McXal's Reviews

Night Two of the Global Wars 2017 Tour, or if you prefer, the 'The Elite sold the tickets and can do whatever they want' tour. Tonight they'll use the Freebird Rule with the Six-Man Titles again in the main event - without a single member of the Hung Bucks (who actually won the belts) participating. It will be the Bullet Club if Kenny Omega, Marty Scurll and Cody facing CHAOS  of Will Ospreay, Yoshi-Hashi and Toru Yano. The Young Bucks will be looking to regain their Tag Titles from the Motor City Machine Guns, with The Kingdom also involved. Kenny King continues to live up to his promise to be a fighting champion, participating in an Proving Ground Instant Reward Six Man Mayhem. This loaded line-up also features Silas Young vs Minoru Suzuki, Jay Lethal vs Jay White, War Machine vs Killer Elite Squad and the Women Of Honor division actually make the main show as well! Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana are on commentary in Pittsburgh, PA.

Mark has been going it alone on this tour, after being warned about considering where his loyalties lie by big brother Jay Briscoe in Las Vegas. He gave assurances to Bully Ray that Jay's turn on him at Death Before Dishonor did not reflect his views - but now stands awkwardly adrift with his brother in ROH for the first time in years. Here he opens the show with the dangerous 'Ticking Time Bomb', who is on a two-match singles winning streak including a major victory over former World Champion Christopher Daniels yesterday in Buffalo.

We go right into the action with both men chopping lumps out of each other. Mark blows out his elbow tumbling off the ropes though...and Todd Sinclair has to stop it 01:04

Rating - N/A - Well that's a shame. Last night Mark Briscoe delivered perhaps his best individual in-ring performance in years, and his current storyline growing apart from Jay Briscoe is genuinely interesting (and not an avenue ROH has explored since Gabe's time), and after the Vegas TV tapings he's also #1 contender to the TV Title. It is particularly upsetting to see him suffer an injury when he's as hot as he has been as a singles worker in a while.

BJ Whitmer, part of the production team, sprints out and rushes Mark to the back such is the concern about his injury. Hiromu is awarded the victory, not that he seems particularly happy about it.

Earlier than expected, the Best Friends are out next for their scheduled match with The Addiction. However, Daniels and Kaz come out and refuse to participate. The fans do not deserve to see them wrestle apparently...and they walk out. Luckily there are a couple of other guys dressed to compete. Seizing the opportunity - Rhett Titus and Will Ferrara almost sprint to the ring!

Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta didn't work last night, but were here tonight to complete in a major tag team attraction match against former champions The Addiction. The dynamic, therefore, radically shifts with the introduction of The Dawgs. It goes from a match where Chuck and Trent had everything to gain, to one where they are clear favourites with plenty to lose. Rhett and Will are here to snatch an opportunity and enhance their reputation at the expense of the experience and well-travelled Friends...

The Dawgs try to attack from behind, but Chuckie and Trent are alive to the danger and quickly beat them out of the ring. Titus sends the unwilling Ferrara back into the ring...who is popped up into a dropkick to the face after Taylor misses a moonsault press. Rapid-fire tags see the Best Friends dominate Ferrara - giving them such confidence they actually start taking requests from fans as to which move they should do next. In the end Rhett smacks his partner around the head, which counts as a tag. He shoves his partner over on his way in, before catapulting him straight at Beretta for their first significant offence of the night. He continues to use Will as a weapon which causes his partner to get more and more irritated. Rhett makes nice, pretends to hug it out with him (to make fun of the Best Friends)...but then dumps him on top of Trent with a gourdbuster splash. Ferrara channels his aggression into something useful and hauls Chuckie off the apron before he can be tagged in. All Seeing Eye gets 2 for The Dawgs! Ferrara tries to use a chain as a weapon...only for Cheeseburger to run in and give him a Shotei to stop it! DUDEBUSTER allows Trent to pin Titus at 09:14

Rating - ** - The Dawgs are becoming a guilty pleasure of mine. They won't become the top team in ROH, but they are fun on the undercard. Their squabbling is funny, their dynamic makes sense and is relatable and, in Titus, they have someone experienced enough to know his role and play his part in a competitive tag bout. This match was getting really decent reactions from the crowd and, in truth, neither Chuck nor Trent were having to work very hard to get them. That is testament to how entertaining The Dawgs were.

Cheeseburger sticks around and tries to make friends with Chuck and Trent - and they all hug.

It isn't long before White returns to NJPW, so in many ways the Global Wars Tour is his chance to leave the ROH fans with some great memories. There are no gimmicks or back-stories here, in fact Ian Riccaboni assures us that this is going to be a good, old-fashioned wrestling classic that ROH built a reputation for delivering. Lethal, having lost his feud with Silas Young, is looking to rebuild his way back into championship contention...

If you need an indication as to the intensity that these two are approaching this match with; they lock up so hard that they end up falling out of the ring. Upon their return they go to the mat and counter back and forth with unrelenting intensity. Lethal seems particularly focused on keeping his opponent grounded, perhaps fearing his strength and strike-power. Sure enough, when back to a vertical base White starts hammering the former World Champion with strikes. A dropkick to the knee injury Silas Young previously targeted sees Lethal struggling...but he responds with a springboard dropkick to the apron. Tope suicida COUNTERED with White's precision dropkick though. Lethal is rattled but retaliates with his hiptoss/dropkick sequence. Chops by White, and as Lethal tries to grab him to negate the strikes the Kiwi drops him with a DDT. BACK DROP DRIVER gets 2! MutaLock applied, making a third consecutive offensive move which targets Lethal's head and neck. Indeed, when Lethal grabs the ropes to escape that hold the relentless White simply hangs him in the ropes to deliver an elevated neckbreaker. Stretch Plum blocked...so is a cravat...so is a sleeper...JUMPING neckbreaker scores! The New Zealander will not stop going after the neck it seems. GERMAN SUPLEX DUEL! Lethal Combination scores, leaving both men on the deck. White rolls out to recover...right into the Tope Trilogy! Hail To The King to get Lethal back into the ring too. Smartly White backs into the corner so his opponent can't hit the Lethal Injection. HEAD DROP TURNBUCKLE JUDO SUPLEX! White misses a missile dropkick, soaring into a spinebuster which sets up Lethal's Figure 4 Leglock. Writhing in pain, White fights his urge to tap out and the crowd roar with approval as he grabs the bottom rope so the match can continue. Lethal tries the hold again, only for White to grab his bad neck and haul him into a small package for 2. Lethal Injection COUNTERED WITH A LARIAT! BRAINBUSTER! MMA ELBOWS TO THE NECK! Kiwi Crusher blocked...so he climbs onto Lethal's back with a Sleeper. COUNTERED WITH AN ACE CRUSHER! LETHAL INJECTION! Lethal wins at 20:12

Rating - **** - This was billed as an old-fashioned Ring Of Honor-style match, and that is exactly what they delivered. Twenty minutes, no gimmicks, no stupid booking, just two great workers given plenty of time to express themselves. Unsurprisingly, this got over with the fans - proving that we should be seeing a LOT more of this kind of competition on ROH shows. Jay Lethal is the workhorse of the company now, and on a show marred by an unfortunate injury curtailing one of the marquee matches he, of course, could be relied upon to step up and produce something memorable. Although it was actually White's showing which was particularly strong here. His attack on the neck was precise and surprisingly violent; to the extent that I actually wish Lethal had sold it a little better. Putting it bluntly, White looked ready to go back to Japan on this evidence...

At Death Before Dishonor we saw the Machine Guns defeat the Bucks to become ROH Tag Champions for the first time, but the match was marred by controversy as it featured yet another run-in by The Addiction. Tonight the Bucks look to get their belts back - but the situation is complicated by the presence of The Kingdom. Vinny and TK will be smarting from failing to beat The Elite in Buffalo yesterday to take the Six-Man Titles...so would love to leapfrog them to the Tag belts instead tonight.

Matt and Shelley start, going straight for their finishers but unable to execute. Shelley mocks Matt over the 'Cease & Desist' incident then hops out to let Sabin take the stage with Marseglia. Soon the Bucks crash the party again, unleashing combo moves onto all four opponents to clear the ring. Rise Of The Terminator tope suicidas score as they give chase to the floor. The Kingdom put a stop to the Bucks' momentum with a spinebuster/diving headbutt combo on Matt. Indeed, they spend some time isolating him with targeted offence to his midsection. Side Effect gets 2...and Matt Jackson is starting to noticeably slow down. He takes evasive action, running around the ring luring TK into a punt from the apron by Nick. Hot tag brings Nick in legally...right into a springboard dropkick on Shelley. Double X-Factor on The Kingdom, setting up a double moonsault on the Machine Guns! House Of A Thousand Horses nailed by TK and Vinny, only for Sabin to take them both out with a stepping tornado DDT. Through-the-legs tope by Sabin! Skull & Bones COUNTERED into the Twist Of Fate/Redrum combo for 2. DOUBLE SUPERKICK on Vinny...then TK too! SUPERKICK on Sabin to block a Doomsday Device to the floor! SLICED BREAD #2 OFF THE RINGPOST from Shelley to Nick! Pele Kick by O'Ryan...so he eats the Dream Sequence. Stereo Sharpshooters by the Young Bucks. Vinny stomps on their heads to break the holds however. QUADRUPLE SUPERKICK eliminates O'Ryan! We come down to the Bucks and MCMG once again...SUPERKICK PARTY! ROPE RUN SPRINGBOARD SOMERSAULT PLANCHA BY NICK! More Bang For Your Buck misses...into a hammerlock pin by Sabin! He snatches a pin on Matt Jackson to retain at 15:20

Rating - *** - A step below some of the Young Bucks' best work, but still an exciting tag team triple threat to close the first half. They worked the triple threat formula particularly well and kept up a brisk pace. The rampant popularity of the Bucks themselves didn't actually help for once - because it meant that any time we had The Kingdom and the Machine Guns in the ring together the atmosphere was audibly much flatter. All that said, the last five minutes were really great. The finish, although sudden, was relevant too, since the victim was Matt Jackson (who was targeted at length by The Kingdom) and showcased the smart, veteran ability of someone like Sabin to profit and snatch a victory. 

The Addiction re-emerge after the bell and beatdown the Machine Guns, bringing the Best Friends out of the locker room to finally get their hands on Daniels and Kazarian. Trent and Chuck save the champs...but then put them on notice that they want a title shot.

Bully Ray is out next, basically to do the exact same thing he did last night. The ringside area is smaller so at least it means he can't take a year and a half to get to the ring. He does the same retirement tease, the same ECW nostalgia chat, the same buttering up of the local fans then leaves. At least this spot means he isn't pinning deserving younger talents on every show I suppose...

Ian and Colt make a big deal out of this being on the main show rather than a dark match, which I appreciate. They go rather far in promoting it as the first Women Of Honor match on ROH PPV (it definitely isn't) but this is vastly preferable to dark matches. It's great to see Britt back too. She looked awesome at an event in this same building back in 2016 but for whatever reason hasn't featured regularly. She teams with Sakai and her pseudo-protege Faye Jackson. Purrazzo defeated Sumie in Buffalo yesterday, whilst friendly rivals Mandy and Jenny were opponents yesterday. How well will that trio function as a team? 

Baker is considerably more over than anyone else. Sakai and Purrazzo start together, picking up where they left off yesterday. They fly through a series of near-falls, demonstrating wrestling of real quality. The fans largely ignore it to chant 'we want Britt'...so Sumie heels out on them and hugs Jackson to tag her in instead. Leon hits her with the Panic Attack, which Ian HILARIOUSLY sells as 'something she learned in Stardom'. Faye completely no-sells it and rockets Mandy across the ring with a spear for 2. Britt gets a tag at last, and she wipes out Rose with a Sling Blade. She does the Adam Cole-style running chinlock to haul Jenny back into their corner. Rose drops Sakai with a sidewalk slam to escape and is joined by her friend Mandy for some double team combinations on the Japanese veteran. German suplex by Leon...no sold so Sumie can hit a German of her own. Tags all round, bringing together Purrazzo and Baker for the first time. They BATTER each other with elbows, until Baker lands a fisherman neckbreaker for 2. Knee strike by Deonna which drives Britt into the ropes before the Fujiwara can be applied. KICK DUEL! Deonna's bicycle kicks look much better than Baker's superkicks but I still love the intensity. Missile dropkick from Sakai to Mandy and Jenny. HUGE CROSSBODY (eventually) nailed by Jackson for 2. Saito suplex from Sumie to Leon! Back to Purrazzo and Baker kicking lumps out of each other - which Deonna stops by hitting a brainbuster. Fujiwara Armbar on Faye, forcing her to tap and handing Deonna victory at 09:01

Rating - ** - This was fun. Some women were clearly more capable than others; by that I mean Deonna is extremely good, and a few others were able to keep up with her. Ultimately the right woman won, the closing stretch was exciting and the showdown between Purrazzo and Baker, when it finally came, was really good. I'd like to see more Deonna and Britt at the very core of the Women Of Honor division. But kudos to ROH for finally putting WOH on the main show.

This is a Proving Ground Instant Reward match meaning the victor - if it isn't champion Kenny King - will get an immediate shot at the TV Title. King won the belt from Kushida so the former champ's motivation is obvious, whilst Kenny also recently defeated Woods on TV meaning 'The Goods' will be fired up too. Martinez and Page are guys who have openly chased the TV Title before, and Hangman has recently lost a match (or two) to King. Taven is the odd man out, but is a former TV Champion himself. These Kingdom guys sure are getting lots of title shots for a group claiming to have a 'conspiracy' against them. Just as a thought, why isn't Marty Scurll in this, and Hangman in the main event so at least one of the 'actual' Six-Man Champions is defending the belts?

King and Kushida start, immediately reprising their great Death Before Dishonor match. Martinez doesn't let them enjoy the spotlight for long before emotionlessly tagging Kenny out. Page sneaks up behind and almost beats him to the punch with a roll-out for 2 on Kushida. Drop-sault from Page to Woods and Kushida gets 2. Punisher hurls Kushida into the rails to eradicate him as inside the ring Taven hits a moonsault to stop Josh tapping Page out with an armbar. All six fly in and out of the ring trading kicks, before Page takes it outside with the SSP OFF THE APRON! TOP ROPE SENTON BOMB BY KUSHIDA! Martinez gets 2 with a release falcon arrow back inside the ring as Kushida is still reeling. King tags and dishes out strikes to everyone, before removing Hangman with the spinebuster. Corkscrew pescado misses...so he shoves Page into the crowd! Jumping knee strike from Woods to Punisher on the floor! AIR TAVEN! MARTINEZ CATCHES HIM! Chokeslam by Punisher...only for Kushida to give him the Tanaka Punch! He drops Taven, who wipes Josh out with a dropkick on the way down. Then King lands on everyone with the corkscrew pescado! Page is on a fence in the crowd! SOMERSAULT PLANCHA FROM THE FENCE TO THE FLOOR! Buckshot Lariat gets 2 on Kushida! WOODS GERMAN SUPLEXES PAGE OFF THE APRON ONTO EVERYONE! Handspring heel kick from Kushida knocks The Goods to the floor as well. STEP-UP SOMERSAULT PLANCHA BY MARTINEZ! Woods finds his TKO knee blocked, giving King two attempts at the Royal Flush - neither of which look great. King beats Woods at 11:41

Rating - *** - Well that was a blast. The ugly finish, with Woods seemingly messing up the same move twice, took some of the shine off, but this was an all round fun watch. Everyone contributed, a few guys came up with some really innovative spots and sequences, and I love that the champion actually won one of these 'Instant Reward' matches for once - further putting over King as a dangerous champion. 

These two teams are great rivals and have done battle across multiple promotions and countries. Crucially, the KES are the current IWGP Tag Champions having defeated Hanson and Rowe for the belts in September. How War Machine would love to get a win back and put themselves back into the title picture in New Japan immediately.

No Code Of Honor; the four men come to blows right away. Rowe has to save his partner from an early attempt at the Killer Bomb, before War Machine join forces to hit stereo tope suicidas. The ferocity only increases on the outside - guardrails are broken and big dudes take some big hits on the arena floor. Davey Boy starts ramming a chair into Hanson's midsection...only to eat the Superman Punch from Rowe. POUNCE INTO THE RAILING from Archer to Rowe as he looks for Shotgun Knees! Smith Jr jumps the guardrails and keeps whacking Hanson with chairs as Lance and Rowe take their fight back into the ring. The KES put a beating on Ray whilst his partner struggles back from the crowd to his corner. When he finally returns he lines up Archer and Davey in opposite corners for count-along clotheslines. Bronco Buster on Smith, before Hanson and Archer deck each other with cartwheel lariats. Rowe and DBS get the tags for their team and march in to trade first elbows then exploder suplexes. Judo Knee by Rowe gets 2! Archer tries to make fun of Hanson's corner clothesline sequence only to be downed with Decapitation by War Machine. Inverted DDT on Smith to Rowe, followed by the big Bulldog vertical suplex on Hanson. Bulldog Bomb! Chokeslam by Lance gets 2. Hanson tries a handspring elbow...COUNTERED to the Killer Bomb! Hart Attack on Rowe gets 2! The IWGP Tag Champs try to finish it only for Hanson to return out of nowhere to hit FALLOUT! Rowe pins Archer, giving War Machine a huge victory over the champions at 11:33

Rating - *** - I'd have liked to see them get longer, but they filled out what time they had with an utterly chaotic brawl. Much like their match in Buffalo, some of the exchanges on the floor were outrageously good fun. I felt like they lost a bit of focus in the last couple of minutes and allowed things to get a somewhat sloppy, but they put in plenty of effort and really delivered all you could possibly want from four dudes clubbing the sh*t out of each other for ten minutes.

In Las Vegas it felt like Silas and the Bruiser has finally found their ideal partner to challenge for the Six-Man Titles. Unfortunately the trio failed to defeat the Hung Bucks, leading to ugly scenes after the bell when Suzuki brawled with the Milwaukee lads. Silas has openly expressed his disappointment in Suzuki and blamed him for their loss. Is this the night he scores another big win, or does Minoru shut his loud, moustached mouth?

The two renowned heels spit at each other, smile...then get to work. Bruiser quickly distracts Suzuki so the Last Real Man can jump him. Killer Combo comes out early, putting Minoru down much to the dismay of the crowd. Silas loudly trash talks the dangerous veteran until Suzuki tries to break his arm with a hanging armbar. He rams a chair into Young's ribs...then shoves Todd Sinclair to the floor when he rightly tries to stop him using the chair as a weapon, which somehow isn't a DQ. Suzuki grabs Bruiser's cigar into Silas' face, infuriating BCB then returns to the ring where he tries to tap him out with ground submissions. To his credit Silas counters everything and gets back to his feet to keep hurling abuse, keeping pulling hair and keep belting Minoru across the face. Running punt by Suzuki in response gets 2. BIG chop duel next where despite their chests almost bleeding neither man backs down. Young scores with The Plunge and gets a close near-fall. Davey Boy Smith Jr. comes out to distract the referee, and Todd Sinclair is soon knocked out when Suzuki shoves Silas into him. Bruiser and Davey instantly get into the ring to start fighting...only for Bruiser to miss the cannonball off the apron. Suzuki smacks Silas with a steel chair before hitting the GOTCH PILEDRIVER! He wins at 10:27

Rating - *** - This was billed as one of the big draws of the evening, so it is a shame they couldn't find more than ten minutes for it, and also allowed it to become a standard Suzuki-gun B-show overbooked sh*t-storm. It's also a shame that already, after his big moment at Death Before Dishonor, we are seeing Silas relegated back to his spot as the curmudgeonly midcarder. When this match was its best we saw Silas Young getting in Suzuki's face, hurling abuse, taking his best shots and firing back just as hard. They had chemistry and produced the bones of something special. Sadly they got neither the time nor the opportunity to deliver...

Not one of the defending champions tonight was involved when the Hung Bucks beat Dalton Castle & The Boys to win the belts in Edinburgh. But with the Freebird Rule in effect it means the championship is on the line and we have some extra spice to this latest battle in the ever-changing Bullet Club vs CHAOS war. Ospreay and Marty are great rivals and have delivered some terrific contests every time they are in an ROH ring together. Hashi challenges Kenny Omega for the IWGP US Title in Chicago at the end of the week so will relish the chance to make a statement and inflict some damage before their clash. Cody enters with the biggest target on his back of all; knowing that as World Champion any kind of pin on him could potentially open the door to an extremely dangerous challenger for his title.

Ospreay demands to start with Marty, as Cabana calls out bookers and fans for being totally obsessed with Bullet Club and forgetting everyone else. The Englishmen are ultra-familiar with each other of course and work their way to repeated stalemates. Cody calls out Yano, seemingly because he showed such willingness to kiss the ring last night. Tonight he is less willing, until Rhodes threatens to punch his lights out - so he kisses the ring then tags out to Hashi. Of course, he calls for a prelude to Chicago and summons Omega. Yoshi hits the Head Hunter to drop Kenny then starts throwing Bullet Club members to the floor. Kenny and Cody pause to hug it out...only for Omega to be dropkicked from behind by Hashi. Kenny then distracts Paul Turner so Marty can whack Yoshi with the umbrella. Kotaro Crusher scores, cueing up a period of dominance on Hashi. They work over the back since that's where Scurll hit him with the umbrella - all the while softening him up for his challenge to Omega in 48-hours. Ospreay gets a tag and once again makes a beeline for Marty...before nailing a HANDSPRING PELE to wipe out Cody and Omega. ROPE RUN super armdrag in response by Rhodes. Chickenwing COUNTERED with another Pele by Will! Hashi dodges the V-Trigger. Cheeky Nando's from Ospreay to Omega! Disaster Kick misses...CROSS RHODES on Ospreay! Yano comes in with low blows to Scurll and Cody, and only stops cackling with the delight to start hacking up the turnbuckle pads. He and Marty battle over whether they can introduce the other to either a) the turnbuckle bolt or b) multiple boots...and in the end it is neither since Marty goes for the Finger Snap instead. The Hung Bucks run out to do the 'ten boots' spot again as Ospreay furiously argues with the ref who doesn't see a thing. Yano goes HEEL by smashing Scurll into the exposed turnbuckle...but it quickly turns back around so Marty can return the favour into the ten boots. The Bullet Club then throw an epic temper tantrum when the Hung Bucks are thrown out. SPRINGBOARD SSP TO THE FLOOR BY OSPREAY! In the melee Yano low blows Marty again and nearly pins him! CHICKENWING! Yano taps, Scurll wins...Bullet Club retain at 19:50

Rating - **** - In some ways I actually preferred this to the Buffalo match. There were less high spots and we saw less insanity, but there was also moderately less Bullet Club chicanery too. The 'ten boots' skit was back, and even more annoying than yesterday, but there were also plenty of other segments that I really liked. The on-going interactions between Scurll and Ospreay were all GREAT. Similarly the build to Omega/Hashi in Chicago that we saw here was really strong too. I came away more excited to see their IWGP US Title Match than I was before, which is precisely the point of matches like this. In front of a crowd so emphatically pro-Bullet Club the Yano character really worked too. Playing a cheesy, comedy heel trying to cheat and f*ck over the beloved heroes added a whole new dynamic to his somewhat tired act. The moment where he f*cked over the entire building and countered the 'ten boots' spot was perhaps the highlight of the entire match. It wasn't as spectacular, won't have appealed to the BTE fanbase as strongly and didn't contain enough wrestling to appeal to the purists...so I don't suspect many will like this as much as I did. However, I thought they did a decent job stitching together a lot of moving parts and touching all the bases they needed to.

Tape Rating - *** - This show had fewer matches breach the 4* threshold than Buffalo, but in a strange way felt more fun. I retain a number of frustrations with the booking (I'd have gone in a VERY different direction with the Silas/Suzuki match and I really wish KES/War Machine had gotten more time too) but this felt like a decently paced, strong wrestling event. Lethal and White stole the show with a wrestling clinic in the midcard, the Bullet Club (the stars that delivered the box office) sent the fans home happy in a zany main event and there was plenty of competent and exciting wrestling in the middle. You could frame this show very negatively; even Cabana remarked in the main event that everything has become SO centred around Bullet Club now that its crazy. I agree with that, but it didn't stop this show from being an easy watch. It is extremely rare that I consume and review an entire ROH show in one sitting these days - but I watched this one from start to finish without interruption. 

3) Kenny King vs Josh Woods vs Punishment Martinez vs Adam Page vs Matt Taven vs Kushida (***) 

2) Cody/Kenny Omega/Marty Scurll vs Will Ospreay/Yoshi-Hashi/Toru Yano (****)

1) Jay Lethal vs Jay White (****)