Ring Of Honor – January 9, 2025: For Those Of You Who Like Seeing Me Get Mad

Ring Of Honor
Date: January 9, 2025
Location: Bojangles Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina
Commentators: Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman

We continue the slow crawl towards Supercard Of Honor in a few months and as you might have expected, pretty much nothing happened at Wrestle Dynasty. Ring Of Honor was relegated to the pre-show where the Sons Of Texas retained the Tag Team Titles, likely on their way to what is supposed to be a special title defense at All In: Texas. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We run down the lineup.

Trish Adora vs. Harley Cameron

Adora rolls her down to start but Cameron does the same thing to her to keep it even. Back up and a flying headscissors takes Cameron down, followed by a northern lights suplex to make it worse. Adora’s snap German suplex sends Cameron into the corner and a Boss Man Slam backbreaker has her down again. The chinlock doesn’t last long as Adora switches to a double arm crank. Cameron fights up and starts striking away, setting up a Shining Wizard for two. Back up and the Lariat Tubman gives Adora the clean pin at 6:23.

Rating: C-. OH COME ON! Harley Cameron is the most charismatic woman in AEW right now and she’s losing clean to Trish Adora, who has done a grand total of nothing in months. Cameron is set to face the AEW Women’s Champion in two days and yet here we are, because Adora needs a win or something. I’m sure she’ll benefit from this win, which will ABSOLUTELY have title implications. Maybe Adora can get one of the better seats in catering when someone else comes in from Japan to get the next title shot after doing nothing in ROH. This place is baffling and this is a perfect example of why.

Blake Christian vs. Serpentico

Christian jumps him before the bell but gets caught with an early dropkick for two. They head outside with Serpentico being sent into the barricade, allowing Christian to stomp him onto said barricade. Christian stomps his head onto the steps before they trade kicks to the face back inside. A neckbreaker gets two on Christian but he’s right back with some running knees to the head for the pin at 7:36.

Rating: C. This was as lower midcard as you can get around here as ROH is now deciding to push Christian as something. Then again, winning matches around here isn’t the way to get title opportunities and that is what Christian is doing so far. Other than that, perfectly fine match here which isn’t likely to mean much going forward.

Griff Garrison vs. Boulder

Boulder powers him around to start but misses a charge in the corner, allowing Garrison to hit a running clothesline. The straps come down as Boulder gets fired up and there’s the running splash in the corner. More splashes have Garrison in trouble and a side slam gives Boulder two. A tilt-a-whirl powerslam plants Garrison again and the basement crossbody (Boulderdash) finishes him at 5:00.

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here as the Iron Savages are now good guys and winning matches. The match was the same short form stuff that we’ve seen around here before and little more than a squash. The show could use a good match to pick up the steam and this wasn’t what it needed.

We’re thirty minutes into an eighty five minute show and the biggest star we’ve seen so far is comedy jobber Harley Cameron. In the words of Lenny Haise, this is an opportune time to pick it up a little.

Billie Starkz vs. Brittany Jade

Starkz rolls her up for two before stomping away. Jade fights up and hits a clothesline in the corner but gets dropped face first onto the turnbuckle. Starkz drops a Swanton for the pin at 3:07.

Rating: C-. Another nothing match with Starkz squashing her without much effort. Other than Jade being Caprice Coleman’s student to tie it into the commentary a bit, this was another match which came and went to fill in time. When you’re over a third of the way through a show, you should have had something more than that by now.

Rachael Ellering vs. Queen Aminata

Aminata takes her down by the arm for some hip swiveling, earning herself a gutwrench suplex. The shout of a splash sends Aminata bailing to the floor, with commentary wondering how smart the shout was. Back in and Ellering takes her down again, setting up the backsplash (with shout) for two. Aminata tries a leglock but gets rolled up for two instead. That doesn’t matter much though as Aminata hits the headbutt for the win at 4:44.

Rating: C. Again, it’s not that these matches are bad, but they’re between people who have nothing going on and they aren’t exactly making things interesting. Neither of the have been anywhere near a title match in months but here they are, getting time on a random show. It feels like a match thrown out there to fill in time and that’s not a great thing to see.

From July 25, 2018 (and from a previous review).

Women of Honor Title: Sumie Sakai vs. Hazuki

Hazuki is challenging and has her Oedo Tai stable mates with her. Sakai starts with the Mongolian chops and gets tossed into the corner with no effort. The announcers make a big deal out of Hazuki being just 20 years old, which is quite the point worth bragging about. A facewash sends Sakai outside and Hazuki hits a middle rope backsplash to a standing champion as we take a break.

Back with Sakai getting rolled up for two but slugging Hazuki in the face to take over. A full nelson slam and another backsplash (this time with Sakai down) give Hazuki two. Sakai is right back with a running dropkick and a missile dropkick to send Hazuki to the floor. That means a big dive onto all three but Hazuki catches her with a Codebreaker off the top for a very close two. The rest of the team fails at interfering and it’s Smash Mouth to retain at 9:55.

Rating: C+. It’s not a good sign when you need to bring in this many people to even have a division, or when a 20 year old showed up your first champion this badly. Sakai has no spark to anything she does and I still have no connection to her, even after the whole tournament. Hazuki came off like a star with a better offense and charisma, but we’re still getting Sakai no matter what logic may dictate.

MxM Collection vs. Dawsons

Mason and Zane fight over a lock up to start with Mason powering him into the corner. Everything breaks down and the Dawsons are cleaned out, meaning it’s time to pose. Mansoor gets in trouble for all of three seconds, meaning it’s a double clothesline to set up the tag off to Mason. The Centerfold finishes Dave at 4:05.

Rating: C. Another squash here but at least they didn’t give it much time. The Collection is another team that came in hot but isn’t doing anything at the moment, while we count down the days to All In: Texas so the Sons Of Texas can have some kind of moment. It would be fun to see the Collection or the Outrunners getting a nice moment with a short title reign, but here we are instead.

Red Velvet vs. Jazmyne Hao

Non-title Proving Ground match, meaning if Hao wins or survives the ten minute time limit, she gets a future title shot. They start somewhat slowly before Velvet stomps away in the corner to take over. Some forearms and running knees to the back have Hao down and a left hand (or right according to Riccaboni) finishes for Velvet at 2:51.

QT Marshall is ready for his TV Title shot next week.

Shane Taylor Promotions vs. Gates Of Agony

Kaun and Moriarty start things off with Kaun taking him down, setting up an exchange of leapfrogs. Taylor comes in for the power showdown with Kaun and takes him into the corner. Moriarty works on the arm before Taylor hits a hard knee to the face for two. A splash gets the same but Kaun fights up with a double crossbody for a double knockdown.

Toa and Taylor come in for the big showdown, including an exchange of headbutts. Toa gets the better of things but Moriarty comes in off a blind tag. That earns him Open The Gates for two but Trish Adora offers a distraction. Cue the Infantry to jump Kaun, allowing Moriarty to roll him up for the pin at 8:57.

Rating: C. Again, fine, but spare me the idea of Shane Taylor Promotions getting back into the title picture or whatever the line commentary is going to feed us will be. Another watchable enough match with some nice power stuff, but the people involved have been running on a treadmill for so long that it’s hard to get interested. Same as always around here.

Here is Chris Jericho, with Bryan Keith, for a chat as we have about five minutes left in the show. Jericho complains about the lack of people cheering for him in the last few matches because the people were chanting for the Rock N Roll Express. Cue the Rock N Roll Express, with Jericho saying he hates rock and roll. Ricky Morton made fun of him in 1994 and Jericho has hated him ever since. The Express quickly clears the ring and Morton says they’re glad to be back in Charlotte to end the show. Morton didn’t even talk for ten seconds.

Overall Rating: F+. Nope. Before I get into this, let me make it clear: the wrestlers aren’t at fault here. They were trying and putting in some effort and the matches were hardly awful. This show’s problems aren’t on them and I don’t want it to seem like this is some dumpster fire of bad wrestling.

The problem here is this show committed the ultimate sin in wrestling: it felt like a waste of time. This show featured absolutely nothing important, with a bunch of lower card stars having matches or a bunch of squashes. I did not care about what I was watching because it didn’t feel like Ring Of Honor cared about what they were presenting. This is one of the most useless wrestling shows that I have seen in a LONG time and shows you just how nothing ROH is right now. I’m sure someone will blame this on people being in Japan for Wrestle Dynasty, but three people being gone didn’t make this show feel so unimportant.

Results
Trish Adora b. Harley Cameron – Lariat Tubman
Blake Christian b. Serpentico – Running knees to the head
Boulder b. Griff Garrison – Boulderdash
Billie Starkz b. Brittany Jade – Swanton
Queen Aminata b. Rachael Ellering – Headbutt
MxM Collection b. The Dawsons – Centerfold to Dave
Red Velvet b. Jazmyne Hao – Left hand
Shane Taylor Promotions b. Gates Of Agony – Rollup to Kaun

 

 

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