Last week: Sledge successfully ended his feud with PCO in a crazy Falls Count Anywhere match before Miranda Alize and EC3 overcame Chelsea Green and Eli Isom respectively.
ROH TV Episode 535
December 18, 2021
Baltimore, MD
Rayo vs. Adrian Soriano w/ Primal Fear vs. Eric Martin w/ Will Ferrara vs. Joe Keys
All four men were in the ring at the start of the bell, going at it until Rayo started head scissoring everyone. Soriano stopped Rayo’s assault, knocking him down to spring off his opponent’s back for a Poetry in Motion dropkick on Eric Martin. Joe Keys grabbed Soriano from behind, hitting a pair of German suplexes prior to using a German on both Soriano and Rayo at the same time. Martin stopped Keys’ bridging pin off the German suplex, missing a dropkick on the follow up against Keys. Instead, Martin caught Keys coming in with a power bomb. Sit-out power bomb by Martin on Rayo had the latter rolling to the floor. Soriano drilled Keys with a DDT in the ring after dumping Martin out prior to the commercial break.
Rayo found himself caught on the top by Soriano with a superplex after Rayo was tripped by Martin. Entering the ring, Eric whipped Rayo into Adrian before the latter was turned upside-down with the slam. Keys used a head-butt to stop Martin temporarily before focusing on Rayo. Pulling off a Gory bomb on Rayo while executing a DDT on Martin at the same time didn’t end this one in Keys’ favor as Soriano pitched Joe out of the ring. Soriano climbed to the top rope, missing the Superfly splash on Rayo. Primal Fear saved Soriano from a sure pin after feeling Rayo’s shining wizard. Martin jumped off the top after Rayo tried to take out Primal Fear on the floor, utilizing a cross body block. When Martin pushed Rayo back in, Martin felt a tornado DDT that put him in prime position for the flying elbow drop that saw Rayo pin Eric.
– Footage was shown from Mike Bennett and Matt Taven winning the Top Prospect Tournament in 2011 and 2013 respectively.
– In 2014, Hanson (WWE’s Ivar) won the TPT, while T-Barr himself, Donovan Dijak did the same a year later.
Dante Caballero vs. Matt Makowski
Straight out of the 1980s, Rocco arrived with a microphone in hand to introduce his new client, Matt Makowski – a former Bellator MMA competitor-turned wrestler.
Dante actually did a great job counter-wrestling the grappling specialist. When Makowski got a grip, he whipped Dante over with a keylock suplex for an attempted cross arm bar. When Caballero went to roll out of the submission, Matt swept him into a rear naked choke that only the ropes would stop heading into the commercial break.
Makowski felt a trio of shoulder tackles with Dante’s intent of pinning Matt off a stunning moment. When Dante came off the ropes again, Makowski roundhouse kicked him in the chest. Modified bow & arrow by Makowski was turned into an arm snapper similar to what Pentagon Jr. did in Lucha Underground. With that being stated, Caballero got up swinging for the fences. Dante accidentally swung himself into a flying arm bar that Makowski converted into the keylock Rings of Saturn. Caballero made it to the ropes to save himself, but he was visibly hurting. Dante stopped a cutthroat driver, hitting the falcon arrow for a two count. A high-elevated spine buster also didn’t put Matt away.
Makowski flipped over the ropes following an Irish whip, using the ropes to snap Dante’s hurt left arm backward. Matt slipped through the ropes, rolling Dante into a seated crucifix. Makowski started unleashing elbows until he was pressed into a pinning predicament. Matt kicked out and started throwing a series of strikes & slams including the Disaster Kick and a butterfly suplex slam. Roundhouse kick missed for Makowski, resulting in Dante hitting the Sick Kick. Instead of going for the pin, Dante hooked his opponent for something else. Rocco jumped onto the apron for the distraction, allowing Makowski to kick the unfocused Dante into that cutthroat position that turned into a GTS arm bar for the quick tap out.
– In 2016, Lio Rush became a Top Prospect Tournament winner, while in 2018 it was all about Josh Woods. The most recent TPT winner was none other Dak Draper two years ago.
ROH Pure Championship: Josh Woods (c) vs. Dak Draper
Dalton Castle arrived with hotdogs in hand. Why? Because he wanted to add some spice to this glorified exhibition match. Castle felt this match needed some type of risk. Castle had an idea: make this a Pure title match. Woods didn’t care for the idea because Dak isn’t in the Pure Division rankings. Castle rallied Dak to leave before giving Woods some parting words from Silas Young, “You’re ruining Ring of Honor.” Oh, dems fightin’ words! It’s on – Pure title up for grabs.
The early going was nothing but grappling over control of an arm. Draper was hoisted up, using his legs to grab the ropes without knowledge of the limited number of rope breaks. When Draper reasserted himself, Woods found himself grounded & getting his left ankle twisted. Woods withstood the grappling to land a knee to the abdomen. When Woods got dumped over the top, he cinched in an arm lock that Draper broke with an illegal right hand. The challenger took the warning in stride, slamming “The Technical Beast” for a two count before the commercial.
During the break, Dak lost another rope break to stop an arm bar. Big gut-wrench suplex from Dak put Woods in the corner. The champ avoided whatever Dak had in mind, landing a springboard knee strike. Woods was picking up the pace, only to run into a big power slam that ended in a two count. Draper ran up the ropes for a springboard attack when flew into the flying knee strike. Dak fell through the ropes, getting caught on the way in with several knees with the last ending in a two count thanks to Draper using his last rope break.
Woods immediately went for the cross arm bar with Dak having to counter with the sit-out power bomb. Draper couldn’t believe Woods kicked out of his follow-up pin. Dak had that tilt-a-whirl power slam in mind. The champ countered, hitting the Beast Slam to pin Draper for the title retention.
Overall: Similar to many ROH TV episodes following a pay-per-view, this one featured no big moments or stories, just a slew of matches with an actual theme. Outside of the main event, this show didn’t have any must-see names, but they all worked incredibly hard to leave a lasting impression. The four way was exhilarating from start to finish with Rayo making a great first impression from an aesthetic standpoint before doing well in the ring alongside the explosive Martin, powerhouse Keys, and Soriano who looked just as good by himself as he does alongside his Primal Fear trio. Makowski really looked like a monster in the making and would be perfect for ROH’s Pure Division if it returns in April, while Dante’s been pretty good for quite a while.
The Pure title bout thankfully became such because it made the match unique compared to everything else on the episode and gave Woods a much-needed extra title defense. Really, the most disappointing aspect about this episode is the question of where these individuals will land come April and if they’ll have a chance to grow & thrive because they all showed they could have a spot in the new ROH and become something special.
