Ring of Honor Review - March 1, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

La Faccion Ingobernable (ROH World Television Champion Dragon Lee and Kenny King) def. The Foundation (ROH Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham and Kenny King) in a Pure Rules Match to Win the ROH World Tag Team Championship

It isn't often we see Pure Rules tag team matches in Ring of Honor, but this was very good. Then again, that should have been expected given the level of talent involved. King told Rush beforehand that he should beat Shane Taylor clean in the main event, and because of the tension tension within the group at that point, I assumed King might lose for his team here and get kicked out of the faction soon after. However, he and Lee won the titles instead, making La Faccion Ingobernable that much stronger. Gresham has been a double champion for months, so I assumed that was why the title change was done until I realized Lee is now a double champion as well. My only nitpick of this match was that the finish didn't come across very well, which caused it to end in anticlimactic fashion.

ROH World Champion Rush def. ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion Shane Taylor

I previously mentioned the dissension within La Faccion Ingobernable and now we know why it was done: to tease that King would cost Rush the title, only to help him out by blasting Taylor with a chair shot to the head instead. It wasn't a heel turn for King because he was already a heel, but it did officially sever his friendship with Taylor (they were friendly after Taylor beat King a few months back). The match itself was entertaining and felt like a war, and although I'm not fond of all the interference in Rush's matches, it made sense here. It looks like ROH is super high on La Faccion Ingobernable considering they hold all of the company's titles except the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship and the ROH Pure Championship.

Overall Show

This was billed as a "Championship Edition" of ROH TV and it was newsworthy for that alone, along with the title change in the opener. Both bouts delivered and I tend to enjoy the Pure Rules matches more these days because at least you know there won't be any shenanigans (usually, anyway). My guess is that they're building to The Foundation vs. La Faccion Ingobernable, but neither faction has been established as consisting of fan favorites, so it will be interesting if that eventually goes down. They announced Dalton Castle vs. Josh "The Goods" Woods in a Pure Rules match as well as Jay Briscoe vs. EC3 vs. Matt Taven vs. Jay Lethal in a number one contender's four-way for next week's episode, though there was no indication what title they'd be fighting to contend for. I wish there was a bit more hype for those matches outside of two quick graphics at the end, but this was still a thumbs-up show on the whole.