ROH: THE CONCLUSION - 11/28/2003

Sacred Heart University
Fairfield, CT
November 28th, 2003

ROH World Champion: Samoa Joe (Since 3/22/2002 - 7 Defenses)
ROH Tag Team Champions: The Briscoes (Since 11/1/2003 - 0 Defenses)

GMC is in the ring to start the show. He hypes up tonight’s Punk/Raven blowoff. I guess I must’ve misheard and had  just been looking ahead, because they did NOT announce Punk/Raven as a cage match ahead of time. GMC is here to draw the stip from an envelope at random. He does and it is a cage match. I kind of hate this. I get they probably want a shot to redo the really bad cage match from a couple of shows back, but this goes down a step in stipulations. I don’t like when wrestling feuds do that. If you’re going to keep adding stips, they should escalate with each match.

Anyway, Punk storms out to the ring and has a picture of Lucy with him. He chases the ref and GMC away. Punk picks up the mic and says that there was a time when all he wanted to do was wrestle. Three days a week for two years, he would wrestle and go up and down the roads from the tippy top of Canada all the way down to the bottom of Florida for little to no pay and with next to no satisfaction or appreciation. He's made choices to choose wrestling over people — he missed his best friends college graduation, he’s missed weddings and birthdays, and he doesn't regret one bit of it, but SOMETIMES, sacrifice can be too much. He holds up the aforementioned picture of Lucy (apparently her post WCW name was Lucy Ferr, lol) and says this is too much sacrifice. All Lucy ever wanted to do was entertain people and wrestle. He stops at this point to yell at a fan who had been heckling him to say he’s here to talk about a woman, something he knows nothing about and never will. He continues by saying she was someone he got to meet that he could enjoy this with, that he could travel those long hours with, and make a life with. He got Lucy into ROH and he was happy, because he didn't have to separate personal and professional life any longer, but SOMEBODY in ROH ruined that. SOMEBODY back in Dayton, OH decided to take her out and hit a girl from behind while he was on his first Japan tour, one of the most important moments of his life. Punk continues by saying Steve Corino tells him that Christopher Daniels is behind it, so tonight, he'll ruin this show if he has to. He will interrupt every single match until he finds out exactly what happened to Lucy and who was behind it. And after he takes care of Raven, he won't leave until he finds out the why, who, and when. Lucy deserved better.

Given real life, a segment where Lucy is being eulogized was a real bummer, all jokes aside.

Backstage, Colt Cabana is here “live from Chicago” for another edition of GOOD TIMES, GREAT MEMORIES. He hypes up his Block Final in the Field of Honor later where he will battle Dan Maff and BJ Whitmer, and says he will be elevated from Second City Saint to Wrestling God. He then throws it to his musical guest, here to promote his new single “Where are the white women at?”, J-Train! The camera cuts quickly over to a smiling J-Train pretending to play the keyboard on a trash can lid. Smokes proceeds to sing a song about being addicted to Mary Jane and wanting to be “the chocolate in your life” and he’s not a half bad singer. Colt then comes over playing harmonica and they sing “Ebony & Ivory”. Cabana then goes into a rendition of “Sugar Pie Honey Bunch” and Smokes legitimately breaks.

Cabana has somehow always had the sense of humor of like a really lame dad that can sometimes be funny in an ironic kind of way. Sometimes it hits for me, sometimes it doesn’t. This time it did, as cheesy as it all was. 

Match #1: Backseat Boyz vs. Outcast Killaz
Whatever. This wasn’t awful I guess. First honest outing the Killaz have gotten and go figure of all teams it’s the Backseats that get something passable out of them. It’s just a showcase for them and the Killaz bounce around. T Gimmick wins it. Okay. 
*

Post-match, Punk comes out again, true to his word. He demands someone in the ring fess up now if it was them. The Backseats talk shit and then leave and the Killaz scurry away. Punk starts yelling at Stephen DeAngelis. John Walters comes out for his match and Punk asks if he even works at ROH. The crowd does a very small Walters chant, because Connecticut is full of stupids, and Sacred Heart is NOT a highly educated university. HEH. Anyway, in response to the chant, Punk thanks the fans for chanting his name because he had no idea who he was. HA! Punk asks if he was there in Dayton. Walters says no off mic and then points at Punk’s chest to try and seem tough but does it in the most unconvincing fashion maybe ever. Punk leaves the ring, BUT HOMICIDE’S MUSIC HITS! The crowd lets out a collective “OHHHHHH” like oh shit. Punk walks up and gets in Homicide’s face and Homicide smiles AND I AM SUDDENLY REALLY HYPED FOR A PUNK/HOMICIDE FEUD. Punk asks Homicide if it was him and if he has his word, Homicide keeps smiling but maintains his innocence. All the while, J-Train is puffing away on a black and mild screaming “WHATS GOOD SON WHATS GOOD SON ELEVATE YO HATE WHATS GOOD SON?” God yes. 

Match #2: Homicide vs. John Walters
This is a big weekend for ROH, but also for Homicide and Corino with their huge blowoff tomorrow night. So I don’t imagine either will be going super hard on this show. I’m no Walters fan but when he’s in there with good people, he can at least be tolerable even with his flaws (bad selling, loose limb work that goes nowhere, fake work rate, etc). Homicide keeps giving Walters chances to shine, and while he tries he doesn’t really succeed with anything enough to get him to that next level. I do appreciate that even though Homicide is clearly mailing this in, him mailing it in in 2003 is still better than like the entire undercard. Tornado DDT, the big lariat and his torture STF in somewhat quick succession does the deal. 
**

Post-match, Homicide refuses to shake Walters hand. He grabs the mic and is refusing to acknowledge the code of honor until AFTER his feud is finished with Corino tomorrow. He keeps calling Corino to come out and he doesn’t. So he says he hopes he has his son with him, and tells him to kiss son’s cheek because he won’t ever see his daddy again after tomorrow. J-Train just keeps yelling SOMEBODY GOT TO DIE SOMEBODY GOT TO DIE SOMEBODY GOT TO DIE SOMEBODY GOT TO DIE YEAH YEAH YEAH BBDAAAAT. 

Matt Stryker cuts a pretape about later. Don’t care. 

Randomly, Fred “The Elephant Boy” from the Howard Stern Show is shown in the crowd. He was a sexual deviant and an extremely racist piece of shit, and fuck him. 

Match #3: Carnage Crew vs. The SAT vs. Fast Eddie/Hotstuff Hernandez vs. Special K (Dixie/Cloudy) [Tag Team Scramble]
FUCK YEAH HERNANDEZ IS BACK! One show too late. Him in the Scramble Cage from the last show would’ve fed families for decades. Hey also, did someone do an age check on Cloudy? Because this dude can’t be more than 13-14 years old. But he gets MURDERED by Hernandez. Hydro ends up replacing him like 3/4s of the way through. They’re not given a ton of time so the insanity begins instantaneously. Everyone kind of just plays the hits, and while fun and not bad, it’s just not anything I haven’t seen these teams do before. Even Hernandez does the same spots, and again, they’re great, just not new anymore. But hey it’s whatever. Everyone plays their part well. Might’ve been better with Special K Elite Squad in there but hey. SATs hit Hydro with the Spanish Fly to win maybe their first match in close to a year. Fuck them.
**1/4

BJ Whitmer cuts a pretape where he sounds like a less interesting AJ Styles, vocally speaking. He hypes the match for later. Nothing crazy. 

Dan Maff cuts a pretape for the three way later as well. He appears to be in a room full of closets. He keeps talking about pissing and pissing in his territory and he’s the big dog ready to bark. 

Match #4: Christopher Daniels vs. Jimmy Rave
This is great! It doesn’t get a ton of time, clocking in at only just above 12 minutes, but it’s so good for what it is. ROH seems to be doing things right when it comes to building up Rave between the way his style evolves and develops in every match, and the slow burn AJ storyline going on in promos mostly. Daniels gets to showcase himself here ahead of a possible tag title match tomorrow night (the Prophecy get to face the Briscoes tomorrow, so if the Briscoes retain tonight, it’ll be for the belts tomorrow) and Rave keeps his story going. He focuses solely on Daniels’ arm and does the best limb work he’s done yet. You can tell he had that in the can ready to go, was just letting the storyline play out as he is taking AJ’s advice and it’s working. Daniels eventually transitions out and focuses all of his energy into working over Rave’s back, which he sells really well. My favorite part here is how lost Jimmy becomes outside of the armwork because he clearly took only that part of AJ’s advice and really doesn’t have anything else in his offensive arsenal to counter what Daniels is throwing at him, at least not yet. I love the small shit, just like last show when the Briscoes had begun to develop better kayfabe chemistry! The small shit matters. Daniels ends up being just too much for Rave, and Daniels ends things with the BME followed by an extra brutal looking Last Rites. 
**3/4

Post match, true to his word again, CM PUNK MARCHES OUT WITH THE PICTURE OF LUCY AND GETS RIGHT IN DANIELS FACE. Punk demands answers. He says he wants to know if the Prophecy was behind this. He knows Daniels has been afraid of him since Do or Die earlier this year, he’s afraid of the Saints, and Corino believes he did it, so it’s time to fess up. Tell him like a man at least before he kicks his ass. Daniels backs away in peace and grabs a mic. He says there’s a few facts Punk has wrong there. First and foremost, he no longer fears the Saints surpassing the Prophecy in ROH, because since he made that statement, the Saints haven’t done a damn thing. Meanwhile, the Prophecy held all the belts at one point, kid. Second of all, if Steve Corino is his source of information, he may want to consider a second source. He wouldn’t trust Corino as far as he can throw him. BUT, if it’s easiest and most comforting for Punk to live out his days believing the Fallen Angel put the hit out on Lucy, feel free to believe it. Because the TRUTH is always there! And when Punk does find that truth, he’ll realize he cannot handle it. And Daniels leaves. 

Xavier cuts a pretape backstage. Walters confronts him again. Don’t care. Shut up. 

Corino comes out with his entourage for the next match. Bobby Cruise grabs the stick. He welcomes all wrestling fans, message board geeks and losers, and ROH fans. He says that the level of competition grows by leaps and grounds, but in "Dynamite" Josh Daniels' case, ROH has chosen to STUNT the competition (see, because he’s a lil guy). He is not the first, as many smaller men have made an impact. MEN LIKE:

• Little Louie
• Little John
• Little Tokyo
• Sky Low-Low
• Poncho the Bull
• Lord Littlebrook
• Little Beaver
• Little Boy Blue
• The Haiti Kid
• Sam Thomas
• Kid Chocolate
• The Cadillac Kid
• Connor Beak
• Small Boy Hayes
• Pee Wee Lopez
• Pee Wee James
• Little Crusher
• Little Jumbo
• Fuzzy Cupid
• Richie
• The Jamaica Kid
• Billy the Kid
• Little Brutus
• Little Louis

(water break!)

• Butch Cassidy
• Pepe Gomez
• Karate Kid
• Cowboy Bradley
• Cowboy Ladd
• Little Koko
• Coco Johnson
• TAZ!!! (holy shit)
• Dink the Clown
• Wink the Clown
• Pink the Clown
• Cheesy
• Sleazy
• Queezy
• Mini Nova
• Mosaic
• Mini Goldust
• Mini Mankind
• La Duche
• Max Mini
• Mini Vader
• El Torito
• Piratita Morgan
• Tiger Jackson

Now, a man that can ride no higher. From Sea Isle City, New Jersey and weighing at 234 pounds, MEASURING UP AT A GOD LILE SIX FOOT ONE INCH, HE IS THE CURRENT NWA NEW YORK HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION, THE CURRENT NWA SOUTHERN HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION, HE IS *YOUR* MLW WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION (lotta boo’s), THE KING OF OLD SCHOOL, THE EXTREME HORSEMEN, THE EXTREME DWARF TOSSER AND THE *FUCKING GOD* OF PRO WRESTLING, STEVE CORINO.

Match #5: Steve Corino vs. Josh Daniels
This is my first time seeing Daniels. He’s fine. No worse than Stryker or Walters. But still a charisma vacuum. I don’t get it like why doesn’t Gabe just go watch Olympic wrestling when he pounds off or something? Anyway, match was alright. Corino, much like Homicide, is mailing this in since they have that big match tomorrow. But he feeds into all of Daniels offense while still maintaining control of the match throughout. LeGrande distracts the ref as Corino has Daniels up top, AND HOMICIDE SNEAKS OUT AND HITS CORINO WITH A SUPER ACE CRUSHER! AND DANIELS QUICKLY HITS THE DIVING HEADBUTT AND GETS A THREE COUNT TO WIN! WOW!
**1/4

Did NOT see that coming! Corino is PISSED post match. LeGrande argues with the ref. Daniels shakes Corino’s hand and Corino is fuming. The camera follows Corino storming backstage. He sees Homicide with a group of wrestlers and he THROWS A PUNCH AND THEY GET INTO AN AWESOME PULL APART! Corino and his young boys go over and grab his bags. Corino tries to make another b-line for Homicide but is held back. Corino yells at Gabe that it’s the same fucking shit every time. The camera follows Team Corino outside and Corino is threatening not to give them their main event tomorrow and says ROH never puts him over like they should, and they leave. 

On top of being a GREAT angle, this got Daniels a HUGE win in his first ROH match over a guy that really hasn’t been beaten in ROH. Additionally, it follows up on Homicide saying he is not observing the code of honor until after the match tomorrow, so basically, Homicide called his shot earlier in the night but we get so caught up in the code of honor being the handshakes, you sometimes forget things like no interference is part of the code. And on top of all of that, it’s the first time in the almost two years since the company formed that there was interference on this level. Yes, there has been run ins with Special K shit, or in stips that allowed it. But in a straight up wrestling match in ROH, this is the first time it’s happened. It got a HUGE positive reaction from the crowd in CT, too. Great fucking call by Gabe, honest to God. This all ruled. 

Backstage, GMC is standing by during intermission. He comes across AJ Styles berating Jimmy Rave in the locker room. Styles says that Rave didn’t come to him today for any specific advice on Daniels, and he could’ve helped him. He needs a spark or something to light a fire under his ass, something, ANYTHING, to get him started. Rave leaves, dejected, and GMC asks Styles if he’s maybe being a little too harsh. AJ says he could’ve just beaten the crap out of the kid, because he doesn’t listen, and he has so much potential that he’s wasting. He says Rave is a good kid, he just needs something to get him motivated. GMC transitions into asking Styles about his match later, where he teams with Joe to face the Briscoes for the tag belts. He says he’s going to be the first person in ROH history to win all the belts and hold them at the same time after this weekend is over. Punk then storms in! He says he’s got no heat with AJ, and he’s asking him straight up as a man, does he know what happened with Lucy in Dayton? Styles lightly giggles and Punk asks if he said something funny. Styles puts his hands up and blows Punk off. Punk turns to GMC and calls him Jimmy Olsen, asking him if he knows anything, but GMC knows nothing. 

Match #6: Matt Stryker vs. Xavier [Field of Honor Block A Finals]
Typing this through gritted teeth: this wasn’t awful. Not enough to earn a true rating that gets either man anywhere in the ROH all-time rankings or especially not in the BQ GWE rankings, but it’s fine after the bullshit these two have specifically put me through during this entire review project. They do some moves, some REAL basic selling, just your average paint by numbers stuff. It’s not exciting, and Xavier is definitely working with a boo boo face which sort of telegraphs the ending, but I can’t stress enough that for these two this is the best I could possibly expect. Out of a fast-ish sequence, Stryker gets his DVD for the win. He gets a half decent pop and I’m angry again. How dare the ROHbots justify Gabe and his obsession.
**

Match #7: Colt Cabana vs. Dan Maff vs. BJ Whitmer [Field of Honor Block B Finals]
Haha I know it hasn’t happened yet but this match starts the same way the 2005 Rumble does, with Whitmer & Maff acting as Benoit & Holly, and Colt being Puder. Like literally it’s almost step for step, including throwing Cabana over the top rope. The chance is close to 0%, but it’d be funny if one of the all time shoot beatdowns on live PPV drew its inspiration from a random ROH b show. Anyway, this was a lot of fun at only 8 minutes or so. Cabana sold like a champ and got his funny stuff done early. Whitmer and Maff were both brutal with their strikes, throws and drops. Finish comes when Maff is taken out and Whitmer hits Cabana with the Wrist Clutch Exploder.
**3/4

And for the Field of Honor finals, we get maybe the second least interesting match up possible with BJ Whitmer vs. Matt Stryker. And you can tell Gabe is frothing at the mouth when he announces they will face off at Final Battle. Disgusting. Thank god this concept dies a death here in 2003, I think. It’s a great tournament idea, but I do not trust Gabe booking tournaments. Between the convoluted mess that was the world title title tournament (great matches aside), the terrible booking of the tag title tournament, and now this? He’s lost tournament booking privileges.

After the match is done, CM PUNK IS OUT AGAIN! He comes over to first check on Colt. He then asks Maff to be a man and tell him if the Prophecy had anything to do with this. He fakes crying a bit. He asks Maff to think of it personally, what if someone attacked his wife while he was in Japan? Maff says they don’t like each other. The Prophecy hates the Saints, and vice versa. But he swears, ON HIS FATHERS GRAVE, that nobody who is in the Prophecy had ANYTHING to do with attacking Lucy. Punk seems to take that as acceptable and Maff & Danger leave. But Whitmer snatches the mic! BJ says this is his time to celebrate, and how dare Punk come out here to ruin it. He says nobody in the crowd or in the back gives a crap about his girl. So FUCK HIM for coming out and stealing his thunder, BOY. BJ leaves but not before flipping Punk off from the floor. Punk remarks on the mic that BJ must be on a “cycle”, and then clarifies he meant steroids for Colt. 

Match #8: The Briscoes (c) vs. Samoa Joe/AJ Styles [ROH Tag Team Championships]
Naturally built in story off the bat where the Briscoes have continued to gel as a team and are WAY better as a unit than they last time they faced a tag team with AJ in it. Plus, the on going Joe/Briscoes issue. AJ and Joe get to control alot of this early on just based off the fact that they’re dominant wrestlers, but once the match breaks down into more of a focus tag match, the Briscoes hold the advantage almost the whole way through. This continues in smaller doses throughout. Anytime AJ and Joe are running the match, it’s because they’ve got one of the Briscoes all to themselves. But the minute the Briscoes can cut that ring in half, it’s their match to lose. Fantastic. The whole match is just excellent. Feels like ROH’s version of that one RAW where Austin and Rock teamed up to take on the Outlaws. Two just larger than life solo acts taking on the best team in the company. While the RAW match is much bigger in scale, this was obviously a much better worked match. Goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway. Match breaks down into a Donnybrook which is NOT in the Briscoes favor. Mark is able to square off with AJ, and when AJ goes for his rolling lariat, MARK MOVES AND AJ TAKES OUT JOE BY ACCIDENT! Jay takes out AJ quick, AND MARK HITS THE SSP ON JOE AND COVERS TO WIN CLEAN! 
***1/2

So, two schools of thought here. First let me say, and maybe this is on me, but I was always under the impression Joe was alot more untouchable during The Reign than he actually is. He’s gotten pinned ALOT more than I imagine he would have. He also hasn’t defended the title nearly as much as I would’ve thought (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). While I’m not bothered by this result or how it was done, I can’t help but feel this would feel even bigger if we didn’t have things like Joe getting pinned by Maff. Even if that was a flash roll up! Even if Mark pinning Joe is the first clean pin he’s taken since the Low Ki match a year ago! I just…I don’t know. 

The second thought is, this was fantastic, and a great way to help legitimize the Briscoes even more since both have beaten the champ now, albeit not in one on one scenarios. Gives the heels something to brag about without earning full credit, even if the victory was clean. Very, very well done.

After the match, the Briscoes celebrate to the back, and Joe confronts AJ. They exchange words, and just from body language, you can see Joe is accusing AJ of that hit being on purpose. AJ shoves Joe and tells him tomorrow night, that belt is gonna be his, and he leaves. 

Match #9: CM Punk vs. Raven [Steel Cage Match]
I liked this for the most part, but man, this feud lost so much juice these last few months. This could’ve honestly wrapped at DBD or shortly after and maybe gone down as an all-timer. It certainly had the makings of it early on, but it just never fully got there. As a stand alone match though, this is fine. A lot of really fun, intense brawling spots before the match even starts as Punk attacks Raven during his entrance and they go to the floor. A chair gets in the ring and they both use that, as well as the cage walls, to their advantage. Punk bleeds a TON. Some nice false finishes with escapes but nothing that hasn’t been done before. Cool finish where Punk is climbing in the corner closest to the door. The ref has the door opened in case Punk wants to exit that way but Punk yells “too easy” and he opts to keep climbing. The door is left open, and as Punk climbs over the top of the cage, Raven rushes up and punches Punk, crotching him on top of the door! Raven goes to escape through the door, but Punk is able to move himself to the outside wall and KICK THE DOOR INTO RAVEN’S FACE, and Punk drops to the floor to win. Great finish.
***ish

So the feud is over. Raven is done in ROH (he was supposed to come back in 2004, but a pretty major event happens that stops that) and at the very least, Punk is a made man and can move on to bigger things now. 

Post match, Punk has the mic at ringside and says he’ll continue to turn this weekend inside out tomorrow until he avenges Lucy. It sounds like he also offers a reward for any information?

Backstage, they try to fake a press conference saying that off camera is Dave Meltzer and George Neapolitano and others, but it’s just GMC, Whitmer and Stryker sitting at a folding table which is very funny. I don’t care about any of this. They say words to hype up the Final Battle match and sign the contract. Who gives a shit who gives a fuck. 

Backstage, Special K are in the locker room and they find Raven, sitting alone sad and dejected. They have just the thing to cheer him up, though, and they hand him a bag of powder. Raven just pockets it and goes back to staring at the floor. Special K figure they should leave and start to exit, but Raven stops them and says to leave the girl, so they push Becky over to him and leave with the door closed, and JESUS CHRIST, given the infamous rumor about those two this seg does not age well at all. It also goes nowhere because, again, Raven is gone. 

Not a terrible show. It’s a massive step down, match quality wise, from Main Event Spectacles. But they keep the awesome streak going in terms of stories/angles, etc.

TOMORROW: BRISCOES/PROPHECY; JOE/AJ; HOMICIDE/CORINO NRBW!