McXal's Reviews

Since this airs the same weekend as the 15th Anniversary, we've entered the dead-zone where any content making air awkwardly cannot fully reference the PPV which hadn't taken place when it was taped. The cards for the next two episodes do feel carefully measured to manage that though. Our main event this evening pays off an angle nobody cared enough about to put onto pay-per-view in the first place, but could make for a fun TV match as BJ Whitmer and Punishment Martinez look to finish War Machine and recruit Hanson to the darkside. This week Ian Riccaboni is joined by Alex Shelley in Pittsburgh, PA.

This is a Proving Ground Match, and by far C2C's biggest Ring Of Honor match to date. Shaheem Ali and Leon St. Giovanni always look good when they get booked, and it is very clear that they work hard together to keep developing. They have a real shot of earning a title shot too, given that the Bucks are totally focused on the Hardy Boyz at Supercard Of Honor...

Nick starts with St. Giovanni and very obviously isn't taking the match too seriously. Shaheem stops them hitting Rise Of The Terminator - as LSG WALKS THE TOP ROPE INTO A SPRINGBOARD CORKSCREW SENTON! C2C score with a flurry of double teams with the kind of speed and precision that the Jackson brothers have made their calling card. Springboard crossbody from Nick! Ali tree of woes Matt, in position for the DOUBLE VAN TERMINATOR! Nick makes the save! Superkick on Shaheem! DOUBLE Superkick on Leon! Matt Superkicks LSG's knees from under him, right in position for the ELEVATED 450 SPLASH! Bucks win at 05:03 (shown).

Rating - *** - I am ready to see Coast 2 Coast in higher profile matches. They keep getting booked in filler TV bouts, and they keep delivering - and I'd like to see more. Working the Bucks, in this style, of match was a big step up for them but they didn't look out of place at all. 

The Bucks aren't done. Matt gives Shaheem a Twist Of Fate, teeing him up for a Swanton Bomb from Matt. The Broken Hardyz are on notice...

Ian Riccaboni gets some interview time with Lio Rush. He says he messed with The Rebellion last week because he was fed up with them playing games. The fans sh*t all over him which is a shame, and Kenny King soon arrives to save the segment (dressed like he's on a fishing trip with his grandpa). He calls Lio a 'cruiserweight' and wants to put a beating on him in a match next week...

So Curt was one of the participants in the 2017 field that people were most excited to see. As of writing in 2019 he is a contracted Evolve/WWN talent so he clearly has real potential perhaps befitting of being called a 'top prospect'. He doesn't look like he weighs much more than Cheeseburger though, which probably counts against him. On the other side of the ring is Preston Quinn, who, for want of a better phrase, is old as f*ck. He's been in wrestling almost as long as Christopher Daniels, which tells you right away that he is in no way suited to being called a 'top prospect' and doesn't belong in this tournament. If ROH ever ponders why people sh*t on this tournament every year - it's because they book crap like this and favour kiss asses who will pay money and attend bullsh*t seminars and camps over actual talent. The winner here faces John Skyler in the semi-finals.

'This tournament isn't about age' - Bob Evans. Hey Bob, it f*cking should be. Quinn cheapshots Stallion to start, which the commentators put over as 'experience' rather than 'cheating'. Stallion swings at him like a mad man with slaps and stomps...so Preston's dated, dumbass 80's-looking manager 'Andy Vineberg' trips him. What am I watching? Quinn delivers a SICK brainbuster for 2, and follows it with an Argentine backbreaker. Curt survives that and rattles off a kryptonite neckbreaker...so Quinn drills him with a jumping piledriver. The veteran has it won, but decides to show off with a diving elbow from the top - and misses. Stallion grabs the win via diving headbutt at 04:21

Rating - * - This wasn't by definition a bad match. It just didn't belong in what I consider to be 'Ring Of 'Honor at all. If you want to run a 'Top Prospect Tournament' annually, you simply can't book someone like Quinn to be in it. Preston actually did fine, and Stallion bumped like crazy. But watching an old dude with no place in ROH massacre a scrawny dude I've been given no reason to care about, ably assisted by an 80's pro-wrestling manager cliche isn't the type of product I want to watch - and is an example of why fans started to leave ROH in droves once The Elite left. If you venture to any local wrestling promotion running in your town in a leisure centre or high school gym in front of 50-100 people you will see a variant of this match; old timer who'll never make it against thin, generic indy looking guy. Why on earth are ROH putting this on television?

Cody arrives for some promo time; slithering around the ring and making fun of Jay Lethal at every turn. He brings out Adam Page, bringing with him the Hangman's noose, which Cody unravels to symbolically challenge Lethal to a Texas Bullrope Match at Supercard Of Honor.

NEXT WEEK - Briscoe/White II is the main event. Jay Briscoe reiterates the point he made at the chicken farm last week - when he was on his undefeated streak he was in the main event, not wrestling 'top prospects' like Jay White. He ends White's streak next week...

How long does it take ROH to fix the spelling error in Gresham's Carytron video? He has different music - not better or less generic music, but different. This should be good, wholesome, grappling fun. Castle is an accomplished wrestler, whilst Gresh is accomplished at pretty much every style going. What does the Octopus have in his locker to cope with the power of the Party Peacock? I like that Riccaboni brings up on commentary that Dalton just went unbeaten across the two recent live events in Texas. It isn't a major detail, but little touches like that immediately makes house shows become more relevant.

Gresham uses his mastery of technique and grappling skill to get the better of Castle, who quickly becomes more subdued than he usually is in the early going of matches. He tries to use his power, but again Jon slips from his clutches into another takedown. The angry Dalton just dumps Gresham to the ground and goes for an early Bang-A-Rang out of desperation. The Octopus escapes and springs off the ropes for a flying headscissors - knocking Castle out of the ring and diving after him with a knee strike. He tries to springboard off the top back into the ring too...but is caught in BANG-A-RANG! Just like that Castle takes the win at 04:40

Rating - ** - I was disappointed by this, but only in the sense that they could've had a great match together and I wanted to see more than a condensed four minute TV bout. The actual quality of the wrestling here was extremely good, with Gresham looking like a star - but then Dalton getting a major rub and looking every inch a main event player in waiting by polishing Gresh off with a single move. 

Marty Scurll gets some promo time, but says literally nothing of relevance and is only here to sell tickets to Supercard Of Honor 11...

Has Kevin Sullivan formally made his last appearance yet? Certainly Whitmer and Punishment's role in ROH has been substantially reduced for 2017 following Steve Corino's departure. This grudge match is another result of Kevin Sullivan's actions. He supposedly had a close relationship with Hanson as a child and is disappointed in how he turned out. Just like with Corino before, Kevin has deployed his minions Whitmer and Punishment to administer beatings and lure him to the darkside. 

Hanson and Rowe attach BJ and Martinez from behind during their entrance, starting the match early and embracing their version of the dark side! A brawl ensues on the stage, leading to Hanson hitting a CANNONBALL OFF THE STAGE! The veteran Whitmer has seen this all before of course, so it makes perfect sense that he'd be the man leading the fightback for his team. In the ring Rowe floors Punisher with a Superman Punch...then rushes to the floor to help out his partner with the same move on BJ. BRONCO BUSTER INTO THE GUARDRAILS from Hanson to Martinez! He tries a cartwheel lariat too...but gets a chair thrown into his skull by Whitmer. By the time we get back commercials he has recovered his faculties and is back to hitting count-along lariats in the corners. Punisher stops that with a spinning heel kick off the top roope. NECK DROP GERMAN from BJ to Rowe! Those two spend almost a minute clobbering each other - setting up the Exploder '98 for 2. Incredibly War Machine hit the pop-up powerslam combo on a guy of Punishment's size; it looks every bit as crazy as you'd imagine. They bring a table into the ring, forcing BJ to fight like a cornered animal and claw at their eyes to save himself. Fallout blocked, and as the fight spills to the floor Martinez hits a RUNNING SUICIDE DIVE OVER THE RINGPOST! TOP ROPE SOUTH OF HEAVEN THROUGH THE TABLE! Martinez pins Hanson for the biggest win of his ROH career at 10:09 (shown). He's not finished either! SOUTH OF HEAVEN ON WHITMER AS WELL! YES! Martinez is free of the Sullivan family and stands tall over three broken bodies as the show ends...

Rating - *** - I won't pretend that anyone was majorly invested in this feud and passionately cared about the outcome of this grudge match, so against that back drop I thought they did a good job with this. Whitmer's contributions were savvy and paid reverence to his long and tenured ROH career, War Machine kept their new, annoying, 'play the hits', easy money offence to a minimum, and the whole match seemed to be centred around two things; 1) end the Sullivan angle and b) make Martinez look like a star. As I've been a vocal supporter of Punishment since his squash win over Colby Corino in the 2016 TPT I obviously loved the finish. It was a fine pay-off and made the match worth watching for me. The fact that ROH had Hanson, Rowe, Martinez, Dijak (and even Moose) under contract during this 12-18 month period (all extremely gifted 'big men') and let them all leave without reaching their potential as singles stars is pretty unforgivable.

Tape Rating - ** - The opener and main event were just fine, but nothing worth taking time out of your day to watch years later as I was. Not being able to acknowledge the events of the recent pay-per-view is always a conundrum for episodes like this...so the one thing this broadcast did well was adopt a very insular approach and concentrate solely on stories it could tell. The War Machine/Sullivan family tag main event wasn't a PPV bout but was fine as a televised blow-off to a feud. The TPT exists in a bubble, so again is fine for TV. Lio Rush antagonised The Rebellion last week - so again we got that paid off and a match booked for next week too. They might not have been able to talk about the Anniversary Show - but they could certainly heavily promote Supercard Of Honor with the Bucks, Cody and Marty Scurll all making appearances to push that event. The weakest episode of the taping so far, but still completely competent wrestling television, with a really hot finish thanks to Martinez.