Last week: In a “Championship Edition” of ROH TV, Bandido and Josh Woods successfully defended the ROH World and Pure Championships respectively by defeating Alex Zayne and LSG.
ROH TV Episode 530
November 13, 2021
Philadelphia, PA
– Quinn McKay ran down tonight’s card including The OGK taking on PJ Black & Flip Gordon, as well as The Foundation facing The Righteous. But first, Caprice Coleman returns to the ring for his grudge match with Beer City Bruiser.
Caprice Coleman vs. Beer City Bruiser w/ Brian Milonas & Ken Dixon
Silas Young took to the commentators’ table to replace Caprice for the evening. In the pre-match promo, Beer City Bruiser was still lamenting over Coleman eliminating BCB in the Honor Rumble at “Death Before Dishonor”. Bruiser declared he should be the top contender to the World title. Like Caprice surprised BCB, Bruiser has a surprise in store for Caprice. Bruiser suddenly opted out of the match; declaring that if Coleman wants to fight he’ll have to take on Ken Dixon with the stipulation that if Coleman can beat Dixon, Caprice will get his match with BCB.
Caprice Coleman vs. Ken Dixon w/ Brian Milonas & Beer City Bruiser
Code of Honor followed, but Ken Dixon was reluctant to let go of the handshake. When they officially tied up, Dixon muscled the veteran around the ring while using his forearm to face wash Caprice. Coleman gave Dixon a taste of his own medicine when he got Dixon pressed against the turnbuckles. The show entered a commercial break as Coleman attempted a series of pinning combinations that came up short.
Coleman was still in control landing slams and dropkicks. Just when Caprice had things going his way, Milonas jumped onto the apron for the distraction that allowed BCB to clothesline Coleman. Dixon showed incredible strength as Caprice attempted to fight back by jumping off the middle rope. Coleman, instead, flew into a fall away slam. Dixon made a big mistake by letting Caprice come off the ropes again as his opponent executed the Ruff Ryder on the rebound. Dixon countered Father Time (a cobra clutch side Russian leg sweep). Dixon knocked Coleman to the floor where The Bouncers abused him. Coleman got up fight, actually knocking BCB & Dixon down at ringside before executing Father Time into the seated cobra clutch on Ken in the ring. Before Dixon could tap out, BCB ran in to knock Coleman out for the disqualification in Coleman’s favor.
But The Bouncers & Dixon weren’t done, beating Caprice down.
– A highlight package was shown focusing on PJ Black attempting to help Flip Gordon regain his memory after the latter took a Jay Driller on a steel chair a few months back. Taking a strange potion, Gordon ended up in a tree; dreaming about his time as a mercenary.
Flip arrived in the doctor’s office, being told by PJ that he shouldn’t listen to people like Cody for advice after Gordon remarked that this Cody was the reason Flip was wearing suits now. Instead, Gordon is to write all of his dreams down to deliver to Black in the very near future.
The OGK vs. Flip Gordon & PJ Black
Matt Taven explained that Flip Gordon is the little brother he never wanted – a man now stuck somewhere in the past. Mike Bennett felt sorry for Gordon, but The OGK’s future is looking bright as they look to win the ROH World Tag Team title.
It was Matt Taven facing off with Flip Gordon with Flip almost getting pinned as he argued over the fact Bennett shouldn’t be here right now (since it seems Flip has flipped back to 2018). Gordon wanted a pause in the action to write down this revelation, only to be dropkicked into a tag. PJ Black’s initial attacks stunned Taven, but the former World champ quickly recovered and tagged in Bennett so they could perform a double team dropkick. Black stopped a fireman’s carry maneuver, tagging out to Gordon while holding Bennett’s arm in position for a leaping attack heading into the commercial break.
Gordon took a knee to the ribs courtesy of Bennett, feeling a Death Valley driver soon after that was meant to set up Hail Mary. Black saved his partner by shoving Taven off the top rope prior to tagging in. Black was on fire, landing some big attacks including the double reverse DDT on both opponents after using a moonsault off the middle rope. Black’s momentum was halted by Taven’s super kick into Bennett’s spine buster. Black stopped pin attempts and even tried to fight back until he was kicked in the face by Taven. Black fought out of the Proton Pack, tagging in Flip.
Gordon landing fly knees on both opponents to put them on the floor for a double dive. Taven had to be saved from a sure pin when his body was crushed by 450 splashes and standing shooting star presses. Bennett also had to save Taven from a pin after Black executed the Canadian destroyer. Unfortunately for Gordon, an errant strike knocked down PJ and left a stunned Gordon in position for the double team spike piledriver. Taven made the cover, pinning the man with amnesia.
The Foundation (Jonathan Gresham, Tracy Williams & Rhett Titus) vs. The Righteous (Vincent, Bateman & Dutch)
Tracy Williams claimed The Righteous is lying about their purity, but tonight is a night to truly show what pure wrestling is to Vincent & his crew.
Vincent requested the microphone, asking why Jay Lethal wouldn’t stand with The Righteous. When Lethal denied his want to be alongside The Righteous, Vincent demanded a video be played with Lethal actually with The Righteous stating, “I don’t even like The Foundation!” Of course The Foundation was confused as Lethal claimed innocence. Lethal exited in a huff, leaving his confused allies open for a Pearl Harbor job heading into another commercial break.
Gresham found himself on the wrong part of town with Vincent repeating, “I don’t even like The Foundation.” Dutch followed his leader’s lead with strikes topped by, “I don’t even like The Foundation!” as did Bateman. Gresham took a big right from Vincent, responding with an enzuguri after giving Vincent the double bird. Tracy Williams tagged in, landing clotheslines & bicycle kicks. When Williams went for the pin, the referee told “Hot Sauce” he wasn’t holding the tag rope when he tagged in. The Righteous took control of the confusion, knocking all three members of The Foundation to the floor. Once again the isolation was on Gresham as he felt Dutch’s power bomb into Vincent’s Red Rum … that gave Vincent a near fall!
“The Octopus” was doing everything in his power to avoid Vincent’s grip, but failed miserably with Gresham almost getting pinned three times. Slipping & sliding, Gresham made it to Rhett Titus for the big tag. Titus almost pinned Bateman, but opted to dive atop his illegal opponents. Big boots for all The Righteous courtesy of Titus. Dutch had to grab Gresham as the latter did the same to him as the big man attempted to save Bateman from Rhett’s single-leg Boston crab. Dutch knocked Gresham into Titus, leaving Rhett prone to a jackhammer from Dutch. Williams felt Orange Sunshine before Titus took the Boss Man Slam from Dutch put Rhett down for the three count.
Overall: After a very wrestling-centric episode last week, viewers got some intriguing and somewhat disappointing story elements. In regards to the positives is the questionable video featuring Jay Lethal apparently in cahoots with The Righteous. The confusion caused by said video allowed Vincent & his group to pretty much run through The Foundation in impressive fashion. With “Final Battle” less than a month away, it’ll be very interesting to see how all of this pans out and if it will affect Gresham’s plans to challenge for the World title considering Vincent has a World title shot in his back pocket after defeating Matt Taven in August. In regards to Taven – The OGK gained another big win leading up to their Tag Team title opportunity against a new pair that allowed for some comedy in their pre-match vignette and Gordon’s interactions with people while in the mindset it’s still 2018. With that being stated, the night’s second bout was, arguably, the best of the show.
On the opposite end of the spectrum was the bait & switch. While Coleman-Dixon was actually very good, the disappointment of not getting a promoted match in favor of something they could’ve easily set up last week during the confrontation where BCB told Coleman he’d have to fight Dixon to get a shot at Bruiser would’ve avoided the opening segment from having that WWE feel to it during a time when ROH is standing out for being unlike almost every other promotion out there. There’s no necessary, must-see bouts here, but a solid show with some storyline & character developments that have been sorely missing since “Death Before Dishonor”.
