 ROH Women's World Champion Athena def. Aleah James in an ROH Women's World Championship Proving Ground MatchJames made her AEW debut on an episode of Collision earlier this month where she lost to Hikaru Shida. She was impressive during her time in WWE NXT UK and held her own here against Athena, so I'd be down for her to join Ring of Honor full-time. As for Athena, if you've seen one of her Proving Ground matches, you've practically seen them all. She and Billie Starkz attacked Abadon afterward, so that furthered the Athena vs. Abadon feud. Johnny TV def. Sidney AkeemObviously, Akeem is the former Scrypts/Reggie from WWE/NXT. His contract expired at the start of the summer and the company opted not to renew. He excels at the high-flying, acrobatic stuff, so I was actually looking forward to this match when I saw it advertised in advance. He and Johnny had a nice little match, though I was expecting it to be a little faster paced. I don't know that Akeem needs to be signed, but he had a solid showing. Lance Archer def. AuzzyI'm always surprised whenever I see Archer in action because I genuinely forget that he's still under contract to AEW/ROH. As I've said before, I resorted to not having any faith the company will do anything with him other than use him for the occasional squash like we saw here. Thus, I wouldn't put much stock in this win for him. He'll probably pop up again soon so he can lose to someone with actual momentum. Mina Shirakawa def. Rachael ElleringMore of Shirakawa on AEW/ROH TV is hardly a bad thing. She was shown in a backstage promo on AEW TV a few weeks ago and also won a match on Rampage, so I don't get the sense that she's sticking around on ROH TV. Rather, she's in ROH to rack up wins before likely feuding with Mariah May in AEW now that she's the AEW Women's World Champion. This was a well-wrestled, competitive contest. Post-match, Taya Valkyrie attacked both women, so I assume she'll be Shirakawa's next opponent. Top Flight and Action Andretti def. LSG, Colton Charles and GKMI'm glad Top Flight and Andretti have been getting so much television time lately between AEW and ROH. They're a fun trio and I've enjoyed their alliance with Lio Rush. You'd think they'd be in line for an ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship opportunity by now, so hopefully soon. Perhaps this squash win will get them one step closer and that's why it existed. EJ Nduka def. Demo DiamondNduka actually celebrated a birthday yesterday. He turned 36, which means AEW/ROH doesn't have a ton of time to waste with him. I understand wanting him to find his footing in ROH before being transitioned over to AEW, but the process shouldn't take forever as it does with some people. This was the straightforward showcase that it should have been. Evil Uno def. Jacoby WattsI saw last week on social media that Nick Comoroto underwent surgery. He said he'll be sidelined for the remainder of 2024, yet he was in Watts' corner here. A quick search told me that this was taped weeks ago, so that explains his appearance. Nonetheless, this was a waste of a match. I care very little about The Dark Order at this point and care even less about Watts, so I have no idea what purpose this was supposed to serve. Josh Woods def. Barrett BrownPremier Athletes are all over ROH TV every week and they tend to lose a lot more than they win. Woods has the most potential of the three, but even he feels stuck in this group at the moment. The best thing I can say about this was that it was brief. We've already seen him unsuccessfully challenge for gold in the last year, so if that's where this is leading, I have zero interest. Leila Grey def. Promise BraxtonThe commentators mentioned that Braxton was trained by Booker T. Grey was on offense for a majority of the match, so it was tough to tell what exactly she could do. Keeping this on the shorter side was probably for the best as I haven't seen too many longer matches from Grey that were good. There's not much I can say about the bout, but Grey using Christopher Daniels' finisher to win was cool. Blake Christian def. Rosario GrilloI believe Christian teased turning heel the last time we saw him wrestle (ROH holds so many matches on their weekly shows that I can't remember everything that transpires), so it was logical that he attacked Grillo right out of the gate. He had more intensity about him and put Grillo away quickly. We'll see if he gets any sort of meaningful push out of this, but it's a refreshing change of pace for him, if nothing else. Tomohiro Ishii def. Ariya DaivariTony Khan must really like Daivari because I feel like I see him on both AEW TV and ROH TV on a weekly basis. I'm sure he's a great dude and is very helpful behind the scenes, but he's about as exciting as watching grass grow. I don't understand why Ishii couldn't have just destroyed him here. The outcome was what it needed to be, but it would've benefited from being slightly shorter. ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty def. Angelico in a Pure Rules MatchIt made sense for this to be the main event of the episode with it being the only title match this week, but it didn't feel like a main event. Nothing against Moriarty who deserves the spotlight, but Angelico isn't a threat and hasn't been in many years. Despite that, they had a quality contest. It wasn't the most thrilling Pure Rules match, but at least they worked well together. Overall ShowThis was an improvement over last week's edition of ROH TV because it was slightly shorter, but an hour and 40 minutes is still way too long for a show that largely features squashes. Unfortunately, that's all this episode was. Only the main event was somewhat consequential, and even that isn't worth seeking out. ROH TV has been a bit better since Death Before Dishonor, but this was very much a throwaway show.
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