McXal's Reviews

This week is subtitled 'VLNCE vs PURE', as Violence Unlimited and The Foundation meet in a series of three matches with nothing but pride (and championship standing) on the line. We'll see Rhett Titus square off with Tony Deppen first, a tag team bout pitting Brody King and Chris Dickinson against Pure Tournament finalists Jon Gresham and Tracy Williams, before a main event bringing two old rivals (and former ROH Champions) back together as Jay Lethal faces Homicide. Quinn McKay is our host. Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman are in Philadelphia, PA.

The Righteous are in their locker room, all admiring Vincent's new white outfit. They all agree that 'he' will love it...without naming the 'he'

We begin VLNCE vs PURE with the dark horses of their respective teams. Deppen isn't the most obvious fit for Violence Unlimited, but he has proven he belongs with his demented, aggressive in-ring style and becoming the first member to capture gold when he became TV Champion. Titus has been in ROH for a long time and never held a singles title. He'll be looking to get a win on the board for The Foundation whilst simultaneously driving himself up the championship rankings.

Titus looks to use his longer limbs on the smaller man, but Tony smartly counters out of a headscissors to stave off the attack. Deppen spends the opening minutes establishing that he is every bit as good a pure wrestler as Titus is and gets the better of several exchanges on the ground. I wish Ian would stop banging on about Tony's home town in every one of his matches just because he's from nearby, it's unbelievably repetitive. Belly To Belly by Rhett, followed by a double underhook suplex as well - the first higher impact blows of the match at more than five minutes in. Deppen retaliates with a knee drop to the neck...and starts working neck-based submissions on the ground (as well as some minor biting - because Violence). Homicide comes out to cheer Tony on but watches as Titus lays his partner out with a slingshot tackle. Homicide is so insane he perches in the corner holding the tag rope calling for Deppen to tag him in, and when Todd Sinclair tells him to get down he starts bashing the apron with a chair. TOPE CON HILO BY DEPPEN! That's a Homicide move and he cheers it wildly. He isn't as thrilled with a Yakuza Kick by Titus, followed by the Rhett-ribution DDT for 2. Half crab applied by Titus (with Todd having to swat Homicide's hands out of the ring when he tries to pull Tony to safety). He slips a chair into the ring and distracts Todd...so Deppen can jam the weapon into Rhett's sternum. Running knee to the head wins it for Deppen at 12:06 (shown)

Rating - ** - This got an awful lot of TV time by ROH standards, and I don't know that they made the best use of it. They wrestled nicely, we established that Deppen was a more than capable technical wrestler...but the match sort of meandered along without much of a change in intensity. Homicide's arrival meant it never felt boring - if only because Cide's antics on the outside were so incredibly bizarre - but to go twelve minutes with only a few brief flashes of genuine excitement, ending in a bullsh*t bogus finish is disappointing.

Brian Zane wants to interview Rhett after his loss, but finds Titus furious that nobody from The Foundation came to help him whilst he was outnumbered. Deppen is much more talkative, mocking ROH for having 'too many rules'...and he doesn't care about any of them!

TWO WEEKS TIME - 'Championship Edition' is back, featuring Josh Woods vs LSG for the Pure Title and Bandido defending the World Title against Alex Zayne.

Brody and Dickinson have been teaming semi-regularly in NJPW Strong so may actually have the edge on The Foundation as far as tag team cohesion goes. Gresham and Tracy are fine choices to represent Pure Wrestling though, having made it to the finals of the 2020 Pure Tournament. Gresham is recoving from his Pure Title loss to Josh Woods at Death Before Dishonor, and seemed to hint at turning his attention to the World Championship. To get there he'll need to get past King, who has been on a tear recently and has his eyes fixed on Bandido's title...

The Foundation act anything but pure when they jump Brody and Dickinson from behind to start the match. Turning it into a brawl doesn't favour them though and it isn't long before the brute force of King puts him in the ascendancy. VU take turns brutalising Gresham, who looks almost helpless when Brody in particular completely manhandles him. He always has his trickery to fall back on though - as shown when he leapfrogs Dickinson causing him to spear King in error. Williams gets the tag and levels Chris with a superplex for 2. Gresh continues to act aggressively, taking a cheap-shot on Brody whilst Tracy keeps Dickinson grounded. They try to snap Chris' ankles, ensuring he now has to limp around. He still has enough to land a tilta-whirl backbreaker/dropkick combo with Brody for 2. Gresham does that hyper-extension spot on Brody's knee...only for Dickinson to tackle Tracy down on top of them to break the hold. Boston Crab by King, and when Gresh tries to save he finds Dickinson lying in wait to drop him into an STF. Hot Sauce escapes once, but fails to land his Piledriver and finds himself back in the hold! COUNTERED to the Crossface! Gresham stops King making the save by choking him in the ropes! Dickinson manages to roll through into a rear choke...and uses it to render Williams unconscious. The ref has to stop the match, giving it to Violence Unlimited at 12:42 (shown)

Rating - *** - These four men would have a good match on autopilot, in fact I suspect that's probably what we got here. There was lots of high quality wrestling but, as with Rhett/Deppen, moments of genuine take-notice excitement were rather sparse. The narrative connecting all of it together was relatively threadbare, although I really did like The Foundation acting more like heels at certain points and needing to cheat on a couple of occasions just to stay alive. It showed how dangerous The Foundation can be when backed into a corner, but also just how much Violence Unlimited have them rattled. In Dickinson and Deppen in particular, VU have two wrestlers who are every bit as good at the 'pure' style as anyone from The Foundation - and that was the whole point of the finish as one of those guys choked a former TV and Tag Champion out...

Jay Lethal watched the last match from ringside and gets into the ring to bitterly argue with Brody King in particular. Homicide is circling mischievously as referees frantically try to restore order so we can have a main event. 

These two have so much history together. They've crossed paths in JAPW and first met in an ROH ring in 2002. Lethal is a protege of Samoa Joe, who was once a bitter enemy of Homicide too. Lethal himself spent 2005 in a feud with Homicide's fellow Rottweiler Low Ki and obviously crossed paths with Homicide multiple times that year as a result. Now they come back together as veterans, as former World Champions and with ill-intent such is the animosity between VU and The Foundation.

Tope Trilogy up the aisle by Lethal, only for Cide to rake the eyes and land his tope con hilo. Recognising he can't win a fight on the outside with the Notorious 187, Jay brings it back into the ring - and steals the Ghetto Fork out of Homicide's boot as he lines up the Figure 4! Cide steals it and punctures the turnbuckle pad trying to stab Lethal! Exploder suplex gets 2, before he decides to just start choking and biting The Franchise. Cop Killa blocked with a superkick, as Tony Deppen strolls out wielding a steel chair. He seems intent on repaying Homicide from earlier - but as he makes it to the ring Dutch of The Righteous lays him out! Lethal Injection takes out Cide, giving Jay the win at 05:37 (shown)

Rating - ** - Any time we get to watch Homicide in ROH ring is never a bad thing. This won't go down as his finest Ring Of Honor match though. I'm not sure what they were expected to accomplish with just five minutes for a main event in truth. They settled for an ill-willed brawl; generic at times but at others very entertaining, particularly when Homicide was at his anarchic best. It seemed to exist only to set up whatever is going on with The Righteous. Perhaps it's just me, but I'd much rather watch a great Lethal/Homicide match than I would have these two ROH legends act as set-up for a new gimmick for Vincent.

The Righteous in their new 'pure white' outfits stand together on the stage applauding Lethal. Jay himself looks at them in confusion

NEXT WEEK - We have a Halloween special with Danhausen, PCO and Sledge challenging STP for the Six-Man Titles.

Tape Rating - ** - 'VLNCE vs PURE' was the gimmick, and this episode did feel very gimmicky. We've never really got the differences in ideologies explored between the two factions explored in much detail and that didn't change here. The episode was just a sequence of pretty mediocre matches (even the tag in the middle was rather average, despite the stellar talent involved), managed poorly giving Deppen/Rhett way too long which then screwed Lethal and Homicide for time in the main event. After the excellence of the main event last week this was a disappointing step backwards.