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LOOKING BACK AT RING OF HONOR'S PAST ANNIVERSARY SHOWS

RING OF HONOR SECOND ANNIVERSARY EVENT LIVE COVERAGE
by Mike Johnson

It is 2/14 and we are live at the Ring of Honor Second Anniversary show in Braintree, MA at the National Guard Armory!

Results so far tonight:

*CM Punk pinned John Walters in the first round of the Pure Wrestling Championship tournament in 13:01. Punk came out to Christopher Daniels’ music, dressed as Daniels with a hood on his face. The crowd thought it was Daniels until Punk unmasked. Punk said tonight he starts a quest to gain all the ROH championships and announced he was Bobby Heenan’s entrant and that Heenan had negotiated the Second City Saints a Tag title match in April in Chicago. It was a good opener which saw Punk get the win when Walters hit a belly-to-back suplex with a bridge, but Punk got his shoulder up and Walters was counted out.

*Doug Williams pinned Chris Sabin with the Chaos Theory in 8:18 of a great match with lots of unique exchanges in the first round of the Pure Wrestling Championship tournament.

*Matt Stryker forced Josh Daniels to tap out to the Stryker Lock in 8:29 in the first round of the Pure Wrestling championship tournament.

*AJ Styles pinned Jimmy Rave with a lariat in 7:35 in the first round of the Pure Wrestling championship tournament. Styles “hurt” his knee doing a springboard but came back to capture the pin. Another good match.

*Dunn and Marcos did a deal for their “We ain’t Gonna Take It Tour” and beat up The Outkast Killahs as the Twisted Sister song of the same name played. It was a funny segment that the crowd enjoyed as they were into Dunn & Marcos' fire. The Killahs were good on the mic as well.

The second Round of the tournament shapes up as CM Punk vs. Doug Williams and Matt Stryker vs. AJ Styles.

*Special K of Dixie & Hydro & Izzy defeated Carnage Crew & Justin Credible in a Country Whipping match in 8:46. Other members of Special K jumped Credible and Crew in the aisle from behinf as they came to the ring. There was lots of brawling around the ring and stiff belt shots. Dixie was bleeding like crazy and needed crazy glue to close the wound. During the climax of the match, DeVito’s daughter (The storyline is she has fallen into K’s raver lifestyle) came out and Credible and DeVito ran after her backstage. This left HC Loc to be piledriven off the apron through a table for the pin. Great brawl.

*Gary Michael Cappetta interviewed Julius Smokes with the idea that no one knows where Homicide is. I believe he had a personal commitment today, which is why he missed the show.

*In the Semi-Finals of the ROH Pure Wrestling championship tournament, CM Punk pinned Doug Williams when Williams went for his finisher The Chaos Theory (rolling belly-to-back suplex with a bridge) and his shoulders were counted down as Punk got his up in 10:44. This was actually similar to the finish of Punk vs. Walters in the first round. The finish came off great here as everyone thought Williams had won.

*In the Semi-Finals of the ROH Pure Wrestling championship tournament, AJ Styles pinned Matt Stryker with a springboard off the ropes into a 450 splash in 20:46. Stryker worked over Styles’ knee in the match and they did a lot of mat work.

*ROH Tag Team champions The Briscoe Brothers defeated The Backseat Boyz in a good back and forth match. Jay Briscoe hit a spinning DDT off the top rope through a table on the floor. The Briscoes hit a spike J-Driller on Johnny Kashmere for the pin at 8:00 while Trent Acid was out on the floor.

*ROH champion Samoa Joe won a Four-Way over the returning Low Ki, Danny Maff, and BJ Whitmer. They spent a lot of time building to the first Ki-Joe exchange since the promotion’s Glory By Honor I show in September 2002 and it delivered with tons of violent chops and strikes. Maff and Whitmer hit their signature spots as well and everyone shined. Maff speared Ki through the ropes to the floor as Joe choked out Whitmer at 24:04. Joe and Ki had a staredown and shook hands after the match. Joe went to the hospital to get stitches in his hand which he cut on the bottom of the guard rail outside the ring, He kept taping his hand to stop bleeding during the bout but didn’t miss a step. He's one tough SOB.

*AJ Styles pinned CM Punk in the finals of the ROH Pure Wrestling championships tournament with a reversed Styles Clash off the ropes in16:37, They did rope breaks, and all three breaks were used by each competitor. The crowd was into all the moves of the Pure Wrestling division, counting along with the referee for the 20 countout rule when both were on the floor early. There were no closed fists allowed, which set up a lot of forearm strikes. The rope breaks got over well as they did a spot where Punk grabbed the ropes for leverage to get out of a move and the ref called it as a break, and the crowd understood the signifigance of the breaks immediately. They did a deal once both had used their breaks which saw Styles, who was locked in a leg submission, pull himself up the ropes and then turn himself over to break it. Pretty cool, innovative stuff in a really good back and forth match. When Styles scored the pin, Punk's leg was actually on the ropes but he has used all his rope breaks so the pinfall couldn't be broken up. All the babyfaces came out afterwards to congratulate Styles. Samoa Joe told him the Pure Wrestling belt means nothing compared to the ROH title and they teased a future match between the two. Styles told him that the Pure belt may mean nothing to him, but it means everything for AJ. Styles thanked the fans to close the show, saying that he lives in Gainesville, Georgia but for one night, he is "from Boston."

This was an excellent show from top to bottom and a great effort by everyone involved, especially CM Punk who worked three matches in one night while sick. Good night and thank you for supporting PWInsider.com!

ROH NOTES
by Mike Johnson

Ring of Honor ran into a snag in its search for running more events in Philadelphia, PA. With the National Guard Armory not available again until the fall after their announced 5/22 date, ROH was looking to book a date at the ECW Arena. The venue turned down the promotion, citing the fact that CZW and 3PW already run there monthly. 3PW's Tod Gordon confirmed that when the two promotions returned to the venue after the fallout of the Philadelphia wrestling wars and eviction of XPW, both promotions agreed to a rent increase in exchange for exclusivity to prevent "oversaturation" of the building. No other promotion can get into the building without their consent, which honestly, isn't going to happen for ROH for obvious competitive reasons. WORLD-1 will be moving to a new Philadelphia location for similar reasons when they run again in April. When ROH was formed, the promotion distinctly wanted to stay away from the ECW Arena so they weren't in the shadow of ECW. Two years later, that is no longer a concern, but they aren't able to get into the building.

For those asking about Low Ki, his appearance at the Second Anniversary show was a one shot deal. Due to his Japanese commitments, there are no plans for him to return anytime soon.

The SAT are pretty much done with Ring of Honor, although I could see them back in down the line. The promotion is high on Dunn & Marcos and The Outkast Killaz moving up the tag ranks in the future. Dunn & Marcos are really popular and have a fun gimmick while the Killaz have yet to be really showcased but have shown great mic and ring skills when utilized. With the aforementioned, The Briscoes, The Backseat Boyz, Special K, and the Carnage Crew, ROH has the best tag scene of any promotion right now, including WWE.

ROH officials are ecstatic about how well the Second Anniversary show came off over the weekend and feel it comes off even better on video. "It was booked like a movie" said ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky. "It came off better than I could have ever hoped."

The promotion's big 3/13 event at the Rexplex in Elizabeth, New Jersey will see AJ Styles make his first ROH Pure Wrestling championship defense against CM Punk. The storyline is that Bobby Heenan, who will be managing Punk here filed grievance due to an errant call by the referee at the Second Anniversary show when it was ruled Punk used a rope break when he actually didn't. When Styles pinned Punk, his foot was on the ropes and ignored by the referee because Punk had "used all his breaks." The storyline is that because of the earlier call, Punk was screwed and should have had another rope break left.

Also scheduled for the 3/13 show is the ROH champion Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe in a Steel Cage Match, the return of The Amazing Red, BJ Whitmer & Dan Maff vs. Colt Cabana (returning from injury) & Ace Steel to determine the number one contenders to the ROH Tag Team championships, All four members of The Carnage Crew vs Special K in Scramble Cage II, a six man Mayhem bout, a ceremony for Roddy Piper, plus Jerry Lynn, John Walters, Jimmy Rave, Matt Stryker, Nigel McGiness, Xavier, Prince Nana, Jack Evans, and Mark Briscoe scheduled. There will be a convention card and a Roddy Piper Question and Answer Session in the morning and afternoon as well. Josh Daniels has pulled off the show due to a ZERO-ONE tour in Japan.

Slugger, who worked as Special K's Private Security before being turned babyface as a member of Julius Smokes' Rottweilers is done here as well.

ROH’s Second Anniversary Event can be ordered at ROHWrestling.com.