ROH Round Robin Challenge Thoughts

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

No, this won't be a full-blown review, since I'm only borrowing the tape for the night. I finally found someone at my school who is big on indies and puro. He happened to have the one hole in the early ROH tapes in my collection: The Round Robin Challenge. With any luck, I'll also get him to loan me my first exposure to puro: a All Japan/New Japan best of 1994 comp tape.

 

As for the tape:

 

The Round Robin Challenge itself was spectacular. Dragon/Daniels is the best opening match I've ever seen on an indy tape. Daniels worked the neck like a king, as usual. Daniels/Ki was really, really good, as well, with both guys working the neck, since they both have finishers that revolve around the neck. However, the best match, just barely over Dragon/Daniels, was Ki/Dragon. It's my 2nd favorite match of 2002 (just behind Punk/Daniels from the TPI). Dragon showed off probably my favorite quality about him: his uncanny ability to make a match look like a legit struggle rather than a series of choreographed moves. They did worked-shoot style stuff on the mat for the first portion of the match, and slowly built to the big, spectacular moves at the end. Ken Shamrock was actually pretty good in his role as referee. He seemed to use more MMA ref tendencies than most wrestling refs use, and it totally worked here. The visual of the entire crowd giving them a standing ovation as Dragon and Ki lay on the mat, exhausted and in pain, after the match was great. The concept was a real success.

 

As for the rest of the stuff, the only match that really caught my eye was Spanky vs. Jay Briscoe. They worked their asses off, and, in Spanky's case, worked his forehead off, as he had a nasty hardway cut on his forehead from slamming the ringpost right before a German suplex from Jay.

 

The rest of the show was blah. But, it should have been. It was booked perfectly to showcase their meal ticket here: the round robin matches. The only thing mildly offensive was the Three-Way Tag Scramble with the Maximos, Divine Storm, and XL/Red. Too many blown spots and a bad flow ruined it for me.

 

So, in other words, get the tape, unless you already have it. In that case, keep it.

 

An update about my reviews: As I stated in the TPI: Night Two review, I'm joining the staff of a mega-super indy review site, headed by Your Role Model, Patrick McGovern (just kissing his ass a little here). It's set right now to open in March. My first new review for the site will be NWA Wildside's Third Anniversary Show, as well as some bonus promos/angles provided for me by Melanie McKee, who's now my exclusive tape provider (you can catch here at http://mmm30504.tripod.com/h3sgirlswrestli...apes/index.html, or at [email protected]) at the end of the tape.

 

Thanks for reading,

Thomas