Ring of Honor Review - July 10, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Kingdom def. The Bouncers

The Bouncers have been on quite the roll since turning babyface earlier this year, and as far as I know, they have yet to receive a shot at the ROH World Tag Team Championship. Thus, I would have had them go over here just to keep their win streak alive, but this was a nice showcase for the two tandems, nonetheless. Again, I would have preferred to see The Bouncers go over, but The Kingdom were in desperate need of a victory themselves. If nothing else, at least they benefited.

Josh "The Goods" Woods def. Brian Johnson

I loved how Woods was brought back to ROH TV a few weeks back. He squashed some local athlete and went over in decisive and dominant fashion. Unfortunately, he was anything but dominant here. I would have been fine with it had he been facing a regular Ring of Honor roster member, but Johnson looked like a dude that couldn't cut it in the Top Prospect Tournament. This wasn't terrible by any means, but Johnson spent way too much time on offense and therefore Woods didn't come away from this looking impressive at all.

ROH World Champion Matt Taven def. Tracy Williams

These post-pay-per-view editions of ROH TV largely feature meaningless matches with zero storyline significance, so I was surprised to see the ROH World Championship up for grabs here. Of course, Williams didn't pose much of a threat to the title because of how he and the rest of Lifeblood have lost for the better part of 2019 so far (which hurt this match overall), but it was still very well-wrestled and Williams looked good in defeat, even kicking out of The Climax at one point. I'm a Taven fan, but he has paled in comparison as champion to everyone who preceded him.

Overall Show

This wasn't nearly as enjoyable of an episode as last week, but it was still solid on the whole. The world title being on the line in the main event was newsworthy and the match itself picked up nicely down the stretch. Woods vs. Johnson almost bored me to tears and felt like it accomplished nothing, but I did like Bouncers vs. Kingdom as the opener. I've heard that ROH will soon be adjusting how they tape TV after their pay-per-views, which is incredibly encouraging news. As it currently is, fans have little reason to want to watch the shows until fresh content begins to air.