McXal's Reviews

The Elite are history, SCU have contested their last matches, Villain Enterprises have arrived and the World Title scene has become extremely crowded. It has been an eventful first couple of weeks in 2019, with more to come tonight as Rush debuts (against TK O'Ryan) and the main event pits former partners Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser together in something of a grudge match. Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman and Colt Cabana call the action in Philadelphia, PA.

The winner of this match and the winner of the Silas vs Bruiser main event will go on to the next TV Taping in Atlanta where they'll fight for #1 contendership to the TV Title. Good luck to Ian for having to try to explain how either of these two are remotely in title contention. They are two of the most interesting 'enhancement' talents though. Isom is a promising graduate out of the ROH Dojo, has scored some exciting wins and gave a good account of himself against Kenny King at Final Battle. On the other side Facade is an experienced, visually striking and unorthodox high-flying athlete - who never fails to leave an impression when he works even if not always for the right reasons.

Eli grounds Facade with a headlock to prevent him from breaking out any early acrobatics...then cuts him down with a jumping knee strike when he tries to start running the ropes and build speed. Quebrada misses for Facade, but he rolls straight through off the ground and nips into a spinning heel kick. Before Isom can even get off the ground he tags him with a springboard dropkick too. Eli goes back to heavy strikes, plus an emphatic northern lights suplex which sends Facade to the floor. TOPE SUICIDAAAAAA...but he slides over Facade's shoulders, crashes into the guardrail and almost lands on his head! Back from commercials as Isom gets a 2-count with back suplex hold. Springboard enzi by Facade, which probably doesn't go down well in a locker room which at this taping included both Cody and Matt Taven who do that as a signature move. ROPE RUN DOUBLE SPRINGBOARD 450 PRESS TO THE FLOOR! He tightrope walks on his way back in...right into an elbow smash by Isom. NEON HAMMER! TIGHTROPE WALK MISSILE DROPKICK gets 2! Springboard Destroyer blocked with a clothesline. Brainbuster by Eli, picking up the win at 06:27 (shown).

Rating - *** - Don't sleep on this one. Sure it is a little ragged, but they told a nice little story and produced some spectacular moments of violence (not all of them planned). The premise was solid; Facade likes to fly and dive, Eli is out of the ROH Dojo and has a sound grasp of the fundamentals. From the very opening moments his gameplan was to ground the 'Neon Ninja'...with Facade jumping off the ropes or trying something wild every time he was able to break free. Facade himself feels like a total throwback to the Murphy Rec days in ROH. Stylistically he isn't always pretty, he messes up occasionally...but you know he will do crazy sh*t. Gabe would absolutely have chucked him into a few Scramble Matches or made him a member of Special K...

Kelly Klein reminds everyone that she'll be defending the Women Of Honor World Title every time she wrestles in a singles match...and plans to dominate every woman on the roster.

The male World Champion, Jay Lethal, also gets some promo time. He promises that one day soon he and Matt Taven will meet one-on-one...when he plans to silence the 'fake' champion.

Ian Riccaboni announces that next week The Kingdom will defend the Six-Man Championship against the newly-formed Villain Enterprises.

This TV taping was a rough one for MLW. They had big plans for Brody King, PCO and Rush in 2019, all of which were cancelled as ROH signed them using the money freed up by The Elite and SCU departing. Rush, a major star in CMLL and founding member of the Los Ingobernables faction in that organisation (which Naito would branch out from to form the Japanese arm of the group), makes an eagerly-awaited debut (having worked in the US for MLW in late-2018) following the success of multiple other CMLL stars given ROH dates.

Ian informs us that Rush doesn't like The Kingdom following his exchanges with Taven in CMLL. He rips TK's 'Kingdom' shirt off him...and they then start TRADING German suplexes! Big chops by Rush, almost bringing O'Ryan to his knees only for The Kingdom's representative to get up and try to kick his head off. Even after having his brain rattled into the guardrails Rush is still pissed off, shouting abuse at TK and goading him into another fight. Even after a commercial break they are still clubbing the sh*t out of each other. Rush stomps his foe into the corner, teases the Bull's Horns but instead disrespectfully boots TK in the face and busts out a 'Tranquilo' pose. Once again O'Ryan takes it outside and uses the guardrails to get ahead though. He tries to choke the Mexican star with his wrist-tape...then drops him with a back suplex when that is blocked. TURNBUCKLE BELLY TO BELLY by Rush, giving the camera a chance to zoom in on TK's bruised and welted chest. DIVING SPINEBUSTER by O'Ryan as Rush tries to close him down in the corner. Mustang Ride blocked with Rush muscling him to the top for a sadistic headbutt/superplex combo. BULL'S HORNS! Rush wins his debut at 08:33 (shown)

Rating - *** - A really hot match to debut Rush in, and a totally different side to TK O'Ryan than we've seen at any other point in his ROH career so far. My complaint with TK is that he's been denied almost any opportunity to show how good a wrestler he is, since he almost exclusively works tag matches and his moveset consists almost entirely of cheating or shortcuts. He looked entirely at home dropping bombs with Rush from start to finish. Clearly El Toro Blanco is a big star and (unlike when some of the NJPW top stars arrive) looked legitimately fired up to be in ROH...but O'Ryan looked motivated as hell. What could have felt like a sterile exhibition match wound up feeling a whole lot more like a big fight, and in front of a great crowd too. Rush looks like a star, but I must admit I was impressed at how this match did a lot for TK's standing too.

Vinny Marseglia pops up from under the ring, distracting Rush so Matt Taven can run out and KO him from behind with the Purple Title belt. TRIPLE CON-CHAIR-TO! The Kingdom send a powerful message to Rush...

Rhett Titus replaces Caprice Coleman on commentary, still in a Speedo and now sporting a trophy which he insists he won for being 'Mr Survival Of The Fittest 2018'...

The friendship/partnership between Silas and the Bruiser goes back quite a while. They've been teaming in ROH for a couple of years, but as BCB revealed on TV a couple of weeks ago, it's built on a friendship stretching back almost twenty years. We've seen Bruiser help Young in his feud with Jay Lethal, help him win the Television Championship, they won Tag Wars 2016 in their home town of Milwaukee. But after allowing Bully Ray into his head it appears that Silas now wants nothing to do with his former friend. Bruiser has formed a new team with Brian Milonas, but remains saddened at the demise of his relationship with Silas and tried to repair it last week only to be cruelly brushed off by the Last Real Man. That added a real edge to this which, by the way, also determines who advances to the Atlanta TV taping to face Eli Isom for TV Title #1 contendership.

Bruiser gets on the mic, tells Silas that he 'sucks' and goads him into agreeing to make this a No DQ Match. CACTUS CLOTHESLINE by Beer City sees both men toppling over the top rope into a brawl on the outside. Young snaps BCB's throat on the top rope and knocks him down with a springboard lariat to the apron. Misery blocked allowing Bruiser to cannonball Young through an open chair on the floor! Silas recovers quickly though, double stomping Bruiser in the ribs. Beer City Driver blocked into the slingshot swinging neckbreaker for 2. A table is propped up in the corner of the ring, Bruiser beats Young onto his ass...RUNNING CANNONBALL THROUGH THE TABLE gets 2! He tries to follow it with a spear in the corner only for Young to dodge and send him careering head-first into a metal chair. Silas tries to dive off the guardrails to press home his advantage, only to be countered with a GUARDRAIL SUPERPLEX to the floor. Bruiser lies Young across two open chairs on the floor, indicating that he wants to hit a big dive to the floor. Silas tries to stop him with a superplex to the floor...which Bruiser counters with an AVALANCHE HIPTOSS into the ring! Beer City Driver on a chair gets 2. After a commercial break we see Young laid out across four open steel chairs in the middle of the ring. Young gets back up and PRESS SLAMS BRUISER THROUGH THE CHAIRS! Great commentary from Riccaboni as he points out that is exactly what Silas did to Kevin Steen way back at Summer Heat Tour: Cincinnati in 2014. On that evening he won since he followed it up with a Plunge into the chairs...but here he goes straight for a pinfall and Beer City kicks out at 2. Next the Last Real Man uses zip-ties to secure Bruiser to the ropes; a tactic he has used against Jay Lethal and Kenny King in the past. Unable to defend himself, Bruiser is subjected to a series of crushing chair shots - until Brian Milonas runs out and destroys Silas with a running ass attack in the corner. Kingpin cuts Bruiser free...but gets thrown OFF THE TOP ROPE THROUGH A TABLE ON THE FLOOR when he tries to give Silas a Banzai Drop. Holy sh*t that is a big guy to take that bump! Sick Kick by BCB! VADER BOMB ELBOW THROUGH A CHAIR gets 2. Bruiser arms himself and cracks Young over the head with his beer keg. KEG SPLASH THROUGH THE TABLE MISSES! MISERY! Young wins in a hard-fought 14:00 (shown)

Rating - *** - I don't know what most people were expecting when the TV main event was Silas vs Bruiser, but I thought these two did a hell of a job with this. The crowd were really quiet for them, which sucked because they were beating the sh*t out of each other. Sadly that isn't surprising since, after a strong 2017 Silas was almost completely sidelined in 2018 (even with a brief TV Title run), whilst they also did very little with Bruiser even after he impressed the hell out people with his performances on the 2018 NJPW Honor Rising shows. If I were to be critical I thought there too many dead-spots where equipment was being set up. Somewhere along the way they seemed to stop putting over that this was a grudge match, or really selling between each car crash spot too. Props to Brian Milonas for taking that mental bump from the top the floor, and kudos to Ian Riccaboni, who hugely enhanced this match with a couple of really insightful pieces of commentary. Long-time followers of my reviews will know that for a long time I really didn't enjoy Bruiser in ROH. His team with Silas was a big part of what converted me into something of a fan...so I was pleased to see that team get a fitting send-off. 

Tape Rating - *** - What a pleasant hour of television this was. In isolation I don't think Isom/Facade, Rush/O'Ryan or Silas/Bruiser were big draws on paper...but in their own way all three surprised me with their quality. Isom/Facade was a little messy but told a solid story too, TK O'Ryan delivered by far his best singles performance in a bruising bout with the debuting Rush, and the general quality and violence of the main event will catch many off-guard. Not a must-see episode by any means (outside of Rush's debut nothing felt terribly significant from a long-term perspective) but a good one for the hardcore fanbase who tune in most weeks.