Ring of Honor Review - April 4, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH World Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) vs. The Infantry in an ROH World Tag Team Championship Proving Ground Match Ended in a Time-Limit Draw

We've seen what feels like a thousand Proving Ground matches since Ring of Honor was relaunched, but this may have been the first time where one of them ended in a time-limit draw. That means The Infantry have earned themselves an opportunity at the ROH World Tag Team Championship. I assume they'll get it at Supercard of Honor, but why couldn't this have happened on an earlier episode? This was fun for what it was, but it's difficult to care about Undisputed Kingdom after only forming a few months ago.

Anna Jay def. Nikita

Jay is pretty much an ROH regular at this point, and while this run will allow her to hone her skills, it does feel like a significant step backward after being a staple of AEW's women's division for so long. She continues to appear on AEW programming as well, but not in a meaningful role. This was a basic bout that only existed to give Jay a necessary win, but at least it didn't overstay its welcome.

Lee Johnson def. Nick Comoroto

Johnson will challenge Kyle Fletcher for the ROH World Television Championship on Friday night, so there was no way he was losing here, nor should he have. Comoroto being on offense for a majority of the match wasn't ideal, but I understood they were trying to tell. Comoroto remains a generic big man, and I can't say his new partnership with Jacoby Watts is going to make me any more interested in him.

Nyla Rose def. Alexia Nicole

Rose has been spinning her wheels since failing to beat Athena for the ROH Women's World Championship. She wasn't able to enter the ROH Women's World Television Championship Tournament, so maybe she can be the first challenger for whoever becomes the inaugural champ at Supercard of Honor. Keeping her strong in the meantime is smart and thus this was exactly what it needed to be.

Evil Uno def. London Lightning

Uno isn't awful by any means, but I don't understand why Uno would need his a singles showcase. It's pretty clear at this point that he isn't going to amount to anything on his own, so why waste time on stuff like this? It was a glorified squash that accomplished nothing. I know Stu Grayson was released by AEW a few days ago, but the remaining members of The Dark Order probably have contracts for life with the company.

Hikaru Shida and Queen Aminata Attacked ROH Women's World Champion Athena and Billie Starkz During the ROH Women's World Championship Contract Signing

We rarely get in-ring talking segments on ROH TV and especially with the women, so this was refreshing. I have plenty of gripes with the ROH brand these days, but the women's division is certainly strong and I applaud the effort put into making many of the women matter. This was a solid segment with good mic work from all involved. It also successfully built toward two different title matches for the women on the upcoming pay-per-view.

Lexy Nair Conducted a Sit-Down Interview with Mark Briscoe and ROH World Champion and NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston

This was terrific stuff and way more effective in this setting than it would have been in the ring. They're taking the route of respect for their ROH World Championship clash at Supercard of Honor and both guys have played their roles remarkably well. It's a simple story, but it works. The build for the event hasn't been anything worth writing home about, but I'm really looking forward to Kingston vs. Briscoe and I have no doubt it'll deliver.

Action Andretti and Top Flight def. Jack Cartwheel, Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal

This was a rather random main event for the go-home show considering none of these guys are scheduled for Supercard of Honor as of now, but that's par for the course with ROH TV. The important thing is that the action was entertaining and they made the most of the time they had. Maybe Andretti and Top Flight can capture the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship soon so they can bring the belts back to ROH (if not ditch them all together).

Overall Show

This will be the third Supercard of Honor under the AEW banner and although I'm excited for this one the least, I'm sure it will be enjoyable given what's on tap, if nothing else. As always, there were some meaningless matches on this show, but the last-minute hype for Supercard of Honor was largely well done. The talking segments in particular stood out and the runtime wasn't egregiously long.

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