ThROH The Years: A ROH retrospective podcast

[Hobbes]

After a bit of a delay Matt and Trevor are back to kick off the 2003 journey of ThROH The Years! We cover Revenge on the Prophecy. Samoa Joe vs. Bryan Danielson for the first time! Low Ki ends his feud with the Prophecy. AJ Styles chews gum and wears a beanie! It’s the only historical ROH podcast that ends with Bette Midler talk, and we’re all better for it!

http://placetobenation.com/throh-the-years-episode-13-revenge-on-the-prophecy/

[Hobbes]

Matt and Trevor are here to celebrate ROH’s One Year Anniversary Show. Battle of the Briscoes! Danielson/Joe 2! Paul London amazes! The infamous ROH Riot! Low Ki eats cake! It may be close to three hours, but we reviewed a four plus hour DVD, so we’re proud, and you will be too if you listen!

 

http://placetobenation.com/throh-the-years-episode-14-one-year-anniversary-show/

[JKWebb]

Coming in late to this, but Ive always wanted to take a deeper dive into ROH. Ive seen a lot of the hyped matches over the years, but gonna attempt this chronologically best I can based on your match recommendations. Thoroughly enjoyed the first episode! Ill catch up.

[MFoy]

Coming in late to this, but Ive always wanted to take a deeper dive into ROH. Ive seen a lot of the hyped matches over the years, but gonna attempt this chronologically best I can based on your match recommendations. Thoroughly enjoyed the first episode! Ill catch up.

Awesome! We love to hear that someone is diving in. Let us know what you think of the matches you watch.

[Hobbes]

http://placetobenation.com/throh-the-years-episode-15-expect-the-unexpected/

 

ThROH The Years brings you the ultimate holiday gift: our first guest! Joe Gagne (Joe vs. The World, Five Star Match Game) joins us to discuss Expect the Unexpected, a show he attended! We talk Punk vs. Raven, concussions, a title change, and Dave Meltzer explains to us what’s bad about a severe sinus infection. ROHast your chestnuts and download this show!

[Hobbes]

ThROH The Years returns for 2018, covering Night of Champions, one of the most noteworthy shows of the year! Joe wins the title! The Briscoes team for the first time in ROH! We also get into the secret most significant story that happened behind the scenes during this time. We know you waited extra long for this one, so we gave you a little more. Happy 2018!

 

http://placetobenation.com/throh-the-years-episode-16-night-of-champions/

[TonyPulis'Cap]

Really excited to see that a new episode of the podcast has dropped guys, I finished listening to the Expect the Unexpected review this week so nicely caught up. 2003 is the first year I start to have some DVDs from ROH in my collection somewhere in random boxes so looking forward to digging those out and being able to follow along more closely.

 

The Night of Champions show has an FWA Title match on, which is interesting to me as I'm currently going through a rewatch of the FWA and posting in the match threads here on PWO. For a couple of companion matches to the match on this show between Doug Williams and Christopher Daniels, here's a link to my review of a match they had over the same title from almost a year previously: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/40576-fwa-british-heavyweight-title-doug-williams-vs-christopher-daniels-fwa-crunch-02012002/

 

And then here's a link to my review of the match where Daniels won the title: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/40039-fwa-british-heavyweight-title-jody-fleisch-vs-doug-williams-vs-christopher-daniels-fwa-london-calling-10252002/

 

The guys are also not too far away from the ROH/FWA Frontiers of Honor show of which you can find reviews of the matches in the threads as well.

 

Keep up the good work!

[Hobbes]

Thanks so much for the comments and the links! Unfortunately, I think me and Matt may be skipping over the FWA/ROH supershow.

[TonyPulis'Cap]

No worries at all, been referencing you guys in some of the match reviews, as there's a fair bit of cross over between the FWA and ROH in the early part of 2003 so thought it would add a little extra context.

 

Well, from an ROH perspective you're not missing much on the Frontiers of Honor show, as the matches aren't up to the standard that you would get on a typical ROH show, so you are probably making the right call! So I guess I would just direct anybody wanting to know what happens on that show to my reviews of most of the matches in the May 2003 section of the Match Discussion Archive http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/forum/740-may/

[Hobbes]

Matt and Trevor are alive, and ThROH The Years is here to share thoughts on The Epic Encounter. Does London/Danielson 3 live up to expectations? Who was the Midnight Rider? Does the man on woman violence streak continue? We answer all these questions covering a show that features Dusty Rhodes, an amazing Paul London promo, and a Bar Room Brawler.

 

http://placetobenation.com/throh-the-years-episode-17-the-epic-encounter/

[Laney]

Thank you guys for putting this out. I'm still listening and enjoying. A couple of things I thought I should note:

 

- I recall from the ROH message board days that the Ring Crew Express superfan wearing the wig and 80's gear is a plant. Apparently he was an RF Video employee that people saw working the merch table. I would like to believe there was a die hard RCE fan traveling from Boston to Philly to watch the top tag team in Ring of Honor, but it may not be the case.

 

- You guys are correct that the theme Homicide used during Epic Encounter was not Beanie Sigel's "The Truth" which came to be his regular theme. Rather, this was "You're Not Ready" by G-Unit which had the same instrumentals. I know almost nothing about rap, but at one point I had all the ROH themes downloaded on my computer (my teenage years were lonely).

 

- I know that nobody cares, but it's been repeated enough times on your podcast that I feel I must correct you. ROH Uncensored doesn't have any additional Jeff Hardy footage. You can watch Jeff Hardy being booed out of the building on the regular Death Before Dishonor release. ROH Uncensored has the ICP match, Konnan stinking up the joint, the concussed Teddy Hart flips, Final Battle '03 Convention show, and exclusive showcase matches.

 

I pulled out my Uncensored DVD and there's quite an interesting line-up of matches. I completely forgot that Nick Gage once wrestled in ROH and Slugger once wrestled in a tag team with Bison. There's quite a bit of Dunn & Marcos and Slyk Wagner Brown on this release.

[Hobbes]

Thank you so much for this post. Corrections are greatly appreciated although I may never forgive you for breaking my heart that RCE superfan revelation.

[Hobbes]

ThROH The Years is springing ahead with its second ever guest, the great Justin Shapiro (Dr.Keith Presents, Joe vs. the World, Justin Shapirshow). We review Retribution: Round Robin Challenge 2! Twice the Paul London! Twice the Christopher Daniels! Twice the creepy misogyny! A lot of jokes are made, we all get woke, Justin tells us his six favorite legacy wrestlers, plus much more!

 

https://soundcloud.com/prowrestlingonly/throh-the-years-episode-18-retribution-the-round-robin-challenge-2

[Hobbes]

Matt and Trevor are dropping another hot track on ya with ThROH The Years episode 19. We cover Do Or Die and discuss the numerous ways the show was a departure from everything they had done before. We discuss promos a plenty, what we look for in technical wrestling, and even a pointy stick. It’s an episode so good, you’ll want to spell out the name on your heads.

 

http://placetobenation.com/throh-the-years-episode-19-do-or-die/

[Hobbes]

ThROH The Years becomes an adult with episode 20 and joining us once again is Boston correspondent Joe Gagne! We review Night of the Grudges and talk about a fantabulous Styles/London match, Steve Corino in prison. a fan that says “Whoa whoa”, and so much more. It’s a little shorter but jam packed with odd references, so we think you’ll enjoy!

 

http://placetobenation.com/throh-the-years-episode-20-night-of-the-grudges/

[MFoy]

So Gabe Sapolsky praised our show on Twitter yesterday. That is...weird. And cool! It might be the biggest possible endorsement we could get for this particular podcast, so maybe it's time to shut it down? (You're supposed to do podcasts to get bigger and bigger endorsements, right?)

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Clearly co-opted now.

[bradhindsight]

So Gabe Sapolsky praised our show on Twitter yesterday. That is...weird. And cool! It might be the biggest possible endorsement we could get for this particular podcast, so maybe it's time to shut it down? (You're supposed to do podcasts to get bigger and bigger endorsements, right?)

 

You're a made show now. Gabe was engaged on the ROH 50 GWE project we ran with VOW also. Respect.

[El Dragon]

You do realize that you now you have to attempt to get Gabe on for yearly wrap up shows to get his thoughts on the year, correct?

[MFoy]

You do realize that you now you have to attempt to get Gabe on for yearly wrap up shows to get his thoughts on the year, correct?

 

We could try although I've heard him talk in the past about how he doesn't really remember a lot of the early ROH stuff. I'm sure he remembers the obvious matches that we all remember, but I can't imagine him having the time or interest to do any sort of rewatch.

[SomethingSavage]

Isn't Gabe notoriously butthurt about even the slightest criticism, too? Not sure he'd feel the love from you guys calling out his hypocritical philosophies or pervy commentary.

[Hobbes]

You do realize that you now you have to attempt to get Gabe on for yearly wrap up shows to get his thoughts on the year, correct?

 

I've had that very idea but the next one of those is way off in the distance so I don't even have to worry about it yet. I would not feel comfortable asking Gabe to do a three hour podcast record in our normal format where we review a show, not only would I not be comfortable even asking if he could give that much time, it would be really weird to review something with the guy who booked it. Asking for 20-60 minutes of his time to answer very general questions about the first two years of ROH might be worth exploring, but as Matt pointed out, Gabe's memory might not be great. It's something we'll think about and as we approach the last few shows of 2003 we'll make a decision on if we should ask or not.

 

 

Isn't Gabe notoriously butthurt about even the slightest criticism, too? Not sure he'd feel the love from you guys calling out his hypocritical philosophies or pervy commentary.

 

Gabe has a reputation for being uh, high strung at times, but he's taken some punches. He's had hot and cold relationships with outlets like VOW, and he's booked wrestlers he's had serious falling outs with, so I think he has the ability to get mad but also to move on. One tweet of his that I saw alluded to him being interested about changing societal standards or something to that effect, so it's obvious he listened to one of our segments where we decried man on woman violence or homophobia, and it's not like he's gotten mad at us. I think we've been pretty even-handed in our coverage of his work. We obviously enjoy it very much on the whole, or we wouldn't be devoting a podcast to it, but we're never going to be afraid to point out things we didn't like or lovingly joke about his commentary quirks or rail against things he booked early on that we felt were kind of gross.

[Hobbes]

ThROH The Years is completely legal with episode 21! We cover Wrestlerave, which does in fact include both wrestling and a rave. Dan Maff wrestles a day after losing his father. CM Punk cuts one of the most important promos of his career. Gary Michael Cappetta is a little shit stirrer. We ponder if puke was a planned spot. Grab your party favors and enjoy!

 

http://placetobenation.com/throh-the-years-episode-21-wrestlerave-03/

[Hobbes]

ThROH The Years makes up lost time with a supersized episode! Death Before Dishonor is in many ways the biggest ROH show we’ve covered yet and we’ve brought Alan Counihan (PWTorch, WXW) to help us! Paul London’s goodbye, the beer angle, Jeff Hardy’s disaster, there is too much to talk about, and we cover it all while still finding time to learn about the two wrestlers Alan has made cry.

 

http://placetobenation.com/throh-the-years-episode-22-death-before-dishonor/

[Laney]

I found the concept on the latest podcast of Punk being anti-aspirin to be a little strange.  Although I can't speak for Punk and say for certain, I would fair to guess that Punk is not opposed to aspirin and it is very likely that he took it before the matches where he bladed.  It differs from person to person, but I'm not aware of any straight edgers that are against aspirin.  That seems to fall more in line with the hardline subculture that is against any form of medication.

I doubt that Punk would take a hard stance against aspirin given that he is not opposed to caffeine, Z-Paks, and nutritional supplements.  

On another note, I attended a lot of shows in Dayton, but I wasn't able to make it to Wrath of the Racket (I was 14 at the time and wasn't able to convince my parents to take me to this one).  The January '04 Battle Lines are Drawn show in Wilmington, OH I was able to attend and will send you guys a bunch of notes from what I remember as we get closer to it (probably too personal for anyone but me to care).  I have one story I can share right now that is somewhat relevant to Wrath of the Racket.  When my mom checked into our hotel in Wilmington (it was adjoining the building where the show was held) a guy near the front desk gave her a flyer to the ROH show and introduced himself as one of the promoters.  This man was Matt Stryker.  

The reason I mention this is that on the Wrath of the Racket show Gabe makes a jab on commentary that Matt Stryker is so excited to be in Dayton that you think he promoted it. 

I also heard elsewhere that Stryker papered the whole city with flyers before the Dayton show.  It may be possible that Stryker's greatest legacy in ROH is playing a big role in securing the Dayton market which would become part of ROH's regular schedule for years.