McXal's Reviews

This week on Ring Of Honor TV we round out the final four in the Pure Title Tournament. Jay Lethal and Jon Gresham are already in their respective Block Finals - awaiting the winners of tonight's contests. It will be a showdown between former Catch Point stable-mates as Tracy Williams squares off with 'The Savageweight' Fred Yehi. That comes before a main event which puts together two of the biggest surprise packages of the tournament thus far - Josh Woods and PJ Black. Quinn McKay is our host again, with commentary inside the venue coming, as usual, from Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman. We are on a Covid-secure set in Baltimore, MD.

You can find my previous Pure Tournament Reviews below:

LAST WEEK - After defeating David Finlay, Lethal reiterates his certainty that he is destined for the finals, against his partner, friend and fellow Tag Champion Jon Gresham...

LAST WEEK - Gresham himself tapped Matt Sydal out in brutal fashion. He says it is a misconception that 'Pure Wrestlers' go into matches with strategy - when actuality they live in the moment. Not content with that, he calls Sydal's inclusion in the tournament a symptom of a 'wider problem' in ROH - a world-renowned high flyer who took an opportunity away from a legitimate purist. He The Foundation that will 'restore' the honour to ROH. Spectacular promo from The Octopus...

In the first round we saw Yehi debut with a spectacular victory over Silas Young. It was a commanding performance which would have made every remaining participant in the tournament (and the rest of the ROH roster) take notice. But his opponent tonight is one man who won't have needed any preview or introduction to his skills. They were part of the Catch Point stable, they held the Evolve Tag Team Championship together and are therefore extremely familiar with one another. Making Tracy's task even more difficult is that he had to survive arguably the match of the tournament so far; a gruelling technical clinic with Rust Taylor - which saw his lingering shoulder problems exploited and exacerbated once again. Is he at 100%? Does he have enough in the tank to take down the Savageweight?

A Catch Point handshake is shared and the two familiar foes smile broadly before going to work. Williams makes a point of countering a lot of Yehi's stuff in the early exchanges, with his ferocity in fending off attempted attacks on his shoulder noticeable. He forces Fred to take the first rope-break of the match with a tight hammerlock. Tracy grabs the arm for another hold seconds later and almost on instinct Yehi grabs the ropes again...and groans in disappointment knowing he has lost his second break inside the first three minutes. It spurs him into trying to strike with Williams, only for Hot Sauce to violently fire back before grabbing the arm again. Exploder suplex by Fred as we go to commercials! Using that power serves him well; during the commercial break he grinds onto a sleeper that forces Williams to use his first break. But Hot Sauce then returns fire with a hammerlocking back suplex to further damage the arm! Fred tries to use his power again, but this time his injuries have weakened him and Tracy is able to counter into a vicious diving uppercut for 2. German suplex by Yehi! He wants to roll into another...and is visibly struggling with the arm. GERMAN SUPLEX AGAIN! Tracy grabs the arm to break the grip...so Yehi almost kicks his head off! Koji Clutch! Williams grabs the ropes for the second time! He stands up and battles for the Crossface which Yehi brilliantly blocks! Tracy lifts him for a BRAINBUSTER instead and gets 2! Discus Lariat nailed...only for Yehi to snap into the small package counter which brought him victory against Silas! Williams kicks out but walks into the KOJI CLUTCH! For the second match in a row Tracy needs all three of his rope breaks. They retreat to opposing corners...then charge! STRIKE DUEL! Yehi blocks the Piledriver...so Williams elbows his head off. IMPLANT DDT ON THE TURNBUCKLES! Yehi retains enough composure to block the Crossface. Williams blasts him with a Piledriver and Fred uses his final rope-break to stop the pin. CROSSFACE! Fred makes the ropes. DRAGON CLUTCH IN THE ROPES! YEHI TAPS! Williams advances in 11:23 (shown)

Rating - **** - The first thing ROH should have done after this taping is written whatever numbers Yehi needed to sign a contract (the second thing being to get him some new entrance music). His mix of brute force, legitimate wrestling skill and an offbeat physical charisma is a rare commodity and definitely something the 'new' Ring Of Honor should want on their roster. And for Williams - a man who was rumoured to be on his way out of ROH in late-2019/early-2020 - this was a second stellar match in the tournament for him. The brilliance of this one was that, without needing to see any of their prior work together, they immediately conveyed how familiar and evenly matched they were. After barely surviving one debutant in Round One, Tracy came out harder. Looking to make a statement, he was the aggressor for the majority of the contest; opening up an arm injury that I thought Yehi sold in a pretty effective and unique manner. But such was the quality of Yehi's work that, even fighting from behind, you felt he was very much in the contest. His power continually unsettled Williams, his striking was just as ferocious and in the Koji Clutch he had a finisher which would inflict devastating damage to Tracy's shoulder injury. Unlike Williams/Rust which was very much a technical clinic, this felt emotionally intense, hard-fought and physical...and should be the bout which cements Yehi's spot on the full-time roster.

EC3, having been teased in video packages for a couple of weeks, walks into the arena for his first live appearance in front of the ROH cameras. He muses on where one can find 'Honor', questions whether the current roster really has a claim to calling itself the 'best wrestling on the planet'...and announces that he is here to fight them all. 

As EC3 gets back through the curtain he is confronted by Shane Taylor and the Soldiers Of Savagery. Taylor felt slighted by not being mentioned as one of the top names in ROH, phrasing his complaint in such a way that he offends the Briscoes (who were just walking by I guess). Everyone starts yelling, EC3 stands looking completely perplexed...and somewhere a challenge for a six-man tag is made too.

In my intro paragraph for this episode I called these two arguably the biggest surprise packages of the tournament. Woods fought to a time-limit draw with Kenny King in Round One before being awarded the match via judges decision. It wasn't his victory that shocked people - it was the way he transitioned back from being a smiling, happy, carefree tag team worker with Silas to the highly skilled, dangerous, multi-discipline fighter that he was signed to be after winning the 2017 Top Prospect Tournament. His opponent was probably the favourite against newcomer Tony Deppen in his prior encounter, so his win wasn't surprising either. But the way the veteran utilised his vast experience, showcased a modified, grounded style and dominated a new talent who came in with a lot of buzz caught people off guard. Woods is revitalised, Black is a genuine contender. This match is too close to call...

Silas Young and Brian Johnson are both at ringside, so there is plenty of noise for this one. Josh begins by repeatedly putting Black on the canvas. He is so powerful and authoritative he actually almost pins PJ right away. Seconds turn into minutes and The Goods is still dominating the veteran, who is fighting for all he is worth just to stay alive. Caprice and Ian do a great job of pointing out how hard PJ is having to work even when it seems like has Woods under control. At five minutes this has been as one-sided as it gets...and when Black tries to quicken the pace Josh simply catches his legs and launches him straight over the top rope! A rear choke is applied from the apron...which the ref harshly declares as PJ's first rope-break. His second is utilised mere seconds later when Woods locks in a kneebar. Samoan drop by Black; his first significant offensive strike at almost ten minutes in. He is struggling with his arms as well though and Woods grabs both of them in a DOUBLE wristlock. PJ starts creating distance and jumping off the top rope in a desperate attempt to get into the fight. He cranks the back with a pendulum submission and starts stomping on the neck. Jumping knee by Woods! SLINGSHOT GERMAN gets 2! Black counters a cross armbreaker...so Woods converts to a grapevined version of the Trailer Hitch. Black taps out! It's over at 12:00 (shown)

Rating - *** - I'm a little torn on this one. As a match it was fun, and a quite faultless re-establishment of Josh Woods as the dangerous, multi-sport fighter that he was initially recruited to be three years ago. He dominated PJ Black for almost fifteen minutes. Sure it felt like a struggle and Black got a few shots in, but on the whole it was brutally one-sided and made Woods look fantastic. However, on the flip side, it was the exact same lay-out as the PJ/Deppen match from Round One, except this time PJ was in the Deppen role...and makes me further question why ROH wasted booking Deppen in the first place. That said, Josh's strong performances in the tournament make his Semi-Final extremely interesting now and it really is pleasing to watch the 'new' ROH use competitive in-ring action to make and elevate new stars. 

NEXT WEEK - Semi-Final time as we'll get Gresham/Woods and Lethal/Williams

Tape Rating - *** - The quality of Williams/Yehi makes this episode worthy of your time in my estimation. They really delivered the goods; producing exactly the kind of action you'd hoped for when ROH announced they were bringing back the Pure Title. After that the episode was certainly noteworthy if not quite as good. EC3's first on-screen appearance for ROH took place. His mic work was strong as always and it will be interesting to see what ROH do to make his time in this company stand out from his concurrent run with Impact Wrestling. Then came the main event, which I suspect will divide fan opinion but certainly had a clear mission statement (to put Woods over hard). More solid TV from Ring Of Honor in conclusion. The Covid-19 pandemic is handicapping every wrestling product on the planet right now. To their immense credit, ROH are genuinely one of the few companies who are producing a better product now than they were before the outbreak...