McXal's Reviews

Airing the night after the 14th Anniversary Show but taped weeks earlier, obviously there will be no chance for any follow-up to the pay-per-view tonight. Instead we’ll see more action taped during the Winter Warriors Tour, with a huge headline bout of Adam Cole – at the time preparing for the PPV main event – facing Matt Sydal, who has been on a tear of late. Beneath that we’re scheduled to see both semi-finals of the Top Prospect Tournament too. Kevin Kelly and Mr Wrestling III are your commentary team in Nashville, TN.

I’m struggling to remember too many occasions that The Boys have actually stepped into the ring and competed. They are identical twins and an absolute nightmare to review. Elsewhere on the indies they perform as the Tate Twins, Brandon and Brent; supposedly Brent is slightly shorter and lighter. They rejected the ‘Real Man’ tutelage of Silas Young and the Bruiser at Final Battle to return to Planet Peacock with Dalton Castle…and Silas has been imploring them to change their mind ever since (for reasons not entirely explained). Since they have refused, tonight the Last Real Man wants to teach them a violent lesson…

Dalton Castle runs in from the crowd to take some shots at Silas before security drags him away. It pisses Young off so much that he announces he will quit wrestling if The Boys win the match. I think it’s Brent that starts with BCB…but it is literally impossible to tell the difference. No amount of Tate Twin offence seems able to knock the Bruiser off his feet and eventually he nabs one of them on the top rope to deliver an avalanche fallaway slam. When we come back from commercials the poor Boys are still trying to take him down…and he almost snaps one of them in half with a wheelbarrow suplex. The other Boy manages to take Young down with a bulldog, and at last takes BCB down with a flying DDT for 2. TURNBUCKLE DDT by Silas! Bruiser meanwhile is lumbering up to the top rope thinking about the fatty frog splash…but finds it countered with a MID-AIR UPPERCUT by one of the Boys! ASSISTED SOMERSAULT PLANCHA TO THE FLOOR Boy #1! TOP ROPE MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR BY THE OTHER! Silas and Beer City have had enough of the shenanigans and relentlessly pummel both opponents in the corner. BCB’s big fat cannonball gives his team the win at 07:01 (shown).

Rating - ** - This wasn’t without merit. I thought they paced it extremely well, giving The Boys enough offence at just the right moments to keep it entertaining. It probably could’ve been a little shorter, and not being able to tell the Tate Twins apart makes for a really confusing viewing experience which I really struggle to get my head round (I’ve seen them live and had the same issue in person). But this was fresh, different and promoted the Dalton/Silas feud which wasn’t part of the 14th Anniversary Show too.

Dalton Castle sprints past security back to the ring for another brawl with Silas and the Bruiser. The numbers count against him and BCB f*cks him up with an ugly Samoan drop. 

Adam Cole gets interview time (in the same clothes as he taped all his 14YA video package promos in, not that they were shot at the same time or anything) to remind Matt Sydal that last time they met (in 2014) he wasn’t even 100% healthy and managed to defeat him. He doesn’t expect anything different in this week’s main event.

The inclusion of Fury as a ‘Top Prospect’ is something many – including myself- have questioned. As a veteran with approaching twenty years of in-ring experience it seems insane to call him a ‘prospect’, but he has been involved in the training of several note-worthy names and now looks to use the TPT to make his own reputation. He used that experienced to trick his way to victory over the much-fancied Shaheem Ali in the first round. Ortiz is a Tommy Dreamer trainee, and reached the semi-finals by beating Shaheem’s ‘Coast 2 Coast’ tag team partner LSG. As a reminder, he’s a sizeable chap whom dresses like and is compared to Bam Bam Bigelow.

Fury tries to use all his experience again, but finds Ortiz just too big for him to handle. Action shunts him out of the ring with a tackle then sprints at the ropes into an INSANE TOPE ATOMICO! That looked effing psychotic! Ortiz is a big ass dude to land THAT hard on the floor. He then bumps on his head to sell a dropkick to the knee from Brian. He is breathing hard now and visibly running on fumes but his size is sufficient that Fury is just getting mauled. A running back suplex gets 2…but afterwards Ortiz can barely stand whilst catching his breath. Another ‘veteran’ trick comes out from Fury next, as he allows Ortiz to punch him in the face but then ‘accidentally’ low blows him on the way down. The Sky High scores, sending the veteran to the final at 04:04

Rating - ** - Without question these two are my least favourite combatants in this year’s TPT field, which makes the fact that I actually quite enjoyed this one all the more remarkable. In all honesty I don’t think there is a spot for either one of them in ROH…but I can’t deny the story they went for here really worked. Fury was the veteran old-timer, Ortiz was the dangerous, husky up and comer looking to take him down. Action threw everything he had at him…but blew himself up in the process before eventually falling victim to a cunning trick from an old hand. It’s massively obvious that the winner of the tournament this year should be coming from the Rush/Martinez semi-final rather than this one, but for a match I couldn’t have cared less about they did a good job getting me interested.

Kevin Kelly interviews Fury post-match, who vows that it doesn’t matter who he faces in the final as he believes he has the veteran tricks of the trade to beat them.

This is the second TPT semi-final, but being realistic, this should have been the final. I’m sure if Delirious/ROH could go back in time they’d probably have made this the final too. Rush and Martinez were arguably the stand-out performers of the first round. Punishment was involved in a dramatic, emotional sprint with The Decade young boy Colby Corino, whilst Rush emerged victorious in a hell of a match against the unorthodox Jason Kincaid. He is substantially smaller than Martinez here, so one has to wonder exactly what his strategy will be to combat that.

Martinez obviously wants to intimidate Lio, and no sells all the offence thrown in his direction. South Of Heaven attempted early but countered by the rapid Rush…leading to a LOW KI/AMAZING RED KUNG FU FLURRY! Corino references that exact match on commentary too! What a sequence! And still Lio hasn’t landed a meaningful blow on Punishment! He trips him to the floor for a tope suicida…but gets caught by the throat! Chokeslam on the apron countered…TOP ROPE CORKSCREW SENTON TO THE FLOOR! Martinez is down! And has he tries to roll back into the ring Lio keeps him down with a diving elbow drop. Eventually he tries one high-risk move too many though, opening the door for Martinez to deliver an elevated jawbreaker. Kryptonite neckbreaker gets 2, as does a spectacular flying knee strike from the second rope. Rush rolls to the floor to recover…SO MARTINEZ HURDLES THE TURNBUCKLE POST WITH A SUICIDE DIVE! Lio escapes the Apron Bomb to counter into a STRATUSFACTION TO THE FLOOR! Back inside where Martinez easily blocks Rush Hour and tries to decapitate his opponent with a big boot. He sets up for South Of Heaven from the top rope…RUSH COUNTERS IN MID-AIR TO RUSH HOUR! LIO WINS! He pulls off the upset at 06:05

Rating - **** - I would genuinely go so far as to call that one of the best Top Prospect Tournament matches ever. 4* is probably a little generous, but this was given away for free on television and it was completely remarkable. Steve Corino (Mr Wrestling III) was dead-on with his comparisons to the amazing Low Ki vs Amazing Red match from way back in 2002. That match featured cutting edge counter sequences for its time, and the same can be said for this one. This went six minutes, and I’m not sure they actually landed a meaningful move on each other for the first three. It felt like an incredibly athletic fight sequence from a film (meant in the best possible way). The story was bang on as well, with Martinez serving as the perfect base for Lio to work around. Everything they hit made sense, and both emerge with a ton of credit regardless of the winner and loser. This was spectacular…

Kevin Kelly interviews Lio Rush as well…but the poor kid is so out of breath he can barely talk. He tells Brian Fury to prepare to ‘feel the Rush’!

Right now Sydal is really riding a wave of momentum. He’s scored a number of big wins (including against the Young Bucks two weeks ago), had a strong Honor Rising weekend, and is currently one half of the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Champions as well. Can he channel that into singles success, by scoring a victory over the man who (at time of taping) is preparing to challenge for the World Title in a pay-per-view main event?

Sydal approaches the match in his usual smiling, friendly manner…which really seems to piss Cole off for some reason. It means he makes some early mistakes, which a man of Sydal’s experience isn’t going to miss out on. It means he controls the early going, seemingly going after Cole’s legs. Adam gets desperate and finally gets a foothold in the match when he is able to shove Sydal off the top rope head-first to the floor. It’s immediately evident that Matt is rattled and Cole looks to capitalise by attacking the head and neck. But his leg injury is hampering him too, which Sydal capitalises on to deliver the Slice/standing moonsault combo. Cole exits the ring…but catches Matt coming after him with an OCEAN CYCLONE SUPLEX INTO THE APRON! SHINING WIZARD TO THE NECK! Quebrada attempted…but Cole counters with a flying knee to the stomach! NXT Last Shot gets 2! Still slowed by his leg, Cole climbs the ropes lining up the Panama Sunrise…but takes too long about it and eats the leaping frankensteiner from his opponent. Figure 4 Leglock by Cole, which I don’t like given Matt’s focus on his legs throughout this match. It does increase the relevance of Sydal countering it though – as yet more damage is inflicted on Cole’s legs. SUPERKICK by Cole…no sold into a knee strike by Sydal. REPEATED SUPERKICKS TO THE NECK! LAST SHOT COUNTERED TO THE REVERSE RANA! SYDAL PRESS NAILED! Matt wins at 10:47 (shown).

Rating - **** - Another extremely generous 4* rating, but who cares. Considering these go out on broadcast television for free, Rush/Martinez and Sydal/Cole have both been extremely enjoyable and reflective of the sort of athletic, modern and exciting product I always push that Ring Of Honor should be presenting. They didn’t try anything complicated here (and probably didn’t sell the story they did tell to the best of their ability), but there was something comfortable about two skilled performers going back and forth, working a body part and building up the drama based around that. They accomplished a remarkable amount in barely ten minutes.

Tape Rating - *** - The benefit of this airing on the same weekend as the PPV is that any ‘storyline’ content they put out would most likely have been made redundant. Instead, aside from some progression in the Silas/Dalton feud, they concentrated on delivering a wrestling-heavy episode which really delivered. The Lio Rush vs Punishment Martinez TPT semi-final was utterly spectacular; the kind of match the phrase ‘poetry in motion’ was invented for and is absolutely must-see if you’ve not already checked it out. Cole and Sydal didn’t get anywhere near as crazy or elaborate in the main event, but in their own way delivered a high quality standalone match too.