Gutteridge’s Ring of Honor TV Hit List: Final hype for the 14th Anniversary PPV, Adam Cole, Jay Lethal and Kyle O’Reilly, The Briscoes vs. Alex Shelley and ACH, Roderick Strong vs. Jonathan Gresham for the ROH TV Title

By Darren Gutteridge

ROH TV Hits

Adam Cole, Jay Lethal and Kyle O’Reilly: A simple but effective final push for the main event of the 14th Anniversary show. Unlike most ROH PPV builds, which often scramble to put something together at the death, the hard work for this match had already been done. This was just some nice promos from Lethal and Cole, and a well done beatdown by O’Reilly.

Roderick Strong vs. Jonathan Gresham: It felt like this was going to be a squash match when it was all Strong, but once the tide turned for Gresham it picked up nicely. Gresham has showed more in ROH than I saw from him on the indies, so here’s hoping he has done enough to stick around.

ROH TV Misses

The Briscoes vs. Alex Shelley and ACH: The match wasn’t bad, but it didn’t feel main event quality either (chalk that up to ROH giving away too many fantastic matches on TV). That said, match quality isn’t why this match ends up in the Miss column. That is more so down to its placement on the card. Why would you end your go-home show with a crappy beatdown related to an undercard match, and a win for a team who barely even had their match on the 14th Anniversary show mentioned? ROH’s aversion to ending on talking segments is admirable, but they really should have gone out with the ROH title segment here.

War Machine vs. Tough Guy Inc: It’s time to say it – something isn’t clicking with War Machine. I can’t put my finger on it, but something has been off ever since they won the ROH Tag Titles. I’m not going to worry until after the ANX are dealt with, but it’s starting to get alarming how badly they are being booked, facing lame duck teams like Brutal Bob and Tim Hughes, and seeming like an “also ran” in their own division. Plus, how bad was Rhett Titus on the microphone post match?

BJ Whitmer vs. Chase Brown: Whitmer’s return features him squashing a guy whose deal is that “he has a cauliflower” in the ring with him. Further proof that Whitmer’s career in ROH is an elaborate inside joke on the fans.

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