ROH’s Bound by Honor aired live from Nashville, TN tonight, with ROH World Heavyweight champion PCO, taking on ROH World Television champion Dragon Lee in the main event.
Marty Scurll defeated Bandido and Slex in a three-way match
Woah. These three were great in the opener. Bandido stuck a Fosbury Flop to the floor early on. He did a one-armed press slam to Slex. Bandido put both Slex and Scurll into a double surfboard; Slex responded later with the Business Bomb.
The finish saw Scurll go for sunset flip on Slex, but as Slex blocked it, Bandido crept up on him and used the 21-plex to Slex, but Scurll broke the pin and stacked Bandido onto his shoulders for 2. A second later, he put Bandido away with Black Plague for the win. This was a short but excellent match. Everyone here was very impressive.
Shane Taylor and the Sons of Savagery attacked Slex after the match, with Taylor spiking Slex with a cradle piledriver before heading to the back.
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Joe Hendry & Dalton Castle defeated PJ Black & Brian Johnston, Vincent & Bateman and LifeBlood (Tracy Williams & Mark Haskins) in a four-way tag team match
There were a lot of entrances at the beginning of this. In the ring before the match, Brian Johnston shouted a lot, mostly in Dalton Castle’s direction. Castle kissed his biceps in response.
Hendry used a long delayed suplex on Brian Johnston later on and dropped him after Castle gently poked Johnston in the ribs. Vincent and Batemen used some interesting double-team offense here.
Late in the match, Black did a tornillo to the floor onto everyone in the match but Johnston dragged Black out of the ring and shouted “I’m doin’ it!” in reference to the pin. Tracy Williams welcomed Johnston back into the ring by knocking him around a bit.
The final part of this saw Castle land Bang-a-rang on Mark Haskins. When Castle went for the pin, Johnston snuck over and rolled Castle up for two. Hendry rushed in for the save, taking Johnston out with a Codebreaker, and Castle followed up with a turnaround bulldog for the win. Hendry and Castle celebrated together after the bell, so I guess they’re not doing the Odd Couple team gimmick anymore. Vincent spat at the two before from the apron before heading to the back with Bateman and the rest of Vincent’s new posse.
Pretty good stuff here all around. The Brian Johnston/PJ Black narrative felt like the main story, with the B-story being Hendry and Castle finally getting along and working well as a tag team. It’s definitely one way that might work at getting them over as a newer babyface tag team, something ROH’s tag division has needed since the Elite jumped ship in 2018.
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Session Moth Martina joined Caprice Coleman and Ian Riccaboni for the next match. She drank beer at the announce table during the segment.
Nicole Savoy defeated Angelina Love (w/ Mandy Leon)
There was lots of mat grappling between these two early on. Love was in control at first, but once she began posing and taunting on the turnbuckles, Savoy took advantage and went to work with her own set of submissions over the next few minutes.
At one point, Mandy Leon held onto Savoy’s ankle as she stood near the apron, which is where Love mounted a comeback, once landing a nice running bulldog on Savoy. Savoy caught Love in a cross-armbreaker but Love got her toes onto the ropes for a break. Love locked on a Koji Clutch.
The crowd finally heated up a little when Savoy put Love into a single-leg crab. Leon got on the apron to distract Savoy, but Love ended up smashing her Allure partner in the face by accident. Savoy rolled her up for the win.
These two worked really hard and had a fine match, and the problem really wasn’t with them as much with the crowd, who disappeared until around the time of the finish.
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Villain Enterprises (Flip Gordon & Brody King) defeated La Faccion (Rush & Kenny King) via disqualification
Kenny King wore a custom mask as he walked to the ring with Rush tonight. Rush wore a red, white and blue toro mask. King looked beyond excited that he got to wear the mask, I don’t think he wanted to take it off.
Rush choked Gordon with a t-shirt early on, then he and Kenny King beat on Villain Enterprises around ringside, whipping Gordon him into the barricades.
Rush and Kenny got good heel heat from the smaller Nashville crowd, which is ironic because they’re wrestling a team with “villain” in their name. Rush and Kenny beat beat on Gordon for a while until Brody tagged in and cleaned house.
Towards the end, Brody landed a tope through the ropes, then Gordon went for a moonsault off from the second rope to the floor but accidentally took out his partner. Rush got up and grabbed a bungee cord or mic cable, then started choking the life out of Brody until the referee called for the disqualification. Villain Enterprises are your winners.
La Faccion beat on Gordon and King with weapons after the bell. When Rush got back into the ring, Gordon threw a steel chair at him from the floor. This turned into a cool impromptu pull-apart between the two teams that took a couple minutes to wrap up. Rush tossed a soft drink at Villain Enterprises’ direction as they exited. Crowd loved this.
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LSG vs Eli Isom went to a no-contest
This was a decent match with some heat until Bully Ray interfered.
The crowd chanted for Eli Isom a bit while Bully Ray went off in another arbitrary worked-shoot promo. He complained about “cowards” and “smart marks” that are too scared to @ him on Twitter. Did Vince Russo write this?
He talked about how he won’t be leaving ROH anytime soon because he has an “iron-clad” contract, and that unlike others in the business, he claimed he knows how to read his own and negotiates contracts for himself, by himself.
He then challenged anyone in ROH to have a match with them, and if they beat him, he’d leave the company. He said none of the vets in the back would do it because he “has dirt on them.” Ray ended the promo saying he’d be there forever.
Eli Isom got up and grabbed the mic and cut a fiery promo. He screamed at Ray about how he was sick of him not having any consequences for his actions, and that he was ready to have the match right then and now. “Get your fat ass in the ring so I can send it back to Hell’s Kitchen!” The promo turned out well and the crowd was out of their seats and ready for it.
Bully Ray defeated Eli Isom
Isom caught Ray with a dropkick and landed a turnaround frog splash early, but Ray put Isom away with a Bubba Bomb quickly.
Ray grabbed a chair and went back to work on Isom after the match. Cheeseburger came out but Ray took him out. Finally, announcer Caprice Coleman hit the ring and that spooked Ray off.
“He’s just a kid!,” Coleman yelled at Ray, scolding him. Ray told him that he was the announcer so he should know his role.
This was good and will hopefully elevate Isom in ROH’s positioning scheme. He needs eyes on him, though; whether you love or hate Bully Ray, the angle worked to an extent here. It’s about the follow-through now.
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The next segment came out of nowhere with a borderline-hilarious pre-taped segment with Silas Young and Josh Woods, or 2 Guys 1 Cup. They parodied a reality dating show, even down to the graphics, and used the format to explain their “tag team relationship” to the world. Both Woods and Young did testimonials about their “turn-ons/turn-offs” about the other. Young said Woods’ neediness was becoming overbearing. Woods thinks Young isn’t ready to commit to hugging in their relationship yet.
Woods then talked about his dream about one day when maybe, after they win the ROH tag titles, maybe then he’d get a hug. Young said Woods was born and bred to be a pro-wrestler but thinks it’s creepy when Woods says “I love you.”
Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham defeated 2 Guys 1 Tag (Josh Woods & Silas Young) to retain their ROH World Tag Team championship
Lethal and Gresham jumped Woods and Young before the bell. Lethal did a dive onto them.
The remainder of the early half of this match saw Lethal and Gresham mostly work Young over until he tagged into Woods, who cleaned house once in the ring.
Woods power bombed Gresham onto Young’s knees but Young sold it like he was hurt from the move. Lethal saw that and later put on a figure four leg lock until Woods made the save by powerbombing Gresham onto Lethal.
The last few minutes of this were solid, lots of close near falls being broken up by the other team. Gresham landed a shooting star press for a very close two.
Young cradled Gresham while referee Todd Sinclair was distracted at ringside by Woods, so Lethal ran over and rolled Young over, reversing the cradle and allowing Gresham to score the pin.
Another tight match that got the crowd pretty into it by the end.
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Alex Shelley defeated Rey Horus
Lots of flashy mat wrestling to start this one off. They exchanged locks back and forth for a few minutes until they brought the match out to the floor, which saw Shelley put Horus down with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. They traded hard chops before getting back into the ring.
Shelley landed a diving crossbody block onto Horus back into the ring. After locking Horus into his Billy Goat’s Curse submission, he moved to a knee lock. Horus powered out and the two traded more hard chops in the middle of the ring until Shelley was able to put Horus back on the mat with a hard lariat.
Horus rallied back with a sequence of aerial spots that was topped off with a tope con giro over the corner turnbuckles, crashing onto Shelley at ringside.
The two went back and forth again back in the ring, trading big move after another until Shelley used a Bladerunner on Horus, then tapped him out with his Border City Stretch for the win. Good technical match, plus I’d bet it was Horus’ best singles match in ROH to date.
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The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) defeated Jeff Cobb and Dan Maff
Cary Silkin was on commentary for this one and referred to it as an “old school Southern style donnybrook.” That’s pretty much what it turned out to be. If it happened in a different city and/or for a different promotion I bet it’d have torn the house down.
Cobb got a big pop on his entrance, and the Briscoes were over as babyfaces with the crowd in Nashville tonight. The in-ring action was solid in this, with one violent highlight being when Jay Briscoe snapped Maff over onto his head with a dragon suplex with a running dropkick assist from brother Mark.
The next highlight came when Cobb launched Jay at least 10 ft. into the air. On the way down, Maff caught him with a cutter. Coleman called it the highest pop-up cutter he’d ever seen.
The Briscoes won the match after Jay used the Jay Driller on Cobb, then Mark crashed onto him with the Froggy ‘bow for the pin. The teams shook hands afterwards. Good stuff.
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PCO defeated Dragon Lee to retain the ROH World Heavyweight championship
NWA Worlds Champion Nick Aldis came out for commentary for our next match. He talked about facing Marty Scurll at the upcoming Crockett Cup pay-per-view. Also said he’s scouting his opponents for ROH’s Supercard of Honor, too.
Immediately after the bell, Dragon Lee went to pin PCO. Later he spat in PCO’s face as they exchanged elbows. PCO knocked Lee out of the ring with an elbow but Lee did a handspring over the ropes onto the apron, then to the floor. PCO went right after Lee, taking him out with a tope suicida through the middle rope.
When PCO went to chokeslam Lee from the apron, he grabbed Lee’s tights but gave him and accidental wedgie. Lee adjusted himself, then landed a hurricanrana from the apron to the floor. Remember: In 1995, the year Dragon Lee was born, PCO was feuding with Bret Hart in WWE.
The 51-year-old PCO later pulled off a spot I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, an Arabian Press bodyscissors to the floor. He did that after walking the ropes in side-steps.
On the floor, PCO ripped the mats off of the floor and used another cradle piledriver on Dragon Lee, this time onto the floor.
Lee made it back to the ring right at the count of 19. PCO then landed the PCOsault and Lee kicked out, the first wrestler in ROH to kick out of that move.
PCO went to tombstone Lee, but Lee turned it into a modified tombstone of his own, then took his knee pad and landed a sick-looking Incineration knee strike—for only two.
The crowd woke up one more time at this point, tons of PCO chants. PCO put Lee down with a tombstone piledriver, then another PCOSault for the win.
Nick Aldis came into the ring and jaw jacked with PCO as the show went off the air.
Final thoughts:
Solid matches up and down the card, a few of them really good.
The Bully Ray segment was fine because, in the end, it’ll probably help Eli Isom get over.
The main event had one insane spot after the other, always impressive. PCO has for the past year been hands-down the most consistently cheered babyface in the company, and it showed here tonight. Crowds love the guy, a modern day Mad Dog Vachon in some ways.
It was interesting to see Lee in the ring with an older, bigger fellow like PCO. There could be more stories to tell there.
Check back here tomorrow where we’ll be covering ROH’s next Honor Club card, Gateway to Honor from St. Charles, MO, where PCO will defend his heavyweight title against Rush and Mark Haskins in a three-way match.
