McXal's Reviews

Last week Adam Cole celebrated returning from Japan with the ROH World Title back around his waist. This week the TV Title is the focal point as the Motor City Machine Guns and all of their associates on the roster collide in a match to crown a new #1 contender to Marty Scurll. As we saw last week, the Young Bucks have also agreed to defend the Tag Titles against the Tempura Boyz. Kevin Kelly and Colt Cabana provide commentary in Atlanta, GA.

If you thought you could escape this nonsense storyline, you can't yet. Steve Corino may be gone, but now Martinez and Whitmer's attentions turn to War Machine. It turns out Hanson has a connection going back to his youth with Kevin Sullivan, and as with Corino before, the sinister group are looking to convince him to turn to the darkside and embrace his evil. War Machine are back from a successful stint in the World Tag League for New Japan...

They start hot, but I am distracted by popping for Colt Cabana instantly calling Kevin Kelly out for his bullsh*t 'lemme show the ropes kid' approach to 'helping' Colt do commentary. Hanson seems fired up and really mauls Martinez in the opening minutes. Punishment dodges Rowe's Shotgun Knee, allowing BJ to take a cheap shot to the back of Rowe's head. After commercials Hanson lumbers in to make a save, unleashing the Never Ending lariat flurry on both cornered opponents. Punishment ducks the Bronco Buster...but eats a flurry of strikes from Rowe instead. Cyclone kick from Punisher, but he then gets planted by the pop-up powerslam combo. Belly to belly from Rowe to Whitmer. GERMAN from BJ to Hanson! EXPLODER '98 ON ROWE! All four men go down in a heap. Whitmer goes under the ring for another table just like the last time these teams met. Martinez floors Hanson with a brutal kick to the back of the skull...but then almost gets put into the front row by a Ray Rowe Superman Punch. All four men keep brawling around the ring...and are counted out at 07:20 (shown).

Rating - ** - I didn't like the no finish, and I don't think this is a particularly original feud since they are quite literally rehashing the Briscoes/War Machine stuff from a couple of years ago. BUT, the positive spin on this is that all four guys are right at home participating in a marauding, physical brawl and up until the tedious finish I thought they were doing great. The Kevin Sullivan crap was hardly mentioned, with the focus instead on four tough dudes looking to see who the better team is. War Machine seem worrying irrelevant to the ROH landscape right now, which is a genuine shame given how talented they are. Having said that, Hanson has regressed as a worker (in ROH anyway) by reducing his arsenal to repetitive 'crowd count along' sequences, and the same assortment of strikes and spills that he does (usually in the exact same order) on every show. He's incredibly predictable, and much less interesting as a result.

Hanson tosses a chair into Punishment's face...who just shakes it off and boots him in the jaw. Whitmer and Rowe brawl down the steps into the locker room - as Martinez keeps no selling Hanson's offence! A hectic scene fades out with those two monsters still going toe-to-toe.

This is the second time we've seen the new Six-Man Tag Champions in enhancement match action since pulling off a major upset by winning the belts at Final Battle. Once again they'll be looking to send a message to the entire trios division with a convincing performance here. 

Marseglia rakes Skyler's eyes to get the fight started. ROCK STAR SUPERNOVA ON THE FLOOR to take out A'Gau! Taven remains on the floor and orders his partners into the ring to fight Skyler and Hollis. With John beaten down only now does Taven strut in, flexing his knee to prove that he is recovered from his injury problems. Superkick/Pele Kick combo by Vinny and TK for 2. Skyler blocks the Mustang Ride and tags Corey...who full-on football tackles TK through the air. Slingshot Spear by Skyler! Taven has to rescue his partners, and The Kingdom swarm Hollis. Rock Star Supernova finishes Hollis at 05:03

Rating - * - Thus far I'm enjoying watching the new Kingdom trio in action. They appear to be a close group outside the ring too, and that translates to their ring work which already feels more cohesive and fluent than the Cole/Bennett/Taven version of The Kingdom did (even if the individual components of the previous trio were better). The problem with this one was that it went way too long, and relied heavily on me caring about Corey Hollis against a storyline where The Kingdom picked off and eliminated his partners one-by-one. That made sense, but by 2017 Hollis has been showing up, then vanishing again for easily half a decade. Any chance ROH had of making me care about him sailed a long time ago. The guy can work, but he's never clicked in this company, and it shouldn't have taken five minutes for the group ROH are pushing hard to go over him...

The Kingdom grab a mic and put over their dominance as Trios Champions...bringing out Dalton Castle and The Boys, who want a title shot. The Kingdom seem agreeable...but Colt hops up from commentary and lays out the Boys! Kevin Kelly admonishes Cabana like a school-teacher, and bans him from the announce table as punishment. Colt calls him a 'b*tch' and leaves...

With production akin to a Lucha Underground vignette, ROH run the Cody Rhodes video package that he and NJPW used to announce that he was joining Bullet Club. It's only a few seconds long, but extremely effective. Fans can argue about whether Cody has the chops inside the ring, but he really does add x-factor and star power to the Ring Of Honor roster.

One thing you couldn't accuse the Bucks of is ducking challengers. They have been fighting champions, voluntarily defending the belts against Ospreay and Scurll during the Reach For The Sky Tour when they didn't have to (and agreeing to a non-title match with the Briscoes the next night when they didn't have to do that either). Last week they decided they were so impressed with the quality of the triple threat tag bout between the Tempura Boyz, Coast 2 Coast and Cheeseburger/Will Ferrara that they decided to give a title shot to the winner. Sho and Yoh scored the biggest win of their ROH careers...but had to be helped to the back after eating Superkicks from the Bucks. They've been jocular performers for their entire ROH excursion thus far. Is tonight when they get deadly serious and pull off a monumental upset?

The Bucks start dominantly and totally overwhelm the Tempuraz with combo sequences which the Japanese visitors struggle to keep pace with. During the commercials they hit Rise Of The Terminator tope suicidas, then Nick dives off the stage with a somersault swanton (and this was cut because, once again, whomever is editing ROH's TV at the moment is terrible at their job). Matt crashes commentary to hurl abuse at the Hardyz. Lungblower combo by the Tempuraz helps stem the flow of Bucks offence, leaving Matt in the wrong position and eating a punt from his own partner. STEREO GERMANS ON THE FLOOR by Sho and Yoh! They return to the ring with a Doomsday Powerbomb on Matt for 2. Nick hits back with a volley of strikes, before moonsaulting off the apron into Komatsu's lap. Once again the Bucks pause to taunt the Broken Hardyz...and the Tempuraz counter by hitting the 3-K for 2! Tanaka tries to put Matt in a Boston Crab, but turns his back on an inevitable Superkick by Nick. DOUBLE SUPERKICK on Sho! ELEVATED 450 SPLASH! The Bucks retain at 06:53 (shown)

Rating - *** - What we saw of this was incredibly exciting. The problem is, it was cut to pieces in post-production and as a result was far less memorable and impactful than it could have been. This is the third or fourth time recently that I've strongly disagreed with how ROH has edited their TV show. It's like every time you think they can't find something else to annoy me and make me miss the 'glory days' of the promotion more...they come up with something. When Sho and Yoh returned to NJPW we'd get to see these guys in multiple matches, and most of the ones I've seen were extremely enjoyable. Go check those out instead. As far as fast-paced, pseudo-squash matches go this was decent however...

After the match Kevin Kelly makes the announcement that at Supercard Of Honor 11 it will be the Young Bucks against the Hardy Boyz. In the ring the Jacksons pretend to be respectful and put the Tempura Boyz over, only to distract them so that Adam Page can 'return' and beat them both down. 

Marty Scurll gets some promo time, and is relaxed about the amount of people chasing his TV Title. He knows he has something everybody wants...and doesn't care who wins the main event. He then heads to the ring to join commentary

We know the stakes here - the winner gets a TV Title shot. The Motor City Machine Guns have protested at the amount of factions and groups making success in ROH extremely difficult. This match brings together most of the allies they've collected in the last year (only Kushida and ACH are missing), and although all six respect each other - all six want singles success too. White is undefeated, Lio Rush has shared great matches with pretty much everyone in the ring, Shelley is returning from a series of post-Ladder War injuries which restricted his ring-time in the final quarter of 2016...and all would pose a worthy foe for The Villain.

Marty Scurll is the second guest commentator of the night to score a zinger at Kevin Kelly's expense, calling him a 'disappointment' (which is an understatement). The six men start with a hug, presumably with Gresham complaining that he didn't get the memo about wearing yellow and black gear the other five. 'Did you say Scrabble Rules' - Marty to Kevin. White and Gresham start with some beautiful technical stuff...but quickly exit so Rush and Dijak can revisit their fantastic chemistry as opponents. Lio back flips out of the Choke Breaker, only to be intercepted by Sabin before he can hit a dive. MCMG start hitting combo moves on their opponents rather than fighting each other. Scurll is almost distractingly brilliant on commentary. Rush sneaks away having provoked a minor disagreement between Sabin and Shelley...but they reconcile quickly and set about isolating Gresham instead. White counters Time To Fly with a turnbuckle suplex on Dijak! Urinage suplex gets 2 before Gresh makes a save. Tope suicida by Jon! ELBOW SUICIDA BY JAY! Then by Sabin! SPRINGBOARD CORKSCREW SENTON TO THE FLOOR BY DIJAK! Lio tries to give him a tope, only to be caught by the throat! LEAPFROG REVERSE RANA COMBO ON THE FLOOR by Rush and Gresham! The Rebellion storm in and mug Jon Gresham just when he looked set to win! Kelly points out that it was Lio Rush they saved, who they have actively tried to recruit recently. MCMG fight The Rebellion away, as inside the ring Lio ducks and weaves into a diving enzi. DRAGON'S CALL COUNTERED TO THE CHOKE BREAKER...COUNTERED TO A ROLL-UP FOR 2! Dijak holds on and lifts Lio into FEAST YOUR EYES! Dijak wins the title shot at 08:41 (shown)

Rating - *** - That was completely wild. It had to go some distance to top the lunacy of the Young Bucks match that came before it, but they certainly succeeded. Some men went a little unappreciated (Gresh and White in particular), and whilst it made sense I could've done without The Rebellion's cameo as I was really into the action...but there really were some electrifying sequences. Rush and Dijak have amazing chemistry and busted out another brilliant climactic stretch here, once again making me seriously sad that both are heading for the exit door in the next few months. 

In the locker room we see War Machine, BJ Whitmer and Punishment Martinez still fighting as the show fades to black...

Tape Rating - *** - I enjoyed this episode more than the star rating for some of those matches would indicate. It was packed with in-ring content, very little of which was bad or tough to sit through. In a congested 45-minute episode we saw leaps off the stage, huge bumps on the floor, big man brawls, wild dives a-plenty in the main event, titles defended, angles developed and (I don't get to say this too often) genuinely entertaining commentary too thanks to Cabana and Marty's guest slots. If you skip this you're not missing anything, but this one flew by and I never once felt like I wasn't enjoying it.