Ring of Honor TV 1/25/2021

Ring of Honor TV 1/25/2021

I can't do gifs for ROH shows unfortunately, so I'll just do a write-up.

Quinn McKay welcomes us to the show. She is wearing some weird red polka dot shirt with suspenders. Shane Taylor Promotions was given the ROH 6-Man titles when the champs couldn't make it due to COVID protocols.

Shane Taylor said he promised his partners they would make them champions, but he said not like this. They said they didn't want the titles because this is not a charity.

We were shown clips of Dragon Lee vs Rey Horus. Lee won this with a pump knee to the face.

 

Dragon Lee then did a promo. He said he is the winner and asked who was next. Brody King then got in his face. He told Lee to tell his family that this is just the beginning for getting in his business.

They said Flip Gordon was suspended for poor in-ring behavior.

They did a video on Josh Woods. He said there is nothing better than being a champ like Flip Gordon. He said he is 100% serious about beating Dalton Castle and there's no time for jokes. He said they are both decorated amateur wrestlers. He said all of his energy is focused on being champion and he said he is chasing gold in 2021. Dalton Castle then talked. He said he has been busy and sidetracked with things outside of wrestling. He said he lost at Final Battle because he wasn't on the show and neither was his opponent, and then challenged him last minute to get on the show.

Dalton said Woods doesn't have a lot going on in his brain and while Woods has beaten him, he will beat him. Dalton said Woods is messing with a big box of beans with a lot of holes. I didn't think either promo was that great but the production for it was good.

Pure Rules Match - Josh Woods vs Dalton Castle

No crowd here due to covid. Dalton goes outside to stall early and they try to roll each other up. Woods hits some arm drags. Woods gets on his 2 legs and his neck in a bridge and Dalton tries to ride him down. Dalton hits a hard back elbow. He tries to catch Woods with his feet while he goes into the corner, but Woods flips him onto the top rope where he goes gut first. Woods ties Dalton up in the ropes and lays some strikes down which looked good. Then while Dalton is stuck in the ropes, he grabs him in a fisherman's suplex position and pulls on him.

Woods hits an exploder where he really rotates Castle. Woods pushes Dalton's back in the ropes then puts him in a type of abomdinal stretch on the rebound. Castle burns a rope break to avoid a german then hiptosses Woods hard over the top rope. We go to break and when we return, we saw that Dalton hit a DDT and some submissions before face kicking him out of the ring. Dalton used a rope break during the break.

Dalton hits a big lariat at 10:30 and then takes a back body drop over the top. Woods grabs him and then gets pushed into the barricades, then he gets thrown into the post. Dalton northern lights suplexes him into the barricades. Back in and Dalton gets suplexed onto his knees. Then Dalton gets put on the middle rope and is german suplexed. Woods hits a Karelin's Lift but it isn't sold and Dalton comes back with a german. They trade forearms with a minute remaining. Woods hits a nasty knee into the spine. Dalton tries to spin him with like an Alabama Slam but Woods gets out and taps him with a reverse cloverleaf at 14:27. I liked this. It had a sense of realism to it and they took some hard bumps.

Quinn McKay interviewed Josh Woods. He said he was disappointed he did so much brawling. He said he came to this division to wrestle not to brawl and he said he wants to be the next Pure Champion. 

The Foundation did a promo. They said Shane Woods promotion turning down the trios titles was an honorable gesture, but gestures are empty without actions. They said they need to prove themselves against themselves - Lethal, Gresham and Tracy Williams.

Shane Taylor Promotions then responded. They said The Foundation is built on a crooked foundation. He said if they wanted to bring change to ROH, they would have over the last 10 years. STP said The Foundation wished they were them. They said they wanted the chance to whoop their @sses and seemingly accepted the challenge.

Shane Taylor Promotions(Shane Taylor, Moses and Kaun) vs The Foundation(Jay Lethal, Jonathan Gresham and Tracy Williams)

Gresham is small. He makes Williams and Lethal look tall. Lethal goes for a single leg and gets tossed. Jay gets thrown into the ropes and forearmed hard enough for him to fall to the outside. Everyone is wearing black here. Williams climbs on Shane's back for a choke. Williams gets put on the top rope and grabs Shane's arm with an armbar over the ropes. Taylor nails Williams hard with a shot

Moses gets in and throws Gresham into the buckle hard and then makes him bounce off with a shoulder. Tracy yells for them to regroup on the outside as STP talks trash to them. I liked that spot. Lethal gets thrown over the top and then Williams gets in and lands a Fujiwara armbar onto Moses. Moses throws WIlliams out but he holds onto the arm and hurts him. Gresham tries to crossbody Moses from the top but just bounces off of him. They continue to work Moses' arm as we go to break. Coming back and Williams is chopping on Moses' arm. Moses then does a ripcord samoan drop. Kaun hits some lariats on Lethal and makes him flip on one, then hits a big back body drop. Kaun then plancha's Lethal and does a gorilla press into a gut buster.

Lethal comes back with a nice forearm and Gresham slips in and delay german suplexes Kaun. Gresham missile dropkicks Kaun from the 2nd rope but probably hurts himself more on it. He tries to evade his opponents but takes a hard knee and a package piledriver from Taylor. Tracy fights off a 2v1 and gets tossed out. Kaun tries to plancha him but gets nothing , then Moses comes off the apron with a flip dive on him. Caprice Coleman said "he parted the red sea on that one", then Lethal suicide dived on Moses. Lethan then dove on Taylor on the other side. Gresham hit a shooting star press from the top on Taylor for 2 then Gresham did an asai moonsault on him and a suicide dive to the outside. Taylor then hit a sitting driver and beat Taylor at 12:08. Good match with Shane Taylor Promotions looking real good here. They said since Taylor beat Lethal, who is the ROH champ, it may make him the #1 Contender

Overall thoughts: Not a bad hour of wrestling at all with both matches being good and some promos in-between building them up.