ROH Women’s Division Wednesday results: Sakai vs. VonStarr

The Big Takeaway —

Vita VonStarr wrestled her first match in ROH, losing to veteran Sumie Sakai. Maria Kanellis-Bennett also revealed her first Ticket to Gold recipient, granting them a spot in ROH’s Women’s World Championship tournament.

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Sumie Sakai defeated Vita VonStarr (8:35)

As referee Joe Mandak was patting Sakai down, VonStarr rushed her in the corner. Sakai recovered and began working on the arm of VonStarr. Sakai had an armbar applied when VonStarr bit her leg, breaking the submission. This didn’t seem to bother Sakai that much, despite her bleeding.

VonStarr applied a vise stretch that kept Sakai grounded for a good bit. Whenever Sakai made her way out of the hold, VonStarr bit her in the head. VonStarr connected with a beautiful Northern Lights suplex.

Sakai got hot at this point in the match, hitting a few takedowns and following with a great swinging neckbreaker. Sakai then went to the second rope and blasted VonStarr with a shotgun dropkick. Sakai returned to the top rope but couldn’t hold her balance and slipped. I don’t know why that wasn’t edited out.

Sakai played it off like nothing happened and nailed VonStarr with a cradle brainbuster, but it only warranted a two count. Sakai tried to keep her offense going, but VonStarr cinched in a Muta Lock instead. The hold was broken by referee Joe Mandak after VonStarr turned it into a choke.

In the final moments of the match, VonStarr was laying in some great punches on the ground. VonStarr lifted up Sakai for a powerbomb, but Sakai fell down and turned it into a cradle pin, scoring the three count and the win.

After the match, VonStarr put Sakai in a octopus stretch between the ropes until VonStarr’s stablemates Bateman and Dutch came down to the ring to summon her back.

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Ticket to Gold reveal

ROH announced last week that In order to be granted entry into the Women’s Championship tournament, you must receive a golden ticket from Board of Directors member Maria Kanellis-Bennett.

Kanellis-Bennett got straight to the point and said she was downright impressed with Rok-C’s performance last week. She offered a spot in the tournament to Rok-C who obviously accepted.

Kanellis-Bennett discussed the 19-year-old Rok-C’s career with her. Rok-C has been training since she was 13, including being trained by Booker T and Daga.

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Final Thoughts —

Another good installment of WDW in the books for ROH. I’ve never seen Vita VonStarr wrestle before, and I was quite impressed. She’s pretty good. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Sumie Sakai, but I respect her work and what she’s done for the business too.

Rok-C getting the golden ticket was 100 percent the correct move. Sometimes ROH let’s good talent slip through their hands, and I hope they sign Rok-C quickly before she gets more traction.