ROH 4th Anniversary show

Ring of Honor begins it's Milestone Series of DVD releases with this show celebrating their 4th Anniversary. The Milestone Series covers 6 of it's shows from the 4th Anniversary through to their 100th show and is regarded as some of the best shows in company history. The first 4 years for ROH were not without controversy and many never expected them to ever reach this anniversary. From humble beginnings in the Murphy Rec Centre in Philadelphia, ROH has built a loyal following of fans by putting on strong wrestling based shows which focus on great matches and rivalries, many of which are shown in highlight form on this DVD release.

The show opens with former ROH tag team champions, Sal Rinauro and Tony Malmaluke facing off against New England newcomers, Jason Blade and Kid Mikaze. Only to be interrupted by the reunring duo of Jay and Mark Brisco who make their return to ROH after an extended absence due to Mark's motorcycle crash in summer 2004. This leads to a glorifed squash of both teams as the Briscoes return to ROH competition with the same dynamic tag team wrestling that saw them rise to the top of ROH cards before they left. The return of the Briscoes is a huge bonus to ROH as the threat of TNA talent being pulled looms constantly in the background. Despite being on of the very best tage teams in wrestling today, the Briscoes have yet to earn the attentions of TNA or WWE and so with ROH putting an increased importance of tag team wrestling in 2006, this is a fantastic addition to their increasingly strong tag team division.

Next up is one of ROH's taples, a 4 Corner Survival featuring Adam Pearce, Claudio Casatgnoli, Jay Fury and Azrael. Essentially this is the Pearce and Double C show as the old school heel antics of the Scrap Daddy clash with the European style of Claudio. Both guys are becoming huge players for ROH in 2006 and this is the kind of match that realy shows these guys will be big stars in the future. Jay Fury and Azrael are essentially there to make up the numbers, however Fury shows some nice flourishes that show why is a regular in ROH's sister promotion, Full Impact Pro.

Follwing a brief promo where female manager/number one business woman in ROH, Lacey, attempts to offer inside information on her former charge, BJ Whitmer to his oppennt for the night, Christopher Daniels, we have ROH legend Samoe Joe face off with former protege Jay Lethal. After Lethal turned on his former teacher a month or so ago, Joe has been loking for revenge. However the match was overshadowed in the weeks building up to this show by Lethal being 'fired' by booker Gabe Sapolsky. As such, this match lacked much of the heat that their previous matches had (especially their Pure Title match at Manhatten Mayhem) and Joe earned the win cleanly after a decidedly flat match.

Next was a grudge match strecthing back to 2003, with former prophecy partners BJ Whitmer and Chris Daniels attempting to settle their differences once and for all. This match soon broke down and the pair brawled into the crowd, at which point CZW's Chris Hero and Necro Butcher rusehd the ring and began taunting the crowd. The feud between Hero/CZW and ROH began back in November with Hero challenging ROH champion Bryan Danielson and this has since becoe one of the hottest angles ROH has booked. Playing into to real-life animosity between CZw and ROH fasn, as well as Chris Hero's status as the best indie wrestler never to work for ROH and this angle blurs the line between shoot and work perfectly and has crated a buzz around both companies like never before. Looking to ruin ROH's 4th birthday celebrations, Hero claims no-one in ROH can stop him, which brings out ROH legend Samoa Joe and in turn helps elevate this feud from the mid card to one that concerns the true big guns of ROH. As ROH's locker room fights off the CZW invaders, the Briscoes come out and atack tag team champions Roderick Strong and Austin Aries who are out defneding ROH's honour. As former members of the CZW locker-room, many fans at the show believed this was the Briscoe's defecting, however it was actually them making their future intentions clear. A Briscoes vs. GenNext match has the potential to be a true classic and will really help the duo of Aries and Strong cement their position as one of the very best tag team combinations in ROH history.

As the brawl between the two tag teams escalated, Homicide and Colt Cabana brawl out into the ring. This feud has seen Cabana show a new violent sign to his persona as this good old fashioned rivalry based on respect has featured some crazy moments, including Homicide attempting to strangle Colt, cut his tongue out with scissors and even trying to poison him with drain cleaner. This ghetto fight was supposed to resolve the matter by introducing an 'I quit' clause to the match, however after crazy brawl which was ended by the referree on three seperate occassion when he deemed Cabana unable to continue despite his claims on the mic that Homicide would have to kill him to end the match. Ultimately, it was a piledriver through a ringside table that saw Cabana unable to continue, however this feud has really helped develop Caban into a more well-rounded character and not just the goofy comedy characters.While Homicide once again proves that he is the true star-maker of ROH as he goes above and beyond in the ring to get his opponents over.

The Ring of Honor world title match was next with, American Dragon Bryan Danielson facing off against Jimmy Rave. Rave, who has developed from hated babyface mid carder to top heel in the company thanks to his association with eveil Ghanian dictator Price Nana, earned his world title match by winning ROH's annual Trios Tournament where each member of the winning team gets to book thri own match. Over the past 2 yaesr, Rave has become truly excellent in his role as the cowardly heel and going in against a champion the calibre of Bryan Danielson this match was set to be a truly great encounter. Since winning the belt at Glory by Honor 4 in September 2005, Danielson has risen to his new found role as top-dog in ROH and become a truly fascinating wrestling character. Arrogant beyond belief, the cocky world champ can be either unbearably obnoxious or supremely gifted, depending on whether his opponent is a babyface or heel. By having a tweener, or rather neutral, champ, it makes for a fascinating dynamic in world title matches as Danielson is not limited to working against certain opponents. When facing a guy like Rave who relies on cheating heel tactics, Danielson relies on his mat based wrestling which is second to none. Whereas when working against more 'clean cut' wrestlers such as Roderick Strong, Danielson will cut corners and heel it up to the fans by refusing to conform to their expectations.

However, none of this takes away from the fact that Danielson is respected by the ROH fans and makes for a truly great ROH champion. As such, this meeting of the arrogant, cheating challenger with the equally arrogant champion, made for a fantastic mntch. Rave and manager Nana used all their traditional cheating tactics, which frustrated Danielson to the point that he knocks Rave out with Mixed Martial Arts styles elbows to the face. However this was not until after a fantastic wrestling match that saw Rave put on the kind of showing that proves he really does belong in the main event of ROH.

In keeping with the emphasis of tag team wrestling in ROH, this meant the tag title match was the main event, with current champs Austin Aries and Roderick Strong taking on the phenomenal AJ Styles and his protege Matt Sydal. Sydal is a fantastic up and coming high flyer, who many are comparing with a young AJ Styles, however the story for this match was based around Sydal teaming with Styles against his fellow Generation Next team mates, Aries and Strong. Before we got to that match though, we had a quick interlude with Jack Evans of Gewneration Next taking on the Rottwielers' Ricky Reyes. Moved up the card due to Evans' late arrival on a flight from Japan, this match was part of an ongoing feud between the Rottweilers and Generation Next. The combination of the power house Ricky Reyes and Jack Evans, the dynamic high flyer who can take a ridiculous amount of punishment made this a pretty decent match. However the stanbd out moment (whethr it is good or bad) was a sick bump maded by Evans who was attempted a 450 springboard off the top rtope onto Reyes on the floor, where Reyes missed catching Evans who ended up landed almost full force on his back on concrete. Once again Evans, defies the laws of gravity and the common snese of a normal match and carries on, ultimately tapping out to Reyes' dragon sleeper.

That leaves us with our main event. On paper this had classic written all over it, with many making comparison to the fantastic series of matches AJ Styles and then partner Amazing Red had with the Briscoes in early 2003. Unfortunately this match failed to live up to the expectations and was a lot more methodical in approach than many expected., That is not to say that it is a bad match, rather that it lacked the flair and excitement that having these four in the ring should ellicit. It ended up being a really fun match with both sets of guys going all out and putting on a really great main event. This really is the kind of match that can help get tag team wrestling back into the mainstream in North America and with Aries and Strong ROH have possibly the besat tag team champions they have ver had. A perfect combination of power an athelticism that complimenting each other so well. Strong had a great run as a tag team performer in 2004 with Jack Evans at his side, however Evans was never believable as a championship partner due to his flippy style and tendancy to take all the bumps and high spots. However with Austin Aries, Strong has a high-flying partner who can also execute the hard impact side of wrestling as well as him. With the calibre of opposition these guys are being lined up to face then the future is looking bright for tag team wrestling in ROH and this was a great way to finish off another fantastic year for ROH.

Overall verdict: B+
"Some great matches although no genuine classics. Rave vs. Dragon was close, as was the main event, however neither sparkled enough to be deemed a true great. On the pluside, there was also no bad matches on this show and by mixing the matches up with clips reviewing the past 12 month of ROH action this makes for a great DVD. A fantastic start to the Milestone series and a great jumping on point for new ROH fans."