McXal's Reviews

The next three weeks of TV will pick up after Death Before Dishonor, featuring content taped at the 'Fallout' event the following evening. Each broadcast will contain extensive clips and highlights of recent events, a feature bout taken from the VOD show, but also a TV-exclusive match taped before the VOD broadcast went live. Ian Riccaboni and Quinn McKay host the show. Ian has Caprice Coleman and Colt Cabana alongside him for commentary in Las Vegas, NV.

We begin with highlights of Villain Enterprises' Six-Man Title defence against the Briscoes and Dragon Lee at DBD Fallout. Ian and Quinn say that Dragon Lee will be making ROH his 'home' promotion...

Jay Lethal is in his locker room, talking to Jon Gresham about how difficult his match tonight is because he'd prepared for Bandido. 

After losing the WOH World Title at Death Before Dishonor, Kelly Klein vows that she is going to 'make a stand for Honor' this weekend when she faces Angelina Love in her rematch for the title. 

Brian Zane lists his Top 5 moments at Death Before Dishonor. Unsurprisingly, he toes the party line and lists Rush's title win as his top moment.

PJ Black is hanging around outside the building. He says he is ready to replace Bandido in the #1 Contenders Tournament, and that wrestling guys like Lethal is what he signed with ROH for.

Coast 2 Coast say they 'aren't young boys anymore' and will go through anyone to get to all the champions in ROH.

Quinn McKay interviews Tracy Williams, looking for his thoughts on his upcoming No DQ Match with Flip Gordon. He is ready for a fair fight with Flip, and promises to send him back to the hospital with another injury. Their match is the feature bout next week...

This is an exclusive bout for television, taped before DBD Fallout went on the air. Young and Woods went 3-0 on the Global Wars Espectacular Tour, but Silas then went rogue and formed a brief alliance with Vinny Marseglia in order to humiliate his old rivals The Bouncers. Woods was extremely uncomfortable with Silas' conduct...but ultimately came to the aid of the Last Real Man at Death Before Dishonor - carrying his unconscious body to the back when Bruiser and Milonas were threatening to destroy him. Tonight they look to get their team back on track with a win against a couple of very angry, motivated young men. C2C continue to be overlooked and continue to be treated like Future Of Honor/Dojo talents even though they've been on the main roster for some time. They are desperate to break through to the upper echelons of the tag division...

No handshake from Coast 2 Coast, such is their level of frustration now. Silas keeps the match on the ground, then unleashes Woods who kicks LSG so hard that he simply has to scurry to his corner and tag out. Shaheem mistakenly tries to grapple with The Goods...then lashes out with a cheap-shot when Josh comprehensively out-wrestles him. Catapult/knee strike combo by Woods and Young gets 2. C2C bundle into the ring and mug Woods in their corner; ensuring Todd Sinclair is distracted so they can 2-on-1 Josh for a prolonged period of time. Ali in particular looks incredibly surly and bad tempered this evening. Woods eventually counters LSG's Rolling Thunder Lariat into an exploder suplex though, and rolls into a hot tag to Silas. Anarchist Suplex on Shaheem gets 2. St. Giovanni saves with a springboard forearm to Young, whilst Ali hits a gutwrench powerbomb on Josh. He retaliates with a knee strike. Killer Combo/CHAOS THEORY SEQUENCE! LAWN DART CUTTER! Young pins Ali at 07:58 (shown)

Rating - ** - Not bad at all for what was essentially a short dark match that they put on TV as a bonus. Woods and Silas make for great television as a duo. Little things like Woods trying to take Silas' t-shirt off for him, or trying to get Silas to acknowledge a fan wearing one of his shirts (and in turn Silas' reactions to moments like that) are incredibly entertaining. The match itself was short, basic and a tad predictable...but ticked all the boxes it needed to. The blossoming tag team chemistry between Silas and Josh was on display, C2C got to look more aggressive and heelish than ever (Ali in particular had some great facial expressions to get that over), and the finishing sequence was really good.

We see shots of Matt Taven returning to the locker room after losing the World Title to Rush. He doesn't cut a promo, instead remaining silent and contemplative as he considers his future in ROH.

The winner of this one advances to meet Marty Scurll in the #1 contendership semi-finals at Glory By Honor. Black is a late replacement in the tournament, apparently handed the spot by Bandido after he suffered a knee injury at Death Before Dishonor, since PJ is an ally of Lifeblood. It may put Lethal at a disadvantage though. Already frustrated after losing to Gresham at the PPV, Lethal now faces a world-travelled and super-experienced veteran, instead of the young lucha sensation (Bandido) that he'd prepared for. The relationship between Lethal and Gresham has seemingly healed enough for The Octopus to accompany Jay to ringside tonight at least.

Lethal is wrestling with his arm taped, perhaps the result of Gresham's attack on that body part last night. Black actually repeatedly uses that arm for leverage during their initial mat-wrestling exchange, eventually driving Lethal into the ropes for respite. Black also counters the hiptoss dropkick sequence by somersaulting into his feet and sweeping the legs. Armdrags and more legsweeps follow; the Darewolf is laying down a marker and frustrating the former World Champion. Jay does finally land the hiptoss/dropkick spot - but comes up noticeably nursing his bandaged arm. PJ tries to use the arm as leverage into a tornado DDT, but Jay blocks it and applies the Figure 4 Leglock. Given PJ's history with leg injuries, even early in the match that is a devastating hold. He realises the need to shut Jay down quickly so hits a reverse suplex into a dragon sleeper. Black chases his opponent around the ring driving repeated kicks into the neck, shoulder and arm. He tries to come off the top, but is met with a dropkick to the legs by Lethal, causing him to drop nuts-first over the turnbuckles. Superplex nailed by The Franchise! Tope suicida scores, as does the Lethal Combination and Hail To The King. ROPE RUN SPANISH FLY by PJ! SPRINGBOARD TWISTING MOONSAULT gets 2! Jay makes an ill-advised play for a second superplex, leading to both men falling to the ground. 450 Splash misses, but Black dodges the Lethal Injection. Ace Crusher...into the Lethal Injection! Jay advances at 15:22

Rating - *** - It was refreshing to see a match get a little more time to deliver something substantive. That hasn't always been the case with ROH live events and I very much welcomed it here. Black actually benefited from getting to work a longer-form, slower-paced match too. In shorter, spottier matches he is forced to 'play the hits' a little more which exposes how much slower he is when compared to his prime. On the flip side, the frustration I had with this is that I felt like they laid the groundwork for an even better match...but then ditched it in favour of a more generic closing stretch. I loved the idea of Black working the same arm injury that Gresham inflicted the night before at the PPV - but sadly that didn't go anywhere. Similarly I thought Lethal going after PJ's legs, after all the injuries they've taken over the years, would've made a great plot that we've not really seen anyone do with Black so far...but again that didn't really go anywhere. Nevertheless, this was a really solid match and probably stands as one of PJ's best singles efforts in ROH so far. 

 

Tape Rating - N/A - I don't think this was the finest episode to follow up the Death Before Dishonor PPV. The Fallout show itself had some great content, but that didn't necessarily translate here. The filler tag match was fine but unnecessary - it was actually the promo/additional content I had an issue with. Brian Zane listing his 'Top 5' moments was corny, too corporate, forced and completely out of touch. Too much of the show seemed self-contained or backwards facing, with very little pushing the company beyond the events of Death Before Dishonor.