ROH War of the Wire
ROH War of the Wire (11/29/2003)- Framingham, MA
OPENING PROMOS: Steve Cornio- GREAT! Samoa Joe- Good Homicide- okay. Julius Smokes needs to shut up.
THE BACKSTEAT BOYZ vs. FAST EDDIE & HOTSTUFF HERNANDEZ- 5.25/10
Only watch this match if you like CM Punk more than you like Shawn Hernandez, because Punk was pretty brutal to him on commentary. Hernandez has definitely improved a lot in the last seven years.
TAG TEAM SCRAMBLE MATCH: The SAT, The Carnage Crew& Slugger vs. SPECIAL K (Dixie, Lit, Hydro, Angeldust, & Hi-Jinks)-5.75/10. I wasn’t in to the spottiness of the this match, but the story was good.
SLUGGER did a DIVE (for those of you who have never seen him before, Slugger looks like a cross between Mark Henry and The Great Khali, but with more talent).
CM PUNK PROMO- the usual Punk awesomeness.
GAUNTLET MATCH:
JIMMY RAVE vs. CM PUNK vs. MATT STRYKER vs. COLT CABANA vs. BJ WHITMER- 7/10 as an overall whole. Punk vs. Rave was great, though.
Punk hit Rave with a low blow right in front of the ref, but there was no DQ.
SLYK WAGNER BROWN & APRIL HUNTER vs. THE OUTKAST KILLAZ- DUD!
This match was “joined in progress” which annoyed me. It is a DVD product, and we know how ROH operates. We know that they have a hard-camera on the ring at all times. Don’t pretend that you don’t have the rest of the footage of this match when we all know that you do. Even worse was that, on commentary, Gabe tried to sell it as cheap win for the victors when it wasn’t.
XAVIER PROMO- great. Got the crowd amazingly hot for the next match.
XAVIER vs. JOHN WALTERS- 7.25/10. Great match! This match by itself is making me seriously consider buying Final Battle 2003 just to see more of these two. Great aftermath, too, to set up their Fight Without Honor at Final Battle
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Briscoe Brothers(c) vs. The Prophecy (Dan Maff & Christopher Daniels)- 7.25/10. Good match with a good story, but one thing I absolutely HATED about early ROH was that DQ’s were at the referee’s discretion, and this was often just used as an excuse to allows heels to blatantly cheat or get a chairshot in to make a match “cooler.” Here, Allison Danger JUMPED INTO THE RING AND HIT ONE OF THE COMPETITORS. That should be a DQ! Then she stayed in the ring for a while longer, doing other stuff! You can’t have a promotion so focused on rules, and then not enforce them! For me, that brought this match down a lot (from at least a 7.5, maybe higher).
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Samoa Joe(c) vs. AJ Styles- 8.25/10
NO-ROPE BARBED WIRE MATCH: Homicide vs. Steve Corino- 8.25/10. Lots of good teases here. Great aftermath, followed by an awesome promo by Corino
GOOD TIMES GREAT MEMORIES WITH THE SAT- good hype
MATT STRYKER-BJ WHITMER CONFRONTATION- even more good hype. I might actually buy the next show.
Overall, this show was very good, with two matches you should go out of your way to see, as well as some other good stuff.
OPENING PROMOS: Steve Cornio- GREAT! Samoa Joe- Good Homicide- okay. Julius Smokes needs to shut up.
THE BACKSTEAT BOYZ vs. FAST EDDIE & HOTSTUFF HERNANDEZ- 5.25/10
Only watch this match if you like CM Punk more than you like Shawn Hernandez, because Punk was pretty brutal to him on commentary. Hernandez has definitely improved a lot in the last seven years.
TAG TEAM SCRAMBLE MATCH: The SAT, The Carnage Crew& Slugger vs. SPECIAL K (Dixie, Lit, Hydro, Angeldust, & Hi-Jinks)-5.75/10. I wasn’t in to the spottiness of the this match, but the story was good.
SLUGGER did a DIVE (for those of you who have never seen him before, Slugger looks like a cross between Mark Henry and The Great Khali, but with more talent).
CM PUNK PROMO- the usual Punk awesomeness.
GAUNTLET MATCH:
JIMMY RAVE vs. CM PUNK vs. MATT STRYKER vs. COLT CABANA vs. BJ WHITMER- 7/10 as an overall whole. Punk vs. Rave was great, though.
Punk hit Rave with a low blow right in front of the ref, but there was no DQ.
SLYK WAGNER BROWN & APRIL HUNTER vs. THE OUTKAST KILLAZ- DUD!
This match was “joined in progress” which annoyed me. It is a DVD product, and we know how ROH operates. We know that they have a hard-camera on the ring at all times. Don’t pretend that you don’t have the rest of the footage of this match when we all know that you do. Even worse was that, on commentary, Gabe tried to sell it as cheap win for the victors when it wasn’t.
XAVIER PROMO- great. Got the crowd amazingly hot for the next match.
XAVIER vs. JOHN WALTERS- 7.25/10. Great match! This match by itself is making me seriously consider buying Final Battle 2003 just to see more of these two. Great aftermath, too, to set up their Fight Without Honor at Final Battle
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Briscoe Brothers(c) vs. The Prophecy (Dan Maff & Christopher Daniels)- 7.25/10. Good match with a good story, but one thing I absolutely HATED about early ROH was that DQ’s were at the referee’s discretion, and this was often just used as an excuse to allows heels to blatantly cheat or get a chairshot in to make a match “cooler.” Here, Allison Danger JUMPED INTO THE RING AND HIT ONE OF THE COMPETITORS. That should be a DQ! Then she stayed in the ring for a while longer, doing other stuff! You can’t have a promotion so focused on rules, and then not enforce them! For me, that brought this match down a lot (from at least a 7.5, maybe higher).
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Samoa Joe(c) vs. AJ Styles- 8.25/10
NO-ROPE BARBED WIRE MATCH: Homicide vs. Steve Corino- 8.25/10. Lots of good teases here. Great aftermath, followed by an awesome promo by Corino
GOOD TIMES GREAT MEMORIES WITH THE SAT- good hype
MATT STRYKER-BJ WHITMER CONFRONTATION- even more good hype. I might actually buy the next show.
Overall, this show was very good, with two matches you should go out of your way to see, as well as some other good stuff.