Ring of Honor - 2023

[NikoBaltimore]

I honestly thought they gimmicked it to add hype for the match.  But if that was real then that is rather disturbing.  Yikes.

Oh, and without saying too much on the board if you're up for the show and on Discord it might be worth going here.  https://discord.gg/qz3KYM4kDr

Edited December 15, 2023 by NikoBaltimore

[Dolfan in NYC]

The match is now Damage CTRL approved:

 

[Shartnado]

9 minutes ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

The match is now Damage CTRL approved:

 

Did Bayley ever have a chance to face Ember Moon/Athena? If she did, any and all tips could come in handy for Starkz come tomorrow!

[Dolfan in NYC]

12 minutes ago, Shartnado said:

Did Bayley ever have a chance to face Ember Moon/Athena? If she did, any and all tips could come in handy for Starkz come tomorrow!

Most notable match is Bayley winning Money in the Bank '19 over her, Mandy, Nattie, Trinity (Naomi), Nikki Cross, and Carmella.

 

[evanknight]

Athena/Billie has been real good pro wrestling, build the build for everything else is lacking. That said Final Battle is shaping up to be a good show. 
 

Pairing Taylor and Lee 1 year after the tag match which was out of the blue then is just weird. 
 

With a little separation and some attention I still do think ROH could be a benefit, but really the entirety of the presentation now is just weird. 
 

AEW seems to love the tournaments that don’t seem to go over well (with some even saying this round robin is confusing?), that’s where they should double down with ROH. Anyone actually paying for HonorClub would probably be down with a long drawn out points driven over arching story and gives a reason to stay subscribed. Go all out for a season long. 

[DreamBroken]

last minute Final Battle adds: Nyla Rose vs. Vertvixen

and on the preshow, Bryan Keith vs. Jack Cartwheel for the last Survival of the Fittest TV title match spot. 

[NikoBaltimore]

And for once it's not my fault but of course Discord craps out right for everybody as the show starts.

I hate technology.

[Evil Otto]

Caught Zero Hour, but still on the fence about subscribing to Honor Club just to watch this show.  I get the strategy, and Athena vs. Billie and Vikingo vs. Black Taurus might make me do it, but I really liked the Fite TV (now Triller, I guess)  PPV option.  

All that being said, Bryan Keith vs. Jack Cartwheel was some good shit!  

[hammerva]

Shame that Final Battle will probably get a very low watch because this is the show that people realize that Bryan Keith and Lee Moriarty should be a lot bigger in AEW or Ring of Honor then what they currently are.  

Kyler Fletcher just hit a BRAINBUSTAAAAAAH for only a 2 count.  Come on man 

The Jay Briscoe tribute match features Blackpool Combat vs FTR and Mark Briscoe is a must see match.  I mean to turn from a really good technical match to a brutal and bloodly Anarchy in the Arena match is the perfect Jay Briscoe tribute.  And Danielson taking the pinfall was icing on the cake.   A must watch match

Eddie Kingston vs Anthony Henry is a match I would love to see with actual time and meaning to it.  This was a just a PPV filler unfortunately

Edited December 16, 2023 by hammerva

[DreamBroken]

Zero Hour was fun. Nice to see Jazmin Allure there briefly against Taya. Enjoyed the Von Erichs again. Bryan Keith and Jack Cartwheel both went all out in a sprint, felt like an earned victory for BK to get the spot in Survival of the Fittest. Daniel Garcia vs. Blake Christian was awesome. 

Vikingo vs Taurus opening the show was epic. Tons of crazy spots throughout as expected. Trios titles match was a blast.

Ethan Page vs Tony Nese brought the violence and hatred, loved it! Far exceeded expectations from these two in this feud. Nice Men of the Year reunion too. 

Always love to see Vertvixen even if just a couple minutes. Solid squash from Nyla Rose. 

Survival of the Fittest was amazing, especially the Fletcher/Komander final 2. Loved how it could've gone a lot of different directions. Crowd hated the eliminations of Dalton & Bryan Keith, everybody looked good here.

Keith Lee vs Shane Taylor ruled, popped for Taylor's super Destroyer.    Orange Cassidy vs Bryan Keith added to Collision tomorrow! Definitely a hell of a night for Bryan Keith.

Fight Without Honor was an incredible spectacle. Absolutely wild. Finish felt a little sudden but Dax piledriving Mox off the apron through the thumbtack table was crazy. I think everybody but Claudio bled and then Cash dripped all over him. Great to see Mark get the big win here.  Nice to squeeze in a short Kingston match too.

Main event was excellent, epic, big fight feel. Loved it all the way through. Finish surprised me a bit as I thought for sure Billie was getting the ropes. Definitely felt like this was gonna be the best chance for anyone to dethrone Athena after such a well built story so I can't imagine at this point who challenges next.  Overall really great show. 

[John from Cincinnati]

Is this thing being added to the archives immediately? Sounds like it’s more than worth the $10 or whatever and I can catch up on some stuff. 

[Casey]

Am I the only one who thought Taurus/Vikingo was incredibly lackluster?

I can’t believe I paid $10 for this just to see the only reason I did pay (Billie) lose. Goddamnit.

[DreamBroken]

11 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said:

Is this thing being added to the archives immediately? Sounds like it’s more than worth the $10 or whatever and I can catch up on some stuff. 

It should be yes. Comes up on the search.  Right now it's still showing as "Now Live" when I click on it, but I can rewind back to the beginning.

Rewatching the finishing stretch of the Survival of the Fittest, so good and the crowd was on fire.

the Media Scrum is coming up next

[Evil Otto]

45 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said:

Is this thing being added to the archives immediately? Sounds like it’s more than worth the $10 or whatever and I can catch up on some stuff. 

I'm strongly considering it as well.  I'd really like to see the Athena-Starkz storyline in its entirety so far.  So yeah, in other words, Athena is a legit draw, at least for me.  

[Chaos]

7 hours ago, Casey said:

Am I the only one who thought Taurus/Vikingo was incredibly lackluster?

I can’t believe I paid $10 for this just to see the only reason I did pay (Billie) lose. Goddamnit.

There were some incredible spots but they all involved waiting around or Vikingo having issues finding his footing. It was far from what I enjoy. Taurus looked dominant enough when he had heat that he should have gone over. 

[Cleavy]

6 hours ago, Evil Otto said:

I'm strongly considering it as well.  I'd really like to see the Athena-Starkz storyline in its entirety so far.  So yeah, in other words, Athena is a legit draw, at least for me.  

 

[Matt D]

I caught Athena vs Billie first thing this morning unspoiled. Thought it was a very worthy main event. Strong fiery opening. Nasty cutoff and beat down. Solid building hope spots and cutoffs. Crazy but warranted escalation in the back half. And the post match makes sense as Billie only ever wanted acceptance. I had always felt like the match was three months too early and in the wrong place so I’m ok with the result. They can run it back mid next year and build on this.

Looking forward to everything else but there is no time!

(I enjoyed Eddie vs Evil Uno too btw)

[Curt McGirt]

Despite technical difficulties, we had a real good time on the Discord watching last night. All the matches felt like they had something different to offer. I wasn't a fan of Vikingo having all these long setups and balance botches either, but Black Taurus fucking destroyed him when he was in control. It was like a bunch of '90s All Japan finishing run offense. Also, I didn't know the mouth on his mask moved so that was extra cool. The multi-man tag was bizarre (I still don't think I understand the rules) and probably the least of the matches, if we're talking main card. I missed the Taya and Von Erichs matches; Jack Cartwheel and Blake Christian are... not ready for prime time, to put it nicely. This card also felt like there was a bunch of angle blow-offs, all done well. 

[Phantom Lord]

I thought the show last night was really good. Athena vs. Billie was the standout match of the night for me. But almost every match on the card was really good. 

In the preshow I hope Tony signs both The Bounty Hunter and Jack Cartwheel to ROH. That was a fun match and who knew you could do a cartwheel into so many moves.

But as for the main show the only match I would have scrapped was Nyla vs. Vert Vixen. No offense to them, but it was a squash they should have kept for the regular honor club show. Same goes for Kingston vs. Henry. But they've backed themselves into a corner with this triple crown thing so I guess the champ had to be on while he was still champ.

Black Taurus vs. Vikingo was a really good hard hitting match. The powerbomb on the floor was sick. I honestly didn't think Vikingo would win, but he pulled out the shock win. He still takes too much time to set up his moves though.

Ethan Page vs. Tony Neese was a good I Quit match. Smart Mark Sterling is such a slimey guy so it was good to see him get what was coming. I liked Mark Henry being an official. He could be an enforcer who puts people in check. The match itself was solid. Glad that Page won.

The survival of the fittest match was good. I was rooting for Dalton to win, but I'm not upset with Kyle Fletcher winning. He's really good and I want to see how he handles being a singles champion.

Yuta vs. Lawlor was all right. I like Yuta as a heel pure champion who cheats to win.

Dem Top Guys vs. BCC was really good. I liked how they tried to keep it as a straight match and then the triple countout happened and they said fuck it and went for a fight without honor. Great tribute to Jay.

Athena vs. Billie Starkz was a really good match. Athena might be in the running for wrestler of the year...man or woman. Billie is such a great face in peril. She's only going to get better with age. Match of the night and a good contender for match of the year in my book.

 

[HumanChessgame]

I agree with the general consensus about most of the matches and don't have a lot to add to most of the points already made, and emphasize that Billie/Athena was the match of the night and worth seeing.

I think Fletcher was one of the less interesting choices to win the TV title. Lee Moriarty really should have gotten either Lethal or Moxley's spot in the CC and he was my pick to win here.

Having your world champ compete in the cooler match in a non-title bout set up last minute isn't a good look even if the women's title match and the six man were the main attractions to the show.

Even though I liked the six man match, I almost feel like it didn't need to be two matches in one. I think they could have had the faces win for the BCC to jump them after and set up a Fight Without Honor at the next show.

Like with a majority of ROH/AEW PPVs this has a lackluster build but a solid final product. I get ROH is a pretty marginal property and maybe some people or situations were iffy and had to be rebooked but I don't see how hard it would have been to set up most of these matches a few weeks beforehand to get some solid hype around them.

Caprice and Ian are also the best commentary team across the whole property.

[dragonzombie]

TV taping spoiler 

Spoiler

Tony Khan introduced the new ROH Women's TV championship 

 

[Cleavy]

5 hours ago, Kang said:

TV taping spoiler 

  Hide contents

Tony Khan introduced the new ROH Women's TV championship 

 

first reaction was "how unnecessary".

[HarryArchieGus]

Re: Zero Hour
Valkyrie v Allure was alright. I sometimes wish Taya's furry boots made her more of a classic Bruiser. Von Erichs v Outrunners was not particularly good. The Von Erichs looked rusty or sloppy or both. Still, kinda fun watching the Outrunners bump their asses off. Bryan Keith v Jack Cartwheel was excellent. I like this booking choice. Local boy makes good, and a fun local story. Keith sure does like a high wasted pant. Garcia v Blake Christian was hurt by the babyface v babyface dynamic. This didn't look quite like Blake's A game. 

Re: Final Battle
Vikingo v Taurus was fun. Vikingo's set-ups were lengthier than usual, but didn't take me entirely out. I always love Black Taurus. I sometimes wish I could make some small tweaks to his presentation. Here's hoping he sticks around. The Top Rope Gorilla Slam! Mogul Embassy v TMDK was 'perfectly fine'. I sense the NJPW tour helped Kaun/Toa. I thought Bad Dude Tito looked good there. Tony Nese v Ethan Page had numerous boneheaded booking choices. What was the point of handcuffing Sterling and then having him interfere constantly? Er having Mark Henry lumber out and then just leave? Sorta like the Men of the Year reunion, but not sure about them as babyfaces. Ethan Page is a terrible babyface. He comes off as whiny and fake (see that ridiculous promo on ROHTV this week). Perfect traits for his far superior heel act. Underrated Nese wrestled a solid match. There was a great effort and lots of blood and I wanted to like this, but it fell short for me. I skipped Nyla v Vertvixen, but glad to see Nyla in ROH. I had a tough time with the Survival of the Fittest. All the touchstones of all the scrambles I hate. Die Multi-man matches, die! I like all these guys, but it just didn't come together until Fletcher v Kommander. I really dug those two pairing off to finish things out. Fletcher threw too much at him, but fun nonetheless. Of all the poor choices on this show, none worse than that awful looking red paint Fletcher was sporting. I'm just happy it wasn't a tattoo. For a moment, it reminded me of the night the Nightmare Factory neck tattoo was revealed. And all the disappointment that came with it. I also enjoyed Yuta v Lawlor. Love to see more of Filthy in ROH. He'd be a good hand. I also liked seeing Hook down here. For fuck sake, get him some reps on Honor Club. How bizarre to have this inexperienced performer so in need of reps and he's yet to perform on a single Honorclub show. Loved Yuta's antics post match. Shane Taylor v Keith Lee didn't quite MEAT my expectations, but it had its moments. Some fun spots. I always get the sense that Keith Lee is not in any kind of shape to  be pushed  up the card. I'd like to be wrong about that. Bryan Keith promo was fun. OC v Keith sounds like a party. BCC v FTR/Briscoe was kinda hit and miss for me. Things got clumsy at points - like putting Cash in a submission with barbed wire, and then not having him saved nor submitted, and then just quietly dropping the hold. But when this was on it was fucking on. 6 of the best. I'm with Dax on phone zombies, but the optics were questionable. Anthony Henry v Kingston felt like a poor addition. I like Henry, but this felt like a waste of time on a 5 fucking hour show. I don't like how the ROH World Title was repped on this show. I don't particularly like where that title is going either. Athena v Billie Starks was, of course, excellent. Definitely hurt by the babyface v babyface dynamic. I'm not sure it needed more time to build to but @MattD is right on this being a poor location for the match. Still, fine effort and excellent result. A strong main event. More than enough high points to recommend the show. 

[Matt D]

Going to bypass the spoiler here. They’re introducing a women’s TV title. Weird choice as they needed a women’s tag title. It’s going to let Athena dominate for longer at least. My choice would be Yuka actually.

[odessasteps]

Since they seemingly have one women’s match every TV show, that belt should be defended every episode.