ROH: The Era of Honor Begins - Part Two
So yeah...the rest of the show.
Michael Shane & Oz v. Spanky & Ikaika Loa -
The winner of the fall will get an ROH contract and be flown in to future shows. Which would make you think that guys would be backstabbing their own partners to ensure that they didn't win, but that would only happen in a logical world, I guess, because it sure doesn't happen here.
Spanky and Oz open with a few quick reversal sequences. After a particularly nifty backflip off of the ropes to reverse an armbar, Spanky feels the need to DANCE! He turns and eats a spin kick, though, so that was probably ill advised. Loa makes a blind tag and comes in. Oz immediately plants him with an Exploder and tags Shane in. Again...why would he willingly leave the ring? Gah. Loa reverses a whip attempt, but Shane takes him over with a headscissors takedown. He follows with a suplex and gets two. Loa makes the tag to Spanky.
He and Shane get into a shoving match. I guess the other story here is that the TWA guys get along except for these two, who are battling to be the "top" student (not named American Dragon, methinks, and I love Spanky like a...uh...wrestler I watch on television occasionally) of the Shawn Michaels' Wrestling Acadamy. They start slapping each other, which leads to forearm strikes. They trade armdrags and we have an indy standoff! Hooray! Spanky goes for a 'rana, which is countered into a powerslam. Shane covers and picks up a two count.
Shane whips him into the ropes and ducks his head. Spanky leapfrogs him and nails Oz. Shane punches away at Spanky, who backs into the ropes. Shane charges, getting elevated onto the apron. He ducks a clothesline and nails Loa on the apron. Then he clotheslines Spanky and heads up top. Loa shoves him to the mat and tags in. Clothesline is good for a nearfall. He slams Shane and drops an elbow for another two. Tag to Spanky.
He sends Shane into the ropes and ducks his head. Shane kicks him, then sets up for the superkick. Spanky catches his foot. He goes for a clothesline, but Shane ducks it and they both end up going down after a double clothesline. Loa tags in. He quickly knocks Oz off of the apron to prevent the tag, then gives Shane a back suplex for two. He follows with a vertical suplex for another nearfall
He sits Shane up top, but ends up being knocked to the mat. Shane comes off the top with a dropkick and both guys tag. Oz dominates, spiking Spanky with a Fisherman's suplex for two. He tosses Loa to the floor, then nails Spanky with a pump kick for another two count. Shane comes off the top with a big elbow. Oz quickly covers, but Loa saves. They start to brawl.
Spanky, in the meantime, hits Shane with a Sayama-esque backflip kick in the corner. He dances, but Oz gives him a German suplex for his troubles. Loa again breaks up a pin attempt. Heels hit a flapjack on Loa and lock him in a double STF. Spanky bounces off of the ropes and breaks it up with a double leg lariat. Time for Sliced Bread #2? Oz shrugs him off, right into a superkick from Shane.
Oz makes the cover...save by Loa. Shane clotheslines him over the top, taking the bump to the floor himself. Back in the ring, Spanky hits a Sliced Bread #2 (greatest thing since sliced bread, bitches!) and picks up the win. Postmatch, everyone shakes hands, but there's tension between Spanky and Michael Shane.
I don't know that I ever saw another match with Oz or Loa, but they both looked pretty decent here. Oz, in particular, looked like he might have been decent with more experience. Too bad the match was so intrinsically flawed otherwise.
-Backstage, Mikey yells at his students (and Lil' Bow Wow!), who are standing around arguing. He brings Super Crazy in to interpret and decides that next month, there's going to be a 3-way tag. He pairs off Red and Brian XL and there you have it. Oh well...at least when you ask, "Who booked that shit," we can point out that it was, in fact, Mikey Whipwreck's fault.
-HC Loc is talking to an unidentified person on his cellphone. He bitches about working his ass off for an opportunity and having ROH stick him into the ring as a referee. He thinks it's time to show everyone the real him. The dude on the phone, of course, is Tony Devito and they'll go on to form the Carnage Crew.
Super Crazy v. Eddy Guerrero -
This is to crown the first IWA Puerto Rico Intercontinental Champion. Not sure why they're doing that in ROH, though Victor Quinones and Feinstein were apparently...pals. The announcers inform us that this was set up because during his shoot interview, Eddy was asked who he'd like to face in a "dream match" sort of deal and he chose Crazy. This was in between Eddy's WWF/E stints, so he got a chance to do a bunch of these nifty matchups that you'd never have gotten to see otherwise.
Ian Rotten tells a great story where he ran a show that, unfortunately for him, went head to head with a blizzard. The blizzard won, as there were like 20 people there (which is actually not that far off from most IWA crowds these days, sadly. I kid 'cause I care.). Ian couldn't pay him the full amount they agreed to, so Eddy told him that he'd take half. He was scheduled to win the IC Title from RVD a few days later, so he told Ian he wasn't going to go all out in his match.
But then, of course, he got in the ring (with CM Punk and Colt Cabana) and proceeded to bust his ass anyway. Postmatch, Ian asks why he didn't take it easy and Eddy tells him that regardless of the payday, he couldn't let Ian's best kids show him up. The more you read and hear about him, the more awesome Eddy comes across. Not just as a wrestler, but as a man in general.
Crazy opens the match by offering a handshake. Eddy responds by slapping him in the face. Hard. Dickish Eddy for the win! They lockup and Eddy snapmares him. Spinning boot scrape across the face. He sends Crazy into the ropes and levels him with a back elbow. He follows with a brainbuster and picks up a two count. Eddy goes to a side headlock a few times, but Crazy keeps escaping with a headscissors. He comes back with a back suplex. They trade punches for a bit, with Eddy taking control after a European uppercut. He drops Crazy with a back suplex of his own and gets two.
Eddy grabs a rear chinlock and cranks on it a bit. Crazy starts going out, but manages to avoid letting his arm drop for a third time. He fights to his feet, shooting Eddy into the ropes. Eddy tackles him. Crazy hiptosses him, then follows with a pair of armdrags. He charges into the corner, getting elevated onto the apron. Crazy blocks a punch and drives his shoulder into Eddy's gut. He comes off the top with a diving armdrag, then hits the ten punch combo in the corner. Eddy bails.
Crazy is looking for an Asai moonsault, but Eddy yanks his feet from in under him and he crashes facefirst into the apron. Eddy posts him, then drills him with a brainbuster on the floor. Goddamn. That's just mean. He rolls Crazy into the ring and hits his slingshot somersault splash, picking up a two count. Fallaway slam is only worth a two count as well. Eddy stomps on him and catches him with a seated dropkick for yet another nearfall.
He shoots Crazy into the ropes. Crazy ducks a clothesline and reverses the whip. Eddy goes for a sunset flip, but Crazy rolls through, dives over him and connects with a seated dropkick to the back of the head. He slams Eddy and hits a springboard moonsault for two. He heads up top, hitting a dropkick for a nearfall. Back up top. Eddy cuts him off, taking him over with a 'rana for a nearfall.
Crazy fires back, catching Eddy with a spinning heel kick. He goes for a suplex, but Eddy slips away. He knees Crazy in the gut a few times and destroys him with a powerbomb. Crazy kicks out at two. Eddy scores with a quebradora, then spikes Crazy with rolling brainbusters! He heads up top, looking for the frogsplash. Crazy moves, but Eddy rolls through. He lifts Crazy for another quebradora, but it's reversed into a rollup. Crazy wins!
Postmatch, we get a handshake and a hug.
Awesome match, if not a bit shorter than I would have hoped for. This was Eddy really getting back into his stride after years of injury and addiction and it was great to see.
-Backstage, everyone shakes hands with both Eddy and Crazy except for Christopher Daniels, who looks disgustipated.
American Dragon v. Low Ki v. Christopher Daniels -
May God have mercy on my soul, as I remember this match being super crazy with just a ton of stuff going on. My poor head will explode trying to recap everything. Your over/under on indy standoffs? A BILLION.
They close in for a 3-way lockup, but Low Ki and Dragon hold up and kick Daniels. Then they turn to one another and start trading thigh kicks. Daniels charges, but eats a double back elbow. Ki and Dragon lockup, but Daniels catches both with a dropkick. Ki responds by kicking him in the head. Because that's what he does. Dragon nails Ki, Daniels nails Dragon. Dosey do...INDY STANDOFF! Three-way style, even! Ki and Dragon lockup, but Daniels once again breaks it up and starts punching away at both guys. He slams Ki, but turns into a forearm from Dragon.
Daniels reverses a whip from Dragon. He drops down and Ki ends up nailing Dragon with a dropkick. This is all very confusing. Daniels suplexes Ki and tries the same on Dragon. He blocks it and looks for a reversal. Daniels blocks as well, sitting Dragon up top. He falls back into the Tree of Woe. Across the ring, Ki charges. This won't end well. Daniels avoids Ki, who tries to decapitate Dragon with a sliding dropkick. Daniels goes for a whip, but Ki shortarms him and nails him with a koppo kick.
He kicks away at Daniels, but Dragon catches him from behind, chickenwings both arms and forces him to the mat. Cattle Mutilation is locked in, but Daniels quickly breaks it up. He slams both guys, then slams Dragon onto Low Ki. He lifts Ki as if he were going to give him an atomic drop, but drops him into a legdrop on Dragon. He rolls Dragon into a Boston Crab on top of Ki, who he then locks in a camel clutch. Nifty. Dragon finally manages to kick him off.
Daniels goes for a whip, but Dragon blocks it, scissors his arm and tries to snap it with a kick. He works the arm for a few seconds, but Ki cuts him off. He doubles Dragon over and hits some brutal Kawada kicks. Holy fuck..he's just killing him. He celebrates, but Daniels nails him from behind. Suplex gets two. He sends Ki into the ropes and hits a leg lariat. Daniels gives Dragon a gutwrench suplex for a nearfall. He chops away at Ki in the corner. Ki fires back and drops Daniels for a nearfall.
Dragon goes nuts and starts chopping everyone. He catches an attempted enzuigiri from Daniels, turning it into a Sickle hold. Ki breaks it up with a nasty kick to Dragon's thigh. Actually, Dragon lets go of the facelock, but holds the deathlock. Ki kicks him again, snapping him backwards to the mat and applying more pressure to Daniels. And again. Ki goes for a third kick, but Dragon counters into a Northern Lights suplex (with Daniels still trapped in the deathlock) for two. Awesome sequence.
Dragon and Ki trade chops. He hits Ki with a back elbow and makes the cover. Daniels breaks it up. Dragon takes him down with an armwhip and covers him for two. Keylock on Daniels. Ki breaks it up with a kick, 'natch. He snapmares Dragon and gives him a kick to the spine. All it does is piss Dragon off. He pops up and they go nose to nose. He snapmares Ki...spine kick. Nose to nose again. They both look at Daniels. Uh oh. Ki snapmares Daniels and they take turns laying in the spine kicks.
Daniels tries to beg off, but they sandwich him with kicks. Twice. He ducks the third and Dragon and Ki end up cracking shins. Ouch. All three guys are down. Ki is the first to his feet, He pounds on Dragon for a bit, but Daniels cuts him off with a neckbreaker. He has another for Dragon, then locks Ki in an elevated crab. Dragon breaks it up. He and Ki go for a double suplex, but Daniels blocks it and hits a DDT/neckbreaker combo. He covers both and gets two, then picks up individual nearfalls on both guys as well.
Daniels heads up top. Ki and Dragon both cut him off and slam him to the mat. They hit a double big boot. Dragon then gets revenge from earlier, hitting a series of Kawada kicks on Ki for a nearfall. Ki lands a kick from his back, dropping Dragon. Daniels covers him for two. He takes Ki over with a belly to belly suplex for another nearfall. Ki and Dragon work together for a few seconds, chopping away at Daniels.
They go for a double whip and both guys duck their heads. Daniels kicks Dragon. He ducks a clothesline from Ki and lifts him for a wheelbarrow suplex. Daniels swings him into Dragon and Ki manages to turn it into a Tornado DDT in midair. Ki then catches Daniels with a springboard kick for two. He sits Dragon up top. He's looking for a superplex, but Dragon shoves him to the mat.
Daniels stops Dragon from doing anything else, locking him in an abdominal stretch on the top rope! Ki breaks it up and locks the Hanging Dragon (dragon sleeper from the Tree of Woe position)! He releases and makes a quick cover, but Daniels is able to escape at two. He reverses a whip and lifts Ki for a quebradora. He ends up sitting him on his feet and goes for Last Rites. Ki blocks it and flips backwards over him.
Dragon is waiting, hooking Ki for a Tiger suplex. Ki breaks and catches him with an enzuigiri. Dragon stumbles into Daniels, who plants him with a Blue Thunder bomb for two. Ki charges, but Daniels sidesteps. He nails Ki with a palm strike and sets up for the Fall From Grace (cobra clutch Iconoclasm). Ki blocks and eats another palm strike because of it.
Daniels decides to switch things up, looking for a superplex instead. Ki blocks it and shoves him to the mat. Dragon attacks Ki, but his superplex attempt is blocked as well. Daniels charges in. He takes Dragon over with a backdrop superplex (causing Dragon to superplex Ki in the same motion). Everyone is down once again.
Dragon absolutely PLANTS Daniels with a snap DDT, then follows up with his Dragon suplex. Ki breaks up the pin. He takes Dragon down and locks the Dragon Clutch. Daniels' turn to break up the submission. They trade punches and Daniels plants Ki with an STO. He hits the BME, but Dragon is there to stop the count.
He bounces off the ropes, but runs into a lariat from Daniels. Ki whips Daniels into the corner and connects with his handspring kick. Dragon knocks Ki to the floor. Cattle Mutilation on Daniels with no one in sight to break. Ki heads up top, though. He comes off with a Phoenix splash onto Dragon (still in the midst of a bridge)! He quickly follows up with a Ki Krusher to Daniels and gets the win!
Wow. That was fly. At the time, I'd probably have called it the best three-way match ever. It's aged pretty well, but I don't know that I'd go that far today. It's certainly in the top two or three, but it does have a very "2002 indy" feel to it. Not nearly as much as I dreaded before I rewatched it, but it's definitely there. For Ki in particular, as he doesn't sell much and he sure does love him some kicks. I'd rate the first Joe/Daniels/Styles three-way in TNA a bit higher. Also the Vengeance '02 match with Rock/Undertaker/Angle, which is just sublime in it's awesomeness.
What I did like is how they really featured the Ki/Dragon hate and the two of them treated Daniels almost as an afterthought, which came back to bite them on the ass time after time. It's a more logical reason to exclude one guy from the action than to simply leave him laying on the mat selling until it's his turn to pop up on offense.
Anyway, after the match, Dragon grabs the mic and points out that Ki may have won the match, but he didn't beat *him*. He wants a one on one match at the next show. This causes Daniels to grab the mic. He tells both guys to go to hell and says that it took two men to beat him. He claims that, one on one, he could beat both of them in the same night. Ki grabs the mic and proposes a round robin tournament at the next show. And with that, my tape cuts off. But it happened, so I assume some people said yes and stuff.
If this was ROH two years later, the people also would have chanted "match of the year" like a bunch of douches. But that's neither here nor there, is it?
Might as well mention what I'm working on, in case someone cares. There's a recap of the last SNME in the can, just waiting to be typed up. You'll see it his weekend, most likely. I'll probably end up at least *trying* to recap all of them, because I'm on a nostalgia kick again (and they're short!). I'll probably order that 6:05 Legends Reunion PPV tomorrow because any opportunity I have to watch the Midnight Express is an opportunity I'll take. If it's kinda, sorta decent I may recap that as well.
If ECW ever gets a TV slot (screw that "replacing Velocity" shit, as I can't watch Velocity now), consider that show MINE as well. I figure it'll annoy me less than TNA does, at any rate. A man can dream, can't he?
Michael Shane & Oz v. Spanky & Ikaika Loa -
The winner of the fall will get an ROH contract and be flown in to future shows. Which would make you think that guys would be backstabbing their own partners to ensure that they didn't win, but that would only happen in a logical world, I guess, because it sure doesn't happen here.
Spanky and Oz open with a few quick reversal sequences. After a particularly nifty backflip off of the ropes to reverse an armbar, Spanky feels the need to DANCE! He turns and eats a spin kick, though, so that was probably ill advised. Loa makes a blind tag and comes in. Oz immediately plants him with an Exploder and tags Shane in. Again...why would he willingly leave the ring? Gah. Loa reverses a whip attempt, but Shane takes him over with a headscissors takedown. He follows with a suplex and gets two. Loa makes the tag to Spanky.
He and Shane get into a shoving match. I guess the other story here is that the TWA guys get along except for these two, who are battling to be the "top" student (not named American Dragon, methinks, and I love Spanky like a...uh...wrestler I watch on television occasionally) of the Shawn Michaels' Wrestling Acadamy. They start slapping each other, which leads to forearm strikes. They trade armdrags and we have an indy standoff! Hooray! Spanky goes for a 'rana, which is countered into a powerslam. Shane covers and picks up a two count.
Shane whips him into the ropes and ducks his head. Spanky leapfrogs him and nails Oz. Shane punches away at Spanky, who backs into the ropes. Shane charges, getting elevated onto the apron. He ducks a clothesline and nails Loa on the apron. Then he clotheslines Spanky and heads up top. Loa shoves him to the mat and tags in. Clothesline is good for a nearfall. He slams Shane and drops an elbow for another two. Tag to Spanky.
He sends Shane into the ropes and ducks his head. Shane kicks him, then sets up for the superkick. Spanky catches his foot. He goes for a clothesline, but Shane ducks it and they both end up going down after a double clothesline. Loa tags in. He quickly knocks Oz off of the apron to prevent the tag, then gives Shane a back suplex for two. He follows with a vertical suplex for another nearfall
He sits Shane up top, but ends up being knocked to the mat. Shane comes off the top with a dropkick and both guys tag. Oz dominates, spiking Spanky with a Fisherman's suplex for two. He tosses Loa to the floor, then nails Spanky with a pump kick for another two count. Shane comes off the top with a big elbow. Oz quickly covers, but Loa saves. They start to brawl.
Spanky, in the meantime, hits Shane with a Sayama-esque backflip kick in the corner. He dances, but Oz gives him a German suplex for his troubles. Loa again breaks up a pin attempt. Heels hit a flapjack on Loa and lock him in a double STF. Spanky bounces off of the ropes and breaks it up with a double leg lariat. Time for Sliced Bread #2? Oz shrugs him off, right into a superkick from Shane.
Oz makes the cover...save by Loa. Shane clotheslines him over the top, taking the bump to the floor himself. Back in the ring, Spanky hits a Sliced Bread #2 (greatest thing since sliced bread, bitches!) and picks up the win. Postmatch, everyone shakes hands, but there's tension between Spanky and Michael Shane.
I don't know that I ever saw another match with Oz or Loa, but they both looked pretty decent here. Oz, in particular, looked like he might have been decent with more experience. Too bad the match was so intrinsically flawed otherwise.
-Backstage, Mikey yells at his students (and Lil' Bow Wow!), who are standing around arguing. He brings Super Crazy in to interpret and decides that next month, there's going to be a 3-way tag. He pairs off Red and Brian XL and there you have it. Oh well...at least when you ask, "Who booked that shit," we can point out that it was, in fact, Mikey Whipwreck's fault.
-HC Loc is talking to an unidentified person on his cellphone. He bitches about working his ass off for an opportunity and having ROH stick him into the ring as a referee. He thinks it's time to show everyone the real him. The dude on the phone, of course, is Tony Devito and they'll go on to form the Carnage Crew.
Super Crazy v. Eddy Guerrero -
This is to crown the first IWA Puerto Rico Intercontinental Champion. Not sure why they're doing that in ROH, though Victor Quinones and Feinstein were apparently...pals. The announcers inform us that this was set up because during his shoot interview, Eddy was asked who he'd like to face in a "dream match" sort of deal and he chose Crazy. This was in between Eddy's WWF/E stints, so he got a chance to do a bunch of these nifty matchups that you'd never have gotten to see otherwise.
Ian Rotten tells a great story where he ran a show that, unfortunately for him, went head to head with a blizzard. The blizzard won, as there were like 20 people there (which is actually not that far off from most IWA crowds these days, sadly. I kid 'cause I care.). Ian couldn't pay him the full amount they agreed to, so Eddy told him that he'd take half. He was scheduled to win the IC Title from RVD a few days later, so he told Ian he wasn't going to go all out in his match.
But then, of course, he got in the ring (with CM Punk and Colt Cabana) and proceeded to bust his ass anyway. Postmatch, Ian asks why he didn't take it easy and Eddy tells him that regardless of the payday, he couldn't let Ian's best kids show him up. The more you read and hear about him, the more awesome Eddy comes across. Not just as a wrestler, but as a man in general.
Crazy opens the match by offering a handshake. Eddy responds by slapping him in the face. Hard. Dickish Eddy for the win! They lockup and Eddy snapmares him. Spinning boot scrape across the face. He sends Crazy into the ropes and levels him with a back elbow. He follows with a brainbuster and picks up a two count. Eddy goes to a side headlock a few times, but Crazy keeps escaping with a headscissors. He comes back with a back suplex. They trade punches for a bit, with Eddy taking control after a European uppercut. He drops Crazy with a back suplex of his own and gets two.
Eddy grabs a rear chinlock and cranks on it a bit. Crazy starts going out, but manages to avoid letting his arm drop for a third time. He fights to his feet, shooting Eddy into the ropes. Eddy tackles him. Crazy hiptosses him, then follows with a pair of armdrags. He charges into the corner, getting elevated onto the apron. Crazy blocks a punch and drives his shoulder into Eddy's gut. He comes off the top with a diving armdrag, then hits the ten punch combo in the corner. Eddy bails.
Crazy is looking for an Asai moonsault, but Eddy yanks his feet from in under him and he crashes facefirst into the apron. Eddy posts him, then drills him with a brainbuster on the floor. Goddamn. That's just mean. He rolls Crazy into the ring and hits his slingshot somersault splash, picking up a two count. Fallaway slam is only worth a two count as well. Eddy stomps on him and catches him with a seated dropkick for yet another nearfall.
He shoots Crazy into the ropes. Crazy ducks a clothesline and reverses the whip. Eddy goes for a sunset flip, but Crazy rolls through, dives over him and connects with a seated dropkick to the back of the head. He slams Eddy and hits a springboard moonsault for two. He heads up top, hitting a dropkick for a nearfall. Back up top. Eddy cuts him off, taking him over with a 'rana for a nearfall.
Crazy fires back, catching Eddy with a spinning heel kick. He goes for a suplex, but Eddy slips away. He knees Crazy in the gut a few times and destroys him with a powerbomb. Crazy kicks out at two. Eddy scores with a quebradora, then spikes Crazy with rolling brainbusters! He heads up top, looking for the frogsplash. Crazy moves, but Eddy rolls through. He lifts Crazy for another quebradora, but it's reversed into a rollup. Crazy wins!
Postmatch, we get a handshake and a hug.
Awesome match, if not a bit shorter than I would have hoped for. This was Eddy really getting back into his stride after years of injury and addiction and it was great to see.
-Backstage, everyone shakes hands with both Eddy and Crazy except for Christopher Daniels, who looks disgustipated.
American Dragon v. Low Ki v. Christopher Daniels -
May God have mercy on my soul, as I remember this match being super crazy with just a ton of stuff going on. My poor head will explode trying to recap everything. Your over/under on indy standoffs? A BILLION.
They close in for a 3-way lockup, but Low Ki and Dragon hold up and kick Daniels. Then they turn to one another and start trading thigh kicks. Daniels charges, but eats a double back elbow. Ki and Dragon lockup, but Daniels catches both with a dropkick. Ki responds by kicking him in the head. Because that's what he does. Dragon nails Ki, Daniels nails Dragon. Dosey do...INDY STANDOFF! Three-way style, even! Ki and Dragon lockup, but Daniels once again breaks it up and starts punching away at both guys. He slams Ki, but turns into a forearm from Dragon.
Daniels reverses a whip from Dragon. He drops down and Ki ends up nailing Dragon with a dropkick. This is all very confusing. Daniels suplexes Ki and tries the same on Dragon. He blocks it and looks for a reversal. Daniels blocks as well, sitting Dragon up top. He falls back into the Tree of Woe. Across the ring, Ki charges. This won't end well. Daniels avoids Ki, who tries to decapitate Dragon with a sliding dropkick. Daniels goes for a whip, but Ki shortarms him and nails him with a koppo kick.
He kicks away at Daniels, but Dragon catches him from behind, chickenwings both arms and forces him to the mat. Cattle Mutilation is locked in, but Daniels quickly breaks it up. He slams both guys, then slams Dragon onto Low Ki. He lifts Ki as if he were going to give him an atomic drop, but drops him into a legdrop on Dragon. He rolls Dragon into a Boston Crab on top of Ki, who he then locks in a camel clutch. Nifty. Dragon finally manages to kick him off.
Daniels goes for a whip, but Dragon blocks it, scissors his arm and tries to snap it with a kick. He works the arm for a few seconds, but Ki cuts him off. He doubles Dragon over and hits some brutal Kawada kicks. Holy fuck..he's just killing him. He celebrates, but Daniels nails him from behind. Suplex gets two. He sends Ki into the ropes and hits a leg lariat. Daniels gives Dragon a gutwrench suplex for a nearfall. He chops away at Ki in the corner. Ki fires back and drops Daniels for a nearfall.
Dragon goes nuts and starts chopping everyone. He catches an attempted enzuigiri from Daniels, turning it into a Sickle hold. Ki breaks it up with a nasty kick to Dragon's thigh. Actually, Dragon lets go of the facelock, but holds the deathlock. Ki kicks him again, snapping him backwards to the mat and applying more pressure to Daniels. And again. Ki goes for a third kick, but Dragon counters into a Northern Lights suplex (with Daniels still trapped in the deathlock) for two. Awesome sequence.
Dragon and Ki trade chops. He hits Ki with a back elbow and makes the cover. Daniels breaks it up. Dragon takes him down with an armwhip and covers him for two. Keylock on Daniels. Ki breaks it up with a kick, 'natch. He snapmares Dragon and gives him a kick to the spine. All it does is piss Dragon off. He pops up and they go nose to nose. He snapmares Ki...spine kick. Nose to nose again. They both look at Daniels. Uh oh. Ki snapmares Daniels and they take turns laying in the spine kicks.
Daniels tries to beg off, but they sandwich him with kicks. Twice. He ducks the third and Dragon and Ki end up cracking shins. Ouch. All three guys are down. Ki is the first to his feet, He pounds on Dragon for a bit, but Daniels cuts him off with a neckbreaker. He has another for Dragon, then locks Ki in an elevated crab. Dragon breaks it up. He and Ki go for a double suplex, but Daniels blocks it and hits a DDT/neckbreaker combo. He covers both and gets two, then picks up individual nearfalls on both guys as well.
Daniels heads up top. Ki and Dragon both cut him off and slam him to the mat. They hit a double big boot. Dragon then gets revenge from earlier, hitting a series of Kawada kicks on Ki for a nearfall. Ki lands a kick from his back, dropping Dragon. Daniels covers him for two. He takes Ki over with a belly to belly suplex for another nearfall. Ki and Dragon work together for a few seconds, chopping away at Daniels.
They go for a double whip and both guys duck their heads. Daniels kicks Dragon. He ducks a clothesline from Ki and lifts him for a wheelbarrow suplex. Daniels swings him into Dragon and Ki manages to turn it into a Tornado DDT in midair. Ki then catches Daniels with a springboard kick for two. He sits Dragon up top. He's looking for a superplex, but Dragon shoves him to the mat.
Daniels stops Dragon from doing anything else, locking him in an abdominal stretch on the top rope! Ki breaks it up and locks the Hanging Dragon (dragon sleeper from the Tree of Woe position)! He releases and makes a quick cover, but Daniels is able to escape at two. He reverses a whip and lifts Ki for a quebradora. He ends up sitting him on his feet and goes for Last Rites. Ki blocks it and flips backwards over him.
Dragon is waiting, hooking Ki for a Tiger suplex. Ki breaks and catches him with an enzuigiri. Dragon stumbles into Daniels, who plants him with a Blue Thunder bomb for two. Ki charges, but Daniels sidesteps. He nails Ki with a palm strike and sets up for the Fall From Grace (cobra clutch Iconoclasm). Ki blocks and eats another palm strike because of it.
Daniels decides to switch things up, looking for a superplex instead. Ki blocks it and shoves him to the mat. Dragon attacks Ki, but his superplex attempt is blocked as well. Daniels charges in. He takes Dragon over with a backdrop superplex (causing Dragon to superplex Ki in the same motion). Everyone is down once again.
Dragon absolutely PLANTS Daniels with a snap DDT, then follows up with his Dragon suplex. Ki breaks up the pin. He takes Dragon down and locks the Dragon Clutch. Daniels' turn to break up the submission. They trade punches and Daniels plants Ki with an STO. He hits the BME, but Dragon is there to stop the count.
He bounces off the ropes, but runs into a lariat from Daniels. Ki whips Daniels into the corner and connects with his handspring kick. Dragon knocks Ki to the floor. Cattle Mutilation on Daniels with no one in sight to break. Ki heads up top, though. He comes off with a Phoenix splash onto Dragon (still in the midst of a bridge)! He quickly follows up with a Ki Krusher to Daniels and gets the win!
Wow. That was fly. At the time, I'd probably have called it the best three-way match ever. It's aged pretty well, but I don't know that I'd go that far today. It's certainly in the top two or three, but it does have a very "2002 indy" feel to it. Not nearly as much as I dreaded before I rewatched it, but it's definitely there. For Ki in particular, as he doesn't sell much and he sure does love him some kicks. I'd rate the first Joe/Daniels/Styles three-way in TNA a bit higher. Also the Vengeance '02 match with Rock/Undertaker/Angle, which is just sublime in it's awesomeness.
What I did like is how they really featured the Ki/Dragon hate and the two of them treated Daniels almost as an afterthought, which came back to bite them on the ass time after time. It's a more logical reason to exclude one guy from the action than to simply leave him laying on the mat selling until it's his turn to pop up on offense.
Anyway, after the match, Dragon grabs the mic and points out that Ki may have won the match, but he didn't beat *him*. He wants a one on one match at the next show. This causes Daniels to grab the mic. He tells both guys to go to hell and says that it took two men to beat him. He claims that, one on one, he could beat both of them in the same night. Ki grabs the mic and proposes a round robin tournament at the next show. And with that, my tape cuts off. But it happened, so I assume some people said yes and stuff.
If this was ROH two years later, the people also would have chanted "match of the year" like a bunch of douches. But that's neither here nor there, is it?
Might as well mention what I'm working on, in case someone cares. There's a recap of the last SNME in the can, just waiting to be typed up. You'll see it his weekend, most likely. I'll probably end up at least *trying* to recap all of them, because I'm on a nostalgia kick again (and they're short!). I'll probably order that 6:05 Legends Reunion PPV tomorrow because any opportunity I have to watch the Midnight Express is an opportunity I'll take. If it's kinda, sorta decent I may recap that as well.
If ECW ever gets a TV slot (screw that "replacing Velocity" shit, as I can't watch Velocity now), consider that show MINE as well. I figure it'll annoy me less than TNA does, at any rate. A man can dream, can't he?
Comments