Derek Burgan, Torch Team Contributor

Torch DVD Review
ROH Crowning a Champion
July 27, 2002
Philadelphia, PA at the Murphy Rec

This show follows Road to the Title.

We’re boarding the U.S.S. Enterprise this week and heading back so that we can watch Ring of Honor’s 5th official show. Ahhh – July, 2002 – a magical month if there ever was one. Who could forget Britney Spears’ Crossroads finally making its way to DVD so that everyone can freeze frame the scene with Britney dressed only in skimpy underwear? The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course reminded everyone that the Discovery Channel and Hollywood go together like Kelly Osbourne and the Atkins Diet. And who didn’t shed a tear when finding out Eddie Van Halen and Valarie Bertinelli had broken up. Tell me, if those two can’t make it, what chance do the rest of us have at finding true love?!

On to the show!

***Low Ki shoots a promo and talks about everything he has done in ROH including his incredible Triple Threat match at The Era of Honor Begins, the encounters at Round Robin Challenge and his singles matches against A.J. Styles and The Amazing Red. Boy, is Prince Nana gonna have heat with Ki for being left out of this promo. Low Ki said that Christopher Daniels found out the hard way what happens when Ki is pushed too far and added, “The only way you will hold the Ring of Honor championship is over my dead body.”

***The King of Old School Steve Corino is with Simply Luscious and says the question on everybody’s minds is “What’s going on between Corino and Luscious?” Actually I wanted to know, “Where the hell is TowelBoy Eric Tuttle?!” Corino said that Luscious being with Christopher Daniel’s Propecy was “business” while being with him was “personal.” In a small touch I like, Corino had reservations about Luscious joining the Prophecy and he got a nudge in the ribs in return. Corino asks Lusciouis, “Who’s the best broadcast journalist in wrestling?” You are. “Who’s the best kisser?” You are. “Who’s the best professional wrestler in the world? Christopher Daniels. Corino did a perfect pause at this point before continuing and that is one hell of a great way to start an angle if this all leads to Corino fighting the Prophecy.

***The Christopher Street Connection are in the back are in the back when Mace Mendoza offers Buff E. a banana to which Buff E. said, “Bananas are good from practice but heeeeey.” Seriously, this was funny. The C.S.C. hear music blaring out of one of the rooms and open the door to find Brian XL and TWO GUYS dancing. HOLY SHIT, I think one of them is Dixie from Special K! Now this is where it gets really weird, Dixie grabbed the banana from Mace as Brian XL turned off the lights and closed the door on the faces of the C.S.C. What the hell kind of party involves 3 men, a banana, a dark room and blaring rave music?

***Tony Mamaluke asks James Maritato, “you got anymore of those green F.B.I. shirts left?” Maritato tells Tony to, “Forget that gimmick. It’s dead. Kaput!” You don’t hear people say “kaput” that often these days- Maritato must be Old School! The Natural Born Sinners make their way over and Boogalou says, “Hey Guido! I’ve got a question about shootfighting.” Maritato will answer any questions but, “Don’t call me Guido.” Mamaluke interrupts and says, “First of all, stop shaking hands. And secondly, all you people know abut shootin’ is taking some guy into a dark alley and putting it to him real good.” The NAACP ain’t gonna like that line. Homicide quickly responded, “WHAT?! Oh I know he didn’t just say that!” and challenges the Italians to a match in Boston. Maritato says he doesn’t like Mamaluke but, “When a challenge is issued, a challenge is accepted.” As Maritato walks off Mamaluke reminds him about the F.B.I. shirts but is blown off. This didn’t make Tony happy.

You know, Mamaluke plays such a good asshole that there is no way he is not one in real life. No wrestler is that good at acting.

(1) Tony Mamaluke beat Jeremy Lopez. Our announcers tonight are Donnie B – as in Donnie Bon Jovi and, No, I’m not making that up - and Steve Corino. The King of Old School sounds like he’s calling the show through that tin can which Bruce Mitchell uses to call into the Torch Audio Roundtables. This is also the first appearance of the turnbuckle pads that alternate with the words “Honor” and “ROH” on them. This is really nice touch that I think makes ROH rings stand out from WWE or TNA. Apparently Lopez is a regular down at NWA Wildside, the place where A.J. Styles came from. Mamaluke hit a really sweet move early on when he draped Lopez head across the bottom rope and then did a guillotine legdrop starting from the inside of the ring but hitting Lopez’s head which was outside the ring. Finish came after Mamaluke nailed a double underhook DDT followed by wrapping up Lopez in some sort of facelock which caused Lopez to tap out. Good match, nothing special but wasn’t bad by any means.

***Divine Storm (Chris Divine & Quiet Storm) are discussing their upcoming match when the Christopher Street Connection interrupt and offer them a banana. “We thought you might like a little snack.” – Buff E. The C.S.C. then tell Divine Storm that Brian XL has been hanging around a new crew, but they won’t say who it is. I don’t know why, but Buff E really cracks me up.

(2) Christian York & Joey Matthews (w/Alexis Laree) beat Prince Nana & Jacobs Ladder. Ladder is some tattooed guy straight out of HBO’s Oz and is now Nana’s “servant.” Where the hell is Elax?! Nana grabbed a mic but the crowd immediately started chanting “Low Ki killed you!” Nana said that the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission has ruled that he can not be hit on the head due to the concussion that Low Ki gave him at The Road to the Title. The entire match itself lasted under two minutes and that included Nana bailing out of the ring and walking to the back after a double enzuigiri courtesy of York and Matthews. The finish came when Matthews picked up Jacobs Ladder and York came off the top rope to deliever a sort of Super Fame-asser (legdrop to the back of the guys neck)l. This actually looked pretty neat.

***Backstage the Christopher Street Connection are checking on Prince Nana’s head injury but Nana wants nothing to do with them. Mace Mendoza asked Nana, “Do you want a massage?” right before Nana stormed off. “What’s his problem?” pouted Buff E. All of a sudden the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” started playing so the C.S.C. met Allison Danger and headed to the ring. Along the way they kissed several guys in the crowd and I’m still not sure if they were plants or just really weird fans. C.S.C. confronts York, Matthews & Laree in the ring and Allison Danger says that York and Matthews aren’t butch enough for Buff E and Mace but she thought Alexis Laree was hot. Take a number on that one. Laree took offense to this and went after Danger as York and Matthews battled the C.S.C. to the outside of the ring. Laree speared Danger and started to choke her out when grabbed by the C.S.C., who then put Laree over their knee so Danger could spank her. Before the spanking Danger had put glitter on her hand and the announcers were selling this as Danger “branding” Laree.

And in case I didn’t mention it, Alexis Laree is one hot tamale. I can not BELIEVE this girl has been in the WWE for over 6 months and has only been seen in one bad skit while Jackie Gayda and Jaqueline have spots on RAW and SmackDown.

***Earlier Today© A white minivan pulls up and inside are the boys from the Texas Wrestling Academy. Don Juan gets out and says he doesn’t know what the big deal is, the drive was only “25 hours, not 26.” That’s the kind of person you slap for being an idiot. Michael Shane told Don, “Hey rookie, why don’t you shut up and get my bags?!” Don Juan does what he is told as the boys tell trainer Rudy Boy Gonzalez that Shane has been acting like a jerk.

(3) Michael Shane & Bio-Hazard beat Paul London & Don Juan in a Winner of the Fall Gets an ROH Contract match. This is the same type of match that Spanky won previously to get his contract. The announcers have done a pretty good job explaining why a contract means a lot to TWA guys because they can stop driving the 25 hour trek from Texas to Philly and instead fly on ROH’s dime. Two years ago I did a marathon driving session from New Hampshire to Kentucky and it ended up taking 21 hours because of a crazy detour in Ohio and I can assure you that it sucked. I thought I would be all set as I grabbed the audio version of Mick Foley’s Have a Nice Day before I left. When the entire book was done just as I was entering New York, I knew I was screwed. The only other thing I brought to listen to was Alice in Chain’s Jar of Flies and I must have had to listen to that CD 20 straight times. Right near the beginning of the match there was this really weird cut so that Michael Shane, who was inside the ring, was now outside. You got to give the WWE credit because on SmackDown they sometimes edit TONS of stuff out of matches and 99 times out of 100 you can’t tell the difference. While Shane was outside, he and BioHazard were hit by an awesome leap by Paul London. Later London did this phat move where he dropkicked Shane and ends up doing a backflip onto BioHazard all during the same move. This just in: Paul London has talent. Clusterf—at the end which had London pulling Don Juan off of BioHazard so that he could win the contract. This allowed Michael Shane to give Don Juan an enzuigiri while London legsweeped BioHazard. There was a simultaneous pin and the ref ended up awarding Michael Shane the win. The crowd was not happy with this and chanted, “Bullshit!” There were several parts of this match that I really liked but other parts that were a total mess, which I guess should be expected since the entire gimmick of these guys are that they are still in wrestling school. If I were booker of ROH I would have brought in some kids from Tough Enough like Kenny, Jonah and goofy Scott to have them shoot on the TWA kids saying they were trained better to start a feud. Of course ideas like that are why Gabe is booking ROH and I’m just watching it.

***After the match Michael Shane grabbed a mic and started to run down Spanky saying things like, “you will NEVER be as good as me.” Shane says he is the true Showstoppah and this brings out Paul London. I’m not sure I liked the first part of this because London talked about how innovative he was and that makes him the Showstoppah. “Don’t get cocky, kid!” – Han Solo, Star Wars London tells Shane that, “For you to call yourself the Showstoppah is a slap in my face.” Shane then literally slaps London in the face which starts a pull-apart brawl. Rudy Boy Gonzalez tells the two guys to, “GET TO THE BACK!” The cameras follow everyone to the back but Shane and London are still trying to go at it. Rudy Boy gets into Shane’s face and says, “You want a match?! Next month. Boston. I’ll talk to Gabe.”

Speaking of ROH Booker Gabe Sapolsky, in a recent edition of the PWTorch Newsletter he had a Torch Talk with Wade Keller and said he can recite any match from any card in ROH’s history. I found this amazing because I highly doubt bookers of WWE SmackDown can honestly remember matches from the last show, let alone shows from a six months or a year ago.

(4) Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack) beat Divine Storm (Chris Divine & Quiet Storm). This match was made based on the events at intermission during Road to the Title. Da Hit Squad had said they were the best team in ROH which lead to Divine Storm coming out to voice their objection. “Are you finished? Well, allow me to retort.” – Samuel Jackson Pulp Fiction The announcers have been talking about the heat in the building all night, but Corino outdoes himself here by saying the wrestlers are 36 inches above the crowd and thus are getting less air. Yeah, you read that one right. Divine looked good here including squirming out of a Burning Hammer to nail Mafia with a Death Valley Driver. This was really an impressive visual considering how much smaller Divine is. It wasn’t long before Divine was tossed off Mafia while attempting a Diamond Cutter and ended up in the corner. This allowed Mack to toss Mafia into Divine with a Cannonball Splash. I really like that move in Mafia’s arsenal. Really weird finish here as Divine went for a headscissors on Mack but slipped off half way through the move. Mack delayed for a second and then sold the headscissors anyway. UGH. Crowd didn’t like that at all. Mack then picked up Divine for a powerbomb- and in one of the strangest things I have ever seen- Divine put his arms behind his head, like a person who was sitting in an office chair would while relaxing before getting slammed to the mat and pinned. I don’t know what they were trying to do with that one.

***Low Ki is getting pumped up backstage when Xavier approaches him and wishes Ki good luck. Xavier then said he was the only person in the tournament that Ki didn’t beat and thinks he should get a title shot if Ki wins tonight. Ki never beat BioHazard, and he was in the tournament, so I have no idea what Xavier is talking about here. Ki said, “You got it.”

***(5) James Maritato beat Jay Briscoe (w/Mark Briscoe). I can’t get over that Velocity’s own Nunzio is the same James Maritato in ROH. I’m also really liking the storyline of Mark getting on his brother’s case about losing his matches in Ring of Honor. In just a couple shows ROH has gotten over two completely different personalities for the brothers whereas I still can’t tell you one single thing about the Basham Brothers in the WWE and they have been Tag Team Champions for god’s sake. Actually, now that I mention both Nunzio and the Bashams, I’m wondering just how good a decision it is to go to the WWE sometimes. Is the money that good? In just the few ROH DVDs that I have watch there has been incredible stuff with Spanky, Paul London, Raven and James Mariato, all of whom were – or still are- spinning in a wheel like a hamster in the WWE. I firmly believe that Danny and Doug Basham could be HUGE stars in ROH, but instead are wearing the most gay looking velour tights I have ever seen in wrestling while jobbing to guys like Rikishi. Hey, if they are making more money then they ever imagined, then more power to them, but I personally would rather sacrifice money to be involved with something cool. For example, the Rock is pulling it in right now starring in his own movies but each one is doing less business than the one before it and eventually will take his career down the path of Jean Claude Van Damme. I think he would be much better off to take a smaller role in better films- like Samuel L. Jackson did in Pulp Fiction or Matt Damon in Ocean’s 11 - so that the Rock can raise his profile instead of “take the money and run” while putting out another movie that stiffs.

Anyhoo, as for the match between Jay and Maritato…this was a good back and forth battle which showed once again that Jay Briscoe at 18 years old has a big future ahead of him. I don’t know how this kid can be as good as he is at his age, but trust me when I tell you Jay is the real deal although to be fair, he needs to have someone else pick out what tattoos he gets. Throughout the match Mark did a great job on the outside as he would sometimes act like he was totally disgusted when Maritato was on offense, but when Jay would do something good Mark would be totally blasé. The finish came after Jay countered Maritato’s Kiss of Death finisher (a.k.a. “Unprettier” that Christian uses, a.ka. Article 254 that Legion Freakin’ Cage uses, a.k.a. the Tomakaze for you Observer nerds) into one of those great looking swinging DDT’s. Mark started walking to the back and flipped off his brother which caused Jay to wonder what the hell was going on. Maritato used this opportunity to nail Jay with the Kiss of Death. At this point Mark pumped his fist in celebration like the Boston Red Sox’s Derek Lowe did last year in game 5 against the Oakland A’s. That particular gesture pissed off several A’s - including Miguel Tejeda – something fierce and Mark’s actions made Jay’s blood boil as well.

***Backstage Christopher Daniels is with Simply Luscious and says, “There is no doubt I’m the best in Ring of Honor.” Daniels goes off on a tirade against ROH saying that there was no honor in the way he has been booked so far. He brings up that it took 2 men to beat him at Era of Honor Begins and that he was in his second match of the night when Low Ki beat him at Round Robin Challenge. The Fallen Angel says that by winning the ROH Title his mission to bring down Ring of Honor will be complete while telling Low Ki, “Tonight you will pay for your sins.”

***In a short promo, Doug Williams has SOME GUY in a submission move backstage and is yelling, “This is Spanky! This is Low Ki! This is Christopher Daniels!” This reminds me of the time that Wade Keller pulled me into his office and slammed the door shut. I had never seen him that hot before. He asked me sit down and then threw this book at me and screamed. “THIS is how you use ‘its’! THIS is how you write ‘Raw’! THIS is how you use a colon instead of a dash!” Something like an hour later Wade lost his voice and just turned his back to me, which I took as my cue to leave. I wish I could have been there to see Wade’s face when he noticed I left that Strunk and White book on the chair.

(6) The Natural Born Sinners (Boogalou & Homicide) beat The Carnage Crew (Loc & DeVito) in a Bunkhouse Match. This all started WAY back at Era of Honor Begins when the NBS attacked Loc, who at the time was a referee, for DQ’ing them in a match. Homicide came to the ring wearing a Michael Myers mask, an Allen Iverson jersey and a bulletproof vest. I think one of the guys on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy just had a stroke. Homicide actually used his vest as weapon at the start of the match which is surely a first for wrestling. This match was a total battle with all four men busted open, in fact a drop of blood got onto one of the cameras and the rest of the match was filmed in what you could call “Blood-O-Vision.” Don’t laugh, back in the 50’s and 60’s they did some really goofy things at the movie theatres vibrating chairs and pumping different “aromas” into the audience for things like Smell-O-Vision At one point the Sinners use a weight-lifting belt to whip the Carnage Crew and it reminded me of how much I would love to rip off the weight belts from most of the guys at my gym and whip them bloody. Seriously, a weight-belt when doing arm exercises? Sadly most bodybuilders, who can’t diet right or do cardio just use weight belts as a girdle and you can belee dat, playah. At this point Donnie B talks about how when the Sinners get angry they like to bloody people as compared to, “Some men when they get angry like to do crossword puzzles.” The wit and wisdom of Donnie B ladies and gentlemen..

Late in the match barbed wire was introduced and this is where everything went nuts. DeVito put a bunch of wire across Homicides chest and then did a moonsault onto him. Wouldn’t it be smarter to roll a guy on top of some barbed wire and then do a moonsault? I’m just asking. Boogalou wrapped barbed wire around his forearm and clothesline DeVito and afterwards, in one of the sickest things I have EVER seen in wrestling, and keep in mind I’ve watched Rob Black’s XPW, Boogalou puts barbed wire in DeVito’s mouth and pulls back like some sort of insane camel clutch. This has got to be seen to be believed and caused DeVito to tap out. While that was happening in the ring Homicide did his Tope Con Hilo to Loc on the outside of the ring and totally took out the guardrail and first rows of seats. A wild ending to a match that is “Holy Shit!” worthy.

***After the match the Carnage Crew grab their hubcaps and start beating the hell out of the Sinners until the Da Hit Squad make the save. Afterwards Homicide flips out and yells, “I don’t need your F---ing help!” Uh oh, Homicide is feeling disrespected again and when he gets that feeling people get hurt.

***Before the show Spanky is shown wandering the building and we see a camera crew interviewing Christopher Daniels in the background. Spanky talks about the big match tonight and goes over every one of his opponents. He mentions that Daniels has been all around the world and asks, “How do you compete with that?” Spanky says Low Ki, “may look like Nosferatu, but his kicks can break human bone.” He says that all three guys have been training hard in the gym and in the ring, “but how many nights have these guys spent sleeping on a cold hard floor with no food in their stomach because of wrestling? I’ve been doing it for three years.” Spanky talks about his career and how his has crisscrossed the country because of his love for wrestling and adds, “They’ve given their body for the sport, but how many have given their soul?” A good, serious promo by Spanky that added another dimension to his character.

***Mike Tobin is pushing around Danny Drake, who is wearing a neckbrace and is in a wheelchair. Tobin says that no one in ROH like them and now he is screwed because his partner is hurt. Drake adds a great line by saying, “and this place isn’t wheelchair accessible!” They bump into Rob Feinstein who says he signed Tobin up for a six man match tonight and is giving him Dunn & Marcos for partners. Tobin reacts like Paul Heyman did when he pulled Spike Dudley in the WWE’s lottery.

(7) A.J. Styles beat David Young and Adam Jacobs in a Three Way Dance to retain the NWA TNA X Division title. Donnie B said this was the first time the X title had be defended outside the promotion and that’s a good point. In fact the title is barely defended in the promotion. Try to keep in mind also that when this match aired the X Title actually meant something. Now that Sonny Siaki and TNA booking have killed the belt dead it’s almost hard to believe isn’t it? Another good three way match in which Styles totally stole the show in. Styles did that move where de does a Lionsault off the ropes to come back and catch his opponent in position for an inverted DDT, but this time he caught both guys at the same time. That was great. An unbelievable spot came when Styles and Jacobs were battling on the top rope and A.J. pushed Jacobs off into a spine buster courtesy of Young. After Young got up, Styles did a 360 front flip off the top rope to come down and deliver a huracanrana! WOW! Styles then finished off Young by nailing his top rope corkscrew senton (it’s like the Infra-Red and I think is called the Spiral Tap but Donnie B and Corino kept calling it a “twisting thingamajiggie”.) Jacobs went for a huracanrana on Styles, but AJ just stood his ground and then segued into a Boston Crab-like maneuver. Fantastic! The finish came when Jacobs went for a huracanrana off the top rope – with Styles standing on the second turnbuckle – but A.J. blocked this as well and ended up countering it with the Styles Clash. I was totally marking out during the second half of this match and it blows my mind that the WWE only offered Styles a 500 dollar a week developmental deal a couple years ago. This kid has money written all over him.

***Ring Announcer Stephen DeAngelis says that the next show in Philadelphia will be September 21st and feature the, “in ring debut of Steve Corino”, the ROH Tag Team Title tournament and Michael Modest, who you may remember from the movie Beyond the Mat. Rudy Boy Gonzalez comes out and says he saw the tape of Road to the Title with Simply Luscious and Steve Corino making out along with hearing all of Corino’s insults on commentary. “Steve Corino, I’m going to kick your ass!” Gonzalez said that when they come back to Philly, Corino is going to face one of Rudy Boy’s students…American Dragon! That should be damn good.

(8) Dunn & Marcos & Mike Tobin (w/Danny Drake) beat Black Gordman Jr. & Brian XL & Dixie. I swear I saw Gordman was in the TWA minivan earlier in the show. This match is just a rapid fire series of clips that include Brian XL giving a Michinoku Driver on Marcos. Dixe and XL turn on Gordman by giving him a double enzuigiri which lead to Marcos getting the pin after a flying legdrop. After the match Marcos and Dunn were celebrating when a GIGANTIC black guy who looks like Lennox Lewis mixed with Hightower from Police Academy comes into the ring and destroys Dunn, Marcos, and Tobin by handing out chokeslams. He then chased down Drake in the wheelchair, turned him around and rammed the wheelchair right into the ringpost! Then, in a scene straight out of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest he walks out through the crowd “into the sunset” just like Chief did in the Jack Nicholson movie. Maybe at the next show this black guy will put a pillow over Donnie B’s head.

***Backstage DeVito and Loc are outraged that Da Hit Squad for taking them out during the beatdown of the Natural Born Sinners. Jesus, Mafia and Monsta Mack can’t buy a break tonight. DeVito challenges Da Hit Squad to a “Boston Massacre Match”, which I think according to the new laws in Massachusetts means the losers have to get married legit.

(9) Scoot Andrews beat Xavier. I still can’t get over that Scoot’s nickname is “The Black Nature Boy” and I know none of you care, but out of the 100 times I have typed Scoot’s name in my DVD reviews I have typed the name “Scott” at least 98 times and had to go back and change it. I think that is called “paying your dues” in the dirstheet biz. This was another massive clip job and had no announcing whatsoever. I think the finish was completely botched as Xavier came off the top rope with a moonsault but is caught by Scoot. Unfortunately Scoot stumbled when he caught Xavier and ended up falling over. Xavier had the presence of mind to make a pin attempt, but after Scoot kicked out he hit the Force of Nature for the win. This was kinda like the end of the WrestleMania XIX match when Brock missed the Shooting Star Press and instead picked up Angle to hit the F5. Yeah it was cool, but not nearly as cool as it would have been had hit the first move.

It’s time for the Main Event….

(10) Low Ki beat Christopher Daniels (w/Simply Luscious) and Doug Williams and Spanky in an Iron Man Match to win the ROH title. The rules of this match were really neat as there was a 60 minute time limit and the wrestlers would get two points for a pinfall or submission and lose one point if they were pinned or tapped out. At the end of the hour the wrestler with the most points would win the match. It a great touch which might be the unexpected result of having to cut things short to save time, only the main event wrestlers got their full entrances with music.

To give a move by move account of this match would be impossible, or I should say boring as hell because there is no way words can do justice to this match. To put it quite bluntly, you need to go out of your way to see this match. As I said about The Era of Honor Begins and the Triple Threat Match at that show which redefined how that kind of match can be, this match does the same for a Fatal Four Way. The fact that the wrestlers were also in a SWEALTERING hot building for the match adds a whole other dimension to the match and really makes me respect everyone involved. Some of the highlights include Daniels taunting Low Ki before the match, but as soon as they were about to lock up Daniels tagged in Doug Williams. The running theme of the match would be Daniels versus Low Ki and considering this is the climatic battle of sorts that started at the Era of Honor Begins, it is like the perfect wrestling story. Ki had his leg worked on at the start of a match in a great move by his opponents to lessen the impact of his kicks and this help lead to the first fall as Ki went for the Tidal Wave on Daniels but the Fallen Angel chop blocked Ki and finished him off with the Last Rites. I don’t normally pick up on much psychology during matches, but this stuff with Ki and his legs was awesome. Score: Daniels 2, Spanky 0, Williams 0, Low Ki –1

In another good bit, as soon as Daniels was awarded the points he went to pin Ki again but it was broken up by Spanky. The second fall came in spectacular fashion as Doug Williams attempted to do his Chaos Theory on Spanky, but when it came time for the German Suplex part of that move sequence, Low Ki caught Spanky coming down and locked him into the Dragon Clutch!! HOLY F---ING SHIT WAS THAT COOL!!!! Spanky tapped out. Score: Daniels 2, Low Ki 1, Williams 0, Spanky –1

All four guys were doing some really innovative tags to get themselves into the match which I really started to enjoy. In a neat sequence, Daniels missed his Triple Jump Moonsault attempt on Low Ki, but to follow that Ki did his off the hook Twisting Phoenix splash right onto Daniels’ knees. Another kick ass finish came as Spanky hit Williams with Sliced Bread #2 after using Christopher Daniels’ back to jump off of! WHHHOOOOOOOOOOOO~! Daniels stopped the pin but ended up falling out of the ring with Spanky and this allowed Ki to hit his Twisting Phoenix Splash and get the pin. Wow! Score: Low Ki 3, Daniels 2, Williams –1, Spanky –1

With about 10 minutes to go the intensity somehow PICKED UP. This is impossible, but it happened. The crowd is going bananas with “ROH! ROH!” chants which was making the match seem even more epic. Daniels and Ki were alone in the ring during the last minute with everything on the line. If Daniels got a pin or tap he would win the title. Daniles had Ki locked in the DRAGON CLUTCH~! Now that my friends, is good booking. Ki seemed like he was on his last breath and started to literally punch Daniels in the face to get out of it and hits the Fallen Angel with the LAST RITES! WOW! The bell rings as the hour time limit expires and Low Ki is the first ROH Champion. Compare that to the WWE when Triple H was just given the RAW title. F--- that. This might have been the greatest introduction of a title EVER.

***After the match the fans were chanting, “SHAKE HIS HAND! SHAKE HIS HAND!” at Daniels and this actually means something because the majority of fans are usually marks for the Fallen Angel. Daniels fakes like he is going to shake Ki’s hand, but blows him off at the last minute. The camera follows Low Ki to the back and he collapses right after getting through the curtain. Low Ki is actually crying here in one of the most powerful moments I have ever seen in wrestling. Ki turns around to cut a promo,

”For one hour I went out there and showed everyone that this is no joke. I’m in this business for a reason. To prove that I love my art, and I went out there and showed everybody how much love I got for this. (Pause) That match was for Russ Hass. That was my brother. (wipes eyes) And Charlie, when you get a hold of this you know this was for you too.”

Incredible.

***Jay Briscoe is getting on his street clothes when his brother comes in with a shit eating grin telling Jay their ride is here. Jay has finally had enough and pushes Mark against the wall. Mark says because of Philadelphia state laws, Jay can’t touch him since Mark is under 18. Jay says next month ROH is in Boston and there is no commission there so he challenges Mark to a match. Mark says, “You’ll just lose again” as Jay storms off.

*** Simply Luscious is consoling Christopher Daniels when a referee walked by. Daniels went NUTS and got right in the guy’s face screaming about how he was never pinned and actually BEAT Low Ki so how could he have lost that match? Daniels then went completely off on Ring of Honor as only he can vowing to one day screw over ROH itself.

Overall Thoughts: For a show that was pretty much a one match card, the one match came through and then some. The one hour Fatal Four Way Ironman match is truly one for the ages. I’m also pretty much convinced that it is physically impossible for Homicide to be in a bad match. Click Here to purchase the disc or head on over to www.ROHwrestling.com and check out all the other videos they have to offer.

ROH DVD Guy Derek Burgan has been writing for the PWTorch website for 3 years. His hobbies include watching the movie Spellbound, reading The Onion’s Our Dumb Century and calling up the Puroresu Power Hour Radio Show and repeatedly ask if The Hurricane could defeat Bob Sapp in a shoot fight until they hang up. If you have any questions, corrections, feedback, comments and ideas, he can be reached at: derek@gumgod.com

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