ring of honor

ROH Roundup: Survival Of The Fittest Winner Crowned, Women’s Title Tournament Updates

By Colin Tessier

It’s only Tuesday, but it has certainly been eventful week in the world of Ring of Honor. Here’s everything you need to know about the latest happenings in the promotion.

This week on ROH Wrestling, Matt Taven picked up a win via disqualification over Dutch of The Righteous. Dutch’s stablemates, Bateman and Vita VonStarr assaulted Taven, but Mike Bennett saved his partner before he suffered too much damage. Vincent then sent a message to Taven, and it’s clear that the lengthy feud between The OGK and The Righeous isn’t over yet.

In the main event, Bandido won the finals of the Survival of the Fittest tournament. He outlasted Chris Dickinson, Rhett Titus, Brian Johnson and Demonic Flamita in a six-man elimination bout. As a result, Bandido has earned the right to challenge RUSH for the ROH World Championship. This buzzworthy match has been announced for ROH Best in the World.

This weekend on ROH Wrestling, Mark and Jay Briscoe will clash in the company’s first Fight on the Farm. The two brothers must be hoping that they’ll be able to move forward as a team after this unusual contest. Plus, Jonathan Gresham will defend the ROH Pure Championship against Fred Yehi.

Speaking of the Pure Championship, Mike Bennett is quickly rising up the rankings. He won a YouTube Exclusive Pure Rules gauntlet match that also included Adrian Soriano, Joe Keys, PJ Black, Ryan Mooney, Will Ferrara and World Famous CB. Gresham watched the match from the commentary table, and Bennett made it clear that he has his sights set on the title. He is now ranked second in the Pure Division, as he’s ahead of Josh Woods and behind Yehi.

It’s also important to point out that this bout marked Black’s first ROH in-ring action since last fall, when he competed in the Pure Championship tournament. Though he came up short in this gauntlet match, he might be reuniting with Brian Johsnon; following the main event of the newest episode of ROH Wrestling, Black told “The Mecca” that he had a vision of them winning the ROH World Tag Team Championship together.

In the latest edition of the Eck’s Files, ROH staff member Kevin Eck shared several notable news items. First, despite Alexa Gracia’s loss to Willow on ROH Women’s Division Wednesday, she pled her case to Maria Kanellis-Bennett, and the member of the ROH Board of Directors gave her a ticket to gold for the upcoming Women’s Title Tournament.

Gracia will have a chance to earn more momentum when she faces Gia Scott on the newest edtion of ROH Women’s Division Wednesday. This show airs every Wednesday at 7 p.m. on the ROH YouTube channel. Max The Impaler also earnd a ticket to gold following another dominant display on last week’s show. With “The Diamond Diva” Amy Rose by their side, Max could be an early favorite in the tournament.

Whereas Max and Gracia punched their way into the tournament, Vita VonStarr’s ticket to gold has been revoked. The Righteous’ lawless behavior clearly rubbed Maria Kanellis-Bennett and the ROH Board of Directors the wrong way. The announcement, courtesy of the ROH website, is as follows:

When ROH Board of Directors member Maria Kanellis-Bennett gave Vita VonStarr of The Righteous a ticket to gold for the ROH Women’s World Title Tournament a few weeks ago, it came with a condition: If VonStarr interfered in any of the men’s matches, she would lose her spot.

Either VonStarr just couldn’t help herself or perhaps she was blindly following orders from Righteous leader Vincent, but she unleashed an unprovoked attack on Matt Taven during his match against The Righteous’ Dutch on the latest episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling.

Kanellis-Bennett immediately came out and informed VonStarr that she was out of the tournament.

On ROH Week By Week, Chris Dickinson and Homicide of Violence Unlimited defeated The Soldiers of Savagery (Moses and Kaun) and PCO and Danhausen in a triple threat tag team match. With the win, Dickinson and Homicide should climb up the rankings; they had been ranked fifth ahead of the bout, and the Soldiers of Savagery had been ranked third. Meanwhile, the in-ring debut of PCO’s partnership with Danhausen did not produce a victory.

This match undoubtedly has major implications for the tag team rankings. SOS is currently ranked No. 3, and Dickinson and Homicide are No. 5. This is the debut for the truly odd couple of PCO and Danhausen.

Quinn McKay also announced a major match for the episode of ROH Wrestling that will air the weekend of July 10: Brody King & Tony Deppen (Violence Unlimited) will wage war with former tag team champions Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham (The Foundation) and Kenny King and Dragon Lee (La Faccion Ingobernable.) This bout will be the latest step in the three-way stable warfare between the groups. On that same show, PJ Black will face Flip Gordon.

Lastly, looking ahead to ROH Glory By Honor, the main events for the two-night event have been set:

On Night 1, Flip Gordon will challenge for the ROH World Championship. RUSH currently holds the gold, but he will likely defend the title at ROH Best in the World on July 11.

On Night 2, RUSH and Dragon Lee of La Faccion Ingobernable will face Bandido and Rey Horus.

Colin Tessier
Colin Tessier

Colin Tessier is a lifelong fan of all things Marvel and DC, and he has used this passion to write about them for several years. Likewise, having been a fan of wrestling since he was a kid, he also covers professional wrestling. You can find him on Twitter at @ct_2110.

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