BRM Reviews the 11/20/2020 ROH

[Big Red Machine]

JAY BRISCOE VS. EC III VIDEO PACKAGE- fine

JAY BRISCOE vs. EC III- no rating… okay segment
EC III wouldn’t look Jay in the eye, so Jay refused to shake his hand before the match. They locked up and wound up in the corner with EC III breaking cleanly. He offered another handshake without looking Jay in the eye, so Jay shoved him.
They started wrestling again. Jay got a full nelson, but EC III broke it up with an elbow to the face. EC III offered another handshake without looking Jay in the eye so Jay slapped him. They traded strikes. Jay got EC in the corner and choked him with his boot and wouldn’t break on five, resulting in a DQ.
Jay went to argue with Todd Sinclair, which gave EC III time to recover, and the moment Jay turned around, EC III charged at him and double-legged him and started with the ground-and-pound. Jay eventually got on top and started throwing punches. Security broke it up and restrained Jay, while the announcers told us there would almost certainly be fines and maybe suspensions for both of them. EC III shouted at Jay to “control your narrative!” and offered himself up for a Jay-Driller. Jay tried to go for it, but security stopped him.
EC III trying to make Jay Briscoe lose his temper and get DQed is fine, but what does he gain by attacking Jay after the match, and especially by just offering himself up for a Jay-Driller? And this whole “control your narrative” thing makes no sense. It’s just buzzwords and doesn’t relate to anything in any way.
On the bright side, the little bit of wrestling EC III did here was the first good thing he’s done since leaving NXT.

QUINN MCKAY INTERVIEWS JAY BRISCOE- meh
Quinn basically asked him why he got himself DQed when he is a pro-Code of Honor babyface with a long tenure in ROH. Jay responded “because f*ck you.” Jay was good here, but Quinn came across a little too much like the tool of the booker rather than an actual interviewer. I also really disliked her referring to a DQ as a “non-finish.” A DQ is a completely legitimate finish. It’s not a satisfying one, but there is nothing kayfabe illegitimate about it.

LEON ST. GIOVANNI VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- fine

JAY LETHAL VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- a good reset’s quest for the Pure Title.

PURE RULES MATCH: Leon St. Geovanni vs. Jay Lethal- 6.75/10
Thi was a hard-fought match that was very even and went to the time-limit, with Lethal winning by split decision. If they’re going to actually do something with LSG, this is a great first step. Otherwise, it just made Lethal look kind of weak that he couldn’t beat this chump.
I don’t like them still having the judges now that the tournament is over. They make sense in an environment where we need someone to advance, but outside of it, all they do is take non-f*ck finish draws out of the booker’s toolbox. Also, they should make it a twenty-minute time limit, not just fifteen. Or even thirty. And let title matches go sixty to help the Pure Title feel equal with the ROH World Title.

They announced the return of John Walters. Ian called him “one of the greatest Pure wrestlers ever,” which I scoffed at, as it seemed like quite the exaggeration… but then Ian noted that Walters had one of the best Pure Rules records of all time. THAT is what I want from my announcers. If you’re going to throw around superlatives, give us some facts to back it up!
On the other end of the spectrum, we had Caprice Coleman try to convince me tat it was honorable of Lethal not to hit an elbow drop to the back during a f*cking professional fight.

JOHN WALTERS VIDEO PACKAGE- great!

MATT TAVEN VS. TYLER BATEMAN VIDEO PACKAGE- great… but this was also the same thing we saw last week.

MATT TAVEN vs. BATEMAN- 3/10
Taven charged at Bateman the moment he got into the ring. Taven won a very short match with a roll-up.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
Bateman attacked Taven (which we were told would certainly have consequences from the board of directors). Vincent came out and cut a promo on him. He was about to throw a dart at Taven when Mike Bennett made his return via magical teleportation to make the save. They did it weirdly where the lights came back on and his music played but he didn’t come out, and then we got the lights off again and the teleporting. Vincent talking for three minutes and Bennett only coming out when he was about to do something yucky, and via magical teleportation no less, made this feel like a segment that was put together to be a big moment at the end of a show rather than anything that happened organically involving real people.




This was another meh episode of ROH. Bennett’s return was… I can’t call it a big deal, but I think that within the context of ROH it’s probably an upper-midcard-sized deal. I’ve already said my piece about the booking of Lethal vs. LSG, and the jury is out on that, and that was the only real match we got. The jury is also still out on EC III vs. Jay Briscoe, but I have a lot less hope for that one. This was their first attempt at an angle-heavy show in the pandemic environment, and if you’re not into the angles, you’re not going to care for the show, and that’s pretty much my story here.