McXal's Reviews

Ring Of Honor moves on to Florida for 'Sunshine State Excellence' and the final TV taping on the road to Final Battle 2017. The big match announced for this episode is Motor City Machine Guns defending the Tag Titles against The Kingdom's Vinny Marseglia and TK O'Ryan - which was actually taped at the 'Elite' live show the night before in Fort Lauderdale. We'll also see Bullet Club's Marty Scurll and Hangman Page in action. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana are in Lakeland, FL.

Well this is a clash of styles. The ultra-technical, villainous European style of Marty Scurll against the size and brawling of the Bruiser. Marty is on his way to Final Battle for a big match against Jay Lethal, so how better to prepare than to face one of the men Lethal has been at war with for most of the year?

Bruiser has no interest in Scurll's games - and quite literally throws him out of the ring rather than lock up. Marty comes back and uses some old Nigel McGuinness tricks to bate BCB into some European-style chaining...which drives the Bruiser out of the ring in return. Marty makes an error in pursuing BCB to the floor though. Bruiser is happy brawling on the floor and slaps The Villain around...until he MISSES a running senton and splatters himself through the guardrail. Back from commercials with Bruiser blocking the Finger Snap and heading up the ropes. KEG SPLASH MISSES! Jay Lethal is on the stage scouting Scurll - and Marty heckles him as he snaps BCB's arm over the top rope. Tornado hammerlock DDT scores, the he drops a double axe over the arm as Beer City leans on the ropes trying to get back up. Bruiser is so big that he is hard for someone of Marty's size to hurt though. Even one-armed he gets up off the canvas and mows Scurll down with a lariat. He goes for a Banzai Drop, countered with a POWERBOMB out of the corner by The Villain! ROLLING CANNONBALL OFF THE APRON MISSES! Bruiser is flat on the ground and landed on his bad arm too. Marty encourages Todd Sinclair to count him out...but BCB rolls in at the count at 19. Octopus Stretch on the bad arm, but again the size of BCB means he's able to walk away. He's also too big to put the Chickenwing on! Bruiser accidentally clobbers the ref going for a body avalanche, and moments later Marty rams his bad arm and shoulder into the ringpost. He gestures at Lethal then DESTROYS Beer City with his umbrella. Scurll wins at 07:58

Rating - **** - This was a f*cking GREAT TV match and comfortably the best Bruiser singles match of his ROH career. I'm sure people will be a little sceptical about me going this high on the rating - but for me this ticked all the boxes for a good free television bout. The story was concise and enjoyable (Scurll's technical skill and how it matched up to the sheer size of BCB), Bruiser took some massive bumps for a guy of his size and perhaps the biggest testament I can pay it is that they actually found a way to use a ref bump finish in a smart, relevant way. Scurll challenged Jay Lethal for Final Battle and goaded him that he is no longer the ruthless, does-whatever-it-takes performer that saw him become World Champion in 2015. By taunting him (as he stood in the aisle), demonstrating that he is villainous, and he is willing to do anything to get a win, it made a really powerful statement. A real little gem of a match...

SOARING EAGLE CUP - Still my pleas for ROH to release this VOD onto Honor Club go unanswered (even though it was clearly taped), so the Soaring Eagle Cup show remains the only show I've not been able to review. Highlights of Dalton Castle defeating Frankie Kazarian, Matt Taven and Silas Young to win the Soaring Eagle Cup are shown.

Dalton Castle gets a sit-down interview and he does an effective job of maintaining his gimmick but also talking from the heart about where he's come from and what he wants to accomplish at Final Battle. He slams Cody for having to dress up as a Boy to beat him at The Experience, talks about what he learned from losing to Chris Daniels for the World Title at Supercard Of Honor (where Cody attacked him again) and bemoans the backstage attack in Scotland which put him on the injured list. He gets payback for everything Rhodes has done to him at Final Battle

NEXT WEEK - Cody and Dalton will be face-to-face for a contract signing...

We see the Briscoes invade The Briscoes invade the Team 3D Academy looking for Bully Ray but can't find him (or D-Von). They beat down the students, smash up the Dudley office...then Jay cuts a deranged ranting promo at a poster of Bubba. Crazy Jay is by far the best version of his character...

COLEMAN'S PULPIT - Things get even stranger than Jay Briscoe ranting at a poster, as Caprice Coleman interviews HIMSELF. Coleman tells himself that he denies being jealous of Kenny King, but stands by his comments that King has been given opportunities because of his higher profile...and calls him a prostitute again. 

Back to Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana, who announce that Ray Rowe has been suspended after the incident involving a fan in Philadelphia.

Even with a scheduled title defence against the Best Friends at Final Battle signed, the Machine Guns want to be fighting champions and are defending their belts as much as possible. The Kingdom beat MCMG in Las Vegas on Episode 317 of the TV show (in a trios match also including Matt Taven and Jon Gresham) so feel like they've earned this title shot and were being held back from receiving it until now by the 'conspiracy' against them. As per my usual 'Road Rage' format - this review is copied and pasted from my review of the full show, so won't capture any edits/clips made for TV formatting.

The Kingdom attack before the bell; they've started to make a habit of that. It is nothing the veteran champions haven't seen before though and they quickly drive both opponents out of the ring for tandem pescado dives. Scrapping on the floor is probably better suited to The Kingdom though as it allows them to negate the technical skill and tag team prowess of the Machine Guns. Smartly Shelley and Sabin bring it back into the ring and instantly get the upper hand with a flurry of double-teams. Missile dropkick/flatliner combo gets 2 on TK. Shelley dragon screws his broken leg and orders Sabin to join him so they can apply stereo Figure 4 Leglocks. O'Ryan's leg is badly hurt, preventing him from running the ropes and causing him to collapse to the floor. It isn't quite as bad as he makes out though - it lures Sabin into a spinebuster, which Marseglia follows with a tope suicida. It allows them to isolate Shelley for several minutes...with such success that they find a lot of time to pose and taunt the fans. Alex eventually tricks O'Ryan into a misplaced spear on his own partner, setting up the hot tag to Sabin. Through-the-legs tope nailed, putting both challenges on the arena floor. Marseglia blocks Skull & Bones, allowing the Kingdom to hit the Twist Of Fate/Redrum combo for 2. House Of A Thousand Horses gets 2 as well - but only because Shelley lunged in at the last second to break the pin. Vinny grows frustrated and brings his axe into the ring, mostly to cause a distraction so TK can use his bat! But O'Ryan accidentally clocks his own partner...then gets taken out with the Dream Sequence. Double Rubix Cube beats Marseglia at 12:40

Rating - ** - My issue here wasn't that I thought it was a bad match, but more that I found it bland and pretty devoid of excitement. The challengers were not presented particularly credibly. On offence they messed around and posed to the fans as much as they did anything interesting. I never felt they looked threatening enough to beat MCMG...and as with every one of their matches they resorted to bringing in their signature weapons because they couldn't win by themselves. Shelley and Sabin tried to work a fast-based, spot-heavy style when I'd have preferred them to slow it down and showcase more of their technical prowess. Shelley is a terrific worker. This would have been far more interesting had they gone down the route of him picking apart TK's recently-healed leg (as they teased, but then abandoned) rather than a generic, formulaic tag which relied heavily on Sabin's high-flying/athletic moves - which in 2017 just aren't that impressive.

This episode has been jammed so full of content that there is almost no time for these guys already. Our main event this evening sees Gordon continue to stand up to the Being The Elite cast-members who have mounted a sustained campaign of bullying against him. He has repeatedly proved his worth and his potential to ROH audiences in recent months - but he is another character looking for a signature victory to hang his hat on. Is tonight the night?

Flip refuses to shake hands for obvious reasons, but does namedrop Joey Ryan (who returned to ROH over Survival Of The Fittest weekend) to piss Hangman off. He gets in Page's head some more with pointless flips...but turns his back and gets thrown out of the ring. DUELLING SOMERSAULT DIVES off the apron! TOP ROPE MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR misses! Gordon cartwheels across the apron, hits a superkick and lands a flying moonsault outside at the second time of asking. He even tries to hit the Buckshot Lariat on Page...who sees it coming and almost takes his head off with a mafia kick. Fed up of the flipping, he hangs Gordon in a tree of woe and punts him in the face again. SPRINGBOARD TREE OF WOE DROPKICK off a chair to the apron! Another emphatic strike driven straight into Flip's skull. Samoan Pop blocked...quebrada dodged...but Flip nips-up into a Pele. Page tries a powerbomb but Flip even finds a way to somersault out of that too - into a victory roll for 2. SPRINGBOARD super rana! Red Star Press gets another nearfall for Gordon. TOP ROPE MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR BY PAGE! Rite Of Passage blocked...into a Superkick duel. Samoan Pele! STAR SPANGLED STUNNER! Huge win for Flip at 07:42 (shown).

Rating - *** - Way too short for a match which I felt should have been treated with more importance. This was Flip Gordon's big first win over Bullet Club. It deserved more than seven minutes. This was brilliant fun for how long it got though. Flip is a box of tricks and Hangman was unrelentingly fantastic as a thug trying to knock seven shades of sh*t out of him. It's sad that Hangman has been reduced this though...

Matt Jackson sneaks out disguised as a referee so he can raise Flip's hand in victory. Obviously this is just set-up so he can hit the 'where to you think you're going' line...and Nick lays out Gordon with another 'welcome to Ring Of Honor' Superkick. Meanwhile in gorilla Cody rants that Flip won't take the Bullet Club's Six-Man Titles at Final Battle - just like Dalton won't become World Champion.

Tape Rating - *** - I really liked this episode. It was utterly packed, and I can't say that I liked the Machine Guns/Kingdom Tag Title Match anymore in TV clipped form than I did when reviewing the full live event...but I couldn't help but admire the ambition this broadcast had. We got a couple of really good, albeit brief, wrestling matches; Marty/Bruiser in particular was well-worth watching. The Briscoes invaded the Team 3D wrestling school, Caprice interviewed himself, Dalton showed real heart and personality in his interview. There's something for everyone here.