For the first time since April, our champion Claudio Castagnoli has made his way back to the most honorable promotion in ROH TV Episode 18, it is about time. Since Forbidden Door was also last week there are multiple New Japan stars also on this show, so without further ado let’s review.
Tony Khan & Stokley Hathaway Promo: Khan says we are in store for a very exciting night of action with some of the New Japan stars staying around. He tells Hathaway that he and Lynn will be in the gorilla position controlling the show and tells him to take care of things backstage and within the locker room. This is so unnecessary and something you would see in WWE, get rid of this.
Dralestico & Preston Vance vs Mark Wheeler & Vikram Prashar: This was a total squash. LFI has been getting a lot of momentum on ROH as of late, maybe they will be the ones to challenge the Lucha Brothers next month. Not much to say about this one, it was quick and easy.
Winners: Dralestico & Preston Vance
Dark Order (John Silver & Alex Reynolds) vs The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent): It does make me very sad that after Grayson was on zero hour at Forbidden Door, no one was aware he split from the Dark Order since not everyone watches ROH, especially because of how great this storyline is. Evil Uno getting thrown out in the beginning was a fun touch as this will eventually lead to a huge six-man tag match at Death Before Dishonor. Grayson attacks Reynolds from behind to help Dutch and Vincent pick up the win. After the match was over Vincent continued to beat down Reynolds as Evil Uno ran out with a char. Vincent pushed Grayson in front of him to see if Uno would hit Grayson with a chair, which emotionally he couldn’t do.
Winners: The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent)
Leila Grey vs Diamante: Baddie Business is picking up, as Leila Grey graces our TV screens two weeks in a row. This match was a great back-and-forth between two up incomers trying to make a name for themselves within ROH. Since both are tied at one a piece I am assuming next week we will get this match for a third time for the rubber match tiebreaker where Diamante will win again. Winner: Diamante.
Claudio Castagnoli Promo: Castagnoli says he has not been here in a while and no one has mentioned him on TV. He says that no challenger wants to step up to him. Chuck Taylor interrupts and says that he challenges Castagnoli tonight. Castagnoli accepts and challenges him to a Proving Grounds match but eliminates the time limit because he wants Taylor to bring his best.
Gringo Loco The Work Horsemen (JD Drake & Anthony Henry) and Shane Taylor vs The Lucha Brothers (Rey Fenix & Penta El Zero Miedo), El Hijo Del Vikingo, & Komander: The first thing I did not like about this is how we went from Canada to Chicago because they taped this match two weeks ago and didn’t air it. Things like that make the production seem sloppy, that is just my preference. Second, why are we continuing to do multi-team matches and not building a contender for the tag team champions? The Lucha Brothers have not defended the titles in months, why? The match itself was amazing. The quadruple of The Lucha Brothers, Vikingo, and Komander are fantastic and can not put on a bad match. They won two weeks in a row!
Winners: The Lucha Brothers (Rey Fenix & Penta El Zero Miedo), El Hijo Del Vikingo, & Komander
Samoa Joe Promo: Joe talks about how he will defeat Rodrick Strong this week on Collision to advance in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. He praises Tony Khan as Hathaway interrupts and praises Joe for all his success. Joe says he is happy that Hathaway is in charge and says that there is one rule Hathaway has to adhere to, he is in charge of Hathaway. Again, get rid of these segments.
Karou & Tariq vs Big Bill & Lee Moriarity: Another match in Chicago! This was another squash match, as Moriarty and Big Bill were dancing to celebrate another win. Tag team squashes seem to be the popular thing in ROH.
Winners: Big Bill & Lee Moriarity
ROH World Six Man Tag Team Championship The Embassy (Brian Cage, Kaun, & Toa Liona) vs Los Ingobernables (Bushi, Hiromu Takahashi, & Shingo Takagi): I expected Los Ingobernables to get a lot more offense than they did in this match. The Embassy proves to be the most dominant six-man team in ROH history. Cage gets the black mist in the face by Bushi to take him out of the match, but that was not enough for them to capture those six-man titles.
Winners: “And Still” The Embassy (Brian Cage, Kaun, & Toa Liona)
United Empire Promo: Fletcher, Cobb, and Perkins call out the Mongol Embassy to a match as the United Empire is better and has accomplished more than the Mongol Embassy. Interesting.
El Desperado vs Willie Mack: This match got an awesome chant before the two men locked up, that is a magical feeling. This match was awesome. This match could have gone to anyone, but Desperado was able to pick up the big W. This match also got a lot of time and the crowd was very invested in it, which every wrestler wants. Desperado heads back to Japan to face off against Moxley in a last-death match next week!
Winner: El Desperado
Sho & Yujiro Takahashi vs Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Beretta): This episode is very New Japan heavy which is great because the North American crowd gets introduced to a whole new wave of wrestlers, which is exciting. This was another fun match-up. These two teams have a feud within New Japan and Roppongi Vice was able to get the upper hand and win this match-up. After the match, Sho beats down Baretta and Romero when Orange Cassidy comes to make the save.
Winners: Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta)
United Empire (TJ Perkins, Kyle Fletcher, & Jeff Cobb) vs Action Andretti, Christopher Daniels, & Darius Martin: Christopher Daniels looks to sub in for AR Fox here, which was interesting to see. The ending to this match was rough because Perkins clearly had his shoulder up, but the referee counted it as a three-count anyway. Before the ending this match was fun, ROH has seen a lot from Kyle Fletcher over the last couple of weeks, so TK and the board of directors clearly see a lot in him.
Winners: Action Andretti, Christopher Daniels, & Darius Martin
The Kingdom Promo: Jerry Lynn meets with the Kingdom to discuss their ECW comments from last week. Bennett mentions the fact that at Final Battle 2012, he retired Lynn and he has grown to be more successful. Lynn then makes a six-person tag match official for next week where it will be The Infantry with Trish Adora vs The Kingdom with Maria Kanellis. It has been a long time since we have seen Kanellis in a wrestling match, but this should be a great matchup!
ROH Women’s World Championship Proving Grounds Match: Athena vs KC Spinelli: Not much to say here. Athena moves to 28-0 and squashes Spinelli. Whoever they are building for Athena to wrestle at the pay-per-view is going to have a rough task in front of her.
Winner: “And Still” Athena
ROH World Heavyweight Championship Proving Grounds Match: Claudio Castagnoli vs Chuck Taylor: Welcome back champ! Taylor had a nice showing here and really brought it to Castagnoli. Since we have not seen the champion wrestle on ROH TV in a while, it was nice to see him not only wrestle but be the main event of the show. Castagnoli takes the big win here as he ends the show standing tall.
Winner: “And Still” Claudio Castagnoli
Overall: The main problem I have with ROH right now is that there is only one storyline going on, and we are a month out from the pay-per-view. A lot of the matches are just happening randomly without any build or direction toward them. Although the ring work is always amazing, there need to be stories going on every week as well. Also, I did not like how we were switching between Chicago and Canada. I thought that was really weird and you can clearly see the difference in the dynamic of the crowd. It was however nice to see our champion back on TV.
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