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20 YRS AGO – ROH Live Event Report (2-14-2004): CM Punk vs. AJ Styles in main event, plus Jimmy Rave, Chris Sabin, Doug Wiliams, Briscoe Brothers, Low Ki, more

February 21, 2024

C.M. Punk ROH (photo credit Wade Keller)
SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

The following report originally published 20 years ago this week here at PWTorch.com…

Ring of Honor Live Event Report
February 14, 2004
Braintree, Mass.
Report by Steve Montana, PWTorch.com reader

The show started right on time as always with ROH and they announced the first match would be the #2 seed against the Mystery #7 seed in the Pure Wrestling Tournament

Someone came out wearing Christopher Daniels’s attire and ripped the hood revealing himself as C.M. Punk off to huge crowd heat. The crowd chanted “We Want Daniels” as Punk cut his usual good promo. Hey Jarrett you watching this? Punk ripped into the crowd and Walters came out.

(1) C.M. Punk (#7 seed) beat John Walters (#2 seed). Walters was the hometown boy and got lots of heat. Slow start, feeling out process and they exchanged some nice arm drags and a double bridge spot to an applause from the crowd. Walters had control with some chops and hit a nice clothesline but Punk ended up reversing a Walters roll-through pin attempt for the clean win. Good match.

(2) Doug Williams (#4) beat Chris Sabin (#5). Sabin was way over with the crowd and Williams played the default heel. Williams dominated most of the offense until Sabin hit a nice springboard tornado DDT off the ropes for a very close nearfall. Sabin hit his “Cradle Shock” finisher but Williams kicked out and moments later Williams hit his “Chaos Effect” for the pin and win. Disappointing if only because Sabin’s offense was minimal and the match was shorter than it should have been. Solid match.

(3) Matt Stryker (#3) beat Josh Daniels (#6). Shortest match of the opening round, nothing spectacular but everything was solid and sound. Daniels had a couple nearfalls but as soon as Stryker applied his Stryker-Lock it was over. Fine for an opening round tourney match. Okay match.

(4) A.J. Styles (#1) beat Jimmy Rave (#8). It’s clear that in ROH, Styles is the No. 1 Star. Just his entrance music alone caused a standing ovation from the crowd, and the pops he got doubled anyone else all night aside from Low-Ki. Styles was cocky in the opening minutes, controlling the inexperienced Rave. Rave countered a Styles clothesline into the Crossface but Styles got to the ropes. Soon there after Styles leveled Rave with a discus clothesline for the win. Everyone knew Rave had no chance, but still fun to watch. Solid match.

Ring Crew Express came to the ring for a scheduled match but they were interrupted by The Outcast Killaz, who cut a promo on RCE, RCE cleared the ring of them and then celebrated to “We’re not gonna take it” and played the air guitar. Fun little segment to make the crowd laugh.

(5) Special K beat The Carnage Crew in a Country Whipping match. This was just brutal, both in a bloody and having to watch way. My friend who I attended with had never seen ROH before and said it best when he said “Whoa, Justin Credible just looks sad.” A brawl that was fun for a change and the boys from Special K did their best to emulate a late ’90s ECW bloodbath, but this isn’t why I go to an ROH show. In the end members of Special K interfered leaving just Loc of the Crew in the ring, Special K gave him a filthy spike piledriver threw a table at ringside and pinned him back in the ring. One star for the bumping of Special K.

Gary Michael Cappetta interviewed with ?J-Train?. Julius Smokes about where the hell Homicide is. After some stupid, yet somehow entertaining promo work from Smokes he pretty much just said he didn’t know where Homicide was either.

(6) C.M. Punk (#7) beat Doug Williams (#4) – Semi-Finals of Pure Wrestling Tourney, Punk was over huge again and Williams was now playing face. Williams out wrestled Punk early to frustrate the straightedge follower. But Punk came back with some brawling on the outside and when Williams missed a big knee drop Punk worked over the knee. Punk eventually went as far to outsmart Williams into victory, Williams did a nice rolling german suplex on Punk but Punk put his shoulder up while Williams’ were down and got the victory. Okay match.

(7) A.J. Styles (#1) beat Matt Stryker (#3) – Semi-Finals of Pure Wrestling Tourney. Long feeling out process to start. Styrker went to work over A.J’s knees and got the Stryker-Lock on but Styles eventually fought of it to the ropes. Stryker hoisted Styles up to the top rope and went for a superplex but was pushed off to the other side of the ring, a dazed Styles then springboarded off the top rope and hit a nice 450 Splash onto Stryker for the win. Again, the outcome was obvious but how they got there was well done. Very good match.

A 25-minute intermission took place. Much needed, especially for a women behind me who was (I think) dragged to the show by her boyfriend on Valentine’s Day. The look on her face most of the show was priceless.

(8) The Briscoe Brothers beat The Backseat Boyz to retain the ROH Tag Team Titles. The Briscoe’s have a really good presence about them, the way they carry themselves great. Some back and forth action with tags until it broke down into an all out brawl with a bunch of really cool spots. Jay Briscoe did a great leaping tornado DDT off the ring apron to the floor onto Trent Acid to a huge pop and then in the ring the Briscoes absolutely killed Johnny Cashmere with a spike piledriver but Cashmere’s arms were in a double under-hook as well. Sick move, fun match, but too short.

(9) Samoa Joe beat Low Ki and B.J. Whitmer and Dan Maff in a Four-Way Survival Match – World Title vs. No. 1 Contenders Trophy. Two in at a time, and Maff and Whitmer worked together for an incredibly long time working over Samoa Joe while Low-Ki anxiously awaited his tag-in. Low-Ki finally tagged into a huge pop, Ki and Joe exchanged some of the stiffest chops and kicks I’ve ever seen, heard or felt. It was absolutely brutal. Low-Ki and Maff were brawling on the outside and on the inside Joe choked out Whitmer for the win in the stiffest match I’ve ever seen live. Very good.

(10) A.J. Styles (#1) beat C.M. Punk (#7) to win the Pure Wrestling Tournament. Only three rope breaks for each wrestler and a 20 count administered upon leaving the ring. Slow to start with lots of submission holds and both men had to use two of their rope breaks in the early moments. Styles used his last rope break on an STF from Punk and Punk celebrated that now Styles would have no way out of a submission hold. Punk went for a superplex off the top but Styles sat out into an gourdbuster off the top and Punk hit hard. Styles hit the Styles Clash and we were all convinced it was over and Punk kicked out to a big pop. Punk hit his unique variation to a DDT for another super near-fall. They both battled on the top rope and Styles blocked off Punk’s attempts and brought him down into a Styles Clash, and leveled him with it off the middle rope for the Pure Wrestling Championship win. Great match. Four stars.

Styles celebrated in the ring with all the competitors in the ring and raised the Title in glory. His glory was interrupted by Samoa Joe on the microphone who told him “The only reason you won this Title, is because you couldn’t beat me for mine”.

The armory was packed and the crowd was real good, as I said before Styles and Low-Ki were incredibly over and no one could touch C.M. Punk on the amount of heel heat received. ROH returns to Braintree on Saturday, May 15th. Count me there and if this angle leads to a Styles v. Joe rematch, count me as there and eagerly anticipating a sick main event.

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Cody tags in Cousin Jake and he gets some good moves in on Rohit but gets caught by Jake as he delivers a powerbomb and almost gets a three count until all teams come in and break it up. With all teams outside the ring, Cody does a suicide dive to the outside and takes out everyone. That is followed by a dive by Jake, then Wentz and then Dez. Dez then tags in off Rohit but the Hit Squad takes out Dez but the Deaners come in and take out the squad followed by Reno taking out the Deaners. The Rascalz then hit their tag team finisher and get the three count and cover on the Deaners for the win. WINNER: The Rascalz via pinfall in 10:00 -Following the win, Reno Scum attacks The Rascalz and then Trey comes out to help his teammates and takes out Scum. Then Ace Austin makes his way to the ring and takes out Trey with the title and shows the continued alliance between Austin and Scum. Trey’s mother ringside see her son get knocked out by Austin. 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Bravo goes to tag in Valkyrie but she refuses to tag in. Grace then starts beating on Bravo again and goes for a cover and gets the win. WINNER: Grace via pinfall in 4:00 (Thomas’s Analysis: This was a good use of Bravo to get Grace a strong squash match win here against the heel’s manger. It continues to show Valkyrie’s chicken shit heel antics but also made Grace look like a strong opponent to potentially take the title from Valkyrie. Grace has star potential written all over her an I do find the interplay between Bravo and Valkyrie humorous here.) -Backstage, Gama Singh berates The Desi Hit Squad for losing again and if they lose again he says he is going to ship them back home. Fallah Bahh is sitting eating backstage and overhears the conversation and The Hit Squad start to beat down Bahh. -Back from break, RVD sends in a video and says he’s not going to be on the show again because Katie and him were partying all night. -Su Yung continues to walk around backstage in her new persona and she runs into Father James. She introduces herself as Susie to him and she talks about how she’s not sure why she is here. Father James offers his guidance to her and it seems like she agrees and then Rosemary shows up. Rosemary says she knows what he is up to and she wants in to see what Yung’s potential is. Check out the latest episode of “PWTorch ’90s Pastcast” with Patrick Moynahan and Alex McDonald, part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: CLICK HERE to stream (or search “pwtorch” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free) (3) JOHNNY SWINGER vs. BUCK GUNDERSON Match starts with Swinger warming up and Gunderson goes to shake his hand but Swinger strikes him instead and starts beating on Gunderson. Swinger then goes for a head but to Gunderson’s groin and starts choking Gunderson with his own singlet. Gunderson then hits some drop kicks on Swinger but Swinger is able to counter with of course the swinging neck breaker and the win. WINNER: Swinger via pinfall in 2:00 -After the match, Ken Shamrock makes his way to the ring to get revenge on Swinger for taking a crap in Shamrock’s bag. Swinger goes to strike Ken but he counters it and starts beating the hell out of Swinger. Shamrock applies the ankle lock on Swinger as he starts tapping out but Shamrock keeps it locked it for a while until he throws Swinger out of the ring. [HOUR TWO] (4) MOOSE vs. DAGA vs. RICH SWANN vs. MICHAEL ELGIN vs. BRIAN CAGE vs. TESSA BLANCHARD in an elimination gauntlet match to name the number one contender to the Impact World Championship This elimination match starts with Moose vs. Daga as our first match. Moose takes early control in this match as he uses his size to his advantage against Daga but Daga starts to get some momentum back by using his speed and quickness as Daga gets Moose down with a dropkick and takes control of the match. Moose is able to regain control when he suckers in Daga in the corner and hits his head against the turn buckle. Moose then uses some clubbing forearms to keep knocking Daga down. Daga then counters an attempted spear with some forearms from himself and hits Moose with a delayed drop kick in the corner. Moose is then able to get up and counter one of Daga’s moves into a spear and pins Daga for the win in about seven minutes. Moose’s next opponent is Rich Swann. Match starts with Swann trying to get a quick pin by using his qick offense as Swann hits Moose with a dropkick but Moose counters with his own dropkick which sends Swann outside the ring. Moose then takes time out to mess with the fans but this gives Swann the opportunity to get back into the match. Swann is able to hit a counter ddt on Moose and then follows it with some stiff chops to Moose but then Moose lawn darts Swann into the turn buckle which momentarily knocks Swann out. Swann and Moose then trade some strikes and Moose then goes to the top rope and jumps and Swann hits him with a cutter and then sends him into the ropes and then hits a diving cutter which gets Swann a near fall at a two count. Swann then goes for a 450 splash on Moose but Moose gets his knees up and Moose hits the go to hell but Swann kicks out at two. Swann then is able to rollup Moose and gets the three count and the surprise win in about 11 minutes. Swann’s next opponent is Michael Elgin. Elgin charges into the ring and Swann and Elgin trade some dives to the outside and then the action moves back into the ring with Swann in control as he hits Elgin with some kicks but Elgin counters with a pop up power bomb to put Swann down. Elgin then hits Swann with some splashes in the corner which look pretty brutal. Swann then follows by hitting Elgin with a school boy bomb as Elgin was positioned on the top rope. The two then start trading some strikes in the middle of the ring and Elgin counters that with a buckle bomb into a cross face submission move until Swann is able to get to the ropes for the break. Elgin then hits Swann with a one arm dragon suplex on the edge of the ring and Elgin throws Swann back into the ring to hit a top rope move but Swann gets out of the way and then the two trade some kicks in the middle of the ring until Elgin hits a German suplex and clothes line on Swann. It then looks like Swann is bleeding from the mouth and Elgin hits a superplex on Swann but Swann is able to counter into a couple hurricanranas into a super kick. Elgin then hits a dead lift Falcon arrow on Swann off the middle rope but Swann kicks out on the cover. After the ref got in Elgin’s way a a couple of times, Elgin shoves the ref twice and gets a disqualification and Swann wins in about 15 minutes. Elgin continues to beat down on Swann and hits him with a power bomb. After a commercial break, Swann’s next opponent is Brian Cage. Cage enters the ring and looks like he feels bad for Swann because he can barely stand and the blood is really flowing out of his mouth but Swann slaps Cage and hits him with a couple of kicks and then a super kick. Swann then hits a 450 on Cage and goes for the cover but Cage kicks out on one. Swann then hits two more kicks on Cage and then gets Cage down and hits another 450 splash on Cage but he kicks out of the cover at two and a half. Cage then catches Swann and hits him with a suplex but then Swann counters and hits two cutters in a row on Cage. Swann then goes for a phoenix splash but Cage then counters into weapon x for the win in about 6 minutes. Cage’s next and final opponent is Tessa Blanchard. After a standoff where it seems like Cage doesn’t really want to fight his friend, Blanchard then yells at Cage to fight her and the two lock up in a collar and elbow lockup. 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November 23, 2024

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