Ring of Honor Review - October 2, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Soldiers of Savagery def. Michael Stevens and Sal Rinauro

I honestly forgot Soldiers of Savagery were a thing, which is a shame because they're talented and they had some momentum upon making their Ring of Honor debut a few months ago. Weren't they be feuding with Lifeblood or aligned with Bully Ray or something along those lines? On the bright side, they were dominant here and won with ease. Here's hoping they can return to relevancy and work their way toward ROH World Tag Team Championship contention.

The Tate Twins def. Master & Machine

The Tate Twins were formerly Dalton Castle's "Boys," while Master & Machine must be one of ROH's new tag teams (I know I've seen them on the show before as enhancement talent, but this was the first time I've seen them given an official team name). It's cool that The Tate Twins have been repackaged and are actually on TV as themselves, even though the superhero gimmick they're doing is dumb. This was a nice little match that helped establish credibility for The Tate Twins. That said, they're going to have to win a few more matches to be taken seriously after serving as Castle's whipping boys for so long.

Jeff Cobb def. ROH World Champion Matt Taven, Kenny King and Jay Lethal in a Defy or Deny Match (Non-Title)

(From my Honor for All review...) This carried an elimination stipulation where if Taven won, the person he pinned last wouldn't have been able to challenge for his championship for as long as he holds it. That didn't end up being the case because despite this being a four-way match, apparently disqualifications were still in play as that was how Taven was taken out. King then pinned Lethal to play off their feud from earlier this year and finally Cobb beat King to earn himself a future shot at the ROH World title. This was executed excellently and the crowd was into the action. Here's hoping Cobb can back on track following his win here. I assume Rush will take the title from Taven before he does, but Rush vs. Cobb for the championship would be even better.

Overall Show

Highlights were also shown of Silas Young, Okumura and Felino vs. Shinobi Shadow Squad from Saturday Night at Center Stage and even Adam Page vs, Mark Haskins from the 2018 Honor Re-United Tour (I guess because this year's tour is coming up?). There was more than one original match on this week's show, which was refreshing, but neither of them are worth going out of your way to watch whatsoever. In fact, the Defy or Deny match is more must-see, and that's over a month old at this point (with someone who isn't even champion anymore). ROH TV continues to be a fine yet forgettable hour of recycled content and matches that don't matter.