The Furious Flashbacks – ROH Glory By Honor IV

Let the era of Danielson begin!

So a few emailers wanted to know why I’m skipping around and skipping over various shows and just picking random shows to review from ROH these days. Simple answer; I can’t afford to do every show. So I’m picking out the shows I have a marked interest in. This being the latest. I skipped over CM Punk’s departure from ROH both with Redemption where he dropped the belt and Punk – The Final Chapter because while it’d be nice to see Punk go out I want to remember him as the guy who swerved everyone at Death Before Dishonor III. Or the guy who pushed Samoa Joe to his limit. This also allows me to skip James Gibson’s title run, which I thought was a bad idea in the first place as he was also leaving the company. In fact when you look at where ROH was going in the middle of 2005 you’d be worried. The main draws the company has are either on the verge of committing full time to TNA (Daniels, AJ, Samoa Joe) or joining the WWE (CM Punk, Matt Hardy, Spanky, James Gibson). Who does that leave? Well, thankfully for ROH it leaves the returning Bryan Danielson. The rest is history.

17th September 2005. We’re in Lake Grove, New York. Hosts are Dave Prazak & Lenny Leonard.

BACKSTAGE Gary Michael Cappetta references GBH #1 and Ki v Joe. He has Lacey she’s suspended everyone in the Angels and she’s scouting talent tonight. She has a spaz at the cameraman.

PROMO TIME – Jay Lethal. He looks weird not impersonating Randy Savage now. He calls out Low-Ki and he seems pissed off because of how Ki crippled him and he’s never gotten a measure of revenge. Julius Smokes answers to call Lethal an “Alabama porch monkey”. OOOOOHHH. That’s fightin’ talk. He adds in a “cocksucka” for good measure. He reminds Lethal that Ki keeps stomping Lethal’s ass in front of his Momma. Smokes wants to know what’s in it for the Rottweilers if Ki comes out here. Smokes tells him they don’t want any “black on black crime” and calls him Buckwheat. Smokes wants Low-Ki’s suspension lifted if he beats Jay Lethal tonight. Lethal agrees, although he has zero authority, and Smokes wants a handshake. It’s a setup and Ki appears through the crowd at speed to jump Lethal from behind.

Jay Lethal v Low-Ki

Low-Ki’s ghetto trousers are the stupidest thing I’ve seen a wrestler do to themselves. It’s no Gobbledygooker or Fred Ottman wearing a Stormtrooper helmet but they were told to do those things. Prazak says ROH needs an authority figure. We sho’ do! That would be a vacancy that ROH would go on to address. Ki initially whups Lethal around the ring but Lethal is fuelled by his sense of the Rottweilers wrongdoing. Hell, if Low-Ki didn’t have suffer from Jobberitis he’d have probably have gotten some heat back by now. Bauer is on commentary talking about how he doesn’t care if Ki thinks he’s part of ROH or not. Quasi-shoot? I know Ki is difficult to deal with. After all he’s walked out on TNA twice. Ki takes it to the floor and ROH seems to have gained pretty blue black mats. He moves them and slams Lethal on the far more harsh looking carpet underneath. Ouch, he might get a friction burn. That Low-Ki is a badass. Ki threatens to double stomp Lethal through the timekeepers table, which would seriously leave a mark, but Lethal moves so he dives on him instead. Low-Ki scares me. I was trapped in a car with him the once. Luckily he slept most of the time and only threatened to kill two people I know. Ki wants the Ki Krusher on the floor but Lethal counters looking for the Dragon on the floor but the rail breaks it up. The table is set up on the rail and Ki has evil intentions. Lethal’s face breaks it. OW! Ki isn’t done! Lethal is busted open. Ki tears the table in half and uses the edge to stab Lethal in the head. Ki wants more weapons and he’s chucking chairs into the ring. Smokes implies they want to end Lethal’s career tonight. Ki gets a chinlock and starts screaming “BLEEEEEED” at Lethal. Duelling chants. Damn smarks. Ki starts finger painting with Lethal’s blood. Oh, that’s rubbish. It looks like the work of a child. Check out Jerry Lynn & Steve Corino for how to do that properly. Ki with the I’ll chop ya in the back. I love that song. Ki wants double stomps. WHY ARE YOU SO MEAN? Lethal moves. Lethal’s comeback looks pretty weak as he doesn’t seem inclined to hit anything clean and Ki’s stuff looks THAT much harsher by comparison. Lethal with a diving headbutt for 2. He wants the Dragon suplex but Smokes is up on the apron to break it so Lethal decides to kill him. Ki interrupts with a chair. They get sloppy fighting over it until Ki dropkicks the chair into his body for 2. Ghetto Stomp gets 2. Ki is in disbelief because that move is SO badass. Ki hits a few chair shots to the ribs and Lethal is proper fucked. Chair on top. Oh, this is a bad idea. DOUBLE STOMP WITH CHAIR! FUCK ME! You KNOW that’ll do it at 16.24. ***1/4. Lethal was a little sloppy and not particularly aggressive considering it was supposed to be his revenge match. Ki ended up carrying the match and the fans recognise that by cheering for him.

POST MATCH Ki tells Lethal he warned him and offers a handshake to end the feud. Lethal is about to buy into it but that would be giving him something and this whole feud has been 100% Low-Ki so he flips him off instead and walks.

CLIPS we see a recap of the Low-Ki v Jay Lethal feud. I’m surprised they found that much Lethal offence to be honest.

BACKSTAGE Bryan Danielson talks about when he was last here and how Homicide beat him mentally and he felt he should have beaten Austin Aries for the ROH title. He’s been over in Europe gaining experience. He says he’s stronger, faster and feels like a better wrestler. He says he’s beaten all the top guys in ROH but he needs to win the ROH title to complete his career. He says if he doesn’t beat Gibson and win the ROH title he’ll leave the company for good but he bets he’ll be taking gold home this evening.

Azrieal v Austin Aries

Where’s Personal Jesus gone Austin? He’s turned babyface since I last saw when Alex Shelley joined the Embassy. Azrieal isn’t in Aries’ league at all. I’m conscious that I tune out when I see a mismatch. It’s up the lesser participant to make me believe. Az tries to use his speed to get in charge but against Aries that isn’t effective. I find when he does hit a headscissors or something like that it’s not believable. It’s just because Aries is slacking off. Az has improved drastically since his Special K days but that doesn’t mean he’s in Aries league. Aries is crisper, quicker and has a stronger moveset not to mention more experience. And of course Aries is one of the most explosive wrestlers in the world. He clocks Az with a nice lariat for 2. Just sprang off the ropes before making contact. Nice. Lacey is shown making notes. Seeing as she opposed Azrieal I doubt she’s scouting him. Aries kills him with a backdrop driver and straps him in the Torture Rack. It’s pretty much over as Az is now not responding. Aries elbow drops him but that only gets 2. You get the feeling he could finish whenever he felt like it. Az drops Aries on his neck and that makes me wince. It does take the edge of Aries strikes in the following exchange suggesting that is a big turning point in this match. Now I believe that Azrieal could potentially cause an upset. Aries now seems half a step slower and less aware of where his opponent is. A springboard clothesline leaves Aries down for 2. Az spends too long on the buckles and now Aries has gotten his shit together again. Az gets himself Russian legswept into the buckles and Aries hits an awesome running dropkick for 2. I love it when Aries just explodes into action like that. Az throws knees to escape the brainbuster and Aries still has a few cobwebs from that backdrop driver. Aries kicks him in the head though and the brainbuster sets up the 450 Splash to finish at 11.18. **3/4. I liked the match as soon as I felt Azrieal stood a chance. From there on in it was golden. Plus the finish was set up by Aries delivering a beautifully timed kick to the head. Azrieal sold it to a tee and the finish made sense thanks to that.

Pure title – Roderick Strong v Nigel McGuinness (c)

Here’s two chaps making their way up the card with a purpose. Nigel is actually quasi-heel at this point having cheated during his feud with Colt Cabana. Strong meanwhile has turned babyface when Alex Shelley joined the Embassy turning the entire Generation Next face. Nigel is YOUR Pure wrestling champion having beaten Samoa Joe for the belt. That kind of pushed him over the edge and now he’s really quite believable as a high card guy. The heelish antics and use of a common household iron have also given his character a little more edge. We get the rules announced before the match and a vocal minority yells over them. Which causes Nigel to grab the mic demanding respect for the officials in ROH and the rules involved in pure title matches. Nigel even goes as far as to lift Bret Hart’s catchphrase just to add to his heat and the crowd is even chanting USA. If I hadn’t heard it, I wouldn’t believe it. The so-called educated and inside ROH crowd has fallen for jingoism.

Strong is coming in strong having beaten Matt Hardy at the last show. Nigel does a rare thing in wrestling; he blocks a chop. Why don’t more people just block chops? People block punches and kicks often enough. Nigel also has a nice headlock takeover. Getting the snap on that is quite hard and is also dependant on the opponent taking a quick bump. Just to show that comes as standard he does another one. Strong gets out with, what else, a backbreaker. Nigel gets the headstand and Strong gets double kicked and headlocked back to the mat. It’s impressive that both guys have great focus in the early minutes of a match. Strong even throws a few sly strikes into the back area while he’s trapped in the headlock. Strong ends up in the ropes and loses a break. Sly from Nigel as he pretty much pushed him into the ropes. Back to the headlock. Nigel adds in a wristlock while the headlock is on and again suckers Strong into the ropes. Strong is unimpressed and battles back hitting the Lungblower. Not sure why Strong is so slow to follow up on that. Nigel busts out the rebound lariat for 2. I’d question just how many times people get caught by that. The set up is quite long. Nigel starts laying in strikes with forearm uppercuts. Nigel headstands again but this time Strong charges quicker and dropkicks him. Urinage backbreaker into the Stronghold but Nigel uses his first rope break to block it. Strong remains in charge and hits a superplex for 2. Press gutbuster follows. It occurs to me at this point that working each other is great for both guys but they’ve been improving by working better guys and now they’ve got the chance to show what they learned. The result is pleasing. Nigel sucker punches Strong behind the ref’s back and the ref only sees the retaliation, which gets Strong a warning. It’s a bit like watching football where the guy who retaliates a foul gets sent off. Anyway none of this matters because Nigel uses his punches to his advantage and hits the Tower of London for the win at 12.14. ***. I could have lived with another 10 minutes or more but it was very energetic and focused. Both guys are progressing nicely. More importantly the crowd reaction is really strong for both guys as well. With ROH shedding top end guys they’ll need the crowd to believe in midcard talent advancing. Here are two guys they DO believe in. Strong would see an immediate push because of this winning the 2005 Survival of the Fittest.

CLIPS We see James Gibson v Roderick Strong from FIP. The idea being that Gibson, who’s in ROH until he loses the belt, is defending it all over the place.

Homicide w/Julius Smokes v Colt Cabana

This feud was just kicking off after Cabana jokingly referred to Homicide as his “nizzle”. Homicide took with about as much humour as his character always does. None in other words. It’s not someone spilling a cup of coffee but it’s the most obvious example from ROH of that kind of booking. Minor incident happens backstage…feud follows. There’s also a feeling this is the first time ROH has charged into a feud where it’s a bit of a clash of styles. Colt does the Rick Steiner thing with the referee, which is pretty funny. Crowd gets behind Colt but obviously we get duelling chants because it’s ROH. Having spent some time away from ROH it’s REALLY easy to see why some people dislike the crowd. It does come across as deliberately smarkish at times. Which is probably why it appealed to me so much in the first place. Colt & Smokes have a weird noise-off, which I think Colt wins based on crowd reaction although we get duelling chants again. Can’t you folks just let the babyface have one entire pop? Just one? It’s almost as clichéd as people just booing heels and cheering babyfaces just because that’s what they are.

Cabana gets in Homicide’s grill talking street until Homicide gets sick of it and we get a brawl to start. I say a brawl; it’s more Homicide punching Cabana in the face until he falls over. Smokes comes after Cabana but Colt steals his colours and Homicide takes offence at that too and punches him some more. Is there any way to not offend Homicide? “YOU BREATHIN’ SUCKA, I HATE THAT!” Colt still seems to think this is all fun and games and goofs around with his usual borrowed European offence. Tornado suplex from Colt gets 2. Smokes blows his cue to interfere. Doesn’t appear to be important so we carry on and they seem a little lost for a few seconds. Homicide just throws him out to Smokes instead. Smokes has taken to not wearing his shirt and using it to fan Homicide. This gives him claims to the award of “most abs” in ROH. I think DeVito has him though. Homicide with a sloppy dropkick sends Colt outside and a tope follows. Not con hilo style disappointingly. Homicide has taken over and hits a tornado DDT for 2. Now THAT was crisp. Smokes adds in a back rake. He’s earning his money tonight. Homicide, with all this help, still misses his chance and the pool is empty on a flying headbutt. Cabana repays the favour by time wasting and missing an elbow. Crowd isn’t sure what to make of this because Homicide is being spoofed by Cabana but Homicide himself is serious bordering on insanity. It’s like we all know Cabana is making fun of the wrong person and it can only lead to bad things for him but we can’t help cheer sometimes because Homicide is such a serious guy that he deserves to be spoofed a little. Unfortunately Colt isn’t going 100% on the spoofing because he’s somewhat worried about what’ll happen to him. The result is occasionally messy. It’s also going too long for what is essentially a set up match to get a feud going. Homicide pulls out the Ace Crusher and he wants plunder. Isn’t that illegal referee? Homicide threatens him too. Cabana dodges a chair and hits a capture suplex for 2. Smokes runs in to stop the Colt 45. Cabana throws him across the ring so Homicide nails Cabana with a chair for the DQ at 14.31. **1/4. That was too long for what it was; a set up for future matches. Homicide took too long to be frustrated and Cabana didn’t really push him hard enough for my liking.

POST MATCH Cabana fends off the Rottweilers but he’s got no support now CM Punk has left and the Grim Reefer is out here to help the Rotties. Cabana gives him a lariat and grabs the chair. Homicide begs off until Low-Ki finally turns the tide in the favour of the Rottweilers. SAMOA JOE has seen enough and he makes the save although not because he likes Cabana but rather because he hates Homicide. Tag match please! Low-Ki pretty much no sells what’s going on and jumps into the ring grabbing the mic. I SO want to see Joe v Ki right now in a re-match from the first Glory By Honor. Ki basically says nobody beat him so he’s the real champion in Ring of Honor. Joe gets very offended and out comes Jay Lethal wanting another shot. Ki figures he can beat Lethal quite easily because he already did. RE-MATCH!

Low-Ki v Jay Lethal

I think they rushed into this a little quickly but Lethal NEEDS his revenge or he’s always going to be looked at as a gutsy kid who can’t beat anyone. He channels his anger and throws everything he can at Ki…who smiles. Uh oh. We just lost cabin pressure. Ki BITCHSLAPS THE FUCKIN’ TASTE out of Lethal’s mouth and he’s HULKING UP. Ki tries to break him with spinal taps but Lethal is all wound up with somewhere to go. Is he on PCP? And if so did he buy it from Dan Ackroyd in Trading Places? He’s so wound up he beats Ki in a chop-off and superkicks for 2. Lethal misses off the top and you get the feeling his chance was to score a quick upset pin with Ki underestimating the kid. Ki looks for the dragon sleeper but it doesn’t go any further with Lethal blocking the Dragon Clutch. Ki looks for the Ki Krusher instead and that’s countered into the dragon suplex but that’s blocked. I realise they both already had a match but going straight for finisher attempts takes the sense of build off this match. Smokes jumps on the apron but Samoa Joe runs back out to even the odds by taking out the manager. Ki looks over, gives it the “meh” look, and sets up Lethal for the corner GHETTO STOMP, which he hits. WITH AUTHORATAH! The Rottweilers run out here and attack Joe distracting the crowd from Jay Lethal’s desperation kick out. They should have brawled to the back. This is very distracting. Lethal pulls the dragon suplex out of his ass…for 2. Now Colt Cabana is out to help Joe returning the favour. Lethal goes thrown outside and it’s a mess out there. Ki wants an insane ghetto stomp to the floor but he’s still dizzy from the dragon suplex and he slips and crotches himself. That I’m not fond of. Ki is effectively beating himself. Lethal picks him off with the dragon superplex and wins at 9.19.

Hold on.

Low-Ki jobbed?

Wow. Biggest win of Jay Lethal’s career and the crowd goes mild. Despite the booking on the hunt the fact Lethal got his ass beat so many times on route to this hurt the pay off. Especially with Ki doing that goofy self-crotching spot to justify losing. **. It was a great idea. It just didn’t end up being that good in the ring.

BACKSTAGE GMC has Nigel McGuinness at Intermission. Nigel claims the match wasn’t questionable at all because he won with a wrestling hold. He accuses Cappetta’s glasses of not working. Nigel tries on Capetta’s glasses giving us the funny Mr Magoo moment.

Eric Matlock v Davey Andrews

Davey is the only guy to come out of ROH’s training program that they seem to rate, which would worry me. He’s CM Punk’s boy. Matlock is seemingly a nobody but he’s worked for New Japan, in Puerto Rico and was in the 2005 Super 8. He’s from out SoCal way. Of course all this means nothing because he’s been hired to lose to Davey Andrews. It’s saying something that ROH can now afford to bring in actual GOOD jobbers. People who can sell and do good basics to put the match over. Matlock, presumably named after Grandpa Simpson’s favourite TV show, controls the early going so Davey can show off his selling. Davey tries a springboard dropkick but misses. I’m actually more impressed with Matlock. He looks a better rounded guy. That is until Davey dumps him on his neck with a German suplex and taps Matlock with the Stretch Plum at 2.29. Which gets HEAT because it sucks. MAAAATLOOOOOOCCCCK. ¼*.

Four Corner Survival – Adam Pearce v Ricky Reyes v Samoa Joe v BJ Whitmer

Pearce is in from PWG for the first time. He probably drove Matlock over. He gained popularity out in SoCal for being Old School in a company full of new age spot heavy wrestlers. He brings his Old School shtick out here to the sounds of Lynard Skynard. Hey, he WANTS to be booed. In Ring of Honor. I like him already. Joe’s slummin’ it here in a midcard fourway that means nothing to anyone who isn’t called Adam Pearce. ROH’s 4-way’s tend to be pretty random to get different guys to face off and build programs. The main issue here would be Joe and Reyes but that’s never been important compared to Joe’s issues with other Rottweilers. BJ is one half of the tag champs. I think, but don’t quote me, that Jimmy Jacobs is injured. So BJ gets thrown in here to make up the numbers. Crowd only cares about Joe so immediately it’s a strange dynamic. Pearce shakes hands and even calls Reyes a fag for not shaking hands. And yet he’s still the guy the crowd dislike with a “Pearce sucks dick” chant.

Whitmer and Reyes start and they don’t seem too interested. Whitmer just kinda works headlocks and Reyes just counters. It’s technically ok but it doesn’t have a soul. Joe gets a tag to wake the crowd up. Pearce comes in for his ROH debut. He brings some fine Old School antics like the almighty STALL and POPULARITY CONTEST. Joe wins obviously and Pearce takes offence. “This is where the power lies” – Pearce while pointing at his own palm. More stalling. It’s weird seeing Pearce just bring his shtick note for note in here. No one has done the Old School deal in ROH, to this degree, and it’s refreshing. Some might say bush league but I quite like the guy. I’d have booked him in with more leaping fraggles first though. Would have been funnier seeing him work guys like Deranged and Jack Evans. Joe gets tired of hearing Pearce talk and slaps him so Pearce goes to the eyes. He rakes at the face as if to show he doesn’t care about Joe’s reputation. The thing with Joe is people try and go toe to toe with him and the crowd hate Pearce going to the eyes and taking the shortcuts. There’s kind of a “can he do that?” vibe. The crowd even has the temerity to chant “boring” at him for working a chinlock. The ROH crowd gets suckered into clichéd reactions for the second time this evening. Most amusing. Pearce is also ignoring both guys on the apron, which is also priceless. Why bother tagging those two guys? Just use them. Which he does by drawing BJ in to cover for him choking Joe. Brilliant. This is a ring technician at work. Joe attempts a comeback but Pearce just pokes him in the eyes. HAHAHA. I love it. And when he goes for it again Joe blocks it THREE STOOGES style and clocks him with an Enzuigiri. Chop, kick and kneedrop (the Joe Combo, which needs a name) gets 2. Dave Prazak points out “major Japanese stars” will be coming to ROH later. I guess they hadn’t inked Kobashi by this point then. Pearce gets scared of Joe and tags out to Reyes. His cheating is just less fun. Prazak mentions names being dropped from the roster. Cheech anyone? Hey, I’m all for dropping the scrubs in favour of wall to wall quality. Speaking of which Lacey is making notes on this one. I like Lacey scouting talent too. It’s an old school angle. Pearce & Reyes start excluding BJ from the match and work over Joe tag team style. It has to be noted that neither Pearce nor Reyes even remotely like the other but it gives us a heel/face alignment across the match. Joe gets the desperation tag to BJ and he cleans house. He’s been out for some time. He nearly picks off Reyes for an exploder. Joe tags himself back in to ST JOE Whitmer. We’re back to the usual clusterfuck nature of 4-ways. They give up on tagging too. Pearce piledrives BJ and celebrates. Joe KILLS HIM with a lariat. Crowd enjoy that. Everyone continues to brawl as the referee has lost on control and track of who’s legal. Pearce gets clotheslined outside. Joe slaps Reyes to set for the Musclebuster. BJ is standing right there in the ring though so Joe doesn’t bother covering. Smart move. Joe slaps him around and throws knees to the head. OUCH! Coquina Clutch! The other two are both down. BJ thinks about tapping but he doesn’t have to because he’s now unconscious at 18.41. **1/2. That was pretty long too. Did a good job of debuting Pearce and establishing what a total asshole he is. Joe dominated as soon as he figured out how to avoid the cheating and double teams. The heat ran too long though.

POST MATCH Joe grabs a mic to slander Pearce and keep his heat strong. Nice work Joe. He tells BJ Whitmer that Joe was the greatest world champion and the greatest pure champion and now he wants the tag titles so he can be the first Grand Slam winner. I like the thinking behind that. Of course he has no partner but I don’t think he really cares.

BACKSTAGE Austin Aries talks about Survival of the Fittest in 2004 when he became a breakout star. But he didn’t win. We cut to a promo for the ROH wrestling school where Austin Aries has replaced CM Punk as head trainer.

ROH title – James Gibson (c) v Bryan Danielson

Danielson debuts “The Final Countdown” by Europe as his new entrance music. He’s noticeably less showy than before losing the whole Jedi look and beard. It’s a simple jacket with “American Dragon” on the back. Crowd welcomes him back. He’s been gone since Nowhere to Run. Jimmy Bauer joins the commentary to give reasoning as to why a returning Danielson would get a title shot over guys who’ve been with the company and winning. The simple answer; he’s Bryan fuckin’ Danielson. Just give him the shot. They start with a feeling out process. Danielson has a slight edge in the opening exchanges due to his strength advantage and his technical skills. Danielson is also playing fair and makes a point of giving a clean break and shaking hands. This gives the match a bit of a cool feel. It doesn’t have the red hot atmosphere of a lot of recent ROH title bouts have had thanks to CM Punk. Bauer & Prazak point out how Gibson hasn’t quit in ROH and won’t even leave despite his contract with the WWE. Danielson starts shooting the half to try and pin Gibson but he’s also setting for Cattle Mutilation. Gibson gives up trying to block and just uses the ropes. Some nice strategy in the early going. They go to some knucklelock stuff lucha-style and that ends with Danielson hitting a whirl backbreaker. Anything on the back/neck or arms sets for Cattle Mutilation. Which is handy for Danielson because he can work any number of holds to set up his finish. It’s hard to know what he’ll go after next. Gibson has been to the dance before though so he knows what he’ll be dealing with. Bauer talks about the lengthy title matches in ROH recently, which I think is nice for the fans because it puts over the title and how close everyone is who’s going after the strap. They jockey for position over the ropes and Danielson ends up getting suplexed to the floor. Gibson follows out with a flying knee. Gibson makes good use of his environment using the rails several times. He’s trying to go after the ribs in order to cut Danielson short of breath perhaps anticipating a long encounter. And also setting up for his Tiger Driver and guillotine choke. Bauer makes an interesting point in that Danielson has been essentially training for a title match for the last 4 months working in Europe. Gibson meanwhile has been in the front line and might be fatigued from that. Although to be honest Danielson has probably worked more matches in the past 4 months. I think he worked holiday camps so that’s two shows a day. “Dragon ain’t goin’ nowheres” – Gibson. I think that’s English. Danielson makes this about striking and then flips over Gibson off the buckles and hits an Enzuigiri. Wow, another showing of the depth of his skills from Dragon. Forearm Uppercuts follow. Slingshot suplex gets 2. Danielson is deliberately bringing new moves to this match to keep a well schooled Gibson unbalanced. A showing from Gibson on how familiar he is with Danielson’s moveset is how he blocks the Surfboard. Only once though as Danielson attacks the ribs and goes back to it. He even grabs the chin with Gibson upside down leaving Gibson to get the ropes. “I have till five referee” – AmDrag. I love this guy. I like how he’s now incorporating his jerk heel act into his babyface wrestling matches. AIRPLANE SPIN! That has a fair few rotations. Wasn’t counting, apologies. Danielson goes up top but has balance issues. He then stands on the top buckle to show how in control he really is but by then Gibson moves. Gibson cracks out a Rolling Prawn Hold for 2. GUILLOTINE CHOKE! Danielson has way too much strength left though and he suplexes out of it. Gibson wants the Tiger Driver instead but Danielson blocks it. Up top he goes and this time the headbutt connects because he’s much quicker. That gets 2. Danielson eyes up a dragon suplex but they end up spilling over the top. Danielson grabs the rope and skins the cat. Gibson gets to his feet but Danielson clocks him with a tope. Danielson doesn’t stop there because he wants a receipt for Gibson using the rails. Gibson tastes steel himself. He wraps Gibson’s arm around the rail and kicks him in the triceps. Bauer says he doesn’t think Gibson will ever tap out in a title match. His arm is now hurt though. Danielson adds in a missile dropkick TO THE ARM. He now favours that arm and tries to hide in the ropes but Danielson just picks his arm off. Gibson is now squealing with every contact on that injured body part. Danielson makes a series of pins to force Gibson to use up energy kicking out. Danielson heels on Gibson by suggesting that the crowd aren’t chanting for him now. Danielson stays on the arm intent on taking advantage of the damage he’s done. Northern Lights from Danielson but that’s just to set up the cross armbreaker as the arm was exposed by the throw. Gibson counters the arm lower INTO THE TEXAS CLOVERLEAF. That’s pretty. Sadly for Gibson he’d not done a lot of back work to set it up so Danielson is healthy enough to get the ropes. They counter looking for a Tombstone and Gibson gets it. He’s down and Gibson adds the Virginia Jam for 2. Danielson kicks out into the GUILLOTINE CHOKE. Gibson has it on in the middle of the ring but Danielson has incredible conditioning and just powers up. Gibson takes advantage to hit a swinging DDT into the TIGER DRIVER…for 2. The question mark is there over the status of the arm and how much is on these moves with the weakened arm. Gibson looks a little lost after not getting the win with all this and Danielson gets all fired up. Dragon suplex gets 2. Danielson holds the arms though and goes into the CATTLE MUTILATION. Gibson has a bad arm but he pushes up to counter out. Danielson hangs on into the Tiger Suplex. He still has the arms but Gibson runs the buckles for 2. Danielson is aware that might happen again and switches to a CROSSFACE CHICKENWING. Gibson can’t go anywhere and he taps out at 32.24. ****. It was really slow to get where it was going thanks to a feeling out process that involved about half the match but after that it was human chess of the highest order. The reaction for the win isn’t quite the massive pop CM Punk got a few months earlier because there was a distinct feeling that Danielson didn’t really chase the title. He just took a few months and when he came back he was the champ. I guess that’s not Gabe’s fault though because he was somewhat backed into a corner by the talent leaving the company.

POST MATCH Danielson thanks the crowd for their support and puts over James Gibson, stopping off to berate a fan who shouts “sellout”. Danielson makes a point of saying this is now his turn. He talks about the past few champions in ROH who left for WWE & TNA and that’s ok because people need to make money. He doesn’t mind. Danielson says he doesn’t want money. He wants freedom and ROH and this world title represent that. He says he’s not going to WWE or TNA because he’s the ROH champion and he’ll stay and defend that title like a man. Quite possibly the most significant promo of Danielson’s career and he nailed it. The crowd love him for it and he’s all set for a big title run as a result.

SHILL – Survival of the Fittest. I like ROH shilling their next DVD release and they list off the qualifying matches for the final match and the rest of the card. Although finishing with “and more including the Carnage Crew” isn’t the strongest finish.

SHILL – We see video history of Jimmy Rave originally being AJ Styles’ prodigy in ROH but then joining the Embassy and stealing AJ’s finisher. This has become a blood feud and needs a sense of conclusion it can only get from being a main event on a big show.

AJ Styles v Jimmy Rave

The winner is the first person to hit their respective “Clash” finish with the loser barred from using the move again. There isn’t even a referee. Prince Nana comes out with Rave who is one of the few genuine heels in the company. The toilet rolls gag courtesy of the fans upsets Rave. Mainly because whenever he throws them back they come straight back in again. AJ gets a huge pop. Seeing ROH use AJ in such a positive manner makes me sick that TNA can’t use him right. AJ has Mick Foley in his corner to offset Nana. AJ is sporting TNA’s X Division title to the ring. Weird seeing all these factors colliding in the same match. Rave jumps ahead of the bell because there isn’t one. Hey, pretty smart. AJ is all pissed off though so Rave’s offence doesn’t keep him on top for long. Leonard points out this is Mick Foley’s final appearance in ROH. Nana mouths off at AJ so AJ launches a gobful of Southern spittle in his direction. Ewwww. I like the lack of creativity from the ringside fan nearest to him. “You suck. You suck. You fuckin’ suck”. Yeah! Tell him! AJ goes right after the Clash but Rave sneaks out through his legs and bails to the floor. Rave is better equipped for a match involving a lack of rules and Nana sends in another of his Weapons of Masked Destruction (what’s that # IV?). AJ discus lariats him to death. Rave uses the distraction to punch away and get in charge. Crowd chants “Die, Jimmy, Die”. Aww, they like him. They really like him! Reverse suplex and AJ lands on his chin. Foley wants a “Jimmy Rave sucks” chant and gets it. THUMBS UP! This just gets Rave get angrier. “Jimmy likes balls”. Seeing as there are no officials they brawl around on the floor and Rave takes advantage of the lack of rules by dumping AJ crotch first on the ropes. “Jimmy likes balls”. I’m not really buying Rave’s dominance in this one though. Whenever he feels like it he pops off moves like the Enzuigiri or nip up rana. Rave goes low and hits Ghanarea. You can get a cream for that. Rave decides to up the ante and continues to better use his environment with a table. Rave can’t lift the table into the ring though because he’s a wuss! Nana has to throw it in. Table 1 Rave 0. Eventually it gets in there to a roar of ironic applause. Foley shouts encouragement in and the crowd follow suit. The fans are now throwing crap at Rave whenever possible, which means he actually has that Memphis heat (almost) in ROH. People just can’t control themselves because they hate him so much. They battle up top and that looks dangerous. AJ ends up jumping off to save them both before eyeing up a move off the apron but they end up just crashing through the timekeepers table. I kinda dig that because it wasn’t really a move just a fall because they were both jostling for position. Rave wants the Rave Clash on the remains of the table but AJ grabs a piece of broken table and smashes it over Rave’s head. Back inside they counter until Rave hits his knee strike. He wants a chair and Nana provides it. More garbage flies in there. These fans HATE Jimmy Rave. Rave wants a brainbuster on the chair like he did at their last match but AJ counters and BRAINBUSTER ON THE CHAIR! Is it that time of year already? AJ wants the finish and uses the table. Uh oh. This doesn’t look like a good idea. In comes some more WEAPONS OF MASKED DESTRUCTION! Like half a dozen. Foley wipes them out with chair shots but Nana jumps in as well and Rave is able to clock AJ with a lariat. Back to the table then as they go up top. In a really dangerous spot AJ powers Rave up into position and hits the SUPER STYLES CLASH THROUGH THE TABLE at 18.36. Wow, I thought Jimmy would have to make the mistake of going for a rana but AJ was all FUCK THIS SHIT and just jacked him up there. ***. Kinda fun and had a sense of finality but ran far too long for what it was. Rave wasn’t overly convincing on offence and didn’t cheat enough for my liking.

POST MATCH Foley says goodbye with a double arm DDT on a chair for poor Prince Nana. Looks like a bad night for the Embassy. Now Jimmy can’t use the Rave Clash again or he’ll be booted out of the company. Foley gets the mic to say this’ll be his last night here and says he’s one of the sellouts that Danielson mentioned. He points out it isn’t goodbye because they’ll see him at an amusement park or possibly at a seedy strip joint. He’s saying goodbye to the DVD audience stopping off to abuse an Al Snow fan. He talks about nearly signing a deal with TNA but instead he called Vince to let him know about it. He says Vince is a very difficult guy to say no to. He says that people who leave ROH rave about it where ever they go and he’ll be doing that too because everything he’s done in ROH has been such good fun. He puts the boots to Nana again at the crowd’s request. Mick starts naming name and puts over Joe, Homicide, AJ and the locker room. Mick stops off to cheap plug his novel Scooter available in all good book stores. He talks about getting ROH a deal with Sports Plus and he was happy to help get ROH more love. He then cheap plugs the next show. He says he’s planning on coming back and hanging out in the locker room just watching shows when they’re in New Jersey. He says he loves the WWE but there needs to be an alternative and this is something different. The crowd wants more so Foley throws Nana out of the ring and CACTUS ELBOW OFF THE APRON! I love this guy.

BACKSTAGE Colt Cabana talks about Homicide jumping him after the last show. He says it’s Homicide’s fault for how he reacted not Cabana’s fault for his interaction. He says Homicide isn’t the only guy with buddies around here. So he’s bringing Steve Corino in to offset the Rottweilers.

ELSEWHERE Gary Cappetta has Lacey for an interview. She talks about the possibilities in the talent pool. She wants to finalise some contracts for Lacey’s Angels.

ELSEWHERE Bryan Danielson talks about how much he loves wrestling and we get a great tribute video to Danielson’s history in ROH going back to the first show. They should do more of this seeing as they now have a history to speak of. The highlights include the first show, beating Low-Ki with Shamrock refereeing, the Homicide feud, the Aries title match and him quitting before showing the match with Gibson where he won the belt tonight. Not sure why ROH doesn’t have a best of series showing their very best matches. It’d be one of those essential purchases.

BONUS –

Tony Mamaluke v Jay Fury v Sal Rinauro

This is from FIP’s Payback. Fury is from NWA-Wildside that produced the likes of AJ & Rave. He’s just starting to get popular nationally. Rinauro is the focus of this one because he’s got a growing reputation and will soon be debuting in ROH, the next show in fact. Plus Mamaluke is on his way back there after a lengthy absence. His feud with Little Guido was one of the few undercard highlights on ROH’s very early shows. Fury looks pretty green when it comes to being realistic in his selling. He takes a decent bump but the selling afterwards looks funny. This match suffers from a lot of the usual 3-way crap where one guy will sell too much from one move and just lie around doing nothing for a comparatively long time. Fury hits high spots just fine so it’s clear he’s very inexperienced but talented. Fury shows off his main moves; the “Jaytrix” where he does the Matrix dodge on a kick and his popular “EnziFury”, which he clocks Tony with. Rinauro hits him with a sloppy reverse Blockbuster for the first elimination. I like elimination rules matches. People like to see multiple finishes in multiple man matches.

So it’s down to the Italians. Tony has far more experience so he runs Rinauro into the ringpost. Tony starts working the arm like a pro and hits a sweet cradle hammerlock back suplex for 2. Rinauro really can’t do anything to get Tony off his arm because Tony is so focused and technically sound. You feel it’s only a matter of time before Rinauro just runs out of steam. He throws strikes to try and keep Mamaluke off his arm. The commentators make a point of shilling FIP throughout the commentary. “Buy our other product!” As if ROH isn’t expensive enough to follow. Rinauro goes up but Mamaluke shoves the ref into the ropes. Erm, that’s a DQ! Tony with a DDT off the top but he doesn’t bother dragging Rinauro away from the ropes so he can’t get a pin. Rinauro tries to springboard but Mamaluke catches him in the Fujiwara armbar and he wrenches it like a motherfucker for the tap out at 9.29. **. It was pretty bad until Fury got eliminated but even after that Rinauro’s selling was a mess. Mamaluke was the glue that held everything together and we got ourselves a logical finish so I’m fairly happy.