ROH Honor in the Heart of Texas Review

Jay Briscoe & Davey Richards battle over the ROH World Title and the War against S.C.U.M. continues!

ROH Honor in the Heart of Texas

San Antonio, Texas 6/1/13

Pre-Show

1.) AJ Summers & Rudy Russo vs. Carson & Ricky Starks: *3/4

Nothing much to speak of here. Basic pre-show match. Fine for what it was.

Main Show

1.) Mike Sydal vs. Kyle O'Reilly (with Bobby Fish): ***

This would be the first of two singles matches involving reDRagon on this show. The match was a very acceptable opener. I'd say this was Sydal's best match in ROH thus far.

Next we get a segment with Ernie Zuniga, representing a local FOX Affiliate that aired ROH. Basically, he had conducted an interview with ACH on the local news to promote the show, but Steve Corino called in and interrupted things. As you probably could have guessed, Corino came down to the ring to run down Ernie & San Antonio, saying he had "never heard" of Shawn Michaels. This leads to Mark Briscoe coming out and leading to an impromptu match!

2.) Mark Briscoe vs. Steve Corino: **1/4

Not much here. More a segment/match than an actual full-fledged match. Corino wrestled in his street clothes. The match ended in a DQ when Jimmy Jacobs & Rhett Titus interfered and attacked Mark Briscoe. This led to BJ Whitmer & Michael Elgin coming out to make the save.

3.) Barbi Hayden vs. Athena: **

This was a fine women's match. Not much else to say. Athena picks up the win. Her finisher is awesome, by the way.

4.) Proving Ground Match - ROH World TV Champion Matt Taven vs. "Die Hard" Eddie Edwards: ***3/4

Matt Taven is without Truth Martini and the Hoopla Hotties. These two had a pretty great match here. Probably Taven's best match since becoming World TV Champion. In a title reign that has thus far been lacking of good matches, this was sorely needed for Taven, and Edwards was the perfect guy to go against. It's also nice to see what Taven can do by himself. Eddie Edwards secures the win and a future World TV Title shot.

5.) ACH vs. Jay Lethal: ****1/4

This a big match for ACH not only because he's the hometown guy, but because he's facing a man he looks up to in Jay Lethal. An awesome performance! Once again ACH has a show-stealing match with one of ROH's best. Fantastic stuff from both guys. Lethal would end up winning but a spirited performance as always from ACH.

6.) Bobby Fish (with Kyle O'Reilly) vs. Raymond Rowe: **3/4

Fish & O'Reilly come out wearing bandanas & cowboy hats and cut a disparaging promo about Texas and Texans that was incredibly hilarious. Anytime Fish is on the mic, it's great. The match itself was pretty decent. Rowe was able to hold his own again one half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions, but Fish would get the win in the end.

7.) Roderick Strong vs. Adam Cole: ***3/4

I believe this is the first one-on-one match these two have had since Cole beat Strong for the World TV Title over a year ago. A very solid match here. Pretty much what you would expect from these two. A lot of great action. Strong was able to get the best of Cole and pull out the win.

After the match, a frustrated Adam Cole blew off the post match handshake with Strong.

8.) No DQ Texas Tornado Tag Team Match - BJ Whitmer & "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin vs. S.C.U.M. (Rhett Titus & Jimmy Jacobs): ***1/4

A lot of the first part of this match was spent brawling in the crowd, before eventually making its way back to ringside. It was a solid S.C.U.M./ROH brawl. Mark Briscoe would come out with a cowbell to fend off interference from Steve Corino, but S.C.U.M. would escape with another win over ROH. This would become just one of the many ROH/S.C.U.M. brawls that I feel like could have been better, but weren't. I expected more plunder usage (The lack of tables extremely disappointed me) and the match itself was nothing spectacular.

9.) ROH World Title - Jay Briscoe vs. Davey Richards: ****1/4

These two have had various singles meeting in the past in ROH but this is by far the biggest of them all. A great main event here. I found this match to be really entertaining. Davey Richards in general has been more entertaining in 2013 than I think he's ever been. Solid action from both Jay & Davey (their hard work definitely showed) that was probably the best defense of Briscoe's reign thus far. 

Overall: 8.5/10

A very solid show from Ring of Honor. Match of the Night is a dead heat between Lethal/ACH & Richards/Briscoe. Cole/Strong & Edwards/Taven were both very good matches. The rest of the undercard was fine but nothing else really stood out. I'd have to say this was the best ROH Live Event of 2013 thus far, and worth picking up in my eyes.