Ring of Honor Review - December 5, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kenny King def. Christopher Daniels

King has been on quite the roll lately, having entertaining matches against everyone he's gone up against and emerging victorious almost every time. That hot streak continued when he faced Daniels here, as this was a very well-wrestled match with a great pace. Daniels can hang with the best of them even as he enters the twilight of his career and that was evident in this outing. Despite a strong effort, however, he fell short of victory versus the young up-and-comer. It's weird that King won't be a part of the Final Battle card (as of now, anyway), but hopefully he'll be given another meaningful program soon after of the event.

ROH World Television Champion Jeff Cobb def. Josh "The Goods" Woods (Non-title)

Cobbs has largely been mowing straight through his opponents with ease since arriving in Ring of Honor, so it was slightly strange to see him have a competitive contest with Woods of all people. Don't get me wrong, it was a perfectly passable match and Cobb wasn't hurt at all but he probably should have been booked to more dominant during it. Afterward, Adam Page (who sat on the stage for this) stormed the ring and immediately issued an open challenge so he could one-up Cobb.

Adam Page def. Facade

Facade has made a handful of appearance on ROH TV this year and has always impressed me, but there was no questioning that this was all about Page and allowing him to hit his signature spots. Facade was fine here, but the sole purpose of this was to give Page more momentum ahead of his ROH World Television Championship match at Final Battle. The post-match face-off between Page and Cobb was well done.

ROH World Tag Team Champions SoCal Uncensored def. Guerrero Maya Jr. and Stuka Jr.

Needless to say, there was no suspense in any of the nearfalls because fans had zero reason to believe the titles were changing hands here. That said, it was a fun match while it lasted with Maya and Stuka having solid showings. It could have benefited from having more time, mind you, but that's merely nitpicking. I loved Daniels' post-match promo where he announced that if he fails to beat Marty Scrull for his ROH World Championship shot at Final Battle, then he's gone from the company per ROH COO Joe Coff's ultimatum one year ago. It's a late addition to the card, but it makes storyline sense and they quickly got me excited for it.

Overall Show

Final Battle is next Friday and I appreciated how these last few editions of ROH TV have been spent building up the pay-per-view card. It feels like a super special card because of how it's been hyped up. This was a successful show in that respect and the in-ring action was enjoyable on the whole. Next week's main event pitting Jay Lethal, Cody and Dalton Castle against The Kingdom has plenty of promise on paper given all the combustible elements involved and established history between them.