ROH: BEATING THE ODDS - 9/6/2003

ROH: BEATING THE ODDS

Charbonneau Field House
Wakefield, MA
September 6th, 2003

ROH World Champion: Samoa Joe (Since 3/22/2002 - 5 Defenses)
ROH Tag Team Champions: Vacant (Since 8/20/2003 - 0 Defenses)

Due to Red’s injury, the tag titles were vacated on 8/20.

Backstage, Punk and Cabana are standing by. Punk says that tonight he will X his hands with Raven's blood. He wants Raven to remember the failure that he is, and wants him to remember who started AND ended this. He challenged him six months ago in Boston and he beat him, that should’ve been it. Then, he tried to test him. He chose Colt Cabana as a partner, and he failed. He failed with BJ and Christopher Daniels as partners as well, so he thought he'd one up him in a singles match. He whipped his ass in that dog collar match then he pinned him. Then he took it too far and poured BEER down his throat. THAT is why his hands will be covered in Raven’s blood. He wants to see the look on his face when he realizes he can't win. He knows he was responsible for Lucy’s beatdown, and he knows all he's done, and he's not afraid of Raven. As long as there's a him (Punk) and a him (Raven), there will be a them. So tonight, he nails him to his X. Punk then leaves, and Cabana asks if the camera wants him to say a joke or something funny. He won't. This is the Field of Honor, so he's serious tonight.

Elsewhere, Raven is sat down. He says, “The world is full of kings and queens. They'll blind your eyes and steal your dreams. It's heaven and hell, but unfortunately for CM Punk, heaven is no longer an option. Welcome to Raven's Clockwork Orange House of Fun Cage Match. Tonight, he is going to kill him. Quoth the Raven, Nevermore.”

In the locker room, AJ Styles is talking to Jimmy Rave about his shot in the Field of Honor tournament tonight. Styles puts it over as Rave’s chance to prove himself. He tells Jimmy that he believes in him. This felt a lot like Aaron Rodgers gifting DeShone Kizer literature on “what really happened on 9/11” for some reason, BUT, it is important nonetheless.

This next bit is actually shown during the beginning of the first match. Homicide and the Rottweilers are at the fan fest before the show. The Backseat Boyz confront them and the Cide/Acid issue continues, I guess. It breaks down into a brawl and there’s going to be a fight without honor tonight.

Match #1: Colt Cabana vs. Jimmy Rave [Field of Honor Tournament Match]
So Cabana is wearing a really weird full body suit type thing, like he’s a woman wrestling on one of the Saudi shows. Apparently, it’s because he fucking has adult chicken pox. No comment. Anyway, this was decent. There’s a bit of reservation I guess because of the illness. Rave works like a really nervous rookie to sell that story with AJ. Fun spot where he keeps going for shoulder tackles off the ropes but can’t knock Cabana down. So Cabana willingly lets him try again, but as Jimmy goes to run, Cabana trips him and then struts. Rave goes in to panic mode when a lot of his early stuff doesn’t work, so he tries to immediately throw anything out that might be a kill shot but Cabana is just too powerful for him. Finish capitalizes on this as Rave does get him down in the Crossface but Cabana powers up and out of it and gets Jimmy with the Colt 46 to win.
**1/4

So I guess this is sort of a G1 style tourney with eight guys across two blocks. They’ve done a really shitty job explaining this that probably made it super frustrating to watch in real time. So if we’re keeping score:

BLOCK B:
CABANA - 1
RAVE - 0
WHITMER - 0
MAFF - 0

Backstage, the camera catches up with a dejected Jimmy Rave. AJ Styles comes over and says he'll tell Jimmy why he lost that match. He says that he worked Colt’s arm and neck, but didn't focus on either one long enough for anything to really work out. He says Rave would’ve had more success with the neck, and should have stuck with that. AJ says he did a good job though, and walks off talking to him. Nice inside baseball stuff.

The cameras then catch up with Colt Cabana, who reveals the actual chicken pox on his body to prove he's a fighter. Ok.

Match #2: Slyk Wagner Brown vs. Diablo Santiago
No. Absolutely not. SWB wins with a Powerbomb. Moving on.
1/4*

Match #3: Backseat Boyz vs. Dunn & Marcos vs. The SAT vs. Special K (Izzy/Dixie) [Tag Team Scramble]
Idk why but ROH double booking guys annoys me. Like from a kayfabe perspective, why would Trent Acid give a shit about this match? Or alternatively, if this meaningless match is so important to ROH, why would they allow Homicide/Acid later? I guess it doesn’t matter too much though as this didn’t even go ten minutes. Everyone gets their shit in. The SAT are still aggravatingly bad and thankfully I think I’m almost to the end of their run. Izzy/Dixie are great though and this is mostly a vehicle for the Backseatz to shine. They hit the T Gimmick on Dunn to almost end it but Joel Maximo leaps off Dunn’s back to go at Acid, and Acid cuts him off with a solid mid air yakuza kick and that does the deal.
**

Match #4: Matt Stryker vs. John Walters [Field of Honor Tournament Match]
I know everyone’s tired of Marvel movies, but hear me out. Remember in the Thor films, each sequel had a scene early on where the events of a previous movie were told through cheesy Chamberlain’s men actors? And it got the point across, had some comedic value but obviously and intentionally cut the balls off the main dramatic overtone of the film it was recapping?

That’s what these early Gabe pure style/overly technical bland guys are doing. Because the real movie we get is over on WWE or even TNA with dudes like Benoit and Eddie and Angle and even ROH’s own Styles and Daniels over in TNA. These guys like Stryker, Collyer and Walters are simply nothing more than Chamberlain’s men, court jesters paid to do a job that entertains only their stubby, creepy, little king who only crowned himself that because he spent 9 years getting Paul E’s coffee the right temperature.

Too mean? Maybe. But it distracted me through a mind numbingly boring match. They focus too much on trying to be an Anderson or a Tully or a Benoit and do these stories based solely on limb work, but they’re not tight enough in their work to be able to pull it off. It comes across as a tribute act, like a less entertaining FTR (derogatory).

These Boston suburbanites don’t like it either, as what starts out to be a small smattering of boo’s turns into roughly half the crowd calling this boring.

Stryker continues his knee work anyway because he probably doesn’t know how to call a good enough audible. Walters has his comeback and does some decent selling of the knee. Who cares. Oh I guess I should because the finish comes here, where Walters knee gives out on a Powerbomb attempt and Stryker hooks the bad leg to get the three count.

Dean Douglas is somewhere pounding off to that finish, and Gabe’s probably watching.
**

BLOCK A:
STRYKER - 1
WALTERS - 0
SABIN - 0
XAVIER - 0

Backstage, Convicted Sex Offender Rob Feinstein is enjoying some of the catering. Chicken parm to be exact. He compliments the chef. How nice. Homicide comes up and brings up what happened earlier at the fan fest. He says he is volunteering to take himself out of the World Title match tonight against Joe (what? when was that advertised?) and he wants a FOH against Trent. Feinstein notes that by doing this, he doesn’t just forfeit the shot tonight he forfeits it in general. Homicide says he doesn’t care he wants Trent Acid. So Feinstein makes it official and goes back to enjoying his dinner, not a care in the world.

Rob Feinstein is a convicted sex offender.

Also, what was the point of this segment if commentary earlier already confirmed Homicide/Trent FOH was happening? How is a DVD only company this bad at editing their DVDs?!

Match #5: Carnage Crew (DeVito, Loc & Credible) vs. Special K (Deranged, Hydro & Angel Dust)
This was given way too much time at over 15 minutes, BUT, I still had a blast mostly. Credible really turned it up here but obviously the main stars were DeVito and Loc absolutely killing the Special K kids, and the Special K kids selling everything like death. The Crew can’t quite put it away because the other Special K members on the floor keep getting involved. Julius Smokes ends up coming out to yell at Slugga since he’s a Rottweiler at heart and shouldn’t be working for these rich brats. I guess that explains Slugga randomly coming out during Corino/Cide last month? Slugga ends up leaving with Smokes. This confuses the rest of Special K, giving the Crew enough time for a comeback including Credible hitting a super That’s Incredible (sorta) off the middle rope on Deranged for the win.
**1/2

Post-match, DeVito and Loc go crazy on all of the Special K members with chair shots. They grab Becky and go for the Carnage Driver. Credible stops them and seems to be taking mercy on her but then reveals he really just wants to see them do it through a table. SO THEY HIT HER WITH A CARNAGE DRIVER OFF THE APRON THROUGH THE TIME KEEPERS TABLE.

Backstage, GMC is here with some updates. He says on a recent tour of Japan, Low Ki was injured again, fracturing his jaw (sounds like one of the puro guys gave Ki a receipt?) and he is out INDEFINITELY. Additionally, the Amazing Red has finally agreed to get the surgery on his knee (he apparently does not which ends up ending his full time career) so the tag titles have been vacated. Therefore, at the next show, GLORY BY HONOR II, there will be a single night tag team gauntlet series to determine new champions. He then welcomes on the returning Briscoes, YEAH! The Briscoes hype up being back and say not to worry about where they’ve been, they had stuff to do. They talk about wanting to become tag champions. They also hype their matches tonight where Mark will face BJ Whitmer and Jay will be in a four way match with future title shot implications on line (did they do away with the trophy? That was starting to grow on me.) The SAT come up and they tease some tension between the two teams but whatever. Get the SAT away.

So apparently, this card looked a lot different originally. AJ/Red were supposed to drop the tag titles to the Backseatz and then Red would go get the surgery, but Red couldn’t work. As said above, he takes time off for the surgery but never gets it. His knee is in such bad condition that it hampers him forever. He’s still around but it makes you wonder what would’ve been if he had gotten the surgery. Additionally, it was supposed to be Low Ki/Mark Briscoe, Jay in the four way and Joe/Cide for the belt again. Not sure why he’d be getting a shot over the #1 contender Daniels but ok. Anyway, with the injuries plus Japan tours, the top of the card was modified into the next three matches plus Punk/Raven.

Match #6: Mark Briscoe vs. BJ Whitmer
I liked this! Mark is coming along nicely and BJ is as average as ever but hey that’s okay! BJ targets Mark’s midsection early and keeps his work focused solely on that. Nice change of pace from the dudes who pretend to do that like Stryker and Walters. However, while Mark is coming along nicely there’s still room for improvement. His selling of the midsection wasn’t great and then eventually he ignored it altogether, so BJ was kind of forced to abandon it. BJ hits the Exploder but Mark kicks out of it and that’s treated as a big deal since I guess only the top of the top guys have done that. BJ takes Mark up top to finish him off, but whatever he’s attempting gets reversed AND MARK HITS A SUPER URANAGE FOR THE UPSET (?) WIN! AND GABE KEEPS YELLING MARK “BEAT THE ODDS”.

I FUCKING HATE YOU.
**3/4

In a pretape, Convicted Sex Offender Rob Feinstein explains how their investigation on who attacked Lucy weeks back has turned up nothing so they’re asking the ROH fans for help. Go to ROHWrestling.com and report what you know.

Doesn’t seem smart for you, Rob, to encourage people to report bad things on the internet, but…

Match #7: Homicide vs. Trent Acid [Fight Without Honor]
This was SEVERAL streets ahead of their last ROH match. Last time they focused too much on trying to make it a sanitized WWE style hardcore match for some reason. Instead here, these two dudes FOUGHT and beat the hell out of each other. In less time, too! Smokes and Kashmere are both at ringside playing their parts well. Cide won’t stay down as usual so Acid resorts to big, crazy spots early and has the help of Kashmere distracting the referee. This included a fucking BACKSEAT DRIVER FROM THE TOP THROUGH THE SEAT OF A STEEL CHAIR:

Homicide is resilient though and stays in this, turning another high risk attempt by Acid into an INSANE top rope cutter. He has him dead to rights but Kashmere pulls the ref out. Commentary yells the code of honor was just broken, BUT IT’S A FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR. GET IT?! Smokes chases Kashmere around the ring until Acid dives out hidden from behind the corner and takes Smokes head off with a lariat. Back inside, Acid nails Homicide with a really stiff forearm that sends Cide falling back into the corner a bit shook up, and we see his nose is broken bad. He’s not as externally bloody like he was against Corino, but the inside of his nose and mouth are OVER FLOWING with blood. Homicide sells the wooziness of this and struggles at a couple of attempts of the Cop Killa. Acid escapes one and gets Cide with the same roll up pin from their June match but Cide kicks out and immediately tries for the Cop Killa again, but he HITS IT this time and gets the win. Fantastic.
***1/4

In a black and white pretape, Christopher Daniels cuts a promo as the new ECWA Champion. He says when ROH started, they wanted to be #1. And to make that destiny come true, they knew they had to employ one man. The Fallen Angel, Christopher Daniels. And he realized that ROH was just like everywhere else, another federation wanting to make a name off of Christopher Daniels. He also knew that his destiny was formed that day, on the very first show. He would one day be the ROH World Champion. There have been missteps and miscalculations, but the goal was always the same. To be the ROH Champion. Tonight, he can't be there, because he has an ECWA Title to defend, but never forgetting his destiny is in his future. And VERY close. All that stands in his way now is Samoa Joe. After all his history in ROH, does he think he'll stop at him? To let him keep him from HIS title? If so, he doesn't know him as well as he thinks. On 9/20 in Philly, the most dominant ROH Champion ever against the biggest challenge of his career. He's not Homicide, Paul London, CM Punk, or BJ Whitmer. He is the next Champion. And THAT…is NOT just the Gospel according to the Fallen Angel, but the DESTINY of Christopher Daniels. Fuck yeah.

So again, this next match was seemingly thrown together. Assuming maybe Jay was originally just facing Sabin? Idk. But now this is one of those matches where IT IS Non Title, HOWEVER, if Joe wins, whoever he beats can’t earn a title shot again until Joe loses the belt, and if someone else wins (even if they don’t beat Joe), they will get an ROH Title match vs. the winner of Daniels/Joe at GBH II.

Match #8: Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Jay Briscoe vs. Chris Sabin [Four Corner Survival Match / Non-Title Match]
This was a bummer of a match. For the talent involved, I expected better. It wasn’t bad it just wasn’t as good as it could’ve been. It gets 20 minutes, so the first half of this is really just them feeling each other out and trying to earn position. They kind of choreograph the ending early when Joe/Jay are in and Gabe suggests Jay could BEAT THE ODDS~ like his brother did earlier tonight. To hammer that home more, most of the match is spent with Jay being the one getting worked over by the other three for substantial periods of time. Fun closing sequence as everybody is rushing to get their shit in and hopefully land a kill shot. Joe and Styles take each other out by hitting simultaneous enziguiri’s on each other, allowing Jay to sneak in and plant Sabin with the Jay Driller to win. JAY BRISCOE HAS BEATEN THE ODDS JUST LIKE GABE IS BEATING HIS STUBBY LITTLE HOG OFF WHILE SCREAMING AND THROWING ASHTRAYS AGAINST THE WALL.
**3/4

Jay will now get a title shot against the winner of Joe/Daniels AFTER Glory by Honor, and he got it without even having to beat the champ. Code of Honor is observed post match but Joe shoulder checks Jay on his way out.

During the second intermission so the cage could be set up for the main event, GMC brings out Justin Credible and takes questions from the crowd. Don’t care. But this leads to Special K running out and beating the piss out of Credible. DeVito and Loc run to make the save but they get beaten down too and Special K celebrate to the back.

The cage is what it is. ECW looking cage with weapons tied up to the inside of it. An idea like this doesn’t age well since (unfortunately) most modern cage matches have weapons involved anyway.

Match #9: CM Punk vs. Raven [Clockwork Orange House of Fun Match]
So here’s the deal with this match, as I am to understand. This originally went 30+ and the crowd was not high on it. In order to make it better in post, they edited this down to about 12-13 minutes. It helps a bit but it also makes the match lose whatever balls it may have had. Look, if it was bad it was bad, they made the right decision. But the clip job doesn’t hide the fact, is what I’m saying. Especially because clip jobs are usually set up for 2-4 minutes at MOST, not 12-13. So it loses a lot of its flow, even into the good parts. But again I get it. This is the gift and the curse when you have a bad match (especially a main event) on a DVD only business.

It’s a bummer because these are two of my all time favorites, you can ask anyone. But it’s clear that Raven was already on the decline after laying mostly dormant in WWF/E and just getting old after years of both physical and chemical abuse to his body. And Punk, while certainly great, isn’t yet at that level where he can turn goose shit into gold. I don’t know what the rest of his ROH run holds and if he’s capable of that but I know in WWE, he showed streaks of being able to do that in WWECW (against the New Breed guys, 2008 Chavo, etc.)

There’s no chance of that stuff happening here. What worked in their previous matches was the ability to lean on the crutch of the crowd brawls, having tag partners, etc etc and the cage obviously hinders that. They’re confined, both literally and figuratively, much like Homicide/Acid were in their June match. Both that match and this match suffer from trying to make ROH something it isn’t, and something that Gabe likes to scream out of his nasty jowls: sports entertainment. Cide/Acid I suffered, as explained earlier, by essentially trying to be a WWE hardcore match. This suffered for the same reasons as a lot of Raven’s ideas in TNA did: he’s not as creative as he once was, or at least doesn’t have someone to tell him no. The fact is, this is a stupid stipulation and an utterly horrible name. And with a dead crowd for what should be a hot blowoff, the commentary team is left with nothing but constantly reminding us of the high points of the promos of this feud. Which is annoying.

And while I haven’t seen anything to say yes or no, I’m not sure but it feels like this was supposed to be the blowoff and a pivot was made in post production. Which makes the ending result all the more confusing, so maybe I’m wrong there. But on commentary, they announce that this feud may not be over after all and in two weeks at Glory By Honor they get to pick each others opponents, and we’ll see Raven against STEVE CORINO and CM Punk against…TERRY BY GOD FUNK! Back to the ending, after both men have been beaten to a pulp and are bloodied up, Raven hits a Super Evenflow from the top through a table to finally beat CM Punk.
**

Post-match, the lights go out. They are out for a while, and then they come back on...

The crowd doesn’t really react except a small scattering of boo’s. Punk gloats on the mic and the Saints celebrate to the back because they’ve “won the war”.

I get the idea here, with Punk essentially crucifying Raven for the same reasons Raven crucified the Sandman. And while it would’ve worked for an angle earlier in the feud, I don’t know what it really accomplishes here. It didn’t add shock value and it didn’t really make too much sense to the story AT THIS point.

It’s whatever man. The feud continues on and hopefully they’re able to lift the nose of the plane up for their actual blowoff in a couple of months.

Backstage, Samoa Joe cuts a promo. Joe says destiny is an usual concept. It's a word Chris Daniels has been throwing around a lot, saying it's his destiny to win the ROH Championship, his belt. Maybe it was Jay Briscoe's destiny to win that match tonight, and embarrass him a little bit to get his shot at his belt. What Jay doesn't understand is that it's now his destiny to get beaten unmercifully by him when he gets his shot. Come Glory by Honor II, an event that HE made, an event famous because of he and Low Ki, Daniels says it's destiny to win Joe’s belt there. Joe's never been the underdog and doesn’t like that. Chris Daniels' destiny is to be choked out by him. Destiny's a bitch. He is Samoa Joe. He's the ROH WORLD Champion. And he is pro wrestling.

IN TWO WEEKS: GLORY BY HONOR II - RAVEN/CORINO! PUNKER/FUNKER! TAG TITLE GAUNTLET! JOE/DANIELS FOR THE BELT!