By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Ring of Honor Wrestling TV (Episode 517)
Taped in Baltimore, Maryland at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena
Aired August 14, 2021 in syndication and on SBG regional sports networks, available Mondays on FITE.TV
The show opened with a recap of ROH Women’s Championship tournament matches… Ian Riccaboni checked in from the studio in place of Quinn McKay. Riccaboni hyped the show’s two matches…
A video aired to set the table for the Holidead and Max The Impaler match. Holidead spoke about being trained by Gangrel and having international success. She said she’s the Rodney Dangerfield of wrestling in that she can’t get any respect in the United States. She said her match would feature two monsters meeting. Amy Rose spoke on behalf of Max and said it’s just a matter of time before she wins the championship. Max entered the picture, removed a mask, and yelled…
The broadcast team of Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman, and Lenny Leonard checked in while ring announcer Bobby Cruise handled the entrances… [C]
1. Holidead vs. Max The Impaler (w/Amy Rose) in an ROH Women’s Championship tournament first round match. Rose offered a handshake, then backed off when Holidead approached her. The broadcast team said that both women use intimidation tactics that won’t be effective against one another. Max no-sold being slammed by Holidead, who was eventually in offensive control heading into a break. [C]
Max avoided Holidead’s Darkness Falls finisher, but Holidead came right back with a spinebuster. Holidead went for a top rope leg drop, but Max moved. Max performed a backbreaker and performed a Wastelands finisher for the clean pin…
Max The Impaler defeated Holidead in 9:18 to advance in the tournament.
Powell’s POV: The characters felt a little out of place in ROH, but it’s not like they couldn’t be toned down to fit in better. For instance, I could see Max being part of Vincent’s crew. The important thing is that they did a nice job in the ring, though it would have been really interesting to see how an ROH crowd would have reacted if this show had been filmed with fans in attendance.
Graphics listed Rok-C vs. Quinn McKay, and Nicole Savoy vs. Miranda Alize in tournament matches for next week’s show, and another graphic listed this week’s main event… [C]
A video package aired on Matt Taven and Vincent heading into their cage match at Glory By Honor in Philadelphia. Taven had his busy beard and he was shown shaving it off at the end of the video…
Powell’s POV: I wonder if Taven left a porn mustache for a minute just to see how bad it would look like I do when I shave off a beard. It’s actually horrifying in my case.
Ring entrances for the main event took place with the All Stars team being introduced individually… [C] The Champions were introduced individually coming out of the break… [C]
2. ROH Champion Bandido, ROH TV Champion Dragon Lee, ROH Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham, and ROH Tag Champions Chris Dickinson and Homicide vs. Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe, EC3, Flip Gordon, and Josh Woods in a Champions vs. All Stars ten-man tag match. Riccaboni and Coleman were on commentary. Woods wore a “Pure” t-shirt during the match. Woods looked to tag out, but EC3 didn’t oblige. Mark tagged in instead. Dickinson tagged out, and then Mark worked over Lee briefly. Jay tagged in. EC3 reached out for a tag, which Jay granted. Gordon tagged himself in and barked at EC3 to get out of the ring. Gordon got a two count on Lee. [C]
EC3 and Gordon had more issues. EC3 tried to spear Gresham, who leapfrogged, causing EC3 to spear Gordon. EC3 smiled when Gordon jawed at him. All ten men started to brawl. Bandido and Lee performed stereo dives onto Gordon and Woods. Back in the ring, Mark dropkicked Bandido, who tagged in Homicide. There was a series of rapid fire spots involving all ten men that resulted in Gordon standing tall. Homicide recovered and performed a uranage style slam for a near fall. Gordon came back and hit the Flip Five, but Homicide kicked out when he went for the pin. Gordon followed up with a piledriver and scored the pin…
Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe, EC3, Flip Gordon, and Josh Woods beat Bandido, Dragon Lee, Jonathan Gresham, Chris Dickinson, and Homicide in the Champions vs. All-Stars ten-man tag match.
After the match, the Briscoes put the boots to Homicide. Bandido and Lee ended up walking backstage together. Gordon stood on the ropes…
A graphic listed Rey Horus vs. Silas Young, The Briscoes vs. Bateman and Dutch, Brian Johnson vs. EC3, Jonathan Gresham vs. Rhett Titus for the Pure Championship, an eight-man tag with Violence Unlimited vs. LFI, and Bandido vs. Flip Gordon for the ROH World Championship for Glory By Honor Night One.
The Briscoes vs. Demon Flamita and Flip Gordon, Shane Taylor, Moses, and Kaun vs. Incoherence for the ROH Six-Man Tag Titles, Danhausen vs. Dalton Castle, Rok-C and Miranda Alize vs. Chelsea Green and Willow, Violence Unlimited vs. The Foundation in an eight-man tag, Bandido and Rey Horus vs. Dragon Lee and Rush, and Matt Taven vs. Vincent in a cage match were listed for Glory By Honor Night Two on August 20-21 for Philadelphia and HonorClub…
Powell’s POV: Gordon going over was the logical move since he is challenging for the ROH World Championship at Glory By Honor and he oddly lost to EC3 at Best in the World pay-per-view. I have no clue why Bandido and Dragon Lee were friendly and walked to the back together given that we just watched LFI attack Bandido last week. The broadcast team tried to explain it away as mutual respect, but I’m not a fan of it unless it’s part of a bigger storyline.
Update: It turns out that it is part of a bigger storyline. A reader pointed out that the Bandido and Lee characters are friends and added that Lee never touched Bandido during the LFI attacks. My apologies for missing those key details.
Overall, the main event was entertaining and this was a decent show. A fair amount of the final half-hour was dedicated to ring entrances, so you can actually speed through a good portion of this episode like I admittedly did. My apologies if I missed anything during those entrances, but I’m a little pressed for time, so it was a welcome chance to steal a few precious minutes. Anyway, my weekly ROH Wrestling audio review will be available for Dot Net Members coming up later today.
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