Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

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supersonic
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

Post by supersonic »

Better Than Our Best - April 1, 2006

Image

Colt Cabana comes to ringside during the preshow, reiterating that he must end his feud with Homicide and get peace after the violence of the past several months.

Jack Evans vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Matt Sydal vs. Ace Steel vs. Jake Crist vs. Dave Crist

Just a spotfest, nothing truly special, but I expected that going in. This got the crowd's blood flowing and set a nice pace for the rest of the evening. Evans gets the victory before heading to Dragon Gate for three months.

ROH Commissioner Jim Cornette comes out to announce that Adam Pearce has been assigned as security to keep out Chris Hero & Necro Butcher. He's about to ask a young talent to come to the ring, but Colt Cabana interrupts. He begs for a hardcore match ("Chicago Street Fight" for the hometown pop) and Cornette grants that wish. Cornette then calls out Delirious.

Cornette puts over Delirious as a great, entertaining in-ring talent. But he says Delirious needs to win a match in order to maintain a spot on the ROH roster. He grants Delirious any opponent of his choosing, but only if Delirious agrees that this is do-or-die for him. The masked man cuts a gibberish promo that has the crowd in a frenzy, before he finally say something understandable. "Bllllllat!!!" Over and over again, followed by "Ricky Reyes! Ricky Reyes!" Cornette says it's on.

Before I get to the match: that segment included Delirious, Jim Cornette, Adam Pearce, and Colt Cabana. No politics, no bullshit, no rambling promos, no meaningless brawling. I miss the days before this company got overly petty.

The ROH Tenure of Delirious on the Line
Delirious vs. Ricky Reyes


A match that accomplished every single goal it had. Reyes dominated, while Delirious had some hope spots to show off his anger and desperation. Delirious got to be the one to break out of the Dragon Sleeper, which Austin Aries had been unable to do the week before, and finally clinched his first singles victory to maintain his spot, forcing the bully to submit to the Cobra Clutch after hitting him with the Shadows Over Hell. Poetry with a great reaction from the crowd. The first magical moment of the evening.

Dragon Gate Rules
Jimmy Rave, Alex Shelley, & Masato Yoshino vs. Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito, & Genki Horiguchi


Very good trios action but not the nonstop jaw-dropper of the trios matches earlier in the weekend. That's totally understandable since Rave & Shelley weren't trained for that style. I have to point out that while I enjoyed Brian Kendrick character-wise as a one night only member of the Embassy, Yoshino just completely smoked him in that regard and put forth a far superior in-ring performance to boot.

I really enjoyed Rave & Shelley at first being antsy when working with Do Fixer, taking powders and tagging in Yoshino, who was happy to be an asshole to his archrivals and get some vengeance after the Blood Generation loss the night before. He got to yet again show off his incredible chemistry with Dragon Kid, the two of them putting on some dazzling sprints.

Do Fixer was great in getting to show off their triple-team moves since only one of their opponents was familiar with them. But eventually Rave & Shelley did get comfortable and the last third of the match was tremendous action. The booking was perfect too for the Rave-hating Chicago crowd: the Crown Jewel finished off Horiguchi with the Pedigree! That meant the Embassy went 3-0 for this huge triple-shot, solidifying themselves as the #1 Contenders for the Tag Titles.

Rating: ***3/4

Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Yang vs. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

Another match with impressive action, although not quite as much as would be expected, and was plagued by tags not being logically enforced in the third act. This wasn't a Dragon Gate or Generation Next trios match, so it should've been easy for the referee to keep track.

Daniels had no interest in being involved early, and it seemed that Styles was to be the target in this match, but Joe would play that role in the second act. Everything in this match was crisp, getting the crowd to pop and everyone worked hard. Although neither man was actually legal, Joe finished off Styles with a rear-naked choke.

Rating: ***1/2

Afterwards, Joe stays in the ring and announces that it's time for him to get an ROH Title shot, calling out Bryan Danielson. The champ comes to the ring and talks shit, with a nice "If I can be serious for a moment..." dig at Lance Storm. After some nice crowd-engaging mic work, Danielson says he'll be happy to grant it after he's done kicking Storm's ass.

As Danielson heads backstage, out come Hero & Necro to throw Joe out of the ring. Pearce immediately storms to the ring and brawls with them. Cornette comes out with Claudio Castagnoli. The Swiss native fails to inflict any damage on the CZW stars, missing a baseball bat swing and appearing to land awkwardly on his knee on the gym floor. Cornette is taken out and Pearce is left laying, allowing the CZW stars to have the last laugh on ROH's historic weekend. This drew incredible heat as expected.

Tag Titles Match
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. CIMA & Naruki Doi


Not the classic match I remembered, but still very good stuff. There was no clear announcement that this would be under Dragon Gate Rules, and with it being a title match, I assume this was to be held under ROH rules. Therefore, there was no reason for the referee to forget who was legal, and like the trios match earlier in the evening, this didn't have the breathtaking pace of the trios matches earlier in the weekend. All the more reason that the referee should've remembered who was legal, as it would NOT have been ticky-tacky or ruined the pace.

Strong was great laying down some brutality less than 24 hours removed from a grueling ROH Title shot against Danielson. CIMA did a phenomenal job of selling a chop from Strong, just absolutely perfect for someone not accustomed to Strong's physical style and popping the crowd even more in the process. Blood Generation would eventually get the advantage on Aries though, who would end up getting busted open on the face.

Aries found his face getting targeted, further showcasing that no matter how awesome CIMA & Doi were, they were still pricks on par with Danielson. Strong was great when he got the hot tag and laying down the fire on Blood Generation. This was the third act and the ref unfortunately forgot who was legal. But this was still very, very good action and worth checking out. All four men certainly deserved the standing ovation they got from the 1600-1700 fans in attendance.

Rating: ***3/4

ROH Title Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Lance Storm


Similar to Matt Hardy, the bandwagon for Lance Storm is long-gone, and it's obvious he's not an all-time great grappler as ROH marketed him as being during this time. With that said, he brought his fucking working boots on this night and more than held up his end in making this a great match, a true technical classic that stands the test of time. He was treated like a star by the Chicago crowd and gave them their money's worth. This is a match that I wish I had experienced live.

Danielson of course carried the personality portion of the match, which was the right decision to make since by now we all know how charismatic he truly is. But he didn't carry Storm, as both men were equally impressive with their mat wrestling and storytelling. The first couple minutes saw them having a teeter-totter of a technical showcase, struggling to get an extended advantage and exchanging arm twists, arm drags, hammerlocks, and snap-mare takeovers. It was fucking beautiful mat-work and managed to be engaging.

Danielson would attempt to get in the veteran Storm's head with a slap, only for minutes later to get a receipt from the former WWE/WCW/ECW superstar, as this obviously wasn't his first rodeo with a cocky and disrespectful young pup. They had more great wrestling with Storm getting an advantage, causing Danielson to take an extended break outside the ring and cautiously getting back in. A particular spot that stood out was when Storm rolled a running Danielson into the half-crab, getting a tremendous reaction and showing just how seriously he was taking this opportunity to hold a title that had been treated with such high regard.

After more great wrestling, Danielson would lock in the Crossface Chickenwing, but Storm broke it by reaching the ropes, building up the drama and getting the crowd even more behind the challenger. Storm would pull out a trick from his peer Jerry Lynn's playbook, planting the champ with a cradle piledriver. When that doesn't put down the champ, he locks in the half-crab again, and this time the crowd is hoping/sensing that a title change is about to unfold in front of them, but the champ rolls him for a nearfall, the same position which had finished off Strong the night before.

The third act would continue to be great stuff, leading to a fantastic finishing sequence. Storm got out of the Cattle Mutilation and positioned Danielson into a rollup for a hot nearfall. Danielson managed to almost finish off Storm with a Tiger Suplex, then locked it in the Cattle Mutilation once again for the submission victory. After shaking hands, Danielson leaves Storm to get the spotlight he earned after an excellent effort.

I don't know if this is the best match of Storm's career, as the only work I've seen of his was some WCW and then his WWE career. This is definitely in the conversation though and holds up incredibly well. Excellent match.

Rating: ****

Hardcore Match
Homicide vs. Colt Cabana


I might be in the minority, but I absolutely love the music used in their pre-match video. Struck me with a nostalgic WCW feeling before that federation went down the shitter.

Cabana starts with the early advantage, fueled by his anger, hometown crowd support, and knowing that this is the end of a violent chapter of his career. He fucking tossed Homicide around at ringside, getting his first taste of what he hoped would be the satisfying closure he had been wanting for five months. Smokes is able to distract the Chicago native to allow Homicide to regain the advantage.

Homicide was fucking brutal to Cabana as usual for their feud. In this match he brought in a ladder, then much later a barbed-wire board (last seen in ROH for the previous "Chicago Street Fight" inside the same building at Death Before Dishonor II Pt. 2), and then as the match was reaching its conclusion, asked the fans to throw chairs in the ring in another spot not seen since that same previous "Chicago Street Fight." I'm glad nobody got badly hurt there, although a chair did bounce off of Cabana.

Cabana was able to bust Homicide open, and drew the trademark fork out of the Notorious 187's boot, scraping at his forehead. But also introduced into the match, in true moments of poetry, was a coathanger and even a bottle of Drano. Cabana teased he would use the latter, but that thankfully never came to fruition. Homicide would then have his Bernie Williams jersey removed by Cabana. They had a great little tease of who would get the other onto the barbed-wire board, an obvious sign of things to come.

Instead, after having scraped the forehead of Homicide, Cabana poured a bunch of rubbing alcohol on the crimson mask. Homicide screamed in absolute agony, twitching outside the ring to sell the pain. Fantastic stuff. After being thrown in the ring, Homicide begged off, asking Cabana to end it, but of course that was bullshit and Cabana knew it. Cabana would be victim to a lowblow, and this would allow Homicide to toss in a chair, followed by the chair riot.

Having about a minute to recover from the lowblow, both men went at each other in the chair-canvas ring. Homicide would unfathomably kick out of a superplex that had both men landing on the steel. Cabana would clear the chairs out, as would Homicide, but not before Homicide utilized CM Punk's Pepsi Plunge for another great nearfall. This would get the fans to temporarily slap the barricades to the early part of "Miseria Cantare." Homicide asks Smokes to come after Homicide, but finds himself getting accidentally charged out of the ring.

Cabana takes advantage and ties Smokes to the ropes and take him out of the equation. With Homicide recovering on the outside, Cabana set up a table on top of the barbed-wire board in front of the corner. They have a back-and-forth to tease who would take the barbaric bump, with Cabana winning that battle, forcing Homicide to eat a super powerbomb on it. Homicide would kick out of that and a follow-up lariat, then had absolutely nothing left when that was followed up with a Colt .45, a move Cabana had not used for an extended period of time in ROH.

Cabana gets a great reaction from the hometown crowd, but is mugged by Smokes & Reyes, who threaten to hang him with a noose like it's Mississippi Burning. Homicide has regained consciousness and tells them to back off, that he will end this his way on his own. The Rottweilers have an extended argument, and they finally listen to their leader. Homicide says he is obligated to at least respect Cabana after everything they've been through and finally beating an ROH legend.

"You want your goddamn peace? I'll give you your fucking peace!"

Homicide apologizes for everything and offers his hand, falling to his knees. Cabana accepts and Homicide says it's over, that he respects him. After everything they had been through, an unnecessarily violent turn but with their issues settled, they shake hands and embrace, with Homicide reassuring that the feud is history. Confetti falls at ringside as the crowd chants "ROH!" Smokes half-heartedly shakes the hand of Cabana, not agreeing with his leader but respecting his wishes.

Cabana is left to a monster celebration in front of his hometown, the perfect ending to the best weekend ROH has ever hosted. And that's not hyperbole.

I'm sure both men, now in their mid-30s and not quite etching HOF careers on the big stages, reflect back and regret some of the violence in this feud and this particular closing match. It was fucking brutal. But if they can compartmentalize that like I am, they should still be able to appreciate and be proud of this hardcore masterpiece they put together. There was no better way to close out the show than to bring this underrated feud, a great feud in retrospect, to a conclusion in Cabana's hometown, with him finally slaying the demon.

This was storytelling magnificence and a classic hardcore match. I'm not sure if wrestling will ever be able to deliver something like this again. A genuine MOTYC. Both men should be STRONGLY considered to get a shot at Danielson, and I hope those CZW stars who boast about using weaponry got a look at this, and should be VERY concerned that ROH has guys who went through this length and could feel this depth of hatred.

Rating: ****1/2

Is this the greatest show in ROH history as many claim it to be?

If you watch this with that expectation, you won't find it to be quite that head-and-shoulders epic. The mid-card matches that I had remembered as being excellent didn't quite hold up almost a decade later, although they were all VERY good stuff, with two of the matches bordering on greatness. That's nothing to be ashamed of and they did an incredible job of doing what they needed to do for their spots on the cards.

A key thing that makes this show stand out among the many great shows during the Gabe Sapolsky era was the pacing. Sapolsky managed to pace this event in a way that anyone in attendance seeing the federation for the first time would be able to digest it while also being blown away, AND also delivering the quality of matches that the frequent customers of ROH at this time had become accustomed to. Pacing was always an issue for him, but on this night, it truly clicked for him in that regard. Adam Pearce and Delirious have gone on to pace events that are digestible for newbies, but not quite delivering the frequent match quality that quite captures the detail-oriented, demanding eye of folks like me.

The two money matches to headline this event both delivered as expected, with them obviously being two completely different flavors. An established superstar in the big leagues came in and put forth a career-defining performance against one of the greatest in-ring technicians the business has ever seen, adding another layer of prestige for the ROH Title. A violent feud finally reached its appropriately timed, emotional conclusion, the hometown boy finally getting the last laugh after being driven away from his standard comedy routine. And afterwards, Homicide made his babyface turn after two years of absolute malice and bitterness controlling his actions.

But it's not just the mid-card and main events that make a show get held in such high regard. You gotta have that meaningful undercard. The opener was just a spotfest, but that's all it needed to be. In a sign of what was to come in the main event of the evening, Delirious, an established comedy style freak, slayed a member of the Rottweilers to save his career in ROH, a victory that meant more after Austin Aries had been unable to overcome the Dragon Sleeper of Ricky Reyes prior to this event.

But that's not all, folks. On this event, we got to see CZW leave with the final say on ROH, leaving them laying on such a historic weekend for the company before ROH would head back to the East Coast, where the fanbases may not be quite so slanted towards ROH. In the same segment, the iconic Joe would make it known that he was ready to challenge Danielson and regain the top prize in the company, finally teasing a match that many fans had been hoping to see since their ***** classic at Midnight Express Reunion.

Nowhere to Run had a slightly better match quality on paper, and had key storyline progression just like this one too, even the hometown guy getting the final say in a feud-ending gimmick match that followed a phenomenal technical match contested over the top prize in the company. I'm also sure that as I continue this project, I will have the pleasure of revisiting shows that are more stacked with truly high-caliber match quality. But this night was a truly magical night, with flawless pacing, storyline progression left and right, stars from other federations coming in and busting their asses, and getting capped off with two incredible matches. This also had the key ingredient that I love so much in wrestling: VARIETY, not just in matches, but in storylines as well.

Now imagine with all of that I mentioned, and taking into account both Dragon Gate Challenge and Supercard of Honor, if ROH had managed to book the Briscoes, Low Ki, and Nigel McGuinness for this magical weekend.

I want to take the time in case any wrestler involved in the matches I reviewed for WrestleMania 22 weekend ever reads this: Thank you for your hard work and determination. I know that having three nights like this back-to-back-to-back could not have been a breeze, and I appreciate everything you guys did to give the fans in attendance and those watching on DVD more than their money's worth. I'm sure the paydays were nowhere near what NJPW pays for the grueling G-1 Climax.

With a day to sleep on this and grasp everything that this card accomplished, I can clearly make the declaration.

Not only do I wish I had a time machine, but Better Than Our Best is the greatest event in ROH history.

Up next - The 100th Show
Matches will include:
Bryan Danielson vs. Delirious
Briscoe Bros. vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal
Team ROH of Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer, & Adam Pearce vs. Team CZW of Chris Hero, Super Dragon, & Necro Butcher
Last edited by supersonic on Thu Aug 24, 2017 12:42 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Colt45
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

Post by Colt45 »

Two things I'd like to comment on. 1) ROH's shitty production can be off putting at first, but videos like the Ballad of Lacey glow with character and only get better over time. I don't like to use this thread to harp on ROH's current product, but what is really missing nowadays is anything enjoyable besides the wrestling. In ROH's heyday you had it all - promos, segments, matches; everything. Sure half of it looked like crap and was filmed on your grandma's camcorder, but the wonky camera angles, sometimes absent lighting, and dirty lenses all oozed that indy class I've come to miss. It may sound stupid to some but one of the things I enjoy most about classic Ring of Honor is that Sapolsky AV club production.

And that brings me to 2). I agree with supersonic that Gabe could seriously pace shows when it counted. The Milestone Series, and especially my top three shows of it DGC, BTOB, and 100th are all beautifully put together. While they're not lined with bangers up and down the card, they are packed with the best ROH had to offer and fed it to you over a three course dinner. The Milestone series is certainly a saga in itself and will probably go down in history as the best consecutive stretch the company will ever have, through 2005 was super solid like I've stated before. I'll wait until supersonic has wrapped up the series to expound further.
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supersonic
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

Post by supersonic »

The 100th Show - April 22, 2006

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ROH Video Recap - April 5, 2006



Important news/footage in the above video:
Exclusive footage from Arena Warfare after the Briscoes attacked Austin Aries and Matt Sydal. Sydal has challenged them to face himself and AJ Styles on April 22 in Philly for The 100th Show!
KENTA is confirmed to return for 3 dates - June 17 in NYC, June 23 in Detroit, June 24 in Chicago!
Commissioner Jim Cornette has challenged CZW owner John Zandig to a glorified verbal debate at The 100th Show. Fuck that trash. Another good Cornette promo here though in a vacuum.

ROH Video Recap - April 15, 2006



Important news/footage in the above video:
Homicide and Colt Cabana have finally settled their grudge, so they now focus on winning championships. The 100th Show gets even more depth (on paper) with Cabana challenging ROH Champion Bryan Danielson and Homicide teaming with Ricky Reyes to challenge Tag Champions Austin Aries & Roderick Strong.
More depth for the same show - Lacey is fed up with Jimmy Jacobs not winning matches, so she won't accompany him, but insinuates she'll go topless on ROHvideos.com should he win.
And the biggie - ROH and CZW finally have a sanctioned match with Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer, & Adam Pearce colliding with Chris Hero, Super Dragon, & Necro Butcher in what promises to be a chaotic main event! OH FUCK YES~!

Christopher Daniels vs. Claudio Castagnoli

The split ROH and CZW crowd is amazing already in the opening match, with split chants over Chris Hero, who isn't even involved in this match.

First-time ever matchup that is also a Pure Title Shot opportunity for Daniels. Glad I decided not to skip this one. They have a stalemate early trading arm submissions and arm-drags. The match develops a story when Daniels hits a basement dropkick on Castagnoli's left leg. Of course Daniels would go to work on it, to which Castagnoli did an exceptional job of selling it.

Castagnoli would get the heat back when he was seated on the turnbuckle and used his right foot to push Daniels off, then following that up with a diving European Uppercut. However, Castagnoli would land on his left knee when delivering that move, which he continued selling. After several more minutes of back-and-forth work, Castagnoli is unable to land an Alpamari Waterslide due to his left knee. This allow Daniels to roll him forward and hold onto that left knee for the pinfall.

Post-match, Daniels announces he has a milestone of his own, offering to follow the Code of Honor, which Castagnoli accepts unlike Low Ki at Tag Wars 2006. The fans react very well to this, and Daniels leaves Castagnoli in the ring to get his spotlight. Hero immediately interrupts walking through the fans and cutting a promo. He spews much negativity while walking through the hated ROH section, then changes his tune about overcoming adversity when reaching the partial CZW section before fucking off. Castagnoli leads a passionate "ROH" chant for the majority in attendance.

Rating: ***1/4

I FF to the closing minutes of the next match, which is Delirious vs. Jimmy Yang vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Jimmy Jacobs. Jacobs has Yang finished off but refuses to pin him, which allows Delirious to make him submit to the Cobra Stretch. This serves multiple purposes to be revealed later in the night. Considering that Yang would be getting an ROH Title shot on the next show though, I wouldn't have booked him to look so vulnerable.

ROH Title Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Colt Cabana


Both men are coming off huge victories in the two main events at Better Than Our Best. Danielson has Bobby Cruise announce that he's the "least overrated wrestler in the world" in response to the CZW section; he also moons them. He and Cabana have very some nice wrestling for several minutes, with this looking to be a potential classic, only for Cabana to get rolled up less than seven minutes into this match, a big shocker after his landmark victory just three weeks prior.

Jacobs reveals in a backstage intermission promo that he wasn't going to allow the fans to see Lacey strip naked on ROHvideos.com as she insinuated if he had won, which is why he allowed himself to lose the match. Meanwhile, Cabana refuses to be interviewed, distraught after choking in his big match.

Bryan Danelson comes out after the students match, for some reason wearing one of the Tag Titles, but nobody acknowledges it. ( My theory on this mishap was to play a rib on Gabe Sapolsky.) He cuts a phenomenal promo on the CZW crowd, completely mocking and burying them for their irrationality. This is one of the best promos of his entire career, one that shows just what a great character he is for the business.

Danielson then says after making quick work of Cabana, "not even breaking a sweat," he will put the title on the line again tonight against someone who won in the first half. He'd already beaten Daniels. He'd already beaten Austin Aries. He'd already beaten Roderick Strong three times. So that left Delirious. I'd have laughed if Aries had come out with the actual ROH Title.

Delirious comes out and after being mocked by Danielson, cuts a gibberish promo that has the crowd rocking. He hymns to the tune of the "Final Countdown"...

ROH Title Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Delirious


... and Danielson slaps him to start off the match. He dominates early, just absolutely schooling Delirious and of course trolling the CZW fans more. In a moment that makes me believe even more that Sapolsky was planning for Danielson to have a title defense against Super Dragon, Danielson even hits a curb stomp directly in front of the CZW audience to antagonize them even more. (How perfect it would've been for SD to cash in that open contract by technically representing PWG?) He follows that up with a Rick Rude sexy pose, then does another one because apparently a female in the audience likes it. And just to be even more of a dick, already having the advantage, the champ uses the ropes for leverage when applying the abdominal stretch.

Crotched on the top rope, Delirious would fight off Danielson to get some control. This would be short-lived after a few moves as the champ used the momentum from an attempted clothesline to position the challenger as victim for the Cattle Mutilation. Delirious would quickly get to the ropes to break it, and also block an attempted Crossface Chickenwing, following that up with an airplane spin, kick to the hand, and then the Cobra Stretch, but the champ would of course reach the ropes.

Delirious followed that up with a tope suicida, landing awkwardly on his right shoulder. Danielson would throw him into the guardrail to regain control, not feeling much effect from the highspot. He would toss the challenger into the guardrail after teasing an airplane spin, refusing to pull out the signature move as a fuck off to the audience. Danielson would batter Delirious, splitting the mask open and revealing blood underneath the mask.

The champ would go after the cut Delirious had, but another Cattle Mutilation would end up with a ropebreak once the action got back inside. Danielson would miss a diving headbutt, allowing Delirious some control and giving the future HOFer numerous clotheslines in the corner. Danielson blocks an attempted superplex, crotching Delirious for a super back drop suplex, then finishing him off with the elbows to the bleeding head.

Delirious would get a standing ovation from the crowd for this breakout effort as he got helped to the back, leaving the champ in the ring with the majority of the ROH crowd chanting "He's our hero!" Not a super great match, but perfect in accomplishing its goals, which were to make Danielson look like a ruthless dick and elevate Delirious.

Rating: ***

Briscoe Bros. vs. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal

Really good action, ruined only by the ref somehow forgetting one tag legality. The Briscoes would decimate Sydal in this one as they should've. Styles of course was great in his aggression and also would get trolled to allow the Briscoes to cut the ring in half. This got heated and a bit wild, with the ref allowing leeway in the closing stretch, but thankfully the participants remembered who was legal after hitting Sydal with a spike double underhook piledriver. Very good stuff overall, but I'd have booked Styles to do the job since Sydal was getting a title opportunity on the next event. Glad to see the Briscoes get momentum though after immediately declaring that they were coming for the tag belts.

Rating: ***1/2

A short video of many of the greatest moments of ROH's first 99 shows is aired. Good stuff but still missing a lot of essential clips, such as Styles vs. Paul London @ Night of the Grudges and the Danielson vs. Strong trilogy (only three singles matches between them in ROH up to this point.)

Team ROH vs. Team CZW - Hardcore Match
Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer, & Adam Pearce vs. Chris Hero, Super Dragon, & Necro Butcher


This match is officiated by ROH's #1 referee Todd Sinclair and a CZW referee I don't recognize. There is also no commentary for this match as it would be unnecessary.

The heat in this match was just unreal, just right behind Joe's singles match against Kenta Kobashi in NYC and Aries vs. CM Punk @ Death Before Dishonor III. Fucking brutal hardcore match, just stiff shit and unprotected chairshots all over the place. I should note that Joe and Hero, the true captains of their respective teams, took by far the least amount of punishment in this instant storytelling classic. But what those two brought was extra crowd heat for their segments with the other participants, and specifically against each other.

Pearce appeared to get busted open early on his scalp, showing the most crimson of all the participants. His blood would stain Necro's neon CZW shirt. Those two had a great moment in the ring. They had a literal slugfest, exchanging punches to their bodies, and Necro won that little battle much to the CZW section's delight. Moments later, Pearce would deliver a receipt in another slugfest, winning that battle.

Every matchup in this was fucking great. Joe and Necro got big pops. Joe and SD did as well.

After about 25 minutes of just brutal, brutal action in front of this excellent crowd in attendance, CZW owner John Zandig attempts to insert himself into this masterpiece, drawing Joe to come beat the shit out of him, but Hero & Necro come help out. Sinclair isn't happy about this, wanting this to be a fair fight. After conducting themselves without altercation up to this point, the CZW ref gets in Sinclair's face, somehow rationalizing that "this is CZW!" to justify this becoming an unfair fight, and Sinclair ain't taking his shit. Necro knocks Sinclair out from behind.

Out comes Castagnoli, wearing a glittery ROH jacket, and I should note that he had appeared earlier in the match to take a barb-wire baseball bat away from Zandig, drawing him to the back. Castagnoli throws Zandig out of the ring and grabs Hero, holding him for Joe. When Joe runs to the ropes for momentum to strike Hero, Castagnoli pushes his trainer away and gives Joe a European Uppercut, just hours after having the honors of getting the first genuine handshake Daniels had delivered in ROH.

The Kings of Wrestling embrace, but this is interrupted seconds later when Pearce dropkicks Castagnoli. As this is going on, the ROH crowd is chanting for Homicide, the man in ROH who has shown to thrive better than anyone else in this type of environment.

Also during this match, in what has to be the most insane spot, SD took out Whitmer with an Argentine piledriver from the apron through a table laid out on the concrete floor. An all-time highlight reel spot in ROH's rich vault.

SD & Necro take out Pearce, who then gets finished off with what looks like a double-team swinging gut-wrench Ace Crusher from KOW. The CZW referee gladly counts Pearce down for the three. The CZW representatives walk over to their section and celebrate as a pissed-off Joe glares at them while standing besides his fallen ROH colleague. He says to let the CZW theme music play, as it'll be the last time it's heard in the ROH environment.

Whitmer is carried out on a board while Pearce is dripping blood. Meanwhile, Zandig poses with CZW fans and the CZW stars take the back door out of the building.

With the exception of a totally illogical officiating moment when the refs were doing a 10 count on guys knocked down in the ring, this was fucking epic and deserving of the "Match of the Year" chant coming from the crowd afterwards. Excellent, excellent, EXCELLENT brawl and the booking was top-notch, giving CZW the last laugh yet again.

Rating: ****3/4

Cabana does a backstage interview and he believes he "forgot how to wrestle" during his extended feud against Homicide. He says he will start at the bottom with the goal of challenging for the ROH Title.

The DVD closes with Pearce getting medical attention on his head, showing two deep gashes on his scalp. I can appreciate the pain he put himself through to get this program over.

What an absolutely phenomenal end to The Milestone Series. A timeless storytelling hardcore classic right in the thick of the greatest feud in company history. A fun, action-packed tag match. A moment 99 shows in the making to kick off the show. Danielson wrestling twice and doing a masterful troll job of the CZW fanbase, elevating an undercard wrestler and further cementing his legacy in the process. And let's not forget the rocking Philly crowd split between their federations of choice, making for an amazing atmosphere throughout the night.

It's a shame we didn't get the rematch of The Era of Honor Begins main event that was 99 shows in the making. But this was one HELL of a fucking plan B.

ROH had amazing stretches in 2004 and 2005, and has gone on to do so yet again in the coming years. But the seven shows that compiled The Milestone Series truly showcase everything great about ROH. Top-notch technical wrestling that elevated the prestige of the ROH Title and further solidified Bryan Danielson's in-ring legacy. Fantastic trios matches and great tag team wrestling. Superstars from other federations or in retirement showing up with their working boots. Star power all over the place. Generally amazing crowds. Tremendous pacing. The greatest feud in company history. The early stages of one of the best feuds in company history, while another epic feud would come to a violent but happy end. This stretch of shows had EVERYTHING for both die-hard and new fans.

If you have never seen The Milestone Series, take the time to dig around and find these events. It's a time that will never be duplicated, even if some federations attempt to do so. WWE no longer snubs its nose at the indies, meaning that top-notch talent isn't left toiling and starving to get noticed as much as they were in the mid-2000s. NOAH is practically a walking corpse. ROH and Dragon Gate unfortunately had a falling out, leading to an already thinned out indy scene getting thinned out even more with ridiculous "exclusive contracts." And for reasons that are totally understandable, the frequent workrate and violence had to be toned down for the long-term brand of ROH under its current owners.

Fear not though, because in my opinion it would be awhile before ROH's peak period would end, and the greatest rivalry in company history is near on this project for me.

Up next - Weekend of Champions Night 1
Matches will include:
Jimmy Jacobs vs. Colt Cabana
Nigel McGuinness vs. Christopher Daniels
Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Yang
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Samoa Joe & Matt Sydal
Team ROH of BJ Whitmer, Ace Steel, & Adam Pearce vs. Team CZW of Super Dragon, Nate Webb, & Necro Butcher
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

Post by supersonic »

Weekend of Champions Night 1 - April 28, 2006

Image

Included for the first time on DVD is the respective Video Recap.

ROH Video Recap - April 25, 2006



Important news/footage from the above video:
Yet another very good Cornette promo about the events at The 100th Show. This promo would be moot though as I'm about to explain.

The feature presentation starts with Lacey and Jimmy Jacobs earlier in the day having a discussion. Lacey is unimpressed with Jacobs not getting a victory and she doesn't give a shit what his reasons are, threatening to fire him soon if he doesn't get results.

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Colt Cabana

Not a noteworthy match but an entertaining one as expected, which is why I watched this. Seriously, a comedy guy trying to work his way back up the card as a wrestler against a guy on the hot seat with the valet that he's in twisted love with. Worked like a charm in front of Dayton, the perfect crowd for this dynamic. There's another reason I watched this too which I will get to later down the line.

Post-match, with Cabana winning of course, out comes ROH Commissioner Jim Cornette with Ace Steel, Cabana's trainer and fellow Second City Saint. Cornette requests his help against CZW and says that Claudio Castagnoli is a deserter for what he did just days before this event; Cornette basically recites his promo on the included Video Recap. Cabana agrees to help out with ROH's cause against CZW later in the evening, and I love that after he got the last laugh in the violent feud against Homicide.

After the second match, Super Dragon shows up and beats up a geek. Not much of a reaction because why would anyone, even an enthusiastic Dayton, give a shit about a geek without a braggadocios promo to taunt the crowd and locker room afterwards?

Nigel McGuinness cuts another fun promo saying that he'll take care of Christopher Daniels tonight, and then focuses on Bryan Danielson the next night for their dream match to determine the best wrestler in the company, in what should be the first ever ROH Title vs. Pure Title match assuming they both retain tonight. It's very obvious that McGuinness is looking past Daniels towards Danielson.

Pure Title Match
Nigel McGuinness vs. Christopher Daniels


Good match here with some counters I hadn't seen before. McGuinness forced Daniels to use a rope break when he got hit in the eye, going for constant nearfalls and moving the challenger closer to the ropes each time. Later McGuinness would regain control with a corner headstand kick followed up by throwing Daniels shoulder-first in the turnbuckle. Daniels would get his left arm and shoulder worked on, but also showed some nice counter submissions to get the champ to use his rope breaks.

In the closing stretch, McGuinness would be out of rope breaks so he forced himself and Daniels to the outside during a submission to break it. They brawled outside as the ref counted, and as the 20 count got close, McGuinness threw a photographer at Daniels to take the cheap win by countout. Great heat for this and I liked that finish not just because it reminds the ROH audience that he's still an underhanded son of a bitch after winning clean during his last match at Best in the World 2006, but also shows he NEEDED to cheat because he was looking past Daniels.

Rating: ***1/4

At intermission, Danielson talks about the dream match against McGuinness the next night, feeling like he has to prove himself once again despite being the best in the company for quite some time. Samoa Joe interrupts him and says that he's eventually coming "to take what's mine" after taking care of CZW. Joe is hilariously hypocritical when he says Danielson will be combining the ROH and Pure Titles to feed his ego. Let's recall Joe's insecure cheapshots at the Pure Title in 2004 and on this very night, he's going for the Tag Titles yet again to be the first ever Triple Crown winner in company history to feed his own ego, a goal that cost him his friendship with Jay Lethal.

ROH Title Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Yang


Good match but not sure it's the best match of Yang's career as some live reports indicated at the time. For one, it was obvious Yang wasn't gonna dethrone Danielson which kept even a crowd as enthusiastic as Dayton from buying into a title change. This also kicked off intermission and matches in that position usually aren't show-stealers. I did enjoy Danielson trying to bait Yang at times, only for Yang to just come at him with kicks without much caution. Once Danielson applied the Crossface Chickenwing from the top rope, we knew it was over.

Rating: ***1/4

Tag Titles Match
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Samoa Joe & Matt Sydal


As I'd expect, Aries and Sydal played the Ricky Morton roles throughout various segments in this match. Both times were incredible. Standout moments in this match include: TAG LEGALITIES BEING REMEMBERED; Strong and Sydal taking a blocked earclap headscissors followed by Yakuza kick with awkward Sydal bump sequence from their singles match in PWG a few weeks earlier; Joe countering a charge from Aries with an Ace Crusher, allowing Sydal to hit a gorgeous standing moonsault nearfall; and a red-hot finishing stretch that had the Dayton crowd rocking. The finish was perfect with Joe being taken out by a tope suicide, allowing the champs to hit two backbreakers followed by a 450 Splash. Excellent match.

Rating: ****

Post-match, Joe is left in the ring and calls out CZW and we have a brawl. Joe is taken to the back by Necro, and he gets hog-tied by Castagnoli.

Team ROH vs. Team CZW - Hardcore Match
BJ Whitmer, Adam Pearce, Ace Steel, & Colt Cabana vs. Super Dragon, Nate Webb, Necro Butcher, & Claudio Castagnoli


As the brawl continues, Whitmer and Pearce come out one at a time, and Whitmer's neck brace is removed by Castagnoli. This was a very good brawl, but after being just six days after the chaotic epic at The 100th Show, these guys had to tone it down a bit. Also, as great the Dayton crowd was, this feud was not as over in any market as it was in Philadelphia. The spots that stand out to me are a shotgun dropkick from Cabana in which he appeared not to be comfortable from taking that bump, and the finish, which was Castagnoli holding Whitmer between a chair decapitation-style so that SD could stomp on the neck just siix days after the ridiculous Argentine piledriver, and Whitmer taking a musclebuster from Castagnoli.

Post-match as Whitmer is carried out, Steel wants CZW to have someone to "fucking die" and Pearce says that after two losses, "there will not be a fucking third!!!"

Rating: ***1/2

Not on par with The Milestone Series, but very good show in Dayton as usual at the time. The tag match is must-see and hopefully gets included on the inevitable Sydal compilation that I expect to be released before 2014 ends.

At long last, I arrive at the greatest rivalry in company history...

Up next - Weekend of Champions Night 2
Matches will include:
Chris Sabin vs. Delirious
Super Dragon vs. BJ Whitmer
Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels
Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

Post by supersonic »

Weekend of Champions Night 2 - April 29, 2006

Image

Lacey is getting more fed up with Jimmy Jacobs and his failure to win a match.

BJ Whitmer kicks off the show with a neck brace but his promo is thankfully cut short by ROH Commish Jim Cornette, who also brings out Adam Pearce. The Scrap Daddy is named Lt. Commish when Cornette isn't around, and he asks Whitmer to sit out the night due to all the punishment he's taken in the past week. He cuts a passionate albeit somewhat ridiculous "us vs. them" promo saying ROH and its fanbase is in a war against CZW and sports-entertainment. Those familiar with Cornette's schtick have seen this from him a million times, although he's right on the money here about WWE using religion, as this was during the awful McMahonism program. Pearce is left in the ring but gets ambushed by Nate Webb when leaving ringside, which then brings out Ace Steel to chase off the CZW star.

Chris Sabin vs. Delirious

Good stuff here overall, although Sabin was cringeworthy at the start of the match with his “be my friend” shtick due to Delirious being a mental. The counters were really good, and if Sabin had just sold more during the finishing stretch, specifically his back over being hit with the Shadows Over Hell instead of easily making several attempts at the Cradle Shock, this could’ve been rated much higher.

Rating: ***

Jacobs wins his match and strips down to his trunks. One of the weaker segments in this classic arc.

I FF to the end of Samoa Joe vs. Claudio Castagnoli, a dream match that didn’t live up to expectations. (A shame we can’t get 2004-05 Joe vs. current Cesaro.) It basically turns into a hardcore tag match pitting Pearce & Ace Steel against Webb & Necro Butcher. Really good brawl and it tips in CZW’s favor when Super Dragon appears. This brings out BJ Whitmer.

Hardcore Match
Super Dragon vs. BJ Whitmer


Brutal, hard-hitting shit as expected, and the crowd loved this. While perhaps not the absolute most convincing, Whitmer actually bothered to sell the bad neck from all the punishment he had taken, including the absurd Argentine piledriver just a week before this. Whitmer had the crowd fully behind him against SD, who is such an under-appreciated heel. I think SD’s ability as a heel speaks volumes in that he got the uncharismatic Whitmer to be a believable underdog.

They teased a number of Argentine piledrivers, all of them getting over. SD would set up two stacked tables on the outside, then attempted to top the Argentine piledriver from the week before in Philly. Whitmer blocked that and they pulled off an insane wrist-clutch exploder, from the top rope, through the stacked tables, onto the floor. Just absurd lengths these two men went, especially SD since he wasn’t being booked after this. Whitmer has slayed one demon, and SD is left in the street by Steel & Pearce like a piece of trash.

While certainly not as epic as Kenta Kobashi’s weekend of appearances, hats off to what Super Dragon did for just three nights in ROH. Supposedly he assaulted a fan in Philly so ROH just used him to put Whitmer over before telling him to fuck off. But his quick departure from the company took away a malicious character from the CZW camp for the angle, and as I’ve stated before, I believe Gabe Sapolsky would’ve eventually booked SD & Davey Richards vs. KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji. I also believe that SD would’ve challenged for the ROH Title on the next Chicago event, allowing someone else enough time to organically develop as a contender.

Rating: ***1/4

Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels

Sydal would get a sore left ankle very early but dominated this match. His domination to progress his ascension as a singles star was very impressive, working on the ribs of Daniels after hitting that body part with a shotgun dropkick that knocked the veteran off the apron. In particular his submission work was quite impressive, and those only familiar with him as Evan Bourne ought to see this.

Daniels would of course get his moments in to keep this from being a squash, doing a great job of also selling his ribs. This was on its way to greatness but ended abruptly when Daniels managed to hit a Last Rites and that was it to put Sydal away. Considering I’d seen that get kicked out of numerous times, I’d have preferred that to be a nearfall with Daniels having to really dig down deep into his veteran craftiness to keep Sydal from obtaining his next singles landmark victory in ROH. Still really good stuff.

Rating: ***1/2

ROH Title vs. Pure Title – Pure Wrestling Rules
Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness


Very overlooked match here but understandable. I’ve called this the greatest rivalry in company history, even sharing that assessment with McGuinness at the merchandise table in New Orleans. And if this match is anything to judge by, this rivalry may be even better than I had remembered.

Referee Todd Sinclair only mentions that the Pure Title can change via DQ and countout, leaving what appeared to be a glaring hole in regards to the ROH Title.

The match begins with beautiful matwork as so many viewers of this time can remember. Danielson works a Cravate but that gets broken when McGuinness lands a Divorce Court on the future HOFer’s left arm. This allowed the Pure Champ to dominate the first third of the match, just being all over Danielson’s left arm with various submissions and awkward positioning like he was white on rice. It got bad enough that Danielson had to use a rope break.

Of course, McGuinness trolled the temperamental Danielson into throwing closed punches in front of the ref twice, causing a rope break detriment. And also of course, Danielson would manage to get his hope spots in. The moment that stood out the most to me was McGuinness having his legs used using his legs to scissor Danielson’s torso while also applying the Kimura Lock. I wonder if Danielson will ever find himself locked in that submission again and if he’ll be able to survive it for more than five seconds that time around.

Danielson would position himself out of an arm submission, setting up McGuinness for a surfboard. But in something so simple yet to brilliant, he couldn’t apply enough pressure on his left arm due to all of the work put onto it. He’d have to settle for his usual plan B in that moment, charging the knees of McGuinness on the mat. This control would be short-lived as McGuinness would slam his left arm on the mat and slide him out of the ring.

After hitting a German Suplex upon reentering the ring, Danielson couldn’t follow up due to the pain in his left arm, although he escaped a hammerlock in the corner by using his feet and got some momentum with clotheslines and forearms using his right arm. A Crossface Chickenwing would convince McGuinness to use a rope break after serious contemplation, bringing this match to an even level.

As they’re about to get into the third act, the match has another highlight as the overzealous Danielson charges at the hand-standing McGuinness and gets two boots to the face followed by a Tower of London, forcing him to use his final rope break. McGuinness would also go on to use his final rope break due to Danielson’s technical excellence.

The last few minutes were just off the charts. They brawled on the outside and McGuinness got the advantage, then used a table to pin down Danielson. The crowd was so antsy about Danielson being counted out that when he got in at 19, it was treated like a genuine nearfall. After trading blows, Danielson would lock the Cattle Mutilation on McGuinness, who would escape by finding a way to absorb the pain and position himself to fall out of the ring and break the hold.

After a tope suicida, they brawled again on the outside. Danielson would make the mistake of flying at McGuinness in the crowd. The Pure Champ smacked him with a steel chair, causing the crowd to go apeshit. This time, the ROH Champ couldn’t overcome the blow, finding himself being counted out. The crowd is popping huge for the title change, only for Sinclair to state that it was never declared the ROH Title could change hands in such fashion, and thus Danielson keeps it on a technicality despite McGuinness winning within the rules of the contest.

Danielson gets a well-deserved standing ovation when he’s left in the ring.

That booking was absolutely necessary to ensure rematches in the future, and is in no way a downer. This match has actually gotten better as the years have gone by, and is one of the all-time classics in ROH history. It is overshadowed by too many things to mention, which is understandable. After having a couple nights to sleep on this, I’m comfortable with my rating as this is one of the greatest matches in company history, and the Danielson vs. McGuinness compilation is worth every penny for just this match alone.

Rating: ****3/4

Tag Titles Match
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley


A video package of their 2005 feud is shown, which is a nice highlight reel. Prince Nana is off for the weekend tending to matters in Ghana.

The match itself was good but never reached anything special, partially hurt by the referee forgetting who was legal and he should’ve quite easily kept track. Generation Next were funny in playing mind games with their former archenemies, but the Embassy would return the underhanded tactics to them. Once Shelley was taken out and Rave ate two backbreakers while Aries waited for the 450 splash, everyone knew that was it for the show. Let’s not beat around it: although the Tag Titles have generally been booked strongly in ROH, the only reason this was the main event is because nobody knew how the crowd would react to the Danielson vs. McGuinness finish.

Rating: ***1/4

Danielson and McGuinness have a face-to-face discussion, with Danielson calling him out for using weapons. Delirious shows up to babble shit-talk at Danielson, who then gets mugged from behind by McGuinness.

Good god get this show. Extremely fun, a historic match that is one of the best in company history AND a kickoff to the best rivalry in company history, and the abrupt end to the short-lived Super Dragon era.

Up next – How We Roll
Matches will include:
Roderick Strong vs. Mark Briscoe
Austin Aries vs. Jay Briscoe
Bryan Danielson & Christopher Daniels vs. Christian Cage & Colt Cabana
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

Post by supersonic »

How We Roll - May 12, 2006

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ROH Video Recap - May 4, 2006



Important news/footage from the above video:
Delirious has been granted another shot for the ROH Title against Bryan Danielson, barely saying that he never quit or gave up, and showing a stitched wound on his right palm.
Jim Cornette has requested Homicide to help out his ROH colleagues against CZW.

I only have the good shit matches I'm reviewing, so I'll look at the dual review written by Jake Ziegler & Brad Garoon while I paraphrase what happened and offer my insight.

Lt. Commissioner Adam Pearce starts the DVD echoing Cornette's request towards Homicide.

Christian Cage and Bryan Danielson choose their partners for the main event of the evening, respectively picking Colt Cabana and Christopher Daniels. I'd have booked Danielson & Alex Shelley vs. Christian & Homicide instead, with Danielson this time taking the Embassy's money to grant Shelley a spot in a marquee match (with the potential of him making waves in TNA should he go over Christian) whereas Christian would remind Homicide that it was this very weekend a year ago that he lost his bitter feud against Danielson and would be a great way to get himself back in the title picture.

Speaking of Shelley and Homicide, their tag match alongside Jimmy Rave and Ricky Reyes respectively was very disappointing with it being the only showdown ever between the Embassy and Rottweilers, and thus the only time Prince Nana and Julius Smokes went at it. We can probably blame Low Ki for Reyes having to be in this match. In the post-match, Homicide goes on a tangent about being screwed in ROH and doesn't give a shit about helping out the company. Of an important note is that Shelley got injured in this match, cancelling a highly anticipated Pure Title shot he was getting the next day against Nigel McGuinness.

Roderick Strong vs. Mark Briscoe

Decent but nothing special. The wrestling all looked good with some neat moments here and there, but it never clicked emotionally with the audience; it's obvious how addicted the fanbase was to the Kool-Aid at this time with Strong getting a standing ovation afterwards, because this match was far from memorable.

Rating: less than ***

Austin Aries vs. Jay Briscoe

Match of the night here quite easily. Aries led the match and really allowed Jay to shine, doing an excellent job of selling the work done on his left arm/shoulder. Remember that Aries is a southpaw. Aries would mix in his moments of hope spots and get quickly cut off by Jay, with each next series of hope spots being a bit more extended. This match also had some good heat between the two after the events during The Milestone Series, my favorites being Jay slapping the head of Aries while holding him in a hammerlock, and a chop exchange outside.

The finishing stretch got really good with the crowd genuinely engaged. Aries dug down deep and stopped relying on his lesser right arm to throw pitiful strikes, taking the risk of causing further damage to his left arm and dropping Jay with a lariat. Once it got to the finish, Aries blocked a double underhook piledriver and turned into a backslide but lacked the strength in his dominant arm to hold on, and with all of the work done on him throughout the rest of the contest, couldn't block a second double underhook piledriver. Really good and deserves to be on a Briscoes, Aries, or Generation Next compilation.

Rating: ***1/2

Bryan Danielson & Christopher Daniels vs. Christian Cage & Colt Cabana

I should note that Daniels only agreed to this if Danielson granted him another ROH Title shot, with Danielson saying yes but only if they win this match. Also important is that Christian is the NWA-TNA Champion, making this only the second time that the top singles champions of ROH and TNA squared off in an ROH ring.

This match took forever to get the least bit interesting, with way too much comedy and Southern rasslin' sports-entertainment stalling in the first 10 minutes from all four men. It honestly seemed like Christian and Samoa Joe were really taking it easy to preserve themselves for Sacrifice 2006. Understandable and I'm sure Christian sold some tickets to bring additional exposure to fans who wouldn't have otherwise given ROH a look, but this is a company that mostly based its business on DVD sales at this time, and this match was not a DVD mover.

The only reason I'll give this match a positive rating is that tag legalities were remembered by all four men (not surprising with Christian's experience in WWE tag wrestling) and the crowd got into the finishing stretch. That portion was admittedly good but without the crowd getting into it, I wouldn't have said it was strong enough to overcome a pedestrian first and second act. Danielson allows Daniels to take the pinfall to Christian, having no desire to give Daniels another shot at the ROH Title.

Rating: ***

I've heard this considered one of the worst shows in company history. I wouldn't go that far since the last two matches were actually at least good, but this show was certainly nothing special and for what was overall a largely strong 2006, definitely deserves consideration for worst ROH event of the year. As stated earlier, ROH should do everyone a favor and get Aries vs. Jay on a compilation so that nobody feels compelled to watch this pedestrian event.

Up next - Ring of Homicide
Matches will include:
Kikutaro vs. Colt Cabana
Nigel McGuinness vs. Jay Lethal
Bryan Danielson vs. Delirious
Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Briscoe Bros.
Samoa Joe vs. Necro Butcher
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

Post by supersonic »

Ring of Homicide - May 13, 2006

Image

The DVD begins with BJ Whitmer making a request for Homicide to help out against CZW, citing the respect they had gained for one another from their battles in 2003.

Comedy Dream Match
Kikutaro vs. Colt Cabana


Fun match as expected. The comedy antics were outstanding, including Cabana saying Kikutaro would get his name chanted if he stopped constantly changing it. They had many moments of psyching each other out, including the "too slow" potshot. Other highlights include them dancing like they were in a ballroom, and most of all, Cabana getting crotched, then the REFEREE also getting crotched. Both were intentional and then poetically paid off when Kikutaro fell while walking the ropes, crotching himself. This match achieved it goals.

After Homicide & Ricky Reyes take care of Dunn & Marcos, Lt. Commissioner Adam Pearce comes out to plead to Homicide in person for help against CZW. Homicide drops the mic and leaves without saying a word, irritated at the requests to be inserted into an issue that he's never been involved with.

Pure Title Match
Nigel McGuinness vs. Jay Lethal


As stated in my How We Roll review, Alex Shelley was scheduled to challenge in this match but got injured, That left McGuinness to make an open challenge to anybody, with the New Jersey native Lethal making his ROH return after what appeared to be an abrupt departure just three months earlier in the same venue. Phenomenal hometown pop for Lethal as one would expect.

But before that challenge was issued by McGuinness, he took some time to cut a hilarious promo that folks in NYC would really appreciate, and those who enjoyed the opening segment of WrestleMania XXX should see this. "What's up, New York?" He was then corrected by referee Todd Sinclair, to which he then said "I thought New Jersey was just a smelly part of New York." He also mentioned that ROH has the very best champions, then noted he had defeated all three of the other titleholders already, so that makes him the best champion in the company.

McGuinness was his usual great self in this match, using a punch behind Sinclair's back and then leaving Lethal to attempt receipts in front of the ref, who stopped Lethal. The first time was really impressive, as Lethal went for chops and strikes but got all of them blocked by the Pure Champ. McGuinness was also fantastic in displaying a condescending attitude, telling Lethal that he was embarrassing himself in front of his friends and family.

The finishing stretch was great as well, with the crowd popping over a rebound lariat nearfall. McGuinness prevented a diving headbutt by holding onto the ref's pants and blocking Lethal, only for Lethal to kick out of a Tower of London, which again had the crowd even more behind its hometown guy. What made this stand out is that Lethal had blocked an earlier attempt of this finisher, so now it would've looked like this would end him. McGuinness followed up with another Tower of London to finish Lethal off, and it certainly should've been the finish with the way Lethal landed. He definitely went home or hopped the airplane to Orlando on this night sore in his face and neck.

Rating: ***1/2

ROH Title Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Delirious


Before the match begins, Danielson cuts a fantastic CM Punk heel promo straight out of the Summer of Punk, burying the fans of both ROH and CZW, the locker room, and his opponent on this evening. This was absolutely brilliant to make sure this crowd would be fully behind Delirious, who retorted with great babbling (and using gestures to refer to what had happened three weeks earlier) that finally became understandable at the very end with a "KICK YOUR ASS!!" Delirious then gave Danielson a receipt from how their match at The 100th Show kicked off, attacking the champ while he still had the championship belt on to kick this off.

Danielson of course took a powder and upon getting back in the ring was able to get an advantage with technical wrestling. Delirious got to the ropes on some early Cattle Mutilations, but had his arms and shoulders worked on by the champ to soften him up for more Cattle Mutilations later. Delirious got a comeback by countering a belly-to-back suplex into a head-scissors, then briefly choked Danielson with some of his mask tassles as another receipt for what happened in Philly. Danielson would appear to cut off this control segment, but Delirious would regain control trading blows and going for the Cobra Clutch.

They'd go outside via a Delirious cross-body, and Delirious would bite the head of Danielson. This gave the champ an opportunity to drop the challenger throat-first on the edge of a guardrail, then throw him back in for his heat segment. While going for a surfboard, the CZW fans in attendance for the main event chanted "same old shit," so Danielson went ahead and did the move just to troll them, then followed that up by tea-bagging Delirious while having his legs tied up in a submission.

Danielson returned the tassle-choking flavor, letting the referee know that he had until five to break it, and mocked the CZW fans again for their "same old shit" chants. He continued dominating with more submissions, including another surfboard as well as a cross armbreaker and abdominal stretch. Delirious hip-tossed Danielson and sent him outside, then charged at the champ with a tope suicida. Once they got back in though Danielson regained control (while continuing to mock the CZW fans), but a diving headbutt would be countered with an Ace Crusher to allow Delirious to get momentum. I wonder if DDP or Randy Orton ever did that to Chris Benoit.

Delirious countered a crucifix and locked in the Cobra Stretch, but the champ reached the ropes. He cut off Delirious with a boot to the face and diving European Uppercut, bringing the momentum of Delirious to a screeching halt. Danielson would continue dominating, with a kick from Delirious as a brief hope spot to let the crowd know he was still in the game. Moments later, he was in the middle of the ring as a victim of the crossface chickenwing, but managed to have his foot reach the ropes. Crowd popped big for that false finish.

Delirious countered an attempted super belly-to-back suplex with a cross-body to get control once again. He hit a shotgun dropkick, running knee in the corner, and Shadows Over Hell for a good nearfall. He locked on another Cobra Stretch after hitting a Cobra Backbreaker, but the champ reached the ropes, then countered another Shadows Over Hell attempt into a phenomenal Cattle Mutilation. Crowd was getting antsy at this point.

Delirious reached the ropes and then broke the fiery elbows of Danielson, kicking Danielson right in the head twice in what would be the biggest pop of the night on a normal night of wrestling. This all came to an absolute screeching halt when Delirious charged at Danielson, only to be abruptly finished off with a small package!

An instant classic that has stood the test of time here, and probably the best match Delirious will ever have. Phenomenal stuff with great crowd engagement, storytelling, psychology, heat segments, transitions, counters, and a beautifully abrupt finish. Like Lethal in the prior match, Delirious is left in the ring to get a well-deserved standing ovation.

Rating: ****1/4

Gary Michael Cappetta is interviewing Julius Smokes to get info on what Homicide will do about ROH vs. CZW, and Smokes is interrupted by Samoa Joe, who says in no uncertain terms that it's really shitty of Homicide to not help out, saying that he's being a mouse and pussy over perceived slights from the company. Smokes seems to have grown respect for Joe, mortal enemy of the Rottweilers, for confronting him face-to-face and being blunt about the situation.

Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels

Another good match from these two with Sydal dominating like last time. He worked on the back of Daniels in this one, but of course the Fallen Angel would get his moments in, including throwing Sydal around on guardrails early and trying to return the back-work favor. Sydal would regain control after a Blue Thunder Powerbomb deep in the match by applying the Koji Clutch, an established submission finisher of Daniels.

Sydal would block an Iconoclasm and super hurricanrana while seated on the top ropes, then delivering a flying twisting hurricanrana to the standing Daniels for a nice nearfall. He also countered a powerslam toss from the top rope into a a victory roll for another nice nearfall. What cost Sydal again against Daniels was when he went for the Angel's Wings, to which Daniels was able to counter into a victorious pinfall. Sydal goes to Dragon Gate for a couple months without securing a major singles victory in ROH.

Rating: ***1/4

Tag Titles Match
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Briscoe Bros.


Damn good tag wrestling here with a finish that I love and appreciate so much as a detail-oriented, highly critical viewer.

After some nice back-and-forth stuff, the Briscoes finally got some control by cutting the ring in half on Aries, with obvious cheating thrown in due to their awesome tag psychology. They decimated Aries left and right, so when he got the hot tag on Strong, it really meant something to the crowd. I realize I'm skipping a lot, so just trust me when I say the first two acts were really good shit, but the third act truly stands out. Strong was an amazing house of fire on the Briscoes, and the referee let all four men loose on each other.

Bombs were being dropped left and right, including double-team moves and masterful breakups of pinfalls. This all sounds like this would be another typical indy tag match that starts off well and then logically falls apart in the end. But the very end was brilliant, because during most of this final act, the legal men were Strong and Mark. With Jay out of the ring, that left the champs to dominate Mark, but they were smart enough to have Aries get back in their corner and legally tag in.

Aries would be knocked to the outside, leaving Strong alone in the ring with the Briscoes. They gave him a spike double underhook piledriver, and Jay went for the cover. Right as that happened, Aries got back in and rolled up Mark from behind for the three-count. There was confusion over this, but honestly there shouldn't have been. The referee rightfully noted that Aries and Mark were the legal men, therefore the champs retained.

The Briscoes are pissed, and they really shouldn't be, but let's be honest: tag legalities before and after this are so often poorly enforced, that the wrestlers have largely become accustomed to the finishing stretches of tag matches being a free for all. With that in mind, I definitely say the Briscoes have a case for another shot at the champs, and now they will have no excuses and better be aware of the basic rules that tag team wrestling is found upon.

Rating; ***3/4

Samoa Joe vs. Necro Butcher

Necro comes out first and knocks out ring announcer Bobby Cruise. When Joe comes out and they're face-to-face, Necro then knocks out the ROH ref, then Joe reciprocates by taking out the CZW ref. They have some nice back and forth stuff that has the crowd red-hot, but I must note that Joe took ZERO bumps in this encounter. Not on the mat, apron, floor, or a guardrail. NONE. The only damage he took were possibly stiff strikes and a chair shot that may have hit him in the head (hard to tell if his hands got up in time) when the Kings of Wrestling interfered.

This interference brought out Pearce & BJ Whitmer to help out, but Joe had to be walked to the back after taking that chairshot to the head. Although Pearce & Whitmer were outnumbered, they had a fantastic brawl that I must mention got way, way, way too out of hand with the bumps taken. That said, I can compartmentalize and I couldn't believe Necro took a double-team powerbomb onto two chairs in the ring, landing in a fashion that I hope I never see again in the professional wrestling business.

Guys were taking bumps all over ringside onto chairs too, and I'm amazed that Claudio Castagnoli came out of this feud healthy enough to get to where he's at as Cesaro today. Hero teased a hardcore move to Whitmer in the ring, only to go to using a Cravate and elbows to knock down the former Prophecy member. I like that a lot actually.

With Pearce by himself outnumbered 3-to-1, he stood no chance, being the victim of a KOW Hero's Welcome and then laid across a table on the outside. Hero & Necro held him down as Castagnoli teased powerbombing Whitmer on Pearce, only for the lights to go out with the "Ironside" intro playing on the speakers, followed by Beanie Sigel's "The Truth."

To say this got a pop is like saying San Antonio was excited when the Spurs made easy work of the Heat in this past summer's NBA Finals.

The CZW crew assumes Homicide would be interested in helping him, leaving Whitmer there for the attack. But Homicide instead attacks KOW to a MASSIVE pop, and Pearce comes in to help take them out. Homicide and Necro are left in the ring in a staredown, with Todd Sinclair getting in the ring and ordering for the bell to be rung. Good God the pop this got was fucking unreal.

Impromptu Hardcore Main Event
Homicide vs. Necro Butcher


This was just fucking brutal and the crowd was molten white-hot for its entirety. Again, this got way too violent in retrospect and I don't need to see guys go to these lengths to get over anymore.

What this match had was genuine emotion from the crowd that very few segments in the history of the business can reach. It was a back-and-forth war for just 10 minutes, with both men tossing each other towards guardrails, dropping each other on the floor, and more drops onto chairs at ringside.

Just six weeks removed from the violent end to his feud with Colt Cabana, Homicide throws some chairs in the ring, then tosses a crimson Necro in there too. He then requests the crowd to throw chairs in there and they gleefully oblige. An absolutely ABSURD quantity of chairs are thrown in there, burying Necro in a steel grave and I hope he gave approval for this. Security is ignored when ordering the crowd to stop, so Homicide gets on the mic and says that it's enough, Necro's got the idea now and there are too many chairs in the ring.

Necro gets piledriven onto the steel chair surface... nearfall and white-hot reaction. He finds it in himself to give Homicide a seated powerbomb as a receipt... nearfall and white-hot reaction. Homicide gives Necro an overhead toss from the corner onto the chairs... another nearfall, another white-hot reaction, this time completed with "THIS IS AWESOME~!" chants. Homicide then takes a swinging neckbreaker on the chairs and rolls out to the apron that's right next to the chairs that were scooted out at ringside.

Necro attempts a piledriver, but instead takes a vertical suplex from the apron, onto the floor, with the floor caked with numerous steel chairs, Homicide's head barely misses the corner of the table, and Necro's left leg hits a guardrail. That is then followed up with Homicide hitting a body splash from the turnbuckle onto Necro through the table. "THIS IS AWESOME~!"

That is only good enough for another white-hot nearfall and Homicide is in disbelief. The crowd chants "KNOCK HIM OUT!!" Necro attempts a comeback with punches to the torso, only to get kicked squarely in the genitals and finished off for the three-count by a furious lariat from the Notorious 187.

"Ladies and gentlemen, here is your winner for Ring of Honor, 'The Notorious 187' Homicide!" Homicide shakes his head no, saying he did this for himself as the crowd is chanting for both him and the company.

Homicide grabs a mic. "Necro Butcher,,, anytime, homes. Welcome to Ring of Homicide, biatch!!!" FUCKING WHITE-HOT REACTION WITH THE CROWD IN UNISON, CHANTING FOR HOMICIDE as the event goes off the air.

I gotta say it again: too fucking violent and it's obvious why most of these guys didn't become top-notch stars in the business. But this sequence of events, the Joe portion, the ROH vs. CZW brawling, capped off with Homicide finally intervening to the demands of his colleagues and fans, was absolutely jaw-dropping, epic, truly engrossing, and a rare moment that hit such an emotionally strong level that it reminds me why I am still a wrestling fan.

This entire sequence was an absolute masterpiece and storytelling work of art, finally putting momentum back in ROH's favor after weeks of getting their asses kicked by CZW. It also was logically built to, as it made total sense for the Homicide character, now emotionally released from the violent feud against Cabana, to see what these CZW guys were doing and wanna test their toughness, while also feeling a sense of pride that they were trespassing on his territory.

The rating I give this will reflect on Homicide vs. Necro Butcher, but it is for the ENTIRE SEQUENCE OF MAGICAL EVENTS that closed out this show. (The portion shown on Homicide's The Notorious 187 compilation only starts with Homicide in the ring.) The rating should tell you how badly you must get this show to witness this.

Rating: *****

I'm going to be honest. I wasn't very high on this event outside of the two highly acclaimed portions. But this surpassed any memories I had of this event years later. An excellent, EXCELLENT show, complete with fantastic wrestling all over the place of different flavors. Comedy wrestling, technical wrestling, a classic title match, quality tag team wrestling, all of it capped off with one of the defining segments and moments in company history right in the middle of the most emotional feud this federation has ever booked.

GET. THIS. NOW.

Of note: This was Jimmy Yang's last event, as he was re-signed by WWE. He had some more time left in ROH, but I believe he got blacklisted from ROH by teasing a match that had not been agreed upon. That left Jimmy Rave needing a new creative direction.

And now I've arrived at the debut of perhaps the most polarizing star in ROH history, and I look forward to rewatching his ROH tenure to see if he would become as annoying as naysayers like me said he got years later.

Up next - Destiny
Matches will include:
Jimmy Rave vs. Davey Richards
Bryan Danielson vs. Homicide
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Briscoe Bros.
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

Post by supersonic »

Destiny - June 3, 2006

Image

ROH Video Recap - May 19, 2006



Important news/footage in the above video:
An excellent piece highlighting ROH Champion Bryan Danielson, Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness, and Tag Champs Austin Aries & Roderick Strong that shows making titles mean something isn't that hard, and I love the emphasis of no title changes yet in 2006 to build anticipation for when the next one will come.
Announced for June 3 in Connecticut are Danielson defending against Homicide (who is being granted this match as a sign of gratitude for his actions at Ring of Homicide) and Aries & Strong defending against the Briscoes in a rematch.

ROH Video Recap - May 25, 2006



Important news/footage in the above video:
ROH reminds us that Homicide is being granted a title shot against Danielson in what I recall as a thank you for his actions at Ring of Homicide. Their past history is touched upon as well and the screen asks if Homicide can finally achieve his destiny on June 3.
BJ Whitmer also challenges Necro Butcher to a no rope barbed wire match for the July 28 event in Dayton.
ROH reminds us that the Briscoes are getting another title shot against Aries & Strong
With this event being the first ROH appearance in New England in seven months, the company is promising to "blow you away" because "we owe you one." Let's see about that.

Aries & Strong cut a brief backstage promo, with Aries wanting to discuss Generation Next with Strong.

A quick video is shown highlighting Homicide's previous shots at the ROH Title against Samoa Joe, Aries, James Gibson, and Brian Kendrick, making the viewer wonder if he would finally achieve his destiny on this night.

The ROH Debut of Davey Richards
Jimmy Rave vs. Davey Richards


I'm glad Richards has gone on to ditch oversized robes as it only exposed his lack of height even more and made him look like a boy.

For those not aware: he was set to debut at The 100th Show as the one to answer Danielson's open challenge, upset the ROH Champ in a non-title match, and be recruited on-screen by Super Dragon to CZW. That'd have been quite interesting to see. Unfortunately Richards got hurt very shortly before that show, putting him out of action for about a month.

This was a good debut for Richards but of course not a perfect one. He owned Rave early with technical wrestling, so the Crown Jewel pie-faced the green Richards a couple times to compensate. Richards did a very good job working on Rave's left arm and shoulder with various submissions as well as strikes and kicks.

When Rave got the heat, he worked on the back of Richards very well with his own submissions and backbreakers. Richards was very good with his abrupt kicks as hope spots. Unfortunately, Richards didn't sell his back much if at all when he got the heat back, other than showing bad form when applying a Stretch Muffler, and I'll assume that's because he couldn't straighten his back to do so. They had a nice finishing stretch and good pace all-around, with Richards finishing Rave, a man who had headlined numerous ROH events in 2005 and 2006, with a double underhook brainbuster.

I must point out that my biggest concern with Richards is something that he's never gotten corrected. Many wrestlers play to the crowd, but something has always felt forced when he does it; it's downright pandering in the way that he does it, and I hope one day he can have a gimmick of being a psychopathic square, which I believe he'd excel at.

Rating: ***1/4

Bryan Danielson comes out after a women's division match to cut an ROH fellatio promo, but shits on Connecticut. Cookie-cutter promo to make sure the crowd isn't split in his match against Homicide later.

At intermission, the Embassy demands a Rave vs. Richards rematch. Rave puts himself over with a number of facts, which only makes Richards beating him even more impressive. One of Rave's best promos.

ROH Title Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Homicide


Samoa Joe came out before the introductions, which irritated both participants. However, he thanked Homicide for helping out against CZW and then said he'd be the guest ring announcer, using that to bury Danielson for being pale.

This was a classic match that has gotten better over time. It started as some nice wrestling for a few minutes, then got to the outside. In a major character moment, Homicide was convinced by referee Todd Sinclair to not use a ringbell on Danielson's left shoulder as it was wrapped around a ringpost. This gave Danielson the opportunity to turn this into a brief brawl on the outside. The standout moment was Danielson giving Homicide a snap suplex to crash him through a table, but the Notorious 187 instead landed on the table's edge and a folded chair in front of it. Then moments later, Homicide took an overhead belly-to-belly suplex from the champ onto a laid out table, which didn't break upon impact.

Danielson targeted the right shoulder (which had never fully healed) after Homicide landed that region on the ringpost when charging at the champ. After some more good wrestling, they went outside again and Danielson, in a great character moment, used a chair on Homicide's right shoulder while it was wrapped around a barricade bar. Nice to see the champ return the courtesy.

Homicide was phenomenal the rest of the match in selling the right shoulder, causing his moments of offense to be in bursts, unable to maintain extended heat with the champ taking advantage of the injury. Danielson of course was also fantastic in antagonizing the crowd, who so badly wanted to see the redeemed Homicide finally reach the mountaintop.

When it came down to it, Danielson couldn't be outwrestled, but Homicide wouldn't allow his right shoulder to take him out of the equation. He managed to go back to work on the champ's left shoulder deep into the match, but of course that was short-lived as I mentioned regarding his offense in the previous paragraph. In what had to be a tribute to the Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero rivalry, they traded a missed frogsplash and missed diving headbutt.

I must mention that Danielson had avoided a lariat from Homicide and turned it into a Cattle Mutilation nearfall that of course had the crowd rocking. This was excellent storytelling because Danielson made sure he wouldn't allow Homicide to hit him with that, as it had gotten Homicide the victory the first time they collided at Reborn Stage 2. Minutes later though, Homicide channeled the finish from that match, putting himself in position to give Danielson the same lowblow and lariat combo for a hot nearfall.

This match of course had other incedible nearfalls at the end, including a successful frogsplash, Dragon Suplex, and Crossface Chickenwing. There was also a blocked Kudo Driver and Shiranui attempt by Homicide. But when Danielson got Homicide in the seated position for his signature elbow strikes, Homicide wore down severely, refusing to give up, and leaving the ref no choice but to stop the match to a vociferous outrage from the crowd.

Joe is also upset, and Lt. Commissioner Adam Pearce comes out to discuss the finish on his cell phone with Commissioner Jim Cornette. He says Cornette has ruled to uphold the finish for Homicide's safety, and Danielson's reaction is hilariously gleeful. Homicide attacks Sinclair as Joe tries to pry him off, and Danielson uses that opportunity to clip Joe's knee, then leaves boasting that he's the best in the world.

Homicide says he's fed up with ROH and leaves in a fit of rage, which is completely understandable.

Just an excellent match that played off of their previous series, told an excellent story, had phenomenal psychology, and amazing pacing, with an incredible finish to put these two over as the top bad-asses in the company in case anyone hadn't realized that yet.

Rating: ****1/4

Tag Titles Match
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Briscoe Bros.


They have a great brawl early on par with the previous match, but once it became a normal tag, it became visually good but very pedestrian when looking at the details. I believe the crowd was exhausted from what they had just seen while somewhat upset about how it finished. I certainly understand that Gabe Sapolsky was always hesitant to have "Dusty finishes" closing out an event, but Danielson vs. Homicide deserved the main event spot because it wore out the crowd emotionally as a match and with its finish.

The referee Paul Turner also couldn't follow up on Sinclair's five star officiating between these two teams at Ring of Homicide. For a rematch that was based on confusion over tag legalities, Turner didn't seem to give a shit about enforcing anything, counting any pinfall attempt he saw. The quieter crowd also exposed the exhaustion these guys had, and they sounded unusually tired, audibly sucking wind for a match that was paced like a standard ROH main event.

I must also mention that there was hardly any reaction to the finish. I considered this a disappointment back in the day, and with me much wiser now in 2014, this is even more flawed than I had remembered.

The post-match is what matters, as Aries says that Generation Next had achieved its goals of reaching the top spots and becoming stars in the industry, and thus the faction is no more. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason for this event being titled Destiny.

Rating: less than ***

Richards agrees to give Rave a rematch on the next show.

While not a good show overall let alone "blow away" as the company promised, I do recommend this for major historical implications. Homicide getting screwed again in another classic against Danielson. The debut of Richards. And the end of Generation Next. All very important stuff in the history of ROH.

I now reach the final chapters of the greatest feud in ROH's history, along with the return of a puro juggernaut to continue his journey of amazing dream matches.

Up next - In Your Face
Matches will include:
Briscoe Bros. vs. Jason Blade & Sterling James Keenan
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Nigel McGuinness & Colt Cabana
Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer
Chris Hero vs. Homicide
Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA vs. Samoa Joe
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

Post by supersonic »

In Your Face - June 17, 2006

Image

ROH Video Recap - June 7, 2006



Important news/footage from the above video:
Colt Cabana is the #1 contender to the ROH Title after wining a match at Destiny that had no business having such a stipulation
KENTA faces Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe on June 17 in NYC, Roderick Strong on June 23 in Detroit, Austin Aries on June 24 in Chicago, and returns in August too for Long Island and New Jersey. OH FUCK YES~!
Christopher Daniels challenges Christian Cage to a singles match in ROH (this promo apparently taped after How We Roll)

The Briscoes give Aries & Strong no credit, claiming they got lucky. Aries & Strong in their backstage promo refute this, saying they'll take care of Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness & Colt Cabana tonight before defending the belts internationally.

Briscoe Bros. vs. Jason Blade & Sterling James Keenan

Perfect opening match. The Briscoes dominated, the jobbers got a little bit of shine to try to impress and get more bookings, the stars cut the ring in half, and the finish was fun. In addition ZERO issues with tag legalities. Surprised this isn't on a Briscoes comp yet.

As predicted by Colt Cabana after their feud ended at Night of the Grudges II, he and McGuinness have put their issues completely behind them, cracking jokes and genuine pleasantries.

After Ricky Reyes squashes one of the Crist brothers (Irish Airborne,) Chris Hero shows up from the crowd and blindsides Julius Smokes with another company's championship belt, then scurries off gleefully. Homicide comes out and dares Hero to show up again to "Ring of Homicide."

Jimmy Jacobs has a prerecorded promo, having the chance to watch Dragon Gate Challenge and now vows revenge on BJ Whitmer tonight because nobody else would've been able to take care of Lacey had Jacobs been taken out. He will also earn a shot against Danielon for the ROH Title, dethrone him, and use the extra money to buy a new home for himself and his beloved Lacey, as well as for their "future children." Hauntingly excellent.

Tag Titles Match
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Nigel McGuinness & Colt Cabana


The match of the night, which I'm sure is surprising. But this match got everything right for its spot on the card, so let's dig in and dissect it. I should note that McGuinness got this match because of his successful Pure Title defenses over Aries and Strong.

Early on McGuinness tried playing mind games with Strong and avoiding his chops, but that strategy was short-lived. Once Aries was tagged in, McGuinness worked on his left shoulder, the same brilliant strategy from Unscripted II since Aries is left-handed. Cabana also followed up on that when he came in. Strong and Cabana would have some back-and-forth before McGuinness got tagged back in.

In a moment of tag team wrestling brilliance, McGuinness went for his corner handstand mule kick bait, but Aries came over to hold him in place, allowing Strong to deliver multiple chops to the crowd's amazement. The Pure Champ found himself getting the ring cut in half for a brief period as a result of this. That would be cut off when he hit his signature spinal shoot kick and downward lariat on Aries, then got the tag to Cabana.

Aries then found himself being the victim of the ring being cut in half, including a slightly botched overhead front hammerlock suplex. The challengers double-teamed him with multiple limb submissions while Strong's attempts to stop it were cut off by the ref. After more exceptional work done on Aries, he got the hot tag to Strong, who was a house of fire on McGuinness going for backbreakers, Boston Crabs, and Tiger Drivers.

Aries prevented Cabana from cutting the ring in half again, only to be taken out minutes later after some nice back-and-forth double-team work. But he kept Cabana out again when McGuinness became legal, allowing Strong to force the Pure Champ to submit to a Liontamer. Really good tag match that like the opener had zero tag legality issues. Why isn't this on a compilation yet?

Rating: ***1/2

ROH Title Shot Match
Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer



(NOTE; the above video has shitty generic music playing over the entire video during the entrances and pre-match brawl due to Whitmer's Stone Temple Pilots theme, but also over "The Ballad of Lacey" for unknown reasons.)

The usual good stuff from these two, although dialed back a bit. They brawled outside the ring early, then had a good wrestling match. The important part came when Lacey tried to play distraction and Whitmer kissed her to the crowd's delight. Lacey was absolutely repulsed and used this as an excuse to aim her disgusted spit at some Green Lantern mark in the front row, drawing what was probably the biggest pop of the night.

This caused Jacobs to go berzerk and they brawled to to the crowd, causing fans to get out of harm's way. With Whitmer laying in the New Yorker chairs, Jacobs climbed to the nearby turnbuckle, planning to dive onto Whitmer out of his unconditional love for Lacey, but Whitmer got up and attacked Jacobs up there. They had a back-and-forth, with Jacobs teasing a Super Shiranui but that was blocked; Whitmer then powerbombed Jacobs into the nearby empty chairs to poetically play off of what happened at Dragon Gate Challenge and causing this match to get thrown out. A crazy fun match.

Rating: ***

Chris Hero interferes during the Adam Pearce vs. Claudio Castagnoli match, drawing huge heel heat as he talks shit on the microphone, Of course we know what this leads to...

Chris Hero vs. Homicide

Pearce chased Castagnoli away, allowing the spotlight on these two. This was more of a wrestling match than a brawl as expected, but it worked because the NYC crowd was completely behind their Brooklyn guy plus this was an ROH vs. CZW showdown. Hero was great in trolling the crowd but Homicide was vicious at every chance he got, of course winning this as he should have. He trolls Hero as the CZW superstar takes a powder, scurrying away after getting his ass kicked.

Homicide then sits down and says he's fed up with the bullshit, and he will be granted an ROH Title shot. If he isn't the ROH Champion by the end of 2006, he's fucking off from the company.

Rating: ***1/2

Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA vs. Samoa Joe

One of the more disappointing main events in ROH's history, but there have been many that were significantly, significantly worse. All three men accidentally knocked each other out at certain points, but because it's two of the best workers of the 21st Century along with Joe in his prime, they still managed to make this good. The hot NYC crowd also played a hand in keeping this match interesting. I'm not gonna dig too much into the details because the injuries kept this from reaching its potential, but I'll highlight what matters.

KENTA once again beat the ROH Champ Danielson with the G2S. Unfortunately, the champ was out of it to make the post-match mean more. KENTA declares his desire for a title shot, but Joe says not to worry about Danielson, because he will be in his second reign as ROH Champion when KENTA challenges for it. And it's a shame we never got KENTA vs. Joe in singles, but after this match, I can see why Gabe Sapolsky never pulled the trigger. He probably didn't wanna deliver on Danielson vs. KENTA either, but KENTA pinning the champ clean twice required that match to happen. But I'm getting ahead of myself and wanna see how it played out in hindsight.

Rating: ***1/2

The Briscoes tell Aries & Strong that they're still coming for the belts. The Briscoes lost twice, including the first one due to perfect officiating, but they've never been rational characters.

Bit of a disappointing show due to the main event, but still a good show. Not every NYC event has to be Manhattan Mayhem to be enjoyable. Really hope ROH puts Aries/Strong vs. McGuinness/Cabana on a compilation at some point, as it's one of the best matches of the Aries/Strong reign. And speaking of comps, I'm shocked the semi-main wasn't included on the Homicide comp, as the crowd was great and it was an important segment for his character direction.

Next show should be really fun assuming my memories are correct.

Up next - Throwdown
Matches will include:
Delirious vs. Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Davey Richards
Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer
Roderick Strong vs. KENTA
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

Post by supersonic »

Throwdown - June 23, 2006

Image

July 20, 2006 ROH Video Recap important news (this video unavailable online):
Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer get to challenge Bryan Danielson in an elimination match for the ROH Title @ Throwdown
When will the first title change of 2006 be?
Colt Cabana is excited for his ROH Title shot, although he's assuming it'll still be Danielson on June 24
The next Video Recap will focus on Homicide

Samoa Joe vs. Delirious vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Davey Richards

This one didn't age well, although it wasn't bad at all. The character dynamics were all fun, but this went a bit too long, Richards was selling for too long in order to pay his dues, and tag legalities failed to be enforced in the third act. Crowd liked it, but this match was indyriffic, although not a complete loss.

The Briscoes at intermission say their night isn't over after making quick work of Ace Steel & Colt Cabana. And yes, Steel did the job to protect Cabana the night before his ROH Title shot in his hometown.

Necro Butcher vs. Adam Pearce made for good storyline advancement brawling, with the Homicide vs. Claudio Castagnoli match immediately following afterwards being fine. Castagnoli got enough offense in to make sure he was still a star, but of course Homicide got the win.

The commentary mentions this somewhat important news that I forgot to point out from Chris Hero's promo on the previous show: ROH VS. CZW. CAGE OF DEATH. DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR IV ON JULY 15 IN PHILLY. OH. FUCK. YES~!

ROH Title - Elimination Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer


Pretty interesting case study here as Whitmer showed some of his weaknesses, including a shoddy attempt at brief mat wrestling with Danielson and later not doing any selling of the Cattle Mutilation. (To be fair, Homicide didn't really sell his back at all after taking some bad table bumps @ Destiny, and had he done so, that particular match probably wouldn't been an all-time classic rather than just a hot, dramatic classic.)

There were still quite a few highlights, including Jacobs and Whitmer reigniting their feud just six days after the events of In Your Face, exchanging heated strikes. Danielson was great at playing the prick when inserting himself while also of course showing his technical superiority. In particular, I loved that he halted a spinning head-scissors from Jacobs, turning that into an airplane spin that would be broken up by Whitmer.

The next standout spot was Danielson having the surfboard on Whitmer, then Jacobs using that opportunity to chop his former tag partner. This led to a nice Danielson vs. Jacobs segment, with the commentators pointing out that it was intelligent for Whitmer to allow them to dish out pain on each other due to the elimination rules. After a few minutes though, Danielson is taken out with a shotgun missle dropkick from Jacobs, leading to another Jacobs vs. Whitmer segment.

This led to the next highlight, as Whitmer had Jacobs in position for an Exploder suplex but Jacobs was blocking it. Danielson waist-locked Whitmer and delivered a German suplex, which allowed Whitmer enough momentum to also land the Exploder on Jacobs. However, this led to another Danielson vs. Whitmer segment in which Whitmer failed to sell his neck, which is really disappointing considering what Super Dragon did to him just two months earlier. Jacobs then inexplicably hit a senton splash on Danielson while Whitmer was locked in a Cattle Mutilation. Perhaps though that can be explained by Jacobs being irrational, wanting to be the one to eliminate Whitmer AND win the title for Lacey.

Jacobs went for a Shiranui on Whitmer, but Danelson prevented that, looking to give a super backdrop suplex to Jacobs. However, Whitmer got the champ on his shoulders, allowing Jacobs to hit a Doomsday Hurricanrana on Danielson to a huge pop. Whitmer crotched Jacobs, teasing another powerbomb in the crowd as in their previous collisions, but Danielson got underneath Whitmer for a powerbomb. This allowed Jacobs to hit a Super Shiranui with additional momentum from Danielson, eliminating Whitmer.

The crowd got super hot for Jacobs, the Detroit native, who had yet another great underdog performance. Danielson played a great prick, flicking the crowd off after brawling with Jacobs on the outside. The champ worked on the face and throat of Jacobs, which was beginning to irritate the challenger's valet Lacey. Jacobs would eventually get a comeback, getting the crowd more drawn in. He also prevented a Regalplex and Crossface Chickenwing, as well as a super backdrop suplex. He also blocked a leaping sunset flip, pinning Danielson to a red-hot nearfall.

They had a great strike exchange with another nearfall for Jacobs, getting the crowd wondering if perhaps the upset was indeed possible. Jacobs made the mistake though of locking in the Cattle Mutilation; once Danielson got in a stand-up position, he used the momentum to drive Jacobs three times in the turnbuckle, followed by an armdrag, roaring elbow, signature rapid elbows, and Crossface Chickenwing, just further solidifying that Danielson was an in-ring deity and bad-ass motherfucker.

Post-match, Lacey is pissed at Jacobs because she only gives a shit about results and profits, but the Detroit crowd gives its hometown boy Jacobs a well-earned standing ovation. Excellent match despite some issues from Whitmer, and this could've been a MOTYC had those issues not come up.

Rating: ****

Roderick Strong vs. KENTA

Really good main event, but not the classic so many hoped for. The crowd didn't get hot until the heated strike exchanges with slapping sounds, but I do wonder if they just couldn't get as emotionally invested as they did in the Jacobs match.

The strikes were very crisp as expected, with both men busting their asses and certainly hurting afterwards as they hit the road to Chicago. There were many great reversals and blocks. Standout moments to me include Strong striking KENTA during an attempted Falcon Arrow and Strong going for the exchange that got him his huge victory several months earlier over James Gibson, that being a super gutbuster and Liontamer. However, this time Strong went for a pinfall before applying the Liontamer, perhaps costing him the match against the former GHC Jr. Champ.

I did appreciate both men selling exhaustion and pain after getting adrenaline rushes, doing what they could to get the drama building without shitting on their work they dished out on each other. I liked that Strong worked on the torso with different submissions, setting up KENTA for the gutbuster and various backbreakers. KENTA also favored the Camel Clutch in this one, which told me he planned on the Falcon Arrow being a major part of his strategy.

The finish was great stuff. Both men found their own ways out of the gutbuster and G2S, but after several reversals, KENTA hit the G2S on Strong's sternum, knocking out the ROH cornerstone for the pinfall. Very, very good match that just needed more crowd heat to give both men extra adrenaline for a better pace.

Post-match, the Briscoes come out to attack Strong in the ring. KENTA has none of it, kicking them and causing them to take a powder, not happy they'd go after a man who had just been in a grueling, physical main event. Crowd is marking out for KENTA hardcore.

Rating: ***3/4

Colt Cabana is excited to finally get his ROH TItle shot the next day in Chicago. This angle was a bit overpushed, and I'm convinced Cabana wasn't supposed to get his hometown title shot this early as I explained before.

Not a bad show, but the main events are on Strong, Jacobs, and Whitmer compilations already, so unless you must have every single piece of the ROH vs. CZW feud, you can skip this. The first half has an Adam Pearce era stench to it.

Up next - Chi-Town Struggle
Matches will include:
Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Jacobs
Nigel McGuinness vs. Homicide
Austin Aries vs. KENTA
Bryan Danielson vs. Colt Cabana
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

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Throwdown was actually one of the first ROH shows I got on DVD back in late 2010/early 2011 (On a sale, I got 8 DVD's for $40, or $5 per DVD, which was an amazing deal). The two main events were really good and the undercard was pretty solid.
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

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Chi-Town Struggle - June 24, 2006

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Colt Cabana is excited to get another shot at the ROH Title in his hometown. Considering how much airtime has been spent on this for Cabana, I have high expectations.

We find out in an Embassy promo that Alex Shelley is out with an injured right shoulder, and his replacement as Jimmy Rave's partner is Conrad Kennedy III. Don't care about them facing the Briscoes, but this had an amusing line about rolling over badly on morning wood.

Roderick Strong vs. Jimmy Jacobs

Even better than I had remembered. Strong teased harassing Lacey early to get in the head of Jacobs, which obviously worked. However, Jacobs got the early advantage with his spinning head-scissors and some side headlocks, including using that to cut off a couple Strong comebacks. Once it spilled to ringside early though, Strong won that battle with his signature vicious chops, popping the Chicago crowd in the process of course.

Moments later, with Jacobs planted in the corner, Strong teased a chop, only to slap the creep to another pop from the crowd. However, Jacobs would cut him off shortly with a boot to the face to get the heat back, and then launch himself towards Strong with an elbow suicida. He followed that up with a running boot to Strong's head into the ringpost. Strong would regain the heat with a side backbreaker and spectacular fallaway slam, but that comeback was short-lived. This was because Strong was outside again, and Jacobs used his positioning inside the ring to plant Strong back-first on the gym floor with another spinning head-scissors.

A teased Shiranui by Jacobs would be countered into a backbreaker, cutting off Jacobs while Strong recovered from the pain he had endured. Strong came at Jacobs with vicious strikes and a gorgeous dropkick right to the face. Moments later, Jacobs would try to get a fluke small package pin on Strong, but that was just a nice nearfall. Strong blocked a Death Valley Driver attempt, only to eat a spear when running towards the ropes for a Yakuza kick attempt.

Strong got cocky after a Gorilla Press Slam on Jacobs, asking the crowd if he should do it again and launch Jacobs out to them. This time wasted allowed the battered Jacobs to get back in the match and turn a second attempted Gorilla Press Slam into a back rollup nearfall. They exchanged more nice nearfalls, with Strong hitting a Tiger Driver for a nearfall. Both men were doing a phenomenal job of selling the pain and exhaustion here.

Strong crotched Jacobs on the ropes, setting him up for a super gutbuster, but Jacobs cut that off. He put Strong in position for a Death Valley Driver, successfully planting the Tag Champ after a brief struggle. Jacobs is unable to follow up due to the pain and exhaustion, and attempts a Shiranui. That is blocked as Strong uses the momentum of Jacobs to catch him in a Davey Boy Smith style powerslam position. Strong drops Jacobs throat-first on the top rope, follows that up with some backbreakers, and then gets the submission victory with the Liontamer, then tosses Jacobs aside like a sack of garbage.

This was another excellent underdog performance from Jacobs, with the crowd loving every minute of it. This is a forgotten, under-appreciated classic in the same vein as Doug Williams vs. Homicide in the same building at Nowhere to Run. The counters, selling, and transitions were all fantastic, with the storytelling matching it. Add in that both men had grueling main events the night before and I come away even more impressed. This needs to be on a compilation.

Rating: ****

Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness calls out the Internet marks for saying he'll be the first to lose a championship in 2006 and can't believe anyone thinks Homicide will dethrone him tonight. This promo achieved its goals.

The ROH vs. CZW segment is good brawling and the crowd was into it, but not to the degree of the East Coast. A fine go-home for the CAGE OF DEATH coming up in three weeks in Philly with CZW again getting the upper hand since Homicide, the established CZW killer, was not involved as he had something more important to focus on this evening.

At intermission, the Briscoes say they ain't done with the Tag Champs and now KENTA has pissed them off.

Pure Title Match
Nigel McGuinness vs. Homicide


Homicide expresses mild disappointment to chairs being banned during the rules overview. McGuinness pie-faces Homicide with the belt, getting this match to a chippy start. Great way to start the match though with McGuinness attempting to troll the ticking time-bomb that Homicide is. Their in-ring scuffle spilled to the outside, with Homicide launching himself overhead to get the early advantage once they got back in the ring. Homicide was exceptional in once again showcasing his technical wrestling ability with various submissions and pinning attempts, including a Rings of Saturn that caused the Pure Champ to use a rope break.

McGuinness had gotten a brief hammerlock on Homicide's left arm earlier, looking like he'd prefer sticking to his usual left arm strategy rather than modify it for Homicide's damaged right shoulder. This is something the champ focused on when he got the heat back, applying numerous submissions, including an overhead front hammerlock suplex. When Homicide went for a chop with his left hand to keep McGuinness at bay, he sold the pain. That pain prevented Homicide from hitting a tornado DDT, allowing McGuinness to maintain control.

McGuinness got a fishhook locked in on Homicide's mouth during a submission, then yelled that he has 'till five to break it as a shot at Bryan Danielson. He continued working on Homicide's left arm, daring the Notorious 187 to go for the ropes during a submission. This was a great strategy that was just as impressive as when he pulled off the upset on Homicide at Midnight Express Reunion, but now there was more at stake and he had become a condescendingly unethical prick.

Homicide finally got a comeback when he ducked a clothesline and hit a running boot on McGuinness, but he continued selling that left arm. This caused his comeback to be brief, as McGuinness drilled Homicide in the turnbuckle making sure the left arm got the most impact. He put Homicide back in the corner, stretching the count while he nastily smeared Homicide's face with a forearm and a knee. Homicide attempted another comeback while McGuinness went for some strikes, this time being successful when he dodged a running McGuinness into the corner.

They spilled to the outside and brawled, with McGuinness giving Homicide a European uppercut. That was then followed by a vertical suplex onto the table. This resulted in a fantastic nearfall as Homicide got into the ring within a fraction of the ref reaching 20, stunning McGuinness in the process and getting a huge pop. Homicide would hit a frogsplash for two, causing him to almost lose it on the ref. McGuinness used the time to get Homicide in the corner and a hit a Tower of London for another hot nearfall. He'd seat Homicide on the top turnbuckle, but Homicide cut off his plans and hit a successful tornado DDT after having that maneuver sabotaged earlier in the match.

McGuinness would hit a rebound lariat for another nice nearfall, and the champ seemed to be on the ropes mentally. He went for his headstand baiting, but Homicide channeled Samoa Joe and hit a running boot on the champ. This caused the champ to go outside the ring and Homicide followed him. They brawled to the front entrance with Homicide having the upper hand, but McGuinness held onto Homicide even after being hit on the back with a chair. He ducked a clothesline from Homicide and ran to the ring, causing Homicide to barely lose this by countout. Fucking brilliant booking to push McGuinness as the Pure Wrestling Rules manipulator as well as Homicide's elevated frustration, which he shows by going berzerk and storming off, leaving the arena. This also needs to be on a compilation.

Rating: ***3/4

Austin Aries vs. KENTA

They exchange some slaps early within minutes of each other after having some back-and-forth wrestling, establishing this as an even matchup. They would have a heated slap exchange after that, popping this awesome crowd, with Aries ending up having KENTA in the head-scissors. KENTA got out of it, then regained the advantage and put Aries in the head-scissors. I was disappointed to see that Aries traditionally got out of that and hit a dropkick on the seated KENTA; I'd have assumed KENTA would've done his homework and known that was coming.

Aries worked on KENTA with some nice technical wrestling, including the Last Chancery to set him up for the brainbuster that was sure to come later. KENTA would block an early attempt at a brainbuster though, putting Aries on the apron. This gave KENTA the opportunity to cut off Aries and get the heat back. KENTA was of course vicious with his kicks and strikes, but went for the Camel Clutch to set up Aries for the Falcon Arrow. KENTA blocked a sunset flip pin, holding himself in an upward position, then leaned down and slapped Aries to another outstanding pop.

KENTA had an inverted head-scissors on Aries, but the Tag Champ got out of that one too. However, he was too dazed to follow up, so KENTA kicked him and tossed him outside, then flung Aries into the steel guardrail. KENTA continued controlling the match with Aries getting some hope spots in, but KENTA cut him off with a snapmare and then lethal kicks to the spine, followed up by a heel kick to the head of Aries. This infuriated Aries when he got back up, as he returned the snapmare and spinal kicks favor, then followed that up with a kneedrop. He then did his signature follo-wup "slow motion" kneedrop.

That pissed KENTA off, causing him to get enough adrenaline to get back up and kick the shit out of Aries, but Aries blocked a kick, gave KENTA a knee-breaker, and then planted the puro juggernaut with a German suplex. But KENTA got up, so Aries hit him with a running dropkick for a nice nearfall. Seconds later, KENTA cut off Aries to regain control and crotch the former ROH Champ on the middle turnbuckle. KENTA returned the favor from a minute earlier, hitting Aries with a running boot. He then teased another one, stopped himself, and slapped Aries; I assume he picked that up from the Strong vs. Jacobs match.

They had some cutting off back-and-forth stuff, with their signature stuff including a springboard missile dropkick and twisting bodypress. KENTA was put to the outside, so Aries launched at him with a tope suicida. With KENTA dazed, Aries tossed him back in and went up to the top rope, but KENTA got up and cut that off with a kick to the face. Aries would block an attempted Falcon Arrow, crotching the former GHC Jr. Champ and putting him in the Tree of Woe. But instead of going for the double foot stomp like Low Ki, Aries hit a dropkick on KENTA's face, followed up with a kick to the spine to another incredible crowd pop.

KENTA though kept himself back in this, hitting a butterfly suplex for a nearfall and declaring that he would go for the G2S. He slapped Aries but a Busaiku knee would be evaded, allowing Aries to hit a rolling forearm and clothesline. Aries hit a Finlay roll on KENTA, then got on a far corner for what I assumed would be a frogsplash, but Aries was exhausted and took too long. This gave KENTA the chance to get up, run towards Aries on the top rope and hit the Falcon Arrow for another excellent nearfall.

Aries would elbow KENTA during an attempted G2S, then beautifully turned that into a crucifix bomb for yet another tremendous nearfall, obviously scouting Danielson's counter from Best in the World 2006. KENTA would make another G2S attempt, but Aries got out of it, hit KENTA in the shin to position for a kick to the face, and a successful brainbuster for another nearfall. An exhausted Aries then went for the 450 Splash, but KENTA rolled out of the way, hit the Busaiku Knee, a kick to the face, another Busaiku knee, and then Aries bounced off the ropes right back into KENTA for the G2S, bringing this excellent match to its conclusion.

And because KENTA is a true pro, he rolls over at first, absolutely exhausted from this hard-hitting classic. Both men get up and embrace, but the Briscoes come out to mug them. Strong comes out for the save, and it's obvious we got some anticipated tag team matches coming up involving these men in the near future.

This match was just fucking excellent. Crisp strikes, beautiful teases that would then be delivered later, awesome reversals, and best of all a Chicago crowd that appreciated it. This may have been just as great in another market, but Chicago was the perfect choice for this match, as they were into absolutely everything. An absolute classic that is among the best match of both men's careers, just right behind KENTA vs. Low Ki in terms of spectacle. This right here is worth the price of the KENTA compilation alone.

Rating: ****1/2

ROH Title Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Colt Cabana


Danielson has Bobby Cruise remind the crowd that he beat this "Chicago chump" in five minutes. Brilliant way to get heat in case anyone would be in Danielson's favor after McGuinness mocked him earlier in the evening.

This wasn't as hard-hitting as Aries vs. KENTA (how could it be?) or even Strong vs. Jacobs, but this was another tremendous match for the evening. Cabana showed that he could hang with Danielson technically and even managed to get into the champ's head at times with great mind games. But this only got Danielson to become more vicious as the match went along, realizing that the match at The 100th Show between these two was a fluke.

I'll jump to the finish as it was outstanding. After busting out a moonsault for a nearfall on Danielson, Cabana went for a superplex, but Danielson cut that off and hit a super backdrop suplex that had been teased earlier for a hot nearfall. He went for the Cattle Mutation, but Cabana managed to get to the ropes. He got the champ in the Billy's Goat Curse and then went for a Cattle Mutation of his own, but the champ got to the ropes. Cabana powerbombed Danielson for another great nearfall in front of his hometown Chicago fans, but Danielson refused to turn over while down for whatever Cabana had in mind. That of course brought back memories of Danielson vs. Strong at This Means War.

Cabana poetically got some elbows on the back of Danielson's head, hit a clothesline, and dropped Danielson with the Colt .45 for what would guarantee the first title change of 2006. But Danielson not only kicked out, he had enough energy to give himself the necessary adrenaline rush, using the momentum and locking Cabana in a small package for the win. This was absolutely brilliant to remind everyone of Danielson's technical excellence and crush the Chicago crowd's spirits. The crowd started to throw garbage in the ring, so the camera cuts away.

What can I say? Another awesome match that is severely underrated, and I even read some reviews that said Cabana somehow DISAPPOINTED in this match, that he wasn't worthy of this position? Oh fuck off. This was just as good if not even better than Jacobs getting his shot in his hometown of Detroit the night before. Awesome match with incredible crowd heat, an under-appreciated classic, perhaps even more under-appreciated than the Christopher Daniels vs. Doug Williams work of art at Night of Champions.

Rating: ****

The Briscoes reiterate that they're coming for KENTA, Aries, and Strong. OH FUCK YES~!

The DVD ends with very brief footage of the company wishing Chicago native Adam Pearce a happy birthday.

Who the fuck convinced Bryan & Vinny to skip this show when they were reviewing ROH back in the day? This has got to be the most underrated ROH show ever, even more than Tag Wars 2006, as that show already has a reputation of being underrated. All four matches I reviewed are vastly underrated, with them all being very, very different.

A jock going up against an underdog creep. A smug cheater colliding with an irrationally frustrated OG. Two of the best juniors in the world putting on an intensely dramatic clinic. And then the world's best wrestler crushing Chicago's souls once again by sneaking a victory over one of their own, right as they thought their Second City Saint would pull off the upset and bring upon the first title change in the company for 2006.

This is HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommended, and one of the best shows in ROH history, no exaggeration. GET THIS SHOW NOW, it can be found pretty easily for pretty cheap.

We now end the first half of 2006 without a single title change. Will there be one at all in 2006, and if so, who will it be? What is to come for the frustrated Homicide, and more importantly, where does he fit in for this?

THE END OF THE GREATEST FEUD IN ROH HISTORY. ROH. CZW. PHILADELPHIA. CAGE OF DEATH. DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR IV. Is this Gabe Sapolsky's masterpiece still all these years later? Is this still the magical epic that all of us remember on that hot summer night in 2006? It's been a pleasure rewatching this program, and damn I hate to have gotten to the end, but all good things must come to an end and with the conclusion here, I will be sure to do justice in reviewing this saga that not only lived up to aesthetic expectations, but got business booming for the company in its birth market.

Up next - Death Before Dishonor IV
Matches will include:
Nigel McGuinness vs. Roderick Strong
AJ Styles vs. Davey Richards
Team ROH vs. Team CZW in CAGE OF DEATH~!
Last edited by supersonic on Thu Aug 24, 2017 1:09 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

Post by supersonic »

Death Before Dishonor IV - July 15, 2006

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ROH Video Recap - July 11, 2006



Important news/footage from the above video:
In an empty venue recorded at In Your Face, Homicide vents about being screwed and reiterates that he WILL finally capture a championship in ROH before 2006 ends or he's fucking off from the company. A video chronicling his time in ROH is shown titled History of Homicide: The OG of ROH, including his greatest feuds, matches, and moments, as well as his failures to become a champion in the company.
BJ Whitmer cuts a promo from a farm somewhere to discuss Cage of Death and his no rope barbed wire match against Necro Butcher on July 28 in Dayton. This promo got the job done, but since Whitmer has never been strong in mic skills and charisma, I would've had him calmly discuss what he had in mind, in a very matter of fact manner like a calm before the storm psychopath.

The official participants for Cage of Death:
ROH - Samoa Joe, Ace Steel, BJ Whitmer, Adam Pearce, & ???
CZW - Kings of Wrestling, Nate Webb, Necro Butcher, & ???
The keeper of the key is the legendary JJ Dillon!

In a segment supposedly taped in Florida, Dave Prazak (dressed in Chicago Cubs gear) finds Homicide flirting with So Cal Val and asks about Homicide walking out at Chi-Town Struggle. Homicide reiterates that he's tired of being screwed. Prazak says ROH needs him for Cage of Death, to which Homicide says he must be granted three wishes. "Change that goddamn jersey!"

An important announcement made before this show on the Newswire at the time, but failed to be mentioned during the Chi-Town Struggle main event and on the July 11 Video Recap:

SAMOA JOE GETS HIS ROH TITLE SHOT ON AUGUST 5 IN NEW JERSEY. OH FUCK YES~!

Throughout the evening, the four announced ROH participants reflect on how this issue against CZW has impacted them and what they have in mind for Cage of Death. Also shown throughout the DVD are various flashbacks from most of the fantastic moments in the ROH vs. CZW feud. With promos already on the DVD release like this is a PPV, I'd have gone with an extended vignette of the feud before the main event rather than simple flashbacks.

Prince Nana reveals his newest member of the Embassy, which is Sal Rinauro. His job is to be a foot stool for Jimmy Rave. Their tag match against Jay Lethal & Colt Cabana is nothing special but the crowd had fun with it.

Pure Title Match
Nigel McGuinness vs. Roderick Strong


Strong earned this Pure Title shot by making McGuinness tap out to the Liontamer at In Your Face, which like the Samoa Joe news, isn't pointed out ahead of time for the DVD viewer.

Referee Todd Sinclair gets booed as usual while going over the rules, so McGuinness chastises the crowd. Strong isn't letting McGuinness play verbal mind games and chops the champ to start the match. McGuinness blocks some more chops, making me wonder if the match would take a story from Strong's matches against CM Punk and Bryan Danielson. But the avoidance of the chops would be short-lived, and the challenger got to do his signature work on the back of McGuinness, forcing him to run out of rope breaks about 12-15 minutes into this match.

I must mention that the CZW fans in attendance started a "THIS IS AWFUL~!" chant to troll the ROHbots.

McGuinness focused on Strong's left arm with various submissions, and Strong sold this phenomenally well. However, my favorite and perhaps most important part of the match for storytelling happened when they got to the outside. Strong laid in some vicious chops and was about to get back in the ring to break the 20 count, but McGuinness dared him to keep it going. McGuinness absorbed the chops, threw Strong into the guardrail, and went in the ring. However, Strong barely broke the 20 count to a well-deserved reception for this tremendous false finish.

Strong would go on to regain the advantage with McGuinness out of rope breaks and slapped on another Liointamer. Like his first match against Bryan Danielson at Weekend of Champions Night 2, McGuinness crawled out of the ring to force Strong to break it. Tremendously teased submission finish right there.

They had more great action in the ring, highlighted by Strong seating McGuinness on the ropes to set him up for a super gutbuster. However, McGuinness grabbed the ref and positioned himself to stand upright, stunned Strong, and then landed a Tower of London for another fantastic nearfall. The champ threw Strong to the outside and put him in a Front Chancery headlock and planted him with a DDT on the concrete floor. They got up at the same time, but McGuinness yanked Strong by the left foot and then got back in right before the 20 count.

A great match structured similarly to McGuinness vs. Homicide on the prior show, except this had a bit more compelling submission wrestling and storytelling. A countout was teased, then the match looked like it might end with in-ring action, only for the countout to be used later as the actual finish. This also got the entire crowd chanting "THIS IS AWESOME~!", a chant that was earned with great pacing and intelligence in front of an audience that had a significantly cynical portion in attendance.

Rating: ****

Commissioner Jim Cornette comes out to talk. You know those never-ending segments with talking and talking and TALKING to kick off Raw and Impact that could be wrapped up within several minutes but go at least double that to fill up time and accomplish nothing beyond announcing an insignificant TV main event? THIS AIN'T THAT KIND OF FUCKING SEGMENT.

This is a layered segment in which Cornette rightfully rips apart WWE's attempt at the ECW brand in order to point out that ROH is now Philly's true hometown promotion, hyping up the ROH audience and also throwing in extra awesome digs at the impatient CZW fans. In terms of CZW fan pot-shots, this is on par with Cornette's performance at Tag Wars 2006.

Announced is the return of KENTA not just for the next time ROH is in Philly on November 4, but HE WILL GET AN ROH TITLE SHOT ON SEPTEMBER 16 IN MANHATTAN. OH FUCK YES~!

He also says Homicide is too demanding to be part of Team ROH, and out comes Danielson to make his pitch. His presence creates more great opportunities to take shots at CZW. Danielson points out as the champ and head trainer at the ROH School that he should get the fifth spot; he has no extra demands, he simply wants to help out with the cause and bring technical wrestling to the Cage of Death. Cornette is happy to oblige.

AJ Styles vs. Davey Richards

Hollow match here. It could be any combination of reasons. Both could've been really sore, perhaps Richards was too green, perhaps they just didn't have the right singles chemistry together at this time. But this didn't work. It never emotionally developed and there was no real drama, just moves and holds. In particular, Richards was the exact opposite of Strong earlier in the night, not selling his back after having it worked on by Styles. Richards does the clean job to the potential future HOFer in order to prevent a potential backlash that would come with a perceived overpush.

Hindsight is 20/20, and here's what I wish we'd gotten instead. As great as McGuinness vs. Strong was, I'd have booked that for August 5 in New Jersey to give that show a truly epic triple main event (I'll detail that show when I get closer to it.) For this show, Strong faces Richards in singles in what I imagine would've been a very good undercard match. That leaves Styles to challenge McGuinness for the Pure Title in what was a dream match at the time (and when they finally faced off years later in TNA, it wasn't designed to be a show-stealer unfortunately.) Now of course, why would Styles challenge McGuinness? Because not only would he be sick of the Pure Champion's questionable bullshit, but he never got his rematch after being stripped as the first ever Pure Champ back in 2004. That would've made for two hard-hitting, jaw-dropping undercard spectacles for this divided Philly crowd.

Rating: less than ***

At intermission, Gary Michael Cappetta questions Nigel McGuinness for his methods, but he shrugs it off and proclaims he'd also be Tag Champion if he had a reliable partner. It turns out that Cabana is right in the lobby, and the camera catches him apparently flirting with Lacey, who darts away immediately. Cabana challenges McGuinness for the Pure Title. Don't care about that match; my focus is LACEY & COLT CABANA. I'd have teased that during Weekend of Champions since they interacted there with Cabana facing Jimmy Jacobs.

Cage of Death
Team ROH vs. Team CZW


I will discuss the match first, then the actual feud in the overall assessment of the show afterwards.

The structure is an octagon-style COD surrounding ringside rather than the layered version.

Bobby Cruise goes over the rules, which are the same as War Games. Two minute intervals with a coin toss to determine who has the advantage. The match ends when every participant has entered the match and it is then one fall to a finish. JJ Dillon, who is sporting an old Four Horsemen jacket, calls the toss for ROH and wins it to give them the advantage.

ROH #1: Samoa Joe
CZW #1: Claudio Castagnoli

"Joe's gonna kill you!" "Joe has bitch tits!"

Castagnoli tries to play mind games but they eventually scuffle and it gets to the outside, complete with Joe hitting an elbow suicida to an incredible pop. Joe soccer kicks a metal trash can in Castagnoli's face and follows that up with a perfectly timed Ole Ole Kick to another wonderful pop. Castagnoli gets some payback by reversing an Irish whip and throwing Joe into a ladder.

They get back inside the ring and provide an appetizer of the classic singles match that they unfortunately never had. This is highlighted with Joe giving him 20 boot scrapes then a running boot scrape to of course another great reaction from the ROH fans. They go back out and Joe drops a ladder on Castagnoli's back, but then another Ole Ole Kick attempt is avoided.

ROH #2: BJ Whitmer

Whitmer has a bag of tacks but leaves it I believe with Dillon. He's a house of fire on Castagnoli but gets cut off. But Castagnoli's control is short-lived as Whitmer reverses an Irish whip, throwing Castagnoli directly into a Uranage Slam by Joe.

CZW #2: Chris Hero

Hero tosses a chair in the ring but is double-teamed. He cuts that off with double eyepokes on the ROH guys. This allows the Kings of Wrestling to double-team Whitmer as Joe is recovering on the outside. A hope spot from Whitmer is cut off from Castagnoli and they remove his ROH shirt then throw it to the CZW crowd. "Throw it back!"

ROH #3: Bryan Danielson

Massive pop for the ROH Champ of course and he's a house of fire on the Kings to the approval of the ROH crowd. It becomes an appetizer of a tag match I'd love to have seen: Kings of Wrestling vs. Samoa Joe & Bryan Danielson.

Danielson and Joe get the advantage with Danielson clotheslining Castagnoli out of the ring. Hero teases a Cravate move on Joe from the turnbuckle, but Danielson stops that with a perfectly positioned dropkick right on Here's face; Danielson then tells Joe to hit the musclebuster on Hero. As Joe is about to drop Hero, Danielson chop-blocks his right knee!

Danielson continues attacking Joe to massive boos from the ROH crowd, and the Commish is at ringside confused about what's going on. Danielson attacks Joe's right knee with a chair.

CZW #3: Nate Webb

Webb goes after a fallen Whitmer, as Danielson gloats, not giving a shit about this war. Danielson tells Cornette his focus is defending the ROH Title against Joe on August 5, then flips him off before leaving. Joe has to be escorted from the match, leaving Whitmer all by himself to a 3-on-1 disadvantage.

Webb then amazes me with one hell of a highspot. The Kings put Whitmer in a corner and place a trash can in front of him. Webb climbs and stands on the top rope of a nearby corner and then hits a fucking moonsault Van Terminator, smashing the weapon in Whitmer's face. A breathtaking highlight in this classic that has so many great things going for it. This causes Whitmer's forehead to bleed.

ROH #4: Adam Pearce

The Lt. Commissioner digs down deep with anger and necessary desperation, running a house of fire on the three CZW guys and getting the ROH crowd back into this. He and Whitmer work together on Castagnoli but that's brief as Hero tosses a trash can at Whitmer's face and goes to Pearce's eyes. The momentum is back in CZW's favor, the 3-on-2 advantage becoming reality.

But Pearce won't go down without a fight, brawling with Castagnoli on the outside. He teases a piledriver on the future WWE superstar. Castagnoli blocks that and monkey-flips Pearce into the cage wiring. Perhaps if Pearce had just gone for the piledriver rather than signal for it he'd have gotten some real momentum going for ROH.

CZW #4: Necro Butcher

Wonderful pop from the CZW fans as Necro brings a chair to the environment. He goes after Whitmer as Hero cockily sits on a chair and the ROH fans chant "Backyard wrestling!" while begging for Homicide to get involved. The 4-on-2 advantage is too much at this point as Whitmer and Pearce are getting annihilated, especially with Necro scoop-slamming the former onto a steel chair in the ring.

Necro targets Pearce with a ladder. Meanwhile, Whitmer is held up for Hero to launch at him, but Hero trolls the ROH audience by locking Whitmer in a Cravate instead of doing a spectacular move. Tremendous.

ROH #5: Ace Steel

Steel brings a cowbell to the environment and runs a house of fire with it on Team CZW to yet another awesome pop from the ROH audience. It appears the momentum may have swung in ROH's favor, especially with Steel also punching a chair into Necro's face. But that's short-lived as the Kings cut Steel off and Necro tries to choke Pearce with the cowbell's strap. Numerous guys are showing color at this point.

Hero gets on the mic to get a CZW chant going and tease the final member of Team CZW. Steel interrupts him by blindsiding him with a trash can, but that only irritates Hero and doesn't get any momentum going in ROH's favor. Hero points out that the last CZW member is a personal enemy of his, and the crowd is chanting for Homicide, but Hero says he and his personal enemy have a greater enemy in ROH. It's a "King of Diamonds."

CZW #5: Eddie Kingston

Not a bad plan B after Super Dragon stopped getting booked I must say. The ROH fans are heckling Kingston, but the 5-on-3 is just too much and the CZW fans are loving it. The ROH fans only beg for Homicide even more passionately, hoping against hope that something can be done after Danielson screwed them and put them in this position. Steel is busted open when Necro bulldogs him on a barbed wire bat.

Whitmer ducks a chop from Kingston and Hero takes it instead, causing the mortal enemies to get face-to-face and pie-face each other. But before they self-destruct with personal agendas like Danielson and Joe did, the lights go out...

HOMICIDE~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Notorious 187 is accompanied by Julius Smokes and the CZW guys are glued in on the established CZW killer. Homicide enters the structure to another electrifying pop and he's brandishing a wooden board. He smashes Kingston's head with it, splitting it into four even rectangles before getting it on with Necro. In my personal favorite spot of the match, Necro goes to grab a chair and charges at Homicide with it. But Homicide has grabbed Whitmer's bag of tacks, emptied it so that the barefooted Necro stepped on them, threw some right in his face, and then Necro got dumped by Whitmer with an exploder suplex!!! Fucking phenomenal nearfall.

Homicide has extra forks that he gives to Whitmer and Pearce and they use them liberally. It seems like everyone except Homicide and the Kings are now bleeding, with Homicide cutting Kingston open and licking the blood as the ROH crowd almost worships him for it. After teasing it and having it reversed earlier, Pearce gets a piledriver on Castagnoli on the concrete floor, and the future Cesaro is now bleeding too. Whitmer briefly has Necro wrapped in barbed wire, but OMG...

Pearce gorilla presses Webb out of the ring as the CZW superstar hits the cage and then falls through a fucking table. Absolutely breathtaking but not something I think we'll ever see again in ROH. Oh yeah, this got a massive pop for those wondering. The momentum is now clearly in ROH's favor, and the ROH fans are chanting "RING OF HOMICIDE~!" The match is just chaos with so many little battles going on in this absolute war.

In another amazing moment, Pearce drops Kingston with a sideslam; as he does that, Steel delivers a guillotine legdrop to Kingston, but also hits a super Stunner on Webb simultaneously. Amazing and very creative nearfall. The CZW fans chant "6 ON 5!" and the ROH fans respond with "You can't count!" Steel misses a tope suicida on Kingston, who walks out of the way so that Steel bounces off a table, but Kingston then gets hit by Homicide with a trash can.

Inside the ring, Pearce drops Webb with a spinning Angle Slam onto the tacks. Jesus Christ. Hero pushes the tacks out of the ring as more shit is set up. Homicide suplexes Kingston through a table as the fans chant for someone to sweep up the tacks. This is just a fucking warzone.

Hero and Homicide get back in the ring and go at it. Homicide tries to hit a super Ace Crusher on a chair, but he ends up hitting the chair himself with his ass. Pearce hits a flying elbow drop on Webb for a nearfall. The match continues to just be chaos, guys fucking each other up with so much shit, my favorite being when Castagnoli is hit in the abdomen by Homicide with the board, immediately followed by Whitmer hitting an exploder suplex on Kingston on the concrete floor.

Hero and Pearce have climbed the cage. As they exchange punches, Webb hits an incredible Fosbury Flop on Whitmer! Then Castagnoli jumps from the turnbuckle, lands on the cage next to Pearce, and drops the Lt. Commish with a Super Russian Leg Sweep through a fucking table! Then Homicide immediately hits a crazy tope con hilo on Webb to the outside! Fuck this shit is just unreal.

Hero ducks weapon shots and climbs up top, then hits a fucking moonsault onto Team ROH and Necro gets some of it too. Holy shit the crowd is eating this up! Nearfall on Homicide broken up by Whitmer is next. Whitmer sets up a chair in the middle of the ring and clubs Hero, and they exchange forearms. Hero eats a brainbuster on the chair for another nearfall, but Necro breaks that up by smacking Whitmer with a chair. Bodies are laying everywhere.

Whitmer and Homicide hit a double back drop driver on Necro, dropping him head/neck first on the chair to another amazing pop, but that's a nearfall of course, because that's not enough to bring this saga to a proper conclusion. But the CZW fans appreciate Necro's toughness and tenacity. There's more brawling outside the ring of course, but back inside Necro regains the advantage by clotheslining Whitmer and Homicide from behind.

Whitmer and Necro duke it out on the apron in front of a table, and the camera shows that a fucking barbed wire board has been placed inside the ring too! Whitmer and Necro continue their stalemate on the apron, but Whitmer "wins" it by hitting a Samoan Drop on Necro through the table, which also has barbed wire! Steel and Webb battle in the ring but Homicide comes to help out, so Steel targets Kingston outside the ring.

Webb plants Homicide down, then follows that with a missed steel chair moonsault. Homicide gets up and smacks it in Webb's face to an amazing pop, then signals for the Kudo Driver. Webb escapes that, teases a powerbomb, but Homicide escapes that, kicks him in the gut, and drops Webb with a Kudo Driver on the fucking barbed wire board!!! THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of this feud.

The ROH fans are going crazy, and the Commish comes out to say the following to the CZW audience:

"Hey hardcore fans. You wanted your garbage wrestling. Well you got your garbage wrestling and your garbage wrestlers got their garbage asses kicked!"

Cornette tells the ROH officials and ring crew to "take out the trash," vowing they'd never return (of course, that does NOT mean that Whitmer vs. Necro on the next show is off.) Hero flips off everyone, and Cornette tells him not to show off his IQ. He thanks the ROH team and asks Dillon, Pearce, and Homicide to stay put.

The crowd is going nuts for Homicide. Just nuts. Before I review the match, I'm gonna continue going over the post-match, one that was a great follow-up to the post-match of the previous Death Before Dishonor installment's main event.

Cornette thanks all three men, especially Homicide for stepping up to the plate to help out his ROH peers when they needed him most. The CZW fans chant "boring" but Cornette hits them with one last zinger while also putting over Homicide. And for Homicide's contributions, Cornette has agreed to grant the three wishes.

FANS ARE CHANTING FOR LOW KI.

1 - Homicide wants to face Steve Corino again in an ROH ring. Cornette obliges. I'm still gonna pretend that feud wrapped up in 2003.

2 - Homicide wants a guaranteed ROH Title shot. Cornette obliges. OH FUCK YES~!

FANS ARE CHANTING LOUDER FOR LOW KI.

3 - Homicide wants Low Ki to be reinstated. HUGE FUCKING POP~! Oh if only...

But Cornette refuses because Ki knocked his tooth out and says he will do anything that directly benefits Homicide. Cornette is then labeled a liar by Homicide. Cornette retorts by asking if he's Homicide or Homocide. Homicide decides to then spit in the Commish's face.

Pearce goes after Homicide and Dillon locks the cage since he has the key. They ambush Homicide with Cornette spraying his face with mace. Pearce and Dillon keep ROH students at bay by striking them with weapons as they tried to climb in, and Smokes gets maced as well. Cornette then does something that he'd hypocritically shit on Hollywood Hogan for doing, having Homicide handcuffed to a turnbuckle and then smacking him with a belt repeatedly.

They leave Homicide for dead, and Smokes and the students get in. They have to use pliers to free Homicide since nobody has handcuff keys. Crowd is going crazy for Homicide as the show goes off the air.

What can I really say about this match?

This was EVERYTHING that we ask for in feud-enders. Sure, it was way too violent as I've mentioned in my review of this feud, but that's no reason that the industry can't capture this kind of magic again. This match truly had it all - timing, progressing other arcs, staying true to the characters, an absurd fuckton of unforgettable spots, peaks and valleys, swings in momentum, a moltenly passionate, white-hot divided audience, and a moment that had been 11 months in the making.

This match perfectly wrapped up the greatest feud in company history with a genuine climatic moment. This match progressed not only ROH's own Danielson vs. Joe program, but Hero vs. Kingston as well, a program that had zero to do with ROH. This match had all the brutality that the audience expected. This match also put Homicide in the position that the fans had demanded at Night of the Grudges II - this was the final step in making him the #1 babyface in the promotion, far above Samoa Joe or even KENTA.

As for the post-match, it was so perfectly executed, a swerve on par with CM Punk's heel turn after he brought such a high of happiness for the audience when he captured the ROH Title at Death Before Dishonor III. The foreshadowing of it was always there. Low Ki being the one to knock out Cornette's tooth and getting a lifetime suspension. Pearce sucking up to Cornette in the name of ROH pride. And Dillon showing up, wearing a jacket that showed off his past as a key member of one of the most vicious, cutthroat factions the business has ever seen. It was all right in front of us the entire time.

I know that unlike the Summer of Punk, the Cornette vs. Homicide feud was largely an aesthetic failure, so I'll be skipping most of it. But to me, this post-match is one of the greatest moments in company history. I put this on the same wavelength as Money in the Bank 2011. For one night, we witnessed true magic, a rare moment of culmination, with the hopes that it cracked the door open for more of that same feeling to come frequently. And just because the aftermath couldn't measure up doesn't mean that this wasn't a special segment.

This match is a true chef d'oeuvre. This will go down as the greatest booking orchestration of Gabe Sapolsky's career. It is not only one of the best matches in ROH's history, but one of the absolute best in independent wrestling history. For my ROH 2006 revisit, I do have it on par with Blood Generation vs. Do Fixer at Supercard of Honor. But don't ask me to choose which one is better. That's the same as asking me to pick between Toy Story or The Avengers. Two absolute pieces of perfection that provide such differently satisfying flavors to the viewer.

Words cannot express how badly I wished I had gotten to experience this masterpiece live in person.

Rating: *****

So, as for this show itself, only two matches are worth seeing, but like Unforgettable nine months prior in the exact same venue, these two matches fucking delivered. (That show ALSO had an undercard storyline moment of some importance in the ring, PLUS a backstage undercard storyline moment of importance too.) McGuinness vs. Strong was easily the highlight of a disappointing in-ring undercard and is recommended viewing for all fans that prefer the sports-entertainment formatting of wrestling matches. It is an excellent source of not just great wrestling but character development as well.

Then there's the Cage of Death. I really can't say much more about that match, so it is now time for my assessment of Ring of Honor vs. Combat Zone Wrestling.

For me to confidently label this as the greatest feud in ROH history, I know that says a lot because there have been so many great feuds to have come in its dozen years of existence. So what exactly makes this stand head-and-shoulders above the top feuds that came before this, such as the Summer of Punk, Homicide vs. Cabana, Joe vs. Homicide, and the Embassy vs. Generation Next, as well as many other great feuds that would come later? To be known as the greatest feud in ROH history requires numerous aspects. It not only had to be aesthetically pleasing, but has to have both a tangible short-term and long-term effect on the company as well as the industry.

I'll start with the aesthetics. This program generated a buzz for a company that admittedly had plenty of it throughout 2005 thanks to the Summer of Punk, James Gibson, and Kenta Kobashi. That year had so much great shit going for it, but what this feud brought to the table was a quantity of new characters, emotional brawls that had the crowds rocking one night after another, and absolute hardcore classics that surpassed my sentimental memories I had of them.

This program got so many guys JOBS in the company and as a result throughout the rest of the industry. Sure, someone as talented as Chris Hero would've eventually gotten on the radar of the big leagues, but this finally gave him the chance to show off his skills as a character and technical wrestler in the juggernaut promotion of the indies. Other key characters brought to the ROH main shows for the first time also included Super Dragon, Necro Butcher, Nate Webb, and Eddie Kingston. This allowed the shows to feel fresh for the long-time customers of ROH.

By CZW doing business with ROH, this also got CZW fans to tune in to root for their favorite federation. I can't say enough how strongly opinionated the opposing fanbases were in praising their promotions while burying the other. This feud brought that genuine emotion and got a bunch of insider fans to actually buy into something that mattered to them. And by doing this, not only did ROH continue to do great business with its DVDs, but attendance was reignited in its home market of Philadelphia. It's a shame that the Summer of Punk, Gibson's farewell, and Kobashi's match didn't get business moving in Philly, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. These new fans that tuned in now got to be introduced to the ROH product during a time when ROH was hitting on almost all cylinders. Remember, The Milestone Series was right in the middle of this feud.

Many of the CZW guys would go on to become mainstays in ROH, and got some spotlight to showcase what they could bring to the business as well. This feud elevated guys. Speaking of elevation, think about how much the stock of Whitmer and Pearce increased because of this. Rather than constantly tread water and get exposed, Whitmer now had a cause to fight for and get the fans on his side while also feuding with Jimmy Jacobs. Pearce went from tedious undercard jobber to ROH enforcer, now becoming Cornette's right hand man.

It all came together for Homicide as well. It was absolutely ingenious after Night of the Grudges II to put him in an emotional feud with Cabana in which he would morally hit rock bottom, realize the error of his ways to find some decency within, and then taking the frustrations he had out on the CZW guys as they trespassed on his territory. Everything just came together perfectly.

This was a magical time that will never come back to independent wrestling. I'm still waiting for ROH to make this compilation, but don't keep waiting, people. Get these shows and watch this gripping saga unfold. You'll also accidentally see some of the greatest shows and matches of all-time as well.

It has been a pleasure re-watching this and I'm sad that everything else after this may not be up to par creatively, but I know there's still plenty of great shit to come, including what might very well be the greatest match in company history. We'll see when I get around to that.

Up next - War of the Wire II
Matches will include:
Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels
Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries vs. Delirious vs. Homicide
Roderick Strong & Jack Evans vs. Briscoe Bros.
BJ Whitmer vs. Necro Butcher
Last edited by supersonic on Thu Aug 24, 2017 1:11 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

Post by DXvsNWO1994 »

I LOVED the Cage of Death on this show!! Great Match, with a ton of drama. One thing I really loved about this whole thing was that one major storyline concluded, while another one started. Fantastic stuff.

Also, I find it incredibly ironic that (probably) the greatest Cage of Death Match in history occurred on a Ring of Honor Show.
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

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ROH will never have a feud that captures the magic of that again. The timing was just perfect for the indy scene in 2006.
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

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This time period of ROH was some of the most fun I've ever had watching wrestling. I miss it so much!
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

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War of the Wire II - July 28, 2006

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ROH Video Recap - July 19, 2006



Important news/footage in the above video:
Jim Cornette cuts a passionate promo, one that ALMOST makes me wanna rewatch his entire feud with Homicide. Truly must see.
Christian Cage vs. Christopher Daniels is confirmed for July 29 in Cleveland
Gary Michael Cappetta looks for Colt Cabana and it results in a humorous moment

I kept the good shit captured on my external hard drive, so I'll be copying and pasting portions of Brad Garoon & Jake Ziegler's dual review for anything important I missed.

Poorly produced videos of BJ Whitmer mentally preparing for tonight's main event are shown. Not exactly Russell Wilson walking the steps and field of MetLife Stadium the day of Super Bowl XLVIII.

Here we go, the big announcement that wasn't mentioned by Cornette at all during his promo at Death Before Dishonor IV or on any of the recent Video Recaps.
JZ says: Jimmy Bower narrates a clip of Bryan Danielson attacking Samoa Joe during the Cage of Death match at Death Before Dishonor IV two weeks ago. They will face each other in Edison, New Jersey on August 5, in a match dubbed “The Fight of the Century.” We will hear from Samoa Joe later on in this DVD.
Matt Sydal vs. Christopher Daniels

Sydal has returned from a couple months spent in Dragon Gate. Daniels largely controls the match, working on Sydal's neck and left arm. This helped set up Sydal for a variety of signature moves including the Reverse STO, Koji Clutch, Iconoclasm, Last Rites, and Angel's Wings. However, Daniels would only bust out some of those moves throughout the match as well as his signature Best Moonsault Ever, which Sydal kicked out of. The commentators remind the viewer that Sydal had fallen in each of his five matches (three singles, a couple threeways involving Azrieal and AJ Styles) to a different move each time to Daniels.

This was nowhere near Sydal's best performance, especially compared to their best singles match against each other to date at Weekend of Champions Night 2 or Sydal having to carry the injured Daniels at Dissension. But all of his counters were fluid and well-timed, with the audience behind him with every highspot he pulled out. Sydal found a way to leverage himself out of the Koji Clutch, and eventually positioned to drop Daniels on his neck (of course having never fully recovered from his injury in WCW) in a move visually similar to the Styles Clash, giving Sydal his major singles victory that had eluded him in ROH since his breakout match against Jimmy Rave at The Final Showdown in the same venue.

Post-match, Daniels congratulates Sydal and offers to tag with him should he wanna challenge Austin Aries & Roderick Strong for the Tag Titles again.

Rating: ***1/2

Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries vs. Delirious vs. Homicide

Before the match starts, there's info scrolling at the bottom with numerous noteworthy matches booked to get my blood flowing towards a certain body organ:
Danielson defending the ROH Title against Nigel McGuinness tomorrow night in Cleveland
Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles; Briscoes vs. KENTA & Davey Richards on August 4 in Long Island
Fight of the Century on August 5 in New Jersey with the Danielson vs. Joe main event plus KENTA vs. Richards

Danielson is the ROH Champ while Aries is half of the Tag Champs as just mentioned. If either champ wins the match, the loser cannot challenge them for their title. But if either champion is pinned, the winner gets a title shot against the defeated participant. Now of course, Homicide already had a guaranteed ROH Title show per the two wishes Cornette came through with on the previous show, so why is Homicide in this? Because it doesn't hurt to have TWO guaranteed shots in the bank, plus it gives him a chance to get his hands on Danielson after what happened at Destiny. Having a guaranteed shot at the Tag Titles wouldn't be too shabby either especially after the prestige that Aries & Strong have brought upon them.

I really liked this match because of all the stories Danielson had with his opponents, but was annoyed that the match wasn't just made a tornado match from the get-go, since tag legalities stopped being enforced in the third act as usual for the indy scene. That doesn't take away the heat this wonderful Dayton crowd gave the match, popping huge and breaking out in "HOLY SHIT~!" chants at the beginning when Delirious was simply running around and talking shit in gibberish to both Homicide and Danielson. Yes, I'm still bitter that ROH burned this crowd the next time they came to this market. and no, I will NOT be reviewing that piece of shit show.

Anyway, everything was well-timed in this one, with all kinds of great stories as mentioned. Homicide truly wanted Danielson as they of course had history even prior to Destiny (their best of five series ending in the cage match at The Final Showdown in this venue), while Danielson did his best to be a chickenshit and avoid the hottest babyface in the company. Of course, when Danielson and Aries went at it, it was beautiful technical wrestling with Danielson doing a great job of trolling the tremendous audience.

In the third act as I mentioned, it got a bit more chaotic with the tag legalities being ignored. Aries and Delirious had a hot sequence ending with Aries taking a Shadows Over Hell but that would just be a false finish. The match had a similarly hot finish, as Homicide was dazed on the outside while Danielson locked the Cattle Mutilation on Delirious. This allowed Aries to climb the top rope and pin Danielson with a 450 Splash, earning a shot at the ROH Champion and I can't complain about that booking at all.

Rating: ***1/2

Roderick Strong & Jack Evans vs. Briscoe Bros.

The now-disbanded Generation Next comes out first, and this is also the return of Evans after a few months spent in Dragon Gate. They attack the Briscoes at the entrance ramp due to the events of Throwdown and Chi-Town Struggle. They have a spotty opening sequence as would be predicted, with it looking like it'd turn into Evans vs. Mark as the legal men to start the match. However, just like the fourway right before this, the ref seemed to lack regard for that, allowing Jay to come in as the legal man when Mark got put on the outside like this was Lucha rules.

This was still a good match with those tag issues though since referee Todd Sinclair decided to enforce later legalities throughout the rest of the match. Once that glaring flaw was out of the way, this match turned into exactly what the overrated clusterfuck at Best in the World 2006 should've been. These guys got their shit in, the Briscoes cut the ring in half on Evans and trolled Strong, Evans got the hot tag, Strong ran a house of fire.

My favorite moment in the match was Strong assisting Evans with a standing corkscrew on Mark while he was on the second rope. This caused damage to Mark's back, softening it for Strong's offense. But Evans was down after that move, selling the beating the Briscoes had given him. This allowed the Briscoes to eventually capitalize and get the advantage on Strong, pinning him after a spike double underhook piledriver, and thus securing themselves another shot at the Tag Titles. Much better than the first match as I mentioned.

Rating: ***1/4

No Rope Barbed Wire Match
Necro Butcher vs. BJ Whitmer


I left out most of the prematch brawl between the ROH and CZW guys as that issue was done and over with. The Video Recap would've served just fine with reminding us that Claudio Castagnoli is still around as a contracted ROH superstar still. Homicide accompanies Whitmer at ringside to advise him during the match based on his classic against Steve Corino at the original War of the Wire.

This match couldn't live up to that one because neither man could sell the hate with their faces and body language. There were also some selling issues mainly from Whitmer (also a business-exposing moment when he held a chair in front of his face, but that may have been shitty camera angle production.) So while this wasn't Homicide vs. Corino or Randy Orton vs. Mick Foley due to its various issues, I must still admit that this was a highly enjoyable garbage style match thanks mostly to the awesome crowd. It was certainly better than the clusterfuck between Joey Ryan and B-Boy earlier in the month. The audience completely rallied behind Whitmer here during and after the match, breaking out in various chants after he slayed this demon. Funny how that happens when the right guy wins.

My biggest issue with this match isn't the selling or lack of hatred. I actually observed Necro doing a decent job of selling his pain. But this match had a lot of crazy shit going for it. Both guys of course bladed on their faces and bodies. Necro dropped Whitmer off the ring canvas onto a barbed wire table to the outside via a sitdown powerbomb. In a nice touch after what happened between these men inside the Cage of Death, Homicide surprised Whitmer with a bag of thumbtacks to use on Necro. Whitmer used them on Necro's face AND got him to step on them, just like what happened 13 days prior to this match. There was also a Tiger Driver on the tacks, as well as Whitmer channeling Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania X, falling off of a ladder and splashing on Necro, who was being pierced underneath a barb-wire board.

So what's the problem exactly? After ALL of that insane shit that had this crowd going apeshit, Whitmer finished off Necro with a simple wrist-clutch exploder, not even doing it on the tacks (they mistakenly used that earlier in the match as a nearfall.) Very anticlimatic finish for this match and as a residual epilogue to the Cage of Death masterpiece. At least Whitmer won and slayed this demon though, so he can now completely focus on Lacey and Jimmy Jacobs, and based on the wars they've already had with each other, as well as what Jacobs put himself through against Alex Shelley, boy am I looking forward to continue rewatching that feud.

Rating: ***3/4

Nothing genuinely great to me on here, but very, very, very good show overall in front of the usually fantastic Dayton crowd. In fact, this was in many ways the end of an era, as the next Dayton event was god-awful as I mentioned earlier, with the market getting killed off for years due to constantly being saddled with B-shows. That's such a shame after so many great matches and memories such as the first match in the Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk trilogy and James Gibson bringing Punk's reign of terror to an end. I'll also include this show's main event on par with that due to how fondly many ROHbots view it. I also must mention Third Anniversary Celebration Pt. 2, The Final Showdown, and Tag Wars 2006, three of the finest and funnest events in company history and among my favorite pro wrestling events of all-time.

I highly recommend this for a variety of quality wrestling as well as this being the last hot Dayton event, and I believe many fans will be more forgiving of the main event's flaws than I am.

And now, I continue with the greatest rivalry in company history, plus it's the final chapter for the greatest faction in company history as well. I seriously cannot believe the latter wasn't even mentioned on this show or in the Video Recaps.

Up next - Generation Now
Matches will include:
Delirious vs. Claudio Castagnoli
Jay Briscoe vs. Jimmy Jacobs
Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, Jack Evans, & Matt Sydal vs. Irish Airborne, Davey Richards, & Jerrelle Clark
Christian Cage vs. Christopher Daniels
Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness
Last edited by supersonic on Thu Aug 24, 2017 1:11 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

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I've gone back to previous shows in 2006 to include the respective video recaps that were available online. I'll work on as many grammatical/spelling/formatting errors as well while I peripherally watch tonight's NBA action.
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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

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Re: Project Rewatch - ROH: The Good Shit

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TYB
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