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Best of ROH General Pimping Thread~!


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That Edison, Jersey venue sucked too. Bad crowds for the most part. Although, as I mentioned earlier, Nigel and Morishima wrestled at the same venue about 6 months prior to that and it was amazing.

 

Nigel's title win was anticlimactic because it was in the middle of the card. The way they filmed ROH ppv's really killed the flow of the card for whoever was attending live. That same show had a really good Danielson/Hero match, and a big Age of the Fall angle to close the show. I had to leave before that angle though so I missed out.

 

And yeah, the Motor City Machine Guns vs Briscoes match was highly praised. 

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The first time I watched Danielson/Cide, I thought it was boring. I was still in my MOVEZ~! phase and didn't appreciate the match. After seeing all the acclaim it got, I rewatched the match. I loved it and it totally expanded my wrestling palette.

 

I recently did a couple of ROH-centric WrestleRevue podcasts, one focusing on the Joe/Punk trilogy and another focusing on the ROH/CZW feud. I actually didn't like the first Joe/Punk as much as I did when I first watched it back in 04. To me, it felt like they were trying to have a sixty minute match as opposed to having a match that just happened to go sixty minutes, if that makes sense. Their second and third matches were every bit as good as I remembered and I might have liked the third one even more than I originally did.

 

The six man from the 100th show was incredible. I loved every second of it. Just a totally wild but ultra realistic brawl. Joe was tremendous (surprise!) in that match. I didn't like Cage of Death nearly as much as I did in 06. It picked up once Homicide entered the match but aside from Bryan's brilliant turn on Joe, I found at least half the match to be pretty uninteresting.

 

I'm gonna pimp the first Bryan/Morishima match from Manhattan Mayhem II. That's arguably the best match I've ever seen live (Joe/Kobashi included). From the moment Bryan came out, the match had a big fight atmosphere the likes of which I've never experienced at a wrestling show. The psychology was great and the match was just out of this world. Bryan working it with a detached retina for a significant portion of the match made it all the more impressive.

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Morishima vs Shingo, vs Claudio, vs Albright, vs Claudio AND Albright. Oh man. I'm trying to think of others, but yeah his run was great.

My personal favorite is one that never gets any love - Morishima vs Nigel from Fighting Spirit (Edison, NJ). I think that was their first encounter, and it really felt like Nigel was gonna win that night.

Morishima vs. Austin Aries. I want to say the show is Battle of St. Paul. There is also the match against Danielson where Brian suffers a detached retina.
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I'm gonna pimp the first Bryan/Morishima match from Manhattan Mayhem II. That's arguably the best match I've ever seen live (Joe/Kobashi included). From the moment Bryan came out, the match had a big fight atmosphere the likes of which I've never experienced at a wrestling show. The psychology was great and the match was just out of this world. Bryan working it with a detached retina for a significant portion of the match made it all the more impressive.

 

I was actually in my wrestling hiatus phase, but the hype over the Manhattan Mayhem II match in 07 was enough for me to seek it out and watch it. I knew at the time that it would have been my match of the year for that year even if I had watched a lot more wrestling in 2007.

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RoH World Title Classic

CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe

Surprise!

This was great. I'll go the other way then Petey here and say this is actually better then I remember it, though I always viewed it as a far inferior match to the two sequels. It does feel like it's trying to fill time a bit, I agree. But it's still fun as shit to watch. It's just middle of the pack of the matches of the matches I've listed here, but that's kinda a stupid level of competition.

Briscoe Brothers vs. The Prophecy vs. Second City Saints vs. Generation Next

This is a match I never really remembered seeing anyone be positive about, as it really should not have been the main event of this show. But I enjoyed this significantly more now then I used too. The Ultimate Endurance match type was kinda a fail, but I think it is put together great here: Submission match so everyone can bend Flippy McGillicutty in the first fall, high paced scramble in the second fall, and then the Prophecy/Saints war to finish. It could place on my list. Maybe give it a show to everyone else and see if it's your cup of tea?

Also, Good Fucking God that Burning Hammer was brutal as fuck.

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I'm so happy that this thread is getting some activity, and more importantly dredging up done fond wrestling memories for people. I had a funny thought on my way home from work: is DVDVR the only place on the internet that could conceivably do a top 100 ROH matches and not have a Davey match anywhere near the top?

I'm watching Fifth Year Festival: Chicago right now. I'll post my thoughts after.

What the hell ever happened to Brent Albright?

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I'm so happy that this thread is getting some activity, and more importantly dredging up done fond wrestling memories for people. I had a funny thought on my way home from work: is DVDVR the only place on the internet that could conceivably do a top 100 ROH matches and not have a Davey match anywhere near the top?

I'm watching Fifth Year Festival: Chicago right now. I'll post my thoughts after.

What the hell ever happened to Brent Albright?

You have no idea how big of a grin I had when the thread I was posted. Being given a reason to rewatch this is awesome.

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Morishima vs Shingo, vs Claudio, vs Albright, vs Claudio AND Albright. Oh man. I'm trying to think of others, but yeah his run was great.

My personal favorite is one that never gets any love - Morishima vs Nigel from Fighting Spirit (Edison, NJ). I think that was their first encounter, and it really felt like Nigel was gonna win that night.

Morishima vs. Austin Aries. I want to say the show is Battle of St. Paul. There is also the match against Danielson where Brian suffers a detached retina.

 

 

Whoa, I don't think I ever saw Morishima vs Aries. Does anyone have that? I'd love to see it.

 

I was also there for Morishima vs Danielson at Manhattan Mayhem II, but I forgot it was a title match. I get my shows mixed up as far as when Morishima did and didn't have the belt. Yeah, that match was incredible and my favorite of that year. 

 

I had a funny thought on my way home from work: is DVDVR the only place on the internet that could conceivably do a top 100 ROH matches and not have a Davey match anywhere near the top?

What the hell ever happened to Brent Albright?

 

I don't know man, I'm not a Davey fan either but I'd put Davey vs Tyler Black for the belt in my top 100. Top 25 even. 

 

Brent had a pretty solid run in his first year for ROH. I have fond memories of that Tables are Legal match he had in NYC with BJ Whitmer. I think he was tight with Adam Pearce and once Pearce got let go, Albright was let go soon after. Could be wrong though. I really wasn't following ROH by that point.

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I'm so happy that this thread is getting some activity, and more importantly dredging up done fond wrestling memories for people. I had a funny thought on my way home from work: is DVDVR the only place on the internet that could conceivably do a top 100 ROH matches and not have a Davey match anywhere near the top?

I'm watching Fifth Year Festival: Chicago right now. I'll post my thoughts after.

What the hell ever happened to Brent Albright?

Gabe fucked up with Brent Albright, lumping him in the Hangmen 3 coming off two title matches vs. Morishima and the three way with Morishima and Claudio. I was in Philly for the match against Morishima and the crowd was going nuts for Albright. During the pre-show, he came out and squashed some of the ROH wrestling school students, along with Eddie Kingston. The crowd was going nuts for the near-falls during the title match. It really felt like Albright had a legit shot of winning the title.

 

There was a chance to rebuild Albright after he turned on Sweet & Sour Inc. at the Hammerstein. The place went nuts when he turned around and decked Hagadorn instead of hitting Bobby Dempsey. I still like to go back and re-watch when Brent Awesome bombs Hagadorn through the table outside the ring. I think what hurt Albright the second time around was the change from Gabe to Pearce. Albright may have been tight with Pearce, but that didn't seem to matter because Adam Pearce is a shitty booker. The Albright/Claudio feud in 2009 culminated in a flag match. That's straight out of the Jim Cornette school of booking.

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So I was gonna do Round Robin Challenge 3, but there wasn't anything I feel very strongly about. If anyone disagrees, I'm all ears.

RoH Generation Next

Yeeeeees.

Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, and Jack Evans vs. The Briscoe Brothers, John Walters, and Jimmy Rave.

Yes yes yes. Yes. Just a fantastic match that completely succeeds at everything it was going for. Namely, showing that Generation Next are freaking stars. Just... This is a great match. But it (and the entire angle and takeover of GN) is one of my favorite things in wrestling. I will unashamedly vote this higher then it probably should actually go.

Samoa Joe vs. Homicide

I think this is better then the match at Reborn. I really liked that match. Whoever said Cide was gonna end up being all over this poll is probably right on.

 

I came here to post about this same show and that match in particular.  Generation Next were probably my favorite ROH stable by far and I remember this angle being such a big deal since they pretty much undid everything that had been booked for that show in advance and cemented themselves as a force.  Evans and Strong went on to have a ton of great matches over the tag titles, many of which were against Jacobs and Whitmer, but I'm at a loss as to which were the best out of those.  The only thing that bums me out about it was how soon Shelley left and that we never got to see a really good, prolonged Shelley/Aries feud over the world title.

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So I was gonna do Round Robin Challenge 3, but there wasn't anything I feel very strongly about. If anyone disagrees, I'm all ears.

RoH Generation Next

Yeeeeees.

Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, and Jack Evans vs. The Briscoe Brothers, John Walters, and Jimmy Rave.

Yes yes yes. Yes. Just a fantastic match that completely succeeds at everything it was going for. Namely, showing that Generation Next are freaking stars. Just... This is a great match. But it (and the entire angle and takeover of GN) is one of my favorite things in wrestling. I will unashamedly vote this higher then it probably should actually go.

Samoa Joe vs. Homicide

I think this is better then the match at Reborn. I really liked that match. Whoever said Cide was gonna end up being all over this poll is probably right on.

 

I came here to post about this same show and that match in particular.  Generation Next were probably my favorite ROH stable by far and I remember this angle being such a big deal since they pretty much undid everything that had been booked for that show in advance and cemented themselves as a force.  Evans and Strong went on to have a ton of great matches over the tag titles, many of which were against Jacobs and Whitmer, but I'm at a loss as to which were the best out of those.  The only thing that bums me out about it was how soon Shelley left and that we never got to see a really good, prolonged Shelley/Aries feud over the world title.

 

Shelley/Aries from Manhattan Mayhem is a top 10 for me. I loved the progression of Alex Shelley in 2005 from a man on his own to buying into the Embassy. Generation Next/Embassy is one of my favorite ROH feuds.

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Rod Strong/Jack Evans were probably my favorite ROH/indy tag team ever. They were just so entertaining to watch and really were a great pairing with Rod's physicality and Jack's high flying stuff. It's a shame they didn't have a longer run as a unit.

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It's honestly too bad WWE never went after Generation Next as a unit once they went on their indy darling signing spree. Such great stuff out of them, it would've been fun to see them in NXT/FCW in the early 2010s.

Imagine some combination of Aries/Strong/Shelley/Evans mixing it up with The Shield and Wyatt's in 2013-2014. Or Gen Next vs. The Usos. Gen Next vs. The Dust Bros. I think I just blew my mind.

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If I recall, Danielson and Shelley had a tremendous match at one of the ROH/CZW shows. I might just be remembering the epic shit talking.

Arena Warfare. Even without the shit talking, the match itself holds up. This thread could be dangerous for me. I feel like I'm not far off from tracking down the dvd's I've sold or buying a bunch of present day ROH stuff.

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RoH Survival of the Fittest

In love this show, but it's tricky to give nominations. I really liked Shelley/Mark Briscoe, but it's not good enough to get into this listing. CM Punk/Hydro is a fun watch, but I'm not that high on it either. But I have a couple things to nominate

Jack Evans vs. Bryan Danielson

This is not one of the 100 best matches in RoH history. It might be one of the 100 most fun to watch though. Danielson just bends Evans in ways no man should be bent. It's a showcase of Dragon being awesome and Evans being awesome in a different way.

Mark Briscoe vs. Colt Cabana vs. Austin Aries vs. Homicide vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe

Well this kicked all sorts of ass. Then opening stretch is really good, and then it gets down to Aries and Danielson, and the match hits a different level. Aries breakout performance as a singles competitor. My personal bias could have this end up in my top 20.

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Well since we're on the Evans & Strong, the best tag team ever...

Reborn Completion

Roderick Strong and Jack Evans vs. Izzy and Dixie.

They made Strong and Evans my favorite tag team in one match. One fucking match. Let's see here. Absolutely amazing tag team moves that the rest of the wrestling world still hasn't caught up to 10 years later? Check. Roderick Strong beating poor Dixie into hamburger meat? Check. A really entertaining borderline squash that established GN as being fucking outstanding on there first night in the venue? You betcha. This will make my top 100 on pure "match doing completely everything I could have wanted it to do" scale alone.

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As I said earlier, I watched 5YF: Chicago today, which was a pretty good show all around, but I think it only has one match that I would officially nominate:

Colt Cabana/Jimmy Jacobs 'Windy City Death Match

I think this match is really great actually, and is only hurt by bizarre interference sections with Brent Albright. I normally don't really care for Colt Cabana, but I think he does some tremendous character work here. I love how he is surprised by his own capacity for violence, and then desperately tries to still make jokes like it's all he can do to hold on to himself. I love the old school heeling Jacobs does with the flag, and I think the finish, while a little sketchy with the man on woman violence from the face, feels like a definitive end to a feud. Jacobs, as he always is in matches like this, is a master. This could easily finish top 20 for me.

As an aside, you know that spot where two wrestlers run at each other and punch each other in the face in unison over and over? No one is better at that than Jimmy Jacobs. It's a weird thing to be awesome at, but I think it helps in these hate filled matches he was doing at the time.

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At the time, I really liked two BJ Whitmer/Jimmy Jacobs. One was their cage match at Supercard of Honor II. I can't remember the other. It was some form of a No Disqualification/Street Fight type of match. Looking through past shows, it appears they had one at the FYF: Finale, Battle of the Icons and Dethroned. I'd have to re-watch all three shows to figure out which one I thought was great.

 

Poor BJ, the only time I ever enjoyed him was when he was taking ridiculous bumps.

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I loved BJ and Jimmy as a team too. It was the only time I was into BJ Whitmer. Their match against Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal.... At Manhattan Mayhem against Roddy Strong & Jack Evans... They gelled well. I'm glad they are back together now.

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I have loads of ROH DVDs from the beginning to the present day and reading this thread has made me want to go back and watch them all again:

 

Off the top of my head as far as memorable matches/cards go, the first ones I remember watching and being absolutely blown away by were the three way main event from the first ever ROH show - Low Ki vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Bryan Danielson, and then from the second show, Ki vs Danielson with Ken Shamrock as the guest referee. Both of these matches seemed state of the art to me at the time, and really turned me on to watching things away from the WWE, which is pretty much all I was watching at the time.

 

I recently rewatched the Ki vs Danielson match and it still holds up (commentary trumpeting it MOTY aside) and this is certainly a match I would recommend as a top tier ROH match, both by itself and also in the greater context of what it meant for ROH in establishing the tone and style of the promotion going forward.

 

Other matches that spring to mind are pretty much the whole of the original Manhattan Mayhem card from 2005, which has both the Aries/Shelley match and a fine example of a Whitmer/Jacobs vs Strong/Evans match which have been discussed earlier in this thread, as well as Joe vs Lethal, Gibson vs Black Tiger (Rocky Romero), Rave vs Punk (Dog Collar!), McGuinness vs Cabana, and the impromptu Homicide/Low Ki vs Lethal/Joe main event (Cop-Killer/Doublestomp!) with an incredible crowd and atmosphere.

 

Speaking of Gibson, his 2005 run was incredible, and I think the matches where he won and lost the title should also be in the discussion.

 

I will have another look at my collection and put some more up later, excellent idea for a topic!

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RoH Reborn: Completion.

Another case of a strong show that it's hard to put the matches in proper rank and file on what you "should" watch. In reality, watching the entire thing is a good thing. We've already covered the opening tag, and I'm just barely not putting the Pure title on the listbut other then that...

Jay Lethal vs. Nigel McGuinness vs. Doug Williams vs. John Walters

A pretty damn 4 way I had a lot of fun with, especially the Nigel/Doug stuff and then Jay Lethal dying a bunch. Probably won't make my top 100, but a fun little match I enjoyed a good deal. This... Will probably not as well liked by not me.

Samoa Joe & The Briscoe Brothers vs. The Rottweilers

The match itself here is very good, but not elite level for this company. The ending angle kinda rules, and this is still good, but you kinda had higher expectations going in.

...this doesn't come across as much of an endorsement for a good show.

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At the time, I really liked two BJ Whitmer/Jimmy Jacobs. One was their cage match at Supercard of Honor II. I can't remember the other. It was some form of a No Disqualification/Street Fight type of match. Looking through past shows, it appears they had one at the FYF: Finale, Battle of the Icons and Dethroned. I'd have to re-watch all three shows to figure out which one I thought was great.

 

Poor BJ, the only time I ever enjoyed him was when he was taking ridiculous bumps.

 

It probably wasn't Battle of the Icons. That show in general was disappointing. Awful crowd too. I was there and was annoyed that people focused on chanting over Jimmy's new tights than anything else in the match. But even on top of that, that match had a very weak finish that made no sense given the Last Man Standing stip. 

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