supersonic

Another pretty dead even for me was Homicide and Steen. The former was critical for the 2004 golden age boom and delivered numerous moments, plus 2 MVP contender years, while the latter was the lone interesting act during the SBG early days, plus longer tenure, a definite MVP year, and 3 Feuds of the Year.

Aries had just as compelling of a rivalry with Danielson and helped strengthen the Tag Titles. He also was a crucial piece in saving ROH in 2004. That last part is another reason I'd go with Aries, even though McGuinness has the Pure Title and superior mic and personality work on his resume.

Something to consider: I have Aries and McGuinness pretty much equal. They both had their first quality match on the same night, involving each other actually. So what got the nod? Since they were pretty much equal, Aries by default by sticking around for another year.

Teddy Long to impromptu book New Day vs. original nWo

Fifth Year Festival: Chicago – February 24, 2007 Taped from Chicago, IL Austin Aries tells Matt Cross and 2 other utter jabronis that he may recruit them for his new stable. Oh for fuck’s sake, why wouldn’t he just wait for Kevin Steen & El Generico to return after their effort against the Briscoes, an effort that earned “Please come back!” chants? Instead of the usual Frontier Fieldhouse in Chicago Ridge, this event is taking place in Chicago proper at the Windy City Fieldhouse. There is literally another sporting event going on in another part of the building and it’s hilarious to hear whistles being blown by referees. Totally bush league for Samoa Joe’s American soil farewell in ROH. The interaction between Brent Albright, Larry Sweeney, and Claudio Castagnoli makes me realize that had Sweeney just recruited the Kings of Wrestling, then Albright would’ve been a perfect mercenary third wheel to complete the Sweet ‘N Sour faction. Colt Cabana cuts an effective promo, first looking upon the light snowy weather of his hometown. He’s disappointed because Jimmy Jacobs turned down his friendship, the opportunity for Cabana to share years of experience in life and wrestling. But tonight in Chicago, Jacobs will be left emotionally broken, a crimson mask, dripping head to toe, and Cabana will no longer have to be a part of it. I’m expecting a high heel to factor in based on him referencing Irresistible Forces and The Chicago Spectacular. Cross wins a nothing special four-way and is recruited by Aries to take on Davey Richards & Roderick Strong tonight. This angle is already falling apart, as booker Gabe Sapolsky has overreacted to Cross getting pops for his flippy-dos in recent months. Strong having a feud with Delirious also makes this angle lack cohesion, which is surprising because ROH has prided itself the past few years on talents having multiple simultaneous arcs. Tag Titles Match Matt Sydal & Christopher Daniels vs. Briscoe Bros. Outstanding tag match, even better than I had remembered. I’ll get the nitpick out of the way; what hurt this during the action-packed free-for-all third act, even with tag legalities being adhered to, compared to Aries & Strong vs. KENTA & Richards at Honor Reclaims Boston doing the same thing? This match saw referee Todd Sinclair early in the match keep one of the Briscoes from illegally entering, despite what would come in the third act as mentioned, and him calming the match down when it started hot early thanks to the participants coming and going as they pleased. As mentioned, it was a refreshing surprise for tag legalities to be adhered to, and it paid off when the champs cut the ring in half on Jay and finally tagged in Mark. While it wasn’t quite the expected epic, the crowd reacted well to Mark being a house of fire. Everything in this match was just crisp and firing on all cylinders, nothing going to waste whatsoever. There were plenty of highlights in this obviously, from the champs delivering an assisted pancake facebuster, to Sydal giving Daniels a hurricanrana-assisted double clotheslines off the turnbuckle, to Sydal eating a double press-up slam, to the very finish as Mark took both champs out with cutthroat drivers. That took Daniels out of the equation, allowing the Briscoes to finish off the legal Sydal with a guillotine leg drop and shooting star press. It wasn’t the stereo version they wanted thanks to Mark briefly slipping, but it was effective nonetheless. In the post-match, Jay’s promo is interrupted as Sydal & Daniels grab the belts and demand they turn around. Despite Sydal’s cockiness and the crankiness of Daniels, they strapped the belts on the new champs. This was poetic, culminating the year-long journey the Briscoes had taken to finally winning the belts since their return 364 days earlier, and ended the weak run of Sydal & Daniels on a high note. The scary part though: who do the Briscoes have to defend the belts against, since even though Steen & Generico earned spots, the Briscoes had already beaten them? Rating: ****1/4 At intermission, Lacey tells Jimmy Jacobs she doesn’t care about him winning and losing tonight. Instead, she wants someone to die, for Colt Cabana’s career to be ended, and promises him that if he gets the job done, she’ll do something nice for him. Lacey’s transformation is a sight to behold here, as she’s clearly becoming more attracted to Jacobs after all the work he’s done on her behalf. She doesn’t even mind him playing with her hair as he creepily says that when there’s death, there’s life, and tonight two lovers will unite where there’s bloodshed. Hardcore Match Jimmy Jacobs vs. Colt Cabana Another excellent match on this card, bringing this portion of the Jacobs saga to its proper conclusion. This was a disgusting match, one of its time, with both men having crimson masks at different times. It’s weird to see that with 2017 eyes, but make no mistake, it certainly added to the story of how much these two hated each other. There was some definite sports-entertainment thrown in. Lacey was ready to stomp Cabana’s groin but was stopped by Daizee Haze. The spot Haze did on Lacey looked incredibly awkward before chasing her to the back; looking back, it looks like Haze may have simpler just been a poor wrestler. Brent Albright also came in later to give Cabana a half nelson suplex, to be followed by BJ Whitmer to even the odds. There was nothing big done between Jacobs and Whitmer in this match, and there damn well shouldn’t have been, for they still had another 5 weeks of story left to tell. Brutal highlights in this match include making me hope at some point we get a Jeff Hardy vs. Jimmy Jacobs match, as Jacobs hit a senton off of a ladder in the ring, on Cabana through a table outside. Jacobs also must have arrogantly not bothered to check his wardrobe before the match, as Cabana somehow had his trademark spike, which would later be used on the bloody head of Jacobs when Cabana found a hammer. Jacobs also broke the wooden pole of Cabana’s Chicago flag by snapping it on Cabana’s back, creating 2 wooden spikes out of it that would come into play. My favorite piece of storytelling in the match was Cabana bringing scissors into the match. This was him displaying how much he learned feuding against Homicide, and it would take that kind of effort against the love-crazed Jacobs, who was no slouch in this environment himself in this city too, having put up an amazing effort against Alex Shelley in an I Quit match back in 2004. Cabana got overzealous with the scissors and stabbed it into a turnbuckle pad, wasting time trying to pull it out. That allowed Jacobs to get the upper hand. Lacey would return to help Jacobs, wanting to use a high heel as I suspected. Cabana prevented it and use the shoe himself to attack Jacobs, finishing the two creepy significant others both off with Colt .45s and pinning them for the victory. Fantastic finish to this story for Cabana to put this behind him, and further ammunition for Jacobs to make things right with Lacey in his unfinished business against Whitmer. Rating: ****1/4 Fifth Year Festival – Greatest Moments Too many to list here, but plenty of crazy spectacles and special guest star appearances are highlighted. Samoa Joe’s American Soil Farewell in ROH Takeshi Morishima & Nigel McGuinness vs. Samoa Joe & Homicide The positives of this match: nobody was buried coming out of it, and the standing ovation Joe got during his introduction was surreal, a well-deserved one And the post-match ceremony was tremendous too, with McGuinness also saying that since he beat Joe, he wants Morishima for the ROH Title the next time he’s booked. This was a very disappointing main event, carried completely by being a novelty. There were tag legalities aplenty in this one; I was ready to excuse the first one after a solid brawl on the outside. But the ones later made absolutely no sense. There was never a truly cohesive, drama-building arc to this match. I’d ultimately point to the booking holes as the culprit. Had Homicide vs. McGuinness with a title change been planned for Liverpool, this would’ve heated up that match. Morishima could’ve also been more steadily groomed for his inevitable shot at the title, rather than just having been thrust into the top spot so quickly. Had Homicide vs. McGuinness been the planned next title change, then simply put, I have Joe vs. McGuinness wrapping up their program here with McGuinness going over, giving him that extra springboard before coming to his home country to challenge Homicide and end his feud against Jimmy Rave. Instead we got one of the most disappointing main events in ROH history, one that nobody ever talks about. All just so Morishima could defend the belt against KENTA in Tokyo. Rating: less than *** All of the important matches are available on compilations, so it’s a toss-up if this show is a necessity. Use your best judgment, but the 2 classic matches are definitely must-see. Finally, we arrive at a double-shot of shows that actually received wide acclaim. This is the in-ring ROH that I fell in love with, and I expect the best shows since Glory By Honor V Night 2. Up next – Fifth Year Festival: Liverpool Matches will include: Homicide vs. Davey Richards Jimmy Rave & Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer & Colt Cabana Delirious vs. Matt Sydal Roderick Strong vs. PAC Briscoe Bros. vs. Shingo & Naruki Doi Samoa Joe vs. Nigel McGuinness

Fifth Year Festival: Dayton – February 23, 2007 Taped from Dayton, OH ROH Video Wire – February 22, 2007 Another lukewarm show means C&P treatment from Brad Garoon & Jake Ziegler. Brent Albright & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Colt Cabana & Nigel McGuinness McGuinness is already at ringside first so he’s requested by Lacey to just ditch Cabana for the night, to which he declined by calling her a slag. Jimmy Rave came out and gave him the heel hook, allowing the heels to have the early advantage even after Cabana ran out to make the save. This was effective if nothing special, with the heels cutting the ring in half on McGuinness, targeting his left leg thanks to Rave’s attack moments earlier. Credit must be given though because once McGuinness got the hot tag, the crowd actually reacted to it, which is something missing from the Briscoes’ matches during this time. Cabana was a very good house of fire. Once Albright was taken down with an assisted Tower of London, that took him out of the equation. His counter of the rebound lariat into the crowbar submission has me interested in a singles encounter against McGuinness though. With Jacobs down to himself, he resorted to choking Cabana with a guitar string, but that left him open to a rebound lariat. However, this should not have ended the match, as Albright was still legal. Rating: less than *** Shingo vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Matt Cross vs. Pelle Primeau vs. Roderick Strong vs. Claudio Castagnoli This match didn’t hide that it was gonna be a spot fest, with incredibly lax legality rules in place. Should the wrestlers prefer, they could do the standard tag, which is why the match started like that, but anyone was allowed to go in and out as they please, with no actual legalities to be enforced. Keeping it honest like that goes a long way. This was more than a spot fest though, turning out to be Primeau’s career-defining performance. The first half of the match was highlighted by him being bullied repeatedly by Shingo, Strong, and Castagnoli, all of them taking turns with brutal strikes including chops and uppercuts. Primeau should’ve been given a time machine on this to late 2016, as he’d have been a vastly superior alternate to James Ellsworth. The psychology paid off in spades too, because once Primeau managed to counter Castagnoli with a head-scissors, the Dayton crowd popped tremendously for him. The second half of the match just became an all-out spectacle, with everyone taking turns with different bombs, strikes, and dives. Shooting star presses, gut busters, uppercuts, Alpamari Waterslides, springboard hurricanrana pins, this was a nonstop bonanza with Dayton going crazy. If there’s one flaw to pinpoint, it would be the finish from 2 perspectives. The crowd didn’t pop as crazy went Castagnoli finished off Cross with a press-up uppercut. Based on the match’s structure, Primeau should’ve taken the fall to bring it full circle and effectively frustrate the crowd. Both Primeau and Cross got over huge with Dayton in this match. While the former was far more over by putting in a peak career performance, Cross was outstanding in this as well, placed in a situation that perfectly played into his strengths and hid the weaknesses in his game that always glare in standard singles and tag matches. Hopefully booker Gabe Sapolsky doesn’t overreact to this match, but based on his past few months, I’m not counting on that. Rating: ***3/4 Samoa Joe vs. Davey Richards A surprising toss-up with the show-stealer before this for match of the night, and had the Dayton crowd not sucked in this match, this could’ve actually been an excellent match. Sapolosky deserves blame for that; even in southwestern Ohio, nobody cared enough about BJ Whitmer challenging Takeshi Morishima for the ROH Title for it to headline over Joe vs. Richards. In addition, Morishima vs. Whitmer would’ve been the perfect **1/2 special cooldown match to showcase the champion as a killer in between the six-way frenzy and real main event on this card of Joe vs. Richards. An example of the crowd sucking in this near-classic would be really deep into it, as Richards blocked Joe’s Superplex attempt and hit a Sunset Bomb on him to just a polite reaction. This should’ve been treated as a potential game-changer in the match on par with Aries hitting a Crucifix Bomb at Final Battle 2004. Richards also didn’t get much heel heat as I would’ve hoped when he hit some low blows. Considering this was Joe’s farewell tour, which Richards verbally shit on, the crowd should’ve been venomous towards the newly turned ROH rookie. The work of the match was really good as mentioned, with Joe getting vicious in retaliation when he cut off Richards on the outside to deliver some Ole Ole Kicks. The Coquina Clutch false finishes were good stuff too, as was his scouting of the Richards handspring kick. The finish was also definitely the peak, putting Richards over strongly because of the difficulty Joe had in finishing him off, with an apron musclebuster, which finally got the monster reaction that this match deserved. This should be included on another Joe or Richards compilation in the future. In the post-match, Richards opts to spit on Joe and immediately roll out of the ring. Joe explains that when you smack your bitch around enough, eventually she’ll spit on you. He then cuts another warm and fuzzy promo, citing this is where he and CM Punk said nobody would fucking stop ROH, and here they were nearly 3 years later. In addition, he correctly points out that while Dayton has been one of ROH’s smaller markets, it had wonderful fans that always came to have a great time. That was certainly true before Dayton got sadly saddled as a B-market. Rating: ***3/4 Fifth Year Festival – Matches of the Year: The 2006 Survival of the Fittest Elimination Match Team ROH vs. Team CZW – Death Before Dishonor IV Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe vs. KENTA – In Your Face KENTA & Davey Richards vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong – Honor Reclaims Boston Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Briscoe Bros. – Unified Naomichi Marufuji vs. Nigel McGuinness – Glory By Honor V Night 2 Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness – Unified Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA – Glory By Honor V Night 2 Bryan Danielson & Samoa Joe vs. KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji – Best in the World 2006 CIMA & Speed Muscle vs. Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito, & Genki Horiguchi – Supercard of Honor Considering that neither of the matches that delivered are on compilations yet, this gets a recommendation by default despite being another lukewarm show. I’m still waiting for an event from the Fifth Year Festival that could even measure up to the worst of The Milestone Series, though. In hindsight, what are the changes I would’ve made to make ROH’s official 5th birthday into something memorable? If sticking with Morishima having dethroned Homicide in Philly, I’d have done the rematch here. The story can be that Homicide isn’t waiting for his traditional rematch clause, he wants it immediately. There’s the extra poetry that the OG of ROH wants to recapture his dream of being ROH Champion 5 years to the date of him starting with the company on Day 1. The three-way we got between Homicide, Jay Briscoe, and Christopher Daniels was fine in theory as an homage to Daniels vs. Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson and also build heat for the Briscoes vs. Daniels & Matt Sydal the following night, but there was no juice in it at all. There’s the argument that if Homicide had still been champion, then the OGs’ three-way would’ve meant much more as the main event for the biggest prize in the company. That definitely makes sense. However, seeing how hot the six-way was that actually happened, I’d have had a six-way as the main event with what is today known as “Defy or Deny” rules. In the very building where he had earned an ROH Title shot the previous summer by pinning Danielson, Aries would do it again by beating Homicide in a match also involving the Briscoes, Daniels, and overnight Sweet ‘N Sour member, Claudio Castagnoli, who Chris Hero & Larry Sweeney would’ve had a change a heart about the prior month. How would Castagnoli have been inserted into this match? Because Sweeney would be his agent, that’s how. As for Morishima, he’d continue the undefeated streak in a hard-hitting match against the newly turned Roderick Strong, continuing his streak at 3-0 after defeating Joe and Xavier in his debut weekend. Back to reality. Joe’s ROH tenure on American soil now reaches its conclusion, as does Jacobs vs. Cabana. At long last as well after waiting 6 months, ROH’s hottest tag team gets their shot at the Tag Titles. Can they bring their 365th day back in the company full circle and finally claim the silver, and in the process liberate viewers from a reign that has severely devalued everything Aries & Strong had built last year? Up next – Fifth Year Festival: Chicago Matches will include: Matt Sydal & Christopher Daniels vs. Briscoe Bros. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Colt Cabana Takeshi Morishima & Nigel McGuinness vs. Samoa Joe & Homicide

Not that I expect it, but Styles and Nakamura have been having each other on Twitter about a match.

Next year for Vader. Foley introduces him in the city of their highest profile match.

That opens spots for others.

Fifth Year Festival: Philly – February 17, 2007 Taped from Philadelphia, PA Despite both matches being reviewed here ending up being historic, this is a lukewarm show, so some C&P treatment here from Brad Garoon & Jake Ziegler. Briscoe Bros. vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico At long last, Steen & Generico found their groove in ROH. Generico had individually already gotten the job done at Final Battle 2006, but for Steen the struggle was even longer, having been completely absent from ROH in 2006. There will be a column detailing the significance of this match on their careers, the Briscoes’ run in 2007, and independent wrestling in general. In a vacuum, this is just a good match, but nothing special. The biggest takeaway from a storytelling perspective was that Steen was clearly less sportsmanlike than white meat Generico. This not only was a ploy to get in the Briscoes’ heads, but indication how frustrated he must have been being avoided throughout not just 2006, but the peak 365-day period from September 2005 to September 2006. Steen & Generico weren’t just stars in IWS, PWG, and IWA-MS, but in CZW as well, and yet couldn’t get recruited to represent the ultraviolent cause when it invaded ROH? There was never an incredible hot tag period, although there were half-assed efforts in making it happen. The Briscoes happily played dirty as a receipt to Steen, victimizing Generico and cutting the ring in half on him. Once Generico got the tag, Steen was a house of fire with various strikes and bombs, making the most of his opportunity tonight as the commentary clearly pushed the narrative that Steen & Generico were looking to earn spots on the roster. The best part of the match would be a plethora of bombs, ending with Steen giving Mark the pop-up powerbomb that would define him once his major league dreams came true. The ovation this sequence got pretty much sealed the deal for Steen & Generico, but I appreciated the protection Steen got in defeat even more. Mark evaded the package piledriver (rather than booking it to be a near-fall or even worse, a kick out spot), countering with a cutthroat driver. The Briscoes then finished Steen off with stereo shooting star press and guillotine leg drops. In the post-match, the crowd makes it official as Steen & Generico are left in the ring: “Please come back!” As if that was ever in doubt after Steen’s feud of the year contender in 2005 against Super Dragon, and Generico’s performances against CIMA and Chris Sabin. Rating: ***1/2 Samoa Joe finishes off Jimmy Rave in an anti-climactic match, further proving what a waste Rave’s huge push in the last 3 months. Joe cuts a heartfelt promo, since this was the city that not only saw ROH’s birth, but his debut and his historic ROH Title win and loss. But beyond that, and even beyond Philly being the birthplace of hardcore wrestling, this was the city that gave birth to the hardcore wrestling fans, the type of fans that demanded nothing less than excellence, and for that he is thankful. He concludes this by thanking ROH and proclaiming his love for professional wrestling. A wonderful promo, and the rest of his farewell tour has got quite a bit to love up to on the stick. The former Generation Next splintering into 3 factions? Legitimately hilarious considering the alternative I pitched already – the Elitists of Richards, Aries, Strong, and Edwards. If booker Gabe Sapolsky had more faith in Steen & Generico (and he damn well should have instead of being narrowminded about their disappointing performances in 2005), they could’ve banded with Evans coming out of this to represent a new wave of talents in the company. "Rebecca Bayless is backstage with Lacey and Jimmy Jacobs. Awk-waaard! Lacey tells Jacobs that she’s proud of him for jabbing the heel into Cabana’s throat. She seems mildly turned on by the violence they committed together and then whispers something exciting into Jacobs’s ear. What a wild turn of events! Jacobs reaction is great." Fifth Year Festival – International Influence A neat package looking at all the Japanese and European talents utilized in the company over the past 12 months. The track used sounds awfully similar to a club scene in the first season of Dexter, and perhaps it is since that aired in late 2006. I’d have included Generico and Lance Storm in this package to complete it. ROH Title Match Homicide vs. Takeshi Morishima Pissed off about losing to Joe, Morishima ambushes Homicide in the entrance aisle, throwing the champion around and even giving him a DDT on the floor before they get in the ring and officially start the match. But that plays to right in Homicide’s strength, as he manages to get the advantage early and ragdoll Morishima into barricades numerous times. I appreciate that as it stays true to Homicide’s character instead of marginalizing him just to showcase Morishima. Julius Smokes also blatantly involved himself at points, even in front of referee Todd Sinclair at one point. Sinclair only admonishes Smokes, and perhaps Sinclair is being lenient not just based on his history with Homicide, but out of feeling disrespected by Morishima for his actions before the opening bell. This was really a competitive contest, far more than I had remembered a decade ago. This wasn’t as “decisive” as Sapolsky marketed this as being in the days after this. Homicide brought forth a tremendous effort, bloodying Morishima’s nose just like Joe did 24 hours earlier, and often knocking Morishima down, even enough to apply an STF. In storyline, I believe Homicide fucked himself out of victory by giving up on the STF. Morishima wouldn’t give up, but he was unable to reach the ropes. Homicide could’ve possibly forced Morishima to pass out, enhancing his legacy as an unfuckable force to be reckoned with. Seriously, had Homicide with his much smaller size actually forced Morishima into passing out just like Joe, would anyone wanna bother trying to dethrone him and end his dream as champion? But alas, it was not be. Once Morishima was back on his feet, he brushed off Homicide’s standard dropkicks much like Brock Lesnar would. The double lariat from Homicide lacked drama, which was echoed in the lack of reaction from the crowd despite it putting down Joe 3 weeks earlier in New Jersey. A part of me wishes just one backdrop driver had put down Homicide to establish it as a killer finisher, but with Homicide being such a protected, integral part of ROH’s first 5 years, it made sense for him to kick out at first, once again just like Joe the night before, with Morishima needing a second one to get the job done and make shocking history. The crowd is pleasantly surprised at this title change. Who would’ve seen this coming after Joe had cleanly defeated Morishima in NYC? But in storyline, it can be argued, with the clear display in Morishima’s actions before the opening bell, that such a humbling defeat sharpened his focus, that it made him realize he was not gonna waltz into ROH and easily smoke the competition. This was a very effectively laid out match, although I’m not the biggest fan of the direction in hindsight. Here are the details of what I would’ve booked on this card. Homicide & Nigel McGuinness vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong Remember, Aries & Strong have NOT broken up in my scenario, instead sticking together and recruiting the tandem known today as the Wolves for a new heel faction. Homicide and McGuinness team up as a means to hype up their Liverpool rematch that I’d have on the horizon. Aries is also being groomed to earn an ROH Title match in the future. Xavier vs. Takeshi Morishima Xavier is brought back into ROH, with the hopes that like Steen & Generico, he’ll earn a spot back on the roster. Rather than winning the ROH Title in his first weekend, I groom Morishima to challenge for it in a huge match later in 2007. How so? By not just going undefeated like Goldberg almost a decade earlier, but by cleanly defeating every former ROH Champion available, with Joe and Xavier being his first victims. Anyway, still a good main event that got both Homicide and Morishima over as bad motherfuckers, and that’s the least I could ask for. Easily the peak of Homicide’s short time as ROH Champion too, and although I’ve clearly explained why I wouldn’t have gone with Morishima so early, I am looking forward to seeing everyone step up to dethrone the asshole monster, who refused to celebrate with the roster as part of the post-match ROH Title change tradition. Rating: ***1/2 As touching as Joe’s promo is on this show, it isn’t exactly Bryan Danielson’s retirement speech. So with the show-stealing tag already on 2 compilations, and the main event for free on YouTube, save your money and avoid this ultimately disappointing event. We now reach literally ROH’s fifth birthday, but the show-stealer isn’t what anyone expects. Up next – Fifth Year Festival: Dayton Matches will include: Brent Albright & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Colt Cabana & Nigel McGuinness Shingo vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Matt Cross vs. Pelle Primeau vs. Roderick Strong vs. Claudio Castagnoli Samoa Joe vs. Davey Richards

Fifth Year Festival: NYC – February 16, 2007 Taped from New York, NY ROH Video Wire – January 31, 2007 important news (unavailable online): Jimmy Rave vows to make Homicide tap out like a little bitch at Fifth Year Festival: NYC and walk out as ROH Champion. Samoa Joe thanks the Honor Nation, confirming that he’s leaving ROH as the Fifth Year Festival will be his farewell tour. His promo is very heartfelt, conveying the significance the company has played in his life and career and that he’s now reached the point in which he has to leave home. He promises to bow out by leaving everything in the ring. He’s being “forced” to say farewell to “the company that I love,” but ROH has always been about new talent. The video package is amazing for Joe’s farewell tour preview, just as touching as a decade ago. Fifth Year Festival: NYC on February 16 – Samoa Joe vs. Takeshi Morishima Fifth Year Festival: Philly on February 17 – Samoa Joe vs. Davey Richards Fifth Year Festival: Dayton on February 23 – Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Rave Fifth Year Festival: Chicago on February 24 – Samoa Joe & Homicide vs. Takeshi Morishima & Nigel McGuinness Fifth Year Festival: Liverpool on March 3- Samoa Joe vs. Nigel McGuinness March 4 in Liverpool – Samoa Joe’s final ROH match This can’t be expected to measure up to the Summer of Punk, but this should be highly emotional. The horrendously produced side view promos continue with Jimmy Rave saying that tonight will be his culmination, citing everyone has tapped out to the heel hook and he’s tired of being a failure. Takeshi Morishima beats the shit out of Pelle Primeau in quick fashion via a backdrop driver in his official ROH in-ring debut. He wants Samoa Joe right now, which was clear when he came out to “The Champ is Here,” but Nigel McGuinness arrives to calm him down and says the big fight will be later. Tag Champs Matt Sydal & Christopher Daniels feel slighted and disrespected, being viewed inferior to the Briscoes and Austin Aries & Roderick Strong. They credit Aries & Strong for making the titles prestigious, but tonight in their rematch from Gut Check, Sydal & Daniels prove they deserve to be champions. Daniels is a total star here, rocking sunglasses and a goatee like Nigel McGuinness, while Sydal is very weak in comparison. Xavier’s Final ROH Match – Elimination Match Shingo vs. Xavier vs. Jack Evans vs. Jimmy Jacobs Xavier is the mystery opponent, and doesn’t exactly receive a warm welcome. Then almost immeidatley, fans chant “Weclome back!” More on his tenure at the end of this review. He feels out of place here, but I’m definitely open-minded after the classics he’s had against Daniels and Paul London. After a good sequence between Shingo and Xavier, Evans provides the first highlight when his Sasuke Special is avoided, causing him to crash into a barricade and have me screaming “GOD DAMN~!” The next highlight comes a few minutes later as Xavier decimates Jacobs, eats a Burning Hammer from Shingo, and then a reverse Hurricanrana Jackknife Pin by Evans to be eliminated. Xavier definitely needed to upgrade his gear, but more on him later as mentioned. Shingo and Evans double-team Jacobs, but the former Tag Champ is resilient despite numerous blows, including a springboard knee strike from Evans that would make Seth Rollins proud. Shingo blocks a Shiranui and drives Jacobs neck-first onto his knee to eliminate him; Lacey is none too impressed as the crowd rallies behind Evans for the final portion of this match. The Blood Generation stablemates ensure there will be no hard feelings before getting to business. The spectacle continues with numerous bombs, including a successful Sasuke Special from Evans, plus a Gordbuster on the top rope followed by a lariat that wouldn’t just impress JBL, but have him screaming so loudly as he’d mark out. Evans cuts Shingo off with a front flip kick and after some more strikes including a Busaku knee, goes for the 630 Splash. Shingo tires to cut him off but Evans stops that with knees to the face and then hits the 630 to bring this nice appetizer to its conclusion. While this is definitely not a classic, what I appreciate is that there were no silly tag rules. It was a pure scramble with everyone legal to allow bombs to be dropped aplenty. If ROH ever gets around to an Evans compilation, this should be be include. Rating: *** Bobby Cruise announces that tomorrow in Philly, Takeshi Morishima will challenge the winner of tonight’s Homicide vs. Jimmy Rave for the ROH Title! Samoa Joe immediately comes out after that announcement to give NYC the first of his many farewell tour speeches. He gets the obvious “Please don’t’ go!” chants as he welcomes everyone and thanks the locker room for this opportunity to speak to the fans. Joe cools down some “Fuck TNA!” chants by saying they write his paychecks. Joe thanks the fans for making ROH the most enjoyable part of his career, giving them respect for all the long road trips they took to see him as well, including the snowstorms happening in the Northeast on this date. This is basically Colt Cabana’s speech from Third Anniversary Celebration Pt. 3, but with far more of a significant bite. Joe is then ready to fight Morishima right now. Out comes Nigel McGuinness instead, dressed in warmup gear. He says that he respects Joe, but has no place to call out Morishima, and in fact it’s the other way around. Joe questions McGuinness of favoring NOAH over ROH, and says if “your Japanese sugar daddy” won’t come out, then he’ll kick his ass right now. Security comes out to limit the brawl, but NYC is hot for it. Why the fuck was I not seeing this feud on SmackDown a decade ago to build toward a match between them at WrestleMania 23? Tables Are Legal Match Brent Albright vs. BJ Whitmer A poor, albeit spectacular, plunder match. Rather than build and develop stories to the numerous table bumps, which in individual vacuums were jaw-dropping, they spent too much time building up to spots. This took pieces of prior brutal classics of different styles, including Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind at Mind Games and Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon at King of the Ring 2001 without any of the subtlety at all. Just because the crowd popped for it doesn’t make the story any more convincing. In a time when hardcore wrestling was so common, this match was really unwise in retrospect, as it was very dangerous for very little in return of terms of leaving any kind of legacy. Rating: less than *** Tag Titles Match Matt Sydal & Christopher Daniels vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong ROH announces its entire schedule during the entrances through June 22, including returns to New Jersey, Chicago, Manhattan, Boston, Philly, and Dayton. Looking forward to when Bryan Danielson eventually returns on one of those events, which ever it turns out to be. This was a bad match. Forget that Aries slipped on a Quebrada attempt, and fortunately on his awkward shoulder bump didn’t suffer the same fate as Hayabusa. There was little heat as the challengers cut the ring in half on the cocky Sydal, and the hot tag got no reaction. There was also a tag legality issue, and I’m gonna start assigning blame for that from now on. In this instance, that goes to Daniels, and it’s not his first time letting minor league shit like that unfold in his tag matches. The only highlight in this match was a botch that turned out to be chicken shit turned into chicken salad. Sydal was standing on Strong’s shoulders, and instead of hitting whatever he had planned, slipped and ate a Strong gutbuster. The finish was nothing as Aries out a Shooting Star Press and Best Moonsault Ever, although he certainly gave a valiant effort. Aries & Strong are left in the ring and Davey Richards arrives, then Aries eats a backbreaker from Strong! Strong says he’s tired of being sidekick, as he’s formed the No Remorse Corps and will be the leader with Richards as his first member. Jack Evans arrives and keeps them newly formed NRC at bay, unhappy about his former Generation Next stablemates being split up like this. He’s come a long way the past couple years compared to how he treated Alex Shelley. Strong says he has no problem with Evans as he leaves, but Richards spits at him. Aries is actually really good on the mic in his promo, happy to find the true feelings from Strong, but disappointed it had to be a handicap moment. Aries dares them to fight him and Evans, but Evans says he doesn’t wanna fight against him or Strong. He offers to handle this, but Aries says he’s not backing down. First of all, what a disappointing match to end the epic run by Aries & Strong. Since Night of the Grudges II, they cemented a legacy as one of the greatest tag teams not just in ROH, not just on the indies, but in ALL of wrestling throughout the 2000s decade. Hopefully their run gets a compilation soon, as it was because of them that the Tag Titles became meaningful. As for the angle, this is BAD, BAD, BAD idea. Now I’m a believer in offering alternate solutions, so here you go, and there will be more details to come: Richards, Aries, and Strong collectively form a heel faction called the Elitists, with their shtick being that their style of wrestling is the correct one and they dare anyone to take their spots. Holy shit, does the No Remorse Corps name sound fucking horrendous in hindsight. Rating: less than *** Briscoe Bros. vs. Colt Cabana & Nigel McGuinness Significantly superior tag match on this card. Everything made sense with the Briscoes deciding to be the default heels. While there were no big hot tag segments, there were also no tag legality issues, which perhaps should be credited to Cabana & McGuinness, for that was another benefit to their match against Aries & Strong 8 months earlier next door. The finish was by the book and effective, bombs galore being thrown, including an assisted Tower of London, but not Colt .45, which I appreciated. Once McGuinness hit a rebound lariat not just successfully, but one that caused Jay to take a head drop bump, that was it. With the Briscoes clearly in line for a Tag Titles match after beating the Kings of Wrestling and sweeping Aries & Strong in 2 straight falls a few weeks back, this should put Cabana & McGuinness in the conversation. That’s another mistake in the booking right there: McGuinness should instead be getting groomed for an ROH Title match on the final weekend of the Fifth Year Festival in Liverpool. That’s to be examined at another time. Rating: ***1/2 Joe comes out in wrestling gear to spoil the celebration of McGuinness, attacking him. That’s definitely a bitch move to do to someone after just facing the Briscoes. But our real main event is right now! Dream Match Samoa Joe vs. Takeshi Morishima Easily the match of the night as expected. Morishima dominated early with various blows and bombs, absolutely relentless. He wasn’t afraid to pull out any stops, including a super shotgun missile dropkick. It would take him getting overzealous on the top rope again for Joe to finally make a comeback with an appropriate Manhattan Drop counter. Joe was even more vicious, truly displaying his animosity with two of the most intense Ole Ole kicks of his career as the Manhattan Crowd erupted. He was equally relentless in his attack while in control, not letting up one bit. This time, Morishima would have to regain control with his trademark side slam. This would eventually lead to Morishima getting overzealous yet again on the top rope, leaving him open to an Enziguri from Joe, followed by a musclebuster for a pretty good near-fall, though not as epic as I would’ve hoped. The favor would be returned a few months later when Joe kicked out of the backdrop driver. I wouldn’t have booked that false finish. Although the finish was obviously wrong with Joe going over clean, at least Morishima passed out in the Coquina Clutch, rather than tapping out or looking at the lights. This was a great match, that would grade even higher had Morishima gone over as common sense would dictate, rather than booker Gabe Sapolsky gambling that Joe would return for a rematch to put Morishima over later in the year. Think of the finish as ROH’s version of John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar from Extreme Rules 2012. Post-match, both men get great ovations from the crowd, and deservedly so. Rating: **** Fifth Year Festival “Feuds of the Year” video package: Jimmy Rave vs. Nigel McGuinness Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA Bryan Danielson vs. Homicide Homicide vs. Colt Cabana Jimmy Jacobs vs. Colt Cabana Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer ROH vs. CZW Steve Corino vs. Homicide Briscoe Bros. vs. Samoa Joe & Homicide Briscoe Bros. vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong Matt Sydal vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe ROH Title Match Homicide vs. Jimmy Rave As expected going into this show, the Rave push has turned out to be a huge waste of time since Prince Nana’s departure. The first 15 minutes or so have barely any heat, and it takes Rave countering Homicide’s Super Hurricanrana attempt with a Super Styles Clash (a violation of his defeat to AJ Styles.) There was very little storytelling cohesion in this one, and Nana’s absence was very glaring, for he would’ve generated INCREDIBLE heat going up against Julius Smokes in this match. The crowd reacts to Rave kicking out of Homicide’s running lariat, I guess since it’s the move that put down Danielson a couple months earlier. Unlike that match, Homicide’s lack of selling the work Rave did on his leg couldn’t be compensated for, and when it keeps him from hitting a Kudo Driver near the end, it’s too little too late. Once it’s actually hit, I’m just glad this is finally done with. In the post-match commentary, Dave Prazak reveals Rave will face McGuinness in a hardcore match when ROH returns to Liverpool in a couple weeks. OH FUCK YES AT LEAST FOR THAT ONE AFTER THAT I QUIT MATCH A FEW WEEKS AGO~! This is easily one of the most disappointing main events in ROH’s history. All the stock that was put into Rave didn’t deliver when it mattered most. He was fed McGuinness over and over again, including a clean submission. He was fed El Generico. He was fed Tag Champ Daniels. He went over Homicide via fluke albeit clean fashion at Black Friday Fallout, a booking that clearly should’ve been done for McGuinness instead. As I stated before, this should’ve been Homicide vs. McGuinness with a controversial finish, leading to a rematch in Liverpool for McGuinness to have his coronation in the city that saw him become a top guy. I dare anyone to make the argument that Homicide and McGuinness, the two biggest babyfaces on the roster at this time, wouldn’t have electrified NYC in the co-main event slot while Joe vs. Morishima closed out the evening (with Morishima over in that one of course.) As for this match, this is further proof that Sapolsky should’ve known Homicide would need more appropriate challengers lined up, and Rave without Nana did not measure up. Homicide didn’t have the intanibles to stand on his own, he needed the right foil, and Sapolsky failed to develop that as 2006 came to an end, and then it blew up here with a lukewarm match. Even had my idea of Homicide vs. McGuinness taken place here, there’s no way anything should’ve closed out this show except for Joe vs. Morishima. That match was The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan for this crowd, on this night; and thus, that made this “main event” into Chris Jericho vs. Triple H. Rating: less than *** The DVD closes with Becky Bayless discovering that Jack Evans has been assaulted with a concrete structure left on him. Bayless asks someone not shown on camera if they’re responsible. I hate this cliffhanger type production. Avoid this show unless one is a Briscoes or McGuinness die-hard, as the real main event is available for free on YouTube, and is also on Joe’s Total Domination compilation. This was a show that largely fell apart, some of them Sapolsky’s fault, some of them not. The booking flaws are becoming more glaring with each passing month though. As mentioned, this was the finale for “The All-Around Best” Xavier. While a year earlier I had only mentioned that Unscripted II was pretty much his swan song, I didn’t do his time in the company justice, focusing too much on that event being the actual finale for CM Punk. For OG fans of ROH, it’s no secret that Xavier is one of the worst picks to ever hold the ROH Title. The debate has gone back-and-forth for far too long; he was a poor choice to be in such a position. No argument can soften the blow; more than his inconsistent workrate, which actually DID peak with show-stealing matches during his time in the company against Paul London, John Walters, Bryan Danielson, and Christopher Daniels, his horrendous promos were a far bigger problem, in no way ever adequately conveying the emotions of his assigned character. As mentioned, Xavier did show at time he was a capable hand in very different matches. The hardcore match against Walters at Final Battle 2003 is often mentioned as a favorite of that match type in the company’s history, and is very comparable to Trent Acid vs. Homicide taken place 6 months earlier that same year at Wrestlerave. Both of his singles matches against London at Final Battle 2002 and One Year Anniversary Show are highlights of his ROH Title reign, as London’s ability to generate sympathy and fight from behind against ANY type of heel (including Xavier’s chicken shit flavor of it) were the perfect complement to accentuate Xavier’s arsenal. That also speaks volumes as to how elite London was as a performer before he signed with WWE; he managed to get two compelling matches out of Xavier, which the far more decorated AJ Styles failed to do. With that said, Xavier and Styles had an excellent feud-ender tagging respectively with Daniels and Low Ki at ROH’s Pittsburgh debut in January 2003, bringing the very-hard-to-find Revenge on the Prophecy to a hot close. Xavier’s match against Danielson had the potential to be a career highlight for him, but it wasn’t meant to be as Sapolsky felt the need to give it a sports-entertainment finish. In hindsight, since Xavier would only be brought back one more time, that being a year later, with no other plans at all for him, Danielson should’ve just gone over clean to make it the classic that it was looking to be. Xavier’s match against former Prophecy stablemate Daniels at Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies would be my pick for his greatest match ever. It was a tremendous game of chess and scouting between two combatants that would know each other so well, both with something to prove to each other in their quest to dethrone Samoa Joe, the former Prophecy mercenary, for the ROH Title. Xavier has been known to actually attend ROH events in Manhattan, and I personally him among the crowd on WrestleMania XXIX weekend. No matter how obscure he became, I believe that anyone who’s been ROH Champion shouldn’t be treated as just another fan in the audience. It’s also a shame that it looks like injuries in early 2004 derailed him, right after the feud-ending gem against Walters. Perhaps the spot that would eventually go to Jimmy Rave would’ve been his to grab onto and maximize, finally having the perfect mouthpiece in Nana to do all the talking for him while he brought it in the ring. We’ll never know. There’s not much to Xavier’s body of work in ROH. There’s not even a true top 10 to be made for him. But I will present the matches that best reflect his time in the company, from the historic title changes, to the already mentioned gems, to his anticlimactic finale. Xavier’s All-Around Best ROH Matches 1. Xavier vs. Low Ki – Unscripted 2. Xavier vs. Jay Briscoe – All Star Extravaganza 3. Xavier vs. Paul London – Final Battle 2002 ***3/4 4. Xavier & Christopher Daniels vs. Low Ki & AJ Styles – Revenge on the Prophecy **** 5. Xavier vs. Paul London – One Year Anniversary Show **** 6. Xavier vs. Samoa Joe – Night of Champions 7. Xavier vs. Christopher Daniels – Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies ****1/4 8. Xavier vs. John Walters – Final Battle 2003 ***1/4 9. Xavier vs. Bryan Danielson – Unscripted II ***1/2 10. Xavier vs. Shingo vs. Jack Evans vs. Jimmy Jacobs – Fifth Year Festival: NYC *** History is on the horizon, folks. In BOTH matches for the next event in this journey. Up next – Fifth Year Festival: Philly Matches will include: Briscoe Bros. vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico Homicide vs. Takeshi Morishima

Observer: I don’t know when or how extensively at this point, but the plan right now is that Angle will be doing at least some wrestling in WWE. He would have to pass a physical, and obviously at best it would be very limited although they are doing a sleight-of-hand storyline and teasing it won’t happen, this is to build for a Wyatt vs. Randy Orton match that will be one of the main events at WrestleMania.

Guitarmageddon II: Armoryageddon – February 10, 2007 Taped from Los Angeles, CA Chris Bosh vs. Claudio Castagnoli This is Castagnoli’s opportunity to seek vengeance on the Dynasty after ruining his originally planned farewell at Passive Hostility. That explains why instead of wrestling in spandex tights, he’s sporting a dress shirt and pants with belt; he uses the belt later to choke Bosh out of the ref’s vision. Castagnoli also was a bit cocky in this, marginalizing his chances to be the default babyface, while also leaving him prone to a tornado DDT on the outside while gloating. Perhaps had Castagnoli just focused on wrestling instead of being an alpha male, he wouldn’t have choked this one away. After dominating most of the match, he fell victim to a number of bombs from Bosh, including a backdrop suplex and clothesline backbreaker. What should’ve been a victory for Castagnoli, that beinig the O’Connor Roll, was countered into a successful bridge win. Had ROH been willing to openly include stories from all federations at this time, this could’ve been used as a kayfabe reason for Larry Sweeney refusing to be Castagnoli’s agent. Rating: ***1/4 PWG Title Match Human Tornado vs. Kevin Steen Steen was a beast in this one, going right for blood during Tornado’s entrance routine. He also had the champ’s corner shuck-n-jive low blow split scouted, just bringing the offense and determined to get the job done after having failed at Passive Hostility, only to see Tornado get dethrone Joey Ryan a month later. Tornado kept this from being a total squash by having Steen scouted as well and throwing bombs out of desperation when the opportunity arrived. In particular, the Pounce was fantastic, as well as the super tornado DDT. To show how desperate that way, Steen was actually up first and he was actually the victim of that move, not the other way around. After the two had pummeled each other for about 15 minutes and were down, we get a proview of what was to come 8 years later at Levi’s Stadium, as the Dynasty arrived to attack them and Joey Ryan announced that per what he’d been advised earlier on the card, he’s cashing in his title match right now as it’s basically under Money in the Bank rules. This was a complete failure for Ryan though as Top Gun Talwar arrived in a thong to distract Ryan, allowing Tornado to roll him up immediately for the victory. If Seth Rollins ever watched this match prior to spring 2015, he certainly learned from Ryan’s mistakes. Rating: ***1/4 Tag Titles – Quicksilver’s Final Match Cape Fear vs. Davey Richards & Roderick Strong A bit disappointing largely due to Strong getting a severe cut in his left eye. This was promising to be potentially the greatest match in PWG history up to this point, as Richards & Strong had put their beef from FIP behind them a week earlier and were total cunts in the first third of the match, cutting the ring in half on Generico. Generico would get a hot tag, nothing remarkable though as indicated by the crowd. That allowed the challengers, themselves Tag Champs for one night just 3 months earlier on the All Star Weekend IV double-shot to have a more engaging control segment on Quicksilver. Richards was incredibly cocky at points, even getting irrationally irritated by an “Umpa Lumpa” chant. Strong was vicious and very deliberate in not allowing Generico to intervene too. When Quicksilver got the hot tag to Generico to begin the 3rd and final act of the match, Strong’s left eye region got busted. His blood dripped at points onto his chest; this match, along with according to Quicksilver’s Wikipedia page that contracting MRSA in this match led to his choice to retire afterwards, is a great piece of evidence to prohibit blood spillage in wrestling, and that the inconvenient choice WWE doctors made for Samoa Joe at Takeover: Dallas was indeed the medically and ethically correct choice. Once the champs finished Strong off in the same fashion as Los Luchas the month before, that was it. Nobody was kicking out of an inverted Hurricanrana and follow-up brainbuster, especially someone who wasn’t just bleeding badly, but also had taped ribs for unknown reasons. There was one minor moment when Strong forgot he was legal, but the blood loss both in reality and in kayfabe are the logical explanation for that, so it works. Not a bad match for Quicksilver to bow out with, and it’s a shame that injuries derailed him, as I’d much have preferred him to get an opportunity in ROH over Matt Cross. Whether it was a concussion as has been mentioned, the supposed MRSA contraction, or a combination of both, Quicksilver obviously made the right decision for his long-term health to hang up the boots. Rating: ***3/4 Two fun undercard matches and Quicksilver’s finale are enough to give this show a recommendation, even if nothing was truly blow-away. Up next – Holy Diver Down Matches will include: Chris Bosh & Scott Lost vs. Motor City Machine Guns PAC vs. Kevin Steen Human Tornado vs. El Generico

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Austin Aries - ROH Bound By Hate

Observer:

What makes this card uninspiring is that there are seriously so many options like never before. Styles in particular has 8 programs that would've been desirable (Balor, Cena, Orton, Lesnar, Taker, HHH, Nakamura, Rollins) and yet it's looking like he gets a middle aged executive whose sole fighting style is poor punches and some stunts. Months ago, I'd planned but never got around toa project that would've badly exposed how flawed this card is turning out to be. I'll do it for WM34.

WM33 card so far per the Observer: Seth Rollins vs. Triple H (up in the air) Shane McMahon vs. AJ Styles (not confirmed yet) Big Show vs. Shaquille O'Neal Charlotte vs. Bayley vs. Jax vs. Banks (Raw Women's Title) The Miz & Maryse vs. John Cena & Nikki Bella Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton (WWE Title) Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar (Universal Title)

Joe vs. Ambrose or Zayn Then either of these combos: Balor vs. HHH Shane vs. Styles Balor vs. Styles Shane vs. HHH

https://twitter.com/samoajoe/status/826818114289545218

Cena vs. Strowman? Perhaps Strowman helps Wyatt win the Chamber match by taking out Cena? (Strowman explains that it was his way of showing appreciation for the man that brought him to WWE.)

Singles encounter didn't happen until s year ago. I was not a fan of their lack of chemistry.

Meltzer given impression that Samoa Joe's WM33 opponent will not necessarily be "good news." Rollins vs. Joe is for Fast Lane. Shane McMahon vs. AJ Styles has been talked about for WM33. No finalization yet. In addition to Rollins vs. Joe, Kevin Owens will defend the Universal Title against Goldberg at Fast Lane. Sonic's note: Pretty obvious that Lesnar will dethrone Goldberg for the Universal TItle at WM33.

Money in the Bank 2016 - June 19, 2016: The Good Shit Live from Las Vegas, NV Much-needed for Natalya, and certainly a direction taken due to Emma’s back injury. Dream Match John Cena vs. AJ Styles Nowhere near the expected epic that everyone wants and knows these two can put together. The biggest reason for that would have to be Cena just getting back from China shortly before this. Although it may have been intelligently weaved into the match’s story by explaining that Styles had a skillset to match up well over him, Cena looked legitimately fatigued. Even at the beginning when the camera focuses on his face, the poor guy looks sleep-deprived like CM Punk during his wrestling career. I still love the shit out of this match. The dueling chants at the beginning were amazing, neither laying a hand on each other yet. The best recent comparison would be the Shield vs. the Wyatt Family at Elimination Chamber 2014; everyone in the building knew this was a special battle that would unfold in their presence. Styles truly shined as mentioned, which only further elevated his stock, from scouting the Release Death Valley Driver early to cutting off numerous Cena hope spots. Styles probably could’ve finished Cena off by himself had he remained focus instead of getting cocky and gloating like Kevin Owens. His failure to do so throughout the match allowed the Hall of Famer to make comebacks. But as mentioned, almost every time Cena attempted a comeback, it’d turn out to just be a hope spot for the fresher Styles to quickly marginalize. Cena brought his scouting to the ring too, evading a springboard forearm and kneeing Styles in the gut during a springboard 450 splash attempt deep into the match. But Cena allowed himself to fall victim to the same shit in his dream match against the Rock; he took his sweet time going for a Five Knuckle Shuffle. Now in this case, it didn’t cost him the match, but it gave Styles enough time to recover and hit a kip-up head-scissors. My favorite part of this contest would be Styles seamlessly using his positioning on Cena’s shoulders for a Release Death Valley Driver to be turned into a Calf Crusher submission. This was a brilliant response to earlier in the match when Cena countered a lower angle elbow smash into a successful STF. The drama during this Calf Crusher was sensational, and then it enhanced the story as Cena was stifled by his left leg soreness. Even with Cena clearly exhausted, this could’ve been a great match, but the time wasn’t right just yet. Instead we got a ref bump before Cena finally hit a successful Release Death Valley Driver. Out come Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson to give him the Magic Killer, and I wasn’t a fan of that being the finish for Styles to get the pin fall, but it enhances the story of Styles not getting the job done on his own. The obvious rematch at SummerSlam 2016 should be off-the-charts, as there was damn good chemistry on display here. ***1/2 Money in the Bank Ladder Match Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho vs. Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens vs. Alberto Del Rio Hell of a spectacle here, with the only obvious lowlight being when Alberto set up a ladder bridge as there’s no way to explain what the purpose of it was to benefit himself, and the commentary questioned the decision too. Nonetheless, this was an overall very well-timed match with everyone getting time to properly shine. Most importantly, the Zayn vs. Owens issue continued with the highlight of their encounters in this match coming when Owens took a Michinoku Driver on a ladder’s legs. These two seemed destined for early retirement just like Edge & Christian. The biggest takeaway would be my prediction 5 months in advance coming true, that being Ambrose becoming Mr. MITB. Who knows if he can recover from the disappointing programs against Jericho and Brock Lesnar, but this roster needs to have as many fresh top stars as possible with the draft next month. This is a risk worth taking. ***3/4 WWE Title Match Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins This one took a while to get hot, never coming anywhere close to Cena vs. Styles for crowd energy. I enjoyed Reigns trash-talking Rollins as he dominated the first several minutes; I stand by my stance that had all the different matches involving the former Shield against each other over the past 2 years been booked this way for the characters, actually showcasing anger, bitterness, and treachery to sell their split, there would’ve been a much higher aching for the elusive Triple Shield match. By no means do I perceive Reigns as a heel here as he toyed with Rollins. This had been a long time coming for Rollins. Which only makes it even more ironic that Rollins would win this relatively clean. After a good middle and third act, the easy highlight was Rollins jumping up during a spear and hitting a modified Pedigree on Reigns for a near-fall. Moments later, Rollins hit another standard Pedigree to pull off the shocking upset. I’d have gone with the first Pedigree as the finish to maximize the moment and crowd heat. Reigns showing vulnerability could be the best thing for him to be the true face of the company; from a kayfabe standpoint, perhaps had Reigns compartmentalized his emotions when he dominated early, this would’ve never happened. Moments later as Rollins celebrated, Ambrose came out and smacked him with the MITB briefcase, successfully cashing in. This capped off the emotions Reigns unleashed on Rollins, but this time Ambrose came out as the smarter one among the two babyface former Shield members in humiliating Rollins. At the same time, Rollins winning clean now gives both him and Reigns valid arguments for title matches against Ambrose. Perhaps the Triple Shield as mentioned finally on the horizon? ***3/4 Strongest recommendation to cherry-pick the Good Shit for this show just like I did.

ROAD TO MONEY IN THE BANK 2016 SmackDown – June 9, 2016 Taped from Wichita, KS Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho – *** Raw – June 13, 2016: The Good Shit Live from New Orleans, LA Big E, Kofi Kingston, Colin Cassady, & Enzo Amore vs. Vaudevillains, Luke Gallows, & Karl Anderson – *** Fun segment that only makes me more confident for of a prediction I had coming out of Royal Rumble 2016 – Dean Ambrose will become Mr. Money in the Bank in his new hometown of Las Vegas. Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn – *** John Cena and AJ Styles have yet another engaging talking segment, this time a contract signing. Cena proposes to either sign for a legitimate singles match, or an alternate contract admitting Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson would be present and interfere. Styles says had he been around after the War, there’s no way Cena would’ve reached such successful heights. Cena then says he’s another entitled indy star; well, Styles has actually been entitled to these opportunities since at least 2003. (This dynamic would really work best if CM Punk ever returns, as he can accurately pinpoint the foolishness of WWE being so dismissive of the indies during the 2000s decade and how grueling it was for him to break the first major barrier.) Styles tells Cena that he’s not like other indy dudes, signs the legitimate singles match contract, and vows that “your time is up, my time is now.” It must be mentioned that Cena went above and beyond to treat this match as a highlight of his career. Kevin Owens on commentary is the star of the Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho main event. Zayn being on commentary, Cesaro as ring announcer, and Alberto Del Rio as timekeeper causes the obvious go-home brawl. NXT – June 15, 2016: The Good Shit Taped from Orlando, FL Paul Ellering’s heavyweight tag team name is revealed as the Authors of Pain during their squash match intro. OH FUCK YES~! SmackDown – June 16, 2016: The Good Shit Taped from Biloxi, MS Xavier Woods vs. AJ Styles – ***1/4 Dean Ambrose, Cesaro, & Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, & Alberto Del Rio – ***1/4 Tremendous hype for Money in the Bank 2016 as there should be for every supercard. There’s not a chance in Hell it’ll come close to dethroning 2011 as the greatest in that annual event’s history though.