Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/08/03/two-teams-advance-in-the-aew-womens-tag-team-cup-tournament/
On the debut episode of the AEW Women’s Tag Team Cup tournament, two teams advanced to the semi-finals and featured several surprise appearances.
The commentary team featured Tony Schiavone and Veda Scott with the shows taped at Daily’s Place in Florida.
Madusa came out to introduce the tournament and show off the trophy that goes to the winning team of the eight-team single-elimination tournament.
Shaul Guerrero served as the in-ring announcer for the matches.
In the first match, Allie & Brandi Rhodes defeated Penelope Ford & Mel.
That match was followed by Tay Conti (formerly Taynara Conti in NXT) teaming with Anna Jay of the Dark Order to defeat Nyla Rose & Ariane Andrew.
After the match, Rose attacked Andrew.
I liked it. Short and sweet, nothing phenomenal. I thought Taynara Conti was the best in ring.
The wrestling was not great, but it was not as bad as feared.
As a twenty-some minute show I found it very watchable. Unoffensive announce team, and sort-of-logical stories surrounding the two matches.
I’m surprised they let Taynara go. She has more charisma than most in that women’s division
She’s very average. Was never going to get any real time on NXT as the standard is actually high there. Probably better than Aliyah but not anyone else that’s there. She’ll have a chance to grow at AEW though as she’s more likely to get some spotlight there but right now she’s meh.
That’s the thing. The level of AEW’s women division is so low that a Taynara looks like a top tier wrestler.
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Damning with faint praise, eh?
Conti never got the in-ring experience she needed given the three years or so she was in the WWE developmental system. She still has a lot going for her though.
And given that WWE bought up talent to park them at NXT it’s no wonder that AEW is having a tough journey in building a women’s division out of US talent. Still several good workers in Japan but as seen with Riho they live there and in the pandemic are not going to travel in and out of the US.
The US wrestling scene has long been sparse for high-working women talent. Having watched the original GLOW I remember the awkwardness of the entire scene.
The many small promotions who do women’s wrestling may seem like a pool of talent, but take any of those performers and put them on a big stage and see how they’ll shrink.
So yes, AEW has a long task in front of them, to elevate a women’s division.
Not sure I would say she did not get enough in ring in NXT in the 2 primary years she was there she averaged 43 matches each year. I do think though that in general there are fewer really experienced women, as there are just fewer in general.