Ring of Honor Review - January 10, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Jay Lethal Confronted ROH World Champion Dalton Castle

Castle cut a promo similar to this after his world title win at Final Battle (it didn't make the air but I was in attendance for the event), but it was very good and recapped his journey to becoming champion. Despite teasing a heel turn at Final Battle, Lethal was mostly in babyface mode here, staking his claim at a championship match. Castle was his usual comedic self by using one of his Boys as a chair, but I wanted nothing else from him in this segment and it worked wonderfully. Punishment Martinez attacking Castle also made sense given he won the Survival of the Fittest tournament back in November and is owed a shot at the strap eventually.

ROH World Television Champion Silas Young def. Simon Grimm (Non-title)

I'm actually somewhat surprised Grimm has hardly changed up his appearance since leaving WWE. Sure, he's wearing trunks instead of tights (or has he been wearing trunks this entire time?), but he doesn't have the look of a star whatsoever. He had a fine showing here, but this was largely just a showcase for Young in his first match as TV champ. Afterward, Kenny King brawled with Young, signaling that their feud is not yet over.

The Briscoes def. Ryan Nova and Eli Isom

The Briscoes have been absolutely killing it as heels lately and having them squash two nobodies was a great way to allow them to continue their streak of dominant performances. During their post-match promo, they called out The Motor City Machine Guns and expressed interest in gunning for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. The Guns were heels in their Final Battle bout against Best Friends, but it could still be a very fun match, nevertheless.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Marty Scurll def. Flip Gordon (Non-title)

Scurll tends to thrive in these type of matches where he's up against a fellow smaller wrestler because he's such a spectacular storyteller and can also fly with the best of them. Gordon always makes whoever he's in the ring look like a million bucks and this was no different as they put together an entertaining main event. It didn't serve too much of a purpose storyline-wise other than allowing Scurll to bounce back from his Final Battle loss. Speaking of which, he addressed that during a pre-match promo, and I have my fingers crossed a Lethal vs. Scurll rematch is in the cards sometime soon.

Overall Show

It took long enough, but we finally got some fallout from Final Battle after about a month. It wasn't that newsworthy of a night, especially from an in-ring standpoint, but we did receive storyline progression for several feuds and a decent idea of what direction the company is headed in. The main event is especially enjoyable, but the whole show breezed by (per usual). Next week, Lethal will face Will Ospreay and The Kingdom will square off with Castle and The Boys.