Bryan Danielson vs. Homicide

[7.0] "It feels quite strange to see a lumberjack match in ROH, and it probably isn't the best fit for the house style of the promotion. I'm not even sure who these random people at ringside are for the most part? They seem to largely be students from the ROH wrestling school, which is hardly the most compelling way to put together a match like this. If anything, it just distracts from the wrestling to have so many random people at ringside. That aside, the match was largely pretty good. It did take a while to get going, and I think it suffered from the entire rivalry being a bit stale by this point in their Best Of Five series (none of which have been as good as their prior matches together in ROH, or their future matches following this series either for that matter), but once things picked up down the stretch there was some genuine excitement and a well executed sense of chaos. It would have benefited by being a bit shorter, but for by the end this still ended up being a good main event."

[8.0] "Over the top mess, but a wonderful mess. Theres a charm to it you could only find in wrestling around this time (as well as the 80s & 90s but nevertheless). Lumberjacks filled with wrestling school goofs, often hesitating with their spots, which made it even funnier. Danielson/Homicide matches were always a blast. Just a fun mid-aughts time capsule match."

[7.0] "Ends up dragging by the end with its finishing stretch, but this was a yet another very good match between Dragon & Homicide. There's some absolutely awesome arm-wreckage by Danielson, and I very much enjoy once the match totally breaks down and they go outside."

[7.0] "I love the energy of this match, it tips it all that Homicide way without getting as over the top with it as the previous match did. Joe coming in takes it all to another level."

[9.0] "This was a great match, it was a bit too chaotic at times but overall I enjoyed it a lot. Both Danielson and Homicide really did great. The booking was a little wild in the final stretch with the run ins, and the lumberjacks didn't seem quite on the ball the whole time, but still a lot of fun."

[6.0] "ROH and lumberjack matches are not a good fit. As the commentators point out, this is the first lumberjack match in ROH history, and to my recollection, also the last. The main issue with the concept is that the lumberjacks were total jobbers, comprised mostly of students from the ROH school (including recurring future jobber Bobby Dempsey. ) This made it hard to take the concept seriously as the lumberjacks posed no threat whatsoever. At the beginning of the match, Danielson gets thrown out of the ring, yells at the lumberjacks to stay away from him, and they all cower in fear. That shows you how pathetic they are. I thought the entire concept of a lumberjack match is that you're supposed to be afraid of going outside the ring for fear of the lumberjacks beating you up, but when the lumberjacks are laughing stocks, it removes that element of fear. It's a shame because both guys tried, but it ultimately didn't work."

[7.0] "Well, they tried to do some creative booking with an old concept, and for the most part it worked out. The biggest problem with the match is the same problem that I have with the series, and that’s that these two are playing to the stipulations (which they should) and it’s taking away from what they could just do if they had a normal match. Minor gripe, though, because this was highly entertaining. Danielson forces a fifth match. ***1/2"