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Special K vs Ring Crew Express & The Outcast Killaz: Revenge On The Prophecy (1/11/2003)
Lethal made his ROH debut as Hydro, a member of the infamous Special K faction which was a group of spoiled rich kids who refused to get jobs or take responsibility for their lives, choosing instead to waste their parents' money by going to raves and partying. It was an interesting stable because it always included a core group of mainstays like Hydro, Izzy, Dixie, and Deranged, but had something like two dozen or so other people randomely float in and out of the group as time passed, with members at times including a motley collection of people like Joey Matthews (aka Joey Mercury), Mikey Whipwreck, and even Ox Baker. The Ring Crew Express and the Outcast Killaz were legitimately members of the ROH ring crew who got opportunities to become full time wrestlers for the company, and while neither team ever rose above low-to-mid range spots, they were mainstays on the ROH roster for several years, and Dunn & Marcos were once among the most beloved acts in the company. Special K got the win after their bodyguard Slugga came in and cleaned house to hand them the victory.
Hydro vs Alex Shelley: Generation Next (5/22/2004)
Now we fast forward over a year to Generation Next, the show where Alex Shelley, Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, and Jack Evans debuted as the group the show would come to be named after. ROH had some big roster spots to fill after AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, and other TNA contracted stars were pulled from ROH following the Feinstein Incident, so they used this show to elevate as many guys in as short of a time as possible, first by having Gen Next destroy Special K in a six man tag, then having Shelley shoot his mouth off until Hydro got in the ring to challenge him. This was Hydro's first major platform to stand out as an individual after a year of being a face in the Special K crowd, and he went on to have a short but competitive match with Shelley before tapping out to the Border City Stretch. The announcers made a point of getting over how well he did and how much more seriously he seemed to be taking his wrestling. The spotlight here was obviously on Gen Next as the new stars being primed for a rise to the top, but you can also look back and see how Hydro/Lethal was elevated as well, albeit more covertly.
Hydro vs CM Punk: Survival Of The Fittest (6/24/2004)
Hydro's next big breakout moment came out of a match on this show where Punk had to defend the ROH World Tag Team Title by himself in a Four Corner Survival, which he did by pinnning Dunn & Marcos after Hydro hit them both with a Dragon suplex. Punk cut a postmatch promo calling out Ricky Steamboat and saying he expects the same kind of lackluster competition from him that he got here, but Hydro takes exception to that and tells Punk to face him if he wants some competition. This started a string of matches for the rest of 2004 where Hydro/Lethal got thrown in the ring with just about every main eventer in the company, and the match with Punk was also the first time he followed the Code of Honor. Punk had just come off the first 60 minute draw with Samoa Joe and was at an all time high in terms of his position in ROH, so Hydro stood to gain a lot by standing up to Punk and going nearly 20 minutes with him. Punk pinned Hydro with a quick fireman's carry into a bridge, but Hydro took Punk to the limit and scored several close near falls, only eventually losing due to Punk being more experienced and having a few more tricks in his bag.
Samoa Joe Promo
After the Punk match, we see a backstage segment where Samoa Joe (then the ROH World Champion) grabs Hydro backstage and tells him that he's got a lot of skills, but he needs to take wrestling seriously and get rid of the stupid Hydro name if he wants to be a champion. Hydro seemed to take the conversation to heart, because in the next match we get...
Jay Lethal vs Low Ki: Midnight Express Reunion (10/2/2004)
The Hydro name is gone, he's left Special K, and Lethal is in the ring with another main eventer. They would go on to have a very heated feud in 2005 that much of the rest of this disc will focus on, but at this point Lethal was still trying to make a name for himself and was looking for that first big breakthrough win. Lethal held his own, but still made some rookie mistakes like allowing himself to be distracted by Julius Smokes long enough for Low Ki to take his head off with a leaping enziguiri. Low Ki was in full on heel mode, taunting Lethal's parents in the crowd as he beat their son up, and curb stomping Lethal's face into the bottom rope. Low Ki made Lethal tap out to the Dragon Clutch, then had Smokes hold him so Low Ki could look him in the eye and tell him that being Samoa Joe's protege doesn't matter, because Lethal hasn't earned Low Ki's respect.
Jay Lethal & Samoa Joe vs Nigel McGuinness & John Walters: Weekend Of Thunder Night One (11/5/2004)
I believe this was the first time Lethal and Joe teamed up in ROH, and came out of the storyline where Joe, then the World Champion, was vocally against the existence of the Pure Title Walters held since he felt his title was the only one that mattered. Not much to really say about this except that Nigel tapped Lethal out to his weird leg grapevine/hammerlock thing I wish I knew the name for, but the Pure Title because Lethal's focus for the next several months as he began working toward a title match with Walters.
Pure Champion John Walters vs Jay Lethal: Trios Tournament 2005 (3/5/2005)
A lot of the other history in this feud was completely skipped over, so just to fill you all in: after the tag match at Weekend Of Thunder, Walters sold out to Prince Nana and joined the Embassy, which now consisted of himself and Jimmy Rave. Lethal defeated Rave on the first night of the Third Anniversary Celebration to earn a title shot that same night, but a worn out Lethal was forced to wrestle Walters immediately after the Rave match and was defeated. This is the rematch, and Walters hit multiple lungblowers in succession to try and eliminate Lethal from contention once and for all, but Lethal hit the Dragon suplex to win the Pure Title, and then Samoa Joe comes running out of the back to celebrate with his protege.
Pure Title Match: Jay Lethal vs Spanky: Stalemate (4/16/2005)
So Lethal has moved up the ladder, he's now the Pure Champion and he's still being put in the ring with main event names, only now he's beating them. Spanky had just returned to ROH and was only around for a few months before going back to WWE, but he was a huge part of ROH's first year in 2002 and was in the 60 minute Ironman match to crown the first ROH World Champion, so his name still carried weight. This seemed to me at the time like a mismatch since Lethal hadn't beaten anyone on Spanky's level yet, but that changed here when Lethal ran Spanky through all his rope breaks and tapped him out to a Tarantula in the ropes.
Jay Lethal vs Low Ki: Death Before Dishonor III (6/18/2005)
This match is clipped to the last few minutes, but was taking place because Lethal was attacked backstage by a mystery man the night he won the Pure Title, with the assailant eventually revealed to be Low Ki. Lethal teamed with Samoa Joe to face Homicide and Low Ki in the impromptu main event at Manhattan Mayhem and was put on the shelf with a badly injured neck after Homicide and Ki gave him a Cop Killa/double stomp combo that was immediately outlawed because of what it did to Lethal. Lethal couldn't wait to get back in the ring and get his hands on Low Ki, and he had the former ROH World Champion beat after hitting the Dragon suplex, but Julius Smokes ran into the ring and attacked Lethal to break up the cover and cause what was, at that time, a very rare DQ finish. Lethal went after Smokes, but Homicide pulled Smokes to safety and the Rottweilers hightailed it to the back rather than face the fury of Lethal.
Jay Lethal & Samoa Joe vs Low Ki & Homicide: Punk - The Final Chapter (8/13/2005)
This was a much more wild brawl than the first match at Manhattan Mayhem, and Lethal again hit the Dragon suplex on Low Ki and made a cover, but Homicide elbowdropped the referee to stop the count and caused another DQ finish. Lethal had yet another win over Low Ki stolen from him, but this led to a crazy postmatch brawl with all four men fighting into the crowd. Low Ki tried to put Lethal out again by slamming him onto the floor and then hitting a double stomp off the bleachers, but Joe started throwing chairs as they tried to get to the back and started the fight up again. Joe and Homicide brawled to the back, leaving Lethal and Low Ki alone in the ring where a bloody Low Ki laid Lethal out with a Ki Krusher.
Fight Without Honor: Jay Lethal vs Low Ki: Glory By Honor IV (9/17/2005)
After nearly a year, the war with Low Ki came to an end in a Fight Without Honor at ROH's Long Island debut at Glory By Honor IV. Lethal came out at the start of the show to call Low Ki out, and Julius Smokes came out saying there was nothing in it for the Rottweilers, but if Lethal wants to get his "ass stomped out" again by Low Ki, then the match will be on if Lethal agrees to let Low Ki be reinstated if he wins. That was a bit of a weird thing to do since Lethal, as the announcers pointed out, doesn't have the authority to reinstate anyone, but Lethal and Smokes shake on it and Low Ki immediately comes in and blindsides Lethal. Low Ki again brutalized Lethal, busting him open and using his blood to paint on the back of the Section A sign. Lethal kept coming after getting dropkicked face first into a table and kicked out of the top rope double stomp, but Low Ki put a chair on top of Lethal and hit another double stomp and finally put Lethal down for 3.
Low Ki extended his hand to Lethal after the match, but then pulled back when Lethal went to shake it and flipped Lethal off instead. Lethal was so infuriated by this that he came back out later in the night and got in Low Ki's face, and Low Ki was more than happy to have a second Fight Without Honor and throw Lethal another beating. Samoa Joe took out Julius Smokes and wound up brawling with Homicide and Ricky Reyes as the match continued, and then was joined by Colt Cabana since Cabana was feuding with Homicide at the time. Low Ki kicked out of the Dragon suplex, but Lethal hit a second Dragon suplex off the top rope and finally pinned Low Ki. Both these matches were awesome, this was the biggest win of Lethal's career at that point and it set the stage for Lethal to be elevated to the next level.
Jay Lethal vs Samoa Joe: Steel Cage Warfare (12/3/2005)
Though this match came about after Joe and Lethal lost to Austin Aries & Roderick Strong in a match for a tag title shot, Lethal asked for it because he felt stuck in Joe's shadow and was tired of being treated like a sidekick. He also couldn't forget Joe taking the Pure Title he worked so hard to win away from him, and he said he needed this match to prove something to himself. This was a completely sportsmanlike contest between two friends...until Lethal decided he was going to win by any means necessary and rammed Joe's knee into the ringpost, repeatedly battered it with a chair until Joe went down in a heap, then stood over Joe and drove the chair downward into his knee. Joe tried to defend himself, but the knee was too badly injured and Lethal yelled "come on, teacher!" and "where's my Pure Title?" while continuing to stomp on Joe's knee. Joe mounted a bit of a comeback and tried for the Muscle Buster, but his knee gave out and he couldn't complete the move, so Lethal quickly capitalized and hit the Dragon suplex for the win.
Now, this was SUPPOSED to be the beginning of a big heel push for Lethal, but the storyline was abruptly dropped and he was fired from ROH about two months later. What happened was that a huge blizzard came through the Northeast and caused all kinds of travel problems with the ROH show on Long Island in February of 2006, and when TNA (with whom Lethal was under contract at the time) ordered their wrestlers who were supposed to appear on the ROH show to skip it and come to Florida since they had a PPV the next day, Lethal was one of the ones who skipped the ROH event. This caused ROH management to decide that he wasn't someone they wanted to do business with, so he lost a blowoff match to Joe at the 4th Anniversary Show and was pretty much gone afterward except for a couple of completely forgettable one off appearances, and it would be over five years before he'd set foot back in an ROH ring.
Lethal's 2011 return to ROH is covered next on Page 2!
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