ROH One Year Anniversary Show

ROH One Year Anniversary ShowROH One Year Anniversary Show

By Big Red Machine
From February 08, 2003
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ROH One Year Anniversary Show (2/8/2003)- Queens, NY

HOORAY! IT'S BEEN ONE YEAR STUFF- Okay.

PAUL LONDON PROMO- good.

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL: EZ Money vs. Colt Cabana vs. Chad Collyer vs. Michael Shane- 7/10. Great opener.

AJ STYLES- waste of time, but at least it was less than 30 seconds.

HOTSTUFF HERNANDEZ, DON JUAN, & FAST EDDIE (w/Rudy Boy Gonzalez) vs. THE CARNAGE CREW (Loc, Devito, & Masada)- 2/10. Yeah, the finish was intended to establish character for The Carnage Crew, but this aspect of their characters has already been established, so it was pointless. There was no reason that we couldn't have gotten a full match with The Carnage Crew giving a beatdown afterwards to set up the desired aftermath (which was great! The Christopher Street Connection got a great pop).

JAY BRISOCE vs. MARK BRISCOE- 7.75/10. One thing I didn't like about this match was the storyline going in... or rather, the fact that it was dropped. Apparently Mark had a close friend die recently, and because of that, he realized that family was important and he didn't want to fight Jay anymore, and they apparently dedicated this match to his friend's memory (I say apparently, because we find all of this out via commentary, rather than by a promo or something). I think that doing this was a mistake. The story of this match should have been Jay getting his win back on Mark and earning Mark's respect. Then, at the end of the match, have Mark cut a promo, telling us exactly what Gabe told us on commentary, then have Mark shake Jay's hand only at the end of the match (they shook both at the beginning and the end on this show), signifying him leaving the Prophecy and rejoining the family that he had renounced. Have Mark cut a promo saying that he has realized that family is important and that this was the last time the Brsicoes ever fight each other, and that they are going to be a tag team from now on (again, basically everything that Gabe told us on commentary). This would have given a nice conclusion to the whole "Mark joins the Prophecy" angle and made for a good transition into the Briscoe teaming together. The way they did it, with Gabe just telling us all of this on commentary really left that whole story without a satisfying conclusion.

HOMICIDE PROMO- good.

STEVE CORINO INTRODUCES THE GROUP- the worked-shootiness of this was unnecessary.

HOMICIDE vs. STEVE CORINO (w/The Group)- 5.5/10

THE RIOT- PERFECT segment. They did a great job of not going overboard with this. They made it seem very real. I didn't like them breaking kayfabe on commentary during this, though.

SHOWING THE RIOT 2 MORE TIMES FOR NO REASON- Waste of time.

THE OUTKSAT KILLAHS vs. THE RING CREW EXPRESS- no rating. Good segment.

CW ANDERSON vs. CM PUNK- 6/10

SAMOA JOE vs. BRYAN DANIELSON- 6.75/10

XAVIER PROMO- eh.

TRIPLE THREAT MATCH FOR A SHOT AT THE ROH WORLD TITLE IN TONIGHT'S MAIN EVENT: Low Ki vs. Paul London vs. AJ Styles- 8.5/10. Awesome.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Xavier(c) (w/Allison Danger) vs. Paul London- 8/10. GREAT story here! I hate Xavier SO MUCH! Damn dirty cheating heels! Mickie James is entirely unrecognizable at ringside. The lack of breast implants, combined with all of the yelling she was doing made me keep thinking she was Lacey.


SCRAMBLE MATCH: Da Hit Squad, The S.A.T. & Divine Storm, Trinity, & Mikey Whipwreck vs. Special K- 2.25/10. Crap. THIS is the main event of your One Year Anniversary Show? Really?

Before this match started, on commentary, Gabe said something along the lines of "if you are looking for psychology, rewind the tape and watch some of the other matches, because this is just going to be a ridiculous display of spots." So basically, you have just told me that this match is going to be bad, mindless, and feel phony. Great. Now I am definitely excited to watch it *sarcasm*

Compare that to Doug, who says it is going to me "action packed excitement and high-flying." One puts the match over. One buries it.

Anyway, that rant out of the way, now lets explore why this match sucked. It really wasn't exciting at all, and we didn't get the dives that Gabe claimed we would. Mikey's turn should have been the finish. It also sucked. The most entertaining part about it was Maff selling the Whiper-snapper like Scott Hall sold the Stunner at Wrestlermania 18. The whole thing with Slugger taking Trinity out, then carrying her to the back with Mikey was creepy. This match also had one of the most scripted-looking tower of doom spots ever.

DANIELS PROMO- okay. The end of the promo good, but he rambled for a while before he got there.

PAUL LONDON & AJ STYLES BACKSTAGE- good

CM PUNK PROMO- wow. Awesome. Cabana's interruption was great, too. They have done a great job of getting Cabana's character across, and why Punk might have disliked him. You get a sense of just how annoying Cabana is, and you cringe at how annoying it must be to put with him 24/7.

RAVEN PROMO- very good

Overall, a great show from ROH, if you fast-forward through the main event.

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