McXal's Reviews

This episode broadcasts against the trilogy of Honor United UK tour shows for Honor Club, and based on the main event alone it doesn't feel like a great deal of effort has been put into this. It will see The Allure's Angelina Love defending the WOH World Title against Jenny Rose and Sumie Sakai, despite the fact that we saw her lose it at Glory By Honor two weeks ago. Quinn McKay and Ian Riccaboni host the show. Colt Cabana and Caprice Coleman provide additional commentary. We are taped in Las Vegas, NV

This is a 'Vegas Wildcard' 8-Man, with the teams having been drawn at random, taped at DBD Fallout but aired almost in full. It has thrown up some interesting combinations of guys, such as Silas and Woods on opposite teams. Rhett is still extremely pissed off at the way Kenny spoke to him in Philadelphia too, so would love a chance at some revenge on his former ANX tag partner. Cobb is #1 contender for the World Title and is scheduled to face Rush on the Honor United Tour, so he'll have a target on his back here as people look to pin him and get into line for a title shot should he defeat El Toro Blanco. 

Woods comes out to Silas' music, which as you'd imagine doesn't make him particularly happy. Young tries to convince Josh to lay down for him, whilst King and Johnson have a full-blown argument about who is going to start for their team. Kenny pulls rank and spends the first minute dominating Burger. Rhett demands a tag to face his old partner...only for Johnson to tag Kenny out before we get to see ANX go at it. The Mecca spends so much time yelling without doing any wrestling that Woods gets bored and forcibly tags him out too. Titus impresses people by hanging with The Goods in a grappling exchange, only for Silas to tag his way in to face his protege. Josh refuses to lay down for his mentor; instead taking him to the mat and having some fun stretching and throwing him about. Young retorts by trying to pin him using the tights - which Josh is devastated about. Hendry calls out Cobb next, but is confronted by Brian Johnson again forcing his way into the spotlight. He duly face-plants the floor of the arena missing a pescado...whilst Joe strolls away to sign autographs. Sensibly Johnson finally allows Cobb into the match - and he starts beating up Silas even whilst Cheeseburger hangs around his neck trying to choke him out. He catches Titus trying a dive off the top rope and slams him to the mat into position for the standing moonsault. With Rhett down, King instantly demands a tag...but then runs away when a resurgent Titus tries to fight back. Johnson helps King out; ambushing Titus with a shoulder tackle. He then almost rips Rhett's head off with an unsightly swinging neckbreaker for 2. The Mecca refuses to tag any of his partners; ordering them all to get off the apron and leave him. King and Woods disregard that and charge in, leading to all eight guys taking turns hitting spots one after the other. Silas decks Johnson with the Killer Combo - leaving us with Hendry and Cobb as last men standing. DOUBLE FREAK OF NATURE from Hendry to King and Johnson! So Cobb hits a DOUBLE wrist clutch suplex on Titus and CB! They then leave the ring and deck each other with simultaneous lariats on the floor. Shotei from Burger to Johnson! Yakuza Kick by Titus! Woods hits a capture suplex on Rhett, then sneaks up behind Silas to roll him up and pin him for the win at 16:58

Rating - *** - This was probably longer than it needed to be, but the good definitely outweighed the bad. Anything that involved the continued development of the odd-couple relationship between Silas and Josh was absolute gold. They make a brilliant pairing; genuinely one of the best things on an ROH show at this moment in time. I liked the teases to a Hendry/Cobb match down the line too. I don't think it's quite a potential 'dream' match as Ian and Caprice were suggesting, but they certainly are big and powerful athletes - and being presented as a wrestler on Cobb's level does a lot to legitimise Joe in his early-ROH career. Brian Johnson did a great job in what was by far his highest profile Ring Of Honor match so far. His intensity and ability to talk is admirable, and really earned him a place in this match even if the in-ring skill we've seen from him thus far is limited. The one disappointment I had here is that I wanted to see more of the Kenny/Rhett angle. A feud between former All Night Express partners (and former Tag Champions) feels like it should be given more of a spotlight than it got in this one. It's cool that they put the 'feature' match from DBD Fallout on first so that the Women Of Honor could take the main event slot too.

SHANE TAYLOR PROMOTIONS - STP get paid promotional time, featuring Taylor complaining about being overlooked, underpaid and under-appreciated when compared to ROH's 'favourites'. Now that he has left ROH and formed Shane Taylor Promotions, he promises that will all change.

We catch up with The Bouncers, covered in blood in the locker room after winning the Bar Room Brawl at Death Before Dishonor. They are back in action tonight...

If you're wondering, yes this is the same Chris Bey of Impact/NJPW-USA fame (and also the same Slice Boogie that has worked prominently in NWA and MLW). Back in 2019 they were working ROH enhancement talent duty, in a match with The Bouncers. Since this was taped at DBD Fallout, this features Bruiser and Milonas just twenty four hours after they bled buckets and put their bodies through absolute carnage in their now-notorious Bar Room Brawl - so will be nowhere near 100%.

Boogie struggles with the size of Bruiser early on, so he tags in Bey who's speed and striking initially threatens Milonas. That is until Kingpin plucks him out of the air with a clubbing lariat, then picks him back up for the mafia kick/sidewalk slam combo. Slice helps out, pulling BCB out of the ring for a clothesline on the floor. Bey and Boogie work as a coherent team, using frequent tags to isolate Bruiser momentarily. Of course, he finally powers through both of them, tagging Milonas who flattens all in his path with his sheer size. Closing Time on Slice, giving Bouncers the win at 04:43

Rating - ** - I have a few issues with this, but as a standalone four minute wrestling match it was completely watchable (if somewhat unremarkable). It was really frustrating to see The Bouncers go back to being goofy, beer-swilling, oversized comedy undercard workers, with no real changes to their presentation, character or demeanour to emphasise the significance of the Bar Room Brawl - which should have been a break-out match for them. However, the real problem here is that this didn't work as a squash match since Bey and Boogie got in far too much offence. And if the goal was for ROH to spotlight Bey and Slice as future stars, then why weren't they given more opportunities after this? Of course it is easy to write in hindsight, but from what I've seen of him (mostly within NJPW's US expansion) Bey in particular looks like a real missed opportunity.

The losing team in the Vegas Wildcard meet for a debrief after their match earlier. Rhett swears that Kenny King has an asskicking coming, and taunts an agitated Silas Young for losing to his student. Joe Hendry isn't really listening and just wants to give all of his team-mates an autograph...

Lethal and Gresham talk about their match at Death Before Dishonor, whilst nursing the injuries they inflicted upon each other. Jay apologies to Gresham for not seeing his point of view, and promises that he'll start seeing things from Gresham's perspective moving forward. They leave vowing to tear up the tag division...

Dak Draper was victorious in the 2019 Top Prospect Tournament. He says he out-worked, out-thought and overcame everyone else in the field...and has already started the countdown to his TV Title shot, whether it's against Shane Taylor or anyone else.

Brian Zane is back with another Top 5, this time listing the 'toughest ROH Champions of all time'. His list includes Austin Aries, only has Samoa Joe at #3 and doesn't even include Homicide or Takeshi Morishima on a list of the 'toughest' ROH Champions. His #1 pick is Nigel McGuinness for how he fought through injuries though - and that is hard to dispute. Dalton Castle walks in and demands to know how he didn't make the list, pointing out that he won the belt with a broken back. 

As I've said quite a few times, this match feels redundant because we've already seen Angelina drop the title back to Kelly Klein at Glory By Honor 17. I understand squeezing this match in to ensure Love had at least one successful title defence, and she has existing issues with Rose and Sakai so this match absolutely feels justified. I don't understand why ROH opted to have this as a TV exclusive, rather than just airing it as part of the DBD Fallout VOD though. Unless an injury forced an unplanned switch back to Kelly in New Orleans, either the booking is so rushed and thrown together without any forethought that they hadn't planned to switch the belt back to Kelly so quickly, or they simply didn't care and chose to make this a TV exclusive even though it would air after they switched the belt back. Jenny and Sumie are part of the group, along with Klein, who feel that The Allure are damaging the reputation of the WOH division and want them gone. They too have suffered multiple sneak attacks and hairspray blindings so would love to take Love's belt from her in her first defence.

As expected, Rose and Sakai (who have a long-standing friendship) team up and start attacking the champion from the opening bell. Angelina flees the ring to be consoled by Mandy, and without blinking Sumie and Jenny start fighting among themselves in pursuit of the title. Sakai and Love take turns decking each other on the floor - with Jenny the beneficiary as she gets to pick the bones of both of them. She almost taps Sumie out with a half crab...but Love breaks that and looks to steal the submission with a Koji Clutch. Sumie gets the ropes, although she is semi-conscious as a result of the hold. Angelina turns her attention to Rose, wiping her out with a Thesz Press off the apron. Fisherman Buster by Sakai to help out her friend...and almost pins the champion as a result. Smash Mouth blocked, Love tossing Sakai out alongside Jenny hoping for a count-out win. The champ calls Mandy over for a quick chat, whilst Rose and Sakai seem to help each other into the ring...only to start striking each other. No Doubt gets 2 for Jenny...then Love scores a nearfall on her with the Botox Injection. Mandy Leon jumps onto the apron to distract Sumie as she looks poised to drop Angelina with the Smash Mouth...and Love puts her away with the Botox Injection at 07:09 (shown)

Rating - ** - Clearly this was a short, pointless filler match and the kind of mediocre content which the WOH division has been mired in for way too long. And yet another BS Allure finish is obviously frustrating too. But having said those things, there were things about this that I really liked. The relationship dynamics between Sakai and Rose were interesting and felt pretty unique for a triple threat match. Their friendship and history together was acknowledged, and they repeatedly worked to help each other out; double-teaming Angelina frequently and even ensuring neither one would lose via count-out. Yet despite that partnership they showed how much they valued the spirit of competition and the WOH Championship by continually fighting each other, without hesitation. It was a small touch, but in a strange way felt like the most respect the WOH World Championship has been shown in some time.

Tape Rating - * - I've rated the show this week, rather than give it the 'N/A' treatment that I'm giving most of these shows in the new format (which is usually just promos and a match or two that we've already seen elsewhere). This week the amount of new content was significant, with two new matches and plenty of backstage content. Unfortunately there wasn't much of it that I actually liked. I really dislike Brian Zane's 'Top 5' segment. It feels completely corny, utterly forced and reminds me of Kevin Kelly's dated old 'Inside ROH' segment they used to have back when the SBG TV show first launched. Neither of the new matches were worth checking out - and actually the Vegas Wildcard 8-man was little more than a solid midcard match from a B-show. There was also precious little done to promote Honor Club, or the multitude of supposedly high profile shows that are coming up - which Honor Club grants access too.