Mercedes Martinez (c) vs Kylie Rae
No Ropes Submission Match for the Phoenix of RISE Championship
03/29/2019
Berwyn Eagles Club, Berwyn, Illinois, United States
(reviewed 06/11/2019) Was sorely disappointed by this when I first watched it a while back but after returning to it a few weeks later I’ve become more receptive to it. I’m fairly sure (not certain, because I have brain worms) that my initial complaints were about how aimless and weak this match felt in comparison to the much tighter, much more hard-hitting build-up match before this. I still feel that way but those issues have abated a bit. Sure, a lot of the spots these two do are a little convoluted and sure, they’re not always connecting with these strikes as snugly as I’d like, but they’re still leaning real hard into the biggest spots of the match wherein one of them goes crashing into a hard part of the ring and that’s enough to carry me through. Add to that my natural affinity for Martinez as a brooding heel champion and Kylie as a determined underdog babyface and there’s enough appealing stuff here to satiate me. Just wish I hadn’t gotten my hopes up so much after an exceedingly good first match.
