HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!! its the Basketball gimmick for Mark Jindrak. I read about this on WrestleCrap. It took those purveyors of wrestling excrement literal years to track down any video or information on this shit. And here it is, on this unassuming dude's channel.
Wow. Its the bad wrestling gimmick Holy Grail.
Oh yeah, the match! Skipper wins a perfectly acceptable green guy match with a flying missile dropkick. Perfectly acceptable wrestling.
Silver King and
The Frito Bandito - Separated at birth?
- Not going to lie, I was a total "Screaming" Norman Smiley mark at one point. Before the Screaming and the simulated anal rape, Norman was a strong worker with all the personality of a cardboard box melting in the rain. The "Screaming" gimmick was broad comedy, but it was fun.
- I have no idea what a "4 The Hard Way Match" is, but they're promoting it for Uncensored 2000.
- Bobby Eaton was still around by 2000? Beautiful.
- When I think "hardcore", Norman Smiley and an aging Bobby Eaton aren't the first two names I think of.
- Smiley wins the match with his windup bodyslam and then he and Charles Robinson do the Big Wiggle. Wow... Not even a bodyslam onto a garbage can.
- I would have given this match 8 stars if Eaton used a tennis racket at some point.
They made "Free Willy 3"?
Sorry, some of these old matches still have some of their commercial bumpers attached and I've never been happier.
- Jerry Flynn Fun Fact #1 - Jerry Flynn received a WCW World Title Match against Bret "Hitman" Hart on an episode of Nitro in 1999. He didn't win.
- Jerry Flynn Fun Fact #2 - Jennifer Lopez's song "Jenny From The Block" inspired Jerry Flynn's "The Block" challenges in WCW. He misheard "Jenny" and thought she said "Jerry".
- Jerry Flynn Fun Fact #3 - Jerry Flynn's hair was preserved, after he cut his mullet, in the "Mullet Hall Of Fame And Museum" located in Voorhees, New Jersey.
- Jerry Flynn Fun Fact #4 - Jerry Flynn did several jobs for the WWF in the late-80's. Including a six-man tag-team job, teaming with Barry Horowitz.
- Jerry Flynn Fun Fact #5 - Jerry Flynn can levitate objects with his mind and bend reality to his will. But only in the state of Ohio, on odd-numbered years, and only when holding a cat.
Last edited by Spudz Mackenzie; April 20th, 2020 at 8:52 PM.
I actually considered listening to Henry Rollins' spoken word while watching. I decided I wanted to actually enjoy the match, though.Originally Posted by Spudz Mackenzie
Way better than I remembered it. Until I remembered why it didn't stick. That funny, kinda interesting, but ultimately unnecessary interference from Jon Stewart for a finish.
Still a great ride, though. It was fun remembering how Rollins felt like he was on top of the world here.
All-time classic.
Man, Meng is a weird case study for WCW's midcard guys. He's an example of WCW's "glass ceiling" booking. They seemed to respect Meng enough to keep him strong and pretty well protected against guys on his "level". When he mixed it up with guys above the middle of the card, he'd job, but he rarely got pinned flat by his equals. And Meng went months at a time as "just a guy" filling out matches and time on the card. But God damn, if you've got the money, Meng makes a fucking excellent "just a guy".
If anything, Meng was WCW's Kane. They could keep him around for months, floating in the ether and doing whatever, and then heat him up as the big midcard gatekeeper for somebody on the rise to beat, cool him off, and then repeat. And he was big and scary and strong enough that it worked.
- Ah yes, the "Jimmy Hart Era" of WCW Saturday Night. That's right, for whatever reason, WCW decided to hand over the reigns of Saturday Night to Jimmy Hart by 2000. And it saw the rise of Saturday Night exclusive storylines, feuds, and angles.
- Jim Duggan: TV Champion! was one such Saturday Night exclusive angle. Duggan found the belt in a garbage can, during his stint as WCW's janitor. He decided to keep it and defend it.
- Is that better or worse than the time Shane McMahon gave Mideon the European Title in the WWF?
- This match sucks. But that shouldn't be any kind of surprise. Jim Duggan was the worst full-timer in wrestling by 2000.
- Sierra locks in a 12-minute chinlock, Duggan pops a comeback, hits several punches with enough space between Duggan's fist and Sierra's dome to drive a truck through, scores a bodyslam and The Old Glory kneedrop for three.
- HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
'Member Berries time:
- 'Member when Silver King and El Dandy were a tag-team called Los Fantabulousos? It was some time either after or before this match, when Stacy Keibler - still in her Miss Hancock gimmick - took the two under her wing and gave them a radical makeover, with new tights and that name and... not much else.
- Yeah, before she was involved with the son of Ric Flair in a major angle, Stacy was fucking around with two luchadores who looked like The Frito Bandito and Jack Black from "Nacho Libre".
- By the way, I have a question for you; Who are you to doubt El Dandy?
- Funny enough, WCW made Stacy pregnant. And then WWE basically made her barefoot all the time. But no, she was never barefoot and pregnant at the same time.
- On that subject - Around this time or a little bit before, WCW Magazine decided to get into the "printing pictorials of their female talent" game. There was a lovely little pictorial of Kimberly Page naked, except for a big fur coat (fur is murder, by the way) in the magazine that needs to be tracked down.
- And a Stacy Keibler pictorial that was basically several pages of the same pose, repeated about 20 times, that made Stacy very popular among a "certain" online community.
- This -
- But repeated, with her barely moving. If you turned the magazine into a flip book, you'd think Stacy was a sexy statue.
- Not that WWE didn't use Stacy for that same pose...
- Fucking constantly. I guess when you have no tits, there's only so many other body parts for men to drool over? She had legs, and she knew how to use them.
- Oh yeah.. the match. Its a solid formula tag, with the Luchadores playing heel. The Armstrongs try for a Doomsday Device with a crossbody instead of a clothesline, the Luchadores counter, there's a neat series of counters, and eventually The Armstrongs take it with a Hart Attack with a dropkick.
- That's right, The Armstrongs had to steal two famous tag-team's finishers to polish off The Frito Bandito and Nacho Libre. Maybe a little bit of overbooking? Maybe?
That time HHH appeared on Heat in 2000.
A few years later they did the same thing with him on Heat against Maven
It was always cool when a big name talent showed up on Heat.
- Triple H vs. Hardcore Holly
- Triple H vs. Maven
- Rob Van Dam vs. Heidenreich
- Ric Flair vs. Val Venis
Hell, early on, Heat actually had a lot of top-level guys on every week.
Don't forget Kurt Angle vs. Essa Rios.
One of my favorites has always been a perfectly random Undertaker/Godfather match.Don't forget Kurt Angle vs. Essa Rios.
Godfather tries to buy 'Taker off with his chicks, 'Taker refuses, Godfather tries to jump him, 'Taker moves, beats him up, and wins in like 2 minutes.
Really fun.
Defy Now episodes are up on IWTV. It's set in little theatres with really fantastic lighting.
Just watched DARBY ALLIN vs JOHNNY DEFYANCE (Hennigan) - 6/20/19. Would love to have seen these two fight more. John offers a left handed handshake, but Darby hits the ref and pulls Hennigan's headband over his eyes so there is a dastard element to both guy's approach although Darby wins the crowd by the end of it. These two were made to wrestle eachother.
DARBY ALLIN vs SHANE STRICKLAND - no dq - 7/4/19. I get what Shane Strickland/Swerve brings to a match (he hits Darb in the face with a jumping sidekick that I don't recall him using in WWE), but ffs, Darby Allin is so fast that he changes who's who in the cruiserweight part of the brain. Darby sells the first flurry of offense like death, and then he takes some more (snap suplex on the floor). He hangs on to avoid re- entering the ring and Shane makes good on a DVD/FU on the apron. Darb plays oppossum but he's still too small to pull in a superplex, so he uses his speed to manage a fujiwara. Swerve thinks about tapping but he rolls into the ropes and begins his own inevitable attack on Darby's arm. Strickland thinks about showing mercy, then proceeds to brainbuster Darby on the chair. It gets a This is Awesome chant. Darby refuses to sit in a chair for Swerve as he climbs the ropes. This leads to Swerve taping him up while he's seated in a chair and then doublestomping him from the top rope. Darby's reaction to this method is priceless. Swerve pulls down his kneepad to obliterate Darby unconscious but Darby uses the chair to mount an offense including a Coffin Drop with a mangled chair. Sounds crazy but it was crazy. Darby pulls out a bag of thumbtacks and pours some of them into the ring, some into his mouth. Funny. They play with thumbtacks a little and Darby wins with the LastSupper. Not a motyc but an awesome match. Lots of fun
Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, here's Undertaker/Kurrgan from Heat. This is babyface Kurrgan when was in the Oddities getting wriggety-wriggety-wrecked by Satan Cult 'Taker and his Ministry of Darkness. That was an absolute burial of a group of lower-card goofs if I've ever seen one. This is also, maybe, the only time George "The Animal" Steele, John Tenta, and Undertaker ever shared a ring. Historic.
Man, I always found Golga kind of terrifying with that mask and Cartman doll. Fun to see Ministry Taker on Heat against lower card opposition here.
Nice.
My favorite incarnation of his was The Supreme Fighting Machine, but versus Taker is definitely a dream match.
Golga, presented as a serious threat, given John Tenta's athleticism and experience, could have been good. But they never did anything with him.
Also, more unbelievably, Giant Silva never did anything. The WWF had a guy who was 15 feet tall, who looked like a Mexican Frankenstein, who might have been the late-90's Giant Gonzales, and I don't even remember them booking him to job to Undertaker or Kane. The guy was basically a double-decker bus sized coat rack, who just seemed relegated to the background and hardly ever wrestled.
But apparently he did manage to hurt Road Warrior Hawk, as a shoot. Also, he has a career winning record in actual, real-life shoot fighting.
The Godfather's best run, in-ring wise was his 2002 run. After Undertaker basically dismantled everybody in Right To Censor, Godfather left TV for a while, and then reemerged as a heel Godfather. Same gimmick, but he wore all black and worked a good, heel style. He thinned out, beefed up a little, and looked like a pretty solid lower card threat. And then the injury bug got him in the middle of a (mostly) off TV feud with Val Venis and I don't think he ever really recovered. And they let him go shortly thereafter.
Also, peep that new finish. Double-underhook, hauls Funaki up, and drops him into a nice back-breaker. Pretty cool.
Yeah, that backbreaker never gets used.
As a kis, I marked for the SUpreme Fighting Machine because he looked like Hulk Hogan's huggable workout buddy. Then he stole the urn and I found out he was Papa Shango...
I think its a damn shame we never got a Hulk Hogan/Papa Shango feud. I'd love to see Hogan trying to sell Shango's "Voodoo magic".
Its a shame that Godfather wasn't buddies with Hogan and not Undertaker. Imagine a WCW version of Papa Shango in the Dungeon of Doom in '95.
Yeah, major what-ifs. That stuff just writes itself. Instead we got Jake vs Sting.
Speaking of Jake, I found a cool pairing from Black Label Pro: it's DARBY ALLIN vs "WARHORSE" JAKE PARNELL - 11/3/18. Warhorse is like a heavy-metal mini-Ultimate Warrior (not an actual troll like Sami Callihan) who made a name for himself wrestling Gary the Wild Barn Owl. He's got a really primitive wrestling style - just chops and double foot stomps and clotheslines. Here he actually outweighs his opponent so he throws in a powerslam and actually wins with a set of powerbombs (the first one a Coffin Drop reversal). This was a short match and the crowd was split (Warhorse knows how to work a crowd). Even though Jake's stuff was simple, he let Darby do his thing and it didn't look too bad. These two should match up in AEW some day. Warhorse needs more opponents the caliber of Darby Allin.
Konnan, La Parka & Villano IV vs. Juventud Guerrera, Super Calo & Ciclope, WCW SuperBrawl VII
Bit of a sloppy one here. A collection of spots, some of which worked well (the nice La Parka/Calo exchange which ended with Parka sitting Calo on a chair outside the ring and taking him out with a tope) and some which didn't (Ciclope attempting a moonsault, veering off to the left and completely wiping out, seemingly landing on his own head. Juve got to do a 450 and a springboard hurricanrana and Konnan did some power moves. Villano IV didn't do much. Juve actually kicks out of Konnan's powerbomb at 2 but the referee pretends he didn't (even though the announcers acknowledge that he did).
Aleister Black vs. Lars Sullivan, NXT Takeover: Chicago II
I remembered this one fondly. With Sullivan's WWE career very much on hold and possibly over altogether this still feels like his peak. It's really enjoyable even if it does perhaps just begin to lose it's way as it goes on. The first few minutes are great and Sullivan works really hard and looks terrific. His timing is on point, his power moves look good. He catches Black and hits big powerslams a couple of times that get good reactions. And the Stretch Muffler especially gets a great reaction and looks pretty devastating. He also comes off the top rope twice with diving headbutts, one of which lands and one which doesn't. Black's first attempt at the Black Mass doesn't seem to connect and the fans respond with "you fucked up!" but Nigel explains that Black's injured knee may be to blame. Then Lars catches a second attempt which he'd previously done on NXT TV, before a third attempt finally lands and with Lars down on his knees Black finishes the job with one more brutal looking black mass and retains the belt. Good, well structured match that stands out from other Takeover matches.
I watched a couple of matches that involved Owen Hart, the match with Bret, the 123 Kid KOTR match and Canadian Stampede earlier in the month. I'd drastically underrated the man. I previously had him in that Lance Storm, Shelton Benjamin, Jerry Lynn mold of technician that can have good matches with everybody but more of a base around opponent's greatness if the match is any better than that. Nope. His execution is superb, character work great, and some of his high impact stuff looks spectacular for the era. I don't think his peak was overly long but I'll be watching more of his stuff once I'm out of the post-WM burnout, just fun to watch. The start to the Kid match for me is the best first move in wrestling history, absolutely fucking devastating dropkick.
More BLP:
DARBY ALLIN vs SAMMY GUEVARA - 12/1/17 - missed their PPV match, but lucked out finding this one (and I hate one-shoed performances but I really enjoyed their match from last night). Match goes about 11 minutes. I liked this as much as their match from last night. Guevara wins most of the match but interestingly, stops to tie his shoe and that may have cost him the match. Darb wins with the Last Supper.
There's some interesting Guevara matches on IWtv, i may check those out. I can't figure out who Guevara reminds me of. He's a definite original. Was Nunzio that obnoxious? He earned cheers and quickly turned them to boos within 5 minutes.
TOM LAWLOR vs AJ GRAY - 12/1/17 - for the vacant BLP championship. This is one that I'm excited for. Gray is a beefy ex-football player who wrestles kinda like Super Dragon and Stan Hansen, and he's got Dominic Garrini in his corner to (I'm guessing) give him mma pointers to take on Filthy Tom. Tom's got Josh Bishop in his corner.
They scramble to start and you can tell Tom likes the fight that AJ's bringing. He throws some nice punches to AJ in the corner. They do a nice rope running sequence where AJ really shines. He lays out Tom with a suplex and goes to the top, but Bishop mounts the apron and the shenanigans begin. Tom must not get paid enough. Lawlor gets to work on Gray's leg and he does have some good leg work. They get into a chop exchange and AJ goes for a lariat early, it gets turned into an exploder by Lawlor. They really lay in some stiff shots, including a top rope german where Lawlor remains in the tree of woe position.
It's too bad Gray's lariat wasn't over yet because he times a couple of them perfectly to no reaction.
The story is Garini told Gray not to use the top rope, and of course, he turns on AJ and Tom wins with a modified figure-four.
This would have been a lot better in Japan or PWG. These guys have the tools to work a classic, but I guess there's politics in indie wrestling,too.
"FILTHY" TOM LAWLOR vs NICK F'N GAGE - 4/21/18 - kinda clumsy match where Gage actually seems like the workhorse here. Gage unloads on Lawlor, whose got a broken arm. Gage's arms look too short to fullnelson Lawlor and his dragon suplex's look hella iffy. I don't know why Lawlor insists on being a scummy heel. He shouldn't look down on himself, but I guess he does put his mouthguard in strange places. And his matches suffer from the screwy entertainment. He and Gage would make a better team; Lawlor should stretch Gage for real - I know he could take it. It's a shame the Low Ki match has been put off.
All I remember from that match is the powerbomb. I have to find out whatabout that dropkick...
Is Dominic Garrini some sort of legitimate MMA fighter? I've seen him in MLW and he looks like the dumpiest, schlubbiest dude on the roster. And they always put him over on commentary like he could tear your arm off and shove it up your ass. Don't judge a dumpy dork by his cover?
He's not. He's a literal nobody.
Cagematch says he's got a legit mma background (training wise) and he's trained in pro by Gargano and Lerae.
He's dumpy looking but deadset on wrestling the mma guy. I like his shtick better than Matt Riddle's.
Dominic Garrini feels like one of those early UFC guys, from before all the fighters were multi-disciplined, who would come in with one strategy, one style, and get get pounded into the floor like a tent steak because he didn't know how to throw a punch and he didn't realize it was legal for the other guy to grab his Gi.
That, or he'd be a fake Gracie.
I think he is a Josh Barnett hanger on
The Ultimate Warrior vs. Goldust, IYH Good Friends, Better Enemies
Part of Warrior's brief WWF return in 1996. According to cagematch he would only have 7 televised matches after this. Four in WWE, three in WCW. Pretty dreadful stuff here. Goldust is injured so rather than just saying that and getting someone else in to face the Warrior, Goldust stalls for a good 7 or 8 minutes while Warrior smokes Marlena's cigar and sits in Goldust's director chair. Goldust gets a good deal of heat (mainly "faggot" chants) and then takes the microphone and threatens to kiss everyone in the crowd if they don't shut up. The "faggot" chants get louder and some kids behind him look genuinely disgusted as they call him a fucking faggot. It's a bit much to see now but since the show opened with a shot of a well-made sign that read "GAYDUST" it's not so shocking. Then Goldust sits in the chair. Warrior clotheslines him. Goldust gets counted out. Mantaur is also here as Goldust's unnamed bodyguard dressed like a prohibition era gangster.
Last edited by Ringo; April 24th, 2020 at 2:21 AM.
I'll never understand why they didn't just have Warrior wrestle Gangstaur there.
Warrior beats him in two minutes, Marlena hits the ring, blows smoke in Warrior's face, and Goldie lays him out with a crutch. And then we get Warrior/Goldust when Goldust is healthy again.
- "Hardwork" Bobby Walker and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton might be the most random possible team I can think of. I like it, but I doubt it has any kind of future.
- Eaton, even by 1998, still had one of the best punches in wrestling.
- High Voltage actually look like legit stars here. There's a certain lack of "execution" on some stuff, but their raw, athletic ability speaks for itself. They were two guys who needed refining. Kenny Kaos especially looked like he could have been made into "something".
- "Hardwork" Bobby Walker is not "Hardbody" Harrison. I made that mistake. Harrison is a sex trafficker and human slaver. Bobby Walker, as to the best of my knowledge, isn't. He's just a guy.
- Hell yeah, another match featuring the dream team of "Beautiful Work" - "Hardwork" Bobby Walker and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton. And oh God, I don't like their chances.
- Bobby Heenan used to say things about Meng and Barbarian that would never fly by today's standards - "Where Meng and Barbarian are from, they eat their young." "Meng and Barbarian are extra grumpy tonight, Jimmy Hart forgot to feed them earlier."
- Bobby Eaton, at a spry and spritely 167-years old gets to play the "energetic" babyface-in-peril. Instead of the young, athletic other Bobby.
- "Hardwork" Bobby gets the hot tag, Eaton gets bumped to the floor, Bobby yeets Meng up for a powerslam attempt and eats a "Kick of Fear" from Barbarian, for the loss. Fun stuff.
- Oh, and Jimmy Hart and Teddy Long get into it on the floor, playa.
- It only took 50 years, but Kendall Whendam finally managed to fill out by 1998. The guy started out wrestling, being so skinny Marko Stunt would tell him to eat a sandwich.
- Kendall Whendam was so thin, he started wrestling as "Bic". He painted himself blue and wrestled as a pen.
- Kendall Whendam was so thin, one time he got a fever and people walked up to him to see what temperature it was. They thought he was a thermometer.
- Kendall Whendam once missed a show. He wasn't hurt. He fell down a crack in the sidewalk.
- Meng wins with the Tongan Death Grip. Kendall Whendam throws a wicked good punch, but punching Meng is like punching a brick wall with broken hands. Its not very effective.
Watched an on excursion Satoshi Kojima vs Fit Finlay from a Welsh promotion called Reslo from sometime in 1995
It was fun to watch baby Kojima work a more european style. Finlay is Finlay so he's the goods. Finish was Finlay getting DQed after refusing to let go of a submission hold.
My girlfriends son has been talking about wrestling a bunch and we had nothing to do so I figured id try and get him into it a bit.
Watched some of the CWC with him, dude loves flippy guys. Kota Ibushi vs Cedric is still so fucking good. Kota throws a drop kick and adds a leg slap to it and it's just fucking beautiful. Biggest pop I've ever heard for a drop kick.
I know Akira Tozawa has been with the WWE since the Classic, but I still think his best match in the company was his tournament match with Jack Gallagher. Such a fun and entertaining clash of styles.
ROH makes its debut in Baltimore, its now headquarters, with TRADITION CONTINUES, October 16th, 2003.
Gary Michael Cappetta is in the ring talking about Baltimore’s history in wrestling, but Prince Nana comes out and complains about not getting a title shot. Joe comes out a gives him one, and our open is, of all things, SAMOE JOE vs. PRINCE NANA for the World Title. Nana does get a little bit of offense with some stiff chops and the running big ass to the face, but Joe unloads on him and makes him tap out with the choke. Like two minutes long but finely executed for what it is. *3/4 I guess. Post-match Joe gets on the mic and says that in the main event he’ll beat Jay Briscoe to defend his title. Jay comes out, jaws with Joe and hits him with a kick. Mark Briscoe runs to the ring to break them up. Nice angle to build the real World Title main event.
Cabana is backstage hosting a talk show style segment with the Backseat Boyz. Decent segment. Nothing noteworthy. It is sad what happened to Trent Acid. Back in 2002 CZW had a syndicate show on a local Philadelphia TV station and I was a big fan of the Backseat Boyz when I watched it back then, and I’ve enjoyed them and Trent in particular throughout this year.
SLUGGER and GRIM REEFER vs. DUNN & MARCOS vs. SLYK WAGNER BROWN and JOSH DANIELS vs. DANNY DORING and SONJAY DUTT. Man, that’s some kind of lineup. Slugger and Reefer are actually debuting as Julius Smokes’ Rottweilers. They wouldn’t be the duo the team name would be best remembered for. This was a surprisingly good spot fest. Reefer hits a nasty slipping senton, Sonjay Dutt hits a great Pheonix splash before getting dropped on his head with a nasty German suplex. Slugger finishes it with the Body Bag to Marcos. **3/4
MATT STRYKER vs. CHRIS SABIN in the Field of Honor. Sabin’s debut match and Stryker is 1-0. This match just doesn’t come together, lots of miscommunication. It does gradually get better. Sabin hits a really nice springboard DDT. Sabin reverses a Death Valley Driver attempt into a cradle but Stryker holds on, rolls through, and stands but to hit the DVD for the win. **
COLT CABANA vs. BJ WHITMER in the Field of Honor. Both men at 1-0. Cabana really seems to be developing his comedy mixed with British/chain wrestling style here and there are some fun spots. Decent match otherwise. Cabana wins with a rollup. **1/2
THE BACKSEAT BOYZ vs. IZZY and DIXIE for the ROH Tag Titles. Fast paced back and forth to start out. Special K catches Kashemere as he goes for a baseball slide and hits a double-team facebuster on the floor, leaving them to work over Acid for a while, including a nice reverse hurricanrana by Dixie. The Backseats come back and multiple members of Special K try to interfere but get taken out by the Backseats. They hit Dixie with a big T Gimmick but LIT pulls the ref out before the three count. Kashmere and Acid chase after him. Kashmere gets taken out and as Acid is chasing Dixie back in the ring, Izzy catches him with a shot with the title belt. Close near fall. They follow it up with a gordbuster and Dixie hits a springboard 450 for the win! Special K are the new tag champions! Not great to the prestige of the titles. The match was fun after Special K started to interfere. ***. This is actually the first time the titles have changed hands by the actual champions losing. Daniels and Donavan Morgan were the first champions but lost with Xavier subbing for Morgan. AJ and Red had to relinquish the titles. Here we have a new champions beating the current champions for the first time.
CM PUNK vs. AJ STYLES next. For the last couple months Punk hasn’t really tried to be a ‘workrate’ wrestler, instead leaning into being a heel who brawls and sells, and he’s looked much, much better in that role. But here he’s trying to have a good workrate style match again and it’s not good. The match isn’t bad, but Punk looks bad. Styles is clearly on a far higher level, and holds the match together. The ending is good though, with Styles countering a Shining Wizard attempt into the Styles Clash. **3/4
DAN MAFF vs. JIMMY RAVE in the Field of Honor. Quick match with Maff getting almost all the offense, and he sure makes it count. He really flings Rave into the barricades and ringside with a lot of force. Hits a nasty lariat and a great looking cannonball into the corner. Rave gets brief flurries of offense and is able to avoid Maff’s attempts at the Burning Hammer. Maff survives Rave’s crossface and hits the Burning Hammer for the win. Good match. ***. Backstage, AJ takes Rave to task for continuing to not employ his advice.
RAVEN vs. JUSTIN CREDIBLE next. Real 2000 ECW time. Really basic match. Raven dominates to start out. Credible takes control. The crowd starts an amusing “X Pac’s bitch” chant at Justin. Ref bump leading to Raven drop toe-holding Justin onto a chair and hitting the DDT for the win. **
JOHN WALTERS vs. MARK BRISCOE vs. XAVIER vs. HOMICIDE. Pretty average match. They tease Xavier vs. Walters for the first three quarters of the match or so, with them having heat since Xavier got a dirty win over Walters at Glory by Honor, but when they finally do face off they have a really, really awkward strike exchange. Decent dive segment and they do get the crowd really into the series of nearfalls at the end, but still it’s not all that good. Xavier wins with the Miss You X Goodbye on Walters. **1/2. They really should have had Mark win to hype Jay having a chance in the title match next.
SAMOE JOE vs. JAY BRISCOE for the World Title. Joe takes all the offense for the first several minutes before Jay is able to cut him off with a big boot and hit a dive to the outside. The crowd is really, really into Jay on offense. Joe hits his Ole Kicks. Back in the ring, Jay gets some big moves in which the crowd really responds to. Joe hits the Island Driver and the crowd pops HUGE when Jay kicks out. Joe then finishes it off with a stiff kick and a huge lariat. I really liked that ending and the crowd was really into Jay, but overall this match wasn’t too impressive. ***
Overall, probably the weakest show of the year so far. The tag title change is a significant moment but overall this is just a really, really forgettable show. 5/10
Reading these ROH reviews your doing is such a mind fuck. That's the time period I really started getting exposed to indy wrestling but I still have never seen most ot the shows.
Where are you watching em?
torrents
Speaking of ROH
Just watched Punk vs Aries. God damn was indie Punk insanely self indulgent.
But the post match angle to kick off the Summer of Punk is still an all timer.
by this point in 2003 Punk is very, very clearly head and shoulders above everyone else on the roster in charisma and star presence.
- - - Updated - - -
very interested to see how the punk/joe matches hold up. right now the idea of watching punk try to do an hour long technical wrestling match is harrowing.
I am watching his promos where he signs his WWE contract on the belt and then later on his promo with Mick Foley from Sign of Dishonor. It was so great how Punk and Gabe used what was really a beginning of a backlash to the old ECW fan behavior of shitting on guys going to the WWF or WCW.
Personally I think things have been too nice in that regard for way too long. The tide turning on that is why Devlin vs Starr was one of the best matches of last year. Trips giving it to the British wrestling scene hard and deep seems to have triggered something. Give me back the "You Sold Out" chants.
For a variety of reasons, much of the last half-decade in wrestling is a bit of a blur to me. There's a lot of stuff I haven't seen, a lot of stuff I can't remember seeing. For most PPVs and big shows I probably couldn't remember many of the matches off the top of my head or which match was which year. Up until like 2015 I can still recall most WWE stuff so I'm going to go back and watch stuff from that year until the end of last year. WWE and everything else.
To start off - a couple of matches from Battleground 2016.
This is a really popular show where we finally got the much hyped Shield triple threat headlining, coming a month after the Money in the Bank PPV when all three Shield members held the WWE title at some point over the course of the show.
The Wyatt Family vs. The New Day - Two of the hottest acts of the last few years in WWE facing off. I remembered this being a really entertaining sprint and it is pretty good. The focus of the match is Woods and Wyatt, Woods becoming completely entranced every time Bray makes eye contact with him. Bray's been involved in a lot of silly supernatural stuff that really didn't work but it does here and it's a pretty great moment when Woods snaps out of it and attacks him with flailing fists. Also notable that it's Rowan and Strowman with Bray here - no Harper, who for most of the earlier Wyatt Family 6-man tags would be the worker of the group. Early days for Strowman who still looks a bit green at a couple of points but he has an energy and athleticism here that he unfortunately seems to have lost over the years with the injuries and general wear and tear that his body has endured.
Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens - After Zayn cost Owens the IC title at Mania, they had a match at Payback and then this here is the last time they wrestle for a while. They had just had the draft for the second brand split that week and I remember people being surprised that they'd both been drafted to Raw. Zayn picks up the win here but their careers would soon take quite different paths on Raw. KO would be Universal Champion within a couple of months where as Zayn seemed to be forgotten about a bit as I recall. This match is really popular. It's the 3rd highest rated WWE match of 2016 on cagematch, 13th overall. At the time I think I ended up watching it twice because it really didn't click with me the first time and while I thought it was good I didn't really love it to the same extent as others. These guys know each other so well and are meant to hate each other but it takes a while to really get going for me. It's Zayn's botched springboard moonsault that ends up leading to the best aspect of the match - Zayn's selling of his shoulder. I've seen it suggested that the "botch" was intentional but I'm not sure about that. It's terrifying when he bounces up vertically and you realise he's going to come down on his head. It could've been a lot worse. The final third of the match is really good stuff but I wasn't completely wowed like some. The double exploder suplex spot was very well received by the live crowd and perhaps it didn't do as much for me because I've seen that kind of thing in Japanese matches a lot, idk. A real good match that I still don't see as a genuinely great one. Still, it was great to see Owens and Zayn take their friendship/rivalry all the way to the WWE and get to put on a show stealing match on PPV. This was the pinnacle of their feud in terms of spotlight.
When Hero Met Punk happened in 03 (i think), was 90+ minutes long, and is still just plain good. CM Punk is a weird one.
Watching Booker T vs Kurt Angle for the WCW Title from Smackdown 7/26/01
Really good match, but damn the Invasion sucked. Ross and Cole hammering on it the entire match was super obnoxious.
Watching ECW Hardcore TV from July 4th 1998 or there abouts. I mean you tend to get more than one answer when trying to track down dates on that show/
I've been watching a bunch of Candido & Storm stuff so I wanted to watch the match where they dropped the tag titles to RVD and Sabu. Didn't realize it but I stumbled on the show where Masato Tanaka makes his ECW Arena debut. And Atsushi Onita appears as the surprise partner for Dreamer and Sandman against Buh Buh Ray, Devon, and Big Dick Dudley.
We’re in the Rochester area of New York for the first time for EMPIRE STATE SHOWDOWN, October 25, 2003.
BJ WHITMER vs. DAN MAFF in the Field of Honor starts us off. Really good all-action, hard hitting match. They whip each other hard into the barricades and Whitmer hits a nice Misawa-style elbow strike tope and an Exploder on the floor. Back in the ring Maff gets control, hitting a nasty turnbuckle powerbomb. He follows it up with his great running cannonball and drops Whitmer on his head with some half nelson suplexes. Whitmer fights back and after a struggle is able to lock Maff’s arm for the Wrist-Clutch Exploder for the win. Whiter finished his field of the tournament with a 2-1 record while Maff goes 1-1. ***1/4
THE OUTKAST KILLAZ vs. DUNN & MARCOS vs. FAST EDDIE and DON JAUN vs. ALEX SHELLEY and JIMMY JACOBS. Alex Shelley is also wearing the fuzzy boots and HUSS tights, playing the gimmick with Jimmy. The crowd is really into them and are super hot all match. Really fun match, non-stop spots and big moves, very crowd pleasing. They do a comedy spot I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, with Jimmy Jacobs and Oman Tortuga doing a test of strength, lock up and chain wrestling *while on their partners’ shoulders*. After a bunch of big spots, Dunn hits Tortuga with a crazy sort of sit-out Burning Hammer for the win. ***1/4
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. JOHN WALTERS next. Daniels is still super over as a babyface. This was a great, kind of old-school feeling match with each guy working over a body part early on and the match slowly but surely escalating into a intense but brief homestretch with a few big nearfalls. Daniels is really great working over Walters’ back here, taking a lot of the match but always keeping it interesting. Walters hits a great looking spear on his comeback. Daniels cuts off the comeback and hits a big STO followed by the triple jump moonsault for a big nearfall. Walters comes back with a series of rollups but Daniels catching him in the Angels Wings and finishes it off with the Last Rites. ***1/2.
Post-match, Daniels tease shaking Walters’ hand but back out of it, for a big pop. He still cuts a pretty face-y promo about respecting John Walters. He offers Walters to join The Prophecy, but Xavier comes out and protests. Xavier and Walters end up fighting and Xavier retreats. Daniels and Xavier argue backstage. Xavier slaps Daniels but Maff comes to his rescue.
IZZY and DIXIE vs. THE CARNAGE CREW for the Tag Titles. Carnage Crew beat up all of Special K to start off and bust both Izzy and Dixie open. Izzy hits a low blow in full view of the ref and then Angel Dust blatantly interferes with a springboard cutter, and the ref very stupidly pretends the be distracted AFTER seeing all of it to avoid the DQ. Special K are on top for a while but Loc hits a cradle piledriver and Davito gets the tag. They exchange some moves and Davito hits a flip over the top rope. Lit rushes in and hits Loc with one of the belts allowing Dixie to get a nearfall. The Carnage Crew come back and are about to hit the second rope spiked piledriver, but Slim J interferes allowing Izzy to pin Loc with a sunset flip for the win. **1/2
XAVIER vs. CHRIS SABIN in the Field of Honor. Sabin is 0-1, Xavier 1-0. Xavier teases a handshake but when Sabin goes in for it he tries to turn it into a move, but Sabin escapes. They settle into a pretty dull match. It gets better toward the end where they do hit some nice spots, including a great straightjacket suplex from Sabin and a beautiful spinning heel kick from Xavier, but it sill never really comes together. Xavier wins with a sort of cobra clutch camel clutch combo. **
CM PUNK vs. STEVE CORINO next. They have beef because Corino didn’t like Punk getting involved with his match with Raven. The introductions are so good I just have to upload it to youtube.
The match itself is really mixed. They do a lot of gimmicky schtick and it’s all awesome, but the periods of the match where they’re trying to work competitively can really drag, although there are good moments here and there. They end up going to a twenty minute time limit. Post match they both cut awesome heel promos against the crowd, which I also just have to upload (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjM97LjGmic). Hard to rate match, I’ll call it ***. But the introductions and post-match are five stars.
JIMMY RAVE vs. COLT CABANA vs. JUSTIN CREDIBLE vs. JOHN WALTERS. After losing to Daniels, Walters vowed that the next time he steps into an ROH ring, he’ll finally get a win. He’s doing double duty now because he says he can’t wait until the next show, he needs his win now. Solid four way match, goes by quick and is all action. Credible hits That’s Incredible on Rave and then goes for it on Walters, but Walters slips out and locks in the Sharpshooter for the submission victory, ending his losing streak. **3/4
SAMOA JOE vs. HOMICIDE in a non-title No Holds Barred match. This starts out pretty rough with them trying to work fast but having a lot of sloppy miscommunications, but it quickly gets really good after that. They exchange some stiff strikes and Joe hits an awesome elbow strike tope followed by a beautiful German suplex. Homicide comes back with a great tope on hilo and brings a chair into play. He sets up a table in the corner but Joe powerbombs him through it. Joe follows it up with another big powerbomb and a dragon suplex. Joe hammers Homicide with strikes looking for the 10-county victory, but Homicide makes him comeback with some big kicks. He takes out Joe’s leg and starts to lock in the STF, but Julius Smokes throws a NOOSE into the ring and Homicide chokes Joe out with the noose while Julius Smokes screams Malcolm X quotes. Joe passes out for the Homicide victory. Really, really good match. Memorable ending and Smokes was incredible as the hype man on the floor all match. ***1/2, and on the high end of that rating.
Really good show overall. Very strong opening couple match, very strong main event, great spectacle with the pre and post match of Corino/Punk, and nothing on the show was worse than average. 7.5/10
Weekly Pro Wrestling is the biggest wrestling magazine in Japan, and was one of the biggest in the 1990s. They once ran a show in the Tokyo Dome that featured almost every promotion in Japan except for WAR. New Japan and All Japan were kinda shamed into participating and New Japan spiked the release of footage of the show because their match, and main event of the show, was considered the weakest match on the card.
Full card
Eight Man Tag Team Match
Candy Okutsu, Dynamite Kansai, Fusayo Nochi & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Cutie Suzuki, Devil Masami, Hiromi Yagi & Mayumi Ozaki
Ultimate Fight Rules Match
Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito
Tag Team Match
Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs. Blizzard Yuki & Manami Toyota
Singles Match
Ryuma Go vs. Uchu Maijin Silver X
Barbed Wire Board & Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Bunkhouse Death Match
Leatherface, Shoji Nakamaki & Terry Funk vs. The Headhunters (Headhunter A & Headhunter B) & Cactus Jack
Tag Team Match
Carl Greco & Don Arakawa vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Yuki Ishikawa
Six Man Tag Team Match
SATO, Shiryu & The Great Sasuke vs. Gran Naniwa, Super Delfin & TAKA Michinoku
Singles Match
Akira Maeda vs. Chris Dolman
Six Man Tag Team Match
Gary Albright, Gene Lydick & Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Billy Scott, Masahito Kakihara & Nobuhiko Takada
No Ropes Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match
Great Nita vs. Pogo Daiyo
Six Man Tag Team Match
Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa & Stan Hansen vs. Akira Taue, Johnny Ace & Toshiaki Kawada
Singles Match
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masahiro Chono
The entire show has popped up on youtube and I am now giving it a watch.
Update on where I am at on this show.
Just finished Kong and Inoue vs Toyota and Yuki. Meltzer had the opening match higher than this one but I enjoyed this better. Might be because I am more familiar with the woman in this match. Opener is really good though. The match in between was part of that weird habit in the 1990s of having the women do shoots that I never understood. It was a one sided slaughter.
Just realized they get all the Joshi stuff out of the way right off the bat.
Fun show so far.
Oh I think I get it now. They split the show in sections. First Joshi, now indies, then shoot styles, and finally the big two.
Lou Thesz is out, but I am skipping this little speech.
That Ryuma Go match was fucking dire.
But his opponent had the greatest name of all time.
I couldn't figure out if he was a wrestler, a pro-fighter, an anime, or a six-figure sports car.
... or some combination of all four things.
He was supposed to be an alien, but he was dressed like a character from an Italian Road Warrior Knock Off
The next match reminded me of a time before Death Matches were nothing but lighttubes. Cactus Jack tried to kill himself unsurprisingly.
And now from Mick Foley blading his arms for Corporal Kirschner to Minoru Suzuki.
That match Cactus Jack was in was featured on a recent Botchamania. Dude read the passage about it out of Foley's book while they showed the footage.
About not being able to light the barbwire board on fire?
Show is losing me now. We are deep in the weeds of the shoot style portion of the card and that was never a style I was ever into.
We’re back in Elizabeth, New Jersey for MAIN EVENT SPECTACLES, November 1st, 2003. This is ROH’s second biggest crowd with one thousand fans.
COLT CABANA vs. DAN MAFF in the Field of Honor. Maff has a 1-1 record, Cabana 2-0. They start out with a little crowd pleasing comedy before doing some even more crowd pleasing throwing of each other into the loud steel barricades. Back in the ring Cabana hits a nice roll-up. They trade moves and Cabana goes for a top rope moonsault, but Maff rolls out of the way and hits the Burning Hammer for the win. Fun, quick match with a hot crowd. ***. Post-match, of all people JIM CORNETTE AND SAMOA JOE storm the ring and attack Maff and Allison Danger. Christopher Daniels comes out to save them but Joe fights him off. Massive pop for all this. Cornette cuts a promo for Joe, but the Briscoe Brothers come out. Cornette backs up to let them fight, but then hits Joe with the racket and attacks him with the Briscoes. Quite a clusterfuck of a segment but the crowd was into everything.
XAVIER and NIGEL MCGUINNESS vs. TONY MAMALUKE and JOHN WALTERS. Nigel’s second ROH match here. Nigel and Walters start out with a nice chain wrestling sequence. Xavier and Walters still have heat, with Xavier trying to avoid any exchanges but Walters catching him with a nasty lariat. Xavier gets the advantage on Mamaluke, sending him over the top rope with a nice bump and then driving him into the barricade. Xavier and Walters finally face off with Walters getting the better of it, including a beautiful dropkick. Nigel comes in the ring and surprises Walters with a very interesting sort of Pedigree variation I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. Mamaluke takes him out with a spear, but Xavier is still able to cover Walters to take the victory off of Nigel’s move. Xavier scurries out of the ring. Fun match that did a good job of advancing Xavier and Walters’ feud and was a decent showcase for Nigel. ***
MATT STRYKER vs. JUSTIN CREDIBLE next. Stryker has the advantages in the ring so Justin takes it to the floor to get on top. They have a pretty solid run of moves including a long lionsault from Stryker. Justin kicks out of Stryker’s Death Valley Driver and Stryker kicks out of That’s Incredible. Stryker makes his comeback and locks in the Stryker Lock for the submission victory. Solid quick match. **3/4
IZZY and DIXIE vs. THE BRISCOE BROTHERS for the ROH Tag Titles. Cornette is coaching the Briscoes at ringside, so this strangely is sort of worked a little as a southern tag with the Briscoes as the heels, even though they’re wrestling Special K. Decent match with a hot homestretch. The Briscoes hit Izzy with the Midnight Express style tag team legdrop, a springboard Doomsday Device, and then Jay hits the Jay Driller for the win. The Briscoes win the tag titles. Big pop. Fun enough match. It didn’t really come together for most of the match but it was short enough and had an energetic enough homestretch that it’s fine. **1/2
HOMICIDE vs. BJ WHITMER. This is billed as a Fighting Spirit Challenge, which just means there’s a 20 count on the outside. They start off well, both guys hitting big dives and high impact moves, but this match kicks in the next gear when Whitmer no sells an Exploder from Homicide and Homicide responds with a NASTY headbutt that busts them both open hardway. He follows it up with stiff kicks to BJ’s head. BJ comes back with a big German Suplex, Dragon Suplex and a super stiff powerbomb. He tries to follow it up with a tope but Homicide moves and he crashes into the barricade. Back in the ring BJ tries to fight back but gets caught in a sick Cop Killa where he’s totally folded on his neck. He kicks out, which the crowd and commentary sell as a huge moment. He rolls to the outside and they actually get to make good use of the added countout stipulation here. He rolls back in and is able to hit a wrist clutch exploder, but Homicide quickly comes back with a top rope Ace Crusher and a super stiff lariat for the win. Really good stuff. ***3/4. While Homicide walks to the back Steve Corino attacks him. He tries to rip his ear off with a piece of barbed wire, as revenge for Homicide’s slap in their last match rendering him deaf in one ear.
THE BACKSEAT BOYZ vs. TEDDY HART and JACK EVANS vs. THE CARNAGE CREW vs. THE SAT vs. ANGEL DUST and HYDRO in a SCRAMBLE CAGE MATCH. The cage has platforms on top of the corners. This is just a wild spotfest. The cage spots are totally insane, actually come across as insanely dangerous. The SAT hit the Spanish Fly off one of the cage corners. Jack Evans hits a DOUBLE MOONSAULT from the top of the cage to the outside. Now THAT’S a spot. Crowd goes totally insane for all of it, but especially for that Jack Evans flip. The Backseat Boyz hit Hydro with the T Gimmick to win. Wild spectacle, very entertaining, crowd is super hot. ***1/2
SAMOA JOE vs. CM PUNK vs. STEVE CORINO vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS, non title match. Starts out with a lot of schtick between Corino and Daniels, as well as Punk and Daniels as Punk suspects Daniels of having attacked Lucy. The match really gets going after a big dive sequence which ends in Joe hitting a wild dive over the top rope. This is maybe the best Joe’s really looked as champion so far. He’s just dominating everyone, showing lots of charisma while doing so. They have a long homestretch with everyone hitting big moves on everyone else. Corino and Punk end up hitting a double Northern Lights Suplex on Daniels and getting the double pin. They’re announced co-winners of the match. Fun match with a hot crowd, some good spots and a lot of focus on the storylines going on between the four. ***1/4
BRYAN DANIELSON vs. AJ STYLES for the Number One Contender’s Trophy. Bryan’s first ROH match since April. This is the first time the commentators do the gimmick of “leaving the booth” to watch in the crowd and let the match speak for itself. This opens up with an awesome mat scramble that causes them to fall to the outside and they scramble around ringside trying to get a hold on each other with a lot of aggression. Back in the ring Bryan takes control working over AJ’s arm. This is the earliest I can remember of him really trying out what would later become his heel character as he’s taking cheapshots and trash talking AJ, the fans, and the ref. AJ hits a suplex over the ropes to the outside and Bryan hurts his leg, allowing AJ to take control. The rest of the match is a really gritty fight. The selling is great and it really feels like a war that’s taking everything out of both of them. AJ goes for the Styles Clash but Danielson counters it into a triangle choke. AJ lifts him up and hits a modified Styles Clash off of it, allowing him to pick Danielson up and hit a full Styles Clash for the win. ****
Great show. Solid undercard, memorable cage match, really good match in Homicide/BJ, one of the better matches of the year for the main event. Hot crowd that gave the show a big match feel as the crowd was visible much larger than usual. 8/10
Picking up where I left off and the Michinoku Pro match has hit the ring
M-Pro match was a fun spotfest.
Maeda match with Dolman was whatever. I thought Dolman was more a fighter than a wrestler from some reason, but Sherdog only has him ever having one legit fight.
Not enough Gary Albright in that UWFi match for my taste
IWA Japan Deathmatch > FMW Deathmatch
Wow imagine that: A deathmatch on a major show, where nobody guts themselves like a fish and has to start a crowd funding campaign to have their insides put back in and get sewn up.
Its almost like all the deathmatch cunts today are just unprofessional assholes who don't know what they're doing.
Deathmatch wrestling scares me. I need a recommendation on that shit.
I'm not a huge death match guy, but of the current guys I would recommend anything Masashi Takeda does. He is an awesome pro wrestler who just happens to like wrestling on broken glass.
His match from Big Japan on 6/20/18 against Isami Kodaka is the best Deathmatch I've ever seen. They basically work a current NJPW style main event on broken glass.
I see why New Japan freaked out about the Weekly Pro Dome show hitting tape. There is no way Hashimoto vs Chono is touching the match I am watching right now. Kenta Kobashi is putting on the performance of his life here and think about what ground that covers.
Guys, I said I was scared.
All Japan 6 man is gonna end up easily match of the show.
Chono vs Hashimoto starts off super hot and I was wondering what the problem could be. Then they do a test of strength and from that point on it meanders and there are dead periods where they kinda just stare at each other and when they do stuff they just grab a hold and lay there like it's a Nash vs Sid match. These two kinda act like they've never met before this match and couldn't connect which is bizarre if you know their history.
That's a great match.
I was watching the build up to the Rick Rude vs Vader match that never happened because Rude broke his back and his career ended. A lot of a what might have been there with Rude becoming a babyface when his entire career had basically been as a heel from Memphis to WCCW to WWF to WCW.
This led me to watching the famous Flair vs Steamboat 1994 Saturday Night match. Honestly can't remember ever having watched it before. It is a helluva match. It's not as good as their 1989 matches nor would it be a strong MOTYC even just in North America for 1994, but it is great.
Didn’t that Flair/Steamboat Saturday Night match end with a headbutt to the nuts?
Yes
Yeah, I think that was the focus if I recall correctly.
And wasn't there a thing about trying to tape a t-shirt to a wooden plank or a baseball bat, to light it, but neither of them seemed to realize that (no shit) the tape would melt and it still wouldn't work?
I've been filming a Colorado Promotion called New Era Wrestling and the pandemic has given me the opportunity to finally cut everything together, here is one of my favorites so far.
That was cool. The blood really put the match over and looked good on Jay Synn's outfit.
I finally got around to watching Black/Dream. They remind me of Austin/Rock. Good stuff.
Watched the 10-man Raw vs. Smackdown tag from Survivor Series 2016 and it's still fucking brilliant. Just so well booked. 52 minutes long and doesn't overstay its welcome. A load of big memorable moments: Ellsworth grabbing Braun's leg from the under the ring and Braun slowly following him up the ramp as he tries to crawl away in vain, Ambrose returning for the Shield reunion and triple powerbomb, the Jericho/Owens stuff, the sickest spear I think there's ever been from Reigns on Shane. It also reminded me how good of a job they were doing in the second half of 2016 after the brand split. There's a bunch of acts here that were hot and actually being booked well. That would continue for a while but things started to unravel in 2017. Goldberg steamrolling Owens and then being gone (along with Lesnar who he drops the title to) as soon as Wrestlemania is over... Jinder getting the big push on Smackdown... the nature of Wyatt's push only to end up worse off after dropping the belt to Orton, etc.
Been watching a lot of ECW lately
But this morning been watching some touring champion Ric Flair. Watched the Memphis TV episode with him and Lawler and the famous angle with him, Dibiase, and Murdoch in Mid South. Flair was so much better in the role of going territory to territory than as a company champion. Problem is Dusty booked him, and then later he booked himself, that same way as a touring champion and it always made him look inferior to the strongly booked Hulk Hogan.
that flair/dibiase match might be the best count out finish ever
The sound Murdoch's punch makes into the microphone at the start of the angle is perfection.
We’re in Fairfield, Connecticut for THE CONCLUSION, November 28th, 2003.
Punk cuts a long pre-show promo about Lucy. They’ve had the Lucy attack angle in the background for a while but never really put much emphasis on it until now, so Punk’s giving it the hard sell, saying he’s going to disrupt the entire show until he finds out who’s responsible for putting her out of ROH.
THE OUTKAST KILLAZ vs. THE BACKSEAT BOYZ. The battle of the plural z’s. Mostly a showcase for the Backseats but the Outkast Killaz get some offense. Fast paced, quick match. Trent hits a nice missile dropkick. Backseats win it with the T Gimmick. **1/4
JOHN WALTERS vs. HOMICIDE next. Good match. Hard hitting and had a surprisingly gritty feel. Homicide does a backrake on Walters that actually leaves him with a nasty, blood scratch up his back. Walters does an interesting spot where he pulls guard from a lock-up, but doesn’t really do anything with it. Homicide hits a nasty Lariat to Walter’s neck. Walters makes a comeback with a backstabber and a dragon suplex, but his neck won’t allow him to hold the bridge. Homicide follows it up with a sort of neckbreaker followed by a lariat and his STF for the win. ***1/4
HOTSTUFF HERNANDEZ and FAST EDDIE vs. THE CARNAGE CREW vs. THE SAT vs. CLOUDY and DIXIE. Hernandez and Eddie come out to the seminal 2003 southern rap hit NEVER SCARED. This match is a great showcase for Hernandez. He just murders Special K with stiff slams. He powerbombs Fast Eddie over the top rope onto the other participants and follows it up with a big dive over the top rope. Otherwise this is a solid scramble tag. The SAT win after hitting a Spanish Fly on Hydro, even though he wasn’t part of the match. Gabe explains it as Special K having never officially announced who their legal participants are, I guess. ***1/4
JIMMY RAVE vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS. Solid match. Daniels works over Rave’s back and the match slowly builds. Rave hit a nice shining wizard on his comeback. Rave gets several near falls with rollups but Daniels catches him with an STO, the triple jump moonsault, and then the Last Rites for the win. ***
JOSH DANIELS vs. STEVE CORINO next. This starts out really dull but does pick up as it goes on. While the ref is distracted, Homicide runs in and hits Corino with an Cutter off the top rope and Daniels hits a top rope headbutt for the upset win. Big pop for that. **
MATT STRYKER vs. XAVIER in the A Block finals for the Field of Honor. Both men 2-0. This really was a dull match. The crowd was into Stryker at least. Stryker ends up just sort of grabbing and Death Valley Driver out of nowhere for the win. Talk about a dud for the block finals. *3/4
BJ WHITMER vs. COLT CABANA vs. DAN MAFF in the B Block finals for the Field of Honor. All men 2-1. Fun, energetic match that goes by fast. Maff and Whitmer take turns seeing who can chop and kick Cabana the hardest. Cabana hits an Asai moonsault to the outside. They run through some three-man spots and then Whitmer is able to take Maff out with an elbow and hit the Wrist-Clutch Exploder on Cabana for the win. ***
THE BRISCOE BROTHERS vs. SAMOA JOE and AJ STYLES for the ROH Tag Titles. Joe and AJ dominate for the first several minutes, working smoothly together and out-classing both Briscoes one on one. Joe kills Mark with a Urinage and they hit stereo dives over the top rope. The Briscoes are able to get the advantage on AJ and work him over with lots of double team moves and keeping the pressure on him. After two comeback teases AJ is able to get the hot tag to Joe who cleans house with big moves. The Briscoes fight back and they do a series of really cool, intricate four-man spots going into the finish that leads to AJ accidentally hitting Joe with a spinning lariat, allowing Mark to hit a shooting star press on Joe for the win! Gabe freaks out over Mark Briscoe pinning the World Champ clean. Really, really good match that the crowd was strangely not that hot for. ***3/4
CM PUNK vs. RAVEN in a cage to blowoff the feud. Punk attacks Raven as he’s entering the cage and hits a drop toehold into a chair. He tries for another but Raven reverses, Punk avoids the drop toehold by jumping onto the chair and then jumping up to the top rope, but Raven crabs the chair and throws it at Punk’s head. Cool spot. Raven dominates for a while with Punk blading big. Punk is definitely the best bleeder of the year. They go back and forth for a while, Raven also busted open. Punk misses a big leg drop off the top of the cage. Raven unloads all his offense on Punk. They trade some nearfalls and Punk gets Raven down and goes to climb over the cage. Raven crotches Punk on the door of the cage, but Punk is able to swing the door into Raven’s face and drop off to the outside, winning the match. Good match, lacked heat and went a bit too long. Should have wrapped up sooner after the big missed leg drop. ***1/4
Very good show, though the crowd was surprisingly dead for the last two matches. The Field of Honor block finals were definitely disappointments, but there was lots of good wrestling on the show. 7/10
Unfortunately, the download pack I got these shows from is missing the next show, War of the Wire. It features Joe defending the title vs. AJ and Homicide getting his win over Corino in a barbed wire match. That means, next time, we’re wrapping up 2003 with FINAL BATTLE.
I can't believe it's already November in this review series. I'm almost wanting to see John Walter again. I'm going to try to remember to check out Hotstuff Hernandez on iwtv. He sounds like he was hot in them days
he looks like he has so much potential at this point. feels like if he got more polished and they gave him a sustained push he could have taken off big.
July 10, 2004 - CZW Best of teh Best IV:
The opening match is set to feature Trent Acid, who is the favorite to win the tournament, but Zandig comes out and says Trent Acid is nowhere to be found. So Justice Pain comes out to a huge Welcome Back chant, only to say he's got some bad news: Trent Acid isn't here tonight and it's because of him. But the bad news is he's not here to take his place, because he doesn't work for CZW anymore. Zandig threatens to send him back where he came from. Jack Evans and Homicide are outside of the ring waiting for their match to start. Pain and Zandig argue about a contract dispute. Zandg says maybe he gets a chance to come back if he apologizes for walking out a year ago. The crowd is mixed for haing Justice Pain make a return. A You Sold Out chant develops and Pain says maybe he'll cme back next month. CHris Cash is announced as Trent's replacement, so the show can start!
HOMICIDE vs JACK EVANS vs CHRIS CASH - Homicide has his Michael Meyers jumpsuit on. Scary. Chris Cash wants a handshake. Homicide takes his hand, but kicks Jack Evans in the gut. This is really good. They trade dives, kicks, and suplexes. Cash reverses a Homicide lariat into a ddt and Evans breaks up the pin by just splatting them with a 450 splash. Homicide wins with a lariat on Cash, who I'm bummed to see out of the tournament. Cash wasted no time getting in a very impressive Cash Cutter ( a back suplex into a diamond cutter) and a raw burning hammer on Evans. Second round will be Homicide vs Jack Evans. Scary.
JIMMY RAVE vs RODERICK STRONG vs B BOY - roderick was still wearing pants at this point, something i miss. He's such a skinny twerp these days. B-boy is the defending BotB champion this year, but he's 1-1 against Rave. His entrance is better than Homicide's but why compare them when I'm pretty sure they're twins who would fork me on the street...Jimmy Rave, who was obviously the quickest of the three, gets eliminated from a B-boy shining wizard. If you like the TNA 3 way between Styles/Lynn/Ki, you've gotta see this one as its basically a shorter version of that kind of spotfest. All three guys wereon point and it seemed like it could go on or end until B-boy hits his shining wizard, which you know is his big finish.
RUCKUS vs BOBBY QUANCE vs ALEX SHELLEY - Ruckus threatens to leave because of the crowd's reaction. His diction is good but he's not all that charismatic. He says he came to beat the shit outta Sabu, but he gets little reaction. I'm stoked to see Quance. I thought he would make it when Paul London got signed to WWE. He watches while Ruckus and Shelley display "smooth" wrestling. Things ge better when it's Quance and Ruckus. Shelley sucks at everything except getting hurt. Quance dares to do a shooting star to the outside. Wasn't expecting that because I'm expecting him to job. Quance hits a totally splitlegged springboard dropkick to both guys. Ruckus is a lot smaller than I remember him being. Quance hits a lovely Trouble in Paradise. Nate Hatred interferes pressslamming Ruckus off the top rope through a table on the floor which kinda makes you feel for the dude...this distracts the ref, who misses Quance eliminating Shelley with a shooting star. Boo. Ruckus gets counted out and the announcer can't pronounce Quance. Shelley's music plays even though he totally played the loser. Quance and Shelley advance...
PETEY WILLIAMS vs SONJAY DUTY vs NATE WEBB - the one we've all been waiting for. I figured we would all like Sonjay better if his name was Sonjay Duty. Nate Webb, from IN, comes out to "Teenage Dirtbag", which really eases the tension that Petey Williams brings to a room, especially a CZW arena audience. Spyder Nate Webb does some dancing in the crowd. No one minds. It takes forever, but the song's not finished! I'm scared about what Petey and Sonjay are gnna do to this kid. They stick to comedic mirror spots, thank God. Webb and Sonjay dance off. Petey steals the show like a total jerk and like freaks, the fans cheer for it. Dutt is a lot bigger than I remember him being. He's so much better than Petey, who thinks himself the personality in this match. He's really more of a Benoit in intensity. Another nice TIP from Webb. Really makes you wonder how Kofi got signed. My favorite Trouble in Paradise is by Deranged. Almost every time. Nate Webb works these guys as you imagine Joey Ramone would. Minimal effort, perfect execution. Sonjay hits a cool compound muscle buster/leg drop. Webb's move is the Glittering Spider - a shining wizard leg-drop. Sonjay has a good scoop slam. Petey does unspeakable things. Of course, he eliminates Nate Webb with, you guessss it - the Canadian Destroyer. Rage Against the Machine plays. Sonjay and Petey advance.
Xtreme Strong Style tournament round 1 match - HOTSTUFF HERNANDEZ vs CHRIS HERO - Chris Hero is incredibly pale, but that's okay. He cuts a pretty funny promo, tells Hotstuff to get out of his ring. Hotstuff has really convincing chops. This was before every fan would Whoo a chop, but he looks like a total pro when he chops. He's a lot like Hero in that he's a big athletic guy, but he outweighs Hero by about 50 pounds and makes Hero work like Flair from underneath. Hero is fearlessly calling this beast a bitch, so they must be friends... Hotstuff goes for a Scotty style franksteiner and ends up getting dumped by a nasty sit-out powerbomb. You don't usually see guys his size bump like that. Chris just about misses a pescado but that seemed like both guys' fault. Hotstuff uses a big powermove as a desperation move, which doesn't seem smart. He should have just DDTed him, instead of using all that energy to powerbomb ddt him. He does a big dive just like Zeus from AJPW, which looks good and also dangerous 'cause they can't pull it off and fly like Taker could...tables and chairs are legal in this and Hotstuff goes for a table, which wastes too much time. Hero wins with a forearm to the back of the head/neck.
Hotstuff seems like a guy who would be good at tags, but not quite the Tito Ortiz he looks like he should have been. A good power wrestler, but not quite the beast the similarly sized Zeus would turn out to be.
End of Part 1
Last edited by Horatio; May 13th, 2020 at 11:59 AM.
CZW Best of the Best IV part 2:
HOMICIDE vs JACK EVANS - this is kinda predictable at first, but then Evans mounts an offense. He knees Homicide right in the face with a springboard cartwheel kick(TIP) and lands butt first on Cide from a standing spiral tap type move. Evans should have joined Special K and feuded with CM Punk in ROH. Ruckus should have been the fourth GenNext guy. Everyone knows that ... Evans has a great shiranui; he's great at the gumby-type bending. Misses a 630 and lands hard on his back. Homicide comes back with a beautiful running yakuza kick and an even beautifuller super-butterfly suplex. Evans folds like a deck of cards. Homicide hurt his back on that one... Evans gets killer height on a moonsault ddt, but only a 2 count. Homicide lays Jack out flat with a lariat, but grabs the mic and demands that Evans give T*ddy Hart a message. He then finishes the match w/ a running Cop Killa. Real nice. Evans put up a better fight than I thought he would.
RODERICK STRONG vs B-BOY - Strong weighs in at 210. Wonder what he is today. Fuckin anorexic is what he looks like...B-Boy is the fan favorite and Strong is eating it up. The New-Age Punisher plays to the crowd well, but Strong is a bit fancier. He's vicious working the back. Both of these guys are great with chops and forearms. B-Boy misses a corner dropkick and it costs him. Strongs drops a heavy legdrop off the second rope. B-Boy plays oppossum but Strong is ready for it and continues to work the back. B-Boy sneaks in a shining wizard variation, and makes a comeback but his back is aching. Strong turns in a boston crab but B-Boy gets called tapping while he crawls to the rope. Screwy finish but B-Boy was hurt indeed. A Bullshit chant erupts and they chant B-Boy as he leaves without hurting anyone...this gets to me because B-Boy was the first guy I saw actually knee a guy in the noggin with a Shining Wizard. Helms and Mutoh always whiffed it. I love me some B-Boy.
BOBBY QUANCE vs ALEX SHELLEY - Shelley comes out holding his ribs, but Quance targets the arm. Shelley is the counter wrestling guru but Quance seems totally competent on the mat against him. He tries kicking the arm, but Shelley is able to hit a nice enziguri, so they go back and forth. Quance is like the b-side of Paul London. Not as popular but he's still got all of the hooks to be the next Steamboat. They even dressed alike. Shelley lands a hurty looking criss-cross backstabber. Quance has got to be seen to be realized. He does a friggin backflip northern lights suplex and goes for the jujigitame and suddenly it's UWFi. For a second anyway...Shelley basically no sells the armwork, but this is the Bobby Quance show. He lands on his feet from a shooting star (wow!), rolls through and misses a cartwheel kick, and then does one of those rolls into a jujigotame for the win! Shelleys taps! Shelley taps! Shelley taps! What a stupid idiot, he had this match. What an underdog is Quance~ I'm kinda glad Ruckus didn't advance. The announcer says the winner is Bobby Quaid. No wonder he retired...
PETEY WILLIAMS vs SONJAY DUTY - it's Sonjay's duty to win this match. That's his gimmick. Can't skip this match, can we...Sonjay and Ariya Davari should be getting Humberto and Angel Garza's storyline in WWE today, but it's as if WWE doesn't hire dancers. As if ... Sonjay is a champion in CZW so he should have this one in the bag. Petey puts a camel clutch on Sonjay. What is that supposed to mean? Armdrags and armlocks. Sonjay dropkicks Petey off the top rope to the outside, a gracious move. He should have killed him. I blinked and missed how Petey got on offense again. He chokes Duty with his wrist tape and the fans chant Petey Williams. Truly evil is he. Petey even applies a sharpshooter. More confusion. The crowd is divided and he hates the cheers on his side. Sonjay fucks up La Mistica but it looks like he could have hurt Williams, so I'm into it. Sonjay hits a really cool pump handle Side Effect. Petey goes for a top rope CD but they both fall to the outside. Not sure if that was planned. Swinging neckbreaker by Duty. We don't see enough of those in WWE these days. No one remembers Foley. Williams kicks out of the Indian Summer and Sonjay kicks out of the CD. The fans cheer One More Time. I guess they are closer to Canada than India, but I love how Sonjay sold the Destroyer. Duty puts his all into a lariat to stop a charging Petey - he really Bradshawed the fuck outta that clothesline and doesn't really land it well, but I think he knew SOMEONE would be praying for Williams death one day and he never really did anything better than that Clothesline from Hell... Finally, Sonjay reverses a splash mountain bomb into a rana for the win. Sonjay Dutt advances.
End of part 2
CZW Best of the Best IV part 3:
Xtreme Strong Style tournament semi-final match: DAN MAFF vs NICK GAGE - I think Maff is some sort of gollum or demon (can some magic players help me out?) whose height is unmeasurable. I know his ROH page says he's 5'7" and that's a lie. Quiet Storm is 5'7" and obviously just an inch over Mysterio. Dan Maff looks like he's not any bigger than your average fan, but when he stands on the apron, he looks like he's just a few inches short of walking over the top rope, like a lot of pretend giants can do. Maybe he's a yoga master. Anyways, he's lookin sleak in his blueish purple gear and he's takin on Nick f'n Gage pre-bank robbery~! Somehow he is definitely shorter lookin than little Nick Gage. Whatbthe fuck. Maff volunteers to take a chairshot to the head. He does and it looks like it hurts like hell. Maff takes the mic and says to do it CZW style. The ring fills with chairs. Gage goes for a choke bomb but Maff reverses it into a halfnelson suplex onto some chairs. Ouch. Gage kicks out with some fighting spirit. The soccer kick looks like it hurts worse than the chair to the back. Another german onto a chair. Gage remembers Foley. His ddt misses the chair but his Sting style bulldog lands nice and flush. I wonder if anyone still sells Nick Gage tees. This dude had actually worked ROH by this point. I don't know how he landed that gig, but Maff throws a chair at close range right at his face while he was running. Gage gets the knees up on the cannonball which I can't remember seeing before. It's a great move. A table enters the ring. Gage gets speared through it. Nick Berk is at ringside for this. Maff calls for the burning hammer but he hit his head on the table during the spear. Gage reverses the BH into a chokebomb and welcomes Berk into the ring with a punky lookin Roaring Elbow that at least lands nicely in Berk's face. Gage celebrates early and gets burning hammered from behind(which sounds funny to say). Not a bad little match for what it was.
Berk cuts a good promo but gets kicked in the nuts by Gage, who brings new life to the old low blow. Who wouldn't expect that from him?
Best of the Best tournament semi-finals:
RODERICK STRONG vs HOMICIDE - boy, these were different days in indie wrestling. Zero promotion for a match like this. Homicide with the headlock, Strong with the headscissor, over and over. These two were about the same size at this point. They match up very nicely. Strong hits a tiltawhirl backbreaker and gets a break from Homicide's meanness. Homicide gets in as many chops as he can, while Strong works the back. Can Roderick beat Cide and B-Boy in one night? Homicide is the best tweener inthe game. He's just himself, giving or takinga beating. Even pouring drano down someone's throat, it's just what the fans wanted...Cide kicks out of a superplex and does his awesome tope con hilo even after he landed on the guardrail in that War of the Wire match. Cide pulls no punches when the forearms fall short and even busts Strong's nose with a good punch. The lariat only gets a 2 count and Cide goes for stereo yakuza kicks which Strong is able to turn into one final backbreaker for the win. Not a motyc or anything, but another awesome match on a so far near perfect show.
So Strong took out two Rottweilers in one night and Homicide leaves to a Homicide chant.
BOBBY QUANCE vs SONJAY DUTT - not much to say about this match. Even Dutt seems outmatched by Quance. Dutt drops him right on his head in a spot real similar to the famous London/Akio botch. Quance is more authoritative than London ever was. He works this match more like Dynamite. Lots of suplez, but Dutt doesn't sell it like he's working a Benoit sized opponent. He wins with a Phoenix Splash and it's bye bye Bobby, whose face looks just like Marty McFly's.
RUCKUS vs CHRIS CASH vs NATE WEBB vs JIMMY RAVE - Rave interrupts Webb's unnecessary intro. This has tag rules. Rave and Ruckus work over Cash who needs to make a tag to Webb. Er..until Rave breaks up a pin by Ruckus. Love that heel psychology. Chri$ Ca$h was like Jeff Hardy in an Iron Man suit. Nothing flimsy about this skinny dude. He takes a good powerbomb from the second rope but doesn't crumble. Webb gets the tag and does a cool basement TIP. That's like five on one show. Ruckus does some good looking stuff in this one, but Rave wins with a low blow and knee strike on Webb.
Gage and Hatred come out and do their thing on BLKOUT. Gage actually does a great brainbuster on Sabian.
RODERICK STRONG vs SONJAY DUTT - so here it is. The match-up that put these guys on the map. I think they wrestled elsewhere but this main event was guaranteed money at the time. Strong says 2004 is his year. Interesting. I still don't remember him matching up against Samoa Joe. Strong is really good as a Malenko level grappler, but Sonjay seems like the better pro at this point. Strong was always best as a base. He does a great job throwing Dutt into the guardrail. Dutt does a great fatigued performance. The match is more even than you would expect and Dutt wins with a pinning combination.
After the match, M Dogg 20 shows up and attacks Sonjay before they go into award ceremonies.
Maff's been wearing boots with noticeably huge lifts to exaggerate his height all year in ROH 2003
I don't understand it; that's one big dude
We’re finally back in Philadelphia for FINAL BATTLE 2003, December 27th. This is ROH’s debut in its new Philadelphia home, the PA National Guard Armory, and hosting ROH’s biggest crowd yet at around 1500. ROH is partnering with All Japan Pro Wrestling tonight, with the first four matches on the card being ROH matches, the last three matches a series of ROH vs. AJPW matches. CM Punk is joining Gabe on commentary
BRYAN DANIELSON vs. JAY BRISCOE starts us off. Really good, competitive chain wrestling stuff in the beginning. Jay really holds his own with Bryan. Things heat up with strikes and Bryan does an airplane spin into a rolling senton into a top rope headbutt. They trade slaps and Briscoe gets the advantage, hitting a big Falcon Arrow and following it up with stiff big boots. Briscoe goes for the Jay Driller but Danielson quickly escapes it and slides behind him to hit a Dragon Suplex and follows it immediately into a Cattle Mutilation for the submission win. Great opener. ***1/2
JOHN WALTERS vs. XAVIER in a Fight Without Honor to blow off their feud that’s been going on for a few months now. This turns into a wild spotfest. Walters hits an Alabama Slam onto a ladder that breaks the ladder in half – and it’s not a gimmicked plywood ladder either. Xavier follows up with a wild springboard dive through the ladder set up between the apron and barricade. He later hits a springboard 450 to the outside through a table. Walters busts Xavier open with a big chairshot. Nana comes to ringside and ends up pulling the ref out of the ring to save Xavier after Walters hits him with a Backstabber off of a ladder. It’s not just a mindless spotfest, as both guys are selling really, really well and actually making it feel like a drag out fight. Crazy ending with Walters hitting a sunset flip powerbomb off the ladder, onto the broken ladder set up in the corner. Everything goes flying like crazy and it is really a car wreck spot. Genuinely wild spots while they actually make the match feel like a fight, and sell well enough that you really feel like they killed each other by the end. Crazy was super hot for the whole match. I might be over-generous here but I’m going ****. John Walters demands his handshake post-match. Nana grabs the mic and says that Xavier is out of The Prophecy and announces the creation of The Embassy. Since he’s not in The Prophecy anymore, Xavier gives Walters his handshake.
MATT STRYKER vs. BJ WHITMER in the Field of Honor finals. Stryker hits a dive over the top rope early, but on the floor Whitmer whips Stryker into the ringposts, sending him shoulder first. Whitmer works over Stryker’s shoulder back in the ring. Stryker makes his comeback and focuses on Whitmer’s knee, ripping off his knee brace and working over it for most of the rest of the match. Whitmer is able to make a brief comeback with one of the better looking swinging Fisherman’s Suplexes I’ve seen, but Stryker gets back in control shortly after and finishes it with a Stryker lock to become the first and only Field of Honor champion. Solid match. Good selling from both guys and they made it feel like a hard fought contest with high stakes. ***1/4
SAMOA JOE vs. MARK BRISCOE for the ROH Title. Joe attacks Mark right after the handshake. Mark puts up a fight for the whole match but Joe’s superiority is constantly stressed. There’s a great spot where Mark hits a headbutt but Joe no sells, hits his own and Mark does a great wobbly collapse. Mark gets some offense but Joe unloads with nasty slaps and knees and quickly locks in the choke for the win. ***. Joe’s beaten both Briscoes in title matches, and he’s still gunning for their tag titles, too.
Post-match, Punk comes out and confronts Joe about Lucy, but Joe isn’t having it. He tells him to go fuck himself and they have an intense stare down, prefiguring the feud that would explode in 2004. As Joe leaves the ring, The Prophecy run out and attack Joe, before attacking Punk. Cabana comes out and they’re able to fight back. Punk chokes Allison Danger with a towel and tells Daniels he’ll kill her if he doesn’t admit it was the Prophecy that attacked Lucy. Daniels admits it but suddenly out comes BJ Whitmer. He attacks Cabana and chases Punk off with a chair. Daniels gets on the mic and says it was the Prophecy who did it, but it wasn’t him, it wasn’t Dan Maff, it was the newest member of the Prophecy – BJ Whitmer! Punk has been bad mouthing Whitmer on commentary ever since they had their double KO match many months ago., and Whitmer’s getting his revenge. Dan Maff is angry though – he swore on his father’s grave that the Prophecy – meaning him and Daniels – had nothing to do with Lucy’s attack, because he didn’t know about Whitmer.
CM PUNK and COLT CABANA vs. TOMOAKI HONMA and KAZUSHI MIYAMOTO starts our series of ROH vs. All Japan matches. Excited to see my boy Honma in the house. This match does start off pretty dull, as they don’t really do anything interesting for a while. Solid enough, just very basic. But they really good kick it into gear for the home stretch and the crowd gets really into it. Long, energetic stretch of trading moves with some big spots thrown in, including a nice Cabana Asai moonsault to the outside. Honma and Punk duke it out in the ring but Punk is able to hit the Pepsi Plunge with Honma landing straight on his head for the win. ROH is up 1-0. ***1/4
AJ STYLES vs. KAZ HYASHI next. This match sort of struggles to get into a good rhythm but in its favor it features some beautifully executed moves. Styles hits a fantastic dropkick and spinning heel kick. Hayashi hits a great spiked hurricanrana. Styles teases the Styles Clash many times, and finally rolls through a hurricanrana at the end to hit it for the win. ROH goes 2-0. ***
HOMICIDE vs. SATOSHI KOJIMA next. Low Ki and Monsta Mack are back accompanying Homicide to the ring. Kojima is playing to the crowd and doing comedy and it’s awesome, the crowd is totally into it. They start to heat up the match with a nice jab/chop exchange. Homicide hits his tope con hilo but Kojima follows it up with a belly to belly on the outside that drops Homicide right on his head on the concrete. Unfortunately, Homicide is totally out of it for the rest of the match and it sort of falls apart. They do their best to keep it going but Homicide is messed up. Kojima wins with two lariats to bring it 2-1 ROH. **1/2
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS and DAN MAFF vs. THE GREAT MUTA and ARASHI is our main event and also for the All Japan Tag Titles. Crowd goes wild for Muta. Arashi is a former Sumo wrestler and is able to manhandle Maff. Maff is great selling for him. Maff and Daniels work over Muta for a while but he gets the hot tag to Arashi. Muta and Arashi run wild but Daniels is able to get control of Muta. Maff goes for a chair shot on Muta but Muta spits the red mist in his face and finishes Daniels off with a Shining Wizard for end the interpromotional war in a 2-2 tie. ***. The Prophecy still won’t shake hands, but they will bow as a sign of respect.
Very good show overall. The pure ROH portion of the show was better, but the All Japan vs. ROH stuff had really hot crowds, and managed to feel like a genuinely big deal. The ROH portion also did a good job in bookending the year, with the end of the Field of Honor and a blowoff to a long running feud. 8/10
- Oh Jesus.... Oh Jesus Christ. This is a fucking mess.
- I never knew 911 of ECW "fame" had a stint in WCW. Given his "wonderful" performance here, it probably didn't last that long.
- There's been that longstanding story that the ECW mutants wanted to see 911 in a match. Right up until the bell rang. By the time it was all over, everybody had turned on 911 and wanted him pulled out of the arena with a long stick and a hook.
- Meng and Barbarian aren't faultless in all this. I'm pretty sure on whatever double-powerbomb Meng and Barbie tried at the end there, they briefly separated T-Rantula's neck from his head. It was like all three guys were on different pages. In different books. In different libraries. In different states.
- For some fun, go read T-Rantuala's Wikipedia page. If you wanted to see an encyclopedic look at the career of a perennial underneath guy, check it out. There's about 500,000 words about T-Man's career. Its the War And Peace of jobber biographies.
- Bobby Blayze looks like the blonde guy in that Family Guy episode where Brian gets given an award for his book. The "Special Literary Excellence" award.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNWCta81lto
- Blayze is a severely underrated talent. Jim Cornette was the only guy to really give him a good spot. In WCW he was obviously just a jobber. By 1997, Eddie Guerrero could have a good match with a scarecrow full of concrete. These two put on a Hell of a little match.
- Eddie finally ditched the singlet by this point. He might have some store-bought muscle, but he looks like a million bucks here.
- I never knew Rick Rude managed Diamond Dallas Page in WCW. That's a fantastic pairing. Slimeball heel Page and a cigar chomping Rick Rude just work together so well.
- In another era, Roadblock would have made a lot of money with Hulk Hogan. He'd have been just as good as Earthquake or the other big guys from the 80's Hogan "Monster Factory". Hogan never would've taken Roadblock's finish, though. That backflip splash over the top rope always looked like a rough one.
- Big props to Page for getting Roadblock up for that pancake/half-assed Pedigree thing.
- Page wins with The Diamond Cutter, out of somewhere.
- Bobby Eaton vs. Curt Hennig is a low-key dream match for the small amount of internet smarks around by 1997.
- About 98% of Eaton's offense in this match is punching. The other 2% is losing. But Eaton is still one of the best punchers in the world by 1997, so its not all bad.
- Hennig cares so little by this point in his career, I think he might be wrestling while asleep. Sleep wrestling?
- Eaton works Hennig's leg, throws some fantastic punches, and then Hennig just sort of... locks Eaton in the Perfect-Plex for the win. Its like an RKO out of nowhere. Only Hennig clearly doesn't care. So its a Perfect-Plex out of no care.
- Terrible match for two guys who, maybe 6 or 7 years before, would have torn the house down.
- Ah, this is a little more like it. Eaton actually gets to look good here. Dude has a fantastic swinging neck-breaker and a great elevated back-breaker.
- I've always been low-key impressed by Scotty Riggs' ability to wrestle with an eye patch. And he did it voluntarily.
- Riggs is with The Flock by now. Full heel. Glad he ditched the American Males gear.
- Eaton goes for the Alabama Jam knee drop. The Flock distracts Eaton and he misses it. Riggs scores two flying forearm strikes to win.
- Riggs needed a better finisher.
- "Ultimate"/Ultimo Dragon vs. Mr. JL/Jerry Lynn is a smark fan's wet dream match. Shame this is only like two minutes.
- Its funny to see Dragon with a manager when Sonny Onoo (Oh no!!!) is almost as big as he is.
- Dragon botches his usual "flip out of a back drop and land on his feet" spot. He's got at least a 65-35% success/fail rate with that move.
- Nice little match. Dragon wins by submission in short order.
2003 ROH wrap-up.
Top 10 Wrestlers of the Year -- trying to equally weight everything: ring work, star power, charisma, regularity of appearance, general value to the company:
1. CM Punk - Even though he's severely flawed in the ring, there's no doubt he's the guy with the biggest star power in the promotion by the time the year ends. In terms of charisma and presence he's a clear step above everyone else. Best on promos, had the biggest angle of the year with Raven, and even after it blows off he goes right into another big angle with the Prophecy. A lot of the 'big angles' of the year didn't really come off as such for a lot of reasons, but Punk is really able to grab hold of them and make them work. He was actually able to get legit heat throughout the year. Even though his ring work is not nearly in the upper escalations of the company, when he sticks to what he's good at -- bumping, selling, heeling and bleeding -- he's very good.
2. Homicide - I considered giving Homicide #1. He's the most well rounded candidate. Had plenty of good matches, but not the best ring worker in the company. Had good angles but not the best angle. Good talker but not the best. Feels like a big star for ROH but doesn't feel a step ahead of everyone else in star power. But he's been around all year, has been in some of the biggest angles, had some of the best matches, always a guy you could put in the main event, always over.
3. Christopher Daniels - Pretty much like Homicide. Strong in all relevant categories, not number one in any. ROH probably could have pushed him even stronger to be honest. There was a span of a couple months where it looked like he was turning face and the crowd was on fire for him. Definitely feels like one of the biggest stars. One of the most solid in the ring. Solid on the mic and on promos.
4. Paul London - Maybe could have been number one if he stayed the whole year. The most over guy at the beginning of the year. Probably in terms of consistency of individual performance, the best in-ring wrestler of the year. I mean, Danielson is better in the ring, but he's hardly around. London was around all year -- until he left -- and always had a strong connection with the crowd. Have to think his career would have ended up better if he stayed with the company and was one of the big ROH names throughout 2004-2006 and then went to WWE when they were more inclined to push guys like him.
5. Samoa Joe - Finally coming into his own toward the end of the year, after a short of shaky early championship reign. For a lot of the year he really wasn't the Samoa Joe who we'd remember from his monster 2004 title run. He had a lot of work to do in the ring and with his character. But by the last couple months of the year, he's got it down. Finally feeling like a dominant champion, developing real charisma, getting over with the crowd as a top guy, and improving in the ring. Up until now the ROH title has generally played second fiddle to the bigger angles, but Joe is clearly just starting to turn that around.
6. AJ Styles - Clearly the best athlete in the company. His execution is a step above everyone elses. Appears regularly but never really feels like that big of a star. I mean, you can always throw him in the main event and he'll always be over, but he doesn't have those defining angles and moments like Homicide, Daniels, London, Punk have.
7. Raven - Obviously here for his role in the Punk/Raven angle. There's no doubt, Punk carried this angle, but it wouldn't have been what it was without Raven. This angle really was what catapulted Punk to superstardom, and who knows if he would have ended up successful, or would have gotten so much buzz as fast as he did, if it were with anyone but Raven, who was the perfect foil. He held his own on promos and in the ring in his own right.
8. Bryan Danielson - Very limited appearances, but clearly the best in the ring in the company, but a solid margin. No surprise, as we can now say he's arguably THE best of all time. Always over with the crowd due to being one of the sort of 'founders' of ROH, and whenever he shows up it feels like a big deal and the crowd is very into him.
9. Dan Maff - An underrated talent who had a great year as a character. He's really leaning into his heel role and making it work. Showing a lot of personality. In the ring he's really hit and miss but when he's hit he can be really good.
10. BJ Whitmer - The workhorse of the mid-card. Guy on the cusp of the next level, who never really got there through his ROH career. Isn't always the best in the ring but can be counted on for a solid mid-card match, you can throw him into a higher-level match every now and then. Ends the year with an obvious push being introduced to a major angle.
Top 10 matches of the year:
1. Homicide vs. Steve Corino, Bitter Friends Stiffer Enemies
2. Paul London vs. Bryan Danielson, The Epic Encounter
3. The Carnage Crew vs. Texas Wrestling Academy, Round Robin Challenge II
4. Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe, Revenge on the Prophecy
5. AJ Styles vs. Paul London, Night of the Grudges
6. Bryan Danielson vs. AJ Styles, Main Event Spectacles
7. Homicide vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Colt Cabana vs. Dan Maff, Death Before Dishonor
8. The Carnage Crew vs. Texas Wrestling Academy, Death Before Dishonor
9. Homicide's Crew vs. Corino's Crew brawl, The Epic Encounter
10. Xavier vs. John Walters, Final Battle 2003
Top 5 Shows:
1. Death Before Dishonor
2. Bitter Friends Stiffer Enemies
3. Round Robin Challenge II
4. First Anniversary Show
5. Main Event Spectacles
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