ROH TV
Episode 480
#ROH
Original Air Date: November 27, 2020
Event Date: ?
City: Baltimore, MD
Venue: UMBC Event Center (empty arena)
Commentary: Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman
Ring Announcer: Bobby Cruise
Pure Rules Judges: Will Ferrara, Sumie Sakai, Gary Juster
Intro Video
Backstage
The Foundation are on a mission. Jonathan Gresham talks about restoring honor to Ring of Honor, and they will complete their goal when they collect every title the company has to offer. Jay Lethal says The Foundation is made up of the best wrestlers in the world, and he tells Rhett Titus (who has been wearing an octopus/Cthulhu mask) to show his face to the world. Tracy Williams tells Titus to leave the mask on. Why should he show his face to a world that hasn’t cared about him in 15 years? Why go down the same path they’ve gone down before? The Foundation will create a new normal, and they will rebuild ROH brick by brick.
Video
Quinn McKay welcomes us to Ring of Honor and introduces us to tonight’s matches.
Video
Josh Woods talks about having a good showing against Jonathan Gresham in the Pure Tournament despite not winning the match. He also compares his long MMA career to Jay Lethal’s long pro wrestling career.
Video
Jay Lethal is happy about how the Pure Matches have been going. He says despite getting the judge’s decision in his recent pure match with LSG, he would’ve beaten LSG anyway if the match had been a little longer. Lethal also says the pure rules are made for someone like Josh Woods. Woods should win tonight, but he won’t. Jay Lethal will win, and it won’t be by referee’s decision.
Match 1
Pure Rules Match
Josh “The Goods” Woods vs Jay Lethal (ROH Tag Champ)
(referee: Todd Sinclair)
Result: Josh Woods wins via pinfall with a spladle
Time: 14:03 (1 break)
Match Thoughts
Great match. Woods was maybe a little too overconfident to start. Woods did start string, but his nearly ever-present seemed to rub Lethal the wrong way. Maybe Lethal saw Woods’s smile as disrespect, but whatever the reason, Lethal started to to take control of the match after that. Woods was able to turn things back around in his own favor though, and the final few minutes of the match had Woods countering nearly everything Lethal tried to do with submissions and pinning predicaments. This was a strong match for Woods.
Trending With Taven
Matt Taven welcomes Mike Bennett as his guest. Bennett is happy to be back. He’s been watching ROH and Taven during his time away, and he’s been thinking that something was missing. He thought Matt Taven needed someone to have his back.
Video
“Eleven time” sounds good to Mark Briscoe, but “twelve time” sounds better (as in twelve time tag champs). Mark and Jay have a rematch for the tag titles in their back pocket, but Jay Briscoe is more concerned with EC3 right now. That frustrates Mark. Mark still wants the tag titles, so now he just needs to find a partner.
Video
Brody King is intensely motivated heading into his match with Shane Taylor, and he’s motivated by success.
Video
A huge weight was lifted after his match with Kenny King. Now Taylor’s focus is shifted towards the ROH World Title. Brody King is also looking towards the title, so Taylor is focused on King.
Match 2
Shane Taylor w/ Kaun, Moses vs Brody King
(referee: Joe Mandak)
Result: Brody King wins via pinfall after a series of lariats
Time: 12:37 (1 break)
Match Thoughts
Very good match. This was a fun hard-hitting big man match. King started very quickly with some vicious strikes and a front-flip senton to Taylor who was standing on the floor. King kept control of the match for a while, but a DDT on the floor and a series of hard strikes from Taylor swung the momentum over to Taylor. Once King recovered enough to get back to his feet, the match was fought fairly evenly (and very hard). There were lots more rough strikes, and more than a few big slams. I enjoyed this quite a lot.
Show Impressions
This was one of the better episodes I’ve seen lately. The pure rules match was exactly what I want from that type of match, and the main event was a fun battle with title match implications. This was an extremely fun episode, and it was the first one that really felt like they were building towards Final Battle coming up in a few weeks.
Match of the Night
Josh Woods vs Jay Lethal
As much fun as the main event was, I like the style and execution of the pure match a lot more.