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By Caprice Coleman
We’re counting down the final hours to Ring of Honor’s 19th Anniversary pay-per-view on March 26. Remember, the first hour of the show is FREE!
As usual, I’ll be doing commentary alongside Ian Riccaboni. Here are my thoughts on the matches:
The main event pits ROH World Champion RUSH against Jay Lethal. RUSH has proven to be one of the most dominant champions in Ring of Honor history. Can anybody beat this man?!
RUSH forces his opponents to wrestle a RUSH-style match. To beat him, you may need someone who can stick with a wrestling game plan no matter how much RUSH throws at them. That’s Jay Lethal.
One thing that could help Lethal is if he goes into the match riding the momentum of The Foundation that night. In addition to the RUSH-Lethal match, the ROH World Television Title and World Tag Team Titles are on the line in La Faccion Ingobernable versus The Foundation matchups.
We found out earlier this week that ROH World Television Champion and World Tag Team Title co-holder Dragon Lee can’t compete due to undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured eardrum that prevents him from being able to fly. So Kenny King will be defending the television championship on Lee’s behalf against Tracy Williams in addition to he and Bestia del Ring putting the tag titles on the line against Williams and Rhett Titus.
This means Kenny not only will have to wrestle twice, but he’ll be defending major championships against top contenders. This could be trouble for Kenny and LFI depending on when he was informed he would be taking Lee’s place. He may have conditioned himself solely for the tag match.
The beneficiary of this will be Williams. He was already scheduled to wrestle twice, so he had time to prepare for both matches. I predict LFI losing at least one of these two title matches because of this.
To add to Kenny’s troubles, he’ll have to face his former partner in the tag team title match. The only person in ROH who knows Kenny King better than I do is Rhett Titus. Rhett would like nothing more than to take the tag team title away from the man who walked out on him nine years ago when they were tag team champs.
Which of these two factions will end the night with the most championships secured — the legit ungovernable ones or the team trying to purify ROH? The results of these matches could change the company’s appearance.
The Pure Title also is on the line, as “The Octopus” Jonathan Gresham of The Foundation defends against the largest athlete in the Pure division, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound “Mile High Magnum” Dak Draper.
I believe the 5-4, 175-pound Gresham will more than have his tentacles full in this match. However, Gresham is used to size differences. This is truly the David and Goliath match of the night.
Speaking of David and Goliath matches, the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Titles will be defended, as Shane Taylor Promotions offered former champions MexiSquad a rematch at 19th Anniversary and MexiSquad accepted.
Both teams will have to be on their “A” game. Will the larger STP adjust to the fast pace of MexiSquad or will they try to shut them down as quickly as possible? The longer the match goes, the more it favors MexiSquad.
Meanwhile, Matt Taven and Vincent will square off in an unsanctioned grudge match. ROH officials banned them from having any physical contact at ROH events, so Taven and Vincent will fight in the building in Fall River, Mass., where they both started. We’ll witness it for the first time on the PPV!
Also, will EC3 earn Jay Briscoe’s respect? Can Dalton Castle secure a win against technical beast Josh Woods to put himself back in title contention, or will this be Dalton’s last ROH match? What will happen when Flip Gordon and Mark Briscoe go at it?
This time last year, ROH was preparing for our 18th anniversary pay-per-view. It was canceled due to COVID-19, but we’ve proven to be #ROHStrong. We reintroduced #ROHPure, invited you to our #WatchROH parties, and you’ve continued to supportROH.
It’s great now and only getting better from here. #ROHForward! See you Friday. #ROH19.
Just something to think about. I call it a dose of Colemanism.
Caprice Coleman is ROH’s color analyst and has been wrestling for more than 20 years. He also is an ordained minister and motivational speaker. A Dose of Colemanism appears every Thursday.
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