McXal's Reviews

This entire 'Philadelphia Excellence' TV taping has something of a rough deal. In order for ROH tape promotional content for their Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view they needed to shoehorn in a taping weekend the week before All In. Given the monumental scope and impact of The Elite's self-financed All In event, anything ROH do afterwards will clearly be reactionary to it...which creates a problem when you're taping TV beforehand. This week SCU continue to pursue the Briscoes and the Tag Championship in a six-man main event also featuring Punishment Martinez. Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman are in Philadelphia, PA.

Jay Lethal is the first man through the curtain, getting a big reaction from the Philadelphia fans on the back of successful championship defences against Jon Gresham and Mark Haskins (plus Flip Gordon at All In, which hadn't happened at point of going to tape). He reflects on the great names that he has wrestled in his lengthy ROH career, and includes his Iron Man Title Match with Gresham as his very favourite. It inspired him to put on more great matches for the World Championship and issues a 'Lethal Challenge' to the best wrestlers in the world to come face him...and right on cue Will Ospreay appears on the Carytron. He wants Lethal in Las Vegas - and the champ accepts.

Ian and Caprice also announce a Bullet Club vs CHAOS 10-man tag, Briscoes vs The Addiction for the Tag Titles and Martinez vs Sabin for the TV Title as part of the Death Before Dishonor card...

SoCal Uncensored get some promo time ahead of the main event. Scorpio promises to take out Martinez so The Addiction get go to work on the Briscoes. Meanwhile in the parking lot the Briscoes and Martinez - calling themselves the 'East Coast boys' - plot the demise of the SoCal trio...

This is another Proving Ground Match for the Women Of Honor Champion, meaning if the returning Steelz can win or take it to a time-limit draw she will earn herself a title shot. Sakai continues to impress as the figurehead of the WOH division. Despite on the surface being a quiet and unassuming champion, she has looked relatively untroubled throughout her title reign so far and fended off challengers from all over the world. Brandi Rhodes joins Ian and Caprice at the announce desk.

Tasha tries to take a cheap-shot at the champ...but is caught out and boxed around the ring, then out of it, by Sakai. Going to the floor works out in Tasha's favour as she looks comfortable brawling and wipes Sumie out with a GUARDRAIL CANNONBALL! Sensibly the veteran returns to the ring where she drops Steelz with a running neckbreaker and a big missile dropkick. Smash Mouth blocked into the Hard Knocks Drop (Stratusfaction) for 2! But having survived that Sakai gets back up and does hit the Smash Mouth second time around. It is a decisive win for the champ at 03:11

Rating - ** - I'm a little torn on this one. Clearly in three minutes we weren't going to get anything particularly substantive or memorable...but I don't get what the purpose of this one was. Clearly Sumie benefits from a pretty comprehensive victory and strengthens her reputation. But she does so at the expense of Steelz, who demonstrated enough presence, physical charisma and skill to warrant a better showing. Ultimately the match felt like it was trying to be a good, competitive match, a big squash for Sumie and also a strong showing for Tasha all at the same time...and probably fell short on all three as a result.

Marty Scurll is now front and centre for Bullet Club promo time; another indication that the rest of his Bullet Club stable-mates are on their way out of ROH. He calls CHAOS the 'least popular faction in Japan'. Cody steals the promo by referring to 'chubby little Ishii' coming to Vegas for slots and buffets!

Ian Riccaboni interviews Sumie in the ring, and gives her the news that her belt is now the 'Women Of Honor World Championship'. Sakai says she has someone in mind for her next title defence - and calls out Tenille Dashwood. Tenille comes out and says she wants her shot on PPV, and although she respects the champ, plans to take her belt at Death Before Dishonor. 

NEXT WEEK - Kenny King faces Adam Page, looking for a win over a Hangman to follow his recent TV victory over Marty Scurll. Then he plans to roll into Death Before Dishonor to 'bag a legend' by defeating Jushin 'Thunder' Liger...

Ian won't get out of the ring! Back from commercials and he is in the ring with Jonathan Gresham, looking for his thoughts after narrowly failing to take the World Title last week. He can't say much before Bully Ray comes out. Bubba intimidates Ian then decides he will interview Gresham instead. The 'interview' consists of him claiming credit for ROH selling out MSG, and calling Gresh a jobber. The Octopus responds by challenging him to a 'wrestling match'...since he knows Bully can't wrestle after watching D-Von carry him for twenty years. Said match lasts about ten seconds before Bubba kicks Gresh in the balls, chucks Todd Sinclair to the ground then starts beating on Gresh with a chain. Flip Gordon runs in trying to make a save, quickly followed by Jay Lethal. Silas Young, Lethal's old rival and an uneasy ally of Bully, comes out and destroys the champion with Misery...

After the break we catch up with Lethal and Gresham as they walk back through the curtain. The World Champion lays down a challenge for next week; Lethal and Gresh vs Bully and Silas...

Chris Sabin berates Punishment Martinez for attacking both he and Alex Shelley in Atlanta, and re-injuring Shelley's surgically-repaired jaw. At Death Before Dishonor he comes for payback and comes to take Punisher's Television Championship.

Briscoes vs The Addiction for the Tag Titles at Death Before Dishonor has now been announced. It is the title shot that Daniels and Kaz have been chasing since they attacked the Briscoes at Best In The World. SCU are frantically trying to grab anything they can as leverage to prevent Joe Koff from releasing them at the end of the calendar year and are now hunting the ROH legend, Day One originals in the hope of securing that leverage. Sky is also looking for payback for his TV Title loss to Martinez at Honor For All. He had another skirmish with the TV Champ in Atlanta and will have his eyes on a title rematch if Martinez survives Sabin in Las Vegas. Sabin himself is on commentary scouting...

SCU attack during the Briscoes' entrance to get a head-start on their opponents. Sky knocks Mark out with a spinning knee strike on the floor, as on the other side Kaz hits the SLINGSHOT RANA to the outside taking out Martinez. It leaves the way clear for the trio to isolate Jay for a couple of minutes. APRON CHOKESLAM from Punisher to Daniels to break up that momentum! Instantly the tide turns in the favour of the champions - who work over the ageing back and neck of the Ring General. Riccaboni points out that Jay, Mark and Punisher have teamed up a few times recently - therefore gaining experience as a trio and potentially challenging for the Six-Man Titles in the future. I really like that; a little touch but one which rewards long-time/repeat viewers. South Of Heaven blocked, before Daniels sweeps Martinez into the Blue Thunder Driver. Hot tag to Scorpio who flies in with incredible athleticism to repeatedly take down the Briscoe brothers. Big Fat Kill misses though, setting Jay and Punishment up for a DVD/CURB STOMP COMBO! Slingshot DDT by Frankie! Urinage from Mark to Daniels! Kazarian gives him the slingshot cutter - drawing a two-count before Martinez breaks the pin. Jay tries to swing a steel chair at Kazarian...and accidentally HAMMERS referee Paul Turner in the back! He is out like a light! Martinez lays out Kaz with the chair. CHAIR SHOT OF DEATH from Jay to Scorpio! The Briscoes are trying to injure The Addiction before they make it to Vegas it seems! CACTUS ELBOW on Kaz! Meanwhile Sabin and Martinez are brawling in the aisle! BEST MELTZER EVER! Todd Sinclair runs down the aisle, counting the pin that gives SCU a victory over the Tag Champs at 10:30 (shown)

Rating - *** - This was deceptively decent. There was a good trios match at its core, yet it remained equally effective at building multiple storyline threads going into Death Before Dishonor as well. It cannot be said enough that Scorpio Sky has completely revitalised the Daniels/Kazarian team, who had started to look jaded by the end of 2017. Sky provided some of the most exciting individual moments of athleticism in the entire match. The finish to this match was mayhem and chaos in the very best sense, in front of a crowd who were scorching hot and biting on every thing. 

Tape Rating - ** - I would describe this episode of ROH television as clumsy. It isn't completely their fault; having to book and tape their TV/PPV in the midst of promotion for All In is really unhelpful. It has left them needing to throw a PPV card together at extremely short notice though, meaning this episode was a somewhat unnatural and jarring procession of 'I challenge, I accept' sequences and announcements. Perhaps that is why the main event stood out. Briscoes/Addiction is a title match which actually does have some long-term storyline progression behind it, with the foundation laid back at Best In The World. This wasn't a bad show by any means, and the main event is a fun ten minute trios match...but if you skip it you don't really miss much that you couldn't catch up on simply by reading the announced PPV card on the website.