AEW’s Women’s Tag Team Tournament – The Deadly Draw kicked off on YouTube tonight. The show featured the first two matches of the tournament and a number of surprises.
The show opened with a trio of surprises. First was Veda Scott joining Tony Schiavone in the commentary booth.
Second was Shaul Guerrero as the ring announcer and third, Madusa introduced the show.
The Nightmare Sisters, Brandi Rhodes and Allie remained a team and kicked off proceedings against Penelope Ford and Mel.
Ford and Allie start the match. Allie gets the better of Ford until Mel manages to tag herself in. Mel lays into Brandi as the two have a history spanning from the Nightmare Collective debacle.
The action goes to the outside and Mel flattens Allie with a Yakuza kick. Back in the ring, Ford takes out Allie with a falling backstabber for a close fall.
Bradi gets the hot tag andtakes out Mel with a barrage of moves including a sling blade and a spear for the victory.
Ford once again looked very good and was easily the best performer in the match. Brandi Rhodes has improved greatly in the ring and also put in a good performance.
This was a good match that started off the show well. Brandi and Allie continued their winning ways and finally seemed to be on the same page. As the only actual tag team in the tournament so far they must be the favourites to go all the way.
The next match was Nyla Rose and Ariane Andrews vs Anna Jay and Tay Conti. The match was interesting for a number of reasons. Conti and Andrews were both making their AEW debuts, Rose first match with Vickie Guerrero as her manager and Anna Jay come out surrounded by the member of the Dark Order.
Ariane and Jay started the match sassing each other for the get-go. Tay and Jay doubled teamed Ariane until Rose intervened with a double chokeslam.
Conti and Rose go at it and to everyone’s surprise, Conti gets the better of her opponent with some stiff kicks.
Jay and Conti would target Rose’s leg to take her out and try a number of unsuccessful pinfall attempts. Rose would come back with a huge Samoan drop to Conti and tag Ariane.
Ariane would go for the standing splits pin on Conti but Jay would hit a surprise blockbuster for the 1,2,3.
After the match, Nyla would smash Ariane as Guerrero laughed along. Conti would re-enter the ring and help her up.
This was another good match with Jay and Conti getting a big shine. They dominated Rose throughout the contest and eventually took out of the match all together. Ariane was very good and far from the disaster many people were expecting. She must’ve put in a lot time in the ring and improved massively.
All in all this was a good show with some good action and a lot of great surprises. Could this be the turning point AEW’s women’s division needs? Lets hope they get some matches on Dynamite and we’ll see.
What did you make of the show and the surprise appearances? Let us know in the comments below. As always stay tuned to Diva Dirt for all of your AEW news, reviews and updates.
