ROH TV results: Deppen vs. Williams vs. Lee TV title match

Location: Baltimore, Maryland

The Big Takeaway —

The Survival of the Fittest tournament continued with Bandido advancing to the six-way elimination match finals, while Tony Deppen made his first defense of the Television title.

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Quinn McKay joined us in the studio. McKay recapped the Survival of the Fittest tournament to date and promoted the Bandido vs. Bateman match that’s taking place on this episode.

McKay also announced that Tony Deppen will defend his ROH Television Championship against Dragon Lee and Tracy Williams in a triple threat match in this week’s main event. McKay made sure it was recognized that Lee never lost the TV title, but rather that his fellow La Faccion Ingobernable stablemate Kenny King lost it for him at the 19th Anniversary PPV.

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Survival of the Fittest first-round match: Bandido defeated Bateman (13:23)

Bateman had a really good promo beforehand about the sacrifices he’s made to get to where he’s at today.

Bateman is a really smart wrestler, and this match proved that. Bandido tried to accelerate the match to his pace in the early stages, but Bateman always seemed to have him scouted.

At around the three-minute mark, Bateman cleaned Bandido’s clock with a forearm that genuinely seemed to catch him off guard. Bateman hits so hard and so stiff and is a top tier striker in North America in my opinion.

The story here was that Bandido kept trying to turn the jets on, but Bateman would stop him almost every time. But Bandido eventually found a way to start his own engine and get the big moves in — including a phenomenal top rope twisting dive. Bandido even picked up Bateman and hit a great Michinoku Driver at one point.

The finish saw Bateman leaning over the middle rope and trying to catch his breath when Bandido sprung off his back and hit a catapult German suplex for the win.

After the match, Vincent appeared at ringside with Dutch and Vita VonStarr. Vincent said that his journey of self-clarity made him realize his one goal is the ROH World Championship. Vincent shamed Bateman for failing him, and then Bateman offered himself for sacrifice. VonStarr and Dutch attacked Bateman, who was willing to take the beatdown.

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Triple threat match: Tony Deppen defeated Tracy Williams and Dragon Lee to retain the ROH Television Championship (11:27)

This was a really, really fun match. Dragon Lee tried to stay out of the action early and let Williams and Deppen wear themselves down, but both guys recognized Lee’s gameplan.

All three guys have different styles, but they all have one thing in common: they all hit really hard. Williams and Lee had a great 20-second exchange of straight forearms in the middle portion of the match.

Deppen has really good intensity attached to his style of wrestling and it makes it to where his matches don’t have a dull moment. There was a really good spot in the latter half of the match where Lee started a German suplex chain that saw all three men hit a few suplexes.

The final sequence saw Lee hit a low blow on Williams, but Deppen stole the pinfall to retain the TV title. Lee had a chance to break it up but chose not to.

After the match, The Foundation, Violence Unlimited, and La Faccion Ingobernable all made their way out. Kenny King claimed that the strategy for Dragon Lee was simply to not be pinned, allowing him to slide into the number one contenders spot. King challenged Deppen to defend the TV title against Lee at next month’s Best in the World pay-per-view.

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Final Thoughts —

Two great matches made for a very easy to digest episode of ROH TV. Bateman is extremely underrated in the ring in my opinion. He had a great showing here. Bandido was the right man to win. I’m iffy about the post-match antics, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt for now.

Deppen vs. Williams vs. Lee was really fun. I can’t put into words just how great Dragon Lee is, and the fact that he’s only 26 years old makes it almost unbelievable. I really didn’t like the finish of this match at first, but after letting it simmer for a minute I can understand the want of having Deppen vs. Lee in front of a crowd at Best in the World.

In closing, this week’s episode of ROH TV is: Recommended Viewing.