ROH TV (Episode 123) Review – 07.03.25

Welcome back to Ring of Honor TV, exclusively on Honor Club at WatchROH.com. Last week we had the ROH and CMLL Global Wars special from Arena Mexico. Bandido successfully defended the ROH Championship against Mascara Dorada, Blue Panther tapped out Pure Champion Lee Moriarty in a non-title match to earn a title shot at Supercard of Honor, Titan and TV Champion Nick Wayne went the limit in a Proving Ground Match, and the duo of Thunder Rosa and Persephone defeated Women’s Champion Athena and Women’s TV Champion Red Velvet.

Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman are calling the action, unless otherwise noted. Last week, a decent amount of the Supercard of Honor card was announced, and with only one more week of TV left after this, I’ll assume we have a few more matches to pull out of thin air.

Wheeler Yuta vs. Alex Zayne:
Riccaboni says long-time fans of ROH know Alex Zayne very well and says he owns a victory over the current ROH Champion. Wheeler Yuta is looking extra scruffy lately. When we last saw Wheeler on ROH, he beat Aaron Solo in a weird heel vs heel dynamic. Yuta controls early, taking Zayne to the canvas with a waist-lock and attempting to roll into a bridging pin attempt. Zayne catches Yuta in a drop-down and comes off the ropes with a twisting senton splash. Wheelbarrow into an arm drag from Zayne sends Yuta out of the ring. Yuta counters a ridiculously contrived position for a dive and flies off the top rope with a clothesline. Yuta unloads with strikes and barks at the referee he has until the count of 5. Snap suplex and flying elbow from Yuta for a near-fall. Yuta yells at the referee again and throws a series of hammer elbows. Zayne offers up a comeback, rocking Yuta with a lariat and flipping guillotine for a two-count. Yuta counters with a modified fireman’s carry slam and locks in the Cattle Mutilation. Zayne rolls over to release the grip and cradles Yuta for two. Zayne snaps Yuta off the top with a hurricanrana and drops Yuta face-first for another two-count. Yuta shields himself with the referee and surprises Zayne with the Busaiku Knee for the three-count at 6:44. This was OK, I guess. I like Yuta, but Zayne’s offense was too try-hard for my tastes. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel for every move.

Hype video for Athena vs. Thunder Rosa at Supercard of Honor. Athena has reigned as the Women’s Champion forever and a day, and Rosa honestly feels like another in a long line of challengers of the week. If there was more to this other than “we threw it together 2 weeks ago”, I might give Rosa decent odds, but I can’t bring myself to it based on how things played out over the last year or so.

The Infantry are standing by, wishing us Happy Independence a.k.a Will Smith Day. “America, Bro. F-Yeah.” WHAT ABOUT YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A SHOT AT THE TAG TITLES?!?

Spanish Announce Project vs. Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl:
Woah, these guys are still on the roster?! The SAP is made up of Serpentico and Angelico, guys who we probably remember for being part of the launch and Daily’s Place era of AEW. Not gonna lie, I liked Serpentico’s team with Luther, and Angelico always amused me. Gibson and Pearl are known as Midnight Heat and are well known on the Pacific-North independent scene. Code of honor adhered to by Angelico and Pearl. Lockup and Angelico works the arm. Pearl drives a knee to the midsection and tags in Gibson, hitting an empty pool with his entry elbow drop. Serpentico comes off the top rope and takes Gibson over with a spinning head-scissors. Gibson puts on the brakes on a whip and cuts Serpentico off with a slingshot back breaker. Pearl sends Serpentico crashing hard into the turnbuckle and slows it down with a chin-lock. Serpentico with the escape, but Gibson cuts him off and the Midnight Heat connects with a combo leg sweep and lung blower for a two-count. Gibson straddles the ropes on a dive to the corner and gets dropped with a flatliner, setting up the hot tag for Angelico. He runs wild with clotheslines and launches himself off Pearl with a super-sized clothesline on Gibson. Pearl avoids a leg sweep but is caught with a roundhouse kick. Gibson makes the save on a magistral cradle, but is quickly dumped by Serpentico. Angelico picks the ankle, grapevines the legs and a calf-crusher has Pearl tapping out at 5:18. I enjoyed this one far more than the opener. Nothing too fancy to make me go “really, we need all this here?!” and solid work from Gibson and Pearl.

The Frat House is filmed on location for Frat Mania (or something similar, we got one shot at a banner and that was it). They lay down a challenge to anyone in the bar for a game of flip cup, and of course The Dark Order are the ones to answer it. They want to beat the Frat House at their own game before they beat them in the ring. Jacked Jameson accepts for a game of flip cup (Evil Uno: I don’t have a mouth); if Dark Order loses, they pay the tab of the Frat House, and if the Frat House loses, they pay the tab of everyone in the bar. The Dark Order wins clean, but Jameson rules that they cheated, and declares his boys the winners. John Silver is OK with that and says they’ll pick up the tab. FURTHER PROOF THAT WINS AND LOSSES ARE MEANINGLESS. Oh, but the Dark Order gets the last laugh, as Alex Reynolds tells the bartender to put the bill under the name Griff Garrison (“Who the f*ck is Griff Garrison?”).

Pure Rules Match: Serene Deeb vs. B3CCA
We keep talking about that Pure Rules Championship for the women, and a tournament to crown the 1st Champion, but we’re about two months deep and still waiting for a bracket, let alone a match announced for the tournament. For those unfamiliar, Pure Rules Matches have a time limit, in this case it’s 10-minutes. Each participant is allowed three rope breaks (once they are spent, getting to the ropes is meaningless), and you get one warning for a closed fist strike. Further infractions results in a disqualification.

Code of honor adhered to. Lockup and they trade off with an extended chain wrestling sequence. Deeb controls the arm, sending B3CCA to the ropes for her first break. Deeb shows off some more fancy chain work and comes off the ropes with a shoulder block. Deeb picks the ankle and applies a modified surfboard. She continues to control, going from an arm-trap pin attempt to a rear choke. Deeb transitions to a cross arm-bar and B3CCA spends her second break. B3CCA gets a flurry of offense in the corner. Whip across the ring and she connects with a pair of elbows, followed by a missile dropkick for only a one-count. B3CCA wastes a little time playing to the crowd and Deeb takes advantage, cutting off a charge and hanging her up on the second rope with a neck breaker. Hammerlock lariat for two. Deeb drives B3CCA face first into the canvas from a piledriver position, works the knee and gets B3CCA to tap to a single-leg crab at 4:37. Trish Adora shows up with a notebook and offers light applause. Deeb might be a black hole of charisma, but she can work, and this was a great showcase for her. B3CCA had her moments, but this was about building up Deeb for that Tournament (if it ever happens).

We recap last week’s promo where Rocky Romero issued the challenge on behalf of Konosuke Takeshita for Bandido’s ROH World Championship, then followed with a rundown of the matches already announced (which we’ve already addressed at the top of the review).

The Infantry (w/ Shane Taylor Promotions) vs. Top Flight (w/ Leila Grey):
Winners face the Sons of Texas for the ROH Tag Team Championship at Supercard of Honor. Since beginning my run recapping ROH TV, I have yet to see the Champions on the show, not even with a short promo. If I’ve mentioned them by individual name, I apologize, I shouldn’t have, because the running joke is holding off until they appear on ROH TV again. I sense a lot of flip-a-dip action in this one, but I’m going in with an open mind.

Code of honor adhered to as Darius Martin and Sean Dean start the match. Lockup and Darius controls the early action, taking Dean to the canvas on several occasions. My internet connection died here, and ROH doesn’t offer rewind on the live feed, so I had to circle back on the replay to finish the episode. Dante comes in for a 2-for-1-special, sending Dean to his corner. Bravo charges in and right into an arm drag. Dante sends Bravo to the corner, dives in with a clothesline, and Darius takes him over with a snap suplex. Dean and Bravo are both knocked to the floor, but a dive from Darius is interrupted by the mere presence of Shane Taylor. Bravo leads Darius on a game of cat-and-mouse, allowing Dean to ambush him from around the corner.

Back inside, The Infantry with a double back-breaker for a two-count. Darius does his best to fight out of enemy territory, but a kidney punch cuts him off and gets trapped in a Tree of Woe. Dean and Bravo take turns whacking Darius across the chest and finish the sequence with a double clothesline. Darius surprises the Infantry with a 2-for-1 death drop and clothesline and makes the tag to Dante. He runs wild with jumping knee strikes on both opponents, followed by a springboard cannonball. The Infantry powder and Dante follows with a series of dives on both men. Back inside, springboard body press on Sean Dean gets a two-count. Trish Adora hops on the apron for a quick distraction, allowing Dean to take control. Dante sends Dean and Bravo crashing into each other and Darius flies between the ropes with a face buster. Adora hops on the apron again and this time Leila Grey snatches her down and they fight down the aisle. Darius with an O’Connor Roll on Dean. The kickout sends Darius to the ropes and gets blasted with a belt shot from Lee Moriarty, allowing Dean to make the cover for the easy three at 9:33 to earn a shot at the tiles at Supercard of Honor. This ended up being a fine match, and I’m all for doing something with The Infantry with how much TV time Shane Taylor Promotions is getting, but this was like Nuke Laloosh in Bull Durham. It was kinda all over the place, at times pretty good, and other times just… stuff happening. It’s so hard to describe, but it doesn’t feel like much fluidity from beginning to end, just stuff stitched together.

Final Thoughts: I’ve already abandoned the thumbs system, so we won’t have some fancy made-up system to determine my level of enjoyment. Snark all you want on the star power on this episode, but I enjoyed most of the show, with less enthusiasm for Yuta vs. Zayne because of my old man yelling at “innovative” offense reasoning. I enjoyed SAP vs. Midnight Heat more than anything, I can get behind Serena Deeb as the first holder of the Women’s Pure Championship, and I enjoyed the final minutes of the main event, but I don’t know if I’m ever going to get behind either Top Flight or the Infantry. Both teams do some stuff well, but it feels like it doesn’t come together and matches get muddled.