Last week: The Pure Championship Tournament continued with Fred Yehi defeating Silas Young and Josh Woods overcoming Kenny King via judges’ decision.
ROH TV Episode 472
October 3, 2020
Baltimore, MD
Like the last few weeks, the winners from the previous episode had some thoughts on their victory & their upcoming tournament matches. An exuberant Fred Yehi proclaimed that he proved last week what the “Savageweight” brings to the table by overcoming Silas Young. Yehi noted that he has history with Tracy Williams and would love to break him, too. Josh Woods also had Silas on his mind as he wanted to know how well his tag partner did. When Quinn McKay alluded to the bad news off-screen, Woods felt he did Young proud tonight while gaining a measure of respect from Kenny King. In a Freudian slip moment, Woods stated Young should be happy that he will be in his corner instead of being across the ring from him in the next round. When Woods realized what he said he immediately ran away.
Block A Quarterfinal Match: Tracy Williams vs. Rust Taylor
Instead of going for a stereotypical collar & elbow tie-up, Rust Taylor and Tracy Williams were looking for underhooks and plums. Incredibly even in the early going was the competitors as the commentators noted Williams is now wrestling healed from a shoulder injury that plagued him throughout 2019. Williams got a hold of Rust’s left arm, hammerlocking and almost pinning his opponent by using the arm against him. Taylor stayed calm, working his way off the mat and surviving further hammerlock attempts. Sweeping Williams into a kimura attempt, Taylor inadvertently put himself in position for a counter that saw Rust getting his legs twisted & torqued until Taylor had no choice but to use a rope break.
Taylor took the momentum from the break to sweep Williams into a series of forearms from full mount. Williams exploded his way off the mat, resetting the match while ushering Taylor to the ring’s middle. Using a key lock against Taylor by slamming him, “Hot Sauce” found himself on top of his opponent before the commercial break.
Rust had taken control during the control break by going after Williams’ arm. Kicks from Taylor were aimed at Williams’ left arm. Tracy attempted to sweep Rust into another submission attempt when Taylor countered whatever Williams had in mind. So Tracy changed his gameplan by going for strikes. Flying arm bar from Rust forced Williams to use a rope break. After taking a pair of kicks, Williams used another rope break to stop a sure pin. Williams found himself in a modified rings of Saturn. “Hot Sauce” opted to use his final rope break to stop the submission.
London Dungeon from Taylor saw Williams grab the ropes for safety, but he was out of rope breaks. Williams pulled himself and Taylor forward to free himself from the arm submission. With less than two minutes remaining, Taylor started unleashing kicks after pushing Williams back in. Blocking a big kick, Williams landed a discus lariat that he used to set up the piledriver. Rather than go for the cover, Williams cinched in the crossface for the submission victory with less than a minute remaining in the time limit. It’ll be Williams versus Fred Yehi in the next round.
Block B Quarterfinal Match: PJ Black w/ Brian Johnson vs. Tony Deppen
Tony Deppen found himself stuck in the side headlock early. Deppen freed himself and attempted to pick up the pace, but ended up running into an arm drag for the arm bar. Pushing PJ Black into the ropes to free himself again, Deppen ran into a roundhouse kick. Black let Tony recover, getting swept into a STF set up. Black quickly made into the ropes for the match’s first rope break. Leaving the ring, Black super kicked the incoming Deppen when a dive failed. Flying forearm smash from Black saw his second get loud about what PJ should do next; much to the chagrin of Black. Deppen was all kinds of tied up by the five minute mark. The focus was the left shoulder & abdomen areas of Deppen. Black wanted to execute another springboard attack when he unintentionally threw himself into a dropkick as the show entered another commercial break.
Deppen was still in control, stopping himself from throwing a punch to trip & double knee strike Black for a two count. Deppen climbed the ropes as Black rolled in the ring. Deppen missed the double stomp, giving the “Darewolf” the chance to kick his potentially hurt legs. Deppen countered the incoming forearm with a headbutt topped by the STF. Black barely made it to the ropes to save himself. PJ wanted a rest, but took a tope instead. Double stomp off the top from Deppen didn’t put Black away. PJ found himself getting a one count after the lifting cutter, as well as a two count off the corkscrew DDT. Before Deppen could recover, Black executed a crucifix driver to pin Tony; putting him in the ring with Josh Woods in the next round.
A vignette played speaking of liars and how a new trend was coming. Suddenly a person wearing a hood was seen walking on some train tracks with a bunch of followers rocking three slashes on the back of their jackets. The most interesting aspect of the vignette was a sign stating “Control the narrative.”
Overall: Very different matches made up this episode; standing out greatly in the process. The opening match was a grappling’s fans dream match with both just going hold for hold for nearly fifteen minutes. Taylor looked incredible and, as noted by the commentators during the last minute or so, he would’ve won via the judges if it went to a time limit. But Williams pulled through to showcase how unexpectedly dangerous he can be at any given moment during the tournament; don’t count out “Hot Sauce”. Tony Deppen wanted to use a more hard-hitting style to knock PJ Black out, but Black was looking to ground his opposition. Eventually Deppen got his wish and thrived for a short time until the onslaught from Black proved too much; giving PJ one of his best ROH matches to date.
