ROH TV Episode 19: A Legit Kingdom
We are two weeks away from Death Before Dishonor and only have one match announced… Regardless, I have total faith that between now and the middle of July ROH will be able to build a good enough card for the fan base here in New Jersey. With all that being said let’s discuss episode 19!
Gringo Loco vs Komander: Poor Gringo Loco just can’t seem to get on a = roll in ROH. I like the pairing between Alex Abrahantes and Komander, especially if the Lucha Bros are going to be more prominent within ROH compared to AEW. The match was fine and a good way to start off the episode, the crowd was dead in the beginning which was a little upsetting, however, Komander gets the win!
Winner: Komander
Lee Moriarity and Big Bill Promo: Moriarity says that now that The Firm is over, he and Big Bill have decided to come to ROH and since then they have been a prominent name within the tag team division. Big Bill adds that there is no conceivable way The Boys are going to pick up the win in this tag team match.
Daniel Garcia vs Christopher Daniels: I mean with the photo Garcia shared on Twitter earlier this week, how can we not cheer for him to win this matchup? Luckily for everyone involved, he won! This was a classic teacher vs protege matchup as Garcia racks up more and more wins as we approach the pay-per-view in a couple of weeks. Garcia twirling Aubrey as he was celebrating his huge victory was also hilarious.
Winner: Daniel Garcia
Willie Mack Promo: Mack hypes up the six-man scramble happening later on tonight, where the winner will receive $25,000. He talks about all of the things he can win with the $25K.including going to Jamaica for the first time. Mack is confident he is going to walk out of the six-man scramble victorious and with the cash prize.
Gates of Agony (Kaun & Toa Liona) vs Action Andretti & Darius Martin: I do love the dynamic between Andretti and Martin as they continue to tag each week on TV. The dynamic between all four men was really strong throughout the match as Liona and Kaun were able to keep up with the quickness of Andretti and Martin. Prince Nana distracts the ref to give GOA, the upper hand and the big W in this match-up.
Winners: Gates of Agony (Kaun & Toa Liona)
Zak Patterson, Macrae Martin, & Rip Impact vs The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) & Stu Grayson: This was a squash match, nothing much to say here congrats to the new version of The Righteous.
Winners: The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) & Stu Grayson
Lee Moriarty & Big Bill vs The Boys (Brandon & Brent Tate): I wish Moriarty was not stuck in this tag team. Remember within the first month of ROH TV where he was putting on quality singles matches, what happened to that? The match was fine, the spot where both Tate brothers go on each other’s shoulders to match the height of Big Bill was hilarious. Moriarty and Bill move to 3-0!
Winners: Big Bill & Lee Moriarty
ROH Women’s World Championship Proving Grounds Match: Athena vs Seleziya Sparx: The your mom is tonight’s local jobber shirt Athena was rocking was absolutely hilarious! Also, Sparx was in ROH in the early 2010s. She had a good effort, but it was not enough for the champion who now moves to 29-0. After the match is over Athena continues to beat down Sparx to show her dominance within the ROH Women’s Division.
Winner: “And Still” Athena
JD Drake vs Tony Nese vs Mark Briscoe: Before the match started Nese told Drake that he is close to becoming like the rest of the fat disgusting people within Canada (where the tapings took place). They both started trashing traditional Canadian foods when they were interrupted by Mark Briscoe, He says that he has talked to Tony Khan and now this match is a triple threat match.
For the first half of the match, Nese and Drake double-teamed against Briscoe as the two of them fought over different exercises to do in between the moves they were performing. However, this did not work in their favor as Briscoe kept fighting back. He gets the big win here as he gains more momentum toward the pay-per-view in two weeks.
Winner: Mark Briscoe
Eddie Kingston Promo: Kingston says that now since he is the NJPW Strong Openweight Champion and he is in the G1 Tournament, he can not be at Death Before Dishonor. He calls out Mark Briscoe to be the one to defeat Castagnoli, Kingston says he respects Briscoe and he even wore Jay’s shirt on the way to the ring when he teamed with Rocky Romero. He says it is Briscoe’s turn to become the ROH World Heavyweight Champion and to continue the Briscoe legacy within ROH. This was fantastic.
Mark Briscoe Promo: Briscoe says that although he has said throughout his career he has wanted to win the Television title, Kingston was right this is his time to follow in his brother’s footsteps and capture the World Heavyweight Championship. Castagnoli interrupts and says that Briscoe does not compete with his brother he stands side by side with him. He says Briscoe is not ready to capture World Heavyweight gold and he is ready to prove that at Death Before Dishonor
Diamante vs Vanessa Kraven: Congratulations to Diamante for signing a full-time AEW contract in recent weeks! Her hard work in ROH the past month has really paid off and seeing her being used more and more is always fun to see. Diamante was in control for most of this match-up as she racked up two wins in a row!
Winner: Diamante
Six Way Mayhem Match: Shane Taylor vs Josh Woods vs Brian Cage vs Willie Mack vs Dalton Castle vs Trent Seven: Well, this is such a dynamic of individuals. If you have been following my ROH reviews you know how much I hate multi-man matches, but for $25K at stake, I guess it’s worth it. Dalton Castle’s entrance where he says that he is going to a farmers market to buy all of these crazy things for $25K was also hilarious. Although there was a lot of great wrestling in this match because there were so many people it was hard to keep up. Cage goes to a 16-in-a-row winning streak as he pins Mack while holding his tights.
Winner: Brian Cage
The Infantry (Carlie Bravo & Shawn Dean) & Trish Adora vs The Kingdom (Mike Bennett, Matt Taven, & Maria Kannelis Bennett): Big fan of the matching gear from The Infantry. Before the match starts Maria says she is not medically cleared to compete and since she is all about giving out opportunities she has given the opportunity to Leyla Hirsch to take her place in this match. Seeing Hirsch back after a really bad knee injury was nice especially since she has been out for over a year. This match seemed a bit rushed as everyone was just trying to hit their spots. One of the other disappointing things was that Hirsch barely got a reaction to her return, but if this were to happen on Dynamite the reaction would have been a lot louder. Maira helps distract the referee for Hirsch to pick up the win for The Kingdom.
Winners: The Kingdom (Mike Bennett & Matt Taven) & Leyla Hersch
Leyla Hersch Promo: Hirsch said that Maria needed someone to get the job done and she stepped up to the plate. She is here to stay in ROH as this company is known for innovation which she knows how to do very well. For anyone that has to step in the ring with her, good luck.
Overall: With two weeks until a pay-per-view, there is no reason why there is only one match announced. ROH has no storylines going into this show either, which is concerning. Especially when your Tag Champions and Pure champion have not been on TV in weeks. The wrestling was good, but ROH needs to focus on storytelling and creating feuds within the brand and not just putting random matches together for no reason. However, ROH must be listening to me because we did not see the Board of Directors at all! Minor victories, people.
ROH TV Episode 19 is now streaming on Honor Club.
ROH TV Episode 20 Review: “I’m Gonna Win an Emmy”
In just eight days the second ROH pay-per-view of the year will take place in Death Before Dishonor. ROH still has yet to build a full card for this pay-per-view, but hopefully after next week’s go home episode we have a stacked card that will deliver! For now let’s review episode 20!
Matt Sydal Promo: Sydal says he is up for any challenge and he calls out Brian Cage and the rest of the Embassy. Cage says that Sydal will never be able to live up to the task of defeating him. He asks Sydal to find two partners to challenge them later on tonight.
Serpentico vs Big Bill: Well this was random. Bill squashed Serpentico in a quick match to start the show off. How exciting.
Winner: Big Bill
Athena vs Ava Lawless: For the first time in ROH TV, Athena is not in a Proving Grounds match, or defending her title. Athena won with a submission move, which was shocking since she usually wins by pinning her opponent, but she moves to 30-0 in ROH competition. We love back to back squash matches.
Winner: Athena
Levi Knight, Michael Allen Richard Clark, & Evan Rivers vs The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) & Stu Grayson: The main story here was with Evil Uno who mere minutes into this match pulled up a chair to watch from ringside. The Righteous dominated most of this matchup to get the win. After the match was over, Uno hit one of the men in the match and screamed, “You know where you belong Stu.” The plot is thickening!
Winners: The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) & Stu Grayson
Matt Sydal Promo: Sydal says he has gone on a spiritual quest to find his other two partners for tonight. He seeks out his first tag team partner, Christopher Daniels and the young up-and-comer Darius Martin. He says this team is unstoppable and they will walk out with the six man titles later on tonight.
Bambi Hall vs Leyla Hersch: Way too many squash matches within the first half an hour of this episode. Hersch is looking to move up in the ranks of the women’s division after returning last week and winning in the main event. Hersch looked good, still too many squash matches.
Winner: Leyla Hersch
ROH TV Title Eliminator Tournament: Tony Nese vs Dalton Castle: Nese comes out before the match to trash Canada and specifically their hygiene practices. He cancels ROH for the rest of the night and has the crowd do group exercising, until Castle comes out to start the matchup. Castle also claimed he was going to win an Emmy in the near future which was hilarious. This match was really slow and it really did not get going. Mark Sterling and Ari Davari tried to interfere to help out Nese, but The Boys were there to stop that from happening. Castle advances to the finals next week.
Winner: Dalton Castle
ROH TV Title Eliminator Tournament: Shane Taylor vs Shawn Dean: This was a nice back and forth between two talented individuals on the ROH roster. Taylor mostly dominated this match, but Dean had some bits and pieces of offense as well. Taylor vs Castle set for next week, with the winner facing Samoa Joe at the pay-per-view next Friday.
Winner: Shane Taylor
The Boys (Brent & Brandon Tate) vs The Kingdom (Mike Bennett & Matt Taven): Loving that the Kingdom are calling out the Lucha Brothers for a tag team championship match at the pay-per-view. Although they have been on the losing streak as of late they have still delivered every single week when they have wrestled and they will put on a good match with the Lucha Brothers. The Boys looked good in this match as well, but nothing was a match for the ROH veterans.
Winners: The Kingdom (Mike Bennett & Matt Taven)
The Embassy (Brian Cage, Kaun, & Toa Liona) vs Christopher Daniels, Matt Sydal, & Darius Martin: On a pretty bad episode of ROH, this was a pretty fun main event. The team of Sydal, Daniels, and Martin were extremely entertaining and they had a fair shot of beating the six man champions on several occasions during this match. Unfortunately, Brian Cage is unstoppable now and Sydal found that out the hard way.
Winners: The Embassy (Brian Cage, Kaun, & Toa Liona)
Overall: This had to be the worst episode of ROH TV since it started in March. Halfway through the episode we found out that Mark Briscoe is not cleared for action so now with a week out from the show we have zero matches announced for the pay-per-view. There was only one thing that we built towards and that was Joe’s opponent on the card. This episode was also full of squash matches and was the shortest ROH Episode we have seen. ROH do better!
