More Random Stuff

First up is something about the At Our Best Cage match between Samoa Joe and Jay Briscoe.

[QUOTE=Kevin Hardaway,Apr 22 2008, 06:49 PM] Joe vs. Jay Briscoe (At Our Best) - [b]**1/2[/b] (See it only for Jay getting a 0.8 on the Muta scale) [/QUOTE]

You seriously under valued this cage match. It had so many under lying stories to it. Jay knew for a fact he couldn't beat Joe head on so he had to take his spots and try to escape the cage whenever he possibly could. Mark trying to help him is a fantastic touch.

AJ hitting the Styles Clash was a payoff from the Briscoes vs. Styles/Joe tag team match from The Conclusion show in which AJ caused Joe to be pinned by Mark.

The whole Briscoes vs. Joe feud had a simple feel to it. The Briscoes knew that they were seriously over matched against him in the singles matches while they knew that they could take Joe in the tag team part of it.

The Briscoes came out looking like a million dollars because they were able to beat Joe and his assortment of partners while Joe looked great because he was able to dominate them in those singles match.

[b]***3/4[/b] for the cage match, easily.

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Next up is something I posted about CM Punk at another message board.

"I have tons of his stuff ranging from 2002 to more present day. He's come a very long ways as far as his in ring work goes. I have his match with Eddie Guerrero from IWA Mid South and it's was pretty middle of the road. Then his match against Colt Cabana at Ring of Honor's Final Battle 2002 was also just kinda meh but there was something about him even then, you could tell he was gonna be huge in the future.

Then came his feud with Raven. The Punk/Raven feud pretty much turned him into a huge sensation for getting some of the best matches of Raven's late career out of him. From their first match at Expect the Unexpected to their cage match at The Conclusion, it seemed that everyone wanted to see Raven just annihilate this cocky straight edge kid for preaching his ways down their throats every single night. Punk's promos from his feud with Raven, which spanned into England a few times even were out of this world for an independent wrestler or even someone up in the 'E.

His charisma is pretty undeniable as he's pretty much gotten over without saying too much in his time in the bigs. I mean, Ricky Steamboat and Mick Foley went to Vince about this guy. That's saying something. A wrestling legend and a promo master both going to the head of the wrestling world about a straight edge kid is pretty damn amazing.

Then there are his matches against Samoa Joe which were pretty great in their own right. Their hour draws at World Title Classic and Joe vs. Punk II are great themselves but the third and final match at All Star Extravaganza II is probably their best. However, they aren't for anyone who hates long matches with tons of mat work.

His feud with Jimmy Rave was set up so much like his feud with Raven, just this time, he was in the role of Raven. Rave was trying to make his name off of CM Punk and he pretty well did. After Punk was done with Rave, he finally moved onto his ultimate goal, the Ring of Honor World Title.

It was supposed to be his last night at Death Before Dishonor III when he faced Austin Aries for the World Title. But something happened that no one saw coming. Punk won the World Title and turned heel, perhaps the biggest one RoH had ever seen to that point and maybe this day. He turned heel, saying he was toying with everyone in the crowd and proclaimed to be the greatest wrestler in RoH.

His heel work while World Champion was out of this world as he plays a GREAT cowardly heel. See most of his FIP work for that. Once he lost the title to James Gibson, it was time for him to say goodbye the next night as he did it by facing his first RoH opponent and best friend, Colt Cabana. Punk's last entrance is nothing short of great. It's one of the few times I've seen a wrestler legit cry over leaving a promotion.

So, in order to really understand CM Punk, his RoH work, as well as some of his IWA MS, FIP and PWG work are nearly a must see. You just can't judge CM Punk on his WWECW work alone as it's totally different. In Ring of Honor, he was allowed to have a voice to cut promos, he was allowed to wrestle his style of making it a long, drawn out one. Hell, watch "When Hero Met Punk" from IWA MS that went 93 minutes.

But when you just look back at the total career of CM Punk, it's nothing short of phenomenal. Sure he's had stinkers in the ring but what wrestler hasn't? It's all about connecting to the crowd and making people care about you and CM Punk has done a masterful job about that. That's why he is one of the greatest wrestlers and entertainers currently in the wrestling business today."

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And finally, I ordered some DVDs today. I'm looking forward to my first three Pro Wrestling Guerrilla shows. Highspots had a hellva deal where you pick three from a certain list for a total of $19.99. So I figured it'd be a great way to really into myself into their world and see what they're like. Should be some good fun there.

I'm a total hypocrite but I ordered a couple of RoH DVDs too. However, one of them was the restocked Arena Warfare, which I've need for a few months to complete the Milestone Series. Then I said to hell with it and ordered Supercard of Honor 3. I'm a sucker for the Dragon Gate Six Man tags. Regardless, they both look to be decent shows.

The last one I ordered was Full Impact Pro's Redefined. I've heard some great stuff about this show so I figured what the hell. Strong vs. Stevens is usually solid plus there is Aries vs. Richards. I figure it's worth a gamble on and it certainly can't be worse then the FIP stuff I have already... from 2004 and 2005 where the cards were pretty much one match shows.

Maybe one of these days, I'll stop being a lazy ass and do another show review. And by the way... I'M NOT HOLDING A MICROPHONE YOU STUPID BITCH!