I had so many options where to start with the archives on RoHwrestling.com. Do I go with the best then the rest? Do I pick titles I'm familiar with and start with those? I actually wanted to watch At Our Best from 2004 because that was the show with the Samoa Joe verses Jay Briscoe Cage Match, which I love. But that wasn’t one of the options on ring of Honors website.
I decided to go a different round and start from the beginning and work my way through Ring of Honors history chronologically. This isn't the first Ring of Honor show but it's the earliest one posted. I think it’s actually the second Ring of Honor show.
Ring of Honor "Round Robin Challenge"
March 30th, 2002
From Murphy Recreational Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Eric Gargiulo and Steve Corino
Christopher Daniels starts off the show mocking Ring of Honor and their rules. Tonight he faces both Low Ki and American Dragon in singles matches to prove he's the best in the world. There's some round robin thing going on tonight between the three but I don't know what's at stake. I know Low Ki won a three-way between the three at an earlier show.
Video package highlighting the recent American Dragon verses Low Ki verses Christopher Daniels three-way match. Great techno music accompanied it! Then some horrible metal music accompanied a video showcasing the rest of Ring of Honor.
The Hit Squad greets all the fans outside waiting to get in. This segment went on WAY too long.
The Code of Honor is explained.
Divine Storm are backstage practising a new hold backstage when American Dragon comes out and shows them how it's done right.
Round-Robin Challenge Match
Christopher Daniels (0-0) vs. American Dragon (0-0)
This was a good, fast-paced, stiff, hard-hitting match.
Winner: Christopher Daniels (1-0)
After the match Christopher Daniels demands respect and tells American Dragon to shake his hand. American Dragon says he has class so he does.
Prince Nana and Eric Tuttle are backstage. Nana makes him shine his boots.
CW Anderson is prepared for his tag team match tonight. He doesn't have a partner or care who his partner is so he grabs some guy who's setting the ring up and tells him to go lace up some boots because now he’s his partner.
Prince Nana, Eric Tuttle and Simply Luscious come out. The crowd is on Nana and he's visibly pissed off. He cuts a promo on the crowd but it's hard to make out. He demands respect thought then gets Eric Tuttle to shine his boots. 'Da Hit Squad come out to start the match.
Prince Nana & Eric Tuttle w/Simply Luscious vs. 'da Hit Squad
I think Prince Nana may have ran backstage and left Eric Tuttle (who was maybe a hundred pound soaking wet) to 'da Hit Squad. This was a squash.
Winners: 'da Hit Squad
Christopher Street Connection come out to ringside (Prince Nana is back too) and 'da Hit Squad go to throw Eric Tuttle on them. But they miss which causes Tuttle to land BAD on the floor. While he's being scrapped off the floor 'da Hit Squad throws Simply Luscious out on to everybody. Nana drags her backstage and Christopher Street Connection carry Tuttle backstage. Once there they attempt CPR on him but Nana will not allow it. So they practiced on each other. FYI, they played flamboyant homosexual characters and they turned it up to eleven. It was funny and terrible at the same time.
Boogie Knights are backstage. Mike Tobin is worried about Boogaloo who's after them but Danny Drake says they'll take care of it. They break into a lockeroom to steal something but they can't find what they're looking for. Then an unseen person is heard wielding a chainsaw and they run off.
Christian York and Joey Matthews are ready for CW Anderson and whoever his partner is.
Christian York & Joey Matthews vs. CW Anderson & Elax
This match wasn't that great but it was at least better than the last one. Elax wasn't good but he was better than expected.
Winners: Christian York & Joey Matthews
Afterwards CW Anderson lays Elax out for costing him the match.
Xavier is ready for his match.
James Maritato (Little Guido) is ready for his match with Xavier.
James Maritato vs. Xavier
This was a good match. Probably the best match I've seen from James Maritato, no matter what name he was going by. And I've probably seen a hundred of his matches. And hey, now I've finally seen an Xavier match! This should have gone much longer though.
Winner: Xavier
Backstage Frank Talent of the PA State Athletic Commission gives everyone a pep talk and goes over the rules. Spanky doesn’t seem to care.
Natural Born Sinners are prepared to kill the Boogie Knights
Boogie Knights vs. Natural Born Sinners
This was a squash.
Winners: Natural Born Sinners
Low Ki is ready for Christopher Daniels.
Round Robin Challenge
Christopher Daniels (1-0) vs. Low Ki (0-0)
This was a good match...but I expected that. I think it should have been way longer though.
Winner: Low Ki (1-0)
Afterwards Christopher Daniels won't shake Low Ki's hand. And he won't wrestle in Ring of Honor again until the title is on the line...a title that doesn't exist yet.
Amazing Red and someone else are playing basketball with Joel and Jose Maximo (S.A.T.) when things get heated.
Chris Marvel w/Masato vs. Paul London w/Rudy Boy Gonzales
This match lasts about two minutes before Chris Marvel breaks his leg and the ref ends it. Quite the disgusting break.
Winner: no contest
Jay Briscoe is backstage and is ready to face Spanky. Mark Briscoe doesn't care if he's ready. He cares if he's gonna win a match for a change.
Jay Briscoe w/Mark Briscoe vs. Spanky
This was a pretty good match. Spanky bled lots the hard way.
Winner: Spanky
Some guys are going over an online poll asking the best wrestler to come from the Texas Wrestling Academy (who had quite a few graduates on this show). American Dragon is winning.
Tag Team Elimination Match
Divine Storm vs. S.A.T. vs. Brian XL & Amazing Red
This was a really good spotfest, high-energy match. The ending was dumb though.
Winner: S.A.T.
Low Ki is ready for American Dragon.
American Dragon and Low Ki come out for their match. Ken Shamrock comes out and asks to referee their match.
Round Robin Challenge
American Dragon (0-1) vs. Low Ki (1-0)
Even though this was mostly submission and mat wrestling I really found myself enjoying it. One match like this a night is fine by me. And these two were just fucking killing each other too, which helped. This was a fucking great match. One of the best matches I've ever seen.
Winner: American Dragon (1-1)
Afterwards American Dragon thanks the crowd, Ken Shamrock and Low Ki.
Recap of the show.
S.A.T. are arguing still backstage arguing with Amazing Red and Brian XL. Rudy Boy Gonzales breaks it up.
American Dragon, Paul London and Simply Luscious are backstage talking when Spanky interrupts and is basically a prick. Rudy Boy Gonzales comes in and says he’s going to try to get the three of them a match at the next Ring of Honor show.
__________________________________________________
This wasn’t too bad a show. I had to remind myself while watching it that not much starts off as incredible as it ends up being. The first Wrestlemania was terrible. The first seasons of the Simpsons and Seinfeld were terrible. The first days of ECW were terrible. A lot of great bands first albums are terrible. This was a decent show that showed me the humble beginnings of a now great promotion. Some of the matches were really, really bad. There were a lot of losers on here that weren’t worth remembering. But a few were really good and one (the main event) was one of the best matches I’ve seen in any promotion. That's worth looking out for on it's own but since both guys had really good matches earlier on in the card a whole other dimension is added to the match. So I was glad I watched this. I’ll never watch it again but now I can say I did.
Final scores in the Round Robin Tournament:
Christopher Daniels: 1-1
American Dragon: 1-1
Low Ki: 1-1
I really knew that was how things were going to turn out when Low Ki won the second match. I don’t know right now where it led if it led anywhere. Since none of these guys were the first Ring of Honor Champion I guess the payoff wasn't that great in the end, unless one of them was in the first title match (which was very likely)
Eric Gargiulo sounded like Josh Matthews.
I decided to go a different round and start from the beginning and work my way through Ring of Honors history chronologically. This isn't the first Ring of Honor show but it's the earliest one posted. I think it’s actually the second Ring of Honor show.
Ring of Honor "Round Robin Challenge"
March 30th, 2002
From Murphy Recreational Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Eric Gargiulo and Steve Corino
Christopher Daniels starts off the show mocking Ring of Honor and their rules. Tonight he faces both Low Ki and American Dragon in singles matches to prove he's the best in the world. There's some round robin thing going on tonight between the three but I don't know what's at stake. I know Low Ki won a three-way between the three at an earlier show.
Video package highlighting the recent American Dragon verses Low Ki verses Christopher Daniels three-way match. Great techno music accompanied it! Then some horrible metal music accompanied a video showcasing the rest of Ring of Honor.
The Hit Squad greets all the fans outside waiting to get in. This segment went on WAY too long.
The Code of Honor is explained.
Divine Storm are backstage practising a new hold backstage when American Dragon comes out and shows them how it's done right.
Round-Robin Challenge Match
Christopher Daniels (0-0) vs. American Dragon (0-0)
This was a good, fast-paced, stiff, hard-hitting match.
Winner: Christopher Daniels (1-0)
After the match Christopher Daniels demands respect and tells American Dragon to shake his hand. American Dragon says he has class so he does.
Prince Nana and Eric Tuttle are backstage. Nana makes him shine his boots.
CW Anderson is prepared for his tag team match tonight. He doesn't have a partner or care who his partner is so he grabs some guy who's setting the ring up and tells him to go lace up some boots because now he’s his partner.
Prince Nana, Eric Tuttle and Simply Luscious come out. The crowd is on Nana and he's visibly pissed off. He cuts a promo on the crowd but it's hard to make out. He demands respect thought then gets Eric Tuttle to shine his boots. 'Da Hit Squad come out to start the match.
Prince Nana & Eric Tuttle w/Simply Luscious vs. 'da Hit Squad
I think Prince Nana may have ran backstage and left Eric Tuttle (who was maybe a hundred pound soaking wet) to 'da Hit Squad. This was a squash.
Winners: 'da Hit Squad
Christopher Street Connection come out to ringside (Prince Nana is back too) and 'da Hit Squad go to throw Eric Tuttle on them. But they miss which causes Tuttle to land BAD on the floor. While he's being scrapped off the floor 'da Hit Squad throws Simply Luscious out on to everybody. Nana drags her backstage and Christopher Street Connection carry Tuttle backstage. Once there they attempt CPR on him but Nana will not allow it. So they practiced on each other. FYI, they played flamboyant homosexual characters and they turned it up to eleven. It was funny and terrible at the same time.
Boogie Knights are backstage. Mike Tobin is worried about Boogaloo who's after them but Danny Drake says they'll take care of it. They break into a lockeroom to steal something but they can't find what they're looking for. Then an unseen person is heard wielding a chainsaw and they run off.
Christian York and Joey Matthews are ready for CW Anderson and whoever his partner is.
Christian York & Joey Matthews vs. CW Anderson & Elax
This match wasn't that great but it was at least better than the last one. Elax wasn't good but he was better than expected.
Winners: Christian York & Joey Matthews
Afterwards CW Anderson lays Elax out for costing him the match.
Xavier is ready for his match.
James Maritato (Little Guido) is ready for his match with Xavier.
James Maritato vs. Xavier
This was a good match. Probably the best match I've seen from James Maritato, no matter what name he was going by. And I've probably seen a hundred of his matches. And hey, now I've finally seen an Xavier match! This should have gone much longer though.
Winner: Xavier
Backstage Frank Talent of the PA State Athletic Commission gives everyone a pep talk and goes over the rules. Spanky doesn’t seem to care.
Natural Born Sinners are prepared to kill the Boogie Knights
Boogie Knights vs. Natural Born Sinners
This was a squash.
Winners: Natural Born Sinners
Low Ki is ready for Christopher Daniels.
Round Robin Challenge
Christopher Daniels (1-0) vs. Low Ki (0-0)
This was a good match...but I expected that. I think it should have been way longer though.
Winner: Low Ki (1-0)
Afterwards Christopher Daniels won't shake Low Ki's hand. And he won't wrestle in Ring of Honor again until the title is on the line...a title that doesn't exist yet.
Amazing Red and someone else are playing basketball with Joel and Jose Maximo (S.A.T.) when things get heated.
Chris Marvel w/Masato vs. Paul London w/Rudy Boy Gonzales
This match lasts about two minutes before Chris Marvel breaks his leg and the ref ends it. Quite the disgusting break.
Winner: no contest
Jay Briscoe is backstage and is ready to face Spanky. Mark Briscoe doesn't care if he's ready. He cares if he's gonna win a match for a change.
Jay Briscoe w/Mark Briscoe vs. Spanky
This was a pretty good match. Spanky bled lots the hard way.
Winner: Spanky
Some guys are going over an online poll asking the best wrestler to come from the Texas Wrestling Academy (who had quite a few graduates on this show). American Dragon is winning.
Tag Team Elimination Match
Divine Storm vs. S.A.T. vs. Brian XL & Amazing Red
This was a really good spotfest, high-energy match. The ending was dumb though.
Winner: S.A.T.
Low Ki is ready for American Dragon.
American Dragon and Low Ki come out for their match. Ken Shamrock comes out and asks to referee their match.
Round Robin Challenge
American Dragon (0-1) vs. Low Ki (1-0)
Even though this was mostly submission and mat wrestling I really found myself enjoying it. One match like this a night is fine by me. And these two were just fucking killing each other too, which helped. This was a fucking great match. One of the best matches I've ever seen.
Winner: American Dragon (1-1)
Afterwards American Dragon thanks the crowd, Ken Shamrock and Low Ki.
Recap of the show.
S.A.T. are arguing still backstage arguing with Amazing Red and Brian XL. Rudy Boy Gonzales breaks it up.
American Dragon, Paul London and Simply Luscious are backstage talking when Spanky interrupts and is basically a prick. Rudy Boy Gonzales comes in and says he’s going to try to get the three of them a match at the next Ring of Honor show.
__________________________________________________
This wasn’t too bad a show. I had to remind myself while watching it that not much starts off as incredible as it ends up being. The first Wrestlemania was terrible. The first seasons of the Simpsons and Seinfeld were terrible. The first days of ECW were terrible. A lot of great bands first albums are terrible. This was a decent show that showed me the humble beginnings of a now great promotion. Some of the matches were really, really bad. There were a lot of losers on here that weren’t worth remembering. But a few were really good and one (the main event) was one of the best matches I’ve seen in any promotion. That's worth looking out for on it's own but since both guys had really good matches earlier on in the card a whole other dimension is added to the match. So I was glad I watched this. I’ll never watch it again but now I can say I did.
Final scores in the Round Robin Tournament:
Christopher Daniels: 1-1
American Dragon: 1-1
Low Ki: 1-1
I really knew that was how things were going to turn out when Low Ki won the second match. I don’t know right now where it led if it led anywhere. Since none of these guys were the first Ring of Honor Champion I guess the payoff wasn't that great in the end, unless one of them was in the first title match (which was very likely)
Eric Gargiulo sounded like Josh Matthews.
Do you like old people porn? Because I just put enough to fill an old folks home in the wrestling section!