McXal's Reviews

It's the go-home for Supercard Of Honor, and for the first time we'll see an episode of the new ROH on Honor Club TV taped truly in 'WWECW' style at AEW before Dynamite. The card for this one is deceptively decent with Athena defending the Women's Title against Emi Sakura, El Hijo del Vikingo making an ROH debut (just a week on from his critically acclaimed AEW debut match versus Kenny Omega) and four of the five teams who are competing in the Reach For The Sky Ladder Match all trying to get along in an 8-Man Tag tonight. Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman are in St Louis, MO.

I much prefer Tony Nese as Daivari's partner over Slim J, and it's nice to see Nese back after his strong performance against Mark Briscoe last week. The Varsity Athletes meet a fired up Aussie Open, just 24 hours before they enter the Reach For The Sky Ladder Match in pursuit of the ROH Tag Team Championship...

Fletcher starts with Daivari and uses his height to impose himself on proceedings. Nese starts flexing and making fun of Davis' physique...so the burly Australian tackles him so hard he is propelled straight back into the Varsity corner. He is quickly retrieved with a slingshot uppercut by the Aussies...and it's only the distraction of Mark Sterling which offers Nese and Ari some respite. They start ramming Kyle's back into the ringpost and side of the ring, stunting the momentum of the Australians. Frog Splash misses for Daivari though, meaning Davis is quickly unleashed to mow through the Varsity Athletes once again. Pop-up powerslam gets 2 on Nese...and when Ari comes to his aid they are both taken out by a resurgent Aussie Open. Smart Mark distracts them again as they set up the Coriolis on Tony...allowing him to dump Davis to the floor and the Athletes to team up on Fletcher again. LAWN DART CUTTER! 450 SPLASH! Fletcher barely kicks out from that. Davis returns and joins forces with his partner for the Dental Plan on Nese. They smash their opponents into each other...then Kyle lays out Mark Sterling with a big boot. Coriolis nailed on Nese, giving the Aussies the win at 09:16

Rating - *** - An entertaining, functional opening match which got the crowd into things, had a strong babyface/heel dynamic and built to some really exciting high spots in the closing stages. As expected, Daivari and Nese were far more enjoyable as a heel unit than the Trust Busters have been through Episodes 1-4. I would be far more interested in them (with Josh Woods) than I would be in seeing more of Slim J and Jeeves Kay...

Ring Of Honor debuts for both of these women. Yamashita calls TJPW her home promotion, but has appeared on AEW television before and has done some good stuff with Pro Wrestling EVE in the UK as well. Her opponent is Australian veteran Shazza McKenzie; trained by the great Madison Eagles and still based out of Australia but post-pandemic has tried to get as much work in the US as possible. She has also appeared on AEW before and has held gold in SHIMMER.

Miyu wastes no time in unloading on McKenzie with vicious kicks...so Shazza uses those legs to trip her then hit a sliding bulldog off the ropes for 2. She tries an abdominal stretch but Yamashita powers out, before going back to more kicks to send her opponent sprawling. A running kick right across the upper chest almost wins it for Miyu, so once again Shazza kicks the legs from under her. She hangs Miyu in the ropes and lands some kicks of her own...and hits a flying crossbody for 2. Skull Kick wins it for Yamashita at 04:45

Rating - ** - Unlike the opening match, this one didn't land with the live crowd in quite the same way. I liked some of their ideas; Yamashita's striking is awesome, and I loved how Shazza twice gained the advantage by using those kicks against her and taking out the legs. In less than five minutes the opportunity for them to impress was quite limited, but it was decent enough as a showcase.

The Embassy are preparing to defend their Six-Man Titles at Supercard Of Honor so will be looking to make short work of the makeshift trio standing across the ring from them. It is interesting to note that Griffey is a current member of Shane Taylor Promotions - whom Kaun of The Embassy used to represent. Draper makes a return for his first ROH appearance since the Khan buy-out. The demise of the Sinclair era hurt him badly as he had impressed when given a more prominent role during the empty arena/Pandemic period. His Pure Title Match with Jon Gresham at the 19th Anniversary is one to seek out using your Honor Club subscription.

Ian and Caprice are putting Draper over hard as he starts the match with The Machine. Cage DUMPS him with a big German suplex, then vacates so Toa can square off with Griffey. JD uses his strikes to rock Liona...albeit only momentarily before he throws him away like trash. He flattens Singh as well, and is joined by Kaun seconds later, who hits the turnbuckle backbreaker. Cage hits the dead-lift superplex from the apron to pin Singh at 03:10

Rating - N/A - Another emphatic squash win for The Embassy, another night where we learn little more about their skills as either in-ring performers or characters. 

Having seen the reigning Six-Man Champions in action, we now see two thirds of the trio that will challenge them at Supercard. Fox and Metalik aren't a regular team, but they and Blake Christian have formed an alliance and are looking to pull off an upset in LA. They could use a win tonight to prepare for that, against an Infantry team who are hoping to rebound from their loss to The Kingdom back on Episode 1 of the new TV show.

Dean and Metalik get us underway, with the luchador gliding off the ropes with ease to get an early advantage. They mess up a satellite headscissors spot with Dean taking a dreadful landing, but some clever editing (and outstanding commentary from Caprice) really cover it. Bravo tags and launches Metalik into the turnbuckles, ensuring he lands in The Infantry corner so they can continue to work him over. They make sure to keep knocking Fox off the apron so he can't come to his partner's aid as well. Sky High gets 2 for Dean, on the back of Carlie's fun fake-out punch spot in the corner. Metalik retaliates with wild sunset flip bomb off the top to Bravo, at last setting up the tag to Fox. He hits a Twister-plex on Dean then an ARKO on Carlie for 2. ASAI MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR by Metalik! Carlie slingshots in from the floor on the other side and levels Fox with a flatliner for 2. LO MEIN PAIN! Rope-walk elbow drop from Metalik! He wins at 08:13

Rating - ** - AR Fox is great and it's been enjoyable getting to watch him most weeks on ROH TV. His contributions here were among the better parts of this match, which probably went on a little too long. The Infantry are very much still finding their way as a team, and their heat segment with Metalik felt rather meandering and tedious. I don't think needing almost ten minutes to put Dean and Bravo (who are absolute bottom-dwellers when it comes to rank/status in AEW) does a great job of putting over Fox and Metalik ahead of the PPV either.

The Fallen Goddess has been awesome in her role as a bad-ass Women's World Champion, taking on and often bullying all comers. Having survived Willow Nightingale's challenge, she now puts her belt on the line against beloved Joshi veteran Sakura. Now in her mid-40's, there are points when Emi steers into comedy and her gimmick, but she is still exceptionally talented and this could be a hell of a battle. The winner meets Yuka Sakazaki at the pay-per-view; a match Athena wants having supposedly injured Yuka's leg on AEW (then accused her of running scared back to Japan)....

Athena is pissed off after Sakura posed with her title on Dark Elevation, and is even more agitated after Emi tackles her through the ropes to the floor. APRON BACKBREAKER in response by the Fallen Goddess! SHOTGUN DROPKICK AGAINST THE RING! Mei Suruga accompanied Emi to ringside - and she tries a flying crossbody off the ring-steps, but is plucked out of the air and brutally slammed on the floor by the rampant champion. SAKURA CROSSBODY AGAINST THE STEPS! Emi tries to come off the top only to be caught by Athena and repeatedly kicked in the neck. After the Joshi star slumps to the mat Athena climbs on top and relentlessly clubs at the head and neck trying to knock her out. Handspring elbow BLOCKED with a chop by Emi! She lands a stalling butterfly backbreaker as well. MOONSAULT gets 2 for Sakura. That landed mostly across the legs, and I love how Athena sells it as hard to get back up as a result. They trade strikes; elbows...slaps...chops - and neither woman gives way! Lariat by Emi - NO SOLD! Athena COUNTERS the Smash Mouth into a cartwheel kick for 2. The champ climbs the ropes, but Sakura COUNTERS THE O-FACE TO THE SMASH MOUTH! TWO COUNT! Tiger Driver nailed, only for Athena to roll-through and almost pin Emi! WRATH OF THE GODDESS! Athena locks in a Crossface and taps out the veteran at 08:30

Rating - **** - Athena is producing some of the best work of her entire career in this ROH Women's Title reign. Every week she knocks out amazing, hard-hitting, violent matches like this with an incredible variety of opponents. This was great; Sakura came out of the gate swinging (smacking Athena straight out of the ring) and it was an all-out war from that moment on. They beat the crap out of each other, worked in some really exciting moments of counter-wrestling and drew deserved 'this is awesome' chants from the crowd. I've said it a couple of times, but Athena is absolutely one of the most exciting acts in the Khan-era of Ring Of Honor. Long may it continue; she advances to face Yuka Sakazaki at Supercard Of Honor.

After the match Athena attacks Sakura's leg...until Yuka herself runs out to make the save! Athena and Yuka have to be pulled apart in chaotic scenes! Sakazaki climbs to the top and hits a CRAZY SUICIDE DIVE ONTO A PILE OF BODIES! 

Penta and Rey Fenix make their ROH debuts tonight, and have been so eagerly anticipated that they were the first team announced for the Reach For The Sky Ladder Match. It will be fascinating to see how these eight men, who will be opponents in that Ladder Match tomorrow night, manage to work alongside each other here. Rush was the man who ended Matt Taven's controversial ROH Title reign in 2019 too...

Huge ovation for Penta and Fenix, who are stars with the AEW audience this is being taped in front of. Taven refuses to wrestle Dante Martin and calls out Pentagon to start things off. Matt rips his glove off (like Penta does) and slaps him with it...and everyone piles in at crazy speed going strike-for-strike. Top Flight are prevented from hitting stereo dives by The OGK, whilst on the other side LFI ambush the Lucha Bros to start beating on them on the floor. Elbow drop/backbreaker combo from The Kingdom to Rey gets 2. Dralistico and Rush gang on up on Dante (but the AEW fans completely ignore their antics). DVD/Just The Tip combo gets 2, before Dante blocks the Hail Mary and brings in the Lucha Bros for stereo superkicks. WHEELBARROW SPLASH gets 2! Kick Of The King from Taven to Fenix! Pentagon blocks the Proton Pack with a Slingblade on Bennett, before Top Flight hit a superkick/neckbreaker combo on Rush. Springboard Codebreaker from Dralistico to save his brother! SPRINGBOARD MEXICAN DESTROYER! Taven holds Darius down and sets Rush up for the BULL'S HORNS! Rush pins Darius to win at a chaotic 07:31

Rating - *** - I mean this in the nicest way possible; this was a mess. It was whacky, I really wasn't into Rush and Taven so effortlessly coexisting given their history in ROH, and there were noticeable mistakes all over the place too...but despite all that it was also outrageously good fun. When I saw this line-up of talent I was disappointed that they only got seven minutes - but obviously they'll get longer to go nuts on each other at the pay-per-view tomorrow. This was an excellent preview to the madness we'll see in the Reach For The Sky Ladder Match with bodies flying everywhere at breakneck speed. 

Mark Briscoe is out to enjoy his final night as half of the ROH Tag Champions before the title is vacated tomorrow night. He calls his Supercard showdown with Samoa Joe the 'biggest match of [his] career', and vows to win the TV Title for the entire Briscoe family. Joe appears on the big screen and delivers a KILLER promo accusing Mark of disrespect and forgetting who he is...

In the locker room we see Jay Lethal, who hasn't appeared on ROH TV for some time since he has become embroiled in a faction with Jeff Jarrett, Sonjay Dutt and Satnam Singh. He finds Mark Briscoe and delivers a heartfelt message of good luck ahead of the pay-per-view.

Having this as a title match makes no sense. I haven't seen Ruffin since his days in Evolve/WWN where he held their Tag Championship with AR Fox, and saw none of his run in NXT (where he held the North American Title). Can he dethrone the champion with Wheeler presumably completely preoccupied with preparations to face Katsuyori Shibata in Los Angeles? Yuta debuts a new design for the Pure Title belt. I'm not an enormous fan, but the belts do need updating and I appreciate the fact that they've very obviously tried to create a modern take on the classic design.

The clock and rope-break scoreboard is back! Ruffin spends the first couple of minutes using all his speed and illusiveness to escape Yuta's attempts at submission holds...until Wheeler plucks him off the second rope and drills him with a German suplex. Octopus Stretch - a staple of Shibata - applied, forcing Leon to take his first rope-break. Bridging deathlock next, with Wheeler now confident enough to pose to the crowd and make fun of his opponent. He then starts walking the hold closer to the ropes to force Ruffin to take another rope-break. Leon hits a neckbreaker, but that seems to hurt him almost as much as the champion. Yuta elbows him out of the air, pummels him with mounted strikes then submits him to a hammerlock crossface at 05:26

Rating - ** - I wish Tony would stop booking Wheeler in these pointless, completely unwarranted filler title defences. They would be so much more effective as Proving Ground Matches or just Pure Rules non-title bouts. It literally makes the Pure Title look stupid when you have Yuta defending what is supposedly a prestigious championship in a complete one-sided squash. I like Ruffin, but he barely got any offence in throughout the entire five minute run-time - he was flattened here. It wasn't befitting of a title match and was actively reductive to the value of the Pure Title I'm being asked to care about. The saving grace here, once again, was Yuta's excellent, edgy performance. He has been great in an ROH ring in 2023 so far.

Wheeler gloats on the microphone and again adopts Shibata's signature cross-legged pose. Except this time Shibata is in the building! He snatches the microphone out of Yuta's hand and stares him down until Wheeler skulks away...

Vikingo is hot property in Mexico, and had already developed a cult following on the US independent circuit thanks to countless insane highspots which have gone viral all over social media. He made his way to AEW for a dream match against Kenny Omega and even in defeat delivered a star-making performance on the biggest global stage yet offered to him. He now comes to Ring Of Honor for the first time, just a day before he defends his AAA Mega Championship against Komander at Supercard Of Honor.

Absolute superstar reaction for Vikingo inevitably, but Christian earns respect by matching him to a stalemate through the opening minute. Red Star Press gets 2 for the luchador, after he effortlessly side-steps an attempted dropkick from his foe. Handspring DOUBLE springboard twisting headscissors lands! SPRINGBOARD IMPLODING SOMERSAULT SENTON TO THE FLOOR! Blake has started to fall under the spell of the AAA Champion, and smartly breaks up his momentum with a few strikes - then a handspring corkscrew enziguri. RUNNING MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR by All Heart! Christian then hits his own imploding somersault senton inside the ring for 2. Caprice spots that Christian is trying to target EHDV's midsection to slow down his aerial theatrics as much as possible. Vikingo rebounds off the ropes into a corkscrew enzi, then catches Blake with a swinging flatliner. OUTSIDE-IN SPRINGBOARD PHOENIX SPLASH NAILED! Blake catches him trying something else insane, bounces his head off the turnbuckles and plants him right on his neck with a German suplex. He chases Vikingo to the apron...only for EHDV to give him a POISON RANA on the edge of the ring. Vikingo tries an SSP off the apron, but Blake dodges it and hits a STANDING C-4 ON THE FLOOR! SPRINGBOARD 450 SPLASH gets 2 for Christian! They battle up the ropes once more...but when Vikingo attempts an inverted Spanish Fly Blake BACKFLIPS OUT OF IT! LARIATOOOO! SNAP RANA BY VIKINGO! He wins at 10:35

Rating - **** - If you don't like elaborately choreographed, flip-heavy stunt-show matches then you can skip past this. But whether you do or not, there is an enormous market for this kind of wrestling in 2023, and Vikingo is a generational, utterly unique talent who does things nobody else in wrestling can do. I fully understand why some might not like this, but there are all kinds of pro-wrestling out there - and in his field Vikingo is creating an evolution of the game before our very eyes right now. It was a fine follow up to the Omega match in AEW, where he doubled down on all the stuff you loved about him there, but with a completely different opponent. It might not be a popular opinion, but there was a real story in play here too. From the very opening minute we were witnessing Blake Christian live up to his 'All Heart' moniker by giving everything he had to keep up with a world class superstar. He traded high spots with the AAA Mega Champion, he used strikes to get ahead, he produced unreal counters to some of EHDV's signature stuff...but ultimately didn't have enough. I'm quite sure that Vikingo's performances on such major North American platforms over the last couple of weeks have had every senior official in WWE, AEW, NJPW (and probably more) trying to find out when his deal with AAA is up...

In the back Prince Nana pokes fun at a downbeat Blake Christian - telling him to take the night off tomorrow and avoid a beating at the hands of The Embassy. Cage, Toa and Kaun attack him...

All the focus will be on Eddie as he prepares for his showdown with Claudio tomorrow night, but this is a significant match for Daniels as well. He isn't wrestling at Supercard, and last week he and Matt Sydal sustained a high profile tag team defeat at the hands of Aussie Open. As a former World Champion he'll prove a stern test for the Mad King tonight. Joseph Montecillo (who's 'Walking The King's Road' series is essential viewing for 1990's AJPW fans) produced an excellent companion piece for ROH's YouTube channel detailing just why Kingston's rivalry with Castagnoli is so personal. Eddie has just twenty four hours and one last hurdle to get past before he finally gets his shot...

Both of these two are veterans, and the crowd loudly chant for both of them as they lock up. King's powers into an advantage and lands the Back Drop Driver...only for Daniels to block the Back Fist and deliver a spinning neckbreaker. Daniels starts striking at the neck and gets 2 with an STO. Flatliner/Koji Clutch combo further weaken the neck, putting real pressure on Eddie on the eve of Supercard. Kingston blocks Angel's Wings...then goads Daniels into a chop battle. Kingston is far more comfortable trading strikes than he is getting his neck hammered - and unsurprisingly he does indeed out-strike the Fallen Angel. Exploder Suplex scores...only for Daniels to keep him at bay with an axehandle to the neck. Gamengiri by Eddie, into a Back Fist flurry! Eddie wins at 07:24

Rating - *** - I wish these two had been given more time because this was an awesome little seven minute bout. They are such smart wrestlers; the battle between the strategic mind of Daniels and the brute force of the Mad King played out brilliantly here. With Eddie in his 40's and Daniels in his 50's, it goes without saying that neither of them move with the speed and vigour that they were doing a decade or more ago. But that has been replaced with an unteachable sense of street-smart experience, and we saw that play out in this incredibly effective TV-length bout tonight.

Eddie helps Daniels up and bows to him, as if to prove that he is a man of honour and is capable of being World Champion. Claudio interrupts (with a newly designed ROH World Title belt and a classical version of his entrance theme which suits him far better) and taunts Kingston...who demands to fight him right now. They tease having the Supercard Of Honor main event right there, before Castagnoli walks out - with Eddie calling him a pussy. Kingston says he will fulfil his destiny at the pay-per-view...

Tape Rating - *** - I hadn't expected to like this episode as much as I did. I've been banging the drum for fewer matches, more longer matches and doing as much as possible to avoid ROH feeling like a 'WWECW' to AEW. This show was taped at Dynamite, crammed nine matches into less than two hours (with the longest barely scraping ten minutes)...and yet in an odd way I thought it was among the best of the five Honor Club TV episodes thus far. Athena/Sakura and Vikingo/Christian were both splendid and totally worth checking out; Vikingo is red hot right now and Athena is literally doing some of the best work of her entire career. But beyond that, with the exception of Yamashita/Shazza (and even that was setting up Miyu to be a future contender for the Women's Title), every segment had a clear purpose. On the eve of Supercard, we were given reasons to buy the pay-per-view at every turn. Samoa Joe's promo on Mark was outstanding. The eight-man preview of the Reach For The Sky Ladder Match (including ROH debuts for Penta and Fenix) was a car crash in the best kind of way, Eddie and Claudio closed the show hot, Shibata making an unannounced appearance was a great surprise etc. There was no dead air with the Trust Busters or the SAP this week - even if the match content wasn't always must-see, this is a two hours of television which flew by and (I felt) effectively sold the Supercard PPV...