Ring of Honor TV – August 21, 2019: Just Like Everyone Else
IMG Credit: Ring of Honor Wrestling
Ring of Honor
Date: August 21, 2019
Location: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, New York
Commentators: Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana
Hosts: Ian Riccaboni, Quinn McCay
We’re on the way to….I have no idea actually but the new format should let us know what is coming up. I still like this one a lot better and the match quality has been very good so far. Let the show serve as a showcase for the talent, but this time around it’s about the Shinobi Shadow Squad so I’m not too thrilled. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
The opening video looks at last week’s eight man tag, which was a heck of a fight.
Kelly Klein says all Karissa Rivera had to do was ask for a title shot, which is exactly what she did.
Clip of Rush beating TK O’Ryan at Manhattan Mayhem. How long can they run stuff from that one weekend?
We get a blink and you’ll miss it look at the Top Prospect Tournament brackets.
Video on Silas Young wanting to bring Josh Woods to the dark side and Woods considering it.
Clip of Young beating PJ Black pretty clean at Mass Hysteria.
Later that night, Woods brought Young some cigarettes, took one, and left. I guess that counts as storytelling around here.
Women’s Title: Kelly Klein vs. Karissa Rivera
Rivera is challenging. They go to the mat to start with Klein getting the better of it as Cabana tries to talk about Rivera’s family history in wrestling. A layout DDT stuns Rivera and a whip into the corner takes us to a break. Back with Klein working on the back even more as Cabana is ripping into Rivera for having no offense. Some hard shots in the corner keep Rivera rocked but the fall away slam is countered into a bicycle kick. Rivera hits a spinebuster, only to walk into K Power to give Klein the pin at 9:31.
Rating: D. How in the world does Ring of Honor think this is as good as they can get? This was a nearly ten minute squash with Klein never breaking a sweat after Rivera beat Sumie Sakai. The women’s division just needs to go far away as the matches are bad, the one angle they have feels like it’s been going on forever and nothing important is happening in the whole thing. Just get the title on the Beautiful People already and be done with it.
Post match Sumie Sakai comes out to help Rivera up. Klein praises Rivera, calls Sakai legendary, and tells Rivera that she can come get another title shot later. Cue the Allure (minus Mandy Leon) to complain about how it should be Angelina Love getting the title. Maybe Matt Taven was right when he talked about a conspiracy, but the conspiracy is against the Allure. Klein calls them b****** and that’s it.
Post break Klein says she, Sakai and Rivera are going to show Allure what Women of Honor is all about.
WHY DO THEY THINK ANYONE CARES??? You can’t even call Women of Honor a colossal failure because it was never big or good enough to be colossal in the first place. It’s a bunch of thrown together matches with the only stories being “everyone wants the title” and “ALLURE IS BAD”. Klein has switched face with no particular reason and while I’m sure there is more of an explanation on their YouTube videos or Honor Club or whatever, the whole thing just kills anything any given show can have. The division is completely uninteresting and while the wrestlers are talented, this needs to die in a hurry.
We look at a Defy Or Deny match from early June, with Matt Taven pinning Flip Gordon to prevent Gordon from ever getting another title shot. They’ll do it again in a few weeks, because you want to see more Matt Taven!
Six Man Tag Team Titles: Villain Enterprises vs. Shinobi Shadow Squad
The Squad is challenging and jump PCO to start, earning themselves a backdrop to the floor. That leaves Isom to face PCO on his own, with the monster turning his back so Isom can have some free shots. Isom gets powerslammed for two with the rest of the Squad making the save as we take a break. Back with PCO being backdropped onto his partners, followed by Isom springboarding onto everyone.
PCO kicks out of all three at once and Cheeseburger’s palm strike has no effect (GOOD! NOW EAT THAT SCRAWNY MAN AND TURN HIS SKIN INTO A TOP HAT AND HIS BONES INTO SPOONS!). The chokeslam plants Cheeseburger, leaving King to crush them in the corner. The sunset flip/release German suplex combination sends Isom flying and Scurll kicks Nova’s leg out. A powerbomb gives Scurll two and King is back in with the swinging sitout Boss Man Slam to drop Isom. The Backstabber/running backsplash combination to Nova retains the title at 9:44.
Rating: C-. It was a much better match than the Women’s Title match but I never once bought the Squad as threats to win the belts. They’ve turned the Villains into some awesome champions and I’m not sure who is going to take the belts from them. That’s going to make the eventual title change more important and that’s some good booking.
Overall Rating: D+. And there goes the streak of good shows. This week really emphasized how lame Ring of Honor can be at times with no one feeling like a top star. Taven is World Champion and doesn’t feel like a big star. That’s the problem right now: no one feels like a big star because no one is a big star. Ring of Honor seems happy with just putting people out there to fill in time every week and if one becomes a bigger deal, good for them. That’s not going to work and it’s a reason why ROH has fallen off a cliff in the last year and a half.
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Ring Of Honor’s women’s division is basically a joke. In my eyes, they’ve never really gotten on the right track as the matches are usually pretty low quality and so are the booking decisions.
For instance, with all deference to Sumie Sukai, I don’t think the first ever Ring of Honor Women’s Champion or Women of Honor Champion, or whatever the hell they call it, should’ve been a 45 year old Japanese woman that only the hardest of hardcore fans had ever heard of. Kelly Klein as a 2 time champ is just abysmal because she’s…well, she’s just not very good when you get right down to it. At her very, very, very best, she might be average and I’ve started to look upon her as the Jinder Mahal of female wrestling in that she’s been heavily pushed in ROH despite an obvious lack of ability.