Ring of Honor Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and ROH Highlights from April 27
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Ring of Honor logo.ROH
Welcome to Bleacher Report’s coverage and recap of Ring of Honor Wrestling on April 27.
In this week’s show, Athena looked to continue her reign of dominance when she battled Lady Frost in a championship proving ground match.
After impressing in his ROH debut last week, Gringo Loco returned to the show to battle another high-flyer named Blake Christian.
Brian Cage faced Leon Ruffin, Diamante squared off against Skye Blue, and much more.
Let’s take a look at everything that took place on the ninth episode in the new era of Ring of Honor Wrestling.
Athena vs. Lady Frost
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Athena and Lady Frost.ROH
This week’s show opened with Lady Frost taking on Athena in an ROH Women’s World Championship Proving Ground match.
The Ice Queen showed off some of her speed and agility early in the bout, but the aggressive style of Athena eventually grounded her.
Frost began to make a comeback, but when she took too long setting up for her perfect moonsault, The Fallen Goddess tripped her and hung her in the Tree of Woe.
When she got a second chance, Frost did not hesitate to hit the move. Athena was able to get to the ropes to avoid a pin and hit a huge spinning forearm smash to score the win.
The announcers did an excellent job adding to the story during this match. The action was a lot of fun, but hearing the commentary team talk about how Athena is holding these proving ground matches to find real competition added to the story.
This match was less than 10 minutes but managed to pack a lot into that time.
Winner: Athena
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
- If they can pack 10 matches on to a show that is less than two hours, they can afford to give Frost her own entrance instead of having her start in the ring.
- Nigel McGuinness fits in so well with Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman on commentary.
- Athena had a nice transition from a submission into a gutbuster.
The Infantry vs. Rush and Preston Vance
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The Infantry and LFI.ROH
Shawn Dean and Carlie Bravo were out first for their tag team match against two members of La Faccion Ingobernables, Rush and Preston Vance.
Vance easily dominated both members of The Infantry and almost won the match by himself, but Bravo and Dean were able to save each other. Unfortunately, it only delayed the inevitable.
Vance nailed a huge spinning clothesline to Bravo and could have won, but he stopped the pin so he could tag in Rush to hit The Bull’s Horns for the win.
LFI might be a bigger priority for management right now, but The Infantry is a team that should get a push at some point. Dean and Bravo look the part and have great physical ability.
This match was short and uneventful, but both teams looked as good as they could given the limited amount of time they had.
Winners: Rush and The Infantry
Grade: C
Notable Moments and Observations
- Vance had a bunch of masks he has taken from other wrestlers. We haven’t seen him do that in a while. All Elite Wrestling should just put random jobbers under masks so he can add to the collection.
- This is the best Vance has looked in several weeks. If he is booked like this all the time, he will be successful.
- Rush’s finisher always looks brutal.
Best Friends vs. Joe Ocasio and Mookie Summers
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Best Friends, Joe Ocasio and Mooke Summers.ROH
Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta were in action this week against Joe Ocasio and Mookie Summers.
Ocasio has been wrestling for years, but Summers is still in his rookie year in the professional ranks, so this was the biggest opportunity he has had to date.
Ocasio tried to get an early advantage, but Beretta quickly established control and beat him down until the referee told him to back off.
This was a glorified squash match in just about every way. It wasn’t completely one-sided, but it was close. Best Friends picked up an easy win to cap off the third contest in just a couple of minutes.
Winners: Best Friends
Grade: C-
Notable Moments and Observations
- Beretta has good intensity when he wants to use it. He could be an effective heel in ROH if management ever decided to split up Best Friends or make them a villainous group.
- It’s always kind of funny when someone shakes the hand of a competitor who hasn’t even made it back to their feet yet.
Brian Cage vs. Leon Ruffin
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Brian Cage and Leon Ruffin.ROH
Leon Ruffin truly embodied David this week when he battled ROH’s resident Goliath, Brian Cage.
One-third of the six-man tag champs immediately cornered Ruffin and hit a few strikes. Ruffin attempted a tilt-a-whirl DDT, but Cage easily stopped his momentum in mid-swing.
The Machine picked Ruffin out of midair and slammed him to the mat. He set up for his finisher, but Ruffin countered and took him down. The high-flyer showed off some quickness and began to show some signs of life, but one stiff clothesline stopped him in his tracks.
Cage finished him off with a modified cloverleaf submission.
This was as short as some of the other matches we saw this week, but it was entertaining because Cage and Ruffin have such great chemistry.
Winner: Brian Cage
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
- The submission Cage used to win was awesome. It looked like it would be genuinely painful and impossible to escape.
- Ruffin is such a fun talent to watch when he gets going. Let’s hope we see him on TV more often.
The Dark Order vs. The Trustbusters
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The Dark Order and The Trustbusters.ROH
Sonny Kiss and Jeeves Kay represented The Trustbusters this week in a match against The Dark Order’s Stu Grayson and Evil Uno.
The Righteous came out to watch from the stage, and the distraction allowed Kay to attack Uno from behind to get the upper hand right away.
Uno showed an impressive display of power when he suplexed Kay while Sonny was on his back, and that allowed him to make a desperate tag to a fresh Grayson.
The Dark Order finished the match with a running kick and piledriver combination.
Much like most of the bouts this week, this was too short to be anything special, but at least it advanced a storyline with The Righteous, so that’s something.
What we saw was decent, but there just wasn’t enough of it.
Winners: The Dark Order
Grade: C
Notable Moments and Observations
- Evil Uno seems like a nice guy, but Polite Uno isn’t an intimidating name.
- Sonny’s gear always looks well-made. Whoever makes it does a good job.
- Grayson’s springboard twisting senton almost ended with him landing on Kay’s head. It could have been a bad landing if he was a couple of inches off to one side.
Diamante vs. Skye Blue
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Diamante and Skye Blue.ROH
Diamante made her first appearance in ROH since its relaunch when she battled Skye Blue on this week’s show.
For most of her AEW career, Blue has been something of an enhancement talent, but she is picking up wins in ROH and being pushed as a future star.
Diamante was the more experienced performer, so she also served as the aggressor in this bout. Blue is a great underdog and played that part well here.
They traded strikes on the apron until Diamante hit a German suplex followed by a corner dropkick for a close two-count. A moment later, Blue managed to get the pin out of nowhere to get what some would call an upset victory.
Athena came out wearing Blue’s hat and mocking her to signify they will likely have a showdown in the next couple of weeks.
Winner: Skye Blue
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Blue’s music is hard to hear in big arenas if the crowd is loud.
- The back-and-forth pinning spot they did went on for way too long because they didn’t change positions. They just rolled back and forth into the same pins every time.
- Diamante and Blue’s forearm strikes could have been better, but the German suplex Diamante hit on the apron was great.
Lee Moriarty vs. Rocky Romero
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Rocky Romero and Lee Moriarty.ROH
Big Bill Morrissey accompanied Lee Moriarty to the ring for his match against Rocky Romero.
Both competitors are noted technicians, so they started off with a nice exchange of holds and counters.
Moriarty found himself on defense early on, so Big Bill provided a distraction so his partner could take advantage of it. He also attacked Rocky while the referee had his back turned.
This was the most competitive and physical bout on the show up to this point, and they showed a lot of different skills along the way.
Big Bill interfered again and chokeslammed Romero on the apron, paving the way for Moriarty to score the victory.
If you only watch one match from this week’s show, it should probably be this one.
Winner: Lee Moriarty
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
- It can’t be easy to adjust to wrestling with an eye patch.
- It’s great that McGuinness can put over both heels and babyfaces on commentary without seeming like he favors one or the other.
- Romero’s springboard DDT looked great.
- Moriarty should have been in the Blackpool Combat Club. He would fit so much better with them than he does with The Firm.
- The way Romero landed on the apron after that chokeslam looked rough.
Gringo Loco vs. Blake Christian
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Gringo Loco and Blake Christian.ROH
Gringo Loco and Blake Christian have both had impressive performances in Ring of Honor in recent weeks, so this match was a good indicator of which guy is likely to receive a push.
Both are known for their high-flying skills, so they immediately started going 100 mph as soon as the bell rang and didn’t stop unless they had to sell a big spot.
Trying to tell you everything that happened in a match like this is impossible because they were trying to do everything. Even though they were focusing on their aerial offense, we also saw some standard holds and strikes mixed in throughout.
After a fantastic exchange, Christian picked up the win with a springboard 450 splash.
Winner: Blake Christian
Grade: A-
Notable Moments and Observations
- The announcers talked about how Loco actually had a heart attack in 2016. The fact that he survived and is working at this level is awesome.
- Christian has some of the cleanest dives. He always clears the top rope and hits his target perfectly every single time.
- Loco is kind of like La Parka. He doesn’t look like he should be able to do the things he does with the physique he has, but he pulls it off and makes it looks good.
