The Word Cloud

A street fight, which will live long in the memory! (1,466 Words). Critique-wise: Anything goes.

A Fans Perspective: A street fight, which will live long in the memory! By Oliver Newman

Unfortunately because I do not have ROH Round Robin Challenge tape with me, the Low Ki v Bryan Danielson match will have to wait for another time. Do not fear though because I have a great article to take its place, in the form of ROH Unscripted 2002 Paul London v Michael Shane (Street fight). Even with WWE programming getting better as time passes (Kurt Angle v Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair v Edge, Mickie James v Trish Stratus Storyline), I am sticking with ROH. Over the last 5 months (November - January '06) I have purchased 20 ROH Show DVDs and 3 Straight Shooting Series DVDs. ROH for me produces the most consistent Wrestling on the planet, it is a pleasure to write these articles and also to shill out money on their DVDs.

I don't normally explain who wins and loses as I to don't like Spoilers and if you haven't seen this match that is what I would be doing! Unfortunately to understand the storyline leading up to this match I have to tell you the winners of the previous matches, it wouldn't make sense if I didn't.

ROH 'Unscripted' (September 2002)

Street Fight

Michael Shane v Paul London

Back-story:

Both Michael Shane and Paul London are graduates of the Texas Wrestling Academy.

The feud kicks off in essence:

July 2002

ROH Crowning a Champion

Paul London and Don Juan v Michael Shane and Bio Hazard (Winner gets ROH Contract)

This was a tag match for an ROH Contract, after a good match which had just broken down, with all four men in the ring. London and his partner Don Juan argue, while this happens Shane hits Juan with an enziguri and London hits Bio Hazard with his version of the DDT, both pin their man simultaneously 1,2,3! Who gets the contract? The referee holds up Michael Shane's arm!!. "You screwed London" the ROH fans chant. Shane grabs the microphone, and starts trash talking Spanky proclaiming himself as the showstopper. London comes out and confronts Shane "Showstopper that is a slap in my face".

Shane slaps London and it's on, London gets Shane down on mat and goes for the London star press, but misses. Shane goes for the picture perfect elbow, he misses also. Then the T.W.A. comes into the ring to calm the situation down. They get to the back and Shane starts trash talking again "Looks, like all the moves in the world can't get you a win" and slaps London's head. London and Shane try to get into it again, Rudy Boy Gonzalez (TWA Trainer) talks of a match between London and Shane at the next show.

August 2002

ROH Honor Invades Boston

Paul London v Michael Shane

After another good match between the two, London looks like he will finish off Shane but when London hits a cannonball senton Shane goes down in agony! Oh no!! London v Marvel all over again (London broke Chris Marvel's ankle accidentally, with a moonsault at ROH Round Robin Challenge). London wants to finish Shane off, until he and Rudy realise the size of the injury. London goes to check on Shane, wait a second!! Shane rolls up London 1,2,and 3! London got screwed again!! Simply Luscious comes out and offers Michael Shane a spot in the Prophecy, Rudy Boy comes back out to talk Shane out of it. Shane hits Luscious with a super kick and then hits Rudy Boy with a super kick also. London comes back out to defend Rudy Boy but he gets beaten down and hit with the picture perfect elbow.

September 2002

ROH Unscripted

Show starts with Paul London in the ring, announcing his partner for ROH tag title tournament later on that night, (London picks Bryan Danielson). Michael Shane comes out limping (trying to get under London's skin from how the last match between them ended). Shane is annoyed that London didn't pick him as his tag team partner "If you can't beat him, join him" and slaps London across the face. A brawl commences, Shane slides out of the ring, London goes to the top rope and hits a London star press onto Shane from the inside to the outside of the ring!!!!! London vacates his spot in the tag tournament for a street fight with Michael Shane. "Bring any thing you want, because all I am going to need is this" London pulls out a ladder.

Thoughts:

This is the 2nd greatest street fight I have ever seen, (HHH v Cactus Jack WWF Royal Rumble 2000 is number 1 for me!). This was a superb contest between two of the best young up and coming Wrestlers in the industry. Innovative from the word go and a truly spectacular match. The storyline was superb personally I felt the hatred between London and Shane they had drawn me in as a Wrestling fan. It felt like the match could end at any moment as the action was so fast paced (an example of this was when Shane rolled to the outside and grabbed a ladder from under the ring. London slides out of the ring trying to telegraph Shane with his feet into the ladder, Shane holds the ladder up higher so London misses. Shane goes to smack London with the ladder but London ducks, in a split second London jumps onto the apron and hits a back kick into the ladder onto Shane!!!).

Some of the moves executed in this match were out of this world (at one point Shane rolls out of the ring. London sees this and runs up the rungs of the ladder and dives kamikaze like onto Shane!!!), Paul London and Michael Shane brought their 'A' game to Philadelphia on this night and it produced one of the best matches of 2002 if not in the whole of Ring of Honor's history and they truly deserved the "5 star match" and "Match of the year" Chants that sounded in the arena when the match was over.

Historical Significance:

This match made both Paul London and Michael Shane! It made London earlier because he rose to prominence in ROH having superb matches with Bryan Danielson, AJ Styles, Low Ki, and he almost won the ROH Title twice. The second was his last night on the job and the farewell ceremony that followed the match (showed how much he meant to ROH fans and Wrestlers alike). London left to join the WWE where has he won the Cruiserweight and Tag Titles in his first year and a half with the company.

London also had a tremendous series of matches with Akio (aka Jimmy Yang). London's best match to date in the WWE was the match he had with Billy Kidman at WWE No Mercy 2005, where he and Kidman stole the show. Although having his high flying moves (especially the London star press) taken away which is a hindrance, he is still in my opinion the best in the world today. Shane had to wait a while until he was seen as a good Wrestler in his own right.

In 2003 he turned up in TNA, and won the X division Title in the first Ultimate X Match. Even with this Shane was still underrated by fans for years, even though he was one of the best Wrestlers on the TNA roster. His team with Frankie Kazarian was going places until Frankie left, He now wrestles as Matt Bentley (Real Name) because of copyright issues with the WWE. Still one of the most consistent performers in TNA and he has a sexy valet in Traci Brooks, so his life isn't all bad!!

I hope you enjoyed reading, if you did show ROH you care by ordering the DVD for $12.00 (It's out of stock at the moment!) which for a show with consistent Wrestling and an awesome street fight is a bargain it is also a region 0 DVD so it will work anywhere in the world!

Thanks, I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts. If you could take the time to give some feedback it would be greatly appreciated.

Feedback I would like and appreciate:

I have always thought work (like my above piece) was of a good standard both through positive feedback and the confidence I have in my ability to write, so I guess my major problem was selling my work, as up until this point I haven't been able to do that successfully.

So I would like tips, hints, advice or maybe all three on how I could take this piece of work and successfully sell it.

Oliver Newman