That Was Then 1.28.06: The History Of Ring Of Honor - 2004 Part I
Posted by Stuart Carapola on 01.28.2006
Everything falls apart.
Having come off a great year in 2003, it seemed nothing could stop ROH from maintaining its place as the top indy group in the country. 2003 featured not only great feuds like Punk-Raven, Homicide-Corino, and Joe-Briscoe, but also had improved production values, larger buildings, and more markets, and they went into 2004 with nothing but high expectations of growth, prosperity, and success. Unfortunately, there was no way they could have expected the bumps in the road they would meet along the way.
Part I: The False Start
Even though Final Battle 2003 was a huge night for Ring of Honor, little was settled at the year ending show and a lot of feuds carried over into the new year. One of these feuds was between the Carnage Crew and Special K. the Carnage Crew were poor, working class white trash, by their own proclamation. They claimed that they only wrestled to get out of the house and get away from their fat wives and obnoxious kids and have some fun. As you might imagine, this was in stark contrast to Special K, a group of rich kids who were into the rave lifestyle, wasting all their parents' money on drugs and parties. As 2003 ended, Special K had gotten the best of the Crew, who seemed unable to buy a win against the scrawny rich kids.
As the year opened Special K continued their winning streak against the Crew. Special K defeated the Carnage Crew and Dunn & Marcos in a scramble match, and beat the Crew again in a Country Whipping Match at the Second Anniversary Show. The Crew were in control of that match and were about to put Special K away when K member Angel Dust made an appearance at the entranceway. With him was Devito's daughter, and as Devito and Justin Credible chased Angel Dust to the back to try and rescue Devito's daughter from the rave life, Loc was left alone in the ring and was again defeated by Special K.
Also continuing into the early parts of 2004 was the feud between ROH World Champion Samoa Joe and ROH Tag Team Champions Jay & Mark Briscoe. Joe had defeated both Briscoes in one-on-one title defenses in 2003, but had also been unable to take the Tag Team Title from the brothers, leaving the two sides at a stalemate. Joe got a second shot at the Tag Team Title at The Battle Lines Are Drawn when he took former rival, the recently returned Bryan Danielson as a partner. Joe and the American Dragon were unable to unseat the Briscoes, but Joe got one more chance at The Last Stand, this time with Jerry Lynn as a partner. Unfortunately for Joe, he again fell short in his bid for the Tag Team Title. On top of that, Jay Briscoe earned himself another shot at the ROH World Title by scoring the winning pinfall on Joe in that match.
The Second City Saints-Prophecy feud also kicked into gear as 2004 dawned. At The Battle Lines Are Drawn, the six men had an amazing, long, brutal brawl that ended in a no-contest. The match was finally thrown out when CM Punk gave Prophecy leader Christopher Daniels a Pepsi Plunge through a table. The story went that Daniels had been injured badly by the move, leaving teammates Dan Maff and BJ Whitmer alone to battle the Saints while Daniels recovered. Maff got a small measure of revenge on Punk by attacking him following his loss to Homicide at The Last Stand, letting him know that the Prophecy was still alive and fighting.
Although heavily involved in the Prophecy feud, Punk also directed his energies toward getting some gold around his waist. At the Second Anniversary Show, Punk entered the tournament to determine the first ROH Pure Wrestling Champion. He made it to the finals, which were contested under Pure Wrestling rules, meaning you only get three rope breaks, closed fists were grounds for disqualification, and a strict 20 count on the floor. Punk lost the match to AJ Styles, but the decision was controversial because Punk had given up a questionable rope break earlier in the match, and was unable to use that rope break to escape the final pinfall.
Ring of Honor had now just past their second anniversary, and things seemed in place to go in some very interesting directions as 2004 progressed. And then it all went to hell.
Part II: Oops.
March 3, 2004 is a date that ROH management will never forget, because that was the day the story broke that implicated ROH promoter Rob Feinstein in an underage sex sting. The sting was conducted by a website called perverted-justice.com, which goes into chat rooms frequented by young kids in an attempt to lure adult sex predators to a location where they can be caught and exposed. This particular operation was done in conjunction with the local NBC affiliate, which got video of several of these adults showing up to a house expecting to meet up with a teenage sex hookup, but instead finding a camera crew from the local news.
Unfortunately, Rob Feinstein was one of these men, and he was clearly caught on camera. The news team ran the piece that night, naming Rob Feinstein and referring to him as a professional wrestling promoter. According to the log of the chat room, he allegedly pretended to be a wrestler and thought he was going to be meeting a 14 year old boy. Word spread quickly throughout the industry, and within hours it was up on every major wrestling news site.
The next day, Feinstein released this statement:
"It is with deep regret that I step down as partner of Ring Of Honor Inc. and President of RF Video Inc.
Due to recent allegations that have been lodged against me it is in the best interest of both companies that until these allegations are resolved that I step down to avoid tarnishing the excellent reputation that has been built over the years of both companies."
The day after that, Ring of Honor released the following statement from new President and CEO Doug Gentry:
As a result of a personal incident in which Mr. Feinstein was involved, both RF Video and Ring of Honor have made some necessary changes in both management and ownership of our companies. This was a personal incident and RF Video and Ring of Honor as corporations were not involved.
RF Video and Ring of Honor are family-friendly organizations. We value all of our customers, vendors and business partners. As a result, the board of directors of both corporations voted officially this afternoon to release Robert Feinstein as president and CEO of both RF Video and Ring of Honor. As of today, Mr. Feinstein is no longer officially associated with either company or any upcoming events and I was named as the new President and CEO of both corporations. He has been dissolved of all responsibility and ownership in both companies. Our corporate attorney is currently working on all the necessary paperwork. We are also exploring a new name change for RF Video, Inc. and we will have more details soon.
We Want to thank you all for the many positive messages we have received from hundreds of you, including fans, talent and business partners. We are very excited about the many upcoming wrestling events in 2004!"
Several ROH wrestlers went on record saying that they were going to stick with ROH and, as long as Feinstein wasn't profiting from either company, they weren't going to let his actions ruin all the hard work that so many people had put into the promotion. Still though, there were questions that weren't answered. For one, how was it that Feinstein could be officially dumped from ownership of both companies within two days of the story breaking? Also, some of the wording about Feinstein "stepping down until these allegations being resolved" and Gentry's assertion that Feinstein was no longer "officially" associated with either company made a lot of people wonder whether Feinstein was really gone.
The timing couldn't have been worse for Ring of Honor, as not only did they have a lot of momentum behind them, but they were also building towards a big event in New Jersey on Wrestlemania weekend, right across the Hudson River from New York City, where Wrestlemania was being held. Due to the Feinstein Incident, Roddy Piper, Bobby Heenan and Abyss all voluntarily pulled themselves off the show to avoid being associated with the company during this situation. The decision was also made to pull the Christopher Street Connection (who have a gay gimmick) from the show, and also downplay the storyline in which Special K seduced Devito's daughter.
The show finally came, and the loyalist wrestlers put on a strong show to send the message that the Feinstein Incident wasn't going to slow them down. In the matches, Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer went to a no-contest with Second City Saints members Colt Cabana and Ace Steel, the Carnage Crew finally beat Special K in the Scramble Cage, and Samoa Joe defeated Jay Briscoe in a hard fought, bloody brawl that many called the best match in ROH up to that point. Joe got on the mic after the match and put Jay over, saying that nobody saw him as a contender coming into that night, but he had showed that he was legit. Finally, Punk got his rematch for the Pure Title and came up short against with a second loss to AJ Styles. After the match Punk got in an argument about the outcome with the special referee for the match, Ricky Steamboat, and the two ended up brawling, setting up one of the major feuds that would continue throughout 2004.
Part III: The Plot Thickens
ROH had made it through the show on Wrestlemania weekend, but they still had a lot of work ahead of them to clear their image. ROH officials were absolutely determined not to let the Feinstein Incident interrupt operations. Unfortunately, outside forces would begin to interfere with their attempts at recovery.
In late March, TNA officials asked AJ Styles (who held the ROH Pure Title) to stop working for Ring of Honor. Soon after that they also asked Christopher Daniels to sever ties with ROH. It appeared that since they were attempting to get a TV deal with Fox Sports Net, having their contracted workers appearing for ROH during the scandal might indirectly affect TNA in their negotiations.
ROH fans actually made a difference here, as they bombarded TNA with emails and phone calls about the situation, going so far as to contact TV stations TNA had been negotiating with over the situation. Finally TNA agreed to talks with ROH, at which point ROH sent out a statement to their fans asking that they stop the emails and phone calls in order to try and calm the situation so a resolution could be reached. The following week, ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky flew down to Nashville to meet with TNA officials to try and reach some sort of compromise.
Following the meetings, TNA seemed to cave in to the pressure of the fans and wrestlers who were standing up for ROH and allowed the TNA contracted talent to appear on ROH shows. They changed their mind two days later, however, and made the announcement that all TNA contracted talent had been pulled from ROH shows due to ROH's refusal to sign a document about Ring of Honor's ownership. They wanted to hold Doug Gentry and ROH's main investor Cary Silkin financially responsible for any damages incurred by TNA should Rob Feinstein still be shown to be involved with ROH. Gentry signed the document, but Silkin refused, and TNA made the decision to pull the talent. This really put ROH in a tough spot, especially the losses of Styles and Daniels, as Daniels was involved in a main event feud against Punk and the Second City Saints, and Styles was the Pure Champion.
Part IV: Reborn
ROH responded by saying that they would take the losses in stride and bring in some great new talent and come out of this stronger than before. Now with Styles and Daniels out of ROH at least for the near future, the lineups for the next two ROH shows on 4/23/04 in St Paul and 4/24/04 in Chicago Ridge had to be shuffled around. To emphasize that ROH was back, the shows were dubbed ROH Reborn Stage One and ROH Reborn Stage Two.
Stage One saw some great matches such as the Carnage Crew destroying Dunn & Marcos in search of whoever shit in their bags while they were in Scramble Cage (yes, that was the storyline), BJ Whitmer continued the Prophecy-Saints feud with a victory over Colt Cabana, the Briscoe Brothers scored a tough victory over a new team debuting in ROH, the Havana Pitbulls of Ricky Reyes and Rocky Romero, and Bryan Danielson beat CM Punk by submission. Ricky Steamboat again refereed Punk's match and when Punk lost after spending the entire match being harassed by Steamboat, he and Cabana attacked Steamboat, who was saved by Jay & Mark Briscoe, setting the stage for the Tag Team Title match between the two teams the next night. The main event saw Samoa Joe defeat Homicide by DQ to retain the ROH World title when Homicide, frustrated at his inability to put Joe away, hit the ref and threw a fireball at Joe. The show ended with Punk & Cabana going at it with the Briscoes and Ricky Steamboat again.
The next night at Stage Two, we saw the freshly heel-turned Homicide hit a low blow and a lariat to beat Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe retained the ROH World Title against Matt Stryker, and in the main event, the hometown team of CM Punk and Colt Cabana ended Jay & Mark Briscoe's six month reign as ROH Tag Team Champions in a terrific match. Besides the fact that they had to top to bottom terrific shows that I merely summarize here, the ROH Reborn weekend did exactly what it was meant to do, let the wrestling world know that they were going to stick together and get past the stigma of the Feinstein Incident by doing what they did best – stick together and work their asses off to put on the best wrestling shows possible.
Epilogue
The first four months of 2004 were a whirlwind of events that left people's heads spinning in their wake. ROH seemed to have recovered from the Feinstein Incident and were concentrating on putting on the best product they could, but the questions remained. How would the TNA situation play out? Would Styles, Daniels, and others be able to return to ROH at some point, or were the talents gone for the duration of their TNA contracts? Why would TNA be so interested in who owned ROH that they would ask ROH management to sign documents asserting ROH's ownership that would hold the signers personally liable for financial damages? The fact that TNA was even making such a big production out of this raised some eyebrows. Was Feinstein really gone? His statements seemed to indicate that he was just planning to lay low until the heat was off, then return to power, leaving his longtime associate Doug Gentry to run the show in his absence, or possibly while he ran things from the shadows. However, ROH employees, both wrestlers and office staff, made it clear that if Rob Feinstein was still going to be involved in the company, they wouldn't be.
Then on the storyline side, it seemed that things were starting to take shape in the wake of the Feinstein Incident. Homicide had finally gone over the edge as a result of his inability to get the big win. With his newfound heel mentality, would he finally have what he needed to beat Joe and take the ROH World Title? What about CM Punk? Although he lost to Styles twice in Pure Title matches, he had won the Tag team Title with Colt Cabana and seemed headed into a feud with former World Champion Ricky Steamboat that would surely propel him to the top of ROH and into certain singles title contention, whether it be the Pure Title or the World Title. And what would be the outcome of their feud with Maff and Whitmer? As if they didn't have enough headaches, what was next for former Tag Team Champions Jay & Mark Briscoe? Having lost the Tag Team Title, it would stand to reason that they'd want a chance to regain the title they held longer than any other team in ROH history.
Other questions came to mind as well. What would happen with the Pure Title if Styles was unable to return to ROH? Would the Prophecy be able to continue without a leader, or would they self-destruct? Having lost the climactic final battle against the Carnage Crew, what was next for Special K? And speaking of the Carnage Crew, would they ever figure out who shit in their bags? What other new talent would come in in the absence of the TNA contracted talent, and what kind of impact would they make? Also, Samoa Joe's reign as ROH World Champion had just passed the one year mark with no signs of slowing down. Would somebody be able to unseat Joe as champion in 2004, or would Joe's reign continue on into 2005? What other surprises awaited ROH fans through the second part of 2004?
The answers will come…when we continue this series with The History Of ROH In 2004…PART TWO!
