‘Ring of Honor’ Wrestling Review (July 8th 2018)
Welcome to this week’s Ring of Honor review, right here on Nerdly! On this week’s card, we have Bully Ray and Cheeseburger with no disqualifications as well as Cody Rhodes fighting CMLL’s Titan in our main event. So, go ahead and pull up the old easy chair while we spend the next half hour painting some of nature’s masterpieces. We’ll use about a dozen water-colors an… whoops. That’s the wrong review. Bob Ross might be happy about that last part, but you won’t…let’s just get to the action.
Match #1: Women of Honor Champion Sumie Sakai and Stella Grey beat Gabby Ortiz and Riley Shepard – Women’s Tag Team Match
My Take: This was a very basic tag team match featuring some good, solid wrestlers. The women’s champion Sakai was, indeed, the high-light of the fight, with her excellent strikes as her best offering for this white-knuckle pot-luck. I can’t believe I’m going to actually use “white-knuckle pot-luck” in a review of a wrestling match. I feel like Vince Russo at the Old Country Buffet. Any-way, as far as the other fighters, they worked hard but just felt a step behind here, which doesn’t mean that they are necessarily are on all occasions, either. Over-all, this was a decent match that did its job.
Match #2: Bully Ray beat Cheeseburger – No Disqualification Match
My Take: Ray played a mean son of a bitch in this one and really got the fans going for Cheeseburger, which is a feat all on its own when you consider the guy’s name is Cheeseburger. Ray is a perfect example of how to play a true heel. Having moved beyond his early days of cheap heat, Ray truly has become one of wrestling’s most consummate heels, in both body language and verbal language. Ray comes across as a man who would piss on your heart just because it beat too fast. When Ray wants you to hate him, you will do so because he gives you no other choice. When you take a heel like Ray and put him with a beloved face like Cheeseburger, you get a match that has, and did have, the best crowd reaction of the night. You could have lit the tension in the air with a match. This fight had the crowd so involved that you’d think that this was for a title, but this was little more than a wild brawl between to men who were never predicted to do more than what they did tonight. I’m not sure what they think they have with Cheeseburger, but I see a star, even if he doesn’t look like one. After a crowd reaction like this one (and Cheeeseburger’s bumps) I’d say that wrestling for and winning the ROH TV Title ought to be in the cards at some point this year. Over-all, this was a brutal slaughter of a match that made Ray look like a monster and Cheeseburger look like the ultimate victim.
Match #3: Main Event – Cody Rhodes w/ Brandi Rhodes and Bernard The Business Bear beat Titan
My Take: This was the best match of the night, with Titan having a great showing here. Now more than ever, it’s quite obvious that Cody is a step below most of the people in Ring of Honor, even though I do believe he is a good wrestler. The way that Cody moves out in the ring has an awkward quality to it that feels more like he just barely got out of wrestling training. I don’t mean to appear as a detractor of the man, because I still enjoy his work regardless, but he does leave a little bit to be desired in some spots. Titan, on the other hand, has a perfect technique in the ring that will make him an easy transition for the American market. Titan is a lot like Rey Mysterio crossed with Petey Williams, which is a rather promising comparison to make. Titan is so smooth in his maneuvers that you could say he’s hardly moving at all. Titan will likely need to work on how to make his character stand out in America, but he has the wrestling part down, so the rest will that much easier. As main events go, this was a fine way to end the card.
News of the Night:
- The Kingdom took part in one of Caprice Coleman’s “Pulpit” interview segments. These segments are always terrible, but often have good performances, so with the Kingdom still complaining about the “conspiracy” against them, it ended up having some merit.
- Colt Cabana interfered on Cheeseburger’s behalf during his match with Bully Ray. It would seem that a Colt/Ray feud is on the way.
Final Verdict: This was a good card with a great showing from Titan, who may be a big star for the future.
Major News:
Jay Lethal has been accused by former Ring of Honor roster member Taelor Hendrix that she lost her push in ROH because she refused to sleep with Jay Lethal. It remains to be seen what Ring of Honor will do with this, although they have pledged to investigate the matter further. Lethal has been accused of crimes like this in the past, mainly about his female wrestling students that he teaches, but nothing has ever been substantiated. It must also be said that many who have heard her accusations have insisted that looking at her Twitter page might cast doubt on the validity of her claims, with some people claiming she makes these sorts of statements often. It must be said, how-ever, that if Jay Lethal is found to have committed this act of sabotage, that he should be stripped of the Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Championship, which he won a week or so ago at a television taping.
Next Week: The tag team gauntlet will be held. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Reading Rainbow… Er, Nerdly.
