This held up well. For a blowoff to a months-long feud it was pretty much an extended squash, and that's exactly what it should've been. Joe stomped out Mark at Final Battle but came up short in his pursuit of the Briscoes' tag titles, losing matches against them with partners like AJ Styles and Brian Danielson. This time Jay gets his chance at the World Title and can win by escaping the cage, while Joe...can't win by doing that? I think? They kind of play it up like Joe has to pin or submit him and escape isn't an option for him. Or maybe he CAN escape but he simply doesn't want to, because that would be too easy or something. It doesn't really matter one way or the other so, you know, whatever. Jay immediately tries to escape at the bell as that seems like the smart thing to do, but obviously Joe cuts him off. Anybody who thought Jay was just a dumb country boy is proved wrong as Jay keeps going for that door any chance he gets. Then he actually manages to land an offensive move, but rather than stick to his original plan he gets cocky and tries to leave a few lumps on Joe first. Of course Joe kills him dead and maybe we were wrong about being wrong about Jay being a dumb country boy. I guess you make mistakes at 20 years old. It's all a part of growing up. How are you ever going to be old and wise if you never live a little wild and crazy first? Joe finding a chain and sealing shut Jay's potential avenue of escape for good is an awesome "oh shit, this is about to get ugly" moment, and ugly it surely gets. Jay goes bonkers with the blade and hits a truly horrifying gusher. Some of the camera shots are sort of harrowing, especially late on whey they get a close-up of the blood clotting! There's one part where Jay is dead in the corner and Mark looks on outside the cage like damn y'all that's a whole lotta blood. Joe is covered in Jay's blood by the end, licking the blood off his hands and slapping him about the face to send the blood spattering everywhere. The Jay Driller was such a great spot here as well. He'd used it to beat Danielson in the Briscoes v Joe/Danielson match in January, so when he hits it in this you wonder for just a second if it might be enough. It's just that it takes all his strength to actually DO the move and he can't quite follow up with a cover. There was another great moment where he managed to kick Joe off the top, but in his own exhaustion he just toppled off along with him before he could climb out. Then again you wonder if he'd even be able to make that climb given the state of him. Joe bringing out the big gun and putting him away before anybody has the chance to find out was as emphatic a finish as you could get, while making Jay look tough as a bastard for hanging in there like he did.
Saturday, 16 January 2021
Thursday, 7 January 2021
Revisiting 00s US Indies #28
CM Punk & Colt Cabana v The Briscoe Brothers (ROH Round Robin Challenge III, 5/15/04)
Very different to their last match, and not quite as fun, but I thought it was good. They're not in Chicago so it doesn't have the uniqueness of Reborn, though that means they can flip the dynamic and work an entirely different match. In Chicago the Saints were pure babyfaces and worked pure babyface shtick during the shine. This time everybody works more even in the opening stretch, and it's fine enough but I'm never going to be into indie parity stuff as much as someone doing an ode to the Rock 'n' Roll Express. Both teams are coming off another match on the show (both versus the Prophecy), so they play up a Mark Briscoe rib injury as the main crux of the heat segment. I thought this was the best part of the match by far and the Saints were really good working him over. Cabana had some nasty submissions to stretch him out, they were working some fun cheating behind the ref's back, made it look like Mark was going to make that tag before cutting him off right at the last second, it was all good stuff. Thought the finishing run was paced well and the finish itself ruled. Mark breaking up the tiger suplex with a shooting star press was such a cool moment, but of course it only made his own situation worse and ultimately his sacrifice counted for little. He threw the Hail Mary and it got picked off in the end zone. Shit happens sometimes.
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