Ring Of Honor: 12 April, 2003

The setup for the show was slightly different this time, and I think it looked a lot better. First off, there was a black curtain behind the last row of fans on the side opposite the hard camera, which will probably look a lot better on tape than the wall and doors on that side. The biggest change, though, was the new lighting. Instead of just using the normal overhead lights in the gym, they had a row of television-style flood lights set up on each of the four basketball hoops on each side of the room and turned off the overhead lights when the show started. There were some issues with the lights going on or off or dimming at inappropriate times, but for the most part it made for an excellent atmosphere live, and will probably also look better on tape. It also put the focus on the ring, while the fans were somewhat in the dark, which was a nice reminder to certain fans that no, they are in fact not part of the show. Also, they turned the lights off between matches to allow for mini-laser light shows to accompany the entrances, which was nice if not a bit excessive at times. Overall it made for a more serious atmosphere.

The Backseat Boys (Trent Acid & Johnny Kashmere) vs. Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack)

One of the reasons the Backseats' recent work in ROH hasn't bothered me much, and has in fact entertained me a good deal from time to time, is that they haven't been doing some of the things that annoyed the hell out of me in what I've seen of their CZW work. Principal among these is stalling. One of the odd things about CZW on the shows I've seen is that wrestlers seem to switch from face to heel and back again within matches with no particular rhyme or reason. The Backseats will come out playing to the crowd and getting a big reaction, and then they'll stall for an inordinate amount of time outside the ring to piss off the fans, followed soon after by hitting a high spot or two and posing for the fans again. This kind of bizarre and infuriating work hadn't shown up much in their ROH work before this show, but in this match it was all there.

This match only ended up going about eight minutes, so the Backseats stalling for a couple of minutes early in the match was really uncalled for. Maybe they felt they needed to go back to these tactics because the Hit Squad aren't small or agile enough to participate in the standard Backseat choreographed counter-wrestling to open the match, but it sure was annoying. And given that they get one of the biggest babyface reactions from the ROH crowd, it really doesn't make sense that they'd try to annoy the fans. While the match was in the ring, it wasn't half bad. The Backseats were bumping pretty well for the standard Hit Squad spots, at least. The Hit Squad's selling was subpar as usual, but this was a decent short match. The Backseats pinned someboday, probably Mafia, with the T-Gimmick.

After the match, the lights went out and Special K's music came on, accompanied by some smoke and lasers. Mike Whipwreck led the group of cruiserweight ravers to the ring. I think there were about six or seven of them. He cut a promo saying that he knows something about tag team wrestling, having tagged with Mick Foley and Yoshihiro Tajiri, as well as training the SAT and Divine Storm. It doesn't really make a lot of sense that he'd put over those last two, given that he's feuding with them and that neither of them are particularly good, but I suppose the storyline is that he's on drugs and he only said that they were "pretty good." He said that Special K would be the next great tag teams and that they would use the Backseats as their stepping stones to become the top tag team in Ring Of Honor. Of course this brought out the true top tag team in ROH, Dunn & Marcos, the Ring Crew Express, who took exception to Whipwreck's statements. And then out came the Carnage Crew, looking for a fight, so Trent Acid said these three teams should have a scramble match, and the winner would face the Backseats on the next Philly show, May 31st.

Special K (Dixie & Hydro) vs. The Ring Crew Express (Dunn & Marcos) vs. The Carnage Crew (Loc & Devito)

This was something of a mess, as there were at least half a dozen people at ringside. It was also rather short. It got to a dive sequence to the outside of the ring rather quickly and in a nice touch not often seen in these "scramble matches", Dunn & Marcos were both clutching their backs, selling previous offense as they climbed to adjacent corners to hit their dives. Then they both yelled "stage dive!" and made the international symbol of heavy metal before diving onto the pile outside the ring. Then there was a dive sequence inside the ring where everyone kept hitting a dive on top of the guy who had just hit one until there were five or six guys piled up in the middle of the ring, with the guy on top trying to get the pin. Eventually the mass Special K assemblage distracted the referee long enough for Whipwreck to come in an hit some stunners and give Special K the victory. They will face the Backseats the next time ROH is in Philly. I assume it will be Dixie and Hydro representing Special K again, but who knows? This match was a decent little spotty affair.

AJ Styles & The Amazing Red vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe [ROH Tag Team Championship]

I was wary of this match, wondering how they'd go about trying to top their spot-tastic encounter from a month ago, but they did it in a way I really didn't expect. They went out and had a very well-constructed wrestling match. There were plenty of spots, to be sure, but this match had a much better build and was basically a well-executed Southern tag with high-tech spots. It started out with a sort of synchronized swimming feel, with both teams going for double dives to the outside and being thwarted once before Styles and Red were able to hit criss-crossing topes, one over the top rope, the other through the middle. Once the match got back in the ring and settled down a bit, Styles and Red were able to isolate Mark and get some double-teaming in before he was able to make the tag and the Briscoes then isolated Red for a while. Red makes a great underdog babyface and this worked well. There was a good build from more simple spots in the beginning of the match toward the spectacular at the end and the Briscoes did a pretty good job of giving Red some short comebacks only to cut him off before he finallly made the hot tag to Styles. Styles came in and cleaned house of course, until Red was ready to come back in and make with the double-teaming. In a nice touch, Styles and Red tried to reprise last month's finish, but this time the Briscoes were ready for it and countered into a combination top rope powerbomb/neckbreaker on Red for a near fall. I wasn't sure I'd seen a tag and thought Styles was still the legal man at this point, but that's a minor quibble and it's entirely possible that I missed a blind tag in there somewhere. For the finish, Mark dove onto Styles on the outside, looking to turn it into a hurricanrana, but Styles reversed into the Styles Clash on the floor, putting him out of comission as Jay went for the J-Driller on the inside on Red, but Red blocked it and turned it into something resembling Genki Horiguchi's Beach Break (sit-down tombstone with the opponent against the attacker's back instead of his chest, dropping him right on his head), followed up with a Red Star Press for the three count.

Last month these guys showed that they could come up with some elaborate and spectacular spots, but this month they showed that they could work these spots into a very coherent and well-structure storyline. It almost makes me wonder if someone else helped them put this together, because it was a lot better than I expected out of these guys. Or maybe Red learned something in All Japan after all.

BJ Whitmer vs. CM Punk

This was a good simple match, with Punk playing the heel and working the back. It seemed odd at the time, as he doesn't have any kind of back-related finish that I'm aware of, and Whitmer didn't seem to really be selling the back work too specificallly, but it was generally solid work. And Punk made sure to remind everyone that he is still feuding with Raven, as he taunted Raven in his absence during the match, doing the Raven pose before an offensive maneuver. Aside from that, the details of this match seem to have slipped my mind. The match ended it what's being called a no-contest when Punk German suplexed Whitmer off of the apron through a table on the floor. I couldn't see the impact from where I was sitting and it sounded like more of a thud than a crash to me, and both men stayed down for a while. I'm not sure why this wasn't a disqualification, as the referee was looking right at it, and he called for the bell very quickly, but the official word is no-contest because neither man could continue.

Homicide vs. Christopher Daniels

This was my chance to finally gauge Homicide's ability in a singles match with a decent opponent and he looked pretty good, but not on the same level as the top workers in ROH. Early in the match they did some solid matwork with both men seeming to target the neck, as would make sense given their finishers, but this wasn't really followed up on or sold throughout the body of the match, so it came of as mostly perfunctory. Neither man really focused on working a body part toward a particular finish. Occasionally Homicide would do something like work the neck and leg for a brief period to set up the STF, but none of this work had a lasting effect on the rest of the match, as their manner of building toward finishes mostly relied on teasing them early and often. Daniels kept going for the Angel's Wings and Homicide for the Cop Killer and they'd each have to scramble to get out. The basic story of this match was that Daniels would be in control of the match for a lengthy period of time until Homicide was able to sneak in some big move to turn the tide and take over for a little while before Daniels regained control and the sequence played out again. The progression of moves from more basic stuff to the bigger moves was well done and the work was generally solid. Occasionally when there was a quick succession of reversals, Homicide would get a little sloppy and seem lost for a second while Daniels had to wait for him to catch up, but these flaws weren't particularly major. Late in the match Daniels hit the Angel's Wings for a good near fall. Although this move had been teased repeatedly, the kickout made sense as when Daniels finally hit it, it wasn't at the conclusion of any kind of heated exchange so although it was a finish that had been built toward, it didn't really feel like a definite finish at the moment he hit it. This was followed by a desperate scramble with Daniels trying to hit another big move to finish Homicide off while Homicide desperately tried to avoid being finished off and finally managed to beat Daniels with a rollup. The finish, like the rest of the match seemed solidly in "good, not great" territory. Definitely not on the same level as Daniels' excellent match with Doug Williams from last month, but a good first match between the two and it gives them something to build upon in future matches.

After the match, Samoa Joe, CW Anderson and Jack Victory of Steve Corino's group, creatively titled "The Group," attacked both men, with Joe choking out Homicide, until Mafia ran in to make the save. Daniels and Mafia stared each other down and Daniels ripped the front of Mafia's shirt down the middle, but Mafia removed it to reveal a Prophecy (Daniels' stable that also includes Donovan Morgan and Xavier) shirt, and placed his old shirt over Homicide's face. Mafia will apparently now be using his real name, Danny Maff.

At this point the show went to intermission.

Alexis Laree vs. Ariel

I had never seen nor heard of Ariel before and all I learned from this approximately ninety second match was that she needs to work on her strikes. Alexis won.

Samoa Joe vs. Hotstuff Hernandez [Non-Title]

This match started out well with the two big men taking it to the mat and Joe working on Hernandez's arm a bit. Hernandez sold this quite well even after he was able to make it to his feet and generally impressed me with all of his selling here. He was mostly playing the "agile big man" character here, hitting his monstrous tope con hilo as well as a couple of other highspots, while Joe was doing his "shooter" thing, using mostly strikes and submissions. The match ended rather abruptly less than seven minutes in, as Joe turned a Hernandez spinebuster into a triangle choke for the tapout. Hernandez looked better than I expected and I am interested to see more of him and in particular I would like to see a longer match between these two at some point, perhaps for the title.

After the match, Joe grabbed a chair and sat down in the middle of the ring, leading Gary Michael Capetta to come out and ask him what he was doing. Joe said the fans deserved to see a title defense, and challenged the participants in the three-way that was up next to go up against him in a four-way where anyone who beat him would get the title.

Samoa Joe vs. Colt Cabana vs. Tom Carter vs. Matt Stryker

Carter is the guy you may have previously known as Reckless Youth. This started out as basically a three-on-one with all three trying to take down Joe, but when it came time to pin him, they stopped being on the same page and this turned into more of a traditional four-way with only two men in the ring at the same time. Joe spent most of the match on the apron just watching the other three fight amongst themselves. He basically played a comedy role for a lot of it, interjecting himself to smack somebody on the back of the neck or kick them in the face to break up a submission hold before returning to chill on the apron. The structure of this match encouraged spottiness and Cabana, Carter and Stryker were basically just playing out short sequences with each other, two at a time, trying to hit a big move to get the win. The logic of this was somewhat odd, as they couldn't get the title by pinning each other. They did a fairly good job with this, as they mostly used submissions against each other rather than pins, but there were a few pins in there that seemed out of place. Stryker established himself as the fiery unibrowed babyface trying to stand up to Joe and thus became the subject of Joe's wrath often early in the match, as Joe would take an occasional swing at him from the apron and seemingly focus more of his attention on messing with Stryker and breaking up his submissions than on anyone else. Cabana was his normal exuberant self and the bulk of Carter's offense consisted of wacky T2P-esque submissions that didn't really focus on one body part throughout the match so much as they all were complicated enough to work a lot of body parts at once. Eventually Joe decided he'd had enough and came in to kick some ass and win the match, but Stryker was able to get some revenge for Joe's earlier toying with him, lifting the bigger man up for a death valley driver to put him out of commission for a brief period. Eventually Joe was able to take out Stryker and get Cabana in a rear naked choke. Carter came off the top with a frog splash, but since Joe was on his back with Cabana on top of him, Carter hit Cabana who tapped out soon afterwards, allowing Joe to retain the title. This was a fun match with some comedy and some nice spots and sequences that did a good job to get all four men's characters over and get Joe over as a dominant Champion without making the others look too weak.

Paul London vs. The American Dragon Bryan Danielson [2/3 Falls]

In the day that's passed between this match happening and my beginnging to write this review, already a good deal of glowing praise has been heaped upon this match by those who saw it. This was more than just a wrestling match. This was an event. Dragon and London first met in November as part of a gauntlet series of matches to determine the Number One Contender to the ROH Championship. Dragon made London submit to the Cattle Mutilation but went on to lose to AJ Styles in the final of the gauntlet. A month later, the two met again, this time with the Number One Contendership riding on their match. In this match, Dragon played the role of established veteran to London's flashy, up-and-coming babyface, outwrestling London and testing him while London used his heart and determination to try to overcome Dragon's assault. The finish saw London head to the top rope to hit his Shooting Star Press, but Dragon ran up to try to stop him, so London tried to knock him off with a series of stiff chops, forearms and headbutts. They repeated this a few times as Dragon refused to stay down until London had given him everything he had. Eventually, Dragon could no longer withstand the beating and fell to the mat as London hit the shooting star press for the victory. After the match, London got on the mic and said that while he may have won the match, he knew that Dragon was the better wrestler.

Paul London was originally scheduled to wrestle Low Ki on this show, but Ki got called away to Japan and this rematch was scheduled, with the fans being asked to choose the stipulation on the ROH website. The voters chose 2/3 Falls over a 30 Minute Iron Man match and the anticipation began.

The new lighting really seemed to make the in-ring action appear more special than on the previous shows, and this match in particular just had the atmosphere of a major happening from the start with the lighting and the crowd contributing to the sense that something big was about to go down. The crowd was attentive and hot from the start as the entrances began and stayed that way throughout the entire match. Both men are very popular faces and it seemed like while the majority of the crowd appreciated both men, the crowd was split with about half favoring each man, and about as heated as 550 people in a tiny rec center can get. Numerous times throughout the match, chants of "Let's Go London" would be met with "Let's Go Dragon," back and forth, getting louder with each go-'round.

Dragon and London set the tone early, starting the match with an intense struggle over a collar and elbow tie-up which led the match to start on the mat with Dragon taking the lead. Dragon was clearly established as the superior wrestler on the ground. Dragon would initiate the matwork and as soon as London had figured out a way to counter, Dragon would already be a step ahead of him, leaving London to play catch-up again. Eventually, London was able to get even with Dragon on the mat, working an extended headlock sequence that Dragon could not escape. Every time Dragon got near the ropes, London would springboard off and roll through, holding onto the headlock. But just as Dragon had set the pace early, forcing London to struggle to hold his own, once London had demonstrated that he could hang with Dragon on the mat, Dragon elevated his game again, this time reestablishing his advantage by using his strikes to break out of London's hold, putting London back behind the eight ball, struggling to keep pace. And every time that London would find an answer for his strikes, Dragon would just bring a more brutal variety, progressing from chops to elbows to headbutts until London could no longer withstand the assualt and stay standing. When Dragon was back in control, he was able to return to the mat and work on wearing down London for the Cattle Mutilation, attacking his shoulders, neck and back. As in their earlier matches, London was forced to be opportunistic and use his high-flying to combat Dragon's more technically sound attack. Dragon tried to respond in kind with the small aerial arsenal that he has, bringing out the tope suicidda and the diving headbutt, but this was the one area in which he couldn't outdo London and when the headbutt failed to garner the pinfall, he went back to his more traditional attack. The first fall of the match came when Dragon went for the top rope backdrop suplex, a move that often gets him a late match near-fall. But London was able to reverse it mid-air into a cross-body for a pin 20 minutes in.

The second fall saw Dragon take on a more vicious attitude to retain the control of the match that had slipped away from him with the fluke-like first fall. The two shook hands before the start of the second fall, but Dragon slapped London in the face and began a frenzied attack of brutal elbows. London responded in kind and the two traded strikes until London had knocked Dragon down near one of the turnbuckles. He went up with his back to the ring, but Dragon got up and knocked him down into an awkward Tree Of Woe that left London's hanging by his left knee from the top rope. Dragon, like a shark smelling blood, immediately went wild on the knee, laying in a flurry of elbows until the ref had to pull him away from the corner. Dragon sensed this was his opportunity to take control of the match and really put a serious hurting on London and he was not going to let the referee stand in his way. After a lengthy struggle, the referee was finally able to get Dragon away from the corner and free London. With his opponent injured, Dragon really began to play heelishly to the crowd. He looked to the side of the building where most of his fans seemed to be situated (the side where I happened to be sitting) for approval, while taunting the London side while they cheered on their man, even cupping his hand to his ear a la Hulk Hogan in response to the thunderous "Let's Go London" chants.

With London down, Dragon first thought to try to beat London with the move that had beaten him in November, the Cattle Mutilation. But when London was able to make it to the ropes, Dragon focused all of his attention on the injured knee, grabbing a half-crab and repeatedly pulling London back into the middle of the ring as he tried to make it to the ropes. London was at first able to force Dragon to break the hold with a series of brutal kicks to the face with his free leg, but he was in no condition to capitalize on the situation and take control of the match, so soon Dragon had him in another half-crab and was once again preventing him from reaching the ropes. Dragon eventually turned it into an torturous elevated half-crab with his knee pressed down in the middle of London's back, forcing London to submit about six minutes into the second fall.

London's selling of the knee was great from the start, and only got better as Dragon continued to attack it into the third fall. As soon as Dragon had first attacked it, London had completely ceased any rope-running and by the third fall he could barely walk. Dragon tried to get him with the half-crab again, but this time, after being pulled to the center a couple of times, he was able to make it to the ropes. Dragon was also repeatedly trying to hit the top rope backdrop that had been reversed for the first fall. But each time this led London to fight his way out of the precarious position, bludgeoning Dragon with his fists, elbows and head until Dragon fell to the mat in sequences reminiscent of the finish of their last match. Dragon's insistence on using this move failed to produce any advantage for him, as his placing London on the top rope allowed London to get to a position from which he could fight back and do some damage that he would have had difficulty climbing to on his own. And every time London tried to climb to the top rope, his selling was fantastic as he would not put any weight on the injured left leg, using just his arms and right leg to slowly pull himself to the top in hopes of putting Dragon away with the Shooting Star Press as he had in December. This battle for position on the top rope proved to be the key to the third fall, as Dragon was determined to put London away with the top rope backdrop, once even trying to hit it from the turnbuckle to the floor, only for London to rebuff him each time. The one-legged London fought desperately to prevent this and put Dragon down long enough to hit him with the Shooting Star Press. Once again it was Dragon's wrestling superiority against the heart and determination of London. And in the end, determination won. Dragon, after another struggle on the turnbuckle, was left crawling face down on the mat near the corner, and found himself on the business end of a Shooting Star Press that put him away for good. Over 40 minutes in, Paul London had pinned the American Dragon and both men were down and out in the corner of the ring.

It's entirely possible that I call things "the best match I've ever seen live" too often. I mean, it was only thirteen or fourteen months ago that I first went to an indy show and already this is the third one. Dragon vs. Low Ki from March of last year was an awesome thing to see on only my second indy show (first if you don't count CZW shows, which is very well within your rights). And then, as my appreciation of wrestling and attention to detail in the shows I watched continued to evolved, I saw Low Ki, Christopher Daniels, Spanky and Doug Williams wrestle for an hour and called that the best match I had ever seen live. And reviewing the tapes of those two matches, I still thought so. But right now, I feel comfortable saying that this match is better than those matches, that this match is the best match I have ever seen live. It had the great atmosphere and tremendous crowd heat that made for an extremely fun live experience, but all of that stuff isn't what made this a great match. This great match is what made all of that stuff happen. My memory of the details probably can't do justice to all that was going on in this match. There's no way to replicate the experience of seeing this live by watching a videotape, but I urge you to get the tape anyway. In a time when great work and classic matches are hard to find anywhere in the wrestling world, Paul London and Bryan Danielson went out and told a brilliant story that was complex and yet simple, multidimensional yet easy to follow. This is professional wrestling, and if two guys this young can produce such a great wrestling match, you can't help but have some hope for the future of the art.

Dusty Rhodes, Homicide, Iceberg, J-Train, Louie Ramos and maybe some other people vs. CW Anderson, Jack Victory, David Young and some other people [Unsanctioned I Quit Bunkhouse Riot]

No wrestling match could have followed London and Dragon, so it's a good thing this wasn't much of a wrestling match. There were some nice touches that got over the unsanctioned-ness of it all. The turnbuckle pads that say "R O H" and "HONOR" were taken down. The ceiling lights were turned up. There was no ring announcer and only Dusty got entrance music. And the "match" started behind me, when Young and Iceberg came brawling in through the back door. After that, this was completely chaotic, with people fighting all over the building, very few in the ring, and almost everyone bleeding. As a giant mess of a brawl, this was okay, and Dusty moved somewhat better than I expected, but there's nothing to really analyze here. Jack Victory said I Quit, the faces won and Dusty said nice things about Homicide after the match. Hopefully this riot angle is over.

There was some very solid stuff on the undercard. The Tag Team Title match was one of the better tag team matches I've seen in ROH, even if that isn't really saying much. Dragon/London is something you need to pay someone money for if they offer to sell it to you. Great show.  ¶ joe | 1:25 AM |