Ring of Honor Review - January 17, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews​

Jay Lethal def. Will Ospreay

Lethal didn't seem to show any signs of turning heel despite the conclusion to his Final Battle bout with Marty Scurll, so that might have just been a case of Lethal one-upping Scurll in their match. This was an awesome opening contest with both men having stellar performances. I especially loved the fantastic finish with Lethal hitting Ospreay with the Lethal Injection while reversing Ospreay's OsCutter. Ospreay has been under-utilized during his time in Ring of Honor in my opinion, but this was an excellent use of him.

Caprice Coleman Hosted Coleman's Pulpit with Jonathon Gresham

As I've said in the past, Coleman's Pulpit is an effective platform for talent (including those who don't receive a ton of TV time) to develop their characters and give us a reason to care about them. I didn't know much about Gresham at all prior to this, so it was cool he had the chance to talk here, even if it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Perhaps him bringing up his losing ways in this segment will lead to some sort of a storyline for him.

Kenny King def. Brian Milonis

We've seen a bit of Milonis on ROH TV before, and I'm familiar with him from the northeast independent wrestling scene. He's an impressive athlete for a guy of his size and he had a fine showing here, but this was more of a showcase for King than anything else as he prepares to chase the ROH World Television Championship. Speaking of which, he was attacked afterward by Milonas, Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser.

ROH COO Joe Koff Interrupted The Addiction and Scorpio Sky

Daniels and Kazarian formed an alliance with Sky at Final Battle, but the explanation of their alliance wasn't the focus of this segment. Rather, they were interrupted by Koff, who said that when their current contracts expire at Final Battle 2018, they will be released. I'm not sure if that's a real thing or not, but it doesn't exactly make the biggest difference right now considering that's a year away. I still assume they will chase the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship in the meantime.

ROH World Champion Dalton Castle and The Boys def. The Kingdom

I don't think it's a stretch to say that The Kingdom are on Castle's level considering these two trios were feuding not too long ago. Plus, The Kingdom have been on a roll in recent months, so they came across like legitimate threats here even though the outcome was never in doubt. That said, this was a very well-wrestled and entertaining main event where the crowd was engaged in the action.

Overall Show

The show starting and ending with quality matches alone made this show worth watching. There was also an ample amount of storyline progression with Gresham appearing on Coleman's Pulpit, King and Young furthering their feud, and Koff addressing the many shenanigans of The Addiction. Next week, we'll be treated to a three-way match with The Young Bucks, Best Friends, and Titan and Dragon Lee, so that should be fun.