Jimmy Rave vs. Pelle Primeau ROH Best in The World 03-25-2006
Finally a chance to talk about Ring of Honor
I must have somehow shoehorned ROH into my other reviews, but I''ll sum my feelings on Ring of Honor up pretty simply anyways. I never loved, and will probably never love, a pro wrestling company like I did ROH from 2004 to 2008. It was not only my favorite wrestling company, it was probably my favorite thing. My girlfriend makes fun of me a lot for the next sentence, which is a real sentence I said out loud to her. " I didn't go to many concerts, Ring of Honor were my concerts". It sounds insane because well, it is. But at a time in my life everyone was going to their first concerts, I was far more interested in going to gyms and armories and wherever else ROH was running. The only time I ever went to NYC by myself, was to see Ring of Honor at Hammerstein. I've been to more ROH shows than Red Sox and Patriot games put together. I fucking loved it man, and I'm excited to talk about it on the blog. Because of the format of ROH, I didn't know if I would get to cover much of the early years. I am very excited to talk about ROH on HDNet squashes ( If they ever get online...hint hint...), but the glory days of ROH aren't very conducive to squash matches. There is some stuff here and there, but ROH's YouTube presence was well...always lacking
IT'S A DVD PRODUCT
ROH was always hardcore about keeping stuff off YouTube. Other companies were much less inclined to do so, but ROH was very determined. I used to be part of the MVZone, the forum where we all make wrestling music videos. I kissed so many babes back then. It was pretty known that if you made a ROH video, it wasn't going to last on YouTube because if it got popular enough they'd pull it down. Eventually ROH decided in 2006 to join the world wide web and the official ROH YouTube was launched to show promos and matches. This is one of the first matches they ever uploaded. As a result of this footage being from 2006 , it's not great quality but I kind of love it more. This was the ROH I loved. Great Wrestling and Bad Production.
Enough Chatter, Let's Rock
We are in Basketball City, a venue that sounds like where Moses Malone might have retired too, in New York City for Best in the World. Later in the night Kenta and Marufuji will team up to take on Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson, but this right here is the real main event as Pelle Primeau takes on Jimmy Rave. Pelle is one of the graduates of the ROH Wrestling academy. He is also my favorite graduate by far. I loved Pelle Primeau. First off, he comes out to Army of Zombies by Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards. A great wrestling theme. Secondly, Pelle is one of those wrestlers who seemed destined to die for our sins. The ROH Students mostly became cannon fodder for the main roster, and Pelle is one of the ones who actually got more over because of it. He was probably the smallest of all the ROH students, and as a result the one voted in the yearbook for " Most Likely to get Killed in Every Match" He would take ridiculous beatings and keep coming, as a result he became a cult favorite. Somewhere out there is a Six-Man Mayhem match where I was literally SCREAMING for him to get out of the ring because I knew Brent Albright was going to kill him.
Pelle rules
His opponent also rules, but not for his ability to get dropped on his head. Jimmy Rave. Jimmy Rave was actually in the first ROH match I ever saw live. I may be twisting the narrative on this, but Jimmy came to ROH as a babyface and the fans never fully embraced him. Eventually he was brought back as a heel with Prince Nana in The Embassy and it birthed one of the funnest acts in ROH history. People might tell me I'm wrong about the next part, but my recollection Jimmy got heat for a while because people thought he sucked. He definitely played into it, but I remember the consensus being that Jimmy sucked and that's why people got mad. That's how you got heat in ROH by being a bad wrestler. Obviously Jimmy wasn't terrible, but people thought he was. As a result, people had this visceral hatred of Jimmy for a long time until it eventually settled into a fun hate for a while. Don't let anyone fool you, at the beginning its because they thought he was trash
Is that why they threw toilet paper?
The Toilet Paper Entrance is not talked about enough as a great pro wrestling entrance. For those unaware, it became a custom at ROH to throw streamers for wrestlers at show to sort of mirror what is done in Japan. Well, one night someone threw a sarcastic pink streamer for Jimmy Rave. Somehow that lone streamer evolved until someone threw toilet paper one night, and by the time it was all said and done it became a warzone. Jimmy would get pelted and then throw them back and it got crazy. I was there, and those 30 seconds were pure chaos as the fans tried to hit Jimmy and Jimmy tried to hit them back. I don't know if the videos ever did it justice, because in the audience it was an energy I had never felt before. Anger is an energy right? It made every match of his an event, because you just had the TP ready to go. Plus if you had to poop, it was convenient to bring. ROH ran some sketchy venues
Then Jimmy had to wrestle. That's my favorite part, like oh yeah now he actually has a match. This video is about 7 minutes long and 5 minutes of it are the entrances and it ain't like Pelle Primeau was getting the Stone Cold Hit the 4 Buckle pose treatment. The Toilet Paper entrance was such a production in he best possible way. Pelle extends the hand and Jimmy Shakes. THE CODE OF HONOR IS UPHELD. Jimmy right off the bat takes Pelle down and punches the crap out of him. Rave playing up that he's still upset about the toilet paper. Usually I'm only upset about a lack thereof. Weird that Toilet Paper is TP , but Paper Towels isn't PT. George Carlin-esque delivery. Speaking of delivery, Jimmy Rave chops the shit out of Pelle and then punches the crap out of him. Poor, Poor Pelle and poor poor poop jokes. We also gets a Jimmy Swallows chant, which isn't a gimmick he was working on. We've come a long way from 2006. Pelle counters a Jimmy charge with a boot and then a springboard crossbody for a two count. Pelle tries to get momentum but JIMMY FOLDS HIM UP WITH A SPEAR. That's the damndest spear I've ever seen. Jimmy hits the Greetings from Ghana for the win.
Really fun squash match, quick and the point. It was rare for ROH to do these kinds of matches, so it's pretty fun to see. Pelle is a guy I wish stuck around longer as I really think he had something special beyond his ability to get thrown around. Unfortunately Jimmy Rave passed away last winter. Ultimately I think history will come around on how good Jimmy Rave is. His passing made it clear that people loved and respected him, but even then I don't think we're quite there yet and he's still a bit underappreciated. Jimmy Rave fucking ruled.
TLDR Review
I love ROH. I love Pelle and Jimmy. We should be allowed to throw TP at wrestlers again.
If you're interested in more condensed version of my thoughts, You can check out my Twitter where I talk about wrestling or stress out during Boston Celtics games. Hell, I'll even take suggestions for matches you want to see reviewed. You can also check out my Youtube where I make weird videos where I put on wigs in front of a camera to mask my true identity.