McXal's Reviews

2018 has been, if nothing else, an interesting year for Ring Of Honor. The quality of their major pay-per-view offerings vastly improved - something I've not seen the promotion get nearly enough credit for. But on the flip side when it came to angles and storylines you could really engage with, there was a something of a stark drought. And it ends with the superstars responsible for delivering the biggest gates in ROH history - The Elite - leaving to form their own promotion taking a huge chunk of the roster with them. 2019 will dawn with a great deal of uncertainty, masked by one sell-out date at Madison Square Garden...but for the last two weeks of TV in 2018 we'll look back at some of the highlights of the past year. This week it is the men, whilst next week it will be a Women Of Honor best of. Your host is Ian Riccaboni

Ian calls 2018 the most financially successful year in ROH history, and singles out Supercard Of Honor as the largest crowd they've ever drawn. That crowd was thanks, in no small part, to Cody vs Kenny Omega. They air the climactic few minutes of that encounter...

Next we spotlight the ROH TV Title picture with the belt bouncing between Silas Young and Kenny King, then onto Punishment Martinez...before Jeff Cobb arrived and dealt Martinez such a crushing loss he left the company immediately. The Martinez/Cobb title change match is shown in full and remains, if nothing else, extremely impactful television.

We receive a brief spotlight on Matt Taven, The Kingdom and the 'conspiracy'. The fact that Taven and his allies are featured is a telling sign of things to come for ROH in 2019. To further put Taven over they air the concluding moments of Kingdom winning the Six-Man Title back from Cody and the Bucks at Survival Of The Fittest (i.e. putting him over the departing biggest draws the promotion has ever had...)

Jay Lethal receives a spotlight next. A video montage shows him avenging past losses on his journey to becoming a two-time ROH Champion. The final couple of minutes from the Castle/Cody/Taven/Lethal four-way title match in Fairfax are broadcast as the pay-off. It's a nice piece, but completely overlooks his greatest matches in 2018 - the trilogy vs Gresham, vs Dalton at the 16th Anniversary and vs Haskins at Honor Re-United - all of which were stone cold classics and clear MOTYC's.

The show wraps with Briscoes vs Bucks at Best In The World aired almost in full. It also remains a stunning match and, as with Taven earlier, features ROH spotlighting talent they want to build 2019 around (the Briscoes) going over the departing Elite guys.

Tape Rating - N/A - I wasn't the biggest fan of this episode. It didn't feel like an effective 'best of' at all, but instead a scattergun and haphazard clip-show which looked past a lot of the best work ROH did in 2018 and instead made sure that Cody and the Young Bucks got as much screen-time as possible, alongside delivering propaganda messages about the direction of ROH's product in 2019. It certainly wasn't BAD at all. They generously showed near enough all of the outstanding Briscoes/Bucks Best In The World match. That is worth tuning in by itself if you hadn't already seen it. Cobb's demolition of Punishment Martinez made for powerful television when it aired the first time, and moved me again second time around. I just felt the tone of this was a little cynical, calculated...and mis-judged.