McXal's Reviews

In what is probably a sign of the times, ALL the big matches from the 2018 War Of The Worlds Tour take place at this TV taping. The Bullet Club/LIJ 10-man tag rematch - taped for television. The big Austin Aries return to challenge for the TV Title - taped for television. Briscoes vs Roppongi 3K - taped for television. Hell, even all the biggest Women Of Honor Matches (Tenille vs Karen Q, Purrazzo vs Klein, Sakai vs Rose for the WOH Title) are all part of the TV taping as well. The three Honor Club shows that streamed live really do feel like major after-thoughts. We kick off the taping with this broadcast, featuring the aforementioned Women Of Honor Title bout, plus a Six-Man Title rematch between The Kingdom and SoCal Uncensored. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana call the action from Chicago, IL. 

There is a lot of history between The Dawgs and Cheeseburger. Ferrara used to be a team-mate of Burger, before finally growing tired of their lack of success and assaulting him...to join a team with Rhett Titus and enjoy comparable, if not even less success. Burger has some back up tonight in the form of his Shotei sensei from Japan - but carries extensive injuries after being repeatedly assaulted by Bully Ray throughout the War Of The Worlds Tour...

Burger starts with Titus, and for some reason decides that he can work European-style with Rhett...who ignores his attempt at chain wrestling and punches him in the jaw. Even more nonsensically, he hits a springboard crossbody and it actually works. Ferrara tags...so Burger decides to NOT lock up with his nemesis and instead unleash Liger on him. Ferrara tries to leave but Liger clambers through the ropes and rocks him with a cannonball off the apron. Back from commercials with the masked man stretching Little Willy out with the Mexican surfboard as Cheese keeps Titus at bay using an octopus stretch. Rhett slaps his partner in the back of the head as a tag and absolutely clocks the legendary Liger with a punch to the mouth. Northern lights suplex counter to a tornado DDT lands, leaving Burger on the ground so Titus can launch himself at the bad ribs with a running Dawg Splash. Titus inadvertently levels his own partner with a Yakuza Kick and stumbles blindly into an inverted DDT by Cheese. LIGERBOMB on Ferrara gets 2. Titus lands his big dropkick and hoists Liger up for the All Seeing Eye. Burger rescues his partner with a superkick. DOUBLE SHOTEIS for The Dawgs. Brainbuster on Titus, giving Liger the win at 07:20 (shown).

Rating - ** - Remember when Liger coming to ROH was such a big deal it main evented an entire weekend of shows? Now he can't even beat the lowest ranked member of the ROH roster with his signature move. Admittedly I'm being a little unkind because this match was rather fun. The Dawgs have bullied Burger for months so it was fun to see them get their comeuppance thanks to Burger bringing his legendary mentor to the party. Liger was, as ever, extremely generous and let The Dawgs get plenty of offence in on him. I can't say I cared for some of Cheeseburger's offensive choices, and the fact that he wasn't selling the injuries of Bully Ray's attacks on the rest of the tour (even though this is broadcast a couple of weeks later) further made the Honor Club WOTW events feel like a total irrelevance though.

Dalton Castle sat out the War Of The Worlds Tour with injury, but gets some promo time to contemplate who will challenge him at Best In The World. He suggests that he defend against Cody and Marty Scurll in a Triple Threat...

These two women have been friends and team-mates; Jenny considered Sumie a mentor. But after a minor falling out in a tag match at Manhattan Mayhem, the introduction of the WOH Championship has driven a wedge between them. Sakai caused an upset by winning the tournament to crown the first champion...and was visibly surprised when her old friend Jenny stepped up to be her first challenger. Tensions have risen between them constantly, culminating War Of The Worlds Royal Oak when Rose taunted Sumie throughout a tag match...causing the usually jovial Sakai to snap, kick-starting a huge brawl. Who will win this historic first defence of the WOH Championship?

No Code Of Honor and when Rose tries to slap Sumie, the champ ducks it and batters her into the corner. SUICIDE DIVE TO THE FLOOR! Back from commercials with Sakai diving off the top and crushing Jenny again with a missile dropkick. Rose knows she needs to use her power - and does so with an emphatic sidewalk slam. She stands on Sumie's throat against the ropes before looking to break her in half with a single-leg crab. Sakai quickens the pace again with running elbows into a fisherman neckbreaker for 2. SPEAR THROUGH THE ROPES BY JENNY! Sakai splatters sickeningly on the arena floor. That is followed by a drop toeholds into an open chair...and the champion looks like a broken woman. Rose re-enters the ring with a diving clothesline and a bridging fisherman suplex. Sumie tries a victory roll but is disappointed as Jenny rolls right through it and decks her with a clothesline. Jenny takes way too long climbing the ropes though, allowing Sakai to recover and hit her with a frankensteiner. German suplex by Jenny...NO SOLD! SPEAR! Sakai kicks out at 2. No Doubt  blocked into Smash Mouth! Sumie retains at 06:14 (shown).

Rating - *** - This far exceeded my expectations. These two competitors really stepped up and brought their best for this. The short time allowances these Women Of Honor matches always get actually worked in their favour as it meant they could go all out, all-action from bell to bell with absolutely no dead-time. Both took big bumps, both carried the story of a broken friendship turned to an intense rivalry. It felt hard-hitting, it was undeniably exciting. I know trashing the Women Of Honor division is the norm these days - but don't sleep on this.

SCU bemoan losing their Six-Man Championship and their leverage over Joe Koff. They fire off a warning that there isn't anything they won't do to The Kingdom to get the belts back tonight...

Silas Young calls Austin Aries someone who 'whines and cries until he gets things handed to him'. He doesn't understand why A-Double is getting a TV Title shot, but next week will prove that his 'Great Man That Ever Lived' moniker is 'nothing but a joke'...

This is a rematch from War Of The Worlds 2018 Lowell. On that night Taven was scheduled to challenge Dalton Castle for the World Title, before it was cancelled due to Dalton's injuries. Reacting angrily to the 'Kingdom conspiracy' striking again, The Kingdom wound up locking horns with SCU for the Six-Man Title belts that they'd already stolen from them at Supercard Of Honor. In their home state we saw Taven, Marseglia and O'Ryan reclaim the Six-Man Championship that they feel that they never lost, becoming the first ever two-time champions in the process. As we saw earlier though - Daniels, Kaz and Sky want those belts back to regain their leverage over ROH COO Joe Koff, who plans to release them at the end of the year.

Marseglia does his stupid run around under the ring gimmick early this time, confusing SCU and starting a brawl all over ringside. Daniels actually grabs one of his balloons and pops it over Vinny's head! Scorpio boots Marseglia in the back...so O'Ryan does the same thing to Daniels in response. Taven and Kazarian then take turns tripping TK and Sky from the outside as Paul Turner really struggles to restore order. Daniels drops O'Ryan with a blue thunder driver meaning the challengers assume control for the first time. TRIPLE flapjack over the top rope from The Kingdom on Sky, with Vinny getting some payback from earlier by popping a balloon in his ear seconds later. The champs isolate Scorpio for a prolonged period, mostly across a commercial break, until he and Marseglia collide in the middle of the ring attempting a crossbody. Taven and TK think fast and haul the rest of SCU off the apron before he can tag out though. Running rana on TK...into a hot tag to Kazarian, who rocks Taven with the slingshot cutter. Tope suicida from Daniels to Taven and O'Ryan...and the Ring General storms right back into the ring to give Vinny a powerbomb/neckbreaker. Slingshot DDT gets 2. Kick Of The King from Taven...only for him to get distracted by Daniels, allowing Frankie to hit a Codebreaker. Back drop to the floor on Daniels. AIR TAVEN NAILED! SLINGSHOT RANA TO THE FLOOR by Kaz! Springboard corkscrew senton by Marseglia! O'Ryan thinks about a springboard moonsault...but EATS a knee strike by Sky and falls flat on his back on the floor! TOPE ATOMICO BY SKY! Daniels tries to belt Taven with a set of brass knuckles - but Paul Turner spots it. Taven tries to use his cane...but Paul spots that as well! Kazarian runs in swinging a chair only for it to ricochet off the ropes into his own head. He's KO'd...but Turner thinks The Kingdom did it. He disqualifies them - meaning they lose but retain the belts a 11:42 (shown).

Rating - *** - I'm a little torn. As a match this was MUCH better than Lowell, concentrating less on stupid gimmicks and more on actual good trios wrestling. But holy sh*t was that finish appalling. I've spoken recently about how much I'm not enjoying ROH booking finishes which make their experienced referees look like total morons...this may have been the worst of the lot. Turner didn't see it, therefore cannot possibly justify the decision he made. Trying to concentrate on the positives, there was a lot I really liked about this. As with all the best Kingdom six-man tags, they were allowed to prioritise working like an effective, competent, villainous trio rather than incompetent cheating goofs. The SCU guys have piles of experience in this format and, again, were allowed to act less like assholes and more like slick, polished, experienced athletes. Seriously, as a wrestling match this was far better than Lowell...but you do need to get past the hideous conclusion.

The broadcast ends with confirmation that Castle vs Cody vs Scurll has been booked as the main event for Best In The World. Cody is shown finding out the news - and looks totally exasperated.

Tape Rating - ** - This probably wasn't necessary viewing as far as the selective ROH viewer is concerned. There is no doubt that Kingdom/SCU is far less enticing a main event than the other three episodes at this taping (Silas/Aries, Briscoes/Roppongi 3K and Bullet Club/LIJ) and I don't think many will be rushing to see Sumie/Jenny or a Dawgs vs Burger tag (even if it involves Jushin Liger). The entire War Of The Worlds 2018 Tour has been a frustrating watch as a Ring Of Honor fan - and the finish to the Six-Man Title here match was incredibly poor. But to accentuate the positives Sakai vs Rose was so much better than many would have expected, and the actual wrestling content of the main event was really good as well. Considering the general lack of effort that has been prevalent throughout the WOTW 2018 Tour, I found the workrate on display in both of those bouts incredibly heartening.