McXal's Reviews

Whilst admittedly this was taped in mid-February, we've reached March in what feels like an extraordinarily low key start to the year for ROH. They are in a weird position whereby the have three consecutive major shows - Manhattan Mayhem 6, the 15th Anniversary and then Supercard Of Honor 11 - therefore all content they produce before then needs to be fiercely geared towards filling out those shows. It's making everything else that has happened in the first quarter of 2017 feel oddly transient. As I write this I've not seen Manhattan Mayhem, nor the NJPW Honor Rising 2017 shows admittedly. And having said that, the first episode of this taping was good - with a thoroughly decent match to get the 2017 Top Prospect Tournament underway, then a great Scurll/Dijak TV Title main event. This week has a good line-up as well, with The Kingdom defending the Six-Man Tag Titles against The Rebellion and a Bullet Club vs ROH 'dream team' 8-man main event. Ian Riccaboni, who made a strong debut as the 'lead' anchor for TV last week, provides commentary from Pittsburgh, PA. Dalton Castle is his guest commentator for the week...

The ROH 'dream team' promise to 'officially end' Bullet Club this evening, and think they have all bases covered to neutralise the skills of their opponents...

Heel vs heel matches always make for slightly odd affairs. The Kingdom have made a solid, but unremarkable start to their run as trios champions and I don't think ROH have done much to credibly promote the championship at all. Makeshift trios are getting title shots for no reason, makeshift trios who's line-ups kept changing made the tournament final, and tonight The Rebellion get a shot without much form behind them to warrant it. None of that is the fault of Taven (who is slowly working his way back from a serious injury), O'Ryan (who has shown flashes of potential) and Marseglia (who thus far hasn't disgraced himself despite being the obvious weak link of the group). For King, Titus and Coleman, it would be the ultimate statement intent in their campaign to undermine Ring Of Honor if they could take possession of the company's newest championship...

As if to further make my point about the credibility of the titles, Dalton is on commentary scouting because he and The Boys are the next contenders. TK and Rhett start and are pretty entertaining as they goof around showing off like idiots. Rhett hurts his knee so quickly tags out to Coleman, who is greeted by Marseglia for more mirror-image comedy heel antics. Taven and King get serious, trading heavy impact strikes. Titus tries to get involved again, but his knee gives out on him and the match comes to a halt as his partners and the referee check on his wellbeing. During commercials Rhett is helped to the locker room - but the match continued with the champs attacking King and Coleman from behind. Caprice inches towards a tag to Kenny - but in a pretty innovative spot TK 'falls into the ring', distracting the ref and causing him to miss the hot tag. Dalton on commentary pointing out how undeveloped the characters of TK and Vinny are is pretty funny too. With the odds seemingly stacked against The Rebellion, Lio Rush comes down the aisle in dark clothes and a face-mask in a similar manner to King, Titus and Caprice. Fans jeer as he hops onto the apron, and Paul Turner allows him to replace Titus in the match. It does make sense he'd want to as well - he took the fall as The Kingdom cheated to win the tournament at Final Battle. Lio tags...and starts wiping out the champs with Heat Seeking Missiles. King hits a spinebuster - set up by one of Lio's signature evasive spots. But as he celebrates Rush NAILS him with an Ace Crusher! He stands and watches as The Kingdom hit Rock Star Supernova on King to retain the belts at 07:40 (shown)

Rating - *** - It was goofy, overbooked and stupid...but perversely I quite liked this. Even before the overbooking kicked in, some of the comedy heel vs heel sequences they ran genuinely entertained me. The Lio Rush double-turn in the space of about eleven seconds sums up Delirious' inability to provide stable, enjoyable long-term booking for his undercard talent...but at the very least it was grounded in logic, paid off a couple of on-going angles, and added some punch to the brewing Rebellion vs Search & Destroy angle (even if Lio wouldn't actually be around to participate in it). I actually thought Lio was impressive for the ten seconds he was a heel as well. Another disappointment from how brief his ROH stint was is that we won't get to see a prolonged heel run for him. 

Jay White challenges Jay Briscoe to a rematch of their time limit draw in 2016. Jay Briscoe responds from his chicken farm (which looks a little dumb when he had a promo in the building to open the episode) - belittling the quality of opponent during White's 'undefeated streak' and promising to rectify their non-result when they meet - in two weeks time...

Dalton Castle repeats exactly what Bobby Fish did at this point in the episode last week - which is cut a loud, rambling, ranty promo from the commentary table about his upcoming big match (in this case challenging The Kingdom for the Trios Title at the Anniversary Show) then walking out. 'Brutal' Bob Evans replaces him for our Top Prospect Tournament bout...

I'm writing this in 2019, so obviously I know that Milonas sticks around in ROH after this. He's actually noticeably smaller at this point than he is in 2019 as well. I can't say that I rate him, but I am curious to see what made him stand out in this tournament sufficiently to earn a deal. His opponent is Raphael King. He combines working as a wrestler with appearing on a reality TV show with his wife (Devyn - who accompanies him to ringside). He looks familiar, and I believe he has made appearances before as part of Mike Posey's 'Get Along Gang'.

Even Milonas' entrance music is terrible. So does his obligatory pre-match promo. How does he get a contract again? King tries to get the jump on him...but gets clobbered. Token big boy offence from Milonas sees him dominate, before he gets ambitious and misses a terrible looking leg drop from the second rope. They tried to cover that in post-production and it still looked like trash. Devyn gets involved, pulling her man out of the way of another Milonas attack - then taking a cheap shot at the big man. Rock Bottom gets 2 for Raphael, before Milonas shuts him down again with a sidewalk slam. A standing senton splash gets Brian the win at 03:17

Rating - DUD - Milonas is everything I dislike about indy wrestling. His conditioning is obviously poor, but more importantly his entire presentation is dire. His gear looks like garbage and is so ill-fitting that simultaneously his upper half is spilling out everywhere whilst his pants are so baggy every spot he executes is proceeded by a pause to pull them up. I also don't understand how a guy who debuted in f*cking 2001, who looks like hot garbage and wrestles like every generic 'big man' wrestler you've ever seen could possibly be considered a 'top prospect'. I couldn't comment on King - he was basically squashed here. But the guy is in his early 20's, has a strong look, appeared a semi-comfortable talker and already has something of an act down alongside his wife. How the f*ck isn't he considered more of a 'prospect' than Milonas? And, to say again, how has Milonas had a job for two years after this point when he looked SO awful here?

NEXT WEEK - War Machine face BJ Whitmer and Punishment Martinez in a No DQ Match

The war between Ring Of Honor and Bullet Club has been raging since Global Wars 2016 and shows no signs of abating. Tonight an ROH dream team aims to put a stop to the Bullet Club, and they believe they have every base covered. The Briscoes are coming for payback on the Bucks after losing Tag Title Matches at Final Battle and Honor Reigns Supreme. Cody made an enemy of Jay Lethal when he cheated to beat him at Final Battle. At the time of taping Bobby Fish, was hell-bent on ruining the 15th Anniversary main event by taking the World Title from Adam Cole a week prior at Manhattan Mayhem. And those are just the current issues. Don't forget about Fish's past wars with the Bucks, or Jay Briscoe and Lethal's memorable clashes with Adam Cole over the World Title. Christopher Daniels is on commentary continuing to hype the 15YA main event...

Lethal demands to start with Cody, who of course has no intention of doing so and sends Matt in. It provokes Lethal to sucker punch Rhodes - then dive at him with a tope suicida kick-starting a crazy brawl in the first thirty seconds. Jay blocks Nicks's slingshot X-Factor with a Cactus Clothesline which I love! Cole dumps Fish into the guardrails as inside the ring Lethal does get his wish of getting his hands on Cody. Bobby takes right fight to the World Champion with kicks, clearing the ring so the Bucks and the Briscoes can start fighting again. Superkicks by the Jacksons! Lethal tries to save with a Lethal Injection...and he eats a double Superkick as well. RISE OF THE TERMINATOR DIVES! TOPE ATOMICO BY JAY BRISCOE! BLOCKBUSTER OFF THE APRON by Mark! Rhodes drags him back to the top rope though, to give him a SUPERPLEX TO THE FLOOR ON TOP OF EVERYONE! It leaves a chaotic scene as we go to commercials...but when we return Bullet Club have restored order and are working on isolating Mark Briscoe. On commentary Daniels seems to want The Addiction to challenge the Young Bucks for their 'Superkick Party Championship' belts! Cody and Cole hit a couple of double-team moves which, again, I like as it plays off the couple of times we've already seen them team in 2017. Mark blocks the Panama Sunrise (which Ian actually calls correctly!) with an Iconoclasm and makes the hot tag to Lethal. Bullet Club try to mug him...but he clears the ring and starts rattling off tope suicidas in all directions! He misses Cody though - who dumps Bobby in the way instead! Lethal Combination on Cole...but before he can win Fish charges into the ring and gets into a fight with his own partner! They meet in a singles match at the 15th Anniversary! To hype that they brawl off into the crowd and disappear into the darkness. It leaves the Briscoes alone to fight Bullet Club...which they do valiantly. Splash Mountain Neckbreaker gets 2 on Matt. Doomsday Device...but Matt BACKFLIPS INTO A SUPERKICK! DISASTER KICK! TRIPLE SUPERKICK CROSS RHODES COMBO! SUPERKICK LAST SHOT COMBO! MELTZER DRIVER! The Bucks pin Mark for yet another win over the Briscoes, cementing the victory at 12:10 (shown).

Rating - **** - At the risk of sounding unappreciative, this was your 'typical Young Bucks' TV main event. We got some big spots, we went to commercials to cool down, then built back up to a big finish. The format works, and they didn't mess with it. Having said that, it was the focus on building up future matches amongst the signature high spot carnage which I really enjoyed here. Lethal and Cody had a decent match at Final Battle, and I'm glad to see ROH put real effort into promoting a rematch. At the time of taping this was a nice prelude to Fish/Cole in New York, but as it aired after that show, it also did a great job of segueing right into promoting Fish/Lethal for the Anniversary Show. 

Adam Cole celebrates in the ring - but is confronted by Christopher Daniels. No microphones are necessary - their body language says everything. Daniels gives Cole an Angel's Wings and threatens to shave Cole's head in a reprise of how Cole acted before taking the belt at Death Before Dishonor. Frankie Kazarian comes to help...but then unzips his hoodie to reveal a Bullet Club shirt! The Young Bucks decimate Daniels with Superkicks, with Cody and Hangman Page joining them in the ring to welcome Frankie into the fold.

Tape Rating - *** - Two episodes in and already this taping feels like a significant step up from the Atlanta shows. Not everything works (Lio Rush's double-double cross was weird, Brian Milonas sucks), but in general the whole promotion feels substantially more focused - which is appropriate given the fact that they are trying to build to three big shows in quick succession. Even down to the commentary (Ian Riccaboni did an excellent job here), it feels like the company has stepped it up. The Six-Man Title opener won't be for everyone and I'm sure plenty of people hated it. Had it been at a PPV I'd have slated it too, but for television, it was sort of fun and I at least understood what the booker was trying to do (even if I disagree with the method). I feel like the main event will be less divisive - with eight talented dudes joining forces to produce the kind of match you'd expect them to. I'm not sure I liked it as much as Scurll/Dijak from last week...but again, this was a good show to pad the gap between Manhattan Mayhem and 15th Anniversary. I thought it came off as one of ROH's stronger 'go-home' broadcasts...