McXal's Reviews

I really enjoyed the first event from the 2016 Reloaded Tour in Pittsburgh the previous evening. As I said in my review of that show, Ring Of Honor has done a much better job of making it’s house show circuit live events enjoyable in 2016 than it had probably for the two years previous. We come to the Buffalo, New York region tonight with another card packed with potentially strong content. The headline act is the 2016 Honor Rumble and as usual the winner will receive a World Title shot. We’re also getting a prelude of Ladder War 6 at All Star Extravaganza as the three teams meet in separate triple threat matches throughout the course of the evening (Daniels/Sabin/Matt Jackson being the first, followed by Kazarian/Shelley/Nick Jackson). The new breed of ROH talent will take centre stage as Kamaitachi and Jon Gresham meet in singles action, whilst Lio Rush, Jay White and ACH join forces to face The Cabinet in trios competition. And all of that is before you even consider huge matches like Lethal/Silas and Briscoes vs Cabana/Castle. Even the Women Of Honor DVD bonus is the continuation of an issue which has been raging for some time as Taeler Hendrix brings Jessicka Havok to ROH to face Mandy Leon and Deonna Purrazzo. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are in Lockport, NY

This is the usual Women Of Honor DVD bonus feature, so won’t appear on a VOD version of the show (but is on ROH’s YouTube channel). It has been brewing since the Women Of Honor live special in Baltimore. Taeler thinks her return to ROH in 2015 was the catalyst that sparked the revival of the Women Of Honor division…and has grown resentful that ROH Dojo graduate Mandy Leon has become a more popular ‘face’ of the division. She was particular bitter after Mandy stole the first ever Women Of Honor TV special with a cracking little bout against Hania The Huntress, then delivered an equally decent 2/3 Falls rematch at the live event in Maryland. At that event she stated she was bringing a powerful ally into WOH and challenged Mandy to a match. Hania was originally going to be her partner, but has dropped out of ROH, so is replaced with the equally impressive Deonna Purrazzo who has her own issues with Hendrix following their (terrible) match at Field Of Honor. Will either of them be able to stop the intimidating, powerful force that is the debuting Havok?

Unsurprisingly Taeler vacates the ring and allows her Death Machine partner to kick off for their team. She smiles and bullies Mandy for the first couple of minutes…particularly after Hendrix takes a cheap-shot at her rival from the apron. Purrazzo tags and gamely tries to put Havok in an armbar…only to be swatted away like an annoying toddler. She has better luck with Hendrix, who isn’t equipped to deal with her technical prowess on the ground. Jessicka has to leap on to break up an early Fujiwara Armbar. Stereo flying headscissors by Purrazzo and Leon! Mandy follows it with a diving lariat off the apron! Deonna tries to follow suit with a tope suicida aimed at Jessicka…but gets her feet caught in the ropes and splatters face-first into the floor hard. That looked really nasty and it is a genuine surprise that seconds later she is up again trying a somersault senton off the apron! Havok tries to catch her, drops her…then picks her up again to smear her into the ringpost. What an ugly sequence that was. Hendrix and Havok profit from Deonna’s wilful disregard for her own body and drag her back into the ring to put a real beating on her. Taeler cheats for all she’s worth, whilst Jess is more of a battering ram who aggressively assaults Purrazzo every time she tags in. Deonna eventually escapes a Last Chancery by Hendrix and gets a crucial tag to Mandy. Havok tries to cut her off with the HavoKiller but Deonna comes to her partner’s rescue! Mandy climbs looking for the Leon-sault…only for Taeler to hit her in the spine with a chair behind the ref’s back. DEMON DROP on Leon hands Havok the win at 09:14

Rating - ** - This was half-decent, but that slew of botches in the middle didn’t help, and a sh*tty cheap finish (because Delirious is incapable of booking heels to go over without cheating ever) did them no favours. I quite liked the Hendrix/Havok team. I’m sure they can wrestle better than they showed here but the chemistry they demonstrated – with Taeler as the antagonistic frontwoman and Jessicka as the muscle – was the most watchable thing about this match. Purrazzo didn’t really recover from that horrible sequence on the outside and is far better than she showed here. All in this was a step down from the exciting WOH trios match we got in Pittsburgh yesterday.

The main show opens with Adam Cole stepping through the curtain for some Storytime. Apparently Nigel McGuinness wanted him to compete in a ‘local underdog challenge’ tonight (hang on, wasn’t it frowned upon when Jay Lethal did that during the Conquest Tour?!) but he has refused because he thinks it is disrespectful to the ROH Championship. Instead he’ll be commentating on the Honor Rumble to scout who he’ll face in Florida for the belt. His money is on one of the Young Bucks – so that they can go on to Florida and have a ‘five star Fingerpoke Of Doom’…

Not that his generic entrance theme was anything special, but I don’t really like Kamaitachi coming out to The Addiction’s music any better. His match tonight could be pretty tasty though. Gresham hasn’t won many matches since earlier in the year when he had Cedric Alexander’s number, but he did pull out a victory over Delirious yesterday in a mat-based game of human chess. Kamaitachi is a talented, fearless and explosive performer…but even he may find Gresham’s incredible technical skill a tough challenge to overcome.

Gresh takes to the deck almost as soon as the bell rings, and controls the opening minutes as a result. He runs through hold after hold – most focused on Tachi’s arm – and almost seems to be playing with his opponent. Kamaitachi’s only answer is to rake the eyes (which is something his new mentor Christopher Daniels did to Jay White in Pittsburgh yesterday), finally breaking Gresham’s flow and allowing him to escape to the floor. PERFECT TOPE SUICIDA BY GRESHAM! Kamai is in full retreat, but it works as he gets the room to the hit the sunset flip bomb TO THE APRON! As if that wasn’t bad enough, Jon throws a chop back in Kamai’s direction and cracks his hand against the ringpost. Realising that his strikes are now weakened, Tachi urges Gresham to strike him…and when they have minimal effect he hammers him in the corner. Any chance of a Gresh comeback seems snuffed out with another eye rake too…but he just keeps fighting! He drops Kamai to his knees with a Stunner and drops him on his neck with a German suplex (because his hand hurts preventing him from hitting the dragon suplex). Kamaitachi retaliates with a falcon arrow for 2. Flying Meteora misses, and Gresham climbs for a SHOOTING STAR PRESS! KAMAI BLOCKS WITH A KNEE TO THE BAD HAND! BERMUDA TRIANGLE MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR INSTEAD! SHOOTING STAR PRESS NAILED! Kamaitachi kicks out at 2.99999! INVERTED SUNSET FLIP BOMB off the ropes gets 2. RUNNING TURNBUCKLE DVD! TIME BOMB! Kamai wins at 11:41

Rating - **** - Shut up and give Gresham a damn contract already. I’ve been generous with my rating, but there haven’t been many more entertaining opening matches to a Ring Of Honor show all year. It had a super-simple structure with Gresham taking Kamaitachi to school with his fancy mat wrestling, but Kamai’s cheating and shenanigans led to him sustaining a hand injury on the floor. Gresham’s selling of the hand was AWESOME. He didn’t ham it up or anything…and he still hit all his spots. But if he hit a chop he made sure it was significantly less powerful than you’d usually expect. When he went for a suplex he couldn’t lock his hands on the dragon so he hit a German instead. The pay-off, as Kamaitachi drilled a knee into it to block the SSP, was just awesome. Just excellent, uncomplicated and extremely entertaining wrestling…

This is the first of two Ladder War 6 triple threat previews, featuring representatives of each of the three teams who will compete at All Star Extravaganza. Matt is surely at a disadvantage here as Sabin and Daniels have substantially more experience as singles wrestlers than he does. One of the calling cards of Daniels’ legendary career has been his ability in triple threat matches. He was involved in two of the most iconic three-ways of the modern era – in the form of the Ki/Danielson/Daniels Era Of Honor Begins main event in ROH, and the Styles/Joe/Daniels Unbreakable 2005 main event for TNA.

Matt isn’t hanging around – he sprints into the ring, then straight back out to wipe Daniels out with a tope. Thankfully it stops Kevin Kelly making cheesy lawyer jokes with Veda Scott (who has joined commentary). Sabin joins the party with an inside-out springboard plancha! RISE OF THE TERMINATOR by Jackson! Sabin and Matt come to blows, taking their eye off Daniels who lines them up for the Arabian Press to the floor. He temporarily eliminates Sabin by driving him into the railings then drags Matt into the ring looking to finish him off. He can’t secure a pinfall before Sabin returns with a flying crossbody though. Quick as a flash the Ring General drops him with the Blue Thunder Driver for 2 as Jackson slumps in the corner. Matt returns with Worst Case Scenario on Sabin! Flipping rebound cutter on Sabin gets 2. The Machine Gun dodges a Swanton Bomb though, allowing Daniels to hit Matt with a flatliner. Angel’s Wings countered with a rana…then a SUPERKICK! Daniels gives Jackson a running STO when he attempts a Tombstone. BME misses…DOUBLE SUPERKICK by Sabin and Matt! FUTURE SHOCK! But Daniels shoves Sabin away and steals his pin. The Ring General snatches the win at 07:30

Rating - *** - Blink and you missed this, however it was fun while it lasted. With just seven minutes to play with they had no time for formalities; quite literally going into a dive sequence from the opening bell. I don’t have a problem with that – and this was exactly what the fans wanted to see from them. For their spot on the card it was brisk, fun for the live audience and gives us plenty to think about going into Ladder War 6. 

Although the match was decent, I’m not sure Silas’ encounter with Shibata at Death Before Dishonor was quite as epic as ROH (in particular Kevin Kelly) are portraying it as. However, the fact that they are putting him over so strongly is a good sign. He has been a heat magnet for the last two years, usually steps up and delivers a decent match on the rare occasions he is granted the opportunity to do so, and comes into this one hot after ‘winning’ his brief feud with ACH back at the Aftershock 2016 event. It would be a real statement of intent if he could defeat the dominating former World Champion here tonight. Lethal himself is still in the hunt for Adam Cole and a championship rematch. He needs wins quickly to make sure he remains relevant to the main event picture.

Each man approaches this with the kind of intensity which clearly demonstrates how much they both feel they have to prove in this contest. The first advantage goes to Lethal when he dodges Young’s trademark death punt and converts to the hiptoss dropkick sequence he loves to deploy. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are being total dicks and are barely even talking about this match by the way; spending their time making old white boys club jokes with Bobby Cruise and rambling on endlessly about f*cking New Japan. Lethal is punishing Young’s neck, scoring a nearfall with an Ace Crusher before viciously dropkicking it as Silas sits exposed on the ground. Young is experienced enough to ride it out though – and works his way back into the contest after delivering a disrespectful back rake. He taunts Lethal in the corner, mockingly calling him a ‘champion’ and slapping him around. Just like in Vegas, Jay loses his cool and makes a mistake. He tries the Tope Trilogy…and after the second appears to have blown his knee out and lies rolling around clutching it in pain. The former champ decides he wants to finish it quickly with a Lethal Injection, but the knee injury means Young is able to easily sidestep it. Plunge blocked…although as Lethal batters Silas with kicks he looks in more and more pain thanks to his injured leg. Even delivering a basic punch causes his leg to buckle and Young sweeps him into the Killer Combo. Jay hits the Lethal Combination in response before heading upstairs to land Hail To The King. The end result of that is him once again laying on the mat nursing his knee. Young tries a suplex to the floor…COUNTERED TO A FLYING ACE CRUSHER! LETHAL INJECTION! Lethal picks up the victory at 15:35

Rating - **** - Like Kamaitachi/Gresham earlier, I will freely admit this is a generous rating and that this was probably only a ***1/2-level bout. But my style is always to reward and favourably look upon things which I enjoy, and I loved their approach here. Silas isn’t put in big time singles matches very often, but is usually good when he is. This year alone he’s knocked out great matches with Dalton Castle, ACH and now Lethal when given the opportunity. If I’m honest, and given how critically terrible ROH has become at elevating talent up the card, personally I think this was a missed opportunity to put Young over (especially given what happens later in this show). Lethal has plenty going on with Bullet Club and can afford to take the loss, and a clean win over him would’ve done wonders for Silas. That said, the match itself was very good. It never got enormously exciting but as I said in my opening line of play-by-play, the real strength was the intensity with which they attacked everything. It truly felt like we were watching two men who NEEDED to win…thus giving the impression that this random house show match was actually far more significant than it was. The reference to the Death Before Dishonor main event, with Silas antagonising Lethal (just like Cole did with his shaven braids) provoking him into making an unforced error, was a real highlight.

It was The Addiction who stole the initial momentum going into Ladder War 6 earlier tonight when Daniels stole Chris Sabin’s win in the first triple threat. Now their partners are in action, once again looking to make statements and inflict injuries before we arrive in Lowell for the PPV. 

The early exchanges are a frenetic dash to land any kind of offence between all three men, building to a tense stand-off. Kaz is knocked out into the laps of Corino and Kelly for more jokes about swearing, and returns to find Nick and Shelley teaming up to hit hybrid mash-ups of trademark Young Buck and Machine Gun double-teams. It looks cool…but makes zero sense from a storyline perspective. Doesn’t Shelley hate Bullet Club? Shelley, who has been on commentary multiple times talking about how much he loathes the faction and all the things he’s encountered working them in Japan and ROH, then 2 Sweet’s Nick…because fan pop. He laughs and smiles to the fans as he holds Kazarian open for a Sweet eye poke, then holds the ropes open for more Buck/MCMG mash-up double teaming as Nick lands a through-the-legs Rise Of The Terminator tope. Of course, it doesn’t even end as it should with Shelley betraying Nick to reveal he hated him all along. It ends with Alex looking like a f*cking moron running right into a Superkick by Jackson. Nick even gets to stand over Shelley and loudly call him a ‘stupid idiot’. Kazarian returns with a missile dropkick (with swearing…which Kevin Kelly misses because he’s such a crap announcer he can’t even watch the action and use it to cue his only material – sh*tty recycled jokes), whilst Jackson skulks to the outside and mournfully begs to be allowed to ‘tag out’. Frankie tries to convince him to hit a Meltzer Driver with him which is also f*cking retarded since Kaz literally just watched Nick betray Shelley! Nick rightly punishes that stupidity by Superkicking Frankie in his dumb face. Shelley tries to pin him like a moron, with Nick standing a foot away, so he too gets Superkicked for being f*cking idiotic. He retaliates with the turnbuckle Shellshock (as the announcers busy themselves plugging Rocky Romero’s music…because, if I haven’t mentioned, they are absolutely terrible). Shelley blocks the Tomikaze and smears Jackson on his face with a back suplex gourdbuster. The Machine Gun then gets into a business-exposing tangle trying to set both opponents up for a double Sliced Bread #2 – this match was bad enough without obvious botches guys. Frankie counters with a slingshot DDT to the apron, but is in turn wiped out by the rolling moonsault off the apron by Jackson. 450 Splash lands for the Buck…only for Kaz to steal his pin just like Daniels did earlier. This time there’s a kick-out to prevent another cheap Addiction victory. Superkick/Code Red combo by Jackson and Shelley put Kaz down for 2, right before Jackson gets the closest nearfall yet with a crucifix pin with a botched ending (Shelley didn’t time his kick-out well and didn’t make it anywhere near visible enough). Sliced Bread #2 wipes Nick out, and he lands WA4 on Kazarian to take the victory for the Machine Guns at 11:37

Rating - DUD - Fans can smell bullsh*t when they are being shovelled it. There is a reason why this match, containing one of the more over heels on the roster in Kaz and one half of one of the most over acts on the planet (Nick), was met with almost complete silence. It was essentially a race to the bottom as to who could look the most stupid. Shelley buddying up with Nick Jackson was beyond retarded. He’s cut so many promos and commentary stints in the last two months alone talking about how much he hates the Bucks and Bullet Club. The fact that he didn’t even turn on Nick to end their alliance was embarrassing. That set the tone for a terrible match, which got worse as it went along and they (mostly Shelley if you’re being cruelly honest) kept f*cking things up. Couple the nonsense going on inside the ring with Kelly and Corino at their absolute worst as announcers and this became intolerable to sit through. It felt like it was never going to end. 

Conveniently for Alex Shelley, the three men he singled out in Pittsburgh yesterday as men he’d like on his team in the fight against Bullet Club are all joining forces tonight. White and Rush respect each other after their terrific bout at Aftershock, with similar mutual respect between Lio and ACH too. They are a first-time trio though, and they face a more cohesive unit in the form of The Cabinet. Do these three rising stars have what it takes to derail the campaign to ‘make wrestling great again’?

More kneeling Code Of Honor protesting from The Cabinet. Amusingly they direct it at Kevin Kelly tonight, for no kayfabe reason whatsoever. They then jump the babyfaces as they watch in confusion. Watching the cumbersome Titus try to keep up with Lio is almost painful…but smartly he stops chasing him pretty quickly and decides it is more advisable to simply maul him in the Cabinet’s corner. They target Lio’s midsection to impair his ability to utilise that illusive quickness. White helps Lio out; tagging in and attacking Kenny’s taped up rib injury. The Cabinet get swift revenge with a flurry of triple-teams on Jay. ‘I love the leadership qualities of ACH’ – Corino, as Lio Rush is the man vocally calling out to and encouraging their partner as he battles their three opponents. ‘Leader’ ACH gets a hot tag, and the building is so hot and sweaty that he basically slips off Coleman like a water-slide as he sails at him with a tope suicida…meaning he eats as much floor as Caprice does. He dodges the Sky Splitter into the Hero’s Grip. Kenny retrieves the situation by drilling ACH over his knee, leaving him in position for Coleman’s Sky Splitter second time around. Rush and White bundle in to break the count on that. Rush hits a flurry of Heat Seeking Missiles…followed by a satellite headscissors into the railing for Titus! Missile dropkick from White to Kenny! Spinebuter from Caprice to White! King boots Lio in the corner as he tries to set up Dragon’s Call. With the other members of his team taken out, Lio is vulnerable to a superplex/frog splash/guillotine leg drop triple team. That’s enough to give The Cabinet a victory at 12:41

Rating - *** - This was exactly what we now know to expect from ROH – great wrestling, combined with enormously puzzling booking decisions. I like The Cabinet (in the sense that it gives Caprice Coleman and Kenny King a purpose) and I applaud Delirious for actually letting a heel group win a clean match. But the decision to put them over Lio Rush, arguably the biggest success story ROH have produced all year, instead of ACH (the guy who is leaving them in a month’s time) was strange. Even if they hoped to re-sign ACH, presumably they knew his contract was up…and also know that Rush is signed until next year. The in-ring action itself was perfectly decent. King, Titus and Caprice actually got to look like a relatively dangerous unit, which is important anyway, but even moreso when they are about to become entrants into the Six-Man Tag Title tournament. 

This is billed as the co-main event of the show (along with the Honor Rumble), and strangely none of the competitors in this one will be involved in the Rumble…which makes zero sense when you consider the Briscoes have carried ‘Man Up’ as their mantra for almost a decade, Cabana returned to ROH with the sole purpose of winning the World Title to define his career and Dalton isn’t known for ducking fights either. Officially the reason is that officials didn’t want them competing in two consecutive matches. Those being the same ‘officials’ who didn’t stop Jay wrestling a main event with a seriously injured shoulder just a couple of weeks before a pay-per-view main event back during the Road To Best In The World Tour?! Anyway…Cabana and Castle have grown frustrated with their lack of singles championship success so have joined forces as a team. They have a major test on their first night together – the Briscoes are the most experienced team on the roster. They have contested some classic Tag Title matches with Cabana and CM Punk in the past…

Cabana starts with Jay, and Colt is the happier of the two as the former World Champion tries to engage him in an exchange of holds. Of course that doesn’t end well and almost sees Jay trapped into an immediate pinfall defeat. Cabana is so slick at this kind of thing there’s a moment when he actually slips off his feet during a sequence and still keeps out-wrestling Jay! Their partners tag, and although both are slightly more unorthodox characters the central plot amounts to the same thing – Mark wants to fight and brawl, Castle wants to grapple. There are considerably more pauses to insert pose-offs with these guys…and Mark apparently crosses a line by calling the Peacock ‘Dalton Casserole’. In the end Jay and Cabana almost have to tag back in just to stop their partners from being endlessly weird. There have been shenanigans a-plenty but the first ten minutes of this match have flown by…and it has been telling that thus far the Briscoes have not found a way to overcome the unusual mix of comedy wrestling and considerable mat-skill. The one thing that Cabana and Castle don’t have is experience as a team though…and it shows when the Briscoes use a flurry of double-teams to take over on Colt. Very quickly the veteran team are able to erase ten minutes of impressive but inconsequential control by their opponents. They beat Cabana around inside the ring then take him to the floor for another mauling against the guardrails. Colt makes a critical tag to Dalton who is fresh and able to come in with a flurry of powerful suplexes. Everest German on Jay gets 2. Jay blocks Bang-A-Rang into the Day One Neckbreaker…but then Castle dodges the Froggy Bow from Mark as well. CHICAGO SKYLINE on Mark…into a flying knee strike from Dalton! Peacock Splash by Castle gets 2! Doomsday Device COUNTERED with an Everest German on Jay! MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR by Mark! Froggy Bow back into the ring flattens Dalton, giving the Briscoes victory at 19:25

Rating - *** - A great match in that it went almost twenty minutes, but felt about five. I didn’t feel like they’d even begun to scratch the surface of what they could do together before the match ended. They had great chemistry as opponents, and the story of capable comedy wrestlers taking the piss out of the grizzled Briscoes…until the cranky veterans snap and use their tag team experience to dominate made perfect sense. Unfortunately the strength of the match (i.e. how easy it was to watch) also became it’s weakness. It was going along so smoothly, but the pacing was off. I wasn’t ready for the finish at all. I feel like we got the first twenty minutes of a great thirty minute bout, with the last ten minutes clipped off to go direct to the finish. I doubt ROH has enough forward planning in place to put together a rematch of this, but they should. 

Adam Cole joins commentary for the Honor Rumble and sends the over-excited Steve Corino to the locker room to get him some coffee…

Unlike most promotions, ROH doesn’t make the biggest deal out of it’s (sort of) annual ‘Honor Rumble’ play on the Royal Rumble concept. Whilst other companies have done great business on them (Lucha Underground’s ‘Aztec Warfare’ matches are generally magnificent), ROH tends to plug an Honor Rumble into live events or TV to fill a gap in the schedule. Past winners range from former World Champions like Jay Lethal and Jay Briscoe (as part of the 2009 Tag Team Honor Rumble on HDNet) to guys like Ruckus. The prize tonight is an ROH World Title shot at the forthcoming ‘Road To Final Battle’ weekend in Florida – hence Adam Cole sitting in on commentary. There will be 25 entrants this time around, with everyone on the card thus far with the exception of the Briscoes, Castle and Cabana all involved. The first two will compete for two minutes, but after that we’ll have another entrant every sixty seconds, so it will get hectic very quickly both in the ring and in my play-by-play. As we heard earlier, the Young Bucks are entering in the hope that they can recreate the ‘Fingerpoke Of Doom’ gimmick. Jay Lethal is in this too, heavily injured after his match with Silas Young earlier but desperate to get his rematch with Cole all the same.

Silas Young comes out at #1, looking battle-weary and holding his midsection as he enters. Fans are audibly shocked as #2 is revealed to be Jay Lethal, meaning they can pick up where they left off earlier. Fists fly, but as Jay is noticeably still struggling with his knee Young is quickly able to drop him with the Ace Crusher. #3 is Rhett Titus, who senses blood and joins Silas in putting the boots to Lethal. #4 is Alex Shelley, who makes a beeline for Rhett. We’ll generously assume he saw The Cabinet beat his three friends earlier and want some payback on their behalf. #5 is Frankie Kazarian – who obviously doesn’t waste any time in jumping Shelley from behind. Even with a World Title shot at stake he won’t miss an opportunity to make a statement before Ladder War. Unfortunately for him it doesn’t last long as Chris Sabin enters at #6. Then the Machine Guns get no time to enjoy the numbers advantage, because Christopher Daniels is #7. Young is thrown through the middle rope…and Lethal goes after him with a tope suicida, further injuring his knee in the process. Nick Jackson is #8 upping the number of Ladder War participants inside the ring still further. He has two huge pizzas with him and hands it out to ringside fans rather than get involved right away though. Adam Cole gets a slice of course, and proceeds to do commentary with his mouth full like a jerk…whilst his Bullet Club buddy waffles Kaz in the head with a pizza box. #9 is Will Ferrara, going right to his friend/rival Rhett Titus. #10 is Titus’ Minister Of Information, Caprice Coleman…but sadly he gets the Bushwhacker/Santino treatment and is tossed out as soon as he arrives. He even Bushwhacker walks to the locker room! Moments later Ferrara tosses Rhett out after him! #11 is due and some familiar music hits…it’s Steve Corino! Cole hilariously berates him on commentary for not bringing his coffee with him. Chris Daniels goes after Corino, probably because he’s mad that Steve quit before they could finish the Prophecy/Group feud back in ’03. SUPERKICK by Nick to stop Daniels giving Corino the Angel’s Wings! But Nick then suckerpunches Steve with a Superkick of his own. #12 is Matt Jackson, and he has a ladder with him! He brains The Addiction with the ladder, before propping Daniels up for a SWANTON BOMB THROUGH THE LADDER by Nick! #13 is Punishment Martinez (now introduced as ‘The Punishment’ Damian Martinez…seriously, pick a name guys), led by BJ Whitmer in what looks like a Gangrel costume. His entrance takes so long that the camera drifts away and focuses on the Bucks eliminating Shelley and Sabin. The Addiction are on the floor (I have no idea if they are eliminated or not) and start brawling with the Machine Guns. The Young Bucks apologise to Cole…then pescado out to the floor to join the fight with their Ladder War opponents (eliminating themselves). In the ring Corino and Martinez almost come to blows, only for various participants to keep stopping them. #14 is Beer City Bruiser, just as his partner is savaged by Punishment. He and Martinez engage in a big-man battle in the middle of the ring which scatters the remaining combatants like confetti…and into the melee comes the smallest man in the fight. #15 is Cheeseburger – Adam Cole’s pick to win! He has issues with Martinez too so goes right after him. South Of Heaven countered to the Shotei! #16 is Hanson of War Machine, who weren’t booked for an individual match tonight. #17 is Joey Daddiego, who is supposedly a ‘trainer’ now and has recently been helping guys like Burger and Ferrara. Punishment tosses Corino out before #18, ACH, makes his way to the ring. SOUTH OF HEAVEN ON THE APRON from Martinez to Bruiser! That’s enough to eliminate BCB! #19 is another surprise entrant – former WWE NXT star Bull James (Dempsey). Kevin Kelly, for absolutely no reason I can fathom, is only surprised because Bull is supposed to be working a House Of Hardcore show?! How is that relevant at all you absolute f*cking fool? He clobbers around with Hanson, which proves to be a mistake because #20 is Ray Rowe. Referees are checking on whether Lethal can continue in the match, such is the extent of his knee injury. #21 is Sean Carr, a newcomer who won a dark match to earn a wildcard entry into the Honor Rumble. He tries to make an immediate impact by pursuing Bull. That is foolish…and he leaves that exchange with his brains so scrambled that Punishment is able to easily eliminate him. #22 is Jay White, which is a seriously late draw for the undefeated New Zealander. #23 is Jay’s big rival Kamaitachi…who makes a beeline for him! Hanson holds Martinez hostage so Burger can give him Kobashi chops, which have no effect. #24 is Kenny King, who’s heavily taped ribs mean Adam Cole wouldn’t mind facing him either. Lio Rush is #25 – the Top Prospect winner who now has the best draw in Honor Rumble! RUSH HOUR ON SILAS AND BURGER! Kamaitachi is amusing as he starts angrily chopping all the big men…until War Machine press slam him over the top to the floor. Hanson and Rowe throw J. Diesel out soon after, whilst White throws boots at Tachi from inside the ring. Young dumps ACH unceremoniously to the floor…whilst Bull James makes a huge statement by throwing Ray Rowe out. Hanson quickly follows his partner after being PUNCHED off the apron by Punishment (who has eliminated more guys than anyone else). Young stops Rush attempting a springboard move by knocking him out to elimination on the floor as well. The almost-immobile Lethal is still involved – low-bridging Kenny King so that he topples out of the match as well. White gives him the Urinage, and pursues Lethal to the apron when he crawls there. ACE CRUSHER ON THE APRON! White is eliminated! Meanwhile Cheeseburger blocks Misery…only to be eliminated via the springboard lariat from Silas. That gives us a final four of Silas, Lethal, Punishment and Bull f*cking James. Bull and Martinez slug it out, with such gusto that they don’t see Lethal and Young coming! They eliminate both of the big men, taking us right back to where we started. Entrants #1 and #2 are now the final two standing (as Whitmer and Martinez beat James back to the locker rooms). Leg-selling Lethal Injection COUNTERED WITH A TOSS TO THE FLOOR! Silas gets the biggest win of his ROH career at 34:28

Rating - *** - This is definitely in the conversation for best Honor Rumble to date. It wasn’t fantastic, but did have all the pre-requisites for a ‘good’ Royal Rumble-style match. Ongoing feuds were given a fresh, different platform (the Ladder War 6 guys, plus Lethal/Cole, Martinez/Corino and more), there were a couple of spectacular weapon spots, some decent comedy with the Nick Jackson pizza party, legitimate surprises (Corino and Bull), plus a real break-out performance from Punishment Martinez who was arguably the MVP of the entire Rumble. Having said that, it was more a collection of fun individual ‘moments’ than it was a great match experience. Having men come out at sixty second intervals always leads to the ring getting too cluttered and/or entrances and eliminations happening so quickly you lose track. I just watched this and couldn’t honestly tell you what happened to a number of people. Young winning is a big call, but a safe one too because he’s a solid hand and a reliable (‘fresh’) choice for a World Title shot on a random house show. Having said that, if the intention truly was to ‘make’ Silas tonight, he should have beaten Lethal earlier too. Matches like Aztec Warfare in Lucha Underground and what would become ‘Battle Riot’ in MLW have raised the stakes for what a good, non-WWE Royal Rumble equivalent should be. This one was entertaining enough but didn’t reach those standards…

Silas Young gloats that he beat Lethal when it ‘really mattered’ and demands that the former champion shakes his hand in respect. But he was being disingenuous…and leaves the ring when Lethal extends his hand. Adam Cole chirps in from the announce desk, taking pictures on his phone because of how stupid Silas made Lethal look. He dismisses Young with a mere ‘cant wait to beat you in Florida’, then rounds on Lethal; telling him that he is on a ‘downward spiral’ and has become a huge disappointment. Jay grabs the microphone to remind Cole that he is owed a rematch and to call him disgraceful for refusing to wrestle tonight. Despite being on one leg and having gone through almost an hour of competition already this evening…he challenges Cole to a non-title match right now! Cole refuses, so Lethal calls him the ‘Women’s Champion’ repeatedly (way to take a dump all over the Women Of Honor you ass), which is apparently such a catastrophic insult to the champ that he agrees to the match

Obviously the World Title isn’t on the line here – this is just a fight between two men who really don’t like each other. Cole shaved Jay’s head, took his ROH Championship from him at Death Before Dishonor then defeated him again a week later in a four corner main event at Field Of Honor. He calls this a downward spiral and a slump…but Lethal disagrees. He still wants a rematch, and having failed to win the Honor Rumble he knows a clean win over Cole is the best way to get it quickly. However, physically he is in a terrible state, having contested suffered a knee injury in a hard-fought bout with Silas earlier in the show and comes to this right after working the entirety of the 30+ minute Honor Rumble. Is this the time for Adam Cole to take the former champion out of Ring Of Honor for good?

Despite being in his street clothes Cole rushes the ring and lays in the punches on a hopping, injured Lethal. The former champ responds with a rebound Ace Crusher which knocks him to the floor though. They spill to the floor and take turns dumping each other into the guardrails, until Lethal hits another Ace Crusher to the floor of the arena. Hail To The King blocked, enabling Cole to haul Lethal out of the corner and hit the DVD over the knee (which Kevin Kelly is STILL incorrectly calling the Last Shot) for 2. It incapacitates Jay, allowing Cole to start attacking the knee. Figure 4 blocked, and so is the Last Shot. Jay hits the Lethal Combination…only to come up feeling his injured leg and taking too long to cover his fallen opponent. Cole superkicks the knee and when Lethal blocks the Panama Sunrise he simply hops right through into the Figure 4 Leglock. Somehow Jay gets to the ropes, but can’t stand and lies on the ground as Cole taunts and berates him without mercy. German suplex, followed by another Superkick, seemingly puts Lethal out for good. But somehow he refuses to be put into the Figure 4 for a second time, and counters to a schoolboy pin. FOR THREE! Lethal pins the World Champion at 07:44

Rating - *** - So I quite enjoyed this. I criticise Ring Of Honor for making their live events predictable and formulaic…and this certainly wasn’t either of those. They did a great job conveying the intensity and escalating bitterness of their rivalry, and Lethal’s work selling his leg was absolutely superb. And having put Cole over cleanly twice in recent months, getting a win back here immediately restores his credibility and puts him into title contention. It was exciting, unpredictable and fun – setting the stage for a rematch of their excellent Death Before Dishonor main event which I have no problem with whatsoever.

Cole is joined by the Young Bucks, knocking Lethal out with the triple Superkick. Cole wants to give the injured leg a Con-Chair-To but is run off by the Briscoes, Dalton Castle and Colt Cabana (rather than any of the Bucks opponents at Ladder War, or Silas, who could’ve used this as a platform to make a statement against Cole and not leave what should have been a major break-out show for him looking like a b*tch…)

Tape Rating - ** - Whilst this is by no means a bad show at all, it certainly wasn’t on the same level as the preceding night in Pittsburgh. Honor Rumble was fun, and there were a couple of decent undercard encounters which I thought shaded into 4* territory on my scale (although others would certainly rate them lower)…but nothing else really stands out, with the exception of the TERRIBLE booking and commentating which has blighted ROH for years. The Shelley/Kazarian/Nick triple threat was absolutely awful. Letting Lethal trash the Women’s division as a cheap shot on Cole was indefensible. And if you want a real example of why ROH hasn’t done a good job elevating stars out of it’s midcard in recent years, look no further than the treatment of Silas Young on this show. He should have beaten Jay Lethal, without question. His performance was awesome, the match was great, his gimmick constantly sees him as one of the most over heels in the company. And not only that, later in the show ROH literally ran an angle where Cole mocked Jay Lethal for being in a slump. The same Lethal who has won every match since Field Of Honor. Imagine how much more potent it would have been had Lethal lost to Silas, then lost to him again in the Honor Rumble. Not only that, after winning the Honor Rumble, Delirious had Silas sh*t all over his ‘Real Man’ character by refusing a hand shake (because the Lizard Man simply can’t book heels as anything other than die-cast, outright villains), then walked away despite Cole making fun of him because the ‘real main event’ talent of Cole and Lethal needed centre stage. On a night which could have seen Silas beat Jay Lethal, become #1 contender and win the Honor Rumble (with very little impact to the ongoing ‘major’ storyline arcs since this is a live event and will most likely never see television)…instead he lost a big match, won another, had his character buried then ran away with his tail between his legs. In the Facebook wrap-up show Kevin Kelly even calls him a ‘surprise winner’ which is so f*cking boneheadedly short-sighted it’s unreal. And when he loses to Cole in Florida, he will be no more advanced than when he started. Just like ACH on repeat for years. Or Adam Page. Or Donovan Dijak. There are more examples too. Take your pick…

3) Honor Rumble 2016 (***)

2) Kamaitachi vs Jonathan Gresham (****)

1) Jay Lethal vs Silas Young (****)

5) Kamaitachi vs Jonathan Gresham (**** - Lockport)

4) Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs War Machine vs All Night Express vs Silas Young/Beer City Bruiser (**** - Pittsburgh)

3) Jay Lethal vs Silas Young (**** - Lockport)

2) Jay White vs Christopher Daniels (**** - Pittsburgh)

1) Adam Cole/Young Bucks vs Jay Lethal/Colt Cabana/Dalton Castle (**** - Pittsburgh)