ROH: UNSCRIPTED
Murphy Rec Center
Philadelphia, PA
September 21st, 2002
ROH Champion: Low Ki (Since 7/26/2002, 2 defenses)
ROH Tag Team Champions: Vacant
Hoping this show is called Unscripted because it’s a spiritual successor to WCW UNCENSORED. Give me Carnage Crew vs. NBS on the back of an 18 wheeler.
To start the show, Paul London is already in the ring with Stephen DeAngelis for an interview. London says he is entering the tag tourney tonight and introduces his partner Bryan Danielson. Danielson comes out and they shake. They’re cut off by Michael Shane, who comes out limping to mock what he did last month. Shane says something about if you can’t beat em join em, I dunno, you can hardly hear, so he decks London. London fights back, sends Shane to the floor and then without even a second guess DOES A MOONSAULT FROM THE TOP TO THE FLOOR GOOD GOD.
Shane runs off, Bryan applauds London in the ring. London says to Danielson that he needs to settle this thing tonight with Shane and Danielson can keep the tag tourney slot if he can find a partner. Danielson tells DeAngelis he doesn’t have one yet…but he has an idea. That gets a pop.
I hate that. It’s become an ROH trope. Hype for maybe something cool and then it’s a weird Gabe fetish, which in this case will end up being fuckin’ Mike Modest. Like he’s an alright guy but come on.
VERY upset to report that while Donnie B & Corino weren’t great, they’ve been replaced by lame ass Gabe and Convicted Sex Offender Rob Feinstein, working under pseudonyms. Not sure why Gabe is but I’m sure Feinstein needed the alibi.
Match #1: The Prophecy [Daniels/Morgan] vs. The SAT [ROH Tag Title Tourney - Quarter Finals]
I didn’t hate this. The SATs really aren’t anything that great unfortunately but Daniels is solid and Morgan is inoffensive. I groaned when the SAT’s did a dual Boston crab/camel clutch with both opponents on top of each other. Like what’s that adding? It’s not adding anything extra to the maneuver to increase pain to your opponent. It’s just flash for the sake of flash. Some random girl comes from the back to attack Simply Lucious. No clue who she was. Morgan ends up pinning one of the brothers after his really bad version of the Angel’s Wings. Alright maybe I disliked this more than I let on.
*3/4
Backstage, DICK TOGO and Ikuto Hidaka are talking and of course here comes the Christopher Street gang, now with a fourth unnamed member in a kamikaze mask. CSC offer them bananas and Dick Togo takes one only to tear it in half with PURPOSE. They say something in Japanese and the masked CSC member whispers to the translation to the CSC boys and they’re horrified so they leave.
Backstage elsewhere, Maritato & Mamaluke are stretching. A stage hand comes up and asks what they want their music to be yet. Maritato says to play his music for them and walks off, but Mamaluke stays behind to pay the sound guy off to play something else.
And they come out for their match to the N-Trance version of Stayin Alive which was the FBI theme in ECW.
Match #2: Far-East Connection [Dick Togo/Ikuto Hidaka] vs. James Maritato & Tony Mamaluke [ROH Tag Title Tourney - Quarter Finals]
I enjoyed this. There’s some good, solid back and fourth on the mat but it starts to get ridiculous when Mamaluke is in there for the majority of the time. I’ll never understand Paul E or especially Gabe’s hard on for Mamaluke. And if you told me Guido legit hated him I’d believe you. Finishing run is turned down a notch because Guido is on the floor. Mamaluke falls victim to the Togo Flying Back Senton and the FEC get the win.
**
Post-match, Gary Michael Capetta randomly comes out to interview Guido & Mamaluke. They get into an argument and Mamaluke says he has better success in WCW than he ever did with Guido and the fact is Guido wasn’t a champion until Mamaluke teamed with him. While an excellent point in kayfabe, in reality Guido’s career trajectory looked a lot brighter before Mamaluke came around. Bum. Mamaluke wants to have a match now. Guido thinks about it. Mamaluke offers a handshake, Guido accepts but Mamaluke cheap shots him and I guess we have an impromptu match.
Match #3: James Maritato vs. Tony Mamaluke
They do a little ECW style brawl around ringside very briefly. Mamaluke, to his credit, takes a pretty fun bump onto the guard rail in my continued favorite rivalry in ROH: wrestlers vs fence.
Guido gets busted open. Mamaluke does what Gabe yells is a low blow and schoolboys Guido for the win.
*1/2
Post-match, Mamaluke shakes the downed Guido’s hand and celebrates to the back. GMC gets in again to interview Guido and Guido says ROH is coming back here in 2 weeks and he’s challenging Mamaluke to a legit match. If Mamaluke wins, the FBI lives on, but if Guido wins, the FBI dies a death.
Backstage, GMC walks up to Bryan Danielson and wonders if he needs a tag partner. What’s this guys deal? What’s with all the questions asshole? Anyway, Danielson says he found one and points off screen. The camera turns and it’s big dumb Mike Modest who cuts Generic Promo #4 to the camera. The camera turns back to Danielson and gives a pretty over the top nod. Weird segment.
Match #4: Bryan Danielson & Mike Modest vs. Divine Storm [ROH Tag Title Tourney - Quarter Finals]
This was almost a borderline squash. Danielson & Modest maintained control almost the entire time. Modest is inoffensively average in the ring which makes him better than about 75% of the ROH roster at this point. I would normally be against sacrificing one of your regular teams to be squashed by another team where 1/2 of them aren’t even going to be around much if at all after tonight. But Divine Storm are less than good. Modest wins with a Bridging Fisherman’s Buster.
*3/4
EARLIER TODAY: ROH was holding a very poorly attended fan fest before the show and two dudes were in the ring. Couldn’t really see who they were, maybe the fake Boogie Knights? Anyway. Carnage Crew come out with a camera and are pissed they weren’t put in the tournament so they’re gonna start hurting people I guess. They beat the two dudes down in the ring and leave.
Da Hit Squad come out for their tournament match with Natural Born Sinners to finally settle that score. But Carnage Crew jump DHS from behind. Very calmly and cool and rather dull, Gabe says Carnage Crew have apparently attacked NBS behind the scenes and injured Boogalou pretty badly and his career may be in jeopardy. Carnage Crew beat DHS down with weapons and piledrivers, and now the match is thrown out. To make matters worse, Danielson & Modest get a bye advance right to the finals.
Alright. This is the shit that’s going to be challenging with me watching some of Gabe’s booking. First things first, I understand that SOMETHING in real life happened with Boogalou (although I can’t find a real answer anywhere) so he wasn’t even at the show. So they couldn’t film the beatdown. Fine. But work around it. Show Carnage Crew talking about it backstage, hands covered in blood. Show Homicide watching an ambulance leave or have him cut a promo outside of the hospital. Do SOMETHING. Add some fucking intrigue instead of just lazily, and rather matter of factly saying what happened on commentary.
But then, what the fuck is Gabe thinking with the tournament booking?! WHY would the babyface Danielson/Modest team get the bye? Proper booking is that the heel Prophecy team would get the bye while Danielson & Modest face off against Far East Connection. This makes ZERO sense. You dope.
Match #5: The Prophecy vs. Far-East Connection [ROH Tag Title Tourney - Semi Finals]
Daniels/Togo was really good and I enjoyed it whenever one or both were in the ring. Hidaka isn’t terrible he’s sort of just whatever. But Morgan is bad enough that when he’s in there, the match flow changes completely. Prophecy relied heavy on the old school cheating heel tactics and it worked fine. Good enough finishing run. Ends when Daniels hits an STO on Hidaka, and a hidden Morgan from the floor holds Hidaka’s legs down to steal the win.
**1/4
Prince Nana comes out with the kid from Boston last month, Alex Arian. They’re scheduled for a match against Dunn & Marcos. Nana says he’s still suffering from a concussion caused by Low Ki and he’s being ordered to wear this ridiculously large white rubber helmet. So there’s no tag match and Arian will face one of RCX one on one.
Match #6: Alex Arion w/ Prince Nana vs. Dunn w/ Marcos
Squash. Arion wins with the most basic day one of wrestling school top rope splash. Why is this on the show?
1/4*
Post-match, Dunn & Marcos try to observe the code of honor but Nana attacks Marcos and beats him up while wearing the helmet. He then grabs the mic and orders Arion to get down on his feet and shine his shoes, so Arion decks him.
Afterwards, with Nana laid out, the Christopher Street gang comes out. The dude under the mask is apparently Japanese Pool Boy, a name I’ve heard for years and never seen and okay then. CSC get down and kiss Nana’s head which causes him to come to and bail to the back. CSC then express their love for each other and start to make out. So Alexis Laree comes out and attacks and lays out all four of them.
Recap of Xavier asking for a title shot from Ki.
Match #7: Low Ki (c) vs. Xavier [ROH Championship]
I went into this with an open mind, hoping that even with the outcome I know was coming, Low Ki would at least be able to make it a good match. But he’s just not on that level yet, he’s not where he would need to be to carry someone like Xavier to anything, but especially a 25 minute match. What also hurts this match is that the crowd is not into the match at all, and Gabe/Sex Offender are just the most dull, boring sounding announcers ever. Has Gabe ever had any sort of emotional inflection in his voice? Jesus Christ. Xavier works over Ki’s knee and Ki starts to sell the exhaustion at like 18-19 minutes in which is ridiculous considering he didn’t really start showing true exhaustion til about 30+ into the much more grueling four corners iron man match! Daniels comes out and is watching from the aisleway. Ki eventually goes out after him leading to Xavier clipping Ki’s knee from behind to officially turn heel. But I mean…dude has ZERO heat. It gets no reaction because honestly I think your more casual fan either hadn’t seen any of the shows yet (I dunno what ROH’s distribution was like back then) or might’ve just assumed he was a heel because even in the Scoot Andrews feud he didn’t exactly come across as a babyface. Anyway, Daniels and Xavier make hand gestures to each other to signal that Xavier has sold out to the Prophecy. Xavier grabs a nearby concrete block that’s attached to a small post, usually used to tie things to so they remain grounded, and he puts it down on Low Ki’s chest. Daniels hands him a chair and Xavier nails the post with the chair to I guess send the concrete down into Ki’s chest but I dunno how much extra damage these dingy Rubbermaid chairs are doing to a post attached to a very thick chunk of concrete. Another dumb spot. By the way, this is all done in plain sight of the referee and somehow this is NOT a DQ and this is NOT breaking the code of honor rules, so okay then? Low Ki starts to cough up blood on the gym floor while crawling back to the ring, with Daniels standing over him talking shit. Again, ref is seeing all of this, Xavier is back in the ring posing to the crowd, and the ref is NOT making the count with Low Ki on the floor? I know ROH has longer than a 10 count but Ki was definitely on the floor for at least 30-45 seconds. So why is Xavier not dragging him back in the ring and ending this? Titles don’t change hands on a CO? How is this part of the plan? Seemingly the referee must be in on it because what the hell? Anyway, Ki finally makes it back into the ring and Xavier hits the 450 Splash to win the belt.
*1/2
Post-match, Morgan & Luscious come out to join Daniels & Xavier. They all pose on the turnbuckles and then they rip an ROH banner down and bury Low Ki in it. And the whole time Gabe sells this with ZERO emotion. Like holy hell dude bring back Donnie B or even Gargullio. Pay Joey Styles. Do something.
The angle itself is alright. I like the idea of Daniels bringing Xavier into the fold so he can control the ROH Title even if he can’t personally hold it. But that also kind of falls apart because Daniels has a legitimate case to challenge Ki for the belt due to the booking of the Iron Man Match in July. So why not just run Daniels/Ki which would be a much better match? Why not do this Xavier match in Boston and run the angle but have a DQ happen, reveal Xavier is with the Prophecy. Then you put Xavier & Morgan in the tag tourney (gross) and do the Daniels/Ki title switch here? You can have Xavier & Morgan win the belts (gross) and Daniels has the World Title thanks to Xavier having softened him up for him the previous month. Ki now has a legitimate reason to work his way through the Prophecy and get his rematch with Daniels at Final Battle or whatever. I dunno, just none of this makes sense to me.
Match #8: Sonny Siaki vs. Takao Omori
Omari is another NOAH guy (at the time, anyway) and Sonny is a soon to be Flying Elvis member who graduated from the WCW Power Plant. This was another match where it felt like two dudes in a PC training session, or like a late in season episode of Tough Enough where they let the kids put their own matches together. Takao gets the win with an early prototype of Hangman’s Deadeye.
*
HE’S HERE! FINALLY! CM Punk shows up and the crowd knows who he is and it’s a great reaction. Punk says somebody told him there was wrestling in South Philadelphia again. He didn’t mean to interrupt a great show (???) but he was told ROH is the place to be. He’s humbled to hear these fans chant his name, and on 11/9 he makes his in-ring debut for ROH, and he’s going to show why he’s the BEST IN THE W…mid-west.
And look who’s here because he needed a ride. No, but really, Colt is out to interrupt Punk to substantially less fanfare. Colt asks what’s up with this “best in the Midwest” thing? Because while it’s true CM Punk made Colt Cabana, Colt Cabana made CM Punk and it takes two to tango. Colt is a little annoyed Punk got the call to come here and he didn’t. So they agree that 11/9, they’ll wrestle each other for the first time in ROH. Seems like something very important just occurred but I don’t know!
Cut to a Jay Briscoe pretape. He talks about the trials and tribulations he’s faced in ROH, listing off his losses and doubting himself until he got that first win over Tony Mamaluke. And what should’ve been one of the greatest moments of his career turned into one of the worst nights of his life thanks to Mark’s behavior. He says that the match he had with Mark set him back. For the first time in his career, he bled, and the blood that was on Mark’s hands also runs through his own body, and he took it too far. He feels ashamed, and he can’t even go home to see his parents because he knows Mark will be there to tout “1-0”. He says it doesn’t matter because starting tonight he is not losing in Ring of Honor anymore! Good promo.
In the back, Mark Briscoe tries to get Amazing Red to allow him to manage him tonight against Jay but Red refuses.
Match #9: Jay Briscoe vs. Amazing Red
YES! Glad they’re getting a rematch. This was a good pairing although there is a spark missing from their initial encounter. Doesn’t make it a bad match or anything close to it, however. They wrestle to a stale mate at one point and kind of playing up that Jay’s learned a lot since their last encounter. So much so that Jay’s able to counter Code Red into a batshit crazy Powerbomb variation. This lets him hit the Jay Driller and get the win.
**3/4
Post-match, Code of Honor is observed and Jay heads to the back. Red plays to the crowd and gets cheered. But then Dixie and Elax of Special K hit the ring to attack him. Doesn’t last long though as The SATs come out and do an overly long beatdown on Special K before helping Red to the back.
And then, just like a couple of months ago, a large African American gentlemen enters the ring and Special K bail, so the guy chokeslams the red and then leaves. I still have zero clue who he is, next to nothing gets said about him on commentary.
Match #10: Michael Shane vs. Paul London [Street Fight]
When you remove the filter of looking at this through the lens of 2024, this holds up pretty well. I wouldn’t put it up there as an all timer or most of anything done in prime-ECW, but for the time, this was an excellent example of what this match could be. It was much closer to NBS/Carnage Crew than the bullshit that was DHS/Carnage Crew. London was a man possessed in this, and I will give the devil his due, Michael Shane played his role incredibly well here. He bled like a stuck pig and sold damn good, really putting London over. London pulls out all the stops, man. Shane tries bailing to the back at one point so London runs up a cornered ladder and dives out on to Shane!
London then tries to do the Jeff Hardy leapfrog ladder spot and SHANE CATCHES HIM WITH A POWERBOMB!
The match goes on, neither man will die. London starts pulling out every thing he can think of. He finally climbs up the larger ladder in the ring, slowly and as fans chant “PLEASE DON’T DIE”, and when he gets up top…
My god. London wins it. What a match.
***1/2
Post-match, London lifts Shane to his feet and it seems like the feud is over. Both men get a standing ovation from the crowd. London shakes Shane’s hand but Shane shoves him away…only to bring him back in for a hug! Shane raises London’s arm in victory — AND THEN LARIATS HIS HEAD OFF! THE CROWD IS MOLTEN HOT! THEY WANNA *KILL* SHANE! Shane lifts London up and hits ANOTHER Lariat and it feels like the roof is about to come off. Dude HELL YEAH.
ECW ORIGINAL MICHAEL SHANE IS THE BEST HEEL IN RING OF HONOR????
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME.
EARLIER TODAY: At the Fan Fest, Donovan Morgan confronts Mike Modest. Donovan brings up how they were former partners and he thinks the best path for Modest in ROH is to join the Prophecy. Modest says he is his own man and wants to carve his own path. Morgan essentially calls him a moron and things get heated. Morgan shoves Modest so Modest ducks him and Morgan bails to the back.
Like I don’t give a shit about these two but that adds a fun layer to this match. This should’ve been a seg at the top of the show.
Match #11: The Prophecy vs. Bryan Danielson & Mike Modest [ROH Tag Title Tourney - Finals] [Vacant ROH Tag Team Titles]
This is what it is. Bryan & Daniels are great but even they are incapable of dragging mediocre Mike and lame ass Donovan Morgan to anything great. Show should’ve probably ended with the street fight. The story here is the Prophecy targeting Danielson’s leg and working it over the whole match. Danielson of course sells incredibly well, and has those extra touches of something nice that so many other wrestlers are missing, like when Danielson does the Cattle Mutilation, he does it with a one leg bridge, and on his comeback, he injures the leg worse doing a dive to the floor. Just basic limping even Danielson does so much better I don’t care how minute that sounds. There’s a reason why 22 years later every time I see this man sell, I think “oh shit is he really hurt?” And no that’s not a joke at his string of bad injury luck since coming to AEW. Anyway, the match breaks down and Morgan & Modest brawl to the floor. Danielson starts his comeback and gets a couple near falls on a dazed Daniels. He goes up top with Daniels for something but Morgan clips Danielson’s leg as he goes down allowing Daniels to fall on top of Danielson for a pin. Danielson kicks out at 2 and tries to bridge out, but DANIELS KEEPS AHOLD OF HIS NECK AND FORCES HIS WEIGHT DOWN TO OVERPOWER BRYAN AND HITS THE LAST RITES TO WIN THE BELTS! Fun finish!
**3/4
The Prophecy now hold all the belts in ROH after the events of tonight.
Post-match, Daniels and Morgan are awarded a trophy that I guess represents the tag titles? Maybe the belts weren’t complete yet. Idk. Anyway, Modest doesn’t like this so he attacks them both and steals the trophy. Danielson grabs chairs and they hold the Prophecy at bay. Danielson then destroys the trophy into pieces with the chair. Daniels tells the camera that’s what the Code of Honor represents and why The Prophecy will burn ROH to the ground.
Backstage, Xavier and Simply Luscious are awaiting Daniels & Morgan. Daniels yells that the Prophecy has come true and they control ROH. Daniels lambastes ROH for giving them a trophy instead of belts asking why they’re trying to be a Japanese promotion. HA. He hugs Xavier and reveals that this has been their plan for some time now. He says that in two weeks, ROH is back with Glory By Honor, a night to celebrate ROH — but they’re gonna have to do it without ANY of their titles on the line! That’s a fantastic heel move. Daniels says that Xavier will have a match but it’s going to be against one of ROH’s biggest losers and not be for the title. They ponder who, and MARK BRISCOE WALKS UP. He says he heard they were looking for a loser and his brother is the biggest loser. Daniels agrees, so in two weeks, Xavier will face Jay Briscoe non-title. Daniels then says that he’s been told along with Doug Williams coming back to settle beef with him, he apparently pissed Dick Togo off. So at Glory by Honor, he says if either man wants to face him, they have to face each other first. He’ll then face the winner, BUT THEN THE WINNER IS GOING TO PUT THEIR ABILITY TO SHAKE HANDS IN ROH ON THE LINE! Daniels said this is just how the Prophecy foretold yet. He then notices Mark is still hanging around and yells at him to leave. And we fade to black.
IN TWO WEEKS: Steve Corino’s in ring debut! Xavier/Jay Briscoe! Togo/Williams (never happens) and the winner faces Daniels!
IN TWO MONTHS: THE RING OF HONOR DEBUT OF ABDULLAH THE BUTCHER!
Angle wise, this was a fun show. Red/Jay and the tag title finals were solid, and Shane/London was far and away MOTN. But a poorly booked tournament, a title switch with ZERO heat and more broken promises on matches in the next two weeks still leaves a lot to be desired with my ROH review. But at least PUNK is here!
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