McXal's Reviews

Week two of the 'Final Battle Fallout' tapings, with three big matches on tap for the episode. Already announced is the return of the Twisted Sisterz (Thunder Rosa and Holidead) to compete in a rematch against Madison Rayne and Britt Baker, and the TV debut of Zack Sabre Jr against the returning Tracy Williams (also making his TV debut I believe). The main event sees former champions Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky challenging the Briscoes for the Tag Championship. Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman and Colt Cabana are at the announce desk in Philadelphia, PA to call it.

Hot Sauce returns to ROH after an impressive debut match against Jon Gresham at Survival Of The Fittest...and locks horns with the man who bested The Octopus at Final Battle. Zack solidified his status as one of the world's finest technical wrestlers with victory over Gresham at the PPV and now makes his TV debut against a familiar foe. These two contested well-regarded matches in Evolve a couple of years prior and are clearly stylistically extremely similar. ZSJ won't want to lose on his TV debut, whilst Tracy will know that a win over the Englishman will surely earn him a full-time gig. 

No handshake and plenty of attitude from Sabre again, and just like at Final Battle he finds an opponent who is very willing to lock-up with him. Williams stomps at the ankles then drops an elbow straight across Zack's back when he tries a funky counter. ZSJ is a super-smart wrestler though - breaking away and creating some space from his opponent; sucking Tracy into trying to leapfrog him...then absolutely DROPPING him with into an anklelock. Tracy blocks a bow and arrow to counter to a cross armbreaker, so of course ZSJ immediately counters that and tries to slap an armbar on Tracy's braced shoulder. Realising Tracy's weakness, Sabre starts attacking the arm - even in the face of some brutal striking from Hot Sauce. Finally Williams counters another arm submission simply by dumping his opponent on his head with a back suplex. A rugged DVD gets 2, then Williams starts throwing repeated elbows and kicks at the Englishman. Kicks to the shoulder by Zack, rolled into a Calf Killer WITH the arm captured too! Countered to another cross armbreaker by Hot Sauce! Zack tries to counter that to an armbreaker of his own...so Tracy tries to stand up...so Zack looks for a triangle choke! That is in turn countered to a CLOVERLEAF! How f*cking incredible was that?! In the end they end up smashing the sh*t out of each other again before collapsing alongside each other to the ground. ZSJ disrespectfully pie-faces Tracy...who can't hit his Jumping Piledriver because of his injured shoulder. Diving kick to the arm from Sabre...LARIAT from Williams! Piledriver blocked into HURRAH! Williams taps, giving ZSJ his second Ring Of Honor victory at 10:02 (shown)

Rating - **** - As I said after Final Battle, ROH know what they have when they have Zack Sabre Jr. on a card. He is freakishly talented and every time they can get a booking with him it should be treated as a gift. If the plan was to make him a top tier special attraction talent (along the lines of the way Gabe used KENTA or Marufuji for instance) then this was a smart debut weekend. He showcased enough of his skills to demonstrate his spectacular talent, displayed enough vulnerability to put over the capabilities of his opponents and held enough back for some big-time bouts down the line (which thus far haven't happened). I preferred this to Zack/Gresham from Final Battle in all honesty. That match was brilliant as an exhibition; this felt more personal and intense. Striking played a more central role in their battle, the counter-sequences seemed designed more to hurt their opponent than to 'show off'. In ten-minute TV format this was extremely good stuff. Tracy wouldn't have been put in the ring with Zack if ROH didn't have plans to use him, but after his great debut with Gresham this really did a lot to cement his spot. Thankfully we'll see a lot more of him in 2019...

Zack stares into the camera and trash-talks Jon Gresham on his way out of the arena...

In the locker-room Beer City Bruiser follows through on Milonas' advice from last week and confronts Silas Young. He wants answers as to why their friendship is over. Silas doesn't give him any and tells him to get over it. Coincidentally they'll be facing each other next week, and the Last Real Man tells BCB he 'can't hang' in the ring with him...

The Briscoes tell SCU that by activating their 'rematch clause' for the Tag Titles tonight they have signed their death warrants...

This is a rematch from Episode 378, and one of my favourite Women Of Honor matches from 2018 (although technically this was taped in 2018 as well). Madison has signed a contract with ROH and has made it known she is fascinated by Britt Baker; both as a tag partner and opponent. They were attacked by the Twisted Sisterz at Survival Of The Fittest 2018 (after Madison beat Britt to qualify for the WOH Title Match at Final Battle) and lost the first battle between them. Can they get on the same page to overcome the threat posed by Holidead and Thunder Rosa, who have vastly more experience as a duo?

Holidead is almost frothing at the mouth in readiness to fight Rayne. After she tries to lick Madison it almost makes sense that Rayne would go straight for bag of tricks roll-up flurry just to escape. In the end she tags Baker, who knocks Rosa off the apron before moving Holidead down with the Sling Blade. Rosa pulls her hair from outside the ring though, distracting Britt and allowing Holi to land a mafia kick for 2. She flips Thunder into a moonsault press onto the Doctor for 2. After a commercial break the Sisterz still have Baker isolated...but she is still fighting. Eventually she lays Dead out with a superkick and makes a painstaking crawl to tag Rayne in. Ace Crusher gets 2 on Rosa! Holidead thinks fast and jumps both opponents from behind after the snake-like Rosa slithers to the floor. Urinage backbreaker/lungblower combo on Dr Britt! The Sisterz gear up to finish it...but Britt ducks a double-team causing Rosa to level her own partner (just like the Sisterz did to her and Madison in Pittsburgh)! RainBaker nailed! Pumphandle suplex gives Britt the win at 06:06 (shown)

Rating - *** - They did about as much as they could do with the standard Women Of Honor six or seven minute time allocation here. It didn't quite land with me the way their first match did, but I appreciated a couple of references to it and once again it really is fun to watch an actual established tag team like the Twisted Sisterz in the WOH division. 

These four were involved in a wild Ladder War at Final Battle. SCU entered with the belts, but were unable to retain as the Briscoes became 10-time ROH Tag Champions. The numbers are still in the favour of Kaz and Sky though. They beat the Briscoes to become the champions in a triple threat tag last time we were in Philadelphia, and before that they'd also beaten them at All In Zero Hour. Now cashing in their contractually-obligated rematch clause, can they immediately take back their belts from the 'Day One' veteran brothers?

SCU steal a signature Briscoe move and start throwing chairs around before the bell, so of course the champs toss a few back as well. Mark sneakily sliding chairs under the ring to make sure Kaz and Sky don't get to use them is a nice touch too. It means by the time the bell rings tempers are already frayed. Scorpio does his best to fight both Briscoes at once without much success. It is also soon evident that his body is still very much feeling the ill-effects of Ladder War as well. After a couple of minutes it feels like he is almost going on instinct alone...when he pops Jay in the mouth with a bicycle knee and a neckbreaker. Springboard Codebreaker from Kazarian to Jay...then a Stunner/DDT combo on both the brothers at the same time. Jerry Lynn to Mark, followed by a SOMERSAULT PLANCHA from Sky! Urinage by Mark soon after, dumping Frankie on his head and leaving him vulnerable to the Day One Neckbreaker as well. Lungblower/slingshot cutter combo by SCU who are refusing to quit here. A Crusher from Kaz to Mark, followed by the assisted tornado DDT on Jay for 2! Mark throws a chair in, but Scorpio charges past Todd Sinclair to prevent him using it. SLINGSHOT RANA TO THE FLOOR from Kaz to Mark, who in turn thunders into Todd Sinclair as well. With the ref down Jay and Mark start beating on Kazarian with steel chairs. Doomsday Device BLOCKED WITH THE RUNNING SUPER RANA by Sky! Kazarian rolls up Jay and has him pinned for almost ten seconds before a replacement ref charges out! JAY DRILLER ON SKY! SUPERPLEX/FROGGY BOW COMBO ON KAZ GETS 2! Jay's forehead laceration from Final Battle has opened up so he's bleeding again - which Frankie immediately looks to take advantage off by punching him in the face. Redneck Boogie nailed, giving the Briscoes the win at 11:17 (shown)

Rating - *** - They taped this the day after Final Battle. It is important that we state that before saying anything else about this match; it was contested twenty four hours after they were beating each other to death and diving off ladders in the Hammerstein. Wrestling-wise I didn't think this was the best match between these teams...but holy sh*t did it have a lot of heart. Kazarian looked miserable even taking a bump, Scorpio wasn't moving at top speed and Jay ended the match bleeding everywhere. They were warriors to produce something this good; SCU trying to take the fight to the Briscoes, but as the ones who didn't win Ladder War they came in with slightly more battle wounds and didn't have enough in the tank to get it done (although did get a visual pinfall). The last couple of minutes featured a few really hot false finishes which had the building jumping. 

Marty Scurll has some promo-time scheduled for the end of the episode apparently, planning to address the World Title situation. He calls himself the 'top guy' in Ring Of Honor and now wants the 'top prize' held by Jay Lethal. Of course that immediately brings Matt Taven and The Kingdom out to proclaim himself to be the Real World Champion. He, Marseglia and O'Ryan surround him in the ring and mock him for having no friends left. So Marty says he's made new friends! The lights go out, revealing Brody King and PCO! GONZO BOMB ON VINNY! PCO-SAULT TO THE FLOOR! With The Kingdom down, Marty heralds the arrival of Villain Enterprises...

NEXT WEEK - Rush debuts, versus TK O'Ryan

Tape Rating - **** - I really liked this show. Clearly it helps that it started strong with the excellent ZSJ/Tracy match, but as a complete package it really felt like ROH packed a lot of enjoyable, significant content into a small run-time. Decent Women Of Honor action, confirmation of the demise of the Silas/Bruiser partnership (plus set-up for a singles match between them next week), an exciting main event featuring some pretty heroic performances from wrestlers who were a long way from 100%, and ending with the debut of a new faction featuring two high profile new talents. Marty, Brody and PCO are a pretty weird mix so it will be interesting to see what chemistry develops between them as Villain Enterprises. However, the idea of Scurll - a big personality but a smaller guy now without The Elite to have his back - getting two big, strong wildmen to watch his back is an interesting one. I don't think anyone could watch this episode and say that it wasn't at the very least a fun hour of wrestling.