WoW (Women of Wrestling) Season 8 Episode 1 Review

 By Mark Rodriguez

Women of Wrestling has been around for several years but now thanks to AJ Lee it came back with all new episodes in 2022. Let's check out the first episode of their epic comeback as heroes face villains. 

Match 1- Chantilly Chella & Randi Rah Rah vs The Tonga Twins

Randi starts the first round of the tag team tournament match grappling with one of the twins and is slammed to the mat. Randi leaps onto the back of her opponent but is easily pulled off with a snapmare. The Tonga Twin grabs Randy for a hip toss but she lands on her feet. The Cheerleader sends her to the mat with a flying headscissors. 

The Twin tags her sister in (the commentary really isn't a good job helping us tell Kaoz and Kona apart) and Randi trips her down. The Tonga Twin tries to pick her up but Randi flips back to her feet. Randi takes this chance to tag in Chantilly. Chantilly throws some kicks and the follows up with a dropkick that barely moves her larger opponent back. Chantilly does a second dropkick that plants the Twin up against the ropes. Chantilly finally gets the Twin off her feet with an armdrag, which makes her roll out of the ring. She then jumps out of the ring after her but the Tonga Twin catches her and slams her into the ring apron. 

The Tonga Twin tags her sister in and they both whip Chantilly against the ringpost and then double-clothesline her as she bounces forward. The Twin goes for the pin but Chantilly kicks out. The Twin grabs her and tosses her over to their corner where she tags her sister back in. Her sister gets into the ring and starts stomping on Chantilly. Both Tonga Twins takes turns doing running body splashes on Chantilly and she drops like a rock. One of the Twins tries for a pin but Chantilly kicks out. 

Chantilly manages to get to the ropes and do a flying bodysplash on her opponent just gets shoved off before she can pin her. Chantilly is hanging off the ropes and her opponent kicks at her and presses her boot up against the back of her neck. With the ref distracted, the other sister lands a cheap shot on Chantilly. 

Somehow Chantilly manages to leap out to tag in Randi who lands an inzuigiri on the Tonga Twin. She then gets her in a snapmare and follows up with a blockbuster. Randi goes for the pin but can't keep her down. Randi goes for the ropes and does a moonsault but only eats the mat as her opponent got out of the way. The other Twin comes in and kicks Randi around. Chantilly runs in to help but the Twin throws her up against the ringpost. With both Chantilly and Randi sitting up against the ringposts on opposite sides, the Tonga Twins runs at both of them with hip attacks. They then switch places and do 2 more hip attacks against their smaller opponents. One of the sisters throws Chantilly out of the ring. The other picks up Randi in a fireman's carry. The Twins both drop Randin a combination Samoan Drop/NeckBreaker. The twin goes for the pin and wins the match. The Tonga Twins win the first match of the tag team tournament. 

Match 2- Coach Campanelli vs Kandi Krush

The match opens with The Coach dodging Kandi's attempts to grapple with her. Kandi finally grabs her for a headlock takedown. Campanelli managed to get Kandi's neck in a leglock. Kandi gets out of it and grabs her in another headlock. Campanelli bounces her opponent against the ropes but the boxer knocks her down with a shoulder tackle. Kandi goes for a quick roll up but can't keep The Coach down. Kandi grabs The Coach into the arm drag twice, getting her into an arm bar the second time. 

Campanelli stomps on Kandi's foot to break free and runs for the ropes. Kandi knocks her down with a short arm clothesline. The Coach rolls out of the ring to regroup. She gets back in the ring and takes a swing at her. As Kandi ducks, Campanelli grabs her and slams her back onto the mat. Campanelli runs into Kandi, who dodges her, and she eats the turnbuckle. Kandi runs after her and The Coach trips her into the turnbuckle as well. 

The Coach picks up Kandi and bodyslams her. She then stomps on Kandi's fingers and starts slamming her hand into the mat several times. The Coach gets Kandi in an arm bad, wrenching back the fingers she just stomped on and even bites her hand. She then grabs Kandi and slams her face first into the turnbuckle and gets her fingers into the ropes. 

Kandi angrily smacks Campanelli in the face. As she lunges at her, The Coach grabs her and slams her in a neckbreaker. The Coach goes for the pin but Kandi shoves her off. Campanelli then gets behind her and pulls both of her arms back while driving her knee into her spine. The crowd roots for Kandi as she tries to get back to her feet and power out of it.

Kandi hits Campanelli with several elbows to the midsection, finally freeing herself from her grip. The boxer runs for the ropes and knocks her opponent down with a clothesline. Kandi then picks her up and slams her with a Death Valley Driver and goes for the pin. The Coach has her foot on the ropes so that breaks the pin. As Campanelli gets up, Kandi hits her with a jumping right hook to the jaw (Supergirl punch?) which lays her out. Kandi goes for the pin and wins the match!

Match 3- BK Rhythm vs Vivian Rivera

BK opens up with a diss rap on Vivian before dropping the mic. As the two lock up, Vivian tries to flip BK but she lands on her feet. Vivian doesn't let go of her arm and send her flying with an armdrag. Both women run at each other, avoiding each other with quick moves and leaping over one another. Vivian grabs BK's arm and goes for a pin but can't keep her down. BK kicks her but Vivian grabs her for a second pin attempt but she kicks out. 

BK gets Vivian in a Sleeper Hold but she manages to get back up to her feet and get out of it. BK hammer punches Vivian across the back and whips her up against the turnbuckle. She hit her with a running shoulder tackle and then lays her out with a kick. BK goes for the pin but Vivian kicks out.

BK gets Vivian in an abdominal stretch and rubs her elbow under her arm. Vivian tries to punch her way out of this painful hold. Vivian picks her up and slams BK down with a sidewalk slam. She goes for the pin but the rapper kicks out. Vivian grabs BK with the snapmare and then grabs her in the armbar. BK tries to change positions so she can pin her, but Vivian breaks the hold. Vivian grabs BK in a Swinging Neckbreaker and goes for another pin, still unable to keep her down. Both women struggle to get back to their feet, and Vivian manages to get BK in a suplex. Vivian Riveria gets her in a pin and gets the win. 

Match 4- Adriana Gambino vs The Beast (Current WoW Champ)

As the Main Event begins, The Beast does a lunging swing that Adriana manages to duck over. Adriana taunts the champ and dodges another attack, grabbing her in a rear waist lock. The champ moves back, slamming Adriana up against the ringpost. With the challenger dazed, The Beast grabs her and flings her clear across the ring. As Adriana tries to recover, The Beast grabs her and throws her across the ring a second time. The Beast charges towards her and hits the ringpost as Adriana gets out of the way. Adriana takes this chance to pin her but can't keep her down.

Adriana grabs the champ and tries to slam her face into the turnbuckle. The Beast slams the brakes on this and slams her opponent's face into the turnbuckle instead. The Beast picks her up but Adriana manages to slip out of it and hits her behind the knee. Adriana tries to wrench the champ's leg against the ropes but she gets pushed back. The Beast now has a bad leg but she is able to grab Adriana and power slam her to the mat. Rather than pin her, The Beast grabs her by the hair and picks her up for a Power Bomb. Adriana rakes her across the eyes and tries to grab her for a slam. The Beast reverses it and slams Adriana with a suplex. 

The Beast sprained her back a bit during that move and also still tends to her bad leg. As she heads over to grab Adriana, she's taken by surprise by a jawbreaker from the challenger. As the champ tries to recover, Adriana hits her with a running body splash. Adriana goes for a punch but the champ catches her arm. The Beast angrily glares into Adriana's face as she holds tightly to her wrist and then flings her hard against the ringpost. She then runs and violently crashes into the challenger with a body splash. 

With Adriana rattled, The Beast kicks her in the midsection, then picks her up and slams her down with the Power Bomb. The Beast pins Adriana Gambino and retains the WoW Championship.

My thoughts- 

To begin, I haven't been able to catch the episode itself (I think it's on Pluto TV?) but the WoW  Youtube channel has all 4 of the matches that took place. That being said, I missed if there were any interviews or pre match/post match shenanigans. I did notice that AJ Mendez (AJ Lee) was on commentary, which she might be in every episode from here on out.

The first match was pretty good, the Tonga Twins showed off their power and I liked the resolve in both Randi and Chantilly. It was just tough to call because it was impossible to tell the twins apart and at some point the commentary flat out admitted they couldn't tell them apart. C'mon guys, if you can't tell who's Kaoz and Kona, how is the audience supposed to know? There was a bizzare edit where one of the twins landed a cheap shot on Chantilly's face, knocking her down and then suddenly she's jumping out to tag in Randi. Then AJ mentioned and inzuigiri moments before Randi would do one on her opponent. That was odd. Either way I liked the match.

The second match though was pretty basic. It did get more interesting once Campanelli started inflicting damage on Kandi's arm and fingers and how Kandi still managed to get the win. I guess the match was a bit slower paced and a bit more technical but it felt so-so to me.

The third match was fast paced and exciting with both BK and Vivian were running circles around each other, leaping over each other and reversing each other's moves. Vivian also had these impressive armlock holds that she would turn into pins. It was a fun match and both women were impressive.

The main event was fun. The Beast showed her power, everything she does has impact behind it. You almost feel the pain, and she really rocks the ring with every bodyslam. To her credit, Adriana actually put her through her paces, especially when she started working on the leg. There were times when both women were down, which is impressive giving how dominant the champ presents herself. That Power Bomb was just awesome and the crowd was really loving it. The match had an odd edit or something where after Adriana ran into her, The Beast did.. something to knock her back but the camera was either too zoomed in or too panned down to clearly show what happened. Other than that, it was an awesome match to close the show. 

So far WoW is pretty good. I like the flashy intros everyone gets and the roster is full of very entertaining and colorful characters like Kandi Krush, BK Rythym and The Beast full of personality. I can't wait to watch more episodes and see of these lethal ladies in action.