Francesca De La Cruz
Rising Star of the Week
Clara Lovelace
In order to start off this MVE, Rising Star of the Week belongs to Clara Lovelace. The reason for Clara winning this category is because she managed to defeat five other women to win the Young Lioness Cup. This allows her the opportunity to eventually cash in the Cup for an opportunity at the Specialists Championship at a time of her choosing. For this Cup, it seemed like there were only three possible women that could have won it — Constance Blevins, Toni Gunn, and Clara Lovelace. I thought any of the three women would be a well-deserving of the victory. These were stuck out when cutting promos and killed it. I was pleasantly surprised to see Clara win. I thought that this would be another way to maintain Toni’s winning streak, but it seemed like Clara was the popular pick over the predictors and I can see why. Perhaps, she connects with the inner nerd in us, but I thought this win was well-deserved and she worked her hardest for it. I am interested to see how long she holds onto the Cup and who will be the champion when she cashes it then.
Beef of the Week
Astraea Jordan vs. Kassidy Heart
For Beef of the Week, I thought the finals of the Empress of Elite was the best back-and-forth exchange of the week. Astraea Jordan and Kassidy Heart put in the work for this match. This may be one of the most competitive finals that I have ever seen. Usually, there is an obvious winner when you look at the promoing, but this year was completely different as people were scratching their heads and wondering what is going to happen in this match. I thought this main event had a bunch of possibilities. I think it did its job with painting Kassidy as some sort of underdog and Astraea a monster in the ring. Either you were going to see the underdog prevail or Astraea prove why she is a force to be reckoned with on Empire. I thought the main event was the icing on top of a great back-and-forth that happened this week. With the result of this match, I think it’s quite obvious who is going to dethrone Stephanie Matsuda.
Show of the Week
Manifest Destiny
Both Crossfire and Manifest Destiny were amazing shows that ended in the same tone as one another. But, Show of the Week goes to Manifest Destiny. I thought the show began great with the Empire Tag Team Championship Match. I gotta give it to Kassidy Heart who was the MVP in the match as she handled things until Sienna Jade got well enough to compete again. Happily, they still retained, but it makes me wonder if we’ll get another combo of The Pride members to face Jaded Hearts and see if they’re lucky there. Should be interesting who steps up to the plate next. The Young Lioness Cup was a fun match. I thought talents like Toni Gunn, Clara Lovelace, and Constance, Blevins were the standouts hands down and made the match very interesting. Andrea Valentine vs. Daisy Thrash surpassed their first encounter at Bloodletter. I was surprised to see Daisy get another victory, but I guess, it teaches people not to underestimate Daisy. With Andrea, she waits until the Voltage representative for the Openweight Championship is selected. Looking at the men on the list, I’m scared of all of them. The Specialists Championship Triple Threat Match was one of the more brutal matches of the night. Remi Skyfire put her title on the line against Tyler Wolfe and Raven Roberts. I thought any of these three could have won. Whoever won the match earned it, but I do not think things are over when it comes to Raven or Tyler’s desire for gold. The main event, the Empress of Elite finals was an emotional rollercoaster for Astraea Jordan and Kassidy Heart as they battled one another for a chance to call themselves Empress. Either Astraea was going to prove that without Malcolm Jones, she can get the job done or Kassidy was going to prove to be more than a pretty face. Loved both stories the women had before going into the match.
Match of the Week
Stephanie Matsuda vs. Cameron Ella Ava
Match of the Week goes to the Undisputed Women’s World Championship Match between Cameron Ella Ava and Stephanie Matsuda. In my opinion, this is the Women’s Match of the Year. If this match is not up for consideration at the EAW Awards, then I am going to be upset. From the start to finish, I thought this match was well-executed. I thought Cameron looked like a million bucks from beginning to end. I thought Stephanie looked like a powerful champion. I knew with the hometown crowd behind her, she was going to prevail. I was surprised to see Cameron pass out to the Blasian Sunrise and the suspense to that point put me on the edge of my seat. Even the littlest things from the video package before the match to wondering when another match between the two of them will happen is something to think about. My thoughts are: when will this happen again and will it surpass this match? It’s going to be a difficult task, but it’s not impossible.
Promoer of the Week
Kassidy Heart
For Promoer of the Week, I gotta give it to the woman who nearly broke down her character and let her vulnerability show, Kassidy Heart. I’m not sure if I was the only one, but I felt like the wonderful pay off for these promos would be for Kassidy to win Empress of Elite and the fact that she didn’t broke my heart a bit. This was another week where Kassidy proved to be a well-rounded character. It’s not just someone putting up a tough front and acting emotionless. When looking at Kassidy, she gave this match a whole different approach than I would have thought she would give. I thought she was going to be confident and willing to prove to everyone that she can win. The fact that I saw her take the opposite route was something I never thought that she would do in an important week such as this one. This loss is just another bump in the road for Kassidy, but that does not stop her from having a bright future. Everyone in EAW has been through these bumps on the road and they’ve been fine in the end. I only see this loss-making Kassidy stronger and working harder to prove that she is someone you want to follow the progress of. She may not have won Empress of Elite, but she won the hearts of everyone (if she didn’t already).
Champion of the Week
Remi Skyfire
For Champion of the Week, this belongs to Remi Skyfire who successfully retained the Specialists Championship between two women who have gotten the best out of her in the past, Raven Roberts and Tyler Wolfe. Personally, I am always worried about these first title defenses because you never know what to expect. I’ve seen people lose their championships in the first defense and it is not a pretty thing to witness, but happily, Remi adds a successful title reign in this resume of hers and it makes me curious to see who her next contender will be. Raven took the pin in the match, so I think she may be out of the running for the time being, but there is a compelling case with Tyler Wolfe, who did not take the pin in the match. There’s also Clara Lovelace with the Young Lioness Cup lurking in the shadows as well as Daisy Thrash, who just beat the Openweight Champion for the second time. I am quite interested to see where this reign goes too. It can be anyone in the locker room, to be honest, and I would love to see someone new and fresh step up to the plate and take Remi on.
Most Valuable Elitist
Rex McAllister
I was having the hardest time deciding on who I wanted to take Most Valuable Elitist. The was Astraea Jordan, who won Empress of Elite. There was MarrKade, who are the Co-National Elite Champions. However, I ended up deciding to give this spot to a man who captured his second World Championship reign in a year, Rex McAllister. To me, I was glad that I was proven wrong because I would not think that Rex would walk out of Brooklyn with the World Heavyweight Championship. I honestly thought that Chris was going to hold the championship until Territorial Invasion, but this was one of the better surprises of the weekend. I think I’m not the only one that was surprised with the result, but it was a well-fought victory for Rex. Not only he stands on top of the Voltage brand, but the two men he took underneath his win are holding the National Elite Championship. Not sure for how long Rex is going to hold this title for, but there’s always the factor that Noah Reigner can cash in the championship at any time. I could see Noah cashing in real soon and with Rex being the captain of Team Voltage at the Territorial Invasion. If he ends up being team captain for the War Games Match, it may be the perfect place to cash in. :eyes: But for now, let Rex enjoy this win. Congratulations! What an amazing way to make a comeback!
