ROH on Sinclair - Episode 550 - 1st April 2022
For the landmark 550th episode of ROH on Sinclair, we'll be doing something I've been calling for them to do better for most of the year thus far, and delve deeper into ROH's extensive, remarkable back catalogue of content. Tonight we'll be checking out some 'classic matches from the early years of ROH', in an episode which rather perversely premiers against the dawning of ROH's new era as Tony Khan takes control and welcomes ROH into the AEW family with Supercard Of Honor 14. I'm genuinely curious as to how much longer Honor Club and the weekly TV show continue to be supported by Sinclair at this point.
Era Of Honor Begins - the very first Ring Of Honor show from way back in 2002 - is our early focus. They show some clips of the Eddie Guerrero vs Super Crazy bout, which is decent if unspectacular - but critically important for the success of Ring Of Honor as Eddie's presence ensured there was a decent live attendance and plenty of media coverage for what would come next in the main event...
Highlights of Low Ki vs Christopher Daniels vs Bryan Danielson from Era Of Honor Begins are shown
Highlights of Jay & Mark Briscoe vs Samoa Joe & AJ Styles for the ROH Tag Titles from The Conclusion are shown
Rating - N/A - If there was any mention of Supercard Of Honor 14 then I missed it - but then again, that makes sense. Sinclair aren't going to waste time plugging replays of a show which took place under what is now the Khan ownership and bares only minimal ongoing relevance to them. There really wasn't a whole lot to talk about here as far as episode content is concerned. If you've not seen the famous Ki/Daniels/Danielson triple threat from Era Of Honor Begins then clearly this will have been enjoyable even if the footage and audio does look rather dated by 2022. The Briscoes vs Joe/AJ match is very good for its time but hardly an all-time classic and nothing that lives long in the memory or stands out in the legendary careers of the four participants. This was just a random assortment of matches, which felt as much about getting 'names' like Eddie, Bryan, AJ & Joe on the line-up and filling Sinclair syndicate stations with cheap content as it was providing any kind of genuine value to long-term fans. As I said during my introductory paragraph, I do wonder how much longer we have left of these lazy Sinclair clip-show episodes before this series ends altogether...