[10.0] "Another one of my favourite women's matches in 2023. 2023 was incredible year for high calibre women's matches. This was no different. This match was amazing. ****3/4"
[9.0] "(Grade:A) One hell of a battle! Athena & Nightingale are some of the best women wrestler and them were throwing some mean strikes and moves at one another and doing some neat callbacks to previous women wrestler known in ROH. Really enjoyed it and wasn't expecting who would come out on top here."
[9.0] "Incredible match, definitely USA women's wrestling Match of the Year front runner. This match had a lot of great moves and an excellent progression and thrill. The fact that the best AEW women's match of this year was in ROH shows how poorly Tony's been booking the female division - {****1/4}"
[10.0] "one of ROH Best womans match ever. The story was there, the wrestling was there, and this was so good. Athena is carrying ROH, and they made it seem like Willow will knock off the GOAT."
[8.0] "[4.5*] What an incredible match Willow and Athena had, I've watched several of Willow's matches but here she completely elevates herself, the spots were incredible, Athena managed to lift Willow with ease despite her being much smaller than Willow, Athena's powerbombs were sensational. Athena started the match aggressively and ended it being dominant and over the crowd, her ROH women's title reign is historic. The final sequence of this match was sensational, the kickouts and nearfalls were insane, Willow came very close to winning the match, the way Athena won was simply badass."
[9.0] "I extremely enjoyed this rivalry and it holds the awesomeness up above the sky to date. The quality of action these women brought in their series of matches was exceptional and for that alone, valid appreciation is due. Apart from that, the characters were thin in depth yet nicely presented and the match flow was seamless until the ending stage. In my case, when finishers are utilized in a strong way of bringing/prolonging the closure, it's fine. This is one of those matches where the concept went overkill and the woman who came on top wasn't the right choice. She had a fab reign, I get it but, the fan pull-in Willow brought & the blend of character/in-ring presence are more than enough to give her the crown. I still don't get it! 4.5 out of 5 stars!"
[8.0] "While still a great match, I liked the first match a bit more since it didnt have the big move and then kick out sequences toward the end ughh. They had a 50/50 start until Athena was able to bait Willow into a mistake and take control of the match. The best part of this match is whenever Athena was in control, or when they would go to 50/50 strike trading. The whole you kick out of my big move deal didnt hit with me at all, but Willow did all of her power moves with great explosiveness. They built to the finish properly, but the pass out finish is so overdone nowadays in wrestling.***"
[6.0] "Y'all are high as all hell to rate this as highly as you have. For me, this was as mid and basic as it gets, pumped up a little with Willow's natural charisma. Aside from that, however, there's very little of notability here. What did I miss, exactly? I don't get it."
[9.0] "Fantastic hard-hitting match, glad that these two women were able to main event the show: Athena was an awesome heel with brutal some offense while Willow was the perfect babyface with great comebacks. The start of this match was normal yet good but the second part was brillant with the two going back and fourth, trading high impact moves with some excellent nearfalls. In the end Willow didn't tap but pass out and Athena retained, awesome match. 9/10 - 4.5*/5*"
[7.0] "Fine match, maybe the best match from Athena's ROH Women's Championship reign, but it was fine, Willow Nightingale had a better match with Giulia for the NJPW STRONG Women's Championship. The low stantard for the women's division in the west make this match awesome for some people."
[10.0] "Everything a pro wrestling main event should be. A dominant champion, an underdog challenger with their own strengths, a great pacing of highs and lows that uses the ring and its surroundings, great nearfalls that had been built to for months with how both wrestlers were booked going in, a hot crowd pulling for the face the whole way, showing some respect to the talents before them by pulling out their signatures, and an excellent finish. Hard to say much more if you're already familiar with how good these two are. ****1/2"
[8.0] "Very fun match with nice offense throughout from both women, absolutely loved the finish with willow being so close to breaking the submission and recovering for the match to eventually finish in a stoppage instead of willow tapping out, would love to see these two face off again in the future"
[10.0] "This was a great match. These ladies deserve their flowers for providing a hard hitting dramatic match that saw big moves and drama. Easily one of the best women's matches held by a major promotion in the US in absolute years. Really helped establish Athena and Willow Nightingale as ones to watch."
[8.0] "A '7' or an '8' for me. My one point of contention (ignoring the Reddit-tier "Women's wrestling! " chant), and it's a big one in this match, was that entire sequence with the references, big move trading, and kick-outs. That was pure forced epic territory and something which makes me think that '7' is a better rating. I felt that it really derailed the match and I had trouble getting fully sucked back in after that. These reference matches we keep seeing are like the pro wrestling equivalent of a writer's purple prose. It takes the focus away from the story and gives it to the storyteller, who is saying "Look how clever I am. Aren't I great? " There are times it can work. Most of the time it sucks. I wish it wasn't in this match because I liked almost everything else."
[9.0] "Match of the night, and one that has pushed Willow and Athena further up on my rankings of favorite wrestlers in ROH/AEW. Both women are just so good. It's amazing that they were able to main event, and were given the full 20 minutes to just go, and they delivered. So many great near falls, perfectly paced story crafted into the match that sunk you in and convinced you Willow was going to somehow, some way inch herself into a victory against possibly the greatest women's wrestler in North America. Just an outstanding example of an ultra hot babyface who doesn't give up versus a dominate heel who is confident in what they do. It's a tried and true formula which pushed this match over the edge for me. ****1/2"
[10.0] "I've joked (half-joked? ) that Athena should just beat Claudio for the ROH title at this point, since she's so present on the brand and has been such a focused workhorse that she has clearly been the best thing about the revival. I mean I love Claudio but it's clear his attention is divided, whereas Athena has done nothing but produce ROH bangers left and right with the title. So I was pleased she ended up with the main event spot, and against a very talented opponent no less, and I think they absolutely lived up to the challenge of that spot. This match was hard hitting in the extreme and had some tremendous nearfalls to keep the crowd guessing all the way to the end. The touch of Willow busting out moves of previous important women in ROH, going back to Sara Del Rey and Daizee Haze even, was a bit cutesy but ultimately felt like a nice nod without interrupting the flow of the match, since it was clear she was trying unexpected tactics to beat the near unbeatable Athena. But unbeatable she was, retaining in a fantastic match. Awesome work on both sides."
[10.0] "Excellent match, this felt like it was designed for me. 20 minutes flew by with great pacing. Both women wearing eachother down until the final act is just big moves and reversals and near falls. Love the match up of the larger competitor being deceptively agile, and the smaller one being deceptively powerful. Willow's psychology and selling is phenomenal and her connection to the crowd makes her an elite tier babyface. Athena has also been the best women's wrestler the past year in North America, her ruthless offense is a perfect match for Willow, one of only 13 matches I've given a 10 this year"
[10.0] "In a year that has been possibly the best in terms of the QUALITY of womens wrestling (when it's given enough time of course), this match stands as one of the best womens matches you'll see. Very good story beats throughout with Athena's ruthlessness and Willow's fighting spirit clashing very well. And also, that O Face kickout was one of the best I've ever seen and that thunder pop was so deserved for Willow. I also loved the pass out ending, and the classic ROH show of respect. All in all, one of the best womens matches of 2023, and likely ever. 10/10 / *****"
[6.0] "Perfectly alright at best, with underwhelming chemistry and weak storytelling being the biggest issues. I actually thought this was going to be special at the start when I saw Willow's surprisingly serious attitude, and then they had some genuinely good, impactful strike trades in the opening few minutes, so I was actually hooked very early, thinking we might get a far harder hitting match than expected. Unfortunately, that promising start soon became a distant memory as both women settled down into the roles that I guess they had always planned on. The main issue was just how underwhelming their chemistry was for at least 90% of the duration, since whether trading holds/pins, going for big individual spots, or when trying to rapidly trade strikes and power moves back and forth, you could always see a clear delineation point between where an attack end and the receiving sell/bump began, making each would-be 'cool' exchange look somewhat unconvincing. It wasn't any sort of major issue, of course, but it definitely held this back from being the truly impressive performance expected from two main-eventers in a relatively major wrestling company. This was mostly an issue with Willow, since I didn't notice as many 'disjointed' moments from Athena, whereas Willow's offence always looked amateurishly segmented, like she was robotically moving between her various actions. Another issue was with their character work, since Willow's selling was a bit melodramatic, while Athena was much more egregious with her hokey 'deranged' and 'easily angered' displays, often coming off like a petulant child and not a threatening top star. Willow, to her credit, still mostly remained pretty sympathetic in response to Athena's aggressive beatdown work (which Athena likewise deserves credit for), but I wish it had been more consistent. There were also some normal issues of obvious cooperation and slight sloppiness, which are basically a given for AEW/modern ROH as a whole, but it still took me out of the match each time because of how obvious it truly was. The story of both doing callbacks to ROH's most respected women's wrestlers was dumb, even in theory alone, since I guarantee maybe only 3 people total knew each move from the various wrestlers referenced. What was even the kayfabe reason for them doing that, anyways? Were they feuding over who best represented the PRESTIGIOUS (lmao) lineage of ROH women's champs? Them (especially the HEEL Athena) suddenly putting their match at risk by abandoning their tried-and-true offence in favour of one-off attacks from wrestlers who, let's be honest, almost no-one, not even die-hards are familiar with, because they haven't accomplished anything of note (even by indy standards), made zero sense and it was too convenient for how often it happened. On top of that, it didn't help that those various big-move trades lacked the smooth technique/chemistry and explosive impact to truly impress on their own, anyways. ***"
[5.0] "There was some good stuff here but the big thing for me is that in the closing stretch, when things are at the most pivotal, they start trading moves from other wrestlers and it just became a referential thing rather than being about Athena or Willow. Took me out of it in a way that left a bad taste in my mouth."
[9.0] "Outstanding. Athena retaining but Willow looking superbly strong. Loved the callbacks to the history of American indie women's wrestling, the awesome power spots from both competitors and the finish."
[8.0] "People need to calm down on this one. It was a great match for sure, but a 10? Maybe in comparison to some of the awful women's matches we are subjected to it's a 10, but on its own merit... 8. Not to downplay it, those ladies killed it."
[10.0] "Jumped out of my seat for this one, tore the house down. Probably one of my favorite matches of the year. They really killed it in this match. So glad I got to see this live."
[10.0] "Greatest ROH Womens match ever, the anticipation, the vibes, getting the main event, EVERYTHING CLICKED IN THE SAME MOMENT. Willow is getting the Womens most outstanding wrestler of the year, while Athena is having the greatest ROH Womens title reign of all time and for me, the best womens title reign in this year, also, the callbacks from SHIMMER/WOH almost made me cry, this is certainly a classic. (*****)"
[9.0] "A great match that deserved to be the main event, this match delivered. Athena and Willow have awesome chemistry and aren't afraid to go at each other. This was hard hitting with some nice spots, callbacks to past ROH women, good character spots, and a hot crowd the entire time. Willow is one of the most over babyfaces in wrestling and Athena is on a career high, embracing all that comes with being a heel."
[10.0] "this is what a womens match should be, just an amazing performance from these 2 ladies. hard hitting with a great flow near falls and they had you believing that either lady could walk out with the roh title and had me engaged at on the edge of my seat the whole...my ladies moty for 2023 so far....just an excellent job all around"
[7.0] "it's nowhere near close best women's matches I have ever seen but i enjoyed it quite a bit. Maybe if i were following roh more closely i would've liked the match more than 7 but the in ring action didn't go to the next level really"
[9.0] "(****) This is the type of fight I really enjoy. Physics and where both wrestlers don't take as much time to rest. Willow is a future AEW Champion."
[8.0] "One of the best american women's matches that I have ever watched for sure (in there with Charlotte/Rhea now that you make me think about it). Athena was damn underrated when she was in WWE, finally she is getting the recogniton she deserves. Willow also did one of the best performances of her career so far here. Great intensity, great rythm and great moves with a finishing sequence rich of great near falls. Good job, girls! It needed to be in the main event? No, but with it being there I did not see anything wrong. ****1/4"
[7.0] "Perhaps some references went over my head, as I only loosely follow ROH. There were some cool moments, but my attention wavered multiple times during the match. I enjoyed certain last instant kick-outs, and the ending was rather cool."
[7.0] "When I found out that this match was going to be the main event, I expected it to be Willow's crowning night as ROH champ, and it turned out that they made the champion defend and recognize the challenger, during the match there were chants of "This Is Awesome" and given the rating here, you can see that people consider this a great match, I didn't connect at any time and this ended up being a good and forgettable match for the women's title (***3/4)"
[9.0] "While I don't think this is perfect, it is pretty damn close, and is up there as one of the best women's wrestling matches to ever take place on US soil. Athena enters the match as a dominant champion, with a streak of 31 straight wins, while Willow enters with a wave of momentum after winning the Owen Hart Cup, in a tournament in which she defeated Athena. The match starts off, and it's very hard hitting, with both laying into eachother with forearms and chops and brawling on the outside. The two then begin to trade big moves, honouring the likes of Allison Danger, Alexis Laree and MsChif by hitting their signature moves on eachother, but neither woman will stay down. Eventually, Athena hits the O Face on Willow, a move that, to my knowledge, no one has kicked out of, only for Willow to kick out at the last possible second, making the crowd erupt in the process. After a Doctor Bomb by Willow, resulting in an electric nearfall, Athena hits a 2nd O Face, and locks in a crossface on Willow, which leads to Athena winning by referee stoppage, as Willow refused to submit. This match was incredible, and while the slow-ish beginning portion does prevent this from being perfect in my eyes, this is still the best match of both women's career's and definitely one of the best American women's matches I've ever seen. I hope they run this back again at Final Battle, where Willow will hopefully get the win. ****3/4"
[6.0] "Better than Flair/Ripley @ WM39! You're kidding, right? Sorry, but these two couldn't pull off half of what they did. A pretty dull match until they started using a bunch of finishers, from people, most of who had no idea who they were. (5.5)"
[7.0] "This was very good but just missed being great for me for a couple reasons. Some of Willow's offense wasn't up to snuff with the brutality they were trying to convey (that's gotta be the weakest pounce I've ever seen) and at a certain point it seemed more about just trading off moves. Still, this was a good main event even not on short notice. Glad Athena's reign keeps going and I'm sure Willow will be in line for the TBS title at some point."
[6.0] "This was good but far from being the best women's match in North America or whatever. I think they missed the peak and could've had a better finish after all those big moves they hit."
[10.0] "The trilogy between Willow and Athena concludes in what is arguably the greatest womens match in America, and easily one of the best womens matches all year. They went out there and proved why they were the main event of the show tonigh, with a brilliant story being told as Athena is the dominant heel ROH womens champion and Willow the hot babyface thats been on a incredible string of momentum after winning the Owen Hart Cup Tournament. This match was hard hitting with both women doing everything they could to bring other down. So many callbacks to their first match which was the debut episode of ROH on HonorClub and their second match from Rampage. The crowd elevated this match to new heights as everyone there wanted to see Willow get her big breakout moment and win the ROH championship, but Athena being so dominant stopped Willow from landing the deadly blow that would put her away. Another thing that made this match so incredible was the spots where Athena and Willow did moves that were made famous/popular by the ROH women before them. Athena got the victory over Willow in the end, but not before earning the champs respect for bringing her to the best match in her entire career (Athena even admitted this herself in the post-media scrum) Athena winning was the right choice here, shes currently doing the best work in her career as ROH Champion and is single-handedly carrying that promotion on her back. I hope at Final Battle we get this match again with Willow finally getting her big win and moment. If you havent seen this match, please go out of your way and check it out cause a simple review doesnt do the match justice."
[10.0] "One of the best women's matches of this year and Athena is showing people why she's one of the best champions in the world. Ever since she left WWE she been on a tear especially in ROH as a monster heel of a champion and the way she been booked has been perfection. Willow did her thing I really hope they fight for a 3rd time in the future because their chemistry is amazing. Overall one of the best matches of this year and possibly the best women's match of the year kudos to both women."
[7.0] "This was a fitting tribute to Ring of Honor's history: hitting a bunch of movez and kick outs only for the babyface who has been chasing the title to lose yet again. I actually don't mind the last part in this case though."
[10.0] "A worthy main event event on a night of really fantastic wrestling. Athena earned this spot with the consistently great work she's put in after moving to ROH, and Willow was the perfect dancing partner. The callbacks where sensible and not gratuitous. Highly recommended."
[5.0] "This started slow and it didn't have much fire until the second half when they started hitting big moves and kicking out at 2.999. If you're into that style then this was a great match but it didn't really work for me."
[10.0] "This should be the standard for women's wrestling in America. This output should be given on a weekly basis whether it's a 5-minute sprint or 15 minutes, consistency is key to success and this is how it should be. The match laid the groundwork now for others who are behind to step up or get left behind. First ROH PPV main event for women and women of color as well. This was Athena's best match since her 2017 Takeover match with Asuka. Willow showed she is more than just a powerhouse wrestler, she came off as the complete package. The match was beautifully put together with a love letter to the likes of MsChif, Allison Danger, Sara Del Rey, Daizee Haze and Sumie Sakai."
"A really excellent main event from start to finish. Even with the slow start, the match had a nice buildup with the great moves and the false finishes. These two have proven to be great rivals and the crowd absolutely went wild. Athena is definitely the best current women's champion in American wrestling and this just added more to her amazing reign. (****1/2)"
[6.0] "I thought the first half of the match was pretty dull before they switched to trading moves from other wrestlers for some reason. ROH doesn't have a storied women's division for that to make any real sense or impact though."
[9.0] "Outstanding match. Best womens match in Ring of Honor history, best match of Willows career, and as usual an incredible performance from Athena who is easily one of the best women in the world right now."
[7.0] "This was like a Takeover match, which I don't mean as a compliment. Lots of big moves and kickouts into a flat finish. I do think Athena winning was the right choice though."
[9.0] "To me, the best women's match in America this year; in the world, it is just behind the 5 vs 5 cage match in Stardom last month. The passion that those two put on the match was almost tangible, and they deliver something beaultiful and unique. Best match on Willow's career so far. It could be the best match in Athena's career to, but I still enjoyed her match with Asuka in 2017 more (maybe it's just affective memory). In a race to be the best woman wrestling in America, Athena's is a horse running alone. No one is having so many good matches and moments like her right now."
[10.0] "Outstanding match for the ROH womens championship. A lot of offense by both and exciting from start to finish. This match should have been all OK for the best female match of the year conversation but I felt like there was a lack of epicness... I mean, they were at the 110% here but It looked like not so deep; almost incomplete. I don't know if I used the right words but that's how I felt. ****3/4"
[10.0] "Excellent, excellent match. This felt like one of the peak black and gold NXT womens matches to me, when they were going out and killing it every Takeover. This was a phenomenal showing by both, and a perfect punctuation onto a fantastic show."
103x
167x
73x
39x
5x
2x
0x
0x
0x
0x
0x