WWE Great American Bash

Last Sunday's Great American Bash was already a tough sell, when you consider that Smackdown has a roster decimated by injuries and talents raids. But when you throw in the atrocious booking and storylines that have held back so many talented wrestlers from showing their full potential, not to mention have resulted in a world champion who can never win and then it's hardly surprising that the GAB was not expected to break it's habit of being the worst drawing pay per view of the year. However things were looking better during the build thanks to the return of Batista and Ken Kennedy as well as the development of guys like Mark Henry, Bobby Lashley and Fit Finaly into a strong role on the brand in their absence. Unfortunately things were to take a turn for the worse when one of those few positives, Mark Henry, would injur his knee just 6 days before the show and require the main event to be completely re-booked. But that's not all. Just when things looked like they couldn't get any worse, WWE's wellness program flagged up several wrestlers with health issues and as a result Bobby Lashley, The Great Khali and Super Crazy were all told they were unable to compete on the show.


This makes judging the Great American Bash something of a tricky task. On paper, the card was not great to begin with and these last minute changes meant that two of the top angles had to be rebooked, as well as two of the main undercard matches. As a result, the show had an incredibly disjointed feel and some of the matches just made no sense whatsoever. However, as a long term move for the company this can only be regarded as a good thing as it means that the Wellness program is taking effect and doing some good, as in days gone by, talent would have been expected to work though these potentially dangerous health issues and beyond without any time-off to recover.

Therefore as it came time for the show to start, it could have gone one of two ways. If we were lucky, the powers-that-be in WWE would have completely thrown out large chunks of the card and we could have at least gotten an interesting wrestling card with some entertaining matches on it. Instead they tried to fudge it as best they could and paper over the cracks with, what they no doubt saw as clever little plot devices. Unfortunately this left a lot of the casual fans who had no idea what was going on and left the rest of us shaking our heads with bewilderment as they flipped from real-world to kayfabe on a minute to minute basis (Lashley was announced as having elevated liver enzymes and this was part of an angle, while Khali and Crazy were just pulled from their matches with no reason given) and ended up as a complete mess of a show which was definitely not worth the now increased price of $40.

Despite hard work from all those involved, none of the matches really managed to get out of second gear. Kendrick/London and Kash/Noble had a solid tag match, but it lacked the high flying or great wrestling that all 4 men are capable of. Finlay and Regal had a decent enough match, but when both men are heels and the whole storyline for the match was supposed to be them teaming up against Bobby Lashley then it just doesn't work. (Not to mention the whole leprechaun gimmick just isn't funny). I was hoping for a repeat of the fantastic Benoit vs. Finlay match from a couple of months ago here, however with the shoddy booking this was just never going to happen and the crowd, unfortunately turned on these 2 talented workers who deserve better.

By the time we reached the cruiserweight title match between Matt Hardy and Gregory Helms, it was going to take a miracle to rescue this show and unfortunately for the two men involved here, this match typified the evening when it comes to the shambolic nature of WWE right now. Despite the build for this match being based around Psicosis and Super Crazy's feud as a result of the break up of the Mexicools, Crazy was pulled from the match before it was even announced and Matt Hardy (who was originally in line for a match with Mr Kennedy) was put in his place. With Hardy and Helms' history coming up together in the Carolina indie scene, you would have thought this could have been a show-stealing match. However when the commentators point out that Matt Hardy is actually too heavy to be a cruiserweight (despite being a former CW champ) then the match loses all meaning and effectively all purpose. In the end, these two went through the motions and the final match that could have saved the show was over and things could only get worse from here on in as the Divas and Punjabi Prison matches were still to come.

However before we get there, I'd like to take a minute to address what was perhaps the biggest problem of the whole show, that being the commentary. When Michael Cole and Tazz were behind the commentary desk, they were the best in the business. Even when the show was wretched they would do their best and at least made it no worse than it already was. However JBL is just horrid as a colour man and did more damage than he did good throughout the entire show. Whether he was trying to get himself over at the expense of the talent, constantly contradicting himself, or just plain repeating the same tired old cliches again and again, Bradshaw was just terrible - which in turn put Cole off and dragged him down as well. If Bradshaw is going to continue, he needs to work out just what his announcing character is going to be and stick with it. One minute he was JBL the heel wrestler, then he was John Layfield the retired wrestler and the next he was the annoying goof who you get stuck behind you at a show who makes crass and irrelevant comments through out the show, ruining it for all those around him. On a weak show, to have an inexperienced announce team just made the whole thing that much more painful to watch.

With that off my chest, we come to the final third of the show which, despite being the most affected by the talent cuts, ended up as perhaps the most entertaining (with the exception of the Diva's match which was just wretched!). By having Big Show substitute for Khali in the Punjabi Prison match, it at least meant we were in for a good brawl as Show has been on a roll since moving over to the ECW brand. Lots of blood and plunder made this a pretty decent big man match, however overly complicated rules and a goofy finish with Taker and Show falling through the cage wall prevented it from being better than many people had ever thought it would be.

Batista vs. Kennedy was a glorified squash, which put Batista over as a monster as a result of the DQ finish. Screwy finishes are often dangerous territory to get into when you want both men to come out of the match unbeaten, however the bloody nature of the match meant that Batista came out of it as a total monster, while Kennedy was not completely humiliated as a result. Unfortunately his generally poor performance in the ring (combined with a really underwhelming entrance) did that for him and there is still a long way to go with Mr Kennedy before he becomes a genuine main-eventer.


So by the time we got to the main event, it was something of a relief that the men involved were not horrible workers and that this might actually have the potential to be half decent. Ignoring the fact that Booker has earned himself a title shot, despite loosing to Bobby Lashley at least 3 times on TV, the King Booker gimmick has given a new lease of life to the 5-time WCW champ. Finally getting the main event push he should have had back in 2001, this match also saw WWE finally pull the trigger on the Chavo Guerrero heel turn as he cost Rey the match by nailing him with a chair, allowing Booker to get the pin and the belt. Although this will lead to a resurgence of the 'Eddie-storyline' which has been the main focus of Rey's underdog title reign, at least this allows Rey and Chavo a main event level program and their matches have always been very strong. It's just a shame that both men have had to be given this push as a result of Eddie's death. I could go on for ages about how insensitive this is and how it belittles Eddie's legacy as well as blurring the line between reality and 'wrestling reality' to the point that it is no longer there. However this is the direction they have chosen to go in and I just hope that both men are able to get a modicum of success out of this without tarnishing their relationship with the remaining members of the Guerrero family who are not caught up in the WWE circus.

Overall verdict: D+
"A weak card, made worse by the medical issues. Putting aside the positives that the implementation of the Wellness program is going to make to the life of the wrestlers, this was a poor show, which lacked any really memorable moments (perhaps with the exception of Booker's title win). With such a state of upheaval going into it, this either could have been a straight wrestling show with some fun matches on or a half-baked mish-mash of half finished angles and incomplete storylines. Unfortunately, WWE's constant obsession with blurring the lines between reality and the WWE world, meant we got the latter and so despite some strong work from all involved, the show lacked any kind of real entertainment that would elevate it above an average episode of Smackdown."

Looking back at Generation Next

This weekend saw the final match of one of Ring of Honor's most succesful stables, Generation Next as they teamed against the new generation of Davey Richards, Jerelle Clark and Irish Airborne (Jake and Dave Crist).

Generation Next was formed in the Spring of 2004 and originally comprised Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong and Jack Evans. These four had all worked together on various east coast indies, as well as making a name for themsleves in CZW, IWA Mid South and on ROH undercards. However they had yet to breakthrough on to the main ROH roster, but that was until 5/22/04 and the the Generation Next show in Philadephia.


With TNA prohibiting many of it's big name stars like AJ Styles and Chris Daniels from working ROH after the 'Feinstein scandal' earlier in the year, ROH needed to create new stars and so booked a show based on the idea of allowing the next generation of ROH superstars to get a foot on the ladder. The original plan for the Generation Next show was to have 4 singles matches featuring young up and coming talent, which the fans could then vote on to decide which match they liked best. However, Shelly, Aries and co. decided to hijack the show and take their spots by force rather than rely on earning the fans approval. In the course of their first show, GenNext would target the Christopher Street Connection, Izzy, Dixie and Hydro of Special K as well as John Walters, Jimmy Rave and the Briscoes. The match which resulted from them taking on this final foursome would go for 40+ minutes and would go down as one of the very best multi-person tag matches in the company history and is still regarded as an all-time classic ROH match. GenNext had arrived and no-one was safe.

As ROH re-established itself following the departure of the TNA talent, GenNext would become the backbone of the company and the building blocks which booker Gabe Sapolsky would use to re-build ROH as a force in independent wrestling. As the first new generation of talent to come through ROH's doors since it's inception in 2002, it was up to GenNext to take on the mantle of those early ROH mainstays like AJ Styles, Chris Daniels, Low-ki and Bryan Danielson and keep the company going. While it was Samoa Joe and CM Punk who were gaining all the plaudits for their 60 minute matches, it was GenNext who were keeping the undercard from going stale by having great match after great match. In their first year they feuded with everyone from ROH Pure Champion Doug Williams, to the Second City Saints of CM Punk and Colt Cabana, to legendary figures such as Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat. Despite being arrogant heels, GenNext would earn the respect of the ROH fans thanks to their phenomenal matches and it would only be a matter of time before they would become crowd favourites.

As 2004 drew to a close, it would be a crucial time for the group. From the beginning their mantra had been that they would stick together as a group, only until they had secured the top spots in the company and with it, the championship gold that would give them the power they craved. So, as Austin Aries earned himself a world title shot against Samoa Joe at Final Battle 2004 it was make or break time for GenNext. Despite Shelley achieving strong support from the ROH fans, it was Aries who had risen to the top thanks to his epic matches with Bryan Danielson, including a 75+minute 2/3 falls match in August. With a world title match which he believed was his for the winning, Aries turned on Shelley at Final Battle and ejected him from the group. He would go on that evening to get the upset win over Samoa Joe and end the longest championship reign in ROH history. With the gold and the power secured, Aries persuaded Strong and Evans to join him and the second phase of GenNext's existance would begin.

As a result of Shelley's behaviour towards the ROH roster during his time in GeNext, he struggled to find any allies for his pursuit of Aries and the World Title and so would have to go it alone. Building to a world title match at Manhatten Mayhem, Shelley would struggle in vein to compete with the group he had started. As Shelley persued the world title, Aries would undergo a gruelling schedule of title defences as he tried to establish himself as a champion in his own right and get out from under the shadow of Samoa Joe's epic championship reign. Despite strong title matches against Colt Cabana, Homicide,Bryan Danielson and James Gibson, Aries would ultimately lose the belt to CM Punk and be faced with a much more potent opposition for the remainder of 2005.

Having failed to earn the repect of the ROH lockeroom, Shelley decided to go back to what made him succesful in the first place and joined up with the Embassy of Jimmy Rave and Price Nana. Proclaiming that he hadn't 'sold out' he had in fact 'bought in', Shelley aligned himself with a group who were on the rise after many months of being a mid-card comedy act. Thanks to Rave's feuds with AJ Styles and CM Punk, the Embassy were close to over hauling GenNext's position as the top heel faction in ROH and so Shelley saw his oppurunity to get his revenge. The ensuing matches between the two factions would see both sides recruit new additions to the group to sustain the increasingly violent and bloody encounters between the two factions. For GenNext they would recruit up and comer Matt Sydal as well as form a short term alliance with AJ Styles, while Prince Nana would recruit the monster Abyss as his enforcer as well as bring in part-time members like Spanky. The feud would culminate in a bloody Steelcage Warfare match in December of 2005 and would see the members of both sides secure their positions as genuine top players in ROH as a result of this match and feud - as well as Generation Next becoming the top babyface stable now that the Second City Saints had gone on hiatus with the departure of CM Punk to WWE.

As 2005 became 2006, new ROH commissioner Jim Cornette would look to put a greater emphasis on the tag division in ROH and so, despite Evans and Strong being the tag team of choice for GenNext, it would be the team of Aries and Strong who would finally secure tag team gold for the group. Roderick Strong had been the break out star for ROH in 2005 as a result of some phenomenal singles matches against AJ Styles, CM Punk, Matt Hardy and Bryan Danielson (as well as winning the 2005 Survival of the Fittest, deafeating Aries in the final). However it was his teaming with Aries that would cap-off his phenomenal run and cement his spot at the top of the card once and for all. At the time of writing this, the pairing of Aries and Strong have become the longest reigning tag champs in ROH history, putting on some outstanding matches against the likes of the Briscoes, old rivals the Embassy, the Rottwielers as well as Cima and Doi of the Dragongate promotion in Japan. However, perhaps the most unlikely opponent they would have to face would be their own stablemate, Matt Sydal. Despite earning his GenNext stripes in the war with the Embassy, Sydal was persuaded to side against his teammates by his mentor AJ Styles which would lead to an outstanding tag team contest that would headline the Fourth Anniversary show in March of 2006.


Despite the possibility of a GenNext split developing as a result of Sydal's desire for gold, (he would also go on to team with Samoa Joe against Aries and Strong) the group approaches this weekend's final match as strong as ever. All four members have been courted by the DragonGate promotion in Japan, while Strong and Aries have also worked for TNA alongside Alex Shelley. As all 4 current members of GenNext return for one last match it will be interesting to see what will happen to these guys now that they are no longer grouped together under the GenNext banner. Will Sydal and Evans attempt to set up a rival group or will another band of young up and comers rise take on their title of the new generation? Certainly their final opposition of Davey Richards, the Crist Brothers and Jerelle Clark could more than take on the mantle. However would they have the success that the original four members have gone on to achieve? Who knows. Certainly, when GenNext was formed in 2004, no-one knew just how succesful these four would go on to be. As the spectre of TNA and other promotions such as Dragon Gate pulling talent away from ROH looms once more, this time it is the likes of Shelley, Aries and Strong who will be the ones making way for the new generation. Lets hope that the next generation of talent who comes along and takes their spots will achieve the kind of long lasting legacy that the original four have. If they do, then ROH is in a very strong position in the months and years to come. And you know this..................man!

TNA Victory Road 2006

Over the past months, TNA has lost a lot of it's sizzle and this month's Victory Road pay per view was a prime example of this. After a strong showing last month, Victory Road lacked that blow-away match or angle that the fans would talk about and at the end of the day failed to elevate itself above average in all respects.


The main problem with the show was the return to the Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting angle which they have building on ever since Sting debuted at the end of last year. One of the strong plusses for TNA is that they have never been afraid of a a long build for a feud and that is something that seperates them from WWE and their hotshotted angles. However, one thing WWE is often good at is reading fan reactions and changing the product accordingly - Edge winning the belt at New Years Resolution when the fans turned on John Cena for example. With Sting and Jarrett, the problem is not that this feud won't deliver a strong angle and match, it's that this is not the feud that the majority of fans want to see at the top of the card in TNA. The over whelming support at Victory Road was for Samoa Joe. So with Joe being lined up in the main event and with a potential number one contedership in his sights, this was the moment TNA could have given him that one last push into the main event of TNA and helped create a major star. Instead, Joe was an after thought who, when you looked at it logically did not really belong in the main event as he had not been involved in the controversy at the end of the previous month's show. It also devalued Joe's unbeaten streak by putting him in another position where he didn't get pinned but didn't win either. When looked at alongside Joe's previous 'non-wins' in 3 ways against AJ/Daniels and Senshi/Dutt then Joe is all of a sudden not the unbeatable monster he is booked as. If they wanted to end the run then Senshi or Chris Sabin should have taken the X title off him. But now that he is supposedly in the NWA title picture, Joe should not be being put in a position where he is not viewed as a top guy, because he is their star of the future and they only have one shot at getting this right.

They are having similar problems with Christian Cage and this show did no favours for Captain Charisma at all. Considering this was the man who was screwed out of the title at the end of the last show thanks to Jeff Jarrett's sheanigans, you would have thought that Cage would have been a man on a mission. Instead he came off like a wuss who, when Sting broke up his potential winning pinfall, didn't even retaliate. For all the promos where he says how much the title means to him, if he doesn't act that way in the ring then his words ring hollow. He had a similar problem with the Abyss feud where he should have been looking to pummel Jim Mitchell and Abyss for interfering in his personal life but instead was happier sitting down and giving an interview. The arrival of Sting has affected Christian more than any other TNA wrestler and if they're not careful could waste a valubale oppurtunity to take advantage of a big-name former WWE superstar.

This underwhelming main event put a damper on what was an otherwise solid show. The problem with the whole show was the lack of any real blow away moment. Team 3D had a decent brawl with the James Gang and Abyss, the Naturals storyline with Shane Douglas developed and Senshi and Frankie Kazarian had an entertaining enough X Division title match - although the surprise return of Kazarian was a real anti-climax after his unceremonious deaparture at the end of last year. The highlight of last month's show was the tag title match between AJ Styles and Chris Daniels against America's Most Wanted and they attempted to repeat the success this month with a 6 person tag featuring Gail Kim and last month's problem solver Serelda. The only problem, was that what made the match so good last month was the angle involving the women as well as the 'last chance' nature of the storyline. Unfortunately this was missing this time around, and despite adding in the tease of an AMW split, this match failed to find the top gear that last month's encounter build to so well.

Ironically, for a company that has prided itself on wrestling over entertainment, TNA has managed to hit on 2 angles which have provided for some unexpected comedy moments and they ended up as the real highlights of the show. The Kevin Nash angle with the X Division initially seemed like a car crash waiting to happen as the 'big-man' attempted to destroy the little guys as we have seen so many times on WWE TV. However thanks to the inclusion of Alex Shelley as Nash's sidekick it has made the whole angle much more entertaining. So much so that the whole idea of Nash killing the X Division is pushed to the back of your mind as he is almost parodying his WCW persona and comes across as the deluded veteran trying to make his name at the expense of the younger stars. By including Shelley and his lackey Johnny Devine, it has allowed the opposition of Chris Sabin and Jay Lethal to get heat away from the veteran Nash and on to Shelley who plays the chicken heel that he has perfected in ROH as party of the Embassy. This allows the younger guys to work around Nash's limitations (that he cannot move in the ring because of his knackered knees) and instead allows him to cut the kind of entertaining promos that were the real reason the nWo was such a big draw in WCW.


Another faction that has often come under a, perhaps, unfair amaount of criticism has been Team Canada. This most recent angle has seen the dissolution of the group who were originally set up during the Nashville-era as a way of filling out the first World X Cup. A mainstay of the TNA tag scene, they have often suffered from a lack of personality and as such have been involved in predictable feuds that would invariably end up with Coach D'Amore and his hockey stick getting involved. However as they have broken up it has allowed for the development of Eric Young as one of the best characters in TNA. The goofy younger memeber of the Team who always went against whatever heelish antics they were up to, Young has become a fan favourite and his mis-treatment by his former team mates during the angle which played out at Victory Road helped get the fans behind him more than ever before. Eric Young is the character Eugene could have been in WWE if they hadn't rushed through the who story in a matter of weeks and over-pushed it to the point the fans hated it. How they handle him will now make or break the character, but after this show, they have a character that the fans engage with both in and out of the ring and that is a valuable commodity for a fledgling company like TNA.

Overall verdict: C-
"Lacking that one stand-out match or angle, Victory Road had that empty feeling of potential unfullfilled once it had come to an end. It was entertaining and nothing was worthy of being fast-forwarded, however there is nothing to go back and watch again. At a time when TNA need to be drawing fans in and keeping them interested in their product, this show could have put off more people than it brought in as the crown jewels that TNA has at it's disposal were not give the chance to sparkle in this instance."

The best promo of the new ECW

This week saw, without a doubt, the best promo of the new incarnation of ECW. So who was it by?

Paul Heyman? No.

CM Punk? No.

RVD? Dear god no!

It was actually done by Rhino on this week's edition of TNA Impact. In 3 minutes the last ECW champion made the brand seem more important and relevant than 4 weeks of TV on Sci Fi. Perhaps even more than the whole One Night Stand pay per view, Rhino vocalised just what ECW meant to the world of professional wrestling. In short, it represents everything that WWE is not and that is why WWECW will never succeed. It can't. The rebel promotion can never exist under the corporate umbrella of the company it is rebelling against. It's even more difficult to be rebellious when being controlled obssesively by the man who is single handedly responsible for much of what is wrong with the wrestling business in 2006.

So it is left to TNA, the little promotion that could. After 4 years of struggling to make a name for itself, many felt the arrival of ECW could spell the end for TNA as they were instantly relegated to 4th palce in the wrestling fans brand consciousness. However it seems TNA are looking to put up a fight and good for them. By being the rebel promotion that WWECW can never be, then perhaps they can find the viewers that WWECW has alienated. Certainly the reception they got in Philadelphia would suggest the fans are willing to give TNA a chance and with them putting on a strong wrestling show in the ECW arena, they did a better job of earning those fans loyalty than WWE did when it ran in the Arena.

So thank you Rhino, for saying what needed to be said. This is perhaps the most important moment in your career, let's hope you are finally allowed to be given the oppurtunity to succeed at the level you deserved ever since ECW closed in 2001. And let's hope that this is finally the storyline that can help make TNA go from glorified indie to genuine competitor for WWE. It was one hell of a way to start it.

ECW Dream matches

There's been a lot of negativity surronuding the ECW brand since it started (a lot of it coming from yours truly) but now that we pretty much know how the brand is going to be handled and what it is going to comprise of, what matches/feuds would you like to see?

For me the obvious one is Sandman vs. CM Punk. Punk could come out and be the first to avoid Sandman's weekly beatings and start a feud based on Punk's straight edge beliefs vs. Sandman's drunken antics. Punk has the potential to be the new Raven for this ECW generation and what better place for him to start than feuding with one of Raven's top rivals.

Next up I'd love to see Big Show vs. Tommy Dreamer done properly. Dreamer was the heart and soul of the old ECW and Big Show personifies the new ECW with it's strong WWE links. Dreamer could defend the honour of the old ECW and as long as he was given some offence and allowed to look like a legit threat against Big Show this could really work. Dreamer doesn't even have to win any of the matches, book it like the Raven vs. Dreamer feud and constantly have Dreamer screwed out of the win.

Sabu vs. Test. Hardly a dream match, but I think Sabu could get a lot out of Test and could give the big man the same kind of credibility that he has with his feud with Cena.

The FBI vs. Kendrick/London. Anything to give th FBI something to do! Plus Smackdown has has very little to do with the ECW crossover thus far and Kendrick and London could have some great matches with these (plus they only have one set of rivals of Smackdown since the Mexicools have been split up).

Jazz vs. Trinity. Both women can go in the ring, so why not let them?

Justin Credible vs. Balls Mahoney. Two guys who've been give the short end of the stick hus far in ECW. So why not put them together and see what happens. The cane swining credible against the chair swinging Mahoney has a lot of potential with both men being much ebtter workers than WWE has allowed them to be thus far.

Is Big Show the greatest world champion ever?

Well, his record will certainly say that because by winning the ECW heavyweight title from Rob van Dam on Tuesday night he became the first man to win the WWE, WCW and ECW heavyweight titles. Surely that makes him the greatest champ of all time? As a WCW champ he was held back by Hogan and co. As WWF champ he was almost torpedoed by an horrific angle with the Big Bossman. As WWE champ he had some awesome matches with Brock Lesnar, but suffered from the exit of Paul Heyman from the Smackdown creative team and so no here he is as ECW champ.

Benefitting from his close relationship with Paul Heyman as well as the drugs bust by RVD, Show has earned himself the enviable position of being a triple world champion. After years of unfulfilled potential perhaps now is finally the time the big man can make a name for himself. Certainly he is not the obvious choice as ECW world champion, however with the strong rodter of babyfaces that make up the new ECW roster, this actually allows for more options for the top title. Feuds with Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu and retunring RVD will make for more interesting TV than matches between existing ECW talent which we have seen before and which will never be as good as they were 10 years ago. So with this new dawn for ECW, perhaps it is time for a new breed of champ to take over the reigns in ECW and with time, perhaps Big Show will live up to his reputation as the first triple world champion in modern wrestling history.

ROH Supercard of Honor

Forget the ridculous title, this show could not have been called anything else but a supercard. Featuring one of the most loaded line-ups ROH has ever put together this show was the centre piece of the Wrestlemania triple shot weekend and features 3 matches that, come the end of the year, will be very high on every ROH fans match of the year list.

The match everyone is talking about is the Dragon Gate 6 man featuring members of the Blood Generation faction facing off against long time rivals Do Fixer. This is the match that Dave Meltzer gave 5 stars to, the match Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com referred to as a wrestling orgasm and as such, who am I to disagree. A match with this much hype rarely lives up it, but every now and again an exception to that rule comes along and this is just such an occasion. Featuring some of the most high flying, innovative wrestling the US will ever see, this is a phenomenal match. ROH fans are notriously fickle, but anytime you have so many spectacular spots that fans begin a 'please don't stop' chant, you know this has to be something special. Not even the now all too common 'this is awesome' chant could truly get started as the fans were constantly being dazzled by spectacular combination after spectacular combination.

However for many ROH fans, that was not even the best match of the night. Amongst the hardcore of ROH fans, the main event, pitching Bryan Danielson against Roderick Strong is being talked about as one of the best main events in company history. The third part of their hard-hitting series, the previous two matches have seen Strong elevated from tag team specialist to bonafide main eventer, as well as becoming one of the company's top babyface. These compliment each other perfectly as the arrogant heel champion is taken on by the ultra-white mean babyface challenger who is inevtably underestimated by the champ. However, adding an extra dimension to this feud is the arsenal of hard hitting moves that Roderick Strong brings to the table. In a lot of ways Strong is a traditional babyface in pursuit of a belt, however he also has some of the most intense chops and backbreakers in the business which gives him a real edge and creates for a fantastic dynamic. Despite going on at well past midnight, this match lasts almost to the full 60 minute time limit draw and in a lot of ways ROH were very sensible not to go the full 60 minutes with this match. The appeal is in Roderick taking Dragon to the limit, however he has to win at the end for the feud to work. Unlike Joe vs Punk a draw is noe considered precitable, but ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky has managed to keep this feud fresh and interesting despite Strong losing all their one on one encounters to date.

So there you have the media's choice and the fan's choice, however there is one other sleeper match which was almost lost in the mix on this weekend of stellar matches. That match is AJ Styles and Matt Sydal vs. Austin Aries and Jack Evans. On paper this looked a filler match as both teams treded water between Dragon Gate matches. However with the calibre of talent on offer and the new found resurgance of tag team wrestling in ROH, this match could well be as good, if not better than the Dragon Gate match. Managing to eclipse the Aries/Strong vs. Styles/Sydal match from the Fourth Anniversary and putting together a phenomenal match involving 4 of ROH's most exciting and innovative talents. The climax of the match with Styles clashing Evans on the floor, only to have Aries hit a suicide dive on Styles before Sydal hits a beautiful shooting star press on Jack Evans who had been dumped in the ring by Styles was one of the most electric finishes to a match I have ever seen proves once and for all that ROH does not need to rely on wrestlers from overseras to provide the spectacle for their shows. They allready have the talent to put on the kind of matches that personify Dragon Gate's style and as such nit is no surprise that guys like Strong, Evans, Sydal and Aries are in demand in the Orient.

Compared to these three matches, the remainder of the card could be seen as weak, however that would be unfair. There's a fun opener with the Embassy of Alex Shelley and Jimmy Rave taking on Caludio Castagnoli and Jimmy Yang. The ROH vs. CZW feud continues with Adam Pearce vs. Necro Butcher which is the inevitable brawl. Also there is a fantastic Shimmer women's match and a very 3 way match pitting Chris Daniels, Samoa Joe and Jimmy Jacobs who was deputising for the injured BJ Whitmer which doesn't make perfect sense in terms of storlyine continuity, however Jacobs excels himself and makes the most of his oppurtunity .

Overall verdict: A-
"A few weak matches and a lengthy 3+hours running stops this from being the first ROH show to get an A+ from me, however it is a darn fine call. The Dragon Gate 6 man, the world title match and the tag match are three of the best matches you will ever see and as such eclipse the rest of the card (which in itself is not poor). A lot of new ROH fans will watch this show as a result of the hype and I cannot think of a better place for them to start. This show features everything that is great about independent pro wrestling and is the perfect calling card for the ROH product."

ROH Dragon Gate Challenge

With the wrestling business being so competitive right now, Ring of Honor has managed to differentiate itself by bringing in some of the top talent from Japan. Whether it is the like of Kenta Kobashi or KENTA from Pro Wrestling NOAH or in the case of this show, the stars of the Dragon Gate promotion like Cima and Dragon Kid, it helps add to ROH shows and makes them feel more important than being just another average indie show.

So with 3 shows in 3 days over Wrestlemania weekend this March, ROH brought in 6 of the stars from Dragon Gate and put on possibly the best run of shows that the company has ever run and so quite rightly this comprises the core of the Milestone Series. Dragon Gate developed from the ashes of Ultimo Dragon's Toryumon promotion and is in many ways the Japanese equivalent of ROH. Based around high impact tag matches between rival stables, Dragon Gate fuses the best of the junior style of Japan with the lucha style of Mexico, and prides itself on being the cutting edge of wrestling in Japan, just as ROH is fast becoming in the US.

The weekend started with Dragon Gate Challenge in Detroit on the Friday and was headlined by a series of matches featuring ROH stars taking on the stars of Dragon Gate. Jimmy Yang started the show for ROH taking on Ryo Saito, while later in the evening AJ Styles and Matt Sydal took on Dragon Kid and Genki Horiguchi of the Do Fixer faction. Then, in the rubber match Generation Next of Jack Evans, Roderick Strong and Austin Aries took on the Blood Generation faction comprising Cima, Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino. All 3 of these matches really showed the fans what to expect from these Dragon Gate stars and, perhaps with the exception of the Yang vs. Saito match, would exemplify the high impact, innovative wrestling that the Dragon Gate stars would bring to ROH. Fortunately fo the health of ROH as ao company in it's own right, the ROH guys more than held their own against the stars from the Orient and produced the kind of matches that on any other show would have been matches of the year. (Not to mention earning themselves future bookings for Dragon Gate in Japan) So good were these matches over this weekend, that everytime one ended and the crowd had finished chanting 'this is awesome' another match would eclipse it and create yet another gold standard for the ROH fans to judge future matches by.

As well as the Dragon Gate stars, there were a number of important matches for current ROH stars. Samoa Joe and Chris Daniels faced off for what was billed as their final series of matches in ROH and the Friday saw the pair face off one on one for 'the last time'. Unfortunately because this feud was delayed from earlier in the year when Joe was out with a staph infection, this lacked a lot of the drama that 2 ROH legends who have been feuding for over 2 years should have garnered. I also think the Dragon Gate tag matches as well as Joe and Daniels' work in TNA also over shadowed them and, despite having some technically very strong matches, they failed to deliver the kind of matches you would expect from men of their ability.

The other major feud that would develop through the weekend would be Colt Cabana vs. Homicide. Another feud which was delayed in reaching it's climax by an injury, however by having Colt Cabana taking on Homicide in his own home territory of the mid west, it made for a real slow boiling feud that would culminate in a fantastic match at the end of the weekend. For this opening night though, a falls count anywhere match was the opening chapter of this weekend long feud and so perhaps it is unfair to say it was a dissapoint becasue looking at the bigger picture it was just the start of something really strong. However as match on it's own it didn't really go anywhere and lacked a strong finish.

In other matches the Embassy of Jimmy Rave and Alex Shelley took on ROH champion Bryan Danielson and a partner of his choice. Danielson arrogantly chose Delirious, believing he could win with any partner, even someone who has never won in ROH and this set-up an interesting story for future shows between Dragon and Delirious when the masked man lost the match for his team. The show also saw BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs escape serious injury when they fell from the top rope attempting a power bomb in a real must see/car crash type moment and the ROH vs. CZW feud also continued with appearances from Chris Hero and Necro Butcher who confronted Hero's former best friend Claudio Castagnoli.

Overall verdict: B+
"Running three shows in three days was a huge gamble for ROH and this debut show would set the tone for the weekend. Featuring a great mix of strong wrestling, some crazy brawling and some truly staggering, innovative wrestling from the Dragon Gate stars. This is often the forgotten show of the trio because of the two that would follow it, however that is perhaps unfair, as this is just as strong a show from top to bottom as any show of that weekend and in fact any show in ROH's history. A perfect place to start for any new fan looking to get into ROH and a must have for any true ROH fan."