Event Review: ROH Reach For The Sky Show 2 - The Young Bucks v Marty Scurll & Will Ospreay

On 19th November, Ring of Honor headed to Leicester, England for the very first time for the stop two of the Reach for the Sky Tour at the Leicester Community Sports Arena. The show was main event by The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) defending the World Tag Team Championships against "The Villain" Marty Scurll & World Television Champion Will Ospreay, whilst old rivals reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) and The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) met two on two for the first time in two years and World Champion Adam Cole was opposite Chris Sabin. The likes of The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian), Alex Shelley, Joe Hendry, Dalton Castle and Lio Rush were all featured on the undercard. 

Venue & Crowd - It was my first time at the Leicester Community Sports Arena and I was impressed with the venue itself, which had a great set-up, but it was probably a little too big for this particular event. Whilst there was a relatively sizable crowd, around half of the bleachers were covered and there was plenty of empty seats. Leicester seemed like a slightly odd choice when only running three shows in England and perhaps the event would have drawn better in Birmingham. The crowd on hand though was a lively and appreciative bunch for the most of the event and I get the feeling that this may have been many people's first ever show, as a lot of the earlier matches were getting big pops for relatively simple things. There were a few people heckling at points, which ranged from mildly funny to rude and then homophobic. There's no place for that at wrestling show or anywhere else. 

The main event saw The Young Bucks retain their World Tag Team Champions over World Television Champion Will Ospreay and "The Villain" in a must-see spectacular. This match could have easily been a let down, because fan expectations were so high. I never should have doubted these four gentleman as they delivered one of the silliest spectacles that I've seen this year. This was advertised as a "Dream Match" and it had pretty much everything that you'd want to see as the four personalities collided. There were superkicks from Nick and Matt, there was faux superkicks and villainous antics from Marty and there was flips and tricks from Will. That's is, of course, a horrendous over simplification of how this match played out, because there was so much more that went into it, but it was on these pre-established traits that the rest of the match would orbit around. All the trademark moments that one would expect from the two teams came flying out at breakneck speed, in a style that one might associate more with Reseda, California than Leicester, East Midlands! 

The final stretch of the contest brought together a number of elements that had been introduced throughout the bout as the Young Bucks went for their Meltzer Driver on Scurll for the second time in the match, with Ospreay managing to meet a Jackson on the top rope, but instead of the forearm that The Aerial Assassin used earlier in the match, he pulled out a rana, that sent the Jackson straight into the Meltzer Driver. Like what the fuck? How does that even happen? These guys are made of magic or some shit. If that description doesn't make much sense it's probably because it's not actually physically possible and it was a mass hallucination. That's kind of how I felt watching this entire match. Like none of what these four blokes did was actual real. Too much silliness. How? This was just a glimpse at the potential of Marty Scurll and Will Ospreay in ROH. Imagine what kind of stuff they'll be able to do once the Villain and Aerial Assassin characters are firmly entrenched within the storytelling potential that the companies set-up allows for. 

reDRagon remained The Briscoes bogie team as Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly walked out victorious in the first 2v2 meeting between the teams in almost two years. This was a good solid, face v face tag encounter, that went twenty minutes and never outstayed it's welcome. After some initial comedy from Fish bumping off Mark's redneck kung-fu, the match settled into a nice pace that displayed a number of different styles that the four are capable of. There was hard strikes, smooth transitions, some scrappy brawling and some tough submission work. These two teams could have good matches with each other with their eyes closed and with an arm or two tied behind their back. There's clearly a level of understanding between all four, best seen in the swift sequence between Mark and O'Reilly, where Jay came seemingly out of nowhere with a Death Valley Driver.

Where the match didn't quite reach it's full potential for me was that as soon as things seemed to be heading into the next gear, that sense of momentum that the contest had was halted because The Young Bucks were out on the entrance ramp. It was cool to see these shows get brought into the ongoing stories of the promotion, as Young Bucks and The Briscoes will clash on 2nd December with the straps on the line, but there's no doubt that a more exciting finishing stretch could have been created without the distraction. That lack of top gear held the match back from living up to the potential that I think many had expected it to cash in on. Twenty minutes is a long time to invest into a contest that features all the important action in it's last few minutes and it was hard not to come away from this feeling like it could have been much more than it was.

Adam Cole successfully defended the World Championship against Chris Sabin in a paint-by-numbers clash, that displayed both just well enough to satisfy. The opening exchange perhaps offered the best action of the contest as the pair went back and forth in a number of mirror image spots that concluded with a pair of enziguiris. From there the match came along nicely, taking stops at Cole's Figure Four Leg Lock and rolling through a couple of near falls, but nothing seemed to stay long to create an overall arc for the bout, beyond that initial exchange. There were hints that it could move onto another level, with a gear changing sequence of superkicks and lariats and both men got a solid near fall on the other as Sabin came close with Cradle Shock, whilst Cole seemed to have things done and dusted with a Panama Sunrise. 

There was, of course, one problem that the pair were always going to struggle to overcome and that was that Cole was clearly never going to lose, especially with the title on the line. When you've got a crowd as savvy as the ROH audience tends to be, that can take a little bit of the energy out of an audience and that can in turn take a little bit of energy out of the match itself. Sabin hasn't had the most fruitful time as a singles competitor in ROH lately, losing his last three singles bouts to Frankie Kazarian, Colt Cabana and Jay Lethal, so it was always clear that this was nothing but a "warm-up" bout for Cole's clash with Lethal in London the next night. Whilst the story managed to wrap itself up nicely, with Cole having to resort to a low blow to set up his victory with the Last Shot, I never felt like I could fully buy into it and therefore always felt at least one step removed from what was going on in the ring.

The Addiction's victory over the make-shift tandem of Dalton Castle and Delirious lead me to write such notes as "Just Fun" and "Japes" and that probably tells you how this match went down. The clash wouldn't have looked out of place on an Attack! Pro Wrestling show as Daniels, Kazarian, Castle, Delirious and even referee Todd Sinclair got involved in some mad chicanery, that the crowd ate it up. Seeing Sinclair throwing out a hip toss felt even more bizarre, because it came from a company like ROH, which isn't particularly known for it's funnies. Castle attempting to instigate fisticuffs by shouting "Fight. Fight. Fight" as if on a primary school playground popped me in a place I didn't know it was possible to be popped. However, when things did get more serious, the athletic performance level was there to back up the comedic performance level. Castle's hot tag sequence and the double teams from The Addiction were just the final flurry that the match needed with the wonderful Best Meltzer Ever (Double jump moonsault spike kneeling reverse piledriver) acting as the proverbial cherry.

In the opener, Jay White remained undefeated one on one with a victory over newcomer Joe Hendry, in a solid, yet unspectacular encounter. After the initial excitement of Hendry's theme getting an ROH remix, the clash struggled to grip me throughout it's earlier exchanges and whilst nothing was particularly bad, there was nothing to get the crowd pumped up. I felt like this match needed someone to grab hold of it and create a sense of direction for it. The pair remained more or less babyfaces throughout the entire contest and whilst there were glimpses of Hendry's overbearing "Local Hero" character coming through, this match was in desperate need of someone to take control and grab the audience. Things picked up towards the finish, with White hitting a tasty suicide dive and as well as Hendry catching White coming off the top rope into Freak of Nature (Fallaway Slam). There's potential for these two have a better match in a different environment, with both more settled into their ROH roles, but whilst it was probably a bit too long and out of place as the opener, there's no doubt that this was a decent, watchable bout, by two competitors who will only continue to grow over the next few years. 

Jay Lethal was victorious over Alex Shelley in a good match, that was the first meeting between the two since 2009. It was surprisingly Lethal's first victory over Shelley in ROH, after Shelley won the previous two bouts in 2004. The bout was structured well, with Lethal constantly attempting to hit a suicide dive, with Shelley always having an answer and eventual being able to take complete control of the match. The build towards that move was some of the best use I've seen of the move, especially considering that there were plenty others across the rest of the evening. The two looked extremely comfortable in the ring together, perhaps too much so as there were time where it felt like Lethal and Shelley were quite happy to go through the motions here. When you've got two men as talented and experienced as Lethal and Shelley, that still produces an enjoyable contest, but I definitely got the feeling this wasn't the best effort from either. 

Coming seemingly out of nowhere, Donavon Dijak's victory over Lio Rush, was a ridiculous match, that got the crowd to their feet after ten minutes of excitement and innovation. This was the best match that I've seen out of either man, as they took the power v speed dynamic and ran with it. Despite the lighting rig trying it's best to take the spotlight (geddit?) from them, Rush and Dijak put together some breath taking sequences, whilst also showing that they had the simple stuff on a lock as well. Dijak lobbing Rush around the ring was almost as entertaining as Rush's speedy spots! The exploration of the big man v small man trope was where the match took things to the next level, as Dijak showed he was prepared to take to the sky with a stunning moonsault to the outside, whilst Rush went toe to toe with Dijak on the apron and then hit a ridiculous Spanish Fly off the apron! Having Rush attempt to beat the man who was over a foot taller than him by countout was an astute piece of booking. I feel like everyone in the audience came away with a higher regard for both men than they had when they walked in. If you get the chance to see this, do it.

Before the Delirious/Castle v The Addiction match got underway, there was some comedy japes from everyone involved as Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian attempted to get Delirious to join their stable, by offering a pair of shoes. This was five minutes of pure wonderfulness as the foursome molded their gimmicks together to create some laugh out loud comedy. The Addiction played their part down to a tee, as Delirious uttered non-nonsensical replies and the pair attempted to translate. By the end of the exchange, that concluded with Castle uttering the immortal line "Shoes? Where we're going we don't need shoes", the match between the two teams felt more important than it had before hand and everyone involved had had a jolly good time. Can't complain with that!

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 7.05/10

Beyond perhaps appearances from ACH or War Machine this event had pretty much every ROH talent that I wanted to see on it, so that's always going to be a major positive. In terms of wrestling quality, the main event was straight up silly and managed to live up to expecations, whilst Donavon Dijak v Lio Rush seemed to take everyone by surprise also. The Castle/Delirious v The Addiction contest offered something completely different, but remained entertaining throughout. For the most part, the rest of the card produced some good action, but mainly struggled to either live up to expectation and didn't hit the top level that you'd expect from of the individuals involved. 

In A Sentence - A brilliant main event, a sleeper classic and some entertaining comedy surrounded by a lot of good, but ultimately forgettable wrestling.

Match of the Night - Young Bucks v Scurll/Ospreay 

Review - James Marston

Supercard Review: ROH All Star Extravaganza VIII – The Motor City Machine Guns v The Young Bucks v The Addiction - Ladder War VI

ROH brought the 8th incarnation of All Star Extravaganza to Lowell, Massachusetts as The Motor City Machine Guns, The Young Bucks and The Addiction went did battle over the World Tag Team Championships in a Ladder War and CMLL World Lightweight Champion Dragon Lee made his ROH debut opposite old rival Kamaitachi. With IWGP Tag Team Champions The Briscoes, IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito, ROH World Champion Adam Cole, Colt Cabana and KUSHIDA also in major places on the card, this was going to be fantastic, right? 

The main event was arguably the best Ladder War that ROH has ever presented as Nick and Matt Jackson, The Young Bucks recaptured the World Tag Team Championships in a stuntacular bout with The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) and The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian). From start to finish all six guys worked their collective arses off, keeping things ridiculously pacy and marvellously silly throughout. Like imagine what these three teams could do in a normal six man tag and then throw all the madness of Ladders and Tables and Chairs and barricades and what have you and then like double your expectations and then some more expectations on top. That's what these three teams some how managed to produce. I sat and watched with my mouth open for pretty much the entire 25 minutes. 

Moves off the top of the Ladder, a superb sequence with four daft bumps coming within the space of a bout twenty seconds, Superkicks, Daniels' face becoming the proverbial crimson mask, Superkicks, Kaimtachi and Jay White getting involved, superkicks, superkicks, two ridiculous Indy Takers, more daft bumps onto ladders and guard rails and a couple more superkicks. That list barely covers it to be quite honest, it doesn't even cover the amount of superkicks. Superkicks. ROH has produced some marvellous Ladder War in the past, with Steenerico's clash with The Briscoes in 2007 and Kevin Steen and El Generico's 2012 epic both springing immediately to mind, but this may have been the best of bunch, especially in terms of sheer mental spots per second. However, this wasn't just the best Ladder War in ROH history, this was arguably the best match that ROH has produced in the last seven or eight years. 

Outside the main event, the biggest match on the card was the debut of CMLL World Lightweight Champion Dragon Lee as he collided with old rival Kamaitachi for a brilliant semi-main that wowed the Lowell crowd. This was a completely different contest to everything else on the show as Lee and Kamaitachi went straight at each other from the opening bell, running through a lightning quick sequence before Lee would pull out a tasty suicide dive. It was clear that this was two guys who were very familar with each other as they appeared to be hand picking their best spots, almost as a sampler of what the pair could do in there. The action was mostly smooth, although with any match that decides to go at such a pace for almost twenty minutes there were a couple of botches, including an awkward Standing Spanish Fly spot, that held this one back from being as good as it could have been. 

The last stretch of the match may have gotten a little bit too silly, as Lee and Kamaitachi seemed to want to cram all of their false finish ideas into the bout, which included Lee kicking out of two Candian Destroyers. The two reversals of Lee's Phoenix Plex looked incredible, but I feel like one would have been enough as Lee's second kick out made it a little difficult to suspend my disbelief, instead of the intended purprose of making Lee look good. However, the actual finish where Lee finally hit the Phoenix Plex, after catching Kamaitachi with a series of knees after rallying from a Death Valley Driver into the corner, was a lot more satisfying because of the previous attempts, even if the move was a bit scrappier than it could have been! This was easily the best match outside the main event and I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing a lot more of Dragon Lee in ROH heading into next year as their relationship with CMLL develops. 

The tournament for the new World Six Man Tag Team Championship began as ACH, Jay White and KUSHIDA went over The Briscoes and Toru Yano in a Quarter Final bout, that was a lot of fun, but probably went a little too long. Things played out quite nicely from the beginning with the more experienced Briscoes & Yano trio controlling the pace after an early flurry and plenty of cheeky antics from Yano, whilst hot tags from ACH and KUSHIDA provided the bulk of the excitement. The finish was a great moment as KUSHIDA dove off the top rope to take out the Briscoes on the floor, before ACH hit a 450 splash to pin Yano in the ring, that swerved the crowd and got a nice pop. I feel like they could have potentially shaved a couple of minutes of it and improved the bout, but this was still a decent start to what could prove an interesting concept for ROH. The thrown together team of ACH, White and KUSHIDA are yet to come completely together, but they've got enough talent to wing it for the time being. 

The first match between Michael Elgin and Adam Cole, since Elgin took Cole's World title from him in June 2014, saw Big Mike once again chasing the prize around Cole's waist. For me, whilst being a fairly good match, this match was definitely missing something and didn't really live up to expectations. It seemed to end up as a mish mash of ideas, that involved Cole working the leg, which Elgin sold fairly well when called upon, to build towards a Figure Four, but also the injury didn't get woven into the match as it could have been with Elgin perfectly capable to hit all his usual offence and on occassion seemed to forget to sell the injury entirely. The injury did play into the finish as Cole would deliver a kick to the injured knee before hitting a couple of shining wizards and about the twentieth Last Shot of the match for the win. This was a good match, that got somewhat lost in the mix on the card and definitely struggled to find it's identity on the show. 

In another case of a match not living up to my expectations, Tetsuya Naito and Jay Lethal had a grudge bout that didn't come close to what the pair could do together inside the ring. There was nothing particularly wrong with this match, but there wasn't anything that wowed me on the level that I know Naito and Lethal could do. Lethal appeared to hit his big moves quite early on, and after the Lethal Combination and Hail to the King had been hit, the contest sort of devolved into various Lethal Injection attempts being thwarted and Lethal having to fight of both Naito and his second EVIL on the outside. It was a big victory for The Greatest First Generation Wrestling, after many have claimed that the ROH relationship with NJPW hasn't benefitted their performers enough, but it would have felt even more important if the pair had put on a higher quality encounter. Perhaps, with the EVIL interference ROH and perhaps also NJPW are building to a bigger rematch over the IWGP Intercontinental belt and didn't want to give away too much, but again that match will probably take place on an NJPW show, so ROH won't even get the best out of it! The majority of this was another easy watch, but lacked the fire or gear change that would have made it memorable. 

Dononvan Dijak getting a World Television title shot in his hometown presented an mildly interesting story for his bout with Bobby Fish. The Lowell crowd cheering for the usually heel Dijak gave the match an interesting dynamic, whilst the main story of the bout was a better put together version of the World title match as Fish zeroed in on Dijak's leg and went to work. All though Dijak's selling was a little too much, too soon, leaving him little space to go, the injured knee did produce some strong moments, including a great near fall as Dijak hit Feast Your Eyes, a move that sees him drive his knee into his opponent's face, then couldn't make it to the cover quick enough because of using the bad knee. This was perhaps the wrong choice as the opener as the hometown hero passing out in a rear naked choke isn't the best way to get the crowd hyped for the rest of the show and was also like most of the show overcrowded with ideas. 

The weakest bout on the card was a heatless encounter between Hangman Page and Kyle O'Reilly, that didn't show any real spark until the post-match angle. The highlight was a clever spot on the apron that saw O'Reilly rebuff a number of hard strikes from Page, only for Page to remove O'Reilly's mouth guard before hammering in the face again! It was a shame then however that Page went for a shooting star press off the apron, that felt completely jarring for the style of the match and Page's heel character and seemed to have been thrown into the contest just because. The lack of audience attention hurt this one a lot as Lowell was pretty much silent throughout, showing very little affection or distaste for either competitor. The finish saw Page tapping quickly to an armbar, before attacking O'Reilly with a chair post-match, with the commentators putting this over as Page attempting to help Bullet Club stablemate Adam Cole by removing one of the contenders for his World Title. 

One of the best undercard matches was a Four Way Tag for a shot at the Tag Team Championships were Colt Cabana & Dalton Castle would overcome The All Night Express (Kenny King & Rhett Titus), Shane Taylor & Keith Lee and War Machine (Hanson & Rowe) in a fun scramble style contest. The contest was well structured with War Machine and Taylor & Lee keeping most of their focus on each other as their feud continues, including a nice moment where the other two teams would start arguing inside the ring, so War Machine hopped off the apron to fight Taylor & Lee on the other side of the ring. The final stretch saw Taylor & Lee impress with a series of power moves, before the action spilled to the outside as Lee hit a ridiculous dive for a man of almost 300lbs and Hanson replied with a similar jump to the floor. This was a much better candidate for the opener, as it featured a lot of exciting action over a short period of time and also had a feel good moment when Castle pinned Titus following Bangarang to give his team the win. Cabana and Castle as #1 Contender's might seem an odd decision, but with War Machine and Taylor and Lee still feuding and The Cabinet looking to be a big part of the Six Man Title tournament this makes a lot of sense at this point in time. Also when you consider that they'll get to face The Young Bucks it gets a little more interesting.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 6.68/10 

This show was carried by the amazing main event and perhaps also the Dragon Lee v Kamaitachi match, because everything outside of those two matches was average to good, but none of it looked to stand out. The show get's a close to very good rating on the strength of those two matches, with the Ladder War especially being must-see viewing for any wrestling fan. The event lived up to it's billing as there was a cavalade of stars across the event, but a lot of those bonafide stars (Naito, Cole, Elgin, Lethal etc.) seemed happy to coast by on their star power alone. This could have been a must-see show from top to bottom as the card was particularly strong, but in fact if you skipped to the main event you really wouldn't have missed anything in terms of top quality action or storyline advancement. With ROH only producing six PPVs a year, these are the event when the top stars should be looking to really make a name for themselves and help the company grow and whilst the likes of The Young Bucks, The Addiction and The Motor City Machine Guns were putting on a classic, it seems like too many of ROH's top stars aren't grasping at these opportunities with as much vigour as they used to. 

All Star Extravaganza was a good show, that should have been a great show. 

Words - James Marston 

All images our property of their respective owners.

ROH Death Before Dishonor XIII iPPV Review

Just five weeks after Best in the World, Ring of Honor was back with another offering, this time available on iPPV, this time for the thirteenth incarnation of Death Before Dishonor from the William J Myers Pavillion in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. With Jay Lethal defending the ROH World Champion against Roderick Strong in the main event and The Briscoes, The Addiction, reDRagon, Adam Cole, ACH and more all on hand for the show, how did things turn for the companies fourth PPV event of the year? Let's find out.

An opening package for the show, mainly focused entirely on the main event between Jay Lethal and Roderick Strong, neglecting that there was six other matches on the card. Luckily, commentary team Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino were on hard to run down the card, with a look at the two title matches, the No Disqualification bout and Cedric Alexander vs. Moose.

One Fall Match

Will Ferrera

vs.

"Professional Wrestling's Last Real Man" Silas Young

This worked as a nice opening bout for the show and whilst no one will be claiming that it was a Match of the Year candidate there was plenty to enjoy. Silas Young especially looked good here, with his Last Real Man gimmick working a charm against the pace of Will Ferrara. While the match was pretty basic in it's storytelling, what was done was done well, with a ambitious closing sequence that saw the momentum change numerous times before Young was able to hit Misery (Airplane Spin into a Cutter) to pick up the victory. With Dalton Castle's Boys turning up after the match, that wouldn't be the last we'd see of The Last Real Man.

A decent promo package for Moose vs. Cedric Alexander worked as a sound catch-up for anyone not fully up to date with ROH storylines.

One Fall Match

Moose 

with Stoke Hathaway

vs.

Cedric Alexander 

with Veda Scott

This was the only match on the show that I just couldn't get into and I'm not sure why. The Baltimore crowd seemed unsure about Moose, with smattering of "Moose" chants, but no real support, whilst Alexander's fledgling heel run doesn't seem to have gathered much steam yet either. So the crowd was neither fully behind Moose or against Alexander, and ended up for the most part being rather quiet, with them perhaps on the whole being more into the stuff that Alexander was doing. This wasn't helped by Alexander pulling out a beautiful Tope Conhilo towards the closing stages of the match. 

Whilst the two never seemed to click in the ring, there were a couple of nice near falls, inclduing a Michonoku Driver from Alexander. The conclusion of the match also worked well, bringing together a number of different storyline elements, with Prince Nana (who was doing guest commentary) ended up getting a right hand from Alexander, as did Stokely Hathaway, but after Moose managed to gain a modicum of revenge with a powerbomb onto the apron, Alexander was able to pick up the victory after blocking Moose's spear attempt with his trusty wrench. Whilst the majority of the contest didn't tickle my pickle, I have to say the closing stages were well structured and left room for development for both characters heading into Field of Honor in August.

One Fall Tag Team Match

The Briscoes

vs.

RPG Vice

What this match lacked in consequence, it made up for in action. Whilst this was essentially a thrown together tag team match (which was a little bit disapointing for a Jay Briscoe just five weeks removed from being World Champion) the content of the bout was entertaining throughout, picking up the pace of the show with blistering, balls to the wall tag team outing. Roppongi Vice cleverly took the role of heels for the match, as they were always going to struggle to pick up crowd support opposite the perennial favourites, The Briscoes, with the pair throwing in a number of sneaky tactics in order to take control of the bout. This gave the match a nice dynamic, and built the groundwork for the later stages of the contest.

The skirmish built towards it's conclusion well with a series of near falls for both teams, including a Superkick into a Destroyer combo from the Briscoes to escape Roppongi Vice's Strong Zero. Whilst the final end sequence went a little bit too long for me, due to the match having no real build, it was thrilling to watch the two teams got back and forth with a number of big moves before Jay was eventually able to hit a Jay Driller on Berreta, followed with a Froggy Bow from Mark to give the Briscoes the victory. Following the result of the Four Way tag bout later in the night, one would assume that The Briscoes would be next in line for a shot at the titles, with ROH seemingly keeping the duo in the tag division for the time being.

One Fall Match

Dalton Castle 

with The Boys

vs.

Adam Cole

I absolutely adored this match. Dalton Castle's character has been a breath of fresh air since debuting on ROH television and he stepped up his game here opposite one of ROH's premier competitors to create a thoroughly entertaining match. Both men put in terrific character based performances, with the crowd being the hottest it had been so far, with dueling chants for almost the entirety of the bout. For someone who has only been wrestling regularly for ROH since March to be getting this kind of reaction against one of the current corner stones of the promotion, says a lot about the strength of Castle's character and how quickly the ROH fans have taken to it. 

It would have been easy for this contest to descend into a straight up comedy bout, with Cole more than capable of working that kind of style, as evidence by some superb facial expressions throughout, the wrestling content here was also of a high quality. The pair seemed to connect quickly in the ring, creating some nice sequences, like Castle managing to turn Cole's Panama Sunrise attempt into a Northern Light's Suplex. If I didn't like the Peacock already his selling following a lengthy spell in Cole's Figure Four Leglock had me absolutely sold, as it could have been something that had been easily forgotten but instead added an extra layer to the match. Obviously Cole was eventually able to pick the victory with a Brainbuster onto the knee, but Castle certainly had his star raised thanks to his performance here. The only real criticism I'd have here it that like the previous match, there really was no reason for these two be fighting on PPV, meaning the match lacked a sense of purpose and consequence.

A promo for the upcoming ACH and Adam Page bout, was mainly focused on a promo from Adam Page, that didn't quite hit the spot for me. Before the match could get under way BJ Whitmer limped to the ring revealing that he had undergone knee surgery, whilst Steve Corino on commentary wished that he had been hit by a car, which was nice.

One Fall No Disqualifcation Match

ACH

vs.

Adam Page 

with Colby Corino

If the two previous matches had been lacking on purpose then this match had it in spades, as the feud between ACH and Adam Page that has been raging across ROH TV for months continued. From the very start of this match, even without the prior video package, it was clear that these two had a dislike for each other, thanks to the way ACH went straight after Page and how things quickly escalated throughout the match. With both guys being over in their respective roles, the crowd added an extra dimension to their grudge bout, lifting the near falls and seemingly pushing the men in their violent activities towards each other.

The No Disqualification gimmick was used strongly with all sorts of weapons getting involved chairs, a ladder, tables and even a workout club (I have no idea what a workout club is, or what in fact it was doing underneath the ring). The ladder especially saw a lot of action, with Page taking a pumphandle thing onto it, before replying with a German Suplex that saw ACH taking a truly horrible looking bump after attempting to flip over during the move and landing on his shoulder. It would seem that this feud isn't over yet either, after Colby Corino caused the distraction that allowed Page to get the win with his Right of Passage reverse piledriver off the apron through a table on the outside. The finish got a great reaction out of the crowd, but unfortunately the chosen camera angle showed just how far ACH's head was away from the table, which is the fault of the production team who should have known what was about to happen. With ACH still to pick up a win over Adam Page, I'd like to think that this feud is still not over yet.

One Fall Four Corner's Survival Tag Team Match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship

The Addiction (C)

vs.

reDRagon

vs.

War Machine

vs.

The Kingdom (Bennett/Taven) 

with Maria Kanellis

This match was everything that you'd have expected it to be. Eight men going nuts, with plenty of big moves and spots and a break-neck pace. There really wasn't time to get bored with this one, as the match made full use of having so many bodies in and around the ring. A section that stands out here saw three or four dives to the outside, of different variations, as the mass of humanity built up on the outside of the ring. The pay-off saw War Machines' Hanson climb to the top rope and hit a senton onto pretty much everyone on the outside, as the big man continues to stand out with his mixture of power and agility.

Whilst the bout was mainly focused on spots and ridiculous moves, there was some nice story also involved in the bout, mainly focused around the clear crowd favourites, Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish, reDRagon. We saw a good length sequence with O'Reilly into the ring as he looked for a tag, whilst both The Kingdom and The Addiction both cut off O'Reilly's attempts to get a tag to his partner. Eventually this lead to O'Reilly having to tag in War Machine, took advantage of the gimmick for a nice twist on the traditional hot tag and was also the catalyst for the competitors taking things to the next level.

War Machine came off a particular impressive in this one, with a number of stunning double teams move that defy their size and look. Both men worked hard to keep up with their opponents in the ring and matched them move for move, their finisher Fall Out working as a nice near fall in a match full of near falls. The Addiction stealing the win from under reDRagon's nose after O'Reilly and Fish seemed to have the match won after hitting Chasing the Dragon, only for Fish to walk straight into Celebrity Rehab (Release belly-to-back suplex into Double Knee Facebreaker) and allow The Addiction to hang onto the tag team titles, was a fitting conclusion to an thrilling bout that showcased the strength and variety of ROH's tag division.

It was almost time for the main event, with a superb promo package featuring promos from both champion and challenger acting as the lead in.

One Fall Match for the ROH World Championship

"The Greatest 1st Generation Wrestler" Jay Lethal (C) 

with Truth Martini, Donovan Dijak & J. Diesel 

vs.

Roderick Strong

The first thing anyone would have noticed when scanning the results of the show would surely have been that this match went the full sixty minutes and ended up in a draw. This isn't something the modern wrestling fan is used to, especially one with WWE-centric viewing schedule. In fact, even in ROH, there hasn't been a 60-minute broadway since Austin Aries and Tyler Black went to the limit back at Final Battle 2009. Which probably why the reactions to it have lurched from "one of the best ROH World title matches ever" to "one of the most boring matches I have ever seen" across social media. People just aren't used to watch a sixty minute match anymore, so the reaction is either that of utter amazement or utter indifference.

It was a rather interesting decision by ROH to go with the sixty minute Broadway here, why after so many years was this match the one that was chosen to be the one to go the distance. It would seem that ROH had either booked themselves into a corner, with Lethal only just winning the title after a lengthy build-up and Strong's renaissance storyline also still with plenty of steam, neither man could really come out of this match on the losing side. I'll give ROH the benefit of the doubt and say that they knew exactly what they were doing and that this is leading to something bigger and better, with Strong slipping back down the pack, giving Lethal more heat as the heel champion, and allowing Strong more time to continue his storyline before eventually winning back the title.

After all that, shall we talk about the actual content of the match? Yeah, lets do that. I'm not sure whether I was the only one (maybe because I had a timer going on the bout) but from about ten minutes into the match it was clear that if this match wasn't going the distance then it was going to be close. The pace was curious to say the least, not quite what I'd call slow, but it was clear that the two were taking their time in the early stages, with plenty of stalling from Lethal, and a lot of technical wrestling as the two tried to out do one another, with Strong often coming out on top of the exchanges. 

Outside of the early technical section of the match, the pair spent a lot of time on the outside of the ring. The pair would end up out of the ring for what felt like the majority of the match, because it happened so often. This would be my main criticism of the match, as whilst the clash called for some brawling, this did feel like overkill, with a number of times that the pair would go to the outside offering nothing new to proceedings. The commentary team did spend a long time trying to get over just how hot it was in the building, as a reason for why the pair were on the outside so often, with the idea being they were attempting to escape the  The two were absolutely dripping in sweat from fairly early on, but the commentary team didn't have to mention the heat for any other match on the card.

Woven into the fabric of the match was the interference from Lethal's cohorts in the House of Truth, with both Donovan Dijak and J. Diesel taking turns to lay the punches into Strong when the referees back was turned. This gave the match somewhere to go whilst trying to kill time in the sixty minutes, without knackering out both Lethal and Strong. Dijak and Diesel work well in their roles as Lethal's enforcers, with the idea that everyone knows Lethal doesn't need them to win a match adding to the gimmick's strength. The pay-off for Dijak and Diesel's interference came when Strong was finally able to take the pair out with a beautiful corkscrew plancha. Truth Martini would also get himself involved in the match, causing a distraction to allow Lethal to use the Book of Truth for a superb near fall. 

Whilst the reaction online was mixed, the Baltimore crowd seemed to absolutely eat up everything that Lethal and Strong put together. When Strong seemed to fire up, asking Lethal to hit him with more chops, the audience went nuts. It was at this point (as the commentary team seemed intent on getting over) that the fans seemed to begin to believe that Strong could potentially win the title. Perhaps this wouldn't have been possible in a 15 or 20 minute match, but the reactions that the pair were able to get following this moment were some of loudest I've heard in ROH for a long time. 

The last ten minutes or so of the bout were truly fantastic stuff, with both men somehow being able to find something else in the tank despite wrestling for 50 minutes already. With Strong hitting the majority of his offence on Lethal's back, the Strong Hold got the reaction of a legitimate finish, although perhaps if Lethal had sold the back it would have been an even better moment. The highlight of the match for me saw Strong hit a Superplex, Double Knee Gutbuster and then a Sick Kick for an amazing false finish that had the Baltimore crowd convinced Strong had captured the title. Lethal redeemed his earlier no-selling, by appearing to almost throw up after failing to get the win with a Lethal Injection, which sold the moment fantastically. With the clock running out with Strong seemingly taking control after a brilliant strike sequence, and the crowd completely into the match, it left the PPV without a real finish with the show simply going of the air.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating: 6.79

Just like the opening package suggested this PPV was all about the main event. I can see why the bout wouldn't appeal to everyone, but I certainly enjoyed it. Do I think it was worthy of Kevin Kelly's claims (and bloody annoying shouting)...maybe not...but I still thought it was a great contest, that both Strong and Lethal should be commended for putting on. In a wrestling world where the main company is often afraid to take risks, it was good to see Ring of Honor attempting something different.

The rest of the show (with the exception of Alexander vs. Moose which did nothing for me) ranged for decent to very good, with the Fourway tag team bout and the No Disqualification matches working as strong contrasts to the main event, both showing something different and showcasing the variety that ROH can offer. Other bouts suffered from having no real reason to be going ahead, and whilst they were entertaining, it would have been nice to have seen a little build on TV or a live events.