McXal's Reviews

The fallout from G1 Supercard continues. This week we'll see Kelly Klein's first in-ring appearance since winning back the Women Of Honor Championship, we have Lifeblood squaring off with The Kingdom in the main event and we're also promised that Dalton Castle will provide some answers as to why he attacked The Boys. Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman and special guest Rhett Titus are in Pittsburgh, PA for commentary.

This is the next step in the evolution of rising star Eli Isom as he gets to test his skills against a veteran like PJ. He will find The Darewolf now fighting with honour, having vowed to refocus and rededicate himself to professional wrestling after being inspired by Bandido and Lifeblood. Despite being an international superstar, back to back losses to Bandido have damaged Black's status in ROH somewhat so he'll know he needs to be beating guys like Isom if he wants to get into championship contention.

Isom is giving up so much experience to the veteran but equips himself admirably when trying to trade holds with him. He quickly demonstrates that his speed makes him a dangerous foe for the Darewolf, as he remains a step ahead of PJ before hitting a jumping knee to the face. Black shows his experience by plucking Eli out of the air on a springboard dropkick attempt and converting him to a Boston Crab. Isom gets to the ropes, but in doing so takes his eye off his opponent and in a flash PJ whacks him in the head with an elbow. During commercials PJ starts targeting Isom's arm, then pendulum swings him into the bottom turnbuckle just for fun. Straight-jacket German suplex by Eli...but that injures him as much as his opponent so he stays down. He trades strikes with PJ and actually muscles him into a POP-UP AIR RAID CRASH for 2! Tope suicida nailed...but he makes a potentially fatal error by slipping on the ropes going for a springboard and lands right on his face. Black profits with a rope-run frankensteiner and the SPRINGBOARD 450 SPLASH. ISOM KICKS OUT! Literally everybody bit on that nearfall! THE WILDNESS NAILED! PJ wins at 07:29 (shown)

Rating - ** - PJ has been a strange watch thus far in ROH. His character seems to lack a lot of the more zany, entertaining elements he had in Lucha Underground and inside the ropes his injuries have really slowed him down, changing his act almost beyond recognition. And yet any time he's in the ring with Bandido he has a spectacular match. Most of this didn't click for me. I understood what they were going for and PJ was more than generous with Eli...but it never really clicked. I never felt invested in Eli's development, I was never rooting for either participant and they were aimlessly listing from spot to spot without much to excite the viewer. That said, they ended with a really hot finish - particularly Isom kicking out of the 450 Splash. It was a great false finish that really popped the crowd.

WAR OF THE WORLDS TOUR - Ian R reveals a couple of match announcements for the upcoming ROH/NJPW War Of The Worlds Tour. They are Lethal/Gresham vs GOD for the Tag Titles in Buffalo, and PCO challenging Matt Taven for the World Title in Toronto. He also announces names like Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata and Hirooki Goto. 

Ian and Caprice inform me that Lyn has competed in ROH before, and was actually an early victim to Klein during her two-year undefeated streak. She's worked for RISE, Sendai Girls and Impact among other promotions. This is Kelly's first match since winning back the WOH World Title in MSG, but then having her moment stolen from her by the formation of The Allure (Angelina Love, Velvet Sky and Mandy Leon). She isn't defending the title in every match for her second title reign, but has promised to be a fighting champion and will be looking to send a message to the entire division...

Ray gets on the microphone and tells Kelly that she doesn't like her, doesn't respect her and won't shake her hand. The Gatekeeper therefore starts extremely motivated and comprehensively out-wrestles her in the first minute. Lyn takes a cheap-shot and rakes the back, ensuring that this encounter has already lasted longer than when they met previously. She works hard to keep the champion grounded, hitting her with stomps and knee strikes every time she looks to regain a vertical base. A mistake inevitably comes though; Klein catching her on a crossbody attempt and launching her back the way she came with a fallaway slam. Kelly hits some of her dreadful-looking strikes followed by the K-Power for the win at 02:56 (shown)

Rating - * - I really liked the TV edit of this match. They cut almost all of Ray Lyn's offence out for commercials, meaning most of what we saw was Klein dominating which is exactly how it should be. I don't understand what they were shooting for with that pre-match promo. It felt designed to ensure that the live crowd got behind Kelly as a babyface, like ROH doesn't trust either their fanbase or Kelly herself. Whilst I may understand that logic, I can't recall many occasions where the local jobber got on the microphone before being squashed by Hulk Hogan and they put it on TV...

It is now Kelly's turn to grab the microphone. She puts herself over, and starts taking verbal shots at The Allure. Mandy Leon and Velvet Sky appear on the stage, creating a distraction enabling Angelina to slither out through the crowd and take Klein out with the Botox Injection. Just like at MSG, Jenny Rose runs out to try to make a save...but she is taken out and she gets the same lipstick branding that Klein received at G1 Supercard.

Dalton Castle enters the arena to address his actions at G1 Supercard. He asks The Boys to come out too so he can talk to them face-to-face. They oblige but remain fearful of him. He wants to 'make it right' and admits his frustration got the better of him in MSG. They all hug...but it was all a lie. Dalton blind-sides The Boys with an even more vicious beating than G1 Supercard - this time taking their masks from them on the way out.

This match was originally scheduled to take place at the 17th Anniversary Show but was cancelled after both teams wound up in a brawl during the Lethal/Taven World Title Match. ROH officials have delivered on their promise to have this match down the line and it comes at a particularly unique point in the genesis of both teams. Marseglia and O'Ryan are now stable-mates with the World Champion, whilst Lifeblood's position has changed drastically. They did win the six-man Street Fight against Bully, Silas and Taylor at G1 Supercard, but they've seen Tenille Dashwood beaten out of ROH by Bully, David Finlay injured and Juice Robinson has gone back to Japan too. They also failed to win the 30-Minute Iron Team Match at Masters Of The Craft against Lethal and Gresham. Maybe a win over The Kingdom and payback for their actions at the Anniversary Show will set them on the right track.

The Kingdom attack during Lifeblood's entrance but are quickly fought off and sent packing. Quickly regrouping, Vinny and TK work together to pick off Haskins and isolate him from his partner. O'Ryan gets over-confident and tries to wrestle with the Englishman though, and of course is quickly despatched. Tracy and Mark lay in a few combo moves and big strikes to turn the tables and start wearing TK down. Marseglia tries to make a save so Williams ties them in knots so he and Haskins can give them a double team kick flurry and stereo camel clutches. The Kingdom fight back by drilling Tracy's injured shoulder into the ringpost and tearing his protective shoulder brace off to choke him with. Saito suplex by Marseglia soon after, once again dropping Tracy high on his back and shoulder. That is complemented by a butterfly suplex from TKO as well. Even when Williams tries to fight back, Vinny grabs him by the injured shoulder and knees him in the face. ROCKER DROPPER by Tracy! Hot tag to Haskins, who immediately puts O'Ryan in the Rings Of Saturn. BACK SUPLEX ON THE APRON to Marseglia when he tries to break the hold! ARM-SELLING FROG SPLASH by Tracy gets 2! Hot Sauce tries to hit a one-armed Piledriver but simply can't get O'Ryan up. SUPER TURNBUCKLE DDT INSTEAD! Discus Lariat gets 2...and converted to an Anklelock on TK's previously broken leg! Vinny quickly breaks...but TK is too injured to hit House Of 1000 Horses. JUMPING SHINBREAKER! SHARPSHOOTER! TK TAPS! Haskins wins at 09:21 (shown)

Rating - *** - The second half of this match was incredibly good and packed in more effort, detail and long-term story-telling than you'd ever expect from four midcard guys in a filler TV match. The whole encounter was fun, but from the moment The Kingdom went after Tracy's shoulder it went to another level. Williams sold the shoulder harder than almost any wrestler with any other injury in all of 2019 so far. Lifeblood responding by attacking TK's previously broken leg (an injury he suffered at the 15th Anniversary Show more than two years prior) was a splash of detail which wasn't needed but made the match SO much better as a result. Their complete destruction of his ankle in two minutes flat made them seem like complete killers. The lack of eyes on ROH in 2019 mean that the outrageous quality and utter workrate of Haskins and Tracy goes desperately under-appreciated.

Tracy Williams yells at the sound guy to kill their music and calls out Bully Ray. Bubba does comes out, but simply laughs about taking Tenille out of ROH...then leaves. Somehow that makes him a coward, even though they appeared to want to fight him 2-on-1?!

Tape Rating - ** - Unfortunately ROH's taping cycle means they are still airing what is effectively the 'immediate' aftermath to G1 Supercard even though it took place more than a month ago and since then we've had Masters Of The Craft, The Crockett Cup...and are about to start the War Of The Worlds Tour too. I don't quite know why we're seeing Kelly, The Allure and Dalton on TV to continue their storylines from G1 Supercard before we're getting even a sight of Lethal or Scurll for that matter either. Castle's beatdown of The Boys was far more violent and effective here than it was at G1 Supercard though and at least made that segment pop. Unfortunately like last week there really isn't much going on this episode that you 'need to see'. The final three or four minutes of the main event were SO good that they'll actually be my only enduring memory of this show to be honest.