Mark and Jupi review Ring of Honor Ep 25 8/24/23 (Women's Matches)

 By Mark and Ninja Jupi

After the Renegades have messed with both Athena and Billie Starkz, we finally have a tag team match to settle the score. We also have Kiera Hogan out to melt Lady Frost... or will Lady Frost be the one to put out her fire? The play-by-play and thoughts might be brief this time around. We're both kinda wiped out after watching AEW All In.

Match 1- Kiera Hogan VS Lady Frost

Both women grapple and start throwing kicks. After each of them dodged each other's attacks, both women kicked each other on the side of the head at the same time. Kiera dropped to the mat while Frost was rocked but managed to stay on her feet. Frost does a handstand and kicks Kiera off the ring apron. Frost goes on the apron and dodges Kiera's attacks by doing a handstand, but Kiera still trips her face first into the apron.

Frost is dazed from the attack and Kiera knocks her down with a missile dropkick off the ropes. She then cracks her on the side of the head with a superkick and goes for the cover. Frost kicks out. Frost managed to kick Kiera on the side of the head and got ready to finisher her off. Kiera ducks under Frost's spinning kick and grabbed her. She goes for a spinning neckbreaker, but doesn't let go, turning this into a Northern Lights Suplex pin. Kiera gets the three count and wins the match.

Mark's Thoughts-

Short match, but full of a lot of deadly hard-hitting kicks. This one could have gone either way, but I was rooting for Frost since she's been building up momentum lately. Kiera's neckbreaker into a suplex pin was pretty cool, or was it hot?

Ninja Jupi's Thoughts- 

I wonder if Hogan is going to use her hair as a weapon again like that other time. 😂 Welp, it’s time for Fire vs Ice! Well, fire does melt ice and that’s what happened. The match had good spots, but it was so short. Kiera seemed to counter most of the athletic Lady Frost’s moves. That seemed to work in her favor. The cringiest spot was the neck breaker Kiera used on Lady Frost!  Ouch!! 😣 Well, let’s see how things will go from here.

Match 2- Leyla Hirsch VS Leila Grey

Hirsch grabs Grey in a rear wristlock that she just can't break out of. After some struggle, Leyla rolls her into a snapmare and grabs her waist again. After Grey struggled some more, Hirsch finally slams her face first onto the mat. Grey manages to get her in two arm drags in a row and and then knocks her opponent back with a shotgun dropkick.

Leyla slams her opponent with a German Suplex. Grey hangs off the ropes and Hirsch presses down on her to choke her on the ropes. Grey tries to fight back but Hirsch gets her in another suplex as Maria Kanellis watches on. 

Leyla grabs Grey in another rear wrist lock and she tries to desperately get out of it. Leila manages to get to her feet and fight her way out of it. She knocks Hirsch down with two clotheslines, and then picks her up and slams her with the Death Valley Driver. Grey goes for the pin but her opponent kicks out.

Leila is about to pick up Hirsch, but she gets out of it and picks her up instead. Hirsch slams her with a Right Angle Slam and grabs her for an armbar. Leila taps out and Leyla scores another victory as Maria watches on and claps.

Mark's Thoughts- 

Another short match, and a lot of it seems to be poor Leila struggling to get out of that rear wristlock. It was funny during the 'handshake of Honor' part where both women were arguing over who is the real Leyla/Leila of the show. Good thing WWE Diva Layla didn't come out of retirement to make this a 3-way match. 

Leila got to show off some decent offense, especially with the Death Valley Driver, I love those. We'll see how far she can make it on her own since Jade is currently not around. Meanwhile Maria continues to scout Leyla. We'll see where that goes.

Ninja Jupi's Thoughts-

Layla vs Leila! Welcome back Leila. Surprised Maria didn’t pop up to say something. Oh well, let’s get this party started!

Grey was on the offensive during this match. A lot of grappling and tackling holds between the pair. Part ways through Maria showed up to watch the match, I legit would like to know what she’s thinking and what plans she has for Hirsch. Layla did request stronger opponents.  Anyway, Hirsch got Grey to submit. Does this mean that Grey wasn’t a worthy enough opponent?

Too bad this match was also short. I wish we would’ve gotten more, though since it’s been a while since Grey has been on RoH. I wonder if the match was cut short due to other matches on the card.

Match 3- Athena and Billie Starkz VS The Renegades

Earlier we had an interview segment where Athena made new shirts for Billie and Lexi and forced them to put them on. Lexi's shirt says 'Athena's Bestie', while Billie's shirt read 'Athena's Minion'. Billie isn't too thrilled, but cheers up when Athena says she will agree to a tag match against the Renegades.

Athena and Billie shake hands with the Renegades. The Sisters take this chance to strike, but Athena and Billie both superkick them down. They follow up by knocking them back with a double dropkick. Billie goes for a dive but is caught by the twins. Athena decides to go for a dive and takes all three women down. 

Athena and Billie grab onto the sister, and while Billie rolls her opponent into the ring, Athena threw the other one right into the ringpost. Billie goes for a backward slam on her opponent, but she lands on her feet and tags her sister in. From there both sisters take turns landing shots on Billie. Both of the Renegades pick up Billie and hit her with a double fisherwoman slam. One of them grabs Billie with the fishhooks until she bites her hand. The twin goes for a swing but Billie ducks it and socks her back in the face. 

Billie finally tags Athena in and the RoH Champ grabs her and throws her into one of the Renegades, using her as a spear. Athena then picks up Billie and power bombs her onto Robyn and then goes over to power bomb her onto Charlette. Athena isn't done using Billie was a weapon and Alabama Slams her onto one of the Renegades and goes for the pin. The Renegade Sister kicks out.

The Renegade Sister picks up Billie and slams her with the Michinoku Driver. She then picks up Billie while her sister kicks her face and they go for the pin. Billie kicks out. Athena comes in and both sisters pick her up and get her in a double choke slam. They go for the pin but the Fallen Goddess kicks out.

Athena manages to sock out one of the sisters and takes to the ropes, not knowing that Billie tagged herself in. Athena hit the Renegade with the O-Face and then goes to spear the other one. Meanwhile Billie leaps off the ropes and hits her opponent with her Swan Dive. She gets the pin and wins the match but Athena is NOT happy that she took the pin.

Athena isn't taking this 'stolen' victory and runs out to grab one of the retreating sisters and drags her back to the ring. She sets her title under the sister's face and tries to get Billie to stomp her face into it, like the Fallen Goddess usually does. Billie didn't want to do it, and the the Renegade Twin is saved by her sister that pulls her out of the ring. Athena is fuming and finally heads out with Billie following her,

Mark's Thoughts- 

Pretty fun match, especially the interactions between Athena and Billie. Athena still keeps her tough and insane attitude while Billie is still cheerful and upbeat considering her situation. The Renegades did their best with the offense, but Athena and Billie stole the show, especially with Athena using her minion as a weapon against them. This time the Renegades styled their hair exactly the same so it was incredibly difficult to tell who was who and the commentary couldn't keep up either. If this does end the feud with the Renegades, I do wonder who these two will challenge next since it seems Billie being a minion is the next chapter in Athena's RoH Women's Title Reign.

Ninja Jupi's Thoughts-

Now this match is allowed because the goddess deemed it so. Starkz issuing the challenge just wouldn’t do. 😝Well, let’s see how well Athena and her 18-year-old 400,731st and 3/4 minion work together as a tag team. 😂Will there be good collaboration, or will there be clashing that gives the Renegade Twins the advantage? Also, I’m already anticipating getting confused due to the twins. I bet the commentators will too. I also wonder if Starkz will inadvertently do something to annoy or tick off Athena. I was wondering that from last week since she is the unstable one after all. 😝

The twins kept Starkz, who was rockin’ the minion shirt Athena gave and nicely aggressively ordered her to wear, on their side of the ring. I thought she’d never get to the other side to tag Athena in.  Now, the craziness and brutality started once Athena got in the ring. She was LITERALLY using Starkz, swinging her around. I mean if she could’ve used Starkz as a bat, she would have! 😂 In the end they won, but Athena didn’t pin whichever twin it was because Starkz tagged herself in while Athena was on the top rope and SHE did a Swan Dive to win the match. Athena didn’t like that. She was yelling at Starkz. She then was ordering her to do that belt thing on one of the sisters but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Athena dragged Starkz to the back. Now, does this mean Athena will have to put Starkz in her place?

This match was definitely for Athena and Starkz. Their team up was like a senpai (Athena) and kouhai (Billie) dynamic. You don’t question your senpai. Starkz pretty much did what Athena  instructed her to do and she was the one really calling the shots. This is probably the only way Athena can work in a tag team with anyone. Given how this ended, I hope there’s a backstage interview or something. Where will this go!

Mark's overall thoughts-

We had some fun matches today with a lot of cool moves. The first two matches were good but too short. The best one was obviously the tag match with Athena and Billie. The match wasn't advertised since they wanted to make it so Athena came up with the idea during the interview segment. I get they wanted to keep it as a surprise but we almost missed this episode. I was planning on skipping it since we'd be too busy watching AEW All In, but skimmed through it and noticed we did have the tag match in there after all and so we decided to check it out.

I am curious to see what else awaits Athena and her minion, as well as the deal with Leyla and Maria Kanellis. Let's also see how Kiera, Lady Frost and Leila Grey continue to fight their way up the ladder.

Ninja Jupi's Thoughts-

This week was fun, but mainly because of the Athena stuff. It truly entertained me. She now has a 37-0 streak. Anyway I liked that they do seem to be setting some things up, like the stuff with Leyla Hirsch and Maria Kanellis as well as Athena and Billie Starkz. Is she trying to train her into being a heel? I’m glad there are a couple of plot threads going on, which isn’t as common in RoH. It leaves one to speculate and for those who know me know that I do enjoy theorizing over storylines and trying to figure out where they may go. I’m looking forward to the next ep and hope we get some follow ups. 😄

In other news, Saraya is the new AEW Women's Champ after defeating Britt Baker, Hikaru Shida and her own teammate Toni Storm for the title. Meanwhile at the upcoming All Out, TBS Champ Kris Statlander is set to defend her title against Ruby Soho.