Csonka’s ROH Honor United: Doncaster Preview

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss and preview tonight’s ROH Honor United: Doncaster event. This is one of the many ROH events that will be steaming live on the Honor Club service this year, and again, some of the stars of NJPW are along for the ride. 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.”

ROH Women of Honor Champion Sumie Sakai vs. Chardonnay: Chardonnay was trained by Robbie Brookside, has only worked 80 or so matches, but over 20 of them have been in STARDOM she’s making her ROH debut on this tour. Sumie Sakai is the ROH veteran and highly questionable choice as the first Women of Honor champion. Like just about every title match on this tour, the possible title change is highly unlikely, and this will likely be the usual ROH women’s match, not too long, likely ok, but it could have more crowd investment since she’s from the UK. WINNER: Champion Sumie Sakai

Shane Taylor, Punishment Martinez, & Bully Ray vs. Dalton Castle & The Boys: This is a match that screams that they are just trying to get guys n the card, and also a way to get Castle on the show in a match that can protect him. With that being the case, I see Castle’s involvement being extremely limited and that will allow the bully team to toss around the Boys a lot and dominate with ease. The boys will sell a lot, Bully Ray will cut one of his shitty “these millenials didn’t pay their dues” promos and his team should win. I’m not expecting much here to be honest with you and don’t like Shane Taylor & Punishment Martinez teamed with Bully at all. WINNERS: Shane Taylor, Punishment Martinez, & Bully Ray

Daniels & Kazarian vs. Toru Yano & Kenny King: Talk about another match that feels as if lizardman checked the lineup and realized he forgot to book a bunch of people they were flying in. In his effort to keep his job and please Joe Koff (maybe he’ll put him on TV some more), he drew names out of a hat and paired king & Yano against Daniels & Kazarian. King, Daniels & Kazarian should put on some good wrestling and Yano will Yano. In his defense, the crowd will likely love him. This feels designed to give Daniels & Kazarian a win and to allow Yano to do his act for the crowd, who will likely love it. WINNERS: Daniels & Kazarian

TV Title match: Champion Silas Young vs. Douglas Williams: I am a huge fan of Douglas Williams, and am thrilled that ROH is bringing him in. Even at the age of 45, Williams is still a great wrestler, and if they keep things simple and allow them to have a wrestling match, this should be good. I like Silas, but feel that the booking of him as the TV champion, both times, has been extremely lacking. Williams should be over huge in the UK, and the crowd should equally hate Silas, which should create a good dynamic. Unfortunately, like every other title match on these tours, they will have to hope that the dynamic is enough, as the chance of a title change is extremely slim. Silas should retain in a hopefully good and entertaining match. WINNER: Champion Silas Young

Cody vs. Scorpio Sky: A story going around when Cody hit the indies and then started with ROH is that h worked Sky a few times, and took a liking to him. This reportedly led to Cody, Daniels, Kaz, & The Bucks pulling for ROH to sign him. So it is no surprise to see them working together here. Hopefully with them being friends this leads to a fun and good match, with Cody giving Sky enough to look competitive. But at the end of the day, Cody’s the star while Sky is a trios guy, so Cody should win. WINNER: Cody

Adam Page vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi: Adam Page has been having a really good 2018, which has been derailed as of late, due to injuries. First he hurt his groin heading into Dontaku and then got knocked silly in his match with Kenny Omega. He was held out of his last match, but hopefully is back to 100% here because he has a big chance to deliver and impress working with Tanahashi here. Tanahashi can obviously still go when he wants to, and delivers in big matches, but I highly doubt that we’ll begetting big match Tanahashi here. But that doesn’t mean that it will be bad. Tanahashi working at 75% is still a lot better than most, the crowd will be into him and you know that page will be working his ass off to impress. Also, NJPW is high on Page and I am sure that Tanahashi knows this and will do his best to make him look good and competitive. I expect Tanahashi to win, but as long as Page puts in a good performance and looks competitive, it will be mission accomplished. WINNER: Hiroshi Tanahashi

Matt Taven vs. Jay Lethal: This is a match between two guys going in different directions; Taven is owed a world title shot, while Lethal is coming off of a world title loss and while still a great performer, is desperately seeking momentum. While on a downward spiral in terms of gaining momentum Lethal still delivers and Taven has been working really hard as of late, so this certainly has a chance to be very good and deliver as long as it’s not overbooked with Kingdom shenanigans. With Lethal playing gatekeeper to the main event these days, and Taven involved around the ROH title picture, Taven should take this one. WINNER: Matt Taven

The Briscoes vs. The Kingdom vs. The Young Bucks vs. EVIL & SANADA: This is a non-title match, so The Briscoes’& LIJ’s titles are safe here, but they are also unlikely to take the fall. The Young Bucks recently challenged for the ROH tag titles (winning via DQ) and will be challenging LIJ for the IWGP tag team titles at Dominion on June 9th. The Kingdom are just sort of here to be the 4th team. Like a lot of ROH four corner survivals, this could either be a lot of fun or be a real mess; there is rarely any middle ground. But the Young Bucks have been the MVPs of the recent shows, and that gives me a lot of hope for a good and fun match. I also think that considering the recent ROH & NJPW booking that they take the win here. WINNERS: The Young Bucks

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– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”