By Mike DeRosenroll, Torch specialist

One thing I like about re-watching older ROH shows is seeing how far some performers have progressed. A number of today’s polished TV wrestlers, whether with WWE, TNA, or ROH on HDNet, have a body of work on DVD thanks to coming up with ROH.

Sometimes it is frustrating to watch talent like Brian Kendrick, James Gibson (WWE’s Jamie Noble), and Homicide not getting a chance to showcase the skills they showed in ROH because their current promotions do not push them. Other times, you realize that some wrestlers have gotten a lot better than they first were in ROH.

Two wrestlers who fit into the latter category are Jimmy Jacobs and Alex Shelley. Nowadays, Jacobs projects great charisma as a standout heel on ROH television. It’s hard to believe he’s the same guy who hardly got any mic time in his first two years with the company.

Shelley, of TNA’s Motor City Machine Guns, is a standout in-ring worker and promo guy. He was already a strong worker and promo guy when broke in with ROH, but his improvement since then is evident.

Both from Michigan, Jacobs and Shelley broke into ROH together in 2003. They often feuded in other independent promotions, but ROH initially used them as an undercard babyface tag team. In 2004, TNA temporarily pulled its talent from ROH after the Rob Feinstein controversy, paving the way for undercard talents to move up and take their spots. So began the Jacobs-Shelley feud in ROH.

Feud Overview

Shelley’s push, and heel turn, started at Reborn Stage One in St. Paul, Minnesota, in April 2004. He and Jacobs were participants in an undercard Six Man Mayhem match, which Shelley won by making Jacobs submit to the Border City Stretch. After the match, Shelley cut a heelish promo on Jacobs accusing him of being the weak link in their team.

The next night, at Reborn Stage Two in Chicago, Jacobs took the pin in a Four Corner Tag Team Scramble Match. Shelley then completed his heel turn by kicking Jacobs when he was down and walking out on his partner.

ROH then kept Jacobs and Shelley apart for three months while Shelley formed a new heel faction, Generation Next, with fellow undercard wrestlers Austin Aries, Jack Evans, and Roderick Strong. Generation Next was a way to shoot these deserving talents up the card to fill the gaps left by the loss of TNA stars like A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels. Shelley was the main spokesperson for the group. He declared that they were tired of patiently working their way up the ROH card and had decided to take out anybody in their way.

Generation Next spent the next while building up heat by bulldozing mid-card babyfaces. Meanwhile, Jacobs continued to toil away on the undercard. In July, at Reborn Completion in New Jersey, Generation Next attacked Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat as part of the conclusion to Steamboat’s feud with C.M. Punk and Punk’s face turn. (For more on the classic Punk-Steamboat feud, see my May 11 column). This propelled Punk and Steamboat into a feud with Generation Next.

A week later, Jacobs finally got a shot at revenge on Shelley when ROH returned to Chicago for Death Before Dishonor 2 Part Two. This was typical of how Gabe Sapolsky booked many feuds in ROH, especially on the undercard and mid-card; since Shelley turned on Jacobs in Chicago, Sapolsky booked Jacobs’s revenge match to take place back in Chicago in front of the same fans who saw the break up live.

Shelley won the return match clean. This seemed to solidify Shelley’s move up the card and define Jacobs back down into the undercard, but the post-match angle breathed new life into Jacobs and the feud. Shelley cut a promo on Jacobs calling him a thorn in his side and declaring that he was going to put Jacobs out of his misery. Then Shelley, Evans and Strong began to beat down Jacobs until Steamboat ran out for the save.

Now Jacobs had a fresh reason to go after Shelley for revenge, and added rub from Steamboat. At Midnight Express Reunion in Philadelphia, Steamboat “handpicked” Jacobs for a team to take on Generation Next in an Eight Man Elimination Tag Team Match along with Punk, Ace Steel, and John Walters. Being “handpicked” by Steamboat along with these other wrestlers, who were higher up the card, elevated Jacobs.

The elimination match built up the idea that Jacobs’s guts more than made up for his small size. Early on, Generation Next isolated Jacobs in their corner and took turns wearing him down. However, Jacobs showed great guts in refusing to be pinned. Finally, with the referee’s back turned, Aries resorted to hitting Jacobs with a chair. Shelley followed this with his Shell Shock finisher to eliminate Jacobs.

The blow off of the feud came when Jacobs challenged Shelley to an I Quit Match back in Chicago at Joe vs Punk II. This was the semi-main event, and was Jacobs’s first chance to be in one of the top two matches on a ROH show. Both wrestlers came through with an excellent match that effectively showcased Jacobs’s guts and Shelley’s sadistic heelishness. Shelley won in the end, but Jacobs was elevated despite the loss. After the match, Strong ran in to help Shelley try to injure Jacobs permanently, but Steamboat again made the save.

Analysis

Both wrestlers came out of this feud higher up the card than they began, although Shelley’s elevation was thanks to the Generation Next angle. Generation Next brought Shelley and Austin Aries from the undercard to the top of the midcard, setting them up to credibly challenge ROH main eventers.

The primary beneficiary of the Jacobs-Shelley feud was Jacobs. Despite losing every singles match with Shelley, Jacobs rose from the undercard to the midcard because of Steamboat’s endorsement and because the matches were competitive. While not quite Shelley’s equal, the matches defined Jacobs as just a notch below him.

Jacobs did very well to get himself over despite losing. The key was how well he projected emotion and connected with fans while he was in the ring. The persona he created, an undersized guy with tremendous guts and fighting spirit led to a storyline, a few months later, where B.J. Whitmer chose Jacobs as his tag team partner because of his guts. The two would go on to capture the ROH Tag Team Titles in 2005.

My one disappointment with this feud was Jacobs’s lack of promo time. It is understandable since, while Jacobs is now a great promo guy, his promos were not that good in 2004. Thus, it’s possible that giving Jacobs promo time would have diminished the feud. However, the lack of promo time limited what ROH could do to build up the blow off match in advance, hurting the “big match feel” of the blow off match.

Despite this, the I Quit blow off match was excellent. You do not need to have seen the whole feud to care about this match, because the wrestlers draw you in with their in-ring performance. Thus, I am only classifying Joe vs Punk II as a must-see show to see this feud. Given that Joe vs Punk II also features a five-star main event World Title match between C.M. Punk and Samoa Joe, I highly recommend picking up this DVD from www.rohwrestling.com. (For more on the Punk-Joe feud, see my May 5 column.)

To See This Feud

-- Must See Shows: Joe vs Punk II
-- Optional Shows: Reborn Stage One, Reborn Stage Two, Reborn Completion, Death Before Dishonor 2 Part One, Death Before Dishonor 2 Part Two, Midnight Express Reunion

PWTorch VIP members have first-look access to all of Torch ROH specialist Mike DeRosenroll's latest ROH-related blogs in the VIP Forum. His blogs are posted under the M2_Jay screenname.

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