BRM Reviews the 10/23/2020 ROH

[Big Red Machine]

TRACY WILLIAMS PROMO AFTER LAST WEEK’S WIN- very good build for his match with Jay Lethal next week.

JOSH WOODS & SILAS YOUNG PROMO AFTER LAST WEEK’S WIN- Woods was a little too goofy, but I am excited for this turn that is being built up to with him and Silas. I can’t remember the last time I saw the “one partner is a babyface and the other is a heel but they’re still friends” angle executed better. Maybe Sting and Luger in 1996?

ROH PURE TITLE TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Jonathan Gresham vs. Josh Woods (w/Silas Young)- 4.5/10
They did some fine stuff. Gresham won with a flash pin.

MATT TAVEN vs. VINCENT- no rating, okay segment
Vincent jumped Taven from behind during his entrance. He beat him up and laid him out on a table, then got the purple ladder that Taven used at MSG when he won the world title, which was underneath he ring for some unknown reason. Security came out, but the most they ever did was gently tell Vincent to stop. In fact, they probably helped him more than hurt him, because they were pretty clearly stabilizing the ladder for him to jump off of with a senton onto Taven. Also, if this was intended to be a match, why was there no referee out here?
For what this needed to do for the feud (escalate the violence, and get Vinny his heat back) it worked fine, but the detail-work was not good.

EC3 VS. SHANE TAYLOR VIDEO PACKAGE- EC3 was much better in his comments here than he was last week, but Taylor was tremendous. Problematically, Taylor came off like a huge babyface, and he’s supposed to be the heel. Unless, of course, he’s turned again, which would make him ROH’s version of Big Show at this point.

ROH PURE TITLE TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Jay Lethal vs. Tracy Williams- 7.75/10
This was the best match in the tournament so far. They did a good job both working and making the rope=breaks matter, and put together a hell of a last few minutes.


This was a good episode of ROH. I really hope next week’s tournament finals delivers.