Mercedes Mone Wins TBS Title At AEW Double Or Nothing, Kris Statlander Turns Heel

Mercedes Mone marked her in-ring AEW debut with a victory over Willow Nightingale to win the TBS Championship at Double or Nothing. Both challenger and champion turned up for the rematch of their ill-fated clash last year over the NJPW Strong Women’s Openweight Championship, during which Mone sustained a career-threatening ankle injury and Nightingale picked up the win — albeit with an asterisk. The bout was as physical as it was billed to be, with both targeting one another’s leg joints in spiteful attacks, but it would take some shenanigans before finding its finish. 

Following a Meteora to Willow Nigtingale on the outside, Mercedes Mone continued to shove Kris Statlander and goad her into leaping onto the apron to follow her. As Statlander and Stokely Hathaway wrestled with Aubrey Edwards, Nightingale delivered the Babe With The Powerbomb to score a clear visual pin on her challenger. But the referee was late to the count and Mone managed to kick out. It was then that “The CEO” mustered a comeback capped off with the Mone Maker to score the pinfall and take her revenge. 

As Mone celebrated with her new title, Statlander helped Willow Nightingale to her feet as she was lambasted by Stokely Hathaway. Appearing to defend her friend, Stat pushed Hathaway to the ground. But it would transpire to be a ruse as Statlander laid Nightingale out on the ramp and aligned back with Hathaway to close out the segment.

Willow Nightingale Wins TBS Championship, Faces Down Mercedes Mone At AEW Dynasty

Willow Nightingale defeated Julia Hart for the TBS Championship at AEW Dynasty, ending Harts 155-day reign. Hart entered the bout with a ton of speculation behind her after an injury scare during the April 12 episode of “AEW Rampage,” during which she appeared to injure her shoulder, and that speculation was fueled by the title bout  was removed from major betting platforms ahead of Dynasty on Sunday night. Hart did in fact defend her title as planned, although the match was fairly one-sided in Nightingale’s favor and ended after just six minutes of action. Afterward, No. 1 contender Mercedes Mone confronted Nightingale in the ring, though their confrontation ended without violence.

Nightingale is now just the fourth champion in the title’s history, cementing her name alongside the likes of her partner Kris Statlander and current WWE star Jade Cargill. She will also go on to defend the title against Mercedes Mone at AEW Double or Nothing to renew their rivalry from last year. Nightingale previously captured the NJPW STRONG Women’s Openweight Championship in a tournament final against Mone to inaugurate the belt. Mone had been expected to win the title but sustained an ankle injury mid-match which had kept her out of action until her AEW debut earlier this year.

Julia Hart Pins Skye Blue, Wins TBS Championship In AEW Full Gear Triple Threat

Julia Hart has continued her meteoric rise within AEW, capturing the TBS Championship in an entertaining triple-threat match against Kris Statlander and Skye Blue at the Full Gear pay-per-view event in Los Angeles, California. 

Blue and Hart spent an extended period teaming up to take down their larger opponent, but the House Of Black member was the first to turn, leading to all three competitors landing some high-octane offense. Statlander landed some trademark power moves on both of her challengers, before Hart hit a top-rope moonsault onto Blue for a close near-fall as the champion barely made it into the ring in time to break the pin. Blue would get her own two-count off the back of a Code Blue on the champ, but it was Statlander who regained the momentum with a string of German suplexes on both women.

Down the home stretch, Statlander would nail her Saturday Night Fever piledriver finish, but Hart pushed her out of the way and capitalized on a fallen Blue for a three-count and pinfall, marking her first title victory since joining AEW.

Freddie Prinze Jr. Says Jade Cargill’s First AEW Loss Is A Good Thing For Her

Jade Cargill’s undefeated streak and 508-day reign as AEW TBS Championship came to an end at the hands of the returning Kris Statlander last month at Double or Nothing. Cargill lost the title after issuing an open challenge immediately following her successful championship defense against Taya Valkyrie. Actor and former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. thinks the 31-year-old could now benefit from tasting her first defeat in All Elite Wrestling. 

“Jade Cargill has taken her first loss, which I think is going to end up being a good thing,” Prinze Jr. said on the “Wrestling with Freddie” podcast. “Now she can actually get a story on her way back to the title … And I don’t feel that she’s been utilized as well as she could. I’ve definitely seen her promo work get better. I think everyone has seen her work get a little better. Again, they limit what she can do, to a certain degree, to keep her safe and to keep her opponents safe while she’s learning on the job. She’s been doing this, I think, what? Is it two years? Between two and three years, something like that? So it’s not a lot of time.”

“This can be that opportunity that she can fall on hard times,” Prinze Jr. continued. “She can struggle now that she’s lost. I hope to see them do this, I really do. To see her only lose once is not the way to go. I think she has to struggle and have a mental block and a mental challenge that she herself has to come over. And that becomes the story until you can get her someone that will then be the other character in the story. But you can self-motivate. We’re watching Cody Rhodes do it [in WWE]. He doesn’t have someone to wrestle every week, so it can be done. 

“If she lost another match to someone there’s no way she should lose to, then all of a sudden the backstage promo is her yelling at her girls like, ‘Yo, get the bleep away from me right now! Get away from me now!’ Like, something is wrong and she shouldn’t be losing. And she is, ‘Are you injured?’ ‘No, I’m not hurt! Leave me alone!’ Like, whatever. Like, she has to go through some kind of struggle now so that she can, you know, do the metamorphosis into the next version of herself. So I hope that they’re thinking of that.”

Kris Statlander Wants To Face THIS Top Star At AEW All In

Having recently dethroned Jade Cargill to become the AEW TBS Champion, Kris Statlander now has Saraya in her crosshairs for the company’s All In PPV from London’s Wembley Stadium this August.

During a recent appearance on the Haus of Wrestling podcast (via Fightful), Statlander discussed All In, how this will be her first trip to the UK, and was asked about Saraya as someone she’d love to wrestle in front of the huge crowd that’ll be at Wembley Stadium later this summer.

As Stat put it:

“Yeah, if I get the chance to wrestle Saraya at Wembley, I think that would be an amazing thing. I would love to absolutely do that. That’s a lot of pressure, you know. She’s the hometown hero, but I’m the champion. So it’s, like, ‘Oh no’, but I think it would be so much fun. I’d be willing to wrestle anybody at that show, but yeah, I never even thought of that as a possibility. I think that would be so, so cool, though.”

After being out of action since August with an ACL injury, Statlander made her shocking, triumphant return at AEW Double or Night last month. There, she won an impromptu match against Jade Cargill, becoming the TBS Champion and bringing an end to Jade’s mammoth 60-0 undefeated streak.

Statlander has already successfully defended her TBS Title on four occasions, with the 27-year-old New York collecting televised wins over Nyla Rose and Anna Jay AS, and picking up house show victories against Lady Frost and Anna.

AEW All In takes place on Sunday 27 August. Whether we get Statlander vs. Saraya at Wembley Stadium remains to be seen, though one has to imagine that Stat will be featured on the card should she still be TBS Champion at that point in time. Likewise, the Outcasts’ Saraya seems a shoe-in to have a role at All In, with this offering the Brit the first chance to wrestle in her home country since an April 2016 WWE live event.

Kris Statlander Returns, Becomes The New AEW TBS Champion At Double Or Nothing

Last night’s AEW Double or Nothing pay-per-view was a wild ride for Jade Cargill. Cargill had successfully retained the AEW TBS Championship against Taya Valkyrie, making her 60-0. Post-match, Mark Sterling noted that there is “nobody” left to challenge Cargill before Kris Statlander’s music hit.

The two ended up having a match, where Statlander defeated Cargill and became the new AEW TBS Champion. This is the first title that Statlander has held since signing with All Elite Wrestling back in December 2019.

Statlander had been out of action since August 2022 due to a torn ACL and torn meniscus. One of her last matches on AEW TV was on the July 15, 2022, episode of “AEW Ramage,” where she teamed with ROH Women’s World Champion Athena and defeated The Renegade Twins.

Before losing the title, Cargill had held the title since the January 5, 2022, episode of “Dynamite.” She became the first TBS Champion after defeating Ruby Soho in the tournament finals.

Taya Valkyrie Getting Another Shot At Jade Cargill’s TBS Title At AEW Double Or Nothing

It’s official: Jade Cargill will be putting her undefeated streak and TBS Championship on the line against Taya Valkyrie on May 28 at AEW Double or Nothing. During the May 19 “AEW Rampage”, Cargill successfully defended her title against two consecutive opponents in rapid fashion as part of an open challenge. When a third one was invited to the ring, Valkyrie appeared and leveled the would-be challenger. She then marched down to the ring to confront Cargill, catching her with a clothesline and the Road to Valhalla before holding up the TBS Championship and telling Cargill she’ll see her at the Las Vegas-hosted pay-per-view event.

The pair first collided for the title on the April 26 “AEW Dynamite,” after tensions between them had bubbled over as a result of Cargill making her frustrations clear about the similarities that her finisher shares with Valkyrie’s. Valkyrie had debuted the month prior on March 15, confronting Cargill following a title defense against Nicole Matthews. Cargill’s two victories bring her impressive undefeated streak up to 59-0, having overcome the likes of Nyla Rose, Ruby Soho, Willow Nightingale, Kiera Hogan, Skye Blue, Billie Starkz, and Athena in both singles and tag team competition.

Cargill is the first and only TBS Champion to date, defeating the aforementioned Soho on the January 5, 2022 episode of “AEW Dynamite” in the finals of the TBS Championship tournament after receiving a buy-in for the first round and beating Red Velvet and Thunder Rosa in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively.

Skye Blue Recalls Wanting To Push Jade Cargill Out Of ‘Her Comfort Zone’

Ever since Skye Blue burst onto the AEW scene prior to All Out 2021, one of her most frequent singles opponents has been TBS Champion Jade Cargill. The two have fought three times, with Jade easily disposing of Blue on the first two occasions, but having a bit of trouble with the third, with the 23-year-old taking Cargill to the limit before the champ ultimately prevailed in a match praised by the likes of Will Ospreay.

That match, which took place at Battle of the Belts V this past January, was a major topic during Blue’s recent appearance on AEW Unrestricted, in which Blue said she had to convince a skeptical Billy Gunn that she and Cargill could pull off their complicated plan for the finish. Ideas like that, and everything else that went into the match, were all about Blue trying to get Cargill to expand her range as a performer.

“I just wanted it to be something completely different,” Blue said. “And I was kind of trying to push her out of her comfort zone. I was like, ‘You know you can do it.’ Jade is so talented and so athletic. She’s insanely strong. I was like, ‘Okay, you can just throw me this way.’ The chokeslam on the ramp, she was like, ‘I don’t know.’ I was like, ‘Just do it. Please.’

“When you think about it, that’s the stuff that the guys are doing, and that’s what makes us stand out and makes it feel like we can do what the guys are doing. With Jade, I wanted to show how powerful she was, and I wanted to look like I literally had to work my ass off to get some offense on her.”

Jade Cargill Sets Historic AEW Title Record

Jade Cargill has now been the AEW TBS Champion for 374 days, cementing her title reign as the longest in company history. Cargill broke former AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida’s previous record of 372 days. This is just one of several impressive feats Cargill has accomplished since having her first-ever pro wrestling match in March 2021 — meaning she has held a title longer than she has not in her short career thus far.

To this day, Cargill remains the only TBS Champion in history, as she won a tournament to be crowned the inaugural champion in January 2022 by defeating Ruby Soho in the finals. Between her defeat of Soho and her officially breaking Shida’s record, Cargill has defended the TBS Championship 17 times — the most title defenses by any champion in the company’s history, defending against talent such as The Bunny, Willow Nightingale, and most recently Skye Blue on “Battle of the Belts V.” During her 372-day reign as champion, Shida only defended her title eight times successfully.

In addition to holding onto the TBS Championship, Cargill has been the leader of a faction known as The Baddies, and has remained undefeated in singles and tag team action during her tenure with AEW. Cargill’s only loss in the company to date came at All Out 2021, when she was eliminated from the Casino Battle Royal by Nyla Rose. Cargill defended the TBS Championship against Rose at Full Gear 2022. Cargill’s next title defense has yet to be officially scheduled, however, there has been recent dissension between her and longtime Baddies ally Red Velvet.

AEW Adds New Match To All Out 2022 Lineup On Rampage

AEW has officially added Jade Cargill vs. Athena to the lineup for next weekend’s All Out 2022 pay-per-view.

Reigning TBS Champion Cargill was actually the one who fired out the challenge during a backstage promo on Friday’s edition of Rampage. Then, in a fun moment, Athena raced into view out of nowhere and attacked the champ.

This must be considered a notable step in the right direction for their feud. Previously, Tony Khan’s booking had been muddied by the inclusion of a now-injured Kris Statlander, and that never really felt like a great fit when full focus needed to be on ex-WWE star Athena.

Now, finally, Athena gets her one-on-one shot.

Cargill has held the TBS Title for a whopping 230 days at time of writing. AEW might be tempted to pen a title switch at All Out then, and try out Athena in the championship hot seat. However, Khan and staff may also argue that Jade deserves to hold onto that belt for as long as humanly possible.