Due to visa issues, the ROH World Tag Team Championships were not defended at Supercard of Honor. But there was still a lot to discuss in the promotion’s tag team division.
Former ROH World Tag Team Champions the Kingdom, Matt Taven & Mike Bennett, returned to the promotion on Friday night. They interrupted a promo by Bustah and the Brain, with both teams declaring their pursuit of the current champions, Sammy Guevara & The Beast Mortos.
Taven and Bennett were last seen in ROH in October, teaming with Matt Menard in a losing effort against SkyFlight.
The pair are three-time ROH tag champs, having won the titles from Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian in 2015, Dragon Lee & Kenny King in 2021, and from MJF in a two-on-one handicap match in 2023. They have also won the top tag team titles in New Japan Pro Wrestling and TNA/Impact Wrestling.
In ROH, Taven is a former World Champion, World TV Champion, and World Six-Man Tag Team Champion. Bennett won the Honor Rumble in 2014. Each is a former winner of the Top Prospect tournament, with Bennett winning the inaugural event in 2011 and Taven winning in 2013.
Maria Kanellis and Mike Bennett are now parents to three after welcoming a new child into the world.
The couple revealed today that their new baby boy — named William Mercury Bennett — was born on January 19. Weighing seven pounds and seven ounces, the baby is named after Kanellis’ brother and grandfather.
“William Mercury Bennett was born yesterday afternoon at 7 pounds 7ounces and 18.8 inches,” Kanellis announced. “He is an absolute angel. William gets his name from his great-grandfather who is my godfather and was an immigrant from Greece. And my brother who is a veteran, husband, father, and wonderful brother. They are two of the toughest men I know. William Mercury’s name means strong willed warrior, messenger. We are so in love.”
The couple has been married for more than a decade now and also have a daughter named Freddie and son named Carver, who were born in 2018 and 2020.
Though his Kingdom tag team partner Matt Taven departed the promotion this month, Bennett remains part of the AEW roster. His most recent match for the company was a six-man tag that aired on ROH in November 2025.
Maria Kanellis, who has not been with AEW since January 2025, is currently a free agent.
Mike Bennett recently reached a big personal milestone, crossing the eight-year sober mark in his battle against painkiller addiction.
The AEW & ROH wrestler shared a message with fans today saying that, as of last week, he is now more than eight years clean from painkillers. Despite this being such a huge milestone, it’s one that Bennett didn’t even take note of on the day of the anniversary. He feels like it’s probably a good thing that his current self is moving further away from that part of his life.
The 40-year-old Bennett added that, while the last eight years have had their ups and downs, he’s proud of who he’s become and appreciates everyone who has been with him on this journey.
“Last week was my 8 year anniversary of being clean of pain killers. I totally forgot about it. I was visiting my parents in Massachusetts with my kids and it never crossed my mind. I said to Maria ‘I think it’s a good thing that I didn’t remember.’ My struggles back then will always be a part of me but I refuse to let it define me,” he wrote.
“I wish I could say the past 8 years have been sunshine and bliss but that would be a lie. I’m in a much better place but life will always do what life does. In the last 8 years I’ve lost my job twice, had 2 kids with a third on the way, my wife was in and out of the hospital w a tumor, moved the family to Tennessee. Lots of stress. Lots of love. Lots of tears. Lots of laughs. I’m proud of the man I’ve become and the man I continue to grow into. Lord knows I’m not perfect but everyday I become a little bit better. I love everyone who’s been on this journey with me. Thank you.”
Bennett’s most recent match took place on an ROH episode in May. His wife Maria Kanellis-Bennett had also been with AEW before announcing her departure from the promotion at the end of January. The couple recently revealed that they’re expecting their third child.
Maria Kanellis-Bennett and her husband Mike Bennett announced some big personal news this morning — they’re expecting another baby.
The couple posted an Instagram video on Monday revealing that they’re expecting baby number three. Maria and Mike have been married for more than a decade now. Their first two children, a daughter named Freddie and son named Carver, were born in 2018 and 2020.
Mike Bennett is signed to AEW and competes on the ROH roster as part of The Kingdom with his tag team partner Matt Taven.
Along with working for AEW/ROH, Bennett competes on the indies and has made recent appearances for Maple Leaf Pro and AAW.
Maria departed AEW earlier this year and is currently a free agent, though she’s not focused on a return to pro wrestling at the moment unless the right opportunity comes up. She’s previously worked for both WWE and TNA. Last year, Maria navigated a difficult health situation after a mass was found on her adrenal gland. The mass was ultimately determined not to be cancerous.
The Kingdom’s Matt Taven, Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis-Bennett are now under multi-year AEW contracts according to a Fightful report on Wednesday.
The trio, who debuted at the end of the Friday, October 14th Rampage from Toronto, Canada, weren’t officially signed at the time of their appearance. As part of the show-closing angle, they challenged FTR for the ROH Tag Team titles — the date and location for which have yet to be announced.
Of the three, Kanellis-Bennett has a talent-only contract and is not expected to wrestle.
The three, and Vincent, recently wrapped up with Impact Wrestling, losing the Tag Team titles to Heath & Rhino on last week’s TV that was taped following this month’s Bound for Glory. Vincent was recently spotted backstage at a WWE Raw TV show which has led to speculation about his future employment.
Dave Meltzer had reported that WWE had interest in Taven while Fightful reported Bennett and Kanellis-Bennett had conversations with WWE but were unsure of any contract offer coming out of those talks. FTR had reportedly pushed for the team to be signed by AEW.
The Kingdom has yet to appear on AEW TV, Dark or Dark: Elevation since making their debut.
A tag team match is set to take place on the pre-show for Impact Wrestling’s Sacrifice event.
Impact Wrestling has announced that Matt Taven & Mike Bennett will face Rich Swann & Willie Mack on Countdown to Sacrifice this Saturday. The pre-show airs live on Youtube at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time, with the main card then starting on Impact Plus and Impact’s Ultimate Insiders YouTube service at 8 p.m. Eastern.
An injury has forced a change to the card for Terminus’ debut event.
Terminus announced that, due to injury, Alex Coughlin is off the card for their debut show on Sunday (January 16). Coughlin was scheduled to face Moose.
Mike Bennett is replacing Coughlin at the show and will be Moose’s new opponent.
Bennett, Maria Kanellis-Bennett, Matt Taven, Vincent Marseglia, and PCO were involved in an ROH invasion angle at Impact Wrestling’s Hard to Kill pay-per-view this past Saturday.
Moose is the current Impact Wrestling World Champion.
Terminus is a new promotion from Jonathan Gresham and Baron Black. Sunday’s event is taking place at the Kroc Center in Atlanta and will air live on Fite TV.
Here’s the card for the show:
ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham defends against Josh Alexander in a Pure Rules match
ROH World Champion Bandido defends against Baron Black
Jay Lethal vs. Lee Moriarty
Impact Digital Media Champion Jordynne Grace defends against Kiera Hogan
Moose vs. Mike Bennett
Liiza Hall vs. Janai Kai
Terminal eliminator match: JDX vs. Daniel Garcia vs. Invictus Khash vs. Adam Priest
Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi vs. Dante Caballero & Joe Keys
Lenny Leonard and Dave Prazak will be the commentary team for the show.
Four Ring of Honor wrestlers, along with Maria Kanellis, appeared on tonight’s Impact Hard to Kill event, laying out members of the Impact Wrestling roster.
Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, Vincent, and PCO appeared following the Hardcore War match and attacked Rhino and Heath. Willie Mack and Rich Swann attempted to help, but were then jumped by PCO and Vincent. The Impact wrestlers were then laid out by the Ring of Honor wrestlers as Bennett brought in Maria Kanellis. All five then posed as the announcers suggested this may be an invasion from Ring of Honor.
Backstage, Gia Miller attempted to interview Scott D’Amore about the situation. D’Amore told Miller that he had to call Baltimore (the location of ROH’s headquarters) to figure out what was going on.
ROH has been on hiatus since December’s Final Battle, with the company planning resuming shows in April. Jonathan Gresham, the ROH World Champion, successfully defended the ROH title against Impact’s Chris Sabin earlier in the show.
Rok-C, the ROH Women’s Champion, appeared at ringside for the main event between Mickie James and Deonna Purrazzo.
Matt Taven and Mike Bennett won the Ring of Honor Tag Team titles at Sunday’s Honor for All, defeating LFI’s Dragon Lee and Kenny King for the belts.
This is the second reign for Taven and Bennett, known as The OGK, who first won the titles at September 2015’s All-Star Extravaganza in San Antonio, Texas, in a three-way that included Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian, and the Young Bucks.
The end came after all four men hit their finishers, leading to Amy Rose and Max the Impaler coming out to distract both King and Bestia Del Ring who was at ringside with LFI. Taven rolled up King to get the pin and win.
Lee and King held the titles since July, but only defended them once in an October title defense over SOS.
ROH will put on their final show of the year with Final Battle, a pay-per-view set for Saturday, December 11th in Baltimore, Maryland. Following the event, the company will go dark for three months as they figure out what their future holds.
The Big Takeaway: Coming off the heels of a great Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view, ROH hosts a special “Pure” episode of ROH TV.
Quinn McKay welcomed us to the broadcast from the ROH studio. McKay revealed that this week’s episode of ROH TV would be themed after pure wrestling in celebration of the one year anniversary of the division returning. McKay announced the return of the Pure Rules gauntlet match for tonight’s episode, as well as a main event clash between Mike Bennett and Rhett Titus.
Brian Johnson won a Pure Rules gauntlet match
World Famous CB defeated Eric Martin (3:13)
CB and Martin started with a standard lockup that saw CB get the advantage. CB tripped Martin into the ropes and hold him there, costing Martin one of his rope breaks. After CB repeated the trick two more times and cost him all of his rope breaks, Martin found some momentum and hit a few clotheslines.
CB ran circles around Martin after recovering and eventually locked in a backbreaker-like submission, which Martin would submit to quickly.
Delirious defeated World Famous CB (5:32)
Delirious immediately targeted the lower half of CB, but was met with great resistance. CB responded to Delirious with a scissors takedown, followed by a scissor headlock on the mat.
CB ran the ropes and hit a German suplex on Delirious, who recovered rather quickly and nailed CB with a lariat. Delirious capitalized on the lariat with a triangle choke/armbar combination that made CB submit quickly.
LSG defeated Delirious (5:20)
Delirious was in control of LSG for the first portion of their encounter, but LSG fought back valiantly. As the match progressed, the two traded big moves back and forth but eventually LSG applied a Muta Lock to Delirious and made him submit.
LSG defeated Joe Keys (4:37)
After exchanging a few headlocks and takedowns, the two men came to a stalemate. Keys locked in an abdominal stretch and beat on the chest of LSG before tossing him over his head.
Keys showed a glimmer of hope when he hit a fantastic backbreaker and followed it up with a Boston crab submission. Keys stayed in full control as he perched LSG on the top rope and seemed to be looking for a brainbuster, but LSG reversed it into a crossbody pinning combination which warranted the three count.
Brian Johnson defeated LSG (1:04)
Johnson took advantage of a weary LSG and tried to go right after him, but LSG still had a bit of a fight in him and hit a Rocket-Baby slam for a near fall that was broken up by a Johnson rope break.
Johnson struck LSG with a closed fist and while the referee was distracted. Johnson pinned LSG with his feet on the ropes for a three count.
Mike Bennett defeated Rhett Titus via judge’s decision (15:00)
Bennett tried to out-power Rhett Titus to the mat with a knuckle lock, but was met with resistance from “The Professional”. Titus continued to attack Bennett into the commercial break.
When the break returned, Titus had a leg-lock applied which caused Bennett to use his first rope break. As the match progressed, Titus had control of Bennett as he transitioned between different submissions into the middle portion of the match.
Bennett eventually found a second wind and overwhelmed Titus with a series of strikes. Bennett applied his own leg-lock in the corner, which caused Titus to use his first rope break.
As we returned from another commercial break, Titus nailed Bennett with a running boot in the corner. Titus applied his foot to the neck of Bennett, which caused him to use his final rope break.
As Titus was catching his breath in the corner, Bennett slipped out from underneath him and applied an ankle lock. Bennett seemed like he had Titus trapped in the hold, but Titus was able to use his second rope break.
Once Titus and Bennett rose to their feet, Titus attempted his signature running German suplex but ultimately failed due to his knee giving out. Bennett capitalized on the hurt knee and heavily targeted it in the final stages of the match.
In the final minute, Titus and Bennett exchanged multiple strikes but neither could capitalize as the time limit in the match expired.
Per the Judge’s decision, Bennett was crowned the winner due to landing more submissions and strikes, as well as reversing more moves.
Final Thoughts: ROH TV this week was a mixed bag. While I thought the Pure Rules gauntlet match was a bit dull at times, Rhett Titus and Mike Bennett had a fantastic main event match that further submitted Bennett’s status in the Pure division.
In recent months, I’ve introduced a scale in order to let you know if the current week of TV is worth your while. The scale is as followed:
Must Watch TV
Go Out Of Your Way
Recommended Viewing
Watch YouTube Clips
Avoid At All Costs
This week’s episode of ROH TV is: Recommended Viewing
Mike Bennett is getting a Pure Championship shot at ROH’s next pay-per-view.
On this week’s edition of ROH Week By Week, it was announced that Bennett will challenge for the ROH Pure Championship at Best in the World on Sunday, July 11. Jonathan Gresham is the current Pure Champion. He’s defending his title against Fred Yehi on the ROH TV episode that premieres this weekend.
Bennett won a Pure Rules gauntlet match that aired on ROH’s YouTube channel last week. Bennett eliminated PJ Black, Joe Keys, and The World Famous CB (Cheeseburger) during the match. It was the first Pure Rules match that Bennett has ever wrestled in.
Bennett said after the gauntlet match that he’s coming after the Pure Championship. Bennett said he respects Gresham, but Gresham told Bennett that he doesn’t belong in the Pure division.
Gresham became Pure Champion by winning a tournament for the title in 2020. After having been unified with the ROH World Championship in 2006, the Pure title was reintroduced in last year’s tournament.
Best in the World is taking place at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. It will be the first ROH show with fans in attendance since February 2020. Here’s the updated card for the PPV:
ROH World Champion Rush defends against Bandido
ROH Television Champion Tony Deppen defends against Dragon Lee
ROH Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham defends against Mike Bennett
Brody King vs. Jay Lethal
EC3 vs. Flip Gordon
Last Man Standing match: Josh Woods vs. Silas Young
A Tag Team title match will take place on ROH television later this month.
ROH has announced that The OGK (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) will challenge The Foundation’s Tracy Williams & Rhett Titus for the ROH Tag Team titles on the ROH TV episode that premieres the weekend of Saturday, May 22. This will be Williams & Titus’ first title defense since defeating La Faccion Ingobernable’s Kenny King & Bestia del Ring at March’s ROH 19th Anniversary pay-per-view to become Tag Team Champions.
Bestia del Ring was replacing Dragon Lee in the Tag Team title match at ROH’s 19th Anniversary PPV. Dragon Lee suffered a ruptured eardrum and had to be pulled from the PPV.
The OGK are 3-0 in tag team action since Bennett made his return to ROH last November. Their most recent win was against Beer City Bruiser & Ken Dixon.
Taven & Bennett formerly held the ROH Tag Team titles for three months in 2015. They also held the IWGP Tag Team titles together in 2015.
Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis-Bennett are officially back with Ring of Honor full-time.
In an interview with PWinsider today, Bennett and Kanellis-Bennett announced that they’ve signed new contracts with ROH and will be with the promotion full-time going forward. The two had been on short-term deals with ROH that were set to run through the end of June.
ROH has also officially announced that Bennett and Kanellis-Bennett have re-signed with the promotion..
Bennett and Kanellis-Bennett were both released by WWE as part of the company’s pandemic-related roster cuts last April. In November, Bennett returned to ROH by reuniting with his former Kingdom stablemate Matt Taven. Bennett and Taven are now known as The OGK.
Kanellis-Bennett made her return to ROH by announcing the promotion’s The Experience fan-engagement initiative in December of last year. She’s working for ROH both behind the scenes and as an on-air talent. At ROH’s 19th Anniversary pay-per-view last month, Kanellis-Bennett announced that ROH will be holding a Women’s Championship tournament that will begin this summer.
Bennett and Kanellis-Bennett’s original run with ROH ended in December 2015. They were then with Impact Wrestling prior to joining WWE in 2017.
A video was posted on ROH’s social media showing Bennett talking about The Experience. She is seen in the video saying she wants fans to thrive, and wants ROH to “be ours”. The video ended with Maria saying she wanted her voice, and our voices, to be heard.
Ring of Honor has always strived to give the best wrestling fans on the planet what they want. Now the fans will have an open forum to tell us directly what they want.
In January, ROH takes The Experience to the next level of fan engagement by empowering the members of Honor Nation to make their voices heard.
The Experience is not a singular event. It’s a movement.
Fans are encouraged to join the ROH The Experience Facebook group to share their thoughts and opinions about all things ROH.
Which outside talents do you want to see in ROH? Which ROH stars should be getting title shots? What match stipulations do you want to see?
ROH wants you to #ChooseYourHonor.
Maria Kanellis Bennett is leading the charge for The Experience. She made the announcement about the groundbreaking concept on ROH’s social media platforms.
“Ring of Honor has cultivated an environment where the wrestlers and the fans are the experience,” Kanellis Bennett said. “I want wrestlers to thrive and I want to give you the fans what you truly desire.
“I want Ring of Honor to be yours. No … I want Ring of Honor to be ours.”
Both Maria Kanellis and Mike Bennett were released from WWE back in April, with the company citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason for wide-ranging cutbacks. She originally appeared in ROH from 2011 to 2015, calling herself the First Lady of ROH.
Mike Bennett has also returned to the company recently, reuniting with former Kingdom stablemate Matt Taven.
The Big Takeaway: Mike Bennett defeated Vincent via DQ in a brutal match. John Walters made his return to Ring Of Honor in a losing effort versus Tracy Williams, and Mark Briscoe found a new tag partner in PCO for ahead of his World Tag Team title match at Final Battle.
We started off tonight’s episode with Quinn McKay. She recapped the main event contest from last week which saw Brody King defeat Shane Taylor. McKay then gave us a clip of King’s post match comments, with him saying he was coming for Rush and his ROH World Championship.
McKay then transitioned to a recap of Josh Woods defeating Jay Lethal in a Pure Rules contest. Woods commented on his win, saying he’s going to bring pure rules back to ROH.
*****
Mike Bennett defeated Vincent via DQ (11:34)
Code Of Honor wasn’t adhered to. Vincent got the upper hand early, backing Bennett in the corner and delivering punches and knees. Bennett came back and got into a chopping war with Vincent before taking him down with a clothesline. Vincent rolled out to the apron and lured Bennett into a neckbreaker through the ropes.
We returned from break. Vincent and Bennett engaged in a war of strikes before Bennett delivered a superkick for a two count. Vincent recovered quickly and got back to his feet and delivered a side effect to Bennett. Bennett began holding his neck in pain. Bennett recovered and got on his feet and delivered a superkick to the knee, then to the face. Bennett set Vincent on the top rope, but Vincent fought out and dove off onto Bennett, locking in a guillotine.
Bennett fought out of the hold, and lifted up Vincent for a suplex. Bennett brought Vincent to his feet afterward, and both men engaged in a slugfest.
Bennett ended up getting the best of the slugfest, and delivered a spear afterwards. Instead of going for the pin, he picked up Vincent and attempted a piledriver. Vincent instead pushed him into the corner and began beating him down. The official counted to five and Vincent still wouldn’t stop beating Bennett down, so Vincent was disqualified.
After the match, Vincent continued to beat down on Bennett. He threw him into the entrance stairs, but Matt Taven came flying off the stage onto Vincent. Bateman came out and fought off Taven before a ton of security guards got involved and separated all of the guys.
*****
A promo aired for Rhett Titus. Tracy Williams and Jay Lethal talk him up, complimenting his hard work of 15 years in wrestling. They called him under appreciated and under utilized. The package ended with Rhett Titus taking off his mask and saying “I am the Foundation”.
*****
A promo aired for Mark Briscoe. He says he’s locked in on the ROH Tag Team titles, and it’s a shame that his brother Jay isn’t. Briscoe says he’s okay with it, because he’s found another partner. PCO walks in behind Briscoe and they go crazy, declaring their shot at Final Battle against Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham.
*****
Another promo aired, this time for Tracy Williams. Williams said his ultimate goal was to win the ROH Pure Championship, but he failed. He then went on to say he knew he was gonna meet Jonathan Gresham in the finals, and they both decided to rebuild the company based on the foundation no matter which man won. He said that on his list of names of who originally built the Pure division, John Walters is at the top.
*****
John Walters spoke next. He called his Pure Championship win in 2004 the most prestigious moment of his career. Walters said while he hasn’t been in the public eye for a while, he’s been training and scouting for a long time. Walters said he’s going to convincingly beat Williams and make his way back to the ROH Pure Championship.
Tracy Williams pinned John Walters in a Pure Rules contest (11:40)
Flip Gordon joined the commentary team for this contest.
Code Of Honor was adhered to. Gordon commented on his amateur background and how he’s excited to show it off. Williams and Walters exchanged control early with arm locks. Williams got Walters to the ground with a slight armbar, but Williams wasn’t locked in all the way. Walters used his first rope break to break the hold. Williams rapidly followed up and began targeting the knee of Walters. We went to a commercial break.
Walters and Williams were back on their feet, but Walters sprung off the ropes and clipped Williams’ knee. Walters smartly goes to work on the left knee of Williams, locking in a sharpshooter. Williams quickly got to the ropes, costing him his first rope break. Walters wasn’t paying attention, so Williams took advantage and locked in a heel hook on him.
Walters quickly reached for the ropes, costing him his second rope break. Williams went to the corner and perched Walters on the top rope before suplexing him off, then transitioned into the crossface. Walters maneuvered his feet and got them on the rope, costing Williams his third and final rope break.
Williams tried to apply the face lock again, but Walters rolled out. Williams ducked a clothesline from Walters and spiked him with a piledriver, giving Williams the pinfall victory.
After the contest, both men shook hands. Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman ran down what’s on tab for next week, including Flip Gordon vs. Josh Woods in a Pure Rules contest and The Bouncers vs. Mark Briscoe and PCO.
*****
Final Thoughts:
This week’s episode of ROH TV was fine. It was a step down from the past couple of weeks, but still an eventful episode.
Seeing Mike Bennett back in ROH wrestling was a pretty cool thing, even though I think he should have outright beaten Vincent. I wasn’t a fan of PCO becoming Mark Briscoe’s tag partner, it feels extremely random and thrown together.
The action in the ring was good, with Walters and Williams being the best match by far. I’m coming around on Rhett Titus being the man behind the red octopus mask. Not a fan of Flip Gordon just randomly showing up and being announced for a Pure Championship match, someone like Josh Woods deserved that spot more. All in all, I’ll give this episode a solid C+.
