Baltimore, MD – 8.27.2021
Commentary is provided by Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman & Lenny Leonard.
The August 24th episode of “Week By Week” featured a tag team match:
Joe Keys & Eric Martin vs. The Bouncers (The Beer City Bruiser & Brawler Milonas)
Will Ferrara is in Keys and Martin’s corner and Ken Dixon is in the Bouncers corner. Rocco who appeared on Week By Week last week once again sneaks on over to commentary uninvited. Milonas is touting himself as a Pure wrestler after his victory over Keys in a Pure Rules match a few weeks ago. Keys and Martin don’t let the Bruisers trash talking get to them. A distraction from Dixon, however, thwarts Keys and allows him to be whipped into the corner and to the floor by Bruiser. Even with Ferrara there, Dixon sneaks in a couple cheap shots before feeding Keys back to Milonas and Bruiser. Keys rolls out of the way of a second rope leg drop from Milonas. Bruiser pulls him to the floor, but Keys reverses a whip, sending Bruiser into the ring post. Martin tags in and lays out Milonas with a pair of running boots. Martin has Milonas close to being knocked out after a knee strike in the corner, but Milonas kicks out of his pin. Milonas squishes Martin when Martin tries to pin him. Milonas follows that up with a running crossbody, then makes Martin submit to a Camel Clutch at 9:40 to further his pure wrestling claim. This was decent. The Dojo students had a nice showing but could (and arguably should) be doing more by now. Milonas doing more Pure wrestling stuff could be a lot of fun if it leads to more than just being braggadocious. *½
Now onto this week’s episode! Ian Riccaboni is once again hosting instead of Quinn McKay.
ROH Women’s Championship Tournament Quarter-Final Round Match
Max The Impaler vs. Angelina Love
Amy Rose is in Max’s corner. Love received a Bye in the tournament per a stipulation with a match she had with Quinn McKay on Episode 503. She is also a former Women of Honor champion. This played out like a monster movie, with Max pursuing Love, Love having the smallest glimmers of hope, and only being rescued because the monster defeated itself. Max refused to release a sleeper hold in the ropes by the count of five. Joe Mandek gave them another chance, counted to five again, and when Max wouldn’t release, Mandek had no choice but to call the match at 5:53, awarding the match to Love by disqualification. Commentary made sure to point out when Max did finally release, Love fell to the floor and hurt her left arm. It’s also worth mentioning Max and Amy Rose were unbothered by this result. That was a good story and a clever way to get Love into the semi-finals without pinning or submitting Max. I’m also left wondering, if Max doesn’t care about the title, what do they care about? *
ROH Women’s Championship Tournament Quarter-Final Round Match
Trish Adora vs. Allysin Kay
Chelsea Green joins commentary for this bout. After a very even few minutes, Kay drops Adora off of her shoulders into a cross armbreaker. Adora rolls Kay onto her shoulders to escape. During the commercial break, Kay transitioned to attacking Adora’s legs. Kay flat out dumps Adora over the top rope and to the floor off of her shoulders. Kay wears down Adora,but Kay strikes a nerve when she pie-faces Adora four times. An angry Adora takes down Kay with a running crossbody after some forearm shots.Adora swings her into a backbreaker for two, and when Kay goes for the leg, Adora immediately grabs a waistlock and pulls Kay up into a DDT for two. Kay blocks Lariat Tubman and pulls Adora down for a kimura. Adora rolls Kay up onto her shoulders and bridges back for a pin. Kay pulls Adora into a rear-naked choke, and Adora rolls to the ropes to escape. Kay kicks a dazed Adora in the back of the head for another two count. Adora ducks the discus lariat and enzuigiri’s Kay. Kay ducks Lariat Tubman, rolling Adora down into repeated elbows to the side of the head. Adora escapes off of Kay’s shoulders and blasts her with Lariat Tubman for the pin at 13:50. This came across like a big win for Adora, who was almost unconscious when she fought back against the more seasoned Kay and blasted her with the lariat. Commentary appropriately treated it as a move where you only need to hit it once to end things, and it immediately becomes the thing to watch for in Adora’s semifinal match next week. Kudos to Kay for producing two really strong tournament matches; I hope it isn’t the last we see of her in ROH. ***¼
We get a rundown of the Death Before Dishonor card, which shows two previously unannounced matches: The Briscoes vs. The OGK and Eli Isom vs. Dalton Castle.
ROH World Television Championship
Dragon Lee vs. Eli Isom
Lee has been champion since 7.112021 and this is his first defense. Isom’s victory over Dak Draper propelled him to the #1 spot on the TV title contenders leaderboard. Dalton Castle joins commentary, mid-phone call, as he’s very busy. Lee follows the Code of Honor. After Lee hits the tranquilo pose, Isom pulls Lee into a kick to the stomach out of another handshake. Lee sends Isom outside with a Frankensteiner and tope con hilos onto him. Lee throws Isom into the barricades and stretches out his mid-section back inside the ring. Lee then applies a half crab while stepping on Isom’s neck until Isom grabs the bottom rope. Isom armdrags Lee to the floor and lands his own tope con hilo! Castle applauds Isom as Isom lands a High Fly Flow for two. The two men trade running boots to the face. Lee ends it with a dropkick as Isom comes off the ropes. Lee lands a slingshot boot to a downed Isom in the corner. Isom catches Lee coming with a dropkick and gives him a German suplex. This leads to the two of them trading German suplexes. Lee spikes Isom with a reverse spike Frankensteiner, and Isom comes back with a lariat for only one. Lee lands a rebound German suplex and his own lariat. He tries a ripcord, but Isom ends up pulling Lee into a slam and a pop-up neckbreaker for two. Lee reverses a suplex and drops Isom stomach first onto the top rope, landing a double stomp as Lee dangles. Isom blocks the Incinerator Knee. He throws a series of shots, but after missing an enzuigiri, Lee knees Isom in the back of the head. He pulls Isom into a ripcord knee strike and holds onto his wrist as he kicks him several times in the chest. Isom pulls Lee into The Process for two. He goes for it a second time. Lee slides out, hits another ripcord knee strike, holding onto the wrist as they fall to the mat. Another knee strike knocks out Isom, but for good measure, Lee pulls him up into Desnucadora. Isom amazingly kicks out! He’s fired up, but Lee pulls down his knee pad and nails the Incinerator Knee for the pin at 12:25. Isom has become one of the most dependable people on the roster, succeeding no matter the opponent or match type, and able to wrestle up to the standard of the main eventers. He and Lee had tremendous chemistry, and even in any empty environment added a lot of drama by surprising one another with offense and their incredibly close nearfalls. I am also appreciative that they kept Dalton and LFI on the sidelines. I was excited for this match and it exceeded expectations. ***¾
Overall: This is the best episode of ROH in recent memory and is worth checking out. Simple as that.
NEXT WEEK The semi-finals of the Women’s Championship tournament (Rok-C vs. Angelina Love and Miranda Alize vs. Trish Adora), and an eight man tag team match pitting La Facción Ingobernable against Shane Taylor Promotions!
The latest episode of ROH TV is always free to watch on ROH’s website and FITE TV. It can also be watched via the Honor Club.
For more information on Ring of Honor, check out their official website and the great ROH World.