Ring of Honor Review - June 8, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kyle Fletcher def. Christopher Daniels

It's cool that Fletcher is still making appearances in Ring of Honor. I thought he was only having matches on ROH TV to establish him as a credible singles competitor before challenging Orange Cassidy for the AEW All-Atlantic Championship on Dynamite. This was good stuff. Hopefully him and Mark Davis will primarily appear in AEW when Davis is cleared to compete and that this mini ROH run is just to keep him busy in the meantime.

Matt Sydal def. Zack Clayton

Sydal and Daniels previously beat Clayton and Cole Karter on ROH TV. I see no reason for that to become a rivalry. I assume this was just a one-off to give Sydal a win coming off his tag team loss to Zack Sabre Jr. and Samoa Joe. It got him back on the right track and didn't overstay its welcome. Speaking of Joe, Sydal called him out afterward, so clearly he still has his sights set on the ROH World Television Championship. So, what was the point of the aforementioned tag team match then?

Dralistico def. Willie Mack

Mack seemed to have a good thing going with Ninja Mack as a tag team, but I don't think we've seen any progression with that since their first match together. Instead, Willie has since lost to Brian Cage and now Dralistico. My biggest gripe of Mack is that he continues to have no direction despite being super talented. This was a really well-wrestled match, but Dralistico winning was weird since he's largely a tag team guy with Rush at the moment.

NJPW Strong Women's Champion Willow Nightingale def. Rachael Ellering

As I've said before, Nightingale as NJPW Strong Women's Champion is an excellent idea for a number of reasons. Not only does she now have gold of her own, she can defend it across AEW and ROH programming to increase her exposure, which also makes her matches more meaningful. Nightingale vs. Ellering was always going to be solid, and even if the outcome was never in doubt, having the title on the line made this slightly more significant.

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Mogul Embassy (Brian Cage and The Gates of Agony) def. Marcus Kross, Cheeseburger and Eli Isom in an ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship Proving Ground Match

A majority of The Embassy are obviously now The Mogul Embassy thanks to their partnership with Swerve Strickland, who can't be bothered to show up on ROH TV alongside his stablemates. Honestly, I can't blame him. This was much like every other match I've seen them have in that it was total destruction of their opponents. This got them ready for their title defense on next week's episode.

Mercedes Martinez def. Vertvixen

Martinez continues to rack up victories, this time against Vertvixen, who is familiar face from the many matches she's had on Dark and Elevation. This was another typical showcase for Martinez with nothing out of the ordinary about it. My guess remains that Martinez is being built back up for a rematch with Athena for the ROH Women's World Championship, but it'd be nice if we heard from her either in the ring or in a backstage interview one of these days.

Lee Moriarty def. Griff Garrison

It's been a long time since I last saw Garrison in action on any show. I assume he was hurt and that was why he missed so much time. Unless something changes, it doesn't look like he'll be picking up where he left off as Brian Pillman Jr.'s tag partner. If he's going at it alone from this point forward, expect him to be utilized as an enhancement talent. This was a straight-up squash win for Moriarty and nothing more.

Kiera Hogan def. Robyn Renegade

Hogan and Athena had a very enjoyable outing for the ROH Women's World Championship in last week's main event, so it was logical to give Hogan a rebound win here if the idea is keep her feud with Athena going (and it is based on what happened after this). I'm not the biggest fan of The Renegades or their "twin magic" crap (why bother continue attempting it?), but the match was fine. I liked the post-match brawl between Hogan and Athena with Hogan standing tall.

The Dark Order (Evil Uno, John Silver and Alex Reynolds) def. Shane Taylor and The Workhorsemen

We still have no clue what the working relationship between Taylor and The Workhorsemen is supposed to be. Are we ever going to find out? This was your standard six-man tag team match. It had a nice pace and everything gave it a commendable effort, but I'm so beyond over Dark Order and their feud with The Righteous and Stu Grayson doesn't make me care about them more. This gave Dark Order a win before their eventual rematch with Righteous and Grayson.

AR Fox, Action Andretti and Darius Martin def. The Trustbusters (Slim J, Sonny Kiss and Jeeves Kay)

So, Fox went from one trio to another? He previously teamed with Metalik and Blake Christian and they unsuccessfully challenged The Embassy for the six-man tag titles at Supercard of Honor. They went on to lose to House of Black in an AEW World Trios Championship match as well. These three work well together and this was a nice sprint, but I was hoping Fox would be showcased on his own. Instead, they'll get a title shot against The Embassy on next week's show.

The Kingdom def. El Cobarde and El Dragon

Like I said about a majority of the ROH roster, I'm not sure if it's necessary for The Kingdom to be in action on every episode, especially if the matches aren't significant. They're racking up wins despite losing the Fight Without Honor from a few weeks ago, so maybe they'll be in line for an ROH World Tag Team Championship opportunity if Andretti and Martin are going after the six-man tag titles instead. This was a standard showcase for The Kingdom with Mike Bennett getting busted open at one point.

ROH World Tag Team Champion Rey Fenix def. Gravity

We found out from Tony Khan right before this that Gravity is Bandido's brother and that led to what we were led to believe was an impromptu main event. There was no other reason provided what purpose this was supposed to serve, but it was a fun, high-flying sprint that the crowd was into, so I can't complain too much. The Lucha Brothers have hardly been defending ROH World Tag Team Champions and I hope we can get to that soon, even though it's been over two months since they won those belts. ROH's tag team division is definitely deep, so there's no excuse.

Overall Show

What made this show (somewhat) newsworthy was the announcement of Tony Khan, Jerry Lynn and Stokley Hathaway being named to the ROH Board of Directors, and we saw them twice on this show. Lynn makes sense, but Hathaway (as entertaining as he is) is a lower-level heel manager at the moment in AEW, and Khan should absolutely not be a regular on-air authority figure. I understand he legitimately owns the promotion, but why not make Lynn or even Nigel McGuinness the sole general manager? The rest of this show was solid. We got the usual squashes, but there was some quality action sprinkled in there as well. It was a middle-of-the-road show on the whole.

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