In a genuinely surprising result this week, the Babes of Wrath, Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron, got the win over “Forever” ROH Women’s World Champion Athena and longest reigning TBS Champion Mercedes Mone; Cameron pinned Athena after some botched interference, equalized by Kris Statlander, from Billie Starkz.

It’s not to say that the Babes of Wrath don’t deserve to advance in the tournament, nor is it necessarily the end of the world that this happened. But at the same time, it ensured that once more, Athena is made to look fallible when she comes over from ROH. It screams unnecessary that Mone and Athena were booked in the tournament to compete for further titles if they were only to lose at this early stage, especially since Mone is in the unique position of challenging for the AEW Women’s World Championship at Full Gear.

It is undoubtedly a huge victory for Cameron, and by extension Nightingale, but it could even be argued that it would have been more significant in her story to have pinned Mone; once again, that wouldn’t be a good idea because Mone is supposed to be challenging for a title, having only been felled by one person thus far. That person is Toni Storm, who also beat Athena at Forbidden Door. Storm and Mina Shirakawa are competing on the other side of the bracket.

Outside of the surprise element and the risk of Mone and Athena spreading themselves thin across the titles, everything really lent to the idea that at least getting to the finals for that showdown was on the cards. Otherwise, everything seems to indicate that maybe they shouldn’t have been put in the tournament to begin with. Injuries and other absences should be taken into account, but it just feels like the wrong decision was made at every turn.

Cameron’s win over Athena would theoretically stake a claim to the ROH Women’s title down the line, so there is a possibility there, but it really feels like there is a continued failure to convert Athena’s ROH dominance into any form of AEW prominence, with each and every gambit for gold coming up short. That’s just a shame. As said, this is nothing against either Nightingale or Cameron, and on any other da,y there may not have been an issue with the result, but at this current stage in time, it feels wasteful to have Athena, and by extension Mone, take a loss here.

Written by Max Everett