Here's stop #2 on the 2018 Global Wars tour. We're in Lowell, MA.

Matt Taven vs BUSHI - Nice start to the show. Good action from both guys. A little quick but its the opening match so, I can't complain!

The Bouncers vs Dalton Castle/Juice Robinson - This could have been good but I skipped it. Too much comedy...I should have Fast Forwarded the intros and maybe I wouldn't skipped this.

Frankie Kazarian vs Flip Gordon - Whoa this was your X division title match! Wait wrong company! Good stuff...a little bit too cutesy with moves but some were really sick looking! No selling but for the spot on the card it is acceptable :-)

Sumie Sakai vs Jenny Rose - Stylistically this was my favorite match so far. Simple moves, aggressive behavior, and organic progression to the story. Nice selling of pain and exhaustion for an under 9 minute match. Excellent finish too! Liger style avalanche Frankensteiner to pin.

Jay Briscoe vs Scorpio Sky- Alright! We get another intense competitive wrestling match. Briscoe and Scorpio Sky hit some big blows here and neither wants to back down. We get a sorta kinda cheap win as things were heating up but this was bordering on a very good match. As it is maybe ***1/2 -ish. I've seen this get * elsewhere but I think that's too harsh. Seriously I would make a concession to go *** but no way is this a poorer match than anything proceeding it.

Bully Ray/Silas Young vs EVIL/SANADA- A simple but effective match. Bully is old school heeling and its up to the LIJ team to shut him up. Really fun match but this is a waste of EVIL and Seiya Sanada. Sure Ian says they're keeping a tally (like the WCW vs NJ Starrcade I believe) but that's just fluff. There's no stakes. So then you have to wonder why we can't have another team in there OR why a more dynamic ROH isn't taking place. ROH is very much TNA circa 2005-09 in 2018, that's why. We get dissension after the match.

Jeff Cobb vs Christopher Daniels - This was starting to be something good but it finished up rather quickly. It was fun but truthfully underwhelming from both guys considering the legend status of Daniels and the hype of Cobb. It makes Cobb look strong but it looks like an artificial boost in his power rather than him really decimating his opponent Chris Daniels.

Mark Briscoe vs Cody - The entrances to the match show why ROH dropped off after the AEW exodus. The people who are chanting "Cody!" and have their Bullet Club shirts, Young Buck fans etc. really weren't long term ROH fans but birds migrating from WWE over to ROH when they got the NJ/PWG/Bucks/Omega hype and have since flown off since the NJ/Elite split. The 2019 crowds were the drizzling shits. I mean Mark Briscoe has the same legend status as Daniels. It terms of ring wars and titles held he's more of one to be fair. This stage of ROH and pop wrestling is all about fan service and interaction, I suppose. People are tired of watching the show, they want to be a part of it. This is obvious to those that still watch WWE or AEW. But to an old timer like me, its a bit of a revelation. I think that's why people can get hyped about a middle of the road talent like Cody. We can see the difference as he floats around like Peter Pan whereas Mark Briscoe moves like he wants to hurt people. Thankfully the better part of this match had  Mark doing just that. Cody gets a chicken -shit heel win and the fans cheer. I don't understand this...Cody is like Christian Cage 2.0 with a dye job. Its an OK match. Sucks Cody goes over even though it's splitsville pretty soon.

This is a pretty disappointing upper card to the show when the early matches out perform the latter ones. Let's hope that the final two bouts save it.

Adam Page vs Tetsuya Naito - Best match so far, thankfully! The crowd was kinda iffy and that hurt the match a little bit. The were sitting on their hands but still gave a 'this is awesome' chant?? Like they were obliged to so. Then later they were shitting on Todd saying he blew a 3 count. Hey dipshits...its not over when you think its over. Its over when its over. I don't think "older" ROH fans would chant 'you fucked up' at the ref if Austin Aries kicked out of KENTA GTS. They would be fucking excited and probably chant a sincere 'this is awesome '...Again these folks want to be part of the entertainment rather than be entertained. Its a different world and I guess I'm being nostalgic but they seem pretty content to chant the 'Elite' chant, cheer Naito when he mails in a ***3/4 match, and mug for the camera. All that said, its a very good match. On a normal show this would have been a a mid card match.

Jay Lethal/Jonathan Gresham vs Vinny Marseglia/TK O'Ryan vs Chris Sabin/Kushida vs Young Bucks - Thank goodness for this match! A great pedal to the metal free-for-all spot match that saved the show and surely sent the wrestling fans home happy! Kinda like a rough around the edges Dragon Gate style match but dammit, it was what we all needed after a pretty uninspired show. I'll say its in the **** range. The last few minutes are pretty stellar and reminiscent of the Dragon Gate matches a decade earlier.
 

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This would have been a pretty good FIP show but, for all of the talent on here, that's more of a insult than a compliment. I think if you paid $15 for a ticket then you'd be a happy camper. If this were its own DVD eh...I think the live experience made this better than it was on tape. Bundling this show with 3 other shows makes sense. I waited and bought the set for $5 last Black Friday and this one it was down to $2.50, I think?? The main event here is the only thing I would highly recommend watching. It was fun at times and went by fast but the crowd got on my nerves.

For better or worse those people hit the road with The Elite in 2019.

Thanks for reading!