Ring of Honor Review - May 29, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Flip Gordon def. Karl Fredericks

Gordon returned to action at G1 Supercard last month and looks to be on the road to redemption after falling short of winning the ROH World Championship on last week's big 400th episode. We were told by the commentators that Fredericks is a member of the New Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo and he had an impressive showing, though this was all about Gordon. This was a nice little match that saw Gordon go over in decisive fashion. I'm looking forward to his next feud, as long as it's not with Bully Ray again.

Jeff Cobb Called Out ROH World Champion Matt Taven

Cobb recently lost the ROH World Television Championship to Shane Taylor in a Four Corner Survival match during the War of the Worlds tour, but since Cobb wasn't pinned or submitted, he remains undefeated. He cut a promo about he isn't all that concerned with getting the gold back. Rather, he now has his sights set on becoming ROH World Championship. In typical Taven fashion, Taven agreed to face Cobb, but not on this show. Cobb would be the perfect person to take that title from Taven eventually, but I don't envision that happening any time soon.

Silas Young Displayed "Pure Holds of Professional Wrestling"

​Young has been involved in a fun feud with Jonathan Gresham as of late with the premise being that Young can't beat Gresham clean, despite Young parading around claiming to be a master technician and denying that he would have to resort to dirty tactics to defeat Gresham. To prove his point, Young applied some "pure" wrestling holds to this poor dude named Baxter Belafonte. This was a solid segment that successfully furthered his feud with Gresham, even if Gresham never came out.

Kenny King def. Jay Lethal in Match No. 1 in their Best of Three Series

Ring of Honor has been pushing King aggressively in recent months, and while not everyone is a fan of his, I believe he has potential as a singles star. I really like the idea of placing him in a program with Lethal because he can learn from him and build up credibility. This was a quality contest from them, as it featured entertaining action and an invested crowd. King picking up the first win in their Best of 3 Series was the right call and I'm sure their next two matches (assuming it goes the full three) will be even better. My only nitpick is that King's Lethal Injection on Lethal looked terrible, but it didn't matter much because the low blow was what did Lethal in.

Overall Show

ROH's Best in the World pay-per-view is in less than a month, and while nothing has been confirmed for the card as of now, the seeds might have been planted for a few pay-per-view matches on this show. I can definitely see Taven vs. Cobb as well as Lethal vs. King taking place at the event. On the whole, this was an enjoyable edition of ROH TV. It featured more talking and video packages than usual, but everything served a purpose and the main event was pretty good.