I was a wee bit sceptical about this. I already knew going in it was a long one and I don't REALLY care about watching any of these guys for 40 minutes, but you know what? I'll be fucked if I didn't think it ruled. I never thought it dragged, never thought it was bloated, never thought they were just doing stuff to be doing stuff, never thought it got too contrived. Would it have been tighter if they'd shaved like ten minutes off? Probably, but all the same it never felt like they were running out of ideas and even at 41 minutes I thought they had just the right amount of stuff to fill the time. The first half was largely back and forth, plenty of momentum shifts with neither team really sustaining an advantage. That they managed to keep me fully engaged for that long (I'm sure this is very important to them) without a prolonged heat segment or obvious story hook was surprising, so fair play to them because most matches would've lost me long before that. I mean, this is 2004 ROH, right as the indie boom is about to peak, so at the very least you know these guys are going to make their shit look good, and usually that's not something I care all that much about but tip of the cap to the fellas because all of their shit looked good. I can't believe how well mid-00s Austin Aries has consistently held up going through this stuff and yet again everything he did came off great. Strong is pudgy and looks like a 19-year old trying to grow his first goatee because it is 2004 and goatees were all the rage then, but he still hits like a bastard and all of his exchanges with Jay Briscoe were uncooperative and potatoey. At one point Jay spat his chewing gum at Shelley and Gen Next got super indignant so later on Aries spat on the entire babyface corner. Just the general vicinity of it and everyone got caught in the blast. And he wonders why people want him to wear a mask, the silly prick. Things kick up a gear midway through and the back half has a little of everything. First the babyfaces isolate Evans with an absurd electric chair drop across both Briscoes' knees, and of course Evans gets stretched and wellied all over the place and of course it was a hoot. His backflip bump off a clothesline is always great because he makes it look like it was the force from the clothesline that flipped him all the way over and not just him doing a backflip. After that we get Jay in peril, which comes from an awesome transition where Strong folds him with a capture suplex just as Shelley dropkicks the knee. It was like a modern indie version of a Total Elimination where you know they all sat around geeking about how they could do something cool and that in and of itself is sort of cool and makes me wish I pursued that teenage dream of becoming a professional wrestler working in front of 23 people. The beatdown on Jay is good and he sells the leg well, and then they tease going into the finishing run but NO, it instead leads to a further heat segment on Jonathan Walters. Earlier in the show Gen Next attacked Walters and spiked him with a piledriver, so they work over the neck and naturally they do some neat stuff. Great moment where Walters nearly escapes to his own corner but Aries grabs his hair and slams him to the mat, and as Walters is on the way down Aries knees him in the neck, which looked pretty brutal. The actual finishing run is short by indie epic standards and I thought it ended just at the right time. Shelley double stomping Walters in the fuckin neck from the top rope was an absolute bastard of a thing and I'd have tapped out shortly thereafter as well, so keep yer chin up there Johnny Walters my good man. I watched this late last night, figuring I'd go to sleep after it if I wasn't put to sleep during it, but it actually gave me a proper buzz and I wound up watching some more stuff when it finished. I'm not about to call it the peak of modern indie workrate tags, but I'll tell you one thing and you best heed these words - I can't think of another straight up workrate tag that landed as sweetly as this. I thought it was properly excellent and massive surprise; in the good way and not like when you step in a puddle or a bees nest.
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