If we're remembering the same thing, the sudden "shoot" ending with Roddy lit the internet on fire, had ROHboards enraptured, and was definitely "the" moment that elevated Roddy to being considered a top tier indie darling. It was so hot they ran it back the next week and named the show after it, and at the time was probably the first moment in the Danielson reign people thought he might lose. It's an all-time elevation and execution across the two weeks imo. And I'm pretty sure the show with the first match is essentially named after the event as well. These are two era classics tbh.
It is an awesome match, I didn't say otherwise, it's kinda the birth of a$$hole/badass champion American Dragon and the perfect setting for Roddy at the time, who had gained momentum after the Punk feud. The elevation of Strong had nothing to do with that finish, it had to do with the feud with Dragon because they had incredible chemistry.
The finish wasn't a hit though. Gabe upped it in the ROH website and sold it like it was real to both Meltzer and Keller, which created the whole turmoil around it. But by the time the DVD was out, the whole worked shoot aspect of the angle was cut (no confrontation backstage and no sign of "something is off" on commentary).
In his book, Danielson explained Gabe saw him and Roderick get into a fight once -Strong was drunk as fukk and being annoying to Dragon, who go pissed and put him in an omoplata- and asked them to have that for a finish (without the drunkness, lol).
And yes the following weekend they have the Vendetta match, which is a classic (it's the birth of the elbows that end in a stoppage) and also had no mention whatsoever of their worked shoot at This Means War