Maria Kanellis And Bobby Cruise Wanted To Spotlight Mandy Leon And Trish Adora In 2022

Under the guidance of Maria Kanellis and Bobby Cruise, the ROH women’s division found new life in 2021 as the company crowned a new ROH Women’s Champion and put the spotlight on various women wrestlers on the Independent scene. 

Rok-C ended as the ROH Women’s Champion after winning the title tournament and defending the title against Willow at ROH Final Battle. 

Speaking on ROH Strong, Kanellis and Cruise discussed plans for the division in 2022 before the company went on hiatus. 

“The most glaring thing to me, there are two, one is the fact that Mandy (Leon)…she has been in this company for a very long time. I would have liked to have seen one more singles run for her, another title shot at some point. She deserved it and has been one of the pillars for Ring of Honor, not just the women’s side, but the entire company. She deserved that. I would have liked to have some time to give credit due to more people from the past, especially Sumie (Sakai). We ran out of time. Seeing the third match between Miranda (Alize) and Trish (Adora) would have been awesome. Trish has been on a tear and I feel like there is so much more we can do with her. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to do that. There were so many things. I know Chelsea was gunning for the championship too. She is everywhere. She’s proved that she’s progressed so much with her wrestling over the past year. There is so much and unfortunately, it didn’t happen. Who knows. These stories, these seeds that were planted, they have legs and could go somewhere,” said Maria.

Cruise, who wasn’t as prominent as Maria in promoting the women’s division through media platforms, said they had the first quarter laid out for the division. 

“In our minds, as far as the title chase and title picture, we had the first four or five months written in our minds already to where we were going,” he said. “Maria touched on two big points that we had discussed; certainly Mandy and then Trish. She has such a great story and it gets told somewhat in the Quest for Gold pre-tapes that aired and it gets told a little bit more in the women’s division documentary, but there is so much more there. She is so good and such a good person. Her story being told thoroughly and her focusing in and chasing the Ring of Honor Women’s World Title was really something we were going to focus on for the first half of next year [2022].”

Though ROH is on hiatus, Rok-C continues to defend the Women’s Championship around the country. She is set to collide with Deonna Purrazzo on the January 13 episode of IMPACT. You can learn more by clicking here. 

Elsewhere during the podcast, Cruise detailed putting Purrazzo’s appearance at ROH Final Battle together. You can find his full comments by clicking here. 

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