McXal's Reviews

Welcome to Ring Of Honor in 2018. The year of 2017 was a strange one, where the overall quality of show felt strangely more consistent, but the reduction in poor content was balanced out by a similar reduction in truly great moments too. The writing often felt confused, the reliance on the stars of 'Being The Elite' and New Japan guest wrestlers became unhealthy and for long stretches the 'watch-ability' of the TV show itself was really quite poor. Will ROH take steps to address that this year? Given the exodus of talent that we'll see at the end of the year to start AEW you really hope that they do. We actually begin the year with the final TV tapings of 2017 - capturing all the fallout of Final Battle. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana will provide commentary from Philadelphia, PA.

Dalton Castle is out first; sequinned microphone in one hand and World Title belt in the other. He is given a few moments to celebrate but soon Jay Lethal comes out to join him. Dalton jokes that this is the first time Lethal has ever been interested in talking to him and acts like he has no idea what he wants. His antics with The Boys weird Jay out - but Lethal is up front about wanting to be at the top of the list for a title shot. The Franchise leaves...and Punishment Martinez crashes the party. He is the #1 contender and he decimates the champ with South Of Heaven!

Matt Taven is in The Kingdom locker room and lists all the 'heroes' he has beaten. The Kingdom promise to come for every title in 2018...

I'm all for champions wanting to be honourable and defend their belt, particularly in Silas' case where his whole gimmick is that he's a 'real man'. But what on earth has Grimm done to warrant this title shot? He's had two matches, lost them both, looked totally innocuous and barely wrestled ten minutes in his entire ROH career. 

Grimm quickly tries to engage Young on the mat and it's interesting to watch Young quickening the pace to thwart that. He even breaks out a hurricanrana as Simon tries to muscle him up for a powerbomb. A springboard clothesline knocks the former Vaudevillain to the floor as we go to commercials. Back inside the ring Young charges again only to find Grimm poised to drop him with a cross armbreaker. Silas escapes with a devastating strike to the face. European uppercuts from Grimm, which set up a running lariat. Gentleman's Clutch gets 2. Gotch Piledriver countered with a double stomp to the chest though as Young continues to find ways to counter Gotch's signature offence. Cosmic Horror no sold...into Misery. Young retains at 05:04 (shown)

Rating - ** - This was easily Grimm's best performance in an ROH ring, albeit that shouldn't surprise anyone as he has barely been given a chance to showcase his skills in any of his bookings for the company. He looked vaguely threatening here, presented as a dangerous and powerful grappler of such talent that Silas had to adopt a slightly quicker pace and more athletic moveset than he usually favours. The concept was decent, but in five minutes this never felt substantial or memorable at all.

Kenny King interrupts the celebration and is cringingly awful as a babyface. He complains about Silas needing a beer bottle to beat him at Final Battle. He says he's been drinking and wants a fight. Security hold him back before he can lay a hand on either Silas or Beer City Bruiser though.

We've seen Isom and Nova appear on TV as enhancement talents before. Nova actually unsuccessfully challenged Cody for the World Title on television in 2017 and is now back with his ROH Dojo training partner. They face a veteran Briscoes team in the most ominously dangerous headspace they've been in their entire ROH careers. After emerging victorious in a war against Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer at Final Battle, what is on their agenda in 2018?

We JIP with the Briscoes laying out Nova with the double shoulder tackle spot. They take turns smashing into Isom with lariats and finish him with the Froggy Bow at 01:28 (shown).

Rating - N/A - Exactly what it needed to be. A brutal squash to put over the Briscoes (and, since we are taping the night after Final Battle, to ensure they don't have to exert themselves too much after the Street Fight carnage they went through in New York).

Jay Briscoe gloats about ending Bully Ray's career and puts the Motor City Machine Guns on notice that they are coming for the ROH Tag Titles.

In the back Bruiser calms Silas Young down after getting beer spat in his face by King. He congratulates the Last Real Man on being TV Champion, and says that he wants be a champion too. Apparently he has a partner lined up to help him pursue the Tag Titles, which Silas gives his blessing to. I hope that isn't the end of the Silas/Bruiser team permanently...

The Bullet Club locker room is a glum place. The Hung Bucks complain about being attacked by Daniels, Kazarian and Scorpio (now known as SoCal Uncensored) but are happy to give them a shot at the Six-Man Titles if that is what they want.

It's another television main event for Flip, who ended 2017 low on wins but very much a star on the rise thanks to some spectacular in-ring performances. Last time he went 1-on-1 with a Bullet Club member on TV it was to beat Hangman Page in Florida. The Villain will need to be at the top of his game to avoid the same fate.

Flip tries to chain-wrestle with Scurll and surprises his opponent with his technical proficiency. Marty starts FLIPPING to escape! Not to be upstaged, Gordon starts nipping up and back-flipping - confusing The Villain so much he walks into a straight boot to the face. Scurll runs into the crowd to evade Flip trying to dive to the floor, whilst Gordon balances on one-leg on the top rope just to show off. Scurll succeeds in getting the match back in the ring and does his best to kill Gordon's speed with a suplex into the turnbuckles. He holds Gordon down with a stranglehold; which of course he converts to a lungblower when Flip tries to counter. The wrestling has been first rate here...so of course we need to pause for a comedy spot where Todd Sinclair shoves Marty on his ass for arguing. Handstand attempted by Flip...so an understandably pissed off Scurll punts him in his exposed face. He tries to bully Gordon with strikes, but Flip takes his best shots and floors him with a Pele Kick in response. 619 around the ringpost sets up a springboard lariat. Samoan Pop countered so Gordon runs at the ropes and lands the springboard Sling Blade instead. 450 Splash misses...Samoan Pop doesn't! The Villain barely kicks out of that...but shoves him all the way from the top rope to the floor seconds later and superkicks him from the apron too. Chickenwing blocked...Pele ducked...BLACK SUPERKICK! NO SOLD! SUPERKICK! NO SOLD! RUNNING LARIAT! GHOSTBUSTER! Gordon kicks out at 2! Tope suicida by Flip, which is amazingly only used as a transition move for a TOPE ATOMICO! 450 SPLASH! FOR 2! Kinder Surprise COUNTERED TO THE CHICKENWING! Gordon COUNTERS BACK TO THE KINDER SURPRISE! How is that even possible!? Star Spangled Stunner blocked into another GHOSTBUSTER! Scurll wins at 11:22

Rating - **** - What a kickass match to start ROH's 2018 season. Flip had such a strong end to 2017, coming from almost nowhere to deliver a string of great matches in the final quarter of the year. Taped the night after Final Battle, this counts as another in that streak. These two had natural chemistry as opponents - Scurll the Villainous, European-style technician needing to dig deep to overcome the high-flying, deceptively tough babyface Flip. What stood out most to me is that Gordon's athleticism forced Marty to show off a legitimate mean streak. He wasn't flapping his arms, snapping fingers or the like - he was trying to beat the sh*t out of Flip. Be that with strikes or by repeatedly targeting his neck, it was a more vicious side to The Villain (buffoonish clown spot with Sinclair aside) that I thought was fantastic. Coming after a pre-match promo where he talked about wanting his a World Title shot at Dalton Castle it was the kind of stand-out showing that he needed.

Tape Rating - *** - The first episode after a PPV is always a challenging one. The temptation is that you spend so much time wheeling people out to talk about what HAS happened that you forget to keep moving the product forward. This show felt like it struck a decent balance. They gave us great wrestling in the main event, addressed a lot of the major plots coming out of Final Battle and set up future matches for all of the championships - Lethal and Scurll for Castle and the World Title, the Briscoes (plus Bruiser and his partner) for the Machine Guns' Tag Title, Kenny King setting up a rematch for Silas Young and the TV Title, plus the Hung Bucks calling out SCU for the Trios belts. If you watch nothing else from this episode, check out Flip/Marty on Honor Club as it was so much fun.