Ring of Honor Review - November 22, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Matt Taven def. Jay White

The Kingdom and Search & Destroy have been feuding for a few weeks now, so this was a logical match to do and a well-wrestled one at that. The interference from the other Kingdom members was a bit excessive at times, but when it was just Taven and White going at it, they worked well together and had a nice opener. Taven scoring the win helped the stable build momentum ahead of eventually challenging for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship and the ROH World Tag Team Championship.

Shane Taylor def. Cheesebuger in a ROH World Television Championship Qualifying Match

Obviously, this was a complete mismatch on paper, but Cheeseburger is so over with the audience that they were behind everything he did. That made this match more enjoyable even though the outcome was never in doubt. What's interesting is that Taylor came across like a heel during the bout, yet he apparently turned babyface afterward when he saved Cheeseburger from an attack at the hands of The Dawgs. That's the right move after his appearance on Coleman's Pulpit last week.

Dalton Castle def. ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion adam Page

The commentators made a great point during this match that Page, despite having been in Ring of Honor for a while now, really didn't start to come into his own until he joined Bullet Club last year. He's so much more entertaining to watch these days compared to when he was with BJ Whitmer in The Decade or even as a babyface. At any rate, this was a great, hard-hitting and aggressive match where both men shined. Castle was able to pick up a win to establish himself as a threat to the ROH World Championship, and Cody and Page maintained their heat by attacking him afterward.

The Brisoces Attacked Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer

Ray was in the midst of his "retirement speech" when Jay Briscoe interrupted him, so it's obvious by this point that this is all just an angle and he'll be returning to the ring soon enough (perhaps in time for Final Battle next month). Dreamer came to Ray's aid, but Mark Briscoe turned on him. I'm glad they're both turning heel and not feuding with each other as had been teased. Considering this segment took place in the ECW Arena, the crowd booed them out of the building and the duo received a ton of heat for the beatdown.

Overall Show

All three matches on this week's edition of ROH TV were enjoyable for different reasons and each of them served a purpose with the main event segment closing out the night on a high note. Furthermore, there was a substantial amount of hype not only for Final Battle but also for next week's episode, which will feature Bullet Club in eight-man tag team action and Silas Young facing Jonathan Greshman in the last ROH World Television Championship qualifying match.