Ring of Honor Review - October 12, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH World Tag Team Champion Jay Lethal def. David Finlay in an ROH Pure Championship Tournament Quarterfinal Match

There was less uncertainty surrounding this match than there was when Lethal faced Dalton Castle in the first round, but that hardly hindered my enjoyment of it. I liked how Finlay took Lethal to the limit and how he was made to look like an equal to Lethal throughout. This was a really great match and the story they told with Lethal's knee added to it. It's nice to have Finlay back in Ring of Honor after such a long layoff.

Matt Taven Attacked Vincent

The story here is that Taven has been gone from ROH TV since Vincent beat him at Final Battle last December. He's been gone for almost a year, but obviously it feels like longer with the company taking time off due to the pandemic. In all honesty, I had no desire of seeing the storyline continue, so I'm glad it was seemingly blown off here. I mean, that had to be the idea behind this segment, right? Because otherwise, I wouldn't have expected Vincent to take the type of beating that he did. That said, this was well done and I hope these guys can finally move on from their feud.

ROH World Tag Team Champion Jonathan Gresham def. Matt Sydal in an ROH Pure Championship Tournament Quarterfinal Match

​Sydal has been making the rounds recently between his appearances for AEW and his participation in the ROH Pure title tourney. I didn't expect him to advance because of how much Lethal vs. Gresham has been foreshadowed in the finals up to this point, but much like the opener, I was thoroughly entertained, nonetheless. This was a fun clash of styles with the right man moving on. I'd love to see Sydal continue to appear for ROH despite being bumped from the tournament, but he could very well be signed by AEW soon.

Overall Show

We've officially reached the second round of the ROH Pure Championship Tournament, which gave us two quality matches this week. Of course, every edition of ROH TV for the past month has featured strong wrestling, but that was especially the case on this episode. We also got a solid segment with Vincent and the returning Taven as well as additional vignettes for the debuting EC3. ROH is giving viewers more and more to be excited about each week and I'm just glad they finally found a formula that works, even without anyone in attendance.