ROH: A NIGHT OF APPRECIATION
Murphy Rec Center
Philadelphia, PA
April 27th, 2002
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Anyway, on with this show!
EARLIER TODAY: The phone call HC Loc made two months ago finally seems to have paid off, as his bestest pal in the world Tony DeVito has shown up. They push a couple of stage hands around and hug each other. Something awful has begun.
EARLIER TODAY: Christopher Street Connection is greeting the crowd outside and they mock DHS. And to really sell it, they start gratuitously making out with each other. Alright then. DHS come outside and beat them up so they bail back inside. DHS then decide to drop the N bomb in reference to themselves, and a white dude starts a very brief “Let’s go [REDACTED]” and it gets quiet for a second before DHS wrap it up. Please stop these segs and get rid of these two teams.
Backstage, Bryan Danielson gladly stretches and chokes out a young wrestler much like he did at the first event.
Elsewhere backstage, Boogalou is talking with DHS about Homicide being over in Japan, so he’s not booked. Tony DeVito walks in and tells Boogalou that “it’s coming for him”. DHS are confused.
EARLIER TODAY: The PA State Athletic Commission guy from last month, who is apparently named Frank Talent (what a name), gives a speech about the house tonight and how it’s Eddie Guerrerro’s last show before heading back to WWF/E. He also yells at Spanky for having his headphones on.
A recap video airs of the DHS/CSC/Nana & Tuttle stuff.
Match #1: Da Hit Squad vs. Christopher Street Connection vs. Prince Nana & Simply Lucious
This starts off just DHS beating the shit out of CSC. Allison Danger returns from two shows ago after having been attacked by DHS then to announce that this is a three way match and brings out Nana with Simply Lucious! So no Tuttle but Lucious is the first woman to wrestle in ROH. Allison & Lucious flirt with each other and Nana & CSC try to stop it and DHS plow through all five of them. This stinks man I don’t care about any of it. DHS get the win. Moving on.
1/2*
A recap of Jay Briscoe going 0-2 in his first 2 ROH shows airs.
In a pretape, Mark again gives Jay a hard time about being 0-2 but Jay loses it on him this time and tells him to SHUT UP.
Match #2: Jay Briscoe vs. Tony Mamaluke
NO. FUCK. I forgot that Mamaluke was in ROH. In what I can only assume is being done on purpose now, for the second show in a row with a former FBI member in the ring, commentary is shitting on the FBI gimmick and talking about how legit Mamaluke is while a “where’s my pizza” chant is going on. Although he is in his FBI gear and came out to “Stayin Alive”? Anyway, Jay carried this untalented bag of ass to at least something passable and was able to one up him with the Jay Driller to finally win.
*3/4
Post-match, commentary notes that Mark Briscoe does NOT look happy that his brother finally won.
The cameras follow the Briscoes backstage where Papa and Mama Briscoe await to congratulate Jay. Mark tells Jay he almost lost again and Papa Briscoe yells at him.
The camera then catches up with an exhausted Tony Mamaluke who is confronted by James Maritato (Little Guido). Maritato says they were supposed to leave the comedy bullshit behind here. Mamaluke says at least he knows who he really is. And they flip each other off.
Match #3: York & Matthews vs. Divine Storm
A perfectly fine match from both teams that would’ve made great filler on an episode of Velocity. Nothing otherworldly. Brian XL comes out and does a no hands corkscrew plancha from the ring down on to Y&M and he almost breaks his ass doing so. Commentary pointed out how that is a violation of the Code of Conduct and Divine Storm yell at their friend to send him away. Match gets a bit more flippy in a race to the finish, where Storm traps Matthews and makes him tap to what I guess is his version of a heel hook or something? Not quite sure what it was but it looked painful.
**
Recap airs of Xavier beating Scoot 2 months ago and beating Maritato last month.
Pretapes air in quick succession from Maritato, Scoot & Xavier.
Match #4: Xavier vs. Scoot Andrews vs. James Maritato
They were really banking on this being the ECW undercard three way show stealer like ECW was getting out of Tajiri/Crazy/Guido two years prior but there’s two major problems with that: there’s no Crazy and there’s no Tajiri. They’re instead replaced with maybe two of the most generic, boring dudes ever. It is soul crushing to know what Xavier is being positioned for here in early ROH. But a brief respite en route as he whiffs on a top rope splash and Guido catches him with an armbar for the submission win!
*1/4
Simply Lucious is storming through the backstage area. She walks into a room where convicted sex offender Rob Feinstein and his puka shell necklace are on the phone. Simply Lucious is mad she drove all the way from San Antonio for that match earlier. Convicted sex offender Rob Feinstein says he’ll take care of her next month with a better match. And she walks off, leaving puka shelled convicted sex offender Rob Feinstein to rejoin his phone conversation that I’m sure is not of any nefarious means.
Rob Feinstein is a convicted sex offender.
Match #5: AJ Styles vs. Low Ki
Insanely operatic. These two were meant for one another, at least this early on. AJ helped bring an electricity that I didn’t think ROH would’ve been capable of this early on. Hard and intense, some great mat work by both men. Ki has another dance partner not afraid to match him in striking. The crowd is the hottest they’ve been across all three shows as this ramps up to the finish, which sees Ki countering a Cliffhanger attempt into an inside cradle to get the win. Best match in ROH’s run thus far.
***3/4
In a pretape, Daniels compliments ROH on finally doing right by him and bringing in talent worthy to face him like Donovan Morgan and he cites their similar accomplishments like they both won the Super 8. But he says that doesn’t mean this is a career making victory for Morgan tonight, and THAT is the gospel according to the Fallen Angel.
Match #6: Carnage Crew (HC Loc & Tony DeVito) vs. Ring Crew Express (Dunn & Marcos)
Well, I *did* say in the first review how I was a Baldies fan. So oh well. Commit to the bit. But for a high powered squash from two dudes with little man syndrome, it was actually pretty enjoyable. And they did a sick Razors Edge/Dudley Death Drop combo as their finish. Commentary hyped the impending feud with NBS the entire time.
**
Post match, the Carnage Crew make sure they abide by the code of honor and shake the hands of their KO’d opponents. But then they bring in tire rims and bash Dunn & Marcos over the head with them.
Match #7: Christopher Daniels vs. Donovan Morgan
Commentary has been quite sure to bring up that Corino and Daniels are friends numerous times every show. Feels important. The match itself is decent. They trade holds and go back and forth working on each others necks. They definitely play up Morgan having the size advantage as well. they work to a stalemate while also continuing to weaken each others neck. Daniels grabs a cross face to try and win like he did last month, but Morgan is able to get a rope break. Daniels cuts off a Morgan comeback with a Last Rites attempt but Morgan swings out and reverses it into the Golden Gate Swing and covers, but now Daniels gets the rope break. Morgan lifts him up and hits the GGS again and gets the win now.
**3/4
Post match, Daniels grabs a mic and still won’t observe the code of honor because it’s a farce. But he’ll offer Morgan something better — he’ll offer to watch his back. Morgan doesn’t give an answer and leaves.
There’s a TWA student gauntlet match set for tonight for no real reason. Earlier today, they all argued with each other in front of Rudy Boy about who would win and who should start the match. Spanky is playing the dick again. London is aloof. Danielson is cocky. I don’t know who John Hope is. And somehow in a room full of five people, Michael Shane struggles to be the 5th best.
Match #8: Spanky vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Paul London vs. Michael Shane vs. John Hope [TWA Gauntlet Match]
Well the first match in this is Paul London vs. John Hope. And for some reason it’s cut into three quick clips and London wins with a SSP. Not sure why that happened, but not sure I care. John Hope advertised himself in that pretape as the “one true student of Shawn since he was there since the beginning” and those sound more like charges than accolades.
Next up is Paul London taking on ECW Original (I fucking hate myself) Michael Shane. London drags Shane through some spots early before Shane takes over for a minute or so then quickly ends it with one of the, I shit you not, worst flying elbow drops I have ever seen.
Now it’s Michael Shane vs. Spanky.
Yes. Anyway, Spanky runs circles around Shane. The best way I can describe Michael Shane is everything he does in the ring looks like he’s on the second full day of training on an early Tough Enough season. I feel like you’ll understand what I mean there. Spanky tries his best, they give this some time and try to sell the story of the personal rivalry these two apparently have. Shane gets hardway’d at one point. They do so much of a sprint that it’s at least believable when they sell the exhaustion, which is good gauntlet match booking. Spanky capitalizes on Shane slipping up to hit Sliced Bread #2 to win.
Finally it’s Dragon/Spanky. This was great and honestly the match probably should’ve just been them one on one the whole time. They work to a stalemate and have a really neat knuckle lock spot. Danielson starts to work towards a finish after Spanky botches a suplex but Spanky’s quick to work his way back with a Sliced Bread #2 for a near fall. They build to a fight at the top turnbuckle where Spanky waits Danielson out long enough to hit Super Sliced Bread #2 to win!
**3/4 (but mostly for Spanky/Danielson)
Post-match, Spanky grabs the mic and mocks Danielson a bit. Spanky dubs himself the new SHOWSTOPPA~ It’s also announced that the Innaugural ROH Title will be decided in a tournament with the finals being a Fatal Four Way Iron Man Match. Spanky throws his name in the hat for that tournament. Danielson grabs the mic but this shitty house audio is so bad I can’t hear what he says except something about entering the tournament as well. Then this set starts to go on forever as Christopher Daniels, Xavier, Scoot Andrews, Jay Briscoe all come out one by one to say they want to be champion too and declare for the tournament. Scoot, specifically, challenges Daniels to meet him in the first round. Anyway, Low Ki comes to the ring and everybody leaves to make room for his big dumb ears and bigger dumber ego, and he rambles on and on and yeah I guess he’s in the tournament too. ROH tried their hand at a lower level version of a WWE style promo seg here and it did NOT work for them. But it’s early.
They show a video package of the stuff with all of Mikey Whipwreck’s students, namely Brian XL being an odd fit and not welcomed.
Eddie Guerrero is out for the main event and he has the WWE Intercontinental Title with him. Big chants for Eddie. Eddie getting to finish up commitments like these while holding WWE gold is a super rare thing in the early 2000’s. Eddie helped legitimize early proto-ROH more than he honestly gets credit for, sadly.
Match #9: Eddie Guerrero & Amazing Red vs. The SAT
All that I just said aside, this is still WWE, so Eddie ain’t getting to do too much here. So with that, this was what it was. SAT worked over Red, Eddie got the hot tag and mostly worked on top before missing on a Frog Splash but winning with some move that commentary called the Gory Special but was most certainly not the Gory Special. Other than that, inoffensive.
**1/4
Post-match, Eddie gets and gives thanks. Brian XL comes out to make fun of the SAT, so Eddie makes fun of him and gets a chant of “Lil Bow Wow” going. Brian XL steps up to fight Eddie and I guess this is an impromptu match…
Match #10: Eddie Guerrero vs. BrianXL
…that ends immediately with a brain buster and a 1-2-3.
N/A
Eddie finishes thanking the fans, staff & wrestlers of ROH and that’s that.
Backstage, Danielson and Ki are remarking about how great Eddie is and how awesome it is to see how respected he is. They notice Spanky listening to his headphones again and they yell at him. Spanky says he doesn’t care because people pay to see him not Eddie. Christopher Daniels shows up, now with Donovan Morgan at his side, and they call Danielson & Ki girls and marks for respecting Eddie. A brawl breaks out and is then broken up. Daniels says if he still had hair ROH would make it turn gray.
Please get me to 2003 already for the love of Christ.
IN TWO MONTHS TIME: The ROH Title Tournament begins, and it’s a block style tournament you stupid assholes! Let’s goooo!
Finally it’s Dragon/Spanky. This was great and honestly the match probably should’ve just been them one on one the whole time. They work to a stalemate and have a really neat knuckle lock spot. Danielson starts to work towards a finish after Spanky botches a suplex but Spanky’s quick to work his way back with a Sliced Bread #2 for a near fall. They build to a fight at the top turnbuckle where Spanky waits Danielson out long enough to hit Super Sliced Bread #2 to win!
**3/4 (but mostly for Spanky/Danielson)
Post-match, Spanky grabs the mic and mocks Danielson a bit. Spanky dubs himself the new SHOWSTOPPA~ It’s also announced that the Innaugural ROH Title will be decided in a tournament with the finals being a Fatal Four Way Iron Man Match. Spanky throws his name in the hat for that tournament. Danielson grabs the mic but this shitty house audio is so bad I can’t hear what he says except something about entering the tournament as well. Then this set starts to go on forever as Christopher Daniels, Xavier, Scoot Andrews, Jay Briscoe all come out one by one to say they want to be champion too and declare for the tournament. Scoot, specifically, challenges Daniels to meet him in the first round. Anyway, Low Ki comes to the ring and everybody leaves to make room for his big dumb ears and bigger dumber ego, and he rambles on and on and yeah I guess he’s in the tournament too. ROH tried their hand at a lower level version of a WWE style promo seg here and it did NOT work for them. But it’s early.
They show a video package of the stuff with all of Mikey Whipwreck’s students, namely Brian XL being an odd fit and not welcomed.
Eddie Guerrero is out for the main event and he has the WWE Intercontinental Title with him. Big chants for Eddie. Eddie getting to finish up commitments like these while holding WWE gold is a super rare thing in the early 2000’s. Eddie helped legitimize early proto-ROH more than he honestly gets credit for, sadly.
Match #9: Eddie Guerrero & Amazing Red vs. The SAT
All that I just said aside, this is still WWE, so Eddie ain’t getting to do too much here. So with that, this was what it was. SAT worked over Red, Eddie got the hot tag and mostly worked on top before missing on a Frog Splash but winning with some move that commentary called the Gory Special but was most certainly not the Gory Special. Other than that, inoffensive.
**1/4
Post-match, Eddie gets and gives thanks. Brian XL comes out to make fun of the SAT, so Eddie makes fun of him and gets a chant of “Lil Bow Wow” going. Brian XL steps up to fight Eddie and I guess this is an impromptu match…
Match #10: Eddie Guerrero vs. BrianXL
…that ends immediately with a brain buster and a 1-2-3.
N/A
Eddie finishes thanking the fans, staff & wrestlers of ROH and that’s that.
Backstage, Danielson and Ki are remarking about how great Eddie is and how awesome it is to see how respected he is. They notice Spanky listening to his headphones again and they yell at him. Spanky says he doesn’t care because people pay to see him not Eddie. Christopher Daniels shows up, now with Donovan Morgan at his side, and they call Danielson & Ki girls and marks for respecting Eddie. A brawl breaks out and is then broken up. Daniels says if he still had hair ROH would make it turn gray.
Please get me to 2003 already for the love of Christ.
IN TWO MONTHS TIME: The ROH Title Tournament begins, and it’s a block style tournament you stupid assholes! Let’s goooo!
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