McXal's Reviews

Last week Jay Lethal stole the show with an unexpected Pure Rules classic against Leon St. Giovanni. There is no rest for him this week - he returns to Pure Rules action against Josh Woods tonight. That is alongside a huge heavyweight clash with World Title implications as Shane Taylor and Brody King lock horns. Once again Quinn McKay, Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman are in Baltimore, MD.

We open with The Foundation. Gresham says they plan to restore honour 'division by division' by going after the rest of ROH's championships to sit alongside the Pure and Tag Titles already within their midst. The 'Red Octopus' is confirmed as Rhett Titus, although Tracy stops him removing his mask since the people 'don't deserve to see a face they haven't cared about for fifteen years'...

This is a showdown between the two losing semi-finalists in the Pure Tournament. Josh thinks his credentials in MMA and amateur wrestling mean he was made for the Pure division and serve to balance out the big experience gap to his opponent tonight. He wants to beat Lethal tonight and 'change the way that people look at Josh Woods'. Meanwhile Lethal is still dwelling over his judges decision victory over LSG last week...but thinks that Woods is over-confident in his abilities in the Pure division, which will be his undoing when they meet. Disappointingly Jay doesn't touch on the fact that Woods is being mentored by Silas Young, one of Lethal's biggest rivals in his ROH career.

We start with a collar and elbow which lasts more than thirty seconds without a clear advantage for either man. Woods looks supremely confident and appears desperate to lock up with Lethal but when they get down to the mat Jay shows his own skill and repeatedly tests out the countering ability of 'The Goods'. Josh has an answer for every question, finds time to pull out a headstand then DROPS Jay into a shortarm scissors which draws Lethal's first rope-break. Josh dances and smiles, and calls Lethal 'sad'. The Franchise is furious and tries to come at him with strikes...but again Woods is lethal in that environment. He effortlessly out-strikes the former World Champion and dumps him with an exploder suplex. From there he literally starts toying with his opponent by rolling him around on the canvas for fun. Lethal retaliates with the hiptoss/dropkick sequence but looks gassed as we exit for commercials. But he shows his experience, negating Josh's prolific MMA talents by opening up an injury on the back. But the time we return, missing two minutes of action in the break, we see Lethal using a camel clutch to force Woods' first break. The Goods' back gives out when trying to suplex Lethal...so he starts kicking him with such force that Lethal collapses through the ropes to the floor. Getting Jay back he kicks at his back, gives him a backbreaker then lands a slingshot German suplex for 2. It means that Lethal's back is now injured too. TOPE SUICIDA by Lethal! The rough landing does more damage to Woods' back...but he returns to the ring and COUNTERS Hail To The King into an armbreaker. Jay escapes. LETHAL INJECTION COUNTERED TO A REAR CHOKE! Lethal tries to roll that into a pin...so Woods rides it into Deenda Bar! Lethal counters, goes for the Figure 4...but Woods has it scouted and converts into a cradle pin. WOODS WINS! Huge victory for The Goods at 11:25 (shown)

Rating - **** - Call it even with Lethal/LSG from last week. I thought the LSG match was a tad more exciting, but this had an absolutely gripping story. In the Pure Tournament they hinted at the division being the perfect fit for Woods and that theme was explored in greater depth with this match. From the minute the bell rung he looked to be a hungry young lion, confident in the fact that his years of training in other disciplines make him a fearsome foe under the Pure Rules. He confidently worked the mat with a former World Champion KNOWING that he was equipped to deal with that. He taunted and bated him into a striking match, again KNOWING he had the punching/kicking power to blow Lethal out of the water. He then survived an attack on his back by the wily veteran...before kicking on again; injuring Jay's back before an explosive final minute where he countered EVERY one of Lethal's big finishing holds to stretch him into oblivion, scrambling his brains before grabbing a pin. Like I said, it wasn't necessarily as outright exciting as Lethal/LSG - but it told a story which packed a punch from first bell to last and is another great example of the kind of improved in-ring action which Ring Of Honor have been delivering since the relaunch.

TRENDING WITH TAVEN - Matt Taven has his own chat-segment now and his first guest is the returning Mike Bennett. ROH uploaded a longer version of this on YouTube, but the takeaways are that Bennett has returned to ROH hungrier and more motivated than ever before. He kept an eye on Taven during his time with Impact and WWE and thinks that now he is back in the company they will be a force to be reckoned with...

Mark Briscoe wants to become 12-time Tag Champions and reminds everyone that the Briscoes are still due a rematch after losing the belts to Lethal and Gresham at Final Battle 2019. And that is why he is frustrated with his brother, since Jay has lost focus on the tag division and is completely sidetracked by EC3. Mark ends with the bombshell that he's going to find a new partner for his title shot...

Brody talks about the similarities in style and background between he and Taylor. His confidence is boosted by beating former World Champion Dalton Castle, he is still annoyed that Taylor defeated him in a four-way to become TV Champion last year...and is fuelled by a burning desire to obtain more championship gold in ROH. He wants Rush, and knows he needs to go through Taylor to get there. Shane T is, as ever, a brilliant interview. His point about the hypocrisy of fans cheering Brody for wearing a ski mask and loving violence, whereas if he did that he'd get a very different reaction, is absolutely cutting and brutally relevant to the society we live in. He wants to be World Champion to stop people 'silencing' him or labelling him 'hard to work with'...and instead show what his true value is

When he stands in the ring with Taylor you really do get a sense of how damn MASSIVE Brody King is. He unleashes a savage barrage of strikes which even Shane can't cope with, finally falling out of the ring after a brutal elbow smash. King doesn't let up and dives off the apron with a cannonball too. These big men are in no rush to return to the ring either; scrapping on the floor until Brody launches Taylor into the guardrails and bounces his skull off the ringpost. Taylor finally blocks an attempted kick by King, pulling him to the apron for a HANGING DDT on the floor. Brody is rattled and fails to protect himself as his opponent batters him with elbows and knee strikes him THROUGH THE GUARDRAIL! Taylor wants a count-out win and paces the ring as referee Joe Mandak gets all the way to nineteen! Of course King does make it back, although at this stage he still appears unable to defend himself and is almost driven through the canvas with a spinebuster. CANNONBALL IN THE ROPES by Brody, leaving them both on the mat. TURNBUCKLE DVD! King looked to have absolutely decimated Taylor there...yet still Shane beats the count and comes back for more. BRUTAL strike duel! HEADBUTT by Taylor, then a lariat for 2 when Brody tries to no-sell it. Bossman Slam by King, into a piledriver for 2. He thinks about a Gonzo Bomb but Taylor is far too big and COUNTERS TO A PACKAGE PILEDRIVER! Taylor loudly says he's going to repeat the finish from their TV Title match last year...only for find that Brody counters Greetings From 216 into a lariat. ONE COUNT! LARIAT FLURRY! Taylor is out cold! King wins at 11:53 (shown)

Rating - **** - I am a huge fan of both of these guys. Stylistically they could not be more different to the Pure Division, but ROH has always been about promoting great wrestling in a variety of styles. Call this a 'hoss battle', call it 'American strong-style', call it whatever you want. This was great because it provided a high quality, welcome departure to intricate technical wrestling bouts like we saw in the Pure Tournament or more storyline driven segments like Briscoe/EC3 or Taven/Vincent. It featured two massive guys going to war and beating the sh*t out of each other. It looked incredibly violent, with the sound levels just right so that the lack of fans could be harnessed as a positive meaning we could HEAR the ferocity of every hit, every slam and every rough landing. It would take an extremely hard-nosed critic not to at least respect the intensity and ferocity of this combat, and the punishment these big guys were putting their bodies through despite performing to an audience of circa ten people. I remain convinced that, if managed and promoted correctly, both of these two guys could become cornerstones of the entire promotion.

NEXT WEEK - A big week of returns as John Walters and Mike Bennett come back to face Tracy Williams and Vincent respectively.

Tape Rating - **** - Two great matches and not much else (beyond the revelation that Mark Briscoe is recruiting a new tag partner) make this an easy episode for me to recommend. If you were among those who enjoyed Lethal/LSG last week then you get more of the same from Lethal/Woods...but the main event is where this episode kicks into another gear. King/Taylor felt completely fresh and totally different from much of what ROH has produced since their post-pandemic reboot and is SO worth going out of your way to see. In 2019 ROH struggled with the lack of fans, and the audiences they did have not engaging with the product. In a strange way that means that they've been able to benefit from Covid-19 forcing fans out of arenas in 2020. It's given them scope to reset their product without sparse audiences and vocal individuals crapping on it. They are able to promote a stripped back, no-thrills and focused in-ring product without the expectations of a live crowd who watch the all-action freneticism of AEW or the totally scattergun approach of WWE. It means that they can promote acts like Brody or Taylor (or Josh Woods, or LSG, or Tracy Williams...the list goes on) - who were solid members of the roster but never box office attractions or acts fans were paying to see - into more prominent roster spots. It is a 'reset' on so many levels and in the truest embodiment of the word. This episode is indicative of that approach and is all the better for it. And all this from a roster which still has to reintegrate some if its biggest stars and best wrestlers; names like Rush, Dragon Lee, Bandido, Flamita, Rey Horus, Joe Hendry, Mark Haskins, Adam Brooks, Flip Gordon and more...