Ring of Honor Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and ROH Highlights from April 13

Welcome to Bleacher Report's coverage and recap of Ring of Honor Wrestling on April 13.

It has been less than two weeks since Supercard of Honor, but being the ROH world champion means you are always expected to be ready to compete.

After successfully defending the title against Eddie Kingston at the pay-per-view, Claudio Castagnoli was back in action this week in another championship match against Metalik.

As usual, the two-hour show was packed to the brim, so there's a lot to get through. Let's take a look at everything that went down during Thursday's show.

The opening match for this week's show saw Mark Briscoe take on another member of The Varsity Athletes, Ari Daivari.

Briscoe has battled Josh Woods and Tony Nese in recent weeks, so he was looking to score a third win over the group.

They had a nice exchange of takedowns and counters to get the action started. Nese pulled Briscoe out of the ring and threw him into the barricade while Daivari kept the referee occupied on the other side of the squared circle.

Daivari received a lot of help from his cohorts at ringside so he could stay in control, but Briscoe's redneck kung-fu makes him a hard opponent to keep down for too long.

Once the former tag team champion got on a roll, he was unstoppable. He was making all kinds of noises as he threw Daivari around the ring, and that always got a good reaction from the crowd.

The ref finally booted Nese, Woods and Sterling from ringside after seeing them cheat, but they didn't even make it all the way up the ramp before Briscoe hit the Jay Driller for the win.

This was a cookie-cutter match. The outside interference set up the post-match beatdown that led to FTR making the save, so that was a lot of fun.

Winner: Mark Briscoe

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• ROH needs to explain better if The Varsity Athletes are different to The Trustbusters; and if they are, we should be told how. 
• The introductions for The Varsity Athletes in recent weeks have been great. That needs to be kept going. 
• Briscoe is so much more agile than he looks. The way he somersaults around the ring always looks smooth. 
• Daivari's hammerlock DDT is nice. 

Skye Blue was looking to keep her ROH undefeated streak going this week when she took on Kelly Madan.

They observed the Code of Honor and had a clean exchange of hammerlocks to get going. After Blue hit a flurry of kicks, Madan began to take control.

She slowed the pace down a bit and hit a suplex for a two-count before Blue began to build up some momentum.

There wasn't much to this match. Blue scored the win in just a few minutes. They didn't do a lot, but what they did do looked decent.

Winner: Skye Blue

Grade: C

Notable Moments and Observations

• Blue has some nice kicks, but when she is supposed to miss, she almost misses by too much. It looks a little weird as a result. 
• Blue is only 23 and has already been with All Elite Wrestling for over a year. It's great to see her getting some wins in ROH after spending so much time in AEW as an enhancement talent. 

Dante Martin suffered a leg injury at Supercard of Honor in a spot that included members of The Kingdom, so Darius Martin was looking for a little retribution when he faced Mike Bennett this week.

They were physical from the moment the bell rang. They immediately cornered each other and unloaded with chest chops that left both men with red marks on their chests.

Matt Taven tripped Darius on the top rope while the ref wasn't looking, and Bennett was able to dominate him for some time after that.

Once Darius got his bearings back, Taven attacked him to cause a disqualification. The Kingdom beat him down until Action Andretti made the save.

This match was good, but having two bouts in a row with so much interference kind of killed any heat it would have gotten here.

Winner: Darius Martin by DQ

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• The fireman's carry slam Bennett hit on the apron looked brutal. 
• A lot of the strikes in this bout were loud when they made impact. They were not holding back. 
• The Spanish Fly is such a weird move. It never really looks like it should hurt the person taking it more than the person giving it, but it also looks cool, so it's a tradeoff. 

Wheeler Yuta was still sour after losing the Pure Championship at Supercard of Honor, so he wanted to take out his frustrations on a man he has known for several years: Tracy WIlliams.

They shook hands before locking up. There didn't seem to be any personal animosity between them, but neither wasted any time showing their aggression.

Even though he wasn't breaking too many rules, Yuta still made it clear he was the heel in this contest. Both like to work a highly physical style, so this was a hard-hitting match that had some great technical moments, too.

Williams put up a great fight, but Yuta forced him to tap out to pick up the victory.

This was fun from start to finish. With a few more minutes, it would have been a Match of the Week candidate for sure.

Winner: Wheeler Yuta

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

• The way Williams countered a leapfrog into a roll-up looked great. 
• Caprice Coleman and Ian Riccaboni always add so many great details in their commentary. The way they chronicled the history between these two immediately informed anyone who wasn't familiar with them. 
• The DDT Williams hits on the top turnbuckle sometimes is an awesome spot. Yuta sold it well, too. 

Fresh off his Pure Championship win over Yuta at the PPV, Katsuyori Shibata was back in action alongside Alex Coughlin for a tag team match against Anthony Henry and JD Drake.

This was the ROH debut for The Workhosemen. They have both appeared in singles bouts in ROH and tag team matches in AEW, but this was their first tag match in the restored promotion.

Henry started off in the ring with Shibata. They put together a nice chain wrestling sequence that was smooth, but not so smooth that it looked pre-planned. They made it appear competitive.

Shane Taylor was shown watching from backstage as Drake and Henry began to build up a lot of momentum against Coughlin.

The Workhosemen really gave them a run for their money, but Shibata and Coughlin were able to get the win in the ring.

This was a fun match that made Henry and Drake look great despite the loss. Shibata and Coughlin appear to be heading for a Pure title match at some point, so that should be good.

Winners: Shibata and Coughlin

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

• Shibata's entrance music is really good. It has such a unique feel to it. 
• Drake and Henry used to have terrible gear that didn't match and it almost added to their everyman charm, but they look good with the matching attire, too. 
• Coughlin was giving up a lot of size to Drake, but he did not let that stop him from hitting some stiff strikes. 
• Shibata breaking up a submission and then stomping on his own partner to wake him up was hilarious.
• Coughlin lifting Henry into a suplex from a seated position is one of those things you just have to see in order to understand how impressive it is. 

Willow Nightingale had a match this week against a local performer from the northeast known as Little Mean Kathleen.

She lived up to her name, but she was unable to do enough to stop WIllow from hitting her with a powerslam for the win in about two minutes.

This was a squash match that didn't do much for those involved, but it's always a plus to see Willow on any show.

Winner: Willow Nightingale

Grade: Incomplete

Notable Moments and Observations

• Kathleen could have been meaner. 

Nese was back out with Sterling by his side for a match against Stu Grayson, but Woods and Daivari were nowhere to be seen.

Both of these guys are about as versatile as you can get. They both have power, speed, agility and great wrestling ability, so this was entertaining from the moment the first bell rang until the moment the ref counted the pin.

We saw a bit of nonsense from Sterling and Uno, but they never got close to interfering as much as Woods and Nese did during Daivari's match.

They were evenly matched and brought out the best in each other. After a highly competitive bout, Grayson hit a torture rack backbreaker for the pin.

The Righteous came out afterward to have a staredown with The Dark Order.

Winner: Stu Grayson

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

• It's great to see Grayson getting some singles matches. He was never used properly during his initial AEW run. 
• Evil Uno's mask is one of the coolest in pro wrestling. It's shocking AEW hasn't tried to sell them. 
• Grayson being able to consistently hit dives out of the ring and land on his feet is so impressive. 
• The spinning back kick Nese uses might be one of his low-key best moves. He always hits it dead center and makes it look good. 

Athena has been one of the most active competitors in ROH since its return, and she was in action again this week in a Proving Ground match against Ashley D'Amboise.

if D'Amboise would earn a future title shot if she won, so she had a lot more to gain than Athena had to lose.

The Fallen Goddess has been acting more and more like a bully in the ring, and she continued that trend by pushing her opponent around with some dirty tactics like hair-pulling, eye pokes and using the full five-count whenever the ref tried to make her break a hold.

The outcome of this match was never in question, though. They had some good sequences, but Athena picked up a predictable win with The O-Face.

Winner: Athena

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• D'Amboise was making her ROH debut this week, but she has appeared in AEW a few times. She is good in the ring but needs something to make her stand out if she wants to earn a full-time deal. 
• The way Athena lays in her strikes looks so convincing. She looks like she could knock somebody out if she really wanted to. 
• Even though the crowd was giving Ashley some good babyface reactions, it's always hard for fans to get invested in matches like this when the outcome seems so obvious before it even begins. 

The ROH World Championship was on the line in this week's main event when Castagnoli faced Metalik.

Both of these men spent multiple years in WWE together but never really interacted much since Metalik spent most of his time in the cruiserweight division, so this was one of the first chances we have had to see them mix it up.

They kept the pace slow at first as they sized each other up and tried to gauge their strengths. Castagnoli relied on his power to control the flow of action, but Metalik's speed and agility allowed him to avoid the champion's grasp.

They did a great job upping the intensity every couple of minutes by hitting bigger spots and getting closer near-falls. Both men hit all of their signature moves, but in the end, the champion was too much for the challenger to overcome.

Castagnoli picked up the victory with the Neutralizer.

Winner: Claudio Castagnoli

Grade: A-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Castagnoli had a significant size advantage that helped give Metalik more of an underdog quality. 
• The titleholder is great at working with high-flyers because he has a good base who can catch them and also because he is agile and capable of selling all of those spots perfectly. 
• Metalik foiled a move into an inside cradle in one of the most perfect counters you will see all week. 
• Metalik's hurricanrana from the top rope was quite the move. The balance it takes to walk on the top rope is incredible.