McXal's Reviews

In 2015 the Road To Best In The World Tour was arguably the low-point of the calendar year. This time around Ring Of Honor appear to have the tone right however, and kicked off yesterday in Collinsville with a strong card packed with up and coming, hungry talent looking to prove themselves. Our main event tonight sees the Motor City Machine Guns gunning for vengeance after the events War Of The Worlds Dearborn with a tag encounter against Bullet Club’s Adam Cole and Hangman Page. The issue between War Machine and Tag Champions The Addiction will rage all weekend too. Having competed in trios action yesterday and scheduled to meet for the belts again tomorrow; this show sees singles action as Christopher Daniels faces Ray Rowe and Frankie Kazarian meets Hanson. Elsewhere Jay Lethal prepares for Jay Briscoe at Best In The World with a match against his brother Mark, the Pretty Boy Killers have an opportunity to solidify their roster spot with a match against Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser, plus a whole host of hot young talent join Roderick Strong in a heavily-hyped Six Man Mayhem match. Ian Riccaboni and Veda Scott once again provide commentary, this time from Indianapolis, IN.

Once again this is a DVD bonus feature. Jessica appeared last night in Collinsville in an unsuccessful effort against Taeler Hendrix. She returns tonight to face the still-undefeated Kelly Klein, who once again has BJ Whitmer in her corner. It would be a colossal upset if James scored the victory here…

Kelly declines the Code Of Honor as usual, which Whitmer loudly approves of. James tries to work grapples, then tries to run the ropes…but each time is met by Klein who simply refuses to budge and leaves her flat on her ass. Kelly pops her in the mouth and decks her with the Klein-line after Jessie dares to score a takedown with a wheelbarrow bulldog. The match is effectively over there but Kelly pulls James’ shoulders up and gives her rolling backbreakers. She starts mocking James, who gamely fights back and lands La Petite Morte for 2. Tilta-whirl DDT (just about) gets another nearfall for the feisty Jessica James…and Klein has seen enough. She dumps her with an emphatic fallaway slam…then botches something and almost gets punished by James’ octopus stretch. Diving front slam from Klein gets 2…before she applies the End Of The Match for the win at 06:37

Rating - ** - It seems like ass backwards booking to allow Taeler Hendrix to flatten James in circa two minutes, then have Jessica last almost seven against the Goldberg of the Women Of Honor division but there you go. This was pretty much an elongated version of Hendrix/James; we saw some great fiery underdog stuff from Jessica, but she also looked sloppy as hell and messed up quite a bit. It isn’t a disaster, but when ROH are already putting the WOH competitors in dark matches in front of sh*tty silent crowds any little chink in the professionalism or presentation has a sizeably detrimental impact. 

We are set to open the main show with a singles match pitting Dalton Castle against Stevie Richards. A moment of genuine side-splitting comedy occurs during Dalton’s entrance as the lights go out so he stalls and can be seen in silhouette form doing Sabu poses. Before they can lock up All Night Express interrupt with their campaign to ‘make wrestling great again’. Rhett calls Stevie washed up (‘he wasn’t even that good in his prime anyway’) and blames DDP Yoga for ‘stretching out’ his career, then Kenny calls Dalton a ‘human sex trafficker’ and The Boys ‘Malaysian sex slaves’. They definitely couldn’t get away with that at a TV taping! Stevie smirking and corpsing as Castle grabs a mic and responds to them whilst reclining in the human armchair The Boys form is hilarious too…

I’ve really enjoyed Stevie’s ROH work, so I am a little disappointed they aren’t running the scheduled Castle/Stevie singles match. But they are both unorthodox, both have adopted zany, off-the-wall personas at times in their careers and to that end are kindred spirits in many ways. They were just subjected to some personal barbs by ANX, who continue to lash out at multiple members of the roster as they protest the injustices they perceive they have experienced. They have racked up some decent wins recently too, albeit yesterday needed a controversial DQ decision to overcome Keith Lee and Shane Taylor. Polishing off the #1 contender to the TV Title and a former WWE/WCW/ECW/TNA alum would certainly be quite the accomplishment.

Dalton’s grumpy face as King mocks his posing is a picture. He isn’t so annoyed that it stops him doing his own poses however. Two minutes into the match there has been minimal physical contact, which seemingly annoys Titus so much that he throws a hissy fit and attacks Castle from behind. Stevie comes to the rescue and has some fun doing his own Peacock poses. Rhett is bigger and stronger than Richards…but he isn’t smarter. Stevie catches him on the blind-side with an elbow to the back before ushering Dalton in and suggesting that he continue to target Rhett’s back. Castle hits a dead-lift gutwrench suplex, and even holds Rhett in mid-air as the lights go out momentarily! King creates a distraction by attacking The Boys then attacks Castle against the guardrails when he comes to their aid. Amusingly he nabs a front row fan’s phone and uses it to take a selfie as Titus continues the attack on Dalton inside the ring. Rhett gets a receipt from earlier with a gutwrench throw on Castle; apparently targeting his back in the same way he had his spine attacked earlier. SNAP EXPLODER from Castle to King! Veda brilliantly compares Castle to Nova as he crawls into the hot tag on Big Stevie Cool. Stevie-T gets 2 on Titus! STEVIE KICK! Rhett is out, but Richards doesn’t see King slide in behind him with an ugly ass wooden chair! He cracks Richards across the back with the weapon as Castle preoccupies Todd Sinclair with his protests. ANX get another controversial victory at 10:24

Rating - ** - This certainly wasn’t a bad match by any means. The whole encounter was cut through by moments of real quality. King was excellent as a total jerk throughout. Richards being smarter than Titus was brilliantly played out. Dalton continues to excel as the Peacock Suplex Machine. But whilst quality was there, there was also a genuine malaise and lethargy. There were problems with the lighting cutting out constantly which didn’t help of course, but the entire atmosphere felt undercooked and flat. I appreciate ANX getting another win as they continue to build around this new gimmick…but I don’t quite know what this does to promote Dalton as a credible TV Title challenger.

It’s slightly random and reeks of ‘well he’s entertaining and we have nothing else planned for him’, but ROH letting Caprice go out every night with a live microphone and act like a disingenuous ass for a few minutes is entertaining. He is money on the mic if nothing else. Tonight he brings out a grocery bag full of protein shakes, supplements and peanuts to help Cheeseburger gain weight. 

Cheeseburger punts a protein bar out of the ring before nonsensically knocking Coleman off his feet with a tackle. He makes a minor slip but recovers well on a springboard crossbody and starts slapping his opponent about with a cereal bar. Caprice tries to force feed him snacks, and scores a nearfall from the spinning axe kick to the back of the head. Cheese lands a springboard splash for 2 only for Caprice to break out the RVD/Jerry Lynn counter to the tornado DDT – but into the Trinity of northern lights suplexes. Coleman wins with a Chicken Wing Camel Clutch at 04:54

Rating - DUD - These are the kind of Cheeseburger matches I hate. People understand I’m not a fan of the guy, but I particularly dislike matches where I’m supposed to take him seriously as a wrestler, or when I’m supposed to believe that he could plausibly throw big bigger guys around with ease. There was an armdrag sequence in the early going here which was totally terrible in that regard. The positives were that they kept it short, and that I like Caprice so appreciated him getting a squash win and building some momentum.

The Addiction are master-manipulators and at the War Of The Worlds event in Dearborn somehow convinced a fatigued War Machine to put the belts up against them in an impromptu encounter despite failing to win an ROH match in month. They stole the titles that night, conned them again in New York on the final leg of the War Of The Worlds 2016 Tour, and are spending this entire treble shot weekend trying to settle their differences. Yesterday they were on opposing sides of a main event trios match. Tonight they face each other in singles encounters (Daniels/Rowe first, followed by Kazarian/Hanson), each looking to soften their opponents up as they prepare for their grudge Tag Title showdown tomorrow night. A combination of a lengthy injury lay-off and War Machine’s tag commitments has meant that Ray Rowe has seen precious little ROH singles action since the 2014 Top Prospect Tournament (where he lost in the finals to Hanson). Daniels is a renowned singles competitor, however, and a win over him would almost certainly ensure Rowe gets a few more chances to establish his solo work…

Rowe no sells all of Daniels’ offence and throws him face-first into the canvas effortlessly. They make a little mess of some junior heavyweight-influenced chain-wrestling, so Rowe puts the kibosh on it with a big clothesline then draws some laughs by announcing that he has ended ‘the technical portion of the evening’. He tries to punch the Ring General’s lights out in the corner…and as the ref insists on a clean break Daniels strikes to attack Rowe’s neck. It opens up an immediate injury and makes it easier for Daniels to keep Ray on the ground. Arabian Press across the back…into a crossface to crank the neck again! CEMENT MIXER by Rowe evens things up, but leaves him on his knees clutching his neck and trying to recover. Daniels looks for a diving elbow to the neck, only to be caught and countered into an overhead suplex. Neck-selling Shotgun Knees nailed, and as Rowe struggles the after-effects of that Daniels runs at him with the STO. Judo throw knee strike by Rowe gets 2. The Tag Champ blocks Death Rowe…Superman Punch nailed instead! Frankie Kazarian tries to interfere, only to be pulled off the apron by Hanson! The distraction allows Daniels to low blow Rowe into the BEST MOONSAULT EVER! Daniels wins at 08:34

Rating - *** - A significant improvement over anything else seen on the show thus far. Daniels has a tried and tested formula for leading less-experienced guys to great matches, that he’s used for as long as ROH has been a promotion and still doesn’t feel dated. He works a body part, plays the villain well then busts his ass to sell for the opponent overcoming the injury he has inflicted. Here we saw him target Rowe’s neck with the type of ease and fluency which has become his calling card. Rowe sold it and didn’t look out of place as a singles guy. Had Delirious booked this to go a little longer and finish clean it’s not inconceivable this could have been rated even higher. The problem, unfortunately, is that literally from the opening bell you never backed the Lizard Man to let them finish this clean and were counting down until Frankie Kazarian made his inevitable appearance.

Hanson and Kazarian are still brawling on the floor, so the victorious Daniels hops out of the ring to attack Hanson from behind. The Tag Champions join forces to assault him 2-on-1, until Rowe returns and drags Daniels away. It leaves Hanson and Kaz in the ring ready to get their match going…

It was Frankie’s belt of bullets which The Addiction actually used to defeat War Machine and take their title belts. Tainted though it was, the champs have gained a notional ‘advantage’ thanks to Daniels’ victory over Ray Rowe in the last match and Hanson will plan on evening things up immediately. They roll right into this match meaning it begins in the midst of a wild brawl…

Kaz chokes Hanson in the corner with almost no effect and his big, bearded opponent marches back towards him with a massive big boot. Hanging lungblower out of the corner scores for Kazarian, before he goes back to choking his foe, this time in the ropes. A springboard leg drop across the throat follows…only to be no sold. Sledgehammer blocked with a poke to the eyes by Frankie but Hanson lumbers to the top rope and lands a diving reverse elbow instead. He decks the Tag Champion with the cartwheel lariat for 2…so Kaz skulks to the ropes and hits the Jerry Lynn rope legdrop, setting up his slingshot DDT. Spin Kick Of Doom finishes Kazarian out of nowhere at 05:11

Rating - * - I’ll wait until I’ve seen the concluding match, their No DQ Tag Title bout in Columbus tomorrow. But right now this ‘feud’ over the titles is beyond abysmal and is making both teams look unbelievably stupid. From The Addiction constantly losing, the dumb ass way War Machine dropped the belts, the idiotic end to the New York match, the inevitable cheap finish to Daniels/Rowe and now Hanson effortlessly squashing one of the Tag Champions. This is Ring Of Honor; at some point could one of these four not put their hand up and said ‘you know what boss, another cheap finish is great and all, but I really think we could get this over if you let us actually wrestle’. These two teams can work, they just don’t need all this other BS. This match was vapid, brief and pointless. The ending didn’t make me feel happy that Hanson ‘got some revenge’; I just came away angry that four guys who I’m sure could work well together are all being booked like sh*t. I’ve heaped plenty of praise on Delirious and ROH in 2016, but this situation is a mess. They need to deliver something epic as the blow-off tomorrow night for it to be even remotely worthwhile…

It takes about four seconds after the ref’s hand hits the mat for Daniels to be in the ring again attacking Hanson. Obviously Rowe is on the scene quickly too, and War Machine take Daniels out with Fallout. 

This is quite the assortment of talent; from rising stars like Rush, Kamaitachi and Kincaid to a former World Champion in Strong. There are lots of interesting little personal battles to be fought here too. Rush and Kincaid met in this year’s Top Prospect Tournament with Lio emerging victorious. Kamaitachi and ACH had a great match during the Conquest Tour (and Kamai also has a win over Ferrara). Roddy has had great matches in the past with both ACH and Will. There will be lots of ability inside the ring, but also lots of big egos with plenty to prove.

Strong marks his territory and metaphorically pisses all over the ring by attacking all five opponents at once. Rush knocks him out of the ring only to be confronted by Kincaid who wants payback for the TPT. Bad Vertebrations from Kincaid to Lio! Ferrara wipes Kincaid out with a Samoan drop, before getting forced out so ACH and Kamaitachi can renew hostilities. Roddy goes ballistic and starts throwing EVERYONE into guardrails! Back in the ring Strong tears into Kamai, almost beating him with an Olympic Slam until Rush intervenes. ASAI MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR BY LIO! Rush and ACH go all Kung Fu fight scene on us, ending with the Hero’s Grip for 2. Grave Of The Fireflies from Kincaid to ACH! ROLLING GERMANS from Tachi to Kincaid! Ferrara tries to give Kamaitachi a flying headscissors…but succeeds only in propelling him into a spear on Roderick. Paydirt from Ferrara to Kamai for 2. We go back to Strong trying to fight all five guys at once! Big boots for everyone, then the Muso on Ferrara! Will goes for his tope suicida tornado DDT spot, but Strong simply stands there and IGNORES IT! LUNATIC SENTON BOMB TO THE FLOOR BY KAMAITACHI! RUSH HOUR ON KINCAID! ROPE RUN PELE KICK BY ACH TO BLOCK DRAGON’S CALL! Kincaid SUNSET FLIP BOMBS RUSH OFF THE TOP ONTO EVERYONE! Philosopher’s Stomp misses! TIME BOMB ON KINCAID! Kamaitachi wins at 08:52!

Rating - *** - After a first hour of the show which was a real drag, this was really interesting. It felt vibrant, it felt fresh, and it brought a number of ‘new talents’ to the table to let them show off their skills. Kincaid, Rush and Kamaitachi are all new into ROH in 2016 and have all enjoyed relative success. Lio has been a revelation, and New Japan fans will know how good Hiromu Takahashi would go on to be. Seeing those three talents brought together in a splurge of offensive one-upsmanship with ultra-consistent, high-level performers like Strong and ACH was seriously entertaining. This felt like it could have gone longer and not lost the fans, delivering genuine excitement for the first time on the show. 

The show had intermission at this point, and comes back with another super-tedious BJ Whitmer promo, where he eggs the fans on to jeer him so it seems like he has ‘heat’ and his segment drags on for all eternity. The end result is that he gets a jobber talent out (Matt Sells) and beats him up because he vaguely resembles Steve Corino (emphasis on the vaguely). 

This one shouldn’t need much introduction. We have ourselves a battle of the big men (plus Silas, who’s just a well-put-together guy). Any time Bruiser and Taylor get together we may need to reinforce the ring as they are some sizeable dudes. Young and BCB are more of an established team in Ring Of Honor but haven’t made much progress in the Tag Title hunt, so will know they are fighting to main their ‘spot’ in the division against the onslaught of the Pretty Boy Killers – who have been making waves at recent live events…

Bruiser and Lee start by lugging the sh*t out of each other. Keith hits a shockingly big biel on BCB, launching him back into his corner to tag Young in. Silas hurls abuse at Taylor which proves to be a colossal mistake. The PBK haul him to their side of the ring and give him a LEAP OF FAITH! Given the size of those two individuals that’s a remarkable feat of execution! Beer City trips Lee from behind then jumps in with a flying elbow drop to give the ‘Real Men’ an advantage for the first time. Silas tries to take Keith’s legs out…and although he succeeds Lee still builds momentum and hits a LIMPING HURRICANRANA on Bruiser! Young knocks Taylor off the apron before he can make a tag though, and BCB recovers to hit the big drunk cannonball in the corner. Belly to belly suplex by Lee! This time he does get the hot tag to Shane…who for the first time comes to blows with Beer City. Young helps his partner with the turnbuckle DDT on Taylor, setting up for the BIG DRUNK FROG SPLASH from the Bruiser. Belly to belly over the top from Lee to Silas! POP UP POWERBOMB ON THE BRUISER! Taylor hits a flying splash on Bruiser to earn the PBK a huge win at 07:47

Rating - ** - This show barely lasts two and a half hours (including multiple merch commercials) as is. I’m not suggesting guys of this size should be working 60-minute broadways, but could ROH seriously not find more than seven minutes for them? Lee and Taylor winning this should have been a huge deal, but the match was so short and inconsequential that it almost detracts from their big moment. What we got was fun – two pairs of big dudes roughing each other up is a simple but enjoyable formula - but from what I’ve seen of all four, they are capable of much better than this.

Jay supposedly completes tonight carrying rib injuries inflicted by The Addiction last night. Nevertheless, he has signed up for stiff competition tonight in the form of Moose. Stokely Hathaway and Moose have been campaigning all year for Moose to get big-time matches. It has led to him facing and then teaming with Okada. It has led to him making the trip to Japan for Honor Rising. And now it sees him working a former World Champion once again. A win here, particularly if Briscoe goes on to take the ROH Title back from Jay Lethal at Best In The World, makes Moose an instant top contender.

Briscoe is usually an uncompromising combatant but even he has to stop and re-evaluate his approach when confronted with a foe the size of Moose. The big man shrugs off anything Jay throws at him and moves the former World Champion around the ring with ease. Jay has to up the ante, and does so by tossing Moose over the top rope then throwing his body at him with a tope suicida up the aisle. And even that barely has any impact as Moose simply gets up and gives him the Guardrail Swing! Hitstick into the guardrail MISSES! Moose crashes into the guardrails and has one of Briscoe’s boots in his face before he can recover. With injuries now bothering him, Moose is slower to get off the ground and offers Jay plenty of opportunity to pepper him with more kicks and strikes to the exposed head. He does start to return fire with punches into Briscoe’s supposedly-injured ribs though, which may cause problems further down the line. Even when wounded he’s too big a unit for Jay to get up for a suplex, allowing Moose to counter with one of his own to drop Jay on those ribs again. Much of Jay’s offence lands on the neck and head though, and you start to wonder how much longer a man with a career full of NFL wear and tear can take. Bicycle kick by Moose…no sold so Jay can DVD HIM ON THE NECK! Jay Driller blocked…Game Breaker blocked…BUCKLE BOMB INSTEAD by Moose! He rockets Briscoe into the air with an emphatic discus lariat that gets a close 2-count. Moose has the audacity to attempt a Jay Driller on the proponent of the move…COUNTERED with a back drop driver by Briscoe! Moose recovers with a dropkick which knocks him to the outside. SOMERSAULT PLANCHA BY MOOSE! We come back inside…where Jay dodges the Hitstick, then Moose counters the Day One Neckbreaker into a TURNBUCKLE SUPLEX! JAY LANDS ON HIS HEAD! Briscoe crawls to the apron for safety, only to be pursued by a fired up Moose who decides he wants to put him through timekeeping table. DVD ON THE APRON BY JAY! RUNNING LARIAT puts Moose on his neck! When Moose heads to the top rope Briscoe is on him again with a superplex…but this time the former football player gets right back up. HITSTICK NAILED! JAY KICKS OUT! Both dudes look completely shot yet come up swinging from their knees. ROPE RUN FLYIN CROSSBODY MISSES! JAY DRILLER! MOOSE KICKS THE F*CK OUT! He slumps to the floor with Stokely desperately trying to revive him! Jay heads to the floor to retrive his opponent…only for Moose to POWERBOMB HIM THROUGH THE TIMEKEEPING TABLE! Apparently that’s not a DQ, and instead Todd Sinclair starts to count Briscoe out – reaching the last possible second before the former champion dives through the ropes. Moose tries another Hitstick but eats turnbuckles again. DAY ONE NECKBREAKER! JAY DRILLER AGAIN! Briscoe wins! It’s finally over at 20:38

Rating - **** - I can’t believe anyone backed this to be as good as it turned out to be. On paper I’d have baulked at the idea of giving these guys twenty minutes. Enjoyable as they are, I had no idea they had something of this length and this quality in them. I didn’t like the finish much (i.e. the table spot, which was silly in it’s own right but was then basically no-sold by Jay), but up to that point I was seriously considering calling this an ROH MOTYC. Everything about this clicked, from the subtle focal points of the two competitors’ offence (Jay’s ribs and Moose’s neck) setting up their respective finishers, to the brilliantly timed and impeccably managed escalating drama. Every time you felt they’d peaked they were able to crank it up again. After the bell the hard camera zooms out to get a panoramic shot of the entire venue and it is clearly visible that there is barely an ass left on a seat – everyone is up giving them a deserved standing ovation. On a decidedly unimpressive show thus far this positively exploded off the screen. It will need something special to stop these guys stealing the show…

One Briscoe brother departs victorious but potentially broken after such a hard-fought contest. The other Briscoe now steps through the curtain, getting ready to face the World Champion in non-title competition. Lethal is preparing for Jay Briscoe at Best In The World, so this becomes something of a scouting mission for him. Mark doesn’t have much to lose here…but the opportunity is substantial. A win inserts him into the World Title picture (which, surely would appeal to him even whilst ROH push the f*cking ridiculous notion that it has always been his ‘dream’ to be TV Champion), and he also has the chance to soften Lethal up for his big brother ahead of the pay-per-view.

God bless Ian Riccaboni for trying to cover the inconsistency of Lethal flip-flopping between babyface and heel tendencies all year as ‘hard to read’. A burst of energy gets us started here, with neither man able to lay a finger on the other. In the end Briscoe lands a dropkick as Lethal plays to the audience, and he shows his desire to hurt the champ by taking the match straight to the floor to dole out some punishment against the railing. Jay brings it back in and looks for a desperation Lethal Injection, which is countered BRILLIANTLY into a katahajime. Lethal voluntarily leaves the ring to recover from that, with the fans completely distracted from the match thanks to static noise coming out of the PA system (because issues with the lights weren’t enough for this event apparently). Sensibly Lethal looks to make this more of a wrestling match than a brawl. Quickly he assumes control; beating Mark down sufficiently enough to attempt the tope trifecta. He lands the first…but Mark tries to duck the second and Lethal ABSOLUTELY WRECKS HIMSELF on the railings. On first viewing that looked incredibly dangerous but thankfully Lethal appears able to continue. He is visibly rattle though, and Briscoe returns to the ring with a back covered in bruises too. Both men are sluggish on their feet but nevertheless insistent on teeing off on each other. Lethal scores with a flurry of kicks and sends Mark into the ropes…before the younger Briscoe explodes back with a jumping enziguri. Ace Crusher by Lethal, perhaps selling the effects of the match by not attempting the full version of the Lethal Injection. He takes way too long getting up the ropes for Hail To The King as well, allowing Briscoe to return to his feet and block it with an Iconoclasm. Cutthroat Driver COUNTERED to the Lethal Combination. Hail To The King gets 2…rolled straight into the Figure 4 Leglock. When Mark escapes that Lethal tries to drive his point home with a Jay Driller! Briscoe chops his way free and hits a fisherman buster for 2. Froggy Bow gets knees! Lethal Injection wins it at 14:22

Rating - *** - This didn’t click, and I don’t know how healthy either of them were after the violent tope sequence a third of the way through the contest. But there is something to be said for old-fashioned workrate. They weren’t necessarily delivering an all-time classic, and the audience were a little burned out after Briscoe/Moose…but even on a house show with a sh*tty sound system and no lighting rig you genuinely felt like these guys were busting their ass to deliver something credible. An off night for sure, but still more than decent and a level above a LOT of this show…

The Young Bucks are booked for signings for the rest of the weekend, and have stuck around for the live show to hang out in the corner of their Bullet Club stable-mates. The Machine Guns suffered at the hands of Bullet Club in their home city of Dearborn – especially Sabin who was hung in the ropes by Page. Last night on Collinsville, Hangman and Sabin contested a violent No DQ Match and it was clear at the conclusion that nothing was settled. MCMG are trying to gear up for a Tag Title shot against The Addiction at Best In The World – they need to put this Bullet Club issue to bed before it distracts them any further. 

The bell hasn’t even rung before the Bucks are on the apron distracting the Machine Guns. It allows Cole and Page to attack from behind and seize an early advantage. Sensibly the Bullet Club bring the match outside the ring where they can use the guardrails and also continue to utilise the presence of the Jackson brothers to assist them. Shelley lands a flying knee off the apron in one direction though, and turns to watch as Sabin lands a senton off the apron in the other direction. The Machine Guns bring it back inside and use a few signature tandem offensive sequences to get control of Page. Cole instantly spots the danger and drags Shelley out of the ring so the Bucks can give him a double Superkick on the floor. EARLY ONSET ALZHEIMER’S ON SABIN! Obviously the fans mark out hard for it, but then start to jeer loudly as Todd Sinclair ejects the Young Bucks (despite not having seen any of that due to Page’s distractions). Both members of MCMG now feel the effects of the Young Bucks’ attack however, and the remaining Bullet Club members act quickly to ensure Shelley is isolated inside the ring. That lasts several minutes until Alex gives Page the turnbuckle Shellshock. He drops to his knees as Hangman tries to recover with the Buckshot Lariat, leaving Page to wipe out his own partner with the move. Hot tag to Sabin, who tricks Cole into giving Page a spear as well! Through the legs tope suicida to the floor nailed! Cole starts poking eyes, as Page connects with the SHOOTING STAR TORPEDO TO THE FLOOR! Inside the ring he catches Sabin going for a springboard DDT and almost counters into the Rite Of Passage. Cole pounces to hit a DVD over Page’s knees for 2 instead. Shelley rescues his partner and heads upstairs to give Page Skull & Bones! Cole pulls Todd Sinclair out of the ring just as he looks set to count three! DOUBLE SUPERKICK…DUCKED! TODD SINCLAIR GETS KO’D! And back come the Young Bucks! SUPERKICK FLURRY! MELTZER DRIVER BLOCKED! SUPERKICK PARTY ACCIDENTALLY WIPES COLE OUT! DOUBLE SUPERKICK TO BLOCK THE BUCKSHOT LARIAT! DOUBLE RUBIX CUBE ON HANGMAN! The Machine Guns win (and Page loses AGAIN) at 15:37

Rating - *** - The big problem with this match was that all the best bits involved two guys who weren’t actually in it. The one unique feature and quirk of this Bullet Club USA angle is that despite wrecking shows and acting like heels, the Club get riotously cheered. People like the Machine Guns, but that pales into insignificance when compared to the ovation given to the Bucks when they came out in the dying moments of this match. The actual nuts and bolts of this tag main event weren’t particularly remarkable. All four are decent, but the Machine Guns (good as they may be) have a vast back-catalogue of injuries which has slowed them down massively – and it showed here. It was all solid stuff, but totally unremarkable any time the Bucks weren’t involved. All that said, the last few minutes were hugely enjoyable (and that new finisher the Machine Guns busted out was a big improvement on Skull & Bones). 

The Addiction run out to attack the Machine Guns, looking to soften them up before Best In The World. Shelley and Sabin hold their ground though, and a tense stand-off (with the Young Bucks also still at ringside) is what plays the show out…

Tape Rating - ** - After a terrific effort in Collinsville to kick this triple-shot weekend off, this was a significant step backwards. A completely forgettable first hour (of a show that barely lasts two and a half), plagued by technical problems and a middling main event mean this isn’t compulsory viewing by any means. Jay Briscoe and Moose was absolutely outstanding, and the Six Man Mayhem felt dynamic and fresh…but I don’t think that was enough to carry the show through an overwhelming amount of mediocre content.

3) Motor City Machine Guns vs Adam Cole/Adam Page (***)

2) Kamaitachi vs Jason Kincaid vs Lio Rush vs ACH vs Roderick Strong vs Will Ferrara (***)

1) Jay Briscoe vs Moose (****)