ROH on Honor Club – March 9

ROH on Honor Club – March 9

Listen to The Daily Wrestling News Show: 

*Taped from Universal Studios in Orlando, FL.

It is episode 2 of the new era of Ring of Honor.

Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman are on commentary with Bobby Cruise doing the ring announcing.

Samoa Joe defeats Tony Deppen to retain the ROH Television Championship. Stephon Smith is the referee. Caprice and Ian spend a lot of time putting Deppen over as a former ROH TV Champion. There’s a spot in the corner where Deppen runs in for a running knee, and it looks like Joe is supposed to counter into his ura nage. Deppen ends up connecting with the running knee while falling back selling that he actually got hit with the ura nage. That sequence ends up as a near fall for Deppen, but Joe gets the ura nage a minute later and finishes Deppen off with a Muscle Buster (05:28).

Joe cuts a post match promo to welcome us to the new era of Ring of Honor. When it comes to what happens in the ring, Samoa Joe always runs things around here. Joe says he needs contenders and invites anyone in the back to face him now. Mark Briscoe answers the call and says the TV Title is his destiny. Samoa Joe says anytime he can get in a fight with a Briscoe is a good day.

Backstage promo from Dalton Castle and The Boys: Dalton explains that he’s been beaten before but when his boys get knocked down, they become Chumbawumba. Castle tells The Embassy to stay limber because they’re in for the fight of their lives.

Dalton Castle and The Boys (Brent and Brandon) defeat Marcus Kross, Cody Chhun, Guillermo Rosas in a six man tag. Dalton Castle is a former ROH World Champion, but perhaps his greatest accomplishment in wrestling has been his updated take on Flair’s peacock robe. Paul Turner oversees the Code of Honor. The benefit of having Ian and Caprice on commentary is their amazing recall of past ROH events. Ian brings up the tag team of Griff Garrison and Marcus Kross and how they got a surprising victory at the Free Enterprise show in February of 2020. As a fun coincidence, I was at the Free Enterprise show in Baltimore, MD and while I remember Griff and Marcus wrestling . . . I certainly couldn’t tell you that they won. Dalton gets a hot tag at the 4 minute mark, pops his hips for some Dalton Castle style suplexes, clears the ring, tosses a few boys at his opponents, and hits the Bang-A-Rang for the pinfall victory (5:31).

Backstage promo from Maria Kanellis who introduces us to Mike Bennett and Matt Taven. They are the O.G.K. (Original Gangster Kingdom if you need a translation). The OGK is out for gold, but they have an issue with Top Flight. Maria lets us know that we can just call them “The Kingdom,” which is a relief if you ask me.

Rush and Dralistico w/ Jose “the Assistant” defeat Angelico and Serpentico (Spanish Announce Project) w/ Luther. Ian lets us know that the family dynasty that includes Rush and Dralistico might be the greatest dynasty going right now (bold) . . . informs us that Bestia del Ring is still active, but they don’t mention Dragon Lee’s status (just debuted on NXT). Riccaboni also informs us that Serpentico is the first wrestler to lose 100 matches in AEW (imagine if they included all the Jon Cruz and Ben Dejo matches too), but apparently that luck is changing since he started teaming with Angelico. The commentary continues the story about Rush and family . . .  even putting over Dragon Lee as a high flyer. Rush went for his running dropkick in the corner on Serpentico, but Angelico prevents it. Moments later, we see Rush hit a ripcord German Suplex followed by Dralistico hitting a leaping destroyer for the pinfall victory (9:18). ***

Post Match: Rush takes a few shots on Luther and takes the mask from Serpentico.

*** Note: Ian Riccaboni calls LFI an offshoot of Los Ingobernables de Japon, which  is not really accurate. Rush, Andrade, and La Mascara actually started Los Ingobernables in CMLL where they made Tetsuya Naito a member. When Naito returned to Japan, he started Los Ingobernables de Japon. Naito’s group has had the greatest lasting power as it has been active since 2015. LFI was created in 2019 during the final days of the previous era of ROH. 

Trish Adora defeats Billie Starkz. Stephon Smith does oversee the Code of Honor to kick this match off as Ian and Caprice advise us that Billie Starkz is only 18 years old. Trish slams Starkz into the ring apron a few moments into the match and Starkz screams in pain (ouch). Starkz and Adora would trade elbow strikes until Starkz fires up hitting several in elbows in a row, but Trish gets enough seperation to hit Lariat Tubman for the pinfall victory (05:39).

Lexi Nair speaks with Christopher Daniels. Daniels says he would like to call up Frankie Kazarian, but he committed to breaking up SCU. The Fallen Angel introduces Sydal as his new partner.

Slim J and Ari Daivari w/ Mark Sterling defeat Jake Crist and Man Scout (Jake Manning) in a tag team match. Paul Turner officiates this match. Quick match as Slim J uses an STF to get the submission victory (2:50).

Mark Sterling gives the microphone to Ari Daivari who brags about beating Metalik “fair and square” last week. Metalik runs in and gets beat down three on one, but Blake Christian makes the save wielding a chair.

Wheeler Yuta defeats Timothy Thatcher to retain the ROH Pure Championship. Mike Posey holds the Pure Title up, oversees the Code of Honor, and officiates the match. Thatcher gets Wheeler Yuta to use his first rope break within 30 seconds as we see the on-site judges BJ Whitmer, Colt Cabana, and . Yuta applies an octopus and forces Thatcher to use a rope break around the three minute mark. Wheeler has gotten really good at showing aggression and trash talking throughout the match, but I think he needs to update his ring gear as it’s a bit too colorful for his BCC character (just Ryan’s opinion). Yuta forced Thatcher to use another rope break at about 7 minutes. Thatcher starts to wear Yuta out with European uppercuts knocking Yuta into the corner. Posey calls for them to go back to the middle of the ring, separates them, but doesn’t call for the break. Yuta uses a closed fist at nine minutes, which gets him a warning. A minute later, Thatcher holds Wheeler into a hammerlock and forces Wheeler to use his second rope break and Thatcher forces Yuta to use his final rope break within another minute. Thatcher puts the boots to Yuta while Yuta is in the ropes. For some reason, Mike Posey pulled Thatcher off even though Wheeler was out of rope breaks. While Posey got pushed away, Yuta hit a second concealed closed fist. Yuta jumped back in and submitted Thatcher in the ropes (12:37). The wrestling was good here, but I don’t think the story was executed well. Posey was calling for breaks when he shouldn’t and not charging for breaks when he broke them up. I also didn’t see where Thatcher used his final rope break, so I don’t understand why Wheeler was allowed to submit Thatcher in the ropes. They need to clean that up because they’ll be heavily criticized if this happens on PPV.

After the match, Wheeler Yuta cut a promo on the New Japan LA Dojo. Clark Connors runs out to save us from Yuta “putting us to sleep.” Connors asked Yuta for a title shot, and Wheeler walked off (same as Claudio from last week) only to turn around on the ramp to accept the challenge.

Aussie Open (Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher) defeats Rhett Titus and Tracy Williams in a tag team match. Stephon Smith Aussie Open took the early part of the match dominating Rhett Titus until he finally got a hot tag off to Tracy Williams. Hot Sauce ran wild for a few moments, but when action went to the outside, Aussie Open took back control. Williams hung on for a bit and even held Mark Davis in a crossface for quite some time. Titus and Williams controlled a lot of the match from this point forward hitting all their moves. Eventually Fletcher and Davis hit a couple of big moves before hitting Coriolis for the pinfall victory (10:18). Really solid match here.

Eddie Kingston defeats Ben Dejo in a singles match. Kingston is apparently now a full-time ROH wrestler as he quite AEW last week. The same can’t be said for Ben Dejo (pronounced Day-ho. . .yeah) who wrestles as Serpentico. Kingston hits his machine gun chops, an exploder, and his spinning back fist for the very quick pinfall victory (00:39). Eddie picks up Ben’s hand, so he can adhere to the Code of Honor.

After the match, Kingston invites Claudio out and demands his shot at the ROH World Championship. Claudio simply says “a man without honor will never be Ring of Honor Champion,” and Claudio walks off. Kingston races to the back, and we see Claudio and Kingston interact with Lexi Nair to close the segment.

We now get a video package for Willow v. Athena, which mostly is here to build up Willow.

“IT’S TIME FOR THE MAIN EVENT” . . . no Mark Henry here but we can use our imagination.

Athena defeats Willow Nightingale to retain her ROH World Women’s Championship. Mike Posey oversees the proceedings. Willow hits a series of suplexes that ends with a Fisher-Woman Suplex for a near fall. Athena wedged Willow’s arm between the post and stairs and then rammed Willow’s shoulder into the post before drop kicking the stairs. Willow makes a comeback on the outside slamming Athena into the apron and then hitting a Death Valley Driver on the floor. Ian and Caprice advises us that wrestlers are given a 20 count in ROH, which is good because both wrestlers roll in at 18. Back in the ring, Athena runs her mouth and Willow goes crazy hitting a spine buster for a near fall. Athena manages to go back after the arm of Willow (previously weakened on the outside), and Athena got a near fall with a really interesting slam-dropkick combo. Following a slam on the ramp and slamming Willow head first into the stairs, Athena tosses Willow into the ring and hits the “O-Face” for the pinfall victory (14:38).

After the match, Athena hit Willow with the title belt and running knees into the stairs to close the show.

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ROH on Honor Club PREVIEW – Mar. 16, 2023 – Universal Studios in Orlando, FL.

+ LFI in Action Next Week.

+ Wheeler Yuta v. Clark Connors – ROH Pure Title

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ROH Supercard of Honor PPV PREVIEW – Friday March 31, 2023 – Los Angeles, CA.

+ Reach for the Sky Ladder Match for the ROH World Tag Team Championships: Lucha Bros v. ?