by Mike Rome     
Exclusive to OnlineOnslaught.com

Ring Of Honor:  All Star Extravaganza (11/9/02)

Ring of Honor has a special code that governs their matches, and for those that don't know it, here it is...

Code Of Honor:

• Competitors must shake hands before and after their match.
• No interfering in matches or having others interfere on your behalf.
• No harming a referee or causing others to harm an official.
• No sneak attacks.
• If you are disqualified in your match, you have broken The Code Of Honor.  

When there is a blood feud, the code of honor is waived.

--Low Ki and Corino have a little talk backstage, but Homicide takes issue with Corino being in RoH, citing the fact that Corino cost him a match months ago.  He also has proof that he's tougher than Corino:  His finisher is banned in Japan.  Good enough for me.

Scramble Match: Special K vs. Divine Storm vs. Spanish Announce Team vs. Da Hit Dquad:  For those unfamiliar with RoH, a scramble match is a match where you can enter the ring if your partner goes out, you don't need to tag necessarily.  This is done to create a fast pace.  Some people love these matches for the cool moves, but I'm not necessarily a huge fan of these.  They all shake hands, and here we go.  Joel Maximo and and Quiet Storm start it.  Storm gets a sweet armdrag, but Joel comes back with a nice hurricanrana and  a couple kicks to the head.  Armdrag series follows, and Jose and Joey Matthews get tagged in.  He gives Jose a nice clothesline, and Chris Divine gives Monsta Mack a rana before getting leveled with a clothesline. Mafia kicks Dixie's ass around the ring, but Dixie knocks Mafia down with a roaring elbow.  We get a HUGE corner spot, with a huge superplex/powerbomb combo ends up powerbombing 6 guys and involving all 8.  Well, that was cool.  Up in the corner, Monsta Mack KILLS Joel with a super Greetings From Asbury Park.  Back in the ring, Chris Divine hits an impressive german suplex on Mack.  Somehow, Joel is back, which is why I really hate scramble matches.  He should be in an ambulance, not back up.  Matthews gets suplexed right on his head, but it only gets 2.  In the ring, Dixie counters a press slam into a DDT for 2.  The SAT take turns giving Quiet Storm German Suplexes, but Joey is in to cut it off.  Da Hit Squad meanwhile, freaking Kills Dixie in the corner with running charges.  Divine Storm gets a double flatliner on Mafia for 2.  The SAT then gives Dixie the Spanish Fly off the top, and that wins it. *** for the spots, I guess.  This was probably my favorite scramble match.  It's impossible to describe the insane series of moves in these matches, and if you're into just nonstop awesome moves, you'll love this. 

--Christopher Daniels cuts a promo about how the Prophecy is dominating RoH.  He pimps his members (Donovan Morgan, Luscious, Xavier (Current World Champ).  They argue with each other a little bit, but get over it and Xavier cuts a promo saying Jay Briscoe, who's facing him tonight, has no chance.  Anyways, the story here is Daniels and his crew ignore the code of honor, but Joe finds that offensive and won't do it.  Simple, yet effective.

Michael Shane vs. CM Punk:  This is Punk's RoH debut, and he would go on to make a huge star of himself.  This is the first in a series of gauntlet matches in order to win a shot against Styles later, to determine the #1 contendership.  Shane walks over Punk's arm to start, and the crowd is definitely on Punk's side.  Shane is HBK's cousin, if you didn't know, but he ain't no HBK.  He doesn't suck or anything, he's just a pretty average wrestler.  They do pretty basic stuff, like knucklelocks and armbars, but it gets over pretty well with the crowd.  CM Punk gets some armdrags and an armbar of his own.  Back up, Punk slams Shane's arm into the apron a few times, and slams on another armbar.  The crowd hates Michael Shane, but Punk is working the heel, so it makes for odd crowd heat.  The main body of the match is Punk working over Shane's arm, and Shane is a pretty good seller, so it works.  Shane locks in a chinlock, which just earns him more heat with the crowd.  They seemingly switch midway, adapting to the crowd, as Shane becomes the heel.  Shane s...l...o...w...l..y works over Punk with elbowdrops, legdrops, and basic slams.  Very 80s style match.  Shane locks in a front headlock, and there are too many restholds in this match.  Punk works his way out of a chinlock, but gets nailed with a spear.  To my delight, Shane sells the arm off of the spear.  Punk takes over again because Shane stupidly uses moves that use the arm, hurting himself.  Punk tries to hit a running clothesline, but Shane gets a wicked bycicle kick for 2.  Punk comes back with a rolling cross armbreaker, but Shane gets in the ropes.  Punk tries a split-legged moonsault, but Shane gets the knees up, and this is developing into a nice little match.  Punk tries a moonsault Style move, but Shane hits him with the superkick on the way down....for 2.  Shane goes up top for the picture perfect elbow, but he misses!  Punk hits the Shining Wizard!...for 2.  Rollup sequence leads to a win for Shane when he uses the ropes for the win!  Shane celebrates afterwards, and the crowd ain't happy. **1/2  The match was real good in the second half until the very end when Shane forgot about his injury.  The first half was pretty boring, though.  The guantlet does not stop though, so here comes Paul London!

Paul London vs. Michael Shane:  These men had a great street fight at Unscripted, that some people called the MoTY.  I disagree, but it was still great.  At this point, London had not shown his greatness yet, but he would, soon enough.  On the outside, London brings the hate with a vicious kick to the head.  Shane sends London THROUGH the guardrail, bending a chair or 2 in the process.  Shane gives London a hard suplex on the gym floor.  Shane gets a rollup for 2.  Shane hits a powerbomb for 2, and turns it over into a lazy liontamer.  Back up, Shane gets a lariat.  Off the ropes, London misses a chop and Shane gets a floating DDT for 2.  Building on a spot from Honor Invades Boston, London fakes an injury, and then nails Shane with his legsweep/ddt combo. *3/4  Some nice spots, but too short to develop into anything.  See their match at Unscripted if you want to see their best match.  Shane refuses to shake London's hand, and says he never gets cheap wins.  He walks to the back, but TOMMY DREAMER of all people shows up from behind him, and forces him back into the ring.  Dreamer gives a nice speech about ECW and how RoH is something special too.  I won't transcribe it, if you get the tape I think you'll genuinely enjoy it.  He tries to force Shane to shake London's hand, but Shane attacks London, leading to Dreamer giving him a DDT.  Dreamer has them play his ECW music, and for a nostalgia moment, this was pretty cool. 

Paul London vs. Amazing Red:  This is the next in the gauntlet series.  Normally, these guys could have a wicked match, but they keep it short for obvious reasons.  Really fast opening sequence starts it, and Red gets the 718 (619....but to the stomach).  London catches Red's moonsault to the outside, but Red DDTs him right onto the floor.  Youch.  London catches Red's baseball slide, and just swings him right into the railing, making a dent.  London gets 2 off a hanging neckbreaker.  Red makes a comeback with some KILLER kicks to the head, and he gets the Red Star Press (Standing SSP) for 2.999.  Wow, that was close.  Red crotches London up top, and Red hits a real super hurricanrana for a close 2.  Man, that was an awesome rana.  London catches a running Red with the Rydeen bomb, and he hits his AWESOME Shooting Star Press for the win. **  Man, his is *so* much better than Kidman's.  This was as good as a 6 minute match can be, but nothing more.

American Dragon vs. Paul London:  This would be the first of their matches.  Their match from Epic Encounter 2003 was touted as the clear match of the year, and having recently checked it out, I completely agree with the sentiment.  In fact, I'd go as far as to say it was the best match on North American soil since Hart-Austin at WMXIII.  I'll review it eventually.  This match, however, is just an appetizer portion of the real thing.  They had a match at the Night Of The Butcher as well, and there are some that think that match was RoH's best singles match of 2002.  Hey, to each their own, I haven't seen that one, but I plan on it.  American Dragon, on the other hand, is arguably the best worker on the Indy U.S. scene, and his matches bring a smile to my face.  Really great wrestling sequence that I can't describe starts it off.  Dragon is so great because he makes matches seem like a legit struggle, not a dance.  Cool bridging sequence follows, and Dragon counters out of a headscissors in awesome fashion.  God, Dragon rocks.  Dragon rolls around in a grounded headlock, preventing London from possibly countering.  It backfires though when London ends up in the ropes.  Dragon covers a blown kip-up by London by catching him halfway up with the butterfly suplex.  On the outside, Dragon *kills* London with european uppercuts.  London seels them like gunshots.  Back in, a stiff dropkick gets 2 for Dragon.  They trade incredibly stiff strikes, and of course Dragon wins.  The story of this match is that the young London keeps stupidly playing into Dragon's strengths.  They trade insanely stiff forearms, and London gets a twisting DDT.  London hits a beautiful flipping dropkick and a back body drop, followed by a moonsault for 2.  Dragon comes back with a lariat, and sets London up for the top rope back suplex, but London flips out of it and hits a second rope russian legsweep for 2.  London goes for the SSP, but Dragon cuts him off.  From the top, Dragon hits a perfect superplex...for 2.  London counters the dragon suplex with a rollup for 2.  Dragon hits a release dragon suplex and just kills London with it, before locking on the Cattle Mutilation for the win. ***1/2  This match just kicked ass, it was very similar to Benoit-Snow, if you've seen that.  It was a glorified shitkicking, but it was still awesome.  Their match at Epic Encounter, however, was worlds better.

Tag Titles:  Low Ki/Homicide/Doug Williams vs. (C)The Prophecy (Daniels, Morgan, Samoa Joe):  The story here is that the Prophecy wants to bring down the code of honor, so Low Ki has assembled an RoH dream team to take down the prophecy.  Pier 6 starts it, and Daniels barely ducks away from a Low Ki homerun kick as the Prophecy bails.  Ki and Joe start it, and the crowd is hot...but Daniels tags himself in.  Then Daniels tags out to Morgan, without locking up.  Anyways, Morgan and Ki lock up, and Morgan starts off with a single leg takedown.  Ki counters with a cross armbreaker, but Morgan counters into an STF of sorts.  Ki counters this with a hammerlock, and a takedown.  Ki counters a waistlock, and Low Ki tries a crucifix, which Morgan blocks, so Ki turns it into a UFC submission that I can't name.  That whole sequence ruled.  Doug Williams and Samoa Joe are in, and Joe is a huge guy that can *really* move on his feet.  Counter leglock and kick sequence leads to a standoff.    Daniels is in, but Doug Williams tags in Homicide, Low Ki's trainer.  Homicide gets a headlock, they go into an armdrag series, blow a tilt-a-whirl, and Homicide gets a DDT!  Homicide hit an exploder suplex, and a big Yakuza kick to Daniels.  Ki comes in, and Ki is clearly the most over guy with the crowd.  Low Ki locks in a leg choke, but Joe breaks it up.  Homicide back in, and he puts Daniels in the Rings Of Saturn.  Williams comes in, and works Daniels over with European uppercuts.  Williams hits a beautiful superplex and a springing kneedrop for 2.  Homicide back in, and he gets a suplex for 2.  Daniels tries a hiptoss, but Homicide counters with a lariat.  In the corner, Ki and Homicide hit a killer double kick to the face.  Low Ki gets a bridging suplex for 2, and the announcers say that the Japanese media has dubbed Low Ki the next Dynamite Kid.  More from me later.  Williams puts Daniels in a gory special, and uses Daniels' leg to kick his teammates.  Joe says "enough", and kicks williams in the face.  Joe takes control, and if you want to picture him, picture Rikishi, -75 pounds and a lot better in the ring.  Morgan comes in, and gets a rolling rana rollup for 2.  Daniels is back in, and they double team Williams.  About Ki, his matches are real fun to watch, but he ain't no Dynamite Kid...he almost never sells anything, and he hurts a lot of the guys he works with.  That being said, I still pay to see a lot of his matches.  Morgan throws Williams into a chair on the outside, and Daniels takes over on the inside with a gut-wrench suplex.  Morgan locks in a....hmm.  I think I'll call it a full nelson with his legs.  Williams reverses it into a rocking horse, but Joe breaks it up.  Joe tags in, and hits a nice hanging vertical suplex for 2.  Williams gets a rollup, but the ref is distracted.  Daniels hits a standing enziguri and a double jump moonsault, but it only gets 2.  Williams makes the hot tag to Homicide who cleans house, and hits a second rope Ace Crusher for 2 on Daniels.  Pier 6 follows, and Williams hits a plancha off the top rope onto Morgan on the outside!  Daniels hits a beautiful moonsault onto Williams on the outside!  Homicide follows with his awesome through the ropes flipping dive, but the Prophecy catches him...only for Low Ki to follow with a top rope dive knocking them all down.  Samoa Joe doesn't want to be outdone, so he hits a Crazy Fatman Plancha!~ on all of them.  That was just ill for a guy his size.  Back in, Joe hits a dragon suplex on Williams for 2.  He goes for the Island Driver, but Williams counters it, only to get dumped on his head by Morgan for 2.  Morgan ducks a Homicide lariat, and hits the Golden Gate Spin (Twisting Fisherman's Buster)...1....2...it gets broken up!  Homicide locks in his STF, but Daniels breaks it up.  Homicide gets a top rope rana, but Daniels rolls through for a 2 count.  Low Ki and Daniels are alone in the ring, they counter each others finishers, and Ki gets some sweet chops.  Daniels ducks the Tidal Crush (Handspring kick to the head), and hits a freaking sweet powerbomb with his legs that I can't really describe.  This gets 2.5.  In the ring, a flurry of reversals follow, and Ki locks the Dragon Clutch on Morgan, but Daniels breaks it up!  Daniels and Morgan hit a neckbreaker/powerbomb combo, but Williams breaks it up.  Williams hits the Chaos Theory on Daniels..1...2...broken up by Morgan!  Morgan hits the Golden Gate Spin, but Homicide breaks it up.  Homicide gives Morgan a brainbuster for 2.  Joe comes in, and kicks the crap out of Homicide.  Homicide tries the cop-killer, but Joe counters into a powerbomb and an STF!  Joe locks in his choke, and Homicide's partners are unable to help, leading to him getting choked out.  This was freaking great, the whole match just totally rocked. ****  Afterwards, Joe shakes hands with his opponents, but Daniels and Morgan won't. 

Allison Danger vs. Alexis Laree:  I don't care, and neither do you.  Alexis wins it in a short crappy match that makes me really appreciate Trish.  This was just an excuse to show thong shots of Allison.  Alexis wins it with a reverse DDT, for those that care. DUD

Carnage Crew vs. Ring Crew Express:  Carnage Crew just totally kicks the shit out of the Ring Crew with weapons, as I guess this is a Bunkhouse match.  This isn't really worth covering, as it's just an exhibition of the Carnage Crew's offense.  They finish it with a second rope Spike Piledriver on Marcos, which looked pretty painful.  DUD  At least this was real short.

Gary Michael Capetta is in the ring, and he introduces J.T. Smith, a name I haven't heard in a long time.  Special K interrupts and taunts him, and eventually they beat him up.  Some big black guy comes out, and helps J.T. fend off Special K.  Whatever.  This was intermission, I guess.

RoH World Title:  (C)Xavier vs. Jay Briscoe:  The backstory here is that Jay Briscoe beat Xavier in a nontitle 4-way, leading to this match here.  The crowd *hates* Xavier, not because he's a good heel, but because they think he sucks in the ring and doesn't deserve the title.  Jay is something like 18 years old.  He and his brother Marc have a big future in the wrestling business, and as a tag team they're pretty awesome.  Nobody in the crowd actually expects Jay to win, which kind of takes away from the whole thing.  Xavier gets a wristlock, and a standoff ensues.  Xavier locks in an STF, but Jay counters into a leglock.  Lots of pretty good mat-wrestling follows, and the crowd appreciates it.  Crowd chants "A.C. Slater" at Xavier, which cracks me up, as the resemblance is pretty obvious.  Jay gets some chops, and tries the Jay Driller (Sitout Tiger Driver 91), but Xavier bails.  Briscoe gets a nice series of takeovers, and hits a sweet dropkick.  Jay clotheslines him to the floor, and goes over with him.  Jay tries to suplex him in, but Xavier suplexes Jay to the floor.  Xavier taunts the crowd, but Jay comes back with a seated front suplex for 2, and the crowd is losing patience it seems.  Xavier hits a real nice belly to belly suplex.  Simply Luscious interferes again, and Xavier hits a double jump moonsault onto Briscoe on the outside, which was really awesome.  Xavier kicks a chair into Jay's face, and Jay bleeds.  In the ring, Jay is bleeding badly, and Xavier locks in a Kata Hajime.  Briscoe fights his way out, but gets a knee to the gut.  Xavier misses an elbow drop, and Jay tries a Jay Driller which gets countered into a spinebuster for 2.  Xavier counters a sunset flip bomb, but Jay gets a big superplex.  Briscoe gets a German suplex, but the crowd doesn't buy it.  Jay hits a DVD, and goes up top, and hits a guillotine legdrop for a close 2.  Xavier counters the Jay driller with a kick to the head, and a harsh cobra cutch suplex.  Jay crotches Jay, who was going for a moonsault.  Xavier hits the X-breaker (neckbreaker from the top) for the win. ***1/4  This was a lot better than I had heard it was.  Xavier isn't as bad as some people say.  They kept the crowd interested in a match where the outcome was incredibly obvious.

American Dragon vs. AJ Styles:  Crowd is hot from the start.  They start out with such an awesome counter sequence, I can't even describe it.  You thought the Benoit-Angle sequences were cool?  Styles takes Dragon down, and they roll into the ropes.  Wristlock time, they fight for advantage, and have to break it up in the corner.  Waistlock from dragon, he moves into a headlock.  He follows with a shoulderbreaker and a front-face chancery.  Styles rubs his elbow into Dragon's face, and the struggle aspect of this is so great.  Daniels rolls through a pin attempt into another chancery.  AJ gets a pin combo for 2, and a chancery of his own.  AJ gets a dropkick, hitting his while Dragon was going for one of his own.  Styles gets some forearms, but Dragon drop toeholds him all the way to the outside.  Dragon slides out of the ring, and BLASTS Styles with a European uppercut.  He whips Styles into the rail, but Styles jumps it and superkicks a charging Dragon.  See, once in a while AJ's flashy spots can add to a match.  We move back in, but Dragon is in the ropes.  AJ gets a backbreaker/gutbuster combo, and lays into Dragon with some rights.  He gets a 2 count.  We have a test of strength, which leads to a couple of monkey flips.  Dragon moves out of it, and uses the position to kill AJ's arm with his legs.  I can't really describe what he did.  Dragon uses his boot to crush AJ's arm, and locks in a unique stretch.  AJ tries to break it with his legs, but Dragon will have none of that.  Back up, they exchange chops, and Dragon gets an overhead suplex for 2.  Dragon gets some badass looking headbutts into AJ's arm, and some more awesome European uppercuts. Styles comes back with forearms, but Dragon quickly recovers.  AJ floats out of an armwringer with a front chancery.  AJ gets a harsh elbow on Dragon, tries the Backflip DDT, but Dragon turns it into a northern lights suplex for 2.  They exchange stiff shots, and Dragon wins this war handily. However, Dragon has been busted open hardway.  AJ counters a suplex, and hits a brainbuster!  AJ locks a Mutalock on Dragon, and then turns him over, stretching him out more.  They trade off pulling each other's necks over their shoulders, and they keep doing it to the point that the ref has to break it up because it's a stalemate.  That was awesome.  AJ does a suplex/neckbreaker combo for 2.  Dragon fights back, and hits AJ with a bridging German for 2 and a quick DDT.  Dragon goes up top...and hits the diving headbutt for 2.  Ducking sequence leads to AJ getting an awesome spinkick, taking Dragon down hard.  AJ gets the Styles Special #1 (German Suplex rolling into a faceplant) for 2.  AJ goes up for the spiral tap, but Dragon crotches him....and hits a HUGE backdrop suplex off the top, and AJ does a complete flip!...1...2...NO!  AJ got his foot on the ropes.  They trade stiff shots, both men miss discuss punches, and then both men hit discuss punches at the same time!  They trade killer shots to the face on their knees, and Dragon chops the hell out of Styles.  He just goes nuts on Styles with uppercuts and chops in the corner, but AJ comes out of the corner with the backflip DDT for 2.  That was awesome, he knew Dragon could counter from the other angle, so he did it from the corner.  Styles hits the STYLES CLASH! ...1...2...No!! 2.99!  That was a great nearfall.  AJ is in disbelief, and covers again for 2.  Dragon goes behind a German suplex attempt, and DUMPS HIM ONHIS HEAD WITH A DRAGON SUPLEX!!...1...2..2.99!!  Dragon locks in the Cattle Mutilation!~, and tries a pinning combination with it which gets a very long 2.  Dragon goes up top, but AJ catches him.   He crotches Dragon, and tries to pull him out in the Styles Clash, but Dragon desperately hangs onto the ropes!  Styles rams his head into the corner a bunch of times, and powerbombs him twice before he can get off the Styles Clash, but he does eventually, and this time, it gets the win. ****1/2  This really rocked, and I think it was the best RoH match of 2002.  Dragon grabs the # 1 contender's trophy, and hands it to Styles.

--The prophecy jumps American Dragon in the back, and then they beat down AJ in the ring.

Low Ki/Steve Corino vs. Masato Tanaka/Shinjiro Ohtani:  The atmosphere is electric to this, and I can't blame the crowd for being pumped.  Lockup and matwork between Ki and Tanaka starts it, and the crowd is freaking hot for good reason.  Honestly, for those of you that have only seen his brutal matches with Mike Awesome, you are missing a whole different side of him.  Ki misses a forearm, and gets hit with a variation of sitout powerbomb.  Yow, that was harsh.  Tanaka makes Ki look like a little child until Ki gets annoyed and drops him on his head with a back suplex.  The announcers say that the Japanese press has dubbed Low Ki "the next dynamite kid", to which I have no response, other than, "Remember when messageboard were flooded with threads about Jeff Hardy being the next HBK?"  I mean Ki is good, but he definitely has his flaws.  Ohtani takes his turn beating on Ki and gives him some real harsh tree of woe dropkicks.  This crowd is so pleased to see Ohtani, hell I'm pleased for them.  You know these guys are all big big puro fans, and the chance to see Ohtani is something I wouldn't want to miss either.  Can I squeeze in one nerd joke? No?  Corino comes in, and whenever he comes in the whole match goes down in quality because Corino's a worthless load outside of brawls.  Oh man, they KILL Corino with a Camel Clutch/Dropkick to the face combo.  Tanaka does 10 punches, while the crowd wishes they knew how to count in Japanese, which would have been sweet.  Ki gets a vicious running highkick, and locks in a triangle hold of sorts on Tanaka.  Crowd loves Ki and all, he's their boy, but they're really behind the Japanese.  Ohtani gets in and puts the Zero-1 crew back in control.  Ohtani gets some harsh chops, but Low Ki says "you don't chop me in my house" and chops the shit out of Ohtani in return.  Corino comes back in, and gets a running elbow for 2.  Ohtani bites Corino to counter, and the crowd goes nuts in anticipation of ~the boot scrapes~, and the running one was awesome.  "Oh-Tahnn-ee" chant goes up, and he hits another boot to the face!  Corino comes back with a low blow, and the crowd boos the shit out of him.  Ki back in, and he gets the Hanging Dragon (Dragon sleeper in the tree of woe position)!  Back in the ring, Ki locks in the dragon clutch!  Tanaka breaks it up though.  Ohtani ducks a flying Low Ki kick and kicks Low Ki right in the face, but Tanaka gets nailed with a cabo kick!!  Ki hits the tidal crush...1...2...2.5!  Tanaka comes out of the corner with a rough spear, and does a Stunner/DDT combo on Ki and Corino!  That was awesome.  Tanaka hits a suplex/ace crusher combo on Low Ki, and follows it with a frog splash for 2.5!  Ki gets the Kawada kicks, ending with a vicious one to the face!  Corino comes back in, and the fans are all over him already.  Tanaka and Ohtani hit dueling tornado DDTs on Corino, but Corino comes back and hits Ohtani with an exploder suplex and locomotion vertical suplexes for 2.5.  Corino hits the old school expulsion, but Tanaka makes the save.  Corino hits a Juvi Driver/Brainbuster hybrid for 2.  Double team move backfires when Ki hits Corino, and Ohtani hits the vicious Springboard dropkick to Corino's head, followed by the spiral bomb, and that's it.  A great way to end the show, it wasn't a MOTYC or anything, but the crowd heat was great. It was worked in a Japanese style because it was being filmed for Samurai TV, and thus was different from the stuff surrounding it. ***1/4

Last Word:  This is as good of a place to start as any.  In my opinion, this was the best RoH show of 2002 from top to bottom, with some great singles wrestling and some awesome tag wrestling.  If you'd rather get 3 hours + of great wrestling with the occasional crap, as opposed to 3 hours of crap, I say buy it from RF video and do it twice for the same price.  This had so many styles of wrestling, and gets a huge thumbs up from me.

We are coming up on the one year anniversary of this show, and RoH has come a long way.  Hell, just watching one of their newer shows, you can tell that there has been a big increase in production.  In July, they drew 1200 people in New Jersey, which is a really good number.  Just a little while after, WWE drew 1800 in New Jersey.  I'm not saying RoH is anywhere close to competing with WWE, but it is certainly finding its niche.  The promotion is picking up steam, even if people are only paying attention to the Hogan-TNA deal.  The real challenges for RoH lie ahead though.  Given their rate of growth, can they continue to stick to their principles of great matches built on athleticism?  Or will they compromise them?  Will they blow it by going for too much too soon a la ECW?  Some think Rob is doing that right now, by trying a show in Wilmington, Ohio.  I'd personally much rather see RoH succeed than TNA, the product is just that much better.  In the early days, the angles were very corny, and some still are, but it's getting better.  The feud between CM Punk and Raven has been just freaking awesome, and is my pick for feud of the year.  I'll be covering it in upcoming reviews for you all.  However, I think it's safe to predict that Vince will be picking up CM Punk soon enough, because he is incredible on the microphone and very talented in the ring.

If you're looking for other, earlier places to start, I'd recommend the following:

--Round Robin Challenge (Has 2 MoTYCs, the opener and the main event)
--Era Of Honor Begins (Incredible 3-way, fun Eddie-Crazy Match)
--Road To The Title (Array of Great Matches)

Up Next:  Shows from 2003.

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