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TBS Championship
Kris Statlander versus Mercedes Moné (c)
Nyla Rose. Hikaru Shida. Britt Baker. Skipping Riho (which I’m sure that match will happen) Mercedes Moné made sure to defend the TBS Championship against AEW Originals. The second, third, and fourth Women’s World Champions.
She can’t beat Jade Cargill because she’s presumably wrestling in another company now (I can’t say for sure I haven’t heard about her really doing anything in the past year) but Moné has beaten Willow Nightingale which means there’s only two other former TBS Champions she can face: Julia Hart (who is just returning to AEW) and Kris Statlander.
Statlander is an AEW Original, part of the 2019 AEW Class and a major signing for All Elite Wrestling in their early days. Statlander was sought after by the WWE and went to All Elite Wrestling due to guaranteed TV time and a better deal. The only reason she didn’t become AEW Women’s World Champion already was due to injuries, suffering a bad one in June of 2020 and again in August of 2022. It’s why when Statlander returned her first match was defeating Jade Cargill for the TBS Championship.
I bring up these former champions because I feel Mercedes Moné is making her statement on All Elite Wrestling by beating all of the former champions she can. Whether it’s from the Women’s World Championship or the TBS Championship she wants to prove she stands above all. Thunder Rosa, Toni Storm, and Jamie Hayter I’m sure are on the list.
It actually surprises me this program wasn’t Jamie Hayter facing Mercedes Moné. Hayter had just come back from injury and you would think if she wasn’t going after Mariah May she’d at least go after Moné. Instead Hayter is spending time in the midcard getting wins but a bit directionless.
I also thought Hayter feuding with Kris Statlander to be that third women’s program would have been absolutely perfect. The two hardest hitters in AEW’s Women’s Division going toe to toe with the winner going after a championship post Full Gear. Pretty much what happened between Willow and Kris. Instead, Kris Statlander abruptly dropped Stokely Hathaway as manager and turned babyface.
That babyface turn was done so poorly and was so abrupt I just can’t get over it to get into this program. Statlander feels like she’s going through the motions of someone who isn’t a heel anymore instead of being a pure babyface the crowd loves. The AEW fans do love Kris but this isn’t the way she was supposed to come back to them.
She was supposed to come back in a Best Friends reunion. Just like Trent. Just like Yuta. That’s the way you turn babyface. You reunite with Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor and be a family again. Or rather, be Best Friends again. Instead she’s a babyface because I guess that’s how she could get a title shot right now. Maybe this was a decision to make after Willow suffered a concussion but I don’t think it was the right one.
The program between Mercedes and Kris is fine. It’s fine. It isn’t hot or heated, something that Mercedes programs have struggled to get since she won the TBS Championship. She has yet to find that AEW rival. I thought it could have been Hikaru Shida but the matches there got progressively worse instead of better. Maybe it’s Riho when she’s ready to return. Maybe Hayter is next.
As you can see, I don’t think it’s Kris Statlander. Maybe the match changes my mind on that. At one point it felt like the program was more about Brickhouse Kamille against Kris Statlander but they quickly moved Kamille to the “You don’t talk” muscle role after the car crash segment.
Maybe that’s all this is and that’s fine. It’s just a TBS Championship program to get to the next month. But with Mariah May drowning a bit, the women’s division went from one of the hottest in the company to pretty cold in just a few months. The talent is there. We just need a program to really come alive. I don’t believe in Statlander here. I don’t think Moné is in legitimate fear of dropping her title. But it’s also not bad work. It’s fine.
I hope they surprise me at Full Gear.
