Ring of Honor Review - April 6, 2016

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

reDRAGON def. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and Gedo

​It seems to me that reDRAGON are more protected in Ring of Honor than The Young Bucks, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense considering the Bucks are signed to be ROH's top-tier tag team and reDRAGON are singles guys at this point, anyway. At any rate, they contested a very well-wrestled match with the New Japan Pro Wrestling guys and the crowd ate up everything they did. Okada is an absolute star, so I wish he would have been showcased in a way that better showed that. No, this match didn't serve any purpose storyline-wise, but that's usually the case whenever the New Japan wrestlers are brought in for a set of tapings.
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Adam Cole def. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Kushida (Non-title)

I don't follow the NJPW product closely, so I had zero idea Kushida had broken out on his own. Then again, I guess I should have expected that given his previous partner Alex Shelley has since reunited with Chris Sabin. I figured this would be a brief squash win for Cole going in, so I was pleasantly surprised it was much more than that. In fact, it was an extremely entertaining matchup with plenty of exciting nearfalls and the right guy went over. When was the last time ROH wrestlers went over NJPW talent in back-to-back matches?

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The Motor City Machine Guns def. The Addiction

Was it just me or did this match come off as over choreographed during some spots? I'm well-aware that's the nature of the business, but the transitions from one move to the next didn't feel as smooth as they should have been at certain points down the stretch, not to mention the crowd wasn't as hot for this match as they were the last two. Nevertheless, they worked well together and produced a solid tag team match. One would think Okada would have been positioned in the main event slot, but I liked how the match with more storyline support took precedence. Based off what we saw afterward, it looks like we might be in for a Young Bucks vs. Motor City Machine Guns matchup soon, which could be a lot of fun.


Overall Show

No feuds were furthered on this show other than Motor City Machine Guns vs. Addiction, but to me, it didn't matter because the in-ring action was above-average. The first two matches were absolutely exceptional and even the main event had its moments, so it's well worth the watch. Plus, I really liked how they've been advertising the Fight Without Honor between Dalton Castle and Silas Young for weeks now, so I look forward to that next week.