Ring of Honor Review - October 5, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tracy Williams def. Rust Taylor in an ROH Pure Championship Tournament First-Round Match

I knew absolutely nothing about Taylor coming into this contest and had never even heard of him before (despite how he's been wrestling since 2004 apparently), so the pre-match video package on him helped a lot. The match itself was very well wrestled and saw Taylor look quite good in defeat despite never really having a real shot at winning. This tournament feels like it was made for Williams, so I hope he goes far.

PJ Black def. Tony Deppen in an ROH Pure Championship Tournament First-Round Match

Much like Williams vs. Taylor, the end result never truly felt like it was in doubt here. Deppen came across well in his pre-match video package and scored plenty of offense over Black, but it was difficult to get invested knowing he wasn't winning. From an in-ring standpoint, however, this was fun for what it was and I appreciated that they picked up the pace down the stretch.

Overall Show

Although this was a solid show on the whole, it was arguably the weakest of all the ROH Pure Championship Tournament shows to date, just because both of these bouts had predictable outcomes. The newer guys won last week, but it made sense for Williams and Black to advance to the next round this week. This was perfectly fine albeit slightly unspectacular show, even though the format of the tourney continues to deliver. By the way, that quick hype video that aired for EC3 at the end of the episode was super cool and has me looking forward to what he'll be doing with the promotion once he debuts soon.