 Eddie Kingston def. James DrakeI really don't want Kingston pulling Ring of Honor duty again after failing to win the AEW World Championship recently, but I didn't have an issue with him appearing on this show with it emanating from New York City and he got a big pop. Drake scored some offense, but this was a glorified squash otherwise and the crowd ate it up. This wasn't out of nowhere, either, as Kingston blew past Grizzled Young Veterans when they accompanied Nathan Cruz on Collision last week. Premier Athletes (Stori Denali, Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese) def. Ashley Vox, VSK and Jon CruzThis was yet another opportunity for Premier Athletes to pick up a win in dominant fashion. Denali beat up "Santa Claus" beforehand, which gave Premier Athletes more heat than anything else they've done in a long time. This served as a straightforward showcase for them, but as I've said before, I'm not sure where these wins are supposed to be leading in the long run. Mina Shirakawa def. Rebecca ScottShirakawa is coming off a not-so-great match with Marina Shafir on Wednesday's Dynamite that she lost, so this felt like a rebound win for her. The bout was brief, but it was exactly what it needed to be as far as getting Shirakawa back on track. I don't know what Shirakawa will be doing in ROH going forward (if anything), so this was a bit random unless it leads to something. The Swirl def. Alec Price and Jordan OliverThe Swirl having meaningless tag team matches is still weird to me because Blake Christian is clearly focused on the ROH World Championship, and although they expressed interest in challenging for the ROH World Tag Team Championship at one point, there's been no movement on that front. Nonetheless, this was a nice match while it lasted and it was cool seeing northeast natives Price and Oliver get a chance. Zack Gibson def. Bryce DonavonHaving Gibson get laid out by Kingston to start the show and then win an enhancement match later on was an odd choice, though I understand it was done intentionally because it was announced that Kingston will be facing Gibson on the Worlds End Zero Hour pre-show. This only existed to give Gibson a momentum-building victory, but it would've been better if it was slightly shorter. Boom & Doom def. The Frat House (Cole Karter and Griff Garrison)Boom & Doom weren't advertised to the audience ahead of time (at least to my knowledge), so they got a big pop from the crowd when they made their entrance. Big Boom! A.J. isn't a regular in ROH, but it seems like he pops up whenever they're in the northeast. Fine by me. This definitely didn't need to last as long as it did (you could tell A.J. was gassed), but the crowd was into it and the action was solid. AEW World Trios Champion Katsuyori Shibata def. Lio RushRush has been getting more singles spotlight as of late. No idea what happened to Action Andretti. At any rate, this was a well-worked match between two guys who have obviously been around for a while. Shibata is no stranger to ROH, but he's not involved in anything of note at the moment, so unless this leads to something, I don't know why it had to happen. ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty def. KomanderI appreciate that this was announced weeks ago, making it more meaningful in the process. Granted, the ROH Pure Championship doesn't do much for me personally, but to his credit, Moriarty is having a quality run and this was the usual enjoyable outing from him against an equally-skilled opponent. It would've been stupid for Moriarty to drop the title here after just beating Nigel McGuinness in an Iron Man match. Overall ShowThe atmosphere in the Hammerstein Ballroom made this an infinitely more entertaining edition of ROH TV. I was there for when they taped some of the matches (and probably some upcoming matches) and it was fun. The episode could've been trimmed down a bit, but at least they capped off the evening with a championship main event that was announced weeks ago. Plus, Kingston vs. Gibson is now official for Worlds End on the pre-show as previously mentioned.
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