supersonic

No matter what, don't take away my Total Nonstop Alberto.

Live in Tokyo – July 16, 2007 Taped from Tokyo, Japan ROH Video Wire – June 26, 2007 Important news/footage in the above video: July 16 in Tokyo – Takeshi Morishima vs. Nigel McGuinness for the ROH Title KENTA is injured from his MOTYC tag the day before; he’s being replaced tonight in his scheduled trios match against the Briscoes & Naomichi Marufuji by Atsushi Aoki with Ricky Marvin & Matt Sydal, and tomorrow’s dream team with CIMA against Davey Richards & Rocky Romero is also scrapped. Aoki is nowhere near a suitable replacement. The DVD kicks off with Nigel McGuinness arriving to the building, followed by a promo by Morishima. The production is a huge improvement, solidifying my stance that this show should’ve not just been the company’s second PPV taping, but McGuinness being dethroned by the undefeated Morishima in the main event. Even with this crowd not being anywhere near as rowdy as throughout America, one can only imagine a red-hot champion in McGuinness against the undefeated monster challenger Morishima, being a homecoming for the latter and the audience knowing this would air on PPV. Bryan Danielson has a pre-taped promo, talking about testing Go Shiozaki to say if he’d be worthy of an ROH excursion in the future. Danielson also says he has his eye on Morishima vs. McGuinness. Go Shiozaki vs. Bryan Danielson This told a very simple yet so incredibly effective story. Danielson successfully targeted Shiozaki’s left arm and shoulder early, his usual target to set up for the Crossface Chickenwing. But this allowed the right-handed Shiozaki to control the match for a lengthy period with nonstop chops after evading a Danielson dive on the outside. Once Danielson managed to regain control, he did something that all of his peers need to see – he adjusted his strategy. To marginalize Shiozaki’s overreliance on chops, Danielson targeted his right arm and shoulder, even modifying his usual positioning once he got the Crossface Chickenwing on later. But this was to be Shiozaki’s coming out party with the hopes of earning a future excursion, and his efforts with hope spots did not disappoint. His selling was also tremendous, selling both of his right limbs (the leg having tape on it coming into this match), stalling a Moonsault attempt that allowed Danielson to land a Backdrop Superplex for a near-fall. Shiozaki would manage to reach the ropes on a Cattle Mutilation attempt, but Danielson had enough confidence that he’d worn down the relatively greener opposition and went for it again. This would pay off when Shiozaki finally had nowhere to escape, taking way too much punishment and finally tapping out. As for the best storytelling moment of the match, it came in the middle when Shiozaki went for chops again after being softened by Danielson, and those strikes were at best incredibly lukewarm, drawing cocky reactions from the Hall of Famer. It must also be mentioned though that Danielson should’ve found a physically smarter, more subtle way to pay tribute to the freshly cremated Chris Benoit than a diving headbutt just 3 weeks into the Post CB world. Everyone needs to go out of their way to witness this classic, as it’s great studying for aspiring wrestlers, earned Shiozaki a future excursion, and made Danielson out to be a bonafide star for the ROH brand in the eyes of the puroresu audience, with him wanting the winner of Morishima vs. McGuinness. Rating: ****1/2 Nigel McGuinness has a pre-taped promo citing that now’s his time to finally dethrone Morishima, having earned tonight’s rematch after pinning the ROH Champion at United We Stand. Briscoe Bros. & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Ricky Marvin, Matt Sydal, & Atsushi Aoki Good trios match that never reached a sensational peak, with the finish lacking the climactic reaction that would’ve been expected. Aoki paid some dues here but in no way was the star, and neither was Sydal, as he didn’t really get involved until the closing stretch. Marvin turned out to be the star for his team, even having a callback involving the referee to his match against the Briscoes the day before this. Jay ate a couple nasty DDTs at different points but nothing earth-shattering, although it looked like Sydal almost had him near the end upon ducking a Springboard Doomsday Device and rolling him up with a jackknife cradle pin. But once Marufuji helped Jay lift Sydal up and Marvin & Aoki both out of the equation, Sydal had no choice but to fall victim to the triple-team Doomsday Device, although it surprised the crowd as mentioned. Rating: ***1/2 ROH Title Match Takeshi Morishima vs. Nigel McGuinness Very good main event that never got significant crowd heat until the last few minutes. Had it gotten heated a bit earlier, this would deserve to be regarded as high as their Fighting Spirit classic. Morishima surprisingly got some heel heat in this one, but perhaps that’s a testament to his Super Dragon style arrogant body language as well as the charisma and work ethic of McGuinness. It was refreshing to see Morishima have McGuinness scouted early, especially with the rebound lariat early, but McGuinness had the backdrop driver easily scouted too. No matter how prepared the champion was, eventually the challenger would cut him off with a rebound lariat on the outside, but the challenger’s submission work wouldn’t prove enough at all. The champion would have 2 tremendous cut offs, one fairly early by blocking an outside Sunset Flip and sitting on the sternum of McGuinness, the other by improvising with a side slam onto the floor from the apron upon the backdrop driver being blocked. Morishima also had the top rope lariat scouted, ducking a second one deep into the match, and perhaps that’s what helped him compensate for the surprisingly resistant native Japanese crowd; his scouting bailed him out this time, as should’ve always been the case rather than just relying on his size advantage. In the post-match, Danielson claims the ROH Title is his and slaps Morishima, only for McGuinness to be pissed and strike him for ruining their moment; in contrast, McGuinness congratulates Morishima for the victory. Rating: ***3/4 Brent Albright to have heard Morishima is so afraid of him that the champion lobbied for their match not to happen in Japan, so that a dethroning could be avoided. But the match is happening in Philly. The next double-shot in Long Island and New Jersey is a “Race to the Top” tournament. Lots of promising names; can this measure up to the 2001 King of Indies and annual Battle of Los Angeles? Recommended show for the 3 quality matches, one of them an incredible MOTYC. The trios match also got yanked off YouTube recently, so this show is the only way to see it, although it’s not must-see. Up next – Live in Osaka Matches will include: Speed Muscle & Delirious vs. Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito, & Matt Sydal Briscoe Bros. vs. Shingo & Susumu Yokosuka CIMA, Bryan Danielson, & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Davey Richards, Rocky Romero, & Massaki Mochizuki

KENTA & Ishimori vs. Ibushi & Marufuji - July 15, 2007 As usual with puroresu, this became incredible at the end, just a hot finish with all kinds of scouting on display. Ibushi & Marufuji thought they had a good strategy early by targeting KENTA's sore left knee, but that ultimately proved to be a non-factor. It was surprising to see a Crippler Crossface used just a few weeks after the Benoit tragedy, and perhaps it was a tribute to a wrestler that made an obvious puro impact in the 1990s. Perhaps due to such a regional, cultural distance, it didn't come across as sleazy at all as it would several weeks later in PWG (although I never was put off by WWE stars using it later in attempts to win matches since they had been defeated by Chris Benoit in that hold.) Ibushi was on point in this one and came across as the real star even in defeat. His evasion kip-up against Ishimore was amazing, but KENTA picked up on it at the end for the victorious Go to Sleep. Before that also, Ishimori hit a mesmerizing Handspring Moonsault Back Elbow. Ibushi & Marufuji also had an amazing sequence on KENTA. Ibushi went for a Moonsault but KENTA scouted it by rolling away; this was for naught though as Ibushi landed on his feet and hit his trademark swift Standing Moonsault on KENTA, who then fell to a Marufuji frog splash, followed by a Standing Shooting Star Press by Ibushi for a near-fall. As mentioned, Ibushi was outmatched at the end by KENTA, who scouted his evasion kip-up to eventually hit the Go to Sleep. A sensational match and I'll be curious how the ROH match involving Katsuhiko Nakajima instead of Ishimori compares to this when ROH comes back to Japan the following year. ****1/2

Talk to Joe and Morishima please. https://youtu.be/99OAe0VvwoU

Always, always, ALWAYS look at Cagematch first. Per that site, they were never competing in the same match.

NOAH: KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Jushin Liger & Takehiro Murahama - July 16, 2003 ****3/4 KENTA Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama - April 25, 2004 ***** Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama - Departure 2004 ****3/4 KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Takeshi Rikio & Takeshi Morishima - July 16, 2006 ****3/4 Naomichi Marufuji vs. KENTA - October 29, 2006 ***** ROH: Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson - Round Robin Challenge ***** Low Ki vs. Doug WIlliams vs. Brian Kendrick vs. Christopher Daniels - Crowning a Champion ****3/4 Paul London vs. Bryan Danielson - The Epic Encounter ***** AJ Styles vs. Paul London - Night of the Grudges ***** Briscoe Bros., John Walters, & Jimmy Rave vs. Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans - Generation Next ****3/4 Samoa Joe vs. Colt Cabana vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Homicide vs. Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson - Survival of the Fittest 2004 ****3/4 Samoa Joe vs. Bryan Danielson - Midnight Express Reunion ***** Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk - Joe vs. Punk II ***** Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk - All Star Extravaganza II ***** Austin Aries vs. CM Punk - Death Before Dishonor III ****3/4 Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi - Joe vs. Kobashi ***** Low Ki & Samoa Joe vs. Homicide & Kenta Kobashi - Unforgettable ****3/4 Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong - Vendetta ***** KENTA vs. Low Ki - Final Battle 2005 ****3/4 CIMA & Speed Muscle vs. Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito, & Genki Horiguchi - Supercard of Honor ***** Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong - Supercard of Honor ****3/4 Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer, & Adam Pearce vs. Chris Hero, Super Dragon, & Necro Butcher - The 100th Show ****3/4 Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness - Weekend of Champions Night 2 ****3/4 Homicide vs. Necro Butcher - Ring of Homicide ***** Team ROH vs. Team CZW - Death Before Dishonor IV ***** Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness - Unified ***** Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA - Glory By Honor V Night 2 ***** KENTA & Davey Richards vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong - Honor Reclaims Boston ****3/4 Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer - Supercard of Honor II ***** Briscoe Bros. vs. Motor City Machine Guns - Good Times, Great Memories ***** KENTA vs. Bryan Danielson - Driven 2007 ****3/4 TNA: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels - Against All Odds 2005 ****3/4 AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe - Turning Point 2005 ****3/4 WWE: Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin - Survivor Series 1996 ****3/4 Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin - WrestleMania 13 ***** Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk - SummerSlam 2013 ****3/4 The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family - Elimination Chamber 2014 ****3/4 Triple H vs. Daniel Bryan - WrestleMania XXX ****3/4 Sasha Banks vs. Bayley - NXT Takeover: Brooklyn ****3/4 Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - NXT Takeover: Dallas ***** Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles - Extreme Rules 2016 ****3/4

The band aid that will fail:

Key talent ran late, causing the length

Cena vs. Joe perhaps?

Driven 2007 – June 23, 2007 Taped from Chicago, IL Driven 2007 (PPV) – Aired September 21, 2007 Dave Prazak kicks off with a rah-rah promo in front of the rabid Chicago audience, but gets interrupted by Matt Cross, Delirious, & Erick Stevens, who want the No Remorse Corps right now. After the PPV intro, the challenge is answered. Apparent Scramble Rules Match No Remorse Corps vs. Matt Cross, Delirious, & Erick Stevens The commentary mentioned midway through this frenzied opener that referee Todd Sinclair was being lenient and seemed to opt for scramble rules. That was perfectly timed because the established tag legalities went out the window immediately afterward, having been adhered to up to that point. The makeshift babyfaces got the upper hand at first until Delirious played the Ricky Morton role, but it was too brief to build up to much of a hot tag, not that it mattered with this becoming a scramble spotfest. Chicago absolutely loved the insanity in this one, and why ROH hasn’t released a Trios Matches DVD yet with this included (as well as its equally hot post-match) is a mystery. With this being a glorified spotfest, that allowed Cross to shine the brightest thanks to a perfectly timed Sasuke Special and also a Reverse Hurricanrana to Davey Richards. But perhaps that was the poetry with Richards finally finishing off Cross with the Butterfly Driver, just moments after Cross failed to finish Romero with a Corkscrew type of press. Austin Aries arrives from the crowd and chases off the NRC to prevent the usual post-match attack, then cuts a tremendous rah-rah promo putting ROH over as THE wrestling company at the time, and signs his ROH contract. Immediately once he signed it, a graphic appeared with his name in a nice instantaneous touch, and as the crowd welcomed him back, so did company owner Cary Silkin in a handshake. Rating: *** An advertisement for the company’s Japan debut aired from Tokyo and Osaka, having been filmed prior to this PPV broadcast. The production looks top-notch and had I been in charge, Tokyo would’ve been the PPV over this Chicago event. Matt Sydal vs. Claudio Castagnoli Quality match between the two with chemistry akin to Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero and Kalisto vs. Alberto Del Rio. At some point, it’d be nice to see Cesaro vs. Evan Bourne in an opportunity to have the classic they’re capable of pulling off together. Like before, Castagnoli was the perfect base for Sydal’s feisty quickness and bomb-like counters. The major highlights were Sydal using the momentum of a Castagnoli power counter attempt and pressing off to hit a twisting head-scissors, a gorgeous one at that, as well as some good storytelling. Sydal hit a Spike Hurricanrana pin for a near-fall, a move that had been Castagnoli down back in November 2006. Not only did Castagnoli have the werewithal to kick out of this, but he managed to then counter it for the finish, rolling over for a jackknife pin. Castagnoli was an idiot in the post-match. Sweet ‘N Sour, Inc. arrived with Larry Sweeney offering Sydal a contract, and Castagnoli tore it up. Who the fuck is he to make a career decision for someone else like that? Sydal was justifiably pissed and decided to join them anyway, attacking Castagnoli as they all left him laying alone. Rating: ***1/2 A highlight reel for Jimmy Rave airs, with ROH having offered him an ROH Title match for God knows what reason, and he’s cashing in tonight. Fucking wretched booking. BJ Whitmer vs. Naomichi Marufuji Good mechanics, not the least bit interesting as a matchup. Considering that Chris Hero was involved in the prior segment, how about just having him stay in the ring and Sweeney tells Marufuji to get his ass into the ring to face his top signing? To nobody’s surprise, Marufuji won after a competitive match with the Shiranui, and the lack of frenzied audience engagement spoke volumes that nobody was dying to see these two collide. Rating: *** Brent Albright vs. Pelle Primeau Just a squash match in Albright’s favor. Although the idea is obvious to get Albright over, this would’ve been the perfect for him to face Takeshi Morishima after having earned an ROH Title match a couple weeks earlier at Domination. Tag Titles Match Briscoe Bros. vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico Very good match only held back by not substantial hot tag moment, although there were times that Jay and Generico were isolated. The real takeaways of the match came in the last several minutes, not that the first dozen minutes or so weren’t quality stuff. Steen’s dive on Jay was topped with a diving response from Mark on him; Mark had also hit a moonsault off a barricade to Generico. There’s an argument to be made that a title change should’ve been booked here when Generico got hot, Yakuza kicking Jay and feeding him to Steen for the Package Piledriver. It also seemed like that may be the case when Generico had a dramatic kick out, but once the Spike Butterfly Piledriver was implemented after Mark had driven Steen through a table, there was no going back. In the post-match, Steen attacks the champions with a ladder, telegraphing a ladder match on the next PPV. He tells Generico this is the kind of ruthless aggression he should be displaying before blowing snot on the Briscoes. There’s still plenty of juice left in this feud for sure. Rating: ***3/4 A tremendous Sweeney promo airs gloating about Hero and Sydal, promising the latter many great financial opportunities. Tank Toland berates Bobby Dempsey on an ab machine in a segment that I really hope is on Ring of Hero. Just fantastic stuff all around. Some food for thought: considering that Toland was ashamed of Dempsey’s obesity, what would he have to say about Kassius Ohno today? ROH Title Match Takeshi Morishima vs. Jimmy Rave Just a few minutes, but Rave got in his fair share of offense and evasions; this was surprisingly an enjoyable glorified squash, and a much more engaging match than Rave’s ROH Title match against Homicide a few months earlier. The crowd was totally into both, and thus it made it official: Morishima was now genuinely over. The commentary claims to be “out of time” or such bullshit, saying they have a special match to show that’s airing from Philly. Nobody is fooled by this false attempt to be multi-location like Starrcade 1985, WrestleMania 2, and Starrcade 1986. So here’s a copy and paste of the convoluted decision of booking this PPV main event 2 weeks earlier in the City of Brotherly Love. Before getting to the main event from Philly, a promo by Adam Pearce airs that I cannot fathom a single fucking person on the planet giving a single solitary shit about a decade ago. This was just the drizzling shits booking by Gabe Sapolsky. Absolutely fucking pointless and horrendous. Of course you care about that, so here are the details: Pearce talks about satisfying need before approaching a depressed Whitmer and striking him, then Albright appears besides Pearce. Just riveting stuff here, folks. To quote Dave Meltzer in a 1998 newsletter: “Hold off your votes for Feud of the Year.” ROH Title Shot Match Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness Taped June 9, 2007 @ Domination An absolutely stellar match here to put the Domination live event over the top (recall that card already had 3 existing ****+ matches included on its DVD release) and bring this PPV to a close. For anyone that loved the atmosphere of the John Cena vs. AJ Styles trilogy, they need to hear the Philly audience in this one as it was a fever pitch at the beginning. The big criticism is obvious, in that after a few minutes of mat work at the beginning, it became largely a strike-fest which ultimately shortened their careers. Rather than display the state-of-the-art technical wrestling that these two had displayed at Weekend of Champions Night 2, Generation Now, and The Epic Encounter II, they went with the Unified big match direction, which should’ve been left alone for their own long-term career value. That’s not to say that the strikes were dramatic and excellently timed. Perhaps had the match even focused a bit more on throwing bombs instead of strikes, it wouldn’t have been so traumatic for their careers while also being equally dramatic. They deserve credit for the incredible heat on a half crab false finish, Danielson struggling to reach the ropes. With that said, such a safe move like that generating so much heat further emphasizes the incorrectness of not relying on mat wrestling as the primary story. Another tremendous moment in this instant classic was McGuinness struggling to lift Danielson up for a Tower of London, finally being able to do, collapsing from exhaustion, and the crowd erupting as McGuinness didn’t have the energy to go for a pin fall. Perhaps no moment in this match told the ultimate takeaway coming out of this match – after 5 ROH Title matches and 2 PPV main events, McGuinness had yet to win a major match in the company. He simply just wasn’t on Danielson’s level yet, and in fact pushed Danielson to the max, something only KENTA and Roderick Strong could also claim in the past couple years. For both positive and negative reasons, the legitimate headbutts following the slap exchange became the biggest takeaway from this match in the short and long term. Undoubtedly, these dangerous decisions brought Philly to a frenzy, allowing the match’s final couple minutes to close out with a bang. On the other hand, there’s the obvious fact a decade later that both are retired with this match playing a significant reason as to why. As for the past couple minutes, it was insane (again both good and bad) to see a bloodied Danielson (that we’d find out the next day in PWG was also concussed) have the drive to go for the Cattle Mutilation. McGuinness would use the momentum of the Cattle Mutilation to get a sensational near-fall on Danielson, only to succumb to the elbows to the head just like at Unified. As stated before, McGuinness was in canon becoming known as someone who needed a career-defining victory on his resume, even with him on an obvious ascent to soon become ROH Champion. But having gotten the victory over Morishima at United We Stand, his opportunities were far from expired, and now both of these ROH icons had guaranteed shots at the ROH Title. Rating: ****1/2 BONUS MATCHES Chris Hero vs. Nigel McGuinness Good match although never reached anything special. While Hero was certainly over in this role as well McGuinness, looking back it did a poor job of grooming McGuinness for his obvious ascension. This was a definite step down after his Pure Title reign and program against Jimmy Rave. This was an easy story of McGuinness dominating early due to Hero being too cute, SNS helping Hero gain the advantage, Hero daring McGuinness to have a strike exchange to allow a comeback, and McGuinness eventually wins. Rating: ***1/4 KENTA vs. Bryan Danielson Phenomenal main event and a bit better than the Philly match placed on the PPV portion of this event. The lone criticism will be acknowledged right now: while KENTA’s head pain selling in the post-match displayed that the last minute or two was him weathering it all to finally pin Danielson in an ROH ring, there’s preference for KENTA to have sold the Go to Sleep implemented on him just a bit more, perhaps with both collapsing in exhaustion to sell it, and then having one last closing exchange afterwards. Even with that said, there’s so much to love about this rematch. Danielson’s suicide dive being blocked by a KENTA kick that connected with the previously injured right shoulder and teasing a retelling of their Glory By Honor V Night 2 story; Danielson answering that by giving an overhead belly-to-belly suplex off the apron and forcing KENTA to land on the padded floor; Danielson scouting the Busaiku knee after having already been brought down by it, and turning it into a beautiful O’Connor Roll; KENTA’s Cattle Mutilation being turned into a Tiger Suplex that ironically lost its bridge on Danielson’s right shoulder, allowing for a kick out. This was just simply breathtaking to watch. These two gave so much that when KENTA landed the Buckle Bomb on Danielson, it caused the former GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion to continue flinging forward with Danielson and having to take a dive out of the ring to save himself. Thankfully KENTA landed just fine as the Chicago audience applauded for this masterpiece of a wrestling match. Another bright spot was Danielson going for aggressive forearm smashes, reminding me of AJ Styles getting furious on Low Ki at Honor Invades Boston. Anything that reminds me of that classic match is a definite thumbs up. As for the finishing stretch, there was Danielson applying the Go to Sleep as mentioned for a hot near-fall, and then going for the elbows to the head. Had Danielson ever gotten to face Brock Lesnar, this match gives a pretty good idea of what would’ve happened had he gone for the elbows to the head while in position to eat an F5 from the Beast Incarnate: like KENTA here, Lesnar would’ve withstood the pain and kept his eyes on the prize against his fellow Hall of Famer. After all the strikes to Danielson’s head, and the fact that KENTA was mustering everything to not succumb to the same, the inevitable became reality as the Go to Sleep inventor applied his finisher, finally securing the victory over the face of ROH for the first time on this side of the Pacific Ocean since Best in the World 2006. The post-match is also textbook yet so effective, receiving a standing ovation as they shake hands and bow towards each other in respect. KENTA is welcomed back anytime by the Chicago audience, and why wouldn’t they, considering this topped his classic that took place just 364 days earlier in this very same building against Aries? Just like that match, this one makes the KENTA compilation worthy every penny too. Rating: ****3/4 Firstly, a word on Domination as an entire live event now that Danielson vs. McGuinness has been reviewed. It’s a definite show of the year contender in that the good shit REALLY makes up for the useless shit, including Danielson vs. McGuinness, Briscoes vs. Kings of Wrestling, Morishima vs. Strong, and Steen & Generico vs. Jigsaw & Mike Quackenbush. Does it deserve show of the year so far? That’s difficult to say since it wasn’t consistent, but it’s in the running. Taking out Danielson vs. McGuinness, the Driven 2007 live event gets an easy recommendation, even though the 3 Chicago matches that truly matter are on their own compilations, but others will absolutely salivate over the action-packed opener along with its molten post-match angle, and there’s the novelty of finally seeing Morishima be truly over after 4 months as the top champion. Undoubtedly, this was an excellent show on its own. When factoring it how the PPV was formatted and then adding the live event bonus matches, this one’s a no-brainer for the reasons listed in the previous paragraph. It doesn’t matter that both Danielson matches are compilations; this was the most highly-sought DVD of 2007 at the time of its release due to the novelty of having 2 incredible matches, displaying 2 of Danielson’s greatest rivalries every. The company now makes its Japan debut, but there is a tragedy that must be addressed. The 9/11 of pro wrestling was happening the nights of these particular events in Dayton and Chicago. Nobody could’ve seen the horrors that were about to be discovered in Atlanta. While it won’t be a part of this project, there WILL be a retrospective on the events surrounding the man that inspired more wrestlers on the 2007 ROH roster more than anyone else, that being the Hall of Famer Chris Benoit. Every wrestling fan a decade ago lost pieces of their soul that are never coming back, and with fresh eyes the experience deserves to be revisited to truly understand what we learned from it. Up next – Live in Tokyo Matches will include: Go Shiozaki vs. Bryan Danielson Briscoe Bros. & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Ricky Marvin, Matt Sydal, & Atsushi Aoki Takeshi Morishima vs. Nigel McGuinness

United We Stand – June 22, 2007 Taped from Dayton, OH Matt Cross & Erick Stevens vs. Davey Richards & Roderick Strong A well-paced match that fell apart since nobody could be bothered to remember tag legalities, not even referee Todd Sinclair, who has proven to know better. For those who deem this to be nit-picking, this is a genre of entertainment in which the viewer is supposed to suspend disbelief, in which we are to buy into this being a legitimate contest. That includes officiating being up to par. How important is officiating to upholding the true value of a contest? Well this is being written the night of Game 4 in the 2017 NBA Finals, and based on social media, that game was severely tainted by officiating problems. The real takeaway is the post-match as Austin Aries sat front row and Strong called him out. Quite obvious that Aries got his release granted by TNA and is now back. Cross has negative charisma when verbally standing up for Aries as the Resilience leader, supposedly not allowed to do more than be a spectator, dares Strong to take this issue outside the building. Good on TNA to do the right thing, and it might be the only one that company did in 2007. Rating: less than *** At intermission, Larry Sweeney reveals that Chris Hero has now signed an ROH contract, and Sweet ‘N Sour Inc. forces Bobby Dempsey to perform jumping jacks. Sweeney is astonishingly magnetic here. KENTA vs. Rocky Romero Very good match here with Romero showing plenty of counters to go along with his cockiness. His trademark arrogance though should’ve honestly been toned down against the former GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion, because KENTA isn’t someone to fuck with for someone on Romero’s level. The Dayton crowd absolutely loved this as Romero managed to get the cross arm breaker on a couple times, including one off the top rope and another as a counter to a cross arm breaker by KENTA. Romero’s stock went up by kicking out of the Busaiku knee, but his fatal mistake was on KENTA’s first Go to Sleep attempt. Instead of hitting a crucifix move like Austin Aries or Bryan Danielson would do in the same position, Romero countered with a traditional roll-up that led to the cross arm breaker counter. This allowed KENTA to eventually lift Romero up while in the submission, hitting the Go to Sleep on the exhausted former ROH Tag Champ for the victory. In the post-match, Davey Richards arrives so the NRC can feign respect, only to sucker KENTA before getting chased off by Delirious, Cross, and Stevens. Get Delirious out of this shit ASAP. Rating: ***3/4 Takeshi Morishima & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Bryan Danielson & Nigel McGuinness Danielson & McGuinness showed quite the chemistry here. Once Team NOAH got the ring cut in half on Danielson, there had to be some concern based on how easily Danielson cozied up to Morishima just 6 weeks earlier. But the faith Danielson had in Morishima would be justified, ending up with a hot tag after Danielson ate plenty of offense in his first in-ring action against the ROH Champion. Everything in this was just crisp, and the ROH dream team was on point, bailing each other out when the time called for it, whether it was Danielson in a neck-and-shoulder submission that had been used by Jay Lethal at Manhattan Mayhem (someone book Lethal vs. Marufuji at some point btw), or Morishima needing to be missile dropkicked by Danielson to not hit the backdrop driver on McGuinness. The last several minutes in particular were off the charts, especially for the finish. In a moment 4 months in the making, the monstrous ROH Champion finally ate his first loss since his debut against Samoa Joe, but of course the company realizes that was a fuckup so the commentary pushes this as Morishima’s first defeat in ROH. McGuinness went for all kinds of lariats but like always, Morishima wouldn’t go down. It’d take a superkick by McGuinness to be the final blow to stagger Morishima, with a Marufuji superkick giving McGuinness the momentum necessary to land the victorious rebound lariat while Danielson kept the former GHC Heavyweight Champion at bay. Just an excellent match with a rousing standing ovation afterwards, and Morishima vs. McGuinness II should be a doozy. Rating: **** Tag Titles – 2/3 Falls Match Briscoe Bros. vs. Matt Sydal & Claudio Castagnoli A definite stepdown from their show-stealer the month before as well as the 2/3 falls match involving ¾ of these men a couple weeks earlier. This never came close to a fever pitch, with the first fall’s solid story being everyone going for a quick fall, which the Briscoes were successful with after isolating Sydal. Out of desperation, Castagnoli chose to forgo the rest period and go right after the champs in what turned out to be a lengthier second fall. However, there was no drama here unlike the prior match and real main event – everyone knew this would be a sweep after the Briscoes’ quick first fall, and fans even called it at the beginning of the match. There’s something to be said for booking such dominant champions, and in fact it was because of both the Briscoes and Morishima that the prior show was called Domination. So with that in mind, the main event on this show should’ve just been Morishima & Marufuji vs. Danielson & McGuinness, as McGuinness going over Morishima would’ve been a tremendous way to close out the show. Oh yeah, in addition, it was explained that this was Sydal cashing in on entitled rematch after the show-stealer at Respect is Earned. That shows the confidence Sydal had that if the Kings of Wrestling would’ve dethroned the Briscoes he could’ve found someone else, and who could blame him after he and Christopher Daniels had already gotten the job done against them? Rating: ***1/4 The DVD closes with a very brief Brent Albright promo, who’s salivating now that Morishima’s proven to be vulnerable and looking forward to cashing in his ROH Title match. Recommended for the triple main event, although it may be better just to get the compilations they’re on, including KENTA, Danielson vs. McGuinness, and Creating Excellence respectively. Nothing of else on this show is worth the money. And now, perhaps the best pro wrestling PPV of 2007, along with an anticipated rematch. Up next – Driven 2007 Matches will include: The entire Driven 2007 PPV broadcast Chris Hero vs. Nigel McGuinness KENTA vs. Bryan Danielson

Flair vs. Steamboat Sting vs. Callous Pillman vs. Liger Benoit vs. Booker series

Slammiversary 2007 – June 17, 2007 Live from Nashville, TN X-Division Title Match Chris Sabin vs. Jay Lethal Fun enough match with Kevin Nash having some amusing blurbs while on commentary. Sabin played the default heel, something he had mastered by this point as one half of the Motor City Machine Guns. In fact, with Lethal dethroning him here and Alex Shelley feuding with… Bob Backlund???, there’s no excuse not to implement MCMG in this federation and make them the faces of the tag division now. Everything was mechanically good with the Nashville crowd into it, so there were no true takeaway highlights in this other than Lethal managing to avoid Sabin’s Cradle Shock. On the other hand, Sabin was unable to avoid the Lethal Combination, thus leading to this title change. ***1/4 TNA Title – King of the Mountain Match Kurt Angle vs. Chris Harris vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christian Cage vs. AJ Styles Definitely the greatest KOTM of all-time. It looked bad at first with Styles offering to play second-fiddle to Christian, but then Styles decided just to go at this alone. This had all kinds of incredible bombs and highlights, with Styles particularly on point with his offense. He was fantastic in dropkicking the ladder to prevent Harris from hanging the title belt, but then topped himself later when he went on top of the penalty box and Joe followed him. Unlike a scaffold match in which its entirety is spent with those not wanting to take a bump and it making for tedious psychology, the same psychology was applied here but because it was short-lived and had a payoff, it clicked. That payoff would be when Joe yanked Styles off the box roof Iconoclasm-style, forcing Styles to take a bump through the commentary table. The match would come to Angle and Christian fighting to see who could hang the belt first, and perhaps with this being the company’s 5th anniversary PPV and in its original hometown to boot, Angle should’ve had this struggle against someone more homegrown like Joe or Styles instead. However, Harris channeling Edge to spear Christian off the ladder was tremendously timed, allowing Angle to hang up the belt to retain in this jaw-dropping main event. In the post-match, Joe offers congratulations to Angle, only to eat an Angle Slam. The company blew its load on their program already, but whatever. ****1/4

Roger Dorn Night – June 10, 2007 Taped from Los Angeles, CA Davey Richards kicks off the show offering to take Bryan Danielson’s spot in the main event for the PWG Title, citing that Danielson had to get head staples after a match against Nigel McGuinness last night in Philly. Danielson arrives and says 3 staples in his head won’t sideline him; this is a wonderful look just 2 weeks away from the 9/11 of pro wrestling. He offers to face both him and El Generico for the PWG Title. Kevin Steen arrives and wants to make it a four-way match since he’s already facing Richards. Seems obvious that Danielson wasn’t trusted to have a one-on-one main event against Generico, explaining this angle to merge the 2 singles matches. Dino Winwood arrives followed by the PWG Champion Generico, who accepts the four-way challenge, which doesn’t please Richards. He gives Generico a low blow and drills him with a DDT, vowing to take the title tonight. TJ Perkins vs. Tony Kozina All mechanics and nothing special, with both legitimately vanilla midgets having to overcompensate for their lack of charisma and personality. It was this point that I finally figured out what Perkins visually is: a poor man’s Paul London. Highlights include Perkins pulling the apron carpeting back to neutralize a baseball slide, as well as Kozina stacking chairs on Perkins on the outside and then idiotically hitting a slingshot senton, harming his neck in the process. The lowlight would be a shitty apron DDT by Perkins on Kozina. Kozina’s neck would be the story for the rest of the match, with admittedly good hope spots and comebacks, but it’s fucking Tony Kozina, so can who really get engaged by him, even with a Hurricanrana off the apron? At least the ending made sense with Perkins going over, but it was anticlimactic, coming nowhere close to a frenzied finish that so many others working this same type of match would’ve mustered up. Rating: *** Tag Titles Match PAC & Roderick Strong vs. Havana Pitbulls Sloppy match overall here hurt even more by Ricky Reyes being just as exciting as Perkins and Kozina earlier on the card. While the structure was fine, nobody bothered to build up a meaningful hot tag, although it’s difficult to care enough about rooting against a non-personality like Reyes. PAC’s left leg being a target was a good strategy, and it explained why Romero didn’t get forced to take a full rotation near the end for a Reverse Hurricanrana. Not a memorable first defense for the champs. Rating: less than *** Tyler Black vs. Joey Ryan Another nothing special match on this card. Such “highlights” include Black running around with the exhausted Ryan’s inhaler and having none of the comedic charisma of Bryan Danielson if he was doing this same spot; Ryan’s trunks being pulled down and revealing a thong; and Scorpio Sky appearing to help Black win via distraction and set up a post-match angle that in no fucking way measures up to the broken Loser Leaves Town promise ROH would book 4 years later. Winwood books a hardcore match between Ryan and Sky for the future, with Sky banned permanently in all facets from PWG if he loses as the condition per Ryan, but a victory would ensure his full-time reinstatement. Rating: less than *** Young Bucks’ PWG Debut Young Bucks vs. Chris Bosh & Scott Lost Poor officiating brought this down a notch as is common on the underground, but this was otherwise a splendid first impression from the Bucks, although their biker short trunks certainly were not. They dominated most of the match, catching Arrogance off-guard when they attempted sneak attempts during intros. The Bucks brought in all kinds of cool moves as they’re known for a decade later, with so much control that Jade Chung had to distract the ref so Bosh could low-blow one of them. The Bucks tried to get too cute at the end with Stereo 450 Splashes against the former Tag Champs of the company, resulting in both being missed and Matt tapping out to the Scorpion Deathlock. These Jacksons may have some money in them, as they’re definitely comparable to the Hardyz. Need a ring gear change, though. Rating: *** Bryan Danielson cuts a promo outside, stating that he suffered a concussion last night. Now that’s a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful look for him and just 2 weeks away from the 9/11 of pro wrestling. How the Hell could we all be so foolish to think it was wise for him to not only work with a concussion, but also do so after flying across the continent? PWG Title Match El Generico vs. Kevin Steen vs. Davey Richards vs. Bryan Danielson Good main event here with tag legality adherence throughout to the very finish. Watching Danielson perform a Backdrop Superplex and diving headbutt sure wasn’t quite so pleasant coming right after his outdoor promo. The real star of the match was Richards playing the top heel and being obnoxious. At one point the champ was in peril, each of the challengers taking a turn on him. Richards managed to avoid Generico’s Half ‘N Half Suplex, but left himself open at the end to a Yakuza kick after being too exhausted from hitting a Shooting Star Press on Steen. With Danielson also too dazed due to his concussion from hitting a suicide dive, Generico capitalized on Richards with the Turnbuckle Brainbuster. While Danielson honoring this booking is professionally admirable, everyone knows it was an incredibly dipshit decision to have made in hindsight. But fuck the morality, fuck his well-being. This match would’ve been better off without his participation, as it never reached the fever pitch that it promised to be on paper. Let this also be a lesson to any aspiring wrestlers that may read this: when you take stupid fucking risks, you risk being able to honor your committed bookings in the short-term, and also shortening your career like Danielson. Rating: ***1/2 Steen cuts an outdoor promo challenging Richards to a proper singles match for a PWG Title shot, pointing out that Richards last tonight after being such a little shit earlier. Hovering airplanes interrupt, causing Steen to cut an amusing rant on Southwest Airlines. The historic debut of the Young Bucks is on their PWG compilation, so unless one must see the main event for completionist reasons involving its 4 underground stars, stay the Hell away from this show. History’s about to go down again, and the shit’s gonna hit the fan for the anniversary show. Up next – Giant Size Annual #4 Matches will include: Necro Butcher vs. Bryan Danielson PAC & Roderick Strong defending the Tag Titles And anything else of note that might just happen too…

Can anyone clarify about his InVasion idea? Never seen that shoot but read he would've pulled back the curtain had he been given the book for that.

Start listing them: Fans/media that voice criticisms no matter how valid Use of precious terminology by fans including kayfabe, heel, babyface, etc. Fans that don't worship their every antic Fans that educate themselves via various resources Fans that refuse to comply with company desires Dirtsheets exposing the carny underbelly

Domination – June 9, 2007 Taped from Philadelphia, PA Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico Phenomenal match here that got going when Steen individually decided to cut the ring in half on Jigsaw, mocking the need for a hot tag. Quackenbush was also brilliant when he got baited in the ring, drawing referee Todd Sinclair’s attention; instead of bitching, Quackenbush just stood there to keep Sinclair from counting a pin fall in Steen’s favor. Now that’s veteran tag team psychology from a babyface, a rarity. The hot tag to Quackenbush would finally come after Jigsaw hit a step-up Enziguri and gorgeous tornado DDT counter. Once Quackenbush came in, he was the appropriate house of fire as Steen also got tagged in. Anyone that appreciated the Daniel Bryan era in 2013-14 would love Quackenbush’s arsenal here. Eventually the match would return to being even with Steen giving Quackenbush to signature Ric Flair counter, that being the press slam off the top rope, but Quackenbush rolled through it, only to eat a Pop-Up Powerbomb and Generico splash for a great near-fall. Once Jigsaw was tagged back in, he ate knees to the gut on a splash attempt, but avoid Generico’s Yakuza kick, which struck Steen instead. In what could’ve been a highlight in a normal match, Jigsaw took Generico down with a Torture Rack Sit Down Powerbomb Drop, followed by a Quackenbush Swaton, followed by a Jigsaw Guillotine Leg Drop, followed by Quackenbush Double Knees Drop. Steen brilliantly yanked Jigsaw out for what would’ve been the surefire finish, then got the tag after putting Generico back in the ring. Quackenbush seated Steen on the turnbuckle and Jigsaw went for a Hurricanrana, but Steen blocked it. Generico hit a Van Terminator to take advantage, then Steen followed up with a Super Sit Down Powerbomb. When Quackenbush broke it up, that was the true highlight as the crowd erupted for this timeless classic. With Generico taking a down to the outside, that took out Quackenbush. Jigsaw was then prone to a Package Piledriver and Brainbuster for the finish, leaving the crowd in amazement to deliver a standing ovation. In the post-match, all four men shake hands but the Chikara tandem is weary of the abrasive Steen. He proves them right when he tosses Jigsaw out and then takes a powder from Quackenbush, who is pissed. Steen awesomely says that he followed the Code of Honor, but Jigsaw took too long to break the handshake. Absolutely fantastic piece of business here that has fallen under the radar for God knows what reason. Perhaps we should’ve known this would be off-the-charts since it marked Steen & Generico’s return to the very building where they finally earned their full-time spots. Sensational tag team wrestling. Rating: ****1/4 In a four-way match, Brent Albright earns an ROH Title match. Time for him to finally deliver when that happens, as he’s been a disappointment so far with more than half a year spent on the roster. Tag Titles – 2/3 Falls Match Briscoe Bros. vs. Kings of Wrestling While Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli are cordial, they’re certainly not best friends again, as Castagnoli has little patience for Sweet ‘N Sour, Inc. and gets chastised when he tries hazing Bobby Dempsey by Tank Toland. Meanwhile the Briscoes are treated like total rock stars and Hero is drawing mega heat, no surprise with this being Philly. Makes me think this may have been the best night to have booked the KOW vs. Steen & Generico dream match that’s yet to happen a decade later. The dueling chants at the start are amazing, perhaps indicating CZW fans have been hooked into the product after the white-hot 2006. Dave Prazak pushes on commentary this is Castagnoli’s reward for having a show-stealer alongside Matt Sydal against the Briscoes at Respect is Earned. That’s an odd explanation for this, but whatever. The rivalry between these 2 teams peaked here for the time being, smoking their acclaimed encounter at Final Battle 2006. This one had far deeper storytelling and tag team psychology, with the impressive dynamic of this being another clean 2-0 sweep for the Briscoes and the second fall being treated so seriously by the Philly crowd. While the Briscoes hot tag didn’t get quite the reaction hoped for after Mark had the ring cut in half on him by the obnoxious KOW, Jay was a tremendous house of fire to hold up his end of the deal. Although not pushed on commentary, the narrative looked to be that after Hero took the first fall thanks to Jay’s Butterfly Piledriver, he’d be out of the ring unconscious and Castagnoli would have to channel Colt Cabana’s inspiring performance from Death Before Dishonor II Pt. 1. However that would not be the case as Hero did regain consciousness in time to turn this into a barn-burner, perhaps the greatest 2/3 falls match to ever end in a 2-0 sweep. Hero perfectly timed a dive to the outside and turned it into a front somersault to land on his feet and take Mark out with a Yakuza kick, leaving Jay to eat Castagnoli’s Alpamari Waterslide for an excellent near-fall. The writing was on the wall there as Mark countered Hero’s Irish Whip on the outside and Jay this time had the Ricola Bomb scouted. But as Jay went for the Butterfly Piledriver again this time with Mark in motion to help, SNS grabbed Mark’s leg, so the younger Briscoe took them out via an Asai Moonsault to Philly’s delight, landing on his feet just like Hero minutes earlier. Castagnoli would hit a springboard uppercut and Ricolo Bomb this time, but Mark arrived to break it up, then they surprised Castagnoli with a sudden Springboard Doomsday Device to bring this timeless classic to an end, matching the other tag team classic earlier on the card, and making me further wish KOW vs. Steen & Generico had happened. (WrestleMania 34, pretty please!) In the post-match, Hero and the rest of SNS display disgust with Castagnoli, as if he has solely responsible for the clean sweep. Such a shame that booker Gabe Sapolsky saw this in the long-term as just another means to advance the Hero vs. Castagnoli program that never got over, rather than bringing the team back together after such an excellent match. Rating: ****1/4 The semi main event of the evening would be taped for PPV and not available on this home video release. Live reports at the time indiciate that the PPV announcement cranked up Philly even more. That would then be heightened when Larry Sweeney revealed to Nigel McGuinness his mystery opponent for the evening, none other than Bryan Danielson, with the winner earning a future ROH Title match. Since the match would only be available on the event known as Driven 2007, there will be no spoilers or discussion of Danielson vs. McGuinness V here. However, those in attendance said that had the match been included, this is an easy show of the year contender. With that in mind, this show will be assessed as a home video release in this review, and then with Danielson vs. McGuinness included in the Driven 2007 review for full live report assessment, with both versions being considered for the end of year awards as well. The assessment that can be provided is this: Sapolsky wanted Danielson vs. McGuinness to be on the second PPV, but wanted that show in Chicago for whatever reason. He also wanted the KENTA vs. Danielson rematch to happen in Chicago, and that was the only Chicago event all year that both KENTA and Danielson would both be booked on. That’s what I call a recipe of stubbornness with a lovely dash of burnout flavor. In hindsight, this Philly event should’ve just been the fucking PPV taping since the third PPV would be in Chicago anyway. Spread the brotherly love, motherfucker. If Driven 2007 is entirely filmed on June 9 in Philly, then KENTA vs. Danielson can still be in Chicago as desired. However, if Chicago on June 23 just HAD to be a PPV event even though that market was hosting the following PPV a few months later, then just book Danielson vs. McGuinness to happen there rather than being a previously recorded add-on. KENTA vs. Danielson can then take place the next time they’re both available for ROH, which would be Glory By Honor VI Night 1 on November 2 in Philly, and when including their NOAH encounter, pushed as a huge rubber match the night before their huge matches that’d turn out to be against Mitsuharu Misawa and Takeshi Morishima. And now, the actual main event both in person and on home video. ROH Title Match Takeshi Morishima vs. Roderick Strong Yet another tremendous match to close out the show. Strong managed to give an effort just as admirable as Shingo, Austin Aries, and Nigel McGuinness, topping Jay Briscoe from the night before; perhaps he was humbled by taking the fall to Delirious, although that wasn’t mentioned whatsoever. Strong seemed to have everything scouted. The backdrop driver, the standing lariat, the sit down crush, he evaded all of Morishima’s signature moves and found a way to get back into this after being dominated in lengthy fashion by the champion. Morishima was equally resilient albeit arrogant as always, going straight at Strong to start the match and paying for it, but weathering that storm. What bit Strong was that he fell into the trap of Morishima’s signatures after having successfully scouted them earlier. Despite all the punishment he managed to deliver to Morishima, including a side slam on the outside to soften Morishima’s back, a superplex, and even delivering a gutbuster that had been teased earlier, nothing could keep the monster down for long enough. After the suplex, Morishima kicked out at one and took care of Strong with a lariat. At this point I saw a strategy that someone needed to implement, and it’ll likely take a smaller opponent to do so: when Morishima stands like a statue, instead of just hitting upward strikes, a challenger should go for his legs instead to surprise him and bring him down to size; this will also allow the challenger to evade Morishima’s standing lariat. It was surprising to see Strong get his arm on the ropes to break a pin after eating a backdrop driver, but it only made the Philly crowd even hotter after sitting through a tremendous live event. However, once the second backdrop driver was hit with Strong landing in the middle of the ring, that was all she wrote. Outstanding main event as mentioned. Mentioned in commentary is that the next event will be headlined by Morishima teaming up with Naomichi Marufuji to take on Danielson & McGuinness. OH FUCK YES~! Rating: **** As a home video release, this gets an easy recommendation since it also includes a good match between Bryan Danielson and Jay Lethal from FIP to make up for the absence of Danielson vs. McGuinness. That along with the Briscoes vs. KOW classic makes for the exclusive stuff not anywhere else as of yet; for those who don’t bother with compilations, the other two excellent matches in Morishima vs. Strong and Quackenbush & Jigsaw vs. Steen & Generico make this one of the best shows of the year event without the acclaimed PPV match. Now had that PPV match been included, would it have topped the best contenders so far in 2007 such as Fifth Year Festival: Finale, Supercard of Honor II, and Good Times, Great Memories? Perhaps, but difficult to really say since half of this show was just disposable filler. This was definitely a great show though and will be in consideration at the end of the year, with the live report assessment in a couple weeks only enhancing it. The time for uncertainty is done with. A question is about to be answered. A dream partner tag match has arrived stemming from the events of Respect is Earned. All on the eve of a crazy PPV taping and rematch everyone’s been dying to see for the past 9 months. Up next – United We Stand Matches will include: Matt Cross & Erick Stevens vs. Davey Richards & Roderick Strong KENTA vs. Rocky Romero Takeshi Morishima & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Bryan Danielson & Nigel McGuinness Briscoe Bros. vs. Matt Sydal & Claudio Castagnoli

A Fight at the Roxbury – June 8, 2007 Taped from Boston, MA ROH Video Wire – May 29, 2007 Important news/footage in the above video: Delirious crashes the locker room looking for Roderick Strong at an FIP event. Instead, he runs into Tyler Black, making his canon debut for ROH. June 8 in Boston – Takeshi Morishima vs. Jay Briscoe for the ROH Title June 9 in Philadelphia – Briscoe Bros. vs. Kings of Wrestling for the Tag Titles in 2/3 Falls June 23 in Chicago (PPV) – Briscoes Bros. vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico In their promo also filmed in Florida, the Briscoes vow to take care of Morishima and Steen in Boston, sweep the KOW 2-0 in Philly, and then handle Steen & Generico in Chicago. All quality matches on paper, that’s for sure. In discussing their trios match tonight against Matt Cross, Delirious, & Erick Stevens, the No Remorse Corps claim Austin Aries is hiding behind his TNA contract. They also perv on Becky Bayless. Bryan Danielson is unhappy that he had a grueling ROH Title match against Jimmy Rave last year at the Fourth Anniversary Show. Tonight, it’ll be quick, no classic match. Daizee Haze calls out Lacey, but Jimmy Jacobs answers instead. Haze won’t let him cut much of a promo, grabbing his walking cane. Lacey then arrives to help Jacobs, giving Haze a Lungblower. She’s far more concerned about Jacobs, who has much more confidence now as displayed in his apparel and body language. At his request, Lacey finishes Haze, but is still focused on his well-being. Just a segment to display how the roles had been reversed for Lacey & Jacobs since their dates. Jimmy Rave vs. Bryan Danielson Very good and much shorter match as promised by Danielson. He targeted Rave’s previously broken jaw to dominate most of this match. In addition, for everything Rave pulled off, Danielson would have an answer, including faking a dive to psyche out Rave and then hit a running forearm. All that jaw work came into play at the end during some crucifix pins, as Danielson used the positioning to finish Rave off with elbows the head. In the post-match, Danielson tells Morishima that he’ll suffer the same fate. We shall see about that. Rating: ***3/4 Mark Briscoe vs. Kevin Steen Steen declares himself the future of ROH during his entrance. He’s right on the money there. This was just a totally awesome match that started in a hurry, Mark wasting no time engaging in fisticuffs in the ring to kick it off. They’d go to the outside, with Mark eating 2 powerbombs, first on the apron, then being tossed into the crowd onto some chairs. It’d continue into the crowd, my favorite moment being Steen teasing a dive off a camera post, then just so arrogantly choosing not to follow through on it. Once they got back to ringside, Steen took a moment to gloat, paying for it by taking the trademark Ric Flair bump on the floor when Mark press slammed him. The match was equally sensational back in the ring with Steen gaining the upper hand after a step-up Enziguri. However, his Swanton would backfire when Mark put his knees up. Once Mark went up top though, Steen cut him off, then shoved the Tag Champion off the turnbuckle and onto a nearby table as well as some chairs. After feigning concern, Steen brought Mark back in the ring to finish him off with the Package Piledriver, bringing this piece of chaos to its conclusion. In the post-match, Steen cuts a promo at the camera, telling his mother that he’s a winner. He tries to dish out more punishment with a chair, but Jay arrives to stop that shit to an incredibly pop, then Generico shows up to keep Steen out of anymore trouble. Tremendous stuff here. Rating: **** ROH Title Shot Match Chris Hero vs. Mike Quackenbush vs. Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio Castagnoli Hell of a match that would’ve been tremendous had the officiating not been so atrocious. Officiating will be harped on because as in any sport, when it’s shoddy, the most well-versed, objective viewers of them are going to point that shit out. KOW actually worked together, although Castagnoli didn’t get along with Sweet & Sour Inc. The real star of the match was Quackenbush as KOW cut the ring in half on him for about 10 minutes. Once Quackenbush got the hot tag to McGuinness, the match looked to kick up a notch, but that’s when referee Todd Sinclair became forgetful of tag legalities. This was especially dubious because at one point, he used that very reason to not make a pin in Castagnoli’s favor, but did so against him later. This could’ve actually been an opportunity with a booker NOT burned out like Gabe Sapolsky for the commentary to push that perhaps there was STILL resentment towards Castagnoli for betraying ROH in favor of CZW; while that may seem far-fetched, imagine how much additional historic emphasis that would’ve placed on such a special saga. Sinclair should be pleased that Castagnoli ended up winning the match, because any other result and Castagnoli would’ve had more than a fair case to make about being screwed. This actually only makes the decision to have split away from Chris Hero all the more foolish, because Larry Sweeney could’ve been lobbying for him had such an injustice occurred. In fact, this match would’ve been better served as reuniting KOW anyway and having Castagnoli welcomed into SNS, since they were already scheduled to reunite the next day against the Briscoes for the Tag Titles. There’s nothing wrong with fixing a mistake, but Sapolsky was just too burned out at this time to figure that out. Castagnoli could’ve then earned his ROH Title shot by different means later. Now as for the finish, it capped off what was supposed to be an excellent match based on the action. After such highlights like Hero eating a rebound lariat from McGuinness on the outside, Castagnoli hitting a surprise rolling uppercut to McGuinness, and Quackenbush pulling off all kinds of spectacular counters, many of them arm drag variations that’d make Ricky Steamboat blush, the bar had been set. In this case at the finish, Quackenbush did multiple head-scissor rotations around Castagnoli’s head, drove him down, then turned him over for a crucifix pin near-fall. Quackenbush attempted to then finish Castagnoli off via a backslide pin, over the backslide to be reverse and Castagnoli instantly hitting an uppercut that Quackenbush sold like a million bucks for the finish. In the post-match, SNS is none too pleased as Tank Toland tells Sinclair he’s fat like Bobby Dempsey. Rating: ***1/2 At intermission, BJ Whitmer has nothing to say to Becky Bayless, but Kevin Steen is more than happy to cut a fantastic promo without her around. With Generico by his side, he says his partner will defeat Matt Sydal tonight, then boasts his actions towards Mark Briscoe. “I enjoyed it so much… You know what I’m gonna do with that DVD? I loved it so much, I’m gonna use it as if it were pornography.” He then vows that they’ll dethrone the Briscoes for the Tag Titles later. Fuck, how much I would love for KOW to dethrone the Briscoes so that KOW vs. Steen & Generico can happen. Just once is all I ask for. Eddie Edwards gets a standing ovation in his hometown of Boston after defeating Pelle Primeau. Enough pussyfooting, push the motherfucker and make him cut off those dreadful dreadlocks too. El Generico vs. Matt Sydal The show-stealing MOTN, feeling like it was straight from a PWG All Star Weekend or Battle of Los Angeles card. Sydal played the cocky, more successful shit while on offense early, and had plenty of terrific counters to cut off Generico’s hope spots. Perhaps he got trips from CIMA to explain him tugging on Generico’s mask tassels, although he proudly states he has experience doing that when referencing his series against Delirious. Generico was equally terrific with his counters to cut off Sydal too, the peak being deep in the match on the outside when he gave Sydal no time to escape the through-the-ropes tornado DDT. Before that though, they had a strike exchange that the Boston crowd was totally into as Sydal gained the advantage, ending it with a top-rope double knees press near-fall. Sydal also brilliantly evaded many of Generico’s signature moves, including the various Brainbusters. Generico showed his inexperience at this level when he wasted time running the ropes, allowing Sydal to drive them both out of the ring. Perhaps that ultimately explains why Sydal won this contest, even though this moment allowed for the through-the-ropes tornado DDT that had Beantown rocking. Generico managed to surprisingly hit his trademark Double Pumphandle Vertical Suplex Powerbomb for a near-fall. But Sydal was on point, blocking the Yakuza kick, sweeping Generico, and hitting a Standing Moonsault for a dramatic false-finish. Sydal’s attempt at the Flux Capacitor could’ve easily been turned into a Top Rope Brainbuster, but instead Generico just shoved him off. Sydal’s Ear Clap Headscissors backfired as Generico rolled through and hit the Yakuza kick to another good near-fall. However, Sydal would NOT allow a Brainbuster, using the momentum to hit a Frankensteiner pin for the victory. As mentioned, a terrific match that had Boston rocking, paid off teased signatures, and told a layered story. Sydal would NOT allow Generico to hit a Brainbuster, and this strategy plus superior ROH experience got him the victory when Generico kept going back to that well. In the process though, Generico’s stock took an upswing in defeat by taking Sydal to the limit. This is EXACTLY what motherfuckers fucking demand from 205 Live. How is it so fucking difficult? Rating: **** No Remorse Corps vs. Matt Cross, Delirious, & Erick Stevens A total fucking mess of a trios match. For one, it was idiotic to have Stevens play the FIP; this is an incorrect route to take if the goal is for him to fill the powerhouse void left by Samoa Joe, or even to be an evolved Roderick Strong. That’s especially true with the significantly smaller Cross and Delirious on his team to play that role. Stevens was nothing more than a hard-hitting powerhouse at this time and had not shown the sympathy charisma whatsoever in ROH or FIP up to this point to be in this role. The action itself was perfectly executed. There were no actual botches. The crowd even loved it. But the crowd was looking at this through layman’s eyes. There have been many exciting contests in other sports that to the layman, one not looking through an analytical lens, comes across as a classic. To those pundits though that can identify shoddy coaching and officiating, the games simply don’t measure to such acclaim. This match is a wonderful example. For whatever reason, this was not referee Todd Sinclair’s finest night of performances. Having already tainted what should’ve been a classic four-way earlier on the card, he wasn’t done shitting it up. In this one, he did nothing to enforce tag legalities whatsoever, and for as much of a well-oiled machine the NRC was, they weren’t the Rottweilers or Generation Next deliberately confusing him. It looked like Davey Richards would help pacify this piss-poor officiating by channeling the days of Jim Crockett Promotions and slapping his hands to audibly signal tags, but that didn’t strategy was dropped as well. The officiating wasn’t the only part of this match that sucked shit. As mentioned, shoddy coaching can prevent a contest from truly being worthy of acclaim. In this case, since this is a worked performance art, the coaching inefficiencies would fall on booker Gabe Sapolsky. THERE. IS. NO. GOOD. FUCKING. REASON. WHATSOEVER. FOR. RODERICK. STRONG. TO. TAKE. A. CLEAN. FALL. HERE. THE. EVE. TO. HIS. ADVERTISED. ROH. TITLE. MATCH. ESPECIALLY. WITH. THE. DEFENDING. CHAMPION. SO. OBVIOUSLY. BEING. THE. MONSTROUS. TAKESHI. MORISHIMA. WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. THIS. GODDAMN. BULLSHIT. BOOKING? WHY. DIDN’T. CARY. SILKIN. FIRE. SAPOLSKY. RIGHT. AFTER. THIS? As stated, had Strong just taken a fuckload of bombs, perhaps it’s explainable. It can even be explained that he had gotten so cocky since forming the NRC that his arrogance cost him, a stern reminder the night before facing Morishima. After all, similarly happened to Morishima just 4 months earlier. However, with how exciting the NRC was in pacing their work and having been established as the company’s top faction at this time, a booker NOT burned out would’ve seen the money in having them go undefeated in trios action until the time was right to finally pull off the upset. Such a defeat needed to mean something and resonate, rather than the show just jumping to next segment seconds later after the match’s conclusion. Don’t believe me? Go on the WWE Network. Pull up the June 14, 2013 edition of SmackDown. Tune into the main event of The Shield vs. Team Hell No & Randy Orton. Then compare it to this horseshit. Rating: less than *** An outstanding segment arrives to take the viewer’s mind off the booking and officiating disaster just witnessed. SNS force Bobby Dempsey to run laps with Chris Hero on his shoulders at a nearby indoor track, with Tank Toland vowing to turn him from fat and flab to natural superior athleticism. Dempsey collapsed as Toland goes drill sergeant on him, then Hero berates him as he continues trotting to the delight of Toland and Larry Sweeney. ROH Title Match Takeshi Morishima vs. Jay Briscoe Good close to the show with Jay putting on a surprising performance considering how dominant Morishima was at this time. However, it shouldn’t have been when reflecting back on Jay’s matches against Samoa Joe a few years earlier. Morishima immediately went after Jay and took it the outside, then delivered an Ole Ole Hip Attack. His mistake was arrogantly going for another one, allowing Jay to cut him off with a Yakuza kick and an apron splash, bringing the action back into the ring as the crowd was behind him. This match was far more competitive than it should’ve been in kayfabe, and that’s thanks to the already mentioned arrogance of Morishima. He seemed to forget that he was a marked man, no matter how much of a successful monster heel he was a decade ago. Everyone was gunning for him to capture the title and knock him down a peg, to do what only the iconic Joe had been able to pull off so far. On the other hand, it’s a testament to Jay that he made this more than a glorified squash, and in fact, I’ll be a peacock displaying my feathers right now: I was the ONLY motherfucker a decade ago that pitched the idea of Jay dethroning Morishima for the ROH Title. Jay Briscoe as ROH Champion? Didn’t sound so plausible a decade ago. Jay’s fatal flaw after a commendable effort was going for his Butterfly Piledriver, failing at that, and then thinking he could hit a Sunset Flip on the superheavyweight, getting sat on for his trouble. Although he’d hit a Superplex on the champion, it was immediately a kick out by Morishima, who got an adrenaline rush as Jay kept decking him. Jay mistakenly ran the ropes, leaving himself open to eat Morishima’s standing lariat and then the backdrop driver for the finish. Kevin Steen immediately comes to attack the fallen Jay, with Mark Briscoe then making the save. Generico shows up to even it, leading to a brawl that went backstage to close out the show for the live audience. This brawl happening at this point of the show seems to telegraph the main event of Boston’s next ROH event, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Rating: ***1/2 Brent Albright nearly puts me to sleep by claiming he’s coming for the ROH Title. After 6 months, he’d yet to deliver a ***+ match, so why exactly wasn’t he tossed aside after Good Times, Great Memories? Sweeney comes back to the indoor race track. Toland claims that after 20 minutes, Sweeney had to finish a lap, while Hero had already done 5 and is now running circles around him. This is just incredible stuff as Sweeney giggles with such glee. Really hope these segments were included on Ring of Hero, and incredibly glad this closed out the DVD instead of that ennui-inducing Albright promo. Five quality matches, including two terrific show-stealers make this an easy recommendation. This is also a tremendous night to look back at to see that the writing was on the wall for booker Gabe Sapolsky. He was fucking toast, done, running on fumes. Such a shame that a fresh replacement wasn’t in charge so that the booking could’ve matched up with the workrate and put this show in the same breath as similar in-ring quality events like The Final Showdown. Up next – Domination Matches will include: Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico Briscoe Bros. vs. Kings of Wrestling Takeshi Morishima vs. Roderick Strong

Impact – June 7, 2007 Taped from Orlando, FL King of the Mountain Qualifier – Hardcore Match Chris Harris vs. James Storm Hell of a TV main event that’s on par with the far-more-acclaimed Texas Death Match. Both would eventually bleed, with Harris having blood drip on his chest. The trash can lid shots to the head certainly don’t hold up in a post-Benoit world, but we were just over a couple weeks away from the 9/11 of the industry creeping up on us, so whatever. Storm thought he had the match won thanks to channeling Jeff Hardy via a Swanton Bomb off a turnbuckle to Harris on an outside table, but that wasn’t enough. They’d continue brawling with Harris eventually spearing Storm through part of the entrance, resulting in the referee mandating a 10-count to get in the ring or he’d rule it a draw. Neither made it in time as Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe arrived at ringside. In obvious move to make everyone forget about the non-finish, Angle and Joe had a brawl as the broadcast went off the air. Why not just have a fucking finish? Whatever. ***1/2

The Summer of Punk in 2005 Both the beginning and end of what turned out to be the greatest farewell tour in wrestling history were huge shockers for the same reason. CM Punk was already headed to WWE, so Death Before Dishonor III was promoted as his ROH farewell. This resulted in New Jersey, the ROH location that had hated him most and then bared witness to his babyface turn a year earlier at Reborn: Completion, vehemently rooting for Punk to achieve his final goal, one which from a business perspective would make no logical sense for the highly-protected ROH Title. Of course when Punk won the match over Austin Aries in what turned out to be the underground version of Rock vs. Hogan, it turned out to completely make sense in his post-match heel turn and the return of Christopher Daniels, kicking off the most sensationally compelling summer season storyline since WCW's Hostile Takeover. Just like the beginning, the end would also turn out to be a classic match when Punk was dethroned by James Gibson, who had just agreed to a WWE return. However, such news made Gibson's coronation that much more suspenseful, with booker Gabe Sapolsky opting to pay off the storyline as intended and then figure out where to go from there. It had to be Gibson to win on that night in Dayton, as it not only was the city in which he had made his ROH debut 6 months earlier, but the closest market ROH booked at the time to his native West Virginia. Not to mention that the Dayton crowd was equally sensational to New Jersey 2 months earlier, totally into the action and going insane when Gibson returned from injury in the match after Punk had under-handedly thwarted off Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels. Since then, no title change has ever been as pleasantly surprising and suspenseful. Not the hot Summer of Punk sequel 6 years later, not Daniel Bryan's victories over the Class of 2002, they've all been easily predicted ahead of time by the most astute wrestling viewer, especially when there were obvious business reasons for such moves like John Cena's biceps tear. Everyone owes it to themselves to witness the entire 2005 Summer of Punk. Those who do so, especially if they put in the time to familiarize themselves with his ROH history beforehand, will truly grasp why it was so fucking obvious he'd one day be a top star in WWE; and like Bryan Danielson was for acclaimed underground workrate, is equally deserving of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame, strongly due to acclaimed underground performances on the microphone and in his storylines.

Strongly advise the last 2-3 editions of the Lapsed Fan's Starrcade Memorial Tour for this scenario. Fair and detailed spotlight of every factor, including corporate, with the only flaw being the failure to name Mike Graham for giving leverage to the Radicalz release.

The following is also available on: Reborn Again From Love to Hate: The Jimmy Jacobs Story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cul6TSWq4Gk The following is also available on: Respect is Earned From Love to Hate: The Jimmy Jacobs Story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDp50GI5pnU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZv5aGlpYYI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x21MIfeGPOc The big takeaway: the true colors and intentions of Jacobs come through in his “stay at home” comment and facial expression after finally bedding Lacey. Not just a creepy motherfucker, but a sexist one at his core that played the long game to mold her into his fantasy; unfortunately for him, she’s failed to live up to his expectations, but he’s succumbed to the sunk cost fallacy now that he realizes he’s got her in the palm of his hand, so why not exploit her after allowing himself to have been exploited by her for the past year and a half?

Not a rumor. https://youtu.be/f6fH4vesle4