Prestige Wrestling: Roseland 3

 

Jack Evans vs. Rey Horus

Evans stops the match before it starts to showcase his breakdancing and as soon as he gets to his feet Horus dropkicks him. Rey Horus hits a nice somersault dive over the turnbuckle onto Evans. Horus hits a standing Spanish fly on Evans for two. Evans is against the ropes and dropkicks Horus as he charges in to flip backwards onto the apron then hits a springboard spinning kick then follows up with a Sasuke special to the floor. Evans misses a 450 for Horus to turn the tides and he hits the spinning body scissors off the top for a two count before Evans grabs the ropes. Evans trips Horus off the ropes then goes for a 630 and Horus rolls out of the way. They fight back and forth over a backslide and Evans hits a donkey kick to the dick and slides Horus over and flips over to cover for a three count.

6/10 A fine opening match with a good pace and a bunch of nice dives from both men. Good to see Evans back in form after not doing much in the singles scene in AEW. Nothing amazing, but solid work from both guys.

Ethan HD vs. Scotty 2 Hotty

There's like a solid five minutes of pre-match shenanigans between the two of them, mostly on Scotty's part. Scotty controls early with some fun goofy face offense before Ethan puts a stop to the shenanigans with a stiff left. Ethan goes for the Worm, but Scotty gets up and stops him short and starts his comeback. Scotty goes for a worm, but Ethan trips him down. Scotty makes another comeback, but Ethan blocks a punch and gets a backslide then gets his feet on the ropes for the three count.

4/10 This was a standard Scotty 2 Hotty match from the attitude era. Neither man really brought anything special to the match

Midnight Heat (Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl) vs. Jaiden and Derek Shaw

I feel like Derek Shaw isn't big enough or impressive looking enough for Ricky to sell his getting tagged into the match that much, but okay. The heels use a bunch of heel tactics to get the advantage and start wearing Jaiden down. Derek gets a hot tag and cleans house before Eddie cuts him off and gets the win.

4/10 A pretty standard indie tag match. Not a whole lot of anything special happened here, but it was competent.

Willow Nightingale vs. Taya Valkyrie

Willow quickly goes for a lucha rolling pinning combination, but only gets one, although it is the first minute of the match so I don't know why she would win that quickly. Big fan of Willow's crossbody to a seated opponent. Taya does some fancy rope running and takes Willow down with a crossbody of her own. Taya hits the sliding german suplex to Willow off the bottom rope and they go to the outside to brawl. Willow moves out of the way of a chop and Taya smashes her hand against the ring post. Back in the ring and Willow gets the advantage in a chop battle then hits Willow with a spinebuster as Taya comes off the ropes. The middle rope breaks here, that's important for later. Willow hits an enziguri and runs the ropes and the top rope snaps dropping her to the floor. Taya rolls Willow into the ring and gets a two count. Taya does a double knees into the broke corner and then Taya catches Willow going for a handstand move and curbstomps her and then puts her into a modified STF for the submission.

6/10 A good match between these two with some hard hitting shots and Willow falls out of the ring with the broken ropes and surviving and being fine. Both of these women are good at what they do and they do their thing in this match.

Drexl vs. Akira vs. Sonico vs. MV Young

MV Young comes out as they try to fix the rings and tells them they don't need ropes for this match and calls it a Poly Am street fight. This one is a wild brawl since it's a four way and they just pair off and wrestle. Akira picks up a fan and uses him to ram MV. Young turns the tables and does a somersault to knock Akira down and also fucks up the camera connection while doing it. Drexl and Sonico brawl to the merch tables and Drexl grabs an 8x10 and gives Sonico some papercuts. Sonico turns the tables and staples the 8x10 to Drexl. Akira fakes throwing Sonico into the cameraman then hits a short arm clothesline. Sonico staples Akira's arm, so Akira pulls the staple out then spits it back into Sonico's face. MV suplexes Akira onto the chairs then everybody else hits a suplex on the outside. Akira nd Sonico fight onto an elevated platform and Akira hits a brainbuster up there then Akira moonsaults onto everybody who just stood there watching him. MV hits a nice brainbuster on Akira and then a disgusting one on Drexl. Akira then hits a bunch of dragon suplexes and dodges an attack from Sonico to double stomp him and hit a deadlift german suplex. MV levels Sonico with a half and half suplex then a big running knee to the face. Sonico counters the next suplex then sets up a chair and hits an elevated DDT onto the chair for the three count.

7/10 The outside camera breaking during this match hurts it as there is a lot of chaos we miss out on as they brawl on the floor, but this was a surprisingly good match from what I thought was going to be just fine. These guys really capitalize on the broken ring situation and just do a bunch of memorable shit in this fight. A nice use of weapons without going too hard on them and a lot of great wrestling from these four. This match just had a fun sense of anarchy and people would just pop out of nowhere to hit somebody else with a weapon and it was awesome.

Masha Slamovich vs. Miyu Yamashita

There's some chain wrestling to start, but it quickly devolves into them snapmaring each other and kicking each other in the back. They exchange a bunch of hard strikes that ends with Miyu hitting a big german suplex, but Masha stands right up and hits a roundhouse on Miyu. Miyu staggers to her feet and catches Masha's next big kick and bites her foot then hits a spinning back kick for the three count.

5/10 I liked this match, but it didn't really connect as much as I hoped it would. Both women looked very good and kick hard as hell.

C4 (Guillermo Rosas & Cody Chun) vs. Violence is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku)

C4 take control of Ku early and hit a spot where Rosas lifts Ku up for a suplex and Chun hits a dropkick to knock him down. Ku turns the table and Ku knocks Chun off the apron and Violence is Forever takes control and starts beating the hell out of Rosas. Chun comes in with a nice hot tag and hits big corner splashes on both guys. Rosas hits a codebreaker on Ku, but he flips out of the backdrop attempt from Chun and Garrini runs in and breaks things up with a big lariat. Chun runs up the ropes for a cutter and Garrini catches him in a rear naked choke. Ku grabs Rosas with a kimura as well and Rosas lifts him up and drops him onto Garrini to break up the choke. Ku and Rosas have a back and forth forearm exchange before Rosas takes the advantage and trips Ku into Chun's knee. Garrini comes in to turn things around and they hit a total elimination for a close two count. ViF go for a double team move, but Chun flips out of it and hits a double superkick on Garrini with Rosas then nail Ku with a superkick, flying knee, and then hit a high-low double team for the three count.

6/10 A solid tag team match here between these two teams and Violence is Forever brings some really hard hitting offense to the match. Some good double team work from both teams through out and just a solid match.

Tom Lawlor vs. Alex Shelley

A lot of grappling exchanges to start before Shelley rolls to the outside to clear his head. Shelley gets the grappling advantage and getting cocky nearly lets Lawlor get back in control with some strikes, but he catches a kick and takes him back down. Lawlor takes some more punishment before fighting out with strikes and beating Shelley down in the corner. Lawlor goes for a suplex and Shelley slaps the shit out of Lawlor's midsection and hits a spinning suplex. Both men struggle to their feet and start exchanging forearm shots. Shelley takes a shortcut and grabs Lawlor by the dick so Lawlor grabs him by the dick so they just hold onto each others dicks and exchange forearms before Lawlor gets the advantage and connects with an enziguri. Lawlor hits a tombstone and gets a two count. The two men start exchanging bombs and reversals of each others finishers. Shelley hits a big knee and a superkick to a kneeling Lawlor before hitting a shellshock to get the three count.

8/10 A really good back and forth match between these two men with a lot of nice grappling and stiff striking exchanges. I always forget Shelley is a heel because he's one of my favorite wrestlers, but he does a lot of nice heel work in here and Lawlor provides a lot of baby face fire when fighting back into the match and trying to get the win.

Maki Itoh vs. Mia Yim

Itoh gets streams and Yim grabs one and throws it at Itoh, love little touches like that. Itoh gains the first advantage after some back and forth and whips Mia into the corner and hits a running back elbow. Mia drops down and takes a kokeshi and the crowd goes wild. Itoh goes for a crossbody, but Mia catches her and hits a fall away slam then follows up with some kicks. Mia takes control using the power advantage and wears Itoh down. Mia tries running Itoh's head into the turnbuckles, but it doesn't work and Mia gets headbutted and knocked to the ground. Itoh hits a nice tornado DDT for a two count. Itoh goes to the top for something, but Yim cuts her off and they start exchanging strikes on the apron. Itoh drapes Mia's feet on the corner and ddts her to the apron for a two count before Mia grabs the rope. Itoh hits another tornado ddt, but Mia gets up and hits a german suplex. Both women are down and slowly fight their way to their feet exchanging forearms before Itoh grabs a headlock gets to the corner and hits another tornado ddt. Itoh goes up for a top rope kokeshi, but Mia rolls out of the way and hits a backdrop driver for two. Mia goes for a package piledriver, but Itoh fights out and gets shotgun dropkicked into the corner. Mia takes her up to the top rope and Mia flips her off. Itoh biters he middle fingers then throws her off the top rope and hits the top rope headbutt for three.

8/10 A really good match between these two with Mia trying to dominate with her power and Itoh fighting back with a combination of stubbornness and cleverness. A fun match where both women showcase what makes them great performers.

Overall: 6/10

A pretty uneven show with a lot of stuff just being normal and honestly the biggest problem is the show just started off poorly and that really killed the momentum of the show. The opener had too much shenanigans to really kick the show off fast and the second match was all shenanigans and just was too long and the energy just wasn't there for how excited I was for the card to start with. The matches that hit are really good and I would definitely watch the two main events and the four way match. But as a show it just didn't bring the energy I wanted from it.

AEW Revolution and Dynamite

This week I went to my first wrestling pay per view when I traveled to Orlando for AEW's Revolution and followed that up with the Dynamite afterword since it was just twenty minutes down the road from me. I went solo to the PPV, but went with my girlfriend and sister to Dynamite. Revolution plus the preshow was a long show, but full of damn good wrestling and the crowd noise died out in some of the later matches after Punk and MJF. Personally it was hard to still be loudly into the matches no matter how good the matches are.

Honestly the Punk/MJF match probably should have main evented as it had the hottest story going into the show and it was going to feature a lot of blood. I get why they put the world title match as the main event, but it just didn't compare to the emotion in the dog collar match. All of the matches on the preshow over delivered and were just as good as anything on the main show and really Statlander/Hirsch was better than a lot of the singles matches on the show. House of Black vs. Pac, Penta, and Redbeard was just an insanely fun fast paced match that I didn't really care for going into the show and then fully captured my attention. Redbeard really impressed me as he really showed a lot of skill in this match and was fun to see him facing off with Brody.

The crowd was loud and into the show, but of course there were annoying people and they were like two rows behind me and to the left and kept shouting annoying shit. The guy sitting next to me just went “I fucking hate those guys,” after one of their attempts at a joke which got a laugh out of me.

Starting with Kingston vs Jericho ruled. I loved the start with the half and half suplex from Kingston and Jericho being on the back foot right away. Kingston is in charge all the time unless Jericho goes for the eyes and unloads offense from there. I know it's because Kawada is his favorite wrestler, but it never doesn't impress me how Kingston does the enziguri exactly like Kawada did. The selling especially, but everything about how the match was worked and paced felt like a classic All Japan Kings Road match. Jericho did a bunch of eye work to trying and slow Kingston down, but he was determined to win and after Jericho accidentally hit the exposed turnbuckle with the Judas effect and Kingston nails a couple of backfists before getting the submission win. This match was great and exceeded my expectations for it. Kingston really brought out the style that Jericho hasn't wrestled in a long time and it really helped the match even if the crowd wasn't always responsive to booing Jericho's cheating despite being strongly behind Eddie.

I don't really want to review every match because being there live makes every match seem better so its going to be more the high points of the show although some of the matches were that good and I felt the need to really going into detail on them. The tag title match was really good and the ladder match was fine with some really cool spots by Orange Cassidy, but didn't have any really good hoss off moments except them facing off a couple of times. Jade vs. Tay was the best match of Jade's run so far and had a lot of really good moments including Tay getting some good offense in.

Being there live for CM Punk coming out to “Miseria Cantare” and in his RoH gear made the show for me. After Punk leaving wrestling for seven years getting to see him come out to that song and in that gear was just the best experience. The match afterword lived up to that feeling as well. A nicely paced match and they tease out the violence and really utilize the gimmick match well using the chain to choke each other and whip each other. Punk is bleeding early and gets an intense crimson mask. I was surprised how well that popped even though I was up in the second level. Punk's tombstone on the apron was phenomenal and it was nice that both men had an injured body part and sold it throughout the match. Definitely the highlight of the show and a great match.

Britt vs. Rosa really had no chance to follow the dog collar match and nothing on the show did. As a follow up to their hardcore unsanctioned match this couldn't live up either as there is a ton of bad blood and it was a normal match and Rosa not being prepared for the interference from Rebel and Hayter just didn't seem right considering how long they have been feuding even if it is a loss to setup a big title win in Rosa's hometown. Danielson vs. Mox was a really good match that took a while to really get the crowd into it, but was largely fought like a classic NWA style battle for control with grappling and hard hitting strikes that didn't necessarily get an advantage they were struggling for. I loved the match, but it wasn't the kind of match that gets the crowd loudly behind it.

The tornado six man tag of Sting, Darby, and Sammy vs. Andrade, Matt Hardy, and Isaih Kassidy surprised the hell out of me. Except for the chance to see Sting wrestle live I would have been happy to have dropped for time. And then the match started and it was an insanely fun brawl between these two teams. Darby nailing Jose the assistant with a suicide dive while he had a trashcan over him was crazy and it kept escalating from there. Marq Quen and Butcher and the Blade joining into the brawl made it more fun as well and almost let the heels get the win. Sammy's insane Spanish fly off the set through two tables to Kassidy was nuts and then Sting jumped off the balcony onto Andrade through four tables which was even crazier.

The main event was really good even if I did get tired of the “Adam” chants that people were doing. The ones were it was just the normal cheer for a wrestler, but we chanted Adam for both was great, but once they just started replacing random words with Adam I got tired of it. The Halo gear that Adam wore out to the ring was pretty half-assed and looked goofy and for a little bit I thought he the backpack was going to shoot off fireworks, but if it makes him happy good for him. The crowd reactions were pretty muted after the Punk/MJF match, but this got the people awake and back into it. I don't know why the good guys friends are always so slow at saving their friend when the heels friends are there cheating so much earlier, but other than that it was a really good match and the Deadeye off the apron through the table was fucking nuts and looked brutal for both guys. I was really worried about Cole winning so when Page got the win it was awesome. I kind of thought they were teasing a slow heel turn for Page with how he finished the match, but Dynamite kind of put a rest to those thoughts.

I loved the show and had a great time even though I took a lyft to the venue and with how busy it was after I couldn't get one back to the hotel and had to walk two miles back to my motel. The show wasn't setup correctly to build up to the best match, but it was still a great show with a lot of great wrestling. It was a great time and I was so happy I made the trip up to Orlando to see it.

After I had bought the tickets to that PPV they announced the show in my hometown of Fort Myers so I got tickets to that, but I knew my girlfriend would be willing to make that trip and got my sister to come down as well since its been a while since she's been to a live show and she's a huge fan of Moxley.

We got there a little late into the Dark taping and saw half of the Emi Sakura/Bunny vs. Kylinn King/Kelsey Reagan match I believe and it was a lot of fun and a great way to start the night. The rest of the matches on the preshow were fine and ending with the Dark Order against Chaos Project was great.

Since it was a post PPV show Dynamite was a little heavy on talking segments which my girlfriend who doesn't follow stuff wasn't really into, but she also made jokes about the wrestling so its tough to say the right move for her. Loved Kingston's promo and how well he plays off of Jericho and the inevitable heel turn for Jericho wasn't surprising to me, but was well played out here. I really like the contrast in Jericho's more polished promo style and Kingston feeling more raw and realistic and dealing with his emotions. The surprise World Title match with Hangman vs. Dante Martin was really goddamn good, and does the thing that I appreciate the most from AEW which is that when a surprise guy gets a title shot its still a back and forth match. Dante got some great offense in and looked really strong in that match.

The next match is the one my sister was most looking forward to as her two favorite wrestlers were teaming up even if they did just run through The Workhorsemen. It was nice seeing JD Drake in person again after buying a shirt from him at a local show even if he didn't get to do much tonight. Regal cut a good promo after the match and has me really looking forward to the future of this team and whatever young guys they add to the stable. Pac vs Yuta was a short but fun match. Pac dominated, but Yuta got to showcase a little bit of what he brings to the table as well.

Next was what ended up being the segment of the night. The Andrade/Hardy Family Order fell apart as we knew it was going to. After the family turned on Hardy we got Sting and Darby to try and fail to make the save and then the Hardy Boyz music hit and Jeff Hardy came out. The crowd came unglued and while I'm not excited about current Hardy Boyz ability in the ring I'd be lying if I said I didn't get super excited about this moment. Jeff helps the rest of the good guys clear the ring and hits a Swanton bomb on Blade.

Wardlow talked next in a solid promo, but since it was one on one it really felt weird that Schiavonne and Wardlow were looking at the hard cam were almost nobody was sitting. Jurassic Express vs. The Acclaimed was an awesome match. I though this was going to be a glorified squash match, but Acclaimed really came close to winning at times and this was a lot of fun. Rosa vs. Hirsch was a fun match with Rosa picking up the win. Scorpio Sky vs. Sammy Guevera was a pretty boring match with a lot of time spent on a fake injury for Sammy although at least the 630 off the top through a table looked awesome. It was cool seeing Scorpio get the win here as I've been a fan of his since seeing him in early PWG shows.

The Rampage taping was fun although it took quite a while for them to change the ring apron and mat which they did quickly between Dark and Dynamite. Marq Quen vs Darby lasted too long for my taste especially since Darby got nearly no offense in and Quen doesn't really have the kind of offense that works well to control a match against a baby face. The 450 from the top to Darby on the floor was fucking awesome to see though. Keith Lee squashed QT nicely and destroyed the rest of the nightmare family. Mercedes Martinez and Jamie Hayter had a good match which was nice to see. The main event of Swerve vs. Nese was good, but after that much wrestling it was a little hard to get too invested in the match.

It was a fun pair of nights and even though both shows were quite long to sit through I had a great time both nights. Obviously Revolution was way better than Dynamite, but Dynamite had stuff going for it as well. It will be a long time before either show is topped for as live experiences go. My ass wishes that the seats were more comfortable and Revolution definitely could have used an intermission, especially since AEW PPVs don't have terrible matches that I'm happy to miss to take a piss break. The prices for the show were much more reasonable than WWE PPVs so I'd definitely recommend checking out a show if its near you.

RoH Final Battle 2021

 

Going back to Ring of Honor for the ifrst time in a long time to watch the last show of the companies run. I missed the first match of The Righteous vs. Shane Taylor Promotions because I was making and eating lunch and making sure my dog didn't steal the food from me. What I watched seemed like a decent match to start the show.

The Hex & Chelsea Green vs. The Allure & Miranda Alize

This is my first time really watching Alize wrestle and I really like her style of hard hitting strikes and fast paced offense. After Chelsea Green gets worked over Allison Kay comes in with a killer hot tag. Love cuts off a dive from Belle with a forearm shot and Mandy Leon hits a pretty bad Made in Japan for the three count. A decent match, but nothing special and just there to get people on the show. The ending was pretty flat and didn't help with this.

3/10

The Bouncers, CB, Flip Gordon, and PJ Black vs. LSG, Demonic Flamita, Will Ferrara, Sledge, and Max the Impaler

There are a lot of wrestlers I don't care about in this match, but probably just as many that excite me and the action kept up at a good pace. Plus they put most of my favorites on a team with Sledge so that works for me. As its a giant tag match we of course get a series of dives including Sledge barely making it over on a moonsault and Max suplexing CB out of the ring onto everybody. Flamita fakes the crowd out on a dive and Bruiser teases powerbombing him to the outside, but Flamita escapes and hits a tornillo off the top. The wrong team wins, but a Canadian Destroyer to LSG off the shoulders of Gordon by Black looked cool and was a solid finish to the match. A fun ten person tag team match, but there were some rough spots scattered throughout.

4/10

Rey Horus vs. Dragon Lee

They do a short back and forth technical exchange before Lee hits a big suicide dive and then just takes control of the match and puts some work in on Horus. Horus hits some high flying moves to change the momentum including a nice change of direction tope con hilo. Lee gets control back with two spinning backbreakers as he continues to target the back and follows up by a brutal looking single leg crab. Lee gets distracted by the thought of a strike exchange and gives up the momentum. Horus hits a body scissors driver off the top rope and Lee waits until the very last moment to kick out. Lee hits an inferno knee that only gets a two count so he hits two more variations to get the win. A really good match between these two men. Good back and forth and a hard hitting and high flying match. A great way to start off the main card of the show.

7/10

Dalton Castle vs. Rhett Titus vs. Silas Young vs. Joe Hendry

Dalton is spending a lot of time goofing around and popping the crowd to start the match letting the other three men do the wrestling in the match. Hendry is doing a lot of strong man stuff in this match and it is a lof fun. Titus becomes the target of Castle and Hendry demonstrating who can do moves better who called back to their tag team before Castle gets jealous and yells at Hendry. The ref gets bumped and Hendry uses the belt on Castle and other shenanigans happen and Titus hits Young with a dropkick and gets the win. A fun fast match between these four men and Titus is the right choice as the last TV champ for the company. I don't know about winning with a dropkick though, I don't care how high he elevates on it.

6/10

Brian Johnson vs. Josh Woods

Woods gets two rope breaks out of Johnson early in the match, but Johnson hits a jawbreaker over the ropes and a suicide dive and takes control of the match. Woods can't get his footing on the ropes to count Johnson, but still powers him off with a suplex then hits a series of suplexes showing off his strength. The two men go back and forth with neither able to get the other over for a vertical suplex until Johnson lifts Woods up and they both tumble over the ropes then start forearming the shit out of each other on the floor. They get back in the ring and start firing off big shots again. Woods takes Johnson to the ropes in a head and arm choke to make him use his last rope break, but while the ref is signalling to the announcer Johnson hits a poke to the eyes and takes advantage. Woods hits a nearly deadlift chaos theory for a two count. Johnson puts Woods up top and goes for a suplex, but Woods grabs him with the head and arm choke and puts Johnson to sleep. I really liked this match. Johnson does a great job of perfectly using the rules and the ref enforcing them to cheat to win the pure title which I enjoy. Woods is just a very good wrestler and I'm looking forward to him being a big deal somewhere else soon.

8/10

Kenny King vs. Shane Taylor

This match is a brawl from the start of this match and Taylor has the advantage early but the first big spot comes when King stops Taylor from suplexing off the top then he hits a blockbuster out of the ring through two tables on Taylor because he's insane, it looked awesome as fuck. Taylor hits a monster STO out of the corner on King through a garbage can. Taylor sets King up on a table then hits a running splash off the apron that looks brutal. Taylor sets up a table in the corner and King fights back then picks Taylor up and hits a running DVD through the table. King hits a splash off a ladder through an elevated ladder for two. Taylor's right hand is very crisp looking and then a sick knee and a sitout piledriver for a very close two count, so good. They both stand on the ladder balanced across the ring and the guardrail and start exchanging strikes. King has to do too much to keep Taylor up which kind of hurts in this kind of match. Taylor hits a package piledriver, and they just kind of slide off the ladder and hit the floor, somehow King is fine. The end of this match was a little too much talking and took away from the real blood feud feel the rest of the match had, but it was still a very good brawl especially considering I've never liked Shane Taylor before so this was a lot of fun.

8/10

Willow vs. Rok C

Rok-C goes for a cartwheel and Willow pulls her arm out under her is such a good touch. This match and its reversals is dedicated to watching tape on your opponent and I like it. Rok-C blocks a moonsault attempt from Willow and hits a sitout powerbomb for two. Willow catches Rok-C up top and hits a superplex then follows up with a moonsault for a long two. Rok-C catches a superkick then hits a Code red for the three count. Rok-C has a lot of work to go on her in ring work, especially her running the ropes which was pretty rough for her here. Willow did a lot to make Rok-C look good in the match. Crowd was all in on Willow so the ending really didn't work here.

5/10

Violence Unlimited vs. The Foundation

Rocky and Williams started this off with some nice technical wrestling. Deppen tagged in and came in with a lot of fun offense. Riccaboni points out that Homicide was wearing his gear from the first show which is a very baggy jumpsuit. The match breaks down and Homicide hits a beautiful tope suicida like he hasn't aged since the first RoH show. Rocky goes for a hurrincanranna on the outside, but Rust catches him and powerbombs him through a bunch of tables. Homicide like a real sick stabs EC3 in the armpit and mouth with a fork. A bunch of crazy shit is happening while everybody is hitting RoH originals finishers. Brody King hits a Ganso bomb on Isom for the three count after a very fun multi man match. Just a bunch of chaos even if I didn't write a lot of what happened, but in these kind of matches so much stuff is happening everywhere it's kind of hard to get it all. EC3 served no purpose in this match and the aftermatch angle was dumb as fuck.

7/10

The OGK vs. The Briscoes

A really good back and forth tag team match between these two teams and of course RoH goes out with the Briscoes as tag team champions because it couldn't really go any other way. I didn't take much note of what happened in the match, but it was very good. These guys just went all out and hit great moves and a ton of tag team moves. Taven's clothesline dive into a doomsday device to the floor was fucking nuts. All of these guys put their bodies on the line to make it a great match and they did it well. It's just two polished teams doing their thing and doing it very well.

8/10

Jay Lethal vs. Jon Gresham

A back and forth match early with Lethal wrestling his style and Gresham targeting the shoulder of Lethal. Gresham nearly gets a three count with a roll up so Lethal just smacks the fuck out of him and stuns him. A rolling inerted samoan drop from Lethal was very cool looking. Lethal goes for Lethal Injection, but his shoulder gives out and Gresham hits a lionsault on the standing Lethal then gets the chicken wing locked in. Gresham gets the Octopus hold and gets the submission to be the Champion. A damn good match between these two men as much as I hate to admit Lethal does anything good, but great selling from both men and I loved to see Gresham just target the shoulder and go to work the whole match and see it pay off for him and stop Lethal from hitting the iconic moves he wanted to hit. Gresham is just so goddamn good in the ring and delivered a very good match here. Loved the lockerroom emptying to come down and watch the finish of the match. Kind of wish they had kept going for longer after the lockerroom came down or they had been there the whole match. The right call for the last RoH champion.

9/10

A really good show from Ring of Honor to end? the promotion. They ran a lot of angles that might be for the reboot, or more likely are going to happen in other promotions that kind of helped pay for the cool shit to happen after stuff matches. The last two matches and the fight without honor were very good and everything else was fine, although on rewatch I'd probably dislike the women's match more, but the crowd was so into Willow and she was killing it in that match so that helped. Loved all the taped wrestlers talking about what RoH meant to them in between matches as well. I don't know if the reboot of RoH will be good, but if this is the last show it's a great way for the company to go out.

Farewell Ring of Honor

Ring of Honor might be coming to an end. It's possible that Sinclair comes up with a way to reboot Ring of Honor and keep it going as a company, but after releasing all of the talent they have under contract there's no way its going to be the same company after all that. There are arguably earlier time periods when RoH stopped being the company it started as, but they always managed to find some way define themselves and stand out from the other companies. Thankfully the indie wrestling scene is good right now with several companies that stand out of the field. GCW has a strong case with a bunch of hype and momentum for all their shows and they did just sell out the Hammerstein Ballroom which is always a goal for US companies. PWG is back with their big shows. AIW and AAW are holding strong shows in the midwest and there are a ton of other smaller companies holding shows regularly on IWTV or Fite TV. For me Beyond is definitely the company that holds the same spot with a tendency to over deliver on their cards, but always doing it in a surprising way.

Ring of Honor introduced me to a lot of my favorite wrestlers and delivered great moments in wrestling. He wasn't there for the start of the company, but perhaps no name is more synonymous with the beginning of Ring of Honor than Samoa Joe and his dominant title run that set the tone for the company. The highlight of early RoH for me was always the Texas Wrestling Association guys who came up. Its hard to argue with a group of wrestlers that included Bryan Danielson, Spanky, Paul London, Michael Shane, and Masada. The feud amongst London and Shane in particular produced a great hardcore match that saw the creation of the “Please don't die” chant. The first batch of RoH stars were an unreal group of talent that filled the card with great matches, but they didn't rest on their laurels.

At the show Generation Next they had announced a tournament for a bunch of guys who had worked undercard matches and a lot of dark matches and shows for the company that were going to get an opportunity to win a contract. A bunch of them showed up with a different idea. Alex Shelley, Roderick Strong, Austin Aries, and Jack Evans offered the other competitors the choice to join them or get beat up as they hijacked the show that led to an amazing eight man tag on the show and the rise of Generation Next was the focus on Ring of Honor for quite some time in the company as all four guys got over and became champs. This was a favorite of mine as Alex Shelley was and still is my favorite wrestler so anything involving him and pushing him to a level of importance was great in my book. Shelley sadly committed more to TNA so Aries replaced him as the main star of the company, but he still got some shining moments so it wasn't all bad.

As an escalation to the Code of Honor the company also created a new division and belt with the Pure Wrestling Division. The rules really focused on the technical wrestling aspect of the company. Each wrestler got three rope breaks for the match. After they used all the breaks the ropes couldn't save them they had to get out of a hold and they would also lose a break for any rule infractions. The initial tournament concluded interestingly with Punk and Styles who are good technical wrestlers, but not really the style that either guy is known for. However they both stepped up to the challenge of this match and delivered a classic. Some found the division confusing with its rules, but I loved the division and how people adapted to the rules or failed to and went back to the regular division. It provided a great home for guys like Chad Collyer, Matt Stryker, and John Walters. It was especially nice as storylines started to become more of a focus in the company and they needed shenanigans to end matches and it still provided a home for the original style that made RoH what it was.

They also did a good job of bringing in foreign talent that they treated like a big deal. WCW always brought in luchadores and Japanese wrestlers and valued their wrestling ability, but used them to fill up time in the undercard of shows and that was the extent of it. In RoH them bringing in AJPW was the theme of the second Final Battle. When they brought in a wrestler from NOAH it was the theme of the tour with them. Culminating in them having Morishima come in and be the champion as they first started to appear on PPV. As the company fortunes in Japan changed they created a partnership with NJPW and were the destination for young lions on excursion before or after their time in CMLL, the company that RoH also started working with thanks to their deal with NJPW and after AEW took away a lot of their big name wrestlers they utilized a lot of the CMLL wrestlers to shore up their roster and Rush and Bandido lead the company as champs.

There's a lot of great feuds that built up over the years and wrestlers who would have good runs there before going to other companies and doing their thing there. I could spend a ton of time talking about so much of the good and bad of RoH in the early years, but it really was just a treat to see so many great workers showcase their skills with no limits. It's run of hot shows lasted a long time and it was just a monster of a company for so long with no easy way to watch its shows which is insane to think about now.

Over time I fell off watching Ring of Honor live, but every once in a while I'd check back in. Except for local indies the shows I went to were Ring of Honor shows and I even drove fourteen hours to Philadelphia to watch tv tapings for RoH, although that was the end of the War of the Worlds tour and I got to see a bunch of NJPW talent and the RoH debut of Chuck Taylor. I never would have looked at other indie companies or puro without finding RoH and that's something I'll always love RoH for. I got to see my favorite wrestlers live at their shows and was introduced to so many of the wrestlers who would go on to become my favorites. So while Ring of Honor is going to be dead its spirit is going to live on in all the wrestling today. Not just because they revitalized the indies, but the American Strong Style became the style of wrestling in the United States.

As a taste of what I loved about Ring of Honor I made a twitter thread with some of my favorite matches they have on their youtube channel, plus I'm going to list some other matches I just enjoy.

RoH matches twitter thread

Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong (Supercard of Honor)

Homicide vs. Steve Corino (War of the Wire)

Xavier vs. John Walters (Final Battle 2003)

Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer (Throwdown)

BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs (All of the matches)

CM Punk & Ace Steel vs. BJ Whitmer & Dan Maff (Death Before Dishonor 2 Night 2)

Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi

Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Briscoe

Jay Briscoe vs. Samoa Joe (At Our Best)

Briscoes vs. AJ Styles & Amazing Red  

Nation Extreme Wrestling One Review

 

These announcers sound so professional to start this show. I don't know if they're actually good at their job yet, but a nice start. Like the production to start this show even if the promo that starts it off is a little weak. Really like the venue with the giant windows on one side letting you see the outside.

Travis Williams vs. Judas Icarus

I find it very funny that the guy named Judas is the face in this match. They do a good job of working the start of this match. Judas controls early until Williams cuts him off and starts working him over. Judas makes a comeback with some big strikes. Judas did such a slowly dropped, crisply executed DVD into the neckbreaker over the knee it was awesome. A really nice finishing sequence between the two closes out the match with Icarus hitting a Pepsi Twist for the win.

6/10

Illa Tribe vs. Voros Twins

Both these teams are fairly green looking in this match. Its biggest problem is being way too back and forth without letting the heel team get control of the match and work over somebody. I'm also not completely sure there is a heel team in this match. I'd have thought it was going to be the pretty boys but I was wrong. The faster paced this match got at the end with bigger moves and guys coming in to break stuff it became really evident that neither team has a lot of experience. Except for Shug messing up coming in to break up a count when his partner was under the rope and the ref not counting and him just laying on the ground nothing was poorly executed except for the Voros Twins' finisher. They were just always too obvious or slow about getting into place. With more seasoning I think these guys could be good teams, but only time will tell.

3/10

Evan Rivers vs. Sebastian Wolfe

A rought start from these two before Rivers does a pescado to the floor and that floor looks like a motherfucker to bump on which Wolfe does a good job of catching Rivers and dropping down so it's not a hard bump. They brawl to the outside and the camera just films them through the windows which is fun. They brawl back into the ring and mess up a reversal spot into a slam. Rivers definitely has higher aspirations as a wrestler than he has the execution for currently with a lot of his strikes not really hitting as hard or as accurate looking as you'd like. Wolfe gets an elevated flatliner to pick up the win. A pretty rough match that had a lot of mistakes early that really turned me off and they just couldn't get a good flow going for the match.

3/10

Veda Scott vs. Jacky Lee

I'm normally a big fan of Veda, but she seemed to be moving slower than normal in this match. She does a good job of controlling the match early on, but her stuff just doesn't pop. Jacky has a decent come back although his clotheslines were pretty weak. The ending to this match makes no sense. On the plus side compared to the previous matches Veda knows how to structure a match that wet fart of an ending aside.

4/10

Nicole Matthews vs. Daniel Makabe

I've never seen Matthews wrestle this technically before and she's doing a good job, but obviously outclassed by Makabe as that's his thing, but she does manage to catch him a few times. They do some work in the corner and Makabe breaks up the technical wrestling display with a dropkick right to the head with some stank on it. I like that Matthews keeps hitting two strikes then yells for emphasis and Makabe blocks it and takes the advantage back. Matthews traps him in the corner and puts his knee over the rope and dropkicks it, love that spot. Big fan of changing the target of a move to a specific body part, it's the best. They exchange holds back and forth again and Makabe does some nice work to turn it into a cattle mutilation and its so smooth and nice looking. Makabe hits a disgusting leg hook German suplex that drops Matthews right on the back of her head. Matthews hits a nice spider German suplex off the top and pulls herself up to go for a moonsault, but Makabe rolls out of the ring. Makabe wins a battle of leg control and gets her into a weird looking leg submission that gets the tap out. Great hold exchanges throughout this match especially considering both of them have been out of the ring for like eighteen months. One nice touch I really enjoyed is that I don't think either one of them did a normal cover they were always getting extra pressure for a cover and ready to turn a kick out into a submission. Great stuff from these two.

8/10

$hareef Morrow vs. Bishop

A slight change of pace as we get a smaller high flyer against a big boy. Morrow presses the advantage early on the outside until Biship catches him and chokeslams him on the apron. Morrow keeps picking his moments and countering the big moves to avoid real punishment. He slips out of a razor's edge and gets on the top rope and jumps off with a code red to get the three count. A simple match, but perfectly fine and both guys looked good in it.

5/10

The Wisemen vs. Fergie & Elliot Tyler

The look on Elliot's face as he watches Fergie dance down to the ring is phenomenal. Tyler and Suede go back and forth with more of a technical exchange. Fergie and Baronie tag in and it becomes a hoss boy battle with Fergie getting the advantage then dropping the straps and hitting a delayed vertical suplex. Tyler gets on his hands and knees as Fergie bounches off the ropes. Fergie steps on Tyler's back and crushes him to the ring as their opponents laugh. Fergie knocks them all off the apron then Tyler jumps off Fergie's back. Great sequence love that goofy shit. The Wisemen get Tyler in the corner and start punishing him. Tyler hits a blockbuster then makes a hot tag to Fergie. They do the everybody comes in and hits their moves spot and Baroni casually picks up the big Fergie and hits a DVD. Tyler accidentally hits Fergie with the bell and the Wisemen hit their finisher for the three count. A fun tag match between a solid team of heels and the crowd favorite goofy big man. A well worked match that just worked well. After the match Fergie takes exception to having been hit by the bell and belly to belly suplexes Tyler then puts a beatdown on him. Amazing how he went from getting a huge face pop to getting booed. Good work.

6/10

Mike Bailey vs. Artemis Spencer

A nice back and forth at the start of the match with some strike exchanges and some really loud chops. Bailey kicking Spencer in the stomach during the chop exchange and immediately paying for it is great. Bailey's kicks sound and look so brutal. I like Bailey's change from smaller high flying baby face underdog, to cocky dickbag who is a hard striker. He always had the kicks, but he's really added some extra oomph to them now. Everytime Artemis gets an advantage then takes a second to plan ahead Bailey hits something and takes the advantage back. Both men go to get back into the ring, see they're facing off, and start brawling on the apron. Spencer's chest is pretty fucked up looking already in this match. I like the difference in their kicks where Spencer hits with his shin, but Bailey is connecting with the top of his foot which is why Spencer's chest is so much more fucked up. Bailey hits the shooting star press knees to the back of Spencer and lands on his feet. Spencer breaks up the cover by grabbing the bottom rope just in time. Spencer stops Bailey's attempt to springboard into the ring then jumps up the ropes and hits a Spanish Fly for a two count. The two men brawl into the crowd and Spencer charges for a kick, but Bailey backdrops him through a table then makes his way to the ring for a countout. Spencer breaks the count and the two men brawl on the corner and Spencer knocks him down to the mat then hits a spiral tap and gets a three count. A fun back and forth match between the two. A lot more strikes exchanges where they just stand and wait for the opponent to hit them than I really like in a match.

8/10

The show had some great matches and some real green indie wrestlers on it as well. So its a real fun show to watch. If you don't have a ton of time to watch mediocre wrestling just check out Makabe vs. Matthews and Spencer vs Bailey that are around the 1:10 and 2:00 marks respectively. The show had some great production value for an indie show and the commentary was really good. One of them was definitely trained as a sports commentator because he had the voice down pat.

Wrestling is Fun

 

We all get invested in different forms of media. I love music, movies, books, and television, but when it's done right none of those compare to professional wrestling. The most intensely I've felt that was after AEW's All Out. Except for the Paul Wight vs. QT Marshall every match on the show could have been a main event to a PPV. Every one of their shows has gotten me excited to post and tweet about the show, but this one made me bummed out that I didn't have somebody to talk to in person about it. It was the kind of show where after watching if for four hours I almost started it back up and wanted to talk to anybody about it for just as long as it aired. I haven't felt that way about wrestling in a long time and it rules.

The last time I really felt this way was near the start of Ring of Honor and when I found out about the company as a whole and the idea that there was independent wrestling that wasn't on television following the demise of ECW and WCW. There are always moments that get you hyped up in wrestling, but they don't always last like this one has. Especially since I was a WWE fan for a while. Everytime they did something great like when Nakamura and Asuka won the Royal Rumble in 2018 and then neither really mattered at their Mania matches and both lost, you kind of get trained to accept disappointment after something cool happens in WWE.

And to be honest that is probably the best thing about AEW. The booking rewards you for being a fan. You can get invested in the faces quest for the gold because he's going to win the belt. Hangman is away for Paternity leave and when he comes back the crowd is going to go apeshit and he is going to fight for the world title and be the one to defeat Kenny Omega because that's been the story since they were the tag team champions. Hangman leaving actually works well with all the big names coming in, plus when Bryan Danielson fails to dethrone Omega it will be even better when Hangman does it.

AEW has had plenty of shows filled with great matches so the difference this time is everybody who showed up. Starting with CM Punk who we knew was wrestling on the show, but getting to see him return to the ring after seven years was a treat and he did a great job. Then we get the surprise debuts of Minoro Suzuki, Ruby Soho, Adam Cole, and Bryan Danielson and it just changes everything.

To me Ruby's debut is the most definitive statement of why AEW is so much fun to watch. The other three are big deals in their promotions, but Ruby was never given anything to really do in WWE despite the crowd clamoring for it. She was maybe a midcard talent when WWE released her, but she came to AEW and the crowd popped because she proved how good she was before she was in WWE and they were ready to see her be the athlete she is without any handcuffs on her. That debut pop was just as good as the others and she never was treated with that kind of fanfare before going to AEW.

As much as my favorite tag team winning the tag belts in my current match of the year is a factor in how much I love this show, the undeniable biggest factor is Bryan Danielson being in a company that embraces the same idea of wrestling as him. The promo against Kenny gives me hope of him racking up wins against the indy guys on dark to build up his resume. Is that because I would love to see him wrestle Lee Moriarty, Daniel Garcia, and Wheeler Yuta. Yeah, of fucking course it is those guys all rule and I would love to see them work the American Dragon. And then obviously the matches against Kenny Omega and the other signed AEW talent, especially the match Punk said he wanted of teaming with Danielson against the Young Bucks.

But it isn't just the debuts and possibility of the future, the matches that happened on the show all mattered too. Kingston and Miro had a feud with like two weeks of build, but with a minute of promo time between them they made the match matter and then had a fucking banger of a match with both men throwing bombs and refusing to stay down. It's a match I knew Kingston could do, but didn't know Miro could and he backed up why he's treated the way he is in AEW. The star of the show for me is Young Bucks vs Lucha Brothers. I can't be objective about this match these are the two best tag teams in wrestling for the last two decades and they've always had great matches against each other and in the steel cage they upped the dramatics and violence and had an all time classic that is the match of the year and one of the best tag matches of all time.

What I find the best is that after this show I'm not just excited about AEW shows and the future I'm just excited about the idea of professional wrestling in general. I'm back to watching random matches on youtube, paying attention to live shows on IWTV and even watching NJPW shows again. I went and played around at the basketball court and spent time thinking about how I want to open up a wrestling themed bar. I haven't felt that way in a long time and its just so awesome that AEW has reopened that part of me. I never stopped liking wrestling, but as CM Punk tweeted years ago in WWE this poop isn't fun anymore and as he tweeted after All Out, This shit is fun again.

WWE Summerslam 2002

 

I decided to rewatch this show because of that viral tweet talking about how the IWC would hate this show if it existed in 2002 which it did and I was part of and I remember being hyped for this show. Mostly I was really looking forward to HHH vs. HBK which is one of my favorite WWE matches ever and when I saw the rest of the card I was surprised I didn't remember anything else on this show. The card looked great so I figured it was a good time to rewatch this show.

Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio

Pretty sure these two men don't have bad matches against each other. Cocky heel Angle is very good and he is really disliked by the crowd despite how good he is at everything. I love the bit where the ref stops Rey from doing a dive to check on the opponent and then Rey just leaps over the ref, crowd loves it to as it gets a “Holy Shit” chant from the crowd. Love when Rey hit the West Coast Pop as a springboard 'rana instead of a plancha really spiked Angle with it too. Angle does a good job of countering so many moves and escapes by Rey into the ankle lock even if Mysterio gets out of a lot of them pretty quickly.

On rewatch I remember the match and watch it fairly regularly. It's a great example of how to do a short sprint of a match. A great way to start the show off even if the heel got the win. I watch a ton of Rey matches because he's great, but I don't watch enough Angle stuff anymore and so much of the little touches he does in this match really make this match sing and they stand out more. Angle's full body follow through on his clotheslines is delightful. Angle has enough size on Rey that he can play the bully, but not so much that he can't wrestle just as quickly and smoothly as Rey and it just works really well.

8/10

Chris Jericho vs. Ric Flair

A lot of solid wrestling to start the match off between the two men and Jericho does a great job of both dominating Flair and selling for the offense that Flair gets in. These guys are both great and they demonstrate it in this match where Flair can't quite do the Flair flipping bump over the corner to the floor so Jericho just hits him with a clothesline over the top. No awkward pause after something didn't go right or setting the spot up again they just keep going with the match. Around six minutes in Jericho starts to go for some shady tactics like uncovering the top of the ringside guardrail, loosening turnbuckle pads and choking Flair with his wrist tape. Love Flair getting to stop Jericho on the top rope and throw somebody off. Flair hits a beautiful belly to back suplex on Jericho with some taunting before, during, and after. Flair fighting off Jericho's figure four is a masterclass in selling and how to be in a submission. Not a big fan of the ending to this match, but I'm guessing its so these two could keep feuding.

Despite a kind of abrupt ending to this match is was a really good back and forth affair and Flair really holds his own in this match, its not Jericho doing all the work to make him look good. An impressive performance from a man Flair's age. It is just a really well wrestled match and doesn't rely on the charisma and storytelling ability of both men, although that is present from both men as well.

7/10

Eddie Guerrero vs. Edge

Edge sells a hurt arm and Eddie goes after it with a vengeance after he sees it. Love Edge hitting a suplex over the ropes to the floor on Eddie. Big fan of the Edgecution, never should have switched from that to the spear as his finisher. Eddie stops a superplex and throws Edge to the ground then hits a frog splash onto the injured arm. Edge hits a spear with the injured shoulder and grabs Eddie for the three count.

Eddie does a great job of working the shoulder after Edge hurts it falling to the floor and just wraps his entire offense around destroying that body part. Edge then does a shit job of selling that injury. Yeah, he walks around selling its hurt, but whenever he's wrestling it doesn't effect him and how he does his moves which is a bummer. I could overlook it more if it wasn't the entire point of the match. It's still a really good match because Eddie Guerrero is at the top of his game at this point and he just viciously demolishes the arm, its beautiful work. Edge is good as well, but this is just a showcase of Eddie.

6/10

Lance Storm & Christian vs. Booker T & Goldust

Storm tosses Goldust over the corner to the floor in what has become a theme on this show dudes taking bumps over the ropes straight to the floor. Heels isolate Goldust int eh corner and beat him up and then do my least favorite spot in wrestling where the ref doesn't see the hot tag and nullifies it, then lets the heels make a tag behind his back. Booker eventually gets the hot tag and its a good one. Storm kills the ref with a leg lariat and he misses a three count on Christian and then Test runs in and nails a big boot on Booker T so Christian can get the three count.

A perfectly fine tag team match from these guys. All four of them are really good wrestlers so that's not really much of a surprise. Only really impressive thing is Booker hitting the axe kick on Christian and Storm at the same time.

5/10

Chris Benoit vs. RVD

A bunch of striking exchanges between the two men before Benoit hits a brutal German suplex. RVD's offense works very well for getting spurts of the advantage against the relentless style of Benoit. He's not going quite as all in on working the arm as Eddie did earlier, but Benoit is modifying his moves especially the northern lights suplex to make sure RVD is landing on the arm. RVD is also not doing a great job of selling the injured arm. RVD counters the avalanche belly to back suplex with a crossbody then hits the Five Star Frog Splash for the three count.

Really good hard hitting match between these two men. Benoit's arm destroying offense is not as viscerally satisfying as Eddie's earlier, but he does have the submission move that really focuses on the body part which is a nice touch to working on the arm.

6/10

Test vs. Undertaker

Test controls the early parts of the match with some shady tactics before Undertaker powers up by the cheers of the crowd and starts to get the momentum on his side. Storm and Christian run down to interfere and both of them get choke slams and an especially impressive one on Storm who loves to jump super high for those moves. Test tries to cheat with a chair and it backfires on him with Taker hitting a big boot knocking it into his face then hitting a tombstone.

Much better than I thought I was going to get from a Test vs Undertaker match. This style never really did much for me, but both of these guys are moving pretty well in the ring as well as hitting each other with some nice moves in between punches and elbows.

6/10

HHH vs. Shawn Michaels

First match back in years and Michaels wrestles it in jeans and cowboy boots, as well as his belt having a big buckle on it as well. He's a crazy person. Michaels dominates early until HHH hits a backbreaker and follows up with a second and Michaels is selling like its broken again. HHH does an Irish Whip to the corner where he throws himself to the mat to add more momentum and its such a nice touch. Michaels is often a very animated seller so there's a lot of times in this match when he takes a shot to the back and he just acts like he's dead to sell and it really adds more to it since its so out of character for how he sells. HHH brings the sledgehammer in, but Michaels hits some kicks to the midsection to stop HHH then falls to his knees and crawls forward to keep hitting HHH with punches to the midsection. He's fighting so desperately to get some offense in. HHH hits a nice backbreaker over the chair and destroys the seat. HHH comes at Michaels with the chair and he hits Sweet Chin Music to send it into HHH's face and he is immediately a bloody mess. Michaels hits a running forearm then kips up and the place comes unglued. Michaels steals Hugo's boot on commentary and hits HHH with it. Michaels sets HHH up on the table then cliumbs to the top rope and mimes being crazy before jumping off to the floor with splash. Michaels sets up the ladder in the ring and hits the elbow drop off.

This match still fucking rules. HHH's dominance in the early part of the match just makes Michaels' comeback even better and the fact that HHH hits a gusher of a blade job just makes all of that even more perfect. A great use of weapons throughout the match and just a strong story throughout while both men are just working their asses off and selling perfectly. Michaels hits all of his signature spots in this match in different ways and the splash off the top is phenomenal. The craziest thing to me is that it has the rollup win to stop a definitive win from happening with HHH beating Michaels up after the match and it takes nothing away from this one. This is two guys who work perfectly with each other having a perfect match.

10/10

Brock Lesnar vs. The Rock

Rock rusn down eager to start the match and gets an overhead belly to belly suplex for his troubles. Heyman is very actively interfering in this match to help Brock. Cole talks about how Heyman could become a millionaire managing Brock and Taz says hopefully he becomes a billionaire because he owes a lot of people money. Brock dominates early and hurts himself when Rock dodges out of a spear in the corner and Brock hits the post. Both men end up down and kip up at the same time. Rock makes a comeback, but the crowd seems pretty against Rock and for Brock even with all the Heyman interference. Rock does a slingshot into the ringpost and Lesnar jumps so fucking high to hit the post. Rock puts Heyman through the announce table with a terrible looking Rock Bottom because Heyman can't jump. Back in the ring Rock hits a beautiful Rock Bottom because Lesnar jumps really high and kicks out at two. A nice back and forth exchange of finishers and counters ends with Lesnar hitting the F-5 for the win.

This match was a little too long for what it was. The sharpshooter so early in the match and lasting as long as it did while it looks bad doesn't help the start of this match at all. A bunch of Heyman interference that doesn't really do much for the match either. This would rule as an all out sprint version in seven minutes that at times they were doing the pace to have. This match also isn't well served following the previous match. With all that said it is a good match its just not the best match these two guys could have. Everything they do looks good, except for Rock's sharpshooter, and you can't go wrong with Brock's intensity when he is on in a match.

7/10

This show fucking rules. The worst match on the show is a perfectly fine tag match so you should definitely rewatch it if you haven't in a while. It has what is one of the best opening matches you're going to see on a wrestling show and also one of my top ten favorite WWE matches so the fact that the rest of the show is all good as well is just a nice cherry on top of that.