Ring of Honor Review - May 31, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Adam Cole Interrupted The Bullet Club

Marty Scurll is such a perfect fit for The Bullet Club, and despite how they aren't clearly defined as either babyfaces or heels in Ring of Honor, you have to give them credit for reinventing themselves at every turn. I was honestly shocked to see Cole surface here, as I thought War of the Worlds marked his final date with ROH, but perhaps he stuck around to finish up at the post-pay-per-view tapings. Either way, this was a hot start to the show.

Josh "The Goods" Woods def. David Starr

It took them long enough to follow up on this angle from a while ago, but that's typically par for the course with ROH. Nevertheless, this was a nice little match where both men were able to shine. Starr may not be the biggest guy, but he has a ton of charisma and obviously he was beloved by this crowd due to being a Philadelphia native. That said, it was logical for Woods to go over considering he is fresh off winning the Top Prospect Tournament and it would have sent the wrong message if he lost here.

Jay Lethal def. Beer City Bruiser by Disqualification

Unlike Woods and Star, I like how they didn't waste time whatsoever in furthering this feud from last week when Silas Young attacked Lethal in a pre-taped backstage segment. Giving him Bruiser to face instead was a wise idea and the match was solid. Not only did Lethal and Young get physical, Bobby Fish (who has history of his own with Young and Bruiser) came to Lethal's aid afterward, so this was good booking all around.

Cody def. Frankie Kazarian

Before the bout, Cody cut a great promo about being screwed out of the ROH World Championship at War of the Worlds, so I'm glad that his pursuit of the title is not yet over. He and Daniels are bound to collide one-on-one at some point soon. On that note, this match made sense given Kazarian's association with the world champion and they contested a very entertaining main event that was given an ample amount of time. They worked well against each other, Cody scored a clean win, and a tag team match pitting Cody and Adam Page against The Addiction was set up for a future episode.

Overall Show

It's awesome that the fallout from War of the Worlds is airing only two and a half weeks after the event and not as late as it usually does. There's also several storylines already in place from Woods vs. Star (assuming it continues), Daniels vs. Cody, Lethal vs. Young, and even Page vs. Cole, which will be happening on next week's episode. This was a strong show with enjoyable in-ring action and quite a bit of storyline progression, so certainly check it out when you can.