Csonka’s ROH Gateway To Honor 2020 Review

Csonka’s ROH Gateway to Honor 2020 Review

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Villain Enterprises defeated The Briscoes & Slex @ 10:43 via pin [***½]
– Dan Maff defeated Alex Shelley @ 9:20 via pin [***¼]
– Vincent & Bateman defeated Silas Young & Josh Woods @ 12:20 via pin [**]
– Angelina Love defeated Session Moth Martina @ 7:45 via pin [*½]
– Dalton Castle defeated Jeff Cobb, Kenny King, and Tracy Williams @ 10:10 via [***¼]
– ROH TV Title Match: Dragon Lee defeated Dak Draper @ 9:35 via pin [***]
– Proving Ground Match: Champions Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham defeated Mexiquad (Bandido & Rey Horus) @ 12:15 via submission [****]
– ROH Title Match: Rush defeated Champion PCO & Mark Haskins @ 10:30 via pin [***]

---

– Follow all of my reviews at this link.

– I’m going to tryout something different to mix things up, a no-play by play style review for this one.

Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll, Brody King & Flip Gordon) vs. The Briscoes & Slex: This started off like it would be a nice, fun trios match and then it quickly broke down. Villain Enterprises ran wild for a while until the unpredictability of the Briscoes allowed then to take control and work the heat on Flip. Slex continued to look good, with clean and intense work as he’s fitting the roster really well. Brody King was also really great in the match, but I look at him and all I can think is “IF he can stay healthy he’s going to be great.” I broke down, we got dives and the Briscoes ran wild with double teams for near falls on Flip. The big move buffet followed as they did a great job of escalating the action. The finish saw Flip cut off Slex and finish him with Flip 5. Villain Enterprises defeated The Briscoes & Slex @ 10:43 via pin [***½] This was a really good and fun, all action opener, and Villain Enterprises made complete sense, but I’m really curious with the direction with Slex, as he’s done nothing but eat pins and post match ass kickings.

– Post match, Slex fought off Shane Taylor & The Soldiers of Savagery to avoid the beat down.

Dan Maff vs. Alex Shelley: This was a big stylistic clash, not only in terms of power vs. speed, but also in terms of brawling vs. technical wresting. They each played to their strengths, each having control at various points until Maff put together good heat segment on Shelley. Maff finally was cut off when he missed a senton and after a match full of teases, Shelley finally hit slams, Germans and near falls until Maff had enough and finished Shelley with cheeky nandos and the burning hammer. Dan Maff defeated Alex Shelley @ 9:20 via pin [***¼] This was good, Shelley is great and can work with anyone, while Maff’s second ROH run has been a lot of fun and filled with good matches.

Vincent & Bateman vs. Silas Young & Josh Woods: Vincent & Bateman attacked during the entrance, taking out Silas’ knee like what was done the previous night. Word is that Silas is having bad knee issues again and is trying to gut it out until the PPV. This led to a long heat segment on Silas where Vincent & Bateman targeted the knee throughout. Silas survived long enough to get the tag to Woods, who got to run wild and looked good. The babyfaces made the big comeback, picked up near falls and Brian Johnson came out to distract them. That allowed Vincent to finish Silas with sliced bread. Vincent & Bateman defeated Silas Young & Josh Woods @ 12:20 via pin [**] This was ok, they had the right idea and the execution wasn’t bad, but the lackluster finish and complete lack of heat for it really hurt things.

Angelina Love vs. Session Moth Martina: The Bouncers are on commentary as Milonas is smitten with Martina; Mandy Leon is at ringside. Martina offers Love a beer (she refuses) as they drag this out while Martina grinds on the ref. Love attacks and that allows her to take control of the early portion of the match. Leon gets involved and it’s the same old Allure bullshit until Martina fires up and makes a comeback. They worked a good koji clutch spot, with Martina showing good fire to escape until Leon got involved and tossed to the back. Martina then made a nice comeback, fires up with a beer and was finished with the botox injection. Angelina Love defeated Session Moth Martina @ 7:45 via pin [*½] Martina was better here than in her debut match, and again Love can go but her matches are completely bogged down with the usual bullshit.

– Post match, Milonas revives Martina with beer. Unfortunately for him, she seems to like Bruiser more.

Dalton Castle vs. Jeff Cobb vs. Kenny King vs. Tracy Williams: Hendry & Amy Rose are at ringside. They start off hot and heavy here, brawling and Williams taking early control until King bag tags him and runs wild, picking up near falls. They pair off as Castle takes over and stays in with King as Cobb dumps Castle but Hendry catches him. Cobb then gets to shine, running wild and hitting fools with suplexes and the standing moonsault to all three. It breaks down, King follows with a dive and Cobb hits a tope onto the pile. They’ve picked up the pace nicely and got the crowd into it. Cobb spears King to the barricade and the finish saw Williams and Castle battle back and forth, trading suplexes and Castle finished with banagrang. Dalton Castle defeated Jeff Cobb, Kenny King, and Tracy Williams @ 10:10 via [***¼] This was a good and entertaining match, with everyone working hard, a good pace and an invested crowd down the stretch as Castle picks up a rare singles victory.

– Bully Ray arrives and does a most excellent job of killing the show’s momentum. He makes fun of fat asses in the crowd, and does his generic ass heel shtick. He knows why Stan Grunky left the city. He rants about his contract and says he will lave ROH when someone can beat him. Caprice Coleman heads to the ring and Caprice knows Bully is a puppet master, but he won’t play his game. “You ain’t got nuthin on me.” Caprice is ready to fight, Bully says Caprice failed as a wrestler so he got a pity announcing job. Bully will only face a real wrestler. They brawl, Caprice runs wild and Bully cuts him off and pins him. Post match, Bully attacks with chair shots. Cheeseburger makes the save, gets killed and Isom attacks Bully and delivers chair shots. He gets a table, Bully low blows him and powerbombs him through the table. So Bully kills 10-minutes of the show, kicks three the asses of three guys and will claim he’s a great heel. Bully sucks, I love Caprice but again, we’re redoing the same angle but with him instead of Colt Cabana. I can wait for the 17-minute Bully vs. Maria Manic classic, where Bully kicks the shit out of her for 98% of the match, slips on a banana peel and claims he put her over.

Champion Dragon Lee vs. Dak Draper: Draper won the most recent top prospect tournament to earn the championship match. he has a good look, good size, but in my opinion has been outclassed by most of his opponents as he feels like an uncompleted create-a-wrestler. If there will ever be a chance for him to shine, it will be here against Lee. They worked the expected power vs. strength aspects early on, with Lee taking early control until Draper cut him off with a powerbomb. The heat didn’t last long at all as Lee quickly made a great comeback. They worked into a long counter stretch, where Lee mainly controlled, almost giving the bigger Draper babyface hope spots. The finish saw Lee connect with incinerator knee strikes for the win. Dragon Lee defeated Dak Draper @ 9:35 via pin [***] This was good, but laid out oddly as Draper didn’t getting to beast or really use his size all that well. Lee felt constantly a step ahead of Draper, who felt off in some of his transitional & counter work, but his base offense looked good. Overall, it was good but Draper needed a breakout performance here and didn’t deliver one.

Champions Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs. Mexiquad (Bandido & Rey Horus): This is proving ground match, if Mexiquad wins or takes the champions to a draw, they earn a tag team title shot. The champions didn’t fuck around with the lucha lads here, attacking and isolating Bandido early on and attacking his previously injured knee. Lethal & Gresham have really developed into a great team, with their team work and transitional elements coming off as effortless these days. Bandido survived the early onslaught of the champions, Horus worked a great hot tag spot but the champions would take control back and again focused on Bandido’s knee. Mexisquad battled back, running wild on the champions but still noticeably hobbled as the champions worked through a flurry of double teams for some great near falls. The 630 and shooting star press almost put Lethal away, and the finish saw Lethal finally put Bandido away with the figure four. Champions Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham defeated Mexiquad (Bandido & Rey Horus) @ 12:15 via submission [****] This was a great tag match, with the champions picking up the win by taking out Bandido’s knee enough to pick up the submission victory, while Mexiquad continues to shiner in ROH. This was the best thing on the show.

Champion PCO vs. Rush vs. Mark Haskins: The winner of the match will defend the title at 18th Anniversary PPV against the competitor who did not lose the fall. They brawled at the bell, with PCO scoring with an early dive, and apron chokeslam to Haskins. He of course missed the apron senton when Rush saved Haskins, allowing Rush to take over the match until Haskins fired up with dives and ran wild, really picking up the energy level and shining with near falls. PCO battled back, it broke down into the big move buffet and Haskins almost winning with stomp boy. His stuff with Rush was really good here, but he was cut off by a PCO chokeslam and the PCO-sault for a good near fall as Rush made the save. The finish saw Nick Aldis arrive, and taking out PCO with a belt shot, leading to Rush picking up the win and championship with the Bull’s horns as PCO’s miracle run comes to an end. Rush defeated Champion PCO & Mark Haskins @ 10:30 via pin [***] Rush wins back the championship, which many have argued he never should have lost. The match was good and energetic while it lasted, and the fans liked the title change. Due to the stipulation, the 18th anniversary PPV main event will be Rush vs. Mark Haskins (which could be a hell of a match), plus the Aldis interference builds to Aldis vs. PCO at Supercard of Honor and also continues his issues with Marty Scurll..

– La Faccion Ingobernable kicked the shit out of Haskins to close the show.

The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 95. On the show, Larry Csonka & Mark Radulich deliver complete breakdowns and reviews of AEW Revolution 2020 & WWE Super Showdown 2020 (plus talk of random wrestling things, bad tattoos, & Quentin Tarantino movies). The show is approximately 154-minutes long.

* Intro
* WWE Super Showdown 2020 Review: 8:05
* AEW Revolution 2020 Review: 1:10:55

* iTunes
* Spotify
* Stitcher
* Google Play

– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

6.8

The final score: review Average

The 411

ROH Gateway To Honor 2020 was a tight 2.5 hour show, featuring a great tag team match between Lethal & Gresham vs. Mexisquad and the big world title change. Overall, it was a pretty good show, hurt by the women’s match and Bully Ray segment, which feels like an evergreen statement, and wasn’t as strong as Bound by Honor.