Last week: Demonic Flamita kicked off the Survival of the Fittest tournament in grand fashion by defeating Rey Horus prior to Josh Woods submitting Silas Young in a Pure Rules bout.
ROH TV Episode 508
June 12, 2021
Baltimore, MD
Quinn McKay welcomed everyone to the show, recapping what’s happened in the Survival of the Fittest tournament thus far including Demonic Flamita overcoming former ally Rey Horus on ROH TV, and Brian Johnson pulling off a shocking pin on Sledge during the most recent episode of ROH “Week By Week” on Youtube.
Survival of the Fittest Qualifier: Eli Isom vs. Dak Draper
Before the bell could sound, Dalton Castle arrived with his quartet of Boys. After his extravagant entrance, Castle exclaimed that he just wanted to watch the match from his perch atop the barricades. When the action started, Eli Isom sidestepped Dak Draper after being shoved across the ring to put the big man at ringside. Somersault plancha worked for Isom and put Eli in control in & out of the ring. Coming off the ropes with a sunset flip didn’t work for Isom, but the follow up dropkick did put Dak on the floor. The Boys gave Eli a standing ovation, distracting him long enough for Dak to recover and kick the ropes when Eli tried to springboard attack his rising opposition. Stuck on the ropes, Isom was superplexed into the ring from the apron. Valiant kick out from Isom after the superplex, but Eli couldn’t get up fast enough before Draper got a hold of him for a slam. Isom almost got his head taken off with the clothesline prior to the commercial break.
Draper crushed Isom in the corner with a flying forearm before coming off the top to double axe handle smash Eli. With Isom stuck against the ropes, Dak executed a cross body block that took Isom & himself over the top. Draper pitched Eli in the direction of The Boys & a fleeing Dalton. Castle claimed he was bringing out the best from Draper and Dak wasn’t going to let Dalton down. Working over the midsection of Eli with waist locks, Draper seemed to be on the verge of qualifying. Isom held on long enough to free himself and set up some failed pinning combinations topped by some high impact maneuvers until he ran into a boot to the jaw-Doctor Bomb combo … that gave Draper a near fall!
The momentum was swinging back & forth leading to Dak pulled off a tilt-a-whirl slam as Dalton rallied behind the big man. Instead of using the Magnum Drop, Dak put Isom on the top while telling Castle something. Dalton suddenly exited with The Boys, leaving Draper stunned long enough for Eli to counter his top turnbuckle attack to pull off the Promise to pin the former Top Prospect Tournament winner.
– O’Shay Edwards admitted to being someone who isn’t up to the caliber of Chris Dickinson in regards to recognition, but not talent. Though Dickinson has traveled the world, Edwards wanted everyone to know that he too has proven himself everywhere he’s gone including ROH where he recently overcame Sledge to end their feud following a big slam through two tables. With people expecting him to lose and hoping he doesn’t win, Edwards sees this chance to win a tournament that will propel him into stardom as the perfect chance to prove so many people wrong while establishing himself as the man to beat in ROH.
– Chris Dickinson gave his thoughts about his match with O’Shay Edwards, as well as the simple fact he’s survived when no one else has. Almost something like a birthright, Dickinson sees this tournament as a way to prove to the world what he already knows by being the fittest for survival. Chris apologized in advance that whoever is in his way is going down because that’s just how it is. Their match happens on ROH “Week By Week” this week on Youtube.
ROH World Tag Team Championship (Pure Rules Match): The Foundation (Rhett Titus & Tracy Williams) (c) vs. La Faccion Ingobernable (Dragon Lee & Kenny King)
Beyond the standard Pure Rules such as each wrestler only having three rope breaks and no closed fist strikes, three other mandates have been attached to this match: a legal tag requires the wrestler on the apron to reach over the top rope and tag his partner hand-to-hand while holding the tag rope with his other hand; each illegal wrestler has five seconds to exit the ring after a tag out is made; each time a team breaks up a pin fall or submission, that team will lose a rope break while breaking up a pin fall or submission when a team is out of rope breaks will result in a disqualification.
The All Night Express exploded at the start with Rhett Titus and Kenny King traded holds until Titus tagged out so the champions could steamroll King into the sharpshooter that Kenny used the bottom rope to break; costing the challengers their first rope break. King tried to call for a rope break against Williams when his legs got tangled in the ropes. The distraction allowed King to tag out so Dragon Lee could exchange chops with Williams until Lee utilized a hurricarana. Williams stopped Lee’s dive after rolling out of the ring, only to be whipped against the barricades. Double stomp from Lee followed leading into the commercial break.
Williams had recovered and was trading strikes with Lee before utilizing a big suplex. Williams was all over the left arm of Lee, but an illegal attack from the apron-standing King behind the ref’s back gave Dragon the opportunity to turn the tides. Some ground & pound from King after he tagged in allowed Kenny to focus on “Hot Sauce’s” left shoulder. Lee spit on Titus to set up an illegal double team behind the ref’s back as referee Todd Sinclair attempted to stop Rhett from coming in. But the act didn’t work for long as Williams stopped King’s chin checker to tag out to Rhett.
Titus came in swinging for the fences, executing a belly to belly suplex on King for a two count thanks to Kenny using a rope break. Rhett spit on Lee, only for King to pull Titus to the mat with the blockbuster. Rhett survived King’s pin attempt, shockingly countering a double team superplex to drill both opponents into the mat. Williams became the legal man, hitting that turnbuckle DDT on King before cinching in the crossface. King made it to the bottom rope to use his team’s final rope break heading into the last commercial.
King was reeling until Williams threw a kick that Kenny caught to dragon screw Williams into the knee bar. Titus broke up the submission to sacrifice a rope break. Tagging himself in, Titus was lighting King up. Lee tagged himself in, landing a series of strikes of his own to set Rhett up for Dragon’s Breath to gain a two count. Titus exploded with the lariat on Lee after being taken over via a snap German. Titus found himself on the top when Lee stopped whatever he had in mind to put Rhett in position for the double stomp out of the tree of woe. Williams had tagged himself in during the tree of woe double stomp, only for Lee to somersault atop him. Lee pushed Williams into King’s Royal Flush … for a near fall thanks to Titus’ interference!
The champs had one rope break left when Titus used the Dropkick to knockout King. On the other side was Williams hitting a super piledriver on Lee! King ran into the break up the pin, only to get his team disqualified due to the challengers having no more rope breaks. The champs retained.
La Bestia del Ring hit the ring to attack the champs before they could celebrate. Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham joined the fray, leading to an arena-wide war that included moments like Dragon choking Williams with a camera cord, only for Gresham to do the same to the masked man; and Titus dropkicking King into unconsciousness. While this was going on, VLNCE UNLTD stood with looks of approval due to the chaos.
Overall: Like last week, this episode saw the SotF qualifying bout start the show and a monumental second bout closing the hour. The main event was another stellar title defense by The Foundation’s Titus & Williams who have such a groove as a unit it’s incredible considering they’ve only been teaming for six months. This chemistry as a unit was heightened here thanks to the Pure Rules environment that their challengers suffered from as King used up all his team’s rope breaks and eventually got the challengers disqualified. With that being stated, LFI took the champs to the limit and it seemed in a regular rules tag bout they may have pulled off the win. Faction warfare is alive & well in ROH right now thanks to crazy moments like the show-closing brawl after a fantastic main event.
The Survival of the Fittest tournament is chugging along with some surprising developments including certain matches airing on Youtube instead of all the qualifiers occurring on ROH TV and Isom gaining a measure of revenge against Dak from their match several weeks ago. While Isom-Draper II didn’t go as long as their previous encounter, it had a better sense of urgency & excitement than their first bout. Like Draper said in his interview, these two could become career-synonymous rivals that rise up the ranks alongside each other. Another fun episode of ROH TV for sure.
