AEW Women's Tag Team Cup Tournament The Deadly Draw- Final Match

 By Mark Rodriguez

Alright guys, so this is the final match between the Women's Tag Tournament, the Deadly Draw meaning that teams were made at random depending on what color chips they would select out of a drawing. The final match was between the Nightmare Sisters, Brandi Rhodes and Allie against the team of Ivelisse and Diamante, and it was shown Saturday, rather than Wednesday due to the NBA Play-Offs.

The Match- The Nightmare Sisters (with Dustin & QT Marshall) VS Diamante & Ivelisse

Due to the time constraints, the NBA game finished a half hour later than expected and the TNT Championship match was following this, so there wasn't time for a lot of shenanigans.

Things started between Ivelisse and Brandi who started off with an exchange of armlocks and headlocks. Ivelisse tags Diamante in and after both ladies kicked her down and picked her up for a double slam. Brandi managed to tag Allie in who would quickly kick Diamante down. Diamante gets Allie in an armbar and The Bunny manages to escape and fling Diamante out of the ring. 

We go to picture-in-picture, so I kinda zone out, distracted by ads for Bill & Ted Face the Music and Door Dash before we return to full screen in time to see Diamante Tornado Suplex Allie off the ropes. Both women are down, feeling the pain, but they are able to tag in their partners. Ivelisse quickly takes down the Nightmare Sisters and slams Brandi down for a pin, but she kicks out.

Ivelisse and Diamante both grab Brandi's arms for some sort of move, but she manages to slam both women into each other instead. She then Spears Diamante down. Allie is tagged back in and she does her Falling Elbow Slam on Diamante and tries to go for a pin but Ivelisse breaks it. She also throws Brandi out of the ring.

Diamante does a flying elbow that knocks Allie down. QT Marshall tries to get into the ring and Ivelisse kicks him out. Ivelisse flips back and backwards tosses Brandi out of the ropes where she lands on top of Marshall. Due to being distracted, Allie gets caught in a Stunner from Diamante. Ivelisse grabs her and rolls along the mat her, stopping to kick her in the face. Ivelisse goes for the pin and actually gets the 1-2-3! 

Diamante and Ivelisse are the Tag Team Champs! They not only get the cup but also individual medals.

My Opinions- 

It was a pretty decent match, but I guess since they were pressed for time, and the title was on the line, the women went right to the point. We didn't see Brandi messing around with her action figures, or any moment where you can tell Allie isn't too thrilled about teaming with Brandi as Ivelisse and Diamante are. The picture-in-picture kinda threw me out of it, like I tried to stayed invested since this was the big final match, but I kinda wish this was one of the matches without it.

There some good moves, like the Tornado Suplex by Diamante and I liked seeing Allie's falling elbow slam, which I hope is a finisher of hers. I actually thought she was gonna win it there as a callback to their last win. That rolling move that Ivelisse did that ended with a boot to the face was really cool and hard to describe, you just have to see it in motion, but it was impressive.

Other than that, there wasn't too much to say. I think it would have worked out better if they just had it on Youtube so they wouldn't be so pressed for time and have more memorable moments, like more Brandi shenanigans, but I guess it was a good way to lure people into not missing this special Saturday episode of AEW Dynamite.

On another note, the final match of the night was Mr Brodie Lee VS Cody for the TNT Championship, in which the Leader of the Dark Order completely destroyed Cody. The members of the Dark Order also threw in Dustin and QT Marshall, who we can assume were beat up backstage. To top it off, Brandi ran in to defend Cody from further harm... and Mr Brodie Lee sent in Anna Jay, who also participated in this tournament, to get Brandi in a choke hold until she passed out. It'll be exciting to see what happens in later episodes to see if Diamante and Ivelisse will continue to be a team going forward, and also how much further Anna Jay sinks within the Dark Order.

Overall it was a fun tournament and I liked the randomness of the teams, and hey we got to see Tay Conti and Rachael Ellering. I hope we get a longer tournament next time with even more members.