https://www.gofundme.com/f/scott-william-henson-aka-scoot-aka-big-cat

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Bryan Danielson is my favorite wrestler ever. I think he’s the best going today. I think he’s the greatest of all time. None of this puts me in any kind of rarified air. This is the Wet Hot American Dragon Summer after all. 

When the project first got brought up, by Tanner. I was almost certainly always going to pick 2001 or 2002. 2001 in my opinion is Danielson’s first year as a capital G, Great wrestler. In 2001 I had been reading all the hype about him and Low Ki. They were still shrouded in mystery to me, though. I had never actually watched them wrestle. 2002 though is when I finally got to watch the 2001 matches. More importantly it’s when Ring of Honor began. 

I had bought ECW and Japanese wrestling tapes from RF Video. So I was on the mailing list. I can still remember seeing the ad for Ring of Honor. It was perfectly geared toward me at the time. It was “serious” wrestling.

I feel like if you’re at this site you’re familiar with the background of Ring of Honor, but as a quick recap. 

Ring of Honor was founded in 2002 by, noted pervert, Rob Feinstein, the owner of RF Video, a company known for producing and distributing wrestling videos. At the time, RF Video was struggling to cope with the changing dynamics of the wrestling industry. ECW handhelds were by far his best selling tapes. The death of both WCW and ECW created a void in the wrestling landscape. Feinstein saw an opportunity to fill this gap by creating a promotion that emphasized the wrestling aspect of professional wrestling, in stark contrast to the more entertainment-focused approaches of WWE. He hoped this would more importantly fill the void in his sales.

Feinstein’s vision was to create a promotion that would showcase the best wrestling talent in the world, providing a platform for wrestlers to display their skills without the restrictions and gimmicks often imposed by larger promotions. This focus on in-ring performance and athleticism would become the hallmark of Ring of Honor.

Feinstein enlisted several notable names to help in the creation of Ring of Honor. The most important was undoubtedly Gabe Sapolsky. Sapolsky was Paul Herman’s protege in the ECW days. Gabe served as Ring of Honor’s booker and creative mind, in the beginning. 

When I finally got the first Ring of Honor event on VHS, I was hooked. I threw myself full force into independent wrestling. I would miss Raw or Smackdowns, which before this point was unthinkable to me. Bryan Danielson didn’t just introduce me to ROH; I went back and watched the 2001 tournaments from ECWA and APW, as discussed by Olly in a great piece on Monday. Really wish he would’ve written about a different year, honestly. He set the bar far too high here. From the 2001 tournaments to the JAPW to see yet another Danielson vs Low Ki match. From JAPW to the deathmatch promotions with CZW, XPW, and IWA Mid South(which I know cover, event by event, for Violent People, with Rotten Rewatch.) It was an endless alphabet of new promotions and I couldn’t get enough.

Deciding what match to cover honestly wasn’t difficult. It’s not Danielson’s best match of the year. His best match is probably vs Low Ki either at the second Ring of Honor show or the JAPW tap out match. It’s not his most unique match of the year. He wrestled in New Japan, including singles matches against El Samurai and Wataru Inoue. 

I had to pick the main event of the first Ring of Honor show, The Era Honor Begins, The American Dragon Danielson vs Low-Ki vs Christopher Daniels.

I want to set the stage a little with this show. This show was a significant event. While there were big tournament shows like Super 8 or King of the Indies. Ring of Honor set out to use these indie stars from all over the United States, up and down the card every show. This show featured talent like Shawn Michaels’ Texas Wrestling Academy standouts (Danielson, Spanky, and Michael Shane), Homicide’s crew (Dan Maff, Monsta Mack, and the Christopher Street Connection), and Mikey Whipwreck’s top students (Amazing Red, The SATs, and Brian XL). The semi-main event was Eddie Guerrero vs. Super Crazy for the IWA Puerto Rico International Championship. Ring of Honor choosing these three to main event over Guerrero and Super Crazy was a statement in itself.

For comparison, the most notable names from the show in the same building, the Murphy Rec Center, from the week prior were Steve Corino, Nick Berk, Trent Acid, and The Rockin Rebel. It was a dire time for the average indie promotion! My local indie, Cleveland All Pro Wrestling, which I hadn’t seen at this point, was still relying heavily on Bobby Blaze and a fake Sheik.

Ring of Honor: The Era of Honor Begins

February 23rd, 2002

Murphy Rec Center

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

Steve Corino and Eric Gargiulo are the commentators for the match. They do a good job putting over the importance of the bout and how different the three competitors are early in the match. I remember not loving the commentary back in 2002z I don’t know if I was too harsh or if the current state of indie commentary has lowered my standards, but they did a great job the entire match. 

It starts off with a now cliche three way knuckle lot, but immediately goes from zero to sixty. Right away you notice how purposeful and impactful every move and movement is on this match. Low-Ki and Danielson’s strikes are so stiff. It’s beautiful. Daniels is holding up his end hitting some huge suplexes. Even earlier in the match all three men are trying to win. Danielson is even going for the Cattle Mutilation within minutes of the opening bell. 

This match is full of threeway spots that were really innovated at the time and still hold up. There’s very little of the usual triple threat spots that annoy me. The overselling and wrestlers disappearing for long stretches of time. Everyone stays involved and it’s logical. Danielson’s selling, specifically of Low Kis strikes, is so good especially for such a young wrestler. Going back to the strikes, there’s a kick that Danielson whiffs on slightly, so he immediately just kicks Low Ki’s face in. It’s beautiful. 

I need to rewatch some older Daniels and see where he fell off, but he’s great here. Clearly he’s the third man, but he never looks out of place. The finish to this is fantastic. Danielson elbows Ki out to the floor to get Daniels alone. Danielson applies a nasty Cattle Mutilation. Low Ki breaks the hold with a Phoenix Splash on Danielson. Ki then hits the Ki Krusher on Daniels for the pin. After the match Low Ki and Danielson shake hands, but Daniels refuses. They also set up the round robin challenge for the second Ring of Honor show.

I hadn’t watched this for years and it holds up so well. Every superlative lauded on the Dragon Gate six man from Ring of Honor Supercard of Honor could be thrown onto this match. It was so fresh and different from any other wrestling out there. Especially in the limited viewing of a teenage, fledgling tape trader.

This match rocketed Ring of Honor into the place of the most talked about and sought after indie for smart marks. Outside of the effect it had on me personally it had an indelible effect on the future of wrestling. Dozens and dozens of current and future world champions came through Ring of Honor. Tony Khan was a big enough fan to purchase the company and keep it afloat. It’s influence on his booking and wrestling taste is undeniable.  

That’s why however unlikely it is I will hold out hope than somehow Tony pulls off booking the long awaited rematch. Bryan Danielson vs Christopher Daniels vs Low Ki coming to a Collision near you!