The Independent Mid-Card 11.20.07: Homicide vs. Steen vs. Dixie vs. Azrieal (Part II)

Hello all and welcome back to another week of The Independent Mid-Card. Last week began a multiple week event to look at my picks for 2007’s Breakout Stars of the Year. This week we’re actually sticking with the very same Ring of Honor show from 2005 to look at the second half of a duo that set ROH ablaze a mere two years later. I could go on-and-on in exposition, but why delay things any further. Let’s get right into this week’s contest in the second part of a special IMC event.

Homicide vs. Kevin Steen vs. Dixie vs. Azrieal
Four Corner Survival
Ring of Honor – Fate of an Angel – Woodbridge, CT – July 16, 2005

The Wrestlers:
Homicide – One of Ring of Honor’s founding fathers, “The Notorious 187” Homicide had been in ROH since day one. A hybrid brawler-technician, Homicide had spent most of 2005 embroiled in a bitter feud with “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson, with the pair engaging in a best-of-five series along the way. Though Homicide was able to take an early 2-0 lead in that series, Danielson was able to win the final three encounters, including an epic Steel Cage Match in mid-May, to earn a shot at the ROH World Title. Around the same time, Homicide, along with fellow Rottweiler Low Ki, had segued into an issue with Jay Lethal and the ROH Pure Champion Samoa Joe.

Kevin Steen – Having appeared a couple of times previously for Ring of Honor, including a singles contest with Homicide about a month before this week’s featured matchup, Kevin Steen was actually an established main event player in California’s Pro Wrestling Guerrilla promotion by the middle of 2005. While Ring of Honor was building a solid foundation in the early part of its fourth year, Steen had already had a habit of putting on outstanding brawls and technical exhibitions in a variety of other promotions. You wouldn’t have known it, however, by the way that “Mr. Wrestling” had been booked thus far in his ROH tenure, where he had essentially been treated as a talented bottom-of-the-card talent. Though Steen’s physique wasn’t exactly the most polished in the company, he was already showing some of the charisma and talent that many would later come to associate with him.

Dixie – A charter member of Ring of Honor’s Special K faction, Dixie was actually an ROH Tag Team Champion at one point, holding the gold with fellow Special K member Izzy in mid-2003. Dixie, in the tradition of the Special K group, was a somewhat bland light heavyweight known for his high flying prowess and somewhat bland characterization. Notable for being one of that groups members to not join up with the Lacey’s Angels group, Dixie and fellow participant Azrieal had actually been a tag team in ROH before losing a bout in mid-May that prevented the duo from continuing to team up. In fact, Dixie’s former association with Azrieal was one of the few factors connecting the competitors in this week’s matchup.

Azrieal – Another former Special K member, Azrieal was actually the member of the group (other than former ROH Pure Champion Jay Lethal) that fans seemed to view as having a chance to establish himself as a singles competitor in Ring of Honor. As with Dixie, Azrieal was essentially a featureless high flyer in the wake of the Special K breakup, with little to separate him from the variety of other mid-card light heavyweight competitors in ROH at the time.

The Match:
Kevin Steen enters first, cocky as ever and hailing from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. We get abbreviated introductions for the first three competitors, continuing with Dixie and subsequently Azrieal, who isn’t announced as hailing from anywhere in particular. Homicide’s music then kicks off and we get more complete video of his entrance. He is accompanied by his manager Julius Smokes and hails from Bed Stuy (Do or Die) in Brooklyn, New York. Homicide slowly makes his way to ringside and into the ring where he poses on the outside of one of the turnbuckles. He climbs into the ring and quickly goes after Steen. No Code of Honor as the bell rings to start things off.

Steen and Homicide brawl at the outset, with Steen gaining an advantage after a series of strikes. Homicide is able to reverse an Irish whip, but Steen comes back with a kick to the gut and a forearm strike. Steen chops him against the ropes and then whips him into a leapfrog sequence that sees Homicide dropkick him to ringside and follow Steen out with a tope con hilo. Homicide ends up rolling most of the way up the entranceway before recovering and hitting Steen with a mocking soccer kick. Homicide whips Steen into the guardrail and then follows up with a running chair smash to the top of Steen’s head.

Back in the ring, Dixie and Azrieal are going at it, with Dixie seemingly in control. He whips Azrieal off the ropes, but Azrieal puts on the breaks and back body drops a charging Dixie over the top and to the apron. Dixie gets a shoulderblock through the ropes and slingshots in with a sunset flip, but Azrieal rolls through and pastes him in the face with a basement dropkick. Steen and Homicide are still exchanging chops at ringside while Dixie, now perched on the second rope, hits a back kick to Azrieal and comes out of the corner with a beautiful jumping swinging DDT.

Homicide cuts off Dixie before he can capitalize, but gets a cross-corner whip reversed. Homicide catches Dixie coming in and counters a splash into a sit-out Alabama Slam (high-angle whiplash spinebuster) that Steen breaks up at two. Steen chops Homicide into the corner and gets a pair of shoulderblocks before whipping Homicide cross-corner and following him in with a hard clothesline. Steen then hits a stiff boot to the face and covers for two. Steen whips Homicide into a back elbow smash and again covers for two. Steen gets in a headbutt, but that only serves to wake Homicide up and he responds with a hard chop to the chest. He goes for another, but Steen ducks it and turns it into a short-arm clothesline before hitting a standing front-flip legdrop for two. Pretty lazy cover by Steen in that particular case. Steen continues the assault with a pair of chops, but Homicide just gets pissed and pokes him in the eye in retaliation before aggressively tagging out to Azrieal in frustration.

Azrieal comes in, but Steen ducks his clothesline attempt and gets a boot to the midsection. Steen goes for his Package Piledriver (double arm-capture piledriver), but Azrieal flips out of it and comes running off the ropes with a flying headscissors. Steen rolls over to the corner as a result of the momentum and Dixie is able to tag himself in.

Dixie hits a trio of forearm smashes before whipping Azrieal into the corner and following him in with another running forearm. Dixie quickly hops out to the apron before coming back in with a springboard missile dropkick to the back of Azrieal’s head, scurrying over to make the cover for two. Dixie hits a standard backbreaker and then hold Azrieal over his knee in a modified bow-and-arrow stretch before lifting him up into another backbreaker for a two count. The pair exchange strikes with Dixie getting the better of the exchange and he whips Azrieal off the ropes. Azrieal is able to duck a couple of clothesline attempts, but both men go for cross-body blocks simultaneously and end up colliding in the middle of the ring. Azrieal tags out to Homicide while Dixie makes the tag to Steen.

Steen knocks Homicide down a couple of times with right hands before landing a spinning leg lariat. He gets a chop in the corner, but Homicide reverses a cross-corner whip and follows him in with a forearm smash to put Steen down in the corner. Homicide follows up with his running facewash knee strike and then gets a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on a charging Azrieal. That’s actually a lot of focused punishment to Azrieal’s back for this sort of match. Dixie goes for a clothesline on Homicide, but he blocks it and reverses right into an Ace Crusher. Steen comes running with a boot to “The Notorious 187”, whipping him off the ropes to follow. Homicide then ducks a pair of clothesline attempts, but gets caught on a cross-body attempt and Steen is able to whip him around into a modified Air Raid Crash that gets two when Azrieal breaks up the count.

Azrieal chops Steen into the corner, but the big man is able to reverse a cross-corner whip. Steen gets sent over the top on the blind charge, but drops Azrieal with a right hand from the apron anyway. Dixie comes running and gets in a forearm smash, but Steen blocks a second one and drops Dixie throat-first on the top rope. Steen quickly climbs back into the ring and goes straight to the top, landing a picture-perfect moonsault on Dixie that is broken up when Azrieal hits a flying double-stomp moments later. Azrieal runs right over to Homicide in the corner and hits him with a forearm before lifting him up to the top rope. Azrieal then hits a Frankensteiner and looks for his Electric Chair Driver. Homicide slips out of it and then avoids a jumping double stomp to the back of the head, pushing Azrieal right into a snap German Suplex from Dixie. Homicide eats a snap German Suplex as well, but Steen is able to cut things off with a boot to the midsection.

Steen goes for a powerbomb, but Dixie rolls through and hits a hangman’s neckbreaker. Dixie quickly heads out to the apron and comes back in with a springboard forearm drop (that’s not a move you see everyday) before picking Steen back up. He might have been better served going for a cover there. Steen is able to reverse an Irish whip into a cool swinging back drop suplex, but ends up getting hit with a Busaiku Knee Kick from Azrieal that sends him rolling out of the ring. Azrieal tries to follow him out with a slingshot cross-body block, but Steen catches him and sends him into the guardrail on a fallaway slam. Meanwhile, back in the ring Homicide is having his way with Dixie in the corner, but takes the time to hit Steen with a lariat while he’s on the apron. Steen ends up crashing to ringside, but Homicide walks right into a roaring elbow from Dixie for two. Smokes tries to distract the referee, but to no avail as Homicide reverses a cross-corner whip only to have Dixie put on the breaks and hop up to the second turnbuckle. He bounds out of the corner with an attempt at another swinging DDT, but Homicide tosses him off and catches a boot. He’s unable to block a forearm, but does avoid a second one and goes for the Cop Killer (double-underhook back-to-back piledriver). Dixie is able to avoid the move but Homicide no-sells a German Suplex (in a way that some might refer to as ‘Fighting Spirit’) and hits the Cop Killer for real to get the pinfall at 8:38. Homicide’s music hits again as Smokes enters the ring to celebrate. No handshake from Homicide to the unconscious Dixie as we cut out.

The Analysis:
A brisk spotfest, as many of ROH’s Four Corner Survival contests are, this match has little in the way of ring psychology or continuity. While there were nods to Dixie and Azrieal’s former association as well as Steen and Homicide’s issue stemming from their earlier match, neither of those impacted the action or the finish of this match. The one bright spot for fans of psychology would be the work on Azrieal’s back, but even then it would only have been truly notable had it lead directly to a finish.

In terms of our focus on this match, Kevin Steen looked solid and energetic here, but was given little opportunity to truly shine. The most memorable spots from the match all belonged to Steen (the front-flip legdrop, the Air Raid Crash, the fallaway slam into the guardrail), but none was anything that ROH fans hadn’t seen before, save perhaps for the legdrop from such a large competitor. This was hardly the Kevin Steen that had gotten the opportunity to shine as a main eventer in PWG, though it’s unclear as to why Steen was portrayed as such a low-level talent by the announcers.

The Aftermath:
Dixie would make an unceremonious exit from Ring of Honor competition in the wake of this loss. Azrieal, who would continue to find mixed results as a singles wrestler, would remain in Ring of Honor throughout the remainder of 2005 and into the early part of 2006 before being dropped from the roster. He is probably most notable for being soundly defeated by “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson in a non-title match early in Danielson’s ROH World Title reign. Both remain in competition in a variety of East Coast Independent promotions.

Homicide would go on to be a key player in one of the biggest angles in ROH history when he played the role of Ring of Honor’s savior in the company’s six-month war with Combat Zone Wrestling. Along the way, Homicide also renewed his long-simmering feud with Bryan Danielson during Danielson’s title reign, losing a controversial decision in June of 2006 before eventually becoming the man to dethrone the “American Dragon” at Final Battle 2006, fulfilling his career-long dream and succeeding in a five-year quest to win the ROH World Title. Homicide would not be champion for long, however, as he would go on to drop the belt to Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Takeshi Morishima in February of 2007. In the wake of Total Nonstop Action’s talent pull in May of 2007, Homicide’s time in Ring of Honor came to an abrupt end, though the former champion did appear at a subsequent show in New York City to officially bid the company farewell.

Kevin Steen would leave ROH not long after this contest. Having failed to impress ROH management for whatever reason, Steen was instead relegated to becoming Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s Heavyweight Champion as well as Combat Zone Wrestling’s Iron Man Champion later that Summer. Steen would continue to be one of PWG’s most outstanding performers for the better part of the next eighteen months, also becoming a major player in a variety of other promotions. Notably, Steen went to the finals of IWA Mid-South’s 2005 Ted Petty Invitational Tournament in his first weekend with the company, though he would lose in the final match to ROH regular Matt Sydal. Steen would not make his return to Ring of Honor until early 2007 when he and fellow PWG regular El Generico would challenge one of ROH’s top teams in Jay & Mark Briscoe. The Briscoes were able to subdue Steen & Generico on that night, but the match ended up setting off a long-running issue between the teams that only intensified when the Briscoes went on to win the ROH World Tag Team Titles shortly thereafter. Heading into the Summer of 2007, Steen & Generico were two of the hottest performers in Ring of Honor.

The Final Word:
There are a lot of rumors surrounding Kevin Steen’s first run in Ring of Honor. Though it’s not my place to spread those rumors, suffice to say that some believe Steen’s lack of success during that initial run had more to do with backstage politics than in-ring production. Anyone who had seen any of Steen’s work up to that point knew that his technical acumen was at the very least the equal of, and in some cases far superior to, many ROH regulars at the time. Not to be mean-spirited, but does anyone really want to tell me that Kevin Steen wasn’t a better performer by mid-2005 than the Ring Crew Express or the Carnage Crew?

To see this week’s contest, Fate of an Angel is available from rohwrestling.com. Just as with last week, this show gets my most emphatic praise, as it is a part of the truly epic “Summer of Punk” angle. I will spare everyone the match rundown for a second straight week, but suffice that I think you should go buy this show as soon as is practicably possible.

There are a bunch of other columns and reviews that you should read on 411 this week. Ari, as always, has Column of Honor and Bayani has Truth B Told. Please be sure to read Mike Campbell’s The Tiger’s Take, which is a fantastic look at what being a “real” wrestling fan means. Stu continues his That Was Then marathon here, and here, and here. The most recent Buy or Sell features Matt Adamson & Magnus Donaldson in a preview of CHIKARA’s season finale while Magnus goes solo for Magnus Books The Midwest. Short’s got The Navigation Log if you’re looking for a Puro fix (and really, please read his stuff because he’s doing me a favor and trying to track down one of those cool new Pro Wrestling NOAH animal shirts), and Barcham’s got another week of Hitting Below the Beltway.

In terms of reviews, Brad’s got PWG’s Chanukah Chaos (The C’s Are Silent) and Astonishing X-Mas while Byers has a look at the new Best of CHIKARA DVD. Dunn’s got ROH United We Stand and Magnus chimes in again with IWA Mid-South’s A Phenomenal Invasion 2.

Buy or Sell will be on hiatus this week for the holiday, but will return a week from Friday when Brad Garoon and I preview a weekend of ROH action as well as Kenta Kobashi’s return to the ring. No ROH shows means no Roundtable, but there will be one, as always, in advance of next weekend’s shows.

I would also like to take a second to plug some of my own work. For those of you who didn’t get a chance to read it, please take a second and check out the newest edition of The Up & Under. I don’t pull that column heading out often, so you know that when I do it’s got to be something special. Also, please consider this a public ‘thank you’ to those who took the time to write in about the column, especially fellow 411 staffers Scott Slimmer and Ari Berenstein.

I’m not going to jinx anything TV-related what with the writers’ strike and all, but I still like all the stuff I liked last week and I’m still finding Private Practice underwhelming.

I’m heading to Lexington, Kentucky for Thanksgiving, but I’ll be back with a new IMC next week, complete with the third part of our look at my pick for Breakout Stars of the Year. I hope everyone has a good holiday. For those of you looking to get into Ring of Honor, let me recommend that you watch rohwrestling.com on Black Friday, as ROH traditionally runs its biggest sale of the year that day.

Oh, and a big ‘get well soon’ from the IMC to CHIKARA star Lince Dorado who was injured at the company’s season finale show on Sunday. Please keep your eye on chikarapro.com and chikarafans.com for updates on Lince’s condition and how you might be able to help.

350 to 6. Welcome back Jericho. Ole!

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