Ring of Honor Review - June 1, 2016

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

​ACH def. Lio Rush

I'm not too disappointed by ACH and Matt Sydal going their separate ways because while they were a fun tandem, they didn't team regularly enough to the point where the breakup feels like a big deal. I wish it had more storyline support behind it, though. Meanwhile, I've been pleasantly surprised by how Rush has been utilized thus far in Ring of Honor. He hasn't done too much of note, but he looked strong in the tournament he won and had an impressive outing versus Jay Lethal not too long ago. ACH appears to be headed for a feud with Silas Young, so it was more important he won here. This was a fun match to kick off the show and I'm happy Young has a worthwhile program coming out of his fantastic feud with Dalton Castle.


The Motor City Machine Guns def. ROH World Tag Team Champions The Addiction and Roppongi Vice in a Triple Threat Tag Team Match to Become the No. 1 Contenders to the ROH World Tag Team Championship (Non-title)

The Addiction claiming they were undefeated was funny, but while I usually appreciate the commentators' attention to detail, I don't know how wise it was to point out that they were actually on a losing streak in the months leading up to their title win, combined with their loss here. It will be interesting to see if they're booked like vulnerable champions as a result, but I'd hope not because they deserve a solid reign as champs. As for this match, all three teams worked well together and produced an awesome match with the Machine Guns being properly spotlighted. They've been feuding with The Addiction for a while now, so it was logical for them to be first in line for a title shot.

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NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions Bullet Club def. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin and Yoshitatsu (Non-title)

As entertaining as this match was from an in-ring standpoint, I couldn't get over how flawed and confusing the psychology (if that's even the right word to use) was. As the commentators hit home multiple times throughout the night, The Bullet Club are the new top heel faction in Ring of Honor after crashing the Global Wars pay-per-view. That said, why did Matt Taven make them out to be babyfaces on commentary? I understand (yet don't necessarily agree with) how they play to the crowd despite being heels because they're immensely popular, but that just seemed strange. Anyway, it was an extremely enjoyable match otherwise and Bullet Club went over as they should have.


Overall Show

First-run programming from Ring of Honor has been long overdue. It feels like it's been months since I reviewed an edition of ROH TV that didn't feature matches from earlier in the year, and my lack of reviews recently has been due to the last few episodes being nothing but highlight shows. Thankfully, we're back to post-pay-per-view material and each of the matches on this show were meaningful in addition to being very well-wrestled.