I’m new to Pulse Wrestling, and will be reviewing every Ring of Honor show since their inception, but first, a bit about myself.
I’m Aaron and I’m a wrestling fan. I don’t especially care for backstage segments and bad acting. Give me good promos, an argument over who the better man is and, above all, great in ring storytelling and psychology and I’m there.
So, we set the scene in 2002. After years as an ECW fan, that company, as well as WCW, had closed. With nothing but WWE left to watch, (though not a bad era, we had the Smackdown Six after all), one of my favorite reviewers gets their hands on some Ring of Honor tapes to review. The reviewer was Scott Keith and his explanation of the northeast-based Ring of Honor had me salivating. Ring of Honor was a company based on long building feuds, usually built around finding out who the better man is. What’s more, all their shows are three hours (at least) of pure in ring goodness. They put on a variety of match styles, but at their core, the company has always made its name on the work rate. What’s more is they gave the top independent talent that the WWE couldn’t or wouldn’t give a chance their room to shine. But I had a problem. As a stereotypical pure college student I was only able to afford a few compilation DVDs from time to time, so my Ring of Honor enjoyment went long unfulfilled. Luckily, now, at 25, I’m a teacher, and though engaged, have no kids so can afford to spend real money on something that has long intrigued me. Well, after a year of teaching, I purchased the entire Ring of Honor collection and here we are now.
So, as I was saying, in this column, I’ll be reviewing every Ring of Honor show since their inception at a rate of one a week (Thursdays). As I do this I’ll keep a list of best matches, best matches by year, and best shows so that poor college folk (or high school, or just anyone interested, this is just something I wish I had back during college) can keep up with what is most deserving of their hard earned cash and hopefully also get some enjoyable reading in the process.
Alright, we finally finished the preliminaries, so let’s get on with the very first show!
Ring of Honor: The Era of Honor Begins
February 23, 2002
From Philadelphia, PA
Match 1: The Christopher Street Connection vs. Da Hit Squad
The Christopher Street Connection is made up of Buff E. and Mace, who play gay men who love disco. They enter to the song YMCA. I’m sure you get the idea. In kayfabe Allison Danger, their manager, is also a lesbian. As they come out the announcers put over how they aren’t on the program and are most certainly not what Ring of Honor is all about. They get a mic, call the company Ring of Homosexuals, and kiss in the ring. Out come Da Hit Squad, made up of Monsta Mack and Mafia (Dan Maff, who will be important later in RoH history) to beat up on CSC. Billed as the Hardest Hitting Tag Team in RoH, Da Hit Squad are guys who look like construction workers, but they can really go in the ring.
The bell rings and we have our opening contest. High impact moves to start from Da Hit Squad as Maff nails a wicked German Suplex and Cannonball Senton. Maff finishes with the Burning Hammer (Torture Rack into a DVD) in a total squash to start us off.
Da Hit Squad beats The Christopher Street Connection (Pinfall, Burning Hammer, dud)
This wasn’t so much a match as an intentional destruction of sports entertainment. This is a mission statement as we begin with defining Ring of Honor by contrasting it to what it not: WWE. Fine for an opener. Get some heat with the CSC and wake the crowd up when you crush them. After the match Allison Danger gets put through a table with a Dudleybomb. Nice bump. A quick “Goodbye Sports Entertainment” promo and we clear the ring. Next.
Match 2: The Amazing Red vs. Jay Briscoe w/ Mark Briscoe.
Red is a tiny guy. Like 5’6″ 140lb tiny. He’s often compared to Rey Misterio when he was younger, and for good reason. He’s clearly ripping Rey’s style and takes quite a few of his moves, most notably the 718 (Rey’s 619), named after the area code for New York City. Jay is one half of the Briscoes. He’s only 18 at this point and his younger brother Mark, at 17, is generally to young to compete. They’re both great workers and develop into RoH mainstays.
Mat sequence to start pops the crowd. We establish that Jay has the power and mat wrestling advantage, while Red has the speed advantage. Early criss-cross in the ropes and Jay dumps Red over the top. Slingshot plancha from Jay misses (as we further establish Red’s speed advantage), and back in the ring for some high impact, rope based offense from both men. Jay established dominance with a sit-out muscle buster, which draws “Holy Shit” chants from the crowd, as we’re still years before Joe popularized the move. Jay misses from up top and gets caught with a brainbuster. Kicks from Red but he gets it in the mush with a big boot. Jay driller (double underhook piledriver) and both men are down. Pin, but Red gets his foot on the ropes. Jay gets crotched, and as both men jump at eachother from different ring ropes, Jay gets the weak gore. Half-nelson suplex from Jay and Jay goes up for a cannonball senton, but gets nothing. Red hits the Red Alert (twisting corckscrew legdrop) and finishes with the Red Star Press (standing shooting star press).
The Amazing Red defeated Jay Briscoe (Pinfall, Red Star Press ** ¾)
Good match with a solid high impact vs. speed storyline. Neither man was given dominance for any period of time, and the match was too short which hurt. It was still good to see Jay generally suffering because of his poor strategy of trying to match speed with Red. A bit more time and we really could have had something here.
Match 3: “The Black Nature Boy” Scoot Andrews vs. Xavier
Both men are your average mid-card types with good builds, decent movesets, and not much else.
AC Slater chant at Xavier, who works over the arm. Reversal sequence on the arm leads to some mat work that’s going nowhere. Scoot games the advantage with a face plant and dropkick. The announcers let us know that Scoot is using defense to lead to his offense, much like Flair, which is evidenced by an attempted reversal leading to a sidekick on Xavier. After some working over by Scoot, Xavier back body drops scoot on the top of his head and takes control, but not for long as Scoot again has a ready counter. Xavier can’t get anything going as Scoot has an answer for every attempted move, but of course, Scoot misses a diving leg drop to get Xavier the standard face comeback. Xavier gives up the fancy moves which were being countered and goes with some good old forearms, elbows and knees, but again, as soon as he threw Scoot into the ropes he was hit with a counter, in this case, a reverse DDT. Scoot, again after a counter, hits his Force of Nature (pumphandle driver) but Xavier is under the ropes. Scoot’s arguing with the ref, and gets rolled up for 2. Scoot attempting the Force of Nature again, but its reversed into a Rick Rude style Neckbreaker for the finish.
Xavier over Scoot Andrews (Pin, Neckbreaker *** ¼)
Really good match with solid psychology. Scoot had a counter for everything Xavier did, but when he let his head out of the game arguing with the ref, Xavier finally hit the big move he was looking for and got the win. Would have liked a more focused offense by Scoot and a bit more time to develop, but still, about as good as you’ll get in a short match. I’m far more impressed with both men than I was at the start of this one.
A backstage segment with the Christopher Street Connection complaining that they don’t belong in Ring of Honor, until they see Spanky (Brian Kendrick) and change their minds.
Match 4: The Quiet Storm vs. Chris Devine vs. The Amazing Red vs. Joel Maximo vs. Jose Maximo vs. Brian XL with special guest referee Mikey Whipwreck.
All of these guys are trained by Mikey, except Brian XL who is a friend of the trainees. Joel and Jose Maximo are the SAT (Spanish Announce Team), a spotty Tag Team that was featured in early RoH and TNA. Devine and Storm make up another team, Devine Storm, who are decent workers, but likely would not be RoH quality today. Red we covered earlier, and XL is just another spotty worker who can put together a good match generally. He’s similar to Red. Slightly less flashy, slightly better at transitions.
This match is elimination rules. This type of match is built off Dragon’s Gate’s great spotfests. No tags necessary, as when one man leaves the ring anyone else can enter. We’ll see more Dragon’s Gate style matches as RoH develops. Mikey starts off calling Brian XL Little Bow Wow, something that will be paid off down the line. And we’re off. High speed low level spots, like arm drags and dropkicks to start, as everyone gets their time in the ring, until we have everyone hitting missile dropkicks on each other. Tope from red, then another from a Maximo, and finally a springboard Tope from Red. Brian XL hits a springboard moonsault and we go back to the ring where Brian XL and Red do some flip reversals. Electric Chair into a double back drop into double neckbreackers in a nice spot. Blown tossing powerbomb by SAT and Red onto Storm. Leg drop onto Storm who’s on the knees of a Maximo. Camel clutch dropkick to Storm. Brian XL takes a Boston Crab-Legdrop double team. Red and XL hit some similar moves on each other and Jose Maximo hits an exploder onto Brian XL. Red is eliminated by a backslide from Jose Maximo. Quiet Storm hits a Spinal Shock (elevated neckbreaker) to eliminate XL. Chris Devine is hit with the Spanish Fly (Flipping from Uranage position off the top) by the SAT and Jose Maximo is hit with a German as soon as he lands. Both Maximo and Devine are eliminated. Joel Maximo and Quiet Storm are the final two. Arm submissions from Joel into an STF from Storm. They trade offense until Storm calls for the Storm Cradle Piledriver, but he eats clothesline. Blue Thunder Driver, but Storm kicks out. Quiet Storm gets up with some fighting spirit and hits the Storm Cradle Driver for the win.
Quiet Storm defeats Joel Maximo, Jose Maximo, Chris Divine, Brian XL, and The Amazing Red (Pin, Storm Cradle Driver **)
A spotfest with very few impressive spots. All involved looked green.
Match 5: Michael Shane and. Oz vs. Spanky and. Ikaika Loa
All these men are graduates of Shawn Michaels Texas Wrestling Academy. This academy wasn’t half bad, as it turned out all of these guys, as well as Paul London and Bryan Danielson. Shane is Michaels cousin and generally a cocky heel because of it. He’s currently Maverick Matt in TNA due to some name trademark issues. Spanky is currently Brian Kendrick, a tag champion on Smackdown. As Spanky, he’s somewhere between silly and insane and comes out to Genie in a Bottle. The other two cease to really matter after this match.
The winner of this match gets a RoH contract, which means his travel and accommodations are paid. An interesting twist is that the man who gets the pin is the only one who gets the contract. Spanky and Oz begin with Spanky looking far more natural than Oz. Spanky with some flips and dodges, until he eats boot. Michael Shane hits some standard little man offense with a Huricarana, heel kick, and snap suplex on Ikaika. This leads to Ikaiaka tagging Spanky. We have Shane and Spanky in the ring, who are competing for the Showstopper name. Some back and forth action to establish that both are evenly matched. Ikaika works over Shane with punches, kicks and slams. Standard offense with no flash (punches, slams, etc) from Ikaika. Spanky works over Shane with a bow and arrow, lets him go and they hit the ropes. Double clothesline and a tag to Ikaika, who again goes with the no flash offense. Shane with a top rope dropkick and goes for the hot tag. Back drops and clotheslines from Oz. Fisherman suplex gets two. Karate Kid kick for two. Showstopper elbow from Shane gets two. This is going nowhere. Spaky with the Tiger mask walk on Shane in the corner, but eats a German Suplex from Oz. Flapjack on Ikaika to a grapevine of the legs and facelock. Spanky dropkicks both and goes for Sliced Bread #2. Its blocked, but a second attempt on Oz hits and gets 3. Spanky gets the contract.
Spanky and Ikaika defeat Oz and Michael Shane (Pin, Sliced bread #2 * 3/4)
A solid match that did nothing much and got too much time to go nowhere in badly done tag formula. I really did not enjoy that and I’m a big Spanky fan. I don’t know what that accomplished that a Spanky vs. Shane couldn’t have given the same time. Sure, it protected Shane, but it’s the first show, let them trade victories as it would build them both.
Match 6: Super Crazy vs. Eddie Guerrero for the IWA International Championship
You know both of these guys, or should. This is during Eddie’s short hiatus from the WWE. This is here mainly to be a draw for the casual fans. Get them in the door with the big names; hook them with the new guys.
Eddie chats kick us off, as the crowd is going nuts for him. Eddie smacked Super Crazy instead of shaking hands, establishing early that we’re getting heel Eddie. Snapmare and head stomp further establish that. All Eddie as he grounds Crazy and dominates on the mat with headlocks. Eventual backdrop out gets Crazy his first real offense, but Eddie takes back over with European uppercuts and a belly-to-back of his own. Back to the headlock. Eddie continually trying to slow it down, but Crazy speeds it up with arm drags from all over the ring. Eddie bails out after more Crazy offense, and Eddie faceplants Crazy on the ring apron as Crazy attempted to chase. Eddie with a brainbuster on the floor. Standard Eddie spot # 1 with the tope from the outside into the ring. Fallaway slam by Eddie gets two. Abdominal stretch to slow it down, but nothing Eddie’s doing is making this crowd boo him. More offense from Eddie, but Crazy uses his speed to manage a dropkick to the back of a sitting Guerrero. Moonsault from Crazy gets two. Missile dropkick for the same. Super Crazy is only able to get offense high risk at this point because Eddie is so superior on the mat, so Crazy goes up again, but this time stops to pose and Eddie catches him with a top rope ‘rana. Eddie makes the mistake of trying to send Crazy to the ropes, and of course, with momentum, Crazy manages a spin kick. Suplex attempt and Eddie floats through to a powerbomb. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker as Eddie goes to work on the back. Eddie spot # 2 as we get repeating vertical suplexes. Eddie goes up, notices Super Crazy moving and rolls through his senton attempt. Eddie goes for a tilt-a-whirl again, but this time gets rolled up for three.
Super Crazy defeats Eddie Guerrero (Pinfall, rollup *** ½)
I hate to say it, Super Crazy was carried by Eddie. Crazy can really go at times, but Eddie handled all the transitions and most of the storytelling. All Crazy had to do was be ready to hit a spot whenever Eddie mistakenly sped things up. Eventually the win by Crazy was driven by Eddie making the mistake of going high risk one last time, when he had so thoroughly dominated the mat. Very good story, well put together. This is a veteran version of the same basic story that Jay and The Amazing Red tried to tell in a quarter of the time.
Main Event: “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs. Low Ki vs. “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels
Alright, you probably should know these three by now, but just in case you don’t. Bryan Danielson is arguably the best wrestler in the world. Trained at the Texas Wrestling Academy and by William Regal, he is amazingly well rounded, but excels most at the mat game where he manages to instill an amazing amount of emotion in the simplest of moves. Low Ki is currently in TNA wrestling as Senshi. He excels using impressively hard kicks and amazing quickness. He moves around like a kickboxer and is quite intimidating despite his size. Christopher Daniels is in his evil cult leader mode here. He was arguably the best wrestler on the independent circuit at the time, and hates the idea of Ring of Honor’s system of shaking hands. This is the match that sells the DVD now. These three are great and this is the company’s real mission statement.
Three way test of strength quickly gets Daniels double kicks from his opponents to the thighs, then Dragon and Ki kick each other the same way while maintaining their arms gripped together. They elbow Daniels off them and chop him down. Lockup from Dragon and Ki who kicks Daniels in his head, but eats Dragon’s elbow, as Daniels has a chop for Dragon. They each separate to their respective corners. More three way action as they bring the awesome nice and early with no man keeping the advantage for long. Daniels suplex’s Dragon into a tree of woe and Low Ki follows with a dropkick while he’s still prone. Ki brings stiff kicks to Daniels, but American Dragon breaks out Cattle Mutilation, (double underhook submission into a bridge), early but Daniels quickly breaks it up and goes back on offense. He slams both men on top of each other and hooks a Boston Crab and camel clutch combination on both men. Stiff kicks from Dragon on Daniels, but Ki turns him around with Kawada kicks. Daniels goes to work on both men for a bit and Dragon is hurting from the previous kick assault of Ki. Chops wake Ki up as he wins the chop battle and re-establishes offense. Dragon from behind manages chops on both men. Chicken wing deathlock on Daniels from Dragon, but Ki kicks him off, but Danielson holds onto the deathlock and is getting driven back. Dragon counters the kicks into a northern lights suplex on Low Ki for two, then rolls up Daniels through the deathlock. Chop battle between Ki and Dragon, but Dragon wins by sending him to the ropes for an elbow.
Dragon goes to work on Daniels arm, but once again is kicked off by Ki. Kicks piss off Dragon and we have a snapmare and kick battle before it became a cliché spot. Danielson’s chest is purple from the chops. Daniels interrupts and suffers both men’s kicks, but Daniels eventually moves and they kick each other’s legs and fall over in pain. Ki and Dragon go at it again, as Daniels is again opportunistic with a reverse DDT on each man from behind. Walls of Jericho on Ki, but Daniels feels the elbow of Dragon again. Daniels reverses a double suplex attempt to a neckbreaker, DDT combination. Daniels goes up, but suffers a double slam from the top and a double Yakuza kick. Dragon now with Kawada kicks on Low Ki for two. Daniels up and controlling both tired opponents. Ki tidal wave on Daniels and tornado DDT on Danielson. More back and forth offense, but Daniels gets an abdominal stretch on Dragon on the top rope. Ki interrupts with a Dragon Clutch off the top on Daniels. Blue thunder driver by Daniels after a standing enziguiri from Ki on Dragon. They head up top and all three slam each other off the top. Dragon suplex by Dragon on Daniels but broken up by Ki, and Ki puts Danielson in the dragon clutch. STO by Daniels on Ki as he calls for the Best Moonsault Ever and Dragon saves. Tidal Crush on Daniels in the corner, but Dragon elbows Ki out of the ring. Cattle Mutilation on Daniels, but Twisting Phoenix Splash breaks it up! Ki Krusher finishes Daniels and WOW what a match!
Low Ki defeats Christopher Daniels and Bryan Danielson (Pinfall, Ki Krusher **** ½)
You want a mission statement? You got a mission statement. You can see clearly three great wrestlers arriving in this match as there is not a dull moment. Danielson and Ki were constantly stiffing each other while Daniels managed to sneak control from each when they were distracted, but ultimately Low Ki managed to knock Dragon out with a high impact move and Daniels was so weakened from the Cattle Mutilation that he couldn’t capitalize. Low Ki with a Ki Crusher and the win. I cannot recommend this match enough, as all that prevents it from being five stars is that it really should have made it more clear that Daniels is becoming the heel of the group.
After this match all three men cut promos about how they’d each win singles matches against the other two. This sets up the Round Robin Challenge (all three men against each other in singles matches) at the next show. If you want a reason for all the Dragon love you’ll see on message boards and the like, you don’t get a better example of why often than him selling his hurt ribs all through the interview. At the end Daniels refuses to shake hands, and we have our first major heel of the promotion.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Well, we’ve set up three major fueds in this show. First, we have The SAT-Divine Storm and Brian XL Saga which is just starting. This isn’t really established yet, so we’ll save thoughts for later on this one. Next there’s the Texas Wrestling Academy’s Showstopper Fued. Spanky and Shane can both really go, and while tonight’s match wasn’t anything special, they really do often show much better. Lastly we have the main event feud. Setting up Danielson, Daniels and Low Ki as main eventers was, whether obvious or not, a stroke of brilliance. Low Ki and Daniels are both already established in their roles, with Ki as the hard hitting face and Daniels as the not honorable heel. Danielson just brings the goods in every match, though his role in the company isn’t yet established save that he wasn’t the guy pinned and so has a legit beef for the Round Robin Challenge. Overall we’ve started two very interesting feud that, more importantly, should lead to great matches for the next several shows, while planting the seeds for a third.
Well, you want an introduction to Ring of Honor, this is where you get it. I strongly urge people who’ve never seen a RoH show to pick this one up for the Main Event alone. It really is a wonderful introduction to about half of the major players from the first two years. If that alone isn’t enough to convince you to buy the show, the Scoot vs. Xavier match is old school goodness, and Eddie is, as always Eddie. You can never own too many Eddie Guerrero matches.
Matches of the Night:
1. Danielson vs. Daniels vs. Low Ki (**** ½)
2. Guerrero vs. Super Crazy (*** ½)
3. Xavier vs. Scoot Andrews (*** ¼)
Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed the DVD review and you’ll stop by next time for the review of The Round Robin Challenge.
The Inside Pulse
Definately a recommended show. This ones usually about $12.00 on the RoH site (www.rohwrestling.com) and the main event is worth the price of admission alone. There are many greater shows in Ring of Honor history, but for sheer historical perspective, this is where you really should be starting.
