Cook’s ROH TV Review 3.12.21

Hey kids! This week we’ve got three matches with potential rankings implications & possibility for faction interaction. So let’s not waste any time.

Cook’s ROH TV Review 3.12.21

Quinn McKay welcomes us to Ring of Honor Wrestling! Its a jampacked episode with three big matches. Main event pits Mexisquad’s Flamita against Flip Gordon, and we see clips of Flip interfering in a Briscoes match at the behest of EC3, which leads to a recap of last week’s show where Jay Lethal got the #1 contendership. He talked to Quinn after the match. He has tunnel vision directed towards the ROH World Championship, he’ll get it back to help the Foundation purify Ring of Honor.

The 19th Anniversary Show will feature Rush defending against Lethal, and it’ll also have Jay Brisco facing EC3 in a grudge match. For real this time, presumably. LFI’s Kenny King & Dragon Lee will defend the Tag Team Championship against Rhett Titus & Tracy Williams of the Foundation. Kenny will face Tony Deppen on today’s show. Today’s opening match pits Fred Yehi against Dak Draper in a Pure Rules match!

Dak Draper talks about how he & Yehi have been recognized for their performances. He notes that Yehi hasn’t let it go to his head, and he’s just happy to be here. Draper says the first time he succeeded, he let it go straight to his head, and that’s a good thing. There is no amount of success that is enough for him, but he’ll keep eating it for breakfast, lunch & supper. Fred Yehi won’t be able to stand in the way of it.

Yehi says he really needs this win, as he’s lost pretty constantly. If you don’t win, your spot is questionable. Draper is a big guy on a bit of a tear, but if Yehi doesn’t win, he doesn’t eat. Is Draper prepared to go toe to toe with a hungry Savageweight?

Ian & Caprice are on commentary as usual, with Pure Division judge Will Ferrara joining them during the first match.

Pure Rules Match: Dak Draper vs. Fred Yehi: Important Stat: Draper has worn 7 shirts during his entrances in his last 4 matches including tonight. It’s something to do, I suppose. Draper with quite the size advantage here. Both men jostle for position early on, Draper finally gets a temporary advantage with a slam, but Yehi fights back, gets an inside cradle for a near-fall and gets the waistlock on Draper, working him on the mat. Chop in the corner by Draper. Kneedrop on the mat, and Draper locks in the chinlock. Back up, and now Yehi taking over with various strikes. Knees in the corner. The men trade waistlocks, Draper drops Yehi as we go to commercial.

During the break, Draper remained in control, but now we have Yehi going for pinfalls. Backslide gets two. Draper changes the momentum with a twisting powerslam. But Yehi comes back with an offensive sequence. No man able to keep a consistent offensive presence going. Yehi with some shots, but Draper with a punch! It gets a warning, but it was a solid punch and now Draper has the advantage. Magnum KO ends it.

Winner: Dak Draper (11:16 via pinfall)
Match Rating: **1/2

Draper gives Yehi a participation ribbon! I like it! Yehi doesn’t, and refuses the handshake. Draper was just trying to be nice! Decent enough outing, but nothing really spectacular or memorable here.

Quinn talks to Tony Deppen, and apparently she talked to the Board of Directors, who said that if Deppen beats Kenny King he’ll be in contention for the Television Championship. Deppen doesn’t know what to expect. He knows he’ll have to watch his back with LFI around. Kenny’s been around for a long time

Kenny King rhymes Deppen with Steppin. He doesn’t seem happy with Amy Rose, and Quinn tells her that she doesn’t have to take that. Well that was kind of random, but maybe I missed something here.

Kenny King (w/Amy Rose, Dragon Lee & La Bestia Del Ring) vs. Tony Deppen: Caprice is still unhappy with Kenny over his actions a couple of weeks ago against Shane Taylor. Kenny offers the handshake, Tony takes it but is met with a Kenny forearm! That’ll learn him. King stomps Deppen down in the corner, delivers a chop. Headbutt! Suplex, then some mounted punches. Deppen with a springboard arm drag, but King responds with a gutbuster. King works Deppen over on the mat as we go to commercial.

King still in control after the break, Deppen with a quick rollup but gets his spine busted. King goes for the Royal Flush, Deppen slips out, hits some big shots. Misses a running knee, trips King up, double stomp to the back, forearms in the corner, gets tossed to the apron, clothesline in the corner, senton gets two. Deppen going for it now, heads up top, leads to nothing for him, but another knee sends King outside. Deppen with the tiltawhirl DDT on the outside, sends King back in, hits the double stomp off the top for a 2.67. Deppen’s vertical suplex attempt doesn’t work, a forearm does, but an attempt off the top rope comes up short. That sets up a tiger driver for…two? King raises Deppen’s shoulder because he isn’t finished yet! Not sure that’s wise, but here comes the Royal Flush…no, an inside cradle by Deppen gets three! Whoops!

Winner: Tony Deppen (8 minutes via pinfall)
Match Rating: **1/2

Interesting finish there created by King’s overconfidence. Bestia runs in, stomps Deppen down, and now King hits the Royal Flush & Lee hits the running knee. Bestia with a modified piledriver. Deppen is down, and here’s Brody King to lay some smack down. Rush appears! Rush slammed down, but now it’s Brody getting stomped & beaten down by LFI. Maybe he should have stayed conspicuous by his absence, as LFI gets the table ready. Brody placed on it, and Bestia delivers a senton off the top! I don’t think that went the way Brody drew it up.

Flip Gordon vs. Flamita: We get a pre-recorded promo from Flip, who declares that he better get his ROH World title shot after he beats the hell out of Flamita. Flamita says that he didn’t forget that Flip tried to take his mask, and he’ll show Flip that he’ll always be better than him. Flip with the height & weight advantage, and it doesn’t look like we’ll see a handshake here. We will see some jaw-jacking, and a tieup into the corner. Flip with the push, and now we’re exchanging shots. Flamita outflips Flip early on, but Flip delivers a spear into the barricade. SUPERKICK and then a commercial.

Flamita gets the advantage as we return. Nice moonsault to the floor off the second turnbuckle, landing on his feet. Gets caught off the top rope with a modified Codebreaker though. Talking some stuff! They’re exchanging shots again. Flamita wins the battle, and hits the double underhook powerbomb for two. Flamita is caught on the top turnbuckle, Gordon follows him up, but he gets knocked off. Back & forth, they end up on the top turnbuckle, Flip fights off the superplex, hits the powerbomb for two, superkick gets two. Flamita changes the momentum with the reverse rana, but both men are down. Forearm exchange. Superkick from Flamita gets two. Frog splash gets 2.78! Jeez, Flip slapped the crap out of Flamita’s chest. Springboard slingblade from Flip only gets two. Flip picks Flamita up, looking for the Flip 5, but Flamita flips out. Flip catches the 619, sets Flamita up for the Flip 5, but a chair magically slides into the ring. It’s that crazy Mark Briscoe! He pops Flip with a chair while the referee is disposing of the other chair, and Flamita rolls Flip up for the three count!

Winner: Flamita (9 minutes via pinfall)
Match Rating: ***

Mark remembers how he lost his shot at the Tag Team Championship thanks to Flip, and he gets measure of retribution here. Flip is none too happy, and attacks Flamita after the bell! He rips the mask off! Here comes the rest of Mexisquad, and they run Flip out of there.

Next week: Eli Isom vs. Rey Horus, The Foundation vs. LFI!

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

The matches were perfectly fine on this week's show, but nothing you need to go out of your way to see. I will say that I'm more sold on Dak Draper now that he's giving people ribbons. A good post-match ritual always helps a character, am I right? All about building the 19th Anniversary Show right now, which is good.