McXal's Reviews

Thus far in January Ring Of Honor has been knocking it out of the park. Admittedly a lot of the Winter Warriors stuff last year (particularly the Dayton and Atlanta shows) was good too, so it isn’t necessarily the precursor for a strong year, but I’ve had a lot of fun reviewing this little run – culminating in the brilliant Philly Street Fight to bring the curtain down on the post-Final Battle tapings. This is the first episode taken from the first tapings of 2016, featuring the beginning of the annual Top Prospect Tournament. Last year the TPT was pretty horrible (although it brought in Dalton Castle and Donovan Dijak – the actual in-ring content wasn’t great), but the field this year is decent. Future WWE stars Lio Rush and Punishment Martinez are joined by future Evolve/WWN star Jason Kincaid, plus the likes of Shaheem Ali and Leon St. Giovanni (both of whom would go on to become signed ROH guys in future). Kevin Kelly and Mr Wrestling III are in Concord, NC.

This is a first round match in the Top Prospect Tournament. Ali has popped up a few times and works dark matches pretty regularly. He is known as the ‘Absolute Athlete’, which is also probably an indication of the style he likes to work. His opponent is a veteran who is looking to make a name for himself this year, rather than as a trainer to the stars – with talents like Donovan Dijak and Sasha Banks reportedly counting him amongst their trainers. He has made a few appearances going back years (and has even challenged for the TV Title) but has never nailed down a full-time spot.

Ali’s mix of size and agility gives him the edge in the early going. The veteran Fury’s only response initially is to keep retreating to the ropes for respite…but he converts that to an offensive strategy when Shaheem gives chase, allowing him to schoolboy him neck-first into the turnbuckles. Fury starts to attack Ali’s neck with moderate success…but doesn’t do enough damage to prevent him firing back with a gutwrench powerbomb for 2. His neck is bothering him now though, so Brian snaps him down again with a diving neckbreaker. He tries a pescado…but is caught by Shaheem for an exploder on the floor! Fury hides behind the official when Ali seems on the cusp of victory, before popping up to attack the neck again with his version of the Sky High. He advances at 05:55

Rating - ** - I almost went to 3* on this, as it was a pretty decent way to get the tournament started. Ali in particular looked good, mixing strikes and displays of athleticism together well and generally looking a lot more comfortable in an ROH ring. I liked the story they told, in the sense that the ageing Fury couldn’t keep up with Shaheem so had to use his veteran instincts to find a way to outsmart him. It worked, but given that the tournament is supposed to find a ‘Top Prospect’, not a ten plus year veteran with his best days behind him, I can’t help but feel like not putting Shaheem over is a missed opportunity. Then again, Dalton Castle went out in the first round last year and things worked out alright for him…

Veda Scott and Cedric Alexander (who gets a big babyface pop in his home state) come to the ring to proclaim Cedric the ‘best in the world’ and demand he gets the opportunity to wrestle the top stars in ROH like Jay Lethal or Adam Cole. His opponent for the night then arrives…it’s Cheeseburger.

Cedric's time in ROH is starting to run out, and even though they are giving him something of an angle with this Veda/lawsuit deal it does feel like he is winding down in the company. At the Philly tapings he suffered a shock loss to Jonathan Gresham, so to now demand that he gets to wrestle main event talent is a big ask. Cheeseburger should have studied the tape of how Gresham beat an over-confident and distracted Alexander…and adopt the same strategy here. Burger is still hot after his appearance in the New Japan Rambo at Wrestle Kingdom 10.

Cheeseburger immediately goes to flash pins looking to make Cedric look foolish. Most of the pinning combinations are completely implausible, but as ever the live crowd loves it. Alexander almost takes his head off with an elbow smash…which Cheese basically no sells to hit a springboard knee. Shotei countered to the Lumbar Check, giving Alexander a much-needed win at 01:40

Rating - N/A - I wanted to give this one a DUD, but I felt like that probably would’ve been weighted by my dislike of Cheeseburger. I really didn’t like Cedric, who is an incredible athlete and insanely under-valued during his ROH tenure (as his post-ROH career in WWE would attest), having to bump and sell for Cheese’s stupid offence. It also really pissed me off when Burger basically no-sold a HUGE strike so he could go back into more of his dumb comedy stuff. I get that fans and wrestlers alike love Cheeseburger so understand I’m in the minority…but I really don’t enjoy him.

Veda orders Cedric to assault Burger after the bell. Jon Gresham runs in to make the save, and challenge Alexander to another match. Veda accepts…

A couple of weeks ago we saw Gresham pull off a huge shock when he beat Cedric. For followers of Gresham’s career it won’t have been as much of a surprise; he is a well-travelled and well-respected technical wrestler. But it was a huge moment for someone who has slogged around the independents in the US and internationally for a long-time waiting for this kind of break. Can he repeat it, or does Alexander get his win back and leave the episode with two consecutive victories?

Gresham wastes no time in getting to grips and grappling with his adversary – with such success that he actually drives Alexander out of the ring. The number of counters he has to maintain Cedric in even a simple hammerlock is sheer poetry to watch. He looks for his signature Octopus Stretch, which prompts Veda to dive into the ring and attack him. That’s a DQ, giving Gresham what is technically his second win over Cedric at 01:40

Rating - N/A - Although it was too short to rate as a match, unlike Cedric/Cheeseburger, I liked this one. I love watching Gresham work and would love to see him get more exposure in Ring Of Honor, so therefore I’m a big fan of this mini-feud…albeit it’s yet another situation where ROH just continually job poor Cedric out. I hope these two get to lock horns in a ‘proper’, full-scale match somewhere down the road.

Inevitably Cedric and Veda beat Gresham down after the match. The entire team of referees actually have to pull Alexander off of his fallen victim as he continues the savage attack.

Up next we were supposed to hear from Nigel McGuinness about his plans for the 14th Anniversary Show main event, but before he can do so the House Of Truth interrupt him. Nigel praises Jay Lethal for his recent victories over AJ Styles and Michael Elgin, then discusses Kyle O’Reilly and Adam Cole as potential challengers for the Anniversary Show. Cole arrives to proclaim his battles with O’Reilly done, his World Title prospects dead, and plans to take the belt from Lethal at the PPV. But McGuinness wasn’t finished…he adds O’Reilly to the mix as well, making it a Triple Threat World Title Match for Vegas. Kyle himself comes out and demands that they preview that main event at these tapings…so Nigel also books Lethal and Cole versus reDRagon for a future episode.

Silas Young gets more interview time to berate The Boys for abandoning him to return to Dalton Castle. Again he urges the Boys to come back and continue their ‘Real Man’ training.

We are set for our scheduled main event, which was supposed to be a rematch of the Survival Of The Fittest finals pitting Michael Elgin against Jay Briscoe. Before they can get started Moose comes out with Stokely Hathaway – to announce that Nigel has made this a triple threat (basically, Nigel books triple threat matches constantly now…)

I believe both Elgin and Briscoe hold victories over Moose, with Elgin’s coming in what was a top contenders match at Final Battle. Stokely just revealed that they want ‘bigger opportunities’ in 2016 and will presumably therefore be disappointed at not being in Nigel’s thinking for the 14th Anniversary main event. What better way to start getting the attention of the Match Maker than to beat two former ROH Champions in the same match? Briscoe and Elgin have a rivalry going  back years, with Jay famously ending Unbreakeable’s ill-fated World Title run in 2014 only for Elgin to get a massive strike back last year by winning Survival Of The Fittest.

Jay Cactus Clotheslines Moose right out of the ring, and they continue to brawl on the floor as Elgin topples out onto both of them with a somersault plancha. He breaks out the delayed vertical suplex on Briscoe, even as Moose takes aim and strikes him repeatedly. Moose does eventually knock Big Mike out of the ring with his immense vertical leap dropkick. When we return from commercials Elgin is back in the fray battling over a superplex in the corner with Briscoe. He settles for sunset flip bombing Moose INTO a superplex on Jay! DEAD-LIFT POWERBOMB from Elgin to Moose gets 2! Briscoe nabs him soon after to deliver the running DVD to kill his momentum. Hitstick on Briscoe! Gamechanger NO SOLD by Elgin! He socks Moose with big lariats…so Moose puts him on his NECK with the Game Breaker instead. Elgin leapfrogs another Hitstick…but then gets pinned with a backslide by Briscoe. 08:04 (shown) was your time.

Rating - ** - This was lacking something, and felt very much like a filler main event which didn’t contain much substance at all. Moose and Elgin have good chemistry as opponents, with some of the best moments here coming between those two. The booking confuses me if I’m honest. I don’t understand why you’d promote the Briscoe/Elgin SOTF rematch then change it, and then I don’t understand why you’d make a big deal about adding Moose to the match, then not have him win. Jay Briscoe gains nothing from the win here (ROH have been vocal about putting he and his brother back in the tag division in 2016), but his victory really damages Elgin and Moose – both of whom needed it more than him. 

Elgin gets the microphone to voice his frustration at another loss to Jay Briscoe. He challenges Jay and his brother to a tag match at the 14th Anniversary…and he’s bringing his NJPW partner Hiroshi Tanahashi with him!

NEXT WEEK – Jay Lethal teams with Adam Cole to face reDRagon, as announced by Nigel McGuinness earlier in this episode.

Tape Rating - ** - Definitely the weakest show of the year so far. The Nigel/Lethal/Cole/O’Reilly segment was an embodiment of this episode on the whole in that it was perfectly functional and delivered all the things it needed to…without actually being much fun or containing much re-watch value. The Top Prospect Tournament is a fixture on ROH television early in the year, but it can be tough to put guys without much exposure in front of live crowds. Fury/Shaheem was actually very decent but the dead-silent crowd didn’t help those guys. For me the highlight of the episode was the Cedric/Veda/Gresham segment…