ROH: WAR OF THE WIRE - 11/29/2003

Framingham State College
Framingham, MA
November 29th, 2003

ROH World Champion: Samoa Joe (Since 3/22/2002 - 7 Defenses)
ROH Tag Team Champions: The Briscoes (Since 11/1/2003 - 1 Defenses)

ROH doesn’t really do/have a WrestleMania/Starrcade type show, at least not in this era, but this weekend of shows (and especially this show specifically) feels like one. Starts with two good showcase matches. You get Punk/BJ payoff in the gauntlet. Walters/Xavier, even though I hate them, has had a properly built feud. Daniels/Maff and the Briscoes has been built by Cornette association alone. Joe/AJ has been protected as a singles match and built to for a short amount of time but a decent enough build. And Corino/Cide is the first real blood feud ROH has had and the main story of it ends here (though there are a couple of epilogues, I am told.) So let’s see how it plays out.

To start the show, GMC gets a phone call that Steve Corino has arrived. GMC rushes outside with a camera, NO LIGHTING, to do an interview. Guys, you HAVE to be making better production decisions, come the fuck on. Corino puts over the dangerousness of the match tonight and keeps saying how it didn’t have to come to this. This all started because of an errant elbow after Homicide was too stupid to realize what needed to be done against the Backseat Boyz to send them packing back to CZW a year ago, but he couldn’t get the job done. He didn’t want this. He didn’t ask for this. He can’t hear out of one ear. He can barely see out of one of his eyes. And he’s not the one that started a riot in Queens. He’s not the one going around stabbing people in the eye! He’s done everything he’s done in that ring, good or bad. Homicide’s the one that let it get to this point. He says ROH doesn’t give a damn about Homicide, but they do give a damn about Steve Corino. Which is funny because he doesn’t give a damn about ROH. He promises that the so called legend of Homicide will be extinguished tonight and he will be forgotten. GMC says they’re going to have cameras following Corino and Homicide all night. 

Elsewhere, Samoa Joe cuts a promo to hype up his title defense against AJ. He mentions comments from critics about him not being a worthy champion and not doing things right. But I gotta tell ya, I was chronically online in 2003 on many wrestling message boards, and I don’t think I ever saw anything like that. Everything I saw was telling me Joe was the second coming. And he was! So not sure what this promo is referring too. But he hypes up the match with AJ. I am so hyped for this. First singles bout in ROH/first time I’m seeing them in a non TNA/WWE setting where I feel like they’re gonna have more freedom. 

In the parking lot, GMC finds Homicide, Smokes and the gang all arriving. Smokes yells that they’ve been hanging with Master P and UHHHHH, SOMEBODY GOTTA DIE TONIGHT. YEAH YEAH YEAH. BBBBBBBBBDAT. GMC asks for comments about the match and repeats what Corino says. Homicide says Corino acts like he's the President of Zero1, but screw him and screw them. He's gonna hurt him and hurt him bad tonight. GMC mentions the cameras following him tonight and Cide says he doesn't want to be bothered at all, for real. Homicide says they'll see his violent side. ROH is nothing to him right now. Steve Corino is the only thing, and Steve Corino is a dead man. SOMEBODY'S GONNA DIE TONIGHT. BBBBBBBBBDAT. YEAH YEAH YEAH.

PUNK’S ON COMMENTARY ALL NIGHT! YES!

Match #1: Backseat Boyz vs. Fast Eddie/Hotstuff Hernandez
The Backseats have started to suck so much lately that they actively thought down the otherwise usually fun Eddie/Hernandez team. Just nothing really clicked and it seemed to be a match mostly led by the Backseats. They dump Hernandez out and finish off Eddie with the T Gimmick and that’s just kinda it. Alright. 
*1/4

In the back, the camera is in Corino's private locker room. He has LeGrande, his son Colby and some other dude with him. Guillotine says this is different than Funk and he has so many advantages having been in there before. Corino says he says he's nervous but not worried. He has to keep it short, and Guillotine says that Cide feeds off the crowd and he's unpredictable. Corino says Homicide has to be nervous too, and at least he's been here before. Corino asks Colby if he's ready, and he says he knows his dad will win and Homicide will be done. 

Elsewhere, Homicide is in the dressing room with the rest of the roster, off in the corner, and he pulls out the old orange prison jumpsuit gear. HELL YEAH. 

Match #2: Carnage Crew (DeVito/Loc/The SAT/Slugga vs. Special K (Dixie, Hydro, Angel Dust, Lit & Hijinx) [Ten Man Scramble Match]
Not sure why Slugga’s bookings have become so sparse. This was sloppy and kind of a smelly piece of shit. I’m fine with Special K being this seemingly never ending group but when it comes time for in ring stuff it probably should be kept to like 4-5 dudes. They should also bring Slim J back. Oh, Slugga is bad. That answers my initial question in this match review. He teases a big man plancha but stops short so he can climb up top instead. And rather than dive, he sort of just falls on everyone and it looks like everyone was hurt. Some neat spots. At one point both the Crew and SATs each have two Special K members  in these crazy bullshit tandem submissions while Slugga sort of holds Lit up and plays him like an accordion. DeVito also does the Spanish Fly with one of the Maximo’s. The melee continues and I think Angel Dust ends up getting a cheap quick roll up on DeVito to win.
*1/2

Before the Gauntlet Match starts, Punk grabs the mic. He says last night, he vanquished his greatest foe and both of his drug free feet hit first, and he won the feud. He won because he is vigilant and abstains from the poison that controls their lies. He won the feud because he is drug free, which means he’s better than you. However, he still doesn’t know who took out Lucy. He turned the locker room inside out last night and still has come to no single conclusion. After he pins Jimmy Rave, BJ Whitmer, Colt Cabana, and Matt Stryker to win this gauntlet tonight, he'll get his shot at the ROH title, and before the night is over, he will know who took out Lucy.

Match #3: CM Punk vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Colt Cabana vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Matt Stryker [#1 Contender’s Gauntlet Match]
Punk starts this out with Rave and it rules. They get over ten minutes to work. Rave does some awesome work on Punk’s knee, and Punk sells it incredibly well. Rave again struggles with having any big moves to throw at Punk to keep the attack going and thus has trouble transitioning out of limb work, so Punk takes over all while selling the knee so well. The whole layout of this is reminiscent to Punk’s work in the 2004 TPI, knee work and all. Jimmy finally ticks the aggressiveness up a bit and is able to counter some late stage Punk stuff and go back to work at the knee, but again falters when it comes time to try and put him away. Rave sets Punk on the top rope to try something, and Punk sensing danger just resorts to the last possible option. He stops Rave short and hits him with the Pepsi Plunge and it saves him as Punk gets the win. Wondering if this whole bit with Rave just blatantly inspired his TPI 2004 run because even the finish is identical. 

Punk’s now hurt the knee even worse by doing the Pepsi Plunge, so when Matt Stryker is out next, that’s his immediate target. It’s boring work but it’s sensible. Punk is working on one leg, legit, and it feels so authentic. He can’t even run the ropes. LOVE THAT. Stryker is able to rather easily get him in the Strykerlock to make him tap. 

Cabana is out next and he stops to talk with Punk in the entryway. Punk tells Colt to target Strykers neck. Cabana goes in and gets all his quirky shit out of the way, including leaving the ring and re-entering through the curtain to his music I guess to “restart”. Lame. Cabana does some big moves that seem to have Stryker on the ropes but of course, this is one of the “Pure Wrestlers” that Gabe slaps the ham to, so Stryker wins almost out of nowhere with a DVD. ZERO reaction for Stryker in any of this by the way. 

Whitmer is out last and we’re “treated” to a preview of the FoH finals for Final Battle next month. They exchange movez~ n holdz~ for a bit without really building to anything. First and only fun moment is the end, where Stryker is heading up top for a high risk move and Whitmer shoves him off. Stryker takes a NASTY bump to the floor and sells it like he broke his neck, complete with refs and agents checking on him. Whitmer feigns concern before pushing everyone out of the way, grabbing and sending Stryker back inside and hitting him with a GROSS looking Wrist Clutch Exploder to get the win.

Fun booking throughout but Matt Stryker sucks and BJ is very mid so it’s brought down tremendously by that. Otherwise I might’ve gotten crazy with this rating.
***

Backstage, it’s intermission and GMC reminds us of the show last night where he saw AJ Styles flipping out at Jimmy Rave. He wants to see what happens tonight after another Rave loss. He goes in to AJ’s locker room and AJ is bent over in Rave’s face as he sits in the locker room, forehead to forehead, and AJ’s speaking through gritted teeth like Sid on a bender. Rave screams he’s had enough of this SHIT AJ! And shoves him against a locker before storming out! AJ immediately smiles and says “there’s that fire.”

CORINO CAM: He’s dressed in his gear and warming up. LeGrande gets a phone call, says it’s from Brandon (which is Low Ki’s real name). LeGrande tells Corino who it is and they ask BRANDON how he thinks Homicide is right now and if they should expect him to use the fork tonight. LeGrande signals to Corino that BRANDON said yes. Corino takes a deep breath. My guy. I know he used the fork to blind you but you’re about to be surrounded by like 200 feet of barbed wire or whatever and you’re sighing over the fork? Just bring a gun! Corino doesn’t feel bad about reaching out to BRANDON or about Homicide using the fork because all is fair and Corino says ear for an ear.   

HOMICIDE CAM: Cide is warming up in his old ring gear and J-Train is singing YOU’REEE NOOOOBODY TIIIIL SOOOOMEBODY KILLS YOOOOU. Smokes says the anticipation of death is worse than death itself. Homicide says Steve is a dead man and Smokes says to dictate the pace tonight, baby. Homicide says he IS Mike Tyson. He's gonna eat his soul. He's gonna eat his children. ELEVATE YO HATE. YEAH YEAH YEAH.

Match #4: Outcast Killaz vs. Slyk Wagner Brown/April Hunter
This thankfully lasts all of a minute and the Killaz actually win after dumping Slyk out of the ring and hitting an Acid Drop on April.
1/4*

Xavier comes out laughing. He says Slyk just lost because he’s from Boston and Boston sucks. And John Walters is from Boston and he sucks too. Because he’s from New York and he’s a winner. What a GREAT promo you fucking dong bag. 

Match #5: John Walters vs. Xavier
It’s probably not a good sign for a wrestler that everytime you run a show in their hometown, you have to do everything you can to try and get his hometown fans to cheer him, and they still don’t. You’d think Gabe would get the hint but lol. Just a bunch of nothing here. Do you care? Are you even reading this part of the review? Are you even reading this review? Have you read any of the reviews? How much filler text do you think I can put in this match review before someone calls me out? Does anyone give a shit about either of these two? I know it’s not nice to speak ill of the dead but apparently Xavier was kind of a shit head anyway so I mean…whatever. Walters wins this. Please be done.
*

Post match, an irate Xavier comes back in the ring and nails Walters with the chair. Walters does a really shitty blade job that results in only like a small, small amount of blood on his forehead and he clearly reaches up and smothers it over at one point. Bad job. ZERO reaction for Walters as he’s helped up to his feet by the way. I really fucking hate Gabe Sapolsky.

Match #6: The Briscoes (c) vs. The Prophecy (Daniels/Maff) [ROH Tag Team Championships]
The next logical step in the Briscoes growth here. Last night they faced two singles guys who had never teamed before and were able to show their growth in chemistry. Tonight, they’re facing a somewhat seasoned team (one of whom is a very experienced tag guy) and needing to show that that they can grow beyond just the need for big double team maneuvers. Do the disadvantage in seasoning, this is a largely Prophecy controlled match, and the Briscoes are working de facto babyface. They get their shots in and again can excel when they’re able to hit double team maneuvers. But Daniels is able to outsmart them at most any turn and gets a few near falls out of it. Prophecy eventually slow things down and keep Mark isolated, working over his head and neck region. Jay gets the hot tag and the match breaks down for a super fun finishing run. Jay is eventually able to get Daniels to himself for just enough time to hit the Jay Driller and get the 3 count to win.
***

Match #7: Samoa Joe (c) vs. AJ Styles [ROH World Championship]
This was fucking incredible. There’s a feeling out process to start, and both men are quite unsure on how to approach the other, which adds another layer here. Since both of these men have debuted in ROH, they’ve been built similarly but different. They’re both mostly dominated, but AJ’s done it through speed, agility and just an insane moveset, while Joe’s done it through power, striking and size. Neither has faced anyone yet like the other, nor should they since both are two of the most unique wrestlers maybe in history. And so in that initial feeling out process, what it adds is a real time visual of these two trying to game plan in the ring as opposed to backstage as most would do within kayfabe. The advantage AJ has is that he clearly is very good at planning out match strategies, and they laid this piece of the puzzle out for us for weeks with the Rave segments. Joe, as we know, doesn’t need to game plan too often because he can rely on brute force in most scenarios. This may not be one of those scenarios. Sorry to geek out, I just love small details like this. Both men rely on what’s brought them to the dance: power vs. speed. After the first few minutes, the niceties are out the door as Joe kicks AJ through the ropes and AJ takes a brilliant bump to the floor and sells it like he’s been run over by a van. AJ makes a crazy comeback pretty early with a few teases of the Styles Clash, and it becomes clear what his end game plan is here. If he can connect with the Clash, that should end it (which is again a beautiful relation to the Rave story, since he does not have that move that would save him in a situation like this, but he soon will). AJ, however, in the process of building up to the Styles Clash, finds himself putting a lot of miles in quick because Joe is much larger than the opponents he’s used to performing his offensive moves on, and it adds up after a while. You notice it because he starts to slow down and become very calculated with each step due to tiring out. This allows Joe to get some shots in and really use his power to the advantage. AJ is able to build up enough energy in reserves to be able to FINALLY hit Joe with the Styles Clash…AND JOE KICKS OUT. That was it. That was AJ’s killshot, and Joe fucking ate it. Joe makes his monster comeback and hits the Island Driver, but AJ survives that, and Joe has to resort elsewhere since that’s the 2nd or 3rd time recently someone’s survived the Island Driver. So for the first time in a while, Joe breaks out the Muscle Buster on AJ. BUT, for added insurance, Joe immediately applies THE CHOKE on AJ, and really wrenches himself in to the coquina clutch position you’d later see him do in TNA. AND SOMEHOW, AJ JS FIGHTING IT AND STARTING TO GET OUT OF THE CHOKE. HES CRAWLING TO THE ROPES, AND JOE FUCKING PULLS BACK ON AJ LIKE A FRESH STICKER AND AJ FINALLY PASSES OUT. JESUS. 

There’s some sloppiness in the early parts where they’re selling how they’re trying to figure some stuff out, and I would’ve liked to have seen maybe 2-3 minutes tacked to the beginning of the middle right when things start to turn up in the power vs. speed battle, but other than that, this is near perfect. One of the better matches I’ve seen in this project. And I dunno if it goes anywhere, but I fucking love how much AJ and his game plan and his failing relates to Rave’s story. So good.
****1/2

Backstage, Corino stretches a bit more in full gear and puts his stupid little entrance mask on. LeGrande reminds him to be brutal. 

In something kind of weird, Gabe does a voice over and they show still photos of something that happened while the ring was being set up for the main event. Punk threatened to hold the show up again and prevent the main event unless he got answers on Lucy and he was again blaming the Prophecy. Daniels came out to confront him, punched him and they brawled all around, and the brawl ended with Punk hitting Daniels with the Last Rites. This sounded and looked awesome but I am super confused why they didn’t just film this and air it since the “photos” they show are clearly just video stills?

So confession time: this feud and specifically this match are the only reason I ever even decided to do an ROH watch through finally. Not that there isn’t a ton of other great stuff I’d have liked to see, but more than likely, I would’ve taken some stuff in random doses like I’ve been doing with PWG and other companies. Reading more about this feud and this match, paired with these two guys already being well into my top 50 wrestlers ever because of their work elsewhere, it felt like a no brainer. So this match feels like the culmination of me doing this review. I am definitely and obviously going to continue it beyond this. But I’m just pumped for the match here. Bitch. 

After the entrances, Bobby Cruise goes to do the typical introduction for Corino, but LeGrande stops him and the camera picks him up saying “let’s just do the regular introduction and get this over with”. Really adds to the atmosphere. LeGrande and Smokes are both there as corner men with the towels. 

Match #8: Steve Corino vs. Homicide [No Ropes Barbed Wire] 
Alright, where to begin, where to begin. This is incredible, this is a work of art, this is everything that pro wrestling can be when done right. They spend the first few moments of the match getting the stipulation over and they do a tremendous job of it. Corino slips out of the ring and is aghast and narrowly missing being cut and how he can’t out his weight on any part of the wire. Homicide has to baseball slide out to avoid it and grabs a fans piece of pizza and rubs it over the wire to show how easily it slices. They do all the typical “WHOA-OH ALMOST” spots where they ALMOST go into the wire. The match stip is its own character here. It’s what WWE did originally with Hell in a Cell before bastardizing. Homicides the first to go into the wire and it’s gnarly right from the start. He’s cut on the head and is gushing bad. He gets caught under the ropes and Corino sort of monkey flips him up into the wire. Corino then works the cut on Homicide’s head, putting his fingers into it, just like Cide did to him back in the summer. Homicides big comeback, of course, involves the fork and he gashes Corino with it quick and easy. AND THEN HE STARTS STABBING AWAY AT CORINO’S BAD EAR JESUS CHRIST. AND THEN HE DDT’S CORINO ONTO A BARBED WIRE BASEBALL BAT. FUCK. Corino ends up taking over and it’s kind of how it goes the rest of the match. Corino teases using the barbed wire table that was pre-set up in the ring but flips the fans off because they annoyingly spent the whole match chanting “we want tables” (fuck the WWE Dudleys forever, man). But they finally get their wish when Corino tries to lock on the Cobra Lock but has to revert to a sleeper as Homicide fights back. Corino ends up getting on his back, so Cide stands up AND THROWS THEM BOTH BACK FIRST INTO THE BARBED WIRE TABLE. Then there’s just this insane succession of spots, I may have already described some, but it’s honestly just better left to some gifs and pics, man:

Eventually, Homicide makes his final comeback after some of those brutal spots, and he’s got Corino in the STF. He’s fighting to make it into the Torture STF, BUT LEGRANDE THROWS A BOTTLE OF RUBBING ALCOHOL ON HOMICIDES CUT UP HEAD! AND SMOKES RUNS OVER AND FINALLY BEATS THE FUCK OUT OF LEGRANDE! But the damage is done! This gives Corino his shot to finish this off. He hits Homicide with repeated piledrivers. He then has LeGrande toss him gloves, AND CORINO THEN WRAPS THE WIRE AROUND HOMICIDE’S THROAT. YOU CAN SEE IT PIERCING HIS NECK JESUS CHRIST. Corino does this with the Cobra Sleeper on, and Smokes teases throwing the towel in. Cide starts trying to fight to his feet and sees this. And in the split second he takes to try and wave Smokes off, Corino’s able to readjust himself to YANK HARDER ON THE WIRE WHICH SENDS HOMICIDE BRIDGING ALL THE WAY BACK WITH HIS FEET FOLDING UNDER HIM! AND SMOKES THROWS IN THE TOWEL!

This is where I come to a crossroads. I suffer from severe recency bias. I’ve gotten better with age. But when I see something I really and truly love, like this, I immediately want to give it five stars. So after reviewing, I put my review aside for a bit and just stewed. 

Part of me still wants to give it five stars. I know that’s not necessarily a popular thing to do in the modern wrestling review community, I feel like, but I like what I like and I shy away from it. That being said, I immediately have to compare this to a match like Joe/Necro I. I initially rated that **** not because I didn’t think it was incredible, but because I overthought the rating. So I’ve retroactively changed that to ****1/2. I’ve also made sure to keep my Joe/AJ rating in this review at ****1/2, because it deserves it. 

I can settle, after thinking about those two comparisons, at rating this at ****1/4. I cannot say this was better or on the same level as Joe/Necro. And while this is truly special, it’s not an actual wrestling match at the end of the day like Joe/AJ in this review was. Does this all sound weird and contrived? Yes. Absolutely. It’s all in my head. 

So fuck it.
****1/4

Post match, Punk leaves commentary to “go down” and help Corino. Both men’s “teams” storm the ring to help them. 

There’s a bit of a time jump and we cut to Homicide and Corino crawling towards each other and slowly getting up while staring at one another. Corino slowly reaches out his hand and offers a truce. Homicide sells the conflict within so well. He teases, he might do it, annnnnd…he just can’t. He cannot bring himself to do it. And he leaves.

The cameras then join Team Corino back in his locker room. Corino legitimately looks and sounds like he’s on deaths door. Colby is terrified but he’s taking it like a champ. LeGrande just keeps ranting about Homicide not being worth it and how Corino’s got nothing left to prove in ROH. Corino says some words in between long, pained gasps for air, but it doesn’t really amount to much outside of him declaring the war over, and saying Homicide should’ve just shook his hand but it doesn’t matter anymore. 

Wow. 

There’s, for some reason, a Good Times Great Memories that closes this out where Colt is with the SAT. I dunno who’s bright fuckin idea that was but I skipped it. Reading about it, nothing important except “Red is on track to return by the summer” but lol. 

NEXT MONTH: IT'S FINAL BATTLE 2003! Danielson/Jay! Joe/Mark! FoH Finals! ROH vs. AJPW!

TNA: SACRIFICE 2006

Impact Zone
Orlando, FL
May 14th, 2006

NWA World Heavyweight Champion: Christian Cage (Since 2/12/2006)
TNA X-Division Champion: Samoa Joe (Since 4/10/2006)
NWA World Tag Team Champions: America’s Most Wanted (Since 10/11/2005)

So by this point, I was watching TNA weekly for about 7-8 months but I was never watching the PPVs. The only match I’ve ever seen on this show is the tag title match but I mean, I haven’t seen it in over a decade, so we’ll see how things go!

Super overdramatic TNA opening video to start, per usual, with a heavy subtext that somebody (or everybody) is gonna die (legit).

Match #1: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Petey Williams [World X Cup Tournament - Second Round Match]
Maybe I was just blinded by the Destroyer, or maybe I just didn’t realize it, but someone at TNA was just insistent that Petey was on the level of or close to the level of some of these others legit studs they had on this roster, and I just don’t get it. He’s flippy BJ Whitmer. Liger is still awesome though. And he’s got his whole Team Japan squad with him of Black Tiger (Rocky), Goto and Minoru Tanaka. They do some basic exchanges and Liger gets to control the majority of this. He’s got some real solid back sentons and other acrobatic shit he pulls out. Petey makes a lackluster comeback and is building towards the Destroyer but Tiger distracts the ref and I think Goto gets in and attacks Petey from behind, allowing Liger to hit a front face slam for the win. 
**1/2

In the on going World X Cup, the standings are:

USA - 5 pts
JAP - 3 pts
MEX - 2 pts
CAN - 0 pts

Backstage, we get a shot of Sting’s locker room door, and then of Samoa Joe getting ready in the back. Main event is hyped. 

Jeremy Borash is with AMW, Gail & Jackie Gayda. Jackie’s crying and everyone keeps telling her to shut up. AMW put over their tag title defense and Borash finally asks Jackie why she’s crying. She blurts out that she’s pregnant. AMW leave pissed off, and Gail Kim says that everybody in Planet Jarrett hates her, so she’s fired. And that’s the end of Jackie Gayda in TNA. One of the weirdest, unsolved storylines of all time. 

Match #2: America’s Most Wanted (c) vs. Phenomenal Angels (Daniels/Styles) [NWA World Tag Team Championships]
In a shocker to probably absolutely nobody, this holds up and is still awesome. AMW, I feel, don’t get brought up enough as a great time because there’s obviously better teams from the 2000’s all across the globe but I don’t think that should diminish the work these guys did together. James Storm, specifically, is an awesome tag team wrestler. AJ & Daniels are a rarity for me because I usually hate the “two enemies become partners” bit but this works so well because they’re two of the best at this time and two of my favorite wrestlers ever. After the initial set of exchanges, AMW isolates Daniels and has a really good control segment all to build to an otherworldly hot tag by AJ. AJ hits an INSANE springboard flying forearm from the ring out into the fucking crowd on Storm. The match breaks down and the ref gets distracted on the floor, and out of nowhere a night stick just drops into the ring? The camera pans up and we see that Gail Kim was up in the rafters and dropped it down. I’m not sure I remember the reasoning behind this spot or the night stick? AJ doesn’t see it and hits Storm with the Styles Clash, but Harris grabs the stick and nails AJ with it before putting Storm on top of AJ to get the win.
Prior Rating: ***1/2
2024 Rating: ***1/2

Backstage, Jeremy Borash is with Larry Zbyszko and they recap the feud with Raven. Larry says all of these problems that Raven has in his life are all of his own doing and tonight will be no different. 

Match #3: Raven vs. A-1
Larry is there with A-1. This is bad. Beyond just A-1 being bad, this is the end for Raven really. He came out of the fed with some juice in 2003, but there’s nothing left in the tank here. He looks awful, his skill has just deteriorated beyond belief. It’s a bummer. He gets the win. Just moving on.
3/4*

Post match, Larry goes and tries to shake hands with Raven in the ring but they end up having a shitty brawl. 

Backstage, Borash is with Jarrett and Steiner to hype their match later. Jarrett talks about the really bad seg from Impact where Sting teased partnering with his old friends/WCW guys and kept listing their real life troubles with the law. So bad. Anyway, Jarrett says Sting didn’t choose any of them because they can’t handle TNA and he only picked Joe out of desperation. But Joe will turn on Sting, just like everyone else Sting has trusted in his career. 

Match #4: Bobby Roode vs. Rhino
This was certainly a match. Roode is good here but he’s not what he would be later on. 2006 Rhino is only a few notches above 2006 Raven at this point. It’s sad how he fell off the way he did because 99-01 Rhino felt like a new big star on the rise. And then lol nope. I dunno. I don’t think he ever fully recovered from that neck surgery and he wasn’t a good enough worker to adapt successfully to a varied style post surgery like Austin. I know that’s not a fair comparison but it’s the only one I had. Roode does some good work on Rhino’s neck, speaking of that, in his control segment. Rhino made his comeback and it was painfully bland and clunky. D’Amore sacrificed himself and took the Gore in lieu of Roode, and Roode hit the Northern Lariat on Rhino quickly to win.
**

Backstage, Borash is with Team 3D and they hype up the match with the Outlaws. I don’t care. I don’t care about post 2003 Dudley Boyz. At all. Fuck off. 

Match #5: Team 3D vs. The James Gang
This is pig shit. This ain’t even pig shit, this is the mud that the pig shit sits in and becomes one with and then the pigs roll around in it and eat off it and then shit it out back onto the shit and mud cocktail they live on. I hate it so much. The Outlaws were cool as shit in 97-99 and it might be one of my favorite tag team runs ever. The Dudleys from 97-03 are one of the best teams of all time, in my opinion anyway, and I’ll always love them for that. But neither team had business in a wrestling ring at this point. I am willing to sacrifice the mostly cool early Bully Ray stuff if it means the Dudleys just retire after One Night Stand. I am not even going to bother recapping this. I should’ve chosen Double or Nothing 2019 when these two shows tied on the Twitter poll. The Outlaws win after using a lead pipe in a callback to No Way Out 2000. Great.
1/2*

Backstage, Sinister Minister is with an angry Abyss and he says some sp00ky stuff.

Christy Hemme comes sauntering out simply to kiss the World X Cup trophy because TNA hired her without a single idea to do with her since she wasn’t a wrestler and TNA is very dumb. One of the more pointless hires TNA made in this era.

So the next match has the chance to be a points grab in the World X Cup. This is more like a Royal Rumble or the Casino Gauntlet AEW just did as opposed to a typical gauntlet match. The two final men in the match each get 2 points for their team, and the winner gets 3 extra points. However, if the final two men are from the same country, that team gets 7 points and would most likely win the the whole thing.

Match #6: World X Cup Gauntlet Match
Match starts with Minoru Tanaka up against Puma (TJP). They have some pretty decent chemistry and put on a decent spot show for the crowd with the couple of minutes they’re given. Petey Williams is out 3rd because life sucks. He actively brings the match down each time he’s squaring off with one of the others. Chris Sabin’s out 4th and things pick up a teensy bit. And they get even better when Goto comes out 5th. Some really high paced stuff. Typical oh’s and ah’s but it’s a blast nonetheless. I’ve only seen modern Goto which is fine but he’s really crisp here in the mid 00’s. Incognito is out at 6th. Things slow a bit. Petey still sucks. Johnny Devine is out 7th because they’re determined to make this match as bad as possible whenever they can. He’s so bad. Him and A-1 were the reasons I could never fully get into Team Canada back in the day. I think it’s also why I had blinders on to Petey for a long while. Sonjay Dutt is out at 8th. Jesus Christ. Never got Sonjay. Everyone got mad at Nash’s comments on cruiserweights (before they did the incredible Paparazzi Productions stuff as a bit) but he honestly was at least 50% right and the proof is here in dudes like Sonjay Dutt. I hate to sound like a ROHbot in training but any flippy/high workrate indie guy that didn’t get used/used enough in ROH before/during their TNA run, I don’t trust. There’s a reason ROH didn’t book them a ton. Black Tiger is out at 9, this is Rocky Romero. He picks things back up a tad. And then Magno is out at 10 to bring things crashing back down to earth. No idea who he is but he’s sloppy as fuck. He literally slips and or falls on every thing he attempts. Eric Young comes out at 11, and this is back before we had to pretend he was a great worker so he does the comedy stuff and bumps like a maniac. Sonjay and Icognito tumble over and out together for the first eliminations and Sonjay appears to tweak his ankle pretty bad. But hey that’s two shitty dudes out of this. ALEX SHELLEY OUT AT 12, YEAH! Devine tosses out Sabin and in quick succession Shelley throws out Devine. Liger is out at 13, and things pick the fuck back up to what they were at the beginning. Shelley/Liger have SUCH a good exchange and Liger has taken this match over. He’s so good. Shocker is out at 14 to again bring this back down I guess. Liger throws Magno out while Shelley/Shocker have an okay exchange. Tyson Dux is out at 15 and almost simultaneously, Shocker eliminates Black Tiger. Goto stumbles off the top but Shelley kicks him and falls to the apron. Jay Lethal is out last at 16. Lethal almost immediately eliminates Goto. Shelley takes Shocker out. Team Canada has the most members left and they begin working together which is fun. They throw out Liger so then it becomes less fun and I am angry. Lethal answers by sending EY out and Shelley sends out Dux, but then Petey tosses out Lethal! It’s down to three with Petey, Shelley & Puma. They have some fun spots and work a little bit until Petey eliminates Puma. Shelley carries Petey through some decent stuff but it’s all mediocre on Petey’s end, which naturally means Petey wins the Canadian Destroyer. Some fun stuff sprinkled throughout. Even the bad stuff wasn’t out of this world awful. It’s half a royal rumble with flippy dudes so it’s hard to be truly shitty. Fuck it.
***ish

Nobody gets the full 7 points. So instead, the updated standings for the World X Cup are:

USA: 5 POINTS
CAN: 5 POINTS
MEX: 4 POINTS
JAP: 3 POINTS

BIG KEV IS HERE! Nash comes out and he DESTROYS Puma with a Jacknife to a huge pop. He grabs the mic and says that a mediocre big man will always beat the best small men, and he’s a pretty good big man. Size does matter. And then he poses. Fuck yeah, Paparazzi Productions.

They air a REALLY fucking good video package on the tag match. This must be when David Sahadi left WWE to join TNA. Because this is an awesome video that puts everyone over, including the story, and does a really good job selling Joe as a legit main event guy. Seek it out. 

Match #7: Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner vs. Sting & Samoa Joe
This was way better than I thought it was going to be. Sting is still very much Sting, Jarrett’s good, Steiner’s surprisingly good and Joe is fucking Joe. Jarrett & Steiner feed into all of the babyface offense so well. The heels get control segs on both Sting and Joe. Setting this up to be Joe’s first big heavyweight challenge in TNA was really smart booking, give the devil his due. There’s not too much to complain about here. It’s a solid 14 minutes or so. Everybody gets their shit in. One nasty moment was Sting putting Jarrett in the Scorpion, but Jeff didn’t roll fully, and Sting still sat to set the move in, and he accidentally created a super cool submission that someone should use (if they don’t already:

All hell breaks loose after Sting’s hot tag to Joe. Sting takes Steiner out. Jarrett gets Joe on the second rope and tries for a SUPER STROKE~ but Joe hops down and takes Jarrett’s head off with an enzuiguri. Jarrett falls back on the turnbuckle and Joe grabs him for the muscle buster to score a HUGE pinfall.
***1/4

If Joe wasn’t a made man before he is now. Can’t wait to see TNA totally not mess this up!

Post match, Joe and Sting slowly shake hands to tease that Joe might turn on him but instead Joe pulls him in and says thank you and Sting does the kliq point to Joe as he leaves. AND THEN STEINER NAILS STING IN THE HEAD WITH A CHAIR! Joe’s always up the ramp way and has his back turned and seems conflicted about going back as this is not his problem. The delay allows Jarrett to then hit Sting with the guitar too! Joe then slowly turns around and stares Jarrett and Steiner down — AND THEN LEAVES?! Wtf. That was dumb. The heels keep the work up on Sting til the Outlaws, Sabin, Daniels & Lethal chase them off. 

Hype video airs for the main event.

Borash interviews Christian backstage. This interview reminded me that Abyss stole the NWA Title after their match last month at Lockdown. He also talks about the stalking video angle they did. 

Really cool moment of the camera following Abyss through the backstage area to the tunnel. And dude fuck yeah Abyss’ classic theme. A top 5 TNA theme for me. 

In classic TNA fashion, the audio is fucked up because you can hear the Spanish announce team as loud as you can hear Tenay and DW. 

Match #8: Christian Cage (c) vs. Abyss [NWA World Heavyweight Championship / Full Metal Mayhem Match]
This was alright. Full Metal Mayhem is just TNA’s version of a TLC match, for those unaware. I think the issues with this are mostly based on the fact that they’re trying to do too much in too small of a space. The six sided ring is obviously shaped as it is and it cuts down the area in the ring, so you can’t do some of the spots you might normally do in a match like this without running a risk of severe injury. Not to mention, Christian is a great wrestler, but he’s not exactly a great athlete. I mean, he wasn’t really one of the guys doing the super high risk, pretty spots in those original TLC matches. And I get it, every promotion any of those six have been in has tried to recreate the magic of the original two TLC matches and usually failed horribly. But with this just being Christian against a largely uncreative Abyss, it doesn’t amount to too much on the spectacular side of the things. There are some fun spots. Christian chokes Abyss with his chain from the top rope and Abyss yanks Christian off the top through tables on the floor. Christian hits the Killswitch on Abyss onto a ladder. Mitchell takes an STO from Christian into thumbtacks to a HUGE spot. Finish comes when Abyss mysteriously rolls himself on a table as Christian is climbing the ladder. Christian is torn about finishing Abyss or guaranteeing himself a win. He ends up doing the frog splash off the ladder on to Abyss. That was dumb. Abyss getting on the table should’ve been a trap where Abyss moves or whatever. Idk. Christian then climbs the ladder again to get the belt. Anticlimactic. But it’s passable fun.
***ish

Post-match, Christian sits atop the ladder and poses with the belt to close the show. 

A very missable show. When I picked this for this weeks Retro Poll over on Twitter (@BQReviews), the card looked awesome on paper. But when ya watch it and really realize who’s in this show and what time this takes place in, it’s really a very weak show with 2 good matches that honestly you didn’t NEED to see. And I think that was one of TNA’s major problems. Russo booked them as a TV-first company like this was still the height of the Monday Night Wars, and it made some of their PPVs very missable. 

ROH: THE CONCLUSION - 11/28/2003

Sacred Heart University
Fairfield, CT
November 28th, 2003

ROH World Champion: Samoa Joe (Since 3/22/2002 - 7 Defenses)
ROH Tag Team Champions: The Briscoes (Since 11/1/2003 - 0 Defenses)

GMC is in the ring to start the show. He hypes up tonight’s Punk/Raven blowoff. I guess I must’ve misheard and had  just been looking ahead, because they did NOT announce Punk/Raven as a cage match ahead of time. GMC is here to draw the stip from an envelope at random. He does and it is a cage match. I kind of hate this. I get they probably want a shot to redo the really bad cage match from a couple of shows back, but this goes down a step in stipulations. I don’t like when wrestling feuds do that. If you’re going to keep adding stips, they should escalate with each match.

WCW SPRING STAMPEDE 1994

Rosemont Horizon
Chicago, IL
April 17th, 1994

WCW World Heavyweight Champion: Ric Flair (Since 12/27/1993)
WCW International World Heavyweight Champion: Rick Rude (Since 9/19/1993)
WCW United States Champion: Steve Austin (Since 12/27/1993)
WCW Television Champion: Lord Steven Regal (Since 9/19/1993)
WCW World Tag Team Champions: Nasty Boys (Since 10/24/1993)

This won the Retro portion of this week’s poll over on Twitter (@BQReviews). As part of my original WCW watch through on the old BQ back in the late 2000’s/early 2010’s, this was obviously a part of that. I haven’t seen this show since November 2011, but it’s a show that’s always stuck in my head as one of the best WCW PPVs ever. I would probably place this even above Great American Bash ‘89, but we’ll revisit that at the end of the show. What I’ll do is offer my updated thoughts on the match and then include both my original rating and my updated rating for each match. 

WWF, AJPW & NJPW WRESTLING SUMMIT 1990

Tokyo Dome
Tokyo, Japan
April 13th, 1990

This show is a big deal for the time but it’s mostly been forgotten to time due to various licensing issues + promotion politics. There was a lot of bad blood between NJPW and AJPW, mostly because Inoki and Baba fucking hated each other with a passion. There’s been some reports that McMahon, of all people, had to play intermediary or even peacekeeper numerous times, but who knows? Let’s see how this turns out, but my hopes aren’t high. I’m expecting house show efforts at best. 

PWG PRESENTS: DYNAMITE DUUMVIRATE TAG TEAM TITLE TOURNAMENT (DDT4) 2009

American Legion Post #309
Reseda, CA
May 27th, 2009

PWG World Champion: Chris Hero (Since 7/6/2008)
PWG World Tag Team Champions: The Young Bucks (Since 8/31/2008)

WARNING: As I’ve noted in the past, sometimes you’re forced to talk about bad people in this industry when you’re doing a project like this. And sometimes those people are worse than most. While you may see moments of praise or positivity in reviews such as these, please understand it is not an endorsement of the particular person(s) or their actions. I’ve been guilty of not notating this in the past, but knowing who’s on this show made me feel like I should bring it up at the get-go.

ROH: MAIN EVENT SPECTACLES - 11/1/2003

RexPlex
Elizabeth, NJ
November 1st, 2003

ROH World Champion: Samoa Joe (Since 3/22/2002 - 7 Defenses)
ROH Tag Team Champions: Special K (Since 10/16/2003 - 1 Defenses)

Backstage, Colt Cabana is practicing transcendental meditation because of course he is. Punk walks over and asks if he’s ready for tonight. Cabana is chill and ready to go. Punk tells him tonight isn’t just about him vs. Danny Maff. It’s about Christopher Daniels and CM Punk. It’s about the Prophecy and the Saints. And he’s winning this tonight for CM Punk, because he’s a Saint. He pats him on the back and Colt says as long as he wins that’s all that matters.

Match #1: Dan Maff vs. Colt Cabana [Field of Honor Tournament Match]
I actually really enjoyed this. They did a lot with the 8-9 minutes they were given. Some decent laughs at the beginning with Colt faking Maff out on a handshake and then ballroom dancing with Danger against her wall after a missed slap. But then it turns into a slugfest and it’s great. Cabana targets shots at Maff’s jaw, including a running facewash on the outside which feels like it’s becoming more of an ROH spot than a Joe spot sadly. Cabana’s got this wrapped up but goes for a moonsault and misses. Maff quickly capitalizes with the Burning Hammer and wins, and we’ve got a tie in Block B now!
***ish

Post match, Maff celebrates his win, BUT SAMOA JOE HITS THE RING WITH JIM CORNETTE BEHIND HIM! CORNETTE USES THE RACKET ON MAFF AND RUNS OFF DANGER, AND JOE HITS MAFF WITH AN ENZUIGURI AND KNEE STRIKES. THEN DANGER GETS BACK IN HIS FACE, SO HE HITS HER WITH AN STO! Daniels comes out, but Joe throws him around and Daniels ducks under a racket shot, and gets out of there and guides the other two to the back.

Cornette gets on the mic and says he's back in town in The Ring of Honor. He told The Prophecy after they screwed him that nobody screws Jim Cornette, and you can ask that big pussy Ed Ferrara and Vince Russo. Shut UUUUP. He said he didn't just come to get even but to introduce some talent in ROH that he thinks is going to the top of the industry and will wind up making a lot of money and winning a lot of titles, and he wants to be part of it, all this while Joe is hyping himself up as clearly the one Cornette must be talking about. BUT…

The Briscoes come out, AND THEY COME OUT TO “GIMME BACK MY BULLETS” FOR THE FIRST TIME! They get on the apron and Joe’s ready for a fight. Cornette says these must be the Briscoes and he was getting ready to introduce true talent before he was interrupted, but it looks like he’s going to take a step back while Samoa Joe gives them what they have coming. Cornette takes a step back and the Briscoes get in the ring. BUT THEN CORNETTE BLINDSIDES JOE WITH A TENNIS RACKET SHOT TO THE BACK, AND THE BRISCOES START BEATING THR PISS OUT OF JOE! ANOTHER RACKET SHOT! THE TALENT CORNETTE WAS TALKING ABOUT WERE THE BRISCOES!

Joe gets taken away by refs to the back, and Cornette gets back on the mic. He asks why he'd manage a guy that's already a champion when he could take guys who are young and hungry and take them to the top. He says by the time they're finished, everyone in pro wrestling will know and fear the name of the Briscoes. BUT THEN AN IRATE JOE RUNS BACK DOWN IN PAIN, AND THEY HIGHTAIL IT OUT OF THERE. What a fun fucking angle, man.

Up in one of the pseudo skyboxes at the RexPlex, Special K are partying. Izzy and Dixie aren’t, as they’re worried about having to face the Briscoes tonight. Hydro tells them to chill out because the rest of them have a scramble cage match tonight and you don’t see them freaking out.

Oh you sweet summer child.

Match #2: Xavier/Nigel McGuinness vs. The Purists [Mamaluke/Walters]
I don’t know what I did to deserve this. I mean yeah Nigel’s fine but he’s not quite Nigel yet. But the other three? It’s like I’ve been stabbed in the heart. And even worse this is all being done just to continue the shitty Xavier/Walters feud. NOBODY cares. This sucks. Yes, I am overreacting and giving this a harsh rating but I cannot stress enough how I simply do not need this level of bullshit in my life right now. Xavier steals the pin from Nigel over Walters. Fuck off.
1/4*

Post match, Xavier mocks Walters on the mic. The camera follows Xavier to the back, and he passes by Prince Nana, who seems impressed and pleased. So at least something cool is starting soon.

Match #3: Justin Credible vs. Matt Stryker
Another forced undercard epic where Gabe thinks anyone gives a shit about Stryker, or that nobody’s been exposed to how terrible Credible is. Like he was the Kliq’s bag boy for a fucking reason. Stryker does some casual arm work that Credible casually doesn’t sell and I casually stop giving a shit. Hilariously, they both do spots where they kick out of each others finishers like it’s even supposed to mean something at this point, or any point. And then to hammer home how meaningless this all is, Stryker wins with the Strykerlock. That’s right. A leg submission after doing arm work most of the match. How much more betrayal can I take?
3/4*

Cornette is out with the Briscoes for the next match!

Match #4: Special K (Izzy/Dixie) (c) vs. The Briscoes [ROH Tag Team Championships]
Another awesome match. Izzy/Dixie bring their A game and have some really fun spots sprinkled throughout but this is mostly here to be a Briscoes showcase now that they’ve got the greatest tag team manager of all time in their corner. In a nice touch compared to their last tag matches in ROH, the Briscoes actually look like a cohesive unit under Cornette’s tutelage. I fucking love that. The match spills in to the typical ROH dive train, but in a nice touch, after Jay does his dive into all of Special K, Mark goes for the moonsault to the floor and Special K go scatter and only Jay is left there to take the hit! The Briscoes hit a Veg-O-Matic in a nod to the MX, but the ref fucks the count up and calls two when Izzy didn’t kick out. So the Briscoes make up for it by hitting the Doomsday Device to get the win and FINALLY get some real champs up in the ROH, brother.
***

Post match, Jay is a little emotional as they’re given the belts and they strap them on each other and hug and I won’t lie my eyes started to well up a little bit. Cornette raises their arms in victory.

Match #5: Homicide vs. BJ Whitmer [Fighting Spirit Match]
This is an incredibly stupid stipulation. Nothing changes in the ways to win/lose, except ROH doesn’t typically have a floor count, and in this match, there’s a 20 count on the floor. So dumb and corny and Gabe probably pulled on himself for an hour when he thought of it. Jerkoff. Homicide beats the fuck out of Whitmer in this, and to his credit, Whitmer takes it and dies on just about everything. He’s also got some half decent offense including a fun spot of doing three wrist clutch exploders back to back into a Powerbomb to get a 2.999. Sounds more bullshit than it looks. Whitmer misses a dive onto Homicide on the floor and collides hard with the guard rail. Again, dumb stip. In an incredibly dumb moment just to show you how Gabe had a knack for getting behind the absolute wrong guys at times, BJ WHITMER KICKS OUT OF THE FUCKING COP KILLA. Thats right. A move that’s been super protected since the conception of ROH was just kicked out of for the first time ever by BJ fucking Whitmer in a match with no story, no build, nothing. This is the indie equivalent of someone kicking out of the Tombstone on RAW in like 1996. Total horseshit. BJ is on the floor after that and is down, and that spot is the only time they even really tease the count out stuff. He gets back in and they work through the motions. Whitmer hits another Wrist Clutch Exploder and Homicide kicks out of that. NOT THE SAME, GABE, ESPECIALLY AFTER HE KICKED OUT OF 3 EARLIER. Homicide then hits the Ace Crusher off the top and then a GOD DAMNER of a lariat to get the win. Fun at points early and when Homicide was in control later on, but some of it is classic Gabe bullshit and I can’t get over the Cop Killa kickout, sorry.
**3/4

Post match, they make a big deal of selling the exhaustion and the beating to try and get this stupid stip over, but nobody gives a shit about that.

Homicide and Smokes celebrate to the back, BUT CORINO AND LEGRANDE AMBUSH THEM THROUGH THE CURTAIN! LeGrande takes down Smokes and Corino has a chain wrapped around his fist, AND HE STARTS PUNCHING AT HOMICIDES EAR AND GRINDING HIS FIST INTO IT! He gets up and yells “AN EAR FOR AN EAR” before leaving. Hell yeah.

In the back, it’s intermission time, and GMC goes and finds Samoa Joe and asks what he'll do about the events earlier. He says he has three of the best in the world coming after him tonight. He has other things to worry about, but if it's that important to know how he'll handle this situation, he can see him at the end of the night.

OH BOOOOO I THOUGHT THE BACKSEATS AND SAT WERE DONE.

Match #6: Backseat Boyz vs. Carnage Crew vs. Special K (Hydro/Angel Dust) vs. Teddy Hart/Jack Evans vs. The SAT [Scramble Cage Match]
There’s a lot to cover here. First and foremost, this isn’t a traditional scramble match just happening inside of a cage. There’s platforms in the top corner of each section of the cage for people to do dives off of. Also, two teams start off and the rest of the teams come in at timed intervals. The match cannot end until all five teams are in. There is no escape rule, meaning if you go to the floor, that is not a victory. You can only win by pinfall or submission.

Now, this match is extremely infamous for something that happens post-match that is NOT on the DVD release, but has been talked about online a ton over the last two decades. We’ll get to that in a bit.

The match itself is INSANE. It starts off with the Backseat Boyz and the debuting Teddy Hart and Jack Evans. Teddy is whatever, he’s fine. Jack is the star of this match. For starters, he DIES on everything. I don’t know if he has much of a choice considering his size and the absolute force people toss him around with, but it’s entertaining as well. The Backseats beat them down and literally toss them out of the cage door just to insult them.

The Carnage Crew are out next and start turning this into more of a hardcore affair and almost instantaneously, people are bleeding. DeVito at one point throws Evans from the ring OUT the door and head first into the guard rail. The Crew also hit picture perfect backdrops on the Backseats sending them hard into the cage.

The SATs are out next, and not to be outdone, they beat down Kashmere and fucking SPIKE HIM INTO THE CAGE WITH THE WASHING MACHINE. JESUS. Everybody is down at this point, and that’s when Special K’s team of Hydro and Angel Dust come out and start trying to capitalize on the insanity by just trying to pin everyone that’s down.

But while they’re doing this, Teddy & Jack go up to one of the platforms, AND TEDDY HURRICANRANAS EVANS OFF THE PLATFORM DOWN ON TO EVERYBODY ELSE!

The big spots and moves continue into Joel Maximo and Hydro battling up to another corner platform. They do a nice tease first of Hydro trying to Powerbomb Maximo down into the ring, and then a tease of Joel backdropping Hydro into the ring. But in this time, Jose Maximo climbs up, AND THEY HIT THE FUCKING SPANISH FLY ON HYDRO OFF THE PLATFORM!

People have now really begun brawling out to the floor around the ringside area. Teddy & Jack are back to their feet and they climb back up to the same platform they were on before…AND TEDDY COMES DOWN WITH A NASTY DIVE ON TO EVERYBODY!

More on this later. BUT THEN JACK EVANS. THIS MOTHERFUCKER. JACK EVANS HITS A *DOUBLE* MOONSAULT DOWN ONTO EVERYONE AS WELL!

This is FUCKING insane. Back in the ring, Carnage Crew whip out the belts to start beating on Special K in revenge. They hit Angel Dust with the Carnage Driver, but Trent Acid breaks it up! The Backseats dispose of the Crew and then hit Loc with the T Gimmick to win.

One of the absolute craziest stunt shows I have ever seen in my life. Fuck it.
***1/2

Alright, so, on the DVD release, they cut away pretty quickly once the match is done. I can’t find video of the incident myself. I know at one point, ROH released it on a compilation DVD, but whatever. Here’s a recap of what happened from a December 2003 issue of the PWTorch:

“Teddy Hart loses his f---ing mind. Okay, we’ve all see the Scramble Cage match at Main Event Spectacles (and if you haven’t, take advantage of that f---ing sale NOW!) This starts off with the finish of that match including Jack Evans hitting his death defying double moonsault off the top of the cage. JACK EVANS IS GOD! If you remember the finish was Loc taking a T Gimmick from the Backseat Boyz. Well, this is where the show ended for those of us who watched.

But it didn’t stop there. Oh no. Teddy Hart climbed to the top of the cage and hit a shooting star press onto Loc and AngelDust. You can hear someone yelling “GET HIM OUT OF THERE!” off screen. DeVito went APESHIT and immediately grabbed Teddy and slammed him. At this point the crowd was chanting “TEDDY! TEDDY!”

So what does Teddy do? Teddy went back to the top of the cage and hit some sort of crazy corkscrew move to some guys outside including Joel Maximo who looked like they had no idea what the hell was going on. The crowd was chanting, very loudly, “YOU SICK F---K!!!” The Carnage Crew were livid and DeVito kept whipping Teddy Hart with his strap. Jack Evans came over to stop the beating and was attacked as well. DeVito screamed all the way to the back. As the Backseat Boyz celebrated Teddy went BACK to the top of the cage and did a moonsault, landing on his feet. He then climbed to the top again and did another moonsault. DeVito came running out but was held back before he could get into the ring. Oh man, if you could have taken his blood pressure at that point the gauge would have exploded.

Teddy went back to the top and did another jump before promptly throwing up. This was like something out of the Twilight Zone. Teddy then got up on the top rope and threw up again. This was a lot of puke! Jack and Teddy finally left and the crowd was still going crazy.“

Backstage, things got ugly quick, as the locker room was heated and gunning for both Hart and Evans, but namely Hart. Evans had peripheral heat, but the locker room, namely Samoa Joe, wanted to “kill” Hart. Here’s Jim Cornette (I know, fuck him, but he was there that night) talking about it on an episode of his podcast a few years back:

“On the ROH show, he gets up on this huge cage and does a flipping shooting star press onto a bunch of guys on the floor... And climbed up again and he did a moonsault off the top of the cage and landed on his feet in the ring... I swear to God he climbed the cage and was up over the top of the cage and then just projectile vomited…Then he turns around so he doesn't vomit on any more of the fans, and he threw up from 20 feet up the cage into the ring. There were still more matches... But I remember, I was the one that was holding Samoa Joe back from going to kill him. Because he's got to go out and work in a puke-filled ring now. And I've got both arms around Samoa Joe's shoulders, going 'Joe, don't kill him.'"

More so, ROH banned Hart from future ROH events for an unspecified period of time. Here’s former ROH owner and ambassador, Cary Silkin, talking about the ban on Kevin Eck’s podcast back in 2021:

“Well there was an incident back in 2003 where Teddy Hart [had] gotten — you know about this? Well it was him and everybody [that it was a problem for]. But he took liberties. What did he do? People are gonna wanna know. There was some kind of crazy tag team match and Teddy Hart started doing backflips when the match was over, it wasn’t very professional. They threw his gear and his stuff out of the locker room but, you know Teddy Hart and it goes back to one of your early words of this podcast, there’s a lot of ‘resilience’. So yeah, after like a six or seven year ban, I guess he was let back.”

Teddy Hart was interviewed in the weeks after the show about the incident and told his side of the story, which most rebukes a lot of stuff being said while also defending his actions. I don’t have the direct source as I got this second hand. How? Because CM Punk famously took to LiveJournal to share his thoughts, and shared a transcript of the interview. Take a look:

“cmpunk
mood: aggravated
November 12, 2003, 00:59
Listens: soundtrack of my life…Hatebreed

My Turn

"My turn"

Well folks, even sometimes I break rules. Today, I break rule number 411. I will talk about somebody, more importantly a subject, and will inturn, give said person undeserved press. COMPLETELY undeserved press, but I gotta be me...I gotta get this off my chest....

The following is from an interview that Teddy Annis recently conducted on an internerd radio show. I will post his half retarded comments in italics, then I will post the truth.

He thinks the ROH match that he was involved in was one of best matches ever in wrestling. He says that the match was great and the cheers from the fans had his adrenaline rushing. He had a little left in the tank after the match so he did not think that the fans got all of their money's worth from Ted which is why he did the extra moves. He had a concussion after the match, but he is not using that as an excuse.

Not using the "concussion" as an excuse. Let's examine that statement, shall we Mr. Annis? Who called the ROH office 17 times the day after saying that you had no recollection of the match? You didn't even remember doing your post match antics the day after the show, NOW suddenly, "the crowd didn't get their monies worth". You're a liar, also, a bad one. Want proof folks? Teddys daddy called and said he had a concussion and couldn't fly out, while Teddy himself was on the other line saying he missed his flight because he was stuck in traffic. D'oh! Other highlights of the 17 phone calls is Teddys dad calling trying to get his job in ROH back, saying he could be the "new Brian Pillman". Brian Pillman as the loose cannon worked because it was believable that he could hurt somebody. You, my sad little friend, just annoy the shit out of people.

He did a 30 foot moonsault off the cage to the floor. He also did a shooting star press onto 3 guys and did a backflip off the ropes as a tribute to his uncle, the late Owen Hart. He states that anyone who has seen him in Calgary knows that he does the backflip tribute at the beginning and end of every one of his matches, win, lose or draw. The hosts say that they respect that he wanted to do a tribute, but ask how he can justify doing that in light of what was asked from him in the match.

This is where I could absolutely kill you. Owen Hart, fucking rest his soul, NEVER no sold a fucking thing in his life. You had just been in a CAGE MATCH. Summer Slam '94, Bret vs. Owen. Awesome cage match. NO MOONSAULT. A good tribute for you to do for Owen would be to sell your boots on Ebay, you knuckle head. Better yet, just swallow some jacks. This business is dangerous enough. We, the boys, risk out lives enough. We don't need a kid like you putting any of us in harms way more than we already are. All your post match bullshit was to get yourself over and ANY cost. You put "the three guys" you did a shooting star onto in SO much danger because they had no clue it was coming. You put yourself first, and others in danger, THIS, is why i'm even responding to all of this.

He believes people are jealous of the moves he can do.

You're seriously r*****ed.

When asked who these people are, he responds that Steve Corino did a shoot interview insulting him and calling him a goof. Teddy said when he saw Steve he shook his hand and said he would let it go. Corino responded why and that "you are a goof". He also cites how AJ Styles gave him a list of moves not do to do. Teddy feels this is unfair as AJ didn't invent the moves in question. He doesn't feel that he should be handcuffed and that he must give the fans everything he has. He does not believe the business has to work in such a manner and cites guys doing jobs to Goldberg and HHH as proof.

Hm...where to begin. AJ Styles may not have invented the moves in question, but he's been in TNA doing them for over a year. Any worker with a brain (i.e. NOT you) wouldn't walk into a WWE ring a start handing out pedigrees, so why would you use the spiral tap on an NWA PPV? I approached you after your match with Juvi and explained to you that AJ used the spiral tap, and you might want to talk to him about it in the future, and you just gave me your blank r****d stare and said, "I invented that". Did you invent being stupid too? Seriously, just asking. These guys that've done jobs for goldberg, did they use the Jackhammer? Teddy, really, please. Give the the names of the wrestlers that used the legdrop as a finish in the WWE from 1983 to the present.....douche.

He says that the locker room can't just band together and refuse to do a job. The promoter should step in and say that Ted Hart puts asses in seats.

I have no idea what you're talking about. I'd pay good money to bet that neither do you.

Teddy used to work at KFC and says that you can't tell your boss there you're only giving 50%. He says that if a fan spends $50 on a ticket to see Ted Hart they are going to get their money's worth. There is no option for him to only give 50%. He says if he was working under contract to Vince it would be different, but on the indy scene he can't understand holding back. He says that Rob Feinstein left the door open for him to do this as he told him that if the fans cheered his name then go with it. He believes a lot of the guys who were angry at him are just jealous and everyone knows his only plan is to go to WWE.

Teddy, I was there. The fans were not chanting "PLEASE CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE CAGE AND DO THREE UNPLANNED SPOTS PUTTING EVERYBODY WHO HAS TO BREAK KAYFABE AND RUN TO CATCH YOU IN HARMS WAY". It's a catchy chant, but it didn't happen. Also, your plan...you ONLY plan is to go to the WWE, perhaps you forgot that you were already there. And you got fired. Idiot.

People who try and blackball him only add more fuel to his fire. He is there to please the fans and not the boys even though the boys have his life in their hands. If they drop him on his head then so be it. He won't stop because 5-6 guys who shouldn't be lacing up boots don't like him. He can't believe he isn't allowed to compete on an equal level because some guys do the same moves as him.

I don't believe for one second you have a fire. You don't love this business Listen to the things you say. Look at the things you do. You give no fuck about the boys, our well being. You only care about yourself. I can only hope that i'm one of the six guys that "shouldn't lace up boots", because then I did my job as one of the ROH locker room leaders. I can't say it enough, no excuse in the world can help you: You put some of the boys in a really horrible potentially dangerous position, and then you cry about being "blackballed". You whine about "not being able to compete on an equal level", and truthfully, that's nobodies fault but your own. Learn some etiquette.

If God wants him to make it in the WWE, then he will. He says there is a reason God lets him do 30 foot moonsaults.

There is no god, and the cage wasn't 30 feet.

Teddy is 23 years old and partially attributes people's jealousy to his age and that they don't have the same creativity and athleticism and feel challenged because they're not willing to follow the standards he sets. He says that we would still have communist countries if people weren't willing to take a chance. Sir A stops him as he states that the hosts don't read the newspapers and drink a lot. Teddy doesn't drink or smoke and compares himself to a preacher.

American Dragon is 22, and one humble motherfucker for how good he is. Nobody is jealous of you, the standard you set is a creepy little no selling troll that wears sunglasses in doors, and changes outfits four times before a show, mainly due to your insecurity as a person. Oh...Teddy? We still do have communist countries, dunce. Oh, and I won't mention the fact that you were asking people where you could score some pot while you were at TNA because you don't smoke.

Teddy is the only one of the Harts who was never stretched by Stu.

...Which is readily recognized from your lack of discipline. Learn how to sell.

So there's your extra press for the day Mr. Annis. No worries though, if it gets you anywhere, i'd bet my life and 100 dollars that you'd find a way to ruin it for yourself with your out of control ego as well as your piss poor attitude. There is no conspiracy, nobody is trying to blackball you. We're just looking out for our friends safety as well as ours. We're just looking out for the product we all believe in, because it's US that want to give the fans a good show. We're just policing our locker room from a cancer that has no business in a business that he acts like he knows all about, but knows so little. We're just protecting our business.

XxX”

The drama isn’t over there, by the way. Months later, as Punk’s tenure in TNA was nearing its end, Teddy Hart was signed to come in. The two ended up crossing paths in a cafe outside of Nashville. Words were exchanged, and some sort of physical altercation occurred outside of the cafe. Here’s Petey Williams recollection of it according to The Sportster:

“According to Williams, he was enjoying a nice meal with CM Punk, but then Teddy Hart walked into the cafe and words were exchanged between the two. Hart and Punk agreed to settle the beef outside and Williams recalls a quick exchange of punches before Punk tripped and Hart ended up on top of him. Sabu then jumped in and separated the two and that was the end of it.”

Sabu also has his own recollection, according to the Sporster:

“The Hardcore Legend himself remembered it as a short scuffle, and he did not pick out a winner, implying that it was pretty much a draw. Sabu did add that while he was separating the two, he got kicked between the legs by Teddy Hart, but it was entirely accidental. Sabu said that he was good friends with Hart at that time, and he was looking to pacify the situation, as he did not want either guy getting fired from TNA. Teddy Hart was terminated by the promotion in the aftermath and Punk stopped appearing as well, but he denied the speculation that he was fired due to his fight with Hart.”

A man who was, at the time, a road agent for TNA and is a noted bullshit artist, Bill Beherns, had this to say on the incident according to the Sportster:

“Bill Behrens, a TNA agent recounted a different account of the fight. According to him, the fight lasted 20 seconds, and it was all Teddy Hart. The third-generation wrestler took CM Punk down and just destroyed him until Sabu separated the two. He credited Sabu for saving Punk because, from what he saw, it was going to end badly for Punk.”

Years later, during CM Punk’s brief foray into MMA and the UFC, Teddy Hart gave an interview about the incident and said the following, also according to the Sportster:

“Hart confirmed that the animosity dated back to his time in ROH, and he praised Punk for having enough guts to come up to him. He said that the fight was short, but it went his way from start to finish. Hart claimed that he knocked him down, beat him up and talked crap to him, and he said that others wrestlers present at the scene, Jack Evans, Petey Williams and Sabu, would substantiate his claim. In the same interview, Hart said that he didn’t know who Punk was back then and how talented he was. After the fight, Hart said he became friends with Punk, and he respected his decision to fight in the UFC. Yes, this was during the time when Punk was preparing for his UFC debut. And of course, Hart said that he was willing to fight Punk in the UFC and said that he could last two rounds with any UFC fighter on the roster.”

Publicly, CM Punk has never commented on the fight or anything involving Teddy Hart’s incident beyond the LiveJournal entry, and out of the four accounts of the fight in Nashville, 3 of them come from some pretty unreliable narrators. Teddy Hart’s ban in ROH is eventually lifted after the ouster of Gabe Sapolsky, and Hart appears on some ROH shows in 2009.

So there you go. The entire story, for the uninitiated. Moving on!

It’s time for the four way match between Joe, Corino, Punk & Daniels. It’s the same bit as a couple of months ago where if someone pins Joe to win, they’ll get a title shot. But if Joe pins someone to win, that person doesn’t get another shot as long as Joe is champ.

During Punk’s entrance, one of the funniest fan interactions ever happens:

Jesus Christ.

Oh and of course, Corino’s whole entourage is here and Bobby Cruise gets on the mic. Cruise says two of these men in this ring reign as champions. For some unknown reason, Samoa Joe is NOT defending the ROH World Championship, and Samoa Joe follows a long storied line of ROH World Champions. Honored champions like… FELLOW PRO WRESTLING ZERO ONE USA MEMBER LOW KI...and Xavier. But this man also appears here before you tonight! The NWA Southern Heavyweight Champion! A championship dating back to 1946 held by such men as:

• Antonio Cortez
• Pat O'Hara

(Daniels sits down in a chair in the corner)

• Gene Sally
• Tom Mahoney
• Don McIntyre
• Danno O'Connor
• Ray Villmer
• Nick Carter

(Joe lies down...and a "SHUT THE FUCK UP" chant leads Guillotine to get on the mic and he says a champion is being introduced and they've got all fricking night so they need to shut up and let him continue...)

• Don Curtis
• Freddie Austin
• Eddie Graham
• Professor Boris Malenko
• Hiro Matsuda
• Cowboy Bob Orton
• Cowboy Bob Ellis
• Cowboy Bill Watts
• Tarzan Tyler
• The Missouri Mauler
• Johnny Weaver
• Red Bastien
• Danny Miller
• Dale Lewis
• The Great Mephisto
• Rene Goulet
• George Gaiser
• The Grappler
• JIM THE ANVIL NEIDHART!
• PISTOL PEZ WHATLEY!
• Jesse Barr
• BAD NEWS ALLEN!
• BIG CAT BOBBY DUNCUM!
• BOBBY SHANE!
• MR. WRESTLING TIM WOODS!
• BUDDY COLT!
• MEAN MARK LEWIN!
• NUMBER ONE PAUL JONES
• RON FULLER
• JOS LEDUC

(a "BORING" chant starts, so Corino makes Bobby stop. Joe takes a ringside camera and takes some shots with it.

• JERRY BRISCO
• JACK BRISCO

(a "SHOW YOUR TITS" chant starts at Simply Luscious, so Daniels gets up and flexes his chest to a big pop and a holy shit chant)

• PEDRO MORALES
• DICK SLATER
• THE DESTROYER
• CHIEF WAHOO MCDANIEL
• CHUCK R ERWIN
• GORGEOUS JIMMY GARVIN
• THE BIG CAT ERNIE LADD
• SWEET BROWN SUGAR
• BAD BAD LEROY BROWN
• BARRY WINDHAM
• HANGMAN BOBBY JAGGERS
• DAVID VON ERICH
• OUTLAW RON BASS
• MIKE ROTUNDO
• ANGELO MOSCA
• RAVISHING RICK RUDE
• THE TOTAL PACKAGE LEX LUGER

(MASSIVE BOOS)

• CLASSY FREDDIE BLASSIE
• JOHNNY VALENTINE
• TERRY FUNK
• THE MASKED SUPERSTAR
• DICK MURDOCH
• THE AMERICAN DREAM DUSTY RHODES

…AND ENTERING TO THE LEFT, THE BEST OF THEM ALL! WEIGHING IN AT A GLORIOUS 104 KILOS, WHICH IS 233 POUNDS FOR YOU NON GIRLFRIEND HAVING INTERNET GEEKS. FROM SEA ISLE CITY, NJ, HE IS THE CURRENT MLW WORLD CHAMPION, THE CURRENT NWA SOUTHERN HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION, THE EXTREME HORSEMAN, THE KING OF OLD SCHOOL, THE KING OF KINGS, THE FIGHTINGEST OF FIGHTING CHAMPION, AND THE FUCKING GOD OF PRO WRESTLING, STEVE CORINO.

God yes.

Corino, Punk & Joe then meet at center ring and do like a Three Stooges style triple handshake and Daniels still refuses.

Match #7: CM Punk vs. Steve Corino vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels [Non Title Four Corners Survival Match]
This rules! Super fast paced and high energy practically from the drop. There’s a lot going on in terms of story. You’re getting some closure on Daniels/Corino finally, you’re getting Punk/Daniels and Joe/Daniels continued, Punk/Joe has recently become a lower level think, Corino/Joe have a past and Corino/Punk have a strange relationship budding. On top of all of that, you’ve got everyone competing to hopefully beat Joe and get a title shot. Chaos ensues. One of my favorite bits was Joe setting Daniels and Corino up in chairs in opposite corners of the outside. He runs and hits the Ole Ole Kick on Daniels. He goes to run towards Corino, but Punk dives on to his shoulders and Joe POWERBOMBS HIM INTO THE GUARD RAIL, and THEN he hits Corino with the Ole Ole Kick. As expected, there’s some light move stealing and a dive train. It is ROH after all. Starts to slow down and we see some more story stuff, like Punk and Corino keep saving each other from moves and pins. There’s a move exchange spot between all four men and at one point Corino does hit Punk and the announcers make a big deal about it clearly not being an accident. Joe eats an Old School Kick and then the Angel's Wings, and Joe rolls out. I kind of hate that because everyone’s goal should be to try and pin the champ at this point. But whatever. Daniels goes for the BME on Corino but LeGrande gets in and rolls Corino away, causing Daniels to land on LeGrande’s back. Daniels goes to then quickly double DDT Corino & Punk, BUT THEY REVERSE IT INTO A DOUBLE NORTHERN LIGHTS SUPLEX AND THERES A DOUBLE PIN?!
***1/4

Post match, there’s chaos with a bunch of refs trying to figure out the call and Corino arguing he should win and the cameras kind of just cut away without an answer.

In the back, GMC is with Matt Stryker and Xavier, who are face to face, and announces that on the next show on 11/28, they'll meet in the final of their block to see who goes to the finals at Final Battle. They talk. I do not care. John Walters then shows up and says this is personal. He talks some more. I do not care. I guess there’s gonna be another Walters/Xavier match too because Zod hath forsaken me.

Elsewhere, Convicted Sex Offender Rob Feinstein is hanging around hoping for an alibi. He says the next two shows will be a double shot on 11/28 and 11/29. The 11/28 show will see the blowoff of the Raven/Punk feud where they’ll face off in a Steel Cage. I am so tired of this feud. They already had that cage match and it was bad. He also says the 11/29 show will be the blowoff to Homicide/Corino, AS THEY WILL FIGHT IN A NO ROPES BARBED WIRE MATCH OH MY GOD YES.

Oh hey look, Bryan Danielson still exists thankfully!

Match #8: AJ Styles vs. Bryan Danielson [#1 Contenders Trophy]
To probably nobody’s surprise, this was incredible. Two of the greatest of all time fighting at the start of their primes. Just fantastic stuff. AJ comes out of the gate with his really super aggressive mat work that Danielson has answers for the entire way. Danielson is also careful to protect himself to avoid letting AJ get that lucky kick that busted him open last match they said, which essentially cost Bryan the victory. They build up quickly to some strike exchanges, but feeling he’s in a losing battle after a big enziugiri from AJ, Danielson takes it back to the mat and opens up some really, really good arm work that AJ sells pretty okay. It does go on for a bit but for a pervert like me and I’m assuming whoever is reading this, I don’t mind that. Some fan in the crowd probably did, as he chants BO-RING, and based on where the fan is sitting, I *THINK* it may be the same fan that kept yelling DIE at Punk. Bryan finally addresses the heckler mid match, yelling “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW ABOUT PRO WRESTLING? TELL ME, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW ABOUT PRO WRESTLING? YOU SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH.” Hell yeah. Bryan now gets super aggressive with the arm work, working over every possibly inch of AJ’s arm, including his elbow, wrist, and then he does a FINGER BREAK SPOT AND STARTS STOMPING ON THE HAND. YESSSSS. AJ then goes postal on a comeback and throws Bryan over the top, but Bryan’s knee buckles and AJ’s found his target! AJ goes to work on Bryan’s knee like a man incensed, and Bryan’s selling is otherworldly. Like I don’t know if I would’ve been as “meh” on AJ’s selling in this if it wasn’t against one of the best sellers ever in Bryan. AJ really continues to work the knee specifically, but goes after the whole leg, and eventually gets a long-ish figure four on Bryan. Bryan WILL NOT TAP, and AJ at one point yells out “JUST GIVE UP, I ALREADY BEAT DUSTY WITH IT” and he includes another word that I am not going to say, but it’s a word AJ said a lot in this time period. I’ll leave it at that. Bryan makes his dramatic, exhausted, super human comeback (that he still does so well even in 2024) and has AJ on the ropes. He traps AJ during a brief comeback into a triangle choke and he might have his number here, BUT AJ LIFTS BRYAN UP WHILE IN THE CHOKE AND HITS A ONE ARMED STYLES CLASH! JESUS. He’s lucky he didn’t break his own arm. AND THEN HE HITS THE REAL STYLES CLASH TO END IT. WOW. What an affair. AJs mid-tier selling and some personal issues I had with length aside, I loved this so much.
****1/4

Backstage, and live from “Chicago”, it’s time for GOOD TIMES, GREAT MEMORIES! CM Punk is gonna be on a little bit later, but first they have The Carnage Crew! They come in with beer and start chilling, and have the most 2003 ass shirts on ever:

Devito says he drank a lot of beer in college, for the month he went. Cabana says junior college in Nebraska doesn't count, and Devito asks where that is. Cabana says they had a big match tonight and the Backseat Boyz won. Devito says they stole a victory from them tonight. Loc says they don't mind bleeding and Devito says they stole their match, so they're coming after them. Devito says he's seen the Colt 45, and their Piledriver off the middle is the most devastating move in wrestling. Cabana asks if they invented that, and Devito says they invented the Piledriver, so yes. Cabana asks about Special K and Loc says they've been thuggin and druggin for a decade, and Special K is nothing. Devito says they're drunk anyways in the ring, so that part doesn't bother them. Cabana asks what they do outside of wrestling and they yell THE NUDIE BAR. Devito says he doesn't want to buy stuff for the house, wife, or kids, but he'll spend ALL his dollars at the nudie bar. Loc says that check is getting cashed and spent TONIGHT. Cabana reads them a poem (I know I’ve seen people credit this as a Cabana original bit, but sorry to say, he stole this from Married with Children, like word for word mostly):

At the nudie bar
Where you can look at a thigh
And blacken an eye

At the nudie bar
Where they show their butt
And their traps stay shut

At the nudie bar
Where you can't touch a breast
But you can cave in a chest

At the nudie bar
Where the girlies dance
In their underpants

At the nudie bar
Where the music stinks
And they water the drinks

At the nudie bar
Where the beer gives you gas
But the Carnage Crew kicks ass

At the nudie bar!

Cabana says they'll get Punk next time and Devito asks if he and Punk want a beer. Cabana asks if they have Yoohoo and they almost beat the shit out of him, but Devito says he liked the poem, so they shake hands and leave.

In a pretape that is labeled as having happened a week after this show, Steve Corino cuts a promo. He says only a few days ago, he nailed Homicide in the left ear with a chain wrapped fist. The same ear Homicide took out on him back on 8/16. He still can't hear, but he got some revenge. Now, on 11/28, ROH is giving him a young boy by the name of Josh Daniels. Good kid, star in the making, but you know what? It's a warm up for Steve Corino. He'll get some cardio going, and the next night, he won't just beat Homicide, but he's going to fucking cripple him. Because when his son stands to his left and talks to him, he can't hear him, and that hurts. When people laugh at him and ask if he's deaf, and he has to say yes, that hurts him inside. No ropes barbed wire, there's nowhere they can go but inside. He's not a violent man. He never liked hardcore wrestling. But he comes out fighting when he's backed into Punk. He never wanted this feud, he never even wanted to team with Homicide against the Backseat Boyz back in December of 2002. Yet another big ROH idea he had NOTHING to do with. Homicide needs to let all this go. Because they all know he'll beat him. But what HE knows is that he's going to cripple him. And after that, he’s done! His ROH contract is up, he has no more obligations. Win, lose, or draw, he's gone. This is it for him in ROH. It's not like anyone here will ever let him challenge Samoa Joe for the belt. ROH brass doesn’t want him holding that thing. And besides, he’s got a TON of other championships weighing his shoulders and waist down so he doesn’t even want the ROH belt. He is the greatest superstar to ever walk into ROH, and Homicide will feel that. Not only is he the King of Old School, the Extreme Horsemen, but the FUCKING GOD. And CM Punk? After the last two shows, he has to admit something…he's a lot more like him than he wants to admit. Awesome promo.

In the back, GMC goes to interview Cornette and the Briscoes. Cornette says these kids are in their early 20s and the most fascinating and most obviously scintillating team he's come across since the Midnight Express. Damn. They have the hunger and he's gonna take them to the top. He sends the Briscoes off to go party and have fun, and he'll take care of the rest. They leave and Cornette tells GMC that these kids do everything he tells them and after all, he's a savant in this industry. GMC says he's made a lot of enemies in ROH. Cornette says if The Prophecy was so good, they shouldn't have lost. And as for Joe? Samoans are happy if you give them some fish and coconuts. JESUS CHRIST. Joe was a means to an end. To hell with Joe. He's an idiot, he's not smart enough to compete with James E. Cornette, and GMC keeps trying to warn Cornette that he’s in real trouble but then Cornette kicks GMC out.

BUT THEN, Joe walks over towards the locker room once the camera is off and tells GMC and the camera man to stay right here. He goes in and Cornette puts on the nice guy routine, and Joe shuts the door and you can hear him beating the shit out of Cornette. He then leaves and says he wouldn't go in there if he were them, and leaves.

IN THREE WEEKS: THE BLOCK FINALS FOR THE FIELD OF HONOR! BRISCOES DEFEND AGAINST JOE & A PARTNER! PUNK/RAVEN BLOWOFF! AND THEN THE NEXT NIGHT — AJ GETS HIS WORLD TITLE SHOT! AND CORINO/HOMICIDE NRBW BLOWOFF!