Ring of Honor Review - May 30, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH Women's World Champion Athena def. Viva Van in an ROH Women's World Championship Proving Ground Match

The match didn't last too long before Athena suffered an injury. You could tell she was hurt as she reentered the ring and she beat Van shortly thereafter because they had to rush to the finish. I don't know the extent of her injury, but hopefully it's nothing too serious. It would be a real shame if she had to relinquish the title after holding it for nearly a year and a half. ROH TV would be much worse off without her.

ROH World Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) def. Nick Comoroto and Jacoby Watts in an ROH World Tag Team Championship Proving Ground Match

Comoroto has been on a losing streak for the last year and Watts has been trying to help him turn his career around. Needless to say, he still has some work to do seeing as how they lost here. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary about this whatsoever. Undisputed Kingdom have been dominant on ROH TV since capturing the ROH World Tag Team Championship late last year but haven't beaten too many true teams in that time, which is why their reign has been so underwhelming.

Serpentico def. Brady Roberts

I have absolutely no idea why Serpentico needed a singles win. He and Angelico are mainstays in the tag team division, so spotlighting Serpentico on his own is an odd choice unless the idea is to have him lose to someone else soon. Even then, does anyone actually view Serpentico to a majority of the roster? The best things I can say about this are that it was perfectly passable and didn't overstay its welcome.

Red Velvet def. Kel

It's been a while since we last saw Velvet on ROH TV. I totally forgot that she unsuccessfully challenged Athena for the ROH Women's World Championship at Battle of the Belts last month because we haven't seen her since. This existed to get her back on track and kick off a feud between her and Billie Starkz, who attacked her afterward. At least we finally know who Starkz' next ROH Women's World Television Championship challenger will be.

Zak Knight def. Sebastian Wolfe

Knight came out looking like the fourth member of The Brawling Brutes with the outfit he was wearing. His push was pretty much dead in the water as soon as Ruby Soho got pregnant and his storyline with Angelo Parker abruptly ended. He actually beat Parker on Rampage prior to that point, but the win obviously amounted to nothing. This was a straightforward squash for him, but I don't see him doing anything in Ring of Honor other than spinning his wheels.

Lee Johnson def. Aaron Solo and Action Andretti in a Three-Way Match

I've said it what feels like a million times, but these multi-person matches on ROH TV would be so much better if they had actual stakes. That's because Tony Khan doesn't give a shit about the brand and has no plans for anyone on it. Multi-person matches are just a fine way to kill television time and get as many people on the card as possible. Don't get me wrong, this was fun for what it was, but I wish there was something on the line to make it more meaningful.

Premier Athletes (Tony Nese and Ari Daivari) def. The Bollywood Boyz

As has been the case for some time now, I truly couldn't care less about Premier Athletes. Props to The Bollywood Boyz for making them mildly interesting here. The Bollywood Boyz didn't do much for me toward the end of their WWE run, but they received a big pop from this Canadian crowd and were clearly having fun out there. This was a better bout than I expected because of the crowd's enthusiasm for them. Post-match, The Infantry made the save for The Bollywood Boyz.

Top Flight def. The Workhorsemen

The Workhorsemen returned to action with a win over Spanish Announce Project last week and it was cool to see them up against a talented team in Top Flight in the main event this week. I'm not a fan of them losing so soon after returning, but at least Top Flight is arguably the best team that regularly appears in ROH these days. It was a very good match and I'd be down for more matches between them.

Overall Show

​I appreciate​ that ROH TV has remained around an hour long for the last little while. It's made the show significantly more bearable. I also appreciated that we got more storyline progression than usual on this episode. Premier Athletes will be feuding with The Infantry and Velvet will be feuding with Starkz, so those storylines are better than nothing. Plus, we found out Dalton Castle will challenge Kyle Fletcher for the ROH World Television Championship next week, so it was nice to see that announced in advance. It was an above-average edition of ROH TV by recent standards. Fingers crossed we get an update on Athena's injury status next week.

SEE MORE: ROH TV Reviews