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To Gabe’s credit, he did a pretty good job even though you could tell things were a bit off from your standard ROH show. The tournament went on, as did a major storyline development that turned ROH on its ear and set them on a new course for the next several months.
The Undercard
Before the show even got underway, Paul London opens the show by saying that Spanky couldn’t make it to team with him in the tag title tournament, so he got Bryan Danielson to replace him. Then Michael Shane comes out to remind London of all the times he’s beaten him, so now London ditches out on the tournament to challenge Shane to a street fight later in the show. Now Danielson, who wasn’t even supposed to be in the tournament, has to find himself a new partner, and we’ll find out who that is in a bit.
-The Prophecy of Christopher Daniels and Donovan Morgan defeated The SAT in the first round of the tag title tournament
-Dick Togo and Ikuto Hidaka defeated James Maritato & Tony Mamaluke in the first round of the tag title tournament (Maritato and Mamaluke got in an argument after the match about the use of the FBI name, which Mamaluke wanted and Maritato was dead set against. This led to an impromptu match…)
-Tony Mamaluke defeated James Maritato
-Bryan Danielson & Michael Modest defeated Divine Storm in the first round of the tag title tournament
-The last of the first round matches in the tag title tournament never happened, as Da Hit Squad and The Natural Born Sinners were both taken out by the Carnage Crew, who were pissed they weren’t even entered in the tournament, before they even hit the ring. The truth is that Boogalou ditched ROH to take another booking, so this was done to cover for it in storylines. I still think they should have done Hit Squad vs Carnage Crew just to give the fans a little something from these guys, but it’s a little late now.
-The Prophecy defeated Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka to advance to the finals of the tourmament (Danielson and Modest obviously received a bye)
-Dick Togo challenged Christopher Daniels to a singles match the next month, but Daniels said that Togo would have to face off with Doug Williams first, with the winner facing Daniels later in the night.
-Alex Arion defeated Dunn of The Ring Crew Express
-Takao Omori defeated Sonny Siaki
-Jay Briscoe defeated Amazing Red in a rematch of the first official match in ROH history (Elax & Dixie of Special K jumped Red after the match, but Red was saved by The SAT)
The Important Stuff
-Xavier defeated Low Ki to win the ROH World Title
This seemed like a weird match at first because Low Ki had been main eventing ROH since the first show and had been through some real wars leading into his title win. Xavier had a decent record, but wasn’t beating any superstars and had backdoored his way into the match simply by walking up to Ki and asking for a shot. Xavier had been an honorable guy so Low Ki went ahead with the defense, but he would live to regret that decision.
After spending most of the match being squashed by Low Ki without being able to return fire with any kind of effective offense, Xavier finally found help in the form of Christopher Daniels, who came down to ringside to distract Ki and allow Xavier to clip his bad knee from behind. All of a sudden, the honorable act went right out the window and Xavier showed he would do anything to win. He took Low Ki out to the floor where Daniels held a fence post, still embedded in a piece of concrete, on top of Ki’s ribs so Xavier could smash it down into Ki with a chair. Daniels stood there taunting Ki as he spit up blood and crawled back to the ring, where Xavier handily put him away with the 450 splash and become the unlikely second ROH World Champion and newest member of the Prophecy.
-CM Punk made his ROH debut
Punk was only visiting backstage and wasn’t expecting to be out in front of the crowd, but Gabe pretty much chucked him out there to put the company over and talk about how excited he was to be there. He was interrupted by Colt Cabana, and they announced that they would both be coming to an ROH show near you very soon.
-Paul London defeated Michael Shane in a Street Fight
This match, one of the most famous of the early days of ROH, put Paul London on the match and was the origin of the “please don’t die†chants you’ve probably heard in the years since. This was one of those situations where people who were in the middle of the pack in ROH get the chance to show what they’ve got and break through, and these two did just that. Both guys looked okay before this, but they both went so far beyond anything they had previously done, both in terms of storytelling and the abuse they put their bodies through. Shane bled a good one here, and London put the ladder to uses I had never seen before, mainly the famous spot where he puts the ladder up like a ramp in the corner, ran up it, and hit a somersault dive to the floor onto Shane. London kicked out of the Picture Perfect Elbow and came back with a shooting star press off the ladder to finally beat Shane and earn Eternal Legend status in ROH.
-Christopher Daniels & Donovan Morgan defeated Bryan Danielson & Michael Modest to become the first ROH World Tag Team Champions
After a pretty bizarre mish mash of a tournament, this was a pretty anticimlactic end as there was really no doubt as to who was going over after what happened in the ROH World Title match. Modest was not going to be in as a regular, the Danielson/Modest team was thrown together at the last minute, and nobody was surprised when Daniels hit Last Rites and pinned Danielson to go over. Interestingly, Daniels and Morgan didn’t get belts at first, they were given a trophy instead and were very vocal about their displeasure with this.
The Bottom Line
This is a weird show to try and give an assessment of because it obviously wasn’t what they had planned for that night, and even though it was really weak in some spots, others came out stronger than they probably would have otherwise. The way the Prophecy completely took ROH over in one night was obviously huge, and the London-Shane match that was never even supposed to happen became one of the most legendary matches in company history. I definitely think this was a thumbs up show, but expect things to be a little off kilter when you watch it.
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