Ring of Honor Review - October 26, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH World Tag Team Champion Jonathan Gresham def. Josh "The Goods" Woods in an ROH Pure Championship Tournament Semifinal Match

I find Woods to be entertaining in his tag team with Silas Young, but he should have taken a more serious approach coming into this tournament. I'm happy he made it this far, though, and he had a very good match with Gresham here. I fully expected Gresham to win given it had been heavily teased from the start that he would be facing Jay Lethal in the finals, but the predictability surrounding the outcome didn't bother me and the action was enjoyable. I almost feel like it's a waste of Woods for him to go straight back to the comedy stuff after the run he had in this tourney.

Vincent Attacked Matt Taven

These two were scheduled to go one-on-one here, but Vincent attacked Taven while he was making his entrance. It was payback for Taven returning and viciously attacking Taven two weeks ago. It was a simple angle designed to further the feud between the two. I thought it was over when Taven exacted revenge on him upon his return, but apparently not. Hopefully they can have their blow-off match soon and move on because this storyline has lasted over a year at this point.

Tracy Williams def. ROH World Tag Team Champion Jay Lethal in an ROH Pure Championship Tournament Semifinal Match

As expected, this was an absolutely excellent main event. Williams has been killing it throughout the tourney and Lethal never disappoints. They worked wonderfully together and played off their respective styles amazingly well. Williams' shoulder injury made it seem like Lethal was going to win and advance to face Gresham in the finals as they predicted from the beginning, so Williams picking up the victory instead was a pleasant surprise. Gresham vs. Williams should be terrific next week and I'd be perfectly fine with either guy becoming the new ROH Pure Champion (though I'm guessing it will be Williams considering Gresham is currently one-half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions with Lethal at the moment).

Overall Show

The ROH Pure Championship Tournament playing it out the way it has over the past month and a half has made the weekly ROH show the best it's been in years. The wrestling has been top-notch and the profiles on each competitor have been extremely well done. The segments in between the matches the last few weeks have been short, sweet and have served a purpose and that was once again the case with this episode. In addition to Williams vs. Gresham for the ROH Pure Championship, I believe next week's show will feature EC3's in-ring debut for the promotion, so it's definitely worth looking forward to.