Ring of Honor Review - April 25, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Isiah Kassidy def. Komander

Kassidy made his Ring of Honor debut a few weeks back. I'm not sure why Kassidy is wrestling on his own as opposed to teaming with Marq Quen, ​but at least we're getting to see him at all since he's barely been on AEW programming since resurfacing at the start of the year. This was the expected quality contest from these two and they made nice use of their time. Kassidy winning was a slightly surprising outcome considering Komander does way more singles matches (and gets way more championship opportunities as a result).

Action Andretti and Top Flight def. The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds, John Silver and Evil Uno)​

It's funny that we actually got a competitive trios tag team match for once and it was days removed from the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship being merged with the AEW World Trios Championship. You'd think this would earn Andretti and Top Flight a shot at those unified titles, but I'm not holding my breath. Dark Order does nothing for me at this point, but this was pretty good for what it was.

Anna Jay def. Allysin Kay

Jay seems to lose almost every time she wrestles on AEW programming these days but wins more often than not on ROH TV. In other words, it feels like she's destined to solely serve as a stepping stone for the foreseeable future. She and Kay had a serviceable match. It's cool to see Kay every now and again, but I'm still shocked that she hasn't been full-time in any major promotion in years.

Johnny TV def. Will Austin

Johnny wrapped up his rivalry with Dalton Castle at Supercard of Honor and there was no indication here what's next for him. This just seemed to get him back on track with a win. Austin scored a minimal amount of offense, but this was a fairly straightforward squash for Johnny otherwise. I'd like to see Johnny challenge for the ROH World Championship at some point, but he'd certainly need to rebuilt quite a bit in order to feel like a legitimate threat.

Mogul Embassy (Brian Cage and The Gates of Agony) def. Manders and Beeftank

There was a weird edit during the in-ring introductions where Cage and Gates of Agony weren't introduced as Mogul Embassy. Instead, they weren't introduced as anything, but you can tell that they were and it was removed later on. Are we supposed to think they are no longer associated with Swerve Strickland, who doesn't need Mogul Embassy anymore? At any rate, this was every six-man tag team match we've ever seen from them, but I appreciated that the commentators acknowledged Calvin Tankman as one of their opponents. I thoroughly impressed by his work in MLW and I hope he gets another look. 

Yuka Sakazaki def. Leila Grey

Between beating Trish Adora recently on Collision and this victory, it's safe to assume Sakazaki is being built up for something. Interestingly, she hasn't been around in AEW or ROH since failing to dethrone Athena as ROH Women's World Champion at last year's Supercard of Honor event, so maybe she'll set her sights on the new ROH Women's World Television Championship? This was a solid showcase for Sakazaki.

ROH World Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Kingdom (Mike Bennett and Matt Taven) def. The Outrunners in an ROH World Tag Team Championship Proving Ground Match

Taven and Bennett should be getting a step up in competition, not a step down. The Outrunners play their roles well as the old-school enhancement talent, but they are not a threat to any titles in AEW or ROH, so putting them in this position was comical. It would have been one thing if this was a quick squash for Taven and Bennett, but Outrunners scored more offense than they should have. ROH has plenty of top teams, but are they not going to defend against any of them?

Taya Valkyrie def. Laynie Luck

This was along the same lines as Johnny's match from earlier in the episode where she was on offense for most of it and won in a matter of minutes. They both need a credibility boost in the worst way after being presented as a lower-level act in their feud with Dalton Castle, so this was effective in that respect. Valkyrie is obviously very talented, yet she's done nothing of note since losing every championship opportunity she was afforded in the first few months of her AEW run. What a waste.

Lance Archer and The Righteous def. Jon Cruz, GPA and Ren Jones

Did Archer and The Righteous get the memo that the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship are no more (or about to be)? It's not like they appear on AEW TV enough as a unit to earn a shot at the AEW World Trios Championship, so I have no clue why their trio exists at this point. Any potential they had was squandered months ago. This was whatever and accomplished absolutely nothing.

Abadon def. Nova

I thought Abadon might feud with Mercedes Martinez after she and Diamante cheated to eliminate Abadon from the ROH Women's World Television Championship Tournament, but there's zero follow-up on that since it happened, so apparently not. Going after the TV title would make sense for them, though. This was kept brief and was exactly what it needed to be with Abadon going over decisively.

The Beast Mortos def. Blake Christian and AR Fox in a Three-Way Match

Tony Khan really needs to stop booking these random multi-person matches for ROH TV. They consistently serve no purpose and only exist to kill time. The thing is, ROH TV could easily be an hour (or less) long, but TK insists on incorporating as many matches in these shows as possible, despite a majority of them being meaningless. If nothing else, this was a fun three-way with Mortos continuing to build momentum.

Overall Show

Matches, matches and more matches! If you enjoy that sort of thing, then this show was for you. If you're more like me and what your matches to have some sort of significance, then you probably thought it was a throwaway show like I did. Why book 10 matches or more for a show if only a few of them will matter? ROH is such a bizarre brand because the weekly shows are completely pointless yet the pay-per-views always deliver. Maybe they should go back to just doing the quarterly pay-per-views if episodes like this are any indication.

SEE MORE: ROH Reviews