MIDNIGHT EXPRESS REUNION

October 2, 2004

Low Ki . . . puts on an almost shockingly good performance that looks like the last thing you’d expect from him.

Nigel McGuinness . . . steps up his game in a big way, by not only outwrestling but also out-heeling and overall outclassing Homicide.

Jimmy Jacobs . . . takes a hellacious ass-stomping and sells like death, not unlike a certain blonde fellow who was known for working with the Midnight Express.

ROCKY ROMERO/RICKY REYES © vs. IZZY/ANGELDUST (ROH Tag Team Titles)

This isn’t anything amazing, or really even that good, but it’s surprisingly watchable considering that Special K are involved. The early matwork between Rocky and ‘Dust is easy on the eyes, and when the Pitbulls get to work their control segment on ‘Dust, he puts on a pretty good sell job. What really holds this back is that Ricky and Rocky are seemingly obsessed with using every underhanded tactic there is. That might make sense if they were defending against a team that anyone believed had a prayer of beating them, but late 2004 Special K isn’t that team. All Angeldust and Izzy have to offer is their usual array of flying moves. Sometimes that works out, like Izzy’s quebrada to break up Ricky’s bridging German, but more often than not, they’re just there for them to have something to add to the match, regardless of whether or not it actually helps build it. Sometimes the Pitbulls’ cheating works out ok, like double teaming Angeldust in the corner, but there’s no good reason for the manager interference to lead to the finish. It wasn’t like Izzy and Angeldust looked like they were on the verge of winning the titles or Ricky and Rocky had a miscue that gave Special K a chance to take advantage. It’s just a reminder that the champs are bad guys and a way to further the Special K split.

JIMMY RAVE vs. TRENT ACID vs. BJ WHITMER vs. JOSH DANIELS

Other than the angle advancement that happens post-match with Whitmer getting attacked, there’s no reason for this. It’s not so much of a match as it is four guys just doing various things. Rave stooges around, Daniels brings the Benoit-style intensity, Acid adds pretty spots, and Whitmer . . . well, he’s there. But there’s nothing that anyone does that has any real meaning. There’s no overarching story or theme to this, it’s just go-go-go until it’s time for them to get to the finish.

LOW KI vs. JAY LETHAL

Although this isn’t anything complex, it’s still a ton of fun. Ki’s heel character is entirely watchable, with his penchant for clobbering his opponents with ridiculously stiff shots taking on the guise of teaching the young upstart a lesson. But it’s not just Ki stiffing the piss out of Lethal. He goes out of his way to do everything he can to get the crowd, and especially Jay’s mother, as riled up as he can. He even makes something basic like a chinlock work, with the way he’s taunting her and the rest of the crowd. On the flip side, whenever Lethal tries to fire back on Ki, Ki is more than willing to stooge and sell his ass off for him, and during the final stretch when Lethal finally makes his comeback and starts throwing Low Ki every which way he can, Ki is literally bouncing like a pinball for him. One wouldn’t equate Low Ki with a stooging southern style heel, but it happened, and it was awesome. Like the tag title match, the heel getting his finishing run started with interference from Julius, but it works so much better here, because Ki was in trouble and it was believable that Lethal might be able to pull off the upset.

As fun a match as this is, it’s not perfect by any means. Jay and Ki have a few sequences of high speed spots and counters and get crossed up on a couple of occasions, Jay’s corner whip floatover early on in the match is one example, and Jay actually loses Ki during the gut wrench suplex as the match is winding down. The finish works on some level, but it comes off feeling a little bit abrupt. Lethal tapping to the Dragon clutch is fine, but there had to be a better way for them to get there than Jay getting “curbed” with the bottom rope. The Ki Krusher was right there, and Lethal just barely kicking out would have gotten a great crowd reaction and given Ki an easy opening to lock in the clutch. But, despite those few things, Ki and Lethal still put on a fun performance and a great first chapter in their feud, and it’s virtually impossible to see this and not get the impression that with some more time, experience and training from Samoa Joe, that Lethal will be able to get that win over Ki. ***1/4

HOMICIDE vs. NIGEL McGUINNESS

ROH announcing that Nigel had earned a fulltime roster spot was already an indication that they saw something in him, but this match magnifies it tenfold. For the better part of twenty minutes, he more or less dominates Homicide. Between the mat exchanges in the early portion, where it’s no surprise that Nigel would have the advantage, and then working over Homicide’s arm and taking away his best weapons, it seems like Homicide never really has a chance here. Indeed, the only times that it seems like the match is dragging are when Homicide has control of things, partially because he doesn’t do anything as focused as Nigel and also because he’s still making sure to sell his arm, so it never feels like he’s got anything to do that can put Nigel away. His best shots are probably the overhead suplex and his STF, neither of which has ever been looked at as a serious finisher for him. Sure, he hits the lariat, but its effectiveness had already been negated.

It's not like Homicide doesn’t have anything to do. A big part of the reason why the story of Nigel working over the arm works so well is Homicide’s selling, and the fact that he almost aways keeps it in mind. Like the Ki match, Homicide’s need to resort to having Julius get involved and do things like foul Nigel completely works here. He doesn’t just do them because he’s a dick heel, he does them because it’s pretty much the only thing he can do in order to stay in the match. Homicide puts over the arm so well that it seems perfectly believable that almost anything can get the pinfall on him. At one point Nigel tries a pin and Homicide barely gets the ropes, and Nigel follows up by trying for another pin right after and it results in an unpredictably close near fall. After Nigel hits a hammerlock DDT, Homicide lays facedown on the mat with his arm extended. Once the lariat is out of play, everyone knows that it’s only a matter of time until Nigel finds a way to end it, and he does after a few minutes. Nigel escapes the Kudo driver and gets on another arm lock, and when Homicide tries to roll himself free of the hold, he rolls himself right into a pinfall.

For all the talk about how such and such match is a Star Making Performance, it’s hard to argue that this isn’t. Nigel went toe-to-toe with one of the biggest non champions in the company and more or less made Homicide his bitch. Nigel doesn’t just outwrestle him, during the course of the match he also manages to both outsmart and even out-heel Homicide. Something more competitive might have been better as far as moment to moment action goes, but this is far more effective in getting across the story, and the lasting impression (which would be proven true) is that Nigel McGuinness is clearly someone to reckon with. ***1/2

Elimination Match: ALEX SHELLEY/AUSTIN ARIES/JACK EVANS/RODERICK STRONG vs. CM PUNK/ACE STEEL/JOHN WALTERS/JIMMY JACOBS

The best parts of this look like a Worldwide match during the glory days of Jim Crockett promotions, although the crowd heat is considerably less so. The opening stretch, leading to Jacobs being eliminated, would look right at home during that time frame. There’s a fun opening segment with Evans taking the abuse from the babyfaces and some crowd pleasing moments like ten-count punches in the corner and the rowboat spot. When Generation Next gets their chance to work over Jacobs, the match keeps right on cruising, with Jacobs taking all kinds of abuse, including a four way lifting slam where Jacobs lands face first, and selling like absolute death. Their penchant for baiting in the other team to do stuff behind the ref’s back gets a bit tiresome after a bit, but it’s still nice to see them doing things sensibly. With how much punishment Jacobs had taken, the chair wasn’t really needed to get him out of the match, but the chair became something of a theme in the match, and this was as good a way as any to introduce it.

After Jacobs is taken out, the match takes a bit of a dive, with Evans, and then Steel, getting eliminated in quick succession, but after the chair makes another appearance and Punk retaliates, to the detriment of his team, things start picking back up. Walters finds himself left 3-on-1 with Aries going after his midsection whenever he gets a chance. The only questionable thing is when Walters eliminates Strong; Walters basically sucks up a double lariat and starts planting everyone with lungblowers and Roddy finally stays down. But the final stretch gets things back on track, with Aries and Shelley working over Walters, and Walters keeping the body work in mind. It seems like he might be able to pull it off when he surprises Aries with another lungblower, but the damage done to his midsection causes him to spend too much time trying to crawl over and make the cover, and when he does, Shelley is right there to break things up, with nobody to stop him. And, after all of that, it still takes both Aries and Shelley’s finishers to put him down for good. They even give the chair usage a payoff when Roddy tries to come back with it and Steamboat runs him off and, unlike Punk, he’s smart enough to not use the chair himself and risk getting Walters disqualified. This isn’t perfect by any means, but, considering the reputation of Indy wrestling during this time, it’s more than a little remarkable that they managed to put together something like this, where the work itself is relatively simple and everyone’s main concern is telling a story. ***1/4

I suppose one can’t write about a show called Midnight Express Reunion without mentioning the segment that the show was named for. It’s more than a little surreal seeing Stan Lane and Dennis Condrey on the same side, and anyone who was a fan of either incarnation of The Midnight Express will undoubtedly smile (and maybe even get a little misty eyed) at seeing them pull out the classics like the flapjack and Rocket Launcher.

SAMOA JOE © vs. BRYAN DANIELSON (ROH World Heavyweight Title)

What better way to cap off what was already a pretty good wrestling show than with an absolutely stellar main event? Joe and Danielson spend nearly forty minutes showing everyone what pro wrestling truly is. Just like the Benoit/Michaels RAW match from the previous May, if you want to see how pro wrestling can look ‘legitimate’ then this is the sort of match to seek out. Aside from arguably the finish, which still works in its own way, virtually everything they do is perfect. The term ‘back and forth match’ is often thrown around, but it sums up this match to a tee. Whatever either one of them can do, the other can do just as well; be it trading submissions, trading off strikes and they even exchange dives to the floor at one point. Again, the only thing that doesn’t really work all that well is the finish, and after everything they wind up throwing at each other it’s hard to pinpoint anything that would have made a better one. Danielson tapping to the choke is fine on its own, but the finish is preceded by the following sequence: Danielson locks up Joe in Cattle Mutilation and Joe makes the ropes, Danielson charges into a knee to the ribs and Joe tries to KO him with grounded knees (explained by the commentators as Joe getting an adrenaline rush), and then Danielson escapes and starts slugging Joe with knees of his own before Joe escapes and hits a couple of more knees and gets on the choke. As nice as it is to see them keep up that level of intensity so late in the match, one would still think there’d be some semblance of selling after the CM or from the barrage of knees they had both just taken.

However, everything else they do is flawless. They each have a specific strategy they want to employ, with Danielson wanting to take out Joe’s legs and submit him and Joe wanting to use his size and striking to wear down Danielson. And whenever either of them backs off, even just a little bit, or one of them sees the opening to take over, they make the other one pay. Danielson in particular is a star for pretty much the entire match. When he’s in control, he’s doing his damnedest to take out Joe’s leg or get that submission, when he’s firing back on Joe with European Uppercuts he’s throwing them with all he’s got, because he knows that Joe can brush off anything less. His selling is nothing short of perfect, when Joe escapes the top wristlock by getting to his feet and giving Danielson a gut buster, Danielson is rolling in pain and coughing. When Danielson’s intensity starts to get the crowd turned against him, he dances around and taunts them. One of Joe’s early mistakes is going for the Ole kick too early, and when Danielson counters it and gets to return the favor with his own variation, he’s got the crowd in the palm of his hand. It’s a moment that more or less sums up Danielson for the whole match. When the crowd loves what he does he makes them love him more, and he’s just as easily able to do the opposite.

That’s not to say that Joe doesn’t put in a damn good performance himself; hell, against everyone aside from maybe half a dozen other workers, Joe would be the better one in a walk. Actually saying ‘a walk’ is probably a little unfair to Joe, with how much Danielson tries to tear apart his leg and how well he puts it over. Danielson may have gotten the first laugh when he turned around the Ole kick sequence on Joe and made it into an almost comedy spot, but later on when Joe gets another chance to do it, the result is anything but funny. And appropriately enough, after the second Ole kick looks to be Joe’s best shot, and he’s finally got Danielson finished. Joe takes his time getting into the ring and playing to the crowd, and it gives Danielson the chance to recover and surprise Joe with a chop block and go right back to his leg. It shows exactly how quickly Danielson can change the momentum if Joe lets him. Joe’s leg is worn down to the point that it takes away both the Muscle Buster and STF, Danielson is able to escape the Muscle Buster and although Joe gets the STF, his leg is so hurt to the point that he can’t hold it, and it’s Danielson who traps Joe in a legbar of his own and forces him to bail for the ropes. Another nice moment is when Joe is finally able to hit the lariat. He’d tried for it a couple of times, and Danielson had managed to avoid it. But Joe gets the chance to take Danielson by surprise when he’s trying his super backdrop, Joe gets himself off the turnbuckle and Danielson is the one who takes the suplex. As Danielson is getting to his feet, Joe comes charging in with the lariat for a great near fall.

Outside of maybe the Homicide matches (which were more about the feud than the title), this is easily the surliest of Joe’s title matches. Joe’s title reign had always seen him as the juggernaut, with his challenger being the underdog. But, between the intensity and the ways that Danielson is able to take the fight to him, Joe is, at best, on equal footing with his challenger. One could write that off as a byproduct of his long title reign (headed into its nineteenth month by this point) but it’s more of an indication that despite the variety of wrestlers who’d stepped up to challenge him, Joe hadn’t yet faced a challenger of Danielson’s caliber. ****

Conclusion: This is definitely a show from the early era of ROH that is worth checking out, with good solid wrestling up and down the card.