Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

[supersonic]

The Last Stand - January 29, 2004



The nostalgia returns immediately - this show marks the debut of THE S TO THE S TO THE P~!

Christopher Daniels cuts a promo via satellite - decent but again I'm not fully engaged into this heel vs. heel feud. Perhaps if the commentary called both groups out on their bullshit I'd be more into it. You didn't hear Jim Ross taking Edge or Randy Orton's side during their classic match in 2007; for whatever reason, Gabe Sapolsky seems to take the Prophecy's side at every standpoint, or completely gloss over that they stuck their hands in the cookie jar first.

Good Times, Great Memories
Guests: Dunn & Marcos

This sucked and just wasn't fucking entertaining at all. Colt Cabana had no clue how to ad-lib for the unenthusiastic crowd.

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Alex Shelley

Good but nothing special, as neither guy had done anything of note yet in ROH, so the crowd heat wasn't there, plus it was white-meat Shelley. Nice submissions and counters though, and I enjoyed the post-match.

Rating: ***1/4

CM Punk vs. Homicide

This one put me to sleep. Not horrible, but not a good match in any way. Bad night for both men and they could do much better as their previous match at Retribution: Round Robin Challenge II showed.

Rating: Less than ***

Tag Titles Match
Briscoe Bros. vs. Samoa Joe & Jerry Lynn

Good tag, but nothing close to the one involving Bryan Danielson on the previous show. A shitty finish that looked intentionally botched too to give Lynn an excuse to do the cradle piledriver since he didn't do it at all in the match. The highlight was easily Cornette doing a fantastic job of retorting to Lynn's real-life, world-is-out-to-get-me bitter potshots at WWE and keeping it kayfabe.

Joe cuts a GREAT promo afterwards (and like Daniels, he completely neglects to mention that he started his entire feud with the Briscoes by treating them like shit.) He does his job of getting me pumped for the cage match, and even the Prophecy threeway scheduled. Then Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer cut a promo that almost put me back to sleep, even though it's less than a minute.

Rating: ***

I can easily see why this DVD took so long to go OOP and ROH never bothered restocking it. Perhaps I shouldn't be saying that as this will be one of many OOP masters I'll be unloading soon, but I'm not here to milk you the viewers out of your money; this thread is to give you honest recommendations. Find a cheap way to see Shelley vs. Jacobs and avoid everything else unless you MUST have the entire ROH DVD collection in your closet. This was easily one of the worst shows ROH ever hosted. Maybe it's because it's a Baltimore show, but it left an SBG-like bad taste in my mouth.

Up next - Second Anniversary Show
Matches will include:
The good shit from the Pure Title Tournament, including CM Punk vs. John Walters, Chris Sabin vs. Doug Williams, a semifinal, and the final
Samoa Joe vs. Low Ki vs. Dan Maff vs. BJ Whitmer

[supersonic]

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 fucked 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

[supersonic]

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

[Jeremy]

This thread just makes me miss old ROH. 2004-2005 was the prime of ROH in my opinion.

[rudy]

I absolutely love these reviews! Amazing job! The format is incredible, you do not review the fluff and get right to the goods. Love the end of the year rewards as well.

[supersonic]

With a move-out, Breaking Bad catchup, and the Dark Knight trilogy out of the way, this returns next week.

[Thumbtack Matt]

Awesome. I don't always agree with your reviews, but I love how you do them, and it's always an interesting read. Can't wait for more.

[supersonic]

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

[supersonic]

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 "fuck 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 fuck 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

[supersonic]

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 fucking 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

[supersonic]

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 unfuckable 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 fucking 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 fucking 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

[DBSommer]

It was a great card and possibly saved the company after losing so much top tier talent. However the one thing above all that made the 8 man tag work was that all the guys were that damn good, especially the Gen nexters. Without that it would have been a so so match.

Nice review, as always. When I went to rewatch my collection, this was one of the first ones I went to.

[Colt45]

Flat out awesome review for a flat out awesome show.

Interestingly enough I found a master of this online just a week ago. great 10.00 spent, because I have to agree with you, just a A+ event. somehow despite being a pretty hardcore fan I've never seen Generation Next, so watching the show not knowing the results, but having an inking to what they were , made for a real treat that I don't get with modern day wresting,

As for the matches I loved the 8-man tag. just on the edge of your seat action the whole way through. every wrestler was used to their fullest, and helped make what i thought was Rave's breakout performance, not just the Generation Next guys. Just a the right mix of psychology, stunts, and stiffness. Also, I should mention I'm a sucker for huge tag matches that get plenty of time. ****1/2 match for me.

Joe/Homicide was another great match in a series of great matches. Memorable moments include fighting through the streamers, and Homicide lacerating Joe's face with a fucking fork. Absolutely insane action that their later matches unfortunately can't compete with. Probably the #3 match in their feud, which is saying something ****

And I'll give credit where it's dude. Nigel/Jacobs and the Tag Team Title match were both nice surprises. wasn't expecting a great midcard match at that point in Nigel/Jacobs career, or for BJ to take the plunge.

keep em' up because I've been enjoying the reads. 2004 is one of my favorite years in ROH history so I appreciate reading anything that takes a look back.

[supersonic]

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

[supersonic]

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

[supersonic]

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 fuck 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. FUCKING 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.

[Chaosphere]

It's such a shame that no other preceding incarnations of SOTF even came close to how immense the original match was.

On the subject of the Generation Next review, I felt the Homicide vs. Joe match was the best they've done. Probably just my opinion on that one.

[supersonic]

The first SOTF was never designed to more than a filler show. Look at the lineup of the qualifier matches as proof.

That it became so unforgettable is a testament to the roster, and that at one time, Gabe knew how to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. There were a lot of backstage issues going into putting that event together.

[DBSommer]

The first SOTF was never designed to more than a filler show. Look at the lineup of the qualifier matches as proof.

That it became so unforgettable is a testament to the roster, and that at one time, Gabe knew how to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. There were a lot of backstage issues going into putting that event together.

I thought at one point they were supposed to host the Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup, which had that style of match (Qualifiers into a 6 way elimination). But that deal fell through, and they went with the same format, but just didn't call it that. Or were those the issues you were talking about?

[supersonic]

That's the gist of it. ROH really did have a challenge in 2004, primarily due to RF and his effect specifically on the shows in March, April, and on June 24. But also factor in the planned Joe vs. Corino match being cancelled, causing a money match to be rushed. In addition, the May 22 event getting kicked out of the scheduled armory and holding it inside of a tent. It's really impressive how the booking team and roster responded during such a trying period. PWG went through something similar in 2008 primarily due to numerous injuries but also scheduling conflicts, and their roster responded by kick-starting an era of great in-ring action that currently marvels Gabe's ROH prime in my opinion.