Last Week: Leyla Hirsch made her return to wrestling and debut in ROH to team with The Kingdom to overcome Action Andretti & Darius Martin before Mark Briscoe confronted Claudio Castagnoli to challenge the World champ to a match at “Death Before Dishonor”.
ROH on HonorClub Episode 20
Regina, SKA
July 13, 2023
– Matt Sydal was in the interview zone to tell the world that he’s one to confront those he has problems with. Calling Prince Nana and Brian Cage into the scene, Sydal wanted another crack at Cage after falling to “The Machine” during “Rampage”. Cage was fine with another match, but only in six-man action.
Big Bill vs. Serpentico
This is Big Bill’s first singles match in ROH. Code of Honor followed leading to Serpentico firing himself up before demanding a collar & elbow tie-up. Big Bill went along with the idea, swinging the masked man around with ease as the fans rallied behind Bill. Pitching Serpentico over the top off a side headlock, Bill’s momentum was only halted by the referee not allowing him to exit the ring. His opponent reentered the ring, leading Bill on a chase that resulted in Big getting taken to the floor by a tope. Ducking a flying Serpentico in the ring, Bill caught and danced with his opposition before executing a fall away slam.
Bill was having fun leading to choke slam set up. Serpentico countered the choke slam, dropkicking Bill in position for some mounted punches in the corner. Bill easily swatted Serpentico away, kicking him in the mouth and clobbering his back with forearms while Serpentico hang across the top rope. Running big boot sent Serpentico careening to the floor with Bill in hot pursuit. One-arm choke slam by Bill after he rolled Serpentico back in for the elementary pin fall.
Winner: Big Bill
Match Review: This went on a lot longer than expected with Serpentico having his moments of hope before the inevitable.
– A Television title eliminator tournament begins tonight with the final happening next week to determine Samoa Joe’s challenger at “Death Before Dishonor”.
Athena vs. Ava Lawless
Big forearm from Ava Lawless out of nowhere when the champ was looking to lock up. Another forearm dropped the champ, pulling off a short-arm slingblade immediately after. Athena kipped up, paying Ava back with a series of forearms that forced the referee to pull Athena off her opponent to see if she could continue. Running into the cornered Lawless, Athena was busting her up with forearms to the face. With Ava on the canvas, Athena cinched in the crossface for a submission victory.
Athena seemingly didn’t want to attack her fallen opponent after the bell, but thought otherwise and used the title to bash Lawless in the face.
Winner: Athena
Match Review: It’s an Athena match not featuring a person who will get a title shot in the near future. You know what to expect and we should be getting more by now especially when the PPV is only a week away.
The Righteous & Stu Grayson vs. Evan Rivers, Levi Knight & Michael Clark
Like last week, Stu Grayson started off for his team, running through Evan Rivers before sending him into the ropes. Big overhead belly-to-belly on Rivers forced Evan to tag out to Levi Knight. Sadly for Knight, Grayson knocked him into the clothesline of Dutch. Vincent watched as Evil Uno arrived with a chair in hand. Uno took a seat at ringside, watching as Knight took a uranage by Stu. Vincent actually tagged in, using his version of the Garvin Stomp before shouting something at Uno. Knight flipped out of a double team suplex, tagging out to a fired up Clark.
Dropkicks & forearms by Clark got the fans behind him. Sadly for Clark, his moment of adulation resulted in him taking a flying knee from Grayson. Power bomb from Dutch into Vincent’s senton. Clark couldn’t be saved by his partners as Knight ran into a Boss Man slam by Dutch and the clothesline of Vincent. Clark was alone and prone to the tower T-Gimmick to pin their downed opponent.
Leaving his chair, Uno seemingly was ready to bring the fight to The Righteous when he cracked Knight in the back. Uno shouted, “You know where you belong, Stu!”
Winners: The Righteous & Stu Grayson
Match Review: A squash is a squash. Unlike last week, though, at least we got some involvement from The Dark Order (or, at least, Evil Uno). Where this is going is anyone’s guess now that it seems Uno is trying to prove himself to Grayson.
– Matt Sydal was with interviewer Lexy Nair to say how he’s been on a spirit quest to find his partners tonight: Christopher Daniels & Darius Martin.
Leyla Hirsch vs. Bambi Hall
Bambi Hall couldn’t get out of the gate as Leyla Hirsch cornered and clotheslined her until Hall collapsed and was prone to some stomps. Hall suddenly started throwing forearms of her own until she ran into a back elbow. Stopping an attack in the corner, Hall landing a knee into the corner avalanche. Elbowing her way out of a Proton Pack, Hirsch used the German suplex to lock in the cross arm bar. Hall had no choice but to tap out.
Winner: Leyla Hirsch
Match Review: After a slight showcase last week, Hirsch gets to really show how dominant she can be this week and, similar to Diamante, looks like someone who could push Athena to her limit.
ROH World Television Championship Eliminator Tournament Semi-Finals: Dalton Castle vs. Tony Nese
As per the norm, Tony Nese cut a promo on the way to the ring to insult the shapes of the Canadian people and how much the town stinks. Nese decided it was for the best to cancel the rest of the show to help the crowd exercise. Sadly for Nese, his crowd-participated stretching session was interrupted by Dalton Castle’s music to bring out “The Peacock”.
After intimidating Tony Nese with his flamboyant style, Castle almost hit the Bang-A-Rang out of nowhere. Catching a springboarding Nese, Castle pulled another overhead suplex. Climbing to Bret’s rope, Castle found himself distracted by Mark Sterling. Ari Daivari grabbed Castle by his boots to hold him so Nese could use that running hotshot similar to the “Macho Man”. Taking Dalton to the floor, Nese sent his opponent left shoulder first against the steel ring post.
When the action returned inside, Castle found himself fighting with one arm. Spinning back kick from Nese stunned Dalton. Springboard moonsault failed for Nese, but “The Premier Athlete” recovered quickly and pulled off an arm whip/divorce court. Just when it seemed Nese had the match going his way, Castle got underneath Tony to pull off several suplexes. The Boys yanked Sterling off the apron to beat him up when he attempted to intervene again. Nese tried to attack Castle from behind, only for Dalton to get underneath him for the Bang-A-Rang. Castle made the cover, picking up the pin for the advancement into the finale.
Winner: Dalton Castle
Match Review: Though it followed the formula usually seen in matches involving Mark Sterling’s crew, Castle and Nese gelled very well and had a fun outing that the fans were into.
ROH World Television Championship Eliminator Tournament Semi-Finals: Shane Taylor vs. Shawn Dean
Attempting to corner Shawn Dean, heavy-handed Shane Taylor found himself getting dropkicked and forearmed until he found an opening where he landed a right hand that sent Dean through the ropes onto the apron. Dean collapsed into the ring, getting his body and face worked over with right hands. Using some knee strikes to drive Dean’s oxygen out of his abdomen, Taylor wanted to squeeze the life out of “The Captain” with a bearhug.
Ear claps freed Dean, allowing him to land a pair of enzuguri kicks. Flying knee strike by Dean put Taylor in the corner. Dean charged his opponent, running into a uranage similar to STJoe. Taylor climbed the ropes for a splash when Dean moved. Taylor hit nothing but canvas, stumbling to his feet for a float-over DDT. “The Captain” looked to splash Taylor’s horizontal frame, but Shane got his knees up. They were talking some mad trash before Dean got caught with a head-butt to the jaw. Running forearm from Taylor knocked Dean clean out for the pin fall.
Winner: Shane Taylor
Match Review: That was a fun, hard-hitting affair if there ever was one even if it didn’t last too long. This is the Shane Taylor I’ve been wanting to see since ROH returned and Dean hasn’t looked better in singles competition as he did here during his time in ROH thus far. Hopefully we’ll get a rematch down the road as these two were cooking.
The Kingdom vs. The Boys
It was Matt Taven and Boy Brent locking up first. When Brent didn’t appreciate being muscled against the ropes and in the corner, he tried to push Taven around. Instead of getting anywhere, Brent took a dropkick topped by a suplex and some mouthing off. When Brent attempted to fight back after a takedown, Taven almost took his head off with a roundhouse kick. Mike Bennett tagged in, losing his grip of Brent so the Boy could tag his brother in. Bennett wanted Brandon to knock him off his feet, but failed miserably. Side Effect by Bennett only gave him a two count.
Flipping out of a suplex attempt, Brandon started unloading forearms while absorbing Bennett’s offense until Mike landed a stiff right hand to his jaw. Double team by The Kingdom didn’t allow them to pin a vigorous Brandon. Bennett signaled for Hail Mary when Brandon flipped out of the piledriver attempt. Bennett kept his grip, sweeping Brandon into a kimura. Thankfully for Brandon, the ropes were close enough for him to save himself and the match. Flipping out of a belly-to-back suplex, Brandon was able to tag out.
Brent came in like a house of fire, setting up double team attacks including a duo suplex. Bennett was reeling after the straightjacket takedown. The Boys had something being in mind when Bennett got underneath Brandon to send him into Brent before dropping Brandon with the Death Valley driver. Sadly for The Kingdom, Brent was the legal man. So they pitched Brandon to the floor before using Rockstar Supernova to put Brent down for the pin fall.
Winners: The Kingdom
Match Review: A solid encounter where the result was completely out of the question. Maria not being at ringside added a bit of intrigue with the commentators mentioning Board of Directors member Jerry Lynn investigating her inability to wrestle last week. This whole Board of Directors thing is fizzling out quite quickly.
ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship: The Embassy (c) vs. Matt Sydal, Christopher Daniels & Darius Martin
With Christopher Daniels starting off for the challenging trio, Kaun decided to test himself against the former World champion. Doing fairly well, Kaun made one mistake and was taken down by a flatliner near the challengers’ corner. Matt Sydal tagged in, coming off the ropes to hurricarana the champ to set up a double team alongside Darius Martin that saw Kaun get double dropkicked. Kaun got up chopping, giving Toa Liona the tag. Blind tag by Daniels after Toa kicked Martin into the ropes allowed “The Fallen Angel” to almost knock down Toa before he ran into a sick Samoan drop. Brian Cage became the legal man, performing some bicep curls while holding “The General” before pulling off a fall away slam.
Kaun followed his fellow champion’s lead, almost knocking Daniels out with a clothesline. Toa found himself swept into a small package, but the referee was too busy trying to get the other champions out of the ring to make the count. Prince Nana used the confusion to choke Daniels. Big Saito suplex by Cage kept the pressure on the former World champ’s neck. Using a drop toe hold to send the running Kaun into the corner, Daniels executed a German suplex that allowed him to tag in Darius.
Martin was going to work, using Kaun’s body to DDT Toa while pulling Kaun down for a reverse DDT. Kaun stumbled to his feet, feeling a cross body. Cage ran in, super kicking Darius before tagging himself in. Just when Cage went after Darius, Martin got the tag to Sydal so Matt could kick Cage down before executing a buzzsaw kick. Sydal couldn’t get the pin for his team, allowing Kaun & Toa to enter and wipe out Sydal for Cage’s F5 … that gave Cage a near fall!
The champs were furious, looking to run through Sydal when Daniels & Martin pulled Toa & Kaun out of the ring. Inside, Sydal pulled off a hurricarana … for a near fall!
Springboard flatliner by Martin put Cage in position for Sydal’s super Meteora. Toa & Kaun slipped in to stop a pin. Once again it was Daniels & Martin removing Toa & Kaun out of the ring as Sydal attempted to use Meteora again. Cage caught Sydal in position for the suplex. Instead, Cage dropped Sydal on his head with the Drill Claw. Making the cover, Cage pinned Sydal to pull off another successful defense.
Winners: The Embassy
Match Review: Definitely the best match of the night with The Embassy getting pushed yet again by a different combination of familiar competitors. Challengers are getting closer and closer to dethroning them and it seems by all intents that Sydal is the common denominator. Maybe he’ll get another shot out of nowhere at the PPV.
Overall Review: Like last week, this episode was a breeze to watch mostly thanks to the eighty-plus-minute run time and matches like the main event and the tournament matches getting some good time. The opener and The Righteous six-man got more time than expected with the women’s matches being squashes as this episode didn’t have that lengthy women’s bout we’ve grown accustomed to. For as good as this episode was in terms of watch-ability and the in-ring action, it failed yet again to establish why someone should be excited about the pay-per-view that is eight nights away.
We didn’t even get a recap of the confrontation between Claudio and Mark that established “Death Before Dishonor’s” main event (Note: Tony Kahn posted on Twitter during the episode that Mark Briscoe is now unable to compete due to injury and Claudio’s new opponent will be announced next week).
We won’t know the TV title contender until next week from a tournament that spawned out of nowhere (where are the Board of Directors to explain how this tournament came to be and why these four men were chosen). We still don’t know who will challenge Athena, Shibata or The Embassy if those titles are defended. The Righteous & Stu’s issue with The Dark Order is the only established story we know of right now heading into the big event and, by the way things went tonight, it may not be a heated six-man tag between The Dark Order and The Righteous & Grayson as expected.
As a wrestling program that is looking to deliver some quality in-ring action, this was a strong episode. As a promotional tool to explain why someone should drop forty dollars on a PPV in a week, this episode didn’t encourage potential customers that we’re on the precipice of something not to miss.
