The Ring of Honor Reviewer– Road to the Title
-Pulse Glazer
Welcome to the fourth ever ROH show, and my fourth review, Road to the Title. This entire show is a big title tournament to get us through to the next show, where we will crown the very first ROH champion. The final four survivors of this tournament at Road to the Title will be in an Iron Man match to crown the first champion in Ring of Honor.
The contest for the first free ROH DVD giveaway is as follows: E-mail me your arguement for best match of the year. Whoever has the best arguement, regardless of the match chosen will get their arguement posted in next weeks column and a free copy of one of the following ROH shows: ROH Reborn Stage 1, Midnight Express Reunion, Final Battle 2004, Manhattan Mayhem, and Vendetta. For a match listing please check out ROHWrestling.com and be sure to vote for InsidePulse.com’s wrestling awards.
This is the second time I’ve done this review and, to be totally honest, I don’t like this DVD. My hard drive and motherboard crashed on my old laptop and the tech guys were unable to get much information off the drive. Unfortunately, this show and the next are two that are lost. Being that these are two of my least favorite ROH shows ever, I really cannot get much passion going for the shows. These reviews will be shorter and less detailed than my regular, but we’ll be back to normal with Honor Invades Boston at around a week past the New Year. Hopefully the free DVD’s and Pulse Exclusive Interview with Bryan Danielson made up for that.
On to the show.
Ring of Honor: Road to the Title
June, 22 2002
Philadelphia, PA
Match 1: Bio-Hazard (0-0) vs. Bryan Danielson (1-3)
Both men are Texas Wrestling Academy graduates. Bio takes it to Danielson early with brawling to start. Not a bad strategy on a fantastic mat wrestler like Danielson. Bio also establishes a speed advantage, but Danielson shows he’s no slouch at that and manages to avoid. A slap to Danielson’s chest wakes him right up. Danielson is in control using strikes, a judo throw, and a reverse vertical suplex. Cattle Mutilation follows and it’s all she wrote.
Bryan Danielson (2-3) defeats Bio-Hazard (0-1) (Submission, Cattle Mutilation, * ½)
A nice attempt at psychology in what was essentially a squash.
Match 2: Paul London (1-1) vs. Spanky (2-0)
Ladies and gentlemen, you’re Smackdown! Tag Team Champions. Spanky has looked great thus far, playing a cocky heel outside the ring and early in matches, but becoming an underdog when the match is going. London is an unknown at this point.
Another two Texas Wrestling Academy graduates, Spanky is out wearing a Lucky Charms Leprechaun hat. They trade arm-work to start the match. London uses his speed to take control with a springboard hurricanrana and armdrags. London aims for the dive, but Spanky runs away. Back in, a reversal sequence sees Spanky come out on top with a reverse suplex. So far Spanky has looked better on the mat.
Spanky maintains control with a series of moves, including a Tuning up the Band into a dropkick, but he can’t keep London down. London manages a comeback with a springboard twisting senton and continues to control Spanky with a nice superkick. London goes up top, fighting off Spanky on the way up, but misses a shooting star press.
Spanky goes for a Sliced Bread #2, but London crotches him and hits a springboard enziguiri. Running senton to the floor takes out Spanky. Back in and London hits an Asai Moonsault for two. London’s speed is dominating this match over Spanky’s superior counter and mat wrestling.
A superplex attempt by Spanky, off a top rope counter naturally, ends with a botch and London lands on his head. Spanky working on London’s head with a rolling suplex, but he takes too long going up top, counter sequence, and Sliced Bread #2 end the match in Spanky’s favor.
Spanky (3-0) defeats Paul London (1-2) (Pin, Slicded Bread #2, *** ½)
That’s how you elevate someone. Spanky has looked great to this point and allowing London to control the majority of the match with speed based offense kept not only showed that London was a major player in defeat, but kept Spanky in a familiar role thus far. Spanky, the more experienced of the two, used his counter knowledge to get the Sliced Breat #2 and the victory.
Match 3: Jay Briscoe (1-2) w/ Mark Briscoe vs. Doug Williams (0-0)
Doug is a British wrestler, proficient at mat wrestling. Jay finally got a win over Tony Mamaluke last show, although his brother is still doubting his skill in the ring.
Doug shows that he’s proficient in the use of mat wrestling, dominating Jay to start. The mat work continues with Doug in control, using a headlock, but Jay uses a belly-to-back suplex to get control. Three Amigos by Jay establish that he can hit impact offense on Doug Williams.
Williams has a ready counter and some knees give him back control. He goes up top and a flying knee gets two. Wicked powerbomb by Jay gets two and now he goes up top fpr a guillotine leg drop. More counters into the roll through bridging German Suplex, known as the Chaos Theory, which gets three.
Doug Williams (1-0) defeats Jay Briscoe (1-3) (Pin, Chaos Theory, ** 3/4)
Achingly average, save for a touch of nice psychology. This was basically a showcase for Doug Williams to establish that he is great on the mat and with counters. The nice running subplot of Jay being only able to control with high impact moves, whether power or speed, played off nicely with Doug’s counters leading to him hitting his big Chaos Theory Finisher.
Match 4: Jonny Storm (0-0) vs. Jody Fleisch (0-0)
Two British lightweights. They put on a semi-entertaining gymnastics exhibition, with some nice moves like a springboard shooting star to the floor, and a 720 DDT. The finish came when Fleisch hit a Powerbomb on Storm for the win.
Jody Fleisch (1-0) defeats Jonny Storm (0-1) (Pin, Powerbomb, *)
Terrible match. They went extreme high impact early and when they were going home had nothing left. They built the match in reverse, going from high impact to lower. Fun if you like flips and moves, if not, then avoid.
Match 5: Low Ki (3-1) vs. Prince Nana (0-0)
Arrogant comedy act versus Main Event badass. This will be quick.
Nana attacks early with butt bumps, but Ki turns out a wicked enziguiri, which knocks out Nana.
Low Ki (4-1) defeats Prince Nana (0-1) (Knockout, enziquiri, ½*)
Unnecessary as both men have established their roles, but still satisfying to see the arrogant Nana get his head kicked in.
Match 6: Xavier (2-1) vs. The Amazing Red (1-1)
Xavier starts off throwing Red across the ring. This is quickly shown a mistake as Red hits a spinning DDT and summersault senton to the floor to take control. Red continues to use his speed to control, but after a flipping hurricanrana is caught by Xavier, he suffers a vicious powerbomb.
Xavier controls with strikes, but when he goes for power moves Red counters into a hurricanrana. Xavier manages to use that momentum and turn it into a Tajiri style counter off the ropes, into a enziguiri, in a really nice spot. Xavier waits for Red to get up, but takes too much time and gets kicks to the head from Red.
Red almost had control but a pumphandle bomb from Xavier ends that. Xavier up top, but he misses the 450. He cannot match speed or striking with Red. Red with a flipping DDT off the ropes and he uses his speed to stay one step ahead of Xavier continually. Red with a twisting senton from the top and Red Star Press for the win.
The Amazing Red (2-1) defeats Xavier (2-2) (Pin, Red Star Press, ** ½)
Solid enough. Xavier had the huge power advantage, but kept trying to use speed to stay with Red, which proved a big mistake. Nothing fancy here, but the basic story was good, and the offense was fun. Some more selling and this might have threatened ***.
Match 7: Christopher Daniels (1-3) vs. Scoot Andrews (0-2)
Daniels attacks Xavier early and controls with shoulder blocks. Scoot eventually manages an inverted powerbomb as a counter to gain control, as is his M.O. Daniels is just as good at counter wrestling, though, and hits a neckbreaker and uses punches.
Continual counters from both men, but Scoot proves the more skilled at this type of wrestling, until he runs into an STO. Urinage followed with the Best Moonsault ever for three. That was quick.
Daniels (2-3) defeats Scoot Andrews (0-3)(Pin, BME, * ½)
And they go squash. Scoot got some good offense and counters, but that finish came out of nowhere. Good to see the BME get a pin, but sheesh. Looks like putting the winless guy up against the Main Eventer worked out much the way one would expect it to.
Match 8: AJ Styles (0-1) vs. Jerry Lynn (0-0)
When at the start I said I’d be shortening some of this, this is specifically what I meant.
They begin with an extended and slow mat stalemate sequences. They continue this for far too long. The point of this is that this being a Smark crowd in Philadelphia, the home of ECW, the crowd won’t shit on a Jerry Lynn match even if it’s slow. ROH knows they can let AJ and Lynn work each other slowly and AJ will get over based on the fact that he’s able to keep up and gain the eventual advantage. Please, note, this does not make the match fun to watch, especially more than once.
Jerry spends a while working the back and neck, softening AJ up for the Cradle Piledriver. When AJ gets the advantage and he speeds the match up, Lynn is too experienced of a counter wrestler for him, so AJ is forced to keep the match slow. AJ then works the arm, supposedly to prevent the cradle portion of the Cradle Piledriver. When Lynn blocks the neck, AJ uses impact moves to wear Lynn down.
They do an ECW style series of pin reversals to pop the crowd, which Lynn get’s the advantage with, and he goes back to the back and neck again. AJ with an impact move and hits the Spiral Tap (twisting senton) for two. They may kill that move if they aren’t careful.
Lynn survives that for some high impact moves, focusing, as always on the back and neck, but as he goes for the Cradle Piledriver, AJ’s arm work pays off and he reverses to the Styles Clash for three.
AJ Styles (1-1) defeats Jerry Lynn (0-1) (Pin, Styles Clash, *** )
I wish I could go higher, but they paced this badly. It succeeded in the desired result of getting AJ Styles over and making him seem like a big deal. The match was secondary to that, although the psychology was great anyway. They were wrestling better matches than this at around this time in the X-Division of TNA.
Match 9: Spanky (3-0) vs. Jody Fleisch (1-0)
Early on Fleisch shows a speed advantage, but Spanky has the technical superiority. Spanky is forced to retreat because of Jody’s speed early, but he crotches Fleisch as he attempts to chase with a springboard move.
Spanky is in control off of that counter and he attacks the neck of Fleisch viciously with moves like the belly-to-back suplex. Eventually Spanky makes the mistake of letting Fleisch use his speed and he takes control with a springboard moonsault that destroys the guardrail.
More speed from Fleisch keeps control and Spanky is in trouble, until he suddenly manages a counter into the Sliced Bread #2 for the win.
Spanky (4-0) defeats Jody Fleisch (1-1) (Pin, Sliced Bread #2, ** ¼)
Spanky wrestles a great match from behind, but this was too short to amount to much.
Match 10: Bryan Danielson (2-3) vs. Doug Williams(2-0)
This match is mostly Doug Williams beating up on Danielson as he shows that he’s better on the mat than the already established Danielson. This, of course, puts Williams over huge, but makes Danielson look terrible. This domination is made up for by Danielson kicking out of the Chaos Theory, but that move isn’t built up enough to make this effective. Danielson is also given a striking advantage, but his big moves tend to not be followed up on due to Doug’s overpowering presence.
Danielson eventually tries a Cattle Mutilation, but Doug reverses it into a reverse suplex and a pin combination finishes Danielson quickly.
Doug Williams (2-0) defeats Bryan Danielson (2-4) (Pin, reverse suplex, **)
A miscalculation. If Danielson wasn’t so good, he might not have recovered from this.
Match 11: Low Ki (4-1)vs. The Amazing Red(2-1)
They start off with a strike exchange and Ki comes after Red hard with strikes. Red, Matrix Style, dodges everything. It has to be seen to be believed.
Ki attempts to use his power and striking to grapple control, but Red uses his speed to avoid getting fully destroyed for a bit and even get a bit off offense with a Red Star Press and some other counters and kicks. This continues for a bit until a rolling kick knocks Red back hard.
Ki continues to stay on the offensive, but makes the mistake of going for the Tidal Crush and gets a dropkick from Red. More counters with Ki knocking Red hard to the ground with another rolling kick. Ki is firmly in control.
Ki again dominates until he sends Red into the ropes and Ki is forced to take a DDT. Red drops Ki to the floor, but as he tries a dive, Ki jumps up through the ropes and knees Red in the mush.
Ki seems confident and goes for the Ki Crusher, but counters away. Another counter by Red to a reverse hurricanrana. Red goes up and misses the InfraRed (twisting moonsault). This gives Ki time to recover and a Ki Crusher into the turnbuckle knocks Red to the floor.
Ki pulls Red back in and goes up for the twisting senton, but rolls through as Red moves. Ki goes up again and gets a kick to the head. Red up top, going for a super hurricanrana, but Ki blocks and hits the super Ki Crusher for the win.
Low Ki (5-1) defeats The Amazing Red (2-2) (Pin, Super Ki Crusher, *** ½)
That is insane and along with the Paul London vs. Spanky match, the reason to get this. The match itself isn’t the highest quality you can find, but the “Holy Shit” factor is through the roof. Give this one a look. The huge speed of Red matched up against the rest of the tools of Low Ki (Striking, counter wrestling, impact moves, power) is a nice story and the spots really work.
Match 12: Christopher Daniels (2-3) vs. AJ Styles (1-1)
Low Ki, Spanky and Doug Williams are already in the finals for the four way iron man match at the next show. That Daniels said he’d only face Low Ki again when the title was on the line heavily foreshadows the winner here, but AJ and Daniels are both great workers and this should be good anyway.
Daniels and AJ start off with a lot of mat wrestling, with neither man consistently holding an advantage. AJ eventually speeds things up and with dropkicks and arm drags has an advantage. He then goes back to an arm bar.
Daniels manages a counter of the arm bar into a front cravat, working on the neck that Lynn already softened up. They’re back to counter mat wrestling.
They speed it up and AJ hits a kip up hurricanrana and several dropkicks to send Daniels to the floor. Styles hits a twisting springboard over the top on Daniels, but a Daniels low blow allows him to take control. AJ is busted open by Daniels knocking AJ into the guardrail from the apron.
Daniels goes to work on the cut in and out of the ring. This goes on for awhile until AJ finally manages a reversal into a big brainbuster and AJ takes control with some speed based offense, but Daniels quickly counters to the Koji Clutch submission. AJ just barely manages to escape.
Daniels is in control and AJ needs a miracle if he’s to survive here. AJ fights back with strikes and a powerslam, but he appears slowed by the blood and punishment. AJ with a reverse Clash for two, but a Daniels STO counter causes a double 10 count.
Daniels is up and a Blue Thunder Bomb gets him a 2 count. He goes up for the Best Moonsault Ever, but Styles knocks Daniels off the rope and hits a Razor’s Edge into a faceplant, but even that only gets two on the hardly worn down Daniels.
A Styles Clash attempt is reversed into an ankle lock with a heel hook. AJ kicks his way out of it and has a slam reversed to a small package. Pin combinations for each man as they fire off twos. AJ tries the flipping reverse DDT and Daniels reverses to the Last Rites for three.
Christopher Daniels (3-3) defeats AJ Styles (1-2) (Pin, Reverse DDT, ** 2/3)
Well, Daniels looked great and established the counter wrestling superiority early, however AJ never got enough in to where it felt there was a threat he would win. That really hurt the match, along with the slow pacing, and, again, fact that these guys would shortly have far better matches than this in TNA.
So that’s all for this time. Next show a four way iron man match featuring Christopher Daniels vs. Doug Williams vs. Spanky vs. Low Ki to crown the first ever Ring of Honor Champion!
Matches of the Night:
1. Paul London vs. Spanky (*** ½)
2. Low Ki vs. The Amazing Red (***1/2)
3. AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn (***)
Matches of 2002 so far:
1. Danielson vs. Low Ki(*****)- Round Robin Challenge
2. Danielson vs. Daniels vs. Low Ki(**** ½)-Era of Honor Begins
3. Low Ki vs. AJ Styles (**** ¼) A Night of Appreciation
4. Daniels vs. Danielson (*** ¾)- Round Robin Challenge
5. Low Ki vs. The Amazing Red (*** ½)- Road to the Title
Show Ranking:
1. The Round Robin Challenge 3/30/02
2. The Era of Honor Begins 2/23/02
3. A Night of Appreciation 4/27/02
4. Road to the Title 6/22/02
The Inside Pulse
Good show, but not great. There are surely better from ROH, but if you like tournaments, this isn’t a bad one. The bad stuff is generally short and both Paul London vs. Spanky and Low Ki vs. The Amazing Red are good and interesting for different reasons.
