Welcome to another edition of The ROHbot Report – the only article you need for all the Ring of Honor news you have to know. With 2019 coming to an end it’s time to find out who & what was the best of the best (and a little bit of the worst of the worst) in ROH during the year with The Ring of Honor Year End Awards. But before that we have some news regarding ROH’s first events of 2019.
Dragon Lee put an exclamation point on his banner 2019 by beating Shane Taylor for the ROH World Television Championship, and he’ll make his first title defense against Andrew Everett at “Saturday Night at Center Stage in Atlanta” on Jan. 11.
The always exciting Dragon Lee will find himself in the ring with someone who can go high-flying move for high-flying move with him unlike what happened at “Final Battle”. Outweighed & out-muscled, Lee entered Baltimore with size, stats & even some of the crowd against him when facing then-Television champion Shane Taylor. The stellar match that followed the first bell ringing ended with Lee’s hand raised in victory as he was declared the new ROH World Television champion following his patented running knee strike ended the match for him via pin fall.
Andrew Everett isn’t the most familiar name to newer ROH fans, but he left a noticeable mark for a short time years ago. The highflier seemed to be on the verge of becoming a ROH full-time competitor when he tore his ACL almost six years ago. By the time Everett had healed his moment to continue his ROH career wasn’t viable; giving him the opportunity to wrestle across the globe and make his name in Impact Wrestling by becoming an X-Division champion. Everett is one of the premier highfliers in the world today. While the chance of a title changes seems unlikely, the must-see quality is pretty much guaranteed.
RUSH, Dragon Lee & Kenny King will challenge ROH World Six-Man Tag Team champions Villain Enterprises (PCO, Marty Scurll & Brody King) for the belts at “Honor Reigns Supreme” in Concord, N.C., on Sunday, Jan 12.
Since forming following 2018’s “Final Battle”, Marty Scurll’s Villain Enterprises have dominated ROH’s Six-Man division after winning the title. VE overcame The Kingdom on night two of ROH’s “17th Anniversary” celebration, with their reign as champions lasting ever since with impressive defenses against the likes of LifeBlood in various forms including alongside PJ Black, a star-studded trio featuring Jeff Cobb, Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojma, and even teams that include their opponents in this upcoming encounter. During “Steel City Excellence” last April, RUSH found himself on the losing end of a Six-Man title match alongside Jay Lethal & Jeff Cobb when they fell to VE. Five months later it was Dragon Lee that fell to VE while teaming with The Briscoes when the gold was on the line.
From a singles perspective things get incredibly interesting. The obvious stat is PCO being the only man to defeat RUSH in one-on-one competition since the former World champion’s ROH debut; becoming the ROH World champion in the process. Kenny King became something of a “Bullet Club Killer” when Marty was a part of the faction and actually overcame the man many believed would be a ROH World champion by now. King also failed to defeat PCO on the champ’s inevitable route to World champion status. This will be the first major test for this new La Faccion Ingobernable faction featuring the challengers as they take on the most consistently successful trio in ROH history in what should be not only a great match, but most likely will result in new titleholders.
The end of the year means various lists and awards start popping up, but none matter more in the world of Ring of Honor than the ROHbot Report Ring of Honor Year End Awards where the best of the best in ROH are honored. Now lets see our award recipients.
Biggest Story of the Year: Joey Matthews Napalms ROH Management
On the same weekend that ROH returned to the UK with the biggest story onscreen being a lacking attendance for three international events that only a year prior would’ve sold out with ease, backstage issues were going nuclear. Joey “Mercury” Matthews, who was working as a producer & the head of the ROH Dojo since May 2018, found himself released by the company following the aforementioned UK tour and decided to air his grievances with ROH management (specifically General Manager Greg Gilliland) on social media. The end result was negative national attention aimed at ROH for poor management that didn’t take care of its talent during health scares like Jay Lethal breaking his arm in a match with PCO and no one calling an ambulance afterward.
The most damaging piece of information provided centered on the treatment of Women of Honor champion Kelly Klein. Klein herself confirmed Matthews’ claims about her issues as true including a refusal to increase her pay beyond $24,000 a year for an exclusive contract and the lack of a protocols in regards to concussions like the one Kelly suffered – an action that convinced ROH to not renew her contract. After a year of losing talent to WWE & AEW, Bully Ray taking a fan to the “principal’s office” to create another piece of bad press earlier in the year, underwhelming character presentation & some poor decisions on the grand stage of Madison Square Garden, nothing put ROH in the headlines as much as Matthews exposing ROH management for being supposedly insincere, misguided & downright incompetent.
Event of the Year: “Manhattan Mayhem” (July 20th; New York, NY)
“Manhattan Mayhem” kicked off with a Best of Super Juniors Tournament match between Dragon Lee and Jonathan Gresham with both coming off big wins during ROH’s TV taping in Philadelphia after “Best in the World”. The match moved at a brisk pace that didn’t allow for Gresham to utilize his standard grappling offense for long periods of time. Lee continuously countered or fired back when need be, leading to Dragon putting Gresham in a brawl that he eventually won after two sick knee strikes to the face. Gresham continued to be a mildly villainous force throughout this one, but pure talent won out again in a thrilling opening contest.
After Kenny King convinced Matt Taven to use his apparent newly found power to add people to his title matches so Taven-Lethal II for the gold would now involve King, The Bouncers continued their winning ways en route to their title shot in Lowell as The Soldiers of Savagery were actually kicked out of the match due to a double team choke slam through the timekeeper’s table on Beer City Bruiser – a disqualification that would actually make sense in the old days of ROH. Eventually LSG felt Closing Time to allow Milonas to gain the pin for his team. After the match The Kingdom attacked The Bouncers with Vinny Marseglia sickeningly putting out a lit cigar on Bruiser’s chest.
RUSH and TK O’Ryan happened immediately after The Kingdom attacking The Bouncers, resulting in a bout similar in quality of their ROH TV encounter following “Final Battle”. O’Ryan took the fight to RUSH, but his brawling abilities were no match for the lucha star that resulted in O’Ryan feeling the Bull’s Horns and a subsequent three count. We had another post-match attack with Castle attacking rival RUSH and laying him out with his own finisher. The ROH World Championship match happened next with the action refusing to slow down from grappling to striking. By the match’s closing moments Jay Lethal seemed to be on the verge of winning several times, King & Lethal actually working together to isolate Taven, and the champ having to go for broke several times including having to go for Just the Tip after having his legs torn apart with a figure four leg lock. Taven eventually countered King’s Royal Flush into the Climax to pin his challenger to retain in a thriller of a title match. After the bout Taven followed the Code of Honor with Lethal, only to low blow his rival.
The eight-man tag bout between Villain Enterprises and Lifeblood & PJ Black wasn’t as wild as the Street Fight that aired on ROH TV the same weekend of this event, this one was crazy as well especially during the closing moments. Villain Enterprises dominated a majority of the bout to prove they are truly a unit to be feared, but the tenacity & heart of Lifeblood & Black kept them in the fight throughout including after moments such as Bandido getting power slammed by PCO out of midair, Haskins almost getting his jaw cracked by a King big boot, and the obviously injured Gordon introducing a chair into the match. But what seemed to be VE’s night turned into anything but as Brody got pick apart during the match’s closing moments; being hit by big maneuver after big maneuver until Black pinned him off a springboard 450 splash. Lifeblood picked up another much-needed win in a match that proved incredibly enjoyable & memorable for all the right reasons.
Pure mayhem closed the show as The Briscoes got their potential last shot at The Guerrillas of Destiny as long as the sons of Haku held the ROH World Tag Team Championship. This was a beautifully barbaric Street Fight with chair shots, kendo sticks, broken tables and, as expected, bloody Briscoes. The highlights were numerous including Mark Briscoe taking the Magic Killer on a pile of chairs and Tanga Loa being put through a table off a tope. Thanks to a ladder, The Briscoes were able to cap off this rivalry in grand fashion by hitting a Doomsday Device on Tonga to drive him through a table for the final attack and subsequent pin fall. This was an absolutely fantastic way to close the show with the Tag Team division back to status quo.
“Manhattan Mayhem” has always had the status of being a semi-annual event that delivered memorable matches, major title changes or both. This year was no different featuring three back-to-back-to-back fantastic encounters capped off by The Briscoes breaking their own record as ROH World Tag Team champions while ending one of the worst Tag title reigns in ROH history simply due to a lack of defenses.
Match of the Year: Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven (“17th Anniversary”; March 15th)
In 2014, Jay Lethal aligned himself with Truth Martini en route to become a two-time ROH World Television champion shortly after Martini dropped Matt Taven from The House of Truth. The year prior was a breakout time for the New England native as Taven won not only the Top Prospect Tournament, but also became the only man to win the Television Championship off his TPT victory. After a year of cheap wins and partying, Taven lost it all and Lethal, thanks to the same man who assisted Taven during that entire time, helped Lethal pick up the pieces while Martini constantly mocked his former client.
Taven took exception to not only Martini’s actions, but also Lethal’s as the then-champ did everything in his power to keep Matt away from the title he held for a majority of 2013. When “Field of Honor ‘14” concluded, Taven walked away from the rivalry defeated and focused on tag team competition while Lethal grew into the face of ROH by winning the ROH World Championship and having great matches with a variety of opponents. Almost five years later Taven had worked himself into a position where he was the self-proclaimed “Real World’s champion” having been involved in controversial decisions during ROH World title matches the year prior. Lethal’s stock had soared until the point he was not only a two-time ROH World champion, he was also considered the face of Honor.
The contract was signed for ROH’s “17th Anniversary” event where Taven had the chance to finally prove himself worthy of being called “World champion” or if he would forever be inferior to Lethal. Taven arrived halfway through the event to demand his ROH World title opportunity right then & now. The result of Taven’s lack of patience to wait until his appointed main event spot was a big brawl that evolved into a high impact wrestling match where both men’s finishers weren’t enough to end it all.
About thirty minutes in the circus came to town as interference from The Kingdom, Jonathan Gresham and Lifeblood saw tables & ladders be introduced before the final stretch. It was a true war of attrition with both growing more frustrated with the fact nothing they did could keep either down for those precious three seconds or make the other tap out. With the crowd at a fever pitch everyone watching live & at home witnessed Taven survive the Lethal Injection just as the sixty minute time limit expired after his legs were obliterated via figure four leg lock submissions. Almost frothing at the mouth, Taven verbalized expletives that were not of a sore loser, but someone who had truly broken through & proven himself as the heir apparent; though his night of glory was not in the cards in Las Vegas. Lethal and Taven provided a must-see experience that left the crowd both wanting more while the challenger walked away not with a title, but main event level legitimacy.
Feud of the Year: The Briscoes vs. The Guerrillas of Destiny
When two formidable tag teams exist like The Briscoes and The Guerrillas of Destiny it’s almost inevitable for them to collide. The stage for a big title for title match between the two brother tandems was set during the second night of “Honor Rising”, but as they always say, “Plans of mice & men…” Villain Enterprises of PCO & Brody King capped off their Tag Wars tournament victory by defeating Dem Boys at ROH’s “17th Anniversary” pay-per-view to become the new ROH World Tag Team champions in a barbaric war – replacing The Briscoes in the match in MSG. Refusing to let the opportunity to be a part of ROH’s biggest show ever, The Briscoes instituted their rematch clause for ROH’s final show in Baltimore before the company’s MSG debut.
The end result of The Briscoes winning by disqualification didn’t change the fact that Villain Enterprises would share a ring with Dem Boys alongside not only The GOD, but also Los Ingobernables de Japon’s EVIL & SANADA (the former champions The Guerrillas defeated, yet never got their rematch). That Fatal Four Way encounter featuring both ROH World and IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships on the line, The GOD walked away with both titles while PCO almost didn’t walk out at all thanks to an Awesome Bomb from the future dual champs.
The match that was meant to happen on the grandest stage in all of sports went down in Chicago during the “War of the Worlds” tour a month later; resulting in Dem Boys getting cheated out of a victory following a great encounter when the title belts met their faces. Reasonably upset, The Briscoes vocalized their want for a rematch with a stipulation attached: No Disqualifications. As expected the match was nothing short of a barn-burner with The Briscoes avenging their loss to regain the gold. Though they disrespected the ROH Tag Team title upon winning it, The G.O.D. didn’t take the loss lightly by attacking Dem Boys a night later in Lowell. Loa & Tonga’s weapon of choice: a ladder.
The tenth Ladder War in ROH history was full of violence & incredibly brutal moments from beginning to end. One great example came when Mark drove Tanga Loa through a table with a ladder atop one-half of the challengers. Blood was spilled, ladders & tables broken and, by the match’s end, The Briscoes retained thanks to Jay knocking down Tama Tonga from atop the ladder to retrieve his & his brother’s title belts. While not the most incredible Ladder War in ROH history, it had all the violence, thrills, spills & the right result for a match that, potentially, put an end to this feud.
Breakout Star of the Year: PCO
He was once a Mountie, then a Quebecer, then a pirate, then dead … or at least PCO’s career was considered deceased. The man once known as “Pierre Carl Ouellet” made a stunning return to the independent wrestling scene in 2016, sporting a new look & wrestling style that allowed for many to question and eventually accept that “he’s not human.” Taking a ridiculous amount of abuse in almost every match, the fifty-year-old wrestler made his ROH debut following 2018’s “Final Battle” by aligning himself with Marty Scurll & fellow new face to ROH Brody King to officially form Villain Enterprises. The union proved successful very quickly as PCO & King won the ROH World Tag Team Championship after making it through three nights of action to become the “Tag Wars” tournament victors. One night after winning the ROH World Tag Team title, Villain Enterprises added the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship to their list of accomplishments; holding the latter gold into 2020 after overcoming the likes of Shinobi Shadow Squad, LifeBlood & even a ROH-New Japan contingent featuring Jeff Cobb, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata. PCO & King’s successes went beyond ROH as they won the Crockett Cup and the NWA World Tag Team title.
PCO’s accomplishments wasn’t limited to tag team wrestling – challenging Matt Taven for the ROH World title and only coming up short due to outside interference. PCO, though focused on being the best tag team wrestler he could be, had a fire inside of him to finally become a World champion. That fire pushed him through the pain dished out by the likes of Kenny King, Dalton Castle and even his own stablemate Scurll to earn the right to face ROH World champion RUSH for the gold at “Final Battle” – ROH’s biggest event of the year. And like every match he’s been apart of in & out of ROH since his “resurrection”, PCO survived everything RUSH threw at him including PCO’s own body off the hood of a car to the concrete floor below. PCO eventually utilized his patented moonsault to crush RUSH while the champion was stuck on a table to pin the titleholder for PCO’s dream to finally come true. In front of an adoring crowd, PCO was finally declared a World champion. While this award has become something of a precursor to championship glory with the likes of Tyler Black, Davey Richards, Michael Elgin, Eddie Edwards and Adam Cole all winning in the past and turning it into a World Championship victory, PCO actually did so in the opposite fashion by ending 2019 as the ROH World champion.
Woman of Honor of the Year: Kelly Klein
Kelly Klein came into 2019 with a target on her back & a chip on her shoulder having won the ROH Women of Honor Championship at “Final Battle ‘18”. Confident in her abilities, Klein initially took her opposition & challengers for granted, leading to a shocking title change early in the year when Mayu Iwatani pinned her to end “The Gatekeeper’s” reign”. At “G1 Supercard” in Madison Square Garden, Klein defeated Iwatani to regain the Women of Honor Championship. The grandiose moments was undercut by the arrival of Angelina Love & Velvet Sky. The former Beautiful People went to attack the new champ, only for Mandy Leon to make the save … or so everyone thought. Leon joined Love & Sky in attacking Klein; introducing the world to The Allure. Klein offered Love a shot at the Women of Honor title whenever she wanted, but The Allure made Klein wait and do some more damage to the champ like they did in Toronto and intended to do in Milwaukee after Klein’s successful defenses against Tasha Steelz and Stacy Shadows respectively.
Coming into “Death Before Dishonor” in Las Vegas, Kelly Klein was ready for everything her challenger had ready for her, but the numbers game eventually overwhelmed her as she unwisely fought off the interfering Mandy Leon. Disposing of Leon only left Klein wide open for Love’s Botox Injection to put her down to end Klein’s second WOH title reign. The same thing almost played out at “Glory By Honor” in New Orleans, but Klein had an insurance policy in the form of Maria Manic who was able to stop Leon’s interference and help Klein win her third Women of Honor title. Klein’s third reign ended unceremoniously as her exiting ROH after a dispute between herself & ROH management resulted in the latter opting to not renew her contract. Klein, who suffered a severe concussion during her last appearance in ROH, has gone out of her way since to publicly support ROH’s talent & fans while hoping to make the environment for said talent as healthy as possible.
Trio of the Year: Villain Enterprises
The night after “Final Battle 2018”, Marty Scurll found himself surrounded by The Kingdom while they declared he was friendless & unable to defeat three men at one time. In a shocking turn of events, “The Villain” unveiled his new friends & allies as a new era of Honor began – PCO and Brody King. Since forming on that night, Marty Scurll’s Villain Enterprises have dominated ROH’s Six-Man division after winning the title. VE overcame The Kingdom on night two of ROH’s “17th Anniversary” celebration, with their reign as champions lasting ever since with impressive defenses against the likes of a star-studded trio featuring Jeff Cobb, Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojma, CMLL representatives, and even teams including future & past ROH singles champions such as RUSH, Dragon Lee, The Briscoes and Jay Lethal. But the faction’s biggest claim to fame during 2019 had to be their feud with LifeBlood. After adding Flip Gordon to their ranks at “Best in the World ’19”, VE went to war with LifeBlood that saw them collide in hyper athletic six & eight-man tag bouts, singles bouts & even an epic Street Fight in Philadelphia. Though VE didn’t win the feud overall by the numbers, they did the most important thing by preventing LifeBlood from winning the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship as the faction led by “The Villain” officially became the longest-reigning Six-Man titleholders in ROH history in a single reign.
Tag Team of the Year: The Briscoes
The first ever four-time ROHbot Report ROH Tag Team of the Year award winners The Briscoes came into 2019 as record-making ten-time ROH World Tag Team champions having won via Ladder War at “Final Battle ‘18”. The early months for Dem Boys was rather tumultuous, yet successful until ROH’s “17th Anniversary”. After successfully defending the gold against the likes of Chuckie T & Colt Cabana and FinJuice in New Japan, PCO & Brody King ended Jay & Mark’s title reign. The Briscoes would stay in title contention from that moment until The Guerrillas of Destiny won the title at “G1 Supercard” that ignited a feud between then-champions and The Briscoes that resulted in controversial and highly violent bouts including a New York Street Fight & another iteration of Ladder War with both latter stipulation matches ending in Jay & Mark’s favor as they entered the summer with the Tag Team title for an eleventh reign. No teams could match not only their success, but also their quality of matches for the rest of 2019 including must-see bouts against LifeBlood’s Mark Haskins & Bandido, RUSH & Dragon Lee, and even the Rock N’ Roll Express. The Briscoes, unfortunately, didn’t end 2019 as well as they did in 2018 by losing the World Tag Team title to Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham in one of the best bouts in ROH in 2019 before the new champions cost Jay & Mark a chance for an immediate rematch. The Briscoes are considered the greatest tag team in ROH history and this award just confirms the belief as reality.
And here we are, the biggest award of them all for a single Ring of Honor wrestler. With a year of breakout main event stars and moments, this man edged out the likes of Matt Taven, PCO and the dominant former ROH World Television champion Shane Taylor. Ladies and gentlemen, the ROH Wrestler of the Year goes to…
Wrestler of the Year: RUSH
For RUSH wrestling is in his blood as he’s a second generation grappler who certainly reached a level of success expected of him including title wins that saw him hold CMLL’s Light Heavyweight, Tag Team & Trios championships as well as forming Los Ingobernables, earning the Most Hated Wrestler of the Year, and having a perfect record in Hair vs. Hair matches. RUSH’s actions in Mexico set the stage for his ROH debut and subsequent problems with Matt Taven & The Kingdom as RUSH both debuted in ROH by defeating Kingdom member TK O’Ryan, he also was responsible for having future ROH World champion Taven’s head shaved in CMLL. RUSH’s initial run-in with The Kingdom paled in comparison to his first true ROH moment when he defeated former ROH World champion Dalton Castle in sixteen seconds during ROH & New Japan’s “G1 Supercard” held in Madison Square Garden. It was obvious on that night RUSH was a true star in the making north of the border as he was in his home promotion CMLL.
What followed that night was nothing short of the unbelievable as RUSH both hastily & effectively disposed of opponent after opponent in singles & tag team matches with the latter including one of the best ROH matches of the year alongside his brother Dragon Lee against The Briscoes. Vincent Marseglia, Flip Gordon, former WWE Tag Team champion PJ Black, old tag team partner Barbaro Cavenario, and even Castle again in a Street Fight all fell to RUSH on his march toward the inevitable: a ROH World Championship match with his old rival Matt Taven.
The match between defending champion Taven and undefeated challenger RUSH had a “big fight feel” unlike any other ROH match in 2019 with the two going at it tooth & nail until Taven was cracked with RUSH’s Bull’s Horns corner dropkick. RUSH made the cover, pinning Taven to become the first Mexican born ROH World champion as well as the first undefeated ROH World titleholder. “El Toro Blancho’s” reign shockingly wouldn’t last long after his victory in Las Vegas. but before PCO defeated him at “Final Battle”, RUSH proved he could find success as a titleholder as well by overcoming the two-time ROH World Television champion Silas Young and a man who too knew about ROH title glory as well as being undefeated for an extend period of time in Jeff Cobb. Though RUSH’s year didn’t end with him still the ROH World champion he did leave a lasting message coming out of 2019 and heading into 2020 by forming La Faccion Ingobernable alongside his brother Lee & Kenny King with King’s valet Amy Rose by their sides. If 2019 is any indication of the potential success RUSH can attain, 2020 could see him winning not only another ROH World Championship, but also this award again.
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