Ring of Honor: Final Battle (2017) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by Ring of Honor (ROH). It took place on December 15, 2017, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York.
Since I'm reviewing this at least a month after the fact after Wrestle Kingdom 12 has come and gone, I'm going to be pretty short and sweet on these results as the big title changes are already out in the open.
I thought that the opener between The Kingdom's Matt Taven and Will Ospreay was pretty solid. I still think that The Kingdom's new music that they debuted last year rocks and takes them up a notch collectively. Taven was set to be a star before his injuries sidelined him back when he won the TV title a few years ago, but I'm glad he's getting the chance to shine now on his own in a sense instead of being the 3rd man in Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis' shadows. Ospreay is one of those guys who does a lot of "flippy shit" as Jim Cornette would say but I can tell that he has the right guys mentoring him or feeding him knowledge as the guy can easily transition to spots (that make sense instead just doing flips to do flips) and working smart within the ring. I loved the finish here that saw Taven counter the OsCutter into what looked like EC3's One Percenter (Snapmare Driver?) for the win.
War Machine def. The Addiction in a match that I honestly didn't really care for. While I like all of the guys involved here but I just couldn't help but feel that something was missing here. Besides aren't War Machine on their way out the door? Seemed odd to see them win here but job out like it was nothing on WK12. Then again, this show was a few weeks out from that event and I watching this in retrospect, but whatever.
Motor City Machineguns def. The Best Friends to retain the ROH Tag Titles in a match I honestly would say was the worst thing on this show just from the finish alone. The Best Friends spike Sabin into a Piledriver, who no sells it into a Jacknife pin for the win. I watched that spot at least 3-5 times and still didn't understand that.
Lethal vs. Marty Scurll had to be my favorite match of the show just from the double Eddie Guerrero chair fake-out spot. Both of these guys have great natural chemistry with each other with the match. The narrative here was that Marty was trying to bring out the "villain" in Lethal, but that merely spelled out doom for Marty in the end as Lethal took the win after a low blow that allowed him to hit the Lethal Injection.
Silas Young pulled off the upset of the evening winning the TV title in that 4-Way elimination match. Shane Taylor (who has slimmed down a lot from the last few times I've seen him work matches on ROH TV a few months ago) went out first, Kenny King (the champion going into this match who even impressed me with some of his matches during this reign) out second after Silas broke a beer bottle over the back of his head, and Punishment Martinez (who I jokingly said to myself while watching that he is everything that WWE wishes Baron Corbin would be) was eliminated last by Silas. Definitely one of the better matches on this card, especially from the first few opening moments of the match. I thought Punishment Martinez was pretty bland when they first introduced him but he's definitely impressed me with his performance here.
Dem Boys (The Briscoes) def. Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer in a Street Fight. To say that this whole storyline/feud stemmed from Ray's possible head injury/concussion(s), there sure were a LOT of shots to the head in this match to the point is was in really bad taste. We all know the trauma to the head isn't anything to play around with but this match went out of their way to barrage in a lot of them for Christ's sake. To be honest, I was completely fine with the Briscoes picking up the win here.
ROH presents the Women of Honor (WOH) Championship and announces a tournament to crown it's first champion. About F'N time I say. Took them long enough to do this to say that their women's division has been around for a good while now since it's "revival", just that it's been limited to being mostly shown off on their YouTube channel weekly. TBH I wouldn't be surprised if either Mandy Leon or Kelly Klein picks it up first in terms of mainstays who have stuck around this long.
Hung Bucks (Young Bucks & Adam "Hangman" Page) def. Flip Gordon and two guys from CMLL was another fun match. This was my first time seeing one of Flip's matches and I'm thoroughly impressed with his work. I can see why he's on a lot of the "who to watch in 2018" in ROH lists. Dragon Lee's performance wasn't a surprise here as I've seen him work earlier this past year in the hunt for the TV title. Flip's team got some nice spots in but there wasn't any doubt in my mind that the Bucks weren't walking away as the winners. It just seemed like they were jobbing Flip's team out with the DOUBLE Indytaker on them for the win. Made them look like a group of collective jobbers to me off that. Don't ask me who was the third man for Flip Gordon's team as I didn't catch that for the duration of that match.
Main Event: Cody Rhodes w/ Brandi Rhodes defending his World Title against Dalton Castle. This was the first appearance Cody's new look with the blonde/white hair and sporting that ring that he has Brandi kissing all the time. I spoiled the finish to this match for myself by watching WK12 first, so I knew he was losing the title here, but I still thought that this was a match worth watching. Not as great as everything else on this card, but a fine way to close out the show. Maybe it was just me or did the crowd didn't seem too passionate about Castle's win here? I dunno maybe it was different live in the arena.
Overall, this was your run of the mill ROH card (with more time of course), but I'm glad I didn't drop PPV money to watch this live despite the solid performances up and down the card. I don't want to bury the show, but it just seemed like your run of the mill ROH card, just with a lot more time for matches than they typically do for their weekly broadcast.
Since I'm still playing catch-up on a lot of wrestling this month in terms of commenting and sharing my thoughts like my loyal followers on Facebook and Twitter expect of me in terms of covering professional wrestling, I figured I revive an old featurette from Let's Talk Wrestling before I merged that blog with this page. FYI Let's Talk Wrestling is still it's own separate spin-off Facebook Page from my usual Method to Madness one.
That being said, I'm going to comment on a LOT of wrestling from this past month, but not ALL of it. Some events I'm going to merely skim over to save myself the grief of doing a full separate write-up on those shows, while others I'll give you full rundown on what I enjoyed from top to bottom of those cards. I don't watch WWE RAW/SmackDown! regularly anymore outside of reading spoilers or clips on YouTube, but if those shows are your cup of tea, then be my guest to check those shows out and enjoy them in their entirety. For me, it was an ongoing struggle to waste my time watching something that I was going to complain about for 2-3+ hours every week when I could be doing something else. I know I'm letting down my followers on Twitter with my lack of sarcastic livetweets during wrestling events as of late.
Last but not least before I start this... You may notice that there's a lack of Impact Wrestling episodes. That's not because the shows are bad. It's quite the opposite. I'm still playing catch-up on the shows following Slammiversary XV so it's not fair to me to comment on those yet. Impact has been doing some great episodes of their show as of late and I HIGHLY recommend giving them a chance right now. Their in-ring product is solid and even top notch in some aspects, especially with their ongoing working relationship with Pro Wrestling NOAH and AAA/Crash (including some names from Lucha Underground in coming weeks) that has seen some of those various talents participate in X-Division and Tag Team division matches.
Night 1 (July 1) & Night 2 (July 2)
I know I should start off this write-up with my thoughts on the NJPW G1 USA Special, but the truth of the matter is that I STILL haven't had a chance to watch it in it's entirety since being on vacation out of the country that whole week. From what I have watched of Night 1 though has been VERY good. I think I will do a separate write-up on that event at some point on Facebook since I have no way in hell to keep up with the G1 Climax event stuff this year since I'm usually asleep for work in the morning at the ungodly hour when that stuff comes on NJPW World.
Impact Wrestling/Global Force Wrestling Presents: Slammiversary XV (July 2, 2017)
I'm not going to discuss this ENTIRE show in depth, but just mention a few favorite bouts from the card. If you watch only one TNA/GFW related show this month, do yourself a favor and check this show out. I found myself thoroughly entertained from start to finish. If the match video links don't work, I'm sorry but credit goes to the uploaders on YouTube.
Four Way Lucha Rules Match for Unified IMPACT! & GFW Tag Team Championships– LAX (Santana & Ortiz) w/ Konnan, Homicide & Diamante def. Laredo Kid & Garza Jr, Drago & El Hijo del Fantasma, Naomichi Marufuji & Taiji Ishimori - Go out of your way to watch this match in its entirety. The number of premiere top notch international talent here don't disappoint a beat. There's a few botches but they don't ruin this match in the least.
IMPACT! Grand Champion Moose & D’Angelo Williams def. Eli Drake & Chris Adonis - D'Angelo definitely surprised me being able to go here like he was a cruiserweight instead of the run of the mill basic shit most celebrity guests tend to do in spots like this on PPVs. D'Angelo definitely earned his keep in this one. I was pretty sure he gave himself a concussion off that splash on the table after overshooting it though.
Jeremy Borash & Joseph Park def. Josh Mathews & “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner - I freakin' loved everything about this match. I won't spoil it, but I'll say that it's done in the vein of The Final Deletion. I cringed at the ending for JB for sure though.
Mixed Tag Team Full Metal Mayhem Match – Eddie & Alisha Edwards def. Davey & Angelina Love-Richards - You rarely see ladies in matches like this in mainstream wrestling, so Angelina and Alisha definitely deserve a hand here because they were just as bruised and bloodied as the guys by the time it was all said and done.
2 out of 3 Falls Match for the X-Division Championship – Sonjay Dutt (c) def. Low-Ki - These two have been killing it lately and I haven't been disappointed with this match in the least. Thank you for making me care about the X-Division again, boys.
Sienna (GFW Women’s Champion) def. Rosemary (IMPACT! Knockout’s Champion) – Championship Unification Match - I get that they went with Sienna winning for heel heat here, but for once can we have the babyface (the crowd was clearly behind Rosemary here) be the one who unifies the titles, that's not Cena or Hogan?
“Walking Armageddon” Lashley (IMPACT! World Champion) w/ King Mo vs. Alberto El Patron (GFW Global Champion) w/ Dos Caras – Championship Unification Match - This wasn't a bad match but after everything else on this show that went miles and beyond, this just felt like it kinda dragged on a bit longer than it needed to. I heard ADR did a long shoot on WWE either before or after this match, but the copy of this PPV I watched online cut that out, so I missed that bit.
NXT (July 5, 2017)
Bianca Belair def. Aliyah - Aliyah's getting better and nowhere as botchtastic as her other half Liv Morgan. Given all of her hype by most Diva fans on social media, I was vastly disappointed by Belair. People on Twitter were acting like she's the second coming of Sasha Banks or something. She's slapping her thigh for that hair whip move BTW.
Bobby Roode (c) def. Roderick Strong to retain the NXT Championship - VERY long match with a few decent spots, but this dragged on far too long for my taste. They did the Dusty finish at the end where they had it look like Strong won in front of his family only to reverse the decision after the referee saw Roode's foot underneath the ropes, allowing Roode to hit his finisher for the win. Talk about killing Strong's momentum dead here. If they weren't going to give him the gold, then what was the point of building him up over the last few weeks with those vignettes and what not? Seemed like a HUGE waste here.
Lucha Underground (July 5, 2017)
Cueto Cup First Round: PJ Black def. Sexy Star via DQ - Taya interfered, bringing in brass knuckles for PJ to use on Sexy only for her to use them on him and get DQ'ed promptly afterwards. Sexy KOs the referee too after the result, but I felt like PJ looked pretty weak here to say that he has to use brass knux to beat a woman. No offense, ladies, but that's pretty bad storytelling.
These Rey/Mundo vignettes to hype their upcoming match have been awesome. I just wanted to put that out there.
Cueto Cup First Round: Son of Havoc def. Son of Madness - I thought Son of Madness was Mike Knox, but he's Johnny Goodtime from his file on Cagematch.com. There was some high and low points to this match, but it got its point across to give Havoc's character more depth in terms of exploring his history instead of being biker archetype.
Cueto Cup First Round: Prince Puma def. Ricky Mandel - Puma beats him so fast that he didn't even have to take his hoodie off. They are going balls deep committed with this "dark" turn for Puma and I'm liking it so far as they pretty much ran with him as far as they could have with being the top babyface. It was time for a change after two seasons. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Cueto Cup First Round: Dante Fox def. El Dragon Azteca Jr. - Very fun match to watch, but ultimately interference by the Worldwide Underground ruins it at the end. They lay out Mysterio which is more than enough of a distraction to allow Fox to pick up the win. They are obviously leading up to Fox confronting Killshot again at some point so I doubt he's winning this tournament.
WWE Great Balls of Fire (July 9, 2017)
WWE Cruiserweight Championship - Neville (c) def. Akira Tozawa (with Titus O'Neil) - No offense to Tozawa and Neville, but it's the preshow and I could care less here.
Bray Wyatt def. Seth Rollins - Not bad, but I was expecting more from these two guys at this point instead of a filler feud like this. I'm more surprised that Bray actually won here though.
Big Cass def. Enzo Amore - Who cares? Moving on...
WWE Raw Tag Team Championship - Cesaro and Sheamus (c) defeated The Hardy Boyz (Jeff and Matt Hardy) 4–3 - 30-minute Iron Man - I'm sorry, but after the opening spot that led to the first fall, I mentally checked out for the bulk of this match until the roughly last 5-10 minutes. If you seen one Hardys match over the past 2-3 years then you have seen them all. The Hardys are just going through the same motions as their recent TNA run and most jaded WWE fans are blinded by the nostalgia googles to see that. It seemed like
WWE Raw Women's Championship - Sasha Banks def. Alexa Bliss (c) by countout - No more singles matches for Bliss please. Her and Sasha have little chemistry here and she's getting exposed left and right for her lack of ability. I did like the post-match spot though. Everything else here? Meh at best. I'm surprised that people keep forgetting that Bliss is double jointed too.
Trust me, Bliss wouldn't be in this position on RAW if she couldn't talk circles around the other women on the microphone and the fact that she has heel Trish Stratus' mannerisms and gimmick down to the tee.
WWE Intercontinental Championship - The Miz (c) (with Maryse, Curtis Axel, and Bo Dallas) def. Dean Ambrose -
Ambulance match - Braun Strowman def. Roman Reigns - This wasn't a bad match at all, but I laugh my ass off at the finish and the segment that proceeded afterwards where it seemed like Roman "killed" Strowman.
Heath Slater def. Curt Hawkins - Poor Slater wins a match and the people watching at home didn't even get to see it while the post-match segment for Strowman/Reigns was still ongoing backstage. WWE Universal Championship - Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) def. Samoa Joe - Here's the thing. I wasn't mad that Joe lost as I didn't get my hopes up that they were going to let him win against Brock the first go round anyway. I was just let down that they had Joe go down off just ONE F-5. To WWE and Joe's credit though, this wasn't as one sided as I was expecting a Lesnar match to be. Joe was firmly in control of the momentum for the majority of the match and the narrative here just made it look like
WWE Monday Night RAW (post-Great Balls of Fire Fallout)
Check out that in-ring segment between Samoa Joe, Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, and Brock Lesnar. Reigns surprisingly held his own on that one on the mic, but if I were picky I would go with a Joe/Brock rematch for Summerslam 1-on-1. Knowing WWE, they don't want to beat Brock clean before WrestleMania, so it would probably end up being a Fatal 4 Way at Summerslam between Strowman, Reigns, Joe, and Brock for the title for Lesnar can lose without getting pinned.
NXT (July 12, 2017)
Aleister Black def. a debuting Bobby Fish - This was over far too quick for my taste. If they wanted Fish to have an impact, they should've debuted him and Kyle O'Reilly together as a tag team in that floundering tag team division on this show. I'd kill to see reDRagon killing it in that division. From what I've heard from the spoilers, O'Reilly's going to make his singles debut soon too.
Vanessa Borne def. Jayme Hachey - Jayme Hachey is Jayme Jameson who competed in one of the previous TNA One Night Only: Knockouts Knockdown iPPVs. She's the wife of Gunner, who I heard is going to be debuting for NXT soon too. I'm surprised they didn't get Jayme as a lock for the Mae Young Classic instead of these other girls who are green or brand new filling in spots in that tournament. As for Vanessa Borne, she's Danielle Kamela who has been in NXT for a while just never had a televised match to my knowledge. This wasn't a bad match, just left me expecting and wanting more from both of these ladies.
Johnny Gargano Returns - He's back from injury and announces his run to singles action following Ciampa's betrayal. I still think it was pretty stupid to do that angle knowing that Ciampa was hurt going into the match and was going to be taking time off afterwards. We're not going to get a resolution here for MONTHS on end while Gargano is going to be in filler feuds until Ciampa comes back.
Authors of Pain (c) def. Heavy Machinery to retain the NXT Tag Team Championships - Much like the Strong/Roode match last week, I don't see what was the point of a strong push for guys only to have them fail - clean if I may add. In AoP's defense, they aren't looking as green as grass like they were when they first won the titles and leading up to that point, but I thought Heavy Machinery were on a good roll too. I guess time will tell how they will bounce back from this loss.
Lucha Underground (July 12, 2017)
Jeremiah Crane (Sami Callihan/Solomon Crowe) def. Taya - Sexy Star distracted her as payback and KOs her with the brass knux from the previous episode post-match. I guess they are leading into a Taya vs. Sexy Star match for Ultima Lucha Tres. That would be ironic given the situation with Taya leaving AAA after they stripped her of the Reinas de Reinas Championship and awarded it back to Sexy Star, who I thought was retired from that promotion. FYI Taya and Mundo are set to debut for GFW/TNA after this "betrayal" by AAA from what's been reported as of late.
As for this match, it was fun to watch. Taya definitely has a lot of talent for working with men AND women that's for sure. She's at home wrestling anyone in the squared circle. The more I see of Crane, the more I shake my head that NXT did absolutely NOTHING with that guy.
Aerostar plays stupid when Fenix clearly points out that he knows that Aerostar is a time traveler.
Mil Muertes (w/ Catrina) def. Paul London - Mil didn't put up with any of London's foolishness with the Rabbit Tribe and royally sent them back to Wonderland. Lucky bastard London was looking up at Catrina's ample cleavage while she gave him that lick of death while he had that shit-eating grin on his face.
Fenix def. Marty the Moth Martinez (w/ Mariposa) - I was hoping for a Mariposa vs Marty match in this tournament but oh well. It looks like they are going to throw Melissa Santos into a pseudo-Sam Shaw/Christy Hemme angle with Fenix right in the middle where Ken Anderson played that part in that storyline in TNA.
NXT (July 19, 2017)
Ember Moon def. Ruby Riot - I know I've said it plenty of times on social media - Ruby's fugly to me with a butterface, but I think if she grew her hair out she would look a lot better. Look at Christie Von Eerie. She stopped doing that mohawk look, grew her hair out, and she looks a lot better. Like one of my friends said jokingly, "Just because you want to do the punk rocker look doesn't mean you have to look like you munch the carpet every day of the week." But yeah, looks aside... This was a solid match. I thought Riot was going to come out the winner here (what is her WWE/NXT finisher by the way?) but I guess they want to put Ember Moon back on the warpath to dethrone Asuka.
Street Prophets looks like they will be another flash in the pan that will job out to the Authors of Pain. Didn't they job to Heavy Machinery a few weeks ago, or am I thinking about the Ely Brothers?
Oney Lorcan def. Danny Burch via submission with a single-leg crab
- Post-match, Oney offers his hand. Burch takes it, but won’t let go as he requests one more match with Lorcan. The Boston Brawler agrees, and the crowd loves it.
Seriously, who pissed in Oney's Cheerios to have him bust open someone in almost every single one of his matches on this series of NXT tapings? Burch seemed like he was legit mad as fuck about that too. I got to say... seeing someone win off a single-leg crab is so fucking strange, but a nice change of pace.
No Way Jose def. Cezar Bononi via pinfall following the pop-up punch - Cezar looks like a young Randy Orton when he debuted. I bet Triple H is getting hard-ons for that kid just from his look alone. - Afterwards, we see Andrade “Cien” Almas and his mysterious lady friend are ringside. She encourages him, and Almas jumps in the ring to put his designer shoes to Bononi. Jose runs in to put a stop to that, and Almas and the woman (Thea Trinidad) leave.
Drew McIntyre def. Killian Dain via pinfall following two Claymores (and Dain kicking out of a Future Shock DDT at one!) to become the #1 contender to Bobby Roode’s NXT championship at TakeOver: Brooklyn III.
Lucha Underground (July 19, 2017)
Prince Puma is still haunted by visions of his past with him looking to his new master Vampiro for his direction.
Pindar def. Cage via DQ after Cage refuses to take off the gauntlet and laid out the referee - I guess this is going to be Cage's full blown heel turn after being "consumed" by the dark power of that gauntlet he won over the next few weeks. He already killed a guy how can this get any darker?
Dante Fox def. Son of Havoc to advance in the Cueto Cup Tournament - After being robbed of his title shot at Ultima Lucha Dos at the hands of the debuting Dr. Wagner Jr that they've done ABSOLUTELY nothing with this season, I thought it was in bad taste to have Fox go over here. Fox has some amazing ability, but Havoc deserve to get farther here. The storyline reason for his loss is because Son of Madness attacked him prior to the start of the match but Dario Cueto issued the match to start anyway, but they could've done better than that here. Sad to see Havoc lose here, but this was a fun match to watch with a lot of "holy shit" worthy spots.
PJ Black finds Johnny and the Underground in the locker room. Johnny brought in a man named Benjamin Cook, who is his new representation. Cook promises PJ that if he wins tonight, Johnny and the WWU will own Lucha Underground.
I swear Cook reminds me of a twisted parody of Paul Heyman.
Prince Puma defeats PJ Black with the 630 to advance in the Cueto Cup - I didn't doubt that Puma was going to beat PJ here as it seems like he's a strong candidate to make it to the finals and challenge Rey for that Ultima Lucha Dos rematch.
WWE Battleground (July 23, 2017)
SmackDown! Tag Team Championship - The New Day def. The Usos (c) - They lost me when Woods got superkicked out of the air in the same vein of the Shelton Benjamin/HBK Gold Rush Tournament spot, only to kick out from the near-fall. Seriously, that should've been the fucking finish but they had at least 20 more near-falls after that.
Natalya is the #1 Contender for the SmackDown! Women's Championship - Legit shocked at that choice since I thought Charlotte was pegged to be hyped up as the big gun to be part of the marketing for Summerslam. What I'm afraid of is that they are going to let Naomi lose to Nattie, only to have that moment stolen from Nattie by Carmella's inevitable MITB cash-in.
Shinsuke Nakamura def. Baron Corbin via DQ - Corbin got himself DQed on purpose. This match was the drizzling shits. No sense of chemistry here as it just seems like they were put in this spot to stall for time.
United States Championship Match - Kevin Owens def. AJ Styles (c) - Meh worthy match to say that both of these guys can do SOOO much better. Seemed like they were just going through motions and not really caring here. Even the finish seemed odd and just gave me the impression that they had no faith in Styles as champion to put the title back on Owens like that after less than a month.
Flag Match - John Cena def. Rusev - #LOLCenaWins. 'Nuff said. Rusev is right back down into the hole deeper than he was when him and Cena feuded the last time. I don't know why I expected anything less. If this was two years ago, I would've pegged Rusev a shoe in for the main event picture by now, but nope, WWE seems to be determined to keep him in midcard hell. This match was a LOT better when I muted the commentary and played the intro to GI Joe: The Movie on repeat in the background. Seriously though... this match dragged on FAR too long to say that they rushed through the most of the undercard.
Punjabi Prison Match - Jinder Mahal (c) def. Randy Orton - I'm not even going to sugarcoat this. This match was fucking awful. The Great Khali came back and helped Mahal retain after Orton tossed one of the Singh Bros. off the cage and he fell down through the commentary table. There I saved you from watching 30+ minutes of this shit.
WWE Monday Night RAW (July 24, 2017)
Show opens with ANOTHER brawl where the locker room empties out to hold everyone back after Kurt makes the Universal title match for Summerslam a Fatal 4 Way. Looks like I'm getting my wish then...
I have no idea what they are doing with Finn Balor but it seems like creative is high on Elias Samson for some reason.
Emma gets screen time with Kurt Angle wanting to get noticed, pitching that maybe she would date Jason Jordan to get that... If JJ doesn't want Emma, she needs to holla at 'cha, boi. I'm just sayin'. All this was for nothing as they sent Emma right out there to job to Nia Jax, who busted out some new flip senton splash for a finisher. It looked fucking awesome, yet scary at the same time. Emma's FAR too talented to be wasted in squash matches. I don't know what the hell WWE is doing with her.
Bayley def. Sasha Banks to earn the title shot to face Alexa Bliss for the RAW Women's Championship at Summerslam. I'm curious to know why they went with Bayley as we've seen that enough times and it's obvious that they have NO chemistry at all. A triple threat would look better on paper, but I think this show is going to have enough multi-person matches anyway to accommodate both rosters. Seems like they are teasing this heel turn for Sasha more and more. I had to laugh at that line during the pre-match segment for this match where Sasha verbally buried Bayley in one promo. I should've known right there that Bayley was going to win because otherwise that was going to solidify my opinion as her being the female Eugene.
Jason Jordan def. Curt Hawkins - I didn't watch the match personally, but the top complaint I saw on social media that he was wrestling normally without anything to show that he was inspired by Kurt Angle or anything. He should have at least used the Angle Slam or Ankle Lock as a finisher. The latter should be on the table for sure with Jack Swagger gone from the company.
WWE SmackDown! (July 25, 2017)
AJ Styles def. Kevin Owens (c) and Chris Jericho (return) for the United States Championship - Great news that they put the title back on Styles, but I thought it was a stupid decision to take it off of him in the first place. This main event just felt like damage control after that horrible PPV the blue brand just came back from.
NXT (July 26, 2017)
Ember Moon def. Lei'D Tapa - I'm surprised that Tapa is actually worse here than she was during her time in TNA. No wonder they didn't use her for the Mae Young Classic. Thank god this was over quick because I was facepalming at how she bumping for Moon here. They need to fire whoever decided it was a good idea to give Ember a microphone too. I really don't need to hear her stumble around trying to cut a promo.
Velveteen Dream def. Cezar Bononi - If you've seen any of Dream's matches up until now, then there's nothing new here other than he's facing Randy Orton 2.0 here. I swear that guy is going to end up injuring someone from how he does his Diving Elbow Drop finisher that I think they called the Velveteen Rain.
Kassius Ohno def. Hideo Itami via DQ - I wasn't too surprised with this match going back and forth as they've progressed Itami's heel turn perfectly. I still feel like that loss to Roode was criminal in terms of killing Itami's momentum if they were expecting people to keep caring about the guy. Despite of that decision, I think NXT has turned this around for the better with this heel turn. It's now or never to pull the trigger on this guy. Itami's not getting any younger and he can't stay in NXT forever.
Lucha Underground (July 26, 2017)
Texano def. The Mack (w/ assist from Famous B for the win) - I guess Brenda was able to sway Texano to Famous B's line of thinking to get "famous". I'm curious to see where this goes since they apparently abandoned anything to do with Dr. Wagner Jr. or that was a one-off like Melina's appearance was at Ultima Lucha.
Pentagon Dark def. Drago (w/ Kobra Moon) to advance in the Cueto Cup Tournament - This match was a treat for me to watch as I'm a huge fan of both of these guys. Only one of them could win and I'm completely fine with Drago taking the L here. I wasn't too crazy about Aerostar being the one getting his arm broken post-match though. Pentagon demanded a sacrifice so someone had to pay.
Rey Mysterio Jr. def. PJ Black - So much damn interference in this match, but I guess that's what we've come to expect out of these Worldwide Underground related matches. Rey and PJ shouldn't be strangers to working with each other from their last WWE runs and they have surprisingly good chemistry here.
Ring of Honor TV (Women of Honor Special #3 - July 29, 2017)
Non-Title Match - STARDOM High Speed Champion Kris Wolf def. Sumie Sakai - Cool to see one of STARDOM's own get a spot on this show this week. I'm dying to see more of these STARDOM women in WOH matches more regularly, thanks to their new partnership with that promotion. As for this match, it had some high points and low points. I'm surprised that Sumie's still wrestling after all of these years. At least she's not dressed like she's homeless anymore like she was in the early 2000s when I first discovered her in my random samplings of women's wrestling on the indies at the time. At first I had a problem with all of the roll-ups and pin attempts in this match, but after thinking about it, it makes a lot of sense given that Wolf is the "high speed" champion after all, winning matches in a blink of an eye.
Jenny Rose def. Mandy Leon - Given the few times that I have seen her wrestle over the last few years, I'm impressed with Mandy Leon's improvement here. I don't get why people try to act like she's in the same league as Eva Marie. In looks for sure, but she's definitely coming into her own as an in-ring competitor. I honestly haven't seen much of Jenny Rose's work, but she wasn't bad here either. It's obvious that WWE would hire Mandy Leon in a heartbeat from her "exotic" look alone, but she's dead set on being a loyalist to ROH as they continue to build up and restructure this women's division. I'm wondering what's it going to take for them to give these hard-working women a championship to fight for.
Triple Threat Match - Karen Q def. Deonna Purrazzo and Kelly Klein - Speaking of a championship for this division... If you're going to give these women in this division something to find for then any of these women here should be at the front of the line to have that opportunity first. I was really impressed by this match, even though I wasn't crazy about the finish that was out of nowhere given the time restraints of this episode. I think if ROH refrained from all of the recaps and cameos from the male members of the roster they could have showcased more with this match, but it felt like they robbed viewers of what could have been a PPV caliber bout here. That being said, Karen Q showed a lot of promise here to say this was the first match I have actually seen of hers. Deonna Purrazzo is definitely improving more and more with every mainstream wrestling appearance she makes on TV. Then we have the Gatekeeper herself, Kelly Klein. If ROH is serious about keeping her "undefeated" and continuing to push her like this, I say she should be the one who should win the WOH title first whenever they decide to give this division something tangible to fight for. With capable women like Deonna Purrazzo, Karen Q, and even Mandy Leon and Jenny Rose on the back burner, Klein would have plenty of strong babyface opponents to chase her for the gold if they would want to put her into that spotlight. It's either now or never on this before people stop caring altogether about this division. Plus, how long does ROH expect to keep these women on their roster interested in staying with the promotion when there's nothing to aspire for?
WWE Monday Night RAW (July 31, 2017)
Triple Threat - Roman Reigns def. Braun Strowman and Samoa Joe - Paul Heyman already announced the previous week that if Brock Lesnar loses at Summerslam that he's going to leave WWE. We might can count Brock gone then with all of these UFC return rumors end up being true, but at the same time, that's the perfect swerve to get people to not to expect Brock to lose against these odds. I really didn't like that they had Roman win this clean when Samoa Joe is the one hot on momentum in terms of building up this match along with Strowman. A win for Roman does nothing here for me, except make me wonder what the hell are they thinking? This wasn't a bad match but by far the best thing on this show.
Bayley def. Nia Jax via count-out - The only reason I'm mentioning this throwaway match is the fact that Bayley took a nasty bump, thanks to Nia dropping her without time to protect herself, that could potentially take her out of the equation going into Summerslam. The crowd in attendance already didn't care about this match - not that I can blame them as we've seen this match-up at least 3-5 times now, only to have Bayley sit around at ringside clutching her shoulder while the referee checks on her. For her sake, I hope she's alright though.
On the week of December 11, 2016, Ring of Honor TV devoted an entire episode of their weekly programming block to the Women of Honor division.
Deonna Purazzo vs. Candice LeRae
Great to see Deonna in her natural element here instead of being a jobber to Asuka on NXT, losing in seconds. A strong back and forth bout between these two women. Gotta admit that Candice fits better here than being tossed around on the indies like a ragdoll by grown ass men.
I was surprised that they let LeRae do Joey Ryan's "Ball-Plex" on Deonna. Even commentary was surprised as they didn't want to refer to it by name.
My only suggestion here would be to ask the girls to slow it down a bit (especially towards the end) and allow the crowd to digest everything going on for their execution don't look rushed or sloppy. That Fujiwara Armbar from Deonna that she used for the win could give Becky Lynch's Disarm Her/Dishonor a run for her money though. Who knows, we could see Deonna WWE bound sooner more than later if those rumors for a women's tournament in the same vein of the CWC and the UK tournaments in 2017.
Veda Scott & Kennedy Brink def. Sumie Sakai & Faye Jackson (w/ Solo Darling)
Faye has enough rearview back there in her truck that would make Naomi jealous. I'm still shocked that Sumie Sakai is still wrestling after all of these years. I remember seeing her on the first few SHIMMER volumes back in the early 2000s. Sadly, this might be the last WOH event we see Veda Scott on after she asked for her release from the company over the past week, so that means this match was taped a quite a while back as Veda Scott hasn't been featured on ROH programming for a few months now. At least Faye has a MUCH more flattering outfit for her figure than Nia Jax. WWE, please take notes.
Overall, there wasn't much to write home about here. Pretty much your average run-of-the-mill women's wrestling match that you could find in any promotion nowadays. This felt more like an exhibition for showing off the many different personalities in this division than anything else. Sakai was the acting veteran here to lead these girls throughout this match, but there were still a ton of sloppy spots and botches in this match, especially to say that this match lasted FAR longer than I would have liked it to.
Mandy Leon def. Jessicka Havok
For the WWE fans who read this blog, Mandy Leon is the person who NXT's Aliyah tries to steal her mannerisms from. Havok looks like she put on more weight since her brief TNA run a while back. If this division is being built off Mandy being the underdog as she's growing in skill and gaining experience then it's working for the most part with these roadblocks constantly thrown her way. As much as I do like her character, I'm more sold on Taeler Hendrix or Kelly Klein being the first champion whenever ROH gets off their asses and give these girls something to fight for. Much like everything else on this show to this point, you can add another "meh" average finish to this match as Mandy score the win after Deonna Purazzo distracted Havok long enough to roll her up.
Both girls got chokeslams for their just desserts and sold the shit out of 'em too. Havok could definitely help this division out as their resident powerhouse/monster if she decides to stick around full-time.
I honestly felt bad that the ROH crowd didn't react to next to nothing here in this match as it's such an oddity to see the women featured in ROH outside of eye candy.
Main Event: Kellly Klein def. ODB
This was definitely the best match on this entire show as ROH saved the best for last. Kelly Klein is undefeated and unstoppable since arriving in ROH. I'm guessing that they are giving her a Ronda Rousey gimmick (something that it looks like NXT is going to do with Daria) as she runs through every competitor that ROH throws at her from around the world. What's even more awesome is that ODB made a rare ROH appearance on this episode, despite her semi-retirement from pro wrestling to work as a bartender.
FYI ODB also appears on Impact Wrestling's Total Non-stop Deletion special as well, facing against Sienna, aka Allisyn Kay.
Bonus: No Disqualification Match - Taeler Hendrix def. Mandy Leon
This match wasn't on the WOH special at all, but was a YouTube exclusive match shared on WOH Wednesday as part of Ring of Honor's channel. I honestly don't know why they didn't air this match on this episode as it was pretty damn good. They probably would have to chop it into pieces in the editing room for it would fit well within that hour of weekly ROH programming but if they are going forward with Mandy and Taeler being their leading ladies in this division going forward for 2017, I suggest featuring them more like this. It's a damn shame that this feud isn't getting TV time at all. I understand that ROH only has a hour to work with per week, but it wouldn't kill them to give the women more time of day. Taeler and Mandy busted their asses in this match and they should be applauded for their efforts here to elevate the division.
It's strange to me that they don't give them more time as those vignettes on their channel leading up to this match (Hail Hendrix Parts 1-4) were freakin' awesome. It wouldn't kill them to focus on more rising stars and scale back on showcasing the stars from New Japan a bit. WWE (along with TNA slightly...) have hit ROH hard in terms of taking their bigger stars and it's time to reset the wheel a bit as I seriously doubt that WWE is going to stop raiding names from ROH in 2017, especially when they have more WWE Network content to crank out. That's why Sinclair Network(s) need to invest more into this company and give wrestlers a reason to stay instead of taking a higher paycheck but less airtime (in most cases) and a shot at their dignity.
Closing Thoughts
Ring of Honor has to give the Women of Honor more television time instead of segregating them to their YouTube Channel or showing them off on these TV specials once every six months. It wouldn't hurt to give them at least 1-2 matches on their many, many iPPVs or even their TV tapings every few weeks. It's hard to make people outside of the devoted few like myself care about this division after only seeing them perform once in a blue moon. They have to be given room to develop their characters and get more comfortable performing on TV. That's why I can't be too critical of their in-ring performances quite yet. The WOH doesn't have full-time veteran leadership to guide them in the right direction and I hope that changes in 2017.
