The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) ROH Television Champions
Ring of Honor introduced the ROH TV Championship in 2010 when needing a mid-card title to add to the overall depth of the show. It was important to have a prize for rising stars to battle over since the ROH World Championship was for the top names and the ROH Tag Team Championship was the only other title in play at the time.
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ROH tried to make the title important right away with credible names and rising stars competing over the belt. The high level of competition and intensity saw the belt remaining a fixture in the company for over a decade running strong today. Find out which names left a legacy for better or worse with the title. The following stars have been the best and worst ROH TV Champions of all time.
10 Best: Adam Cole
The ROH TV Championship reign of Adam Cole helped his natural progression in Ring of Honor from a successful tag team wrestler with Kyle O’Reilly to a mid-card rising star before his main event run. Cole was the sixth ROH TV Champion after defeating Roderick Strong.
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The organic nature of a new face loved by the fans saw Cole helping make the title reign more impressive. Cole did a great job continuing to rise his stock as a tremendous ROH TV Champion for over eight months.
9 Worst: Punishment Martinez
ROH did an effective job improving the star power of Punishment Martinez. The potential of Martinez was there, but he came out of nowhere with no prior moments of success in other relevant promotions.
Martinez had an okay ROH TV Championship reign, but it remained weak compared to the rest of the better champs. There weren’t many credible contenders for his title reign to help it improve. Punishment left ROH after the title reign ended to join NXT, where he is now Damian Priest.
8 Best: Eddie Edwards
Eddie Edwards did a great job as the first ROH TV Champion back in 2010. The initial tournament saw Edwards defeating Colt Cabana, Kevin Owens, and Davey Richards to win the title in its introduction to ROH.
Edwards always had great matches and represented the work ethic associated with the belt. Nine months of holding the title saw Edwards making it a respected prize in ROH before eventually dropping it to Christopher Daniels.
7 Worst: Tomohiro Ishii
Tomohiro Ishii is an outstanding wrestler and one of the top stars from New Japan. Ring of Honor’s working relationship with NJPW helped the company remain relevant after losing many of its top stars.
The problem with Ishii’s title reign was that he didn’t have many defenses. Ishii even made comments about not caring about the title back when he was in Japan. ROH had him lose the title to Bobby Fish after almost three months.
6 Best: Roderick Strong
For a long time, Roderick Strong has been one of the most consistently great in-ring performers. Ring of Honor saw Strong contributing in just about every manner possible from main event to tag to mid-card runs.
Strong had two superb ROH TV Championship reigns after defeating Jay Lethal to win the belt both times. The great matches were a constant from Roddy to add to the overall success of the title. Strong helped make the title a more valuable prize.
5 Worst: Jeff Cobb
One of the more recent lengthy reigns of an ROH TV Champion saw Jeff Cobb defeating Punishment Martinez to win the belt. Cobb had a strong push with dominant victories over most of the roster.
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ROH unfortunately started to fall apart around this time with fewer credible challengers. Cobb didn’t get the best chance and his title reign was barely even noticed by the wrestling fan base that didn’t watch every ROH show.
4 Best: Marty Scurll
Ring of Honor’s biggest active star right now is the popular Marty Scurll. The rise in the United Kingdom wrestling scene saw Scurll gaining momentum to get signed by ROH with a huge push planned back in 2016.
Scurll defeated Will Ospreay to end his ROH TV Championship reign quickly and have a relevant start to his ROH career. The momentum as champ saw Marty get over huge and eventually joining the Bullet Club, which took his career to the next level.
3 Worst: Will Ospreay
Most people consider Will Ospreay to be one of the best wrestlers in the world thanks to his outstanding matches and aerial displays. Ring of Honor has used Ospreay on and off throughout the years as NJPW is his main priority.
Ospreay would likely be on the best side of the list if he had a real lengthy reign. ROH had Ospreay defeat Bobby Fish during a tour in the United Kingdom before dropping the belt to Marty Scurll two days later.
2 Best: Jay Lethal
The all-around skillset of Jay Lethal helped him become one of the most important Ring of Honor stars. Lethal left his comedy in the past after getting released from TNA and looked to rebuild his career when getting a new start in ROH.
The TV Championship became associated with Lethal as he helped raise its profile. Lethal held the title twice for a total of 798 days. The wrestler closest to that record is Matt Taven at 287 days. No one did as much as ROH TV Champion as Lethal, who also won the World Title during one reign, making him a double champion.
1 Worst: Silas Young
Ring of Honor tried to make Silas Young one of the faces of the company after losing many of their biggest stars. Young was a little older, but he clearly had impressive skills as an all-around performer.
The ROH TV Championship reigns of Silas saw him holding it twice before going back and forth with Kenny King. Young’s match quality started to trend downhill and his character seemed a bit outdated. ROH struggled around this time with the TV Championship losing some credibility.
