Ring of Honor Review - May 8, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

PJ Black def. Eli Isom

Black received plenty of television time in the buildup to his bout with Bandido a few weeks ago, and although he lost that match, I'm glad he was able to rebound with a win here. I figured Black would come out on top, but the commentators brought up how Isom scored several upset victories during his first year in Ring of Honor, so that played nicely into the uncertainty of the outcome. It was going well until the final few minutes when Isom accidentally botched coming off the top rope. They couldn't recover, but at least they ended it soon after.

WOH World Champion Kelly Klein def. Ray Lyn (Non-title)

The commentators noted that Lyn actually had her first match in ROH against Klein, so it made sense for Lyn to get some mic time beforehand to disrespect Klein and get some heat on herself (it was a refreshing change of pace for the enhancement talent to talk for a change). This was a pretty standard squash win for Klein. If it wasn't already evident from what happened at G1 Supercard, Klein cemented her face turn with her post-match promo here. She was then attacked by The Allure. It was nice to see Jenny Rose attempt to come to her aid despite their checkered past.

Dalton Castle Attacked The Boys

After losing almost every match he's wrestled this year, Castle finally snapped at G1 Supercard following his quick loss to Rush and turned on The Boys. As soon as he started to issue an "apology" to them in this segment, you knew exactly where it was going. Castle betraying The Boys was never in doubt I felt, but the crowd still reacted when he attacked them. This was a good angle, but I have no desire to see Castle feud with The Boys, so hopefully Castle finds his first rival as a heel soon.

Lifeblood def. The Kingdom

This match was originally slated to take place at the 17th Anniversary Show back in March (which feels like a lifetime ago at this point), but it got bumped from the card at the last minute. That was probably the right call because while this was well-wrestled and had a nice pace, it wasn't anything special. The focus was more on Tracy Williams and Mark Haskins calling out Bully Ray afterward because of what he did to Tenille Dashwood recently. Bully refused to fight, but I'm sure Lifeblood will get their hands on him eventually.

Overall Show

None of the three matches stood out to me in a major way, but at least they all seemed to serve a purpose. Black vs. Isom was fairly random I thought, but Black finally picked up a win, so there was that. Plus, the main event was enjoyable while it lasted, The Allure furthered their feud with Klein, and Castle once again laid out The Boys. It wasn't a home run of an episode by any means, but it was solid and used up the hour effectively.