Friday, December 28, 2018

Exploring NJPWworld: Riki Choshu

NJPWworld has a pretty solid back catalog of matches to explore their past so I thought I'd put that to use and check out some matches I haven't watched before and thanks to a vote on a twitter poll I'll be checking out some Riki Choshu matches. I haven't watched any Choshu matches before this so I randomly went through and grabbed names I heard of for him to go against and checked against some lists of his matches on the internet that I should check out. So here are the matches I watched and my thoughts on them.

Riki Choshu vs. Atushi Onita (No Ropes Barbed Wire Match)

Sadly the entrances are cut out for this match on NJPWworld because Onita has one of the greatest entrances ever for it. Just walking down in a leather jacket and smoking a cigarette. The crowd is completely in Choshu's corner for this match and cheer loudly as he dominates the early match. First backing Onita into one of the exploding sides then picking him up and powerslamming him onto the barbed wire and detonating another side. Onita makes a slight comeback and grabs a headlock before Choshu just backs him into a third side for another explosion. Choshu locks in the sharpshooter and Onita crawls to the fourth side and grabs the barbed wire to detonate it and make Choshu release the hold. Choshu bounces off the ropes for lariats a couple of times then locks in a scorpion deathlock on a bloody Onita to get the submission in a brutal squash. Not really much to this match sadly. It's pretty much carried by the spectacle of the exploding barbed wire ropes, which are admittedly cool, but it would have been nice to have an actual back and forth match as well.

3/10

Riki Choshu vs. Shinya Hashimoto

Hashimoto retreats from the fight at the start, but then goes in firing with strikes and starts smoking Choshu with heavy kicks. All it takes is a bi elbow strike for Choshu to even things up though. Just two big boys going strike for strike in lots of exchanges and really laying them in. And the match is called because Choshu is too beat up to keep fighting and yet still tries I believe. Or maybe it's a draw, I can't speak Japanese so I don't know, so over all it's a disappointing ending to a disappointing match.

4/10

Riki Choshu vs. Andre the Giant

Choshu is a big dude and that makes Andre look humongous in this match. Andre dominates most of it and Choshu fights back and even successfully powerslams Andre 4 years before Hogan did it for the very first time. Choshu shows a lot of fighting spirit, but Andre overpowers him and hits a butt splash to get the three count. A fine match between these two, but nothing really special.

4/10

Riki Choshu & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Keiji Mutoh & Masahiro Chono

A fun tag team match between four huge names in Japanese pro wrestling. Chono and Mutoh have the NWO in their corner for this match. So Mutoh wrestles as heel Mutoh which makes him slightly less exciting, but makes him act in a different kind of weird which is fun. Chono and Mutoh have control most of the match thanks to their cheating ways with Sting throwing his bat in often. Choshu and Hashimoto will get the advantage only for Mutoh to sneak in and strike with the bat. Of course if you live by the sword you die by the sword. After the NWO distracts the ref to allow Mutoh to hit Choshu in the back with the bat to break up a sharpshooter, Chono grabs Choshu by the arms and holds him still. Mutoh jumps off the top with the bat and Choshu moves so Chono eats a shot straight to the head. Choshu throws Mutoh out of the ring then hits two lariats in a row to get the pinfall. A fun tag match with lots of distractions and good work from both teams.

7/10

Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami

A pretty solid match from these two guys here. Lots of work on the legs and backs of the opponents which makes sense as Fujinami has one of his knees wrapped up. Lots of back and forth submission work between the two men. The problem I have with this match is both guys are doing the same submission moves and takes any kind of personality out of their fighting style. The end comes when Choshu hits a lariat then locks in a sharpshooter. Fujinami crawls to the ropes for a break and Choshu stomps him to the outside. Choshu rolls out and powerslams him legs first onto the guardrail then bends his leg over the top. He rolls back inside and gets a ten count. Which surprised me as the finish, but it was for the WWF title I believe and not IWGP so that's why it wasn't a twenty count. Solid work between the two men, but nothing that really got me excited for the match.

6/10

What I learned from watching these Choshu matches is that I don't really care for Riki Choshu's wrestling. Which didn't surprise me as I don't really like the style of wrestling that NJPW had in his time. He's probably a pretty good wrestler of that style and the crowd seems to love him, but it's not for me and none of these matches left me wanting to watch more Choshu matches. I was originally going to link to the matches, but I don't think any of them are particularly with checking out so I'm not going to bother with that. Feel free to try and tell me why I should like Choshu more in the comments if you want or tell me a match that will change my feelings.

Monday, July 9, 2018

PWG Mystery Vortex 2


Cedrick Alexander vs. Trevor Lee vs. Andrew Everett

Holy shit this match is awesome! I remember it being good, but it is so much more than that. The pace is fast and they do a good job of cycling between everybody with them getting taken out and resting at ringside. Everett and Lee make great debuts on this show. Everett hits probably the biggest springboard Shooting Star Press to the outside on Lee. He gets an insane amount of height. Cedrick takes a more toned down role as the bruiser in this match and hits some brutal sounding chops. Just so much good stuff in this match.
9/10

Peter Avalon, Johnny Goodtime & Johnny Yuma vs. B-Boy, Willie Mack & Joey Ryan

I really like the local boy six man tags PWG used to do. They're simple, but fun matches and like all of them this opens with some good comedy stuff then just becomes a chaotic tag match. Everybody gets to hit their spots and do some good team work stuff.
6/10

Anthony Nese vs. Roderick Strong

Solid match between these two guys. I don't really care for Nese so it's fine, but nothing special. Nese does cool dives and Strong does his awesome backbreakers and eventually gets a win.
6/10


African American Wolves vs. Inner City Machine Guns vs. Unbreakable F'N Machines

Couple of guys who turned out to be real shitbags are in this match, but whatever. Holy fuck this match is way too long. It's a lot of fun and everybody hits every single one of their spots in this match, but it just meanders for too long. It's fun watching the big guys throwing around the tiny flippy wrestlers and it's cool when Cage and Elgin hit their dives. Definitely could have done with cutting like ten minutes out of the match though. On the plus side commentary does have Chuck Taylor making fun of AR Fox so that's good. Ricochet hits a Fosbury Flop over the ringpost while AR Fox hits a tope con hilo over the opposite corner. The most interesting thing in this match is just the juxtaposition of how those two high fly. Ricochet does everything with precision and grace and AR Fox just fucking chucks his body around.
7/10

Tommaso Ciampa vs. Chris Hero

These two dudes go fucking hard in this match. At times it's a little too much of the same strike over and over, but these two know how to throw them well. I love watching dirtbag wrestler Ciampa as he bites people and just acts like a dick as a heel wrestler and it's so much fun. I like Hero's blend of hardnosed striking, but still bringing in his technical wrestling to keep a guy down and set up more strikes.
8/10


Johnny Gargano vs. Kyle O'Reilly

Great match between these two. O'Reilly goes after the should for most of the match and Johnny plays the underdog so well at fighting back while hurt. Kyle is so good at delivering a flurry of moves into a pinfall or submission and his strikes are on point as well. The match really builds up the danger of the cross armbreaker and Gargano's need to get out of the move as soon as he's in it and it makes the end when Kyle grabs a leg as well as the arm that you know Johnny isn't getting to the ropes and he has to tap. Gargano hitting a superkick that knocks Kyle's mouthguard out was an awesome visual as well. Just a really good match between two great wrestlers.
9/10


The Young Buck vs. Best Friends

As you might expect from these two teams the match starts off with a bunch of shenanigans which results in Nick Jackson trying and failing to put on the superlong trench coat the Best Friends use for the really tall man chokeslam. Trent plays the face in peril for a bit before getting a hot tag and then it's mayhem with all four men in pretty much from then on and it's great. The finishing sequence of this match is perfect. The Young Bucks cheat to stop a three count or submission from happening so many times and the crowd is going apeshit for them to lose before they do it. I loved Matt stopping a count by hitting the ref over the back of the head with his cast. Adam Cole interference stops Rick Knox from making a three count to Knox superkicks Cole and Trent follows up with a tope con hilo. Cole distracts Knox again from seeing a tap out then Matt low blows Chuck with the cast and Nick rolls him up for a three count. It's so frustrating and it's perfect. Great tag team work from all of these guys and man the Young Bucks are annoying.
8/10

Adam Cole vs. Candice LeRae

Adam Cole is a real dick and that's the story of this match. He undestimates Candice and she takes every opportunity and punishes him. When she is hitting the violence party in the corner and the crowd is going nuts its the fucking best. Adam Cole starts the match by using his size advantage to hit two of the most brutal looking powerslam's I've ever seen. Candice hits a beautiful springboard reverse 'rana. Maybe the best one I've ever seen her hit. She also delivers a perfect flying 'rana off the top to Adam Cole. She brings her A-game and makes it count. Ultimately Adam Cole is too strong and hits his big moves and puts her down for a three count with the straight jacket german suplex. Candice really should have been the one to end Adam's reign. Maybe not in this match, but definitely in a rematch. Adam Cole proves how much of a dick he is after the match by starting an ovation for Candice then clotheslining her after a hug and having Nick Jackson come in and superkick her before Joey chases them out of the ring with a chair.
8/10

Overall
This is a damn good show as all PWG shows from this time are. Two of these matches are fucking great and everything else is fun. Definitely a show you should check out.

Friday, May 11, 2018

RoH: The Epic Encounter


Backseat Boyz vs. Da Hit Squad

I wondered why this match was so early in the show, but after seeing it the spot makes sense. It's a short match and Hit Squad is just squashing the Backseat Boyz the whole time. There's a bunch of spots where Maff or Mack are out of spot and Kashmere or Acid have to stall until the move happens. Kashmere flips out of a burning hammer and Maff slowly remembers he's supposed to try and clothesline him and hit Mack, but Mack isn't in the right spot so that's awkward. Then the Boyz hit the T-Gimmick on Maff and get a three count. It wasn't good so at least it was short.
1/10

Special K vs. Carnage Crew vs. Dunn & Marcos

This was a drag race of a match with wall to wall high spots and tons of dives. No flow at all to this match I bet I loved it the first time I saw it. Carnage Crew almost get the win with a second rope piledriver, but other Special K guys distract the ref and Mikey Whipwreck comes in an hits some stunners and Hydro steals the pinfall.
3/10

AJ Styles & Amazing Red vs. The Briscoes

A match with a story and some flow to it. This is novel and exciting. Watching Amazing Red matches now is weird because everything he did has become more refined and even higher flying by the later wrestlers, but I remember how groundbreaking his stuff was and a lot of it is still cool now. Red is the face in peril for the match as you would imagine since he's so very small. Cool dives and lots of big moves from both teams. AJ boosts Red up to a top rope hurrincanranna that almost knocks Jay backwards off the top, but its countered into a top rope powerbomb neckbreaker combo. Mark clotheslines AJ out of the ring and slingshots onto him for a 'ranna, but AJ catches it and hits a Styles Clash on the floor. Red counters the Jay Driller into a Maximo Explosion and hits the standing shooting star press for the three count. This was a match I loved back in the day. Now I definitely find it to be way too fast paced with a bunch of big moves that don't mean anything. Is this what it feels like to be JR? I still like it, but it's not as awesome as when I first experienced it.
7/10

CM Punk vs. BJ Whitmer

Good back and forth match although it is a bit sloppy at times between the two guys. Classic early Punk wrestling though. Some good groundwork at the beginning before turning into a hard hitting affair. Ends with a double count out after a german suplex off the apron through a table which I'm okay with as it's a pretty midcard match and built to more stuff afterword.
5/10

Homicide vs. Christopher Daniels

Another solid back and forth match. This one was crisper than the last one, but they were really awkward with the finish off back and forth submission and pinfall counters that just looked rough.
6/10


Samoa Joe vs. Hotstuff Hernandez

Back and forth big man match here. This was the first Samoa Joe match I'd ever watched and I couldn't figure out why they made him champ. Not too bad on a rewatch though. Not great, but good hard hitting stuff and Hernandez looked solid as well.
6/10

Samoa Joe vs. Colt Cabana vs. Tom Carter vs. Matt Stryker

A really good four way match here. Joe doesn't do much in the beginning of the match, but everybody takes some shots at the champ and he gives them right back when he wanders in to break up pins or submissions. Everybody gets some good stuff in and shows their wrestling acumen. Awesome finish as Joe locks in the Coquina clutch and Carter hits a frog splash to break it up, but Joe holds on anyway and gets the submission.
7/10

Paul London vs. Bryan Danielson (2/3 Falls)

This match is still awesome. It's one of my favorites of all time and after all the other matches weren't as good as I remembered I was kind of worried about this one, but it was for nothing. They pace themselves slowly and really make everything matter in this one. They build up every attempt Bryan goes for the belly to back suplex off the top rope and it's a key part of the match. London counters the first one and gets the first pinfall. Early in the second Bryan knocks London off the top and traps his legs in the ropes and goes to work on them. That sets up the story of the second fall as Bryan goes to work on and eventually gets a submission with a single leg crab. In the third fall it continues the same way and eventually Bryan gets the belly to back suplex, but doesn't get the pinfall with it. He gets the cattle mutilation, but no submission, and the single leg crab again, but still London fights out. London counters a fourth attempt at the belly to back suplex with a tornado DDT off the top then hits a shooting star press to the back of Bryan as he tries to get up and gets the three count.
This match is just so well done. It tells a great story and is just two great workers having a great match. Everything is executed crisply and is sold well. Nothing happens without a reason and the wrestling tells a story and that's the best you can get.
10/10

Dusty Rhodes, Homicide, Iceberg, & Homicide's Crew vs. CW Anderson, Jack Victory, David Young, & The Bar Room Brawlers

This is just a clusterfuck of a brawl. They don't announce who's in it since the match is unsanctioned and people just show up brawling until they play the music for the Midnight Rider and Dusty finally comes out. He clears everybody out with bionic elbows then everybody brawls around ringside and bleeds and hits each other with weapons. Homicide then tries to gouge Jack Victory's eye out with a fork and he says I quit. This is just so pointless and meandering. With the heel group's leader in Steve Corino missing it makes even less sense to have this match.
2/10

Overall

Going back and watching early RoH shows might be even rougher than I had anticipated. I don't really regret watching this show except the first and last match. A bunch of spot matches building into mat based wrestling makes sense to me. Gabe is fucking terrible on commentary and his biggest fault is he's always trying to get over the stories he's booking without allowing for any subtlety to take place. Danielson vs. London is fucking awesome and unless you're going to buy a comp with that match on it that makes the dvd worth a purchase if you find it. It's still the standard I hold a 2/3 falls match to and is so good. The earlier stuff might not be great matches, but it's a fun kind of mediocre and that's not bad. Feel free to skip the main event bunkhouse brawl though.
7/10

Monday, April 9, 2018

Wrestlemania 34


It wasn't a very good show. I think I might have enjoyed it more if Royal Rumble and NXT Takeover hadn't built up my expectations and made me think WWE could make the right decisions, but that's not exactly a glowing review for something anyway. It doesn't help that between every segment we have a shitty Kid Rock song playing either. So let's get down to a match by match review including the preshow because I watched all of it. I was drinking the whole time so while I remember my impressions of the matches the details are fuzzy. I mean not that fuzzy, I didn't go that hard.

The Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal
A harbinger of things to come as this went to long and just kind of dragged on. Everybody was already in the ring and there just wasn't any hype to build around any wrestler in the match. There were some neat moments, but they all took too long to get there. The end with Bray showing up to help Matt Hardy win was solid. It didn't help this match at all that Lawler and Ross were on commentary and had no clue what was going on with any of the people in the match and Saxton had to explain everything to them.
3/10

Cedrick Alexander vs. Mustafa Ali
The best match of the night is on the preshow, which isn't surprising and I was kind of expecting that to happen before the show anyway. Great work from both of these guys with big moves, and a lot of emotion between the two that was kind of marred by the picture in picture Rousey promo that took over the sound and made me mad. I really like the idea of Cedrick not wanting to keep hurting Ali and telling him to stay down before finally hitting the Lumbar Check. So glad Cedrick is going to be the cruiserweight champ and hopefully be a big presence on Raw as well as 205 live. He's deserved a spotlight for a long time.
9/10

Women's Battle Royal
This match had a much better through line of what it was doing and had an interesting start to the match and kept up a lot of solid grouping up of the women in the match. Kairi Sane hitting her diving elbow drop and getting eliminated during a commercial really sucked. A good amount of people including Bianca Belair and my favorite NXT competitor, Dakota Kai got some really good moments in the match and looked good before their eliminations. I liked the ending of Bayley finally outsmarting Sasha although I'm kind of bummed it didn't work out and Naomi was still in the match. Good for Naomi though.
4/10

The Miz vs. Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins
A good match to start the show and a lot of good stuff from everybody. Really liked the tease of Rollins doing the powerbomb into the guardrail on Balor before he escaped it. Miz really kept up with these two and hit some awesome stuff including the top rope skull crushing finale. Really liked the ending with Rollins breaking up Balor's pinfall and hitting a bunch of curb stomps to get the win.
8/10

Asuka vs. Charlotte
This could have been the match of the night, but the result just really bums me out. I'm going to just talk about the stuff they did right here and go into the booking afterword. Between all the wrestling exchanges we get the battle of Charlotte's chops vs. Asuka's kicks in any striking exchange and they both hit their respective strikes so well. The suplex off the apron to the floor was brutal looking. Charlotte doing a moonsault and getting caught into a triangle choke was perfectly done. Asuka's flurry of strikes is always really fun to watch. Then Charlotte gets the figure 8 and Asuka taps. She barely fights the hold and just gives up.
9/10

So ending Asuka's streak here seems really dumb to me for a lot of reasons. First of all Charlotte is already a huge deal so ending the streak doesn't really do anything for her. She's already the most dominant woman on the roster. Also it seems particularly dumb to end somebody's undefeated streak before they become a champion and have a dominant run with the belt. I have so many ways I would have booked Asuka's streak and this was just so anti-climatic. Asuka kind of being glad somebody beat her was a bummer as well.

Bobby Roode vs. Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal vs. Rusev
This match was a very bland choice to follow up the last awesome match and they didn't do it any favors after stunning the crowd with Asuka losing her streak by having Jinder win the US title here.
2/10

Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey vs. HHH & Stephanie McMahon
This match was way too long. Considering only HHH is really capable of wrestling a long match now this should not have been this. A lot of people really dug the storyline stuff and Ronda actually getting to fight HHH was pretty cool. But she is a noted garbage person and I'm not going to lose my mind because she was able to perform basic moves in a wrestling match and not shit herself. My favorite part of the match was Stephanie having no clue how to take a t-bone suplex and just landing on her feet then face bumping. Ronda should have fucking merced McMahon as soon as she got into the match and everything should have been build around not letting that happen.
5/10

The Bludgeon Bros vs. The Usos vs. The New Day
This match was so short. I kind of didn't believe it was going to end with the top rope powerbomb because it was so fast. I'm guessing they lost a bunch of time to other stuff and it really hurt this match. I thought this would be way better, but it was what it was. Good wrestling with nowhere near enough time.
4/10

The Undertaker vs. John Cena
Cool, this match took forever to get to and then it was a three minute match. Undertaker should have stayed retired after last year which was a perfect sendoff. I just don't care about the Undertaker's mystique and that was all this match had going for it.
1/10

Daniel Bryan & Shane McMahon vs. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens
D-Bry got murdered right at the beginning of the match and they brought out a stretcher for him and Shane fended off both KO and Zayn for a good amount of time before they took control of the match. D-Bry comes back from his injury and hits all his big moves to pop the crowd and get the win. The match would have been way better without D-Bry's fake stretcher job at the start and just having Shane be the starting man and get fucking wrecked before making a super hot tag. Plus Shane's shitty punches were in full effect here.
4/10

Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss
Jax destroying Mickie James before the match started was so fucking good. Plus she destroyed her real well. The actual match was really smartly done as well. Jax is way too strong so Alexa cheats a lot and tries to stay out of range. Eventually it doesn't work and Jax hit an awesome avalanche samoan drop to get the win. Really good stuff from both of these women.
7/10

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. AJ Styles
I was kind of prepared for this match not to be awesome, because WWE had overhyped it and I knew it wasn't going to be as good as their NJPW match so I didn't rewatch that before this. That said this was still a good match. They build it slowly to start and then really start to pick it up. AJ counters the armbar into a Styles Clash and then it ended. That felt like the beginning of the crazy run to build to the finish of the match. It's a modified Clash so it explains why it doesn't end the match, but it did. The ending was just anti-climatic and really took the wind out of the sails of the match. Nakamura turning heel with a low blow after the match didn't really make any sense to me, but I guess it at least means these guys aren't done and Nakamura might still win the belt.
6/10

Bran Strowman & Nicholas vs. The Bar
Deep down I wanted Strowman to grab one of the NJPW guys as his partner when he went into the crowd, but I knew that wouldn't happen. I would have loved any indy guy as well. A tiny kid is a really good choice as well. Braun basically dominates the tag champs and then we get the real missed opportunity of this match and that's Braun not having Nicholas get the pin. This wasn't much of a match and I'm giving it a low score, but it was a lot of fun.
3/10

Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns
I had some streaming issues during this match, but with pausing and letting it buffer I got to watch it. It was really disappointing considering the brutality of their other matches. Sure this had brawling on the outside and Reigns got busted open brutally. It took that cut no time to be a real crimson mask, but it didn't have the same titans clashing feel. The fact that Brock only does three moves doesn't really help anything and then Brock just kept hitting F-5s until he won. Everything in WWE for the last two years has been building toward the moment Reigns gets his rematch at Wrestlemania and proves he's the better man then he just loses. Its so fucking weird and makes no sense. And that is a trend WWE loves to do of swerving Mania results to make them more unpredictable, but it ignores the fact that it fucks up the storytelling. Often times they'll just have a rematch on the next night to make the Raw after Mania feel big and it just makes Mania feel less special. Despite getting the same score as the last match it was not fun.
3/10

Overall Thoughts
As is a Wrestlemania tradition, and really a WWE PPV tradition at this point. The best stuff was at the beginning of the show and gets me excited. Then there is a really fucking weird booking decision that bums me out and the rest of the show just kind of falls apart from there. The wrestling is good, it's almost always going to be because the wrestlers are all really good. The storylines going in are usually undeveloped and the booking choices are usually really bad. The show is too long and just always drags on with the time being spent in the wrong places. Especially considering how awesome Takeover was the night before it just makes Mania look even worse in comparison. So in summary there is good stuff on this show, but it's not worth watching the whole thing. Check out the cruiserweight title match, both women's matches, and the IC match and you'll have a pretty good time.

Friday, March 9, 2018

Ring of Honor's 16th Anniversary Memories


Ring of Honor is about to celebrate their 16th anniversary as a company and that's pretty goddamn awesome. They've launched a streaming service finally, and while it's missing the first eleven years it's good for the current era and I'm hoping they'll be bringing the older stuff into it eventually. Their youtube channel has been interviewing wrestlers with their best moments as a reflection on their past so I figure that would be a good idea myself considering I started watching Ring of Honor only a couple of months after they started and caught up pretty quickly.

Generation Next – I was looking forward to the tournament and the fact that the show got moved out of the building and into a tent and then it got taken over by the guys in the tournament thinking that competing for a contract was bullshit made it so much better. This whole show I awesome because of this. It helps that Alex Shelley and Roderick Strong are two of my favorite wrestlers of all time. Plus they were against Jimmy Jacobs who is still one of my favorites. Austin Aries and the Briscoes being involved was awesome at the time although now I know they're pretty garbage people, but at the time this was jam packed with awesome wrestlers and the story was perfectly told and culminated in a great eight man tag match.

James Gibson beats CM Punk – The whole Summer of Punk storyline was really well done. From the start with Punk signing his WWE contract on the RoH title belt, to Mick Foley saying he couldn't leave until he lost the belt it was all great. Every title defense had the extra level of investment as you waited to see who would win the belt, and he just kept retaining the belt in hard fought matches. This felt especially good after seeing Gibson having to play the redneck on WWE tv and not get to showcase what he could do in the ring.

Kenta Kobashi vs. Samoa Joe – Pro Wrestling NOAH had sent over their junior heavyweight guys before to RoH and sometimes the US would get a young lion from NJPW or AJPW wrestling over here, but since WCW's demise it was pretty minimal. Then one of the biggest names in Japanese wrestling came over for a tour and this singles match in RoH was fucking awesome. The match is really good, but just the awesome feeling of seeing a Kobashi match in America was excellent on its own. Just good hard hitting action from these two men when Samoa Joe was at the top of his game.

Christopher Daniels finally follows the Code of Honor – For years Daniels had refused to follow the code of honor in RoH. No handshakes, cheating, and attacking refs, whatever it took for him to win with the Prophecy and by himself after their dissolution. Finally on the 100th RoH show he finally shook the hand of Claudio Castagnoli. On its own a memorable moment, but made even better by the fact that later that night with CZW invading Castagnoli betrayed RoH and helped his CZW partner Chris Hero beat up the RoH guys. Just the perfect way to cap off Daniels finally deciding to follow the Code.

The Ballad of Lacey – This is the best wrestling related song bar none. Everything about the Lacey and Jimmy Jacobs storyline was really well done, although it helps that both of them were basically my favorites even before that started. This video and song is just so good. Jacobs just puts everything into every angle and it really shows in this video and the whole persona he used during this storyline and how it turned him into the dark leader of Age of the Fall.

CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe – The first of their encounters that went to a one hour time limit and the desperation Punk had to get the win and the belt is so good. He throws everything he has at Joe and can't beat him. The game plan is wear Joe down by taking the match slow and going long and it doesn't work. Joe really shows how good he is because you don't expect a dude his size to keep going and last a whole hour. This is one of those broadway matches that doesn't feel as long as it is and really makes the time limit draw work.

Paul London's Shooting Star Press off the Ladder – The creation of the “Please Don't Die” chant comes from this spot and when I saw it on DVD it was, and still is, one of my favorite spots in wrestling. This whole hardcore match between London and Shane is incredible and also includes London running up the ladder in the corner and jumping to the outside onto Shane with a plancha. This match cemented London as my favorite performer in the company and the moment was surreal.

Chuck Taylor Debuts – This isn't really fair because I was there live when Trent? brought him in to be the third member of his team and it was fucking awesome. The crowd popped huge, I popped huge and the Best Friends reuniting in RoH and Rocky Romero being jealous was a ton of fun.

I could keep naming matches and spots that stick in my memory, but these are the best moments for me in Ring of Honor's history and I'm hoping they can return to how good they were once again and start delivering the best wrestling and the most memorable moments.