Ring of Honor Review - March 13, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Villain Enterprises def. ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Kingdom

Villain Enterprises have had established issues with The Kingdom recently, and while they won't be battling for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship at the 17th Anniversary Show, all of these guys (Marty Scurll, PCO, Vinny Marseglia and TK O'Ryan) will be involved in different matches at the event. Thus, this was a solid warm-up for the four wrestlers and way better than I thought it would be. I expected a fairly formulaic tag team match, but this turned into quite the exciting affair down the stretch. Hopefully Villain Enterprises get their shot at the six-man tag titles eventually.

WOH World Champion Mayu Iwatani def. Holidead (Non-title)

There was a significant size difference between Iwatani and Holidead (of The Twisted Sisterz), so Iwatani was in full underdog mode here. Holidead isn't incredibly polished, but she held her own against Iwatani and they had a fun little match. This was designed to showcase Iwatani ahead of her upcoming title defense against former champ Kelly Klein at the 17th Anniversary Show and their post-match face-off was a nice touch.

Kenny King def. Dalton Castle

The commentators noted early on that Castle hasn't been the same since losing the ROH World Championship last summer, and considering how much he's been losing lately, I can certainly see a heel turn being in his future. Both of these guys are great, so I was honestly a bit disappointed by how short this was. It was a well-wrestled match while it lasted, and if nothing else, it helped give King more momentum before he goes one-on-one with Scurll on pay-per-view.

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Kingdom Attacked ROH World Champion Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham

After Lethal destroyed Matt Taven's faux world title belt on last week's show, Taven bated Lethal to go to the ring and led in an ambush on him. We were told by the commentators that Lifeblood apparently wasn't in the building, but at least Gresham was a good enough friend to come to Lethal's aid. It was an effective angle that put more heat on the heels before Taven challenges for the ROH World Championship on Friday.

Overall Show

From an in-ring standpoint, this show peaked with the opener, but the entire hour did its job in selling viewers on the 17th Anniversary Show. Yes, the card came together somewhat at the last minute, but it does look promising on paper, and I always appreciate when the commentators run down the final lineup at the end of these go-home shows. The tag team match is the only thing really worth checking out from this episode, but at least the build for the event was well done.