McXal's Reviews

As ROH heads to Atlanta and Concord for its first live shows of 2020 (including Rush's big World Title rematch against PCO), it means the television show is very much reduced in prominence this week. The feature bout will see the start of Jonathan Gresham's campaign to rebuild ROH in his image, when he faces former stable-mate Alex Shelley in a rematch of their technical clinic at Glory By Honor 17. Ian Riccaboni and Quinn McKay are our studio hosts in Philadelphia, PA.

Ian and Quinn start the show by listing all the new talent that came into ROH at the end of 2019; name-checking Flamita, Bateman, Dan Maff and showing extended highlights of Rey Horus' debut match with Flip Gordon at Final Battle Fallout.

PJ Black catches up with Brian Johnson, looking to understand why he is always so angry. The Mecca again refuses, but as he walks away PJ points out that accepting the offer of his mentorship would at least mean he'd get on TV more...

Devon Storm/Crowbar has appeared in ROH before, but returns tonight with a full entourage in tow. Unlike Eli he isn't here for competition, he is here because he is 'trapped' by his need to hurt people. At least it is an interesting take on why he is still working shows like this. As a tenured veteran he is clearly a scalp that young Isom would love to take...

Crowbar suckerpunches Isom but is quickly downed with a northern lights suplex from the youngster. He dropkicks Crowbar out of the ring...but can't hit a dive because the huge dude in Crowbar's crew blocks his path. Crowbar's wife then trips Eli from behind, setting her husband up to cheap-shot him again. He delivers a sliding dropkick across the apron to rock Isom, before mounting the guardrails to deliver a Vader Bomb on the floor. Eli defiantly retaliates with strikes and delivers an Air Raid Crash for 2. The big guy catches Crowbar when Isom tries to punt him off the apron...so Eli dives through both of them with a tope. The big guy then crotches Eli on the top rope even though the referee can CLEARLY still see him at that point. Frankensteiner by Crowbar gets 2. He can't finish the kid off though, and Eli eventually hits The Promise to win at 08:26 (shown)

Rating - DUD - I'm at a loss for words trying to understand why ROH gave Crowbar ten minutes of precious television time in 2020. And not only did they give him so much time, they let his tedious dog and pony show ruin the match, and they let him have almost all the offence against one of the most promising guys ever to come from their dojo system (admittedly a limited talent pool). With all due respect to Crowbar, this was ghastly television.

Brian Zane tries to get some feedback from Bully Ray on why he attacked Maria Manic at FB Fallout. His reasoning seems to be little more than that she tried to steal his gimmick (tables) in the ECW Arena. 

Back to the ring where the rest of Shinobi Shadow Squad have arrived to celebrate Eli's victory. Cheeseburger issues an open challenge...which is promptly answered by SOS

Burger had just promised that 2020 would be a big year for 3S. There could be no better way to start than by defeating the imposing Moses & Kaun of SOS. They now represent Shane Taylor Promotions, although we are yet to see Taylor following his TV Title loss at Final Battle.

3S desperately try to get the jump on their bigger opponents; Nova tope to stagger Kaun. Unfortunately their opening salvo is brief as we soon see Moses steamrolling CB inside the ring and Kaun chokeslamming Nova onto the apron. Burger fights hard to avoid being rendered unconscious by a Moses bearhug and does manage to escape for a tag to Nova. He delivers a flying flatliner on Kaun but needs his partner's help to get any kind of shot in on Moses. The big man quickly tosses them from the ring...and cleans them out with a cannonball off the apron. 'Coin Kill' by SOS wins it at 05:04

Rating - * - This was just too long. If ROH wants to push SOS as killers they just can't be booking them into situations like this where they are having to bump around and try to sell Cheeseburger and Ryan Nova's offence as credible. This felt immensely damaging to them, making this three 'TV exclusive' bouts in a row from this taping where I've felt like the lay-out of the match was to the immense detriment of the intended beneficiary of the 'rub'.

Quinn McKay runs down the Honor Reigns Supreme 2020 card which includes Rey Horus against the returning Andrew Everett, Bandido against the debuting Alex Zayne, Flamita vs Flip Gordon, Lifeblood vs Vincent and Batemen, then a trios main event as Villain Enterprises face La Faccion Ingobernable for the first time...

This is a rematch from Glory By Honor 17, where Shelley displayed all his experience to counter Gresham's Octopus Stretch and pin him for victory. Although frustrated at that loss, it didn't derail Gresham from going to Final Battle with his partner and becoming the new Tag Champions by ending the Briscoes' 11th title reign. He'll be looking to avenge the loss he suffered in New Orleans. 

These guys are so good they manage to riff a full minute of content just out of shaking hands. Jay Lethal is in Gresham's corner and makes sure to congratulate his partner on his skill. Shelley goes for a couple of early pin attempts, obviously remembering how he beat Gresh at Glory By Honor. He dodges Gresham's quebrada as well, and when his foe lands on his face he proceeds to make it even worse with a flatliner into the turnbuckles. Stranglehold applied, hurting Gresham when he leans back and snaps the neck. It drives The Octopus into action; delivering a devastating stomp into the leg. Figure 4 Leglock applied...and when Shelley escapes it Gresham takes him into the corner and starts CHOPPING the leg! Shelley goes back to the neck, hitting a Stunner-style guillotine over the top rope. But in doing so he leaves himself exposed in the ropes - and the injured Gresham has enough about him to capitalise with a hanging dragon screw. The neck is too hurt for him to get Shelley up for a suplex, and when Alex tries the same suplex his knee gives way. Shinbreaker/dropkick to the knee combo by The Octopus! LEG CAPTURE BACKSLIDE gets 2! They launch into a sensational duel over pinfalls, contested at such pace that it ends with them both slumping against the ropes in exhaustion. Sliced Bread #2 blocked, and they go CRAZY with counters on the ground. They go back and forth, before finally Gresham is able to hold Shelley down for three at 11:16

Rating - **** - I marginally preferred the New Orleans match, but I think this one was a lot more accessible and carried a lot more mainstream appeal (so therefore perfect for television). The quality of Gresham's work on the leg or Shelley's counter-wrestling skill was almost unbelievable at points. The match was a punchy eleven minutes, but they could have easily gone another twenty here and still not struggled for content. It looks so effortless; sign me up for a rubber match any time.

Tape Rating - N/A - The TV-exclusive matches this week were AWFUL. They were so terrible that, had I been watching this show live I'd have most likely turned off the television. I didn't need to see Crowbar dominating one of ROH's few bright young prospects, and I didn't need to see their new monster tag team selling for Ryan Nova. Given that this show also featured a pretty nauseating Bully Ray promo, there's actually quite a lot that triggered my anger here. Thankfully Gresham/Shelley is a wonderful match and a strong representation of what ROH's product should be on television...