McXal's Reviews

We dip into Manhattan Mayhem 8 once again this week, as our feature match will see an 8-Man Tag pitting Lifeblood (Tracy Williams, Mark Haskins, Bandido and their ally PJ Black) against Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll, Brody King, PCO and newest recruit Flip Gordon). Once again Ian Riccaboni and Quinn McKay are the hosting duo, with Caprice Coleman and Colt Cabana joining Ian for live commentary of the main event in Manhattan, NY.

We begin with extended highlights of Dragon Lee's victory over Jonathan Gresham at Manhattan Mayhem. Afterwards Lee caught up with Quinn. He talks about wanting to enhance the reputation of the CMLL promotion all over the world and assures us we'll be seeing more of him in ROH - and that he and his brother Rush have some surprises in store.

Quinn also caught up with Jon Gresham, who says his recent change in attitude is nothing more than him trying to win matches. He wants 'the lifestyle of a champion', and says his own partner Jay Lethal doesn't understand what it's like to be 'stuck' at Gresham's level...

Shinobi Shadow Squad work out at what I believe is the former ROH Wrestling School/office - now Cheeseburger's Worldwide Dojo training centre. The camera zooms in on a defaced picture of Villain Enterprises. They get their title shot at the Villains next week (in a TV-exclusive bout...)

NEXT WEEK - Karissa Rivera challenges Kelly Klein for the WOH World Title. They air a Rivera promo, which probably should have been broadcast next week as she refers to the match as taking place 'tonight' almost constantly. 

Rhett Titus gets a sit-down interview to reflect on an entire career spent in Ring Of Honor. He recalls Kenny King walking out on ROH for TNA whilst they held the Tag Titles together, and discusses the eventual ANX reunion in 2015. But their failure to recapture their past glories led to frustration, the creation of The Rebellion...and ultimately their being forced to disband as a team. He acknowledges that 'The Dawgs' was fun, but a step down and ended with another partner walking out on him. Now he takes his conditioning more seriously than ever, but after losing his highest profile match of the year to Shane Taylor in Philadelphia, he was humiliated by Kenny King's vicious promo at his expense. He calls not punching Kenny's lights out there and then the biggest mistake of his career...

Soldiers Of Savagery return to TV, facing enhancement talent who don't even get their names announced. Moses almost murders one of them by throwing him off the apron, before they finish the other with a double chokeslam. The match lasted barely thirty seconds.

That segues into clips of The Bouncers beating SOS and Coast 2 Coast in New York, before going to Lowell to challenge the Briscoes for the Tag Titles...in a spirited, but losing effort.

The rivalry between Lifeblood and Villain Enterprises continues to heat up. At Best In The World we saw Flip seemingly accept the offer to join Lifeblood, only to betray them immediately by being revealed as 'The Mercenary' of Villain Enterprises instead. He has plenty of history with Lifeblood too; injuring his knee earlier in the year in a match against Tracy, then teaming with Haskins and Hot Sauce to face his old rival Bully Ray at G1 Supercard. He also beat Bandido in one of the best matches of the 2019 War Of The Worlds Tour. He isn't 100% tonight though; carrying an arm injury he sustained putting Williams through a table at Best In The World. Lifeblood gained a measure of revenge over the Villains at the recent Philadelphia TV tapings when they bested Scurll, Brody and PCO in a wild Street Fight. 'Darewolf' PJ Black is back alongside them to even the numbers in the next instalment in this simmering feud...

Gordon is competing with his arm in such a heavy brace it is essentially immobilised. Marty and Williams (in his second match of the evening) get us started. The Villain looks to use some of his British influences early on but finds Tracy more than up to the task of grappling and chain-wrestling with him. Bandido tags and is far too quick for Scurll, instantly sending him packing back to his corner. Flip tags, looking to pick up where he left off with Bandido in their classic at War Of The Worlds. He antagonises the luchador then quickly tags out to Brody, who grabs the arm and runs up the ropes for a DOUBLE SPRINGBOARD LUCHA ARMDRAG! Springboard rana in response by Bandido! Haskins tags and goes after Marty's arm, with all his partners following him and taking turns to target the same body part. King and PCO finally have to invade the ring to rescue their partner; scattering Lifeblood around ringside so Brody can hit a SOMERSAULT PLANCHA! BACK BODY DROP PLANCHA by Scurll and PCO! The Monster returns to the ring with a Swanton Bomb on Tracy for 2. A double chokeslam by PCO and King gets the same result. Flip tags for his first meaningful offence of the match, but is visibly unable to use his left arm and he contributes little more than a few kicks and a choke in the corner before vacating again. Scurll gets too confident and starts taunting his English rival Haskins in particular - turning his back on Tracy who delivers a back suplex. TORNILLO by Bandido! He lures King into colliding with the turnbuckles then CATCHES PCO IN MID-AIR FOR A DAMN POWERSLAM! TWISTING MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! Gordon tries to rescue Marty with a chair, but Williams intercepts it and chases Flip all the way to the locker room with the weapon! Haskins throws a flurry of kicks and Brody and PCO and somehow manages to knock them both out of the ring. ELBOW SUICIDA! Just Kidding enzi from Scurll to Haskins! Tracy is back from the locker room and knocks Brody goofy with some brutal palm strikes. Everyone starts fighting on the floor, not watching as PCO climbs to the top rope. PCO-SAULT TO THE FLOOR! Bandido gets up and gives him a MEXICAN DESTROYER ON THE APRON! Ligerbomb from Brody to Haskins gets 2! Gonzo Bomb blocked, with Black flying in to save with a double stomp. 21-PLEX on King! SPRINGBOARD 450 SPLASH! PJ pins King to win at 17:30

Rating - **** - There's not much I can say about this, other than that was another extremely strong Villain Enterprises multi-man tag. It was laid out and paced well, they worked around Flip being so injured he couldn't really wrestle as best they could, they allowed Bandido, Brody and PCO plenty of time to do their crazy sh*t, Williams was presented as a lethal technician, Scurll was an antagonistic prick, Haskins was tenacious as ever. All the performers did a great job with it, which isn't necessarily surprising since the bout contained some of ROH's most reliable and consistent wrestlers of 2019.

Tape Rating - N/A - I thought the formatting was better this week. The studio segments with Ian and Quinn were still awkward, but the flow between clip/highlight segments felt cleaner and more fluent. In particular the sit-down interview with Rhett Titus was excellent, and exactly the kind of long-form character building pieces ROH/Delirious should be using this new taping schedule to run more frequently. The main event was a thrilling multi-man tag even when chopped up for TV too.