Aria Blake Is A Future Star MLW Could Build A Division Around

MLW is professional wrestling’s “buried treasure” promotion, delivering intensity and a rich wrestling experience on a weekly basis. The “hidden gem” inside MLW’s treasure chest is none other than Aria Blake, whose rise in the company seems to have no ceiling.

On the 23rd episode of MLW Fusion, MJF and Aria Blake teamed up against Joey Ryan and Taya Valkyrie. Prior to watching the match, if you asked me to rank these four wrestlers in terms of overall ability and notoriety, I would have ranked Blake dead last without a moment’s hesitation. That’s just the reality of being in the ring with three of the most gifted, well-known wrestlers on the scene.

However, if you approached me after I watched the match and asked me to rank these four wrestlers by how much they entertained me, Blake would come in first. And it isn’t easy to outdo the “lollipop” or “baby oil”.

If you’ve never watched Blake wrestle before, you’ll find the gusto in her approach to be quite striking. The best way I can describe her bumping is that it’s like origami with overcooked spaghetti. As crass as this sounds, I absolutely mean this in a complementary way.  The way she folds herself in half lifelessly is outstanding.

When she sells submissions, though, she doesn’t hold back on screaming in agony or tensing up with every muscle fiber in her body. You can sense the sheer desperation in her to fight out of the hold, as she starts painfully flexing parts of her body that aren’t even targeted by the submission.

The Art Of Wrestling Is In The Quirks

Since many of us consume wrestling week after week without so much as a day’s break from this sport, we begin to appreciate the finer details. Each wrestlers brings their own unique touches to a match, much like no two singers have the same falsetto or no two painters have the same technique. Wrestling is, after all, an art form, but because it’s so much more bombacious than what we typically think of as “art”, the minute details can stand out by contrast.

We’ve almost become desensitized to moonsaults to the outside or devastating powerbombs that parts of a match that seem almost pedestrian by comparison, such as facial expressions or character quirks, can become defining features of the action. Sometimes it pays to be “extra” at what seems to be quite literally “extra”.

Blake stands out in this regard. How many wrestlers scream bloody murder when their tag team partner (and boyfriend) is being hit by a pump-handle suplex? How many of them motion a “broken heart” with their hands when they have to fight their best friend? And how many wrestlers look physically nauseous at the mere mention of their ex-significant other?

If you aren’t watching Blake scowl, drop her jaw, or scream on the outside, then you are missing out on the theatrics of a woman who is willing to go to great lengths to earn the audience’s respect by being a brat. She acts like an entitled gold-digger with no spine in MLW, and it’s her commitment to this character that has earned her plaudits from the show’s weekly viewers.

But There’s So Much More To Aria Blake

Her work in other settings isn’t quite like this. Though her tag team with Salina de la Renta is called “The Spoiled Brats” and that seems to be the character that clicks with her the most, her program with CJ O’Doyle in FEST Wrestling showed a different side of her.

In this intergender rivalry, Blake confronted O’Doyle without any intimation of intimidation, even though O’Doyle is listed at 6’0″. She even left him with a brilliant parting shot when O’Doyle accosted her backstage, succinctly ethering him with a scoff, “You never finished a girl in your life,” after he claimed that he would “finish the job”. That has to be one of the lines of the year, right?

There was another moment at FEST Wrestling where O’Doyle blatantly cheated to pin Aerial Monroe (of Mae Young Classic 2 fame), and Blake immediately cursed him on commentary. O’Doyle spat at Blake after the match, and Blake went for the chair. Contrary to her spoiled, self-centered character in MLW, Blake was a bad-ass here and wouldn’t back down from a chance to teach a bully a painful lesson. She challenged him to a match, with a mic drop and a “b***h” for added effect, which will take place on Oct. 28 at FEST.

Highlighting her work as a completely different character is important, because it gives us more insight on her potential in MLW. When she first joined the company, she did so as a social media manager before becoming a backstage interviewer. That’s how she hooked up with Joey Janela before betraying him and joining forces with MJF to create MLW’s biggest power couple.

The Path To Becoming Her Own Star

That rise from backstage hand to backstage host to being front-and-center in a tag match involving three of the industry’s stars has been quite the sight, but, as they say, the cream rises. It would have been a waste for Blake, who has an athletic background (soccer, cheerleading, gymnastics) and is a former ACW Women’s Champion and PPW Diamonds Division Champion, to have just managed social media or handled interviews. She has much more to give to MLW, as she’s shown thus far.

In fact, her sold in-ring work and ability to entertain could make her a centerpiece for MLW. Not only has she been a valuable valet for both Janela and MJF, but she could easily split and become her own star in the future.

The cracks in her relationship in MJF are already there. MJF is an egomaniac who doesn’t really care about Blake. He only praises her for her beauty, he boasts about not “getting” women’s wrestling (or women’s voting rights), and he barely seemed to acknowledge that she essentially sacrificed her arm to allow MJF to pin Joey Ryan for a win. MJF kissed her arm, sure, but he didn’t show any actual concern or gratefulness.

MLW’s announce team likes to refer to Blake as a “gold-digger”, since she ditched Janela for the richer MJF. But in reality, Blake’s character in MLW is that of an immature woman who is trying to find herself. Instead of searching for who she is as a person in the cutthroat world of MLW, she latches herself to a man in the hopes of validation, security, or some sense of belonging. It’s understandable, but there’s a compelling long-term story of Blake realizing that she’s better than all of these men.

Once she finds her independence and grasps her talents and converts them into tangible power, she could transition from being a “diamond in the rough” as a role player to a “star” as a singles competitor.

Building A Women’s Division

As of right now, Su Yung, Zeda Zhang, and Salina de la Renta are the only other women who are listed as MLW personnel. My colleague Corey Collins penned a fabulous piece in which he examined the possibility of MLW forming a Women’s Division. With how much this promotion has grown and how important women’s wrestling is, it is imperative for MLW to make an attempt to add a Women’s Division to their programming.

I’d bet they are pushing for it, too, knowing how progressive CEO Court Bauer seems to be. After all, this is a promotion that highlights intergender wrestling, so a Women’s Division has to be considered their highest priority in terms of expansion.

If they do add a Women’s Division, then Blake should take center stage. There’s something to be said about a promotion rewarding wrestlers who have been there since Day 1 and haven risen up the ranks. By working socials and interviewing other wrestlers before stepping into the ring herself as a valet/wrestler, Blake has literally had a hand in everything for this company.

Ring of Honor, for all of their exasperating faults, made Sumie Sakai their first Women of Honor Champion because they wanted to reward someone who has been with the company for a while. They could have easily put the title on a more popular (and better) Tenille Dashwood as their first champion, but ROH earned respect for giving a nod to Sakai, who has carried the title with class.

Whereas Sakai is 46, Blake is 24, so she has youth and tenure on her side. As an early face of a hypothetical MLW Women’s Division, she would bring both familiarity and excitement to the table. MLW is a more trendy show for wrestling fans that honestly caters to a more adolescent demographic than, say, ROH or WWE. Blake, who smacked Joey Ryan’s ass and, again, once told a wrestler that they’ve never “finished” a woman in their life, brings that exhilarating taste to a wrestling promotion.

Aria Blake Is A Woman To Watch Going Forward

Blake went from being a virtual unknown working her way back from a nagging, months-long shoulder injury to the woman who the announcers couldn’t stop talking about during a mixed tag match with the MLW Middleweight Champion, a two-time Reina de Reinas Champion, and Joey friggin’ Ryan. I’d say that Blake has shown glimpses of brilliance in matches and vignettes in MLW, and she’s been good with other promotions.

In her case, it’s more about “potential” than anything else, but she’s already proven to be capable in the ring and a breath of fresh air outside of it as a character. Greatness is ahead for MLW’s young, rising star, especially if the promotion is able to build a women’s division. Despite WWE’s zeal to hoard the best women’s wrestlers and monopolize wrestling globally, there’s enough talent out there.

A few of those wrestlers are more experienced  and have a more extensive body of work inside the ring than Blake, who started training in 2014, but she’s as close to a “homegrown” talent as MLW has. More importantly, she commits to a flawed heel character with a poignant story arc that is just waiting to be written. If all goes well, we could be in for a thrilling 2019 when it comes to tracking Aria Blake’s growth in MLW.