Ring of Honor Coverage: Decent Debut

The first episode of Ring of Honor was a decent one, with four matches and only one that moved the promotion’s main storyline anywhere. NXT and even ECW back in the ‘90s and early ‘00s have proven that an hour weekly wrestling show can be important and with a deal between New Japan Pro Wrestling, Ring of Honor has a chance to put everything to together and have something great on Destination America.

With a rabid fanbase that understands the sport, you’d expect more from their first show. And with no title defenses and little promo, this show quickly proved it’s only for fans of the existing product. Not a bad thing, but not what you want if you’re a WWE or TNA fan who’s never seen it before.

While the wrestling action was solid, it wasn’t spectacular and casual wrestling fans will obviously want more storyline. To see Colby Corino destroyed and his father, former ECW Champion Steve Corino, just sit idly by, was a letdown. While the end of the show was a solid one and the work of Jay Briscoe and Jay Lethal is comparable to anyone in the sport, there wasn’t enough of that polish needed to make this show stand out.

Overall, it was a decent low-production show that has the potential to be a lot better.

Matches:

Will Ferrara vs. Kushida: Although Ferrara hit some strikes and a Suicide Dive as well as several Rollups for near-falls, Kushida hit the Moonsault and finished Ferrara off with the Standing Kimura Lock for the win.

“The Last Real Man” Silas Young vs. Watanabe: Young sold a ton early as Watanabe hit a variety of strikes, Neckbreakers and Suplexes including a German Release Suplex on the outside. But after a kick to the head on Watanabe, Young hit the TKO for the win.

Colby Corino w/BJ Whitner and Adam Page vs. The Moose w/Veda Scott and Stokely Hathaway: After Whitmer dodged a challenge from Moose, Corino got an opportunity and got absolutely destroyed. After a Powerbomb on the outside, Corino was thrown back in the ring by Page and promptly pinned, all while his father, former ECW Champion Steve Corino and ROH color commentator watched on the outside.

J. Diesel and Dijak w/Ring of Honor TV Champion Jay Lethal and Truth Martini vs. Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Champion Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe: Diesel used trademark punches to get an early advantage, but Mark fought back with some redneck Kung Fu before Dijak used the Big Boot behind the ref’s back to keep his team in it. After Jay got tagged in, the World Heavyweight Champion hit signature strikes and with help from Mark, finished off Diesel with the Doomsday Device. After Dijak took out Mark on the outside with the Inverted GTS, Mark hit the Crash and Burn on him and then hit the Double-Arm Piledriver on Lethal to end the show.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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