Ring of Honor Review - June 21, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Bandido def. Bateman in a Survival of the Fittest Qualifying Match

I've never really cared for Bateman personally, but I love how he established his motivation for winning during his pre-match sit-down interview by saying that he wanted to win for Vincent. Obviously, that came into play afterward when he lost and Vincent and his crew attacked him with Bateman acting like a sacrificial lamb. This wasn't anything too flashy, but it was a good match with the right guy winning.

ROH World Television Champion Tony Deppen def. ROH World Tag Team Champion Tracy Williams and Dragon Lee in a Three-Way Match

Deppen just won the TV title from Williams not too long ago, so despite the multi-man stipulation, I never saw the title being in jeopardy here. That said, this was a very well-wrestled match with all three guys having great showings. Lee willingly let Deppen pin Williams at the end. Kenny King explained that because Williams got pinned, that automatically makes Lee the number one contender. I can't say I've heard that one before as it sounds like silly logic to me, but whatever. Lee vs. Deppen one-on-one should be good at Best in the World.

Overall Show

Ring of Honor's TV product has largely been great for past eight months or so, but the Survival of the Fittest qualifiers have given meaning to more matches, a lot like the ROH Pure Championship Tournament when ROH TV originally relaunched. They've been fun and next week's we're getting the finals. The TV title match on this show was also entertaining, making for a thumbs-up episode on the whole. Next week, Matt Taven will face Dutch in addition to the Survival of the Fittest finals taking place. It was also announced that Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe will have a fight on their compound in two weeks, which should be interesting.

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