McXal's Reviews

This week on Ring Of Honor television, we'll try not to get too annoyed that Bully Ray is in the main event, we'll contemplate what is next for the 2018 Top Prospect Tournament after Jeff Cobb showed up and decimated the first round encounter between FR Josie and Eli Isom two weeks ago. We'll watch as Shane Taylor and Josh Woods look to decisively settle their mini-rivalry...whilst Sumie Sakai makes the latest defence of her Women Of Honor Title as she defends against #1 contender Madison Rayne. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana provide commentary from Atlanta, GA.

Sakai is having a pretty consistent title reign. Thus far all of her defences, against both domestic and international talents, have been enjoyable. She continues to grow in confidence as the veteran ace of the Women Of Honor division. Rayne is her latest challenger and is perhaps her most dangerous foe yet having held championships in both Impact and SHIMMER. Mandy Leon joins commentary...

Why does Sumie carry the title like she's never even seen a championship belt before, let alone had to carry one to the ring? Rayne goes right into her routine of repeated pinning combinations - including countering the fisherman neckbreaker Sumie likes to use into a rolling cradle for 2. Sakai starts striking at the challenger...but under-estimates her, turns her back and is tackled to the ground. Madison hits a diving DDT for 2 only for the champion to get right back up. They collide mid-ring and drop to the canvas as we roll into a commercial break. When we come back the two competitors are just charging each other with elbow smashes. Sakai snatches the initiative with a missile dropkick but MISSES a big moonsault allowing Madison to capitalise with a tornado DDT. Fisherman buster in response by Sakai. Smash Mouth blocked into an Ace Crusher by Rayne! She tries to line-up a Spear only to be grabbed by Sumie and dumped with Smash Mouth second time around. Sumie wins at 06:34 (shown)

Rating - ** - A noticeable step down in quality from Sumie's other three title defences thus far. This wasn't necessarily a bad match, but like always with the Women Of Honor division they didn't get much time - and they weren't particularly ambitious or inventive with how they filled what time they did get. Some of the striking here was dire, and the whole bout had a disjointed and stuttering feel to it. 

These two have decent chemistry together but I don't think it is an understatement to say that this mini-feud really hasn't caught on. Woods got a win over Taylor at Bound By Honor, but Taylor blames interference from Woods' friend King Mo and subsequently got his revenge by knocking Josh out on television. They look to finally settle their rivalry tonight...

Woods flies out of his corner and lands a flurry of shots on Taylor...but can't get the big man off his feet. He tries to trap Shane into a triangle choke as he clumsily clubs back at him, which he then converts to an anklelock once he has dropped Taylor to the ground. Taylor blocks an anklelock German suplex and knocks The Goods right off the apron with an elbow smash. Still reeling from that, Taylor throttles Woods over the guardrail and drops a heavy leg over the ribs and chest. Back in the ring he crushes the chest again with a Warrior Splash. The crowd for this is really poor by the way. Josh counters Greetings From 216 with a roundhouse kick to the skull but finds himself too worn down to cover. He somehow dishes out an exploder suplex for 2 and comes up still selling his ribs. Shane snaps his head back with a knee strike to leave them both on the ground. Woods counters another strike into a judo throw and locks in a cross armbreaker. He rips off Shane's MMA glove and discovers that it had been loaded. Paul Turner wants to disqualify Taylor...but Josh doesn't let him. He turns - straight into Greetings From 216. Taylor wins at 07:07 (shown)

Rating - *** - The match was good. Taylor excelled as a dominant monster, and Woods gave a decent account of himself as a fiery babyface (with decent selling of his rib injury for the most part too). But I have a big problem with that finish. This is Woods' penultimate match of the year. He works one more TV taping in 2018 then doesn't come back until APRIL of 2019. Hard as he works, he isn't over anyway so didn't need the protection of that stupid, overbooked loaded-glove finish. All that accomplished was making Taylor look weak. Given that ROH is putting Taylor over and wants us to buy into him as a legitimate bad ass...why the f*ck would they have him cheat against one of the lowest ranked guys on the roster? It is spectacularly bad booking...

SoCal Uncensored pop in to remind the Briscoes that they are still in hot pursuit of them. Frankie and Kaz face them at All In, and next week it will be Mark vs Kazarian in singles action...

NEXT WEEK - Lethal vs Gresham, 30-Minute Iron Man Match for the World Championship. 

This is the next first round bout in the 2018 Top Prospect Tournament. Ian informs us that officials are still deciding what the result of the Isom/Josie match will be after Jeff Cobb showed up and destroyed both of them. Zanders makes two flubs in his twenty second pre-taped promo and nobody cared enough to get him to re-tape it, or to edit it out. Kross has worked Future Of Honor matches before and, if nothing else, is memorable for his spectacular haircut. He is super young (and looks it too), and has won major championships in taekwondo.

The pace is quick from the outset and they counter back and forth with ease for a minute or so. Kross looks to have a slight edge...but none of that matters because once again down the steps comes Jeff Cobb! Again the crowd goes crazy, and again he decimates both participants. The match is thrown out at 01:33...

Rating - N/A - I quite like Marcus Kross. He has a Special K type vibe to him and is at least memorable. They didn't get much chance to show off, but didn't screw up before the Cobb run in. As I said two weeks ago, Cobb is a huge signing for ROH...

Eli Isom runs out and tries to get some payback on Cobb. TOUR OF THE ISLANDS! 

In no way should this be a TV main event, but here we are. At Honor For All Bully tried to make nice with Chuckie T...but the Kentucky Gentleman insulted him, cracked fat jokes and rejected his show of respect. We then saw Trent Beretta make his return from injury to help his best friend out as well. Now Bully wants some payback - and he teams with Silas whom (as we saw last week) he appears to have struck up a mutual respect...

Bully's entrance consists of goading Cabana and Coleman at the announce table and yelling at cameramen to focus on him since he is a Hall Of Famer who 'draws money'. He then refuses to start and orders to Silas to kick things off for their team. He starts with Beretta, who shrugs off an attempt at working his injury with ease. Bully berates Young and orders him to tag out because he is losing for their team. He hits one of his open-handed chops right on Trent's recovered bicep and pec. He mows down Taylor with a Vader-esque body avalanche, then tags Silas back and tells him to 'do something this time'. Unfortunately for the Last Real Man he walks into the Best Friends' comedy stomp/senton off the ropes spot. Bully is seething, and crotches Trent against the ringpost after Silas breaks up the Best Friends hug. When Beretta tries to mount a comeback he also jerks him back to the ground by the hair. Trent makes him pay by giving him a bloody nose before being beaten down again by Young. Tornado DDT out of nowhere by Beretta, before he finally makes a hot tag to Taylor. Sole Food on Silas, then falcon arrow gets 2. Kentucky Moonsault misses, Bully takes a cheapshot and Trent blind-tags whilst Young looks for Misery. Best Friends counter to the Lawn Dart only to be promptly attacked from behind by Bubba. Ray demands Silas tag him...but then hops off the apron and walks out. He tells Silas he needs to 'learn a lesson' and to 'shut up' leaving him alone so the Best Friends can hit Strong Zero for the win at 11:33 (shown)

Rating - * - So not only was Bully Ray's angle already intolerable, not only was it getting WAY too much airtime when it was just him and Cheeseburger, not only is he not content with dragging down the likes of Flip Gordon, Shane Taylor and Punishment Martinez...now he needs to pull Silas into this bullsh*t as well. With the greatest of respect, Silas' 'Last Real Man' character is one of the most consistent and established characters ROH has. Given the tremendous amount of inconsistency in the booking and flux in the talent roster these days, that character should be looked after at all costs as it is GUARANTEED to draw heat. Having Silas act like a little puppy, getting bossed around by Bully, was not what I needed to see. I'm glad the Best Friends went over, and I won't pretend that Bully basically yelling his own commentary over the whole match didn't give it a unique feel...but this isn't the ROH product I want to see.

Tape Rating - * - The rating sounds a little harsh, but for my personal taste this episode really didn't do much for me. The only thing vaguely worth watching was Taylor/Woods - and even that was entirely spoiled by a hideously booked finish. The main event another Bully Ray suck-fest, Sakai/Rayne was Sumie's worst WOH Title Match yet. Like I just said, this isn't the kind of product I want ROH to present and this isn't the quality of wrestling programming that I would associate with Ring Of Honor. You can easily skip this one...