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Best of ROH General Pimping Thread~!


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Hey all, 

 

A new year, and a new DVDVR project. I know I first found this board when I was really in to ROH around 2005 or 2006, and I still remember some of the first Drivers I read having some ROH matches. I've been wanting something to do, and I think going back and revisiting a lot of the matches that I loved from the height of my fandom will be a blast. I don't want Rippa to kill me for starting a billion threads, so for right now, let's just use this thread to get some initial ideas flowing and for general pimpage. 

 

I think this might be easier and more tidy if we section it off a little bit, so that everyone is in the same mindset. In my view, ROH has pretty clear "eras". I would put them as: 

 

Feinstein years 

Reborn through Reborn Again

The Pay Per View Era (Respect is Earned though Gabe's firing after Ring of Homicide II)

The TV era (2009-current)

 

I'm sure you could break up the TV era in to smaller chunks, but I don't really feel like there was a major stylistic change or anything noteworthy that differentiates any of those years. 

 

In order to get some early momentum, I propose that we start with pimping and match suggestions and observations from the Reborn though Reborn Again. This would be 4/23/04 through 5/11/07. I don't think I'm off base when I say that the majority of peoples ballots will be make up from matches within this period, considering it has much of Joe's peak, the Summer of Punk angle, and Danielson as champ. I'll start posting about individual matches later, but I thought I'd get this up and moving in case others are chomping at the bit.

 

Lastly, I will be starting an email for the ballots that I will edit in to this post. I think we will be best served with ballots ranging from a minimum of 25 matches to a max of 100? Anyone disagree? I have no time table set for this, let's just see how we do and go from there.

 

Anyone have any early guesses for Number one? Cage of Death? Joe v Punk II? Kobashi? So many awesome matches, this time period ROH really felt like every show had a new and exciting dream match.  

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Well fuck. I have a boatload of ROH DVD's, especially from that Reborn era. I gotta make a decision to dive into this with you guys, which means this is pretty much my life now. Or stay out of it altogether (which is probably the smarter choice in terms of my schedule).

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Well fuck. I have a boatload of ROH DVD's, especially from that Reborn era. I gotta make a decision to dive into this with you guys, which means this is pretty much my life now. Or stay out of it altogether (which is probably the smarter choice in terms of my schedule).

 

I'd say "all the cool kids are doing it", but we are on a wrestling message board, so we both know that isn't true. It'd be fun?

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Reborn Stage 1 matches of note

Bryan Danielson vs. CM Punk

Kinda an amusing way to kick off the matches to consider list. This match is... Less good then I hoped it would be? Not the best Danielson match even of that weekend, but still pretty damn great overall. Probably not making my top 50, but should get into my top 100. It is interesting to watch this just to see how much both guys styles has changed.

Samoa Joe vs. Homicide

Good god I miss prime Joe. I think his charisma comes across in the ring comes across better then Punks. And this match is better then I remember it being. This match makes me wonder if I underrated the Joe/Cide series in my youth. I'd certainly say give this one a watch. It will be on my list.

Also, the post show shit at Reborn Stage 1 is fantastic, other then the announcing,

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I need to figure out how to post pictures sometime soon. Anyway

RoH Reborn Stage 2

Good god this show kicks ass.

Let's start of with a not so obvious match I love to death. In my opinion, the best Four Corner Survival match in company history.

Nigel McGuinness vs. Rocky Romero vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Austin Aries

This looks like an all-star matchup in retrospect, but I think that's a statement for RoH's scouting at the time in what was a high pressure situation. They couldn't afford to miss on new talent, and they sure didn't. This is Aries first main show match, it's easily Nigel's biggest match with the company to that point. And this just fucking rules at getting all 3 of the new guys (Aries, Nigel, Romero) over in rapid succession. This felt eye opening at the time, and was a contest I probably hold in higher regards then most. It will be on my list, but probably not on many others.

Homicide vs. Bryan Danielson

The Hand Match, as it is called between me and my friends. This also just completely fucking rules. Cide kicks more ass the more I see him, and Dragon was always Dragon, and here he is just ripping Cides hand to little pieces. One of the better matches of 2004 for the company

Briscoe Brothers vs. Second City Saints

And another really really good match here. I loved the Briscoes before there style got much more Dragon Gate esqe. They still have the high flying, but they were much more well rounded. And the Saints just had this great dynamic as a team and it's in full effect here. This really really kicks ass as well, and is also just easily one of the better matches from the company that year. Probably the best tag match.

Watching these makes me happy.

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If it were possible to rip that Cide/Danielson match, I'd love to see it. I loved their on & off feud over the years. Not sure if I ever watched that match though. I do have Reborn Stage 1 on VHS though. No VCR to watch it on though.

 

I think my #1 is Danielson vs KENTA. It was on youtube briefly a few months ago. Too bad it's gone. That show in general (Glory By Honor V night 2) is probably my favorite ROH show ever. Danielson/KENTA, Nigel/Marufugi, KOW/Aries & Strong, Joe & Cide vs Briscoes...so much goodness on that one.

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El Dragon, I'm glad you brought up that 4 Corner Survival, because it does in fact rule. Also, I think it foreshadows later how much chemistry Jimmy Rave and Nigel had. I think the post Embassy Jimmy Rave stuff against Nigel is really good, and will be looked back on more fondly than it was received at the time. 

 

Whenever DVDVR does one of these projects, there always ends up being a secret MVP who consistently has great matches but is less heralded than some of his peers. I think homicide may be that for this, even though he is thought of rather highly. I think he gets taken for granted because he was always there. 

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I remember being shocked at how much better Danielson/Homicide was than the Punk match. I was not a big Cide fan at the time, and I think that match was a big turning point for him in terms of his quality of work in non-brawls.

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I remember this as being in my top five favorite matches I have seen in person.

 

Tyler Black vs. Nigel McGuiness ROH Take No Prisoners March 16th 2008

 

First match of the show was Tyler Black vs. Claudio vs. Go Shiosaki vs. Delirious with the winner getting a title shot. At the time, Tyler Black was just the other guy in Age of the Fall. It was a big shot that he won the match to get the main event title match and people were kind of eh about it. Then they went twenty minutes and Tyler Black was the biggest babyface in the history of Philly. I need to go back and rewatch it.

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RE: ROH shows.  I have a nearly every show from early 2005 through early 2007 on DVD, I can be persuaded to rip some things if needed.

 

I posted that in the main thread and wanted to repost here.

 

I've got a good amount of DVDs in that era but I have some holes and some of the shows are only on VHS.

 

I think any retrospective on the Reborn era is just going to make me sad that Alex Shelley's carerr went the direction it did.

It will make me sad thinking about what happened to the ROH message board.

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About to head out and get ready for the fights tonight, but just a fair warning to all: THERE WILL BE HEAVY NIGEL PIMPING of his work post Feb. 2007 all the way to the end of his title reign. People talk about Punk, Joe, Aries, Danielson, and The Briscoes. But Nigel is my hands down favorite based off those 2 years alone. Should be fun.

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Nigel was my favorite wrestler for a while there. I do think the constant rebound lariat attempts looked really bad. But overall, I think his reign was one of my favorites in ROH.

 

I do wanna try to stick to the OP's suggestion from suggesting matches from Reborn to Reborn Again era, but I do feel 2007 was a pretty good year.

 

The ROH youtube channel has a lot of full classic matches. I know a lot of people hold this match in high regard. I'll have to re-watch it myself.

 

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I guess while we are throwing out forewarnings, I'll go ahead and say this: I think Morishima was the best run of any of the ROH champions, and had the best matches with the most opponents. I will be doing some serious Morishima pimping. 

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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. 

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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.

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I still hold the unpopular opinion that Joe vs. Punk I is the best of their trilogy. The headlock stuff just made so much sense. And unlike II, nobody expected that kind of match.

 

I think their third match is the best match in the trilogy. It plays off of the first two matches very well with a heightened sense of urgency.

 

I've been meaning to go through my Danielson/Nigel comp from ROH, so this will be a good excuse to do that. I have seen most ROH shows between 03 and 05 and a few ones from 06. I don't think there's too much post-Gabe that I am terribly high on wrestling-wise.

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There was a KILLER tag team match (at least memory tells me it was killer) between the Briscoes and the Motor City Machine Guns (Shelley and Sabin) on 4-28-07. It was Colt's "farewell show."  I seem to remember that the Machine Guns were on loan from TNA. I'll be going to back into my ROH stash to add to this listing for sure but at the time I watched the above mentioned tag, it was a contender for ROH match of the year.

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CM Punk vs. Roderick Strong - Escape from New York

 

They had a match about a month earlier, also in New York. When Punk was a babyface. And that match was built around Punk coming with up with a smmart gameplan to avoid Roddy's chops. He would reverse them, he would throw his own, it was just smart wrestling. Flash forward to a month later, CM Punk is the World Champion and a massive heel and in this match he also avoids Roddy's chops.... by running away like a bitch. For over 30 minutes, Punk does his best Ric Flair impression. It's amazing.

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