Tape opens up with a Raven promo. This tape continued the storylines from the 8/9 show and was the second tape featuring the "Who attacked Lucy?" mystery. At the end of the 8/9 show, a note saying "Rust never sleeps" closed the show. Raven talks about Rust Never Sleeps, and shows his tattoo of the slogan. Raven says he didn't attack Lucy, but he doesn't care about who did, and thinks it was great that Lucy got mauled. Raven has had enough of CM Punk, and his accusations and talks about his upcoming Clockwork Orange match with CM Punk at the next ROH show. Raven closes the promo out talking about the damage that will be inflicted on CM Punk.
Pretty good promo that got the point across, but then again, the promo was cut by one of the best ever talkers in wrestling.

We cut over to Rob Feinstein, who is talking about how some girl said his schlong was 8 inches, but he told her no way, it was 12. RF realizes that he's being filmed, and gets serious. RF says to the camera man to get some promos for the show, and talk to Ki. This was before the Ki/ROH incident. All of a sudden CM Punk comes out and confronts RF. He demands to know what happened to Lucy. Punk says he missed one ROH show, because he was in Japan, and this is what happens. He threatens RF and tells him he better find out. RF says he's on top of the investigation. The Outcast Killahs come out and save Rob and interrupt Punk. CM Punk says, "Go away Special K." Funny shit. Outcast Killahs tell Punk to have a beer, and the straightedge Punk flips out and beats the crap out of the Killahs. Punk then puts his hands on RF and says he better take care of this.
Punk is easily my favorite wrestler to watch promos of. Myers told me about Punk before he blew up, and I gotta say I jumped on the Punk bandwagon as well. The guy always gets his point across and is a classic heel.

We then go to Special K. Deranged, who is the unofficial leader says that Special K needs more girls. Becky Bayless, who is "drugged up", goes along with it. All of Special K wants more poontang in the group. Special K walks around and tries to recruit Alexis Laree. Laree flips out at Special K's offer, and talks about honor and how Special K are a disgrace to the ROH promotion. While Alexis is screaming at the male members of Special K, Becky spikes her drink. Alexis winds up throwing her drink, nixing Becky's spike. Alexis has enough of Special K's foolishness and challenges Becky to match later in the night. Becky accepts and Alexis storms off. After Alexis leaves, Becky questions wrestling Alexis tonight...
Another good promo. I'm telling you, once ROH gets a ROHtron or some sort of way to interact these backstage skits to the live fans, ROH will take it to a whole new level.

Onto the action.

Homicide d. Prince Nana
PREMATCH: Nana comes out. Homicide interrupts this match and calls out Corino with strong emotion. Homicide wants Corino so bad and calls him out. Out comes Guillotine LeGrande, who is confronted by ROH agent, Gary Michael Capetta. GMC calls LeGrande Corino's best friend, which LeGrande refutes, and says that CW Anderson is Corino's best friend, but you can't say CW's name in ROH anymore. Crowd somewhat pops for that. LeGrande says that Corino is here and is getting a massage right now and will see Homicide later. Homicide says he wants Corino now and he'll take LeGrande's ass. LeGrande leaves after cutting a good promo.
Homicide is in the ring with Nana. Nana is pissed that Homicide interrupted his segment. Homicide snaps and this is how we start the match. The match was pretty short, and Nana got in his usual offense in, until Homicide went fucking bezerk and outwrestled Nana. He puts Nana in the STF, and Nana taps out, giving Homicide the win.
POSTMATCH: Homicide isn't phased and is livid about Corino. RF comes out and says don't worry Corino is here and tries to calm Homicide down to no avail. Homicide screams about Corino some more before eventually leaving. There is no doubt that Homicide was ROHs MVP for 2003, which is one of the reasons why he won the DOI 2003 Year End Award as Wrestler of The Year. Good way to set up the main event.

Cut to the back where Devito and HC Loc are hanging out. Devito talks about how pissed he is that he missed the Dayton show due to his real life job. Loc is pissed cause he had to team up with Special K and got pinned in Dayton. Both men agree to go nuts tonight and win the scramble match coming up later on in the show.

The Purists (John Walters/Tony Mamaluke) d. Dunn/Marcos
In the middle of the match, the tape skips through a minute or so of the match. The announcers said that would be the only time that happens tonight. I liked how they acknowledged the tape skipping, instead of blatantly ignoring it. The Purists were on fire and worked many submission holds into this match. In one point in the match, Tony Mamaluke had Dunn over his shoulders in the LOD position, and Walters came up from behind and hit the Lungblower. That came out fucking hot. The Purists get the win when Dunn taps out to a full nelson from Walters and a leg lock by Mamaluke. Excellent moves by the Purists in this one, and this was more of a respectable squash than anything else.

We go to the locker room where Dan Maff talks about Low Ki. This was a killer promo, but lost some of its affect as it went on for 5 minutes too long, in my opinion. Maff talks about training with Low Ki. He tells Low Ki that he is not Mafia no more. There is no more Da Hit Squad. It's only about Dan Maff and The Prophecy. Maff then takes a page from Eddie Guerrero and says that he asked his daughter who her favorite wrestler was, and his daughter said Low Ki. This infuriates Maff, and he can't wait to destroy Low Ki later on tonight.

Winner gets into the Field of Honor Tournament
BJ Whitmer and Matt Stryker wrestled to a 15 minute draw.
Funny how both of these guys would go on to win their respective FOH blocks. Was this match an allusion to the future? If not, now it is lol. This was a PAW match. Excellent job by both guys. BJ Whitmer is one tough mofo. Stryker is a wrestling mad man. Finish sees both guys go for a double forearm, which both knock each other out. The ref begins the 10 count, as both guys are on their back looking at the lights. Once the referee gets to 6, the bell rings. The announcer says the time limit is up.
POSTMATCH: The annoucer says since both guys were counted out, no one would go to FOH. The crowd boos. GMC comes out and says that since the match quality was so high, both men would be moving onto FOH illiciting a positive response from the crowd.

ROH Scramble Match
Izzy/Dixie w/all of Special K d. Loc/Devito, The SAT and The Backseat Boys
Lots of big moves in this one, including the Spanish Fly and the quick and precise double teaming by the Backseats. I thought the scramble at the 11/28 show was stronger, but this was a good runner up. All teams hit their big moves and looked good. Dixie pinned Kashmere for the win.

As Special K are celebrating their victory, and all the other teams went to the back, out came Alexis Laree and this set up...

Alexis Laree d. Becky Bayless
Probably safe to say that this was one of Alexis's weaker matches. Becky looked lost in the ring, but then again, that's the character she portrays, so she could always be waiting to have a blowaway match to wow the fans. This tape, isn't the time however. Special K intereferes throughout the match, but Alexis is able to take care of them. Alexis hits an inverted DDT and pins Becky in about 2 or so minutes.

For the ROH #1 Contenders Trophy
Battle of the Prophecy
"The Fallen Angel" Chris Daniels w/Allison Danger d. Xavier
PREMATCH: Both guys cut promos on each other, with Daniels getting the better of it.
PAW match. The wrestling in this one was superb. Lots of submissions. Daniels missed his triple jump moonsault. Xavier hit Daniels with everything he got. Cool finish in this one, with Daniels beating Xavier at his own game. Xavier pulled Daniels tights while going for the cover, only to get it broken up by the ref. Daniels then rolled up Xavier and pulled his tights, which the ref didn't see, giving Daniels the win and the number 1 contender status.

Intermission. Funny how ROH has intermissions on their tapes lol. GMC goes to interview Steve Corino. He asks about Corino's condition and brings up comments that LeGrande made earlier. Corino and LeGrande kick GMC out of their locker room.

Deranged d. Johnny Storm, Hydro (Jay Lethal in other places) and Slyk Wagner Brown w/April Hunter
Match started with Special K members, Deranged and Jay Lethal trying to pin each other. Both falls got broken up by Storm and Slyk respectively. Funny shit. It was good to see Slyk work high quality talent, as opposed to some of the guys he's been toiling with on the Showcase cards. Some cool moves were Slyk stretching Hydro, by draping himself over the rope only to have Deranged get Slyk in a neck submission. Storm then put Deranged in a single leg boston crab. Cool shit. Deranged eventually pins Storm for the win. One of ROH's better 4 ways. Probably the best 4 way that didn't include Homicide.

We go to a CM Punk promo, and he discusses his future with Raven. We then go to the next match.

NON Title Match
ROH Champion, Samoa Joe d. CM Punk
I thought it weakened CM Punk by losing this match, since he has a huge feud with Raven and was in the middle of the "Who attacked Lucy?" mystery. Joe did his charging boot to the face on the three corners of the outside guard rails. Joe made short work of Punk and finished him off with a stiff single leg Boston Crab that could've seriously pulled some ligaments in Punks leg.

Homicide d. Steve Corino
PREMATCH: Corino did his entrance, with this time, his announcer listing every title he ever held.
Wow what a fucking match. This match was one of the runner-ups in the DOI Year End awards, and after watching it again, we made the right choice. This match was an absolute fucking bloodbath. This match told a great story and was one of the matches that made ROH stand out all year. Homicide's face look like he got shot with a gun. It was complete red. Homicide stabbed Corino in his left arm, and Corino gushed like a fucking motherfucker. Midway through the match, Corino wanted to get away from Homicide and went to the back. He was cut off by Julius Smokes. Julius Smokes has perfected his role as Homicide's corner man. (Corner man is a much more appropriate word for Smokes than manager) Finish sees Homicide fight to get the STF on before finally locking it in. Corino wouldn't tap. Shades of Backlund ran wild, as Guillotine LeGrande threw in the towel, signafying defeat and awarding the match to Homicide. Excellent match that should be seen by any wrestling fan.
POSTMATCH: Both men are cleaned up as best as possible in the ring, and given plenty of water. Homicide stands strong over Corino in an impactful visual.

Low Ki d. Dan Maff
This is one of the most talked about matches and incidents after the match this year. As far as the match, it told a pretty good story, but after a stiff strong kick to Maff's head, the match was over. Low Ki knocked Maff out with a kick. Both men have told different versions of the story. Both are available in the interview section where both men discuss it. From seeing it a few times, it looked like the kick knocked Maff loopy. As Maff landed, he landed right on his noggin, and his head bounced off the ring. I agree with Maff that it takes a shot like that to knock you down, but I see Low Ki's point as far as the bounce back of Maffs head on the ring. Either way, a scary incident, that thankfully, wasn't as serious as it was first made out to be. (Not that Maff being knocked out wasn't serious, I'm talking about retirement/long term injury) It's too bad ROH and Low Ki have had their differences as this rematch would surely put asses in the seats.

Cut to a promo with Chris Daniels who says that Dan Maff is a prime example of what the Prophecy stands for. He says that Maff took Low Ki's best, and is able to talk about it. Punk comes into Daniels locker room and says that he heard that he was the one who attacked Lucy. Daniels says he didn't. Punk then cuts a promo on Raven to close the tape.

Final McWord
An excellent tape. I highly advise anyone to pick it up. I think ROH's tapes are stronger than their live shows, as ROH is able to really showcase their angles on their tapes. The backstage stuff is great and really captivating. I thought the Homicide/Corino was the match of the night, odd, because it wasn't a pure wrestling match like most ROH matches. This was a really great show. I think Punk is lucky to be able to walk after that single leg crab Joe gave him. This was one of ROH's stronger shows of the year. To get the tape, go to this link directly:
http://www.rfvideo.com/merchant/index.cfm?action=moreinfo&id=8051

To find out more about ROH, including their big show with Great Muta, go to
http://www.rohwrestling.com

I'm outtie, expect a ROH 9/6 Tape Review soon.

Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com