Accountability In Wrestling

By Seán O’Brien

As a disclaimer to you, the reader, this piece is going to be talking about ongoing political and social issues in multiple regions of the world. More so, this is going to be criticising people in the industry for what I believe to be performative or exploitative activism in relation to these issues. If you are currently not in the headspace to tackle issues like this, please don’t take more on by reading this piece any further and instead check out any of the other excellent pieces written in this issue. If you disagree with any of my takes and feel these people are indeed championing the social issues you are struggling with and need that at this moment in time, please continue to take that comfort from those personalities and don’t let the opinions of one person sway you. Prioritise your mental health at this time above an opinion piece if you need to.

Disclaimer now out of the way – during the last few years it has been an incredibly difficult time for me personally to connect with a lot of personalities in professional wrestling. I love a big spot fest etc, but having personal investment in a wrestler is what really elevates their match for me and this is something that has become increasingly harder to do over the last few years. Through 2025 it became tougher and as we sit here in early 2026, it now feels like a barrier I personally can no longer get past. I had, for the longest time, fallen out of love with watching the style of wrestling WWE put on television screens but continued to watch it through habit, as many wrestling fans have for years. Despite only sticking to the monthly PPVs, it was only at the end of “SummerSlam” in 2025 where I was able to say “I can’t take anymore” from a moral standpoint and walked away from watching the promotion. Since then, though, I’ve found myself frustrated for sticking with something as long as I did while also becoming hyper aware of how many people in wrestling get a free pass for hypocritical actions or performative actions in the sphere without doing anything.

We have a laundry list of professional wrestlers who are, like it or not, public figures that do nothing in a turbulent time in history, regardless of where you live on this earth. Whether you see them as entertainers or athletes (or both), the industry is public facing but for some reason, the wrestling community finds it incredibly hard to acknowledge this as a fact. While some sporting leagues such as the English Premier League promote anti racism and pro LGBTQ+ movements, and both the NBA and NFL are platforming Black Lives Matter, wrestling fans instead celebrate wrestlers joining an organisation they have dreamed of working for since they were children whilst it is currently being investigated at a federal level for literal sex trafficking. As a community, the message is to say “good for them” as they embark on their endeavour but never once is the message “Now? Of all times?” We celebrate these people chasing a childhood dream without taking a moment to ask if a childhood dream excuses behaviour in such tumultuous times. I personally know a man who, as a child, dreamed of growing up to be a literal physical tank like Thomas the Tank Engine. But like most people, he realised that it’s normal for childhood dreams to change as we grow. We deserve better from this industry, and frankly, need to acknowledge that there are many faces in the business today who will leverage social issues for a pop from a crowd and the hopes of you purchasing their merchandise.

To start, let’s take a look at Mick Foley and the choices he made in 2025. To widespread applause, Mick Foley put out a statement saying that he will not be renewing his WWE Legends contract once it lapses in 2026 and will not return to WWE until the US has a new president. This was in direct response to disgusting comments made by Trump in regards to the murder of beloved director Rob Reiner. This protest was met with positivity and a welcome statement from some in the WWE sphere for standing up to the administration they’re so tightly tied to themselves. But let’s break this down.

Mick signed his deal in 2022 – post Trump administration. so you can make the case that he joined when it was in a good place. Since 2022, however, Vince McMahon has been accused of sexual assault alongside John Laurinaitis, which was later upgraded to full blown sex trafficking. Mick has earned a reputation for trying to champion women in the industry but this wasn’t enough for him to try and walk away from his Legends deal; in fact, he refuses to have his positive memories of Vince tarnished and is happy to just see where the case goes. Mick stayed with the company when Trump returned to office, when executive orders were signed, when women’s autonomy rights were stripped away, when personal data was being taken by a guy who owns a social media website, and he stayed when the ramp up of ICE operations began. Mick was OK with all of these things morally, but drew the line at comments towards somebody he personally felt a connection to. Foley’s choice to leave is only happening because it feels personal to him now, his stand is not about morality – it’s about personal feelings being hurt. Most egregiously, he doesn’t appear to have tried to exit his contract. He is simply electing to not re-sign it until Trump is out of office, allowing a door for him to return in three years time. In the modern TKO-WWE, I find it exceptionally hard to believe that the parent company would turn down the opportunity to not pay a man who isn’t used in any way shape or form on their product. Mick Foley simply does not want to walk away from the money; he is happy to receive his final months of cheques from the company. He is saying that he just won’t take future money for now. He’s appalled and outraged but will continue to line his pockets in protest for another few months.

Becky Lynch. Becky comes from a country that is so deeply invested in protesting and standing up for what it believes in that Ireland has had weekly protests and marches in several cities against the Palestinian genocide for several years and a history of trying to use every voice to impact change since South African apartheid. Becky is celebrated in today’s climate for showing up to work in today’s MAGA entrenched WWE with a t-shirt of Ms. Rachel, a children’s entertainer who is vocally pro Palestine. This as an isolated thing might have some merit, but what wonderfully undermines this is how her character is a Trump knock off. People claim that it’s actually really smart that Becky is imitating Trump and making fun of him on TV by being so ridiculous but…is it? If you have an issue with Trump, you might want to rethink shaking the boss’s hand when he spends a large volume of his time in the white house with Trump. She is rubbing shoulders with the very people she has no respect for and taking a paycheck from people who wish they could be more involved with the administration. Yet we are to look at this and feel like it isn’t hypocritical? To make it worse, Becky will post “clever” posts on social media about how cold it is and how much she “hates ICE”. It’s a very cute idea but when the organisation you’re taking shots at are tear gassing children in schools and you’re on TV doing a knock off of the man enabling it, you’re not coming across as authentically against these very real issues for so many people. You’re coming across as somebody who is profiting off it by capitalising on it for a pop from the crowd and a raise of your stock. The defence of her behaviour online has often been “she’s doing the best she can” and “you can’t expect her to say anything and lose her platform”. I’m not advocating for anyone who genuinely cares about these issues to lose their job, but to think that Becky Lynch would lose a platform if she left WWE is ridiculous. Is she going to lose all 5.5 million IG followers if she posts something meaningful? If she left WWE would they all unfollow her? In a world where former and current members of Bravo reality TV shows are speaking up, surely professional wrestlers can? We are in a world where there is more integrity in reality TV stars standing by their morals than professional wrestlers. The other defence is that it was Becky’s childhood dream to work for WWE and she shouldn’t have to jeopardise it. As mentioned earlier, when we allow that to excuse things, we’re infantalising the decisions adults are making. What the wrestling community does with that line of thought, is excuse people who are masquerading as your ally.

© WWE

The next two here are personalities that at times in my life, would break my heart to call out like this. To start, Sami Zayn has, for the longest time, done a wonderful job in raising money for Syria. He has been a genuine help to a country in the Middle East that has been in a state of turmoil for far too long. While taking a stand for the Syrian people, Zayn would refuse to travel to Saudi Arabia (a disruptor in the region), in protest and use the time to do fundraisers for his charity instead. But as soon as Saudi Arabia made a diplomatic peace with Syria, Zayn began making his appearances on the WWE Saudi held shows. Again, this becomes an example of taking a stand against an issue when it directly impacts you but waiving it off once it’s resolved. It was never about the human rights violations, it was about a personal issue (that, to be clear, was also abhorrent).

Similarly minded, compare CM Punk in AEW to him in WWE. Behavioural issues aside, Punk routinely made time to publicly stand on social issues, champion human rights and provide comfort to people going through changes/struggles in their daily lives…until it was no longer convenient to do so. Gone are the days of Punk shouting out signs that are pro LGBTQ+ kids or Trans rights being human rights. Instead, here are the days of silence on mass social issues and apologising to the Saudi Arabian audience for implying their deals are powered by blood money. The voice of the voiceless seems to have been stricken with mutism since his return to WWE and in showing his true colours (dollar green). An ally isn’t somebody who supports you only when it’s convenient, it’s when they champion you when it’s hard.

© WWE

For balance and clarity. This mentality should apply to everyone in a public sphere. Hangman Adam Page’s private relationship with Marty Scurll isn’t something that should be waived away by fans by any means. He may have used his platform well but he’s not infallible and standing by the side of a man who intended to take advantage of a teenager who a promoter had plied with alcohol isn’t a good thing, regardless of what many fans think.

Likewise, somebody rocking up to television wearing an “Abolish ICE” shirt is something that should be celebrated for them using their platform (and it not being a subtle nod to those only in the know). Brody King’s defiant stand was a great use of the responsibility professional wrestlers have as public figures. Similarly Ava Raine, at just 24 years of age, using her platform to denounce ICE and the regime her former workplace is tied to is a brave move that deserves attention and a spotlight. There’s more impact and integrity in somebody so young walking away from a long term role and standing on business than the majority of professional wrestling has seen in the past thirty years.

© AEW

So, should we expect everyone in wrestling to be perfect? To champion every cause? Realistically, of course not. We live in the hellscape that is 2026 after all; but we can hold these people accountable. We can acknowledge when their activism isn’t activism. We can stop giving them a pass for sitting on the fence or burying their head in the sand. We can stop pretending that if you take money from somewhere that is deeply associated with something you openly hate, you are a hypocrite. Ultimately, this is a plea for us all to do better and to stop championing people who are doing the bare minimum on social issues. We need a higher standard for what are international public figures and to stop treating them as though they’re any different. Again, if Bravo TV personalities are ahead of you on morality issues, then I think you’ve got to take a good look in the mirror. I’m not asking you to hate who you love, I’m simply trying to start the conversation this community sorely needs to have. Your preferred wrestling company cares about its outreach and how many viewers tune in to their talent. We should be equally invested in these people behind the character, their platforms and their message. It’s the responsibility of these individuals to be better, to do better and to hopefully inspire others to do the same. It’s their responsibility, like it or not, to be an ally to these hardships – not because it’s the easy thing to do, but because it isn’t.

© STARDOM

A Wrestler You Should Know About: Saki Kashima

By Chris Gannon

Stardom’s “All Star Grand Queendom” this year will be a historic event. It will be the first anniversary of Tam Nakano’s final match, featuring a main event that will echo that as her final protege, Sayaka Kurara, will face off against her greatest protege, and the woman who retired her, Saya Kamitani. Lower down on the card, though, will be another bit of history: the retirement ceremony of Saki Kashima.

On paper, Kashima has had a good if unremarkable career, winning the Artists of Stardom (trios) title five times, including being part of the inaugural champions, the Goddess of Stardom (tag) titles once and the High Speed title twice. One of the few shows she did main event, and perhaps her only singles main event, was “No People Gate”, a Korakuen Hall show in March 2020 which had an audience of zero people due to pandemic restrictions. There are many ways for wrestlers to grab you: with their epic matches, their never say die attitude and/or their willingness to go to any lengths for glory.

Saki Kashima is distinctly not one of those wrestlers.

A career in four parts

Saki’s career can really be divided into four distinct parts, the first of which was her initial run with Stardom from 2011 to 2013. She was not part of the initial “1st generation” dojo class, and debuted later than those wrestlers did. Her rookie class – of which she was ultimately the only graduate – has later been described by Western fans as being the “1.5th” generation of Stardom dojo graduates. This is the part of her career I’m least familiar with other than that she was part of the inaugural Artists of Stardom champions.

After this she took a five year break, during which she studied to be a nurse. She returned to Stardom in March 2018 and joined Mayu Iwatani’s STARS unit, winning the Goddess of Stardom titles with Mayu. It was during this time she was part of one of my favourite feuds ever against Natsu Sumire.

Low stakes, high comedy

Saki Kashima has an incredibly catchy theme song. Even amongst the high quality of music used by Japanese wrestlers, hers really stands out. One person who really noticed this was Natsu Sumire. At the Stardom 8th Anniversary show in Osaka, whilst in the ring with fellow Oedo Tai stablemate Jamie Hayter, Natsu heard the opening notes of Kashima’s song and started singing along to it, something that was met with bemusement by Kashima as she came to the ring. Little did Saki know that this was the start of a hell that would consume her entire year. Some feuds are fuelled by hatred between two competitors fighting over a grand prize. This was driven by Natsu being really annoying for no real reason. She just claimed that she saw that the bubbly, happy Saki had an inner delinquent in her that Natsu wanted to bring out. Throughout the rest of the year, Natsu would take every opportunity that she could to sing Saki’s song, even on her birthday when Saki begged her not to. In a costume battle royale, Natsu chose to dress as “Saki Kashima arriving at the building” which involved wearing a shoddy tracksuit, smoking and carrying a bunch of bags from Don Quijote’s, a Japanese chain notorious for, amongst other things, its cheapness and annoying but catchy theme song. This culminated in, surprisingly, a tag match between Kashima and Mayu Iwatani facing off against Hana Kimura and Kagetsu, who were stablemates with Sumire, where Kashima betrayed Iwatani, hitting her with Oedo Tai sign, leading to the Oedo Tai victory and Kashima joining the stable, much to the delight of Natsu who was proven right.

© STARDOM

Delinquency

As shocking as Saki turning on Mayu was, it probably shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise. Mayu Iwatani has a track record with best friends that only rivals Hulk Hogan’s for how badly they end. It probably didn’t help that, on an Oedo Tai produced show on May 5th 2019, Mayu was booked as the ring announcer, and she didn’t stop Natsu from stealing the microphone and singing Saki’s song. She didn’t help Saki when she was being dog-piled by Oedo Tai on the way to the ring. Most damningly of all she clapped and danced along to Natsu’s rendition of Saki’s song. Frankly, the question wasn’t why Saki turned on Mayu, but why she hadn’t done it sooner. Joining Oedo Tai really showed the real Saki, the one that everyone got to know. After years of being someone who was smiley, happy to be there and giving it her all, she cut loose, by which I mean she became a lazy grifter (laudatory).

She never found a fight that she wouldn’t try to avoid, a task that she wouldn’t get someone else to do, a pin she wouldn’t try to steal. Through it all, she did it with some incredible comic timing and a weird charm. That weird charm even worked on Syuri, a wrestler with a legitimate kickboxing and MMA background, who has won almost every title there is to win in Stardom. Whenever they were in a tournament together, Saki would beg and pray to not have to face Syuri, even having to be dragged to the ring by her Oedo Tai stablemates for one match. Somehow though, despite Saki’s cowardice and Syuri’s, well everything, they actually have a 4-2 record in singles matches in Syuri’s favour, rather than the 6-0 that you’d expect, and that’s because of Saki’s surprisingly good record as a tournament wrestler. Saki is an expert at applying her finishing move, the Kishikasei, a grounded crucifix pin, and has collected some big scalps with it, including one match where she managed to bear Mayu Iwatani in 17 seconds!

© Chris Gannon

You could be really good if you tried

Her ability to pull out victories using technique rather than via underhanded tactics was something that made Syuri take an interest in Saki. It was almost a weird inversion of Natsu’s interest from years before, but where Natsu saw a delinquent trying to project the air of a good person, Syuri sensed someone who wanted the world to see her as a coward, but might actually be a great fighter if she really tried. That genuine care and interest was what led Syuri to grant Saki refuge in her stable God’s Eye, after Saki had been forced out of Oedo Tai and repeatedly attacked by her former stable mates. Her time with God’s Eye represented the final phase of her career, one in which she would be forced to try, to face her fears and stand tall with a stable of badasses and martial artists, but that sense of self preservation never left her as proven by her match with Bozilla, which ended with Saki submitting whilst Bozilla had her hoisted up for a powerbomb. Yes, you read that correctly: she tapped out on the way up, before the move was executed.

At this point, I should be giving recommended matches for Saki, but the truth is that the real value she brought to shows wasn’t in the great matches but in providing a different flavour. If wrestling shows were a twelve course meal, Saki would be the cheese course. If it were a circus, Saki would be the clown who you’d see in between the strongmen, the lion tamers and the high wire acts. I can’t recommend a match because you could dip into any of them and get the same wonderful feeling from them, but if you need some highlights I recommend looking at Whirling Andy’s twitter account and doing a search for her, you’ll find plenty of clips to brighten your day.

There was an episode of the Simpsons where Homer, in a desperate attempt to buy his daughter Lisa’s love, bought her a pony. When Lisa gave up the pony, and Homer could give up his second job as a Kwik-e-mart clerk, the store’s manager Apu lamented as Homer walked off into the sunset, and I’m going to liberally steal from that lament right now:

© VelvetDay128

A Wrestler You Should Know About: Yurika Oka

A single brain cell queen for the baka-pilled wrestling fan

By Chris Whitehead

Yurika Oka owns a unicycle.

This is revealed to us in Episode 5 of the The Road to Nippon Budokan documentary series that Sendai Girls launched in January 2026 on their new YouTube channel @senjyo-pw. Oka volunteered to let the cameraman come to her apartment the morning of a show, to show how she prepares for a match day. To American eyes, her apartment is beyond tiny. It’s primarily a single room that is a combo living room/bedroom, attached to a hallway that is also a kitchen. (There is also a small bathroom that we don’t see, across from the kitchen.) The main room is probably smaller than your standard sized wrestling ring. Given those constraints, one would think that choosing which items to own and considering where and how to store them seems like it would be vital to her daily routine. Space management would be key. And yet, she owns a unicycle.

The unicycle reveal was the moment that I felt like I truly understood who Yurika Oka is and that I realized she was on a fast track to becoming a “Special Little Guy” for me. Full disclosure: I am pre-emptively scouting for a new SLG, as my current SLG, Natsupoi, appears to be edging towards retirement. If you don’t know, Poi is also a short, single brain cell, yellow clad, (formerly) blonde bobbed wrestler. All things that also apply to Oka. Perhaps this documentary was the universe letting me know about Oka’s baka bonafides or perhaps Oka saw a potential Poi-shaped gap in the market herself and is using the documentary to get her name into the mix. Regardless, the unicycle was the moment that let me know this is not just your common variety “empty headed dumbfuck” that we are dealing with: this is a shoot clown.

© Sendai Girls

Yurika Oka is 22 and originally from the Osaka prefecture. She dropped out of high school at 14 and moved to Sendai to train in the Sendai Girls dojo. She trained for two years before she debuted in late 2020 and will celebrate her 6th anniversary later this year. She is, as one might expect from a SenJo trainee, a fundamentally sound wrestler, capable of smooth chain wrestling, counter wrestling, great bumping and quality striking. As a uniquely funny person, she can do comedy with the best of them and that extends to her also being an endearing babyface, who uses her selling to get almost any crowd behind her. She can also wrestle in the ‘high speed’ style that many of the best joshi wrestlers of her generation can.

She first broke onto my radar as one half of “Bob Bob Moma Banana”, her tag team with Marvelous’s Mio Momono. Bob Bob Momo Banana are on the undercard as much, if not more, than the main event, so while many of their matches can be very good, sometimes they are there to have fun and be funny. The image of Yurika and Mio peeking out of the curtain with their ridiculous hats (laudatory) on their heads, pulling funny faces, combined with The Minions “Banana Song” (Fred Fassert, writer of “Barbara Ann” rolls in his grave, surely) immediately tells you what the vibe is. Then they come out with the too-many-fabrics-combined costumes and you understand that these people are here to have fun – but it is still joshi puroresu, so after a while you realize they are also here to wrestle hard as well.

© takedora11

The peak of the BobBob team (or Bobu Bobu) to date is probably the series of matches they had with Team200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto and Yuu), which is bookended by matches in February 2024 and December 2025, as those teams battled over and exchanged both the Sendai Girls and AAAW Tag Team Championships. The initial run in 2024 generated buzz that lasted into early 2025, before ending with them losing both those sets of title belts on the same day, with Mio then taking 5 months off due to injury. The Davids vs Goliaths dynamic worked perfectly for both teams, and Momono and Oka are such good and willing bump takers that they even make long stretches of Yuu on offense more enjoyable than usual.

Oka’s game as a singles wrestler is less developed than as a tag wrestler, but as noted, she is such a fundamentally sound wrestler that bad matches aren’t an issue, it’s really more that the opportunities to peak as a high level wrestler haven’t quite appeared yet and the level of “flashiness” you might see from a main event singles wrestler is not present yet.

My top recommendations for singles matches would be battle with BobuBobu team-mate Mio Momono in August 2025, after Mio had returned from injury. They were once again setting their sights on Team200kg, and this match was Mio trying to build up Yurika’s confidence ahead of that bout after Oka had admitted to lacking in some. It’s the best glimpse of the potential main eventer that lives inside Oka that we have seen to date. I’d also recommend a singles match she had with Sareee, almost two years ago in April 2024. It’s a standard Sareee vs junior wrestler match, but if you know that formula, you know it’s a winning one. In just under ten minutes Oka shows off all her fundamental skills, shows some fighting spirit against the bully and gets the Korakuen Hall crowd solidly behind her while doing so, earning a modicum of Sareee’s respect by the end, needing her actual finishing move to be beaten, unlike other juniors when they come up against Sareee.

In the aforementioned Road to Budokan documentary Oka has said a couple of times that her dream match for that Budokan show is AZM, and that sounds like it would be a perfect showcase for her, in what would be the biggest match of her life.

Speaking of that documentary, it is really doing an incredible job of babyfacing the entire Sendai Girls roster (except, strangely, Meiko Satamura – who seems distant and uneasy around the cameras). In my view, and I think those of the friends I am watching and discussing the show with, Yurika Oka is the clear breakout star of the documentary so far. She is a bright burst of oddball charisma and goofball energy, a young woman living a somewhat unusual life, but having a great time doing it. I think my friend Alice said it best: “She has one thing on her bedroom wall and it’s a calendar two feet off the ground still set to October in December and all she eats is rice and furikake..she feels like she’s happily vibing through a kinda concerning life”.

Whether you’re on the hunt for a new SLG, just want to see some killer tag team wrestling or maybe just want to enjoy some nonsensical social media posts, keep an eye out for Yurika Oka. It won’t be hard – you can’t miss her in her court jester motley hideously bright yellow patterned gear.

Yurika “No Notes” Oka…(I have so many notes).

© AEW

Three Cheers For The Babes of Wrath

Or: How to elevate stars in an era when most fall flat.

By Micah

Late last year, when a tournament for the new Women’s Tag Championships was announced, nobody thought “Obviously the makeshift team of Willow Nightingale and Harley Caeron are taking it home.” Now, on the other side of their championship run? It’s clear there was never a better choice.

Willow and Harley, as the Babes of Wrath, stole most segments they were in. They had good matches and great crowd reactions. They found new ways to tell old stories. They became the star tag team in a new division that desperately needed something alive and different to shine.

But the Babes also succeeded in something rarer. They managed to go from a beloved act that never really wins to a top team portrayed as deserving their spot. Both Willow, someone who has radiated charisma and skill for a long time already, and Harley, who has had far fewer matches than you’d expect from her shine, are exactly the sort of act that can, in AEW, perennially be “one win away” from a starmaking push that never comes.

In AEW, and honestly in multiple mainstream promotions right now, the ceiling between ‘Aspirational Midcarder’ and ‘Top Talent’ is nearly unbreakable. The roster is a murderer’s row of talent “destined for greatness” that fights for TV time:

• Daniel Garcia was “the next Bryan Danielson”, signed a new contract, and got put in an angle with current champ MJF. Now he’s fallen into faction-standaround-hell as Wheeler Yuta’s sidekick.
• Nick Wayne is a phenom who was marked for greatness before he was even 18. He is now 20 years old and arguably further down the card than when he started.
• Talents like Darby Allin, Konosuke Takeshita, and Kyle Fletcher all feel frustratingly stuck in the ‘Not Quite’ position.
• Though there are likely backstage reasons for most of it, the list of people haunting Collision or outright on the bench also includes Eddie Kingston, Hikaru Shida, Anthony Bowens, Riho, Julia Hart, Private Party, Juice Robinson, Britt Baker, Rush, and countless others.

Even the shining success story, Swerve Strickland, struggled greatly to break through the main event ceiling. After demonstrating his ability in the phenomenal Swerve In Our Glory run that lit the tag division ablaze, after a legendary singles feud, and even after winning the top belt, it still felt like the company had a reluctance to get fully behind him. He was stuck in 1B feuds, just outside the spotlight and focus of the company. He struggled to shine with that ‘Top Talent’ glow until a star-making pay-per-view main event win over Ospreay, a moment that finally signaled to the audience “this is The Guy”.

With all those institutional headwinds, you’d be forgiven for overlooking Willow and Harley when the Women’s Tag Team Championship Tournament was announced. Their first round match was against Mercedes and Athena, seemed like a foregone conclusion with both opponents at the peak of their game (and with Mercedes being one of the two key members that the women’s division is built around). Here were two fresh characters the fans love versus two ex-WWE main eventers. No matter how much the fans reacted to the Babes Of Wrath, there was no chance, right?

Even after they won that first impossible match, their next match against the Sisters of Sin (Julia Hart and Skye Blue) was, at best, a meaningless toss-up. No matter who won, the finals were clear: facing Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa, who were winning it all. Toni was (and is) one of the best characters in all of wrestling, the other key member of the division, and at that time was a meteoric main eventer who needed something to do away from the Women’s World Championship. If not Mercedes and Athena, the belts were clearly Toni and Mina’s.

The win over The Sisters was a pleasant surprise for Willow and Harley fans, but even going into the main event, there was no real chance they would win, right? Whispers of fans saying “this would be incredible, but they aren’t gonna do it” haunted the match. It was a foregone conclusion that this company, which never pulls the trigger, which always delays to another day …they aren’t going to have the fresh team win just because the fans are behind them, right?

To say that it was an upset is an understatement. They didn’t just beat international superstar Mercedes and the forever champion Athena. They didn’t just beat the undeniable Toni Storm on the heels of her big rebound. They beat the immutable truth that nobody new goes over, nobody new wins, everything stays the same. In the storyline, The Babes of Wrath made a statement, but out of storyline, they were a statement.

If we look back over the build up, just like all the best storylines, we can see the steps that were laid to get there. An underdog team. Big wins over all the other big names. Everything set and orchestrated to give them credibility, to silence any critics. You can’t say “well, why isn’t this person champ” because they beat everyone you’d say that about. They’re the champs because they won. The company pulled the trigger and left no doubt. New stars were born.

The story here would be different if their work afterward didn’t match the investment. But Willow and Harley continued to steal both hearts and the spotlight every time they were on the screen. Performing the “Babes of Wrath theme” at the post-show was irreverent fun, both championship celebrations (the Tag and the TBS) were electric TV, and even throwaway segments like their Christmas Tale turned into must-share TV. They took the ball they were handed and they ran it as far as it goes.

Not every match was a clean technical masterpiece. Not every segment was polished and smooth. But almost every match was entertaining and almost every segment was alive. It was new and it was exciting and it was different and it was the exact sort of thing pro-wrestling needs more of. Two talented people that the fans want to see succeed, succeeding. And not in the fake “throw them a bone” way, but by being positioned as the very best right now, beating the very best that there were, and letting their talent shine.

Both of these women likely have long careers ahead of them. And both have already come a long way, one from a fluke win over Mercedes in New Japan due to injury, the other from being Salacious Crumb to QT Marshall’s Jabba the Hutt on QTV. Both now have a claim to be a feature star on Dynamite, and have delivered mightily when given a spot.

From here, the danger is the same as it always was. Will Willow slide back down out of the main events, even as she should be positioned as one of the big four, maybe even moved to the top to fill an absence where Toni would have been? Will Harley get a solid midcard feud to develop further, or will she be relegated back to Collision? Or worse, the classic AEW “where are they now” staycation? Who can say?

In this moment, The Babes of Wrath stand as two talented stars who were given a true chance and made magic with it. They are an example of how much fun wrestling can be, and they made it interesting and entertaining every time they were out. And I want to take this time to acknowledge them, as it were.

From their example, let’s also look at the roster of talented people, both in AEW, WWE and in across wrestling, who catch fire with the fans but their company never quite pulls the trigger on. Give them the big win! Give them the big segment focus! Act as if they are a big deal and give them the support you can.

When the moment arrives, when the magic strikes, and when the talent has proven they can deliver, it’s time to start delivering on the promise of these wrestlers. Not all will succeed like The Babes of Wrath, but many will, and we could all use the vitality and fire of watching them try.

Next time AEW finds itself in a moment like this, they should pull that trigger again. To steal a phrase associated with AEW, when it’s time? Let’s fucking go.