McXal's Reviews

All Star Extravaganza 8 was an excellent pay-per-view. It wasn’t wall-to-wall brilliance, but it came out of the gate hot and culminated in arguably the most infamous, most notorious and most significant Ring Of Honor match in years as the Young Bucks survived Ladder War 6 and became ROH Tag Champions. This episode marks the start of the next batch of television tapings for all the fallout from that remarkable evening. We’ll also see the continuation of the Six-Man Tag Title Tournament, which kicked off at All Star Extravaganza with Kushida, Jay White and ACH pulling off a minor upset to defeat the Briscoes and Toru Yano. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are back in Lowell, MA. This venue (the Lowell Memorial Auditorium) is steeped in wrestling history, and looked great for the PPV…

Bullet Club’s music hits bringing Hangman Page, World Champion Adam Cole and new Tag Champions the Young Bucks to the ring. The Bucks don’t move well as they sell the carnage of Ladder War 6. Matt calls the PPV ‘Five Star Extravaganza’ and proclaims that their victory proves that they are the greatest tag team of all time. Adam Cole makes fun of Michael Elgin and Kyle O’Reilly, throws Bullet Club’s hat in the ring for the Six-Man Tag Title Tournament and announces Page as a top contender for the TV Title…as they make a run for all the belts in the company.

ROH RECAP – Ian Riccaboni catches us up on the events of the Reloaded Tour, including Bull James’ debut, Silas Young winning the Honor Rumble and the thrilling match he had with Jay Lethal before that Rumble victory. Lethal and Young have a rematch in tonight’s main event…

Last time these four monsters met on television we saw the Pretty Boy Killers deliver an impressive performance. They have had the upper hand on War Machine ever since blind-siding them on the Road To Best In The World Tour. We now know that Taylor and Rowe go back together a long way, and Shane is particularly motivated to destroy War Machine’s legacy as a result of the perceived betrayal he feels. At All Star Extravaganza these four men were amongst the participants in a four-team #1 contenders match…but didn’t win largely as a result of their priority being to fight each other. Will they finally settle the score this evening?

Hanson and Rowe fly at their opponents in the aisle with tandem elbow suicidas. They start hitting their signature double team spots on the outside…but the sheer size of the Pretty Boy Killers mean the damage they do is limited. Rowe levels Keith with the judo throw knee strike…but can only stand and watch as Taylor back body drops Hanson out onto both of them. Rolling Rock senton off the apron by Shane! Into the ring they all go, still absolutely teeing off on each other. Rowe hits an incredible CAPTURE suplex on Taylor…only to be wiped out second’s later by Lee’s Pounce. Inverted Slam by Hanson! Hanson get busted open by a hard punch from Taylor…then walks into a double chokeslam from the PBK for 2. Ray saves his bloody partner with Shotgun Knees, then feeds Keith into the POP-UP POWERSLAM COMBO for 2! Decapitation blocked, with Shane trying to punch Rowe’s lights out again. GROUND ZERO on Hanson! CEMENT MIXER, into a STEP-UP SUPERMAN PUNCH from Rowe, getting a hot tag. FALLOUT ON TAYLOR! FOR 2! Lee hits the Spirit Bomb only for Ray to kick out at 2 as well! He dodges a frog splash from Taylor…but then Shane keeps rolling so Hanson misses a flying body press too! MONSTER-SAULT BY LEE…MISSES! CANADIAN DESTROYER BY ROWE! War Machine win at 10:09 (shown).

Rating - *** - This was a deliciously fun hoss fight. Four big dudes, not many rules and plenty of big hits; what’s not to like? Some of it was scrappy, and it sort of felt like we were watching two different matches squashed together (a No Holds Barred brawl on the floor before commercials, then a tag team Scramble Match after it)…but I only state that to explain why I didn’t go higher on my rating. I liked their first match, but this was better. These four men definitely need to do battle again.

Shane Taylor doesn’t take defeat well and smashes up the bloody Hanson with a steel chair. Rowe is obliterated with a chair shot to the head and has abuse hurled at him by his old friend…

This is the second first round match in the Six-Man Tag Title Tournament. The Cabinet haven’t been a faction for too long, but given the number of makeshift alliances and new teams in the field for this tournament their coherency as a unit gives them a real advantage and could see them go deep. Their opponents are three men who impressed in losing efforts during the 2016 Top Prospect Tournament. We’ve seen them since – Kincaid in particular has worked TV and a few live events, and impressed every time he gets booked. Will his completely unorthodox style be enough to mask the total lack of experience as a trio his team is handicapped by?

King tries to show off his athleticism from the bell, only to find that Ali is easily able to match him. Shaheem tries to show some respect…and gets sucker-punched by the Chairman Of Championships. We get plenty of idiotic kneeling antics from The Cabinet, but they try it once too often allowing LSG and Kincaid to jump them from behind. GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES TO THE FLOOR from Jason to Caprice! Leon and Shaheem start hitting double-teams on Coleman after that, demonstrating the cohesiveness which would see them for Coast 2 Coast in the future. Rhett rescues Coleman by distracting Kincaid – and in doing so allows The Cabinet to isolate him from his partners. That doesn’t last long though and we return from commercials with Shaheem getting a tag and flying around the ring taking it to all three opponents. St Giovanni gets involved too, and they hit a flatliner/Stroke combo on Titus for 2! Kincaid saves LSG from the One Night Stand with a springboard variant of Grave Of The Fireflies. He and Leon go to opposing turnbuckles…STEREO VAN TERMINATORS NAILED! Along with a baseball slide from Ali as well! St Giovanni gets knees on a Phoenix Splash, leaving him vulnerable to the Sky Splitter! The Cabinet advance at 06:59 (shown). 

Rating - *** - As I don’t throw in quarter and half stars to my ratings this probably looks a little weird. Obviously this wasn’t as good as the War Machine/PBK match that preceded it. But, for what it was, and the ambitions it had as a contest, I thought they delivered the goods. It was kept short, it never got boring, there were some really exciting moments, all three of the Top Prospect guys had time to shine and looked REALLY good…before giving the contracted, core talents a convincing victory. This is free television, I don’t expect 5* classics in every match. For their spot on the card this was a solid effort in my opinion…and another reminder that failing to sign Jason Kincaid and Keith Lee were massive own goals on Sinclair/ROH’s part.

The Last Real Man is preparing for the ‘Road To Final Battle’ events, as that weekend will see him challenge Adam Cole for the World Title following his Honor Rumble victory in Lockport. That night on the Reloaded Tour also saw him lose to Jay Lethal in an extremely competitive match. Silas lost on that evening, but after he and Lethal worked the entirety of the Honor Rumble together (entering #1 and #2 and going right to the finish) he showed his frustration by refusing to shake the former champion’s hand. Tonight Lethal wants payback for that lack of respect (as well as ‘banking’ a future title shot should Silas beat Cole in Florida)…whilst Young wants to avenge his loss in Lockport. 

An intense lock-up gets us started, with each man enormously motivated to deliver a big win in this one. Lethal strikes first with a springboard dropkick knocking Young to the floor…and keeps the hammer down by scoring with a tope suicida. Just like in Lockport he keeps going for more topes even at risk of injuring himself. Adam Cole joins commentary as we cut to commercials, and watches as Young lands a swinging neckbreaker for 2. He stays on the former champ’s neck but can’t get into a position to hit Misery. He does avoid the rebound Crusher that Lethal hit him with a couple of times to do further damage to the neck though. Misery countered into the Lethal Combination, allowing Jay to climb for Hail To The King. Lethal Injection blocked…Killer Combo blocked...and Young rocks Jay with a knee strike into an Ace Crusher for 2. Adam Cole thinks about getting involved, but is attacked from behind by Kyle O’Reilly (who, without ANY notice at all, is apparently getting a title shot at Final Battle). They brawl on the floor, distracting Silas as he lines up the Plunge! Lethal grabs the Last Real Man for a schoolboy pin, and scores another victory over him at 09:00 (shown).

Rating - *** - The match was good with plenty of great wrestling and copious familiarity counters or references to the Reloaded Tour event in Lockport. Putting Lethal over again here (under distraction or not) absolutely sucks though. Silas Young looks like a total after-thought going into the Florida title match, even moreso when you consider both Lethal and O’Reilly were involved here – each of whom were discussed as having title shots booked against Cole AFTER Silas without those bouts ever being formally announced on TV before. Having Lethal go over again here makes it even more ridiculous that Silas didn’t win in Lockport. 

Lethal, Cole, O’Reilly and Young all fight with each other after the bell, making the point that the World Title picture has gotten extremely crowded all of a sudden…

Tape Rating - *** - I won’t pretend that the booking of the main event wasn’t frustrating, but it wasn’t enough to spoil a good week of television. Nothing was outstanding, but all three matches were decent considering their spot on the show – with War Machine vs Lee/Taylor being of particular interest and worth digging out if you have an Honor Club subscription and ten spare minutes.