This week’s AEW Dynamite had a huge tag team match that saw the return of Bea Priestley after a lengthy absence from AEW. Priestley would team up with AEW Women’s Champion, Nyla Rose to face off Hikaru Shida and Kris Statlander, who we haven’t seen her loss to Rose at AEW Revolution.
But before we get to the main show there was an interesting match that took place on AEW Dark. The match saw Hikaru Shida take on AEW newcomer and the downright scary, Abadon.
Abadon was a disturbing and creepy edition to show and took all of the offence Shida had to offer. The match saw Shida back to her hard-hitting and fierce-striking best. It was good to see Shida get another win to top the women’s ranking system with a 5-1 win-loss record in 2020 and become the number one contender.
On to AEW Dynamite and it was noted on commentary that Statlander and Shida had teamed up twice before prior to this match, could they hold the advantage over the opponents?
Let us find out
The match started quickly and aggressively with Bea and Nyla attacking straight at the bell. Priestley and Statlander would battle outside with Shida and Rose remaining in the ring. Rose would drop Shida with a strong shoulder barge but Shida would pop right back up to get in the face of the champion. A clothesline, body slam and big leg drop from Rose would follow for the first two count of the match.
Shida would make the hot tag to Statlander to big cheers from the crowd. Statlander would smash Bea with a dropkick, a beautiful roundhouse kick followed by a tornado lariat to more applause. Statlander executed and uppercut to Bea in the corner followed by a taunt to Nyla and a powerbomb for the 2 count. Statlander would wrap up Bea in an Oklahoma roll for another 2. Statlander would attempt a clothesline but Preistely would counter with a submission. Statlander would power out and hit Bea with a big backbreaker. A tag to Shida would see an impressive double team move when Shida would suplex Statlander into Priestley who was lying prone in the turnbuckle for a very near fall as the crowd chanted “Holy Shida.”
Priestly and Shida would trade strikes until Bea hit a German suplex, which Shida would follow up with a diving knee strike to the back of the head. Nyla would tag in and overpower Shida and hang her from the top rope. Rose would attempt a flying knee attack but Statlander would pull Shida out of harm’s way. Shida would hit a missile dropkick to Rose before executing a knee and kick combo with Statlander for another 2 count. Shida would hit Rose with step-up enziguri followed by a falcon arrow much to the audience’s delight.
Bea would break up the pinfall causing Statlander to enter. Rose would take out Statlander with a clothesline and pickup Shida for a powerbomb while Priestley climbed the turnbuckle. Shida would counter the powerbomb with a frankensteiner and take out Bea with a superplex before being smashed by a vicious spear from Rose before succumbing to the beast-bomb and the 1,2,3.
After the match, Bea Priestley attacked Nyla Rose and raised the title above her head before throwing it at the champion. A new challenger has entered the arena.
This was a great match with exciting action and near falls galore. Statlander had a good showing and the crowd were well behind her but it was Shida who really stole the show here. Rose and Priestley also had impressive showings in the match. Rose constantly improving in the ring and Bea looked a lot smoother than her previous AEW outings. A good, strong and highly enjoyable match in which all performers looked good and plus we got another wrestler with eyes on Nyla Rose’s championship that makes for the entire roster all gunning for the Native Beast.
Later in the show, we got another promo from Britt Baker, in which she called everyone fat with bad teeth. She was interrupted by Big Swole, who then got swilled by Baker before running away. Could we be getting a secondary feud in the women’s division? Hope so.
Winner: Hikaru Shida
Shida has been on a tremendous roll since arriving in AEW and after a brief dip in form she seems to be back to her best in the ring and back to winning ways. Now she has been at the top of the standings before but was unable to stay there long enough in order to face off against then-champion, Riho. Hopefully, she stays there until the next PPV where she can finally get her long-awaited title shot.
Loser: Bea Priestley
Although it is good to see her back in AEW and stake her name into title contention, she is, for the time being at least, fodder for Nyla Rose.
Final Thoughts
This was a great showing from all women on the show. We got an interesting interaction between Big Swole and Britt Baker, which will hopefully lead to a feud or at least a match down the line. The tag team match saw Rose get a pin over Shida, who is her next opponent for the AEW Women’s Championship, which also has the potential to turn into a feud rather than just a match for the title. The last match for women’s championship between Rose and Statlander suffered greatly because of the lack of story behind it. Going forward AEW needs to start adding more story and meaning behind the matches rather than relying on the flawed AEW standings format.
What did you make of the show? Let us know below and as always stay tuned to Diva Dirt for all of your AEW news, reviews and updates.
