The Independent Mid-Card 01.23.07: Daniels vs. Shelley

Christopher Daniels vs. Alex Shelley
Ring of Honor – Best in the World – New York, NY – March 25, 2006

The Wrestlers:
Christopher Daniels – One of the most experienced and well-respected veterans in all of pro wrestling, “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels has been a main eventer in every Independent promotion he has visited. With a style so eclectic that it can’t be pigeon-holed as one specific technique, Daniels had actually been trading wins and losses in Ring of Honor since the beginning of 2006, most recently having been defeated by “Classic” Colt Cabana in a Three Way Dance also featuring Samoa Joe at ROH’s Arena Warfare show. It is important to note that though he is beloved by most ROH fans, Daniels has never followed the Code of Honor’s requirement that all competitors shake hands before and after their matches. This character trait is a holdover from Daniels’ first run with Ring of Honor, where he was the leader of the heel stable The Prophecy. As of this match, Daniels was listed as #3 in the ROH Top 5 Rankings. In addition, Daniels was, and remains, an important part of the TNA roster.

Alex Shelley – Though a nearly career-long heel, Alex Shelley, who is nearly 12 years Daniels’ junior, is so charismatic and so talented that he is often cheered by the crowd within moments of hurling a variety of insults their way. Known for his nearly unlimited battery of complicated submission holds, Shelley is regarded as one of the top technical wrestlers on the Independent scene, and a true prodigy of the business in general. His cocky attitude and propensity for excellent and humorous heel interviews and ring work have led to numerous (well-earned) comparisons to a young Chris Jericho, a flattering association for any wrestler. Having won the 2006 Trios Tournament with Embassy stablemates Jimmy Rave and Abyss, Shelley had earned a match of his choosing, which he used to face ROH Champion “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson at Arena Warfare. Though the match was excellent and Shelley gave a truly valiant effort, he was unable to wrest the title from Danielson. Entering this matchup, Shelley was the #4 ranked contender in the ROH Top 5 Rankings, just below Christopher Daniels. Shelley, much like Daniels, also wrestles for TNA.

The Match:
Diamonds from Sierra Leone hits and out comes Alex Shelley, accompanied this evening by both Prince Nana and Daizee Haze. The Disposable Teens intro brings Christopher Daniels down to ringside along with his manager Alison Danger. By the way, Danger is Steve Corino’s sister, if you were curious. We get a quick cut to the opening bell and we’re off.

The two men reach in for a knucklelock and Shelley spits water in Daniels’ face. Shelley grabs a headlock and they go into a leapfrog sequence, which Shelley ends with a slap to the face. All of this just serves to piss Daniels off, so Shelley bails to the outside. An “Alex is a Pussy” chant starts, so Shelley goes to run his mouth on some fans. Unfortunately for him, he slips while trying to stand on a chair, which only fuels the crowd’s mockery. The perfunctory “You Fucked Up” chant ensues, so Shelley does a pretty funny oversell, clutching at his heart and then deciding to blame the chair. Shelley stalls a little bit more before finally getting back in the ring. He struts around a little bit and then we get a proper collar-and-elbow lockup.

Shelley grabs another headlock and then transitions into a quick hammerlock before Daniels tries a reversal that only gets him slapped again. Daniels is just livid at this point, so Shelley bails again. Daniels follows him out this time, chasing him around the ring for a bit. Daniels gives up the pursuit and Shelley, cocky as ever, stretches across the ring. Daniels gets back in the ring, but when Shelley finally rolls back in himself, Nana gets on the apron. Daniels foolishly goes after Nana, so Shelley takes advantage with a kick to the knee. Shelley grabs a wristlock, but Daniels uses the ropes to flip out of it and then gets a single leg takedown. Daniels tries to cartwheel away off of the ropes, but Shelley calmly grabs a wristlock as he goes by in a really slick spot. Shelley lightly slaps at Daniels’ head just to be a jerk, so Daniels flips out of the wristlock again and this time gets a stiff slap to the face for a little bit of retribution. Shelley, of course, jumps out of the ring again, but is only met by the obvious “You Got Bitch Slapped” chant. Shelley: “No I didn’t, no I didn’t, no I didn’t!”

Shelley gets back up on the apron and Daniels tries to slingshot him in. Shelley avoids it and gets a shoulder to the gut from the apron. Normally, you’d see a sunset flip attempt here, but instead Shelley ducks down and gets a leg sweep from the apron. Shelley quickly goes up top, but gets caught in an inverted atomic drop on the way down. Shelley oversells and Daniels gets a clothesline for a one count. Daniels gets an armdrag and holds the armbar. Daniels switches to a wristlock, and then gets another armdrag off of an Irish whip. Daniels holds the armbar again for a little while until Shelley forces him to the corner and rubs his forearm in Daniels’ face to get the break. Shelley chops away and poses, but Daniels just gets pissed and chops back. They exchange chops until Shelley hits a knee to the midsection. Shelley tries a cross corner whip, but Daniels slingshots over him on a blind charge and chops him down a couple of times before getting another armdrag and going back to the armbar. That was a really smooth sequence.

Daniels drops an elbow to the arm, then grabs another wristlock and forces Shelley down into another armbar. Shelley makes his way back to his feet and they go into a long series of standing switches for a waistlock that ends when Shelley stomps on Daniels’ foot. Shelley gets a snapmare takedown and gets a double boot scrape to the face before hitting a seated dropkick to Daniels’ back. It should be noted that Shelley is selling the arm really well, despite Daniels using only a series of simple holds. That’s really great attention to detail. Shelley poses some more and then rips away at the nose. He brings Daniels to his feet and then hits a falling neckbreaker. Shelley slams Daniels’ knee into the mat and then puts on one of his complicated submission holds. This one is a combination figure-four and seated reverse armbar. It’s not pretty, but seems effective. Daniels gets free in relatively short order, but Shelley gets a cover for two. Shelley grabs a cravate, but Daniels tries to work his way to his feet. Dueling chants of “Fallen Angel” and “Alex Shelley” have broken out, which is somewhat strange because Shelley has been working in full heel mode the whole time. Daniels slugs his way out and gets a chop to the chest. Shelley reverses a whip, but drops his head like a moron and gets kicked in the face for his trouble. Daniels whips him to the corner, but Shelley ducks a running elbow and gets a clothesline and then a bulldog out of the corner for two. The cover was cocky, but Shelley did grab the far leg, so you can’t completely fault his technique.

Shelley just stands on Daniels’ head and poses for a bit, drawing some boos. He picks up Daniels and gets a spinebuster off an Irish whip. He takes a moment to run his mouth on the Fallen Angel (yep, it’s a pun), and then hits a Lionsault (quebrada) for two. The crowd chants “Y2J” at him as a result of the overt Chris Jericho reference, so Shelley pulls out one of Jericho’s old poses, much to the crowd’s delight. Of course this all has given Daniels time to regroup, so he hits a pair of strikes to the midsection, but Shelley stomps him down to regain control. Shelley picks him up and hits a bridging Northern Lights suplex for two.

Daniels tries to rally the crowd, so Shelley stands behind him and mockingly does the same. They exchange strikes mid-ring until Shelley rakes the face and gets a stiff kick to the face. Shelley whip Daniels cross corner, but Daniels slingshots him over the top on the charge. Shelley ducks a clothesline on the apron and gets a Stunner on the top rope. Shelley tries to slingshot back in, but Daniels avoids it and sends Shelley into the canvas face-first. Step-up enziguiri by Daniels and both men are down. The dueling chants start again. Shelley gets back to his feet first but gets hit with a jawbreaker. Daniels gets a series of forearm strikes and clotheslines and then follows up with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker off of an Irish whip and a running STO for two.

Shelley reverses a whip to the corner, but Daniels slingshots over him, only to get caught with a superkick right to the chin. Shelley, however, is too hurt to make an immediate cover. An eventual rollup gets two. Shelley gets a really complicated rollup, but the ref blows the spot and doesn’t make a count. The announcers play it like the ref couldn’t see Daniels’ shoulders, but it was a clear error. Shelley goes for another neat rollup, but Daniels reverses to a waistlock cradle (think: end result of a bridging German suplex) for two. Shelley gets a mule kick to the midsection and then comes off the ropes with a seated dropkick to the top of Daniels’ head that looked just fantastic. Shelley goes for a fireman’s carry to set up something, but Daniels slips out and gets a Blue Thunder Bomb off of an Irish whip. Daniels is too hurt to make an immediate cover, but makes his way to his feet and calls for the Best Moonsault Ever (triple jump moonsault). Shelley moves out of the way of the BME, but Daniels lands on his feet. Daniels gets a body slam and goes for the Arabian Press, but Shelley gets the knees up. Shelley goes for a backslide, but Daniels rolls through and gets the Angel’s Wings (180 degree sit-out double underhook facebuster) for the three count at 14:35. That was a superb finishing sequence, by the way. Danger joins Daniels in the ring to pose and celebrate the victory.

The Analysis:
Just an incredibly solid mid-card match from two true professionals. Though there was little in terms of an advanced storyline or feud, sometimes a match works well enough as a competition between highly ranked competitors. Both men entered the match ranked in Ring of Honor’s Top 5, but with each also coming off of a loss at Arena Warfare. With that in mind, it makes sense that the match would be hotly contested, with each man controlling a portion and the finish coming off of a reversal rather than a string of offense.

Shelley’s early strategy (upset Daniels and try to take advantage of his overly aggressive response) was actually a smart move that reminds me of CM Punk’s stated strategy from his title encounters with Samoa Joe. Punk’s idea in those contests was to use quick strikes and simple moves to frustrate Joe and then avoid the Samoan’s big strike attempts, with the inspiration being that other challengers had tried to absorb Joe’s punishment and had lost. Shelley seemed to be employing a similar approach here: force Daniels out of his comfort zone by irritating him and then use the wristlocks to wear him down. Unfortunately, Shelley ran into the cold, hard fact that Daniels is a highly experienced ring veteran and was able to curb his temper and use numerous armbars and wristlocks himself. Daniels’ early arm work may have paid off, as Shelley did not use a number of his finishing moves, including Shellshock (swinging reverse STO), Sliced Bread #2 (shiranui) and the Border City Stretch (arm capture crossface). In fact, Shelley did not even attempt most of his signature spots, going with a more simplified offensive approach featuring a lot of rollups and strikes.

The match itself was incredibly well executed, with the finishing sequence deserving yet another mention, as everything from the superkick on was just remarkably crisp (with the notable exception of the referee’s slip-up on Shelley’s rollup). Everything throughout seemed to hit solidly and the selling (especially from Shelley) was superb. This match exemplifies what all mid-card matches should strive to be: clean, smartly wrestled and competitive, without going overboard in an attempt to steal the show.

The Aftermath:
In the wake of this loss, Shelley went on go undefeated throughout Ring of Honor’s Wrestlemania weekend shows in Detroit and Chicago. He would not appear in the ring again until Weekend of Champions Night 2, where he and Jimmy Rave were unsuccessful in their bid to win the ROH Tag Team Titles from Austin Aries & Roderick Strong. By the end of June, Shelley, nursing an injury, would leave Ring of Honor for good, choosing to focus his attention on his work for TNA.

Daniels’ next match in Ring of Honor was his final one-on-one contest with longtime nemesis Samoa Joe. Daniels pinned Joe with three consecutive BMEs to earn his first singles victory against the big man. Daniels and Joe faced off in two more matches during Wrestlemania weekend, with each being a multi-man contest and with each being won by Joe (though Daniels was not involved in either decision). The Fallen Angel had a major milestone occur just three shows later, as he finally followed the Code of Honor and shook hands for the first time following his contest with Claudio Castagnoli at The 100th Show. Claudio would go on to turn on ROH during that show’s main event, much to Daniels’ chagrin. In a nice bit of long-term continuity, Daniels and newfound tag team partner Matt Sydal would eventually defeat Castagnoli and Chris Hero (who are known as The Kings of Wrestling) for the ROH World Tag Team Titles in November of 2006. Daniels and Sydal continue to hold those belts as of this writing.

As an interesting addendum to this week’s match, though Shelley and Daniels were both highly ranked entering this contest, neither would receive another shot at Bryan Danielson’s title. (Note: Daniels did face Danielson for the ROH World Title in June of 2006 in San Antonio, Texas, but the match took place outside of Ring of Honor and is not recognized as an official part of the ROH cannon)

The Final Word:
Watching Christopher Daniels is always interesting for me, because though I always say I’m not a huge fan of his, I find myself almost constantly entertained by his matches. If nothing else, I believe that’s the sign of him being a real professional and someone who is just immensely talented both in the ring and out. As a side note on Alex Shelley, I highly recommend his aforementioned match against Bryan Danielson at ROH Arena Warfare, as it’s easily one of the best heel vs. heel matchups you will ever see.

If you’d like to see this week’s match, Best in the World is available on rohwrestling.com and also comes highly recommended. The main event is an International dream match with Samoa Joe & Bryan Danielson facing the team of KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji, another match you really should go out of your way to see.

Other stuff to check out on 411 this week includes Ari Berenstein’s Column of Honor and Garoon & Ziegler’s ROH Glory By Honor V, Night 2 DVD review which includes the Homicide & Joe vs. the Briscoes match that I discussed a few weeks ago.

As we don’t have an ROH Roundtable on 411, here are my short form picks for both shows this weekend. Cards are as of Monday 1.22.07:

1.26 – Braintree, MA
Homicide, Jay & Mark Briscoe (2 falls to 1), Samoa Joe, the team of Jimmy Jacobs, Brent Albright & Lacey (Albright submits Haze), Davey Richards, Jimmy Rave (submits Jason Blade), Delirious & Pelle Primeau (Primeau pins Shane Hagadorn), Jack Evans

1.27 – Edison, NJ
Homicide, Nigel McGuinness, Jimmy Jacobs, the team of Austin Aries, Roderick Strong & Jack Evans (Evans pins Shingo), Jay & Mark Briscoe (Mark pins Ricky Reyes), Christopher Daniels (pins Claudio Castagnoli), Colt Cabana & Daizee Haze (Haze pins Lacey), Adam Pearce

Finally, be on the lookout for my new project The Box in the Attic, as the first column should be up later this week. And before you ask, no, it is NOT another Ring of Honor column. In fact, if you were a fan of the Attitude Era, this one’s going to be right up your alley.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see everyone again next week in The Independent Mid-Card.