RISE – ASCENT Episode Eight Recap: Fire Vs. Nice

Allie makes her ASCENT debut vs Jessicka Havok, Mercedes Martinez makes a point, and Britt Baker and Chelsea Greene face off in the eighth episode of RISE – ASCENT!

Chelsea Greene kicks off the show with a bit of genre-savviness about the nature of tag teams. She says she always knew her relationship with Britt Baker was a working relationship, and she’s not surprised she got betrayed in the end. Greene is tired of Baker putting the blame for losing their matches on her, so in this episode she’s going to prove Baker wrong. Good luck, Chelsea.

JESSICKA HAVOK VS ALLIE

This match gives us our first glimpse of IMPACT talent on RISE! I was super excited to see Allie added to the RISE roster, at least for this series of shows. Allie’s arc with Rosemary and Su Yung is what got me keeping up with IMPACT in the first place, so I was excited to see what she could bring to ASCENT. I recommend checking out Allie’s last fight with Su Yung if you haven’t seen it yet- it’s pretty awesome.

Havok and Nevaeh enter first. If I were a referee, I would be banning Nevaeh from ringside when Havok fights, but ah well. The crowd is pretty hyped for them, but they lose their minds when Allie walks out. It’s exciting! Allie is here! Sienna is of course rooting for Allie to get destroyed. She notes that Allie is rocking a darker vibe than usual- she looks meaner, and she’s styled a little more punk. Sienna is relieved that Allie will probably be less annoying now. Have I mentioned how great Sienna is on the ASCENT commentary yet?

The fight starts quick, with Allie immediately going for big strikes and roll-ups. Her strategy seems to be to try to keep Havok off of her feet and end the fight fast before Havok can start to land the submission holds and heavy blows that she’s known for. It’s a good strategy, and it might have worked if it were not for Nevaeh. The sliding punch that carried Allie out of the ring was very cool, but it did drop her out of the ring right next to Nevaeh, who took advantage of the chance to distract Allie while Havok snuck up on her and attacked her. Allie got up on the apron and regained her balance, only to get pulled off by Nevaeh again. New theory- the ref might not be good at his job.

After this the fight became pure chaos. Havok was fairly dominant, wrapping Allie into a series of nasty looking holds and back-breakers that made Allie look like she was possessed (though she might be used to that now thanks to Rosemary). Allie was overall too exhausted to win but too stubborn to give up, and Havok loves having the chance to beat someone within an inch of their life in a wrestling ring, so they go at it hard. At two separate points both just collapse on the mat from pure exhaustion. They appear to be evenly matched- but then Nevaeh distracts Allie again, letting Havok land a chokeslam to win the match.

Allie is an awesome wrestler. She sells extraordinarily well, is very expressive, and is good at telling a story where she’s the underdog. But it’s clear that as long as the Killer Death Machines are her opponents, she’ll be outnumbered. What are you going to do, Allie?

BONES OF CONTENTION

Yes! We’re finally getting some storyline development for this team! I love Karen Q (who was just announced for the Mae Young Classic II – congrats Karen!) and this tag tam has quickly become one of my favorite parts of RISE. This is a quick promo where we see them fighting about the results of their match-up with the Twisted Sisters at RISE of the Knockouts.

They can’t agree who’s to blame, but they do agree that if they don’t start winning matches, Bones is over. I liked this promo a lot. The sneaky camera work was great- it reminded me of The Office – and I love that Karen and Rae are so competitive that they fought each other over who was going to quit the tag team first. I hope they learn to work together because I’ll be very sad if they end up going their separate ways.

VALENTINA LOCA VS MERCEDES MARTINEZ

Valentina Loca! Loca is a very green wrestler- commentary notes that she just celebrated her one-year anniversary in the ring -but she tends to be a crowd favorite due to her fun, high-energy style. This is her first appearance on RISE ASCENT but I have seen her at other RISE tapings and I like her a lot.

Which is why my heart sank when Mercedes Martinez’s theme song started playing over the PA. Martinez is always a terror in the ring, but after her promo last week where she specifically called out the RISE trainees for being presumptuous for stepping in the ring with her, I assumed Valentina Loca was in trouble.

And hey, I was right, because that was the quickest squash I have ever seen on ASCENT. Loca went for a shake, but Martinez took the opening to knock her down. Loca barely got back to her feet before she got kicked in the face by Martinez. Martinez then went for a brainbuster and a quick pin.

The match lasted for one minute and four seconds, bell-to-bell. Message received. Don’t mess with Mercedes Martinez.

BRITT BAKER VS CHELSEA GREENE

It’s the RISE grudge match to end them all. Chelsea Greene is taking on Britt Baker in the ring. Baker wants to prove Greene doesn’t have the skills to keep up with her, and Greene wants to prove that Baker’s all talk. No wonder they’re on top of each other from the bell!

This is one of the nastier fights we see on RISE. Much like the Tessa Blanchard VS Britt Baker match we saw earlier in the series, Baker and Greene know each other so well it’s impossible for anybody to come in with an advantage. They match each other strike for strike and blow for blow. They mostly spend the match tricking each other into getting into position for a hit. Both played pretty dirty, too. The moment where Greene dragged Baker out of the ring, realized the count was starting, then pushed Baker briefly back into the ring to break the count only to yank her out and start wailing on her again was a nice touch.

In what was probably the best sequence of the match, Baker got Greene into a submission hold, then started pulling on her lips and jaw. Fishhooks make me cringe, and the delight Baker was clearly taking in Greene’s suffering was a lot to take. However, Baker was so distracted by her delight that she let her guard down. This allowed Greene to reverse the submission hold and pin Baker’s shoulders to the mat for a quick and decisive win.

This match was a neat little piece of storytelling. Greene didn’t just win- she humiliated Baker and proved her wrong. I sincerely doubt that’s going to be the end of it. Watch your back, Chelsea Greene.