McXal's Reviews

Last week I thought the Field Of Honor Road Rage episode was perfectly judged. None of the matches they gave away were main events of the VOD, they were all punchy and impactful TV-length affairs, and it presented a dynamic look at the ROH live event circuit for the casual viewer. That said, I don’t think there was much call for a second week of Road Rage content from this show. This episode gives the two big draws for the event (O’Reilly/Shibata and Cole/Lethal/Naito/Tanahashi) being given away for free, effectively making a VOD or DVD purchase redundant. Could they not have taped another Women Of Honor Special to fill this show? Back to Brooklyn, NY we go – joining Kevin Kelly, Bobby Fish and Steve Corino at ringside

When it was announced that Shibata was coming to ROH, this was probably the match fans wanted to see the most. He debuted with an impressive victory over Silas Young at Death Before Dishonor, but followed that up with a TV Title loss to Bobby Fish at the subsequent television taping, so won’t want to end his US tour with back-to-back losses over reDRagon members. O’Reilly made his return from injury at Death Before Dishonor to wreck Adam Cole’s title-winning celebrations. Cole still vows that Kyle will never become ROH Champion on his watch, so Kyle knows he needs high profile victories over competitors like Shibata to force Nigel into booking the title match he craves.

O’Reilly looks to have packed on some muscle mass over the summer. His upper body looks significantly bigger, and he needs all of that size as he goes strike for strike with Shibata early on. Kyle blocks an attempt at the cross armbreaker from his Japanese adversary, but then provokes him throwing back a version of Shibata’s own PK. Each man dodges attempted roundhouse kicks and retreats to opposing corners in a stalemate. Shibata gradually works his way into the ascendancy – kicking and striking out at O’Reilly’s arm. He grinds onto a shortarm scissors and extravagantly prevents repeated escape attempts from his opponent. It takes some stiff strikes from O’Reilly to bring him back into the match…then he suplexes him to the ground into a leg grapevine. He kicks Shibata as hard as he can, but they are no sold like nothing! Shibata yawns and gestures for more! It seems like Kyle’s strikes are having no impact and the New Japan star suplexes him back to the ground into another arm submission. O’Reilly grabs a rope and returns to his feet so they can HAMMER each other with big boots.  Shibata keeps trying to out-do O’Reilly with submissions only for the ROH competitor to find a way to strike back. Once again they return to a vertical base and once again they swing HARD at each other. Axe & Smash NO SOLD into an STO from Shibata. Kicks to the leg by Kyle…and he actually knocks his opponent to the mat! Regalplex countered into the Sleeper…which O’Reilly knows is set-up for the PK so scrambles to the ropes. HEAD DROP GERMAN by Shibata…f*cking NO SOLD! German suplex by O’Reilly…and that’s no sold too! STEREO MAFIA KICKS leave both of them on the ground. Tandem elbows find the mark, before a lariat by O’Reilly, into the Brainbuster. ONE COUNT! PK ON SHIBATA! Brainbuster again…and this time when Shibata puts his shoulder up Kyle floats into an Omoplata! Shibata refuses to tap out, but lapses into unconsciousness forcing the referee to stop it at 13:29

Rating - **** - This was everything you hoped it would be, although being taped for television meant they probably didn’t get as much time as they’d have liked to pad things out. These two are immensely similar – big strikers, heavily martial arts influenced, brave, resilient and technically savvy too. From the outset New Japan’s Shibata set out to intimidate O’Reilly. That makes sense – he is a veteran of the heavyweight scene in Japan, whereas Kyle is a junior. But O’Reilly, noticeably bigger than he was this time a year ago, refused to bow down or be bullied. Every time Shibata thought he had him trapped, cornered or beaten down O’Reilly would retaliate with a ferocious blast of strikes or an innovative submission hold of his own. Given that they grounded so much in a pseudo-shoot style the finish, although unpopular and confusing to the live crowd, was a very sensible one that enhanced Shibata’s ‘tough guy’ aura whilst simultaneously giving ROH’s O’Reilly a massive win as he presses on towards World Title contention.

New World Champion Adam Cole knows exactly what this is. Given the dastardly way he forced Match Maker Nigel McGuinness to renege on his vow that Cole would never get another title shot, there is little doubt that he is now being punished by Ring Of Honor authorities. He is being made to defend against three of the very best wrestlers in the world, all of whom have held the top prize in their respective promotions. Naito and Lethal were allies, but that alliance fractured at the Las Vegas TV taping resulting in them being booked as opponents for All Star Extravaganza. Will that issue take their eyes off of the prize of the ROH Title?

Lethal wants to start with Naito, who is busy looking disdainful at the fans’ chant of ‘all these guys’. He thinks he is getting his wish too when Naito forces Tanahashi out of the ring…but then Cole pisses him off by blind-tagging him out as well. The champ has a big smirk on his face, but quickly has it wiped off by the nonchalant showmanship of Naito. Even when they do start wrestling Cole can’t find a way to stop the leader of LIJ from f*cking around. Amusingly, when Naito does tag out he doesn’t stand on the apron – he grabs a chair and lounges on the floor watching Lethal and Tanahashi go at it. Lethal pauses to smash Cole off the apron to the turf, then springboard dropkicks the Ace out after him too. It leaves bodies on all sides of the ring and in perfect position for the former ROH Champ to bust out the Tope Trilogy. Back in the ring he puts a Figure 4 on Tanahashi, which pisses off Cole and does plenty of damage to Tana’s ageing knees. An irate Cole blind-tags him out again…and is punched in the mouth for his trouble. The champ gives Naito the DVD over the knee which, for the first time, knocks Naito off his rhythm. Lethal blind-tags him out before he can capitalise though and they brawl to the floor whilst Naito relaxes inside the ring. Jay starts suplexing Cole but finds himself on the wrong side of a makeshift alliance between Naito and the Ring Of Honor Champion. That alliance quickly falls apart however and allows him to land the Lethal Combination on Naito then make the hot tag to Tana…who gives both the heels a somersault senton. Naito shakes the ropes to stop him hitting the High Fly Flow! Cole and Lethal lock horns again, with Jay blocking the Panama Sunrise into the rebound Injection for 2. NXT Last Shot from Cole to Naito…only for Tanahashi to then hit the champ with the Sling Blade moments later. Cole stalks Lethal perched precariously on the top only to be knocked back for Hail To The King. HIGH FLY FLOW MISSES! LETHAL INJECTION ON TANAHASHI! Lethal tries the same move on Cole moments later…but as the ref scrambles for position he misses Naito waffling Lethal with the title belt. Naito wants to hit Destino for the win, and is halted with a Superkick from Cole. Last Shot on Jay, giving Cole another win over his rival at 17:21

Rating - *** - The positives here were clear to see. Naito was having a blast messing around, not giving a sh*t and pissing everyone else off as a consequence. Watching he and Tanahashi in an ROH Title Match was a fun spectacle. And, most crucially, the Cole/Lethal exchanges were all loaded with significance and weight. Unfortunately, all those factors didn’t stop this feeling intensely flat and lethargic. Nobody seemed to have any urgency or desire to win whatsoever. It felt like a procession of semi-interested spots coming one after another, all killing time until they could go to the finish. 

Tape Rating - N/A - As I’ve alluded to, I don’t necessarily agree that ROH should be giving away main event level matches from their VOD product for free on television. But Sinclair have made it very apparent that the TV show is their priority now and having watched the DVD edit of Field Of Honor 2016, it was very apparent that these two matches were specifically taped for Road Rage television. To that end, this was another effective Road Rage broadcast. The last two weeks of television have come across as an effective commercial of ROH’s live event circuit to a casual viewer. If I was a casual watcher checking these shows out I’d definitely come away thinking the ‘On Tour’ events are something special that I'd like to see more of. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the World Title Match from this broadcast but it is decent enough for free television and absolutely loaded with star names. O’Reilly/Shibata, on the other hand, is a fantastic match and held up even in clipped up for TV format.