Ring of Honor Review - November 21, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd def. Angelico (Non-Title)

The timing of his match was interesting because Kenny Omega literally just told Fightful in a recent interview that Kidd would never work in AEW or even a Ring of Honor taping as long as he has some measure of power because of their current rivalry. I realize those were kayfabe comments, but then he shouldn't be used in AEW and ROH until after his feud with Omega is over if they want fans to believe their bad blood is real. Nonetheless, this was a solid showcase for Kidd, who seems to have a lot of potential from the few matches I've seen him have.

Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor and ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty) def. JD Drake and BEEF

I'm all for Shane Taylor Promotions getting a renewed push, even if it's exclusive to ROH. They just added The Infantry to their ranks, Moriarty has gold and Taylor can still be a beast if he's booked like one. This was a well-worked match, but I would've liked to see Shane Taylor Promotions winning bit quicker and more decisively. Post-match, Matt Taven and Mike Bennett made the save for Drake and BEEF.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Kevin Knight def. Serpentico

Knight's certainly been making the rounds lately. He used to wrestle for TNA and now he competes for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and MLW. It's cool he was able to appear here on ROH TV as well. He's impressed me any time I've seen him in action and I'm happy to see him getting more exposure. This was a fun little match with Serpentico being a quality opponent for him.

Tomohiro Ishii def. Mike Bennett

Ishii will challenge Chris Jericho for the ROH World Championship (again) on next Wednesday's Dynamite. Personally, I couldn't care less (their segment on Dynamite this week was painful to watch), but it makes sense to give Ishii an additional momentum boost before then. Bennett just turned babyface, so he was a strange choice of an opponent for Ishii, but they had a good match, regardless.

Shingo Takagi def. Ariya Daivari

I hardly follow NJPW these days, but I know I'm going to enjoy any match involving Takagi. The guy is great and I love his hard-hitting style. I don't know what he's doing in NJPW at the moment, but I won't complain about getting him on ROH TV. That said, I would've liked to see him have a higher-profile opponent. Daivari is a glorified enhancement talent and never wins, which is why it was weird that this lasted as long as it did.

ROH Women's World Champion Athena def. Leila Grey in an ROH Women's World Championship Proving Ground Match

I appreciated that this was advertised one week in advance, but it wasn't ideal for Grey to lose a match on last Friday's Rampage. Granted, there was zero chance she'd beat Athena here, but that loss didn't help. At any rate, this was perfectly fine for what it was. Grey has improved but still isn't on the same level as others in the division. Athena winning with a submission was a nice touch (I can't remember the last time she won with that).

ROH World Television Champion Brian Cage def. AR Fox

I've said it countless times in the past, but Fox is a fantastic athletes and I always love seeing him get opportunities. Title changes are rare on ROH TV, so it was a foregone conclusion that Fox wasn't winning, but at least we got an entertaining main event out of it with Fox being made to look credible in defeat. Needless to say, it'd be wonderful if got an actual storyline over the title for a change.

Overall Show

Per usual, there was an ROH throwback match, this time from Final Battle 2008. This edition of ROH TV was around 90 minutes long, but it's even shorter if you skip over that. For as much crap as I give ROH for being utterly pointless in 2024, you can tell that there has been more of an effort as of late to develop feuds and make some of these matches more meaningful. Granted, Jericho being ROH World Champion (again) has done nothing to benefit the brand and nothing has been confirmed for Final Battle next month as of now, but the shows are a little bit less of a chore to watch than they were even a month ago.

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