Holidead is going to draw a lot of comparisons to the Rosemary character, even though she was around before Impact picked up Rosemary. Deonna Purrazzo is the babyface that ROH can anchor their division to, because she's likable and puts in the work. It's conveyed in her pre-match promo.
Holidead could use a special entrance to match her special character. Riccaboni brings up that Holidead trained with Gangrel, which is so fitting.
As I've watched four tournament matches so far, nobody touches how smooth Purrazzo is in the ring. Everything she's done looks smooth, effective and is executed well. Holidead catches a dive to the outside and posts Purrazzo, that Cabana does an awesome job of selling on the mic. Holidead also employs the pendulum, which is a really good offensive weapon for her.
Mid-way through the match, I unfortunately noticed that Cabana has a typically WWE habit of calling moves as "OOH," which I hope isn't a conscious adoption of WWE's frustrating trend.
The Dead Drop (a Samoan drop) sees Purrazzo kick out, and Purrazzo goes Tilt-a-Whirl into the Fujiwara armbar for the win!
Match rating 6/10
This was a good one, and gives a lot more promise in the division. I hadn't seen a lot of Holidead and wondered if she could keep up with Purrazzo, and she more than did.
10- Perfect, 9- Excellent, 8- Great, 7- Good, 6- Above Average, 5- Average, 4- Slightly below average, 3 or below: Poor
