ROH News: Lethal vs. King rubber match added to BITW PPV, details on free pre-show, more (w/Radican’s Analysis)

-ROH has announced the rubber match of the best of three series between Jay Lethal and Kenny King will take place at Best in the World on PPV on June 28. The show is set to take place live from Baltimore, Maryland. This past week on ROH TV, Lethal beat King via DQ to even the series at 1-1.

-ROH will air a free half hour pre-show this Friday beginning at 8:30pm Eastern. Colt Cabana is off of the Best of the World PPV due to an injury to his leg. His replacement will be announced during ROH’s pre-show, which is set to begin airing for free at 8:30 Eastern this Friday. Flip Gordon vs. RUSH will also air on the pre-show.

You can watch the entire pre-show for free on ROH Facebook Live, Fite TV, and all major cable and satellite operators.

-The rest of the matches advertised for ROH’s “Best in the World” PPV are ROH World Champion Matt Taven vs. Jeff Cobb, ROH World TV Champion Shane Taylor vs. Bandido, ROH World Six Man Tag Team Champions Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll & PCO & Brody King) vs. Lifeblood (Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams & P.J. Black), Dalton Castle vs. Dragon Lee,  NWA Worlds Champion Nick Aldis & ? vs. The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe), Silas Young vs. Jonathan Gresham in a Pure Rules match, and Kelly Klein & Jenny Rose vs. The Allure (Angelina Love & Mandy Leon).

-ROH will also run a TV taping on June 29 in Philadelphia, Pa.

Radican’s Analysis: Tickets are not moving well for the Best in the World PPV this Friday. I would estimate they have sold around 700 tickets sold in a big venue that can hold around 5,000 fans for a concert. That’s not good in a venue that size even if they configure the arena a certain way, it’s going to be tough to make 700 fans look good on PPV this Friday. In more positive news for the company, ROH has only around 160 tickets last as of earlier today for the TV tapings in Philadelphia on June 29.  

If you do decide to order Best in the World on PPV, the card looks very good despite the lack of buzz. I’m betting this will be a good show, but clearly the more important thing for ROH at this stage is rebuilding their audience, which seems to be shrinking in the wake of most of the Being the Elite cast departing for AEW.