June 13, 2024
Palm Desert, CA – Acrisure Arena and Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Garden Arena
Commentary – Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman
Results via Jeff Moss of F4WOnline.com
Quick Match Results
- ROH Women’s World Television Proving Ground match – Billie Starkz defeated Sandra Moon via Cobra Clutch (submission)
- Shane Taylor Promotions defeated Nick Comoroto & Zacoby Watts via Knockout Punch (pinfall)
- Red Velvet defeated Viva Van via The Mix (pinfall)
- Four-way Trios match – Top Flight & Action Andretti defeated Lance Archer & The Righteous, The Dark Order, and The Infantry & Dalton Castle via Double Team Pumphandle Uranage (pinfall)
- Marina Shafir, Alex Windsor, & Diamante defeated Abadon, Lady Frost, & “Legit” Layla Hirsch via Fisherman Buster (pinfall)
- Harley Cameron defeated Trish Adora via Running Knee Strike (pinfall)
- ROH World Tag Team Championship Eliminator match – The Undisputed Kingdom defeated The Wolf Zaddies via Hail Mary (pinfall)
ROH Women’s World Television Championship Proving Ground Match
Sandra Moon vs. Billie Starkz
This Proving Ground match would give Moone a shot at the ROH Women’s TV Title if she was able to last 10 minutes, or pin the champion. Starkz has been dominating most opponents in her ROH Women’s TV title reign, but Red Velvet and Queen Aminata have been causing trouble for her post-match in recent weeks. Also, the recent injury of ROH Women’s Champion Athena leaves Starkz without her biggest back up.
Moone was in the tournament that landed Starkz her title, but didn’t make it very far, so this was a big opportunity for her. Starkz controlled things off the top with a series of holds and locks, keeping the match pace slow. That allowed Starkz a lot of time for showboating and playing to the crowd.
Moone took a toss into the corner really hard and collapsed with an apparent back injury. She managed to get some recovery time though, while Starks screamed “don’t tell me what to do!” at the Ref. Some hard strikes from Moone had Starkz on her heels while the clock ticked towards that 10-minute draw.
Starkz climbed to the top rope to hit a high flying move, but instead hopped off to a chorus of boos and locked in a submission move. Moone tapped out, dashing her hopes in the Proving Ground match.
Winner: Billie Starkz via Submission.
Nick Comoroto & Jacoby Watts vs. Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor & Lee Moriarty)
The “team” of Comoroto and Watts haven’t been off to a great start in recent weeks. Suffering through back-to-back losses in which Watts has barely, if at all, actually entered the match, it’s been Comoroto who’s had to do the majority of the work and taken most of the punishment. That includes verbal berating from Watts when they lose.
True to form, Comoroto started things off against Moriarty. Comoroto had the size advantage, but Moriarty had the trash talk advantage. That is until Comoroto simply picked him up in a bench press and threw him away. He tagged Watts who accepted it and began preaching on the mic. He then tagged Comoroto again who faced off against Taylor.
Off of a Skin-The-Cat move, Taylor headbutted Comoroto, dazing him for Moriarty to tag in. Comoroto took on both men while Watts… hung out? I guess? Anyway, Comoroto took Moriarty to the mat, but Watts blind-tagged in to try and get credit for the pin. Moriarty kicked out and Watts tagged back out.
A hard knockout punch from Taylor put Comoroto’s lights out and he was able to get the pin, handing Watts and Comoroto another loss.
Winner: Shane Taylor Promotions via Pinfall.
Backstage: Johnny TV, Taya Valkyrie
The 'Ratings Queen' @thetayavalkyrie issues a challenge to Queen Aminata (@amisylle)
— ROH – Ring of Honor Wrestling (@ringofhonor) June 13, 2024
Watch #ROH TV on #HonorClub at https://t.co/8dcdtxqvDf pic.twitter.com/r0SEEh25u1
Backstage, Johnny TV and Taya Valkyrie cut a promo. Valkyrie has beef with Queen Aminata calling herself a queen when she hasn’t earned it. Valkyrie issued a warning that she was going to be coming for Aminata and shoving that throne up her– nevermind.
Red Velvet vs. Viva Van
Velvet has had her eye on Billie Starkz lately, looking for any opportunity to insert herself in to the ROH Women’s TV Championship picture. A solid effort against Van would go a long way towards moving Velvet up that ladder.
After a long feeling-out process, the two women locked up and were pretty evenly matched as far as speed and style. Vvelvet got the upper hand and used it to put Van in a headlock. Van’s gymnastic moves helped her get loose and avoid Velvet, eventually running into a dropkick.
Van laid in a nice cartwheel kick leading to a near fall. Van switched things up and went for an armbreaker submission. Velvet was able to break the hold though, and responded with an armbreaker of her own. Van was nowhere near the ropes and managed to flip Velvet over to try and get Velvet on her shoulders, forcing Velvet to break the hold.
Velvet and Van seemed to lose sight of each other a lot in this match, and it showed with a number of moves not really connecting. In the end, velvet was ale to get Van’s shoulders to the mat and pick up the win. Then she danced.
Winner: Red Velvet via Pinfall.
Four-way Trios Match
Lance Archer & The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) vs. Top Flight (Darius & Dante Martin) & Action Andretti vs. The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds, John Silver, & Evil Uno) vs. The Infantry (Carlie Bravo & Capt. Shawn Dean) & Dalton Castle
This match. I’ve been known to joke about Ring of Honor’s love of multi-person matches in the past, but this one took the cake. Twelve wrestlers, some of which are established teams and some of which seemed randomly thrown together, competing for the victory. The wild card? Dalton Castle. Why? Because he’s always the wild card.
There was so much happening in this match that I had to keep track of things via bullet points:
- Castle, emotionally recovered from his loss to Kyle Fletcher in a banger of a match last week, spent the opening moments of the match arguing with Archer about blocking the camera for his entrance.
- Andretti top flight held their own against anyone they were up against. Their high-flying and speedy moves were a great foil for the Dark Order and The Righteous, and a great fit against the Infantry.
- The Righteous, clearly bored, jumped in and out when they felt like it, beating up and triple teaming, well, everyone.
- The Dark Order were able to keep pace with everyone. They had speed, they had power and they seemed to take a little bit of extra joy in beating up Top Flight.
- The Infantry and Castle were kind of personas non gratas, with the exception of a flurry of suplexes from Castle on whoever he could grab.
- The Announce team made some very timely and current In Living Color references for some reason.
- In the end Andretti and Top Flight were able to hold off the Dark Order long enough to pin Reynolds.
Winner: Top Flight & Action Andretti via Pinfall.
Could Top Flight and Andretti be the team that dethrones the Bang Bang Gang? Only time will tell.
Marina Shafir, Alex Windsor, & Diamante vs. Abadon, Lady Frost, & “Legit” Layla Hirsch
This match had a problem from the start and that problem was Marina Shafir. Shafir has been on a real aggressive tear through the ROH women’s division in the last few weeks, so this match would come down to how well she could put that aside and work with her team. With the heavy hitters of Frost, Abadon and Hirsch on the other side of the ring, Diamante, Windsor and Shafir need to work together to survive the match.
Shafir and Hirsch kicked things off which was a great matchup of technical wrestlers who went back and forth, eventually devolving into MMA-style punches. Abadon tagged in and matched Shafir’s agression with some heavy-hitting moves.
Frost and Diamante locked up and Frost managed to isolate her in the corner. Diamante fought back though, isolating Abadon in her teams corner. The debuting Windsor kicked Abadon into a near fall, but only got the two-count.
Shafir used Windsor as a weapon, slamming her partner onto Abadon. Windsor then used Diamante as a weapon in much the same manner. Abadon though channelled her inner Undertaker and sat up, managing to get a tag to Frost.
Hirsch, giving up about a foot to Windsor, tried to go to the top rope, but instead ate a shining wizard (or Shining Windsor) to allow Windsor to get the pin and the win for her team.
Winner: Marina Shafir, Alex Windsor, & Diamante via Pinfall.
Harley Cameron vs. Trish Adora
This was the ROH debut for The Outcasts Cameron and Adora was a great opponent to make it a memorable one.
Cameron definitely had the speed advantage, but Adora was able to keep her to a slower pace with some hard hitting strikes. Cameron got back on top quickly though, taunting and egging on Adora. Adora only bit a little bit and managed some hard shoulder tackles to put Cameron in her place with an Air Raid Crash submission attempt.
Cameron slowed things to a methodical pace and caught Adora in a bowtie submission. Adora fought back though, spamming hips into Cameron’s face in the corner. Adora missed a Lariat Tubman and Cameron capitalized with a running knee to the face to get the 1-2-3.
Winner: Harley Cameron via Pinfall.
ROH World Tag Team Championship Proving Ground Match
The Wolf Zaddies (Che Cabera & Bad Dude Tito) vs. The Undisputed Kingdom (Mike Bennett & Matt Taven)
If Cabrera and Tito could last ten minutes or pin the Champions, they would earn a shot at the Undisputed Kingdom’s tag titles in the future. The Kingdom, however, have been putting and end to Proving Ground matches pretty quickly and decisively, so there wasn’t a lot of hope coming from the challengers.
Throughout the episode, The Announcer team had been hyping up a special guest commentator for the main event “from Montreal.” It turned out to be none other than “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard! Menard was scouting the Kingdom for when his partner, Cool Hand Ang, returns from his Honeymoon.
Cabrera and Tito have been a team for over a decade and brought a Steiner Brothers-like energy to the match. Taven wasn’t having it though, and managed to stay on top of Cabrera. Cabrera’s size became a factor though and he managed to turn the tables on Taven. Bennett distracted him though and Taven took advantage, cutting Cabrera off from his partner.
Cabrera fought his way into a hot tag to Tito though, and Tito took out both Bennett and Taven. A pinning attempt failed though and Tito hit a big flapjack on Bennett. Cabrera was sent to the outside though, and Taven and Bennett smelled blood in the water.
The speed and intensity of the match picked up and after a vicious double team, Bennett pinned Tito and the Undisputed Kingdom got the victory.
Winner: Undisputed Kingdom via Pinfall.