WOW Women of Wrestling TV - 01/18 - 01/25 2019 DVD

Below are review write ups of the episodes instead of match listings.

01/18/2019:
Last night, WOW Women of Wrestling made its debut on AXS TV. The promotion had actually been around off and on since 2000, but with the success of GLOW on Netflix and a shift in how women’s wrestling is portrayed in WWE, the times have probably finally caught up to the idea of a women’s only wrestling show in the United States.

The show started with WOW co-owner David McLane in the ring as he introduced WOW Champion Santana Garrett. Santana Garrett’s dad, Kenny G was in the crowd. He had a breathing tube in and got emotional seeing his daughter in the ring.


This lead to Tessa Blanchard coming out and cutting a promo talking about her family’s wrestling lineage, and how Garrett’s dad couldn’t lace her father’s boots. Blanchard said she’s in WOW for “one thing only,” Garrett’s title.

McLane told Tessa in WOW she has to earn her way up the ladder to get a championship match. McLane then asked her to leave. Garrett told her “If you want a shot at my championship, get to the back of the line, girlfriend.”


Credit: WOW Holdings LLC
I thought this segment did a good job of introducing Garrett and making it known she is the champion while at the same time introducing Blanchard to set up what is sure to be the show’s main rivalry at the start. I didn’t like that Garrett told Blanchard to get to the back of the line since Garrett was portrayed as the face here. She shouldn’t be avoiding someone who just disrespected her father in that way.

A video package was next showing how in the last season of the show (which only aired online) Abeline Maverick had tricked Stephy Slays into a match with The Beast (much like Mr. Glass gets David Dunn to fight The Beast in Glass!). The Beast had destroyed her so Slays wants a rematch.


The Beast vs. Stephy Slays

The Beast dominated early but Stephy Slays had a little bit of a comeback. The Beast cut it off though but then ended up posing while going for the pin allowing Slays to kick out at two. The Beast finished off Slays with a powerbomb. After the match, The Beast got on the mike and said: “I’m the biggest, I’m the baddest, I’m The Beast.”

This did a good job establishing The Beast as… well, a beast. She has a really good look and a good presence. I can see The Beast really becoming one of the breakout stars from this show.


A vignette on Fire (Kiera Hogan) aired next. This was really well done. The vignettes WOW is doing is a great way to introduce the wrestlers.

Abilene Maverick vs. Fire

Abeilene Maverick is Barbi Hayden on the indies. Both Maverick and Fire are good wrestlers, so it was no surprise this was a really solid match. They traded control early in the match, but Maverick won with a hanging DDT.

A preview for next week’s episode aired and Princess Aussie, who is Simone Sherie from Santino Bros., was shown.


Backstage a doctor was tending to Slays and Maverick was talking trash to her. Khloe Hurtz (Katie Forbes on the indies) walked between them and pushed Maverick up against the wall. Hurtz looked at the camera and said: “It’s Khloe time.”

Khloe Hurtz vs. Eye Candy

Eye Candy wrestles on the indies as Willow Nightengale and is pretty good. She was one of the stars of an AWS/Rise double shot weekend in South Gate last year. Candy controlled the early part of the match but Hurtz hit a backstabber to gain control. This didn’t last long and Candy retook control of the match and finished Hurtz off with a moonsault.

A segment was shown with Siren The Voodoo Doll. She was in a room with all sorts of occult items. She said she has been to hell and back and has been transformed. This came off hokey.

Another great video package highlighting a wrestler’s background was shown, this time for Santana Garrett. These are really good.

A video package for Jungle Grrrl was next. They mentioned she has never been pinned in WOW. She’s been in WOW since the beginning. It wasn’t mentioned but after WOW went on hiatus in 2001, Jungle Grrrl began training at UPW’s Ultimate University and eventually won the UPW Women’s Championship. If there would have had a Southern California Women’s Wrestler of the Year award in 2003, she probably would have won it.

Santana Garrett vs. Jungle Grrrl for the WOW Championship

Jungle Grrrl had the upper hand pretty much from the start. She hit a Jungle Driver on Garrett and barely missed hitting Garrett with her finishing move, a Superfly splash. Tessa Blanchard came out and twisted Garrett’s father’s breathing tubes, causing him to start choking, and Garrett to leave the ring after her. Whoa, Blanchard is willing to actually murder someone to get a title shot. This lead to Garrett losing by count-out.

Blanchard got in the ring, and an upset Jungle Grrrl hit her with a Jungle Driver. This was followed by The Beast getting in the ring and into Jungle Grrrl’s face. David McLane was screaming on commentary they were running out of airtime and the show went off the air with The Beast and Jungle Grrrl still in mid staredown.

I thought this was really well done and was a good way to set up several different feuds. They really established Tessa Blanchard as a heel with the assault on Garrett’s dad (who really had medical issues and sadly passed away in December after these shows were filmed).

I’ll get the bad out of the way first. I didn’t care for David McLane on commentary. He was way over the top and took away from the matches more than he added to it. There were also times when fake crowd noise was used, and I’ll never be a fan of that.

The production quality was top notch and better than any other wrestling shows outside of what WWE is doing. The focus on adding more quality wrestlers has also greatly improved the match quality over previous seasons. They did an excellent job of introducing the wrestlers and the important parts of what happened pre-AXS, which allows new viewers to jump right in.

Overall I thought WOW Women of Wrestling was really well done and was a fun hour of wrestling.

01/25/2019:

Tonight’s second episode of WOW – Women of Wrestling on AXS TV featured Tessa Blanchard’s in-ring debut for the promotion in a match with The Beverly Hills Babe Amber O’Neal. We also had the debuts of Princess Aussie and Siren the Voodoo Doll, and an incredibly well-timed promo by Jessie Jones.

This week opened with a recap of last week’s episode, focusing mainly on the stuff between Tessa Blanchard and Santana Garrett.


Next we are in the ring with Santana Garrett and David McLane. Garrett says she wants a match with Blanchard. This is good. One of my criticisms last week was that Garrett did accept the heel Blanchard’s challenge. This brought Blanchard to the ring and her and Garrett began to brawl right away. All the ref were out to break it up.


After they were separated, McLane said that Blanchard had to earn a title shot in WOW and put her in a match with The Beverly Hills Babe, and former Bullet Babe (though Bullet Club is 4 lyfe), Amber O’Neal.

There was a really great vignette for Princess Aussie next. She grew up in Australia and her mom had to work so she was raised by a tribe. This was really well done and a great intro to her character. WOW is knocking it out of the park with these things. Princess Aussie wrestles locally as Simone Sherie and was trained at Santino Bros. and people there are really high on her.

After the vignette, we are back at the Belasco and David McLane points out Jackie Stallone is in the audience. Stallone was a big part of the original GLOW.


Siren The Voodoo Doll vs. Princess Aussie

Princess Aussie came to the ring with a group of tribesmen. Siren controlled the early part of the match. Aussie came back when she hit a tornado DDT from the middle rope. The finish saw Aussie hit a frog splash for the pin. I think this may have been Aussie’s second match after having one match on a Santino Bros. show. This was a decent match. They kept it fairly basic and it was short but it was a good intro to both wrestlers.

Next, up we have Tessa Blanchard cutting a promo at Muscle Pharm in Burbank. She mentioned how she’ll do whatever it takes to get the WOW Championship and then ran down The Beverly Hills Babe. Even though she’s now The Beverly Hills Babe, Tessa said she’s still the same sloppy Amber O’Neal. Tessa Blanchard is pretty good at promos.


A Jessie Jones video package was next. She is a country girl who Selina Majors convinced to move out to Los Angeles. Majors brought in another prospect to team with Jones, but Jones was too rough on her and she had to be stretchered out of their training.

Jessie Jones vs. Azteca

Jessie Jones is in the ring and says she wants to “make wrestling great again.” She then started talking about the wall that President Trump wants to build on the southern border and called everyone hypocrites for living in gated communities but not wanting the wall. So this was taped in October, but what amazing timing with everything in the news the last couple of weeks.

Azteca, who wrestles on the indies as Gisele Shaw, was the clear crowd favorite here. Azteca had some nice offense but hurt her arm when she crashed into the corner. This allowed Jones to work over Azteca’s arm and eventually get a submission win. Azteca had a nice looking corkscrew splash. I thought this was short but good. Jones delivered a really good promo too. The character development on this show is really top-notch between the vignettes, promos, and the commentary. They are doing an excellent job of introducing everyone to the world of WOW.


Backstage Amber O’Neal was putting champagne on ice for Lana Star. The world’s greatest attorney Sophia Lopez showed up.

There was a video package showing how Amber O’Neal became the Beverly Hills Babe. She used to team with Santana Garrett as the All American Girls before they were forced to vacate the WOW tag team titles. She was then corrupted by Lana Star. Good stuff here.

Tessa Blanchard vs. Beverly Hills Babe Amber O’Neal

Lana Star joined the broadcast team for the match. At one point O’Neal did a move and Star claimed she taught her that. McLane said he’s never seen her do it and she replied: “that’s because I gave it to her.” This was a pretty solid match. It was odd that they did a heel versus heel match for Blanchard’s in-ring debut, but it feels like they might be prepping O’Neal for a face turn. Blanchard won with a buzzsaw or hammerlock DDT.

Post-match Blanchard asked when she is going to get her title shot and delivered another really good promo. Garrett ran out to the ring and her and Blanchard started brawling again. The refs pulled them apart and the show went off the air.

This was another really good episode of WOW. Like I mentioned earlier, the character development on this show is top notch. The shows are also put together in a way that feels like they are taking the best parts of mid-1980s WWF and updating it with modern ring-work and video packages. It really feels nostalgic and fresh at the same time.