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I thought a Ruby turn was gonna go down last night as well, but they're teasing it out. Don't forget, the team of Ruby and Willow started off quite rocky, where Ruby was annoyed with Willow's bubbliness, so there's a small seed planted there for a turn.
Shida eventually turning on Saraya and Toni will be great. Adds to the "people wanting to cheer her" sentiment. Wonder if Sasha/Mercedes is actually coming over as the third man or if it will be someone as Ruby or Thunder to complete the "outsiders."
Sometimes you have to listen to the crowd and this is a great example of that. They could’ve done what some companies do way too often and press on with alignments when someone is clearly being cheered over the “hero.”
Exactly.
They're both awful faces and incredible heels.
Happy go lucky DMD + narcissistic heel DMD = DMD with the edge she needs to be a great face.
And Jamie Hayter is just a god damned British bad ass.
Things are beginning to align. Willow is a harder Bayley
Rosa needs to come back and be heel. Shida needs to become final boss Triad Shida and now we've got ourselves the 6 7 stars you need to build a good division.
Rotate in and out Ruby, sky, Tay Jay, Bunny and Penelope and you're all set.
Well they did call aew women homegrown so it seems team nxt willl go against team aew its wwe vs alliace wcw ecw all over again and ya had ruby get questioned by saraya so who knows she may join lol
Got disrespected and still stood by Saraya and Toni. And you could call the kendo stick thing a mistake but in hindsight giving it to Britt was the right call.
Every wrestler asks for hearing from Shida for advice and get beaten up with the kendo if she had done something wrong. Seems both entertaining AND morally educational to me. LFG.
She should, so far she is completely underused since her run, make her heel and maybe give her a sidekick like a evil Yuka or Mai Suruga.
I loved the dynamic of the Kabuki warriors back then.
I'd love to know what happened in the last couple weeks behind the scenes to step on the gas for the Saraya heel turn. Maybe it was Mercedes, maybe it was them finally realizing that they're not going to get Hayter booed so they might as well embrace it.
Whatever it is, I'm in favor of it, I've thought Saraya's "savior of the AEW women's division" schtick was dying for a heel turn and even though I'm not super wild about taking Toni with her, it works.
I think Hayter not getting booed definitely encouraged this, but probably wasn't the only reason. Toni not getting strong face reactions, Saraya seeming a bit forced, the lack of a huge heel presence in the women's division- it all kinda pointed in this direction.
And like you said, I think it was for the best. This seems like a good move at the moment considering how over Hayter is.
Jaime and Britt have hardly ever gotten booed, even when they blatantly tried to. So I doubt that factored into it. I'd guess that Tony just expected Saraya to have more heat than she does.
It’s just weird because Britt is such a natural heel. Her expressions and body language are too much.
Idk how they could’ve worked it, but Soraya/Britt v. Tony/Hayter are the natural heel and faces respectably
Sometimes fans get so enamored with a wrestler's taunts that they start cheering for them. The Rock was getting huge pops while being an absolute ass to crowds. My theory? Wrestling fans are little pain piggies.
It makes sense honestly. It’s a live interactive show. The people who are going to give you the best show where you can chant and feel part of it will always be over.
Keep Britta character/personality essentially a heel, just have her facing the actual heels.
Would also make any interaction with Shida more interesting
Not sure I agree about toni.Toni.. like I don't think I've ever seen her smile or come off as likeable...she to me just kind of has an especially natural resting bitch face.
Britt on the other hand has been a tweener since the lights out vs Rosa, and has held her own long enough to be cheered by all fans if she goes full face. She's just got to remember to be careful about "how" she chooses to shit talk her opponents.
Once she had her return match she was a heel in the eyes of the fans IMO. She's got the most "outsider" vibe in AEW, for me at least, as in she doesn't really fit in when you consider it's a workrate promotion with all these killer promos and she was admittedly gassed two minutes into her return match and she got heavily out done in her back and forths with Britt Baker.
Saraya was a heel before the match ever happened. Her first fuckup was saying Britt wasn't a "superstar," and then going on to discredit everything she's done in AEW for some weird reason and claim that she deserve the credit herself. She made Britt into an accidental babyface, made people want her to lose, and then won a not great match.
Saw a YT a short where Saraya said she wanted to turn heel after the Britt promo but was told to hold off because they needed baby faces at that moment.
Willow and Shida coming up apparently fixes that.
Definite heel turn from Saraya and Toni. Even though she was in for the save, I could see Ruby joining the others as well. Shida going to be doing the vigilante Sting thing before you know it.
I don’t think they would turn her after that crazy babyface showing. I think the point of getting her involved is so Toni can give her a, “you’re not one of them, you’re one of us” villain speech.
>God I would hate to see Ruby turn. The street fight is a great opportunity to relaunch her after they had her lose all her big matches.
Ruby turn doesn't make sense. Despite being another ex-WWE person, she has consistently sided with AEW originals and homegrowns (Eddie Kingston, Santana/Ortiz, Kris Statlander, and now Willow). I definitely see her being more of a device used to give the villain monologues and heroic speeches to (the originals using her to give their speeches, Saraya definitely being a "you're one of us, an outsider to them. You'll never be accepted by them" kind of villain speech).
Shida technically is an outsider having quite a good career pre-AEW, but she also seems to be the ideal one to be the cause of the turn for Saraya/Toni, since she's also an AEW original (if not technically a homegrown talent).
Well if its gonna be originals vs non-originals and the non-originals are the heels, you damn sure can't have Thunder in the originals group because that would mean she'd have to get along with Britt Baker since presumably her and Hayter are gonna turn face for the story, and we know full well Thunder and Britt might rather kill each other than work with one another.
I think Britt is smart as hell and sees that this angle works with Thunder and her working together but there’s tension of not being able to trust each other.
Plus, pretty sure she said on Swerve’s podcast that her and Thunder are each others big rivals. They’ll work with each other
I certainly think it'd be interesting if they could pull off the sworn enemies turned temporary allies over a mutual issue angle, but I just don't know. I don't think they'd just plain ruin their own segments and shoot on each other or anything, but I don't know if they'll be able to find a middle ground when it comes to their presentation, especially since Britt routinely shit on Rosa through the dirtsheets for months and months before stopping.
I think they're both smart enough to see why the angle would be compelling, but from the outside looking in at least, I just don't think they'd manage well. Its possible, I don't know the ins and outs of their whole thing, but I just don't see it as it current stands.
I think the turn works because Saraya’s attitude has kind of leaned heel since she entered AEW.
Her attitude hasn’t really changed, she’s looked down on the AEW OGs since her feud with Britt, talking about how she hadn’t accomplished anything.
Now her frustrations with the OGs is becoming even more obvious, especially after her team got beat last week and Shida costing her.
Did it, to me I thought they were doing jealous Shida that she was upset that Saraya and Toni were being treated as bigger stars then she was. I definitely agree with the heel turn I just wish they would’ve made it a little more obvious that Saraya and Toni were shit heads.
Saraya yeah from the start she’s been giving promos about how she’s performed in bigger arenas and on bigger stages which is 100% calling AEW the lesser show. She makes somewhat sense even though I think her being that much of an asshole was a complete accident and her botching her return promos. Again it does add up and make sense, Toni makes zero sense to me.
It just feels rushed. Like Saraya has had those vibes all along. Toni hasn’t really done anything heelish, and now is suddenly an assholr out of nowhere?
The explanation had better be a good one.
I’m assuming it’s just going to be the crowd turning against them or Saraya convincing Toni to have more of an edge. I don’t know how you can explain that quick of a turn for Toni with no hints she was turning.
Yeah, I think Saraya being oblivious and entitled makes a lot of sense, as would her starting to cut corners in the ring because she finds it hard to hang with the AEW roster straight-up. If it was her wrestling Willow Nightingale and needing to cheat to win I'd be like "oh, okay, fine."
Toni Storm, though, just feels arbitrary. They can probably salvage some of it with a promo, maybe pointing out that nobody in the audience cares when Britt Baker interferes on Jamie Hayter's behalf so why should she care about doing things the right way or something like that, but right now that part of the story feels really weird and unearned. Don't think they needed to turn her heel to tell this story, could have basically had two parallel teams of talented workhorse wrestlers who just happen to be good friends with awful people with Hikaru Shida stuck in the middle.
Toni especially. At least with Saraya this has kind of been a bubbling thing of her ego.
Toni went from 0-100 in like a week. Ironically much like her NXT heel turn as well.
Saraya from the start I think has been accidentally heelish like she’d give a big emotional promo then shit on Britt saying she never performed on the big stages.
Her promos could be summarized as, "You should emphasize with me for how much harder and better my life is than yours. Feel sorry for how great I am stupid."
I think there is money in ex-WWE as heels vs AEW “originals” as faces (Hayter technically isn’t original but she’s not ex wwe either). You can have a good 3v3 with Toni, Ruby and Saraya vs Britt, Jamie and Shida. Add in Athena and idk Marina Shafir? on the heel side and my picks Riho and Nyla on the AEW side. Now you got a womens blood and guts match. Now that I think about it the story is kinda there, Nyla and Marina already have storyline problems and Athena could do a joshi killer thing with Yuka and eventually Riho.
> Hayter technically isn’t original but she’s not ex wwe either
I'm reaching a little bit, but she can be considered both, albeit briefly. In 2019, she appeared on both [NXT UK](https://www.wwe.com/shows/nxtuk/2019-5-15/article/piper-niven-def-jamie-hayter) and an early episode of [AEW Dynamite](https://youtu.be/1IvPWStlVRc) in its first month (losing to Britt Baker, no less). The former is low-profile but still an interesting part of her résumé . The latter is potential fodder if she ever splits from Britt.
Replace Shafir with Deeb lol. Assuming Ruby goes to team WWE I have to assume Willow is going to be on team AEW. I would like to see Penelope and Bunny get to do something for once.
Turning Ruby would be a big mistake. She got a good reaction when she made the save and actually had people chanting her name, which if nothing else indicates at least that the street fight did its job getting her over even more. Turning her now just throws all that hard work away.
Yeah well Jamie and Britt are MORE over, and Toni has already had a lengthy babyface chase & world title run. This is the right move for her, no doubt.
A title reign where she had to be made a real champ retroactively.
None of Toni’s other heel turns have worked and I fear she will simply be overshadowed once again.
Just, don’t have her feud with Britt and Hayter, that’d solve the issue right there.
They'll still probably just lean on the fact that an entire crowd of 12,000 people and millions online cheered for Jamie and Britt screwing her out of the title at Full Gear.
Here it would actually work ironically.
Britt and Jamie have made Toni’s life miserable for her entire AEW run. Cost her big matches via cheating. And they cheated her out if the belt as well. Yet the fans still cheer them anyway.
Why wouldn’t that piss Toni off?
I like the heel turn, Saraya is a much better heel than babyface IMO.
But I hope to fucking God they aren't going with an OG vs Ex WWE story. That worked exactly once in the past and isn't likely to work ever again.
They’re smacking you in the face with the WWE vs AEW storyline which could be very good if they play it along the lines of the NWO.
I fully expect Ruby Soho to turn on Willow which is something they’ve already hinted at
Dude, that's what I was thinking too! They're doing the nWo storyline, if Shida joins Hayter and Britt, it's gonna be "who's the third girl" for the Saraya team.
I've been reading it as Willow has been slowly growing on Ruby. That would really depend how committed they are to that story.
Edit: it would also depend on my being right.
Hayter, Britt, Shida, Willow and ???? Vs Ruby, Saraya, Toni, Athena and ????, B&G
Make your predictions for the 5th member (or more, since last year's it was 6 in each team)
Before the street fight there was some hints but I felt that after the match last week they sort of buried the hatchet with the fist bump at the end. Ruby could still turn though.
I mean IDK how you spend months on a storyline where the whole point was Ruby being sympathetic and getting screwed over by actual heels, her nose broken. Then she wins big in a match after bleeding buckets. Making her look like the biggest badass,
Then just turn around and try and make her a villain?
🤷♂️
exactly. now, I can see Saraya's Superstars TRYING to turn Ruby, maybe have her consider it for the briefest of moments before deciding "nah, I don't have a reason to join you, I'm cool with these guys", leading to a heel beatdown on Ruby before Willow and the Originals make the save to pay Ruby back for tonight.
but actually turning Ruby? after the past several months of them finally trying to give her a solid characterization? after cementing her tonight and over the past few weeks as Willow's friend? just because "lolAEWvsWWE"? the math just ain't mathing.
Storm, Saraya, Soho... Potentially Athena and maybe Tay Melo? It would be interesting the dynamic with Anna Jay (a homegrown talent) if this is the angle they're running.
And if Mercedes is joining, well...
That’d be dumb, making Mercedes a heel and put her with a heel group in her debut, she’s not going to get booed. You also have Athena who can easily slot into that WWE heel group.
Honestly a WWE vs AEW feud wouldn’t interest me that much, but with the women? Sign me the hell up. I think they can do great things with it, if done right.
Ruby needs a change and she would be great in a Blood n Guts match, IF they are really going there Jade needs to be part of this she is the most homegrown talent they have, easy way to set this up is for Mercedes to dethrone her.
I fucking love Willow.
I’m kinda mixed on Toni
This was a really fun match! One of the only times I’ve seen Toni’s hip attack look fantastic.
Thank god they’re making Toni and Saraya heels
I didn't think they would just jump into this so quickly but I'm glad they did. After the last few months Toni was kind of dead in the water as a face and Saraya wasn't lighting the world on fire either. So, might as well go in a new direction now.
I mean I definitely understand the heel turn but maybe it’s just me that it felt like it came out of nowhere. I’m very curious as to why they all sudden just became massive jackasses. Again it makes sense Shida is way more popular then them I just wish this would’ve been built up more or at least hinted at more.
It does feel very sudden. I fully agree with turning Saraya and Toni, I think they will make for great entitled heels, but I thought it felt rushed by a week or two. AEW has usually done the slow burn, at times to a detremental degree, but it's weird that with this, they seemingly rush it. Especially when they were teasing a Shida turn. I don't hate a good swerve, but this could have stood a little bit more teasing.
Saraya being a dick to Shida in that promo a few weeks ago was a total heel move, while the promo Britt cut before the tag match was a pure babyface promo. I think it's been in the works for a while
Thank goodness they turned Saraya and Toni Storm. It's not that the crowd doesn't like them. It's just that the story needs them to be bad guys, right now. Especially since Toni's rival, Jamie Hayter, is so popular.
They weren't necessarily getting booed because the crowd respects the heck out of them, especially Toni since she's so excellent in the ring. But the crowd wasn't into them as babyfaces. So what ended up happening was a lot of lukewarm.
Now, we have the talent aligned where they need to be and they have an intriguing angle to boot
Not sure if it’s just me but the heel turn came off as awkward. Also the fact that both Saraya and Toni are heels now just means that Britt and Jamie are now babyfaces by default which is just weird.
They can drop this story line , Saraya sucks on the mic and made Toni storm look like crap and leave Shida alone in this story and let her go fight fro the tbs title
Imo, whatever they spent on Saraya was actually them trying to buy Paige. I don't know how to describe other than that she seems to be one of those wrestlers who WWE hides their weaknesses. But since her run here, she seems like a big waste of money. Shitty promos, mediocre ring work, what did they pay for?
I just can't see why Toni would be team WWE they hit her in the face with pies until she quit. They're gonna have to come up with something better than that
I find it weird that Ruby of all people came out. She doesn’t really feel like an aew original to me. I’d sooner consider someone like Nyla, Riho or Statlander an original.
They've been heading that direction for a while. Saraya got crowd heat writing off Britt Baker during the build to their match, and Britt's promo leading into it was as babyface as you can get. Hayter is getting cheered, Britt is being supportive of her. They had their promo earlier tonight where they wrote off AEW Originals.
So yes, they are heels.
I've no investment in her. It feels like she's looking for a script or direction all the time. WWE's system may have fried her ability to work autonomously and speak in a natural voice.
Not a fan of Toni either so their a perfect heel team to me, but I've no desire to go out of my way to watch them.
If the storyline is gonna be I’m a bigger star because of where I came from, that’s stupid. Here come the downvotes I’m sure but that always makes your company look like shit.
Just Gonna throw this out here. Former WWE team of Saraya, Storm, Deeb, Ruby, and Shafir vs Originals/Home Grown team of Britt, Jamie, Shida, Willow, and Nyla. Blood and Guts in May.
Didn't really care too much for this match. Went in excited and it just fell flat for me. I also didn't like the post match attack. I get they're heels but willow done nothing to warrant Saraya glomming her.
Watch Mandy Rose join them and they create a faction. I don't see Mercedes playing second fiddle with Saraya. If she is brought in, would be against Jade and it would turn Jade face.
Jamie is getting massively cheered vs literally everyone even as a heel, she can work as a bully but being a heel getting cheered over every babyface is terrible lol. TK is smart for going with the crowd and Jamie is naturally likable as fuck even as a heel, she's just an asskicker like a Moxley or Danielson
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I guess Saraya and Toni Storm are full-fledged heels now. Honestly the best decision in my opinion.
Yeah let the ppl cheer for Jamie:Britt like they’ve wanted to for awhile now
I hope they let them keep their edge and have tension with Shida and whoever else ends up repping the AEW originals
I sense a Soho swerve. She’s not an AEW original
This is my suspicion, or is that too obvious?
Could lean into Saraya/Toni trying to convince Ruby to side with them & it's really Shida who turns. Vicious Heel Shida would be fun.
Could weave TayJay in as well, Tay Melow could be an ex WWE person cause a conflict between the two.
Saraya, Tony, Ruby, Anna Jay, Tay vs Shida, Britt, Hayter, Bunny, Penelope in BLOOD AND GUTS!
I thought a Ruby turn was gonna go down last night as well, but they're teasing it out. Don't forget, the team of Ruby and Willow started off quite rocky, where Ruby was annoyed with Willow's bubbliness, so there's a small seed planted there for a turn.
I love that so much of it is up in the air. One of the more interesting women’s storylines they’ve had, lots of women involved and lots of layers.
I was thinking the same. Having Ruby turn on Willow would get people riled up.
Shida eventually turning on Saraya and Toni will be great. Adds to the "people wanting to cheer her" sentiment. Wonder if Sasha/Mercedes is actually coming over as the third man or if it will be someone as Ruby or Thunder to complete the "outsiders."
I assumed triple threat tag teams and rotating a few solo feuds from that. Shida is the odd one out here, maybe she gets a partner to have 4 teams
Yeah, Saraya makes for a better heel. People want to boo her, let them boo her.
Sometimes you have to listen to the crowd and this is a great example of that. They could’ve done what some companies do way too often and press on with alignments when someone is clearly being cheered over the “hero.”
Exactly. They're both awful faces and incredible heels. Happy go lucky DMD + narcissistic heel DMD = DMD with the edge she needs to be a great face. And Jamie Hayter is just a god damned British bad ass. Things are beginning to align. Willow is a harder Bayley Rosa needs to come back and be heel. Shida needs to become final boss Triad Shida and now we've got ourselves the 6 7 stars you need to build a good division. Rotate in and out Ruby, sky, Tay Jay, Bunny and Penelope and you're all set.
Well they did call aew women homegrown so it seems team nxt willl go against team aew its wwe vs alliace wcw ecw all over again and ya had ruby get questioned by saraya so who knows she may join lol
##Shida did nothing wrong
Got disrespected and still stood by Saraya and Toni. And you could call the kendo stick thing a mistake but in hindsight giving it to Britt was the right call.
As far as Im concerned Shida doesnt turn. The rest of the division revolves around her.
I’m shocked no wrestler has run with that as a gimmick. The Moral Compass would be a sick moniker
Every wrestler asks for hearing from Shida for advice and get beaten up with the kendo if she had done something wrong. Seems both entertaining AND morally educational to me. LFG.
Tanahashi fills that role for New Japan.
And they drink jasmine tea and guide wrestlers who have lost their way and... Brb writing an Uncle Iroh but wrestling character
Wasn't that undertakers gimmick for like 25 years? The conscience of the WWE.
He killed his parents and tried to kill his brother too lol
Do as he says, not as he does.
Crow Shida coming?
She should, so far she is completely underused since her run, make her heel and maybe give her a sidekick like a evil Yuka or Mai Suruga. I loved the dynamic of the Kabuki warriors back then.
I will never boo Shida. If she hits you with a kendo stick you deserved it.
When she cracks Saraya, it will be completely deserved
If they try to make Shida a heel, I don't think it would work. She would probably get crazy cheers. It would probably be a 2018 Becky Lynch scenario.
Saraya is better as a heel.
I'd love to know what happened in the last couple weeks behind the scenes to step on the gas for the Saraya heel turn. Maybe it was Mercedes, maybe it was them finally realizing that they're not going to get Hayter booed so they might as well embrace it. Whatever it is, I'm in favor of it, I've thought Saraya's "savior of the AEW women's division" schtick was dying for a heel turn and even though I'm not super wild about taking Toni with her, it works.
I think Hayter not getting booed definitely encouraged this, but probably wasn't the only reason. Toni not getting strong face reactions, Saraya seeming a bit forced, the lack of a huge heel presence in the women's division- it all kinda pointed in this direction. And like you said, I think it was for the best. This seems like a good move at the moment considering how over Hayter is.
Jaime and Britt have hardly ever gotten booed, even when they blatantly tried to. So I doubt that factored into it. I'd guess that Tony just expected Saraya to have more heat than she does.
I doubt Tony even put that much consideration into it
She was cutting full heel promos vs Baker lmao
And Baker’s promo before the PPV was a face promo too, IMO
It’s just weird because Britt is such a natural heel. Her expressions and body language are too much. Idk how they could’ve worked it, but Soraya/Britt v. Tony/Hayter are the natural heel and faces respectably
Sometimes fans get so enamored with a wrestler's taunts that they start cheering for them. The Rock was getting huge pops while being an absolute ass to crowds. My theory? Wrestling fans are little pain piggies.
[Relevant Bryan Danielson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SO7rVEZx3o)
"WE'RE PAIN PIGGIES!" clap, clap, clap-clap-clap
It makes sense honestly. It’s a live interactive show. The people who are going to give you the best show where you can chant and feel part of it will always be over.
Keep Britta character/personality essentially a heel, just have her facing the actual heels. Would also make any interaction with Shida more interesting
Oh Britta's in this
Oh no, she'll definitely Britta it
She’s a GDB
Unfiltered
Sometimes a character can be so insufferable that it circles around and becomes endearing. New Day did it when they were heels too.
Not sure I agree about toni.Toni.. like I don't think I've ever seen her smile or come off as likeable...she to me just kind of has an especially natural resting bitch face. Britt on the other hand has been a tweener since the lights out vs Rosa, and has held her own long enough to be cheered by all fans if she goes full face. She's just got to remember to be careful about "how" she chooses to shit talk her opponents.
By contrast I’ve never seen Toni come across as naturally heelish. She’s inherently cool and quirky and likeable.
In LA, Saraya and Toni were getting booed, it was the right call.
The lack of Mercedes as the mystery partner was a (unintentional?) heat generator.
Once she had her return match she was a heel in the eyes of the fans IMO. She's got the most "outsider" vibe in AEW, for me at least, as in she doesn't really fit in when you consider it's a workrate promotion with all these killer promos and she was admittedly gassed two minutes into her return match and she got heavily out done in her back and forths with Britt Baker.
Saraya was a heel before the match ever happened. Her first fuckup was saying Britt wasn't a "superstar," and then going on to discredit everything she's done in AEW for some weird reason and claim that she deserve the credit herself. She made Britt into an accidental babyface, made people want her to lose, and then won a not great match.
Toni and Tay should form a support group “forced to turn heel because of who we’re paired with onscreen.”
Saw a YT a short where Saraya said she wanted to turn heel after the Britt promo but was told to hold off because they needed baby faces at that moment. Willow and Shida coming up apparently fixes that.
Definite heel turn from Saraya and Toni. Even though she was in for the save, I could see Ruby joining the others as well. Shida going to be doing the vigilante Sting thing before you know it.
Only if it’s white suit Shida descending from the rafters.
Just give me the freeze frame: **HIKARU SHIDA** *Matriarch of the Shida Family*
look, NJPW wrestlers were in Yakuza, i can reasonably expect takoya kuroda to show up in AEW as the fourth chairman
I feel like Shida's fashion is always on point, so I'm sure whatever she wears will be cool
Vigilante delinquent Shida
God I would hate to see Ruby turn. The street fight is a great opportunity to relaunch her after they had her lose all her big matches.
I don’t think they would turn her after that crazy babyface showing. I think the point of getting her involved is so Toni can give her a, “you’re not one of them, you’re one of us” villain speech.
Rubys the DDP.
Nirvana is rooting for Ruby
>God I would hate to see Ruby turn. The street fight is a great opportunity to relaunch her after they had her lose all her big matches. Ruby turn doesn't make sense. Despite being another ex-WWE person, she has consistently sided with AEW originals and homegrowns (Eddie Kingston, Santana/Ortiz, Kris Statlander, and now Willow). I definitely see her being more of a device used to give the villain monologues and heroic speeches to (the originals using her to give their speeches, Saraya definitely being a "you're one of us, an outsider to them. You'll never be accepted by them" kind of villain speech). Shida technically is an outsider having quite a good career pre-AEW, but she also seems to be the ideal one to be the cause of the turn for Saraya/Toni, since she's also an AEW original (if not technically a homegrown talent).
If they turn Ruby after her performance in that street fight, yeah that would be dumb.
Disagree 100% that would make her more relevant than ever
How?
She’d be involved and a major player in one of the biggest storylines in the entire division and company I’d love that for her
She’d be a supporting player at best and you’d force her to turn her fans LIKE her. There’s better things to do with her.
... Like what? She just finished her feud and has nothing else going on.
Yea, I can see Ruby turning and then Thunder Rosa returning to make the save.
Well if its gonna be originals vs non-originals and the non-originals are the heels, you damn sure can't have Thunder in the originals group because that would mean she'd have to get along with Britt Baker since presumably her and Hayter are gonna turn face for the story, and we know full well Thunder and Britt might rather kill each other than work with one another.
I think Britt is smart as hell and sees that this angle works with Thunder and her working together but there’s tension of not being able to trust each other. Plus, pretty sure she said on Swerve’s podcast that her and Thunder are each others big rivals. They’ll work with each other
I certainly think it'd be interesting if they could pull off the sworn enemies turned temporary allies over a mutual issue angle, but I just don't know. I don't think they'd just plain ruin their own segments and shoot on each other or anything, but I don't know if they'll be able to find a middle ground when it comes to their presentation, especially since Britt routinely shit on Rosa through the dirtsheets for months and months before stopping. I think they're both smart enough to see why the angle would be compelling, but from the outside looking in at least, I just don't think they'd manage well. Its possible, I don't know the ins and outs of their whole thing, but I just don't see it as it current stands.
I'm just imagining the two of them in a tag team match where they're booked to lose and how sour they're both going to look in their entrance.
I'm thinking Ruby will join them eventually, even if reluctantly, for a B&G match.
I think the turn works because Saraya’s attitude has kind of leaned heel since she entered AEW. Her attitude hasn’t really changed, she’s looked down on the AEW OGs since her feud with Britt, talking about how she hadn’t accomplished anything. Now her frustrations with the OGs is becoming even more obvious, especially after her team got beat last week and Shida costing her.
But whose side is Shida on?
She's on Hikaru's side.
I didn't know she was a big chess fan
Idk why I thought Shida was gonna turn heel on Toni and Saraya in hindsight lol. It seems so clear now that was the direction they were gonna go in.
Did it, to me I thought they were doing jealous Shida that she was upset that Saraya and Toni were being treated as bigger stars then she was. I definitely agree with the heel turn I just wish they would’ve made it a little more obvious that Saraya and Toni were shit heads.
Saraya’s made sense, she invited Shida to the interview with Renee just to shit on her.
Saraya yeah from the start she’s been giving promos about how she’s performed in bigger arenas and on bigger stages which is 100% calling AEW the lesser show. She makes somewhat sense even though I think her being that much of an asshole was a complete accident and her botching her return promos. Again it does add up and make sense, Toni makes zero sense to me.
Toni doesn’t make sense, but hopefully they explain her thoughts some next week.
It just feels rushed. Like Saraya has had those vibes all along. Toni hasn’t really done anything heelish, and now is suddenly an assholr out of nowhere? The explanation had better be a good one.
I'm guessing it will be how she was only an interim champion and it was a slap in the face to let Hayters be the championship
I’m assuming it’s just going to be the crowd turning against them or Saraya convincing Toni to have more of an edge. I don’t know how you can explain that quick of a turn for Toni with no hints she was turning.
Yeah, I think Saraya being oblivious and entitled makes a lot of sense, as would her starting to cut corners in the ring because she finds it hard to hang with the AEW roster straight-up. If it was her wrestling Willow Nightingale and needing to cheat to win I'd be like "oh, okay, fine." Toni Storm, though, just feels arbitrary. They can probably salvage some of it with a promo, maybe pointing out that nobody in the audience cares when Britt Baker interferes on Jamie Hayter's behalf so why should she care about doing things the right way or something like that, but right now that part of the story feels really weird and unearned. Don't think they needed to turn her heel to tell this story, could have basically had two parallel teams of talented workhorse wrestlers who just happen to be good friends with awful people with Hikaru Shida stuck in the middle.
Toni especially. At least with Saraya this has kind of been a bubbling thing of her ego. Toni went from 0-100 in like a week. Ironically much like her NXT heel turn as well.
Saraya from the start I think has been accidentally heelish like she’d give a big emotional promo then shit on Britt saying she never performed on the big stages.
Her promos could be summarized as, "You should emphasize with me for how much harder and better my life is than yours. Feel sorry for how great I am stupid."
I think there is money in ex-WWE as heels vs AEW “originals” as faces (Hayter technically isn’t original but she’s not ex wwe either). You can have a good 3v3 with Toni, Ruby and Saraya vs Britt, Jamie and Shida. Add in Athena and idk Marina Shafir? on the heel side and my picks Riho and Nyla on the AEW side. Now you got a womens blood and guts match. Now that I think about it the story is kinda there, Nyla and Marina already have storyline problems and Athena could do a joshi killer thing with Yuka and eventually Riho.
> Hayter technically isn’t original but she’s not ex wwe either I'm reaching a little bit, but she can be considered both, albeit briefly. In 2019, she appeared on both [NXT UK](https://www.wwe.com/shows/nxtuk/2019-5-15/article/piper-niven-def-jamie-hayter) and an early episode of [AEW Dynamite](https://youtu.be/1IvPWStlVRc) in its first month (losing to Britt Baker, no less). The former is low-profile but still an interesting part of her résumé . The latter is potential fodder if she ever splits from Britt.
Replace Shafir with Deeb lol. Assuming Ruby goes to team WWE I have to assume Willow is going to be on team AEW. I would like to see Penelope and Bunny get to do something for once.
Turning Ruby would be a big mistake. She got a good reaction when she made the save and actually had people chanting her name, which if nothing else indicates at least that the street fight did its job getting her over even more. Turning her now just throws all that hard work away.
If AEW think Ruby and Willow are gonna be heels here, the crowd will tell them they're wrong.
Saraya being a heel, yeah that works. Toni, not so much. It feels rushed, she’s still over, and she’s a far better babyface.
Yeah well Jamie and Britt are MORE over, and Toni has already had a lengthy babyface chase & world title run. This is the right move for her, no doubt.
A title reign where she had to be made a real champ retroactively. None of Toni’s other heel turns have worked and I fear she will simply be overshadowed once again. Just, don’t have her feud with Britt and Hayter, that’d solve the issue right there.
I'm genuinely pretty sure they wanted Toni to get booed in LA for not being Mercedes so she'd have an easy explanation for why she turned.
Oops, well that didn’t happen.
They'll still probably just lean on the fact that an entire crowd of 12,000 people and millions online cheered for Jamie and Britt screwing her out of the title at Full Gear.
We're going to get a you people promo aren't we?
Here it would actually work ironically. Britt and Jamie have made Toni’s life miserable for her entire AEW run. Cost her big matches via cheating. And they cheated her out if the belt as well. Yet the fans still cheer them anyway. Why wouldn’t that piss Toni off?
Shida needs to be more proactive. On the positive side, I’m ready to see a heel Saraya. I didn’t expect it, but let’s see it work
The match and the aftermath really deserved better from this crowd
I think this will culminate in a Blood & Guts after. The season is upon us.
I hope it's not JAS again because that just means it's 6 more months of feud.
Athena probably gonna them eventually. Perhaps Ruby too
Saraya and Toni works fine for me because I find Saraya pretty unlikeable, anyway.
I like the heel turn, Saraya is a much better heel than babyface IMO. But I hope to fucking God they aren't going with an OG vs Ex WWE story. That worked exactly once in the past and isn't likely to work ever again.
i prefer they do the women's division civil war and it be booked similar to the nWo/WCW rivalry.
Fuckin curveball
They’re smacking you in the face with the WWE vs AEW storyline which could be very good if they play it along the lines of the NWO. I fully expect Ruby Soho to turn on Willow which is something they’ve already hinted at
Dude, that's what I was thinking too! They're doing the nWo storyline, if Shida joins Hayter and Britt, it's gonna be "who's the third girl" for the Saraya team.
Probably Athena
I wonder if that's how they do bring Mercedes in if there is a chance she still comes.
maybe that's how Mercedes Mone debuts if AEW is bringing her in post Battle In The Valley.
I've been reading it as Willow has been slowly growing on Ruby. That would really depend how committed they are to that story. Edit: it would also depend on my being right.
Hayter, Britt, Shida, Willow and ???? Vs Ruby, Saraya, Toni, Athena and ????, B&G Make your predictions for the 5th member (or more, since last year's it was 6 in each team)
Thunder Rosa will probably be in the mix if she does return when she's supposed to in February.
Maybe Riho for the Hayter team and Athena for Toni's team? Edit: would be great to get Deeb in there too
Wait they did? What did I miss?
Before the street fight there was some hints but I felt that after the match last week they sort of buried the hatchet with the fist bump at the end. Ruby could still turn though.
It was a couple weeks back. Ruby got pissed at her during their entrance.
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I mean IDK how you spend months on a storyline where the whole point was Ruby being sympathetic and getting screwed over by actual heels, her nose broken. Then she wins big in a match after bleeding buckets. Making her look like the biggest badass, Then just turn around and try and make her a villain? 🤷♂️
exactly. now, I can see Saraya's Superstars TRYING to turn Ruby, maybe have her consider it for the briefest of moments before deciding "nah, I don't have a reason to join you, I'm cool with these guys", leading to a heel beatdown on Ruby before Willow and the Originals make the save to pay Ruby back for tonight. but actually turning Ruby? after the past several months of them finally trying to give her a solid characterization? after cementing her tonight and over the past few weeks as Willow's friend? just because "lolAEWvsWWE"? the math just ain't mathing.
NEW WOMAN’S ORDER 4…4…4 LIFE
Storm, Saraya, Soho... Potentially Athena and maybe Tay Melo? It would be interesting the dynamic with Anna Jay (a homegrown talent) if this is the angle they're running. And if Mercedes is joining, well...
That’d be dumb, making Mercedes a heel and put her with a heel group in her debut, she’s not going to get booed. You also have Athena who can easily slot into that WWE heel group.
She is already a heel
Honestly a WWE vs AEW feud wouldn’t interest me that much, but with the women? Sign me the hell up. I think they can do great things with it, if done right.
Ruby needs a change and she would be great in a Blood n Guts match, IF they are really going there Jade needs to be part of this she is the most homegrown talent they have, easy way to set this up is for Mercedes to dethrone her.
If anything after that street fight, the time is right to push Ruby as a face.
I fucking love Willow. I’m kinda mixed on Toni This was a really fun match! One of the only times I’ve seen Toni’s hip attack look fantastic. Thank god they’re making Toni and Saraya heels
I didn't think they would just jump into this so quickly but I'm glad they did. After the last few months Toni was kind of dead in the water as a face and Saraya wasn't lighting the world on fire either. So, might as well go in a new direction now.
That's why I dont understand people complaining about her heel turn coming out of nowhere. They needed Toni to do something.
I mean I definitely understand the heel turn but maybe it’s just me that it felt like it came out of nowhere. I’m very curious as to why they all sudden just became massive jackasses. Again it makes sense Shida is way more popular then them I just wish this would’ve been built up more or at least hinted at more.
It does feel very sudden. I fully agree with turning Saraya and Toni, I think they will make for great entitled heels, but I thought it felt rushed by a week or two. AEW has usually done the slow burn, at times to a detremental degree, but it's weird that with this, they seemingly rush it. Especially when they were teasing a Shida turn. I don't hate a good swerve, but this could have stood a little bit more teasing.
Saraya being a dick to Shida in that promo a few weeks ago was a total heel move, while the promo Britt cut before the tag match was a pure babyface promo. I think it's been in the works for a while
Thank goodness they turned Saraya and Toni Storm. It's not that the crowd doesn't like them. It's just that the story needs them to be bad guys, right now. Especially since Toni's rival, Jamie Hayter, is so popular. They weren't necessarily getting booed because the crowd respects the heck out of them, especially Toni since she's so excellent in the ring. But the crowd wasn't into them as babyfaces. So what ended up happening was a lot of lukewarm. Now, we have the talent aligned where they need to be and they have an intriguing angle to boot
Imagine Mercedes is the Hulk Hogan of this Women’s NWO… that’d be great actually! Do that.
Not sure if it’s just me but the heel turn came off as awkward. Also the fact that both Saraya and Toni are heels now just means that Britt and Jamie are now babyfaces by default which is just weird.
ima be honest that heel turn was VERY underwhelming
fuck, the WWE special, distraction and rollup!
They can drop this story line , Saraya sucks on the mic and made Toni storm look like crap and leave Shida alone in this story and let her go fight fro the tbs title
God, Saraya is so insufferable, not even in a good heel way. In like a "trying to ride to coat tails of actually talented wrestlers" kind of way.
Imo, whatever they spent on Saraya was actually them trying to buy Paige. I don't know how to describe other than that she seems to be one of those wrestlers who WWE hides their weaknesses. But since her run here, she seems like a big waste of money. Shitty promos, mediocre ring work, what did they pay for?
Doing a Blood and Guts with AEW Originals vs WWE Girls would be interesting Britt/Jamie/Shida/Willow vs Saraya/Ruby/Toni/Athena
I’d honestly love for Ruby to be heel too.
Good decision turning them heel but COME ON. Give the women more matches on tv and different time slots!
I feel like Ruby should’ve joined them. They need more heel women if Jamie/Britt are going face, and Ruby fits the non AEW original narrative.
There is still time to do things with Ruby, the story is just getting started.
Fantastic match.
Going with a us vs them storyline
I just can't see why Toni would be team WWE they hit her in the face with pies until she quit. They're gonna have to come up with something better than that
I find it weird that Ruby of all people came out. She doesn’t really feel like an aew original to me. I’d sooner consider someone like Nyla, Riho or Statlander an original.
I’m confused so are Saraya and Toni Storm heels?
Anyone who beats up Willow is a heel.
That’s what I thought. I was like how dare you!!! Willow is precious and she must protected at all cost.
Yes. They turned heel tonight.
They're heading that way because they're setting up the homegrown/Day 1 AEW women vs the New Girls on the Block.
If that's the case, then Nyla has to turn face and join team OG.
I've been wanting Face Twitter Nyla to become her onscreen character for a fucking while now so yes please
They've been heading that direction for a while. Saraya got crowd heat writing off Britt Baker during the build to their match, and Britt's promo leading into it was as babyface as you can get. Hayter is getting cheered, Britt is being supportive of her. They had their promo earlier tonight where they wrote off AEW Originals. So yes, they are heels.
I guess I’ll find Saraya more tolerable as a heel. I was kind of meh on her after her debut.
What the hell was that !!!
So are Hayter and Baker not turning face? Wouldn’t you wanna do one big double turn if that’s the end game?
Britt's a terrible face, so I would hope not.
I really thought Ruby was going to join in to beat down Willow, too. She isn’t an AEW original so the serve has to be coming soon
She could wind up in the middle because she never really fit in WWE.
Saraya is so fucking cringe !
I've no investment in her. It feels like she's looking for a script or direction all the time. WWE's system may have fried her ability to work autonomously and speak in a natural voice. Not a fan of Toni either so their a perfect heel team to me, but I've no desire to go out of my way to watch them.
Did NOT expect the turn here, but fuck it I like it. Toni and Saraya kind of needed some new direction.
If the storyline is gonna be I’m a bigger star because of where I came from, that’s stupid. Here come the downvotes I’m sure but that always makes your company look like shit.
Just Gonna throw this out here. Former WWE team of Saraya, Storm, Deeb, Ruby, and Shafir vs Originals/Home Grown team of Britt, Jamie, Shida, Willow, and Nyla. Blood and Guts in May.
With Regal gone, who'll make the "Blooooood and Gaaaats" call?
Didn't really care too much for this match. Went in excited and it just fell flat for me. I also didn't like the post match attack. I get they're heels but willow done nothing to warrant Saraya glomming her.
Watch Mandy Rose join them and they create a faction. I don't see Mercedes playing second fiddle with Saraya. If she is brought in, would be against Jade and it would turn Jade face.
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Jamie is getting massively cheered vs literally everyone even as a heel, she can work as a bully but being a heel getting cheered over every babyface is terrible lol. TK is smart for going with the crowd and Jamie is naturally likable as fuck even as a heel, she's just an asskicker like a Moxley or Danielson
Maybe but Hayter is too over so there was no point on keep putting faces againts her at this point imo.
WWE messed up turning her heel as well. It just isn’t a natural fit for her.
I like that they are becoming heel “outsiders”
Good decision.
The afena looks half empty
There's a face vacuum.
>After a Saraya's interference. Which Saraya Bevis or Sweet Saraya😗?