McXal's Reviews

This week ROH's best match of their small run in early 2020 airs for free on television. The featured main event sees Jay and Mark Briscoe look to force their way back into the Tag Title picture with a win over Bandido and Flamita. Quinn McKay is our host for another hour of television, with Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman providing live commentary in Baltimore, MD.

These two men made a strong impression during the first two live shows of 2020. Everett went 0-2 but produced outstanding performances against Dragon Lee and Rey Horus. Zayne only worked Honor Reigns Supreme but delivered a spectacular debut victory against Bandido. Now these high flying athletes are thrown together and could steal the show with their theatrics if given the chance.

The match is less than thirty seconds old when we see our first back flip (from Zayne). Everett does a few somersaults of his own...unaware that Alex has countered his attempt at a rana by cartwheeling away. Springboard dropkick knocks Zayne to the floor, and Everett hops up the ropes again seconds later for an effortless springboard corkscrew dive to the outside. INSIDE-OUT CORKSCREW MOONSAULT BY ZAYNE! Everett blocks his flipping sidewalk slam though, hitting a couple of Asai Moonsaults for 2. Alex back flips again, this time to block a chokeslam, and this time does hit the flipping sidewalk facebuster spot. Somersault axe kick gets 2. Crunch Wrap misses, setting up Everett for a Pele Kick. He follows that with a springboard corkscrew splash! Both men battle on the turnbuckles, with Everett looking for a springboard reverse rana. ZAYNE LANDS ON HIS FEET! REVERSE RANA BY EVERETT ANYWAY! Shooting Star Press misses and as Everett reels from that Zayne climbs to hit the Crunch Wrap. Taco Driver wins for Alex at 09:08

Rating - *** - I thought Everett gave a more complete all-round performance here; quickly working out the crowd and understanding what he needed to do to get reactions from them. His character work was pretty much all these guys had to hold together what was a pretty threadbare match populated by little more than two dudes taking turns to flip and somersault on top of each other. 

At the ROH Dojo PJ Black has summoned Brian Johnson for a coaching session. His training seems to involve beating The Mecca to sh*t as well as trying to teach him a new finishing move - which he finally masters and is extremely pleased with. 

Brian Zane lists his Top 5 dream matches for ROH in 2020. I don't think he lists a single match even the most hardened or staunch of 2020 Ring Of Honor fans would consider an actual 'dream' match. 

Josh Woods is excited to tell Silas Young that he has thrown his old jeans out and purchased a matching pair of skinny jeans so they can look the same. Josh also does an INCREDIBLE impression of Silas. The Last Real Man is so pissed off that he decides to go to the airport in his gear instead...

We get highlights of the Jay Briscoe vs Mark Briscoe match from 2002's Honor Invades Boston event. This promotes Past vs Present, scheduled to take place the night after the 18th Anniversary with another Briscoe vs Briscoe match as the main event. 

The Briscoes are looking to get back into the Tag Title picture after losing the belts at Final Battle but (as Caprice points out on commentary) they struggled to overcome luchadors in recent history. That includes losses to teams like Ultimo Guerrero/Rey Bucanero, or Rush & Dragon Lee last year. Bandido also has a singles victory over Jay Briscoe on the Global Wars Espectacular Tour as well. MexaBlood come into this extremely confident having won the Six-Man Championship (with Rey Horus) from Villain Enterprises in Atlanta last month.

Mark is a veteran and immediately grabs a headlock on Flamita so he can't produce any lucha trickery. But Mark is no slouch and matches speed with Flamita as they throw strikes and counters at each other. Bandido tags, and Jay is straight in to meet him with an eye on avenging his singles defeat. He is so pumped he tries to match speed with the masked man...and almost succeeds (until Bandido drills him with a superkick). The Briscoes have seen enough and go 2-on-1 on Bandido. Flamita quickly saves with a handspring elbow though, then gets his partner to assist him into a headscissors on Mark. TOP ROPE SPRINGBOARD MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR by Flamita! Bandido tops it with a SPRINGBOARD SHOOTING STAR PRESS! Back in the ring MexaBlood stack up the Briscoes so Bandido can flip his own partner into a moonsault press onto both of them. Sick Kick/dragon suplex combo on Flamita, immediately putting the Briscoes back in charge...and they haul the match to the outside where they can brawl and fight with the luchadors. Mark wipes them both out with his step-up somersault plancha off a chair...and is so fired up that he hits the same spot a second time because the fans asked for it. CACTUS ELBOW as well; Mark is putting his body through hell to take the fight to his opponents! But as soon as they take the match back to the ring Bandido is able to pop-up off Jay into a flying dropkick at his brother. POP-UP TOPE ATOMICO TO THE FLOOR by Flamita! X-Knee from Bandido to Jay gets 2. 450 Splash by Flamita...and that gets 2 as well! Mark saves with an Iconoclasm on Bandido, followed by a capture belly to belly on Flamita. Redneck Boogie scores - but only gets 2. Flamita shakes off the ill-effects of that and delivers a FROG MISSILE DROPKICK! Bandido then straight-up hurls his own partner at the exposed bodies of the Brisoces in the corner. ASSISTED SPLASH OFF BANDIDO'S SHOULDERS gets 2! Flam goes for a moonsault but sails right into Mark's knees, and Jay is on hand to deliver the Cactus Clothesline moments later. APRON BLOCKBUSTER! Day One Neckbreaker/Froggy Bow combo...only for Bandido to break the pin by spearing through Jay. DUELLING FLAM FLIES BY MEXABLOOD! 21-Plex blocked with a BRAINBUSTER ON THE APRON! Jay drags Flamita out of the corner...DOOMSDAY DEVICE! Briscoes win at 17:52

Rating - ****1/2 - A relentlessly entertaining, exciting and spectacular match quite literally from first bell to last. At times this was actually like watching a Briscoes match from their absolute peak during that 2006-2008 run, when they would deliver incredible high octane matches like this on almost every show. Mark, in particular, bumped like an absolute maniac. We did see the more 'modern day Briscoes' too, as they tried to brawl, fight and slow down the luchadors...but for the most part they were content to throw spots around at machine gun pace along with Bandido and Flamita. The pace this was fought at, for the amount of time it went, made it a must-see spectacle and quite clearly ROH's MOTY up to this point. 

Tape Rating - N/A - ROH is airing Free Enterprise pretty much in its entirety across consecutive weeks of television which means that a months worth of ROH television is skippable for anyone who saw the show for free. For the selective viewers who didn't see Free Enterprise and just like to dip into the TV show from time to time, then I'd suggest that this is the only episode they absolutely need to drop in on. Briscoes vs MexaBlood is an awesome match, Zayne/Everett is a decent ten minute spotty sprint, and you also get Josh Woods' uncannily good Silas Young impression.