By Mark Rodriguez and Ninja Jupi
This time around we're gonna get to see a Chicago Street Fight between Kiera Hogan and the RoH Champ Athena! We also get to see some others like Diamante and Allysin Kay step into the ring!
Match 1- Trish Adora VS Allysin Kay
The match starts with the women respecting the Code of Honor and going for a grapple. After Trish gets Allysin up against the ropes and the ref break it up, they decide to go for a test of strength. Trish grabs Allysin in a Northern Lights Suplex, but Allysin kicks out of it. Trish then climbs onto Allysin and gets her stuck in a leglock around the neck as she hangs off her. Allysin walks near the ropes and dumps Trish on them. With Trish dazed, Allysin shoves her to the mat and climbs on her for a Ground and Pound.
Allysin whips Trish towards the ropes and hits her with a chop. She poses for the crowd and gets ready to deliver another one, but Trish avoids it and whips her towards another corner of the ring. Trish then fires back with her own chop. Allysin slams Trish with a Shoulder Breaker and goes for the pin but she kicks out. Allysin shoves Trish into the bottom turnbuckle. Trish managed to grab her for a German Suplex. She then hits Allysin with several forearm shots and shoves her into the turnbuckle. With Allysin up against the ropes, Trish bashes her into submission with multiple Hip Attacks. She grabs Allysin with another Nothertn Lights Suplex but she kicks out again.
Trish runs in with a Lariat which Allysin ducks under. Allysin grabs her for a German Suplex, then kicks her in the face, making her fall back from a kneeling position. Allysin goes for the pin and Trish somehow kicks out. Kay grabs her for some sort of slam but Trish flips out of it and lands on her feet. Trish nails Allysin with a Lariat and pins her down. Trish Adora wins the match!
Mark's Thoughts-
Pretty decent match, and as usual a good showing for Allysin Kay and her moves. I love how AEW/RoH isn't afraid to mention other promotions, the commentary mentioned that Allysin was former NWA Tag Team Champ alongside Marti Belle. It's also good to see Trish starting to score some wins. She has some good moves and it'll be great to see how far she can rise in the Ring of Honor ranks.
Jupi's Thoughts-
Firstly, totally irrelevant but I love Trish’s dreads. Nice and stylish. 😊. Now, onto the match. Since Allysin started off in the ring, it was a tip-off as to whom would win and lose this match. Despite that, in this case, it was more so about the journey to the inevitable outcome. Allysin is strong. The way she seemed to easily pick Trish up so effortlessly is nuts. She also smacked Trish around, showing off her dominance, but Trish came back and fought. I’m glad both looked strong and tested one another’s strength.
I liked this match okay, but it didn’t blow me away or anything. I found Trish’s match against Athena last week more entertaining.
-It looks like Trish is also aligned with the tag team The Infantry. They had a match during this episode against The Kingdom. Near the end, Maria Kanellis was distracting the ref so her team would get the win by cheating, but suddenly Trish would show up to chase her away. The Infantry would defeat The Kingdom to even their score.
Match 2- Diamante VS Leila Grey
There was a short interview segment before the match where Smart Mark Sterling offered Diamante half the purse if she would lay down for Leila. Diamante rejected the offer and said she'd rather beat her and take all the winnings for herself.
Once the match started, Diamante looked at Sterling at ringside and looked like she was considering the offer. She lays down for Leila, but when she goes for the cover, Diamante kicks her in the face. Diamante gets her with a clothesline and goes for the Ground and Pound. Then Diamante runs across the ring and slides under the ropes, knocking Leila down. As Diamante goes for a kick, Leila catches her leg and trips her so she falls face first into the ring apron.
With Diamante dazed, Leila gets her into the ring and starts kicking and stomping her. She gets Diamante up against the ropes and hits her with a hard open hand chop. Diamante hits her with a chop of her own. Leila slams Diamante's face into the mat and goes for the cover, but she kicks out. Leila gets Diamante with a body slam and goes for the Running Senton. Diamante gets out of the way which makes Leila land hard on her back. Diamante takes this chance to knock her down with two clotheslines and then gets her into a German Suplex. With Leila against the ropes, Diamante hits her with a running dropkick. She goes for the pin but Leila still kicks out.
Diamante grans Leila in a hold but Sterling distracts her. Leila gets out of the hold and hits her in the face. Diamante and Leila trade blows, with Diamante having the advantage. She then runs over to Sterling and stomps on his hand, but while she's distracted, Leila grabs her for a roll up pin with her feet on the ropes. Leila wins the match and runs off with Sterling before Diamante can get her hands on either of them.
Mark's Thoughts-
Good showcase for both women, with the extra story of whether or not Diamante would take Sterling's bribe. While it would rob the audience of a full match, I wonder if there's even a case where a match ends in seconds before the one person actually did lay down for the opponent. I loved Diamante's new outfit color scheme and hopes she keeps it for a while. The only downside was the ending with the old 'distracted by an outside person and losing to a sudden roll up pin'. How did the ref NOT see Leila's feet on the ropes? If anything, it hopefully sets up a rematch or something down the line. Jade might be out of AEW for a while on vacation, but it seems at least Leila and Sterling are still around to cause trouble in her name.
Jupi's Thoughts-
This match started off with both coming in to their entrance themes, which meant that the competitors were on equal footing. I so prefer this as it makes predicting the outcome more fun and interesting. Depending on the story they’re trying to tell you can maybe come up with scenarios on what the end game might be based on the winner. Anyway, I’d forgotten about Leila Grey since she, for the longest time, seemed to just accompany Jade to the ring. It was nice seeing her actually doing something in the ring.
Diamanté lying down on the mat at the start to allow herself to be pinned, was so obviously a deception. Seriously, this match had money on the line. Of course Leila naively fell for it and Diamanté kicking her in the head. There was even one spot where Diamanté was tripped on the apron. I liked all the action the match had. They were definitely evenly matched. My main gripe was the finish that’s been used for a bazillionth times in modern day wrestling. Referee arguing with someone interfering, the heel does a roll up pin, feet on the ropes, ref too blind and lacks peripheral vision and counts. Diamanté lost, but I do wonder where this will go now.
- There was a small interview segment as Sterling and Leila celebrate their victory. Diamante shows up and demands a rematch.
Match 3- Athena VS Kiera Hogan- RoH Women's Championship Match- Chicago Street Fight
Athena and Kiera start fighting each other with the champ knocking Kiera down. Athena gets out of the ring and grabs a ladder. Before she can get the ladder fully into the ring, Kiera runs and kicks it backwards into her. This not only hits Athena with her own ladder, but sends her flying back onto another ladder behind her. Kiera then gets Athena with a hurricarana, sending her flying into a ladder.
Athena shoved Kiera into a ladder and then whips her into the barricade. Athena then props up a table onto the barricade. Kiera rushes in and punches the champ across the back. She then tosses in a trash can lid, a kendo stick and the trash can itself into the ring. Kiera rolls Athena back into the ring, but she is able to grab the trash can lid and hit Kiera with it.
Athena props a trash can under the ropes and grabs a kendo stick. She then whips Kiera into the trash can and starts beating on it with the kendo stick. Athena goes for the pin but then starts getting into the ref's face for not counting fast enough. Athena then goes for a forward handspring but Kiera stops that by throwing the trash can into her face.
Kiera lands a flying Hip Attack onto Athena. She then sets up a trash can up against her and hits both with a running dropkick. Kiera grabs and slams Athena with a neckbreaker onto the trash can and goes for the pin. The Fallen Goddess kicks out.
Kiera sets a ladder alongside another ladder and the ring apron. She gets Athena onto the ladder and goes for the ropes. As Kiera leaps off the ropes, Athena moves out of the way, leaving her to splash hard onto the solid steel ladder. While Kiera is hurt, Athena gets another ladder into the ring and props up a table outside of the ring.
Athena throws Kiera into the barricade. While her opponent is down, Athena starts stacking up chairs on top of other chairs, making a big structure. Kiera rushes in to attack her but Athena hits her with one of the steel chairs. Athena prepares to whip Kiera into the table that she propped up against the barricade earlier, but Kiera whips her into it instead. Kiera then gets Athena back into the ring and hits her with a kendo stick.
Athena rolls out of the ring and Kiera follows, still hitting her with kendo stick. Athena grabs one of her own and both starting hitting each other with them. Kiera socks Athena in the face and gets her onto a table. Kiera goes for the ropes and leaps onto her, but the table does not break. After a second attempt, Kiera lands on Athena and breaks the table.
Athena manages to hit Kiera and get her onto a table. When she tries to climb the ropes, Kiera goes up to stop her. Kiera goes for the headscissors to flip her onto the table but Athena blocks this attempt and picks her up. Athena then does a Power Bomb off the ropes, smashing Kiera through the table.
Athena grabs a trash can and lodges it between the top and middle ropes. She then goes out of the ring and reaches under it to pull out a black bag. She reveals that it's full of thumbtacks as she empties the bag all over the ring. Athena grabs Kiera for a Razor's Edge but Kiera slips out of it and kicks her in the face. Athena kicks her right back.
Athena runs towards Kiera and crashes against the trash can she set up herself moments ago. Kiera grabs her and slams her into the thumbtacks. She goes for the pin and Athena kicks out. Kiera then tries to strangle Athena with her own hair extensions. She goes for the ropes and tries to hang her. Athena reaches back and gouges her eyes, and doesn't stop even after Kiera has let go. Athena then grabs Kiera and does a backwards slam into the pile of chairs she had set up earlier.
Both women are down but Kiera took the worst of it. Athena grabs Kiera by the hair and gets her back into the ring. She then goes for the pin and wins the match, retaining her title.
Mark's Thoughts-
Wow, this was one hell of an intense match full of a lot of awesome and painful-looking spots. Both women made sure that none of the weapons went to waste. Once Kiera landed on the steel ladder, it was kinda downhill for her. She would fight back but it she was at a big disadvantage for the rest of the match. I wasn't expecting the thumbtacks though. I'd say probably the most memorable spots were the Power Bomb off the ropes through a table, the body slam onto the thumbtacks, and of course, both women falling onto the pile of chairs.
I have to say, I do like Kiera's new look for this match. She's mostly known for the voluptuous blue hair, so it was different seeing her with the multi-color extensions. She even got to use them in the match. Overall an intense and brutal fight for both women as they really gave it their all for that Ring of Honor Women's Title.
Jupi's Thoughts-
Man, after last week, I was SO looking forward to this match up and it was crazy! This was a Chicago Street match meaning many weapons and spots set up utilizing those weapons and items. Both Athena and Kierra took some painful-looking bumps. Neither seemed to let up though. At the ringing of the bell, the action started right off the bat! They were fighting like they had genuine beef with one another, but given what we saw last week, it’s not surprising. In other words, in my opinion anyway, both sold their spots and emotions well. When one starts trying to choke you out with her own hair (Kiera) or beats you down with the wrong end of a shinai (Athena), which was compared to a “light saber”, like they smacked your mother and kicked your puppy into ongoing traffic, then you have Jupi’s approval on the persuasion of both parties’ intentions. lol
Later on Athena pulled out the thumb tacks and I was like “Uh oh”. lol I knew where that would lead. Someone was going to get slammed on them. Too bad it backfired on Athena since Kiera managed to slam her on them. Athena looked to be in pain as she pulled them out of her arm and was bleeding. See, this works for me. I do not like bloody matches, never have really, hence why I was never really into promotions like ECW. Here, it was reasonable as to why she would be bleeding, unlike someone like John Moxley who blinks at the start of a match and spontaneously combusts obvious blade-job blood. 😛
This match was exciting and kept me invested the entire time. Adrenaline rush and high the entire time! Definitely worthy of a main event slot, in my opinion. I had trouble even formulating my thoughts since so much was going on and both put on a good performance. I wasn’t surprised that Athena retained. If they have some decent members in creative, they’re probably planning on putting her up against a top baby face with a title she’s evenly matched with. Here’s hoping, although at this point I can’t imagine her not having this heel title run she’s so obviously enjoying. Also, Athena was booked to perform at the Forbidden Door PPV so makes sense to keep her with her title and looking strong with her 27-0 winning streak.
Mark's Overall Thoughts-
There is no contest, the Chicago Street Fight stole the show, especially since it was the Main Event of the evening. Other than that, it was good to see Trish Adora score a win, and even though Diamante got screwed in her match, it opens up things for a rematch. The show also ended with Athena telling the rest of the female roster to step up or step out. We'll see who will eventually defeat Athena and take her title.
Jupi's Overall Thoughts-
The women’s matches for this episode of ROH ranged between so-so to fun to watch. The so-so match falling on the Trish vs Allysin match. The aftermath was interesting though. The other two matches however managed to hold my engagement because I don't like matches where we the audience already know who will lose as opposed to speculation on that. Outside of that, I liked all of the matches. I’m curious how Diamanté will fare since she demanded a rematch and curious what Kiera will do or who will knock the goddess down a peg.
Athena is set to have a non-title match against Billie Starks at AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door as part of the Owen Hart Women's Tournament. Even without the title on the line, it's clear she's set to win. We'll also have Willow Nightingale challenge Toni Storm for the AEW Women's Title.
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