ROH THE CONCLUSION

ROH THE CONCLUSION 11/28/03


Christopher Daniels vs. Jimmy Rave
This is an awesome little match. The early back & forth is really good, and so is Rave taking over by targeting Daniels' arm. Daniels' initial selling is on point, and him taking the control back by going after Rave's back ruled -- the whole heat seg he did on it was great stuff w/ his full focus being on that one bodypart. Then add the always charming young boy vs. an established cocky superstar of the company dynamic to the thing, and you got yourself a big hit. ***1/2

AJ Styles & Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe
This is probably the best 2-on-2 tag team match ROH had held up to this point in time. It's just full of super exciting tag team sequences & overall kick-ass action -- Joe & Styles wrecking shit n' cleaning house together was so much fun, and The Briscoes were awesome as well, matching the viciousness & straight-up awesomeness of their opponents throughout. Them working better as an unit with the little things and capitalizing on the one miscommunication AJ & Joe made in the end was the most obvious narrative to go with it, and it worked super well, I thought. This match was such a super good time. ***3/4

CM Punk vs. Raven
This is their final match in ROH -- the CONCLUSION, if you will. And it honestly is sadly pretty disappointing. It's the worst of their ROH meetings. There's plenty of violence & blood, but the vast majority of it just doesn't translate well. I thought Punk lowkey came off as the babyface when he was taking a slow beating from Raven. And I thought Raven was missing the fire that made some of the previous entries in this feud extremely good -- he just offered a totally nothing-of-note performance. It's not a bad match, but so, so forgettable & disappointing when you consider the other awesome matches they had against one another, tag & singles. **1/2