Mark's Review on AEW Women's Tag Team Cup Tournament: The Deadly Draw Night 2 Quarter Finals | 8/10/20

 By Mark Rodriguez

The AEW Women's Tournament for the first ever Tag Team Champs continues. This is shown on Youtube every Monday evening and it comes with the theme where women must pick different colored chips to determine their tag partner. This means their partner is completely at random and might not be someone they can get along with, or already have personal beef with. Not only that, but we also see some surprise entrants besides the usual AEW Women Roster. 

Rache' Chanel & Leva Bates (with Peter Avalon) VS Big Swole & Lil' Swole

The match started off between Lil' Swole and Rache'. After a quick grapple between the ladies, Lil' Swole tripped Rache' down and got her into a leglock. She then went for an Armbar but Rache' was quick enough to roll away and grab onto the ropes. 

Rache' tags Leva in but as they both discuss something, Lil Swole grabs Leva for a roll up pin. Rache' quickly pushes her off and now Lil Swole goes after her, despite her opponent now being Leva Bates. Lil Swole continues to attack Rache' out of the ring until Big Swole comes in to pick up her partner and carry her back to her corner to get her under control. 

Big Swole is finally tagged in and she quickly takes down Leva. Lil Swole is tagged back in and she is quick to grab Leva into more of her submission holds. Avalon distracts the ref while Rache' steps in to... rap the side of Lil Swole's head with a comb? This, at least, makes Lil Swole break the hold but she nails Rache' with a suplex.

While Lil Swole is talking trash to Rache', Leva grabs her from behind for a Back Stabber and then tried to pin her with a Fishermen Plex. Now Leva and Rache' are in control, pulling Lil Swole to their corner and tagging in and out as they beat her down. This time Rache' goes for a submission hold of her own but Lil Swole breaks out of it and beats her down. Big Swole is tagged in and she rushes in making short work of both women. She power slams Rache's down and goes for a pin, which someone she still gets out of.

Leva runs in and tackles Big Swole down with a Spear. She then makes sure she's legally tagged in and seems to be getting Big Swole ready for a Pedigree. Swole however reverses this and turns this into a pin. Rache' comes in and kicks Swole in the face, and the way she fell over now left Leva holding her in a pinning position. The ref was distracted by Lil Swole and Rache' fighting each other, and Leva goes to complain that she had her opponent down for a 3-count. 

Leva runs for a punch but Big Swole flings her into Lil Swole who superkicks her in the face. Big Swole then hits her with a headbutt and both women of the Swole team slammed Leva face first into the mat. Team Swole won the match.

After seeing a commercial for the new AEW Unrivaled Action Figures that are definitely NOT easy to find at any Walmart I've been in.... as well as All Out 2020, we see Ivelisse draw a poker chip and get paired up with Diamante. Surprisingly, Madusa shows up and tells Dasha, the one behind the draw and one of the AEW interviewers, that she herself will be drawing as well. She draws a chip and is paired up with none other than Rachael Ellering. This should be awesome. 

Ivelisse & Diamante VS Dasha & Rachael Ellering

Ivelisse and Dasha start things off trading a few shots, before Dasha surprisingly fired back and got her with an arm drag off the ropes. Dash does a handspring forearm onto Ivelisse, followed by a dropkick and Diamante gets tagged in. Diamante locks up with Dasha and goes for an armlock. Dasha reverses it and tags Rachael in who continued to grab the arm and bodyslam Diamante, while still holding onto the arm. 

Now with Diamante on the mat, Rachael turns the armlock into a submission move. Diamante fights back but Rachael and Dasha both grab onto her and suplex her. Diamante escapes a pin and shoves Dasha towards the ropes to where Ivelisse kicks her in the back, sending her down. Diamante tags Ivelisse in who proceeds to plant her foot into Dasha's neck. With the ref trying to get Ivelisse off her, Diamante also presses her foot onto Dasha. Ivelisse goes for a snap suplex into a pin, but Dasha breaks out.

Ivelisse gets Dasha into a Lotus Lock, basically tying Dasha's arms back with her legs which looks exceptionally painful. Dasha manages to break out of it, which causes Ivelisse to pummel the hell out of her back in frustration. The angry redhead swings Dasha back towards her corner so that Diamante can also get involved.

Diamante and Ivelisse would take turns bringing the pain to Dasha as they'd tag in and out. Both women would pick her and face plant her onto the mat, allowing Diamante to go for a pin. Dasha would break the pin, which would make Diamante fling her over to the ropes so Ivelisse can continue the punishment. Ivelisse would whip Dasha into the turnbuckle and get her ready for a kick. Dasha would roll under the kick and get her chance to finally tag Rachael in. Ivelisse would miss with her spinkick and hurt herself upon landing. 

Rachael runs in and kicks Ivelisse down and also knocks Diamante off the outside apron. She then runs and drops herself on top of Ivelisse for a pin, but she still breaks out. Ivelisse flings Rachael towards the ropes but this time Diamante grabs onto her. As Ivelisse comes in for a cheap shot, Rachael ducks out of the way, causing her to accidentaly clock her own tag partner. As Ivelisse is caught off guard by her mistake, she turns to eat a big right hand from Rachael. 

Rachael hits Ivelisse with a running splash with elbow, then a leg trip take down, ending with a legdrop off the ropes. Diamante is still able to rush in and break up a pin fall. Rachael kicks Diamante away and she tags in Dasha. Both women swing Ivelisse into the ropes, and then Dasha flings Rachael into her for another splash. This time Diamante pulls her partner out of the way, leading Rachael to run into the turnbuckle and take herself out. Dasha grabs onto Ivelisse's leg but the redhead is able to kick her face with her other leg and tag Diamante back in.

Diamante manages to nail Dasha with a Casadora Stunner. All four women are down, but Diamante forces herself up to run and kick Rachael out of the ring to prevent any more interference. Ivelisse is tagged back in. Diamante does a dropkick to keep Rachael at bay while Ivelisse slams Dasha down with a Destroyer, which finally scores her the win.

We end this with a few interviews here and there. The Swoles are hyped and full of energy. Dasha feels excited to have been in the ring rather than just announcing it or interviewing wrestlers and hopes she gets another shot to show off her skills. Diamante and Ivelisse remind everyone that they are a threat.

My Opinions-

Pretty good show. We get two matches, and similar to the first episode it seems the second one is more intense and serious than the first. Rache' and Leva play up their gimmicks pretty well. Rache' needs some work, it appears that after her first ever AEW Dark Match, she got so many bad reviews she shut off all her social media. People really do suck and I hope this doesn't prevent her from striving to improve and silence the haters.

 Leva is ok in the ring, I feel that when both she and Avalon are allowed to, they actually do showcase good fundamentals for wrestling moves. It's just their gimmicks that weight them down. Someone like Allie for example, has already had 3 gimmicks on AEW, maybe someday Leva will shed the librarian role for something that allows her to score more wins. She is just too good to be jobbing all the time. 

The Swole Family are always full of dynamic energy and charisma, it seems Lil Swole is full of submission moves while Big Swole is out to knock your lights out. It was a decent match with enough little moments here and there and the ladies playing up their gimmicks.

The second match was surprising with Dasha Fuentes being called to action, but she was quick to show off decent in-ring ability and athleticism. She did a very good job.

Rachael Ellering was another awesome surprise. Having been in the Mae Young Classic as well under the ring name Rachel Evers, it was good to see her back. The Queen of Strong Smile seemed a little more... 'thicc' this time around, but it hasn't slowed down her mobility in the slightest. She was still running around all over the place and she just felt like more of a powerhouse, bowling Diamante and Ivelisse over. She recently had a Dark Match against Penelope Ford as well, so hopefully AEW signs her up as well.

Both Diamante and Ivelisse are pretty awesome. Their first match in AEW was them facing each other, so the question was how well they would work as a unit here. I have to say the first half of the match was mostly to show off that Dasha can work in the ring and to welcome Rachael and give her some spots, I was wondering if those two were ever going to get any offense in. Once they did though, they did do some impressive moves and slams. They both give the impression of women you never ever want to cross, and like Diamante said, together they are a threat to watch out for.

The second match was awesome, though it got better for me when Diamante and Ivelisse were allowed some offense. There were a few sloppy spots here and there though. There was a moment where there was an attempted pinfall but Aubrey the ref hesitated to start the count for a second until someone could come in and break the pin. The excuse was 'Ivelisse had her leg under the ropes' which unless I was wrong when watching it twice, no it was not. Another time it looked like Rachael was about to get up but she realized she was supposed to stay down. Little things like that, at least for me, were not enough to ruin the match, but I'm surprised. I'm usually not as eagle-eyed as some of my friends to catch some of these botches, but these were pretty darn obvious.

 Still a good match, I'm glad Diamante and Ivelisse won, they had a good showing in their AEW debut and this helps keeps the momentum going. It also shows that having a guest like Rachael Ellering doesn't guarantee you a win, so it keeps things unpredictable.

With the semi-finals coming up, it seems we saw all the ladies there were to see for this tournament. Kind wish we had a semi-quarter finals. I mean we still have Kris Stratlander and Shanna. And hey, I wouldn't mind seeing Teal Piper make an appearance, or Priscilla Kelly. Oh well, I guess we do have to take the pandemic into account.

Regardless, Diamante and Ivelisse VS Tay Conti and Anna Jay is sure to be killer.