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Post by maddog1981 on Jan 4, 2018 17:15:53 GMT -5
Low Ki vs. Samoa Joe (RoH - 10/2/2002)
In my opinion this might be the best match RoH ever produced. This is just a great brawl with two guys hitting each other as hard as possible. The knock out ending is absolutely perfect for this match. It made Low Ki look like an absolute monster and killer in the ring and it made the debuting Joe look like an absolute badass with the beating he takes. I feel like I've never quite seen a match like this since.
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Post by El Mckell on Jan 24, 2018 15:08:04 GMT -5
Ridiculously stiff match. I'm kinda used to 'fight without honor' being ROH's word for no-DQ, even though this as billed as such it doesn't seem to be a no-DQ match. Intense stuff with a surprising finish. It's on youtube check it out if you haven't seen it
seconded ***3/4
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Post by mattsdmf on Jan 25, 2018 20:04:22 GMT -5
Just watched this and I think this is one of the best ROH matches they've ever produced. I loved how it went less than 20 minutes but it was just completely nonstop brutality with some intense strikes and shoot style submissions. While there could only be one winner, both came out looking like world beaters. I also loved the ending in which there wasn't a huge conclusive finisher or whatever but just one last blow to really put someone away. This is a definite contender for my list.
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Post by Cap on Jan 27, 2018 11:39:47 GMT -5
God I love this match. I need to rewatch it. I have it just under the 4.75 level for myself, but it is a match that always sticks in my mind. Joe is a fantastic wrestler that would have found success regardless, but I can't help but feel like this match helped propel him in a big way. He and Ki beat the shit out of each other. Just increadible stuff.
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Post by superstarsleeze on Feb 19, 2019 11:41:05 GMT -5
I really enjoyed this match. It is such a stiff match. It is two of the best asskickers who ever lived doing what they do best: kick ass. Wont make my list, but goddamn everyone needs to watch this.
Low-Ki vs Samoa Joe - ROH 10/5/02
The only thing the Smackdown roster is missing right now is Low-Ki. Imagine just a revolving door of AJ, Bryan, Joe & Ki tearing it up on Smackdown every week. I loved this match! It was BattlArts in America. No rope running. No Irish Whips. No intricate sequences. Just hard-hitting, smashmouth in your face action. Neither man giving an inch. They were constantly kicking out at one to prove a point that the other man had not hurt him even though they were beating the dogshit out of each other. Just a great combination of strikes, throws and submissions. This is Samoa Joe's debut and he is a hired gun for the top heel faction led by Christopher Daniels. This is a Fight Without Honor but there are no weapons or cheapshots just man on man, flesh on flesh. They set the tone early with some of the best pro wrestling ground and pound you will ever see. Those punches were STIFF! Ki's chops to Joe's back were brutal throughout. Low-Ki's suplexes looked so damn good in this match. Joe was looking slim & trim. Joe was kicking ass too. Loved the powerbomb into the STF. Joe got a big nearfall with the Island Driver. I love how Ki did NOT do any of his big highspots. No back handspring elbow or Tidal Wave. It shows his versatility and intelligence. You do those in matches with Amazing Red, not Samoa Joe. I love that thought process. He did go for his Dragon Clutch, but that's a submission that was his big nearfall compared to Joe's Island Driver. Then came the ending. Holy shit! They beat the shit out of each other and MY GOD Low-Ki DESTROYED Samoa Joe with those Kawada kicks. It looked like he was shoot kicking him in the face repeatedly. I love the Samoa Joe bellow before Low Ki clubs him to death for the win. When is the last time there was no highspot to win, you just clubbed youre way to victory. Awesome! Yes, they complaint is that the transitions arent that memorable and there is no grand story, but who fucking cares, they kicked ass so hard and it was fucking awesome! ****1/4
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Post by KB8 on Feb 22, 2020 10:17:04 GMT -5
Pretty spectacular US indie approximation of a Battlarts murderfest. It's billed as a fight without honour, which I guess at the time meant it was a street fight, or a match without any rules, or maybe just a match where they didn't need to shake hands first. Either way they absolutely leathered the tar out each other. Some of the striking was outrageous. Everything was nasty right from the start, but it was more niggly than full on in your face "why would you willingly be hit like that in a fake fight?" type stuff. They work the guard with some sharp elbows and headbutts, then Joe grabs a leg and applies a disgusting half crab where Ki's neck is trapped under Joe's knee. Then they stand up, slap each other really hard across the face and the violence continues to escalate from there. Ki was a cyclone of kicks and forearms and he made it his mission to chop every bit of skin on Joe's upper body. A few times he'd just latch onto Joe and try to secure an armbar or choke and Joe reversing a dragon sleeper into a death valley driver was incredible. I don't know if it was a conscious decision for Joe to sell exhaustion the way he did or he was legitimately being worn down (by the sort of punishment it very definitely would've sucked to be on the receiving end of), but I liked how it came across. Where his size would normally be advantageous, at least in that he could outhit most guys, nobody can outhit Low-Ki and so it almost ends up having the opposite affect. Can't outhit him, can't match his engine...what chance have you got? By the end he looked about on his last legs and you can't blame him for it one bit. I could've done without the ropey no-sell strike exchange towards the finish, but I guess it had a payoff, if you count Low-Ki unloading with about fifteen absurd punts to the face before dropping Joe with an overhand club the the back of the head as a payoff. And I mean, why wouldn't you?
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Post by nova on Apr 29, 2022 2:26:31 GMT -5
Comfortably the best American match of the year and a match I consider to be ROH’s first Classic (no disrespect to Bryan/Ki, this was just a tier above).
Joe was a hired gun sent to demolish Ki. Joe had already had his ZERO1 tour by this point, but he still felt like someone who had to make a name for himself in ROH and this was one hell of a way to do so. Obviously the stiff strikes and insanely violent spots are rightfully remembered by anyone who watches, but the core struggle of Ki trying to do his best in not only surviving, but defeating this terrifying Assassin is an excellent note on his journey after wrongfully losing the title to Xavier. On your first watch you will wince and remember the stiffness, on subsequent ones you will begin to unravel an amazing story.
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Post by elliott on Sept 21, 2023 0:04:11 GMT -5
Not a fan of this one. I get the appeal though & they deliver on what they're going for.
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Post by club on Jan 22, 2024 14:34:08 GMT -5
This was one of those matches that combined a lot of cool stuff from different styles into a somehow jarring whole. It's not bad, just not nearly as satisfying as the shoot style or AJPW they were riffing off.
Perhaps that's unfair as things were different 2002 and having an accessible English language product that catered to this niche was awesome. But in 2024 this doesn't do it for me.
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Post by elliott on Jan 22, 2024 18:30:51 GMT -5
This was one of those matches that combined a lot of cool stuff from different styles into a somehow jarring whole. It's not bad, just not nearly as satisfying as the shoot style or AJPW they were riffing off. Perhaps that's unfair as things were different 2002 and having an accessible English language product that catered to this niche was awesome. But in 2024 this doesn't do it for me. Honestly broadly speaking about the era, it was all of these things at once. |
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