Ring of Honor Review - October 25, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tony Deppen def. Rhett Titus

It's easy to forget that Deppen held the ROH World Television Championship very briefly at one point this year. The guy can go and he's been growing on me despite starting out feeling generic. Speaking of generic, Titus is the embodiment of that, but he's been better with The Foundation. They had a well-wrestled opener. Titus was upset that Homicide aided Deppen to victory and The Foundation was nowhere to be found, so we'll see if that leads to any tension in the group.

Violence Unlimited (Brody King and Chris Dickinson) def. The Foundation (Jonathan Gresham and Tracy Williams)

King and Dickinson work wonderfully together while Gresham and Williams are two terrific talents in their own right. To the surprise of no one, this was an excellent, hard-hitting, technically-proficient affair. It would have been easy for The Foundation to win here to even the score heading into the main event, but I'm glad they didn't do that. I'm also glad it was Williams who got pinned because Gresham should be protected if they're going to promote him to the ROH World Championship picture sometime soon.

Jay Lethal def. Homicide

I really liked how Ian Riccaboni brought up the history between Lethal and Homicide for someone like me who wasn't watching Ring of Honor back in the day. I was looking forward to a full-length match from these two and I know Homicide still has it in him, but it was cut short around five minutes, which was disappointing. Nonetheless, what we got in that time was good. The Righteous attacked Deppen at ringside and helped Lethal win, so The Foundation vs. The Righteous might be the next feud.

Overall Show

This was a cool themed show pitting the pure guys against the violence guys. All three matches were enjoyable, though Lethal vs. Homicide should have received more time than it did, especially considering it was the main event. It feels like all we have in ROH at the moment are factions and alliances. If that's your thing, then you're probably digging everything they're doing, but I'd like to see ROH go back to building more singles stars. On the whole, it was a thumbs-up episode from an in-ring standpoint despite there being no real stakes aside from bragging rights. Next week, Rok-C and Quinn McKay will team up against Miranda Alize and Max the Impaler while the trio of Danhausen, PCO and Sledge challenge Shane Taylor Promotions for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship.

SEE MORE: ROH Reviews