AEW Booms and Duds: The Elite reunite!

Boom: smart booking leading to two women’s matches at Double or Nothing

Last week, I noted how though I may not have necessarily like the end of the 4-way match, I did understand the purpose of it: to setup two women’s singles matches at Double or Nothing.

This is actually pretty big, considering AEW is far more apt to have a multi-women match than a traditional singles match (unless it’s for the AEW Women’s Championship).

Last night’s tag match between the champion Rose and her partner Baker against #1 contender Shida and her partner in Statlander was a pretty fast-paced match filled with action. It helped that we had definitive rivalries to pay attention to, aided by the replay of Rose striking Shida with Shida’s lost kendo stick after Shida’s victory last week.

Remember, Baker went after Statlander after the latter decided to employ the “Greco Roman Japanese Nostril Lock” on the former’s recently healed deviated septum last week. It was announced after last week’s show that their match was confirmed for Double or Nothing.

I think last night’s match had the right ending with Rose hitting the Beast Bomb and pinning Shida for the victory. Rose has been booked as nothing but strong, so even if Baker took the loss, it might tangentially affect Rose.

I also liked that Shida was able to gain some sort of retribution by superplexing Rose through a table that Rose brought into play. I can hear you saying this wiped away the good done from Rose’s victory, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily accurate. The amount of time it took for Rose to gather and setup a table gave Shida more than enough time to recover and plot her revenge.

Looking at the other two, I’ve constantly praised Baker since her heel turn. I thought her biggest issue as a face was trying to perform maneuvers that were outside of her skills at the time. Her change to a heel has removed those worries as she has a more simplified but effective moveset, topped by the Lockjaw submission.

Statlander, as I noted last week, appears in tremendous shape. Her character, aided by her moveset, is a face and an odd face at that. She should play a perfect foil to Baker’s sarcastic, biting heel act.

Even if either, both, or neither match are well-received, AEW should provide more of these opportunities for talent to “sink or swim” so to speak. They should also provide each match at least 10 minutes (probably 15-20 for Rose-Shida).

Considering how much AEW has highlighted the women’s division the past few months, I’m hopeful that we, as fans, will be able to witness a similar growth in the women’s division that we have for the others.