McXal's Reviews

This week we have Road Rage with a twist. We're taking a trip to Supercard Of Honor 12, but for a Women Of Honor Championship special as the two semi-finals and subsequent final are aired for television. Kelly Klein, Mayu Iwatani, Sumie Sakai and Tenille Dashwood are ready to do battle. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana provide commentary in New Orleans, LA.

Klein has dominated the Women Of Honor division, going two years without being pinned (and with only one count-out loss to her name). But has she been a big fish in a small pond? Now she tests herself against the 'Icon of Stardom' and one of the very best female pro-wrestlers (hell, one of the best wrestlers of any gender) on the planet. Iwatani has plenty of experience of high pressure championship situations, plus lots of tournament experience as puroresu is full of tournaments. This one is too close to call.

Kelly tosses Iwatani to the ground and smirks...but then she tries to do it a second time and finds Mayu too quick and too skilful for her. The Stardom Icon peppers Klein with kicks from all angles. The Gatekeeper retreats to the ropes; luring her opponent in then kneeing her in the face when she gets too close. A mafia kick follows that, knocking Iwatani sideways and leaving her struggling to get up from the canvas. Cravat knee strikes next, Klein maintaining hold of Mayu so she has no opportunity to build up any momentum. Finally she gets too confident and tries to come off the top rope. That is well outside of Klein's comfort zone and Iwatani catches her with shots to the head. Frankensteiner scores, followed by a missile dropkick. Iwatani goes upstairs for again...for a flying double stomp. FROG SPLASH gets 2 for Mayu. Dragon Suplex blocked...hurricanrana blocked...Fubuki Rana instead gets another nearfall for Iwatani. Klein still fights the Dragon Suplex into the diving DDT. K-Power nailed for 2. Suplex...into End Of The Match! Iwatani is choked out; Todd stops the match at 09:00.

Rating - *** - Probably the worst Iwatani match of the tournament, but it was still pretty good. Mayu is simply outstanding and even with so little time she still went out and absolutely busted her ass trying to put Kelly over. In all honesty I think a number of mishaps and minor mis-steps on Klein's part put pay to that, and I don't think they were ambitious enough with the story they told. The crowd was hot at the start, and were ready for something more substantial. This was a somewhat superficial cat and mouse game, with a really flat and underwhelming finish. I don't disagree with Klein going to the finals; she has been the monster of the division since it started. I think Iwatani was the right opponent for her too. I just wanted more time for them to produce something better than we got. As is, this was yet another perfectly decent but ultimately short and insubstantial WOH bout.

Sumie Sakai vs Tenille Dashwood

Dashwood has made a major impact since debuting at Honor Reigns Supreme 2018. Her path to the semi-finals has been relatively untroubled with comprehensive wins over Stacy Shadows and Brandi Rhodes. Sumie is a surprise package; the journeywoman who competed in Women Of Honor competition as far back as 2002 and who survived Oedo Tai's Hana Kimura and Kagetsu to make it this far. Surely she can't go any further, when confronted with arguably the biggest 'name' in the tournament?

Sakai is pumped and scores early with the fisherman neckbreaker. Dashwood retaliates with the Dilemma and a jumping neckbreaker in the ropes. CRAZY TOP ROPE SUICIDE DIVE by Tenille! Mongolian chops by Sakai, then a judo throw into a cross armbreaker. Dashwood fights that...so Sakai transitions her into a crossface as well. Tenille has plenty left in the tank to fight it though, and she escapes to hit the Emma-mite Sandwich. Missile dropkick in response by Sumie! Dashwood catches her trying a rana though...and blasts her with a sit-out powerbomb. Smash Mouth gets 2 for Sakai. They battle up the ropes, where Dashwood lands a GERMAN SUPERPLEX. Spotlight Kick dodges into a crucifix pin...and Sumie wins! 07:52 is the time (and loud boos can be heard).

Rating - * - A couple of wild spots saved this from being a real bust from my perspective. I'm not for one second holding Tenille up as one of the best women's wrestlers around, but in Ring Of Honor she is by far the biggest star. She is pretty much the only Women Of Honor who's entrance gets any kind of reaction, she was still relatively hot coming off her WWE release at this stage. It feels an unfathomable decision to put Sakai over her. I prefer Mayu Iwatani to Kelly Klein, but I clearly understand the reason for putting Kelly over. Here the logic escapes me; are ROH really telling me that the story I want is Sumie Sakai, a spirited, admirable, enthusiastic and solid veteran facing the undefeated Gatekeeper in the final INSTEAD of undefeated monster vs mainstream star Tenille? The match itself was a bit of a mess. For eight minutes one woman would hit a move, they'd both get up, then the other would hit a move...then they'd both get up and the first would do another move. There was no real story or plot. Just two women giving all they had but in a slightly aimless manner which didn't land with me at all.

Ian Riccaboni brings the Women Of Honor Title belt and Kelly Klein to the ring. They are supposed to have a 'photo op' as is a Stardom tradition. Klein, to the surprise of nobody, uses it as an opportunity to blast poor Sumie with a cheap-shot.

I don't think this is the final most fans would've expected (or wanted), but here we are. Kelly's presence isn't too surprising. She remains almost undefeated in WOH competition and enters the final full of confidence having overcome the biggest challenge of that 'streak' by defeating Mayu Iwatani in the semi-final. Few had Sakai pegged for the final, but she has been an invaluable veteran presence throughout the WOH relaunch and has been vocal about how thankful she is for this run. As she enters the twilight of her career, she'll be looking to pull off a huge upset. She will enter this fired up after Klein attacked her during the 'photo opportunity' at the end of the pre-show too. 'Original Woman Of Honor' Daffney is at ringside. Was Allison Danger busy?

Sumie has no interest in pageantry or introductions; she charges at Kelly and tries to punch her lights out. Similarly Klein gives no f*cks and dumps her right on her neck with a German suplex. Sakai is rattled and starts making mistakes - running at the Gatekeeper only to be easily countered to a flapjack over the ropes. Klein refuses to allow Sumie any time to recover - battering her into the guardrails then suplexing her into End Of The Match on the outside. Sakai has to be dragged back into the ring, and although she keeps fighting Kelly simply dumps her again with a fallaway slam. Fisherman neckbreaker by Sakai...which Kelly no sells and hits another German. Members of the Women Of Honor roster come out and circle the ring to watch the conclusion of the match. Sumie is kicked mercilessly into the canvas and seems on the brink of defeat. Yet somehow she finds the strength to hit a fisherman buster. Moonsault...but she basically overshoots it and misses. She tries to recover that and hits an ugly DDT. That leads to an even uglier pinfall...then a weird three-count where it seemed like neither wrestler, nor Todd Sinclair, knew what was supposed to happen. Sumie Sakai is, nevertheless, crowned the first WOH Champion at 07:42

Rating - ** - I've seen some reviews really tear into this match, which isn't fair. Clearly this isn't the final, nor the result I'd have booked, and obviously things went very wrong at the end...but for the majority of the match I thought it was decent. Klein beat the sh*t out of Sumie, whilst Sakai brought a lot of energy and took some real big hits to sell her babyface fighting from underneath storyline. There isn't any getting away from the fact that it was a TERRIBLE finish though, which marred not only the match but probably the tournament as a whole. 

Tape Rating - N/A - My biggest issue with the WOH Title Tournament is that, with the exception of a few matches, it hasn't been any different or felt any more special than any of the random YouTube/dark matches the female roster were already doing. It felt more like lip-service than a genuine attempt to promote women's wrestling in ROH. And to that end Sumie feels very much like a corporate, 'safe' champion. I understand wanting someone on the core WOH talent roster to win, hence ruling out star names like Iwatani or maybe even Dashwood. But that core talent should have been Deonna as the best worker, or Kelly as the dominant 'Goldberg' of the division. Throwing Klein's undefeated streak away in such a flat fashion, to put a belt on Sumie because she's safe, reliable and probably inexpensive is genuinely more disappointing than anything they did between the ropes. As an episode I thought this was fine. I admire ROH for letting their female athletes take centre stage for an entire week again. I do think it's time to let the better wrestlers in the division start working higher profile, longer matches though.

5) Kelly Klein vs Mayu Iwatani (***)

4) Sumie Sakai vs Hana Kimura (***)

3) Kelly Klein vs Jessie Brooks (***)

2) Mayu Iwatani vs HZK (***)

1) Mayu Iwatani vs Deonna Purrazzo (***)