Ring of Honor Review - February 8, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

BJ Whitmer and Punishment Martinez vs. War MaChine Ended in a Double Count-out

It looks the nonsense with Whitmer and Martinez is continuing despite Steve Corino's departure from the company, but at least that never-ending feud is finally over. Whitmer does nothing for me, but Martinez has a ton of potential and is incredibly impressive for a guy his size, so I was glad he was able to shine here. This was a fun match that exceeded my expectations, though I probably should have figured as such from a match involving War Machine who always go all out. This was a rare instance where I didn't mind the non-finish because it keeps this program alive.

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Kingdom def. Corey Hollis, Joe Ague and John Skylar (Non-title)

Hollis and Skylar are regulars in Ring of Honor, but as enhancement talent, I'm surprised they scored as much offense as they did in this match, which I assumed would be a squash. They showed personality and I personally like the trio, but I just don't see the need for six-man tag team titles. On a side note, I wish The Kingdom would ditch the powerbomb finisher they use because it comes across too much like The Shield for me. On the bright side, it was cool to see Dalton Castle and The Boys challenge them for the titles, answering the question why they weren't a part of the tournament to crown the inaugural champions to begin with. I also liked Colt Cabana attacking The Boys to further that feud.

ROH World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks def. Tempura Boyz

It's a shame Tempura Boyz weren't shown any love whatsoever coming into this match because they were hardly threats to the titles here. They were laid out by The Young Bucks following their win last week, they were mocked before this bout, and then they were laid out afterward. It was a well-wrestled matchup, but Tempura Boyz didn't come out of this looking good at all. Meanwhile, Hangman Page's return fell flat for me because I had completely forgotten he was gone.

Donavan Dijak def. Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Jay White, Lio Rush and Jonathan Gresham in a ROH World Television Championship No. 1 Contender's Scramble Match

I was unaware of the Scramble match rules in ROH prior to this point, so I'm glad Kevin Kelly cleared that up on commentary (they aren't the same rules a WWE Scramble match would have, by the way). All six men are babyfaces, so the crowd didn't have any incentive to cheer one guy over the rest, but they were engaged in the entertaining action, nevertheless. The final few minutes were especially excellent, and I'm totally content with Dijak as the winner. Furthermore, Marty Scurll was a bit over-the-top at times on commentary, but at least he didn't take away from the match.

Overall Show

All four featured matches this week had something different to offer and served some sort of purpose, so it made for a highly enjoyable, wrestling-heavy edition of ROH TV. It was also fairly newsworthy with a new No. 1 contender to the ROH World Television Championship being crowned, Page returning, and the World Tag Team titles being defended. The show-closing segment with War Machine, Martinez and Whitmer was a nice touch as well.