McXal's Reviews

We now launch into content taped on the final night of the War Of The Worlds 2019 Tour. It was released as part of the WOTW 2019 four-disc DVD set so I've already reviewed all four episodes as part of that - therefore my reviews for the next four weeks of TV will be largely clipped straight out of that article. We kick off this batch of episodes with the return to in-ring competition for Kenny King. He has been out 'injured' since G1 Supercard, but has now had successful 'eye surgery' and is therefore able to face Jay Lethal in the first in a Best Of Three Series. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana are on hand to provide commentary in Chicago, IL.

Last week on TV, Gordon failed to defeat Matt Taven for the World Championship and is now in a rebuilding phase. He is preparing to head to Japan for the Best Of Super Juniors, but before that is currently 2-0 on the War Of The Worlds 2019 Tour following wins over Bandido and Rhett Titus. 

Fredericks is a big guy and marches straight at Flip, grappling him to the canvas here he stands no chance of using his speed or agility. We follow the familiar NJPW LA Dojo kid match formula with the Young Lion surprising and unsettling the more established star early with their formidable ability on the mat. Flip knocks him out of the ring and scores with a tope suicida as we head into commercials. Upon returning we see Gordon landing a Pele Kick...only for Karl to block the Star Spangled Stunner with a mid-air spinebuster. He unloads a flurry of strikes in Flip's direction, overwhelming the ROH star again with his size and power. Flip creates some distance and hits back with a springboard dropkick. He lands a hanging springboard blockbuster and taps Karl out with the STF at 04:52 (shown)

Rating - * - As a standalone match this was probably better than a 1* rating, but context is everything and contextually this was atrocious. In TV terms Flip was challenging for the World Championship last week. Now a week later Ian and Colt barely mentioned him as a viable World Title contender on commentary, and he has to spend five minutes selling and bumping his ass off for an unknown kid from New Japan's US subsidiary training school? Considering Gordon is one of ROH's biggest names in the wake of The Elite exodus, this was laughably poor...

WAR OF THE WORLDS TORONTO - Highlights of Matt Taven's memorable, chaotic and controversial title defence against PCO are shown, followed by further clips of Shane Taylor's TV Title win. 

Jeff Cobb gets a chance to address the live crowd in the wake of his TV Title loss, and is quick to remind everyone that Shane Taylor didn't beat him to take it from him. Nobody in ROH has beaten him, so for that reason he won't be pursuing a rematch...because he wants Matt Taven's World Title instead. Taven appears on the stage at mention of his name, calls himself the 'great World Champion in ROH history' and says he is happy to defend the belt against Cobb...but not tonight. 

Kenny King is backstage, having recovered from the surgery to repair his ocular injury inflicted by Great Muta at G1 Supercard. He plans to sweep Jay Lethal 2-0 in their Best Of 3 Series...

Elsewhere Jay Lethal, unsurprisingly, doesn't agree. He thinks King just wants to share the ring with him as much as possible because Lethal is one of the best wrestlers in the world...and thinks the main event tonight will end with another victory for The Franchise.

Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana preview State Of The Art 2019 weekend, including Taven vs PCO, Haskins and Flip (the three men he has successfully defended against thus far) in a Defy Or Deny Match. 

Next we air clips of the Honor Club Exclusive GOD vs Briscoes match which main evented the Chicago War Of The Worlds Tour show, including the Guerrillas cheating to escape with the Tag Titles still in their possession. 

Silas Young comes to the ring with a jobber and plans to deliver a live 'seminar' or pro-wrestling exhibition. He stretches and takes liberties with the random guy, making a bewildered Bobby Cruiser hold the microphone so he can narrate proceedings. In the end he kicks the guy in the balls and tosses him out of the ring, thus ending his demonstration of 'Pure Wrestling'. This whole segment is obviously intended to piss off Jonathan Gresham...

King has been targeting Jay Lethal for a long time. After a successful summer in 2018 he pursued Lethal as World Champion, eventually getting his shot in Toronto during the Global Wars Tour. On that night he got a visual pinfall on Jay, but only by cheating, and wasn't able to beat him to become World Champion. Still in the hunt for the top prize in the promotion, he insisted on entering the 2019 Honor Rumble at #1. It turned into one of the biggest nights of his career as he outlasted the entire field of competitors in Madison Square Garden to become #1 contender to the World Title - albeit controversially. He last eliminated legends Great Muta and Jushin Liger...but they teamed up on him after the match and Muta sprayed the Red Mist into his eyes. Since then Kenny has not wrestled, supposedly struck with an ocular injury as a result of the poisonous mist. He has provided guest commentary (with the help of timekeeper Amy Rose)...but curiously been able to see certain things, or use his visual aid stick to choke Lethal. Having now had surgery to correct the injury, he is back in action and now has a three match series to prove he is better than Lethal.

King reaps the benefits of all the scouting of Lethal he has done, countering the hiptoss/dropkick sequence inside the first minute and dumping Jay on his ass. He then leaves the ring to frustrate and stall before the Franchise can retaliate. Lethal tries the hiptoss for a second time...and this time Kenny grabs the arm and almost converts it to a Crossface, sending Jay scurrying to the ropes. In the corner he starts ducking Lethal's signature chops...and when Jay tries his springboard dropkick King ducks to the apron and watches as the former champ eats the mat. It's an impressive start, and it continues as Lethal looks for a tope suicida, only for King to CATCH HIM then shunt him back-first into the ringpost. A tackle into the side of the ring follows, before he escorts Lethal back into the ring and applies a surfboard to further punish the back. For a third time Lethal tries the hiptoss/dropkick...and again King counters, this time into a camel clutch! When Lethal escapes that, Kenny gets dirty and pokes him in the eyes. It has been a dominant display from King and he ups the ante again by stealing Lethal's springboard dropkick to the apron spot. He teases doing the Tope Trilogy too only to piss off the fans by refusing to do it. The momentary distraction is enough - allowing Lethal to pounce with a DDT ON THE FLOOR! Finally he hits the hiptoss/dropkick combo, and when Kenny tries to escape to the apron he lands the springboard dropkick. TOPE SUICIDA NAILED! Hail To The King gets 2! But Kenny recovers, pulling Lethal's tights to block the Injection and hitting a Blue Thunder Driver. Royal Flush countered with a jumping enzi to the neck! Lethal Injection ducked repeatedly...until Kenny grabs the chance to kick him in the balls out of the referee's line of sight. Lethal Injection by King! That looked terrible! But it is enough to see Kenny go 1-0 up in the series at 13:26 (shown)

Rating - **** - A fun, feature-length TV bout and actually one of the most enjoyable matches on the 2019 War Of The Worlds Tour. The simple premise, namely Kenny countering all of the signature moves and combinations that Lethal has used repeatedly over the last decade or so, made this easy to relate to and extremely watchable. We saw King grow in confidence to the point of arrogance, and we saw Lethal get more and more irate. It meant that the pay-off - i.e. Lethal getting to hit all his signature moves - became a really rewarding sequence that the crowd really rallied behind. The whole encounter did a great job of putting Kenny on Lethal's level...until Delirious and his inability to book heel victories properly strikes again with a stupid overbooked finish. We didn't need a low blow here. The match was good enough that Lethal would have lost nothing in putting Kenny over clean. King, though, would have gained enormously from a clean win over Jay to complement the comprehensive and dominant performance he produced. 

Tape Rating - *** - Half of the show was dedicated to the main event, and even with the screwy finish I thought that was worth checking out. The rest of the episode was a mixed bag; I detested Flip having to look vulnerable for a Young Lion, but I appreciate that we are building up to Best In The World now and the other segments started setting the groundwork for Taven/Cobb and Silas/Gresham at the PPV - both matches I'm interested in seeing.