McXal's Reviews

This aired the day after Best In The World 2016, so with no time to get any follow-up content booked, ROH and Sinclair have (to their credit) decided to do something a bit different. Rather than another generic clip-show or highlight reel ‘best of’ broadcast, we are instead getting a Women Of Honor special. The entire hour will be dedicated to showcasing the Women Of Honor division with full length matches. Getting them off YouTube or DVD dark matches and onto television is a major step. I believe at the time they shot some of this as a pilot for a potential full WOH division show, which never came to fruition. It does come at an opportune time too, as we are just a couple of weeks away from Women Of Honor’s first ever full live event – being taped before the Aftershock 2016 Ring Of Honor show. Giving women’s division full hours of television, plus feature-length live events is a major step forward. Riccaboni provides commentary, joined by Nigel McGuinness to add some credibility to proceedings. We are taped in Nashville, TN (back in January 2016)…

The show opens with a generic Best In The World graphic, with a Riccaboni voiceover which all but says ‘gone on summer holiday, back in two weeks’. That’s not a good start, immediately setting the tone that this is somehow less relevant, or exciting than the ‘main roster’ content…

This six-woman tag delivers an interesting mix of veterans, current stars and ROH debutants in a single match. Gallows and Sakai are the veterans. Amber looked set to take the Women Of Honor division by storm back in January (when this was taped), picking up a couple of wins and earning the favour of Veda – who recognises talent when she sees it and sought Gallows out to form a duo. Their partner is the debuting Allysin Kay, who has been around the indies for a long-time, has been a regular for SHIMMER…and wound up signing for TNA (competing as Sienna) between the time when this was taped to it being broadcast. Veda and Crazy Mary beat the sh*t out of each other during a recent Road To Best In The World tour match, so I look forward to those two going at it again. Thunderkitty is also a SHIMMER regular. She is…an acquired taste.

Sumie, Crazy Mary and Thunderkitty form one of the strangest trios in the history of pro-wrestling. Amber starts for her team and puts the boots to Kitty. Thunder hits back with her ‘glory days’ of wrestling offence – including body avalanches, a standing leg drop and a cranial claw. Kay and Dobson in next, picking up the pace with Allysin’s size and power particularly impressing. Sumie and Veda arrive next, and the Japanese veteran almost wins it there and then with a northern lights suplex. Kay hits a bicycle kick, feeding Sumie into a springboard bulldog from Scott for 2. Gallows has her turn putting Sakai on the ground too – landing the A-Factor for 2. Sakai fires back with a muscular fisherman buster...allowing her to tag Crazy Mary in. Mary quickly scores a nearfall with a Code Red but gets caught going to the top rope trying to set up for the Kaiju Killer. Allysin hops up the ropes to stop her, only to find Sumie and Veda stepping on the turnbuckles alongside them as well. Kitty and Gallows TOWER OF DOOM BOMB them all out of the corner! Thunder and Gallows turn on each other with vicious striking…before Sakai levels Scott with a missile dropkick. AK47 by Kay! KAIJU KILLER BY DOBSON! Gallows and Scott break the pin! Plex Express/Discus From Detroit combo by Veda and Allysin give their team the win at 07:56 (shown).

Rating - ** - I thought some of this was a little rough. Thunderkitty looked nervous and had a number of timing issues, but on the flip side her strike exchange with Gallows was one of the highlights of the match. The Tower Of Doom spot looked great when they got to it, but considering it was the focal point of the entire contest I’m sure they’ll all be disappointed at how choreographed it came off on film. I had Crazy Mary and Allysin Kay down as the stars for their respective teams. Any time they got into the ring together the match instantly became more watchable.

ROH promote this as Jackson’s genuine professional wrestling debut (even on Cagematch.net I can only find one match she’d worked before this). She is fresh out of the ROH Dojo, so getting to work a televised match against a veteran like ODB is a huge opportunity. ODB has something to prove here too. Her run with the Briscoes seems over, and she will feel slighted that she hasn’t been kept around as part of the Women Of Honor division. This is her chance to force her way back onto the roster…

Jackson uses her booty to shunt ODB backwards, and exudes smiles and composure on her full wrestling debut. ODB has a swig from her hipflask and comes back like Popeye after spinach to tackle Faye to the ground. Running crossbody from Jackson nearly delivers a major upset, and does knock ODB into the corner so Jackson can hit a flurry of running hip attacks in the corner. Carpet Buster by ODB (I’m NOT calling her One Dirty Briscoe). She doesn’t have enough strength to hit the Bam, so instead hits the Dirty Dozen for the win at 04:14

Rating - * - It seems callous to give the DUD treatment to a young woman who doesn’t have masses of wrestling experience behind her. Although her wrestling was obviously limited, Faye didn’t look nervous and exuded confidence which meant this was an easier watch than expected. I get the feeling ODB’s gimmick is just a bit too ‘unpredictable’ for the corporate and conservative Sinclair bigwigs to trust as a central part of Women Of Honor. She was a good choice of opponent for Jackson at least, even if four minutes for the two of them was at least two minutes too long.

Mandy Leon talks about her history as a host of ‘Inside ROH’…but now she wants to focus on her in-ring career. She thinks Hania The Huntress is the most impressive athlete to come into Women Of Honor, and is proud of a win she already holds over her. Hania gets promo time too and is fired up to avenge that ‘fluke’ loss

Known as ‘The Howling Huntress’, ‘The Huntress’ or even ‘the She-Wolf’; this is my first time checking out Hania for my review series. She used to wrestle in Chikara as Saturyne, so will be recognisable to some from that if not for her work without a mask. Mandy is one of the focal points of Women Of Honor. A graduate of the ROH Dojo, she is aesthetically pleasing and has had plenty of exposure on the TV show so steps out as one of the more recognisable names on the card…

The Huntress combines power with an obvious natural athleticism which proves a real challenge to Leon in the first minute. Mandy is feisty if incredibly unpolished and fights back with some bootleg lucha stuff. The point being made is that these women are evenly matched, and it is hammered home with a REALLY fun mirror-image knuckle-lock sequence where they do all kinds of stuff whilst maintaining hold of each other. Next they go for quick pinning combinations…and still can’t be separated. Leon sends Hania to the floor, and hops onto the apron looking for an ambitious Asai moonsault to the floor. The Huntress effortlessly blocks that though and takes the opportunity to smear Mandy into the guardrails…then returns to the ring with an equally easy-looking springboard dropkick for 2. Leon only seems to know one speed and gets caught trying to climb the ropes again, for Hania to drop her with the Full Moon kick. Havana Dreams applied by Mandy, but she has to release the hold when she realises she doesn’t have the purchase on it to maintain the hold. LEON-SAULT MISSES! Mandy’s moonsault looks even more dangerous and badly controlled than Lita’s. Nigel puts both women over for emptying the tanks and beating the hell out of each other relentlessly…and the pace is starting to take its toll. Unable to stand, they crawl to each other on their knees and start BATTERING each other with strikes. Mandy starts no-selling some major kicks from Hania and plants her on her head with a running bulldog for 2. Hanialation COUNTERED into a Koji Clutch…but The Huntress is already in the ropes to escape. Palm strike by Leon…so Hania jerks her to the mat by the hair. ECLIPSE! Hania gets the hard-fought win at 10:58 (shown).

Rating - *** - Having been given more than ten minutes of ring-time, there is no doubt that ROH officials thought these two had the potential to steal the episode. They absolutely delivered, putting out perhaps the best Women Of Honor match from ROH I’ve seen in 2016 (ahead of Dobson/Veda from Columbus). Not everything was crystal clean or silky smooth, but as McGuinness said on commentary – they really were beating the hell out of each other. To go at the speed they did and for as long as they did, was an impressive feat. They felt like mirror images, they felt like worthy rivals and it felt like they could fight all night and still be totally evenly matched. Hania (who really impressed me here having not seen her previously) picked up the win, just as Mandy did when they met previously. The rubber match takes place at the Women Of Honor Aftershock 2016 event in a couple of weeks, under 2/3 Falls Rules. If you don’t have a lot of interest in the Women Of Honor division generally, or this episode in full, this match is still worth seeking out

BJ Whitmer lists the accomplishments of Kelly Klein and her family, steeped in athletic tradition. He thinks ROH is in danger of killing the fledgling Women Of Honor division unless they get some stiffer competition for Kelly…

Taeler Hendrix discusses her combined focus of heading up the House Of Truth, managing Jay Lethal and her own aspirations as a wrestler. She objects to Kelly being considered the top Woman Of Honor.

Those two interview segments set the scene well for this one. Each woman believes they have a legitimate claim to be the top star in Women Of Honor. Klein is undefeated and has been (as Whitmer put it) ‘choking b*tches out’ for months. Hendrix, however, is one of the most recognisable members of the WOH roster thanks to her role with the House Of Truth. Taeler, for instance, appears far more regularly on TV, PPV and live events than Kelly does. In fact, you could watch a whole lot of ROH and not know Kelly Klein exists. Since this was taped six months ago Truth Martini is in Taeler’s corner. Kelly, meanwhile, is introduced as part of The (now-defunct) Decade and has BJ out with her.

Hendrix intensely stares Klein down, showing that she has no fear despite the intimidating record of her opponent. Kelly tries to MAKE her intimidated by almost breaking her in half with an abdominal stretch. Demonstrating her impressive strength, Klein walks around the ring carrying Hendrix as she attempts a sleeper hold before dumping her to the floor. A thunderous mafia kick connects for 2. Taeler looks on the brink of defeat but keeps ducking the K-Line and fires back with a flurry of kicks. She gets a nearfall with the Ginger Snap (sidewalk slam converted to a swinging facecrusher), then plants a kiss on Kelly before giving her the Long Kiss Goodnight Tombstone…for 2 again! Whitmer is actually concerned that Kelly might lose, creating enough of a distraction for Klein to pounce and lock in the End Of The Match. Hendrix taps, giving Klein another win at 05:32 (shown).

Rating - * - This was a weird choice of main event. I know Klein is the dominant force in the WOH division, and Hendrix is on more ROH content than any other female…but the match kind of sucked. A poor match, and the dour sight of one heel cheating to go over another, meant this ‘special episode’ ends on something a down note. I’ve said many times that I rate Kelly. She isn’t the finished article, but is ok with the gimmick she’s been given. Her real issue is that there are so few legitimately talented female wrestlers she can work with in Ring Of Honor to improve. 

Tape Rating - ** - I want to support the Women Of Honor division. As a father of two daughters, I care deeply about female pro-wrestling being presented with respect, credibility and as a legitimate sporting and athletic spectacle. Therefore as a concept, I liked this show and hope they keep doing these every now and then. If nothing else, taking ten minutes out of your life to check out the decent Mandy Leon vs Hania match (which should have been the main event) is a worthwhile endeavour. Unfortunately on the flip side, this show is the embodiment of ROH/Sinclair’s uncertainty about what they are doing with the Women Of Honor division. As they have been for months, all of these women are in a holding pattern. They have their gimmicks, they work competitive, short matches, wins and losses have little consequence, and they move on to the next live event where they tape the same kind of matches all over again. There is a core roster of women they like – Kelly Klein as the alpha female, Taeler Hendrix and Veda Scott as villains, Mandy Leon as the rising star babyface, Sumie Sakai as a veteran presence. They have established characters and play them out on a carousel of dark matches and YouTube exclusives waiting for SOMEBODY to give them some direction. Is there going to be a championship? Will they get their own TV show? Will they start running more live events and become a ‘sister promotion’ to ROH in the way SHIMMER had been. Will any of those developments mean growing the core roster? The likes of Mary Dobson, Allysin Kay, Hania, Deonna Purrazzo, Amber Gallows, Solo Darling and/or the soon-to-debut Candice LeRae would all be solid pick-ups/additions too (none of which happened – most of which wound up getting signed up by other promotions). As a promotional tool for what had been playing out on YouTube this was good. The jury is still out on whether it marks a turning point in prompting Sinclair/ROH to take the Women Of Honor seriously…