Jay Briscoe vs. Samoa Joe

[8.0] "That was very good and enjoyable match between Samoa Joe and Jay Briscoe, that was so fun match. ****"

[6.0] "These guys have always had pretty great chemistry together and this was no different. I don't think it's one of their better matches, but it's still plenty of fun and worth a watch. Nobody thought Jay stood a chance here but it didn't really matter. *** stars."

[7.0] "There's some really good young upstart work from Jay, who at this point is really starting to make a name for himself. There's so many points where the crowd fully gets behind him and it's really impressive next to a champ like Joe."

[8.0] "This was an epic match and truly a breakout performance for Jay. Jay was able to push Joe to the limit and survive just about everything Joe threw at him."

[9.0] "This was a trully special match, as it was Jay Briscoe's breakout performance. At the beginning he was a nobody, none of the fans on the crowd believed that Jay could do something against Joe and they didn't care about Jay or his title shot. But in the end, everyone was fully behind Jay, chanting his name and going crazy when he kicked out of something or when he did a comeback. Jay got over in a great way and this elevated his career to another level. As other inmate have said, it was his breakout performance. Of course, Jay did a great job putting himself over, but Joe did it even better with his facial expressions, his change of mood when he noticided it wasn't going to be so easy to pin Jay, and his aggressiveness at the end of the match and even on the postmatch locking the choke on Mark Briscoe. With his performance he helpt putting over Jay and continues turning on a monster heel. But going to the match. It starts with Joe destroying and toying Jay Briscoe in any form he wanted, as seen on the Boston Crab. After a bootscrape, Jay makes his first comeback and hits a couple of Yakuza Kicks into a dive off the top rope. Then Joe regains control with an insane STO, the ole ole kicks and the powerbomb into an STF. Loved how when Jay was getting to the ropes, Joe begun to pock his eyes. Jay gets another comeback slapping Joe and hitting a head drop back suplex. He tries to hit the Jay Driller, but he can't so he hits a double underhook DDT. Another great spot was Briscoe countering an abdominal stretch into a DVD. It was awesome and the crowd went crazy. The ending was amazing, Joe goes for the choke, but Briscoe counters it bitting his hand. Then he kicked out of a head drop dragon suplex, some stiff slaps, kawada kicks and the island driver. Joe's facial expression after that last nearfall was amazing. In all this sequence he is getting angrier and angrier. After that he hits a stiff lariat to win the match. After winning he flips the finger to everyone in the crowd, mocks Jay and locks on the choke on Mark Briscoe. Joe is a beast and after this Jay has become one of the top babyfaces on the company. It was excellent on an in-ring standpoint and on a story telling level with great selling."

[8.0] "This is another match that I think works much better within the full context that it originally occurred rather than if you are watching it in isolation, particularly two decades later. With the exception of Daniels and Homicide, Joe had dispatched of most of his opponents in fairly short order and without too much difficulty at this stage in his title reign. It made Jay's display of heart and resilience here stand out so much more than if you're watching it by itself, particularly these days where finisher kick outs have become so commonplace. This is a breakout performance from Jay, and he does a terrific job winning the fans respect and admiration by the end (look at how furious those people get when Joe attacks Mark after the bell. There's even some trash getting thrown in to the ring). Jay has a grittiness with moments like the way he bites at Joe to break really sell his character and separate him from most of the other babyfaces in ROH. It helps that these two men have very complementary styles and play off each other well to create an effective underdog story. It may not hold up perfectly in every respect, but this match did a great job accomplishing exactly what it needed to."

[7.0] "A really good match that didn't overstay its welcome. It started with some generic grappling exchanges which were then abruptly cut off once Joe's arrogance came through and caused him to start going after Jay with some stiff strikes. From there, Joe was firmly in control, dishing out a proper beating while Jay mostly just sold and only got off a few hope spots in response. Joe's offence looked really good, but it was mostly just his various signature moves one after the other, so nothing too special. Jay's offence was good too, though back in 2003 his movement and attacks had a bit of amateurishness to them. Jay's hope spots and finish teases thankfully became more and more believable the more the match progressed, and the crowd support behind him likewise grew as he became even more of an endearing underdog for not just surviving Joe's onslaught but also for going Joe as much as he could. Jay showed good tenacity as he struggled to keep himself in the match, and Joe did a great job showing his annoyance and disbelief in response to being unable to just easily put Jay away. I loved Joe finally getting the win with a Kobashi-esque short-range lariat. Both men looked really good here, giving a really good performance. ***1/2"

[9.0] "I don't think anyone at the time expected this to be so competitive. The match starts out pretty quiet with both Joe and the crowd not taking Jay Briscoe seriously as a challenger, but Briscoe gradually gets more aggressive as the match goes on, hitting big moves and kicking out of everything in Joe's repertoire (including a devastating dragon suplex where Jay landed right on his head. ) By the end of the match, everyone in the crowd is on their feet cheering for Briscoe. In just 15 minutes, Jay Briscoe went from being someone the crowd thought had no chance of winning, to someone who was getting believable near-falls and had the crowd clamoring for him to score the upset victory."

[7.0] "This was a pretty basic, yet extremely solid underdog tale with the dominant champion taking on a young challenger. At first Joe isn't treating Jay as a real threat, instead he is just toying with him while beating him down, and it's good stuff. Jay's eventual big comeback run is also good stuff, with him being full of fire to start it off & I feel like it lasted just about the correct time w/ Joe then ending it in badass fashion with that big uranage on the corner. From then on Joe is more in control, but Jay still gets some pretty awesome comeback bits + big kickouts and nearfalls to his own name, too. It's not the best match they've had, but it was a good one & kind of set the wheels in motion for what was about to come between 'em very nicely."