McXal's Reviews

I aim plenty of criticism in the direction of Delirious and Sinclair, but to their credit one thing they have (mostly) done well to this point is protect the integrity of the World Championship. Of course there is the odd frivolous defence here or there, but for the most part – even after more than 250 episodes of their TV show – it still feels like an event when the World Title is defended on TV. Tonight we’ll see Kyle O’Reilly get the one-on-one singles for the belt that he has chased all year. He beat Adam Cole at Supercard Of Honor, he pushed Tetsuya Naito to the limit at Global Wars, and looked at his very best in a technical clinic with Kamaitachi at Best In The World. Is he now primed and ready to win the big one? Once again we are in Concord, NC with Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness.

ROH had promoted giving up the entire hour to the World Title showdown, and sure enough O’Reilly’s entrance music hits as the show opens. After Kyle makes it to the ring, however, Adam Cole merrily struts out onto the stage with a live microphone. Last week he promised that there is no way he’d ever allow O’Reilly to be ROH Champion…and he lives up to his word by having the Young Bucks sneak up behind him then laying him out with a double Superkick. Cole hits the ring and uses a steel chair as a weapon to beat O’Reilly down further…REPEATED CON-CHAIR-TO’S ON O’REILLY’S ARM! Bobby Fish makes a save, but it’s far too late and the SuperKliq are in the crowd before he even gets to the ring. It looks like the World Title match is cancelled…

Backstage after the commercials we see the doctor strapping O’Reilly’s injured arm up and advising him not to compete as he may have a separated shoulder. Even Bobby Fish tells his partner to go to hospital rather than compete tonight…

Nigel McGuinness on commentary puts over his exasperation at Bullet Club’s antics, and advises that he has worked hard during commercials to put some ‘standby matches’ together. Sure enough Brutal Bob and Terrible Tim were lurking around backstage with nothing better to do. Will they feel the wrath of War Machine, who are still pissed off and waiting to get their hands on the Pretty Boy Killers…

Rowe and Hanson have fun beating the tar out of their opponents on the floor before the bell even rings. The match formally begins with Hanson giving Hughes the Bronco Boster, then knocking Bob off the apron with the Spin Kick Of Doom. He loudly calls out Keith Lee and Shane Taylor as they hit Fallout on Terrible Tim, cementing a dominant victory at 00:40

Rating - N/ A - As with Lee and Taylor’s jobber match last week, this was exactly what you need from a squash. The enhancement talent got in no offence at all, and all we come away with is the impression that War Machine are an intimidating, terrifying and motivated force to be reckoned with. The short run-time, ironically, doesn’t do much to help Match Maker Nigel pad out an hour of television left vacant by O’Reilly’s injury however…

Keith Lee and Shane Taylor hit the ring for a hoss brawl. Rowe knocks them both out of the ring, so they start mauling him on the floor. TOP ROPE SOMERSAULT SENTON BY HANSON! 

NEXT WEEK – Our scheduled main event will be the Briscoes against the Young Bucks.

When we return from commercials Nigel’s quest to fill the show continues with more enhancement talent, as Will Ferrara and Cheeseburger step into the ring to do battle. They barely get started before The Cabinet’s music hits and they come to the ring in full gear. They cancel the match because Will and Burger don’t ‘meet the criteria’ for being professional wrestlers. The Cabinet want them to go sit in the crowd with the fans…but Ferrara and Burger bring out their friend Moose, leading to a match.

This is Moose’s last TV taping before leaving the company. He will go out as he came in – pumping his fist, making people chant along to his simple and catchy entrance theme, and stepping up to any fight going. He has teamed with Cheeseburger before, and even faced ANX with him previously. Does he bring enough firepower to give Will and Cheese a fighting chance at shutting The Cabinet down?

As the bell rings Nigel leaves commentary to deal with a ‘situation involving Kyle’ in the locker room. Moose scatters The Cabinet with the ROPE RUN REBOUND CROSSBODY. That softens Titus up so much that even Burger’s springboard knee strike is enough to knock him down. Kenny guillotines Ferrara on the ropes though, before Coleman jumps him from behind to spike him into the ringpost. That leads to he and the All Nights capturing him in the ring for a period of time…until Rhett’s big mouth and over-confidence opens the door for him to tag Moose back. He dropkicks Kenny off the top rope and hits Titus with the Go To Hell Bomb. Botched Rocket Launcher splash by Burger…as King takes Moose out with a corkscrew pescado. Bless-TO on Ferrara. Shotei on Caprice and Rhett! Sh*tty looking/botched standing super rana by Coleman (he didn’t get enough height and barely made contact with Cheeseburger, who sold it with a ludicrously massive flip bump anyway)…and Titus finishes with the Rhett-ribution DDT at 05:42

Rating - * - The match would possibly have been worth of 2*, but there were two hideously ugly botches involving Cheeseburger in there which just looked crap. This is television, and supposedly the primary vehicle for ROH’s product these days, and errors like that aren’t good enough. King, Titus and Caprice do make for an entertaining undercard trio though. I know ‘The Cabinet’ gimmick is a little corny, but I really don’t object to Delirious trying something and giving a few dudes without much direction a change of gimmick and angle to freshen them up.

Kevin Kelly announces that, against doctors orders, Kyle O’Reilly is ready to compete in the main event, and will still get his World Championship opportunity tonight.

Just like Global Wars, Bullet Club have ruined what was a hotly anticipated World Title Match. Kyle O’Reilly has been chasing a one-on-one ROH Title match all year (since Adam Cole ruined his opportunity at All Star Extravaganza last year). Since then he’s scored major wins – including a No Holds Barred war with his rival Adam Cole, which sent the former World Champion into exile…and into the arms of Bullet Club. Cole never forgot about Kyle, and vowed he would never allow him to be World Champion. This evening it seemed like Kyle was finally getting his singles rematch with Jay Lethal…until the Bullet Club struck. Now he competes with a potentially separated shoulder and in no real shape to pose any kind of threat to Lethal. Even if he does pull off a miracle and get into a winning position, who is to say that Bullet Club won’t make their presence felt again before the hour is up?

Jay comes out shaking his head; even he doesn’t think O’Reilly should compete here. Kyle waves away his concern and demands that the bell be rung. Sensibly the challenger tries to use his legs as much as possible. Listening to Nigel, who genuinely did work a couple of World Title Matches with only one arm (and even less by the time he lost to Jerry Lynn), on commentary is pretty emotional. Lethal applies an arm wrench on the bad shoulder, which inflicts such pain that Kyle has to leave the ring. Upon his return he tries a triangle choke, i.e. a hold which will primarily use his legs and good arm. Jay whacks the shoulder again with a jumping enzi and knocks O’Reilly to the floor. Guillotine choke applied…but easily countered to an arm wrench ONTO the shoulder. Amazingly O’Reilly gets back up with kicks and knee strikes…so Jay puts him down again with the Lethal Combination. Crossface applied, once again forcing Kyle to the outside. This time he lands right in the trajectory of Lethal’s tope suicida flurry; each time hammering the wounded arm into the guardrails. The champ wants O’Reilly to give it up too – noticeably hesitating before each dive. ELBOW SUICIDA BY KYLE! And he even returns to the ring with a missile dropkick…a move which seems him land entirely on his shoulder and leaves him screaming in pain. Kelly and McGuinness are on their feet yelling at Todd Sinclair to stop it. Hail To The King COUNTERED TO A TRIANGLE CHOKE! STOMPS ON THE SHOULDER TO BREAK IT! GERMAN SUPLEX DROPS KYLE ON HIS SHOULDER! NO SOLD! JAWBREAKER LARIAT! BRAINBUSTER! That’s all Kyle has left in the tank though, and Lethal is able to put him back into the Crossface. COUNTERED TO THE REGALPLEX that drops Lethal on his head leaving them both down. Lethal has seen enough, dishing out ROLLING shoulderbreakers then imploring Todd to stop it. O’Reilly doesn’t let him though! He refuses to quit and starts elbowing Jay in the head! BICYCLE KICK ON THE ARM! LETHAL INJECTION! It’s finally over! The champion retains again at 13:00 (shown).

Rating - **** - This was a GREAT television main event. The last few minutes of this, with commentators, the referee and even his own opponent begging Kyle to give it up but him continuing to fight on regardless was as dramatic as ROH TV has gotten in a long time. Obviously these two could have a better ‘pure’ wrestling match. We’ve seen that before – hell, we’ve seen them do a 30-minute draw before. This one told a stand-alone story, delivered a great match and furthered the Bullet Club USA takeover stuff as well. I have this down as one of the most memorable ROH on SBG main events of 2016 so far.

Jay Lethal is angry. He’s angry with his opponent, he’s angry with the ref for not stopping it and he’s angry at Bullet Club for ruining another one of his matches. He grabs his belt and leaves…and as he does so the Young Bucks and Adam Cole jump the rails again. LAST SHOT ON KYLE'S BAD SHOULDER! INDY-TAKER ON A STEEL CHAIR! Bobby Fish and Jay Lethal are back…but are too late to stop the massacre. Nigel McGuinness has had enough too. He grabs a mic and announces that Cole is now banned from any further World Title matches…

Tape Rating - **** - I loved this episode. I understand it will be divisive, but I thought the whole hour made for compelling television. It was ambitious, it was something they’ve not done before – and was exactly the kind of angle they should run with if they want to put over this Bullet Club ‘out of control’ plotline. As a standalone, isolated show anyone could drop in, watch this and understand what was happening – but it’s significance to long-term storylines was palpable. Once again the Bullet Club ruin a World Title match. More tellingly, once again Adam Cole thwarts Kyle O’Reilly becoming champion. The undercard matches weren’t great, but even they told a story – with Nigel vanishing and reappearing on commentary, putting over the angle and doing a great job acting like a Match Maker who’s booking had been destroyed by three rogue individuals. Then the main event was a real thriller. Sure if this was a PPV you’d feel a little short changed. When Bullet Club wrecked Lethal/Cabana I did feel a little short-changed in fact. However, I have no problem with them doing this on TV. This is exactly what TV should be for, and in my opinion stands out as one of the better episodes of since the Sinclair show began.