Ring Of Honor TV – March 24, 2021: They Surprised Me (In A Good Way)
Ring of Honor
Date: March 24, 2021
Location: UMBC Events Center, Baltimore, Maryland
Commentators: Caprice Coleman, Ian Riccaboni
It’s the go home show for the 19th Anniversary Show but in this case, that might not mean very much. Since this show is on a bit of a weird taping cycle, we might not be seeing anything about the pay per view for a few weeks, which is always a bit of a weird way to go. The show could use some extra build though and maybe we can get that here. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
Opening sequence.
Quinn McKay runs down the card.
Eli Isom has been with Ring of Honor for three years after a standout high school athletics career. Then he got hooked on wrestling with his mom….who died in a car wreck. He was ready to quit wrestling but his mom wouldn’t be happy with him. Then he met Will Ferrara and Cheeseburger to form the Shinobi Shadow Squad. Now he knows he can hang with anyone and wants the TV Title. He has not wrestled in a good bit here (I didn’t think he had) but he is ready for Rey Horus.
Rey Horus knows that Dragon Lee beat him but Lee is not better than him. The story will be different when they meet again, but now he needs to climb the rankings by beating Eli Isom. He knows that Eli Isom is the future, but he is the present.
Eli Isom vs. Rey Horus
They fight over wrist control to start and go to the mat for an exchange of near falls into a standoff. Back up and Horus chops away before knocking Isom to the floor. That means the big running flip dive connects on Isom and we take a break. Back with Isom not being able to complete a suplex with squats so Horus Spanish Flies him for two. That means some swearing on the kickout and it’s time for a slugout. Isom charges into a suplex into the corner for two but reverses a tornado DDT into the brainbuster….for the very surprising pin at 8:01.
Rating: C. I don’t get to say this very often but they absolutely got me here. I would not have bet on Horus taking a loss at all here, let alone a clean one, so well done with the big surprise. Isom is someone they pretty clearly wanted to push so giving him a win here is a good start. ROH needs someone to step up and Isom is every bit as good as any other option they have.
Respect is shown post match.
Someone wants to restore violence. I have no idea why I would believe this, but it’s going to be Tommy Dreamer isn’t it?
Matt Taven is ready to beat Vincent at the Anniversary Show.
EC3 wants Jay Briscoe to defend his island and control his narrative.
Jay Briscoe talks about how WWE has called he and his brother time after time with top level NXT deals but they have been turned down every time because they can make that much money landscaping. EC3 wants him to shake his hand but EC3 is going to have to earn it. If not, Jay is giving him a whipping.
La Faccion Ingobernable vs. Foundation
Eight man tag here and we have all kinds of time for this one. Amy Rose is on commentary and this is Rush/Kenny King/Bestia/Dragon Lee vs. Jay Lethal/Jonathan Gresham/Tracy Williams/Rhett Titus. Before the match, the Foundation promises to regain power at the Anniversary Show by winning the titles, because titles mean power. Makes enough sense.
Gresham and Lee start things off and the pace picks up in a hurry, only to be cut off by some double choking. Some spitting at Lethal brings in everyone at once and it’s a quickly broken up staredown. Lee flips Gresham off though and it’s off to Bestia to stomp Williams down. Williams is back up with some striking of his own but walks into a suplex. Bestia misses a backsplash though and bails out to the floor for a breather.
Lethal and Rush give us a World Title preview with Lethal making the mistake of slapping him in the face, earning a trip into the corner. That’s broken up and Lethal enziguris him to the floor, followed by a triangle dropkick to the floor. Another brawl is teased and we take a break. Back with King and Titus shoving each other in the All Night Express reunion (nice catch by commentary).
Titus grabs a hammerlock and won’t let go, no matter how much spinning Kenny tries. Some chops in the corner rock King but a poke to the eyes gets him out of trouble. A high crossbody gives Titus two so it’s back to Williams to work on the arm. Lethal is back in to do the same, followed by Gresham with the complicated arm cranking. Everything breaks down in a hurry though and it’s the big wild brawl around the arena.
We take another break and come back with Lethal getting beaten up four on one in the corner. Lethal gets knocked to the floor so Williams takes his place and is knocked down in a hurry as well. Ian: “His chest is as red as the Ring of Honor logo!” Rose: “It matches our gear!” Titus counters Lee’s superplex but gets pulled off the ropes to put him down again.
Gresham kicks his way out of the corner and then kicks his way over to Titus for the tag (that is some serious honor when all of La Faccion is in there at once). Everything breaks down again and it’s Lee slugging it out with Titus, setting off the parade of big shots to the face. Gresham hits a big flip dive through the ropes to take out a bunch of people, leaving Titus to take the Bestia Driver for the pin at 18:50.
Rating: B. This got time and built up all of the title matches well, though I was rather surprised at the champions winning, especially with one of the challenges taking the fall. That being said, this was a rather intense match and I was rather pleased that they didn’t throw it out with the big brawl. It’s a nice way to build up four title matches at once, which is a tricky thing to do but made a bit easier when those matches are faction vs. faction. Er, Faccion.
La Faccion poses and brags a lot.
As usual, we wrap it up with the pay per view card rundown, which makes sense. Jay Lethal gets in a quick promo about how he is going to set this company right and even throws in some Spanish for a bonus.
Overall Rating: B-. It is never easy to do a rapid fire built to a Ring of Honor pay per view because they have such a weird schedule. What we got here was good enough, but I’m not sure I could tell you who is getting a shot at which title. The show does look pretty good on paper and at this point, that is as good as anything else I could expect. Ring of Honor has gotten mostly back to normal since the pandemic, so hopefully everything winds up feeling like one of their better pay per views.
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