McXal's Reviews

Since this episode was taped there have now been five live events (inclusive of a major PPV) and another TV taping, which makes this one seriously redundant. Hopefully that is managed sensibly and this is made something of a bottle episode. Our main event is an intriguing one as the intimidating force of Bully Ray and the Briscoes defend their Six-Man Titles against The Rebellion of Rhett Titus, Caprice Coleman and Shane Taylor. There's also a Supercard Of Honor grudge match on the undercard (that I'd prefer to see as the main event) as Silas Young and Bobby Fish go at it. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana provide commentary from Baltimore, MD.

So Shelley worked Supercard Of Honor, but is back on the sidelines and only in the corner of his Search & Destroy colleagues Sabin and Gresham tonight. What is his deal right now? On the other side of the ring, Ferrara and Cheeseburger have brought their trainer/coach Joey Daddiego to the ring with them. Ferrara's demeanour is noticeably sour; he is obviously still extremely frustrated at the current fortunes of their team. 

Shelley gets on the mic to congratulate Gresham for signing a full-time contract with ROH. Gresh starts with Ferrara, reprising their impressive match from the Texas house show weekend earlier in 2017. Just as with that match the Octopus tries to target Will's arm. Ferrara teases tagging out, but declines to do so apparently not trusting his partner. Cheese blind-tags his way in and has Sabin diving for cover as he tries to unleash the Shotei early. Jonathan sneaks in and dumps Burger with a stalling German suplex. Burger tries a double springboard dive to the floor...but needs the boost of a tope suicida from Ferrara to actually get S&D off their feet. Back from commercials with Gresh coming up with innovative ways to use collisions between their bodies to stoke tensions between Burger and Will. He attacks Ferrara's arm some more - this time with such effect that even Sabin follows his lead. Now Will has no choice but to tag out...and in flies Cheese with a springboard crossbody. Running rana drops Sabin, as Will faceplants Gresham so Cheese can hit the 'Frying Knee' for 2. Sabin blocks the Shotei with a big lariat though. Ferrara tries a tornado DDT  to the floor, but Sabin counters with a SLINGSHOT NECKBREAKER OFF THE APRON! Asai moonsault by Gresh, before smashing Will into the railings with a tope suicida. Jumping enzi/bridging German suplex combo gets 2 for Search & Destroy. Shotei on Sabin. INADVERTENT Shotei on Ferrara! Jon capitalises with whacky chain wrestling into the Octopus Stretch! Ferrara could break it, but instead watches from the floor (despite J. Diesel berating him). Burger submits at 09:03 (shown)

Rating - *** - This has to be one of the biggest surprise package, hidden gem matches from all of the first half of ROH's 2017. They got a generous time allowance (for a TV opener) and filled it with really decent content - keeping the improbable, fake-looking Cheeseburger offence to a minimum and instead pushing the technical brilliance of Gresham alongside the growing discontent storyline between Ferrara and Burger. I'm not a fan of Will by any stretch, but his delivery of his current character is perfectly pitched. His body language, his facial expressions - everything he does screams that he is a pissed off guy who is struggling to maintain control of his temper at all times. Sabin and Gresh have piles of experience and laid down a great structure to showcase their skills whilst pushing the Burger/Will story. Don't sleep on this one - it really caught me off guard! 

Will Ferrara walks away, refusing to check on his fallen partner and refusing to follow the Code Of Honor before leaving...

In the locker room Jay Lethal is preparing to shoot a commercial presentation, but is interrupted by an embittered Silas Young who resents 'another sponsorship for the golden boy'. He yells at Lethal for attacking his leg in their match a couple of weeks ago...then attacks him in return, ramming his own problem knee into a set of steel lockers...

Having injured Jay Lethal earlier in the day, we'll now get to see Silas in singles action which spins off from another act of bitter complaining at another member of the roster. At Supercard Of Honor Bobby Fish made an unscheduled appearance to refute rumours that he was done with ROH and claim there was more he wanted to achieve. Young, apparently loitering in the back near monitors and in full gear, came out to run him down - kick-starting a fiery, wild impromptu match which had to be thrown out. Can these two gentlemen keep their tempers in check this evening?

Ian Riccaboni pulls out an interesting titbit that these two made their ROH TV debut as a team against the Young Bucks on HDNet in 2009. Fish tries to drive the match in a grounded direction where his MMA training and mat acumen can come into play. Silas tries to make it more of a fight of course. Bobby goes for the Fish Hook Deluxe...which Young crawls out of the ring to escape. As we saw in the previous segment, Young has a bad knee so even a brief spell in Fish's finishing hold has serious consequences. He limps back up...and promptly gets his legs kicked out from under him. Commercials seem to come at an awkward time, as when we return Silas has recovered and started to target Fish's midsection. Beer City Bruiser distracts Bobby from the floor, allowing the Last Real Man to throw his opponent out of the ring. Fish uses the elements to his advantage though...and spears Young into the railing in scenes reminiscent of their brawl in Florida. Back inside the ring they take turns booting each other in the head before simultaneously knocking each other down with stereo clotheslines. Leg kick by Fish...only for Silas to retaliate with an Ace Crusher for 2. Plunge blocked into a back drop driver by the former TV Champion. Anklelock blocked...into a LEG SELLING KILLER COMBO! Twisting neckbreaker gets 2 but it takes a single kick to his bad leg from Fish to stop Silas in his tracks. Bruiser literally pulls Young out of the ring to buy him some time, which Silas uses to strip off his heavy knee brace and rattle Bobby's skull with. It's a tainted win for Fish at 10:34 (shown)

Rating - *** - This was a great match sullied by an unimaginative finish. If Fish is leaving why does he need to be protected and why isn't he putting Silas over clean here? Silas proved in his matches with Lethal and Cole last year that he can go in marquee matches. This performance was on that level, let down by having to sprint through everything for TV, and Delirious' phobia of letting a heel get a clean victory. To end on a positive, this one took everything good about that weird segment at Supercard Of Honor - the intensity, physicality and aggression - and wrapped that into a far better match. Will we get to see these two one more time before Bobby departs?

Dalton Castle ponders how he can rebound from World Title defeat at Supercard Of Honor. He vows to get back into the title picture...

I don't want to start on autopilot and complain about the same thing again, but did The Rebellion do anything to earn this title shot? Are they being rewarded for the illegal beatdown of the Motor City Machine Guns and Lio Rush which supposedly left Shelley with a concussion (and we'd never see Lio again either)? It isn't that long ago that they lost a title shot to The Kingdom. The Briscoes and Bully defeated the remnants of The Kingdom (plus Silas Young) after TK O'Ryan's leg break in Vegas, and form an imposing, intimidating dream team. In Shane Taylor, however, The Rebellion may well have found someone with enough size to cause the champs problems. Certainly Taylor, whilst teaming with Keith Lee, enjoyed plenty of success taking the fight to the Briscoes. Alex Shelley is on commentary.

Titus has been wrestling the Briscoes for his entire career, yet still falls victim to all of Mark's usual tricks and shenanigans in the first minute. Tensions mount on the back of that, with Taylor and Bully kick-starting a huge six-man brawl all round the ring. Mark hits a springboard senton off a chair on the floor, injuring Rhett sufficiently for the champs to spend some time isolating him. Titus and Taylor stop the champions hitting the Wassup headbutt on Caprice, with Shane remaining in the ring to impose himself on Jay. The Rebellion target Jay, trying to make a statement at his expense. There's a brilliant moment where Jay tries to hit his usual roaring elbow sequence...but Shane sees it coming and simply stands in the middle of the ring to punch his lights out. I love familiarity countering like that. Over-confidence is what finally costs Taylor dearly, when he pauses working Jay over to get into an argument with Bully. Jay tags out to Bubba just so the veteran can tee off on Shane's exposed jaw. Rhett and Coleman try to help but they get decked by the WWE Hall Of Famer too. NECK DROP urinage from Mark to Titus! ROPE RUN MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! CRAZY ELBOW SUICIDA BY JAY! Titus gets knees up to block Froggy Bow, climbing the ropes for the Big Dawg Splash...which also gets knees! SUPER 3-D! Jay pins Rhett at 10:19 (shown)

Rating - *** - Like the opening match, I came in sleeping on this without much interest in it and as a result it really took me by surprise. It wasn't must see by any stretch of the imagination, but may well be my favourite Briscoes/Bully trios tag at the moment. Obviously I was glad to see Bubba marginalised and only really brought in for some big boy confrontations with Taylor...but what impressed me most was that the whole match seemed to have drive and purpose behind it. The problem with the Six-Man Titles is that from the very outset they've felt unnecessary. The tournament was poorly booked with participants chopping and changing constantly, the belts were used as a prop to legitimise The Kingdom, and now they are a nominal trophy to use as a reason to put the Briscoes and Bully together. But here I felt like the challengers had clear motivations. They went after Jay Briscoe, which makes complete sense since he is a former ROH World Champion, and also the guy that has struggled with his temper recently following so many high profile Tag Title losses. Taylor was used sparingly but to perfection as The Rebellion's clean-up hitter. It all built to a hot (if sudden and rushed) finishing sequence. As with the opening match, don't expect an MOTYC...but this was a genuinely solid and enjoyable television main event.

The champions decide to celebrate by hauling a table out from under the ring. Caprice runs his mouth in Bully Ray's face and doesn't see the Briscoes setting up a table behind him. Coleman gets an emphatic Bully Ray Awesomebomb through a table to end the night.

Tape Rating - *** - I didn't expect much from this. It was taped so long ago it felt miles out of date, and although I like Silas and Bobby the line-up didn't have me salivating either. But it turned out to be a shockingly decent episode - where a Cheeseburger/Will Ferrara opening match and a Bully Ray main event were both genuinely very good watches. The quality of Silas/Bobby far eclipsed anything else from a wrestling standpoint...but this was a good show which I did not see coming! Nothing blew me away from this particular taping, but it felt like a really solid set of shows. Only one match broke the 4* barrier, but there were a LOT solidly inside the 3* mark, which is a strong standard on a long night of tapings. There were a lot of matches (like Woods/Skyler, Sydal/Flip or the Trios Title main event of this episode) which were absolutely fun to watch but haven't even made the list below...

5) Young Bucks vs Mike Mondo/Kenny Doane (*** - Episode 294)

4) Marty Scurll vs Frankie Kazarian (*** - Episode 292)

3) Chris Sabin/Jonathan Gresham vs Will Ferrara/Cheeseburger (*** - Episode 295)

2) Silas Young vs Bobby Fish (*** - Episode 295)

1) Jay Lethal vs Silas Young vs Adam Page vs Jay White (**** - Episode 293)