Frontier Fieldhouse
Chicago Ridge, IL
April 24th, 2004
ROH World Champion: Samoa Joe (Since 3/22/2002 - 13 Defenses)
ROH Tag Team Champions: The Briscoes (Since 11/1/2003 - 6 Defenses)
ROH Pure Champion: Vacant (Since 4/24/2004 - 0 Defenses)
Out in the ring in the empty arena before the show, it’s time for another edition of SAMOA JOE’S RING…starring Bryan Danielson! Danielson notes that the coward Joe clearly isn’t here yet so he’s taking this over to show proper wrestling technique and not the illegal maneuvers Samoa Joe employs. Danielson shows off different ways to do a wrist lock on a student but his lesson is interrupted when Homicide comes jogging into the arena and hops the guard rail. That was very funny to me I don’t know why. Like you could’ve just walked around it, it was open. I love him. Anyway, Cide mockingly says he’s looking for Joe and his burnt face but then notes he’s obviously not here and won’t be here either. But he’s very pissed off because he was screwed out of his title match last night so tonight, he wants a shot at Bryan so he can stay loose for his deserved rematch against Joe. Bryan’s confused so Homicide says to keep teaching his class. But then Cide immediately interrupts to show his own version of a wrist lock on the student, but then just forearms his fucking head off. Homicide says there ain’t gonna be no wrist locks tonight. Bryan assures him there will be worse than that because he’s never met someone who’s gonna stretch him the way he will (pause). Homicide says he’ll see him later tonight then. Before he leaves he looks towards the camera and tells Joe to rub some Vaseline on it. Bryan shakes his head disapprovingly.
Out in the main atrium, Dave Prazak and Matt Stryker are having one of those “before the camera goes on conversations” even though the camera is obviously on. Nigel McGuinness walks up and apologizes for interrupting but he just wants to shake Matt’s hand and thank him again for a great match last night, and he wishes him luck tonight. Nigel leaves and Dave tells the camera to start. Dave does a good job of putting Stryker and Joe over and notes that while Joe has not arrived to the building just yet, Stryker is entitled to his title match tonight. Stryker says some shit about targeting Joe’s legs as it’s his weakness and promises victory. The camera “goes off” and Stryker asks Dave if there’s been any word on if Joe is showing up or not, and Dave says nobody’s heard from him all day. Stryker is annoyed.
Backstage, Becky Bayless has camera time and again is making a plea for someone to help her in finding her Special K boys. But Jack Evans walks on and does a break dance routine in front of her, tells her she just got served, and then leaves. Hell yeah.
Ace Steel and BJ Whitmer come out for their match. But before it starts, THE BRISCOES RUN OUT AND ATTACK ACE FROM BEHIND! They beat him down and then grab the mic and officially introduce themselves to Chicago. Crowd is loud and boos them. The Briscoes say they just made an example out of Ace and there ain’t no way they’re losing the belts in a shit hole like Chicago! Punk & Cabana run out now and brawl with the Briscoes, and the Briscoes bail to the floor. Cabana checks on Ace and Punk grabs a mic. Punk gets the mic and says this is his house and his ring and his wrestling and HIS hometown. They're not afraid of them and he brings ROH to his hometown. They're supposed to have another Chicago classic like Bret/Owen and Bret/Austin, but screw that, because he's come home to kick their asses. Punk turns to go check on Ace, BUT THE BRISCOES PULL PUNK TO THE FLOOR AND BEAT HIM DOWN! Cabana acts quick and hits a BEAUTIFUL Asai Moonsault to the floor. The two teams brawl to the back.
Back in the ring, BJ grabs a mic and says he came to Chicago to fight and he really doesn’t give a shit about what just happened he wants the match to still happen, unless Ace is too hurt to go on. A hurt Steel is helped up by the ref and he says to ring the bell!
I should note that this shows been on in the arena for just a few mins and this is already probably the hottest crowd they’ve had since DBD ‘03.
Match #1: BJ Whitmer vs. Ace Steel
Good and solid, and smart booking. Only went around 6-7 minutes, which works for what they’re doing, and there was a good mix of basic wrestling moves and brawling spots. Ace started off selling the neck pretty good (from the Briscoes attack) but kind of abandoned it and focused more on I guess exhaustion selling, which doesn’t really make sense. BJ wears him down quick, over powers him and hits the Wrist Clutch to win.
**1/2
Post match, BJ grabs a mic and says it looks like he’s proven single handedly this weekend that the Prophecy is better than the Saints, and he’s gonna end it right now. He does a stiff running kick to the side of Ace’s head, and then he grabs a chair and absolutely wallops Steel in the head with it.
Match #2: Justin Credible/Masada vs. Delirious/Shawn Davari
What in the fresh hell did I do to deserve this? This is bad. Credible again looks toasted, Masada is just not suited for a straight up wrestling match, Davari is bad, and Delirious is clunky here with nothing to really work off of, so fuck it. Masada beats Delirious with a fisherman buster backbreaker on the knee gimmick.
1/2*
Match #3: Chad Collyer vs. John Walters
This is alright, I guess. The least angry I’ve been during one of these Gabe style Pure division matches in a while. It’s not without its faults. It’s like for every good step forward they take, something comes along that sends them back to start. Collyer does good leg work, and Walters no sells it. They work faster and add some flavor, but then they fall into the usual traps of the super lame and indie-riffic pinning combination battle. It wills itself into averageness and honestly it could’ve been more. But who cares. They do the roll up sequence and it turns quick into Collyer getting the prawn hold pin to get the win. Alright.
**1/4
Match #4: Nigel McGuinness vs. Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Rocky Romero
I liked this a lot. Good debut showcase for Aries, a chance for Roc to show what he can do without his anchor, Rave continues to shine and Nigel, especially, gets to show out. I’d say he’s the star of this and it’s kind of obvious he’s going to win, although I was really holding out hope for Rave. The thing I liked the most about this is that it was such a change of pace from a usual ROH multi man match. There wasn’t many spots n’ flips and shit. There was focused work being done collectively, Rave’s arm got the brunt of it all by all 3. His selling was good and helped build to a logical finish. It was cool seeing an even more agile Roc than what I’m used to seeing in the 2020’s. His striking was fantastic too. Aries was the breakout. You forget just how smooth he was in everything he did because he’s a reprehensible piece of shit in real life. But god damn, his movement in transition, his speed and agility, everything just looks so polished. Wild this was somehow his first ROH show. End comes when Roc and Aries get into it, and Nigel takes Rave down and locks on his armbar to get the win.
***
Match #5: Bryan Danielson vs. Homicide
There’s a lot to unpack here, and I mean that in a good way. This match was very much about Homicide. He’s officially a heel now and there’s probably nobody better you have available to really help get that across. Because while the character of Bryan Danielson can be one nasty bastard of a bully, he’s also a great fired up white meat babyface when the situation calls for it, such as now. Homicide is angry and bitter during the whole match. He yells at the fans, he throws a fit around ringside and chucks a chair into the ring. And Bryan’s just the right type of prick to needle Homicide where it’s going to affect him the most. Bryan lures him into a lot of hold exchanges. Homicide will find an opening in transition and get one over on Bryan, but his bravado is short lived as each and every time, Bryan finds a way not only out of the hold but a way to one up Homicide. His anger grows and it causes him to make more mistakes that Bryan’s able to capitalize on. This is text book “the longer this goes on the more it favors X” style, because Homicide isn’t built for a long technical match like Bryan specializes in. Homicide finally has to work dirty enough to get one over on Bryan and take control, he focuses on his neck and even uses a chair on the outside to hurt the neck more. Cide then lines Bryan up against the guardrail and goes to punch his neck, but Bryan moves and Homicide punches the rail, and Bryan has yet again gotten one over on Homicide and immediately grabs the now hurt hand and begins slamming it over the guard rail. So good. Bryan sells the neck great, Homicide is selling his hand SO fucking good. He’s constantly shaking it and hitting it against his side and the mat, he’s wrapping and unwrapping the tape on his hand, anything to relieve the pressure from the injury. Even when Homicide takes control, he’s now handicapped, and it takes away his ability to do his Torture STF. The good thing for Cide though is that he got enough work in on Bryan’s neck to injure him, and in what feels like a big momentum shifter, Bryan can’t sustain the Cattle Mutilation. He tries to reposition and transition into another hold but it allows Homicide to stand and back Bryan into the corner. He actually sets up the Cop Killa for the first time in a long time Bryan gets out of it. Cide catches him quick but Bryan goes behind, so Cide has to pull the ref out of position which allows him to swing a leg back and low blow Bryan! Needing to capitalize quick, Cide winds up and DESTROYS Bryan with a nasty lariat and he gets the huge pinfall win.
This keeps Bryan super strong even in defeat, and it gives Homicide a big win with his new heel turn. Very well done on all accounts. I think it goes on a little bit too long but I can’t penalize it too much because these two, and especially Bryan, are capable of adding enough to a match of this length to keep it mostly fresh, whereas a lot of other guys on this roster that have been tasked with similar things have failed and resorted to repeating parts of the match 1, even 2 times in some cases. So it really comes down to just the fact that I have a bad attention span and a 30 minute match, regardless of quality, is going to take me at least 60 minutes to get through. But whatever. This was great.
****1/4
Backstage for intermission, Prazak and Stryker are still hanging out. Before they film, Jimmy Rave and Jack Evans both walk up separately and wish Stryker good luck tonight and they hope he wins. They roll film and Prazak intros everything before letting Stryker know that Samoa Joe has still not arrived, ROH has not recieved word from him as of yet, and there are preliminary discussions of awarding Stryker the title should Joe no-show. Stryker doesn’t want that at all, he says beating Joe is all a part of it. Chad Collyer walks up and stammers his way through a promo. I can’t recap it properly because it’s really bad and even Prazak and Stryker are confused by his wording, but the basic idea he tries to convey is that he’s beaten Stryker 3 times in 3 matches, Stryker has never beaten him, so if he beats Joe or gets awarded the belt, he can just hand it right over to him so he doesn’t have to get beat a fourth time. Stryker just laughs him off.
Match #6: Ricky Reyes vs. Danny Daniels
This was bad. Daniels isn’t good here and Ricky is one of those guys that just needs to be working in a tag team. It feels like ROH knew this was bad too because they manage to edit a large chunk of it out by inserting a BREAKING NEWS moment with Dave Prazak backstage saying that Samoa Joe has officially arrived to the building and Joe/Stryker will take place later tonight. We rejoin the match and whatever man. Who cares. Reyes wins with the body scissors dragon sleeper.
3/4*
Match #7: Jack Evans/Matt Sydal vs. Carnage Crew vs. Dunn & Marcos vs. Jimmy Jacobs/Alex Shelley
Fun mix of different styles but it wasn’t anything to necessarily write home about. Doesn’t mean it was bad just that I’ve seen a dozen matches like it so far in this project and probably will see another two dozen more. The big stand out here is Jack Evans, again, who just is able to do things no other human is doing, at least in 2004. I’m honestly shocked WWE never brought him in even for a cup of coffee, or why TNA didn’t use him more often and steadily. Specifically in this he hits another incredible looking Phoenix Splash and the 630 on to Jacobs, which is what gets his team a moderately big win.
**3/4
Post match, the code of honor is observed by all. Shelley and Jacobs are the last two in the ring. Jacobs is being helped up and Shelley keeps trying to offer him a handshake. And when Jacobs finally goes to accept it, Shelley kicks him in the face! Shelley wipes his hands clean and walks out on him.
Match #8: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Matt Stryker [ROH World Championship]
This feels like Stryker’s last shot at relevance and he blew it. This was going to be right around average no matter what because someone as great as Joe was doing all of the heavy lifting. He’s got his face bandaged from the fireball and he changes up his entire offensive move set to sell the effects of it. He doesn’t let this turn into a striking battle because he’s now got a major target on him, and he keeps this mat focused. And this is where you’d think Stryker would get a chance to excel and show he actually belongs as more than just one of Gabe’s hog riders. Instead, he never really focuses on leg work to Joe like he said he would at the start of the show, and Punk even calls him out for it on commentary. Some of the more vague stuff he tries doesn’t really come across as anything meaningful, as in, it’s all really loose and disconnected feeling. Stryker is very good at accidentally hiding that he doesn’t know how to work, because you’re left with the impression that he just did a lot but in reality, what did he ACTUALLY do? Joe finally turns up the volume and starts throwing bombs which really sells his desperation to get out of this match still champ and then as I was writing this last line he won with a Triangle Choke out of nowhere! I love that touch. He needed to get out, he couldn’t build up to his normal stuff, so just find something that works and finish it. Joe did more to put himself, the injury, Homicide and Stryker himself over than Stryker did just for himself. Joe’s performance alone gets this the rating it’s getting.
***ish
The camera follows an exasperated Joe to the back. As they get through the curtain, he turns towards the camera and grabs it and tells the camera man to find Homicide and have him meet him out back later so they can settle this.
Backstage, Alex Shelley is with the camera man and says he asked for this time for a reason and the camera pans down to see Jimmy Jacobs sitting there. Shelley insults him a bunch and says he might as well call himself backpack and he’s tired of carrying him. He says on 5/22 in Philly at Generation Next, he doesn’t need Jimmy hanging around.
Match #9: Briscoe Brothers (c) vs. Second City Saints (Punk/Cabana) [ROH Tag Team Championships]
The crowd was molten hot for this for obvious reasons with the Saints being de facto babyfaces. Punk really leaned in to the fun with Cabana and they pulled off a lot of goofy shit that was honestly a good time, my favorite being when they did a Billy Goat’s Curse and Camel Clutch combo that lifted Mark off the ground. It relies a little too much on big spots rather than working an actual match but it’s completely fine. I dunno man just not a lot to say here. It’s far from perfect but sometimes the best matches are the ones you can just sit back, relax and watch. The Briscoes do a lot of classic cheating and they’re quite good at it. The goofiness and big spots in general sort of add to it when you see things like Punk blocking a doomsday device while on Jay’s shoulders and just catching Mark to hit a power slam instead. Incredible. The Briscoes had Cabana disposed and work over Punk. They get him up top but Cabana’s back in to crotch Mark on the ropes. Punk has to then peel Jay off the top and send him flying down to the guard rail. He then grabs up Mark and hits an AWESOME looking Pepsi Plunge to win the match and the belts!
***1/2
Post match, before the Saints can even celebrate, BJ Whitmer rushes out and starts attacking them. But moments later, Ace Steel hobbles out with a steel chair and WALLOPS BJ with a disgusting chair shot to the head. The Saints all celebrate with the belts and Chicago.
Backstage later on, Samoa Joe is standing by the bathroom and Homicide is walking across the arena. They jaw at each other and then go into the bathroom to duke it out but Joe doesn’t let the camera man in. And then we hear loud noises coming from inside.
The Carnage Crew are elsewhere and they’re commiserating over the fact that this was a great weekend for ROH but not for the Crew. They vow to find out who disrespected them.
Back at the bathroom, we still hear loud noises coming from inside. This is lame.
Elsewhere, the camera is on Punk tight. He starts cutting a promo but within a few seconds a party horn hits him in the face from Colt and the camera pulls back to see all their friends, family and Becky Bayless celebrating and they serenade them with “We Are The Champions”. Punk ends with a callback by telling the camera “yeah my life’s a war”.
And back at the bathroom once more, the camera man gets antsy and enters the bathroom. Joe is laid out with blood on his face and his eyes rolled back in his head, and Homicide is in the fetal position with a big cut on his head, and the camera man screams for help. Just a really lame angle and the second time they’ve done it in just less than a year. Just get into a brawl and film it.
NEXT MONTH: ROUND ROBIN CHALLENGE III w/ THE SAINTS, BRISCOES & PROPHECY; SPANKY RETURNS TO ROH!
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