ROH REBORN: STAGE ONE

ROH REBORN: STAGE ONE 04/23/04

Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe vs. Ricky Reyes & Rocky Romero
It's the ROH debut of the Havana Pitbulls, and they get to look extremely credible here by pushing the tag champs to the absolute limit. I thought the match, while at times felt a bit all over the place with its structure, it was really fun & good w/ especially young Rocky Romero offering lots of interesting, intense offense. The "all over the place" description isn't all negative either, because at times that helped give the match a nice little intense, bit of a chaotic feel, which fit the work of Reyes & Romero extremely well. It's a good one. ***

Bryan Danielson vs. CM Punk
This is actually their first ever 1-on-1 meeting, which makes it quite noteworthy on paper. It's a really good match! At 26 minutes, it definitely goes on for a bit too long & there's periods where it isn't as compelling as you'd like, but for the absolute majority of it, the wrestling is lovely. Danielson seeing a target in Punk's mid-section, going to work over it & then getting the win with the abdominal stretch was awesome. Also have to say that knowing what happens years later, the dueling "YES! NO!" chant when they're battling on the top rope towards the end always pops me. ***1/2

Homicide vs. Samoa Joe
Didn't reach the greatness of their Do Or Die title bout, but it's still Joe & 'cide doing their thing, so it's obviously good. Both guys, especially Joe, deliver some vvverrry nice offense throughout, and I dig the fireball ending, giving Homicide's character some new direction. ***