This match was in the main event of Rampage. Emi Sakura, who’s had something of a hiatus from AEW’s TV properties, hasn’t been on Dynamite since 2019 and, if you can believe it, she’s NEVER been on Rampage! Emi comes out with brand new music (more serious than the Freddie Mercury mashup) and a new tron. She’s also accompanied by Baliyan Akki and…
I adore Mei and I really hope she becomes #AllElite! One of my absolute favourite wrestlers not signed to AEW.
The crowd, as always, is white hot for Jamie Hayter. I sometimes let this pass without mentioning it but I’m going to take a second and mention it here: For all the talk of “women’s wrestling will never draw like men’s”, look at how popular Jamie Hayter is with a *fraction* of the level of promotion other men get.
After some opening gamesmanship dodging lockups, Emi & Jamie go to work just chopping the absolute stuffing out of each other. Emi commits some very innovative looking, very stiff attacks outside the ring that has me thinking, “yup, AEW made the right decision with these new barricades”. Emi goes on a bit of a run just kicking Hayter’s ass to put it plainly, including a healthy chop to Jamie’s literal ass which Britt looks apoplectic over.
There’s a spot during commercial break where Emi sets up a twisting neck breaker, she pauses to claw Jamie over the belly, Jamie grabs Sakura’s hair in a struggle to keep her from hitting her move but Sakura powers through and the neck breaker looks all the better for this struggle. There’s just so many spots in this match where I’m like “damn, that’s very innovative” you can see Emi’s fingerprints all over this match.
Speaking of fingerprints, the chop battle starts back up and very quickly it looks like each woman is finger painting in red on each other’s chest.
Jamie hits 3 exploders where Sakura is able to make me bite each time that she’s about to be dropped square on top of her head. Emi’s double-underhook stalling suplex feels massive on this stage. Hayter hits a cutter on Emi after posting her up on the turnbuckle, goddamn!
Speed-run commentary
Moonsault! Dodged! Magistral Cradle! Kick out! Tiger Driver! Moonsault! Kick Out! Lariat! Ripcord! Ducked! Back suplex right on Jamie’s fucken neck! But Jamie powers up! Lariat! HAYTERADE!!! Win. *exhales*
Phew. What a fucking match. Jamie Hayter is must see TV. Emi Sakura, while I wouldn’t call this Jamie’s best match in AEW (because she’s a certified banger merchant), you knew what you were getting because Emi’s given a lot of women their best matches in AEW. Very good Joshi style match. We need more Hayter main events, more Emi Sakura on Dynamite & Rampage, and just more women’s wrestling in general.
