Given no story beyond a backstage challenge and a pre-show graphic, AEW Women's Champion Thunder Rosa and apparent Number One Contender Marina Shafir took to beating the absolute f*cking sh*t out of each other to generate some noise from a crowd understandably fairly uninvested in the match.
Gutting their way through the traditional death spot the division is typically afforded, this was better than Shafir's high profile loss to Jade Cargill by orders of magnitude, and if Thunder Rosa's only real role is going to be a fighting babyface Champion, she might has well have micro-bangers like this once a week.
That may very well be the case following the post-match too - Toni Storm made an appearance after the match to save Rosa from a beatdown, and gave the belt an NXT-style long stare to indicate her intention. That should rule too. Baby steps?
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
