The Independent Mid-Card 02.13.07: Styles vs. Rave

AJ Styles vs. Jimmy Rave
Street Fight
Ring of Honor – The Homecoming – Philadelphia, PA – July 23, 2005

The Wrestlers:
AJ Styles – Originally a product of NWA Wildside, “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles first came to national prominence through his work in the early days of Ring of Honor and the fledgling NWA-TNA promotion. Though he was a part of the dying days of World Championship Wrestling, Styles has always been more associated with the Independent pro wrestling scene, and is regarded as one of the top talents in the world. In particular, his matches against Low Ki and “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson remain some of the best from ROH’s early period. As time went on, Styles began to mentor a young Jimmy Rave, helping the rookie to develop as a competitor both in and out of the ring. Then, in early 2004 TNA (now operating without the ‘NWA’ moniker) pulled all of it’s contracted wrestlers from Ring of Honor, forcing Styles to vacate the ROH Pure Wrestling Championship and leave the promotion. He would not return until February of 2005, and that appearance had been advertised as a one night only affair. The naming of this show as The Homecoming is a reference to the return to competition for both AJ Styles and “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels, who were making their first appearances back in Philadelphia, the birthplace of Ring of Honor.

NOTE: The ROH Pure Wrestling Championship is a different championship from the now retired ROH Pure Title that was most recently held by “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson. Styles’ holding of the ROH Pure Wrestling Title is not a part of that title’s lineage and furthermore is no longer recognized as an official title reign by Ring of Honor.

Jimmy Rave – Once a plucky babyface, Jimmy Rave became one of the most reviled heels in Ring of Honor history when he joined Prince Nana’s hated stable, the Embassy. Rave’s first mission upon joining the group was to make clear to the fans that he had never been mentored by Styles, going so far as to use Styles’ finishing move, the Styles Clash, all the while referring to it as the Rave Clash and discussing how he had invented the maneuver. After months and months of talk, Rave was finally forced to face his former mentor as TNA consented to a one night only appearance for Styles at ROH’s Third Anniversary Celebration, Part II in Dayton, OH. Though many assumed that Rave would get his comeuppance on that show, he was able to squeak by with a tainted victory, using a myriad of underhanded tactics along the way. Rave went on to have a truly epic feud against fan favorite CM Punk, during which Rave was able to defeat Punk in a bloody Dog Collar Match but was finally vanquished in a fantastic Steel Cage Match at the end of May. Coming off of that war, it certainly must have made Rave restless to know that AJ Styles would be returning full-time to ROH, and that a Street Fight between the two men had already been scheduled.

The Match:
We begin abruptly, as I Am brings AJ Styles running down to the ring. The Embassy of Jimmy Rave, Fast Eddie, Prince Nana and a freshly turned Alex Shelley is laying in a solid beating to Generation Next members Austin Aries & Roderick Strong, with Shelley and Fast Eddie having just defeated the duo in a sanctioned tag team affair. The lights quickly come up just as AJ is finishing up clearing the ring of the Embassy members. AJ stands proudly in the middle of the ring, just daring the reluctant Rave to climb back in and fight him. It should be noted that both guys are wearing jeans and t-shirts and have taped fists, which is both a nice touch and appropriate given the Street Fight stipulation. Rave continues to talk trash from the outside and gets some encouragement from Nana, but the crowd fires up a “Die, Jimmy, Die!” chant that doesn’t serve to help his confidence. The crowd then switches to a less negative “Let’s go, AJ!” chant as Rave slowly makes his way back in. The referee holds AJ back and then rings the bell to start the fight proper.

They circle and Rave gets a couple of shots to the face to start, but AJ reverses and Irish whip and lays in some punches of his own. AJ actually punches Rave all the way out to the floor and then follows him to continue the brawl on the floor. AJ gets some more punches in and rams Rave’s head into the barricade a bunch of times. AJ whips Rave into the guardrail, then gets a knee to the gut and whips him into the next corner. Styles then press slams Rave clear into the crowd, prompting an “AJ!” chant from the Philly crowd. AJ again follows him and they brawl over near the merchandise stand. AJ goes for another press slam, but can’t get it cleanly and just dumps Rave back-first into the side of the merchandise table. That looked ugly, but you can’t argue about the effectiveness. AJ kicks away at the downed Rave and the two brawl closer to ringside. Rave tries to whip Styles into the back end of the guardrail, but AJ slows up and comes back at Rave with a spear that takes both men down hard to the concrete. AJ stands around for a bit before smashing Rave’s head into some of the open chairs. He then goes for a suplex with both guys standing on the chairs, but Rave counters and hits a falling DDT to the chairs that draws a loud and deserved “Holy Shit!” chant.

AJ looks pretty out of it and Rave headbutts him and clotheslines him over the guardrail and back to ringside. Rave returns the favor and whips AJ into one of the barricades, and AJ actually collapses before he reaches it and sort of slides hard into the bottom of the rail. It’s unclear whether that was a screw up or great selling. Rave stands on AJ’s throat as Nana talks trash and then rams AJ into the barricade again and pounds him down. Another whip to the guardrail includes the same pseudo-collapse sell as the first one, so I’m leaning towards ‘great selling’ on the earlier occurrence. Rave continues to slug away at AJ and then grabs a blatant choke. Another whip to the guardrail and I notice some guy in the crowd wearing a University of Maryland Len Bias jersey. Good taste by that fan. AJ tries to fight back and goes for a back body drop of sorts, but Rave goes dead weight on him and then pounds him down some more. Finally, Rave rolls Styles back in the ring and then grabs a chair before following.

Rave goes for a chairshot right off the bat, but AJ kicks him in the midsection to counter. Rave drops the chair and AJ slugs away, but gets caught with a right hand when he goes for the discus lariat. AJ stumbles back and actually slips on the chair, allowing Rave to hit his picture-perfect running knee strike for two. The crowd didn’t buy the count, but only because it’s still pretty early in the match, not because it wasn’t a good sequence. The crowd chants for AJ as Rave sets up for the Rave Clash and AJ slips out and punches away. AJ literally headbutts Rave all the way around the ring in a bit that the announcers admit would give you a headache just from watching. AJ backs off for a moment, having understandable knocked himself for a bit of a loop and then goes back to the now bleeding Rave in the corner.

AJ punches at Rave in the corner, trying to open the cut up further, before stopping as both men sell the exhaustion of the brawl. Rave crawls out to the apron and AJ follows, trying to hit a Russian legsweep off the apron through the timekeeper’s table. Rave tries to elbow out, so AJ just switches it up and hits a belly-to-back suplex that sends both guys crashing from the apron through the table. That was an absolutely crazy spot. AJ is up pretty quickly, but Rave is just out of it on the floor. AJ rolls him back in and sets up for the Styles Clash, but Rave can barely stand. AJ then decides to move the chair and goes for the move again, but irony, that cruel mistress, interjects herself and Rave back body drops out of it, sending AJ crashing onto the chair. Rave is just stumbling around, but has the wherewithal to hit a jumping foot stomp that sends AJ back into the chair face first. Rave opens up the chair and sets it up in the middle of the ring and then goes to whip AJ to the ropes (possibly for a drop-toehold), but AJ reverses. Styles gets a back elbow and then just kills Rave, hitting him with a brainbuster onto the open chair in another great spot.

Rave sells the brainbuster like death as the Embassy B-Team of Killer Kruel and Fast Eddie comes down to try and turn the tide. AJ dispatches with both of them almost effortlessly before turning his attention back to Rave. Kruel and Eddie regroup with Nana on the outside, so AJ takes his opening and hits all three men with a gorgeous pescado. Jade Chung, who at the time was serving as Prince Nana’s slave and Jimmy Rave’s official foot stool, comes in to try to distract AJ, but he catches her attempt at a slap and simply forces her out of the ring while slapping her on the ass a couple of times. The announcers sell it as him showing compassion and being a class act, but it’s hard to reconcile that with the unnecessary pats on the behind, at least where I come from. AJ calls for the Styles Clash again, but this time Alex Shelley runs back out and hits AJ with Shellshock and Rave follows up with the Rave Clash for the pinfall at 12:53.

A few fans throw garbage and streamers (presumably because they didn’t have any garbage) in the ring as the crowd chants “Bullshit!” at the decision, but the match was under Street Fight rules, so the ref’s hands were pretty much tied on the interference. Shelley mocks AJ and then all five Embassy members just go to town stomping away at the fallen Styles. Roderick Strong comes running back out to defend Styles and avenge his earlier beating, but the numbers catch up with him pretty quickly. The crowd chants for Austin Aries, and he obliges, but all the while selling the back injury he sustained earlier. Aries & Strong do their best to get some shots in, but the Embassy has them outnumbered 5-to-3. After putting down the opposition, the Embassy poses in the middle of the ring to loud boos from the crowd. The Embassy poses it’s way up the entrance ramp as Diamonds From Sierra Leone plays them out. Styles, Aries and Strong have all regained their composure in the ring, and AJ shakes hands with both men as the crowd chants his name. This would be the final part of the Generation Next face turn that had been building since Aries lost the ROH World Title a month earlier.

The Analysis:
In looking back at this contest, it certainly was a punch-filled affair. Given the circumstances and stipulations, however, that’s not such a bad thing. Styles more than clearly seemed like a man who was out for his opponent’s blood, while Rave was simply trying to hold his own and do as much damage as possible. The truth of the matter is that this feud was a lot more about AJ defending his honor than it was about Rave. Rave had begun to run his mouth on The Phenomenal One and use the Rave Clash because he figured he’d never actually have to defend himself against the departed Styles. When he walked out of Dayton with a tainted victory six months earlier, you have to think he figured the issue to be done with. Rave had made a habit of ducking out of matches during his feud with CM Punk, and so his reluctance to even climb in the ring with Styles fit right into his chickenshit persona.

As I go back over the play-by-play, it occurs to me that there was only one pinfall attempt in the entire match before Rave put down AJ with the Rave Clash, that being on the running knee strike Rave hit after AJ tripped on a chair. It seems strange that Rave wouldn’t go for nearly constant pinfall attempts just to try to end the match as quickly as possible, but he took the one obvious attempt (after the knee strike) and wasn’t really able to mount consistent in-ring offense at any point after that. In fact, most of Rave’s success came from exploiting AJ’s mistakes or overconfidence, such as the elevated DDT in the crowd and the back body drop onto the chair to avoid the Styles Clash.

Though some might be troubled by the interference by Shelley leading directly to Rave’s victory, the booking was totally consistent with the storyline, and was an important part of completing Shelley’s heel turn and new membership in the Embassy. Additionally, the post-match beatings helped to solidify Styles and Generation Next as allies, which would be important in both the Styles-Rave and GenNext-Embassy feuds over the coming months.

The Aftermath:
Though he walked out the winner on this night, Rave would eventually lose his war with AJ Styles, as Styles defeated Rave in a special challenge match at Glory By Honor IV. In that contest, the winner was the first man to hit the Styles/Rave Clash and the loser was banned from using the maneuver in Ring of Honor from that point on. AJ was able to hit the move off of the second rope and through a table to secure the victory and end the nearly two-year-long issue between the two men. Upon completion of his feud with Rave, Styles became somewhat of a nomad in ROH competition, focusing more on individual matches (including excellent ones against Austin Aries and ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson) rather than on a specific feud. He did form a brief partnership with Generation Next member Matt Sydal after the two engaged in a great singles contest in early 2006, but the duo was unable to unseat Sydal’s stable mates Austin Aries & Roderick Strong and become ROH Tag Team Champions. Styles would make his final ROH appearance in August of 2006, losing to Samoa Joe. Styles has continued to be one of the top stars of TNA, and is considered the signature competitor in the company’s groundbreaking X-Division.

In addition to his feud with Styles, Rave was simultaneously fighting a war with Generation Next. Fighting alongside Shelley and new Embassy strongman Abyss, Rave and his associates would trade victories with Aries, Strong, Jack Evans and Matt Sydal for the better part of five months, culminating in the company’s first (and so far only) Steel Cage Warfare match. Though losers in that match, Rave, Shelley & Abyss would win the 2006 Trios Tournament, earning Rave a shot at the ROH World Title, a match I covered in an earlier column. More recently, Rave, having moved away from his time in the Embassy, has begun to rack up victories with his new heel hook submission. This Friday, February 16th, Rave will challenge ROH World Champion “The Notorious 187” Homicide for his title in New York City.

The Last Word:
This brawl was another big notch in the belt of Jimmy Rave during his rise from pure mid-card talent to main event heel threat. Though few are predicting that Rave will walk out of New York City as the new ROH World Champion, he is certainly regarded as a long-term title threat and part of that is certainly due to his success in his seminal feuds against Punk and Styles.

Also, though few would consider this a signature AJ Styles performance, the Phenomenal One’s ability to compete so well in a pure brawl speaks volumes about Styles’ in-ring abilities. I have to admit that I’m actually not the biggest fan of AJ Styles, but his talent is undeniable and he has been involved in more than his share of truly spectacular matches, both in Ring of Honor and elsewhere.

As has become tradition here in the IMC, this week’s match is available on rohwrestling.com on The Homecoming DVD. Also on the show is Alex Shelley’s heel turn and a main event that pits ROH World Champion CM Punk against the returning “Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels in a match that goes Broadway.

While you’re here on 411, take the time to check out some other stuff. Ari Berenstein’s Column of Honor and Stuart Carapola’s Friendly Competition are always must-reads. Also, Jordan Linkous has started a three-part Roundtable in WWE vs. TNA, so check that out for a guest appearance by yours truly. Also, over in the Music Zone, you can check out my contribution to another zone’s Top 5 column, which I believe will be up at some point today.

In other news, on the heels of a very successful Roundtable Retrospective looking at Samoa Joe’s ROH career, the 411 staff will begin doing regular Roundtables to preview Ring of Honor events. Look for the first one to be up later this week in advance of this weekend’s Fifth Year Festival shows.

And finally, I want to wish a very happy birthday to my friend Matt Hamilton, as he turns the big three-oh today. I obviously say this with mixed emotions, as I’m glad to be celebrating with him, but am troubled by the looming need to start looking at nursing homes.

With that said, I’m off to listen to some newly downloaded Pearl Jam. See you again next week in another edition of The Independent Mid-Card. Oh, and I’m going to try to do some FIP, so Florida fans should stay tuned.