ROH: ROAD TO THE TITLE - 6/22/2002

ROH: ROAD TO THE TITLE

Murphy Rec Center
Philadelphia, PA
June 22nd, 2002

Backstage, Da Hit Squad & Homicide hype up Low Ki for the tournament and his beef with Daniels by talking directly into his ear. Low Ki then bare knuckles the wall a bunch before promising victory and the title.

Please tell me the awful techno/nu metal insturmental music videos to start the shows stop soon.

Nice seeing Murphy Rec all lit up from the smoggy Philly sun.

So they’re doing a block tournament, kind of. Four blocks with four participants each, but it’s single elimination. Win and advance. The winners of the four blocks will meet next month in a four way iron man match.

Also, not sure if this is the first show or not or if I’m just noticing it, but Gargullio is thankfully gone and someone named Donnie B is doing play by play with Corino. Remains to be seen if that’s an improvement.

Match #1: Bryan Danielson vs. Bio-Hazard [ROH Title Tournament - Block C - First Round Match]
I don’t know who Bio-Hazard is, but I’m going to assume he’s former AEW superstar Treach’s father. This was a total mauling by Danielson and didn’t go much longer than 3 minutes. Dragon wins with the Cattle Mutilation.
*

Match #2: Spanky vs. Paul London [ROH Title Tournament - Block A - First Round Match]
I was looking forward to this but it’s just not “there” yet. Spanky is definitely further along in development than London but not by too much. There’s a few botches in this, especially a really scary one towards the end coming off the top where London spikes himself on his head. But it wasn’t a bad match at all. Spanky wins with Sliced Bread #2.
**1/4

Post-match, Rudy Boy Gonzalez comes out and shakes Spanky’s hand. Spanky then hugs London.

Match #3: Doug Williams vs. Jay Briscoe [ROH Title Tournament - Block C - First Round Match]
Doug Williams was someone I latched onto during his TNA run pretty randomly and he was kind of past his prime or nearing it then I believe. He looks very young and with it here and it shows with some solid matwork early on. Mark comes out to be in Jay’s corner but is laughing when Jay gets shown up, yelling at him to do a better job. Jay can’t hit the Jay Driller and in a sequence of events falls victim to the always awesome Chaos Theory and Williams wins to advance.
**1/2

Post-match, Mark gets in the ring to give his brother a hard time again as they head to the back.

We’re four shows in and honestly I gotta say no matter who is on commentary, it sucks. We fucking get it. ROH is pro wrestling. Shut the fuck up and let the product breathe.

Match #4: Jody Fleisch vs. Jonny Storm [ROH Title Tournament - Block A - First Round Match]
I didn’t like this! I went into it with an open mind considering I had only heard of Jody’s name the last twenty years and didn’t even know who Jonny was. But this was like a really annoying trampoline backyard fed match. All flips and no fun. Jody catches Storm off the ropes with a Liger Bomb to win.
3/4*

Backstage, the Christopher Street Connection are trying to make Jerry Lynn eat a banana. Jerry Lynn is wearing an ECW Cyberslam shirt and says “help” in a cartoon voice until Prince Nana walks in. ROH IS PRO WRESTLING~

Match #5: Low Ki vs. Prince Nana [ROH Title Tournament - Block D - First Round Match]
Nana totally controls this early on which shocked the hell out of me. Also, what the hell, Low Ki is wrestling in really baggy basketball shorts and his boots? Anyway, Ki MURDERS Nana with an Enziguri and the ref stops it and awards the match TKO to Low Ki.
*

Backstage, Jerry Lynn is listening to music and someone asks to listen and Lynn plus a music website.

Elsewhere, The SAT bury the hatchet with Amazing Red and wish him luck tonight.

Match #6: Amazing Red vs. Xavier [ROH Title Tournament - Block D - First Round Match]
I didn’t dislike Xavier here as much as I thought I would. He made this his match in the early going. But Red is just such a treat to watch, man. Wish he got to be on a bigger stage or something. Anyway, Xavier goes up top and tries to go aerial but whiffs leading to Red hitting the Infrared and the Standing SSP for a moderate upset.
**1/2

Backstage, cameras follow Xavier through the curtain and Daniels is there to immediately yell at him for losing, saying he was counting on Xavier taking out Low Ki later. Red then walks through and Daniels gets in his face, warning him to bring it Low Ki or else. Xavier steps up in defense of Red and tells Daniels to pick on someone his own size. Daniels says he just may.

Backstage, a slovenly man introduces Scoot Andrews to Sumie Sakai. And that’s all that happens.

Daniels comes out for his match but cuts a promo taking about running ROH and his Prophecy coming to vision. So with that he introduces the first member, Simply Lucious! Corino seems confused about this on commentary but moves on quickly. Seems important.

Scoot immediately runs out to start the match, still mad at Daniels from his comments two months ago!

Match #7: Christopher Daniels vs. Scoot Andrews [ROH Title Tournament - Block B - First Round Match]
This is sub 3 mins. It moves really fast and the story they tell is that Daniels is just faster. He hits the STO and BME in succession to win. Fun sprint.
**

Post-match, Lucious shoves Scoot. Scoot doesn’t want to hit a woman so he introduces Sumie Sakai, who adorably comes out in a Phillies hat.

Go Phils. Go Birds! But Go Phils.

Match #8: Sumie Sakai vs. Simply Lucious
We’ve got an impromptu match, although I guess this is what the Sex Offender meant at the last show when he said he’d help Simply Lucious get a better match next time. This was what it was. I don’t know why they went through the trouble of flying someone in from Japan for a 3 minute squash. Again, if they don’t care why should I? Sakai wins.
1/2*

Match #9: AJ Styles vs. Jerry Lynn [ROH Title Tournament - Block B - First Round Match]
So when they’re doing actual spots and transitions and the stuff they’re more known for this is actually quite fun. But Jerry Lynn is still the blandest wrestler of all time. I’m tired of how back then and even now he gets talked about as a guy who never got his due but I mean…did he deserve to? Did he deserve even sniff the midcard of WWE or WCW, let alone the main event scene? I dunno, man. But whatever. I enjoyed this more than I thought, and would’ve enjoyed it more if Lynn stopped “playing the hits” with constantly trying to make any match he has like this into his series with RVD. It starts to get a little long in the tooth and just before I put it to 1.5x, Styles caught Lynn with the Styles Clash to thankfully win. And that is OBVIOUSLY the last we ever see of Jerry Lynn in ROH! :(
**3/4

While intermission is happening, or supposed to be, the Ring Crew Express come out to randomly claim they’re the best tag team in ROH. Naturally, this leads to DHS coming out and murdering them. Now they say they’re the best. So now Quiet Storm comes out. Quiet Storm points out the VERY LEGITIMATE fact that DHS haven’t even had a real match yet so how can they be the best team? Now here comes the SAT. This might be the worst fucking tag division in wrestling history. All three teams start fighting. No, it’s not a match. But nobody told Mikey’s four kids because they’re running the ropes and doing drop downs and shit instead of FIGHTING. And well now look at this, here comes those Christopher Street boys. They get in the ring and start making out. This brings out the Natural Born Sinners who beat them up in another one of early ROH’s various hate crimes. Here comes the Carnage Crew to add to this fuckin bore-fest and they’ve got hubcaps with them again. They beat down NBS but DHS come back in to save their friends in NBS. The two teams gang up on the Carnage Crew and do the Dudleys table Powerbomb spot. DHS grab the mic as the two remaining teams celebrate and Maff says that right there shows why DHS is the best team, and that really pisses Homicide off. Homicide warns them to never disrespect NBS like that again, and they leave.

The camera goes to the back where Low Ki tries to talk to NBS but Homicide yells at him to tell those DHS motherfuckers what’s real. DHS come thru and Ki asks what happened. Maff plays dumb and Ki orders both teams downstairs to solve this issue.

What a fucking snoozefest.

Match #10: Spanky vs. Jody Fleisch [ROH Title Tournament - Block A Final - Second Round Match]
Okay so it’s either Jonny Storm is really bad or Brian Kendrick is really good and I’m going to bet the house on the latter. This was far more enjoyable than Fleisch’s first match. Spanky had an awesome moment on the floor where Fleisch attempted a dive over the top, but Spanky pulled the top rope down and flung it up and it nailed Fleisch. HELL YEAH.

They exchange some holds back on in the inside until Spanky’s on the floor again. Fleisch gets enough time and does a great dive with an INSANE LANDING, JESUS CHRIST.

Got the first instant replay in ROH history!

After a few seconds they’re both up. Fleisch whiffs on a Springboard 720 DDT and Spanky gets him with Sliced Bread #2 to win. He advances to the World Title match next month, and he’s undefeated in ROH.
***

Match #11: Doug Williams vs. Bryan Danielson [ROH Title Tournament - Block C Final - Second Round Match]
Oh I enjoyed the shit out of this. Great mat game from both men in the early parts with it getting more and more intense and moving even faster. Big moment when Danielson kicks out of the Chaos Theory!

I know it’s a somewhat bastardized spot now but I always loved the Chaos Theory. Especially because Big Doug always did it so god damn smooth. Anywho, Corino mentions that Danielson is the first person to kick out of the Ki Krusher, Sliced Bread #2 and now the Chaos Theory. I have no evidence to back up if this is true. I know he did these things but no idea if he was first. Danielson mounts his comeback and gets Williams in the Cattle Mutilation, but Williams bridges out of it and hits a beautiful looking modified reverse suplex and covers, using force on Danielson neck to hold him down, for the upset win!
***3/4

Post match, they hug. I didn’t remember knowing Doug won this match til I saw it here. Because to me my mind just always defaulted to the World Title scene being only Ki/Dragon/Daniels early on. But I was wrong. Nice to see Spanky and Doug get a spot here.

Match #12: Low Ki vs. Amazing Res [ROH Title Tournament - Block D Final - Second Round Match]
Ki is still without his actual gear. But he looks like a menace nonetheless. Red strikes first and Ki whips his head around like one of Lion King hyenas. They then proceed to pull of one of the craziest starts to a match I’ve ever seen…

I’ve always hated the type of shit Ospreay and Ricochet did after my initial viewing because over time with rewatches it really does just come across as choreographed dance or acrobatics. THIS shit right here, while certainly feeling choreographed, it’s not two men just flipping and jumping around for the hell of it. Ki, especially, is trying to strike and Red is on the defensive. It makes SENSE. Anyway. This becomes this otherworldly spot-fest match, like the complete opposite of Fleisch/Storm earlier. Ki is an absolute bully and without ever saying more than maybe 3-4 words since the start of ROH, Red has this amazing feisty underdog energy that plays so well with Ki. Like it feels over numerous times but Red keeps coming back, including from this BRUTAL kick:

Match goes on, Ki is fucking vicious and Red is bumping like maybe no one I’ve ever seen before. Ki finally puts the kid out of his misery with a Super Ki Krusher and Red sells it like death before Ki covers to win. Wow. The damndest match I’ve seen in a while.
****

Post-match, it takes a bit but Ki shows respect to Red and the Code of Honor is observed. Then, BrianXL comes out and talks shit but we can’t hear it. Then he attacks Red because of the last show. He goes up top but The SAT run out and crotch Brian on the top turnbuckle before hitting the double Spanish fly on him and helping Red to the back.

Backstage, Boogalou is pissed and yelling to Homicide about what DHS did. Homicide says it’ll be dealt with in due time. But next month, they wanna do the thing with Carnage Crew, Bunkhouse Match style like when Dusty Rhodes and Terry Funk would beat the shit out of each other in the 80’s.

Elsewhere, BrianXL storms in to Quiet Storm’s locker room and yells at them for not having his back. They say he’s embarrassing their whole crew and keep calling him a “biatch”. Brian says if they won’t have his back he’ll find someone who will.

Styles/Ki II is announced for ROH’s debut in Boston in August and if Ki is the champ, that match WILL be for the title.

Match #13: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels [ROH Title Tournament - Block B Final - Second Round Match]
Look, I love these two but after a three hour show I really didn’t need to see them exchange holds for the first third of a near 30 minute match. I also want to chalk this up as these two hadn’t quite figured out how to work with each other as well as they would later on in TNA but I’m also a big dumb baby and trying to make excuses for two of My Guys. It’s certainly not bad, but I dunno if anything was holding up after Spanky/Flesich, Dragon/Williams and especially Ki/Red. AJ sells the exhaustion well but Daniels isn’t going for the kill shot which is kind of bad booking or a total lack of awareness on Daniels part. AJ eventually gets busted open but I dunno if he knew how to make himself bleed because it clots up very quick. They pick it up in the last couple of minutes and Daniels wins simply by catching AJ off the ropes the right way and hitting the Last Rites quick enough.
**3/4

Post-match, Daniels again refuses to observe the code of honor. He cuts a promo on the crowd. The announcer Donnie B gets in the ring and announced ROH High Impact TV is starting on WGTW-48 in September (this was how I discovered ROH even existed. They used to show clips from RF shoots, too. I watched WGTW here in the Philly area for years because it was the channel that ECW and eventually CZW was on).

Referee Jim Molineaux has the ROH Title in a bag. Daniels is still in the ring and they bring out Doug, Ki & Spanky. They go to unveil the title but a brawl ends up breaking out between the four men. Ki gets ahold of Daniels and locks him in the Dragon Clutch and does NOT let go. He’s got him in there an absurdly long time. The locker room clears to break it up but Ki is refusing. And then they just cut to the back.

In the back, Styles says he wouldn’t have shook Daniels hand anyway. And he’s going to show Low Ki what the south is all about in Boston in August, and he hopes it’s for the ROH Title.

Elsewhere, Rudy Boy is looking for Simply Lucious but can’t find her.

Bryan Danielson is dejected backstage and Spanky comes up to mock him not being in the title match AND not even booked on next months show (booo). Danielson says he IS booked in August for the Boston show and he challenges Spanky to a 2/3 Falls Match which is accepted. While not said, they now have two big matches booked for the August show and either one (or neither) could be for the ROH Title!

Carnage Crew are then shown leaving for the night and they promise to whoop on the Sinners in July. Then they beat up a stage hand again.

Outside, with night vision, we see Steve Corino in jorts making out for an obscenely long time with Simply Lucious. The camera runs up to them and Corino side eyes it, laughing and saying “thanks Rudy Boy” and laughs before going back to making out. Not sure what this was for? Certainly wasn’t a reveal because they’ve already mentioned that they were dating on commentary a few times. Idk. Weird ending.

Anywho, this was far and away the best ROH show yet. Hands down. And it’s not close. Next two shows are shaping up to be good too!

Die!