Women of Wrestling recap & review: Here comes The Beast

The finish of last week’s episode of WOW left us all wondering just who was the WOW Champion. Both Jungle Grrrl and Santana Garrett pinned Tessa Blanchard, leaving the refs, the audience and the wrestlers confused. But WOW is not a show that wastes anytime needlessly dragging out their stories, as evidenced by the opening of Friday (February, 15) night’s episode.

Even Born Legends need help sometimes

Without any adieu, McLane called Jungle Grrrl out to the ring. Naturally, I assumed Santana would be next to follow, but we were informed that Santana has vacated her right to the belt to take care of her father after Tessa’s brutal attack from an earlier episode. Now, that felt a little wonky to be, as he was attacked like a month ago in the timeline of the show, but it did open up the championship playing field which is never a bad thing.

McLane then introduced Tessa - you know the one that got pinned last week by not one but TWO people - as the number one contender to the belt. But...no one has the belt...how is there a number one contender...don’t ask questions!

McLane set the main event for the show is set - Tessa Blanchard versus Jungle Grrrl for the championship then - Tessa took the much and cut a classic heel promo promo. She talked about how Santana wasn’t there because she was afraid of her and how she “would fight anyone in WOW. The biggest, the baddest...”

CUE MUSIC

Reacting to Tessa’s promo, The Beast came out to the ring and made her presence known. Tessa, ever the conniver, rolled out of the ring, leaving Jungle Grrrl and Beast to fight. I said it last week, but The Beast is a star and it was great to see her dancing around the title picture so soon after her debut. She’s not a heel or a face necessarily, she’s just there to be the best and I like that in comparison to Tessa -monster heel- and Jungle Grrrl- crowd favorite baby face.

In the main event, Tessa and Jungle Grrrl took each other to the limit and put on what is easily the best match of the season so for. From the moment they locked up the match had a fluidity and a brutal grace about it. Their chemistry was electric. Tessa is a great technical wrestler, but Jungle Grrrl seemed to have an answer for everything Tessa threw at her. A particular favorite moment for me was when Tessa set up Jungle Grrrl on the ropes for her signature elbow into the spine move and Jungle Grrrl moved just in time for Tessa to nail her self on the rope. It was a good moment of selling for Tessa and made the following set up when Tessa tried again but this time hitting the dropkick very satisfying.

I am not very familiar with Jungle Grrrl, as this is my first season watching WOW, but everything I know so far is that she is basically an unstoppable bad ass. They made it a point several times over the past few shows to remind the audience that she has never been pinned. Considering all that I appreciated how she wasn’t one note in the ring. Sometimes I find that the badass trope is super boring, but Jungle Grrrl was anything but - it felt like a genuine back and forth.

Unfortunately for Jungle Grrrl, in the process of getting Tessa on the ropes, she knocked out the ref and no one was there to count the 1-2-3 after she hit her magnificent (truly a thing a beauty) splash on Tessa. Fortunately for Tessa, it seems that The Beast wants to fight the trash talking “legend” because she knocked out Jungle Grrrl, put Tessa on top of her and pushed the ref in the ring ensuring that Tessa would be crowned the new WOW Champion.

WOW

Such a good chapter in this story! Jungle Grrrl eats her first pin, but not really, Tessa is the champion, but her win is conditional (even though she’ll never admit that) and The Beast has not only become a title picture contender but has an intriguing layer of personality added.

Monsters beats Fire

WOW

Jessicka Havok made her WOW debut this week, and although I am a huge Havok fan, I was a little underwhelmed. Before her match, they showed a video package of her delivering a promo and introducing herself as the Monster of Madness. And while she made some great points - “It was women like me who put in the work, who carried the weight on our backs, to show what women in this business can do.” - the delivery was so incredibly stilted and bland that it didn’t sell me at all.

Her debut match against Fire (aka Kiera Hogan) started off strong - a classic speed versus strength match-up - but it didn’t deliver in the way that I know both of them can. It’s like I was saying earlier, sometimes when a wrestler is presented as a bad ass their matches can be one note and unfortunately this match fell into that trope. Fire got in a decent amount of offense, but there was never any doubt who was going to win the match.

I really hope they build up Havok as more than an unstoppable force. I’d love to see her in the title picture someday, or as the leader of a faction, but they need to add some variety to her gimmick.

I may be being a little harsh as this was her first introduction, but I know what she is capable of so I have high hopes. Again, not a bad match, but I wanted more.

Razor’s Edge

Faith the Lioness is a ridiculous character and I am so into it. She’s only 19 and while she isn’t exactly a wrestling prodigy she is very good considering that she just started training. Her character on paper should 100% be a heel, but the wide eyed and bushy tailed 19 year old naivety is endearing. And let’s be real I love when people combine wrestling and dancing (even though all I can hear is “Be Best” when she is saying “We Flex”).

WOW

And Razor? Such an incredible commitment to her character, flawless promo delivery and frankly pretty solid wrestling from another newbie. The Psycho Sister’s are such a classic gimmick that it could easily be corny, but Razor is so good that she makes you believe.

Lion pulled out the win in this one, hitting a flying dropkick that was damn near half way across the ring, but the Pyscho Sisters came out on top attacked her during her celebration. I hope this feud continues, lots of great story telling potential with these three.

All the Rest

• Keta Rush watched a video with McLane to try and identify who jumped her. I * think * it’s Dagger from looking at their roster, but again I’m new to this show and am still learning the characters. Regardless, they are going to settle it in the ring very soon.
• The Disciplinarian had a match against Chantilly Chella. It was a fun match-up, the strict stick in the mud against the party girl, but nothing incredibly note worth to report. Mostly that Chantilly is fun to watch and that The Disciplinarian, while still green, has a great sense of her character and with Samantha Smart at her side (hitting her opponents when the ref isn’t looking) is going to be tough to beat.
• Krumpas (yes you heard me right) is debuting next week.

Overall, another fun show from WOW. I have little complaints here and there, like I think they over edit the sound, there should be female refs, and I want 100% less McLane, but it’s definitely become one of my favorite shows to watch.

Plus, I can’t wait to see the fallout of the main event and watch The Beast take on Tessa Blanchard!

Grade: A-