ROH Wrestling recap: Rush retains world title and Kenny King & Dragon Lee win tag titles

Episode 493 of ROH Wrestling featured Los Ingobernables in their full glory. Kenny King & Dragon Lee challenged Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham for the tag titles, and Rush defended the world title against Shane Taylor.

Check for ROH channel listings in your area. Watch the episode on ROH Honor Club (here) or Fite TV (here) released on Mondays.

Before getting into the recap, let’s start with a rankings update from ROH Week by Week. Quinn McKay revealed the new top 5 for the tag team division.

ROH World Tag Team Championship
5. The Righteous (Vincent & Bateman)
4. SOS (Moses & Kaun)
3. Tracy Williams & Rhett Titus
2. The OGK (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett)
1. Dragon Lee & Kenny King
Champs: Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham

Los Ingobernables popped up from #3 to #1 on the strength of defeating the Briscoes last week.

Time to hit the weekly ROH broadcast.

The show opened with a slightly corny hype package wondering if Rush was a man or a bull. The music reminded me of Braveheart. The intro put over Shane Taylor strong. The main event will be a battle between the most dominant champion and the baddest man in all of ROH.

Rush, Dragon Lee, and Bestia del Ring were plotting their strategy to humiliate Shane Taylor. Bestia planned on using a chair. Kenny King entered the scene. He has history with Taylor, so he requested that Rush win clean. Rush reminded King that Los Ingobernables are about pure humiliation. They exited with a message for King to think it over.

After Quinn McKay provided the studio introduction for the show, there was a transition to King and Lee mocking the ideals of The Foundation. What is important is adding more gold to Los Ingobernables. This is their house. Los Ingobernables are undeniable, unbeatable, unstoppable, and ungovernable.

Cut to Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham. They were impressed by King and Lee defeating the Briscoes to earn the title shot, but that was the easy part. In Pure rules, King and Lee will actually have to wrestle. Los Ingobernables are not going to outclass the tag champs.

ROH World Tag Team Championship: Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs Kenny King & Dragon Lee

The match was contested under Pure rules. Amy Rose was ringside on behalf of Los Ingobernables. During the Code of Honor handshake, Kenny King spit on Jay Lethal’s hand. The referee ordered the handshake as part of Pure rules before the match could begin. The champs were content to accept a hand slap instead of a proper grip.

Mat work to start. Dragon Lee used a rope break early on a hammerlock from Jonathan Gresham. Lee fired a cheap elbow strike on the separation. Gresham was often one step ahead of Lee and mocked him about having the advantage in any style.

Lethal and King went at it. Lethal grabbed King’s leg, so King unloaded a disrespectful slap across the face. Lethal transitioned to a figure-four, and King used the second rope break for Los Ingobernables. Once King was free, he slapped Lethal again. King exited the ring to do the Beyonce strut with Lee.

Back in the ring, Lethal tried to powerbomb Lee off the turnbuckles. Lee hit Lethal with a closed-fist punch to escape. That garnered an official warning from the referee. Another closed-fist punch would result in a rope break or DQ if all their breaks have been used. Lee made use of that opening from the punch with a dropkick and a suicide dive.

As the match progressed, Gresham trapped Lee in a magistral cradle. King broke up the pin. That counted as Los Ingobernables third and final rope break.

Lee rallied by catching Gresham for a piledriver then running knee. Kick out on the pin. King hit a brainbuster to Gresham, then Lee nailed another knee strike. Lethal broke the pinfall for the champs’ first rope break.

Lethal tried to take out King on a suicide dive, but he crashed into Amy Rose instead. Behind the referee’s back, Lee nailed Gresham with a closed-fist punch to win at 14:12. Kenny King and Dragon Lee are the new tag team champs. They celebrated their success while ignoring an unconscious Rose on the floor.

Shane Taylor hyped his world title fight against Rush. Nobody like him is supposed to challenge for that championship in ROH. He rocks the boat by speaking about politics and social issues. Taylor makes people nervous and scared. He is not intimated by Rush. Taylor will hit harder and exceed the champ’s intensity. Taylor considers himself the uncrowned champion of ROH, so now it is time to make it official.

ROH World Championship: Rush vs Shane Taylor

Kenny King was on commentary. Rush kicked Shane Taylor’s hand away during the Code of Honor. That caused Taylor to chuckle.

Rush’s overwhelming intensity was answered with a powerful slam by Taylor. The challenger tossed the champion around the ringside area then dropped a DDT off the apron onto the floor. Rush recovered to dish out the same strategy to Taylor. He slammed a barricade door onto Taylor’s head and choked him with a camera cable. The referee was reluctant to call a DQ in a world title fight.

The physicality was taken up a notch as both men threw blows in the center of the ring. Taylor landed a heavy knee. Rush responded with a jumping knee. Taylor flattened Rush with a clothesline and sitdown slam. Rush came back with a German suplex and a knee strike. Rush was in clear control after a guillotine leg drop as Taylor was hanging off the ropes. Rush followed up with the same style of attack for a flying double stomp.

Taylor’s heart carried him into another exchange of fisticuffs. Stiff punches knocked both men down to their knees. That led to heavy chops to the point of exhaustion. After a short rest break, both men popped up with energy. Taylor got the upper hand for a package piledriver, but Rush kicked out on a 1 count.

Taylor charged right into a belly-to-belly suplex into the corner. As Rush was stomping a mudhole, the referee tried to intervene. Rush accidentally collided with the ref as he turned around to pick up steam for his Bull’s Horns finisher.

At that point, Bestia del Ring conveniently walked to the ring with a chair in hand. Rush was ready to whack away, but King left commentary to snatch the chair. Taylor tried to take advantage of Los Ingobernables arguing. That’s when King swung. Rush ducked and the chair clobbered Taylor. King smiled as he reaffirmed his allegiance to the faction. Rush rushed in for a Superman punch and the Bull’s Horns dropkick to retain at 18:14.

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Los Ingobernables are the most dominant faction in all of ROH. They hold the world, TV, and tag titles in their grasp. Skill, determination, and cheating tricks have given them gold. It is setting up the table nicely for their eventual downfall as villains.

The tag team bout was the first opportunity for The Foundation to prove their point, and they failed in the chess match against Los Ingobernables. The action was exciting, but it was the trash-talk and mind games that made the contest even more enjoyable. The finish was a good way to set up a rematch. Jonathan Gresham and Jay Lethal claimed to be better at any style, so they may have to back it up by getting down and dirty. However, that would be conflicting to their Pure values. The chase to regain gold will be interesting.

Rush and Shane Taylor had a physical affair. Taylor proved he is world champ material. He has an aura that he can beat any man. Rush’s tenacity was even more impressive. I like how commentary sold his endurance in taking pain and ability to recover. That enhanced the moment of Rush kicking out on the package piledriver at a 1 count.

The closing drama felt too forced. Since ROH’s return from the pandemic, the relationship between Kenny King and Shane Taylor wasn’t established strong enough. The two seem more like acquaintances rather than friends. They had a passing of the torch singles win for Taylor, but that’s it. Both men are arrogant and cocky. They also know not to trust each other. That’s why it felt hollow when commentary tried to make such a big deal that King betrayed Taylor.

Share your thoughts about episode 493 of ROH Wrestling. Which wrestler had the standout performance?

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