Another week, another ROH Review. This week ROH featured a heavy does of New Japan wrestlers. Evil and Sanada wrestled against Kojima and Nagata. We also had another 4 corners tag team match and Josh Woods in action.
Quick Results:
-The Bouncers defeat The Kingdom (Marseglia and O’Ryan), Coast 2 Coast, and the NJPW LA Dojo Young Lions (Coughlin and Connors)
-Josh Woods defeated Maverick Boone
-LIJ defeated Kojima and Nagata
The Allure Get’s Us Started
Happy Birthday To @Women_of_Honor Star and #TheAllüre💋 member @VelVelHoller! Meet the The Allüre TONIGHT during the @ringofhonor meet and greets! pic.twitter.com/9P04XIAPXS
— women of honor (@Women_of_Honor) June 2, 2019
The Allure consists of Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, and Mandy Leon. Velvet takes to the mic and brags about how they started the women’s revolution and claims there would be no Women of Honor if it wasn’t for them. Umm, Velvet, I think you are getting Mandy confused with Madison Rayne. Velvet was referring to her and Angelina’s time in TNA/Impact. Clearly, Mandy wasn’t around then.
Eventually, Mandy grabs the mic and claims she was the woman who laid the foundation for WOH. Out comes Kelly Klein and Jenny Rose. After security breaks them up, Klein challenged the Allure to a fight. Later on we found out, Love and Leon will face Klein and Rose in two weeks on ROH Television.
ROH’s women’s division is not doing well, at least not in my opinion. A Beautiful People rehash in ROH is not what this division needs. Kelly Klein needs some fresh challengers who can go in the ring. Angelina Love’s not bad in the ring, but she’s certainly not fresh. She’s been around for a while, but it isn’t translating into a veteran presence. They need some new folks and quickly.
Four Corner Survival Match
When you put 8 men in 4 tag teams all in one match, you pretty much know what to expect. A lot of chaos and confusion in the ring. However, when you think of past 4 corner tag matches in ROH, they are usually full of guys who are capable of doing some pretty insane spots. The Bouncers, NJPW Young Lions, The Kingdom, and Coast 2 Coast did fine but aren’t the same class of wrestlers we’ve seen in these matches before.
When I look at that list of teams, I see the Kingdom as the team with the most potential star power and the most entertaining in the ring. However, ROH clearly sees something in the Bouncers. They picked up the victory here. After the Kingdom hit the House of 1000 Horses, LSG kicks O’Ryan to stop the cover attempt. Ali then swoops into try to steal the cover. However, Milonas breaks it up. The Bouncers then hit Closing Time for the victory.
ROH TV EPISODE #402 AVAILABLE NOW ON #HONORCLUB! https://t.co/vS7fcMBTTh or download the #ROHApp! pic.twitter.com/NZxEb3I6Kw
— ROH – Ring of Honor Wrestling (@ringofhonor) June 5, 2019
The Bouncers are receiving a big push on ROH Television. They keep racking up victories. Their antics and theme song definitely have won some of the fans over. They are definitely fun. I’m just not sure you’re going to push them to the top of the tag division. I might sound like a broken record soon, but ROH needs to focus on building credible tag teams at the moment. They’re trying with The Bouncers, but they have some other options. Personally, I feel the Kingdom could have used a victory in this match. I think TK O’Ryan has a lot of potential.
The ROH Tag Team Champions are the Guerrillas of Destiny, who don’t even appear on ROH TV. You’ve got the Briscoes, LifeBlood, Coast 2 Coast, and ??? SOS appeared a few weeks ago but we’ve seen nothing from them. Spend some time getting some fresh faces in the division and build up the division. I just don’t think the ceiling on the Bouncers is high enough to have spent this much time on them.
Josh Woods defeats Maverick Boone
It only took Woods 52 seconds to beat Maverick Boone. After a kick and a suplex, Woods hits the Seismic Toss for the win. ROH is trying to get Woods over as a dominant force. Will the crowd buy into him? He hasn’t quite hit the mark from a charisma standpoint. Can he find his character in the midst of this push? Time will tell. However, I have to at least give credit to ROH after the first few segments for trying to build a new star.
LIJ (Evil and Sanada) defeat Kojima and Nagata
What is there to say about Evil and Sanada, except they are great. This match went back and forth. Nagata locks in the Nagata Lock on Sanada, but Evil breaks it up. Sanada hit a beautiful missile dropkick in the match. Ultimately, LIJ hit the Magic Killer for the win.
ROH showcased 4 NJPW talents in the Main Event of Episode 402. I know there is a partnership between the two companies. I like seeing all 4 of these guys on my tv. However, I have to question the decision making of ROH. It lost the Young Bucks, Cody, SCU, and Hangman Page. Those were big losses. However, you brought in Haskins, Williams, Bandido, and Rush. ROH also kept Marty Scurll, Jeff Cobb, Jay Lethal, Matt Taven, TK O’Ryan, Jonathan Gresham, Flip Gordon, and Dalton Castle. Why aren’t they consistently giving us these guys in main events? It seems like they are more interested in pushing the guys AEW and WWE won’t want instead of getting us invested in the guys who are their stars.
Dalton Castle Challenges a Luchador
DALTON CASTLE VOWS TO MAKE RUSH'S BROTHER DRAGON LEE PAY AT BEST IN THE WORLD!
Read More: https://t.co/yvnPwv8BCx
🎟Tickets: https://t.co/hkSK4iX4yh pic.twitter.com/Xcgw1eCqal
— ROH – Ring of Honor Wrestling (@ringofhonor) June 5, 2019
After getting destroyed at G1 Supercard, Castle came to the ring to make a statement. Last time we saw him, he took out the Boys. After he says Rush is a cheater and needs to be punished, he challenges Dragon Lee, Rush’s brother. Castle says he’s going to punish Rush by breaking every bone in Lee’s body. The Boys then hit the ring. They got a bit of offense in, but Castle takes them both out to end the show.
Final Take:
I’m giving this a 2 out of 5. We had a lot of video packages and multiple talking segments. The Jeff Cobb interview was really good. However, ROH was built on exciting in-ring action. They’ve still got the wrestlers to do that. As I’ve stated above, I’m not sure they are focusing on the right talent on their TV show at this time. The pay-per-views on Honor Club focus on their main guys, but the TV show has very minimal time spent on those guys.
We have 4 weeks or so until best in the World. At this set of tapings, they knew some of the main matches. Cobb vs. Taven and Castle vs. Lee. Yet we barely saw Cobb and Taven. They got 1 segment. Castle has had two interview segments. Dragon Lee was competing at BOSJ, but their is no build. Hopefully, the next 4 weeks of TV will get some of these storyline’s in motion. While WWE is bombing and prior to AEW being on weekly TV, ROH should be putting their best foot forward. Instead, we’ve gotten average television at best over the last few weeks. They need to step it up. Moving into Best in the World is the time to do it.
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