TRADITION CONTINUES

October 16, 2003

So tradition is apparently continuing at this show, although exactly *what* tradition is continuing is beyond me. Yes, Baltimore does have a long history with wrestling (which is brought up), but Bruno vs. Superstar, Great American Bash, and 2003 ROH. One of these things isn’t like the other . . .

Chris Sabin . . . looks to score his first win in ROH, but winds up having a very bad night.

CM Punk . . . has quite the nice match with AJ Styles, although it falls short of expectations given the participants.

The Briscoe Brothers . . . show exactly how far they’ve come as workers in the years since this took place.

I guess the Samoa Joe/Prince Nana bit at the beginning could technically be a match (there was a bell), but there isn’t a ref and ROH doesn’t list it amongst Joe’s successful title defenses. It leads to the confrontation between Joe and Jay Briscoe (the #1 contender, who challenges for the title tonight), which erupts into a brawl.

MARCOS/DUNN vs. DANNY DORING/JOSH DANIELS vs. SLUGGER/GRIM REEFER vs. SLYCK WAGNER BROWN/SONJAY DUTT

There are some amusing bits to this, but this more or less your typical ROH scramble match, truckloads of spots and little else of any great depth. The only ones who don’t add anything are Slyck and Daniels, Doring isn’t anything outstanding, but at least he has name recognition. Reefer and Dutt are both clearly trying to impress, which they do with a few nice exchanges and they both add some nice flying spots to the mix. Dunn and Marcos also look good, they’re the only ones smart enough to take down Slugger, and Dunn has a nice exchange with Daniels and Marcos with Doring, but Doring and Daniels should be able to wipe the floor with Dunn and Marcos. The finish is the usual multi man (or team, in this case) affair with the finish simply being the fact that Slugger hits the body bag on Dunn with nobody able to save.

MATT STRYKER vs. CHRIS SABIN (Field of Honor Block A)

You’d probably think that this would be a real treat, given how good these two can be, but not on this night. They didn’t seem to be on the same page at all, and the match felt more like them trying to throw a bunch of stuff against the wall and see what sticks. It didn’t help that Stryker was pretty sloppy throughout, he nearly killed Sabin with a powerslam and busted him open with an ugly DVD. Stryker rolling through the crucifix and muscling Sabin up for the DVD was a good idea in theory, but clearly not in execution. There were some pretty things going on, Sabin’s springboard heel kick and Stryker’s big boot before the first DVD attempt both looked good, but the match as a whole was anything but.

COLT CABANA vs. BJ WHITMER (Field of Honor Block B)

They aren’t nearly as sloppy as Stryker was with Sabin, but this is also pretty dull. Honestly, the best thing here was Cabana’s comedy, especially the spot where he tripped over BJ while he was running the ropes. There was another funny moment when Cabana seemed to have it won with the claw, only for BJ to show he was faking and easily turn the tables on Cabana. The moves they use are fine, there’s nothing especially ugly or botched, but there’s no story or meaning behind anything they do. Cabana’s win with a flash cradle is fine, Cabana would later become known for his ability on the mat, but at this point it looks more like a fluke than anything else.

TRENT ACID/JOHNNY KASHMERE © vs. IZZY/DIXIE (ROH Tag Team Titles)

Who would have guessed that the first match to tell any kind of story would be the Special K match? The match itself is the usual formula tag match, with a continuation from the gauntlet match at the previous show (where Acid and Kashmere beat Izzy and Dixie to win the titles). The champions control to start, but then it gets interesting when Special K takes Kashmere out on the floor and leaves Acid on his own. Izzy and Dixie aren’t the most interesting workers on the roster (not that they’ve ever needed to be) but they’re decent enough at working over Acid, Izzy’s reverse rana was a great way to keep him in trouble.

Acid finally makes the tag and it looks to be a repeat of the gauntlet match, with them busting out their usual double teams and the other Special K members interfering with no luck, and Dixie gets hit with the T-Gimmick which is how the Backseats won the titles won the titles. But this time the ref gets pulled out, and Izzy hits Acid with the title belt for a near fall, and one springboard splash from Dixie gives Special K the upset of the year, and makes the commentators go into heart failure. The match itself wasn’t anything special (although it blows away the two tournament matches before it), but it was nice to see them try to tell a story and play off the previous match rather than just go spot crazy.

AJ STYLES vs. CM PUNK

It’s plain to see that this isn’t a bad match, but it falls hugely sort what AJ Styles vs. CM Punk should be. The work has a sort of taking turns feel to it, up until Punk starts to single out Styles’ back, they just traded strikes and moves without any particular rhyme or reason. When it comes to the back work, it’s clear they’ve got good ideas for spots, but there’s not much else. AJ doesn’t sell as though he’s in any real trouble and, aside from the single STF, Punk just tosses out spots.

The nice things here are counters, they’ve both got some good ideas that get put to use. Punk singles out AJ’s back when he sees Styles going for his quebrada DDT and he yanks him down off the apron and slams him into the rail. There’s another good moment when Style back drops Punk out of the Pepsi Plunge, only to have Punk holds on and sunset flip powerbomb him. Punk outsmarts himself by escaping a super Styles Clash, but then running himself directly into the regular Styles Clash, by going for a Shining Wizard, which finishes him off. It’s just too bad it took them nearly half the match to finally find their grove, because this got good in a hurry once they did. ***

DAN MAFF vs. JIMMY RAVE (Field of Honor Block B)

This was good for continuing the story of Rave’s losing streak and unwillingness to get aggressive, but that’s about it. Maff handles Rave with ease at first, bounces him off the guardrails, fakes out the fans by feigning that he’s going throw Rave into the crowd only to roll him back in, and seems to have everything well at hand. Rave gets a lucky break with a running knee that seems to have aggravated Maff’s neck (injured by Low Ki in August), and doesn’t take advantage opting to let Maff recover and then commence with the beating. Rave surprises Maff and gets the crossface, but it’s another case where Rave didn’t do enough to make the hold work for him. Maff powers out and finishes off Rave with the burning hammer to end the Field of Honor for Rave with zero points.

RAVEN vs. JUSTIN CREDIBLE

Well this was a good way to give the fans some ECW nostalgia, as well as keep Raven away from Punk and Credible away from Special K, but this isn’t anything special. There’s a lot of brawling at first, and then Justin starts working over Raven’s leg. Raven’s selling is great, but Credible’s work isn’t very good, it’s a lot of kicking, stomping, and dropping down on the leg, along with a poor looking figure four. The ref gets bumped, Justin tries using a chair and it backfires, and Raven finishes him off with the DDT. Aside from being so short, this would have looked right at home in ECW (not that it’d have been any better there).

HOMICIDE vs. MARK BRISCOE vs. XAVIER vs. JOHN WALTERS

If not for the Walters/Xavier issue, which had started the month before with Xavier’s cheap Field of Honor win over Walters, then this would be just another ROH four-way match. It’s the usual length and features the usual, prerequisite, spots like the train wreck spot were Walters tries to powerbomb Homicide while he’s giving Briscoe a superplex. There’s the big dive sequence where everyone dives to the floor on top of the pile, which lets Mark bust out his SSP for no good reason other than to show he can do it, and the crazy submission, where Walters has Briscoe in a camel clutch while, at the same time, holds Xavier in an Indian deathlock. The finish boils down to little more than the winner hitting the finisher without anyone being poised to break it up. There’s also the frustrating lack of selling from Mark, when he gets spiked with two powerbombs *and* a piledriver, and pops up like Kobashi taking a German from Misawa in ‘99.

The Walters/Xavier feud being the central theme here winds up making this a good match, for a change, by teasing the issue and then having it pay off rather than having to wait to see them duke it out. It starts with Xavier cheap shotting Walters while he’s on the apron, which Walters returns the favor for, as well as Xavier opting to tag out rather than throw down with Walters when they’re both legal. When they do finally settle up, it doesn’t disappoint, both of them show plenty of hatred and intensity. Xavier tries the low blow that won last time (which is done extra slowly to make sure Walters can catch his leg), but, like Jimmy Rave, Walters doesn’t take advantage when he has the chance. Xavier goes to the eyes and then hits the Kiss Your X Goodbye to get another one over on Walters, thus justifying their participation in the match. Considering how often ROH puts on these four-ways it’s too bad they didn’t follow suit from this one and use them to further feuds, rather than them just being a convenient excuse to get four random workers on the show. ***

If only Jay hadn’t lost his mind then this would have been OK. It starts out looking like a typical, but fun, Vet vs. Kid match from Japan. Joe is more worried about giving a beating than he is about winning, because he doesn’t see Jay as a viable threat (not that he should given how Jay’s ROH career had been panning out at this point in time). Jay takes the beating fine, his selling isn’t anything great, but it’s passable. But then Jay goes nuts and decides that all the abuse from Joe didn’t really hurt him after all. He just leaps to his feet and starts throwing out spots like he hadn’t just been getting his ass handed to him. Granted, Jay’s worst moment pales in comparison to what Mark pulled in the last match, but it was still totally unnecessary.

Jay manages to add a few nice touches, to ensure that he’s not a total drain on the match. His counter of the abdominal stretch to the DVD was what he should have been doing from the start to take control, not jumping up and deciding it’s his turn to do stuff. He also smartly uses his teeth to escape the choke, and that leads to a smart moment from Joe, who grabs Jay and kills him with a dragon suplex. The near fall from the Island driver was a good way to give Jay a little rub, considering that Joe had downed Danielson and Daniels with the Island driver before, and Joe sees that Jay is all but dead and he finishes him off with a big lariat. At the end of the day, this is just like the Styles/Punk affair, once they got on the same page, it was fine, but it took them (well, Jay) far too long to get there.

Conclusion: This show title is a big fat lie. This sure as hell doesn’t continue a tradition of great wrestling in Baltimore. It’s good for continuing storylines, like Rave’s losing streak and the Xavier/Walters feud, but if you’re looking for great wrestling this isn’t it.