AEW Booms and Duds: ‘Blood’ Orange Cassidy, beaten to a pulp!

Boom: a great, story-driven tag match

Boom: elevating new challengers outside of the Shida-Rose-Baker-Statlander quartet

As I said last slide, tag team wrestling is really a boon for AEW. The women’s tag match was just another example. All four competitors looked good and crisp. All four had periods of sustained offense to put over their skills and move sets. The ending was put together well, and helped elevate Ford to the same level as who I consider to be the top four in the women’s division.

Surprisingly, Rose seemed to take the most offense during the match thanks to double teams and quick tags between Shida and Statlander. However, it also seemed like she was absorbing punishment for a time to wear out her opponents and strike, which she did.

Ford looked good, and is someone I’ve pegged as a breakout star for some time now. Being the smallest person in the match, even more than Shida, Ford had to find creative ways to gain the advantage, and this is where the story of the match hit its peak.

While she showed mettle in kicking out of Shida’s offense and her patented Falcon Arrow, Ford needed three things to happen to eventually pin the champ. First, Sabian had to step in and grab Shida’s foot…right in front of the referee. Statlander rectified this issue by hitting a tope to Sabian, but this also removed her from the match.

Second, as the referee checked on Statlander and Sabian, Rose tossed the Women’s Championship into the ring for Ford, who struck Shida across the face with the gold. This seemingly knocked out Shida (and the commentators were saying Ford should go for the pin), but Ford wanted to make sure she had the victory.

This led to the third thing, which was Ford hitting a beautiful Perfectplex on Shida for the 1-2-3. This leads to an immediate elevation of Ford to Women’s Championship level, a course that’s been slowly developed over the past few months. This also helps fill the gap formed by the unfortunate knee injury to Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. who won’t return until September (with a fantastic video, again, last night).

Ford now seems poised to receive the next Women’s Championship match against Shida. We’ve been conditioned (thanks to WWE) to believe that pinning the champion in a non-title or tag team match immediately leads to a championship match. Ford being ranked in the top five and pulling out the victory here (tainted as it is) makes it that much more credible.

I would think Ford faces Shida at Fyter Fest, but wouldn’t be surprised if the match happens in the next two weeks on Dynamite. I doubt she wins, but this could be Ford’s version of Jungle Boy facing Cody last week: she puts in a fine showing that elevates her in defeat.

Credit to Rose in forgoing her own glory for the overall team victory. I’m sure she’s still angling for a rematch with Shida and her being the one to pin Shida would have most likely led to this, but (kayfabe) she saw Ford was in a better position and merely assisted in the victory sequence.

With the elevation of Ford and the return of charismatic and engaging Big Swole, the women’s division should be a fun and entertaining division to watch over the summer.