Ring of Honor Review - March 14, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Flip Gordon and Shane Taylor Won a Battle Royal to Qualify for a ROH World Television Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

This Battle Royal was joined from the get-go and no entrances were televised, with the last two combatants clashing in a ROH World Television Championship No. 1 Contender's match later in the night. Most of this was total throwaway with the eliminations being rapid-fire and it wasn't remotely interesting until it came down to Gordon, Taylor and Caprice Coleman. Gordon and Taylor were the right choices to win this thing since they were the best of the bunch.

Tenille Dashwood def. Stacy Shadows in an ROH Women of Honor Championship Tournament First Round Match

Dashwood actually pinned Shadows in her debut tag team match for Ring of Honor, so they had a little bit of a story coming into this contest. I wasn't familiar with Shadows whatsoever prior to this point, but I was impressed by her here and this turned out to be a good match. Dashwood is by far the biggest star in this ​tourney, so needless to say, she should emerge as the inaugural champion.

Beer City Bruiser and Brian Milonas def. Ryan nova and Eli Isom

Bruiser and Milonas are a great throwback to teams of the past that had size on their side and completely annihilated their opponents. This squash match allowed them to showcase their dominance a bit and come away looking like monsters. They'll be a fine addition to an already stacked tag team division in ROH. I'm hopeful that this means Silas Young can break off on his own moving forward and won't be bogged down by these two.

Flip Gordon def. Shane Taylor in an ROH World Television Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

Taylor has come a long way as a singles competitor, but I've found that his strongest showings are usually against those that can carry him. Granted, Gordon hasn't been wrestling for a long time, but he's so much damn fun to watch in the ring and I thought the contrast of styles here was well done. Gordon battled back against Taylor's powerful offense to pick up the win and earn himself a future shot at the TV title. I'm not sure why Scorpio Sky attacked Gordon afterward, but The Young Bucks have been feuding with So Cal Uncensored recently and have history with Gordon, so at least that aspect of it made sense.

Overall Show

If you're looking forward to the fallout from the 16th Anniversary Show and were disappointed that there wasn't any on this show, it will be another few weeks before we see anything that was taped after that event air on TV. In the meantime, we'll be given matches that were taped beforehand. As for this edition of ROH TV, it was solid on the whole yet not must-see whatsoever. The main event was enjoyable, though, so check that out. There was also a strong focus on next week's main event pitting Bullet Club against The Kingdom and So Cal Uncensored, so we'll see if any tension will be teased within Bullet Club there.