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ROH Episode 69 Review: “Our Longest Episode of the Year”
Tonight's ROH episode was 109 minutes long, which is one of the longest episodes of the year. Although we did have some squash matches on the episode, there was also an injury update on the forever ROH Women’s Champion, two championship matches, as well as Titan appeared from CMLL! How did this episode compare to all the others? Let’s review!
Aaron Solo vs Titan:
It's very cool to see Titan back in ROH. One of my favorite things about Forbidden Door season is seeing all the different wrestlers from all the companies across AEW/ROH TV. Since this episode was on the longer side I was shocked this match was short, especially with a CMLL talent in the mix. Titan gets the win as the crowd goes crazy, great opener.
Winner: Titan
Griff Garrison, Cole Karter, and Anthony Henry vs The Infantry (Carlie Bravo and Shawn Dean) and Serpentico:
I had a lot of questions when they announced this match. The WorkHorsemen are not heels yet they were paired with the heel team in this match. Also besides Maria’s Baby Boys and Serpentico, everyone in this match was random. The match ends with Garrison hitting Serpentico with a chair while the referee is distracted. The bad guys win.
Winners: Griff Garrison, Cole Karter, and Anthony Henry
Emergency MIM:
Athena came out with crutches and a boot in tears. She said she tore a couple of ligaments in her ankle and she said it may be four to six months before she is cleared. She is here to address her show and the rest of the women’s division. She says she has put the division on her back and that this is not how her title reign was supposed to end. Athena says that the best thing for her to do is keep the title until she is cleared. She says she is going to be the champion forever till Queen Aminata and Red Velvet appear. Aminata says that she is faking her injury and she wants to take on Athena. Velvet says that they are scared and they have been dodging them for weeks. Velvet says that Athena took a page out of Stark’s book as a brawl started. Aminata pushed Starkz into Athena as she fell and cried. The doctors came out and helped Athena to the back.
Jacoby Watts vs Brandon Cutler:
Watts comes out before the match praising the people as well as Nick Comoroto. Cutler interrupts and says that he can not take another second of this boring gospel stuff and the match begins. With a knee stunner, Watts gets the win.
Winner: Jacoby Watts
Marina Shafir vs Maggie Minerva
First squash of the show and it only took an hour. Progress?
Winner: Marina Shafir
Kingdom Promo:
Mike Bennett says that he and Matt Taven have been doing this for a decade. He is upset that when people talk about the best tag teams in the world no one mentions The Kingdom. He does not think 2.0 has it in them to beat the Kingdom. Taven says that 2.0 has done nothing since they have been in AEW where The Kingdom has held the ROH Tag Team Championships five times. They will defeat the 2.0 with a breeze.
The Iron Savages (Bronson and Boulder) and Jacked Jameson vs Isaiah Harris, Jay Marston, and Eric Eznite:
Another squash. Sigh.
Winners: The Iron Savages (Bronson and Boulder) and Jacked Jameson
Lance Archer vs Deon Rusman:
Three in a row? Really?
Winner: Lance Archer
Atlantis JR Promo:
Atlantis says that he wants to face the winner of the main event for the ROH TV Championship. However, he wants to face them in Mexico to prove that the best wrestlers come from Mexico.
Leyla Hirsch vs Diamante:
This match was slow. Although both women have proven themselves within the ROH Women’s Division over the last year, this match was not the greatest. After Diamante was able to get the quick rollup to get the win she kept beating up Hirsch to prove her point. I guess Hirsch is going to be full-blown babyface now, let’s hope it leads to something.
Winner: Diamante
ROH Tag Team Championships: Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) vs 2.0 (Daddy Magic and Angelo Parker):
With how long the main event was going to be, we could have saved this for next week's episode. This match was fine and was a competitive match, but I did not like the ending. Magic tried to hit Taven with the belt and the ref took it away. This leads Taven to get the sliding rollup and The Kingdom to retain it. Hopefully, this leads to a second match.
Winners: “And Still”: Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett)
Two Out of Three Falls ROH World Television Championship: Kyle Fletcher vs Lee Johnson:
This did not need to be two out of three falls since Fletcher pinned Johnson clean at the pay-per-view a couple of months ago, but regardless. The crowd was quiet for this one which was sad because this match was amazing. They did reverse wrestling 101 where Fletcher got the first and third fall instead of getting the last two falls, which was different. As Johnson was fighting with the referee Fletcher pushed him into Brcye Remsburgh. This leads Fletcher to hit a low blow as he hits the brainbuster and gets the win!
Winner: “And Still” Kyle Fletcher
Overall:
This episode went way too long. A lot of the matches here could have been broken up into two different episodes as both championship matches could have main evented in different episodes. I am intrigued to see where the Women’s Championship story goes, but I still question where our Heavyweight and Pure Champions are. Let’s hope we see them next week!
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