Matt Lott recaps the happenings of last week from the studio. He says it was unfortunate that the referee had to stop the match last week, but it needed to be done due to Ricky Starks injury. After getting past Cheeseburger last week, Aaron Solow takes on one of the fastest rising stars today, MJF.
Aaron Solow wanted to go out there and steal the show with Ricky Starks last week, however that wasn’t the case. It’s unfortunate the way it went down, but at the end of the day when he wins the Black Belt, he can say he already beat someone on the ROH roster. As for MJF, he hasn’t seen a ton of his wrestling, but he’s seen him speak a lot. MJF grew up in Long Island, and ended up getting a D1 scholarship for Football, but he just wasn’t feeling it. One day he turned on his TV, and saw two men wrestling in their underwear. He looked it up, and saw how much money you could make in wrestling. MJF is always interested in investing, so he thought he’d give it a shot. Just because all of these other veteran’s have been wrestling for ten or so years, it doesn’t mean he has to respect them. MJF respects people who are good, and the only person who is good in the industry is Maxwell Jacob Freedman. Solow says he knows MJF will mouth off during their match, but he won’t let it get to him. MJF calls Solow a good little kid, but in this industry there are top guys, and then there’s Aaron Solow. He was handed the belt, and it doesn’t take talent to do what he does. MJF is “the youngest and best rising star in the history of this business”. It’s good for Solow to think he’s good, because everyone can dream.
Dojo Pro White Belt: Aaron Solow (c) vs. MJF
I’ve never been sold on MJF being that great of an in-ring wrestler, but he’s VERY charismatic and is a great promo guy. This was a solid back and forth match, with both getting some good stuff in. It seemed like MJF was going to force Solow to tap to his armbar, but Solow just wouldn’t give up. I was a big fan of Solow retaining here, but I didn’t care too much for the finish itself. MJF did a great job of overselling the kickout from Solow after his variation of a piledriver, and then we got into the submissions. Solow got out of MJF’s armbar, and locked in the cross-face to pick up the win. The cross-face was just randomly locked in, and I don’t even remember him using it last week. Maybe I just missed something, who knows. Anyways it was a great win for Solow, as the crowd absolutely despised MJF, and all of his dirty tactics he brought with him for this one. MJF felt similar to Janela with the using of the ref, eye poking, etc., but I can’t complain because he didn’t walk out with the win.
Winner: Aaron Solow
Match Rating: ***
HE’S BACK! Rob Johnston asks Solow what is going through his mind after making the #3 wrestler tap out. Solow is so glad he got the win, but he’s even happier that he made the rich punk tap out. To all of Solow’s doubters, they better believe, because Solow is no underdog. Solow plans on making it past Strickland and Cobb, to become the Dojo Pro Black Belt.
Final Thoughts:
I was afraid that we’d be back to the White Belt being a hot potato, and changing hands left and right here at the final episodes. Thankfully, I was wrong, as Aaron Solow successfully defended the White Belt. It seemed like they brought in MJF and Strickland as high ranks to give them the belt, but so far that hasn’t been the case. Now, we have a GREAT match set up for next week, with Solow vs. Strickland. Both are amazing babyfaces, and will be the perfect opponent for Cobb in the finals. Good choice by Dojo Pro. This week was a solid episode, just under 25 minutes, but it flew by like usual. The wrestling here was solid, and the decision was a surprising one to me. Only two more episodes to go!
Final Rating: 7.0/10
If you would like to watch Dojo Pro, you can purchase Season 1 for $19.99 here or watch it for FREE with your Amazon Prime membership.