Ring of Honor Review - September 26, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Action Andretti def. Tony Deppen

This marked Deppen's first Ring of Honor match since Supercard of Honor where he competed on the Zero Hour pre-show. Before that, you'd have to go all the way back to May 2023. Despite being a former ROH World Television Champion, Tony Khan clearly has no plans for him in the new ROH. He sold well for Andretti and they had a nice match. Andretti is primarily a six-man tag team wrestler these days, so this was random.

The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver) def. Iron Savages (Jacked Jameson and Boulder)

I know Iron Savages had a backstage promo beforehand, but I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention because they're unbearable and therefore I have no idea why this match happened considering both groups are heel. This was serviceable, but I couldn't bring myself to care about either team if I tried. They don't have any upward trajectory and most of their matches are a waste of time.

Abadon def. Liviyah

If you've seen one Abadon enhancement match, you've seen them all. They'll do their usual creepy shtick, their opponent will act scared, and the match will be over in short order. Honestly, I wouldn't ask for much more than that, anyway. I haven't seen too many Abadon matches over the last few years that have really blown me away, so keeping their matches brief is hardly a bad thing.

Brian Cage def. Alec Price

I'm familiar with Price from the northeast indie scene and the appearances he's made in MLW. He's a terrific talent and I'd like to see him get more exposure on bigger stages. This was essentially a showcase for Cage, but Price scored some offense and looked impressive while doing so. These two had quality chemistry and made the most of the time they had, which I appreciated.

ROH Women's World Champion Athena and Billie Starkz def. LMK and Christina Marie

Two weeks ago, Athena became the longest-reigning champion of any kind in ROH history, surpassing Samoa Joe's ROH World Championship reign of 645 days. That's a cool stat and all, but she really should be back on AEW TV by this point. Holding the ROH Women's World Championship for this long isn't accomplishing anything. Starkz did most of the work in this match and left her to fend for herself when Abadon came out, so they're obviously headed for another split. My question is, why not just put the belt on Starkz a year ago at Final Battle instead of dragging their story out for another year? This is another storyline of hers that's treading water.

Komander def. Johnny TV

You'd think this would've been a fun match given their respective styles, and it had its moments, but there were also a few sloppy spots that looked terrible. Surprisingly, the crowd didn't turn on them, but that might've been because there weren't many fans left in attendance. This was disappointing. Komander needed to win as he and Private Party are set to challenge Blackpool Combat Club for the AEW World Trios Championship on Saturday's Collision.

ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty def. Preston Vance in a Pure Rules Match

Vance only recently resurfaced in ROH, so I don't understand why he'd immediately be rushed into getting a shot at the ROH Pure Championship. He did almost nothing to earn the opportunity and there was zero build. The match that we got was solid, but it barely got out first gear before ending abruptly. It didn't help that there was almost no one in attendance because it was nearly complete silence for a majority of the match.

Overall Show

I could tell that most of these matches were taped last Saturday at the Collision/Rampage taping in Springfield, MA because I was there for Collision (I left before Rampage started and wasn't there for whenever the ROH TV stuff was taped) and I recognized one of the signs in the crowd. It was visibly pretty dead by the main event, which sucks for the performers. I'm glad they're finally out of that Esports arena in Texas, but the new taping schedule for ROH TV is not ideal. I loved that this was only around an hour long, but it was yet another forgettable episode on the whole.

SEE MORE: ROH Reviews