Ring of Honor Review - August 2, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kris Wolf def. Sumie Sakai

The story here was that these two have teamed up in the past and that they're allies, but this was a friendly face-off between them. I've seen Sakai compete in the past and I've always enjoyed watching her, though this was my first look at Wolf and she impressed me with her outing against the veteran. Nothing stood out about the match early on, but they picked up the pace and delivered a fun final stretch. My only gripe with it was that I felt the finish came out of nowhere.

Silas Young Addressed Jay Lethal

I understand he's a heel and his gimmick apparently is that he's a sexist pig, but there was no reason for Young to be featured on this special Women of Honor edition of ROH TV. Admittedly, I have been entertained by this angle he's been doing and how he's counted the days that Lethal hasn't been on ROH programming, but it was pretty out of place on this all-women show, and out of respect to the ladies, this should have been saved for another week.

Jenny Rose def. Mandy Leon

I really liked the video package that aired prior to this match that went into how Leon and Rose started out as close but Rose and Leon eventually teased tension. Unfortunately, I don't think the crowd was shown that same video because they didn't care about this contest whatsoever. The in-ring work wasn't the best, but both women are obviously works in progress. What I didn't understand was whether Rose was supposed to be a heel or a babyface, because she was celebrating like a face with Leon afterward. 

Karen Q def. Deonna Purrazzo and Kelly Klein in a Three-Way Match

Again, ROH did a nice job of catching viewers up to date by recapping the history between Purrazzo, Klein and Q. I've seen some of the back-and-forth Purrazzo and Kelin have had on Twitter recently, but most people wouldn't have even been aware of that. This was easily the best match of the night and all three women had solid showings. The real rivalry is between Purrazzo and Klein, so I was fine with that feud being furthered by having Q score the win in order for her to establish credibility.

Overall Show

We don't get these Women of Honor episodes too often, but I wish we would because they're a refreshing change of pace from the normal programming and these shows don't just consist of old footage. I'm actually surprised this isn't a recurring show on ROH's website or something along those lines (in addition to how they don't have a championship to fight for), but possibly in time. As for this edition, it was a good show on the whole, but as noted, the segment with Young was slightly unnecessary.