Ring of Honor (2nd Anniversary Show) -
02/14/04
Braintree, MA
Ring of Honor celebrated its second anniversary with a packed show at it’s new Massachusetts home at the National Guard Armory in Braintree, MA, centered around an 8 man tournament for the newly created Pure Wrestling Title.
What the deuce is that, you ask? Well, when feds create secondary titles, they usually slap some arbitrary name on it (like a U.S. or TV title), separate it it by weight class (cruiser or light-heavyweight title), or some other distinction (like New Japan’s novel approach of creating a belt for wrestlers under 30). But ROH decided to create a Pure Wrestling title, one centered on simple competition rather the storyline centered World Title. There would be several rules for title matches as well:
1. Wrestlers are allowed three ropebreaks to escape pinfalls/submissions.
After the breaks are used, reaching the ropes will not stop a pinfall/submission
from being counted.
2. There will be a 20 count if a wrestler leaves the ring.
3. No closed fists. Using a punch results in a warning, and if done again, will
lead to the loss of a ropebreak.
The announcement was met with a lot of skepticism, since a Pure Wrestling match isn’t drastically different from a regular match. Would there be a separate division for pure wrestlers, or would it overlap? Is the belt secondary to the World Belt? Even odder, in the tournament to determine the first champion, only the finals would be under Pure Wrestling rules, which would seem to defeat the purpose of the belt (like fighting for a hardcore title in a normal match).
The brackets were released a few days before the show:
AJ Styles-------
|----------------
Jimmy Rave------ |
|---------------
Matt Stryker---- | |
|---------------- |
Josh Daniels---- |
|---------------
Mystery Man----- |
|---------------- |
John Walters---- | |
|---------------
Doug Williams--- |
|----------------
Chris Sabin-----
Most speculation had the mystery man as either Spanky or Jerry Lynn.
The show opened with the identity of the mystery man in the tourney. Christopher Daniels’ music played and a hooded figure came out, but once he got in the ring it was revealed to be C.M. Punk (who was advertised for the show, saying he was coming with a special purpose). Punk said he left Daniels laying in Ohio, and tonight planned to take a page out of the Prophecy’s playbook, namely to win all the gold in ROH, starting tonight…
C.M. Punk vs. “Hurricane” John Walters (Pure Wrestling title opening round): Punk, really reaching for the cheap heat, reminds us that while we may still be riding high from the Patriots Super Bowl victory, his Bears crushed the Pats in Super Bowl XX. “This one’s for Ditka!” yells Punk. I guess that was Cheap Heat Plan B if the Pats won the big game. Anyway, this was a good opener, and the crowd was into it since Walters is a local guy. Punk ends up winning when he reverses a roll-up.
“Anarchist” Doug Williams vs. Chris Sabin (Pure Wrestling title opening round): Williams is now using “Song 2” by Blur (you know, the “Woo Hoo” song) for his entrance music. It’s weird that Sabin is the current TNA X-Division champion, but he’s definitely a lower level guy in ROH. Anyway, Williams always looks like he’s having so much fun out in the ring. He did plenty of his freaky chain wrestling and Sabin hung right there with him. Williams ended up winning with the Chaos Theory (waistlock rollup into a German Suplex. I erroneously called the move the Chaos Effect in the WO.com report—chalk it up to writing the damn thing at 3 in the morning).
Matt Stryker vs. Josh Daniels (Pure Wrestling title opening round): This had a surprising amount of heat, since Daniels is a relative unknown and the crowd’s usually aren’t into Stryker’s matches. Stryker ends up getting the tap with the Strykerlock.
AJ Styles vs. Jimmy Rave (Pure Wrestling title opening round): This was the first first-round matchup they announced, the story being that AJ, who’s something of a mentor to Jimmy) wanted to teach him a lesson. AJ went for his moonsault-inverted DDT, but came up lame with a (worked) leg injury. Rave went right to work on the leg, since AJ has been telling him he needs to get more aggressive. Rave looked in position to win until he got nuked with a discus clothesline for the pin. Best Rave match I’ve seen in ROH, but he could use a heel turn. The crowds will just not get behind him at all.
The next match was supposed to be the Ring Crew Express of Dunn and Marcos vs. Scott Clark and Jack Jackson (not sure of the names but it’s a moot point). But before the match could start, the Outkast Killaz came down the ring and ripped on the fans for being at a wrestling show on Valentine’s Day, the ripped on the RCE for sucking. Clark and Jackson decide to take off (talk about giving up easily). The Killaz attack and have the advantage, but then “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister plays over the P.A., allowing the RCE to HULK UP~~~ and hit some wacky double team moves and send the Killaz packing. Silly but fun segment, but this would have been much better served in the post-intermission slot.
Special K (Izzy & Dizie & Hydro) vs. Carnage Crew (Justin Credible & HC Loc & Devito) in a country whipping match: A country whipping match just meant that everyone had whips (country whips, I guess), so there were nasty whip shots aplenty, most of them taken by Special K. Chaotic match as everyone brawled around ringside for most of the match. Everyone in the match proper juiced, especially Dixie who was a complete mess. For the second time a week, Justin hit a tombstone where the guy’s head didn’t come within a foot of the mat. I’m all for safety in wrestling, but geez. The Crew were about to put Hydro away with the second rope spike piledriver, but someone appeared in the entranceway, and Devito and Credible chased after them (I couldn’t tell from my vantage point, but it was supposedly Devito’s daughter, who’s fallen in with the whole raver thing). That left Loc alone, and Special K scored the win after a spike piledriver of their own off the aprong through the ringside table. More of an interesting spectacle than a match, but the whole “my daughter is a raver” story reaks of a Lifetime movie.
Gary Michael Cappetta brings out “J-Train” Juluis Smokes to find out why Homicide isn’t at the show. Long story short, Smokes doesn’t know, as Homicide hasn’t been returning any phone calls. Maybe he’s got amnesia in Cleveland. Smokes promises a new member of the Rotweillers soon (I think—Smokes can be a little hard to understand at times).
C.M. Punk vs. Doug Williams (Pure Wrestling Tournament Semi-finals): Williams baffled Punk with his chain wrestling, so Punk had to resort to shennanigans to get any sort of advantage. Williams missed a top rope knee drop, so Punk worked over the leg for the next few minutes. Williams was able to hit the Chaos Theory, but his knee gave out and he couldn’t bridge, so Punk got his shoulder up and was declared the winner. Real good match.
AJ Styles vs. Matt Stryker (Pure Wrestling Tournament Semi-finals): With Punk in the finals, you knew AJ was going to advance here. They worked a good match, but it went too long at 20 minutes, especially since the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Stryker worked over AJ’s leg some more, but AJ came back and won with a gorgeous springboard 450.
Intermission. Someone from the New York bus trips actually had a NY Bus Trip shirt made, with “We came, we chanted, we kicked ass” on the back. Now, I know I’m at a wrestling show on Valentine’s Day, but that is really dorky.
Jay and Mark Briscoe [c] vs. Backseat Boyz (ROH Tag Title Match): Not a terrible match, but disappointing in that it only went about eight minutes and it seemed like both teams weren’t on the same page. No flow at all, just a bunch of spots happening. Before the show, when I was scanning the merch table, I heard Rob Feinstein remark that the Backseats hadn’t shown up yet, so maybe they were late and didn’t have enough time to prepare. Then again, these teams have worked together before, so maybe it was just an off night. Anyway, Trent Acid takes a tornado DDT off the apron to the floor and Johnny Kashmere gets pinned after a spiked Jay Driller.
Samoa Joe [c] vs. Low Ki vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Dan Maff (ROH Title and #1 Contender’s match): Both the World title and the #1 Contender’s bowling trophy were on the line. If Joe defeated any of the other three, he kept the belt and the #1 Contender’s slot was vacant. If any of the other three bear Joe, they won the belt. If any of the other three beat anyone but Joe, they won the #1 Contender’s slot and would get a one-on-one slot down the road. This started out like a Joe/Ki vs. Maff/Whitmer tag (the story being Joe wanted Ki added to the match to offset the two Prophecy members). They brawled outside the ring, and suddenly the ref makes the football “false start” signal to the back, and booker Gabe Sapolsky comes running out with some bandages. Turns out Joe sliced his hand open on the guardrail and was bleeding profusely. They bandage him up and he continues the match. Soon we get the inevitable Low Ki/Joe showdown, and Joe’s all “I’m Rick James, bitch” and slaps the shit out of Low Ki. Ki’s like “Fuck yo couch” and slaps back. BJ and Maff interject themselves again and soon Ki and Joe have submissions slapped on and it’s a race to see who taps out first. Joe keeps yelling “Trophy or the belt?” at Ki and then both men let go of the holds. They look ready to go one-on-one, but Maff and BJ interject again, and ultimately Joe chokes Whitmer out for the win. Match of the night, and the Ki/Joe parts were amazing.
AJ Styles vs. C.M. Punk (Finals of the Pure Wrestling Title tournament): Again, this one was contested under the Pure Wrestling rules. Punk was accompanied by Traci Brooks, and good God is she hot. They established the countout rule early with a spot where Punk and Styles did a collar and elbow tie-up and fell out of the ring while still locked up. Neither one would let go, until they realized they were being counted out, then they both let go and ran back into the ring. Both men used their three rope breaks quickly escaping from submission holds. Late in the match Punk hooked the Devil Lock on, and AJ made the ropes, but since AJ was out of rope breaks Punk didn’t have to break the hold. So AJ climbed the ropes and used the leverage to kick Punk in the head and escape that way. Crowd seemed to understand the rules and was appreciative. At the end Punk was on the top rope, so AJ hit this wacky somersault kick, then followed up with a super scary top rope Styles Clash (where he jumped backwards instead of forwards) for the pin. Punk may have had a body part in the ropes, but since he was out of rope breaks it didn’t stop the pin. Second best match of the night, but I was surprised that it didn’t even go twenty minutes, especially since they touted the sixty-minute time limit for tournament matches. Oh well. AJ wins his second ROH title in MA, the last being the tag titles with Red almost a year ago.
Post-match the locker room comes out to congratulate AJ. Samoa Joe comes out with his title and shakes AJ’s hand, then reminds him that the only reason he has that title is that he couldn’t beat Joe for the World Title. What a dick. AJ states that the Pure Wrestling title won’t be the last belt he wins. He then tells the crowd he loves MA, and asks if he can be from Mass for one night. Well, he has a goofy accent, so he’d fit right in. Everyone celebrates to close out the show.
Damn good show. I don’t know if the Pure Wrestling Title will work in the long run, but it’s off to a good start. If you like ROH, you want allllllll this.
Joe Gagne
joegagne@charter.net