ROH TV Review - February 1, 2014

Ring of Honor TV Review - February 1st, 2014

by Ethan Lewis

I was lucky enough to finally get ROH on TV in my area starting this week. What better week to finally get ROH than the night AJ Styles returns to the company? On this week's show Styles returns to face Roderick Strong. Also included is a Top Prospect tournament match between Hanson and Andrew Everett as well as a bout pitting Michael Bennett against Cedric Alexander.

1) Hanson vs. Andrew Everett - Top Prospect Tournament Semi Final Match

This was my first time seeing either man compete and I was most impressed by Everett. He has some pretty good offensive moves. He did some cool flips and dives as well. Hanson did his job well also. It was a good match to open the show. Hanson gets the win and advances to the finals in the tournament.

Match rating - 6/10

2) Michael Bennett (w/ Maria Kanellis) vs. Cedric Alexander

Going into this, I had seen Alexander compete several times, but I'd never seen Michael Bennett. As expected, Alexander impressed me once again. He has become one of my favorite Indy wrestlers as he consistently delivers good performances. Bennett also put in a good showing here and the two worked well together. Really good match.

Match rating - 7.5/10

3) AJ Styles vs. Roderick Strong

A nice video package aired earlier in the evening hyping AJ "coming back home". The crowd was super hot for AJ when he came out. As Nigel McGuinness noted on commentary, as soon as this match was announced, I knew it would be an instant classic. Styles is one of my all time favorites and Strong is one of my favorite Indy wrestlers so I was excited for this one. These guys did not disappoint. They put one hell of a match with alot of counters and near falls. One counter that stands out is AJ going up on the top rope and Strong dropkicking him off. As the crowd put it, "that was awesome". Speaking of the crowd, they were into this match big time. "This is awesome" and "this is wrestling" chants rang out throughout the match. I think I've said all that there is to say. This is an awesome match that you should check out!

Match rating - 8.75/10

Overall thoughts: This being my first time watching ROH TV, I was happy with what I saw. Each match ranged from good to great. There weren't any duds here. Hanson/Everett was a solid opener, Bennett/Alexander picked up the pace creating a great match and Styles/Strong stole the show.

Overall rating - 8/10