ROH vs FWA – Frontiers Of Honor – 17th May 2003


This isn’t technically a “proper” ROH show, although there are lots of newer fans who mistake it for one. This was a co-promoted show with the now-defunct Frontier Wrestling Alliance (now replaced by the XWA) which saw Ring Of Honor bring a host of their guys across the Channel for a series of cross-promotional bouts. Paul London, Mikey Whipwreck, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Low Ki and Christopher Daniels are all here representing ROH. Other reasons this show is famous? It’s the night the ROH Title became the ROH World Title…and it’s the night Samoa Joe invented the now-famous Ole Ole Kick. This is in London, England. Since I’ve got a VHS copy of the RF Video-taped version of events it means I have no commentary, as opposed to the painfully bad commentary on the UK-production.


James Tighe vs Paul London

This should be a great opener. At this point in time Tighe was just starting to get some real momentum and was seen as one of the UK-scene’s top prospects. It’s a shame his career seems to have dwindled away since I’ve enjoyed a number of his matches I’ve seen. London could do no wrong at this point in time and was putting on quality matches for fun.


The crowd seems really up for the show as London and Tighe trade really crisp armdrags. Paul scores with a standing moonsault across the back so James pops up and steals the dropsault! That’s quite an insult and London wastes no time in executing his own dropsault in return. A slingshot headscissors finds the mark, as does a spinning heel kick and a second dropsault. He tries to leap to the top rope only to be SHOVED to the floor. Tighe uses this as an opportunity to start working over London’s arm. London blocks an Asai moonsault and superkicks him on the floor. LONDON STAR PRESS OFF THE APRON! He busts out a few elaborate roll-ups but Tighe kicks out of them all, so instead Paul opts to enzi the sh*t out of him. Tighe rolls through a crossbody attempt into a BRIDGING fallaway slam for 2. CROSS-ARM GERMAN gets 2 and does more damage to the injured arm. He lays London out again with a side slam then just kills the arm with a tornado armbar. ASAI MOONSAULT UP THE AISLE! He tries an armbreaker from the top rope but Paul doesn’t seem too keen on that idea. He dumps him down but MISSES the London Star Press. TIGHE-TANIC! STANDING SHOOTING STAR! Tighe wins at 10:37 and FWA go 1-0 up.


Rating - **** - This remains one of my favourite opening matches ever. I know people got so upset about me giving it 4* last time but I stand by that rating. In terms of the time allowance I really don’t see how it could’ve been any better (aside from Tighe using the arm in the finish). It was the perfect opening match combining some good wrestling with some crowd popping high-flying and such a hot way to start the show.


Jack Xavier vs Mikey Whipwreck

Of course Jack isn’t the same Xavier that formerly held the ROH Title. I think he’s still around on the UK scene these days though so I’m assuming he’s improved since this show. Mikey is pretty much over to draw extra ticket sales due to his name recognition from ECW. Since he’s in Special K I assume he’s not taking representing Ring Of Honor too seriously.


It takes about a second for the fans to start chanting ‘EC-dub’. Jack shows his respect to Whipwreck and both men take their time getting the match going. To the floor where Mikey removes a mat to expose the wooden floor, then smacks Xavier in the nackers with ring bell. FLIP DIVE INTO THE CROWD MISSES! Jack tries to capitalise by going to the top rope but he takes way too long and misses a senton bomb. He takes a slingshot leg drop over the bottom rope then swung FACE-FIRST into an open chair on the floor. But back inside Mikey lowers his head allowing Xavier to hit him with a swinging neckbreaker and leave both men down. Stroke gets Xavier a 2. Whipwreck gets his own nearfall with a Russian legsweep before Xavier kicks him in the head. He hits a cool-looking inverted implant DDT which I presume to be his finish but Whipwreck kicks out and Buzzsaw kicks him in the back of the head. WHIPPERSNAPPER…but Jack gets a shoulder up. He counters something into a roll-up and gets 3 on Mikey at 11:56.


Rating - * - There were a few good spots but the whole thing felt incredibly long and dull. In truth the match was only as good as the two guys that were in it - and one was a green British wrestler who’s never really amounted to anything, whilst the other is semi-retired and pretty washed up these days. Tag on a lousy roll-up finish too. Not a match I ever want to see again.


Unfortunately this is mostly an FWA show with ROH wrestlers and now we get The Duke Of Danger and Simmonz (his butler, who actually turned out to be a much better wrestler and is one of the UK-scene’s bigger stars today) coming out to cut a heel promo. Essentially he’s faking an injury to escape facing Burchill, and he’s hired Ross Jordan and Raj Ghosh (Double Dragon) to face him instead.


Double Dragon vs Paul Burchill

2003 was the year that Burchill actually made his pro-wrestling debut. The man that would eventually go on to be a pirate on Smackdown started out in the FWA as a monster (under the managerial guidance of Dean Ayass), who spent most of the year squishing tag teams in handicap matches such as this. Even at this point he was super-over and mightily impressive.


Ghosh and Jordan don’t even wait for Burchill to get into the ring before trying to put the boots to him. It doesn’t really work though and he’s quickly destroying them. SIT-OUT INVERTED PILEDRIVER on Jordan. Raj tries a sunset flip but Burchill simply pulls him up and powerbombs him for 2 (thanks to some interference by Simmonz). That distraction again allows Double Dragon to land a few kicks on their monstrous opponent. Ultimately it achieves nothing though. Paul SUPLEXES BOTH OF THEM AT THE SAME TIME! The crowd loved that one. He tries a big man moonsault and sails all the way across the ring, but misses because Simmonz pulled both Ghosh and Jordan to the floor. They try to have a team-talk out there. TURNBUCKLE JUMP SOMERSAULT PLANCHA BY BURCHILL! Still wondering why the WWE picked this guy up? He squashes Jordan with a standing moonsault THEN a standing SSP. Emerald Fusion lays out Ghosh and Burchill wins by TKO at 06:38.


Rating - ** - It’s a squash but it worked simply because Burchill is so damn awesome. It’s a shame he’ll never be able to showcase half of the incredible stuff he can actually do in a ring because the WWE doesn’t like high spots. He looked mega-impressive here though. If he ever gets released I’d love to see the kind of things he’ll do on the independent scene.


Jonny Storm vs AJ Styles

This is one of the headlining matches of the show so expectations are pretty high. Both guys have amazing aerial repertoires so hopefully they’ll mesh well. ROH are 2-0 down in terms of the inter-promotional scorecard so are really relying on AJ to pull out a win here. This was back when Storm had hilariously greasy hair and came out to a Chesney Hawkes remix. Speaking of music, why is AJ using his sh*tty FWA music when he’s representing Ring Of Honor?


Storm is working heel here so there’s no split-crowd nonsense, the fans want Styles to straight-up murderise him. He gets a big cheer for slapping Storm in the back of the head. Sweet armdrags then duelling dropkicks next as the fans imply that Jonny enjoys some anal stimulation. Styles hits a nip-up rana then nips up again to CLOBBER Jonny with a clothesline that sends him outside. He tries a tope suicida but Storm superkicks him through the ropes to block. AJ jumps the barrier, and when Storm blocks the follow-up superkick AJ just jumps into an enziguri instead. Enzi from Storm back in the ring, and he evades the Phenom DDT and a German supex too. Phenom lands second time of asking and gets Styles a 2. Lifting low blow gives Jonny an advantage which he follows up on with a spinning heel kick from the top. A springboard moonsault draws 2. Pumphandle gutbuster gives AJ the edge again until Jonny springboards into a swinging DDT. The Pele kick knocks him back and whilst groggy he walks into a reverse heel kick then a BRUTAL stalling brainbuster which gets Styles 2. They screw something up but AJ silences the crowd mockery with a wheelbarrow suplex. Outside where Storm back drops him ON THE RAMP! Up onto the stage where Storm blocks the Styles Clash but takes a POWERBOMB BACKBREAKER instead. That hammerlock neck drop suplex thing AJ does gets him 2, but Storm responds by dropping him on his head with an INVERTED TOMBSTONE! Incredibly Styles does a total no sell on that and TKO’s him on the top rope. REWIND RANA from Storm for 2. He tries a flying headscissors but gets caught with the STYLES CLASH! That’s only good for a nearfall as well. Despite just getting hit with the devastating Styles Clash, Jonny is apparently feeling no ill-effects and hits the Wonderwhirl for 2. Super Styles Clash blocked with a springboard frankensteiner. But AJ ultimately no sells that as well and smacks Storm down with a lariat. SPRINGBOARD 450 scores and the ref f*cks up the count and ends the match early at 16:12. AJ wins.


Rating - ** - That screw up at the end pretty much sums up the whole match – a right mess. Don’t get me wrong these are two talented guys and they were doing some nice sh*t, but the basics were just horrible. The whole match was just spot-no sell-spot-no sell rinse and repeat. I went between being bored and being borderline fed up. Hey AJ, when you’re dropped on your head in an inverted Tombstone maybe make wrestling a tad believable and don’t just get up a second later? That has to go down as a massive disappointment. The FWA vs ROH scorecard is at 2-1 now.


Jonny is a dick and tries to attack AJ with a chair after the match. Jody Fleisch makes the save.


Samoa Joe vs Zebra Kid – ROH World Title Match

Since it is now being defended overseas, this match sees the ROH Championship officially become a World title. Incidentally, Joe’s only legitimate defence of the belt thus far has been against an Englishman – he just beat Doug Williams at Round Robin Challenge 2. Zebra has the gayest outfit in all of wrestling. He looks he’s come fresh from the bath-house…


This is so long ago that Zebra is more over than Joe at the start of the match. The fans are naturally pretty jazzed that this is a title match. ZK actually starts really impressively and unleashes a barrage of strikes that send Joe to the floor. CRAZY TOP ROPE PLANCHA by Zebra! He props the Samoan up and brings more craziness with a CACTUS ELBOW THROUGH A CHAIR! That’s cool, but Joe is back and he drops Kid with the ST-Joe then the ultra-violent chop/kick/knee drop flurry. A few bootscrapes later and he’s already starting to win the British fans over. To the floor again and Joe sets Kid up in a chair next to the rail. You know what’s coming. THE DEBUT OF THE OLE OLE KICK! That guardrail just get all f*cked up! Rather amazingly when we go back inside Zebra has recovered sufficiently to hit a volley of strikes that once again fell his opponent. A slap duel on the ropes ends with a SECOND ROPE DDT from the challenger. Again he mounts the ropes and is right on the money with a missile dropkick. But he goes to the well once too often, and takes just a second too long posing before climbing the turnbuckles for a third time. Joe catches him in a Fujiwara armbar then delivers some SICK ASS KNEE STRIKES! A despite a huge lariat and repeated vicious striking Zebra still keeps fighting back. CHIMERA SUPLEX COMBO! Joe wins at 09:26. FWA 2-2 ROH.


Rating - *** - Really it’s nothing more than your typical Samoa Joe match. He looks dominant and like a machine, allows his opponent to get over with a few hopeful comeback moments before ending the match by totally killing him. It’s basically the formula he uses for most of his TNA Impact matches, and a lot of his World Title defences as well, but it’s a formula I really like. It was an exciting match and if you don’t believe that it was good, take a look at the crowd reaction. He came in basically unknown and 10 minutes later the crowd totally loved him.


SIDENOTE – The debut of the Ole Ole Kick. Basically Joe and Low Ki caught some of a football (soccer for the American readers) game on TV earlier in the day and were pretty taken with some of the crowd chanting. Ki bet Joe that he couldn’t get fans to do something comperable during his match on the show that night, so Joe decided to prove him wrong. And so an awesome move was born…


The Family vs Alex Shane/Ulf Herman/Nikita

Obviously this is an exclusively FWA affair. The Family are pretty much the top heel faction in the promotion at this point and were in the midst of a lengthy feud with Alex Shane and co. I only recognise Paul Travell on their team and, without commentary, I’m going to struggle here. Their opponents are far more identifiable, particularly now. Alex Shane has been one of the most important men the British wrestling scene for a long time, running the FWA for a period, as well as organising successful shows like TWC International Showdown, Universal Uproar, the King Of Europe Cup etc. He’s also employed by ROH in some fashion and is instrumental in their tours over here. Ulf Herman has been around for ages and is a big, plodding, German guy who, for some reason, is constantly over. He’s currently being pushed hard by 1PW, and used to be in ECW so. Nikita was the UK’s premier female wrestler (and Shane’s girlfriend) until she was signed by the WWE and is currently in OVW wrestling as Katie Lea. She’s done a few SHIMMER shows as well so I’ll have to check those out.


All five members of the Family try to get the jump on their opponents but Shane and Herman are big guys and their power advantage soon tells. Alex hits a springboard senton dive and sends them all reeling. Ulf piledrives a blow up sex doll as the Family argue which members will actually participate in the match. Nikita brings Travell into the ring and shows off her wrestling skills by giving him a few armdrags. Travell responds with a spinebuster and a second rope leg drop for 2. You’d think that would lead to her getting isolated but she nails a missile dropkick before tagging out to the Showstealer who dishes out some punishment on the two Family-members who I don’t recognise. Travell cheapshots the ridiculously over Ulf Herman during a test of strength but it achieves nothing and Herman boots him out of the ring. No respite though, Ulf pulls him right back in for a big chokeslam and a flying leg drop which missed Paul’s head by a good six inches. Travell hits a butt ugly moonsault from the second rope. At 10 minutes everyone starts hitting random dives to the floor. Nikita screws hers up and gets heat for it. Anonymous Family member nails a gorgeous Swanton from the top to round that off, before Herman breaks out the hardcore weaponry. He no sells a few shots himself then whacks an opponent in the head with a frying pan. I think Shane, Nikita, Travell and others have brawled into the crowd now as Ulf cane’s a toilet seat into that guy’s crotch. Alex Shane is back and he starts using a staplegun. Is it me or does anyone find Alex so much better as a heel? Back into the crowd again but the camera suddenly looks up. NIKITA WITH A CRAZY DIVE OFF THE BALCONY! Naturally the whole building loved that. Shane superkicks someone in the aisle. ONE NIGHT STAND OFF THE STAGE THROUGH A TABLE! That’s two crazy spots right there. FLYING DDT OFF THE SCAFFOLD by Travell! Surely Ulf is on his own now. Incidentally, we’ve just passed the 20 minute mark and despite a few great high spots I’m bored out of my brain. Travell comes in and attacks Herman’s knee. The family set up for a Van Terminator…BUT HE SLIPS AND FALLS FLAT ON HIS FACE. What a moron! One of his team-mates does the spot instead, but it doesn’t matter since everyone is laughing like hell. Nikita has been treated by paramedics and is back, and is promptly dropped on her face with a Hurricane DDT by Paul. He whips her into the referee knocking him out, and rendering him unable to count the pin after Nikita scores with a neckbreaker. Some other guy comes in and lumps Nikita in the face with a title belt and pins her at 23:53…despite the fact he hadn’t been in the match till then.


Rating – DUD – I want to give it a star just for those three crazy spots, but man alive that was just terrible. It was boring and heatless (aside from the weird love of Ulf Herman) at first, then the brawling was totally dull. Leading to a finish with numerous screw ups and the guy who got the winning pin hadn’t even been in the match up to that point – and the referee had previously ORDERED every Family member not in the match to go to the back. Still, it’s got comedy value for that muppet wanking up the Van Terminator. Total amateur hour stuff…


Flash Barker vs Low Ki

Back to the inter-promotional stuff and this one has some potential. Barker is a bit of a veteran and a former FWA Heavyweight Champion. He actually retired fairly soon after this match but here he looked in phenomenal shape. Low Ki was the ace of ROH during the year of it’s inception and has come across the Atlantic to represent the company here.


If anyone had any doubts these guys were going to do anything but do a worked-shoot style match here the opening exchanges will quickly erase them. It’s a real struggle as both jostle for leverage, positional advantages and attempt to land strikes whenever possible. Ki tries to fight the match from his ass like Inoki and uses that to land a boot right on Flash’s jaw. Some of the kicks they’re throwing at each other are sickening incidentally. Finally Ki catches a boot and dragon screws Barker hard. Barker punches and knees the sh*t out of him – which I’m mildly impressed with since Ki’s not exactly the easiest guy to beat down. He escapes a chinlock with a capo kick and both take their time recovering. Again Flash uses a series of punches and knees to knock Ki back, but finally he gets grounded and that allows Ki to hit the Krush Combo for 2. Kawada kicks then the SPRINGBOARD enzi for 2. Barker looks totally gassed by the way. He again tries to go strike for strike with Ki and gets flattened with another capo kick. Unfortunately Ki is pretty much carrying dead weight now. BITE OF THE DRAGON but since it’s an illegal hold Low Ki has to break. Barker gets himself up for a hurricanrana and scores a 2. Ki kicks out the knee again and nails BLACK MAGIC. He’s looking for the Dragon Clutch but Flash stands up and tips him onto the apron. Spinebuster gets the FWA representative 2 again. Hanging crucifix stretch by Low Ki but Barker rolls to the ropes. TIDAL KRUSH nailed in the middle of the ring which is pretty rare. He calls for a Ki Krusha but Flash blocks it. Gorilla press into a front slam gets 2 for him. This is a f*cking mess now. Ki drops the knackered Flash with a tiger suplex, but has to fight off Barker getting into a mount position and peppering him with forearm smashes. The bell rings at 17:12…and we apparently have a 20-minute draw. What a joke…


Rating - * - That was a really, REALLY bad match. It’s that simple. I liked the intensity of the first few minutes as both guys brought a good intensity and the initial shoot-styled stuff was good. The mixture of Ki’s speed and skill against Flash’s size and power was solid. But when the time came to switch gears Flash was exhausted from hauling his heavy mass around the ring and simply couldn’t hang with Ki. The last 10 minutes of that match was like watching Low Ki attempt to drag around a 200lbs sandbag. I’d complain more about a “20-minute” match randomly ending three minutes early, but really it was going nowhere by that point anywhere. A real disappointment, I have no idea what I was smoking when I gave this 3* when I first reviewed it.


Everyone wants five more minutes, including Barker (who doesn’t look like he could go ‘five more minutes’ if someone kidnapped his kids and forced him to) and Low Ki. Even AJ Styles and Joe come out to try and get the match restarted but the ref is an asshole and stands by his decision.


Christopher Daniels vs Jody Fleisch

The positive side of that tedious Ki/Barker draw is that both promotions are tied at 2-2 meaning this match will decide who wins the FWA vs ROH series. Ironically it’s Chris Daniels (with lousy FWA in-house music) representing ROH despite the fact he hates them and wants to rip the company apart. Both these two are former FWA British Heavyweight Champions, and both have experience in Michinoku Pro so they’re more than capable of pulling off a decent main event.


Fleisch wants a handshake, then slaps Daniels in the face when he refuses. Daniels promptly threatens to leave. He’s in full on stall mode tonight and wastes an eternity pissing the fans off. Fleisch gets the better of him a few times, so he goes outside and pisses off the fans again. When he finally does get back in they do more basic stuff with Fleisch headlocking Daniels from a variety of positions. Jody finally back flips off the ropes and increases the pace with a satellite headsissors. A springboard dropkick knocks Daniels off the apron allowing him to fly down the aisle with the ASAI MOONSAULT! He suplexes Daniels on the stage as well, but after the high spots in the 6-man tag earlier that gets no reaction. Jody has a stage hand hold a chair in place so he can hit a FLYING HEADSCISSORS off it that sends Fallen Angel all the way down the ramp. He hit that so smoothly it beggars belief. Unfortunately it winds up meaning nothing because Daniels almost clotheslines his head off as they get back in the ring. Immediately Daniels slows the pace right down and goes onto autopilot which involves a few basic moves and a lot of stopping to yell at the crowd. He’s at least somewhat funny though. The Phoenix tries a few pins so Daniels drops him with a suplex and works on the back again, which he’d already loosely focused on previously. He hits a nice combination of gutwrench backbreakers then a BME TO THE BACK! Crippler Crossface applied which will stretch the back out some more. Finally he tries one backbreaker too many and Jody capitalises by leaping into an enziguri. I wouldn’t expect a lot of selling the back now. Fleisch with a couple of standing moonsaults then a springboard flying headscissors to make that point. Flatliner by Daniels and both men are feeling the strain. The ROH man tries another BME but eats mat, then Jody goes for another headscissors which Daniels blocks since he’s done about 9 of them in this match. They’re both trying pins from all angles now to try and snatch victory but to no avail. Fallen Angel tries a superplex but Fleisch blocks it. SPRINGBOARD SHOOTING STAR PRESS…for 2! He’s thinking about the 720 DDT but Jonny Storm comes out with a chair as revenge for earlier. Daniels wins with Angels Wings at 24:05, meaning ROH win the series 3-2.


Rating - ** - If they’d have shaved 10 minutes off this match I think I’d have liked it more. They packed some good stuff in like Jody’s high spots in the aisle and Daniels’ awesome working of the back…but at almost 25 minutes it was way too long. The first 10 minutes of the match were totally empty and devoid of action. It wouldn’t have killed Jody to sell the back a little more either, but I suppose that was probably expecting too much. Daniels was in total house show mode too, he’s capable of miles better than this when he’s motivated.


Daniels and Storm continue to beat the crap out of Jody until a hoard of babyfaces (Barker, Tighe, Joe, Styles, Shane, Nikita, Whipwreck etc). They walk up the aisle to beat up Dino Scarlo (FWA Commissioner) instead. The ROH guys look totally perplexed as to what the hell is going on…as am I.


Tape Rating - ** - Honestly there’s not a lot to recommend this show to anyone other than the hardcore fans who get everything. There’s a couple of good matches but by and large it’s a disappointing card. Styles/Storm, Ki/Barker and Daniels/Fleisch were all let-downs and it felt like most of the ROH guys were phoning their performances in. Burchill looked good though, and I suppose it has historical significance as the first international defence of the ROH Title. Get it if you’ve got nothing better to spend your money on. Or maybe use the money on a few drinks down the pub instead.


Top 3 Matches

3) Paul Burchill vs Double Dragon (**)

2) Samoa Joe vs Zebra Kid (***)

1) James Tighe vs Paul London (****)

 

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