Ring of Honor Review - April 17, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Billie Starkz def. Lacey Lane to Qualify for the ROH Women's World Championship Survival of the Fittest Match at Supercard of Honor

Lane was CRU's manager for, what, a month? Lio Rush is acting insane these days and the team is no more, leaving Lane to become an afterthought in Ring of Honor's women's division. Personally speaking, I would've rather seen Lane qualify for Survival of the Fittest since the stuff with Starkz and Athena is played out at this point, but I wasn't shocked by Starkz advancing instead. This was an adequate opener.

Yuka Sakazaki def. Viva Van to Qualify for the ROH Women's World Championship Survival of the Fittest Match at Supercard of Honor

We see a lot of Van in enhancement matches on AEW TV and on ROH TV, but I can't recall a single instance where she won, so there was zero reason to think she'd beat Sakazaki here. In other words, this was a glorified squash for Sakazaki. Similar to Starkz, Sakazaki has faced Athena in the past and lost, so she's not the most exciting addition to Survival of the Fittest, but she won't drag down the quality of it, either.

ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty def. Marshall Von Erich

I couldn't tell you the last time I saw either of The Von Erichs in singles competition. I'm glad Marshall got a chance to go what he can do by himself, but I can't say anything about his performance stood out to me at all. The stuff with Moriarty blends together most weeks and this was no exception. He's having matches for the sake of having matches and it's not making the ROH Pure Championship feel any more important. This was perfectly passable, but it was rather random.

Trish Adora def. Hyan to Qualify for the ROH Women's World Championship Survival of the Fittest Match at Supercard of Honor

​If you thought Hyan would join her tag team partner Maya World in the ROH Women's World Championship mix, think again. However, I have no issue with Adora being a part of Survival of the Fittest as she's someone who's been underutilized for some time now. These two had a fairly average outing, but it was what it needed to be and it wasn't a guarantee Adora would win.

CMLL World Women's Champion Persephone def. Isla Dawn to Qualify for the ROH Women's World Championship Survival of the Fittest Match at Supercard of Honor

Persephone already unsuccessfully challenged for the ROH Women's World Championship at Final Battle, but I have no issue with her going back after the belt again. Sure, I doubt she's going to win, but it puts her in a prominent spot at a time when she's not doing a whole ton on AEW TV. Dawn more than held her own in this match and she's done well in ROH, but Persephone was absolutely the correct choice to advance.

ROH World Television Champion Nick Wayne def. Evil Uno

Wayne did a pre-taped sit-down interview with Caprice Coleman beforehand and we also heard from him afterward, so he got plenty of screen time on this episode. There's no denying Wayne's talent, but he's been painfully boring since he returned from injury and it feels like he's doing the ROH World Television Championship no favors. This was fine, but Evil Uno wasn't exactly credible competition.

AR Fox def. Daisuke Sasaki

Fox is a fantastic athlete and I've been a big fan of his work since the Lucha Underground days, but it feels like he's been in the same spot for a while now. He'd actually be the perfect fit as ROH World Television Champion if they bothered to take the title off Nick Wayne, who is holding it hostage for some reason. At any rate, this was a solid showcase for Fox, but how much does it actually mean if it's not going to lead to anything?

Lethal Twist (Blake Christian, Lee Johnson and Jay Lethal) def. Nick Comoroto, Aaron Solo and QT Marshall

We saw Comoroto, Solo and Marshall team up not too long ago and it was said that it wasn't an official reunion of The Factory, but it's definitely starting to look like it. Good lord, I hope not. That stable sucked and pretty much killed the careers of everyone involved. That said, this was a well-worked six-man tag team match. The heels had to go over with Christian challenging for the ROH World Championship at Supercard of Honor. Christian really should be doing more on his own, though.

Maya World def. Robyn Renegade to Qualify for the ROH Women's World Championship Survival of the Fittest Match at Supercard of Honor

World recently had a really enjoyable match with Athena for the Women's title, so I'm glad she's still in contention for the championship and will be a part of the Survival of the Fittest match by virtue of her victory here. Meanwhile, Renegade feels like the gatekeeper of the women's division in ROH, so the outcome wasn't really in doubt here, but they delivered a decent match.

ROH Women's World Champion Athena def. Zayda Steel in an ROH Women's World Championship Proving Ground Match

Has Steel won enough matches to justify giving her a Proving Ground opportunity? It feels like she wins as much as she loses. Nonetheless, it was nice to see her spotlighted in the main event against Athena and they had a good match. I don't know how much Steel really gains in defeat considering she's done a lot of losing since signing with AEW, but at least she had an impressive showing.

Overall Show

Why was this show almost two hours long?! I know I've asked that about ROH TV many times before, but it doesn't happen as often as it used to. I understand they wanted to get in all of the Survival of the Fittest qualifying matches in, but they could've easily saved some of them for next week. Despite the excessive runtime, having multiple matchups that mattered did make this edition of ROH TV more significant than most.

SEE MORE: ROH Reviews