7 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Revolution 2023 (Review)

4. Women's Three-Way JUST Gets Over The Line

If the standard in-house review format at WhatCulture Wrestling was 'Ups, Downs, & In-Betweens', this would fall under the latter category - but as it stands, Jamie Hayter Vs. Ruby Soho Vs. Saraya was just about good enough to warrant an 'Up'.

There was a far better women's match on free television 48 hours before this one happened, which isn't ideal, but the crowd was remarkably up for it. Too often, Tony Khan has asked the women to follow the Elite, which is hardly fair. Whatever you think of their work, they are guaranteed to make the AEW live crowds go banana.

The San Francisco crowd actually reacted to much of three-way match, which really wasn't half-bad for what it was. The genre trappings are what they are, but the fake selling on the outside wasn't as egregious as it all too often can be, and the action was physical and was constructed well enough to wrong-foot the audience. Any time one wrestler seemed to grab the advantage, a well-timed interception kept the momentum going. The oft-derided Saraya was up for this; she wasn't outclassed, and took a nasty-looking Saito suplex from Ruby Soho. This was encouraging; she's bound to work Hayter in a singles match this year, and proved herself capable of the inevitable sh*t-kicking that comes with it.

The post-match angle was mixed. The timing was poor.

Ruby Soho turned after beating up Saraya throughout the match. She should have dwelled on the result and the frustration and turned on Dynamite before doing the if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them deal here.

Still, it was a newsworthy development that, and this is probably generous, at least means that the bad acting of melodramatic inner conflict is over with. The stable warfare storyline is set now - and if there was a lesson to be learned at Revolution, it's that you should let things play out in this promotion.