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Official Indy DVD Discussion Thread

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Anatomy of a Feud: ROH vs. CZW


Matches: Thirty Two
Duration: Eight months.
Blood spilt: immeasurable

This would be the final tally of one of the greatest feuds of the modern generation. Five years after the death of the original ECW, its two spiritual successors (Ring of Honor, the third largest US promotion, and CZW, ECW's bastard love child) vied for dominance as the #1 indie promotion. The animosity between the promotions' stances on what wrestling should be, as well as each company's rabidly loyal fans, molded a fictional storyline into something that felt real - mostly because, for all intents and purposes, it was. Even as a fan, looking back eight years on without much allegiance to either promotion, I felt enamored by the rich world that this feud had created. The feud both grew itself in depth, focalised by a central storyline yet divergent with each individual maintaining their own, unique quest, and acted as a catalyst to increasing the star power and direction of each wrestler long after the feud had culminated. Most importantly, in terms of the latter note, while Ring of Honor had reigned supreme once the dust had settled, both promotions and its wrestlers had gained respect in the eyes of fans.​


★★★★★
N/A


★★★★ 3/4
Team CZW (Necro Butcher, Super Dragon & Chris Hero) Vs Team ROH (Adam Pearce, BJ Whitmer & Samoa Joe) (RoH 100th Show 22/04/2006)


★★★★ 1/2
Necro vs. Samoa Joe (IWA:MS Something to Prove 11/06/2005)
Team RoH Vs Team CZW (RoH Death Before Dishonor 15/07/2006)


★★★★ 1/4
Necro vs. Joe (IWA:MS Necro vs. Joe 12/01/2006)


★★★★
8 Man Anything Goes Match (ROH Weekend of Champions Night 1 28/04/2006)


★★★ 3/4
Danielson vs. Hero (ROH Hell Freezes Over 14/01/2006)
Adam Pearce Vs Necro Butcher (RoH Supercard of Honor 31/03/2006)
BJ Whitmer vs. Super Dragon (ROH Weekend of Champions Night 2 29/04/2006)


★★★ 1/2
Samoa Joe vs. Claudio Castagnoli (ROH Weekend of Champions Night 2 29/04/2006)
Homicide vs. Necro Butcher (ROH Ring of Homicide 13/05/2006)


★★★ 1/4
N/A


★★★
Generation Next vs. Blackout (CZW When 2 Worlds Collide 11/03/2006)
Necro/Super Dragon vs. Steen/Whitmer (CZW Any Questions 15/04/2006)
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Roderick Strong (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
Claudio Castagnoli Vs Adam Pearce (RoH In Your Face 17/06/2006)
Necro Butcher Vs Adam Pearce (RoH Throwdown 23/06/2006)
Homicide Vs Claudio Castagnoli (RoH Throwdown 23/06/2006)


★★ 3/4
Chris Hero Vs Homicide (RoH In Your Face 17/06/2006)
Whitmer/Pearce/Steel vs. Necro/Castagnoli/Webb (ROH Chi-Town Stuggle 24/06/2006)


★★ 1/2
Pearce/Whitmer vs. Hero/Castagnoli (ROH How We Roll 12/05/2006)
Matt Sydal vs. Sabian (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
Christopher Daniels vs. Ruckus (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)


★★ 1/4
Strong vs. Lethal vs. Castagnoli (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
Aries vs. B-Boy (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
Necro Butcher Vs BJ Whitmer (RoH War of the Wire II 28/07/2006)


★★
Aries vs. B-Boy vs. Jigsaw (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
Christopher Daniels vs. Derek Frazier vs. Ruckus (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)


★ 3/4
N/A


★ 1/2
Mad Man Pondo/Necro vs. Turner/Franco (TWGP 2K5 19/02/2005)
Team WWF (CP Munk/Colt Cabunny) vs. Turner/Franco Chikara (TWGP 2K6 24/02/2006)


★ 1/4
Sydal vs. Dutt vs. Sabian (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)



N/A


DUD/NR
BJ Whitmer vs. Necro Butcher (ROH Arena Warfare 11/03/2006)
Chris Hero vs. Adam Pearce (RoH Best In The World 25/03/2006)
Samoa Joe vs. Necro Butcher (ROH Ring of Homicide 13/05/2006)




Mad Man Pondo/Necro vs. Turner/Franco (TWGP 2K5 19/02/2005)
★ 1/2
Who are Turner and Franco? ‘Cos Turner’s pre-match promo sucks the living wind out of me. His wrestling is almost equally offensive so it’s almost ironic RoH pick these guys to represent pure wrestling ability against what they termed as garbage wrestlers. Pondo didn’t strike me as a good hand, either, yet he had some nifty counters to your bog-standard pins by the RoH trainees. Namely a bridging suplex into chokehold and a standard pin kickout by continuing the elevated arm and fist directly into his opponent’s face. I can see the merits of what this match tried to achieve, showing that the RoH trainees could hang to some degree, but this ebbed and flowed when it should have rather built. I guess that’s what happens when you only have one decent wrestler in a tag match.



Necro vs. Samoa Joe (IWA:MS Something to Prove 11/06/2005)
★★★★ 1/2
From a quick skim-through of the match listing, this is the only match I distinctly remember off of this feud and I’m sure many else remember it, too. It’s the match that put Necro on everyone’s list as a man that wasn’t just a garbage wrestling hack. This plays as a means for Joe to enact judgment upon Necro for being too rough upon his students. That’s a lot of care for two worthless scrubs. Punk plays this off as Necro being rather stupid for throwing punches at a large Samoan and angering him yet, going by the forearm smashes and headbutts Necro levels upon Joe I cannot help but think it’s the other way around. If there ever was a means of delivering the perfect squash, a squash that enhanced Joe as the monster he was always booked as while keeping Necro as the deathmatch master, it’s this. The reckless endangerment for Necro’s safety may make Joe look sloppy in another context yet it worked as a means of putting Joe over as an angry SoB that didn’t care if he murdered the portrayer of a style he hated and a man that disrespected his students.



Chris Hero cuts a promo slating RoH for forcing CZW’s next show to run earlier due to them running on the same day and challenges Bryan Danielson to defend his RoH world title in CZW (CZW Cage of Death 7 10/12/2005)



Hero posts a Christmas Day entry on his live journal as a follow-up to his promo:
"Just as many wrestlers before me were intimidated by the "big and bad" reputation of the Necro Butcher, just as many individuals have been browbeaten into actually believing that the "big and bad" promotion, Ring of Honor, is the end-all and be-all of Independent wrestling…I didn't back down from Necro Butcher and I will not back down from Ring of Honor…After my match at Cage of Death 7, I verbally brought salvation to the Combat Zone. I stood directly in front of the impending danger and destruction and I said what everyone else was afraid to say. As the Savior, I represent CZW wholly. My skills are unmatched and I know I am the best they have to offer. I am CZW's David to ROH's Goliath and my challenge is 100% firm. I have nothing to be afraid of. Bryan, if you have the guts, you know where to find me on January 14th. And if you don't have the guts, I am fully prepared to walk through the fire to meet you and take what is rightfully mine. And once I have that title, I will bring it to the Combat Zone and demonstrate my very best Jimmy Jacobs impression. John Zandig will have the trash can ready for me."


Not done, Hero posts again on his live journal relaying his thoughts on the open challenge for the title submitted by Cornette (03/01/2006):
"Who would ever thing that Jim Cornette, someone of such alleged esteem, would even mention CZW by name, let alone send them an entire package? Well, he did, so you can be assure when Chris Hero is involved in something, the unthinkable can, and will happened.

What was in the package? Well, it wasn't ticking, so that was a good sign. The first thing I pulled out was an open contract for a ROH heavyweight title shot on January 14th. Said contract was already signed by, one, Bryan Danielson. Before I say whether or not I signed this open contract, let me point out how IDIOTIC of an idea it was for Bryan to allow Mr. Cornette to send this contract to CZW. Bryan's signature is at the bottom of the document, right next to a blank slot, titled "Challenger." Hmm, I could have just went though the entire Combat Zone locker room and had anyone sign it. That's how ridiculous this is. How about Bryan Danielson versus the Necro Butcher? How about American Dragon versus Super Dragon? Imagine how many ROH fanboys would rip their hair out if Bryan accidentally got himself into a title defense against the father of CZW, John Zandig? Hell, I could have had Frank Talent sign the damn contract if I was that vindictive. I think Danielson's ego is getting in the way of rational thought. Yes, Chris Hero cast the first stone, but now, in desperation, Bryan Danielson is throwing every rock he can get his hands on without stopping and thinking to aim.

How poetic it'll be when the wrestler that was never good enough for Ring of Honor walks away from the Pennsylvania National Guard Armory in Philadelphia,the new and undisputed Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Champion"


Necro vs. Joe (IWA:MS Necro vs. Joe 12/01/2006)
★★★★ 1/4
What better way to psych out your opponent than by showing him you’re a crazy ******* that isn’t afraid of punishment. Too bad Joe doesn’t care and will light your body up with stiff kicks and chops. If there’s one testament to Necro it’s that his health comes second to entertaining his fans in terms of the way he takes bumps (most especially to concrete). Clearly all the headshots have affected his memory, too, as he cannot remember the result of the last time he tried to headbutt Joe. Unlike the previous encounter, this has a focal point in terms of body work that comes to fruition through a possibly broken wrist that Joe works eloquently upon and Necro sells perfectly for. How Necro also survives that lethal kick to the jaw following Hero’s interference is beyond me, as I was sure it was lights out at that point. Watch this match and tell me wrestling’s fake.



Danielson Invades CZW An Afternoon of Main Events, insulting the fans and stating CZW was below him and his title (14/01/2006)



Danielson vs. Hero (ROH Hell Freezes Over 14/01/2006)
★★★ 3/4
Talk about disrespecting the Dub. First Danielson interjects himself into a CZW show and then RoH won’t even play the entrance music of their challenging Hero. Bless Necro, though, as he was the only enhancement in bringing CZW’s image across to the RoH fans out of Hero’s entourage. The others just acted like back-up oxygen breathers and nothing more. Due to the placement, this would act as a great opportunity for Hero’s RoH debut as the timing of the event as well as its location meant the crowd was equally parted in terms of their love for each promotion. A crowd reaction that would bring both chagrin and cockiness to Hero.
If this match happened in 2013, this would be a match-up that would salivate almost anyone’s mouths but there’s something about 2006 Hero that doesn’t do much for me. Bryan’s a master-class worker, though, and places down a good foundational structure even if the match doesn’t truly deliver to the point you’d hope it would as a fan. If there’s a mitigation to the disappointment, though, it’s that this had a lot to live up to, considering it being both a promotion v. promotion match and a mix between two wrestlers praised as the indy’s finest. That’s a lot to live up to, even for two great workers. Still, the match delivers a message that neither wrestler is much worse than the other and it certainly cements that CZW, a garbage fed, holds a worthy challenger to the RoH title.



Following the match, and having heard Gabe Sapolsky’s burial of his work on commentary, Hero posts a scathing response on his live journal:
"Fact: Chris Hero, headlining the January 14th ROH show in Philadelphia, OUTDREW the NOAH Superstar, Kenta Kobashi, in the same town and same exact building. Did I get any credit for such an accomplishment? Did I get a thank you card for pumping some much needed life back into the Philly Indy scene? No. You know what I got? Buried on commentary. I've discovered, thanks to a very reliable source, that if you pick up the "Hell Freezes Over" DVD you'll hear Mr. "Booker of the Year" himself, talking about how terrible of a wrestler I am and how awful my look is. Apparently I don't belong in an ROH ring and it was a disgrace having me on the show. I guess selling tickets and generating interest in a stale product has no place in the wrestling "business." Also, the match is cut down, so you won't have to worry about hearing those pesky CZW chants! Earth to Gabe: When you bury someone's ability and following, and it takes YOUR champion almost 35 minutes to defeat that very person, you're telling everyone that YOUR champion struggled to beat a no talent, no look, piece of trash wrestler."


Chris Hero and Necro Butcher invade causing a brawl between them and the RoH roster. In the process Cornette has a tooth knocked out and, believing it to be the work of Butcher, rushes to the ring and cuts a scathing promo upon the CZW alumni as a whole (ROH Tag Wars 2006 1/27/06)



The following night, while Adam Pearce asks for Cornette to hire him, Necro Butcher makes another appearance. Cornette offers to fight him, despite not being a trained wrestler, which he sees as no issue because neither is Necro in his eyes. (ROH Dissension 28/01/2006)



Chris Hero comments on Necro’s run-in, and states the torment upon RoH is nowhere close to being over:
"You see, the fun and games are over. Happy go lucky Chris Hero died in 2005. It's 06 and I'm all about destruction. The IWA Mid South title belt, smart ass fans that think they're hard and it just so happens that Ring of Overrated Honor is next on the list. They have all these "milestones" coming up. The fourth anniversary show, the Wrestlemania Weekend triple shot, their 100th show and it's all going to come crumbling down. In Dayton the curtains were the only thing that came down. That was only the beginning. I will not rest until ROH is exposed for the garbage that it is and I get the recognition and credit that I deserve. My broken hand will look like a hangnail in comparison to all the carnage I'll bring with me. Just as I blasted that fan in the face, I will blast any and everything that stands between myself and ROH. Gabe Sapolsky, your life is about to become a living hell. You will forever regret the day you buried Chris Hero."



Team WWF (CP Munk/Colt Cabunny) vs. Turner/Franco Chikara (TWGP 2K6 24/02/2006)
★ 1/2
Oh, shit! They let Franco cut the promo this time and he’s even worse! :mark: It’s actually almost as hilarious as Team WWF’s gimmick. Match is still trash, though.



In what was supposed to be a memorable celebration of RoH’s fourth anniversary, CZW wrestlers stormed the ring and took over before the RoH roster interjected and a brawl erupted. While it seemed that CZW had the upper hand, Samoa Joe answered Hero’s rhetorical question on who would be able to stop him. (25/02/2006)



Considering the success of the first double shot show, RoH and CZW officials booked a second double shot in March of ’06. Of course, once the events of Necro and Hero were realised, animosity between the wrestlers (and fans) escalated. Joker, Kingston and Hero were all itching for war on the 11th. However, Hero promises not to leave Mexico after CZW officials “dared” working with RoH after how they treated the company he saved.



BJ Whitmer vs. Necro Butcher (ROH Arena Warfare 11/03/2006)
N/A
This comes as an open challenge to any CZW member, after their run-in on the 4th Anniversary show which prevented BJ from finally getting his hands on Christopher Daniels in the grudge match. Having answered the challenge, Necro was mysteriously quiet to come out the first time BJ challenged him yet equally quick to lock horns with him in a brawl after the second calling. As for the match, it plays more into story progression than actual physicality. Not much into the brawl, Super Dragon makes a run-in and attacks Whitmer until the RoH Academy make the save.



Following the main event, BJ Whitmer issues another challenge, this time to the entire CZW locker room. What ensues is a massive brawl inside the ring, amongst the fans and on the street. With a barbed-wire baseball bat and weed-whacker in hand, Wifebeater and Zandig take control of the RoH ring. An outnumbered Whitmer gets CZW tickets stapled to his chest, head and back for his troubles



Generation Next vs. Blackout (CZW When 2 Worlds Collide 11/03/2006)
★★★
On paper this was the perfect match-up for a double-pin; it was the future of CZW versus the future of RoH. Fitting the bill, the crowd’s support was, once again, split directly down the middle. For their respective parts, Generation Next all played ball in great fashion. Roderick excelled in this environ where all that was required of him was a workhorse wrestler. For Sydall, it was being there at the right moments to pop the crowd and, as for Aries, it was being the cocky better-than-thou wrestler RoH needed within a CZW environ. The same cannot be said for CZW’s team, though, as Ruckus is terrible. How he was even world champ is beyond me, too, as he’s nothing more than a bad copy of Jack Evans in his approach to wrestling. Kingston tried and Necro was relegated due to a kayfabe injury he suffered earlier in the night, but this match was hampered because of it. Even more so, despite not going all that long, the match felt like it had and dragged more than it should have. With a rather grand promo by Kingston beforehand, I’d also have loved to have seen this go more hardcore than it had. That sentence plays itself out in knowing irony, too, of Kingston’s comments within that promo of how he hates RoH fans who insist they could plan better matches than him. Well, if it helps, I’m not a RoH fan, but I doubt that much absolves me of his vitriol.

Following the match, Gen Next continue attacking BlkOUT when Gage, Pain and Lobo make the save. Following Gen Next’s swift exit, Lobo chastises Kingston for dropping the ball and insists RoH may have beaten the “boys” of BlkOUT but now it’s time they step to the “men”. Despite the CZW fans commending Kingston for trying, he looks visibly upset with his loss.



Chris Hero vs. Adam Pearce (RoH Best In The World 25/03/2006)
Prior to this match, Hero and Necro answered an open challenge by Blade and Mizake and quickly destroyed them. The challenge match was played as a set-up for Hero’s own open challenge to any RoH wrestler he wanted. Of course, this meant one man: Pearce. This new brawl doesn’t last long, either, with Butcher and Hero easily laying out Pearce. What it does do, however, is act as catalyst for Claudio’s turn from CZW loving heel to RoH-boy face.



At RoH’s Dragon Gate Challenge, Hero and Necro storm the ring following Claudio’s match against Haggadorn. He mentioned bringing Castagnoli over from Europe and training him across the Americas, becoming his best friend in the process. While he was upset by Claudio’s decision, he would forgive him if he made the “right choice” and aligned back with CZW. Whitmer tried to exact revenge upon Hero but was stomped out by Necro and Hero in the process with Claudio looking on and contemplating which side to take. In the end, he made the save for Whitmer. (30/03/2006)



Cornette opened the following night’s show by slating CZW as a glorified peep-show filled with hacks and non-wrestlers. He also noted that Hero and Necro’s attack the previous night had left Whitmer with a broken ankle and put him out of action for weeks. As more of a means of burying CZW, Cornette had two of the RoH academy talent wear masks and pretend to be “typical” hardcore wrestlers. They were squashed by Joe and Pearce in the opening match (RoH Supercard of Honor 31/03/2006)



Adam Pearce Vs Necro Butcher (RoH Supercard of Honor 31/03/2006)
★★★ 3/4
This is an unscheduled brawl after Hero and Necro, once again, storm the Ring of Honor ring and boy is it a good one. Out of the entire feud, I don’t think anyone has a more legit looking elbow smash than Necro and Pearce isn’t afraid to get hurt in this to put the feud over. Extremely short brawl before interferences run their course, but it’s every bit worth your time to watch.



One day later, Necro and Hero storm the RoH ring after Joe and Danielson had exchanged promises on an upcoming fight. In the scuffle, Claudio gets hurt and Pearce is laid out leaving Cornette open for Hero to injure his arm with a chair. This cues Whitmer to make a run-in save (WITH A BROKEN FREAKING NECKANKLE) only to have said ankle beaten with a chair for his troubles (RoH Better Than Our Best 01/04/2006)



A couple days before Whitmer and Steen are scheduled to do battle against Super Dragon and Butcher at CZW’s Any Questions show, Chris Hero weighs in his opinion on the feud so far via his live journal (11/042006):
“I've hit fans with chairs. I've been smacked by Chicago gutter sluts. I've roamed the countryside with my killer, the Necro Butcher, and we've put a hurtin' on anyone in our path. Adam Pearce: Put through a table, BJ Whitmer: Broken ankle, Jim Cornette: Damn near broken arm and blown out knee (again). Claudio Castagnoli? I'm not even going to taint my little speech by expressing my feelings on that situation. The way I see it, we started out with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Sure, we've been kicked out of a few buildings, hit with a few chairs, threatened with some lawsuits, but when the smoke clears, we're always the ones left standing. Necro Butcher and Chris Hero are SURVIVORS. We have made careers for ourselves. We live on reputation alone and we sure don't need any self-righteous assholes making shit up in "newslines" or spending hours trying to splice together the perfect music video to accentuate our "talents."

We are wrestling. People pay to see us. Think it's a coincidence that the last four ROH shows drew so well? It's not. You will all find out firsthand on April 22nd in Philadelphia. It's our home, our turf and our war. I'm the General, Chris Hero and my Lieutenant Generals, come April 22nd, will be the Necro Butcher and Super Dragon. We are challenging three men. One, Adam Pearce, a man with no friends whatsoever in Ring of "Honor," BJ Whitmer, a man with a bad leg, a bad arm and nearly a dozen concussions under his belt and Samoa Joe, a man who has felt our wrath many times before. Hopefully he can take his focus off of Bryan Danielson for one evening. Otherwise he's going to waltz right into a Psycho Driver and go down in ROH history as the worst team captain ever, Mr. Selfish, Samoa Joe.

This is WAR. I've started it, I'll finish it. I give you my word.

If anybody has anything to say to me, I'll be at Combat Zone this weekend. You know, the promotion I've carried on my back for two and a half years while a poor excuse for a champion and a self-proclaimed "King" choke each and every time the going gets tough. I don't choke. I'm a real King, I'm a real champion and I'm the best God damn wrestler in the world today. Prove me wrong.”


Necro/Super Dragon vs. Steen/Whitmer (CZW Any Questions 15/04/2006)
★★★
Eh, I dunno. This was okay but it had a lot that could have been improved upon. Dragon busting out random high-flying moves may be a treat to some more into his work yet, much like Ruckus, they didn’t come across as moves much worth the effort they were given. A more bloodied and violent means of delivery would have benefitted the story, too, even if this was more grudge-match than straight up wrestling. I can understand the need to save things for the following week, yet build-ups have been done better under those circumstances.



CZW had advertised the main event as The Blackout Vs some RoH stars (and a continuation of the inter-promotional feud). In what would be a slew of CZW fucking over fans, the main ended up being The Blackout Vs The H8 Club and some Canadian nobodies.



Before the Six-man War at RoH’s 100th Show, a debate between Zandig and Cornette was held over which promotion was better. If that’s anything to go by, you know this won’t be a debate out of the annuls of Stanford University. Cornette runs his mouth insulting Zandig and saying Philadelphia has always been the best city of fans in the sport. He brings to light the history the city has seen and mentions how, despite not liking Heyman, Paulie still innovated and introduced many soon-to-be stars to America (Eddie and Rey, namely). If Zandig was smart, and not mumbling like a drunk, he would have rebutted with the truth that CZW brought Steen and Castagnoli in; two men that RoH are hanging on in this feud. He gets to that point, at last, though but only once the debate had fallen to name-calling and anger. For a feud that had blurred the lines between reality and kayfabe, this felt even more real. (RoH 22/042006)



Team CZW (Necro Butcher, Super Dragon & Chris Hero) Vs Team ROH (Adam Pearce, BJ Whitmer & Samoa Joe) (RoH 100th Show 22/04/2006)
★★★★ 3/4
Everyone here went balls-crazy in delivering the brawl of the feud up unto this point. Even when the focus wasn’t on a particular pair, they still kept the violence heavy. Joe looked like the beast of legend he’s continually purported to be in our minds, searching high and low for a dog-tailing Dragon only to let out his frustration upon an unbeknownst Hero. Even a fan worries for the wrestlers’ collective health by shouting “don’t you know Joe has a show tomorrow?! COM’ON!” while Necro is doing his work-over. Brilliant. It’s also amazing how reversed the crowd have become on Necro. Even during the run-ins he managed some Necro chants yet here he’s getting zero love between the middle fingers and “you’re the biggest fucking douchebag” taunts. As good and brutal as Pearce/Necro was, it’s the Necro/Joe trifecta we all paid (well, streamed) to see and boy is it disgusting. Seriously, not even Lincoln suffered this much head trauma. Running close second is Whitmer, taking chair-guillotine shots like its nobody’s business. I’m more surprised this match never put him out of action and Bennet in 2013 did. I mean, he took a Pyscho Driver off the apron and onto the concrete floor, for fuck’s sake.

What really helped this match, too, was the held-back nature in how they delivered the finish-run. Nothing over-stayed its welcome nor did it go beyond what it needed to be. The transitions from control spots and nearfalls was done beautifully with the next wrestler taking advantage via the previous being too caught up taunting the crowd or too perplexed in having been kicked out of. The Zandig run in is what it is, he’s a terrible puncher, but the breakdown of collected calm between the referees was a nice touch. The heel turn of Castagnoli, laying out Joe after a feigned save, brought a smile to my face, too. I’m not ashamed at all to admit they had me because that’s what wrestling should be and this match is exactly that. Wrestling at its finest.



Three days later, Hero mocks the injuries the RoH stars suffered and issues a promise that he will be back, the following weekend, to continue the nightmare that has befallen Ring of Honor (25/04/2006):
“People like to claim that I'm all talk. They say all I do is run my mouth and I don't have what it takes to back it up. Well, actions speak louder than words, my friends, and last Saturday, my actions backed up every single thing I've said since this war began.

Whitmer: Still on crutches and now with a matching neckbrace. Sporting a broken neck thanks to Super Dragon's Psycho Driver through a table.

Pearce: The proud owner of twenty staples in his head thanks to a Necro Butcher chairshot. Oh, and he also got pinned right in the middle of the ring. Sucks to be him.

Joe: Left standing in the ring while we celebrated in our bleachers. Completely and utterly humiliated by our cleverly orchestrated swerve.

You didn't really think I'd allow my number one prodigy and best friend betray me, did you? Ring of Honor, I would like you to meet the Kings of Wrestling, Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli. The current CHIKARA Campeones de Parejas and former CZW tag team champions. We don't think we're the best, we know it for a fact. This weekend I'm wrestling for UWA in Toronto and then I'm headed to Virginia for a show. Ring of Honor returns to Dayton, Ohio on Friday and Cleveland, Ohio on Saturday. I know I'm pretty amazing and I know all my fans would love for me to be in two places at once, but it just isn't possible. Or is it? I'm a very powerful man and I have my ways of creating magic.

This weekend, my presence will be felt at Ring of Honor. My presence will be felt through my prodigy, my tag team partner, my best friend, Claudio Castagnoli. My presence will be felt though the fan abusing, ass kicking assassin known as Super Dragon. And last, and definitely not least, my presence will be felt through the demented, self sacrificial King of the Deathmatches. Dayton, Cleveland, prepare yourself for the wrath of the NECRO BUTCHER. This weekend will prove how influential and all-powerful I really am. I will continue to alter results and wreak vengeance upon ROH and all the while I'll be kicking up my feet and laughing all the way in another country.

You think this is over? Think again...”



8 Man Anything Goes Match (ROH Weekend of Champions Night 1 28/04/2006)
★★★★
Despite having just fought a lengthy tag title match, Joe is still itching to get his hands on the CZW folly. An issued call-out results in a brawl between Joe, Steel & Cabana and Necro, Castagnoli, Dragon and Nate Webb. During the chaos, Castagnoli ties up Joe backstage leaving the match (if you could call this one) a 4-on-2 handicap. That is, until BJ Whitmer interjects himself into the madness despite an obvious neck injury and neck brace holding his head firm in place. It wasn’t much longer until Pearce also comes to his peers aid, much to the pleasure of the RoH-heavy crowd.

A mangled voice is captured by one of the cameras screaming “somebody’s going to dieeee!” and that’s an astute commentary if there ever was one. These guys mean business, especially Whitmer who seems to want to ensure his opponents walk (if barely) off from the match equally pained in their neck as he was the previous week. His chairshots and piledriver of Webb onto the ramp was nasty. Research and more care into wrestler’s safety (that has changed the landscape of wrestling) may prove these moves to be both stupid and dangerous, yet I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy them from a perverse perspective looking in on this feud.
While not as great as the previous encounter, this still plays as a great spotfest-heavy brawl between the two warring factions. The violence remains as high as it always was, and the onslaught upon BJ’s neck continues. Castagnoli ending the match with a massive middle finger to Samoa Joe is noteworthy in placing more heat onto the guy RoH trusted as a changed man.



Despite being damn near murdered, Whitmer is out the next night in Cleveland, Ohio, to challenge CZW. He either has massive balls or all the blood in his system isn’t reaching his brain due to injured arteries in his neck. Sensing the danger Whitmer is putting himself in, trying to save a product he loves, Cornette comes out and pleads for him to go home and rest up. Once Whitmer agrees, Cornette cuts a scathing promo upon WWE stating the promotion killed his passion for wrestling, only for RoH to be the product that reawakened the love he first felt wrestling when he came across the Midnight Express. That’s why he felt so strongly in backing RoH in a fight against not only CZW but any promotion he felt was ruining wrestling for the fans. Pearce’s strive for Cornette’s approval also comes to fruition here by Cornette offering him an assistant job to running the promotion while Jim is out for knee surgery. His joy would be short-lived, as Nate Webb makes a quick attack and reopens his wound. (RoH Weekend of Champions Night 2 29/04/2006)



Samoa Joe vs. Claudio Castagnoli (ROH Weekend of Champions Night 2 29/04/2006)
★★★ 1/2
Castagnoli isn’t fooling anyone, the only reason why he wanted a straight-up wrestling match is because he’s afraid of Joe killing him. Hilarious chant right off the bat with the crowd shouting “Joe is gonna wrestle you” as a modification to the standard slogan.

Claudio has definitely changed over the years. Unlike the pristine Antonio Cesaro, Claudio is still rather reckless in his intents. He still shows moments of greatness between, however, and Joe is, of course, Joe. The pressing of Claudio for Joe to keep this a wrestling match was metered nicely with Claudio attempting to European uppercut Joe only to get his bell rung by two vicious strikes. The interference is what it is but, in the context of the feud, it’s to be expected. At least it didn’t dampen the match.



BJ Whitmer vs. Super Dragon (ROH Weekend of Champions Night 2 29/04/2006)
★★★ 3/4
Well, I guess BJ doesn’t listen to much needed advice. If he dies in the ring, it’s only himself to blame. Okay, well, Cornette, too, considering this has a referee which indicates this just got sanctioned. I’m also positive some obnoxious fans are chanting “BJ Hitler” for whatever reason, but that’s neither here nor there. The crowd wouldn’t relent throughout, neither. BJ’s comeback was rather stupid, all things considered. Dragon did great work of keeping Whitmer down and delivering high impact moves when they needed to happen, as a means of further injuring his neck. It thus stands to reason why BJ would gain ground so easily and then suplex himself and Dragon off the turnbuckle onto the ground below, considering it would incapacitate himself more in reality. Everything before that is still good, though.



Unphased by Claudio’s loss to Joe, Hero cockily writes about his seemingly assured victory as a team at the next RoH show in Long Island (03/05/2006):
“It's that time again folks. Time for me to address the masses. Everything I've typed in here, thus far, has been monumental in one way or another. Fear not, this entry is no different.

May 12th will mark the first time Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli have walked onto ROH turf together, as a team, nay, as THE team. The Kings of Wrestling will march into that building in Long Island and prove our supremacy. May 13th we'll return to Philadelphia, as bonafide heroes, for CZW's Best of the Best tournament. And after all that is wrapped up and the "Best of the Best" has been decided, Claudio and myself will be going back to New Jersey for seconds.

Last time I was in Edison, I sang my beautiful rendition of 'Happy Birthday' for everyone in attendance. However, this time around there will be no singing. Heads will be cracked, spirits will be crushed and if any ROHbots lay a finger on me, faces will be punched. You have my word. I assume you've all heard about what went down in Toronto...

I digress. The Kings of Wrestling are coming. Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, the best, bar none. Ring of Honor can no longer hold us back.”



Midweek, RoH’s Myspace page comes under attack from a hacker who adds scathing images and comments upon it. Hearing word that officials and fans believe Hero is behind the malicious attack, he tries to set things straight (11/05/2006):
“Seems there's a bit of controversy going around again. This time it concerns a bogus ROH MySpace account.

I can't believe you people would be fooled into thinking that this was actually my doing. A terrible picture and cheap heat comments; this is way too tacky of a job for a Savior such as myself. Obviously someone is trying to ride the CH bandwagon.

This was NOT my work and I'm insulted that someone would make such a mundane attempt to leech off of my genuine controversy.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? I'm not flattered. I cause tidal waves. This isn't even a mere ripple in the ocean of chaos I've brought to the shores of Ring of Honor.

I have better things to concern myself with rather than "hacking" a fan site. Better things like formulating a strategic plan for Claudio and myself. We already told you we'll be there. Hell, we even know what's in store for us when we get there. But you don't know when we'll be there, where we're coming from or what we're going to do when we get there. My masterpiece continues.

The best tag team in the world is coming to ROH this weekend. Long live the Kings.”


Pearce/Whitmer vs. Hero/Castagnoli (ROH How We Roll 12/05/2006)
★★ 1/2
I’d have to rewatch some of the latter Kings of Wrestling tags but I’m glad both of them have abandoned some of the Indy-tropes they were prone to early in their career. The assisted spear (which was the product of multiple gymnastic moves) was atrocious and had no business in wrestling. I understand that wrestling makes use of some rather liberal understandings of how physics works but this was ridiculous. What’s even worse is that it doesn’t even have the crowd react (as 2013 RoH spam does). Holy hell was the ref shtick and run-in just match-ruining, too. Oh how contrived wrestling can be. I guess Samoa Joe was too busy taking a dump to have come to his buddies aid. I guess that also prevented him from getting changed into his wrestling gear, despite being in the next match.



After the match, Samoa Joe challenged Necro Butcher to a match the next night. That is, despite it already being a scheduled match and had been noted twice by commentators during the CZW/RoH tag that had just ended. (ROH How We Roll 12/05/2006)



Before the RoH show, CZW held its annual Best of the Best tournament – this time, centring itself on RoH Vs CZW. It would also continue, from a business perspective, as a massive middle finger to RoH by purposefully having their tournament run longer (lessening the probability of fans making the drive between Philly and NJ for the RoH show). It was also the day upon which a CZW staff member was caught saying: “what does it matter, they'll keep coming back every month". (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)



At the start of the show, Zandig cut a promo about the possibility of a RoH star capturing a “CZW” trophy. He also mentioned he doesn’t know if RoH’s stars are as talented as they’ve been purported as – I guess he hasn’t been watching anything during this feud, then. Though him being out of touch was pretty much solidified by wearing a BotB 5 shirt to the 6th instalment. (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)



Aries vs. B-Boy vs. Jigsaw (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
★★
Aries looks really fluid here, while Jigsaw is still rough around the edges. B-Boy is never much more than average but this was an okay enough opener without really going too flashy and creating a spectacular like you’d hope to pump the crowd.



Strong vs. Lethal vs. Castagnoli (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
★★ 1/4
Claudio should have just wrestled in that suit, it’d be the only flashy bit to the match.



Sydal vs. Dutt vs. Sabian (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
★ 1/4
The fuck was that ending? The fuck was this horse shit? Lolz x2 at Sydal being a face in CZW.



Christopher Daniels vs. Derek Frazier vs. Ruckus (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
★★
Why would Ruckus enter himself into the tournament when he knows full well that each match will be a world title match and that he’s never made it past a semi-main before? The match wasn’t truly offensive yet neither Ruckus nor Frazier can wrestle, so the match isn’t going to be more than just passable.



Aries vs. B-Boy (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
★★ 1/4
Despite the entire tourney being deemed “TLC-legal” the first instance of a foreign object being teased as a weapon came in this match, and never progressed beyond a tease. Weirdly, choke-holds are still illegal, though. Neither man truly tried to rile up the crowd, despite it being dead for the most part of the tourney, which certainly hurt more than anything else. Not to mention B-Boy’s high-impact spam not helping a case against him being a bad worker.



Claudio Castagnoli vs. Roderick Strong (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
★★★
At last, two wrestlers who liven the crowd and bring them into their match. By far the best match up until this point, however, with some nice legwork by Claudio (even if Strong didn’t sell it beyond the submission spots). Claudio’s still very rough around the edges but the talent that he shows now is slowly becoming viewable under the dirt.



Matt Sydal vs. Sabian (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
★★ 1/2
Sydal’s a face in this match, too. I can give props for these two trying, but their matwork skill isn’t at all good. Sabian did keep on the injured shoulder of Sydal, though, so he gets something for that.



Christopher Daniels vs. Ruckus (CZW Best of the Best 6 13/05/2006)
★★ 1/2
After Daniels technically won the belt in the opening round, he relinquished it and stated he won’t take it by pinning someone who isn’t the champion. That’s pretty commendable from a “RoH boy”. Of course, this would be the proper match-up between the two and also played as a quarter-final match in the tourney. I say “proper” very lightly when Ruckus is in a ring. His cradle pin to finish this was just a slap in the face of everyone else, because no matter how much he wants to believe it, they didn’t wrestle an equal-to-equal match very well.



Samoa Joe vs. Necro Butcher (ROH Ring of Homicide 13/05/2006)
N/A
Magic wasn’t going to strike three times. Even despite the interferences, this wasn’t building up to much and the brawl wasn’t nearly as violent as the previous two.



Homicide vs. Necro Butcher (ROH Ring of Homicide 13/05/2006)
★★★ 1/2
The infamous chair incident. Homicide still looks like he’s practicing punches in a dojo yet the actual right-hook he delivers during them can look quite nasty if the camera man is playing ball. For a match spot that buried Necro (literally), it certainly gained him respect in front of every fan (no matter their allegiance) after kicking out of a piledriver onto the very chairs that had rained down upon him. The addition of even the ringbell signalling a three-count, despite no call from the referee, was a welcomed addition in putting over just how expected Necro's loss (and something I sadly only caught upon a random rewatching of this match). This is somewhat high-spot spam yet it had a reason to do so and I can forgive it for that. For putting over both men it delivered what it needed to do and closed the show off in a good enough fashion to see the fans going home happy.



At the following event, BJ Whitmer turned sympathetic towards Christopher Daniels, stating that the feud between CZW and RoH had caused a realisation within him as to exactly what hate entailed. He apologised to Daniels and saught to make things right between them. Accepting a truce, and creating a hightened level of respect between the two former enemies, Chris stated that BJ Whitmer had found a new tag partner in him, if he ever needed aid in his war against the hardcore promotion (RoH Destiny 03/06/2006)



During a dark match between Ricky Reyes and Dave Crist, Hero made a run in and hit Reyes' manager (Julius Smokes) in the head with his title belt. (RoH In Your Face 17/06/2006)



Claudio Castagnoli Vs Adam Pearce (RoH In Your Face 17/06/2006)
★★★
Using his powers as leuitenant commissioner, Pearce scheduled an exhibition match between himself and Double-C as a warm-up seller in the build toward the newly announced interpromotional Cage of Death. Again, it's a weird perspective witnessing Claudio as a man of two diverging talents. He's showing himself up as an exceptionally paced wrestler, that can place moves and taunts at the right moments, yet one that still appears clunky and unpolished in its executions. Match is a really rather decent back-and-forth contest between the two, yet the Hero run-in does flatten its effect. But Hero/Homicide, the now self-appointed judicial crusaders of their respective promotions, is what we all came to see, so...



Chris Hero Vs Homicide (RoH In Your Face 17/06/2006)
★★ 3/4
"You're gonna die; you're still gonna die right here". Heh. The words of a fan as Hero takes control and pummels Homicide. I can somewhat understand why others would enjoy this, it has Hero and Homicide going HARD on each other, yet it goes far too long and interchangably for it to hold as such in my eyes. Both men were too easy in relinquishing their control segments and, as such, the narrative of both being equal, as well as the ability to show a face shine, was lost. Using the smark rage-machine against WWE, not even a week after One Night Stand 2006, by encapsulating both face (Guerrero/Homicide) and heel (Cena/Hero) signature spots and taunts was a very nice spot, though.



After the RoH trainees had carried Hero's semi-lifeless body out of the ring, Homicide cut a promo signifying his intentions to walk if he wasn't given a RoH title shot. His face-push, thanks to his involvement in the fight against CZW, ensured the fan-base was now solidly behind his mission and it now seemed Homicide had checkmated RoH officials into giving him his demands (RoH In Your Face 17/06/2006)



Necro Butcher Vs Adam Pearce (RoH Throwdown 23/06/2006)
★★★
A falls count anywhere brawl with Necro? Fuck yeah! Double fuck yeah at Double-C stating CZW has always come out on top whenever RoH and CZW square up. Gotta love his Very European demeanour (blind ignorance, I mean) here. Obligatory Necro craziness happens in this, including his now standard suplex or drop onto a bunch of chairs. Wicked, face-shaking KO punch through a chair to Necro was another match highlight. I swear if spots were recycled by any other wrestler they wouldn't work like they do here purely because no matter how often you see Necro setting up back-to-back chairs and it going wrong for him, the "how the fuck did you not break your back" factor makes the spots automatically RULE. What doesn't rule, though, are the constant run-ins and DQ's that cut these matches short. I understand you don't want the CZW wrestlers to be jobbing at each show, and the run-ins do add to the promotion' heel vibe, yet differing outcomes would be much welcomed. Gotta love a FCA ending in a DQ/throw-out.



Homicide Vs Claudio Castagnoli (RoH Throwdown 23/06/2006)
★★★
More continuation of Homicide as the one-man CZW killer. Match is cool, if a little samey in quality in that it's good but nothing breaking the mold of what seems to be the average created.



Whitmer/Pearce/Steel vs. Necro/Castagnoli/Webb (ROH Chi-Town Stuggle 24/06/2006)
★★ 3/4
A bunkhouse match that would play as the final tease before the big Cage of Death match the following month. Match was quite clunky and didn't adequately sell itself as a preview for the craziness that Death Before Dishonor would bring. The barbedwire crown was a nice poetic touch to BJ's selfless sacrifice.



Weeks before the now infamous Cage of Death was set to take place, Chris Hero weighs in on the soldiers ready to do battle in hopes of cementing their home promotion's stature as the best as well as announcing that he has a surprise, fifth wrestler set to do his bidding (The Slow Death of RoH 24/07/2006):
A performer. An athlete. An innovator. A trailblazer.
I'm all of the above, but I'm also a leader.
It's time for Chris Hero to strike up the band. It's time for me to rally the troops. It's time to lead my troops into a battle so fierce that it can only be held within the confines of a STEEL CAGE. And no, not some lame cage with a chickenwire/chain link fence. We're talking about the CAGE OF DEATH.
Let's take a look at the opposition.
Adam Pearce. The blood gushing from his melon, on April 22nd, will look like a popped pimple in comparison to the head wounds he will sustain on July 15th. If he doesn't die from blood loss he will live a life as a brain damaged vegetable from there on out.

BJ Whitmer. A crown of barbed wire was driven into his skull in Chicago and now he's closer to paralysis than ever. With all the risks he's taken, I didn't figure BJ would have made it this far. He won't make it any further.

Ace Steel. Good wrestler, unproven fighter. There's no way he has any idea what's in store for him come July 15th.

Samoa Joe. The "captain" of the team just so happens to be the one I am worried about least. Is Joe going to go all out? Or is he going to make sure he doesn't break or bruise anything? One thing is certain, whenever Joe's on the card you can be sure to expect nothing but total nonstop action!

Oh and don't think I forgot about cowardly Jim Cornette. He was the first to call Claudio a deserter then he was the first to abandon ROH for "knee surgery." I know Mr. Cornette will be making his return in Philadelphia. It's a shame it'll be his farewell show as well. He'll have wished he stayed back in Louisville, living in Synn.

Now that I've given you my scouting report on the competition, it's only fair that I give you the names of my soldiers.

Yours truly, Chris Hero.

My best friend, Claudio Castagnoli.

My killer, the Necro Butcher.

The unpredictable, "Spyder" Nate Webb.

And I hate to disappoint all you Ring of Honor fans out there but I happen to have a little secret. You might even say that it's a mystery. Hell, you could even say that there's a mystery partner. Well, ROH, now that my secret is out, get off your ass and find a fifth partner because I swear to you that our fifth will not disappoint. The match hasn't even started and we already have the advantage.

You know, there was a time when Mr. Dangerous himself, Gabe Sapolsky, wouldn't have pissed on me if I was on fire. Now, I have caused so much chaos and disarray that everyone in the wrestling world has no choice, whatsoever, but to take notice. I will not be bullied any longer. I stand for those who have been held back by elitism. I oppose those who try to force their authoritarianism down our throats. Ring of Honor must be stopped. Thus far I've been amazingly successful in cracking their foundation and in a week and a half, the whole damn thing will come crumbling down to the ground. On July 15th, Cage will replace Ring and Death will replace Honor. Forever.

July 15th, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."


Mere days before Death Before Dishonor (and the Cage of Death), Hero takes advantage of the stress induced by his fifth participant, by playing up a rumour that he may have coerced Homicide, now disgruntled by the fact of his demands being ignored by RoH management, to join the CZW army, further ailing RoH's morale before their most important moment (Three days left.... 13/07/2006):
"Time is on my side. Yes it is.

Time is on my side because my gameplan has been formulated for quite some time. Ring of Honor hasn't had that luxury. Ever since I threw my "fifth partner" curveball at them, they've been scrambling and trying to figure out what it is that I have up my sleeve. That's a real shame. It's just another thing for them to worry about and it's another thing for me to laugh at. You see, I've never been in an actual Cage of Death match before. But two of my partners have.

How many of the ROH team have fought under those exact circumstances?

None.

And hell, the only wrestler on their entire roster that would have been a perfect fit for the Cage of Death environment is so pissed off at the company that's he turned his back on them!

Yeah, I'm talking about the Notorious 187, Homicide. The most violent and destructive wrestler in ROH won't be in the most brutal and sickening match in ROH history. Homicide will not be making an appearance in our Cage of Death.

Well...

At least not on their side. It certainly wouldn't be the first time I've gotten an ROH wrestler to jump sides. Last time we were in Philly, my man, Claudio Castagnoli shocked the world. What a beautifully executed plan that was. Hm, did I just give away my big secret? You wouldn't think that I would reveal my hand before all the bets were on the table. Maybe I would. Maybe I'm just feeling a little Homicidal right now. I'll tell you this much though, I would make a deal with the Devil Himself just to see Ring of Honor self destruct.

I guess you'll have to find out this weekend. See you Saturday."


Team RoH Vs Team CZW (RoH Death Before Dishonor 15/07/2006)
★★★★ 1/2
From a booking perspective, having RoH gain the upper-hand off the coin toss (noting the War Games style layout) reveals a rather incongruent thought pattern to the narrative already laid out. Here's RoH aiming to make amends and assert themselves as a dominant force following run-ins and vicious assaults from the CZW locker room. Their aim is to vindicate themselves via overcoming the onslaught, having worked from the bottom. While CZW may remain steadfast here in their portrayal as coniving weasels afraid of equal match-ups, not even the opening pairing between Claudio and Joe made sense into the Whitmer entry. Mere seconds before a RoH star is set to join the fray, Joe has to quickly change control off of himself as to see it doesn't become a pointless two-on-one beat down (however the reality of Joe running roughshod upon Claudio is painfully apparent).

For all intents and purposes, the fans had also been demarkated into babyface/heel dynamics. Certainly, the Wargames format ensures that the faces are always wrestling in peril (to keep the crowd firmly behind their men) and the crowd boasted a remarkable split for each faction but it wouldn't have mattered if CZW took the heel workover as the fans' roles were eloquently fashioned to suit this, already. While the war may be for the dominance of one promotion over the other, it was within a Ring of Honor event that most of this feud had taken place. Events in which the CZW brethren were hostile invadors. They were already there to inflict punishment via means filled with schadenfreudic motivation. Witnessing the RoH stars being dominated would spur them on, as would the “hometown” faces in peril of the RoH team push for the Ring of Honor fans to get behind their colours. While the build did work for the Bryan Danielson swerve, a double workover/put down of the RoH team (both in losing the coin toss and Bryan) would have worked much better.

Incidentally, the booking on a micro level was borderline sublime. Elements within the match either called back upon rivalries and story arcs within the feud or propelled as agents of future change. Danielson not only screwed RoH, proving to others that he believed both promotions to be below him, but did so as a means of adding injury to Joe's knee (taking him out of the match, and possible title hunt). Homicide's aid would be the start of the future undoing of Jim's hold on Homicide's glass ceiling and the building blocks to winning the title, and restoring the honor of the promotion, off of Danielson at Final Battle. Whitmer and Necro escalated the animosity between each other, an animosity that would broil over into a barbed-wire match at the following show. Moreover, despite his promises of having the upper-hand, Hero's ace up his sleeve would prove to be an aid to his own undoing. While he calmly states that Kingston hates RoH more than Hero, a missed chop sees both men at each others' throats. Hero's pause, mid-match, to lounge, lazily, upon a propped up chair and delivering a cutting promo against Ring of Honor (despite the chaos surrounding him) epitomised his very character and reasoning as to why this entire feud started. For that moment, Hero found himself within the eye of the storm, acting as the devil himself witnessing the torment of Adam and Eve being ejected from Eden due to his own doing. Marvelous.

The Danielson swerve, after enamoring Cornette with promises of fighting for RoH free of charge (a dig at Homicide), also meant for an obvious interjection of the Cop Killa at some point within the match. Following suit of pro-wrestling logic, that interference would be to the aid of the now outnumbered Ring of Honor stable. Its predictability aside, Homicide's wreckless intent was a much welcomed addition to the now lawless violence massacring a ring and promotion so used to pure, technical wrestling. Equally outside of the booking direction, the build within the match itself played to the strengths of each combatant and allowed for the match to not become stale too quickly in terms of its weapon usage and gimmick spots. While the RoH stars set out to decimate the CZW brethren, the violence escalated to sickening levels only once other CZW wrestlers had entered and the path followed a similar trajectory until it culminated in Homicide's disgusting use of forks akin to Abdullah The Butcher on his most sadistic day. A build toward the peak and following plateau is oft sought after by many within a chaotic environ yet is so often missed due to those involved over-thinking and thus over-using the gimmick of their match and thus being unable to adequately build upon what's recently taken place. While not so much a critique within the brawls of the feud, specifically, but within many of the matches, as well, thankfully this match managed to tune itself to just the right degree.

In sum, and despite its positive structure, engrossing elements and individually driven mini-narratives, the match doesn't play to its heralded title as one of the best Indy matches to have existed. It doesn't even play as the best match within this feud. All men involved had a high task in outdoing their RoH 100 Show classic and, as such, came off ever so slightly short. The addition of weaker members (Nate Webb, most especially) would be that undoing. Regardless, Cage of Death, both in linguistic connotation and physical delivery, acted eloquently as the culmination of a multiple month feud of hostility, hatred and pride that saw one team reign supreme and a once divided crowd join together in appreciation of the gruelling toll both sides had endured in the names of their respective homes.



Necro Butcher Vs BJ Whitmer (RoH War of the Wire II 28/07/2006)
★★ 1/4
Below average and a very poor blowoff to a feud that had promise. The premise of a bad build within chaotic brawls (as alluded to in the CoD review) was painfully apparent here with the focus seemingly on planning spots for a match and not a match for the spots. As such, the bigger spots were derailed by smaller spots that came afterward and the concession of power between both men came off rather contrived. Whitmer's selling most certainly didn't help the latter gripe, with his focus on ensuring his hair was parted from the barbedwire rather than selling the move correctly. Understandly, he had to ensure he wasn't trapped, but call out in pain, cry if need be, but don't gesture flippantly toward your own hair and fleetingly say what you need. This was meant to be a war, a war beyond the confines of even a barbedwire match, yet it wasn't treated like one in the selling. Both men looked to kill, yet no one thought to die (if that makes sense).
 
#4,951 ·


Jersey All Pro Wrestling will present Low Ki vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. for the first time ever in the main event of their 19th Anniversary Show in Rahway, NY at the Rahway Rec Center on Saturday 11/14.

Also scheduled to appear are Jeff & Matt Hardy, an LAX reunion featuring Hernandez, Homicide and Konnan, Jack Evans, MVP, Joey Ryan, Candice LaRae and Nick Gage.
Ki vs Rey? :sodone
 
#5,230 ·
Highspots just put up 2 new Best Ofs from PWG



PWG PRESENTS "NOT ANOTHER STEEN DVD"
THE BEST OF KEVIN STEEN DOUBLE DVD SET

No one quite knew what to expect when Kevin Steen made his Pro Wrestling Guerrilla debut in 2004, but looking back on it now it's pretty clear: the future of professional wrestling. Not Another Steen DVD is a two-disc compilation that follows Kevin's journey from the early days of his independent career all the way to the end. Featuring Kevin's best Pro Wrestling Guerrilla bouts, including the dramatic, first-ever Ladder Match with longtime rival El Generico, and so much more, this is one DVD you can't afford to miss!

DISC 1

Free Admission (Just Kidding) - Debut Match
Kevin Steen vs. El Generico
All Star Weekend 2 (Night 2) - World Championship Match
Kevin Steen vs. Chris Bosh
Astonishing X-Mas - Guerrilla Warfare Match
Kevin Steen vs. Super Dragon
Holy Diver Down - Singles Match
Kevin Steen vs. PAC
2009 Battle Of Los Angeles (Night 2) - World Tag Team Championship
Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. The Young Bucks
Cyanide: A Loving Tribute to Poison - Singles Match
Kevin Steen vs. Akira Tozawa
All Star Weekend 8 (Night 1) - Tag Team Match
Kevin Steen & Akira Tozawa vs. El Generico & Ricochet
2011 Battle Of Los Angeles - Final Round Match
Kevin Steen vs. El Generico

DISC 2

Steen Wolf - World Championship Ladder Match
Kevin Steen vs. El Generico
FEAR - World Tag Team Championship Guerrilla Warfare
Kevin Steen & Super Dragon vs. The Young Bucks
2012 Battle Of Los Angeles (Night 2) - Six Person Tag Match
Kevin Steen, El Generico & Rick Knox vs. The Young Bucks & Brian Cage
Mystery Vortex - World Championship Guerrilla Warfare Match
Kevin Steen vs. Adam Cole
DDT4 (2013) - Final Round Match
Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. The Young Bucks
2013 Battle Of Los Angeles (Night 2) - Quarter-Final Round
Kevin Steen vs. Johnny Gargano
All Star Weekend X (Night 1) - Six Person Tag Team Match
Kevin Steen & The Young Bucks vs. AR Fox, Ricochet & Rich Swann
ELEVEN - Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Farewell Match
Kevin Steen vs. Trevor Lee


THE YOUNG BUCKS - FIVE STARS

Sic Parvis Magna. A phrase that perfectly encapsulates Matt and Nick Jackson's meteoric rise in the world of professional wrestling. FIVE STARS follows THE YOUNG BUCKS' career from their early days as cocky South California standouts making their Pro Wrestling Guerrilla debut to today, when they questions isn't "Who's the best Tag Team in the world," but "Who is second best Tag Team in the world, after The Young Bucks?" Greatness from small beginnings.

DISC 1

Roger Dorn Night - Debut Match
The Young Bucks vs. Chris Bosh & Scott Lost
Express Written Consent - Six Person Tag Team Match
The Young Bucks & Paul London vs. Karl Anderson, Scott Lost & Joey Ryan
DDT4 (2009) - Semi-Final Round Match
The Young Bucks vs. Kenny Omega & Chuck Taylor
DDT4 (2009) - Final Round Match
The Young Bucks vs. Bryan Danielson & Roderick Strong
Threemendous II - Tag Team Match
The Young Bucks vs. El Generico & Human Tornado
2009 Battle Of Los Angeles (Night 2) - World Tag Team Championship Match
The Young Bucks vs. El Generico & Kevin Steen
Seven - World Tag Team Championship 3-Way Guerrilla Warfare
The Young Bucks vs. The Cutler Bros vs. El Generico & Paul London
DDT4 (2011) - Final Round Match
The Young Bucks vs. Kevin Steen & Akira Tozawa
Steen Wolf - World Tag Team Championship Match
The Young Bucks vs. Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly

DISC 2

FEAR - World Tag Team Championship Guerrilla Warfare
The Young Bucks vs. Kevin Steen & Super Dragon
Death to All But Metal - World Tag Team Championship No DQ
The Young Bucks vs. Super Smash Bros.
Threemendous III - World Tag Team Championship 3-Way Ladder Match
The Young Bucks vs. Super Smash Bros. vs. Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly
Mystery Vortex - Tag Team Match
The Young Bucks vs. Eddie Edwards & Roderick Strong
TEN - World Tag Team Championship 3-Way Ladder Match
The Young Bucks vs. Ricochet & Rich Swann vs. Eddie Edwards & Roderick Strong
2013 Battle Of Los Angeles (Night 2) - Six Person Tag Team Match
The Young Bucks & Adam Cole vs. AR Fox, Candice LeRae & Rich Swann
All Star Weekend X (Night 1) - Six Person Tag Team Match
The Young Bucks & Kevin Steen vs. AR Fox, Ricochet & Rich Swann
ELEVEN - World Tag Team Championship Guerrilla Warfare
The Young Bucks vs. Candice LeRae & Joey Ryan
 
#4,646 · (Edited)

PWG - THE MANY ADVENTURES OF EL GENERICO

Disc 1

Free Admission (Just Kidding)
El Generico vs. Kevin Steen - ***1/4

Beyond The Thunderdome
El Generico & Quicksilver vs. Chris Bosh & Scott Lost - ***1/2

Battle of Los Angeles 2006
El Generico vs. CIMA - ***1/2

All Star Weekend IV
El Generico vs. PAC - ***3/4

Giant-Size Annual #4
El Generico & Kevin Steen vs. Roderick Strong & PAC - ***3/4

Giant-Size Annual #4
El Generico vs. Bryan Danielson - ****1/2

Battle of Los Angeles 2007
El Generico vs. Nigel McGuinness - ****1/4

Express Written Consent
El Generico vs. Kenny Omega - ***3/4

Threemendous II
El Generico & Human Tornado vs. The Young Bucks - ****1/4

Disc 2

Guerre Sans Frontiéres
El Generico vs. Shingo Takagi - ****

Speed of Sound
El Generico vs. Chuck Taylor - ****1/4

Battle of Los Angeles 2009
El Generico & Kevin Steen vs. The Young Bucks - ****1/4+

Kurt Russellreunion
El Generico vs. Jushin Liger - ***3/4

And here we see one of the greatest promos all-time:


Seven
El Generico & Paul London vs. The Cutler Brothers vs. The Young Bucks - ****1/2

The Curse of Guerrilla Island
El Generico vs. Ricochet - ****

Battle of Los Angeles 2011
El Generico vs. Claudio Castagnoli - ****1/2

Steen Wolf
El Generico vs. Kevin Steen - ****3/4

GREAT DVD. I recommend all El Generico fans to check it out.​
 
#5,291 ·
The 2CW shows were maybe the quintessential 2CW shows in the sense that they were going out delivering what the people there had come to expect and enjoy. The stream felt like more of something that was just "there" to peer into the window of what was happening.

You had really good matches like Jessicka Havok vs. Candice LeRae.
You had Bin Hamin.
You had odd booking.
You had pure crazyness in Young Bucks/Kenny Omega vs. AR Fox/To Infinity And Beyond. Fox does a dive off a basketball hoop, god bless.
You had the final return of Spike Dudley to face Jason Axe and the return of Jimmy Olsen. That last bit got me going a bit wild. Looked like a lovely mini-deathmatch worker.

Was it the "best show possible" given the people there? I don't know. But it very felt like 2CW leaving by reminding the fans of great memories (2 Cold vs. Slyk Wagner Brown) and giving their wrestlers big matches that they might not be able to have another time (Punisher VanSlyke vs. #BigMike ). I had a grand time live. For someone who has been going to these shows for since I was about 14/15, this felt like a fitting final chapter to the run of a promotion that tried to bring a better wrestling experience to Central NY.
 
#3,272 ·
Well here's my review of the second night of BOLA. I'm pretty sure I didn't spoil any results from Night 1 or Night 2 in the review but I would read at your own risk as I do talk about pretty much everything else that happens.

PWG Battle of Los Angeles 2014 Night 2


Candice LeRae vs. Rich Swann

It’s really amazing how the dynamic to a match is so different when Candice is in the ring with someone. Normally I don’t think Swann would get heat for doing some of the stuff that he did but in this match he did. There’s really no way to seriously wrestle Candice and hope to get cheered so for this match at least Swann embraced being a heel and he embraced being the larger competitor in a match for a change. It worked out really well too as he had some really innovative stuff that he probably never had the chance to do with anyone else because of his size and when he wants to come across as mean he can do that well. Candice was Candice and she’s incredible. She has that El Generico like quality where it’s just impossible not to root for her. Great opener.
***½


Chuck Taylor vs. Johnny Gargano

If you follow other indy companies you would know that these guys have a ton of history together as both partners and opponents. They played up all of that and I certainly got the impression that I was watching 2 guys that knew each other really well. At first I had the impression that they liked each other as they didn’t take things super seriously at first. That changed as the match wore on and by the end I felt that we got the full spectrum of Gargano and Taylor. The beginning felt like I was watching tag partners wrestling and by the end I thought I was watching guys that were feuding with other having a match. There was a lot of mirroring throughout the match as there were just so many examples of them doing the same moves to each other. Gargano took a scary bump on the floor and knowing that he had a back injury not too long ago really made me cringe. I think Taylor was supposed to suplex him on the apron but he didn’t hit the apron. I’m glad he was fine and it did add some intensity to the match. The finishing stretch was pretty cool as the winner just seemed like he won because he was lucky enough to throw the last punch. I’ve always enjoyed watching these two work together and this is no exception.
***½


Ricochet vs. Chris Sabin

I liked the match but I can’t say I was overly impressed with Sabin. He was in the ring with someone who’s really good and most of what was good I thought came from Ricochet. Sabin might be known as an X-Division guy but he really didn’t fly around at all. In fact his strategy seemed to be to keep Ricochet grounded because he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to keep up with him in the air. As the match wore on he busted out a couple of cool moves but he had a pretty basic strategy on offense. Ricochet did well here as you were waiting for him to explode and when he did it was pretty great. Good match but I can’t say that I was left with the impression that Sabin had a ton to offer to PWG.
***


ReDragon vs. Biff Busick and Drew Gulak

I was really impressed with the match. I like that PWG again was putting top CZW guys in matches with ROH guys. Fish and O’Reilly were kicking ass early on and it wasn’t until Gulak and Busick took the match outside the ring and this brawl that they were able to take control of the match, which I thought was fitting for the “CZW” team to do. From there they worked a really good control segment, first on O’Reilly and then on Fish. It was smartly worked and they did enough cool stuff to keep things interesting. The hot tag was super hot or anything and I think they could have built it up a little more but once O’Reilly did get in the pace really picked up. ReDragon looked like they had the match wrapped up but Busick and Gulak were able to regain some momentum and recreate the “anyone could win this” feeling for a second time. I really hope PWG keeps booking these guys because this worked out really well, most of the fans seemed to like the match and there weren’t a million high spots or thigh slaps.
***½


Chris Hero vs. Matt Sydal

After seeing this match the only conclusion that you should make is that you have no problem with the fact that Hero has put on a ton of weight. And he really does look huge here. But, at least for this match he worked like he was his actual size. It might not have worked in NXT but on the indy scene Hero can play a legit big man against most people. Sydal did a really good job as the underdog here but I was more impressed with Hero. There were all of these great moments when Hero would do something and it was if he was realizing that he’s a hundred pounds heavier than this opponent. They had the dynamic down perfectly and I really hope it’s something that Hero continues to do as he works with smaller guys. He’s really big right now but he’s still super athletic and if he can use both of this things he can start having great matches again I think. This was the match with a huge question mark for me because I easily saw Hero and and Sydal having a 20 minute match where they wrestled like they were the same size. Thankfully we got the exact opposite here and the match delivered.
***½


Adam Cole vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Cole being such an asshole really made this a lot more entertaining. Sabre starts off controlling the match and just taking Cole to school. His offense was really cool looking technical stuff and under most circumstances it would be fun on it’s own. But when you have a piece of shit like Adam Cole in the ring who is just furious as Sabre embarasses him it’s all the better. Cole takes control of the match and we get plenty of talking from him and it sets up a good Sabre comeback. The finishing stretch was pretty fantastic because their styles were meshing really well. Sabre does a lot of cool technical stuff and stuff strikes. So watching him do this awesome series of holds and then have Cole reverse it all by just dropping him on his head or something was really cool. There was plenty of good striking, fast pace, a likable face, and an unlikable heel. I can only hope that Sabre starts making a lot more appearances in the US.
***¾


Kenny Omega vs. ACH

Easily the most I’ve ever enjoyed ACH. I remember hearing Omega on the Art of Wrestling talking about how he was tired of guys doing to same shit in matches all the time and that he wanted to be different. Well he certainly achieved that goal. At times the match was a super serious hard fought match and at other times it was one of the funniest things that you will see. Omega was playing the heel for a good chunk of the match which I was happy to see. He has this cool character that works well as a face but it can very easily be tweaked so he plays this creepy, mean, and weird character. Omega controlled the match for a really long time and it was great to watch as his offense was good and he was doing something very cool with his character. They were on their way to a really good, if not great match. Then ACH started his comeback and it was one of the most absurd (in a good way) things I’ve seen in a long time. This serious match transitioned seamlessly into a comedy/parody match and it was great to see. I’m sure it will turn some people off but I thought it was super entertaining. I won’t go into too much detail because the surprise of it all is what made it so funny and the crowd’s reaction was just perfect. And then they transitioned back into a serious match and it was still really good. At the end I was left wondering what the hell I had just seen but knowing that I really enjoyed whatever I just saw.
***¾


The Young Bucks vs. Bad Influence

Weird match. The Bucks are the best heels in wrestling I think and they have a match with a team that I also think are great heels. But the Bucks ended up playing the faces (sort of) and the match was just off. No control segment from the Bucks, we got one from Kazarian and Daniels though. When things did break down I felt like I was watching 2 teams where there was no face or heel dynamic. I hate to say it but I wasn’t impressed with Bad Influence at all. They were sloppy at times and tried to play the heels at times when they were in the ring with the best heel tag team. Move wise they kept up with the Bucks and the match was entertaining but it was kind of flat. It was good but that’s as far as I’m willing to go and I might have to say that this is the worst Bucks tag match in PWG in a very long time, not that I think the Bucks had anything to do with that. Everyone tried hard but when you look back it was just a super spotty match that was sloppy at times and did nothing else to be compelling.
**3/4

One of the best top to bottom shows that you will find. I don’t think that there are any bad matches on this DVD, that being said there wasn’t anything that was in that “amazing” category either but there were a couple that came close to that territory. The show is easy to sit through as there is a ton of variety. Also after seeing the first 2 nights I’m incredibly excited for the last night.
 
#3,888 ·
I'm not sure what the deal is with CZW and Gage. I'm sure he will at least make an appearance in CZW again and do something cool but I think they are going to save that for a big show.


Highspots TV Reviews: Bryan Danielson Matches


Bryan Danielson vs. Brad Bradley (PWG 88 Miles Per Hour, 3/7/04)

Really great sub-10 minute match. There was a pretty significant size difference and they played up to that perfectly. Bryan naturally fit into the babyface fighting with the big tough guy. And they really did beat the hell out of each other. Bryan would hit a bunch of fury strikes and it would just take one big strike from Bradley to cut it off. What worked is that the one big punch or elbow looked devastating. They beat the shit out of each other and the match had a cool story. What more could you ask for?
***½


Bryan Danielson vs. The UK Kid (PWG The Next Show, 9/4/04)

Bryan doesn’t really have bad matches but this certainly wasn’t one of his better ones. Bryan was fine here, as he did a lot of mat stuff and that looked great because he really stretched out UK Kid (who is either flexible or retired after the match). UK Kid did take all of Bryan’s submissions well but was otherwise pretty unimpressive. He seemed to try to show some personality but that just made think that he didn’t have any personality. Too much stalling for my liking and they didn’t develop anything as the match wore on. You got some hints that Bryan was getting pissed but we didn’t get full pissed off Bryan like I was hoping for. Anyway decent match but nothing special.
**½


PWG Championship Match:
El Generico(c) vs. Bryan Danielson (PWG Giant Sized Annual #4)

This match is just the best. Bryan was somewhere between a heel and a face but he was MEAN and it was great. I’m not sure if there is a better combo than a pissed off Bryan and an underdog Generico. So what happened here was that Bryan had a match with Necro Butcher, than Generico and Steen had a match, and then Bryan challenged Generico to a match for the title. And it was just fantastic. Right away you realize that Generico might be in a lot of trouble and that continues on during the match. He gives you some glimmers of hope and a few times makes you think he’s going to pull off the big win. Just a great match and it’s shocking how great it is considering how short it is. I just have to hope that some time in the future these two get another chance to do something special in the ring.
****½


Bryan Danielson vs. Jigsaw (IWA:MS Christmas Carnage, 12/16/05)
When this match took place is a pretty important detail. Jigsaw had been wrestling for a while but his stock wasn’t all that high at this point in his career. That led to a really one sided match where Bryan took him to school and just stretched him out and beat the shit out of him for about 10 minutes. Jigsaw had some offense in but it wasn’t much and it seemed to amuse Bryan more than anything. There was a brief spurt at the end where Jigsaw got things going and there was even a roll up where I thought it was possible there would be a huge upset. Naturally that didn’t happen. The whole point of the match seemed to be to make Jigsaw look tough as he took his beating well. A dead crowd of 50 or so people didn’t help things. However for as one sided as it was I did like the match. Nothing too amazing but if you’re going to have a squash match that lasts over 15 minutes I wouldn’t have thought it would be better than this.
**¾


PWG Championship Match
Bryan Danielson(c) vs. Martin Stone (PWG European Vacation II)

Pretty cool match. So you have your champion defending the title across the world defending the title against a local. Stone is just a brute, he’s as tall as he is wide and he is just solid. He’s the guy that you don’t want to get in a bar fight with. And Stone just pounds on Bryan. It was cool because early on it feels like Bryan is in trouble. And he spends the whole match trying to figure out how to deal with the brute he’s in the ring with. He tried to outwrestle him and Stone hits him really hard. Bryan had to fire up and just throw everything he had at Stone and hoped that it worked. It did. Really fun match and I liked how Stone had this simplistic style that meshed so well with Bryan.
***¼


Bryan Danielson vs. James Gibson (PWG All Star Weekend Night 1)

The beginning of the match dragged on a bit as they had a really long sequence of mat wrestling and it was kind of directionless. I might have enjoyed it more if I could have seen it better. 95% is viewed from the hard camera and it’s just not a great shot. The guy on the floor with the camera must have done a shitty job because they never go to his camera angle. Anyway once Bryan started talking some shit and Gibson was able to transition into more of an underdog the match drastically improved. The last 10 minutes were just fantastic as it was all about Gibson trying to withstand the onslaught from Bryan. It was cool to watch this after Bryan’s match with Stone because he’s playing the exact opposite role as he did before. The match was really good and had they made the first 10 minutes anywhere close to as good as the last 10 minutes they could have done something special.
***½


PWG Championship Match:
Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero(c) (PWG Guerre Sans Frontieres)

The match still holds up really well for me. They start with a great technical exchange that lasts for a solid 10-15 minutes. Unlike the match I just watched the camera work is good here and you can really appreciate what they do. I really am a huge fan of good chain wrestling and this was a perfect example of what a like. For the first few minutes there were some flashbacks of “old” Chris Hero. Then Hero starts hitting Bryan in the face, and he doesn’t stop the entire match. Hero had a pretty consistent strategy of trying to knock Bryan out and his strikes just look fantastic. I know Hero gets criticized for throwing too many elbows but I thought it worked well here because he spaced them out and it wasn’t like he was hitting them in rapid succession and every big strike on Bryan wasn’t an elbow. So Bryan has to struggle to stay conscious and just has a great performance. It’ his last match in PWG so he pretty much gets all of his big spots in one last time for the PWG crowd but even that fit the match as Bryan just slugged it out with Hero and gave him everything he had. A really entertaining and smart strategy from Hero, the building intensity from a technical match to all out war, and the vocal PWG crowd made this pretty special. Great match.
****½

Bryan was and continues to be the man. I don’t think there was much rhyme or reason why I picked these matches to watch and I feel like I got a great selection. Bryan can play any role in a match and he has good matches with everyone. I’m sure there is a horrible Danielson match out there somewhere but I’ve yet to come across one.
 
#3,889 · (Edited)
I'm not sure what the deal is with CZW and Gage. I'm sure he will at least make an appearance in CZW again and do something cool but I think they are going to save that for a big show.
I think it's a given that he'll be back. The big question is when, and how. I feel like TOD will be his return to the ring but he has to return in some capacity between now and then. It'll be interesting to see where though. Logically one would say Gulak, but Gulak is a top face now and having him vs. the super over returning Nick Gage would be a very hard thing to do IMO. I do know one thing, seeing that poster pretty much guarantees that I'll be buying every CZW iPPV until he does return. I feel like it's something I'll need to see live to truly appreciate.

--

Watched Battlewar 17 last night. Fell asleep during the Main Event (Buxx Belmar vs. Big Bad Quentin) but overall it was a really fun watch. The four way tag was awesome and Mike Bailey/Shayne Hawke was fantastic. Scary moment though when Bailey's legs hit the balcony on an Asai Moonsault and he fell 10 feet on his head.
 
#4,078 ·
EVOLVE 38

Biff Busick vs. Martin Stone - ** 1/4

Team Tremendous (Dan Barry & Bill Carr) vs. Earl Cooter & Jodi Kristofferson - ***

AR Fox vs. Matt Cage - ** 1/2

Chris Hero vs. Drew Gulak - *** 1/4

PJ Black vs. Caleb Konley - ***

Davey Richards vs. Anthony Nese - ***

Steel Cage Match
Roderick Strong vs. Drew Galloway - *** 1/2


- The show started 30 minutes late, so I had to watch a long ass recap of their shows in China last year. Cool to watch at first, but they played it like 2 more times during intermission. The song has been stuck in my head all night. :p Anyway, Busick vs. Stone in the opener. Only went like 5 minutes, so not much to write about. They talked Stone up like he really put a hurtin on Busick, but then tapped out to a choke immediately. Busick wants Hero.

- Tag match came out of literally NOWHERE and was almost my favorite match of the night. Never seen Team Tremendous before but I really liked them. Dan Barry is like a Mikey Whipwreck and Bill Carr looks almost identical to a 1990 Big Bossman. Pretty sweet combo. Really impressed me with their tag psychology and move set. Fun match here. Hope they bring em back.

- Fox vs. Cage started out really well on the outside but in the later stages became a bit too indyriffic for me. A lot of move trading and nearfalls that were instantly forgettable. It appears that 80% of Cage's move set involves punches or slaps, just with a different variation before it.

- Now we get into the meat of the evening with Hero/Gulak. Gulak comes out and cuts a promo about how he's taking this more seriously than everyone else in the locker room and he's gonna cut down Hero as best he can and give it all he's got. That's pretty much exactly what he did. Relentless attack on Hero's leg, which he sold fairly well. The match was really interesting throughout and Hero had to come up with desperation strikes to create distance, but I think it went too long at the end (pretty sure it went over 20 minutes). Towards the end it turned into a complete strikefest and most of the time Hero would just stand there and no-sell everything and hit a strike with a big slapping sound added to it. It got kind of old (like it does most of the time with Hero) so that brought the match down a bit for me. Hero wins with a fucking NASTY tombstone though. I thought he may have legit injured Gulak for a moment. Hero calls out Busick for calling him out. Hero's a sneaky bastard and uses Gulak as bait.

- PJ vs. Konley was solid. That's about as far as it goes. Black didn't do anything that different than what you've seen from him in WWE, but he should fit in just fine in EVOLVE. They had some awkward moments where PJ was sitting on the top rope kinda doing nothing, but other than that this was fine. I would've liked them to build up Black doing the 450 from the top rope instead of hitting it off the springboard though. That would've made for a much better and bigger finish imo. Oh well.

- Richards vs. Nese was a mixed bag. Like Hero/Gulak, I think it went a bit too long at 20+ minutes, but there were parts I liked and parts I didn't. First off, Davey was tolerable (if not likeable) for a good while. Unfortunately he went back to being Davey Richards at times with some stupid looking selling, way too much looking to the crowd for approval, and CLEAR spot-calling. I swear there were times where he was basically yelling in Nese's ears telling him what to do. Anyone in attendance notice this? Aside from those things, this had some enjoyable moments. There was a spot where Nese worked over Davey's arm a bit and Davey had to struggle a few times to get him locked in to that armbar cloverleaf thingy and a pretty fucking awesome dive to the outside that I'm pretty sure sent someone into the 2nd row. Davey was really on point with his wrestling throughout this, so that was good. Nese was enjoyable all around and this would've been really good if Davey hadn't been so stupid in the later stages and they shaved a couple minutes off. A little overkill, but still solid nonetheless.

- Main event time. After damn near an hour of intermission they put this ugly ass cage up, but everyone acknowledged how shitty it looked and it ended up playing into the match a good margin. Started off hot and gained some serious steam towards the end, so I couldn't ask for a whole lot more. Throughout some of the middle I thought it was becoming too back-and-forth with little use of the cage, but they cleaned it up. Really wish there would've been some early blood with someone scraping the other guy's face across the cage, simply because I miss that in current day cage matches. When the heat and fatigue started kicking in later in the match is when it really started to pick up. Slugfests on top of the ropes and some nasty looking bumps into the cage. Roddy took a powerbomb into the side of the cage at one point and almost got lodged in between the ring and the cage. That was fuckin awesome. Didn't mind the KO finish at all because it doesn't hurt anyone. Not as good and didn't quite have as much heat as their first match last year, but still real good stuff here.

- POSTMATCH, PJ fucking Black comes out while Galloway is damn near knocked unconscious and tells him he should put the EVOLVE Title on the line in their match at Mania weekend, and once Drew actually stands up he of course accepts being a fighting champion at all. I have no idea how he can just do that now with one victory considering Strong never got a title match, but oh well. I thought this felt really out of place considering what Drew had just gone through. Smart move from Black though. Galloway then grabs the mic and delivers a long (but awesome) promo putting over New York, the fans, Roderick as the best in the world right now, and says whenever they come back to New York again, he and Roddy are FINALLY finishing this. He then comes up with the (obvious) idea that he and Gargano should have a title unification match at the WWN Supershow. Super duper looking forward to that one now.
 
#4,081 ·
- Richards vs. Nese was a mixed bag. Like Hero/Gulak, I think it went a bit too long at 20+ minutes, but there were parts I liked and parts I didn't. First off, Davey was tolerable (if not likeable) for a good while. Unfortunately he went back to being Davey Richards at times with some stupid looking selling, way too much looking to the crowd for approval, and CLEAR spot-calling. I swear there were times where he was basically yelling in Nese's ears telling him what to do. Anyone in attendance notice this? Aside from those things, this had some enjoyable moments. There was a spot where Nese worked over Davey's arm a bit and Davey had to struggle a few times to get him locked in to that armbar cloverleaf thingy and a pretty fucking awesome dive to the outside that I'm pretty sure sent someone into the 2nd row. Davey was really on point with his wrestling throughout this, so that was good. Nese was enjoyable all around and this would've been really good if Davey hadn't been so stupid in the later stages and they shaved a couple minutes off. A little overkill, but still solid nonetheless.
[/CENTER]
Great review overall! - though I loved Gulak/Hero :)

And yeah, I did notice Davey calling spots and whatnot, and I also was annoyed at his pandering to the crowd, etc. I usually like Davey, but I just didn't dig it. Good to know it wasn't just me :lol
 
#4,499 ·

ROH Global Wars 2015

Gedo & Moose vs. Silas Young & Takaaki Watanabe - *1/4
There wasn't really anything wrong or really bad about this match, but it just wasn't interesting or really good either.

Chris Sabin vs. KUSHIDA vs. Kyle O'Reilly - ***
On paper this looks like a lot of fun. And that's what it was - a lot of fun. Chris Sabin is an awesome heel + both KUSHIDA & O'Reilly are really great. Good match, and I really hope that we get a 1vs1 match between KUSHIDA & O'Reilly in the future. I think those 2 could kill it if given good amount of time.

The Kingdom vs. Matt Sydal & Jushin Liger - *1/2
I always enjoy watching Sydal, and I always mark for Liger in ROH, but goddamn, Bennett & Taven are so boring. This match was pretty meh for most parts, but I enjoyed some of it. The Liger/Maria stuff was pretty funny and that SSP-to-Superkick spot was pretty epic.

Cedric Alexander vs. Kazuchika Okada - ***1/4
This was awesome. It's always a pleasure to watch Okada in the ring, and he truly brought out the best in Cedric Alexander here. Good match.

The Addiction vs. The Decade vs. RPG Vice - **1/2
This was an okay match, but really nothing special.

ACH vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - ***
This was a good match, but I honestly expected & hoped that it would be better. Still a good match though.

ROH World Television Championship: Jay Lethal (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito - ***1/4
I thought this was really good, and the best singles match of the night alongside Okada/Alexander. Awesome match.

Michael Elgin vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - ***
This was A LOT better than I expected it to be. I thought it would be awful, but it ended up being good.

ROH All Stars vs. Bullet Club - ***1/2
This was just a CRAZY match, and for sure the best match of the night. If you can/want to check out only one match from this show, this is the match you should watch. Awesome main event.

Overall an OK show.​
 
#4,621 ·
Really don't know if this is the right thread to post this on, but I read this pretty cool article about Roderick Strong:
WARNING: Some PWG spoilers there, but I only put DDT4 stuff on spoiler tags, as it's the only show that hasn't come out yet.
THE YEAR OF STRONG

12 Years. That’s a long time for anybody in the business of professional wrestling. At this point an independent wrestler may begin to rethink their career choices. Bryan Danielson had to wait 11 years before getting his contract with WWE. CM Punk had to wait 6 years. Even current WWE champion Tyler Black had to wait 7 years. Look at this list, all WWE champions, all Ring of Honor champions and all known opponents of Roderick Strong. After 12 years in the business Strong had people believing that we has already seen his peak. He is a former ROH World Champion, a former ROH Television Champion and a former ROH World Tag Team Champion. Only one other man, Eddie Edwards, can claim to be a triple crown champion in Ring of Honor. Many people believed that Strong’s days were numbered and his best days were behind him. They all thought Strong peaked and was on a decline. Fortunately for us, the wrestling fan, that didn’t happen.

Pro Wrestling Guerilla has done probably the best job out of all the independent wrestling promotions booking talented but also unproven wrestlers and making them into stars. They took Adam Cole, who was not gaining traction as part of a tag team in Ring of Honor, and allowed him to be the heel he was in CZW. Cole showing off a heel persona directly led to him winning BOLA and then the world championship in mere months. They took Cole’s tag team partner in Future Shock, Kyle O’ Reilly, and allowed him to showcase his skills as a singles wrestler, leading to him also being the world champion. They took the Young Bucks, a local California team of brothers who were just a couple of Hardy Boy knock-offs and helped shape them into the best team in pro wrestling right now. They made Roderick Strong relevant again and it all started at the annual PWG anniversary show entitled “ELEVEN.” The world champion at the time, O’ Reilly, was celebrating a win after defeating the longest reigning PWG World Champion, Chris Hero after a long and grueling match. Out came Strong who after defeating Adam Cole became the number one contender to the PWG World Championship. First, he congratulated O’ Reilly. Then he proceeded to bounce off the ropes and drive a kick right to the jaw of the champ.

Over the next few months Strong’s heel persona became more pronounced and his ring style became much more aggressive. He was entered into PWG’s biggest event of the year, the 2014 Battle of Los Angeles and had a strong and eye opening (although controversial) performance in the tournament. He defeated Biff Busick in a stiff bout, got AJ Styles disqualified using the old “Eddie Guerrero steel chair trick,” bought himself a bye to the finals by injuring Kyle O’Reilly and then never got pinned in the triple threat match to crown the winner of the tournament, thus doing the only thing a heel is supposed to do in this situation, attacking the winner Ricochet and destroying the trophy. At the next show “Untitled II” he finally had his one on one opportunity with O’ Reilly for the championship. After a hard hitting match Strong came up short and went on another rampage, this time however attacking fan favorite and the toughest referee around Rick Knox, putting him through not one but two chairs. Roderick was left without the belt and festering in his own rage.

Meanwhile in another company Roddy was creating even more problems. This time with the EVOLVE Champion, Drew Galloway who was finding his way on the indies after getting fired from the WWE. Galloway was revitalizing his career through the EVOLVE Title and was showing the world that he is still at his peak and can hang with anyone, including former WWE superstars. As a relatively new champion, Galloway needed that big time rivalry to push him to heights that weren’t imaginable. Enter Strong. After a few choice words by Roderick in their first encounter at EVOLVE 35 and then the awesome brawl that followed, Strong became a top contender for the EVOLVE Championship. At EVOLVE 36, Strong wrestled Galloway to a draw. Their match resembled more of a street fight since it went all over the the Orpheum. The rivalry had such a throwback feeling of intensity and pride. Therefore, it only made sense that the feud should continue with a steel cage match at EVOLVE 38 Strong and Galloway performed at a level that they hadn’t reached yet in their previous intense battles. And after a brutal match it came down to consecutive sick kicks to between the ropes and the cage that spelled defeat for Galloway. Strong was again being portrayed as a heel who would do anything to win “by any means necessary.”

“Black Cole Sun” was PWG’s last show of 2014. The card was stacked as Kyle O’ Reilly was set to take on the 2014 Battle Of Los Angeles winner Ricochet for the PWG World Championship. Roderick Strong was booked on the card to take on O’ Reilly’s partner, fellow reDRagon member, Bobby Fish. But due to the weather Strong wasn’t able to make it… or so we thought. After the excellent match O’Reilly had with Ricochet out came someone who nobody expected to see, Roderick Strong. After words shared back and forth O’ Reilly challenged Strong to a Guerilla Warfare match, right there!! And after a brutal, vicious and painful affair between the rivals which included an End of Heartache through two chairs, a chain and a detached rope it was Roderick Strong who surprisingly left the building with the PWG World Championship around his waist. It was an excellent way to end the year but it was just the beginning of Strong’s powers as he would go on to defend the title against young upstart and current PWG World Tag Team Champion Trevor Lee at “From Out Of Nowhere.” Then, he would defend against Zack Sabre Jr at “Don’t Sweat The Technique” that many people proclaim to be a 5 star match.
And finally his latest defense at “DDT4” saw him defeat both Chris Hero and Brian Cage.
The booking of Strong in PWG and EVOLVE seemingly led to him becoming revitalized despite being on the independent scene for 12 years. One of the most veteran workers now had a fresh coat of paint on him.

Then there’s Ring of Honor, Strong’s home promotion but a company where he always found himself “stuck in the middle.” He was entrenched in a nowhere feud with his former faction “The Decade” and was constantly placed in the middle of the card. The booking was taking him nowhere and when 2015 rolled around Strong didn’t seem to be in the best of places. However, Roddy turned it around just as he did in EVOLVE and PWG. Perhaps it was the fresh talent coming back to Ring of Honor. Perhaps, it was New Japan potentially dangling a G-1 carrot in front of him, but Strong would go on to produce high quality matches against Albert El Patron, Jay Lethal, Christopher Daniels, Mark Briscoe and many others. He was the definite MVP of the NJPW/ROH weekend that took place last month putting on a constant stream of big time matches including a fast paced match against KUSHIDA, a bloody performance against New Japan superstar Hiroshi Tanahashi, was a member of the ROH All Stars team that defeated the Bullet Club and put on a wrestling clinic against Shinsuke Nakamura. His performances have been so outstanding that rumors of a potential G-1 spot have gained more steam. Roderick Strong is now set to compete at ROH’s next pay per view “Best In The World” in a triple threat number one contender’s match for the ROH World Championship. Just like in other places, Strong is leaving the middle and forcing himself back to the top of the card.

Where does all of this leave Mr. Strong? Strong is having a career renaissance that is showing no signs of stopping. He is the current reigning and defending PWG World Champion and looks to be holding it for a long time . His spot in EVOLVE seems to be solidified after facing off Drew Galloway in the grand finale of their feud in the main event of EVOLVE 44. After his showings against the New Japan stars I would not be shocked to see him in the G1 Climax. Roderick Strong is an inspiration to not just wrestlers, but to people in general. He is a living breathing embodiment of John Cena’s constantly overused phrase “never give up.” After 12 years in the business Strong seems to show that not only has he not reached his peak, but he has a lot more quality years in him. Long Live Roddy.

http://www.pwponderings.com/2015/06/05/noahs-ark-the-year-of-strong/
 
#4,676 ·
PWG

Jack Evans makes his PWG return and Angélico makes his PWG debut at Threemendous IV on July 24th!

Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards make their return to PWG at Threemendous IV on July 24th!

Akira Tozawa makes his return to PWG at Threemendous IV on July 24th!

Will Ospreay is the first entrant in the 2015 Battle of Los Angeles!

Marty Scurll is the second entrant in the 2015 Battle of Los Angeles!
 
#4,792 ·
Yeah that and Hero vs. Trevor Lee are getting RAVE ass reviews online right now. And this actually happened:

Courtesy of PWPonderings:

EVOLVE World Championship & DGUSA Open the Freedom Gate Championship
Timothy Thatcher def Drew Galloway to win the Titles
– Galloway’s feet were under the rope so this will most likely be a part of the story going forward
 
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