Apr 6, 2018 0:14:18 GMT @admin said:

Apr 5, 2018 20:44:56 GMT Emperor said:

We must have been watching different matches, because I was far from blown away by Mayu vs Deonna. The first few minutes were sloppy. They got better later on, but I couldn't latch onto anything. No story. They were just hitting moves arbitrarily. For example, Deonna hits three German suplexes in a row. Mayu is down. There's no cover. Instead Deonna walks towards Mayu, Mayu hits a Dragon Suplex and collapses. It would have been more dramatic if Deonna covered, Mayu kicks out, then go to the Dragon Suplex. Not impressed. If Mayu is the best Stardom has to offer, Stardom can't be all that great. Deonna really needs to tie her hair back too, that shit was all over the place all the time.

On the plus side, I did check out Tenille Dashwood vs Brandi Rhodes from the same tournament and really enjoyed it. Tenille did a great job in crafting a good story without exposing Brandi's inexperience too much. The only thing I wasn't so keen on was Tenille kicking out of the Cross Rhodes, but it wasn't the worst thing ever.

Interesting to get your thoughts, but yeah I think we did watch different matches. I just went back and watched the first few minutes to see if I could see the sloppiness you were talking about and I still have no idea. I thought everything looked perfectly nice. I can concede the fact that perhaps the storytelling wasn't the strongest aspect (Deonna working the leg briefly when her finisher is an armbar) but I don't think it detracts significantly from the action. Not going for a pin cover is a very minor complaint. 

I mean it was a one-off  Face vs Face match tournament match, in which the participants don't really have any real relationship.  Usually, in those types of matches, the story is pretty light, and the focus is more on the wrestling.  I do some parts were a little sloppy like Mayu should probably stick to a regular dragon suplex as her finisher when up against non-super small Japanese talents, as the wheel barrel variant just looks kind of weird against regularly sized opponents.    

I'm mainly referring to the segment starting at the 3 minute mark. Deonna's hurricanrana looks bad because she didn't get enough height. Same for Mayu's dropkick. In retrospect, those were the only two really sloppy moments, so my criticism was exaggerated. But in general the action didn't impress me except for a handful of moves and the storytelling was practically non-existent.

So they did the complete opposite of what I wanted, Kelly beating Mayu and Sumie beating Tenille.

Sumie being the first champion is nice and all from a "she's been here since the start" perspective but it doesn't exactly scream that WOH is a division that you really need to be paying attention to. Spectacle wise it didn't exactly help that Kelly seemed to get legit knocked out off the DDT as it didn't seem like that was supposed to be the finish, making the coronation seem rather anticlimactic.

Tenille and Sumie vs Deonna and Skyler

I found this to be an enjoyable tag match. I think there's a chance Deonna will be signed by WWE down the line (and a little surprised she hasn't been, she's clearly been on their radar with how many appearances she's made). I'm assuming Skyler is a rookie but she didn't look bad in there. 

Well, this division has just about zero hype behind it, and for good reason, they've turned Tenille who was a hot free agent into just another name as she lost again to Sumie.

Sumi sakai is just awful. She looks like she is 55 years old. Is she a grandmother?

Eesh, Tenille just announced that she’s actually been wrestling with a shoulder injury for the last six months and must now have surgery. Looks like she’ll be gone for a while.

ROH deserve a lot of the criticism they get but they've clearly been hampered by Tenille's problems here (she missed a number of shows with her psoriasis as well as the occurring shoulder injury) as you would have surely thought she'd take the belt if healthy. It's a shame for her that she seems to perennially be on the sidelines - at this point it looks like this is going to be something that constantly holds back her career.

Doesn't take much to make a highlight in this division but Madison and Britt had a decent little match at Survival of the Fittest. Not sure how I feel about Madison's new finisher - a cool innovative move for sure but maybe lacking in some real impact to be a finisher.

They actually built towards something resembling a feud/future match too which is a step forward.

Going from May Iwatani as champ to Kelly Klein and TBP 5.0 + Mandy Leon as the focus of the decision is quite a peculiar decision in 2019. Like if you were going to do that why not just use Madison in Mandy's position as she proposed?

I would pay good money to get Madison's thoughts on all this. :lol: She dropped some pretty hilarious shade on ROH in her Impact segment this week.

Today's story of Mandy spitting at a fan and Velvet getting him taken backstage to be confronted by Bubba Ray because he was heckling them is equal parts hilarious and embarrassing. Wrestlers getting worked by fans - what a sad state of affairs.

Veda Scott a person that was pushing for the women of honor to be a thing for a long time must be relieved she isn't around anymore to witness this garbage unfold. :lol: