ASCENT Episode 1: Kimber Lee vs Shotzi Blackheart

ASCENT is here! The first episode brings us tag team action, exciting new talents, and a dream match between Shotzi Blackheart and Kimber Lee.

 Hello, and welcome to our weekly coverage of RISE: ASCENT! Every week, RISE is going to be bringing us episodic women’s wrestling content via their streaming service.  I’m pleased to share that the first episode definitely lived up to the hype.

If you’re a fan of independent wrestling, women’s wrestling, or just awesome wrestling in general, this is for you. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started.

(FYI: SPOILERS AHEAD! If you haven’t watched this yet, go do it now– it’s only 36 minutes long. You have the time!)

Paradise Lost vs Kate Carney and Riley Shepard

Paradise Lost consists of IMPACT Knockout and women’s wrestling all-star Rosemary, current Heart of Shimmer champion Zoey Skye (AKA Dust), and the newly-recruited monster heel Melanie Cruise (AKA Raven’s Ash). This tag team is a nightmare stable of well-established evil on the RISE roster. While Rosemary is currently recovering from an injury, Dust and Ash remain under her sway and intent on destroying RISE on her behalf.

The challengers, Kate Carney and Riley Shepard, are two up-and-coming RISE talents. Riley Shepard is especially fun, as she seems to be working some kind of a high fantasy gimmick. They do their best, but ultimately the match is a demonstration as to why Paradise Lost is a force to be reckoned with.

Dust and Ash work especially well together, with Dust goading their challengers into confrontations and Ash pummeling them once they take the bait. There’s a great sequence of attempted clotheslines that end with Carney and Shepard nearly flattened by Ash, and in the end it’s a beautiful monster boot from Ash that knocks Carney out and allows Dust to take the pin.

My only note here is that it would have been great to hear some more pre-match explanation around Paradise Lost, particularly how Ash joined up with them. The wrestlers have put some amazing effort into telling that story in RISE, but new viewers to ASCENT might have missed out on that, and that context makes the match (and Rosemary’s sideline menacing) much more fun.

If I were in a tag team that had to run up against Paradise Lost, I’d be pretty nervous. But I do hope we see Carney and Shepard again. Just maybe not versus Paradise Lost, as that is currently a tag team suicide mission.

Which raises the question: who is going to finally take them down? Maybe we’ll find out on July 9th…

Promos: Delilah Doom and Kimber Lee

OK, now this is what I’m looking for with ASCENT. One of the strengths of having a weekly show like this is the opportunity to get new audiences into RISE’s ongoing storylines. Promo is essential to that, and I was glad to see my favorite RISE wrestler get such a well-done video package in the first episode.

Delilah Doom is a hell of a competitor in the ring, but I hadn’t gotten the opportunity to see much of her personality aside from her love of aerobics and 80s movies. This video shows us why she’s the champ, and tells us the story of how she got there, including her ongoing rivalry with Dust and Rosemary and the impending rematch for the Phoenix of RISE title with Shotzi Blackheart. She’s engaging and fun, and makes you want to root for her to keep that championship. I loved her as a wrestler, but this video got me invested in her as a character, so well done.

Kimber Lee also got a brief aside with Alicia Atout (who you should definitely follow on Twitter if you’re a wrestling fan). This wasn’t the slick video package that Doom got, but honestly, Lee didn’t need it. This was a traditional call-out promo, with Lee reminding us that she’s held titles all around the world and implying Shotzi isn’t worthy to share the ring with her. Lee’s heel side might be a surprise to those who are used to the sunnier disposition in her WWE work, so this was a quick and effective way to remind us who we’re supposed to be rooting for in the main event.

Kikyo vs Xia Brookside

So I might have lied when I said Delilah Doom was my favorite wrestler at RISE. I blame this on Kikyo. Kikyo is my favorite kind of female heel: she’s funny, she’s incredibly mean, and she is a force of nature in the ring. I may be a little biased towards her due to her alliance with Bull Nakano, who is a wrestler I would follow into hell, but maybe Kikyo is just that good.

That’s why I was excited to see she was chosen to fight Xia Brookside in Brookside’s ASCENT debut. Brookside is also an awesome talent, a quick high-flyer who has already established herself as an international superstar at the age of 20.  I figured she’d be a good lightning bolt to Kikyo’s thunder. I was curious to see how their styles would mesh, and who would come out on top.

The match was a great outing for both wrestlers, but Kikyo ran the show. The part where she hung Brookside up on the ropes in front of the camera and leaned on her neck while sneering into the lens? Beautiful, A+ heel stuff, everybody else can go home. The commentary table also did some good place-setting for new viewers by noting that Kikyo’s anger comes from an understandable place (namely, her near-win of the Phoenix of RISE Championship that was ultimately thwarted by Doom), and observing that the ground-based combat was Kikyo’s best bet against Brookside.

Brookside was also incredibly impressive in the ring, with a number of awesome reversals and some cool aerial work, but in the end Kikyo landed a skull-crunching piledriver that won the match (and made me wince). Kikyo rules and it is my sincere hope that RISE audiences will be booing her for years to come.

Shotzi Blackheart Vs Kimber Lee

Alright, main event time. And if you need to book a main event for the first episode of your women’s wrestling show, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better match up than this. Kimber Lee is a legend in multiple promotions and recently returned to the indies after a brief run at WWE. Shotzi Blackheart is one of the most recognizable wrestlers in the world, and an instant crowd favorite every time she walks into a ring. Both are quick, dangerous, and brutal. So who’s gonna win?

The segment begins with Blackheart answering Lee’s promo from before, and honestly, just go watch it because nothing I say is going to do it justice. She’s like Dusty Rhodes crossed with a werewolf.

Then the match begins. Blackheart is always a joy to watch in the ring. She’s less a traditional wrestler and more of an ass-kicking monster slinky, and her signature moves got the gasps they deserved. (Seriously, the Fright Night is something else.) Lee is a wrecking machine in the ring, and her technique and years of experience showed through with some ear-splitting chest chops and a bone-rattling series of suplexes. The momentum went back and forth wildly, and the match culminated in a series of top-rope gambits. Blackheart came out the victor- but just barely -and looks to be in great shape to take on Doom for the championship.

While I appreciated the fast-paced nature of ASCENT, this was the only match that felt a bit too short to me. Lee and Blackheart are two of the best wrestlers in the world, and after the way momentum built through the match, the pin felt kind of abrupt. It was a great match. I just wanted more of it. Hopefully this won’t be the last time these two meet up on ASCENT.

Also, Doom joined us on commentary for this one, and it was fun. I enjoyed her horror at the implication that she would ever cheat, and it was sweet when she stood up and applauded for Blackheart. Doom is a good sport to the end, though as noted, she might need to toughen up if she wants to hang on to that belt.

Next: Report: WWE Signs Deonna Purrazzo

Final Observations:

• I can’t believe this was only 36 minutes long. That is a ton of awesome wrestling in a short amount of time, along with great promos and storytelling that didn’t feel like too much exposition. All killer, no filler. Hey WWE: Every single thing you do doesn’t need to be a thousand hours long. Make Road Dogg watch this and take notes.
• Speaking of WWE: Thanks to the Doom promo I would absolutely watch RISE 8 live if that was a possibility, and if ASCENT is going to be used to build storylines that get paid off at the live events, that would be an incredibly savvy move.
• The commentary table did a commendable job throughout this show, bringing the viewers in on existing RISE history and rivalries and keeping us on-track to follow the action. It would be nice to see some talking heads where they introduce themselves and interact more in the next couple of episodes. Especially Sienna, who is a lot of fun.
• Cool to see Gail Kim and Rosemary on this as producers and Jimmy Jacobs as a writer, as well as Sienna on commentary. The presence of wrestling talent behind the scenes is probably a big part of why this episode worked so well.
• Coming up next week: Jessicka Havok, Bones of Contention, Tessa Blanchard and Britt Baker. Can’t wait!