ROH Beating The Odds
ROH Beating The Odds (9/6/2003)- Wakefield, MA
CM PUNK PROMO- AMAZING!
COLT CABANA PROMO- great
RAVEN PROMO- good
AJ STYLES & JIMMY RAVE BACKSTAGE- good
FIELD OF HONOR BLOCK B MATCH: Jimmy Rave(0-0) vs. Colt Cabana(0-0)- 5.25/10
Barely a minute into this match, we cut to ultra-important footage that they just had to show us of a pre-show incident between the Backseat Boyz and Homicide’s crew. Why couldn’t they just show us this AFTER this match?! The match itself was okay.
AJ STYLES & JIMMY RAVE BACKSTAGE AGAIN- This is how you do a mentorship angle.
COLT CABANA PROMO- good
DIABLO SANTIAGO (w/Oman Tortuga) vs. SLYK WANGER BROWN (w/April Hunter)- 4.75/10
After the match, Oman Tortuga claims that April was checking him out, earning him an ass-kicking from April.
TAG TEAM SCRAMBLE MATCH: Dunn & Marcos vs. the S.A.T. vs. the Backseat Boyz vs. Izzy & Dixie (w/Special K)- 5.5/10
FIELD OF HONOR BLOCK A MATCH: John Walters(0-0) vs. Matt Stryker (0-0)- 6.25/10
Good technical match and a good post-match promo by Walters, too.
HOMICIDE & ROB FEINSTEIN BACKSTAGE- Cide gets Rob to put him in a match with Trent Acid Tonight
THE CARNAGE CREW (Justin Credible, Loc, & Devito) vs. SPECIAL K (Hydro, Deranged, & Angeldust) (w/other members of Special K)- 4/10
Slugger shows up and helps Special K. On commentary, Gabe tells us that this isn’t a DQ because â€"it hasn’t been determined who the legal men in this match are.†Well… that sounds like a pretty damn important thing to do, and something that needs to be done BEFORE THE MATCH STARTS!
After the match the Carnage Crew attack Special with weapons, then take 120 pound Becky, who didn’t do anything wrong at all, and put her through a table. Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen.
GMC INTERVIEWS THE BRISCOES- the Briscoes say they are going to dedicate themselves to tag team wrestling. This just feels odd when we go to the next match… which is Mark wrestling singles. Also during this segment the SAT came up to the Briscoes and yelled at them for injuring Amazing Red (which forced ROH to vacate the ROH Tag Team Titles).
MARK BRISCOE vs. BJ WHITMER- 7.5/10
I guess this match was the justification for naming the show Beating The Odds. Eh.
RELAXED RULES MATCH: Homicide (w/Julius Smokes) vs. Trent Acid (w/Johnny Kashmere)- 7/10
Right after they ring the bell for this match, we are told that Raven wants more interview time so they cut backstage to Raven rather than watch this match. All Raven does is say â€"I am going to kill you†to Punk… which he did in his earlier promo, so this was just an obnoxious was of time.
Gabe also kept talking about how there was so much hate between these two that Cide was willing to give up a chance at the ROH World Title just to have this match with Trent… and I am just totally lost. They have only had one match so far, which was an entirely random Fight Without Honor at Wrestle Rave ’03, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t feuding in some other promotion.
The match itself had a few absolutely sick spots in it that must be seen.
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS PROMO-Good, although I’m not sure why this was filmed in black and white?
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH IN WHICH, IF JOE WINS, WHOEVER HE PINNED CANNOT RECEIVE AN ROH WORLD TITLE SHOT AGAINST HIM, BUT IF SOMEONE ELSE WINS, HE WILL RECEIVE AN ROH WORLD TITLE SHOT AGAINST SAMOA JOE ON 10/16/2003: Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin vs. Jay Briscoe- 7.5/10
Hmm… These stips seems remarkably similar to ROH’s current â€"Defy or Deny†concept match. Great match, although having the Briscoes cut a promo saying they are going to dedicate themselves to tag team wrestling then having Jay earn an ROH World Title shot seems odd.
JUSTIN CREDIBLE GETS JUMPED BY SPECIAL K- During intermission while they were putting up the cage for the main event they had Justin Credible come out and do some Q & A which ended when Special K jumped him.
CLOCKWORK ORANGE HOUSE OF FUN MATCH: Raven vs. CM Punk-7/10
Very disappointing for ROH’s first cage match. Raven pins Punk after Punk eats a Super Raven Effect through a table. Right after the pin, the lights go off, and Gabe practically pisses his pants trying to get over the fact that he has no idea what we could see in the ring when the lights come back on. What we see is that Punk (totally recovered from a match ending finisher through a table) and Colt Cabana have strapped Raven to this ridiculous looking â€"Straight Edge X†in the ring and have put some barbed wire on him (you know… because he used to be in ECW). This whole thing just felt pointlessly over the top. Just attacking Raven afterwards would have been better.
SAMOA JOE PROMO- AWESOME!
This was an okay show from ROH, brought down by some technical problems such as random static on the soundtrack and obnoxious production choices like cutting away at the beginning of the matches to go to something less important. While the show certainly isn’t bad, it is also certainly not even worth a third of the ridiculous amount of money you will have to pony up to buy it (it set this collector back over eighty dollars), so don’t go out of your way for it unless you are a completionist.
CM PUNK PROMO- AMAZING!
COLT CABANA PROMO- great
RAVEN PROMO- good
AJ STYLES & JIMMY RAVE BACKSTAGE- good
FIELD OF HONOR BLOCK B MATCH: Jimmy Rave(0-0) vs. Colt Cabana(0-0)- 5.25/10
Barely a minute into this match, we cut to ultra-important footage that they just had to show us of a pre-show incident between the Backseat Boyz and Homicide’s crew. Why couldn’t they just show us this AFTER this match?! The match itself was okay.
AJ STYLES & JIMMY RAVE BACKSTAGE AGAIN- This is how you do a mentorship angle.
COLT CABANA PROMO- good
DIABLO SANTIAGO (w/Oman Tortuga) vs. SLYK WANGER BROWN (w/April Hunter)- 4.75/10
After the match, Oman Tortuga claims that April was checking him out, earning him an ass-kicking from April.
TAG TEAM SCRAMBLE MATCH: Dunn & Marcos vs. the S.A.T. vs. the Backseat Boyz vs. Izzy & Dixie (w/Special K)- 5.5/10
FIELD OF HONOR BLOCK A MATCH: John Walters(0-0) vs. Matt Stryker (0-0)- 6.25/10
Good technical match and a good post-match promo by Walters, too.
HOMICIDE & ROB FEINSTEIN BACKSTAGE- Cide gets Rob to put him in a match with Trent Acid Tonight
THE CARNAGE CREW (Justin Credible, Loc, & Devito) vs. SPECIAL K (Hydro, Deranged, & Angeldust) (w/other members of Special K)- 4/10
Slugger shows up and helps Special K. On commentary, Gabe tells us that this isn’t a DQ because â€"it hasn’t been determined who the legal men in this match are.†Well… that sounds like a pretty damn important thing to do, and something that needs to be done BEFORE THE MATCH STARTS!
After the match the Carnage Crew attack Special with weapons, then take 120 pound Becky, who didn’t do anything wrong at all, and put her through a table. Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen.
GMC INTERVIEWS THE BRISCOES- the Briscoes say they are going to dedicate themselves to tag team wrestling. This just feels odd when we go to the next match… which is Mark wrestling singles. Also during this segment the SAT came up to the Briscoes and yelled at them for injuring Amazing Red (which forced ROH to vacate the ROH Tag Team Titles).
MARK BRISCOE vs. BJ WHITMER- 7.5/10
I guess this match was the justification for naming the show Beating The Odds. Eh.
RELAXED RULES MATCH: Homicide (w/Julius Smokes) vs. Trent Acid (w/Johnny Kashmere)- 7/10
Right after they ring the bell for this match, we are told that Raven wants more interview time so they cut backstage to Raven rather than watch this match. All Raven does is say â€"I am going to kill you†to Punk… which he did in his earlier promo, so this was just an obnoxious was of time.
Gabe also kept talking about how there was so much hate between these two that Cide was willing to give up a chance at the ROH World Title just to have this match with Trent… and I am just totally lost. They have only had one match so far, which was an entirely random Fight Without Honor at Wrestle Rave ’03, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t feuding in some other promotion.
The match itself had a few absolutely sick spots in it that must be seen.
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS PROMO-Good, although I’m not sure why this was filmed in black and white?
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH IN WHICH, IF JOE WINS, WHOEVER HE PINNED CANNOT RECEIVE AN ROH WORLD TITLE SHOT AGAINST HIM, BUT IF SOMEONE ELSE WINS, HE WILL RECEIVE AN ROH WORLD TITLE SHOT AGAINST SAMOA JOE ON 10/16/2003: Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin vs. Jay Briscoe- 7.5/10
Hmm… These stips seems remarkably similar to ROH’s current â€"Defy or Deny†concept match. Great match, although having the Briscoes cut a promo saying they are going to dedicate themselves to tag team wrestling then having Jay earn an ROH World Title shot seems odd.
JUSTIN CREDIBLE GETS JUMPED BY SPECIAL K- During intermission while they were putting up the cage for the main event they had Justin Credible come out and do some Q & A which ended when Special K jumped him.
CLOCKWORK ORANGE HOUSE OF FUN MATCH: Raven vs. CM Punk-7/10
Very disappointing for ROH’s first cage match. Raven pins Punk after Punk eats a Super Raven Effect through a table. Right after the pin, the lights go off, and Gabe practically pisses his pants trying to get over the fact that he has no idea what we could see in the ring when the lights come back on. What we see is that Punk (totally recovered from a match ending finisher through a table) and Colt Cabana have strapped Raven to this ridiculous looking â€"Straight Edge X†in the ring and have put some barbed wire on him (you know… because he used to be in ECW). This whole thing just felt pointlessly over the top. Just attacking Raven afterwards would have been better.
SAMOA JOE PROMO- AWESOME!
This was an okay show from ROH, brought down by some technical problems such as random static on the soundtrack and obnoxious production choices like cutting away at the beginning of the matches to go to something less important. While the show certainly isn’t bad, it is also certainly not even worth a third of the ridiculous amount of money you will have to pony up to buy it (it set this collector back over eighty dollars), so don’t go out of your way for it unless you are a completionist.