ROH: Second Year Anniversary Show Thoughts

[Agent Kev]

FIRST MATCH: Pure Wrestling Tournament:
CM Punk vs. John Walters

Wow. This was great. Punk comes out to Christopher Daniels music and is even wearing the Fallen Angel garb. This was great as he was in total heel mode tonight. CM Punk is a great heel.
On to the match....even though this was not a "rope break rule" match it was really interesting how they used the rope breaks throughout the match. Punk goes deep into his playbook in this match pulling out some curb stomps and even a michinoku driver to try and put away Walters. AWESOME finish as Walters rolls up Punk and does a bridge but Punk reverses and grabs Walters in a dragon suplex-type pinning combo for the victory. Great opener.

Rating: ***3/4

SECOND MATCH: Pure Wrestling Tournament:
Doug Williams vs. Chris Sabin

Did I mention how much I missed Doug Williams? This kind of match really benefited Chris Sabin. Usually he is in there with a guy who is at or below his own skill set but tonight Sabin was able to wrestle someone who has skill and experience much beyond his. Because of this Sabin was able to really concentrate on just hitting his spots and letting Williams control the match, which worked out perfectly. Both guys looked great in this match. Welcome back Doug.

Rating: ***1/4

THIRD MATCH: Pure Wrestling Tournament:
Matt Stryker vs. Josh Daniels

I liked this a lot although not as much as the last two. This was a very good "technical" match with both guys looking real sharp but it just seemed to lack the "heart" of the Punk/Walters match. I like Daniels more and more each time I see him, I would like to see him as someone's protege (maybe Danielson?). Stryker looked real good here and delivered a strong match.

Rating: ***

Next Up:
AJ Styles vs. Jimmy Rave

[NewFnShow]

FINALLY! I have been waiting for this review for a while. Awesome start so far. I can't wait to see this show.

[Agent Kev]

FOURTH MATCH: Pure Wrestling Tournament:
AJ Styles vs. Jimmy Rave

I LOVED the first 3/4 of this match. Great story that ROH has been building on for several months of student vs. mentor. Great action in the early going with Rave ducking out of the ring to avoid AJ's signature dropkick sequence. It lost a little momentum towards the end with the rana/Styles Clash sequence and then the knee injury but it was still really solid. If ROH had a time machine they would have benefited from putting Rave over in this match.

Rating: ***

Overall a REALLY GOOD first round of the Pure Wrestling Tournament. As a fan of wrestling you really couldn't ask for anything more out of 4 consecutive matches.

FIFTH MATCH: Special K vs. The Carnage Crew (Country Whipping Match)

This was a good bloody brawl that was all over the place. Dixie's entire face was a pool of blood and Izzy got f'd up pretty bad as well. As the Special K vs. CC matches go this was one of the better brawls.

SIXTH MATCH: Pure Wrestling Tournament Semi-Finals:
Doug Williams vs. CM Punk

Man Doug Williams is just awesome. He is definitely one of the best I have ever seen at reversals and counters in pro wrestling. I LOVED the beginning of this match with Williams toying with Punk. Great stuff. I also LOVED the ending of this match. Williams hitting the chaos theory but not being able to bridge for the pin because his leg had been worked over by Punk and in fact loses by pinfall because of this. Great match.

Rating: ****

[IWSfan4life]

Sounds awesome so far, hope this keeps up so i can check this one out.

-Jason burke

[Carnage]

I wish i had paid more attention to Williams vs Punk but i expected Williams to get the win easy...so that was my bathroom break...STUPID ME!

What rating did you give the Whipping match?

And WOW, i guess the matches must come off very well on tape as they were awesome live, but a lot of times that is just because of the atmosphere

Get ready for Stryker vs Styles (AWESOME), The Four Way (FN AMAZING) and the main Event (FN AWESOME)

[Agent Kev]

Carnage said:

What rating did you give the Whipping match?

I didn't rate it. I'm not a fan of hardcore so the rating would have been low. But it's not really the type of match that you look at based on snowflakes.

SEVENTH MATCH: Pure Wrestling Tournament Semi-Finals

This one had really good intensity from both guys although they seemed to lose me at times. I thought this was real solid.

Rating: ***1/2

EIGHTH MATCH: ROH Tag-Team Titles:
The Brisoces vs. Backseat Boyz

Decent match that was a little disappointing. It was too short too really get anything going. Nice finish as The Briscoes hit a spike Jay Driller.

Rating: **1/2

NINTH MATCH: Low-Ki vs. Samoa Joe vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Dan Maff

This was a FUN match. Ki and Joe both looked really good hitting nice strikes and moves throughout the match. BJ looked like he had an off night and unfortunately came off like he didn't belong in the match. Both he and Maff seemed a bit lost at times during this match and seemed to hesitate too much like they weren't sure what to do next (it didn't look horrible just a little out of place at times in the context of the match). Overall a good match and one you should definitely check out. There was a funny moment when Low-Ki hit a move on BJ Whitmer but the ref wouldn't count the fall because he wasn't the legal man. And then about 3 minutes later BJ (who was still in the ring) tagged out to Maff and that made Maff the legal man and the ref signaled the tag was made (even though he should have been already). Anyone big props for Joe for coming off strong in this match dispite losing a massive amount of blood from his hand during this match.

Rating: ***

TENTH MATCH: Pure Title Championship:
CM Punk vs. AJ Styles

WOW. This was friggin' great. That's about all I'm gonna say about this one

Rating: ****1/4

GREAT SHOW. I HIGHLY recommend that you add this one to your collection as the Pure Wrestling Tournament is fantastic (and that's without the other 3 matches).