Daniels/Walters rewatch

Man, this match is similar to the Daniels/Xavier match.  This match had one minor botch while Daniels/Xavier had one comeback that came a bit too easy.  Xavier and Walters selling were about the same in that it should have been better, so that’s a tie.  Daniels selling against Walters was probably a little better because he wasn’t being put in the position to sell the whole match.  Wherever this ends up, it will be next to Xavier/Daniels.

J. Briscoe/Joe rewatch

Even better the second time.  Joe as the overconfident bully to Jay’s underdog who won’t back down was awesome stuff.  Doesn’t fall into any of the traps that I have seen in other matches.  Top 10.

Punk/Styles rewatch

About the same as last time I saw it.  Back work which didn’t mean anything and a fun final 5 minutes.  Last.

Corino/Homicide Hardcore Match rewatch

Still the real deal.  Not really a flaw in it except maybe Corino’s first comeback, after taking the barbed wire to the arm, in that he came back a bit too fast.  Certainly a top 10 or 5 match for 2003. 

Xavier/Daniels rewatch

I was shocked by how much this held up.  Way less back and forth the I remember it, unless you want to count the 2.9 count section at the end which somewhat negated the story.  If I were to compare Williams selling against Daniels to Xavier’s selling against Daniels, Williams was a 1 out of 10 while Xavier was a 4 out of 10.  This match is underrated, and Daniels/Williams isn’t.  Top half.

Homicide/Cabana/Maff/Whitmer rewatch

If you don’t have a hint of smarkness in you, this is a lot of fun.  Too much YTMT stuff and lack of story prevents me from giving it more love.  Lower half.

Styles/London rewatch

Maybe apart from one sequence, this match holds up pretty well.  AJ’s selling actually didn’t piss me off, too much.  Early on, his leg was hurting, but could pull off the occasional move.  Then he took the SSP, and was screwed at that point which eventually led to the finish.  #1 right now. 

Joe/Homicide rewatch

Still just as stiff of a slugfest as last time.  There were still points with Joe and Homicide where they would go back on offense way to quickly with the table tope being the biggest offender.  You also had the injury at the end and the Ki/Smokes shenanigans which also hurt this.   Reminds me most to Fleisch/Ki.  This goes just above it.

Daniels/London rewatch

Not the #1 match of 03 that I remember. I do feel there were instances where London would try to make the comeback a bit too quickly, but his selling was great. I do feel that this worked better then Daniels/Williams because Daniels in this match was not put in a position to hurt the match bad selling. I think what is happening with a lot of these matches is that there are matches that are technically sound are not really a major deal, and there are matches that are a major deal are not technically sound. All the matches I’ve rewatched so far have not had both.


As an aside, I am going to take out the Daniels/Joe match from the rewatch pile. I just realized that this match was similar to the Punk/Homicide match with its lack of good transitions.

Fleisch/Ki rewatch

Held up pretty well.  Some of Jody’s kicks didn’t connect well and there were points where somebody would pop back on offense too fast.  So same old complaints I’m having with mostly all ROH matches.  The lack of a story puts it in the middle right now.

Daniels/Williams rewatch

This did not hold up well on second viewing.  Besides Williams questionable selling, you had instances where someone would get back on offense too quickly or no sell the other’s offense.  It’s one thing if you get a flash submission, it is another thing to take a top rope move and take control in no time.  So, how to rank this?  It’s not better then “The Revenge on the Prophecy” matches.  Daniels selling is evened out by Williams selling and the issues are similar with the 3-way, but the is a better story in this match.  It is third right now.

Ki/London/Styles rewatch

Very good 3-way.  Not as good as “The Revenge on the Prophecy” matches because there is some questionable selling in a three minute stretch near the end and there isn’t as much story as I would like.  The reason I feel that the Ki/Danielson/Daniels 3-way worked was that I thought it was the perfect storyless 3-way and every 02 ROH match below it was flawed in some way.  This is a better year and is last right now. 

Xavier/Daniels vs. Ki/Styles rewatch

Still just as sprinty as the first time I saw it.  There were instances where they didn’t execute some things well, a heatless stretch near the end, and Ki dropping the neck work a bit too soon, but this match still holds up well.  I do feel this was a bigger deal and will put it above Joe/Danielson.

Joe/Danielson rewatch

Man this was still sweet.  I kind of feel it is better Midnight Express Reunion match because I thought Joe’s selling was better in this match.  In fact, I don’t think I could pinpoint anything that was wrong with this match except that it kind of came off as being low scale.  I will be shocked if it doesn’t finish top half.

ROH Title Match Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles ROH War of the Wire 11/29/03

Another one close to the line, but I don’t think it is good enough.  The first third had some execution problems, the second third struck me as heatless, and the last third was fun.  I kind of question AJ’s strategy of trying to use power moves on Joe (considering most of it didn’t look good) and wasting his time with back work so late in the match.  And with that, I am going to rewatch 21 matches.  

CM Punk vs. Steve Corino ROH Empire State Showdown 10/25/03

Very similar to how I viewed the Punk/Styles match when it came to my enjoyment of it.  This differences is that it was clipped by about under 2 minutes, the middle had no perfuntionary body part work, and that it was a draw.  Another one on the rewatch pile.

CM Punk vs. AJ Styles ROH Tradition Continues 10/16/03

Really good match if you could get past the inconsequential middle.  The middle had some token back work which wasn’t really sold and which was not brought up the rest of the match.  Get rid of that and probably would have been a really solid 13 minute match.  Still, I’m down for a rewatch.

ROH Title Match Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels ROH Glory By Honor II 9/20/03

After several attempts at megavideo, I finally got it.  Man, this is a tough one.  The problem is that the match is entirely back and forth and I’ve seen better matches put together by Joe and Daniels.  Even though I probably shouldn’t, I will put this on the rewatch list, but is probably the lowest end of the low end matches.

ROH Title Shot Match Xavier vs. Christopher Daniels ROH Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies 8/16/03

It isn’t perfect or any of that I liked it enough to put on rewatch for 2003.  Nice structured match, although I feel the selling could have been better.  I’ll try to go more in depth down the line.

ROH Title Match Samoa Joe vs. Paul London ROH Death Before Dishonor 7/19/03

Well that was a whole lot of nothing.  Final choke out had no heat because it was done out of the blue and the crowd was exhausted by midnight.  Skip.

Tag Titles Match AJ Styles & Amazing Red vs. Briscoe Bros. ROH Death Before Dishonor 7/19/03

Another good, if not special, tag match.  I did like the middle where they work over Red’s leg, but I felt like it really didn’t add anything in to the match.  I just couldn’t get into this match or any of there matches in 2003.  There just seemed to be something missing in all of these matches.  It would be good to look at the entire series at some point in the future.

Hardcore Match Homicide vs. Trent Acid ROH Wrestlerave 6/28/03

Brainless spotfest and a really bad one at that.  Pretty much spot, no sell, and move to the next spot.  Add in a botched Oklahoma Roll finish, and I pretty much never want to see this match again.

Tag Titles Match AJ Styles & Amazing Red vs. Briscoe Bros. ROH The Epic Encounter 4/12/03

A pretty awesome final 2 minutes does not justify a forgettable first 8 minutes.  Not terrible, but it just didn’t do it for me.

Jody Fleisch vs Low Ki ROH Night of Champions 3/22/03

Much better then I thought it would be.  Still has some flaws in the selling, but it outlived my expectations.  I will probably try to go into more detail on my rewatch.

Raven’s Rules Raven vs. CM Punk ROH Expect the Unexpected 3/15/03

The selling in this match hurt this big time.  The stuff with Punk and Trinity was more puzzling.  Trinity gets thrown in the fence, no sells, and does a top rope moonsault on the outside.  Punk then no sells that, plops Trinity on a table without hitting her, goes up top, and leg drops her through the table.  Other cameos include Raven applying the worst Sharpshooter ever, and Punk’s Devil Lock that looked liked ass.  Just didn’t dig it.

ROH Title Match Xavier vs. Paul London ROH One Year Anniversary Show 2/8/03

This was good, but it isn’t “cream of the crop” material.  I can live with a match that has interference in it, but some of the interference spots in this match weren’t executed well(the spear on the outside and Allison Danger pulling Xavier out.)  Xavier was fine, but London seemed off yet again.  I will give London a mulligan on this one because he fought in a 3 way earlier in the night.  Add some questionable selling and a finish where the referee missed Xavier pulling the tights right in front of him and I can easily pass on this one.