ROH Best of American Super Juniors Tournament
ROH Best of American Super Juniors Tournament (4/2/2005)- Asbury Park, NJ
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Bryan Danielson vs. Spanky- 8.5/10
An outstanding technical match with some awesome nearfalls. This match really sucks you in. One of the best openers in ROH history.
The announcers made a big deal about how there was no Code of Honor in the tournament matches and that they have no bearing on your ranking or status in ROH because they are sanctioned by New Japan, rather than by ROH.
PRINCE NANA PROMO- GREAT! Nana gives us a kayfabe explanation for why John Walters is no longer in ROH, which is that Nana made him a government official in Ghana. I LOVE IT! The rest of this promo was great as well, hinting at the heinous act that was to come later on.
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Matt Sydal vs. Dragon Soldier B- 6.25/10
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Alex Shelley vs. Black Tiger- 6/10
Quick but very good.
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: James Gibson vs. Roderick Strong- 7/10
Great match, but nothing compared to their match at Unforgettable.
NO DISQUALIFICATION MATCH: Jimmy Rave & Fast Eddie (w/the Embassy) vs. The Second City Saints (w/Davey Andrews)- 5.75/10
G-d damn Embassy! I hate them all so much!
AFTERMATH- Jimmy Rave uses a cheese grater to try to scrape off the big â€"straight edge†tattoo across Punk’s chest. HOLY SH*T. This was just a genius idea. Just when I thought this feud couldn’t get any more heated.
BJ WHITMER REVEALS HIS TAG TEAM PARTNER FOR TONIGHT- it’s Jimmy Jacobs. Know how good Jimmy is now, I like this, but at the time, I’m sure people were saying â€"really? This guy?†and this lackluster segment probably didn’t give them any more confidence in this choice.
CM PUNK PROMO- F*CKING AWESOME! Punk is pissed, and he lets you know it. This promo was just AMAZING!
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Dragon Soldier B vs. James Gibson (w/Spanky)- no rating. Eh segment.
In the very beginning of the match, we cut away from the match go to the aforementioned CM Punk promo. I really hate when ROH tries to pretend that these DVDs are live. You can pretend that the commentary is live if you want but cutting away from a match (especially a big tournament match) is just plain annoying.
The story of the match itself was the Gibson was so injured from the previous match that the NJPW official didn’t want him to wrestle, but Gibson wanted to wrestle anyway. Spanky also tried to talk Gibson out of it, but he wrestled the match anyway. Dragon Soldier pretty much destroyed Gibson in about five minutes, winning when Spanky threw in the towel with Gibson locked in a Gory Special.
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Bryan Danielson vs. Black Tiger- 6.75/10
TAG TEAM SCRAMBLE MATCH: Jack Evans & Roderick Strong vs. Dunny & Marcos vs. Azrieal & Dixie vs. Lacey’s Angels (w/Lacey, Cheech, & Cloudy)- 4.75/10
standard spotty tag team scramble.
MATCH FOR THE VACANT ROH TAG TEAM TITLES: BJ Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal- 6.25/10
Never really got going the way it should have.
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT FINALS: Dragon Soldier B vs. Black Tiger- DUD!
At the beginning of the DVD Gabe had told us that they started the show 45 minutes late due to wrestler being late because of very heavy thunderstorms… and they still decided to waste time putting down a New Japan canvas just for this match?
Anyway, this match wasn’t good at all. Black Tiger spent 90% of the match on offense, then tap quickly right when Dragon Soldier B locks in a cross armbreaker. A horrible finals to one of the most disappointing tournaments I have ever seen, complete with â€"don’t come back!†chants for Dragon Soldier B (Kendo Kashin, wrestling under a mask for some reason).
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Austin Aries(c) vs. Homicide (w/Julius Smokes)- 8.25/10
They left the New Japan canvas down for this match because Aries had been going all over North America to defend the title… or more likely, it would have taken too much time to switch canvasses again (Gabe said it was 12:15 when this match started), so we got a big ROH World Title match on the New Japan canvas. The bright blue and yellow of the New Japan canvas were painfully bright in the ROH lighting whenever they used the mobile cam.
That aside, this match was awesome. I marked out huge when Aries hit Cide with a Burning Hammer… then marked out even more when Cide kicked out at one! After that you could really feel the match just hit another level (Cide’s body language did a great job of getting this across).
At one point Aries had the match won, but Smokes pulled him out of the ring, then punched him in the face right in front of the referee, yet there was no DQ. This was done to set up Danielson coming out to chase Smokes away, but they could have set this up equally well without the punch in the face that should have caused an immediate DQ.
They recovered quickly after this blemish, though, as they went into an awesome serious of finishers, counters to finishers, and false finishes. The finish (three consecutive brainbusters followed by a 450) really got over how hard Aries had to work to put Cide away, and Cide flipping Aries off in response to an offered handshake after the match really got me pissed at Cide. Why can’t he just accept the complement?!
Despite having two awesome matches, this show was very disappointing. It really felt like mediocre wrestling bookended by two awesome matches. The major stumbling block of this show is the tournament. Any time you have a one-show tournament, the tournament has to deliver or the show will be a disappointment. Here we got a good first round followed by two extremely disappointing rounds. We had a fly-in from Japan win the â€"Best of AMERICAN Super Juniors Tournament,†and perhaps even worse… none of the ROH guys felt like they were heavily featured at all. Only Danielson wrestled two real matches, and it really felt like they were just doing this tournament to get the New Japan name on here, rather than to make the ROH guys look like important international stars. To cap the whole thing off, we were told that the winner of the tournament would get a spot in New Japan’s prestigious annual Best of Super Juniors Tournament the next month. This didn’t happen. Get the opener and the main event if you can find them on a compilation of some sort (I’m sure they are on the most recent compilations for Aries, Cide or Dainelson that ROH has released, and I know for a fact that Danielson vs. Spanky as well as the Gibson vs. Strong match on the old Stars of Honor compilation), but the show as a whole is really only watchable for those and the Punk promo.
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Bryan Danielson vs. Spanky- 8.5/10
An outstanding technical match with some awesome nearfalls. This match really sucks you in. One of the best openers in ROH history.
The announcers made a big deal about how there was no Code of Honor in the tournament matches and that they have no bearing on your ranking or status in ROH because they are sanctioned by New Japan, rather than by ROH.
PRINCE NANA PROMO- GREAT! Nana gives us a kayfabe explanation for why John Walters is no longer in ROH, which is that Nana made him a government official in Ghana. I LOVE IT! The rest of this promo was great as well, hinting at the heinous act that was to come later on.
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Matt Sydal vs. Dragon Soldier B- 6.25/10
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Alex Shelley vs. Black Tiger- 6/10
Quick but very good.
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: James Gibson vs. Roderick Strong- 7/10
Great match, but nothing compared to their match at Unforgettable.
NO DISQUALIFICATION MATCH: Jimmy Rave & Fast Eddie (w/the Embassy) vs. The Second City Saints (w/Davey Andrews)- 5.75/10
G-d damn Embassy! I hate them all so much!
AFTERMATH- Jimmy Rave uses a cheese grater to try to scrape off the big â€"straight edge†tattoo across Punk’s chest. HOLY SH*T. This was just a genius idea. Just when I thought this feud couldn’t get any more heated.
BJ WHITMER REVEALS HIS TAG TEAM PARTNER FOR TONIGHT- it’s Jimmy Jacobs. Know how good Jimmy is now, I like this, but at the time, I’m sure people were saying â€"really? This guy?†and this lackluster segment probably didn’t give them any more confidence in this choice.
CM PUNK PROMO- F*CKING AWESOME! Punk is pissed, and he lets you know it. This promo was just AMAZING!
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Dragon Soldier B vs. James Gibson (w/Spanky)- no rating. Eh segment.
In the very beginning of the match, we cut away from the match go to the aforementioned CM Punk promo. I really hate when ROH tries to pretend that these DVDs are live. You can pretend that the commentary is live if you want but cutting away from a match (especially a big tournament match) is just plain annoying.
The story of the match itself was the Gibson was so injured from the previous match that the NJPW official didn’t want him to wrestle, but Gibson wanted to wrestle anyway. Spanky also tried to talk Gibson out of it, but he wrestled the match anyway. Dragon Soldier pretty much destroyed Gibson in about five minutes, winning when Spanky threw in the towel with Gibson locked in a Gory Special.
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Bryan Danielson vs. Black Tiger- 6.75/10
TAG TEAM SCRAMBLE MATCH: Jack Evans & Roderick Strong vs. Dunny & Marcos vs. Azrieal & Dixie vs. Lacey’s Angels (w/Lacey, Cheech, & Cloudy)- 4.75/10
standard spotty tag team scramble.
MATCH FOR THE VACANT ROH TAG TEAM TITLES: BJ Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal- 6.25/10
Never really got going the way it should have.
BEST OF AMERICAN SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT FINALS: Dragon Soldier B vs. Black Tiger- DUD!
At the beginning of the DVD Gabe had told us that they started the show 45 minutes late due to wrestler being late because of very heavy thunderstorms… and they still decided to waste time putting down a New Japan canvas just for this match?
Anyway, this match wasn’t good at all. Black Tiger spent 90% of the match on offense, then tap quickly right when Dragon Soldier B locks in a cross armbreaker. A horrible finals to one of the most disappointing tournaments I have ever seen, complete with â€"don’t come back!†chants for Dragon Soldier B (Kendo Kashin, wrestling under a mask for some reason).
ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Austin Aries(c) vs. Homicide (w/Julius Smokes)- 8.25/10
They left the New Japan canvas down for this match because Aries had been going all over North America to defend the title… or more likely, it would have taken too much time to switch canvasses again (Gabe said it was 12:15 when this match started), so we got a big ROH World Title match on the New Japan canvas. The bright blue and yellow of the New Japan canvas were painfully bright in the ROH lighting whenever they used the mobile cam.
That aside, this match was awesome. I marked out huge when Aries hit Cide with a Burning Hammer… then marked out even more when Cide kicked out at one! After that you could really feel the match just hit another level (Cide’s body language did a great job of getting this across).
At one point Aries had the match won, but Smokes pulled him out of the ring, then punched him in the face right in front of the referee, yet there was no DQ. This was done to set up Danielson coming out to chase Smokes away, but they could have set this up equally well without the punch in the face that should have caused an immediate DQ.
They recovered quickly after this blemish, though, as they went into an awesome serious of finishers, counters to finishers, and false finishes. The finish (three consecutive brainbusters followed by a 450) really got over how hard Aries had to work to put Cide away, and Cide flipping Aries off in response to an offered handshake after the match really got me pissed at Cide. Why can’t he just accept the complement?!
Despite having two awesome matches, this show was very disappointing. It really felt like mediocre wrestling bookended by two awesome matches. The major stumbling block of this show is the tournament. Any time you have a one-show tournament, the tournament has to deliver or the show will be a disappointment. Here we got a good first round followed by two extremely disappointing rounds. We had a fly-in from Japan win the â€"Best of AMERICAN Super Juniors Tournament,†and perhaps even worse… none of the ROH guys felt like they were heavily featured at all. Only Danielson wrestled two real matches, and it really felt like they were just doing this tournament to get the New Japan name on here, rather than to make the ROH guys look like important international stars. To cap the whole thing off, we were told that the winner of the tournament would get a spot in New Japan’s prestigious annual Best of Super Juniors Tournament the next month. This didn’t happen. Get the opener and the main event if you can find them on a compilation of some sort (I’m sure they are on the most recent compilations for Aries, Cide or Dainelson that ROH has released, and I know for a fact that Danielson vs. Spanky as well as the Gibson vs. Strong match on the old Stars of Honor compilation), but the show as a whole is really only watchable for those and the Punk promo.