RING OF HONOR in 2021

[Gorman]

Shane Taylor is getting an ROH title shot at Rush soon. Hopefully, he will bring another World title to Cleveland like The Miz.

[Chaos]

EC3 just signed a contract with ROH. Their official announcement:
 

Ring of Honor is pleased to announce that EC3 has signed with the company.

EC3, who had been pro wrestling’s hottest free agent since he hit the open market last summer, made a few appearances with ROH in the fall. He made his unannounced return on last weekend’s episode of “Ring of Honor Wrestling” to confront Jay Briscoe.

EC3 and Briscoe had been scheduled to face each other at Final Battle in December, but the match was called off after EC3 tested positive for COVID-19.

Recognized as a two-time former world champion, EC3 boasts one of the most chiseled physiques in the sport and stellar speaking skills.

EC3 seized control of his narrative during his time as a free agent. A darker, more intense and more dangerous EC3 showed up in ROH declaring that he was on a quest to see if honor is real.

Now that EC3 is making ROH his home, he’ll have ample time to find out.

[DEAN]

Oh man, I forgot how much I love Rush.  That match was awesome.  OF COURSE THEY CHEATED TO WIN!

[bobholly138]

Wow great ep this week.

[Archibald]

Previous one was good, but this one topped it. I could have lived without that fake out with King, but other than that it was as close to perfect as you can probably get in this format.

[Curt McGirt]

Taylor damn sure know how to crack you with a forearm. And boy was that a title match right there. If you really gotta do a strike exchange then give it feints and different strikes and two guys collapsing on each other like that. Also dug the "NOT LIKE THIS!" call haha. 

ROH is still advertising the Bucks and Christopher Daniels in the guide for their program... okay. At least the third guy is Lethal. 

[Doragon]

Joey Mercury has filed a lawsuit in the state of Maryland against Ring of Honor.

[Peck]

EC3 looked darker than Jay Lethal in that 4-Corners Match...

[Curt McGirt]

Woods/Castle was real good again. Woods looks like a total slackjaw though. Silas Young shaved a little and now he looks just like Jesse Ventura, except with hair.

Speaking of looks, @Peck is right, good lord. At least at first, then he looked like he had an all-over sunburn. 

 

 

[DEAN]

SO much scientific wrestling this week.  I can't imagine how this will get over when you have people back.

[Curt McGirt]

If I never see another strike exchange again I'll be very happy. Just saying. Rey Horus and the young kid Eli Isom were having a fine match until that. Hell, Horus had a dive that was some Aerostar/Stuka level shit until the damn strike exchange. After that I just mentally checked out.

Edited March 22, 2021 by Curt McGirt

[RIPPA]

Dragon Lee suffered a broken eardrum and is off the Anniversary show as he just had surgery and is unable to fly

Kenny King will now defend the TV Title on Lee's behalf

Bestia del Ring is replacing Lee in the Tag Title match

[Chaos]

...so is the monthly Honor Club now giving full access to live PPVs or is it still the % off service they had initially?  I'm tempted to watch tonight, but it's a little more agreeable at $10 than $100 for a year. 

(Sorry for the grammar idiocy. I typed in a hurry).

[Hail Sabin]

Sounds like all PPVs on Honor Club from now on are free if you pay the $9.99 a month. 

This week's TV has a Pure Rules Gauntlet Match. 

Edited March 27, 2021 by Hail Sabin

[Spontaneous]

Homicide, Tony Deppen, Brody King and Chris Dickinson debuted as a new group last night. Homicide hopefully stands back and the other three wrestle most of the matches.

[hammerva]

It is a weird collection of faction.  I mean Deppen, King, and Dickinson I can definitely see and then you throw in Homicide and it is a strange mix.  Since I assume they are the ones behind this "return to violence" thing on the company it makes sense to bring him in 

The debut I am intrigued by is Bill Carr.   After almost a decade as mostly a comedy wrestler with Dan Barry in a great team of Team Tremendous he is finally going to act like the psycho that he frankly looks and from listening to him their podcasts his interests.

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by hammerva

[Curt McGirt]

Bruiser's grapevine was nasty. That was some Finlay shit. Rest of the match, not so much. Also, in all my years of beer drinking, I've never seen a bright red beer bottle. Also, why do people keep calling Bruiser "Beer City"? Why not just call him Bruiser?

There is no such thing as a "Wristlock Driver", that dude just dumped himself on his head. Between that and the "ROH Pure Judges", Riccaboni is good at pulling names out his ass. Cheeseburger's new sub is supercool. Wheeler should not clap his hands on a dropkick; is this dude an NJ Young Lion? The Pure gauntlet setup turned out some really interesting stuff. Yehi is the man, that Koji Clutch reversal was sick.

Edited March 28, 2021 by Curt McGirt

[Archibald]

Gresham/Draper and Rush/Lethal are worth tracking down. I heard that Bandido vs Rey Horus vs Flamita was also great, but I have hard ceiling for such matches so I'm not sure how it really compares to other flippy stuff.

[Craig H]

23 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Bruiser's grapevine was nasty. That was some Finlay shit. Rest of the match, not so much. Also, in all my years of beer drinking, I've never seen a bright red beer bottle. Also, why do people keep calling Bruiser "Beer City"? Why not just call him Bruiser?

He's from Milwaukee.

Also, Carlsberg, and to a lesser red, Killians, both have red bottles.

[Ramo2653]

I remember the Miller Red bottles (the beer wasn't red, but the bottle was so everyone just called it Miller Red)

There's also the aluminum red bottles of Bud but that probably doesn't count.

[Curt McGirt]

I've never seen a non-green bottle of Carlsberg until now 

Spoiler

Killian's... eh, not so much

[Wee Bey]

 

[Hail Sabin]

On one of my local stations that ROH airs they aired 3 older episodes from 2019 today & one of which had the Katie Forbes tag match on it against Sumie/Mayu. 

[bobholly138]

I forgot Katie Botchtastic Forbes worked a few matches in ROH.

Blows my mind that she has never gotten better. Hell she has gotten worse since her start in Wildkat. 

 

[Curt McGirt]

I have two different affiliates that play ROH but didn't get any of those eps. Huh. The weird thing is the new eps are showing up as being from 2002 (?!). Knowing Forbes is an actual wrestler spoils my internal narrative of RVD meeting her at the strip club she works at only to find out that they just keep missing each other training at the same gym. No fair. 

Danhausen/Johns(t)on(e) was fun. Hausen has a good German and a silly gimmick so that's good enough for me. The commentary team was tickled pink during this one. 

LSG chops hard enough that we got chest blood! Anybody that knees someone in a cravat is my kinda wrestler, too. Eli Isom decides that if Big E can do it he can too so he spears LSG through the ropes and catches his feet to boot. Then they just slap the shit out of each other on the floor, and have a finish that involves both multiple pinfalls and a strike exchange that -- amazingly -- doesn't suck. Good stuff!