My ROH Survival of the Fittest - Night 2 - Dallas Overview (November 18, 2017)

ROH Survival of the Fittest - Night 2
Dallas, TX
Gilley's Club

Match #1
Survival of the Fittest Round One
Normal Match
Jonathan Gresham vs Vinny Marseglia (w/The Kingdom)

• There's a point early in the match where Marseglia looks to have suffered an injury. So much so that he is helped out of the ring by the referee and is being walked to the back by the referee and Gresham himself before Marseglia ultimately perks up and rams Gresham into the barricade. Great spot here by Marseglia who really played possum well here. It's the usual heel spot but the length of time that Marseglia was acting hurt really sold it to me.
• Marseglia removes the mat from the floor on the outside to expose the floor. He goes to suplex Gresham but decides against it to slide back into the ring as the fans boo. Heel reaction-wise, I get why he did this but if you're in a match and you're looking to wear down and hurt your opponent (and you're a heel) wouldn't you just go ahead and deliver that suplex on the floor?
• Later on in the match, Vinny puts my own foot in my mouth by dropping Gresham with a Brainbuster on the outside for a near-count out.
• Gresham rolls up Marseglia with a Magistral Cradle into a bridged roll-up for the pinfall.
• This was a great opening match.

Winner by pinfall: Jonathan Gresham

Match #2

Survival of the Fittest Round One
Normal Match
Flip Gordon vs T.K. O'Ryan (w/The Kingdom)

• Good match. O'Ryan immediately attacks Gordon while he's still on the ropes posing and continues his assault around ringside.
• Marseglia inadvertently nails O'Ryan with a baseball bat which allows Gordon to get the pinfall.

Winner by pinfall: Flip Gordon

Match #3

Survival of the Fittest Round One

Normal Match
Matt Taven (w/The Kingdom) vs Cheeseburger

• Usual Cheeseburger match where he's beaten down throughout a lot of it with a few hope spots thrown in there.
• Taven wins with The Climax.

Winner by pinfall: Matt Taven

(Dark) Match #4

No Disqualification Match

Deonna Purrazzo vs Karen Q

• Madison Rayne is on commentary! I just watched an episode of Impact Wrestling with her on it. Is she pulling double duty? Pretty cool!
• This was listed as a dark match as sometimes the Women of Honor matches usually are. a No DQ dark match is a little odd to me. I can understand WWE's post-show dark matches having no DQ rules but a random mid-show women's match in ROH? 
• I wonder why they haven't created a women's championship. I would have brought that in before six-man titles.
• Both are in street fight gear here. It was actually a really good street fight for a dark match. I would have commented on how this match would have benefited from some build up but if that doesn't matter if it was a dark match. 
• Purrazzo Pillamized Q's arm and then locks in a Fujiwara Armbar for the submission.

Winner by submission: Deonna Purrazzo

Match #5

ROH World Tag Team Championships

Four Corner Survival Match

The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin)(c) vs Esfinge & Rey Cometa vs Silas Young & The Beer City Bruiser vs The Dawgs (Rhett Titus & Will Ferrara)

• This match was great. The Machine Guns and the CMLL guys were awesome to watch. The Dawgs inserted a comedic element into the match and there was a fun spot where Silas and the Bruiser were in a situation where they had to face each other since every other team refused a tag. They went to lock up but instead pulled shades of the finger poke of doom as Silas went for the pin that every other team broke up.
• Sabin hit a Tornado DDT for the pinfall on Titus.

Winners and STILL ROH World Tag Team Champions: The Motor City Machine Guns

Match #6

Non-Title

Normal Match

The Villain Marty Scurll vs Josh "The Goods" Woods

• I thought this match was really good and I thought that these guys gelled pretty well together. You had Scurll's villainous tactics against Woods' MMA-skilled grappling.
• Scurll won with roll up and a pulling of the tights.

Winner by pinfall: The Villain Marty Scurll

Match #7

ROH World Television Championship

Normal Match

Kenny King (c) vs Scorpio Sky

• Good match. King wins with what looks like a Last Chancery
• After the match, King calls out Punishment Martinez, Silas Young and Shane Taylor. The three aforementioned names brawl among themselves at ringside as King dives onto them. They all brawl until they are pulled apart by security.

Winner by submission: Kenny King

Match #8

Tag Team Match

The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) vs Dalton Castle & Jay Lethal

• This was a really fun match as most Young Bucks matches usually are. However, the pairing of Caslte and Lethal was actually quite enjoyable. Perhaps I've just become a fan of mish-mosh tag teams actually turning out well but this pairing actually worked really well together.
• A usual Buck spot nowadays is the stereo Sharpshooters. Well, Castle and Lethal beat them to the punch by applying stereo Figure Fours which was actually quite ingenious.
• I figured that since Dalton Castle and Jay Lethal seemed to be a mish-mosh pairing that The Bucks would somehow find a way to win. However, Castle has a big ROH World Title match coming up at Final Battle so any team really could have won here.
• Dalton gets the pin after a Bang-a-rang on Matt.

Winners: Dalton Castle & Jay Lethal

Match #9

ROH World Championship

Texas Death Match

"The American Nightmare" Cody (c) vs Christopher Daniels

• So the rules of this match are as follows, if you pin your opponent and he is then unable to answer a 10-count afterwards then you win the match.
• Great match. It was a heel versus heel affair with Cody working as the defacto babyface. 
• Daniels was busted open during the match which added another layer in this match.
• Cody took three guardrails and set up a makeshift table on the outside. Later on in the match, he would deliver a Beautiful Disaster Kick on Daniels on the apron and send him flying onto those guardrails.
• The finish saw Daniels set up a flaming table much to the fans' delight. He went for a Super Frankensteiner but Cody countered it and drove Daniels through the flaming table with a powerbomb.

Winner and STILL ROH World Champion: "The American Nightmare" Cody

Overall Thoughts

It's been a little while since I watched night one of these Survival of the Fittest show but I feel as though I enjoyed this one a little bit more. Good Texas Death Match main event, good Bucks match and all of the undercard stuff was fine as well.