ROH Episode #396 Review

ROH Episode #396 features a rematch from a few months ago between PJ Black and Bandido.  PJ Black claims to have turned over a new leaf.  Will he keep the code of honor or fall back into his treacherous ways.  The Bouncers square off against Reno Scum.  Kenny King opens the show against “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams.

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Quick Results:

Kenny king defeats Tracy Williams

The Bouncers defeat Reno Scum

Bandido defeats PJ Black

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Kenny King vs. Tracy Williams

Early on in the match, Kenny King seemed determined to show he could keep up with the technical wrestling of Tracy Williams.  After some back and forth action, LifeBlood member, Tracy Williams offers a handshake.  King, ever the heel, sucker punches Williams.  LifeBlood is about keeping the code of honor ROH was founded on, but as Nick Aldis pointed out on commentary, you don’t shake hands in the middle of a match.

Williams eventually hits a Death Valley Driver for a close count, but King gains back the momentum.  Kenny King went for his finisher, but Williams counters.  Eventually, King counters a cross body into the Royal Flush for the victory.

All in all, a solid opener for ROH this week.  Kenny King has been getting victories on ROH TV, but they haven’t amounted to a big push.  King was more over in his hometown of Las Vegas than most weeks.  However, he seems to be missing the it factor to catapult to the next level.  Tracy Williams, who is newer to ROH and potentially has more upside, maybe should have picked up the victory here.  We’ll see how things shake out of the next few weeks and where ROH is headed with King. Maybe there’s something there or maybe they’re just keeping him warm enough to be the guy who can put over younger talent.

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The Bouncers vs. Reno Scum

Happy Friday everyone!! Have a Toast Of Honor for us!! pic.twitter.com/AmeTpjYwcG

— Beer City Bruiser (@bcbwinchester) April 19, 2019

This was a fairly quick match and there isn’t a whole lot to say about it.  Beer City Bruiser got worked over a bit early on in the match.  He tags in Brian, I mean Brawler, Milonas.  Hey wait, WWE isn’t the only company who can change someone’s name.  Milonas runs over both Luster the Legend and Adam Thornstowe.  Literally, 10 seconds later, Milonas tags back in Bruiser who had been worked over.  Bruiser lifts up Thornstowe and Milonas drops the 2nd rope legdrop for the win.

The Bouncers are over with the crowd.  I guess people like chanting Beer.  Another week, another victory for the Bouncers.  I don’t see the appeal of this team.  However, with the way ROH tapes their shows, your going to see them every few weeks.  ROH needs to do something to bolster the tag division quickly.  They have done very little to replace the Young Bucks, SCU, and The Best Friends.  I think we might be seeing more of the Jay Lethal/Jonathan Gresham tag team, but ROH needs to find a few tag teams who have the ability to go in the ring and get over with the crowd.  The Bouncers seem to only be able to do one of those things.

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Bandido vs. PJ Black

The announcers have been putting over this match for a few weeks.  We’ve seen some vignettes from PJ Black hyping this match as a big rematch from earlier in the year.  The big story heading into the match was whether or not Black would stick to his guns about sticking to the code of honor.  Throughout the match, Black would find himself taking shortcuts, but would stop himself quickly.  Given the amount of time they’ve put into this story, you would think this hesitation might have cost him the match, but it didn’t.  Bandido won pretty much straight up by being the better wrestler.

The match started off in what has become a pretty cliche fashion these days.  Both men went for moves and the other acrobatically countered out of it.  Cartwheels, kip ups, and headstand flips.  While impressive, there have been much better sequences in ROH and other promotions, especially involving Bandido.  The match had some pretty impressive spots.  Bandido hit a couple of Spanish Flies.  Black hit a nice hurricanrana and moonsault combination.  Surprisingly, Black even busted out a Styles Clash.  After a near fall, Bandido hit the 21 Plex for the win.  The two men shake hands after the match.

This was a good main event.  Bandido is really, really impressive.  However, this match never hit that next gear we’ve seen out of Bandido matches in his short tenure in ROH.  There was something missing and at times it seemed like the timing was off just about a half-second during some of their more complicated sequences.  On the other hand, the crowd was into it and firmly behind Bandido.  Having a pumped crowd always makes for more compelling TV.  Bandido is such a young stud.  ROH did really well to land him.

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LifeBlood Loses a Member

After the main event, we cut to backstage.  Tenille Dashwood is laid out on a broken table in the back of the arena.  The camera pans up.  Bully Ray enters and claims responsibility for the attack that put Dashwood out back in September.  He creepily tells an unconscious Dashwood:

“Don’t worry, Tenille.  I’ll tell LifeBlood you said goodbye.”

This was how ROH wrote Dashwood off TV.  She has left the company.  I’m assuming this will set up Bully vs. Juice or another member of LifeBlood.  At least ROH is using the Dashwood loss to further what could be a compelling story line.

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Final Take:

This show scores a 3 out of 5.  Bandido vs. Black was solid, but not spectacular.  The closing angle was nicely done.  King vs. Williams was a nice opener.  ROH has been known for having really great in-ring segments.  It’s at it’s best when those in-ring masterpieces are done by wrestlers who have the charisma to keep up.  Tonight, didn’t feature any of those dual threat wrestlers other than Bandido.

ROH is in make or break mode right now.  The transition to Matt Taven as champion hasn’t been prominent on TV yet.  Last week featured a stellar main event between the Briscoes and Jeff Cobb/Willie Mack.  Nothing on this show came close to that level.  They need to consistently have that quality of match.  I think they thought PJ Black could deliver with Bandido.  However, it didn’t quite measure up.  I haven’t seen the lineup for next weeks show at the time of this article being written, but let’s hope we have the build to the next ROH pay-per-view and get some build to who is going to challenge Matt Taven.

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