Cero Reviews ROH Best In The World 2021

[cero2k]

ROH Best In The World 2021
July 11, 2021
Baltimore, Maryland

** HOUR ONE **

Demonic Flamita vs. Rey Horus - 7.5/10
They had a really good SoCal lucha match, back and forth action. Flamita went heel a while back and got some size on him, so he worked a more grounded style. Horus looked great and really helped put Flamita over as a strong heel, especially with the pin that saw Horus counter a powerbomb into a roll up.

Post-match - Flamita jumped Horus and beat him up.

Kenny King Promo - He said that he's not wrestling tonight and that LFI is getting all wins tonight. The only thing that stayed in my memory was the visual of that white-ass dude with his fist up in support. It made me chuckle.

Matt Taven vs Vincent Contract Signing - nZo, I mean Matt Taven, proposed they have one final match in Philly. Taven said he is leaving ROH regardless of wins and loses. Vincent was out there with his Wyatt Family-Menagerie-Manson Family stable, he wanted Taven's title shot on the line too. Taven, who already said he is leaving anyway, didn't want to put it on the line, and so he said that if Vincent wanted it, the rest of the Righteous had to stay away. Vincent proposed a cage match, and it was agreed upon for August 21st. Then they brawled.

I really like the look of the Righteous, but I hate that it comes off like a Wyatt Family ripoff. They should change their music to something that sounds more like the Beach Boys, add more women, and make it a real Manson Family.

Danhausen & PCO vs. The Bouncers (Brawler Milonas & The Beer City Bruiser) - 5/10
This was kinda boring. Danhausen was the babyface in peril, PCO did a lot of his car crash stuff during the hot tag, then some dumb comedy with PCO malfunctioning and trying to attack Danhausen. PCO won with a moonsault after Danhausen hit the teeth kick thing and an AA on Bruiser. Bruiser at one point did hit an impressive 'springboard' falling elbow on PCO on the floor, emphasis on falling.

You won't get good wrestling out of it, but I think there is potential in this PCO/Hausen team.

Post-match - Sledge and PCO wanted to fight, but DanHausen kept them away.

** Main Show **

Brian Johnson & PJ Black vs. The Briscoes - 7/10
Johnson cut a cheap heat promo during the entrance, it was cheap shots at the people and Silkin of all people. Inbreed cheap shots at the Briscoes. Meh, kid needs to study Zack Gibson tapes.

Match was really good, a lot of action from both teams, Briscoes were out there doing what they do best. My only real issue is I had no reason to care for Johnson and Black as themselves, or as a team, it just came off as the most random thing, to the point that I would have done some dissension between them to lead to the finish, instead, the Briscoes won with a Jay Driller and Froggy Bow sequence.

ECIII vs. Flip Gordon - 6.5/10
Story here is that ECIII is really trying to adhere to the Honor part of ROH, while Gordon has been a dishonorable conspiracy flat-earther.

As for the match, we saw Gordon work over ECIII's leg for a while, ECIII made a comeback, but since his leg was hurting, it he had some trouble building momentum. Eventually, ECIII managed to hit the ECD and a rear naked choke for the submission win. Wasn't expecting Gordon to lose since they brought up that he is challenging for the World title in a month.

Post-match - ECIII offered the code of honor, Gordon slapped him instead, two times actually plus spat on the face for good measures.

ROH World Six Man Tag Team Championship Match
Shane Taylor Promotions (w/O'shay Edwards) (c) vs. Dak Draper, Dalton Castle & Eli Isom - 5/10
Story here is that Castle's team are not amicable between each other, Castle handpicked them, but Isom and Draper are not on the same page. I need to talk about Castle's 'boys' , they went from looking the part, to 4 out of shape guys in Fruit of the Loom V-necks, no feathers, no nothing, is Castle going through a bankruptcy storyline?

In addition to the lack of chemistry between Isom and Draper, Castle was more focused about showmanship, to the point that they came off as comedy heels more than serious ones. That little thing did help make STP look like total badasses when they ran over them. Eventually, the dissension between Isom, Castle, and Draper led to them taking each other out and allowing STP to run wild, and when Isom managed to take down Taylor, Castle tried to still his thunder, which cost the team the biggest chance they had to win. Everyone hit a big move and at the end, Taylor took out Draper with the Welcome To The Land driver and won. Bad match, but a good showcase of how powerful STP are.

Last Man Standing Match
Silas Young vs. Josh Woods - 7/10
Pretty good for a weapons match, it had a good combo with some striking and submission work. I'm not the biggest fan of the LMS stipulation, it's a match designed to suck the air out of the room, but all the ten counts aside, I really enjoyed the action.

There were a couple of good weapon spots with some chairs and a ladder, but they really left the best spot for the finish, which saw Woods German suplex Young from the apron to some tables outside the ring, it looked great.

Matt Taven Interview - McKay interviewed Taven, she asked if he really wanted to be in a cage with Vincent after all that had happened. Taven said that he really wanted that so he could finally get his hands on him without anyone interfering.

Jay Lethal (w/Tracy Williams) vs. Brody King - 6.5/10
I think there are arguments to call this a squash, King was totally dominant, that even Lethal's offense wasn't all that strong enough to call it a 'hope spot'. Lethal early on hit a Lethal Injection and only got a one count. he then followed with for tope suicidas, but he couldn't topple King off his feet, and King actually came back strongly when Lethal went for a dropkick. This initially was feeling like the Takeshita vs Hino match from the King of DDT finals, where Hino was an unstoppable powerhouse that seemed to be running over Takeshita like a freight train, except Lethal wasn't able to make a comeback in this match, and so it was more like a Brock Lesnar vs John Cena Summerslam match, that ended with two Gonzo Piledrivers by King for the win. So not much of a match, but a great showcase and development for King.

Commentary at one point tried to sell it as Lethal's downfall, but I thought it was more about King's unstoppable power, that not even Lethal was able to oppose him.

ROH Pure Championship Match
Jonathan Gresham (c) vs. Mike Bennett - 8.5/10
This was awesome. Story of the match was that Gresham (and most people) didn't take Bennett seriously in Pure title contendership, so he was out there to prove that he could and would win the title, but at the end of the day, while he was perfectly good wrestler, he was in there with Jon Gresham.

Match saw Gresham work over Bennett's arm, while Bennett mostly went for the head, working towards the piledriver. Both guys used their rope breaks somewhat sparingly throughout the match, as they headed to the finish that saw Gresham survive the piledriver with a rope break, after Bennett had already achieved the 3 count, but right after that, Gresham caught Bennett with a leglock, and with no rope breaks left, Bennett tapped out.

ROH World Television Championship Match
Tony Deppen (c) vs. Dragon Lee (w/Bestia Del Ring) - 7/10
Dragon Lee tried to have a Hiromu match with Deppen, but as good as Deppen is, and I do like him a lot, he just doesn't have the charisma to really bring out that emotional connection from the fans, and so for most of the match, the crowd was quiet, only reacting to spots, or to Bestia starting Dragon Lee chants. This could have come off better with a louder crowd.

They had a total Japanese match, full of striking exchanges, the one big dive spot, more strikes, and then into the finisher counter finish sequence. They tried to do a no sell German spot, but they took it too far and instead of doing the proper two Germans and into the mutual collapse, they kept going until you forgot that it was fire pushing the sequence.

Dragon Lee was so dominant that it makes you wonder how did Deppen even get the title to begin with.

Post-match - Dickinson and Homicide came out to make sure that LFI wouldn't jump Deppen. Since they're already out there, we go straight into...

ROH World Tag Team Championship Fight Without Honor Match
The Foundation (Jonathan Gresham & Rhett Titus) (c) vs. VLNCE UNLTD (Chris Dickinson & Homicide) - 7/10
Gresham is replacing Williams in this match after he wasn't cleared to wrestle because of the hit-n-run accident he had early June.

I haven't liked anything Titus has done since he broke up with ANX, but I really enjoyed his work here, he had that same energy from years ago when he and King were getting into Ladder Wars. In addition, I loved the inclusion of Gresham's technical style into a Fight Without Honor. There were a couple of spots that looked sick, but most of them were accidental, like the Titus spot onto the chair that didn't give, but beyond that, most of the spots were somewhat tame and common. At the end, Cide hit the Cop Killah on Gresham for the win, and I guess it makes sense that the guy to take the less was the one who had already wrestled and that was outside his comfort zone.

Kinda crazy to think that Gresham had both the most "Honor" match and the most "Dishonor" matche, almost back to back, in the same night.

Women of Honor Tournament Announcement - Maria Kanellis and Lenny Leonard ran down some of the details of the tournament. They showed the brackets, and in the most comedy way possible, they announced that Vita VonStarr is out of the tournament for cheating and that she will be replaced by someone who is not cleared to wrestle -- "Hot Mess" Chelsea Green.

Chelsea Green cut a promo about finally being in Ring Of Honor, took some shots at the Fed, and that she would win the tournament and championship. I'm all in for Maria and Green working together. Just judging by the brackets, I'm guessing a Angelina vs Green and Savoy vs AK47 Semis?

ROH World Championship Match
Rush (c) (w/LFI) vs. Bandido - 7/10
I haven't watched many ROH Rush matches, but for me, this was a weird Arena Mexico Rush match that spent a lot of time in the ring. It's kinda like they wanted to have a Rush brawl, but never pulled the trigger and just kept doing stuff at ringside. The stuff in the ring was good, it wasn't a fully fleshed out Lucha match, but there was some of it. It was a particular treat for me to hear these guys trash talking in Spanish inside the ring.

The story of the match was that Rush was too cocky for his own good and ended up costing him the match and championship. He hit the Bull's Horns right off the bat, and could have potentially ended the match there, but he decided to punish Bandido, and so he did.

Bandido did have some comebacks, hitting the Revolution Fly, the 24Plex, and a huge tope con giro on to a table, but Rush kept getting up no matter what, and thus, Rush never lost his cockiness. Because of that, finish came when Rush went for the mask, but with the referee pretending it's an issue to do so in US wrestling, Rush distracted himself and got rolled up for the upset win.

Finish got a pop, but it was clearly for the surprise, not the effort of winning. Bandido didn't win the title because he really earned it, he was lucky enough that tonight, Rush was in there for some fun and not the quick paycheck, and so it'll be interesting to see how they follow up. Bandido will look bad if he pretends to be the conquering champion or something of sorts.

Post-match - LFI ran down and jumped Bandido. Dragon Lee seemed to have second thoughts about the attack, and at the end of the day, Bandido didn't get to celebrate.

I don't know Rush's status with ROH, but this loss really makes me wonder if Andrade's big 'announcement' on AEW could have something to do with the original Ingobernables.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was for the most part a good show, that had such a shitty crowd that for the first time since crowds have started to pop up, it reminded me what happens when you actually have fans live and their reactions are meh. I did think that a couple of matches from the first half could had been off the pay-per-view, the opener and the STP match both felt like excuses to book people in.

[Big Red Machine]

I don't know Rush's status with ROH, but this loss really makes me wonder if Andrade's big 'announcement' on AEW could have something to do with the original Ingobernables.

If he were on his way out, they would have given Bandido a more definitive win.