ROH TV 500th episode results: Gresham vs. Lethal, Briscoes face off

Date: April 19th, 2021

Location: Baltimore, Maryland

The Big Takeaway: To celebrate ROH TV’s 500th episode, they showcased two phenomenal matches that saw questionable finishes.

Quinn McKay checked in from the ROH Studio and welcomed the audience to the 500th episode of ROH TV. McKay thanked the fans and multiple executives for making it this far and said they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

Jonathan Gresham defeated Jay Lethal in a ROH Pure Championship match (16:43)

Gresham and Lethal made their entrance together to celebrate the unity of The Foundation.

Lethal took Gresham to the mat and wrenched his ankle. Gresham escaped fast. He popped up quickly and locked arms with Lethal, and then took him to the mat with a headlock. Lethal tried to escape a few times but couldn’t muster it, so he used a rope break. This took us into a commercial break. 

Back from the break and Lethal had Gresham on the mat with his knee on the shoulder of “The Octopus”. Gresham reversed the hold and applied a double hammerlock. Lethal found a way to counter and tried to bodyslam Gresham, but he followed through and applied another arm submission.

Lethal eventually found a backdoor out of that hold and tried to cinch in a figure four leglock. Gresham turned it into a cradle pin for a two count. The match picked up significantly here with Lethal catching a Gresham hurricanrana and turning it into a Boston crab. This caused Gresham to use a rope break. 

In the closing sequence of the match, Lethal and Gresham were trading reversals of different holds when Gresham trapped Lethal’s leg and rolled him up for the win. This came off as a very anticlimactic ending. 

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Mark Briscoe defeated Jay Briscoe by countout (15:04)

Jay backed Mark into the corner and referee Todd Sinclair broke it up. Mark no sold a Jay hurricanrana and sent his brother to the mat with a shoulder tackle. Both brothers spilled to the outside as a commercial break ensued.

In firm control of the match, Mark  jumped off the apron onto the floor with a diving elbow drop. The two fought outside the ring for a while before Jay tossed Mark back in and went to the top rope. Mark followed him up there and hit a great looking x-plex from the top rope. 

Mark followed it up with a urange and rolled Jay to the apron. Jay fell from the apron after being nailed with a right hand from Mark, which was followed up with a blockbuster neckbreaker. Mark set up a chair in the ring and was looking to use it for a springboard, but Jay slid back in and caught a running Mark in a fireman’s carry slam on the chair. 

Back from the break and Mark is scaling the top rope. He hit his signature Froggy Bow elbow drop, which Jay kicked out of. Jay retaliated with the Jay Driller, which Mark kicked out of. Jay hit the move a second time, but this time Mark rolled out of the ring. Jay followed and tore apart the timekeepers table. This bought Mark enough time to nail Jay with a few forearms and then set him up on the table. Mark climbed to the top turnbuckle and dove onto the table outside onto Jay with another Froggy Bow. When the referee’s count got to 19, Mark rolled in the ring and he was declared the winner via countout. Another perplexing finish.  

*******

Final Thoughts: This episode of ROH TV saw 30+ minutes of really good wrestling, but just weird finishes. With a match the caliber of Gresham vs Lethal ending in a rollup pin, seems disappointing. To create some future tension within the group, I would have liked to see either man have a win over the other. For the Briscoes match, a countout finish is disappointing given their history with each other, with Mark not winning in about 15 years according to Ian Riccaboni.