Pro Wrestling Chronicle

9.22.01 Brian Danielson vs Low Ki vs Scoot Andrews vs Christopher Daniels

(Note: This is the second of two reviews I’m doing as a show of respect to my friend and site contributor Gene Boyer. Not only is Gene a great friend of mine who sent me both matches, but he’s also been an inspiration in helping me fall in love with wrestling all over again. Thanks Gene.)

One of these is not like the other! Yep, it’s Scoot Andrews. But we’ll get to that in a moment. This was ECWA, Jim Kettner’s promotion that created the Super 8 tournament (forerunner to every great indy tourney) and laid the groundwork for every indy you love. This match is so old Daniels actually has hair. He’s also the only true full heel in the match, which is interesting. You all know the first three ROH stars, two of which ended up as TNA stars too. Andrews, a worker from Florida, was drafted into early ROH soon after this with the gimmick of the Black Nature Boy. That’s an awesome gimmick – too bad Andrews did nothing with it and sucked on the mic. He was decent in the ring but never went far. I believe he’s since retired, so this match will stand as his legacy match here at the CHRON.

I dig that Daniels has the balls to start a one fall four way dance on the floor, daring the others to involve him. Nice way to show heelishness. Low Ki still wearing the pants back then. Danielson is in his Calgary/New Japan Benoit phase. Everything gets a few minutes to show their hold-counter hold opener stuff followed by a stiff strike or move. All really tight pumped up stuff. Scoot really seems to want at Daniels, which is a nice sub-story.

Low Ki and Danielson were so great together, and Danielson takes Ki’s stiff stuff without trouble. I’m a total mark for their technical-to-stiff stuff early in matches before big moves. A great thing about giving four men time and making a match that has tags is everyone can develop a pace without overdoing things.

Some of this is the template for what became ROH’s first show main event, so that’s cool to see.
Daniels has the most presence at this point. Danielson sells the best here. All of the first ten minutes was good and would find a place today. Nothing is dated, the guys just work a bit smarter today. Less is more. Daniels does follow up with Scoot, by the way.

One negative is there is very little story to the opening ten, at least until Scoot gets tagged in and Daniels bails. But even that isn’t fully telling a story with your body, as the moves haven’t meant much but looked pretty so far. Scoots drop kick was very good, as I try to balance it out.

Dragon giving Ki some receipts from earlier and working with Daniels about 12 minutes in. That’s an interesting development. Daniels was ahead of the curve wrestling IQ wise at this point, so he’s the first to bring the pace down to a healthier level.

Finally, a blocked move. Danielson avoids one of Ki’s finishers. It becomes like a tag match, with Ki and Scoot working together while Dragon and Fallen Angel to more. Scoot gets in with Daniels, but it’s a tease. Body part time. Scoot’s knee gets worked over by Low Ki. Good stuff. This is coming together nicely for a bad video quality and non-announcer match.

Danielson gets in and works Ki’s shoulder. These guys really made it look like a shoot, which I love.
I love that when Danielson was tagged in he’d try for quick pins. Daniels and he go at it on the outside, and while I’m impressed with the pace, everyone is doing a bit to much stuff. Stiff stuff at that. Beautiful execution though. Maybe I’m being a bit old school. There are 4 guys to spread out the selling.

Subtle heel moves like the talking of Daniel and his feet on the ropes show his maturity in this match. Danielson doesn’t let Danielson cut him off, but it leads to Low Ki refusing the Daniels tag and a Scoot-Daniels scuffle. Of course, they can’t leave each other alone, so they strong style-up on each other after breaking up any Andrews pins.

22 minutes in we get our first group big move followed by… group selling. Very cool and done well. We’re into the big stuff portion of our night. It’s a free for all. Dives by all. Pick your high spot. Low Ki with good selling and then a Phoenix Splash to the others on the floor. Wow!

First big nearfall of the night from a Daniels Blue Thunder Driver on Danielson. Excellent timing and the length of each guy selling is real good for this deep into a match. I love Ki’s intensity, and Daniels breaking up a Cattle Mutilation with a head butt.

Scoot Andrews doesn’t pull the match down in any way because he’s used in the right spots and hits his marks. He and Daniels do a ton of great nearfalls about half an hour into the match. Daniels then gets a title belt from ringside, and cleverly uses it to injure Ki’s foot.

This signals our rotating one-on-one section. Perfect time. Two men sell, one gets up and comes in after a big nearfall. It’s like Indian runs in gym class. Ki and Dragon really try to kill each other, and Scoot, when he doesn’t go along with their plans.

Here’s the kicker (no pun intended): Scoot hits a pump handle finisher and pins Danielson to retain his ECWA Title in 33 minutes. That’s a great finish. The others didn’t need the belt and Scoot looked good in there with them. It wasn’t cheap at all and the match flowed well.

This match was, without a doubt, the best pre-ROH indy match I’ve seen (though I haven’t seen all the late 90s/ early ’00 stuff). This hangs with most early ROH pre-RF split too. Great match which actually had good selling down the stretch and won’t burn you out as much as amaze you overall.