McXal's Reviews

You could be forgiven for querying exactly why Ring Of Honor is running this live event. We are a week away from the All Star Extravaganza PPV, and with all content to promote that show already in the can there’s very little more a token live event can do to push buys. This show also runs against a major New Japan show (Destruction In Kobe 2016 taking place the following evening) meaning that none of ROH’s major talents are in attendance tonight. It means no World Champion Adam Cole, no Young Bucks, no reDRagon, no Michael Elgin…even the Briscoes are in Japan rather than Georgia. But some of ROH’s best shows of 2016 have taken place with Bullet Club out of the picture and we still have some big matches lined up. The main event sees the return of the Ringmaster’s Challenge, ROH’s twist on a multi-format 2/3 Falls Match, pitting Jay Lethal against Colt Cabana to settle what they started right back at Supercard Of Honor. New Japan has, of course, sent some talent back to ROH as compensation for having all their big names booked for this weekend. We know Kamaitachi and Jay White are on excursion – and they’ll be on opposite sides of a ‘Lucha Rules’ trios match also featuring the Motor City Machine Guns and The Addiction as they gear up for Ladder War. The other talent on loan from NJPW is Jushin Liger, who returns to the US to continue his pseudo-rivalry with Dalton Castle. We are in Duluth, GA tonight. Annoyingly, the one talent NJPW didn’t book for the weekend was Kevin Kelly. He isn’t in NJPW World, he is on commentary alongside Steve Corino (who is ill, with a voice so croaky and shot that he may as well not be there at all).

These two teams just don’t like each other. It was the lack of fan response to a violent No DQ Match between these two teams in Las Vegas which triggered King and Titus to begin their campaign to ‘make wrestling great again’. That led them to forming The Cabinet, and they are now pushing their agenda all over the ROH circuit. Both teams are frozen out of the Tag Title picture at present, so know a win here is vital if they want to get in line to face the winners of Ladder War 6. I spy Kiera Hogan amongst ANX’s entourage for this. How the hell did ROH not sign her up for Women Of Honor? 

War Machine jump ANX during their kneeling protest, just as pretty much every other team has since they started this gimmick. Hanson and Rowe are in immediate control with Rhett the victim of their initial offensive flurry. King spearheads an athletic rescue mission and knocks Hanson on his ass with a spinning heel kick. The All Nights trap Hanson in their corner, wilfully flouting the rules with repeated chokes and illegal double-teams. It doesn’t last forever though and Hanson cartwheel lariats through Titus to secure the hot tag to Rowe. NECK DROP EXPLODER on Kenny! It’s followed with a brutal knee strike on Titus for 2. Path Of Resistance blocked with a kick flurry from ANX, before King takes flight with a corkscrew pescado to the floor! Frog Splash from Titus to Rowe gets 2. One Night Stand blocked as Hanson drags Kenny out of the ring…then joins Ray in the ring for the pop-up powerslam. Decapitation nailed, giving War Machine the win at 07:11

Rating - ** - These teams have had good and bad matches with each other. This one was just indifferent. It was kept brief and inoffensive; ANX did their gimmick and cheated because this is Delirious-booked ROH and in that world heels ALWAYS cheat. War Machine hit some power moves and won without even needing their primary finish. This would feel better if you got the sense that either of these teams were going anywhere. The Cabinet are doing the ‘kneeling protest’ to get cheap, easy heat. Any time they try to explain it all they come up with is vague, flimsy rhetoric which generally makes no sense and all but confirms that they’ve been given this new gimmick as something to do without any long-term plan. Same with War Machine, who have been rudderless since their excellent match with the Briscoes at Global Wars. They were booked like sh*t against The Addiction. They are sort of in a feud with the Pretty Boy Killers, except that would involve booking and pushing new talent, so Lee and Taylor are hardly ever around…and in the mean-time they just lumber around hitting the same spots in the same meaningless matches whilst fans care about them less and less.  

In theory the Last Real Man should be red-hot entering this one. He is #1 contender to the World Title after winning the Honor Rumble in Lockport the previous weekend, and now awaits the winner of the Cole/Elgin PPV match. In the mean-time he looks to test himself against an experienced campaigner in the form of the returning Stevie Richards. Stevie doesn’t win much in ROH, but usually acquits himself well and performs admirably. Will be derail Silas’ momentum in a major way this evening?

Silas asks for a microphone so he can point out that Stevie is ‘living on past glories’ and that he has lost basically all his ROH matches. Times are tough for ‘P-Dawg’ Mike Posey, who is refereeing this one. Young continues hurling abuse at Richards even after the microphone is put away…but Stevie largely ignores it and tries to quieten the Last Real Man with a series of headlocks. Young puts him down with the Killer Combo though, meaning he can go back to tossing him around and belittling him constantly. It is a prolonged beating that Richards seems powerless to curtail. Stevie’s neck and back take the brunt of Young’s offence, prompting Corino to croak up that the his fellow ECW-alum has suffered neck and back problems throughout his career. Richards retaliates with a swinging neckbreaker, right into a DDT for 2. And still Silas is abusing Richards…so Stevie puts him into the Koji Clutch. Young escapes, but attempts the Plunge right after and eats a Stevie Kick in the corner for 2! The failure of his finishing move to bring victory really agitates Richards. He threatens to punch referee Mike Posey in the corner, but in doing so he takes his eye off the ball and allows Silas to hit Misery. Young wins at 08:30

Rating - *** - I’ve seen a couple of reviews of this show and people didn’t seem to like this match much. Personally I enjoyed it, as I have all of Stevie’s ROH run thus far. What I particularly liked about this is that it represented progressive story-telling. Everything Young said in his pre-match promo was true. Richards has lost constantly, and has come off like a guy living off past glories. And similarly, the content of that promo – delivered in the face of a respected veteran in the sport – made Silas come off like an ultra-confident bad-ass, entirely befitting of a World Title #1 competitor. The match itself fleshed out the story well. Silas was confident and fired up, hurling abuse at Stevie constantly. Richards took a lot of punishment, and with Silas’ words in his ears almost snapped and went after a ref. It was an uncharacteristic error from the veteran, and it saw him fall to another defeat. I don’t want Richards in ROH long enough for a full heel turn…but this was enjoyable as a standalone match, moved the respective characters of both competitors forward well, and did a strong job putting Silas over before his Florida title shot. I’d call it pretty successful…

Both of these two are talented and capable performers, but I am 100% certain that this match doesn’t need to happen. Later in the show when I’m complaining that Rush/Gresham or Castle/Liger didn’t get enough time, this is the one that could have been cut to make way for it. Caprice has some direction as a member of The Cabinet, but his delusional ranting as the Minister Of Information comes off as incredibly weird and isn’t necessarily getting him the kind of heat he’d like. Delirious is working his second live event in a week (which doesn’t happen often) and comes in after delivering a clinic with Jon Gresham in Pittsburgh. Was that enough to work off the ring-rust and deliver a rare victory for the Lizard Man in an ROH ring?

Coleman hides behind the referee to avoid getting caught in the cross-fire of Delirious’ ring bell craziness. The match begins just as the Delirious/Gresham match did last week, with the masked man showing his remarkable prowess as a ground-based technician. Caprice goes after Delirious’ mask like a jerk, provoking the Lizard Man to take the fight to the floor. Kelly and Corino are basically ignoring the mask to make ‘insider jokes’ about Jim Cornette, Delirious as booker, Delirious’ face, Delirious’ relationship with women (Mandy Leon?), generally coming off like boys club assholes once again. Delirious puts Caprice in an abdominal stretch on the floor with the assistance of a line of fans. Kenny King loudly yells at the announcers that this is the kind of conspiracy and poor treatment they knee to protest. Next he throws a bottle of drink into the Minister’s face and drawing more howls of derision from ANX at ringside. Back inside the ring a flurry of Leaping Lariats find the mark, but Coleman still has it in the tank to block the Cobra Stretch. Mind Trip by Coleman, into the Bless-TO for 2. Chickenwing Clutch earns Caprice a submission victory at 09:56

Rating - * - I don’t want to call this a total DUD, because there were some comedic moments tucked away within this which made me laugh. Neither of these two are bad wrestlers at all. As Delirious showed in his match with Gresham last week, he’s actually incredibly skilful – we just rarely get to see it because he doesn’t appear often and usually works comedy matches. There is a lot to like about Caprice as well, even if being a whacky mouthpiece for The Cabinet isn’t doing much for him. The issue here was that it went way too long (5-7 minutes would have been fine), the commentary was diabolical and fans cared so little about who was going to win there was absolutely zero drama on anything they did. As I predicted in my introductory paragraph, there was no reason to have this match at all – even on a card shorn of starpower thanks to NJPW bookings.

We’ve been waiting to see this one since Best In The World. On that night Jay White was watching ringside as a fan during the Machine Guns’ challenge to The Addiction’s Tag Championship…when Kamaitachi came out and attacked him, creating a disturbance which handed victory to Daniels and Kaz. It was revealed that The Addiction were mentoring Kamaitachi, convincing him to turn his back on his honourable ways and return to his true rudo nature that he demonstrated in CMLL. His NJPW Dojo rival White is undefeated, and boasts victories over both he and Daniels. With just a week to go until Ladder Wars Daniels, Kazarian, Shelley and Sabin will want to do all they can to avoid injury but also inflict it on their rivals. This is contested under Lucha Rules (presumably meaning that tags are optional and the referee will lose control of whom the single man is before the conclusion).

Kamaitachi starts for his team since his CMLL days give him the edge in a ‘Lucha Rules’ match. His presence means White demands to start with him to continue their rivalry. Tachi gains the advantage by raking Jay’s eyes and dropkicking him off the apron – then demonstrates his experience with in this environment by immediately turning and sprinting at the Machine Guns before they can jump him from behind. White dropkicks him into the guardrails…but doesn’t have the same experience and does get jumped from behind by the now-legal Chris Daniels. The Addiction try to isolate Shelley ahead of All Star Extravaganza, and for the third time in less than three minutes Kamai utilises his knowledge of Lucha Rules to get an advantage and attack Alex when he isn’t looking. Shelley retaliates by repeatedly tricking all three ‘rudos’ into hitting each other, then leaving the ring to watch them bicker about it. Kamaitachi stops Daniels and Kaz from coming to blows only to be wiped out by Sabin – who moves as fast tonight as he has at any time since returning to ROH. The Machine Guns and Jay have fun working elaborate triple team combos on Kamai, eventually dumping all three opponents to the floor. TOPE SUICIDA/STEREO PESCADO COMBO! Kazarian does a great job surviving that and re-establishing control for his squad; first with a hanging lungblower on White, secondly with a swinging neckbreaker on Shelley. With both MCMG members down it exposes White to a prolonged period of punishment at the hands of the Tag Champions and their accomplice. Impressive as Jay has been in his ROH excursion thus far, the fluency of Daniels and Kaz as a team puts him real peril for a few minutes until he drags his aching body into a much-needed tag to Sabin…who lands a springboard suicide dive to the floor! Kamaitachi superkicks Shelley off the apron only to be mowed down by a fired up Jay White. Running suplex by White, right into the missile dropkick for 2. Urinage blocked once, so the Machine Guns pitch in for a SUPERKICK/URINAGE COMBO! The Addiction and MCMG brawl on the floor on one side, as on the other Kamai gives White the sunset flip apron bomb! BRAINBUSTER ON THE FLOOR BY WHITE! Kaz hits a slingshot DDT on the apron to Alex! ARABIAN PRESS TO THE FLOOR by Daniels! Frankie nearly ends White’s streak with a blockbuster, and when the Kiwi blocks the Tomikaze he instead positions him for a lungblower/Meteora combo with Tachi. WAVE OF THE FUTURE on Sabin…only for Shelley to save with turnbuckle Shellshock. ANGEL’S WINGS on Jay! The Ring General saves Kamai from Skull & Bones, before joining Frankie to take Sabin out with Bad Elimination. CELEBRITY REHAB on Shelley! The Addiction get a huge win at 17:25

Rating - **** - Given the number of high profile absences from the roster tonight it was the correct call to give this group a decent time allocation. They delivered a really fun match. Your enjoyment of it will hinge somewhat on how much you can ‘tolerate’ the inherent foolishness of Lucha Rules (e.g. the babyface in peril Jay White crawling all the way across the ring to make a traditional hot tag to Sabin when all he has to do is roll out of the ring), however, I personally thought the slightly altered rules provided more of a platform to enhance the action than it was a hindrance. The subtle presentation of Kamaitachi as a cerebral veteran of lucha trios matches was a really neat little touch; the kind of detail that wasn’t absolutely necessary but I’m glad they included because it really enhanced the action. In a positive sign ahead of Ladder War, Chris Sabin also looked superb here – moving as quickly and freely as he has since his return. They got the tone just about right on the MCMG/Addiction exchanges – previewing Ladder War without over-exposing those four individuals to each other. Putting The Addiction, who have struggled to win matches cleanly all year, over clean as a whistle was a major statement of intent and the perfect booking to make them look strong heading into the pay-per-view.

Are any bookmakers offering odds on what variant of Martinez’s name will be used to introduce him tonight? He looks to be a genuinely exciting prospect and a potential rare success coming out of ROH’s profit-driven talent recruitment system…but being saddled with a lame gimmick as the Punisher for BJ Whitmer and Kevin Sullivan really hurts him. Nevertheless, he will be looking to make a statement with an emphatic win over career enhancement talent ‘Big Willy’ tonight. He has been picking on jobbers like Ferrara and Cheeseburger of late, so Will is all fired up for some payback…

Ferrara attacks Martinez before the bell and tries to move as quickly as possible…but can’t stay out of The Punisher’s clutches forever. Martinez stands and refuses to budge when Ferrara tries his tornado DDT – countering it to the Kryptonite backbreaker. Still Will fights, evading a powerbomb and trying to kick the legs out from under the big man. Martinez destroys him again with the corkscrew kick and ends the match with South Of Heaven at 03:49

Rating - N/A - Exactly the match it needed to be. The ship has sailed on Ferrara ever being taken seriously anyway, so getting treated like a whipping boy to promote a promising newcomer like Punishment is fine with me. Martinez was excellent in the Top Prospect Tournament, and I really hope he isn’t permanently ruined by this Whitmer/Sullivan/Corino angle. ROH already missed the boat on Donovan Dijak (who isn’t booked tonight despite being #1 contender to the TV Title at a pay-per-view) who has just a few months left of his tenure in the company…they NEED to make sure they don’t waste Martinez in the same manner.

Up next we get a carbon copy of the same angle they ran at the Reloaded Tour event in Pittsburgh a week ago (and on TV in Vegas), with Martinez and BJ beating up jobbers, Steve Corino coming to their rescue, then BJ trying to tempt him to succumb to Evil with the Golden Spike. Because lord knows fans are SO into this storyline that they want to see literal beat-for-beat repeats of the same angle over and over again.

Gresh has been one of the best things about the 2016 Reloaded Tour. I’m such a fan of his work and he really delivered in the ring last week in Pittsburgh and Lockport. His reward is a high profile match against the 2016 Top Prospect Tournament winner, and one of the standout performers of the entire year, in Lio Rush. Rush’s task is now to convert his impressive in-ring showings into victories. A world-travelled, vastly experienced, technically superior opponent (and a similarly short-statured one too) will pose a real test to the young man…

We are f*cking GRAPPLING from the bell here! Gresham is a technical wizard, whilst Rush is an accomplished amateur in his weight class…so their work on the ground is precise and ferocious. Next they almost separate each other’s shoulders trading shoulder tackles – and as the stockier of the two Gresham gets the upper hand on that. He also notices some athletic tape on Rush’s shoulder, which he goes right after and snaps Lio’s arm over the top rope. Lio tries to quicken the pace to protect himself, but Gresh is RIGHT THERE WITH HIM! He flips into a lucha-esque rana and nips-up in triumph! Amazingly Lio is even quicker – slithering under him into a jumping enzi. Gresham slides into the ropes to kill his momentum like a pro, then comes back working a more methodical pace and repeatedly taking Rush off his feet…into a savage kick to the taped up arm. He follows that with armdrags, then forearm strikes aimed at the taped up shoulder. The attack on the arm and shoulder is so violent that it brings the crowd to their feet, roaring in excitement and disgust in equal measure. Hammerlock back suplex plants Lio for the closest nearfall of the match thus far. Even when Lio tries to counter Jon’s work the Octopus shuts him down with more fierce kicks at the arm. Lio is desperate to speed things up – leapfrogging Gresh to the floor for a HEAT SEEKING MISSILE! MAFIA KICK INTO THE RAILING! Gresham tries La Magistral using the bad arm…only for Rush to roll through and kick him in the head. LIGERBOMB by Rush for 2…right before Jon sends him shoulder-first into the ringpost. Right now they are countering and transitioning at an insane pace. Gresham won’t stop targeting the arm but is really struggling to pin Lio down for a sustained period of time. Eventually he uses the arm to haul the TPT winner into a Crippler Crossface. Lio barely makes it to the ropes this time. ARM CAPTURE STUNNER by Gresham! HEAD DROP GERMAN SUPLEX…BUT LIO NO SELLS! SNAP GERMAN! RUSH IS UP AGAIN! LARIATOOOOOOO! ROLLING RUSH HOURS BY LIO! RUSH WINS! 12:41 is the time.

Rating - **** - What a gorgeous match this was. Lethal, Cabana, Liger and Castle have a colossal job ahead of them if they want to stop these two stealing the show with this effort. Electrifying, cutting edge and beautiful to watch – this was everything I love about modern professional wrestling. Neither man is blessed with height, so the different ways they’ve found to approach crafting their style inside the ring is really interesting. Lio is quick, illusive, explosive…not to mention freakishly talented considering how inexperienced he is. Gresham isn’t quite as fast; a little shorter and a little stockier, so made up for that with an almost unending amount of technical skill, counter-wrestling ability and a ruthless desire to pick apart an injured limb. There were times when this looked a little choreographed, and having to cram everything into less than thirteen minutes at a full sprint speed deadened the drama somewhat…but I’m only even mentioning that to explain why I didn’t go even higher on my rating. This was spectacular – an example of two guys stepping up and snatching an opportunity created for them by the bigger names working in Japan tonight. I truly hope they are rewarded for it…

Liger has been loaned out by New Japan to make amends for them stealing all of ROH’s big names for their show this weekend. He adds welcome star power to this event, and although some were disappointed that he is working Dalton again, I actually really like this booking. These two had a competitive match during the New Japan tour last year, and this year at Honor Rising shared a number of very tense exchanges. Liger really enjoys playing games with The Boys – which obviously antagonises Dalton. Their rivalry continues in Duluth this evening.

Castle doesn’t let his admiration for Liger stop him from his usual assortment of mind games in the opening minutes. He quickly gets taught to respect the enduring skill of the veteran as Liger whips him into an early Mexican surfboard…applied with such force that the Peacock needs some recovery time with The Boys. Once again Liger wants to be fanned by The Boys, and predictably it enrages Dalton. It allows the legend to toss his opponent to the floor dismissively. PEACOCK POSE by Liger! Dalton is seriously pissed off now…and yet again takes his eye off the ball so Liger can hiptoss him back to the floor. We see their familiarity as opponents on the outside as Liger ducks the apron feint rana by Castle, only for Dalton to dodge the Shotei and drill him into the side of the ring. Now we go back inside the ring where Castle capitalises on his opponent’s grogginess to drag him around on the canvas. Liger uses the Shotei in the corner to battle back, setting Castle up for a frankensteiner. Ligerbomb blocked…but so is the Bang-A-Rang. APRON CANNONBALL to the floor by the veteran. Now Liger hauls The Boys into the ring for more posing! Castle loses his sh*t and hits Liger with the Everest German for 2. Liger blocks a second attempt at that hold only to walk into Bang-A-Rang. Dalton gets a major victory at 10:40

Rating - *** - When he is really fired up Jushin Liger can still deliver matches at the highest level. We saw that in ROH during Supercard Of Honor weekend last year when he pulled out a classic with Jay Lethal. This wasn’t necessarily on that level, but I really enjoyed it anyway – particularly the continuity to follow up from their prior encounters together. At this point Liger knows how much it pisses Dalton off when he gets involved with The Boys, so in this match he used that to his advantage. Every time he interacted with the Tate Twins it caused Castle to make an error. But that strategy proved to be his undoing as it finally caused Dalton to snap and deliver a capture version of the Everest German suplex which Liger never really recovered from. The reality is that Liger is an older gentleman who doesn’t need to work this. The fact that he is even showing up to a random ROH house show tells you how much he cares. He only needs to come out to his popular entrance song, hit a few signature spots and the fans will go nuts for it. Even if he wasn’t going full throttle here, the fact that he cared enough to come to the US, put ROH’s rising star over and even put together a relatable match which referenced their previous encounters tells you everything you need to know about him. He is a legend and it is as much a privilege to watch him here as it was when he came in for the Weekend Of Thunder back in ’04

The Ringmaster’s Challenge is a concept which premiered early into Sinclair’s ownership of ROH when Jim Cornette booked it to settle the score between Roderick Strong and Eddie Edwards. That one was an absolute classic, and some of the follow-ups over the years have been decent as well. The format is deceptively simple – it’s a 2/3 Falls Match, but with a twist; the first fall is pinfalls only, the second a Submission Match, whilst the third fall (if we make it that far) is a 30-Minute Iron Man Match (didn’t it used to be fifteen?!). This is to settle the issue between Cabana and Lethal that goes back to Supercard Of Honor 10 in Dallas. Colt returned to ROH and pinned Lethal that weekend. Their subsequent rematch for the World Title in Cabana’s hometown of Chicago was wrecked by the Bullet Club (a mutual enemy these two share)…before Lethal eventually did successfully defend the World Title against Colt on ROH television in Philadelphia. Cabana therefore has something to prove and wants to get another win over Lethal, knowing full well that if he does so his hat remains firmly in the ring for a title shot with Adam Cole when he returns from Japan.

They do a good job of walking the fine line between portraying respect but also putting over the competitive nature of their rivalry. It is noticeable that Lethal is intent on avoiding getting involved in protracted chain-wrestling exchanges since Colt is obviously the better man in that environment. He does look to keep Cabana on the deck, almost holding him down to prevent him stringing together elaborate sequences. Cabana escapes and dives into the same pinning combination that saw him beat Lethal in Dallas…but this time Jay kicks out. Things start getting personal, punches are thrown and tempers start to fray, although we are once again back at a stalemate. Every time he gets back to a vertical base Colt goes for whacky pinfall attempts – an approach which is completely logical given his skillset and the particular rules for this fall of the match. Artful Dodger by Cabana…right into a right hand to Jay’s mouth! The former champ doesn’t like that all, and counters a needless attempt at the Billy Goat’s Curse into a pin…and captures the first fall at 08:59. That was a rare mistake from a veteran like Cabana and leaves him 1-0 down in the match. LETHAL INJECTION! No time wasted by Jay…although he can’t get a submission applied before Colt spills onto the floor. Lethal takes to the skies with the Tope Trilogy before pulling the Chicago-native back inside to apply a Figure 4. And when Colt block that Jay goes right into a Crossface instead. Cabana counters out into a pin, but since they don’t count in this fall Lethal is able to maintain the hold! Cabana actually starts trying to twist Jay’s fingers off to prevent him going to a Sharpshooter. It forces Lethal to use less effective, unfamiliar submission holds on the ground which don’t look likely to evoke a submission. BILLY GOAT’S CURSE! LETHAL TAPS! At Global Wars Colt had Lethal in that hold and could’ve been World Champion as a result were it not for Bullet Club. Tonight he makes his point that he should have the belt, as Jay taps at 15:01 – unable to compete with Colt in a submission match it seems. 

We go into the third and final fall, which is a 30-Minute Iron Man bout. Lethal is now feeling the ill-effects of the Curse, whilst Colt has taken a lot of punishment throughout the match thus far. They shake hands again and prepare for another half hour of combat. The first couple of minutes see them chasing each other around the ring, pelting each other with strikes which do visible damage. To the outside they go next, and well aware that count-outs will contribute to their tally in the Iron Man they each take turns launching each other into the guardrails trying to get a count-out win. Colt ends up whipping Lethal so hard that Jay hurtles into the front row…then he saunters back into the ring hoping to get the first fall. Lethal denies him by sprinting in at the last, before kick-starting a brawl in the aisle. He repeatedly rams Cabana’s back into the rails…and gives him a big suplex on the floor. Lethal thinks about an insane Hail To The King to the floor, but winds up getting saved from his own stupidity by a resurgent Colt. CHICAGO SKYLINE BOMB THROUGH THE TIMEKEEPING TABLE! Todd Sinclair has no choice but to administer a double count-out meaning that both the match AND the fall are tied at 1-1. Cabana is obviously the fresher of the two, limping into a Flying Asshole. He tries it a second time only for Lethal to counter to a schoolboy pin…and he gets three! 2-1 to Lethal at 26:41! Flying Asshole again by Colt, who is all over Lethal looking to even the score as quickly as possible. BILLY GOAT’S CURSE AGAIN! LETHAL MAKES THE ROPES! He sold that hold like total death which made it all the more dramatic when he got the bottom rope. Fifteen minutes remaining and this could not be closer – Cabana is in the ascendancy but Lethal is up on the scoreboard. The once dominant World Champion looks completely done…only to be repeatedly dragged back to his feet and battered with elbows. Desperation superkick nailed…INTO THE LETHAL INJECTION! 

3-1 Lethal at 31:38! Kevin Kelly rightly points out that Lethal worked for almost an hour total in Lockport last week so has to be feeling fatigued. He wearily drags his ass up the ropes…HAIL TO THE KING COUNTERED TO A CRUCIFIX PIN FOR 2! What an incredible counter! Once again terrified of Colt’s pure wrestling ability Lethal (a former Pure Champion himself) dropkicks him to the outside to protect himself. But he gets too aggressive – and MISSES a spear on the floor to collide with the metal rails once again. Incredibly he survives that and comes back to the ring to deliver the rolling back suplexes – further hurting Cabana’s back, plus he physically holds his opponent on the floor in an attempt to run the clock down. FIGURE 4 LEGLOCK! Colt is in serious trouble! He can’t afford to quit because 4-1 would be insurmountable, but with less than seven minutes left he can’t sit in the hold for long either. He escapes with just five minutes left to salvage something. Lethal tries to hold him in the corner to run down the clock again…but when he tries to convert that to a superplex Cabana counters to the CHICAGO SKYLINE! LETHAL KICKS OUT! Colt is in shock but somehow counters the Lethal Injection into the BILLY GOAT’S CURSE! THREE MINUTES LEFT! LETHAL TAPS! 3-2 with a couple of minutes and change to go. Does Cabana have anymore gas in the tank? Lethal kicks him away on another Curse attempt as we enter the final minute! SUPERKICK BY LETHAL! THRUST KICK BY COLT! MOONSAULT BY CABANA! AND ANOTHER! A THIRD MOONSAULT SCORES! BUT JAY KICKS OUT! Colt slumps to his knees in despair and has nothing left as the time limit expires. Lethal wins the Iron Man 3-2 at 45:21 (total).

Rating - ****1/2 - What a great f*cking match. I understand it was long, and it was a REAL slow burner so I get why many won’t have enjoyed this as much. As a general trend wrestling has moved away from longer matches for that exact reason, and they are very much a niche product now. But as a fan of said niche, I really dug this. There were so many little things I admired. Lethal treated Colt as a serious threat from start to finish. Remembering his loss in Dallas he fought desperately throughout the first fall to stay out of the clutches of Colt’s freaky European-style roll-ups, before using his big-match experience to capitalise on a single Cabana error (going for the Curse in a pinfall only match) to take the fall. But despite dominating the second fall, he simply wasn’t as proficient a technical worker as Colt. As soon as Cabana shut down his attempt at the Figure 4 he didn’t have any other ideas…and tapped out to the Billy Goat’s Curse, something which in turn vindicated Colt’s claims that he’d have been World Champion in Chicago (he had the move locked in on Lethal) were it not for Bullet Club. The Iron Man Match was where this really sprang to life. Cabana was the aggressor for the majority – but kept getting picked off. Lethal nabbed two quick falls out of nowhere before paying Cabana the ultimate compliment of going on the defensive and trying to run the clock down. The last ten minutes were incredibly tense as Jay watched the clock and Colt emptied all he had in the gas tank trying to claw his way back. He got (another) submission victory with the Curse, and went nuts in the final minute with the triple moonsault spot…and his knowing, frustrated, disappointed face as Lethal kicked out with just seconds ago was the PERFECT shot to end the match on. He knew he’d given everything but Lethal was the better man. I couldn’t go higher on my rating because the first fifteen minutes were a) very slow and b) a little sparse on relevant content. It was good stuff, but less focused than the final fall. But regardless, this was excellent stuff and well worth digging out if you’re an Honor Club member

On Facebook after the live show ends Cabana congratulates Lethal, but admits that his desire to be ‘a champion’ in ROH remains undiminished. He urges Jay to take the World Title back from Adam Cole, but wants the first opportunity when Jay has the belt back around his waist. Lethal agrees and leaves…

Tape Rating - *** - Despite the lack of big names this was an enjoyable show, which simultaneously demonstrated why I enjoy being a completist, why 2016 has been a better year for random house shows than 2015 or 2014, and also why you can skip shows like this and miss absolutely nothing. Let’s focus on the three big positives – namely the three terrific 4*+ bouts we got on this card. All the talent in New Japan meant there were major opportunities for everyone else. The only act of even remote relevance to the PPV the following week came during the excellent Lucha trios match as The Addiction FINALLY got a clean win over one of their rivals. Jon Gresham and Lio Rush relished the opportunity for a much higher profile match than they usually get and almost stole the show. Then the main event, given HEAPS of time because so many guys are missing, knocked it out of the park. Lethal is having a career-best year in 2016. He was great in 2015, but this year he has been even better. This marathon effort with Cabana here was another example of that. But as a counter-argument, if you do skip this show…what do you actually miss? Nothing really contributed to All Star Extravaganza. Very few of ROH’s biggest stars are in attendance. Whilst Gresh and Lio had a great match, they aren’t involved in any ongoing angles. Casual fans have already seen Lethal win the Cabana feud on television and pay-per-view (with much higher stales) anyway. Hell, they even resorted to outright rehashing angles they’ve already done on previous shows (Martinez/Whitmer/Corino) just to pad this out. As much as I liked some of the matches, it is hard to make a case for a live show which is SO painfully irrelevant and superfluous to the rest of the product. Like I said, if you have it on Honor Club Gresham/Lio and Lethal/Cabana are really, REALLY, good. But if those matches don’t interest you, there’s not much else, meaning I can only give this a moderate recommendation.

3) The Addiction/Kamaitachi vs Motor City Machine Guns/Jay White (****)

2) Lio Rush vs Jonathan Gresham (****)

1) Jay Lethal vs Colt Cabana (****1/2)