2300 Arena – Philadelphia, PA – Friday, October 15, 2021
Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman are on commentary. Rocco joins them for the Week by Week match.
~Results and Star Ratings~
- ROH World Tag Team Champions La Faccion Ingobernable (ROH World Television Champion Dragon Lee & Kenny King) defeat ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions S.O.S. (Kaun & Moses) at 12:53 to retain the titles. LFI have been the Champions (their second reign) since 9.10.21, and this was their first defense. ***
- The Foundation (Jonathan Gresham, Jay Lethal, Tracy Williams & Rhett Titus) defeat Eli Isom, Taylor Rust, Joe Keys & World Famous CB in an Eight-Man Tag Team Match at 17:50. ***
- Warrior Wrestling Sweet 16, 10/16/21: ROH Women’s World Champion Rok-C defeats Laynie Luck at 11:10 to retain the title. Rok-C has been the Champion since 9.12.21, and this was her third defense. ***
- Week by Week, 10/19/21: Brian Milonas (w/ Beer City Bruiser & Ken Dixon) defeats Eric Martin (w/ Will Ferrara) in a Pure Rules Match at 8:16. **½
~JZ Says~
S.O.S. opened the show with their biggest match to date – a shot at Dragon Lee and Kenny King for the ROH Tag Team Championship. Moses and Kaun had a great showing, I’d say they have to be in the conversation for “most improved” or “breakout stars” for ROH in 2021. Things get crazy at the end, as La Bestia del Ring and Shane Taylor both found their way to ringside and immediately proved to be a distraction. S.O.S. had a visual pin on King, but there are no pins if the referee isn’t there to count it. King recovers and hits Kaun with the Royal Flush, and Lee follows with an Incinerator Knee and that was enough to keep Kaun down. Good tag team action here, and hopefully a sign that the division will have some stability after a rocky 2021.
NEXT WEEK – VLNCE vs PURE! I love a good theme episode.
The main event featured a lot of good wrestling from skilled grapplers. Everyone got a chance to show off a bit here, most notably Joe Keys was a standout on the losing side. Gresham forced Keys to tap out to a heel hook. I know the idea here was just to showcase technical wrestling, but it would’ve helped immensely if there was some thread connecting the team opposite The Foundation to really give this match some oomph. As it was, good stuff but no oomph.
NEXT WEEK – Rhett Titus vs Tony Deppen, Chris Dickinson & Brody King vs Jonathan Gresham & Tracy Williams, and former ROH World Champions face off in the main event when it’s Jay Lethal vs Homicide.
Vincent ends the show with a promo about wanting the ROH World Title, I think. Anyone else get the feeling that they’re putting the title on him at Final Battle?
Rok-C continued to build the prestige of the ROH Women’s World Title, defending it at the Warrior Wrestling Sweet 16 show in Chicago Heights against Laynie Luck on October 16. One of the commentators does a pretty hard burial of Luck, going on and on about how she never won in AEW. That not only makes Luck look bad, but Warrior Wrestling too. Luck has a good showing and gets a lot of offense in, but Rok-C is resilient and resourceful, continually going to a cross-face submission hold, which finally gets her the tap-out win. This has been a good way to build up the title and Rok-C as a fighting Champion.
The Pure Division got some shine on Week by Week, as Brian Milonas and Eric Martin did battle. Milonas in the Pure Division is something that sounded weird on paper but has actually been working very well for everyone. Martin did the best he could, and even came close to scoring a pin late in the match. Milonas dominated with his superior size and power. He puts Martin away with a modified Camel Clutch.
Solid stuff this week, hopefully Final Battle begins to take shape soon.