ROH Road to the Title

Road to the Title was a wrestling show held by Ring of Honor. It took place on June 22, 2002 at the Murphy Recreational Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show featured a sixteen-man tournament, split into four brackets. The winner of each bracket would compete in a one hour Iron Man match on July 22, with the winner becoming the first ROH Championship. Ring of Honor brought in several new talent to compete in the tournament, such as Jerry Lynn and British wrestlers Jody Fleisch, Jonny Storm and Doug Williams.

Results

 * Backstage, Mafia, Monsta Mack and Homicide try to physic up Low Ki for the tournament.
 * American Dragon defeated Bio-Hazard to advance to the finals of Block C
 * Dragon forced Bio-Hazard to submit to Cattle Mutilation.
 * Spanky defeated Paul London to advance to the finals of Block A
 * Spanky pinned London with Sliced Bread #2
 * Doug Williams defeated Jay Briscoe (w/Mark Briscoe) to advance to the finals of Block A
 * Williams pinned Jay with the Chaos Theory.
 * After the match, Mark got on Jay about losing the match, and began celebrating behind his back.
 * Jody Fleisch defeated Jonny Storm to advance to the finals of Block A
 * Fleisch pinned Storm after countering a Rewind Frankensteiner into a powerbomb.
 * Low Ki defeated Prince Nana (w/Elax) to advance to the finals of Block D
 * The referee stopped the match after Low Ki knocked out Nana with a kick to the head.
 * Backstage, The SAT and Divine Storm tell Amazing Red that they want to let bygones be bygones, and wish him luck in his match.
 * The Amazing Red defeated Xavier to advance to the finals of Block D
 * Red pinned Xavier after an Infrared followed by a Red Star Press.
 * Backstage after the match, Christopher Daniels yells at Xavier for losing the match because he was counting on him to stop Low Ki, and warns Red to take Low Ki out of the tournament or else he’ll have to answer to him.
 * Christopher Daniels comes out for his match against Scoot Andrews. Daniels cuts a promo saying he has been fighting the injustices of Ring of Honor single handed since February, and that he has prayed for guidance, and has seen his answer in a prophecy: he is to lead a group of elite wrestlers to tear down the Code of Honor. Daniels then introduces the first official member of The Prophecy, Simply Luscious.
 * Christopher Daniels (w/Simply Luscious) defeated Scoot Andrews to advance to the finals of Block B
 * Daniels pinned Andrews after an STO followed by a double-spring Moonsault.
 * After the match, Luscious told Andrews he was the first victim of The Prophecy, and slapped him. Andrews took the microphone away and said he would never hit a woman, but he knows someone who will, and brought out Sumie Sakai.
 * Sumie Sakai (w/Scoot Andrews) defeated Simply Luscious (w/Christopher Daniels)
 * Sakai pinned Luscious after a Moonsault.
 * AJ Styles defeated Jerry Lynn to advance to the finals of Block B
 * Styles pinned Lynn with a Styles Clash.
 * During intermission, The Ring Crew Express (Dunn & Marcos) come out to the ring, with Marcos claiming they are the top tag team in Ring of Honor. Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack come out and attack the Ring Crew Express. After disposing of Dunn and Marcos, Da Hit Squad said they just proved they are number one tag team in ROH. Divine Storm (Chris Divine & Quiet Storm) comes out, and Quiet Storm yelled at Da Hit Squad for saying they are the top tag team when they haven’t even had a real match yet. Storm then says they are the top tag team. The SAT (Jose & Joel Maximo) came out and got in the faces of Da Hit Squad and Quiet Storm, starting a three-way brawl. Once all six men where knocked out on the floor, the Christopher Street Connection (Buff E & Mace) went to the ring and began to make out, until the Natural Born Sinners (Homicide & Boogaloo) ran out and jumped them. After the sinner took out the Christopher Street Connection, The Carnage Crew (HC Loc & Tony DeVito) ran out and attack the Sinners with hubcaps they stole off of Boogaloo’s car. Da Hit Squad climbed back into the ring helped the Sinners take out the Carnage Crew. After Homicide was too injured to pick of Loc for a Cop Killer, Monsta Mac gave Loc a Sitdown Powerbomb off the ring apron through DeVito on a table. Mafia then said everyone just saw why Da Hit Squad is the number one tag team in Ring of Honor, angering Homicide. Homicide then warned Mafia to never disrespect the Sinner again, telling him they were the number one tag team in ROH. One the Sinners were backstage, Low Ki asked them what happened out in the ring, and Boogaloo told him to ask Da Hit Squad. Once Mafia and Monsta Mac came through the curtain, they asked Low Ki what Homicide’s problem was, and Low Ki told them to go downstairs to the locker room to they deal with this.
 * Spanky defeated Jody Fleisch to win Block A
 * Spanky pinned Fleisch with Sliced Bread #2.
 * Doug Williams defeated American Dragon to win Block C
 * Williams pinned Dragon after reversing Cattle Mutilation into an Ocean Cyclone Suplex followed by a pinning combination.
 * Low Ki defeated The Amazing Red to win Block D
 * Low Ki pinned Red after a top rope Ki Crusher.
 * After the match, Brian XL confronted Red about dropping him for Eddy Guerrero at Night of Appreciation, before attacking him. The SAT came to Red’s aid, giving XL a Spanish Fly.
 * Backstage, the Boogaloo asks Homicide how Da Hit Squad can say they’re the number one tag team in ROH. Homicide told him that “first things first”, and challenges The Carnage Crew to a Bunkhouse Brawl on July 27.
 * AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels come out for the final match of Block B. During their ring introductions, ROH cuts back to Brian XL in the locker room, who was yelling at Divine Storm for not coming out and helping him when he was attacked by The SAT. Chris Divine says they didn’t go out there because him causing problems with Eddy Guerrero and with Mikey Whipwreck before that, and says he is giving them nothing but a bad name. XL said that if they’re not going to help him he’s just going to have to find someone else and storms off, while Chris said there is no one in Ring of Honor that’s going to take his side.
 * Christopher Daniels (w/Simply Luscious) defeated AJ Styles to win Block B
 * Daniels pinned Styles after Last Rights
 * After the match, commentator Donny B went to the ring to make a big announcement. Donny B tried to give the announcement twice, but both times Daniels took the microphone away and said the announcement was that the Code of Honor was a farce. During the second time, Spanky went to the ring and took the microphone away from Daniels, telling him the announcement was that all the wrestlers and all the fans wanted him “shut your damn mouth”, and attacked him, clearing him from the ring. Donny B then announced that starting in September, Ring of Honor was going to be shown on local channel WGTW-48. Referee John Finnegan then came to the ring and called out Doug Williams and Low Ki to the ring so he could unveil the new ROH Championship belt. Before he could unveil the belt, Daniels took the microphone away and said that since everyone already knows he’s going to win the title next month, they should just go ahead and give it to him, and tried to take the belt away. While several referees tried to stop Daniels, Spanky, Low Ki and Williams got into an argument, resulting in a brawl. As Spanky and Williams fought, Low Ki began to fight with Daniels. Low Ki eventually caught Daniels in a Dragon Sleeper and refused to let go. Several wrestlers came out and tried to physically try to get Ki to break the hold, but were unsuccessful. Mafia came out and tried to talk Ki into breaking the hold, and even yelling at people to back off because they were just making him angrier, but also proved to be unsuccessful. Eventually, the two were carried to the back, with Ki still chocking Daniels.
 * Backstage, Rudy Boy Gonzalez asks several wrestlers if they had seen Simply Luscious anywhere. Elsewhere, as The Carnage Crew were leaving the building, they attacked several members of the ring crew, warning the Natural Born Sinners this is what was going to happen to them in the Bunkhouse Brawl. Lastly, Simply Luscious and Steve Corino are caught making out behind the building.

Trivia

 * A two hour version of Road to the Title was produced by World Wrestling Network and sold nation wide.