2300 Arena – Philadelphia, PA – Sunday, September 12, 2021
Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman are on commentary. Dak Draper joins them for match #2, and Lenny Leonard is abord for the Women’s Title match.
~Results and Star Ratings~
- Hour One: Alex Zayne defeats PJ Black, Flip Gordon, Brian Johnson, Rey Horus, World Famous CB, Dak Draper, Joe Keys, Dante Caballero, Silas Young, PCO, Danhausen, Sledge, Caprice Coleman, Brawler Milonas, and Beer City Bruiser (w/ Ken Dixon) in an Honor Rumble at 32:07 to earn a shot at the ROH World Championship. **¾
- Dalton Castle defeats Eli Isom at 9:16. **½
- Taylor Rust defeats Jake Atlas at 6:55. **¾
- VLNCE UNLTD (Tony Deppen, Chris Dickinson & Homicide) defeat John Walters, LSG & Lee Moriarty at 10:58 in a Six-Man Tag Team Match. ***
- The OGK (Matt Taven & Michael Bennett) defeat The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) at 13:17. **¾
- Josh Woods defeats ROH Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham at 20:01 to win the title. Gresham had been the Champion since 10.30.20, and this was his eighth defense. **¾
- ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Shane Taylor Promotions (Kaun, Moses & O’Shay Edwards) defeat La Faccion Ingobernable (ROH World Television and World Tag Team Champion Dragon Lee, ROH World Tag Team Champion Kenny King & La Bestia del Ring) at 11:27 to retain the titles. STP have been the Champions since 2.19.21, and this was their fifth defense. **¾
- Rok-C defeats Miranda Alize at 18:13 in a tournament final to win the ROH Women’s World Title. ****
- ROH World Champion Bandido defeats Brody King, Demonic Flamita, and EC3 in a Four Corner Survival Elimination Match to retain the title at 17:09. Bandido has been the Champion since 7.11.21, and this was his second defense. ***¾
- Week by Week, 9/14: ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor, Moses & O’Shay Edwards) defeat Black Wallstreet (Chuck Lennox, Marcellus Prime & Napalm Bomb) at 8:50 to retain the titles. STP have been the Champions since 2.19.21, and this was their sixth defense. **¼
- Big Lucha, 9/16: ROH World Champion Bandido defeats Matt Taven at 15:36 to retain the title. Bandido has been the Champion since 7.11.21, and this was his third defense. ***
~JZ Says~
The Honor Rumble was the perfect match to have on Hour One. I really liked Caprice Coleman leaving the commentary table to participate in the match. Conversely, I do not care for the “Flip Gordon has amnesia” angle. For starters, I don’t like Gordon that much to begin with, and giving a guy fake head trauma seems like a bad idea in 2021. The match ended well, as Alex Zayne, fresh off a stint in the WWE as Ari Sterling, eliminated PJ Black to win the match and earn a future World Title shot on ROH TV. It’s great to see Zayne back, and a match against Bandido (assuming he retains later on) should be a banger.
Dalton Castle and Eli Isom kicked off the pay-per-view proper, which felt like a good choice. Isom has been on quite a roll, and Castle is a ton of fun. I expected a little more out of this, but it wasn’t bad or anything. Castle got the win with the Bang-a-Rang after a little help from Draper. That ensures this feud will continue, and I hope it goes well for Isom.
Two wrestlers that WWE recently discarded were given a spotlight in the second match of the PPV. Taylor Rust and Jake Atlas put on a spiffy little match that saw Rust get the win after hitting Sole Food and then putting on the Gaia Lock. It’s lucky that ROH chose to put Taylor over, as Atlas announced an indefinite hiatus from wrestling not long after this match. I’m glad Atlas is taking care of himself, and I hope he finds what he needs, whether that be in a wrestling ring or somewhere else.
My least favorite stable in ROH, VLNCE UNLTD, put out an open challenge to anyone from the Pure Division – past, present, and future. That challenge was answered by former ROH Pure Champion John Walters (past), LSG (present), and Lee Moriarty (future). That’s a great idea for a six-man tag, and the match was good. Dickinson pinned Moriarty after a Death Valley Driver, which was really the only finish that would make sense given Moriarty had signed with AEW before this match and we all knew it was going to be his last in ROH.
Fresh off a win over Bandido and Rey Horus, the Briscoes continued their quest back to the Tag Team Titles by taking on the OGK. And for some reason, the OGK won when Taven pinned Jay with an inside cradle. I really don’t get that decision, as the Briscoes have been on a role, and Taven kind of has nothing going on since losing to Vincent. I guess that must be it – they wanted to give OGK a reason to exist.
The match I was most looking forward to seeing was Gresham v Woods for the Pure Title. It managed to both surprise and disappoint me. Both of these guys are great, but this match just didn’t click for whatever reason. The match initially ended in a double pin at 11:46, but neither man was satisfied with that, so the referee allowed them to continue. Most of the time I’m not in favor of a match re-starting like this, but in the Pure Division, especially with honorable competitors like this, it made sense. Unfortunately, it also hurt the flow of the match, and the re-start went on for almost nine more minutes, which was just too long. That being said, the finish was awesome, as Woods powered out of a Kimura Lock and looked to be going for a Tombstone Piledriver, but instead threw Gresham backwards over his head, knocking the Champion out long enough to score the pin. Hopefully they’ll have a rematch that’ll tear the house down, because honestly that’s what I was expecting here.
Another title match followed, with Shane Taylor Promotions slated to face La Faccion Ingobernable. RUSH was originally scheduled to be part of the match, but he was scratched due to an injury and Bestia took his place. Then, when the Champions were making their entrance, King attacked Taylor with a steel chair, taking him out of the match and continuing the program for a likely Final Battle match. Edwards was allowed to take Taylor’s place so that the match could go on. At this point I was convinced that LFI was going to take the titles. The match had a lot of action, and I thought the finish was great. With the referee distracted, Taylor came back out and waffled King with a chair, allowing Moses to get the pin. This was certainly a surprising result, but STP have been a low-key highlight of ROH this year so it’s a surprise I’m okay with.
The Quest for Gold Tournament concluded with Rok-C facing Miranda Alize for the ROH World Women’s Championship. Rok-C beat Sumie Sakai, Quinn McKay, and Angelina Love. Alize defeated Alex Gracia, Nicole Savoy, and Trish Adora, so neither of them had it easy. The match was terrific, with both wrestlers playing their part to perfection. Alize was the confident heel and spent a good part of the match on offense. Rok-C played the plucky babyface who would never say die to perfection. In the end, Alize went for the Drive-by, but Rok-C blocked it and hit the Code-Rok to get the pin.
Finally, it was Main Event time. I liked the four-way format for this, as it’s not something ROH does a ton anymore. All four men put maximum effort in, and they had quite the banger of a match. EC3 was the first to go when the referee caught him using a steel chair on Flamita and disqualified him at 8:49. Former partners Flamita and Bandido worked together for a bit on the much larger King, which seemed like a smart strategy. It only lasted so long though before they fought each other. Flamita had Bandido up for a Muscle Buster and King booted Flamita in the face and pinned him with the All-Seeing Eye at 13:43. That left Bandido alone with King, and they tore it up for the last four minutes or so of the match, and Bandido picked up a big win with a La Magistral cradle. Excellent defense for Bandido and a very good main event to close the show.
After the main event, all four members of The Foundation came out to show respect to the Champion. The Righteous, all dressed in white, also came out and taunted the Champion from the entrance.
Our first bonus match is from the 09/14/2021 episode of Week by Week. Over the summer, Shane Taylor Promotions (in this case it was Taylor, Moses, and Edwards) defended the title at a Maryland Championship Wrestling show against a trio known as Black Wallstreet, who I was not at all familiar with going into this match. It was a solid Indy match, and I like seeing ROH titles defended in other promotions.
Speaking of ROH Titles being defended in other promotions, Bandido put his title on the line at a Big Lucha show in Mexico City against former Champion Matt Taven. Even though Taven lost his title shot to Vincent at Glory by Honor, Bandido hand-picked Taven to be his opponent. Normally someone getting a title shot after losing one would irritate me, but on a non-ROH show I think it’s perfectly fine. They had a good match, with ROH babyface Taven playing the heel, a smart choice for this environment. Bandido got the win with the 21-Plex for his third successful title defense.
JZ Says 