The Ring of Honor World Championship will be defended on ROH TV tonight as Mark Briscoe puts the title on the line against ROH TV Champion Kyle Fletcher on HonorClub.
This will be Briscoe’s first title defense since winning the gold at April’s Supercard of Honor. Fletcher’s TV title will not be on the line.
ROH Women’s TV Champion Billie Starkz will wrestle Angelica Risk in a Proving Ground match. The inaugural champion has yet to defend the gold since winning it at Supercard of Honor.
Former title challenger Taya Valkyrie will face Trish Adora while Lee Johnson will look to rebound from his recent best-of-three falls loss to Fletcher as he faces Alex Reynolds.
The show will also see The Righteous & Lance Archer in trios action while Marina Shafir will also compete.
Matches for this week’s show were taped at the Covelli Center in Youngstown, Ohio, on June 15th.
With a huge main event waiting in the wings, this week’s ROH TV kicked off with an emergency MEM (Minion Empowerment Meeting). Lexi Nair, ROH Women’s Champion Athena and ROH Women’s TV Champion Billie Starkz lamented last week’s attack by Queen Aminata and Red Velvet. Athena said she would be out for 8-12 months, and “doesn’t feel safe at work anymore.” She then introduced two new male Minions who will act as their personal security. Then they decided they needed to find a belt for Lexi Nair and left.
With that said, the show kicked off proper with singles action!
Lee Johnson defeated Alex Reynolds
Johnson fought ROH TV Champion Kyle Fletcher to the very end of a brutal 2-out-of-3 falls match last week, but ended up coming up short. Johnson has nothing but potential ahead of him, so this match against the Dark Order’s Reynolds (accompanied by Evil Uno) was an excellent way to start climbing that ladder again.
The two tied up to start things off and it led to a surprisingly slow pace to to the match. Johnson and Reynolds were pretty much the same size and both had the potential for explosive action. Johnson seemed to want to speed things up, but Reynolds balked at every turn.
The match played out pretty well, lots of high offense and back and forth exchanges, but an absolutely dead crowd. They had very little reaction to the action in the ring, and only really made noise when prompted by Evil Uno on the outside.
They did show some signs of life near the end of the match when Johnson countered a potential pedigree with a huricanrana pinning attempt, and when Reynolds executed a picture-perfect neckbreaker to try and get a pin of his own.
In the end, Johnson drove Reynolds’ face into the corner and superkicked Uno on the outside to create some separation and set up the Big Shot Drop and get the pin.
Marina Shafir defeated Erica Leigh
ROH has a problem and that problem is that I keep making the same joke about Shafir every week. So, this week it was all serious business when the hard-hitting Shafir took on Leigh.
As she’s done the last few weeks, Shafir utilized her mma and amateur wresting skills to keep Leigh at bay through most of the match. Shafir’s aggression and powerful strikes were at times over the top and the commentators speculated that the Ref might even stop things.
Shafir hit a shin-based modified 619 on Leigh and locked in a Mother’s Milk sleeper, causing Leigh to pass out and earn Shafir the win.
-Backstage the Undisputed Kingdom gave an interview in which they refused to believe that their interviewer’s name was “Arkity.” Bennett began lamenting the lack of real competition in ROH, and dropped to his knees to “pray to the booker-man” Tony Kahn for him to give them a team that might live up to their talent. They then called out every tag team in the universe to come talk to them. Bennett’s prayers were answered seconds later when it was announced that Komander and Metalik would face the Kingdom next week.
Lance Archer and The Righteous (Vincent and Dutch) defeated Duke Davis, Victor Benjamin and Ganon Jones jr
If ROH TV was an hour, I could watch 55 minutes of it featuring just Vincent and Dutch snapping their fingers and hossing it up. It’s not the case though, and this match with their pal Archer was more about making statements than entertaining folks such as me.
As for the match, it didn’t really matter. Davis and Jones Jr tried their best to take out the Righteous on the outside, but it had little effect. Archer and Vincent double teamed Benjamin in the ring, with Vincent ending up as the legal man. Vincent’s unorthodox style gave Benjamin nowhere to go and he ended up bailing out of the ring. Unfortunately for him, Dutch and Archer were waitng and drove him into the ring steps.
Dutch tagged in and levelled Benjamin, cutting him off from his partners. Ganon managed to tag in though and the two big men went at it. Archer and Vincent jumped into help and laid out Ganon. Vincent was legal and came close to a pin. Dutch nailed Davis with a Boss Man Slam and then Vincent hit Orange sunshine to get the victory.
After the match, Archer hit a blackout slam on Benjamin to put a period at the end of the sentence.
Taya Valkyrie defeated Trish Adora
No one talks trash like Taya talks trash and her skills were on full display in this match with Adora. The Infantry accompanied Adora to the ring, but left ringside after the entrance.
Valkyrie jumped Adora right off of the Code of Honor and the two began exchanging big chops. Valkyrie had a big ol’ smile on her face as she twisted and wrenched Adora’s elbow. Adora responded with a splits submission move that looked genuinely painful.
Ever the opportunist, Valkyrie took advantage of Adora being dazed and kicked her head into the mat, not once but twice. She then covered her up, getting the pin and the victory.
-Backstage, Leyla Hirsch discussed her match with Diamante last week. Diamante interrupted and said she was here for a fight! Hirsch challenged her to a No Holds Barred match and Dimante accepted.
ROH Women’s World TV Champion Billie Starkz defeated Angelica Risk in a Proving Ground match
In this Proving Ground Match, if Risk could last 10 minutes or pin ROH Women’s TV Champion Starkz, she would get a shot at that very title at a later date. Starkz had to keep looking over her shoulder though, as her BFF Athena suffered a brutal attack by Queen Aminata and Rev Velvet last week.
Starkz was her usually bratty self, but after the events of last week, she came with a lot more aggression than usual. Some of the stomps and strikes on Risk looked extremely violent. The Ref had to step in a couple of times as the was not a match, it was a fight.
Risk did her best to fight back, but Starkz threw her to the outside and drove her face-first into the barricade. Starkz called out “that’s for you, Boss” as she doled out the violence in Athena’s name. Risk managed to get a small flurry of offence in, but Starkz put an end to it quick with a big kick.
Starks put Risk in a Hammerlock submission and Risk tapped right out, walking away from a championship match.
ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe defeated ROH TV Champion Kyle Fletcher
This Champion-vs-Champion Main Event match came somewhat out of nowhere. Fletcher was hot off of winning a killer 2-out-of-3 falls against Lee Johnson last week and Briscoe hasn’t been seen much in ROH since capturing that World Title. This match promised to be a classic though, which makes one wonder why ROH didn’t promote it more. But honestly, once we were in it, that didn’t matter.
Fletcher’s crisp, technical style was a terrific match for Briscoe’s brawler antics and the match was a blast from the start. Right out of the lockup, Briscoe was mocking Fletcher, getting in his head with Karate Kid Crane Style moves. The crowd arrived in this match, chanting “Dem Boys” whenever possible in tribute to the Briscoes.
Briscoe’s strategy was to keep the match pace under his control so Fletcher couldn’t build up steam. Lots of headlocks and arm drags stymied Fletcher as Briscoe toughed things out. Fletcher tried to hard to overpower Briscoe, but the spirit of the World Champion would not be beat. Fletcher caught Briscoe looking though and hit a big backdrop on the Ring Apron (the hardest part of the ring).
Fletcher gained control of the match, suplexing Briscoe on the concrete. Jay Lethal held the ROH World and TV titles at the same time, so the possibility of a title change here was very prominent. Fletcher threw Briscoe back in the ring for the first pin attempt, but Briscoe kicked out at one.
From there, the match went back and forth. Fletcher gaining upper hands, and Briscoe fighting his way back to upend them. Eventually the match devolved into a brawl which definitely favoured Briscoe. A fisherman’s brainbuster and some Redneck Kung Fu put Fletcher on his back, but Briscoe was only able to get the two-count.
Briscoe hit a suplex from the top rope, but both men felt the impact. Fletcher rolled out of the ring for some recovery time, but Briscoe followed him and ate a superkick for his efforts. Briscoe fought back (as he does) and landed a Cactus Jack elbow from the ring apron.
Briscoe tossed Fletcher back into the ring and tried to hit a splash from the top rope, but Fletcher had it scouted and got the knees up to block. Briscoe caught Fletcher with a Spiccoli driver and hit a Froggy Bomb off the top rope, but Fletcher kicked out at two. Briscoe hit a big lariat followed by a Jay Driller and managed to get Fletcher’s shoulders to the mat for a three-count. An absolutely fantastic match and a rare loss for Fletcher.