LogFAQs > #945169148

Alright, first week of this project where I haven't seen one of the recommended matches, and in fact I haven't seen either of them. Let's do this.

Bidoof's Match Recommendation (Week 3)
Samoa Joe is one of my all-time favorites. James Gibson... eh. He was always good, but I can't say he ever really connected with me too much. I think I could probably name every ROH World Champion ever by memory if I tried, and he'd probably be one of the last that came to mind - and even then, I think I'd only really remember him for being the guy that ended the Summer of Punk.

And this match kinda shows why that is. It's not that Gibson really brings matches down. He just also doesn't often really seem to add much. There's some good limb work here. He's smooth and he sells well. There's nothing wrong with the part he's playing. But at the same time, I'm not super invested in seeing him come back from Joe's control period. There's nothing super creative about his work. He feels very much like what he was - a guy who had played lower-card bit roles in big companies who had plenty of talent but wasn't really quite sure how to utilize it to its maximum in the much more free-form environment that was the American indies at the time.

All that said, Joe's pure presence during this time made up for some of the shortcomings. There weren't many guys who held a better air of legitimacy in that era of wrestling, and it really did make the Pure Title feel like a big deal right off the bat. The crowd was super into the match the whole way through, Joe was appropriately vicious just like he always was, and both guys did an excellent job laying everything out so that the additional rules of the particular championship were integrated in a way that felt clever and different enough without being intrusive. I'm always of two minds when it comes to belts with their own rules. Cool as they are, they can easily fall into patterns or gimmicks. Lean into them too much and they can easily feel like overly constraining gimmicks. Play to them too little and there's no point. These guys walked that line very well here, although I was waiting for the early accidental rope break for Joe to come into play later on in some way and it never did.

Very enjoyable and very good match, but I think it falls a little short of being great for me. The Pure Championship did that a lot, honestly.

Anyway, I'm gonna be watching the six-man tonight as well, but my thoughts probably won't come until tomorrow.

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https://imgur.com/UYamul2
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