We are officially on the road to Final Battle. Now on this episode, there were a lot more matches and fewer backstage segments, so maybe Tony Khan is listening to me after all. As we officially enter the road to Final Battle, let’s review episode 34 of ROH TV.
Gravity vs Angelico: I love the fact Angelico is getting an ROH Title shot in the future. He has definitely been putting in the work and he is one of the few consistent wrestlers on ROH TV at the moment. Both of these men have very similar wrestling styles and both of them brought their A-game to this match. Great way to open up the episode as Angelico grows his winning streak heading into his huge title match somewhere down the line.
Winner: Angelico
Righteous Promo: Dutch says that they swore to tear apart the friendship of MJF and Adam Cole and that is exactly what they did. Now MJF has more eyes on him than ever, and when the Righteous speak you should always listen because they are always right.
Shawn Dean vs Peter Avalon: Seeing Peter Avalon on ROH TV is always exciting, meaning that he is not even on AEW TV. Trish Adora and Ryan Nemeth going at it on the outside was great, it added way more to the match and got the crowd into it. I originally thought this was going to be a squash match because most of Avalon’s matches are, but this match got time and was a back-and-forth between two up incomers in ROH. In the end, Dean gets a huge win. They should book Nemeth and Avalon vs Heavy Infantry in the future, just saying.
Winner: Shawn Dean
Mercedes Martinez vs Marti Belle: The one good thing about ROH is the amount of opportunities that it gives independent wrestlers to get TV time, such as Belle. Martinez dominated most of this match-up as commentary continued to say that Martinez is still owed a title opportunity from Athena given what happened at last year’s Final Battle. Looks like that is the title match that will be happening this upcoming December.
Winner: Mercedes Martinez
Athena Promo: Minion Impowerment Meeting! Athena says that she is not happy that she and Starkz got taken down last week by Diamante and Martinez. She asks Starkz what she is going to do in her match and she says shake her hand and Athena says no. Athena and Lexy Nair say that the baddest ones hit first and since Starkz is the baddest she will hit first. Starkz walks away as Athena and Nair say Starkz still sucks.
Tony Nese vs Ethan Page: Nese took a more serious approach to this match by not doing group training and just wanting to get the match out of the way. In the middle of this match, Page took a fan’s “Tony Nese Sucks” sign and posed with it in front of the camera which made for some excellent TV. Nese really brought it to Page I was impressed. Page has had a lot of shorter matches on ROH TV to build him up towards a title shot but this was his longest match on ROH TV this year. Nese had his feet on the ropes to help him get the win, which broke Page’s five-match winning streak. Talk about an upset. After the match, Nese wants the code of honor and as Page goes to shake his hand Nese walks away. Nese then insults Page saying he is not in shape to compete with him and Page hits him with a right hand.
Winner: Tony Nese
Diamante vs Billie Starkz: This storyline rules. Athena continuously yelling at Starkz on the outside throughout the entire match adds so much. Diamante and Starkz are so talented and they continue to shine in every match they have on ROH TV. Starkz gets the win, but after the match, Martinez jumped Starkz. Athena came in and Diamante beat her down, chairs made their way into the swing and every referee had to come out to stop the fight. Looks like we are getting a No DQ tag team match in the near future.
Winner: Billie Starkz
Maria’s Army Promo: Griff starts to say that they feel good heading into their match tonight when Karter begs Maria to put on her new shirt available on Shopaew. She says she will do anything for her boys and Garrison says Karter is weird.
Pure Rules Match: Josh Woods vs Pat Buck: I enjoyed Buck outsmarting Woods to make him use two of his rope breaks early on in the match. Woods gets the win rather easily as he moves on to a six-match winning streak as he has his eyes set on the Pure Championship.
Winner: Josh Woods
Cole Karter and Griff Garrison vs Myron Reed and Ren Jones: So close to having an ROH Episode without a squash match… sigh.
Winners: Cole Karter and Griff Garrison
Dalton Castle Promo: Castle says he knows that ratings go up when he is on TV and now he feels the pressure of bringing the fans what they want on TV every week. He says he is going to do everything he can to make ROH TV extraordinary.
Allysin Kay vs Kiera Hogan: They gave Kay a Titantron graphic and entrance music, which makes me believe that she is signed to at least a tier-three deal. Hogan has been on a hot streak in ROH as she has been putting in the work week in and week out, I would not mind her getting another shot at Athena down the line. This match was fine, Kay got to shine at certain points, but sadly she moved on to 0-4 in ROH competition, one day she will get her big win right?
Winner: Kiera Hogan
The Righteous (Dutch and Vincent) vs KM and Rod Gordon: Another squash… sigh.
Winners: The Righteous (Dutch and Vincent)
Lady Frost vs Zoey Lynn: Two squashes in a row… sigh.
Winner: Lady Frost
Komander vs Metalik: Honestly, this match felt rushed, which is really upsetting because if we just scratched the two squash matches from before this match would have gotten more time. It also did not help that every two seconds we went to a replay which made the match feel even quicker. Komander gets the win in a very quick fashion, I really wish this match was longer.
Winner: Komander
Gates of Agony (Kaun and Toa Liona) vs The Workhorsemen (JD Drake and Anthony Henry) vs Action Andretti and Darius Martin: The main event for this week’s episode was four minutes long… I don’t have any words Gates of Agony get the win, do better Ring of Honor.
Winners: Gates of Agony (Kaun and Toa Liona)
Overall Thoughts on ROH TV Episode 34: There were a lot of great matches on this week’s episode of ROH TV. The real problem I had with this episode was the bottom half of the show. The last two matches seemed overly rushed and there were pointless back-to-back squash matches. I wish they paced this episode better. Until next week
