Be prepared for some great wrestling this week coming to you from Ring of Honor and Major League Wrestling. In addition to two solid main events (ESPECIALLY MLW), we get an infusion of ECW in the form of two ECW legends and an ECW inspired angle.
Let's take this to the EXTREME!
ROH Review (11/2/18)
- The show starts with a recap from last week's show featuring Flip Gordon and Bully Ray making the match for this week's show. Each man has a representative. If their man wins, they get to choose how to beat the hell out of the other. Bully already chose Silas.
And to add to this, they are in the former ECW Arena in Philadelphia, PA.
Pick Your Punishment Match
Silas Young (w/Bully Ray) vs. _______ (w/Flip Gordon)
Bully explains the rules and introduces Silas. Flip comes out and gets Colt Cabana to join him in the ring. They tease that Colt is the mystery representative. Bully really shoots down this choice and tells Flip that he's stupid for making this choice. Colt says he's here to support Flip and to tell Bully who his representative really is. He wants to see Bully's face when he realizes who the representative really is.
IT'S THE SANDMAN!!!! Say your prayers, Silas Young. Don't forget my son to include everyOOOOOONNNNEEEE!
Loud ECW chant. Silas charges Sandman who just clobbers Silas with the cane. I guess there's no DQ in this. Sandman seems to be having a blast as the fans chant "This is Awesome." Silas gets thrown to the floor. "Over Here" chants as the fans want to see Silas get beat up. The ladder is out which is another one of Sandman's favorite weapons. Then again, what wasn't back in the day? SANDMAN SUPLEXES THE LADDER ONTO SILAS YOUNG! "You've Still Got It!" chants from the crowd.
They are back in the ring and Sandman puts the ladder in the corner. But Silas throws Sandman into it. Silas rams it into Sandman. They are trading punches now. But Silas is getting the better of this exchange. Silas gets a table from underneath the ring. Sandman punches down Young and sets up a table in the corner. Sandman throws the ladder on Silas AND NAILS THE ROLLING ROCK SENTON SPLASH OFF THE TOP ROPE ONTO THE LADDER AND SILAS!!! 1-2-KICKOUT! Silas gets Sandman up for Misery! It connects. 1-2-3.
Winner: Silas Young
Match Grade: B. This was harmless and good fun as Sandman got to show some of his classic offense. Yes, he's still got it. And I bought that Sandman might win the match. But Silas winning was the right call as Young is still on the ROH roster. Fun hardcore match.
So, what is Flip's punishment? Well, we get a "parental guidance" message before they show us a Bully Ray promo. I've got a bad feeling about this. His punishment is 10 SHOTS WITH THE SINGAPORE CANE! And he's going to use Sandman's cane! They're Tommy Dreamer-ing Flip Gordon here in the ECW Arena. Flip just decides to take the punishment as ROH has "edited" the shots. SCU comes out to beg Flip not to take any more. Flip tells Bully to bring it. Bully hits a sickening 8th shot. Cody and The Bucks come out. Cody asks Flip if he is ok. Flip wants more. "Hey Brandi. This one's for you!" SMACK! Flip tells Bully FU and takes a Singapore Cane shot to the testicles for his brazenness.
Awesome segment here that makes Flip look that much more like a badass and makes Bully that much more of a heel. It's a modern-day retelling of the ECW Caning angle done to further push one of their younger talents. I wholeheartedly agree with where this went as it didn't rip off the past as much as honor (pun unintended) it and push it to another degree. Combined with the opening match, this was a great opening half of this week's ROH episode.
-In the Women of Honor match for this week, we have the team of Karen Q, Dr. Britt Baker, and Kelly Klein taking on Jenny Rose, Madison Rayne, and Sumie Sakai. I hate how quiet the crowd gets for these matches. Because you watch these women wrestle, and they are doing a really good job (a sign that women's wrestling in general has just gotten so much better in the last 5 years). With the WOH, they need to find a way to build these characters up and build to eventual matches rather than just throwing them into senseless random matches. They seemed to have something going here with Kelly Klein and Jenny Rose, but they break it up before something actually happens.
Some really good action in this match. At the end of the match, Jenny gets tagged in and starts going at it with Kelly finally. Interesting development here was Britt Baker refuses to tag Kelly Klein. Jenny Rose catches Klein in a rollup for the win. Again, this was a good 6-Woman Tag with some interesting moments that ROH should try to build on.
- The main event sees Kenny King take on Cody. Cody still has the NWA World Championship and the 6-Man Championship here. So that tells you how dated all of this is. (Granted, Cody is still the IWGP US Champion as of 11/6/18.) A very good athletic match between the two. King continues to build up his character of being a cheater, which actually goes back to his feud this summer with Austin Aries. Aries suckered King into a loss. And ever since, King has been trying to keep up with the other cheaters in wrestling. King suckers Brandi onto the apron and throws a title in Cody's hand. King flops to the mat. It's an Eddie Guerrero spot, but there's another referee. The referee explains what Kenny did. King pushes the referee down and kicks Cody with a low blow for the DQ. Brandi is in the ring with her husband, and Kenny pulls her by her hair! Lethal jumps from commentary where he had been for this match and saves Brandi. Kenny decks Lethal with the championship behind his back.
That was a good ending to that match. King now looks like the most dastardly heel in ROH, and it gives him a little bit of a boost going into this match with Jay Lethal for the World Title during the upcoming Global Wars Tour. I still think King needs a few tweaks in his presentation, especially that godawful music he comes out to. (Keep the "K-I-N-G KING," but please get some better music for the guy.) But overall, this was a great showing for him.
Overall, this was another excellent episode of ROH TV. For the past few weeks, ROH seems to have been lifted creatively and been able to produce much better TV than they did about a month or two back. I definitely recommend seeing the first 25 minutes of this show because it was a great Old School angle that should propel the Bully-Flip feud to another level.
MLW Fushion Episode 29 (11/3/18 on YouTube; 11/2/18 on BEIN Sports)
- Konnan comes out to the LAX theme (Hmmm... Isn't that an Impact Wrestling theme?). Konnan complains that Fenix and Pentagon Jr. aren't allowed to be in the building. Salina de la Renta comes out with Ricky Martinez. She takes credit for sending ICE on Pentagon and Fenix to deport them. They accuse each other of being leeches. Konnan gets Ricky angry enough to ask for a match. Konnan gives him a match with Puma King. Puma King is crawling all over the ropes during this entrance. O...K. Puma and Martinez have a good opening match here, albeit an unspectacular one. The moves were solid, and they both performed well. They just missed a little bit of chemistry. Puma King gets the win with the Mahistral rollup after a corner powerbomb.
(Side Bar: I really am digging Salina de la Renta as a character and performer. In the few weeks I've seen her, she has a quiet charm about her. She just is a credible manager overall regardless of gender and has added to whatever act she is managing.)
- Tommy Dreamer cuts a promo on Brody King about wanting to be a hardcore legend and actually being a hardcore legend. This leads to the match between Dreamer and King. Dreamer wears the Polka Dot pants in honor of Dusty Rhodes. Dreamer is playing the old veteran fighting off the young upstart. The Circle of Life, my friends. Dreamer is coming up on 30 years as a pro wrestler. That's incredible... and makes me feel even older somehow. This was billed as a hardcore match by the promo of Dreamer. But this is basically a normal match only with a rail shot and Brody getting hit with a plastic cup of beer. (He's Hardcore! He's Hardcore!) At this point of his career, Dreamer doesn't need to be wrestling regular matches. That's not what people want to see out of him. And the finish was weak too with the referee missing a low blow because "he was wiping off saliva." Really?
Ok. The right man won for sure. You want to build up Brody King as a wrestler, and Dreamer is at the age where he should be doing more jobs than getting wins to put over the next generation. But this was not a great match. You don't want to watch 50+ year old Tommy Dreamer work a 1-on-1 match. You want to see him use the weapons and have a hardcore match... especially after he cuts a hardcore promo. Between ROH and MLW, ROH clearly used its ECW talent to a much more effective level.
- Rich Swann, ACH, and Marko Stunt face The Hart Foundation (Brian Pillman Jr, Teddy Hart, and Davey Boy Smith Jr.) in the main event. Watching Pillman wrestle is like having a flashback to seeing his father wrestle. And I mean that in the best way possible. He's not quite there at the level of his father yet, but he's on his way. Some really good work as well between Swann and Hart as Swann continues to impress outside of the confines of WWE. Poor Stunt gets clobbered by Smith, and the size difference is staggering. Teddy Hart hits a beautiful moonsault to the floor on Swann, ACH, and Stunt. (I'd call them the faces, but the crowd is sure as hell cheering The Hart Foundation a lot for them to be considered heels.)
The Harts just unload with a lot of offense, including an assisted Canadian Destroyer and a springboard moonsault off the top rope by Hart. Stunt takes a sick dump on his head from a snap German Suplex. Stunt escapes the assault and tags in ACH. ACH now beats down on Pillman, but Pillman uses the springboard dropkick to ACH on the apron (ala Chris Jericho). Swann gets tagged in and hits a double handspring Stunner to Hart and Pillman. Some sick offense in the ending moments includes Stunt doing a moonsault onto Smith who just catches him and nails a running powerslam into the ring post! STUNT GETS KILLED WITH A DOOMSDAY CANADIAN DESTROYER!!!! THAT WAS SICK!!!! 450 Splash by Swann. (This is a really great match.) Blockbuster Powerbomb combination gets the win for the Hart Foundation.
Overall, this is a one match show, ladies and gentlemen. Check out the main event as The Hart Foundation, Stunt, ACH, and Rich Swann delivered the goods in what may be my favorite match of the week. It starts at around 35 minute mark, give or take a minute. It's worth the time to check out.
As far as the overall show, I'd say ROH was the better show from beginning to end. But the best match is on MLW. So, these are two shows worth checking out.
Thanks for reading and checking out. Until next time, take care of yourselves. Spread some awesomeness!
Let's take this to the EXTREME!
ROH Review (11/2/18)
- The show starts with a recap from last week's show featuring Flip Gordon and Bully Ray making the match for this week's show. Each man has a representative. If their man wins, they get to choose how to beat the hell out of the other. Bully already chose Silas.
And to add to this, they are in the former ECW Arena in Philadelphia, PA.
Pick Your Punishment Match
Silas Young (w/Bully Ray) vs. _______ (w/Flip Gordon)
Bully explains the rules and introduces Silas. Flip comes out and gets Colt Cabana to join him in the ring. They tease that Colt is the mystery representative. Bully really shoots down this choice and tells Flip that he's stupid for making this choice. Colt says he's here to support Flip and to tell Bully who his representative really is. He wants to see Bully's face when he realizes who the representative really is.
IT'S THE SANDMAN!!!! Say your prayers, Silas Young. Don't forget my son to include everyOOOOOONNNNEEEE!
Loud ECW chant. Silas charges Sandman who just clobbers Silas with the cane. I guess there's no DQ in this. Sandman seems to be having a blast as the fans chant "This is Awesome." Silas gets thrown to the floor. "Over Here" chants as the fans want to see Silas get beat up. The ladder is out which is another one of Sandman's favorite weapons. Then again, what wasn't back in the day? SANDMAN SUPLEXES THE LADDER ONTO SILAS YOUNG! "You've Still Got It!" chants from the crowd.
They are back in the ring and Sandman puts the ladder in the corner. But Silas throws Sandman into it. Silas rams it into Sandman. They are trading punches now. But Silas is getting the better of this exchange. Silas gets a table from underneath the ring. Sandman punches down Young and sets up a table in the corner. Sandman throws the ladder on Silas AND NAILS THE ROLLING ROCK SENTON SPLASH OFF THE TOP ROPE ONTO THE LADDER AND SILAS!!! 1-2-KICKOUT! Silas gets Sandman up for Misery! It connects. 1-2-3.
Winner: Silas Young
Match Grade: B. This was harmless and good fun as Sandman got to show some of his classic offense. Yes, he's still got it. And I bought that Sandman might win the match. But Silas winning was the right call as Young is still on the ROH roster. Fun hardcore match.
So, what is Flip's punishment? Well, we get a "parental guidance" message before they show us a Bully Ray promo. I've got a bad feeling about this. His punishment is 10 SHOTS WITH THE SINGAPORE CANE! And he's going to use Sandman's cane! They're Tommy Dreamer-ing Flip Gordon here in the ECW Arena. Flip just decides to take the punishment as ROH has "edited" the shots. SCU comes out to beg Flip not to take any more. Flip tells Bully to bring it. Bully hits a sickening 8th shot. Cody and The Bucks come out. Cody asks Flip if he is ok. Flip wants more. "Hey Brandi. This one's for you!" SMACK! Flip tells Bully FU and takes a Singapore Cane shot to the testicles for his brazenness.
Awesome segment here that makes Flip look that much more like a badass and makes Bully that much more of a heel. It's a modern-day retelling of the ECW Caning angle done to further push one of their younger talents. I wholeheartedly agree with where this went as it didn't rip off the past as much as honor (pun unintended) it and push it to another degree. Combined with the opening match, this was a great opening half of this week's ROH episode.
-In the Women of Honor match for this week, we have the team of Karen Q, Dr. Britt Baker, and Kelly Klein taking on Jenny Rose, Madison Rayne, and Sumie Sakai. I hate how quiet the crowd gets for these matches. Because you watch these women wrestle, and they are doing a really good job (a sign that women's wrestling in general has just gotten so much better in the last 5 years). With the WOH, they need to find a way to build these characters up and build to eventual matches rather than just throwing them into senseless random matches. They seemed to have something going here with Kelly Klein and Jenny Rose, but they break it up before something actually happens.
Some really good action in this match. At the end of the match, Jenny gets tagged in and starts going at it with Kelly finally. Interesting development here was Britt Baker refuses to tag Kelly Klein. Jenny Rose catches Klein in a rollup for the win. Again, this was a good 6-Woman Tag with some interesting moments that ROH should try to build on.
- The main event sees Kenny King take on Cody. Cody still has the NWA World Championship and the 6-Man Championship here. So that tells you how dated all of this is. (Granted, Cody is still the IWGP US Champion as of 11/6/18.) A very good athletic match between the two. King continues to build up his character of being a cheater, which actually goes back to his feud this summer with Austin Aries. Aries suckered King into a loss. And ever since, King has been trying to keep up with the other cheaters in wrestling. King suckers Brandi onto the apron and throws a title in Cody's hand. King flops to the mat. It's an Eddie Guerrero spot, but there's another referee. The referee explains what Kenny did. King pushes the referee down and kicks Cody with a low blow for the DQ. Brandi is in the ring with her husband, and Kenny pulls her by her hair! Lethal jumps from commentary where he had been for this match and saves Brandi. Kenny decks Lethal with the championship behind his back.
That was a good ending to that match. King now looks like the most dastardly heel in ROH, and it gives him a little bit of a boost going into this match with Jay Lethal for the World Title during the upcoming Global Wars Tour. I still think King needs a few tweaks in his presentation, especially that godawful music he comes out to. (Keep the "K-I-N-G KING," but please get some better music for the guy.) But overall, this was a great showing for him.
Overall, this was another excellent episode of ROH TV. For the past few weeks, ROH seems to have been lifted creatively and been able to produce much better TV than they did about a month or two back. I definitely recommend seeing the first 25 minutes of this show because it was a great Old School angle that should propel the Bully-Flip feud to another level.
MLW Fushion Episode 29 (11/3/18 on YouTube; 11/2/18 on BEIN Sports)
- Konnan comes out to the LAX theme (Hmmm... Isn't that an Impact Wrestling theme?). Konnan complains that Fenix and Pentagon Jr. aren't allowed to be in the building. Salina de la Renta comes out with Ricky Martinez. She takes credit for sending ICE on Pentagon and Fenix to deport them. They accuse each other of being leeches. Konnan gets Ricky angry enough to ask for a match. Konnan gives him a match with Puma King. Puma King is crawling all over the ropes during this entrance. O...K. Puma and Martinez have a good opening match here, albeit an unspectacular one. The moves were solid, and they both performed well. They just missed a little bit of chemistry. Puma King gets the win with the Mahistral rollup after a corner powerbomb.
(Side Bar: I really am digging Salina de la Renta as a character and performer. In the few weeks I've seen her, she has a quiet charm about her. She just is a credible manager overall regardless of gender and has added to whatever act she is managing.)
- Tommy Dreamer cuts a promo on Brody King about wanting to be a hardcore legend and actually being a hardcore legend. This leads to the match between Dreamer and King. Dreamer wears the Polka Dot pants in honor of Dusty Rhodes. Dreamer is playing the old veteran fighting off the young upstart. The Circle of Life, my friends. Dreamer is coming up on 30 years as a pro wrestler. That's incredible... and makes me feel even older somehow. This was billed as a hardcore match by the promo of Dreamer. But this is basically a normal match only with a rail shot and Brody getting hit with a plastic cup of beer. (He's Hardcore! He's Hardcore!) At this point of his career, Dreamer doesn't need to be wrestling regular matches. That's not what people want to see out of him. And the finish was weak too with the referee missing a low blow because "he was wiping off saliva." Really?
Ok. The right man won for sure. You want to build up Brody King as a wrestler, and Dreamer is at the age where he should be doing more jobs than getting wins to put over the next generation. But this was not a great match. You don't want to watch 50+ year old Tommy Dreamer work a 1-on-1 match. You want to see him use the weapons and have a hardcore match... especially after he cuts a hardcore promo. Between ROH and MLW, ROH clearly used its ECW talent to a much more effective level.
- Rich Swann, ACH, and Marko Stunt face The Hart Foundation (Brian Pillman Jr, Teddy Hart, and Davey Boy Smith Jr.) in the main event. Watching Pillman wrestle is like having a flashback to seeing his father wrestle. And I mean that in the best way possible. He's not quite there at the level of his father yet, but he's on his way. Some really good work as well between Swann and Hart as Swann continues to impress outside of the confines of WWE. Poor Stunt gets clobbered by Smith, and the size difference is staggering. Teddy Hart hits a beautiful moonsault to the floor on Swann, ACH, and Stunt. (I'd call them the faces, but the crowd is sure as hell cheering The Hart Foundation a lot for them to be considered heels.)
The Harts just unload with a lot of offense, including an assisted Canadian Destroyer and a springboard moonsault off the top rope by Hart. Stunt takes a sick dump on his head from a snap German Suplex. Stunt escapes the assault and tags in ACH. ACH now beats down on Pillman, but Pillman uses the springboard dropkick to ACH on the apron (ala Chris Jericho). Swann gets tagged in and hits a double handspring Stunner to Hart and Pillman. Some sick offense in the ending moments includes Stunt doing a moonsault onto Smith who just catches him and nails a running powerslam into the ring post! STUNT GETS KILLED WITH A DOOMSDAY CANADIAN DESTROYER!!!! THAT WAS SICK!!!! 450 Splash by Swann. (This is a really great match.) Blockbuster Powerbomb combination gets the win for the Hart Foundation.
Overall, this is a one match show, ladies and gentlemen. Check out the main event as The Hart Foundation, Stunt, ACH, and Rich Swann delivered the goods in what may be my favorite match of the week. It starts at around 35 minute mark, give or take a minute. It's worth the time to check out.
As far as the overall show, I'd say ROH was the better show from beginning to end. But the best match is on MLW. So, these are two shows worth checking out.
Thanks for reading and checking out. Until next time, take care of yourselves. Spread some awesomeness!
Comments
Post a Comment