Ring of Honor Review - January 31, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Punishment Martinez def. Dobbs

Dobbs was simply another enhancement talent fed to Martinez for him to squash, and it was glorious to watch. This didn't last long whatsoever, and aside from one slap from Dobbs, this was all Martinez, allowing him to build more momentum in the process. Afterward, he was confronted by Dalton Castle, who forced him to flee from the ring, so it looks like that will be our next program over the ROH World Championship.

Coast to Coast def. War Machine

This was taped last month, and by this point (given WWE announced War Machine's signing to NXT last week), it was pretty obvious who was winning. However, that didn't take away from the exciting action in the slightest as War Machine went above and beyond in putting the younger tandem over on their way out with Coast to Coast kicking out of several of their signature maneuvers. The audience ate this up and it turned out to be a way more exciting encounter than I was originally anticipating.

Bully Ray Bid Farewell

Bully cut several promos like this late last year teasing retirement and went on to wrestle at Final Battle anyway, but his Street Fight match on that show truly appeared to be his last. This was his official retirement from the ring and it came across amazingly well with him showing thanks to the audience and the crowd repaying the favor. Jay Lethal and a number of other roster members surrounded the ring and also paid respect to Bully, so this was well done all around. The timing of this was interesting considering he and D-Von returned to Raw 25 just last week and now they are WWE Hall of Fame bound.

SoCal Uncensored def. Bullet Club

Bullet Club consisted of Cody, Marty Scurll and Hangman Page for this match, coming off SoCal Uncensored's (sweet stable name by the way) attack on The Young Bucks the week prior. As expected, this was a very entertaining main event with all six stars having great showings. I will say that Page nearly breaking his leg with the moonsault off the top rope to the outside of the ring (partially landing on the barricade in the process) was just a dumb spot, but that aside, I enjoyed this. The finish felt anticlimactic, though. I'm happy Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky won, but the ending came out of nowhere.

Overall Show

As always, ROH put together a solid show that successfully furthered several storylines in addition to featuring quality in-ring action. There isn't anything I'd suggest skipping over because everything seemed to serve a purpose this week. War Machine vs. Coast to Coast was especially a treat knowing it was War Machine's final outing in Ring of Honor, so seek that out when you can if you aren't familiar with their work going into their NXT run.