McXal's Reviews

Episode #3 from the 'NYC Excellence' TV taping, and broadcast the weekend after Best In The World 2018, the big hook for this broadcast is a double main-event. Bully Ray and Cheeseburger face each other in a No DQ grudge bout following months of abusive beatings from the WWE Hall Of Famer. Following that we'll see Cody face CMLL's Titan too. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana are in Manhattan, NY...

Cody and Brandi open the show. Cody is going to beat down Titan tonight, leaving him with just enough energy to make it back to Mexico so he can tell CMLL they'll need to send someone 'bigger and badder' next time...

The Women Of Honor once again make television. This one is interesting as it marks a clear attempt to start exposing the 'next generation' of WOH talent to the TV audience. Sumie remains the champion of course, with the likes of Tenille, Klein and Mandy Leon all still around...but there is clearly room for some new blood. We have seen Stella appear as Sumie's young protege in the past, and Ortiz worked a qualification match in the WOH Title Tournament. It is a full debut for Shepard though. Riccaboni informs us that she and Ortiz trained together at the Monster Factory so are, in many ways, more experienced as a duo than their opponents tonight.

The way Sumie carries the belt to the ring annoys me. I've been sitting on that thought for quite a few reviews now. Shepard and Grey start, with Stella leaning on some illegal assistance from her partner to gain the initiative. Riley puts a big kick through her chest so she can tag out to Ortiz. The newcomers hit a double legsweep, setting up a cartwheeling double knee drop from Shepard for 2. Back from commercials with Grey and Ortiz battling over a suplex...which Stella wins. Sakai tags for the first time and puts a couple of elbows, then a knee, through Riley's face. Double neckbreaker drop lays out both opponents, then a missile dropkick almost snaps Gabby in half. Fisherman neckbreaker on Shepard gets 2 - before the recovered Gabby lands a cumbersome jumping DDT. Grey leaps into the ring to help out the WOH Champion, laying out Gabby with a spear. Smash Mouth nailed on Riley, giving Sakai the win at 05:16 (shown)

Rating - * - Decent when Sumie was involved...and very bad when it wasn't. The desire to bring some fresh blood into the WOH division is admirable, as is a clear plan to develop young female talent. But that strategy only works if the younger workers have star names and quality wrestlers to help them develop. I'm not sure that Sumie Sakai and Tenille Dashwood are enough to make that happen. ROH's Women's division feels like a budget product and a box-ticking exercise...which isn't fair because there is talent there. Klein is good with the right opponents. Sumie is fun as a crafty veteran. Tenille has genuine star power. What the division needs is credibility, and a workhorse now that Deonna has gone. The time has come for ROH to open the wallet and look for a couple of 'name' talent who can immediately give that credibility to the product whilst helping young talents like Grey, Ortiz and Shepard develop. This whole match felt awkward and is NOT representative of the quality of women's wrestling product a name brand like ROH should want to present. 

Turning on Burger back at Supercard Of Honor actually cemented Bully's return to active in-ring competition after he teased retirement at the end of 2017. He viciously attacked Burger in New Orleans, and did the same again in Lowell and Toronto during the War Of The Worlds Tour. But at the War Of The Worlds events he actually accepted a defeat on both occasions; via count-out in Massachusetts then via DQ for weapon use in Canada. It means Burger comes into this with a 2-0 record and a fiery desire to prove he isn't scared of Bubba...

Bully runs out and low blows Cheeseburger during his entrance to instantly put the diminutive ROH Dojo graduate on the back foot. There are duelling 'EC-Dub' and 'Cheeseburger' fans, neither of which I find particular interest in. Cheese collapses to the floor where Bubba waffles him with a garbage container. Even shoving Cary Silkin around doesn't get Bully much heat. The beating continues, with young Burger repeatedly refusing to give in despite absorbing a sustained assault. Bully cracks a kendo stick across Burger's ribs a few times...until Bubba gets distracted trying to act like a budget Stan Hansen and drops it on the ground. Burger grabs the stick and swings for all he is worth. He doesn't have the size to keep Bubba down though - and is soon sent flying through the air with another devastating powerbomb. Are the fans cheering Burger on right now? Of course not...they are chanting for tables. Todd Sinclair tries to stop the match so Bubba beats on him with a chain. Colt Cabana leaves commentary and charges the ring, getting a huge pop and the kind of babyface heat which tells you he should probably still be a wrestler. He drags Burger up and hands him a cheese-grater...which Burger takes to Bully's groin. Bubba recovers to hit a back suplex before they can put him through a table though. Diving fat ass splash through the table misses, and Cheese gets a close nearfall by somehow crawling over the fallen Hall Of Famer. Producer BJ Whitmer comes to ringside and orders Cabana back to the announce table, as Bully boots Cheese in the head to win at 12:28 (shown).

Rating - DUD - This wasn't for me I'm afraid. I've praised Bully where I think he's had a good match. I thought the Briscoes vs Bubba/Dreamer feud in late-2017 feud was fantastic television (and took some criticism for it). But nothing about this new heel angle/gimmick/direction is working. Listen to the f*cking crowd. If you don't believe me that this entire routine is getting nobody but himself over, listen to the goddamn fans. The guy was even shoving around Cary and getting nothing more than a moderate amount of heat for his trouble. Nothing about what he is doing is elevating Cheeseburger - the guy was there as a whipping boy. Does Flip Gordon really need the rub of a washed up Bubba Dudley when he's a recurring cast-member on Being The Elite and can work the Young Bucks anytime he wants? Does ROH really not see it as a problem that their biggest market spent most of this match chanting for tables, weapons and ECW until Colt Cabana - the f*cking commentator - showed up? This whole thing is a mess. A mess of Sinclair's own making and it needs to be aborted. Of course, I'm writing this in 2020 and know that he has a long time of pulling this sh*t on ROH shows to get through first...

COLEMAN'S PULPIT - Caprice's guests this weekend are The Kingdom. They put a purple 'Melvin' hat on him, and Vinny tries to get him to drink red wine out of a balloon. Taven calls it another conspiracy that ROH have put together a Gauntlet to determine the next challengers...for reasons that make absolutely no sense. Caprice rambles, Taven yells, Marseglia pops a balloon - everyone leaves. I have no clue what the purpose of this was. It wasn't even to insert Caprice into the Six-Man Tag Gauntlet next week?!

Christopher Daniels and Scorpio Sky promise violence in the Gauntlet next week, on their way back to ROH Six-Man gold.

The Dawgs attack Ryan Nova in the locker room trying to take his money to pay Shane Taylor's fee. He only has $6 so they knock him out and leave

Every time he has competed in an ROH ring Titan has been nothing but impressive. He gets another TV main event slot tonight and works a former World Champion in the process. This airs after Best In The World so by this point we know that Cody failed to win the World Title back at the PPV. High profile wins over international visitors are a sure-fire way to get the American Nightmare back into the championship picture. Brandi and Burnard The Business Bear are both in Cody's corner of course.

Cody wants the masked man to kiss the ring, then starts doing push-ups - which isn't a promising sign. Titan somewhat shows him up with some freaky neck-strength bridges at least. Cody tries to take a cheap shot and when that fails he simply boots Titan in the ribs to stop him doing an unnecessary headstand. Burnard and Brandi take turns tripping Titan from the outside, allowing Rhodes to hammer him from behind a couple of times. We return from commercials to see Cody going after Titan's mask too. Cody was an overwhelming babyface, but the crowd don't like him going after a luchador's mask so he gets genuine heat...which he reacts to by stalling for time doing Hulk Hogan poses. He takes so long that Titan is able to retaliate with a few dropkicks to send him to the floor. Burnard trips Titan again when he tries to set up a dive, but Titan then ducks causing Cody to lay out his own bear. TOP ROPE MOONSAULT UP THE AISLE by Titan! That knocks Burnard's head off! Meanwhile Cody is cowering in the corner to stop Titan going for another dive. Brandi tries to the hair spray in, creating a distraction to allow Cody to kick him in the dick. Disaster Kick nailed only for Titan to Matrix into a jumping heel kick. Cody rips his mask off and pins him to win at 07:30 (shown).

Rating - ** - When they actually got to wrestling this was good. Titan is comfortably the best luchador we've seen come out of CMLL thus far; so good in fact that he was able to turn an emphatically pro-Cody audience against the American Nightmare in a short space of time. Unfortunately this was very much the worst of Cody's wrestling in 2018 in that it was light on in-ring content and heavy on shenanigans involving mascots, his wife, stalling and bizarre crowd interactions. I came away feeling like this was a waste of booking Titan in truth

Tape Rating - * - Ouch. After two good weeks of TV this was a real stinker - with only a half decent showing from Titan remotely salvaging it. Maybe if you're more of a Cheeseburger fan, a Bully Ray fan or have a higher tolerance for Cody's stalling haha-centric matches then there is more in here for you, but I really found this one tough going. The attempt to blood new Women Of Honor talent fell flat, the Burger/Bully grudge match was an atrocity and the main event was carried only by Titan's brilliance. My actual highlight of the episode was Caprice Coleman on commentary pointing out that Cody doesn't care about the ROH Title because he's 'All In now...'. How true a statement that turned out to be.