ROH DVD Review: World Title Classic


Date: 08/10 7:40 PM
Views: 5,265

Written by Stevie J

ROH World Title Classic

Welcome back to our regular series of reviews covering RING OF HONOR DEE-VEE-DEEZ! For more information visit www.ROHWrestling.com and don't forget to buy a few DVD's of your own while there. This week we're covering the World Title Classic from June 12th, 2004 in Dayton, Ohio. Without further adieu here are the CURRENT CHAMPIONS at the start of this show:

* ROH Tag Team Champions: CM Punk & Colt Cabana
* ROH Pure Champion: none (formerly AJ Styles - see review)
* ROH World Champion: Samoa Joe

We open with Colt Cabana opening with his "Good Times, Great Memories" talk show and Cabana claims to have just walked all the way from Chicago to Dayton just to be here. Interesting choice of attire - he has on a gray suit, no tie, and a purple Kamala the Ugandan Giant shirt instead of a dress shirt with a collar. He brings out "Sexy" Ace Steel to join him on the set... which is of course the parking lot outside. They brag about putting Christopher Daniels out of action and say they'll do the same to Whitmer & Maff. They walk up and interrupt a meeting between some ROH officials and crew and claim they them are Jack Evans, Austin Aries and Roderick Strong and Alex Shelley - basically mocking Generation Next. One guy looks a lot like Les Thatcher to me, and Cabana gets in his face promises that just like Whitmer & Maff they will fall victim to the Second City Saints during "Ultimate Endurance." Turns out it IS Les Thatcher, co-host of Wrestling Weekly with Doc Young and former owner of HWA Wrestling. They badger him about whether he's ever been in a match with four stipulations and when he starts to answer they walk away because they say they've "found" Jimmy Rave. The gimmick is getting old, so thankfully Cabana wraps it up by saying if anybody thinks they're taking his and Punk's title they've got another thing coming.

* New & Improved Carnage Crew v. Dunn & Marcos (Ring Crew Express)

For those wondering, the "New & Improved" means Masada and Danny Daniels, which occured after Masada turned on the original Carnage Crew of Loc & Devito to go off on his own. Apparently whether it's old Carnage Crew or new, Masada still hates the Ring Crew. Dunn & Marcos go for a double victory roll but Carnage Crew hook the ropes and avoid it. Masada ges dropkicked out of a crucifix into a two count. RCE go for a double arm breaker and a foot stomp and a baseball slide onto Masada on the outside. Eventually Dunn tries to crossbody Masada over the ropes but Masada catches him and slams him hard into the barricade. Marcos stays in the ring and goes top rope on Daniels but Masada comes back in and puts him on his shoulder and they give him a bulldog Doomsday Device. They don't even bother pinning Marcos, they just want to punish Marcos and they do. Out of nowhere in the middle of the match announcer Chris Lovey (in real life ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky) decides to change his name to Jimmy Bower. Hmmmmmm. Anyway Carnage Crew stay on offense, cutting off the ring and beating up Marcos with ease.

Marcos is thrown around like a ragdoll for a few more minutes before Dunn finally manages to crawl back to the apron and get a tag. Masada gets hit with a few chops by Dunn and no-sells, while Masada returns the favor and then hits a northern lights suplex into the corner. A footstomp and dropkick to the knee start a comeback which leads to a sliced bread #2 attempt, but Daniels turns it into a sitedown piledriver. New & Improved scoop up Marcos for double knees off a delayed vertical suplex and he's immediately pinned for three. WINNERS: NEW & IMPROVED CARNAGE CREW. Okay opening match for an ROH show I suppose, particularly if you're trying to book with something average to start and keep building and building to something great later on. In all honesty though DVD chaptering will make it a hard temptation not to skip this one altogether.

* JT Stahr & TJ Dalton vs Ala Hussein & Shawn Osbourn (Do or Die Tag Match)

Speaking of HWA, there's a few names I recognize from the days I used to recap Adrenaline - before they started repeating the same shows every damn week on AmericaOne. If you're on MySpace though drop Brock Guffman a line and say hey, he's a good guy and I miss hearing his over-the-top promos. If you're wondering why I'm talking about all this other shit and not this match well it's simple - THERE IS NO MATCH. Homicide comes out to the ring to a huge pop, vows to "kill somebody right now" and somebody screams at the announcer with the mic "GET THE HELL OUT RIGHT NOW BEFORE HE KILLS YOUR WHITE ASS!!" JT Stahr takes the mic and says he doesn't give a damn about Homicide's beef, this is their shot, and Homicide better show them some respect. You can guess how 'Cide reacts to this - he clears the ring wwith ease and then bulldogs Stahr off the top rope. As a result of the massive ass whoopings he's laying down, including attacking the wrestlers with a fork a la Abdullah, I'd say this is a NO CONTEST. The crowd could care less, they're even chanting "fork him up Homicide, fork him up" and "HIT THE REF, HIT THE REF." Needless to say he obliges to a huge pop. The crowd chants for a Cop Killer but instead 'Cide decides to cut a promo. It's hard to hear with the echo but basically he says if ROH is disrespecting him, he's going to disrespect them right back.

* Jimmy Jacobs v. Loc v. Rainman v. Delirious v. Matt Sydal v. Caprice Coleman (Six Man Mayhem)

These kind of ROH matches drive me insane. There's at least three guys in this I'd rather see in one-on-one battles, another guy randomly pulled out of his tag team, and two more guys I'm not honestly even sure I've heard of. Coleman, Rainman, I'm talking to the two of you. In fact I couldn't even find a page for Coleman on Wikipedia, although it does state he used to wrestle for OMEGA in North Carolina back in the day. To say I have little patience for this would be an understatement, particularly when they announce it's tornado style "scramble" rules - ROH scrambles annoy me more than anything else. If it weren't for Delirious I think I might skip this altogether. At least it's nice to see Daizee Haze at ringside with Matt Sydal. Eventually Jacobs hits Loc with the Contra Code from the top for the pin. WINNER: JIMMY JACOBS.

* Alex Shelley, Roderick Strong & Austin Aries (Generation Next) v. Matt Stryker, Jimmy Rave & John Walters

I must say if they're doing the slow burn on this card all the way to the main event it's one of the slowest burns I've seen yet in all my reviews. It's easy to get spoiled when you're watching opening matches with guys like Colt Cabana, CM Punk and Bryan Danielson. Anyway Stryker comes out and Alex Shelley cuts a pre-match promo for Generation Next where he says he's got the better of Matt Stryker so either he can leave or GN can beat him down and MAKE him leave. Stryker gets in his face and GN jumps him from behind for a three-on-one beating where Shelley busts him open with a steel chain. Rave & Walters eventually show up to make the save. When the fourth GN member Evans tries to interfere Walters POWERBOMBS HIM STRAIGHT TO THE FLOOR. This is some brutal shit. Doesn't really effect the match either way since Evans wasn't in it to begin with but DAMN.

Stryker is eventually helped to the back, bleeding like a full one on the Muta scale, while Walters cuts a promo in the ring for his side as GN checks on Evans. "I think we've made it clear we want a fight, and we want it NOW." GN says okay that's fine but it's 3 on 2 and you're on the losing end. The bell rings and things get started but Stryker's unwilling to leave his team unnamed and shrugs off the help to the back to run back down to the ring. Midway into the match the announce team explains this was originally supposed to be one-on-one between Stryker and Shelley, but since the box for the DVD said three-on-three I was assuming that from the jump instead of believing what happened at the start was the build to an "impromptu" match. They keep putting over this non-starter of an angle repeatedly on commentary to the point it gets annoying and detracts from an otherwise good match. GN are the clear heels, cutting off the ring and giving 3-on-1 beatdowns whenever the ref is distracted, basically applying traditional tag psychology but factoring in an extra man on each side.

Eventually Stryker reels off five Germans in a row and Rave gets the tag for a 'rana. Alex Shelley makes the save on a near fall. Walters gives him a sit down stunner for his trouble. Walters and Shelley spill out to the floor and Shelley gets whipped into the guardrail. Strong is in a crossface submission but Aries hits the 450 splash to Rave's back and puts him in the Rings of Saturn. Rave has nowhere to go and everybody's left brawling on the outside so no one can make the save. WINNERS: GENERATION NEXT. It dragged on a little too long but other than that it was the best match so far and GN is getting huge heat from the crowd in Dayton for their heelish ways. Stryker and Walters console Rave, who believed it might be his last match ever in ROH if he didn't win. We all know that would come much later.

Dave Prazak takes us to intermission and we're back in the parking lot again. Why is this ROH show starting to feel like an episode of TNA Impact? "TO THE BACK, with DAVE PRAZAK!!" Prazak finds CM Punk for an interview. Punk: "Let's take a look at my career in ROH so far. Tonight I have the biggest match of my life, and I win big matches. Ask Colt Cabana - when I debuted here in Ring of Honor, I came out on top. Ask Raven, who's no longer here because of me. How about right here, January 10th, ask Chris Daniels who wins big match. It doesn't matter how many losses or wins I've had because this is my first shot at the title. This is going to be my ONLY shot at the title because I'm going to win it. Ask AJ Styles, ask Homicide who has the killer instinct. Everybody here knows I'm the MVP. The people love Joe and Joe has built that title up, it's the biggest thing in North America, but I'm going to pull it out. I crush the human spirit, and there's nothing left for me to do but knock Joe off the mountain. 14 months as champion is an accomplishment but I'm going to take that title places he never could." Yadda yadda yadda.

Next we go to Les Thatcher standing outside with Samoa Joe. Before Les starts the interview he has an important announcement he thinks Joe will want to hear - ROH will be crowning a new Pure title on July 17th in Elizabeth, NJ because AJ Styles has been STRIPPED of the belt. Here's where the "see review for explanation" part comes in. Around this time ROH owner and promoter Rob Feinstein was caught in a sex sting trying to solicit a relationship with a young boy. This caused major heat with TNA, who had been allowing their contracted performers (like Styles) to appear at ROH shows. TNA barred Styles from appearing, which meant of course he could no longer hold the ROH Pure Title. As for Feinstein, he eventually sold his share of the company to Cary Silkin and ROH regained their good name, but rumors Feinstein was still involved behind the scenes persisted for a long time. Back to Samoa Joe: "Les I mean no disrespect. How many more mistakes is the Ring of Honor management going to make? It was a failed title the first time and it's going to be a failed title this time. The Pure Championship will never be held in the same esteem as the ROH World Championship, and that's for one reason and that's ME. Enough about that Les. Tonight I'm facing a tremendous competitor but Punk you have to remember - 14 months, 19 men. None of them could get it done. Tonight you think you're going to? You're #20 Punk. AJ Styles didn't. Christopher Daniels didn't. The Notorious 1-8-7 Homicide didn't. New Japan Pro Wrestling has called me out because they think their man can take that belt from me, and CM Punk you think you can take it tonight? You're sadly mistaken. You need to remember one thing - Les, always a pleasure sure but - I'm Samoa Joe, I'm YOUR Ring of Honor World Champion, but most of all I AM pro wrestling, and I can't be beaten." Les promises Joe a big surprise tonight and we go back for the second half.

* Chad Collyer v. Ray Gordy v. Superstar Steve v. Hydro (Four Corner Survival)

Here's an example of the kind of thing you can only see watching old ROH DVD's. You've got Ray Gordy, son of the legendary Terry 'Bam Bam' Gordy, who is now working for WWE on the Smackdown brand as one half of the "Jesse + Festus" gimmick (happily not the brain-damaged half). You've got Hydro, the man who is currently working for TNA as 'Black Machismo' Jay Lethal. Then you've got Chad Collyer, who's been eveywhere you can be in wrestling - HWA, TNA, ROH, the list goes on. And you've got "Superstar Steve" - I have no idea who this schmoe is. Yet here they are - all four together in a match. A match that's "cut short due to time" according to Chris Lovey, so we jump right into the middle of the action. Whoever wins this match advances to the ROH Pure Title finals on July 17th. As quickly as we join the match it's already over as Hydro taps out Collyer to get the shot. WINNER: HYDRO. Generation Next meet him backstage and offer him a chance to join the crew, which he politely declines.

* Samoa Joe {C} v. CM Punk (ROH World Title Match)

Punk comes out wearing a jumpsuit and his ROH tag title and screams "IT'S CLOBBERING TIME!" Whether intended or not, by this point Punk had been around long enough that his persona and wrestling ability were starting to get face pops. In fact I heard not one "EFF YOU PUNK" on his way out to the ring, and he gets a round of applause and a big "C-M PUNK" chant when he arrives. Then again it helps that ROH is in Dayton for this show, which is arguably close enough to Chicago for him to be a "hometown favorite" when you consider how many times he wrestled in the area paying his dues. The Joe chant starts immediately when his music hits, starting with the Godzilla theme and evolving into my favorite entrance for Joe of all time - Jadakiss' "The Champ is Here (Time's Up Remix)." They might have been happy to see Punk but they are ECSTATIC at Joe's arrival, offering him knux and high-fives and telling Joe to "FUCK HIM UP." The challenger is introduced first and finally gets some boos, but before the champ is introduced Les comes out to a big pop from the crowd. "I've been impressed with your talent and intestinal fortitude. You have turned the ROH Title from a regional title into a world title. Management felt this justified doing something special. I'd like to present you this belt. This is the brand new Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Title belt. How about a big hand for Samoa Joe!" Les gives him the belt and Joe parades it around the ring before putting it over his shoulder. Joe continues wearing the old belt while holding the new belt as he is introduced.

The crowd showers Joe with streamers before the match can get underway. Punk and Joe shake hands, respectfully at first, but then Punk pulls him in for a little nose to nose chat. I'm going to let you in on a little secret right now - THIS is the match I bought this DVD for. Many critics in 2004 considered this a Match of the Year candidate and quite honestly after buying this disc I skipped right to it and before tonight I had never watched the rest. Therefore I'm going to save a little time (and review length) by explaining the big three facts of this match. NUMBER ONE - this match goes a full hour, which is why so many of the other matches on this DVD are either underwhelming or cut way short. NUMBER TWO - there is no winner in this match; yes THIS MATCH IS A TIME LIMIT DRAW. This accomplishes two things - puts Joe over as a champion with the stamina to go the distance, and puts over Punk as the strongest challenger Joe has faced to date. NUMBER THREE - this was the first time Joe would face Punk but not the last; and the first time in ROH Joe would go to the time limit with an opponent, but not the last. This match is incredibly fun, not just for the technical wrestling displayed but how both men played with the crowd, with Joe babyfacing himself and Punk trying to heel it up on them every chance he could get. Whatever else I say from this point on THIS DVD IS WORTH OWNING FOR THIS MATCH ALONE.

Here's the finishing sequence for the last five minutes. Punk avoiding a muscle buster, Joe climbing up for a superplex, Punk reversing it for a Pepsi plunge, but driving his knees to the mat in the process and rolling out in pain. With three minutes left both men are down and Punk is the first to get up. He hits a shining wizard and a vertical suplex but Joe saves himself with a dragon screw and both men are down again with just two minutes. The crowd is at a fever pitch after this long exciting match. Joe sets Punk up on the top rope, and dumps Punk on his head and neck backwards. There's one minute left. Both men get up and slap the shit out of each other before Punk goes for a DDT and collapses before he can make the pin. Punk finally rolls over to make the cover but with under 10 seconds to go Joe kicks out at 2. NO WINNER OR LOSER IN THIS MATCH - SAMOA JOE RETAINS. The crowd loudly chants for "FIVE MORE MINUTES" for a LOOOOOOONG time but before we can see if it will actually happen Homicide attacks Joe with a steel chair, attacks the ring announcer, and as the crowd chants "BULL-SHIT" Homicide takes the World Title and says if you want this back come to Brooklyn... I'll be waiting! 'Cide flips off the crowd and dumps over the timekeeper's table on his way out with the belt as Joe is down and out in the ring. BIG TIME HEAT FOR THIS.

Crowd starts chanting "FIVE MORE MINUTES" and "THANK YOU" again after Homicide leaves, along with "MATCH OF-THE-YEAR." Punk: "Homicide, what you've never done before is pissed me off like you just did, and pissed off Joe like you just did. You see THIS, right here, is the most important title in North America!!" {R-O-H, R-O-H, R-O-H} "And it's because of you that it's this important." Punk hands him the belt and gives Joe a handshake, for real this time, and a big hug as the crowd chants "THANK YOU." Punk and Joe each get on one knee and pose for the crowd with another handshake as Punk dares anybody ANYWHERE to stop either of them. Punk was already a face to me but I'm sure for a lot of fans this solidified it.

* Colt Cabana & Ace Steel v. Jack Evans & Austin Aries v. The Briscoes v. Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer (Ultimate Endurance)

How the hell do you follow up a match like that and still have another on the card? Don't ask me - my name's not Chris Lovey or Jimmy Bower. Nevertheless this match fills out the rest of the World Title Classic DVD as Lovey reminds us that the ROH Tag Titles are not on the line because only one half of the championship team is involved, even though collectively Cabana, Punk and Steel ALL represent the Second City Saints. What this match does establish though is that a winner, other than the SCS, would be in line for a future tag title shot. Whitmer taps out Evans for the first fall, which is submissions only, after Evans takes a hell of a beating. The second fall is a scramble which means anybody in at any time. Cabana gets Mark Briscoe on his shoulders near the end but Dan Maff steals him off and BJ Whitmer hits some sort of doomsday dropkick before Maff makes the cover. Third fall is now "anything goes" between the Second City Saints and the Prophecy. Cabana takes time before the fall starts to heel on the crowd and say that Chicago is much MUCH better than Dayton and rub in that they destroyed Daniels in Ohio. Mafff and Whitmer can finally take it no more and go on offense, hitting a double clothesline and then putting their boots to the throats of the Saints while Maff cuts a promo vowing revenge.

Whitmer & Maff dominate early in the third fall, and the announcers put over that these two have never worked so well together before. Since it's "anything goes" it spills outside where the Saints attack everyone - even Allison Danger, and steel chairs and ring bells come into play. Saints are on offense for most of the rest of this match as Whitmer and Maff are bleeding, until they hit each other with chops to fire themselves up and go back on offense. It goes out to the floor and the Prophecy is cheered on as Maff takes Steel into the crowd and they attack each other with chairs. Cabana eventually goes all the way to the top of the bleachers but may have hurt himself worse in the process, nonetheless Steel throws Maff back over the guardrail as Cabana throws a chair into Whitmer's face. Whitmer is thrown over too. Steel throws Maff into the ring and unloads with boots and punches. Maff fights back with chops, ends up in a near fall but kicks out at two. Whitmer also goes for a near fall and Cabana makes the save. Cabana hits the running knees to the midsection, scoop slam, moonsault and another two count. Maff avoids a whip into Whitmer and they hit a combo lariat German suplex before Ace makes the save. Saints get a table and bring it into the ring. Whitmer is laid out on the table, Maff is dragged over to the corner, they set up to powerbomb Maff onto Whitmer but Maff fights out and Cabana loses his balance and falls out. Whitmer hits the EXPLODER DANGEROOOOOOOOUS on Ace through the table! Maff hits a SICK burning hammer on Cabana - truly NECK BREAKING and the Prophecy get the final pin. WINNERS OF ULTIMATE ENDURANCE: DAN MAFF & BJ WHITMER. Strong finish to the DVD. Highly recommended for the hour long Joe v. Punk match but the finale was really good too - don't pass this one up at the next www.ROHWrestling.com sale.



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