wrestling / Video Reviews

The Furious Flashbacks – ROH Fate of an Angel

February 16, 2008 | Posted by Arnold Furious
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The Furious Flashbacks – ROH Fate of an Angel  

The Furious Flashbacks – ROH Fate of an Angel

Matt Hardy explores the Indies

It’s been ages since I sat down to watch some Ring of Honor. I do remember this event being a big deal at the time. Hell, Matt Hardy was on WWE TV shouting that people could see him on an ROH show and that they should check it out. On Raw. On live WWE TV. Take that TNA! They won’t acknowledge your existence but ROH gets a name drop. Sweet. This was Matt Hardy’s little mini-Indy adventure before returning to the Land of the Giants to wrap up his feud with Edge. The one that started out as a shoot. Here he competes against Indy standout Chris Daniels in a dream match. Meanwhile James Gibson guns for CM Punk’s ROH title in an attempt to prevent the Punker taking the strap with him to the WWE. And there’s a whole bunch of other stuff besides.

16th July 2005. We’re in Woodbridge, Connecticut. Hosts are Dave Prazak & Lenny Leonard, which I believe is a first.

BACKSTAGE Samoa Joe is on hand to talk about Punk and where they went when “the companies came calling”. Joe calls Punk signing his WWE title on the belt a disgrace. IT’S A DISGRACE!

Nigel McGuinness v Claudio Castagnoli

Castagnoli debuts here and is sporting his tie look from wXw and has retained his Swiss Money Holdings gimmick minus Ares who’s not really taken off like Double C. They run some tasty standard counters but Claudio showboats a bit too much every time he counters thus giving Nigel the chance to take over frequently. Crowd is very appreciative here and I’ve missed the big crowds at an Indy show. I’ve been watching lesser Indies with smaller crowds and it’s kinda weird having an audience. They run some nice European stuff in particular Claudio hitting a lot of forearm uppercuts including one through the ropes ‘tope’ style. Nigel gets caught in a headlock but Claudio isn’t busy with it allowing Nigel the chance to single out the arm and escape. Nigel suplexes him by the arm. There’s no disguising his focus in this bout. Claudio rolls through another attempt showing he’s gotten used to Nigel’s unconventional approach but then Nigel gets even less conventional with the Rebound rollup for 2. Claudio wants the handshake but Nigel doesn’t trust the filthy Swiss. Their neutrality would worry me too. Nigel breaks out the ENORMOUS LARIATOOOOOOOOO for 2. He’s gotten real good at hitting that. Claudio blocks a tornado DDT and just throws Nigel into the air so he can hit a forearm uppercut in mid-air. That was awesome. Totally. Claudio makes the mistake of believing that’ll keep Nigel down though and heads up top. Nigel predictably kills him with the TOWER OF LONDON for the pinfall at 8.11. **1/2. Bags of action in there. Nigel looked like a real star showing the depth of the ROH roster.

Austin Aries v El Generico

Speaking of stars here’s ROH’s last world champion. Generico has gained a real reputation for himself since his early ROH matches, which shows how ROH tend to be able to pick out stars before they break out. Generico looks a little bit nervous here. His babyface basics don’t look quite as crisp as per his usual standard. He’s a big goofball though and his character doesn’t have much room to get over in a singles match with a guy as serious as Aries. Maybe they asked him to keep the goofiness to a minimum. Aries flies around Generico at speed but he stops off to celebrate allowing Generico to dropkick him around some. Generico gets overconfident and tries for a springboard missile dropkick. Aries sidesteps it. Easy done sometimes. You get the feeling Aries could finish this now. Generico is gaining a lot of crowd support so we carry on. Aries mask assisted backbreaker is nifty. Aries made a mistake earlier so now he’s trying to be all business. He doesn’t just want to win though, he wants a good showing to make the crowd realise he’s the uncrowned champion. Generico seems to be into his groove now. He misses his big boot and Aries dropkicks him HARD in the face for 2. Aries once again makes the mistake of mugging for the crowd, which gets him powerbombed out of the corner. It’s very unlike Aries to make the same mistake twice in one match, which shows you how hard he took losing the title. It’s like he’s trying to look cocky but he’s doing it against the wrong guy. Generico feels he has everything to prove. Michinoku Driver nearly gives him the big upset win as he avoids Aries’ patented brainbuster. Aries decides enough is enough and hits the corkscrew hilo and the quebrada for 2. They get a little sloppy on some standing reversals and then more so on a tornado DDT. Generico gets his big corner kick for 2. Interesting to hear the crowd chanting “you fucked up”, which is only the second time I’ve ever heard it from an ROH crowd. Respect and all that. Generico misses with the 450 splash, which Aries probably takes as a personal insult. He brainbusters Generico to set up his own 450 Splash and that finishes at 11.27. **1/4. Generico got stagefright a few times and that lead to some mistakes you don’t usually see in an ROH ring. The psychology didn’t make much sense either with it being all back and forth with no rhyme or reason.

Homicide v Kevin Steen v Dixie v Azrieal

Spot the odd man out? Steen is rather inexperienced in ROH while the other two scrubs are former Special K guys. Homicide on the other hand has hung with every main event guy that’s come through here including Samoa Joe and Abdullah the Butcher. You get the feeling he should win this easily. He goes right after Steen probably seeing him as the biggest threat. Homicide has already beaten him in ROH but obviously felt something in that match that concerned him. He dropkicks Steen outside and hits a tope con hilo. The former Special K guys go at it and at least their high spots are nice and smooth because they’ve probably done them to each other dozens of times. I hate these 4-ways. The only good thing about them is the level of action you get, which keeps the crowd happy. I don’t like how the tags seem to apply some of the time but not at others. Dixie looks really motivated and energised. Az has been improving in previous shows but now it’s Dixie’s chance to show he can hang with the big boys. Of course that’s rendered null because he looks great against Azrieal who’s another former scrub. Homicide fucks Steen up with a knee to the face. Everyone else gets whupped too just to show how dominant Homicide is. Julius Smokes gets worried when Steen gets in charge. Well, he is the threat. Steen moonsaults Dixie for 2. Az wants to pick off Homicide and does with a super rana. It’d be his biggest win if he could get it. Dixie pops off German suplexes and neckbreakers Steen. Now THAT is better. He cleaned house just like Homicide did. It implies he can actually hang with better wrestlers. Steen mangles Az into the rail. That should make it a 3-way. Homicide lariats Steen off the apron. Now he has the chance to finish but gets met with a motivated Dixie who dumps him on his head. Homicide is all FUCK YOU; COP KILLAAAAAH at 8.40. **. That was ok for what it was. I’ve just seen it before. Dixie hanging with Homicide was fun while it lasted but as you can see it didn’t last long. Homicide wins as predicted.

PROMO TIME – CM Punk. The ROHbots accuse Punk of selling out. But they knew he was leaving months ago. And didn’t accuse him of selling out when he was a babyface. I dig his polo shirt and slacks although a suit would be more pimp. Limousine ridin’, WOOO, jet flyin’. There are still some pro-Punk guys in the crowd, which is nice. “Fuck you Punk” shout the remainder. The crowd chant “shut the fuck up” so Punk invites them in to try and get the mic off him. Punk puts over Gibson calling him ROH’s MVP of 2005. He says he’s had a lot of great matches but he always loses. Crowd really gets on Punk’s case “Sunday Night Heat” chants. Hehe. Try OVW. That’s where he got stuck for Christ knows how long. Punk makes a few baseball references calling Gibson a great pitcher who can’t close out a game. James Gibson decides to answer the abuse in person and takes the belt hostage. He says he won’t let Punk disrespect the belt, the company and the fans. Punk goes old school and punks out Gibson with a chain to get the belt back. Punk beats him until he’s bloody and he sure has been watching a lot of Ric Flair tapes before this heel turn. The only thing he’s lacking is valets/Double A.

ROH tag titles/Ultimate Endurance – Carnage Crew (c) v Ring Crew Express v Lacey’s Angels v The Embassy

The Crew are enjoying their first defence but it’s Ultimate Endurance, which means each fall has a different stipulation with the belts on the line for the final elimination. We open with Scramble Rules. Embassy doesn’t include Rave who’s in singles action later. DeVito picks off Cheech for some crossfaces. I love those. CARNAGEPLEX! The Embassy scrubs make the save. It’s Fast Eddie Vegas and some guy called Excess who I don’t even know. RCE bring a few lengthy whirl headscissors. Oh wait, Marcos & Deranged. The latter heels on Marcos on the high tens. Filth. Prince Nana & Jade Chung are knocking around at ringside. Eddie, who’s legally blind, hits an Asai moonsault. He really is nuts. Everyone stands around waiting for dives. I’ll just kick back until they’re done. Cheech fucks his up so DeVito backdrops him out of the ring. Cheech comes back with the springboard headlock. Heh. I love that shit. Loc BACKDROP DRIVERS his way out. Lacey seems concerned as Deranged starts popping spots off. Eddie catches him with the fallaway tabletop off the top rope. DeVito adds a moonsault in. Excess dumps Cheech on his face. Spots, eh? Excess with a Tarantula but Marcos stomps him and the double team senton knocks the Embassy out of this.

Second fall is a street fight and before we’re even underway the Crew has garbage ready. Dunn gets suplexed onto a trashcan. That’s the first spot he’s been involved in. Lacey is getting excited as Deranged hits a Hurricane Kick on Dunn. Marcos is killed with a Doomsday Ace Crusher. Dunn makes the save. Sliced Bread #2 on Cheech. Sure is no selling in this. The Crew stop the stage diving and powerbomb/neckbreaker Deranged onto a trashcan that’s on top of Cheech to dump them.

Final fall and the titles are now on the line. It’s the Ring Crew Express’ big title shot after being with the company from the start. DeVito goes all heel with a chinlock and the crowd are getting seriously behind Dunn & Marcos. Marcos avoids the Backdrop Driver and barely wings Loc with an Enzuigiri and they repeat the spot. Geez. I just about to say how amazing it was there hadn’t been more blown stuff when everyone was out here. Basically these two teams have no chemistry at all. D&M bring their kick combo. Sliced Bread #2 onto the already fallen DeVito gets 2. That’s as close as RCE are going to get I feel. Marcos with the Stage Dive but the ropes save Loc. DeVito looks so out of shape. It’s a real contrast to everyone else in the company. Dunn saves Marcos from the Carnage Driver and Marcos nearly gets the win with a cheeky roll up. Dunn gets picked off instead – CARNAGE DRIVER. He’s dead and Carnage Crew retain at 13.32. Didn’t feel that long. **1/2. There were a few too many mistakes although it’s a miracle there weren’t more in the spot heavy early going. The Cindarella story wasn’t built on enough to make me think the Ring Crew had a chance at actually winning.

Roderick Strong v AJ Styles

Crowd is REALLY pro-AJ. Kinda weird how ROH didn’t feel inclined to push AJ in 2005 during this run. I guess they were aware of the TNA attitude towards them and how they’d be likely to lose TNA talent at any given moment. The other problem with AJ is I feel he’s set the bar so high for his performances that any time he isn’t just totally sensational it’s a disappointment. But these are good problems to have. AJ’s flipping here is sick. He flips on the spot after seeing Strong hold the ropes to avoid a dropsault. AJ then pops off a rana and he’s so fast and so smooth that it’s scary. It’s almost unfair on everyone else that he has those skills. Strong nearly gets caught in the Styles Clash and AJ has just overwhelmed him. Strong has to get it back to basics but when he attempts that AJ moonsaults onto him out of nowhere. Dropsault catches Strong too and he bails because he’s getting completely outclassed. But that just leaves him AJ’s flight path and he adds in a huge pescado. AJ has been different class here. He hurdles the rail and then hits the superman forearm off it. Strong has got no answer to anything. Strong catches AJ going back inside though and backbreakers him on the apron. That’s cool. He then boots AJ in the back sending him head first into the rail. You gotta take those openings when they come. Especially when the guy you’re wrestling is freaky good. Strong now has the time and space to do his shit and hits a dropsault. Heh. Nice. Butterfly suplex gets 2. Strong is all about making the opponent tire themselves out and making them kick out is one of the most basic ways of doing that. AJ has freaky energy levels though so that’s not a guarantee. PELE! Pele Kick, as per usual, comes out of nowhere. AJ is clearly pissed at Strong’s cockiness and starts wailing on him. Quebrada inverted DDT gets 2. That was pretty smooth. As long as the guy he’s wrestling knows it’s coming he can hit that fine now. Strong gets folded up with a back suplex. AJ has been hitting everything hard in this one. It’s a message sending performance. AJ tries the discus lariat but Strong catches him in the urinage backbreaker for 2. Press gutbuster follows. One thing you’ll always get with Strong is focus. However AJ is all about speed and he sweeps the legs. He’s freaky fast. I’d love to see AJ v Pac. Because Pac is ridiculously fast as well. AJ clocks Strong with a huge lariat. Another really hard hit. I love AJ when he works this stiff. He’d make a far better heel if he worked this stiff deliberately as a heel and less so as a face. Strong dodges the Spiral Tap and puts AJ in the Stronghold. AJ has too much left though. He’s only taken a few backbreakers and hasn’t really sold them so Strong isn’t getting that tap out. Strong tries for another backbreaker but AJ counters out at freaky speed and hits the Styles Clash for the win at 16.40. ***1/2. AJ was ON. It was frightening how fluid he was at times. Strong looked totally out of his depth in the early going and then again any time AJ just turned it on.

INTERMISSION. Gary Michael Cappetta says Gibson is injured and might miss tonight’s main event. Lacey rants at Deranged & Cheech for losing 3 straight. Lacey promises personnel changes. A plug for ROHWrestling.com follows. Buy some merch people. For UK readers the licensed ROH store in Britain is located at A-Merchandise.co.uk.

Pure title – Samoa Joe (c) v Jimmy Rave w/Prince Nana/Jade Chung

The ROH crowd have taken to throwing toilet rolls at Rave instead of the traditional streamers. Nana grabs a mic and gets told in no uncertain terms to “shut the fuck up”. Jade is looking suitably hot this evening. Well, and every evening. Jimmy does a great job of freaking out at the “Joe’s gonna kill you” chants. THE CHAMP IS HERE! “Die Jimmy die”. This crowd don’t care much for Mr Rave. Jimmy Bauer joins Prazak in the commentary box. It’s been some time since I saw a match under pure rules. I think they should have persisted with the concept. It seemed to die out a little early for my liking. It was creating some different matches. Rave, being a whiny heel bitch, stalls a bit. He goes in and slaps Joe. Oh dear. Joe slaps him out of the ring. Back inside and Joe slaps Rave out of the ring again. “YOU GOT BITCHSLAPPED”. I love that shit. Joe breaks out a high knee in the corner and BOOOOOT SCRAAAAAAAAAPES! Good lord he’s dead. FLYING KNEE! Joe is looking very agile today. Rave makes the mistake of shouting “AH HA” after dodging a knee and Joe superkicks him out of the ring and follows up with an ELBOW SUICIDAAAAA! Rave is getting murdered. OLE, OLE, OLE, OLE KICK! Joe breaks the count because he wants another one. OLE OLE OLE OLE but Nana throws Jade in the way and throws Rave back in the ring. Chop, kick and kneedrop gets 2. Nana is upset about something and invites Joe outside for a fight. While the ref attends to it Rave goes low to set up the Canadian lariat. Rave uses a shoelace to choke at Joe and Joe has to use his first rope break to save himself. Joe complains to the ref but Rave has already passed the lace to Nana so he can also use it while Rave has the ref. Apparently the Outkast Killaz quit ROH out of protest over the Jade Chung situation. Sure they did. The big question – did anyone notice them leave? Rave uses the shoelace again and nearly chokes Joe out with it. I like how Rave can only get an inch in this one with cheating. Joe punches him in the face and gets a warning for it. GHANAREA! That gets 2. Joe gets his foot on the rope but that’s two of his rope breaks gone. Jade starts getting into it with Nana and the ref spots the shoelace finally. Joe is back up and PISSED OFF. He slaps the shit out of Rave and powerslams him for 2. S.T.JOE! Rave escapes the Musclebuster and hits a running knee for 2. He wants the Rave Clash. He can’t even shift Joe off his feet but switches into From Dusk Til Dawn instead, which would have been a smarter tactic from the get go. Joe uses his last rope break to survive. Rave hasn’t used any rope breaks while Joe has used all his AND is on a warning for punches. Rave looks for his running knee but Joe sweeps the legs. “HASHIMOTO” – Joe. DDT gets 2. Rave uses the ropes to live. Joe just kinda looks at him lying on the canvas and figures the time is now. Rave once again attempts the Rave Clash but it just puts Joe in position to boost Jimmy onto the ropes and hit the Musclebuster at 17.30 to retain. ***. It was pretty much a squash aside from Rave using cheating and numbers to work an advantage. While that was kinda fun it also went a bit too long. I don’t think it’s believable for Rave to stay in the match for that long because eventually Joe is just going to grab him and kill him. Which he eventually did. They didn’t play into Joe’s desperation once the situation was entirely against him either.

POST MATCH Nana seems upset at the outcome of that one and blames Jade for the loss. Nana’s psychical abuse continues. He throws Jade out of the ring but Jade fails in her job as a foot stool with Rave falling over. Hahaha. Nana threatens to punch Jade and the lights come down. When they come up Matt Hardy is out there. The Embassy run away.

PROMO TIME – Matt Hardy. “Fuck Edge” – crowd. Matt seems to enjoy that. He does cut a promo like a big shot, which isn’t good for his pop. “The moment you’ve anxiously been waiting for” Matt? He talks about the crowd being great here as well as the locker room. “Fuck Johnny Ace” chants the crowd after Matt points out there aren’t any 300lb muscleheads in ROH that Johnny Ace hired. He calls Edge an asshole and Amy Dumas a “Ho-er”, which I presume is Carolinan for whore. He says he hasn’t had a match in about a year and he’s glad he’s having it here.

Matt Hardy v Christopher Daniels w/Allison Danger

In retrospect they’d have been better off putting Matt against a bonafide heel. Daniels reaction is pretty huge. “Fallen Angel” chants the crowd to drown out the announcer. Smatter of boos for Hardy when he’s introduced, which is the first sign of the crowd considering turning on him although it’s quickly following by an affirming “Hardy” chant. Duelling chants! Hey, Matt is Indy. You can tell from duelling chants. They play it up like Rock v Hogan for a few seconds. It is strange seeing a fairly big name WWE guy in an ROH ring. Bauer points out that Hardy jumped the rail on Raw and name dropped ROH on live TV. Daniels starts faster as you’d expect with Hardy’s ring rust. Matt decides to slow the pace and work at an armbar. Crowd is still hot so it’s fair play to them for just coming out slow. Matt sees a leaping calf kick the second time Daniels goes for it and grabs the ropes. Daniels looks for Angels Wings but that’s countered. Twist of Fate is countered into a backslide and both guys go for big moves early. Daniels with the Flatliner into the Koji Clutch. Matt is too close to the ropes though and he uses them to break. Duelling chants again. They run the Shades of Wilbur Snyder back and forth until Daniels hip tosses Hardy over the top. Daniels follows out with an Arabian press. That’s the first sign where it’s clear they don’t know each other’s movesets too well. Matt has to stand there waiting for it to make sure no one gets hurt, which has the unfortunate downside of looking fake. Side Effect! That’s a big crowd popper. Gets 2. Matt debuts his version of the shotei. I wouldn’t do that without some work beforehand but it is nice to see him trying different things. Daniels goes to another hip toss but now Matt’s seen the Daniels technique on that and clotheslines him for 2. Daniels goes up top but Matt cuts him off with SPLASH MOUNTAIN for 2. Hey, there’s an addition. Matt on the apron and he gets a sleeper but Daniels drops him on the ropes. STEP KICK! STO! Daniels is bringing the big guns now. Blue Thunder gets 2. Why is even Daniels minor moves are finishers? What’s with that? Daniels goes up top but the wrong way round for the BME. Hardy cuts him off with a superplex. Back up and Matt hits another superplex for 2. Matt eyeballs the buckles for a third one and hits it. Daniels is contorted on the mat. Hardy looks tired himself because of the impact of these. Up to the top again and the crowd jeers for some reason. Don’t you like superplexes? 4th superplex and both guys are down. Rolling lariat from Hardy and Daniels fucks up bumping it early. Matt goes up top but now it’s Daniels turn to cut him off. Daniels with a sidewalk slam off the top. That might be a WWE rib. It’s always been a big man staple so Daniels takes it up a notch doing it off the top. Matt misses with a moonsault. BEST. MOONSAULT. EVER gets 2. Hardy fires back but runs into a clothesline and Daniels hits a quebrada onto knees. Hardy gets up a head of steam for a lariat. That gets 2. Daniels grabs Matt and hits the DEATH VALLEY DRIVER. You don’t see that often. Both guys are down and out comes CM PUNK to punch Allison in the face. HAHAHA! Daniels avoids the Twist of Fate and Matt collides with the ref. Punk nails Daniels with a chain and Matt hits the Twist of Fate. Surely it’s over. NO! KICKOUT! Another Twist of Fate leads to the Butterfly Lock and the ref calls it at 20.13. ***1/2. Hardy showed minimum ring rust and told a nice story with Daniels. The odd bits of new stuff stood out but kudos to Matt for coming to ROH knowing how hard the competition was.

POST MATCH Punk gets the mic and congratulates Hardy on knocking Daniels out of title contention. He says Gibson is injured and can’t compete so he’s taking the title to the WWE. Bye now!

ROH title – CM Punk (c) v James Gibson

Gibson charges out and starts fast. Punk bails out and Gibson hits him with a tope nearly sending both guys into the front row. Gibson has a goofy looking head bandage on. Punk hasn’t even gotten his ring jacket off yet. Gibson beats him up and goes for the Tiger Driver but Punk counters out and starts going after Gibson’s head. Gibson runs Punk into the ring post perhaps in an attempt to even things up. Punk seems fresher but Gibson just starts grabbing his arm and working at it. There’s blood on Punk and it’s coming from his shoulder. Urgh, did he blade his arm? You have to admire the dedication and/or love of Tully Blanchard. Bauer calls it as a guardrail induced injury. Oh, there’s a big cut on the back as well. Not Hardcore Holly bad but there’s blood all over the place. We get a close up of that back cut and that is disgusting. Punk’s aware he’s got a little cut on the shoulder but I don’t think he even realises how much blood he’s losing from his back. Gibson catches him in a Fujiwara armbar. Punk gets ropes to live and then introduces Gibson’s throat to the same rope. “IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME” – Punk. He’s selling that injured arm and holding the area where he’s bleeding still presumably unaware of how badly the back is bleeding. Gibson is bleeding from the head again thanks to a Punk headbutt. He’s bleeding far worse here than he was earlier making this an extremely bloody title match. Punk decides to make Gibson fight for everything, every breath by slapping him in a bearhug. Gibson gets out into a roll up and he tries to get a Cloverleaf. The issue here being Gibson was previously looking at the arm not the legs. They battle on the apron and consider several extremely sick looking moves before Gibson DDT’s Punk on there. Back inside Gibson goes headbutt crazy. Punk swats at him but gets countered into a neckbreaker for 2. Punk blocks the Tiger Driver so Gibson starts throwing knees. GERMAN SUPLEX gets 2. Nice bridge. Perfect technique. Punk escapes another Tiger Driver and mule kicks Gibson for 2. Gibson ducks the Pepsi Twist into a dragon sleeper. Punk snapmares out and hits the SHINING WIZARD for 2. ANACONDA VICE. Gibson is in the ropes though because Punk didn’t have the right ring position. Punk starts just kicking at Gibson who is back up. PEPSI TWIST. NO SOLD! TIGER DRIVER…FOR 2. Gibson opened his cut back up hitting that. Crowd is really pro-Gibson wanting him to take the title. He wants the Tiger Driver off the top but that puts him in position for the Pepsi Plunge. Gibson backdrops out of it and hits a moonsault press for 2. This is really getting good now. GUILLOTINE CHOKE! Punk has too much strength left and he drives Gibson back into the buckles. Punk leaves his head low and Gibson hooks the GUILLOTINE CHOKE again. Punk struggles in it and powers up into a suplex. That buys him recovery time. Both guys down. ANACONDA VICE! Middle of the ring. Gibson fights and won’t quit, as previously established, and he elbows out. Punk counters him back into the Rolling Prawn Hold and he GRABS THE ROPES to pin Gibson at 27.46. ****. Great match that slowly built to a conclusion. The psychology made perfect sense with Gibson getting blasted in the head a lot but ultimately not wanting to submit regardless of what happened to him. Punk ended up getting tired of getting the win the ideal way and just cheated instead. The blood was a nice addition although Punk’s were unplanned.

POST MATCH Punk gets the mic to make fun of Gibson. He says this was his last match in ROH…in front of all these ugly, ugly people. He says there’s no one in this company that can beat him, which causes the crowd to chant for Joe but it’s DANIELS who runs in here. Crowd wants a match right now. Daniels clocks Punk with the belt. Crowd want Daniels to just take the belt. Daniels rant at Punk is basically telling him he’ll get buried by Titan. Daniels tells him if he wants the belt back he’ll have to fight him for it. He steals the title leaving Punk down in the ring.

BACKSTAGE Sugar Sean Price interviews Nigel about Cabana going to England to train and beat Nigel. Colt Cabana stayed at my house during that tour incidentally, which is why it’s now the spare room is called the Scott Colton Suite.

ELSEWHERE Chris Daniels talks about how Punk picked out Raven because of his drinking, pill popping and womanising. He says he’s none of those things so why did Punk target him? He says it’s because Punk is jealous of Christopher Daniels. He reitterates what he told us out in the ring, which is if Punk wants this title he’ll have to wrestle Daniels for it.

The 411: It’s by no means one of the better ROH DVD’s as a guaranteed purchase would involve something smashing the 4 star mark and taking the entertainment level through the roof. There’s nothing like that here BUT there’s great storylines going on. Punk, Gibson and Hardy are all familiar to mainstream WWE viewers so this might be a good place to start off your ROH viewing. There’s nothing bad here although a lot of the undercard is underwhelming. It is worth checking out to see the progression of Punk as the Indy Ric Flair. Death Before Dishonor III is where he really sets it up but at this show he’s living the gimmick. He just needs a more showy robe and more people would make the connection. Punk’s series in ROH continued after this although I don’t have the following shows where he survived 60 minutes with Chris Daniels before eventually losing the title to James Gibson and putting over Colt Cabana on the way out the door. My next ROH show will be Glory By Honor IV.
 
Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]  legend

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