Ring of Honor Review - May 4, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Rocky Romero def. Lee Moriarty in a Pure Rules Match

This was a rematch from last week's show. I assumed Moriarty would win again considering he's the regular in AEW and Ring of Honor, so I was surprised by the outcome. Romero is always putting people over wherever I see him, so I had no issue with him picking up a rare win here. The Pure Rules stuff isn't the most exciting, but they made the most of it and had a well-worked match. The fact this was contested under Pure Rules was random unless it's leading to Romero getting a shot at the ROH Pure Championship soon.

ROH Women's World Champion Athena def. Angelica Risk in an ROH Women's World Championship Proving Ground Match

For a random jobber from Dark, Risk scored more offense than I thought she would and had a pretty good showing. The outcome was obviously never in doubt, but at least it was somewhat competitive because the straightforward squashes from Athena have gotten really old. I'm all for her having more feuds (more on that later), but as I've said before, it would be smarter to not have her wrestle almost weekly because the overexposure has been more of a hinderance than a help in my opinion.

ROH World Television Champion Samoa Joe def. Christopher Daniels

I was shocked that this was thrown in the middle of the show without much fanfare. These are two ROH OGs, so it would have made sense to go on last. Then again, it didn't last vey long, so maybe that's why. Despite that, I enjoyed it while it lasted. Joe keeps rolling as ROH World Television Champion and I appreciate any opportunity we get to see Daniels in the ring. Can we Joe back into a formal feud, please?

ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli def. Robbie Eagles

It was one thing to put a TV title match in the middle show, but I'd argue it was more egregious for this not to be a bigger deal. It came completely out of nowhere and there was no explanation given as to why Eagles was getting a championship match. I've heard a bit about him and he looked credible in defeat here. It was an entertaining outing, but the belt felt like a total afterthought purely from a presentation standpoint.

Action Andretti, Darius Martin, Stu Grayson and Best Friends def. The Kingdom and Varsity Athletes (Ari Daivari, Tony Nese and Josh Woods)

Varsity Athletes do nothing for me, but at least Andretti and Martin were able to further their feud with The Kingdom. This served as a solid showcase for multiple tandems in the ROH tag team division. The action was all over the place and the crowd was into it. The babyfaces needed the momentum boost more and thus them winning was the right call. They would've looked bad if they couldn't beat the damn Varsity Athletes.

Preston Vance def. Rich Adonis

So, I guess Vance is a part of the ROH roster now? I know Rush and Dralistico have been doing their thing in the tag team ranks and that makes sense, but I'm genuinely curious what the plan is for Vance, assuming there even is one. That's coming from someone who feels he ha potential, but he has been ice cold since the heel turn in November because AEW did nothing to follow up on it. He dominated his opponent as he should have here.

Skye Blue def. Robyn Renegade

Blue is another person who definitely doesn't need to wrestling most weeks, if only because her matches mostly feel the same. This followed the usual formula with Blue fighting from underneath before pulling out the victory. It was a fine match, but more character development from Blue would be nice. That's why I appreciated the mic time she got on this show. She's a logical challenger for Athena at this point.

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion Brian Cage def. Brock Anderson

Another week where Cage comes out without the rest of The Embassy. What was the point of them retaining the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship at Supercard of Honor if they're never going to appear together? Cage linking up with Swerve Strickland isn't an encouraging sign for The Gates of Agony. At any rate, this was standard stuff for Cage, except that he beat someone on the roster this time. I was okay with Anderson being in this role because he doesn't interest me at all.

Willow Nightingale def. Steph De Lander

De Lander has been all over the place since being released from WWE NXT almost exactly a year ago and has been managing Matt Cardona in GCW as of late. Honestly, I would've expected her to be picked up by a promotion by now. I'm glad De Lander was made to look like an equal to Nightingale, making for a different dynamic than your average Nightingale squash. I know Blue is getting the next title shot, but Nightingale should be waiting in the wings as well.

Komander def. Angelico

I must have missed the part where it was explained why this needed to main event over the two title matches. I guess because Komander and Angelico both wrestle the lucha style and Tony Khan thought that was enough? Don't get me wrong, this was a fun match, but it was more of a Dark main event than anything with it being impossible to take Angelico seriously. The awful Spanish Announce Table went after Komander afterward only for Orange Cassidy and Bandido to make the save for Komander, setting up a six-man tag team match for a future episode.

Overall Show

Part of me was hoping ROH TV would be around an hour this week as it was last week, but no such luck. Instead, it was approximately 90 minutes and I personally felt every minute of it. That isn't to say this was a bad show by any means, but it didn't take long for ROH TV to become the Thursday version of Dark. It's been over a month since Supercard of Honor and we've barely gotten any development with a majority of the champions. The build to Athena vs. Blue was the only thing of significance on this show as everything else was either a squash or simply inconsequential.

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