ROH Glory by Honor: Night 1 Review - August 20, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Silas Young def. Rey Horus

Young works well with a variety of opponents and I'm glad Ring of Honor has already found something for him to do coming off his feud with Josh Woods. Horus is very good in his own right, so unsurprisingly, this was a quality contest that served as a nice opener. Considering Young cheated to win (what else is new), I assume this rivalry isn't over yet and I'm looking forward to seeing more matches between them.

Demonic Flamita def. Danhausen, PJ Black, Dak Draper, Eli Isom and Mike Bennett in a Six-Man Mayhem Match

As a result of this win, Flamita has officially entered the ROH World Championship top five rankings and will challenge Bandido at some point for the title, which makes sense given their history and how Flamita owns a victory over Bandido. This match was exactly what its name suggested: complete mayhem. Danhausen brought some fun comic relief and everyone else had their time to shine as well. This was a blast from start to finish.

Vita VonStarr and Max the Impaler def. The Allure (Angelina Love and Mandy Leon)

I don't think I've seen much of VonStarr in the ring, so I was curious to see how she'd do. Her and Max are an interesting combo, so we'll see if it sticks. I have no idea who the babyfaces were supposed to be in this match as VonStarr and Max come across as heels and The Allure are obviously heels. Worse yet, The Allure are awful in the ring, so this pretty much what I expected it to be. The Allure dominating most of the match was also pointless, but at least the right team won.

EC3 def. Brian Johnson

EC3 was put in a tough spot here because Johnson is from Philadelphia and was the clear fan favorite. Then again, maybe it was done by design because EC3 is more of a tweener than a babyface. Either way, this turned out to be a very good match down the stretch. Johnson gave EC3 everything he had and the Philly crowd was very much behind him throughout. That dynamic was what made the match for me. EC3 ultimately went over as he should have, but Johnson looked credible in defeat.

Mark Briscoe def. Bateman

The Briscoes were supposed to take on The Righteous before Jay had to be pulled due to COVID protocols, making it a singles match between Bateman and Mark instead. There wasn't a ton of heat to it as it felt like it was just sort of there, but as a midcard matchup added at the last minute, it was solid and well wrestled. They did hit each other hard, though, so at least there was that.

ROH Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham def. Rhett Titus

Gresham and Titus are both members of The Foundation, so this was a clean fight with no heel shenanigans and that was what I enjoyed about it. The Pure Division has been one of the best parts of the ROH shows since the relaunch and Gresham has been exceptional in his role as the champion, having standout matches with just about everyone. Titus was no exception and I thought this was a strong outing. They made excellent use of their time here.

Violence Unlimited (Brody King, Tony Deppen and ROH World Tag Team Champions Chris Dickinson and Homicide) def. La Faccion Ingobernable (Rush, ROH World Television Champion Dragon Lee, Kenny King and La Bestia del Ring) in a Philadelphia Street Fight

This was advertised as and started out as a standard eight-man tag team match but quickly descended into chaos and became a Philadelphia Street Fight, which the crowd ate up. It also fit what Violence Unlimited is all about and was right in their wheelhouse. They pretty much had to win, so that was the right result. This was highly entertaining with a ton of craziness, crowd engagement, and straight-up violence. I'm typically not a fan of the hardcore wrestling, but this was well done and I give ROH a pass because they don't do it often. These faction wars with Violence Unlimited, La Faccion Ingobernable and The Foundation haven't been my favorite thing lately, but the matches have definitely delivered.

ROH World Champion Bandido def. Flip Gordon

Gordon earned his shot at the ROH World Championship all the way back in early 2020 pre-pandemic. I have no idea why ROH waited so long to give it him, but maybe they were waiting for a babyface to dethrone Rush as champ because a heel vs. heel match wouldn't have packed as much of a punch. This wasn't the spot-fest that it probably would have been a few years ago due to Gordon changing up his style as a heel (and it was slightly slow early on because of that), but it was still very well worked and they had strong chemistry together. Post-match, Brody King, EC3 and Flamita all teased entering the title picture, so we'll see what that leads to.

Overall Show

The timing of this show couldn't have been worse with WWE SmackDown, AEW Rampage and IMPACT Emergence all airing opposite of it. Literally nobody on my timeline was talking about it (and even I didn't get around to watching it until well after the fact), but it was an enjoyable night of wrestling, nonetheless. The top matches are all worth checking out, nothing on the card was below average outside of the women's match, and having a lively Philly crowd in attendance made a big difference. This was a thumbs-up show from ROH that left me looking forward to Night 2.

SEE MORE: ROH Reviews