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Dragon Gate Invasion - August 27, 2005


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Good Times, Great Memories

Guest: Homicide


The DVD kicks off with this segment, which is the peak of the entire event. Sucks for those who attended the live event and didn't get to see this backstage segment.


This segment, although brief, is what ultimately keeps this from being the worst ROH event of 2005 for me. It is easily the most important GTGM segment ever. It was Homicide and Colt Cabana being rewarded for their hard work and getting over in ROH. With Cabana just finishing his feud with Nigel McGuinness, and Homicide a few months past wrapping up his feud with Bryan Danielson, this was an excellent new chapter for both men.


Homicide was very sarcastic in playing along with Cabana's antics, such as being in Chicago and that they would take a jet straight to Buffalo. Homicide becomes annoyed when Cabana compares being grounded for not doing dishes in his middle-class upbringing to Homicide's Bed-Stuy background. Ultimately, Cabana crosses Homicide's personal boundaries when he makes an innocent joke and says "my nizzle" to the Notorious 187. Excellent clash of cultures here.


Nigel McGuinness cuts a promo that it's time to start winning, and that's that. Sounds like a desperate man.


Pure Title Match

Samoa Joe vs. Nigel McGuinness


This was the Nigel McGuinness Show, and while it didn't make for a remarkable match, it was the right thing to do for business. With two failed Pure Title shots, failing to win the Cabana feud, and close to a year away from his lone major singles victory over Homicide, it was time for McGuinness to get results.


McGuinness, learning from his feud with Cabana, used borderline dirty tactics when getting in position to discreetly punch Joe, attempting to troll the ROH Icon. That works when Joe blatantly retaliates with a closed fist, costing him his rope break warning. Later, McGuinness sacrifices a rope break when he uses a chair on the left shoulder of Joe to stop a tope suicida. (That brought back memories of Triple H using a chair shot DQ in the middle of his 60 Minute Iron Man Match against the Rock at Judgment Day 2000, which Brock Lesnar also did in the same type of match against Kurt Angle in 2003.) McGuinness of course worked on that shoulder throughout the rest of the match. Now Joe was game any time for a fight; but not in this kind of environment, which required manipulation. And THAT is how McGuinness finally secured the Pure Title, much to the crowd's disapproval.


Rating: less than ***


Jimmy Rave & Brian Kendrick vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong


This match had its moments, but overall was very hollow in front of a dead Buffalo crowd. With Prince Nana not present, Alex Shelley became the designated abuser of Jade Chung, who was forced to use her dog leash to drag Rave & Kendrick on a wooden platform to the ring.


This was a disappointing way for Kendrick to wrap up his second ROH tenure, and when Aries talks about this war escalating afterwards, it is pathetic to hear how little reaction that gets.


Rating: less than ***


CIMA vs. AJ Styles


Now this is a dream match. Too bad it didn't live up to such dreams. Again, like the tag match, this had its moments of WOW. The problem is that no enriching story ever developed to go with all of the nice-looking moves these two did. I've seen CIMA have much better singles matches than this, but at least this woke the crowd up. Perhaps these two needed a series to really get their chemistry developed.


Rating: less than ***


Joe cuts a boring, unremarkable promo.


ROH Title Match

James Gibson vs. Colt Cabana


This is another match on the show that had its moments, but was empty in the end. Don't get me wrong - I believe these two had something really good in them, but it wasn't as a 25-30 minute serious business ROH main event. On the undercard, the funny Cabana against the hillbilly heel Jamie Noble w/ Nidia? Now that sounds far more entertaining.


In hindsight, I would've booked Gibson vs. McGuinness here, as I believe they would've had significantly better chemistry (and if McGuinness was cheating that could've possibly gotten the crowd more behind Gibson), with Joe successfully defending the Pure Title against Cabana on the undercard. Then have McGuinness win the Pure Title from Joe at Glory By Honor IV to make that show have just a bit extra historical impact, to give it that Cena/Batista WrestleMania 21 feel.


Rating: less than ***


The DVD ends with Homicide ambushing Cabana while signing autographs outside the venue. It's good to see Homicide in something substantial again instead of a tedious Gibson semi-feud and playing second fiddle in the Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal program.


No matches on here even crack *** for me. But I'll take this sometimes-dead crowd with a fantastic kickoff to a blood feud and important title change over the mess that was Night of the Grudges II. Gibson vs. Cabana wasn't nearly as tedious as Joe vs. Daniels. But this was definitely the worst ROH event of 2005 in terms of match quality across the board though, and it really sucks for anyone who attended this and couldn't see the GTGM segment. Second worst ROH event of 2005 I believe is fair, with Trios Tournament at #3.


Also of note: this was the 8th show in 8 weeks for ROH, and it was VERY glaring that the schedule wasn't just taking a toll on the roster, but on Gabe Sapolsky as well. In some ways, it's similar to WCW being on such fire in 1997, but those in charge being too cocky and arrogant to forecast the potential long-term damage.


Up next - Glory By Honor IV

Matches will include:

Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal

Nigel McGuinness vs. Roderick Strong

James Gibson vs. Bryan Danielson

AJ Styles vs. Jimmy Rave

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Glory By Honor IV - September 17, 2005


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Jay Lethal abruptly enters the ring to kick off the show, demanding his feud-ending match with Low Ki immediately. This brings out Julius Smokes, who somehow convinces Lethal (and ROH even goes along) that Ki become "officially reinstated" with the company in order for the match to take place.


Hardcore Match

Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal


This was one hell of an entertaining opener, probably because this was indeed the end of an under-appreciated feud. LOL at everyone who found Lethal to be overpushed in 2005. Sure, he can struggle to channel his charisma and his promos aren't special, but he knew how to connect with the crowd in the ring and this angle got over in front of the demanding audiences that ROH attracted.


For opening matches, does this compare to Brian Kendrick vs. Bryan Danielson? Of course not - that was a PPV main event disguised as an indy opener. But what I loved so much about this is just how brutal it got. With their Midwest matches the month before being thrown out, Ki and Lethal finally got the chance to just fight. And this got ugly at points, complete with Lethal bleeding from his forehead.


Coming into this match, it was obvious that had the Rottweilers not been interfering throughout this feud, Lethal's Dragon Suplex was Low Ki's Kryptonite. And while Ki won this match, to bring this feud to its apparent close, Lethal still got put over, because he never got his finisher on the first ever ROH Champion. On the other hand, Ki got his double stomp, but Lethal managed to kick out. That nearfall had the crowd rocking. That is some quality storytelling, my friends.


Ultimately, I can't say that this is a GREAT match. But it's so fucking close to it. Give this just another 2-3 minutes and I believe it really could've been.


In an unusual move, the buildup video for this feud is shown AFTER the match due to Lethal abruptly crashing the show to have this as the opening match. And I'm sure that's the only reason too.


Rating: ***3/4


Pure Title Match

Nigel McGuinness vs. Roderick Strong


Another solid match that won't get a special star rating, but accomplished its goal in getting the audience accustomed to McGuinness and his antics as the Pure Champion. Looks like we're getting the heel reign that was probably planned for John Walters when he joined the Embassy. After the thrilling Summer of Punk, I'll gladly take another heel tile reign that gets the crowd wanting to see the champion get his comeuppance.


Rating: less than ***


I get to the end of Homicide vs. Colt Cabana, which gets thrown out when the Rottweilers interfere. What matters is that Samoa Joe comes out to help Cabana, leaving Ki in the ring. Ki talks shit and this had to be the beginning of Ki vs. Joe II. I just wonder when it was planned to happen. Death Before Dishonor IV? Glory By Honor V?


Lethal comes out and wants to fight Ki again. I really like the concept, that Lethal wasn't backing down and wouldn't allow the cocky bully to get the last laugh, especially since Lethal knew he could beat him.


Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal


This wasn't on par with the opening match, but it got the job done. Lethal gets the big win finally, truly bringing this feud to an end, with a successful Super Dragon Suplex (not to be confused with the PWG ace.) The crowd's reaction to the finish earns my star rating.


Rating: ***


McGuinness cuts a great interview with Gary Michael Capetta, playing dumb about his cheating antics. This should be one amazing Pure Title reign to watch unfold. It's a shame this guy didn't make it to WWE.


I catch the end of BJ Whitmer vs. Samoa Joe vs. Ricky Reyes vs. Adam Pearce, and as I'm FF to the post-match I notice Lacey is at ringside taking notes to possibly make personnel changes in the Lacey's Angels stable. I'm intrigued. As for the post-match, Joe proclaims he wants to be ROH's first triple crown/grand slam champion after pinning Tag Champion Whitmer.


I must note: I know that Joe was recovering just six days removed from TNA's Unbreakable PPV, so he definitely wasn't gonna steal the show on this night, but whose bright idea was it to put a damaged Joe in a 20+ minute match involving Whitmer, Reyes, and Pearce?


ROH Title Match

James Gibson vs. Bryan Danielson


Danielson returns to ROH not only with a new theme, that being Europe's iconic "The Final Countdown," but also with a much improved wardrobe that is reminiscent of Bob Backlund. Very, very nice and professional.


This was some fucking quality professional wrestling. It was not a spotfest. It was technical wrestling at its finest.


So much of this match, probably the first 12-15 minutes, were mostly on the mat, just both guys trying to get leverage, trading holds, struggling to find a weak spot. Danielson's time in Europe while away from ROH was really paying off here, as the much more experienced and successful Gibson couldn't find something to work on.


Gibson did get his moments. He did some work on Danielson's back, but never got enough done on it to make any kind of impressionable damage, which had to be disappointing for him after defending the title against Roderick Strong earlier in the month for FIP, and that he also liked to use the Texas Cloverleaf.


Danielson was just amazing in this match, finally getting momentum about 20-25 minutes in when he worked on Gibson's left arm and shoulder. Gibson did a phenomenal job of selling the work Danielson did on him, constantly in pain going forward in the match. This was so critical going to the finishing stretch.


Gibson, oh man he fought so valiantly when Danielson kept locking him in submission and pinfall attempts, and his counters were just as impressive as Danielson's. But on this day, Danielson was to no longer be denied. After working on Gibson's left arm and shoulder, Gibson failing to escape the hammerlock, Danielson locked in the Crossface Chickenwing, leaving Gibson no choice but to tap out, much to the crowd's ecstatic approval.


Post-match, Danielson is classy as expected, taking time to acknowledge the hard work Gibson put into the ROH Title, and said he will be proud to defend the title going forward, that he had no plans at the time of going to WWE or TNA.


This is not the match of the year for 2005, not even for ROH. It was a purist's dream, a true throwback to the days of Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, etc. So in that sense, this lacked the immediate electricity of CM Punk's key farewell tour matches. But in the last several minutes, the Long Island crowd was way into this. This match told a great story and was paced incredibly well. I'd much rather see a match build its way to a frenzy, than to blow its load so fucking early.


To me, this is above Punk vs. Alex Shelley, Kendrick vs. Danielson, Punk vs. Jimmy Rave, and Joe vs. Gibson for 2005 so far in this rewatch. But ultimately, if you put a gun to my head, I'd have to lean towards those key Summer of Punk matches (Death Before Dishonor III, Escape From New York, and Redemption) over this one. On a different day though, I might choose this work of art instead. This was an undeniably tremendous MOTYC, and arguably the best match of Gibson's career.


Rating: ****1/2


Hardcore Match - Hit the Clash to Win

Defeated participant can no longer use the Clash in ROH

AJ Styles vs. Jimmy Rave


Of note is that Mick Foley, in his final ROH appearance, accompanied Styles to offset Prince Nana. This was an entertaining popcorn match, but it just never stood a chance to be anything memorable. It could not follow Gibson vs. Danielson, but Styles, just like Joe, was six days removed from that killer Unbreakable spotfest. To nobody's surprise, Styles got the win here, although the finish was definitely highlight reel material: he executed the Styles Clash on Rave off the top rope through a table, having the crowd going apeshit.


Post-match, Foley gives a nice farewell speech. I'd have closed the show with Gibson vs. Danielson, because nothing was gonna follow that, but I understand the sentiment here. Sure, Foley had that awful philosophy feud with Steamboat, but he did a lot for ROH, playing a hand in getting Punk signed with WWE and going to bat for Joe, Homicide, and Austin Aries too. He had that amazing brawl with Joe which had the crowd rocking, and had an important supporting part in the Summer of Punk. He also orchestrated ROH branching out to Long Island. He deserved the sendoff.


Rating: less than ***


Cabana cuts a comedy promo on Homicide, not taking the issue seriously at all here. I'm sure that'll last long.


Lacey shows the art of saying absolutely nothing in an interview about her scouting of matches earlier in the night.



A touching, must-see video closes the DVD, chronicling Bryan Danielson's journey to becoming ROH Champion.



Up next - Survival of the Fittest 2005

Matches will include:

Samoa Joe vs. Milano Collection AT

James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels

The 2005 Survival of the Fittest Elimination Match

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Survival of the Fittest 2005 - September 24, 2005
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I only had the key matches saved on my hard drive, so I glanced through JD Dunn's review of this show for any brief important segments or announcements, and yep, I see this one.

 

Lacey announces that she's found new Angels to build around. So long, Cheech. We hardly knew you.
Survival of the Fittest Qualifier
Samoa Joe vs. Milano Collection AT
Nothing special or awful here, just a showcase for MCAT in his ROH debut. Joe was just a body that advanced to the main event, with no intention of stealing the show here. Probably a good idea considering his upcoming schedule, as Gabe Sapolsky announces to the DVD audience on commentary that Kenta fucking Kobashi is coming to ROH the next weekend, booked in singles against Joe, and teaming the next night with Homicide against Joe and Low Ki. OH FUCK YES~!
Rating: less than ***
Survival of the Fittest Qualifier
James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels
I was very happy to see this singles match happen before Gibson left for WWE, as I considered this to be a pretty even matchup. Daniels amuses me yet again when he bitches that Gibson didn't win in his ROH Title defense against Bryan Danielson the week before. Yeah Chris, Jamie was obligated to make sure you got a third title shot in three months.
Daniels worked early on Gibson's back, but after a few minutes, it turned out that work wasn't quite so devastating enough, as it didn't play that heavily, if at all, in the finish. Gibson was good playing the subtle heel, likely a response to the attitude of Daniels as the match started. He went to work on the neck of Daniels, which will never get old considering that nasty bump Daniels took while in WCW. Speaking of WCW, as I mentioned in their PWG threeway match, I bet these two could've been stealing the show in fantastic PPV openers for WCW at the time of this show.
This was overall very good stuff, and my pick for match of the night. I would've liked to have seen one more singles match between them to see if they had a MOTYC in them, but I appreciate Gabe Sapolsky getting this match to happen while Gibson was on borrowed time on the indies. And LOL at TNA's paranoia: They refused to allow Christopher Daniels to cleanly put over the WWE-contracted Matt Hardy and CM Punk just a couple months before this, while WWE realized this is just an indy match and allowed their boy Gibson to cleanly put over TNA's Daniels.
Rating: ***3/4
Here's a brief segment I should've saved on my hard drive, as it sounds fucking awesome going into the big NYC/PHI weekend.

 

Prince Nana promises that Jade Chung will face consequences if she messes up again. He makes her crawl around like a dog for her insolence.
Survival of the Fittest Elimination Match
Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong vs. Colt Cabana vs. Christopher Daniels
This just could not touch the timeless 2004 match, but let's be honest: no SOTF match ever will.
Important little stories coming into this match were that Daniels was still sore in his neck from by far the most grueling qualifier match of the evening, and Aries had been struck in the back by Jimmy Rave with a steel chair after their qualifier match.
While this lacked the pacing and drama to be the timeless classic of the previous year, this did have one very noticeable advantage: the referee enforced tag legalities. While it confused the participants at times, I actually see that is a good thing: how many times has the rulebook in other sports confused and frustrated the athletes, coaches, and fans? The integrity of the game is important.
I really liked that Joe was the first elimination for a number of reasons. It was a nice way to follow up on him being the first elimination the year before, and perhaps this type of match being his weakness could make for a compelling narrative going forward. Also, it was best for business: Joe has two little main event matches coming up against that Kobashi fellow the next weekend. Might wanna preserve him for that. I also liked that Strong got the pin on him (a nice little extra notch for Strong's stock), but just like the Pepsi Plunge at Scramble Cage Melee got Homicide the victory the year before, it was the Best Moonsault Ever of Daniels that put down Joe here, thus putting Daniels over as a threat to the former ROH and Pure Champion. That's gotta give Daniels confidence too since he's never gotten a victory over Joe at all yet in ROH.
Also early in the match was Joe & Lethal working together, but that obviously went out the window with Joe being eliminated early. On the other hand, Aries & Strong worked together fluidly, sending a nice message to any other factions and tag teams, specifically the Embassy. Not once did they ever become divided throughout this message, sticking to their plan to make sure that one of them would get the victory and guaranteed ROH Title shot.
Now that I mention the ROH Title shot, one may wonder why Aries would wanna be in this. Yeah, the narrative was that Aries wanted a SOTF win on his resume, but here's the reality. Even with Aries, as a former ROH Champion, guaranteed to eventually get a title shot in the future, why wouldn't he want an additional one just in case?
When Daniels was eliminated next, Aries & Strong just took advantage of Lethal and Cabana as the other two remaining participants. Lethal was great going up against GeNext, which played off of him winning his feud against Low Ki and the rest of the Rottweilers. After several minutes, it finally dawned on Lethal and Cabana though to work together, temporarily turning this into a tag match. I have to mention real quick that Lethal hit a gorgeous spinebuster during this match that surpassed Gibson's, although I believe the latter was coached on it the previous few years by Arn Anderson.
When Lethal was eliminated, Cabana said "fuck this" and left GeNext in the ring to fight against each other, but they intelligently locked horns and brought themselves to his corner. Strong politely tagged Cabana in with a razor-sharp knife-edge chop and then throwing the former Tag Champion in the ring. After a brief effort, Cabana was of course eliminated. However, the back of Aries went out when he attempted a 450 splash. Hey, injuries can come back to bite at the strangest and least convenient of times.
Before squaring off against each other, Aries cut a promo that I had no problem with, pointing out that friends and teammates are there for each other. Aries of course was in bad pain with his back, which obviously played into Strong's notorious backbreaking. This was some quality wrestling, and the crowd popped when Strong made Aries tap out to the Liontamer, but this didn't have the frenetic pacing and drama to be the classic they wanted this to be.
In hindsight, the more compelling story would have been this: Have Rave vs. Strong as a qualifier. Enraged from losing, Rave attacks the dominant hand of Strong with a steel chair. In the main event, Aries does everything he can to protect his stablemate from being preyed upon, and GeNext still manages to make it to the end. Aries then does a promo, but says "I'm sorry, Roddy, I love you like a brother." Strong puts up such a valiant effort as Aries works on the hand, which of course increases the difficulty for Strong to hit his chops, gutbusters, and backbreakers. Strong still finds a way to win out the match as the crowd has been in an absolute frenzy for the closing stretch, chanting "Match of the year!"
Back to reality. Post-match, the red-hot Strong, with major victories over Matt Hardy and Alex Shelley on his resume, challenges Bryan Danielson for the ROH Title on October 29 in Connecticut. OH FUCK YES~!
Rating: ***1/2
I must now mention that I'll be taking a break from these ROH/TNA/FIP/PWG rewatch projects for now. There are a number of reasons. I'll be watching the Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar matches for the first time in my life, while rewatching all of the good shit from the past year or so of WWE to get ready for my trip to New Orleans. Considering that match quality in WWE has probably never been higher than since the Shield's debut (which is probably where I will start for my annual WWE rewatch), that's gonna take up the rest of March for me.
On top of that, the next ROH shows for me have Kenta Kobashi in them as I mentioned before. I will be taking the time after NOLA to watch many of Kobashi's most important matches that took place before October 2005, because I am going to make sure that I fully understand the story told on the evening of October 1 in the New Yorker Hotel. I will make sure that I give the very best reviews possible for the iconic singles and tag matches involving Joe and Kobashi. I also have a farewell weekend for James Gibson to look forward to, but with him, I have seven months of work I've watched to be familiar with his work.
Then throw in that in April will be in the NBA and NHL postseasons, and it's gonne be tough for me to get back on this. But I will do it. There's no way in Hell I will not get around to Danielson's title reign, the ROH and NOAH working relationship, and all the other good shit that's to come.
Up next - Joe vs. Kobashi
Matches will include:
Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Azrieal
Jimmy Rave vs. Roderick Strong
James Gibson vs. Jimmy Yang
Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi
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Joe vs. Kobashi - October 1, 2005


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The DVD starts with a Samoa Joe highlight package, reminding the viewer that he is still the gold standard in ROH despite not having a championship, a parallel of his opponent for this event. Too bad NOAH didn't release any Kenta Kobashi footage to really make this a special video package.


Elimination Match

Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Azrieal


Not all that emotionally stimulating, and Azrieal just looked really out of place with these two. The action was crisp and good, but one could tell that once it got to Sydal vs. Daniels, they were holding back a little bit. Definitely interested in seeing their series now though.


Rating: ***


Jimmy Rave vs. Roderick Strong


This match itself is nothing special, the equivalent to a present-day SmackDown! match. Strong of course got the victory, and what mattered was the post-match.


Prince Nana is pissed and tells the dog-leashed Jade Chung to help Rave choke out Strong. After about 30 seconds, she collapses because the leash is too short, and begs the Embassy not to mug Strong. She finally has enough and removes both the dog-leash and coverup outfit, giving low blows to Nana & Rave, and then unites with Strong once he takes them out. The crowd popped HUGE for this, and then popped yet again when Strong laid down the gauntlet.


NEXT TIME ROH COMES TO MANHATTAN, IT'S THE EMBASSY VS. GENERATION NEXT IN STEEL CAGE WARFARE.


The First Half of James Gibson's Independent Farewell

James Gibson vs. Jimmy Yang


Good match, but not that stimulating and it was a bit difficult for me to pick up on the story. The wrestling was really solid and crisp though. This match definitely had some sentimental value to it, as not only was Gibson on his way out, but this was Yang's debut in the company. I'm sure these two rivals could've done something really special, but considering that this event is Joe vs. Kobashi, it's understandable why they didn't go out to steal the show.


Post-match, Gibson gives a great speech saying how much he will miss being on the indies, and wants to face Roderick Strong in his farewell match the night night in Philly. OH FUCK YES~!


Rating: ***1/4


Dream Match

Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi


I put a lot of effort into understanding this match. Before watching this for my rewatch, I watched numerous acclaimed matches of Kobashi's in NOAH, starting with his classic GHC Heavyweight Title victory over one of his greatest rivals, Mitsuharu Misawa. Other classic matches along the way included Yuji Nagata, Kensuke Sasaki, Yoshihiro Takayama, Jun Akiyama, and Akitoshi Saito. I hope that my readers feel I have done this match justice.


After watching the match, I also went to the two most conflicting reviews, because while I will of course never 100% agree with anyone on everything, I respect the perspective these two have when reviewing and discussing wrestling.


The first is 411Mania's Mike Campbell, but I will link to his direct site: http://splashmountain.150m.com/reviews/joevskobashi.htm

The other is Dave Meltzer, the most esteemed journalist in the history of the business: http://pwchronicle.blogspot.com/2005/11/dave-meltzer-on-kenta-kobashisamoa-joe.html


Now, on to the match itself.


There are so many times in wrestling that the fans have to sit through a lot of bullshit. Terrible gimmicks, titles getting buried, go-nowhere storylines, storylines that never have a proper finish, rushed decision-making, and most of all a lot of horrendous professional wrestling.


What is rare are those special moments, those truly special ones that stand the test of time, that will forever be etched in the memories of all witnesses. A moment that makes fans realize that all the shit they sit through as fans of this business, there is a payoff. Now for ROH, a moment like that had already happened in 2005 when Austin Aries and CM Punk provided a WrestleMania quality moment at Death Before Dishonor III. I'm sure any reasonable fan of ROH would've been satisfied with just that one in 2005, or may have felt they got that already with the other two ROH Title changes that year.


But leave it to Kenta Kobashi to come in to New York City and give the ROH fanbase one more truly unforgettable moment in the same calendar year.


Is this the greatest match ever? Of course not. I don't hold it in as high of esteem as Kobashi vs. Takayama or most of the ROH matches I've given ***** to. But Kobashi came into a rinky-dink little ballroom across the street from Madison Square Garden and gave the absolute best performance he could possibly give with his physical limitations. That's a testament to how badly he wanted his resume to have a classic match on American soil, and also the 15-20 years he had invested in the business telling stories and getting moves over the right way.


Before these two men even lay a finger on each other, the NYC crowd is going apeshit, and who could blame them? They are getting to see the fucking man of ROH, Samoa Joe, collide in what would turn out to be a once-in-a-lifetime dream match against KENTA FUCKING KOBASHI.


Just like Takayama and Takeshi Rikio did, Joe slaps Kobashi right in the face when their tie-up gets to the ropes. Of course the crowd goes apeshit for that, and the facial expressions of both men are tremendous. Joe has delivered a simple message: you are not here to collect an easy paycheck in my fucking territory. Not that Kobashi was here to do that, but he did get the reinforced message.


The majority of the match had cream-of-the-crop heat from the crowd, with them popping for just about everything. From Kobashi taking Joe's adopted Kawada kicks, to the chop exchange that was influenced by Kobashi vs. Sasaki, to Kobashi countering Joe's second attempt at the Ole kicks, everything in this match clicked.


Do I believe Joe was buried in any way in this match, despite him throwing almost everything out there while Kobashi gave a taste of his arsenal? Not in the least. Kobashi understood throughout his career the importance of not burying moves, and it paid off in fucking spades on this night. Meanwhie, Joe put forth a phenomenal effort to elevate himself. Let's be honest here: Joe was the underdog going into this one based on star power alone.


Joe also got a taste of his own medicine. I've stated numerous times that many of Joe's opponents had never faced an opponent as physical and dominating as him. And on this night, Kobashi would be the most physical and dominating opponent Joe has faced to date. That is why despite unleashing everything but the Island Driver, Kobashi was able to put Joe away with a fraction of his offense. The blows Joe took both in strikes and head-drops (especially the last one being a very, very painful looking sleeper suplex) were too much for him.


Post-match, Joe cuts a promo and looks to be in BAD shape. No wonder he phones it in for a low-rent federation like TNA now after seeing him here. Meanwhile, Kobashi is interviewed and looks like he could go another round right then and there.


This is another defining match of the 2000s decade. It is not something I recommend watching cold. I had to put in a lot of viewing of both ROH and NOAH to truly appreciate, grasp, and understand the story and structure of this match, as well as why the crowd was so ecstatic to witness this true example of a dream match. I have a few more months to go, but from an objective standpoint, I must admit that so far this IS ROH's match of the year for 2005.


Rating: *****


Up next - Unforgettable

Matches will include:

James Gibson vs. Roderick Strong

Low Ki & Samoa Joe vs. Homicide & Kenta Kobashi

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Unforgettable - October 2, 2005


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The DVD starts with a backstage promo from Jimmy Rave & Prince Nana, who are furious over Jade Chung's decision to use the freedoms she's entitled to. Really good short promo.


After the first match, Jade Chung cuts a hilariously awful backstage promo. This should be seen to be believed.


Percy Pringle shows up and announces that he's the new authority figure for ROH. The segue was absolutely cringe-worthy, with Ricky Reyes beating up Pelle Primeau. Bobby Dempsey then tried to help his fellow student, and out of fear said for someone to "call an undertaker."


Jim Cornette, in the exact same building, one year to the date after the memorable Midnight Express reunion segment, comes out minutes later and reveals he's the actual authority figure. With how chaotic and emotional the Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal feud and Summer of Punk was, it was time for someone to come in and bring the company back to its pure sports roots. Little did Cornette know the emotional chaos that was soon to come.


James Gibson's Independent Farewell

James Gibson vs. Roderick Strong


This is simply the greatest non-retirement farewell match ever, even better than the sentimental double farewell matches hosted by ECW in 1995 and ROH in 2009. While Austin Aries vs. CM Punk was an advertised farewell, and thus had all the emotional elements of that dynamic, I don't count it since it wasn't the actual farewell for Punk.


Strong of course did a tremendous job on Gibson's back, even better than in their previous singles matches both in ROH and FIP. He was ferocious in this match. But despite the roll he was on, and how badly he wanted a victory over his mentor with this being his last chance at that, let's not forget that his opponent on this night was James Gibson.


Gibson also so badly wanted the bragging rights of going out on top in his final ROH match. And boy did he show how hungry he was for that. Deep into the match, Gibson allowed the younger, less experienced Strong to get over-zealous, baiting Strong into landing a rock-solid chop on the steel ring post. Fortunately, Gibson channeled Punk instead of Matt Hardy and went to work on that right hand. Strong would sell the arm tremendously as the match progressed as well, showing the pain of landing a chop and improvising with forearms.


Earlier in the match, both men took a segment from their FIP match and had a phenomenal strike exchange segment on the floor that had the Philly crowd rocking. Once Strong had the advantage, he immediately threw Gibson again onto the ringside barricade, inflicting more damage on Gibson's back. However, as badly damaged as Gibson's back would get, he would show just why he was going back to the big leagues, finding ways to counter many of Strong's attempted submissions as only a pro as successful and experienced as him could pull off.


After about 15 or so minutes of the match having its foundation established, they went into the near-falls. What really stood out to me is that the third act of the match wasn't a spotfest. They just logically hit their established finishers on each other and paid off the story they had established throughout the match, and the crowd was going insane! And when Gibson lifted Strong onto the turnbuckle to deliver the same Super Tiger Driver that won him the ROH Title, Strong sniffed it out (knowing he would have no way of kicking out of such a move), delivering a super gutbuster and finishing off the former ROH Champion with a final Liontamer, leaving Gibson no choice but to submit as the crowd was in a frenzy!


This is nowhere near the best match I've ever seen, but it exemplifies everything that I love about pro wrestling. It had a tremendous story, a sentimental dynamic, a fantastic payoff, a phenomenally built pace, and elevated Strong for his upcoming ROH Title shot while giving Gibson arguably the best match of his entire career, a fitting finale to a relatively short but unquestionably invaluable chapter in ROH history.


Post-match, Gibson gives a fantastic farewell speech, declaring Strong as the MVP and future of the company, solidifying all the work that Punk, Hardy, Alex Shelley, and Austin Aries had put into elevating the Survival of the Fittest winner. Strong, Gibson, and BJ Whitmer (a close friend of Gibson's) embrace after the match to a tremendous ovation.


After getting to the back, Rave & Nana ambush Strong, leaving Gibson to beg for medical help.


Rating: ****1/2


BRYAN DANIELSON RETURNS ON THE NEXT SHOW TO DEFEND THE ROH TITLE.


Lacey fires Izzy & Deranged in a backstage segment, and reveals that she is now the agent for Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs, who mug Lacey's former top associates. Lacey promises to elevate their careers and maximize their star potential. Apparently this angle had to be shot because the match these two teams had was absolutely god-awful. What a night to put forth a bad match.


Low Ki & Samoa Joe vs. Homicide & Kenta Kobashi


Here's my lone nitpick of this instant classic: the crowd didn't pop that loudly when Kobashi finished Ki off with a lariat.


Joe's history with the Rottweilers is being set aside as all three independent stars are aware that being in a tag match with Kobashi is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I did like the underlying tension still between Joe and Homicide before the match though, with Kobashi giving his partner a simple look to convince Homicide to half-heartedly follow the Code of Honor.


This was simply an excellent tag team main event. Every single matchup in this was just awesome. Joe and Kobashi did a great job in following up their singles match, with both men exchanging teases of not giving each other clean breaks when the match begins. Of course, they would have the chop exchanges and Joe taking the stupid sleeper suplex too. Ki would get tagged in early, using his quickness to manipulate Kobashi into getting a submission locked in. Much later in the match, Joe would go back to work with submissions on that same left arm.


Homicide & Kobashi did a great job of temporarily working on Joe as the weak link, and would go on to do the same thing to Ki. Kobashi even stepped in illegally and trolled Joe into also stepping in illegally to draw the ref's attention with a simple glare. Ki then suffered two brutal chops to the chest as his friend Homicide held him captive.


Earlier in the match, Ki was also thrown outside the ring so that Kobashi could brutalize him with a DDT on the steel entrance ramp and throwing him into a barricade. He then stared at Joe, drawing the two men to tease an abrupt collision right there on the floor. Little things like this are what make these matches have a major league presentation despite being in a tiny rinky-dink armory.


I must mention that the only time Ki and Homicide locked horns in an ROH ring, it was one spectacular fucking doozy. A shame their planned match a couple years earlier didn't end up happening.


What also stood out is that in the last 10 minutes or so of incredible nonstop action, Kobashi's HOF influence showed because fall attempts were only counted for those who were legal. And not once did that ruin the dramatic pace of this match or kill the red-hot crowd.


I also liked that moves weren't buried in this match. When something devastating was used as a near-fall, the reason it wouldn't finish is because the pinfall or submission would be broken up, which kept the match going (while still remaining hot of course) but also putting over the severity of the move being done if nobody made the save. There were also two or three tremendous cutoff segments when one guy would get an advantage on another.


One of the best spots of the entire match was Kobashi getting his signature rapid fire chops on Joe, only for Ki to attempt a cutoff, getting thrown in front of Joe, and getting the rapid fire chops for his trouble. Yet another moment that only these men and very few others could pull off the right way.


This was simply an incredible tag match, and along with Gibson's farewell, gave this show its appropriate "Unforgettable" name. Post-match, Kobashi is given the proper respect by the crowd and other participants. I cannot thank Kenta Kobashi enough for what he did with just two nights in ROH. I will be forever grateful that he came to America and put forth matches that were so fucking good they could have plausibly headlined an event at the Tokyo Dome or now-named AT&T Stadium.


Kudos of course to Joe for sucking it up after the brutal singles match against Kobashi, Homicide for sucking it up with an injured left shoulder, and Ki for telling his jet lag to fuck off after working for 1PW on the other side of the Atlantic the day before. I am aware that I'm not the easiest wrestling fan to please, but I definitely appreciate and grasp the toll these four men put their bodies through for my entertainment.


Rating: ****3/4


To me, this is ROH's version of WrestleMania X, and here's why: both shows had key storyline moments. They were performed in front of tremendously receptive crowds. And also feature cards with only two worthwhile matches, but boy oh boy are the two matches on both shows absolutely splendid, contain sentimental/historic significance, and are very different from one another. This show is an absolute must-have.


I have a new feature to debut here too. Unfortunately, James Gibson's career had to end abruptly in 2009 due to a terrible back injury, and since then he has only done a couple of quick matches within the WWE umbrella. I am very happy for him though to be rewarded for his dedication and skill, as he now has a cushy WWE producer job, certainly playing a part in the incredible in-ring consistency that WWE has had in the past year.


But it is because of that injury and the position Gibson has in WWE, that I can confidently say he will never wrestle in ROH again despite his sincere expression in his farewell match that he hoped he would have the opportunity to do so.


A key word I use to describe Gibson's time in ROH is "invaluable," as a play off of the MVP narrative ROH pushed during his time in the company, and because one really can't put a price on what he brought to the company despite being there for only eight months.


With that in mind, I debut a feature, one that can be expected to be done again for other great ROH talents that have moved on and are highly unlikely to ever wrestle for this federation again.


James Gibson's 10 Greatest ROH Matches

James Gibson vs. Brian Kendrick - Third Anniversary Celebration Pt. 2 ***3/4

James Gibson, Brian Kendrick, & Nigel McGuinness vs. Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson, & Vordell Walker - Trios Tournament ***3/4

James Gibson vs. Rocky Romero - Back to Basics ***1/2

James Gibson vs. Roderick Strong - Best of American Super Juniors Tournament ***1/2

James Gibson vs. Austin Aries - The Final Showdown ****

James Gibson vs. Samoa Joe - New Frontiers ****1/4

James Gibson vs. CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels - Redemption ****1/2

James Gibson vs. Bryan Danielson - Glory By Honor IV ****1/2 (Gibson's greatest match in ROH)

James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels - Survival of the Fittest 2005 ***3/4

James Gibson vs. Roderick Strong - Unforgettable ****1/2


Up next - Enter the Dragon

Matches will include:

Jimmy Yang vs. Roderick Strong

Jay Lethal & Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley

Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries

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Enter the Dragon - October 14, 2005


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Jimmy Yang vs. Roderick Strong


This was a match that would fit right in with the current TV product for ROH: good, crisp wrestling, nothing wrong with any of the work itself. But if one is looking for a deep in-ring story, look elsewhere. Now that I mention the SBG TV era, I'm surprised Yang doesn't work for ROH right now, he'd seem like a natural fit. Of course the red-hot Strong wins to build up for his second ROH Title shot (in an ROH ring.)


Rating: ***


Jay Lethal & Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley


Prince Nana is absent from ringside. Really fun tag match, with the Embassy first getting a very brief advantage on Joe, but then would get a much stronger and more logical advantage on Lethal. Early in the match, someone who I assume is a Buckeyes mark told Shelley to go back to Michigan. Lethal was later sarcastically heckled by I believe the same little shit, whoever that was. Also early in the match was a cute segment in which neither Rave nor Shelley could make Joe flinch when chopping him, and kept tagging each other until Rave conveniently had to get in the face of a fan in the front row, preventing his partner from tagging him back in.


The Embassy did a great job of working on the back of Lethal's head and neck, specifically with clotheslines, skull-fucks, and full nelsons. Dave Prazak then shows that he's likely never done a mat wrestling match in his life when he questions the difficulty of getting out of a full nelson. (Important: Prazak mentions that Rave is working on a new, devastating finisher that he will utilize when the time is right after losing his legal rights to the Styles Clash.)


After several minutes, Joe finally gets the hot tag, which the crowd was begging for and reacted accordingly with enthusiasm. He's a house of fire for a few minutes, but with Lethal out for the time being, the Embassy regained the advantage. I really like that because even though Samoa Joe was still the face of the company at this time with an incredible ROH resume, not even he could take on Rave & Shelley by himself and come out on top.


They have a really good finishing sequence, not once ever having nearfalls counted on anyone that wasn't legal throughout the match too. In the end, Lethal, who was still fresh off of his feud-ending victory over Low Ki, took Rave out of the equation. This allowed Joe to finish Shelley off with the musclebuster. Really good.


Rating: ***1/2


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries


After a four month wait, Aries is finally cashing in his rematch clause as a former ROH Champion. I love him being the first defense for Danielson, as he has two straight victories over the champ and left him so devastated that he left for months to work on his game in Europe.


This match had some sloppy points. It also had a mediocre crowd. And for reasons that are totally understandable, it was definitely a bit one-sided in showcasing Danielson. That was absolutely necessary to establish Danielson as a worthy champion and transition him into becoming the face of the company.


At this point I wanna mention just what an excellent commentator Lenny Leonard was during his time in ROH (not just for this match.) He really did such an outstanding job explaining the in-ring story, especially body part work. Gabe Sapolsky stepped in to provide commentary for this match too. In an eerie foreshadowing of Danielson's career, Sapolsky mentions that Danielson isn't "marketable" or "sexy," that he's all about business in the ring.


The majority of the match was on the mat, with Danielson owning Aries early and displaying how much he improved his game while away from ROH. He specifically was able to target the left arm and shoulder of Aries. While this match wasn't super-hot, Aries did a great job to keep this segment from being a complete squash, finding brief submission counters and using forearms to force Danielson to release.


I believe this was also Danielson's debut of his "I have till 5!" gimmick. I don't recall him doing this in his title win against James Gibson.


Back to the actual work of the match, Aries was tremendous when it was his turn to briefly get the heat as the match was coming to the third act. Sure, he used his left arm to inflict damage, but he sold that shit. There are so many guys on the current indy scene that could learn from this match, and this is actually one of the worst in the Danielson vs. Aries series!


Danielson also once again showed that he still had Aries scouted, first early in the match with the head-scissors, negating an explosive dropkick from Aries by using his arms and elbows for leverage and bouncing Aries in what I would describe as seated piledrivers. But Aries is so good he found a way to land a dropkick on Danielson anyway, albeit for a very, very, very brief advantage. Later, when Aries attempted the brainbuster with his damaged left arm, Danielson just kept kneeing him in the head to prevent it. But Aries, the former ROH Champion himself, gutted it out, absorbing the pain of the knees and successfully landing a brainbuster.


Once it got to the finish, Danielson showed that he was simply better now, positioning Aries to be the victim of either a Tiger Suplex or Cattle Mutilation, and then using that leverage to lock in a Crossface Chickenwing for the submission victory, the same move that won him the title.


This was definitely a nice kickoff to the Danielson era, even with all of the flaws in this match. These two men were like Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage in the 1980s: they had such natural chemistry that they could sleepwalk their way through a *** match.


Rating: ***3/4


Up next - Buffalo Stampede

Matches will include:

Nigel McGuinness vs. Samoa Joe

Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans

Low Ki vs. Colt Cabana

Bryan Danielson vs. Steve Corino

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Buffalo Stampede - October 15, 2005


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Pure Title Match

Nigel McGuinness vs. Samoa Joe


As referee Todd Sinclair breaks down the rules in the prematch, the fans heckle him. McGuinness immediately improvises and grabs the mic, insisting on the fans giving the referee and rules some respect, and that he understood that they were excited for his next Pure Title defense. He then makes some amusing remarks about Buffalo and the game of gridiron football, then moves on to comparing Joe to a vicious bear and also says he's the future of the business. He then reveals it was all mockery when he says that Dreamworks has cast Joe for the lead role in Shrek 3.


Joe immediately goes to work on McGuinness, and loses a rope break in the process when it gets on the mat. Joe would then lose another rope break seconds later, and then lose his last one when McGuinness planted Joe's hand on the ropes. All of Joe's rope breaks were lost within the first minute of the bell ringing. Tremendous trolling by McGuinness.


Joe would spend the majority of the match dominating McGuinness, forcing the champion to eventually lose all of his rope breaks too. This paid off when they got to a corner for the finish. McGuinness put Joe in position for the Tower of London, and Joe even obliged, putting his arm over McGuinness, only to reveal he was just setting up for a chokehold. McGuinness then used his leverage to pin Joe down in a visual similar to what Bret Hart did to Roddy Piper at WrestleMania VIII and Steve Austin at Survivor Series 1996, but was able to use the ropes for extra leverage due to the rules of the match.


Rating: ***


Hardcore Match

Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans


This match has a video highlight package chronicling the feud, weird with this not being the finale. The video is nothing special until it becomes a highlight reel of the action that the Embassy and Generation Next have inflicted on one another. That portion was tremendous.


This was a tasty appetizer not just for the remainder of this feud, but would also turn out to be a preview of another hardcore trios match to come for ROH many months later. This lacked the emotion to be truly great and memorable, but I'm fine with that since this wasn't the finale. As I said about the Redemption match, this is required viewing for anyone that enjoys the matches between the Shield and the Wyatt Family.


Prince Nana is present, leading me to realize I was wrong about him being gone for the weekend, and he wasn't at ringside for Rave & Shelley's match the night before because he was busy with the aftermath of the singles match between Abyss and Evans beforehand. Jade Chung is also present for this match. Both teams beat the shit out of each other, including getting a ladder involved. Aries & Strong use it to get an advantage on Abyss and use it as a platform for corner strikes, but Aries slips on one of the rungs. That looked painful.


Rave showed his greatness in being a chickenshit heel, as did Nana of course, using his presence near the end of the match to help Shelley regain the advantage on Strong. Abyss and Jack Evans were taken out when GeNext ganged up on the beast, laying him on a table, and Evans crashing through by doing a 630 senton splash off of a cage platform already engineered as part of the building.


Per good booking and storytelling, Nana's distraction led the Embassy to win this chapter in the feud. As I said earlier, a fine appetizer, as the time wasn't right to deliver the full-course meal.


Rating: ***1/2


Low Ki vs. Colt Cabana


First time ever singles match here, interesting clash of personalities and styles. Cabana starts the match by mocking Ki, causing the Rottweiler to break character and chuckle. Cabana spent much of the match frustrating Ki, getting into his head with his comedic antics and European style. Ki was still able to get his work in, including a variety of vicious stomps. Cabana looked to pull of the upset, but as a receipt for what happened in NYC two weeks earlier, Homicide comes out and talks shit to Cabana, allowing Ki to finish off the former Tag Team Champ. I really like that after Homicide was there for Ki when feuding with Jay Lethal, Ki reciprocates being there for Homicide for this feud with Cabana.


Rating: less than ***


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Steve Corino




Good match, with Corino using his sandbagging weight advantage, but simply just not being as technically skilled as Danielson. Danielson constantly found advantages, from getting three overhead suplex nearfalls while in a knuckle-lock, to getting a new chant over ("You're gonna get your fucking head kicked!") to get in Corino's head. Danielson wins his third straight ROH Title match with the crossface chickenwing.


Rating: ***1/2


Ignoring that the roster at this time of course had far more charisma across the board, this event reminded me of ROH in its current era. Some good and fun wrestling, each good match being of a different variety, but nothing blowaway. And sometimes it's okay for an obvious B-show like this one not to be a show of the year contender.


Up next - This Means War

Matches will include:

Alex Shelley vs. Claudio Castagnoli

AJ Styles vs. Austin Aries

Jay Lethal vs. Curry Man

Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong

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This Means War - October 29, 2005


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Terrible promo to kick off the DVD, with Jade Chung thanking Roderick Strong for saving her, and Strong being comical with his followup.


Alex Shelley vs. Claudio Castagnoli


Bold prediction: ROH will never have an opening match with this much combined charisma again. A couple have come close, but not to this level.


Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness comes out prior to the match starting, putting Shelley over as a great pure wrestler much to Prince Nana's delight. He then says Castagnoli's victory over him in Cleveland was a fluke, and needs to have an impressive non-losing performance tonight in order to truly earn a Pure Title shot.


This is one of the best openers in ROH history. Castagnoli was still a bit green, but he held his own against one of ROH's top names. The exchanges and counters were really something to see. I can't really begin to explain them.


In terms of storytelling, my favorite moment by far was Shelley spitting in Castagnoli's face, lighting a fire under the Swiss native, dishing out European uppercuts. Shelley just stood there and absorbed them, daring him to throw more. Shelley then countered one of the uppercuts with a backslide. Shelley also gained a major advantage deep into the match with a tornado DDT to the outside.


The match went to its 20 minute time limit, which I liked seeing. Neither man needed to be doing the job at this point, but it was time for Castagnoli to be put in a position to have a standout match and he delivered. Afterwards, McGuinness says no Pure Title shot was earned, but Castagnoli tells him that he said he would get one if he did not lose, not that he had to win to earn it. Jade Chung comes out to draw the Embassy to the back, leaving McGuinness to cheap-shot Castagnoli.


Before the match, McGuinness said that he was the best there is, the best there was, and "you know the rest." After laying out Castagnoli, the segment ends him with saying "and the best pure wrestler there ever will be." Awesome.


Rating: ***1/2


AJ Styles vs. Austin Aries


First time ever matchup here, and it delivered. While it lacked the pace to be considered great, it was as close to great as matches can get. After going back and forth in the early segments with beautiful mat wrestling and acrobats to establish this as an even matchup, Styles got the advantage when he used his own back to give Aries a backbreaker. Aries wasn't the same throughout the rest of the match.


Aries pulled out his usual tenacious persona in this one, digging down deep to scratch and claw his way to victory. But the damage to his back was too much, as multiple attempts at a 450 splash were thwarted, the second time with a super Styles Clash to bring the match to its conclusion. Very, very good wrestling.


Rating: ***3/4


At intermission, Jay Lethal says he's happy to help out Samoa Joe (who isn't booked for an ROH event for the first time in ages) and take on Christopher Daniels tonight. Joe was there for Lethal against the Rottweilers, so this makes sense. Lethal ultimately wants them to go after tag gold though.


I skip to Colt Cabana finishing off B-Boy in their singles match. Grim Reefer tries to ambush Cabana but gets treated like the jabroni that he is. The lights go out and Homicide comes out. Homicide and Cabana then have a turning point in this feud; it's no longer comedy, mind games, or trash-talking. They have a brutal brawl for several minutes throughout ringside, going all the way to the bleachers. It comes back to the ring and Homicide drops Cabana with an Ace Crusher from the apron through a table, taking both men out in the process. Horrendous for their long-term health, tremendous moment for their feud.


Jay Lethal vs. Curry Man


Allison Danger comes to ringside and says that Daniels is unavailable due to the birth of his newborn son, but a suitable replacement is found with Curry Man. The crowd goes apeshit for him.


The wrestling throughout this match was really good. But that's not what really matters: midway through the match, the crowd begged for comedy dancing, and both men delivered with great homages to past wrestlers, choreographed sequences, and also both Danger and referee Mike Keaner raising the roof (the latter getting probably the loudest pop of the entire match.)


For anyone currently in ROH that reads these: BOOK DELIRIOUS VS. CURRY MAN WHILE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE.


Rating: ***1/2


Jimmy Rave cuts a promo from Ghana, the best of his career. He articulated his points very well and his voice was perfect to go with his false narratives regarding CM Punk and AJ Styles. He warns Generation Next about Steel Cage Warfare, and also takes the time to mention he is still planning to debut his new devastating finisher in ROH soon, when the time is right.


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong


The match starts out with them copying Joe and Kenta Kobashi's tag match, teasing a lack of a clean break on one another. After a few collar-and-elbow tie-ups though, Danielson gives Strong some chops in the corner anyway. Of course, he does his best to avoid a receipt from Strong because he knows how dangerous it is. It also shows how seriously Danielson is taking this challenger, fully aware this would be his greatest challenger up to this point.


After several minutes, Strong finally landed a chop on Danielson. The champion responded by taking a powder to the floor, obviously irritated while absorbing the pain. He retaliates with repetitive chops, and gets even angrier when Strong lands another one on him. I must mention that Danielson during these first 10 minutes or so also did great work on Strong's left arm to minimize any potential backbreakers.


The pain of Strong's second-to-none chops caused Danielson not only to get irritated with Strong, but with the fans in attendance as well, talking shit to them and at one point simply telling them to fuck off. His heel turn in this match was amazing to see, and perfectly timed also with the support Strong had gotten in the previous several months.


About 20 minutes into the match, Strong finally kept this from being a glorified squash and landed a backbreaker on Danielson. The champ did a PHENOMENAL job of giving himself adrenaline when necessary to ignore the pain but then immediately selling it afterwards. Certain things also happened in this match that only helped Strong's backbreaking cause, such as Danielson slowly tumbling from the turnbuckle and losing his grips on the ropes, falling back-first on the floor.


Showing just how seriously he was taking Strong's devastating backbreaking offense, Danielson teased a surfboard, but just drilled Strong's knees on the mat and followed that up with a figure four leglock to take away Strong's base, thus taking away yet another body part to reduce Strong's ability to land anymore backbreakers.


In the closing minutes, both men laid into each other, while also selling the work that was established throughout this classic, with Strong briefly knocking out the champ. Danielson dead-weighted Strong while down, causing Strong to scream "FUCK OFF BITCH!" In response, Danielson got a rush of anger, regaining consciousness and trading blows instantly. Strong mounted him for punches, but Danielson then abruptly ended the match by making Strong tap out to an Omoplata shoulder lock! Strong immediately left the ring and Danielson was right on him, spitting on him from the ring and wanting more.


That was an insane and SAFE finish, that taught the audience a match can end at any moment, especially when Bryan Danielson is involved. It also paid off the work Danielson had done on Strong's left arm, since that was the limb Danielson targeted to finish the match. An instant classic and just what Danielson's title reign needed to raise eyebrows.


Rating: ****1/2


The DVD closes with Cornette talking about the next weekend's double-shot. Chris Sabin is cashing in the TNA portion of Danielson's open contract to get an ROH Title shot on the Detroit show. Should be good.


Now the great shit: Regardless of who is victorious in Danielson vs. Sabin, Chicago is getting DANIELSON VS. STRONG II the next day. OH FUCK YES~!


Highest recommendation possible for this show.


Up next - Showdown in Motown

Matches will include:

Sal Rinauro & Chad Collyer vs. Roderick Strong & Jack Evans

Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries

Abyss & Jimmy Rave vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal

Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Sabin

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Showdown in Motown - November 4, 2005
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(Second photo is the original stock photo, but with the front enlarged to the best it could be since the actual stock photo isn’t in my possession and was unable to be located online.)

Sal Rinauro & Chad Collyer vs. Roderick Strong & Jack Evans
Tedious tag match, and I put the blame on Rinauro because he has zero presence and charisma. I almost fell asleep to this and now that I reflect back on how hollow this match was, I wish I had.
Rating: less than ***
Relaxed Rules Match
Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries
Despite this being in Detroit, Aries gets the greater support from the crowd. Pretty good stuff with Shelley working on the left arm of Aries, who did a great job of selling. This wasn't designed to touch the greatness they had had six months earlier, but with this being a B-show, I understand why. Lame finish, also for understandable reasons.
Rating: ***1/4
Post-match, the Embassy gangs up on Aries, causing AJ Styles & Matt Sydal to come out for the next match.
Abyss & Jimmy Rave vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal
Fun tag match, with Rave playing the obvious chickenshit and relying on Abyss to do the dirty work. Of course, the work that Abyss does on Sydal is spectacular, and he shows his natural chemistry with Styles as displayed in TNA and other indies. I appreciated no pinfall or submission attempts on those who weren't legal as well.
Rating: ***1/2
ROH Title Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Sabin
Sabin actually does get the hometown support, largely because Danielson was a great prick in this one. This was his debut of the buzzcut while ROH champion, a PERFECT look for him. He truly carried himself like a star in this one, antagonizing the crowd, using the ropes for leverage, and working on Sabin's back to send a message to Strong. Sabin worked on Danielson's neck to prepare for the Cradle Shock, but Danielson was the man at this point, and Sabin had to tap out to the Liontamer.
Rating: ***1/2
I attended the next day's event in Chicago, the first ROH show I ever saw live, an experience I'll never forget. But I feel a bit spoiled and guilty, because assuming the key matches hold up, I witnessed three standout matches while Detroit got ***1/2 at best. There's having a B-show, but one of the two killer matches from Chicago could've been booked for Detroit to REALLY hook this market. Luckily, Detroit's next ROH event would be a major one, a portion of a particular milestone for this federation.
Up next - Vendetta
Matches will include:
Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels
Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong
AJ Styles, Austin Aries, Jack Evans, & Matt Sydal vs. Prince Nana, Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley
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Vendetta - November 5, 2005


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Full disclosure: This event has some sentimental value to me as it's the first ROH event, and second ever pro wrestling event, I attended. That sentimental value is being thrown out the fucking window though to give this an objective perspective.


Homicide & Julius Smokes say they plan to murder Colt Cabana tonight in his hometown.


Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels


Awesome match here. Joe worked on the neck of Daniels to set up for the musclebuster and Island Driver, but there will always be the underlying story of doing that because of the neck injury Daniels suffered in WCW. After several minutes of opening the match with back-and-forth momentum, Daniels got a shot on Joe's left knee, making it the target for the match.


Daniels did a great job of getting the job done on that left knee of Joe's, including both submissions and strikes to that joint, a great gameplan to take away Joe's base. But as the match came to its finishing stretch, which had the crowd completely hot, Daniels proved to not be heavy enough with his damage, as Joe was able to ignore the pain inflicted and finish him off with the musclebuster. Christopher Daniels did not phone it in for ROH on this night, giving his best performance for the company since returning earlier in 2005.


Rating: ****


Homicide and Colt Cabana have an extremely violent brawl, with numerous unprotected chairshots. They really tear into each other, but Homicide has the advantage with Smokes being present. The Devil's Son-in-Law even delivers a powerbomb on Cabana. They duct-tape Cabana to the ropes, scratch his forehead with a fork, and then attempt to cut his tongue out with a pair of scissors. Ace Steel comes out and throws Homicide away from his trainee and friend, having been fed up with this bullshit.


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong


Danielson interrupts Bobby Cruise's introduction, getting him to announce the champ as "the best wrestler in the world." And after this match, Danielson certainly had a very, very solid case to make such a grand declaration.


They slowly shake hands beforehand to follow the Code of Honor, but Danielson slaps Strong immediately and gets a chop for his troubles, immediately taking a powder. To state the obvious, this was emotionally picking up right where they left off a week earlier. Danielson spent a lot of time just walking around and talking shit to the crowd early, with another powder minutes later after taking more chops from Strong, being an absolutely outstanding cocky heel in the process. What's amazing is that this stalling never once live or on broadcast had me assuming that this would be a 60 minute Broadway.


Danielson was the master in this one, using his irritation to get the advantage on Strong and make him more focused on his barbarianism and technical wrestling. To date, this is simply the greatest heel performance Danielson has had, being far more of a red-ass here than he was in the past against Paul London and AJ Styles, and more than he would be in the future against Sheamus, Nigel McGuinness, Samoa Joe, and Homicide, or even in Germany for WXW.


Body parts Danielson targeted on Strong during this timeless classic include: the knees, the left arm, and most arrogantly of all, the back. This was absolutely ingenious to take away Strong's ability to deliver chops, backbreakers, and gutbusters, while also softening up the challenger for a number of potential finishers, such as the Cattle Mutilation, Crossface Chickenwing, or millions of other submissions that Danielson could unleash at a moment's notice. Most of all, I love Danielson focusing on the back, which he also did the night before against Chris Sabin, because it says "Cool Roderick, I can add that gameplan to my loaded arsenal too."


Strong was absolutely brutal to Danielson on this night, even more than he was to the chickenshit CM Punk at Escape From New York. This not only got under the skin of Danielson, but left that same Pacific Northwest pasty white signature skin color of Danielson's bleeding on the chest in the early stages, some of that due to residual damage from the week before. That was an absolutely amazing visual to put over how devastating Strong's chops are and what Danielson was willing to go through to hold on to the top prize in the company. I also recall later in the match Danielson's forehead bleeding when he was thrown into a guardrail.


After the earlier two powders Danielson took, Strong got fed up and chased him to the outside, landing more vicious strikes, including his trademark chops. Danielson used the third powder he took to absorb those strikes and have Strong chase him around the ring, getting a cheapshot in when Strong followed him into the ring. In a later powder segment, the action got all the way to the steel entrance ramp, which Strong scoop-slammed Danielson on. That particular spot and two head-drops later on in the match (belly to back drop on Danielson, release Dragon Suplex on Strong) were the only moments in this epic that had me cringing out of concern for their well-beings. And that's not too bad considering what how many matches of this caliber have to stoop to in order to be memorable.


Over 30 minutes passed until Strong finally got a backbreaker on Danielson, and they had the crowd in the palms of their hands by that point. Strong had gotten some submissions on Danielson's back, but this was the first blow he got to deliver. This nearfall got an absolutely red-hot reaction, the crowd expecting a title change less than two months after Danielson had reached the pinnacle of his then-young career.


Here are a number of out-of-order impressive moments in this masterpiece before I get to the finish:


Danielson getting pissed that his chops weren't getting the same vocal support as Strong, telling the crowd to fuck off before delivering one on the challenger.


Strong chopping the hell out of Danielson in the corner, the champ spitting in his face, delivering another devastating chop, getting spat in the face again, and delivering yet another devastating chop. Danielson fell to that one and breathed heavily to absorb the pain, but used his arrogant pride and anger to force himself not to succumb to it. This is my pick for the greatest facial expression Danielson has ever done in a wrestling match.


Strong reversing a left arm twist into his own. Danielson attempts to show off his state-of-the-art wrestling to escape it, likely to deliver a dropkick to break the hold as he usually does. But Strong managed to turn that into a La Magistral Cradle nearfall. Just splendid wrestling.


Danielson also drilled his forearms into Strong when he had the challenger mounted, selling that psychotic irritation he had towards this particular opponent.


Now for the finishing stretch, more than 45 minutes have passed. Strong is almost running on empty, not accustomed to matches of this length unlike Danielson. Sure, he won Survival of the Fittest several weeks earlier, but that was a six-man elimination match that involved tags. Strong gave it a go, digging down deep in his third shot at the title (at least in an ROH ring). They had an absolutely breathtaking sequence that I won't spoil, other than to say that it led to Danielson topping the Omoplata shoulder lock he won with in their first classic, this time finishing Strong off with elbows to the head, putting the champion over as a truly dangerous motherfucker, worthy of being ROH Champion.


I remember on the original ROH message board, there was a vote by its members to determine the company's top ten matches after 100 shows, and then again after 200 shows. This match got on the list both times, and deservedly so. Nine years later, this is the best match I've seen in person, better than the KENTA vs. Davey Richards rematch, "End of an Era" Hell in a Cell match, John Cena and Umaga's Last Man Standing match, Danielson vs. Triple H, or either of the Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels WrestleMania classics.


This is not only a top ten match in ROH's history, but is also the best match of Roderick Strong's career. I could see the argument for this being the best match of Bryan Danielson's career as well. I won't say it's the best ROH match ever, as there was one tiny moment in which both men may not have been on the same page, but that could be covered up with a good kayfabed explanation. Dave Prazak & Lenny Leonard also did a phenomenal job calling this match, putting over Danielson's gimmick and getting the story across to the viewer.


This match does get a lot of love, but I'll be honest, it deserves more. I'm shocked Gabe Sapolsky didn't convince Dave Meltzer to review this along with This Means War. I'm sure with the proper coverage, this match and event would be remembered on par with Joe vs. Punk II and Joe vs. Kobashi. This was a mixture of numerous classic matchups such as Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat, Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit, and Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi.


If there is one last level of praise that gives this match the love it deserves, and convinces those on the fence to rewatch this, here you go: This match feels like 30 minutes instead of 47 minutes.


Rating: *****


And we still got one more for the evening, folks.


Winner Gets Steel Cage Warfare Advantage

Prince Nana, Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. AJ Styles, Austin Aries, Jack Evans, & Matt Sydal




An incredibly fun main event, one that got crazy at times as expected. The match started with the babyfaces cutting the ring in half and dominating Rave. The babyfaces then said Rave was welcome to tag in Nana, who took a powder of course. Styles was perfectly cast in this match, using his ferocity and firepower to offset the size and strength of Abyss at times, including giving the beast a release German Suplex through a table that had been brought in the ring!


When the heels got the advantage, they cut the ring in half on Evans. Shelley was the standout, stretching Evans in front of the Chicago crowd for a third time in 2005. After enough damage was done on Evans, Nana gleefully got tagged in, rubbing it in the fans and opposing team's faces, far more obnoxious than Danielson had been earlier in the night.


I noticed that something was edited out, and I don't recall from being there live what it was for. Evans was on the outside, with Rave struggling to get up in the ring, then a second later, Evans is in the ring being worked on by Shelley while Rave is on the apron with rest of the Embassy. Strange and really threw me off with me keeping tabs on who was legal.


Speaking of being legal, I don't hold it against referee Todd Sinclair when he forgot who was legal. The first time when it happened early in the match, the match got out of control, as it should have at this point in the feud. It happened to set up for the finishing stretch too when two on each team were tagged in, so if I'm Sinclair I'd have said "fuck it" too and just counted any nearfall that came up.


Nana got a fraction of comeuppance, the perfect amount, but when Aries & Sydal were about to take him out, Sydal's girlfriend Daizee Haze betrayed them, delivering low-blows and also taking out Jade Chung. Shelley delivered a finisher, while Rave simultaneously delivered his brand new, devastating, truly state-of-the-art finisher: THE PEDIGREE~!


Rating: ***3/4


Colt Cabana cuts a promo after the show, no longer in a comedic mood in the war against Homicide. Pretty compelling actually.


The show closes with the announcement that off-camera, the Embassy attacked Strong & Chung in the parking lot.


While I understand the mindset that the weekend had to close with the Embassy having the last laugh, I'd have booked the eight man tag for Detroit with the Haze turn. And here's my reason for it: Imagine how much more of a dickhead Danielson could've been to Strong, saying "you need to get over that shit Roderick, you're in the ring with me, nobody gives a fuck about your girlfriend you bitch." Danielson vs. Strong II should've closed out the weekend.


This is still the best wrestling event I've ever attended, and gets my highest recommendation due to each key match delivering or over-delivering. In terms of overall show value, I'd compare it to Joe vs. Punk II: three very good to incredible matches, all three of them a different flavor, one of them being a ***** masterpiece. There's even the pointless legends segment (Jim Cornette & Bill Watts compared to Mick Foley & Ricky Steamboat.)


Up next - A Night of Tribute

Matches will include:

AJ Styles vs. Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels

Bryan Danielson vs. Azrieal

Homicide vs. Colt Cabana

Jay Lethal & Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong

ROH Title Match

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A Night of Tribute - November 19, 2005


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The DVD begins with ringside footage as the company pays tribute to Eddie Guerrero with a ten bell salute. More on the Hall of Famer later.


A Samoa Joe promo is thrown in from ROH"s website, going through all the major points of his career for several minutes, saying that his final goal is to win the Tag Titles and be the first ever Grand Slam Champion. What stands out is that he says he will "single-handedly" be the first Grand Slam Champ in ROH, and talks about Jay Lethal's part as if Joe is the driver and his protege is simply a passenger. Interesting.


Colt Cabana cuts a solid serious business promo on Homicide after what happened in Chicago, and I love the five o'clock shadow he's growing to sell the toll this feud is taking on him. But he ruins the segment with a line that nine years later I still haven't figured out, directed at Homicide: "I'm not fighting for my life, I'm fighting for yours."


ROH Title Shot Match

AJ Styles vs. Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels


Fun match, although I was surprised it was on par with the three way Sydal and Daniels had with Azrieal, since this match was featuring AJ STYLES. This was a good showcase for Sydal as he ascended in his career and particularly in ROH, being left in the ring post-match so the crowd could give him the pop, to which they obliged.


Rating: ***


Gary Michael Cappetta welcomes Bryan Danielson, who wants to have a match to bring his ROH Title defense against Daniels in the main event to a more even level, both of them having competed in the night.


Bryan Danielson vs. Azrieal


Video of the match (NO COMMENTARY) - http://www.veoh.com/watch/v454449SCje96QA


TREMENDOUS squash match, with Danielson making an almost complete mockery of Azrieal. WWE fans would LOVE this, as it's all a showcase of what a tremendously cocky asshole Danielson is.


Hardcore Match

Homicide vs. Colt Cabana


Really good hatred match, both guys just going after each other. In this one, Cabana revealed that he brought a ghetto fork, but Homicide never got his comeuppance, which was a no-brainer at this stage in the feud. The wrestling was also really good, nothing insulting at all, the occasional no-selling being brief and caused by the emotions both men had. I can undoubtedly say that I am VERY glad the finish, which was Homicide choking Cabana out with a coat-hanger, was done in late 2005 instead of late 2007.


Rating: ***1/2


Gabe Sapolsky reflects on what Eddie Guerrero meant to ROH, not just competing for the company during its genesis, but the impact his work had on the roster. My eyes began the watering process as this segment ended.


Tag Titles Shot Match

Jay Lethal & Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong


Pretty good tag match, with Generation Next cutting the ring in half early on Lethal, although not doing as much damage as they probably thought, since Lethal was able to still work in the ring throughout most of the match. Moments later, Aries would be the one to have the ring cut in half on him. Overall, this was all about Lethal, Aries, and Strong, with Joe being a supporting character, and for good reasons.


Fall attempts were only counted on the legal men, and the finish came when Strong delivered a backbreaker to Lethal, with Aries pounding his chest and delivering a gorgeous frogsplash, paying tribute to Guerrero. Post-match, Joe looks at Lethal with frustration, although not super hostile to indicate that it would lead to anything.


As Aries & Strong head to the back, Prince Nana & Jimmy Rave ambush them with a chair, with Rave delivering a Pedigree to Strong on the wooden/steel entrance ramp. As GeNext walks through the curtain, they discover Sydal hanging from the rungs of a ladder. And that's the penultimate for these two factions before they finally settle it in two weeks.


Rating: ***1/4


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Christopher Daniels


Good main event, made into being very good since the crowd was so hot, assuming for reasons I cannot figure out that Daniels actually had any chance of winning this. This match showcased Danielson more than Daniels, which again was understandable with the champ being the face of the company. His technical wrestling was fabulous as always, the finishing stretch got a great reaction, and I loved that when Daniels bled and the crimson got on Danielson, the champ took pride in making his opponent bleed.


I wonder if it's a coincidence that Danielson and Homicide are being booked as the two most ruthless bad-asses in the company. Again, the crowd elevated this, but overall this isn't a standout in Danielson's title reign. I preferred the technically superior, less heated defense the month before against Aries.


Rating: ***3/4


Joe says that tonight was a temporary setback, and that he will achieve his dream of being Grand Slam Champion. Lethal seems annoyed and walks away. I don't blame him, for Joe made no mention of what it would mean for the two of them to reach the top together.


The DVD closes with a clip from A Night of Appreciation, as the crowd chants "We will miss you!" to Eddie Guerrero, who was in tears as he bid farewell to the independents. And I'm sure that any wrestling fan that grew up watching him sure does miss him still.


This was always meant to be a B-show, which is understandable since this was sandwiched between a spectacular event in Chicago and important Manhattan event that would be the end of a top feud in company history. But the obvious circumstances of what happened six days earlier makes this an important event in ROH's history, even though this event will never be discussed with ROH's most reputable events. Recommended for genuine sentimental reasons, and for those who want an Eddie Guerrero tribute show that doesn't include a murderer.


This show made me realize that although I have moved on, it really is a shame that Eddie Guerrero, regardless of what led to his demise, is no longer with us and was taken away so abruptly. Although Owen Hart's accident was a major deal, the death of Eddie Guerrero was the very first chipping away at the innocence of my wrestling fandom, and I'm sure I don't have to spell out what crushed that innocence for good. I hope that those who aren't familiar with Eddie's work will seek it out and educate themselves, find out why he is a true pioneer in the industry. It's not that hard to find his work thanks to the Internet and especially WWE Network. It'll be worth it, he was truly a one-of-a-kind entertainer and professional wrestler.


RIP Eddie Guerrero: 1967-2005


IWA Intercontinental Title Tournament Final

Eddie Guerrero vs. Super Crazy

The Era of Honor Begins - February 23, 2002




Up next - Steel Cage Warfare

Matches will include:

Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro vs. Colt Cabana & Milano Collection AT

Bryan Danielson vs. Rocky Romero

Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe

Prince Nana, Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, Jack Evans, & Matt Sydal

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Steel Cage Warfare - December 3, 2005


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The DVD starts with a Jay Lethal promo pulled from the ROH web site, chronicling his career and saying he needs to be able to stand on his own, which is why he has challenged his mentor Samoa Joe. He promises that he will do something to stand out.


Jim Cornette in a taped promo says he's not impressed with the antics of Nigel McGuinness, and that he will be defending the Pure Title against Claudio Castagnoli again soon, this time with two referees present so that McGuinness doesn't make a joke out of the rules. He also bans Colt Cabana and the Rottweilers from the Homicide vs. Steve Corino match for this evening. Yeah, I'll just pretend Homicide and Corino finished their business in 2003, thank you.


Shown throughout the show are taped promos from the Embassy and Generation Next. Most of them are horrendous, with Alex Shelley being the lone standout, still bitter about Final Battle 2004 and deeming his opponents to be "Diet Generation Next," a watered-down version without him.


Tag Titles Match

Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro vs. Colt Cabana & Milano Collection AT


Gabe Sapolsky says in commentary that MCAT will be a key performer for ROH in 2006. The champs put out an open contract, which Cabana accepted and chose MCAT as his partner. Good tag match, nothing special, much like I would describe Mamaluke's career as being. I appreciated Todd Sinclair refusing to count a pinfall due to tag legalities. The crowd doesn't seem to be receptive to the champs retaining, and I can certainly see why.


Rating: ***


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Rocky Romero


Romero is cashing in his match/title shot of his choice as part of winning the trios tournament. Apparently these two have history going back to the New Japan Dojo in Los Angeles, explaining in storyline why Romero waited nine months and numerous title reigns to pass before cashing in.


Remember when it was the "cool thing" to bash Romero? Watch this match to find out why. The wrestling looked good on the surface, but Romero didn't sell or follow up on anything that Danielson did to establish a story. I imagine the champ mentally said "fuck it" when he finished Romero off with a half crab on the right leg, when he had actually worked on Romero's left leg earlier in the match.


Post-match, Lance Storm comes out, and perhaps Gabe Sapolsky's crowning achievement was convincing the audience that this guy, a good but never spectacular worker, was a truly great, under-utilized performer, a pioneer for many in ROH like Brian Pillman and Dean Malenko were. Storm says he's willing to lace his boots up again to face Danielson. It's 2014, I'm sure the match is good or probably even great thanks to Danielson, but whatever.


Rating: less than ***


Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe


Match was solid and forgettable until Joe went for the boot scrapes about 12 minutes into this match. Lethal ducked out of the ring and threw Joe's left knee into the ring post, teased he would do it again, but then grabbed a steel chair and attacked the knee with it. I'm surprised he wasn't disqualified for that. This was great not only to show that he was tired of Joe's egotistical attitude, but to take away Joe's base and kicking offense.


For the remaining several minutes, Lethal did a masterful job as the crowd, who had not yet seen the footage from A Night of Tribute, vilified him for his actions. He continued working on the left knee, and Joe did an equally masterful job of selling it, falling off-balance at times and not being able to keep Lethal up for attempted musclebusters and Death Valley Drivers. What's key though is that Joe still got some trademark hope spots in, such as a powerslam.


The finishing sequence came when Lethal was dropped on his head with a release German suplex, but Joe couldn't follow up when lifting him for the musclebuster due to the knee damage. Lethal managed to get in position to finish off his former friend, partner, and mentor with a very painful looking release Dragon suplex. Afterwards, Lethal rubs a bit more salt in the wound, kicking at Joe's left knee. I don't blame Lethal at all.


Rating: ***1/2


Steel Cage Warfare

Prince Nana, Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, Jack Evans, & Matt Sydal


This was a great blowoff to the feud, complete with hitting every appropriate spot and tying up everything that had been building for a year. Nana did a great job when he was the last member of the Embassy to come in, celebrating as his crew worked on GeNext. Abyss did a great job of showing off his power and taste for hardcore. I loved every elimination in this match also. Abyss, Sydal, and Evans were taken out by multiple finishers, super variations of finishers, and/or multiple members of the opposite faction.


Other little things (before I get to the things I really wanna focus on) that stood out are Strong coming in to be a great house of fire, and finally getting a gutbuster on Abyss after being unable to do so for four months, and Jade Chung returning and baiting the Embassy out of the ring so that Evans could sneak in and climb up the cage to do a ridiculous million degree senton on them. Unfortunately, Evans landed on his head and it's amazing that he was able to manage getting the rest of his portion of the match over with. I don't know how he didn't die.


The most important individual in this entire match was Alex Shelley, because this is how it all started. He had many chances to get eliminations on his former stablemates, but his bitterness and ego, the desire to prolong and milk the vengeance, cost him and his faction ultimately in the end. He did an absolutely fantastic job of being a completely psychopathic, vindictive douche-bag, showing that despite how cold it was what happened to him a year earlier and in the first half of 2005, his former faction had actually found some decency since then, whereas he stooped to even lower levels. His skull-fuck spot to Aries on a steel chair, busting open the former ROH Champion, was absolutely perfect storytelling.


Also perfect was to have Aries & Strong take out Rave & Shelley simultaneously, Strong on Rave via numerous backbreakers, Aries on Shelley via a brainbuster on a chair. That left Aries & Strong, the #1 contenders to the Tag Titles, alone with Nana, who finished him off in quick but brutally satisfying fashion, bringing the feud of the year for ROH to its appropriate conclusion.


This was the culmination of so many different stories that ended up interlocking by August. Shelley being booted by GeNext. Sydal being betrayed by Fast Eddie in favor of joining the Embassy. Rave & Shelley showing natural chemistry as potential partners on the same night that Aries told Nana to fuck off when given a horrendously mistimed business proposal. Shelley then jumping on the opportunity to finally have a unit to be by his side and showing what a son of a bitch he was. Sydal being the parallel of replacing him in GeNext so he could get help against the Embassy. Daizee Haze betraying GeNext to sell out to the Embassy. And then Chung getting the last laugh, united in celebration with GeNext and using Rave as a footstool.


Post-match, Aries says to the camera that with this chapter behind them, he and Strong are now focused on the Tag Titles. This post-match felt very similar to when CM Punk finished off Rave inside the cage at Nowhere to Run.


Perhaps most amazing is that as great as this match is, I suspect looking at the lineup of the next show that this won't crack my top ten for the year.


Rating: ****1/4


The DVD closes with Joe having a pity party about Lethal betraying him. Fuck off, Joe.


The next event features two key debuts, so I'll be taking another hiatus from this rewatch, as I will use this as an excuse to make myself familiar with the pre-ROH work of KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji. I also have high expectations for the next event to bring ROH's incredible 2005 to a close.


Up next - Final Battle 2005

Matches will include:

Jimmy Rave vs. Milano Collection AT

Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Christopher Daniels

Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong

Bryan Danielson vs. Naomichi Marufuji

KENTA vs. Low Ki

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Final Battle 2005 - December 17, 2005


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Jimmy Rave vs. Milano Collection AT


Good for an opening match but altogether nothing special. MCAT had his neck worked on which was fun, then he got the heat in the last couple of minutes, then Rave wins out of nowhere with the Pedigree. It's a shame that this would be MCAT's final match and whatever issues there were between him and ROH/DG couldn't be settled; dude barring an injury was bound to do something special in 2006.


Rating: less than ***


Pure Title Match - TWO REFEREES

Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio Castagnoli


Commissioner Jim Cornette has appointed two referees to make sure McGuinness stops channeling Eddie Guerrero and disgracing the Pure Title. Castagnoli definitely hadn't found his true groove yet in terms of carrying himself, but of course was still very good during his green days. He was awesome in toying with the cheater McGuinness, even cheating himself as a receipt. But McGuinness was able to position himself next to Paul Turner on the outside, convincing the challenger to take the bait and accidentally take out the ref with an attempted tope suicida. His facial expression was excellent with his mocked innocence.


They would go on to have some great European Uppercut exchanges, and Castagnoli also got a tremendous nearfall when he did the Tower of London. McGuinness would bring in his iron and throw it in Castagnoli's hands, plagiarizing the late Eddie, but Castagnoli didn't fall for it. However, Castagnoli gleefully rammed the champion's head into that iron to win the Pure Title, only for the now-conscious Turner to disqualify him for seeing that.


Rating: ***


I catch the end of Alex Shelley vs. Steve Corino for a major storyline. Homicide ambushes Corino within seconds of the match ending, drawing out Colt Cabana. In a moment that to me deserves consideration for the WrestleCrap Hall of Fame for simply going way too far to build heat, Homicide attempted to pour Drano down Cabana's throat. Textbook jumping the shark.


Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Christopher Daniels




Before the match, Lethal explains that he betrayed Joe because the bigger star was making more money and so he's now open to signing with any managers in ROH. Makes sense, but why not make this angle layered as it already was in its roots since Joe was being so self-absorbed in the prior month?


The match is fun and does a good job of continuing Joe's feuds with Lethal and Daniels but ultimately has no substance when tags stop being enforced. I'd have had no problem with this just being a spotfest to get the crowd psyched up going into intermission, but why enforce tags in the first half of the match at all then?


Rating: less than ***


At intermission, the Embassy expresses interest in aiming for titles in ROH.


Tag Titles Match

Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong


Prior to the match, Aries attacks Ricky Reyes and cuts a fantastic promo on him, saying he's nothing without Rocky Romero (who had gone on to stardom in puroresu) and was worthless unless he was plastered. Every word Aries said was true, and yet fit in perfectly with the gimmick Reyes had at the time of bullying the students.


This was really good stuff, only kept from being great due to the lack of charisma and presence from the champs. The challengers did a great job of cutting the ring in half early on Rinauro, but then the champs would return the favor by cutting the ring in half on Aries. Everything made sense, the psychology was good, pacing was good, and the crowd sensed a title change in the last 30 seconds. After just finishing up with the Embassy, it was fitting for GeNext to be granted the task of bringing the titles to relevance entering 2006. That Aries had won singles gold at the previous Final Battle was mentioned too of course.


Rating: ***1/2


ROH Title Match - Naomichi Marufuji's ROH Debut

Bryan Danielson vs. Naomichi Marufuji


Very good debut for Marufuji during his golden period as expected. He was very smooth in his transitions of heat with Danielson, showing aggressiveness too when necessary to mirror the champion. Just really good all-around wrestling from both men overall, and I don't mind that Marufuji jobbed by a rollup pin, as it established that part of Danielson's arsenal against a challenger of such high caliber. I also have no problem that Danielson didn't job to the Shiranui, as the way it was executed didn't bury the move at all.


Post-match, the Embassy are at the entrance ramp, mockingly congratulating the champ.


Rating: ***3/4


GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title Match - KENTA's ROH Debut

KENTA vs. Low Ki


Greatest debut in ROH history, surpassing Joe's impressive MOTYC debut that was also against Ki a few years earlier. I'm not counting one-off appearances as debuts, so that disqualifies Kenta Kobashi.


Speaking of Kobashi, of course this match is naturally going to be compared to his masterpiece against Joe. And while this didn't quite live up to that, this was still an incredible match that has stood the test of time. Both men were fantastic mirror images of each other, neither going down to one another's devastating punishment, working this like they were trying to steal the show at the Tokyo Dome.


Low Ki controlled a significant portion of the match surprisingly, and it was very engaging. Watching all of those NOAH classics made me appreciate KENTA selling and delivering hope spots, only to get cut off quickly by his toughest challenger to date, even more challenging and grueling than what he went through against that bastard SUWA. Ki specifically targeted KENTA's back later in the match, which was sold very, very well.


Of course, this match had more than its fair share of kicking and striking exchanges, completely amazing the crowd each time. And those exchanges deserved appreciation thanks to their wonderful execution. Both men also were fantastic in countering and evading each other's offense at times, showing just what an even matchup this was at the time and that they definitely studied each other's work.


As far as the counters, the highlight was KENTA attempting a Busaiku knee only for Ki to grab him mid-air and drop him with a modified Ki Crusher to thunderous applause. Another moment that had the crowd popping huge was KENTA digging down deep, springing up when Ki was going to unleash another top-rope move, and dropping the challenger with a Super Falcon Arrow. KENTA rolled over after the nearfall this got, selling the damage that had been inflicted upon him and showing the effort it took for him to get this spot in.


My only complaint isn't that this was in New Jersey instead of Manhattan, although that likely would've made this even better. Considering that KENTA was to be a semi-regular for ROH, I'd have put Ki away with one G2S, rather than adding in the Busaiku knee for good measure, to establish the G2S as fucking DEATH to the entire ROH locker room. Other than that, this was an absolutely outstanding, jaw-dropping classic.


Rating: ****3/4


The DVD closes with Daniels wishing to wrap up his feud with Joe that has even spilled over into TNA, but wanting to get it done in ROH soon.


As I'm about to spill below, this couldn't touch the very tippy-top best events ROH hosted in 2005, but this had storyline implications up and down the card (even with one moment epitomizing the term "jumping the shark"), the three main events all delivered, one of them being an important title change, two of them being important debuts, and the main event being what some might consider a genuine contender for greatest match in company history. Hell of a way to bring this awesome year for ROH to an end.


SUPER DUPER ROH 2005 AWARDS


Wrestler of the Year:

Austin Aries

Runner-up - Roderick Strong


Debut of the Year:

KENTA - Final Battle 2005


Breakout Performance of the Year:

Roderick Strong @ Escape From New York


Feud/Rivalry of the Year:

The Embassy vs. Generation Next (including everything that led to the two factions feuding)

Runner-up - CM Punk vs. the ROH locker room


Show of the Year:

Nowhere to Run

Runner-up - Manhattan Mayhem


Moment of the Year:

CM Punk dethroning Austin Aries for the ROH Title and then turning heel @ Death Before Dishonor III and Kenta Kobashi competing in an ROH match @ Joe vs. Kobashi


Match of the Year:

Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong - Vendetta *****

Runner-up - Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi - Joe vs. Kobashi *****


ROH's Top 10 Matches of 2005 (in chronological order):

Austin Aries vs. CM Punk - Death Before Dishonor III ****3/4

CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong - Escape From New York ****1/2

CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe vs. James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels - Redemption ****1/2

James Gibson vs. Bryan Danielson - Glory By Honor IV ****1/2

Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi - Joe vs. Kobashi *****

James Gibson vs. Roderick Strong - Unforgettable ****1/2

Low Ki & Samoa Joe vs. Homicide & Kenta Kobashi - Unforgettable ****3/4

Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong - This Means War ****1/2

Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong - Vendetta *****

KENTA vs. Low Ki - Final Battle 2005 ****3/4


Up next - Hell Freezes Over

Matches will include:

Jay Lethal vs. Christopher Daniels

AJ Styles vs. Matt Sydal

Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero

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Hell Freezes Over - January 14, 2006


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Jay Lethal vs. Christopher Daniels


The wrestling was fine in this, nothing botched, but either Lethal didn't seem to know how to keep the match engaging while being in control, or Daniels was keeping the pace below fifth gear to make sure he was good to go for the big TNA match against Samoa Joe the next day. They'd go on to do better in TNA.


Rating: less than ***


Jimmy Jacobs Accouncement


Jacobs has sent a video to ROHvideos.com, proclaiming that he's in love with Lacey. Phenomenally creepy video that saved his future in the company.


AJ Styles vs. Matt Sydal


This was fucking action-packed. While Styles of course had the advantage in terms of size, strength, and aggression, Sydal was pushed into showing that despite his small frame, he too could throw down and pull out some technical wrestling when necessary. This was a tremendously paced contest.


The three most memorable moments are Styles giving a brainbuster to Sydal on the apron, which Sydal sold throughout the rest of the match and it certainly appeared there was no way to avoid landing awkwardly on his neck for that spot, even with Styles protecting him; the company highlight of Styles trying to deliver a Styles Clash but Sydal not allowing it, getting himself on the shoulders of Styles and landing an explosive hurricanrana pin attempt straight out of the Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio playbook; and of course the finish, in which Sydal reversed an attempted Super Styles Clash with yet another hurricanrana, but this time Styles absorbed the bump and used the momentum to get the pinfall victory.


Post-match, Styles requests Sydal to be his partner in going after the tag straps, which Sydal accepts and his Generation Next buddies probably aren't too thrilled about.


Sydal got himself on the radar months earlier with his first good ROH singles match against Jimmy Rave; in this one he simply broke out and proved he was worthy of mixing it up with the top acts in the company. If you enjoyed Low Ki vs. Amazing Red, then by all means check this out, as you should love it even more than I did.


Rating: ***3/4


ROH Title Match - Chris Hero's ROH Debut

Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero


It is absolutely mind-boggling to realize that there was a time in which Gabe Sapolsky appeared to have zero interest in booking Hero. I guess I just couldn't see the can't-miss excellence of BJ Whitmer, Adam Pearce, Xavier, Slyk Wagner Brown, Carnage Crew, and Vordell Walker.


But there was no better way to correct that mistake than to book Hero in a market that BADLY needed something to move tickets again for the company (I'm going to assume the Philly market had burned out on ROH during the first few years), by creating an interesting dynamic of playing on the irrational emotions of the ROH and CZW fanbases at the time.


After getting owned by Danielson in the first 10 minutes or so of the match, which also included stalling by both men to draw heat, Hero is able to get control when he hits an attack on the champion's left arm. For the next 10-15 minutes, Hero was absolutely awesome working on that left arm, with Danielson of course working in his moments to keep the match interesting, including relying on his right arm for slaps.


As the match progressed to its finishing stretch, neither man would submit to the other. Hero reached the ropes during a Cattle Mutilation, likely showing his tenacity but also showing that Danielson wasn't at full strength in the left arm, and then later Danielson would reach the ropes during the Hangman's Clutch, once again showing his own tenacity. Once the champ locked on the Crossface Chickenwing, it was all over though.


This wasn't super blowaway, but very good in showcasing what a mistake it was for ROH to shun Hero for years, as he gave an impressive technical wrestling performance, while also being a far more an interesting character than the likes of Matt Stryker and John Walters that were in the company before him. Some have said they would've preferred a more heated match; that misses the point of establishing that Hero belonged in ROH. It wasn't the time for his CZW friends Adam Flash, Nate Webb, and Necro Butcher to chime in on his behalf when they accompanied him at ringside.


The post-match is a bit weird. Prince Nana comes out to offer Danielson a paycheck for the title but the champion of course rejects and that pisses Nana off. Out come Rave and Alex Shelley to take out the wounded champ, with Shelley thinking he had unlocked the Kryptonite by showing off the Shiranui. Sure, Danielson's roots were largely associated to former Embassy member Brian Kendrick, but that move had failed to put down the champ the month prior, a match in which the Embassy also came to ringside afterwards. I absolutely am looking forward to these matches though.


Rating: ***3/4


Up next - Tag Wars 2006

Matches will include:

Jack Evans, Jimmy Yang, & Matt Sydal vs. Jimmy Jacobs, BJ Whitmer, & Adam Pearce

Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Jay Fury, Tony Mamaluke, & Sal Rinauro

Low Ki vs. Christopher Daniels

Trios Tournament Final

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Bryan Danielson & Jay Lethal

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Tag Wars 2006 - January 27, 2006


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The DVD starts off with some promos. Jay Lethal promises to be a tag champion unlike Samoa Joe, and then the Embassy show tension in discussing who will dethrone Bryan Danielson for the top prize in the company.


Trios Tournament Semifinal

Jack Evans, Jimmy Yang, & Matt Sydal vs. Jimmy Jacobs, Adam Pearce, & BJ Whitmer


I have absolutely zero complaints about this opener. This is one of the best opening matches in ROH history, and probably the best structured one to date. It accomplished everything it needed to. Legalities got enforced in the finishing stretch. It started as a hot spotfest, then broke down into Sydal playing the Ricky Morton. The match was a house of fire after the hot tag, and the crowd erupted when Evans pinned Jacobs (who had taken his eye off the ball throughout the match due to his creepy infatuation with Lacey) with the 720 senton splash. This NEEDS to be on the inevitable Sydal comp that I'm sure ROH has planned to release once he returns in a few months.


Rating: ***1/2


Trios Tournament Semifinal

Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Jay Fury, Tony Mamaluke, & Sal Rinauro


Not as hot as the opener, but I didn't expect this to be. This was simply a great showcase for Fury's spotty style in his debut for the company, Mamaluke's technical expertise, and the scumbag nature of the Embassy. Once again, no complaints here.


Rating: ***


I FF to the middle of Ace Steel vs. Sterling James Keenan, and the segment that abruptly ended the match certainly held up all these years later.


Utter Fucking Chaos


Chris Hero & Necro Butcher are in attendance which gets Steel's attention, daring them to come to ringside, which of course they do. This brings out a bunch of jabronis from backstage, and then some actual stars too who take the CZW representatives to the back in order to throw them out. However, at least two brawls break out, and ROH having poor lighting at this time actually worked to conceal what was going on, which would help in a couple months (I will explain once I get to that moment in the future).


A variety of ROH guys are united to throw out Hero & Necro, from Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness to Generation Next to the creepy Jacobs to even the narcissistic, cold-hearted Low Ki (who is armed with a chair). Jim Cornette is shown walking around with a busted mouth, and runs into booker Gabe Sapolsky, who swears he didn't book the CZW stars. Cornette is blowing a gasket, swearing that Sapolsky had played him for a fool. After Hero & Necro are shoved out the door, Cornette comes to ringside with Adam Pearce watching his back.


Cornette then cuts one of the best promos of his career, which I am going to proudly analyze from a number of different angles. This was a passionate, furious, eloquent promo that did a fantastic job of elevating this apparent inter-promotional invasion to the next level (and the different ROH characters banding together did that too of course.) Cornette was on point here, not once dragging while making all of his points (however irrational and borderline unhinged they were) crystal clear. To state the obvious, the color Cornette had gave this the exclamation mark.


He buried Hero, Necro, and other CZW stars for being nothing more than garbage wrestlers, going far beyond (and doing a much better job btw) what Ricky Steamboat had preached during his terrible philosophy feud with Mick Foley in late 2004. He said that they couldn't hack it in ROH, lacked any true talent, had to resort to over-the-top blood and gore to get over, and leeched off of ROH. I'm sorry Jim, perhaps I saw a different main event than you did at Hell Freezes Over.


My favorite moment in this promo was actually Cornette playing off of some hecklers in the crowd, something I don't want to spoil. It involves a fan using a staple gun on himself. GET THIS DVD JUST FOR THIS PROMO.


At intermission, Austin Aries & Roderick Strong make it clear they're not thrilled with Sydal coming for the tag straps, but Evans says to focus on the trios final later that night.


TOMORROW NIGHT, BRYAN DANIELSON DEFENDS THE ROH TITLE AGAINST AJ STYLES. OH FUCK YES~!


Low Ki vs. Christopher Daniels


Both men ignore the ref's request to shake hands. Superb technical wrestling match here. Ki spent a significant portion of the match working on the torso of Daniels to take away his stamina. A key moment in the match was Ki going for the Tree of Woe double stomp, but Daniels shoved him outside the ring from the top rope. When Ki successfully hit it later as the match was coming to an end, the crowd fucking erupted.


The finishing stretch was a sight to behold. Daniels went for the Last Rites but got kneed in the face, yet was still able to position Ki for an attempted Angel's Wings. Ki blocked it with his arms hooked, turning Daniels over for the three-count. A fantastic way to pay off the torso work done on Daniels earlier in the match.


Post-match, Daniels admits that he regrets his attitude during his Prophecy days, and offers a handshake. Ki brushes it off both out of revenge and because he had absolutely zero honor to show towards the ROH roster.


Rating: ***3/4


Trios Tournament Final

Jack Evans, Jimmy Yang, & Matt Sydal vs. Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley


If the prior match was splendid, this was just outstanding. The match started off with Yang owning Rave in every way. Rave was VERY underrated in terms of showing ass to make babyfaces look good. The Embassy did a phenomenal job of cutting the ring in half on Sydal once he got tagged in, also holding Abyss back until after the hot tag. Sydal just got his ass kicked in this match; that means this should be on his inevitable compilation as well.


With his ex-girlfriend Daizee Haze in the Embassy's corner, Sydal was just toyed with by Shelley, who was very vicious with his strikes and working on the neck (a nice follow-up to Sydal suffering an obvious sore neck at Hell Freezes Over), the highlight being a skullfuck. Once Sydal got the hot tag, the match became an incredible spotfest, jut nonstop action all over the ring involving all six men. For this portion of the match, the highlight was Sydal going for a crossbody on Abyss and getting a spectacular spinning side slam for his troubles.


Once again, the ref enforced legalities in the closing moments, showing the type of professionalism that justified the hype ROH was getting at this time on all levels that this company was capable of. Shelley hit the Shiranui on Yang, but it appeared Rave got a hidden tag on Shelley, as he was able to get the pinfall after a follow-up Pedigree. With the lack of 16:9 footage in wrestling at the time, it appeared the commentators didn't catch the blind tag either as they made no mention of it. This match also showcased the simmering tension within the Embassy, even with a monumental victory that earned all three men future ROH matches of their choice.


Rating: ****


Tag Titles Match

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Bryan Danielson & Jay Lethal


Tremendous main event here that would've been even better had Aries been involved more. But for completely understandable reasons, he was the least important character in this match, making me wonder why this match got included on on one of his compilations instead of for the other three.


Danielson trolled Strong to start and tagged in Lethal immediately. Strong hit a backbreaker on Lethal, but the ROH Champ refused to get tagged in. For about another 30 minutes, these guys just tore the house down while telling a great story.


Moments that stand out to me include: the crowd going crazy when Danielson finally got chopped by Strong about halfway into this classic; Danielson encouraging Lethal to mock Samoa Joe with the Ole Ole Kick on Aries; Lethal mocking Joe earlier by utilizing the boot-scrapes; and of course Danielson's trash talking.


Of course, this match came down to Danielson and Strong as it should have. After multiple backbreakers, Strong was able to slap the Liontamer on the ROH Champ and make him tap out, earning himself an inevitable title shot in the future. One could argue it was bad booking to have the champ tap out 24 hours before a defense against Styles, but this was the bulletproof Bryan Danielson, and it set up a money match in the future. Just a tremendous tag team match, and I can't help but wonder how much better Danielson & Lethal could've become had they tagged frequently throughout 2006.


Rating: ****1/4


Sydal says he needs another 24 hours to make his decision on going after the Tag Titles.


The DVD closes with Whitmer pointing out that Lacey had insulted him and Jacobs in a backstage promo at Buffalo Stampede. He ain't thrilled at all about Jacobs losing focus as well as Lacey's attitude as they are 24 hours away from a shot at the Tag Titles.


We have a VERY strong early contender for best ROH event of 2006. A fantastic tag team main event. A fantastic trios match. An outstanding opening match. A very intelligent technical wrestling match that I considered giving ****. Little tensions being laid out. And of course, that red-hot CZW segment. AMAZING show, easily the most under-appreciated in ROH History. Of course, having the enthusiastic Dayton crowd played a part too. This was the FOURTH straight Dayton event for ROH that delivered btw.


Up next - Dissension

Matches will include:

Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Delirious, Tony Mamaluke, & Sal Rinauro

Low Ki vs. Jack Evans

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer

Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels

Bryan Danielson vs. AJ Styles

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Dissension - January 28, 2006


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The Embassy cuts a promo in in the dungeon of Abyss, once again showing dissension. Jimmy Rave says he's cashing in his match for the ROH Title at the Fourth Anniversary Show on February 25. Alex Shelley then says he's cashing in and getting his shot on February 11. Holy shit that February 11 card was STACKED on top. More on that later.


I FF to Adam Pearce after his victory over Jay Fury saying he will stay at ringside while Jim Cornette vents about what happened the night before in Dayton some more.


More Fucking Chaos


Cornette, with a tooth visibly missing, cuts yet another excellent promo, snubbing his nose at the "hardcore wrestlers" and conveniently forgetting that he's the one to give New Jack his first break in the business. Necro Butcher shows up at ringside and threatens to come over the guardrail for another melee. Cornette throws some FANTASTIC zingers at him involving masturbation and urine tests.


After another minute or two of shit-talking, Cornette says he'll fight Necro himself because "I ain't a wrestler, but you ain't either." Pearce then steps in to take the fight on Cornette's behalf. He gets fed up with Necro standing at the guardrail and comes to get him some tremendous brawling action. Out come the jabronis and even the Tag Champs of Austin Aries & Roderick Strong to throw Necro out.


Cornette & Pearce come back to ringside, with the commish saying that he knows Pearce is a cut-throat politician, but he appreciates what the Scrap Daddy had just done for him. Excellent segment, and I sit here still wondering when the SBG era fans of ROH will get the compilation they NEED of this CZW feud. And I'm only one month into this angle, folks.


Abyss, Jimmy Rave, & Alex Shelley vs. Delirious, Tony Mamaluke, & Sal Rinauro


Good trios action here, not out to steal the show which was totally fine after the Embassy wrestling twice the night before. It simply got over the story of this faction having tension, with Shelley tagging himself in at the end to sabotage an Abyss high-spot. But before that this was good stuff all-around, and it was interesting to see the two masked but very different flavors of oddballs clashing in the ring. The babyfaces got the win, but most importantly, Delirious was not the one to win it for his team, still looking for his first victory as his two year anniversary in ROH inches closer.


Rating: ***


Low Ki's Last ROH Match

Low Ki vs. Jack Evans


More on Low Ki's legacy in ROH later. Not the classic for him to go out on, but a hell of a fun glorified squash, just beating the fucking shit out of Evans. Ki was just awesome in this one laying the beatdown and no-selling the less aggressive Evans. But Evans was great as usual with his selling, being the mid-card jobber that was getting a reality check. I did enjoy that deep in the match when Evans got a chance to stun Ki, he did get to knock down the former ROH Champion a couple times thanks to getting some firepower behind his high-spots. But it was all over once Ki hit the Tree of Woe double stomp.


At intermission, Matt Sydal is shown chatting with AJ Styles backstage, obviously about going after the tag straps.


Tag Titles Match

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer


Above average match here, nothing horrible, and I believe that was the goal. It was only humane for the champs to be put in a position to be bodies, practically faceless plot devices for the Jacobs & Whitmer story, after that grueling classic the night before. And this was definitely all about Jacobs & Whitmer, making me wonder why the entire match wasn't included on their compilation since this was a key match for them.


Jacobs of course got distracted at times due to his creepy infatuation with Lacey, and it ultimately cost his team in the end when he went down to the 450 Splash. The ego-maniacal Lacey seems to have no problem with what Jacobs is doing, basically saying Whitmer needs to be a professional, wanting to use this tension as a means to have more rule over what they do (in other words, a mid-20s attractive female version of Jerry Jones.) Whitmer has enough and gives Jacobs the wrist clutch exploder.


Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels


Outstanding performance from Daniels, as he had to suck it up early when he injured his right knee on a routine arm-drag bump. He made up for his sabotaged mobility by escalating his aggression on the smaller Sydal, tossing him around at times. But Sydal, coming off of a breakout match against Styles and involved in two firecracker trios matches the night before, was no longer a jobber that would go down easily. He pushed himself to step up his game against the more experienced, technically and psychologically superior Daniels.


However, Sydal had a sore neck throughout the match (from Hell Freezes Over) that Daniels went to work on. This paid off in the finish when Sydal passed out to the Koji Clutch, showing just what an all-around outstanding wrestler Daniels is in kayfabe and as an in-ring worker. Very good match, and I bet they can do even better without any freak injuries.


Rating: ***1/2


A pretty sweet highlight package airs, with the announcement that THE BRISCOES ARE RETURNING TO ROH. OH FUCK YES~!


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. AJ Styles


Probably just a shade below their prior two ROH classics, but this is definitely one of the most under-appreciated matches in ROH history.


They have their tremendous aggressive mat wrestling to start off the match, with Danielson refusing to give clean breaks. Styles of course has none of that shit and unleashes a fury on the champ, staying true to his established in-ring character and likely wanting to put an end to any mind games like Danielson had played a few months earlier against Strong.


This was just storytelling greatness, back-and-forth heat segments aplenty. The big story was that the challenger would try to execute the Styles Clash, but the champion would find a way to evade it. In the third act, when Styles almost landed it, Danielson grabbed the left leg to take away the balance and force him to let go, then using that leverage to get a second Cattle Mutilation. Of course Styles had gotten to the ropes earlier in the match the first time Danielson got that locked in.


Another masterful piece of storytelling was early in the match, Styles almost got a picture perfect springboard moonsault reverse DDT. But the champ kneed him in the face for his troubles. Much later in the match, Styles didn't give Danielson the extra second, dropping him down right on the neck and shoulders within a fraction of a second.


There were a couple callback segments too. They traded leverage on a Muta Lock, but not getting into a stalemate as they did the first time they clashed at All Star Extravaganza. Later, Danielson found himself seated with Styles standing, using his feet to keep Styles at bay, just like the challenger went through in first title shot against Ki at Honor Invades Boston.


This was really a game of human chess just like Danielson's title win over James Gibson. It of course ended somewhat similarly to that classic. Styles escaped the Cattle Mutilation and used his body to get a hot nearfall and almost secure the top prize in the company, only for Danielson to immediately after the kickout use his positioning behind Styles to lock on the Crossface Chickenwing for the submission victory. Only a month into the year 2006 and we got our first genuine MOTYC for this company, my friends.


Rating: ****1/2


The DVD ends with two key segments, one for the short-term and one for the long-term. Whitmer tells Lacey to fuck off and reminds her of what he did to Allison Danger in the past. Meanwhile, Aries tries to play the "we gave you your big break here" card on Sydal, which only reinforces Sydal's decision to stand by Styles and go for the tag straps. I must point out that Sydal's acting was hilariously hideous here, but it leads to what should be a hot tag match, so it's all good.


So match quality wise, this show had an underrated MOTYC main event featuring two of the very best in-ring performers of the 21st Century. Other than Sydal vs. Daniels, nothing else stood out.


But this was still a VERY fun show with critical storyline segments all over the place. Sydal going for the tag straps. Jacobs & Whitmer having an ugly breakup. Another firecracker anti-CZW promo from Cornette with another chaotic little appetizer of a melee to get the crowd hot.


Of course, this show has unintentional historic value for ROH too. This was the final ROH appearance for Abyss, as according to Gabe Sapolsky he wasn't satisfied with his booking. It's a shame we didn't get Danielson vs. Abyss, as I'm positive Danielson would've given the monster the best match of his entire career.


But far more important was that this was Low Ki's final night in ROH, as the company got fed up with him off-screen, reportedly attempting to hold up for more money and being extremely reluctant to do jobs. I'm a big, big fan of Low Ki still in 2014, but I can understand why ROH put its foot down, and that's a real shame. We never got to see him in what would've been an incredible dream match against Strong in ROH for February 11, the stacked tag match pairing him up with Daniels against Danielson & Joe, and the long-awaited threeway rematch against Danielson and Daniels that was to be 99 shows in the making.


And knowing what would happen on the next show, that February 11 card, wow was it going to be stacked on top, with not just Strong vs. Ki, but also Danielson vs. Shelley as announced on this DVD, plus Nigel McGuinness putting the Pure Title on the line against Aries. But there was to be a surprise from mother nature to pile on the unfortunate Low Ki departure, forcing ROH to pull off a polarizing miracle that night as I'll detail on my preview at the end of this review.


There is no denying that Low Ki is one of the biggest stars in ROH history, and it's a shame to see him come and go with so many federations over the years. That Gabe Sapolsky has done business with him, but ROH hasn't eight years later after going through two more bookers AND a change in ownership tells me that his antics must have soured him permanently with then-owner Cary Silken, who still has some position in the company after selling it to SBG. I'll say it again, that's simply a shame.


But he can be proud of his performances in ROH. He was a critical figure in the birth of ROH, being the very first face of the company and having the honor of being the company's first ever champion. Who can ever forget his return and subsequent heel turn at Reborn: Completion? How many guys would be trusted to be picked for the debuts of two major indy stars AND a puro star? Who can ever forget that first main event in ROH history, turning all three participants into ROH stars in one shot and establishing the foundation that ROH would have for almost an entire decade?


I think it's safe to say that Low Ki will never return to ROH. Therefore, I present my picks for his ten best matches in an ROH ring.


Low Ki's 10 Greatest ROH Matches

Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Christopher Daniels - The Era of Honor Begins ****1/2

Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson - Round Robin Challenge ***** (Ki's greatest match in ROH)

Low Ki vs. Doug Williams vs. Brian Kendrick vs. Christopher Daniels - Crowning a Champion ****3/4

Low Ki vs. AJ Styles - Honor Invades Boston ****1/2

Low Ki vs. Samoa Joe - Glory By Honor ****1/2

Low Ki vs. Paul London vs. AJ Styles - One Year Anniversary Show ****1/4

Low Ki & Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe & Jushin Liger - Weekend of Thunder Night 2 ****

Low Ki & Homicide vs. Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal - Punk: The Final Chapter ****

Low Ki & Samoa Joe vs. Homicide & Kenta Kobashi - Unforgettable ****3/4

Low Ki vs. KENTA - Final Battle 2005 ****3/4


Up next - Unscripted II

Matches will include:

Bryan Danielson vs. Xavier

Nigel McGuinness vs. Austin Aries

Roderick Strong vs. BJ Whitmer

Bryan Danielson & CM Punk vs. Jimmy Rave & Adam Pearce

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This review originally posted in July 2014.


Unscripted II - February 11, 2006


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Going into this show, ROH had cut ties with Low Ki as I had discussed in my Dissension review. That cancelled the dream match of him against Roderick Strong as well as other big matches announced involving him. But then at the last minute a big snowstorm came through the NYC area on this weekend. This put TNA, set to broadcast Against All Odds 2006 on PPV the next day in Orlando, in a predicament.


TNA requested a number of guys who had committed to this event to cancel and fly early to Orlando to make the PPV. Those talents included Homicide, Jay Lethal, Alex Shelley, and ROH Tag Champs Austin Aries & Roderick Strong. Aries & Strong ignored the request, which I appreciate since they were in a meaningless match at the PPV anyway. This postponed Shelley's ROH Title shot though, robbing the fans of another big match that had been scheduled for this event.


With all this chaos, ROH promised a big surprise, stating that if fans were not happy after three matches, they could ask for a refund. Look at the bottom three matches on the DVD cover above. The surprise return of CM Punk certainly lived up to the hype, but how arrogant was Gabe Sapolsky to assume that one guy making a surprise one night only return would please everyone and offset those awful three opening matches? And I certainly don't understand the need for a company that during this time relied on moving DVDs not to just list and show CM Punk on the cover at all.


So as mentioned, CM Punk returning for one night only was the big surprise, which on paper was a very good miracle to pull out. Now him getting on the show was a story too. Tommy Dreamer, who apparently had some clout in OVW at this time, said the office gave the okay for Punk to appear. That turned out not to be the case and this miscommunication almost led to Punk being terminated from WWE. It was good (although not completely as I'll detail later) to have him back, but wasn't worth all of the headache.


As for the booking of Punk's return, he showed up to try to mentally help his friend Colt Cabana during the epic feud against Homicide. During this segment, Punk would be attacked by Prince Nana, Jimmy Rave, and Adam Pearce.


Also early on the DVD is Prince Nana promising his own surprise since Shelley can't make it for his ROH Title shot against Bryan Danielson. Jimmy Rave wants the shot, but Nana says it will go on as scheduled at the Fourth Anniversary Show.


Pure Title Match

Nigel McGuinness vs. Austin Aries


Very good match here and definitely match of the night, worthy of the DVD cover, although the next match could've been on the same level if it had been booked as well as this one. McGuinness worked on the left arm early, standard in the business yes, but also ingenious since Aries is actually left-handed. When Aries got his turn to control the match, he used that left arm to elbow the champ and then drop a power elbow, immediately selling it. Awesome moment of natural tendency costing Aries.


Aries did some work on the neck, although it couldn't match the work McGuinness got on his left arm. McGuinness did a masterful job of forcing Aries to use rope breaks. But there were also two great drama-building moments that every wrestler should watch and learn from. McGuinness blocked the standard springboard corner elbow of Aries, and then much deeper in the match Aries would actually hit to a great ovation. Aries blocked a Tower of London, but then McGuinness was able to land that for a great nearfall.


But after getting Aries to use up his rope breaks, McGuinness finished him off with the London Dungeon, a fantastic payoff for all the arm work done throughout the match. Really good stuff with Aries getting a standing ovation, and the first standout defense from McGuinness during this reign. I'd have made this the opening match to really kick off the show well and make sure nobody asked for a refund.


Rating: ***3/4


Roderick Strong comes out to ask when he gets his ROH Title shot since he made Bryan Danielson submit at Tag Wars 2006, but BJ Whitmer comes out instead. He wants Strong to face him in singles action with that title shot on the line, as he's fed up with being passed over and needs to step up like the rest of the company. All solid points on Whitmer's part, but he missed perhaps the biggest point possible to demand Strong to put the shot on the line against him.


Whitmer was now finally on his own for the first time in over two years. He had lost Christopher Daniels. He had lost Dan Maff. And now he had lost Jimmy Jacobs as his tag team partner when they failed to be on the same page against Aries & Strong at Dissension. Whitmer should've pointed out that he wants to take away Strong's opportunity as a twisted retributionn.


Of course, the ROH Champ Danielson comes out and he has a pull-apart with Strong. Out comes Prince Nana with a surprise challenger to utilize the title shot of the departed Abyss.


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Xavier


I gotta say, I like this surprise and it was a good move to get the NYC native booked here. Would I have given him a shot at the title? Probably not (as I'll also detail later). HOWEVER, the former ROH Champ had yet to be granted a shot at the top prize after losing it to Samoa Joe three years earlier. Logically, he should've never had to be in contender's matches in 2003-04 or have to fill in for someone who stopped getting booked.


These guys worked hard, with Xavier especially bringing his working boots and having one of his best matches in ROH. I know, I"m shocked too, that one of his best singles matches would be against Danielson. Xavier did an exceptional job of working on the neck and shoulders, perfectly setting up the champ for his modified neckbreaker finish and signature transitional Kiss Your X Goodbye (a pumphandle facebuster). He would hit the latter, but never got to his finisher, as the all-around superior Danielson would get him in the Cattle Mutilation for what was to be the obvious finish. However, Rave interfered to go after Danielson. It was never explained, but I assume the Embassy used Xavier to weaken Danielson and/or Rave wanted the glory of ending his reign. That's the only logical reason I can think of for this match ending that way.


Rating: ***1/2 (and would've been higher without the Dusty finish)


Rave & Pearce continue to attack Danielson, which brings out Punk to set up a tag main event for the evening. Eight years later, it's somewhat poetic that Punk's last ROH match would be him getting paired up with the only other indy superstar to get on the same level of major-league success as him.


Supposedly taped at Dissension, a backstage promo from Jim Cornette is shown. Another fucking awesome promo taking shots at CZW. I'm going to assume this was not taped in Cleveland, but VERY shortly after ROH told Low Ki to fuck off, cancelling what appeared to be a planned Rottweilers vs. Generation Next feud, and going all the way with an ROH vs. CZW program to make up for that and carry this company throughout much of 2006.


ROH Title Shot Match

Roderick Strong vs. BJ Whitmer


Like the match prior, this was definitely a downgrade from the scheduled match Strong had. This was good stuff with Strong dominating the first several minutes and of course working the back. Whitmer's transition to gain control was good too, landing a neckbreaker on the outside and working on Strong's neck throughout the rest of the match. But despite the great psychology displayed in their offenses, neither did an exceptional job of selling the work done on them. Still good, but this could've actually been a GREAT singles match. And yes, Strong won of course to maintain his title shot since whoever he'd face would be a money match.


One thing I realized in this match was that Whitmer has never seemed to fully get comfortable using his larger stature on the indy scene. It stood out to me when he attempted a Frogsplash. Perhaps if he was in the larger WWE ring his body, which is built like an NFL strong safety, would feel more comfortable and he wouldn't look as clumsy, but we know that'll never happen.


Rating: ***1/4


CM Punk's Last ROH Match and One Night Only Return

Bryan Danielson & CM Punk vs. Jimmy Rave & Adam Pearce


Good main event tag here, and since it involves three storytelling masters, no nearfalls were counted unless both participants were legal. Punk wanted Rave when he got tagged in, and manipulated Pearce's arm into making the tag, reigniting the great feud from 2005. The match would eventually turn into Danielson playing the Ricky Morton role, which is smart to protect Punk while under contract to WWE. The match's next segment would be a brawl outside the ring, with Danielson pulling out a springboard flip to the temporary Embassy in the audience.


The closing stretch broke down into all four men going at it in the ring, including a botched leaping hurricanrana from Punk on Pearce that seemed to hurt both of them. Punk and Rave would have a nice exchange, and the finish came when Rave, who by the way was scheduled to face Danielson for the ROH Title on the next show, tapped out to the Anaconda Vise while Danielson kept Pearce at bay with the Cattle Mutilation. I think my readers are smart enough that I don't need to spell out the flawed booking of that finish.


The file on my hard drive for this match abruptly closes shortly after the finish, so I miss Punk's post-match bonus East Coast farewell speech. And considering what an ass he made out of himself over one heckler, I'm glad I don't have it. Here's my quick rating before I expand on Punk.


Rating: ***1/2


So where do I begin with my actual assessment of this event and everything surrounding it? There are so many points of discussion involving this.


LOL at TNA for having a temper-tantrum at Aries & Strong over ignoring their request to leave early. There, that part's out of the way.


I think it's safe to say that Gabe Sapolsky, much like his mentor Paul Heyman, wasn't quite so super duper spectacular at composing an event that required numerous last-minute changes. I can't really fault him for that since hindsight is 20/20, but here's how I would've booked this show.


First, as I mentioned, McGuinness vs. Aries would've been the opener. Rave would've cashed in his title shot and lost here in a great semi-main. And I'd have tried so hard to have Punk job to Strong in a third and final match, to really deliver a classic main event. I am VERY thankful that Sapolsky didn't pull the trigger on Danielson vs. Punk doing a 90 minute Broadway though.


For the Fourth Anniversary Show, Danielson vs. Rave would obviously be off it'd be expedited to this night. But Shelley also wasn't booked for that show. So I'd have booked Danielson to defend the title against Lethal. The Lethal vs. Joe feud never really got over and didn't really need a conclusion, or could've been saved for later. It'd be a great way for Danielson & Lethal to follow-up on their great tag match together at Tag Wars 2006, with the motivation either being that Danielson is granting a shot to show appreciation, or they're pissed at each other, blaming one another for that Tag Title loss, and want a piece of each other. Let's not forget too that Lethal really did earn himself an ROH Title shot, as he had singles victories over both Low Ki AND Samoa Joe. That is title shot worthy, my friends. This also makes Lethal the defacto babyface challenging for the top prize in the company in his home state of New Jersey, making for an amazing atmosphere. This scenario still leaves Shelley to get his title shot the next time he would appear.


Now let's say I keep the card the same. Well, Xavier does the clean job to Danielson since there was no certainty about him coming back soon, and Pearce does the job to Danielson or Punk in the main event. There was no good reason for Rave to do the job here.


Speaking of the Rave & Pearce tandem, considering where they would be as 2006 came to a close, I'm really surprised that the former didn't align with Cornette or the latter didn't become a permanent member of the Embassy. Really would've given them something to lean on after both moved on from major chapters of their ROH tenure. But that's to dig in deeper when I come around to that.


I wanna make sure to mention that with the exception of a forgettable fourway match a year later, this was pretty much it for Xavier in ROH. He never, ever should've held the title, but he found his groove by 2003 and it's a shame his indy career didn't take off from there. I know he still attends ROH events, and I think it's a shame ROH does nothing to showcase him as a former champion that did have some great matches during the early years. I found his matches against Paul London and Christopher Daniels to be quite exceptional, and he definitely played his part in the main event at Revenge on the Prophecy. Sounds like a spiritual person too as Eddie Guerrero detailed in his autobiography.


Of course, that leaves one last big subject to discuss here, another former ROH Champion.


It's pretty ironic that when CM Punk fled WWE after Royal Rumble 2014, my rewatching got to the Summer of Punk right afterwards. Now as of this review being posted, I catch up to his final match in ROH ever, just days after WWE has officially moved him to its alumni section. This was not intentional on my part.


Punk returning was definitely a surprise that lived up to the hype, but to me wasn't presented well. I know this would've been impossible, but with hindsight, his East Coast one night only farewell would've been more poetic at the Fourth Anniversary Show. After all, that's an anniversary show. What better way to kick off The Milestone Series? And don't forget too, that was in New Jersey, the same region where he had that landmark career moment at Death Before Dishonor III. Just some "what if" food for thought.


To state the obvious, it certainly appears that Punk has retired, as he has made it pretty clear. One thing though I've noticed is he has not directly said to the public that he is done for good. And I sense that is intentional. I selfishly hope he finds the passion and gets healthy enough to come back to the ring one day, and I get the sense based on what he said several months ago that he probably thinks that's a possibility in the back of his mind. He had stated shortly before fleeing WWE abruptly that he didn't want to directly say what his decision would be, as he had made it clear he was done in 2011, but we know what happened then of course.


If Punk ever returns to the ring, I highly, highly, highly, highly doubt it will be for ROH. If he never returns at all to the ring, I certainly don't blame him. But after making an ass out of himself on this show, that was the ROH equivalent to another Chicago icon coming out of retirement for the Washington Wizards. Punk: The Final Chapter was the perfect storytelling farewell for Punk in ROH, and there was no need for him to have a sentimental East Coast goodbye, just like Michael Jordan's Wizards tenure felt unnecessary after having his perfect fairytale ending in 1998.


Luckily, this is wrestling and not actual competitive sports, so if Punk were to ever return to ROH for just one night, perhaps even cash in what should be his rightful shot at the ROH Title as a former holder of that title, that'd be a great way to make sure his antics on this snowy night in the NYC metro area were not his final moments for Ring of Honor, and I don't think any of us can imagine just how electric that would be after everything he has accomplished in WWE.


With all of that out of the way, I don't need to spell out how important CM Punk is in ROH history. He had absolutely everything during his three years in ROH that makes someone a legend on this stage, and I am thankful for the memories. Here are my picks for the ten best matches he had during an absolutely stellar chapter of his career in ROH.


CM Punk's 10 Greatest ROH Matches

CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe - World Title Classic ****1/2

CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe - Joe vs. Punk II ***** (Punk's greatest match in ROH)

CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe - All Star Extravaganza II *****

CM Punk vs. Alex Shelley - Third Anniversary Celebration Pt. 2 ****1/4

CM Punk vs. Jimmy Rave - Nowhere to Run ****1/4

CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong - The Future is Now ****

CM Punk vs. Austin Aries - Death Before Dishonor III ****3/4

CM Punk vs. Jay Lethal - Sign of Dishonor ****

CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong - Escape From New York ****1/2

CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe vs. James Gibson vs. Christopher Daniels - Redemption ****1/2


Up next - Fourth Anniversary Show

Matches will include:

Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe

Homicide vs. Colt Cabana

Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Rave

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal

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Fourth Anniversary Show - February 25, 2006


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This is the first event in a seven-part Milestone Series for ROH.


Jim Cornette is shown from his home/office in Louisville. Love that little tape/DVD shelf library he has, would be very interested in seeing some of that stuff.


The show is about to open with a meaningless jobber tag match, but then a blast from the past shows up...


Briscoe Bros. vs. Jason Blade & Kid Mikaze vs. Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro


Not the all-out squash I was hoping for to make the returning bad-ass Briscoes shine (much like I had hoped for when Generation Next formed at Generation Next), but I can see why. Blade & Mikaze I believe were a project at the time, while Mamaluke & Rinauro were former Tag Champs (that they weren't over in such a position is a different topic.) Having the Briscoes wipe the mat with these teams would've made Austin Aries & Roderick Strong as well as Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer look really weak for having hard-fought matches against Mamlauke & Rinauro.


The action itself is decent, but ultimately means nothing because the Briscoes are the real stars. The best parts were the starting and closing segments, which isn't a coincidence as those were the segments in which the Briscoes just smashed it.


Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe


Above average match here; this feud simply put just didn't get over. Perhaps had Lethal not been presented as the asshole, but the federation and commentary had pointed out that Joe was a fucking prick at A Night of Tribute, this would've been a layered feud to polarize the audience. Instead Joe is the face-of-the-company hero and looked to be taking it easy while Lethal controlled the match. There were some moments when it looked this would really heat up, especially when it transitioned to Joe being in control, but it was way too quick to get some real drama going. For a monster babyface vs. smaller but still credible chickenshit heel, this certainly was not in the same league as Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels in 1997.


Rating: less than ***


I FF to the BJ Whitmer vs. Christopher Daniels match getting thrown out as they have an extended brawl in the audience, leaving the ring open for a gang of ultraviolent predators to exploit...


"Happy Birthday... Fuck You"


Chris Hero & Necro Butcher lead a group of CZW wrestlers in hijacking this historic event, with the former cutting an excellent promo and mockingly singing "Happy Birthday" to ROH. This draws out a fuckton of ROH stars and jabronis, including Aries, Strong, the Briscoes, AJ Styles, Adam Pearce, and also Whitmer, who drops his brawl immediately with Daniels. A phenomenal brawl ensues with Hero left in the ring, who talks some more shit and questions if anyone in ROH can stop him.


Out comes Joe to step up for ROH for the first time, and the crowd goes fucking berzerk. He has a great brawl in the ring with Hero in a battle of true superstars to represent their brands. That caused the interpromotional brawl to pick back up again, resulting in another frenzied crowd.


Aries, Strong, and the Briscoes would be left in the ring, with the Tag Champs about to leave, but the Briscoes attack them!!! Another huge pop from the crowd and pull-apart here. What brilliant booking, as the Briscoes took advantage of the champs' involvement in the ROH vs. CZW brawl to get their hands on the champs and establish they were back to reach the mountaintop.


But if the audience thought that was it, they were sorely mistaken, as out comes two hated enemies from the curtain to ringisde, tearing at each other and getting yet another frenzied pop from the crowd...


I Quit Match

Homicide vs. Colt Cabana


I really appreciate the effort these two put into making this program work, but they were too violent in this match, and I can't imagine they look back at this and would completely disagree with me.


Homicide dominated this as expected at this point in the feud, just fucking Cabana up left and right, even with a bad right shoulder (injured in a match against Steve Corino at Steel Cage Warfare). This was vicious, it was hard-hitting, and it told a fantastic story that no matter how much pain Homicide dished out, Cabana would refuse to go down. Cabana would get his moments in with some great transitions, but that would always be short-lived. The match is stopped when Homicide makes him pass out with a coat-hanger around the throat.


Cabana, gasping for breath and wearing a crimson mask, demands the match be restarted, and it just gets better. Homicide hits an Ace Crusher, which turns out not to be all that beneficial as it ignites the pain in his right shoulder. Cabana, having been established as an outstanding technical wrestler that had been pushed to getting even better from his feud against Nigel McGuinness, smells the figurative blood and takes advantage of it, even fucking biting on it like a savage.


Julius Smokes has to grab Cabana's feet to bail Homicide out of this jam, reinforcing just how soulless Homicide is and putting over Cabana's mettle to step up in this environment. Ricky Reyes helps them out as the Rottweilers tape Cabana's wrists to a top turnbuckle, and the referee again gets fed up and stops the match out of concern for Cabana's well-being.


But yet again, Cabana refuses to let it end this way, trolling Homicide by telling him that his son will never respect him if he walks away from this. They have one more brief segment that both told a fantastic story and went over the top with the violence as I mentioned earlier. The match finally reaches its merciful conclusion when Cabana is knocked out taking a piledriver off an apron onto the table. However, the table didn't break and both men slid off it to the floor.


Post-match, Homicide throws chairs around and boasts with pride about his psychotic violence. As he is about to walk through the curtain, he looks into the camera and tells both ROH and CZW to fuck off, this is Rottweilers territory. Excellent storytelling brawl here.


Rating: ***3/4


Jim Cornette is informed in Louisville about the CZW interruption. He blows a gasket and cuts another absolutely splendid promo on CZW, and shows off his Louisville Slugger that he'll be bringing when he makes return in Chicago for the WrestleMania 22 weekend events. EARTH TO CURRENT ROH: make a fucking comp of this feud already, and while you're at it, throw in a documentary reflecting on it too. The majority of those involved are available, and I"m sure you can work out something with Cornette and Gabe Sapolsky to be interviewed for it.


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Rave


Excellent title match as expected here. Rave really stepped up, although to me his performance wasn't quite up to par as exactly one year earlier against Styles or in the cage match against CM Punk. After being dominated on the mat early, he tried to offset it with some pie-faces in order to piss off the champ. He also relied on chops which is smart, as both men had come off being victimized by Strong's brutal chops shortly before this, and nobody to this point had come as close to dethroning Danielson as Strong had.


Danielson of course, being technically superior, would find ways out of just about everything Rave threw at him. But the match really got interesting about halfway through. Danielson attempted a superplex, but Rave threw him off and then baited Danielson to the outside. Rave threw Danielson on some guardrails, wearing down the champ but also inflicting some damage on the back and shoulders (which are connected to the neck), a very good strategy to soften him up for the Pedigree and swinging neckbreaker. It also established that although Danielson had won the feud against Homicide in 2005, he didn't go through the quantity of extensive brawling as Rave had in his feuds against Punk and GeNext.


Rave would copy Danielson's established Cattle Mutilation to followup on the shoulder/back work, but lacked the proper arch to fully clamp it on. This allowed the champ to escape and they had a very hot finishing stretch, helped out when Prince Nana pulled the ref out, igniting the crowd. They had great nearfalls and tapout teases, including, but of not course not limited to, a sleeper, proper Cattle Mutilation, and Shining Wizard. Danielson finishes Rave off with a Regalplex and then his elbows that had finished off Strong while locking the challenger in a crucifix position. An overall excellent match and best on the show.


Rating: ****


Tag Titles Match

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal




Very good action all-around and this had a hot finish. When it got to the closing moments, everyone was allowed to throw bombs on one another, but everyone involved (not just the ref) kept track of who was legal. What a crazy professional concept.


The ring got cut in half of course, but here's the odd surprise: the larger, more powerful Strong and Styles were the ones to play those roles for their respective teams. That didn't seem to maximize the fullest emotional connection to the audience, but the match was good for what it was. My favorite part of the entire match was actually right when the end was coming. Sydal had taken a gutbuster from Strong; when he hit a Shooting Star Press on Aries moments later, he sold the ribs and was delayed from going for the immediate cover.


As all four men embrace to close out this historic show, the Briscoes come out and attack all four, this time making it clear for anyone who hadn't figured it out that they wanted the straps.


Rating: ***1/2


An excellent kickoff to The Milestone Series. No MOTYCs or consensus multiple great matches, but the key matches all delivered, it had an amazing segment that escalated the CZW program, marked the return of the Briscoes and put them in a program for the tag straps, and was paced exceptionally well. Get this shit.


Up next - Arena Warfare

Matches will include:

Austin Aries vs. Matt Sydal

Bryan Danielson vs. Alex Shelley

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Arena Warfare - March 11, 2006


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ROH Video Recap - March 2, 2006




Important news/footage in the above video:

Gary Michael Cappetta interviews ROH Champion Bryan Danielson and reveals for the first time in the DVD universe... DANIELSON & SAMOA JOE VS. KENTA & NAOMICHI MARUFUJI. Nobody bothers to mention the date and location but whatever. Danielson is worried that Joe won't be on the same page and may attack him based on ROH Title reign pride. Not completely unwarranted.


Remember when getting booked at the ECW Arena was instilled into the indy smarks to be a prestigious milestone? Man, those were the days.


BJ Whitmer storms to the ring after the opening match concludes and demands CZW to step into an ROH ring, specifically calling out Necro Butcher. Apparently the Christopher Daniels issue was important to him and CZW ruined it. Whatever, I'm not in the mood to break down why that program meant nothing. I'm just glad to see Whitmer booked into something that's clicking for him finally.


Prince Nana & Alex Shelley cut a backstage promo, with Shelley promising Bryan Danielson that he will fulfill his destiny established at Generation Next, which is to take the top spot and ROH Title from the champ tonight. He once again references being trained by Brian Kendrick as an expert on the Shiranui. Danielson already beat Naomichi Marufuji after taking that move, but whatever.


The promo is interrupted by footage going back to ringside, with Whitmer not taking no for an answer and wanting a fight immediately. Out comes Necro and they have a nice brawl that has the crowd in a frenzy, only for Super Dragon to come to Necro's aid. After mugging Whitmer, the ROH locker room gets fed up and runs off the CZW duo. That the Briscoes led the ROH charge makes me suspect Gabe Sapolsky was going to eventually book them against Necro/SD. Probably beneficial for all four men's health that it never ended up happening.


Austin Aries vs. Matt Sydal


Really good stuff here, telling the great story that Sydal was on the brink of singles stardom. Sure, he got a victory over Jimmy Rave at Unforgettable, which is nothing to scoff at. Rave was a phenomenal heel at the time in the top mix, but beating him would be like going over Randy Orton in recent years. It's a big victory, but it's not quite as meaningful as going over the likes of someone like John Cena, CM Punk, or Daniel Bryan. In this case, Sydal was looking for that type of victory over someone that had truly been established as one of the kings in ROH.


Sydal did a great job of trading holds with his Generation Next leader, keeping a headlock on early and doing a good job of bringing back memories of Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 21. Sydal would even do a great job of avoiding the signature headscissors escape into a dropkick spot signature of Aries, but the Tag Champ and former ROH Champ still found a way to get it done.


Sydal also attempted to do some work on his GeNext buddy's left arm, but was unable to be a master at it like Nigel McGuinness had been the month before. Therefore, Aries was able to land his trademark left-handed spots (since that is his dominant hand) such as the corner elbow counter from an Irish Whip as well as the leaping elbow on a fatigued Sydal in the corner.


I also appreciated the tension both men showed on occasion when it appeared the match had reached a potential stalemate midway through, talking some trash to each other. Shortly after this as Aries was on the outside, Sydal went for a corkscrew plancha and ended up taking a back bump on the cold Alhambra Arena concrete. That must have been a ton of fun.


In pain from that bump, Sydal dug down to keep the match even, busting out some quick burst counters and chops as hope spots agiainst the larger Aries. But Aries, being larger and more successful, was able to use his strength and leverage to come out on top. One spot near the end was Sydal going for a crucifix, only for Aries (who would know how to counter that with it being one of his signatures) to turn that into a Finlay Roll. As the match was nearing its end, Sydal landed a unique-looking tornado DDT on Aries. They then had an awesome exchange at the end with both men collapsing, only for Aries to beat Sydal to the figurative punch, landing a kick to the head, followed by the brainbuster and 450 Splash.


This didn't have the pacing to be a great match, but that wasn't the goal. This was really good storytelling, perfect for its mid-card position on the show, with the established superstar in Aries elevating his friend's stock in the company. After losses in great efforts against Aries, AJ Styles, and Christopher Daniels, Sydal was sitll looking for his first A-list victory.


The Briscoes attack both men post-match, drawing out Roderick Strong. Fuck I can't wait to catch up on the Briscoes working with these guys.


Rating: ***1/2


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Alex Shelley


This has been one of the most anticipated matches on this rewatch project for me.


Danielson cuts a phenomenal extended promo before the match starts, trolling the CZW marks that irrationally can't appreciate his in-ring gifts. I won't spoil it all, but anybody who questions if Danielson can be a dynamic character must see this promo. He played off the CZW-friendly environment, poured fuel on the ROH vs. CZW fanbase fire, had fun pointing out a child in the crowd, and compared himself to other technical wrestling legends who had wrestled in this venue for ECW.


After the bell has rung, Shelley gets annoyed with the CZW fans who bitch that the match is boring, and lays out some phenomenal zingers about what he believes said fans do for a living. So we got not just what promises to be an excellent in-ring match, but a battle of two major douche-bags. Works for me. Btw, these promos were done to give Samoa Joe time to get to the arena, as he was running late from a show in Mexico. This is how you kill time, folks.


They of course go on to have a classic match, playing off of their character work to start, just being vicious douche-bags to each other. It eventually turned into Shelley working on Danielson's neck to set up for the Shiranui and Border City Stretch. Danielson meanwhile just applied different strategies, including splendid legwork or just being a cheating bastard such as going to the eyes to break a submission or using the ropes for leverage while applying an abdominal stretch.


Shelley of course would have his share of cheating as well, including in the third act distracting the ref so that Prince Nana could get in a couple cheap shots on the champ. It was in this part that Shelley had a scare going for a tope suicida and hitting the barricaded guardrail, similarly scary to Lita's ringside bump on Raw in December 2004. But in some ways, that made this match even better from a logical standpoint.


With Shelley's back and neck certainly sore from that botched tope suicida, it only made sense that Danielson came out the victor in this one. But how it happened was an abrupt thing of beauty. After having a nice back-and-forth exchange which had the crowd rocking, Shelley finally seemed to be able to hit the Shiranui on Danielson (the champ had evaded numerous attempts during the match.) However, the viewer could see that Danielson ran with Shelley to give him the momentum, then showed his brilliance ny releasing his head partially from Shelley's grasp while being flipped over. Danielson then immediately used his back-rolling momentum to get on top of Shelley, lock in the Cattle Mutilation, and then surprise Shelley with a pin, giving the challenger absolutely no leverage to kick out, especially with what I assume was a sore back and neck.


Just an absolutely outstanding technical wrestling match that played off of a divided crowd. What really put this into MOTYC territory is that this wasn't just two guys having a great technical match. These were CHARACTERS that carried themselves as stars and emotionally engaged the crowd. This is what I imagine Ric Flair in his prime colliding with late 1997 Shawn Michaels would've been like.


This match also backed up Danielson's claim in his pre-match promo of cementing his technical wrestling legacy for this venue. As great as the likes of Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, and Eddie Guerrero were in ECW, I'm not sure they ever had a match this fantastic at the ECW Arena. Post-match Danielson thanks the ROH fanbase for appreciating great wrestling and mocks the CZW fanbase.


I want to point out that Danielson's facial expressions and body in this were just tremendously perfected. I still give the nod to his match against Roderick Strong at Vendetta as a better heel performance from him and as an overall match, but his character work in this match was a sight to behold, genuinely must-see stuff.


Rating: ****1/2


I FF to the end of the main event, a meaningless match whether Joe had arrived on time or not. Whitmer comes out and wants a fight, but the segment is temporarily interrupted when a mark throws toilet paper at Joe, which pisses him off and security escorts the mark from ringside. Whitmer plays off of Joe's anger from this and says it looks like he's still ready for a fight, and he calls out CZW once again.


Out comes an army of CZW superstars, which brings out an army of ROH superstars in a chaotic brawl that has this Philly crowd in an emotional frenzy. It looks like ROH may be getting the upper hand until CZW owner John Zandig walks to ringside with a barbed-wire bat and accompanied by someone that is brandishing a fucking WEED WACKER. Just a surreal moment for ROH.


Needless to say, this scared off the ROH crew, although the brawl kept going backstage and outside the building, while about 15 of the top CZW names ambushed Whitmer alone in the ring, brutalizing him. And I mean they fucking brutalized him, taping him to the ropes in a crucifying position and using a staple-gun on him, including his back, forehead, and stomach. Probably not worth all the trouble just to get an indy program over, but hey, I can't deny that it worked.


Whitmer is of course spray-painted with CZW on his spine, and Zandig spray-paints the CZW initials proudly over the ROH logo on the mat. As he's about to cut a promo, Gabe Sapolsky says to turn the fucking tape off.


The rest of the footage is from the very beginning of the Best in the World 2006 DVD, and of course I'm going to review it here for continuity. Zandig cuts an irrational promo on ROH, mirroring Jim Cornette's irrational promos from the recent several weeks leading up to this show. He says that this venue is CZW territory and basically says ROH can go fuck itself, including daring Sapolsky to come to ringside. Of course that doesn't happen.


What an absolutely amazing emotional masterpiece of an angle to close out this event. Just fucking phenomenal.


This show isn't quite stacked with quality matches left and right, but this is certainly worthy of being included in The Milestone Series. And that has nothing to do with this being ROH's first event hosted inside the former ECW Arena.


This show had a very good mid-card match that served its purpose in elevating an up-and-comer, a classic title match with absolutely excellent promo and character work, and one of the iconic closing segments in company history that made Whitmer a legitimate star in one night. This is an absolute must-own.


Also on this show is the calm before the storm for the Homicide vs. Colt Cabana feud, as they are kept away from each other but in backstage promos promise that the inevitably violent end is nearing.


Up next - Best in the World 2006

Matches will include:

Alex Shelley vs. Christopher Daniels

Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Roderick Strong & Jack Evans vs. Briscoe Bros.

Bryan Danielson & Samoa Joe vs. KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji

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Best in the World 2006 - March 25, 2006


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ROH Video Recap - March 17, 2006




Important news/footage on the above video:

Adam Pearce challenges some CZW guys to show up and face him on March 25 in NYC

Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe are interviewed by Gary Michael Cappetta, confirming that the date and location for their tag match against KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji is March 25 in NYC. Video highlight packages are shown of both men's reigns as ROH Champion, but Joe insists that although he will be coming for the ROH Title again after he takes care of CZW, all the NOAH guys coming from overseas, and his on-again, off-again feud with Christopher Daniels, he will not backstab Danielson in the dream tag match.


After airing the unseen footage from Arena Warfare, Gabe Sapolsky dares anyone from CZW to come ruin tonight's show.


About 45 minutes into the show, Jason Blade & Kid Mikaze come out to see who will accept their own challenge, and it turns out to be Chris Hero & Necro Butcher. Hero cuts another great promo shitting on ROH, taking out Mikaze while Necro destroys Blade outside the ring. Adam Pearce comes out and his sanctioned impromptu match against Necro gets thrown out when Hero reinserts himself back into the picture.


Hero calls out his tag team partner and established ROH superstar Claudio Castagnoli to help out with the CZW cause. Castagnoli instead takes both Hero & Necro out, which is actually quite smart, as the CZW representatives were not expecting their invitation to be declined via violence AND reinforces that Castagnoli is a threat for his match later in the evening, a final Pure Title shot against Nigel McGuinness, AND on top of that, should make him an even more sympathetic, beloved babyface for that match. Pearce says now that the odds are even, for Hero & Necro to come back for another fight, which they of course don't do. Pearce & Castagnoli leave the crowd in a loud, passionate "ROH" chant.


Alex Shelley vs. Christopher Daniels


Really good stuff as expected. Shelley was tremendous at being a disrespectful douche-bag to Daniels to start the match. Daniels however would gain the advantage working on the left arm for a few minutes, although not enough to cause pain in that limb for Shelley throughout the entire match. Shelley would gain the advantage and the crowd abruptly went for a "Y2J" chant. Shelley, obviously influenced by the HOFer, struck Chris Jericho's "King of the World" pose to a massive pop.


They had some more nice back and forth stuff, nothing super spectacular, but all very well paced and making the viewer wonder who would win this first-time matchup in ROH. But once Shelley got planted with the Angel's Wings, everyone knew it was over. That booking was best for business considering the directions of both stars coming out of this. Good stuff all around, and hopefully these two will get to collide in a couple dream tags for ROH, PWG, and/or NJPW in the near future.


Rating: ***1/2


Pure Title Match

Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio Castagnoli


As stated earlier, this was Castagnoli's last shot at the Pure Title while Nigel McGuinness was reigning. They had another good match, not quite on par with Shelley vs. Daniels, but certainly the best out of their five singles matchups in ROH up to this point. Castagnoli wasn't as over as I would have expected after the red-hot ROH vs. CZW segment earlier in the evening, which made the match suffer a bit. Without visiting any of their IWA-MS work, I'm going to guess that they hadn't quite captured whatever magic they had shown in 2004.


Before the match, the crowd was heckling referee Todd Sinclair as he was explaining the rules, and McGuinness attempted to brown-nose him. Castagnoli had none of it, interrupting the blatant ass-kissing with a European Uppercut to start the match and having the early heat. They had some really good back-and-forth heat segments, and Castagnoli had a major moment for his ROH tenure when he kicked out of a Tower of London.


In the end though, despite Castagnoli putting forth a great effort and unloading numerous uppercuts plus an Alpamari Waterslide or two, McGuinness found a way to knock out his greatest challenger to this point with the rebound lariat. This time, there was no cheating, no manipulation, no bullshit whatsoever. McGuinness was clearly the better wrestler, and there's no way to spin it: Castagnoli choked, which had to eat at him after knowing he had proven to be better than the champion in their prior matches.


Rating: ***1/4


At intermission, a special music video gets aired by Jimmy Jacobs, called "The Ballad of Lacey."




Just brilliant stuff displaying his creepy infatuation over his agent Lacey, including a MySpace mention, plus him pouring wax on himself while wearing leopard skin boxers and thrusting his pelvis in the direction of a Lacey photo that he was holding. The song itself is badly produced and edited, with his singing being horrific, only making this even more brilliant. The lyrical highlight is easily "there are no other candidates... together, we're the match of the year!"


In a backstage scene that has no lighting whatsoever, Nigel McGuinness cuts a great promo, saying that he's legitimate, he still has the Pure Title around his waist. He declares that he's the best pure wrestler on the roster, specifically calling out the ROH Champion Bryan Danielson. He says that he'll be in NOAH putting the Pure Title on the line, and THAT makes his belt the real world championship. I'm loving this.


Ricky Reyes gets DQed in his match against Austin Aries when he refuses to break the Dragon Slepper hold (why on Earth did Reyes have to get this strong of a push?), drawing out Roderick Strong & Jack Evans to save their Generation Next leader. This also brings out the Briscoes.


Roderick Strong & Jack Evans vs. Briscoe Bros.


Here are the positives: the spots were very nice for the most part, and after the structurally messy several minutes to kick off the match, the Briscoes did a nice job of turning Evans into the Ricky Morton for the next quarter of the match. It was painfully obvious that should've been the primary plot of the match. I did like seeing Strong pull out a standing moonsault, something I don't believe he'd ever shown in ROH. That is a nice subtle message to Danielson.


Now on to the negatives.


I don't care that the crowd reacted well to this match. Quite frankly, this NYC crowd was fucking clueless and unsophisticated on this night, and their attitudes only got worse in the main event. There were NUMEROUS times when the referee just counted a pinfall on whoever was in the ring, not caring one iota about who was legal. This match just had no structure outside of the heat segment on Evans. NONE. And I'm not going to give this match a pass for being a shallow spotfest just because it happened to be in ROH during the aesthetic hey day. This was just like the tons of matches I shit on in PWG that got cheap pops out of the crowds in Los Angeles.


I also have no fucking clue why the Briscoes did the job in this one after saying that they were coming for the tag straps. WHAT THE FUCK? And it was Evans to get the pin too, not Strong, who was scheduled as the next challenger to face Danielson for the ROH Title.


Rating: less than ***


Homicide and Colt Cabana are both not booked for this event, surprising not to have the former, a Brooklyn native, and just a week before the big triple-shot. But a pre-taped promo from Cabana airs. He uses some great analogies to explain his feud with Homicide. Surviving a car crash and then getting back in the driver's seat, putting the key in the ignition. Getting drilled by a baseball while up to bat, and then returning for another at-bat. Having a finger bitten off when going to pet what appeared to be a friendly dog, and then keeping an open mind about animals.


He says that he will face his face his fear, and it's time to end this, it's getting too violent and has been going on for too long. Detroit and Chicago, the big triple-shot on WrestleMania 22 weekend, this feud finally comes to its conclusion. Really good promo.


Bryan Danielson & Samoa Joe vs. KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji


Great tag team main event, not the all-time classic that many expected, but awesome nonetheless.


So I started with the positives in the prior match. In contrast, I'm going to get the negatives out of the way first for this one.


This NYC crowd fucking sucked, treating Danielson and Marufuji as after-thoughts. Now don't get me wrong, KENTA and Joe colliding was a dream matchup. Their work against each other in this one was quite the doozy, and they probably should've just faced each other in a singles match to main event this show. But this crowd only seemed to give a fuck about names, spots, and stiff moves, with no appreciation and patience for storytelling and technical wrestling. I firmly believe this match would've hit the MOTYC mark in Chicago, Detroit, Boston, or Philadelphia.


The match these four put together was great stuff as I mentioned. KENTA refused to shake the opposition's hand before the match, drawing an ooh from the crowd, but the commentators seem to only catch on to him refusing to shake Joe's hand. Danielson and Marufuji start the match with the usual good wrestling and reach a stalemate. Marufuji tags in KENTA and the crowd is SCREAMING for Joe to get tagged in. Danielson though refuses to make the tag, fitting his fuck-off gimmick at the time.


After a collar-and-elbow tie-up that had Danielson bring KENTA to the ropes, the then-current GHC Jr. Champ hit a Yakuza kick on Joe, who was standing on the apron, drawing a huge pop. Danielson agreed on the second request to make the tag, although KENTA demanded it. Joe and KENTA then had a great strike exchange segment, just as good as their work against Low Ki and Kenta Kobashi in late 2005.


KENTA & Marufuji tried to pull out their double-team stuff that many of the ROH faithful had not gotten to see yet, with Marufuji going for a corner charging move on Joe after using KENTA as a springboard, only to get met with a Uranage Slam. That got another great pop from the NYC crowd. Marufuji also attempted to cheat at times, although that couldn't drive the passionate ire from the ROH team that KENTA had drawn from Joe. Marufuji even showed some attitude towards the referee a couple times.


The rest of the match, about another 20 minutes or so, was intelligently worked. It also had the nice story that the former GHC Jr. Tag Champs had far more chemistry than the ROH team. Sure, Danielson & Joe had teamed up a couple times before this in ROH, but they didn't have the established chemistry and tag team foundation of KENTA & Marufuji. This was very obvious when Joe completely ignored Danielson's request for assistance later in the match.


KENTA also did a nice job of knocking Joe off the apron a couple more times, both for trolling purposes and to focus on the ROH Champ. Danielson had a great finishing stretch with him. KENTA went for the G2S, only for Danielson to counter with a crucifix, positioning the GHC Jr. Champ to eat the elbows that had taken out Jimmy Rave and Roderick Strong. But KENTA was able to absorb them, taking only a few, and position himself to roll back and get Danielson back on his shoulders, planting a G2S for the victory. Now THAT is brilliant booking unlike the other tag match on this night.


Post-match, Joe says KENTA did a good job, but he hadn't beaten Danielson for the title, and he for sure would never beat the former champ either.


This match only further reminded me that I wish we had gotten to see KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Super Dragon & Davey Richards for ROH in 2006.


Rating: ****


Lance Storm says that Danielson's open contract has him contemplating about coming out of retirement. Why not just make it official that Storm would be coming in to face Danielson the next weekend, whether it's for the title or not?


Prince Nana is with Rave & Shelley, who bury each other for their recent losses. Nana tells him to cool down, then threatens to garnish their paychecks. That causes them to get focused on business, with Nana now aiming for the Tag Titles. I should note that the Tag Titles declaration portion is shown on the next DVD due to the annoying cliffhanger formatting of The Milestone Series.


I did like this overall, but so far it was the weakest of The Milestone Series due to weird formatting, a shitty ADHD crowd, and questionable booking. This is definitely a must-have for a great main event and as an important piece of the puzzle for bigger moments to come for ROH in 2006, plus the Shelley vs. Daniels match is much better than what they put together in PWG.


Hindsight is 20/20, and here's what I would've booked. KENTA vs. Joe as the main event, and Joe could've done the fucking job by TKO (thus still somewhat protecting him.) Rather than be wasted in a singles match against Reyes, I'd have Aries challenge Danielson for the ROH Title in the semi-main. That could've been used to enforce the Best in the World bragging name for promoting this show, AND teased that Strong either gets to face Danielson for the strap in a money match, or must face his GeNext leader and fellow Tag Champ Aries for the biggest prize in the company, a first-time ever singles matchup in ROH and rematch of their finals at Survival of the Fittest 2005. I'd have Daniels in a dream match against Marufuji. And I'd have Rave vs. Shelley with the story being that they were becoming so irritated with each other that they needed to see who was the true alpha of the Embassy. I'd have that be a draw, with Nana talking sense into them afterwards and making the Tag Titles chase declaration. The other two matches that mattered would've stayed the same, albeit one of them formatted and booked differently.


And now I've reached what might very well be the aesthetic pinnacle of ROH. There are no TNA, PWG, or NOAH matches for me to watch before the ROH triple-shot. I will not be going through any Dragon Gate projects either. That's because a major factor in the Dragon Gate superstars getting over and stealing the show was that it was largely an introduction of them to the ROH audience. That's a magical dynamic I want to experience as best as I can in this project.


I sometimes wondered in the back of my head when I did start this project if I would ever stick with it after about 20-25 shows, and I'm glad I have. Time for me to be reminded that I made the mistake of not flying to Chicago just to see ROH on WrestleMania 22 weekend.


Up next - Dragon Gate Challenge

Matches will include:

Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer

Bryan Danielson & Delirious vs. Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley

AJ Styles & Matt Sydal vs. Dragon Kid & Genki Horiguchi

Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans vs. CIMA & Speed Muscle

Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels

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Dragon Gate Challenge - March 30, 2006


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Lacey wants Jimmy Jacobs to destroy BJ Whitmer tonight, and she doesn't give a fuck about wins and losses, just Whitmer getting his ass kicked for having the temerity to call her out for her bullshit. She promises a reward to Jacobs, who is googly-eyed over her, and he wants to selflessly give her a foot massage. She rolls her eyes at this, clearly expecting him to ask for something far more demanding, and gladly says yes.


Colt Cabana interrupts the show introduction from Bobby Cruise, demanding Homicide to come out. He wants to end the feud right now, and they have a short, brutal brawl masquerading as an actual match with Homicide winning after chairshots to a ladder wrapped around Cabana's head. Not a memorable match at all, but this served its purpose of showing how heated the feud had gotten (one of the wrestlers unwilling to wait for later in the night) while saving the goods for Chicago. THIS is how a certain match booked for Battleground 2014 should've been laid out, although toned-down of course.


Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels have some backstage promos that bookend the second match on the show, putting over what a thorn they've been for each other over the years.


Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer


These two just have unreal chemistry together. Whitmer beat the fuck out of the Detroit native Jacobs, who took his beating in this one with great stride. Of course, Jacobs did a great job of displaying his overwhelming infatuation with Lacey. He had some great hope spots, using his tenacity, psychology, and smaller size to evade some of Whitmer's offense. There was a great segment early in the match with Whitmer tossing Jacobs around on the guardrails, the first time ending with Jacobs taking a bump neck-first on the concrete floor. That must have been lovely.


Jacobs really showed his tenacity established in 2004 during his matches against Generation Next, but this time it was amplified emotionally with his motivation to please Lacey. Unfortunately, that same motivation caused him to take his eye off the ball at times, such as blowing kisses at her instead of going for a pinfall attempt on his former fellow Tag Champ. But this match really should be seen, because for all of Whitmer's weaknesses as an in-ring performer, he did a great job of making the offense of Jacobs look credible.


Jacobs took a beating on his neck and back in this one, including a transition for Whitmer to regain control with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex counter when getting charged at by Jacobs. Jacobs took some nasty head-drops in this one, but managed to get some tremendous nearfall attempts that had his hometown crowd rocking. They had a delayed vertical suplex that had them spill to the outside, which allowed Jacobs to temporarily regain control, but an attempted head-scissors off the apron would be for naught. That spot was countered with Whitmer catching him and landing a powerbomb on the top edge of a guardrail.


The most memorable portion of the match was also the most legitimately terrifying. Whitmer was going to hit a super powerbomb on Jacobs, but his foot slipped and it took them backward. Jacobs had his head hit one of the ropes, then his head and neck hit the apron before crashing to the floor. Whitmer came up limping from this too. To say this got quite the reaction would be like saying that Saints and Seahawks fans like to make noise.


With the crowd red-hot, both men suck it up and get back in the ring. Jacobs is able to land a Shiranui to the crowd's delight, which he'd been unable to do a number of times earlier in the match. But Lacey got on the apron and said to keep dishing out punishment, not giving a shit about Jacobs getting a landmark victory. Jacobs obliged but also wasted time paying attention to her, allowing Whitmer to finish him off with a super overhead belly-to-belly suplex followed by a lariat.


An outstanding, awesome match with a botch that fortunately didn't kill either man and only made the crowd even hotter. They earned great respect as shown in the reactions from the crowd afterwards, both men's stock being elevated greatly. I'm sure if Gabe Sapolsky had known how much these two would've clicked, this would've been the last match before intermission.


Whitmer wants to shake hands with Jacobs, having earned even more respect for his former fellow Tag Champ despite their tension. But Jacobs refuses, choosing to leave with Lacey. Whitmer can't believe it, calling Lacey a "skanky piece of ass." This draws Jacobs to the apron and he teases a handshake, only to spit on Whitmer before leaving.


Rating: ****


With Jacobs & Lacey gone, Whitmer turns his attention to CZW, since this was his first appearance in ROH since getting brutalized like a prisoner of war at Arena Warfare. He says the war isn't over, he's ready for a fight, and he's glad to hear that Chris Hero & Necro Butcher are rumored to be in the building. Good smoke-and-mirrors promo from Whitmer to hide his verbal weaknesses that got a fantastic reaction from the crowd.


Bryan Danielson & Delirious vs. Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley


With the Embassy still bitter about losing to Danielson in singles for the ROH Title, they've set their focus on the Tag Straps and challenged Danielson to a tag match. Danielson was so confident when the challenge was made before this show that he told Nana to pick any partner for him. Thus, Danielson's partner is Delirious, the most lovable established jobber on the roster.


This was really good stuff, with Shelley in particular getting great heel heat in his hometown. I wonder if Gabe Sapolsky had thought of having him cash in his ROH Title shot in front of his hometown crowd (as if that match could've been that much better than it already was in Philadelphia.) There were some cool moments in this, such as Shelley first not knowing how to react to Delirious, which is funny after he had picked Delirious to be his partner the previous year against Roderick Strong & Jack Evans.


The highlight of the match was Delirious giving Rave an airplane spin. Danielson got tagged in and did an extended, far more graceful airplane spin, while Delirious ran around it in the opposite direction in the ring. That got a tremendous reaction. What also stood out is that Danielson surprisingly played the Ricky Morton role in this match, which is something I wouldn't have expected at all since he had two big title matches booked for the weekend and Delirious was still a curtain-jerker. Delirious was a house of fire once the hot tag was made, but ultimately proved to still be prone to losing when he got pinned. Danielson left unimpressed and irritated with his partner.


Rating: ***1/2


Cabana cuts a promo outside the building at intermission, likely concussed. He says the feud with Homicide MUST end this weekend in Chicago, and he's not backing down.


Claudio Castagnoli makes quick work of Shane Hagadorn, and Hero & Necro finally appear afterwards. Castagnoli stands firm on the side of ROH, helping out Whitmer after he came into the ring with a chair. Another great little ROH vs. CZW segment that had the enthusiastic crowd passionately marking out.


AJ Styles & Matt Sydal vs. Dragon Kid & Genki Horiguchi


Food for thought: be glad that this match wasn't booked by Vince Russo or Jim Cornette. Why do I say that? Styles is a documented homophobe, and Horiguchi is a character blatantly aimed at homosexuals.


This was a fun tag, although Styles seemed to have some difficulty gelling with the Dragon Gate team. Sydal was definitely up to par. What surprised me is that this match had no issues with tag legalities being reinforced for pinfalls, as the wrestlers actually kept track. I was going to overlook that since this involves Dragon Gate talent and I'm aware that federation likes to utilize lucha rules (legalities can change either by tagging OR a partner coming into the ring as his partner rolls out.) Styles was able to hit the Styles Clash on Horiguchi to finish off the match. I'd like to have seen Styles & Sydal collide with Speed Muscle, as I imagine that matchup would've gelled better.


Rating: ***


Dragon Gate Rules

Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans vs. CIMA & Speed Muscle


The commentators make it clear that this is under Dragon Gate rules this time, which is fine with me. Be upfront about this kind of stuff.


This was simply an amazing, phenomenal match. The action was fucking incredible with the exception of Evans missing a blow on Naruki Doi. Other than that, this match absolutely stole the show and had me wondering how Joe and Daniels could possibly follow this. Strong did a great job of pummeling Blood Generation; a favorite moment for me was when Masato Yoshino was in, having shown off his incredible speed when running the ropes. He no-sold a chop from Aries while in GeNext's corner. Once Strong got tagged in, Yoshino basically shit himself, dreading what was to come, and took a VICIOUS chop from Strong. Yoshino did just an excellent job of selling that chop.


Blood Generation managed to take this fantastic trios action and cut the ring in half, working on Evans. Now some may be wondering why GeNext didn't just get involved since this was Dragon Gate rules. As stated in the prior match, legalities change either by tag OR coming into the ring when a partner rolls out. Blood Generation cut the ring in half on Evans, AND kept him inside the ring, so GeNext could not legally get involved during this segment of the match.


However, after this heat segment, and the match reached its third act, the legalities got thrown out the window. With this likely being Todd Sinclair's first time officiating a match of this style, I can empathize with him forgetting who was legal. I as a nit-picker couldn't keep track. The last third of this match was absolutely amazing, fantastic, phenomenal, incredible, jaw-dropping, spectacular shit. Just nonstop action, big moves one after another. But this wasn't bullshit from the RF days of ROH. This third act was a spotfest, but all of it was executed and laid out incredibly well.


When CIMA landed the Schwein (also known as White Noise when used by Sheamus) on Evans, after having done some work on his neck, I knew it was over. This got a rousing standing ovation from the Detroit crowd, many of them never having seen this kind of action before. This match must be seen to believed, and I imagine ROH will be including it on the Year Five compilation whenever that inevitably comes out. An absolutely splendid MOTYC.


Rating: ****1/2


Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels


An extended video of their rivalry/feud is shown that goes on a bit too long (one of the audio tracks even has to start over abruptly), but does a great job of showcasing how these men are able to hit spots and make them matter.


Joe and Daniels had their work cut out for them after the trios match right before this, but they managed to put on a great main event. Joe came out first, which was unusual for him during his time in ROH. However, it became crystal-clear why that happened. Daniels came out and stopped on the ramp, with "Disposable Teens" being turned off. "The Champ is Here" then began playing, and Daniels revealed the NWA-TNA X-Division Championship to remind Joe of how his reign for that title had ended earlier in the month. Masterful trolling.


They had a nice brawl at ringside due to that entrance from Daniels, and once they got in the ring the bell officially rang to start the match. Joe did his usual brutal offensive work on Daniels, but Daniels had an extra focus on this night, knowing this was their last singles match against each other in ROH. Joe went for a musclebuster early in the match, but Daniels was able to use that position on the turnbuckle to body-scissors Joe out of the ring, following that up with an Arabian Press.


Joe would regain control and dominate with his vicious offense as stated earlier, both in strikes and submissions. But Daniels made sure to get his hope spots in to make sure this segment of the match was engaging, only to get cut off quickly. Joe though did a great job of selling the pain from the offense of Daniels, even while having control. Joe cut off another brief hope segment for Daniels when he dropped the X-Division Champ with a Uranage Slam. He then brought Daniels to the outside, delivering TWO Ole Ole Kicks to the crowd's monster approval. Sure, that's a trademark spot for Joe, but very brilliant to soften up the head for the musclebuster and get the crowd to pop. Joe would also work in the Crippler Crossface later to soften up the neck, a neck btw that had documented damage on it from the dying days of WCW.


Joe attempts a seated choke while on the turnbuckle, but Daniels blocks it and lands the Fall From Grace for a nearfall, but only maintains brief control. He blocks an attempted senton with the knees, although that's Samoa Joe landing on someone's knees, so it's no surprise that Joe stops Daniels shortly afterward with a trademark powerslam. After the Crippler Crossface spot as mentioned, Allison Danger helps out Daniels by grabbing his foot. This allows Daniels to regain the advantage, but it's teased that could be brief again with a chokehold.


Daniels is able to break that chokehold and land the Angel's Wings for a great nearfall, shocking Daniels after putting Alex Shelley away with that (and only have to do it once also) on the prior show. Completely focused and with it sinking in that Joe doesn't go down so easily, Daniels hits three consecutive BMEs and finally gets a pinfall over Joe in a one-on-one match, their last ever in that format in ROH. Just a great match that was intelligently worked and smoothly paced.


Rating: ****


Hero & Necro immediately run into the ring afterwards and ruin this magical moment for Daniels, but Danger pleads with him not to take the bait, wanting him to stay out of this violent ROH vs. CZW issue. This didn't exactly make Daniels look like a team player which he seemed to have become for ROH by this point and I wish Daniels had gotten a minute to shine after this great match and big win, but I could see Danger talking him out of being involved with this situation after a grueling main event. I wonder if Daniels, an established manipulative character, will find a way down the road to get a taste of retribution over Hero and/or Necro for this in the future.


Joe steps into the ring to fight off the CZW duo, and gets help from Whitmer of course. ROH students keep the CZW stars from getting back in the ring after being thrown out, and Joe cuts a fantastic promo to represent ROH, He "officially" declares war on ROH, saying he's ready to fight and dares CZW to bring its various weapons again, he'll win with his fists and wrestling ability, as well as the incredible locker room that ROH has put together. This was a great way to finish off the show, and had I been in attendance and didn't plan on going to Chicago to see the other 2/3 of this triple-shot, I'd at least be reconsidering.


Lance Storm reminds us that he's interested in facing Danielson for the ROH Title. Why not just announce that it's booked?


A tease of Jim Cornette is shown talking to someone on the phone. I'll discuss this in my next review.


This show, while recognized as an excellent show, gets overshadowed by the Chicago events that followed it and that's unfortunate. This was an absolutely magnificent wrestling event, with a couple good tags and three genuinely great but very different flavors of matches, one of them being a show-stealing, jaw-dropping MOTYC. It also managed to move forward three great angles in Homicide vs. Cabana (fantastically placed as storyline advancement disguised as an opening match), Jacobs vs. Whitmer, and ROH vs. CZW. This show was also paced incredibly well, one of the best ever during the Gabe Sapolsky era in that regard.


LIke I said, had I attended this event, I"m pretty fucking sure I'd have gotten a vehicle ready by the next morning to take a trip to Chicago. This event is a must-own and one of the greatest shows that ROH has EVER hosted. This would be standing head-and-shoulders over about 99% of the ROH events between 2008 and 2014. GET. THIS. NOW.


Of course, the next event. Oh, what can I really say? If you're not aware of what ROH was like at this time, be ready for lots of praising from me.


Up next - Supercard of Honor

Matches will include:

Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley vs. Jimmy Yang & Claudio Castagnoli

Austin Aries & Jack Evans vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal

CIMA & Speed Muscle vs. Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito, & Genki Horiguchi

Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Christopher Daniels

Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong

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Supercard of Honor - March 31, 2006


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Jim Cornette is informed by an unnamed eyewitness via phone as to who exactly knocked his tooth out with a chairshot during the chaotic melee at Tag Wars 2006. It is none other than Low Ki, who receives a lifetime ban from ROH, with Cornette citing all the previous chaos and high-maintenance demands from the ROH cornerstone as the sundae to this figurative cherry back in Dayton. This was a great way to give a kayfabe explanation for Ki’s departure, and also remember that the ROH and CZW brawl last time in Dayton had poor lighting, so Cornette and the viewer had no idea Ki was the one responsible.


A video package airs for tonight's main event, showcasing the brutality Bryan Danielson and Roderick Strong have laid upon each other in the past five months.


Earlier in the day, Chris Hero talks shit to some fans waiting in line outside the Frontier Fieldhouse.


The camera gets to ringside, and this looks like quite the capacity crowd, significantly more packed than any prior Chicago event for ROH. Bobby Cruise announces that Colt Cabana is out for tonight due to a suffered concussion the night before in Detroit.


Jim Cornette comes out to start the show for the live crowd. He’s accompanied by BJ Whitmer, who is on crutches and has a cast on his right foot. Supposedly that’s due to a CZW brawl, but that had to have been from the botch in the match against Jimmy Jacobs. Cornette then cut a childish promo about CZW and then introduced two masked jobbers pretending to be CZW stars. Samoa Joe and Adam Pearce came out to squash them. I wish Low Ki had shown up to knock Cornette’s grill with another chairshot after watching this shit, and I’d have saved this trolling squash segment for an East Coast event in front of rabid CZW fans.


I FF to the end of the next match, and now I’m reminded why Ricky Reyes got a substantial undercard push, including Austin Aries being unable to break out of the Dragon Sleeper the week before. Delirious fell victim and Reyes refused to let go here. He and Smokes mugged him and left him laying, completely cocky thugs ganging up on the loveable established jobber.


Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley vs. Jimmy Yang & Claudio Castagnoli


Some fun stuff but never truly clicked. I’ll pinpoint that on Yang, who played the Ricky Morton role. Now some may believe that’s a good formula with Castagnoli being the taller, more aggressive partner, and the Embassy were fantastic cheaters especially with Prince Nana & Daizee Haze in their corner to help out. But Yang, fine wrestler that he is, lacks the charisma and facial expressions to be truly sympathetic and get the crowd behind him.


Post-match, Hero shows up and he’s bitter that his fellow King of Wrestling refuses to join the CZW cause.


Rating: less than ***


Homicide & Julius Smokes berry (and that’s not a typo on my part) Cabana, saying that this is what he gets for fucking with the wrong people and he should be afraid. Homicide is ready to move on in another direction.


Austin Aries & Jack Evans vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal




The referee forgot who was legal for one temporary moment about 3/4 of the way into this match, keeping it from MOTYC territory.


But this was a tremendous tag match nonetheless. Evans and Sydal started off with Sydal winning that battle after hitting a dropkick, and he tags in Styles. He manhandles Evans and tosses him in GeNext’s corner, demanding Aries to get in. They too have a nice but brief exchange, as Sydal wants to test himself against his GeNext leader. Their exchange is also great, trading leverage and arm-drags. Sydal hits the headscissors escape-into-a-dropkick spot, showing his leader his continued progression. Aries would pridefully look to return the favor, only to fake out the dropkick on a blocking Sydal, who drops his arms and gets a stiff kick instead.


Styles & Sydal eventually cut the ring in half on Evans, who takes a nasty head-drop from a release German Suplex. I was happy to see them focus on his neck afterward, double-teaming him left and right, and Styles made sure to charge at Aries a couple of times to keep the numbers game in his team’s favor. The highlight of this segment for me was Styles gorilla pressing Evans, then the Tacoma native getting dropped and bumping like he took a spinebuster. Evans did a MUCH better job of playing the Ricky Morton role than Yang in the prior match.


Once Evans got the hot tag, the match turned into a spotfest, with one missed legality as I mentioned before. However, the action was so great that I could somewhat see why the referee allowed this to turn into a spotfest, similar to officials in sports leagues that don’t want to get ticky-tacky with being rulebook sticklers during the dramatic closing moments of games. During this action-packed third act, Sydal somehow got a broken nose and bled from it, but gutted through it.


With Styles on the outside, Evans sucked up whatever pain he had and went for a handstand somersault corkscrew plancha, landing in precise position to deliver a hurricanrana to the then-TNA superstar. Styles though, not having been through as much pain and also being a bigger, stronger, more aggressive, and more successful competitor, blocked the hurricanrana, planting Evans with the Styles Clash on the gym floor. That got a MASSIVE pop.


Aries was briefly distracted out of concern for Evans, which allowed the bleeding Sydal a moment to fight him off as they were on the turnbuckle. Evans got brought back in by Styles and Sydal finished him with a gorgeous shooting star press, bringing this show-stealer to a conclusion that had the crowd giving all four men a standing ovation.


Rating: ****


Dragon Gate Rules

CIMA & Speed Muscle vs. Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito, & Genki Horiguchi


I can say for sure now that I regret not booking a flight to Chicago for WrestleMania 22 weekend.


Both trios units come to ringside and get respectful ovations, even some streamers, but it’s obvious that most of the fans in attendance are not familiar with these Dragon Gate superstars.


Referee Todd Sinclair had difficulty completely enforcing the rules, but he was obviously put in a situation in which he was still becoming familiar with these guys, and the heelish Blood Generation took advantage like the night before. That’s something I can appreciate after the antics of Generation Next in 2004.


I would not have booked Naruki Doi to take the fall in this one, since he would be teaming with CIMA the next day to challenge Aries & Roderick Strong for the Tag Titles. But with that said, this match is another one of the rare magical occasions that fans get to have the privilege and pleasure of experiencing. To deem this match to be a show-stealer would not be doing it justice.


The match was paced incredibly well, getting more intense with each minute passing by. Guys came in and out as they pleased, but unlike so many of the geeks that plague the independent scene, there was a grace, timing, and fluidity to this spotfest. These guys had such an impressive professionalism to their movements as they delivered the nonstop action for the last 10 minutes or so.


This match also had another ingredient that it didn’t require to have been voted as the 2006 Match of the Year by the readers of the Wrestling Observer. That would be SELLING. Deep into this match, CIMA went to work on Horiguchi’s back, and this came into play later during the extended action-packed third act. Horiguchi dropped a member of Blood Generation with a modified piledriver-type move, and then sold his back that had been worked on. This delayed him from going for the cover, causing a nearfall that got a red-hot reaction. Horiguchi would continue to sell the back throughout the rest of this instant, timeless classic.


Speaking of red-hot nearfalls, the third act was dripping with them. The match would look to be over, but a kickout would occur or someone would make the save. This only increased the crowd’s red-hot enthusiasm, which became white-hot, and the commentators eventually said “this action speaks for itself,” which was the right call to make. When Dragon Kid hit the second hurricanrana pin on Doi, it brought the emotionally satisfying end to this work of art.


This match was simply magical, on par with numerous other magical moments involving CM Punk, Kenta Kobashi, Eddie Guerrero, Jushin Liger, AJ Styles, Low Ki, Paul London, Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson, KENTA, and Generation Next. It was a much different flavor of magic, and I so badly wished I had made the trip just to see this match. These are the days I miss in independent wrestling.


Is this the best match of ROH in 2006, let alone the company’s best match ever? I can’t really say at this point about 2006, but I’d have it just a notch below the London vs. Danielson 2/3 falls match at The Epic Encounter. This is DEFINITELY a top ten match in ROH’s history, no doubt about it for me. Get yourself a copy of this or the Japan’s Finest compilation if you’ve yet to witness this.


Rating: *****


The first disc concludes with a Nigel McGuinness promo, bragging about being gone on this historic weekend because he’s in Japan defending the Pure Title. He reminds the viewers that doing this, along with him slaying such names as Samoa Joe, Jay Lethal, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, and Claudio Castagnoli, makes him the best pure wrestler and best overall champion in the company, the true world champion in fact. He again calls out Bryan Danielson. I’m so ready to see these two fucking collide.


Homicide makes quick work of Mitch Franklin, and then proceeds to shit on Chicago's beloved Cubs as well as their native Cabana. Even with a concussion, Cabana comes to ringside and has a hardcore match masquerading as an unofficial brawl. He dominates Homicide early through anger and determination, but the Notorious 187 is able to seize back control. He once again hits multiple chairshots on a ladder wrapped around Cabana's neck and head. Concussion angles nowadays can be very polarizing for obvious reasons, and I hope no company ever books a concussion angle this violent again. That said, it worked for the story.


Right as Homicide & Smokes are leaving, and with Cabana outside the ring getting help with leaving too, out comes Hero with Necro Butcher. Necro grabs the ladder in the ring and tosses it outside, with Hero saying that what the fans just witnessed was practically child's play compared to the hardcore lengths that CZW superstars go to. Pearce comes out to have a great brawl with Necro, and I roll my eyes when I see Necro take a Ric Flair backdrop on the gym floor from the apron. Meanwhile, Castagnoli had come to ringside and chased Hero away, who had taken a powder.


After a few minutes, Hero manages to get involved again, this time drawing out the ROH Commissioner Cornette, who is brandishing a baseball bat. Hero is able to take him down with an arm submission though. Not bad for a supposedly untalented hack, huh James? This draws out Joe & Whitmer, who together with Pearce fight off the CZW duo. This was a phenomenal crowd-popping segment, getting passionate chants for both ROH and the individuals representing the brand.


Joe is left in the ring, saying he came to chew bubble gum and lay down some ass-kickings. He's now out of bubble gum.


Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Christopher Daniels


Lacey dismisses Daniels to not bother coming to ringside, as this is a huge opportunity for Jacobs to pull the biggest upset of his career against Joe. Of course Daniels comes out though. He and Joe try to ignore Jacobs at first, but he makes his presence known. This was well-timed, not much to be anything special, but it was good and not bad for a breather before the big money main event. My favorite spot was Daniels about to hit the Angel's Wings on Joe, but he saw Jacobs coming. So he planted Jacobs on top of Joe with a Uranage, while using the other arm to drop Joe with a reverse DDT. But once Joe got the choke locked in on Jacobs later, that was obviously the finish.


Rating: ***1/4


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong


Danielson is disrespectful early as expected, and takes a couple powders in the early stages of the match to maintain control and composure while also talking shit to the fans. Having learned from their masterpiece at Vendetta, Strong stays inside the ring. Even when Danielson threatens to just walk out, even going all the way backstage, Strong stays in the ring and calls out Danielson, not playing into the mind games.


It took awhile, although not as much as in his matches before this against Danielson and CM Punk, for Strong to get some chopping sequences, only getting the occasional one planted on the champ. But Danielson was able to get in his own chopping sequences, obviously trolling Strong to show off what he could do. Danielson would go on to dominate Strong on the mat throughout most of the match, but there are of course some things I should point out in this classic that have stood the test of time.


Danielson just dominated Strong, who of course would get his chops in. His strikes and submission work were splendid as usual, just softening up the challenger and testing him for what was sure to be another grueling test of stamina between them. But the match got REALLY interesting, getting into actual MOTYC territory, when Strong attempted to plant his body on Danielson's back when the champ was leaning on the middle ropes. Danielson moved out of the way, causing Strong's right knee to awkwardly strike the rope.


Danielson went to work on that right knee, charging it on the mat and putting it through the submission grinder, including an Indian Death Lock, Boston Crab, and figure four leglock. Strong would manage to bring the match back to neutral, but his right knee was shot the rest of the match, which went on for about another 20 minutes. They brawled to the outside and Strong had Danielson positioned against a ring-post. Strong landed a chop, but then his second attempted chop got his hand to meet the steel when Danielson got out of the way.


Strong did just a terrific job of selling his right arm and right leg in the rest of the match. Like in his classic against James Gibson at Unforgettable, he would only chop with his left arm, and used the damaged right arm only to deliver vicious forearms to rock Danielson. In a sequence I'm sure was influenced by Strong studying KENTA's defeat over Danielson just days before this, Strong was able to absorb the crucifix position elbows of Danielson, rolling back and putting the champ in a fireman's carry position. Strong then delivered a perfectly timed gutbuster on the champ.


But Strong's right knee took some more damage just from that move, forcing him to briefly tend to it before going for the cover. This very brief moment was all the time needed for the champ to kick out. Strong, knowing that this would likely be his last chance at the ROH Title while Danielson held it, delivered numerous backbreakers to Danielson using his right limbs, telling his pain to fuck off so that he could obtain the top prize in the company. Danielson still kicked out though, making these for more great near-falls, while also causing more damage to Strong's right limbs.


Strong would also be unable to fully turn Danielson over during a Liontamer, giving the champ leverage to get out of the hold. Danielson would attempt some Cattle Mutilation submissions, but Strong also found a way to get to the ropes for the break. He would then go for the Crossface Chickenwing, but Strong broke that too. Danielson went for another trick in his bag, crotching Strong on the top turnbuckle. Strong would use that positioning to land a super gutbuster on Danielson, getting another massive pop on a night when there were many of them. Strong again told the pain in his right knee to fuck off, making a last-ditch effort more than 55 minutes into this classic to take out Danielson with another Liontamer, this time locking it completely in.


But Danielson would position his way out of the properly applied Liontamer, forcing Strong to stand upright and allowing Danielson to use his legs to roll up the challenger for the pinfall. Strong's right knee had nothing left, leaving him unable to kick out after more than 56 minutes had passed in this excellent main event.


My only problem with this match is that Danielson didn't sell the back work to the best of his ability. Other than that, I think I've made it pretty clear that this match fucking delivered and closed out this great show in splendid fashion. The match had started shortly before midnight, more than 4 hours passed for this show, and nearly an hour later these two men had the Chicago crowd in a fucking frenzy. I assume this will be included on the inevitable Year Five compilation. I don't have this as high as Vendetta, but overall it's better than This Means War.


Rating: ****3/4


It's official: Lance Storm challenges Bryan Danielson for the ROH Title tomorrow night.


I'm with most longtime ROH viewers in that I prefer the shorter but equally if not greater events in ROH's history, such as the night before and after. But this show was tremendous, even though some matches didn't deliver much of a star rating. This was formatted to be similar to NOAH's events at the Tokyo Dome, going very long with all kinds of various styles across the board. This once again advanced some white-hot programs, and it was obvious that Homicide and Cabana would finally be bringing their violent, epic feud to an end the next night to close out the weekend.


This is definitely a must-have, not just for the storylines, but for having two all-time classics in ROH, one of them considered by many to be the greatest match in company history, that same match winning the Match of the Year Award in the Wrestling Observer. Don't forget that other great show-stealing tag too, which should be included on a Sydal compilation once he makes his ROH return in the near future. A long but VERY amazing night of professional wrestling.


Up next - Better Than Our Best

For the first and what might be the only time for me on this project, I'm not watching certain matches. I'm watching and reviewing the entire fucking show.

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Better Than Our Best - April 1, 2006


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Colt Cabana comes to ringside during the preshow, reiterating that he must end his feud with Homicide and get peace after the violence of the past several months.


Jack Evans vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Matt Sydal vs. Ace Steel vs. Jake Crist vs. Dave Crist


Just a spotfest, nothing truly special, but I expected that going in. This got the crowd's blood flowing and set a nice pace for the rest of the evening. Evans gets the victory before heading to Dragon Gate for three months.


ROH Commissioner Jim Cornette comes out to announce that Adam Pearce has been assigned as security to keep out Chris Hero & Necro Butcher. He's about to ask a young talent to come to the ring, but Colt Cabana interrupts. He begs for a hardcore match ("Chicago Street Fight" for the hometown pop) and Cornette grants that wish. Cornette then calls out Delirious.


Cornette puts over Delirious as a great, entertaining in-ring talent. But he says Delirious needs to win a match in order to maintain a spot on the ROH roster. He grants Delirious any opponent of his choosing, but only if Delirious agrees that this is do-or-die for him. The masked man cuts a gibberish promo that has the crowd in a frenzy, before he finally say something understandable. "Bllllllat!!!" Over and over again, followed by "Ricky Reyes! Ricky Reyes!" Cornette says it's on.


Before I get to the match: that segment included Delirious, Jim Cornette, Adam Pearce, and Colt Cabana. No politics, no bullshit, no rambling promos, no meaningless brawling. I miss the days before this company got overly petty.


The ROH Tenure of Delirious on the Line

Delirious vs. Ricky Reyes


A match that accomplished every single goal it had. Reyes dominated, while Delirious had some hope spots to show off his anger and desperation. Delirious got to be the one to break out of the Dragon Sleeper, which Austin Aries had been unable to do the week before, and finally clinched his first singles victory to maintain his spot, forcing the bully to submit to the Cobra Clutch after hitting him with the Shadows Over Hell. Poetry with a great reaction from the crowd. The first magical moment of the evening.


Dragon Gate Rules

Jimmy Rave, Alex Shelley, & Masato Yoshino vs. Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito, & Genki Horiguchi


Very good trios action but not the nonstop jaw-dropper of the trios matches earlier in the weekend. That's totally understandable since Rave & Shelley weren't trained for that style. I have to point out that while I enjoyed Brian Kendrick character-wise as a one night only member of the Embassy, Yoshino just completely smoked him in that regard and put forth a far superior in-ring performance to boot.


I really enjoyed Rave & Shelley at first being antsy when working with Do Fixer, taking powders and tagging in Yoshino, who was happy to be an asshole to his archrivals and get some vengeance after the Blood Generation loss the night before. He got to yet again show off his incredible chemistry with Dragon Kid, the two of them putting on some dazzling sprints.


Do Fixer was great in getting to show off their triple-team moves since only one of their opponents was familiar with them. But eventually Rave & Shelley did get comfortable and the last third of the match was tremendous action. The booking was perfect too for the Rave-hating Chicago crowd: the Crown Jewel finished off Horiguchi with the Pedigree! That meant the Embassy went 3-0 for this huge triple-shot, solidifying themselves as the #1 Contenders for the Tag Titles.


Rating: ***3/4


Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Yang vs. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels


Another match with impressive action, although not quite as much as would be expected, and was plagued by tags not being logically enforced in the third act. This wasn't a Dragon Gate or Generation Next trios match, so it should've been easy for the referee to keep track.


Daniels had no interest in being involved early, and it seemed that Styles was to be the target in this match, but Joe would play that role in the second act. Everything in this match was crisp, getting the crowd to pop and everyone worked hard. Although neither man was actually legal, Joe finished off Styles with a rear-naked choke.


Rating: ***1/2


Afterwards, Joe stays in the ring and announces that it's time for him to get an ROH Title shot, calling out Bryan Danielson. The champ comes to the ring and talks shit, with a nice "If I can be serious for a moment..." dig at Lance Storm. After some nice crowd-engaging mic work, Danielson says he'll be happy to grant it after he's done kicking Storm's ass.


As Danielson heads backstage, out come Hero & Necro to throw Joe out of the ring. Pearce immediately storms to the ring and brawls with them. Cornette comes out with Claudio Castagnoli. The Swiss native fails to inflict any damage on the CZW stars, missing a baseball bat swing and appearing to land awkwardly on his knee on the gym floor. Cornette is taken out and Pearce is left laying, allowing the CZW stars to have the last laugh on ROH's historic weekend. This drew incredible heat as expected.


Tag Titles Match

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. CIMA & Naruki Doi


Not the classic match I remembered, but still very good stuff. There was no clear announcement that this would be under Dragon Gate Rules, and with it being a title match, I assume this was to be held under ROH rules. Therefore, there was no reason for the referee to forget who was legal, and like the trios match earlier in the evening, this didn't have the breathtaking pace of the trios matches earlier in the weekend. All the more reason that the referee should've remembered who was legal, as it would NOT have been ticky-tacky or ruined the pace.


Strong was great laying down some brutality less than 24 hours removed from a grueling ROH Title shot against Danielson. CIMA did a phenomenal job of selling a chop from Strong, just absolutely perfect for someone not accustomed to Strong's physical style and popping the crowd even more in the process. Blood Generation would eventually get the advantage on Aries though, who would end up getting busted open on the face.


Aries found his face getting targeted, further showcasing that no matter how awesome CIMA & Doi were, they were still pricks on par with Danielson. Strong was great when he got the hot tag and laying down the fire on Blood Generation. This was the third act and the ref unfortunately forgot who was legal. But this was still very, very good action and worth checking out. All four men certainly deserved the standing ovation they got from the 1600-1700 fans in attendance.


Rating: ***3/4


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Lance Storm


Similar to Matt Hardy, the bandwagon for Lance Storm is long-gone, and it's obvious he's not an all-time great grappler as ROH marketed him as being during this time. With that said, he brought his fucking working boots on this night and more than held up his end in making this a great match, a true technical classic that stands the test of time. He was treated like a star by the Chicago crowd and gave them their money's worth. This is a match that I wish I had experienced live.


Danielson of course carried the personality portion of the match, which was the right decision to make since by now we all know how charismatic he truly is. But he didn't carry Storm, as both men were equally impressive with their mat wrestling and storytelling. The first couple minutes saw them having a teeter-totter of a technical showcase, struggling to get an extended advantage and exchanging arm twists, arm drags, hammerlocks, and snap-mare takeovers. It was fucking beautiful mat-work and managed to be engaging.


Danielson would attempt to get in the veteran Storm's head with a slap, only for minutes later to get a receipt from the former WWE/WCW/ECW superstar, as this obviously wasn't his first rodeo with a cocky and disrespectful young pup. They had more great wrestling with Storm getting an advantage, causing Danielson to take an extended break outside the ring and cautiously getting back in. A particular spot that stood out was when Storm rolled a running Danielson into the half-crab, getting a tremendous reaction and showing just how seriously he was taking this opportunity to hold a title that had been treated with such high regard.


After more great wrestling, Danielson would lock in the Crossface Chickenwing, but Storm broke it by reaching the ropes, building up the drama and getting the crowd even more behind the challenger. Storm would pull out a trick from his peer Jerry Lynn's playbook, planting the champ with a cradle piledriver. When that doesn't put down the champ, he locks in the half-crab again, and this time the crowd is hoping/sensing that a title change is about to unfold in front of them, but the champ rolls him for a nearfall, the same position which had finished off Strong the night before.


The third act would continue to be great stuff, leading to a fantastic finishing sequence. Storm got out of the Cattle Mutilation and positioned Danielson into a rollup for a hot nearfall. Danielson managed to almost finish off Storm with a Tiger Suplex, then locked it in the Cattle Mutilation once again for the submission victory. After shaking hands, Danielson leaves Storm to get the spotlight he earned after an excellent effort.


I don't know if this is the best match of Storm's career, as the only work I've seen of his was some WCW and then his WWE career. This is definitely in the conversation though and holds up incredibly well. Excellent match.


Rating: ****


Hardcore Match

Homicide vs. Colt Cabana


I might be in the minority, but I absolutely love the music used in their pre-match video. Struck me with a nostalgic WCW feeling before that federation went down the shitter.


Cabana starts with the early advantage, fueled by his anger, hometown crowd support, and knowing that this is the end of a violent chapter of his career. He fucking tossed Homicide around at ringside, getting his first taste of what he hoped would be the satisfying closure he had been wanting for five months. Smokes is able to distract the Chicago native to allow Homicide to regain the advantage.


Homicide was fucking brutal to Cabana as usual for their feud. In this match he brought in a ladder, then much later a barbed-wire board (last seen in ROH for the previous "Chicago Street Fight" inside the same building at Death Before Dishonor II Pt. 2), and then as the match was reaching its conclusion, asked the fans to throw chairs in the ring in another spot not seen since that same previous "Chicago Street Fight." I'm glad nobody got badly hurt there, although a chair did bounce off of Cabana.


Cabana was able to bust Homicide open, and drew the trademark fork out of the Notorious 187's boot, scraping at his forehead. But also introduced into the match, in true moments of poetry, was a coathanger and even a bottle of Drano. Cabana teased he would use the latter, but that thankfully never came to fruition. Homicide would then have his Bernie Williams jersey removed by Cabana. They had a great little tease of who would get the other onto the barbed-wire board, an obvious sign of things to come.


Instead, after having scraped the forehead of Homicide, Cabana poured a bunch of rubbing alcohol on the crimson mask. Homicide screamed in absolute agony, twitching outside the ring to sell the pain. Fantastic stuff. After being thrown in the ring, Homicide begged off, asking Cabana to end it, but of course that was bullshit and Cabana knew it. Cabana would be victim to a lowblow, and this would allow Homicide to toss in a chair, followed by the chair riot.


Having about a minute to recover from the lowblow, both men went at each other in the chair-canvas ring. Homicide would unfathomably kick out of a superplex that had both men landing on the steel. Cabana would clear the chairs out, as would Homicide, but not before Homicide utilized CM Punk's Pepsi Plunge for another great nearfall. This would get the fans to temporarily slap the barricades to the early part of "Miseria Cantare." Homicide asks Smokes to come after Homicide, but finds himself getting accidentally charged out of the ring.


Cabana takes advantage and ties Smokes to the ropes and take him out of the equation. With Homicide recovering on the outside, Cabana set up a table on top of the barbed-wire board in front of the corner. They have a back-and-forth to tease who would take the barbaric bump, with Cabana winning that battle, forcing Homicide to eat a super powerbomb on it. Homicide would kick out of that and a follow-up lariat, then had absolutely nothing left when that was followed up with a Colt .45, a move Cabana had not used for an extended period of time in ROH.


Cabana gets a great reaction from the hometown crowd, but is mugged by Smokes & Reyes, who threaten to hang him with a noose like it's Mississippi Burning. Homicide has regained consciousness and tells them to back off, that he will end this his way on his own. The Rottweilers have an extended argument, and they finally listen to their leader. Homicide says he is obligated to at least respect Cabana after everything they've been through and finally beating an ROH legend.


"You want your goddamn peace? I'll give you your fucking peace!"


Homicide apologizes for everything and offers his hand, falling to his knees. Cabana accepts and Homicide says it's over, that he respects him. After everything they had been through, an unnecessarily violent turn but with their issues settled, they shake hands and embrace, with Homicide reassuring that the feud is history. Confetti falls at ringside as the crowd chants "ROH!" Smokes half-heartedly shakes the hand of Cabana, not agreeing with his leader but respecting his wishes.


Cabana is left to a monster celebration in front of his hometown, the perfect ending to the best weekend ROH has ever hosted. And that's not hyperbole.


I'm sure both men, now in their mid-30s and not quite etching HOF careers on the big stages, reflect back and regret some of the violence in this feud and this particular closing match. It was fucking brutal. But if they can compartmentalize that like I am, they should still be able to appreciate and be proud of this hardcore masterpiece they put together. There was no better way to close out the show than to bring this underrated feud, a great feud in retrospect, to a conclusion in Cabana's hometown, with him finally slaying the demon.


This was storytelling magnificence and a classic hardcore match. I'm not sure if wrestling will ever be able to deliver something like this again. A genuine MOTYC. Both men should be STRONGLY considered to get a shot at Danielson, and I hope those CZW stars who boast about using weaponry got a look at this, and should be VERY concerned that ROH has guys who went through this length and could feel this depth of hatred.


Rating: ****1/2


Is this the greatest show in ROH history as many claim it to be?


If you watch this with that expectation, you won't find it to be quite that head-and-shoulders epic. The mid-card matches that I had remembered as being excellent didn't quite hold up almost a decade later, although they were all VERY good stuff, with two of the matches bordering on greatness. That's nothing to be ashamed of and they did an incredible job of doing what they needed to do for their spots on the cards.


A key thing that makes this show stand out among the many great shows during the Gabe Sapolsky era was the pacing. Sapolsky managed to pace this event in a way that anyone in attendance seeing the federation for the first time would be able to digest it while also being blown away, AND also delivering the quality of matches that the frequent customers of ROH at this time had become accustomed to. Pacing was always an issue for him, but on this night, it truly clicked for him in that regard. Adam Pearce and Delirious have gone on to pace events that are digestible for newbies, but not quite delivering the frequent match quality that quite captures the detail-oriented, demanding eye of folks like me.


The two money matches to headline this event both delivered as expected, with them obviously being two completely different flavors. An established superstar in the big leagues came in and put forth a career-defining performance against one of the greatest in-ring technicians the business has ever seen, adding another layer of prestige for the ROH Title. A violent feud finally reached its appropriately timed, emotional conclusion, the hometown boy finally getting the last laugh after being driven away from his standard comedy routine. And afterwards, Homicide made his babyface turn after two years of absolute malice and bitterness controlling his actions.


But it's not just the mid-card and main events that make a show get held in such high regard. You gotta have that meaningful undercard. The opener was just a spotfest, but that's all it needed to be. In a sign of what was to come in the main event of the evening, Delirious, an established comedy style freak, slayed a member of the Rottweilers to save his career in ROH, a victory that meant more after Austin Aries had been unable to overcome the Dragon Sleeper of Ricky Reyes prior to this event.


But that's not all, folks. On this event, we got to see CZW leave with the final say on ROH, leaving them laying on such a historic weekend for the company before ROH would head back to the East Coast, where the fanbases may not be quite so slanted towards ROH. In the same segment, the iconic Joe would make it known that he was ready to challenge Danielson and regain the top prize in the company, finally teasing a match that many fans had been hoping to see since their ***** classic at Midnight Express Reunion.


Nowhere to Run had a slightly better match quality on paper, and had key storyline progression just like this one too, even the hometown guy getting the final say in a feud-ending gimmick match that followed a phenomenal technical match contested over the top prize in the company. I'm also sure that as I continue this project, I will have the pleasure of revisiting shows that are more stacked with truly high-caliber match quality. But this night was a truly magical night, with flawless pacing, storyline progression left and right, stars from other federations coming in and busting their asses, and getting capped off with two incredible matches. This also had the key ingredient that I love so much in wrestling: VARIETY, not just in matches, but in storylines as well.


Now imagine with all of that I mentioned, and taking into account both Dragon Gate Challenge and Supercard of Honor, if ROH had managed to book the Briscoes, Low Ki, and Nigel McGuinness for this magical weekend.


I want to take the time in case any wrestler involved in the matches I reviewed for WrestleMania 22 weekend ever reads this: Thank you for your hard work and determination. I know that having three nights like this back-to-back-to-back could not have been a breeze, and I appreciate everything you guys did to give the fans in attendance and those watching on DVD more than their money's worth. I'm sure the paydays were nowhere near what NJPW pays for the grueling G-1 Climax.


With a day to sleep on this and grasp everything that this card accomplished, I can clearly make the declaration.


Not only do I wish I had a time machine, but Better Than Our Best is the greatest event in ROH history.


Up next - The 100th Show

Matches will include:

Bryan Danielson vs. Delirious

Briscoe Bros. vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal

Team ROH of Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer, & Adam Pearce vs. Team CZW of Chris Hero, Super Dragon, & Necro Butcher

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The 100th Show - April 22, 2006


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ROH Video Recap - April 5, 2006




Important news/footage in the above video:

Exclusive footage from Arena Warfare after the Briscoes attacked Austin Aries and Matt Sydal. Sydal has challenged them to face himself and AJ Styles on April 22 in Philly for The 100th Show!

KENTA is confirmed to return for 3 dates - June 17 in NYC, June 23 in Detroit, June 24 in Chicago!

Commissioner Jim Cornette has challenged CZW owner John Zandig to a glorified verbal debate at The 100th Show. Fuck that trash. Another good Cornette promo here though in a vacuum.


ROH Video Recap - April 15, 2006




Important news/footage in the above video:

Homicide and Colt Cabana have finally settled their grudge, so they now focus on winning championships. The 100th Show gets even more depth (on paper) with Cabana challenging ROH Champion Bryan Danielson and Homicide teaming with Ricky Reyes to challenge Tag Champions Austin Aries & Roderick Strong.

More depth for the same show - Lacey is fed up with Jimmy Jacobs not winning matches, so she won't accompany him, but insinuates she'll go topless on ROHvideos.com should he win.

And the biggie - ROH and CZW finally have a sanctioned match with Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer, & Adam Pearce colliding with Chris Hero, Super Dragon, & Necro Butcher in what promises to be a chaotic main event! OH FUCK YES~!


Christopher Daniels vs. Claudio Castagnoli


The split ROH and CZW crowd is amazing already in the opening match, with split chants over Chris Hero, who isn't even involved in this match.


First-time ever matchup that is also a Pure Title Shot opportunity for Daniels. Glad I decided not to skip this one. They have a stalemate early trading arm submissions and arm-drags. The match develops a story when Daniels hits a basement dropkick on Castagnoli's left leg. Of course Daniels would go to work on it, to which Castagnoli did an exceptional job of selling it.


Castagnoli would get the heat back when he was seated on the turnbuckle and used his right foot to push Daniels off, then following that up with a diving European Uppercut. However, Castagnoli would land on his left knee when delivering that move, which he continued selling. After several more minutes of back-and-forth work, Castagnoli is unable to land an Alpamari Waterslide due to his left knee. This allow Daniels to roll him forward and hold onto that left knee for the pinfall.


Post-match, Daniels announces he has a milestone of his own, offering to follow the Code of Honor, which Castagnoli accepts unlike Low Ki at Tag Wars 2006. The fans react very well to this, and Daniels leaves Castagnoli in the ring to get his spotlight. Hero immediately interrupts walking through the fans and cutting a promo. He spews much negativity while walking through the hated ROH section, then changes his tune about overcoming adversity when reaching the partial CZW section before fucking off. Castagnoli leads a passionate "ROH" chant for the majority in attendance.


Rating: ***1/4


I FF to the closing minutes of the next match, which is Delirious vs. Jimmy Yang vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Jimmy Jacobs. Jacobs has Yang finished off but refuses to pin him, which allows Delirious to make him submit to the Cobra Stretch. This serves multiple purposes to be revealed later in the night. Considering that Yang would be getting an ROH Title shot on the next show though, I wouldn't have booked him to look so vulnerable.


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Colt Cabana


Both men are coming off huge victories in the two main events at Better Than Our Best. Danielson has Bobby Cruise announce that he's the "least overrated wrestler in the world" in response to the CZW section; he also moons them. He and Cabana have very some nice wrestling for several minutes, with this looking to be a potential classic, only for Cabana to get rolled up less than seven minutes into this match, a big shocker after his landmark victory just three weeks prior.


Jacobs reveals in a backstage intermission promo that he wasn't going to allow the fans to see Lacey strip naked on ROHvideos.com as she insinuated if he had won, which is why he allowed himself to lose the match. Meanwhile, Cabana refuses to be interviewed, distraught after choking in his big match.


Bryan Danelson comes out after the students match, for some reason wearing one of the Tag Titles, but nobody acknowledges it. ( My theory on this mishap was to play a rib on Gabe Sapolsky.) He cuts a phenomenal promo on the CZW crowd, completely mocking and burying them for their irrationality. This is one of the best promos of his entire career, one that shows just what a great character he is for the business.


Danielson then says after making quick work of Cabana, "not even breaking a sweat," he will put the title on the line again tonight against someone who won in the first half. He'd already beaten Daniels. He'd already beaten Austin Aries. He'd already beaten Roderick Strong three times. So that left Delirious. I'd have laughed if Aries had come out with the actual ROH Title.


Delirious comes out and after being mocked by Danielson, cuts a gibberish promo that has the crowd rocking. He hymns to the tune of the "Final Countdown"...


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Delirious


... and Danielson slaps him to start off the match. He dominates early, just absolutely schooling Delirious and of course trolling the CZW fans more. In a moment that makes me believe even more that Sapolsky was planning for Danielson to have a title defense against Super Dragon, Danielson even hits a curb stomp directly in front of the CZW audience to antagonize them even more. (How perfect it would've been for SD to cash in that open contract by technically representing PWG?) He follows that up with a Rick Rude sexy pose, then does another one because apparently a female in the audience likes it. And just to be even more of a dick, already having the advantage, the champ uses the ropes for leverage when applying the abdominal stretch.


Crotched on the top rope, Delirious would fight off Danielson to get some control. This would be short-lived after a few moves as the champ used the momentum from an attempted clothesline to position the challenger as victim for the Cattle Mutilation. Delirious would quickly get to the ropes to break it, and also block an attempted Crossface Chickenwing, following that up with an airplane spin, kick to the hand, and then the Cobra Stretch, but the champ would of course reach the ropes.


Delirious followed that up with a tope suicida, landing awkwardly on his right shoulder. Danielson would throw him into the guardrail to regain control, not feeling much effect from the highspot. He would toss the challenger into the guardrail after teasing an airplane spin, refusing to pull out the signature move as a fuck off to the audience. Danielson would batter Delirious, splitting the mask open and revealing blood underneath the mask.


The champ would go after the cut Delirious had, but another Cattle Mutilation would end up with a ropebreak once the action got back inside. Danielson would miss a diving headbutt, allowing Delirious some control and giving the future HOFer numerous clotheslines in the corner. Danielson blocks an attempted superplex, crotching Delirious for a super back drop suplex, then finishing him off with the elbows to the bleeding head.


Delirious would get a standing ovation from the crowd for this breakout effort as he got helped to the back, leaving the champ in the ring with the majority of the ROH crowd chanting "He's our hero!" Not a super great match, but perfect in accomplishing its goals, which were to make Danielson look like a ruthless dick and elevate Delirious.


Rating: ***


Briscoe Bros. vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal


Really good action, ruined only by the ref somehow forgetting one tag legality. The Briscoes would decimate Sydal in this one as they should've. Styles of course was great in his aggression and also would get trolled to allow the Briscoes to cut the ring in half. This got heated and a bit wild, with the ref allowing leeway in the closing stretch, but thankfully the participants remembered who was legal after hitting Sydal with a spike double underhook piledriver. Very good stuff overall, but I'd have booked Styles to do the job since Sydal was getting a title opportunity on the next event. Glad to see the Briscoes get momentum though after immediately declaring that they were coming for the tag belts.


Rating: ***1/2


A short video of many of the greatest moments of ROH's first 99 shows is aired. Good stuff but still missing a lot of essential clips, such as Styles vs. Paul London @ Night of the Grudges and the Danielson vs. Strong trilogy (only three singles matches between them in ROH up to this point.)


Team ROH vs. Team CZW - Hardcore Match

Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer, & Adam Pearce vs. Chris Hero, Super Dragon, & Necro Butcher


This match is officiated by ROH's #1 referee Todd Sinclair and a CZW referee I don't recognize. There is also no commentary for this match as it would be unnecessary.


The heat in this match was just unreal, just right behind Joe's singles match against Kenta Kobashi in NYC and Aries vs. CM Punk @ Death Before Dishonor III. Fucking brutal hardcore match, just stiff shit and unprotected chairshots all over the place. I should note that Joe and Hero, the true captains of their respective teams, took by far the least amount of punishment in this instant storytelling classic. But what those two brought was extra crowd heat for their segments with the other participants, and specifically against each other.


Pearce appeared to get busted open early on his scalp, showing the most crimson of all the participants. His blood would stain Necro's neon CZW shirt. Those two had a great moment in the ring. They had a literal slugfest, exchanging punches to their bodies, and Necro won that little battle much to the CZW section's delight. Moments later, Pearce would deliver a receipt in another slugfest, winning that battle.


Every matchup in this was fucking great. Joe and Necro got big pops. Joe and SD did as well.


After about 25 minutes of just brutal, brutal action in front of this excellent crowd in attendance, CZW owner John Zandig attempts to insert himself into this masterpiece, drawing Joe to come beat the shit out of him, but Hero & Necro come help out. Sinclair isn't happy about this, wanting this to be a fair fight. After conducting themselves without altercation up to this point, the CZW ref gets in Sinclair's face, somehow rationalizing that "this is CZW!" to justify this becoming an unfair fight, and Sinclair ain't taking his shit. Necro knocks Sinclair out from behind.


Out comes Castagnoli, wearing a glittery ROH jacket, and I should note that he had appeared earlier in the match to take a barb-wire baseball bat away from Zandig, drawing him to the back. Castagnoli throws Zandig out of the ring and grabs Hero, holding him for Joe. When Joe runs to the ropes for momentum to strike Hero, Castagnoli pushes his trainer away and gives Joe a European Uppercut, just hours after having the honors of getting the first genuine handshake Daniels had delivered in ROH.


The Kings of Wrestling embrace, but this is interrupted seconds later when Pearce dropkicks Castagnoli. As this is going on, the ROH crowd is chanting for Homicide, the man in ROH who has shown to thrive better than anyone else in this type of environment.


Also during this match, in what has to be the most insane spot, SD took out Whitmer with an Argentine piledriver from the apron through a table laid out on the concrete floor. An all-time highlight reel spot in ROH's rich vault.


SD & Necro take out Pearce, who then gets finished off with what looks like a double-team swinging gut-wrench Ace Crusher from KOW. The CZW referee gladly counts Pearce down for the three. The CZW representatives walk over to their section and celebrate as a pissed-off Joe glares at them while standing besides his fallen ROH colleague. He says to let the CZW theme music play, as it'll be the last time it's heard in the ROH environment.


Whitmer is carried out on a board while Pearce is dripping blood. Meanwhile, Zandig poses with CZW fans and the CZW stars take the back door out of the building.


With the exception of a totally illogical officiating moment when the refs were doing a 10 count on guys knocked down in the ring, this was fucking epic and deserving of the "Match of the Year" chant coming from the crowd afterwards. Excellent, excellent, EXCELLENT brawl and the booking was top-notch, giving CZW the last laugh yet again.


Rating: ****3/4


Cabana does a backstage interview and he believes he "forgot how to wrestle" during his extended feud against Homicide. He says he will start at the bottom with the goal of challenging for the ROH Title.


The DVD closes with Pearce getting medical attention on his head, showing two deep gashes on his scalp. I can appreciate the pain he put himself through to get this program over.


What an absolutely phenomenal end to The Milestone Series. A timeless storytelling hardcore classic right in the thick of the greatest feud in company history. A fun, action-packed tag match. A moment 99 shows in the making to kick off the show. Danielson wrestling twice and doing a masterful troll job of the CZW fanbase, elevating an undercard wrestler and further cementing his legacy in the process. And let's not forget the rocking Philly crowd split between their federations of choice, making for an amazing atmosphere throughout the night.


It's a shame we didn't get the rematch of The Era of Honor Begins main event that was 99 shows in the making. But this was one HELL of a fucking plan B.


ROH had amazing stretches in 2004 and 2005, and has gone on to do so yet again in the coming years. But the seven shows that compiled The Milestone Series truly showcase everything great about ROH. Top-notch technical wrestling that elevated the prestige of the ROH Title and further solidified Bryan Danielson's in-ring legacy. Fantastic trios matches and great tag team wrestling. Superstars from other federations or in retirement showing up with their working boots. Star power all over the place. Generally amazing crowds. Tremendous pacing. The greatest feud in company history. The early stages of one of the best feuds in company history, while another epic feud would come to a violent but happy end. This stretch of shows had EVERYTHING for both die-hard and new fans.


If you have never seen The Milestone Series, take the time to dig around and find these events. It's a time that will never be duplicated, even if some federations attempt to do so. WWE no longer snubs its nose at the indies, meaning that top-notch talent isn't left toiling and starving to get noticed as much as they were in the mid-2000s. NOAH is practically a walking corpse. ROH and Dragon Gate unfortunately had a falling out, leading to an already thinned out indy scene getting thinned out even more with ridiculous "exclusive contracts." And for reasons that are totally understandable, the frequent workrate and violence had to be toned down for the long-term brand of ROH under its current owners.


Fear not though, because in my opinion it would be awhile before ROH's peak period would end, and the greatest rivalry in company history is near on this project for me.


Up next - Weekend of Champions Night 1

Matches will include:

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Colt Cabana

Nigel McGuinness vs. Christopher Daniels

Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Yang

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Samoa Joe & Matt Sydal

Team ROH of BJ Whitmer, Ace Steel, & Adam Pearce vs. Team CZW of Super Dragon, Nate Webb, & Necro Butcher

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Weekend of Champions Night 1 - April 28, 2006


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Included for the first time on DVD is the respective Video Recap.


ROH Video Recap - April 25, 2006




Important news/footage from the above video:

Yet another very good Cornette promo about the events at The 100th Show. This promo would be moot though as I'm about to explain.


The feature presentation starts with Lacey and Jimmy Jacobs earlier in the day having a discussion. Lacey is unimpressed with Jacobs not getting a victory and she doesn't give a shit what his reasons are, threatening to fire him soon if he doesn't get results.


Jimmy Jacobs vs. Colt Cabana


Not a noteworthy match but an entertaining one as expected, which is why I watched this. Seriously, a comedy guy trying to work his way back up the card as a wrestler against a guy on the hot seat with the valet that he's in twisted love with. Worked like a charm in front of Dayton, the perfect crowd for this dynamic. There's another reason I watched this too which I will get to later down the line.


Post-match, with Cabana winning of course, out comes ROH Commissioner Jim Cornette with Ace Steel, Cabana's trainer and fellow Second City Saint. Cornette requests his help against CZW and says that Claudio Castagnoli is a deserter for what he did just days before this event; Cornette basically recites his promo on the included Video Recap. Cabana agrees to help out with ROH's cause against CZW later in the evening, and I love that after he got the last laugh in the violent feud against Homicide.


After the second match, Super Dragon shows up and beats up a geek. Not much of a reaction because why would anyone, even an enthusiastic Dayton, give a shit about a geek without a braggadocios promo to taunt the crowd and locker room afterwards?


Nigel McGuinness cuts another fun promo saying that he'll take care of Christopher Daniels tonight, and then focuses on Bryan Danielson the next night for their dream match to determine the best wrestler in the company, in what should be the first ever ROH Title vs. Pure Title match assuming they both retain tonight. It's very obvious that McGuinness is looking past Daniels towards Danielson.


Pure Title Match

Nigel McGuinness vs. Christopher Daniels


Good match here with some counters I hadn't seen before. McGuinness forced Daniels to use a rope break when he got hit in the eye, going for constant nearfalls and moving the challenger closer to the ropes each time. Later McGuinness would regain control with a corner headstand kick followed up by throwing Daniels shoulder-first in the turnbuckle. Daniels would get his left arm and shoulder worked on, but also showed some nice counter submissions to get the champ to use his rope breaks.


In the closing stretch, McGuinness would be out of rope breaks so he forced himself and Daniels to the outside during a submission to break it. They brawled outside as the ref counted, and as the 20 count got close, McGuinness threw a photographer at Daniels to take the cheap win by countout. Great heat for this and I liked that finish not just because it reminds the ROH audience that he's still an underhanded son of a bitch after winning clean during his last match at Best in the World 2006, but also shows he NEEDED to cheat because he was looking past Daniels.


Rating: ***1/4


At intermission, Danielson talks about the dream match against McGuinness the next night, feeling like he has to prove himself once again despite being the best in the company for quite some time. Samoa Joe interrupts him and says that he's eventually coming "to take what's mine" after taking care of CZW. Joe is hilariously hypocritical when he says Danielson will be combining the ROH and Pure Titles to feed his ego. Let's recall Joe's insecure cheapshots at the Pure Title in 2004 and on this very night, he's going for the Tag Titles yet again to be the first ever Triple Crown winner in company history to feed his own ego, a goal that cost him his friendship with Jay Lethal.


ROH Title Match

Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Yang


Good match but not sure it's the best match of Yang's career as some live reports indicated at the time. For one, it was obvious Yang wasn't gonna dethrone Danielson which kept even a crowd as enthusiastic as Dayton from buying into a title change. This also kicked off intermission and matches in that position usually aren't show-stealers. I did enjoy Danielson trying to bait Yang at times, only for Yang to just come at him with kicks without much caution. Once Danielson applied the Crossface Chickenwing from the top rope, we knew it was over.


Rating: ***1/4


Tag Titles Match

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Samoa Joe & Matt Sydal


As I'd expect, Aries and Sydal played the Ricky Morton roles throughout various segments in this match. Both times were incredible. Standout moments in this match include: TAG LEGALITIES BEING REMEMBERED; Strong and Sydal taking a blocked earclap headscissors followed by Yakuza kick with awkward Sydal bump sequence from their singles match in PWG a few weeks earlier; Joe countering a charge from Aries with an Ace Crusher, allowing Sydal to hit a gorgeous standing moonsault nearfall; and a red-hot finishing stretch that had the Dayton crowd rocking. The finish was perfect with Joe being taken out by a tope suicide, allowing the champs to hit two backbreakers followed by a 450 Splash. Excellent match.


Rating: ****


Post-match, Joe is left in the ring and calls out CZW and we have a brawl. Joe is taken to the back by Necro, and he gets hog-tied by Castagnoli.


Team ROH vs. Team CZW - Hardcore Match

BJ Whitmer, Adam Pearce, Ace Steel, & Colt Cabana vs. Super Dragon, Nate Webb, Necro Butcher, & Claudio Castagnoli


As the brawl continues, Whitmer and Pearce come out one at a time, and Whitmer's neck brace is removed by Castagnoli. This was a very good brawl, but after being just six days after the chaotic epic at The 100th Show, these guys had to tone it down a bit. Also, as great the Dayton crowd was, this feud was not as over in any market as it was in Philadelphia. The spots that stand out to me are a shotgun dropkick from Cabana in which he appeared not to be comfortable from taking that bump, and the finish, which was Castagnoli holding Whitmer between a chair decapitation-style so that SD could stomp on the neck just siix days after the ridiculous Argentine piledriver, and Whitmer taking a musclebuster from Castagnoli.


Post-match as Whitmer is carried out, Steel wants CZW to have someone to "fucking die" and Pearce says that after two losses, "there will not be a fucking third!!!"


Rating: ***1/2


Not on par with The Milestone Series, but very good show in Dayton as usual at the time. The tag match is must-see and hopefully gets included on the inevitable Sydal compilation that I expect to be released before 2014 ends.


At long last, I arrive at the greatest rivalry in company history...


Up next - Weekend of Champions Night 2

Matches will include:

Chris Sabin vs. Delirious

Super Dragon vs. BJ Whitmer

Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels

Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley

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