The Young Bucks/Hangman Page vs. The Briscoes/Punishment Martinez, ROH Wrestling (6/23/2018)

Another great Bucks/Briscoes build up tag.

Mostly, that’s because they are once again simply let loose against each other in a main event in front of a hot crowd.

You do not need to do a whole lot to help a Bucks vs. Briscoes match at this point (or any point after like 2010) outside of simply clearing a path and letting them go, and it is once again tremendous. Neither is ever talked up as one of the great opponents of the other, but this 2018 stuff really makes a tremendous case for it, displaying a real special kind of physical chemistry between the teams, on top of all that they have in common ideologically (and how The Briscoes always manage to get the best version of a wild Young Bucks match out there).

They are not alone though, and the other two add a lot to this.

With the Hanger, that’s not all that shocking. Not only because he has a history of working really well with Jay Briscoe, but because at this point, he is finally starting to really develop. Not just the flashes we started to see in 2015, but a full on really good hot tag, and a lack of any noticeable weak points in the match. It’s not his career match, but given how many of those saw him in situations where he didn’t have to do nearly as much, it might just be his career performance so far. Not just because of the hot tag, but because this asks him to be a believable ass kicker against a much bigger guy, and it’s something he gets almost entirely perfect, showing a nearly complete picture of the wrestler and character he would eventually become.

On Martinez’s end though, it is a little bit of a surprise!

Now, that’s not to say he is some revelation here, that the match works because of him, and that it is a God damned shame he never showed this again. None of that is true. However, it is one of the better showings I’ve ever seen from him too, slotted exactly right in this match and hitting his bits and getting out, but still showing a lot in those moments. He has better bumps than I remember, better offense than I remember, and most of all, in a spot where he absolutely could have let the match down or at least caused it to be worse than this, he simply did not. The standards are lowered for the guy, especially among the others in this specific match, but it’s one of the only times ever where I can recall watching the guy and being even a little impressed.

The match is also pretty immaculately laid out too, another of those perfect marriages where the Bucks and Briscoes seem to understand each other perfectly. Wonderful construction mixed with a chaotic feeling at all times, but without ever going overboard, and always moving forward in the right direction, and escalating as well as always.

A best case scenario for all six, and the match as a whole.

Nick Jackson ducks under the Doomsday Device, and when Matt cuts off the other Briscoe, he’s able to roll down into the Victory Roll to just barely take the win.

We’re past the point where I am going out of my way to praise Ring of Honor booking, but in this specific program, it’s a real good one. They began a month ago with the Bucks nearly having it and the titles won, and now on the go-home show, they prove it’s possible, in a way that still leaves a lot of room for questions going into the pay-per-view. Nobody’s reinventing the way things are done here exactly, but a great example of the quietly confident and steady booking this company is still occasionally capable of.

One of the year’s more underrated matches, if only by virtue of taking place on ROH TV.

***1/4

Punishment Martinez vs. Jay White, ROH Death Before Dishonor XV (9/22/2017)

This was a Las Vegas Street Fight.

Relative to other ROH midcard feud ending brawls — your ACH vs. Adam Pages and Cedric Alexander vs. Mooses or Tommaso Ciampas of the world — it is not the best. There are still limitations here, not in just that ROH in the 2010s always treats these matches in a measured way that never allows any of them all of the shortcuts possible, but also just in the talent involved. Mainly, I mean that Punishment Martinez is a total nothing, the world’s third best Baron Corbin to paraphrase someone else (Lance Archer is the first best), a force of nature style mediocrity whose results depend entirely on everything put around him moreso than anything he is ever going to give you.

At the same time, this is still an ROH midcard feud blowoff gimmick match at a time when, despite not operating at the strength they did years prior, that was still a relatively sure thing. There is just enough magic here and just enough allowances made to make this work, in spite of every reason on paper that it shouldn’t.

Largely, that comes down to a remarkable performance from Jay White.

That’s probably not all that surprising in retrospect. Since something clicked in mid-2018, White’s been consistently real good as a heel and occasionally pretty great at it. However, it comes here as a pure no-frills white meat ass babyface and it’s maybe one of my favorite performances he’s ever had. Offensively, it’s all kind of young gaijin basics. Tope Suicida, flying back bump dropkicks, simple suplexes, and the like. However, it’s all done with a force and a snap, and most importantly, with a kind of natural likeability that makes it all work.

You can also lay some of that responsibility at the feet of what they’re allowed to do, and how long they’re allowed to do it for.

For thirteen minutes — exactly long enough so that this never feels handcuffed by time and also so that they’re never allowed more than they can handle — they get to do a lot of really neat stuff, even if they’re not allowed to do everything. Martinez and White get to beat the hell out of each other with chairs and a garbage can, do some cool moves outside, and build to a real sick run of stuff at the end, with a Powerbomb on a chair contraption, a release Burning Hammer on the same contraption, and finally a chokeslam on thumbtacks to give Martinez the win, with Jay White about to return home and discover how cool knives are (do not throw them). Independent of performances, it is simply a cool match that goes out of its way to only do cool things.

An ode to the power of some good old fashioned bullshit.

***