ring to kick off the show, demanding his feud-ending match with Low Ki immediately. This brings out Julius Smokes, who somehow convinces Lethal (and ROH even goes along) that Ki become "officially reinstated" with the company in order for the match to take place. Hardcore Match Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal This was one hell of an entertaining opener, probably because this was indeed the end of an under-appreciated feud. LOL at everyone who found Lethal to be overpushed in 2005. Sure, he can struggle to channel his charisma and his promos aren't special, but he knew how to connect with the crowd in the ring and this angle got over in front of the demanding audiences that ROH attracted. For opening matches, does this compare to Brian Kendrick vs. Bryan Danielson? Of course not - that was a PPV main event disguised as an indy opener. But what I loved so much about this is just how brutal it got. With their Midwest matches the month before being thrown out, Ki and Lethal finally got the chance to just fight. And this got ugly at points, complete with Lethal bleeding from his forehead. Coming into this match, it was obvious that had the Rottweilers not been interfering throughout this feud, Lethal's Dragon Suplex was Low Ki's Kryptonite. And while Ki won this match, to bring this feud to its apparent close, Lethal still got put over, because he never got his finisher on the first ever ROH Champion. On the other hand, Ki got his double stomp, but Lethal managed to kick out. That nearfall had the crowd rocking. That is some quality storytelling, my friends. Ultimately, I can't say that this is a GREAT match. But it's so fucking close to it. Give this just another 2-3 minutes and I believe it really could've been. In an unusual move, the buildup video for this feud is shown AFTER the match due to Lethal abruptly crashing the show to have this as the opening match. And I'm sure that's the only reason too. Rating: ***3/4 Pure Title Match Nigel McGuinness vs. Roderick Strong Another solid match that won't get a special star rating, but accomplished its goal in getting the audience accustomed to McGuinness and his antics as the Pure Champion. Looks like we're getting the heel reign that was probably planned for John Walters when he joined the Embassy. After the thrilling Summer of Punk, I'll gladly take another heel tile reign that gets the crowd wanting to see the champion get his comeuppance. Rating: less than *** I get to the end of Homicide vs. Colt Cabana, which gets thrown out when the Rottweilers interfere. What matters is that Samoa Joe comes out to help Cabana, leaving Ki in the ring. Ki talks shit and this had to be the beginning of Ki vs. Joe II. I just wonder when it was planned to happen. Death Before Dishonor IV? Glory By Honor V? Lethal comes out and wants to fight Ki again. I really like the concept, that Lethal wasn't backing down and wouldn't allow the cocky bully to get the last laugh, especially since Lethal knew he could beat him. Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal This wasn't on par with the opening match, but it got the job done. Lethal gets the big win finally, truly bringing this feud to an end, with a successful Super Dragon Suplex (not to be confused with the PWG ace.) The crowd's reaction to the finish earns my star rating. Rating: *** McGuinness cuts a great interview with Gary Michael Capetta, playing dumb about his cheating antics. This should be one amazing Pure Title reign to watch unfold. It's a shame this guy didn't make it to WWE. I catch the end of BJ Whitmer vs. Samoa Joe vs. Ricky Reyes vs. Adam Pearce, and as I'm FF to the post-match I notice Lacey is at ringside taking notes to possibly make personnel changes in the Lacey's Angels stable. I'm intrigued. As for the post-match, Joe proclaims he wants to be ROH's first triple crown/grand slam champion after pinning Tag Champion Whitmer. I must note: I know that Joe was recovering just six days removed from TNA's Unbreakable PPV, so he definitely wasn't gonna steal the show on this night, but whose bright idea was it to put a damaged Joe in a 20+ minute match involving Whitmer, Reyes, and Pearce? ROH Title Match James Gibson vs. Bryan Danielson Danielson returns to ROH not only with a new theme, that being Europe's iconic "The Final Countdown," but also with a much improved wardrobe that is reminiscent of Bob Backlund. Very, very nice and professional. This was some fucking quality professional wrestling. It was not a spotfest. It was technical wrestling at its finest. So much of this match, probably the first 12-15 minutes, were mostly on the mat, just both guys trying to get leverage, trading holds, struggling to find a weak spot. Danielson's time in Europe while away from ROH was really paying off here, as the much more experienced and successful Gibson couldn't find something to work on. Gibson did get his moments. He did some work on Danielson's back, but never got enough done on it to make any kind of impressionable damage, which had to be disappointing for him after defending the title against Roderick Strong earlier in the month for FIP, and that he also liked to use the Texas Cloverleaf. Danielson was just amazing in this match, finally getting momentum about 20-25 minutes in when he worked on Gibson's left arm and shoulder. Gibson did a phenomenal job of selling the work Danielson did on him, constantly in pain going forward in the match. This was so critical going to the finishing stretch. Gibson, oh man he fought so valiantly when Danielson kept locking him in submission and pinfall attempts, and his counters were just as impressive as Danielson's. But on this day, Danielson was to no longer be denied. After working on Gibson's left arm and shoulder, Gibson failing to escape the hammerlock, Danielson locked in the Crossface Chickenwing, leaving Gibson no choice but to tap out, much to the crowd's ecstatic approval. Post-match, Danielson is classy as expected, taking time to acknowledge the hard work Gibson put into the ROH Title, and said he will be proud to defend the title going forward, that he had no plans at the time of going to WWE or TNA. This is not the match of the year for 2005, not even for ROH. It was a purist's dream, a true throwback to the days of Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, etc. So in that sense, this lacked the immediate electricity of CM Punk's key farewell tour matches. But in the last several minutes, the Long Island crowd was way into this. This match told a great story and was paced incredibly well. I'd much rather see a match build its way to a frenzy, than to blow its load so fucking early. To me, this is above Punk vs. Alex Shelley, Kendrick vs. Danielson, Punk vs. Jimmy Rave, and Joe vs. Gibson for 2005 so far in this rewatch. But ultimately, if you put a gun to my head, I'd have to lean towards those key Summer of Punk matches (Death Before Dishonor III, Escape From New York, and Redemption) over this one. On a different day though, I might choose this work of art instead. This was an undeniably tremendous MOTYC, and arguably the best match of Gibson's career. Rating: ****1/2 Hardcore Match - Hit the Clash to Win Defeated participant can no longer use the Clash in ROH AJ Styles vs. Jimmy Rave Of note is that Mick Foley, in his final ROH appearance, accompanied Styles to offset Prince Nana. This was an entertaining popcorn match, but it just never stood a chance to be anything memorable. It could not follow Gibson vs. Danielson, but Styles, just like Joe, was six days removed from that killer Unbreakable spotfest. To nobody's surprise, Styles got the win here, although the finish was definitely highlight reel material: he executed the Styles Clash on Rave off the top rope through a table, having the crowd going apeshit. Post-match, Foley gives a nice farewell speech. I'd have closed the show with Gibson vs. Danielson, because nothing was gonna follow that, but I understand the sentiment here. Sure, Foley had that awful philosophy feud with Steamboat, but he did a lot for ROH, playing a hand in getting Punk signed with WWE and going to bat for Joe, Homicide, and Austin Aries too. He had that amazing brawl with Joe which had the crowd rocking, and had an important supporting part in the Summer of Punk. He also orchestrated ROH branching out to Long Island. He deserved the sendoff. Rating: less than *** Cabana cuts a comedy promo on Homicide, not taking the issue seriously at all here. I'm sure that'll last long. Lacey shows the art of saying absolutely nothing in an interview about her scouting of matches earlier in the night. A touching, must-see video closes the DVD, chronicling Bryan Danielson's journey to becoming ROH Champion. Up next - Survival of the Fittest 2005 Matches will include: Samoa Joe vs. Milano Collection AT James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels The 2005 Survival of the Fittest Elimination Match

Dragon Gate Invasion - August 27, 2005 Good Times, Great Memories Guest: Homicide The DVD kicks off with this segment, which is the peak of the entire event. Sucks for those who attended the live event and didn't get to see this backstage segment. This segment, although brief, is what ultimately keeps this from being the worst ROH event of 2005 for me. It is easily the most important GTGM segment ever. It was Homicide and Colt Cabana being rewarded for their hard work and getting over in ROH. With Cabana just finishing his feud with Nigel McGuinness, and Homicide a few months past wrapping up his feud with Bryan Danielson, this was an excellent new chapter for both men. Homicide was very sarcastic in playing along with Cabana's antics, such as being in Chicago and that they would take a jet straight to Buffalo. Homicide becomes annoyed when Cabana compares being grounded for not doing dishes in his middle-class upbringing to Homicide's Bed-Stuy background. Ultimately, Cabana crosses Homicide's personal boundaries when he makes an innocent joke and says "my nizzle" to the Notorious 187. Excellent clash of cultures here. Nigel McGuinness cuts a promo that it's time to start winning, and that's that. Sounds like a desperate man. Pure Title Match Samoa Joe vs. Nigel McGuinness This was the Nigel McGuinness Show, and while it didn't make for a remarkable match, it was the right thing to do for business. With two failed Pure Title shots, failing to win the Cabana feud, and close to a year away from his lone major singles victory over Homicide, it was time for McGuinness to get results. McGuinness, learning from his feud with Cabana, used borderline dirty tactics when getting in position to discreetly punch Joe, attempting to troll the ROH Icon. That works when Joe blatantly retaliates with a closed fist, costing him his rope break warning. Later, McGuinness sacrifices a rope break when he uses a chair on the left shoulder of Joe to stop a tope suicida. (That brought back memories of Triple H using a chair shot DQ in the middle of his 60 Minute Iron Man Match against the Rock at Judgment Day 2000, which Brock Lesnar also did in the same type of match against Kurt Angle in 2003.) McGuinness of course worked on that shoulder throughout the rest of the match. Now Joe was game any time for a fight; but not in this kind of environment, which required manipulation. And THAT is how McGuinness finally secured the Pure Title, much to the crowd's disapproval. Rating: less than *** Jimmy Rave & Brian Kendrick vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong This match had its moments, but overall was very hollow in front of a dead Buffalo crowd. With Prince Nana not present, Alex Shelley became the designated abuser of Jade Chung, who was forced to use her dog leash to drag Rave & Kendrick on a wooden platform to the ring. This was a disappointing way for Kendrick to wrap up his second ROH tenure, and when Aries talks about this war escalating afterwards, it is pathetic to hear how little reaction that gets. Rating: less than *** CIMA vs. AJ Styles Now this is a dream match. Too bad it didn't live up to such dreams. Again, like the tag match, this had its moments of WOW. The problem is that no enriching story ever developed to go with all of the nice-looking moves these two did. I've seen CIMA have much better singles matches than this, but at least this woke the crowd up. Perhaps these two needed a series to really get their chemistry developed. Rating: less than *** Joe cuts a boring, unremarkable promo. ROH Title Match James Gibson vs. Colt Cabana This is another match on the show that had its moments, but was empty in the end. Don't get me wrong - I believe these two had something really good in them, but it wasn't as a 25-30 minute serious business ROH main event. On the undercard, the funny Cabana against the hillbilly heel Jamie Noble w/ Nidia? Now that sounds far more entertaining. In hindsight, I would've booked Gibson vs. McGuinness here, as I believe they would've had significantly better chemistry (and if McGuinness was cheating that could've possibly gotten the crowd more behind Gibson), with Joe successfully defending the Pure Title against Cabana on the undercard. Then have McGuinness win the Pure Title from Joe at Glory By Honor IV to make that show have just a bit extra historical impact, to give it that Cena/Batista WrestleMania 21 feel. Rating: less than *** The DVD ends with Homicide ambushing Cabana while signing autographs outside the venue. It's good to see Homicide in something substantial again instead of a tedious Gibson semi-feud and playing second fiddle in the Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal program. No matches on here even crack *** for me. But I'll take this sometimes-dead crowd with a fantastic kickoff to a blood feud and important title change over the mess that was Night of the Grudges II. Gibson vs. Cabana wasn't nearly as tedious as Joe vs. Daniels. But this was definitely the worst ROH event of 2005 in terms of match quality across the board though, and it really sucks for anyone who attended this and couldn't see the GTGM segment. Second worst ROH event of 2005 I believe is fair, with Trios Tournament at #3. Also of note: this was the 8th show in 8 weeks for ROH, and it was VERY glaring that the schedule wasn't just taking a toll on the roster, but on Gabe Sapolsky as well. In some ways, it's similar to WCW being on such fire in 1997, but those in charge being too cocky and arrogant to forecast the potential long-term damage. Up next - Glory By Honor IV Matches will include: Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal Nigel McGuinness vs. Roderick Strong James Gibson vs. Bryan Danielson AJ Styles vs. Jimmy Rave

Night of the Grudges II - August 20, 2005 Nigel McGuinness cuts a VERY brief promo, saying that he's been up for 36 hours and sniffing glue to get ready to end the feud with Colt Cabana. "Unique" would probably be the best term for that promo. Winner Gets a Title Shot of His Choice - Hardcore Match Colt Cabana vs. Nigel McGuinness Based off of McGuinness choosing a European Rules match at Escape From New York, Cabana got to choose the stipulation in this feud-ender. Cabana chooses a "Soccer Riot" match, in which he spends the first minute or so just making up rules on the fly, but it basically turned into a hardcore match. I have to note that McGuinness took some incredibly stupid chairshots to the head early in the match. Was he REALLY that desperate to get booked higher and/or get this mid-card feud over, a feud that had been based off of mat wrestling and textbook mid-level cheating? This wasn't exactly a feud as violent as Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal or the Prophecy vs. the Second City Saints. The brawling they did do sure did tell the story of how personal this feud had gotten (even though it was a bit much), and I certainly found it enjoyable overall. From a soccer ball being used (including McGuinness accidentally kicking it into the crowd and it being thrown back into the ring by the fans), to both men revealing that they both brought heating irons, this was an entertaining little spectacle. I must mention that Cabana rivaled the questionable chairshots McGuinness took, when he took a flipover bump off the turnbuckle through a table onto the concrete floor. No wonder both went on to perceive the business as grinding them out. Cabana obviously had to win this one to build off the momentum of beating CM Punk the week before, closing this chapter for both men. I wonder what's next for Cabana and McGuinness, if the booker had anything as a followup to at least show appreciation for killing themselves in such unnecessary fashion. Rating: ***1/4 ROH Title - Elimination Match James Gibson vs. Homicide vs. Brian Kendrick This had a chance to be really good, on par with a typical X-Division three way match right in the middle of the card. I enjoyed the action (with the exception of a cringeworthy double superplex spot, I really hate that type of contrived shit), there was some solid storytelling (then again, this also had the exception of Kendrick breaking up elimination attempts. WHY?) Kendrick's illogical decisions didn't ruin this match though. The booking of having the match thrown out when Homicide was DQ'ed for using a chain and then Homicide going crazy was truly horrendous. Consider that this was immediately after the red-hot Summer of Punk which had brought the ROH Title to unprecedented emotional levels. The Gibson and Homicide issue also never really got over in the summer of 2005, but perhaps there were long-term plans for those two that couldn't quite come to be with Gibson on his way back to WWE. But there was a MAJOR silver lining to this: the crowd was APESHIT when Homicide almost eliminated Gibson before the referee caught him cheating. They were FURIOUS that the Tri-State native and ROH pioneer didn't eliminate the former/future WWE superstars, and they hijacked the Gibson vs. Kendrick singles match that happened later on this show. I wonder if the booker was listening to that hijacking. Doesn't sound similar at all to anything in WWE right now either btw. Rating: less than *** Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Rave & Puma (TJ Perkins) This was originally booked as Aries & AJ Styles vs. Rave & Alex Shelley, but their injuries likely at TNA's Sacrifice 2005 forced Styles to cancel while Shelley was just a ringside character for this one. I have to assume if that dream partner tag match had taken place, it'd have been in the main event slot for this show. This match was good, and I didn't happen to notice any issues with tag legalities in this, although that may have been because I wasn't too emotionally stimulated by this match. I'll put the blame for that on TJ Perkins, who has a habit of lacking crowd engagement, thank you very much. I did appreciate that the match didn't go on for much longer when GeNext got the hot tag. Post-match, Mick Foley comes out to try to convince Jade Chung to ditch the mistreatment she was receiving from the Embassy, but Rave & Shelley attacked him. GeNext came back out to save Foley, and with this being their first true moment of doing the right thing (trying to dethrone Punk was nice, but also a nice career booster had Strong been successful), especially after trying to make their names at the HOFer's expense the year before, I consider this the official babyface turn for them. Rating: *** Pure Titlte Match Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels The positives: I liked that Joe worked on the abs and back of Daniels, which would logically prevent Daniels from hitting an Angels Wings, while also causing damage to Daniels should he choose to use the Best Moonsault Ever later in the match. I liked that Daniels worked on similar areas of Joe too, setting Joe up for the Angels Wings if the Fallen Angel were to go on to pull it off. Now we get to the negatives. I HATE a rope break penalty when someone just uses the rope to get themselves out of position. That's not using the ropes to request a break. Fucking hated that in the first ever Pure Title match, still hate it here. This match also had zero emotional enrichment to it. Maybe everyone was right about Daniels being a chore during his second tenure in ROH. I've certainly seen Daniels phone it in on occasion, so he's not above doing it here. The crowd was fucking dead throughout most of this match, which not only was due to lack of a dramatic pace, but admittedly because the crowd was still pissed off from the Homicide booking. I give these men the benefit of the doubt though. As I stated in my PWG Smells Like Steen Spirit post, Joe just had a brutal schedule in August of 2005, and if he was holding back here, I don't blame him for it at all. Rating: less than *** Cabana puts over McGuinness, saying that he senses the bad blood between the two will heal, and that he is opting to challenge for the ROH Title. Also of note: Carnage Crew and Dunn & Marcos shake hands after the show. This was the final ROH appearance of Carnage Crew. Without a doubt, this has to easily be the worst ROH event of 2005. There are some positives of course. It's a historic event for Homicide, Cabana, and McGuinness, as will be indicated very soon as I continue this rewatch project. I must also mention that this was the first time Generation Next did something that was a purely babyface move. But all you need to see is Cabana vs. McGuinness, which is available on the Cabana compilation; no need to waste your hard-earned dollars on this awful show. Nobody is really at fault for this show falling apart. Injuries played a huge part with Styles and Shelley being out, putting Joe (who I believe was very tired from his schedule) and Daniels (who can have a tendency to take it easy) in a slot for this show that they had no business being in. Add in the booking misfire of Homicide and the ROH Title, coming off the molten hot Summer of Punk run, and this was a massive disappointment. I must also mention this: the previous month, ROH hosted four events in the same calendar month for the first time, and this show makes it glaring that perhaps that wasn't a good idea after all. I recall not enjoying Fate of an Angel that much, but that show was WrestleMania X-Seven compared to this. Maybe Joe's schedule was just a symbol of ROH feeling burned out as well, especially with no red-hot angle on this event and its real main event being thrown out the window. Up next - Dragon Gate Invasion Matches will include: Samoa Joe vs. Nigel McGuinness Jimmy Rave & Brian Kendrick vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong CIMA vs. AJ Styles James Gibson vs. Colt Cabana

Punk: The Final Chapter - August 13, 2005 The show begins with new ROH Champion James Gibson coming down to the ring, putting over how important the title and the company is to him, and that he won't leave for WWE until someone beats him for the title. Brian Kendrick comes out which Gibson doesn't mind as they're friends and challenging for the Tag Titles that night, and they agree to a singles match for the ultimate prize in the future. Jimmy Rave vs. Austin Aries Good stuff here, and exactly what it needed to be at this point in the Embassy vs. Generation Next feud. The story of the match started when Rave managed to drag the left ribs of Aries to the ring post. The Crown Jewel went to work on the midsection of the former ROH Champion, and Aries sold it tremendously. Of course, Aries managed to get in his fair share of offense too. Standout moment of the match for me, speaking volumes on just how hot this feud already was, was when Prince Nana simply yelled "JIMMY RAVE~!" and the crowd reacted immediately. Post-match, Alex Shelley shows up for the Embassy to get the last laugh in this segment. Rating: ***1/4 Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal vs. Low Ki & Homicide The match itself - very good tag wrestling. Cutting the ring in half, Lethal playing the face-in-peril, Joe being antagonized and getting fed up with the Rottweilers, pinfalls only counted on the legal men. I loved the finish too, another cheap DQ loss for the Rottweilers to keep Lethal from pinning Ki. What really mattered is the post-match brawl between the teams. They fucking laid into each other HARD to sell how much they hated each other. When combining this brawl, I've no problem going with the general consensus and saying this was easily match of the night. This brawl was so insane, so brutal, so jaw-dropping, and ended so perfectly, Ki standing in the ring with blood dripping down his face, and the crowd chanting his name. Excellent shit here. Rating: **** A taped promo from earlier in the day airs, with Ace Steel talking about how special this night is, both of his Second City Saints teammates colliding for the final time, and dictates that it be 2/3 falls to determine who is truly the better man. Tag Titles Match Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer vs. James Gibson & Brian Kendrick Another good match here. No pinfalls counted unless both men were legal yet again. Good, solid tag team wrestling from both teams, fun pacing. However, while the booking of Kendrick betraying Gibson and throwing the match away elevated the ROH Title, it did no favors for the Tag Titles. No wonder those belts meant nothing for months throughout 2005. I really like Kendrick's motivation for the turn - Punk and Gibson got title shots before leaving for WWE, he should be entitled to one too. Rating: ***1/4 Matt Hardy vs. Roderick Strong Red-hot crowd for this one as usual for Hardy's matches. Wow, the GN tights that Aries & Strong wore back in the day were incredibly lame. As for the match, there was an obvious clash of styles, perhaps still some ring rust for Hardy. He seemed far too entrenched in the WWE style of wrestling, which isn't a knock on him. Any time someone wonders why a wrestler can't hop from the indies to WWE or vice versa without practice and development, I will point to this match. This was still EASILY the best of Hardy's special guest appearances, although a major missed opportunity. I couldn't believe that when Hardy ducked a chop and Strong's hand struck the ring post, Hardy didn't go to work on that hand. Obviously he's no CM Punk. His selling of the connected chops, especially the first one, was marvelous though. His facial expression on that one told the story, of how being in WWE he wasn't used to that punishment, even though being on that roster had given him the opportunities to work with Chris Benoit and Bob Holly. Hardy did do a great job of working on the left knee of Strong when it became prone, and of course Strong was fantastic in his selling of that too. But Strong was so brutal, with a red-hot crowd supporting him, waiting for his "first" major singles victory (ROH once again no-selling the one he already had in Buffalo), that he had to win this one, and he got the rub by being the only one of Hardy's three opponents to defeat the WWE superstar. Rating: ***1/4 2/3 Falls - CM Punk's Farewell CM Punk vs. Colt Cabana Punk gets TWO entrance themes here, and comes to the ring in tears. He doesn't even need to step in the ring and I've gotten my money's worth emotionally. Punk steps into the ring, ropes stretched out by his true friend Colt Cabana, their issues during Punk's egotistical reign of terror behind them, and gets the farewell streamer treatment for the second time, this one even more special in his hometown. As for the match itself, it was pretty damn good. Both men still wanted to win this battle of pride, and had differences in their personalities, which was a reflection of their careers both in and out of ROH. I enjoyed the lowblow first fall for Punk, showing that winning this meant something still, while showing that he wasn't in the mood for Cabana's comedy routine. On the other hand, Cabana was able to get the advantage not just with his comedic antics, but with his improved technical wrestling he picked up on while in Europe the month before. On the surface, this was the perfect match for Punk to go out on. But Cabana being put in this spotlight, showing off his European style and beating a true icon of ROH, was perfect in giving him legitimacy for his feud-ending match against Night McGuinness the next week. Post-match, Punk gets a bigger sendoff ceremony than Paul London got at Death Before Dishonor, and that's saying something, because London's farewell was incredibly classy. This simply had everything going for it that made this more significant than London's goodbye. This was Punk's hometown, against Punk's best friend (a fellow Chicagoan), with Punk having twice the amount of time spent in ROH as London, and while London of course had some absolutely fucking masterpieces for matches, Punk had those, plus gripping storylines, reigns as the primary singles champion and tag champions, and the greatest farewell non-retirement tour in the history of the business. As I post this in early 2014, it is uncertain what the future holds for CM Punk in pro wrestling. I hope that he and WWE can work things out. With all the tools WWE has compared to ROH, I want to see CM Punk get to say farewell in front of 20,000 of his hometown fans, and maybe, just maybe, it could be WWE"s biggest stage of the year in Chicago, in front of over 60,000 fans. Rating: ***1/4 This show gets my easiest recommendation. Required for numerous obvious reasons that I don't need to spell out. Up next - Night of the Grudges II Matches will include: Colt Cabana vs. Nigel McGuinness James Gibson vs. Homicide vs. Brian Kendrick Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Rave & Puma (TJ Perkins) Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels

Redemption - August 12, 2005 Some promos as I skim through to the four matches that matter. James Gibson says the rumors aren't important (reported that week that WWE rehired him), that his focus was on taking advantage of the FOURTH opportunity he had been blessed with to win the ROH Title, and to especially make sure it stays within the company. Daniels says that Gibson and Samoa Joe are non-factors. Yeah, sure thing Chris, you've had such great luck against Joe. CM Punk comes out to antagonize Brian Kendrick (also reported that WWE had rehired him), bragging that he'd be a real star while Kendrick would be a jabroni. Lastly, Joe simply is happy to get his hands on Punk for shitting on the 21 months of his body, heart, and soul he put into that championship. Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Matt Sydal, Austin Aries, & Roderick Strong Wow, this was some great fun. If you're a fan of the Shield and Wyatt Family, watch this. Never got to being a MOTYC, but that wasn't the point of this. There were great moments in just cutting the ring in half, and Abyss was featured perfectly with the cruiserweight GeNext bouncing for him like pinballs. Abyss gave back as well though as usual, but in this one it usually took multiple members of GeNext to get damage on him unless it was a straight forearm. I must mention just how Shelley and Sydal fit their stables like custom-made gloves. FINALLY, Shelley got to unleash the psychopath that he had been hiding for months as he attempted to gain allies against his former stable. On the other hand, Sydal got his opportunity to be featured in an important storyline, which he had earned on the previous Dayton show. I should mention that this match also featured two singles matches from The Final Showdown - Shelley vs. Strong and Rave vs. Sydal. What also impressed me were segments in which the ring would be cut in half, with the mind games of the Embassy even backfiring on them when the ref wasn't available to count a pinfall, and not once, NOT ONCE, were falls counted on the wrong man. With the victory of GeNext, Sydal earned himself a permanent spot in the group, replacing Shelley. Humiliated and psychopathic, the Embassy of course attack them after the match. Moments later, they interrupt a promo by some ROH school jabronis, with Nana cutting his usual fantastic promo during the ROH golden age. It ends with Shelley, with such glee in his eyes, bragging about finally having help in his crusade against the monster he created. Rating: ***1/2 Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal Another match that wasn't great, and that was the right decision for business as well as the storyline. These two men laid into each other and to me this elevated Lethal to another level in terms of star power hierarchy. I loved that Lethal, desperate while also fed up with Ki's bullshit, shoved the ref to take the inaugural ROH Champion off balance and crotch himself on the top rope. I also loved that they brawled in the crowd and told the ref to fuck off, with the contest being thrown out. The crowd was HOT at this, which means that this angle was clicking despite what some idiotic Lethal bashers claimed at the time. This is just as good as their pre-feud match at Midnight Express Reunion. Rating: *** With the fight still continuing, Homicide comes out to help out Ki, but Matt Hardy quickly comes out to even the odds. Ki and Lethal brawl to the back as we get our semi main event. Hardy cuts a very classy promo about ROH and Homicide, but much like Walter White, the Notorious 187 only uses the positive feedback to piss himself off. Matt Hardy vs. Homicide This match was again nothing all that special, but was far more entertaining and engaging than Hardy's previous ROH match. No real story ever developed, and I'm thinking that if they had wrestled a series, they actually could have put up something special. With the commentary mentioning Hardy's feud with Edge in WWE at the time, perhaps the booker should've made this a hardcore gimmick match. Homicide at the time was obviously game for that any time, and it would have played into Hardy not only testing himself against what he said was the biggest bad-ass in ROH, but also for his feud with the Rated R Superstar. Hardy of course wins with a rollup when Ki comes out to help Homicide, only for Lethal to return and brawl with Ki, causing Homicide to be distracted. Crowd was MOLTEN HOT at points during this match. Rating: less than *** ROH Title - Elimination Match CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe vs. James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels The crowd, just like with the prior match, was just amazing when this match began, detesting Punk even with this being his final weekend (legit this time since it was the Midwest) because of his earlier promo. I loved that Punk spent so much time finding out ways not to tangle with Joe. Even though he had been Joe's greatest opponent, he had never beaten him, and they had never collided with Joe this pissed off at him before. I should mention that when Gibson and Daniels locked horns, Gabe Sapolsky said on commentary it was a first-time ever matchup. Are you sure about that? Not like the Internet was around at the time to put in the research. Anyways, as for the match itself, there really wasn't much told in terms of technical wrestling, although Punk and Daniels had a beautiful sequence earlier that had the crowd popping. This match was all about the story. Around the 25-30 minute mark, Gibson had been thrown shoulder-first into the ringpost, and then moments later Punk smacked him in the head with a chair. Gibson bled profusely from the forehead, and was taken to the back, assumed to no longer be in the match due to a concussion. In all this chaos, I must mention that I was incredibly impressed that pinfalls were only counted on the legal men. That really is impressive. Punk, the evil genius he was during this title reign, allowed Joe and Daniels to pummel each other while he rested, which honestly and obviously he did throughout much of the match. But when Joe had Daniels in a submission, Punk moved the foot of Daniels off the rope behind the ref's back, the Fallen Angel's hand falling for a third time. Once Daniels regained consciousness, he was livid and went to deal with Punk, but the champion ducked an enziguri and hit Joe instead, allowing Punk to finally pin the former ROH Champion! Joe and Daniels began brawling, taking it to the back, leaving CM Punk alone in the ring, thrilled with what he had accomplished. But the crowd was BEGGING for Gibson to return to the match, and when "Country Boy Can Survive" came through those speakers, those in attendance fucking erupted. Punk was perfect in his facial expressions, seeing that he wasn't quite done yet, and perhaps he had run out of tricks. With his forehead still bleeding, Gibson put forth a fantastic effort, determined to make sure Punk wouldn't leave and go to WWE with the championship. The turning point came when he dropkicked Punk's left knee. Moments later when they got outside, Gibson crotched the champion on the guardrail, and delivered a chairshot receipt to Punk's same left knee. Back in the ring, Gibson executed a gorgeous Tiger Driver on Punk, resulting in an amazing nearfall that had the crowd going apeshit. With almost nothing left, Gibson took Punk to the top rope, which was a huge risk, as the champion was set up for the former multi-time Cruiserweight Champion to be possibly reversed into a Pepsi Plunge. But on this night, in front of the ROH crowd he had debuted in front of, the same audience in which he came so close to winning this title before, Gibson wasn't to be denied. He smacked and dazed Punk, double-hooked him, and dropped back for a modified (but oh so devastating) Super Tiger Driver. With the crowd knowing it was all said and done, they went ballistic when Gibson finally achieved his goal in ROH and won the company's top prize. As I said, this match didn't have much in the way of technical wrestling. It was a storytelling narrative that was months, if not years, in the making. It was genuinely gripping from beginning to end. It elevated the ROH Title, and was arguably the top moment in Gibson's career as he stated in the post-match. While I wish folks would appreciate just good wrestling when they see it, watching THIS reminds me why so many today clamor for a truly special storyline. This was one hell of a spectacle and roller-coaster ride. Post-match, the babyface locker room congratulates Gibson, who puts over just how much this moment means to him. The crowd chants "Please Don't Go!" to Punk and thanks him for his amazing tenure in ROH, but he says that this is Gibson's moment. I should note that Kendrick seems to have a self-serving agenda when he says he's looking forward to Gibson giving him a title shot. Punk and Gibson embrace in a magical moment for the company, the championship, and their careers. Rating: ****1/2 Hey ROH, I'm gonna ask again: why did you fucking murder this red-hot Dayton market that appreciates great wrestling and buys into the storylines quite easily? Up next - Punk: The Final Chapter Matches will include: Jimmy Rave vs. Austin Aries Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal vs. Low Ki & Homicide Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer vs. James Gibson & Brian Kendrick Matt Hardy vs. Roderick Strong CM Punk vs. Colt Cabana

The Homecoming - July 23, 2005 Christopher Daniels opens the DVD with a promo that's a bit more reasonable than the previous week. He simply doesn't want CM Punk to shit on ROH. That's fair although ironic for Daniels. There's also a promo from Alex Shelley, talking about who his mystery partner could be. He comes across as a douche-bag as usual. There's a segment in which Gary Michael Cappeta delivers a message to Prince Nana. ROH will no longer allow Nana to lay a hand in abusive fashion on Jade Chung. Nana is great with his smugness, and responds with covering up Chung's body with a blanket and also strapping a dog-collar on her. That's quite the loophole ROH left for him. Prince Nana was just incredible back in the day, and this got phenomenal heat. Samoa Joe, Jay Lethal, & James Gibson vs. Low Ki, Homicide, & Ricky Reyes This is noteworthy for being the ONLY time Ki and Gibson ever collided. I wonder if Gabe Sapolsky had planned on eventually booking that dream match. I hate to say this, but this trios match wasn't anything special. I'm not even worried about tags not being enforced - I can understand that in a trios match involving the Rottweilers. There just never seemed to be a cohesive narrative told through this. I reflect back to the eight man tag at Generation Next, which had great body work and segments of cutting the ring in half. This had none of that. What makes this match worth watching is CM Punk on commentary. He was just absolutely fantastic, burying everyone in ROH, talking about how great he is, about all the favors he's done for ROH, all the money he drew for the company. Dave Prazak was great bouncing off of Punk's narcissism, even mocking Punk's trolling at some points. Unfortunately I'm sure Triple H would get mega-criticism if he ever provided commentary like Punk did during this match. They're so similar to each other. Rating: less than *** After intermission, Shelley comes out to reveal his mystery partner, but explains himself first. He is tired of getting no help. Wow, this guy robs a peer of a title match being restarted, and he wonders why he's all alone? He says that he's in the business to ultimately make money, and that he had not sold out, but bought in. When the Embassy came out to welcome Shelley, it was a brilliant culmination of more than a year's worth of events. Jimmy Rave told Shelley he forgave him for his bullying the year before, and was even appreciative of learning how hard the business can be. This was so brilliant because Shelley had never fully gone babyface, the closest ironically being when he helped Punk fight off the Embassy as a now-transparent attempt to earn brownie points. (I must mention that if Shelley had REALLY wanted to try to earn back the locker room camaraderie, he should've challenged Punk for the ROH Title to protect the company. Also benefits his career too if that's all he really cared about.) What also made this so great is that the cocky Generation Next (who are now without Jack Evans as he is on hiatus), faced the consequences for being so callous to their former leader in the previous seven months. Now, I'm not saying that I sympathize with either stable in this instance - both of them had plenty of dirt on them. GeNext had still shown zero remorse for the babyfaces they bullied the year before, and the Embassy were a group of prissy thugs funded and led by an uppity woman-beater. This also was a great follow-up to the events two weeks before at Escape From New York. Rave & Shelley showed potential as tag partners when they worked together in a fourway match, with Shelley being a douche-bag in the match towards Gibson. Moments later, Prince Nana asked Austin Aries for the stables to join forces, only to be told to fuck off. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Alex Shelley & Fast Eddie Vegas Star rating wise, this match was nothing remarkable, but that wasn't the point of this. It was a chapter in a phenomenal turning point for a storyline, and did its job exceptionally well. Shelley was tremendous at being a dickhead to GeNext, fitting right in with the Embassy. I loved the finish, which was Rave coming back out to attack Aries so Shelley could get a cheap pin. Shelley was welcomed into this stable with open arms, and the Embassy was united against Generation Next. But of course this brought out Rave's opponent... Hardcore Match Jimmy Rave vs. AJ Styles I would've liked to have seen a Styles/GeNext vs. Embassy trios match on this night, but with that type of tag match already booked on the card for the Rottweilers, I understand why it didn't happen. This match was chaotic and brutal, and served as a nice appetizer for what was expected to come later in the feud. This wasn't meant to be a show-stealer, but it was still engaging. Styles as usual brought his pissed-off demeanor, likely not happy with the Embassy's actions that night, and this was his first chance at Rave since his former protege tried suffocating him with a plastic bag a couple weeks earlier. There was a LOT of stupid bumps and spots in this match, but I'd be lying if I said this wasn't entertaining. If you are a fan of the Kevin Steen vs. Super Dragon feud, go ahead and watch this match, you'll really appreciate it. Of course, Shelley reciprocates for Rave after the previous match, taking Styles out with a Shellshock and the Crown Jewel following that up with a Styles Clash finish. (I know Rave called it the Rave Clash, but I'm not a fan of using multiple names for the same move, even for storyline purposes.) GeNext come out as expected to bail Styles out, and they shake hands. It's a real shame the scheduled Styles & Aries vs. Rave & Shelley match didn't happen. Rating: ***1/4 ROH Title Match CM Punk vs. Christopher Daniels This match definitely had its issues. I of course would've preferred for it to start out as a heated brawl, although Sapolsky's explanation as to why this was a traditionally wrestled contest when the opening bell was rung made sense. Just would've been my preference based on the two-year history between both men. This also didn't really need to go 60 minutes. Daniels could've done the job; maybe I've lost my mind, but I don't believe Lethal, Strong, or Gibson had their stock drop from losing to Punk. EDIT: Oh, now I realize why Daniels didn't job. TNA being too fucking paranoid about one of its guys putting over someone contracted to WWE. Gotta love TNA's office. Those are all the negatives I have about this match. I was surprised at how well this match did with its circumstances. Is this Joe vs. Punk? Of course not. But Joe vs. Punk I was a MOTYC with its sequel arguably a MOTDC. A Broadway can still be great without living up to the standard of ROH's previous Broadways. Punk was a great chickenshit in this one, constantly avoiding Daniels in the early stages. I know, it was ultimately to kill time, but logically it still worked with Punk's gimmick. Daniels was great with his usual offense on the neck of Punk to set up his finishers. In the middle of the match, Daniels wound up getting some pain in his ribs (I can't remember what from at the moment), giving Punk something to work on. The two were great at exchanging body part work as the match progressed. What impressed me the most is that the crowd was incredibly hot in the last 10 minutes, praying that Daniels would end the reign of terror. And that ultimately is what makes this match great - it wasn't something that kept me glued start to finish, but in the portion that matters most to the audience, it delivered. Post-match, Punk knocks out Allison Danger again. He may be getting a bit carried away with delivering karma to Daniels and Danger now, I will admit. Gibson also comes out but gets knocked out with the belt. Joe comes out barefoot and chases Punk to the back as the show fades to black. Rating: **** I strongly recommend this show not just for its main event (which can have polarizing opinions), but also the storyline progression in the semi-main events. Very important event during the golden age of ROH. Up next - Redemption Matches will include: Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Matt Sydal, Austin Aries, & Roderick Strong Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal Matt Hardy vs. Homicide CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe vs. James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels

Fate of an Angel - July 16, 2005 The DVD opens with a good promo from Samoa Joe that puts over the urgency of making sure CM Punk doesn't leave ROH still the ROH Champion. This is how every championship should be treated. CM Punk comes out to the ring to point out that James Gibson has failed time and time again to win a championship in ROH, which is very true. Eventually Gibson gets sick of the trolling though and comes out for an altercation. He ends up getting ambushed by the champion and gets a gushing gash on his forehead for his trouble. Main event in jeopardy? AJ Styles vs. Roderick Strong A very good match as expected, although it seemed like these two weren't completely gelling with each other, and a series would have done well for them to pull out something truly magical. My favorite moment was Strong dropping Styles back-first via side slam on the apron, and then Yakuza kicking Styles from behind into a guard rail, leaving no time for Styles to recuperate. Styles did a decent job of selling in this one. I didn't mind his temporary moments of fighting spirit here and there. The closing moment, in which Styles just had a fire lit in him leading to him getting a Styles Clash, was quite appropriate. I am annoyed with Gabe Sapolsky on commentary saying that Strong is looking for his first major singles victory. He already got it in Buffalo. Rating: ***1/2 Pure Title Match Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Rave This one never got going enough to be a great match, but this wasn't bad at all. It was a very basic story of Joe being the bad-ass babyface going against a very hated chickenshit heel, with all kinds of cheating and manipulation of the Pure Title rules being used. Rave got quite a bit of heat and I believe this was his first time getting the toilet paper treatment as well. What matters is the post-match, when Prince Nana blames Jade Chung for Rave's loss (the commentary bitches about domestic violence which I'm going to get to in a moment), and is about to slap the shit out of her, but the lights go out temporarily, leading to the next match... Rating: less than *** Matt Hardy vs. Christopher Daniels Hardy appears in the ring and the Embassy bails from ringside. He admittedly cuts a tremendous promo putting over ROH and how great it was at the time. It is amazing how badly he pissed away such a fantastic opportunity. He had a very real opportunity to be as high on the pro wrestling food chain as Edge and Chris Jericho, but for a number of reasons I won't get into, it turned out to be a very brief but incredibly hot bandwagon. I don't care for Hardy cutting down WWE to put over ROH, as WWE despite some so-so booking was still doing great business at the time and often put on great shows with a stacked roster when this event took place. It was great to see him say that he ultimately came to ROH to work, not to talk. I must mention just how electric the crowd was doing this promo. As for the match, wow was it ever a disappointment. I'll start with the announcer and commentary. Did you guys actually do your research when bragging about this being a once-in-a-lifetime, first time ever dream match? But honestly, that's the least of this match's problems. I don't know what the actual cause was for this not living up to the hype (Hardy had actually made a shocking appearance on Raw earlier in the week and mentioned ROH specifically). Maybe Hardy had severe ring rust. Maybe Hardy just wasn't suited quite yet for ROH and needed a few more matches to properly gel. Maybe it really was Daniels just phoning it in. Perhaps these two just didn't have any semblance of chemistry. The match was 20-25 minutes of absolutely nothing special. The absolute best part was the fans having dueling chants, and that wasn't a reflection whatsoever of the work in the match. It was all based on hype. There was no semblance of story. There was no peak. There was no valley. It was just two guys who are capable of much better going through a bunch of moves and holds. This match had zero emotional enrichment to it. I've certainly seen much worse than this. But I must echo everyone who has said just how tedious this match really was once you get past the Matt Hardy bandwagon that was going at the time. What matters most is that Punk came in near the end and there was a sports-entertainment finish leading to Hardy's victory. Punk says that's it, that was the main event, but of course Gibson comes out with his head bandaged. Wow, I cannot seriously fathom how much this show would be hated in retrospect if Hardy vs. Daniels had actually been the main event. Rating: less than *** ROH Title Match CM Punk vs. James Gibson This was good stuff but as a whole was disappointing. The Connecticut crowd was quite heatless in this one, and perhaps the majority of them were only in attendance to see Matt Hardy. But the match itself may not have done much for the heat either. Unlike Punk's defenses the week before, this match may have also suffered from not having Mick Foley involved in the segment. Foley likely would have been critical in building emotion for this match with Matt Hardy already bringing in a WWE-based audience. There were moments when Punk would antagonize the crowd and he got little to no reaction. But with that said, these two still managed to tell an engaging story. Punk was no match early for Gibson, having run shoulder-first into a ringpost. Gibson, the experienced veteran that he was in his career, of course went to work on that shoulder and respective arm. The champion managed to use occasional cheating to get the upper hand at times, and held the trunks of Gibson to get the victory. He once again says this it is for him in ROH, only for Daniels to come out and leave with possession of the belt, demanding Punk come claim it from him. Rating: ***1/2 The DVD closes with a promo from Daniels that is fascinating. He wonders why Punk had an issue with him. Gee, I wonder what Daniels could have possibly orchestrated to make Punk to be so bitter towards him. That leads me to this real quick - why does Sapolsky on commentary take issue with Punk throwing one knockout punch on Allison Danger, and the continuous abuse of the Embassy on Jade Chung, when in fact a couple years earlier he said that Punk needed to get over the attack on his friend Lucy? Gabe said it was ridiculous for Punk to be so pissed off "over a girl." Daniels in this promo creates another laughable narrative, claiming that Punk is jealous and wants to be him, that's why Punk dressed as him and came out to "Disposable Teens" once. Wow Chris, whatever helps you sleep at night. I'm sure that's why Punk did that, it wasn't in any way a fuck you to the Prophecy and the fanbase that irrationally supported a group of woman-beaters. Dare I say it - this promo got me pumped to see Punk vs. Daniels not just for the champion to regain possession of the title that he actually EARNED the month before, but to have a chance to competitively and/or emotionally troll and humiliate the very man that had caused so much emotional pain to him in the past. I don't give a fuck that Punk is insufferable and disrespectful to ROH - his hatred of Daniels is justified and he once again has far more integrity than the Fallen Angel in this instance. Up next - The Homecoming Matches will include: Samoa Joe, Jay Lethal, & James Gibson vs. Low Ki, Homicide, & Ricky Reyes Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Alex Shelley & ??? Jimmy Rave vs. AJ Styles CM Punk vs. Christopher Daniels

Escape From New York - July 9, 2005 Throughout the evening, Colt Cabana keeps getting questioned about CM Punk's attitude. Wow this is a fucking title reign. ROH Title Shot Match James Gibson vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Roderick Strong vs. Azrieal This match doesn't happen, as the lights go out and Punk cuts another fantastic heel promo. He challenges Strong to a non-title match, which brings out Foley from behind in the darkness. Foley threatens to throw the chickenshit Punk over the balcony unless he puts the ROH Title on the line, to which the champion agrees. Great promo work, tremendous crowd heat, making a title belt matter, this clicked on all cylinders. Pure Title Shot Match James Gibson vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Alex Shelley vs. Azrieal Shelley abruptly came out at the start of the match to replace Strong, and Gibson wondered why. Gee, it's a fourway match for a shot at a championship, why wouldn't Shelley, ever the opportunist, step in and capitalize on the chance? He's certainly a suitable replacement. As for the match, it wasn't anything special, but had enough going for it to make it good. I believe this is the ONLY time that Gibson and Shelley ever faced off - that they never had a singles match is fucking criminal. What really matters in this match is that Rave and Shelley worked together on Azrieal, like they were natural tag partners, and also did everything they could to keep Gibson out of the match. There were also some inconsistencies with enforcing who was and wasn't legal, which really didn't surprise me. I liked having a jabroni like Azrieal in the match for Rave to pin. The Crown Jewel in the Pure Wrestling environment again? I'm interested. The post-match is also great, with Jade Chung (who had a hairstyle and outfit that complimented her extremely well) being forced to kiss the bare foot of Rave. She even hinted that she was fed up, but succumbed to the financial and green card benefits of being an object for the Embassy. Rating: *** Pure Title Match Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries Nana comes out during the rules breakdown and offers Aries a chance for Generation Next to unite with the Embassy. Now, I can see why this was both logical and illogical for Nana. Aries had three clean pinfalls on Joe going into this match, and so Nana showed great confidence that Aries would win the Pure Title, which would be a nice coup for the Embassy as before with John Walters. However, how would Rave, who had the next shot at the Pure Title, had reacted if Aries obliged to joining and was the new Pure Champion? This didn't seem like a very well thought out proposal for Nana. That this offer was made right as Aries was about to face Joe made the timing even worse for Nana. Aries made it very clear that his focus was on Joe and the Pure Title. When Nana attempted a rebuttal, Aries straight-up told him to fuck off. Hmm. As for the match, this just couldn't measure up to their ROH Title matches, but that's not really a knock on this. It just never got a story developing that was as engaging as what they had done in the past. This was still very good though, and I liked Aries teasing an Ole Ole kick (he did it to Joe in the historic Final Battle 2004 classic), only for it to be a tease and flip off the crowd. That was a small step backward for someone who seemed destined to turn face. Joe finally got his victory over Aries, in convincing fashion. Joe was not caught by surprise this time, mentally prepared to survive the trademark finishing sequence of Aries. Rating: ***1/2 In another brief segment that elevates the importance of the ROH Title, Aries finds Strong in what looks like a janitorial closet, telling him how special this opportunity is, being there for his friend. Quite the sight to see Aries reciprocate and be a great friend and stablemate to Strong after the year they'd been united, compared to the Second City Saints. ROH Title Match CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong This match was simply amazing. Before the match even began, the mere visual of Punk looking up at Joe in the balcony, smirking and holding up the belt, just told the story. Punk of course continued to mock Joe, as well as Foley and Gibson, as they all watched from the balcony during the match. Having them up there just really elevated the importance of the ROH Title that I hadn't seen from the company before. Punk was of course a tremendous chickenshit heel. As with their match the month before, Punk spent about the first 10 minutes evading every single chop attempt from Strong. Whereas the first singles match they had, it was a simple story of Punk just being smart enough to avoid such heavy, painful strikes, in this match, while it had that simple story too, this time Punk was the hated heel, and Strong was the white-hot future bad-ass. So when Strong finally did get that chop on Punk, the crowd erupted, getting to see the champion get his comeuppance and take his physical beating. Strong was tremendous with his comebacks and hope spots as Punk was equally tremendous in toying with the audience. As much respect as Punk had for Strong as a competitor (hard to see that behind his smugness and arrogance, but that respect was there), he really seemed taken by surprise by the challenger. Strong truly elevated his game in this one, not going down and giving the best performance of his career at the time of this match. Strong, with the crowd fully behind him, also laid just a vicious beating on Punk. The backbreakers he delivered were just devastating, as were his usual gutbusters. Add in the tremendous false finishes also, and this match had the crowd rocking from beginning to end. This is a truly underappreciated match. It lived up to the hype that came with this storyline. It had the crowd in a frenzy. It erased any doubt one could have possibly had that Strong was a bandwagon flavor of the month in ROH. And most importantly, it elevated the ROH Title to an emotional level that was unmatched. This was an old-school style of personalities combined with the modern-day physicality. This match worked on just about every level. Post-match, Joe, Foley, and Gibson corner Punk in the ring. Gibson delivers a Tiger Driver to the champion and demands a title shot on the next show, despite the number of times he failed to win the big one before. Just raw emotion that was the driving force for these main events, and it was pretty damn fresh for ROH. Rating: ****1/2 Cabana, disappointed in losing a gimmick match to McGuinness on this show and tired of answering for Punk, announces that he is going to Europe to improve his game and recharge himself. Up next - Fate of an Angel Matches will include: AJ Styles vs. Roderick Strong Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Rave Matt Hardy vs. Christopher Daniels CM Punk vs. James Gibson

Sign of Dishonor - July 8, 2005 New ROH Champion CM Punk comes out to the ring to Living Color's "Cult of Personality" as his new entrance theme. His hair is dyed black and purple, and he is complete with a full business suit like Triple H. The suit is tremendous in adding to the heat he gets, while also looking completely out-of-place on him. He cuts a tremendous promo, albeit an arguably flawed one. He states that he his arrogance and self-entitlement comes from choosing ROH over TNA in the spring of 2004, whereas others chose TNA. That's fine, except for when he said he sat down with Christopher Daniels to discuss it. That blurs kayfabe and reality too much - no way that Punk and Daniels, after what happened at The Battle Lines Are Drawn, could logically be in a meeting together just 2 months afterwards for any reason. The best part is when he signs his WWE contract while using the ROH Title as a writing platform. Fantastic heat from the audience (who were pissed they'd had to "suffer" through a long opening promo like this was an episode of Raw, which was the intention of this), fantastic interactions with Bobby Cruise, Todd Sinclair, and Shane Hagadorn, and he took a tremendous powder from Daniels and James Gibson. An overall winner of a segment here. Samoa Joe vs. James Gibson vs. Homicide vs. Austin Aries This was good stuff, but it seemed like these four men couldn't manage to find a way to tell a completely coherent story. Had they done so, this could have quite possibly been a MOTYC. What they managed to do was have a match that would have been perfect as the main event of Raw or SmackDown! All of the different combinations of matchups were entertaining. The most noticeable flaw in the match was the referee forgetting who was legal when the match got a little out of control, but that's somewhat understandable. With Aries getting a Pure Title shot against Joe the next night, it only made sense for him to get his third pinfall on Joe in seven months. Rating: ***1/2 I kept Colt Cabana vs. Christopher Daniels on as background noise, since the storyline was important going into the main event, even though the match was nothing special. What mattered was Punk showing up to sabotage Daniels from beating Cabana, and it backfired on him when he hit his best friend and tag partner on accident with a chain. Punk was a tremendous chickenshit heel, although I wish when he refused to give Daniels a shot, rather than just saying Daniels hadn't beaten anyone noteworthy yet (an insult to Cabana to show how narcissistic Punk had become now that he was on top of the world), he had told Daniels that he would consider giving him a shot at the ROH Title once he apologized for what happened to Lucy. After all, that is the seed of this entire feud between the two hated rivals. Daniels eventually left at the demand of Punk (who threatened to not wrestle otherwise), and Punk was amazing in laying out challenges to Low Ki, Bryan Danielson, and the Briscoes, none of them obviously scheduled for ROH that weekend. This brought out Mick Foley, who had a very entertaining back-and-forth with Punk. I will not spoil the doozies they laid upon each other, but it did lead to Foley pointing out that Punk should defend the championship because it's best for the company that gave him a platform to shine. Punk then said he would defend it against Jay Lethal, and that it was because he wanted to avenge losing to Lethal in the main event tag match at Back to Basics. Was this character for Punk also inspired by the behind-the-scenes Hulk Hogan? If so, BRILLIANT. ROH Title Match CM Punk vs. Jay Lethal This was a damn great match, especially when considering the work on the microphone that led up to it. Punk of course worked on the neck of Lethal, which was still recovering from Manhattan Mayhem. Lethal had also wrestled earlier in the evening, and while it was a curtain-jerking tag filler, it was still a match. I absolutely LOVED Lethal hitting a successful Dragon Suplex at the beginning on a cocky, unsuspecting Punk, showing Lethal's continuous improvement as a student of the game, AND playing off of the finish at Back to Basics. With Punk being such a magnificent heel, and Lethal improving every night as a babyface, the crowd was eating this shit up in the closing minutes. Having Joe come down to root for Lethal only helped make sure this match had even more heat. In a nice parallel to Low Ki and Homicide at Do or Die, Joe even slapped a fatigued Lethal to fire him up. However, Punk went right after Lethal's damaged neck, negating that moment. The finish of the match was perfect too - right in front of Joe, Punk delivered a musclebuster to Lethal, and then got a choke tapout submission. Punk managed not only to do this while laughing at Joe, but also did even more devastating damage to Lethal's neck in the process to bring this to a conclusion. Joe gets right in Punk's face afterward, and Foley comes out as well. Joe and Foley get face-to-face, going back to their feud earlier in the year, until Punk ambushes both of them. Gibson comes out as well, and stands united with Joe and Foley (their issue no longer alive due to Punk). Foley then says that Vince McMahon told him Punk must stay in ROH and keep defending the ROH Title until he loses it, otherwise he will find himself stuck in OVW and Sunday Night Heat hell. I could actually see Vince McMahon demanding that, so it works for me. Rating: **** Up next - Escape From New York Matches will include: Jimmy Rave vs. James Gibson vs. Alex Shelley vs. Azrieal Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong