 On the October 1 episode of "Ring of Honor Wrestling", El Generico defended the championship against Jay Lethal in a match that lasted the 15 minute time limit without a winner.Authority figure Jim Cornette hastily allowed for the rest of television time to be used if both competitors agreed, which led to Lethal becoming the new champion.He made his first defence on the October 22 episode against "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett which also went to a 15-minute time limit draw, though Bennett later claimed he had mounted Lethal and attacked him enough that Lethal had been knocked out and thus should have lost the match even though Lethal then reversed the mount to see out the remaining seconds; in the event, Bennett refused to continue past the time limit and began to proclaim himself the true champion.