McXal's Reviews

This is the 552nd and final ROH TV show on Sinclair Broadcasting stations. After more than ten years, Tony Khan's acquisition of Ring Of Honor means that Sinclair are making this the final instalment in their long-running episodic televised equivalent of ROH wrestling. In truth the format has never really comfortably fit a traditional ROH 'experience'. The ad-heavy, 45-ish minute long shows were just too short, and the taping schedule a constant hindrance meaning they have rarely made themselves 'must-see' in a crowded weekly wrestling television market. Putting it bluntly, the show has been a skeletal husk on life support since the end of 2021 when new content ceased and we began running minimal effort clip shows from the back catalogue. But it would be unfair to say that the show has NEVER been good. There have been periods of time and stretches of episodes where it has genuinely been a strong product. Even as recently as 2020, the Pure Tournament was among the absolute best wrestling television from the empty-arena, pandemic era from any company producing content at that time. We end with a look back at some 'Sinclair-era classics'...

Highlights of Roderick Strong vs Eddie Edwards for the ROH World Title from Manhattan Mayhem 4 are shown

Highlights of Jay Briscoe vs Jay Lethal for the ROH World & TV Titles from Best In The World 2015 are shown

Highlights of Jonathan Gresham vs Dak Draper for the ROH Pure Title from 19th Anniversary Show are shown

Tape Rating - N/A - An odd and eclectic mix of matches to end the ROH on SBG TV show. All are great bouts in their own way, so worth seeking out in full, rather than the succinct clipped versions we are given here. The Briscoe/Lethal BITW 2015 match has been shown in highlight form on TV multiple times so didn't break any new ground there, but the Roddy/Eddie World Title change is still an absolute banger with one of the hottest crowds for a finish in ROH history...and the Gresham/Draper match is an example of the kind of under-rated hidden gems ROH's Pure division was churning out regularly during the empty arena, pandemic era. The Sinclair TV show ended as a viable weekly product in 2021. The vast majority of what we've seen in 2022 has been nothing more than low-cost schedule fillers for Sinclair and they didn't break from that format even for the last episode. It isn't even mentioned anywhere on the broadcast that it's the final show - which is a sad way to go out. How long, I wonder, until we have new ROH content under the AEW umbrella to discuss...