| 1 | 29.01.2025 | BlackVikingGZ | 5.0 | The Field of Honor tournament was designed to put over some of the midcard talents in ROH and elevate one of them to the main event scene, but in the end I feel as if the winner was the one who got least opportunities in the future and it could be said that even killed his push in the company. I say this because after this tournament Matt Stryker had had some very good encounters with the likes of Chad Collyer, matches that had put him as one of the the top guys in the midcard scene and even a fan favorite. But after he won the tournament they did nothing with him. He even got pinned by a mere lariat on a random four corner survival by other 2 wrestlers that participated on these same tournament. And you can see than almost every other wrestler in the tournament moved to other storylines or rivalries. For example, Jimmy Rave, from whom we hadn't seen that much before the Field of Honor and a wrestler that didn't won any of his matches is paired with AJ Styles, who is trying to mentor him, somethign that will have importance in the future. Xavier and John Walters had a rivalry that ended on an amazing Fight without honor at Final Battle 2003. Cabana used this tournament to put over his goofy character and became a fan favorite with all his comedy in the matches. And not just that, because as a member of the Second City Saints is involved with Punk on some major storylines. The same can be said of Dan Maff, who enters this as the Prophecy's hired assasin and exits as one of the most powerful wrestlers on the roster. Or even Chris Sabin, from whom we could see he was going to be around the Pure Wrestling Division and maybe more, if the Feinstein Scandal hadn't made TNA take his wrestlers off ROH shows. But the most evident case is the other wrestler in the finals: BJ Whitmer. He might have lost the tournament, but in the same show after losing, it was revealed he had joined The Prophecy and was who take out Lucy of ROH. In other words, he had been elevated and joined one of the top factions on one of the most interesting rivalries currently in the company. But Matt Stryker was just there, I don't know why, but they did nothing with him. His push went down, but also did his match quality for the most part. It's strange. I feel that this tournament was a missed opportunity for him, or at least that every other participant could have had a better outcome of all winning it. Anyways, talking about the matches, most of them weren't that good or interesting. Jimmy Rave goes 0-3 on some mediocre encounters, but that give Rave some edge with AJ mentoring him and telling him how to wrestle. All that said, the three wrestlers that defeated him looked really strong doing it. Sabin also went 0-2 without winning any match, one two mediocre performances. The match with Stryker was very awful thanks to some Stryker botches that harmed it. John Walters had some great performances, one match with Stryker with a more technical approach where he showed his selling abilities. And later wrestled Xavier on another good match, where Xavier got more heat to their rivalry by winning with a low blow. Those two matches are perhaps my favorites of the whole tournament. Cabana, Maff and Whitmer went 2-1, so they had a final three way match of their block to determine who will go to the final. Maff vs Whitmer was a hard hitting match that I enjoyed a lot. The three way at The Conclusion, with some nice spots and big performance by the three wrestlers. Loved how Cabana's comedy mixed with the power and big moves by the other two. In the end Whitmer won. The other block was decided with a match between Stryker and Xavier, where Stryker won. It was boring and at some points I wasn't invested. The final of the tournament is infamous. It's one of the most boring matches on ROH history, it was that bad that even commentary told both wrestlers weren't felling well, as an excuse of what happened. On the tape this match lasts 18 minutes and it was too long and had no excitement. But apparently in reality the match lasted almost half an hour and was edited to only 18, and even that felt really long. There's some decent work by Stryker on BJ's leg, specially when he ripped off his knee brace, but again, it should have been shorter. And that was the Field of Honor, one of the most infamous tournaments in ROH, because there weren't any great matches, just two or three good, with the rest being average or worse. And as I've said earlier, all wrestlers got pushed except the winner, so it was a dissapointment. It could have been far better. |
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