ROH NIGHT OF THE GRUDGES

ROH NIGHT OF THE GRUDGES 06/14/03


BJ Whitmer & Raven vs. CM Punk & Colt Cabana
This is a real lovely piece of business. It's a heated fight with the main focus of it obviously being the continuation of the feud between CM Punk & Raven, and it makes some awesome action, to say the least. It feels heated right from the get go & never lets up -- everything especially after Punk & Raven introduce the chairs into the match is some truly quality stuff. Cabana & Whitmer also more than play their roles well in this thing, making every interaction in the match at least good, and for most of the time VERY good. ***1/2

AJ Styles vs. Paul London
I would probably rank the 2/3 falls match against Danielson as London's #1 match, but at the same time this probably is his most captivating individual performance. His mind games in the early stages of the match with the constant handshake offers & sly looks was very interesting to follow, and the action was just as good, and even better than you would expect from these two. It was smooth, crisp, nasty & violent -- simply some beautiful pro-wrestling, man. Beautiful pro-wrestling. Eventually London sees a target in AJ's leg, and that is when his full-on mean streak & killer instinct kicked in, and my GOODNESS the match kicks up a notch after that. It already was phenomenal, but once the leg becomes the main story of the match, that's when you, or at least I, realize that I am watching a classic unfold. The ways London goes to that leg any chance he gets is so great & as compelling to watch as one could ask -- there's so many great moments revolving around the legwork throughout. AJ totally rocks his role fighting in peril from underneath too -- he's the lovely, aggressive, scrappy pitbull that he was around this time, and it compliments London's work here perfectly. A better finish and this would be a bona fide 5-star one, but even with the lame double pin that kinda came out of nowhere, it's still totally a classic & one of my personal favorite matches. ****3/4