McXal's Reviews

The ROH crew are in Texas for Supercard Of Honor weekend when this goes out. However, since they have no New Japan involvement and have had next to no promotion either, you could argue that this TV broadcast is as significant as anything that will go down in Texas. Kazuchika Okada makes an appearance, Adam Cole battles Kushida in what promises to be a hell of a match, and our main event sees the reformed Motor City Machine Guns take on The Addiction. That is one stacked 45-minutes of wrestling! Kevin Kelly and Mr Wrestling III are in Las Vegas, NV to call it.

Jay Lethal opens the show with an angry promo, revealing that Truth Martini suffered a ‘broken neck’ at the hands of Donovan Dijak. He says it was Martini’s idea to bring him into the House Of Truth after winning the 2015 Top Prospect Tournament, not his. Now Lethal wants to deal with Dijak ‘his way’…

Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly have been conspicuous by their absence from the first two episodes taped. Both failed to capture the respective singles title they were challenging for at the 14th Anniversary Show, but neither was pinned. It would be a significant statement of intent – for both their ROH and NJPW careers – if they were able to come back together as a team to defeat a team containing the IWGP Heavyweight Champion here tonight.

Fish starts with Gedo and almost taps him out early with the Fish Hook Deluxe. The Rainmaker steps in with O’Reilly next, as the announcers discuss Kyle’s recent ear injury which has required repeated draining and has started to cauliflower up. It doesn’t stop he and Okada moving at great speed, and Kyle coming perilously close to locking in the Arm-ageddon. Gedo breaks it by punching the aforementioned injured ear. The tenured veteran tags in legally and starts to work the ear over in earnest. Okada gets in on the action too – slamming O’Reilly ear-first into Gedo’s boot. O’Reilly tries to throw some strikes…only for Gedo to drop him to his knees with an EAR-VICE! Fish gets a critical tag and suplexes Gedo into the IWGP Heavyweight Champ for 2. Reverse Neckbreaker gets 2 for Okada, before he lands the perfect diving elbow drop. Rainmaker countered to a Samoan drop by Bobby! Gedo knocks Kyle ear-first into the guardrails before he can make a tag though. O’Reilly does manage to dive in to break the pin on the Gedo Clutch. Two Man Smash Machine gets 2, and this time it’s the Rainmaker diving in to make the save. Axe & Smash knocks him out! CHASING THE DRAGON! Fish pins Gedo at 09:20 (shown).

Rating - *** - This is the second episode running that has delivered a really enjoyable opening match. You don’t see too many matches that make an ear the focal point. Okada didn’t feature too much, in what has been a pretty low key weekend for him (although his match with Moose at the PPV was really fun).

The Briscoes deliver a message for War Machine, reminding them that the champs have failed to win every time they’ve met inside the ring. Despite that, Jay and Mark think it is themselves that have something to prove – after three years since they last held the ROH Tag Titles

As he addressed last week, after recent losses to Matt Sydal and Jay Lethal, Adam Cole feels he is currently in a slump. Despite that he remained confident in his abilities and swore to be the man who defeated Jay Lethal for the World Championship. But that was before Matt Taven came to the ring, kicked him out of The Kingdom and called him the ‘weak link’. How has that affected him? Does he have the mental resilience to step back into the ring tonight and deliver victory against one of the most explosive, exciting and gifted junior heavyweights on the planet in Kushida?

Cole, now decked in black trunks and boots, wisely maintains a slow pace in the early-going. He can’t get too technical or mat-based though, because Kushida demonstrates that he is capable of working circles around him in that department! He has Adam scurrying for the ropes in desperation off an attempt at the Fujiwara armbar. It signals his intent to work Cole’s left arm…which the ROH man quickly looks to dismiss by taking the match to the floor. As soon as he re-enters Kushida delivers an armbreaker over the top rope though, before flooring him with a slingshot lariat. Kushida kicks at his opponent’s arm and shoulder but can’t land the Buzzsaw Kick. TOP ROPE SOMERSAULT SENTON TO THE FLOOR! He looks to follow it with the Moonsault…but dives into Cole’s knees before falling victim to the NXT Last Shot. Kushida grabs the arm to block the ROH version of that move, and Adam has to rake the eyes to block the Hoverboard Lock. Florida Key COUNTERED to the Hoverboard Lock, but then countered right back to a small package for 2. ROARING ELBOW! NO SOLD! JUMPING ENZI! NO SOLD! TANAKA PUNCH! Kushida delivers a running punt to the arm, setting up the HOVERBOARD LOCK! Cole tries to counter to the DVD over the knee, so Kushida grabs the arm for a HANGING ARMBAR instead! SUPERKICK ON COLE! TAJIRI ELBOW COUNTERED WITH A COLE SUPERKICK! ARM-SELLING LAST SHOT! Cole wins at 09:10 (shown)

Rating - **** - Wow! This is a clear MOTN thus far for me. I’m gutted they didn’t get to go longer, but the stunning quality they packed into the time they did get more than makes up for it. Kushida is such a dynamic performer and at this point is probably the most reliable of the NJPW talent from an ROH perspective. His back catalogue of great matches in this company is really starting to mount up. He looked superb in defeat here; dominating a former ROH World Champion for long periods with his savage attack on the arm. Sadly he couldn’t force the submission before Adam was able to land his big finish and sneak out of Vegas with his (good) arm raised. What a match!

Between Ring Of Honor and TNA/Impact these four men have so much history together. It was The Addiction who brought Sabin back to ROH (or as they see it, ‘made him relevant’ again) as part of the elaborate KRD plan which delivered Tag Title gold. But the same Red Mask ploy was used to cost them the belts – this time by the returning Alex Shelley. Daniels and Kazarian were hellbent on revenge, but Sabin was always more reticent and never resorted to physical violence on his former friend and partner. This came to a head at the 14th Anniversary when Sabin stopped The Addiction from cheating, costing Daniels a match against Shelley and leading to MCMG formally getting back together. This is their first ROH match in years – will time and injury impair their performance? Are they still at the level a regular team like The Addiction can reach?

The Addiction don’t even make it to thirty seconds before they start double-teaming their former associate Sabin. Shelley is quick to come to his aid, removing both opponents from the ring in a flash. They start rolling back the years with a flurry of classic MCMG double teams, culminating in Alex holding the ropes open for Sabin’s through-the-legs tope suicida. The Addiction are no slouches at combo moves either, and retaliate by crotching Shelley in their corner for a hanging lungblower from Frankie. They halt the Machine Gun momentum with a period of isolation on Shelley, who’s head and neck take the majority of the offence they land on him. Kazarian wants to capitalise with the Tomikaze, only for Alex to counter with a jawbreaker/DDT combo. No tag though, because the Ring General is already in the opposition corner to drag Sabin off the apron. Back inside Alex evades Celebrity Rehab and does get his hot tag to Sabin. But with Shelley still down the numbers count against him and The Addiction are able to hit the Blue Thunder Neckbreaker combo. Celebrity Rehab blocked again, into the ASCS Rush on Daniels! Skull & Bones wins it for the Machine Guns at 10:44 (shown).

Rating - *** - Fingers crossed that this isn’t the only time these two teams meet. They have obvious chemistry, but this one felt hampered by a short time-allowance and blighted by little mis-steps and hiccups which go with the territory when one of the teams haven’t worked together for a while but still try to hit all the intricate, complex and fast-paced sequences they used to be known for. The Machine Guns are/were a great team, and I’m curious to see where they find a spot in the 2016 pro-wrestling landscape, where the likes of the Young Bucks have taken American junior tag matches to a whole new level. This was a fine, but formulaic and pretty unremarkable TV main event. It didn’t help that it came after Cole/Kushida

The Addiction are sore losers, and Daniels is furious at his second loss of the weekend to Alex Shelley. Matt Sydal and Kushida make the save, which is fine since both have been teaming with Shelley recently. But part of me is annoyed by this…since where the f*ck is ACH? He has teamed with all three of Kushida, Shelley and Sydal recently and it makes no sense that he wouldn’t want to be a part of this rescue mission! His allies probably regret him not being out there, as nobody can warn them that the Young Bucks are out to get involved in the brawl as well…

Tape Rating - *** - Every episode coming out of this Vegas TV taping thus far has been really solid. Last week was a strong one because I enjoyed the development of core ROH roster storylines. This week we were treated to a much stronger in-ring product largely featuring the touring guests from New Japan and obviously highlighted by the spectacular Adam Cole vs Kushida match. My biggest criticism here was that Donovan Dijak HAD to be on this show. He just returned from a brief hiatus to participate in a major angle whereby he wrote out arguably the most significant managerial figure in ROH history…but then he vanishes again? We needed to see him crush a jobber, or speak, or Nana speak…whatever route they took, my view is that not putting him on this episode is dropping the ball.