[9.0] "I thought this was a stellar event - and while the 'World Title Classic' for which the show gets its namesake is the most obvious reason, it's not the only thing on the card that earns this rating from me. While the show does start off in fairly unassuming fashion with a very average match as the opener, everything after that was a hit with me in one way or another. Six Man Mayhem is good fun as always and has a diverse range of competitors, the six man tag was tremendous and way beyond my expectations (Stryker has never looked so impressive), and the Ultimate Endurance main event is very enjoyable with an insane finish as well. Homicide's storyline is another positive, as his discontent with ROH continues to escalate, while also adding a bit of a narrative thread to run throughout the show. The ROH Title match is obviously the centrepiece here, and it's a monumental match that is extremely significant for a multitude of reasons (which I elaborate on in my match review). My major criticism of the night is that the pacing is pretty poor - it was a bizarre decision to have a 37 minute Ultimate Endurance match directly after a 60 minute World Title match, and while the crowd is more engaged than you might expect (which is a testament to the hard work of the four teams involved), the energy of the match does suffer as a result. I wouldn't recommend watching the entire show in one sitting, as I do think your enjoyment of the Ultimate Endurance match will likely be adversely impacted if you view it straight after Punk and Joe, but I do think that despite some issues the show as a whole is still worth a very high grade - both due to historical significance as well as some really high quality wrestling on display."

[7.0] "A shows rating likely propelled by the world title match as the remainder of the show was pretty good but there have been overall stronger ROH shows."

[5.0] "If you loved the ROH Title match and at least enjoyed the main-event, then I get rating this show so highly, but I found most of this show to be a slog, with the supposed high points being very overrated. New Carnage Crew vs Dunn & Marcos was just a ragdoll special. **. The 6 Man Mayhem match was a generic early 00s ROH multi-man spotfest, but one that felt much more try-hard than usual. **3/4. Shelley, Aries & Strong vs Rave, Walters & Stryker started with some very heated and even dangerous interactions (I hope Evans was okay after that bump). It then developed into some standard indy exchanges, with all 6 men showing good physicality and intensity. Gen Next's tag spots were good. It was fun seeing the faces survive and eventually fight back to even footing. The final 10 minutes were quite exciting. ***1/4. Joe vs Punk I, the start of a supposedly legendary feud, was really good but absolutely overrated. There was a lot of good stuff, but they definitely didn't use the 60-minute time limit the best they could have. I liked the idea of Joe's power and size against Punk's grimy technical grappling, but Punk's work often became a bit boring because of how slow it was, and at times it felt like both men were clearly just going through the motions to take up time. The near falls and big moves in the final 1/4th were really good, but that was the only time that the match truly felt somewhat epic. For this match being at least half the appeal of the entire show, it failed to compensate for how weak the rest of the card was. ***1/2. The Ultimate Endurance match was a standard, strong ROH multi-man tag for the first 1/3rd or so, but then the two best teams (Briscoes and Gen Next) got eliminated, leaving two bland teams: Cabana and Steel, and Maff and Whitmer. Those two teams proceeded to try have a real hate-filled epic, but it all felt ridiculous because, excluding Cabana, how could I care for any of these forgettable mid-carders? They didn't have the necessary star power or the naturally heated feud required to make their performance feel deserved. I also didn't need a near 40-minute match immediately after a 60-minute draw. That was a terrible oversight. The misfire of this match really brought the rest of the show's overall quality down. **3/4."