McXal's Reviews

We are now right in the aftermath of Best In The World 2017, with a dangerous new threat sitting atop the mountain as ROH World Champion. Cody Rhodes, proudly proclaiming to be a free agent, now holds the top prize in the company. This is the taping that took place 24 hours after the PPV, in the very same building. We know this week we'll be seeing a continuation of the Kingdom vs CMLL rivalry that we saw at BITW too - as Matt Taven faces veteran luchador Ultimo Guerrero. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana provide commentary for the action taped in Lowell, MA. They sound suspiciously like they've taped this in post-production though...

Cody opens the show complaining about the attack he suffered at the hands of Christopher Daniels last week in Chicago. He promises that we'll see him live and in the ring as our 'leader and World Champion'. 

Coast 2 Coast and Flip defeated Cheeseburger and the Tempura Boyz in a Best In The World dark match and so are immediately rewarded with the chance to share the ring with the new Six-Man Tag Champions. Dalton & The Boys winning is arguably one of the biggest upsets in ROH history. Now they have the gold they need to back it up - and need to defeat low-level teams like their opponents for the evening...

Flip starts with Castle, in a bizarre duel of posing and athleticism. Dalton puts a halt to that by punching Flip right in the mouth! He starts throwing Boys at his opponents, until Gordon lands on his feet off a suplex attempt and boots Dalton with the Kinder Surprise. C2C clear the ring of the Boys, allowing Shaheem to hit the somersault plancha. ROPE RUN SPRINGBOARD 450 TO THE FLOOR BY FLIP! He and his partners isolate Boy #1, culminating in Gordon hitting the TWISTING Frog Splash! #2 pulls a switcheroo with #1 behind the referee's back...and makes a hot tag to Castle. He looks to hit the Everest German on Flip, but has to settle for cradle suplexes on both Ali and LSG instead when they try to make a save. Catatonic from Ali to Boy#1! Gordon lunges off the apron with a cannonball senton! SPRINGBOARD CORKSCREW PLANCHA by St. Giovanni! Dalton hits the ring with a back drop driver on LSG. Bang-A-Rang finishes him. The champs win at 08:45 (shown).

Rating - ** - I don't think they needed two separate dive sequences in this. The whole match would've felt tighter and more fun if they'd snipped a couple of minutes off (see, I don't just complain about wanting longer matches) and condensed the good material they had here into a smaller package. Dalton and Flip looked great here though and that, I felt, was largely the point. Castle comes off like a wrestling machine - fending off three opponents almost single-handedly at times. Whilst Gordon just comes off like a tremendously exciting young prospect. Raw and a little devoid of charisma for sure, but really spectacular to watch. 

After the break we get a replay of the Best In The World beatdown Jay Lethal suffered at the hands of Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser. We go to a promo from Silas taped outside the hospital that Lethal was rushed to for medical treatment. He thinks he won the war, if not the battle...

This is an issue which started during Matt's time in CMLL and has spilled Stateside on a couple of occasions. 'Team CMLL' of Ultimo and El Terrible defeated Taven and Vinny Marseglia at Best In The World. Taven will be desperate not to let his rival Guerrero return to Mexico with an unblemished record for the weekend...

Cabana describes Ultimo as having a 'thick veteran body'. He uses that size and weight to make it difficult for the taller, but leaner Taven as they work the mat. Vinny Marseglia and TK O'Ryan are both at ringside and try to help their partner out by distracting Ultimo. It doesn't work well - Guerrero absolutely decks him with a running lariat for 2. TK creates another distraction though, and allows Matt to hit a springboard enzi from the apron to the floor. Guerrero fights back outside...and clobbers Taven over the guardrails! GUARDRAIL LEAPING TACKLE INTO THE CROWD! It wasn't pretty, but as we cut to commercials the luchador has Taven smeared all over the floor of the arena. Back in the ring Matt misses a Lionsault and is squashed again with a headstand Bronco Buster. Guerrero tries that a second time though, only to find it countered into a Sharpshooter. Ultimo escapes and lands an avalanche gourdbuster for 2. Next Taven tries a super rana...and find it countered into an Awesome Bomb for another nearfall. Guerrero Special blocked into the Five Star Frog Splash for 2. Pulpo Guerrero locked in, but Taven counters it into a pinfall and almost wins it. Unseen low blow sets up the Climax. Taven wins at 10:17 (shown)

Rating - ** - In Ring Of Honor television terms this was a long match, and it certainly felt it. I enjoyed some of the action, Taven brought good intensity and Ultimo got the crowd going at times but the presentation as a whole didn't do much to capture my attention. Guerrero didn't seem interested in selling or putting Taven over at all. As a result the whole thing had an odd vibe where Guerrero dominated long stretches, Taven would hit a token move...but then Ultimo would get right up off the ground and go back to dominating. The right man won, somewhat making up for Team CMLL going over on the PPV. This didn't feel like the right opponent or environment to showcase Ultimo Guerrero, at this stage of his career, to an American market at all however.

NEXT WEEK - The Briscoes and Bully Ray face the Young Bucks and Hangman Page. It was supposed to be a Six-Man Title Match so the Bullet Club are pissed off at missing out on title shot. Matt reassures the fans that their 'voyage' to becoming Trios Champions isn't over. He also promises us he'll Superkick Bully so hard he won't be able to say '90's cliché catchphrases' anymore.

In the studio Silas celebrates fifteen days since Jay Lethal has been seen (being taken to hospital at Best In The World). He vows that Lethal will 'never' be safe in ROH...

This could be great, or it could be terrible, entirely dependent on which version of each team shows up. Will it be the smart, calculating and still capable version of the veteran junior heavyweight team the Machine Guns...or the world-weary, fatigued and depressingly slow version? And will it be the NJPW, all-action, bearded bruiser version of War Machine or the neutered, goofball, count-along spot version of Hanson and Rowe they started to become in ROH (before escaping to Japan)? Ian Riccaboni has driven the point home a lot recently that Sabin and Shelley have never been ROH Tag Champions. Now they've eradicated The Rebellion, do they now turn their attention to righting that wrong? A big win over former ROH and IWGP Tag Champions would definitely re-establish their title credentials.

Sabin starts with Hanson, his offence not having any impact at all on the big man. Shelley has the same experience with Rowe...and walks into the Superman Punch. Shotgun Knee on Sabin right after. War Machine are in total control with Shelley captured and unable to tag out. Sabin decides to come in and help his partner out. Together the Machine Guns quicken the pace, land some combo moves and finally get some momentum going. Diving knee/running senton combo sends both Hanson and Rowe sprawling on the outside. Missile dropkick/Shellshock combo gets 2. In the end Rowe gets bored of having combo moves done to him...and catches Sabin with a CEMENT MIXER ON TOP OF SHELLEY! Hanson gets the hot tag and scores with the Sesame Street body avalanches. Decapitation gets 2. Sabin blocks a double chokeslam attempt, then dodges Fallout to knock Hanson off the top rope. Hanson is quickly back in the fight, however, and gives both Machine Guns a double suplex. Turnbuckle Shellshock on Rowe! Cartwheel Lariat COUNTERED to the standing Shiranui by Alex. Rowe blocks forearm strikes with his head...so is put down with the Dream Sequence. Skull & Bones countered to a DOUBLE belly to belly suplex by Ray! Thor's Hammer nailed! Hanson MISSES an elbow suicida! He ate a whole heap of floor on that! ASCS Rush on Rowe, followed by the through-the-legs tope by Sabin. MADE IN DETROIT! Machine Guns win at 12:10 (shown)

Rating - *** - This was a really solid free-for-television main event. Both teams probably have a better match in them but showed their veteran instincts to deliver something that was functional throughout, occasionally pretty exciting, but without exhausting the crowd for the rest of the taping. This definitely felt more like the ROH version of War Machine than NJPW's, but you can never accuse Hanson and Rowe of not working hard. They were as intense as you needed them to be and made impressive foes for the Machine Guns to conquer. The idea here is that ROH want to reignite Sabin and Shelley as a team having been (at best) only semi-active through the first half of 2017. They needed a statement win, and they got one here. Neither team's best work, but for the setting and for where they both were at this point in their ROH careers I thought this was pretty decent.

Tape Rating - ** - Certainly an episode you can skip with ease and miss very little. In some ways Silas Young was the most entertaining part of this show, and he featured only in two very brief interview skits. But to praise the positives, this wasn't a difficult episode to sit through. Taven/Guerrero dragged a little, but the show still felt like it passed by quickly in a smooth and easily digestible package. There are worse ways for Honor Club members to spend fifteen minutes on the internet than to watch the main event which I really did like.