Pre-Match Thoughts & Predictions
I’m typing this at 6:00pm ET on the day of AEW Revolution, and; We’re finally here! All this Outsiders Freelancers vs Homegrown and the “will she won’t she” Ruby Soho storyline all lead to Revolution. Despite my misgivings about some of the execution of this storyline, I think we’ve got the best version of Saraya so far in AEW. And Ruby Soho has been heated up very nicely since she returned. Jamie Hayter, of course, is just the same old white hot Jamie Hayter.
There’s so many directions this match could go. Ultimately, I feel like taking the belt off Jamie Hayter would be far too precipitous a booking decision. I feel like Tony Khan played a very unconventional hand in taking the Tag belts off of The Acclaimed and I think that’s a card he puts back into the deck for some time. So my prediction is Jamie Hayter retains. But how the storyline advances… Is it just a contest that has a winner with bragging rights and two losers and nothing is really advanced, at least not tonight?
I don’t think it is. I think there will be some kind of big story development at Revolution, which sounds like not a ballsy prediction whatsoever but it could just be Jamie retains and that’s it. I can’t deny that so many of the potential directions point towards Jamie getting screwed out of her title and the only one that feels like fans wouldn’t openly shit on is if Britt Baker screws her. I’m sticking with my prediction of Jamie retaining but Britt Baker attacks Jamie Hayter after the match.
The Match
I’m going to try my best to give my broader feelings about the action rather than recap the spots. Early on I felt like there was some disjointedness with the action on the floor, nothing bad, just not as organic and fluid as you’d like but that was very brief. In fact, by the time these three women went over the barricade into the fans area, fought behind the floor seats, and then came back over the barricade on the other side, all the action was very fluid for the remainder of the match.
This match did a lot to put over Jamie as a powerhouse as she’d regularly take turns fighting one woman, then the other, then both. By the way, it’s no small accomplishment for how hot this crowd was for this match as it followed the Trios Title Match!
Saraya’s spot where she told both women to stop wasn’t for me. It made no sense. I get that it was a call back to Ruby telling Saraya & Jamie to stop (another spot I didn’t care for) but it would’ve made more sense if she hadn’t just returned fire on each of them. It maybe would’ve been funny if she had stopped their onslaught with it. I’m not sure what happened there.
On the plus side, Saraya’s Cradle DDT (I wanna say it was called the Ram Paige in WWE?) looked positively devastating! The best version I’ve seen that move done. Just great. And of course her Black Widow submission is excellent.
These women absolutely nailed the spot where Ruby ducks Hayterade and Saraya gets decked. And maybe it’s because I’ve been watching a lot of Stardom lately but Jamie Hayter winning with a Saki Kashima style Kishikaisei spelled for me that this was likely the finish but I sense a lot of the fans didn’t. That’s ok though. Educate the fans that complex pinning combinations are strong moves.
Post-Match
I thought the post-match was done extremely well, starting with Toni Storm whose attacks on Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter looked so vicious it was immediately building my anticipation for a rematch. We get quick shots of Ruby watching Britt & Jamie getting attacked, doing some great, great character work which was crucial in selling that this wasn’t some dumb convoluted “master plan”, this was a split second decision.
And showing, not telling, your audience that this was a decision made in the moment is an ambitious move. This execution was up there with Natsupoi suddenly turning on Giulia to join Tam Nakano and the Cosmic Angels. And putting myself into Ruby’s head, that must have felt cathartic to do that to Britt Baker, who has been a thorn in her side since she arrived. We know Britt is going to say that Ruby was a bad person all along but I really hope on Dynamite, Ruby is going to bring up the way Britt has treated her and blame Britt for making her do this.
And again, Toni Storm’s aggression in all of this including shoving a camera man and breaking his camera just ratcheted up the intensity of the whole thing and it came off really well.
