That Was Then 6.01.07: Ring Of Honor In 2006 - Part 1
Posted by Sam Caplan on 06.01.2007
How would ROH top a year that saw Joe vs Kobashi, Steel Cage Warfare, and CM Punk's ROH Title reign of terror? They would start with what at first glance appeared to be a one-time appearance...
2005 was truly a trophy year for Ring Of Honor. They started the year on uncertain territory after Austin Aries ended Samoa Joe's 21-month reign with the ROH World Title, but by the end of the year we had seen many major angles and matches play out. CM Punk finally won the ROH World Title, but immediately turned heel and held the ROH World Title hostage even as he threatened to take it with him to WWE. Generation Next and the Embassy had a violent feud that culminated in the first ever Steel Cage Warfare match. Bryan Danielson finally fulfilled his destiny by winning the ROH World Title. And then, of course, there was the famous match pitting Samoa Joe against Kenta Kobashi. As 2006 started, I wondered to myself how ROH could possibly match a year like this, much less try and top it.
Boy, was I ever in for a surprise.
Part I: ROH vs CZW, Part 1
2002 was a time which saw a bitter promotional war between several Philadelphia area independent promotions which were all trying to fill the void left by the now-defunct ECW, and two of those promotions were Ring Of Honor and Combat Zone Wrestling. While ROH featured a more athletic, skill based product, CZW focused more on the hardcore elements with lots of weapons and wild brawls. They began to mostly leave one another alone as the years went by, but the feud started up again in early 2006. ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson had sent out open contracts to several promotions offering title shots, and Chris Hero signed the contract that was sent to CZW. A lot of people wondered why Hero had never been given an opportunity by ROH despite the strong name he had built for himself in other independents, and Hero walked into Hell Freezes Over looking to show that he belonged with the best in ROH, and would prove it by winning the ROH World Title. Unfortunately for Hero, he fell short and suffered a submission loss to Danielson.
That was thought to be the end of Chris Hero in ROH, but Hero and his fellow CZW wrestlers started showing up at ROH shows and making nuisances of themselves. Hero and Necro Butcher showed up at Tag Wars and, when ROH security tried throwing them out, they started a brawl with the ROH crew that saw ROH Commssioner Jim Cornette get his tooth knocked out backstage. This infuriated Cornette, who officially challenged CZW to put their money where their mouth was if they thought they could compete with ROH. This led to another brawl the following night at Dissension where Necro Butcher made another appearance, and this time Cornette got unexpected help in the form of Adam Pearce, who had spent weeks badgering Cornette for a better spot on the card. Cornette appreciated what Pearce did for him that night and forged a friendship with Pearce, who became the first soldier for ROH in the war with CZW.
The CZW crew made their next unscheduled and unwelcome appearance at the 4th Anniversary Show in the middle of a match between Christopher Daniels and BJ Whitmer. As Daniels and Whitmer brawled out of the ring and through the crowd, Chris Hero and several CZW wrestlers jumped the rail and stormed the now unoccupied ring in an attempt to ruin ROH's birthday celebration. The ROH locker room didn't think this was funny, and they stormed the ring and started a huge brawl with the CZW wrestlers, who turned tail and ran. BJ Whitmer didn't appreciate CZW choosing to make their appearance during his match, and decided to put them in their place by challenging Necro Butcher to a match when ROH and CZW ran a double header in the ECW Arena on March 11th. The ROH portion of the show, entitled Arena Warfare, saw Whitmer and Necro Butcher go at it in a wild brawl which quickly ended in a disqualification when Super Dragon ran out and attacked Whitmer, and the two of them left Whitmer laying. The battle continued after the main event as Samoa Joe and Whitmer called out the CZW locker room to the ring for a fight. The CZW guys were more than happy to oblige, and another big brawl broke out that spread not only all over the ECW Arena, but out into the street and the parking garage next door. The last thing the ROH fans saw at the end of the show was BJ Whitmer being duct taped to the ropes before getting a CZW banner stapled to his head by CZW owner John Zandig while having the CZW letters spraypainted on his back.
ROH had been embarrassed by the events of Arena Warfare, and in attempt to redeem themselves challenged CZW to send a couple of its guys to Best In The World in New York City for a fight with the ROH boys. Chris Hero and Necro Butcher accepted the invitation, answering an open challenge by Jason Blade and Kid Mikaze, and after making short work of the preliminary tag team they called out Adam Pearce. Pearce made his way to the ring and attacked Hero and Necro, but was outnumbered and beaten down. At this point, Hero called out his CZW tag team partner Claudio Castagnoli, who had also been working in ROH for several months, and asked him to join the CZW cause against ROH. After deliberating on Hero's request, Claudio made his choice and turned on Hero, chasing he and Necro from the ring and committing himself to ROH. Now it was Chris Hero and Necro Butcher who had been embarrassed by ROH and Claudio Castagnoli, and they decided that they would ruin the Wrestlemania triple shot weekend as revenge. They got into a brawl with Claudio and Whitmer at Dragon Gate Challenge and then attacked Samoa Joe after his match with Christopher Daniels. Following that attack, Samoa Joe and BJ Whitmer officially declared war on CZW. Hero and Necro showed up again at both Supercard of Honor and Better Than Our Best and got into more brawls with Pearce, Whitmer, and Joe, and even Jim Cornette got in on the action, attacking Chris Hero with a baseball bat.
After all these brawls and sneak attacks, ROH finally made a formal challenge to send three of its guys to face Samoa Joe, BJ Whitmer, and Adam Pearce in the main event of ROH's 100th Show in an anything goes streetfight. CZW sent Chris Hero, Necro Butcher, and Super Dragon, and they had a brutal brawl which saw such things as Necro Butcher being slammed on top of a pair of unfolded chairs and Super Dragon giving BJ Whitmer a Psycho Driver through a table to the floor. Just as things started looking bleak for ROH, Claudio Castagnoli finally came to the ring, but instead of helping his ROH teammates, he turned on them and joined in what was now a 4-on-3 beatdown. At this point it was just a formality and CZW defeated the ROH trio to ruin the main event of The 100th Show, following which the CZW wrestlers went out into the crowd and celebrated with the CZW fans that had come to the show.
Though they had won the match, Samoa Joe got on the house mic and told CZW that while they had won that night, the war was far from over.
Part II: Best In The World
Bryan Danielson had main evented the first ever ROH show in a three way match against Low Ki and Christopher Daniels, and while he had been in the main event scene in ROH ever since and had gotten several shots at the ROH World Title, he had never been able to win the big belt. It was his frustration at his failure to win the title which caused him to take a hiatus from Ring Of Honor in the Summer of 2005, but he came back after regrouping and defeated James Gibson in his first match back to finally win the ROH World Title. After winning the title, Danielson wanted to prove himself as the best wrestler to ever hold that title, and immediately set about defending the title against all the top challengers. He immediately exorcised the demon of his final loss before his hiatus by defeating Austin Aries, whom he had previously failed to defeat for the title. From there he defeated Steve Corino, scored a pair of wins over Roderick Strong, beat Rocky Romero, and closed 2005 with an impressive win over Pro Wrestling NOAH's Naomichi Marufuji.
But now it was 2006, and Danielson had a whole new slate of challengers lining up for a shot at the title. Before he got to any of them, he added more gold to his collection by winning the FIP Title in a three way match against Roderick Strong and defending champion Homicide at Hell Freezes Over before going on to score a second victory later that night over CZW's Chris Hero. After Hero, he decided that he would exorcise another of his demons by defending the ROH World Title against AJ Styles, who had scored a pair of victories over Danielson in 2002 and 2003. This time around, Danielson not only beat him but also made him submit to the crossface chickenwing, which Danielson had now adopted as one of his trademark finishing holds. He went on to score a DQ win over former ROH Champion Xavier and then went on later in the night to team with the returning CM Punk to defeat Adam Pearce and Jimmy Rave at Unscripted II, and followed that up with a pair of wins over Embassy members Jimmy Rave (at the 4th Anniversary Show) and Alex Shelley (at Arena Warfare).
Unfortunately, it wasn't all glorious victories for Danielson in the early part of 2006, as he dropped a pair of tag team losses. One of them saw Danielson team with Samoa Joe to take on Pro Wrestling NOAH's Naomichi Marufuji and KENTA at Best In The World. Though Danielson had already beaten Marufuji, this was his first opportunity to face KENTA in ROH, and it ended with KENTA pinning Danielson clean in the middle of the ring after giving him Go To Sleep. After the match, Samoa Joe told KENTA that while he had scored the tag team win, he could never beat Joe or Danielson in a singles match. That may have been true, but one way or the other we would not find out immediately, as Danielson had other challengers waiting in the wings. First and foremost, he had another loss to avenge, as he had teamed with Jay Lethal to challenge Austin Aries and Roderick Strong for the ROH World Tag Team Title at Tag Wars, but in the end tapped out to Roderick Strong's Stronghold, earning Strong another shot at the ROH Title. That shot came at Supercard Of Honor, and though Strong brought everything he had and went the distance with Danielson, the American Dragon pinned Roderick Strong at the 56 minute mark, four minutes short of a 60 minute time limit draw.
Having avenged his prior loss to Strong, Danielson went on the next night to defeat former ECW World Tag Team Champion, WCW US Champion, WCW Cruiserweight Champion, WCW Hardcore Champion, WWF Intercontinental Champion, and WWE World Tag Team Champion Lance Storm by submission to Cattle Mutilation in the main event of Better Than Our Best. He closed up the quarter with a pair of wins at The 100th Show, first with a five minute victory over Colt Cabana and then with a second win later in the night over Delirious.
Danielson was dominant in ROH Title matches in the first quarter of 2006, not only defeating all of his challengers but also proving to be nearly impossible to find a weakness in. He had avenged several prior losses in the first several months of his title reign, but had suffered a clean loss to KENTA right in the middle of the ring at Best In The World, and that loss would cast a shadow over Danielson's title reign going into the second quarter.
Part III: Fight For Your Life
Colt Cabana had trouble sleeping as 2006 began. Homicide had attacked him and poured Drano down his throat for interfering his Homicide's match against Steve Corino at Steel Cage Warfare, and what had amounted to an attempt on Cabana's life had left him severely shaken. Gone was the Colt Cabana who laughed, smiled, and had comedy matches and in his place was a Colt Cabana with no sense of humor, who always had heavy things on his mind even when he was wrestling, and even stopped shaving because of the psychological effects of the attack.
ROH Commissioner Jim Cornette recognized what was going on and gave both men the weekend off from Tag Wars and Dissension to try and cool down, but the feud continued to rage on stronger than ever. Homicide missed Unscripted II, but sent his flunky the Grimm Reefer in his place to battle Cabana. Cabana won easily, but it wasn't enough, he wanted to get his hands on Homicide for what he had done to him in December. They finally met again in a Ghetto Fight at the 4th Anniversary Show, and it turned into an incredibly brutal scene in which Homicide beat Cabana so severely that the referee stopped the match for fear of Cabana's safety once Homicide began choking him out with a coat hanger. As Homicide started back toward the locker room, Cabana got on the house mic and told Homicide that he wasn't done fighting, and to come back to the ring. Homicide came back and continued the beating, and again the referee stopped the match, this time as Cabana was tied to the ropes and had a chair repeatedly thrown at his head. Homicide began to return to the locker room when Cabana again called Homicide back to the ring. At this point, Homicide just wanted to finish Colt Cabana, and piledrove him from the ring apron through a table at ringside, and this caused the referee to stop the match a third time, this time for good. Homicide then got on the mic and told Cabana that the issue wasn't finished, and that he wanted him in a Fight Without Honor.
The feud would continue, but instead of a Fight Without Honor, what we got was a series of confrontations over the course of the Wrestlemania Weekend. The first night at Dragon Gate Challenge, they met in a Falls Count Anywhere match which ended fairly quickly when Homicide put Cabana's head in a ladder, then smashed it with a chair to knock Cabana out and get the win. That chairshot with the ladder gave Cabana a concussion, and Cabana was officially held out of action the following night at Supercard Of Honor. Unofficially, however, the war continued as Cabana stumbled out of the back after Homicide's match and attacked him. Cabana was in no shape for that kind of confrontation, and Homicide beat him down again and put his head back in the ladder, and this time he took a chair and hit the ladder several times before telling Cabana that if he sees him again, he's going to kill him.
To the surprise of Homicide, Cabana came back for more at Better Than Our Best for the climactic Chicago Street Fight. Cabana and Homicide had a hellacious fight, and after hitting a superbomb through a barbed wire table, a lariat, and finally the Colt 45, Cabana was able to defeat Homicide and end the feud. Homicide's running buddies Ricky Reyes and Julius Smokes attacked Cabana after the match and tried to hang him, but Homicide called them off, saying that Cabana had earned his respect, and he offered Cabana a handshake, which Cabana accepted.
With the Homicide feud behind him, Cabana's mood lightened noticeably, and he decided that it was time to get back to focusing on his wrestling career and winning the ROH World Title, which he had gotten totally sidetracked from during his feud with Homicide. Jim Cornette was in agreement and was very impressed with the heart he showed in continuing to fight and eventually defeat Homicide, so he granted him a shot at Bryan Danielson for the ROH World Title at The 100th Show. After months of being out of his element by having these brawls with Homicide, Cabana could finally get back to doing what he did best: wrestle. At The 100th Show, he would have the chance to match his impressive mat wrestling skills against the self-proclaimed Best In The World.
He lost in five minutes.
Part IV: Wanted Men
New ROH Tag Team Champions Austin Aries and Roderick Strong were men on a mission as 2006 began, and that mission was to raise the prestige of the ROH Tag Team Title and become the best team to ever hold the title. With Aries a former ROH World Champion and Strong the Survival Of The Fittest 2005 winner, they certainly had the credentials to accomplish that, and they got off to a great start, first by defeating ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson and Jay Lethal at Tag Wars and then defeating former champions BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs at Dissension. However, dissension was the theme which would follow them through much of their early reign with the title, as one of their most frequent opponents would be fellow Generation Next member Matt Sydal. Sydal had formed a team with AJ Styles at Hell Freezes Over and put forth a challenge to the champions.
Aries and Strong successfully defended the title against Sydal and Styles at the 4th Anniversary Show, but on that same show were confronted with the returning Briscoe Brothers. Jay & Mark Briscoe had been out of ROH since 2004, but had returned that night and easily defeated Jason Blade & Kid Mikaze and former ROH Tag Team Champions Tony Mamaluke and Sal Rinauro in a three way match, and they thrust themselves right into the title picture later that night by attacking Aries and Strong during the mid-show CZW brawl and then attacking them again after their succesful title defense against Sydal and Styles in the main event.
The Briscoes had made a strong return, but would have to wait a little while longer before getting their shot at the title. In the meantime, Matt Sydal continued his quest to win the title from his teammates. He faced Austin Aries in a singles match at Arena Warfare but lost, and afterward the Briscoes attacked again. The Briscoes were momentarily silenced a couple of weeks later when Strong and Jack Evans defeated them, but the champions had other matches to worry about before they had to deal with the Briscoes. Aries, Strong, and Evans lost to Blood Generation at Dragon Gate Challenge and then Aries and Evans lost to Styles & Sydal at Supercard Of Honor, but then came back strong the final night to defeat CIMA and Naruki Doi to retain the title at Better Than Our Best.
They finished off the quarter by beating Homicide and Ricky Reyes at the 100th Show, but that same show saw the Briscoes defeat Styles & Sydal. Aries & Strong had managed to hold onto the title, but there were now two teams in the Briscoes and Styles & Sydal who had claims to title shots. Would they be able to remain champions much longer?
Part V: A Few Other Things
The first quarter of 2006 also saw...
-The Breakup Of BJ Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs: BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs had signed Lacey on as their manager to try and help get out of the slump they had been in since losing the ROH Tag Team Title. While Whitmer was trying to be serious and concentrate on wrestling, Jacobs became infatuated with Lacey, and while Whitmer was getting knocked out at the end of a stiff match with Samoa Joe at Hell Freezes Over, Jacobs was professing his love for their manager. Whitmer spent some time trying to get Jacobs to get serious, but finally ran out of patience after they lost their shot at ROH Tag Team Champions Austin Aries & Roderick Strong at Dissension. Whitmer laid Jacobs out and left he and Lacey in the ring, and while Jimmy Jacobs started devoting his time to writing the Ballad Of Lacey which would become his entrance music and filming a music video for the song, Whitmer began focusing on making his name in singles competition and became a key player in the CZW war. They did finally meet one on one at Dragon Gate Challenge, a match which saw a scary botched powerbomb where Whitmer planned to powerbomb Jacobs off the top rope and into the ring, but instead saw Whitmer lose his balance and fall, dropping Jimmy Jacobs (who would smash the back of his head against the turnbuckle and the ring apron) in the process.
-Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness: Bryan Danielson wasn't the only singles champion who hit a hot streak in early 2006. Nigel McGuinness continued his stranglehold on the Pure Title, defeating Tony Mamaluke at Hell Freezes Over, beating Austin Aries in a great match at Unscripted II, and defeating Claudio Castagnoli clean at Best In The World to finish off that feud. He headed off for a tour of Japan after that, but before he left he declared that he would make the Pure Title the real World Title and there wasn't anything Bryan Danielson could do about it.
-Unscripted II: The show scheduled for February 11th on Long Island was thrown into disarray when a major blizzard hit the Northeast. Scheduled flights were being delayed or cancelled, and TNA called all their contracted talent which was scheduled to appear at ROH back down to Orlando for the PPV they had the following night. The show was completely rebooked on the fly, and featured the surprise, one time only return of CM Punk, who teamed with Bryan Danielson to defeat Jimmy Rave and Adam Pearce in the main event. Austin Aries and Roderick Strong, both under contract to TNA at the time, refused to leave ROH hanging and stuck around for a pair of great matches which saw Roderick Strong defeat BJ Whitmer in a hard hitting match, and also saw Austin Aries lose a terrific match to Nigel McGuinness.
-Wrestlemania Weekend: ROH ran their first ever triple shot weekend in the three days leading up to Wrestlemania, with Dragon Gate Challenge in Detroit, and Supercard Of Honor and Better Than Our Best the following two nights in Chicago. The shows saw the continuing interference of Chris Hero and Necro Butcher from CZW as well as a pair of great ROH Title defenses which saw Bryan Danielson defeat Roderick Strong and Lance Storm, but also featured several other memorable moments. The Colt Cabana-Homicide feud came to its conclusion in Chicago, Delirious scored his first ever singles win in ROH, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels ended their feud when Daniels scored his first ever singles pinfall win over Joe, and the infamous botched powerbomb spot with BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs. The stars of the weekend, however, were Blood Generation. All three nights they had fast paced matches that had the crowd on their feet, first defeating Generation Next at Dragon Gate Challenge, losing to Do Fixer at Supercard Of Honor, and then finally members CIMA and Naruki Doi lost to Austin Aries and Roderick Strong for the ROH Tag Team Title at Better Than Our Best.
Conclusion
Ring Of Honor was in a tough spot. They picked what they thought was going to be an easy fight against CZW, and ended up getting their asses handed to them at their 100th show. The feud would continue in the second quarter, but what (and who) would be the key to victory against the CZW invaders? Would they even be able to beat CZW, or would the hardcore style emerge victorious?
Bryan Danielson had scored a slew of very impressive victories, but now had the spector of KENTA hanging over his head. KENTA was the one man whom Danielson had been unable to beat in the first quarter. Would they meet again later in the year? Who else would be thrown in Danielson's path? Would he perhaps finally be faced with Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness, who had strung together an impressive reign of his own with wins over a lot of top names? What about Austin Aries & Roderick Strong? They would be faced with their strongest opponents yet in the Briscoes, but would they really let the Briscoes just waltz back into ROH and easily reclaim the ROH World Tag Team Title, or would they shock everyone with a win over the brothers from Southern Delaware?
And what of Homicide and Colt Cabana? After finally emerging victorious in their feud, Cabana got a long-deserved shot at the ROH World Title and lost in five minutes. How would this affect him psychologically, and what would he do to try and recover from that embarrassing loss? Homicide, meanwhile, had lost one of his biggest feuds in ROH and had no direction whatsoever. Would he find that direction in the second quarter, or would he continue to float around in meaningless tag matches with Ricky Reyes?
Find out the answer to all these questions and more next week, as we look back at ROH In 2006...PART 2!
