The Huge Untapped Potential Of AEW's Anna Jay
She was subsequently marketed as the 'Queenslayer', and in a match promoted to advance the ongoing Dark Order Vs. Nightmare Family programme, she was given the shot on TNT to keep that heat simmering. Late Night Dynamite's Anna Jay Vs. Brandi Rhodes was a no less remarkable match than her AEW debut, and - this is the deeply promising part - very different. Anna Jay Vs. Hikaru Shida was a competitive exhibition in which the rookie was led a by a superb veteran worker. Brandi, who has quietly impressed since her return to the ring in 2020, is nonetheless a part-time wrestler.
But they had a story to tell - Brandi wanted to exact revenge for her bloodied husband, and this heel version of Anna Jay is now fully "in" with the Dark Order as Brodie's favourite - and they told it rather well.
They over-delivered, really; in the heat of a physical battle, worked with a believable and committed intensity consistent with the tone, Jay steadily rose to her feet to commence a stiff exchange of forearms. Watch Jay closely in this sequence, and you will see her sell the effects of the match and slowly attempt to get back into it. She trains her eyes on Brandi, using the hatred she has of her as fuel to get over the pain. For a wrestler who has barely performed, she is quite exceptional at losing herself in the performance. Jay also impressed on Dark and in the Deadly Draw, in which she took a believable pasting at the hands of Nyla Rose as glimpse into her nailed-on future as a super-marketable babyface.
What's very important to note here is that, as we've learned on one too many episodes of Dynamite lately, the nationally televised stage is intensely pressurised.
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