Mercedes Martinez signs with AEW, and the TBS Tournament final is set

The two month-long tournament to crown AEW’s first ever TBS champion already has one finalist, thanks to Ruby Soho’s win over Nyla Rose on the “Holiday Smash” edition of Dynamite last Wednesday.

On Dec. 29’s “New Year’s Smash” show from Jacksonville, we found out who Soho will fight for the new belt.

Thunder Rosa and her sweet Wolverine-inspired ring gear gave Jade Cargill a hell of a fight, and she had a smart strategy in taking Jade Cargill’s lawyer Smart Mark Sterling out early. She followed that up by targeting the larger, more powerful wrestler’s knee.

It looked like it might pay off when she locked in a Figure Four, but she didn’t account for a masked figure who attacked when Sterling had the referee distracted. That set the stage for Jaded, and despite doing a hell of a job making Cargill look good in her longest match to date — Rosa was unable to hand That Bitch (her words, not mine) her first loss.

When Rosa went for some payback after the bell, the mystery figure unmasked to reveal... Mercedes Martinez!

Ruby ran in to even the score, but the balance of power in the AEW Women’s division has shifted now that independent legend and former WWE wrestler is by Jade’s side. Martinez has worked a few dates with All Elite in the past, but this time it looks like she’s here to stay...

We’ll see how things play out when Soho takes on Cargill for the TBS title takes place next Weds., Jan. 5, 2022 when Dynamite on its new network home.

Get complete results and coverage of everything that happened on Dynamite‘s New Year’s Smash here.