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[2002-07-27-ROH-Crowning A Champion] Christopher Daniels vs Doug Williams vs Low Ki vs Spanky


ShittyLittleBoots

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It's a 60-minute Iron Man match, so it's a real long boy. It's compelling for the whole runtime though; some parts are interesting, and then some parts are VERY interesting. I thought that Doug Williams was the highlight of the first 20-something minutes w/ his great, submission-heavy work. He even started that attack on Low Ki's leg, which created for some nice little drama, and was indeed a joy to watch. That "Torture Device" submission looked superb. That legwork created for some other highlight moments for me as well, notably with Daniels stopping Ki's attempts at getting something going w/ those vicious looking chop blocks. If I had to name my favorite move of the match -- THE move of the match, I'd go for the 2nd one where Daniels counters Ki's Tidal Wave attempt w/ that said chop block. Shortly after that, the first fall is made, and it's been really good stuff so far. The next 15-17 minutes leading to the 2nd fall are some good stuff too, with the highlight moment of that portion being Ki breaking up Daniels' Koji Clutch on Williams w/ that diving foot stomp, and then immediately selling that worked over leg afterwards. After Ki gets his first fall, the urgency rises & the match kicks into more of a 2nd gear you could say, and that's where the story between Daniels & Ki gets to shine, but both Spanky & Williams also get plenty of time to look really good in there. When you, or at least every time when I look at this match on paper, I just think there is no way it will hold up. But it always does. The 4 men involved, Daniels, Williams, Ki & Spanky really went out there and had a fantastic 1-hour match. It's just terrific. Certainly worthy of being the first ever ROH Title match. ****

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  • 1 year later...

It's always pretty daunting to sit down and watch a match that you know is an hour long.  It's not something I can start late at night, I have to make sure I have enough free time where I won't be distracted for an hour.  With that said, these four guys made an hour fly by.  I liked the format where guys had to tag in and out to be active.  At the beginning, I wondered how long that would last before it broke down, but it held up for the most part.  It helped add to the story as you had to be "legal" in order to get a pinfall or submission. 

Low Ki clearly seemed to be the star for the crowd, as well as in the match.  I thought he was wonderful throughout.  His offense was spectacular and his selling was great.  There was a moment early on where he was rubbing out his knee after Williams had been working on the leg that I don't see often.  Later, he suffered the first pinfall after some dirty business from Daniels, his nemesis, which put him in a hole.  He spent the next portion dead outside the ring before slowly returning to the action.  He won the next fall with the coolest sequence of the night, as Williams German Suplexed Low Ki right overhead, Low Ki caught Spanky in a Dragon Sleeper as he flew through the air, and got a tap out.  At this point, everyone is exhausted and doing whatever they can to score points.  Low Ki lands on his head while attempting a Phoenix Splash on Doug Williams that gets him another pinfall.  The time limit ends as Daniels and Low Ki are battling it out in the ring.  Low Ki gets the title while Daniels got a pinfall over the new champ, setting up another match between the two rivals.

Despite Steve Corino sounding like he was commentating through a cell phone, I really want to mention how great I thought the commentary was.  They did a fantastic job detailing the history of the wrestlers, the promotion, and the importance of the match.  If this was your first time ever watching ROH, you would have a complete understanding of the company's rules, the backstory for all the wrestlers, as well as how wrestling in a gym in Philadelphia with no air conditioning in the middle of July was affecting the wrestlers.  My favorite anecdote was Corino talking about Daniels wrestling in tiny arenas in Japan as Curry Man, and how he had an advantage in this match because he was used to wrestling in a mask, but he wasn't in ROH so he would be able to breathe a lot easier than he typically does in the conditions they were in.

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