Ring of Honor Wrestling
Women’s Division Wednesday #15
August 4, 2021
Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena
Baltimore, Maryland

Watch: YouTube

The first round of Ring of Honor’s Women’s Championship Tournament continues. Debuting this past April, Women’s Division Wednesday is both a vehicle to bring women’s wrestling back to the promotion and the catalyst for the Women’s World Title Tournament. This episode marks the first tournament match to take place on the show. As other promotions are taking steps to do touring and moving on post-pandemic, in part by expanding or re-creating their women’s divisions, it will be interesting to see if Ring of Honor can keep pace. 

Dixie Carter, the former owner of TNA, made a surprise appearance to give a pep talk to the competitors in the tournament. I will freely admit that I was not expecting that.

Commentator Alyssa Marino acts as a moderator as she, Maria Kanellis, LuFisto, and Chelsea Green speak about ROH’s Women’s Division and their history in pro-wrestling. Alex Gracia and Nicole Savoy briefly join the call as the panel breaks down the first three matches of the tournament. 

ROH Women’s World Title Tournament First Round Match
Allysin Kay def. Willow

Kay focused more on strikes and submissions, while Willow’s offense is more varied and includes working in her agility. Kay’s brutality was taking its toll on Willow, but she retaliates with hard shots of her own. Willow is quickly making me a fan of her combined strength, agility, and versatility. For Kay’s part, her chops and kicks to Willow are crisp and make a satisfying snap. After a great back and forth, Kay locks in the Kimura Lock and Willow taps. Best match of the tournament so far. ***3/4 

Final Thoughts

As admirable as it was to give time to ROH’s Women’s Division in the form of an online panel (over an hour), I came here for the action. The match gave me a good amount of what I wanted out of the tournament. That said, on to next week’s first-round bouts.