Ring of Honor Review - June 5, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

WOH World Champion Kelly Klein and Jenny Rose Brawled with The Allure

I like The Allure on paper, but I don't think the Women of Honor division will benefit long-term from having them around. Plus, we won't know how they're going to be in the ring together for another two weeks. The Beautiful People were a great act in TNA years ago, but it's a totally different time now. Their promos weren't very good here, but I appreciated the intensity from Klein and Rose when they took the fight to them.

The Bouncers def. Coast to Coast, The Kingdom, and Clark Connors & Alex Coughlin in a Four Corner Survival Match

It might be a while before Ring of Honor's tag team division is back to where it once was, but at least they have a handful of tandems at their disposal in the meantime. The Bouncers are easily the most over of the bunch at the moment, so it was smart for them to go over here. This was a fun four-way tag match where everyone shined at one point or another and the action was never dull. I believe The Bouncers earned a shot at the ROH World Tag Team Championship over the weekend, so look for them to receive it in the near future.

Josh "The Goods" Woods def. Maverick Boone

Woods just wasn't clicking as a character before he took time off late last year, but he's been firing on all cylinders since returning recently. It will take some time for crowds to warm up to him, but this was a successful second squash from him. He came across as dominant and won rather quickly. Here's hoping he finds direction and winds up in a rivalry sooner rather than later

Los Ingobernables de Japon def. Satoshi Kojima and Yuji Nagata

Evil and Sanada represented LIJ here. There was no real reason for this match aside from ROH having a working relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling, but it ended up being the best bout of the night. I'm not familiar with Kojima or Nagata whatsoever, but they impressed with the strong showings they had and LIJ were excellent as always. Although the crowd wasn't too into this, the nearfalls were suspenseful and the right team went over.

Dalton Castle Attacked The Boys

I'm not so sure if I'm sold on heel Castle yet, and even if he was better as a babyface, he was long overdue for a change of some sort, and a heel turn was probably the answer. Before The Boys came out to brawl with him, Castle formerly challenged Dragon Lee to a match at Best in the World later in the month because he's Rush's brother. His attack on The Boys was well done and if nothing else, he's getting good heel heat.

Overall Show

I would have switched the NJPW tag team match around with the Castle segment because the fans were flat for Castle's promo early on, though I did think it was an effective segment. Everything else was solid and served a purpose, but I especially enjoyed the video package on Jeff Cobb, who will be contending for the ROH World Championship at Best in the World. I'd love to see more of those in the weeks leading up to the pay-per-view.