Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Austin Aries – Evolution of A-Double

 

Read over 80 Austin Aries match reviews from me!

 

Final Battle
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
December 26, 2004

Samoa Joe(c) vs. Austin Aries [ROH World Championship]

I’ve always found this match slightly underwhelming. It’s basically a hot midcard match…that ended one of the most important title reigns from the 21st century. So, it’s good. Very good in fact! I just have always wanted something much more epic from this title change. Anyway, Joe dominated Aries. Aries valiantly fought back. He eventually avoided the Muscle Buster and eventually finished Joe with the brainbuster/450 combo. The finish got over like few other things you’ve seen this century. (***¾)

 

We saw footage of Generation Next losing in the Trios Tournament to the Rottweilers. Homicide pinned Aries to win the match which set up….

 

The Best of the American Super Juniors Tournament
Asbury Park, New Jersey
April 2, 2005

Austin Aries(c) vs. Homicide [ROH World Championship]

This was really not all that good. It was methodical and meandering, and it never really came together as something meaningful. It also featured Homicide no-selling a burning fuck hammer for absolutely no reason. Julius Smokes then blatantly interfered to prevent Aries from winning at one point (Bryan Danielson had to run him off). Aries and Homicide continued to go at it until Aries won after multiple brainbusters and a 450. This match alternated between being boring and being embarrassing. You can’t blame NJPW or Dragon Soldier B for this one. (*¾)

 

Manhattan Mayhem
New York, New York
May 7, 2005

Austin Aries(c) vs. Alex Shelley [ROH World Championship]
Austin Aries was basically doing a “workhorse” gimmick at this time. It was this weird meta characterization where he was insecure about being an inferior champion in comparison to Samoa Joe, and he overcompensated in the ring as a result.

Aries could never be Joe though, and that mentality clearly led him astray as a performer. He doesn’t do “too much” or go “too long” like so many other indie wrestlers from the 2000s. He just works like Tom Cruise runs: straight ahead without much forethought. It’s an oddly off putting style; it clearly “worked” at the time but does not hold up well at all. It’s vaguely similar to Bret Hart’s version of “serious wrestling” in the first half of 1990s in that way.

Anyway, Aries eventually won with a shitty-looking 450. (**¾)

 

We saw footage of Aries successfully defending the belt against James Gibson. The match ended in a double pin. I’m counting that as a successful defense since it meant Aries left with the belt. Don’t @ me.

 

The Final Showdown
Dayton, Ohio
May 13, 2005

Austin Aries(c) vs. James Gibson [ROH World Championship]’

This was one of the best ROH World Championship matches ever, and it featured career-best level performances from both Gibson and Aries.

It had all the components of a great main event title match. Both wrestlers established a tone that simultaneously established that the match was important to them personally and high stakes within the context of the company.

They then told an amazing in-ring story. Both men were aggressively trying to get the advantage early on while also doing an equally excellent job of trying to defensive wrestle the other man.

It eventually led to a sequence of events that resulted in Aries doing a great deal of damage to Gibson’s left arm. Aries then proceeded to target the arm with ferocity while Gibson desperately tried to survive as his left arm was now all but useless.

This led to a tremendously competitive and thrilling closing stretch as Aries tried to finish Gibson before the latter could recover enough to finish him. It all built to this wild final spot where they were both on a top turnbuckle while Gibson had a guillotine applied. Aries just drove Gibson hard down to the ring below and essentially pinned him unaware he was doing so.

This was just about as good as it gets. (****¾)

 

Nowhere to Run
Chicago Ridge, Illinois
May 14, 2005

Austin Aries(c) vs. Bryan Danielson [ROH World Championship]

Much like just about all of their matches together, this was fine. They worked hard. They were treating the match seriously. There was just something missing like there pretty much always was between these two. It just did not have the focus and intensity that a match like Aries vs. Gibson had. It also did not help that Aries was working babyface. He really needs to be getting tossed around for that dynamic to work. (**¾)

 

New Frontiers
Buffalo, New York
June 4, 2005

Austin Aries(c) vs. Spanky [ROH World Championship]

This was a pretty solid title match. The story was rather simple, as both guys essentially just focused on going after each other’s necks. Spanky went after it for a long time and that gave him the advantage during the first half of the match. Aries then got a little desperate and ended up piledriving Spanky through a wooden chair. Both guys were using finishers that targeted the neck so it all made a lovely bit of a sense and was executed well. It finally came to an end when Aries connected on the brainbuster and then following it up with the 450. Not bad at all. (***¼)

 

This Means War
Woodbridge, Connecticut
October 29, 2005

Austin Aries vs. AJ Styles

This felt very tonally off. It was this odd combination of the wrestlers conveying being relaxed while still trying to do the traditional indie “great” match structure. It did not really jive at all, as the clash made the match seem very perfunctory. [AJ eventually won with an avalanche Styles Clash.] (**¼)

We saw the finishing sequence of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong winning the ROH World Tag Team Championship from Tony Mamaluke and Sal Rinauro.

 

Tag Wars
Dayton, Ohio
January 27, 2006

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong(c) vs. Bryan Danielson & Jay Lethal [ROH World Tag Team Championship]

Much like a number of high profile Bryan Danielson matches from this time period, this was super tedious and boring to watch. The only minor silver lining is that it was used to have Roddy get a submission victory on Bryan to set up a title match. Even that is tainted though by it lead to a really boring title match. (½*)

 

Anniversary Show
Edison, New Jersey
February 25, 2006

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong(c) vs. Matt Sydal & AJ Styles [ROH World Tag Team Championship]

After they took their time and settled into the match early on, you could kind of just tell that they were going go on way too long for little to no reason. The effort in the ring was perfectly fine. The pacing of the match was just all wrong. It even looked like they were getting ready to go home about two-thirds of the way through for a perfectly acceptable match. Then they kept going though. And going. They forced the epic, 20+ minute match for reason, and the quality suffered as a result. It was just a giant waste. [Aries put Sydal away with the 450.] (**¼)

 

Arena Warfare
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
March 11, 2006

Austin Aries vs. Matt Sydal

This was an adequate if unnoteworthy midcard battle. It felt as if they knew this match was not particularly significant and then worked it as such. It was inoffensive, easy to watch, and crisply executed though. There just was not much there at the end of the day. [Aries won via brainbuster/450 combo] (**½)

 

Glory by Honor
East Windsor, Connecticut
September 15, 2006

Austin Aries vs. Davey Richards

Given the style of 2006 ROH, this was surprisingly competent! They established a very physical tone early on and then managed to keep it up throughout. They also managed to pace the match quite well so that the back-and-forth nature never felt repetitive. It was just two dudes constantly trying to get the upper hand on the other.

Now, there were some awkward moments here and there, and the finishing sequence did not seem to go off without a hitch (or else was an exceptionally weird plan). The match still worked though quite well though in spite of all that. A nice little gem for both men. [Aries won after a brainbuster.] (***¼)

 

Fifth Year Festival
New York, New York
February 16, 2007

We saw footage of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong failing to regain the tag belts from Matt Sydal and Christopher Daniels.

After the match, Roddy turned on the departing Aries and formed the NO REMORSE CORPS with Davey Richards. Jack Evans showed up to yell at Davey and check in on Aries. Roddy did not want beef with him. Aries wanted a fight. Jack Evans promised to GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS SITUATION and figure out a peaceful way to end this.

 

Fifth Year Festival
Dayton, Ohio
February 23, 2007</i<

Matt Sydal(c) vs. Austin Aries [Open the Brave Gate Championship]

Between this and their 2006 ROH match, it seems safe to say that these two just did not have great in-ring chemistry. They just never got into a groove, and the match became very awkward throughout as a result. Combine that with the fact that the crowd was probably never going to buy Aries winning the belt anyway, and you have yourselves a very underwhelming sequence of events. [Sydal won cleanly via SSP.] (**¼)

 

The Battle of St. Paul
St. Paul, Minnesota
April 27, 2007

Takeshi Morishima(c) vs. Austin Aries [ROH World Championship]

This title match was a really good example of what made Morishima one of the best champions in ROH history.

He was the monster that seemed impossible to slay. Challengers came and went, and they all looked like they would go down easily and quickly until there was a last-second, furious sequence that seemed to disprove just that. The formula worked almost every time.

With that context in mind, this match played out largely as you would expect. Morishima dominated for a while. (He could have worked with a bit more pep in his step mind, but it was still good enough.) Aries eventually threw out everything he had at the big man, and he even came close to winning. He managed to pull off the brainbuster/450 combo that he used to end Samoa Joe’s title reign.

The crowd popped so hard for it, and it genuinely felt like Aries had pulled off an incredibly unlikely title win….but Morishima *just* managed to get his foot on the ropes. It was a genuinely dramatic sequence of events that seriously elevated what would have to have been considered a sure-fire Morishima win.
From there, Morishima gave Aries some of his biggest stuff (including a super backdrop driver) to finally keep Aries down for the three.

This was such a smart b-defense in the Morishima reign. Both guys came out of it looking good. They did not try to force the “epic” at all. We got a clean finish that did not bury the babyface challenger.

Morishima in ROH was pretty much the ideal territory run for the modern indie company. Everyone who runs a wrestling promotion should be studying the booking of him and applying lessons from it. (***½)

 

We saw footage of Austin Aries showing up at the 2007 Driven PPV and attacking the No Remorse Corps. Aries had just left Impact.

 

Undeniable
Edison, New Jersey
October 6, 2007

Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong
These two did a lot right in this one. They established an urgent and physical tone. They used a good match format (Roddy continuously a step ahead, and Aries had to keep fighting back to give himself a chance). They also did not overstay their welcome and kept the fans invested.

Much like Aries’s matches with Bryan though, there was always something a little off with the Aries/Roddy dynamic. There’s just a spark missing that prevents their matches from reaching the heights they should have theoretically been reaching. [Aries won after a 450 knee drop.] (***)

 

Honor Nation
Boston, Massachusetts
October 5, 2007

Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson
This was match #1 in their best of three series.

As per usual with these two in there together, this was a physically impressive yet soulless affair. There was just way too much of an emphasis on physically impressive wrestling at the expense of character work and tight in-ring storytelling. The very broad story of “THESE TWO ARE VERY GOOD AND ARE GOING TO CONTINUOUSLY TRY TO PROVE IT” is so bland. They did emote a tad more than usual though which is nice and managed to stir up the crowd a bit. At the end of the day though, this was just very average for Bryan Danielson. [Bryan tapped out to the Last Chancery.] (**¾)

 

Chaos at the Cow Palace
San Francisco, California
October 21, 2007

Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson
This was match #2 in their best of three series.

This match had all the usual issues of Bryan Danielson/Austin Aries matches along with some brand new ones! The major issue was that a large part of the match was built around Bryan working over Aries’s leg. That proved to be meaningless as Aries managed to pull off everything he usually does anyway and only lose because he gets caught with the world’s smallest package. Meh. (**¼)

 

Glory by Honor
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
November 2, 2007

Austin Aries vs. Bryan Danielson
This was match #3 in their best of three series.

Of this particular series of matches between the two, this battle was head and shoulders the best match. It relied on a fairly simple in-ring story to get the job done. Bryan dominated the match. He mostly focused on the left arm of Aries. Aries clawed his way back into the match, and he managed to finish off Bryan while he still had some steam left. It was not great or anything, but it worked just well enough in its own bubble even if it failed in the much larger picture of trying to establish Aries as THE ACE of the company.. (***¼)

 

 

Read over 80 Austin Aries match reviews from me!