ROH x Stardom: Global Wars: Cincinnati Review - June 25, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW National Champion Mark Davis def. Ace Austin

The AEW National Championship has been defended in Ring of Honor a handful of times since Final Battle, so while the belt isn't being defended in a ton of other "nations" necessarily, I'm glad it hasn't been entirely exclusive to AEW. Plus, it was nice to see Austin's string of wins in ROH actually amount to something. They had a good match with Austin being made to look credible in defeat.

Harley Cameron and Mina Shirakawa def. Lacey Lane and Viva Van

The biggest thing these two have in common (hey, get your mind out of the gutter) is that they always seem to have random tag team partners, so I guess they've gravitated toward each other. Sure, okay. We just saw Lane and Van team up last week and they lost that, too. I hope they're not a permanent pairing as Van has a higher ceiling on her own in my opinion. The match was well worked, but it felt like it lasted too long.

IWGP Women's Champion Syuri def. Billie Starkz (Non-Title)

Syuri failed to beat Athena as ROH Women's World Champion last week, so it was logical for her to bounce back with a win over Athena's minion Starkz. They had a solid match with Starkz scoring plenty of offense before taking the loss. If it wasn't already obvious, this did nothing to make me want to see Starkz challenge/dethrone Athena for the ROH Women's World Championship. Give me Maya World in that spot instead.

The Opps (Katsuyori Shibata, Hook and Anthony Bowens) def. BEEF and Premier Athletes (Tony Nese and Ariya Daivari)

Premier Athletes never really win anything of note, anyway, but the finish was foreshadowed the moment it was revealed they were teaming with BEEF, the biggest jobber on the ROH roster. With that said, I have no idea why this needed to last as long as it did. In shocking fashion (and I say that sarcastically), Premier Athletes walked out on BEEF, who ate the loss soon after. Yeah, this was a boring bout.

Mikey Nicholls def. Aaron Solo

I couldn't tell you the last time I saw Nicholls in singles action, so in a way, that did make the outcome to this contest slightly more unpredictable. Otherwise, this wasn't very interesting at all. I know it's Forbidden Door season and TMDK have been around more than usual, but I just don't see Nicholls doing anything on his own going forward. This was perfectly fine albeit forgettable.

Queen Aminata def. Hanako

Aminata just defeated Red Velvet on Wednesday's Dynamite to qualify for next week's Survival of the Fittest match for the AEW TBS Championship on Dynamite, so it would have been pretty silly for her to lose the next night. This was a quality contest for the time it was allotted. By the way, shouldn't Aminata's victory over Velvet earn her an opportunity at the ROH Women's World Television Championship?

ROH Women's Pure Champion Deonna Purrazzo def. Olympia

The timing of this match was weird because it's been announced that Olympia will be Thunder Rosa's partner to face The Divine Domination for the AEW Women's World Tag Team Championship at Forbidden Door in three days, so what was the point of having her lose before then? I'm not saying she should have won here, but Purrazzo could have had a different opponent. Nonetheless, they had a well-wrestled main event and I appreciated seeing the ROH Women's Pure Championship spotlighted for a change.

Overall Show

I was unaware they taped two weeks' worth of Global Wars content, but I'm not complaining. Much like last week, it made this edition of ROH TV far more enjoyable than your average episode. Sure, it was a little less eventful because no championships changed hands and there weren't as many title matches, but it was still a strong show on the whole by ROH standards.

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