Joe Koff Talks COVID-19 And TV Tapings, NJPW Fighting Spirit Unleashed Results, ROH Bracketology

– The ROH Pure Title Tournament kicked off this weekend with a field of 16 wrestlers vying for the championship (full field here). Above is Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman, and others breaking down the bracket for the tourny.

– On Outside Interference with Kenny Herzog, ROH COO Joe Koff spoke (h/t POST Wrestling) about ROH returning to tapings in Baltimore last month.

“I think this whole COVID pandemic is really about controlling what you can control,” Koff said. “And there were so many different ways we could have wrestled. We could have wrestled in Florida where the other two major promotions wrestle, where there seems to be no real rules. The governor says, you know, just be careful. If there were more than three positive tests, we were going to shut it down. We knew the risks. Fortunately, everybody was good. Everyone was healthy. Everyone took care of themselves. And I think that’s because we took care of our talent [during the shutdown], so they weren’t forced to do other things to maintain whatever lifestyle we provided them. [The taping] was one match at a time, cleaned the entire ring, changed the mats.”

– On Friday’s NJPW Fighting Spirit Unleashed, TJP and ACH defeated Adrian Quest and Logan Riegel, also, Rocker Romero beat Danny Limelight. In the main event, KENTA defeated Jeff Cobb to win the IWGP US Championship Right to Challenge Contract for a future match. Jon Moxley is the current holder of the title.

Match #4 – Main Event – @KENTAG2S puts his IWGP United States Title match contract on the line against @RealJeffCobb #njpwSTRONG pic.twitter.com/mDFmCiCKI1

— UltraLiger (@UltraLiger) September 12, 2020