Jay Lethal & Josh Woods have something in common when it comes to the recent Pure Title tournament. They won their first two matches, before falling in their third. Both men looked great, but being on opposite sides of the bracket means that we don’t know who of the two is better.
Lethal needs to prove to himself he’s fitting of the name ‘The Franchise of ROH’ after being taken to the limit and winning by a split decision by LSG. A win here is Woods’ way to punch his ticket to Final Battle, making it a huge one.
They’ve only met once before, in 2017. Jay Lethal won then, but Woods has improved tenfold since then. The Pure Rules were made for someone like Josh Woods, and he should win… but he won’t, at least not according to Lethal.
Josh Woods Is The Best Pure Wrestler
Code of Honor would be adhered too, and they’d lock up around the ring. It was like two bulls, but Woods won out, having some extra power. He’d snatch a Hammerlock and move to a Double Wrist Lock on Lethal, before being tripped up and losing the hold. Lethal got a good side headlock, but wasn’t able to keep control.
The arm of Lethal was caught once again, but he did his best to grapple with Woods and get some control. However, even with Woods ankle in hand, he’d lose control as Woods easily got back to his feet. Woods would grab Lethal, throw him to the mat and go right for the armlock, and needed to use his first rope break to escape.
You could practically see Lethal get frustrated by this, but he hasn’t lost yet. Woods was getting over confident however, and when asked by Lethal if he found this funny? He’d say no, it’s sad that Jay Lethal is in this position.
That fired up Lethal, who came back with some heavy forearm strikes. Woods blocked each one, came back hard with some of his own, kicked Lethal into the ropes and planted him with the Exploder Suplex. Lethal protected himself from the ground and pound, but Woods broke free and got a triangle choke.
Jay Lethal Keeps Fighting
Lethal would escape this hold by moving into a pinfall, before being flung right back to the mat and grabbed by Woods. Woods would absolutely dominate Lethal, but the hip toss into a dropkick combo would connect. Lethal was able to gain some ground as we went into a commercial break.
Coming back, we’d see that Lethal has gotten back into full control, and would apply a Camel Clutch on Woods. Woods would reach for the ropes, clearly Lethals plan, and it worked. They both used their first rope breaks now, evening the odds. Lethals hard work on the back prevented Woods from being able to hit a suplex, so instead he went for the punishing strikes.
A high kick would send Lethal to the outside, and he’d barely kick out when put back in the ring. With four minutes left, Woods would hammer away at Lethal with some heavy strikes. Lethal came back, put Woods over the top rope and hit a dropkick, sending him to the mat. He’d follow up with a Suicide Dive, and go for Hail To The King.
Time Is Running Out…
This led to him diving right into a cross armbreaker, but Woods needed to break the hold after Lethal countered into a pinfall. Lethal would look for the Lethal Injection, but again was caught, this time with a rear naked choke. Another counter into a pinfall, and Woods would apply the knee bar in the middle of the ring.
He’d move to the ankle lock, and Lethal was trapped. Lethal would think about tapping before countering and going for the Figure Four. Woods would counter the counter, roll Lethal up and win this match. He had an answer for every single move that Lethal had in this match.
Has Gresham just punched his ticket to a match with Jonathan Gresham after the biggest singles win of his career? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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