Ring of Honor Review - January 24, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH World Tag Team Champions The Motor City Machine Guns def. The Dawgs

The Machine Guns were heels the last time we saw them in action at Final Battle against Best Friends, but they were back to being babyfaces here. That was weird, and I guess they'll be faces going forward considering they'll be entering a feud with The Briscoes over the belts, but this was a nice little match. I didn't think for a second that The Dawgs were capturing the championship, mind you, but from an in-ring standpoint, it was a decent outing.

Jonathan Gresham def. Josh "The Goods" Woods

Woods has shown solid progression since winning the Top Prospect Tournament, despite not having much of a sense of direction. I suppose this series of matches with Gresham works in the meantime and they have good chemistry together. I wouldn't have had Woods lose, but Gresham did put him over afterward by raising his hand. I'd like to know more about Woods' character because I believe that will help him build momentum.

Caprice Coleman Hosted Coleman's Pulpit with Coast to Coast

Per usual, Coleman's Pulpit was an effective outlet for Coast to Coast to receive some mic time for a change and further this storyline where they have to win their next match or they're done as a tag team. They aren't tremendous talkers just yet, but this was an okay segment. What was really worth noting was that it was announced Coast to Coast's next opponents will be War Machine. They recently signed with WWE, so I think we all know who's winning that encounter.

Matt Taven Confronted Cody

This marked Cody's first televised appearance on ROH TV since dropping the ROH World Championship to Dalton Castle at Final Battle, and he came across like a babyface here. I would say that the seeds were planted for a face turn, especially considering he then went on to have a war of words with a heel Taven, but The Bullet Club constantly switch back and forth. Nevertheless, I really liked this segment as it established both men as potential challengers to Castle's championship.

ROH World Six-Man Tag Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks def. Best Friends and Dragon Lee & Titan in a Three-Way Tag Team Match

While there wasn't anything on the line here, this was still a really fun main event, as you would probably expect considering who was involved. The Bucks are always a blast to watch and they worked well with their opponents, putting together a ridiculously entertaining three-way tag match. More importantly, like at Final Battle, the newly formed trio of Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky attacked the Bucks afterward, establishing themselves as the next challengers to the World Six-Man Tag Team Championship.

Overall Show

The main event is the only match on the show that you should go out of your way to see as the rest of the episode is fairly average, at least compared to most of the weekly shows. Some storylines were progressed, but the first two matches weren't anything incredibly special, and Coleman's Pulpit was a fine use of time. Cody and Taven had an enjoyable exchange, though. ROH's next pay-per-view will be the 16th Anniversary Show in early March, so they have an ample amount of time to start building toward that.