Cook’s ROH Review: 9.26.20

Hello kids! Tonight, we have two ROH veterans facing off against two newer competitors! It’s a nice concept for a night of pro wrestling, so let’s get to it!

Cook’s ROH TV Review 9.26.20

– Pure Title opening!

– Quinn McKay welcomes us to Week 3! She breaks down the previous two weeks, and takes us to the finish of Finlay vs. Romero & some post-match comments from Finlay. He’s excited to have the chance to beat the best Ring of Honor has to offer, Jay Lethal. Matt Sydal & Delirious faced off nearly 20 years after their first encounter, and Sydal had some words after. He was feeling really high on life after that match. He’s the only man that can carry on the tradition of the Pure Championship. Now you see what he’s saying.

– Quinn introduces our matchups for today, including Silas Young taking on Fred Yehi after a short break.

– The Savageweight Fred Yehi is from Waterloo, Iowa. He grew up in a rough environment, but he knew he wanted to be a great pro wrestler. He stuck to wrestling, stuck to his body, and here he is. Technique takes a backseat to brutality. He gets it done. He was a fan of Bryan Danielson, Low Ki and his brutality. Silas Young is a tough man, but he’ll get it done. He’s good at getting it done. He’s got the Kojima Clutch. He will walk away with the Pure Title.

– The Last Real Man Silas Young grew up with 5 older brothers. He got his ass kicked a lot. He wanted to be an athlete, and he he worked with a lot of ROH’s old school guys. He worked his way up to the top and became a multi-time TV Champion. He’s been working on a different style, something people can’t prepare for. He doesn’t know Fred Yehi too well, but he has the homefield advantage. He sees the first round as a gimme. He was in the last Pure Wrestling match with Jonathan Gresham, Gresham had to cheat to beat him, so he sees himself as the favorite in this tournament, no problem.

Fred Yehi vs. Silas Young: Ian & Caprice are along with us here, and Fred Yehi had a strong 57% winning percentage in 2019. Some interesting stats for Silas as well. Code of Honor followed. Tieup around the ring, break in the corner leads to a slap from Young. Wants to see what Yehi has. He’ll get it. Silas with wrist control. Yehi breaks out, leg takedown, 1 count. Hammerlock on the mat by Young, Leg takedown by Yehi, a whip has Silas regrouping. Back to the knucklelock, Yehi gets the advantage and an armbar, Young rolls out, but Yehi still has control. Young gets brief control. Back to the knucklelock, Yehi has the strength advantage, but Silas works his way into a kneebar. Yehi reverses, working on Young’s ankle, works into a standing Indian deathlock. Into the ropes, which results in Silas using his first rope break as we go to commercial.

Yehi yanks Young off the middle rope when we return. Young dominated during the commercial though. Knees in the corner by Yehi onto Young’s face. Stepping on the man’s hand! Working that hand! Yehi works Young into a modifed Koji Clutch, works out, and now Young fights back, Tornado DDT gets 2. Silas needs to hit a big move, he’s gotta be down on points. German from Yehi, into the corner, chop, cannonball! Silas reverses the suplex attempt into one of his own. Yehi placed up top. Superplex by Young! Anarchist suplex! Inside cradle by Yehi gets 2, then a shining wizard! Young with the Milwaukee Plunge, misses off the top, Yehi with the elbow, then an inside cradle wins it for Yehi!

Winner: Fred Yehi (13:00 via small package)
Rating: ***1/2

– Could you ask for a better debut for a man with experience around the world? I think not! Yehi looked like a pure wrestling beast here, Silas tried and had his moments, but Fred Yehi looked like somebody to be reckoned with in this tournament. I feel sorry for his next opponent, who won’t be as experienced in ROH as Silas Young.

– Silas shakes the man’s hand, as it’s well deserved. The Last Real Man knows when he’s been beat.

– Josh “The Goods” Woods. Been around since 2017, mentored by Silas. Won national & conference wrestling championships. He can spend hours just grappling around. Kenny’s been around a lot, but he’s a little arrogant and & showboater. A locker room leader, a veteran of the business. Kenny laughed at him, asking who he had been teaching, and Josh had never seen anybody laugh at him like that.

– And this is where WSTR cut into Ring of Honor with The Listener. Kind of random. We go into a commercial during all of that, and now I’m hoping they just skipped over Kenny King’s video. I’m ,ot sure what WSTR in Cincinnati would have against Kenny King, but that’s what happened!

Josh Woods vs. Kenny King: King has the weight and experience advantage. King working the leg early, Woods trying to wrestle out, King with the edge early. Woods with the hammerlock. Japanese hip toss by King, into an armbar. Woods with the edge now. Now a random commercial while Caprice is talking, so we’ll see where this goes. A jumbled commercial break, we get ten seconds of the match and back to commercial. Now back to The Listener. OK, I’m not really sure what this show is. But it’s taken over the rest of this match. Now we get a technical difficulties screen! Well duh, we know! Then we get some commercials! Yeah, I don’t think we’re going back to the wrestling tonight. HOWEVER, since I saw most of the match on Fox Sports South the night before, I know how it ends, and we’ll go right to it…

We’re going to the judges! Will Ferrera, Sumie Sakai & Gary Juster are our judges if you’re scoring at home, or even if you’re alone.

Winner: Josh Woods (15:00 via split decision)
Rating: N/A

– I would have been able to give it a proper star rating, but WSTR in Cincinnati sucks ass, like most things Sinclair Broadcasting is associated with.

5.0

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

I was ready to give this show a big rating because I love me some Fred Yehi, but Sinclair Broadcasting had to go all Sinclair Broadcasting and be so incompetent that they could only give me half of a show. Andy Clark mentioned a similar issue to me last week, but at least he got some old ROH action! I got a ton of commercials & jumbled parts of The Listener. I know Sinclair is more concerned in getting their boy re-elected President in November, but if they want us to watch their wrestling they could at least present it to us in a coherent manner. If they can't, they should get the hell out of the business and sell to somebody that can.