ROH Do Or Die IV and 3 Year Anniversary Show Report
Rexplex -- Elizabeth NJ 2/19/05

The afternoon "Do or Die IV" event started at 3pm, with about 500 fans or so in attendance, by far the most ROH has drawn for an afternoon card, most likely due to a huge article the day before in the Newark Star-Ledger.

--Lacey defeated Alison Danger
--Christopher Street Connection over FIP's Heartbreak Express
--Vordell Walker defeated Cheech of Special K. This was basically a squash, but Walker got over, earning "please come back" chants.
--Two of CM Punks students defeated Jerk Jackson and another guy
--Ricky Landell and Alex Law (w/Steve Corino) defeated Davey Andrews and Anthony Turner (w/CM Punk) in a match of Corino's students vs Punks students
--Fast Eddie Vegas (w/Dave Prazak, doing their FIP gimmick) defeated El Generico (who got over huge with the crowd), Josh Daniels and Arik Cannon in a really good four way. Generico also got a "please come back" chant.
--B-Boy defeated Kevin Steen in the match of the afternoon
--Homicide (w/Rocky Romero) defeated Antonio Banks to retain the FIP title

The evening card started at 7:30 with the majority of the locker room coming out to the ring. CM Punk was given the mic, and gave a speach thanking the fans for all of their support over the past three years, especially over the past year. The place looked to be packed, maybe 1000 people in attendance, give or take. Certainly a huge increase from the last show on 12/4 at the Rexplex

--Steve Corino defeated Roderick Strong in a really hot opener. Corino needs to be given alot of credit here, as he just had surgery on his hand a few days ago, sporting a cast that was heavily taped up, and still did the match. Corino offered Strong a handshake after the match, but Strong blew him off.

--Jay Lethal defeated Jimmy Rave (w/Prince Nana) to earn a shot at the Pure title later in the evening in a really good match. "Later" turned into now as...

--John Walters defeated Lethal in an OK match to retain the ROH pure title.

--Billy Ken Kid defeated Ebessan (both from Osaka Pro) in a comedy match. Good stuff.

--Alex Shelley defeated Jimmy Jacobs in about 13 minutes in another really good match. Both men shook hands before the match, but afterwards as Shelley offered Jacobs his hand, Jacobs turned heel and beat down Shelley.

--Spanky defeated CM Punk in yet another really good match. Spanky was over pretty big with the crowd, but the fans as they have been the last few show have been getting on Punk's case. Prince Nana came out afterwards and offered Spanky a spot in the Embassy, which Spanky turned down. Nana then got in Punk's face and Punk layed him and the Outcast Killers out. After this, some fan got on Punk's case bad enough that Punk got on the mic and ripped the fan a new ass, turning the crowd back in his favor, as a huge "CM Punk" chant started.

--Dan Maff and BJ Whitmer defeated Ricky Reyes and Rocky Romero (w/Julius Smokes) to win the ROH tag titles. Decent match, big pop for the title change. Afterwards, Allison Danger came out and said since she owned Maff and Whitmers contracts, that the match was non title and they were not the champs, and as a result of a prematch stip, they had to break up. Instead, Maff forced her to tear up the contract, totally diassociating themselves with her (apparently) and then beat the crap out of her anyway. As a result, the decision stood and they were announced as the new tag champs.

--Gary Michael Cappetta announced that at the 4/2 return date to the Replex, they would hold an eight man juniors tournament. The winner of the tournament would win a slot in New Japan's Best of the Super Juniors tournament this year.

--It was then time for Mick Foley's mystery wrestler vs Samoa Joe. Foley gave a long speach saying he was not going to be doing a match at Wrestlemania with Ric Flair, and that he had the artist formerly known in WWE as Test as Joe's opponent, but it didn't materialize. Instead, Foley brought out Vordell Walker to face Joe. Joe killed Walker in about 4 minutes. Foley then said he had a backup plan just in case. He brought out the man who Foley dubbed as the "New Cactus Jack". I was just waiting for Dewey to come out at this point. Instead, out came Ebessan, dressed up completely as Cactus Jack, in red flanel, a wig and fake beard. This was hilarious. Joe and Ebessan then had a short, decent match that most people ate up, although most peole were also disapointed with the "mystery man". Joe won, then beat up Foley afterwards with a stiff lariat and a chair shot. Austin Aries then attacked Joe, and Foley an! d Aries had some mutual admiration society meeting with each other and walked to the back with one another.

--Homicide defeated American Dragon Bryan Danielson in a taped fist match, after Julius Smokes took brass knux and taped them to Homicide's fist. Alot of fighting in the crowd. Dragon juiced after a few stabs of a fork. They fought all over the building. This was about as good as the 1/15 tap out match the two had last month in Boston. This is part of a "best of 5" series between the two, which Homicide now has a 2-0 lead in.

--Austin Aries defeated Colt Cabana in a steel cage match to retain the ROH world title. Both men juiced. The fans were really into this, with alternating "Austin Aries, Colt Cabana" chants going on the majority of the match. Cabana had climbed over the cage to win, but Aries literaly dived out the door and hit the floor literaly a half second before Cabana did to win. They couldn't have timed that more perfectly.

--Dunn and Marcos won the Scramble Cage match, defeating the Carnage Crew of Loc and Devito after Marcos did a senton off Dunn's shoulders from the top of the cage to put Loc through a table to win. The match also featured Izzy and Deranged, Azreal and Dixie, and Jack Evans and Roderick Strong. Evans did a 630 off the top of the cage to the inside. Izzy did some insane corkscrew drive to the outside. As a result of a prematch stip, the Carnage Crew are now out of ROH for 90 days.

All in all, a really good show. Maybe not as good as some ROH shows I've been too, but for the most part everything was good.


--John Siska

Ugh........

that's all I have to say about that show.

I don't think it looks THAT bad. I mean, Spanky vs. Punk, the Osaka Pro Comedy Match, Shelley vs. Jacobs part three million, etc. It doesn't look HORRIBLE, IMO.

My boy Vordell apparently impressed the afternoon crowd. That's good!

My boy Vordell gets squashed in 4 minutes by Joe a few hours later. I can't say I understand the booking on that one.

Spanky vs. CM Punk is the only interesting thing on there to me. The Osaka guys I've seen before and they've never impressed me and I'm fucking sick of Homicide/Danielson matches. I don't care how good their matches are it's getting tedious.

Just to add.

It may not be a bad show but it's well below the standards that Ring of Honor has set for itself and this is the second or third lackluster show in a row for them. It's an unsettling trend to be honest.

Having not seen anything more recent than 6/12 I can't really say. I know, I need to catch up, but I'm just not as interested in the whole wrestling thing as much. Music is actually dominating most of my time (and money) right now... So back to my point, and yes, I had one, It may just be a downswing. I can't say for sure, but all feds go thorugh a cold streak here and there. When would you say this downswing started? When Joe lost the title? Before?

I would have to agree that this one doesn't sound like the greatest show. I wouldn't mind seeing it because I would like to see how Aries is being used since winning the title. On the other hand though I hope they start figuring out what they wanna do now with their newest angles and such. I wanna judge for myself if I like their newest stuff as opposed to just reading the reports.

I agree with the show quality going down. The last show that I remember sounding great was the one where Joe lost the title, so that could play a part. I'm really iffy to buy some of the newer shows considering none of the matches are being pimped as "classics" like many of Joe's defenses were. I might give this one a try after I read some more reviews to see how Cide/Danielson and the cage match was.

Jimmy Jacobs turned heel????? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

That just means they need to give him Brody's total gimmick. His new entrance sooooo should be running through the crowd swinging a chain above his head chasing people around. THAT would be gold....