ROH on Sinclair - Episode 390 - 8th March 2019

Since the scheduled episode next week starts airing in Sinclair markets versus the 17th Anniversary, this is technically our go-home show for the pay-per-view. We'll see Marty Scurll and PCO of Villain Enterprises prepare for their respective matches in Las Vegas by trying to take down The Kingdom in tag action, we'll see new WOH World Champion Mayu Iwatani face Holidead, and then our main event will see Dalton Castle look to end his recent losing streak with a big victory over Kenny King. Once again our commentators in Lakeland, FL are Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana.

Vinny Marseglia/TK O'Ryan vs Marty Scurll/PCO
The issues between The Kingdom and Villain Enterprises continue to escalate. In Philadelphia Taven and his gang looked set to attack Marty, before The Villain revealed he had recruited some new friends to join him in ROH. That was the debut of PCO and Brody King, and has led to The Kingdom ducking VE's request for a Six-Man Title shot. Tonight may well see The Kingdom looking for some payback too however, after they were beaten by PCO and Brody as part of Tag Wars 2019 in Dallas

The Kingdom attack The Villains before the bell, which is becoming a staple tactic of their group. PCO's power is such that it doesn't amount to much and pretty soon he and Marty have cleared the ring. Scurll is fired up and goes to work on O'Ryan's arm. Vinny recognises the danger, drags Marty to the floor and dumps him into the barricades to shut it down. His midsection is presumably hurting after that, and it is made worse when The Kingdom hit him with a double flapjack, then a combo senton splash. During the commercial break they continue making it hard for him to breathe, alongside delivering repeated eye-rakes, gouges and pokes. It means that even when the opportunity presents itself Scurll can't see properly to tag his partner. PCO calls him over eventually and absolutely smokes both Vinny and TK. Pop-up Powerbomb almost breaks O'Ryan in half! Marty is still selling the eyes but manages to back body drop their opponents to the floor, setting up a BACK BODY DROP SOMERSAULT PLANCHA by PCO! SUPERPLEX/FROG SPLASH COMBO gets 2! Scurll lurks behind O'Ryan...but it is BLOCKED with a Pele Kick, before Marseglia mows the Englishman down using a Russian legsweep. Vinny and PCO fight on the apron, ending with Marseglia hitting a messy tope suicida. REDRUM gets 2 on Marty! After another break a brawl appears to have broken out around ringside, with Vinny putting PCO on a table on the floor. REDRUM THROUGH A TABLE! BUT PCO NO SELLS IT! HE'S NOT HUMAN! He scrambles to the top rope again, but TK intercepts him with a SUPER HIPTOSS THROUGH A CHAIR ON THE APRON! F*cking hell! Ian made the point on commentary, but this guy is in his 50's! Side Effect/Moonsault combo gets 2 for The Kingdom! House Of 1000 Horses blocked into a Boston crab/leg drop combo! ELBOW SUICIDA by PCO! CHICKENWING ON VINNY! He taps at 11:28 (shown)

Rating - *** - The second half of this match was absurd. The first period was effective without being outrageously exciting, albeit with more of the interesting chemistry between The Kingdom and PCO that we saw in Dallas. The Kingdom working Marty's eye was certainly interesting, but it was the hot tag to PCO which really sparked this into life. From that point it became completely bonkers, totally breathless violence. PCO's wanton disregard for his own body is unbelievable to watch.

Rush cuts a promo in Spanish (without subtitles)...but is interrupted by Bandido. He also speaks in Spanish without subtitles, but appears to challenge Rush for a match at the 17th Anniversary to decide who the top Mexican star in ROH is. Rush accepts, without shaking his hand...

Mayu Iwatani vs Holidead
This is technically Mayu's first ROH appearance since winning the WOH World Title from Kelly Klein in Miami...but since this taping took place the night before she doesn't have the belt. As you can see, she isn't defending the belt in every match like Kelly did, and is looking for a big win over someone she'll be very familiar with from Stardom, to build momentum going into their pay-per-view rematch. Holidead and Thunder Rosa put the entire Women Of Honor division on notice when they assaulted Sumie Sakai in San Antonio...and Holi now looks to make a statement by defeating the champion.

Holi smiles, licks her lips and paces excitedly at the prospect of getting her hands on one of the best women's wrestlers on the planet. She uses her size advantage and tries to bludgeon Iwatani from the outside, but finds Mayu to be too quick and eats a brutal dropkick against the ropes. Holidead shakes the ropes to stop the champ diving off the top rope at her...then gives her a Stunner in the ropes. Sumie Sakai comes out during the commercial break to cheer Mayu on, but watches as Holidead starts carrying her around the ring and smashing her into the turnbuckles. Iwatani glides into a big boot but barely has enough energy to cover. Rope run crossbody COUNTERED with a big spinebuster by Dead! Mayu counters an attempted Samoan drop into a crucifix driver though. Two Step Dragon Suplex blocked into a big lariat! Mayu bumped that right on her neck and is so motionless Todd Sinclair almost stops the match. Somehow she makes it back up and delivers a beautiful German suplex. MOONSAULT NAILED! Iwatani wins at 05:50 (shown)

Rating - *** - For the amount of time this got it was very good. The speed, crispness and big strike games of both women gave this an authentic 'Stardom' flavour, and also served as a reminder of how far behind this standard some of the WOH talent that we've seen really are. Mayu is a phenomenal wrestler; one of the best anywhere in the world regardless of gender. But in ROH thus far she's rarely been given much time in her matches to show it, and that continued here. She was also working around a pretty serious knee injury at this point which doesn't help. 

Kelly Klein and Camp Klein come out and taunt Mayu with the WOH Title belt. Iwatani decks one of them as the rest scatter. She and Kelly stare down in anticipation of their big rematch in Las Vegas.

Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana announce that Briscoes vs Villain Enterprises for the Tag Titles at the 17th Anniversary has been made a No DQ Match to ensure that there will be winner...

Kenny King vs Dalton Castle
Much has been made of Kenny's win over Marty in a fourway match at Bound By Honor. He has used controversial tactics to get wins over men like Marty before, building momentum and creating a winning streak which led to him getting a World Title shot in Toronto during the Global Wars 2018 Tour. He scored an illegal pinfall (subsequently reversed) over the World Champion on that night and knows a win over Survival Of The Fittest winner and #1 contender Marty Scurll, backed up by another win over former World Champion Dalton Castle puts him near the front of the line for title shots. Even more so if he can nab another win over Marty on PPV in Las Vegas. Dalton's fortunes are quite the opposite. He has lost a number of high profile matches, starting with his Final Battle loss to Matt Taven. The losing streak has caused him to struggle to control his anger and even threaten his beloved Boys at times. He is desperate to turn what many perceive as a 'sinking ship' around with victory here.

Castle tries to lure King into a mat-wrestling exchange, keenly aware that he has the edge there. He has fun tossing Kenny around, whilst Cabana and Ian point out his heavily sunburnt back. It proves so effective that King considers walking out on the match but returns, crotches Dalton on the top turnbuckle then dumps him straight to the floor onto his braced, injured back. Castle returns and delivers a sliding DDT, but in doing so inflicts more damage to his spine. He guts through the pain to start delivering big suplexes followed by the swinging bulldog for 2. Julie Newmar blocked...but King then misses a corkscrew enzi and eats a gutwrench powerbomb. Kenny leaves the ring, grabs a Boy and throws him at Dalton! It causes a distraction, and King hits the Royal Flush to win at 05:47 (shown)

Rating - ** - Clinical, functional and ultimately forgettable, but you can clearly identify the creative direction of travel for both men - which I like. King has been earmarked as one of the guys Delirious wants to build his 'post-Elite' ROH around and has been pushing him hard. He needed the credibility of a win over a former World Champion, part of his gimmick is finding creative, borderline-illegal ways to win matches (inspired by his old mentor Austin Aries when A-Double did the same to him at Best In The World 2018)...so the finish makes sense and the match promoted Kenny's character nicely. Similarly, Dalton is clearly slow-burning towards a seismic character shift. His ailing body may be a problem, but his charisma and character work are as good as ever. He was BRILLIANT here in that regard...

A forlorn Matt Taven sits in a stairwell backstage with the wreckage of his purple 'Real World Title' belt. He vows to make Jay Lethal pay...

Ian and Colt try to narrate a video package running down the 17th Anniversary card but are interrupted by Taven, now in the ring. He doesn't want to wait for the pay-per-view and doesn't have Vinny or TK with him - he just wants to fight Lethal here and now. Inevitably it is a trap; as soon as Jay gets out there he is jumped from behind by Marseglia and O'Ryan. They rip off Lethal's clothes, publicly humiliating him as well as beating him senseless. Jon Gresham tries to make a save but is in no position to fight three men by himself and suffers a similar fate to his partner. Vinny and TK put Lethal on a table as Matt climbs the ropes. MACHO ELBOW THROUGH THE TABLE! Taven just stole Randy Savage's move to pile yet more misery onto the World Champ!

Tape Rating - *** - A second consecutive solid week of television, and this week I thought was that rarest of beasts which was both enjoyable in isolation but also strong as a PPV go-home show. The Taven/Lethal segment that closed the hour was GREAT. Whether you agree with ROH going all in on Matt Taven in 2019 or not, it is hard to deny they've done a really good job building up their World Title PPV main event. It comes across as one of the hottest World Title matches in some time. I also thought the way they edited Mayu and Kelly's exchanges was really clever. Iwatani was clearly presented as champion for television, but didn't actually win the belt until the following night. Yet after checking multiple live reports/spoilers for this taping I've barely found any mention, suggestion or guess that Mayu was going over. From an in-ring perspective, I didn't love King/Castle and certainly didn't enjoy anything as much as Cobb/Silas from last week...but the Villains/Kingdom opener really is worth checking out if you have a spare ten minutes.

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