Ring of Honor Review - January 25, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH World Television Champion Marty Scurll def. Jonathan Gresham (Non-Title)

I've heard plenty about Scurll in the past, though I hadn't seen much (if any) of his work until his successful defense of the ROH World Television Championship at Final Battle. That said, the guy has a great aura about him and he's already one of my favorites in Ring of Honor. This was a basic showcase match for Scurll, though Gresham was able to score some offense and this lasted longer than I would have expected. Scurll's ROH TV debut was a cool, newsworthy way to kick off the hour.

Christopher Daniels def. Chris Sabin in a Decade of Excellence Tournament Semifinal Match

Both Daniels and Sabin are glorified tag team wrestlers at the moment, and while there is nothing wrong with that, I don't think there was a vested interest from fans regarding who won here, hence why they were relatively quiet through this bout. Either way, they worked well together and contested a nice match. I liked how Sabin didn't trust Frankie Kazarian considering their history as heels, but they have seemingly turned a new leaf as of late. Meanwhile, Kazarian was a welcome addition to the commentary team for this matchup. They've been telling a solid story with Daniels thus far as he enters the twilight of his career, so I was happy he advanced here and I would like to see him go all the way and come out on top in the tourney.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Kushida def. Will Ospreay and Dragon Lee in a Three-Way Match (Non-Title)

This match marked the official ROH TV debut of Ospreay, so the three-way was special for that alone, not to mention it was extremely exciting from an in-ring standpoint and all three guys put forth an incredible effort. There never seemed to be a dull moment and the crowd was engaged in the action the entire time. I was honestly surprised Kushida won, but apparently they're telling the story that Ospreay can't beat him. Either way, I'm glad they took the time to hype this one week out (even if it was a brief graphic on last week's show) because it was every bit as fun as you would expect from these three.

Overall Show

In addition to the three matches, highlights were also shown of Adam Cole beating Kyle O'Reilly for the ROH World Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 11 earlier this month, which has led to many questions regarding O'Reilly's immediate future with the company. But as far as this show goes, it was excellent from start to finish with Scurll and Ospreay making major first impressions and the Decade of Excellence Tournament moving along nicely. I would strongly recommend taking the time to seek it out.