Ring of Honor Review - September 19, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH World Champion Jay Lethal Agreed to Face Will Ospreay at Death Before Dishonor

Lethal is such a fantastic fit as ROH World Champion right now, not only from an in-ring standpoint but also by how he carries himself as champ. He looks the part and his mic skills are certainly above average as well. He praised the hell out of Jonathan Gresham for their amazing Iron Man match from last week before shifting his focus to his next scheduled title defense at Death Before Dishonor. A poorly-produced video then revealed Ospreay to be his latest challenger, which I am in full favor of because that bout should be exceptional (though I highly doubt Ospreay will be taking the title).

ROH Women of Honor World Champion Sumie Sakai def. Tasha Steelz in a Proving Ground Match (Non-title)

For those unfamiliar, a Proving Ground match is basically where if the champion loses, they are forced to defend their title against their opponent at a later date. It was obvious Steelz wasn't winning, but she had a solid showing nonetheless and this turned out to be a nice little matchup. The post-match verbal exchange between Sakai and Tenille Dashwood wasn't the smoothest, but I appreciate the hype for their upcoming championship clash at Death Before Dishonor, if nothing else.

Jonathan Gresham def. Bully Ray by Disqualfiication

I've never known Gresham to be the most talented talker (in fact I've always thought of him as somewhat generic), but he actually fared fairly well for himself on the mic here and I'm glad Ring of Honor wasted no time in allowing him to maintain momentum following his breakout performance against Lethal last week. Bully Ray isn't everyone's cup of tea, but there's no denying that he is receiving nuclear heat from fans from now and the babyfaces of ROH are benefiting big time from that. Bully and Flip Gordon furthered their feud, Silas Young came to Bully's aid yet still teased tension with him, and the crowd went crazy for Bully and Lethal coming face-to-face. This was an excellently executed angle that set up next week's tag team match extremely well.

SoCal Uncensored def. ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoes and ROH World Television Champion Punishment Martinez

It's amazing how over SCU have gotten as babyfaces in just a few short months (largely thanks to their entertaining act on Being the Elite). I've been digging their feud with The Briscoes lately and this was another enjoyable encounter from them. Martinez is also in the midst of a rivalry with Chris Sabin over the ROH TV title and Sabin interfering and brawling with Martinez toward the end of this main event moved that storyline along. SCU have won almost every time they've been put up against The Briscoes, so I'd be surprised if they captured the championship at the pay-per-view.

Overall Show

With Death Before Dishonor next Friday night, the card should be nearly complete by this point and it looks like it is on paper. It wasn't the most blockbuster lineup when the first few matches were announced a while back, but it has the potential to be a blast of a pay-per-view (even if it isn't the most storyline significant). As for this edition of ROH TV, it was a superb hour of wrestling with a fun main event, a strong segment with Gresham and Bully, and plenty of successful build for Death Before Dishonor.