McXal's Reviews

I don’t think it is unfair to say that, thus far anyway, this round of TV tapings from the Winter Warriors Tour hasn’t been particularly spectacular. That’s not to criticise, nobody expects ROH to go flat-out at every show, and the first taping of the year is uniquely challenging in that it has to give something of a soft reboot to the product as so much culminates at Final Battle at the end of the previous month. This is the concluding episode from these tapings and it promises to be the strongest. The first round of the Top Prospect Tournament concludes with the much-anticipated ROH debut of CZW standout Lio Rush, and our main event will see the Young Bucks lock horns with Matt Sydal and ACH. Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness are in Concord, NC for the last new content to broadcast before the roster ships off to Japan for NJPW’s Honor Rising weekend.

One would argue that the TPT was entirely set up to ‘find’ (i.e. debut, ROH can’t claim to have ‘discovered’ him) guys like Lio Rush. He is the definition of a ‘top prospect’ – still in his early 20’s, barely more than a year of experience yet with an impressive body of work on the independents already on his resume plus boundless potential. Kincaid is more curious, in that by this point he was well north of ten plus years in the business (so hardly a ‘prospect’), but his unorthodox style, personality and look had started gaining some traction. He wound up getting a permanent deal with WWN/Evolve so obviously has some genuine talent. This could be the best match of the round…

Lio is very short but muscular and electrifyingly quick; something Kincaid struggles with early. He packs a real punch he does make one stick on Rush however, rocking the smaller man sufficiently for him to land a sitout abdominal stretch drop for 2. Rush throws kicks back his way at frenetic speed and succeeds in ejecting him from the ring so he can build up a head of steam for a TOPE ATOMICO! Kincaid slouches back into the ring and waits so he can give Lio a spinebuster into the turnbuckles. He thinks about a Van Terminator, but Rush rolls to the floor. SO KINCAID DIVES ANYWAY TO DELIVER A VAN TERMINATOR BASEBALL SLIDE! DIVING BLOCKBUSTER TO THE FLOOR! Philosopher’s Stomp misses for Jason…RUSH HOUR NAILED! Lio wins at 05:01

Rating - *** - Clearly the best match of the 2016 TPT thus far, albeit somewhat by default as they got way more leeway to do crazy sh*t than anyone else (even Colby/Martinez). Rush is excellent for someone of his age, and it isn’t surprising at all that he’d be on the WWE’s rader in less than a year. Given than Kincaid is in Evolve presumably he too is on WWE’s radar, and he had a great showing here. He does have a different, unique look – but some of those spots he broke out were astonishingly athletic too. Both guys are certainly welcome back based on this.

Prince Nana joins commentary, which is fitting considering that it is his mysterious letters which have been the catalyst for a revival in the fortunes of both Coleman and Ferrara. Both now demonstrate a more aggressive attitude, which they’d initially turned towards each other – but now appear ready to utilise as a tag team instead. With Silas so preoccupied with his feud with Dalton Castle, it might be a good time for Caprice and Will to strike.

Young acts like he always does…but Caprice (and his new attitude) doesn’t take his sh*t so punches his lights out. It’s only an overly keen and aggressive blind tag from Ferrara which halts Coleman’s momentum, and even then Will drops Silas with a German suplex. Ferrara is so pumped up he thinks he can out-punch the Bruiser too; a plan which obviously backfires. BCB looks more slow, lumbering and clumsy than usual for a while but does land a gorgeous Saito suplex for 2. He misses the rotund cannonball spot though, which allows Will to tag Caprice back in. Vertical leap super rana gets 2 on Young before Beer City breaks the pin. Bruiser chases Coleman up the turnbuckles, so Will sneaks in for a POWERBOMB ON BCB! Killer Combo from Young to Ferrara! The Boys appear at ringside to distract Young, allowing Caprice to hit the Sky Splitter for the win at 06:46

Rating - ** - This match had two jobs; firstly push the ‘age of Enlightenment’ stuff with Ferrara and Coleman, then secondly to have The Boys appear and further the Silas/Dalton angle. It successfully spotlighted both of those on-going angles, so mission accomplished. As a match it wasn’t memorable and didn’t get out of second gear. I definitely prefer Silas and Bruiser working brawl-centric tags againt bigger dudes. Working with the likes of Caprice and Will made BCB look painfully slow to watch.

Dalton Castle smirks with The Boys on the stage as Caprice and Will celebrate victory. It’s a clear message to Silas Young…

BJ Whitmer and Adam Page crash the show, and Whitmer grabs a live microphone. He calls out Steve Corino, who promptly arrives on the stage. He vows that one day he and BJ will face each other in a match, but right now it’s not him that wants to take Whitmer out…it’s Page! Adam spins BJ round and punches him in the face as The Decade dissolves before our eyes.

Kevin Kelly announces that after the events of last week a War Machine/ANX Tag Title rematch has been added to the 14th Anniversary Show, this time under No DQ rules. He also announces the return of Kenny Omega to team with the Young Bucks against ACH, Matt Sydal and Kushida.

Is there any need for this match? There already isn’t enough time for the main event, and this show has no need for an enhancement featuring Terrible Tim at all. Briscoe was (at point of taping) on a lengthy undefeated streak, so a win for Hughes would obviously be a career high point.

Tim refuses to shake hands on Brutal Bob’s advice, meaning Briscoe starts the match in something of an agitated state. Hughes gets in absolutely no offence for the first two minutes but seems to be really pissing Mark off. Fisherman Buster/Froggy Bow combo wins it at 03:52

Rating - DUD - It doesn’t matter that they kept it brief and cut Hughes’ entrance, my personal opinion is that this match was completely unnecessary and shouldn’t have been here. After packing in two other undercard matches, plus the Whitmer/Corino/Page segment – there just wasn’t space on this episode for an unnecessary squash match. It didn’t need to be padded, and if time was going to spare I feel like it should’ve gone to the main event (or Kincaid/Lio).

This now becomes a prelude to the 14th Anniversary Show when the Bucks bring in their ‘Elite’ partner Kenny Omega to face their opponents tonight (plus Kushida). Laying down a marker ahead of the pay-per-view will obviously be on the agenda, but a second priority will be Tag Title rankings. Both of these teams will have ambitions of challenging War Machine. Winning main events is a visible way to move closer to making that happen.

Sydal and Matt Jackson get involved in a pretty intense argument (most likely stemming from Sydal and Ricochet’s pursuit of the IWGP Jr. Tag belts in Japan)…and their distraction leads to ACH getting Superkicked by Nick. Stereo tope suicidas by the Jacksons take the fight outside, but Sydal instantly gives chase with a RUNNING MOONSAULT! He holds Matt’s ribs open for a double stomp from ACH…who then eats his second Superkick of the night from Nick. DOUBLE RANA by Sydal! SUPERKICK PARTY by the Bucks! They then Superkick ACH’s imaginary basketball into the crowd! Sydal tagged; landing the Slice/standing moonsault combo for 2. Moonsault off the apron by Nick misses! SUPERKICK ON THE FLOOR BY MATT! ELBOW SUICIDA BY ACH COUNTERED WITH A MID-AIR SUPERKICK PARTY! More Bang For Your Buck countered with a Sydal super rana. SYDAL PRESS MISSES! SUPERKICK NAILED! Flying elevated Swanton combo gets a 2 on Sydal. More Bang For Your Buck blocked…SYDAL PRESS! Sydal wins at 07:47 (shown)

Rating - *** - To put it simply, this needed more time. There was a lot of filler on this episode which could’ve been cut to give it more time but wasn’t for whatever reason, so instead what we got was four talented dudes sprinting to fit in as many spots as they humanly could into less than eight minutes. It was a riot to watch, but lacked any sort of substance. From an ROH perspective I question the sanity of putting Sydal and ACH over the Bucks, who are the biggest stars, have long-term deals so therefore should be at the very centre of everything Ring Of Honor do. But I suspect the New Japan relationship may have had something to do with this decision since Sydal and his NJPW partner Ricochet (who can’t work ROH for Lucha Underground reasons) are currently chasing the Bucks for the Junior Heavyweight Tag belts. Indeed, by the time this aired Sydal and Ricochet had actually beaten them to obtain the aforementioned straps.

Tape Rating - *** - Beginning and ending with two of the strongest matches from the entire taping, and containing the formal ‘Page turn’ angle on Whitmer in the middle, this was a decent episode. The issue was they also tried to pack in 14th Anniversary announcements, a Mark Briscoe squash and a Silas/BCB tag match as well. It was just too much, and lead to the main event getting completely screwed for time. 

5) Punishment Martinez vs Colby Corino (*** - Episode 228)

4) Alex Shelley vs Frankie Kazarian (*** - Episode 229)

3) Lio Rush vs Jason Kincaid (*** - Episode 230)

2) Matt Sydal/ACH vs Young Bucks (*** - Episode 230)

1) reDRagon vs Jay Lethal/Adam Cole (**** - Episode 228)