The Independent Mid-Card 12.27.06: Homicide & Samoa Joe vs. The Briscoes

Homicide & Samoa Joe vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe
Ring of Honor – Glory By Honor V, Night 2 – New York, NY – September 16, 2006

The Wrestlers:
Homicide – One of ROH’s founding fathers, “The Notorious 187” Homicide is the sublime mix of brawling and technical wrestling that every “thug life” gimmick has aspired to in wrestling. As a point of reference, imagine New Jack’s style with Christopher Daniels’ workrate; that’s pretty much where Homicide is on the wrestling totem pole. At this point in the ROH canon, Homicide is consumed with securing another shot at ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson, having lost by referee’s decision in June in his previous title match. After saving Ring of Honor in its war against CZW, Homicide had segued into a feud against ROH Commissioner Jim Cornette. Recently, Homicide had lost a tag team affair to the Briscoes while teaming with up-and-comer Davey Richards.

Samoa Joe – With a name like Samoa Joe, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be a large Samoan man. I know, it’s shocking. As a matter of historical importance, Joe, who had held the Ring of Honor World Title for nearly two years from 2003-2004, had engaged in a bitter rivalry against Homicide during his title reign. Since that time, the two men had lived in relative harmony, mostly because they avoided each other. But during ROH’s conflict with CZW, Joe was one of the men pushing for Homicide to help out the company he helped to build. When Homicide came to his promotion’s aid, Joe was the first to extend his hand in respect and possibly friendship. And in turn, when Homicide needed help against Cornette’s minions (including Adam Pearce, the Briscoe Brothers and Homicide’s greatest enemy Steve Corino), Joe was there for his newfound friend. Joe himself was also after Danielson’s title at the time, adding a bit of mystery as to whether Homicide would eventually have to face his new comrade for the ROH World Title.

The Briscoes – Longtime stalwarts of the Ring of Honor tag team division, Jay & Mark Briscoe combine to form one of the best tag teams in the world. Having left ROH after the summer of 2004 to heal up some injuries, the Briscoes returned in the winter of 2006 with gold on their minds. After a four-pack of failed attempts at wresting the ROH World Tag Team Titles from Austin Aries & Roderick Strong, the former two-time champions were enlisted by Cornette to help keep Homicide from reaching his title shot.

The Match:
A long Cornette promo starts us off, actually, as he makes his way down to the ring with Jay & Mark Briscoe in tow. Gimme Back My Bullets blares over the speakers as the three men stalk the ring. In an effort to Readers Digest Cornette’s promo, I’ll give you the talking points…

1. New York Sucks
2. Homicide Sucks
3. Homicide has said that he’ll leave ROH if he doesn’t win gold by the end of 2006
4. New York Sucks
5. If Joe & Homicide win, he’ll get his title shot at Final Battle 2006
6. Homicide Sucks
7. If the Briscoes win, Homicide gets his shot in February, 2007
8. New York Sucks
9. Cornette feels like a minority in NYC because he’s a fat white guy
10. Homicide Sucks

With that out of the way, it’s now easy to see why this match is so important to Homicide. Anyway, Cornette starts to wind down and Joe’s intro hits over the system, followed immediately by the Kill Bill theme and The Truth. Joe walks out with Homicide and his longtime manager Julius Smokes. The New York City crowd goes absolutely nuts for the duo. Also as a point of reference, Samoa Joe tagging with Homicide is basically the Ring of Honor version of the Mega Powers. The two men circle the ring, and then rush right in and start brawling as the bell sounds immediately.

A double backdrop to the floor on the Briscoes leads to stereo dives by Savage and Ho… er… Homicide and Joe. Jay & Mark regroup and then Mark starts proper with Homicide. Mark powers him to the corner and hits a forearm on the break. Homicide then powers mark to the corner and hits a chop. Parity, I love it. Mark gets some shoulder blocks in the corner, but Homicide reverses a cross-corner whip and gets a clothesline. Tag to Joe, and a double chop to Mark follows. Mark gets a boot up on a blind charge, but Joe does his awesome cocky walk away from a springboard cross body attempt and Mark tags out to Jay. Jay and Joe circle and Joe forces him to the corner for rights and chops. It should be noted (as it is by the announcers) that these two had an awesome bloodbath cage match at the At Our Best show in 2004. Joe hits his combo (back chop, kick to the chest, big knee drop) and then tags to Homicide. Joe scoop slams Jay and Homicide comes off the top with a splash for two. Homicide chokes Jay on the middle rope and then draws the ref’s attention so that Smokes can hit a cheap shot. Not exactly model babyface behavior, but the crowd loves it, so what can you do? Locomotion vertical suplexes end in a Falcon’s Arrow for two.

Homicide tags to Joe, and a double shoulder block follows. Homicide knocks Mark off the apron and Joe responds to some Jay elbows with an enziguiri and a chinlock (albeit a short one). High knee strike by Joe, and he tags Homicide back in. Jay gets put in a tree of woe, and Homicide comes across the ring with a basement dropkick. Smokes yells at Jay (“You got knocked the fuck out!”), as Homicide gets two. Joe back in as he and Jay exchange strikes. Joe with a drop suplex, and then he drags Jay to his corner by the mouth. Tag to Homicide, but a standing switch leads to a low blow by Jay and Homicide gets tossed to the outside. Mark takes advantage ringside by ramming Homicide’s head repeatedly into the guardrail. Back in, Jay gets a suplex and Mark comes in legally with a second rope kneedrop for two. Mark chokes Homicide in the corner and hits a belly-to-belly suplex for two. Headbutt and Jay tags back in. Elbow by Jay on an Irish whip, but Joe is distracting the ref, so there’s no count. Homicide is in a bad way in the Briscoe’s corner, and Jay takes advantage with some rights and another boot choke. Scoop slam and Mark comes in with a slingshot double stomp that gets two. Mark hits some knees to the head and brings Homicide back to the Briscoe corner. Homicide elbows Jay off the apron and then goes up for a tornado DDT on Mark, but Mark throws him off. Mark ducks a lariat, but Homicide ducks under a Yakuza kick attempt and rolls to his corner to tag in Joe.

Mark and Joe circle as the crowd informs Mark that Joe is about to kill him. Mark responds with a knee to the gut and a chop the throat, but Joe gets an inverted atomic drop and his big running boot to the face to answer. Back senton follows. Mark tries a strike when Joe lifts him up, but Joe just looks annoyed by it and punches him in the face. Cross corner whip leads to a running elbow by Joe who calls for the facewash, which follows (along with some barking by Smokes). Joe lifts Mark up by his nose and they exchange forearms until Joe hits a stiff spinning back chop that staggers Mark. However, Jay kicks Joe in the back when Joe runs the ropes and Mark follows with a spinning heel kick.

Tag to Jay, and the Briscoes stomp Joe. Jay chops Joe in the corner and then tags back to Mark. Double team shoulder tackle gets one for Mark as Homicide distracts the ref. Another throat thrust from Mark and he brings Joe to the bad corner. Jay tags back in and hits a chinlock to wear down Joe. Joe elbows out (Hulking up?) but Jay leapfrogs him and hits a dropkick. Right back to the chinlock, but Homicide comes in and chops Jay to break. Jay knees Joe in the face and goes right back to the chinlock, this time facing Homicide. That’s actually really good psychology on Jay’s part. Joe elbows out again and then just dumps Jay on a leapfrog attempt.

Hot tag to Homicide and he whips Jay into an overhead belly-to-belly. Another whip leads to a Homicide spinning elbow. Homicide hits some elbow strikes on Jay in the corner, but Mark comes in and Homicide reverses a cross corner whip into a running corner clothesline on Mark. Homicide goes up, and after some back-and-forth strikes with Mark, hits him with a second rope DDT that the crowd loves. Running corner knee to Jay and then Homicide’s facewash knee follow. Homicide puts Jay on top, but Mark saves and knocks Homicide to the apron. Homicide goes to suplex Mark to the floor, but Mark lands on his feet, gets Homicide in a doomsday position and then drops him face first on the apron. Mark heads in and then heads right back out with a no-hands swan dive plancha onto Homicide. Joe comes in and starts stiffing Jay with slaps, but Jay gets a Yakuza kick when Joe comes off the ropes and Joe rolls out of the ring. Homicide is back in and reverses a clothesline to an Ace Crusher. He calls for the lariat, but Mark comes in and drops him on his head with a head-and-arm side suplex. Joe’s back in and he absolutely turns Mark inside out with a lariat that sends the already hot crowd into a frenzy.

All four men are down until Joe gets up and tosses Mark out. Joe picks up Jay and a backdrop suplex-clothesline combination from Joe and Homicide lands Jay right on his head. Mark breaks up Homicide’s pinfall attempt at two and hits Joe with a superkick. Homicide is left with both Briscoes and clotheslines Mark to the apron, but ends up in Jay’s shoulders for what looks to be a springboard Doomsday Device. However, Joe grabs Mark (landing him in a very awkward position in the process) and Homicide reverses off of Jay’s shoulders. Jay does get a German suplex on Homicide just as Joe hits Mark with the Ole’ Ole’ kick on the outside. Inside, Jay goes for the Jay Driller (sit-out tiger driver), but Homicide reverses to a Cop Killer attempt. Jay flips out and goes for his Military Press Death Valley Driver. Homicide reverses to an enziguiri and hits the Cop Killer for real to pin Jay at 17:59. Joe comes back in to celebrate as Homicide has now earned his title shot at Bryan Danielson (or whoever is champion) at Final Battle 2006.

Cornette joins us again as the fans chant “Next World Champ”. He insults Homicide and New York (again), but says he’s a man of his word and grants “The Notorious 187” his title match. He does also promise that Homicide will have to “walk through hell with gasoline britches on” to get to December. I love antiquated Southern sayings.

The Analysis:
It’s rare that a match with this much at stake ends up in the mid-card, but leave it to Ring of Honor to put on a show where this goes on fourth from the top. The match itself had an interesting dynamic, as the Briscoes, who often dispatch the non-regular teams they face, couldn’t get the clear upper hand on Homicide & Joe at any point during the match. The closest they got to a clear advantage was when Jay had Joe in the multiple chinlocks, but even then, Homicide wasn’t winded or incapacitated enough for them to take real control. Remember, the Briscoes had recently defeated Homicide & Davey Richards and had only a narrow loss to the Japanese super team of Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA. At no point did they get to use any of their big impact signature double team moves (Springboard Doomsday Device, Spike Jay Driller, Crucifix Powerbomb-Falling Neckbreaker Combo) on either Joe or Homicide. At some point they were able to hit all of those against ROH Tag Team Champions Austin Aries & Roderick Strong, who had spent a lot more time teaming together than Joe & Homicide.

Contrastingly, Homicide & Samoa Joe showed incredible fluidity as partners, especially in light of this being their first time teaming together anywhere in wrestling. I suppose it’s similar to how Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit formed a great team in 2002, based far more on their familiarity as opponents than on them truly being great partners.

The Aftermath:
This matchup would go on to main event two other Ring of Honor shows (Motor City Madness and Dethroned) on what came to be called “The Road of Homicide”. Along the way, Joe and Homicide continued their parallel attempts at defeating Bryan Danielson, with Joe winning a non-title street fight, but losing the eventual title re-match. Homicide also ended his long-running feud with “The King of Old School” Steve Corino in Fight Without Honor that defined the brutality on which their rivalry had been based.

After Cornette was removed as ROH Commissioner, Homicide turned his attention squarely on Danielson and the two had a number of exchanges leading up to Final Battle 2006. With the strength of his hometown crowd behind him, Homicide was finally able to win gold in ROH, winning the Ring of Honor World Title from Bryan Danielson in an emotional affair at the Manhattan Center.

As for the Briscoes, during ROH’s final weekend of 2006, they traded wins with The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli), but in winning the rematch, set themselves up as big time players for 2007. With Castagnoli on his way out of Ring of Honor, Roderick Strong focusing on defending his FIP Heavyweight Title, and ROH World Tag Team Champion Matt Sydal nursing an injury, how long will it be before Jay & Mark Briscoe hold ROH gold again?

What We Learned:
To be honest, we learned that Ring of Honor is so talent-rich that its presumptive #1 contender, one of its top tag teams and its former World Champion and icon can go on fourth from the top and no one bats an eyelash at it. It’s one of the great things about ROH, actually, that the same match can be in the mid-card of one show and main event another.

The Final Word:
I got to meet Homicide after the second night of Ring of Honor’s The Chicago Spectacular at the beginning of December. He had actually handed me his blood-soaked bandana after his cage match with Adam Pearce, and so it was essentially a chance to thank him for the interesting (and certainly unique) souvenir. I didn’t get to talk to him for all that long, but even during our brief conversation, it was clear that this was someone who loved what he did and was truly humble about his position as one of the key players in the top Independent promotion in the United States. To know that he won the ROH World Title a mere two weeks later is incredibly gratifying, because not only could it not have been a better story, but it couldn’t happen to a nicer or more deserving person.

To check out this week’s match, you can purchase Glory By Honor V, Night 2 at rohwrestling.com. I highly recommend getting this show, not just for this match, but also for the rest of the card, including Aries & Strong defending the ROH World Tag Team Titles against The Kings of Wrestling, Bryan Danielson’s gutsy defense of his ROH World Title against KENTA, and Naomichi Marufuji putting the GHC Heavyweight Title on the line outside of Japan for the first time in the title’s history as he takes on Nigel McGuinness. That may sound like an advertisement, but I assure you, it’s not. It’s really one of the best wrestling shows I have ever seen.

As always, keep that feedback coming (a link is at the bottom of this page) and have a Happy New Year. Next week we’re going to start a two-part column looking at elevation, and how a matchup can develop over the years. I’ll see you next week, back in the Independent Mid-Card.