Mark and Jupi Review Ring of Honor Ep 38 11/16/2023 (Women's Matches)

 By Mark Rodriguez

This time we got several ladies 'In Action', namely Athena and Billie Starkz in tag team action, Emi Sakura and Marina Shafir in singles action. We've seen in previous episodes where the women still bring the action regardless of them being in jobber matches. Let's check it out.

Match 1- Emi Sakura VS Kel

The match opens with Kel getting in Emi's face, showing off the huge height different between then. Emi acts like she'll try to do a test of strength, but her hits her in the stomach. She then trips her up and wastes no time getting Kel into the High Stretch Surfboard.

Kel starts smacking Emi around until the veteran gouges her eyes and tries to grab her for the Butterfly Backbreaker. Kel grabs Emi and kicks her in the face with a Fall-Away Kick, and then knocks her back with a Thrust Kick. She goes for the pin but Emi kicks out. Kel poses for the crowd and runs towards Emi. Emi gets out of the way and Kel gets her leg stuck on the ropes. Emi hits her with a savage series of chops and then runs into her with a Flying Crossbody Splash. 

Emi grabs Kel for the Butterfly Backbreaker, turning around to give Mel a view of all four corners of the ring before slamming her. She pins her down and gets the win. Emi trips up the ref so he falls on his knees and she sits on his lap and poses in victory.

Mark's Thoughts-

I've been missing on the RoH episodes, so this is the first time that I saw Emi Sakura come out to a different theme. I also noticed that when Emi did her chops, she didn't do her 'We Will Rock You' claps and chants. Between the new theme and her no longer wearing the crown and robes, she's probably dropped the Freddie Mercury gimmick by now. It was a quick match, and we didn't see too much of Emi's antics, but we'll see if she'll start using new ones going forward.

I was surprised to see Kel do the Fall-Away Kick. It's usually a finisher and I've only seen people like Ruby Soho and Mia Yim use it as such, and not just a regular move.

Jupi's Thoughts-

Welp…I sense a squash match since Kel was already in the ring. Shouldn't Keenan be at ring side? 😛 Okay, let me get serious. 😆 I thought it was funny at the beginning how Kel was showing off how much taller she was and Emi punched her. 😂

I was expecting Kel to submit when Emi got her in that move at practically the beginning of the match, but to my surprise she didn’t. The hits between the two looked so painful and that backbreaker Emi used on Kel…ouch!  That took Kel out. Too bad there wasn’t a good tea time portion.  

I guess the coolest thing about this match aside from seeing Emi again as I do enjoy her matches is that she seemingly now has a 2-0 ROH winning streak . Let’s see where they’ll go with this.

Interview Segment- The Renegades

Lexi interviews The Renegades on their thoughts of going up against the newly established tag team of Rachael Ellering and Leyla Hirsch. The Renegades say they're the only actual established tag team in the women's division and while Rachael and Leyla have had luck in singles matches, tag team matches are their bread and butter. Suddenly Maria Kanellis shows up and wants a word with the Renegades.

Match 2- Athena & Billie Starkz VS Brooke Havok & Johnnie Robbie

Athena pretends to go for a grapple, but socks Johnnie out in the jaw. Athena then goes after Johnnie, but her opponent hits her with an uppercut. Johnnie goes for the ring apron and cracks Athena on the side of the head with a high kick. Johnnie goes for the ropes and tries to grab Athena in a pin, but Athena grabs her and power bombs her.

Athena grabs Johnnie and tags Billie in. Billie grabs Johnnie and is so busy talking to Athena that her opponent hits her with a jaw breaker and runs over to tag in Brooke. Brooke hits her with some kicks and then tries to grab Billie in a body scissors and falls backwards, slamming Billie into the mat. 

Brooke tries to whip Billie across the ropes, but she ends up getting whipped over instead. Athena kicks her across the back from the ring apron. Brooke socks Athena off the ring apron. When she turns, Billie decks her with the forearm the same way Athena does. She then goes for the ground and pound and when the ref tries to stop her, Billie gets in his face and throws a tantrum the same way Athena would.

Athena tags herself in and grabs Brooke, but then runs across the ring to sock Johnnie off the ring apron. Athena picks up Brooke and hits her with the Despicable Knee. She goes for the pin and wins the match. Suddenly, Billie grabs Johnnie and gets her in the crossface as the poor woman taps out. Athena grabs Brooke in the crossface too. When the ref tries to break it up, Athena and Billie both get in his face. Athena and Billie walk off in victory, the champ's antics clearly starting to rub off on Starkz.

Mark's Thoughts-

This match was fun, mostly due to Billie's antics. I like how she is copying Athena's antics, but in an over-exaggerated way that only she can. The kicker was how now she's attacking people after the bell has rung, when before she would refuse to do so. Now I wonder if we missed an episode where Billie finally smashed someone's face into the RoH Women's Title. Athena still acts bossy and pushy around Billie, and we'll see what happens if her minion does end up getting too big for her britches. 

Jupi's Thoughts-

Dang, Athena started off with giving a sucker punch! Ouch!  Seriously, though so much was going on and so fast I couldn’t keep up! The match wasn’t a squash or anything either much to my surprise since the opposition started in the ring.  The pair did end winning, of course, and Billie pulled an Athena and attacked after the match was over while Athena attacked the other one and then both scared off the ref!😲

I haven’t watched ROH in a while, so it seems Billie is acting more and more like Athena and getting as corrupted as her. I wonder how long it’s been going on since the last time I saw it, Billie was hesitant. Now it’s like a younger sibling imitating the older one. I wonder if Billie is luring Athena into a false sense of security and plan on double crossing her later at some point. 

Anyway, good match! There were good attacks and moves from all involved. I couldn’t help but wince at points. How do they do it?! 😖 At least the opponents didn’t come across as weak and it didn’t end in a submission.

Match 3- The Renegades VS Leyla Hirsch and Rachael Ellering

The match starts with Charlette and Leyla grappling, with the former talking trash. Charlette would run towards Leyla and Leyla would slam her with her two arm drags and then knock her back with a dropkick. Leyla hits Charlette, who is up against the ring post, with a running elbow. She then lepas off the ropes and stomps on her. She goes for a pin but Charlette kicks out. 

Rachael wants to be tagged in, so Leyla goes over to tag her and they both knock down Charlette with a Double Back Elbow. Rachael grabs onto Charlette's arm and starts hitting her with chops. With Cahrlette down, Rachael kicks her across the face with a running low dropkick. Rachael goes for the pin but can't keep her down. She picks Charlette up for a firewoman's carry, but the twin pulls down Rachael's headband to blind fold her and uses this chance to tag in Robyn.

Both sisters whip Rachael towards the ropes. Charlette whips Robyn into Rachael, but The Queen of Strong Smile catches her and sets her on the top turnbuckle. Charlette attacks Rachael from behind but she fights back. As this happens, Robyn stands on the top rope and leaps off to pin Rachael, going for the Ground and Pound. Robyn kicks and stomps her and goes for the pin but Rachael kicks out at two.

Robyn gets Rachael up against the ropes and chokes her with her legs. As the ref break it up, Charlette lands a cheap shot from the ring apron. Robyn slams Rachael's face into the top turnbuckle and tags in her sister. 

Robyn hits Rachael with a running uppercut and Charlette follows up with a running double knee strike. Robyn rolls Rachael to the mat with a snapmare and Charlette goes for the pin. Rachael kicks out, so Charlette starts slamming the back of her head against the mat. She tags her sister in and both Renegades grab Rachael for a double suplex. 

Robyn goes for the cover but Rachael kicks out. Robyn tags her sister in and Charlette trips Rachael with a drop toe hold and gets her in the Muta Lock. With Rachael trapped, Robyn smacks her across the face. Charlette gets her in a headlock and Rachael fights her way out. Charlette hits her across the back and goes over to tag in Robyn.

Rachael is sent to the Renegade's corner as she tries to fight off both of them. Robyn goes over to knock Leyla off the apron, but she leaps off before she could hit her. Robyn tries to grab Rachael's leg, but Rachael pulls her in for an inside cradle pin. Rachael socks her across the face, leaving Robyn dazed long enough to run over and tag in Leyla. 

Leyla runs over and slams Charlette down with two suplexes in a row. Then Robyn runs in and Leyla grabs her with a gut wrench suplex and slams her right on top of her sister. Leyla lays Charlette out with a running kick to the face and goes for the pin. Charlette still kicks out. Leyla tags Rachael in and Rachael runs over and knocks Charlette down. Charlette manages to kick Rachael in the face, while Robyn grabs Leyla's leg and pulls her outside of the ring, making her land hard on the floor.

Charlette grabs Rachael for a firewoman's carry. Robyn runs towards her but Rachael slips from Charlette's grasp and shoves one sister into the other. Rachael takes this chance to grab and pin Charlette and wins the match.

Meanwhile Leyla looks injured and it taking off her knee brace. Maria Kanellis comes in to see if she's alright. Rachael is also concerned but Kanellis keeps her back.

Mark's Thoughts-

Pretty good match, though it seems it was mostly all Rachael, so I wonder if Leyla was alright behind the scenes. The story here are that the Renegades are a cohesive unit, while Leyla and Rachael aren't 100% on the same page. Leyla's no-nonsense attitude clashes with Rachael's Strong Smile antics. Right from the bat when they were introduced, Leyla just walked right past her and headed for the ring, ignoring Rachael's attempts at a high five.

The Renegades showed off their moves and Rachael powered through. Leyla was in it only a bit in the beginning and bit near the end. We see that Kanellis is watching over her, so we'll see how that story develops.

For this match I noticed that Charlette had little bangs on the side of her face while Robyn didn't, so it helped me tell them apart even when the commentary wasn't always keeping up on who was who during the match.

Jupi's Thoughts-

For this match, not sure what to expect but here’s hoping for a fun match.  Too bad I kept forgetting which twin was which. 😝

Ellering was in the match mostly as she couldn’t reach Leyla. She put up a good fight though, despite the double teaming the Renegades we’re doing. It was so satisfying when Leyla was finally tagged in and started doing some German suplexes!

As the match went on, Leyla did get tagged back in, but due to shenanigans she ended up hurting her knee. Due to all that Rachel got the pin! 

This match was fun as expected. The Renegades kept using a few dirty tricks, but they lost in the end. I wonder what will happen next.

We also have another interview segment with Lexi, Athena and Billie. Despite the last match going well, Athena warns her 'minions' that they better step up or she will stomp them out. Athena leaves as Lexi and Billie wonder about this threat.

Interview section- Athena and Billie Starkz

Match 4- Marina Shafir VS Amari

Both women grapple and Marina quickly runs and slams Amira against the ring post and then flips her to the mat with a judo throw. Marina then gets her in a hold that is pulling her arm back behind her head while she sits on her. Amria tries to get out of it by hitting her face with her knee several times. Marina tries to grab her leg but Amari pulls her in for an inside cradle. Marina kicks out.

As both women get up, Amari hits Marina with a running forearm. She then throw several more forearm strikes. Marina angrily shoves her off so hard she flies across the ring and lands on the apron. As Marina runs towards her, Amari kicks her back and hits her with a chop. Amari ducks under Marian's kick and bounces off the ropes to knock her down with a flying crossbody splash. 

Amari goes for a rear waist lock and hits her across the back, trying to slam her. Marina goes for the ropes and shoves her off her. Amari rolls to her feet and goes towards her, but gets flattened by a kick to the face from Shafir. 

Marina grabs her and power slams her. She then gets her in a standing Darce Choke until Amari passes out. Marina kisses her forehead, literally kissing her opponent goodnight, With Amari out cold, Marina Shafir wins the match.

Mark's Thoughts-

It was a valiant effort from Amari as we don't see too many opponent take the fight to her with such vicious strikes. Marina showed off some interesting holds and power slams, as she always does. That sleeper hold at the end was new and unexpected. It's nice to see her finish her matches in a variety of ways.

Probably what stood out to me the most was at the beginning of the match where Marina was taking off her socks and she threw the into the crowd. I guess it made someone foot fan in the crowd happy. 

Jupi's Thoughts-

I’m expecting a squash for this one since it was an in action match.

Okay never mind.  The Mighty Amira put up a good fight!  She was very impressive! She was able to take Shafir’s hits as well as giving them.  Amira almost got a few pins in, but of course Shafir kicked out.

Now the way Shafir won the match was curious to me. I suck at wrestling moves, but it was like she got Amira in this front forward sleeper hold. If done wrong, I could see it going terribly wrong with pressure on the neck! I just didn’t know what to make of it.  The ref ended the match.

Like I said earlier, I was very impressed with how evenly matched these two were. I hope Amira is shown more in the future. 😀

Mark's Overall Thoughts- 

Pretty fun episode and some fun matches. Easily the most entertaining one was the one with Athena and Billie, with Billie becoming more and more like her mentor. It just raises the question as to why Athena is suddenly so angry at her 'minions'. With RoH Final Battle coming up in a few weeks, one wonder who's going to step up to try to take the title from Athena.

The other matches were fine, it's always fun to see Emi Sakura and Marina Shafir in action. The Renegades match was also cool, though I do wonder if Leyla is alright since she was barely saw any action. One thing I like about her is she always has this kind of smug smile on her face. Like 'I'm not here for all the silly stuff, I'm here to fight' or 'I'm too serious for all this corny stuff'. She definitely looked like she had no time for Rachael's overly cheerful attitude.

Jupi's Overall Thoughts-

Well the matches for this ep were all pretty fun, especially the concept of Eddie Kingston vs Dalton Castle, and anyone who knows me knows how much I like Dalton Castle. I don’t care who he goes against, I’m a sucker for his matches and expect to be entertained. 😊Now, as for the women’s matches, the highlight was Athena and Starkz’s match. Later on, Athena and Billie were talking and Athena was being threatening towards Lexi. Given how dominant Athena is, will she ever lose? Who is strong enough to take her on? Is Billie going to turn on her at some point? We will see.