Last week: The ROH World Women’s Championship tournament continued with Quinn McKay and Trish Adora advancing after defeating Mandy Leon and Marti Belle respectively, before Bandido & Rey Horus overcame VLNCE UNLTD’s Brody King & Chris Dickinson.
ROH TV Episode 517
August 14, 2021
Baltimore, MD
– Highlights from the opening round ROH World Women’s Championship tournament were shown including the advancements of Miranda Alize, Nicole Savoy, Rok-C, Trish Adora, and Quinn McKay. Once again it was Ian Riccaboni covering for McKay to recap the action to come tonight including “Champions vs. All-Stars”.
– Holidead introduced herself as someone who has been to the other side while becoming a star internationally. But in the US, Holidead hasn’t gotten the same respect – that changes tonight when she faces someone who is just as dangerous & wild as her; a fellow monster Holidead is looking forward to slay. Speaking for Max the Impaler was none other than Amy Rose. Rose promised the path of destruction Max was about to set forth would lead her to the ROH World Women’s Championship.
ROH World Women’s Championship Tournament 1st Round: Holidead vs. Max the Impaler
Amy Rose offered to follow the Code of Honor for her client, but Holidead just wanted to fight. Slithering around the ring, Holidead demanded the collar & elbow tie-up. Neither got a solid advantage when they locked up, breaking it up to start a forearm exchange. Max refused to be Irish whipped, so Holidead just started chopping her until she was pressed against the turnbuckles. Avoiding a running attack allowed Max to hip toss Holidead across the ring. Holidead refused to stay down no matter how many times Max slammed her. Max got a little too comfortable and walked into a headbutt that allowed Holidead to impressively slam her.
Max sat up, initiating a clothesline battle. A short-arm clothesline knocked Holidead into the ropes for a rope-assisted bow & arrow. When Max let her opponent go, Holidead wanted to know if that’s all Max had. Impaler answered the question by knocking Holidead onto the canvas for some backbreaking hip drops. Holidead tried to fight back, only to shoulder ram the steel ring post when she tried to crush Max in the corner. Max was pitching her opposition across the ring with relative ease heading into the commercial break.
Max had Holidead in position for a modified curb stomp, pushing her fellow monster’s face into the canvas with her foot. Countering something involving Holidead being put on Max’s shoulders, Holidead drilled Max with the DDT. When Holidead went to follow up, she ran into a spear. Max made a big mistake by not going for the pin; opting to shoulder ram a cornered Holidead. Holidead moved at the last second, catching Max with a German suplex that put the Impaler on the floor. Max couldn’t avoid the tope, forcing Holidead to shove Max’s rocked body back into the ring for Darkness Falls.
Instead, Holidead had to opt for a beautiful spine buster. Holidead climbed the ropes for the Alabama Jam, but hit nothing but canvas. Holidead couldn’t stop Max from grabbing her for an over-the-knee backbreaker off the uranage. Stunned was Holidead as Max grabbed her to execute Wasteland (a sit-out Canadian backbreaker) before the Impaler picked up the three count for the final spot in the tournament’s quarterfinal.
Champions vs. All-Stars: ROH World champion Bandido, ROH World Tag Team champion Chris Dickinson, ROH World Tag Team champion Homicide, ROH Pure champion Jonathan Gresham, ROH World Television champion Dragon Lee vs. Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe, Flip Gordon, Josh Woods, EC3
It was Jonathan Gresham and Josh Woods starting off for their respective teams as both looked to show off their superior grappling abilities. Woods’ size allowed him to stop the Pure champ from really advancing on any hold or move he had in mind. Gresham attempted to pick up the pace, but ran into an arm drag. Gresham suddenly called out Jay Briscoe, only for Chris Dickinson to tag himself in so he and Woods could lock up. With similar bodies, Dickinson thought he could single-leg takedown Woods.
When that idea failed, Dickinson looked for an unsuccessful heel hook. Woods stepped back, wanting a tag from EC3. Mark Briscoe decided he’d be the legal man. Dragon Lee tagged himself in, starting a fistfight with Mark that ended with Briscoe landing a flying forearm. The TV champ came out of the corner with a hurricarana, only to sling himself into the All-Stars’ corner. Jay tagged himself in, stomping Lee until EC3 wanted in. Double team back elbow from Jay & EC3 set up the latter’s neck breaker. EC3 couldn’t capitalize on his attack due to Flip Gordon slapping EC3’s back to tag in. Standing moonsault press didn’t get a pin for Gordon on Lee prior to the commercial break.
Lee reversed an Irish whip to dropkick Gordon before tagging out to Dickinson so the “Dirty Daddy” could run through Gordon until he ran into an enzuguri. Homicide and Woods were doing battle, bringing in Dem Boys to restart their war with Homicide dating back to 2004. Bodies started falling to ringside until Dickinson grabbed Woods and pushed him into the corner so Gresham could get a hold of “The Technical Beast”. A series of waist lock switches resulted in Gresham landing a DDT. EC3 tagged in after Woods countered a sleeper, giving the All-Stars the chance to wear out “The Octopus”. “The Mercenary” tagged himself in, causing a miscommunication between himself and EC3 that saw EC3 spear Flip when they went to double team Gresham.
This situation allowed Bandido to tag in and execute that corkscrew crossbody on Gordon before everyone entered the ring and started a gigantic fight. In the ring was Woods & Gordon being taken down by Lee helping propel Bandido in their opponents. Stereo dives by the masked men took out Gordon and Woods at ringside. Before Bandido could follow up, Mark dropkicked the ROH World champion. The Briscoes took out Homicide before Dickinson gave Jay and Mark a taste of their own medicine. Everyone was hitting something big to the other person standing until Gordon felt Homicide’s uranage for a two count. “The Notorious 187” almost won it via an overhead belly-to-belly on Gordon. Flip blocked the Cop Killa, hitting the Flip-5 … to gain a near fall!
Gordon called for the end, executing an ode to “Mr. Wonderful” piledriver that put Homicide down for the three count.
The fight wasn’t over as The Briscoes wore out Dickinson. Shockingly, Bandido and Lee walked off together while Gordon took credit for winning for his team.
Overall: A very tight episode of ROH TV this week with the opening round of ROH’s World Women’s Championship tournament coming to an end in a monster mash. Holidead took everything Max the Impaler threw at her, but just couldn’t withstand the onslaught as the match progressed. It’ll be interesting to see how far Max makes it in the tournament because her display here is that of someone who will only be eliminated if the Impaler is disqualified or counted-out. Also, hopefully, this isn’t the last time we’ll see Holidead in ROH.
ROH used the original format of “Champions vs. All-Stars” for this year’s iteration by being one fall to a finish, and it worked very well under the TV time limit confines. We got a lot of stories told and future matches teased including Gordon’s problems with EC3 in regards to the prior, and Gresham-Woods and Dickinson & Homicide versus The Briscoes. There were also some intriguing moments such as Bandido and Dragon Lee gladly working together. A really strong main event that gave Gordon a big win prior to this ROH World title match with Bandido this upcoming Friday. The episode’s single flaw definitely is the omission of Allysin Kay’s win to advance in the tournament. Why the win wasn’t mentioned is beyond comprehension, but obviously doesn’t hurt an overall fun episode.
