10 Thoughts on … Ring of Honor July 29, 2017 (Women of Honor, Kris Wolf, Mandy Leon, Kelly Klein)

10 Thoughts, Reviews, Top Story

Thought Zero – It is a Women of Honor special tonight. The first two were pretty good, so let’s hope this one can keep the streak going.

1) The announcers are Ian Riccaboni and the Chief Operating Officer of Ring of Honor, Joe Koff. Sort of an odd choice for a color commentator, but let’s see what he has to say. Maybe there will be breaking news.

2) Starting off the show is Sumie Sakai versus the Chikara champion Kris Wolf. Wolf has a tail. Not a real one, mind you, but one of those fake furry ones. Koff announces that there may be some women’s matches on PPVs going forward. Okay, I guess that counts as breaking news.

3) Sumie Sukai has pretty much made herself into the go to jobber for putting over a new wrestler. The match was fairly slow and got sloppier as it went along. Sukai had the advantage through most of the match though. The end came after a series of roll-ups and reversals ending in a very weird and sloppy butt drop into a pinfall by Wolf. However, the most impressive move of the match was a package brainbuster that Sukai pulled out. Seriously, that was pretty darn impressive.

4) Even though it is a Women of Honor special, Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser come out with their ugly sign about Jay Lethal being out of action. I’m okay with a Silas Young/Jay Lethal feud, but the sign gimmick has got to go.

5) We get a brief video package with voiceover from Mandy Leon to try to make the next match seem like it has a some personal meaning. And we transition into Mandy Leon versus Jenny Rose. I guess Leon and Rose were “Dojo sisters” or something, training with each other, etc. Then Leon clocked Rose by accident in a match previously and here they are fighting.

6) Mandy Leon looks great as always and busts out some pretty impressive moves. Her selling has also improved, which is a good thing. She still seems to be thinking a little too much in the ring though, like she is remembering dance choreography instead of just getting a feel and flow of the match. She is still very young and inexperienced though, so hopefully that will come in time because I really think she has the potential to be a huge star.

7) Back from commercial break and Rose is stretching Leon pretty effectively in the middle of the ring. Ow. Some of that looks like it really hurts. Mandy Leon comes back and gets a two off a pretty nice Unprettier, which is a pretty good finisher for her if they decide to go that route in the future. Leon and Rose exchange submission holds before Rose gets the win off an Electric Chair Drop. Not a bad match at all. Rose and Leon shake hands and hug after the match, so I guess all is well between them now.

8) The main event is coming up between Karen Q, Kelly Klein, and Deonna Purrazzo. To hype it up, we see some clips from matches back in April. First, we see when Deonna Purrazzo made Kelly Klein tap out even though the referee missed it. Then we see the end of a match from a week later where Karen Q defeated Kelly Klein via countout because Purrazzo distracted her. Purrazzo is pretty awesome, so I approve of her getting the chance to be the kryptonite to Kelly Klein’s SuperWoman. I haven’t seen Karen Q at all though, so we’ll see how this match turns out.

9) Before we get to the main event, we sit through a good fives minutes at least of highlights from other Ring of Honor storylines. While I appreciate the updates, shouldn’t a Women of Honor special be all about the women wrestlers? I am looking forward to the Kenny King versus Kushida TV title match coming up soon.

10) Kelly Klein has a couple nicknames – The Gatekeeper and Pretty Badass. Honestly, both of those are pretty good professional wrestling nicknames. The match starts off as a 2-on-1 with the training partners squaring off against Klein. After Klein goes to the outside, the two friends start a respectful little battle against each other. The 2-on-1 continues again outside the ring though. This sort of feels unfair to Klein and is making me want to root for her. Klein’s power seems to be the story of the match as she is just that much more powerful than either of her opponents, so their only chance is to double team her with speed and high risk moves. Solid, and predictable story, but if it works, it works. I will also say that Klein looks like she has really upped her selling game as well. Which is good because she doesn’t have to no-sell everything to look dominant. The finish sees Kelly Klein obliterating Deonna Purrazzo with some hard and high knees, then getting knocked out of the ring by a Karen Q dropkick. Karen Q then steals another victory by pinning Purrazzo. Weird booking, but okay.

 

Overall another pretty good episode of Women of Honor. Some of these women have shown pretty awesome improvement. Kris Wolf looked a little disappointing, but Mandy Leon and Kelly Klein continue to look like superstars which is a great thing for this division. Until next week…

 

Human. I think.