McXal's Reviews

The Fallout from Death Before Dishonor continues this week, with our feature length main event seeing enemies Flip Gordon and Tracy Williams meet in a No DQ Match. Ian Riccaboni and Quinn McKay are our hosting team for the broadcast as usual. Caprice Coleman and Colt Cabana are Ian's commentary partners for the live action in Las Vegas, NV.

Ian and Quinn open the show by announcing that Shane Taylor will be defending the TV Title against Joe Hendry on the Honor United 2019 Tour. They run through the situation surrounding Shane's contract buy-out, his launch of 'Shane Taylor Promotions' and so forth. He holds a press conference to complain about his treatment and thinks ROH is conspiring to get the TV Title back from him and under their control. They need to negotiate with Shane Taylor Promotions if they want him to defend his title from now on...

To the Death Before Dishonor preview show we go, where Joe Hendry and Dalton Castle shared another tense confrontation. Joe says he wants to continue their team, but then sings a disrespectful song about Castle...who throws a drink over Joe and walks out. The Prestigious One ended the segment by attacking Dalton's new Boys.

This is an enhancement match for Joe, taped exclusively for TV at Death Before Dishonor Fallout. Having taken Shane Taylor to a time-limit draw, engaged in heated exchanges with Jeff Cobb in the 'Vegas Wildcard' 8-Man Tag and promoted himself as a contender for every championship, Joe knows he needs to deliver a comprehensive victory tonight.

It is a confident start by the Scotsman, sending Kubrick scurrying for the ropes to escape an early Hendry Lock. Dom hits some bootleg lucha moves...but is quickly shut down by a jumping knee by Joe. Kubrick misses a pescado and eats floor whilst Hendry signs a few autographs (although one fan makes him look like a goof by theatrically ripping up the autograph as soon as Hendry hands it to him). Kubrick keeps going for a guillotine choke, and Joe really has to fight before countering it into a suplex. Freak Of Nature blocked, but Joe rolls through a Kubrick crossbody and drops him with the Freak Of Nature second time around. Hendry Lock forces Dom to tap at 05:29

Rating - DUD - This was not good. The match itself was forgettable, but in an era where we've seen Cobb and Taylor knock jobbers out in seconds, having Hendry wrestle a five minute, semi-competitive match against an enhancement talent was a terrible decision. If ROH don't want to promote him as a heel, he needs to get rid of the cocky 'signs autographs in crowd' portion of his matches too, since it really does just invite fans to be assholes to him

Jenny Rose is 'pissed off' that Angelina Love is WOH Champion. She hates The Allure, and promises to 'put an end' to them next week when she takes the belt from Love. This is all irrelevant, of course, as we know Kelly Klein took the title back from Angelina the previous week at Glory By Honor 17.

We go back to the Global Wars Espectacular Tour, where Mark Haskins defeated Rhett Titus in a competitive match. Later in the locker room, Kenny King once again antagonised his former partner as the rivalry between them continues to simmer.

Jeff Cobb is looking forward to the Honor United Tour. He promises that 'two bulls will collide' when he challenges Rush, and he plans to come back from the UK as the new World Champion.

In their locker room Angelina asks Mandy to explain why she already has to defend her belt against multiple challengers, when it took her months to get her title shot. Mandy isn't worried and reassures her that the WOH World Title won't be leaving The Allure next week.

After commercials, cameras in the backstage area stumble upon the unconscious bodies of Vinny Marseglia and TK O'Ryan - having fallen victim to an attack from an unknown assailant.

This match has been brewing for a long time. Tracy felt the full force of Flip's betrayal of Lifeblood back at Best In The World, when Gordon gave him a 450 splash through a table on the floor. But they actually go back further still - Flip injured his knee against Tracy right at the start of 2019 and almost missed the MSG show as a result. Since Best In The World we've seen Gordon cost Williams multiple matches, and also attacked him during his entrance at Summer Supercard effectively robbing him of any chance of beating Shane Taylor for the TV Title. As we saw at Death Before Dishonor, their hatred for each other is such that it actually took precedence over their desire to hold ROH gold. Can they settle this bitter rivalry tonight?

Gordon tries to attack Williams with the black kendo stick during his entrance again...and even though Tracy is ready for it, he is unarmed and before long is being flogged repeatedly with the cane. His body is quickly covered in welts - but he fights back with a suplex on the floor. He takes The Mercenary into the ring and delivers a snap superplex for 2. Flip smashes Tracy's head into the ringpost, then SPRINGBOARDS OFF THE GUARDRAIL into a tornado DDT. Good thing there was a huge section of empty seats for him to jump into there. NECKBREAKER ON A CHAIR gets 2. Williams throws a chair at Flip in the corner...so Gordon crotches him over the top rope. Flip teases a dive, but refuses to give the fans what they want and instead rolls through the ropes and dropkicks Tracy in the neck. Kinder Surprise scores, but Tracy no-sells and hits a SUPER DDT THROUGH A CHAIR! CROSSFACE ON FLIP'S BAD ARM! Gordon makes the ropes, but Tracy has no need to break the hold! Gordon has to drag his entire body to the floor to break free. Tracy has a kendo stick of his own and starts flogging Flip remorselessly. Gordon grabs his kendo stick again too - and they have a full-blown kendo stick strike duel on the entrance stage! Gordon low blows Hot Sauce to block the piledriver, and delivers a DIVING NECKBREAKER ON THE RAMP! The Mercenary erects a table inside the ring and thinks about risking his elbow to but his opponent through the wood just like Best In The World. Williams blocks it by shoving Gordon from the top rope all the way to the guardrails. SUPER PILEDRIVER THROUGH THE TABLE! Williams wins at 16:37

Rating - **** - ROH have promoted a LOT of 'no rules' matches this year - multiple Street Fights, Ladder Matches, the Bar Room Brawl last night etc. This one stood out even among all of those because of its simplicity. They didn't use a slew of weapons, nor did they have a litany of elaborate high spots; this really felt like a fight between two dudes who hate each other's guts, and using periodic weapon use as an extension of that. I liked that almost all of Flip's offence targeted the head and neck, and I loved anything Williams did that went after Gordon's arm injury - and both of those elements were enhanced by intelligent, strategic use of weaponry. 

The episode ends with Rush delivering an ominous warning to Cobb ahead of the UK tour...

Tape Rating - N/A - Another mixed bag of a show. The Williams/Flip match stole the show at DBD Fallout and was still pretty good as a TV edit. I also liked the new content we got to build to the UK tour (Rush and Cobb promos, Shane Taylor's press conference etc). But on the flip side, there was also a lot of content promoting a Women's Title Match for next week, featuring a defending champ who lost her belt earlier this month at Glory By Honor.