McXal's Reviews

Here we are at the go-home episode for another Ring Of Honor pay-per-view. The Bullet Club and an ROH Team will go to war in our main event, and all eyes will be on Ring Of Honor’s Jay Lethal and Jay Briscoe as they prepare for the ‘one year in the making’ World Title rematch at Best In The World 2016. Beneath that we’ll see New Japan’s Tomohiro Ishii and Gedo in action, but for once the focus will most certainly be on all the Ring Of Honor talent and their creative direction going into a major PPV event. For the last time, Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness welcome us to Toronto, ONT.

The Party Peacock is the current #1 contender to the Television Championship, and gets his shot against Bobby Fish at the Best In The World pay-per-view (for which this is now the lead-in episode). He warms up for that with an encounter with veteran New Japan junior Gedo. Given his stature within the NJPW office, it would serve Castle’s interests well to deliver an impressive showing here.

Gedo looks confused by Dalton’s pre-match routine, and even more flummoxed by his posing once the match begins. It leads to Castle hitting an impressive dead-lift T-bone suplex which leads to Gedo leaving the ring. He is villainous of course, so decides to attack The Boys...then punts Dalton in the groin for trying to come help them. Dalton pull him back into the ring for another amateur-style throw. Gedo blocks the Bang-A-Rang and superkicks Castle right in the face for 2. The Boys take action to poke Gedo in the eyes, leading to Dalton hitting Bang-A-Rang for the win at 04:29 (shown).

Rating - * - Can someone explain to me why the hell ROH’s top contender for one of their singles titles just needed outside interference to beat f*cking Gedo? The relationship with New Japan has no doubt sold a lot of seats, delivered some decent PPV buys for Global Wars and shifted plenty of merch. But creatively it has significantly derailed ROH’s great start to 2016, and the ONLY reason why Gedo wouldn’t put Dalton over clean is that NJPW will always protect it’s own interests (even lowly – as an in ring worker anyway – Gedo) over ROH’s needs. Not finding a way to get two big, bold, brash characters (Bobby Fish and Dalton Castle) onto TV together even once to promote their PPV match is a real disappointment too…

ONE YEAR AGO – The concluding moments of Lethal/Briscoe in the spectacular Title vs Title main event at Best In The World 2015 are shown…as is the interaction between Briscoe and Lethal in San Antonio on the Conquest Tour a few weeks ago. 

Given that neither of these two are working Best In The World shouldn’t this one have been taped for an earlier episode rather than the go-home show? Ferrara has been decent thus far in 2016. Not a can’t miss prospect or anything like that, but all year he has been deceptively watchable so deserves a chance to work one of the big NJPW names on a filler TV bout. Ishii lost the TV Title to Bobby Fish at Global Wars, but recovered strongly to mow through Moose in an absolute slug-fest in Dearborn.

Ferrara’s strikes barely trouble Ishii initially…but after pummelling him for almost a minute he actually does get the Stone Pitbull off his feet. Ishii is back pretty quickly, disrespectfully kicking at Will who is so fired up he actually manages to knock him off his feet with a clothesline. He struggles getting the big, stocky Japanese athlete up for slams though. Ishii decks him with a lariat and starts to look seriously pissed off. He finishes it with a brainbuster at 04:07 (shown).

Rating - ** - There was some entertainment value to be had in Ferrara buzzing round Ishii like an irritating bug before the Japanese juggernaut finally snapped and clobbered him into the dirt. It was short and meaningless, and a bit of a waste of Ishii…but it’s hard to deny that we got another creditable performance from Will Ferrara somewhere in the midst of this.

Steve Corino comes to the ring next, giving his thoughts ahead of his Fight Without Honor against BJ Whitmer. He talks about his history in the business, dropping names like Terry Funk, Dusty Rhodes and Kevin Steen. He wants to make BJ pay for ‘crossing the line’ and bringing his family into things. He admits that he will be taking a ‘mask’ off when he fights at Best In The World…but it won’t be the Mr Wrestling III mask Whitmer thinks, but the mask of nice guy, ‘corporate’ Corino so that once again he can become the EVIL person he’s spent years suppressing. GREAT promo!

Nick Jackson had been announced as part of this match, but is injured and replaced by Omega (who comes out wearing one of the Young Bucks’ crazy jackets to fit in). Lethal has taken multiple beatings at the hands of Bullet Club this week, ever since Adam Cole appeared and wrecked the Global Wars main event. In Dearborn he and the Briscoes took more licks…so they have now recruited ‘Mr ROH’ to their squad in opposing them. The problem here is that the four members of Team ROH will be facing each other at Best In The World. Can those four coexist? Can the Bullet Club send a message to Jay Lethal on behalf of Adam Cole – who wants in on the title picture himself?

Mark and Matt start, having some fun with their big, goofy personalities. Mark gets the upper hand and feeds Jackson to his BITW opponent Strong. Omega tags in to help out his Elite buddy…and is surprised to find ROH Champion Jay Lethal stepping in to oppose him. He has no desire to face Lethal so turns around and tags Loa in. Only once the big man has taken some shots does The Cleaner show an interest…but Lethal swoops to nail him with the cartwheel dropkick spot anyway. The Briscoes team up to work Omega over, causing the rest of Bullet Club to rush the ring and come to his aid. As bodies spill outside Lethal starts hitting the ropes, delivering two thirds of the Tope Trifecta before Omega dumps him into the barricade. Strong is poised to stop Kenny landing the Rise Of The Terminator as well though. Omega hits him with the Kotaro Crusher and gets a tag to Jackson who unleashes a SUPERKICK FLURRY! Roddy eventually counters a Superkick into the Muso however. Mark tags in with Tonga and can’t put a glove on him as Tama slithers around into a dropkick for 2. Lethal and Omega tag again and this time come to blows in front of an enthusiastic crowd. V-TRIGGER! NO SOLD! Lethal Injection blocked…only for Matt Jackson to attempt a rescue mission and accidentally Superkick his own buddy. Lethal Injection blocked…One Winged Angel blocked! Lethal Combination COUNTERED TO DRAGON RUSH! Mark hits the urinage on Jackson…as Strong levels Tonga with the Sick Kick! SUPERKICK PARTY KO’S LETHAL! JAY DRILLER ON LOA! Huge win for Jay Briscoe at 10:38…but only after Lethal had to sacrifice himself.

Rating - *** - I’ve complained about New Japan guys going over ROH talents all tour, and quite perversely I’m now going to complain about NJPW guys NOT winning. I know Sinclair LOVE the Briscoes and have been incredibly protective of them for a prolonged period. But Jay Briscoe did NOT need the win here. Having kyboshed a pay-per-view main event to get this Bullet Club takeover gimmick going, they should not have been jobbed out on a TV main event against four guys with more reasons to fail as a team than they have reasons to work together. The match itself was entertaining enough. I thought they did a good job of teasing the ‘dream matches’ of Lethal/Omega and Briscoes/GOD...and the last couple of minutes were exciting, but it was still a big step down from some of the better multi-man tags ROH have run in 2016 though.

Roddy refuses to join in the Team ROH celebrations and disrespects Mark Briscoe on his way out. Lethal and Jay Briscoe bicker and face-off as the show ends, setting the stage for Best In The World 2016.

Tape Rating - ** - I thought this was weak go-home episode for a number of reasons. Castle needing outside interference to beat Gedo got things off to an infuriating start, and I strongly disagreed with who went over in the main event as well. Between those two frustrations we got a terrific Steve Corino live promo, and a forgettable Ishii/Ferrara match. Very obviously this was the least enjoyable episode of the taping. They tried to fit too much in and cover too much ground…it didn’t really work.

5) Jay Lethal/Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe/Roderick Strong vs Kenny Omega/Matt Jackson/Guerrillas Of Destiny (*** - Episode 248)

4) Kenny Omega/Young Bucks vs Hiroshi Tanahashi/Michael Elgin/Yoshi Tatsu (*** - Episode 245)

3) Kazuchika Okada vs Matt Sydal (*** - Episode 246)

2) Jay Lethal vs Donovan Dijak (**** - Episode 246)

1) Kyle O’Reilly vs Kushida (**** - Episode 247)