[2004-05-22-ROH-Generation Next] Samoa Joe vs Homicide

[Superstar Sleeze]

ROH World Champion Samoa Joe vs Homicide - ROH 5/22/04

There's only 30 minutes left in my night shift and I blowed up folks. This is probably gonna be short & sweet. Much better match than their previous outing. Based on the announcers (who was the deadpan guy he was fucking atrocious), I guess Homicide was a happy-go-lucky babyface and the previous match I watched was his heel turn. I guess I should have cut him some slack. The shine is great. Homicide flips off the crowd but then Smokes decks him by accident and Joe takes off Smokes' head with an Ole Kick! Tremendous work all around! Apparently, Homicide injured Joe's neck at previous show and he is targetting it sort of, he does so more later. Joe is  a great asskicker and this is awesome when he is on offense. Things pick up when Joe being such an asskick basically piledrives himself into the barricade on a spear. I forgot to mention not to be outdone but before Homicide did a somersault suicide dive where he shot out like a canon and obliterated a table. That was sick! Basically only Joe can hurt Joe because Joe is such a badass. 

Homicide busts out the infamous Ghetto Fork, damn I used to read all about the Ghetto Fork. I dont know what makes it ghetto (the announcer said he was sharpening it on some brick and it is now extra sharp) but it is gnarly. He is really plunging it into the cut. That alone raises this match in my eyes. The nearfalls for Homicide have more heat. He hits a surprisingly heavy fucking Lariat and then a Piledriver on the injured neck that was great. I also loved him using the Fork when he was trying to get him in the Crossface. That was fucked up. He was really shoot jabbing it in there. Nasty! Joe was just his usual asskicking self. Great Urnage was a good hope spot. I loved how they started trading 90s All Japan spots. Even Homicide was using a Saito Suplex. Joe is such an All Japan mark I love it! Taking spots from all Four Corners. Joe slaps the shit out of Homicide, ISLAND DRIVER! 1-2-NO! This is so All Japan needing that one extra bomb. Complicated All Japan style sequence which finished with an ok Joe lariat, surprisingly Homicide had a better lariat. Brainbuster does him in...would have liked to seen the Musclebuster but a strong finish. I preferred the brawling/forking to the All Japan cosplay but this was a definite step up and entertaining. ***3/4

[Makai Club #1]

This started out like a house on fire with the two fighting in the sea of streamers both in and out of the ring. Joe beating up Homicide was fun. Joe is so compelling when dishing out offence - he has a great presence, great offence and just a kickass demanous. Homicide fighting from beneath was awesome too. But when he brings out the fork, this match gets better. Him digging it into Joe’s skin was nasty as hell as was the stabbing into the forehead. The match loses a bit of steam down the stretch once it gets a bit King Road Influence heavy. Just a bit long and some of the nearfall setups were very unnecessary. ***3/4

[Edwin]

Julius Smokes doesn't get enough credit for his work, but he was a fantastic hype man in Homicide's corner. These two just have straight up brawls which sets their matches together apart from everyone else. The early brawling in the streamers was fantastic as it made it seem more chaotic than usual. The tope con hilo table bump was wild, but it is second to the one he did in their other match where he bent his spine on the guard rail on his way to landing in the first two rows. The forking in the crossface was great as you could see Joe's skin tearing again and him starting to bleed again. I thought the false finishes were fine as they were somewhat spread apart and not them going for back to back to back to back false finishes. Also dug the brainbuster as the finish as it was unexpected.

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Intense build-up to this one, and they start the match accordingly by going at it right away, fighting in a sea of streamers. It's a great, chaotic scene. It doesn't take long for Joe to establish early dominance, and he dishes out punishment in such a lovely fashion & looks cool doing it w/ him sidestepping Homicide's dive attempts n' all. Badass shit. That big dive through the table? Sick. Homicide always puts everything he has into those dives & he did so here, but also went indeed through a table as a bonus. Him bringing out the FORK & going to town on Joe's forehead with it was nasty as hell, and I loved every second of it. Then he continues the violence by throwing a chair HARD right at Joe's face for good measure. The whole match has been superb brutality, and the All Japan-esq section leading to the finish fit right into it, imo -- they started dropping each other on their necks with so many absolutely VICIOUS looking kick-ass bombs, and in-between all that there's Joe slapping the taste out of 'cide's mouth with sweat flying everywhere + 'cide bringing back the fork to repeatedly stab that forehead some more -- it's all such glorious stuff. Definitely the best match they have had up to this point against one another. ****

[ohtani's jacket]

This was a pretty average Homicide vs. Joe match. Joe didn't dominate Homicide offensively in the way that we know he can, and I didn't care for Homicide busting Joe open with a fork. It surprises me that so many people thought ROH was better than the WWE in 2004.