By Mike DeRosenroll, Torch specialist

ROH Classic Feuds: Paul London vs. Michael Shane

On the July 9 Wade Keller Hotline, Torch editor Wade Keller reported that Paul London is out of wrestling for the time being. Therefore, he will not be returning to Ring of Honor in the foreseeable future.

Having enjoyed London’s ROH run in 2002 and 2003, I would have loved to see him back in ROH now that the company is on HDNet. Because of the way WWE pushes cruiserweights (or, more accurately, does not push them), WWE fans did not see London display the talent that him a major star in ROH. It would have been great to see London given a real push again. The sad news that this will not likely happen moved me to pull out some of my old 2002 ROH DVDs for this week’s ROH classic feud.

Gauntlet Match

Paul London’s first ROH feud was with Michael Shane (a/k/a Matt Bentley). The two first crossed paths in a gauntlet match at Night of Appreciation (April 2002) to decide the best graduate of the Texas Wrestling Academy (TWA).

Booking a gauntlet match to decide the best of anything is an example of the sometimes illogical booking in ROH in that first year. This was before Gabe Sapolsky really hit his stride as a booker. A gauntlet match was not a logical way to decide the best TWA graduate because the later entrants had a clear advantage from fighting tired opponents.

London was one of the first two entrants in the gauntlet and Shane entered third - after London won the first fall. Shane made short work of the tired London, but the match showcased London’s incredible talent for portraying an underdog babyface. Shane would lose the next fall to Spanky (aka Brian Kendrick), and Spanky would go on to win the gauntlet.

Battle for a Contract

Three months later, at Crowning a Champion, London teamed up with Don Juan to face Shane and Bio-Hazard in a tag match. The stipulation was that the winner of the fall would get a ROH contract. Bio-Hazard and Don Juan were also TWA students and head trainer Rudy Boy Gonzalez was at ringside to watch his four students.

The psychology of this match was very messed up. Since only the winner of the fall got the ROH contract (not both members of the winning team), it did not make sense to wrestle it like a normal tag match, but that is what they did. Shane and Bio-Hazard isolated Don Juan in their corner and would senselessly tag in and out when they had a good chance to pin their opponent. When one of them would get a near fall, the other would just stand on the apron and do nothing. At the end of the match, London dig break up a pin attempt by Don Juan, which made sense, but this only highlighted that the wrestlers had done nothing about all the other near falls.

Ultimately, Shane pinned Don Juan to win the contract. After the match, Shane cut a heel promo leading to a fight with London that Gonzalez, Bio-Hazard and Don Juan broke up. Backstage, Gonzalez said he would “talk to Gabe” and set up a singles match between London and Shane in Boston the next month.

Shane as a Heel

In kayfabe, winning the ROH contract meant Shane was flown to the shows and paid better while London had to drive all the way from the TWA in San Antonio with Gonzalez and a van full of his students. Shane recruited Bio-Hazard as a lackey and started to portray a good arrogant heel persona with his promos and the way he carried himself.

The Feud Reaches an Early Crescendo...

At Honor Invades Boston, Shane duped London by faking an injury during their match and then rolled up London from behind for the cheap win.

The next show was called Unscripted because some of the talent no-showed, throwing Sapolsky’s booking plans into disarray. To save the show, Sapolsky rushed the London-Shane feud to a climax by booking them in a street fight in the co-main event. This match was incredible. It featured very innovative use of a ladder, amazing athleticism by both wrestlers and a tremendously dramatic finishing sequence. This match was the first time the ROH fans chanted “Please Don’t Die!” at London, but would be far from the last.

To keep from turning babyface after this great performance, Shane pretended to follow the Code of Honor after the match only to nail London with a cheap shot when his guard was down.

...and then Sputters Out

Two weeks later, at Glory By Honor, Shane and Bio-Hazard attacked Rudy Boy Gonzalez after Gonzalez had lost a Texas Death Match to Steve Corino. London made the save to continue the feud and clearly align Gonzalez with London.

Later in the show, London, Shane and Spanky faced off in three-way elimination match. This was the last match of Spanky’s first ROH run (he would soon debut for WWE). Shane got another cheap pin on London to eliminate him, after Spanky hit London with his finisher, and then went on defeat Spanky for the win. This was a good way to get Shane his heat back without hurting London.

At the next show, All Star Extravaganza, London and Shane entered a gauntlet match for a shot at the Number One Contender’s trophy. In a reversal of their previous gauntlet meeting, London had the advantage after Shane started first (Shane won the first fall over a debuting C.M. Punk). London came out next, but Shane got an early advantage after going to the outside and whipping London into the guard rails. However, London pulled out a quick win by faking an injury and suckering Shane into a quick DDT and pin.

Following the loss, Shane refused to follow the Code of Honor. This led to a surprise appearance by Tommy Dreamer, who cut a promo putting over ROH and forced Shane to shake London’s hand. After shaking London’s hand, Shane sneak attacked London only to be taken out by Dreamer. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of this angle was undermined by ROH’s poor audio quality in 2002, which made it very hard to heard what anybody was saying.

This led to a blowoff match at the next show, Scramble Madness, in Boston. The idea was to give both London and Gonzalez a chance at revenge by having them team up against Shane and Bio-Hazard in a tag team street fight. Unfortunately, Gonzalez and Bio-Hazard just got in the way of London and Shane, making this a bad match. Another problem was that Gonzalez was such an unlikeable character that there was no joy in seeing him get revenge on Shane. The end result was a very disappointing finale.

Analysis

Although this feud spanned several months, it only produced one great match – the street fight at Unscripted. The decision to involve Rudy Boy Gonzalez and Bio-Hazard in the blow-off match was unfortunate because it was clear that, if left to their own devices and given the right context, London and Shane were capable of great work together. Keeping the focus just on London and Shane and giving them a few more showcase matches would very likely have made this an all-time great ROH feud.

Despite the unsatisfying end, London came out of the feud very strong and immediately moved into the ROH main event picture, where he would stay for the rest of his run with the company. The fans fell in love with London’s innovative high-flying style, work rate and excellent selling, all of which made him an ideal babyface star in the young company.

Shane came out of the feud in excellent shape as well. His work was also excellent, and his arrogant heel promos and persona were very effective. Unfortunately, Shane began to fade out of ROH soon after this feud. In mid-2003, he signed with TNA and stopped working for ROH altogether. Although he won several TNA X-Division titles, TNA fans never got to see Shane use the strong promo skills he showed he had in ROH.

The street fight at Unscripted was so great that I recommend everyone seek out this DVD. Aside from the London-Shane match, Unscripted was not a good show, but this match is worth the price of the DVD alone (it is currently on sale for $9 on the ROH website).

-- Must See Match: Unscripted
-- Optional Matches: Night of Appreciation, Honor Invades Boston, Glory By Honor, All Star Extravaganza
-- Matches Not Worth Seeing: Crowning a Champion, Scramble Madness

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

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