Ring of Honor Review - January 4, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Flip Gordon def. ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion Bandido

Due to this being filmed back in March over the weekend of what was supposed to be the 18th Anniversary Show, Gordon came out to the Villain Enterprises entrance music and was announced as a member of the group. Interestingly enough, Ring of Honor announced today that Scurll has mutually parted ways with the company. At any rate, this was a very fun match from two super talented athletes. Both guys are known to deliver at all times and this was proof of that. Some of Gordon's antics outside of the ring are questionable from what I've seen, but ROH remains keen on pushing him.

Mark Haskins def. ROH World Tag Team Champions Jay Lethal

Lethal and Haskins have done battle before, so with that established chemistry, it should have come as no surprise that they had a terrific match here. Haskins was on a roll pre-pandemic, so it's a shame he's been stranded over seas since this was filmed back in March. This was a huge win for him and it sucks that ROH hasn't been able to capitalize on it, but I have no doubt he'll pick up where he left off when he gets back. With Lethal now a member of The Foundation, I could see Haskins feuding with them upon his eventual return.

Overall Show

This was a different type of show than ROH has been putting out since the relaunch as it was focused entirely on how the promotion had to shut down back in March. As noted, both bouts were from the night that ROH was supposed to do the 18th Anniversary Show, so it was the wrestlers' first time competing without fans. The matches were excellent, anyway. There was also plenty of footage from the wrestlers talking about the pandemic and what ROH has done to keep the roster safe, which was really refreshing. While not a must-see edition of ROH TV, I found it a cool way of switching things up and airing never-before-seen matches before we get to the Final Battle fallout, hopefully next week.