McXal's Reviews

Ring Of Honor had been planning a final stop-off before Final Battle in Texas for the first ever tag team Survival Of The Fittest...but mysteriously cancelled those shows at short notice. It means that our last stops on the road to Final Battle are now this rather quirky live-show double-header. Colt Cabana's 'Unauthorized' show takes place in Ohio tomorrow, and this evening ROH brings back the interactive 'Experience' concept they first debuted back in 2017. Fans have been given chances to vote on multiple elements this evening; from participants in a match to stipulations for grudge showdowns. I'm not the hugest fan of the format, and by this point there really were so few people watching ROH that information on these events is actually relatively scarce. The card includes Jeff Cobb vs Dragon Lee, Mark Haskins vs Jon Gresham, Tracy Williams vs Flip Gordon, a Villain Enterprises Six-Man Title defence, plus the World and TV Champions having to form a tag team. Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman provide commentary from Pittsburgh, PA.

The lights go out as the show starts and Maria Manic appears in the ring to toss around members of the ring crew. She then decides to put the Torture Rack on ring announcer Nick Lendl...

We then go to Ian and Caprice, who discuss all the fan votes throughout the evening. Fans have voted on Villain Enterprises' challengers for the Six-Man Titles in the main event (including a partner to be appointed to the Villains by the Board Of Directors), the challengers to the Briscoes' Tag Titles, the stipulations for Gresham vs Haskins and Flip vs Tracy...and also Dragon Lee's opponent in our opening match.

Fans voted for Cobb in this match ahead of Eli Isom, Kenny King and PJ Black. It is a big match for Cobb as he looks to rebound from losing to Lee's brother Rush last week in the UK. And it should also be good preparation for Lee as he is in the hunt to challenge Shane Taylor for the TV Title; a man Cobb dramatically defeated earlier in the year at the 17th Anniversary.

Jeff starts slow, easily over-powering Lee and shaking off some of his lucha tricks. Lee doesn't seem concerned and does the Ingobernable 'Tranquilo' pose which piques Riccaboni's interest. He looks for a tope suicida only for Jeff to pluck him out of the air and muscle him into a suplex onto the apron. Cobb continues to be aggressive - dishing out powerful strikes and emphatic throws. Lee's back takes the brunt of the impact and very quickly starts to bother him. Dragon tries to rally and lands his version of the Bull's Horns (the 'Dragon's Fire' apparently). Running inside-out rana to the floor BLOCKED by Cobb! Incinerator knee instead! Then he levels the Olympian with a spectacular tope atomico. Double stomp back into the ring gets 2. Cobb goes back to some heavy-handed striking; taking Lee off his feet repeatedly with elbows yet somehow the luchador keeps getting up. Helicopter Toss INTO the standing moonsault! GHETTO STOMP by Lee! German suplex scores, as does a slack reverse rana and another Incineration for 2. Bare knee Incinerator blocked for a STALLING German suplex. Tour Of The Islands countered into a crucifix pin...and Lee wins! 11:15 is your time

Rating - *** - A lively but disappointingly brief opening match. I'm not quite sure they had the best chemistry as opponents as there were quite a number of visible errors, particularly from Lee who didn't deliver his finest match. Despite that, the basic premise of a pissed off Cobb trying to dominate the younger brother of the man he failed to take the World Title from last week - but finding Lee's incredible speed and athleticism too much to cope with - was very good. 

Garrison and Kross won the fan vote at the expense of the Tate Twins, Soldiers Of Savagery and the Silas Young/Josh Woods team; the criteria being a title shot for a team who have never challenged for the ROH Tag Championship before. If this voting is legit that does feel like something of an upset given that M&M have a considerably lower profile than any of the other teams. 

The Briscoes' confused facial expressions as Kross hops on Garrison's shoulders for a bizarre pre-match dance are just brilliant. M&M actually attack the Briscoes before the bell too, such is their excitement to seize this opportunity. As you might expect - brawling with the Briscoes doesn't end well and before long the challengers are getting brutalised on the outside. Mark almost takes Griff's head off with a flapjack into the guardrails on one side, whilst on the other Jay is throwing Kross around with ease. They survive, and hit back as Kross steps off his own partner into a flying elbow drop on Jay! So Mark scoops Garrison up and absolutely annihilates him on the apron. Sick Kick/dragon suplex combo on Kross who finds himself fighting alone for the time-being. Griff finds his way back to the apron in time for a big tag...and scoops Mark up to throw him like a weapon at his own brother. Missile dropkick from Kross to block the Redneck Boogie, but moments later Mark drops him with the Urinage. Jay Driller/Froggy Bow combo finishes Griff at 08:07

Rating - ** - This was exciting at times, but I didn't really quite understand the purpose. Master & Machine got a semi-decent showing, but there were points where this felt like a squash and Ian's commentary basically made them sound like a couple of fortunate nobodies getting a participation medal, who should be considered lucky to be in the ring with the Briscoes. I enjoyed Jay and Mark bullying the youngsters, and some of their hope spots were legitimately exciting...but nothing about this felt special or like it had any long-term significance, whilst it all felt rather damaging to the long-term credibility of Kross and Garrison as a team in ROH.

The three 'losers' of the poll to determine who faced Dragon Lee in the opener were instead inserted into this four-way, alongside CMLL Heavyweight Champion (the returning) Ultimo Guerrero. For someone like Isom, it could be the biggest night of his career if he was able to defeat a tenured veteran like Guerrero or Black...and he does have previous form in pulling off upset victories in multi-man matches. Footage capturing Kenny and Amy Rose in mysterious discussions with Rush had aired by this point, so there is already some intrigue as to what they are planning...

Ultimo's mullet is looking particularly spectacular this evening. It looks like tornado rules for this and it's Eli who tries to start the party by attacking everyone. Very quickly that descends into a four-man submission spot. Guerrero absolutely DECKS Eli with a baseball slide knocking him hard from the apron to the floor. Isom's solution is to buddy up with PJ; working together to clear the ring of both King and Ultimo. Kenny levels Black with the Chin Checker...before Eli dives onto all three opponents with a big crossbody. He hits a sweet spinning back suplex on Kenny too, before flowing smoothly out of the ring with a springboard moonsault to the floor. Kenny King vanishes from the action, runs off through the crowd and reappears on the stage. HUGE STAGE DIVE TO THE FLOOR! Amy Rose crotches PJ as he tries to attack King, yet as he hangs in a tree of woe he still finds a way to deliver a German suplex on Eli which drags Kenny into a superplex as well. Guerrero Special gets 2. Black DDT's Isom and hits The Wildness to win at 09:23

Rating - ** - The positives here were firstly Kenny King's wild dive off the stage, and secondly that Eli Isom was at the heart of the match. He has plenty of potential and will only be improved by being in the ring with experienced wrestlers as he was here. But whilst wisdom and experience come with age, so does a degeneration of your natural athletic gifts - and that was really on display with PJ and Ultimo here. There were points where it felt like they were running through quicksand. Ultimo Guerrero is fun - but the building is half full meaning his appearance isn't drawing fans, and based on every one of his matches in ROH thus far he's a lovable veteran but isn't at the cutting edge of what modern day American indy wrestling fans want to see. So I don't understand why he's booked; it must cost money to fly him in, and pay him to wrestle. There are MUCH better ways Ring Of Honor could be investing that money in their flailing product right now. The same could be said for PJ Black too...

Originally this was going to be a tag match featuring the current and three former World Champions, but TV Champion Shane Taylor replaced Jay Lethal when the latter was injured at Honor United weekend in Bolton. Fans voted to 'pick the partners' here; Rush and Taven on opposite sides with fans having to vote on which side Taylor and Castle would be on. The result is that Dalton teams with Taven, two men whom ROH have acknowledged are friends in real life. Neither man likes Rush either and have both spent the majority of 2019 unsuccessfully plotting ways to end the current World Champ's undefeated streak. Taylor is the wildcard - now promoting himself under 'Shane Taylor Promotions' - he has nothing to lose but everything to gain from being in the ring with three former Ring Of Honor Champions. Taven is working through a broken ankle apparently and has both Marseglia and O'Ryan in his corner once again.

Taylor goads Taven, having apparently broken his nose in Bolton (the amount of injuries coming out of that UK tour is crazy), even as Matt demands he be allowed to start with Rush instead. Taven and Castle try to piss the TV Champion off by repeatedly tagging in and out without locking up. They kill two minutes of the match with that routine leaving Shane with steam coming out of his ears. Eventually Taylor walks out and unleashes Rush...and Taven has to desperately pull Dalton to safety as the champ almost beats him with Bull's Horns again! The knock the champions to the floor and deliver a Heat Seeking Missile/tope suicida combo, followed by Castle's tiger feint headscissors off the apron. But Matt blows out his bad ankle landing on his feet when Rush avoids the Aurora Borealis...and immediately El Toro Blanco starts attacking it. Taylor does the same; even the most basic of moves having a devastating effect when performed by a man of Shane T's size. In fact both of the champions do a great job of destroying Taven's ankle, modifying even the most basic of moves to ensure they damage the injury. It means that even when Matt hits a spinning heel kick his only option is to crawl into a hot tag to Castle. GERMAN SUPLEX ON TAYLOR! LEG-SELLING Just The Tip! Taven hobbles to the floor and batters Rush into the guardrails...but inside the ring Shane knocks Dalton out with a headbutt! Greetings From 216 wins it for the TV Champion at 10:55

Rating - *** - Post-Gabe ROH's aversion to longer matches can be frustration, and this is a great example of why. It was a fine tag team match; all the big personalities looked like they had fun, we saw some solid wrestling and the person with the most to gain from victory won the match. But this could have been so much more than a competently wrestled midcard filler tag. Give these guys another 15-20 minutes and this could have been something really special. We barely glimpsed what were some pretty unique tag team dynamics between unfamiliar team-mates. We hardly had time for any drama to build up around Taven's ankle injury either. Considering they were only wrestling for eleven minutes, Dalton and Taven wasting the first two minutes doing nothing more than tagging in and out feels unforgiveable.

The vote here was for the stipulation; choosing between European Rounds, Pure Rules or 2/3 Falls. My preference would have been Pure Rules, but these two are talented enough to make any of them work. It is a dream match for fans of pure technical wrestling, throwing together two of ROH's most reliable wrestlers of 2019. Gresham will be anxiously hoping Lethal recovers from his broken arm in time for them to challenge for the Tag Titles at Final Battle. Ian reminds us that the last time these two wrestled a singles match it was Haskins coming out on top though (Honor Re-United: Night 1)...

Neither man wants to make an early mistake, but start the match ferociously jostling for control on the mat. Haskins looks interested in working the arm in anticipation of utilising the Star Armbar later in the bout. Gresh 'accidentally' cheap-shots Haskins as he offers a clean break in the ropes, hinting at the rule-breaking aggressive side of The Octopus we've seen in recent months. The Englishman remains in the ascendancy however and now uses his minor height advantage along with an assortment of headlocks to keep Gresham down. Jon tries to snap Haskins' wrist to stop that...then takes another cheap-shot by booting him in the face. Next he messes up the ring apron, distracting the official so he can use a Testicular Claw on Haskins to get ahead. Haskins gets immediate payback; squashing the referee in the corner and grabbing at Gresham's genitals as a receipt. Half crab by Gresh...and he is also incredibly slow to release the hold when the Lifeblood member makes the ropes. Haskins reacts by dropkicking the bandaged knee of Gresham, attacking the leg in the same way that he did in London last year. DEATHLOCK DDT scores! Gresham hobbles away from that, right into a shinbreaker. Each man tries to cheap-shot the other coming out of the ropes before Gresh defies his bad leg to deliver a brainbuster. Octopus Stretch countered to the Soldier Roll for 2. Stretch Muffler applied - but still Gresham finds a route to the ropes. He stomps the arm...but gets himself into a tangle looking for a bridging pin despite his bad leg. He has Mark's shoulders down, but at the same time Haskins has managed a crucifix pin on Gresham. The referee counts three at 16:41 - then informs Bobby Cruise that since both sets of shoulders were down, the score is now 1-1 and we're into the deciding fall. Quebrada by Gresh before he starts attacking Haskins legs. Mark defies the ill-effects of that to hit the RUNNING FALCON ARROW for 2. Stomp Boy misses, inflicting more damage to Haskins' leg. Gresham flies at him and applies a Figure 4 Leglock. Haskins tries to roll to the ropes - only for Gresham to keep rolling so they collapse to the floor! He smashes the leg against the ringpost then marches back into the ring, demanding referee Joe Mandak make the count. Gresham wins 2-1, via count-out at 20:44

Rating - **** - Why isn't ROH promoting matches of this quality on every show? They have a roster packed with enough talent to easily achieve that. Other than not particularly enjoying the 2/3 Falls stipulation, I thought this was fantastic. Like Gresham/Shelley from Glory By Honor, we were privileged to watch two savvy, experienced grapplers go to work. They probed each other for weaknesses, they continually escalated the tension and drama by becoming progressively more nasty and vicious - all building to a fantastic finish where Gresham was so sadistic he didn't even want to win by submission and instead rendered his opponent unable to walk. It really isn't a surprise that, given twenty minutes in the ring together, these men produced something quite special. The only downside is that I wish it could have gone longer.

This stipulation won-out in the fan poll over a Strap Match or a Singapore Cane Match, and is designed to finally end the feud which has been raging between Williams and Gordon for the second half of 2019. Tracy defeated Flip in a rugged No DQ bout in Las Vegas and now seeks a definitive, conclusive, final victory over his villainous rival.

Bobby Cruise can't even get through his introduction before the fight gets underway. Williams staves off an attempt to ambush him and unleashes a barrage of violent strikes on the outside. That is until Flip nips under a lariat into a flipping neckbreaker on the floor! He stays on the neck too; cranking onto a neck vice instead of appeasing the fans with a standing moonsault. Flip runs off into the crowd when Williams threatens to attack his arm...but doesn't reckon on the 'technician' chasing him out there. They brawl wildly through the empty seats; Williams putting his rival through a couple with a running knee strike too. Flip tries to retaliate with a springboard tornado DDT off the guardrails...but Williams COUNTERS WITH A NORTHERN LIGHTS THROUGH A STEEL CHAIR! Flip beats the ten count only to be dropped again with a DVD. Kinder Surprise by Gordon, fighting on the top rope with another open chair positioned ominously below then. SUPER DDT THROUGH THE CHAIR by Tracy! Gordon falls out of the ring, allowing gravity to make sure he isn't counted down there. Out there he blasts Williams head and shoulder-first into the barricades...and holds on for a GERMAN SUPLEX ON THE FLOOR! Gordon stands a table up in the corner of the ring but has to settle for guillotining Hot Sauce over the top rope when the Lifeblood member blocks it. Both men hunt under the ring and pull out Singapore Canes (in place in case that stipulation won)...and it's Williams who wins the race to use it by SMASHING Flip in the injured arm. He tries to capitalise by jumping off the stage only to sail straight into a kendo stick shot to the guts by The Mercenary. He blocks another cane shot with his BARE HANDS then decks Gordon with a discus lariat on the concrete. Springboard Spear COUNTERED TO THE PILEDRIVER! Flip beats the count though, then gives Tracy a low blow. He sets Tracy up on an open table and stacks a chair on top of him too. That simply hands Williams a weapon though and he blasts Flip with it. Tyler Bateman runs in and powerbombs Tracy through the table. It hands Flip a tainted victory at 16:09

Rating - **** - The finish was completely unimaginative, which in this instance has really irritated me because it takes all the focus away from what was a fantastic match. Before that however, this was a superb brawl; exciting and violent in all kinds of ways you wouldn't necessarily expect from a world-renowned technical wrestler facing a high-flier. Most importantly it kept the brutal realism of their No DQ Match at DBD Fallout as well, a quality I particularly admired in that first clash in Vegas. It's hard to tell where we go from here. Lifeblood are all but dead as a faction, their feud with Villain Enterprises has simmered to nothing...and NOBODY cared about Bateman's appearance here. It wasn't a conclusion which made you want to see more of this company, it was lazy booking and ruined a match to such a degree that I could fully believe it would actually drive more fans away if anything...

We cut to footage from the locker rooms, where it appears that Vinny Marseglia and TK O'Ryan have been assaulted again. Matt Taven is furious and storms straight to the ring to call out the mystery attacker. The lights go out (with the exception of a sole spotlight on Taven), and we get a great visual reveal as Vincent steps into the light - before kicking Taven's injured ankle then blasting him in the head with his axe. He makes Taven bleed, then celebrates with weird ass music and red balloons. 

Maff was selected by ROH's Board Of Directors to replace the injured Brody King, meaning he will make his first appearance in Ring Of Honor since March 2005 (Back To Basics, coincidentally in a match also featuring Colt Cabana). His comeback was already booked as he faces PCO at Unauthorized tomorrow, and it will be interesting to see how the Villains react to having him forced upon them as a partner. On the recent UK tour Marty was able to appoint Brody King's successor himself (appointing Colt Cabana to partner PCO in the Newport main event)...so it's odd that he wasn't permitted to do the same here. The challengers were voted on by the fans, and I couldn't be bothered to do much research so I'm not clear why Cobb was eligible for this vote despite already appearing in one earlier. Given that PCO is #1 contender for the World Title, something Jeff is desperate to hold, the Hawaiian Juggernaut may well single him out as a target...

No Code Of Honor from the Villains or Maff, which is at least decent continuity since when Maff was last here he was in The Prophecy. Scurll and Cabana start for their teams, picking up where they left off at Death Before Dishonor with an easily watchable blend of smooth wrestling and crowd-pleasing buffoonery. Marty demands to wrestle a fellow 'heavyweight'...so Colt walks past Cobb and unleashes Cheeseburger. That pisses Scurll off so much that he tags out to bring PCO in. The #1 contender ignores Burger's offence and batters him back to the corner, before tags again so Maff and Cobb can take to the ring. The big men collide like bulls, but Cobb has a speed advantage so starts delivering illusive strikes. Since Maff won't go down all three challengers charge in - Colt and Jeff launching CB into a Stunner. He tries to climb onto Dan with a sleeper...so Maff CANNONBALLS INTO THE CORNER with Burger still on his back! PCO forcibly tags the former Tag Champion Maff out, much to the annoyance of the Era Of Honor Begins veteran. Instead the Villains take turns working over Burger, before eventually losing control of him and allowing a tag to Cabana. Maff and PCO jostle for position trying to attack Cabana, but then Colt knocks them both down with the moonsault press. Cobb tries to suplex PCO only for the veteran to back flip out of it! Back body drop somersault plancha by Scurll and PCO! Marty wants to hit a dive too, but then Maff stops him so he can instead hit a BIG MAN TOPE SUICIDA! Chokeslam from PCO to Cobb gets 2. The Olympian absolutely DECKS Marty with a big elbow to block the Chickenwing then climbs the ropes for a DEAD-LIFT SUPERPLEX ON F*CKING MAFF! Bionic Elbow/standing moonsault combo by Colt and Jeff gets 2. Shotei COUNTERED to the half nelson suplex by The Villain...who drags Burger to the apron and orders PCO to the top. But PCO crumples off the top rope and eats the apron whilst Cabana pulls Burger to safety. ATHLETIC-PLEX from Cobb to PCO! SHOTEI FLURRY! PCO ignores them all, then grabs all three opponents for a DOUBLE CHOKESLAM/TOMBSTONE PILEDRIVER! PCO-SAULT! But Maff has blind-tagged PCO out. He picks Burger up for the BURNING HAMMER! Maff wins, pinning down PCO as he pins Burger at 16:41

Rating - **** - That feels like a generous 4* rating, but its worth pointing out that this was the only match on the show which consistently drew any kind of reaction from the small live crowd. They produced a lively blend of comedy, good wrestling, neat set-ups for some fun big man spots featuring Cobb, PCO and Maff, and did a decent job putting together some build for the PCO/Maff bout tomorrow night. For the most part PCO was managed well too; by that I mean he was presented like a destroyer capable of crushing all in his path - which is critical given that he is heading to the main event of Final Battle.

The sound guy messes up and accidentally plays Vincent's creepy music rather than Maff's or Villain Enterprises' which is quite funny. PCO is not happy at Maff stealing his pin, forcing Marty to play peacemaker.

Tape Rating - *** - Far from a perfect show, but at just over two and a half hours it goes by quickly and features enough good wrestling in the top half of the card to be worth a look. Gresham/Haskins was comfortably the standout bout for me; a gripping technical clinic which kept you guessing throughout and featured a really GREAT count-out finish (which you don't see often). And although I had some problems with them, the Six-Man Title Match and the Flip/Tracy Last Man Standing Match were both really fun - a lively trios bout with some big hitting big boys the former, and a dynamic and fast-paced brawl the latter. Both of these shows this weekend show how absolutely stone cold ROH's product was by the end of 2019 though. The building in Pittsburgh was far from full, indeed, on a couple of sides of the ring it looked like only the front row had any fans in. If you look online for coverage/reviews of this event you'll see how few people actually covered it live as well - such was the lack of interest in what was happening. Ring Of Honor live shows just aren't drawing at the moment, and I'd suggest decent, middle of the road, inconsequential events like this aren't going to change that unfortunately...

3) Marty Scurll/PCO/Dan Maff vs Jeff Cobb/Colt Cabana/Cheeseburger (****)

2) Flip Gordon vs Tracy Williams (****)

1) Jonathan Gresham vs Mark Haskins (****)