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Just a quick note: to make these things more palatable (for both you and I) than the average show review, I'm not going to be doing play-by-play for any of these matches. The format is going to be quick results for the undercard stuff that doesn't register high on the importance scale, and then I'll go a little more into storylines and match content for the main matches and segments.
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On February 23rd, 2002, Ring of Honor held their first ever event at the Murphy Rec Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Originally conceived by Rob Feinstein and Gabe Sapolsky as a place for them to sell RF Video tapes after ECW went out of business, ROH would end up far outgrowing RF Video and becoming the biggest independent company in North America.
Several other indy companies had popped up to try and take ECW’s place in the year since they folded, mostly presenting bloody hardcore matches, but ROH decided to go in the other direction and focus on a strong in-ring wrestling product instead. The results speak for themselves: ROH is still alive and well today while all their competitors from 2002, save CZW, have long since gone out of business.
The Undercard
-Xavier defeated Scoot Andrews
-The Boogie Knights defeated the Natural Born Sinners by DQ (The Sinners got themselves disqualified for smacking the Knights around with a rubber chicken, and reacted by attacking referee HC Loc with a spike and leaving him in a bloody heap)
-Quiet Storm & Brian XL defeated The SAT & Amazing Red in an Ultimate Aerial Elimination Match
-Prince Nana defeated “Towel Boy†Eric Tuttle
-Spanky & Ikaika Loa defeated Michael Shane & Oz (Spanky earned an ROH contract by scoring the pinfall in this match)
The Important Stuff
-Da Hit Squad defeated the Christopher Street Connection
The first ever ROH show opened with the Christopher Street Connection, a team whose gimmick was that they were flagrantly, flamboyantly homosexual, coming out to the ring with their valet Allison Danger and announcing that ROH wouldn’t be the Ring of Honor, it would be the Ring of Homosexuals. The CSC proceeded to make out with each other, but Da Hit Squad ran out of the locker room and proceeded to squash the CSC in brutal fashion in an impromptu opener. After Mafia put Mase away with the Burning Hammer, the duo ROH billed as the hardest hitting tag team in professional wrestling put Buff-E and Allison Danger through a table. Monsta Mack grabbed a mic and said that ROH isn’t about stupid gimmicks, it’s about the toughest competition in the world, and they’re going to tell Sports Entertainment to kiss their ass. Great way to establish ROH’s mission statement right off the bat.
-The Amazing Red defeated Jay Briscoe
Even though Da Hit Squad squashed the Christopher Street Connection in an impromptu opener, this was the first “official†match in ROH history, and fittingly enough it featured Jay Briscoe, the guy who would probably become more closely identified with ROH than even guys like Samoa Joe or Bryan Danielson by this point. Briscoe was only 18 years old at the time, and his brother Mark was relegated to sitting in Jay’s corner because he was 17 and too young to legally wrestle in the state of Pennsylvania. Both Jay and Mark would obviously go on to become ROH legends, but Amazing Red would be the one receiving the more immediate push and defeated Jay after dodging a top rope legdrop and hitting a Red Star Press for the win.
-Super Crazy defeated Eddie Guerrero to win the IWA-Puerto Rico Intercontinental Title
Eddie was in the midst of a year-long exile from the WWF after being fired because of his personal demons, and he worked really hard during that time to clean himself up and get his job back. Luckily for ROH, Eddie was still available at the time of their first show, and this match was largely credited with drawing the crowd for that first event. I honestly don’t know thing one about the Puerto Rican wrestling scene and have no idea if this title ever meant anything outside of this one match, but it was the prize for the winner of what was one of the most important matches in ROH history. Super Crazy caught Eddie with a rollup after Eddie missed a frogsplash to claim victory in his lone ROH appearance.
-Low Ki defeated Christopher Daniels and Bryan Danielson
ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky made a point of putting this match on last after Eddie and Super Crazy. He smartly realized that Eddie and Super Crazy wouldn’t be in as regulars and that he needed to take the opportunity to strike while the iron was hot and create his own main event stars while he had a building full of people to see it. ROH put this match, refereed by Ken Shamrock, on the pedestal of a lifetime for years afterward, and with good reason: it was a great match that was very important in helping to establish both ROH and their initial group of main eventers. Low Ki got the win after neutralizing Danielson with a Phoenix Splash and then quickly hitting Daniels with a Ki Krusher for the win. All three men argued over who proved what in this match, and that set up the Round Robin Challenge on ROH’s second show.
The Bottom Line
Thanks to a combination of strong talent and smart booking, ROH did everything right on this first show and established themselves as players who believed in traditional professional wrestling and would work their asses off to deliver the best product they could. Big thumbs up for Ring of Honor’s debut show.
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