Ring of Honor will return to pay-per-view with the 19th Anniversary Show on Friday night. This stacked show features a whopping ten matches, and each one will showcase ROH’s best and brightest stars. Shortly before this can’t-miss show, let’s dive into the fascinating story that threads the whole event together.
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The stable war between The Foundation and La Faccion Ingobernable is an engaging throughline that ties together Ring of Honor’s first pay-per-view of 2021. From the main event world championship match to two heated title matches, these contests pit members of the two impressive factions against each other. Granted, external circumstances will prevent the company from featuring La Faccion Ingobernable at its full strength, but this setback could actually benefit the feud in the long run.
The week of the show, Ring of Honor announced that Dragon Lee would be unable to compete in his two scheduled matches. As the ROH World Television Champion and one-half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions, Lee was set to defend both titles. Combined with the news about his absence, Ring of Honor declared that both championships will still be defended on Friday night. Lee’s father, La Bestia del Ring, will take his place in the tag title match. Meanwhile, Kenny King will pull double duty as Lee’s tag team partner by defending Lee’s singles title.
Of course, it’s disappointing that the 19th Anniversary Show won’t feature Lee. He’s one of the best junior heavyweight wrestlers in the world, and his matches are always capable of stealing the show. Plus, losing Lee puts a dent in this battle for stable supremacy. A win for either side would feel tainted because LFI isn’t at its best right now. But there’s a beneficial side to this development.
When Ring of Honor brought La Bestia into the fold, some fans weren’t familiar with the former Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre star. He’s the father as Lee and Rush, but as an in-ring competitor, he’s relatively unknown to the American audience. La Bestia has already competed twice on ROH television, but now the company has the chance to showcase the experienced luchador on a pay-per-view. Whether he wins or loses, Friday night will allow fans to see a man who has been wrestling for nearly 30 years in a whole new light.
Another positive aspect of this situation is hypothetical, but it could work wonders for the battle between LFI and La Faccion Ingobernable. Lee’s substitutions in his respective title matches pave the way for an organic continuation of this rivalry. If Tracy Williams defeats King for the ROH World Television Championship, Lee has a perfectly valid argument for a rematch, as he didn’t lose his own title. The same argument applies if King and La Bestia fall short in their defense against Williams and Rhett Titus. Likewise, if Williams and Titus lose, they can argue that they weren’t initially scheduled to face La Bestia, so they deserve a rematch. The stable war between these two dynamic groups has been a hot storyline up to this point, and Lee’s unfortunate removal from the pay-per-view could extend it, even in the short-term. Given all the talent involved in this storyline, that should viewed as a good outcome of an initially disappointing development.
Next Page: The Battle For ROH’s Soul!
