Against the backdrop of a General Election result that didn’t go to plan (for most of the fanbase), and with Christmas approaching at full speed, EVE returned to the Resistance Gallery for their final show of the year.
We open with a recap of SHE-1, covering how Millie McKenzie left the Resistance Gallery with the eaten apple trophy, before we have a cold open as Laura di Matteo hits the ring… stopping to pick up that Ikea green chair.
Laura’s got something to say, once she gets through the EVE rules. I’m all for getting rid of the fluff. She calls out Rhia O’Reilly, and is holding the show hostage until the champion appears. Luckily, Rhia doesn’t take long to appear, but she denies Laura’s request for a match, all because she didn’t win SHE-1… and that made Laura fly into a rage, attacking Rhia before Livvii Grace came in and was tripped into the chair. O-kay… Commentary comes from Sophia Lang and eventually Dann Read.
Jinny vs. Sammii Jayne
Sammii Jayne’s slowly endearing herself to the crowds of EVE, but again against Jinny, it’d not be hard!
Sammii starts by working over Jinny’s wrist, before taking it down to the mat for the obligatory escape and stand-off. Jinny’s back in with a leg grapevine, before Sammii’s attempt to counter ended in the ropes… a second go led to a springboard armdrag and a pin for a near-fall, before Jinny started to throw in pinning attempts of her own. The back-and-forth pinning attempts troll Tom Scarborough, before Jinny charged in with a leaping knee for a near-fall.
Sammii’s back with some forearms and uppercuts, before Jinny took her down for a Tyler Bate-ish flip senton. Forearms and elbows drop Sammii for a near-fall, but while Sammii hits a Samoan driver for a near-fall, before an X-Factor out of the corner took Jinny a little closer. Jinny goes for what looked like a piledriver, but she’s caught by a roll-up… and that’s the win for Sammii Jayne. A good TV-style bout, but I’m not sure this should be looked at as an upset. **½
A note here about Sophia – I’m getting a real “BBC Radio 5 Live commentator” vibe from her – her work is totally different to anything EVE’s recently had, and has her more in line with Ollie Hogben, for those who remember that far back.
Sammii and Jinny hug after the match, before Jinny took the mic and blamed her loss on being ill. Jinny then told Mercedez Blaze that she’s breaking up the Diamond Vogue Collective so she could focus on singles wrestling… before she brought up the injured Kanji, asking for a tag team match with Kanji for the EVE titles when she’s back. Well, I mean, there’s better ways to break up your tag team…
Nina Samuels interrupts, and called out Jinny for going soft. It seems that Nina wants to do a wrestle too, but it’ll not be against Millie McKenzie, who’s ill. There’s clearly a bug going around, eh? Nina challenges Sammii to a match, and we’re on…
Nina Samuels vs. Sammii Jayne
Jinny’s staying at ringside for this, and it almost ends quickly as a roll-up got Sammi a two-count.
Sammii follows up with a ‘rana out of the corner, but Nina turns it around, trapping Sammii in the ropes for a dropkick. A chinlock keeps Sammii down as Nina looked to capitalise on the fact that her opponent had already wrestled a match. A knee to the back doesn’t help Sammii’s case either, nor did a Curt Hennig-esque neck flip, before a battle of backslides led to Nina pulling Sammii into a Gory stretch.
Sammii manages to get to the ropes to rebound free ahead of an enziguiri, and the momentum continues to build with a series of forearms. Nina tries to come back with a dropkick, but it’s avoided as Sammi hit back with Shadowfax, only for Nina to return with a big boot and a corkscrew plancha back inside for a near-fall. Another fight back from Sammii looked to lead to a superplex, but Nina gets free and goes for a sunset bomb… but Sammii clung on until the grip was broken as a Ligerbomb almost got the win. In the end though, Nina went for the Go 2 Sleep, but Sammii got free and rolled her up for the win – that’s two roll-ups and two Ws for Sammii. Hopefully two pay cheques too! **¾
After the match, Nina challenged Jinny to a match at WrestleQueendom… I guess neither of them are getting Taken Over, because that clashes with a show in Blackpool. By the way, WrestleQueendom 3 isn’t at York Hall – EVE moved it to 229 The Venue at Great Portland Street, London.
Gisele Shaw headed out next, forcing Emily to redo the intro, but this time calling her the “Ace of EVE”. Her rationalisation? By beating Millie McKenzie in the tournament, she should have that title. The crowd’s going all in on the Charlie Morgan stuff, but Gisele’s looking to one-up Millie by beating her to a tag title match with the Woke Queens… and they’ll give it to her tonight if she can find a partner.
EVE Championship: Jetta vs. Rhia O’Reilly (c)
Jetta’s finally joined Twitter… which feels like one of the last hold-outs has fallen.
Jetta begins with a jump start, before they both tripped each other on the way to Jetta’s curb stomp. A Samoan drop gets Rhia back in it, only for Jetta to come back with a People’s Princess elbow as Rhia’d drawn some blood. Nightshade gets involved from the apron, pulling Jetta off the top rope as Jetta’s left a bloody mess with a bad knee. The bad knee helped Jetta avoid a charge, as they teased a stoppage. Rhia doesn’t wait and punts the bad leg away. Jetta tries for a roll-up, but it’s done in the ropes as Rhia got up and went back to the knee, following in with a Rhiadjustment DDT… then another… and that’s all folks. Not even three and a half minutes made this a decisive win, but if Nightshade hadn’t gotten involved, how would it have panned out? **
Post-match, Rhia goes after Jetta’s knee again, before Laura di Matteo rushed the ring to make a save.
This show’s almost an hour old, and we’ve had under 20 minutes of wrestling mixed in with the promos and angles. That’s raw..
Mercedez Blaze vs. Heidi Katrina
So Mercedez is on her own after being let down gently by Jinny earlier in the evening… I think Mercedez took all of the sparkling diamonds in the divorce agreement though.
Blaze attacks Katrina from behind as she was playing to the crowd… then scarpered when Heidi refused to register it. Mercedez tries again, but it still doesn’t work (nor did that Blockbusters reference!), as Heidi responded with a wrecking dropkick. Running elbows in the corner follow as Heidi worked into a standing legdrop for just a one-count. Blaze heads onto the apron again… where she’s eventually joined by Heidi, but a leg sweep got Mercedez on top as she went to choke on Heidi back inside. Running double knees into the corner, then a suplex out of it gets Blaze a near-fall, before Mercedez struggled to lock in a full nelson.
Katrina fights out, then tripped Mercedez into an old school Giant Swing. Mercedez tries to run away again, but she’s pulled into the ropes and met with a legdrop… but Blaze grabbed the bottom rope to save a pin. A crossbody from Blaze is caught and turned into a fallaway slam, but Mercedez managed to land a spear off the middle rope as she tried to get back in it. From there, Heidi lands a stunner before going up top for a Tennessee Jam legdrop… and that’s the win at just under seven minutes. Pretty one-sided, and based off of that I’d expect them to be getting behind Heidi again in the new year. **¼
Laura Di Matteo vs. Nightshade
We’ve another jump start as Laura dove onto Nightshade before the bell, throwing her into the ring apron before the bell went.
Dropkicks and forearms have Nightshade rocked, but she’s able to duck an enziguiri and nearly kill Laura with a back senton for a near-fall. Restraining Laura, Nightshade decks her with a forearm, before Laura came back, scurrying between her legs for a dropkick… following that up with a sunset flip off the middle rope for a near-fall. Nightshade’s Flatliner cuts off that momentum, before another short-range forearm had her back on the mat. Laura begins to headbutt those forearms away, but she’s met with an overhead suplex for a near-fall… only to recover with a missile dropkick and a grounded Octopus stretch. Nightshade escapes, then came back with a spear, before trapping Laura in the corner with double knees.
A German suplex takes Laura out of the corner, with a tree slam nearly doing it for Nightshade… before Laura countered an Electric chair into a Victory roll for a near-fall. Another flurry from di Matteo ends with a DDT for a near-fall, but Laura chose poorly in going for a tombstone, so she switches it up into a snapmare driver before another grounded Octopus got the submission. Seven minutes means this was quite short, but they packed a LOT into this match. **¾
Commentary pushed that Laura’s taken out Livvii Grace and Nightshade in one night – so I’m guessing that’s the set-up for Rhia O’Reilly? Sure enough, Laura calls Rhia out again, and demands her title shot… then we fade to black as Dann Read tells us that Rhia refused the match. Except that Rhia has to defend the title at WrestleQueendom, and Dann’s got to pick a number one contender… who they name as Laura. I get they had it done away from a back-and-forth between Laura and Rhia, there’s something about this I couldn’t get on with.
EVE Tag Team Championship: Gisele Shaw & Sammii Jayne vs. Woke Queens (Debbie Keitel & Valkyrie) (c)
So Gisele Shaw needed a partner here… and despite working twice already tonight, Sammii Jayne was brought out. That made for a wonky good/bad dynamic for the challenger team, especially since Sammii’s spent a lot of 2019 trying to convince the fans she’s turned over a new leaf.
Valkyrie bad mouths Sammii at the off, and we start with headscissor takedowns, escapes and a blindsided dropkick before Debbie took a swig of coffee and tagged in all hyper. COFFEE. AND NOTHING ELSE. She’s tripped and folded in half as Sammii looked to nick the pin, but the Scotswoman tags out as Gisele Shaw came in to try her luck. That luck was lacking as the Woke Queens wrapped her in tinsel and clotheslined her, before the still-hyper Debbie disappeared for…
Wrapping paper?
Shaw whacks her square in the face with the wrapping paper, which is perhaps one of the better seasonal weapons, before Shaw simply throttled her. Sammii’s back, landing a suplex for a two-count, before Shaw returned to club away on Keitel. A double knee drop from Sammii gets a two-count, as the challengers were bossing this match following the festive beating.
Shaw gets a near-fall out of a suplex – and perhaps she was starting to get frustrated, as Sammii tagged in and was quickly met with a clothesline before Valkyrie used some tinsel to pull Debbie into the corner for a tag. Tinsel clotheslines knock the challengers down, while wreathes trapped them like old timey movie villains tying up women to train tracks. A wreath-jacket German suplex takes Gisele down, before she escaped the floral arrangement and hit back with a diving enziguiri.
Valkyrie and Keitel get some help from “Santa” as it rains baubles, which then get pelted at the challenges, before some head kicks put down Keitel for a near-fall. Sammii makes a save as the champions went for a Demolition legdrop, before Shaw threw Keitel shoulder-first into the wall… then leaned back on her with the levering armbar for the submission. We’ve got new tag team champions – after a main event that was full of festive cheer, but also felt sadly lacking in terms of crowd reactions as they struggled to figure out how to handle the Shaw/Sammii team. **¾
So, the Woke Queens lose the titles on their second defence (albeit the first to hit VOD)… and they react by demanding an instant rematch at WrestleQueendom 3. That means we’re getting another SHE-1 winner in a 3-way, with the Woke Queens facing Sammii Jayne & Gisele Shaw… along with SHE-1 winner Millie McKenzie and Charli Evans. I’m a little conflicted at that being the main event, but it is what it is…
EVE’s final show of the year was one that was understandably muted by the real world/political events of days earlier – with the show ending up being a variety of short matches that largely built towards the almost-sold out (at time of writing) WrestleQueendom. Sadly, the fact that a lot of those matches went short probably won’t do you good if you’re looking here for “starz”, and I strongly suggest you don’t put much stock into match ratings for this show since a lot of this was “TV length” fare… but if you’re up for an entertaining show that’s under two-hours long, then you can’t go too wrong here.
EVE’s got one more show before WrestleQueendom, returning to the Resistance Gallery on January 4 for Battle Cry. Ah, if WrestleQueendom hadn’t already been used as a name, that’d have been the perfect pun! Anyway, WrestleQueendom 3 is a week later on January 11 at 229 The Venue in Great Portland Street, and tickets for that are scarce. If you can’t make it though, it’ll be on Fite.tv (bar the Jinny/Nina match), so there’s your plan B as EVE prepare for their latest megacard.