Ring of Honor Review - November 9, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Serpentico def. Tony Nese

I'm glad Ethan Page has some direction, but this feud with Nese and Josh Woods doesn't interest me much at all. Nese and Woods both beat him, and here, Page cost Nese the win via a distraction roll-up. Basically, both Nese and Page are losers and Woods is the only one who can consistently win (even though he hasn't beaten anyone of note lately except for Page). This was whatever and was solely designed to further the feud between Page and Nese in lazy fashion.

ROH Women's World Champion Athena def. Heidi Howitzer (Non-Title)

Yes, every Athena squash match is still the same, but at least we're starting to see less of them. Athena's obviously excellent, but I don't need to see her squashing local athletes every week. She's actually been having more competitive matches with women on the roster lately, but this was just to give her a dominant win following her successful title defense against Mercedes Martinez last week. It was what it needed to be.

Kyle Fletcher def. Lee Johnson

Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty have been scouting Johnson for weeks, even though he hasn't been able to win a single match to my knowledge. They should probably step in soon because he'll most likely remain an enhancement talent until they do. As for Fletcher, he continues to roll, especially now that he's seemingly joined The Don Callis Family. This was a nice, well-wrestled match, despite the outcome never being in doubt.

"Legit" Leyla Hirsch def. Charlette Renegade

The new story they're telling with Hirsch is that she's refusing the help of Rachael Ellering but isn't confident about accepting the services of Maria Kanellis-Bennett. I don't see the appeal of pairing her with Ellering (assuming that's the endgame), but at least this gives her something to do outside of the ROH Women's World Championship picture. This was a simple squash for Hirsch to keep her winning ways going.

Iron Savages (Boulder and Bronson) def. Cole Karter and Griff Garrison

I honestly have no idea what the point of the Karter and Garrison team is supposed to be. Yes, every tag division needs enhancement teams, but Ring of Honor has enough of those (including Iron Savages). I don't think they've won a single match together as of now and it's not as if they have strong chemistry as partners, either. This was whatever to me. Not that there was anything necessarily wrong with it , but focusing on Karter and Garrison feels like a waste of television time.

Billie Starkz def. Rachael Ellering

Ellering is still trying to find her footing considering she's still new to the brand (and isn't remotely over yet), so having her lose so early in her run is a questionable call. Starkz is on the ascent and her winning was more important, but the match shouldn't have been booked in the first place. This was was good stuff, though. Hirsch evened the odds for Ellering afterward, but only because she claimed she didn't want to be indebted to her.

Josh Woods def. SK Bishop

See what I said in the first paragraph about how Woods has exclusively been beating no-namers for the last month or two. He's been winning a ton of matches since setting his sights back on the ROH Pure Championship (where the hell has Katsuyori Shibata been as of late, anyway?), but he has yet to beat anything of actual significance. The best thing I can say about this is that it didn't overstay its welcome.

The Infantry, Darius Martin and Action Andretti def. The Wingmen ("Pretty" Peter Avalon and Ryan Nemeth), Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty

In storyline, Taylor and Moriarty lost the second they agreed to team with The Wingmen. I know Dark and Elevation aren't around anymore, but The Wingmen do not fit ROH whatsoever and have no business being anywhere near Taylor and Moriarty unless they're getting beat by them. It was predictable their team would lose because of that, but on the whole, this was a solid showcase for some of ROH's tag teams.

Dralistico def. Gravity

I'm pretty positive it was reported this week that Dralistico is officially signed to an AEW/ROH deal. I thought he would've been signed sooner, but at least he's finally locked in. This was a quality contest from these two. My only question is what purpose it was supposed to serve. Dralistico just resurfaced on AEW TV alongside the rest of La Faccion Ingobernable, so I'm not sure what he'd be doing on ROH TV. More than likely, this was only intended to kill time.

ROH World Champion and NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston def. Angelico (NJPW Strong Openweight Championship Was Not Defended)

No, Kingston was never going to drop the ROH World Championship to Angelico of all people after beating Claudio Castagnoli for the title two months ago (especially with Jay Lethal getting a shot soon), but I'm just happy we got an ROH World Championship defense on ROH TV for a change. This was an enjoyable main event and competitive enough to make it worthwhile. Dalton Castle cut a promo backstage afterward addressing Kingston, so he'll challenge for the title next week.

Overall Show

It was ridiculous enough that Samoa Joe held the ROH World Television Championship for almost 600 days only to relinquish it on Wednesday's Dynamite, but worse yet, it was said that there would be an update on this episode. Instead, it was announced that there would be an announcement next week. Typical Tony Khan. ROH TV practically means nothing at this point, but this was an acceptable show with a rare ROH World title match and some storyline progression.

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