Ring of Honor Review - June 3, 2015

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kushida def. Will Ferrara

I knew I recognized the Ferrara name from somewhere, and it bothered me throughout this match until I finally realized that he played the cameraman who Dean Ambrose punched on Raw recently. He impressed me with his skills here, but not as much as Kushida who performed exceptionally well in this contest. For the six minutes they were given, they contested a pretty good match and I enjoyed the action. I love the talent exchange between ROH and New Japan Pro Wrestling because it allows viewers to get exposed to not only ROH but NJPW as well.


Silas Young def. Takaaki Watanabe

I first got familiar with Young when I watched ROH weekly last summer and even then he came off like a star since he appears to have the complete package. He elicits a reaction from the audience every time he has a match and his hard-hitting style in the ring is very believable. I liked how this wasn't a complete squash and Watanabe was able to score some offense before eating defeat. In particular, his suplex to Young on the outside was a sweet spot.

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Moose def. Colby Corino

The Decade was around when I watched ROH last summer, but not with the members it currently has (maybe there's more who didn't appear here?). In fact, it was also around that time that Moose debuted in ROH and was just getting started. He appeared to be very green when he first got started, but from what I've heard recently and what I saw here, he's come a long way in the last year. Sadistically speaking, is domination of Corino was a ton of fun to watch and Corino sold the beating like a total champ. Steve Corino sounded concerned on commentary, but I assume we'll see him snap against The Decade at some point.


The Briscoes def. Donovan Dijak and J Diesel

The Bricoes are easily the biggest stars in all of ROH right now and it was cool to see them work their magic here. They may not be my top favorites in the organization, but it's not difficult to see why they're immensely popular among the fans. Not only were they enjoyable to watch, but Diesel and Dijak also held their own and showcased some of their skills. I've heard the Dijak name before, so I look forward to seeing what else he brings to the table in the weeks to come. I would've rather seen Jay Lethal escape Jay Bricoe instead of taking his finisher, but the commentators whether that was a preview of what we might see at Best in the World.


Overall Show

This show was taped weeks ago, so ROH had no way of knowing this was going to be their debut episode on ROH, but that said, this was an entertaining episode that definitely got me hooked on the product. Notable names such as The Briscoes and Moose were well established and the two prior matches were well-wrestled. There was some solid hype for the upcoming Best in the World pay-per-view, but more could have been done to give new viewers an incentive to tune in next week other than the promise of the tag team title match.