Underground Spotlight: ROH Golden Ages: The Year That Honor Began!

In April 2001, the World Wrestling Federation chairman Vince McMahon brought out both Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling thus becoming the only big show in town. At that time, no independent promotion in North America possessed the popularity that ECW had and their former distributor RF Videos ran by Ron Feinstein needed a promotion to fill that role as their top seller. Other promotions failed to sell at an impressive level so Rob decided to start up his own promotion, a unique promotion with its own special identity focused on pro wrestling, not sports entertainment. February 23, 2002, Ring Of Honor was born and showcased its debut event titled The Era of Honor Begins. On that show, it features talent like Michael Shane, Da Hit Squad, Scoot Andrews, Brian "Spanky" Kendrick, Amazing Red, Jay Briscoe, and the ever flamboyant Christopher Street Connection but two matches really had people talking. The first match was the first ever title match in ROH history as the International Wrestling Association in Puerto Rico owned by Los Boricuas members Savio Vega and Miguel Perez Jr. allowed their latest championship the IWA Puerto Rico Intercontinental Championship to be awarded on the show in a dream bout as the former ECW World Television Champion Super Crazy defeated the late great Eddie Guererro to win the championship. And the main event featured Low Ki vs "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels vs "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson(Daniel Bryan) in a match which many called a Match of the Year candidate and became the catalyst of what was to come.

A Round Robin style tournament was held to crown the first ROH Champion. The tournament featured Low Ki, Doug Williams, Spanky, Bryan Danielson, Paul London, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Jody Fleisch, Biohazard, Jonny Storm, Jerry Lynn, Xavier, Amazing Red, Scoot Andrews, and Prince Nana. And on July 27th, Low Ki overcame Spanky, Christopher Daniels and Doug Williams in a 60 minute 4 way Iron Man match to become the inaugural ROH Champion. He would only successfully defend against AJ Styles in the next show which was the first ROH event outside of the Murphy Recreation Center.

The Prophecy

The top storyline in the company during that time was The Prophecy vs ROH. The Prophecy was formed and lead by the "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. Daniels since the very first show refused to follow the "Code of Honor" as he saw it as a lie. He would enlist the help of Allison Danger, who would manage Daniels the majority of his ROH career, Donovan Morgan, Mark Briscoe, Xavier and Simply Luscious. On September 21st at ROH Unscripted, Christopher Daniels and Donovan Morgan went on to defeat The SAT, Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka and American Dragon & Michael Modest in a one night tag tournament to become the first ROH Tag Team Champions but earlier that night, Daniels came out during the ROH Championship defense of Low Ki and cost him his match against Xavier would now join The Prophecy as ROH Champion(And is arguably the least significant ROH title reign in history). The Prophecy walked out of Unscripted as champions. Daniels also revealed that any member of The Prophecy could defend the titles

At the first ever Glory By Honor event, The Prophecy refused to put any title on the line and enlisted the help of the debuting Samoa Joe as a hired assassin to take out Low Ki in a Fight Without Honor match which Low Ki won but however, Joe would break the rule of The Prophecy and shake Low Ki's hand after the match where the Code of Honor was not required. Joe and Low Ki displayed a style of professional wrestling that represented the new age in wrestling. Xavier wanted someone that he could easily take care of in the ring, Mark Briscoe volunteered his brother Jay Briscoe who had only won two matches in ROH since being there. Mark and Jay had the fighting brother story as Mark wasn't able to compete in Philadelphia where most of the ROH shows were held because he was 17 years of age and Philadelphia child labor laws prohibited him from competing, however in Boston, Mark would defeat Jay. Mark would poke fun at Jay's losses after the matches. Jay Briscoe managed to pull off the upset over Xavier. Daniels took on Doug Williams in the main event, Daniels refused to follow the Code of Honor but Doug Williams saw that as disrespect and told Daniels if he beats him that Daniels not only has to follow the Code of Honor but he has to disband The Prophecy but Daniels accepted under the condition that if he beats Williams than he cannot follow the Code of Honor. Daniels defeated Williams and mocked him afterward offering a handshake.

At Final Battle, Steve Corino decided that he was going to form a group and win all of the titles in ROH and since he can't have his girlfriend Simply Luscious telling Daniels his secrets, he dumps her in the middle of the ring but ends up taking her back after she left The Prophecy to join his group, Daniels comes down and has some words with Corino before Corino calls out Homicide who stabbed him in the eye with a fork a few shows prior as revenge for an inadvertent superkick from Corino at Glory By Honor and calls him a "disrespectful young boy" and Homicide runs him off. Corino later that night bated Homicide into coming out and attacked him with a fork of his own as while as drilling Homicide with multiple piledrivers. Corino and Homicide's feud was one of the most violent and bloody feuds in Ring Of Honor history, a feud that went 4 years long.

Texas Wrestling Academy

The other top story was the Texas Wrestling Academy students battling out. American Dragon proved himself capable as a top contender but it was all about who is the best student from the Texas Wrestling Academy. On the Night of Appreciation(For then WWE Intercontinental Champion Eddie Guerrero who was having his final ROH show), the cocky Spanky won the Heartbreak Gauntlet outlasting John Hope, Paul London, Michael Shane, and American Dragon. Spanky would go on to the Round Robin tournament and defeat Jody Fleisch and Paul London to get to the 4 Way Iron Man match won by Low Ki. Earlier that night, Biohazard and Michael Shane(Who was the cousin of head trainer Shawn Michaels) took on Paul London and Don Juan with the winner getting an ROH contract. Paul London pinned Biohazard as Michael Shane pinned Don Juan simultaneously but the ref spotted Shane's first so Michael Shane and Biohazard took the victory with Shane getting the contract. Steve Corino who was announcing heavily pointed out that Rudy Boy Gonzales seemed upset as Michael Shane wasn't his student in particular but London was trained by him. This marked a bit of a heel turn for Michael Shane to the point where Shane became overconfident and arrogant to the point that announcers said even The Prophecy wants nothing to do with him.

London took on Michael Shane in Boston, London hit Shane with a Springboard Corkscrew Senton and Michael Shane faked twisting his leg on impact and rolled up London for the victory. The two would meet at ROH Unscripted in a Street Fight in which both men stole the show. Paul London put Shane away a Shooting Star Press from the ladder, following the match blown away by the storytelling and sick spots that had never been seen in ROH at that point, fans chanted "Match of the Year" and gave both guys a standing ovation.

At Glory By Honor, Steve Corino defeated Rudy Boy Gonzales in a Texas style Death Match, following the match, Michael Shane and Biohazard attacked Rudy Boy with Corino before London made the save. Later that night, Shane defeated London and Spanky in a Triple Threat match and telling the crowd that everyone else should stop calling themselves the "Showstopper" channeling that HBK relations. Shane and London faced off once more as part of a gauntlet featuring the debuting CM Punk who was pinned by Shane, Amazing Red who was put away by London and American Dragon who won the gauntlet. London got the win over Shane, faking an injury just like Shane did in their first bout. Following his elimination, Michael Shane refuses to shake London's hand but then WWE Superstar and ECW Original Tommy Dreamer makes an appearance and has Michael Shane shake London's hand but London got dropped with a clothesline from Shane who gets dropped with a Dreamer DDT. London was later defeated by American Dragon who went on to have another MOTY candidate with AJ Styles. Two events later, London and Dragon wrestled in the finals on the contenders tournament and this time London won. Post match, London put over Dragon and Dragon tells London make sure he beats AC Slater(Xavier) at Final Battle.

At Final Battle, London failed to become champion and the crowd erupted in disapproval as they wanted London to win.

The Formation Of Special K

Students of Mikey Whipwreck were booked in showcase matches, one of his trainees Brian XL throughout the weeks began to show signs of being a slacker and disrespect character in the locker room and even attempted to ruin the Appreciation Night of Eddie Guerrero by simply coming out to poke fun at The SAT. Brian XL aligned himself with JAPW regular Dixie and both men ditched their partner Black Goldman Jr. at the Crowning a Champion event. At the Boston show, both men with Izzy and Elax now known as Special K assaulted Amazing Red and Quiet Storm after their match causing Storm's partner Chris Devine and The SAT to make the save and a six man tag was made with Special K on the losing end. At Glory By Honor, Special K lost a Tag Scramble where they lost to Homicide who was the lone member of the Natural Born Sinners as his partner Boogaloo was injured by the Carnage Crew. Later on, Special K drugs Joey Matthews and gets him "addicted" as they laugh at the mess Joey appears to be(Kinda sad when you think about the trouble Joey went through in life). Matthews ends up joining to get his fixes and Special K's partying gimmick begins to take full effect. By the next few shows, Angel Dust, Deranged, Yeyo, Hydro(Jay Lethal) and Slim J join the "party" and Special K continues to rock the Scramble matches, engage in orgy's backstage and attack people with the announcers explaining their privileged lifestyles. It wasn't until Final Battle that Special K finally scored a victory, defeating The Backseat Boyz and Da Hit Squad in a scramble match. Later that night, Special K would get involved in Jody Fleisch's match with Amazing Red to attack Red. Fleisch looked like he was going to put a stop to it but danced with them instead. The SAT, JT Smith, Devine Storm and Da Hit Squad attempted to make the save but Daemon Slugga who appeared to side with JT dropped him instead and Special K all laid out all three teams as Jody Fleisch proclaimed them to be the 'Future of ROH' joining them in the process.

The first year set the tone for what was to come, soon I will cover the following year as 2003 was the beginning of the era in ROH where stars were formed and titles became World Championship. The start of Ring of Honor was very enjoyable but things only got even more intense. 2003 is where ROH legends became the guys we loved for the last 17 years.