SD lost it to Ruckus.

The CZW Jnr. Heavyweight Championship is also up for grabs in the first round so I'm predicting a ROH guy will take it. Probably Sydal.

We need to see Kingston/Joker vs. The Rottwiellers at some point though.

Ugh, I could live without that, thanks. I’m a big fan of Kingston, but I think he works best as a sympathetic face (He’s ridiculously likeable) so maybe he wouldn’t fit into the invasion. I’d love to see him in ROH at some point though.

ive heard some of kingstons announcing skills like on the joe vs necro match

he reminds me of tazz but well good

never seen him wrestle though

Joe vs Danielson vs KENTA signed for june for the title

Cannae believe you like ROH more than PWG Lantern.

KENTA Vs Roderick Strong has been announced for that tour as well.


Believe it. Better promoted shows and no shitty 'comedy' commentary and angles.

I had a thought that KENTA may be christians partner on the show next week

The wrestling is so much better though.

Ive not seen that much PWG but i enjoy it as much as if not more than at times than ROH just depends on the mood of the stuff im watchin

Depends what you prefer. The guys who are on every ROH show beat the guys who are on every PWG show hands down. ROH is also better at getting a “promotion” feel to their product, with the more professional looking shows, better linking storylines, etc. Also, they don’t book Kevin Steen.

That I do agree on (with on exception, ofcourse).

Joe/Dragon/KENTA is non-title I believe.

Yeah, ROH didn’t want to put the title up in a situation where the champion could lose the belt without being pinned.

Who do we think will be the last KENTA match? I think KENTA/Joe would probably make the most money, but with increased NOAH participation in ROH they could maybe hold off for a while and give KENTA a World Title shot instead.

Homicide looks to be joining up with Team ROH for the main angle and ebbisan returns soon

hell likley turn up in pwg too as he usually does when hes in the states

So, ROH is four years old. It would be very easy for me to make a joke about deliberately mishearing peoples ages right now, but I think I’ll take the high road. Still, ROH after four years of TNA, ‘that’ scandal and booking Kevin Steen, they’ve survived for which they deserve at least some credit.

So the first match out of the bag is scheduled to be Kid Mikaze and Jason Blade Vs Sal Rinauro and Tony Mameluke and I’m already contemplating doing something else with my evening. Then we here the long forgotten strains of “Give Me Back My Bullets” and The Briscoes make their return to ROH, the crowd going quite literally banana. They add themselves to the match, and we end up with

Kid Mikaze and Jason Blade Vs Sal Rinauro and Tony Mameluke Vs The Briscoes

Time before the returning Briscoes hit a head drop move: 25 seconds. Time before the returning Briscoes hot a double stomp move: 37 seconds. Time before the returning Briscoes hit a crazy dive to the outside: 104 seconds. Yep, they’re back folks. And so is 2002.
I expected a straight up squash here, and that’s what it should’ve been. No ROH fan is ever going to give a damn about Mikaze and Blade, and Sal and Tony flopped as tag champs and in almost every match they’ve had since. But ROH is obsessed with everyone getting the time to shine, so what could’ve been a red hot sprint to start the show turns into a bit of a meandering spot fest, where all the guys get to hit some glitzy moves before The Briscoes hit a ludicrous Cut Throat Driver/Leg Drop combo for the pin on Blade. The fan reaction is nowhere near what it would’ve been if Mark and Jay had just steamrollered all four guys; a reliance on booking for ‘workrate’ really took the shine off a big return angle here.

Wow. All is forgiven as the camera slowly pans up a white clad Alison Danger before a Chris Daniels promo. Daniels cuts a promo on Whitmer, saying he’s out for revenge after what Whitmer and Maff did to Danger while he was away. A-fucking-men, I’m with you on that one.

Adam Pearce Vs Claudio Castagnoli Vs Azriel Vs Jay Fury

Fuck’s sake. What a criminal waste of Pearce and Castagnoli. Speaking of criminal wastes, Azriel’s steal breathing oxygen, right? My god, this guy has got worse and worse as ROH has gone on, here he couldn’t even be bothered to hit his one nice spot with any fire. Fury is an athletic black man who takes massive bumps, he should really give TNA a call.
As you might expect, the most entertaining aspect of this was the interplay between Scrap Iron and Double C which was tons of fun, but the four way format leaves little room for story telling and this ended up as a very disposable match. Pearce picked up the win with a top rope splash on Azriel whilst Fury had wiped out Claudio with a flippy dive. Filler.

Samoa Joe Vs Jay Lethal

Hmmm, one can’t help but wonder what happened to Jay Lethal and his push. He finally got his big win over Joe (Albeit a tainted one) and was launched in a new direction with his fresh heel character. Then…he’s jobbing to Jimmy Yang, a guy who hasn’t exactly been racking up the wins since his debut. And now this.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty to like about this match, Lethal plays a good heel, as evidenced by that oh so rare genuine heat from the ROH fans. And Joe is watchable in just about any circumstance, especially when he’s in a “Choke a bitch” mood, as he drags Lethal around the ring by his afro and (Unsurprisingly) kicks him very hard.
But the match is obviously third on the card for a reason, this isn’t going to be the blow away surprise that their Teacher Vs Student match at Manhattan Mayhem, or even one of the incredible under dog battles they’ve had in TNA recently. For a blow off match to a feud with a massive story behind it, this is curiously understated, and the fans react as if they can tell that Lethal will be out the door soon. There are a few good exchanges, but this was never going to be anything other than a unsatisfying end to a promising feud. Under whelming.

Christopher Daniels Vs BJ Whitmer

Yaarg…excuse my while I rewind and rewatch Alison Danger dressed as an Angel a few hundred times…Christ! Lacey’s out there as well! I love Indy chicks.
Daniels and Whitmer is the feud no-one wanted to see. Whitmer has improved a lot since his early days in ROH, but his biggest strength lies in his ability to have the shit kicked out of him and land on his head a lot. Daniels biggest strength is having Joe beat the shit out of him, or a genuine flair for bullying cruiserweight wrestlers. These guys are going to suffer from neither of them being able to give the other enough offence to work with.
Luckily, we don’t have to see it happen! OK, this is where all merry hell breaks loose and a lot happens at once-
While BJ and Daniels brawl unconvincingly in the crowd, Hero, Necro and some generic CZW douches jump in the ring so that Hero can sing “Happy Birthday, Fuck You” to ROH. This brings out the locker room to spark an enormous brawl with the yarders, climaxing with Joe finally poking his frighteningly large nose into the inter-fed feud by choking out Hero. At this point someone in the crowd sets off a confetti bomb. FOR GOD’S SAKE ROH FANS, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU SOMETIMES!? ARE YOU DESPERATE TO BE NOTICED BY SOMEONE YOU’LL TRY AND CREATE THE FAN GIMMICK OF “CONFETTI MAN”!? PLEASE DIE SOMEWHERE.
As the brawlers start to return to the back, the Briscoes find themselves alone in the ring with Aries and lay a beat down on the ghey icon until his hetero life mate Strong makes the save. Somewhere in the midst of all this, the match between Whitmer and Daniels gets thrown out, so it makes perfect sense when Cabana and Homicide brawl FROM the back TO the front, and their match starts. Got all that? Tough.

Colt Cabana Vs Homicide

Ouch. I’ve not been that interested in this feud so far, but…Ouch. Cabana takes a hideous beating here.
One of the reasons I haven’t got a huge hold of this feud is Cabana. I like him fine as a worker, usually. But I just don’t buy him in a hate filled brawl, in a singlet throwing bionic elbows and butt-butts. It just didn’t seem to fit. Of course, he can’t be accused of not trying. Here, he takes some horrendous, unprotected shots into the metal rails, cuts a manly blade job, then doesn’t put his hands up for chairs thrown very hard at his head. It’s much easier to believe in a hate filled brawl when one guy is clearly dying. And Julius Smokes in great in this, as a sort of Minister Farrakhan on acid, screaming “BLEED you swine! BLEED you white swine!” at Colt.
As far as brawls go it’s average, bloody and one sided, but missing the one hysteric spark that makes these things occasionally great. It’s the booking here that makes the match. The match is I Quit rules (Apparently that’s what a ghetto fight is. I guess if you say ‘uncle’ in the ghetto they leave you alone and go do something else) but gets stopped when Cabana is about to get murdered with a coat hanger. Then Cabana gets on the mike and says fuck a lot to restart the match. This time he gets tied to the turnbuckle and has a chair thrown into his face with wince inducing velocity until the match stops again. Sure enough, Cabana is back on the mike and asking for more, until a Piledriver off the apron shuts him up for good. Perhaps because Homicide catches the table wrong, so it doesn’t break and Cabana looks like he might actually be dead. Surprisingly violent, certainly bloody enough to grab my attention to the program between the two.

Cornette cuts his trademarked awesome promo – “My mouth aint going to be writing no checks, that aint going to be signed, with genuine, Kentucky Pine!”

Bryan Danielson Vs Jimmy Rave

Fuck me, this was a bit good. I really didn’t know what to expect from a mid card title defence against Jimmy Rave, but this was main event quality and then some. Bizarrely, the main body of this match was an incredibly entertaining mat battle between the two. You don’t think of Rave as being a mat wrestler, but he was bringing the heelish holds and counters right to Danielson here. I also loved Rave’s constant filching of other peoples moves, because none of his are any good. His lame version of Danielsons’ cocky surfboard was brilliant.
Of course, Danielson is disgustingly talented for someone of his age, and we’re all very jealous. He manages to establish the fact he’s the better wrestler and still make Rave look more than competitive, and he knows how to tune his dick head heel persona up or down depending on the circumstances. Here he plays a more loveable dickhead, (his cheeky boy grin to the crowd when Nana asks him if he’s trying to kill Rave was priceless) allowing the Embassy to get the heat through their usual short cuts. He also wipes out Nana with a sweet as fuck tope late on, one of those awesome dives where the guy just doesn’t care where he lands. Nothing better.
Of course, the crowd are quite aware of how slim the chance of Rave winning the belt on the mid card of a show is, and they never quite get to the level where they’re willing to believe it’s true. Despite the slim chance of the upset, both guys do a masterful job of keeping the people involved, not by filling the time up with moves, but with shtick and spots.
In the end, Danielson gets the win with the crucifix lock/elbow flurry he beat Strong with one time. This gets a slight grumble form me, as it reeks of the injection of MMA type finishes into wrestling, something I’m very much against. Still, besides that, an outstanding match, far better than I expected, and proof that ROH are right to give this chance to Rave.

Ricky Reyes Vs Jack Evans

Jack Evans cannot die. I am now convinced of this. Find a way to watch the botch in this match, even if you don’t like ROH. The sight of the worlds biggest embarrassment to wrestling (Well, maybe second behind Steen) fluffing a double rotation moonsault and landing on his head on the cold, hard floor is one I’ll take to my grave. The match was quite fun as a result of that, an already jet lagged Evans almost dies, so he has an excuse for his sloppy offence that never seems to hit right for once. And it was loads of fun watching Reyes have no regard for Evans’ safety, powerbombing him three times mere seconds after he nearly painted the arena with his brains. Fun for a match with Jack Evans in.

AJ Styles and Matt Sydal Vs Austin Aries and Roderick Strong

Odd choice for main event this. I guess it has more star power than the World Title match, and puts the Tag Belts over, but it’s a shame that the best match of Rave’s career didn’t main event, especially considering how awesome it was.
This was a damn good match as well, but it was all Aries and Strong. I really don’t like the way Sydal was booked in this match, he’s only been with the company for a year, he’s the junior member of Gen Next and has a mentor/student relationship with AJ. Yet in the match he was booked as an equal, in fact AJ took most of the heat for their team and needed Sydal to save him many times. I understand wanting to get him over as a legitimate threat, but it just made AJ look bad and made little sense considering their respective roles in the company.
Aries and Strong really shone here. I love the way ROH pushes these guys. From their entrance, someone who knew nothing about ROH could tell these two are the company elite. They looked assured and dangerous, their moves are state of the art and legitimate and they walk in the ROH ring as if they own it. Utterly fantastic as an ‘ace’ tag team.
It’s a long match, and I’d guess we’d call it ‘formula’, in the sense that it goes AJ gets isolated, makes a hot tag, Styles and Sydal take over on Strong, Strong makes a hot tag, closing sequence. It’s nicely done though, noticeably better when the champs are on offence. The closing stretch is one of the best you’ll see in this kind of environment, they’ve deliberately not blown their wads earlier on, unlike a lot of indy guys who feel like they need to pop the crowd every 30 seconds, so when the big stuff comes out at the end the fans are hot for it. The near fall from a Sydal SSP is immense.
I mentioned Gen Next’s state of the art offence, and normally I wouldn’t waste my time talking about someone’s move set being good. But I’m really impressed with how they’ve got over their flashy stuff as meaning death for their opponents. Strong in particular used to throw far too many things out in a match, but here he uses three backbreakers in a twenty minute match, two of which are in the closing stretch. And when Gen Next start up one their move combos; Aries creaming Sydal with a rolling elbow, Strong nailing the Half Nelson Backbreaker, Aries goes up for the 450…The fans know that these sequences mean the end and come to life.
I’m not sure if this match tops Danielson/Rave for me, but both are little treasures, stuff that wont get remembered but really shone on this card. All in all it was a decent show – Three excellent matches, some average to poor matches and one red hot angle. Not the blow away extravaganza you’d expect from an Anniversary show, but definitely on the top side of ROH shows this year.

You're a starnge one Lantern, but i do value your opinion and enjoy your reviews.

I think in all actuality, Jack Evans is probably not human.

Uhhh, thanks. I think.

I have my suspicions. This move looked like instant death, I’m amazed he walked away.

I've been watching Steel Cage Warfare, Final Battle 2005 and Tag Wars these last couple of days.

I'm on the main-event of Tag Wars now and it's one of those excellent ROH shows, so much fun from start to finish and I've still got the main-event to come.

KENTA vs. Low Ki was fucking aces. Babyface Low Ki is one of the best wrestlers in the world and so is KENTA. I really enjoyed Danielson vs. Mmarufuji too.

Jack defintiely has some strange ability to walk away fine from stuff that woud kill a normal man. Like when he tried to do a backflip off the CZW cage of death and grab onto the side of the cage in mid air but slipped and flipped onto his back to the concrete from about 10 feet up and wrestle in California the next day.

Good review of the 4th Anniversary Show. Though your CZW douches and yarders comments weren't exactly warranted, mainly as almost all the CZW people involved in that angle were staff members and students...not wrestlers. And your Kevin Steen hatred is bordering on self-parody.

Caught Arena Warfare last night followed by CZW's When 2 Worlds Collide this morning.

I know it's ROH policy to darken arenas for their live events, but it really detracted from the company's first show in the old bingo hall. It didn't affect the atmosphere, though, and the crowd was buzzing all night.

Danielson is the best worker of 2006 thus far, in my opinion, and he strengthened his chances of winning Wrestler of the Year awards with a typically excellent display against Alex Shelley. Danielson's personality and mic work is far better than it was in ROH's infancy, thanks in no small part, no doubt, to extensive touring here in old Blighty.

If Danielson is best worker of 2006, then the ROH vs. CZW issue wins my vote for feud of the year thus far. The interpromotional segments were red-hot, with genuine heat and fiery brawling (with a few too many soft forearms to backs for my liking, but that's just me being picky) and the main event, its result and post-match angle played perfectly into this absorbing storyline.

Elsewhere, Matt Sydal and Austin Aries wowed the crowd with a terrific sprint, as did the four teams in the opening tag scramble. I'd peg the show as being slightly below Fourth Anniversary, but it was still great viewing all the same.

For storyline continuity, I didn't watch When 2 Worlds Collide until Arena Warfare turned up. The CZW show was, as expected, inferior to the ROH event that preceded it. However, the Combat Zone crew turned it up, compared to the January and February shows, likely due to the bigger than average crowd.

The opening six-man and El Generico vs. Justice Pain were perfectly acceptable outings, with some of the spots in both bouts (especially El Gen's awesome tope from one side of the ring to the other) causing even this here jaded jaw to drop in amazement.

Gage vs. Havoc vs. Hyde in a glass pane match and the six-way ladder match were a joy for fans of crazy highspots, and admittedly, I did enjoy moments from both matches. The main event was interesting. Generation Next fought Ruckus, Eddie Kingston and Necro Butcher in a six-man outing. Gen Next dominated most of the match, with Ruckus on much of the receiving end. In light of the main event finish from Arena Warfare, I did expect the ROH boys to go over. However, Gen Next's dominance over Ruckus was followed by further domination leading to a convincing win which meant the match was little short of an extended squash. Needless to say, CZW fans weren't singing when the ROHbot contingent in the crowd went into 'ROH! ROH!' chant mode. I thought the match would be more competitive than it was, but I guess that's the price CZW had to pay for the Arena Warfare ending.

Next up- the 'Mania weekend triumvirate of shows~!

I watched that for the first time this morning when I was looking for the 4th Anniversary clip to show people. I really couldn't work out what he was trying to accomplish, I thought he'd just missed the table...

The fact that I was easily prepared to believe that a bunch of staffers were wrestlers says a lot...

But he's getting worse

I prefer Low-Ki as a heel, when he seems to enjoy beating people up, his match against Tyler Black in IWA MS being a perfect example.

I haven't seen that match but all of Low Ki's best matches are with Ki as a babyface, he is a good heel a just beating the fuck out of people but he's so good in the ring when he's a babyface.

Uh huh, he does do the whole honourable wrestling deal well.

Altho as heel he wears that stupid bandana coving one eye, looks ridiculous.

ROH makes it’s debut in the old ECW Arena.

Homicide and Ricky Reyes Vs The Briscoe Brothers Vs The Ring Crew Express Vs Kid Mikaze and Jason Blade

I think when the Briscoes came back last show, they brought 2002 with them in a sort of weird space/time distortion kind of way. Yep, it’s a four way tag, under scramble rules. Scramble rules means if you sell anything for more than three minutes you’re disqualified. I have no idea how to rate this as a wrestling match, except to say that The Briscoes look worse than ever, and Blade and Mikaze must have got pictures of Gabe with Matt Sydal or something to get their spots in ROH.

Roderick Strong Vs Jimmy Yang

As I write this, it’s been announced that Yang is on his way back to the WWE. I said it was a shame, as I was enjoying his ROH work. After watching this match, I’m not so sure. I’m guessing some other factor was working here, because I don’t recall seeing Yang ever looking this sluggish or unmotivated. He hit an Asai moonsault without even checking where Strong was, so he had to run to catch him. I think he did the same kick spot at three different times in the match and caught air every time. He seemed to be moving in slow motion some times as well, climbing the ropes for a moonsault so slowly it got next to no reaction.
Strong looked good though. This was only a shortish match but he brought plenty of his surly confidence, as well as kicking Yang’s face out through the back of his head once in awesome style. Strong reverses a sloppy top rope rana into the Stronghold for the tap out. Yang could try harder.

I wish I had enough money to go to shows with the intention of shitting all over everything, in the vain hope John Zandig will invite me to his house to cut a ‘promo’ in his basement, while he makes lemonade upstairs.

BJ Whitmer comes out for his match with the Necro Butcher. Yay, Necro. They brawl awesomely for a while, including a pro-longed spot on the apron, teasing big moves (Teasing them very well, as both guys have a reputation for taking massive bumps like that) until The Soup Dragon makes his ROH debut! Soupy jumps Whitmer from behind and gives him the Kerb stomp and, after a bit more brawling a bit of help from Necro, a weak looking double stomp. This brings out the Briscoes and the ROH students to run them off. Hot segment with a red hot and very divided crowd. The rise of BJ Whitmer starts here folks!

Austin Aries Vs Matt Sydal

I need your feedback, this is a serious question (And a serious test of how many people actually read these things) Do you think Austin Aries looks like an overt homosexual?
Anyway, the match. I liked this more than AJ Vs Sydal, but not as much as Daniels Vs Sydal. Aries was smart enough to want to work this match with himself as the veteran and Sydal as the plucky up and comer, which is both easy to get over and logical. There was some nice mat wrestling exchanges to start off, but it came across as a little forced at times. The best parts of this match were Sydal frustrating Aries with flashy moves to counter his explosive speed, including a nifty dive to the outside, before Aries gets fed up, punches him off the apron and crushes him with his beautiful tope.
The crowd are getting quite into Sydal, and he’s getting one half of the puzzle right – he’s got peoples sympathy. However, he needs to work on showing more fire on his comebacks. He gets some decent two counts in this match, and Aries sells brilliantly for him, but he needs to draw the crowd along with him with more believable facials and passion.
In the end, Aries hits on a one of those sequences the ROH is programmed to respond to, (beginning with an awesome death kick to Sydal’s All American features) ending up with Sydal getting crushed with a 450 for the three. Good match, but Sydal is still not quite there for me.
Post match, The Briscoes jump Gen Next. Nope, still don’t want to see the match.

Irish Airborne Vs Sal Rinauro And Tony Mameluke

Urgh. This was painful. The Irish are just like that other team of skinny dudes who started recently, Blade and Mikaze, and seem to be about as good. Yeah, some lovely moves. Yeah, some nice height on that dropkick. But…who are you? What kind of person are you? Why should I care?
Sal and Tony are crap. Mameluke had about two percentile points of heat more than usual due to being in an old ECW venue, and blew that by wearing a scarf while he wrestled. Also, word to the wise, Tony – you can’t get an intense shooter gimmick over when it looks like I could kick your arse.
They wrestle in a vacuum, the fans really don’t care and can hardly be bothered to pop for the spots, but all four guys soldier on anyway, seemingly unaware that their job is to work towards an audience. In a way, that’s a good sign that the ROH audiences are starting to like workers more than workrate. Or maybe the opening scramble just used up their tolerance for flashy tag spots.
The Irish get the win in the end, with a combo of double stomps and moves onto knees (What else). Prazak screams like it’s a huge upset. I don’t think I’d miss either team if they never showed up in ROH again.

Bryan Danielson Vs Alex Shelley

Danielson probably cut the best promo of his entire career before his match. Playing into the arena’s unique crowd, the mixed reaction for both him and his opponent and the current ROH/CZW storyline to whip the fans into a frenzy before the bell. He also threatened to punch a small girl in the face.



Magic.
Then, after about thirty seconds of match, Shelley gets on the mike and cuts an awesome promo himself (I particularly liked “Don’t patronise me, you pieces of shit” to those chanting for him) Must be something about the air in the old ECW arena that does it…
So this was fucking great. Not quite as good as the Rave match, but still tons of good stuff. It was worked more heel/heel than the Rave defence, where AmDrag took on an anti-hero roll. Here, he’s flipping off the fans as he destroys Shelley’s knees and taunting the one or two dickweeds who chant ‘boring’ with an ABDOMINAL…STRETCH! He’s awesome here, heelishly pounding Shelley’s lower extremities to powder whilst mocking the fat guy in the front row. When Shelley takes over he turns the crowd back to AmDrag’s side by leaving his TNA move set alone and hitting a bunch of simple neckbreakers instead. Smart lad, this prevents much of the heat Danielson has built up as the badass shifting over, so when the big segment pops up, the crowd spark in the favour of Danielson for the closing stretch. As far as big transitions go, this is a goodie. Nana holds AmDrag for a tope, not realising this never works, and as a result not only does Shelley wipe him out by mistake, he smashes his nicely coiffured head into the metal barrier with wince inducing force. Danielson then chucks them both over the barrier and sends ten thousand volts through the crowd by hitting a breath taking springboard dive onto them both. Someone else used to do that in this arena a lot, but he’ll probably never be as good as Danielson is at 23.
From here on in the match is all fire and noise, with exchanges of stiff forearms, Shelley reaching a bit deeper for some flash to counter AmDrag’s muscle, and a truly awesome exchange for the pin. The crowd are really up for it, and when Shelley hits a series of Brainbusters for a furnace-hot two and segues into the border city stretch, they can taste the upset. Unfortunately for lovers of Japanese Ikemen hairstyles, it was not meant to be; Danielson rolls through a Sliced Bread #2 into Cattle Mutilation into a flash pin quicker than you can blink. Another outstanding title defence from AmDrag.
Post match, Danielson very sincerely trashes CZW. Yup.

Colt Cabana Vs Christopher Daniels

Originally meant to be Daniels Vs Joe Vs Cabana, Joe’s flight from Mexico was delayed so it was announced he’d take on the winner immediately after this match. Oh dear, that’s a bit…poor.
So Cabana and Daniels. Daniels and Cabana. This is one of those times when I just knew that I was going to hate the match. Both guys have the same biggest weakness – a tendency towards making their matches look like exhibitions. When they’ve got the right opponent, they can be snapped out of it (Ironically, Joe has had great matches with both guys) but here they just fell into each others bad zone. One of those examples of a match that has nothing wrong with it in one sense – nice moves, good timing, ‘psychology’ (ugh), a story…but is done in such a soulless and empty way that it’s impossible to feel. So the fans applaud the moonsaults and clever reversals, and I counter the mind numbing effect by imagining what other outfits Danger could wear to second Daniels (I’m thinking a devil is logical…Hey, I have to be honest in these things)
So Daniels works over Cabana’s ribs (Psychology, you see…Yawn) Colt fights back, we go to the omnipresent finisher reversals sequence and Cabana wins with a folding press. It had a tough job, this match – following a heated affair and missing it’s star player. Still, pretty crappy.

Samoa Joe Vs Colt Cabana

Joe comes out in street clothes, but it’s Joe so he still looks like a god of war or something. He immediately goes after both guys and removes Daniels from the equation before hitting a big move combo on Colt.
This match had two purposes – Get Joe out there so the fans don’t riot, and make Cabana look good whilst doing so. It succeeds (There is no riot, anyway) to a point, but having Colt kick out a Muscle Buster and escaping the choke both seemed like cheap and artificial ways to get him over. Still, he throws some nice right hands in his mini comeback, and gets a nice reaction for his hope spot before a second Muscle Buster ends it. Too short to make much of an impression, but did it’s job.

Now for the post match shenanigans. First of all, I’m still laughing at the knob who threw toilet roll at Joe and tried to run, only to be blocked by other fans. Shame Joe didn’t scrape his face off, but what can you do?
Second of all, this angle was fucking great. I knew what was coming, and was still excited by the brawling. I even felt bad for Whitmer being tortured, and I normally care little for the guy (Never forgave him for abusing Danger, you see) The only downside for me was Zandig and his pathetic attempts to make himself the centre of the feud, going after Joe when he knew that he couldn’t come back at him, and shouting “When you mess with CZW, you mess with John Zandig!” into the camera. What a douche. I always used to think he looked like a 14 year old girl with glandular problems, but tonight he looked like a 14 year old girl with glandular problems cosplaying as Paul Heyman.
Apart from that, a really hot angle. You could feel the life go out of the ROH fans as Whitmer was raped in the ring. This is the first time I really felt this feud kick into high gear. Lets see whether they can sustain the momentum.

A weird show, this one. In a lot of ways it felt poor, the tag matches were both awful, Aries/Sydal was just OK, the main was bad, Strong and Yang was disappointing. I would equate it to an early ROH show – it had a lot dross, including some stuff that gives all indy wrestling a bad name, but it also had one, balls to the wall, blow away match. Of course, unlike 2002, this ROH show also had a red hot angle that really sucked me in, and I the fact that I can’t wait to see what happens next is more important than a few under par matches.

I'm still waiting for Arena Warfare

*taps fingers on desk*



You're missing 'Best in the World' there - the NYC show on March 25 featuring KENTA and Marufuji.

that kid looks terrified of AMdrag

Credit: http://ROHEurope.com

I got the 4th Anniversary show and Arena Warfare the other day and didn't paticularly like either show very much.

The CZW angles were the best things on both shows and smoking fucking hot.

The only matches I really enjoyed and would rewatch are Homicide/Cabana, Danielson/Rave and Danielson/Shelley which were all amazing.These DVDs pretty much reminded me of why I stopped watching ROH 18 months ago. While alot of people really enjoy their product, it just doesn't work for me. The pitch black crowds, the commentary, the personalities (or lack thereof in a large number of cases) of the wrestlers, the trampoline ring, the promotion as a whole feels so....soulless. There are things I really like in there. Danielson's work and The Rottwielers in paticular but most of the mid and lowercard wrestlers don't do it for me.

I'll definitely buy the shows with the CZW brawls on them but I doubt I'll ever be a full-time ROH watcher.

Arena Warfare was really poor from match by match point of view, but the World Title match was fantatsic and the CZW storyline is very engaging indeed.

Fourth Anniversary was a mixed bag. Rave Vs Danielson was superb, the main event was very good indeed, Cabana Vs Homicide was excellent. The rest of the show was poor to average.

And I love the dark crowd! Makes the shows look so much more professional when you can’t see the goddamn basketball hoops…

If ROH want to look proffessional they shouldn't start their DVDs off with Christopher Daniels talking bollocks in a seemingly endless car journey to the ECW arena.

Seriously, that was probably one of the most cringe-worthy promos ever. It was obvious Daniels was just stalling and talking out of his arse because they didn't think there would be so many stops and traffic on the way to the arena. And they definitely shouldn't finish shows off with "To Be Continued..." on the screen.

On a positive note though, the music videos on the 4YA were excellent.

The 'To Be Continued...' thing is a gimmick for the Milestone Series of shows, from 4th anniversary to the 100th show. The idea being the series of shows is greater than the sum of it's parts.

Speaking of the shows, I watched Arena Warfare today.

Danielson vs Shelley is awesome, I think I disagree with the majority and prefer it to the Rave match. Watching Danielson work the ECW Arena crowd is like magic.

I enjoyed Aries vs Sydal quite a lot, too.

The rest of the show wasn't up to ROH's recent standards in general, but it was fun just for the atmosphere. The whole CZW thing disappointed me a little bit, but I'm blaming that on the fact I'd already watched bits on the recap videos at ROHvideos.com

'Best in the World' and 'Dragon Gate Challenge Series' have just been released on DVD, so I'll be after them soon, but the current sale is buy three, get one free and I'm otherwise up to date, so I might wait for a little bit. I've got other stuff to watch, anyway.

Best in the World was standard ROH fare. Nothing glaringly bad, logical storylines and plenty of sound in-ring action.

There weren't any notable storyline events, as such, other than Bryan Danielson dropping the pin in the tag main event between he and Joe against NOAH's Marufuji and KENTA (who pinned AmDrag in a great match that somehow felt disappointing consider who was involved). I'd peg the match at ****.

The opening matches involving Jimmy Rave were nothing special, and only served as an opportunity to get that great visual of Rave and Nana being pelted by a barrage of bog rolls.

Elsewhere, the SHIMMER four corners was refreshingly good. For someone that sits through WWE diva matches on a weekly basis, watching women who don't stumble through spot after spot is nice to see. At least this match gave me the motivation to check out the two SHIMMER DVDs sitting on my 'to watch' pile.

Daniels vs. Shelley and Briscoes vs. Evans and Strong were also fine outings, though really, this DVD was more of an appetiser for the 'Mania weekend triple bill. Speaking of which, I'll have Dragon Gate Challenge Series tomorrow, and I can't wait to check it out.

Has Davey Richards debuted yet?

He suffered an injury which pushed his debut back to the June 3rd show. He’ll be taking on Jimmy Rave, who is currently fucking awesome and owns you. Richards has been hyped to me as “my kind of wrestler” so I’m expecting a lot.

Here are my RATINGS~ for ROH's March 30th show, Dragon Gate Challenge:

1. Homicide vs. Colt Cabana: **1/4
2. Ricky Reyes vs. Chad Collyer: ***1/4
3. BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs: ***3/4
4. Jimmy Yang vs. Ryo Saito: **1/2
5. Alex Shelley & Jimmy Rave vs. Bryan Danielson & Delirious: ***1/2
6. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Shane Haggadorn: *1/2
7. A.J. Styles & Matt Sydal vs. Dragon Kid & Genki Horiguchi: ***3/4
8. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans vs. CIMA & Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino: ****1/4
9. Christopher Daniels vs. Samoa Joe: ****

From a match quality perspective, this was quite possibly the strongest top-to-bottom ROH show I've ever seen. Just fantastic.

I wasn't expecting much from Collyer vs. Reyes, but they produced a pretty good submissions-based match.

Whitmer vs. Jacobs followed on from their break-up a few shows back, and they knocked out a really good ECW-style spotfest. Whitmer has really grown as a worker over the last year, and he must be under consideration for a World title opportunity before year's end.

The Embassy vs. Danielson & Delirious bout was another hoot. Shelley and Rave remind me of The Hollywood Blondes, but of course they're still a way off reaching Pillman and Austin levels of greatness when those two were together. This followed your standard tag team formula but the work was good from all involved.

Styles & Sydal vs. Dragon Kid & Genki was excellent. Not quite as great as it could've been, because Styles had a rare off-night with two or three miscommunications. That aside, everything was crisp and built well, and the closing stretch was sizzlingly hot.

With the previous two ROH vs. DG matches being split in this best-of-three series, the next six-man bout was the decider. Holy shit was this great! Blood Gen brought their own brand of rudo posturing to the ROH ring and their work even had puro cynic Jim Cornette raving.

The big heat segment was, predictably, the DG boys working over Jack Evans. Once the hot tag came, though, we went into typical DG overdrive with the match moving faster than Naz's Mercedes SLR and one hot spot after another. Real credit to both teams, because the ROH boys aren't accustomed to working at this frenetic pace, and the DG workers are used to performing in bigger rings. This went over a treat live and was the perfect way to deliver this kind of sprint with its advanced DG psychology where tons of spots all crammed into twenty minutes can still mean something. This was a pleasure to watch.

The main event had a really hard act to follow, but Daniels and Joe nearly managed it. Of course, the pace was slowed down compared to what preceeded it, but the match built into another gem. It was what you'd expect, with an outing not too dissimilar to the TNA Impact belter. Daniels won it with three BMEs.

Though storyline advancement, in terms of tying the previous few shows in with this, was somewhat lacking- the event centred around the DG vs. ROH series. From that point of view, this show was perfectly acceptable in that regard, and for in-ring, it was easily the best show I've seen this year. Highly recommended.

BJ Whitmer has challenged the Necro Butcher on a promo on ROHVideos.com to a No Rope Barbed Wire Match in Dayton, Ohio.

Whitmers gonna kill you! Whitmers gonna kill you!!

War of the Wire 2? It'll have a hard act to follow compared to Corino vs Homicide.

Nice thoughts on Dragon Gate Challenge there mo - I'm waiting for the April 1st show, then I have enough tapes needed for a buy three, get one free sale.

That match is going to be Necro at his getting his ass handed to him best!

Hooray for Shingo squashing Reyes. Hopefully they'll give him a big push, the guys insanely talented.

So, the end of Generation Next. It makes sense, being as the group was built around taking the top spots in the promotion, and Aries and Strong are now two of the top dogs. I wonder what Evans and Sydal think about this though...

The build to Danielson/Joe continues. The only other singles match they had in ROH was at Midnight Express Reunion, and it ruled all. Both are guys are far better wrestlers now...

Have they ended Gen Next though? Just because they don't want to be called Gen Next doesn't mean they're not all still a group. It could also mean they don't want the Aries/Strong tag team to be called Gen Next as that's the groups name.

They have actually had three singles match in RoH, at 'Revenge on the Prophecy', 'One Year Anniversary Show', 'Midnight Express Reunion'

sydal was still in generation next even though he had several matches with aries and strong? wierd

It made perfect sense. Gen Next was about taking the top spots in ROH. And Sydal did just that - only the top spots where occupied by Aries & Strong so he faced them to get there spots, just like the taught him to.

I hate it when ROH kill off a group then keep them together. They've done it before and it pissed me off then. They killed off the Prophercy and then kept Whitmer & Maff together. Generation Next was about taking the top spots, and they had them a year ago!! Why only decide to kill it now!!

Isnt it weird that Reyes was squashed when he has been squashing people for quite a while?

He never squashed anyone of consequence though. Last night's show looks decent. I've just ordered 'Best in the World' through to the 100th show on DVD, so hopefully I can start getting some thoughts up by next weekend.

I caught Supercard of Honor a few days ago. It's the second of three shows that took place over three days prior to WrestleMania 22, and the first of two in Chicago. The line-up of the show, and my star ratings are:

1. Ricky Reyes vs. Delirious vs. Flash Flanagan vs. Shane Hagadorn (Four Corner Survival) **1/4
2. Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Jimmy Yang **1/2
3. Ace Steel vs. Chad Collyer (First Blood Match) **
4. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal vs. Austin Aries & Jack Evans ***3/4
5. Do Fixer (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi, & Ryo Saito) vs. Blood Generation (CIMA, Naruki Doi, & Masato Yoshino) *****
6. MsChif vs. Cheerleader Melissa vs. Allison Danger vs. Daizee Haze vs. Lacey vs. Rain (SHIMMER 6 Way Match) ***1/2
7. Homicide vs. Mitch Franklin 1/2*
8. Homicide vs. Colt Cabana *
9. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Jimmy Jacobs ***1/4
10. Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong (ROH World Title Match) ****1/2

Thoughts

The prior night's show in Detroit was ace. This show, in front of one of ROH's biggest ever crowds, was perhaps even better.

The opening three matches were pretty bog-standard. Delirious being Delirious was the highlight of the opener, with the pre-match bog roll bombardment being the most notable moment of a slightly disappointing second contest. Match three was the continuation of a feud nobody gives a shit about. What Collyer and Steel did was OK, but the ROH fans don't care about either of them.

The next match was miles better. It was handshakes all around as both teams played face in an athletic and action-packed effort that was nearly as good as the February match between Aries, Strong, Styles and Sydal. Both teams had lengthy periods where enjoyed offence before it all melted down into an unashamed spotfest. Generation Next fell to the Styles and Sydal alliance, though, when Jack Evans was pinned by Matt Sydal following a shooting star press. As hot as the action was in this tag match, it paled in comparison to what followed.

Do Fixer's Genki Horiguchi, Dragon Kid and Ryo Saito fought Blood Generation's Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi and CIMA in one of the classic matches of this decade. In fact, the only match I've seen since the dawn of the millennium that I would rate above this one would be the amazing Kobashi vs. Misawa contest on March 1, 2003. It was that good.

I've followed the evolution of the Dragon Gate style since Ultimo Dragon launched Toryumon years back. Since then, Toryumon and Dragon Gate has proved to be one of the finest proving grounds for junior heavyweights in all of wrestling, with a progressive style that mixes state-of-the-art moves with what Gabe Sapolsky describes as 'advanced psychology'. All six guys involved in this match work a full-time touring schedule with one another, and this regularity of work has allowed the Dragon Gate roster to become an extremely polished and talented crew of performers. And boy did they perform in Chicago.

The match started out at a relatively pedestrian pace, with an initial feeling out process leading into sustained spells where both teams enjoyed the advantage. The second half of this twenty-minute scorcher was something else as both teams shifted through the gears until they hit sixth gear for an incredible crescendo of amazing moves and near-falls. Really, matches with this much happening really shouldn't work but this was far from overkill because the style is so smart and sophisticated, moves can be sold properly whilst the pace is maintained because the action switches around between performers in a seamless manner.

I've seen some fantastic Dragon Gate matches of a similar ilk in the past but this was at another level entirely. It appeared that all six had a point to prove and really wanted to show this foreign audience what Dragon Gate, its style and performers are all about. That's why the extra effort resulted in all six pulling out all the stops, and then some, in an effort to upstage those other Japanese wrestlers, such as Kenta Kobashi and KENTA, who had fought in some critically-acclaimed barnburners for ROH last year. Indeed, so great was the action, the assembled throng chanted in unison, "please don't stop". Even this jaded fan felt compelled to join them. This was something special and in my opinion, it's the leading contender for match of the year honours. Dragon Kid finally ended it with a beautiful Dragonrana on Doi.

Six female wrestlers from the Shimmer promotion had the unenviable task of following that match. To their credit, they put in an admirable performance with relatively crisp and tidy work which was of a far greater quality than most WWE diva 'matches'. As a showcase for the Shimmer promotion, it was definitely a match which would encourage most viewers to check out the fledgling female league.

The Homicide vs. Colt Cabana feud continued after this. Homicide squashed a nobody by the name of Mitch Franklin (presumably not related to Rich- sorry... I'll get my coat). Straight after this, Cabana came out and decided to go at it with his adversary of the last few months ahead of their final confrontation scheduled for the following night. Homicide overcame Cabana's attack and pounded Colt with the aid of a ladder and chair. A nice heat-up segment for the feud's finale.

No sooner was that segment over, so CZW's Chris Hero and Necro Butcher invaded the ROH ring to keep this belter of a feud going. Needless to say, Hero didn't praise ROH for hosting an excellent Dragon Gate match; rather he blasted the promotion in his own cocky way. Naturally, this brought Adam Pearce, Claudio Castagnoli and Jim Cornette out to deal with Zandig's henchmen. Hero and Necro dealt with the ROH boys until Samoa Joe, a cast-wearing BJ Whitmer and a zillion ROH students headed to the ring to run the CZW contingent out of the building. Not surprisingly, this was the most heated segment of the show and kept the feud simmering until the next round of all-out warfare could resume in Philadelphia three weeks later.

The penultimate three-way match was about what you'd expect, considering the participants. Really, the three were in a no-win situation, partly because of the short time allocation for the match (less than ten minutes- most likely because the show was running long) and the Dragon Gate and main event matches were always likely to steal the show. Not that that's a bad thing. It becomes numbing when an indy show has one match after another going for fifteen plus minutes with everyone trying their best to have a four-star-plus contest. Varying the pace of the show in this way works well for NOAH, and it's nice to see that ROH book their shows with a similar philosophy. Joe emerged victorious after choking out Jacobs.

Onto the main event, then. Bryan Danielson and Roderick Strong were no strangers coming into this one, with Strong having unsuccessfully fought Danielson last October and November in a pair of stellar outings. Expectations were high, with Danielson in imperious form since beating James Gibson for the ROH World title last September, and Strong having been consistently great in terms of in-ring for much of the last eighteen months.

The match went 56 minutes, with the first twenty minutes fought at a slow pace, though it was never boring. The action began to pick up around the half-way stage as both guys began to bust out some of their bigger moves and the action spilled into the crowd. Going past the fifty-minute mark, the match was tremendously absorbing because the chance of an upset victory for Strong was, well, strong. That and the action itself kept the fans hooked on what was happening in the ring, even though the show had run well past midnight. Just when it appeared that the bout would go the distance, Danielson pulled off the title-retaining victory with a roll-up variation.

Overall, this was a tremendous showcase for ROH, that had many people attending their first show produced by the company due to all the WWE fans in town that weekend. They surely must've been impressed with the event that featured a little something of everything. Hot wrestling of differing styles, interesting storylines and even a great promo (cut by Jim Cornette at the start of the show which ran down CZW and which also saw Samoa Joe and Adam Pearce beat up a pair of vanilla midgets dressed up as CZW workers). Even for ROH's most devout followers, this was quite the show and was amongst the company's best ever events. In an age when so many wrestling promotions are struggling both financially and creatively, it's refreshing to watch a wrestling promotion that has so many positive qualities about it. Long may this level of quality continue.

I of course meant to type "last singles match"

Yeah, but Shingo is awesome. He therefore deserves a huge push where he can throw little guys around and pose a lot, followed by a title reign of some kind.

Agreed.

As far as I know, Shingo is hanging around in the US for quite a while, right? I wonder if there's a chance he could be on the Liverpool/Broxbourne ROH shows?