A Brief History of ROH
Ring of Honor is todays most successful independent wrestling promotion. It is home to the premier indy talent across the world and has given rise to several of todays greatest athletes, including AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Homicide, and current World Heavyweight Champion, CM Punk. It is, undeniably, todays number three promotion and has been hailed by many as the new occupant of the niche ECW once held that of an alternative to the mainstream, a place for fans displeased with the product offered by the top promotions or who just want to see something different. While the top promotions of today offer sports entertainment, ROH harkens back to more of a pure wrestling style.
Ring of Honor is not particularly well known in todays wrestling world. Its known of by many, but as far as a real knowledge of it goes, its lacking, both to the general wrestling world and to WrestleZone forums. I cant do much about the wrestling world, but I can endeavor to promote a deeper knowledge and hopefully, a wider fanbase, here on WrestleZone forums.
This thread, a history of Ring of Honor, is going to be the first of several threads I hope will acquaint people with ROH better. Ill go year by year discussing ROHs history and its greatest shows and matches from that year. Ill do my best to put up videos, or links to said videos, but ROH videos online are a bear to find, and the further you go back, the harder it is. So, while I will deliver you online videos when I can, Ill also supplant this with my year by year DVD recommendations, if youre interested in seeing the action for yourself.
Without further ado, lets begin.
2002
To fully understand the beginning of ROH, we must first understand the end of ECW. There are two very important characters in the final days of ECW who would become the instrumental players in the founding of ROH. Not merely these two men, but the absence of ECW itself, created the primordial soup, if you will, out of which comes ROH.
The northeastern independent scene was shattered when ECW collapsed. A plethora of companies rose to try to fill the gap, but no one really could. Companies like XPW, JAPW, CZW, 3PW, and MLW had all risen up to fill the hardcore gap (most of these promotions were hardcore based, though JAPW and MLW Jersey All Pro Wrestling and Major League Wrestling tried for a more moderate style). These all had different levels of success, but none of them could really get the job done. 2002, however, would see developments that changed the game entirely.
The man primarily responsible for ROH (and almost responsible for its destruction youll see why in later years) was Mr. Rob Feinstein. Feinstein was the owner of RF Video, a tape distributor responsible for various shoot interviews and best of collections, as well as videos of a random assortment of indy federations. RF Videos greatest income, however, came from distributing ECW videos and selling them, along with their other products, at ECW live events. When ECW collapsed, Feinstein not only lost the most valuable resource in his catalog, but his best sales locations. He realized that he needed a popular independent federation to attach himself to, much like ECW, if he wanted to succeed.
Enter Primary Suspect #2, Mr. Gabe Sapolsky. During ECWs tenure, he was an assistant booker to Paul Heyman, and with his own creative mind and ECW experience, his was a powerful booking mind. Having worked with RF Video during his time in ECW, he had a business relationship with Feinstein. Feinstein used his money to open a new independent federation, and hired Sapolsky (henceforth known as Gabe, because Sapolsky is annoying to spell) to book it. Their promotion was known as Ring of Honor, and it was about to step into the gap ECW left and take over the northeastern independent scene.
ROHs direction was to be the exact opposite of what the major promotions were. The ROH outlook was that sports entertainment had taken over, with storylines and backstage segments becoming the focus of the show, and the in ring action a secondary consideration. ROH hoped to offer a product that changed this, bringing back an old school approach that would make what happens in the ring the focus, and make the storylines an accessory to that.
ROH also introduced something radically different that was something of a gamble with the traditionally hardcore Philadelphia crowds. This was the Code of Honor, which became a central focus of the early ROH days. It is as follows:
1) Wrestlers must shake hands before and after every match.
2) No interfering or having others interfere on your behalf.
3) No harming an official or causing others to harm an official.
4) No sneak attacks.
5) Do not get yourself disqualified.
This established ROHs in ring work as the top consideration, banning many of the things that cause matches to go south and become accessories to the entertainment side interference, taking out official, sneak attacks, disqualifications, etc., etc. It also provided an easy way to garner heat with the hand shaking rule heels were able to get a lot of heat from just not shaking hands.
The very first ROH show went down on February 23, 2002. Entitled The Era of Honor Begins, the show opened with the Christopher Street Connection. An inauspicious name, but a very auspicious tag team, the CSC were a pair of open, raging homosexuals. They introduced ROH as the Ring of Homosexuality, and were instantly reviled by the crowd. It wasnt long, however, before Da Hit Squad (one of ROHs early tag teams) came out and destroyed them. Their no nonsense attitude led to the proclamation that ROH could kiss sports entertainments ass goodbye, and set the theme for ROHs future.
The night featured two of ROHs best in the early days, Jay Briscoe and Amazing Red, go at it early in the card. Briscoe remains to this day a big part of ROH and I think a big part of its future (more on that later), and Amazing Red was a major part of the original ROH and also a big part of TNAs X Division. The real draw of the show, however, and the match that looped all the ex-ECW fans into coming to see the plethora of then unknown talent, was Super Crazy vs Eddie Guerrero for the IWA Intercontinental Championship. Both, of course, were former ECW mainstays and well known even to casual fans, and their match, the semi main event, was the real draw of this show. Super Crazy won the title from Guerrero in the match.
While SC v Eddie was the draw, the main event was the unexpected punch. It featured a three way between the three men that would become the foundation laying stars of ROH, then unknowns Low Ki, American Dragon Bryan Danielson, and Christopher Daniels. Low Ki scored the win with a pin on Daniels, who established himself as a heel soon after by not shaking Low Kis hands and claiming it took two men to beat him. American Dragon and Low Ki agreed to a three man Round Robin tournament at the next show, Round Robin Challenge, which produced, again, three classic matches between these three fathers of ROH, but the tournament ended with each man going 1-1, furthering this feud.
Low Ki soon established himself as something of the frontrunner between the three, with two wins over Daniels, and a win over newcomer AJ Styles at the third show, Night of Appreciation. At NoA, Daniels lost to Donovan Morgan, and Dragon lost a Texas Wrestling Academy Gaunlet, featuring former students of the TWA. Dragon lost the final portion of the match to Spanky, Brian Kendrick. Guerrero also made his last appearance in ROH that night, teaming with Amazing Red to beat the SAT. Afterwards he gave a speech putting over ROH, but he was leaving to return to the WWE, meaning that ROHs top draw was out and it was up to the young guns of the indy scene to make the company succeed. On the same night, ROH announced a tournament to take place over the next two shows to determine the first ever ROH Champion.
It wasnt long before Christopher Daniels established himself as ROHs top heel. He disrespected everything ROH stood for, especially the Code of Honor, and declared his mission was to remake ROH according to his visions. He formed ROHs first of many stables, the Prophecy, and his first member was Donovan Morgan.
ROHs next show was Road to the Title, which determined the four challengers for the ROH title at the next show, where the ROH World Championship would be decided in a Four Man 60 Minute Iron Man match. Daniels scored a win over Scoot Andrews and then AJ Styles to advance to the finals. Spanky won over future tag team partner Paul London and Jody Fleisch to advance, Doug Williams beat Jay Briscoe and American Dragon to advance, and Low Ki defeated Prince Nana and Amazing Red for the final spot. The match was made for Crowning a Champion Daniels vs Spanky vs Williams vs Low Ki. At the show, Daniels was seconds away from winning, as he held Low Ki in a finisher submission hold as time ran out. Had Low Ki submitted, the points would have gone in favor of Daniels, but Low Ki held on and won the match, becoming ROH World Champion.
The loss to Low Ki caused Daniels to take a different path. With his newly founded Prophecy, and tag team partner Donavan Morgan, Daniels made the intent known that he was after the ROH World Tag Team Championship, to be decided at Unscripted. Meanwhile, before that, at Honor Invades Boston, AJ Styles challenged for the ROH World Title, but lost to Low Ki, establishing him as one of ROHs top talents. AJ, of course, was also a big part of NWA/TNA at this time, but of course, indies are territorial based on region, so going from the Northeast to the Midsouth region was totally normal. AJ was always more based in TNA than he was ROH, but most of ROHs top talent was focused there rather than TNA. AJ was a nice additional draw and obviously a top athlete, of course.
Come Unscripted time it was a one night tournament for new champions. Big things happened at this show, but lets first look at the tag titles. The Prophecy of Daniels and Morgan defeated the SAT in the first round, Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka in the semifinals, and American Dragon & Mike Modest in the finals to become the first ever ROH Tag Team Champions. This established one very important thing in ROH the tag titles are on a big level, comparable to the world title. Throughout ROH history the tag titles have been the main event, over the world title, and you now have the top heel in ROH, Daniels, winning a tag title instead of the world title, and letting a subordinate of his stable win the world title (youll see in a moment).
Earlier in the night at Unscripted, Low Ki had accepted the challenge of the fairplaying face, Xavier, for the title. However, when it looked like Low Ki had Xavier beat, Xavier defied the Code, brought Low Ki out of the ring, and smashed him in the ribs with a cement block. He then put Low Ki in the ring, hit a 450 splash, and covered him for one, two, three, to become the ROH World Champion. To cap it off, Xavier then joined the Prophecy, and with the tag championship win, the Prophecy cemented their dominance in ROH.
The Prophecy, as heels, often went without defending their titles and when they did, it was on their terms only. The Prophecys first tag title defense was a six man match, against all the rules, at All-Star Extravaganza, against Homicide, Low Ki, and Doug Williams. At the previous show, Glory by Honor, Daniels had defeated Williams, with the stipulation being that Williams was now banned from shaking hands, thus forced to break the Code of Honor. Xavier lost his first match as champion to Jay Briscoe, then jobber, in a non title match. Xavier would go on to pick up title wins over Briscoe, Styles, and Paul London, however. At the end of 2002, Xavier still stood as ROH Champion but it wasnt going to be long before things changed, big time.
Glory by Honor was a landmark show, because future ROH megastar and world champion Samoa Joe made his debut as the Prophecys hired muscle. Standing at 62 and 280 pounds, he was an intimidating force. From the start, however, Joe established that he didnt agree with the Prophecy he just wanted their money. At Glory by Honor, Joe wrestled Low Ki in a classic, brutal match. Low Ki picked up the win, but Joe came out looking nasty.
Around this time, the ROH title scene coalesced and the roster of contenders was big. Low Ki wanted his rematch, and he was joined by eager contenders, American Dragon, Doug Williams, AJ Styles, Paul London, Michael Shane, Steve Corino, Homicide, and Jay Briscoe. ROH officials decided that, in order to stop random contenders getting a title shot like Xavier, to establish a permanent position of #1 Contender, represented by a trophy. Instead of a secondary title, this number one contenders trophy became ROHs version of an IC or US Championship. At All-Star Extravaganza, the first #1 Contender was established, with the winner of a gauntlet going on to face AJ Styles for the right of being Number 1 Contender. The gauntlet winner was American Dragon, who outlasted several opponents, the notable moment occurring when CM Punk made his debut, and after the match when Tommy Dreamer appeared and gave a speech on ROH and ECW. Later in the night, AJ Styles defeated American Dragon to become the first #1 contender. At Scramble Madness, AJ defended the title against Daniels, but lost to Xavier in his title match at Night of the Butcher (which featured the one and only Abdullah the Butcher in the main event). Because AJ cashed in, he surrendered the trophy, and a one night tournament ended with Paul London defeating American Dragon to become the new #1 contender. London surrendered the trophy at Final Battle 2002, and failed to defeat Xavier. The main event that night was a Four Corner Survival match for the trophy between Steve Corino, Low Ki, American Dragon, and Samoa Joe. However, after 45 minutes, the match ended in a time limit draw, sending ROH into 2002 with a reviled champion and no contender to face him.
While the world title was a huge part of ROH in 2002, the tag titles were no less important. The biggest teams in ROH, outside of the champions, the Prophecy, were Da Hit Squad (Monster Mack and Mafia), the Natural Born Sinners (Homicide and Boogalou), and the Carnage Crew (ECW Alumni HC Loc and Tony DeVito). Da Hit Squad has opened ROHs very first show and set the theme for the entire promotion. The Carnage Crew was created during an incident with the Sinners, however, during a match between the Natural Born Sinners and the Boogie Knights. The referee was former ECW ref HC Loc, and while the Sinners dominated the match, they began to humiliate the Knights, leading Loc to DQ them. The Sinners reacted violently, beating the hell out of Loc. Also a part of the tag team scene were the SAT (Jose & Joel Maximo), and Divine Storm (Chris Divine and Quiet Storm).
Chaos in the division and everyone claiming they were, in fact, the dominant ROH tag team led to the only logical place to go, crowning ROH Tag Team Champions. At Unscripted, a tag team tournament went down to crown the first ever champions. The Prophecy of Christopher Daniels and Donovan Morgan would go on to win the tournament, but another big development came about when the scheduled match of the Sinners vs Da Hit Squad never started because of the Carnage Crew jumping the both of them. The Sinners never got back, as Boogalou left for XPW and never returned. Da Hit Squad would return to fight another day, however. Homicide would go on to be a force in the singles division.
The Carnage Crew soon became the top contenders in the division, although the SAT would gain, and lose, a tag team championship match before they did, defeating Da Hit Squad in a Falls Count Anywhere match at Glory by Honor, squashing Dunn & Marcos in a Bunkhouse Match at All-Star Extravaganza, and winning a six-man with Masada over Alex Arion, Don Juan & Fast Eddie. The message was very clear the Carnage Crew were the team to beat in ROH, and they wanted gold. Homicide, however, was still pissed about losing his tag team partner, and wanted a match with the Carnage Crew with his new partner, hardcore legend, Abdullah the Butcher. Homicide and the Butcher won the hardcore match, but it was only a one night appearance for Butcher. As 2002 ended, a new force rose in the tag team division Special K.
Special K began at the early ROH shows, as Mikey Whipreck students the SAT, Divine Storm, and Amazing Red were pushed as major parts of ROH. In addition, Brian XL hung around with the Whipwreck students, though not himself a Whipwreck protégé. However, Brian XL was frequently unappreciated by the proper Whipwreck students, and began to get frustrated over it. At Night of Appreciation, after the Amazing Red & Eddie Guerrero tag team victory, Brian XL declared how angry he was that since he wasnt a Whipwreck protégé, he didnt get to team with Guerrero that night. In an impromptu, quick match with Guerrero, Brian XL was defeated. After this loss, Brian XL went to New York and picked up his raver buddies, the first of which was Dixie. Special K debuted to attack the Whipwreck trainees, but soon after, Brian XL himself started to appear less frequently. Dixie, however, gathered an enormous contingent of raver buddies, among them Izzy, Deranged, Angel Dust, Slim J, Elax, Lit, and later Joey Matthews and Jodie Fleisch, as well as several other, often unnamed rotating members of the group. Special K, of course, had no concern for the Code of Honor, so the enormous group would often jump opponents in 8-1 or more situations. In a match featuring one member of Special K, there could be as many as 10 or more Special K members outside the ring. Special K would find its way int Scramble matches that allowed for enormous double teaming, enabling the huge group to get itself into matches. Because of the sheer number of Special K members, it was easy for them to swap in and out without the referee knowing, letting them pick up cheap victories. Though Brian XL decreased his involvement, Special K continued the war with the Whipwreck students into 2003.
Interestingly enough, one of WWEs staunchest veterans is responsible for a huge number of ROHs early talent and thus, their early success. After his back injury put him out for years, Shawn Michaels founded the Texas Wrestling Academy, which produced a number of top ROH talent, perhaps the greatest among them none other than American Dragon, Bryan Danielson. Dragon, of course, participated in the first ROH main event and went 1-1 in the Round Robin Challenge against ROHs top names, Low Ki and Christopher Daniels. Dragons involvement was limited with fellow TWA students, who otherwise stuck together. Michael Shane, Spanky, and Paul London were all also TWA graduates and they stuck together. At The Era of Honor Begins, Spanky and Ikaika Loa would beat Michael Shane and Oz, and Spanky, having earned the deciding fall, earned an ROH contract, joining the roster as a mainstay. At Night of Appreciation, Paul London debuted in the TWA Gauntlet, beating John Hope in the first match of the gauntlet, but Shane then defeated London, before losing to Spanky, who defeated American Dragon to win. Spanky (later known as Brian Kendrick) continued to impress as he qualified for the finals of the ROH Championship tournament, beating Paul London and then Jody Fleisch to advance to the Ironman Match, where he failed to gain the title. At Crowning a Champion, Biohazard and Don Juan, other TWA students, also debuted, and Spanky would soon return to feud with the TWA students. Michael Shane quickly separated himself from the rest of the TWA contingent, feuding with Paul London, leading to a loss to London in an outstanding Street Fight at Unscripted. Shane soon recovered, however, with a win over Spanky and London in a three way at Glory by Honor. With this victory, Shane earned the right to the nickname of Showstopper (earned by blood relation to Shawn Michaels), which was a central point of the TWA feud. A final street fight between Gonzalez & London and Spanky & Biohazard, ending with the Gonzalez and London win, ended the feud and sent London on to world title contention (he would challenge and lose to Xavier for the ROH Championship).
2002 was a huge start for ROH. At the end of 2002, the WWF became the WWE, and the name change saw a marked drop in quality in the eyes of many. Upstart TNA was bleeding money by way of overpaid stars and a PPV only format. ROH, however, set out to do exactly what it intended to do fill the ECW and Northeastern indy niche, and it not only survived, but thrived. The end of 2002 left the status of ROHs storylines up in the air, with the Prophecy keeping a strangehold on all the gold in ROH. Final Battle 2002 left four top contenders with an official one among them to claim the status - American Dragon, Steve Corino, Low Ki, and Samoa Joe. Meanwhile, Paul London had solidified himself as the top TWA graduate, and Homicide had come off a brutal victory over the Carnage Crew, and was ready to end his tag team days and become a threat to the title. UK visitor Doug Williams was an infrequent, but stalwart competitor, and his few appearances had made him a force to be reckoned with.
The tag team championships were still firmly in hand of the Prophecy at the end of 2002, Morgan and Daniels having repelled all comers. They werent short of challengers, however the Carnage Crew, Da Hit Squad, and the Backseat Boyz from CZW all wanted a shot. Special K was a wildcard, and on the rise were Amazing Red, Jay Briscoe, Michael Shane, Spanky, and AJ Styles. Also upcoming at the end of 2002 were Mark Briscoe, soon turning 18 and able to legally wrestle, the team of Chicagos own Colt Cabana and CM Punk, and Chad Collyer, a Dean Malenko student.
2002 is summed up best by the name of ROHs first show the Era of Honor Begins. ECW had left behind a gap, and ROH firmly stepped through and made a statement, beginning an era of honor in the northeastern independents, and eventually, it would come to dominate the entire US (and Canadian, to some extent) independent wrestling scene. In 2003, the company would evolve even further, crowning several new champions, producing a slew of classic matches, and even tentatively testing expansion outside the Northeast, with a show in Midwestern Ohio.
Id love to provide you with some matches, but theyre bloody hard to find from 2002. Fortunately for you, most of these shows are available from ROHs online store at a discounted price of 15 dollars apiece, and let me tell you, this is some classic wrestling right here. Unfortunately, some of the shows are missing, including Crowning a Champion and other great shows. Missing from ROHs store, and generally hard to find, are the Round Robin Challenge, Night of Appreciation, Crowning a Champion, and Honor Invades Boston. However, everything else from 2002 is available, and for those of you interested in exploring the very earliest of ROH, heres my thoughts on the best of 2002. My rankings are drawn only from the selection available at the ROH store. Ill just let you know these are all so close the separation of #1 to #8 isnt very far at all. Youd be hard pressed to find a bad show in here.
1. Glory by Honor (Low Ki vs Samoa Joe, Xavier vs Briscoe, Carnage Crew vs Da Hit Squad, Shane vs Spanky vs London, Daniels vs Williams)
2. All Star Extravaganza (#1 Contenders Gauntlet, Xavier vs Briscoe, Danielson vs Styles, Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka vs. Steve Corino & Low Ki
3. The Era of Honor Begins (Briscoe vs Red, Super Crazy vs Eddie Guerrero, Low Ki vs Bryan Danielson vs Christopher Daniels)
4. Final Battle 2002 (CM Punk vs Colt Cabana, Xavier vs Paul London, Bryan Danielson vs. Low Ki vs. Samoa Joe vs. Steve Corino)
5. Unscripted (Low Ki vs Xavier, Paul London vs Michael Shane, Tag Team Tournament featuring Daniels & Morgan vs Dragon & Modest in finals)
6. Night of the Butcher (CM Punk vs Colt Cabana, Paul London vs American Dragon, Xavier vs AJ Styles, Homicide & Abdullah the Butcher vs. The Carnage Crew)
7. Road to the Title (Spanky vs London, Amazing Red vs Xavier, AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn, Doug Williams vs Bryan Danielson, Low Ki vs Amazing Red, Daniels vs Styles)
8. Scramble Madness (10 man scramble, Samoa Joe vs Homicide, AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels, Danielson vs Doug Williams)
So what do you think of ROH's first year? An impressive debut, or just a bunch of losers in high school gyms? Did they fill the void left by ECW, or can't even hope to compare? Have they succeeded since, or did they fail? Feedback welcomed, appreciated, and desired, and stay tuned for 2003 - coming soon.
Ring of Honor is todays most successful independent wrestling promotion. It is home to the premier indy talent across the world and has given rise to several of todays greatest athletes, including AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Homicide, and current World Heavyweight Champion, CM Punk. It is, undeniably, todays number three promotion and has been hailed by many as the new occupant of the niche ECW once held that of an alternative to the mainstream, a place for fans displeased with the product offered by the top promotions or who just want to see something different. While the top promotions of today offer sports entertainment, ROH harkens back to more of a pure wrestling style.
Ring of Honor is not particularly well known in todays wrestling world. Its known of by many, but as far as a real knowledge of it goes, its lacking, both to the general wrestling world and to WrestleZone forums. I cant do much about the wrestling world, but I can endeavor to promote a deeper knowledge and hopefully, a wider fanbase, here on WrestleZone forums.
This thread, a history of Ring of Honor, is going to be the first of several threads I hope will acquaint people with ROH better. Ill go year by year discussing ROHs history and its greatest shows and matches from that year. Ill do my best to put up videos, or links to said videos, but ROH videos online are a bear to find, and the further you go back, the harder it is. So, while I will deliver you online videos when I can, Ill also supplant this with my year by year DVD recommendations, if youre interested in seeing the action for yourself.
Without further ado, lets begin.
2002
To fully understand the beginning of ROH, we must first understand the end of ECW. There are two very important characters in the final days of ECW who would become the instrumental players in the founding of ROH. Not merely these two men, but the absence of ECW itself, created the primordial soup, if you will, out of which comes ROH.
The northeastern independent scene was shattered when ECW collapsed. A plethora of companies rose to try to fill the gap, but no one really could. Companies like XPW, JAPW, CZW, 3PW, and MLW had all risen up to fill the hardcore gap (most of these promotions were hardcore based, though JAPW and MLW Jersey All Pro Wrestling and Major League Wrestling tried for a more moderate style). These all had different levels of success, but none of them could really get the job done. 2002, however, would see developments that changed the game entirely.
The man primarily responsible for ROH (and almost responsible for its destruction youll see why in later years) was Mr. Rob Feinstein. Feinstein was the owner of RF Video, a tape distributor responsible for various shoot interviews and best of collections, as well as videos of a random assortment of indy federations. RF Videos greatest income, however, came from distributing ECW videos and selling them, along with their other products, at ECW live events. When ECW collapsed, Feinstein not only lost the most valuable resource in his catalog, but his best sales locations. He realized that he needed a popular independent federation to attach himself to, much like ECW, if he wanted to succeed.
Enter Primary Suspect #2, Mr. Gabe Sapolsky. During ECWs tenure, he was an assistant booker to Paul Heyman, and with his own creative mind and ECW experience, his was a powerful booking mind. Having worked with RF Video during his time in ECW, he had a business relationship with Feinstein. Feinstein used his money to open a new independent federation, and hired Sapolsky (henceforth known as Gabe, because Sapolsky is annoying to spell) to book it. Their promotion was known as Ring of Honor, and it was about to step into the gap ECW left and take over the northeastern independent scene.
ROHs direction was to be the exact opposite of what the major promotions were. The ROH outlook was that sports entertainment had taken over, with storylines and backstage segments becoming the focus of the show, and the in ring action a secondary consideration. ROH hoped to offer a product that changed this, bringing back an old school approach that would make what happens in the ring the focus, and make the storylines an accessory to that.
ROH also introduced something radically different that was something of a gamble with the traditionally hardcore Philadelphia crowds. This was the Code of Honor, which became a central focus of the early ROH days. It is as follows:
1) Wrestlers must shake hands before and after every match.
2) No interfering or having others interfere on your behalf.
3) No harming an official or causing others to harm an official.
4) No sneak attacks.
5) Do not get yourself disqualified.
This established ROHs in ring work as the top consideration, banning many of the things that cause matches to go south and become accessories to the entertainment side interference, taking out official, sneak attacks, disqualifications, etc., etc. It also provided an easy way to garner heat with the hand shaking rule heels were able to get a lot of heat from just not shaking hands.
The very first ROH show went down on February 23, 2002. Entitled The Era of Honor Begins, the show opened with the Christopher Street Connection. An inauspicious name, but a very auspicious tag team, the CSC were a pair of open, raging homosexuals. They introduced ROH as the Ring of Homosexuality, and were instantly reviled by the crowd. It wasnt long, however, before Da Hit Squad (one of ROHs early tag teams) came out and destroyed them. Their no nonsense attitude led to the proclamation that ROH could kiss sports entertainments ass goodbye, and set the theme for ROHs future.
The night featured two of ROHs best in the early days, Jay Briscoe and Amazing Red, go at it early in the card. Briscoe remains to this day a big part of ROH and I think a big part of its future (more on that later), and Amazing Red was a major part of the original ROH and also a big part of TNAs X Division. The real draw of the show, however, and the match that looped all the ex-ECW fans into coming to see the plethora of then unknown talent, was Super Crazy vs Eddie Guerrero for the IWA Intercontinental Championship. Both, of course, were former ECW mainstays and well known even to casual fans, and their match, the semi main event, was the real draw of this show. Super Crazy won the title from Guerrero in the match.
While SC v Eddie was the draw, the main event was the unexpected punch. It featured a three way between the three men that would become the foundation laying stars of ROH, then unknowns Low Ki, American Dragon Bryan Danielson, and Christopher Daniels. Low Ki scored the win with a pin on Daniels, who established himself as a heel soon after by not shaking Low Kis hands and claiming it took two men to beat him. American Dragon and Low Ki agreed to a three man Round Robin tournament at the next show, Round Robin Challenge, which produced, again, three classic matches between these three fathers of ROH, but the tournament ended with each man going 1-1, furthering this feud.
Low Ki soon established himself as something of the frontrunner between the three, with two wins over Daniels, and a win over newcomer AJ Styles at the third show, Night of Appreciation. At NoA, Daniels lost to Donovan Morgan, and Dragon lost a Texas Wrestling Academy Gaunlet, featuring former students of the TWA. Dragon lost the final portion of the match to Spanky, Brian Kendrick. Guerrero also made his last appearance in ROH that night, teaming with Amazing Red to beat the SAT. Afterwards he gave a speech putting over ROH, but he was leaving to return to the WWE, meaning that ROHs top draw was out and it was up to the young guns of the indy scene to make the company succeed. On the same night, ROH announced a tournament to take place over the next two shows to determine the first ever ROH Champion.
It wasnt long before Christopher Daniels established himself as ROHs top heel. He disrespected everything ROH stood for, especially the Code of Honor, and declared his mission was to remake ROH according to his visions. He formed ROHs first of many stables, the Prophecy, and his first member was Donovan Morgan.
ROHs next show was Road to the Title, which determined the four challengers for the ROH title at the next show, where the ROH World Championship would be decided in a Four Man 60 Minute Iron Man match. Daniels scored a win over Scoot Andrews and then AJ Styles to advance to the finals. Spanky won over future tag team partner Paul London and Jody Fleisch to advance, Doug Williams beat Jay Briscoe and American Dragon to advance, and Low Ki defeated Prince Nana and Amazing Red for the final spot. The match was made for Crowning a Champion Daniels vs Spanky vs Williams vs Low Ki. At the show, Daniels was seconds away from winning, as he held Low Ki in a finisher submission hold as time ran out. Had Low Ki submitted, the points would have gone in favor of Daniels, but Low Ki held on and won the match, becoming ROH World Champion.
The loss to Low Ki caused Daniels to take a different path. With his newly founded Prophecy, and tag team partner Donavan Morgan, Daniels made the intent known that he was after the ROH World Tag Team Championship, to be decided at Unscripted. Meanwhile, before that, at Honor Invades Boston, AJ Styles challenged for the ROH World Title, but lost to Low Ki, establishing him as one of ROHs top talents. AJ, of course, was also a big part of NWA/TNA at this time, but of course, indies are territorial based on region, so going from the Northeast to the Midsouth region was totally normal. AJ was always more based in TNA than he was ROH, but most of ROHs top talent was focused there rather than TNA. AJ was a nice additional draw and obviously a top athlete, of course.
Come Unscripted time it was a one night tournament for new champions. Big things happened at this show, but lets first look at the tag titles. The Prophecy of Daniels and Morgan defeated the SAT in the first round, Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka in the semifinals, and American Dragon & Mike Modest in the finals to become the first ever ROH Tag Team Champions. This established one very important thing in ROH the tag titles are on a big level, comparable to the world title. Throughout ROH history the tag titles have been the main event, over the world title, and you now have the top heel in ROH, Daniels, winning a tag title instead of the world title, and letting a subordinate of his stable win the world title (youll see in a moment).
Earlier in the night at Unscripted, Low Ki had accepted the challenge of the fairplaying face, Xavier, for the title. However, when it looked like Low Ki had Xavier beat, Xavier defied the Code, brought Low Ki out of the ring, and smashed him in the ribs with a cement block. He then put Low Ki in the ring, hit a 450 splash, and covered him for one, two, three, to become the ROH World Champion. To cap it off, Xavier then joined the Prophecy, and with the tag championship win, the Prophecy cemented their dominance in ROH.
The Prophecy, as heels, often went without defending their titles and when they did, it was on their terms only. The Prophecys first tag title defense was a six man match, against all the rules, at All-Star Extravaganza, against Homicide, Low Ki, and Doug Williams. At the previous show, Glory by Honor, Daniels had defeated Williams, with the stipulation being that Williams was now banned from shaking hands, thus forced to break the Code of Honor. Xavier lost his first match as champion to Jay Briscoe, then jobber, in a non title match. Xavier would go on to pick up title wins over Briscoe, Styles, and Paul London, however. At the end of 2002, Xavier still stood as ROH Champion but it wasnt going to be long before things changed, big time.
Glory by Honor was a landmark show, because future ROH megastar and world champion Samoa Joe made his debut as the Prophecys hired muscle. Standing at 62 and 280 pounds, he was an intimidating force. From the start, however, Joe established that he didnt agree with the Prophecy he just wanted their money. At Glory by Honor, Joe wrestled Low Ki in a classic, brutal match. Low Ki picked up the win, but Joe came out looking nasty.
Around this time, the ROH title scene coalesced and the roster of contenders was big. Low Ki wanted his rematch, and he was joined by eager contenders, American Dragon, Doug Williams, AJ Styles, Paul London, Michael Shane, Steve Corino, Homicide, and Jay Briscoe. ROH officials decided that, in order to stop random contenders getting a title shot like Xavier, to establish a permanent position of #1 Contender, represented by a trophy. Instead of a secondary title, this number one contenders trophy became ROHs version of an IC or US Championship. At All-Star Extravaganza, the first #1 Contender was established, with the winner of a gauntlet going on to face AJ Styles for the right of being Number 1 Contender. The gauntlet winner was American Dragon, who outlasted several opponents, the notable moment occurring when CM Punk made his debut, and after the match when Tommy Dreamer appeared and gave a speech on ROH and ECW. Later in the night, AJ Styles defeated American Dragon to become the first #1 contender. At Scramble Madness, AJ defended the title against Daniels, but lost to Xavier in his title match at Night of the Butcher (which featured the one and only Abdullah the Butcher in the main event). Because AJ cashed in, he surrendered the trophy, and a one night tournament ended with Paul London defeating American Dragon to become the new #1 contender. London surrendered the trophy at Final Battle 2002, and failed to defeat Xavier. The main event that night was a Four Corner Survival match for the trophy between Steve Corino, Low Ki, American Dragon, and Samoa Joe. However, after 45 minutes, the match ended in a time limit draw, sending ROH into 2002 with a reviled champion and no contender to face him.
While the world title was a huge part of ROH in 2002, the tag titles were no less important. The biggest teams in ROH, outside of the champions, the Prophecy, were Da Hit Squad (Monster Mack and Mafia), the Natural Born Sinners (Homicide and Boogalou), and the Carnage Crew (ECW Alumni HC Loc and Tony DeVito). Da Hit Squad has opened ROHs very first show and set the theme for the entire promotion. The Carnage Crew was created during an incident with the Sinners, however, during a match between the Natural Born Sinners and the Boogie Knights. The referee was former ECW ref HC Loc, and while the Sinners dominated the match, they began to humiliate the Knights, leading Loc to DQ them. The Sinners reacted violently, beating the hell out of Loc. Also a part of the tag team scene were the SAT (Jose & Joel Maximo), and Divine Storm (Chris Divine and Quiet Storm).
Chaos in the division and everyone claiming they were, in fact, the dominant ROH tag team led to the only logical place to go, crowning ROH Tag Team Champions. At Unscripted, a tag team tournament went down to crown the first ever champions. The Prophecy of Christopher Daniels and Donovan Morgan would go on to win the tournament, but another big development came about when the scheduled match of the Sinners vs Da Hit Squad never started because of the Carnage Crew jumping the both of them. The Sinners never got back, as Boogalou left for XPW and never returned. Da Hit Squad would return to fight another day, however. Homicide would go on to be a force in the singles division.
The Carnage Crew soon became the top contenders in the division, although the SAT would gain, and lose, a tag team championship match before they did, defeating Da Hit Squad in a Falls Count Anywhere match at Glory by Honor, squashing Dunn & Marcos in a Bunkhouse Match at All-Star Extravaganza, and winning a six-man with Masada over Alex Arion, Don Juan & Fast Eddie. The message was very clear the Carnage Crew were the team to beat in ROH, and they wanted gold. Homicide, however, was still pissed about losing his tag team partner, and wanted a match with the Carnage Crew with his new partner, hardcore legend, Abdullah the Butcher. Homicide and the Butcher won the hardcore match, but it was only a one night appearance for Butcher. As 2002 ended, a new force rose in the tag team division Special K.
Special K began at the early ROH shows, as Mikey Whipreck students the SAT, Divine Storm, and Amazing Red were pushed as major parts of ROH. In addition, Brian XL hung around with the Whipwreck students, though not himself a Whipwreck protégé. However, Brian XL was frequently unappreciated by the proper Whipwreck students, and began to get frustrated over it. At Night of Appreciation, after the Amazing Red & Eddie Guerrero tag team victory, Brian XL declared how angry he was that since he wasnt a Whipwreck protégé, he didnt get to team with Guerrero that night. In an impromptu, quick match with Guerrero, Brian XL was defeated. After this loss, Brian XL went to New York and picked up his raver buddies, the first of which was Dixie. Special K debuted to attack the Whipwreck trainees, but soon after, Brian XL himself started to appear less frequently. Dixie, however, gathered an enormous contingent of raver buddies, among them Izzy, Deranged, Angel Dust, Slim J, Elax, Lit, and later Joey Matthews and Jodie Fleisch, as well as several other, often unnamed rotating members of the group. Special K, of course, had no concern for the Code of Honor, so the enormous group would often jump opponents in 8-1 or more situations. In a match featuring one member of Special K, there could be as many as 10 or more Special K members outside the ring. Special K would find its way int Scramble matches that allowed for enormous double teaming, enabling the huge group to get itself into matches. Because of the sheer number of Special K members, it was easy for them to swap in and out without the referee knowing, letting them pick up cheap victories. Though Brian XL decreased his involvement, Special K continued the war with the Whipwreck students into 2003.
Interestingly enough, one of WWEs staunchest veterans is responsible for a huge number of ROHs early talent and thus, their early success. After his back injury put him out for years, Shawn Michaels founded the Texas Wrestling Academy, which produced a number of top ROH talent, perhaps the greatest among them none other than American Dragon, Bryan Danielson. Dragon, of course, participated in the first ROH main event and went 1-1 in the Round Robin Challenge against ROHs top names, Low Ki and Christopher Daniels. Dragons involvement was limited with fellow TWA students, who otherwise stuck together. Michael Shane, Spanky, and Paul London were all also TWA graduates and they stuck together. At The Era of Honor Begins, Spanky and Ikaika Loa would beat Michael Shane and Oz, and Spanky, having earned the deciding fall, earned an ROH contract, joining the roster as a mainstay. At Night of Appreciation, Paul London debuted in the TWA Gauntlet, beating John Hope in the first match of the gauntlet, but Shane then defeated London, before losing to Spanky, who defeated American Dragon to win. Spanky (later known as Brian Kendrick) continued to impress as he qualified for the finals of the ROH Championship tournament, beating Paul London and then Jody Fleisch to advance to the Ironman Match, where he failed to gain the title. At Crowning a Champion, Biohazard and Don Juan, other TWA students, also debuted, and Spanky would soon return to feud with the TWA students. Michael Shane quickly separated himself from the rest of the TWA contingent, feuding with Paul London, leading to a loss to London in an outstanding Street Fight at Unscripted. Shane soon recovered, however, with a win over Spanky and London in a three way at Glory by Honor. With this victory, Shane earned the right to the nickname of Showstopper (earned by blood relation to Shawn Michaels), which was a central point of the TWA feud. A final street fight between Gonzalez & London and Spanky & Biohazard, ending with the Gonzalez and London win, ended the feud and sent London on to world title contention (he would challenge and lose to Xavier for the ROH Championship).
2002 was a huge start for ROH. At the end of 2002, the WWF became the WWE, and the name change saw a marked drop in quality in the eyes of many. Upstart TNA was bleeding money by way of overpaid stars and a PPV only format. ROH, however, set out to do exactly what it intended to do fill the ECW and Northeastern indy niche, and it not only survived, but thrived. The end of 2002 left the status of ROHs storylines up in the air, with the Prophecy keeping a strangehold on all the gold in ROH. Final Battle 2002 left four top contenders with an official one among them to claim the status - American Dragon, Steve Corino, Low Ki, and Samoa Joe. Meanwhile, Paul London had solidified himself as the top TWA graduate, and Homicide had come off a brutal victory over the Carnage Crew, and was ready to end his tag team days and become a threat to the title. UK visitor Doug Williams was an infrequent, but stalwart competitor, and his few appearances had made him a force to be reckoned with.
The tag team championships were still firmly in hand of the Prophecy at the end of 2002, Morgan and Daniels having repelled all comers. They werent short of challengers, however the Carnage Crew, Da Hit Squad, and the Backseat Boyz from CZW all wanted a shot. Special K was a wildcard, and on the rise were Amazing Red, Jay Briscoe, Michael Shane, Spanky, and AJ Styles. Also upcoming at the end of 2002 were Mark Briscoe, soon turning 18 and able to legally wrestle, the team of Chicagos own Colt Cabana and CM Punk, and Chad Collyer, a Dean Malenko student.
2002 is summed up best by the name of ROHs first show the Era of Honor Begins. ECW had left behind a gap, and ROH firmly stepped through and made a statement, beginning an era of honor in the northeastern independents, and eventually, it would come to dominate the entire US (and Canadian, to some extent) independent wrestling scene. In 2003, the company would evolve even further, crowning several new champions, producing a slew of classic matches, and even tentatively testing expansion outside the Northeast, with a show in Midwestern Ohio.
Id love to provide you with some matches, but theyre bloody hard to find from 2002. Fortunately for you, most of these shows are available from ROHs online store at a discounted price of 15 dollars apiece, and let me tell you, this is some classic wrestling right here. Unfortunately, some of the shows are missing, including Crowning a Champion and other great shows. Missing from ROHs store, and generally hard to find, are the Round Robin Challenge, Night of Appreciation, Crowning a Champion, and Honor Invades Boston. However, everything else from 2002 is available, and for those of you interested in exploring the very earliest of ROH, heres my thoughts on the best of 2002. My rankings are drawn only from the selection available at the ROH store. Ill just let you know these are all so close the separation of #1 to #8 isnt very far at all. Youd be hard pressed to find a bad show in here.
1. Glory by Honor (Low Ki vs Samoa Joe, Xavier vs Briscoe, Carnage Crew vs Da Hit Squad, Shane vs Spanky vs London, Daniels vs Williams)
2. All Star Extravaganza (#1 Contenders Gauntlet, Xavier vs Briscoe, Danielson vs Styles, Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka vs. Steve Corino & Low Ki
3. The Era of Honor Begins (Briscoe vs Red, Super Crazy vs Eddie Guerrero, Low Ki vs Bryan Danielson vs Christopher Daniels)
4. Final Battle 2002 (CM Punk vs Colt Cabana, Xavier vs Paul London, Bryan Danielson vs. Low Ki vs. Samoa Joe vs. Steve Corino)
5. Unscripted (Low Ki vs Xavier, Paul London vs Michael Shane, Tag Team Tournament featuring Daniels & Morgan vs Dragon & Modest in finals)
6. Night of the Butcher (CM Punk vs Colt Cabana, Paul London vs American Dragon, Xavier vs AJ Styles, Homicide & Abdullah the Butcher vs. The Carnage Crew)
7. Road to the Title (Spanky vs London, Amazing Red vs Xavier, AJ Styles vs Jerry Lynn, Doug Williams vs Bryan Danielson, Low Ki vs Amazing Red, Daniels vs Styles)
8. Scramble Madness (10 man scramble, Samoa Joe vs Homicide, AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels, Danielson vs Doug Williams)
So what do you think of ROH's first year? An impressive debut, or just a bunch of losers in high school gyms? Did they fill the void left by ECW, or can't even hope to compare? Have they succeeded since, or did they fail? Feedback welcomed, appreciated, and desired, and stay tuned for 2003 - coming soon.