Cook’s ROH Review 11.2.20

Video package building up the Pure Wrestling Tournament Final kicks us off.

Quinn McKay welcomes us to Ring of Honor Wrestling. The main event will be the Pure Wrestling Tournament Final, shockingly enough. She breathlessly breaks down Jonathan Gresham’s performance during the tournament, then goes over Tracy Williams’ road. I’m begging her to take a breath. I’m also a little jealous of her delivery because I can’t read a single paragraph I wrote without botching it at least twice. Quinn notes that Vincent & Matt Taven have been fined for their attacks the last couple of weeks. First, we have a 6-man tag team war!

Video package detailing EC3 & Briscoes vs. Shane Taylor & company.

Six-Man Tag Team Match: Shane Taylor & Soldiers of Savagery (Moses Maddox & Jasper Kaun) vs. The Briscoes & EC3: I’ll be honest with you guys, I’ve never seen either of the SoS work before. They’re new to me! No Code of Honor following prior to the match. 12:14 EC3 starts against Kaun. Slight strength advantage to EC3 sends Kaun down, Kaun right back up. Another tieup sends Kaun face first to the mat. Kaun with a punch, EC3 takes Kaun down and punches away. Kaun goes outside, EC3 follows him, but Taylor & Maddox block the way & set EC3 up for an attack upon entering the ring. Back elbow by EC3 swings momentum back his way. Mark Briscoe wants a tag and gets it. Mark showing off his Pure wrestling skills with headlocks & wristlocks. Chops & kicks in the corner. Mark charges into an elbow in the corner. Kaun sends Mark into the corner, tag to Moses and some double team action! Exchange of strikes by Mark & Moses. Blind tag to Jay leads to a clothesline from the older Briscoe Brother. We go to commercial, during which the Briscoes took control & did some Briscoe things. We’ve broken down here, EC3 is taking shots from Moses, Jay flies in to take Moses out, Jay & Shane Taylor go at it. Big ol’ strike leads to the Tower of London! Or Cleveland Cutter, whatevs. Jay getting worked over by Moses now. Big stomps in the corner! He just clubbering that former ROH Champion. Taylor tags in and punches the man down. Jay finally gets the tag to Mark, he’s screaming & knocking folks down. Moses & Mark exchange shots, everybody’s exchanging shots now. Mark with a twisting dive outside off the top! He gets Shane in the ring, misses the froggy splash, rolls through but right into the arms of Shane Taylor, and it’s Welcome to the Land! Match over.

Winners: Shane Taylor & Soldiers of Savagery (9:17 via pin)
Star Rating: ***1/4

It just goes to show that great talent & experience doesn’t always win out over great teamwork. EC3 & the Briscoes obviously had the edge on talent & experience, but Shane Taylor Promotions were a more cohesive unit. Keep an eye on them in that Six-Man division.

Tracy Williams talks about his road to the title. Rust Taylor, Fred Yehi, Jay Lethal. Williams considers Gresham a rival. Williams’ goal is to restore honor. He’s failed so far, but with every failure comes a lesson. You need a tie that binds, and the tie that binds Williams & Gresham is competition & pure professional wrestling. He called Gresham to let him know that he’ll see him in the finals. They will build this company on the true foundation that wrestling needs to be built on.

Jonathan Gresham got that call about the Foundation. He’s respected Tracy Williams for quite some time. They want to restore the honor to Ring of Honor. He believes he is the best pure professional wrestler in the world, and tonight he can prove that. Regardless of tonight’s outcome, the Foundation will come out on top. They’ve achieved their goals. So tonight, they will restore honor.

ROH Pure Wrestling Tournament Finals: “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams vs. “The Octopus” Jonathan Gresham: 60 minute time limit announced when there’s 23 minutes left in the show when the ring announcer starts with the introductions. SPOILER ALERT: This thing isn’t going to a time limit draw. Tracy has brought back the shoulder guard for this match, showing the mark that Jay Lethal left last week. Gresham is 3-1 against Williams, including 3-0 in singles matches. The tale of the tape shows a distinct height advantage for Williams. Code of Honor is followed. 33:10 We get off to a blazing start with the combatants rushing out of their respective corners. Quick headlock into a headscissors reversal and both men back up. Standing switches, hip toss blocked, blocked, blocked, and Gresham sent to the floor! Chain wrestling on the floor! Hip toss by Gresham! There’s a 20 count and Todd Sinclair’s counts are always slow, so there’s no reason to hurry back into the ring. Williams holds the ropes open for Gresham. Tieup, Williams gets the advantage until Gresham works into a leglock, Williams already trying to weaken the shoulder for a latter Crossface. Gresham with an interesting leglock, using his own neck pushing down on the ankle of Williams. Quick break. Gresham now going after that injured shoulder with the deep arm drag. Double axehandle just gets a glare from Williams. Williams uses his first rope break rather casually. No big deal. He sends Gresham down with a suplex. Cravate! He holds onto it for over a minute in various positions, and Gresham has to go to the ropes. Williams sends Gresham into the corner, who bounces out with a spear! Gresham removes his own wrist tape and doesn’t choke his opponent in the process. First time I’ve seen that. Williams sends Gresham down with a chop. Clothesline in the corner, Gresham slides out of the suplex attempt, into the other corner, Gresham caught on the spear attempt, hits a suplex but Williams suplexes him down! Gresham tries to go after that shoulder, but Williams with another chop! Kip up, leads to a German for two, Williams clotheslines him down for two. Commercial, we return to a bodyscissors by Gresham sending both men to the floor! Back into the ring, Williams tries a swinging DDT, Gresham reverses but eats a brainbuster and a two count for his troubles. Williams locks in that Crossface! Gresham nearly taps, he has no choice but to reach the ropes. Williams trying to get some feeling back in that shoulder. German suplex by Gresham & a couple of big strikes get two counts. Shot to the back of the head gets two! Gresham going for a Kimura, Williams gets out, teases a piledriver, reversal to a teased Octopus stretch, finally Williams hits the piledriver! Gresham had to use his third rope break there or the match was going to be over. Williams knew that, why he focused his pin attempt on the shoulders & outside leg. Williams takes his shoulder guard down, fires up, Gresham blocks the chop, works Williams into the Octopus stretch! Dang, Tracy picked the wrong time to take that shoulder guard off. He taps out!

Winner and New ROH Pure Champion: Jonathan Gresham (14:14 via submission)
Star Rating: ****1/4

It’s the new Pure Champion we expected to see. The championship that defines Ring of Honor, ahd there’s no better flag-bearer to hold it than Jonathan Gresham. Sometimes the expected result is the right result, and if you’re a sports fan like I am, you’ve noticed the top seeds holding serves and winning in these bubbles. The Lightning & Lakers were the best teams in their sports prior to the bubbles, and the Dodgers were the best team in baseball heading into their playoffs. It just goes to show that when you enter these closed environments, the cream rises to the top.

Jay Lethal comes down to celebrate with his tag team partner. Williams shakes Gresham’s hand, and Lethal’s as well.

Happy wrestling!

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

I was expecting the finals to go a bit longer, but the match definitely delivered for the amount of time it went. Now it's time to see what kind of an effect the return of the Pure division has on the rest of ROH. Shane Taylor seems in store for big things as well, and it's not like EC3 ate the pin. Next week will be a big episode for ROH, as they won't have the tournament to lean on. I'm interested to see what they have in store.