Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Second Anniversary Show - February 14, 2004



Pure Title Tournament Quarterfinal (Regular Rules)
CM Punk vs. John Walters

A perfect way to open the show. Punk being a douche-bag by imitating the entrance of Christopher Daniels. The hometown guy Walters. Sound psychology and storytelling. No complaints here. One of the best openers in company history.

Rating: ***1/4

Pure Title Tournament Quarterfinal (Regular Rules)
Chris Sabin vs. Doug Williams



These two needed a few more minutes plus a tad bit more experience for Sabin, but there was nothing wrong with this match at all. Just not memorable, but the effort was a lot better than another match that came up later in the tournament.

Rating: less than ***

Pure Title Tournament Semifinal (Regular Rules)
CM Punk vs. Doug Williams

My easy pick for match of the night - just some great storytelling and nice clash of styles. Big, big fan of this one, and I wish these two could have rematched later in the year. And the surprising thing - the heat segment of Williams was actually more engaging than Punk's.

Rating: ***3/4

ROH Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. Low Ki vs. Dan Maff vs. BJ Whitmer

I would consider this match to be a minor miracle. It was a good match, but not as great as it could have been. What makes that miraculous is that this included Maff and Whitmer, who did their absolute best, resulting in them NOT bringing this match down. But their participation in this one did nothing to add to it either.

This one had a couple monitoring problems from the ref, but probably the least annoying that I'd seen so far. This also lacked the deep storytelling that you know Joe vs. Ki II could have provided, but that's not really Maff or Whitmer's fault - I'm at the point where I can accept that they're NOT CAPABLE of being consistently skilled in-ring storytellers. Of course, the highlights are the exchanges between Joe and Ki. Just phenomenal stuff whenever we got to see it.

Rating: ***1/2

Pure Title Tournament Final
CM Punk vs. AJ Styles


(Note: the above video does NOT have the pre-match intros or the post-match championship ceremony.)

This might very well be the most disappointing match in ROH history. Don't be fooled by all the elements going for this match - that it's CM Punk vs. AJ Styles, that's it to determine the first ever Pure Champion, that it's the main event for a historic show. This is in no way a historic match in terms of performance.

Just rewind back to June 2003 in Boston, when Styles sold like a king in his ***** masterpiece against Paul London. He came into this one with a glaring leg/knee injury, and did one of the most lackluster sell jobs I've ever seen. Combine that with the storyline of Punk getting f***ed out of rope breaks in a cheap way to build to a rematch, and yeah, I'll call this one a disaster. This was just boring and insulting.

Rating: less than ***

Good Times, Great Memories
Guest: Ace Steel

YOU MUST SEE THIS. God I love Ace Steel as a comedy curtain-jerker. He was born to be that role. And the special surprise is just tremendous.

Up next - At Our Best
Matches will include:
Jerry Lynn vs. Nigel McGuinness
AJ Styles vs. CM Punk
Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

At Our Best - March 13, 2004



Jerry Lynn vs. Nigel McGuinness

Nothing more an inoffensive exhibition of movesets from one another. Perfectly acceptable wrestling.

Rating: Less than ***

Pure Title Match
Guest Ref - Ricky Steamboat
AJ Styles vs. CM Punk

This had some AWESOME moments in it, but for some reason, the whole doesn't seem to be as good as the sum of the parts. Something in this was just missing. Maybe Punk was just not meant for this style; maybe Styles wasn't either. But something was definitely missing. To be positive, this came nowhere close to the level of annoying as their match the previous month.

What this did accomplish though was setting up the next major angle for Punk beautifully, and I can already see that Punk vs. Steamboat holds up very well over time. Too bad WWE didn't take advantage and do the angle when Steamboat came out of retirement and Punk turned heel in 2009.

Rating: ***

ROH Title - Cage Match
Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe

Four shows and three months in, and ROH finally lived up to its reputation - a truly great match happened. This really was just some tremendous stuff, establishing the true tenacity that the Briscoes have. Rather than be dominated by fear when Joe locked the cage door, Jay took advantage of the opportunity to give him a receipt for shitty treatment of them over the previous several months.

This match is not only great, but I'd say historically important - it proved to Joe that the Briscoes were someone he'd maybe count on in the future to go to war with, and also displayed the brutality the Briscoes would be willing to endure in later feuds down the road. YOU WANNA SEE THIS.

Rating: ****1/4

I forward to the final moments of the show and hear Gabe Sapolsky say that this is the company "at our best." No Gabe, this was not.

Joe ambushes Julius Smokes and accepts Homicide's challenge for a title match, being a complete douche-bag about the situation. I wonder if there will be any severe consequences for that.

I'm taking a little break here to start other federation rewatch projects. Not a very long one. but just taking one. This is the perfect time to do it anyway due to LOL I'LL PRETEND U SAID 18.

Up next when this returns - Reborn Stage 1
Matches will include:
CM Punk vs. Bryan Danielson
Samoa Joe vs. Homicide

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Reborn Stage 1 - April 23, 2004



CM Punk vs. Bryan Danielson
Guest Ref - Ricky Steamboat


(Note: the above video does NOT include the important post-match.)

While this doesn't measure up to the matches they've had on PPV or their 2/3 falls match, it fits right in with all of their other work. You had two fresh characters facing off for the first time ever, complete with a HOFer guest reffing to further his storyline with Punk (which has held up VERY well.) This has the obvious feel-out process for the first several to 10 minutes, but the main psychological story of the match becomes Punk's ribs. This combined with his time spent jaw-jacking with Steamboat costs him the match against the technically superior Danielson.

Rating: ***3/4

ROH Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. Homicide

This is just as good as their Do or Die match. They beat the hell out of each other and did a great job of getting over how frustrated they were becoming with one another. Karma finally catches up to Joe when Homicide does his psychopathic heel turn, knocking out refs left and right and giving the champion a fireball to the face. A chaotic and LOUD statement that ROH, in the wake of the RF scandal, was truly reborn.

Rating: ***1/2

Up next - Reborn Stage 2
Matches will include:
Jimmy Rave vs. Rocky Romero vs. Austin Aries vs. Nigel McGuinness
Carnage Crew vs. Dunn Marcos vs. Jack Evans & Matt Sydal vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Alex Shelley
Briscoe Bros. vs. CM Punk & Colt Cabana

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Reborn Stage 2 - April 24, 2004



Jimmy Rave vs. Rocky Romero vs. Austin Aries vs. Nigel McGuinness

An extremely fun and well thrown-together spotfest, with some surprisingly good psychology. What keeps it from being great psychology is the usual inconsistency with enforcing tags - I'm not going to shrug my shoulders and deem this acceptable. This match did its job though in launching the ROH careers of all four men - by year's end, it was inevitable that each wrestler would be an integral part of the current/future scene of the company.

Rating: ***1/2

Homicide vs. Bryan Danielson

A dream match that is underappreciated due to it being "too long." The length of this match allowed for Homicide to show his new dark side gimmick, which in turn led to what I will never be unhappy with in a match - an irritated and pissed off Danielson. Not only do they both bring an annoyed irritation and anger to the match, but this match is dripping with psychology. The technical story of the match eventually became Homicide's right hand (he injured it when he missed Danielson and punched a guardrail, showing that his dark side may not be the end-all, be-all answer to getting what he wants) vs. Danielson's neck (perfect to set up for the Kudo Driver.) And although it may seem like the finish was dripping with no-selling, it wasn't. This wasn't a Davey Richards "f*** whatever limb work we've done and just go balls-to-the-wall" style of match. The finish was a moment of Homicide temporarily telling his pain to f*** off so he could get this win that he needed not only to get momentum for the inevitable title shot at Joe, but to make sure his new heel turn got started the correct way. His immediate post-match selling of the hand makes this quite obvious.

Rating: ****1/4

Scramble Match
Carnage Crew vs. Dunn & Marcos vs. Jack Evans & Matt Sydal vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Alex Shelley

An entertainingly inoffensive spotfest designed to get some attention on the four unestablished acts, and to build to Shelley's planned big moment for Generation Next on May 22 in Philadelphia. Wonder what he's got planned.

Tag Titles Match
Briscoe Bros. vs. CM Punk & Colt Cabana

A match that is one of the many that to me does not hold up as a classic MOTYC. It started off the right way, with tag psychology, cutting the ring in half, building to a hot tag, etc. Then the ref just stops enforcing tags and doesn't even bother keeping track of who's legal. The result is a fun and historic tag match, but not the great one that would be compared with the likes of mid-90s AJPW or the SmackDown/Heyman Six.

Rating: ***1/2

Up next - Round Robin Challenge III
Matches will include:
Samoa Joe vs. Ricky Reyes
Homicide vs. Brian Kendrick
Briscoe Bros. vs. CM Punk & Colt Cabana

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Round Robin Challenge III - May 15, 2004



In the opener, CM Punk & Colt Cabana lose the Tag Titles to Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer. What really matters is Ricky Steamboat celebrating with the Prophecy afterward and when by himself in the ring, the Second City Saints double-team him, with Punk hitting a guillotine legdrop on Steamboat on a table in the ring.

What also matters is that Maff & Whitmer lose the belts later on in the evening to the Briscoes.

Samoa Joe vs. Ricky Reyes

Nothing more than a nice tune-up for Joe for his title defense the next week against Homicide. As good of a Ricky Reyes singles match as you'll ever see.

Rating: less than ***

Homicide vs. Brian Kendrick

Now this was quite interesting, as the contest pitted a psychopath against an oddball. Kendrick proves very quickly that he's willing to play dirty in his own wacky way, managing to outsmart Homicide at times. Homicide though, with the help of Julius Smokes, shows he refuses to lose his momentum going into his title shot against Joe and he will be damned otherwise. And I actually liked the interference in this one - it got over Homicide's heel turn even more, showing that he will do whatever it takes to get ahead now (extremely important for Joe to get that message), while protecting Kendrick and his Shiranui finisher.

Post-match, the Rottweilers beat the shit out of Joe and give him multiple piledrivers.

Rating: ***1/2

Tag Titles - Round Robin Challenge Match #3
Briscoe Bros. vs. CM Punk & Colt Cabana

This was definitely an improvement over their overrated title change at Reborn Stage 2. With this one, there was the simple story of Mark having injured ribs from a match earlier in the evening, and the Saints cut the ring in half for a significant amount of time, channeling the spirit of Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard and the Midnight Express with great tag team psychology. And when Mark got the hot tag, it f***ing meant something.

Unfortunately after the hot tag, the match turned into the average indy tag team contest. The ref couldn't bother to enforce who is and isn't legal. Had he done so, I'd be discussing a possible MOTYC here.

Post-match a brawl ensues involving Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer, but it's absolutely meaningless as Ricky Steamboat shows up to destroy Punk, right after he had just been in a hard-fought main event and getting retribution for everything so far in the feud.

Rating: ***3/4

Alex Shelley promises a big surprise next weekend, specifically making references about climbing the ladder to success, and leaves the building with a new guy named Roderick Strong.

Up next - Generation Next
Matches and segments will include:
Alex Shelley's big surprise
Jimmy Jacobs vs. Nigel McGuinness
CM Punk & Colt Cabana vs. Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer
CM Punk and Ricky Steamboat confrontation
Samoa Joe vs. Homicide

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Generation Next - May 22, 2004



Good Times, Great Memories
Guest: Trent Acid

Entertaining segment that forwarded the Carnage Crew gym bag defecation storyline, an angle that I've come to appreciate more over the years as undercard fun, and it fit the gimmick of the Crew quite well. That such antics have actually happened on the road only adds to it. (It'd turn out to be the new Carnage Crew that committed the heinous crime as revealed later on the show.)

Alex Shelley's Big Surprise

What is supposed to be a filler scramble opener involving Dunn & Marcos, Special K, and the Christopher St. Connection instead turns into one of the most important segments in ROH and independent wrestling history. Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans interrupt the ring entrances, destroying the Connection (never to be seen again in ROH) and Ring Crew Express. Shelley then announces that the series of "Generation Next" matches are cancelled in favor of the four hungry upstarts forming Generation Next so that they can together become stars overnight. Special K (who are on a very bad streak) come out and we get some quick opening matches.

Impromptu Match
Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans vs. Izzy, Dixie, & Angeldust

Not as effective as I would hope. GeNext plain and simple should have decimated Special K within 2 minutes to mark their territory immediately as an unf***able faction.

Impromptu Match
Alex Shelley vs. Hydro (Jay Lethal)

This one wasn't as annoying as the previous match, as it did a great job of getting over Shelley as the leader of GeNext, and showing the potential Lethal had to be a breakout singles competitor. Perfectly executed.

GeNext would later attack Jimmy Rave and John Walters before those two wrestlers squared off.

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Nigel McGuinness

Didn't expect this one to hold up as anything more than an acceptable, and it surprised me. It was quick and to the point of slowly showing that these two were definitely on their way up, although I didn't care for Jacobs kicking out of the Tower of London.

Rating: ***

Tag Titles - Hardcore Match
CM Punk & Colt Cabana vs. Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer

A good match that would have just been great had their been no attempts at maintaining order. This was an out-and-out blood feud at this point and it was known beforehand that this was a hardcore rules style match.

Rating: ***1/4

Impromptu Match
Briscoe Bros., Jimmy Rave, & John Walters vs. Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans

This match is set-up when GeNext come out to threaten the Briscoes after their match against the Outcast Killaz, only for Rave & Walters to show up to even the odds.

This MAY be a perfect match. This had psychology from both teams. This had a great feeling-out process in the first third of the match that made sense. These eight men didn't expect to be wrestling each other on this night. There were also many, many great moments of offense that just did nothing short of amaze. For over 40 minutes, these eight men just went out there and tore the f***ing house down. With it being an eight-man tag, I'm also more than happy to empathize with the ref not being able to maintain order down the stretch - to try doing so would be an exercise in futility.

This match also had many great segments of cutting the ring in half from the babyface and heel side. Things sometimes got a little dirty too, as the makeshift babyface squad was fed up with the antics of GeNext. Ultimately though, the antics of GeNext earlier in the evening (Aries piledriving Walters) paid off in spades, as the finish came when Walters couldn't get out of Shelley's Border City Stretch, having no choice but to tap out.

This is nothing short of a classic, and I'd throw it in the mix with Gabe Sapolsky's greatest booked matches. THIS is how you make stars overnight. THIS is how you establish not only a dominant act, but get other wrestlers that are just treading water into something productive. And in the process, the fans got to see one of the damnedest matches they've ever seen. I can't quite put this on the same level as Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson, Paul London vs. Bryan Danielson, and AJ Styles vs. Paul London, but dammit it's close.

Rating: ****3/4

CM Punk and Ricky Steamboat confrontation

This really was quite simple and predictable. Asshole new guy tries to antagonize a retired HOFer as a means to draw attention to himself. And guess what? It f***ing works. The promo Punk cuts is another one to add to his collection of great ones, and then his deceit into physicality with Steamboat for a couple minutes is great stuff, making me REALLY wish WWE had done Punk vs. Steamboat in 2009. Thumbs up here.

ROH Title - Relaxed Rules Match - There Must Be a Winner
Samoa Joe vs. Homicide

This def needs to be on a new comp soon, as it holds up tremendously. This match does what the Saints vs. Prophecy should have done - immediately establish that this is a WAR. Whereas the impromptu show-stealing match earlier is a "work of art" style of match, this is just brutality and hatred. They beat the shit out of each other without destroying the bad-ass personas of one another. This has hard hits, dangerous drops, ghetto forks, ambushes, hardway bleeding. None of those things are what I'd personally encourage, but in this one they serve as purposeful elements. The finish is a tad meh, but it established that the sheer size and hatred of Joe is too much for Homicide to overcome. Supposedly they go on to top this month two months later. I'm looking forward to it.

Rating: ****

This is simply one of the greatest pro wrestling events I've ever seen. It has great wrestling. It has varieties of wrestling and characters. It has forward progression of storylines in an interesting fashion. It has breakout performances. It plants seeds for the undercard to become more important down the road. This is pretty much a perfect show, and it turned out to be without spending a shitload of money flying in huge stars of that time from WWE or NOAH. This is EASILY ROH's best show of 2004, better than any 2002 or 2003 show from the company - some matches later in 2004 may be better than anything on this event, but no event as a whole in ROH's first three years can measure up to it.

Get this NOW. And yes, I do have one master copy I'm looking to get rid of.

Up next - World TItle Classic
Matches will include:
Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, & Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Rave, John Walters, & Matt Stryker
Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

World Title Classic - June 12, 2004



Impromptu Match
Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, & Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Rave, John Walters, & Matt Stryker

This was advertised as Shelley vs. Stryker, but in another genius moment for Gabe Sapolsky, it turned into an impromptu six man tag match after GeNext destroyed Stryker and busted his forehead open. Walters kindly responded by sloppily dropping Jack Evans onto the hardwood floor from inside the ring. I’d have politicked Walters down the card to Sapolsky had I been Evans.

This is a match that has held up extremely well. While it couldn’t measure up to the impromptu MOTYC on the prior event, this one still stands it on its own as an outstanding classic. You had cutting the ring in half for both sides once again, with the early psychological story being the babyfaces working on Strong’s knee (his selling of it later in the match was quite impressive to me), and then GeNext destroying Rave’s back in the later majority of the match.

The match got a bit out of control, but in this case it psychologically works for me because that's what GeNext does. Unlike the other heel stable of that time the Rottweilers, they didn’t just cause chaos for shits and giggles – they did so to manipulate the matches in their favor. The teasing of the hot tag was just magnificent, getting the crowd amped up and anxious for it to happen. When it did finally happen, the match turned into chaos, but remarkably no near-falls were counted by the ref except on those who were legal. The finish was also brilliant, with Aries doing a 450 to Rave as the AJ Styles protégé had a Crippler Crossface locked on Shelley, and then submitting Rave with a Rings of Saturn. Just brilliant booking, as it further cemented GeNext, gave Walters & Stryker something productive to do, and furthered the plateau that Rave had reached (he was on his last legs with being cut from the fed if he didn’t put together some victories.) Just a great six man tag match.

Rating; ****

ROH Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk

To this point, not only was this the most critically acclaimed match of Joe's title reign, but it was actually deserving of such recognition. It was his greatest defense, with a perfect gameplan that while it didn't earn the title for Punk, it began the slow demise of Joe's reign.

Unlike all other previous opponents, Punk came at Joe immediately with a shitload of headlocks to keep the beginning stages slow and in his control rather than go apeshit, shocking Joe in the process. This was critical to when Joe got his heat segments on Punk - while his strikes were still devastating, Punk had worn him down too much for him to quickly capitalize on those strikes as he has become accustomed to.

Joe's strikes though were still effective - while he couldn't finish Punk off with them due to Punk's perfect strategy, their devastating effect on Punk was a great way to offset Punk's work on him. Whereas Punk used a slow mat-based style, Joe still relied on his strikes, and it slowed both of them down.

What I found to be the most important moment in the later stages of the match was when Joe dropped Punk knees-first onto the mat. Moments later, when Punk was able to reverse a superplex attempt into a Pepsi Plunge, the pain was too fresh in his knees to cover Joe for the decisive pinfall, instead rolling out of the ring.

This was by no means a perfect match - it was a work in progress. While not an absolute masterpiece, it was nothing less than excellent. It confirmed that Punk was now to be one of the very top acts on the roster as a singles competitor. It took a "meh" challenger and turned him into the #1 Contender. It made the champion look mortal. And it not only planted seeds for a rematch, but also was the first glaring example that Joe's days as champion were numbered.

Rating: ****1/2

Up next - Survival of the Fittest 2004
Matches will include:
The 2004 Survival of the Fittest Elimination Match

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Survival of the Fittest 2004 - June 24, 2004



2004 Survival of the Fittest Qualifier
Jack Evans vs. Bryan Danielson

A perfectly executed match and highly recommended for casual WWE viewers. In what is an extended squash, you get all the key elements of both characters – the entertaining side of Danielson, plus you also get a great taste of how vicious, barbaric, and even arrogant (sometimes blowing up in his face) he can be at times. It is a great showcase of his technical side also. For Evans, it gets over how obnoxious he is, and this match is very important in establishing the pain threshold that he has during the early stages of Generation Next. Not a MOTYC, but that isn’t the intention of this match; it did its job flawlessly.

2004 Survival of the Fittest Elimination Match
Samoa Joe vs. Colt Cabana vs. Homicide vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Austin Aries

I've compared this match before to Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa from June 1990 and Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin from WrestleMania 13, and for good reason. That comparison still holds up today. In the past few years, the closest (but not quite as great) that you'll find to this match is Tyler Black vs. Danielson from Breakout and Chris Hero vs. Akira Tozawa from the 2010 Battle of Los Angeles.

I want to take a quick moment to get the negatives out of the way - the tag issues. My problem with them wasn't that the ref stopped enforcing them. He momentarily just stopped doing so in an inconsistent fashion. This put a small damper on the early eliminations, which should've been just absolute gold based on what they lead to on future shows.

The idea of using this match to make new challengers for both the ROH and Tag Titles was a stroke of genius. Not only just using the winner of this stacked contest to create a top contender to the ROH Title, but using the early eliminations to create new opportunities. This match is also a top highlight of Gabe Sapolsky's booking.

Not only did new challengers become produced from this match, but it furthered the Joe vs. Rottweilers storyline while getting the Briscoes involved against Homicide as well, planting the seeds not only for Joe vs. Homicide (they got into a brawl earlier on the card and Homicide ruined the post-match of Joe vs. CM Punk on the previous event), but for the main event of the next show as well.

This match also had great psychology from the beginning. Mark found himself a target not only on his neck (worked on by Alex Shelley in their qualifier match), but also Danielson starting a new target with his left knee. However, the psychology truly peaked once the little booking intricacies were taken care of.

Those of you who were impressed by the Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels and Sheamus vs. Chris Jericho Royal Rumble finishing sequences, you owe to yourself to see what Aries and Danielson did here. For about 20 minutes they beautifully blew the roof of the joint, Danielson first proving that he owned Aries on the mat and in barbarianism. He focused on the back of Aries, which ultimately paid off in the finish.

Aries though, despite his initial hesitation to doing a fair fight against the already established superstar, made a choice in the middle of this epic battle to dig down deep and back up all the shit that Generation Next had been talking. Through sheer guts and determination, he found an opportunity when Danielson's knee got stuck in the ropes, which brought Danielson down a tad bit to even the match out more.

However, this is Bryan Danielson looking to get his first shot at the ROH Title. Despite his knee pain and a mirrored barbaric nature that he brought out of Aries, he ultimately proved himself far too intelligent and focused on this night for his moment to be taken away. Finishing Aries with the exact same back submission as his GeNext teammate Evans, Danielson not only further cemented the legacy he was building as an in-ring performer, but proved that after losses in huge matches against the likes of Homicide, Paul London, and AJ Styles, he deserved to be in the very top mix.

For Aries, this is THE match that turned him into a breakout superstar in ROH and on the indy scene overnight. While he didn't have the character aspect of his career down pat yet, in the ring he could be counted on to one day carry a company. ROH"s rebirth continued in grand fashion here.

This match was so damn close to perfect. But it isn't on the same level of Low Ki vs. Danielson, Paul London vs. Danielson, and Styles vs. London. And that's why in that regard, this match is ROH's version of Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind from Mind Games.

Rating: ****3/4

While I didn't watch everything on this show, this really does need to be seen to appreciate the booking of the time. Sure, you can get the Aries vs. Danielson portion of the main event on the new Danielson comp, but then you miss all the little parts of the show that buildup to INTERESTING future matches. Not just the ones I mentioned earlier, but there was also great forward movement into the inevitable Joe vs. Punk rematch and Jay Lethal push into a singles act.

Up next - Reborn: Completion
Matches will include:
Jay Lethal vs. Doug Williams vs. John Walters vs. Nigel McGuinness
Trent Acid vs. Prince Nana's hyped-up mystery Crown Jewel
Vacant Pure Title Match
CM Punk and Ricky Steamboat's final confrontation
Samoa Joe & Briscoe Bros. vs. Homicide & Havana Pitbulls

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Reborn: Completion - July 17, 2004



Vacant Pure Title Match Qualifier
Jay Lethal vs. Doug Williams vs. John Walters vs. Nigel McGuinness

This one was really on its way to being one of the most pleasant surprises in ROH history. There were so many little intricacies throughout the match - mind games, submission work, storytelling. For the first 3/4 of the match, it was just beautiful to watch.

Then for no explainable reason, the ref goes indyriffic and stops enforcing legal tags.

But what that does is take a great match and brings it down to merely being good. It was a great way to put Lethal in an even match after being told by Samoa Joe to drop the Special K and "Hydro" shit, and this should have been included on his recent compilation instead of the CM Punk singles match that goes on forever.

Rating: ***1/2

Trent Acid vs. Prince Nana's hyped-up mystery Crown Jewel

As you can see on the DVD cover, the mystery seemed like a huge letdown in Jimmy Rave. But that was the entire point of this segment. It wasn't about some HUGE surprise (that would come later on in the evening) - this was about practically rebooting the career of Jimmy Rave. Before there was Alberto Del Rio & Ricardo Rodriguez, there was Jimmy Rave & Prince Nana. (Nana embodied the antics of Ricardo and AW in this segment.)

One could mistake this match as being laid out incorrectly, as the jabroni Acid got a quite a bit of offense and heat on Rave. But it made sense - even though Rave had just been in some tremendous matches in recent months, he hadn't gotten a victory. This wasn't meant to be a squash to get over the new gimmick - it was the very beginning of Rave's appropriate rebirth, kick-starting the most memorable and entertaining era that the Embassy has ever put together. ANY kind of victory, no matter how cheap or ugly, was gonna make the Embassy happy. Remember, Prince Nana was down in the dumps too (veiled by his brashness and arrogance) - his previous prize project Xavier had gone down to injuries. The "Rave Clash" was also a perfect finish for Rave to shit on his now-gone mentor AJ Styles. Perfectly executed match.

Vacant Pure Title Match
Doug Williams vs. Alex Shelley

This match ensured that ROH continued its hot streak of shows that feature great matches. It also rebooted the previously flawed Pure Title division (consisting of two disappointing CM Punk vs. AJ Styles matches) in proper fashion.

With his left arm in pain from the previous qualifier match, Shelley found himself badly outmatched by the technically superior and much healthier Williams. It didn’t take long for Shelley to become the bitch of Williams, even at one time being tied up into knots and left in the middle of the ring, struggling momentarily to free himself as everyone had a laugh at his expense. It (along with kicking the ropes as a means to give Shelley a lowblow) was quite the karma after all of the continued antics of Generation Next.

But through sheer determination reminiscent of the performance of GeNext teammate Austin Aries (who was in Shelley’s qualifier and agreed to help him win and go all the way) at Survival of the Fittest 2004, Shelley found every little opportunity possible to get himself out of the figurative corner he found himself in. Eventually he was able to get some work done (either by submission or the occasional strikes and stomps) on the neck of Williams, laying the groundwork for the inevitable Border City Stretch.

Ultimately, Williams brought the better gameplan though to the injured Shelley, causing the GeNext leader to lose his ropebreaks, and using the ropes to apply a submission hold on the injured left arm. The standing ovation for both men wasn’t just a standard automatic reaction – it was well-deserved and intelligently earned.

Rating: ****

CM Punk and Ricky Steamboat: The Final Confrontation

Short, sweet, and to the point. You got the two stars colliding for a few minutes and using great callbacks to Steamboat's classics against Ric Flair and Randy Savage. Steamboat, in order to prove that he was still game for a fight any day of the week, ultimately got the better of Punk. But instead of finishing Punk off, he pleaded for Punk to stop with the antics, to have legitimate integrity and respect to go along with his skills and talents.

GeNext then came out to beat the shit out of Steamboat (despite Punk telling them to f*** off earlier in the evening) and allowed Punk to stand over the HOFer. Punk then agreed to turn babyface, attacking GeNext, and moments later Steamboat was back up and assisting his former enemy, the two of them destroying the physically battered faction (due to their matches earlier in the evening.) One might think that it would look ridiculous, almost a burial of GeNext just to get Punk's big moment over, but GeNext were not mentally prepared for Punk and Steamboat to form an alliance against them. They were mentally and physically outmatched, even with it being four against two. Steamboat left the ring to allow Punk his time in the spotlight - the newly turned Punk received a standing ovation from the New Jersey crowd.

This was yet another moment of brilliance during Gabe Sapolsky's prime - there was no better location to turn Punk babyface than in front of the audience that despised him the most. One could say Chicago, but he was always cheered there no matter what. New Jersey was the only place to pull this off, and it planted the seeds for one of the most historic moments in company history down the road.

Samoa Joe & Briscoe Bros. vs. Homicide & Havana Pitbulls

This wasn't the all-out war that I had hoped for, but it was still a fine main event that most importantly did two things - brought the Reborn name to a proper conclusion by doing the same finish as Joe vs. Homicide in Minnesota, and being the go-home segment for Joe's title defense against Homicide the next weekend.

The ref did have a moment of forgetting who was legal, but like the impromptu classic at Generation Next, it's understandable here. There was simply too much chaos between these six men to be on the ball at times with enforcing rules.

I must mention that I love the full circle nature of Joe teaming up with the Briscoes - it was last time in the same venue where they wrapped up their feud and earned mutual respect.

The most important moment of the evening took place in the post-match, as Low Ki returned to get in the face of the Rottweilers after they had ganged up on Joe. After talking trash to them, his true colors finally came out, blasting Joe with the title belt and joining his long-time friend's faction. He then shit on the direction of the company in his absence, and announced that his return marked the true rebirth of ROH. f***ING BRILLIANT BOOKING to counter Punk's babyface turn.

Rating: ***1/2 (for the match)

ROH continued its hot streak of shows that not only featured great matches, but historic moments in independent wrestling here. While the streak of MOTYCs was broken, this more than made up for it with important storylines and surprises. New stars were made, alliances were formed, stars returned, feuds started, and the new era in ROH was cemented.

This show featured Lethal's final chapter into becoming a singles competitor, the crowning of a new Pure Champion, the finale of the Punk vs. Steamboat feud, Punk's babyface turn, Rave & The Embassy's reboot, the beginning of the Generation Next vs. Second City Saints/Steamboat feud, and Ki's return to turn heel. SEE THIS.

Up next - Death Before Dishonor II Pt. 1
Matches will include:
Doug Williams vs. Alex Shelley
Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans vs. Jimmy Jacobs, John Walters, & Matt Stryker
Samoa Joe vs. Homicide
CM Punk & Colt Cabana vs. Briscoe Bros.

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Death Before Dishonor II Pt. 1 - July 23, 2004



Pure Title Match
Doug Williams vs. Alex Shelley

This rematch couldn’t live up to their classic the week before, but it’s still damn good. With several days of rest, Shelley never really gave Williams the opportunity to damage his arm this time, and was far more tenacious here. He was tremendous working on the neck of Williams to set up for the Border City Stretch.

But even with Williams having his neck worked on and losing rope breaks, he was able to go back to the Chaos Theory to finish off Shelley once again. It’s a shame that this rematch where he did use his finisher (I don’t recall it being used the week before) didn’t get as much heat as their first match.

Rating: ***1/2

Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans vs. Jimmy Jacobs, John Walters, & Matt Stryker

This was a very good and FUN match that just could not live up to the classic standard set by the previous multi-man tag Generation Next matches, even with Ricky Steamboat at ringside for the babyfaces to counter Shelley and coach his team. It did get out of control and the ref stopped bothering with what was legal, but it’s understandable in this one (even though the referee’s performance at World Title Classic is what made it better than this match) given the games that GeNext played. Again, this IS a good and fun match, with plenty of great cutting-the-ring-in-half moments, triple-team moves, and HOLY SHIT maneuvers.

Rating: ***1/2

ROH Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. Homicide

ROH continued its streak here of shows that feature great matches. While I personally preferred the work of brutality these two put together at Generation Next, this was just as outstanding. In this one, even though it was a clean win and not a draw, the signs were becoming more evident that Joe’s days as champion were numbered. Not only because at this point he had been champion for 16 months, but because of the caliber of opposition he defended against. So many opponents had been taking him to his limit from different directions, and it was starting to show.

With this being Homicide’s last shot at the title during Joe’s reign, I was happy to see he was willing to use technical wrestling as a way to throw Joe off and still show he had the wrestling side in his arsenal. Showing this not only displayed how seriously he was taking this match, but reminded everyone just how dangerous of a competitor he truly was. But his psychopathic emotions directly led to his failure yet again to reach the top of the mountain.

Mocking Joe, Homicide attempted an Ole Ole Kick, only to be countered with a throwover belly-to-belly suplex, landing spine-first on the floor. This cost him a few minutes later when he planted Joe face-first in an attempted piledriver – the suplex on the floor plus the exertion of attempting a piledriver on Joe was too much for Homicide to bear. He went down fighting though, kicking out of a musclebuster and an Island Driver, getting the crowd to go apeshit. But Joe finally finished him off with the rear-naked choke.

Post-match, the Rottweilers (who were kicked out at the beginning of this classic contest) returned and ambushed Joe. The commentary said the Briscoes were unaware of the situation because they were preparing for the main event and that the rest of the locker room had left for Chicago. I’d prefer to think that Joe's non-allies were happy to see him get beaten down, making a title change more likely in the near future. This beatdown ensured that even though Homicide was out of title shots for the rest of Joe’s reign, we’d still get to see the feud continue.

Watching these shows got me thinking of a match that could have been huge for the Jushin Liger debut show later that year in Boston – keep Liger vs. Bryan Danielson, and have the semi-main as Joe & CM Punk vs. Low Ki & Homicide. It’d have given ROH the Punk vs. Ki matchup, Joe and Ki mixing it up again, Joe and Homicide tearing each other apart, and then have Punk defeat Homicide to give him momentum for the inevitable rematch against Joe.

Rating: ****

Tag Titles - 2/3 Falls Match
CM Punk & Colt Cabana vs. Briscoe Bros.

This was good but seemed to drag at times. It went long for what I would assume was just for the Saints to give their old stomping grounds overly long matches like they wrestled during the early 2000s against each other and with Chris Hero. It didn't quite work here as much as it did in Dayton for Joe vs. Punk.

Of course, this couldn't measure up to the ***** Paul London vs. Danielson 2/3 falls match, but it was certainly in a different league from the horseshit Christopher Daniels/Donovan Morgan vs. SAT 2/3 falls match. There were just weird inconsistencies with enforcing tags,with referee Todd Sinclair even being vocal about enforcing it and the Briscoes just ignoring him. Go all the way with it refs, not some half-assed lip service.

I'd say the best part about this match was the booking of the second fall. Because Punk lost the first fall by a double underhook piledriver and was knocked out the entire following fall, Cabana had to go at it alone. He single-handedly outsmarted the Briscoes and got the match to an even 1-1. Brilliant way to book him the night before he challenged Joe for the ROH Title.

Rating: ***1/2

Up next - Death Before Dishonor II Pt. 2
Matches will include:
Chad Collyer vs. Rocky Romero
Alex Shelley vs. Jimmy Jacobs
Doug Williams vs. Austin Aries
Samoa Joe vs. Colt Cabana
CM Punk & Ace Steel vs. Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer

[SUPES]

Death Before Dishonor II Pt. 2 - July 24, 2004



Chad Collyer vs. Rocky Romero

One of the finest openers in company history, this still held up with great technical wrestling and was perfectly paced for its spot on the card. Romero was just fantastic continually going after the arm and shoulder of Collyer, while Collyer used his technical superiority to find ways out of it. Once he locked on the Texas Cloverleaf, it was a thing of beauty. But all the work done on Collyer was too much as he finally gave in and tapped to the armbar. Just a great opener.

Rating: ***1/4

Alex Shelley vs. Jimmy Jacobs

We got another stellar match here, as these two were just too familiar with each other from their Michigan days to put together any less than that. Shelley was just a tremendous prick here and beat the f*** out of Jacobs. But Jacobs responded back with one of the most inspiring underdog performances I've ever seen, finding ways to counter Shelley through sheer heart. He even surprised his arch-nemesis with his own Shellshock. But Shelley was too skilled and driven to let the scrappy Jacobs defeat him.

Rating: ***3/4

Post-match, Roderick Strong & Jack Evans help Shelley destroy Jacobs for good only for Ricky Steamboat to come out and start an impromptu tag match.

Impromptu Match
Roderick Strong & Jack Evans vs. John Walters & Matt Stryker

I'm glad I decided to not skip this, as this match was FUN. Strong & Evans were just so on-point in this one, and the ref in the closing moments actually refused to count a pin because it was not being done on the legal man! Unfortunately, the match broke down into storyline when Shelley & Austin Aries brawled with Steamboat outside the ring. To me it took away from the match.

Rating: ***

Pure Title Match
Doug Williams vs. Austin Aries

This was some really good stuff. The mind games played by Aries were a great and fresh twist on the unique rules of the match, and served as a preview for what we would see during another Pure Title reign much later down the line. Williams though showed he was too brilliant and focused, overcoming the manipulative antics of Aries and working on his arm after driving it into the steel turnbuckle while they brawled outside the ring. With this fresh injury on Aries, the challenger found himself having to rely on the rope breaks, using up all of them and being placed in the same arm submission on the ropes that Williams used to win the championship the week before against Shelley. Aries had no choice but to tap out.

Rating: ***3/4

ROH Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. Colt Cabana

Yet another good match for this show. Knowing that Joe had been taking to the limit by Homicide and fellow Tag Champ CM Punk in recent months, Cabana attempted to use some tomfoolery to throw Joe off, and attempted the same cradle that he pinned Joe with the month before.

With Joe's mind likely elsewhere, he still was able to dominate the Chicago native. But that right there was another challenge for the champ - the Chicago crowd provided tremendous energy and enthusiasm for Cabana, who put up far more of a fight than I would have expected. This was just some quality professional wrestling.

Post-match, Joe's victory is spoiled by the Rottweilers, but this time the Briscoes are around to assist him.

Rating: ***1/2

Hardcore Match
CM Punk & Ace Steel vs. Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer

I will get the questionable parts of the way - I am certain that all four men regret challenging each other with unprotected chair shorts. And I hope the dipshit fans regret throwing those chairs in the ring, when there was still a human being in there trying to protect himself from being struck by them.

This is a match I remember thinking "good, but way overrated" last time I saw it. I was wrong. This still holds up over the years, not in the Homicide vs. Steve Corino or Triple H vs. Cactus Jack way, but in the Homicide vs. Trent Acid way.

This was a great match through sheer willpower, continuing the consecutive streak of ROH shows that featured great matches. This was definitely an impressive performance, considering that only one of the participants has legitimate talent. Steel, Maff, and Whitmer were all on Punk's level, bringing out not only jaw-dropping spots, but hatred and emotion. This was crazy, this was chaotic, and brought the Saints vs. Prophecy feud to its proper conclusion.

Post-match, Generation Next attack the wounded Saints, and prevent Cabana & Steamboat from making a difference.

Fan: "Why don't you go to TNA and kiss Jeff Jarrett's ass?"
Shelley: "Will do."

Rating: ****

In terms of match quality, this was definitely the most consistent show ROH had hosted yet. This is definitely a must-see, not just for the matches, but in closing a chapter so that the reborn ROH could move forward. I still say Generation Next was a better overall show due to the MOTYC it had and storylines it furthered, but you don't wanna miss this.

Up next - Testing the Limit
Matches will include:
Briscoe Bros. vs. Low Ki & Homicide
Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Testing the Limit - August 7, 2004



Good Times, Great Memories
Guest: Prince Nana

Great chemistry displayed here as the Outcast Killaz showed and Nana bossed them around. Colt Cabana also broke down and couldn't believe that "OutKast is dead."

Briscoe Bros. vs. Low Ki & Homicide

While this wasn't very high on the star rating scale, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. This was definitely a prelude to something that was coming down the road, don't know what it was, but something was simmering here. Maybe some kind of WarGames style match or Steel Cage Warfare? It's a shame Mark got injured and the Briscoes took a break before the next event.

The match was destined to be a historically important one, with Jay getting the small package pin on Low Ki (who is notorious for not doing jobs.) I'd also call it a historic ROH match because the ref was very clear about only counting the pins on the legal men.

The real story of this entire segment is afterwards, when Ki just kicks Jay right in the head. This of course pisses off Mark but also gets Samoa Joe to come out. Pretty soon a good chunk of the babyface locker room is out, including CM Punk. He eventually has his own pull-apart with Homicide, making me wish even more we'd gotten the dream tag of Joe & Punk vs. Ki & Homicide later that year. (Edit: I've since found out that dream tag match was indeed announced for the next event but was cancelled because Ki decommitted to instead work a NOAH event.)

The various pull-aparts eventually spill to the parking lot, and I like the way the entire segment is shot, very disorganized and bringing an additional layer of authenticity to the hatred and chaos.

2/3 Falls Match
Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson

This match was f***ing long. And while it fell just a tad bid short of the Joe vs. Punk 60 minute draw in Dayton, this was still an excellent main event and throwback to the days of Ric Flair, Harley Race, Lou Thesz, Buddy Rogers, etc.

Whereas Survival of the Fittest 2004 was the breakout for Aries, this was the match that turned him into a true superstar. This is where the seeds were planted for what was destined to come months later.

Danielson was just vicious in this one, working on the following body parts throughout different parts of the match, and doing so in an effective fashion: the left arm/shoulder, the left knee, the neck, the abdomen, and the lower back (to offset the abs.) He just dissected Aries and tore him apart in this match. Even though he lost the first fall to his own Cattle Mutilation, he carried himself like it was part of his strategy to do so. He didn't come across as being backed into an 0-1 corner whatsoever.

The submission work was brilliant in getting Danielson the second fall, because after about 45 minutes, Aries was too worn out and broken down to not get a fall counted against him. His arrogance when Danielson became temporarily unconscious is what directly led to his left arm/shoulder being worked on, leading to his downfall in this second fall.

But Aries was adamant in this match. Despite being physically obliterated for over an hour, he was not going to lose this match. He just couldn't. And that is why he came out the victor.

These two would go on to do better than this. But this is definitely a match that should be seen, especially for those who appreciate strategic submission wrestling and limb work. They also manage on a couple of occasions to turn some botches into beautiful audible pinfall attempts. Even with its faults, this is a great match.

Rating: ****1/4

Up next - Scramble Cage Melee
Matches will include:
Jay Lethal vs. Alex Shelley
Doug Williams vs. John Walters
Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk vs. Homicide

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Scramble Cage Melee - August 28, 2004



Jay Lethal vs. Alex Shelley

I way overrated this back in the day. This wasn't a bad match by any means. It did its job in being an extended squash to show that Lethal was no match for Shelley yet and had a lot of work to do in order to reach the upper echelon. Shelley was f***ing vicious working on Lethal's left knee, never once showing mercy.

Rating: less than ***

Pure Title Match
Doug Williams vs. John Walters

Before the match gets started, Samoa Joe comes out and shits on the entire segment. Not sure this was the greatest way to build heat between the two title belts.

As for the match, it was damn good shit. Walters was very focused and got Williams to use all of his rope breaks early, targeting the left knee in particular. But Williams, the outstanding wrestler that he is, never once came close to having a meltdown, showing great composure and focusing on the neck of Walters to get all the rope breaks out of the equation for both men.

But Walters got more work done than Williams did, causing Williams to not give himself a full base when he executed the Chaos Theory. This ultimately is what led to the huge victory for Walters in front of his hometown crowd. A very good match that could have been a MOTYC if they played to the crowd more often (something I'm seeing Williams avoid doing quite often.)

Rating: ***3/4

Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk vs. Homicide

This couldn't live up to the threeways from The Era of Honor Begins or the One Year Anniversary Show, but this was definitely a good match full of great action and the closing chapter in 2004 for the Joe vs. Homicide feud. I think the best way to describe this match would be FUN, as there was never a dull moment, but it never had a jaw-dropping moment to make it a great match. The finish is pretty damn clever too to keep both Punk and Homicide strong.

Rating: ***1/2

Up next - Glory By Honor III
Matches will include:
Alex Shelley vs. Bryan Danielson
John Walters vs. Nigel McGuinness
Samoa Joe vs. Doug Williams

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Glory By Honor III - September 11, 2004



Alex Shelley vs. Bryan Danielson

Shelley came into this with a broken left arm (which actually could have played off the same injury he had against Doug Williams in July.) The commentary says it was during the Mick Foley segment, but it was actually from his CZW match against Chris Hero earlier that day. It took awhile for this real-life injury to come into play, as Shelley got a great amount of time on offense, working on the neck of Danielson.

However, with an ROH Title shot on the horizon for Danielson, plus that glaring injury on Shelley, he couldn't lose here. He got focused on the arm and came out on top with the Cattle Mutilation, which was the most logical finish possible. Not the MOTYC that many were hoping for, but a nice preview of what they would do much later on.

Post-match, Danielson reminds everyone that he's owed an ROH Title shot, and makes the challenge to Jushin Liger.

Rating: ***1/2

Pure Title Match
John Walters vs. Nigel McGuinness

This was the singles breakout for McGuinness, showing that he had what it took to be booked as a long-term investment in the company. While not the level of breakout performance from Paul London and Samoa Joe a couple years earlier, this match sealed the deal for him.

Walters again proved his focus against the European challenger, not allowing the armwork done by McGuinness to make him panic. He also did armwork on McGuinness, and the match was pretty damn even. But the triple Lungblower backbreaker chained into an arm-vice choke was too much for McGuinness to continue.

I'm starting to see that Walters may have been in ROH at the wrong time. During this golden age, the roster was just too stacked with the best indy talent, to be followed by some of the greatest talent in the world flying over from Japan. If he's available nowadays and can still go, I'd highly advise the current ROH to sign him. He's just as good as Eddie Edwards.

Rating: ***1/2

ROH Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. Doug Williams

Another good but not great match for this event. Williams was definitely deserving of an ROH Title shot after spearheading the successful relaunch of the Pure Title. This one had some solid psychology, focusing on the left leg of Joe, but the champ's offense was just too devastating to overcome for Williams. I'm not a fan of kicking out of the trademark musclebuster just to go down to a generic lariat moments later though.

Rating: ***1/4

Up next - Midnight Express Reunion
Matches will include:
Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal
Homicide vs. Nigel McGuinness
John Walters, CM Punk, Ace Steel, & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans
Samoa Joe vs. Bryan Danielson

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Midnight Express Reunion - October 2, 2004



Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal

This match was ALL sports-entertainment, and a damn good extended squash at that. Far more engaging than the extended squash against Alex Shelley several weeks earlier, Lethal was extra motivated to earn respect from the dickhead Ki due to his family being present and taunted by the Rottweilers. But despite how much heart and improvement Lethal displayed, he was just no match for ROH's original legend.

Post-match, Ki gives Lethal the same disrespectful kick he delivered to Jay Briscoe a couple months earlier.

Rating: ***

Homicide vs. Nigel McGuinness

Following up on the match that sealed the deal for him the month before, McGuinness was on fire in this one, completely outclassing Homicide's brawling and cheating with his superior technical wrestling. For 20 minutes he got the chance to showcase what he could do, getting heat for most of the match, and the crowd just ate it up.

The match also played off of Homicide's match against Bryan Danielson earlier in the year, going back to Homicide using his trademark lariat on the arm damaged by McGuinness. This time, Homicide couldn't get enough adrenaline to overcome the damage done and get the proper finishing force behind the lariat. Moments later, he found himself in an arm submission and then suddenly unable to kick out of a pinfall with the arms hooked in the same fashion that Bryan Danielson got over Austin Aries two months earlier. Huge upset here that was well-deserved, and meant more after Homicide's victory several weeks earlier in his match against Samoa Joe and CM Punk.

Rating: ***1/2

Survivor Series Style Elimination Match
John Walters, CM Punk, Ace Steel, & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans

Meh. Some good stuff in this, but way too much going on to properly digest. And I'd like to nominate Mick Foley vs. Ricky Steamboat as ROH's worst feud of 2004. Just an utter waste of time when Steamboat (complete with a haircut that rivaled the he-bob haircut of Shawn Michaels a couple years earlier) trashed Foley and hardcore style wrestling.

Some of the best parts though - Jacobs had to be brutalized by a chair in order to be eliminated, and the post-match promo by Shelley & Aries planted great seeds for friction as they both demanded an ROH Title shot.

Rating: less than ***

ROH Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. Bryan Danielson

This match showed yet again that even with an amazing victory, Joe's days as champion were numbered. Danielson dominated the majority of the match, willing to play a little dirty like he did in the 2/3 falls match against Aries in order to reach the pinnacle of the promotion. He also was far more devastating than Punk was in the 60 minute draw from World Title Classic. It was brilliant seeing him break Joe down on the left leg, to keep the champion from having a consistent base to brawl and strike.

But Joe was not to go down without a fight. This was certainly the most brutal defense he had to this point (which speaks volumes when considering his defenses against Low Ki, CM Punk, Homicide, AJ Styles, and Jay Briscoe), but he had plenty of adrenaline left in the tank to return the brutality favor tenfold to the quicker and more technically efficient Danielson. Once he got the knees to the head and slapped on the choke in the middle of the ring, more than 30 minutes into this classic, Danielson had no choice but to tap or pass out.

This isn't my favorite match by any means. But I honestly can't think of a single flaw with it. The storytelling was great. The psychology was great. It never dragged. It got the title even more over than before. The crowd was hot and believing they'd get a title change. And although it gave more glaring points for Joe in future title defenses, one still had to wonder what it was gonna take to bring the iconic reign to an end.

Post-match, we got plenty of chaos, just tremendous booking that led to so many great matches throughout the remainder of the year. Punk came out and asked when he would get his rematch. Generation Next came out to ambush Punk, but Joe & Danielson got fed up when Shelley & Aries got in their faces. The Rottweilers then came out just to raise hell (mixing it up for the first time with GeNext). After many holy shit high-risk aerial moves, Joe teased that he would do one but then got cut off by Ki out of nowhere. They brawled and Danielson tried to pry Joe off of Ki, but Joe was so furious that he elbowed the fallen challenger, who gave the champ a receipt with roaring forearms. This left Ki and Danielson in the ring standing side by side.

Danielson: "Me and Ki against you and Liger, Joe. Bring it!"

Rating: *****

Up next - Gold
Matches will include:
CM Punk vs. Homicide
Jay Lethal vs. Chad Collyer
Samoa Joe vs. Rocky Romero
CM Punk, Ace Steel, & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, & Jack Evans

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Gold - October 15, 2004



CM Punk vs. Homicide

A fine, star-studded opening contest, one of the best in company history. The hatred was there, they didn't waste much time, and Homicide eventually won when he used the side of a chair on Punk's neck (which he'd already been working on for the Kudo Driver.) Homicide's victory here over the #1 Contender made the victory of Nigel McGuinness on the previous event mean even more.

Rating: ***1/4

Jay Lethal vs. Chad Collyer

I must mention that Collyer's backstage promo prior to this match must be seen to be believed. Had to be inspired by a compilation of Jim Hellwig's work in WCW.

This match is another fine back-and-forth contest designed to get Collyer in the mix (he'd team up with McGuinness the next night as Steamboat's technical team in that God-awful Foley vs. Steamboat feud), and to showcase that Lethal could hang with such a skilled technician after the much different type of match against Low Ki on the previous show. Just stellar work here for both men.

Rating: ***1/4

ROH Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. Rocky Romero

Another good defense for Joe, but nothing spectacular (a recurring theme usually for Romero singles matches I'm noticing.) They obviously held back a bit due to the huge Joe vs. Punk rematch scheduled the next night, but they still worked hard here.

Rating: ***1/2

CM Punk, Ace Steel, & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, & Jack Evans

This match was good, but dragged a bit to be anything special. It seemed to go way too long with hardly any engaging story going on. Sure, there are some great moments, and Jacobs is his usual awesome self playing the Ricky Morton role, but this didn't add up to anything memorable. Punk was obviously holding back, and perhaps the only remarkable story to me was that Aries attacked Punk's girlfriend and ended up paying for it with a Pepsi Plunge (knocking him out of action the next night.) Aries obviously didn't study the Second City Saints vs. Prophecy match. Punk certainly had to get a victory here though.

Rating: ***

The DVD ends with a Ricky Steamboat promo that I IMMEDIATELY shut off as soon as I hear Mick Foley's name come out of his mouth.

Up next - Joe vs. Punk II
Matches will include:
Rocky Romero & Homicide vs. Roderick Strong & Jack Evans
Alex Shelley vs. Jimmy Jacobs
Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Joe vs. Punk II - October 16, 2004



The DVD opens with two great promos, first from CM Punk explaining that this is the most important match of his career for a number of reasons (which I'll get into when I review the main event.) Then, Alex Shelley cuts a promo on behalf of Generation Next to explain the importance of the two semi-main events that the faction is involved in. Great stuff here.

Later on in the DVD, Samoa Joe cuts a simple and effective promo that Punk needs to just get the job done. He really should have called out Punk on his catchphrase of "Better than you," since he was adamant that Punk not just try to be his equal.

Rocky Romero & Homicide vs. Roderick Strong & Jack Evans

This match had its odd legal man tag problems, but this was still just dripping with fun. This was definitely an important match as it was the first time the Rottweilers collided with GeNext. There was no feeling out process, somewhat surprising with this being a first-time encounter between the factions. But then again, these two factions didn't have time for that - they were out to prove a point of superiority and weren't going to bother attempting to technically one-up each other. This was vicious, fast, and hard-hitting.

This match did have some great moments of cutting the ring in half and building up to hot tags. We got to see some new tools out of the playbook of GeNext also, causing the crowd's jaw to drop in the process. And for all the odd problems there were with legalities during the finishing stretch, the finish was actually between the two legit legal men when Evans knocked Romero out with a million-degree senton. Great booking here between these two heel factions that not only earned Strong & Evans a title shot against the Havana Pitbulls, but protected Homicide also to ensure that Nigel McGuinness defeating him two weeks earlier was a major deal.

Rating: ***1/2

I Quit Match
Alex Shelley vs. Jimmy Jacobs

f***, this was just phenomenal stuff, and did a fantastic job of conveying hatred and emotion in a unique fashion. This match had lots of bumps, but they were done with purpose to truly inflict pain. The use of weapons was tremendous also, and Jacobs blew away his underdog performance from their prior match in the same building just three months earlier. Even in defeat, this did nothing but elevate Jacobs and I'm shocked that he didn't earn a permanent spot after this. Shelley was also even more of a dangerous bad-ass from this match. This had insanity, this had psychology, this was just terrific.

Of course, as soon as Ricky Steamboat comes to save Jacobs from a GeNext post-match beating, I'm sure to hit next on my remote to avoid that awful feud between him and Mick Foley.

Rating: ****1/2

ROH Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk

This is honestly not the greatest match in ROH history. But that's not a criticism of the match whatsoever. It's a compliment of the quality of matches ROH has delivered for the past decade, and when both men finally hang up their boots, they will certainly look back on this as likely the best match of their careers despite some stupid bumps they took.

This was definitely an improvement over their match at World Title Classic (which I merely described to be an excellent ****1/2 MOTYC). In this one, they built off the previous match, but still changed it up to make sure this was wholly original. If I had one nitpick complaint about this match that keeps it from being the absolute best ROH match ever, it's that the work done on Punk, while they did pay off in the latter stages of the match, was not paid off quite as convincingly as the standard set by the ***** Paul London vs. Bryan Danielson and AJ Styles vs. Paul London matches.

This match also took aspects from the ***** title defense Joe had just two weeks earlier against Danielson. This was not only a highly intelligent wrestling match, but it got brutal as well. The work done in the early stages was sharp and clever, being more engaging with the matwork than in the previous match the two had earlier that year.

This also had incredible drama in the last third of the match. Of course, this was due to the match being in front of Punk's hometown crowd (which he alluded to at the beginning of the DVD), but this was simply more impressive than what they did in Dayton. The crowd firmly believed that Punk would defeat Joe, even though the match was booked just a few days prior due to Steve Corino being pulled from the weekend's ROH events. This was a nail-biter, and the most emotional moment was properly placed and flawlessly executed in the last 2-3 minutes, as both men struggled twice on the turnbuckles, an epic battle of muscle buster vs. Pepsi Plunge. On the second battle, Joe won it and got the musclebuster on Punk, but time ran out and he couldn't pin Punk. But just several weeks prior, the Pepsi Plunge did put away Joe in their threeway match involving Homicide.

Both men cut backstage promos afterward, Punk demanding one more shot without a time limit. Joe then states that Punk failed and the goal isn't to be the champ's equal, it's to defeat him.

This stands not just as one of the ten greatest matches in ROH history, but as one of the defining matches of the 2000s decade. It is a work of art. It is worthy of all the hype and praise it got. It still holds up as a masterpiece, and will continue to stand the test of time.

Rating: *****

This DVD is a must-have. Yes, get the 2-disc version of the Joe vs. Punk trilogy so that you get their epic shoot interview, but you still should find a copy of this event for the two semi main events, and the theme music for Joe and Punk adds just a little bit additional grand layer to their match. GET THIS.

Up next - Weekend of Thunder Night 1
Matches will include:
Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal vs. John Walters & Nigel McGuinness
CM Punk vs. Austin Aries
Havana Pitbulls vs. Roderick Strong & Jack Evans
Jushin Liger vs. Bryan Danielson

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Weekend of Thunder Night 1 - November 5, 2004



Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal vs. John Walters & Nigel McGuinness

My surprising pick for match of the night, as this one really felt like it served a purpose. It had interesting dynamics, new blood getting a chance to shine, and proper tag transitions. This match also served as a reminder that during this time, EVERYTHING involving Joe was interesting, whether it was mentoring Lethal, the Rottweilers feud, his issue with the establishment of the Pure title, the CM Punk rivalry, and his overall title reign.

Rating: ***1/2

CM Punk vs. Austin Aries

This match was just great storytelling. Punk was just a tad bit too excited due to the personal issue these two had, and coming after the second of two 60 minute draws against Joe and demanding one more title shot. This cost him the momentum and the match when he missed an attempted Shining Wizard and hit the steel post instead of Aries.

I don't know if it was the crowd's fault, or the fault of the building's maintenance issues (the lights went out during this match), but the heat really suffered in this one. A shame because the psychology and story in this was just tremendous.

Rating: ***

Tag Titles Match
Havana Pitbulls vs. Roderick Strong & Jack Evans

If you needed solid evidence that Ricky Reyes is f***ing useless and overutilized, here you go. This did NOT have the pacing of the match involving Homicide at Joe vs. Punk II, and I was massively disappointed with this one. Just forgettable stuff.

Rating: less than ***

Jushin Liger vs. Bryan Danielson



Up to this point, Liger's entrance was the biggest moment in ROH history, creating the most passionate and loudest crowd reaction. It surpassed the farewells of Paul London and Eddie Guerrero. The crowd was also awesome at the end when Liger won (as he should have.)

But this match hasn't held up over time. Don't get me wrong - this is a good match, but just an exhibition and nothing special outside of Liger's presence. Both men have done much better than this, and I'm still looking forward to the tag match. This is an entertaining novelty and nothing more.

Rating: ***

Up next - Weekend of Thunder Night 2
Matches will include:
Jay Lethal vs. Jimmy Rave
Samoa Joe & Jushin Liger vs. Low Ki & Bryan Danielson

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

Weekend of Thunder Night 2 - November 6, 2004



Jay Lethal vs. Jimmy Rave

Prince Nana was THE SHIT back in the day. That needs to be acknowledged. EVERY SEGMENT OF HIS on this DVD was entertaining.

The pre-match Nana promo was golden, and set the stage quite nicely for the former party kid (and Elizabeth native) Lethal. The match was quick and fast-paced, a forgotten undercard gem. It established Lethal as being one step closer in his progress to being an accomplished singles competitor, and furthered Rave's snot-nose heel gimmick. I love this match, and the post-match, closing out with another phenomenal and passionate Ric Flair-eqsue promo from Nana after the main event, is one of the many things that made ROH so beloved during its golden age.

Rating: ***1/4

Samoa Joe & Jushin Liger vs. Low Ki & Bryan Danielson

After a main event the night before that I felt was retrospectively disappointing, this made up for it quite nicely. Not the greatest match in ROH history (not even close for 2004), but an excellent tag team main event that never once got boring or felt insultingly indyriffic. Every exchange was fun and meaningful, every encounter was interesting, it kept the Joe vs. Rottweilers feud steady, gave us a dream collision between Ki and Liger, and was booked perfectly in its ending to kickstart the Danielson vs. Rottweilers feud, a storyline that I adored back in the day and am very much looking forward to seeing if it holds up. Kudos for doing a different Liger finisher too as well.

Rating: ****

Up next - All Star Extravaganza II
Matches will include:
Good Times, Great Memories featuring Bobby Heenan
John Walters vs. Jimmy Rave
Low Ki vs. Austin Aries
The first ever verbal confrontation between Jim Cornette and Bobby Heenan
Roderick Strong & Jack Evans vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Colt Cabana
Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk

[SUPES]

This review originally posted in 2012.

All Star Extravaganza II - December 4, 2004



Good Times, Great Memories
Guest: Bobby Heenan

A great opening segment to bring Colt Cabana back into ROH, as he brings the comedy and reminds Generation Next of their issue. Heenan is also gold with his one-liners and chemistry with the Huss-centric Jimmy Jacobs.

Pure Title Match
John Walters vs. Jimmy Rave

This is a nice little contest that foreshadowed a future title reign for someone else. Walters through sheer anger and savviness was able to overcome the manipulative tactics of Rave (it helped that the Embassy was banned before the match began.) Walters post-match gets into it with some fans, and I wonder if that's another foreshadowing.

Rating: ***

ROH Title Shot Match
Low Ki vs. Austin Aries

A very, very good match that came close to excellent, and probably would have been had it not been hindered with a 20 minute time limit. Aries showed absolutely zero fear towards Ki (and with huge victories over CM Punk and Bryan Danielson, why would he?), and he was definitely the default babyface in this matchup. Aries once again showed sheer heart and determination during the match, fighting for everything he had and surprising the cocky Ki, despite all the damage being applied to the midsection by Ki. The finishing sequence as the time expired, and the post-match with Ki bailing out on continuing the match as well out of complete arrogance, was the best booking possible considering how Ki can put a booker into a corner.

Rating: ***3/4

The Verbal Confrontation
Jim Cornette vs. Bobby Heenan

This certainly lived up to the hype with Heenan playing the sympathetic recovering cancer patient and Cornette going totally nuts about being in Heenan's shadow throughout his entire career. That Cornette first showed Heenan respect only made Heenan come across as even bigger legend, and I love that the upcoming Strong/Evans vs. Jacobs/Cabana match was combined into this.

Team Cornette vs. Team Heenan
Roderick Strong & Jack Evans vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Colt Cabana

A great comedy match that made the most out of Cornette and Heenan. It was a nice surprise for Jacobs & Cabana to use comedy as part of their dirty tactics to get vengeance on GeNext for what had happened throughout 2004. This was just great entertainment.

Rating: ***

Before the main event, the DVD includes CM Punk looking back on his previous two title shots against Samoa Joe. EXCELLENT.

ROH Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk

I really am just a sucker for matches that bring prestige to championships. This is another classic match that stands the test of time, and a fitting final chapter to such an epic trilogy. From the callbacks to the previous two matches these men had against one another, to the bloody cut on CM Punk's head (a nice way to bring back memories of his feuds with Raven and the Prophecy), to the acts of desparation on Joe's part, this match was just perfect. In addition, this had legitimate drama and plenty of believable false finishes, with the crowd just being APESHIT in the last 10 minutes.

In the end, all the punishment dished out to Punk was just too much for him, as he passed out to the choke like so many other great challengers Joe faced. But this got him only more over, and really made the crowd wonder who if anybody could dethrone Joe.

But one could argue that this was evidence that Joe's days as champion would be coming to an end in the near future. The Punk trilogy, the Rottweilers feud, and the classic defense against Bryan Danielson all in the past several prior months were taking such a toll on him that he was resorting to blatant cheating, breaking his code that he had established as champion.

Rating: *****

The DVD closes with Aries being informed that Ki forfeited the title shot, and Aries will be challenging Joe at Final Battle 2004. With more determination than Ki, and huge victories over Punk and Danielson, AND seeing what Joe had to do continue his reign, does Aries actually stand a chance?

Up next - Final Battle 2004
Matches will include:
The confrontations Mick Foley has with Samoa Joe and Ricky Steamboat
A major turning point for Generation Next
Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson
Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries