McXal's Reviews

For some reason the ‘Road To Final Battle’ takes place in October, with one more TV taping and five more live events (not including this weekends festivities) between us and Final Battle 2016. Glory By Honor 15 weekend was lacklustre but hopes are high as we reconvene a week later for a Florida double-shot with plenty to look forward to. Tomorrow night features the big World Title showdown between Adam Cole and Silas Young, but hopefully this DVD has some decent content as well. Matches like Adam Page vs Dalton Castle, War Machine vs Tempura Boyz and the four-way featuring Donovan Dijak, Kyle O’Reilly, Jay White and Kamaitachi could all steal the show. The headliners for this show are former WWE/NXT employee Bull James (Dempsey) returning to enter the Proving Ground with Adam Cole, before a ‘wildcard’ trios main event throwing together six of ROH’s best. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are in Ft Lauderdale, FL.

This should feel like a pretty unique Women Of Honor bonus bout, because it features two talents who aren’t usually part of the division’s core roster. Brink was last with us during the Women Of Honor live special in Baltimore, whilst I believe this is a WOH debut for Ellering (daughter of Paul Ellering). 

Corino and Kelly are on commentary and discuss, at length, how unpredictable and erratic Kennadi’s mood and attitude can be. She appears to be boiling over with frustration when Ellering ducks a running crossbody and floors her with a leaping forearm. Brink snaps her arm over the top rope as punishment, following that with an armbar DDT. It means that when Rachael throws another athletic strike attempt Brink is able to easily dump her back to the ground simply by wrenching her bad arm. Ellering delivers a gutwrench suplex although it visibly hurts her arm again. Roaring elbow finds the mark, setting her opponent up for a unique twisting leg drop which gets 2. A spinebuster also gets 2, only for Kennadi to hold on out of the pinfall and counter Ellering into a cross armbreaker. Rachael’s arm gives out on her and Brink capitalises by delivering a German suplex right onto the shoulder. But hot damn does Ellering ever keep fighting! She screams in Brink’s face and engages her in a high octane strike exchange. A TKO almost puts Brink away, only for Kennadi to pull her back out of the corner into an Air Raid Crash. Anaconda Vice forces Ellering to submit at 07:44

Rating - *** - At the lower end of the 3* scale…however, this was competitive with an easily relatable story that showcased the skills and athleticism of both competitors. Neither looked the finished article and some of it was scrappy – but personally I can look past that when I can recognise a fundamentally sound lay-out and two athletes busting their asses to do the best job they can. It has to be said that both of these two looked more talented than some of the ‘core’ performers on the WOH roster.

Rhett Titus is at ringside, but isn’t teaming with Kenny King as usual tonight because he is wrestling TV Champion Bobby Fish in a singles outing later. How ROH reached that booking decision when Rhett is the least-interesting singles wrestler in The Cabinet is anyone’s guess. It leaves the Chairman Of Championships and Minister Of Information to team up and continue the campaign to make wrestling great again at the expense of the new(ish) team of Shaheem Ali and Leon St Giovanni. They impressed individually during the Top Prospect Tournament before forming a team…and now seek the kind of impressive performance which would see them secure a permanent roster spot. They are also looking for some payback after The Cabinet eliminated them (plus Jason Kincaid) from the Six-Man Tag Title Tournament.

Kenny gets on the microphone to complain about being booked against what he perceives as inferior talent. Shaheem and LSG set about making him look foolish, dumping him on his face with a pop-up double cutter. Coleman pokes Ali in the eyes and slaps him about in the corner, with the assistance of King who jumps around distracting the referee. Despite their relative inexperience as a team Caprice and Kenny do an impressive job cutting the ring in half. King, in particular, is having a strong night – and decks Shaheem with a capture suplex to counter an attempted spinning heel kick. St Giovanni gets a tag, tumbling into a lariat on Kenny. He can’t hit the rolling butterfly suplex spot he likes, and is given a spinebuster by King. Standing leap frankensteiner by Coleman (now apparently called the Leap Of Faith) scores on Ali for 2. Mind Trip knocks LSG to the floor…before Caprice scales the ropes for the Sky Splitter. The Cabinet get the win at 07:02

Rating - ** - Perhaps better than you might have expected. I wasn’t surprised that King and Coleman made for an entertaining team, because my personal opinion is that Caprice is a significant upgrade on Rhett Titus as a partner. C2C have been quietly impressive every time they’ve popped up over the summer as well. They don’t stand out in the way that Lio Rush, Punishment Martinez, Keith Lee, Shane Taylor, Jason Kincaid or some of the other ‘new breed’ of talents to…but they are exciting to watch and are clearly working hard to get better and work more fluently as a team. The match itself was basic and formulaic but a lot of the execution was really crisp.

The Addiction are very much still in recovery after Ladder War 6. They failed to win their impromptu Tag Title rematch in Chicago, and actually wound up even worse off when Daniels was injured being put through a table by Bullet Club. Now out of the title picture for the time being, matches like this present Kazarian with a chance to advance his singles career, whilst also potentially scoring a win over a man who could well be one half of the Tag Champions after Final Battle.

Kelly puts over Kazarian’s performance against Jay Lethal at Glory By Honor…which was apparently so good that he forgot which show it was on. He seems intent on another respectful pure wrestling encounter this week but slowly gets suckered into something more intense by Briscoe. Mark doesn’t necessarily want to work the mat and is much happier brawling on the floor. He props Kaz up in a chair and decks him with a running chop. Frankie is glad to return to the ring – and takes Mark down with a lungblower. Briscoe is still recovering from that when Kaz hits a hiptoss neckbreaker, making it clear that the neck and back will be the focal point of his offence just like the Lethal match. Redneck Kung Fu strikes from Mark, soon followed by the urinage for 2. Kazarian hits the neck again with the slingshot Ace Crusher…which for some reason fans go insane for as a nearfall. Have they seen ROH ever before? Flux Capacitor blocked so Mark can hit Froggy Bow for the win at 11:17

Rating - ** - For the second week in a row Frankie has delivered an incredibly solid individual singles performance. Obviously this was relatively low impact, low profile and ‘safe’ as the whole company will be in house show mode tonight…but actually the dynamic here was really interesting. Watching Kazarian try to be humble, hard-working and technically savvy whilst Briscoe continually tried to lure him into brawls and more intense exchanges on the floor was fun to watch play out. I really don’t understand why the Briscoes need to win so often – particularly Mark Briscoe. Frankie Kazarian was part of a six-man crew (eight if you include White and Kamaitachi) who put his body through hell in Ladder War 6. In terms of popularity and respect all the participants are riding the crest of a wave at this point in time. I understand having Jay Lethal go over him whilst setting up Lethal’s World Title rematch…but putting Mark over here felt incredibly damaging. 

The Sho and Yoh that you watch in Roppongi 3K in 2019 are not the same Sho and Yoh that I’ve seen perform as the Tempura Boyz in ROH thus far. Kamaitachi and Jay White have gone in on excursion from New Japan and given a real platform to deliver great matches whilst growing their skillset. Even Takaaki Watanabe/EVIL, who wasn’t great, was treated seriously and improved as the run continued. So far the Tempura Boyz have been nothing more than comedy jobbers. Perhaps tonight will change that – even though they face their biggest challenge yet in the form of man-mountains Ray Rowe and Hanson. War Machine are still waiting for a climactic showdown with the Pretty Boy Killers somewhere down the road…

The Boyz hit double dropkicks at the bell, and Sho leaps right over the top rope with a somersault plancha! TOP ROPE SUICIDA DIVE to the floor by Yohei! That’s as much offence in twenty seconds as they’ve managed for their entire ROH run! War Machine are shocked but survive the early onslaught to throw both the Tempura Boyz head-first into each other. Tanaka does a great job of dodging Rowe’s Shotgun Knees, joining his partner to hit a double suplex. They do a decent job putting the boots to Rowe…until Ray takes Yoh’s head off with the Superman Punch. Hanson goes crazy with corner clotheslines and Sledgehammer strikes – a flurry which both Sho and Yoh are powerless to stop. They eat a double Bronco Buster…and somehow recover to deliver the ROCKET LAUNCHER GERMAN COMBO on Hanson! Rowe destroys Komatsu with a knee strike, as Hanson levels Tanaka with the cartwheel lariat. War Machine and Yoh make a real mess of that pop-up powerslam combo that Hanson and Rowe have started using, which totally derails the finish. Eventually they recover with Sho falling victim to Decapitation, giving Hanson the win at 08:18

Rating - ** - This was the best Tempura Boyz match in ROH so far (which admittedly isn't saying much). It is farcical that they’ve been made to look totally hopeless against everyone else, but War Machine – supposedly the dominant ‘hoss’ team in ROH’s tag team ranks – are the ones who have to bump around and sell for them. It was a better match for it though as the smaller performers pushed hard and worked an intensely junior style in the hope that they would be too fast for their powerhouse opposition. It didn’t work and the finish was a mess, but this was still a better (and more competitive) watch than anything else ROH have done with Sho and Yoh so far…

This battle between two of ROH’s most under-rated and confusingly booked wrestlers could be really good. Hangman has had such a strange year, from the highs of breaking away from The Decade, beating BJ Whitmer in a Street Fight, overcoming Jay Briscoe in a No Holds Barred Match and joining Bullet Club in Dearborn…contrasted to the low of having quit being the whipping boy/fall guy in one heel group (The Decade) then accepting the exact same role in Bullet Club a few weeks later. Dalton is Colt Cabana’s tag partner now, and Cabana is a man who has had issues with Bullet Club for months. Having failed to defeat the Bucks for the Tag Titles during Champions vs All-Stars he knows his championship aspirations depend on his ability to bounce back with more big match victories…

Page is serious and wants to lock up…but finds Dalton more interested in leaving the ring to pet a service dog that has been brought to the guardrails. Hangman goes full heel and tries to attack the dog! I’ve been reviewing ROH since Day One, and this is a first for me. Castle stands between Page and the puppy…but has to sacrifice his own body as Page takes the opportunity to lay in the first significant offence of the contest. The Peacock misses the tiger feint headscissors from the apron, although thankfully he lands on his feet and is able to start throwing Page into the guardrails. Hanging neckbreaker to the apron by Hangman! Given his history of back problems it is unsurprising that Castle doesn’t like that approach and it is a real problem when he can’t shake Page from attacking the neck. Pumphandle suplex from Dalton, who then takes an eternity getting off the canvas so can’t hit the Everest. He settles for catching Hangman jumping out of the corner, hitting him with a belly to belly suplex for 2. Page isn’t on the back foot for long and dumps Castle on his neck again with the Spike DDT. Sensibly Dalton buys time to recover by crawling to the apron and eventually kick-starts a comeback with running knees in the corner. Buckshot Lariat drops him on his neck again for 2. Dalton goes for broke and tries a desperate Everest German off the apron! SUPERKICK by Page to counter, knocking his opponent to the floor into the flightpath of the SHOOTING STAR TORPEDO TO THE FLOOR! NO SOLD! TIGER FEINT RANA! HEAT SEEKING MISSILE NAILED! Both men are knocked senseless by that high octane exchange on the outside. Hangman grabs the ref to escape Bang-A-Rang…and kicks Dalton in the balls as Todd Sinclair gathers himself. RITE OF PASSAGE! That decimates Castle’s neck, giving Page another major victory at 17:13

Rating - **** - Other than canine-based comedy, this started out really slowly…but it turned out to be a cleverly paced and well-sculpted match from two really under-rated workers. Page doesn’t get a lot of props for how good he can be in the ring. The reason for that is because he has been in ROH for years, and totally mis-used for the majority of that time. If, as was the case tonight, he gets time and a capable opponent…his match is always worth watching. His relentless attack on the neck and spine of a man with documented back problems felt bad ass and was suitably intense to regain his credibility after some of the early funny business. From a low key comedy base they gradually dialled up the intensity, culminating in a real explosion of action in the final two minutes. The high spots on the floor had the place rocking, and contributed to a hot finish which both made sense within the context of the match they’d told and also enhanced the credibility of both men. 

The revival of four corner survival matches is something Ring Of Honor has done well this year; there have been some really good ones. This has the potential to enter that category as there is some serious talent in the ranks. Most importantly, they all have interwoven histories. White and Kamaitachi are rivals, and the undefeated New Zealander also has a win over Dijak on his resume. O’Reilly and Kamai have faced off in the past, whilst O’Reilly saw his tag partner Bobby Fish defeat Donovan in defence of the TV Title back at All Star Extravaganza. It also feels like nobody can afford to lose here. White is undefeated, O’Reilly has an ROH Title shot at Final Battle, Prince Nana has vowed that Dijak will stop losing major matches too.

White and Kamaitachi start out looking to continue their rivalry. Kamai rakes the ropes and tips Jay to the floor. White recovers to dropkick him into the guardrails…but turns round into a knock-out boot from Dijak. Apparently this is lucha rules because after that Donovan and Kyle get to be the legal men. O’Reilly uses his kicks to block the Chokeslam Backbreaker and applies an anklelock. Dijak leaves the ring for safety…only to be wiped out by a Jay White tope instead. Kamaitachi is climbing the ropes too. SUPER SENTON TO THE FLOOR! Dijak crawls away from the wreckage and pops onto the apron to deliver an ASAI MOONSAULT TO THE OUTSIDE! Chokeslam Backbreaker almost snaps Kamai in half and gets a 2-count. O’Reilly stops him hitting Feast Your Eyes and goes after the big man’s legs again…so Donovan grounds him with a Death Valley powerbomb. White pushes him to the floor as he thinks about another moonsault then willingly trades strikes with Kyle. Back Drop Driver by O’Reilly! He floats into a triangle choke on Kamaitachi effortlessly, and puts an anklelock on Jay as well when he tries to break it! All three opponents are down…DIJAK BREAKS BOTH HOLDS WITH A SPRINGBOARD MOONSAULT! Feast Your Eyes countered to a guillotine joke. MISSILE DROPKICK by White to break that…and before he can get to his feet Tachi is already in mid-air to mow him down with the Meteora. Kamaitachi follows that with a belly to belly suplex to send Kyle flying into the fallen Dijak in the corner. Running brainbuster from White to Kamai, setting him up for another perfect missile dropkick. Kiwi Crusher blocked, with O’Reilly sneaking into the ring and GERMAN SUPLEXING Jay, who in turn clings on for a fisherman suplex on Kamaitachi too. MARTINI KILLER from Dijak to Kyle! White and O’Reilly try to give Kamaitachi a double superplex but as they do so Dijak grabs them both by the throat. DOUBLE CHOKESLAM SUPERPLEX TOWER OF DOOM! White counters Feast Your Eyes into a rolling cradle just like last week…but this time Dijak kicks out! Tope suicida into the guardrail by White. BRAINBUSTER from O’Reilly to Kamai…rolled through into Arm-ageddon. Kamaitachi taps out giving Kyle the win at 14:16

Rating - *** - By far the most exciting match on the show so far. On a personal level I didn’t think it had the pacing or story-telling element that Page/Dalton did, but I wouldn’t dispute anyone who thought this was MOTN thus far either. To the supreme credit of all involved, one thing this match did very well was to play up the strength of the competitors…before ending with the right person winning and the right person taking the fall. Dijak was an athletic beast, Kamaitachi was a crazy rudo, White looked every inch a dynamic star of the future, and O’Reilly was a machine who bossed the majority of the contest and leaves with a huge victory as he prepares for Final Battle. 

ROH literally just ran this exact match at the TV taping in Lowell, and I’m confused as to how the storyline has in any way progressed sufficiently for it to be booked again (from a kayfabe perspective). Ferrara and Burger were murdered, nobody cared because this whole angle sucked, and now we’re back for the same again!? Burger and Ferrara have been frequently used as whipping boys for Whitmer and Punishment. Maybe the Florida heat will weaken Kevin Sullivan’s disciples sufficiently for Will and Cheese to get the payback they are clearly desperate for.

Why does BJ wrestle in gear stolen from an old guy in his 60’s on a warm weather boating vacation? He looks even more foolish having to sell offence from Cheeseburger in the first minute or so of the match. Martinez gets a turn and brutalises Ferrara. Naturally BJ slides back into the ring again quickly after, once his henchman has done the dirty work for him. Whitmer inevitably lets Ferrara out of his clutches…then is punished by having to sell more of Burger’s offence. Punisher comes in and absorbs the Shotei on behalf of his partner, without feeling a thing. He wants to hit South Of Heaven but BJ stops him because he wants to use the Golden Spike instead. Before he can use it Steve Corino’s music hits. This time it’s just a distraction though. Corino doesn’t appear, but it does mean BJ is distracted for long enough to allow Cheeseburger to roll him up for three. Burger and Will get the win at 06:14

Rating - DUD - Should I just have this rating queued up and ready for every time BJ and Punishment team? What was so wrong about having Corino beat Whitmer clean at Best In The World and end this? Kevin Sullivan didn’t need to be in ROH in 2016. Nobody needed to see more of the Corino/Whitmer feud. Nobody was dissatisfied with their bloody Fight Without Honor, and nobody would have failed to buy it as a logically violent and fitting conclusion to their rivalry. Watching Whitmer’s Sullivan tribute act is torturous, and watching ROH kill Martinez’s momentum in the exact same way they’ve murdered Page’s, Dijak’s, ACH’s, War Machine’s and so many others like them in recent years is SO depressing. 

Obviously Whitmer and Martinez are furious at losing, introducing the Spike and an open chair to the mix. They threaten to NAIL Burger’s Shotei-throwing hand to the chair using the Golden Spike but Will pulls him to safety. Security floods the ring to separate them, then get totally smoked by the irate Whitmer and Punishment.

Originally Caprice Coleman was supposed to be working Fish tonight, but The Cabinet decided to use Freebird logic to change the line-up for reasons which are never quite fully explained. Hangman Page is at ringside scouting Fish as he is scheduled to face him for the TV Title in Baltimore at the TV tapings the following weekend. He pretty much steals the show by calling out how bullsh*t the booking has been in his ROH career…

Fish literally has to fight both members of ANX at the same time, eventually getting King out of the ring with an exploder suplex so the match can actually officially start. Caprice still has a microphone though and continues talking utter trash until Bobby stops working Titus to ram his face into the apron. Inevitably taking his attention off his opponent leads to Rhett getting the opportunity to jump him. Rhett isn’t the most enjoyable wrestler to watch but he creditably retains a focus on Fish’s neck with most of his offence. Bobby survives and hits an exploder into the turnbuckles for 2. Kenny is on hand to trip Fish before he can press home the advantage…and Todd Sinclair has had enough. He ejects King and Coleman from ringside. Inside the ring Titus counters the Falcon Arrow and drops Fish on his neck again with a German suplex. Dawg Splash gets 2 after that. Fish starts driving his leg into the ring apron leaving Titus limping heavily. Falcon Arrow gets Fish the win at 08:27

Rating - * - Tucked away in the depths of this encounter was some legitimately good wrestling. Rhett has never been the most natural, but could never be accused of not working hard. My favourite parts of this match were actually when he and Bobby were able to block out all the bullsh*t around them and knuckle down with Titus working the TV Champ’s neck hard. Unfortunately everything that surrounded them was immensely distracting. The volume of interference in an eight minute match was brutal to sit through. I don’t quite get why this was booked at all in truth. Do ROH not believe in Titus? Why do they still employ him if so? Presumably they think he adds some value of the product therefore…so why not let him prove it and work a solid 12-15 minute match with Fish? I’m not saying that match would be great either…but on a random ass, minimally attended, barely relevant house show why not at least let him try? It can’t have been any worse than this…

This is a Proving Ground Match, meaning if James can beat the ROH World Champion or take him to a time limit draw then he earns a title shot. Bull’s debut during Honor Rumble 2016 wasn’t well-received at the time, however as a concept I have no problem with it. WWE has positioned itself aggressively target the independent scene, growing NXT as a third brand and introducing additional threads like 205 Live, NXT-UK, Mae Young Classic in the coming years…all of which justify an aggressive recruitment policy which hoovers up talent and keeps it away from the likes of ROH. However, WWE can only employ so many people and I don’t mind ROH giving shots to workers who fall out of the NXT system. I do have an issue with sliding them straight into the World Title picture however. James was forgettable in Honor Rumble and certainly didn’t do much to justify a potential title shot. And in a non-kayfabe sense I’m certain no fans will have bought a ticket because Bull James is working the semi-main event. If ROH are that desperate to book this why not at least explain it as Nigel McGuinness punishing Bullet Club and the World Champion by making him face a massive bruiser with something to prove 24 hours before he defends the World Title against Silas Young? This is the start of a hectic winter schedule for Cole – who has defences against Silas, Jay Lethal and Kyle O’Reilly all in the diary. He really doesn’t need his calendar further cluttered with another defence against big Bull…

As an aside, you can already see the infamous ‘lump’ on the side of Adam Cole’s forehead prominently. He sustained it in an exchange with Dalton during Champions vs All-Stars last week in Dearborn. Bull, who was only of moderately large size in WWE terms, is absolutely massive compared to Cole. It means he easily dominates early on and smiles as the champ gets increasingly annoyed. Four minutes in and Cole hasn’t laid a glove on James whatsoever. The champion’s only choice seems to be running to the floor in full retreat…literally trying to tire the big man out by forcing him to run laps of the ring! James quickly tires and makes a mistake; running at Cole and allowing him to back drop him over the ropes. Bull’s leg snares nastily in the ropes giving him an immediate, painful injury. Quickly Adam introduces the bad wheel to the ringpost…and James now struggles to get his considerable mass up to a vertical base. Bull does that annoying thing when he sells the injury really hard…unless he needs it to hit a move, in which case it’s just fine – and that is really off-putting from this point on. He acts like a total goofball by attempting a horrible-looking top rope double stomp, then pops up rolling off the canvas as if that doesn’t hurt his leg one iota. Pedigree (without leg selling) gets 2 as well. It knocks Cole loopy, causing him to try a near-impossible Florida Key. He is able to muscle James up for a DVD instead though. A Superkick to the knee sets up the Figure 4 Leglock…but only briefly. The champ repeatedly low blows Bull out of sight of the ref having presumably been inspired by Hangman Page’s win over Dalton Castle earlier in the show. Panama Sunrise countered into a butt splash! Punishment Martinez and BJ Whitmer are here for no f*cking reason at all – distracting James before Cole gives him the bare knee Shining Wizard to win at 14:40

Rating - DUD - F*ck this match. I defended the set-up of it because I can see merit in ROH road-testing talent that the NXT system spits out (if only because WWE hires so many guys now that some of them must be good). But this was absolutely terrible. James is a sh*tty worker, who brought no emotion to proceedings at all, executed every move like a sack of crap and sold the leg like total garbage. Watching a decent worker like Adam Cole bust his ass to carry this big lump to something watchable, in front of a building full of people who clearly didn’t give a stuff (this is the f*cking World Champion’s match and he is wrestling in total silence…) was very depressing. And all that came before the atrocious, appalling, indefensible finish. Can somebody PLEASE answer why Adam Cole couldn’t even go over Bull James clean? Does Bull’s useless ass really need protecting? Is Delirious such a bad booker he couldn’t possibly fathom a world where heel Cole goes over clean? Was he of the opinion that Punishment Martinez and BJ Whitmer are not content with ruining their own segments, they need to be brought out to wreck other matches too? It was the sh*t sandwich on top of what was already a horrible part of the show. I’m not saying this to try to be cool, or edgy, or to try to fit in with the internet fans who wanted to hate on Bull no matter what. To repeat for again, I agree with the strategy of getting guys fresh out of the NXT system to see what they have to offer, so can understand why Bull got a shot. But I call it as I see and this match was the pits. He doesn’t belong anywhere near an ROH ring, even a modern day one where Kevin Sullivan gets booked or Beer City Bruiser and Cheeseburger are regulars…

Punishment Martinez was perhaps as offended by Bull James’ terrible performance as I was, so hops into the ring and puts the boots to him. Kevin Kelly explains that they ‘got into it earlier today as well’. Here’s a novel idea ROH…WHY NOT F*CKING SHOW IT THEN?! At least that would provide some context or your sh*tty finishes. BJ Dad’s Vacation Pants rambles on…until he is interrupted by Mr Wrestling III, in Midnight Rider cosplay. Since it’s Mr Wrestling III and ‘not Corino’, he has no problem refusing the Golden Spike and beating BJ up. 

This is a ‘wildcard’ six-man tag, with the winning team getting either $20,000 (if you believe Bobby Cruise’s ring announcement) or $30,000 (if you believe Kevin Kelly’s commentary). That all sounds pretty corny, but ROH runs these thrown together, forgettable house show trios main events a lot. I actually don’t mind them doing something a little different to at least give me a kayfabe reason to care about it. It throws up some intriguing combinations of talent too. Lethal and Silas don’t like each other after the events of the most recent Lockport show, Shelley and Daniels have been feuding all year, Briscoe and Lethal go back even further than that. And if you really want to go back a long way Colt Cabana and the Second City Saints were feuding with Alex Shelley’s Generation Next way back in 2005, whilst Briscoe and Daniels were falling out all the way back in 2002 when ROH first opened it’s doors and The Prophecy recruited his (then under-age) brother Mark. Which team will be able to cooperate best and leave with a bumper payday?

Daniels refuses to start with Shelley, sending Briscoe in on his behalf to re-ignite the years-old Briscoes vs MCMG rivalry. Jay sends Shelley packing, then out-toughs Silas to leave him on the ground too. Jay trying to get Cabana to do the Briscoe football tackle spot, only for Colt to look at him in total confusion, is among the best things on the show. Fallen Angel is happier to lock up with Lethal – a decision he regrets when Lethal gives him a tope suicida. That sparks a wild brawl on the floor as officials lose all control. Briscoe belts Lethal in the head with a trash can, fans throw drinks and Kevin Kelly on commentary causing him to nearly cry – it’s joyous to watch! Cabana and Lethal brawl onto the stage, Shelley opens one of Daniels’ Ladder War wounds with the same trash can as earlier…then Lethal hits a SOMERSAULT PLANCHA OFF THE STAGE! He and Silas form an unlikely team, joining forces to wear the bleeding Daniels down. The Ring General entered the match as the weakest link due to the damage he suffered at All Star Extravaganza, and so it has proven as he now endures a prolonged beatdown from the opposition trio. He finally tags out after blocking Shellshock and drags Alex back into his corner for Briscoe to put the boot in. It’s now the turn of the other Ladder War survivor to take his licks. There is a really cool little moment in the next segment where Cabana lunges into the Superman pin on Shelley…and immediately Lethal is ducking through the ropes, recognising the hold as something that has beaten him before in 2016. Daniels in particular targets Shelley’s neck, just as he and Kazarian have done to Chris Sabin before. BME misses…and Shelley converts to the turnbuckle Shellshock. Tags all round…and Colt strikes quickest to deliver the Flying Asshole. Lethal Combination on Cabana! Daniels then shoves him off the top as he sets up Hail To The King. Ace Crusher from Silas to Briscoe. Tandem superkicks by Briscoe and Lethal! Lethal then grabs Shelley and flips him into Sliced Bread #2 on Colt. Silas and Cabana brawl in the corner, leaving Young vulnerable to Chicago Skyline. ANGEL’S WINGS from Daniels to Silas gets 2! LETHAL INJECTION on Daniels! Lethal has it won, but his own partner Silas Young shoves him out of the ring. Young hits Misery and grabs the win for himself at 21:21

Rating - *** - Another in the vast pantheon of medciore ROH random house show trios main events. Elements of this were good – like the wild brawl on the floor, or the great wrestling sensibility of the two guys who came in beaten to sh*t by Ladder War (Daniels and Shelley) being the weak-links targeted by their opposition. The problem, as with a lot of these matches, is that it didn’t go anywhere. There was a meandering opening portion, a hot crowd brawl, a couple of mildly interesting heat segments, then a flat and inconsequential exchange of spots. The absence of drama was palpable. Daniels was a bloody mess at the halfway stage and took the fall. Why not create some tension and structure the second half of the match around him heroically surviving heaps of abuse? As I said during my introduction, so many of these guys have long histories with each other. Why on earth did it feel like this was the first time they’d ever wrestled? As a match it was fine, but it was also the kind of lazy, half-hearted main event which is fine for the casual viewer, but has driven away the majority of the hardcore, long-term fan base that the company was built upon for years. 

Tape Rating - * - This was my least favourite show of the year thus far, and possibly one of my least favourite Ring Of Honor shows that I’ve ever seen. Between this and Glory By Honor weekend ROH is in a real slump following the highs of All Star Extravaganza. The second half of this show was SO bad; featuring the Cole/Bull disaster, Midnight Mr Wrestling III for some reason, a boring Fish/Titus match, Whitmer and Punishment squashing jobbers AGAIN and a bland main event which threatened to get interesting…but then failed multiple times. There are some redeeming features – Page/Castle was an enjoyable match and the Dijak/White/Kamaitachi/O’Reilly four-way was very exciting – but this was a slog to sit through. Kevin Kelly sulking at drunk fans to move away from his desk and stop throwing beer at him (which he thought would be edited out of the broadcast, but was left in because ROH gives no sh*ts about production of these low-end house shows) was a genuine highlight of the evening. It isn’t even about the show being ‘bad’. It was just so mediocre, lacking in any kind of care, attention to detail or passion. It was the sort of event a faceless, money-hungry corporate wrestling company puts on when it wants gate money but takes no time (or makes no effort) to understand what fans actually want… 

3) Jay Lethal/Silas Young/Alex Shelley vs Jay Briscoe/Colt Cabana/Christopher Daniels (***)

2) Kyle O’Reilly vs Kamaitachi vs Jay White vs Donovan Dijak (***)

1) Adam Page vs Dalton Castle (****)