[9.0] "This was an excellent match. Jokes aside about how long she has been champion, Athena has been one of the best champions in the last several years, both in AEW and ROH. Mina Shirakawa has been a presence in AEW for a year now and while she has had some pretty good matches, he hasn't had that one truly stand out match. That changed with this match, as we had a lot of fun action here. Athena worked over Mina's already injured hand, while Mina worked over Athena's knee after she rammed it into a steel chair. Even though Bandido and Hechicero went longer, I can see why they put this match as the main event as they had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hand. There was some great nearfalls, but Athena won cleaner with the O-Face. Thankfully they kept Billie Starkz' involvment at a bare minimum. ****1/4"
[6.0] "I'm using the translation function, so it might be hard to understand. Mina was the wrestler in Stardom whose match style I liked the most, and I liked Ember Moon's matches in her WWE days, so I was looking forward to it, but... well, it was just an average, good match. To be honest, I was disappointed."
[9.0] "Athena & Mina did a great job going after the incredible bandido match prior, other wrestlers would've folded but not them. Sure the result of Athena winning was obvious but she's so damn good they made it seem like Mina possibly could've won. Great match"
[8.0] "After the insanity of Bandido vs. Hechicero, this main event slot felt like a poisoned challice. Unmoved by the task though, these two produced a terrific, worthy main event, committing to a limb work match that slowly but surely, hooked the still energetic Philly crowd. Naturally, it's fuelled by a magnificent Athena performance, but Shirakawa is no passenger here either, again thriving within a more considered, deliberate outline. ****"
[8.0] "Athena wins again here. I saw it coming from a mile away when Mina hit the post. After that, Athena was too aggressive and overconfident, and ended up injuring her leg. When Athena accidentally jumped on Billie, I thought that would lead to something, but they quickly moved on to other things. After the match, I'm wondering who could possibly beat Athena."
[7.0] "Mina tried to convey her anger that Athena broke her hand, the issue with this match though is Mina's strikes aren't good. I did appreciate that these women did tell a story in the ring. The match really picked up for me after Nina started to get Athena in the figure four leg lock at first. The last part of this match was a lot of fun. Athena is great and Mina played her part great in the end."
[10.0] "I caught this match live (unlike the rest of the show) and thought it was fantastic and still do after quickly refreshing myself. Athena is ruthless going after the hand of Mina that she injured at All In, and Mina focused in on Athena's legs, and both of them sold those really well throughout the match leading to multiple great submission teases and believable nearfalls; the greatest feat of Athena's reign as it approaches 1000 days is that she can always make you believe for just a fraction of a second that they might end it no matter how unlikely. This overshadowed Athena/Storm from FD and that's saying something. ****1/2"
[9.0] "This right here was the third best match of the entire night but at the circunstances they had at main eventing this PPV over the legendary and fantastic match between Hechicero and Bandido, yeah boy, that girls deserves their flowers for what they showed. Looked like a very joshi style match, Mina selling wasn't great but she manage to bring my attention to all the details here, some special moves she did really get me involved. Athena's booking is already reaching a point where you know none of those opponents are gonna take her title, but she is always impressive and able to produce overall matches with high quality, so I can live with that easily."
[10.0] "Like all normal humans, I do not follow ROH regularly in 2025, but if I see a highly rated Athena match you bet I'm gonna make time to watch it. Here she is taking on Mina Shirakawa, which I think is an excellent extension of her recent feud with Toni Storm, one thing I do appreciate in AEW/ROH booking is that wrestlers tend to actually have friends and allies consistently even when they are not part of a specific team or stable. It's a nice touch, anyway. I like Mina fairly well, I don't know if she's a great world beater but she's talented and fun, and I knew she could do something quite good with Athena. And I was right! This was a super fun match, a great fight that filled up 25 minutes with ease and managed not to be entirely overshadowed by the men's title match that came before it. This was not only as hard fought as you might expect, not just filled with impressive big moves, but I greatly appreciated the attention to the simple but always effective story of limb-work done well. Mina's injured hand was a very obvious target and Athena did a great job of targeting it, and for the most part Mina did an excellent job selling it, minus an off moment here or there (probably didn't need to throw that backfist late in the match but no big deal). Mina, a typically strategic wrestler, did a nice job evening things up with some heavy damage on Athena's legs. I never really bought into the idea that Mina could win but this was worked well enough that I was wondering at times how Athena would manage to snatch away the victory. But indeed she did, by gritting it out through the best Mina could throw at her and battering her with top tier offense until she finally went down. Great fun stuff here, one of Athena's best two matches this year (the other being with Mone), and probably Mina's second best showing ever after that great Natsupoi match a couple years ago."
[9.0] "Really brilliant match. I never believed that Mina was a threat to Athena's title reign until this match convinced me otherwise with a couple of those nearfalls. I was SO into the idea of Mina winning once this match got going. Just a near-perfect title match."
[8.0] "This main event was high-quality, but Mina Shirakawa hasn't shown her top-level performance since joining AEW. Her moveset seems a bit limited, and this match is relatively champion-driven. Passing after a solid match wasn't easy, but my attention didn't wane, a sign that both women put on a good performance to close out the show. In-ring quality: 2.25/4. Stakes: 2/2. Justification: 1/1. Place on the card: 1/1. Suspense: 0.75/1. Bonuses/penalties: none. Total: 8/10. Match seen on the ROH YouTube channel."
[6.0] "Athena tried her best to sell Shirakawa as a real threat, but Shirakawa's AEW run firmly established her as a mid-carder whose biggest value is that she can lose clean in the middle in matches that have any kind of consequences attached to them and stay over. Early minutes didn't make see Shirakawa try something new or different to create real doubt in the outcome, as per usual she worked Athena's legs for Figure Four Leglock, which made middle portion feel long for the sake of long, which is unfortunate considering that both wrestlers were over and the crowd was consistently hot. Athena noticeably adjusting to her opponent's style and level also didn't help, though her selling was good. Overall, this was a perfectly serviceable Main Event that was overshadowed by better matches earlier on this show."
[8.0] "Definitely the best match I have seen from Mina Shirakawa, this was a really exciting and meaningful match packed with character moments and generally good limb selling (aside from a couple egregious spots from Shirakawa). Athena got the win by pinfall after a pretty amazing sequence, this was such an enjoyable match, really good fun and packed with character. A must watch on the card."
[9.0] "This was a way better match than Bandido vs. Hechicero and as someone who has never been Athena's greatest admirer I have to hold my hands up and say that this was an absolutely supreme performance from the champ. Mina let the side down a tad by suddenly using the 'broken hand' to applaud herself and throw a back fist late on, but otherwise this was a top notch title fight with focused attacks and heartfelt struggle ****1/4"
[7.0] "[3.5*] Athena is a miraculous worker. I'm not a huge Mina fan at all (at least in AEW) and this was definitely her best performance in a TK promotion. This match was 1 of the 3 great matches that night and these ladies had a very damn difficult job to follow-up almost 40 minutes of intense lucha libre action. I love the fact that they got the Main Event spot, but I think in this specific case their crowd placement was not beneficial for them at all. I was goddamn tired. I will rewatch this match someday and probably my rating will be even higher, but damn I was so fucking tired watching this match. 25 minutes of match after 36 minutes of match, they had an awful spot. Even with all these disadvantages, Athena and Mina Shirakawa delivered an awesome ME. The first half was pretty slow and not very important, the limb-work didn't change the route of the match whatsoever and given the circumstances I think they could've went for a different thing, but the second half of the match was absolutely awesome and they blew the roof."
[8.0] "One of my favorite genres in wrestling is limb work, and this contained for the most part superb dueling limb assaults. Mina, who is usually the first to target a limb, found herself in peril early on when Athena assumed control by damaging her arm. Mina, the ever-clever limb worker, found her way back to success by targeting the leg when she baited Athena into ramming a chair on the outside. Both women dished out expert limb work. I do have to admit that Athena was the superior seller, as Mina went on to sacrifice much of the damage by extensively utilizing the damaged arm for offense. Athena, on the other hand, had incredible spots where the leg damage played a part. My favorite part of the match came around the 14-minute mark, where Mina did a pop-up no-sell spot and delivered a knee to Athena's face, and Athena reciprocated by responding with a forearm, which is a spot that highly rewarded those who were paying attention, as they both hit each other with their healthy limbs. However, unfortunately, shortly after that magnificent spot is when Mina went on to sacrifice the limb damage. Still, this is a superb match with tons of great action with crafty work. ****"
[8.0] "The best match on the card by my liking. It shaves of the ten minutes of overindulgence from that the Men's World Championship match had and feels better for it. Much different bout, though. We get a shine segment from Mina, but the bulk of the match are two consecutive control segments based on limb work. Athena work the injured hand after drawing Mina to the outside and does some nasty work on it, the kicks with Shitakawa's hand being stuck in the turnbuckle being a highlight. Athena goes for the injury with viciousness and only overindulging on the outside makes her loose control. She is a dominant champion, so I almost do not have a problem with Mina regaining control mostly by happenstance. Especially because, unlike the heel champ, Mina hasn't gone for the injured body part (Athena's tapped up neck, that she sell vey well even when taking bumps on offense). In the final back and forth, Athena displays a selling masterclass of the leg (the way she staggers and sometimes crumbles when trying to deliver powermoves) while Mina is a bit more inconsistent with his hand. Maybe that lack of attention from Shitakawa to limb selling on offense (especially with the backfists) is my biggest gripe with this bout."
[10.0] "Would not say that I have an exhaustive knowledge of Mina Shirakawa's catalogue, but this is certainly the best match I've ever seen her work by a substantial margin, and it wasn't an Athena carry job in that regard. Incredible performance given the act they had to follow; match of the night pretty much any other night this year, including the last ROH PPV."
[9.0] "This was in the ultimate "tough act to follow" spot after the Bandido-Hechicero epic. I figured, yeah another no-doubt 8/10 Athena match...but what really bumped it up here was Mina. I have not seen Mina look this good before in all of her AEW matches (and the 2 or 3 I've seen from Stardom/Japan). I'm inclined to credit Athena because she's that damn good and does elevate her opponents. But, it's up to that opponent to pull it off and Mina really did. I can't say anything here that I haven't said on other recent Athena match reviews. She's incredible and at the top of her game. All of her matches are must-watch and this one was a (slight) step above. It did not drag at all for the 25+ minute length, but perhaps following the 35+ minute match was something that worked in it's favor?"
[9.0] "Fantastic main event by these two. If you never saw Mina in Stardom and thought she was just a pretty face, this is the match to watch to show you she can go in the ring. Great back and forth, arm vs leg stuff. Athena continues to be one of the absolute best wrestlers in the world."
[8.0] "I enjoyed this match a lot. However booking it after Bandido and Hechicero was questionable and did harm it a little but it still was a great match on it's own. The question is how on earth will Athena drop her title. She's gonna hit the 1000 day mark, just don't know who would be able to beat her at this rate. Also shout-out to the Blue Meanie cameo, enjoyed that a lot."
[8.0] "These two had quite the task of trying to follow Bandido vs. Hechicero, but this actually managed to surpass my expectations. I love Athena but Mina has never really done much for me. Surprisingly though, she was great here. I think this is by far the best match I've seen from her. Her work on Athena's leg was quite good and helped by how good Athena's selling was. Athena was as great as ever here, more than making up for her disappointing Forbidden Door match. She was great in control and as mentioned previously, sold her leg brilliantly all throughout the match even towards its closing moments. Her bumping was great too and she was able to make Mina's typically soft looking offence look genuinely brutal at times. This match was in a tough spot but Athena and Mina both worked hard to get the crowd invested and had a great match as a result that was more than deserving of being the main event. ****"
[10.0] "10/10 for feels alone. So happy Mina's back. That's she's back, and full of life. That Athena took her too her limits, even better. Athena was brilliant. The psychology masterful. Played on all my fears. My personal fav moment? Athena Tombstone Piledriver on Mina. Now, I had just been in a board spat with a guy who crapped on Zack Sabre Jr. for kicking out of a Tombstone Piledriver. I reminded him, that while the move was so dangerous the WWE banned it, in the Indies, it's not even a finisher. Too weak. So when Mina kicked out of a Tombstone Piledriver, I kicked too! See! Mina knows! NOT A FINISHER! Then, ending the match with Athena's twisty thing off the ropes for her finisher. The same move that she used the last match they fought. The one where "she" broke Mina's hand. Short side story: When I was a kid, I got punched in the face in the ring, It happens right? My nose bleed. Real bad. To be honest I was more in shock he had landed it than I was from bleeding. But I was pretty messed up so either way I was probably in shock. Stopped the bleeding. My Sensi first made sure I was OK. Checked in. Then, immediately, put me right back in the ring. He told me "Get thrown off a horse- Get right back on where you fell off or you'll wonder about it forever. And so will the guy you're fighting. He's in shock too. He thought he killed you." This, was Mina's getting right back on."
[9.0] "Damn solid match, weirdly paced in a few spots and the finish was a bit lol athena wins. but a fine showing from both ladies even if the obvious result hurt it a bit but a fitting way for athena to cement a record breaking reign"
[9.0] "Well that was fucking brilliant and one of my favourite women's matches of the year. considering we are so close to 1000 days of Athena as the champion it was very small chance she would drop the belt to Mina but there was points in the match where i thought Mina was going to do the impossible when she had the last leg lock on and then we she got the near fall of the Glamorous Driver i thought she had it. Athena is just that woman she is so damn good all of her offence is so crisp clean and hard hitting she is a fucking demon. The match started of a a very high pace with them trading holds and it pretty much stayed at that pace for the entire bout which was amazing to see and was amazing all the face to the O face for the finish. The selling and limb work of Mina's hand and Athena's arm really add the drama to this match as it affected their offence throughout which was great. As a big fan of Mina it was amazing to see her step up to the big spot and deliver the best match i have ever seen her have her offence was so good in this match and as always her crowd work was so so good. Athena is just unreal everything she does is so so good and she deserves all of her flowers of making the ROH women's belt mean so much. The biggest compliment i can give this match is following on from a masterpiece in the men's world title match they delivered a showing that was still worthy of being a main event on any show. 2025 has been an amaizng year for women's wrestling and this is just another shining example. (****3/4)"
[10.0] "Crazy good. I think going just after the perfection Bandido vs Hechicero was makes easy to underestimate this, but I loved it anyway. Probably the best match I've seen for Mina. Great work on the arm and leg for both and really good exchange of submissions, the crowd was so into it. The Blue Meanie entrance was funny too."
[8.0] "Mina is so fine, lawddd, this match was hot, Athena is almost on Final Boss level when it comes to these title defenses and she brings the best outta her opponents, Mina had her war face on and did some nice technical work in this one, great back and forths and a dramatic finish with the Japanese Open Bomb. Can anyone sell the O Face anymore geez everytime I see someone get hit with it the just flail over and not sell it like a stunner which it is lol. This better than the previous matches Athena had with Thunder Rosa & Toni Storm not saying those matches were bad, but this was definitely better ****"
[8.0] "Very very solid match with some great back and forth sequences. The figure 8 battle towards the end was very intense and the suspense had me on the edge of my seat. I admittedly hadn't seen any of Shirakawa's work before this match, but she is definitely on my radar now. ****1/4"
[9.0] "At just a week away from the big thousand, Athena was never gonna drop to Mina, but that didn't stop her from making you believe. She's just that good. Mina as a future ROH women's champion also makes the world of sense too. Not a lick on the previous match, but that was something special. But yet, probably Athena's best match since Mercedes, and Mina's best match since, uh, Mercedes. Really good match."
[9.0] "The girls were put in the unenviable spot of following an absolute banger, but they also had a pretty good to great match. The crowd were into it all the way through, which I thought might be their biggest struggle given how mad the previous fixture was. Blue Meanie's nostalgia baiting entrance was a good part of that as well. It didn't quite have the crazy escalating spots that the previous match had, instead with more limb work, and a little outside interference. But when they got into the 'graps' itself I thought it was better than good, hence the rating. Athena/Toni II with this kind of time, please?"
[8.0] "I thought that technical work was largely forgettable and infact it was soon forgotten, it's a pity as it was the 50% of the bout. Luckly the later half was pretty entertaining and the final stretch was hot. ***3/4"
[7.0] "Now I'm not the biggest Mina Shirakawa fan as I don't think she's a very clean worker at least in the same way Athena is but here I think she utilized her strengths incredibly well. Shirakawa was still a bit sloppy in general move execution and transitions but her character work was great as she's just a genuinely fun babyface to get behind and Athena made her look great here. This is shockingly the first time Athena has looked genuinely in danger since I've been following this title reign. Mina reverses so many big moves from Athena, capitalising on her hubris and attacking the knee as Athena has targeted Mina's hand. It brings both wrestlers to an even playing field and possibly hints at Athena's shaken confidence after her loss to Toni Storm. The match is a great back and forth with both women looking great and while it's not the best Athena match, I'm very glad Shirakawa was able to showcase her true potential like this for maybe the first time since signing with AEW in my opinion"
[9.0] "WOMEN'S WRESTLING RULES. Athena and Mina absolutely killed it in this main event. Athena reaches 1000 days as champ in the greatest ROH reign ever and Mina shows she can still deliver a 5 star classic. Fantastic match and now that Athena reached 1000 days I think her story with Billie has to end with Billie dethroning her"
[9.0] "The best match Mina shirakawa has had In the United States probably her best match since her wonder of stardom title win 2 years ago, Another Great Athena title defense, it started a bit slow but as the action progressed the crowd got really into it and they sold me a ticket that Mina would beat Athena, they have Great chemistry and I would personally like to see them run that match back maybe next time on an AEW ppv for the AEW women's world championship, a clean win for Athena which should was kinda unexpected, really great match to cap off a great ppv."
[9.0] "Minas best match in the states so far and of course the women across from her was the forever champion Athena who with this win will hit 1000 days as champion. Honestly it's so deserved. These two had an almost impossible task of following what could have been a match of the year but they do it and made the crowd care. More importantly they made the crowd feel. Mina while not being the most gifted bell to bell opponent that Athena had faced in this reign is one of the most charismatic. Her offense has a sense of urgency and a little extra snap behind it. The desperation that Athena showed did just as good a job in making Mina look like a million bucks. With her being in AEW more many and this main eventing myself and obviously many in the crowd thought tonight was where her historic chapter came to an end. If you're invested in Athena or Mina please watch this match."
[8.0] "This was a great match. Athena really brought out the best in Mina, which is far less technical. Everything feels so real from Athena, the punches, the kicks, the suplexes, everything. This is one of her best title defences. This is proof that more women deserve the main event spot."
[8.0] "This was really fun. Both women had a really great performance and followed the ROH world title match very well. Athena seems to click with everyone she wrestles, her and mina had really great chemistry and were able to piece together everything beautifully. One of my favorite matches ive seen from both women! ****1/4"
[9.0] "They really set these ladies up by making them follow the classic that was Bandido vs Heichicero. Athena was able to make this a main event worthy match though. Her work on Mina's hand was really good. Mina also stepped up in this big spot, best performance from her in quite some time."
[9.0] "An extremely good match that held its own in the ring. Athena and Mina Shirakawa played their music and trust in their instincts and delivered. Athena worked over Mina's wrist/arm and Mina worked Athena's leg. Tbey had a toigh task after Bandido/Hechicero but they held their ground and delivered. A reminder to not doubt greats. ****1/2"
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