The submission match between Tiffany Stratton and Thea Hail wasn’t as good as it should have been, and was basically a well-structured match that wasn’t always executed well. Most of the time, we liked what they were trying to do — Stratton pulling out a variety of submission moves designed to work over Hail’s back, while Hail’s game plan essentially came down to trying to survive until she could apply the Kimura Lock. It was a good plan for a match, but the two women weren’t exactly on the same page at first, and at one point it looked like Stratton got spiked on the top of her head. Things got better as the match went on, but then the finish also had some issues with Stratton applying and maintaining the final Boston Crab hold. In the end, everything seems to have worked out okay (assuming Stratton isn’t injured) and Hail sold the Boston Crab like a million bucks, finally causing Andre Chase to throw in the towel and force Stratton’s victory to save Hail, even though Hail never tapped out.

The “throwing in the towel” trope feels a little weird in a submission match, though it would have helped a lot if commentary was clear on the rules of submission matches — were they really trying to tell us for a minute there that submission matches don’t have rope breaks? That said, we actually loved this finish. Thea never tapped out despite the loss, it made both women look strong, and now we have some fun new drama coming to Chase U. Was Andre Chase trying to save his student’s career, or did he not believe in her? After all that time of everyone expecting Duke Hudson to turn on Chase U, could it be Chase himself who turns instead? That might be an unlikely scenario, but there are a lot of interesting things on the table after this, and we’re excited to see Chase U do something new.

Honestly, the only real reason we gave this match a “hated” is because Thea Hail didn’t win the title (COWARDS) and because the part of our soul that isn’t yet crusted over with bitterness and cynicism doesn’t want to see any internal Chase U strife. And because we have to have three things we hated per review. That’s just the rules.