Mike Adamle reviews Ring Of Honor

[Mike Adamle]

2/23/02 ROH The Era Of Honor Begins
Match 1-Tag Team Match- Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack) vs. The Christopher Street Connection (Buff-E & Mace Mendoza) 3/4*
Match 2- Amazing Red vs. Jay Briscoe **3/4
Match 3- Xavier vs. Scoot Andrews **3/4
Match 4- Tag Team Match- The Boogie Knights (Danny Drake & Mike Tobin) vs. The Natural Born Sinners (Boogalou & Homicide) **1/2
Match 5- 6 Man Elimination Special Ref. Match- Quiet Storm vs. Amazing Red vs. Brian XL vs. Jose Maximo vs. Chris Divine vs. Joel Maximo w/ Mikey Whipwreck as Special Ref. ***3/4
Match 6- Prince Nana vs. Eric Tuddle 1/2*
Match 7- Winner gets an ROH Contract- Tag Team Match- Spanky & Ikaika Loa vs. Michael Shane & Oz **3/4
Match 8- IWA Intercontinental Title Match- Super Crazy vs. Eddie Guerrero ***
Match 9/Main Event 3-Way Match- Low Ki vs. American Dragon vs. Christopher Daniels ****1/2

Show Thoughts: Pretty lackluster show. Was surprised the 6 Man Elimination Match was as good as it was. Obviously this show is all about the main event.

[supersonic]

I appreciate the in-depth review. I can see you a put quite a bit of thought into it.

[BTW10]

More review series threads! Hooray!

[Big Red Machine]

I appreciate the in-depth review. I can see you a put quite a bit of thought into it.

Sometimes there isn't just much to say without running through everything that happens (in which case it is really a recap, not a review), especially if you are trying to avoid giving out spoilers.

[Mike Adamle]

Since the anticipation among the ROHWorld universe was starting to rise I figured I'd oblige, and rate Round Robin Challenge! In this review you will find that my star ratings actually go beyond 5 stars when called for it!
3/30/02 ROH Round Robin Challenge
Match 1- Round Robin Match 1- Christopher Daniels vs. American Dragon ***3/4
Match 2- Tag Team Match- Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack) vs. Eric Tuddle & Prince Nana 3/4*
Match 3- Tag Team Match- Christian York & Joey Matthews vs. CW Anderson & Elax **1/4
Match 4- Xavier vs. James Maritado **1/4
Match 5- Tag Team Match- The Natural Born Sinners (Homicide & Boogalou) vs. The Boogie Knights (Danny Drake & Mike Tobin) *
Match 6- Round Robin Match 2- Low Ki vs. Christopher Daniels ***
Match 7- Paul London vs. Chris Marvel 3/4*
Match 8- Spanky vs. Jay Briscoe **3/4
Match 9- Tag Team 3-Way Elimination Match- The SAT (Joel Maximo & Jose Maximo) vs. Divine Storm (Chris Divine & Quiet Storm) vs. Amazing Red & Brian XL **1/2
Match 10/Main Event- Round Robin Match 3- American Dragon vs. Low Ki *****1/4

Show thoughts: Better than The Era Of Honor Begins, but not by much. The Round Robin matches were all solid, although I expected a little more from Ki-Daniels. Was disappointed with the Xavier-Maritado match. I figured Maritado would be trying to make his name, looked like he was just trying to make a pay check. By this DVD for the main event. The best match in ROH so far.

[DieHard]

Since the anticipation among the ROHWorld universe was starting to rise I figured I'd oblige, and rate Round Robin Challenge! In this review you will find that my star ratings actually go beyond 5 stars when called for it!
3/30/02 ROH Round Robin Challenge
Match 1- Round Robin Match 1- Christopher Daniels vs. American Dragon ***3/4
Match 2- Tag Team Match- Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack) vs. Eric Tuddle & Prince Nana 3/4*
Match 3- Tag Team Match- Christian York & Joey Matthews vs. CW Anderson & Elax **1/4
Match 4- Xavier vs. James Maritado **1/4
Match 5- Tag Team Match- The Natural Born Sinners (Homicide & Boogalou) vs. The Boogie Knights (Danny Drake & Mike Tobin) *
Match 6- Round Robin Match 2- Low Ki vs. Christopher Daniels ***
Match 7- Paul London vs. Chris Marvel 3/4*
Match 8- Spanky vs. Jay Briscoe **3/4
Match 9- Tag Team 3-Way Elimination Match- The SAT (Joel Maximo & Jose Maximo) vs. Divine Storm (Chris Divine & Quiet Storm) vs. Amazing Red & Brian XL **1/2
Match 10/Main Event- Round Robin Match 3- American Dragon vs. Low Ki *****1/4

Show thoughts: Better than The Era Of Honor Begins, but not by much. The Round Robin matches were all solid, although I expected a little more from Ki-Daniels. Was disappointed with the Xavier-Maritado match. I figured Maritado would be trying to make his name, looked like he was just trying to make a pay check. By this DVD for the main event. The best match in ROH so far.

WOW! Five stars and 1/4!

[Mike Adamle]

Yessir, I was on the edge of my seat the entire match. And when a match hits 5, I don't stop rating. If it gets even better, which this one did, it can go as high as it wants.

[Mike Adamle]

Without further delay:

4/27/02 ROH Night Of Appreciation
Match 1- Mixed Tag 3-Way Match- Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack) vs. The Christopher Street Connection (Buff-E & Mace Mendoza) vs. Prince Nana & Simply Luscious *3/4
Match 2- Jay Briscoe vs. Tony Mamaluke **1/2
Match 3- Tag Team Match- Divine Storm (Chris Divine & Quiet Storm) vs. Christian York & Joey Matthews **3/4
Match 4- 3-Way Match- James Maritado vs. Scoot Andrews vs. Xavier **3/4
Match 5- Low Ki vs. AJ Styles ****1/2
Match 6- Tag Team Match- The Carnage Crew (HC Loc & Tony DeVito) vs. The Ring Crew Express (Dunn & Marcos) *
Match 7- Donovan Morgan vs. Christopher Daniels ***
Match 8- 5 Man Gauntlet Match- Paul London vs. John Hope vs. Michael Shane vs. Spanky vs. American Dragon ****
Match 9/Main Event- Tag Team Match- Amazing Red & Eddie Guerrero vs. The SAT (Joel Maximo & Jose Maximo) ***1/4

Show Thoughts: Was alright, a notch below Round Robin Challenge but better than the first show. I don't really get why Guerrero didn't face someone like Christopher Daniels, Or Low Ki, or AJ Styles, or American Dragon, or Spanky, his partner Amazing Red, or even Paul London at this point. Could've put this show from decent to awesome. Anyways, the Low Ki vs. AJ Styles and gauntlet matches are what make this show worth buying. The main event and Daniels matches were alright, nothing special. They seemed to wanna put Morgan over as this awesome force, didn't play out that way though.

[JigsawVs.Jason]

I appreciate the in-depth review. I can see you a put quite a bit of thought into it.

This made my day

[supersonic]

Gabe has stated that Eddie vs. Daniels was the planned farewell for Eddie, and that for reasons he doesn't understand with hindsight, he changed it up because someone jobbing to EDDIE GUERRERO would kill the primary heel gimmick for Daniels.

Yeah. Thank goodness Gabe we got Eddie and Daniels working with faceless hacks instead of wrestling each other in a dream match.

[Robareid]

Since the anticipation among the ROHWorld universe was starting to rise I figured I'd oblige, and rate Round Robin Challenge! In this review you will find that my star ratings actually go beyond 5 stars when called for it!
3/30/02 ROH Round Robin Challenge
Match 1- Round Robin Match 1- Christopher Daniels vs. American Dragon ***3/4
Match 2- Tag Team Match- Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack) vs. Eric Tuddle & Prince Nana 3/4*
Match 3- Tag Team Match- Christian York & Joey Matthews vs. CW Anderson & Elax **1/4
Match 4- Xavier vs. James Maritado **1/4
Match 5- Tag Team Match- The Natural Born Sinners (Homicide & Boogalou) vs. The Boogie Knights (Danny Drake & Mike Tobin) *
Match 6- Round Robin Match 2- Low Ki vs. Christopher Daniels ***
Match 7- Paul London vs. Chris Marvel 3/4*
Match 8- Spanky vs. Jay Briscoe **3/4
Match 9- Tag Team 3-Way Elimination Match- The SAT (Joel Maximo & Jose Maximo) vs. Divine Storm (Chris Divine & Quiet Storm) vs. Amazing Red & Brian XL **1/2
Match 10/Main Event- Round Robin Match 3- American Dragon vs. Low Ki *****1/4

Show thoughts: Better than The Era Of Honor Begins, but not by much. The Round Robin matches were all solid, although I expected a little more from Ki-Daniels. Was disappointed with the Xavier-Maritado match. I figured Maritado would be trying to make his name, looked like he was just trying to make a pay check. By this DVD for the main event. The best match in ROH so far.

So you think a show that had a five and a quarter star match was not much better than lacklustre?

[Mike Adamle]

Yeah, there were 9 other matches, and none of those others were very good other than the round robin matches, but even those matches aren't worth buying the entire dvd for. I deeply enjoyed the main event though, that match is great, the dvd, not so much.

[Mike Adamle]

Without further ado...

6/22/02 ROH Road To The Title
Match 1- ROH Title Quarter-Final Match- Bryan Danielson vs. Bio-Hazard *1/4
Match 2- ROH Title Quarter-Final Match- Spanky vs. Paul London **3/4
Match 3- ROH Title Quarter-Final Match- Doug Williams vs. Jay Briscoe **
Match 4- ROH Title Quarter-Final Match- Jody Fleisch vs. Jonny Storm **1/2
Match 5- ROH Title Quarter-Final Match- Low Ki vs. Prince Nana *
Match 6- ROH Title Quarter-Final Match- Amazing Red vs. Xavier **1/4
Match 7- ROH Title Quarter-Final Match- Christopher Daniels vs. Scoot Andrews *1/4
Match 8- Summie Sakai vs. Simply Luscious *
Match 9- ROH Title Quarter-Final Match- AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn ***1/4
Match 10- ROH Title Semi-Final Match- Spanky vs. Jody Fleisch **1/4
Match 11- ROH Title Semi-Final Match- Doug Williams vs. Bryan Danielson ***
Match 12- ROH Title Semi-Final Match- Low Ki vs. Amazing Red ***3/4
Match 13/Main Event- ROH Title Semi-Final Match- Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles ***1/2

Show Thoughts: This show sucked. That said, I LOVED Low Ki vs. Amazing Red. If you wanna get this show, that's the match you're getting it for, along with AJ Styles' performance this night. His matches with Lynn and Daniels were pretty good, but I think I was disappointed because I'd seen better. Dragon-Williams was good too, but with who was in it I expected it to be better.

[Mike Adamle]

Since I may be strapped for time today and I know the anticipation is building for me to review Crowning a Champion I'll get it out of the way right now.

7/27/02 ROH Crowning A Champion
Match 1- Tony Mamaluke vs. Jeremy Lopez *1/2
Match 2- Tag Team Match- Christian York & Joey Matthews vs. Jacob's Ladder & Prince Nana 3/4*
Match 3- Winner gets an ROH Contract Tag Team Match- Michael Shane & Bio-Hazard vs. Don Juan & Paul London **
Match 4- Tag Team Match- Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack) vs. Divine Storm (Chris Divine & Quiet Storm) **
Match 5- James Maritado vs. Jay Briscoe **
Match 6- Tag Team Bunkhouse Match- The Natural Born Sinners (Boogalou & Homicide) vs. The Carnage Crew (HC Loc & Tony DeVito) ***
Match 7- TNA X Division Title 3-Way Elimination Match- AJ Styles (C) vs. Adam Jacobs vs. David Young **3/4
Match 8- If Scoot Andrews loses he's fired- Scoot Andrews vs. Xavier *1/2
Match 9/Main Event- ROH Title Final 4-Way 60 Minute Iron Man Match- Low Ki vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Doug Williams vs. Spanky *****1/2

Show Thoughts- This main event is now the best match in ROH history, even better than the Round Robin Challenge main event. These guys went balls to the walls for 60 minutes and told a great story while doing so. I loved the unique point system too. As for the rest of the show... was REALLY impressed with the bunkhouse match, I remember not expecting to see such a good match. But they should've cut about half the matches from the card and booked half the talent. There was a 60 minute iron man match on the show. Nothing else really had time to develop and suffered from it. Was expecting a lot more from the AJ Styles match after the last few shows he put on, but I guess that's why we never saw Jacobs or Young back.

[JigsawVs.Jason]

Seriously, the mods should close this thread, what's the point in listing all the star ratings, without providing some comments and thoughts on each match?
if everybody just posted their lists of star ratings, this review section would be flooded with mindless threads.
If you don't want to comment on every match, go look at supersonic's "Project Rewatch: ROH The good shit" thread and see how you can make reviews interesting.
Personally, I'm most interested in the comments, evaluations and interpretations on a match when reading a review. Only listing star ratings would be akin to only giving a 10 out of 10 rating for a movie review, devoid of stating why you've enjoyed the movie, what has worked well, etc.

[Mike Adamle]

Well like the mods told me, if you're not interested don't comment, seems like you deserve a good ban if you can't follow the rules! Sorry, I've got a full time job, I'm not gonna write an essay like Supersonic about every match I don't have time for that. If you wanna see my thoughts on specific matches, go to my post show thoughts, I do have time to write that little blurb where I discuss the best matches of the show and certain other matches that caught my mind, otherwise you might miss them. If that still isn't enough to satisfy you this thread isn't for you, go back to reading SuperSonic's essays.

[Mike Adamle]

Anyways, back to the thread before someone tries to take the thread off topic again.

8/24/02 ROH Honor Invades Boston
Match 1- Amazing Red vs. Quiet Storm **1/2
Match 2- 6 Man Tag Scramble Match- Chris Divine, Joel Maximo, & Jose Maximo vs. Brian XL, Dixie, & Izzy ***
Match 3- Low Ki vs. Chris Divine 3/4*
Match 4- Tag Team Match- The Christopher Street Connection (Buff-E & Mace Mendoza) vs. The Ring Crew Express (Dunn & Marcos) 3/4*
Match 5- Scoot Andrews vs. Mike Tobin *
Match 6- Xavier vs. Scoot Andrews *3/4
Match 7- Michael Shane vs. Paul London **1/4
Match 8- Bryan Danielson vs. Donovan Morgan **3/4
Match 9- Tag Team Boston Massacre Match- Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack) vs. The Carnage Crew (HC Loc & Tony DeVito) **1/2
Match 10- Bio-Hazard vs. Don Juan 1/2*
Match 11- Alex Arion vs. Maverick Wild *1/2
Match 12- Tag Team Match- The Natural Born Sinners (Boogalou & Homicide) vs. The FBI (James Maritado & Tony Mamaluke) *1/2
Match 13- Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Briscoe ***3/4
Match 14- ROH Title Match- Low Ki (C) vs. AJ Styles ****1/2

Post Show Thoughts- What a snoozefest! I was hoping Bryan Danielson vs. Donovan Morgan would be a barn burner, but once again, I was failed to be impressed by Donovan Morgan and don't understand why he's so hyped up. I expected the Boston Massacre match to be a bit better after the Carnage Crew's last brawl, but that wasn't to be. I don't get what it is about these last few shows and the number of matches. Nothing besides the last two had time to develop into anything. The scramble match was a fun sprint while it was going. Mark & Jay had a war, I could watch that one over and over. And finally, AJ and Low Ki had another classic, IMO I liked the other one more, but this one was just as good.

[Mike Adamle]

Gabe has stated that Eddie vs. Daniels was the planned farewell for Eddie, and that for reasons he doesn't understand with hindsight, he changed it up because someone jobbing to EDDIE GUERRERO would kill the primary heel gimmick for Daniels.

Yeah. Thank goodness Gabe we got Eddie and Daniels working with faceless hacks instead of wrestling each other in a dream match.

Really? Damn. Sounds like we missed out. I mean I don't get what the deal is with having Daniels job either, he was doing the job at each of the last shows and quite a few future shows.

[Mike Adamle]

9/21/02 ROH Unscripted
Match 1- ROH Tag Team Title Quarter-Final Match- The Prophecy (Christopher Daniels & Donovan Morgan) vs. The SAT (Joel Maximo & Jose Maximo **1/2
Match 2- ROH Tag Team Title Quarter-Final Match- Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka vs. The FBI (James Maritado & Tony Mamaluke **1/2
Match 3- Tony Mamaluke vs. James Maritado *3/4
Match 4- ROH Tag Team Title Quarter-Final Match- American Dragon & Michael Modest vs. Divine Storm (Chris Divine & Quiet Storm) **
Match 5- ROH Tag Team Title Semi-Final Match- The Prophecy (Christopher Daniels & Donovan Morgan) vs. Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka ***1/4
Match 6- Alex Arion vs. Dunn *
Match 7- ROH Title Match- Low Ki (C) vs. Xavier ***3/4
Match 8- Takao Omori vs. Sonny Siaki *1/2
Match 9- Jay Briscoe vs. Amazing Red **3/4
Match 10- Street Fight- Paul London vs. Michael Shane ****1/2
Match 11/Main Event- ROH Tag Team Title Final Match- The Prophecy (Christopher Daniels & Donovan Morgan) vs. American Dragon & Michael Modest ***3/4

Show Thoughts- Holy shit, that Street Fight was dangerous! These guys didn't care what they had to do to themselves to put the other away. That's the match you're buying the show for. I also enjoyed the ROH Title change, I loved the underhanded tactics of Xavier and the heel turn. Also really enjoyed the main event, can't go wrong with any combination involving Christopher Daniels and American Dragon.... I'm a little curious, was Takao Omori already in the states or did ROH bring him in for this show? Because if they flew him in, what a waste.

[Mike Adamle]

I appreciate the in-depth review. I can see you a put quite a bit of thought into it.

Sometimes there isn't just much to say without running through everything that happens (in which case it is really a recap, not a review), especially if you are trying to avoid giving out spoilers.

This guy gets it!