Ring of Honor Review - November 18, 2015

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

War Machine def. Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser

The Boys continue to be an entertaining addition to Young's act. At the same time, it's been almost two months since the pay-per-view and I have yet to see any interaction between Young and Dalton Castle. Is that feud basically over? If so, what a shame. This was a fun tag team match that furthered the story with The Boys and Young while also giving a good win to War Machine who will be contending for the ROH World Tag Team Championship at Death Before Dishonor next month.


Steve Corino Announced His In-Ring Retirement

I was hoping that Corino laying out BJ Whitmer recently would mean we'd see them finally face off in a match, but it looks like Corino's pending neck surgery will prevent that from happening. I don't know if a match between them was the plan all along, but at least Corino was able to give Whitmer his comeuppance before he takes time off from TV. This was a logical way of writing him out of storylines by having him cut a strong, heartfelt promo about biding farewell to the fans for the time being.

---

Michael Elgin def. Kevin Lee Davidson

Well, this was weird. The match was over before it even began, but I guess the intent was to make Elgin look strong by winning so quickly. It succeeded in doing that to an extent, but the clothesline Elgin delivered to Davidson came off awkwardly. The post-match promo from Elgin was decent, but as talented of an in-ring workers as he is, I have no desire to see him go after the ROH World Championship right now. His last reign with the strap was a flop and he simply has no charisma.


ROH World Tag Team Champions The Kingdom def. The Addiction

Traditionally, I'm not a fan of heel vs. heel matches because the crowd doesn't have an incentive to cheer for either team, but if done right, they can be entertaining as this one was. I also liked how neither team tried to pander to the audience, though there were times where The Kingdom's offense won them over with the crowd. Despite that, this was a great main event from The Kingdom and The Addiction that set up The Kingdom's next title defense against War Machine. As for the masked man who continues to cost The Addiction matches, it peaked my interest a few months ago, but now it seems to be dragging on.


​Overall Show

I wouldn't exactly call this the most must-see edition of ROH TV in recent memory, but it was still an enjoyable hour on the whole. The opening tag team match, while relatively pointless, was a blast and the subsequent squash set up whatever is next for Elgin. Corino's promo was exceptional and a great goodbye for him for now. The main event topped off the evening on a high note and it's encouraging to see the build for Death Before Dishonor already underway. The only gripe I had with this episode was that more wasn't done to promote next week's huge ROH World Television Championship match between Jay Lethal and Roderick Strong.