Ring of Honor Review - July 16, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Dalton Castle and The Outrunners def. BEEF and Premier Athletes (Tony Nese and Ariya Daivai)

It's hilarious how Premiere Athletes and BEEF won one or two matches together and they're already challenging for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, whereas Castle and The Outrunners racked up wins for many months and had to answer a damn open challenge at Supercard of Honor in order to finally contend for the titles. At any rate, this was a nice opener. With BEEF eating the loss for his team, his alliance with Premier Athletes may be short-lived.

Angelico def. Tim Bosby

As I always say, Angelico is a talented dude, but giving him enhancement wins like this has never made sense to me. Yes, he'll get the occasional shot at a singles title, but he never wins anything of note, making these matches meaningless in my opinion. What's weirder is that this wasn't that short, or at least as short as it should have been. This just felt like a waste of time.

"Main Man" Oro def. Mark Davidson

Doing two squash matches back-to-back was certainly a choice. Nothing against Oro, but I'm still not sure whether he's under contract to the company or not, so it's difficult to care about anything he does until he starts having matches that are more consequential. Similar to Angelico vs. Bosby, this did not need to be as long as it was. If Oro goes right back to pulling jobber duty, then this was pretty pointless.

The Kingdom def. The Workhorsemen

The Kingdom knocked off Bustah and the Brain a month or so ago and there hasn't been any follow-up. So much for a "feud" between the two teams. If The Kingdom are being built up for an opportunity at the ROH World Tag Team Championship, then it makes sense to have them beat teams with even the slightest shred of credibility. This was a well-worked match, and The Kingdom winning cemented their status as heels.

AR Fox def. Alan Angels

I loved the backstage segment that was shown before this bout with Angels confronting Fox and explaining their history, including how Angels trained under Fox years ago. That was great stuff and made me way more invested in this match than I would have been otherwise. It was a very enjoyable outing to boot. Hopefully Fox gets his rematch for the ROH World Television Championship eventually.

ROH World Tag Team Champions El Sky Team (Mistico and Mascara Dorada) def. CMLL World Tag Team Champions Los Hermanos Chavez (Angel de Oro and Niebla Roja) (CMLL World Tag Team Championship Was Not Defended)

Apparently Los Hermanos Chavez are a part of Los Nuevos Ingobernables, which are another version of La Faccion Ingobernable. Yet there's no on-screen partnership between them and LFI in Ring of Honor? Strange. Nonetheless, this was the usual entertaining match to come out of CMLL and air on ROH TV. The crowd is way hotter in CMLL than for these ROH shows and that makes a major difference. El Sky Team are doing more for the ROH World Tag Team Championship than LFI ever did.

Caprice Coleman Hosted a Sit-Down Interview with Sammy Guevara

I'm glad Coleman's sit-down interviews have become a permanent part of ROH TV in the last few months because they're consistently the best part of the show. He excels as an interviewer (arguably more than as a commentator) and it's helpful to hear from wrestlers we don't normally here from. That includes Guevara, who discussed being a father and wanting to win a world title. He actually came off as more of a babyface here and I don't think that was the intention.

Bustah and the Brain def. MxM Collection

Bustah and the Brain may have lost to The Kingdom, but they're not completely being forgotten about if they're still winning here and there. Sure, beating MxM Collection doesn't mean a ton, but it's better than losing to them. MxM Collection's silly shenanigans made this slightly less boring than your average outing on this show. The good news is that Bustah and the Brain are trending in the right direction.

Dezmond Xavier def. Brandon Cutler

I genuinely forgot Cutler was still under contract until I saw him following The Young Bucks with a camera on Wednesday's Dynamite. I have no idea why they decided to brush him off, let alone for a competitive contest with Xavier of all people. Realistically, Xavier should have won quickly and decisively, but Cutler had to score as much offense as he did... for some reason. Baffling booking here.

Adam Priest, "Dynamite Kid" Tommy Billington, Eddie Kingston and Ortiz def. Shane Taylor Promotions (The Infantry, Shane Taylor and ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty)

This just felt like an excuse to get multiple teams in one match despite them not having anything to do with each other at the moment. There wasn't anything wrong with the action, but it was your standard eight-man tag team match for the most part. The only notable thing about it was that Priest picked up the victory for the babyfaces instead of Kingston or Ortiz.

ROH Women's World Champion Athena and Billie Starkz def. Viva Van and Lacey Lane

Athena and Starkz had Diamante in their corner. There's been a lot more tension teased between Athena and Starkz in recent months, but not this week, where they were fully on the same page from what I could tell. That begs the question of what the hell is going on with them and what the endgame is because I lost interest a long time ago. This gave them a win, but that's the sole purpose it served.

ROH World Television Champion Lio Rush def. Lee Johnson

It's smart to position Rush as one of the bigger stars in ROH at this point considering the momentum he has in AEW with this new character of his. He can obviously also go in the ring, so having him defend the ROH World Television Championship fairly regularly isn't a bad thing. This was a fun main event between two talented wrestlers, though I never expected Rush to actually lose the title.

Overall Show

I am not exaggerating when I say that this episode was over two and a half hours long. That is absolutely insane for a show that's a chore to watch most weeks to begin with. Less is more! Cut out the filler and only air the matches that will matter. ROH TV favors quantity over quality and it makes for a dreadfully boring program. That isn't to say this episode didn't have some highlights, but the length was painful and ultimately unnecessary.

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