‘Ring of Honor’ Wrestling Review (July 10th 2021)
Welcome to this week’s Ring Of Honor review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have… Virgil: Got that ass yet? Me: Excuse me? Virgil: Bamalam! Me: What? Virgil: Lick d–k-stick prick! Me: Now wait a minute… Virgil: Where Is Carmen Sandiego?! Me: Huh? Virgil: Come get this Olive Garden bread-stick…in the ass! Me: Okay! Ring Of Honor starts now! Gotta go! Virgil: Open matte! Me: Now that didn’t make a lick of sense!
Match #1: Jay & Mark Briscoe b. Joe Keys & Dante Caballero
The following is courtesy of rohwrestling.com:
After last week’s Fight on the Farm, the Briscoes are back together and, as Papa Briscoe demanded, starting at the bottom to work their way back into title contention. The Briscoes isolated Keys early. After Keys tagged in Caballero, Caballero slammed Jay Briscoe and hit a backbreaker for a two count. Mark Briscoe tagged in and ran wild on Keys and Caballero. The Briscoes hit Redneck Boogie on Keys for a near fall. Jay hit a backbreaker on Key, and Mark followed with Froggy Bow for the win.
The Verdict: 5 out of 10 – There’s not much to this, but it worked as a long squash. The Briscoes had worthy opponents to mash into paste here and the paste managed to hold the craft together. You get nothing fancy here, but ham and eggs ain’t fancy and it’s a good meal. Okay. Next match.
Match #2: Flip Gordon b. PJ Black
The following is courtesy of rohwrestling.com:
Black’s protege, Brian Johnson, sat in on commentary. Gordon hit a springboard dropkick that knocked Black out of the ring. Gordon superkicked Black on the floor. Back inside the ring, Black hit a top rope hurricanrana followed by a moonsault from the top rope for a near fall. Black went to the top again and connected on a double stomp/dropkick for a near fall. Gordon answered with a standing Shooting Star Press for a two count. Black hit a Spanish Fly off the middle rope for a near fall. Black planted Gordon with a backbreaker into a twisting facebuster for another two count. Gordon hit a Blue Thunder Bomb for a near fall. Gordon poked Black in the eye and hit Flip Five. Then he applied Submit to Flip, and Black tapped out. After the match, Gordon reapplied the hold. Johnson came off commentary and Gordon retreated.
The Verdict: 7 out of 10 – This was a nice, slick match that never got ahead of itself. Flip and PJ are certainly a dream pairing, at least of mine anyhow. I’m glad that Flip has committed so much to his grappling as of late. It may not win him immediate praise, but it will add greatly to his credibility. PJ is another wrestler who made the commitment to technical wrestling and he has benefited greatly from it. What you get from having these two at this point in their career when they are in here together is a constantly changing contest that goes from hold to dive as smoothly as a salmon swimming home. Flip won and should have. I’m pretty happy with how this turned out.
Match #3: (Main Event) La Facción Ingobernable (Dragon Lee & Kenny King) b. The Foundation (Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham) and Violence Unlimited (Brody King & Tony Deppen)
The following is courtesy of rohwrestling.com:
Lee and Kenny stood on the floor, content to let The Foundation and VU battle each other. After Gresham hit the ropes, Lee and Kenny tripped him and dragged him out of the ring. Then they double-suplexed him on the floor. Lee and Kenny later did the same thing to Lethal, and then to Deppen. Gresham hit a springboard moonsault on Deppen and then dove onto Lee and Kenny on the floor. After Brody hit the ropes, Lee and Kenny tripped him and dragged him out of the ring. They attempted to double-suplex him, but Brody powered both of them up for a suplex. Lethal landed a suicide dive on Brody. Lee hit a pump-handle Blue Thunder Bomb on Gresham, but Lethal broke up the pin. Kenny hit a Tiger Driver on Gresham, but Deppen made the save. Gresham and Lethal hit the Combination Cutter on Lee. Deppen nailed Gresham with a Shining Wizard. Kenny kicked Deppen in the head and covered Gresham for the win.
The Verdict: 7 out of 10 – These three teams co-existed well together and kept the pace going smoothly in a match that could have easily gone astray. Spots are found on the canvas here, but they were painted upon it instead of splashed erratically. There’s not a lot in the way of absolute grappling or any sort of pure mat work, but it’s a basic tag match that has been given time to stretch. That’s better than being rushed from stunt to stunt. LFI winning was the right call. Okay. Come see some excellent tag work and action so hot you could cook a pelican covered in koala juice. I hope that we get more from these teams together.
Final Verdict: 7/10
ROH does it again. Simple wrestling made interesting by staying on task and offering what was promised. Go figure. WWE, AEW, Impact, NWA and the like should take a page from ROH’s play-book study it. There’s nothing wrong with ambition, but if you are gonna change your mind on what the ambition is every week, then you will lose people. ROH sticks with the plan every week and is therefore fun to watch. I’ll see you next time.
