I wanted to like this match, I really did.

For what it’s worth, I enjoyed…most of it? We all kind of knew who the match’s victor and Owen Hart Cup Tournament winner would be as soon as Moné qualified for the finals (quarterfinals), so I wasn’t exactly excited to see Moné and Hayter battle it out for what I took to be a guaranteed match result. I’ve always strongly preferred Moné’s WWE work, with many of her AEW matches falling short for me (save for her two matches with Kris Statlander for the AEW TBS Championship). I don’t think Hayter is the strongest in-ring performer on the roster either — good, but not great — so I was prepared for a sort of middling match. For what it’s worth, I was pleasantly surprised by both of their performance! I was impressed, even! I think Moné strives when she is put with AEW’s strong girls — Statlander, Hayter, hopefully Kamille in the future — and I was glad that AEW recognized the impact of these longer women’s matches when they called out that the two women had been wrestling for seventeen minutes. For a second, it felt like maybe we were on the eve of something greater for AEW’s women’s division, which has been notoriously weak, save for a stunning few.

Then, Moné won via roll-up, and scrambled out of the ring with unbecoming desperation. Oh, I was vexed.

The roll-up is, notoriously, the most lethal move in wrestling — not because it ends matches more consistently than any finisher on the market right now (hyperbole, but you understand), but because it sufficiently extinguishes any fire that a match had. Hayter and Moné’s match was so good, almost great, but all of their hard work seemed to be dashed as soon as Moné folded up her body around Hayter’s to get a cheap one, two, three. I get that she’s a heel. I get that this is probably leading to some storyline, judging from Moné’s over-the-top and, honestly, cringe-worthy dramatics. Still! She could’ve won with some other cheap way. It would have felt several times more satisfying than having her win via roll-up. Oh, this vexes me.

She didn’t even win via roll-up — it was a botched roll-up. After all of the hype Moné gets and all of the hard work she put in with Hayter to really sell their Owen Hart Cup Finals match, is so disappointing. Things happen in the ring, though — I understand that. It just kind of feels like salt in the wound; it’s not enough that Moné won via roll-up (yawn). She didn’t even do it right, and she dropped Hayter right on her head. What a way to ruin a perfectly good match. What a joke.

I don’t know why Tony Khan is afraid to let women have dominant matches. Would it really have hurt anyone if Moné just got a pin? I’ll tell you what, it would’ve hurt less than dropping Hayter square on her head.

Written by Angeline Phu