ROH DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR

 

Trenton, NJ

JOSH WOODS vs. TRACY WILLIAMS (8:40): This was a fantastic show. That's kind of a surprise, because the men's title match had 2 days build and I barely knew anything about the rest of the card. Maybe if you watch the Ring of Honor show on Honor Club you would've known more about this show...but does anyone watch Ring of Honor on Honor Club? It's $9.99 a month for a weekly TV show. No thanks. At least give us the PPV's as part of the subscription. Also, with AEW adding 2 more hours of TV on TNT, Ring of Honor has kind of, sort of been forgotten. I don't think they even promoted this show on AEW these last few weeks. One big reason this show was so great was the awesome Trenton crowd. They were loud for four straight hours tonight. This opener on the pre-show was a match with Pure rules. Don't ask. Besides the only-3-rope-breaks rule, I have no idea what the other rules are and am not entirely sure what the point of these Pure matches are. Either way, this was a good match. It was very stiff with a bunch of power slams and hard hitting. **1/2

ACTION ANDRETTI & DARIUS MARTIN vs. THE WORKHORSEMEN (ANTHONY HENRY & JD DRAKE) (7:22): This match was great. Andretti and Darius were flying all over the place. Even the fat man, JD Drake, did a top rope moonsault. I kind of feel bad for Top Flight. Darius was hurt for awhile which broke up the team...now Dante Martin is hurt. They put Darius and Andretti together because they're both high flyers so it works. Fun match. ***

LEYLA HIRSCH vs. TRISH ADORA (9:13): Leyla Hirsch is still with the company? I haven't seen her in seemingly years. Trish Adora has a move called the Larriot Tubman. That amused me. This was pretty forgettable. *

AR FOX vs. SHANE TAYLOR (10:21): Good match. AR Fox was jumping and flipping all over the place like he always does. Shane Taylor looked good as usual as the big, powerful, monster type. ***

GRAVITY vs. KOMANDER (10:05): And I thought Theory was the dumbest wrestling name these days. Granted, they gave Theory his first name back. But...Gravity? So stupid. It's a shame because he's a pretty exciting luchador. Supposedly these two used to be a tag team somewhere. This was just a classic luchador match and the crowd loved it. Good stuff. ***

SOMOA JOE vs. DALTON CASTLE (14:12): Dalton Castle has to be one of the most entertaining wrestlers outside of actual wrestling. His intro is great and he's a fucking character. But he's never exactly set the world on fire in the wrestling ring beyond his quirky gimmickry. This was kind of slow and the finish was pretty lame. Stokely Hathaway got The Boys banned from ringside and this caught Dalton off guard and Somoa Joe choked him out to retain the TV title. It was at least entertaining for most of the match. **1/2

AUSSIE OPEN vs. BEST FRIENDS vs. THE KINGDOM vs. THE LUCHA BROTHERS (17:01): This match was awesome. I thought it was a great idea to give The Lucha Brothers the tag titles because then you're going to get them in a match on every ROH PPV. So of course Aussie Open won the tag titles here. Aussie Open is great so I guess that's not the worst idea. This was just total action and total mayhem. Best Friends did a lot of comedy. Lucha Brothers did a lot of crazy moves. Matt Taven did some cool over-the-top-rope leaps. Aussie Open did a lot of brutal, fast paced maneuvers. This was just fantastic from start to finish. ***1/2

THE MOGUL EMBASSY (BISHOP KAUN, BRIAN CAGE & TOA LIONA) vs. LEON RUFFIN & SIX OR NINE (MASTER WATO & RUYSUKE TAGUCHI) (12:20): I was so surprised when Taguchi walked out for this match followed by Master Wato. What? These two flew from Japan to Trenton just for this match? Supposedly they're a tag team, as they have a name. I guess those two have to do something since they're not in the G1 this year. This wasn't fantastic or anything but it was a fun match. Leon Ruffin is a small, skinny dude but he did a lot of exciting moves. Taguchi got the crowd into it with his antics. It was entertaining. **1/2

KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. DANIEL GARCIA (14:36): This started slow but by the end it got pretty good. Daniel Garcia's new gimmick is his Magic Mike style dance moves. I kind of feel bad for him for that because he might end up like Fandango instead of being a serious, title contender. Shibata retained the Pure title here by choking out Garcia. It got very hard hitting by the end with some good, back and forth action. It wasn't great, but it was yet another entertaining match on this great show. **1/2

THE DARK ORDER (ALEX REYNOLDS, JOHN SILVER & EVIL UNO) vs. STU GRAYSON & THE RIGHTEOUS (VINCENT & DUTCH) "FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR MATCH" (15:42): This match was insane. It was basically a hardcore match. Stu Grayson joined the Charles Manson-esque cult, The Righteous, so Evil Uno wanted to beat him up for doing that. I was kind of wondering why you would break up one of the best tag teams in wrestling, The Super Smash Brothers. But at least we got this awesome match out of it. So there was a 2x4 with barbed wire. Dutch got thrown onto a barbed wire table. Evil Uno tipped Stu Grayson off a ladder through two tables at ringside. There were thumbtacks and legos strewn about in the ring that everyone got tossed into. Uno and Dutch were bleeding. Vincent did a Swanton Bomb off the top rope onto a table that didn't break so Stu Grayson did a frog splash right after that to break the table. This was a crazy, wild, super entertaining brawl. ***1/2

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. PAC (18:36): Eddie Kingston was supposed to face Claudio for the title on this show. He decided to do the G1 instead. Then Mark Briscoe was going to face Claudio but he got injured. On Wednesday, two days before this show, AEW Dynamite had their annual Blood & Guts War Games match. Claudio and PAC were on the same team but started pushing each other around and then PAC quit the match and walked off. That set this match up. Considering there was pretty much no build for this, it turned out okay. The big spot had Claudio press slamming PAC over the top rope and through a table. PAC looked awesome as always and Claudio is great, so this was a decent match. It never really got to that high drama level you want, but it was pretty good. **1/2

ATHENA vs. WILLOW (20:31): I'm not sure why they put this match on last. I guess they wanted to throw the women a bone. That, or maybe because the men's title match was thrown together late. Bryan Alvarez also bad mouthed AEW the other night because the only woman on Dynamite was Britt Baker and she was in a 1 minute squash. Bryan noted that if Tony Khan is going to say that he wants to push the women and all that then he should prove it. Maybe Tony was listening and that's why this was the main event. Who knows? I thought maybe Willow was winning the women's title here and that's why it went on last. Nope. Athena retained. It was a good match, not great or anything. The crowd certainly helped, as usually they're silent during women's matches. This was such a fun, entertaining show. It seemed to come out of the blue but I'm glad it did. **1/2

WWE MONEY IN THE BANK

 

02 Arena, London

DAMIAN PRIEST vs. BUTCH vs. LA KNIGHT vs. LOGAN PAUL vs. RICOCHET vs. SANTOS ESCOBAR vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA "MITB LADDER MATCH" (20:27): This is my favorite WWE PPV every year. We used to get two men's ladder matches and two men's championship matches. Those days are long gone, sadly. Roman Reigns wasn't even on last year's MITB show and this year didn't even defend his title. This show turned out okay. The super hot London crowd definitely helped the show, although they were only super hot for the ladder matches. They didn't seem too into the actual wrestling in the non-ladder matches. This match was by far the best match on the show. Richochet did the move of the match by leaping through a ladder to the floor. That move was so spectacular they didn't even bother to show a replay. The one surprise was how much the crowd cheered for LA Knight. I don't watch Smackdown too often, but I do know that they turned him into a good guy for some reason. I thought he was great as a heel. Either way, he's pretty boring and not exactly great in the ring, so I'm baffled why anyone would cheer him for anything. The big spot of the match was botched, which was a shame. Logan Paul and Richochet were supposed to fall off a ladder and land on the ropes where Richochet was going to give Logan Paul a Spanish Fly from the top rope down onto two tables at ringside. Why they even attempted to do this is beyond me. Can anyone pull that off ever? Logan Paul slipped on the ropes twice but Richochet just did the move anyway and they both looked like they landed on their heads on the table. Damian Priest won, which I (and probably everyone on Earth) predicted. ***

LIV MORGAN & RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ vs. RONDA ROUSEY & SHAYNA BASZLER (9:02): This was for the women's tag team titles, titles I vaguely remembered existed. I wondered why Rousey wasn't the big star in any big programs lately, but I found out she was filming a reality show called Stars on Mars where a group of celebrities go to Australia and vote each other off the show. I'm not entirely sure why it's called Mars. Does the Australian Outback look like Mars? Maybe I should watch it. Are there, like, extras dressed up like aliens? And a UFO in the background on the set? Sounds like a new low for TV. It's probably more entertaining than this match, though. Shayna turned on Rousey during the match, causing them to lose the tag titles. Huh? Why not have them lose the tag titles and then Shayna is frustrated with the loss and turns on Rousey. You know, actually have a reason for the turn. Plus it makes Liv and Raquel look like non-champions because they didn't really win, they just lucked out. I thought the WWE would get a lot better with HHH in charge but it hasn't and I'm baffled at people that think it has. 1/2*

GUNTHER vs. MATT RIDDLE (7:44): Case in point: this match. Matt Riddle is perhaps WWE's best wrestler. You wouldn't fucking know it from watching most of his matches, though. Why? Because they gave him 7 minutes to get squashed by Gunther. What was the point of this? I was expecting a hard hitting, exciting, 20 minute, dramatic match. We didn't get that. Why did they do that with Shaemus & Gunther but not with Riddle & Gunther? I can't figure out why they haven't pushed Riddle to the main event picture. He was recently in rehab, but that's not the reason. Previously they had him in a comedy tag team with Randy Orton. Riddle should really go to AEW or New Japan. He's being wasted here. Drew McIntyre came out after the match to beat up Gunther to set up a match. Gunther is still great and all, just not as great as when he wasn't stick-thin. *1/2

CODY RHODES vs. DOMINIK MYSTERIO (8:38): Who ever is in charge of writing for this company needs to be fired. Brock Lesnar broke Cody Rhodes' arm last month yet somehow he's wrestling a few weeks later. Makes sense. Dominik on the mic is hilarious but nobody wants to actually see him wrestle a singles match. And the big problem with Rhea Ripley is they keep having her get in the men's faces as if the WWE would actually do a man vs. woman match. They do it in Japan so I still can't figure out why they don't do it here. 1/2*

JOHN CENA SEGMENT: Cena came out to tell the crowd that Wrestlemania should be in London. Okay. Are they jealous of AEW selling 60,000 tickets to All In at Wembley? This show supposedly had 18,000. Grayson Waller came out and Cena beat him up. Cena's a great talker and all but I don't know what the point of this was. Wrestlemania is in Philly next year by the way, not London. Will Roman Reigns finally lose his title then? 

IYO SKY vs. BAYLEY vs. BECKY LYNCH vs. TRISH STRATUS vs. ZELINA VEGA vs. ZOEY STARK "MITB LADDER MATCH" (18:04): This match wasn't fantastic or anything, but at least it was entertaining. They really shouldn't have put Trish Stratus in this match. She is too old to be doing this, but also she hasn't been an active wrestler in years. It was sad watching the other women trying to sell Trish's moves like they weren't terrible. The big spot was Zelina doing a Sunset Flip to Zoey off the top of the ladder onto a ladder bridge. They mentioned that The Amazing Red made this move famous and that he's Zelina's cousin. What? Really? I saw him wrestle in CZW at the ECW Arena like twenty years ago. He was awesome. Zelina is not awesome. I can't even picture her standing next to her husband, Malaki Black, because he's like four feet taller than her. Iyo Sky probably saved this match, as every jump she does looks flawless. She won, which is good, but I really doubt they'd give her the title. The finish was kind of clever, so maybe the writers shouldn't be fired. Iyo Sky handcuffed Becky Lynch to Bayley (Bayley turned on Iyo Sky earlier) on the ladder then climbed up to grab the briefcase. **1/2 

SETH ROLLINS vs. FINN BALOR (12:31): I can picture an epic, 30 minute, high intensity match with some great near falls by the end with these two. Sadly, those type of matches don't occur in the WWE. What we got was a 12 minute bore. It's hard to even care about this new championship title when we've been battered over the head by Roman Reigns' long title reign proclaiming him the top dog. That means that this title is basically the 2nd tier belt. And nobody thought Finn was winning, especially since Seth just won it a month ago. This wasn't terrible or anything but it could've should've been much, much better. *1/2

THE USO'S vs. ROMAN REIGNS & SOLO SIKOA (32:05): This was yawn inducingly terrible. The final five minutes or so were pretty entertaining, but that was after 25 minutes of nothingness. After Sami Zayn didn't beat Roman for the title (which would've been the perfect ending to The Bloodline storyline), then Cody didn't beat Roman for the title, I'm completely checked out of this Bloodline storyline. It's going to keep going forever, though, because it's the reason the ratings are up in the last year. We still have to get Solo turning on Roman and eventually Paul Heyman turning on Roman. I'm fucking done! The Uso's have always been a heel tag team, right? And now we're supposed to cheer for them? That's hard to do. This match wasn't even for a title or anything. By the end we got the ref bump and the announce table break. Roman got pinned and lost which I thought was kind of a surprise. Do we really need a 32 minute tag team match? I mean, c'mon. *