Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal vs. Aussie Open is one of six matches announced for next week’s Ring of Honor TV.
After defeating The Outrunners on this week’s ROH TV, Daniels & Sydal were challenged by Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis of Aussie Open to a future contest. That match was made official for next week’s episode.
Ahead of challenging Samoa Joe for the ROH TV title at Supercard of Honor, Mark Briscoe will be in action on next week’s show against Tony Nese.
In a women’s division contest, Skye Blue will take on Lady Frost on next week’s episode.
Continuing the issue between Top Flight and The Kingdom, Darius Martin will be in singles action against Matt Taven next week.
The Trustbusters will face AR Fox, Blake Christian, and Metalik in a trios bout on next week’s show.
Also announced, Silas Young will take on Shane Taylor.
Next week’s lineup:
Ring of Honor TV, Thursday, March 23, 7 p.m. Eastern time on Honor Club —
Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal vs. Aussie Open
Mark Briscoe vs. Tony Nese
Skye Blue vs. Lady Frost
The Trustbusters vs. AR Fox, Blake Christian & Metalik
Two Proving Ground matches were announced for Thursday’s Ring of Honor TV as part of the full 11-match lineup.
ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli will face Willie Mack while ROH Women’s Champion Athena takes on Hyan in non-title Proving Ground action. If either Mack or Hyan beats the champion or goes to a time limit draw, they earn a future title shot.
In continued pursuit of Castagnoli and a title shot, Eddie Kingston will battle Jeeves Kay in singles action.
ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Embassy (Brian Cage & Gates of Agony) will defend the gold against former champions Dalton Castle & The Boys. It will be the second title match on the show, joining the previously-announced Wheeler Yuta vs. Clark Connors Pure title match.
As the Top Flight vs. The Kingdom feud continues, Dante Martin will take on Mike Bennett.
Former ROH Women’s title challenger Trish Adora looks for her second straight win as she faces Madison Rayne.
Here’s the full lineup for Thursday’s show on HonorClub:
ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli vs. Willie Mack in a Proving Ground match
ROH Women’s Champion Athena vs. Hyan in a Proving Ground match
ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Embassy defend against Dalton Castle & The Boys
ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta defends against Clark Connors
Eddie Kingston vs. Jeeves Kay
Blake Christian & Gran Metalik vs. Ari Daivari & Slim J
Madison Rayne vs. Trish Adora
Silas Young vs. Marcus Kross
Matt Sydal & Christopher Daniels vs. The Outrunners
Three Championships will be on the line on the March 9 episode of ROH TV.
Timothy Thatcher answered an open challenge from ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta on this week’s ROH TV, with the match made official for next week’s episode.
The ROH Women’s World Championship will also be up for grabs on next week’s show, as Athena defends her title against Willow Nightingale. Willow issued a challenge to Athena on this week’s episode. After initially turning Willow down, Athena then accepted the challenge.
The ROH World Television Championship will also be defended next week. Samoa Joe will defend the title against Tony Deppen, a former ROH TV Champion himself.
Dalton Castle versus an unnamed opponent was also announced for next week’s show, as was a tag team match pitting Aussie Open’s Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis against “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams and Rhett Titus.
The announced lineup for next week’s ROH TV:
ROH TV, Thursday, March 9, 7 p.m. Eastern time on Honor Club —
ROH Pure Championship: Wheeler Yuta (c) vs. Timothy Thatcher
ROH Women’s World Championship: Athena (c) vs. Willow Nightingale
ROH World Television Championship: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Tony Deppen
The home of Ring of Honor’s weekly TV show will be in a familiar place: HonorClub.
ROH head Tony Khan revealed the news at the post-Final Battle press conference Saturday.
Khan didn’t provide any plans or a start date for when that weekly TV would begin, but expects news to start coming out after NJPW Wrestle Kingdom in early-January.
The reason for that is Khan expects NJPW to be involved heavily in the project and he has been talking to them about it.
Khan said he wanted to take advantage of the development work that former owners Sinclair Broadcasting funded on the technology behind HonorClub that his team finished off.
The service, available now for $9.99, has their complete archive available now with future PPVs, including Final Battle, moving to the service 90 days after they happen.
Khan said he is going to keep the existing relationship with Warner Bros. Discovery and Bleacher Report to keep airing PPVs based on the success thus far with them.
Khan said he expected some talent to remain exclusive with ROH and also have involvement from other promotions like NJPW. He also mentioned his relationships with DDT and NOAH and mentioned having a luchador presence.
Here’s a few other notes from Khan at the press conference:
Asked why Colt Cabana wasn’t on the show, Khan said he is injured or else he would have been. He did say Cabana was working backstage as a coach tonight.
Even though he was in the crowd tonight, Khan said Trent Seven is not under contract and is on a per-appearance deal. He put over the match Seven had with Orange Cassidy on AEW Rampage.
He said he felt FTR vs. Briscoes is one of the best trilogies in wrestling history. He was asked about why it wasn’t the main event and deferred to talking about how great he thought the Claudio Castagnoli/Chris Jericho main event was.
This jam-packed edition of ROH TV had three great matches that all furthered Best In The World storylines.
During the rundown, Quinn McKay announced that she’ll finally be taking on Angelina Love next week in singles action — a match I am really stoked for.
Flamita defeated Bandido (13:20)
Both men started out at a million miles an hour, running the ropes and exchanging multiple takedown attempts and reversals. Flamita sent Bandido to the outside and hit a great suicide dive that sent Bandido shoulder first into the ground.
After regaining control, Flamita started working over Bandido’s shoulder. That didn’t last long as Bandido hit four rotations on a flying headscissors that sent Flamita reeling to the outside. Out of frustration, Bandido wrapped Flamita’s leg around the post and yanked it multiple times. Bandido then grabbed a broom from under the ring and smacked Flamita in the leg.
Later in the match, both men positioned themself standing on the barricade. They traded forearms before Bandido sent Flamita to the floor with a phenomenal hurricanrana. As both competitors got in the ring before the twenty count, we went to the second commercial break.
After the break, Flamita attempted a muscle buster but it was reversed into a leg submission by Bandido. Flamita used open hand chops to the face to escape and things broke down into a chopping/slapping war. Bandido stunned Flamita and lifted him up for his X-Knee finisher, but accidentally hit referee Todd Sinclair in the process. Flamita used this opportunity to low blow Bandido and then get the pin.
OGK (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) defeated Ken Dixon and Beer City Bruiser (8:45)
Dixon started with Taven by cheapshotting him from behind. Taven came back fast and hit a great suicide dive on Dixon. Bruiser got angry at Dixon and tagged himself in which resulted in him being on the receiving end of a “Just The Tip” knee strike.
Dixon eventually found his way back in and immediately took Bennett off the apron. He hit a great looking powerslam and attempted a pin, but Dixon picked him up at two. Bruiser yelled at Dixon who claimed he was just trying to hit his “best move.” This cost Dixon and Bruiser the match as Bennett later tagged in and joined Taven in hitting their double team finisher.
After the match, Taven smacked Bruiser with a beer bottle and walked away. Brawler Milonas questioned Taven and Bennett as they walked away, helped Bruiser up, and admitted he was right.
Tony Deppen defeated Tracy Williams to win the ROH Television Championship (11:30)
Deppen went for Williams’ knee, but was denied quickly. Williams instead brought Deppen to the mat with a headlock. Deppen made it back to his feet and called Williams pure wrestling style “dogsh*t.” That fired Williams up and was he came at Deppen, unloading multiple chops and slaps.
Williams kept the attack, locking in a gory special submission. Deppen escaped to the apron with Williams following. Both men exchanged stiff forearms before Deppen hit a great enziguri that sent Williams to the floor. Deppen took advantage and hit a unreal cannonball suicide dive that sent Williams back about ten feet.
After a brief commercial break, Deppen was hammering away on Williams with constant chops in the corner. Williams pushed Deppen back and wrecked him with a McCulley driver.
In the closing sequence, Williams spiked Deppen with a piledriver. Williams went for a pin, but a rope break broke up the pinfall. Williams got back to his feet while Deppen begged to be hit. Williams went to do just that, but Deppen baited him in and locked in him a schoolboy pin for the win and the title change, his first in ROH.
Final Thoughts:
ROH is on a roll again after a few muddy weeks as this week featured three brilliant matches (although I wanted the TV title match to be a tad longer) and even a championship change! I hope they let Deppen have a good run with the title although I think Williams deserved a longer reign too.
One criticism: they need to put Shane Taylor and S.O.S back on TV. We haven’t seen Taylor on TV since his match with ROH World Champion Rush back in mid-March and they are Six-Man Tag Team Champions after all. Unfortunately, that division seems ofter overlooked by ROH quite often.
In the final episode before the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view, Ring of Honor television featured a contract signing between Jay Lethal and Adam Cole for their world title match this Friday night. Also, the Young Bucks must go through Roppongi Vice to become the next contenders for the tag team titles.
After opening with a video package recapping the feud between Lethal and Cole, the show started with the last two Top Prospect tournament winners in a match against one another.
Donovan Dijak w/ Prince Nana defeated Lio Rush
In adhering to the Code of Honor, they went to shake hands before the match. The height difference between the two was quite noticeable. Dijak played on that by mocking Rush when he crouched down to shake Rush’s hand, smirking as he looked him in the eyes.
The smaller Rush got ragdolled by Dijak as he got thrown around early on. He came back and looked to have the advantage after Dijak crashed into a guardrail. Nana caused a distraction and got shoved down by Rush in the process. However, the distraction allowed Dijak to gain the advantage.
Still, Rush made another comeback that led into him doing a springboard off the apron into a corkscrew plancha.
The pace quickened and they exchanged near falls in the latter half of the match. Lots of flying from Rush then Dijak would counter with power moves. When Dijak gave Rush a chokebreaker (chokeslam into a backbreaker), Nana ordered him to do it again. Rush countered and hit a splash off the top for a near fall.
The crowd was really into the match at this point. Dijak went to set him up for his Feast Your Eyes finisher, but Rush countered that with a crucifix to score the deciding pinfall. Afterwards, Dijak attacked Rush and started giving him a beatdown. Jay White ran in to make the save. Kamaitachi ran down to attack White. They all began brawling before being separated. This sets up a match at Death Before Dishonor.
Dalton Castle, with The Boys, was cutting a promo when The Cabinet interrupted so they could make political puns and threaten Castle.
Footage from earlier in the day showed Shane Taylor and Keith Lee attacking War Machine as they arrived to the building. They beat them down and left them laying, setting up a future match.
At ringside, Kevin Kelly interviewed “Hangman” Adam Page. He talked about the Bullet Club wanting to have all the titles they could get. He mentioned wanting the Briscoes IWGP heavyweight tag team titles, which was referring to a match from Japan last week on the G1 finals card.
Page said the issue with him and Jay Briscoe is also personal. Briscoe came down to ringside to confront Page and they had a pull-apart. The two meet in a match this Friday night on the PPV.
Highlights from footage taped earlier had tag champions The Addiction bragging about having the night off since their originally scheduled opponents, the Motor City Machine Guns, were out due to an injury.
Roppongi Vice came out to challenge the champs, then the Young Bucks interrupted and suggested making the match a three-way dance. Instead, an impromptu match with the Bucks vs. RPG Vice was made to determine new contenders for a tag title match in two weeks.
The Young Bucks defeated Roppongi Vice
The Addiction provided guest commentary. Matt Jackson and Rocky Romero started off with several exchanges until Romero went for an eye poke only for Matt to too sweet him in the eye. Romero cut him off moments later. Romero worked over Matt until tagging in Trent Baretta, who looked to run wild. Nick Jackson jumped in the fray to knock both Baretta and Romero off the apron.
Shortly thereafter, the action spilled to the outside where the Bucks both did dives out to ringside, spoofing Kenny Omega’s Terminator routine in doing so. However, the Bucks were soon cut off and Baretta picked up Nick so Romero could hit a flying knee off the apron.
RPG Vice got heat on Nick, building to a hot tag. Matt ran wild with a series of moves before hitting a superkick on Romero, followed by superkick on Baretta. Matt jumped off the top with an elbow drop for a near fall. Romero jumped in to help cut off a crotch-chopping Matt. Back-and-forth action for a bit before Nick saved Matt from a double team.
The Bucks superkicked the trash-talking Addiction as they sat at the announce table. That started a superkick party that led into Nick doing a 450 splash as Baretta was draped on the ropes for a near fall.
The crowd started a “Meltzer” chant as the Bucks set up for their finisher. The Addiction broke it up by trying to interfere. Nick stopped them with a moonsault to the outside. Baretta hit his Dudebuster finisher for a near fall.
Baretta gave Nick a German suplex off the top and Romero did a tope to the outside on Matt. Baretta hit a running knee and went to cover Matt, but Matt hooked him in a crucifix and got the pin as the crucifix appeared to be the key to victory in both matches on this episode.
Jay Lethal and Adam Cole contract signing and melee
Matchmaker Nigel McGuinness presided over the contract signing for the world title match at the PPV. Challenger Adam Cole sat down at at the table. Champion Jay Lethal tossed his chair out of the ring, choosing to stand.
Cole spoke first and tried to belittle Lethal. Cole told Lethal that the now infamous head shaving was not personal. Rather, he said it was a message that he can take from Lethal as he pleases. Cole added he plans on stealing the title instead of them stealing the show.
Lethal took his shirt off and asked McGuinness where to sign the contract. Before signing, Lethal wanted to point out something to Cole. In the past, Lethal said his matches were about the world title. This time it’s different because it’s personal. He wants revenge for the head shaving.
Cole taunted him by saying he was signing away the world title when he signed the contract. Lethal produced a pair of scissors and slammed them down on the table. Then, he smashed Cole’s head into the table and a brawl broke out.
Cole was getting the better of Lethal when Lethal hit him with a low blow. The Young Bucks ran down to pull Cole out of the ring to safety. Lethal raised the title overhead and sneered at Cole as the show closed.
Ring of Honor television from Toronto was another installment from the War of the Worlds tour featuring ROH vs. NJPW. A loaded lineup on this episode included another stellar matchup between Kushida and Kyle O’Reilly in the main event. Elsewhere, Tetsuya Naito collided with Moose and Jushin Liger teamed up with Cheeseburger.
Mark Briscoe provided guest commentary alongside announcer Kevin Kelly and matchmaker Nigel McGuinness. Several times throughout the show Mark said he felt Roderick Strong continues to disrespect him. He and Roddy are set for a match at the Best in the World pay-per-view with Chicken seemingly set for a singles push.
Later in the show, Roddy strolled out to ringside. He confronted Nigel about having to team with Mark in an eight-man tag match. The match (Briscoes & Strong & Jay Lethal vs. Bullet Club) airs next week on ROH TV, which was plugged several times throughout the show.
In another sign of disrespect to Mark, as Roddy argued with Nigel he at first never acknowledged Mark until calling him the “Briscoe that doesn’t matter.” Mark got in his face and Nigel stepped in to break things up. Roderick backed away while also flapping his arms insinuating Mark was chicken.
The show itself opened with the entrance of a former pro football player turned pro wrestler who was in the news recently as speculation continues about his future with ROH. He was followed by the current IWGP heavyweight champion representing Los Ingobernables de Japon, who sauntered to the ring for a non-title match.
Tetsuya Naito beat Moose (with Stokely Hathaway)
On commentary, Nigel noted that Naito had one knee taped up. Naito also reportedly became ill on this tour. He still had a good match. Moose more than held his own too. Early on when Moose started signaling for the “Moose” chants, Natio spat in his face. Moose hit a dropkick then also dropkicked Naito as he was perched on the top turnbuckle sending Naito sailing out to the floor.
Moments later, Naito teased doing a dive only to mock Moose. When Naito did eventually jump over the ropes for a plancha, Moose caught him and gave him a fallaway slam into the guardrail. Naito cut him off and did a flurry of moves before mocking Moose again. After a commercial break, Moose fired up looking to make a comeback.
When Naito executed a hurricanrana off the top turnbuckle, Moose miraculously hulked up and delivered a lariat that turned Naito inside out for a nearfall. Moose suplexed Naito upside down into the turnbuckles. Naito countered and applied a Koji clutch and Moose got a rope break. Moose also kicked out after getting dropped with a swinging DDT. However, Moose eventually fell victim to a Destino and Naito covered him for the pinfall.
ANX cut a promo vowing to “make wrestling great again.”Of course, they are spoofing a certain WWE Hall of Famer currently running for president. During their entrance as part of their supposed new campaign, they did their best Jimmy Hart in bringing megaphones to the ring.
The backstory of the match was ANX had previously attacked Cheeseburger and beat him down so he enlisted the help of his mentor, Liger, in gaining revenge.ANX began pummeling Liger and Cheeseburger at the outset. Liger and Cheeseburger fought back. ANX got heat on Cheeseburger for awhile until Liger came in off a hot tag. ANX dispatched Liger to the outside and did some double-team offense on Cheeseburger. They finished off Cheeseburger and Titus pinned him.
In the weekly Bullet Club backstage promo, Adam Cole was mad about the main event at the next PPV being a world title rematch with Jay Briscoe vs. Jay Lethal. Cole claimed he should be in the match. He also objected to the camera operator and the sound engineer so the Young Bucks took over those duties as Cole basically vowed Bullet Club would take part in some angle on the PPV.
Silas Young interrupted the show to cut a promo on ACH. Silas ranted about his usual subjects pertaining to manliness and accused ACH of dressing like he was in a Japanese cartoon. He began arguing with a fan at ringside who was wearing a ACH t-shirt. Silas shoved him and security grabbed Silas. During the commotion, ACH ran in and did a wild springboard dive onto Silas and the security team. Silas Young vs. ACH is set for the PPV.
Kyle O’Reilly beat Kushida
Much like their previous matches, this was outstanding. From their matwork to their selling and into the highsports, they told a great story of O’Reilly finally being triumphant. In a pre-tape promo beforehand, O’Reilly talked about waiting an entire year for that moment.
Kushida began working an arm on O’Reilly only for Kyle to counter and work a leg on Kushida. O’Reilly applied a knee bar and went for an achilles lock. Kushida got a rope break but really sold his leg thereafter. Even though they did some highspots, they still kept selling and at times did so subtly and sold throughout the match.
Just before a commercial, O’Reilly dropped Kushida with a knee strike. After the break, Kushida was in the midst of a hope spot when O’Reilly turned him inside out with a lariat. Kushida came back with a brainbuster moments later. Kushida went back to work on the arm just before the action spilled outside.
As they fought at ringside, O’Reilly sat Kushida down in a chair. O’Reilly then dove off the apron for an attempted flying knee. In the same big spot they did in one of their previous matches, Kushida jumped out of the chair and caught the flying O’Reilly in an armbar as he crashed to the floor. Back in the ring, they both fell in a heap after dueling kicks and forearm strikes.
They rose once more for a few more final exchanges. O’Reilly momentarily caught Kushida in a guillotine. Kushida countered into a kimura lock. O’Reilly then maneuvered that into cradling Kushida for the deciding pinfall.
