Post by AndyKaid on Jul 24, 2004 0:45:37 GMT -5
Shocking, eh?
Report w/ intro at Wrestle-Fan.
ROH Reborn: Completion
FIRST MATCH: Generation Next (Jack Evans & Roderick Strong vs. Special K (Izzy & Dixie)
Damn, was this ever fun. Izzy and Dixie looked great, and Strong and Evans looked tremendous. This might have been the best straight up cruiserweight tag match in ROH history. There was one sick, sick spot where Roderick had Izzy up in a fireman’s carry. Evans comes off the top with a 180-degree stomp on Izzy, and then posts off of him into a moonsault on Dixie! All in one fluid motion!! Evans and Strong win after Evans hits a 630 on Izzy. Fun, fun, fun.
SECOND MATCH: Nigel McGuinness vs. Jay Lethal vs. John Walters vs. Doug Williams
Apparently, Jay Lethal has separated himself from Special K, as he came out with his indy name and new tights. John Walters is still John Walters. This was the first of two really good matches in a row. I think ROH is realizing that Walters sucks, as they’ve been protecting him a lot lately by putting him in matches with multiple people. McGuiness and Williams have some fun interactions, including Williams busting out the JOHNNY SAINT SPECIAL~! Williams wins after a Chaos Theory on Jay Lethal.
THIRD MATCH: The Carnage Crew (Loc & Devito) vs. The New Carnage Crew (Masada & Danny Daniels)
This is the exact moment where the show started going downhill a bit. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t see well from where I was sitting, or maybe this was too short, but I wasn’t into this at all. The finish was cool though; with Loc and Devito beating Daniels with legit metal baseball bats while Daniels had a trashcan over his head. Loc pinned Daniels and the New Carnage Crew must disband.
FOURTH MATCH: CM Punk vs. Matt Stryker vs. Austin Aries vs. Alex Shelley
The lesser of the two four ways. This match never quite took off, but it had a good deal of subtleties that should make it better on tape (i.e. Shelley screaming “No Strykerlock!” when Stryker tried applying it). The finish had Aries and Shelley attempting to do dueling victory rolls. Punk reversed Aries’ and pinned him, while Shelley hit the move on Stryker. The ref counted Shelley’s pin instead, leaving Punk none too happy. There was some comical post-match mic work that included Punk calling Shelley “Baby Bear.”
FIFTH MATCH: The Second City Saint (Colt Cabana & Ace Steel) vs. The Prophecy (BJ Whitmer & Dan Maff)
This was like the Carnage Crew match in that I couldn’t see most of it. It was pretty short, and far inferior to the Saints-Prophecy match from Generation Next. The ending segments on the balcony (well, balcony-type thingy) were pretty cool though. Maff KO’d Ace with one of the lights to get the pin.
Post match, Allison Danger came out and cut a promo saying that she’d be sending people after Maff and Whitmer, she owns their contracts, whatever. She should really never get a live mic again. Her voice is incredibly grating, especially live.
After intermission, Prince Nana comes out and cuts a promo that blows Allison’s away. He announces that the new member of the Embassy… the man who he emptied out all of his bank accounts for (including his Swiss bank account, which, Nana adds, is in Switzerland). This is the man who will win gold for the Embassy. And that man is- JIMMY RAVE~!
SIXTH MATCH: Trent Acid vs. Jimmy Rave (w/ The Embassy)
This was great just to see Nana freak out whenever Rave looked like he was about to lose. I never thought I’d say in all seriousness that Nana would be the highlight of a match. That’s pretty much all I have to say about this one. Rave wins with the Styles Clash, which draws a tremendous amount of heat from the crowd. I might actually dig Rave with the Embassy.
SEVENTH MATCH: (For the vacant Pure Wrestling Title) Doug Williams vs. Alex Shelley
Great match. Definitely MOTN. Williams and Shelley worked a very British style match, though there was a surprising lack of cravates. A British match without cravates is like a Roderick Strong match without backbreakers. It still worked out though, with Williams working over Shelley’s arm. Shelley sure has been selling his arm a lot lately. Williams got Shelley to take in some sort of armbar in the ropes Tarantula style move, forcing Shelley to tap since he had run out of rope breaks.
FINAL ENCOUNTER: CM Punk vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat
This might beat out the last Punk-Steamboat confrontation as best live segment ROH has done. In fact, yeah, it does. Although there were some unexplained plotholes as to why Steamboat didn’t want to get revenge on Punk after he put him through a table at RRC 3 (though he did attack Punk later that night) and after the Punker did the Randy Savage bell shot on 5/22, this was still tremendous. The segment had Punk teasing joining Generation Next, then attacking them, and then working side by side with Steamboat to fight them off, followed by the subsequent touching of fists with Punk and Dragon. Punk got the HUGE rub when Ricky rolled out of the ring to let him take in the crowd chanting “CM Punk! CM Punk!” in by far the largest babyface reaction in his ROH career (still haven’t seen the Chicago show though). Awesome moment.
EIGHTH MATCH: Samoa Joe © & The Briscoes (Jay & Mark) vs. The Rottweilers (Homicide & The Havana Pitbulls w/ Julius Smokes)
Four of these guys have been part of the backbone of ROH, more or less, for the past year or so. And of course, you can’t go wrong with the Havana Pitbulls. This match had a very main event feel to it and did deliver a good, solid contest. Mark got seriously effed up at one point on a TERRIBLY botched SSP. He started freaking out afterwards, doing moves on everyone like someone with a concussion would do (ala Kurt Angle at Summerslam 2000). Mark kept getting the brunt end of the punishment, as Samoa Joe batted away a Homicide fireball and it landed right on Mark. The ref threw the match out after that.
Jay left with Mark, leaving Joe with the Rottweilers. The Rottweilers attacked Joe until Jay ran in to make the save. However, they shortly overcame Jay and Joe. It looked like all hope was lost until LOW KI’S MUSIC HIT~! In the second amazing moment of the night, LOW FREAKING KI returned. Ki teases saving Joe, but I’ve watched enough sports entertainment in my day to see the double cross coming a mile away. Ballsy move indeed turning Ki heel, and I think it’ll pay off as he got a MASSIVE amount of heat when he cut his well-worded promo and buried Joe under the ROH banner. It was comparable to the live heat that Goldberg got when he turned heel at the Great American Bash in 2000. That didn’t work due to Goldberg not committing to it, but I definitely think ROH has built in money feuds with Ki-Joe, and eventually Ki-Punk.
Top to bottom, this was an “event”. There was no match that stood out as an MOTYC, but there was nothing *really* bad either. This was the best booked show I’ve ever seen from ROH, with the incredible segments with Punk-Steamboat and the return of Ki. Excuse the horrible pun, but Ring of Honor has been Reborn. Har-har.
Report w/ intro at Wrestle-Fan.
ROH Reborn: Completion
FIRST MATCH: Generation Next (Jack Evans & Roderick Strong vs. Special K (Izzy & Dixie)
Damn, was this ever fun. Izzy and Dixie looked great, and Strong and Evans looked tremendous. This might have been the best straight up cruiserweight tag match in ROH history. There was one sick, sick spot where Roderick had Izzy up in a fireman’s carry. Evans comes off the top with a 180-degree stomp on Izzy, and then posts off of him into a moonsault on Dixie! All in one fluid motion!! Evans and Strong win after Evans hits a 630 on Izzy. Fun, fun, fun.
SECOND MATCH: Nigel McGuinness vs. Jay Lethal vs. John Walters vs. Doug Williams
Apparently, Jay Lethal has separated himself from Special K, as he came out with his indy name and new tights. John Walters is still John Walters. This was the first of two really good matches in a row. I think ROH is realizing that Walters sucks, as they’ve been protecting him a lot lately by putting him in matches with multiple people. McGuiness and Williams have some fun interactions, including Williams busting out the JOHNNY SAINT SPECIAL~! Williams wins after a Chaos Theory on Jay Lethal.
THIRD MATCH: The Carnage Crew (Loc & Devito) vs. The New Carnage Crew (Masada & Danny Daniels)
This is the exact moment where the show started going downhill a bit. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t see well from where I was sitting, or maybe this was too short, but I wasn’t into this at all. The finish was cool though; with Loc and Devito beating Daniels with legit metal baseball bats while Daniels had a trashcan over his head. Loc pinned Daniels and the New Carnage Crew must disband.
FOURTH MATCH: CM Punk vs. Matt Stryker vs. Austin Aries vs. Alex Shelley
The lesser of the two four ways. This match never quite took off, but it had a good deal of subtleties that should make it better on tape (i.e. Shelley screaming “No Strykerlock!” when Stryker tried applying it). The finish had Aries and Shelley attempting to do dueling victory rolls. Punk reversed Aries’ and pinned him, while Shelley hit the move on Stryker. The ref counted Shelley’s pin instead, leaving Punk none too happy. There was some comical post-match mic work that included Punk calling Shelley “Baby Bear.”
FIFTH MATCH: The Second City Saint (Colt Cabana & Ace Steel) vs. The Prophecy (BJ Whitmer & Dan Maff)
This was like the Carnage Crew match in that I couldn’t see most of it. It was pretty short, and far inferior to the Saints-Prophecy match from Generation Next. The ending segments on the balcony (well, balcony-type thingy) were pretty cool though. Maff KO’d Ace with one of the lights to get the pin.
Post match, Allison Danger came out and cut a promo saying that she’d be sending people after Maff and Whitmer, she owns their contracts, whatever. She should really never get a live mic again. Her voice is incredibly grating, especially live.
After intermission, Prince Nana comes out and cuts a promo that blows Allison’s away. He announces that the new member of the Embassy… the man who he emptied out all of his bank accounts for (including his Swiss bank account, which, Nana adds, is in Switzerland). This is the man who will win gold for the Embassy. And that man is- JIMMY RAVE~!
SIXTH MATCH: Trent Acid vs. Jimmy Rave (w/ The Embassy)
This was great just to see Nana freak out whenever Rave looked like he was about to lose. I never thought I’d say in all seriousness that Nana would be the highlight of a match. That’s pretty much all I have to say about this one. Rave wins with the Styles Clash, which draws a tremendous amount of heat from the crowd. I might actually dig Rave with the Embassy.
SEVENTH MATCH: (For the vacant Pure Wrestling Title) Doug Williams vs. Alex Shelley
Great match. Definitely MOTN. Williams and Shelley worked a very British style match, though there was a surprising lack of cravates. A British match without cravates is like a Roderick Strong match without backbreakers. It still worked out though, with Williams working over Shelley’s arm. Shelley sure has been selling his arm a lot lately. Williams got Shelley to take in some sort of armbar in the ropes Tarantula style move, forcing Shelley to tap since he had run out of rope breaks.
FINAL ENCOUNTER: CM Punk vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat
This might beat out the last Punk-Steamboat confrontation as best live segment ROH has done. In fact, yeah, it does. Although there were some unexplained plotholes as to why Steamboat didn’t want to get revenge on Punk after he put him through a table at RRC 3 (though he did attack Punk later that night) and after the Punker did the Randy Savage bell shot on 5/22, this was still tremendous. The segment had Punk teasing joining Generation Next, then attacking them, and then working side by side with Steamboat to fight them off, followed by the subsequent touching of fists with Punk and Dragon. Punk got the HUGE rub when Ricky rolled out of the ring to let him take in the crowd chanting “CM Punk! CM Punk!” in by far the largest babyface reaction in his ROH career (still haven’t seen the Chicago show though). Awesome moment.
EIGHTH MATCH: Samoa Joe © & The Briscoes (Jay & Mark) vs. The Rottweilers (Homicide & The Havana Pitbulls w/ Julius Smokes)
Four of these guys have been part of the backbone of ROH, more or less, for the past year or so. And of course, you can’t go wrong with the Havana Pitbulls. This match had a very main event feel to it and did deliver a good, solid contest. Mark got seriously effed up at one point on a TERRIBLY botched SSP. He started freaking out afterwards, doing moves on everyone like someone with a concussion would do (ala Kurt Angle at Summerslam 2000). Mark kept getting the brunt end of the punishment, as Samoa Joe batted away a Homicide fireball and it landed right on Mark. The ref threw the match out after that.
Jay left with Mark, leaving Joe with the Rottweilers. The Rottweilers attacked Joe until Jay ran in to make the save. However, they shortly overcame Jay and Joe. It looked like all hope was lost until LOW KI’S MUSIC HIT~! In the second amazing moment of the night, LOW FREAKING KI returned. Ki teases saving Joe, but I’ve watched enough sports entertainment in my day to see the double cross coming a mile away. Ballsy move indeed turning Ki heel, and I think it’ll pay off as he got a MASSIVE amount of heat when he cut his well-worded promo and buried Joe under the ROH banner. It was comparable to the live heat that Goldberg got when he turned heel at the Great American Bash in 2000. That didn’t work due to Goldberg not committing to it, but I definitely think ROH has built in money feuds with Ki-Joe, and eventually Ki-Punk.
Top to bottom, this was an “event”. There was no match that stood out as an MOTYC, but there was nothing *really* bad either. This was the best booked show I’ve ever seen from ROH, with the incredible segments with Punk-Steamboat and the return of Ki. Excuse the horrible pun, but Ring of Honor has been Reborn. Har-har.
