Ring of Honor Review - June 21, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser def. Jay Lethal and Bobby Fish

One of my biggest criticisms of ROH TV has always been how certain storylines aren't usually furthered on a weekly basis, but ROH has done a damn good job with these four over the past month. Lethal and Fish causing Bruiser to get winded early on was a fun little bit (though I could have done without Bruiser puking all over ringside) and the second half was solid as well. Young pinning Lethal and not Fish shocked me, but I'm not complaining. Young has picked up a handful of credible victories lately, so here's hoping it leads to a stable push for him.

The Kingdom def. The Boys

This match was a bad idea from the get-go because both tandems have matches at this Friday's Ring of Honor pay-per-view. The Kingdom will be facing wrestlers from CMLL while Dalton Castle and The Boys contend for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, so it was a lose-lose regardless of who won here. The Boys were beaten in relatively quick fashion, so obviously they came away from this looking like losers ahead of their title shot. On the bright side, tension was then teased between Castle and Jay Briscoe to build toward their upcoming encounter.

Punishment Martinez def. Joey "Diesel" Daddiego

Martinez has been on an absolute roll this year and these straightforward squash matches have done a world of wonders for him. He was once again dominant here as he made short work of Daddiego and he continued to build momentum. Moreover, I loved he also decimated Cheeseburger and Will Ferrara afterward and loved even more that his feud with Jay White was furthered when they brawled.

The Addiction and Hiroshi Tanahashi def. CHAOS

What a weird main event to close out the go-home show for Best in the World. I understand CHAOS is big over in Japan, but I don't believe they will be a part of the pay-per-view in any way. Despite that, it was a well-wrestled and entertaining match while it lasted and Cody was great on commentary in talking about how he could leave Friday's event as the new, non-contracted ROH World Champion. The post-match attack on Daniels and Kazarian from Cody and Adam Page was able to incorporate two rivalries into one angle, so that was well done.

Overall Show

There were a handful of pre-taped backstage promos from Lethal, The Briscoes and others that aired over the course of the night talking about how this was the historic 300th episode of ROH TV, but other than that, it didn't feel special whatsoever. That said, Best in the World being Friday might have been a blessing in disguise because these special episodes of ROH TV are typically filler due to mostly featuring old footage from the last year. This show needed to hype the upcoming event and I thought it did so successfully, and on paper, it appears to be a strong card.