On the July 22, 2020 episode of Dynamite, AEW announced a women's tag team tournament consisting of eight teams that would begin that summer. The winning team will be awarded the tournament cup trophy. The rules of the tournament were that all sixteen women had to draw a random color with the matching colors becoming a team; all selections were final. This concept is similar to World Championship Wrestling's BattleBowl tournament where the teams were drawn at random in a "Lethal Lottery". The tournament began on August 3, 2020, airing on AEW's YouTube channel, and will conclude on a special Saturday Night Dynamite episode on August 22.


Keep that first rule in mind as you will quickly see that there's not a goddamn thing random about these draws.



Night 1 (Aug. 3, 2020)





Glad to see Veda Scott on my TV screen again. Last time I've seen her on a wrestling program was on one of IMPACT's Knockouts Knockdown PPVs. 


The best thing about this tournament for me right off the bat was hearing Veda Scott's voice on commentary alongside the legendary Tony Schiavone. Veda is no stranger to calling women's tournaments and women's wrestling in general, so it's a pure delight to have her on board to call the action.


Madusa (WWE Hall of Famer Alundra Blayze) made her return to TNT programming in 20+ years with her AEW debut as the introducer for this tournament. That really came out of left field, but I can't be too surprised when Madusa has had similar roles for other promotions over the years, such as recently for Stardom.




Shaul Guerrero makes her AEW debut here as the ring announcer for this event. I'm glad to see someone pick her up as I thought she wasn't bad in the role when she filled in for Melissa Santos in Lucha Underground's final season.


The Nightmare Sisters (Allie & Brandi Rhodes) def. Mel (Melanie Cruise) and Penelope Ford (w/ Kip Sabian)


I didn't notice this during the initial airing until a friend of mine pointed this out for I could rewind and rewatch this clip, but Allie CLEARLY cheats to get on the team that she wanted for this tournament behind Brandi and Dasha's backs.



The Nightmare Collective has been dead and buried for months, but apparently Mel didn't get the memo that she has permission to grow her hair back out. Allie did majority of the work on offense for her team until she could tag in Brandi, who had a minor "reunion" of sorts with Mel that turned ugly - much like the most of this match. For the first match in this tournament, this was NOT a great start at all. Sloppy moves and botched spots left and right. The more I see of Brandi in the ring, whether it was in IMPACT, ROH, and now here in AEW, I can totally see why WWE opted for keeping her in the role of a ring announcer. I thought she was best as Cody's valet, but she seems deadset in proving people wrong.


Allie had the EXACT same look on my face as I did when I was watching at home.

(Shrugs) It's not my money Brandi's wasting. It's Tony Khan's since he's keeps funding these constant vanity projects of hers.

I swear though... If Brandi and Allie win this whole thing, I'm going to roast Brandi over the coals about it. I didn't tear into her like most did about that AEW Heels thing but if she shoehorns herself into being the winner of this tournament just to add cloat to her resume, then I'm calling her out on her bullshit.


In all seriousness, if I was Allie, I wouldn't trust Brandi Rhodes. She's the one who's suddenly acting like a heel in interviews but babyfacing it in matches and for her Chief "Brandi" Officer position. Pick one alignment and stick with it. This isn't musical chairs. Isn't that what people make fun of The Big Show for doing all these years?



Anna Jay (w/ The Dark Order) and Tay Conti (formerly NXT's Taynara Conti) def. Ariane Andrew (formerly WWE's Cameron) & Nyla Rose (w/ Vicki Guerrero)


I HAD to make this meme after seeing her show up on Dynamite the week prior...

(Whistles) Boy, did I get a good laugh when it was announced that Cameron (AKA the woman who said the best match of all-time was between Alicia Fox and Melina) was debuting for AEW and would be Nyla Rose's partner for this tournament.


Nyla, I would appalled too if Cameron was my partner in this.

To her credit, she was nowhere as bad as she was back in her WWE days here, but that's not saying much. Anna Jay shines more in singles matches than clusterfuck tag team matches like this, but she's a lot better than one would expect for one with so few years into the business. Conti's training from the Performance Center shines as a lot of her movements look polished and methodical, instead of doing stuff to do them like how 90% of the AEW roster goes about a match. I still don't see what was the big fascination about Conti though, but she has a platform here in AEW to show why she should have been a bigger star in WWE.

I shook my head at how much selling Nyla did for Jay and Conti after tearing through both women. I loved the finish here though. I had to replay it twice because I loved it so much. Excellent finish to a very bland match. I can totally get behind this JayTay pairing.

Post-match, Nyla Rose laid waste to Ariane Andrew and took out the trash like she is - rightfully so  after costing her team the win there.


Tournament Brackets updated following Night 1 results.


Night 2 (Aug. 10, 2020)





Big Swole (Ariel Monroe) and Lil' Swole (Nicole Savoy) def. Leva Bates (w/ Peter Avalon) and Rache Chanel


The first thing to come out of my mouth when they said Big Swole was teaming with "Lil' Swole" was WTF. Then I got a closer look and went "Isn't that Nicole Savoy?" Jesus. More and more time has gone by and I wonder why she hasn't followed Mercedes Martinez and Shayna Baszler into WWE for a Trifecta reunion following her stint in the Mae Young Classic. If AEW can sign her to a contract, I say go for it. It's not like she's doing anything with Shimmer, Shine, or any other promotions that would get in the way of her on-screen appearances right now. Savoy can add some more technical finesse that is severely lacking in terms of talent in that women's division.

Savoy gets cool points from me just for merely wearing that One Punch Man shirt though.

This match was fine for what it was. No, wait... I'll give these ladies props, even though I think that Big Swole is the same amount of entertaining as Baron Corbin to me. This was the best match out of the two weeks of this tournament so far, but that's not a high compliment to give these ladies when there wasn't much to write home about this tournament so far. I don't know what the fuck was going on with Rache Chanel's gimmick. Wasn't she the one standing in the crowd with MJ Jenkins on one episode of Dynamite a few months ago?

How are the Librarians still a thing and still employed in this company? I just don't get it at all. This company had enough common sense to realize that the Nightmare Collective had go-away heat from every scope of their fanbase, but yet this gimmick (along with the Dark Order) is still a thing? I would love to see Leva Bates fall back into her lovable cosplayer gimmick that everyone knew and loved from her indie days. The hardcore indie fanboys are the bulk of AEW's fanbase anyway, so you can't tell me that wouldn't have gone over.


Diamante and Ivelisse def. Dasha and Rachael Ellering


The backstage interview where Madusa came up to Dasha and let her know that she was going to be able to compete in this tournament was SOOOO goddamn cringe-worthy from Dasha's FORCED acting here. To say that she left WWE to get away from that, it's even worse to see her doing the same thing here in AEW.

That being said, she wasn't bad at all in this match, especially to say that she hasn't been wrestling very long. Her biggest misstep was towards the end of the match where it looked like she was a deer in headlights trying to keep up with what was going on for the finish. Speaking of that finish, she had absolutely no idea how to take those moves, but it was more shocking to see a Canadian Destroyer actually end a match and not be a goddamn transition or throwaway, common spot. I'm sure someone will correct me, but wasn't Ivelisse using that as a finisher in Lucha Underground?

I hate to make fun of anyone's weight, but it was pretty noticeable that Ellering had put on some considerable weight since her appearances on NXT and IMPACT programming. I remember her being a beast of a woman in terms of stature, but she was more toned and muscular than her better half in Kassius Ohno. Now it's looking like they are on the same diet - or lack of thereof. All jokes aside, Ellering is still a great for AEW if they could sign her to that women's division. They are extremely lacking in strong hands to be enhancement talent and Ellering did a great job in that position when IMPACT's Knockout division was in a transitional period a few years ago.

Much like Ivelisse and Diamante's first two bouts in AEW, this wasn't their best work, but I'm confident that we will see a better showing with them by the time this tournament is all said and done.

As for Dasha, I don't know if she's more interested in being a backstage interviewer and occasional ring announcer or being an in-ring talent, but she's got a lot of promise. I'm anxious to see how far her talents could grow within the right environment. Sadly, I don't think this women's division is the place to go if she's looking to challenge herself.


Updated brackets following Night 2.



Afterthoughts:


I'm sure that the AEW diehards don't want to admit it, but the first night of this tournament was NOT good at all. The standout performance above the rest was Veda Scott on commentary with Tony Schiavone. I really hope they have enough brains to sign her to some type of contract after this tournament is over. Veda is a Jack (or Jane rather...) of All-Trades - she can talk her ass off. She can act as a manager/valet as needed and she can wrestle too if needed. Veda's not going to be pulling five star matches out of her hat, but I always thought she was an asset to whatever promotion managed to bring her in. I thought it was a massive disservice that her talents aren't being used in any company right now, even before this pandemic started. 

I do like that AEW is using this as a platform to introduce some new women onto their roster, but at the same time, it's a double-edged sword when they should be using this tournament to establish and feature more of the women who aren't booked on Dynamite regularly, like Abadon, Bea Priestley, or Sadie Gibbs - even though the latter two have been released by the company as of this posting. 

Night 2 was a better pill to swallow than Night 1 was by a mile. I'm dreading going into the semi-finals I don't think the match-ups will be very good outside of the team of TayJay against Ivelisse and Diamante. That's the only match I'm really looking forward to in the next round of matches. 

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