RISE ASCENT Episode 2: Tessa Blanchard VS Britt Baker

RISE ASCENT continues to deliver with great performances from Jessicka Havoc and Rae Lyn, a spotlight for Shotzi Blackheart, and a show-stopping main-event with Britt Baker and Tessa Blanchard.

RISE ASCENT continues at full steam. This week brought us two solid matches, another awesome set of promos, and a great main event between Tessa Blanchard and Britt Baker. I still can’t believe this show is only 40 minutes long. Spoilers ahead, so go watch it if you haven’t yet, then come on back for the commentary.

Part 1: Blanchard/Baker promo and Killer Death Machines VS Tasha Steelz

The show starts off with a fun call-out promo between Tessa Blanchard and Britt Baker, DMD (congratulations, Dr. Baker!). Both of these wrestlers are well-known, so there isn’t a ton of introduction needed, but they share enough to get us excited. Blanchard and Baker have history, Baker is confident because she has the hometown advantage this time, Blanchard is confident because…well, she’s Tessa Blanchard. It’s kind of her whole thing.

Then we get into the show. First up are the Killer Death Machines, a RISE tag team consisting of Nevaeh and Jessicka Havok. I love these guys. Nevaeh gets my instant seal of approval as a wrestler from Ohio (and yes, that does mean I approve of a lot of wrestlers), and Havok is a well-known butt-kicking machine who I’ve been fortunate to see live a number of times. As a tag team they are a pair of cheating big-girl bullies who always put on an impressive show. Nevaeh represented their team in the ring, with Havok waiting on the sidelines to “help”.

Their opponent was another up-and-coming RISE talent, Tasha Steelz. This is her second appearance at a RISE event, but you wouldn’t know it from her entrance. She has a ton of energy and charisma. I wasn’t surprised when commentary noted she trained and partnered with Karen Q, as they have a very similar confidence.

Unfortunately, it didn’t do Steelz a ton of good. Nevaeh dominated from the beginning, landing blow after blow on Steelz and not giving her the chance to get in much offense. To make matters worse, Nevaeh and Havok took turns distracting the ref as Steelz was thrown around and subjected to various illegal moves. Steelz put in a hell of a fight, refusing to be submitted or even pinned for a two-count, but she just couldn’t defeat two cheating heels. Even when Steelz got it together enough to land a springboard move off the top rope that actually seemed to wind Nevaeh, Havok distracted the ref from making the pinfall count. Finally Nevaeh used a German Suplex to hurl Steelz into the turnbuckle, wearing her down enough to be pinned.

It was brief, but Steelz played the story perfectly, and credit to Nevaeh for giving Steelz a great match to show off her personality and skills. Even though Steelz didn’t win, she was definitely the badass babyface the crowd was rooting for, and I think she’ll continue to get huge pops from RISE audiences as she gets more screen time and a few more matches under her belt.

It was also fun to see the ASCENT commentators showing a little more personality here. I liked Sienna’s argument that Havok was just trying to help the ref by pointing things out to them. Sure, Jan.

Part 2: RISE of The Phoenix Shotzi Blackheart and Doom and Havok Meet Backstage

Next we have the Shotzi Blackheart video package. Again, RISE has gone above and beyond with these video showcases for their wrestlers. It’s worth noting that Shotzi is an incredible talent on the mic. Every time I see a promo with her, I get more impressed, and it’s easy to see why IMPACT chose her to be the first RISE talent that got a TV opportunity. This video was a great showcase for Blackheart’s talent in and out of the ring, and also gave us some more of the story of her conflict with Doom over the Phoenix of RISE belt. Blackheart doesn’t feel friendly towards Doom these days, and maintains that since Doom never actually pinned her, she never should have lost the championship. Doom is in for a war when they meet up at RISE 8, and I can’t wait to see it.

Doom comes back with a typical sunny promo, where she mentions that she’ll be defending the Phoenix title next week against Jessicka Havok on next week’s ASCENT, but that she isn’t worried about losing her title and she’s looking forward to giving Blackheart the fair rematch she deserves at RISE 8. Doom still thinks Blackheart is her best friend. Havok then interrupts the promo to cheerfully inform Doom that she can’t trust Blackheart, and that Doom will be losing her title when they wrestle so it doesn’t matter anyway. Doom looks legitimately rattled by the end of it. Havok is such a good bully and I am here for it.

RISE, if you can find a way to livestream RISE 8, please do it. I would love to see their championship match in real time, and it would be a great way to capitalize on the awesome momentum ASCENT is building for this fight.

Part 3: Bones of Contention VS Double D’Rose

Next up is another RISE tag team vs an up-and-coming talent. Bones of Contention is a team consisting of Ray Lyn and Karen Q, some of the best (and funniest) wrestlers on the RISE roster. They hate each other’s guts, but they stick together because they want a chance at tag team glory. Their opponent is Double D’Rose, the “Weapon of Ass Destruction”. Her move set is based around hurling herself at opponents butt-first for maximum impact. Having seen her wrestle live before, I can confirm that this is effective.

I am a sucker for a good comedy match, and I enjoyed this one a lot. It was a lot of fun, and a good break from the intensity Havok brought to the first half of the show. Lyn was the Bones member in the ring, and she made the most of it, trying to counter D’Rose’s powerhouse butt-based offense with speed and agility. Lyn is a great presence in the ring, and watching her figure out how to avoid getting crushed was pretty great. I particularly enjoyed the sequence where Lyn kicked D’Rose in the butt and theatrically hurt her foot- then realized she could just kick D’Rose in the head instead. Lyn won by avoiding D’Rose’s Damnesia hip-check and getting her in a quick roll-up.

The match ended with Bones of Contention taking to the ring to argue over who deserves credit for the win. Lyn maintained that she did the wrestling so she should get the kudos, but Karen felt like her moral support was what made the difference. Karen Q continues to get huge love from RISE crowds even in these brief cameos, and Lyn is a great foil for her relentlessly cheery arrogance.

These wrestlers have great charisma as frenemies, and I suspect we will see them play a big role at RISE of the Knockouts in July. I hope so, anyway. In particular I want to see more Karen Q, who is as skilled as she is charismatic and has a ton of potential on a storyline based show like ASCENT. I feel like it’s just a matter of time until she gets recognized as the superstar she is, and I hope it happens in RISE.

Part 4: Tessa Blanchard VS Britt Baker

Finally, the main event. As noted at the top of the show, Baker and Blanchard have had a rivalry going for a long time. Baker came into the match as the IWC champ and was wrestling in her hometown, so she was a favorite to win, but you can’t ever count Blanchard out.

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This match showed what’s possible with two wrestlers who are at the top of their game and know each other well. From the beginning they were evenly matched, trading grapple for grapple and dodging and countering every move that their opponent attempted to set up. Eventually they wore each other down, first by injuring each other- Blanchard attacks Baker’s knee, Baker dodges an attack in the ropes to force Blanchard to injure her elbow -and then by just going full-speed, hitting each other as hard as they could and waiting for the other person to finally lose momentum or make a mistake.

Baker got in some beautiful offense, including a great sequence of cutters and a painful suplex, but Blanchard would not stay down. Blanchard just knows Baker too well, and in the end that was Baker’s downfall. Blanchard countered Baker’s submission holds again and again, and finally wrapped things up by breaking free, slamming Baker into the mat with an ugly DDT and then giving her a codebreaker from the top rope. Blanchard walked out victorious, but not before she stopped to help Baker to her feet. She then left Baker in the ring to enjoy her well-earned hometown applause.

People make a big deal about Blanchard having an attitude, and if you feel that way, this performance isn’t going to convince you otherwise. She teases Baker, she gets in the ref’s face, and she pulls hair and scowls like nobody’s business. But I think Blanchard deserves credit for consistently building a character through multiple promotions that can bring great elements to storylines and rosters- check out her run at WrestleCircus for a good example of this -and also delivering incredible performances like her (in my opinion) underrated match with Kairi Sane at the Mae Young Classic.

If you want to know why Tessa Blanchard is a big deal, or why Britt Baker is so beloved in Brittsburgh and beyond, this match is a good place to start. It was excellent wrestling from two of the best wrestlers working in the indies today, and it showed why both are poised to make a huge impact at RISE. I look forward to seeing when they’ll tangle again.

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