ROH Virgin

[lk37]

After a few years of a strict WWE diet, I'm bowing down to popular opinion and decided to give ROH a try.
Can anyone give me a idea of a few must-own DVDs, things I should know etc?

Cheers.

[Matt Rogers]

I will go ahead and recommend Joe vs Kobashi and Joe vs Punk II, because they're probably the most beloved matches in ROH history, and a damn good starting point.

[LCR, Formerly Blue Nova]

If you like hardcore wrestling, I'd suggest "Death Before Dishonor IV". It is the Cage of Death payoff to a well built up CZW (hardcore promotion) vs ROH feud.

The Supercards of Honor are pretty good cards to watch as well.

Good Times, Great Memories is a great show.

The Joe/Punk trilogy is a must own if you like good technical wrestling -- World Title Classic, Joe/Punk II and All Star Extravaganza II.

[The Lodger]

www.rohwrestling.com/news/article.aspx?id=1517

I've followed this for my first time, 12 dvds for anyone getting started. I recommend using this as a starting point. Also, get thee to a live show, the DVDs are great, but are nothing in comparison to the live show. So get a few like minded friends and go to a show, the tickets are cheap for pretty decent seats. Good luck!

[Old School Heel mark4Morishima]

Fifth Year Festival New York. I re-watch the Joe vs. Morishima match once a week. Bone-crushing fat-strong-guy crashing into fat-strong-guy action. Philly is good too.

Manhattan Mayhem.

Do you want to get into current ROH or pick up on the 'classic' years?

Anyway, I'd say grab Manhattan Mayhem, a Fifth Year festival, some other show, and a Best Of from someone you know from WWE or TNA. That should be a pretty good de-virginizing.

[MGH]

I have to run a couple of errands, but when I come back I'll PM you a nice mini-guide to get you started.

[The Lodger]

mygreatesthour said:

I have to run a couple of errands, but when I come back I'll PM you a nice mini-guide to get you started.

Dr. MGH, always the guy to make an ROH house call.

[Old School Heel mark4Morishima]

mygreatesthour said:

I have to run a couple of errands, but when I come back I'll PM you a nice mini-guide to get you started.

Please post here; I've been into ROH for a while but I always like to see another fan's perspective on the best shows/how to get into it.

Especially MGH's!!!!

[Lair of the Shadow MaDaBa]

Two of the first ROH DVDs I got were ROH Legend: The Best of Samoa Joe, Vol 3 and Please Don't Die: The Best of Paul London. I needed a smoke afterward.

[KLRA]

Okay, if you want to jump into recent ROH, Respect is Earned and Live in Tokyo are probably your best starting points. They're not the best cards per se, but they give you everything you can expect out of ROH and are pretty damn good. RIE is also ROH's first PPV and they do a really good job of just introducing the product to you.

I also reccomend from this year Fighting Spirit, Domination, Good Times, Great Memories, and Race to the Top Tournoment: Night Two. These are all recent, will get you plugged into storylines and have some of the best damn matches of the entire year on them.

For classic tapes just to get to know ROH the aformentioned Joe vs. Kobashi, the Joe vs. Punk trilogy (especially Joe vs. Punk II) are must haves. I also seriously reccomend Supercard of Honor, Better Than Our Best and Best in the World. These are also part of what ROH likes to call the "Milestone Series" as every match of this series was amazing, and they reached a bunch of milestones during this time (fourth anniversary and 100th show for example).

For why I reccomend these, here's my breakdown of the most recent ROH shows I reccomend to any new fan:
Respect is Earned: Great starting point for recent ROH and has two mind blowing matches between Rocky Romero and Marifuji and The Briscoes vs. Claudio Castagnoli and Matt Sydal. Also gives you a nice intro to ROH.

Live in Tokyo: ROH's first show in Japan and the production qualities are through the roof so it might help to assimilate you in. Plus every match on the show is above average and features the mind blowing Go Shiazaki/Danielson match, and a six man tag that is one of my personal favorites of 2007. Plus a match between McGuinness and Morishima where the heat is off the walls.

Fighting Spirit: The match between Nigel McGuinness and Morishima is one of those that has to be seen to be believed (in fact my avatar is from that match).

Domination: Just a great card from top to bottom and the match between Morishima and Roderick Strong is simply amazing (you might be sensing a pattern here).

Good Times, Great Memories: I really only reccomend this card for one reason and one reason only: The Briscoe Brothers vs. the Murder City Machine Guns is quite possibly the best match of the year.

[MGH]

Since I got a request to post this here, why not?

Of course keep in mind that the following views are those of MGH and may or may not reflect those of the overall majority. ....Pssh, they're usually wrong anyway

I kid.


But anyway, I'll keep this within the past 3 years, since I find 05-07 to be their best period of quality shows. Not to dog on 04 since it had great stuff (Joe/Punk and a stable called Generation Next specifically) but overall I don't think it stacks up.


In my opinion 2005 is highlighted by two major events. The amazing Ring of Honor World Title reign of Austin Aries, and the Summer of CM Punk as champion. Bryan Danielson's title reign began here, but if you want him at his best I assure you 2006 is where you'll find it.

Austin Aries title reign featured some amazing matches, and they headlined quite a few overall great shows. Some of which I'd say include:

Third Anniversary Celebration Part 1

This is one of my favorite shows from the 05 year, as it has match after match of insane action. The double cage main event is usually what's remembered, but there is a three match stretch in the middle of the show I absolutely loved.

5. Alex Shelley vs. Jimmy Jacobs
6. Spanky vs. CM Punk
7. Ricky Reyes & Rocky Romero vs. Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer (ROH Tag Team Title Match)

All three were fantastic. I'd highly recommend this show. As well as it's counterpart...

Third Anniversary Celebration Part 3

After you get past the opener, which isn't bad in its own right, I'd say this show never hits a down point. The double main event is great, and it's in the very early stages of the ROH career of James Gibson (who you know as Jamie Nobel). Want to see how badly WWE can misuse someone for years? Watch his ROH matches in 2005.

Manhattan Mayhem

You just can't talk about 2005 without talking about Manhattan Mayhem. This still holds up as one of the best shows in company history in my and many other's opinions. You'll here references during the 3rd Ann. Celebration to the Austin Aries/Alex Shelley conflict, and this is where they finally go head to head for Aries' belt. But top to bottom, it's hard to top this show. Many use it as their introduction to ROH, assuming they don't mind using the past product rather than the current to do so.

Nowhere To Run

In discussion for the most under rated ROH show of all time. The end of the CM Punk vs Jimmy Rave program, and the beginning of Punk's quest to finally win the ROH World Championship. But top to bottom, just a great night of solid wrestling. Aries/Danielson deliver yet AGAIN. Just continuing the amazing reign of Aries on top.

But all good runs come to an end, and Aries' eventually had to as well. And when it did, it kicked off the stretch of shows that made the fans of CM Punk lifelong ones, and made people who had never given him a second look before take notice. There ARE weak points in this stretch (lookin' at you Sign of Dishonor and Homecoming) but it just doesn't feel right buying one or two of these and not watching the whole thing in sequence. So this is the Summer of Punk, as it's more widely known. His ROH Championship win, to his "final" match in Ring of Honor.

Death Before Dishonor III
Sign of Dishonor
Escape From New York
Fate of an Angel
The Homecoming
Redemption
Punk: The Final Chapter


Now after Punk left, the year didn't end. The year still had a number of great shows to go, including an absolutely historic show known as...

Joe vs. Kobashi

Headlined by one of the greatest matches in ROH history, and an absolute must have for that reason alone. This show has never even been in ROH's monthly $10 sale, because of its sales.


Now we're in the infancy stages of Bryan Danielson's title reign here, and he had two matches in particular with a member of Generation Next that really caught everyone's attention. Danielson vs Strong became on of the best rivalries of 05-06, and it kicked off with these two shows.

This Means War
Vendetta

These matches and the following one the next Spring are what made Roderick Strong a lifelong main eventer in ROH IMO. If you like good hard hitting, in your face, but still technically sound wrestling, you'll love their matches.

And this great year ended on a real high note with Japanese stars KENTA and Naomichi Marufuji coming to the states for ...

Final Battle 2005

This show has a lot of sink your teeth in too. Two of the most entertaining wrestlers in the world, Alex Shelley and Steve Corino go at it, which is always amusing. Nigel McGuinness and Claudio Castagnoli's feud for the Pure Wrestling championship continues, with a very controversial ending. Austin Aries gets another shot at gold as he and Roderick go for the tag straps, and then the double main event (particularly KENTA vs Ki) can't be put in to words.

Great year for ROH. And no, those aren't the ONLY good shows that year, not by a long shot. But if you want the essentials in my eyes, you can't go wrong there.

I'm going to get some lunch and come write out 06 and 07.

[Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby]

I'd recommend starting with some of this year's offerings.

Supercard of Honor II has the excellent Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer cage match, as well as the criminally underrated Jack Evans & Naruki Doi vs. Davey Richards & Rocky Romero. The rest of the card, with a pair of squashes, a solid Japanese guest main event, and Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries, is pretty damn good.

Good Times, Great Memories is an all-around solid card. It doesn't have the full roster depth of this year's ROH, but it does have excellent matches all over the place with Jack Evans vs. Roderick Strong, Austin Aries vs. Rocky Romero, and Takeshi Morishima vs. SHINGO. Oh, and the Briscoes vs. the Murder City Machine Guns; I may be one of five people who isn't crazy about that match, which indicates that you will probably like it.

A recent and oddball choice for a first show would be Race to the Top Tournament Night 2. The second night of the tournament gives you a full three rounds of a tourney, which gives the show a nice self-contained feel. The two other matches - a six-man filled with midcarders and a hugely entertaining eight-man tag - are great additions that showcase a decent portion of the roster. This is the sort of top-to-bottom quality show with the sort of story that can immediately involve a new viewer in the characters.

[KLRA]

You know I thought I was boardering on long winded...but nope! I'm pretty much going to point out that MGH pretty much speaks for the majority here. You summed up my views on '05 perfectly.

I can't wait for your analysis on '06, and I'll post my own up here tomorrow.

[KLRA]

hardcorehick said:

I'd recommend starting with some of this year's offerings.

Supercard of Honor II has the excellent Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer cage match, as well as the criminally underrated Jack Evans & Naruki Doi vs. Davey Richards & Rocky Romero. The rest of the card, with a pair of squashes, a solid Japanese guest main event, and Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries, is pretty damn good.

Good Times, Great Memories is an all-around solid card. It doesn't have the full roster depth of this year's ROH, but it does have excellent matches all over the place with Jack Evans vs. Roderick Strong, Austin Aries vs. Rocky Romero, and Takeshi Morishima vs. SHINGO. Oh, and the Briscoes vs. the Murder City Machine Guns; I may be one of five people who isn't crazy about that match, which indicates that you will probably like it.

A recent and oddball choice for a first show would be Race to the Top Tournament Night 2. The second night of the tournament gives you a full three rounds of a tourney, which gives the show a nice self-contained feel. The two other matches - a six-man filled with midcarders and a hugely entertaining eight-man tag - are great additions that showcase a decent portion of the roster. This is the sort of top-to-bottom quality show with the sort of story that can immediately involve a new viewer in the characters.

I agree with two out of three. I think RTTTT, Night 2 is one of the better top to bottom shows of the year (and it has this nice little awesome match of Claudio Castagnoli vs. Mike Quackenbush on it).

Now for Briscoes vs. Machine Guns I really disagree in that I believe it was an excellent match when considering the back story (and Shelley's promo before the match was amazing "We're going to murder you, you can't be champions if you're dead."). I can however agree with the match starting off really slowly. But once it gets kicked off it (pardon the pun) Total Nonstop Action.

[Mr. Mediocre]

I was going to recommend a bunch of recent shows, but original poster, listen to MGH. He knows his stuff.

[Lair of the Shadow MaDaBa]

I was gonna give my own analysis of 2006, but instead, here's just the 2006 shows that I've got:

Fourth Anniversary Show
Arena Warfare
Best in the World
Dragon Gate Challenge
Supercard of Honor
Better Than Our Best
The 100th Show
Weekend of Champions, Night 1
Weekend of Champions, Night 2
Death Before Dishonor IV
Unified
Glory By Honor, Night 1
Glory By Honor, Night 2
Final Battle 2006

[sexualvanilla]

Also, I wouldn't recommend watching Joe vs Punk 2 until you see the first match in their series, from World Title Classic. The match is so much more enjoyable after seeing that one and is an awesome match to boot.

Respect is Earned is a great introduction to the product, as it was designed that way.

Final Battle '05 is top to bottom a great card and has the origin of a lot of awesomeness in the company. There was a great opener with Milano Collection AT and Jimmy Rave, which is criminally underrated. It jumpstarts Austin Aries and Roderick Strong's epic tag title reign. Naomichi Marufuji and Bryan Danielson have a classic and is Marufuji's US debut. Same for Kenta vs Low Ki, which is a brutal contest.

Better Than Our Best has one of the best cards in its history and integrates you into its style. It's great.

These are just a few recommendations but let us know what you pick

[Overly large testicles]

I actually wouldn't recommend any of the Joe/Punk marathons since you're probably used to 5-9 minute matches and it might drag for you. Work your way up to it!

[Unknown Thought]

Glory By Honor V, Night 2, Death Before Dishonor IV, & Unified are currently apart of the Big Ten sale...thus making them all Must Buys for any ROH virgin

[Old School Heel mark4Morishima]

shaggy said:

Glory By Honor V, Night 2, Death Before Dishonor IV, & Unified are currently apart of the Big Ten sale...thus making them all Must Buys for any ROH virgin

Yes.