McXal's Reviews

Airing the same weekend as Final Battle, this episode marks the final 'new' televised content of 2018. It is headlined by the 'Christmas Surprise' multi-man tag match; a random draw lottery format tag battle which has been a regular feature of ROH televised programming in December under Sinclair. This year the teams are captained by Jay Lethal and Matt Taven. Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman and Colt Cabana call the action once again in Pittsburgh, PA.

Jay Lethal is feeling festive, surrounded by presents containing names of possible tag partners. Matt Taven is more Scrooge-like and doesn't want to team with anyone other than his friends in The Kingdom. 

This is the first time the Twisted Sisterz have teamed up on ROH TV. Holidead was part of the WOH Title Tournament earlier in the year, whilst Thunder Rosa impressed during State Of The Art weekend and should have been back far more often. Rayne has singled out Baker as someone she is keeping her eye on. They were both part of the exciting women's four-way bout at All In and Britt has started putting together some impressive Women Of Honor victories. Crucially, they were attacked by the Twisted Sisterz at Survival Of The Fittest so want some revenge. Madison is part of the WOH World Title four-way at Final Battle, so really needed to build momentum at the time this was taped...

Huge home-town ovation for Dr Britt. She takes Holidead's head off with a superkick, then Rayne wipes both the Sisterz out with a crossbody off the apron when they try to flee. Madison tries to pin Holi early, attempting all of her funky pinning combinations...until Holi drops her on her face to stop it. DIVING assisted senton combo by the Twisted Sisterz gets 2. They work over Rayne's midsection; hanging her in a tree of woe and delivering a multitude of strikes to her exposed sternum. When we return from commercials we see Madison hitting a desperate crossbody, injuring herself further and being cruelly battered to the canvas with clubbing forearms from Holidead. The fans are desperate for Baker to get a tag and come alive when she finally does get a tag and takes both Sisterz out with Sling Blades. Butterfly suplex/sliding lariat combo by Baker and Rayne gets 2...but Holidead makes a quick save by dumping Madison to the floor. Urinage backbreaker/lungblower/flatliner sequence by Holi and Rosa! Dead throws Thunder into a moonsault splash for another nearfall before Madison barges back into the fray. Michinoku Driver on Rayne! Spinebuster on Baker as well as Holidead goes on a charge. RAINBAKER/RAYNE CHECK COMBO! Thunder causes Britt to superkick her own partner. Air Raid Crash/double stomp combo sees the Sisterz pin Britt at 07:22 (shown)

Rating - *** - One of my favourite matches from this taping. It was hard-hitting, exciting, really well laid out and afforded the Women Of Honor the opportunity to showcase legitimately high quality tag team wrestling. By that I mean that, it wasn't four random women thrown together. The Sisterz are a genuine team. They have matching gear, matching face-paint, layered combo moves and demonstrated a real strategy to the violence they brought to the ring. They won BECAUSE they were a regular team and were better placed to help each other out in moments of peril or opportunity. I presume the fact that Britt dropped the fall here and lost to Madison at Survival Of The Fittest indicates she has confirmed to ROH that she doesn't want to work in their women's division on a more permanent basis...

We cut back to the festive locker rooms and see Lethal and Taven opening presents to form their teams for the main event. Lethal is happy with his selections. Taven thinks he has a bunch of Melvins...

Caprice Coleman talks to Lethal, who is disappointed at not drawing Cheeseburger's name for his team so far. Caprice has a final present under the desk...and it adds Burger to Lethal's team. 

Despite being unhappy with the draw, on paper Taven has far more reason to be happy about these line-ups. He teams with hugely skilled technicians Gresham and Scurll, plus a huge full-time team in the form of The Bouncers. He also has one of his stable-mates on the opposition team in Marseglia. How will he and Vinny interact? Lethal may have asked for Cheeseburger, but having him alongside a directionless (but ripped) Rhett Titus and a member of Taven's entourage is a tough spot. His position is strengthened by the undefeated, wrecking ball TV Champion Jeff Cobb who has torn through the roster since arriving in the summer though.

Lethal tries to trade Marseglia for his partner Gresham, but Marty blocks it...whilst Bruiser just wants everyone to stop arguing because it's Christmas. In the end Lethal and Gresham start, reigniting a rivalry which has delivered arguably the best matches of 2018. BCB quickly disrupts their chain wrestling because he isn't interested in watching their style and wants to fight. Jay smartly quickens the pace to the point where Bruiser can't keep up with him. Taven tags in and demands a piece of Burger, rather than face Lethal. But when Cheese tags in Matt backs off and unleashes Milonas with an instruction to 'eat him'. Burger starts running lengths of the ring to exhaust Milonas...until the Kingpin quite literally collapses. Rhett wants to suplex the big man and demands the unlikely assistance of his former rival Burger. Bruiser and Marty storm in and hit a triple suplex on Titus and Burger! Marseglia threatens Scurll with an axe...so The Villain pulls out his umbrella, before tagging Taven in. The Kingdom stable-mates discuss strategy before finding that nobody else in the match wants to tag with them. On commentary Riccaboni prophetically predicts that Marseglia will 'get sick' of Taven's leadership at some point in the future. It means Taven and Vinny slide to the floor and start brawling with everyone outside the ring! Bruiser climbs to the top rope for a SUICIDE DIVE TO THE FLOOR! Vinny wants to dive as well, but gets superkicked by Lethal - who forgets that they are team-mates! Gresham refuses to body avalanche Lethal so Taven punts his own partner in the stomach! SHOTEI/GERMAN COMBO by Burger and Cobb gets 2. Bossman Slam from Milonas to Titus! Jeff EASILY scoops Milonas up for Tour Of the Islands, only for Scurll to shove him to the ground before he can pull it off. Quebrada from Gresham to Marseglia! DDT from Taven to Burger! LETHAL INJECTION ON TAVEN! PUMPHANDLE SUPLEX FROM COBB TO MILONAS! TOUR OF THE ISLANDS ON BRUISER! COBB WINS! 13:02 (shown) is your time

Rating - *** - These 'Christmas Surprise' matches are usually pretty fun but rather forgettable. That finish means that this instantly becomes one of the better ones. Much of the contest was made up of fun, comedic and festive interactions which is par for the course. But having it end with Cobb decimating The Bouncers, single-handedly, with some astonishing feats of strength meant it finished with a real bang. We got some Christmas silliness (Taven and Marseglia in particular were excellent in the way they provided that content), but ending it with a big statement from Cobb, setting him up to be a real force in the post-Elite, 2019 ROH landscape was a GREAT idea.

Tape Rating - *** - A fun, throwaway episode of ROH TV to end the year, featuring two of the best matches from this entire taping. The Women Of Honor tag was all to short but extremely good for the time it did receive, and the Christmas Surprise tag cleverly combined whimsical humour with a keen (albeit far too late) eye on the future. If nothing else, the sight of Cobb throwing Milonas and Bruiser around almost effortlessly will live long in the memory.

5) Twisted Sisterz vs Britt Baker/Madison Rayne (*** - Episode 378)

4) Jay Lethal/Dalton Castle/Cody vs Matt Taven/Vinny Marseglia/TK O'Ryan (*** - Episode 377)

3) Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Young Bucks (*** - Episode 375)

2) Christmas Surprise 10-Man Tag (*** - Episode 378)

1) Silas Young vs Flip Gordon (*** - Episode 377)