McXal's Reviews

With Final Battle taking place in mid-December, these tapings will make up the bulk of Ring Of Honor's build for the final PPV of 2017. Dalton Castle returned during the Global Wars Tour and has emerged as a top contender to Cody's ROH Title. New TV Champion Kenny King and Tag Champions the Motor City Machine Guns have challengers lining up - as the title holders vow to face all-comers in a bid to solidify their reputation and legacy. Oh, and The Elite continue to dominate the landscape of independent wrestling. Last week we were told our main event for this show would be Mark Briscoe challenging Kenny King for the TV Title - but plans have changed. We are at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA regardless. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana are on commentary.

Ian and Colt open the show with an announcement that Mark Briscoe's TV Title Match is cancelled, as a result of the horrific elbow injury he suffered on the Global Wars Tour. War Machine's shot at the Tag Titles now replaces it as our main event.

It almost feels like The Dawgs were created so they could replace the Tempura Boyz (now safely back in Japan as Roppongi 3K) on the endless loop of matches with Coast 2 Coast. The Kingdom's Marseglia and O'Ryan join them this evening. Their position on the card tells you the status of these three teams as it currently stands. All three know a win is essential if they want to climb off the bottom rung of the tag division ladder. C2C in particular are developing a reputation for being unable to win matches, despite some impressive performances.

O'Ryan and St. Giovanni start slapping each other to get us started, as Matt Taven joins commentary to discuss his totally illogical conspiracy theories. Ali knocks both of The Dawgs out of the ring, then cleans them out with a somersault plancha. Marseglia hits a springboard tumbleweed senton on top of everyone, soon followed by LSG and the ROPE WALK PHOENIX SPLASH TO THE FLOOR! TK stops a wounded Ali from tagging out to either one of The Dawgs - which works out in Shaheem's favour as it buys him the time he needs to tag LSG instead. The Dawgs give Marseglia the guardrail lariat/apron DDT combo instead. They unleash all their bickering double-team sequences and almost pin Leon. Complete Shot by Ali. He dumps Will in a tree of woe so they can hit the STEREO VAN TERMINATORS! Even out of sync (as that was) that looked pretty awesome. The Kingdom profit, grabbing LSG for the House Of A Thousand Horses and grabbing the win at 06:14 (shown).

Rating - ** - An enjoyably functional opening match. The Kingdom 'conspiracy' angle isn't particularly interesting, but I thought Taven did a good job pushing it on commentary. In the ring The Dawgs did the same relatively fun undercard act they've brought to the table for the last few weeks and were fine. Coast 2 Coast, as they usually do, provided a couple of awesome high spots...and The Kingdom grabbed a win as the biggest 'names' in the fight. I really would like to see more of C2C. They've had variants on this match countless times in 2017. I know nothing about their characters or motivations, I don't know how good they actually are. All I know is that Shaheem is relatively athletic and powerful, and that LSG can dive to the floor pretty effectively.

The Kingdom get on the microphone and remind everyone that they beat Search & Destroy a few weeks ago and haven't been awarded a 2-vs-2 Tag Title shot - although they did get a triple threat shot at the Pittsburgh Global Wars show. TK then comes out and says they haven't had a Six-Man Title rematch since he broke his leg either...which is a barefaced lie because they just had a shot at The Elite for those belts on the Global Wars Tour as well. 

Up next we see footage of Dalton Castle returning from injury to blind-side World Champion Cody Rhodes in Chicago...

Flip Gordon bemoans his treatment at the hands of Bullet Club on 'Being The Elite'. Fed up of the 'harmless ribs', he promises to get some friends to take the fight back to Bullet Club...

Cody is out next and wants to give the Philly fans a World Title Match tonight. Of course the tease is Dalton Castle - but he isn't in the building. Instead the #1 contender is ROH Dojo trainee Ryan Nova...

The American Nightmare is now regularly defending his title in joke matches for television. It started with Cheeseburger on Episode 317, then Scorpio Sky last week. Ian and Colt make the point that he isn't convincingly beating enhancement talents so isn't as dominant a champion as it may seem. It is getting his American Nightmare Lock over as a finisher though...

Nova tries to EAT the 'Ring' Of Honor rather than kiss it, unnerving Cody so much that the youngster almost shocks him with a schoolboy pin. Irate, Cody instantly hits back with Cross Rhodes, but then pulls Nova's shoulders off the canvas rather than pin him. American Nightmare Lock forces Ryan to tap out at 01:13

Rating - N/A - I don't have a problem with these squash defences. I didn't need Cheeseburger's to go on for as long as it did, but they are clearly serving a bigger purpose. It fleshes Cody's character as an arrogant asshole champion out further (even if fans cheer him most of the time anyway), and it is being used to help him establish a new submission finisher too. Here the match hardly took any time up at all, and continued laying the groundwork for Dalton Castle as Cody's Final Battle opponent.

Speaking of Dalton Castle - his music hits and he struts onto the stage wielding a pink, sequin-covered microphone. He calls Cody's title reign 'lacklustre' and a waste of the most expensive contract in ROH history. Cody retorts that Dalton can't beat him, and with false-benevolence offers to 'make a call' and get Castle a 'developmental contract'. The Peacock's answer is to attack the World Champion with the Bang-A-Rang. 

Clips of Bully's 'retirement speech' at Global Wars 2017 Chicago are shown. From there we go to clips of Lethal's high profile wins over Frankie Kazarian, Jay White and Hiromu Takahashi on the Global Wars Tour. Lethal says his motivation is to be the 'greatest wrestler in the world' - and to be called that he needs to get his ROH World Championship back...

Footage of Mark Briscoe's elbow injury is shown. Mark is angry that his title shot is cancelled, and even with a cast on his arm demands that he gets his match next week. Jay Briscoe interrupts and criticises his little brother for going after singles titles and reminds him how many times he has lost TV Title shots in the past. Mark storms off as Jay reminds him that they are a tag team...

NEXT WEEK - Best Friends vs The Addiction to determine who challenges for the Tag Titles at Final Battle. A series of matches to determine three challengers for a four-way TV Title Match at Final Battle also kicks off next week.

In Atlanta Hanson and Rowe showed a change in attitude. Fed up at not being given the respect in ROH that they are shown everywhere else around the world, they announced that they are through playing by the rules and demanded a title shot. Those claims were backed up with a big win over the Killer Elite Squad on the Global Wars Tour. They feel that they have been largely boxed out of the ROH Tag Title picture despite the 'domination' they've demonstrated around the globe. Even though they lost to the Machine Guns on Episode 303, the reward for this bad behaviour and attitude is an immediate title shot...make sense of that booking if you can.

FALLOUT NAILED! Rowe almost pins Sabin in the first twenty seconds! Shelley eats Shotgun Knees as punishment for breaking the pin...right before Rowe hurls Hanson ass-first into Alex's face. The challengers brutalise Shelley, with Sabin still out on his feet after eating Fallout earlier. He recovers sufficiently to jump off Alex's back into a dropkick on Rowe. Through-the-legs tope up the aisle fells both challengers! Missile dropkick/Shellshock combo gets 2. They try to isolate Rowe but there are a number of examples of the early onslaught from War Machine really throwing the Guns off their game. They are slower and keep messing things up. Rowe counters a step-up avalance to Cement Mixer Shelley right on top of Sabin. Sesame Street corner clotheslines by Hanson. Judo Knee strike on Sabin! Turnbuckle Shellshock on Rowe! HANDSPRING ELBOW by big Hanson! ASCS Rush by the champs, then the Dream Sequence to follow. Hanson blocks Skull & Bones...for THOR'S HAMMER! ELBOW SUICIDA! War Machine set-up Fallout again...but out come their old enemies The Addiction mouthing off on the microphone and spraying silly string all over the ring. War Machine fight them away, but Sabin naps Rowe for a jack-knife pin to retain at 09:55 (shown).

Rating - *** - This was a really good match, ruined by yet another overbooked finish. ROH was created to stand against this type of wrestling going out on TV every week, but now have come what they once hated the most. Can we seriously not get a better way to get The Addiction over as heels than to keep pulling this? But, as stated, the actual wrestling was good. War Machine look far better when they are allowed to be unpredictable monsters (rather than the goofy caricatures they've been since their feud with The Addiction in 2016) - and for the most part that is how they came off here. That is until Daniels and Kaz showed up to make them look like fools all over again. 

Tape Rating - ** - Functional wrestling television rather than GOOD wrestling television this week. Final Battle is clearly at the forefront of our minds now and the show works better when it has some purpose. The Cody/Dalton segment was very effective. The main event was good as a wrestling match but more effective as a reminder that we are supposed to boo Daniels and Kazarian as much as possible. Arguably the most interesting thing on the entire episode, however, was the brief Briscoes backstage segment. In a 45-minute wrestling television show I don't know that a promo lasting less than two minutes should really be the best part. ROH television is really off the boil right now.