Ring of Honor Review - July 15, 2015

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Matt Sydal def. Adam Page

In watching and more and more of his matches in ROH, I think WWE made a big mistake by releasing the former Evan Bourne. He comes across as more than just a spot monkey, but a lot of that might be due to WWE limiting his in-ring style. He worked a fun little opener with Page that wasn't much of consequence, but the post-match attack on Sydal and ACH was brutal and definitely added more fuel to the fire in this ongoing feud between the two teams. Any predictions on when we should expect to see Steve Corino finally snap at his son getting manipulated by The Decade?


Veda Scott Addressed Moose

Moose vs. Cedric Alexander seems like a logical route to take at this point after what happened about a month or so ago. Alexander could revitalize his career by aligning with Scott whereas Moose might be able to breakout as a babyface on his own. This was a short and sweet promo effectively hyping the match for the next iPPV in just a few short weeks.

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Will Ferrara def. Silas Young

With Dalton Castle nowhere in sight for this match, you had to know he was going to get involved at some point. Technically, it was his "boys" and not him, but it still furthered the feud between the two. The match was decent otherwise, but Ferrara's win was an afterthought when Young's attack on The Boys was the main focus. I'm glad Young vs. Castle is continuing because their match at Best in the World was a treat, but I question why Castle is randomly facing Adam Cole at the next iPPV instead.


ROH Television Champion Jay Lethal def. Mark Briscoe

With plenty of time to work with, Lethal and Briscoe made the most of it by contesting a high-paced, exciting match. Although we see interference from Lethal's allies in his matches from time to time, he doesn't feel like a weak champion because it's been established in the past that he can get the job done on his own. The final few minutes were very fun and it helped set the stage for next week's huge eight-person tag team match on the grand 200th episode which should be a blast.


Overall Show

I tend to enjoy ROH TV more often than not and this was another one of those that I enjoyed on the whole. The first two matches were nothing spectacular, but storylines were progressed in both of them. The main event was very good as one would expect and it did a solid job of building toward a huge main event for next week's show, giving viewers something to look forward to as a result. I also appreciated the subtle hype for Death Before Dishonor, but I don't assume next week's go-home show will be too strong with it already being announced that most of it will consist of clips in celebration of 200 episodes.