Bryan Danielson vs. Christopher Daniels ROH Round Robin Challenge 3/30/02

Before: Okay, A. I having a little bit of trouble finding links to the 2004 ROH matches, so bare with me on that. B. I realized that I forgot to a review three matches from 02-03 which will start right now

Match: I really enjoyed this. Daniels worked on Dragon’s neck and Dragon sold it well. They did pop back on offense a little too quickly at points but this was a tight match. I kind of prefer this match over the epic Ki/Dragon because there was less bs in this, and much more coherent story.

Best ROH match of 2003

1. Christopher Daniels vs. Paul London ROH Retribution: Round Robin Challenge II 4/26/03
2. Hardcore Match Homicide vs. Steve Corino ROH Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies 8/16/03
3. ROH Title Shot Match AJ Styles vs. Paul London ROH Night of the Grudges 6/14/03
4. Semi-Hardcore Match ("No Holds Barred") Xavier & Christopher Daniels vs. Low Ki & AJ Styles ROH Revenge on the Prophecy 1/11/03
5. No Rope Barbed Wire Match Homicide vs. Steve Corino ROH War of the Wire 11/29/03
6. ROH Title Shot - FWA Title Match Christopher Daniels vs. Doug Williams ROH Night of Champions 3/22/03
7. ROH Title Shot Match Homicide vs. Colt Cabana vs. Dan Maff vs. BJ Whitmer ROH Death Before Dishonor 7/19/03
8. Scramble Cage Jack Evans & Teddy Hart vs. Backseat Boyz vs. Carnage Crew vs. The SAT vs. Hydro & Angeldust ROH Main Event Spectacles 11/1/03
9. Hardcore Match Xavier vs. John Walters ROH Final Battle 2003 12/27/03
10. Tag Titles Match Briscoe Bros. vs. Samoa Joe & AJ Styles ROH The Conclusion 11/28/03
11. ROH Title Match Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe ROH Tradition Continues 10/16/03
12. ROH Title Match Samoa Joe vs. Homicide ROH Do or Die 5/31/03
13. ROH Title Shot Match Low Ki vs. Paul London vs. AJ Styles ROH One Year Anniversary Show 2/8/03
14. Fighting Spirit Challenge Homicide vs. BJ Whitmer ROH Main Event Spectacles 11/1/03
15. Dog Collar Match CM Punk vs. Raven ROH Death Before Dishonor 7/19/03
16. Homicide vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Xavier vs. John Walters ROH Tradition Continues 10/16/03
17. Cage Match CM Punk vs. Raven ROH The Conclusion 11/28/03
18. Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe ROH One Year Anniversary Show 2/8/03
19. ROH Title Shot Match CM Punk vs. Homicide ROH Retribution: Round Robin Challenge II 4/26/03
20. Tag Titles Match AJ Styles & Amazing Red vs. Briscoe Bros. ROH Night of Champions 3/22/03
21. Homicide vs. Trent Acid ROH Beating the Odds 9/6/03
22. ROH Title Shot Match AJ Styles vs. Bryan Danielson ROH Main Event Spectacles 11/1/03
23. Tag Titles Match Xavier & Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles & Amazing Red ROH Expect the Unexpected 3/15/03
24. ROH Tag Team Titles AJ Styles & Homicide vs. Christopher Daniels & Dan Maff ROH Wrath of the Racket 8/9/03
25. 2/3 Falls Match Bryan Danielson vs. Paul London ROH The Epic Encounter 4/12/03

-1-8 are the high end best of 03 matches
-9-16 are the ones that are very good
-17-21 are the good ones
-22-25 are the ones I hated
-I won’t say that it is 100%, but I am pretty satisfied with most of it.

Hardcore Match Xavier vs. John Walters ROH Final Battle 2003 12/27/03

If you could get past the somewhat botched ending, this was definitely super fun stuff. And again, Xavier is awesome. The Arabian press through the ladder and the 450 to the outside was fucking choice. Give me some time to see the final list.

No Rope Barbed Wire Match Homicide vs. Steve Corino ROH War of the Wire 11/29/03

Yeah, that was disgustingly brutal, so it was awesome. Not as good as the hardcore match, because Homicide has the same issues at times when it comes to doing “your turn, my turn.” The big offender was the Northern Lights Bomb on the barb wire fence and then getting up and hitting his moves. Still loved it.

Cage Match CM Punk vs. Raven ROH The Conclusion 11/28/03

Damnit, I just don’t know. These Punk/Raven matches don’t really have anything to rag on, but I just could not get to into these. Some of the chair spots, and the final spot in this match were a tad bit contrived. With the chair, Raven would hold the chair in the opposite direction making it more obvious that the chair was going to get kicked in his face. I know I am going to find this other matches, but still I wish it wasn’t so obvious in all cases. But back on track, I thought the dog-collar match was better. Both need to be rewatched.

Tag Titles Match Briscoe Bros. vs. Samoa Joe & AJ Styles ROH The Conclusion 11/28/03

Very good despite the crowd being lukewarm. Just 15 minutes of smooth wrestling to calm the afternoon.

ROH Title Shot Match AJ Styles vs. Bryan Danielson ROH Main Event Spectacles 11/1/03

Man, did I not care for this. AJ sold the arm, Bryan sold the leg. AJ was awful, Bryan was competent at most. I mean look at it from my point of view when it comes to 11/1/03. Homicide/Whitmer had a sense of accomplishment, the scramble tag was 15 minutes of fun, and AJ/Danielson was 24 minutes of no one selling shit and not doing anything interesting. Skip.

Scramble Cage Jack Evans & Teddy Hart vs. Backseat Boyz vs. Carnage Crew vs. The SAT vs. Hydro & Angeldust ROH Main Event Spectacles 11/1/03

You know this was a really fun spotfest, and not as stupid as it could have been. Notes on it:

-Actually used the cage well, people were busted open and people dove off the top.
-Actually was built very well in the 15 minutes.
-Had some cooperation.
-Selling was middling, which was better then I thought it would be.
-May have been a story, but it’s hard to do one in a scramble match.

May need to rewatch this one.

Fighting Spirit Challenge Homicide vs. BJ Whitmer ROH Main Event Spectacles 11/1/03

Like Jay/Joe, this match was actually trying to accomplish something. This was to make BJ look just as tough as Homicide. This one had a nasty head butt and nasty punting in the face. It was fine.

ROH Title Match Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe ROH Tradition Continues 10/16/03

This is not one of those MOTY 5 star matches, but it accomplishes something. The goal was to show Jay could hang with Joe. It did that, and in the end it was very good. Would have liked Jay’s offense to have a little more fire.

Homicide vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Xavier vs. John Walters ROH Tradition Continues 10/16/03

Fine enough 4-way. I’ve seen better, but it was perfectly fine.

Homicide vs. Trent Acid ROH Beating the Odds 9/6/03

Too much “your turn, my turn” BS that I see from every Homicide match this year. This at least had the bonus of Acid’s eye and Homicide’s nose getting busted open. Nothing to see here.

Hardcore Match Homicide vs. Steve Corino ROH Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies 8/16/03

Yep, just as violent as I remember it. And this had selling in between moves, plus an ending that tied everything together. Could have cut a sequence or two at the end but definitely upper echelon stuff.

ROH Tag Team Titles AJ Styles & Homicide vs. Christopher Daniels & Dan Maff ROH Wrath of the Racket 8/9/03

Blah. The only things I could take out of this were the double dives and Jim Cornette. The middle was OK but heatless, and the end run was marred by crappy execution. Homicide has got to stop doing stupid stuff in matches.

Dog Collar Match CM Punk vs. Raven ROH Death Before Dishonor 7/19/03

This match is alright, but is more memorable for the before and after match activity. The Dog Collar didn’t really get in the way, but something was lacking in this. Raven is an OK wrestler, but it felt like he treated this match like it was another ECW brawl. He didn’t really push the envelope and show the fire to make it a hate-filled match. In all, I find myself putting this in the middle.

ROH Title Shot Match Homicide vs. Colt Cabana vs. Dan Maff vs. BJ Whitmer ROH Death Before Dishonor 7/19/03

OK, I did not expect this to be as awesome as it was. First half is fine enough then Maff does a 300lb tope which clears the guardrail and then it becomes a head-dropping frenzy after that. And that’s OK, because it can be done in a 4-way.

ROH Title Shot Match AJ Styles vs. Paul London ROH Night of the Grudges 6/14/03

This match follows the same template as the London/Daniels match except this is considered more recognizable. Each try to play mind games with the other until it boils over and the story begins. This time AJ sells the leg and for once actually does a really good job in doing it. He would temporarily no sell damage to hit a big move, but he was pretty consistent throughout. Still, is this really better then London/Daniels? The FIP was better in London/Daniels and the control section was better in London/Daniels. Both matches had logical finishes but London/Daniels was a better match. This is still a top 5 match right now.

ROH Title Match Samoa Joe vs. Homicide ROH Do or Die 5/31/03

This was pretty fucking brutal. Joe kicked Homicide’s ass good in this one. There was the STJoe, the belly to belly to the floor, the ole kick which bent the barricade, his three trademark suplexes, and eventually the super muscle buster from the second rope. These moves would matter if Homicide’s selling wasn’t so crappy at points. Like one second he is in the choke, and then he is in the STF without selling the effects of the choke. Then you had the Ki/Smokes drama which played into the finish and the table spot which wasn’t necessary. Oh, can’t forget the Homicide brainbuster which knocked Joe out and stopped the momentum. It was memorable, but it wasn’t great.

ROH Title Shot Match CM Punk vs. Homicide ROH Retribution: Round Robin Challenge II 4/26/03

This was pretty much a 15 minute game of “your move, my move.” It was good, but when finishers are being treated as afterthoughts, you just want it all to end. Very high energy, but very middling.

Christopher Daniels vs Paul London ROH Retribution: Round Robin Challenge II 4/26/03

Yes, this is what I am talking about. First couple minutes were Daniels trying to dick with London only for London to dick with right back. It eventually leads to leads to Daniels working the ribs with London selling like a champ. The shtick from Daniels from jawing at the crowd came off as entertaining without stalling the match. Everything was hit perfectly and led to the perfect conclusion. Best ROH match of 03 so far. You need all this.

2/3 Falls Match Bryan Danielson vs. Paul London ROH The Epic Encounter 4/12/03

First thoughts- man was this a god damn chore to go through.

1st fall- Good concept, but it bored me in parts and lacked the snap to make it stand out. First 5 minutes were feeling out with each acting dickish to the other on rope breaks. Everything advanced well until Dragon got in control which sucked. I will just say it felt IRS level which shouldn’t be the case considering the amount of good stuff he had in 02. Eventually, London reversed a super backdrop to get the fall.

2nd fall- Best fall in that we get into the real story of the match. London’s leg gets caught and he starts selling (or legit injured?) leg for the rest of the match.

3rd fall- This fall didn’t want to end. Dragon had no right to do the amount of stupid stuff he did to lose the match (always putting London on the top rope.) London’s selling was annoying in that the match screeched to a halt and was creating less suspense and more anxiety for the match to end. London does kind of a crappy second rope tornado DDT and a SSP which took an eternity to win.

The verdict- very overrated. Why?
-no intensity was shown throughout
-boring restholds
-went way too long with time needing to be cut from each of the falls (equals to about 15-20 minutes)

The lesson- just because a match goes long does not make it epic.

Tag Titles Match AJ Styles & Amazing Red vs. Briscoe Bros. ROH Night of Champions 3/22/03

Fun match with some dragging in between. In the end, it is still a spotfest and trying to give a detailed explanation about it will just melt my brain. Better then Xavier/Daniels but the Briscoes play more to Red/Styles strengths anyway.

ROH Title Shot - FWA Title Match Christopher Daniels vs. Doug Williams ROH Night of Champions 3/22/03

People have called this an underappreciated match. I can agree with that although I think it could have been little better. I liked that Williams was the crafty wrestler frustrating Daniels with all his tricked out carny bullshit. Daniels was great selling his neck for the entire match to set up the ending. Williams selling of the ribs was not as good. It made sense in trying go for the BME but Williams didn’t really put the effort in on selling like Daniels did. They could have let Daniels use shortcuts to take control instead of Williams ignoring the work. Still really liked it and my second best ROH match in 03 so far.

Tag Titles Match Xavier & Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles & Amazing Red ROH Expect the Unexpected 3/15/03

I liked parts of this, but I thought it was a Prophecy carry job. Xavier took an enzuigiri and sold being or actually was concussed for the rest of the match and held on well. Daniels was awesome, especially his section toward the end where he was fucking everybody left and right. For some reason they had AJ work FIP and had his neck worked over and didn’t sell any of it. Red could have just taken a big ass-whooping from the Prophecy and nothing would have changed except to not expose AJ’s crappy selling. The valets fighting were fine, the ending sucked. I’m expecting Red to do a top rope move after the Styles Clash and then AJ pins him, and everybody’s confused.

ROH Title Shot Match Low Ki vs. Paul London vs. AJ Styles ROH One Year Anniversary Show 2/8/03

Very good but very flawed. Ki was Ki, AJ was dishing out the deadly combos, and London eventually got stiff when the adrenaline was flowing. Still, moves were repeated, the selling was off, and some spots came off as convoluted. It felt like a match more suited for TNA. I still liked it, but felt it was going to be excellent in the beginning then petered out a bit in the middle until the finish.

Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe ROH One Year Anniversary Show 2/8/03

Good match but no where near as good as there 2002 encounter. Didn’t have the story or transitions from offense that the other match offered.

Semi-Hardcore Match ("No Holds Barred") Xavier & Christopher Daniels vs. Low Ki & AJ Styles ROH Revenge on the Prophecy 1/11/03

I can’t believe how much this kicked ass. The match was weird in that it worked like a regular tag match, except for no rope breaks until they use some plunder in the end. I guess all made oaths to beat the shit out of each other rather then take the easy way out. All kept a really nice pace throughout and even though it went close to 30, it never felt fillerish throughout. Some will complain about the selling, but you can get away with that more in a tag match. Watch it.

Best of ROH 2002

Here are my top matches for ROH 2002:

ROH 2002
1. Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Christopher Daniels The Era of Honor Begins 2/23/02
2. Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe ROH Honor Invades Boston – 8/24/02
3. Low Ki vs. AJ Styles ROH A Night of Appreciation 4/27/02
4. Fight Without Honor Low Ki vs. Samoa Joe ROH Glory By Honor 10/5/02
5. Paul London vs Bryan Danielson ROH Night of the Butcher 12/7/02
6. Low Ki vs. Amazing Red ROH Road to the Title 6/22/02
7. Hardcore Match Paul London vs. Michael Shane ROH Unscripted 9/21/02
8. Low Ki vs. Spanky vs. Doug Williams vs. Christopher Daniels 60 Minute Iron Man Match ROH Crowning a Champion 7/27/02
9. Low Ki vs. Bryan Danielson ROH Round Robin Challenge 3/30/02
10. Tag Titles Match Christopher Daniels, Donovan Morgan, and Samoa Joe vs. Low Ki, Homicide, and Doug Williams ROH All Star Extravaganza 11/9/02
11. ROH Title Shot Gauntlet Final AJ Styles vs. Bryan Danielson ROH All Star Extravaganza 11/9/02
12. ROH Title Match Low Ki vs. AJ Styles ROH Honor Invades Boston 8/24/02
13. Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles ROH Road to the Title 6/22/02

- 1 was the best by far.
- 2-10 were very good but were marred in one way or another
- 2-7 could be list worthy for all of 2002. All those matches had competent stories and didn’t really drag that badly
- 8-9 are the pimped matches that I don’t feel have aged that well because they dragged at points and lost my attention. Going long doesn’t make a match better.
-10 was unmemorable in hindsight.
-11-13 was AJ not really stepping up and not making me care.



Every other ROH year will probably be better.

Low Ki vs. Amazing Red ROH Road to the Title 6/22/02

This was a shit ton of fun. Like a really fun 10 minute Smackdown match. Did almost screw up some spots, but they recovered nicely on most of them except for the reverse rana which looked kind of crappy. Can’t put it over London/Dragon. That match was deeper. I’ll try to work on the best of ROH 02, later.

Paul London vs Bryan Danielson ROH Night of the Butcher 12/7/02

This was nice little match. This had a better story with Dragon getting frustrated by London and just getting pissed off and just destroying London with chops and uppercuts. London sold the ass beating well. Finishing sequence where Dragon throwing all of his energy into trying to get London off the top rope only for London to rain stiff shots on him so he could finally get him down for the SSP. Better then London/Shane in that London/Dragon had less dead time.




I had forgotten about a list done back in 2006 to show the 100 greatest ROH matches in ROH’s first 100 shows. To my surprise, only 10 matches were from 2002. So I guess I should not have been surprised as I was about 02 being disappointing. I did miss one match, Ki/Red, and I will review that in my next post.

ROH Title Shot Gauntlet Final AJ Styles vs. Bryan Danielson ROH All Star Extravaganza 11/9/02

With the exception of Danielson’s uppercuts and the last third of the match with Styles fighting for the second Styles Clash, it just seemed like a bunch of stuff. Thoughts on sequences of the match:

Mat wrestling- fine
Drop toe hold that sent AJ to the outside- weird
AJ jumping the railing and superkicking Dragon- cool
AJ doing a knucklelock sequence with Dragon after taking control with superkick- why?
Armwork from Dragon- sweet
AJ’s selling of armwork- shitty

Dragon did get his eye bloodied either a punch or an inverted ddt attempt. Nothing really came from that. And AJ is in my bottom 3 matches.

Tag Titles Match Christopher Daniels, Donovan Morgan, & Samoa Joe vs. Low Ki, Homicide, & Doug Williams ROH All Star Extravaganza 11/9/02

This was fairly solid for a match I never heard about. Still in order for a 6-man to be great, it needs a story/stories, timing, and execution. Did it have any of this? The answers are no, ok but could have been better, and ok but could have been better. Joe did come off as a star in this one. Just kicking ass, taking names, and selling well. Have 2 matches left for this year and as is, I’m kind of disappointed. I’ll get in to why when I finish this year.

Fight Without Honor Low Ki vs. Samoa Joe ROH Glory By Honor 10/5/02

Man did these two beat the shit out of each other. Very Manly. Needed a better finish. A KO finish is all right, but it needed to stand out more then a clubbing blow to the back of the head. Maybe a Fujiwara armbar considering that Ki worked Joe’s arm and was sold competently. It got me marking. This match, Ki/Styles 4/27, and Jay/Mark are in the 2-3-4 range right now.

Hardcore Match Paul London vs. Michael Shane ROH Unscripted 9/21/02

First things first, the commentary is awful in this match. I don’t know if I can think of a more unenthusiastic duo calling a hardcore match. As for the match, nice spots, but it took too long to set up at points. Build was good, selling could have been better (especially, after the first elbow). Less dragging puts this in the middle for ROH 02.

ROH Title Match Low Ki vs. AJ Styles ROH Honor Invades Boston 8/24/02

Man, this was wildly disappointing. Match struck me as very similar to there 4/27 match except without the high-end execution and having 5 more minutes. There was some alright countering and dodging of moves, but there didn’t seem to be any direction and it didn’t glue me to the match. I want to go into more detail but there is nothing noteworthy about this match that you didn’t see on 4/27.

Jay Briscoe vs. Mark Briscoe ROH Honor Invades Boston – 8/24/02

Of all the matches that I’ve watched, the match with the best story involved the Briscoes. The Briscoes who were 18 and 17 at this point have had the best story up to this point. The more you know! It’s just too bad that they didn’t relish there roles during the match. The way they transitioned throughout was nice with Mark cutting Jay and punching the cut, Jay working on Mark’s hand, Mark knee dropping the cut, and Jay taking out Mark’s leg. Both actually sold really well (again, 18 and 17). It would have been a great indy version of Bret/Owen WM X if they just brought out there personalities more during the match. I feel like I’m underrating this one, but the spots were not as “holy shit”-worthy as Ki/Styles. May rewatch.

Low Ki vs. Spanky vs. Doug Williams vs. Christopher Daniels 60 Minute Iron Man Match ROH Crowning a Champion 7/27/02

Damnit, I knew that Ironman stipulation would fuck everything up. However, it did exceed my expectations. Actually did have a story with Ki getting his legs worked on, Daniels arm getting worked, Spanky’s neck, and Williams being the wildcard in all of it. All of the work was sold well. If it was just a regular 4-way, with the match ending on the first fall, it would have been the best match so far. But they had to fill another 30 and it dragged at points and lost the crowd. Second fall made sense and was nice and the third fall Ki messed up the Phoenix by landing on his head. Better then Ki/Danielson because there was some direction to the match, worst then Ki/Styles because it dragged at points.

Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles ROH Road to the Title 6/22/02

Meh. Definitely the worst match so far. First 9 minutes were matwork that I have seen done better in the previous two matches. Then Styles gets busted open which leads to some good working of the cut by Daniels but Styles doesn’t really sell that he has gotten busted open and that story gets tossed aside. I did like the Styles Clash getting countered into an Ankle Lock but kicks his way out, no sells the damage, and goes for another Clash attempt. So yeah, Styles stunk in this one. Ending was nifty.