ROH: NIGHT OF THE BUTCHER - 12/7/2002

ROH: NIGHT OF THE BUTCHER

Murphy Rec Center
Philadelphia, PA
December 7th, 2002

ROH Champion: Xavier (Since 9/21/2002 - 1 Defenses)
ROH Tag Team Champions: The Prophecy (Since 9/21/2002 - 1 Defenses)

The show starts with Da Hit Squad in the locker room talking. Divine Storm and Trinity come in and they all say hi and then go upstairs. Special K sneak in the locker room and they all start raving.

Elsewhere, Michael Shane says how much he admires the Code of Honor because it forces the people he beats to have to look him in the eye and shake his hand. He hypes his accomplishments in 2002 and his match with Jeremy Lopez tonight. He also writes off Bio-Hazard since he lost the tag match. Good.

DHS & Divine Storm come back downstairs and find Special K raving. DHS rant about “DISRESPECTING THE ROH LOCKER ROOM BRUTHA” and chase them off. Whatever.

Match #1: Michael Shane vs. Jeremy Lopez
Extremely basic but not bad at all. It wouldn’t fly on today’s indies but very apropos of early ROH. Lopez gets a few chances to shine but it’s Shane’s match and he wins with his elbow drop.
**

Match #2: CM Punk vs. Colt Cabana
Nice singles debut for Punk and overall debut for Cabana. Cabana really got the chance to shine here breaking out his full arsenal including the Asai to the floor. Punk sells great and feeds in to everything. Both men have a ways to go but the raw talent is there. Cabana gets a moderate upset with the Colt 45.
**1/2

Post-match, Gabe wonders aloud if ROH will rescind Punk’s 12/28 booking since he’s 0-2 now. Punk & Cabana shake hands and GMC comes out. GMC puts both men over and says on 12/28, they will both be booked now in a rematch against each other with the winner receiving the ROH contract. Cabana says he’s honored but he’s winning no matter what because he wants to fly in instead of driving in. Punk says he needs a win more than anyone in ROH right now except Jay Briscoe, and he’s not going to take it easy on Cabana on 12/28.

Match #3: Paul London vs. EZ Money [#1 Contd’rs Trophy Tourney - Semi Finals]
What the fuck is EZ Money doing here? Fuck off. Anyway, since AJ gets his title match tonight I suppose that vacates the contenders trophy, hence the one night mini tournament. EZ Money got way too much offense in this to be anything credible. I don’t even get why a guy who’s never competed for ROH is being considered one of the top four contenders either. London looks great, he’s continued his streak of improving on every show and now he’s not being bogged down by Rudy Boy. London gets the win with a Sweeping DDT.
*1/2

Match #4: Bryan Danielson vs. Chad Collyer [#1 Contd’rs Trophy Tourney - Semi Finals]
Gabe makes sure to let us know WWE fired Collyer because he was a mat based wrestler and not a good promo and he admits Collyer is a bad promo. Why even say that? Makes your company look less than. You dope. Collyer is a name I’ve heard for years and years but this is the first time I got to see him wrestle. He’s incredibly gifted on the mat. A bit bland and flavorless at times. It comes across as too scientific, apparently there is such a thing. But Bryan Danielson is so great, even here in 2002, that he’s able to guide this along to something better than if Collyer was in there with someone of lesser talent than he. Collyer’s focus is Danielson’s knee and again Danielson’s selling is so gritty and realistic. Danielson works his comeback up and has to avoid certain moves given the knee but he’s able to put it away with a Dragon Suplex to win.
***

It’ll be Danielson/London later tonight for the #1 contender’s trophy.

The winners of the next match get a shot at the Prophecy’s tag team titles at Final Battle later this month.

Match #5: Special K (Joey Matthews & Deranged) vs. Jay Briscoe & Amazing Red vs. The SAT vs. Da Hit Squad [Tag Team Scramble]
Three of these teams SHOW RESPECT to each other but of course Special K are “working high”. Gabe also, in reference to Joey Matthews, insinuates there is something “devious about an older man hanging out with 18 year old boys”. 

Anyway, this was a major spot fest. Not on the level of the ten man scramble tag last month though. But everyone played their parts. Deranged especially shone here as a fun spot monkey. DHS beat dudes up. Joey played a great shit heel. Jay & Red carried the match. And the SAT existed. I guess I’ll gif some spots here like this super vertical suplex to the floor:

Another entry into the ROH vs. Fence war log:

And this fun spot that I want Rhino to steal:

Maff and Deranged seem legitimately hurt after that spot and lay in the corner for a while so the match kind of suffers from the awkwardness. Eventually they get back involved in the end. But the lull relied on the SAT to do some heavy lifting which they’re not primed to do. They get the win when they trap Red and Deranged in sort of a Gory/Inverted Gory double submission. Sounded like Gabe called it the Taffy Cart? I dunno. This went way too long by the way. Clocked in at almost 25 minutes.
**1/2

So SAT will face Daniels & Morgan for the belts at Final Battle. Logistically it makes sense. This frees up Jay for the Mark rematch, you’re not gonna run your two heel stables against each other in a throwaway tag, and DHS aren’t gonna be able to keep up with Daniels or even Morgan. However, it stinks because SAT simply aren’t very good.

411 comes from the crowd again post match and chokeslams the referee for some reason. I dunno where this is leading.

Clips air from the ROH High Impact TV taping before this show went live. Raul Mendoza beat Mace. Danielson beat Marcos. London beat Angel Dust. Da Hit Squad beat the OutKast Killaz. AJ Styles beat a debuting Jimmy Rave. The Prophecy attacked AJ post match.

Match #6: Divine Storm vs. Jeff Starr & Shockwave
3 minute squash for Divine Storm. These guys really stink. Quiet Storm especially. When he yells out SHOCK CRADLE PILEDRIVER I pray someone throws something at his head.
3/4*

Post-match, CW Anderson hops the railing and beats up the jobbers. Gabe freaks out on commentary saying CW doesn’t work here and make sure to edit this off tape. GMC comes out and asks CW why he’s here. CW says he was fired by ROH after his appearance earlier this year and he goes on and on about his heat with Gabe. He calls him a Heyman wannabe, etc. He dares him to come out to the ring and say the shit to his face he only has the balls to say behind his back. He uses the term SMART MARKS to really let us know he’s shooting here. CW notices Convicted Sex Offender Rob Feinstein by the curtain and says he’s got no heat with Rob his heats with Gabe. Joey Matthews and DHS come out, BREAKIN’ CHARACTER (which is so funny after the “disrespecting the locker room” bit at the top of the show) and try to reason with CW to calm down and leave. CW instead heads backstage where Gabe is waiting, AND SCREECHING, that CW is fucking done and he doesn’t work here! The locker room keeps the two of them apart. DHS drag Gabe into the actual dressing room while Joey takes CW downstairs.

No idea what this was about other than a lame worked shoot but alright.

The winner of the next match won’t have the trophy long as they’ll get their title shot at Final Battle vs. the winner of Xavier/AJ tonight. It’s also noted that officially Bryan Danielson is going by his actual name and not just solely American Dragon anymore.

Match #7: Bryan Danielson vs. Paul London [#1 Contd’rs Trophy Tourney - Finals]
This was great! A perfect culmination of Paul London’s arc since coming to Ring of Honor. He was the runt of the litter and had to stand up and fight his way to the top, and now he had to essentially do that all over again in condensed fashion in this match. I wouldn’t say Danielson was working heel, but he was definitely working that bully style that he’s perfected so much over the years. The crowd really starts to get behind London as the plucky underdog babyface too. Danielson starts to get frustrated when London won’t stay down, and London surprisingly starts to match Danielson on the aggressiveness. Great finish where London tries to go up top for his SSP, but Danielson keeps running up the corner to grab him. London will headbutt him, he’ll drop down and then go right back up. London finally just NAILS Danielson, he goes flat back on the canvas and London connects with the SSP to win!
***1/2

It definitely feels like, if Final Battle was truly a Wrestlemania/Starrcade caliber show, that the story you’ve been building up to is Danielson or Ki getting the belt from the Prophecy. But now that I’ve taken the blinders off and learned that this is not how ROH is set up, it makes London’s win here feel a lot better.

Post-match, London grabs the mic and puts Danielson over as the best wrestler in the world and says he wishes there were two of these trophies because Danielson deserves it. Danielson thanks him but says sometimes heart outweighs skill, and Paul London had more heart tonight and he deserves every bit of this. They shake hands and London celebrates.

Match #8: Xavier (c) w/ Simply Luscious vs. AJ Styles w/ Alexis Laree [ROH Championship]
I’m starting to think it’s less the fault of this now legendary/then young phenoms like Low Ki and AJ Styles, and really just the fact that Xavier is in no way shape or form made to be a heel World Champion. Because he actively drags AJ down here with him. Outside of an initial spot early where AJ hits the Styles Clash quickly but Luscious gets Xavier’s foot on the rope, this match really goes nowhere. It’s moves happening for the sake of moves. And honestly given Xavier’s total lack of impact left behind on the industry, I really believe my suspicions are correct. Luscious & Mickie brawl at one point. Styles hurts his knee on a super Styles Clash attempt and Xavier counters with a cloverleaf/jackknife pin combo. Whatever man.
**

Save me, Samoa Joe.

A single solitary dork threw up an X in solidarity with Xavier and honestly I hope he got hit by a train that night. The crowd otherwise was beyond DEAD for that finish.

Match #9: Homicide & Abdullah the Butcher vs. Carnage Crew [Bunkhouse Match]
This should’ve probably just been Homicide & DHS vs. Carnage Crew & MASADA with Abby on the floor as a special enforcer or something. Because this was bad. Carnage Crew has to keep running to Abby on the floor (because he’s near immobile and can’t get into the ring) and Abby can only stab with the fork. Nothing else. Not that he was a moves guy but I mean he doesn’t even throw a punch or a thrust or a chop or a headbutt. He gets ONE bite in at the end. He does make it into the ring eventually while the other three are bleeding buckets. The crowd is DEAD for this. Not a single peep. Like it felt like it was happening during the pandemic, it was almost eerie. Homicide mercifully ends it with the Cop Killa.
1/2*

But oh no it’s not over. Because Homicide breaks out a noose and is choking Loc out. Abby keeps DeVito at bay. The locker room jobber squad runs out and I only recognize Dunn and Marcos. They try stopping Homicide and Abby, so Homicide and Abby fight them while Carnage Crew bail to the back. Now Da Hit Squad comes out and helps Cide & Abby clear house of the jobbers. Abby starts to beat on DHS but Homicide plays peace keeper to keep them separate. Plus more jobbers run out. Only worthwhile moment of this entire mess, there’s this chubby dude who’s feeding into Abby and doing the most over the top HUSS~ as Abby stabs away at his head, and it must’ve pissed Abby off or something because he nicks this dude EXTRA good and he bleeds like a stuck pig.  

Cide, Abby & DHS finish clearing house. Abby wanders off to the entryway but he does that just to get a chair to sit in while Homicide and DHS make their way to him. Jesus. They pose for pics and then head to the back. The crowd remained quiet and still.

And we get one last shot of the aforementioned job guy. Jesus.

Backstage, Homicide is on cloud nine. He says bye bye to his feud with the Carnage Crew. He announces that at Final Battle, it’s going to be him, Low Ki, Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson in a four way for the #1 contenders trophy. Holy shit!

Elsewhere, Carnage Crew are convalescing but seem really happy. They say they had a ton of fun getting killed out there. They shit on Abby a bit but then get back to really smiling and enjoying how badly they got beat and bled. They thank each other. Loc then turns to the camera and says wins and losses don’t matter to them, just kicking ass does. And they love it even more because they know it pisses the fans off. Especially those message board geeks, those smart marks who don’t have a clue what really goes on in the ring or behind the scenes. And those are the fans that have killed their love for this overall business. He says they don’t have good lives. They work crappy jobs elsewhere. They have horrible kids and ugly wives. They’re the guys you see at the corner bar every other night getting wasted to forget how awful their lives are. And it builds up, all that frustration, but then they have the time of their lives beating people up and pissing people off, by giving them just a little bit of their misery in to the lives of each and everyone of their opponents and every single ROH fan. They promise 2003 is the year of the Crew and they’re going to tear it up. Loc says to really piss the smart marks off they should start to learn chain wrestling and they do the Flair/Steamboat tie up.

I don’t know what the hell just happened…but I loved it.

We cut to Punk & Cabana leaving the show in their rental car. I hate I know exactly where they’re at in Philly. They’re right on Passyunk. Anyway, Cabana is going on and on about how great he was in their match and how he’s excited to fly in for the next show. Punk gets aggravated and stops the car. He gets out and tells Colt that when he came to ROH, he was going to forfeit his plane tickets for Colt, but since Colt hates driving so much he better learn to love it because he can drive himself back to Chicago and Punk walks off into the heart of Philly. Cabana is confused and tries to get him back but then gets in the car and leaves.

In a pre-tape that was clearly made after last months show, Daniels, Morgan & Luscious hype up their match at Final Battle against the SAT’s for the tag titles in a 2/3 Falls Match. Morgan says the Giants were just in the World Series and every time Bonds hit a HR, they gave their fans a free taco. So if the SAT can ever get either of their mats down to the shoulder, for everyone singular count they get, the Prophecy will give them a free taco. Donovan Morgan isn’t even good at being racist. They’re Puerto Rican you dipshit! Daniels promises “two straight” in the 2/3 falls match. Luscious theorizes that the SATs could come up with a new move to beat them and Daniels shuts her up and that’s it.