Cook’s ROH Review 10.3.20

Hey kids! We’re back to try and watch Ring of Honor television again after last Saturday night’s airing on Star 64 was a jumbled mess. I’m not too optimistic about this week’s airing while I’m typing this, as FC Cincinnati’s postgame show ran straight through the news timeslot.

It started 2 minutes late, so let’s see where this thing goes!

Cook’s ROH TV Review 10.3.20

– Quinn McKay welcomes us back to Week 4 of the ROH Pure Wrestling Tournament. Last week, Fred Yehi defeated the Last Real Man Silas Young. We see the finish, then Yehi has some words. He showed up & did exactly what he said he was going to do. That’s what the Savageweight does. Mad respect for Silas Young. Tracy Williams knows what’s up though. Josh Woods won a split decision over Kenny King, and he also has some words for us. Silas will be proud of him. He doesn’t want to win by a judge’s decision, but he thinks he earned Kenny’s respect tonight. Silas is lucky that he doesn’t have to face Josh Woods. Josh has second thoughts after he blurts that out.

– Rust Taylor is from a small little town in the middle of the desert. He played sports, rode horses, and became a competitive person. He knew he was going to wrestle one day. He learned from TJP, Rocky Romero & Ricky Reyes. He’s excited to get his shot at the Pure Championship. At 26, he thought he had failed at wrestling. His strong heart carried him through the darkest of times. He’s aware of who Tracy Williams is, but they have never actually met. This match will be the first time. He’s seen Tracy’s work, he knows he fights hard. He wants Tracy’s best. Rust promises us we will not forget his name.

– Pro wrestling is Tracy Williams’ life’s work. He loved fighting his friends in the grass while he was growing up. He started training in 2008 at some school in Philadelphia. He learned to stop trying to be something he’s not, and lean into what he’s great at, which is technical wrestling. He earned a contract with ROH, and formed Lifeblood to restore honor and build the company up to where it needed to be. Lifeblood was a failure, but now he can restore honor by becoming Pure Champion. Rust is in great physical condition, he’s strong. Tracy believes his tenacity will win the fight. He has a temper, the Hot Sauce can come out. Tracy will show everybody why he’s here.

Rust Taylor vs. Tracy Williams: “Madisson Square Garden”? Gotta work on those graphics, guys. Williams flashing the Catch Point hand gesture, and his ring attire is certainly a callback to that group. Tieups not really going anywhere for either wrestler. Rust takes Tracy down with a wristlock and works it on the mat. Williams rolls out of it, locks in a submission, rolls out of that, nearfall & after a brief pause we’re back to exchanging holds. Gonna be tough for a judge to call this one in the first couple of minutes. Taylor tries to work that arm, Williams into an ankle lock. Williams locks in the STF & Taylor goes to the ropes. Rear chinlock, Taylor works the arm and gets some pound and ground. Williams flips back into the advantage as we go to commercial around the five minute mark. We’re back, and there were some more exchanges during the three minute break. Taylor really testing out that previously injured shoulder on Williams, but Williams gets on top again, now hitting some strikes. Forearm, not a punch. Chop, not a punch. Slap, you get the idea. Taylor forces Williams to the ropes with a cross-arm breaker. Kick by Taylor gets two, Williams’ foot was under the ropes so that’s #2. Williams goes for a rear naked choke, but Taylor gets out and goes right back to the shoulders with a Rings of Saturn variation. There’s the third rope break, so Tracy’s out of those. Taylor applies the London Dungeon, shades of Nigel McGuinness! Williams makes the ropes, the referee won’t break the move, so Williams pulls Taylor to the floor with him. Back in the ring, Taylor slow to follow Williams back after rolling the man in. Some kicks to Williams, and Tracy’s got that Hot Sauce going with a minute left! Goes for the crossface, can’t lock it in, but he hits the piledriver and there’s the crossface!

Winner: Tracy Williams (14:25 via submission)
Star Rating: ***1/4

– Wait a minute, was Taylor’s foot kicking the rope there? Looked pretty close to me. Decent wrestling exhibition, but I never really felt that Taylor had a chance to win, even with the three rope breaks for Williams. Good showing for the kid though.

Here’s the part where things went to hell last week!

– Tony Deppen is from the sweetest place in America, Hershey, PA! This tournament is very important to him. He was a skateboarding punk rocker kid, not into sports. That background has influenced him in wrestling, the DIY lifestyle bit. He’s not the biggest guy physically, so a lot of the early ROH workers influenced him. He knows a lot about PJ Black thanks to Wikipedia. He doesn’t have a Wikipedia, so PJ knows nothing about him! He’s fighting for himself and his incoming child.

– PJ Black recounts his lengthy history, including training with shamans & witch doctors. You can exchange positive ions and ok I have no idea what he’s talking about here. He watched a lot of Japanese & Mexican wrestling and combined those two styles. He’s all about pure wrestling, pure heart & pure soul. He has a rookie, Brian Johnson under his wing, and he’s using this tournament to teach him. 23 years, 64 countries, he wants to prove he’s the best pure wrestler on the planet. He couldn’t find much on Tony Deppen on Google.

Tony Deppen vs. PJ Black (w/Brian Johnson): For somebody that isn’t on Wikipedia or Google, a 3-1 record against other competitors in this tournament isn’t bad. Riccaboni describes Deppen as a “mat wrestler’s mat wrestler”, which is the first time I’ve heard that one. Black with the early advantage and a headlock. Black’s all over things early, now the classic arm drag & armbar. Big spin kick by Black. Deppen finally gets an advantage, leading to Black using that first rope break. Deppen vaults over the top rope, but Black meets him with a superkick. Strike off the top rope that looked real close to a punch for 1. Black with an armbar, and works his way into the ol’ abdominal stretch. Into a cradle for two. Johnson doing a lot of talking on the outside. Back suplex by Black into the Pentagon armbar. Steps on it, that’ll sting. Black comes off the top, gets met with a dropkick from Deppen as we go to commercial. Kick in the corner by Deppen, then the double knees get two. Deppen misses a double stomp off the top, now they exchange forearms. Black gets the upper hand there, but Deppen answers with a headbutt, locks in the STF in the middle of the ring! Black works his way to the ropes. PJ rolls out to get a timeout. Todd Sinclair tries to give him one, but Deppen with a dive! Double stomp off the top gets two! A cutter by Black gets 1, but a big ol twisting DDT gets 2! Does Black have something for three? Yes he does, a crucifix driver ends it!

Winner: PJ Black (12:07 via pin)
Star Rating: ***

– I wasn’t really feeling it early on, but Deppen made a nice comeback and ended up doing well for himself.

– An EC3 video telling us to control our narrative ends the show. I thought he was with Impact?

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

Last week's show featured two ROH veterans losing to two relative newcomers. We got the opposite this week, with two veterans defeating two new faces. We'll see how the new faces do next week! As for me, I'm just glad the show aired locally this week! Can we get two in a row? We'll find out next week when the quarterfinals start.