Welcome to another edition of The ROHbot Report – the only article you need for all the Ring of Honor news you have to know. Last year’s “Anniversary” was canceled due to the beginning of the pandemic. One year later the men & women of honor looked to celebrate what came before them and the history they’ll make now. Lets find out what happened when ROH returned to pay-per-view.
19th Anniversary Results
March 26th, 2021
Baltimore, MD
– Four Corners Survival Match: Brian Johnson defeated Danhausen, Eli Isom, and LSG
– ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship: Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor & The Soldiers of Savagery) defeated MexiSquad (Bandido, Flamita & Rey Horus) to retain
– ROH World Television Championship: Tracy Williams defeated. Kenny King to become the NEW CHAMPION
– Flip Gordon defeated Mark Briscoe
– Dalton Castle defeated Josh Woods
– Jay Briscoe defeated EC3
– Triple Threat Match: Bandido defeated Flamita and Rey Horus
– Unsanctioned Fight: Matt Taven vs. Vincent ended in a No-Contest
– ROH Pure Championship: Jonathan Gresham defeated Dak Draper to retain
– ROH World Tag Team Championship: The Foundation (Tracy Williams & Rhett Titus) defeated La Faccion Ingobernable (Kenny King & La Bestia del Ring) to become the NEW CHAMPIONS
– ROH World Championship: RUSH defeated Jay Lethal to retain
Ring of Honor’s return to pay-per-view started with an hour of free action as rising stars Danhausen, Brian Johnson, Eli Isom and LSG did battle. Beyond Johnson’s very vocal onslaught, a majority of the match saw “The Mecca” playing catch-up as the likes of LSG and Isom took the sky. The mysterious force that is Danhausen wasn’t left out of the action, really getting in a series of impressive attacks including that snap German suplex before trying to poison his rival Johnson with those infamous teeth.
Though Johnson didn’t get some extra teeth in his mouth, he did get knocked to the floor as Danhausen hit his version of the Go 2 Sleep on LSG. Johnson shocked Danhausen by not only removing LSG from a lateral press, but also poking him in the eyes prior to executing the process to avenge his loss to Danhausen at “Final Battle” via a pin fall. A very good opening bout with LSG and Isom truly impressing with their exchanges both on the mat and in the air. Johnson winning was much needed for him as he’s been all talk on ROH TV, but failed to actually win a bout. Danhausen loses, but with him getting so little airtime on ROH TV it doesn’t really hurt him.
The first of five title matches capped off the first hour as Shane Taylor Promotions defended their newly-won Six-Man Tag Team title against the team they defeated for the gold in MexiSquad. The blistering speed and being able to hit & run kept STP reeling for the match’s majority including Taylor being the recipient of a triple splash. It wasn’t until Bandido got kneed on the jaw by Shane did things fall apart for the former titleholders. A communication breakdown soon followed for the luchadors as they were one-step behind in regards to stopping their partners from taking attacks; leading to Flamita feeling a double team DDT from The Soldiers of Savagery for the pin fall loss for MexiSquad. After the match the fallen trio imploded and challenged each other to a match later in the night. While not as good as their ROH TV encounter, this was another solid bout that would’ve benefited greatly from more time.
The PPV officially started with the Television Championship on the line as Kenny King defended the title for Dragon Lee against Tracy Williams. After some protesting from King about having to defend a title he didn’t own, the La Faccion Ingobernable member went hold for hold with the master technician; going after that heavily-braced shoulder early. King looking for something more high impact is what cost him as the superplex was countered into that turnbuckle DDT. The proxy champion was in a bad way as the match continued; forcing his manager Amy Rose to slide the TV title belt in with the hope of her client using it as a weapon. Williams stopped King before he could either crack him with the title belt for a win or disqualification retention by spiking Kenny with the piledriver for the pin fall and the championship. Once again another solid bout that needed more time to be memorable beyond the title change.
Flip Gordon and Mark Briscoe came into this show looking for a fight after weeks of sneak attacks. They brawled in the early minutes with Gordon actually getting the advantage and being able to pull off maneuvers such as a twisting neck breaker and the fisherman’s suplex. Mark’s tenacity came to play as he exploded and turned the tides after executing that blockbuster to the floor. The momentum continued to swing back & forth until Briscoe made the critical mistake of bringing a chair into the ring. The referee stopped Briscoe from using the weapon, missing a low blow by Gordon to his opponent that put Mark in position for the Flip 5 and the pin fall. To sound like a broken record – another solid match that didn’t go too long to really leave a lasting impression with the right person winning considering Gordon still has that ROH World title shot in his back pocket and Mark is determined to regain the ROH World Tag Team Championship.
In their rubber match, Dalton Castle and Josh Woods looked to determine the best between the two under the watchful eye of rival and tag team partner respectively Silas Young. Just like their previous encounters the two focused on trying to out-grapple one another before they just went to suplex the other into oblivion. Woods won the early suplex battle, but Castle showed a champion-level toughness to bring the fight to the floor. Young was offering advice to Woods throughout; giving him the understanding of Castle’s whereabouts & being able to counter things “The Peacock” had in mind including having the chance to pull off an apron power bomb.
Then Woods decided that he didn’t want Young’s help – help that would’ve seen “The Goods” take a chair being handed to him by Young. “The Last Real Man” had enough, cracking Woods with the steel chair as Castle sent Josh into the ropes after the referee was caught in a collision. When the referee came to he counted down a pinned Woods to give Castle his first PPV win in years. After the match, Young declared his educating Woods has come to him now looking to make “The Goods” a real man. Beyond being the best bout of the show thus far, this match also had a shocking result with Young “turning” on his protege. This looks to be the making of either an intense war between the two or Woods finding a level of no-nonsense aggression that leads to 2 Guy 1 Tag reuniting & dominating the tag division.
Entering the honorable realm for the first time in wrestling gear, EC3 confronted the former two-time ROH World champion Jay Briscoe. Instead of getting an intense brawl as expected, the two tried to prove their grappling superiority with the jacked EC3 showcasing his technical acumen after the pair looked to collide like two rams. Though Jay rallied through several big maneuvers and landed some of his own, EC3 mostly kept the momentum in his favor through the match’s majority.
Shockingly as the match progress the kinks in EC3’s plan started to show as each counter-move Briscoe connected with stunned EC3 a lot longer until the match’s closing moments where Jay’s running big boot left EC3 out on his feet; offering his hand to Briscoe for the Code of Honor. Briscoe took the handshake, using it to yank EC3 into the Jay Driller for the win in a very old school style encounter that would’ve been interesting to see in front of a live crowd deciding who to side with before the climax that really happened after the match with Jay following the Code of Honor with a man he declared didn’t deserve his handshake. It’ll be interesting to see where both men go from here and if this feud is over.
The battle between MexiSquad occurred next and it was a thriller of an encounter with bodies flying everywhere as all three found opportunities to retaliate or capitalize on the actions of their opponents such as Rey Horus turned Bandido’s power bomb attempt into a face buster, only for Flamita to frog splash Horus. The closing moments were just as awe-inspiring as Horus felt the 21-Plex for the pin fall in favor of Bandido. Flamita refused to follow the Code of Honor afterward, but the real story was how much of a banger & something completely different from else that occurred on the show up to this point with the right man winning. Hopefully this is the beginning of a big push for Bandido that seemed to be the case for him pre-“Final Battle ’19” before he got injured.
The unsanctioned fight in Fall River between Matt Taven and Vincent saw ROH’s first cinematic bout experience with Matt Taven trying to convince Vincent to fight him instead of starting a building-wide chase sequence like something from a horror movie. Eventually they made it to the training room where a ring was set up where they fought in & around until the war moved further into the building. Some painful moments occurred throughout including Vincent falling down a flight of stairs before Taven elbow dropped him from the starting point of the fall.
Eventually they returned to the balcony that Vincent welcomed Taven from; falling over thanks to the assistance of an unidentified individual. Careening through several tables below, Vincent and Taven were pretty much unconscious with the person responsible for their fall helping Vincent out of the building. Though there wasn’t a winner, this was actually a very enjoyable fight in a different environment. While it seemed they would really turn up the B-movie level campiness considering Vincent’s character, they rooted the match in the idea of two people simply wanting beat the snot out of each other. Apparently this feud must continue.
The much-awaited announcement of ROH’s Women’s Championship tournament finally occurring happened next with Maria Kanellis-Bennett hosting the segment. After announcing that this summer will see the return of ROH’s women’s division and before the tournament former Women of Honor champion Angelina Love will get her chance to embarrass Quinn McKay. McKay – who The Allure of Love & Mandy Leon attacked months ago – has the chance of embarrassing of Love on ROH TV in a match. But of Love wins she gets an early bye; potentially putting her as the favorite to win. It’s wonderful that ROH hasn’t given up on rebuilding its women’s division and it should be great to see if they can gather the same level of talent they did last year when the original talent was planned.
The Pure title match featuring Jonathan Gresham trying to overcome the size & strength disadvantage of his challenger Dak Draper. Unfortunately for the champ, Gresham found himself outmatched when trying to utilize his grappling acumen simply because of Draper’s size & the challenger being just as well-rounded when locking up. Switching gameplans, Gresham went down the striking route while aiming for Draper’s legs. The strategy worked for Gresham as Dak struggled to maintain any consistent offense as his leg would give out without warning. Unfortunately for Gresham it was the lack of honor in Draper’s nature that almost cost him the gold as “The Mile-High Magnum” unleashed a devastating right punch that garnered Dak a warning from the referee.
Draper seemed to be on the verge of victory with the stretch muffler when his leg gave out on him. Leaving the ring, Draper found no haven as Gresham dove on him & cinched in the sleeper. With no rope breaks in the possession of either competitor, Draper using the ropes to pull himself into the ring didn’t help him & his ability to remain standing allowed “The Octopus” to put another challenger to sleep for the victory in, arguably, the show’s best bout. Just a fantastic David vs. Goliath affair with Gresham’s strategy & tenacity proving the difference in a match where he seemed outmatched at the start.
Like the TV title match, Dragon Lee was substituted in his Tag Team Championship defense as La Bestia del Ring teamed with Kenny King to defend against The Foundation’s Rhett Titus & Tracy Williams. Unwisely, The Foundation went to war with the champions; losing an early advantage before things settled down as The All Night Express exploded yet again in a ROH ring. Eventually The Foundation took control with King being the recipient of the abuse his challengers were dishing out while Bestia did his best to run interference.
Yet again it was Amy Rose attempting to help through illegal activity that cost LFI when she tried to hand Bestia a chair. The referee intervened, leaving Bestia open for Titus’ dropkick-full nelson combo for The Foundation’s submission victory. After the match, Bestia speared Rose after Amy tried to stand up for herself; ending her stay in LFI after a rather tumultuous & confusing few months. Not the most memorable Tag title bout in recent ROH history for sure, but the shake-up definitely hurt the match’s quality. With The Foundation winning two of three titles from LFI it really gave The Foundation a strong showing heading into the main event.
And what a main event it was for RUSH as he faced “The Franchise” Jay Lethal. Unlike RUSH’s recent title defenses he gladly grappled with Lethal instead of trying to initiate a brawl. When it seemed RUSH’s want to prove his wrestling superiority over Lethal wasn’t working, he unleashed a knee strike that rocked the challenger & left him open to being battered at ringside as per the norm with RUSH matches. RUSH maintained control for the match’s majority; mixing insulting words with strikes any time Lethal attempted to make a comeback. As expected, LFI interference became a big part of the match’s story when Lethal caught the champ in a figure four leg lock.
Bestia bashed Lethal with a chair after the challenger gave up on the submission and went for Lethal Injection. The referee, though distracted by King, realized what happened and was prepared to stop the bout when Lethal begged him not to. The Foundation eventually cleared the area of LFI that led into their closing minutes where RUSH survived the Lethal Injection and Lethal didn’t fall to the Bull’s Horns. But the latter had destabilized Lethal enough that RUSH was able to follow up with a second Bull’s Horns to eventually pin his latest fallen challenger. The match that didn’t break away from the formula of RUSH’s big matches too much, but had a level of intensity rarely seen in wrestling now.
Instead of being happy about the victory, LFI looked to humiliate Lethal after the match by attacking him. The Foundation failed to overcome the numbers and general wear & tear from their matches earlier in the night. Then the unexpected happened as Brody King arrived to alert LFI and The Foundation he now has allies as well. By Brody’s side were none other than Tony Deppen, “Dirty Daddy” Chris Dickinson, and former ROH World champion Homicide! King’s family (would love for them to be called “Just Violence”) laid waste to everyone in their path including LFI and The Foundation as the commentators declared the same. A fantastic way to end the show with a great surprise alongside the potential clashes being set for the very near future.
Overall this was a strong show from ROH featuring several highly entertaining bouts including the main event, Castle-Woods, Briscoe-EC3, MexiSquad’s high flying affair, and the unsanctioned fight. Lee’s inability to wrestle definitely hurt his scheduled matches, but nothing hurt the potential of a few matches more than how loaded the card was; being too stacked as some matches that could’ve benefited on a card with one or two match less (specifically the TV and Six-Man title bouts) didn’t – something that has become a problem for ROH PPVs over the last few years. Here’s hoping next time (most likely in June for “Best in the World”) ROH sticks to a less can mean more mentality if done right. Definitely a very enjoyable show with some interesting twists & developments that should mean big moments in the near future.
And there you have it. Show that love, or like, for The ROHbot Report on its Facebook page. Here’s to a great week for you and yours; and as always, thanks for reading.
