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Cook’s ROH TV Review 2.5.21
Image Credit: ROH
Loading...Cook’s ROH TV Review 2.5.21
Quinn McKay welcomes us to Ring of Honor Wrestling, which has two big-time matches you won’t want to miss this week. The main event will be an eight-man tag team match pitting the Briscoes, PCO & Brody King against Rush, Dragon Lee, Bestia del Ring & Flip Gordon, who has been chosen to fill in for Kenny King. The opener features Tracy Williams taking on “The World Famous CB” (formerly known as Cheeseburger) in a Pure Rules match.
Last week, the show ended with Beer City Bruiser taking Vincent’s advice and beating up Matt Taven & Mike Bennett. Quinn got some words with Bruiser afterwards. She reminds Bruiser of what Vincent did to him in the past, Bruiser doesn’t seem too bothered by it now. Brian Milonas asks Bruiser what’s going on, and Bruiser’s sick of being in the backseat. He’s tired of being everybody’s little bitch. Milonas says that isn’t how they do things.
Tracy Williams talks about how the Foundation wants to give underutilized & underappreciated wrestlers a chance to succeed based on what they can do in the ring. At Final Battle, Rhett Titus showed up looking like a new man & thrived in that environment. Cheeseburger might consider himself underutilized, and Tracy wouldn’t disagree. He’ll give Cheeseburger the chance to prove everybody wrong, but he won’t give him an easy ride. Cheeseburger has accomplished some great things. Tracy won’t take him lightly. He knows how dedicated Cheeseburger is to wrestling. Cheeseburger hasn’t proven himself yet.
He’s not Cheeseburger anymore. Now he’s World Famous CB. Born & raised in Trenton, New Jersey, grew up loving wrestling and went to the ROH Dojo in 2010. Graduated in 2012, 2013 was when he was christened “Cheeseburger” by Charlie Haas. The name was the best & worst thing to happen to his career. He got to great heights in Japan, working the Tokyo Dome & teaming with Jushin Thunder Liger. However, the perception of Cheeseburger was that of a novelty act. He’s not a novelty act, and is going to break through that ceiling. Tracy Williams is one of the best in Ring of Honor, but he doesn’t have CB’s rhythm. He’s going to tie Williams in knots. Size has been his biggest disadvantage, now he calls it his greatest advantage. He’s enjoyed the ride of being Cheeseburger, but now he writes his own story.
Ian & Caprice are on the call.
Pure Rules Match: World Famous CB vs. Tracy Williams: CB weighing in at 135 lbs. if you’re scoring at home, or even if you’re alone. Probably the first time Tracy’s ever out-weighed an opponent by over sixty pounds. Code of Honor is followed. CB still has a cheeseburger on his tights, that won’t help people forget his old name. Williams with the full nelson. CB slips out as he said he would in his pre-match video. Hammerlock! CB works the left arm, as usual Williams has that shoulder sling on and that’ll be a target. CB slips out of the headlock. Williams wins the test of strength. CB works into a straitjacket choks, Williams escapes before the commercial.
CB with an arm drag, reversals on the mat, CB with an abdominal stretch where he stands on Williams’ back! CB with a double arm submission, and Williams has to use a rope break. Dude bit into the rope, that’s not very sanitary! Chops CB down, backdrop driver, charge in the corner, floatover suplex gets 2. Williams with a camel clutch variation, trying to make CB humble! Back up now, CB goes for the sunset flip, gets a cradle instead, but Williams works out of it and into a facelock attempt. CB goes to the ropes. One-arm straitjacket submission by Williams, then an armbar on the mat. Chop sends CB down. CB kicks Williams out of the ring on a figure 4 attempt. 10 minutes in now. CB goes for the cross armbreaker, gets a short arm scissor. Second rope break for Williams. CB goes back to the shoulder, and Williams uses his third rope break. Not much time left anyway, might as well use it. Williams hits a backbreaker & back suplex. Kitchen sink knee strike, Doctor Bomb gets a two count. CB fights back. Forearms! Big superkick by CB! Setting Williams up…nah, Williams clotheslines him down and hits the piledriver. That be it.
Winner: Tracy Williams (13:05 via pin)
Match Rating: **1/2
– Hope this works out for ol’ CB. Seems like a decent fella. Post-match handshake!
– Brody King is not happy with the Munoz family. He knows some violent men that can join him. Rush talks about how they’re the past, present & future. Lots of yelling & screaming back & forth between crazy people. That’s how you build a match!
– Amy Rose joins Ian & Caprice for commentary. She seems nice & friendly.
Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe, PCO & Brody King vs. Flip Gordon & La Faccion Ingobernable (Dragon Lee, Bestia del Ring & Rush): Jay & Mark making seperate entrances seems notable here. ROH’s entrance screen is called the CaryTron, by the way. Don’t recall hearing that one before, Cary’s a nice guy. Brody & Dragon start us off, I didn’t see any handshakes exchanged. Rush tags in! Nah, he tags in Daddy! Nah, Daddy tags in Flip! Brody tags Mark! So it’s actually Mark & Flip to start us off. Flip works Mark over in the corner, up and over, Mark with some chops, big dropkick from Flip. Mark reverses Flip’s flip. PCO tags in while LFI check on each other on the floor. Jay tags in and works Flip over. Tosses him outside. LFI tosses Flip back in. Brody tags in and he works Flip over. Flip knocked outside, LFI tosses him back in! Flip tries a sleeper, Brody snap mares him down & hits a running senton. I’m not sure if ROH wants us to feel sorry for Flip since his partners keep tossing him back in the ring. I think most people are fine with Flip Gordon getting beat up. Not a very likeable fellow from anything I’ve seen. He does keep fighting though, so maybe ROH really wants the QAnon guy as their top babyface. LFI finally breaks in once the Briscoes hit a finisher, and this thing has completely broken down. Rush has some TV cables! He’s whipping King’s knee with them!
We return from commercial, and Todd Sinclair is allowing this 3 on 1 stuff. What happened to rules in this promotion? I know Todd is inept, but come on. Now PCO has tagged Brody and is the 1 taking on the 3. He’s doing better since he’s less inclined to sell things. Some Kobashi style chops! PCO cannonballs to the outside, and Flip eats the impact. Nothing wrong with that. PCO & Daddy going at it! Look at that front dropkick! Jay comes in to go at Bestia. Are we going by lucha rules here? Todd has lost control, as he usually does. Brody & Dragon Lee going at it. Big uranage! Brody goes up top, gets kicked by Dragon, Rush & Bestia yank him off the top rope. Jay & PCO with dives, and Mark has a chair. What is going on here? Mark uses the chair to launch himself for a cannonball dive. Brody has a table. Rush placed on the table, PCO heading up top…he cannonballs the table as somehow Rush managed to get off of the table with PCO’s three partners around him. Finally, Todd Sinclair calls for the bell and declares this a no contest. He could have done this prior to the commercial break!
Winners: Nobody (13:12 via No Contest)
Match Rating: **1/2
– Yeah, this was a mess. Flip getting beat up for awhile made it somewhat watchable.
– The Foundation looks on backstage and are disgusted. I don’t blame them! Just a complete debacle here.
