ROH's 2016 Match of the Year

[AlexROH]

Hey, now that I've finally seen Final Battle and the best matches from the Reach for the Sky Tout, I think is time to talk about ROH's MOTYC. I don't think we saw a lot of great singles matches, but there was a ton of fun-great multi-man matches.

What are your ROH Match of the Years? What others matches did you love? Here's my big list (everything between ****1/2 and ***3/4):

****1/2:
[Ladder War 6] Young Bucks vs MCMG vs The Addiction – All Star Extravaganza VIII


****1/4:
Jay Lethal vs Adam Cole – Reach for the Sky Tour Londres
[No Holds Barred] Kyle O’Reilly vs Adam Cole – Supercard of Honor X Night 2

****:
[Ringmasters Challenge] Jay Lethal vs Colt Cabana - Reloaded Tour Duluth
Will Ospreay vs Marty Scurll – Reach for the Sky Tour Londres
Tomohiro Ishii vs Roderick Strong - Honor Rising Night 1
Tetsuya Naito vs ACH – War of the World Night 3
Young Bucks & Adam Cole vs Jay Lethal, Colt Cabana & Dalton Castle - Reloaded Tour Pittsburgh
Young Bucks vs The Briscoes – Final Battle 2016
Young Bucks vs Briscoes - Reach for the Sky London
Matt Sydal vs Kyle O’Reilly – Supercard of Honor Night 1
Tomohiro Ishii vs Bobby Fish - Global Wars
Jay Lethal vs Lio Rush - Supercard of Honor Night 1
Lio Rush vs Michael Elgin vs Dalton Castle vs Moose – War of the World Night 3
Young Bucks vs The Addiction vs MCMG vs The Briscoes - Supercard of Honor Night 2
Kyle O’Reilly vs ACH vs Michael Elgin vs Roderick Strong – Road to BITW Milwaukee
[No Rules] Keith Lee & Shane Taylor vs War Machine – Survival of the Fittest Night 2
Jay Briscoe vs Roderick Strong – Road to BITW Colombus
KUSHIDA vs ACH - Conquest Philadelphia
Lio Rush vs Jay White - AFTERSHOCK Baltimore
Jay Lethal & Roderick Strong vs Okada & Ishii vs Cole & Matt – War of the World Night 3
Young Bucks vs The Addiction vs MCMG - Conquest Philadelphia
Champions vs All Stars – Glory By Honor XV Night 2
Young Bucks vs Jay Lethal & Colt Cabana – Road to BITW Milwaukee
Young Bucks vs MCMG - Supercard of Honor Night 1
Bullet Club (Anderson, Gallows & Bucks) vs War Machine, Roderick Strong y Jay Lethal – Winter Warriors Tour Duluth


***3/4:
Young Bucks vs Marty Scurll & Will Ospreay – Reach for the Sky Tour Leicester
Bobby Fish vs Lio Rush vs Jax Dane vs The Panther vs Punishment Martinez vs Dalton Castle – Surival of the Fittest Night 2
Bobby Fish vs Will Ospreay – Reach for the Sky Tour Night 1
[Anything Goes] Hangman Page vs Jay Briscoe – Death Before Dishonor XIV
Will Ospreay vs Dragon Lee vs Marty Scurll – Final Battle 2016
Adam Cole vs Kyle O’Reilly vs Jay Lethal - 14 Aniversario
[NoDQ] War Machine vs The Addiction – Road to BITW Colombus
Kyle O’Reilly & The Briscoes vs Bullet Club – Reach for the Sky Tour Night 1
Adam Cole vs Lio Rush – Road to BITW Colombus
Kamaitachi vs Jonathan Gresham - Reloaded Tour Lockport
Jonathan Gresham vs Lio Rush – Reloaded Tour Duluth
[2/3 Falls] Roderick Strong vs Bobby Fish – Supercard of Honor X Night 2
Jay Lethal vs Tetsuya Naito – All Star Extravaganza VIII
Jay Lethal, Colt Cabana & Jay Briscoe vs Bullet Club (Cole, Matt & Page) - AFTERSHOCK Baltimore
Katsuyori Shibata vs Kyle O’Reilly – Field Of Honor
Kamaitachi vs Angel De Oro – Glory By Honor XV Night 2
War Machine vs The Briscoes - Global Wars
Adam Cole vs Silas Young – Road to Final Battle Night 2
Donovan Dijak vs Hangman Page – Survival of the Fittest Night 2
Bobby Fish vs Mark Briscoe - Death Before Dishonor XIV
Adam Cole vs Alex Shelley – Winter Warriors Tour Indianapolis

[Big Red Machine]

I have Ladder War and Cole vs. Lethal from Reach for the Sky Tour at ***** (Ladder War was slightly better).

[watadam20]

I've got Ladder War as my match of the year too but running it close was the Lethal/O'Reilly World Title clash from TV (the one that had Cole & The Bucks attack O'Reilly before the match), I know it wasn't the highest paced title match of all-time but it's been a hell of a long time since I've seen storytelling and selling that good, a truly great match that I think many will overlook.

Top Five:

1) The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) vs. Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson), Ladder War VI, ROH World Tag Team Championship – All Star Extravaganza VIII
2) Jay Lethal vs. Kyle O’Reilly, ROH World Championship – ROH Wrestling (23rd July)
3) Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly, No Holds Barred – Supercard of Honor X: Night Two
4) Marty Scurll vs. Dragon Lee vs. Will Ospreay, ROH World Television Championship – Final Battle
5) Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly, No Disqualification, ROH World Championship – Final Battle

[JustSkiff]

I'm going to wait a little bit before guessing what 2017's MOTY will be.

[Wilson]

Great job, Alex! This is a really great tool for anyone already persuaded in the VOD market.

I think the official greatest match of the year will be decided unanimously, but it’s relieving that the second half of the year provided quite an overall great amount of work.

[monster mafia]

vod are so important, i wish roh can do something to allow all the people buy the shows...sometimes 15 $ is too expensive and they have a lot of house shows.

this is what roh need on demand service.

great post as always men.

[Big Red Machine]

vod are so important, i wish roh can do something to allow all the people buy the shows...sometimes 15 $ is too expensive and they have a lot of house shows.

this is what roh need on demand service.

great post as always men.

Agreed. Even with the half-off sale I wound up spending almost $50 to catch up on the end of the year, and am regretting it a bit because some of the shows have felt completely pointless (GBH in particular). What I really wish they would do is cut down on the number of shows and do what they can to make the shows mean something.

[Jay Lethal's Hair]

Can we get the subject edited? It's 2016 yo.

[Wilson]

Can we get the subject edited? It's 2016 yo.

(*Fixed. **Sorry for being somewhat of a feckless mod. I didn't realize that one could revise subject lines.)

[supersonic]

That list really shows that ROH is still failing to frequently present buzzworthy classics like in years past. That's something I'd like to see improve, even with workrate being everywhere now.

[Wilson]

That list really shows that ROH is still failing to frequently present buzzworthy classics like in years past. That's something I'd like to see improve, even with workrate being everywhere now.

It's definitely upheld what has been the status quo these past few years. It's probably going to be like this in 2017, too.

What surprises me is how similar a year ROH and NXT had, in terms of creative, workrate, and the increased median age of the roster. 2017 will probably keep pushing the feeling of this "Global Indy".

[Brada]

I guess that just depends on what one deems "buzzworthy"....

There have still been quite the number of entertaining matches.

I will say that in years past, the rivalries and lengthy programs did seem to be a bit better.

[Big Red Machine]

On the subject of "buzzworthy classics," I'll definitely agree. I think from about 2013 on, the number of ROH matches I've rated at 9/10 or higher has gone down drastically. The Ladder War at ASE was the first 10/10 I had given an ROH match since Davey vs. Elgin (for comparison, in the meantime, every other promotion I have followed for any lengnth of time aside from TNA and NOAH had produced at least one (1 RevPro, 2 PWG, 2 Evolve, 1 NXT, 2 WWE main roster, and 6 New Japan)
When I got the Reloaded Tour: Pittsburgh VOD and saw the Bullet Club vs. Lethal, Cabana, & Castle match and gave it a 9/10, I was equally shocked at the lack of people talking about this match the way you would see for any sort of PWG six-man, which this greatly resembled (except with actual selling!) Hopefully the UK tour marks a reversal in this trend because those shows were awesome and deserve to be talked about.

[AlexROH]

When I got the Reloaded Tour: Pittsburgh VOD and saw the Bullet Club vs. Lethal, Cabana, & Castle match and gave it a 9/10, I was equally shocked at the lack of people talking about this match the way you would see for any sort of PWG six-ma

Yeah, I still have to see the Pittburgh Reloaded show and some Road to BITW matches. Tonight I'll see that 3 vs 3!

[AlexROH]

You were right Big Read Machine, I've just watched the Bullet Club vs Lethal/Cabana/Castle, wonderful **** star match. Is now in the number 8 spot in my ROH MOTY top.