McXal's Reviews

This TV taping is effectively the final stop on the Road To Final Battle 2016 – producing the last run of televised content as we build up to the big year-ending blockbuster event which takes place in early December this year. Although there were another five live events – Survival Of The Fittest weekend and the big UK Tour – this next batch of episodes is their last chance to set the scene for the biggest show in ROH’s calendar. Tonight the tournament to crown the first Six-Man Tag Champions continues as Kamaitachi (making what I believe is final ROH appearance under the gimmick before returning to NJPW) teams with The Addiction to face yet more of his old rivals from CMLL. The main event brings us the hotly anticipated World Television Title showdown between Bobby Fish and Adam Page – with the Bullet Club looking to rebound after being surprisingly eliminated from the Trios Title Tournament by The Kingdom last week. Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are in Baltimore, MD.

Kamaitachi’s time spent in CMLL was well documented before he even made his way to the US for his Ring Of Honor excursion. As ROH’s relationship with CMLL has grown through the second half of this year, so Kamaitachi has found himself doing battle with many familiar faces from his Mexican adventure. Dragon Lee, Angel De Oro and Stuka Jr. have all stepped into the ring with him…and tonight three more gentlemen cross the border to meet him too. Lucha Libre is renowned for the quality of it’s trios wrestling, so the representatives from CMLL will be formidable opposition. The Addiction have been in a weird place since Ladder War 6 – and would love to rebound from losing the Tag Titles by becoming the first ever Six-Man Champions come Final Battle.

Kazarian starts with Okumura who, as his name would suggest, is actually a Japanese talent who competes in Mexico. He is a rangy individual and proves a fearsome foe for Frankie. He drills him with a version of the Tower Of London for an early nearfall. Hechicero tags and confuses Daniels with a bewildering rolling cradle sequence…bringing Kamaitachi in and he absolutely tees off on Guerrero! Ultimo has seen it before, leading his squad to the outside for a TRIPLE TEAM LEAP OF FAITH into the guardrails. Guerrero goes old man crazy and decides he has enough in his legs to hurdle the railings into a tackle on the fallen Kamaitachi as well! The commercial breaks come at a wildly inopportune time and when we come back it’s The Addiction in total control of Hechicero…with almost no explanation of how we got there. Kamai has made a miraculous recovery and is back in the ring putting the boots to Hechicero too. Hechi makes a tag to Guerrero…who f*cking flattens Daniels with his headstand Bronco Buster variant. Kamaitachi scales the ropes…SUPER SENTON TO THE FLOOR! Bad Elimination on Ultimo gets 2. TKO by Okumura! Swinging backbreaker by Hechicero! Tachi wants to finish Guerrero…but accidentally hits Daniels with the Meteora by mistake. Guerrero takes Daniels up the ropes for the GUERRERO SPECIAL! Ultimo wins for Team CMLL at 10:07 (shown).

Rating - *** - This alone was as good as any match that took place during the last TV taping in Lowell. It was scrappy and chaotic at points but never stopped being fun and never slowed down. At times there was so much going on in the television screen in front of me it was hard to know what I was supposed to be watching – which is meant both positively and negatively. Kamaitachi and Ultimo Guerrero had such chemistry together that I’m disappointed we didn’t get to see more of them. What this did well was put the luchadors of CMLL over strongly, continue the post-Ladder War slump for The Addiction…and also cue up a reason for Kamaitachi to depart ROH, as LIJ are now calling him home to take his place as Hiromu Takahashi.

Kamaitachi angrily shoves Daniels, blaming him for their defeat it seems. To everyone’s surprise Daniels actually agrees that it was his fault…and Kamai spits in his face before walking out.

Kenny King, Rhett Titus and Caprice Coleman crash the show. Just as they did at the recent Florida live events, they denounce their ‘Cabinet’ gimmick as a disrespectful joke. Caprice leaves with an ominous warning that there are ‘more of them’ than we currently see…

Holy f*cking sh*t…a backstage segment!? Are you kidding me?! After clips of Dalton Castle ignoring Cabana’s advice and demanding their impromptu Tag Title shot against the Young Bucks during Champions vs All-Stars at Glory By Honor weekend we cut to Dalton Castle in the locker rooms looking for The Boys. They are nowhere to be seen, but he does run into Colt Cabana who tells him they ‘aren’t needed’ before dragging him to the ring for their match. The camera pans to a closed door behind Colt, suspiciously covered in feathers and other possible Boy-related paraphernalia.

So in one brief segment there we saw a summary of what took place between Colt Cabana and Dalton Castle between television tapings. When they left the last set of tapings in Lowell they were #1 contenders for the Tag Titles…but since then they lost their Tag Title shot at Glory By Honor after an error in judgement from Castle which Colt still clearly has a problem with. They recovered in Florida at the ‘Road To Final Battle’ events with a big win over The Addiction. Cabana has reminded Dalton that the only way they’ll get another title shot is to keep winning. Unfortunately for them opponents don’t get much bigger than the monstrous Lee and Taylor, who are back after missing all the live events, and still in the hunt for a final, decisive match against War Machine.

Castle is still freaking out about the whereabouts of The Boys as he makes his entrance. The power of the Pretty Boy Killers forces Cabana to get creative, using Lee’s own momentum against him to deliver a satellite headscissors…then retreating to the ropes to avoid reprisals. Lee vents his frustration by hurling Castle to the floor, where Taylor is waiting to deck him with a clothesline. He returns to the ring bleeding from the nose…and is crushed with an emphatic leg drop by Shane. Sensibly he tags Colt back, but even his biggest shots don’t knock Taylor off his feet. Superman Pin eventually gets a 2-count…before the PBK catch him when he tries a quebrada. For no obvious reason Dalton and Colt start posing and strutting…perhaps to lull the big men into a false sense of security so that Castle can hit a Heat Seeking Missile. Ground Zero from Lee to Cabana! EVEREST GERMAN from Dalton to Keith! Taylor blocks the same move…and causes Castle to inadvertently boot Colt in the face! Dalton is dumped to the floor as Lee gives Cabana the Spirit Bomb. PBK win at 07:54 (shown).

Rating - ** - The first half was a little boring, but I really liked the second half as they dialled up the simmering tension between Colt and Dalton, whilst also showcasing the impressive and exciting power moves Lee and Taylor bring to the table. From nowhere this Cabana/Castle angle has become one of the most interesting things about Ring Of Honor right now…

Once again Colt Cabana looks enormously annoyed with his partner in the aftermath of a high profile defeat. He isn’t overly welcoming of Dalton’s conciliatory advances before we go to commercials.

NEXT WEEK – The Kingdom vs Team CMLL in the Six-Man Tag Title Tournament. 

Adam Cole talks about his busy end to 2016, with high profile defences against Jay Lethal and Kyle O’Reilly coming up. He doesn’t think either one of those guys can hang with him…

Adam Cole has plainly stated that Bullet Club’s intention is to run Ring Of Honor by taking all the belts. Last week they were surprisingly beaten by The Kingdom to eliminate them from the Six-Man Tag tournament...so this week all eyes turn to the Hangman and his hotly anticipated shot at the TV Title. He has big wins over both Briscoes in singles action recently, and he has recent pinfall victories over Dalton Castle and ACH too. A couple of weeks ago on television we saw him assault Bobby’s ribs with a chair. Is Fish still carrying injuries from that attack into this match?

Page jumps the champ during his entrance – smashing his ribs into the guardrail repeatedly in an attempt to exacerbate the potential injury. He wants to use a chair once again, but Fish crawls into the ring in an effort to get the bell rung for an official start to the contest. Kyle O’Reilly comes out to check on his tag partner, but has to watch as Hangman delivers the stalling pumphandle suplex for 2. The ribs remain a focal point for the challenger with every offensive move he makes. EXPLODER SUPLEX OFF THE APRON BY FISH! It was a big gamble, but it paid off for Fish and a huge move which brings him right back into the contest. He follows it with the exploder into the turnbuckles as well, drawing a close nearfall. SHOOTING STAR TACKLE TO THE FLOOR BY PAGE! Both men down! Hangman brings it inside with a gutbuster for 2, leaving Bobby screaming in pain. He defies the pain to kick at Page’s legs, setting him up for a dragon screw. Buckshot Lariat…gets 2! Rite Of Passage countered to Fish Hook Deluxe! PAGE TAPS! Quick as a flash, it’s over at 07:58 (shown).

Rating - *** - Obviously I’m extremely disappointed at how little time this got, and I’ll talk about a number of major negatives about this. But before all that I want to make it clear that, for the time given, this was genuinely very good. Fish was awesome selling the ribs, whilst Page busted his ass and felt like a legitimate threat attacking the injury. And whilst brief, the rapid finish once again plays up the idea that Fish is a lethal competitor who is capable of winning singles matches via multiple finishes at any given point in time. However, despite the positives…this will only really be remembered for how catastrophically brief it was. Having built Page up hard over the summer, having put him over Jay Briscoe, having had him crush ACH, having hyped up Bullet Club going for all the belts…to then have Fish beat Hangman in less than eight minutes was an atrociously poor decision. If there was any doubt remaining, Hangman remains firmly rooted to midcard mediocrity. Once again Delirious and ROH have blown a chance to put him over as a major talent (despite once again him more than delivering the goods from an in-ring perspective). It’s so damn annoying watching ROH do the same sh*t with Page over and over. 

Adam Cole runs out to hurl abuse at Kyle O’Reilly. Before anything escalates between them Jay Lethal comes out as well to remind Cole that next week in London he’ll be challenging for the title..

Tape Rating - *** - Putting aside my sheer incredulity at how Ring Of Honor continue to mismanage Hangman Page, this was a good episode. It didn’t go long but the quality of the actual wrestling within Fish/Page was excellent and made for an exciting main event. I thought the CMLL/Addiction trios bout to start the episode was heaps of fun too…and the tag match in the middle was at least interesting to watch the escalating tension between Cabana and Castle. I wasn’t particularly enamoured with the Lowell TV tapings, and feel like they set the tone for a colossal post-All Star Extravaganza slump. This show was much better…