That Was Then 1.14.06: The History Of Ring Of Honor - 2002

Posted by Stuart Carapola on 01.14.2006

The Era Of Honor truly begins, as we take a look at Ring of Honor's infancy in 2002.

It can be argued that after the death of ECW in early 2001, there was a void left in the Philadelphia market, and indeed in the entire northeastern United States indy scene. The WWF, the only major game left in the business, just wasn't doing a good job of filling this void, despite most of the top ECW talents finding their way to Stamford. Other indy promotions had tried moving in to scoop up what was left of the hardcore fanbase, such as XPW, JAPW, CZW, 3PW, and MLW. Each had varying degrees of success, but none could fill the shoes of the former cult favorite. In early 2002 however, that was about to change.

One man that would go on to be known for other reasons, but at the time was known mainly as a wrestling tape dealer, was a guy by the name of Rob Feinstein. Feinstein was the owner and operator of RF Video, which had become reasonably well known for the shoot interviews they conducted with various wrestling personalities, and also sold tapes of various indy promotions and "Best Of" collections of many wrestlers who had had success on the national level. The demise of ECW had a considerable effect on RF Video, as they would make a lot of money setting up a table at ECW events where they would sell ECW videos and other popular stuff from their catalog. Without that outlet, sales had taken a dip and Feinstein realized that without a reasonably large promotion to latch on to, whose shows he could be guaranteed to set up shop at, sales weren't likely to rise anytime soon. Hence the creation of Ring of Honor. Owned by Rob Feinstein and booked by Paul Heyman's former assistant Gabe Sapolsky, ROH would not only be RF Video's new sales outlet, but also an attempt to do what everybody else had failed to do: fill the void left by ECW and give the hardcore fans in Philadelphia a strong promotion to get behind.

Part I: ROH And The Code Of Honor

Unlike the sports entertainment approach that the WWF had taken with its product, Ring of Honor would go the other direction and cater to the more old school fan who would rather see the action taking place in the ring be the focus of the promotion, instead of the storylines and backstage antics. To this end, the Code of Honor was created. As the announcers would drill home every show, the Code of Honor consisted of five Laws of Honor:

1)Wrestlers must shake hands before and after every match.
2)No interfering or having others interfere on your behalf.
3)No harming an official or causing others to harm an official.
4)No sneak attacks.
5)Do not get yourself disqualified.

This would fundamentally set ROH apart from any other promotion, but the hardcore Philadelphia crowd, which is often stereotyped for rejecting sportsmanship and fair play, took to it from the first match. They even booed competitors who teased not shaking hands. As ridiculous as it may sound, some wrestlers even drew much of their heat from their refusal to shake hands.

Part II: The Early Shows

Ring of Honor made its debut on February 23, 2002 at the Murphy Rec Center in Philadelphia, PA. The show opened with the Christopher Street Connection, a tag team whose gimmick that portrayed them as flamboyant, flaming homosexuals, coming out and proclaiming ROH the "Ring of Homosexuality." The fans didn't appreciate this, but were soon vindicated by Da Hit Squad, who would come out and destroy the CSC, finishing by telling everybody that they could kiss sports entertainment's ass goodbye. The show got rave reviews by almost all observers. Besides the opening squash by Da Hit Squad, up-and comers Jay Briscoe and Amazing Red would have an excellent match in the show's proper opener, with Red scoring the win. In a special contest that was the main draw for the casual fans, Super Crazy defeated Guerrero in a great match to win the IWA Intercontinental Title. Then in the final match of the evening, Low Ki, American Dragon, and "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels would engage in a three way classic. After several near falls, Low Ki finally scored the winning pinfall on Daniels with his Ki Crusher. Daniels, upset at the loss, refused to shake hands, claiming that it took both of them to beat him, and that if he had each competitor in sepaarate matches, he would beat both of them. American Dragon thought it was a great idea, since he had not even been involved in the decision. Low Ki accepted their challenge, and the stage was set for the next show, The Round Robin Challenge. This time the three men would have three matches spread out over the course of the show instead of a single main event at the end of the night. Daniels would defeat Dragon in the opening match, but go on to lose again to Low Ki in the middle of the show. In the final match, Dragon beat Low Ki, and the end result left each man with one win, settling nothing.

There was still no clear front runner in the main event scene of ROH, although Low Ki could make a claim to that status, as he had already beaten Daniels twice, and Daniels lost at A Night of Appreciation to Donovan Morgan while Dragon would fail to win the TWA Gauntlet Series that same night. Eddy Guerrero would again be the star of the show at A Night Of Appreciation, a show that had been dedicated to him, teaming with Amazing Red to defeat the SAT in the main event, and then cutting a heartfelt promo putting ROH over bigtime on his way out, but the fact remained that he was on his way out and could not be expected to lead ROH as the main draw anymore. Low Ki defeated AJ Styles that night, and it seemed that despite his one-on-one loss to Dragon, nobody could stand against his claim as the top dog in ROH. ROH promoters decided to solve that issue once and for all, and at A Night Of Appreciation they announced that over the course of the next two shows, a tournament would be held to crown the first ROH World Champion. All the top talent in ROH would be invited to participate, and even some top overseas talent would be brought in. It was anybody's guess whether Low Ki, Daniels, or Dragon walk out of the tournament final in July with the title, or whether it would be somebody else coming out of left field to take the gold. Only time would tell, but in the meantime, Christopher Daniels had other things on his mind.

Part III: The Prophecy

Christopher Daniels didn't consider Ring of Honor to be anything special, no different than any of the many other independent promotions he had wrestled in over his career. His mission was to bring down Ring of Honor and the Code of Honor, and recreate the promotion in his own image. He wasn't there to shake hands, he said, but rather to pin shoulders to the mat and win titles. To this end, he created the first major stable in ROH, the Prophecy. Members of the Prophecy would not follow the Code of Honor, instead living by their own rules. The first person to join Daniels in his quest was Donovan Morgan. Daniels and Morgan wrestled each other at A Night Of Appreciation, with Morgan getting the victory. Daniels said that although he wouldn't shake Morgan's hand on principle, he respected him and offered to watch Morgan's back if Morgan ever needed his help against the likes of Low Ki and American Dragon. However, no matter how many friends he made, Daniels knew that the only way he was going to truly dominate ROH was to have control of all the top titles.

The first step toward this goal was at Road To The Title. Daniels defeated Scoot Andrews in the first round and then posted an impressive victory over AJ Styles in the second round to advance to the final four way, one hour Ironman match for the ROH Title at Crowning A Champion. Joining Daniels in the Ironman match were Spanky, Doug Williams (a newcomer to the US wrestling scene who instantly established himself by dominating and defeating both Jay Briscoe and American Dragon at Road To The Title), and Daniels' old nemesis Low Ki. The rules of the Ironman Match were that the person who won each fall would gain two points, while the person who lost the fall would lose a point. Despite handing Low Ki his first pinfall loss in ROH, and never actually being pinned himself, Daniels fell 3-2 behind Low Ki, who scored falls over both Spanky and Williams. Daniels had Low Ki in his own Dragon Clutch submission hold as the timer ran out, but Low Ki hung on for the win.

Having failed to win the ROH World Title, Daniels decided to instead concentrate on winning the ROH Tag Team Title. He got his shot at ROH Unscripted in September, as he and Donovan Morgan scored victories over the SAT in the first round, Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka in the semifinals, and American Dragon & Mike Modest in the finals to win the tournament and the titles. This was an important win for the Prophecy, however the ROH World Title was still not under their control. As it turned out, Daniels had a plan to solve that little problem as well, which came to fruition the same night he and Morgan won the Tag Team Title. Low Ki, having outlasted Daniels, Spanky, and Williams in the Ironman match, had then defended the title twice in one night at the next show afterward in Boston. At that show, Xavier, who had been portraying a friendly, fairplaying persona, had challenged Low Ki to a friendly title defense at Unscripted, which Low Ki accepted. Low Ki totally dominated the match and it seemed to be a routine title defense that Xavier didn't have a hope of winning, until Xavier turned the tables by getting Low Ki down outside the ring, then took a large block of cement and smashed it into Low Ki's ribs with a chair. It was academic after that, Xavier rolled Low Ki into the ring and hit the 450 splash to score the deciding three count and become the new ROH World Champion. This pissed off the Philadelphia crowd royally, but just to put the exclamation point on the whole deal and make sure the fans wanted his head, Xavier completely turned on the crowd and joined the Prophecy. Daniels had achieved his goal of title domination and, through that, domination of Ring of Honor and the ability to call his own shots.

The Prophecy would not prove to be fighting champions. Daniels and Morgan would often go months without defending the title. In fact, their first defense, in total disrespect for the pure competition that ROH had built itself on, was a six man match against Low Ki, Homicide, and Doug Williams (who Daniels had defeated with his feet on the ropes the month before at Glory By Honor, a victory by virtue of which Williams would no longer be able to follow the Code of Honor). Xavier, in the meantime, actually lost his first match after winning the championship in a non-title bout against Jay Briscoe, who had been losing nearly every match he had been in since joining ROH, including a loss to his 17-year-old brother Mark. Although Xavier would go on to defeat Briscoe in the subsequent title defense, as well as successfully defend his title against both AJ Styles and Paul London, the fans hated Xavier as champion, and they made it very clear that they would rather see just about anyone champion the promotion by brutally chanting against him theoretically. Every time Xavier defended the title, they thought he was going be easily defeated and drop the strap, but as 2002 ended, Xavier still stood at the top of the heap as ROH World Champion. However, little did the Prophecy suspect that the man who may very well go on to take the title from Xavier stood in their own midst.

Part IV: The Contenders

At Glory By Honor, Samoa Joe made his debut as a hired hitman for the Prophecy. At 6'2" and 280 lbs, he was a physically imposing person, but when you added in his array of hard-hitting power moves and extensive submission background, you had a grappler to be reckoned with. Although he was working for the Prophecy, he made it clear that he did not share their view of the Code of Honor or ROH, and was only on their side for the money. But on their side he was, at least for the time being. His first target was Low Ki who, although he had lost the title to Xavier a month earlier, was still a major thorn in the side of the Prophecy. The two engaged in what is still today considered one of the most brutal matches in the history of the promotion. Both guys pounded each other unmercifully, and both were legitimately bruised and in pain the next day. Although Low Ki won the match, it was obvious that Samoa Joe was a serious threat to any ROH title that he chose to pursue.

He wasn't the only contender, however. Low Ki made it clear he still wanted a shot to regain the ROH Title, and American Dragon, Doug Williams, AJ Styles, Paul London, Michael Shane, Steve Corino, Homicide, and Jay Briscoe were all more than capable of making a run at the title. In order to avoid another instance of a non-contender like Xavier totally bypassing the rankings by issuing a challenge and going on to win the title under dubious circumstances, the #1 Contender Trophy was created. In order to get a shot at the ROH Title, a man would have to win the trophy, either through a mini-tournament, a straight one-on-one #1 contender's match, or some other such qualifying method. Once attaining a trophy victory, the trophy became sort of a secondary title, and the person who held it would theoretically have to defend the trophy like a title (with the possibility of losing his title shot to somebody else should they be defeated) until getting his title shot, at which point they would give up the trophy and a new #1 contender would have to be determined. Although Jay Briscoe would also forego the trophy ritual, he did score a pinfall victory over Xavier to earn a title shot. The first #1 Contender's Trophy holder was determined through a Gauntlet Series at All Star Extravaganza. American Dragon would outlast Michael Shane, the debuting CM Punk, Paul London and Amazing Red to advance to a final match later in the evening, where he would be defeated by AJ Styles. Styles would successfully defend the trophy against Christopher Daniels, before falling to Xavier at Night Of The Butcher. That same night, a new #1 contender would be crowned when Paul London defeated EZ Money, then later in the night defeated American Dragon (who had defeated the debuting Chad Collyer earlier in the night) to become the new #1 contender. Although he would also fail to unseat Xavier when he got his title shot at Final Battle 2002, the last match of the evening at Final Battle would be a Four Corner Survival match for the #1 Contender's Trophy. The four men involved were Steve Corino, Low Ki, American Dragon, and Samoa Joe, four major players to be sure. The four men battled it out, with each man coming within an eyelash of winning the match and the trophy, but after 45 minutes the bell rang, and the match was declared a time limit draw. So 2002 ended with a hated man holding the ROH World Title and no top contender in position to challenge for the title. The field was wide open at this point and it seemed that anybody could step in, win the trophy, and take the title from Xavier. The question just remained who that man would be.

Part V: The Tag Team Wars

As much of a focus as there was on the ROH World Title picture, the tag team scene was also a major part of the happenings in ROH. Although several preliminary tag teams would attempt to make their name in ROH throughout the year, the three main teams that made a mark in 2002 were Da Hit Squad, the Natural Born Sinners, and the Carnage Crew. As mentioned above, Da Hit Squad opened the promotion by beating up the Christopher Street Connection and declaring Sports Entertainment dead, but the Carnage Crew was created through an incident involving the Sinners. It all began innocently enough, with former ECW "Hardcore Official" HC Loc refereeing a match between the Sinners and the Boogie Nights. Although the Sinners dominated the match, they got too cute when they started smacking the Boogies around with a rubber chicken, prompting Loc to disqualify them. The Sinners were not at all happy with this result, and let Loc know about it by pounding the snot out of him. Loc, distraught at this attack and being stuck with the "Hardcore Official" label rather than being given a chance to make a name as a wrestler, decided that now was the time to make a change in his life. He went to the back after the show and called a buddy of his, asking for his help. That help came a couple of shows later as he was joined by fellow ECW alumnus Tony DeVito. The two of them formed the Carnage Crew, a hardcore brawling team. They made their in-ring debut by defeating the rookie team of Dunn & Marcos, two members of the ring crew who doubled as wrestlers once the show started. Also in the tag team picture were four trainees of former ECW World Champion Mikey Whipwreck, the SAT (Jose & Joel Maximo), and Divine Storm (Chris Divine and Quiet Storm). More on that situation later.

Things finally came to a head at Road To The Title as Dunn & Marcos, possibly unwisely, climbed into the ring and got on the microphone, proclaiming themselves the top tag team in Ring of Honor. As usual, Da Hit Squad took exception to this and they ran in and destroyed the young team. From there, things would totally break down as Divine Storm, the Christopher Street Connection, Natural Born Sinners, and the Carnage Crew all ended up brawling in the ring. When the smoke cleared, only Da Hit Squad and the Sinners, who in storylines were positioned as friends, stood unscathed. However, that would also fall apart as they both insisted that they were the top team in ROH. Although Da Hit Squad would squash Divine Storm and the Sinners would defeat the Carnage Crew in a Bunkhouse Match at Crowning A Champion in July, there was no clear front runner in the division. Similar to the singles division, it seemed that the only way of solving the problem once and for all was to crown the first ROH Tag Team Champions. As stated previously, Christopher Daniels and Donovan Morgan would come out of nowhere to win the tournament, but another important development came out of the tournament. The match between Da Hit Squad and the Natural Born Sinners, scheduled for the first round of the tournament, never took place as the Carnage Crew jumped both teams backstage and eliminated them from further competition that night. Although Da Hit Squad would return to fight another day, the Sinners were put to an end for good when the Crew put Boogalou out of ROH. (In reality, he had left ROH for XPW after agreeing to work the tag tournament, and was never brought back.)

Life went on, and although Homicide would continue on in singles action (actually winning a four corner tag match at Glory By Honor by himself), the SAT would earn (and lose) a title shot at Daniels and Morgan, and CZW's Backseat Boyz would invite themselves into ROH, the main focus of the rest of the year in the tag team scene was on the Carnage Crew. After Unscripted, the Crew went on a tear, beating Da Hit Squad in a Falls Count Anywhere match, squashing Dunn & Marcos a second time in a Bunkhouse Match, and then with the help of part-time Crew member Masada, defeated TWA students Fast Eddie, Don Juan and NECW wrestler Alex Arion. The message was clear: Christopher Daniels and Donovan Morgan may have been the ROH Tag Team Champions, but the Carnage Crew were the team to beat in ROH. One man who wanted another crack at them was Homicide. Having lost his partner (in storylines at least) because of the Crew, Homicide asked for another match with them, but this time he brought a new partner, or rather a really old one, a partner who was renowned for being every bit as brutal as Homicide intended to be once he got his hands on the Carnage Crew: Abdullah the Butcher. At the aptly-named Night of the Butcher, Homicide and Abby beat the Crew to end the tag team year in ROH on a happy note. The Crew would live to fight another day, but they and all the other teams in ROH would be put on notice that there was a new force in ROH: Special K.

Part VI: Special K And The Scramble Match

Although Special K would go on to play a major part in ROH's future, it began as almost an afterthought. It all began at the earliest ROH shows, as Mikey Whipwreck students the SAT, Divine Storm, and Amazing Red were all being pushed as major players in the new fed. Although he was not himself trained by Whipwreck, Brian XL regularly worked out, traveled, and wrestled alongside the Whipwreck students. Despite the rub that comes from such an association, Brian XL began to feel underappreciated. His frustration came to a head at A Night Of Appreciation. After teaming with Amazing Red to defeat the SAT, Eddy Guerrero was confronted by an angry Brian XL, who was livid that just because he was not one of Whipwreck's students, he got shafted out of a shot to be in the ring with Guerrero on his last night in ROH. An impromptu match began, which Guerrero won in less than a minute.

Brian XL may have gotten his match with Guerrero after all, but he was certainly not happy with the outcome. He became more and more obnoxious, but still wasn't getting noticed even though he had interjected himself into a high-profile main event. He decided that if he was going to get himself over, he was going to need some help. So he went back home to the rave scene in New York City and got Dixie, one of his raver buddies, to come to ROH and form a new faction known as Special K. They debuted when Brian XL and Dixie would team with a one-time ROH'er named Black Gordon to defeat Mike Tobin and Dunn & Marcos, then went on at the next show to attack Brian XL's former running buddies from the Whipwreck camp. Although Brian XL himself would appear only occasionally in ROH from that point on, Dixie would stick around and bring in a whole S-L-E-W of his other raver friends to build a newer, much larger version of Special K. In addition to himself, Dixie would be joined by regulars Izzy, Deranged, Angel Dust, Slim J, Elax, Lit, and later Joey Matthews and Jodie Fleisch, as well as several other, often unnamed rotating members of the group and slutty, possibly underage girls. Other teams would run into instant trouble when they found themselves across the ring from Special K. Since Special K did not follow the Code of Honor, they had absolutely no qualms with jumping an opponent 8-on-1 should he wind up outside the ring. And that's no exaggeration, as the Special K members officially competing in a match would often be accompanied by upwards of 10 people outside the ring.

You would think that a stable this size would become unwieldy, but in fact it was formed at the perfect time, as ROH was debuting a new, lucha-style tag team match known as a Scramble Match. Rules were basically like lucha tag team matches, as there were a lot of high-flying, Rube-Goldbergesque double, triple, and quadruple team moves, and no tags were required. The otherwise horribly overmatched, scrawny raver kids excelled in these matches, using their sheer numbers to overwhelm even such teams as Da Hit Squad and the Backseat Boyz. There were so many members that even the official would often get confused as to who the legal participants in a Special K match were, which Special K would use to swap members in and out without the ref realizing what was going on. Although Brian XL was at this point only appearing sporadically, Special K's main focus on the war with the Whipwreck students that was began by Brian XL would continue into 2003 as both sides would keep trading wins and losses.

Part VII: The Texas Wrestling Academy

Oe of the many other bright spots of ROH's first year was the involvement of the Texas Wrestling Academy students who would first get nationwide exposure in the fledgling promotion. Created in the late 90s by Shawn Michaels (who had retired for the time being due to a back injury), the Texas Wrestling Academy was where many future ROH and WWE stars would train. Under the eye of TWA trainer Rudy Boy Gonzalez, the students would have an almost immediate impact on ROH. Perhaps the brightest prospect of the bunch would be American Dragon. As early as the first show, American Dragon made his presence felt, taking part in the inaugural main event three-way against Low Ki and Christopher Daniels. Although he did not win that match (despite not himself being defeated), he would go 1-1 in the Round Robin Challenge the next month, being defeated in the opening match by Daniels but then turning the momentum around and beating Low Ki in the final match of the evening.

Dragon, however, would be only minimally involved with his fellow students. The main TWA storyline would feature students Michael Shane, Spanky, and Paul London. At The Era Of Honor Begins, Spanky and teammate Ikaika Loa would beat Shane and Oz. By scoring the deciding fall, Spanky won himself an ROH contract, which meant future bookings and paid travel to and from the shows. Shane didn't like having to admit defeat to his classmate, but he would have his chance for redemption at A Night Of Appreciation in the TWA Gauntlet Series. Paul London would make his debut (he actually debuted the month before, but opponent Chris Marvel broke his ankle less than two minutes in, cutting the match short) by beating John Hope in the opening match, but lost to Shane, who would then get a second chance to defeat Spanky. Shane fell short, and then Spanky beat Dragon in the finals of the series.

By winning the Gauntlet series, Spanky had established himself as the top graduate of the TWA. He would again defeat Paul London and then Jody Fleisch at Road To The Title to advance to the one hour Ironman Match for the ROH Title at Crowning A Champion. He didn't win that night, but would go back to feuding with the other TWA students in short order. Meanwhile, at that same show, two other TWA students, Biohazard and Don Juan, would make their first mark in ROH, as Shane and Biohazard defeated London and Juan. Shane and Biohazard had splintered away from their trainer and classmates by that point, feeling that they were above the other students. It was hard to argue Shane's point, as on top of his tag team victory at Crowning A Champion, he would then go on to defeat London at Honor Invades Boston by playing off the Chris Marvel injury, pretending to have injured his ankle in the same manner Marvel had in their debut match. While Rudy Boy Gonzalez and London checked on him, Shane rolled up London out of nowhere and scored the pin.

London and Gonzalez were understandably annoyed at this, and despite London defeating Shane in an unbelievable streetfight in the main event of Unscripted, it wouldn't be long before Shane was back on top, as he would beat not only London but also Spanky in a three way match at Glory By Honor. By virtue of this victory, Shane had earned the Showstopper nickname that he and the other students had been fighting over. Despite his claim to the name because of his blood relation to Shawn Michaels (the two are cousins), he threw down the Showstopper nickname, deciding never to use it again. That was the final straw for London and Gonzalez, and they challenged Shane and his lackey Biohazard to another streetfight at Scramble Madness. Gonzalez and London won the match, ending the TWA feud and allowing London to move on and concentrate on becoming a title contender.

Epilogue

For Ring of Honor, 2002 was as strong a start as any indy promotion could hope for. While the WWF (which by the end of the year had changed to WWE) was rapidly declining as far as the quality of their shows was concerned, and fellow upstart TNA was bleeding money with their overpaid upper midcarders and PPV-only format, ROH was surviving in its own little world, putting on great matches and finally giving the workrate freaks something to scream about. But while the end of a year is usually a time for promotions to tie up their storylines, end feuds, and embark on new beginnings, the end of 2002 left ROH fans with more questions than answers.

Xavier and the Prophecy were still holding the ROH World Title hostage, and it seemed like everybody who should be able to beat him and take the title was falling short. The main event of Final Battle 2002 seemed to leave American Dragon, Steve Corino, Low Ki, and Samoa Joe as the top challengers, but would any of them be able to stop the reign of Xavier? Could it possibly be Paul London, who had ended 2002 by proving himself the top graduate of the TWA? How about Homicide? Fresh off his brutal victory over the Carnage Crew, he seemed poised to finally put the tag team wars behind him, embark on his singles career and make his bid for the title. Although he wasn't spending much time in ROH, Doug Williams was always a threat to the title when he wrestled here, and had gained instant credibility with his impressive performance over the first few shows.

How about the Tag Team Titles? Again, the Prophecy held the cards as Christopher Daniels and Donovan Morgan, infrequent as their title defenses were, did manage to hold off all challengers. But now with the dawn of 2003, it seemed that despite their loss to Homicide, the Carnage Crew were poised as the top challengers to the titles. Also to be reckoned with were Da Hit Squad and the Backseat Boyz, who were both impressive in ROH in 2002. Or would it be none of the above, and a new team would be the ones to unseat the Prophecy?

And where did Special K stand in all this? Seemingly more concerned with partying and having a good time than actually winning matches and pursuing titles, they had proven themselves to be a formidable force and masters of the Scramble Match. Other young up-and-comers were making their names as well. Amazing Red, Jay Briscoe, Michael Shane, Spanky, and AJ Styles all made their mark in ROH in 2002, but looking to step up in 2003 were a group that got their start late in 2002, featuring Mark Briscoe (who would turn 18 and become legally able to wrestle shortly into 2003), CM Punk and Colt Cabana (a very talented young pair from Chicago), and Chad Collyer (trained by Dean Malenko with a very similar look and style to his trainer).

So many questions, so many possibilities, but the ROH fans wouldn't have long to wait as 2003 would answer every one of those questions, and it was right around the corner.