Ring of Honor Review - October 19, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tracy Williams def. Fred Yehi in an ROH Pure Championship Tournament Quarterfinal Match

Williams mentioned in an interview I did with him earlier this month that Yehi was one of the people he wanted to face in this tournament because of their history in EVOLVE, which I'm surprised the commentators didn't touch on more. I realize EVOLVE is supposed to be a competitor of Ring of Honor, but they went of business earlier this year and were subsequently purchased by WWE, so what would it matter? Nonetheless, this was a great match between two guys who know each other very well. Yehi took Williams to the limit and looked very credible in defeat. I'm honestly shocked ROH hasn't already signed him. With this win, Williams advances to the next round to face Jay Lethal, which should be a barn burner.

EC3 Sent a Message

ROH has been hyping up the arrival of EC3 for weeks with mysterious vignettes (the same "Control Your Narrative" ones he's been putting on social media since his release from WWE) and he finally debuted here. This was one of those moments that I'm disappointed there wasn't a crowd for because they would have treated him like a total star. He cut a similar promo to what we've heard from him recently in IMPACT, except here he fleshed out his character's motivations a bit better. That was appreciated. He said he was in ROH not to wrestle but to fight, and it looks like he'll be getting that soon in the form of a six-man tag team match with The Briscoes against Shane Taylor and his boys based on what happened afterward backstage.

Josh "The Goods" Woods def. PJ Black in an ROH Pure Championship Tournament Quarterfinal Match

Although I enjoyed the opener more, this was still a super solid main event. Black has been doing a commendable job of attempting to get others over since signing with ROH and I was happy to see him do the honors for Woods here, who made more sense to advance, anyway. Woods got to shine while on offense and I'm glad there wasn't any interference from Silas Young and Brian Johnson at ringside. It's cool that Woods will be in the final four with guys like Lethal, Williams and Jonathan Gresham, though whether he'll be able to upset Gresham is the question.

Overall Show

Between what we saw last week and now this week, it seems ROH TV is settling into a new format with two tournament matches and then a talking segment in the middle. It may not last, however, with the tourney ending in the next few weeks, but it worked here as both bouts delivered and the debut of EC3 was notable, along with the tease of a future six-man tag team match involving him. The semifinals of the tournament will take place next week and I'm really looking forward to seeing who comes out on top because although Lethal vs. Gresham has been heavily foreshadowed, I could see Williams and/or Woods advancing instead. This was another quality episode of ROH TV, and as I've said before, this is the best string of shows I feel the promotion has had in a few years. Obviously, the original content is a huge help as opposed to the constant replays of events from over a month earlier.