Ring of Honor Review - June 20, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Titan def. Aaron Solo

It looks like the CMLL influence is bleeding over from AEW to Ring of Honor. To be fair, ROH was working with companies like AAA and CMLL years before AEW was even a thing, but it's Forbidden Door season and ROH is getting back in on the fun as well. For as little as I care about Solo, this was a nice little match and Titan was impressive as always while on offense. At least the CMLL guys can actually win in ROH unlike in AEW.

Anthony Henry, Cole Karter and Griff Garrison def. Serpentico and The Infantry

I don't know why Angelico and JD Drake weren't involved, but this just served as a reminder that Karter and Garrison are still feuding with Spanish Announce Project after all these months. I beg you, Tony Khan, just end it. That said, this was a well-worked six-man tag team affair. I don't know what it was supposed to accomplish other than to get these guys on the show, but they made the most of their time.

Queen Aminata and Red Velvet Interrupted ROH Women's World Champion Athena and ROH Women's World Television Champion Billie Starkz

Athena mentioned here that she'll be out injured for several months and that she doesn't intend to relinquish the ROH Women's World Championship. This is following the injury scare she had a few weeks ago in a match against Viva Van. I was starting to think the injury was legitimate until Aminata and Velvet interrupted her and pushed her to the ground. Now I assume it's a worked injury, and if it is, Athena has a lot of people fooled. The mic work from all involved was subpar, but it was refreshing to get a talking segment on the show for a change.

Jacoby Watts def. Brandon Cutler

This is the type of crap you would've seen on AEW Dark at one point, which is exactly why there's no denying that ROH TV has basically become Dark in many ways. Ugh. Cutler appearing on AEW TV as The Elite's stooge is bad enough, but now he's going to be wrestling on ROH TV again, too? I couldn't care less about Watts, either, so although there was technically nothing wrong with this match from an in-ring standpoint, I found it to be a complete waste of time.

Marina Shafir def. Maggie Minerva

Shafir is in the midst of a renewed singles push, hence why she's been racking up wins as of late. The problem is that I don't see her challenging for a championship anytime soon, so I don't think these wins will actually amount to anything. Why not have her feud with her former tag team partner Nyla Rose? I'm not saying the matches would be amazing, but it'd at least keep the both of them busy. This was fine.

Iron Savages (Bronson, Boulder and Jacked Jameson) def. Isiah Harris, Jay Marston and Eriz Eznite

Any match involving Iron Savages immediately loses my interest, regardless of who their opponents are or what show it's on. They're obviously skilled in the ring, but as I've said what feels like a thousand times, their gimmick is garbage and they only ever win when they're about to lose to another trio. That was exactly why this existed: They're facing The Patriarchy on Saturday's Collision and this gave them a rare win before then. Rinse and repeat.

Lance Archer def. Deonn Russman

Another week, another Archer squash. They were once my favorite thing in AEW, but by this point, I'm tired of seeing them. The only purpose they serve is to give him a win before he loses to someone more important. I genuinely do not remember the last time he won a match that mattered. If nothing else, his squash matches are quick, painless and don't last longer than they need to.

"Legit" Leyla Hirsch def. Diamante

I'm sure I've asked this before, but what the hell happened to the story with Hirsch and Rachael Ellering? It dragged on for a while and never seemed to have a payoff. At any rate, this was a quality contest from Hirsch and Diamante. Diamante attacked Hirsch after the loss. I like the idea of there being more matches between them so we can get a rare women's rivalry on this show that doesn't involve a title.

ROH World Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) def. "Daddy Magic" Matt Menard and "Cool Hand" Angelo Parker

It's so refreshing to see Taven and Bennett defend their titles for a change on this show instead of compete in a Proving Ground match. I totally forgot they were feuding with Menard and Parker, and I'm surprised this wasn't saved for Death Before Dishonor. Nonetheless, they had a really nice match. Menard and Parker proved they're a talented team and I hope the indecisive finish means we'll get a rematch at the pay-per-view.

ROH World Television Champion Kyle Fletcher def. Lee Johnson in a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match

This was a rematch from Supercard of Honor. I love that they ran it back because I thoroughly enjoyed their initial outing and this was even better. It was somewhat slow early on as they worked through the first two falls, but once they picked up the pace, it turned into a terrific main event and both guys put forth a fantastic effort. Fletcher may lose a lot on AEW TV, but he's had some top-notch title defenses in ROH.

Overall Show

On one hand, I hated how ROH TV returned to being almost two hours long this week, and it's not as if they couldn't have cut out some filler (one or two of the squashes, Watts vs. Cutler, etc.). On the bright side, however, the two title matches made this show stand out from the average edition of ROH TV. I don't know why they weren't saved for Death Before Honor (which is only a month away), but they really should be doing important matches on ROH TV more often to make the program worthwhile. Fletcher vs. Johnson in particular is worth seeking out from this episode.

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