Ring Of Honor TV – August 4, 2021: Brackets Palooza

Ring of Honor
Date: August 4, 2021
Location: UMBC Event Center, Baltimore, Maryland
Commentators: Ian Riccaboni, Lenny Leonard

We’re on the way to Death Before Dishonor but since this promotion moves a bit slowly, we have some time before we get there. This week’s show is going to have a special theme as everything is going to be focusing on the Women’s Title tournament. It is about time as the thing has been talked about for months now, meaning it is going to have a hard time living up to the hype. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Opening sequence.

We open with a look back at Chelsea Green making her Ring of Honor debut at Best in the World. Green is still injured but she will be around sooner than later.

Quinn McKay welcomes us to the show and shows us the tournament brackets. These brackets include…..Quinn McKay, who voted into the tournament by the fans. Fair enough as she got cheated, but you couldn’t get her a single win in there somewhere?

Miranda Alize is the Lucha Baddie and Alex Gracia is the Pink Dream. They know each other but they both want the title. These were as generic of a pair of promos as you could imagine.

Women’s Title Tournament First Round: Alex Gracia vs. Miranda Alize

Chelsea Green in on commentary. Alize wears a sombrero and a half lucha mask because she is half Mexican and half American. They go with the grappling to start and trade escapes from the wristlocks. A chop slows Alize down but she springboards into an armdrag to drop Gracia as well. Back up and Alex grabs a headlock to no avail so it’s a dropkick to put Alize on the floor instead. The dive doesn’t work though and Gracia is sent hard into the barricade.

We take a break and come back with Gracia in more trouble. Green: “It’s looking like Gracia has a better chance of getting a Chik-Fil-A sandwich on a Sunday than winning this one.” Gracia fights back with a Backstabber (Green: “Gracia might be getting that Chik-Fil-A sandwich on a Sunday!”) and a kick to the face gets two. Something like a Blockbuster knocks Alize down (despite Gracia not grabbing the head whatsoever) so she knees Gracia in the face for two. A cutter into a running knee to the face finishes Gracia at 8:43.

Rating: C-. I’m not sure what to make of this one but it doesn’t give me the most hope for the remainder of the tournament. They did moves to each other, one of them wore pink, the other one had a lucha theme, and one of them won. The pre-match promos did nothing to make me care about them, but what can you do in about fifteen seconds of talking? I need more than some just ok wrestling and I don’t expect to get that over the next several matches.

Respect is shown post match.

Mazzerati is all about her attitude and it’s all eyes on her when the bell rings. Nicole Savoy is a suplex machine and knows she’ll win with her half nelson suplex.

Women’s Title Tournament First Round: Mazzerati vs. Nicole Savoy

They talk trash to start until Savoy takes her down by the arm early on. That doesn’t last long so Savoy takes over with a test of strength instead. It’s too early for the armbar though and we take a break. Back with Savoy working on the arm some more with Mazzerati not being able to twist out.

Instead she hits Savoy in the face and calls her a loser so Savoy snaps off a fall away slam. The half nelson suplex is countered with a drive into the corner so Savoy is back with a Royal Butterfly suplex. Mazzerati gets two of her own off a bridging northern lights suplex. With the wrestling not working, Mazzerati punches her in the face to drop Savoy. Back up and Savoy snaps off a TKO, setting up the bridging half nelson suplex for the pin at 8:45.

Rating: C. Just having Savoy as the suplex machine gives her something to make her stand out, but at the same time, watching her crank on the arm that long was hardly thrilling. It’s still better than the opener though, as I got a bit more of a sense of their personalities. Maybe the opener just wasn’t the best match, which gives me a bit more of that hope stuff.

More respect is shown post match.

Rok-C is 19 years old and calls herself a prodigy. Sumie Sakai promises to win again, with Rok-C saying she respects her.

Women’s Title Tournament First Round: Rok-C vs. Sumie Sakai

Sumie takes her down with ease and teases a right hand before rolling away instead. A cross armbreaker sends Rok-C over to the ropes so Rok-C takes her down in a hurry. The standing moonsault knees to the ribs gets two on Sakai and some running knees in the corner get the same. We take a break and come back with Sakai working on a half crab, even making sure to grab the arm to block the tap. The good arm grabs the rope though and it’s time for a slugout.

A running knee to the face gives Sakai two and a springboard knee in the corner rocks Rok-C again. Sakai grabs a pretty nasty Boston crab until Rok-C makes the rope again. Rok-C is back with a middle rope Thesz press for two and a Russian legsweep gets the same. Sakai is back with a belly to back suplex but Rok-C catches her with a spinning kick to the head. The super sunset flip sets off a pinfall reversal sequence until Sakai grabs a DDT for two. Back up and Rok-C snaps off a victory roll for the pin at 9:36.

Rating: C+. This was a bit better with the back and forth making things more interesting. I was wondering who was going to wind up pulling this off and the upset made things a bit better. Ring of Honor’s obsession with Sakai had a lot to do with their previous division not taking off so it was a better choice to have Sakai put some over here while making them look better.

Remember the post-match respect? You get it again here.

Overall Rating: C. I’m not sure what to make of the tournament but the second and third matches gave me a bit more hope here. The show still isn’t great and I’m not wild on the idea of seeing these matches for the next few weeks. I’ve never been a huge tournament fan as it feels like you are killing a lot of time before you get to the stuff that matters. That can be fixed if you have good enough action, but that wasn’t really the case here. It isn’t a bad show, but it also isn’t an exciting one.

 

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