Ring of Honor Review - September 13, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Bully Ray Addressed the Audience

Bully Ray is one of the best talkers in the business when he wants to be and is given the right material to work with, and although he wasn't trashing the audience here (I thought he turned heel recently but I guess not), he discussed his reasoning for coming to Ring of Honor and tied that into his upcoming six-man tag team match with The Briscoes against The Kingdom. This was short, sweet and straight to the point.

Will Ferrara def. Cheeseburger

These two have been teaming/feuding for the better part of 2017, so I'm honestly surprised this wasn't saved for Death Before Dishonor. Granted, they could always have a rematch at the event, but either way, the bout may have benefited from taking place on TV where it could be given more time. They more than made the most of it by putting together a really fun matchup with more suspenseful spots than I thought there would be. The crowd bought into everything they did and Cheeseburger plays that underdog role to perfection. Ferrara went over as he should have and an alliance with Rhett Titus could be interesting to keep them both busy.

Silas Young def. Chase Brown

This wasn't the smoothest squash match I've ever seen, but it succeeded in what it set out to do: giving Young a dominant showcase where he could unleash his anger and look more like a threat to Jay Lethal. Speaking of whom, he emerged from the back after the matchup to brawl with Young and challenge him to a Last Man Standing match at Death Before Dishonor. Their feud has been fantastic this summer, so that will be a great way to culminate it. My only gripe with this is that I wish Beer City Bruiser had been kept off TV to sell the beating he sustained at the hands of Lethal last week, but that's just me nitpicking.

Search & Destroy def. The Bullet club

Bullet Club consisted of The Young Bucks and Guerrillas of Destiny, and we don't see too much of the latter tandem in ROH, so it was cool to have them back for this bout. As entertaining as this match was, it was laid out oddly. The heels dominated a majority of the match and the babyfaces weren't given a lot of shine, other than selling for their opponents. Thus, when Search & Destroy won almost out of nowhere, it was a flat finish. Bullet Club are supposed to be heels, but they're received as fan favorites, which is fine, but they don't do nearly enough to get fans to boo them, and thus the babyfaces suffer as a result.

Overall Show

The card for Death Before Dishonor next Friday is looking really stacked and I'm highly anticipating the event. ROH has done an excellent job of building it up over the past month, so kudos to them for that. As for this edition of ROH TV, it was very enjoyable between the above-average main event, the Lethal and Young brawl, Ray's promo, and Cheeseburger vs. Ferrara being better than expected. Everything served a purpose and was a treat to watch, so the show gets two thumbs up from me.