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[2005-07-09-ROH-Escape From New York] CM Punk vs Roderick Strong


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  • 2 years later...

 

ROH Title Match

CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong
This match was simply amazing. Before the match even began, the mere visual of Punk looking up at Joe in the balcony, smirking and holding up the belt, just told the story. Punk of course continued to mock Joe, as well as Foley and Gibson, as they all watched from the balcony during the match. Having them up there just really elevated the importance of the ROH Title that I hadn't seen from the company before.
Punk was of course a tremendous chickenshit heel. As with their match the month before, Punk spent about the first 10 minutes evading every single chop attempt from Strong. Whereas the first singles match they had, it was a simple story of Punk just being smart enough to avoid such heavy, painful strikes, in this match, while it had that simple story too, this time Punk was the hated heel, and Strong was the white-hot future bad-ass. So when Strong finally did get that chop on Punk, the crowd erupted, getting to see the champion get his comeuppance and take his physical beating.
Strong was tremendous with his comebacks and hope spots as Punk was equally tremendous in toying with the audience. As much respect as Punk had for Strong as a competitor (hard to see that behind his smugness and arrogance, but that respect was there), he really seemed taken by surprise by the challenger. Strong truly elevated his game in this one, not going down and giving the best performance of his career at the time of this match.
Strong, with the crowd fully behind him, also laid just a vicious beating on Punk. The backbreakers he delivered were just devastating, as were his usual gutbusters. Add in the tremendous false finishes also, and this match had the crowd rocking from beginning to end. This is a truly underappreciated match.
It lived up to the hype that came with this storyline. It had the crowd in a frenzy. It erased any doubt one could have possibly had that Strong was a bandwagon flavor of the month in ROH. And most importantly, it elevated the ROH Title to an emotional level that was unmatched. This was an old-school style of personalities combined with the modern-day physicality. This match worked on just about every level.
Post-match, Joe, Foley, and Gibson corner Punk in the ring. Gibson delivers a Tiger Driver to the champion and demands a title shot on the next show, despite the number of times he failed to win the big one before. Just raw emotion that was the driving force for these main events, and it was pretty damn fresh for ROH.
Rating: ****1/2
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  • GSR changed the title to [2005-07-09-ROH-Escape From New York] CM Punk vs Roderick Strong
  • 1 year later...

Punk is such a great cocky heel prick in this. Between his in-ring work, the taunting to Joe & Gibson + the way he controlled the crowd throughout, this truly was a terrific performance by the man. Roddy was a great opponent to go against him too -- I looooooved the way they built the match up from the beginning w/ Punk avoiding Roddy's chop-heavy onslaught for as long as he could, so once Roddy finally got to unleash those sick chops of his, it was like a true "finally!" moment. Great match. ****

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