Csonka’s ROH Bound by Honor (Night I) Preview

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss and preview tonight’s ROH Bound by Honor (Night I) event. This is one of the many ROH events that will be steamed live on the Honor Club service, and the follow up to the ROH Masters of The Craft show. Feel free to make your picks in the comment section. Thanks for reading! It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful, and don’t be a dick.”

Deonna Purrazzo vs. Kelly Klein: this match was set up at Masters of The Craft, but the feud has been going on for a long time as both has tried to take claim as the top star in the division. Until the loss to Sakai, Klein went unpinned and unsubmitted in ROH. But Purrazzzo had her number on several occasions, with Klein phantom tapping, and then cheating to steal the win. On the surface, ROIH needs heel challengers for Sakai, but Klein just lost to her in the finals, and it really feels like they need to Purrazzo get her revenge and finally get the win here. The company also needs to get behind her and pusher as a top talent, she’s been themes consistent performer they’ve had, had good matches with everyone and she’s ready. WINNER: Deonna Purrazzo

Shane Taylor vs. Josh Woods: Woods won the 2017 ROH Top Prospect Tournament and ROH has been exceptional at doing two things with him, JACK & SHIT. He wins the occasional dark match, but any other time he’s booked he’s getting beat like a drum. Taylor already holds a win over him from some time ago. Woods is losing on night two to Jay Lethal, so I see him picking up the win to head into that match with some momentum, and to “appear” as a threat. WINNER: Josh Woods

Four Corner Survival: The Dawgs vs. Coast to Coast vs. Daniels & Kazarian vs. Young & The Bruiser: When ROH does four corner survival matches with tag teams, there seems to be no middle ground, they are either a mess, or good and fun. Young & The Bruiser is an upgrade from Bruiser & Milonas, Daniels & Kazarian are great, Coast to Coast are a fun babyface tag team on the rise, and I have no use for the Dawgs; they are average in the ring at best, and their over the top act takes away from any chance they have at being interesting. Hopefully this works out well and we get a good and fun match, and this feels like the kind of match Coast to Coast should win, as they push them as the babyfaces on the rise, and eventually as challengers for the Briscoes. WINNERS: Coast to Coast

Scorpio Sky vs. Jay Lethal: Sky is part of the ROH trios champions, is a solid single worker, but has done really well working with Daniels & Kazarian. Lethal is still one of the top guys in ROH, he works well with everyone, but is coming off of losses to Castle & The Briscoes in attempts to win gold once again. At the ROH Masters of The Craft show, Sky was on the losing end of an eight-man tag, while Lethal won a great match against Jonathan Gresham. On the surface, this feels like an easy call for Jay Lethal to win. He’s higher on the card and if he was going to take a loss, it should have been to Gresham as he has more singles potential than Sky at this point. But if Daniels and Kazarian get involved, that could be bad news for Lethal. Lethal should win to maintain the momentum he got with the win over Gresham, especially after failing in his latest bids to win a championship. A win over Lethal should be reserved for someone getting a push, and honestly, Sky is expendable here. WINNER: Jay Lethal

Mart Scurll vs. Kenny King: I like the addition of this match. Scurll has a lot of momentum and King is looking to get some back. Both guys are more than capable of a good to great singles match, and unless it’s overbooked, the match should be good. It will be interesting to see how they present King after dropping the TV title, will he still be a happy go lucky face, or will he have a new attitude, and show some aggression after basically having the title stolen from him? And will Marty be over confident knowing that he has a world tile shot coming? This should be fun, but with Marty having a world title shot in his pocket, he should go over here, and go over clean to keep his momentum. WINNER: Marty Scurll

The Kingdom vs. Adam Page and The Young Bucks: At ROH Supercard of Honor, The Kingdom played a big role in SoCal Uncensored retaining the trios titles over The Bucks and Flip Gordon. SoCal defeated Page &The Bucks at the16th anniversary show to win the titles, while SoCal the Kingdom are looking to get the titles back, since they technically never lost them (Young subbed in for O’Ryan after his broken leg), leading to Bully and the Briscoes winning the belts. The booking seems to indicate that The Kingdom is in line for a big push, with their quest for the trios titles and Taven’s big win over Cody at ROH Masters of The Craft. The Bucks and Page developed into a tremendously fun team and work well with pretty much everyone. Gordon, Page, and The Young Bucks won at Masters of The Craft over SoCal Uncensored and Shane Taylor, but with ROH’s new focus on the Kingdom, I think that they pick up the win here, and that may cause issues between the Bucks & Page as Bullet Club continues not to be fine. WINNERS: The Kingdom

Cody vs. Punishment Martinez: At the ROH Masters of The Craft event, Cody lost to Matt Taven in a first blood match, the match was solid and had a creative finish, but the big story was Taven picking up the win as he feels primed for an ROH title shot soon, judging by the booking. Punishment Martinez was pinned by Dalton Castle in deny or defy, shutting him out of an ROH title shot for as long as Castle is the champion. Both men are looking for a rebound win here, as Cody wants to get back to the ROH title he lost to Castle, and Martinez will have to get momentum back and likely focus on the TV title due to his loss. Cody is such an odd performer. He’s shown that he can deliver in big matches and his character work is great, but I’m not sure we’ll see big match Cody here; I hope we do. Martinez is a guy that has improved a lot and is a pretty consistent performer, and this is an important match for him, win, lose or draw. He needs a good performance here. This feels like an easy win for Cody, as they’ll want to keep him hot for an eventual return to the ROH World Title scene. WINNER: Cody

ROH Tag Team Title Match: Champions The Briscoes vs. Motor City Machine Guns: The Briscoes defeated Motor City Machine Guns at the 16th anniversary show to win the titles. The match was good, but disappointing as it came off really flat overall. The Briscoes are in their 9th run as ROH tag champions and feel refreshed as heel champions. And when healthy, the Guns can still go with the best of them. Unfortunately, their ROH run has been hot and cold, due to various injuries to both guys. Hopefully they are healthy and ready to go, because if they are, this certainly has MOTN potential. I don’t see the Briscoes losing here, as it feels too early and it feels like there is next to no build to this rematch. If all goes well, this could be very good, if not great. WINNERS: The Briscoes

Non-Title Proving Ground Match: Champion Dalton Castle vs. Flip Gordon: Castle successfully defended the RH championship against Marty Scurll at Supercard of Honor, but his luck ran out at Masters of The Craft, as Scurll got revenge, picking up the win in deny or defy, earning himself another shot at the ROH title in the future. Gordon is coming of tag team losses at Supercard of Honor and Masters of The Craft. This is a proving ground match, which means that it’s non-title, and if Gordon wins he gets an ROH title shot. I like Gordon, he’s a fun performer, but has a lot to go in terms of becoming a well rounded singles performer. He’s only 26, has been working since 2015, and has around 225 matches under his belt. I really like that ROH took the chance on him as there are a lot of guys there for him to work with and learn from. He just needs more time to mature in the ring. With Castle coming off the loss at Masters of The Craft, I think him losing here makes no sense, and would honestly hurt his run as champion. He should pick up the win here to get some momentum back WINNER: Dalton Castle

JOIN 411 TONIGHT AT 7:15PM ET FOR MY LIVE COVERAGE OF THE SHOW

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– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”