McXal's Reviews

Another set of tapings begins, set to capture the aftermath of Death Before Dishonor. Given that we've now entered the final quarter of the year we don't actually have too many shows left before Final Battle 2017 either - so even though there is a big Global Wars 2017 Tour still scheduled, plus Survival Of The Fittest, attention will soon start turning to the year-ending PPV. I hadn't seen anything announced for this episode, so went to Cagematch and saw that we'll get Josh Woods receiving his long-overdue TV Title shot at new champion Kenny King and the Bullet Club putting the Six-Man Tag Titles on the line in the main event. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana are in Las Vegas, NV.

Silas Young opens the show, looking to address his triumph over Jay Lethal at Death Before Dishonor. He shows off the welts and bruises that he sustained in victory, then talks with Beer City Bruiser around how they still haven't found the right partner to challenge for the Six-Man Titles alongside. Their search ends this evening...because Minoru Suzuki has agreed to join them. The Hung Bucks arrive and accept their challenge.

It is an ROH tradition that the winner of the Top Prospect Tournament receives a TV Title shot (although 2016 did break that somewhat as Lio Rush got a World Title shot instead). Josh has had to wait for his opportunity but is now the first in line to face King. Kenny played his part in one of the best matches of his ROH career, securing a memorable TV Title victory over Kushida. The post-match scenes of him celebrating the win with his daughter were very special. But now he is the champion with the target on his back. How will he deal with that pressure?

King plays to his hometown fans...and is dumped on his ass by the dangerous challenger. Kenny does better when he creates some space and stays out Woods' clutches - but keeps going back to ground holds and finding The Goods more than able to counter him. In the end Josh muscles Kenny into a brutal fallaway suplex into the turnbuckles for 2! We cut to commercials after that, and appear to have missed something significant because when we come back King is on top and trying to tap Woods out with the Last Chancery. The Goods tries to go for strikes but finds the champ too quick and too evasive to pin down. Capo kick on the apron knocks Woods to the floor - into the path of Kenny's corkscrew pescado. But incredibly Josh recovers from that and almost knocks him out with a violent knee strike to the jaw. Rolling gutwrench suplexes...into a gutwrench powerbomb for 2! King tries to come off the top and sails straight into a triangle choke. Woods is on the brink of victory...until King tilts his shoulders to the mat and secures victory with a flash pin at 06:27 (shown).

Rating - ** - I liked the premise of this match as it benefited both champion and challenger. The idea was to present Woods as a dangerous fighter, therefore forcing King to utilise his experience and tactical know-how (not always traits we associate with Kenny) to overcome him. That played perfectly into the finish, which saw Josh on the brink of a submission victory but making an error which King instantly capitalised on. My big issue with this was that I don't think the TV edit did them any favours. It seemed to skip a lot of the groundwork establishing Josh as a threat...and without context this felt a lot more like King hitting spots, Josh no-selling them, before Kenny grabbed a quick win out of nowhere.

Kenny grabs a microphone and promises to be a fighting champion, willing to defend the belt against all comers. Enter Shane Taylor, Chuck Taylor, Punishment Martinez and Mark Briscoe. They all want shots...and Kenny is up for the challenge.

NEXT WEEK - Marty Scurll announces that Cody has signed a Ring Of Honor contract. Next week Bullet Club are hosting a special celebration as a result.

At long last we are getting a pay-off for the 'Silas and Bruiser seek a partner' angle. They floated this all the way back to last year when Young and BCB wanted into the tournament to crown the inaugural champions but couldn't get a partner. In Suzuki they have found someone even grumpier than they are. He'll be an even fouler mood than usual after losing to the Hung Bucks' Bullet Club colleague Cody in the Death Before Dishonor main event...

Suzuki uses his actual 'Kaze ni Nare' entrance theme for TV, which is welcome albeit weird that they overdubbed it on PPV. Bruiser starts and is made to look a little foolish by the speed of the Young Bucks. Hangman tags and calls out Suzuki...who f*cking TEARS into him with strikes. It takes all three champions to stop Minoru, only for the Milwaukee to boys step in and apply Suzuki-inspired kimuras to the Jacksons! After commercials we see the three challengers working over Matt Jackson; Silas kicking at his bad back whilst Minoru applies an illegal hanging kneebar off the apron. The relentless Suzuki follows that with a camel clutch in the ropes as well. Matt hits a corkscrew cutter on Young - but that damages his own back so badly he can't make a tag before Beer City is stomping him again. Nick comes to his brother's aid with a running punt on Bruiser...as Matt tags Hangman in. DROP-SAULT on Silas and Bruiser gets 2! Suzuki goes for the Gotch Piledriver...COUNTERED by double Superkicks from the Bucks. Flying crossbody on them by BCB! Matt crumples selling his midsection again. SHOOTING STAR TORPEDO off the apron by Page! CANNONBALL off the apron by Bruiser! Killer Combo by Silas, into the GOTCH PILEDRIVER! KEG SPLASH! BUCKS BREAK THE PIN! Beer City Driver countered with more Superkicks, as the wounded Page gets back to his feet and back into Minoru's face! A huge elbow actually floors Suzuki. Silas' Plunge COUNTERED WITH MORE SUPERKICKS! MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR BY PAGE! SHOOTING STAR INDYTAKER ON THE FLOOR destroys Silas! RITE OF PASSAGE on Bruiser! Page wins the match for his team at an explosive 12:04 (shown).

Rating - **** - It's the Young Bucks in a main event multi-man tag setting, with Minoru Suzuki on the other side of the ring. On paper this looked good and they more than delivered. Not for the first time though, Adam Page was the highlight. His exchanges with Suzuki were solid gold (ROH have a few more dates with Suzuki - they really should book that singles match) and his contributions to the high spot mayhem in the last few minutes were excellent as well. I am a little torn though, because I don't think sharing the ring with the Bucks (and getting roundly decimated by them) did many favours for Silas Young so soon after his big win over Jay Lethal. The whole set-up of this felt very much like the start of his journey back to being a midcard heel. BUT he and Suzuki teaming was a really fun combination.

Minoru Suzuki looks totally annoyed with Bullet Club and his ROH debut weekend. Bruiser makes it worse by blaming him for their defeat...and all three of them end up in a brawl.

Jay Briscoe gets an in-ring promo to end the show - because Bully Ray is apparently so important that he even supersedes the need to have wrestling in the main event of an ROH broadcast. Before he can say much of anything Tommy Dreamer walks out for his first Ring Of Honor appearance in YEARS. Dreamer shares stories of Bully's toughness through the years and admonishes Jay for sending Bully to the hospital with that table shot at Death Before Dishonor, then walks out telling Jay he has made a big mistake...

Tape Rating - *** - I didn't much care for some of the editing choices made by whomever handles production of ROH TV. It was great seeing Dreamer in ROH again, and his impassioned and personal promo was certainly striking...but it shouldn't have been the main event. The Hung Bucks Six-Man Title Match should have gone on last. The positioning of a commercial break at the wrong time really hurt the flow of the King/Woods match too. BUT, issues with Sinclair/booking/production aside - as usual the workers delivered here. Josh and Kenny had a competitive TV Title Match. The Trios Title bout was nuts, and I did enjoy Tommy's appearance. This was a frustrating watch, but a good episode at its core.