McXal's Reviews

We've reached Ring Of Honor's final weekend of live shows before the world as we know it would be completely altered by the Coronavirus pandemic. These were scheduled to be our last live events on the road to the 18th Anniversary Show pay-per-view (plus the special Past vs Present event the next night), with the World Title right at the heart of those preparations. PCO defends the belt tonight against TV Champion and member of rival group La Faccion Ingobernable - Dragon Lee. That is our main event, and the winner there defends it tomorrow against Rush and Mark Haskins in a triple threat (with whomever DOES NOT lose the fall tomorrow scheduled to receive a 1-on-1 title shot in the main event at the 18th Anniversary). We also have the Tag Titles on the line as Jay Lethal and Jon Gresham defend against the undefeated 2 Guys 1 Tag (Silas Young & Josh Woods)...plus the Briscoes against Cobb and Maff, Alex Shelley facing Rey Horus and Nicole Savoy taking on The Allure's Angelina Love in what looks to be an altogether solid card. Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman will call the action for us in Nashville, TN.

This is hyped as an international dream match, bringing together the best from all around the world. We know that Bandido has ongoing issues with Villain Enterprises, be it as part of Lifeblood or as part of MexiSquad, with whom he took the Villains' Six-Man Championship last month. Slex is all about big business (apparently), so upon arriving from Australia made a beeline for Villain Enterprises too. He was beaten in his ROH debut by Flip Gordon, so will be hoping to bounce back strongly this evening.

Bandido's speed sees him outwit both opponents in the first minute, until they form a momentary alliance - pooling their resources to bludgeon the luchador to the floor. He returns to the ring less than a minute later to wipe them both out with the Tornillo. RUNNING MOONSAULT to the floor drops Marty! ONE ARM MILITARY PRESS DRIVER from Bandido to Slex! He then traps both of them in a combination Mexican surfboard stretch which looks completely insane. Scurll fires free first, but eats a slingshot backbreaker from Slex. Business Bomb on Bandido, but Marty quickly breaks the Australian's pin. Bandido drops Slex with the pop-up Ace Crusher only to in turn tumble into a running lariat from The Villain. Slex prevents him from applying the Chickenwing though. REVOLUTION FLY! Scurll tries to nab Bandido in the Chickenwing...rolled through into a bridging pin for 2. DOUBLE SAMOAN DROP BY BANDIDO! 21-PLEX on Slex! Black Plague on Bandido! Marty grabs the victory at 07:29

Rating - *** - This was devilishly fun for the time it was allocated. It was so short they didn't really have time to get bogged down in the usual, tedious triple threat tropes and cliches - instead blasting through a non-stop thrill-ride of high impact moves. Bandido was spectacular, Marty held it together with his antagonistic side, whilst Slex produced perhaps his best ROH performance (not that he ended up wrestling many matches) hanging in there with these two top tier talents comfortably.

Just like in Baltimore, Shane Taylor Promotions come out and assault Slex. Taylor lays him out with a Package Piledriver

Ian and Caprice try to shill this match as a demonstration of how deep the ROH tag division is, but since all four of them are thrown together by ROH for various storylines I'm not sure it necessarily counts. Lifeblood are the most experienced duo, but with Haskins concentrating on his World Title shot tomorrow night he may be distracted. Williams has issues with Bateman of The Righteous too. 

Getting all eight of these guys to the ring and set up to start takes longer than the entire duration of the Scurll/Slex/Bandido match. Black and Hendry are the legal men as we begin, fighting to a stalemate that is broken by Hot Sauce tagging in. Lifeblood take turns working Johnson over; their dominance only broken when Castle forcibly tags Haskins out. He and Hendry also take turns roughing up The Mecca, to the immense frustration of PJ. ACE CRUSHER ON THE FLOOR from Vincent to Haskins! He had been lured out there by the antics of Bateman, Chuckles and Vita at ringside. In the ring Bateman hits a facewash and Marseglia lands the Side Effect for 2. The Righteous have rendered Haskins almost motionless, which Johnson aggressively tags in to profit from. Tracy saves his partner and spikes Brian with a running DVD - bringing Black in to break the pin. Turnbuckle DDT on Vincent only for Tracy's old rival Bateman to attack him from behind. Corkscrew pescado by the Darewolf onto a pile of bodies! Johnson watched that and wants to hit a dive as well, and is so distracted that he almost gets pinned by Williams as a result. Castle starts throwing Lifeblood around with a flurry of suplexes, then Joe scoops both Black and Williams up for the DOUBLE FREAK OF NATURE! Stomp Boy on Marseglia! Bang-A-Rang on Haskins! Codebreaker/spinning bulldog combo on Johnson, allowing Castle to pin him for the win at 11:39

Rating - ** - There were elements of this that I liked, it just never felt like they were fitting together very well and weren't able to form a coherent match out of some interesting individual performances. I thought The Righteous looked good here and maximised the effectiveness of the time they had to shine with some exciting, crisp high impact stuff. Similarly I thought the dysfunctional mentor/student dynamic between Black and Johnson was cleverly spotlighted at various points too. It felt like a waste of the talents of the other guys though, and I wasn't a big fan of Haskins not winning (and also taking a heat segment from f*cking Johnson) on the eve of him getting a World Title shot.

Session Moth Martina joins commentary for the next match, but is seemingly so drunk she can barely string a sentence together. Although she is apparently able to flirt with Caprice...

The Allure have unceremoniously dominated the Women Of Honor landscape since their arrival at G1 Supercard. They've out-lasted Kelly Klein, they fought off Sumie Sakai and Jenny Rose...and were even able to survive Angelina's mauling at the hands of Maria Manic at Final Battle. Savoy's arrival into the division presents a different challenge though. She is a top class female athlete, a former SHIMMER Champion, a respected technician - in short she is someone at the very top of their game and capable of out-wrestling almost anyone she gets in the ring with. Does Angelina have the chops to hang with the Queen Of Suplexes? At this point ROH had announced a tournament to crown a new Women Of Honor Champion for later in 2020 (which would subsequently be cancelled unfortunately) - so every current member of the WOH roster is jostling for position going into the tournament.

Love comes out intent on making a statement - getting down on the ground and showing her skill by controlling Nicole through the opening couple of minutes. Nicole is pissed and viciously puts Angelina in a MutaLock, then an STF. Love defiantly refuses to tap so Savoy stays on her; smiling sadistically as she floats from one submission hold to the next. Mandy Leon gets involved to save her partner, trapping Nicole's leg from the outside and teeing Angelina up for a running knee into the abdomen. More shots to the midsection follow then a bulldog smears Savoy into the mat for a two-count. We see Nicole unable to get Love over for one of her signature suplexes next, and Angelina capitalises to give her a tree of woe dropkick to the ribs! Running knee by Savoy...then rolling snap suplexes! Cross armbreaker applied on the arm she'd been targeting earlier! Double axehandle to the ribs by Love, who looks to finish it off with a flatliner/Koji Clutch combo. Savoy gets to the ropes and almost snaps Angelina in half with a TKO for 2. They come up trading some FIERCE strikes, which Nicole breaks by applying a half crab - standing straight up to protect her injured ribs. Mandy appears on the apron to distract the referee and Savoy herself...but Nicole ducks and causes Angelina to inadvertently strike Leon to the ground! Roll-up pin on Love - giving Savoy the win at 11:52

Rating - *** - I'm pretty sure this is Angelina's best ROH match up to this point. ROH fans have been waiting a long time to see this side of her - the savvy veteran who has a pronounced character and is an obvious heel, but can hang in the ring too. Sure interference from Mandy was still a factor here, such is the nature of The Allure as a gimmick by this point. It wasn't, though, the defining characteristic of the contest. That would be the struggle for dominance between the two combatants themselves. Angelina playing her role superbly as the 'Queen Bee' trying to assert her dominance over the newcomer; Savoy as the supremely talented pretender to the throne, armed with enough skill to overcome whatever shenanigans The Allure threw at her. I really liked this - I wish we could have seen so much more from Savoy in ROH.

The war between Villain Enterprises and La Faccion Ingobernable continues to grow. Dragon Lee of LFI challenges VE's PCO for the title in the main event tonight, and if PCO survives that he'll face Rush as part of a triple threat defence tomorrow night. Flip and Brody, therefore, have a chance to soften up El Toro Blanco before he makes it to his title match. LFI are looking for payback on Flip after he disguised himself as Dragon Lee on the way to winning the #1 contendership Battle Royal at Free Enterprise - a match Kenny King was also a part of (and was eliminated by Gordon).

Flip brings out his stolen Dragon Lee mask like a trophy. Kenny demands to start with him and they immediately light each other up with thudding chops. Springboard Spear by Gordon...who runs into a leaping forearm from Rush as he sets up for a dive. El Toro Blanco drags Flip to the outside and in trademark fashion starts decimating him against the guardrails. Brody makes the save - but Rush passes Gordon back into the ring so his partner can continue beating on him. Soon enough Gordon is back on the outside and gets his skull bounced off the ring bell by Rush! Back inside Kenny drills him with the Tiger Driver for 2. Finally Gordon blasts Kenny with a spinning heel kick and unleashes Brody for an AWESOME hot tag sequence. He utterly mauls LFI and comes off like a total killer. Kenny drills him with the Capo Kick from the apron, then levels Gordon with the One Night Stand. Corkscrew pescado to the floor as well! Pele Kick by Flip...so LFI silence him with a punishing double dropkick to the neck. Double Superkick floors him! They try to give him a double superplex too - only for Brody to save simply by powerbombing them both! DOUBLE ELBOW SUICIDA! MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR BY FLIP...but LFI move causing him to wipe Brody out! Rush starts using electrical cable to choke Brody and refuses to let go. Todd Sinclair disqualifies LFI at 10:56

Rating - *** - It really is a shame the pandemic cut short the LFI/Villains feud. It is hard to know how much influence Scurll was having on the product, what Delirious was still booking and so on, but every interaction between these guys since the terrible Rush/PCO match at Final Battle has been good. This match felt loaded with intensity, it felt like a progressive response to Flip's actions at Free Enterprise in that LFI viscerally targeted him for payback, and the match ended in further escalation as LFI decided to forego victory in pursuit of simply hurting their rivals. In many ways this match embodied what was so lacking in the Villains/Lifeblood feud from last year - where the matches were always very good but never really delivered any real sense of escalation or progression. This one had both...

Kenny King swings a chair at Flip as security floods the ring trying to separate them. Gordon gets to his feet and throws a chair at Rush...who launches one back at him twice as hard. The scene gets crazy as more and more black-shirt-wearing staff are called upon to split the four men apart.

We've not seen it on the live shows (or even TV that I recall), but LSG and Shaheem Ali agreed to go their separate ways as 2019 bled into 2020 - ending their 'Coast 2 Coast' team. LSG takes his first steps as a singles athlete again by looking to take on the top prospect out of the ROH Dojo - Eli Isom of Shinobi Shadow Squad. 2019 was another year of growth for Isom and you feel like 2020 needs to be the year that he steps up to the next level and stops being a 'top prospect' and starts becoming a 'top star'. 

They start fast and land a couple of spectacular, if somewhat elaborately choreographed, takedowns. Isom lands a moonsault to the floor, then a version of the High Fly Flow back in for 2. The Promise blocked by St. Giovanni...but he is caught on the ropes and dropped again by a Spanish Fly. Bully Ray comes out and puts LSG through a table, I presume meaning LSG wins by DQ at 03:11

Rating - N/A - In 2021 Eli and LSG would go on to have a real sleeper hit TV match. This, on the other hand, was just three minutes of LSG being used as a body for Eli to get his sh*t in against thus ensuring he was over with the crowd by the time Bully Ray came out for another show-killing segment.

Bubba comes out and vaguely acts like he's trying to get anyone else but himself over because he bates the crowd into cheering for Isom. Bully things 'the problem is for the last three years I've been entirely too nice'. No mate, the problem is that you've been doing the same f*cking angle for the last three years. He then starts ranting about 'smart mark' fans in their mothers' basements like he didn't realise it isn't 1998 anymore. He bangs on about his contract for an interminable length of time, he says none of the veteran wrestlers will face him because he 'has dirt' on them...and finally says he'll quit if anyone can beat him. Eventually Eli grabs the mic and challenges him, but Bubba can't even stop being a prick long enough for him to get through his fiery babyface challenge...

Yes, you've seen this before. Bubba picks on young wrestler, calls him a 'young boy', disrespects the crowd. Young wrestlers fires up, Bully doesn't do much selling but makes a couple of token, novel efforts to make it seem like he's trying to get someone else over...but is really doing little more than hogging a spot and killing the show with his tedious, tired act.

To give him credit, Eli was incredibly likeable in his challenge for this match - even whilst Bully was trying to undermine him by being a prick. Bully misses a big senton splash, letting Isom land the twisting frog splash for 2. Bubba Bomb lands, and in a single move Bully wins at 01:24

Rating - DUD - By rights I should probably call this an 'N/A' because it was hardly a match. But as myself and many others have pointed out, the Bully Ray act was painfully played out by this point. I've criticised him a lot but I feel I've actually been more tolerant and patient than most. I highly praised his Final Battle 2017 match with the Briscoes, and I liked his feud-ending matches with Flip Gordon and Mark Haskins at Final Battles 2018 and 2019 respectively too. But it's not enough for him to have one match a year where he makes an effort. It's even worse when you consider he's spent most of the last three years recycling the same storyline with different personnel rotating through alongside him. It is impossible to tell where the new creative direction would have taken Ring Of Honor in 2020 had the pandemic not intervened - but I really do hope part of Marty's mandate was to write Bubba out of the f*cking show as quickly as possible (two years too late).

Cheeseburger (who has previous with Bully) comes out to try and save his partner but gets laid out. That means Caprice Coleman steps in to play the role of 2018 Colt Cabana by leaving the announce desk and getting into Bully's face. 

The show gets back on track with hysterical simultaneous interviews featuring Josh Woods and Silas Young, giving comically opposing interpretations of their relationship and partnership. In five years Josh wants to have won the Tag Titles, to be neighbours (or room-mates) with Silas and to have finally have secured a hug from the Last Real Man...

This is Lethal and Gresham's first title defence, but at Free Enterprise they lost in a Proving Ground Match to Jeff Cobb and Dan Maff so they aren't entering this with heaps of momentum. Perhaps more concerning is that 2 Guys 1 Tag are undefeated - and already have a win over Lethal and Gresham on their record from the Global Wars Espectacular Tour last year.

The champions attack the challengers during their entrance; Lethal charging out behind his old rival Silas and blasting him in the knee with his title belt! Before the bell rings the champions have hobbled Silas, and laid both challengers out with tope suicidas. Young trips Gresham in front of another tope from Lethal though, as Woods recovers and hits a capture suplex on the floor to The Franchise! By the time the bell rings Lethal and Gresh are back on top and dominating the Last Real Man though. They work over the injured leg, always remaining right on the cusp of illegality but ultimately remaining within the rules. Figure 4 Leglock blocked though and that allows Woods to tag in for the first time. Much like their last match Woods dominates - almost pinning Lethal from his version of the GTS. DIVING KNEE STRIKE knocks Gresham out of the sky as he tries to fly in with a save! Seismic Toss blocked setting up the Lethal Combination for 2. Woods POWERBOMBS Gresham onto Silas' knees, which of course injures Silas' leg still more...but doesn't stop The Goods from violently booting Lethal out of the ring. Leg kick/folding powerbomb/Figure 4 Leglock sequence from the champs to Young! Woods breaks by powerbombing Gresh onto his own partner. STRIKE DUEL between Gresham and Woods! Young levels Lethal with a pescado whilst in the ring Josh Doctor Bombs Gresham into an anklelock. Everest German gets 2! Gresham evades Misery with a kick to Silas' injured leg. LETHAL INJECTION! SHOOTING STAR PRESS...for 2! Silas small packages Gresham for three, but Todd Sinclair misses it because he's trying to get Lethal and Woods out of the ring. Jay flips the pin on his way out, and Gresham pins Silas to retain at 10:18

Rating - *** - Part of me is disappointed that we didn't get a true sequel to their classic from the Global Wars Espectacular Tour. That was seventeen minutes of smooth, engaging and impeccably performed tag team wrestling - and this match was an entirely different clash. I understand the concept, since Lethal and Gresham are supposed to be rule-pushing heels it makes sense that this match would be different. Last time they lost but played nicely - this time they were aggressive, they cheated, and despite Woods' individual dominance over them they won the match. The ten minutes of action we got were undeniably heated and dramatic though - even if the match wasn't the one I personally wanted to see. For the most part I also really liked Silas' selling of the leg which genuinely added to the tension. 

Alex said he returned to ROH in 2019 (after taking a hiatus from professional wrestling) because he was looking to face some of the best wrestlers from all over the world. He has faced Matt Taven, he has battled Jon Gresham and now he faces a spectacular luchador; one third of MexiSquad (the current Six-Man Champions) in Rey Horus. Shelley had recently been announced as part of the 2020 Pure Title Tournament (the cancelled, pre-pandemic version), so Horus will eye up a win here that would put him in contention for a spot in that as well.

Shelley spends the first minute locking up with the luchador and trying to keep him down, then spends the next minute making a real statement by repeatedly repelling Rey's lucha-attacks with brilliant, effortless counters. Horus is forced to wrestle Shelley's match and although he is a competent grappler, he can't compete at Alex's level on the canvas. He drives Shelley to the floor...but then out there Shelley starts using his momentum against. He tries to shimmy off the ringpost, to which Alex almost counters with a Shiranui then DOES counter with an armdrag...and when Horus gets up from that Shelley catches him again with a tilta-whirl backbreaker to the floor. Rey decides it's time to throw strikes - right in front of the front row fans. They gasp in horror as Shelley BRUTALLY tackles him into the guardrail! We go back to the ring where the former ROH Tag Champion runs through a series of submissions, systematically picking apart Horus' body. Almost eight minutes in and Shelley finally makes a mistake - trying a crossbody off the top for a second time. Horus capitalises and blasts him with a dropkick to the sternum. DOUBLE SPRINGBOARD lucha armdrag! TOPE ATOMICO OVER THE TURNBUCKLES! Rey is first back into the ring and drills Shelley with a Flam Fly for 2! Turnbuckle belly to belly suplex gets 2 as well. Back to the top rope goes Horus, to miss a 450 splash - and Shelley capitalises with a standing Shiranui. Shellshock...into the Border City Stretch! Horus taps, giving Shelley the win at 12:39

Rating - *** - Viewed in isolation in 2021, this feels like a slightly strange match. Rey is one-third of the Six-Man Champions and will be in ROH until the 'End Of An Era' in December 2021, whilst Shelley is competing in what would turn out to be his final ROH weekend (pre-hiatus anyway). That makes it weird that Alex was SO dominant here. But this was supposed to be building up to the (original 2020) Pure Title Tournament, for which Shelley had already been announced as an entrant. Horus doesn't lose a great deal in defeat here, but giving Shelley a platform to go out and show how f*cking GREAT he is as a wrestler for twelve minutes just when we'd needed to buy into him as a lethal pure wrestler is smart. And, to labour the point...Shelley was awesome in this. The opening two thirds of this match were essentially him completely dominating Horus, showcasing all his skills from technical wrestling, to counters, to pseudo-lucha, striking, even brawling on the floor. Getting to watch him do his thing for ten minutes, then Horus hit a few exciting high spots as well, made this a likeable match. 

Ian and Caprice announce that Rush, Kenny King, Brody King and Flip Gordon have all been escorted out of the building for their conduct earlier - I hope to set the stage for a clean main event. Caprice then talks passionately about Black History Month.

Cobb and Maff beat the Tag Champions at Free Enterprise, so are technically #1 contenders to the Tag Titles. Jay and Mark are desperate to get back into the hunt to face the current champions, who won the belts by defeating them at Final Battle. Therefore a win over Cobb and Maff instantly re-establishes them among the top contenders. Seeing them in the ring with Maff (another man who was on the first ever ROH show) will be fun...

Mark tries to control Cobb with a side headlock only to be easily dismissed with a dropkick. Maff and Jay circle each other ominously before laying into each other with some fierce strikes. The Briscoes realise that one-on-one they are out-matched, so join forces to beat Jeff down. That lasts until Mark is left alone and tries an ill-advised suplex on the Olympian. Cobb launches Mark into the air and makes a hot tag to Maff. The match quickly shifts as the size and power of the heavyweight duo leads them to dominate Jay Briscoe. He scurries away and makes a vital tag to his younger brother, who tosses Cobb skyward with an Iconoclasm. Jay feeds him a chair so he can hit the STEP-UP PLANCHA to the floor! Jay hits a somersault plancha as well! Maff saves his partner from the Redneck Boogie and wipes Mark out with a Pounce. Cannonball/Athletic-Plex/step-up senton splash sequence by Cobb and Maff for 2! Redneck Kung Fu by Mark, saving his brother from the Burning Hammer. SICK KICK/DRAGON SUPLEX COMBO! Cobb decimates Mark with a lariat seconds after to leave everyone out on the mat. POP-UP CUTTER COMBO from Maff & Cobb to Jay! Tour Of The Islands blocked, into the JAY DRILLER! Froggy Bow scores well, allowing Jay to pin Cobb at 14:49

Rating - *** - I've read a few reviews which were incredibly positive about this match, so to be frank I possibly had my expectations elevated a little too high so even though I watched with a tinge of disappointment as they clearly have a MUCH better match within their capabilities this absolutely was entertaining in an uncompromising, albeit sometimes rather basic manner. My biggest problem stems from how disjointed it felt. The second half of the match with them all decking one another with lively, fast-paced big boy brawler spots was great. Similarly the more circumspect, methodical opening half as the power of the super-heavyweight duo caused problems for even the ultra-experienced Briscoes was intriguing too. But those two acts felt like they didn't belong in the same match. I know I'm normally one to call for ROH matches to go longer - but they'd have been better off going ten minutes and beating the sh*t out of each other from the opening bell.

Lee's TV Title is not on the line this evening, but he could leave tonight as the first man since Jay Lethal to simultaneously hold both of the top championships in Ring Of Honor. LFI have made PCO's life miserable so far in 2020, after the Monster beat Rush to end his undefeated streak and take the ROH World Title. Rush himself will be a triple threat match (alongside Mark Haskins) against the winner here. PCO's scheduled Supercard Of Honor opponent - NWA Champion Nick Aldis - joins commentary, albeit he seems more interested in promoting his scheduled defence of his belt against Marty Scurll at the 2020 Crockett Cup (also forcibly cancelled by the pandemic).

Dragon explodes into life just like his brother and almost pins PCO before the production team have even got the 'Tale Of The Tape' graphic off the screen. Having survived that early rush, the champion swarms Lee in the corner - boxing his ears and beating him down. Lee retaliates with Dragon's Fire! The champion just gets up and looks at stares at him blankly, as if nothing Dragon does is having any impact. TOPE SUICIDA by the big man! He nearly rips Lee's trunks clean off his body trying to chokeslam him off the apron, but the challenger counters with the RUNNING INSIDE-OUT RANA TO THE FLOOR! PCO NO-SELLS! GHETTO STOMP OFF THE APRON! Lee hangs PCO in the ropes and lands another flying double stomp into the ribs for 2. BUCKLE BOMB by PCO, almost dropping poor Lee right on his f*cking head! Dragon tries desperately to build momentum but it proves impossible when everything he hits is completely ignored. PCO drops him again with a Package Piledriver for 2. The champ climbs the turnbuckles to hit a ROPE-WALK BODYSCISSORS TO THE FLOOR! What the hell is that!? PACKAGE PILEDRIVER ON THE EXPOSED CONCRETE! Even Nick Aldis is incredulous at PCO's lack of regard for an opponent's safety now. Dragon shows incredible courage to beat the count back into the ring on that - sliding into the ring, into the path of the PCO-SAULT! FOR 2! Tombstone blocked...BESTIA PILEDRIVER BY LEE! Incinerator scores, yet still PCO is barely off his feet! BARE KNEE INCINERATION gets 2! Incinerator to the back of the head only gets two as well...right before PCO punches Dragon so hard that he immediately crumples motionless to the mat. TOMBSTONE! PCO-SAULT! Champion retains at 15:56

Rating - **** - Remember the Briscoes vs Maff/Cobb match when I said they'd have been better off trimming down the run-time and just going nuts, beating the sh*t out of each other from the opening bell? This match came seconds later and essentially proved my point because they did just that and delivered one of ROH's best/most under-rated matches of 2020. If you can get past the odd lay-out (Lee is the heel, but basically wrestles it like a babyface whilst PCO beat the sh*t out of him), this is a riot. PCO was every bit the inhuman monster that everyone loves; taking Dragon's biggest spots and barely flinching...whilst being utterly brutal with his relentless attacks on the challenger. Sure he is clumsy, but some of the things he did here looked like they could have genuinely killed Dragon Lee. A great example of what the PCO/Rush match from Final Battle could have been with a little imagination, rather than that goof-ball cartoon match with a hearse we ended up with.

Nick Aldis gets into the ring and into a heated confrontation with PCO as the show fades out...

Tape Rating - *** - When people talk about Ring Of Honor in 2020 the conversation generally centres around two things; firstly the Pure Tournament/ROH Bubble tapings at the end of the year, secondly the aborted spell as lead booker for Scurll. What tends to get overlooked is this little run of shows from the start of the year - and they've had some good stuff. Villains/MexiSquad at Center Stage, Villains/LFI at Honor Reigns Supreme, Briscoes/MexaBlood at Free Enterprise and now PCO/Dragon tonight - these are all GREAT matches which genuinely had me excited and deserved to be seen by more people. I will say that the rest of the card from this show beneath PCO/Lee was decidedly average though. It isn't bad - indeed most of the matches are decent - but I got the sense this was very much being taped with an eye on keeping the run-times short and making the editing for TV easy. Ten minutes for Lethal/Gresham vs 2G1T was particularly disappointing. Horus and Shelley could have stolen the show with twenty minutes. Same goes for the Villains/LFI tag in the middle of the show. So on the one hand this was an enjoyable, easy to watch three hours of wrestling. But on the other hand it sees ROH continue to showcase the exact same existential problems they've struggled with for years - ultimately foregoing the pursuit of producing genuinely the 'best wrestling in the world' and settling for 'pretty good'. 'Pretty good' isn't what ROH was built on, isn't what ROH was all about in its prime and certainly isn't enough to bring them back to prominence after the AEW exodus and the ruinous 2019.

3) Rush/Kenny King vs Flip Gordon/Brody King (***)

2) Jay Lethal/Jonathan Gresham vs Silas Young/Josh Woods (***)

1) PCO vs Dragon Lee (****)