Trying to play catchup with some reviews. Here are some quick reviews for ROH and MLW from Friday, November 9, 2018
ROH Thoughts
- I really enjoyed the opening match between Jeff Cobb and Shane Taylor. Both of these guys are equal size, and they were both able to gel well in the match. This may be the best performance I've seen Shane Taylor have in a wrestling match. I get what Ian and Colt were telling us during the Global Wars tour about this being a great match. They were right. I still think Evil vs. Cobb is Cobb's best match to date, but this is clearly the second best compared to all the others. Hats off to both men. (I still can't believe Shane Taylor did a Canadian Destroyer. You read that right!)
After the match, Hangman Page came out to face off with Cobb. They fight off security to continue to face off. Something tells me this is our match at Final Battle, which is probably Page's last match with ROH.
- We get a bunch of promos from Lethal, The Bouncers, and Marty Scurll. In addition, we get Milonas continuing to look for and finding the Beer City Bruiser. Beer City is drinking the blues away from Silas dumping them. Milonas says to get over it and focus on punching someone in the mouth instead. He agress.
- The Bouncers take on Isom and Cheeseburger. The Bruiser can't bite. He ain't got no teeth!!!! Lol. Fun big man vs. small guys match here with Burger doing what he does best: get sympathy to set up the hot tag to Isom. The Bouncers hit Last Call (The old PowerPlex from Power and Glory) for the win. Again, a fun match where the right team won. The Bouncers are a good undercard act, and I see nothing but great things for Isom.
- So Cal Uncensored cuts a promo in the ring. And this is the worst town they've ever been in! Kaz puts over the ECW arena and gets an SCU! (SCU!) chant from the crowd. Daniels talks about their time running out to be able to stay with ROH. They are out to end the Reign of Terror of The Briscoes, and they will win next week's ROH World Tag Team Championship match between them, The Briscoes, and The Young Bucks. The Briscoes jump SCU from behind while they are going up the aisle. JAY DRILLER ON THE STAGE TO DANIELS!!!! Wow.
- Jonathan Gresham, Jay Lethal, and ??? vs. The Kingdom is the main event here. The mystery partner was Dalton Castle making his ROH TV review (although he's been on a lot of ROH TV before this return thanks to the nature of how ROH produces Live Events). This is what you would basically expect out of a ROH TV main event featuring Castle, Lethal, and Gresham. Castle still looks like he needed more time to come back, but I'm not going to argue if he thinks he's good to go. Castle is one of the most entertaining performers in wrestling period with his over the top entrance and character. And in 2019, he'll be needed more than ever on Ring of Honor. Cool spot at the end after Castle got the win for his team. He holds up Lethal's hand that holds the ROH World Championship and holds onto it, letting Lethal know that he wants a shot to regain his title.
Overall, this was a fun (there's that word again) episode of ROH. They set up a lot of things for the future (next week's Tag Title match, Final Battle, and a future Castle-Lethal match). I'm loving the way ROH is building things up for their promotion even in the face of losing some of their hottest stars in a month or so. Smart business. Here's hoping that they can continue to grow despite the exodus to come.
MLW 11/9/18
- Myron Reed faces Marko Stunt in our opening match. These are two very small guys wrestling in this match. Marko Stunt is like that XS shirt at the store that is left behind on the rack, whereas Reed is the Small/Medium shirt that at least gets bought once in a while. Can we get Stunt vs. Cheeseburger for the Jr. Cruiserweight Championship? That wasn't a typo: These guys look small compared to most Cruiserweights.
Just a decent match between the two. Marko did a couple of cool things, but I wouldn't expect to see this guy beat anyone. He's a good guy to get sympathy from the crowd, but he's hardly anyone I would expect to get a win over anyone 40-50 lbs heavier than him. Reed uses his size to catch Stunt in a rollup for a 3.
- A really solid promo plays in the back with Salina de la Renta and World Champion Low Ki. They talk about Konnan leading several wrestlers to slaughter and that it's going to take a LOT of work to get that championship off of Low Ki.
- MJF defended his World Middleweight Championship next in a Triple Threat Elimination Match against Jimmy Yuta and Jason Cade. Yuta and Cade are former tag team partners that hate each other. And MJF is in the middle of this feud. Logically, he can play the game of just avoiding the confrontation and allowing the two of them to destroy each other. But Yuta makes sure that MJF gets some early on. Yuta gets double teamed by the heels. At one point, Cade uses MJF and hits a Burning Hammer to MJF onto Yuta to try to eliminate his former partner. These three trade shots left and right for a good portion of the match. Yuta locks in a TARANTULA AND ANKLE LOCK to both Cade and MJF at the same time in a cool looking spot.
Jason Cade gets eliminated by a rollup from Yuta. Yuta is too busy waving off Cade to take advantage of a fallen MJF. Cade runs in and low blows Yuta. Backslide Driver. MJF turns over to get the 1-2-3 on Yuta. Decent match overall, but it wasn't really that memorable. You figured that with the two former partners feuding with each other that the champion was just going to retain in the end.
- Low Ki defends his World Heavyweight Championship against Daga in the main event. A very good hard-hitting match between the two. A lot of fast-paced moves inside and outside the ring, and a few hard bumps on the floor by both men. That "mat" on the floor was about as thin as a yoga mat. I don't want to try to take a suplex on one of those with concrete underneath. I buy Low Ki as a world champion in a promotion like this. He's a very entertaining wrestler who can do strong style, mat based, and aerial forms of wrestling. Low Ki uses a distraction by Salina to pull at the Cauliflower Ear of Daga, causing it to bleed! Double stomp on the back by Low Ki gets the 3. And yes, that ear looks sick as the blood pours over the hand of Daga covering the ear.
Afterwards, Low Ki puts down Tom Lawlor for challenging him for the title coming up at MLW Superfight.
This was a decent showing from MLW. No fluff. But the main event was the only thing I'd recommend going out of your way to see.
As for the better show this week, I'm going with ROH. But MLW's main event is not a bad match to check out.
Until next time, take care of yourselves. Spread some awesomeness.
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