Ring of Honor: Global Wars: Australia Review - February 17, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Bandido and The Outrunners def. ROH World Champion "The Learning Tree" Chris Jericho, Big Bill and Bryan Keith

There was some goofy crap in this match that I wasn't a fan of, but that's just par for the course with anything involving Jericho these days. I also didn't think this needed to last as long as it did, but you can't say the crowd didn't have fun with this. The crowd was especially behind Bill, much like that crowd in Wales over All In weekend last year. You'd think Tony Khan would've broken Bill away from Jericho by now, but it looks like they're taking their time getting there. Ugh. Post-match, Powerhouse Hobbs made the save for the babyfaces before he faces Bill on Wednesday's Dynamite.

ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty def. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Robbie Eagles in a Pure Rules Match

Eagles is from Australia, so it's cool that he got to compete on this card. Mind you, I didn't think he had a chance of taking the title, but this was very well wrestled and one of the better ROH Pure Championship matches I've seen as of late. Moriarty splitting his time between the tag team ranks and the Pure division has caused the championship to feel like an afterthought, so this served as a nice reminder of what Moriarty's capable of and Eagles looked credible in defeat.

Mark Davis def. Tommy Knight

This was weird because Davis was recently reintroduced as a heel and the latest member of The Don Callis Family, yet he was a total babyface in this match because he's an Australia native. I'm sure that's the loudest reaction he's ever gotten on his own because he's simply not interesting as a singles star. I figured this would've been a straightforward squash, but Knight actually scored a ton of offense and it was a competitive contest.

ROH World Tag Team Champions The Sons of Texas def. MxM Collection

This feud has had a fairly simple story with MxM Collection stealing Sammy Guevara's ROH World Tag Team Championship belt. Dustin Rhodes has spent most of his time on AEW TV as of late, but this really didn't need any additional build-up. MxM Collection played their roles well and had a good match with The Sons of Texas, who the crowd was behind throughout.

ROH Women's World Champion Athena def. Alex Windsor

Windsor has appeared in AEW and ROH before, but it was pretty much implied that she only got a title shot here because she's from Australia. Although Windsor was never going to win, I'm glad they saved the best for last. Athena always delivers in big matches and Windsor was impressive in her own right. The crowd was very much into the action as well. I'm beyond ready for Athena to drop the title, but obviously, this wasn't the time or place to pull the trigger.

Overall Show

I'm not sure why this aired on a Monday. Maybe they already have content filmed they intend to air in the usual slot on Thursday? Regardless, this was easily an above-average show by ROH TV standards. We got three title matches and all of them were enjoyable. The other two matches were solid and the crowd was hot throughout. This almost felt like a mini Ring of Honor pay-per-view and was a treat to watch.

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