[2003-10-25-ROH-Empire State Showdown] CM Punk vs Steve Corino

[ShittyLittleBoots]

This is SUCH a blast right from the introductions to the post-match promos by both men. It's two huge personalities going at it, and they play off of each other wonderfully throughout. The "actual wrestling" part of the match rules too, with them blasting each other with some fantastic looking punches, forearms, chops & kicks. Corino faking that ear injury in a nice ode to his fantastic fight vs. Homicide was awesome, and the flurry he went on after revealing that he wasn't actually hurt was some truly great stuff. And yeah, then there's indeed the joyous pre-match w/ their ridiculous introductions + the post-match with them bonding over Corino swerving the crowd & Punk giving them a usual Punk-like jawing on the mic. A real lovely piece of business as an overall package. ***3/4

[ohtani's jacket]

This had 15 minutes of introductions at the start and another five minutes of promos at the end, which is ridiculous. These guys are similar workers, though I'd argue that Corino is better. Unfortunately, like vs. like didn't really produce anything special here. There's too much Punk on these recent ROH shows. He's okay against guys like Joe and Styles, but he's not really a good enough worker to hold his own, and he's starting to wear out his welcome with this straight edge shit.