It's been four unforgettable years since the "Era of Honor Begins", the very appropriate title for Ring of Honor's debut show in Philadelphia back in February of 2002. ROH quickly became my favorite promotion, even without having seen a tape or DVD. I was getting so much excitement just out of reading the recaps on the internet. When I finally did start getting tapes my opinion of the company was solidified.

The show opened with the highly anticipated return of Mark and Jay Briscoe to Ring of Honor. The Briscoes were on fire when ROH first started and they developed into a very well rounded tag team during their stint. After well over a year out of the company, they have returned to reclaim their glory in ROH. They interrupted a tag match between Kid Mikaze & Jason Blade vs Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro and turned it into a 3-WAY. The Briscoe came out of it with their arms raised and adrenaline pumping ( 6.5 / 10 )

The 4-Corner Survival match is a staple of ROH shows. It's incredible to me how this never gets stale; every match is entertaining and has its own unique dynamic. I absolutely admire how bookers can pick four wrestlers at random and manage to get a good match out of them almost every time. It's a testament to the quality of talent that ROH employs. Anyway, Adam Pearce continued to make an impact in ROH by winning the match over Claudio Castagnoli, Azriael and Jay Fury. When Pearce first broke on the scene he really rubbed me the wrong way, but I now find him very cool. He would return later to solidify his position as one of ROH's leading men. ( 5.5 / 10 )

Samoa Joe sought revenge against his former protégé, Jay Lethal, in a grudge match. Joe did in fact secure victory over Lethal after a very good match (7.5 / 10 ). After that, B.J. Whitmer had his opportunity to battle former Prophecy stable-mate Christopher Daniels, who was accompanied not only by Allison Danger, but also by the lovely Lacey, who promised to give away all of Whitmer's secrets. This match of great importance ended in an abrupt No Contest when hell froze over and the shit hit the fan......................

Suddenly, without warning, the ring was full of CZW invaders. I am only mildly familiar with CZW and I only recognized Chris Hero & Necro Butcher (the rest were overweight jobbers). The insanity exploded all over the arena with one of the most electric and realistic brawls in the history of professional wrestling. The ROH locker room emptied and fought to reclaim their ring from the CZW "garbage wrestlers." Adam Pearce was the first to break through the barrier and attacked CZW's leader Chris Hero. The ring filled up with so many wrestlers they were literally piled on top of one another. The ring emptied and Chris Hero was left in the ring yelling at the top of his lungs "I'm Chris Hero and who is going stop me?" - Samoa Joe jumped in the ring and put a stop to Hero's tirade of obscenities. The war between ROH and CZW has officially begun. ( 9.5 / 10 )

Before the dust could settle, Homicide & Colt Cabana spilled out into the arena brawling with each other and immediately started their Ghetto Street Fight. This sort of non-stop action would wear out your average wrestling crowd but the ROH fans remained on their feet for this bloody fight. The referee stopped the match not once, not twice, but three times, in Homicide's favor; but the bloodied Colt Cabana would not stay down and repeatedly called Homicide back to the ring. The intention of this match was to settle their feud but they set up one last Fight Without Honor for the next event in Chicago. Like I've said before, I'm not a big fan of these hardcore style matches but this one had so much psychology involved that it had me hooked ( 7 / 10 ).

Prince Nana and the Embassy had ROH World Champion American Dragon in their sights for a long time, and they finally got their chance to take the Gold off of Dragon's waist. Jimmy Rave has been a major player in ROH for a long time and it's about time he received a title shot. Rave proved why he has deserved the shot by going move for move with the Champ from beginning to end. Dragon's intensity was too much for Rave, who was rendered unconscious by a series of patented elbow shots to the head from Dragon ( 8.5 / 10 ).

Jack Evans was lucky to leave Edison with his life. As if the threat of facing the murderous Ricky Reyes wasn't enough, Evans severely botched a springboard flippedy dippedy move and landed right on the back of his shoulders on hard floor. I seriously thought he was paralyzed, anybody else would have been, but this was Jack Freakin' Evans - he recovered and took three power-bombs and STILL kicked out. It was all for not, as several minutes later Reyes finished Evans off with one of his sick looking inverted DDTs. I still don't like Reyes, and I hate when Evans does crap like that. I just hope he saves enough money for the wheel chair he's going to be confined to before his 30th birthday ( 6 / 10 ).

The main event was quite possibly the best match of the year. Matt Sydal teamed up with the Phenomenal AJ Styles to try to unseat their Generation Next stable-mates Austin Aries and Roderick Strong of their ROH Tag Team titles. After everything that had gone on already that night, the crowd was STILL hot for this tag match. It was good old fashioned back-and-forth action between four of ROH's finest. Who won? Only one way to find out ( 9.5 / 10 ).

Final Thoughts: I keep thinking ROH is going to throw at least one crappy show at me one of these days just so I can quit being such a damn mark with these positive reviews. The truth is, ROH is consistently great, and even in the rare instance of a bad match or a bad segment, there is plenty more on the DVD to make up for it. If you would like to purchase this or any other ROH DVD, please check out ROHwrestling.com - Thank you!