Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 13: Ki vs. Joe

Low-Ki vs. Samoa Joe ROH 10/5/02 - GREAT

PAS: This was Joe's debut in Ring of Honor (rocking the blond dye job), he was coming in as a hired gun for The Prophecy, this was billed as a Fight Without Honor (which I guess meant they didn't shake hands, some of these early ROH gimmicks didn't age well). This was these guys doing their version of a BattlArts punch out, everything got thrown with real menace and it was a great way to debut Joe. I really loved the early stuff working out of the guard, with both guys hurling full force shots, both from the top and from the ground. Ki especially landed this meaty punch right to the ear. Ki is well known for throwing taters and some of his kicks here were uncalled for, but he was taking it as good as he was dishing it out here, Joe landed some real jaw clicking slaps and light dimming forearms. I though they got a little too much into the "stand here and let you hit me" stuff which would infest New Japan later in the decade, but both guys delivered on what we signed up to see.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI