McXal's Reviews

These aren’t formally ‘Ring Of Honor’ canon events, just as the Global Wars/War Of The Worlds tour shows ROH hosts aren’t NJPW shows. Here we have the New Japan office bringing a bunch of ROH talent for a weekend they are dubbing ‘Honor Rising’. There are circa 15 ROH talents making the journey, with both the TV and World Title’s scheduled to be defended against NJPW stars across the weekend. All of New Japan’s biggest names are booked too; Tanahashi, Okada, Omega and Naito appear (and are all hidden in tag matches where they can share the workload), plus it is the final New Japan appearances for the Bullet Club’s Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows. The main event for Night 1 sees ‘Roddy vs The World’ continue when Strong defends the TV Title against Tomohiro Ishii. Beneath that The Elite face reDRagon and Shibata in a match which could steal the show, the Briscoes face Anderson and Gallows in a rematch from ROH a couple of years ago, plus Jay Lethal teams with Naito to face Okada and Yoshi-Hashi. We are in Tokyo, Japan at the famous Korakuen Hall. This is the NJPW World version, with no commentary (no comment on whether that is better than Kevin Kelly or not) option available

We start with clips of Delirious in a New Japan ring the previous summer, cutting a coherent English promo hyping these crossover events. I hate it. I hate that the NJPW relationship and his office position means Delirious has to abandon a gimmick he has protected so brilliantly for an entire career. 

I wonder, out of curiosity, what would have happened had New Japan tried to book Ricochet to team with Sydal here. As is Castle brings his Party Peacock act to Japan, in a rematch of sorts with Jushin Liger (who beat him in the US last year). 

Liger antagonises Dalton immediately, which I love. Presumably he is reminding him of the win he scored in 2015, and Castle is visibly annoyed by it. Usually Dalton’s matches start with lots of posing and stall-tactics, but this time Liger takes him straight down for some stretches that leave him heading to the ropes and taking a powder with the Boys (Japanese lads, not the Tate Twins). Just like last year, Liger again pisses Castle off by hijacking the Boys and posing with them! Taguchi sensibly tags his partner out, but finds his hip attacks blocked by Liger (who is on top form tonight!). Castle sneaks in to hip attack ‘Thunder’ instead, which Taguchi loves! Dalton then picks his partner up and rams him hip-first through Liger’s face for 2. The masked man’s response is to plant Taguchi with a tilta-whirl backbreaker then gesture wildly in Castle’s direction. Dalton CATCHES Sydal going for the Meteora and counters into an overhead suplex, following it with an OUTSIDE-IN EVEREST GERMAN for 2! Meanwhile Liger wipes out Taguchi with a flying crossbody off the apron! Bang-A-Rang countered with a reverse rana…into the SYDAL PRESS! Sydal pins Castle at 08:20

Rating - *** - I thought this was a deceptively fun little opening match. Jushin Liger worked almost the entire match and was fantastically entertaining throughout. I loved the continuation of his rivalry with Castle from last year’s New Japan tour of ROH. They were solid gold every time they were in the ring together. Sydal picks up another big win, and has looked incredibly strong all year thus far. My big takeaway is that ROH need to book Castle/Liger II if they can get the veteran back to America this year

This one is clearly a bit of fun, as it throws together the two lead bookers for both organisations in a singles match. Delirious is an odd guy, who has plenty of Japanese experience from back when he was an active in-ring competitor. But Gedo is pretty strange himself, and similarly has worked in the US many times too. Who has the edge?

Gedo stands and watches Delirious’ customary ring-bell freak-out with a confused look on his face (the ref sells it like a lunatic though), which is mirrored on the faces of many of the fans in attendance too. More than ninety seconds have elapsed before they lock up, and even then it’s only fleeting before Delirious breaks it to insist that Gedo pulled his hair (although amusingly he does then try to pull Gedo’s non-existent hair in revenge). Delirious heels out on the home-promotion, taking cheap-shots and breaking rules to beat Gedo down. Sensibly Gedo dropkicks the legs out from under the Lizard Man and immediately tries to submit him to a Figure 4. The masked man is still on one knee recovering from that when Gedo lands a superkick for 2. Gedo Clutch blocked into the Leaping Lariat for 2. Shadows Over Hell misses, but Gedo can’t capitalise and Delirious drags him into a crucifix pin. That’s enough to give ROH’s booker the win at 07:53

Rating - * - It wasn’t all bad, but a lot of the humour here missed the mark for me. I certainly don’t see why they needed almost as long as the opener to essentially go out and dick about. Both competitors looked like they were having a great time messing around, tossing out some joke spots and keeping it low impact. I’ve no problem with that, it just wasn’t very fun to watch. Delirious working semi-heel for a minute was perhaps the highlight for me...

Kaz was a late replacement for Adam Cole on this tour, with the latter dropping out due to family issues. This is a significant match though, as it pits Frankie against the regular Japanese partner of his current ROH rival Alex Shelley – in fellow Time Splitter Kushida. At this point Kushida is now acknowledged as one of the finest junior workers on the planet, and he has some big matches lined up for his forthcoming tour of ROH. He’ll want to lay down a marker with a win in his home country.

Kushida annoys the Frankie because he is too quick and too skilled for him in the early minutes. Every approach Kaz tries is emphatically countered or negated by the outstanding Japanese athlete…until Frankie goes old-school and opts to start kicking and punching for all he is worth. Next he pokes him in the eyes and plants him on the canvas with a slingshot DDT. He celebrates that with some mid-ring posing which is supposed to be funny but gets met with total, uniform and utter silence from the confused Japanese audience – it comes off as unintentionally hilarious. He recovers quickly to drop Kushida with a hanging lungblower out of the corner for 2 though. A spectacular springboard dropkick brings Kushida back into things, before he scales the ropes for the SOMERSAULT SENTON TO THE FLOOR! Madness, and when Frankie tries to re-enter with another slingshot Kushida lies in wait to lock in the cross armbreaker! He looks for the Tajiri-style handspring elbow, which is a move he has done his whole career meaning Kazarian has it scouted and counters with an ocean cyclone suplex. In turn Kushida blocks trademark Kazarian move the Flux Capacitor with a FLYING HOVERBOARD LOCK! Kick to the arm…into the Hoverboard Lock again! Kazarian taps at 09:45

Rating - *** - I’d read some less than enthusiastic things about this match, but I thought they struck a great tone (for a low key house show). Frankie was made to look a fool by the exceptional Kushida, and his only viable tactic was to make it an American-style, ‘sports-entertainment’-esque fight. The kick/punch/cheat-heavy style which wasn’t necessarily compelling viewing but was completely logical. I loved that they countered each other’s long-time signature spots (I always dig familiarity countering) and the finish was spectacular. 

Bullet Club compete for the first time this evening, albeit the ‘big hitters’ of Anderson, Gallows, Omega or the Bucks are still to come. This is right before Tanga Loa would debut in NJPW to form the Guerrillas Of Destiny team with his family member Tama Tonga. For those that aren’t familiar with NJPW, Hall is the son of Scott Hall and was assigned to the Bullet Club as their official ‘young boy’. Tanahashi (who was competing with a seriously messed up shoulder at this point) and Elgin are now a regular team in Japan, and are preparing to bring their duo stateside for a match against the Briscoes the following week in ROH. Arguably the man with the most to gain here is Moose – someone who is openly petitioning for higher profile matches in Ring Of Honor. A strong tour against big NJPW names would boost those claims.

Moose’s entrance music and chant gets him instantly over with the NJPW fans, and he starts for his team in a clash of the titans with Fale. It’s obvious that Moose has the edge in athleticism and floors BLF with his massive dropkick. Tonga and Honma enter next, really laying in the shots on each other before Honma inevitably goes to the headbutts (which miss). All eight men pile in, with the babyfaces clearing the ring so they can do muscle poses. Yujiro cheapshots Tanahashi from behind and cracks a steel chair across his back and bad shoulder out of sight of the referee…and instantly the bad arm hangs limp at Tana’s side. It gets worse when he rolls back inside the ring and Bad Luck STANDS on it! Takahashi is such a dirty bastard, not content with being the reason Tanahashi’s shoulder is f*cked he now saunters in and rakes his eyes for fun! Elgin has seen enough and steamrolls through Yujiro with a flying tackle! ONE ARM PRESS SLAM ON TONGA! The New Japan fans seriously love Elgin! He gets ambushed by Cody as he tries his stalling suplex spot on Yujiro…so Unbreakable suplexes both of them at once! Yujiro low blows his way free (after clinging to Tiger Hattori for dear life), but his tag to Hall is met with the re-entry of Moose…so clobbers Razor Ramon Jr. with a discus lariat! Hitstick blocked…but Moose is just to big to hit the Razor’s Edge on! Bullet Club join forces to annihilate Moose culminating in a Cody chokeslam for 2. Honma hits a diving headbutt to save his partner from the Razor’s Edge again, as Elgin picks up Tanahashi and press slams him into a PLANCHA TO THE FLOOR! ROPE RUN FLYING CROSSBODY BY MOOSE! HITSTICK! He pins Cody at 11:38

Rating - *** - Again, considering the circumstances (i.e. a low key, minimally valued house show for NJPW) I thought they had a good time with this. Allowing Moose to go over massively helps ROH in their current plan to push him, and sets up his pending clash with Okada next week. Tanahashi and Honma were barely used (as arguably the biggest NJPW names involved), but when they were in I thought Yujiro's (who I’ve always liked nore than most seem to) heel work on Tanahashi’s shoulder was solid. 

Tanahashi, Elgin and Honma all congratulate Moose and encourage him to celebrate his big victory. It’s such a ringing endorsement I’m actually surprised that Moose didn’t get regular New Japan work after this. Perhaps that was the plan before he opted to pursue TNA instead. 

We’ll see six world class wrestlers perform for us in this match. One suspects they won’t get out of the lower gears, but such is the quality they possess you’d still expect this to be a strong match. The Bucks and reDRagon have a lot of history with (and have traded titles with) each other across both promotions, so neither team will want to give an inch in their ongoing rivalry. Teaming with them are top drawer singles stars Shibata and Omega. ‘The Cleaner’ was really about to get red hot in New Japan having just orchestrated the ejection of AJ Styles from the Bullet Club and assumed his place as the new ‘leader’. 

Omega disrespectfully slaps Shibata, igniting a six-way brawl before the bell even rings. Instantly those two brawl off into the crowd as inside the ring reDRagon try to snap the Bucks’ arms with stereo cross armbreakers. Omega back in…but Shibata dives in as well with an armbar to cut him off! STEREO TOPE SUICIDAS by the Bucks! RISE OF THE TERMINATOR by Omega! The Elite isolate Fish whilst both his partners struggle to recover on the floor after those dives. He survives though, and brings O’Reilly in after suplexing one Jackson brother into the other. Two Man Smash Machine gets 2 on Matt! Nick saves his brother from Chasing The Dragon, before we get more of Omega and Shibata beating the sh*t out of each other. Shibata looks for his Sleeper, but the Bucks run in and break it. SUPERKICK PARTY knocks Shibata back…TRIPLE SUPERKICK COMBO knocks him down! TORNADO DDT TO THE FLOOR from Nick to Fish! O’Reilly hits the double dragon screw on both Bucks! Nick then accidentally Superkicks Kenny in the face! DOUBLE REBOUND MCLARIAT by Kyle! V-TRIGGER BY KENNY! ONE-WINGED ANGEL COUNTERED TO A FRONT CHOKE! SLEEPER BY SHIBATA! Matt finally breaks O’Reilly’s hold by spraying a substance in his eyes, out of sight of the official. POP-UP INDYTAKER! DEAD-LIFT F*CKING ONE-WINGED ANGEL! The Elite win at 10:18

Rating - **** - The gap in quality between this and anything else on the card thus far is vast. It wasn’t particularly substantive, but the difference here is that the Young Bucks and reDRagon are so adept at working this sprint/spot-fest style that even ‘toning it down’ they are light years ahead of so many others. Omega and Shibata were the star turns of course, with Kenny looking totally at home with his new, elevated top Bullet Club billing. His composure (and raw strength) to salvage the final spot from disaster was seriously impressive too.

When the Anderson/Gallows team first made their way to ROH the match everyone wanted to see was them against the Briscoes – and now they bring that same match back to Japan for what Anderson and Gallows had publicly confirmed as their final weekend in New Japan. Can Jay and Mark come to their home promotion and spoil their send off? It’s worth pointing out that the Briscoes aren’t exactly ‘ROH property’ at this point either, given that they are two thirds of the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Champions along with Toru Yano (belts they’ll actually be defending tomorrow night). 

Anderson and Gallows jump the Briscoes during their entrance, setting a precedent for what is sure to be an intense and physical match. Within seconds Jay sends Doc flying over the top with a Cactus Clothesline, as on the other side Mark lands his diving blockbuster from the apron to the floor on Machine Gun. The Briscoes isolate Anderson for a couple of minutes, forcing Gallows to intervene by pulling Mark to the apron and delivering a savage punt to the exposed head. Next he drags the younger Briscoe into the crowd and pounds on him with a chair (which presumably the ref doesn’t see as he stays inside the ring administering a count). It leaves Mark obviously wounded and in desperate need of a tag to Jay. With the assistance of some impromptu Reneck Kung Fu the hot tag does come, bringing in a fired up former ROH Champion. But with Mark still struggling to recover Jay succumbs to the numbers game and almost falls to defeat via Anderson’s Swivel Gun Stun. Magic Killer blocked, as is the Gun Stun! Doc saves his partner from the Jay Driller as the counters continue, so Jay steams into Machine Gun with the Rude Awakening instead. Froggy Bow finishes him at 08:23

Rating - ** - Conceptually I understood what they were going for here, and there were a couple of little sequences were it felt like things were going to ignite…but for the most part this felt hugely sanitised, safe and formulaic. There were brief periods where it seemed like we were going to get a real slug-out, but time after time when things looked like they were about to kick off the pace would grind to a halt, a rest-hold would come out and everyone would just stop moving. It wasn’t bad, and it was thoroughly professional…but very obviously the work of a bunch of guys who all plan on working much more important live events than this one in the near future.

Here we have the IWGP Heavyweight Champion and ROH Champion locking horns in tag team competition. Okada has CHAOS stable-mate Yoshi-Hashi partnering up with him, whereas Lethal has recruited the leader of Los Ingobernables to join forces with him. The pairing of the House Of Truth (i.e. Lethal and Truth Martini) with LIJ is hugely entertaining. Naito has BUSHI and EVIL (formerly Takaaki Watanabe) at ringside with him, and his entrance includes antagonising Milano Collection AT (who is on commentary, for what I presume is Japanese TV since it’s not available on NJPW World). Given that Truth Martini and Gedo are also at ringside, there are a lot of combustible personalities surrounding the ring now!

Okada and Lethal start, which feels rather significant. The IWGP Champion controls the pace but finds himself unable to shake the talented top dog from ROH…who goes right to the Lethal Injection and comes perilously close to eating the Rainmaker as punishment. It’s a legitimately high quality couple of minutes which comes to an end all too quickly to make way for Naito and Yoshi. Lethal and the LIJ members at ringside lure Hashi to the floor…where Jay can wipe him out with a tope suicida. Naito and Lethal have an odd, intense dynamic as partners…but find a way to work in unison as they beat Hashi down. Finally the CHAOS member tags out after a Codebreaker on Naito, bringing in Okada to rip into both the heels. Naito bails to avoid the flying elbow drop and returns to drop the champ with a tornado DDT. Lethal heads upstairs for his version of the flying elbow – Hail To The King – but finds Okada in place to block it. Lethal Combination instead for 2! He then accidentally superkicks his own partner, leaving the way clear for Okada to take his head off with the big dropkick. Head Hunter by Hashi, into the Bunker Buster for 2. Martini hands Lethal the Book Of Truth, but he is attacked by Yoshi before he can use it. Evil shoves Yoshi off the top rope, leaving him in position for the Lethal Injection! The ROH Champion pins Hashi at 13:02

Rating - ** - Lethal and Naito were so entertaining as a team that they were more over as babyfaces in the building than Okada. The match itself was largely filler content as you might expect. The valuable commodities (Naito and Okada) were heavily protected by the New Japan office, meaning the whole match had a sizeable ‘B-show’ aura it never quite escaped – but Lethal looked good and genuinely came across as a star, which is vitally important for Ring Of Honor and their champion. 

Martini and Lethal shake hands with Naito, EVIL and BUSHI post-match. Lethal dons an LIJ cap seemingly indicating his allegiance to the group, whilst Naito reads the Book Of Truth (Japanese edition) handed to him by Martini.

This is your main event of the evening, and yet another instalment in the ongoing ‘Roddy vs The World’ series. Mr ROH has proudly defended the Television Championship against challengers of all shapes and sizes from all over the world. From comedy guys like Cheeseburger, to mystery guys like Curry Man, to a death match worker like Masada, to a veteran like Stevie Richards. Many have challenged, none have succeeded. The ‘Stone Pitbull’ Tomohiro Ishii may be has most intimidating challenger to date though. Will Roddy return to the US with the belt, or does the New Japan star throw a major spanner in ROH’s 14th Anniversary plans by taking the title for himself? Todd Sinclair is referee for this one, which wasn’t necessary but is an added expense which adds some authenticity to proceedings (and I fully appreciate it).

Ishii stands stone-faced and unmoved as Roderick prances, bobs and weaves through the opening minute – looking like he is taking this match as seriously as he did with Cheeseburger or Curry Man. The power of the husky challenger’s strikes really rattles Roddy, and when he tries to quicken the pace Ishii continually cuts the ring in half and tackles him to the floor. He can’t live with the punishing style of the Pitbull and actually clambers into the front row just to get some respite. It draws Ishii to the floor – an error which Strong pounces upon with an APRON CRADLE BACKBREAKER! GUARDRAIL BACKBREAKER follows that! In just two moves the defending champion has nullified almost five minutes of Ishii dominance. Strong acts smart and keeps his challenger on the deck whilst working the back with an assortment of submissions. Even when Ishii escapes, Roderick nails him with a big move (like the Olympic Slam) to drop him on his back, on the mat, once again. At last Ishii creates some space and uses it to launch Strong through the air with a powerslam…but is so hurt he takes an eternity to get up of the deck himself to capitalise. BACK DROP DRIVER when he does gets 2. His back is too injured to land the Ishii Driller though. Roddy counters by gourdbustering him straight onto his face, dragging him up then splattering his face again with the Muso. Stronghold blocked by the challenger’s powerful legs…and onto the apron they go! Ishii Driller COUNTERED WITH A BACK SUPLEX FROM THE APRON TO THE FLOOR! Ishii’s back is now f*cked! He fights Death By Roderick though, slowly getting back to his feet where he starts HEADBUTTING Strong’s elbow as he tries to throw strikes at him! SUPERPLEX on Strong gets 2, as does the folding powerbomb. JUMPING KNEE BY STRONG! He’s been using that as a finish recently, and on this occasion it leaves both men flat out on the deck. Roddy is up first; chasing Ishii up the ropes for a superplex…ROLLED INTO DEATH BY RODERICK! SICK KICK! ISHII KICKS OUT! Roddy pulls down the knee pad for an EXPOSED KNEE STRIKE! NO SOLD! LARIATOOOO by Ishii! RUNNING LARIATOOOO! Now it’s Mr ROH’s turn to kick out at the death. REPEATED BARE KNEE STRIKES! KNOCKOUT HEADBUTT BY ISHII! SLIDING LARIAT FOR 2! BRAINBUSTER! NEW CHAMPION! Ishii shocks everyone and becomes ROH TV Champion despite never having appeared in Ring Of Honor at a time of 20:08

Rating - **** - They went big on this match, indeed you’d probably say it was the only match of any real substance on the entire card. They delivered a hell of a main event, with an ultra-physical style and a simple story which emphasised the strengths of both performers. Strong couldn’t cope with Ishii’s toughness and physicality so drew him out and attacked him on the floor. Ishii found his back targeted as so many of Roddy’s opponents have in the past…except that same rugged toughness meant he had the guts to survive the onslaught, before delivering a devastating offensive flurry which Mr ROH simply couldn’t respond to. Initially I was quite negative about this title change. It felt like another instance of Delirious using a quick, easy title change to create a ‘buzz’ around ROH where it may have been lacking (rather than crafting a story to go around it). But having watched 2016 in more detail, I actually love what they did here. It was the perfect climax to the ‘Roddy vs The World’ gimmick, an act of hubris for which Roderick Strong was destined to be punished for. We’d seen him shamelessly self-promote himself for weeks…yet at Final Battle he tapped out (unseen) to Bobby Fish. He promised to beat Curry Man and Cheeseburger in less than five minutes and failed. He got pushed hard on TV by death match workers and ECW old-timers. It was like he wanted to prove himself to be a dominant champion but couldn’t pull it off. This was the perfect way for his ‘big mouth’ to catch up with him. He started this match smirking, joking and dancing around…and got his ass kicked by a tough,wrecking ball of an athlete in his prime. The ROH TV Title situation is now in limbo!

Tape Rating - *** - If you don’t go into this with needlessly high expectations, this is actually a fun watch. It needs to be treated as what it is – a low level New Japan house show, where they’ve spent a little extra cash and leveraged the ROH relationship to put on a weekend slightly different to their regular touring schedule. Some of it really worked. Dalton Castle and Jushin Liger were extremely entertaining in the opening match. Watching Moose get over in Japan was quite the spectacle. The Elite vs Shibata/reDRagon trios tag was a frantic, thrilling little encounter…and it all built to a superb main event which wonderfully paid off a long-running Ring Of Honor storyline. Will Ishii hold the ROH TV Title hostage, or does he now use the belt to leverage extra US paydays? 

3) Hiroshi Tanahashi/Michael Elgin/Tomoaki Honma/Moose vs Bad Luck Fale/Tama Tonga/Yujiro Takahashi/Cody Hall (***)

2) Kenny Omega/Young Bucks vs Katsuyori Shibata/Bobby Fish/Kyle O’Reilly (****)

1) Roderick Strong vs Tomohiro Ishii (****)