ROH The Epic Encounter: Bryan Danielson vs. Paul London
Love the unique character work that they lay out in the first fall to set the tone for the rest of the match; Danielson & London both have some respect for one another, but they clearly do not like each other. They tell that story pretty much perfectly throughout the first fall w/ great, competitive, tight work on the mat. The first real major moment comes when Danielson shoves London's face w/ his foot, and London has this expression that says "oh yeah? that's what we're doing?" - the match starts to get more intense by the minute, they're busting out strikes & putting forearms on each others' faces while having holds in & THEN in THE major moment of the first fall, as Danielson has London in the abdominal stretch, London yells to him "YOU'RE MY BITCH!", which Danielson then answers to accordingly by smacking the crap out of his FACE. That's when the tone REALLY changes & Dragon starts blasting London all around the ring; London is wonderful taking a beating from Danielson, as he makes every strike he receives look like million bucks. The finish to the first fall, with London reversing Bryan's back bodydrop off the top rope attempt into a pin, was brilliant too & Danielson's facial selling of that was superb. Then as the 2nd fall officially begins, London, in a great callback to the first fall banter between them, offers a handshake to Bryan in the name of HONOR & all, and Bryan accepts, but right after he had very quickly shook London's hand, he blasts him with a slap, followed by a barrage of forearms & chops. It's fairly even, awesome back & forth for a while - that is until Danielson dropkicks London's knee as he was on the top turnbuckle, trying to go for that SSP of his. The knee becomes an instant target for Dragon, as he goes to town on it. London's selling is terrific & I love, love, LOVED all of his comebacks after the knee comes to play; he becomes aggressive & super crappy. It's really great. Bryan eventually gets the 2nd fall w/ a half crab, and they bring that up a few times in the last fall w/ him trying to go for it - it created for some nice drama, and London's selling is still really great throughout the final fall. The finish with him basically sacrificing his knee in order to execute that SSP was superb. It's a real classic overall with terrific performances by both; fantastic, somewhat unique psychology w/ the character work + great limb work & great selling. ****3/4
NOAH 04/25/04: KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa
This has an awesome dynamic of two young juniors going against two established heavyweights. It plays out exactly how one would imagine w/ Misawa & Ogawa doing the work on the offense for most of the match, and then KENTAFuji busting out some really good, high energy, scrappy comebacks. KENTA using a couple of Kawada's signature moves to piss Misawa off >> ***3/4
ROH All-Star Extravaganza: CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe
This has always been my favorite of their legendary trilogy, and it's one of my favorite matches in general, ever. Amazing callbacks to their previous meetings, loved Punk's headlock strategy & then Joe getting pissed off because of that & delivering a hellacious beatdown to Punk. The whole sequence w/ Joe having Punk on the choke & the timekeeper almost ringing the bell, but Steamboat not letting that happen as he saw that Punk had some fight left him is just classic stuff, man. *****
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