Well, I did not expect Samoa Joe to relinquish his TV title on Dynamite last week to go after the AEW World Heavyweight championship. Despite my frustration with that we finally have our world champion defending the programming (it’s the small victories people). So let’s review!
Emergency MEM: Athena calls an emergency mem after her title match with Martinez last week. Starkz apologizes for costing them the loss in their tag match two weeks ago and says that she is really trying and even though her best is not good for Athena she hopes she can see that she is at least trying. Athena says that if it is going to take her screaming at Starkz every week to get her to be violent she will do that. She also says that Starkz is no longer suspended from M.IT. After Athena walks away Nair and Starkz celebrate in true minion fashion.
Serpentico vs Tony Nese: Before the match, Nese and Sterling cut a promo saying that they got rid of their Ethan Page problem they are moving on to bigger and better things. Nese says after he beats Serpentico, the entire crowd will begin group exercising. Halfway through the match, Ethan Page comes out in workout clothes saying he is ready for group exercising, but since Nese is in the middle of a match this may be bad timing. Serpentico takes advantage and rolls Nese up to get the win. Page gets back on the microphone and asks if the group exercise is canceled Nese screams at Page as he goes to the back to celebrate Serpentico’s win.
Winner: Serpentico
Action Andretti and Darius Martin Promo: Martin and Andretti say they feel confident going into their match tonight, they say that STP always has soldiers in their corner so now they have some soldiers in theirs. The Infantry say they are staying ready and will win their eight-man tag team match tonight.
ROH Women’s Championship Proving Grounds Match: Athena vs Heidi Howitzer: Howitzer looked good. Although Athena had most of the offense throughout the match, like she usually does in these matches I would not mind seeing her back within ROH. After the match, Athena beats down Howitzer more to prove why she is the most dominant women’s champion in ROH history.
Winner: “And Still” Athena
Kyle Fletcher vs Lee Johnson: This match was phenomenal. Fletcher is on another level right now. When it was announced Davis was hurt I was worried they would not have anything for Fletcher to do, but I was wrong he is constantly producing banger matches every week. Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty were watching from backstage scouting out Lee Johnson. Fletcher picks up the win and Shane Taylor says he does not understand why Johnson will not join STP, if he makes the jump he won’t lose.
Winner: Kyle Fletcher
Charlette Renegade vs Leyla Hersch:
Robyn kept getting involved throughout the match including towards the beginning of the bout where she delivered a nasty punch right to Hersch. Robyn distracted the referee so Charlette could try to use a chair when Rachael Ellering came and made the save. Hersch picks up the win via submission. After the match, Ellering and Hersch come face to face Hersch walks out of the ring without thanking Ellering for the necessary assistance.
Winner: Leyla Hersch
Another MEM: Lexy Nair gets the heat this week for calling Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander her best friends as she gets demoted to MIT number one. Athena tells Starkz to take her new aggression towards her match tonight against Rachael Ellering. As for her, she is excited that Final Battle is in her hometown and can not wait to see who is the one to challenge her at the final pay-per-view for ROH.
Iron Savages (Boulder and Bronson) vs Cole Karter and Griff Garrison: Iron Savages has grown on me the last couple of weeks. They are putting a lot of stake into this tag team as they continue to put on great matches every week on ROH TV. Sadly Maria’s baby boys couldn’t get it done this week, back to the drawing board.
Winners: Iron Savages (Boulder and Bronson)
*They showed a recap of what happened on Dynamite with Joe vacating the Television Championship. ROH announces that next week Tony Khan will announce what is next for the Television Championship*
Rachael Ellering vs Billie Starkz: This match was great. Starkz is proving week after week why she will be the one to dethrone Athena (most likely at Final Battle). Ellering also took it to Starkz I am thrilled that ROH is using her as I feel like this is the best place for her to be. Starkz gets the win after a moonsault as Athena and Starkz start a two-on-one attack against Ellering. Hersch comes out to make the save as Athena makes the offer for her to join the minions. This is getting interesting folks.
Winner: Billie Starkz
Josh Woods vs SK Bishop: We were so close to having an ROH episode without a squash match…
Winner: Josh Woods
The Infantry (Carlie Bravo and Shawn Dean), Action Andretti, and Darius Martin vs Shane Taylor, Lee Moriarty, and The Wingmen (Peter Avalon and Ryan Nemeth): This match did nothing for me. STP walked out of the match halfway through because the Wingmen would not let them take control and STP apparently “ran that tag team”. Infantry, Andretti, and Martin get the win.
Winners: The Infantry (Carlie Bravo and Shawn Dean), Action Andretti, and Darius Martin
Rachael Ellering Promo: Ellering says she hates losing, but it seems like she is getting through to Hersch. Hersch says the only reason she helped Ellering is because she doesn’t like owing anyone debts and now they are even. Kanellis comes and says this is adorable. She says the two of them should have a tag team match and after that, Kanellis will determine if she wants to help Hersch or not.
Gravity vs Dralistico: Dralistico got the big win as he is the newest AEW signee. This was designed to showcase two of the best luchadors within ROH and they put on a great match. This was the match that the crowd got the most invested in as well.
Winner: Dralisitico
ROH World Heavyweight Championship: Eddie Kingston vs Angelico: Three cheers for our champion showing up after his suspension! This was more of a technical match, and we have seen more of that side of wrestling from Kingston throughout 2023. Angelico had a lot of offense throughout the match, and I do hope they continue to push him throughout the rest of the year on ROH TV.
Winner: “And Still” Eddie Kingston
Dalton Castle Promo: Castle says this is not easy and all he wants is to give the viewers what they want. He wants to give the fans they deserve. Castle says Kingston is ruining that and he is throwing away his opportunity. Castle says he hasn’t slept in weeks because he can not sit and watch Kingston be the ROH World Heavyweight Champion. He also says he smashed his head threw a window last night and next week he is going to win the ROH World Heavyweight Championship to give the fans something to be proud of.
Overall: ROH TV Episode 37 didn’t wow me like last week. A lot of the matches still did not make sense and now our television title picture is a disaster. The minor win in all of this is that for the first time in about a month, we finally got two champions on an episode of ROH TV! There is a lot of work to be done on the road to Final Battle, that is for sure.
