This was for the Briscoes’ ROH World Tag Team Titles.
Again in May 2018, a very welcome retread with just enough slight modifications to keep it fresh and interesting.
2018’s big change isn’t just that the Young Bucks are officially babyfaces in Ring of Honor (as opposed to simply being treated like faces for years and often wrestling like them anyways) or the Matt Jackson back injury, which has been discussed a lot before on this blog already, but that for the first time in seven years since the unbelievable 2011 run that gave us Violent People (JOHN KRONUS) and Ain’t Even Bleeding and Cosmetically Pleasing, The Briscoes get to work heel again.
It is a god damned BLAST.
Jay and Mark are clearly having the time of their lives with something to really sink their teeth into for the first time in years. Jay is middle fingering up a storm constantly, spitting venom, frothing at the mouth, and just pissed as all god damned hell. Mark Briscoe does not — and cannot, really — reach this level in terms of pure violent aggression, but he is the perfect backup here for Jay once again. They’re still The Briscoes at the end of the day and do a ton of really cool moves, sticking with their 2010s blend of old brawling and a select few pieces of tremendous offense to punctuate it, but they seem so so so much more energized than usual, especially in a sprint against one of their more reliable opposing team ever.
Of course, underneath the great performances and even underneath the Bucks again being shockingly good as babyfaces when all they have to do is react and do their cool moves, there is what has always worked between these teams, through all different iterations. It was there in 2009 when the Bucks were pretty boys and the Briscoes were still cool moves babyfaces, in 2010 in PWG, in 2012 when the Bucks were first figuring the heel act out but handcuffed by Cornette ROH, and especially in 2014 and 2015 when the Bucks hit their prime and the Briscoes had become the best brawling tag team in the world.
Here, they have an entirely new foundation to build up from, and it comes as easy as always. For whatever differences there are in ideology and style, in a broader sense, they are totally on the same page in terms of how their tag team wrestling is paced and structured, and it always just seems to effortlessly come together.
Even in a match like this, a ten minute television match with a fuck finish, designed to set up a pay-per-view rematch, it all feels so easy. Not only the way it’s built and assembled and executed, but the kind of casual greatness on display in a match that likely would not have been great at all if either team had this with any other Ring of Honor tag team. It’s not only a ten minute TV match, but one that purposely holds back on a lot of the bigger things they can do and have done to each other in the past, but one that is still just so so great. Not a capital-s Statement in the way we often think of them, but a deeply impressive thing all the same.
Jay breaks up the Meltzer Driver with a chair shot for the disqualification, and the Briscoes then re-injure the bad back of Matt Jackson that had been slowly improving, before also laying out Cody Rhodes, Hangman Page, and Flip Gordon when they try to save, ending the show holding up the belts.
You hesitate to ever say ROH is Back at any point from like 2015 through 2022, when it actually was Back, but this match, segment, and feud as a whole is a real bright spot and a show of what still could be accomplished, so long as Ring of Honor did sensible pro wrestling things like throwing hot heels and faces at each other, running cool simple angles, and booking great matches at the end. ROH would not be Back for a very long time, but with all the most annoying people (and Hanger) writhing around in pain after being taken out in a two on five by Our Heroes, it is very very easy to believe.
Not the big one, but as good of a set up for it as you’ll find, and a great feeling piece of pro wrestling television on top of that.
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HANDWERK 