McXal's Reviews

The gimmick for our main event of this episode is undeniably tacky. But it's also something a bit different, and an attempt at giving increased relevance to what would otherwise be a pretty thrown together main event on a 'dead' week of TV with content taped well before a major pay-per-view show still airing weeks afterwards. The stipulation to which I am referring is our 8-man 'Vegas Wildcard' tag main event, throwing together a random assortment of Ring Of Honor competitors into two four man squads. The winning team advances to a four-way at the upcoming Baltimore TV taping, in which they will compete for an ROH World Title shot. Ian Riccaboni and Kevin Kelly once again provide commentary from Las Vegas, NV.

The Rebellion vs Search & Destroy rivalry continues, even though Rhett Titus is injured, Shane Taylor hasn't appeared since he joined The Rebellion, Alex Shelley has barely appeared all year, the actual members of Search & Destroy are only very loosely defined, and the faction's name is only periodically referenced on television anyway. And that's after The Rebellion as a group was formed as a reboot on the cheesy 'The Cabinet' gimmick in the first place. Against that back drop it really isn't a surprise that The Rebellion didn't get over as a group, or that Search & Destroy affiliates like ACH, Donovan Dijak and Lio Rush are dropping like flies to pursue employment elsewhere. There's a match here too. Sabin has been pretty solid in singles matches for the last six months. Caprice has been under-rated for far longer. I wouldn't expect this to go long, but I also wouldn't expect it to be bad considering how reliable and experienced they both are.

Coleman refuses to shake hands and jerks around, vocally roared on by Kenny King (in his stupid grandpa fisherman hat) at ringside. Sabin tries to accelerate and hits Over Easy for an early nearfall. King checks on Caprice, creating a distraction which Coleman benefits from by poking his opponent in the eyes. Lio Rush comes out and gets in Kenny King's face as we cut to commercials. The damage is done however and we come back with Coleman hitting the Trinity of northern lights suplexes. Missile dropkick/mafia kick sequence by Sabin in response. Caprice drops him again with the vertical leap frankensteiner, right into the Mind Trip for 2. Sky Splitter ducked...and Chris rolls to the apron and takes out King with a cannonball senton. He sunset flips back in, and with Lio stopping Kenny interfering Sabin grabs a win at 06:46 (shown).

Rating - ** - Six minutes of two veterans hitting a bunch of moves. That is pretty much all I have to say about this. As I said in my intro, Sabin and Caprice are solid hands so it's not like they were bad moves. But it didn't feel like they were trying very hard or that I should care for either the match or their current angle. It doesn't help that, watching in 2019, we know that Lio Rush's involvement here would be largely irrelevant since he only has a couple of dates left as well. 

Highlights of the Six-Man Tag Title main event from last week are shown. I didn't enjoy it too much last week and I didn't need to see it again so quickly...

Trent Beretta was the MVP of the crazy Tag Title Vegas Street Fight at the 15th Anniversary. On the one hand this feels like a crappy waste of he and Romero to follow up on that performance. But on the other, this is taped just 24 hours after the aforementioned Street Fight, so how much are he and Rocky really capable of? They certainly won't want to lose to perennial try-harders Will and Burger. The Dojo boys do have something of a story going on themselves with Ferrara starting to grow frustrated at their lack of success and of playing second fiddle to a walking comedy gimmick...

Trent gets a lot of love from the fans, showing respect for what he did at the Anniversary. Rocky demands to start with Cheeseburger, with Cheese winning a battle of shoulder tackles. 'Great timing by Ferrara and Burger' - says Ian Riccaboni as they visibly struggle to time their attempt at double teams and get mowed down with an double-team knee strike from their opponents. Burger then no-sells the Forever Clotheslines and tags out to Ferrara, who hits Paydirt on Beretta for 2. Trent is spiked shoulder-first into the ringpost and gets no time to recover before Will jumps at him with a tope suicida. Romero comes to his partner's aid with a flying knee off the apron. Shotei from Burger to block Strong Zero...then a Shotei/crucifix driver combo on Trent gets 2. The fans boo that? Seriously? The Cheeseburger love is something I will never get. He wipes out Rocky with a pescado, as inside the ring Ferrara hits a German on Trent. Springboard DDT countered to Strong Zero. RPG Vice get the win at 06:46 (shown).

Rating - ** - There was a lot about this one that I didn't like. The sheer amount of offence Cheeseburger was given on an established team like RPG Vice was completely bewildering and incredibly damaging to Trent and Rocky. Ferrara got in way too much offence as well. Kevin Kelly has a weird Steve Corino-esque relationship with Rocky Romero which means he makes stupid dad-jokes and acts like an idiot whenever he's commentating on one of his matches. That, and the fact he got to talk incessantly about New Japan (rather than ROH) meant I was desperate to mute him. Despite all that this wasn't a bad match at all. It was an exciting, short junior heavyweight tag team sprint. The fans - who all loved Cheeseburger way more than I do - were very into it too. It was, however, in no way the kind of match I'd want to see RPG Vice having with a team like Burger and Ferrara...and incredibly damaging right after the best performance of their ROH careers at the PPV.

After the match Will Ferrara walks out on Cheeseburger...

NEXT WEEK - Josh Woods vs John Skyler in the 2017 Top Prospect Tournament Final 

These teams were selected at random so have thrown up some interesting pairings. Jay Lethal being on the same team as one of his rivals from Bullet Club in Hangman Page is obviously something to note, but he also has a history with Silas Young as well. Bobby Fish and Lio Rush went deep into Survival Of The Fittest 2016 together (with Bobby coming out the winner), and everyone on that team may struggle to get on the same page as Colt Cabana - who is desperate to be ROH World Champion but has become increasingly bitter and jealous about much of what he sees around him in the promotion. Being relegated to the commentary table for the 15th Anniversary certainly won't have gone down well

Fans sing along with Bobby's 'Dance Away' entrance music, which is f*cking awesome but more than two years too late! Colt ushers his entire team out so he can start, completely disrespecting Lio Rush in the process. Cabana does leave eventually, and watches as Search & Destroy colleagues White and Rush lock horns. Lio's pace and Jay's blend of power and sound fundamentals mean they wrestle to a stalemate...only for Silas to interrupt their applause from the audience to demand a tag. Hanson comes in to meet him, much to Lethal's amusement...so Silas 'tags' Lethal in instead with a violent chop. We go to commercials with Lethal and Young fighting amongst themselves...and when White and Page try to separate them they end up coming to blows as well! Cabana is the man to profit on the misfortune - tagging in and roughing up his old rival Jay Lethal. Bobby tags in soon after so he and Lethal can rematch their outstanding encounter from the Anniversary PPV. Page - who had problems with Fish whilst he was TV Champ in 2016 - jumps Bobby from behind, then tags in to start beating on him again. Hangman taunts Lethal, who gets slapped across the back of the head by Young to form another needlessly aggressive tag. Silas and Hangman get on the same page for long enough to isolate Fish. Page hits the flying SSP tackle off the apron, but Bobby still has enough in his locker to block Misery. He kicks his way free of their clutches and dumps Page into Young with an exploder suplex. Hot tag to Hanson who steams in with Sesame Street count-along clotheslines (with Cabana amusingly stacking up opponents in the corners to help). Hanson and Rush want to do War Machine spots...LIO BODY SLAMS HANSON ONTO PAGE FOR 2! That got one of the biggest pops of the whole taping! Flying Asshole from Cabana to Lethal! SOMERSAULT PLANCHA TO THE FLOOR BY RUSH! He HANDSTANDS out of an Ace Crusher attempt and kicks Lethal in the face too! Killer Combo by Young, who instantly has his momentum curtailed by a Samoan drop from Fish. HALF NELSON SUPLEX from White to Fish! Cartwheel Lariat by Hanson! BUCKSHOT LARIAT! Lethal Combination on Cabana...but in hitting that move he knocked Hangman off the apron. Page tries to walk out, only to be attacked on the stage by Frankie Kazarian! DRAGON'S CALL GETS KNEES! LETHAL INJECTION! Lethal pins Rush to win at 15:09 (shown).

Rating - *** - I'm finding this one challenging to rate. The majority of the match was really entertaining, drew a lot of laughs and touched a lot of familiarity spots from current and previous feuds. But it also didn't do much to excite me and seemed to be plodding along at a rather sedate pace. The last few minutes, on the other hand, were wall-to-wall carnage. Bodies flying everywhere, fans going nuts, cutting-edge and completely modern professional wrestling which makes ROH's product pop on television. Lio Rush, as has so often been the case in his year-long run, gave a hell of a performance. If Ian Riccaboni is right that 'The Experience' was one of the highest-viewed VOD's on ROH's site (Rush/Scurll was one of the main events), and if the pop he got for his War Machine spot with Hanson here is anything to go by, Ring Of Honor's audience was starting to get behind Lio as the real deal too. Losing him to NXT is a huge disappointment and his consistency will be missed. His last date is the next TV taping in Baltimore...

Tape Rating - ** - Nothing about this episode made it stand out or elevated it to 'must-see' status. The Vegas Wildcard tried to give us some purpose, and that was pretty fun...but the rest of the broadcast felt flat. That isn't surprising when you look at the matches we had, and the fact that we are weeks removed from Supercard Of Honor so all of this seems very out of date. The fact that Lio Rush, Bobby Fish, Jay White and even Hanson are all checking off the dates until they can go work elsewhere is also a real concern as the talent pool starts to get worryingly shallow...

5) John Skyler vs Curt Stallion (*** - Episode 290)

4) Silas Young/Adam Page/Jay White/Jay Lethal vs Colt Cabana/Lio Rush/Hanson/Bobby Fish (*** - Episode 291)

3) Punishment Martinez vs Hanson (*** - Episode 290)

2) Hardy Boyz vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe (**** - Episode 288)

1) Christopher Daniels/Frankie Kazarian/Dalton Castle vs Adam Cole/Young Bucks (**** - Episode 288)