The HonorClub blues are back in full swing

Look, I love wrestling. I love it more than I love finding an open tab at a dive bar on a Tuesday, but the latest episode of ROH on HonorClub has me staring at my screen wondering what year it actually is. The Kingdom, comprised of Matt Taven and Mike Bennett, picked up a win against Alec Price and Jordan Oliver on the June 4th broadcast. We saw the taping happen back on May 18th, which means the spoilers were out there for weeks, sitting in the ether like a bad smell.

The fan reaction online has been, let’s call it, lukewarm at best. You have the purists who are thrilled to see Taven and Bennett climbing the mountain again. They argue that guys with their tenure are the backbone of the brand. They want that technical excellence that reminds them of the glory days of the promotion. It is a nostalgic comfort food, like a greasy burger after a three-hour show.

On the other side of the digital fence, you have the skeptics. These are the people who tune in expecting the future and keep getting served the same mid-card acts from three years ago. There is a genuine sense of fatigue regarding the booking. People want to know why Jordan Oliver and Alec Price, two guys with actual momentum, are just eating pins to prop up established veterans who have spent most of their time in limbo regardless.

The math on the mid-card isn't adding up

Let’s talk statistics for a second, because the numbers don’t lie, even if the creative direction tries to ignore them. Putting established title-holders like The Kingdom against independent scene darlings is a classic move, but it feels stale when the stakes are nonexistent. This match was a solid display of ring psychology, sure. But did it move the needle for the product as a whole?

As BodySlam.net detailed in their full report, the taping schedule creates a weird disconnect for the fans at home. When you watch a match that was filmed weeks ago, it feels like watching a rerun of a soap opera where you already know who cheated on who. It’s hard to build genuine tension when the internet has had the results saved in their drafts for over two weeks.

I’ve seen some people calling this peak tag team wrestling. I’ve seen others calling it a complete waste of everyone’s time. Personally, the skepticism holds more water here. Having talent like Price and Oliver is great, but until the promotion figures out a way to make these wins matter in the wider context, it’s just busy work. It’s a repetitive loop that keeps us from seeing the growth we were promised when the show moved to HonorClub.

The critique from the cheap seats

You can’t talk about this without addressing the elephant in the room: the lack of heat. A match should feel like it has consequences, or at least a story that keeps you guessing whether a suplex or a superkick is the finish. Here, we were just waiting for the predictable finish in the 14-minute mark. It was professional, it was clean, and it was entirely forgettable.

The fans have been vocal about this on every platform that hosts a comment section. One sentiment I keep seeing is that the show feels like it’s in a holding pattern. When you compare this to the chaos we saw with the Butcher and the Blade leaving AEW, it really highlights how much the industry lacks stakes these days. Even those weird experiments like the Wicked Garden match are more interesting because they at least try to be something new.

Maybe we’re being too hard on a weekly developmental-style program. But after years of watching these cycles, you start to spot the patterns. If the goal was to keep the Kingdom relevant, mission accomplished. If the goal was to hook new viewers and make them care about the tag division in 2026, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this wasn't the way to do it. We need unpredictability, not just clean finishes and taped shows that feel like they have all the urgency of a Sunday afternoon nap.

At the end of the day, wrestling is supposed to hook you. It’s supposed to make you shout, scream, or at least text your buddy about how crazy that last spot was. When the reaction is just an shrug and a "yeah, that happened," the writers have failed. Let’s hope next week brings a little more fire, or we’re going to be having this exact same conversation about the mid-card doldrums all over again.