Ring of Honor Review - November 14, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Undisputed Kingdom def. The Dark Order (John Silver and Alex Reynolds), The Gates of Agony, and Grizzled Young Veterans in a Four-Way Tag Team Match

Despite featuring as much talent as it did, this was only mere minutes long. Why not give them some time to shine? Rushing a four-way tag team match made it feel pretty pointless. No one had a chance to do much, but it did give Undisputed Kingdom another victory. They've also been building momentum on Rampage recently, so it's safe to assume a tag team title shot is in their future.

ROH World Tag Team Champions Sammy Guevara and ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion Dustin Rhodes def. Shot Through the Heart (Non-Title)

This was the first time I've seen Guevara and Rhodes referred to as The Sons of Texas on the big screen, but they weren't announced as such (I won't call them that until they are). Nonetheless, this was a pretty straightforward showcase for the champs, though I must say Shot Through the Heart is a sweet name for a tag team (shout-out to Love, Doug). The Righteous laid out Guevara and Rhodes afterward to further that feud.

Preston Vance and Griff Garrison def. Waves & Curls

It couldn't be more abundantly clear that Tony Khan has no idea what to do with Vance. I was really looking forward to seeing what he'd do post-Dark Order, which led to him joining La Faccion Ingobernable. That went nowhere, so now he's teaming with Griff Garrison. That's almost as low as it gets in Ring of Honor or AEW. I was actually more impressed by Waves & Curls here, who should have been signed to a contract with a major company a long time ago.

Katsuyori Shibata def. Aaron Solo

Shibata has been racking up wins since returning to ROH TV and I'd like to think these wins will actually amount to something eventually. I'm sure I'll be made to look like a fool by making such a statement, but hey, call me optimistic. In the meantime, he's wiping out the entire ROH undercard. Solo was the latest victim. This was a slight step above a glorified squash. Just keep Shibata out of the ROH Pure Championship mix, please. He doesn't need that belt back.

Komander def. Josh Woods

Komander is all over AEW TV these days, so whenever he's in action on ROH TV, just assume he'll win. He lost to Lio Rush on last week's Rampage, so it was logical for him to bounce back with a win here. Although he's booked like a stepping stone for the bigger stars, Komander's matches are usually a lot of fun. I thought these two worked really well together in the time they were allotted.

Abadon def. Viva Van

Abadon just failed to beat Athena for the ROH Women's World Championship on the Halloween edition of ROH TV, so now it's back to beating random jobbers. Oh, joy. Technically, Van is not a no-name jobber as she's made a number of appearances in AEW and ROH, but the outcome was never in doubt here. This was essentially every Abadon match you've ever seen.

The Righteous def. Sammy Diaz and Matt Raymond

This easily could have been saved for next week after they already beat down Guevara and Rhodes earlier, but at least it was well done. First, they made short work of their unknown opponents. Then, they cut a quality post-match promo addressing the champs and why those belts belong to them. Dutch's promo was especially interesting because he referenced his time in WWE developmental where he got to learn from Rhodes' father Dusty, which I totally forgot about.

ROH Women's World Television Champion Red Velvet def. Diamante in a Street Fight

It's cool that Velvet and Diamante not only got it to run it back for the TV title but also that it was a Street Fight. This wasn't given a ton of time, but it was an entertaining brawl with both women putting forth a commendable effort. I appreciate that Diamante has done a lot more this year than she has any other year she's been in ROH/AEW, but it would've been nice to see her take the title here, even though I wasn't expecting it.

Overall Show

I don't understand why they bother with the ROH throwback matches when the matches are relatively recent. This week, it was Athena vs. Hyan from last year on ROH TV. That was relatively brief, but why waste time on it? At any rate, this was a surprisingly solid show. The shorter runtime was refreshing, there was more storyline progression than there normally is and the main event was above-average by ROH TV standards. Yes, there were several squashes, but I can't complain too much.

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