ThunderStorm vs Nyla/Shafir

After Nyla Rose vs Toni Storm on Rampage this past week I had written that I expected this match to be on this Dynamite. Nyla & Marina Shafir come out together to Nyla’s music and, this is so Nyla, they come out holding umbrellas because they are facing ThunderStorm. (Womp! Womp!)

Psychology 101

Marina get’s worked over early by ThunderStorm as they really come off as a good, cohesive team, making frequent tags and keeping Shafir near their corner. The crowd starts an AC/DC chant of “Na-ah-ah-ah THUNDER!” PLEASE let this catch on!

It takes Nyla hitting Toni Storm in the back with one of the aforementioned umbrella (with the referee’s back turned, of course) to finally break ThunderStorm’s momentum, offering Nyla a chance to finally get into the match. Nyla hits an impressive combination with a suplex which she rolls backwards out of and while still hanging onto Storm, lifts her into a front face buster. She then quickly springs onto Toni for the pin. Kick out at 2. Nyla looking very light on her feet in this match!

Nyla & Marina begin to tilt the ring in their favour as they sequence a number of quick tags, isolating Toni Storm away from her partner.

Hot tag!

Finally, Toni is able to tag in Thunder Rosa who dropkicks Nyla, knocks Shafir off the apron, lots of chops, kicks and running jumping stomps on Nyla but Nyla stops TR’s onslaught with an Uranage. She makes the tag to Shafir.

This is The end

The finishing sequence was great. Storm hits one fuck of a Pendulum DDT on Nyla, dropping her straight onto her head, the momentum sending Nyla out of the ring to convalesce. This leaves Marina Shafir all alone.

Toni then ducks a high kick from Shafir then dropped her with a German Suplex, leading to a Hip Attack and then she and TR hit, what I’m assuming will be called, the “ThunderStorm Driver” for the win!

This wasn’t the kind of match that lights the crowd on fire but it was sound pro wrestling psychology and had a great finishing sequence. The Thunder Rosa & Toni Storm storyline scans as a the old wrestling trope whereby rivals become partners but there’s unease between them because a singles title that one has, and one wants, looms between them. Hopefully there’s a smart spin on this one but for the moment, commentary and the competitors did a good job at selling ThunderStorm as a cohesive team that gets along and genuinely likes each other. There was nice small touches such as Thunder Rosa hyping up Toni Storm’s Hip Attack by doing Toni’s taunt, shit like that. There’s even a ThunderStorm t-shirt available. So we’ll see.

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