[2003-02-08-ROH-One Year Anniversary Show] Paul London vs Xavier

[ShittyLittleBoots]

This starts right after London beat Styles & Ki in that excellent 3-way dance, giving it a nice dynamic of exhausted-underdog London going against the asshole champ. London is still fiery with all of his work over Xavier, but he sells the exhaustion of that triple threat very well throughout, and his overall selling was pretty great as usual. Xavier is a good foil against that with his heel tactics, and those vicious moments such as him busting London open, dumping him through a table, that nasty German Suplex to stop his momentum, etc. There's some really great nearfalls in the match too; it really felt like it was destined to be London's moment with those and how the thing was laid out, which then made the finish with Xavier reversing his roll-up into one of his own feel pretty underwhelming, but it is what it is, innit. It's a very good match for sure, even better than their also-very good meeting from Final Battle a few months prior. Between this & the 3-way vs. AJ Styles & Low Ki, Paul London sure had one HELLUVA night to say the least. ***3/4