McXal's Reviews

The 17th Anniversary is in the books, and time is short before ROH and New Japan descend on Madison Square Garden for G1 Supercard. Sadly we'll be losing a precious week of TV time to build to that extravaganza here, because this is the last episode taped in early February at Bound By Honor weekend. Announced matches for this show include Willie Mack defending the NWA National Title against Rhett Titus before a main event pitting World Champion Jay Lethal and his tag partner Jon Gresham against a motivated Coast 2 Coast. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana are in Lakeland, FL.

The Party Peacock is in a slump. He failed to beat Matt Taven at Final Battle, failed to take the World Title back from Jay Lethal at Honor Reigns Supreme and has struggled to make a real impact at all through the first quarter of 2019. His patience frayed, Dalton has even started venting his frustration at The Boys albeit for now they seem on the same page. Tonight the former Six-Man Champions face formidable opposition in the form of Lifeblood. At the time of taping, Lifeblood were looking to bounce back from their failure to win Tag Wars 2019. By the time this makes air, they would also be reeling from the loss of David Finlay to injury (with Juice and Tenille soon to be headed for the exit door as well...)

Juice and Dalton start; men that teamed together during the 2018 Global Wars Tour. They take turns throwing each other out of the ring, before eventually reaching a compromise and deciding to simultaneously strut and pose. That lulls Juice into a false sense of security and Castle almost suckerpunches him with a schoolboy pin victory. The Boys have some fun at Tracy's expense, that he has no interest in reciprocating and instead smacks them to the ground. During the commercials Bandido tried to utilise his explosive high-flying but was thwarted when The Boys started double-teaming him. They use Dalton as a launching pad to repeatedly dive onto Bandido's downed body, finally pissing Bandido off so much he leaps to the top rope and lands a DOUBLE TORNILLO! Double cannonball sentons from Robinson after being unleashed with a hot tag. Airplane spin on #1, transitioned into the Juice Box effortlessly. Pulp Friction nailed, but Castle breaks the pin. SOMERSAULT PLANCHA from Bandido to Dalton! The distraction allows The Boys to swap illegally and leads to Juice nearly getting flash-pinned for a second time. Boy #2 accidentally boots Castle off the apron, then stands there helplessly as Bandido uses his body as a springboard to hit a SOMERSAULT HURRICANRANA TO THE FLOOR! Double springboard moonsault back in gets 2 on Boy #2. Dalton makes the save and flips Bandido in mid-air with a lariat. So Bandido THROWS a Boy at him! 21-PLEX sets Bandido up for victory over Boy #2 at 09:42 (shown)

Rating - *** - Tracy Williams was so wasted he may as well have stayed in the locker room, but this was deceptively entertaining and by far the most rewarding 'Dalton & The Boys' six-man for some time. Castle is such a charismatic performer meaning that in an environment like this where his broken body can be protected a little he is a fascinating watch. His comedic interactions with Juice made for a lively start...but he got progressively more serious and more aggressive as the match went on, mirroring the increase in pace of the bout itself. I wouldn't want to see this main event a pay-per-view, but as a filler match on free television I thought this was good stuff.

Jay Lethal talks about what it means to be the champion of ROH as they sell out Madison Square Garden. All he wants now is to make sure he keeps the World Championship until they reach MSG.

The Briscoes are another duo looking forward to stepping into MSG. They plan to use the biggest stage to prove themselves as the best tag team in the world...

The relationship between ROH and the NWA is clearly strong at this point. NWA Champion Nick Aldis has appeared semi-regularly for the last year or so and has even defended his belt on ROH television. The companies are working together to produce the 2019 Crockett Cup and we saw Willie Mack replace the injured Flip Gordon in ROH's 2019 Tag Wars Tournament too. Tonight Willie defends his NWA Championship, although I defy anyone to explain to me how Rhett qualifies for the opportunity. He is still doing his body-building gimmick, but has actually been allowed to wrestle a little more in 2019 and has delivered a couple of decent undercard contests. 

Willie tries to lock up with Rhett but is appalled at the amount of baby oil he is covered in. The oil actually makes Titus slippery enough to repeatedly slide out of the champion's clutches early on. Sensibly Mack decides he is better off moving at speed - running and Titus and laying him out with a big knee strike. Running suplex takes the challenger down again, forcing him to escape to the apron. He reacts by kicking Willie's knees out then levelling him with a mafia kick for 2. During commercials Titus tries to keep the champ down - but it is an impossible task and Mack lays him out with a leg lariat. INVERTED cannonball senton in the corner nailed, followed by a somersault plancha when Rhett leaves the ring. Rhett crawls away to evade Mack's frog splash too. Samoan drop/standing moonsault combo instead! STUNNER! Frog Splash nailed! Mack retains at 08:31 (shown)

Rating - ** - Willie is a unique and gifted performer but a nine minute, low key TV match probably isn't the best environment for him to display his skills. This was mostly decent, but let down by an almost total lack of urgency from start to finish. At no point did this feel like a high stakes championship match at all

Oh good, Bully Ray is on television. He calls himself the only man in ROH and NJPW to have wrestled in Madison Square Garden before - which I presume is false given that ROH have openly been discussing PCO having wrestled there previously on commentary. Apparently he has anointed himself the Undertaker of ROH, as he plans to 'make someone famous' at G1 Supercard. He issues an open challenge to 'anyone in the wrestling business' to face him in a Street Fight..

After a break-out 2018 curtailed by injury to Shaheem Ali, C2C have found their momentum stalling in 2019 and know how important this match is. They have a TV main event slot against the ROH World Champion and could use victory here to sky-rocket into Tag Title contention.

Lethal is working with taped ribs which could be significant. Riccaboni talks about the fact that both Ali and LSG both came up in the business admiring Jay, which possibly explains why Shaheem dodges the hiptoss/dropkick sequence and sets up his partner for a big neckbreaker. Gresham sneaks in behind St. Giovanni to even the sides and he cues up his team for a dropkick/German suplex combo. Once again C2C team up and hit some double teams to best a superior singles wrestler; using a flurry of strikes to take the Octopus to the mat. Dragon screw/jumping enzi combo by Lethal and Gresham though, showing that they can break out combo moves too. They start working Ali's leg over, limiting his ability to fly whilst setting him up for Jay's Figure 4 as well. Shaheem hobbles into an Olympic Slam on Gresh, with LSG hitting a springboard forearm soon after. Lethal Injection COUNTERED to Rocket Bye Baby and a flipping neckbreaker for 2. Saint-splosion blocked before Shaheem takes over looking to trade strikes with the World Champion. That doesn't end well and Gresham puts an exclamation point on it with a MISSILE DROPKICK TO THE KNEE! Lethal Combo in St. Giovanni! Ali and Gresham come to blows; Gresh repeatedly kicking at the injured leg in the process. Figure 4 by Gresham! LSG battles frantically past Lethal to make the save. STEREO TOPE SUICIDAS by Lethal and Gresham! Cornette Cutter (rocket launcher Ace Crusher) wins it for them at 10:19 (shown)

Rating - *** - A sound, enjoyable main event which needed more time to really become something special. They established some really interesting themes here, but had absolutely no time to explore them. I really liked the idea that C2C came up in the business looking up to Lethal. Being fans of his work meant they could counter his spots and anticipate his next move...but they didn't get time to flesh that out. Similarly with the attack on Shaheem Ali's leg'; some of Lethal and Gresham's work was GREAT, but in ten minutes of TV time we had no space for drama to build for even for Shaheem to really sell it. Brisk and well-wrestled, this certainly isn't a waste of your time...but it won't live long in the memory either sadly

Tape Rating - ** - The tags that started and ended the show were decent. Neither were must-see but the standard of wrestling was extremely solid for free television. It was also interesting to note that attention really has now turned to G1 Supercard. The show itself was advertised twice, and multiple talents got interview time to talk about their plans for ROH's MSG debut...yet really we were given no 'can't miss' content and no definitive build to MSG either. This is an easy episode to skip in all honesty

5) Rush vs Vinny Marseglia (*** - Episode 389)

4) Jay Lethal/Jonathan Gresham vs Coast 2 Coast (*** - Episode 392)

3) Zack Sabre Jr. vs Rocky Romero (*** - Episode 391)

2) Marty Scurll/PCO vs Vinny Marseglia/TK O'Ryan (*** - Episode 390)

1) Jeff Cobb vs Silas Young (**** - Episode 389)