McXal's Reviews

One of the longest-serving members of the Ring Of Honor roster is spotlighted this week on ROH TV. Rhett Titus, one of the earliest graduates of the ROH wrestling school and a man who made his on-screen debut in 2006, will look to pick out some highlights from nearly fifteen years in the company. 

Rhett is joined by his co-host, his infant son RJ. He talks about training in the ROH school and working ring crew, taking tickets, wrestling dark matches and doing whatever was needed to earn himself a spot. He met Kenny King along the way, with a little help from Austin Aries (who briefly pops up in some old footage), and they finally formed a cohesive team...

A TV edit of Rhett Titus/Kenny King vs Future Shock from Final Battle 2010 is shown

Next Rhett talks about All Night Express' feud with the Briscoe Brothers; something Kenny King also touched on in his episode. Like Kenny, he says he can't show those matches due to their violence, but he does credit them with toughening up ANX to the extent that they were able to defeat Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin to win the ROH Tag Titles. After King left and Rhett was stripped of the titles (skipping over any mention of his time in SCUM) he was exiled from ROH...before returning at All Star Extravaganza 7, with Kenny back by his side. 

A TV edit of Rhett Titus/Kenny King vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe from All Star Extravaganza 7 is shown

Rhett's final match choice takes us to one of the MCW/ROH cross-promoted 'Future Of Honor' live shows. Taped during Final Battle 2019 weekend, it features him defending his MCW Heavyweight Title against Jonathan Gresham - who he calls a better technical wrestler than any of the ROH legends he has shared the ring with (like Bryan Danielson, Roderick Strong, Tyler Black and more)...

MCW/ROH Future Of Honor 3 (14th December 2019) - This was taped the night after Final Battle; an evening which saw Rhett Titus fail to defeat bitter rival Kenny King, whilst Gresham teamed with Jay Lethal to take the ROH Tag Championship from the legendary Briscoe Brothers. Titus may have been struggling to get booked on ROH shows, but he was the champion of sister company/Future Of Honor breeding ground MCW - and tonight defends his belt against someone integral to that ROH Dojo/Future Of Honor set-up in Jon Gresham. Can his vast experience prepare him for the technical onslaught he'll face from the best 'pure professional wrestler' on the planet?

Titus looks incredibly pumped for this, whilst Gresham is more circumspect and remains in the ropes to make the champion wait a little longer before physically engaging him. As you'd expect, Gresham's approach is to keep the taller Titus grounded. The moment Rhett is able to get back to a vertical base we see the challenger poking him in the eyes in an attempt to stay ahead. Titus shakes that off though and delivers the Austin Aries-inspired tumbling reverse elbow strike out of the corner and looks to exert his height advantage with a cravat hold. They trade chops next; another area where Rhett has a pronounced advantage thanks to his size and power. Gresham realises it too, so he tricks the ref out of position and takes advantage in the match after a cheeky back-fist strike into Rhett's groin. The champion is furious - and angrily stomps Gresham into the canvas until The Octopus retreats right back to square one and seeks the sanctuary provided by the ropes. Unbeknownst to Rhett, Gresham has hatched another plan - unlacing Titus' boot whilst the champion was climbing all over him. When the ref points out Rhett's untied shoe, Gresh immediately pounces on the momentary distraction. He tears into Titus' arm, quickly leaving it significantly injured. It systematically breaks down Rhett's ability to overpower The Octopus; embodied physically as Gresh easily counters an attempted body slam into a kimura submission. Titus goes for a desperate Hydraulic Dropkick...and when Gresham dodges that he somehow still catches him with a powerslam even though it leaves his arm limp by his side in pain. His arm injury prevents him from hitting the Rhett-ribution DDT, so instead Titus brings his healthy arm into play as well to deliver a Black Hole Slam! YAKUZA KICK knocks Gresh off the apron! Rhett is fired up - and chases the challenger to the outside where he can pulverise him on the floor with a reverse elbow. Big Dawg Splash blocked...into an arm-capture bridging pin by Gresham for 2. He stands over Titus hurling abuse at him...then starts slapping him as well! Quebrada over the bad shoulder...then a tope suicida to the floor when Rhett looks to escape! Diving splash across the back gets 2, and sets up another kimura. RHETT-RIBUTION DDT! But Titus pauses to nurse his injured arm for just long enough to allow Jonathan to get to the ropes. BIG DAWG SPLASH TO THE BACK! Big Dawg Splash again...for 2. Gresham strikes desperately at the injured arm, repelled by Titus repeatedly blasting him in the head. HYDRAULIC DROPKICK! Titus retains at 21:34

Rating - **** - Maybe the biggest credit I can give this match is that it is one of the few times I've actually brought into Rhett's dropkick as a genuine finish (although it obviously helps that, since Gresham is a smaller guy, Rhett looks like he absolutely DESTROYED him with it). I like Titus and he carried his end of the match well, but what stood out to me here was that it felt like a twenty minute exhibition of just how incredible Gresham is. He was snake-like, snide and sneaky when he needed to be, he was absolutely lethal when picking apart Rhett's arm...and on the flip side he also bumped around wildly and made everything Rhett did look like it was brutalising him. From the dropkick, to the frog splashes to the way he ate floor on that running elbow attack outside the ring, he really went out of his way to get over how good Rhett is. As a prelude to what we'd see later in 2020 when Titus joined Gresham in The Foundation this was great, but even as a standalone match it was an enjoyable ground-based technical encounter. Stylistically it reminded me of an old Bryan Danielson ROH World Title main event and that can't be a bad thing. I'm glad I made the effort to seek it out in full on Honor Club

Tape Rating - N/A - It was nice to see Sinclair actually use ROH's vast back catalogue to pad out this episode rather than constantly air footage that we only saw a year ago (like they have done with most of these profile episodes). And it was brave of them to put a feature-length bout that featured Titus beating Gresham too. Rhett may have been MCW Champion, and long-time ROH fans have seen what he is capable of - but newer ROH fans will only ever seen him as a 'Big Dawg', or a baby-oiled, speedo-clad bodybuilder. Putting that Rhett/Gresh match on this episode not only made it a better standalone TV show, but it sets in process the recalibration of Titus, once again presenting him as a serious and talented professional wrestler as we inch closer to the 2020 'ROH Bubble' reboot...