McXal's Reviews

The decision to host Final Battle 2015 in Philadelphia rather than New York was symbolic of ROH’s decision to pull back on hosting their highest profile shows in this market whilst reported issues persist with their current Terminal 5 building. Interestingly, they opted for Chicago to host the PPV as part of the May 2016 New Japan Tour too, meaning this is nothing more than a bells and whistles live event to end the week. The card is reflective of that too in that, whilst it is decent, nothing instantly stands out as a can’t-miss bout. It is a solid line-up top-to-bottom however, with any number of matches which could steal the show. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tetsuya Naito are in high profiles singles matches against Matt Sydal and ACH respectively – they should be good. Even with Nick Jackson missing through injury, the main event of Bullet Club’s Matt Jackson and Adam Cole facing CHAOS’ Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii and an ROH team of Jay Lethal and Roderick Strong in a crowded tag team triple threat sounds really interesting. We’re also getting the Tag Title rematch between The Addiction and War Machine, reDRagon vs ANX (those two had an outstanding match in Collinsville during the Winter Warriors Tour) and Kushida vs Silas Young, which may well be the one I’m looking forward to most. Kevin Kelly and BJ Whitmer are in position to call all the action from Manhattan, NY.

This tour has been a great one for reDRagon. Bobby Fish ends it as ROH TV Champion, and O’Reilly scored a huge win over Kushida in Toronto to avenge his 2015 BOTSJ finals defeat. Although singles competition is probably their priority right now, they remain an active team and have targets on their backs as a result. Kenny King and Rhett Titus are embittered, unhappy and feel unappreciated so have embarked on a campaign to ‘make wrestling great again’. Nothing would help their cause more than beating Fish tonight, becoming a top contender to the TV Title then adding gold around one of their waists. O’Reilly has aspirations of being World Champion too, but with Jay Briscoe challenging Lethal at Best In The World and Adam Cole seemingly waiting in the wings for the winner, he needs to start piling up even more high profile victories to get to the head of the queue. These two teams had a superb match earlier in the year in Collinsville which reDRagon won. But that was before ANX’s change in attitude. Can their new demeanour deliver the victory they couldn’t secure last time out?

Fish it as his annoying best during the Code Of Honor and happily starts for his team. He looks less amused when King slaps him in the face. Bobby goes right for the Fish Hook Deluxe and has him fleeing to the ropes. I can’t decide if I love or hate Rhett trying to get ‘he pulled my hair referee’ over in the same way Bryan Danielson got ‘I have till 5’ over. It comes off a bit cheesy when he does it – but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It spurs O’Reilly on to actually pull his hair however, setting him up for the Arm-ageddon and drawing Kenny in to break the hold. Bobby goes OVER Titus in the corner for a slingshot somersault pescado to the floor…with Kyle grabbing Titus for a hanging armbar before fans get a chance to rag on Bobby for the ugly landing. He starts working Rhett’s arm over until once again King comes to his aid. He cheap-shots Fish with a knee strike; knocking him silly and instantly handing the advantage to the All Nights. They do a great job keeping the TV Champ deep in their half of the ring for several minutes…until Bobby pulls out the ‘exploder suplex one opponent into the other’ trick to clear the path to his hot tag. Kyle runs through Titus with a knee strike for 2 then floors Kenny with a strike flurry. Two Man Smash Machine nailed on Rhett…and for a third time his partner has to save him. Chasing The Dragon is prepared, only for Kenny to dive in with a CAPTURE SUPLEX at the death to block it! Capo Kick/Dropkick combo on O’Reilly! They set up the One Night Stand…but it’s blocked with a roundhouse kick by Fish. CHASING THE DRAGON! Kyle pins Rhett in a time of 11:46

Rating - *** - The Winter Warriors Tour match in Collinsville was obviously better. But that one had a decent position on a card where all the prime spots weren’t reserved for New Japan guys. Thankfully everyone here was plenty good enough to switch up their game and deliver a safe but exciting opening match instead. King and Titus looked comfortable as antagonists and I remain open minded about the direction of their fledgling ‘Cabinet’ gimmick, but O’Reilly was the big star here. Even over new TV Champion Bobby Fish everything they did was set up to make Kyle look great. On that front they did a decent enough job…

Bobby Fish remains at ringside for commentary following his win in the opener. He’s here to scout Dalton Castle, who won a four corner match at Global Wars to become Fish’s #1 contender. Whilst Castle has a scheduled shot at the belt for Best In The World 2016, his opponents tonight will each want a victory to put themselves into that championship picture too. 

Dalton’s entrance demonstrates the beneficial side of a quirky, intimate venue like Terminal 5, in that he is greeted like a rock star. He manages to convince two of his opponents and the ref to kiss his hand too (Moose declined). It’s Moose that starts with Castle, eschewing the pageantry of the Party Peacock and looking to intimidate him. The tables turn as Moose even starts posing to agitate Dalton! Rush steams in with Elgin next and fights gamely even as Big Mike takes his head off with elbow strikes. Lio decides he’d rather dropkick Castle off the apron instead! Elgin then retrieves him with the slingshot powerslam for 2. Moose hits the vertical leap dropkick on Unbreakable! TOPE ATOMICO BY LIO! Back in the ring Castle and Elgin are throwing BOMBS at each other. Dalton tries one of his amateur-style throws on Rush…who is so ridiculously athletic he seemingly defies gravity to flip round onto his feet, before springboarding off the second rope right into the EVEREST GERMAN! EVEREST GERMAN ON ELGIN TOO! THEN A THIRD ON MOOSE! Big Mike stops him hitting Bang-A-Rang with a LARIATOOOOOOO that echoes through the building. Poor Lio gets dumped on his head right into Moose’s crotch for good measure. He gets back up and tries a ludicrously optimistic Awesome Bomb on Elgin, who drags him up the turnbuckles for an AVALANCHE AIR RAID CRASH! ROPE RUN FLYING CROSSBODY BY MOOSE! He gives Elgin a discus lariat followed by Go To Hell on Castle – who lands horribly on his glass back. RAPID FIRE STRIKES from Rush to Moose! GAME BREAKER COUNTERED WITH A DROPKICK! HEAT SEEKING MISSILE ON CASTLE! THEN ELGIN! LIO IS ON FIRE! He leapfrogs the Hitstick…RUSH HOUR ON DALTON! DVD ON ELGIN! He tees up the Dragon’s Call only for Castle to kick his knees out from under him. BUCKLE BOMB FROM ELGIN TO MOOSE! NO SOLD! HITSTICK NAILED! RUSH HOUR COUNTERED INTO BANG-A-RANG! WHAT A FINISH! Castle wins at 11:17

Rating - **** - No word of a lie, this was the best random Four Corner Survival ROH has delivered in a long time. All four of these guys were on their game and absolutely nailed this. It was frantic, exciting, unpredictable, gave the exceptionally talented young Lio Rush plenty of opportunities to look awesome and ended with the most over guy in the match (Dalton) producing an insane counter to win. It was one of those matches where you kept thinking they’d peaked only for them to find yet another gear to kick up into. How ROH dropped the ball on Rush I have absolutely no idea. He’s barely part of the shows at the moment yet is one of the most consistently exciting guys on the roster.

The Last Real Man doesn’t like guys like ACH who goof around, play video games and dress up like cartoon characters. Presumably Kushida, who dresses like a Back To The Future super-fan, is therefore also not someone he particularly identifies with. He is, however, the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion and therefore a name of significance on the New Japan roster. Does Silas want to go to Japan? If he does you’d imagine a win over Kushida boosts his chances. If not, it would certainly bump him up the queue for title shots at Bobby Fish or Jay Lethal.

Kushida is a hell of a grappler and uses that skill to make fun of Young in the first minute…seriously pissing him off in so doing. Silas is driven out of the ring and comes back so angry that he grabs a steel chair…which Kushida HANDSPRING KICKS into his face! Silas retaliates by kicking the middle rope into Kushida’s balls and socking him with the rebound lariat on the apron. A spinebuster gets 2, and it dawns on me that Young is doing a great job of both avoiding strike exchanges AND getting his arm worked over; both favoured strategies of his opponent. Kushida gets unorthodox and pulls his trunks down to expose his ass…and still eats a clothesline! He does land a violent running dropkick in the ropes then scores with a top rope crossbody for 2. Hoverboard Lock blocked, then a cross armbreaker attempt is evaded too as the Last Real Man works quickly to protect his arm. Kushida does land the running punt to the arm at last…and the damage it does is instantly revealed when Silas gives him the Killer Combo but then doubles over in pain due to his arm. TURNBUCKLE DDT gets 2! Kushida counters Misery with the Pele Kick only for Young to kick him in the head and neck. TANAKA PUNCH! Kicks to the arm rock Young, but he then counters the handspring elbow into the Peegee Waja Plunge…which misses! HOVERBOARD LOCK! Kushida wins at 09:26

Rating - *** - This could have stolen the show under different circumstances, however, given its spot on the card it was still greatly enjoyable. It was nice to flip the script on a Kushida match here, with Silas doing a great job of countering a lot of the usual strategies the New Japan star likes to employ. Young is such a big, prominent character in ROH that his ability as a worker tends to get overlooked. Whenever they do cut him loose and let him work high quality singles matches he usually delivers, and this was no exception. Kushida can’t go 100mph every night – and considering this was a low key match for him it still reached a strong level of quality.

My DVD glitches here and cuts Kushida’s celebrations short and instead has Dalton Castle’s post-match celebrations from his match earlier. It isn’t the first ROH DVD I’ve had recently which has done that either. When we cut back to Kevin Kelly he reveals that Kushida has promised to challenge for Ring Of Honor gold sometime in the future…

Rocky Romero must be injured, because he is in the building and accompanying his two CHAOS stable-mates to the ring. RPG Vice vs MCMG would have been a hell of a contest, but swapping out Romero for one of the most experienced junior heavyweight performers currently working doesn’t necessarily weaken the match as much as you’d think. The Machine Guns are preparing for the Tag Title shot at Best In The World they earned by defeating The Addiction in Toronto earlier in the week.

All three younger guys poke fun at curmudgeonly old Gedo, who doesn’t want to shake hands and doesn’t want to start the match for the CHAOS team. Sabin starts and is still game selling the neck injuries suffered at the hands of The Addiction and Hangman Page (separate incidents). Trent snaps his throat over the top rope early and Sabin sells it like HARD. Shelley mocks Gedo with Rainmaker taunts…before Beretta jumps him from behind. The Machine Guns decide to start teasing Romero (on commentary), so he creates a distraction so both Gedo and Trent get the jump on them. Gedo and Beretta take turns heeling up on Shelley to keep him away from a tag...then they both preoccupy referee Paul Turner so Romero can leave commentary again and sneak into the ring to give Alex the Forever Clotheslines. Sabin does get a tag to monkey flip Trent into Gedo, followed by the tope suicida through Shelley’s legs up the aisle. Gobstopper from Beretta to Sabin! He lands the Dudebuster DDT for 2 as well, leaving Rocky on commentary calling for Strong Zero. Shelley saves by superkicking Sabin into CODE RED on Beretta! Skull & Bones finishes Gedo at 11:07

Rating - ** - RPG Vice and Gedo acting like dickheads is fun. They made this match entertaining, and MCMG going over Gedo gives them the rub and keeps them hot as they prepare to challenge for the Tag Titles at the PPV. There was absolutely no need for this to go more than eleven minutes though. Five minutes could have been culled from this easily without losing any of the ‘good’ content. 

We started the War Of The Worlds Tour in Dearborn, and the Bullet Club vs ROH 10-man main event of that show featured a shocking conclusion as Adam Page showed up, attacked his old rival Jay Briscoe to turn on Ring Of Honor and become the ‘Hangman’ of Bullet Club. The Briscoes want payback on him, and they also want a piece of the GOD – with whom they’ve shared some seriously intense interactions over the week. 

Liger starts for his team despite carrying a neck injury given to him by The Addiction…so Page instantly threatens him with the Hangman’s Noose! CRAZY TOPE SUICIDA from Jay to wipe out Tonga! Inside the ring Mark and Page work a terrific rapid-fire chain-wrestling exchange before vacating so Jay and Tama can continue their fight. The match turns when Loa jumps Liger from behind, feeding him to Tonga and Page who jar his neck against the guardrails. Tagging in legally, Tanga dumps him on his neck again with a Michinoku Driver for 2. The Bullet Club take turns choking the legend in their corner…only for him to Shotei his way to freedom. Mark tags in with Redneck Kung Fu until Tonga clears him out with his slithering dropkick spot. Day One Neckbreaker from Jay to Tama gets 2. BACK DROP TO THE FLOOR from Liger to Hangman…and the legend then piles out on top of him with the cannonball senton off the apron. Tongan Twist on Mark! Buckshot Lariat nailed for 2. Cactus Clothesline from Jay to Loa! TORPEDO SSP OFF THE APRON by Hangman! He thinks about the Buckshot on Liger too…COUNTERED with the Shotei! LIGERBOMB on Tonga! Froggy Bow by Mark, who scores a huge win over his team – pinning Tama Tonga, one half of the IWGP Tag Champions in the process. The time was 10:34

Rating - *** - I really like the chemistry the Briscoes and the Guerrillas have in the ring together. They feel more suited as opponents than the Briscoes did with Anderson and Gallows for instance, and have immediately made me more interested in Briscoes vs Bullet Club matches. Hopefully Mark pinning Tama means they will meet again soon. They used the popular veteran Liger perfectly; never keeping him in for too long, using his popularity to elicit sympathy and crucially not having him get the rub the Briscoes needed. I’m not sure joining Bullet Club then losing two consecutive matches does anything for Page’s credibility but, as I’ve already said, creatively and artistically joining this group when he looked poised to achieve something as a singles guy makes zero sense…but makes him a whole heap more money.

Liger refusing to let the Briscoes bow to him, and in turn bowing to and hugging them shows how outrageously classy the man is. The three of them share a lovely show of mutual respect post-match.

BJ Whitmer leaves commentary and grabs a microphone to cut a promo on Steve Corino. We have to sit through his usual ‘make it look like I have heat by bating the crowd into jeering’ stalling though, which is a gimmick which completely sucks. Steve Corino mercy kills it by coming through the curtain, and calls him out so he can ‘beat the sh*t’ out of him. BJ walks away…

Yes, this is actually Cedric Alexander getting a real life ROH booking. Other than pointlessly ending Mark Briscoe’s undefeated run earlier in the year he has done nothing of note in 2016, and he has understandably grown frustrated. This is his final match under contract, and he leaves the territory after this show. There is no Veda Scott with him tonight, and he walks alone to face the winner of the 2015 Top Prospect Tournament, Donovan Dijak. Commentary inform me that apparently Veda wanted to fire him at the Toronto TV tapings, but he quit before she could do so. Well then why the f*ck wasn't that on the Toronto DVD?

Dijak tries to intimidate Alexander…who slaps him in the face in response. Back flip headscissors nailed by Cedric, who then gets distracted by Veda Scott coming out to ringside and joining commentary. Donovan capitalises with the mammoth biel that sends him flying across the ring. That is followed by the violent knee strike/release swing side slam for 2. Alexander catches the big man with a 540 Kick and double stomps him into the apron when Dijak looks for a sunset bomb to the floor. SOMERSAULT PLANCHA NAILED! He ducks the Truth Martini Neckbreaker Kick back inside the ring and drops his opponent with a rebound tornado DDT. Chokeslam Backbreaker COUNTERED to a snap rana for 2! Cedric tries the springboard lariat and is MURDERED WITH THE CHOKESLAM BACKBREAKER! MOONSAULT MISSES! ‘He shouldn’t be able to do that’ – Veda of Dijak. Alexander dumps him with a brainbuster which gets another nearfall. LUMBAR CHECK! But Dijak is so big that he bounces almost into the ropes upon landing and is able to kick out. IED nailed in the corner but Donovan NO SELLS! He levels Alexander with a lariat…but then sees Feast Your Eyes countered with a roll-up for 2. MARTINI KILLER! FEAST YOUR EYES! Dijak wins at 09:10

Rating - *** - One of the best matches on the show thus far. Alexander leaves staring at the lights to put over Dijak…but in truth he was a precautionary warning for what was to come for Donovan as well as he too would get frustrated by lack of real opportunity in ROH and leave for WWE. Alexander peaked with the Roderick Strong feud in the first half of 2014, and when ROH failed to capitalise on the huge shot of momentum his career was given after the big feud-ending win over Roddy at Best In The World 2014 the writing was pretty much on the wall. He would show up in Evolve for a while, before eventually getting a spot in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic and earning a job in the 205 Live division. These two had strong chemistry as opponents. Alexander bumped like crazy to put Dijak over, and in turn Dijak was strong, quick and athletic enough to hang with Cedric to make his offence look awesome too. I wish this had happened on a show where they had more time. Alexander’s ability deserved a better send-off than this.

Dijak and Cedric shake hands after the match. Reportedly Cedric got a standing ovation and ‘thank you Cedric’ chants…but ROH care so little about him they’ve even cut that off the DVD too.

They hadn’t won a match in months, but somehow Daniels and Kazarian goaded War Machine into putting the belts on the line against them in Dearborn on Monday. War Machine were full of adrenaline and confidence having defeated the Briscoes at Global Wars then the Okada/Gedo team earlier in the Dearborn event…and paid for their lack of sense by losing the belts to The Addiction. Now they are out for blood and want their belts back tonight…

An attempt by the champs to get the jump on the War Machine is futile and leads to them getting powerbombed into each other in ugly fashion. We go to the floor where Hanson and Rowe break out stereo Sledgehammer blows against opposing guardrails. The Addiction can’t get out of the starting gate with War Machine hell-bent on winning back their tag belts. Kaz lands a desperate lungblower on Hanson almost out of nowhere though, and quickly he and Daniels act to restore tag team normalcy and isolate Hanson from his partner. Frankie misses a top rope leg drop, then Hanson dishes out a suplex to both champions at the same time in order to make the vital tag to Rowe. Kazarian saves Daniels from the Path Of Resistance by climbing to Rowe’s back…so Ray simply grabs Daniels for a German suplex anyway! Daniels then pulls Todd Sinclair into the path of a body avalance from Hanson to leave the official incapacitated. Bad Elimination on Rowe! Kaz tries to level Hanson with the Tag Title belt, only to be kicked in the face. Frankie accidentally hammers Daniels with the belt! Hanson has lost his sh*t, hopping to the top to help Rowe hit Fallout on Kazarian. Daniels breaks the pin by hammering him with the Tag Title belt…causing an obvious sh*tty DQ at 10:39

Rating - DUD - The match itself was boring and uninspired, and the finish was complete trash. Sometimes I feel like Delirious actively dislikes good wrestling and marks out for this convoluted bullsh*t. I’m at a loss for words as to how the Tag Title situation has panned out across this tour. War Machine and the Briscoes stole the show at Global Wars, and even then I agree with getting the belts into the three-way feud featuring The Addiction, Young Bucks and MCMG. But it’s like Delirious couldn’t envision any way to get Daniels and Kazarian over as heels without making them wrestle like crap. Having a great match and being a great heel aren’t mutually exclusive – you can do both. Daniels and Kazarian have been wrestling a long damn time – I’m sure they are capable of it! The transition away from War Machine as Tag Champions has been horrendous and made them look like big, meat-head morons. The way they lost the belts was dumb…the way they allowed the DQ here was idiotic too. Even excluding the sh*tty finish, the rest of the match was nothing more than average brawling pitted with tediously formulaic heel clichés. I genuinely can’t fathom how Delirious has taken a situation whereby four guys that I really like can all look so hopelessly awful. I’m not someone who wants to slate Delirious/Sinclair/ROH at every turn. I’ve been effusive in my praise of ROH’s 2016 up to Global Wars…but this was a hot, stinking turd. 

As soon as the bell rings Rowe decks Daniels with a Superman Punch, reminding us that he was just there, standing around like a dumbass whilst Daniels cost his team the titles.

Apparently Sydal is using this to prepare for the Best Of Super Juniors (as Kevin Kelly explains whilst straddling NJPW's pole trying desperately to cement the permanent NJPW World gig he so fervently wants). Not because beating Tanahashi would be a huge deal!? Or, heaven forbid, not because beating Tanahashi might get him another title shot in ROH, the actual company we’re watching!? In my opinion Sydal feels like he is being phased out, although he is still an awesome talent that delivers more often than not. His seven-minute sprint with Okada in Toronto was one of my favourite matches of the entire taping.

Tanahashi starts the match by leading chants of his own name and air guitaring. There isn’t anything wrong with that but he doesn’t give the impression of being a man overly concerned with his opponent this evening. He does at least symbolically ‘put down’ the air guitar…but then starts air guitaring again literally four seconds later. Matt has had enough and knees him in the damn head. Tana uses his power to counter a hiptoss into an abdominal stretch…and starts air guitaring again. The Ace punishes Sydal’s back then tries to snap him in half with a Lion Tamer. Sydal kicks his way free, culminating in a big spinning heel kick which causes him to crash down onto his injured back. Somehow he hits the Slice, into a standing moonsault for 2…before again curling up and grabbing his spine. He lands a jumping frankensteiner for another nearfall but is slowed down so much he doesn’t even get to the ropes when trying to set up for the Sydal Press. Twist & Shout snaps him down hard. ARM CAPTURE GERMAN gets 2…as does the Twelve Six slam. HIGH FLY FLOW MISSES! SYDAL PRESS GETS KNEES! Sling Blade COUNTERED WITH A KNEE STRIKE! NO SOLD! Sling Blade nailed! HIGH FLY FLOW! Tanahashi wins at 11:17

Rating - *** - This was a terrific little bout. Had they ditched some of the carefree, inconsequential frivolous air-guitaring in the early going for more genuine wrestling content my rating could have been even higher. Tanahashi didn’t over exert himself, but also didn’t totally make Sydal look like a b*tch – and both of these experienced heads knew just how to crank it up for a killer closing stretch. 

Well this is quite the clash of personalities. ACH is smiley, affable and excitable, whilst Naito is grumpy, nonchalant and lethargic in everything he does. This is still the same week that ACH decided to end his association with Matt Sydal and look to forge a name for himself. A win over the IWGP Heavyweight Champion would do that and then some. 

Naito refuses to shake hands and spits in ACH’s face, if you were any doubt that he had any respect for his opponent. Next he hops out of the ring and refuses to compete…which the fans go nuts for as well. Not one to take things rationally, ACH responds by making fun of the champ before back flipping needlessly into a dropkick. He does the ‘Tranquillo’ pose on the apron…before heading to the floor for a rebound crossbody OFF THE RAILING! He misses the Freebird Crossbody back inside though, with Naito dodging it by lying on the ground to have a rest. Naito goes after ACH’s neck, spitting on him again to show his annoyance at the fun ACH poked at him earlier. The ROH athlete stands up to him though and steamrolls through him with a lariat for 2. Hero’s Grip nailed! Naito blocks the slingshot flatliner into a tornado DDT for 2 though. TIGER FLIP KICK knocks Naito off the top to the floor! TWISTING AIR JORDAN SCORES! This performance by ACH has been so good that even the pro-Naito crowd is cheering for him now. Double stomp dodged by Naito…so ACH superkicks him into the SPIRIT BOMB for 2! Midnight Star misses, and Naito pops up to floor ACH with a capo kick. Naito SMILES as ACH lays in big firearm strikes. Destino COUNTERED to a superkick. Spinebuster rolled right into DESTINO! Naito wins at 13:06

Rating - **** - Most agree that the ‘El Ingobernable’ gimmick revitalised Naito’s career. It has also completely changed the dynamic with which he works house show matches like this. Previously he came off as lethargic and disinterested…but now that’s part of the gimmick. And by making it a character trait it becomes part of the story every time he competes. The special thing about this one was that the NY fans adored him from the moment he entered, but were gradually won over by how damn hard ACH was working. Would ACH’s high energy, all action style lead him to an unlikely victory over a disinterested IWGP Champion? Not quite – but this was still great to watch. 

Naito celebrates by assaulting Todd Sinclair, because that’s just what he does. Presumably he’ll be getting the same fines and suspensions that the likes of Christopher Daniels have received previously.

This is Bullet Club vs CHAOS (representing New Japan) vs Ring Of Honor. Cole and Matt enter through the crowd and are joined by the injured Nick Jackson who enters through the curtain in the traditional manner. In Japan Bullet Club have raised the ire of CHAOS on multiple occasions, whilst in the US we’ve seen them ruin Ring Of Honor shows all week. World Champion Jay Lethal has particularly suffered at their hands. Ironically he now calls in the help of one of his greatest rivals; the man who ended his epic TV Title reign, ‘Mr ROH’ Roderick Strong for back-up. Roddy has contested fierce battles with both Okada and Ishii (with Ishii beating HIM for the TV Title in Tokyo) and has no love lost for Adam Cole either…

Okada’s entrance, with a whole stage of fans doing his pose and ‘Okada bucks’ raining from the balconies of Terminal 5, is utterly spectacular. Cole smiles broadly as he gets to start the match with Lethal, only for the smile to drop when the obnoxious Strong blind-tags in instead. They grapple to a fiercely-contested stalemate before Roddy stops and demands he gets to work Ishii. That doesn’t last long as the Stone Pitbull floors him with a big powerslam. Tags to Lethal and Okada, which the fans love…so Cole spoils it by tagging back in. Jackson distracts Lethal so Cole can jump him, and Bullet Club take the advantage for the first time. CHAOS don’t like that so both members come in at once, hitting a big boot/German suplex combo on Matt for 2. Jackson punches Ishii’s solid skull using his broken hand…and is somehow surprised that Ishii no sells it. DOUBLE SUPERKICKS by Cole and Matt! RISE OF THE TERMINATOR TOPE by Matt! He roughs the Rainmaker up against the railings on the floor whilst Cole puts the boots to Ishii in the ring. Lethal tries to get a piece of the action but walks into a lariat from the Pitbull leaving them both down. Hot tag to Okada…who takes the piss out of the Bullet Club hilariously then gives them a DOUBLE flapjack! The Rainmaker tosses Mr ROH into his corner and demands the ROH Champion come in and face him. Lethal ducks the Dropkick, only for Okada to counter the Lethal Injection into the kick instead. Rainmaker countered…Lethal Combination blocked…URINAGE BACKBREAKER BY STRONG! Death By Roderick/Lethal Combination combo gets 2! SUPERKICK PARTY by Cole and Matt! PANAMA SUNRISE ON STRONG! FOR 2! Ishii forcibly tags Jackson out, with a face that says ‘enough of your gimmicky spot bullsh*t, f*ck off’. Matt doesn’t like it one bit but his strikes have no effect on him. Ishii bulldozes towards Strong and clobbers him in the corner. BACK DROP DRIVER gets 2 before Lethal makes a save. Lethal counters Ishii’s Brainbuster into the LETHAL INJECTION! LETHAL INJECTION COUNTERED TO A TOMBSTONE BY OKADA! DOUBLE SUPERKICKS ON HIM by Jackson and Cole! JUMPING KNEE BY RODDY! SICK KICK ON MATT! HEADBUTT BY ISHII! JUMPING KNEE FLURRY ON HIM! ISHII GOES DOWN! STRONG WINS! It’s over at 16:08

Rating - **** - Admittedly it had a LOT of star power with the Bullet Club, Okada and ROH World Champion all in one match…but these guys really stole the show. What I appreciated here is that there was no dead time. Every moment counted and had significance. Cole wanted Lethal, Strong wanted Ishii, Lethal and Okada wanted each other, Lethal wanted payback on the Bullet Club, CHAOS and the Bullet Club dislike each other. Everything was loaded, every little story was routed in history and was made all the more enjoyable for it. Okada contributed the least but made damn sure every time he was in there it was to deliver something superb. This can’t have been easy for Matt Jackson, who will be SO used to teaming with his brother than tagging with Cole will have posed a slight challenge…but he and Cole were a lot of fun too. The one big annoyance I have coming out of this is not understanding why ROH had a full week with all these guys, spanning four shows, and couldn’t find room for an Ishii/Strong rematch on US soil. Given that Roddy is leaving in mere weeks that is an error they won’t be able to atone for and comes off as a colossal, egg-on-face missed opportunity.

Tape Rating - *** - It felt weird to see the New York market, so long the home of ROH’s biggest events, get what amounted to essentially a jacked up house show. Sure the New Japan guys were in town, but this wasn’t the ‘big show’ of the tour at all. That said, it was a largely solid DVD release (aside from the totally awful Tag Title Match) that - for better or worse - did more than any other this week to give the New Japan talents centre stage. Tanahashi, Naito and Kushida were all given singles matches, whilst Okada, Ishii and Bullet Club were all heavily involved in the show-stealing main event. Amongst all that then, special praise should be reserved for the participants of the Four Corner Survival bout early in the show – as they turned what should have been a forgettable, filler encounter into something quite special. If you’re pushing me to rank them I definitely wouldn’t consider this the strongest show of the tour. It was better than the Toronto TV Tapings…but Dearborn was full of great matches and featured the Bullet Club 10-man main event which was great in it’s own right and also featured the Hangman Page turn angle, whilst Global Wars wasn’t the best PPV but did feel far more like a major show than any other all week (and ended with a Bullet Club takeover angle which, whilst controversial, will certainly live long in the memory). 

3) Dalton Castle vs Lio Rush vs Michael Elgin vs Moose (****)

2) Tetsuya Naito vs ACH (****)

1) Jay Lethal/Roderick Strong vs Kazuchika Okada/Tomohiro Ishii vs Adam Cole/Matt Jackson (****)

7) Adam Cole/Young Bucks/Guerrilas Of Destiny vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe/Motor City Machine Guns/Colt Cabana (**** - WOTW 2016: Dearborn)

6) Jay Lethal/Tetsuya Naito vs reDRagon (**** - WOTW 2016: Dearborn)

5) Jay Lethal vs Donovan Dijak (**** - WOTW 2016: Toronto)

4) Jay Lethal/Roderick Strong vs Kazuchika Okada/Tomohiro Ishii vs Adam Cole/Matt Jackson (**** - WOTW 2016: New York)

3) War Machine vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe (**** - Global Wars 2016)

2) Kushida vs Dalton Castle (**** - WOTW 2016: Dearborn)

1) Kyle O’Reilly vs Kushida (**** - WOTW 2016: Toronto)